The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 168

heart was filled with joy and praise. “The devil himself,” said he,
“guarded the pope’s citadel; but Christ has made a wide breach in it,
and Satan was constrained to confess that the Lord is mightier than
he.”—D’Aubigne, b. 7, ch. 11.
After his departure, still desirous that his firmness should not be
mistaken for rebellion, Luther wrote to the emperor. “God, who is
the searcher of hearts, is my witness,” he said, “that I am ready most
earnestly to obey your majesty, in honor or in dishonor, in life or in
death, and with no exception save the word of God, by which man lives.
In all the affairs of this present life, my fidelity shall be unshaken, for
here to lose or to gain is of no consequence to salvation. But when
eternal interests are concerned, God wills not that man should submit
unto man. For such submission in spiritual matters is a real worship, and
ought to be rendered solely to the Creator.”—Ibid., b. 7, ch. 11.
On the journey from Worms, Luther’s reception was even more
flattering than during his progress thither. Princely ecclesiastics
welcomed the excommunicated monk, and civil rulers honored the man
whom the emperor had denounced. He was urged to preach, and,
notwithstanding the imperial prohibition, he again entered the pulpit.
“I never pledged myself to chain up the word of God,” he said, “nor will
I.”—Martyn, vol. 1, p. 420.
He had not been long absent from Worms, when the papists prevailed
upon the emperor to issue an edict against him. In this decree Luther was
denounced as “Satan himself under the form of a man and dressed in a
monk’s frock.”—D’Aubigne, b. 7, ch. 11. It was commanded that as
soon as his safe-conduct should expire, measures be taken to stop his
work. All persons were forbidden to harbor him, to give him food or
drink, or by word or act, in public or private, to aid or abet him. He was
to be seized wherever he might be, and delivered to the authorities. His
adherents also were to be imprisoned and their property confiscated. His
writings were to be destroyed, and, finally, all who should dare to act
contrary to this decree were included in its condemnation.

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