# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 02 04_S94
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

94

following comparison: All articles of faith are like a golden chain bound and interlinked with one another; therefore, if but one link breaks, the whole chain is torn asunder. If, then, the devil brings it about that room is given to his seduction in but a single article, he has already become the victor; for it is the same as if he had wrested all the articles from us, since he can then with slight effort corrupt the rest and tear them from us.

A living example of this is offered us by the last century and the present one in the adherents of Zwingli and Calvin; for these first denied the true, essential, and supernatural presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper; from this one error they have fallen into several others. When our people urged that the will of Christ, the God-man, is manifest from the words of institution, and that as to His power there can be no doubt among those who believe that Christ is the almighty Son of the almighty Father, the adversaries answered that God could not, with all His power, bring it to pass that the body of Christ should be at the same time and at once, at one and the same time, essentially present in several places. 3) Thus the purity of the article concerning God was assailed. In order to be able to maintain the absence of the body of Christ at the Supper, the adversaries took up the argument from the ascension of Christ. Our people answered that the ascension was followed by the sitting at the right hand of the Father, whereby all power in heaven and on earth and full dominion over all things were given to Christ; wherefore it was very easy for Him to perform what He had promised. Here the adversaries began to dispute against the communication of the divine attributes, and interpreted the sitting at the right hand of God as being in a definite place of heaven. 4) Thus the purity of the article concerning the person of Christ was corrupted. When our people maintained that St. Paul had taught in express words that the unworthy eat and drink the body and blood of Christ in the Supper, and from this proved the true and essential presence of the body and blood of Christ in the holy Supper; the adversaries, the godless, answered that, lacking true repentance and true faith, they had neither spiritual part (which is true) nor yet sacramental part in the body and blood of Christ in the holy Supper, because they were rejected by an unconditional decree of God and not redeemed by the blood of Christ. 5) Thus the purity of the article concerning the election of grace was assailed. When, in support of the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Supper, a difference was alleged by our people between the sacraments of the Old and those of the New Testament, namely, that the former had only the shadow, but the latter the substance of the heavenly goods; the adversaries answered that the sacraments of the Old and New Testament are the same in essence, that their difference consists only in a few accidental circumstances, as in signs and usages, in the manner of representing, in duration, in extent, in clearness, etc. 6) Thus the purity of the article concerning the sacraments was destroyed. When our people maintained that the outward signs in the sacraments of the New Testament do not merely signify but impart the heavenly goods, and demonstrated this by the example of Baptism, which is the washing of regeneration and renewing, Tit. 3, 5., and not its mere sign; the adversaries answered that these are improper and figurative modes of speech, that Baptism is the washing away of sins and the washing of regeneration; the proper way of speaking is: it is the sign of the washing away of sins. 7) Thus the purity of the article concerning Baptism was corrupted. In order to maintain that the relation of the outward signs of the sacraments to their content consists in mere signifying, the adversaries took the argument from the breaking of the bread. As the breaking of the bread signifies the crucifixion of Christ, so the bread in the holy Supper signifies the body of Christ. Our people answered that Christ, in administering the first Supper, did not break the bread in order to represent something thereby, but for the sake of the distribution, for which the undivided bread was thus prepared; from this arose the disputes concerning the necessity and purpose of the breaking of bread.

3) Martyr. Dial. de Pantachorisia p. 6. f. 94. Tigurini in resp. ad Testam. Brent. Collocutores adversae partis in coll. Mompelg. p.

4) Bulling. in tract. de verb. coenae. Beza volum. Theol. I. p. 601.

5) Colloqu. Mompelg. fol. 717. Zanch. miscell. fol. 307.

6) Orthod. consens. p. 63. Bucan. loco 46. pag. 603.

7) Beza p. 2 resp. ad coll. Mompelg. p. 115 Ursinus in compend p. 532.

From these errors several others have afterwards proceeded. How many errors has not that one decree of absolute reprobation produced in the school of the adversaries? Assuredly from that principle have flowed the doctrines that God predestinated some men not only to damnation, but also to the causes of damnation, namely, to sins; that the will of the sign differs from the will of good pleasure, the revealed will from the hidden; that what God testifies in the Word, that He wills that all shall be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, is to be understood of the will of the sign and the revealed will, but that another, and different from it, is the will of good pleasure and the hidden will, by virtue of which God, according to His perfectly free choice, which precedes all causes, has absolutely and unconditionally adjudged the greatest part of mankind to eternal damnation; that Christ did not die for the sins of all men; that the promises of the Gospel are not universal; that all things happen according to a necessary, unchangeable decree of God; that men are compelled, driven, moved, and inclined by God to sin; that the first man fell of necessity; that God created some for eternal damnation; that many are called through the Word, of whom God absolutely and unconditionally wills that they shall not come; that the conversion and salvation of men is not to be ascribed to the efficacy of the Word and of the sacraments; that true faith is not even lost through sins against conscience, etc. This is the long train of errors which that one decree of absolute reprobation draws after it. The same might easily be shown in the remaining chapters, how fruitful and productive of results error is, how, where it has begun, it does not cease; whence one readily sees that that system of absolute reprobation is not a golden chain of salvation, but rather a destructive snare of despair.

What, then, will they be able to give as comfort to a man who is anguished in the sense of his sin, or who complains of weakness of faith, or who is assailed by the thought that he is rejected? Will they point him to the boundless mercy of God? But the tempted man will set against it that dreadful decree of reprobation, as Calvin 8) calls it, by which no little is taken from the mercy of God.— Or to the merit of Christ? But the tempted man will answer that Christ died only for the elect, and that he is not certain whether he is among the number of the elect. Yes, since it is taught in the schools of the adversaries that only the human nature of Christ, not the whole person, suffered, he will answer with Calvin 9): “I confess that, if anyone should set Christ, as He is in and for Himself, against the judgment of God, there would be no place for merit, because in the man (Christ) no worthiness is found by which God could be merited. — Or to the calling through the Word? But the tempted man will reply that the inward calling is one thing, the outward another; many are called outwardly through the Word whom God has inwardly rejected according to His absolute decree, and of whom He therefore does not will that they should come. — Or to the promises of the Gospel? But the tempted man will object that these are not universal and relate only to the elect, that grace is offered only to some, with the intention of imparting it to them, as Piscator writes 01). — Or to Baptism, wherein he was washed from sins, born again of the Holy Ghost, and received into the covenant of God? But the tempted man will with

8) Lib. 3 instit. cap. 23 §7. 9) Lib. 2 institut.. c. 17 s. 1. 10) In disp. de prædest. th. 85.