# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 08 17_S204
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

204

use for which God has ordained it. That use, however, consists as well in reading as in hearing the Word, for it is one and the same Word of God, whether it be read, or preached and heard; hence those salutary effects which the Scripture ascribes to the preaching of the Word of Scripture must also be ascribed to the reading and meditation of the same; just as a man not only hears his friend and is moved by his words, but also when he reads a letter from him." (doc. de min. eccl. § 253).

The point of controversy between the Lutherans and the Reformed concerning the doctrine of the holy ministry consisted, secondly, not at all in this, that the Lutherans made the realization, validity and power of the holy sacraments dependent upon the lawfulness of the call, the ordination, or any quality of the preacher, and the Reformed denied this. The exact opposite takes place. Thus Calvin writes, for example, in his Institutes: "The administration of this (the sacrament of baptism) as well as of the Lord's Supper is a part of the office of the Church, for Christ has commanded neither women nor men without distinction to baptize; but to those whom He had appointed apostles, to them He gave this command." (Book 4, Chap. 15, § 20.) The same Calvin therefore writes against Westphal: "It were better that baptism be wholly omitted than that it be administered by a woman;" and in his 278th Letter he calls baptism by women a horrible profanation of the ministry." Yes, Chamier, formerly a Reformed professor at Montauban, writes in his treatise on baptism: "We say that the right to administer baptism belongs only to those who hold a public office in the Church, and that a baptism which a man has administered who was only a private person has no power, that is, that it is no sacrament, but a presumptuous game, which must by no means be tolerated in the Church."*) (Book 5, Chap. 14, No. 8.) Quite otherwise do the Lutherans teach, as we have already seen above. Here let only the following testimony find a place: "God's Word," so writes the theological faculty at Helmstedt, "and the venerable sacraments together with absolution have their valorem (validity), power and effect not from men, but from God, His holy ordinance and institution. For neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase, as is to be read in 1 Cor. 3, 7, and in Rom. 3, 2 Paul says that the unbelief of men shall not make the faith of God without effect. Wherefore our dear Saviour in Matt. 23 admonishes that they should follow the scribes and Pharisees, so far as they sit in Moses' seat and teach the Mosaic doctrine. All things, He says, whatsoever they bid you, that ye observe, that observe and do. But after their works do not ye. And if the power of the Word of God and of the venerable sacraments depended upon the vocation and life of a teacher and preacher, it would follow that the Word of God, preached by a man not ordained to the office, yet purely and clearly, would be wholly without power; likewise, that the holy sacrament of baptism, administered in case of necessity by private, yet Christian, believing persons,*) would be altogether invalid. Which yet cannot be said with ground of truth, unless the Donatism . . were true." (See: Dedekenni thesaur. II., f. 407. Compare J. Gerhard's Loci l. de bapt. § 22. Quenstedt's Theologia l. de sacram. sect. 1. thes. 7.)

*) It is indeed beyond doubt that the Reformed so teach, not out of special respect for the holy ministry, but because they esteem baptism lightly and it is therefore vexing to them that one should rather let a woman baptize than let a child die without baptism.
The Editor.

*) We remark here that Pastor Grabau fortunately commits the inconsistency of holding the emergency baptism by persons not called to the office to be valid.
The Editor.

The real point of controversy in the dispute of the Lutherans and the Reformed over the power of the holy ministry consisted, finally, thirdly in this. The Lutherans taught: the Word of God, the written as well as the preached, the read as well as the heard, has in its essence, that is, in respect of its meaning, divine power, not only to indicate, to proclaim, to set forth, to relate what the will of God is, which is the way to eternal life, what faith, regeneration, sanctification, etc., are, but also to produce all spiritual effects itself; the Word of God has not merely a moral power of persuasion, but is, by virtue of divine ordinance, animated with divine Spirit and divine power, so that it really and truly brings the Holy Ghost with it, penetrates the heart of man, changes it inwardly, and works therein conversion, regeneration, etc. This power does not first come to the Word in the use of it, but clings to it inseparably, dwelling in it by virtue of divine communication. The Word of God is therefore the instrument for the conversion of man, etc., not merely as a hammer, a staff, and other dead instruments, which have no power in themselves, but first become effectual through the hand of him who wields them, but also as a fire, as a seed, as a food, as a light, and other implements which bear their power in themselves. But what belongs to the Word belongs also to the holy sacraments, which are the visible Word and, as Gerhard expresses it, as it were a short extract of the whole Gospel. And what finally, to make use here again of words used by Gerhard, "what in Scripture is ascribed to the office of the Word and of the sacraments, this is also ascribed to the servants, the proclaimers of the Word and the administrators of the sacraments, not in respect of their person, but in respect of their office, so far as they namely preach the Word and administer the sacraments. Thus the Gospel is a power of God unto salvation, Rom. 1, 16, and Timothy, preaching the Gospel, saves both himself and them that hear him, 1 Tim. 4, 16." This is Lutheran doctrine. What, on the other hand, have the Reformed taught? They have taught and still teach as follows. *) The Word which enlightens men, converts, regenerates, works faith, etc., is properly not the outward Word which is contained in the Bible, whether it be now heard or read, but the eternal Word which is in God. As the sacraments, so also the outward audible Word is only a sign of the inward workings of grace which God will produce on the occasion of the preaching of the Word. The outward and written, oral Word has in itself only a moral power of persuading by reasons and representations and is a dead letter, beside which the working Spirit goes, but in which no divine spiritual power dwells. Hence the Word of God together with the sacraments has not the least power even in those whom God has not elected and in whom therefore God does not will to work. The call that comes to them is not seriously meant and takes place only to render them inexcusable. Yes, since the Word is only an empty proclamation and narration, absolution too is not at all an act bringing and imparting the grace of God and the forgiveness of sins, upon which a poor sinner could rely as upon an act of God, but only a proclamation of the gracious will of God, which then becomes truth when God in this and that case, namely with the elect, adds His working. With this doctrine they naturally make the ministry wholly of none effect, for since they deny to the outward Word the power to spiritual effects, they deny this power still more to the preachers, to whom the same is ascribed only so far as they preach God's Word and administer the holy sacraments.

*) It happens not seldom that the present so-called Reformed complain when palpable errors are cited as "Reformed" errors. But wrongly. If some so-called Reformed no longer have the errors once taught, then they are precisely no Reformed in the historical sense, and it would then properly be their duty to renounce the Reformed Church.

The reader sees that the question between the Reformed and the Lutherans here is not about the relation in which the power of the Word and of the holy sacraments, so far as they are handled by a called pastor, stands to the power of these means of grace, so far as they are handled by one not lawfully called or by a layman; but that it is here a question of the office of the Word and of the sacraments in themselves, whether these now do their office through the pastoral office or through any man whatever.

But that no uninformed person may think we were here imputing to the Reformed heresies to which they themselves have never confessed, let here some sayings on the subject of