# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 01 06_S75
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

75

ben. At this the Papists laugh: but thereby they testify that we are the old Church, which suffers mockery to its hurt from the devil's children.

Herewith we have now proved that we are the true old Church, one body and one communion of saints with the whole holy Christian Church. Prove now also, ye Papists, that ye are the true old Church, or like her. But that ye cannot do; rather, I will prove that ye are the new, false Church, which ever falls away from the old true Church, and becomes the devil's harlot and school.

First, ye do not abide by the first old Baptism. For ye have devised for yourselves anew many other baptisms, and teach that the first Baptism is lost afterwards through sin: that one must make satisfaction by one's own work, especially by monkery one becomes as pure as if one came out of the Baptism of Christ; wherefore ye have filled the world with churches and cloisters. And this point, the Satisfactio, satisfaction, is the beginning and origin, door and entrance to all abominations in the papacy: just as in the Church Baptism is the beginning and entrance to all grace and forgiveness of sins. For where Baptism is not, there Sacrament, keys and everything help nothing. Had satisfaction not arisen, there would have been no indulgence, pilgrimage, brotherhood, mass, purgatory, monkery, foundation, and the greater part of all abominations would not have been invented, and the papacy would not have become so thick and fat. Therefore they have indeed called it a baptism in their Church, which has wrought many baptisms, sacrament and forgiveness of sins, yea, also high holiness. That is she, the self-righteousness, the holiness of works, of which we have written much? Who has commanded it you? or where is it written? Where do ye find in the old Church that ye may devise such new baptism and holiness? Who is here the heretic, apostate and new Church?

Second, ye have driven the indulgence into all the world, as a baptism, yea, as a deluge of sin, that washes sin away; so that there is no corner in the world where your indulgence has not been sold or given, all the world full of seals and letters. Who has commanded it you? or where is it written? Where do ye find it in the old Church that ye may institute such new baptism and washing away of sins? Who is here the heretical, new Church? Are not ye it, the harlot church of the devil?

Third, ye have driven the holy water and salt not only into all churches, but also into all corners, as a washing away (or baptism) of sins, and have also taught great sorcery therein, as distinct. 3. Aquam sale, proves. Who has commanded it you? Where is it written? Where do ye find it in the old Church, or in the institution of the Apostles? Who is here the new apostate Church?

Fourth, ye have instituted pilgrimages, to earn indulgence or forgiveness of sins: which, since it takes place without the office of the keys, through one's own merit, is also a new, other baptism, or washing away of sins. Who has commanded it you? Where is it written? Where do ye find it in the old Church that ye should institute such new forgiveness or baptism? Who is here the new apostate Church?

Fifth, ye have instituted brotherhoods without number, so many that ye have also made all the world full of seals and letters, all for indulgence and forgiveness of sins and for merit, which is the office of holy Baptism and the Sacrament alone. Who has commanded it you? Where is it written? Where do ye find it in the old Church that ye may institute such new forgiveness or merit? And who can recount how many kinds of new ways ye have devised anew to forgive sins, for money, or for one's own merit? Who is here the new Church, with new doctrines and sacraments, of which neither Christ, Apostles, Scripture, nor the old Church knew anything?

Sixth, who can recount all the horrible innovations which ye have devised in the most worthy holy Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. Who has commanded it you? Where is it written? Where do ye find it in the old Church? that ye may first take and rob this Sacrament from the whole Church, and leave only the one form, and appropriate the whole to the priests alone? Second, moreover, even that one form, not to teach and increase faith, but to turn it into a work of obedience to the Church. Third, the whole Sacrament if it is indeed then a Sacrament,) not for the remembrance of Christ, to preach of Him publicly, and to thank Him for His suffering, but into a priestly sacrifice and the own merit of a wicked knave, to sell to others, and to impart to souls in purgatory, and for all temporal need, like a heathen idolatry, yea, like a shameful rag-fair, changed in the most horrible and blasphemous manner, whereby ye have silenced and blotted out the remembrance of Christ [for which He yet instituted it,]. And if ye were otherwise as pure a Church as the Apostles themselves, and much purer: yet this one horrible, dreadful point, which ye have devised anew at the devil's counsel, makes you a new apostate, heretical Church, yea, the arch-harlot of the devil, and a school of hell. For this point is so desperate, so bottomlessly evil, that in this life no tongue can utter it, no heart comprehend it, until the Last Day appear.

Read, gather, glean together all the evil that the devil with you all can devise against us, and lie a thousand times as much besides, yet it will not become a little splinter, compared with this beam, upon which not one, but without doubt all devils and all the worst knaves in six hundred years have wrought. That is one of the right points, which Christ calls an abomination in the holy place, Matt. 24, 15. Therefore not only we must and shall flee from you, as from the greatest wrath of God, but heaven and earth are horrified and shrink before such a den of murderers; for this point not only lets no Church remain, but makes of it the foulest stench-chamber of the devil that is on earth. The Turk, Tartars, Jews are nowhere near so wicked a den of murderers as the Papal Church in this point; for they only deny Christ, and turn their back toward Him: but these take Him in this for themselves, spit upon Him, mock, blaspheme, defile and torture Him, and play a much more horrible Passion with Him than was done to Him bodily by Jews. Yea, go now, boast of the holy Church from which we have fallen. The devil abide with you in such churches, and all those who would be Heinz. God keep us from it, as He has graciously torn us out, for which praise and thanks be to Him in eternity.

Seventh, who has commanded you to make this innovation, that ye have forged new keys, yea two false picklocks, whereby ye neither forgive nor retain sins, as the old keys do, with us and in the whole old Church; but institute anew sin and murder, where otherwise there are none, in your new apostate, murderous Church, in that ye with intolerable, countless laws ensnare and bind, frighten and kill the Christian consciences, in eating, drinking, clothing, places, days, and such like outward things, which Christ has left free, Col. 2, 16. and the old Church held so, without all sin and danger; besides depose kings and princes, as if ye were God Himself? Who is here apostate and new Church? The devil abide in this blasphemous, murderous, sinful, destructive point with you, he abides also with you; we have come again to the old Church, God be praised and thanked.

Eighth, who has commanded you, contrary to the manner of the old Church, and against Christ's command, to preach otherwise than He has commanded? Matt. 28, 20; "Go ye, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you," says He, not what seems right and good to you. John 14, 26: "The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." But ye have flung all churches and schools so full of your filth, that is, doctrines of men and lies, and have so vomited full your spewing, that (as Isaiah says, ch. 28, 8.) there is no room left; and yet ye would be boasted the Church. And this point is, besides the private mass, also one of the worst abominations, whose harm and plague can neither be fathomed nor counted, whereby ye have built a new church for the devil, and served him therewith, so that it has become sheer soul-murder, and the true child-devouring Moloch, who does not let the souls (like that Moloch,) of the children be saved, [whether they were bodily burned; but on the contrary lets the body live a little while, and the soul burns eternally. I cannot for terror