# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 06 24_S174
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

174

Dagon was set up," then this idol was immediately cast down from its pedestal; and although it was often set up again, yet it could not remain standing as long as the ark of the Lord stood there, yea, was at last dashed wholly and entirely to pieces. Yea, even the adversaries themselves perceive and confess this. For the Jesuit Pighius, who is otherwise very bitter, says of the article of justification: Upon this article, as upon a hinge, turns, and upon it depends, as upon the chief proposition, almost the whole controversy which is carried on between the Lutherans and us, concerning religion and faith. For with this doctrine they corrupt and defile almost all the chief points of our (the papistical) religion. This says Pighius, who sees very well and rightly that the article of justification, correctly, plainly and properly explained, uncovers the shameful nakedness of all errors and abuses in the papacy. Therefore they also fight so bitterly, so hostilely and so craftily against the truth of this article; hence it comes that they so boldly and shamelessly either flatly deny the most manifest errors and abuses, or seek to cover and patch them with rags gathered together from every side, or even to defend them; only that it may not appear as if they had had to yield and give way to the truth of this article. For they see well what a miserable dislocation in all the nerves and sinews of their superstition must follow from it. In another place the same Pighius confesses: We cannot conceal nor hide that this chief part of the Christian doctrine has been more obscured than elucidated by our people through a multitude of scholastic, subtle and thorny questions and explanations. And such complaints have been raised again and again by many others also among the papists themselves. In the Council of Trent this so important doctrinal question was taken under deliberation, and, as they themselves report, was treated for seven months. And who would not have hoped that they, since this doctrine had at that time been set in so bright a light by our people from so many, so clear and so manifest testimonies of Scripture, would at last forsake the philosophical puddles of the scholastics, and turn to the prophetic and apostolic fountains, if not wholly, yet more than before, especially since it had been deliberated upon for so many months. But this long deliberation, these frequent sessions, these many disputations in the Council on the article of justification, have finally had this issue, that with an immoderate flood of anathemas that doctrine has been condemned which is the doctrine of all the prophets and apostles, namely: "that man is justified, that is, received and accepted unto grace and eternal life, alone through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, or alone through forgiveness of sins, through faith, which lays hold of the mercy of God, who forgives sin for Christ's sake." This doctrine has been condemned by the Council of Trent with dreadful anathemas! O the poor, unhappy church, to which it is forbidden by the Council of Trent to believe, to preach and to teach the blessedness of man, which is confirmed and assured by the testimony of Moses, David and all the other prophets, namely, that God imputes to man the righteousness of Christ without works, according to the saying: Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, Rom. 4.

All the more, (says Chemnitz in his loci,) ought we to take pains to preserve the true sense and the apostolic purity of the doctrine of justification and to propagate it to posterity, and not to let it be wrested from us or falsified, either by the subtlety and other deceit of men, or by force and craft. And this we can do the more easily, with God's help, as we enter into the labors of others, (of our pious fathers and forefathers) John 4, 15. For it was an immense and superhuman labor to bring forth the true light out of such dense darkness, and out of such stinking and filthy puddles of Antichrist, and to restore the apostolic purity of doctrine from the springs of Israel. Nor would this have been possible, had not the Holy Ghost himself kindled and held before us the light of the Word. A shameful, ruinous and godless sloth it would therefore be, if we should lose again, by negligence in learning and by lukewarmness and slackness in teaching, that which with so great labor and by so wonderful a benefit of God has been given and shown to us out of the fountains of the prophets and apostles, or should let it be wrested from us again in conflicts through a certain softness. But we must not think that, having so great a light, we have no darkness to fear; for, as already said, we carry our treasure in earthen vessels; our adversary, the devil, lies in wait for it day and night; and the last times will, as the Lord says, be very dangerous, since he shall find no faith on earth. — Chemnitz concludes the introduction to this article with the following wish and exhortation: May the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, through his Holy Spirit fill the hearts of those who teach and those who learn with upright love for the pure doctrine, govern and enlighten them, and keep them within the bounds of simple truth, that we may learn, teach, love and promote what is true, simple, acceptable to God, and useful and wholesome to the church; that we may not shun nor refuse to endure every kind of conflict for the defense and preservation of the pure and sound doctrine of this article. How highly and importantly Luther esteemed this article appears, among other things, also from the following words of his: In my heart this one article alone reigns and shall reign, namely, faith in my dear Lord Christ, who is the one beginning, middle and end of all my spiritual and divine thoughts, which I may have continually day and night. And although I have said very many words about it, I nevertheless perceive that of the height, depth and breadth of this immeasurable, incomprehensible and infinite wisdom I have hardly reached a small, weak beginning, and have hardly been able to bring to light a few little pieces and crumbs out of the most precious mine. For I cannot indeed set forth these high matters so fully and place them before the eyes in the light of day; but the immoderate and countless great fury and abomination, which has at all times wrought all misery and heartache in Christendom, and to this day will not cease nor let go, to rage and rave against this article, which teaches how and whereby one is esteemed righteous before God and received unto grace, which is the one firm rock and everlasting, enduring foundation of all our salvation and blessedness, namely, that we are not by ourselves, much less by our own works and doings, (which indeed are much less and meaner than we ourselves), but that we are by foreign help, namely, by the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, redeemed from sin, death and the devil, and brought to eternal life, constrain and urge me thereto. This rock Satan assailed in Paradise, when he persuaded our first parents to let go their faith in God, and through their own wisdom and power to become like God, who had yet given them life at the very first, and had promised also to preserve it. — And the whole world has afterwards raged and stormed against this faith, so that they have invented countless idolatries and false worships, in which each one has gone and walked in his own and peculiar way, everyone has been bent on this, that he would, without the foreign help of Christ, through his own works, set himself free and rescue himself from sins and all evil, as the writings and histories of all the heathen sufficiently testify. — Therefore it is very profitable and needful that this doctrine of faith be read and heard continually. And though one might ever so well learn it through and read it through, yet the devil, our enemy, who goeth about continually, seeking whom he may devour, is not yet dead: our flesh also still liveth; moreover on all sides there are all manner of temptations lying upon our necks and pressing us. Therefore this doctrine can never be urged enough, much less too much, and impressed upon the people. For when this doctrine goes under and lies prostrate, there falls to the ground at the same time and lies also pros-