, or of a severe schoolmaster in wrath ejecting a pupil, when God
simply fixes a hundred and twenty years as the time in which
opportunity is granted for repentance. He threatens, should it not be
improved, his Spirit shall no longer reprove and strive.

This word pertains properly to the office of the ministry and, in a
certain sense, describes it. For every preacher or servant of the Word
is a man of strife and judgment, and is constrained, by reason of his
office, to chide whatever is vicious, without considering the person
or office of his hearer. When Jeremiah does this zealously, he incurs
not only hate but also the gravest dangers. He is moved even to
impatience, so that he wishes he had never been born, Jer 20, 14.

66. And if I had not been particularly strengthened by God, I should
have been wearied and broken down ere this by the contumacy of an
impenitent world; for the ungodly so grieve the Holy Spirit in us,
that, with Jeremiah, we wish often we had never made a beginning of
anything. Hence I often pray to God to let the present generation die
with us, because, after our death, the most perilous times are to
come.

67. For this reason Elijah is called by Ahab the godless king of
Israel, the disturber of Israel; because he openly reproved the
idolatry, violence and passions of his day. Likewise we today are
deemed the disturbers of Germany.

68. But it is a good sign when men condemn us and call us authors of
strife, for the Spirit of God strives with men, reproves and condemns
them. But men are so that they wish to be taught only what gives them
pleasure, as they frankly admit in Micah 2, 6-7: "Prophesy not to us;
for confusion has not seized us, says the house of Jacob." The latter
they use as an argument; because they look upon themselves as the
house of Jacob and the people of God, they decline chastening, and
will not take to themselves penalties and threats. So today the pope
and his accomplices plume themselves solely upon being the Church, and
declare that the Church is incapable of error. But notice this text
and it will appear how frivolous such an argument is.

69. Are not those whom God threatens to no longer judge by his Spirit
likewise the sons of God? What can be more splendid than this name?
Beyond doubt they gloried in this name and rebelled against the
patriarchs when they opposed, or at least despised, their preaching.
For it does not seem likely that God should be thrown into a rage