# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 01 06_S74
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

74

Baptism, however, is the foremost and first Sacrament, without which all the others are nothing: as they must confess. Therefore the Papists cannot with truth call us another or a new Church, or brand us heretics, since we are children of the old Baptism, as well as the Apostles themselves and the whole of Christendom, Eph. 4, 5.

Second, no one will deny that we have the holy Sacrament of the Altar, exactly and precisely as Christ Himself instituted it, and the Apostles after Him and the whole of Christendom have used it; and thus eat and drink with the old and whole of Christendom from one and the same table, and receive with them the same one old Sacrament, and have made therein nothing new or different: therefore we are one Church with them; or, as St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 12, 13, "one body, one bread, we who eat of one bread, and drink of one cup. Therefore the Papists cannot call us heretics, or a new Church; they must first call Christ, the Apostles, and the whole of Christendom heretics; as indeed they do in truth, for we are one Church with the old Church, in one Sacrament.

Third, no one can deny that we have the right old keys, and use them for nothing other than to bind and to loose the sin that is done against God's commandment, as Christ instituted them, Matt. 16, 19. John 20, 23. and the Apostles and the whole of Christendom have used them until now; thus we have one and the same keys and use with the old Church: therefore we are the same old Church, or at least are in it. For we make no new keys, make no new laws, and with them also do not shut kings and lords out of and into their worldly dominions; but only sinners out of and into the kingdom of heaven: just as the old Church did, by command of the LORD. So that the Papists again falsely belie us, yea, brand and blaspheme the old Church, the Apostles, and Christ Himself in us.

Fourth, no one can deny that we have the office of preaching and God's Word pure and abundant, diligently teach and promote it, without any addition of new, private, human doctrine, just as Christ commanded and the Apostles and the whole of Christendom have done. We invent nothing new, but hold and abide by the old Word of God, as the old Church had it: therefore we are with it the true old Church, being one Church, which teaches and believes one and the same Word of God. Therefore the Papists again blaspheme Christ Himself, the Apostles and the whole of Christendom, when they call us new and heretics. For they find nothing in us, but only what is old of the old Church, that we are like it, and are one Church with it.

Fifth, no one can deny that we hold the Apostles' Creed, the old faith of the old Church, in all things alike with her, believe, sing and confess it, make nothing new therein, nor add anything, whereby we belong to the old Church and are one with her. Therefore this point also does not suffer us to be rightly called by the Papists heretics, or a new Church: for whoever believes and holds the same as the old Church, he is of the old Church.

Sixth, no one can deny that we have with the old Church one prayer, the same Our Father, invent nothing new or different, sing the same Psalms, with harmonious mouth and heart praise and thank God, just as Christ taught, the Apostles and the old Church itself used, and commanded us to do after the example. And the Papists on this account again cannot brand us heretics, nor call us a new Church, they must first call Christ Himself so, together with His dear old Church, etc.

Seventh, no one can deny that we teach and hold with the old Church that one should honor the worldly government, and not curse it, nor compel anyone to kiss the Pope's feet. This also we have not invented anew, but St. Peter, 2 Epist. 2, 10, curses those who should newly devise and in future do such a thing; and St. Paul, Rom. 13, 1 and following, stands by us, and the old and whole of Christendom, so that we in this also cannot be or be called new things, as the Papists blaspheme God Himself in us; but are and belong in the old, holy, apostolic Church, as the true children and members of the same. For we have always taught that we should be obedient to our rulers, be it Emperor or Prince, in the most faithful manner, and have ourselves also done so, and have prayed heartily for them.

Eighth, no one can deny that we praise and extol the estate of marriage as a divine, blessed and well-pleasing creature and ordinance, for the fruit of the body and against fleshly lewdness. And we have not newly devised it of ourselves, nor newly contrived the use of it out of ourselves, much less forbidden it as new teachers; but, just as God created it from the beginning, Christ confirmed it, the Apostles and the old Church honored and taught it: in the same old rule and ordinance of God we have remained, and thereby are like the old Church, yea, are properly her very members. So that one sees here how the Papists again falsely charge us with innovation.

Ninth, no one can deny, "that we have just the same suffering (as St. Peter says, 1 Epist. 5, 9.) that our brethren have in the world;" there they persecute us in all places, there they strangle, drown, hang, and lay upon us all plagues, for the Word's sake, and it goes with us as it did with the old Church, and we are in this exceedingly like her, so that we may well say: We are the old true Church, or at least her companions and fellows in suffering; for we do not devise this anew, but feel it well. Yea, we are (like the same old Church also,) like the LORD Christ Himself on the cross. There stand before the cross Annas and Caiaphas, together with the priests, and blaspheme the LORD besides, on top of their having crucified Him; just as the Pope, Cardinals and Monks have condemned, damned, murdered us and shed our blood, and blaspheme us besides. There stand the soldiers, that is, the worldly powers in part, and blaspheme us also; besides them also the knave, the thief on the left, Heinz of Wolfenbüttel, together with his own, whom God has already condemned and hanged in bonds to hell, must add his blaspheming also, so that this point, as an old mark of the old Church, may be abundantly seen in us.

Tenth, no one can deny that we do not in turn also shed blood, murder, hang and avenge ourselves, as we might often well have done, and still could; but as Christ, the Apostles and the old Church did, we suffer, admonish and pray for them, also publicly in the church, in the litanies and sermons, in all things as Christ our LORD did and taught, the old Church also likewise; so that we in this also hold ourselves wholly to the old way of the old Church.

Now since the Papists know that we in all such points, and whatever more there are, are like the old Church, and may in truth be called the old Church; (for such points are not new, nor invented by us;) it is a wonder why they dare so shamelessly to belie and condemn us as those who have fallen from the Church, and set up a new Church: though they can find nothing new in us, which was not held in the old and true Church in the times of the Apostles. So that I truly think this is the time of which Dan. 7, 9 speaks: The Ancient of days, Antiquus dierum, sat down, after the little horn had spoken blasphemies, and the judgment was held. For the former old Church shines forth again, (as the sun after the clouds, behind which the same sun was indeed, but not bright,) when the blaspheming horn is about to go down and all to come to an end, as it stands there, and the work shows itself; of which here is not time to treat.

But someone might say: One thing is still lacking, namely fasting: for you heretics do not fast (so they say). Ah LORD God! if there is one point in us from the old Church, it is, alas, fasting. If there is one point in the Papists from the new Church, it is that they do not fast and live in riot, even on the fast days, rather than on the feast days. Yea, we not only fast, but suffer (with St. Paul, 1 Cor. 4, 11.) hunger; which we well see in our poor pastors, their wives and little children daily, and in many other poor, in whose eyes hunger looks out, who have scarcely bread and water, and besides go naked to the fingers, having nothing of their own. The peasant and citizen gives nothing, the nobility takes, so that few of us are those who have anything, and yet cannot help all. Here the endowed chapters and cloisters should serve; but the others are miserly; so Lazarus must die of hun-