# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 06 24_S173
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

173

accomplished, their spiritual fathers left them in the saddest and most tormenting doubt, and referred them to the comfort of purgatory. Of this great misery and mischief Chemnitz writes in the same book, in the article on indulgence: The papists pretend that God, through the preaching of the holy Gospel, forgives a poor penitent sinner, for the sake of the sufferings and merit of Christ, the guilt alone; but the eternal punishment which he has deserved by his sins is not entirely forgiven through the power of the keys, but is changed into a temporal punishment; and since this, according to the standard of divine righteousness, is greater than that a man could endure it, the father confessor therefore stands in the confession as a spiritual judge, and lays upon him such a punishment of sins or penance as has a proportion to our weakness, and is possible for the sinner to perform, in order that by such penances divine justice may be satisfied. But if such penances are not performed in this life, they must, according to their pretense, be paid for in purgatory. Yea, even if these church penances were fully performed in this life, divine justice would nevertheless require greater punishments of sins, which one must suffer in purgatory. Such punishments, then, are, according to their pretense, remitted by indulgence either wholly or in part, if one buys it in a certain and prescribed manner, etc. — Whoever looks aright upon these things must recognize that they contend with the chief articles of the Christian faith. They run counter to the merit of Christ, who suffered not only for the guilt, but also for the punishment, took it upon himself, became a curse for us; (Isa. 53., Gal. 3.) and thus atoned for all punishments, temporal and eternal, with his suffering and death, reconciled the iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness, Dan. 9. They contend with the article of the gracious forgiveness of sins, by virtue of which God, for the sake of Christ's merit and satisfaction, forgives believers their sins fully out of pure grace, remits guilt and punishment, casts all their sins into the depths of the sea, Mic. 7. That they shall not be remembered, Ezek. 18., that they are as far from him as the east is from the west, Ps. 103., that believers shall not come into judgment, John 5., because the punishment lies upon him; that those who are justified through faith in his blood have peace, Isa. 53., Rom. 5.

They pervert the power of the keys; because it is thereby plain that what the priest looses the pope binds, and announces punishment to be suffered here or in purgatory; and teaches that indulgence from it is to be sought not by grace, through faith, from Christ, but for money, from the pope. They are contrary to the doctrine of faith, which the Scriptures describe as the only means of grasping and obtaining the forgiveness of sins won by the sufferings and death of Christ, and exclude all works, even those that proceed from faith, such as Abraham's works were, so that we are not thereby justified and obtain forgiveness of sins. (See Eph. 2, 8. 9., Rom. 3, 24. 25. 26. 28. — 4, 5. — 11, 6. These, however, teach that a man obtains it by supposedly good works, such as pilgrimages, money-payments, indulgence. They are contrary to the divine doctrine of good works, according to which all saints acknowledge that they are unprofitable servants, Luke 17., all together, like the unclean, and all their righteousness like a filthy garment, Isa. 64., daily cry that he should forgive them their sins, Matt. 6., if thou, Lord, wilt mark iniquities, who shall stand? Ps. 130., confess joyfully that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, Rom. 8. How then should they think to merit anything by their works?" — Let the reader not be vexed by what has been quoted, for he sees from it what a great benefit God has shown us through the Reformation, since the chief doctrine of the merit of Christ, of the gracious forgiveness of our sins, justification, the power of the keys, faith and good works has been taught purely according to the divine Word and cleansed from the dross of papistical uncleanness. That Chemnitz has rightly grasped the opinion of the papists in this matter can be proved even from the writing of the Jesuit Maimbourg, who everywhere seeks to embellish the papistical doctrine as much as possible, entitled: Vortrag vom Ablaß. Sufficient citations from it are to be found in Seckendorf's Reformationshistorie. Yea, even the learned bishop of Meaux, Bossuet, confesses in his histoire des variations des Eglises Protestantes, P. I. Lib. V. §. I., after the quotation of Seckendorf,: — "The most of the preachers of those times (he might well have said: all, adds Seckendorf) have preached nothing but of indulgence, pilgrimages, alms for the monks, and thus have brought forward side-issues instead of the fundamental doctrines, and have not taught, as much as necessity requires, of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." How few, however, adds Seckendorf, even today in most papistical kingdoms and provinces (and churches) teach anything better, will not be unknown to Bossuet himself; although we hope that many still preserve, in the midst of the dross, the gold of true, living faith in Christ. But the greatest part of the common people, alas! is sunk in the deepest ignorance, and is far removed from the godliness which Christ and the apostles taught, and from the divine service which one ought to render in spirit and in truth! But we also must not think, says Chemnitz in his loci, we who rejoice in the saving light of the Gospel, that we have no darkness to fear. For we bear this treasure not in iron or brazen, but in earthen vessels, 2 Cor. 4., and on our way, on which we walk, there are on every side storms of stumbling, over which we, in our great weakness, may easily fall and take harm. I am often horrified that Luther, from a certain remarkable presentiment, often in the exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians and of the first book of Moses, repeatedly uttered those words: "This doctrine will be obscured again after our death. But there are chiefly two causes, the consideration of which should drive from us, especially in this our time also, all drowsiness and carelessness, so that we should with more diligence and watchfulness teach and learn this article and guard and defend it against all falsifications: First, the cunning serpent, the devil, knows well from what place, from what outwork those missiles come, and where they are prepared, whereby his kingdom is weakened, yea, wholly overthrown. There is therefore no doubt, because he perceives and feels that the day of judgment, is not far off, that he assails the doctrine of this article with so much the greater fury and so much the more dangerous deceit. Secondly: the Son of God has foretold that the last times shall be the most dangerous, Matt. 24, and that they would be led into error, if it were possible, even the elect, Luke 18. He will send them strong delusions, 2 Thess. 2. Thinkest thou also that the Son of man, when he cometh, shall find faith? Now the doctrine of faith consists chiefly in the article of justification. And it is remarkable that God, some years ago (says Chemnitz of his own time), brought to light, discovered, and in a wonderful manner brought to naught various and manifold plans, craft and snares of the devil, whereby he sought to undermine the foundations of this article under the semblance and pretext of moderation and mitigation, as for example in several formulas of union which were proposed by the papists, in the Regensburg Book, in the Augsburg Interim, in the Osiandrian controversy, and in that proposition of the necessity of works to salvation. And these crafts and snares God in his great mercy has drawn to the light, that we should be more careful and more circumspect in the future. This one article chiefly distinguishes the true, orthodox church from all heathenism, false Christianity, superstition and fanaticism, as Augustine says: "The church distinguishes the righteous from the unrighteous not by the law of works, but by the law of faith. Yea, this article is, as it were, the castle and chief fortress of the whole Christian doctrine and religion: if this is obscured or falsified and undermined, it is impossible to preserve the purity of doctrine in other articles; but if this article remains pure and sound, then all idolatry, false worship, superstition, and whatever there is of corruptions and falsifications in almost all other articles, falls of itself; similarly as happened with the ark of the covenant; when this sanctuary of God in the temple of the Philistines beside the idols