# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 09 02_S4
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

4

Son, to pay the debt of us all, and has so terribly visited and punished upon Him, as the curse-bearer.

"But if he now, in the greatness of such punishment, penitently recognizes the greatness of his sin and guilt, and conceives the right deep hatred and abhorrence also against his former drinking, and leaves it, to which the dear Savior's scourging and His thirst also especially contributed, then let him also look up in faith to the same crucified LORD and Savior, and comfort himself again therewith, and hold himself assuredly certain that Christ was crucified and died also for him, that to him also anew there wells forth from His blood forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

"But finally, if he believes this from his heart, let him also be diligent to prove this faith, regained through God's grace, toward men also, by all manner of fruit of the Spirit and by good works in upright godliness, more and more; and since he has now, through the Holy Ghost dwelling in him, also received a holy desire for and in God and His Word, will and kingdom, it is now a matter not merely of avoiding the grosser outbreaks of sin, such as the formerly favored and customary drinking (which indeed the natural man is able to do), but of striving already inwardly against the old evil lust and of subduing and mortifying it ever more through the Spirit and the Word of God and the will now freed and sanctified."

This, then, would be, my dear Father Matthew — so I, a Lutheran heretic, would perhaps conclude — in a cursory indication and approximate outline, the evangelical guidance and direction how, through God's grace, one makes out of a sinner a righteous man, and so also out of a drunkard a sober man, and can transplant him out of the mad and full world into the right temperance society, that is, into the holy Christian Church, which, however, consists essentially — mark this well, my dear Father Matthew — only of such as stand in justifying faith in the LORD Christ, be they consecrated priests or little children in the cradle and little mothers leaning on the staff.

Of the High Worth, Due Regard and Right Use of Our Symbolical Books.

From Chemnitz, Examen Concilii Tridentini. — Translated from the Latin by J. G.

The knowledge of the high worth and right, wholesome use of these writings is attained especially by two means, or under two conditions: first, through exact, intimate acquaintance with their contents; and second, by taking good heed for what purpose they were composed and delivered to the Church of God. A right knowledge, again, of the true sense and purpose of these writings is greatly furthered and strengthened by a sufficient knowledge of the history of these books, first of the Augsburg Confession and then of the remaining Confessional writings. The history of the Augsburg Confession is a very important part of the history of the Reformation, which among other things shows and demonstrates especially this also, how and by what means the Augsburg Confession was occasioned, how it came into being, and how much that is good, great and glorious God has accomplished through it. The history of the Reformation can therefore instruct us concerning the high worth of our Confessional books; it summons us and admonishes us to due regard for them; it also gives us direction and teaching concerning their right and wholesome use. It is therefore very useful, when we consider the doctrine and the Confession of our Church, to bring in and compare also, frequently, the history of this Confession. This will serve not only to greater knowledge, but also to greater edification, awakening and encouragement to praise and thanks toward God for such great benefit; and thereby our meditating and learning will also become so much the more fruitful and wholesome; as God promises in the Psalm: Whoso offereth thanks glorifieth me; and that is the way, that I may show him the salvation of God. So shall His praise remain in the congregation of the saints, Psalm 149; so shall His temple and dwelling remain among us; and we will not fear, though the sea rage and swell, and the mountains fall in at the tumult thereof: yet shall the city of God be glad, where are the holy dwellings of the Most High: God is in the midst of her, and helps her early. For such further consideration we take an overview and introduction, as also

Exhortation from a Jubilee Sermon of the Electoral Saxon Court Preacher Laurentius.

(1630.)

Fruits of the Exaltation of Christ.

Among other manifold and mighty benefits and fruits of the joyful and victorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, of His triumphant ascension and majestic sitting at the right hand of the power of God, there is this also, my beloved and elect, therein, that He has at all and every time so mightily protected His poor Christendom on earth against the cruel raging and storming of the devil, the world and all enemies, which are called the gates of hell, that He has sent the scepter of His kingdom out of Zion; that He has let the law go forth from Zion, and His word from Jerusalem; that the Word was given us with great hosts of evangelists; that its beginning also was made at Jerusalem; and that the same has also been wonderfully propagated and planted down to us. These are signs, says Tertullian, of a Christ not dead, but living, and exalted at the right hand of God.

Such a Fruit is the Reformation of Luther.

Which words of joyful wonder we rightly apply to the high, great work which the merciful, gracious God began in the Reformation of Luther, and has so graciously and fatherly preserved among us down to this present day; in that our most highly honored, pious forefathers made their joyful confession of faith at Augsburg before the whole Roman Empire; and also remained unmoved in the evangelical truth once recognized and confessed; so that through such their steadfastness many other Electors and Princes, Counts and Lords, cities and private persons, in very great number, were moved and induced likewise to betake themselves to the doctrine comprehended in the Augsburg Confession, and to turn away from the discovered papistical errors. This is the LORD's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes; this is a sign that Christ is not yet dead, but living, our King and eternal High Priest, sits at the right hand of God, and rules in the midst of His enemies. This is so high and great a work that we may well come into the house of the Lord with thanksgiving, and keep and celebrate solemnly this time in which it began. It grieves the bloodthirsty Esauites (Jesuits), who have until now proclaimed us heretics and would also persuade all the world that our Christian religion, which must be called heresy by them, could not last 100 years, as otherwise none has endured beyond 100 years: now it is manifest: this is the LORD's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. It grieves the Antichrist at Rome, the Pope and his following, that for this great work of grace, the revelation of the divine Word, we give thanks to God the Lord in His congregation, and for that reason appoint and hold a great Evangelical Jubilee festival. But we remember it with praise and thanks to God, that according to His great mercy He equipped our pious forefathers with His joyful Spirit, so that in the year 1530 before the most mighty Emperor Charles V and the whole Roman Empire they made their free, public confession of faith. And although on the side of the papistical opposite party the utmost endeavor was made, with papal bulls and letters of excommunication, also with sharp secular decrees and edicts, to forbid and to prevent that anyone should renounce the papacy or confess the Evangelical doctrine, which was proclaimed straightway as heretical, damnable and most scandalous, though unjustly: yet the almighty God, who has the hearts of all kings and princes in His hand, has so ordered it that even the mighty have brought honor to His name, and no longer the Virgin Mary or other saints, but alone