# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 10 14_S25
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away never, nevermore." (Rev. John, Chap. 14, v. 6. 7.)

Published by the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Vol. 8.  St. Louis, Mo., October 14, 1851.  No. 4.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 Cents.

Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the Editor; all others, however, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

The Growing Catholicism in England.

Whence comes it, here, that Puseyism is spreading, and, in connection with it, the increasing relapse from the Episcopal into the Roman-papistic church?

Chiefly, no doubt, from this: that at the time of the Reformation the Church of England did not thoroughly purge itself of the papistic leaven. For it is well known that the Episcopal church teaches, contrary to God's Word, that the episcopal constitution is a divine ordinance, and consequently that every church government which is not exercised by bishops is wrong and sinful. And with this there naturally hangs together most closely the teaching that it is a matter of conscience for every man, and that he is bound, on pain of the loss of his soul's salvation, to submit himself to this (so-called) divine ordinance, and to be obedient and subject, not merely to God's Word, but also to the bishops.

For bishops, so it is said, are, in lawful manner, such servants of the church (or rather rulers of the church) as must be able to trace their spiritual family tree, their spiritual line of ancestors, back to the time of the holy Apostles, as those from whom, as their spiritual forefathers, they have been brought forth through ordination, as through a spiritual begetting, by means of the spiritual intermediate fathers lying between. For through such ordination, it is said, special gifts of the Holy Ghost and graces of office would be imparted to them by the laying on of hands of their likewise consecrated predecessor-bishops, and it would avail nothing against this even if, according to the testimony of history, this or that episcopal link between them and the holy Apostles had been a manifestly unbelieving, godless man, who accordingly had not had the Holy Ghost.

This unevangelical doctrine of law and of men, borrowed in a certain sense from the Old Testament, the papists also hold in essence; only that they have attached to it besides the superfine human invention of the supremacy of the Apostle Peter, and have derived from it, as is well known, that of the Roman bishop, as Pope, that is, spiritual father of Christendom, as vicar of Christ and visible head of the church of Christ, without, yea, contrary to, the holy Scripture rightly understood.

And since the Roman delusion is undeniably older and more imposing, and the outward form of the Roman church, in the unity of its government and worship, and in the manifold interlocking machinery of its massive appearance, makes a powerful impression upon fleshly eyes and hearts, it is no wonder that the Episcopal collateral relatives are now returning again into their proper mother church.

For both kinds of delusion spring alike from the false, unevangelical conception of the essence of the church; for according to this they hold that in the New Testament also there exists, originally and essentially, a priestly order propagated from the Apostles through ordination, as through a spiritual begetting, which, bound to certain persons, is a kind of mediating estate between Christ and the laity, and, as by original prerogative alone entrusted with the administration of the means of grace and the treasures of salvation, so that only through them and by means of them can the people become partakers of these spiritual goods.

They thus liken the church partly to the Old Testament theocracy, partly to the form of worldly kingdoms, and construct the ladder of degrees in the following manner:

On the highest step stands the triune God, and in particular Christ, in essential plenitude of power the unlimited LORD and King of His church, from whom all gift, office and authority essentially proceeds. And that is also according to Scripture, that is, true.—On the second step stands the priesthood with its spiritual forefathers, the holy Apostles, (among the papists with the topmost point in Peter) forming a spiritually noble race, as the spiritual princes of the empire, counts, barons, noblemen, in certain degrees of superiority and subordination, with the usufruct and administration of the divine means of grace and of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, as with a spiritual fief from Christ, the King and feudal lord, im-