# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 12 26_S66
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

66

For this too is a public sign and precious holy thing, whereby God's people is sanctified. For it is a holy bath of the new birth through the Holy Ghost, Tit. 3:5, wherein we bathe, and are washed by the Holy Ghost from sins and death, as in the innocent, holy blood of the Lamb of God. Where you see such a sign, know that surely the Church or the holy, Christian people must be there, regardless of whether the pope does not baptize you, or you know nothing of his holiness and power, just as the little children know nothing of it, except that when they have grown up, they are, alas, led astray from their baptism, as St. Peter laments, 2 Pet. 2:18: "they allure through much wantonness those that were clean escaped, and now walk in error," etc. Yea, it ought not to trouble you either who the baptizer is. For baptism is not the baptizer's, nor given to him, but the baptized person's, who is baptized, to whom it is appointed and given by God; just as the Word of God is not the preacher's (unless he himself also will hear and believe), but the disciple's, who hears and believes it; to him it is given.

Thirdly, one recognizes God's people, or a Christian, holy people, by the holy Sacrament of the Altar, where it is rightly administered according to Christ's institution, believed, and received. For it too is a public sign and dear holy thing, left behind by Christ, whereby his people is sanctified, so that it also exercises itself and openly confesses that it is Christian, as it does with the Word and with Baptism. And here again you need pay no heed to whether the pope does not hold mass for you, consecrate you, confirm you, or anoint you, or put on a mass vestment. You can well receive it without any clothes at all (as when sick in bed), unless outward decorum compels you to cover yourself modestly and decently; you need not ask in this matter whether you have a tonsure or have been chrismed; nor dispute whether you be male or female, young or old, any more than you ask about all such things in Baptism and preaching; it is enough that you are consecrated and chrismed with the most holy chrism of God, of the Word of God and of Baptism, and also of this Sacrament; there you are anointed and priestly clothed highly and gloriously enough.

Let it not trouble you, either, how holy the man is, or whether he has two wives or not, who administers it to you. For the Sacrament is not his who administers it, but his to whom it is administered, before he himself also takes it with him. Then he is one of those who receive it, and it is thereby given to him also. Where, then, you see such a Sacrament administered in right use, know for certain that there is God's people. For as was said above of the Word: Where God's Word is, there the Church must be; so also, where Baptism and the Sacraments are, there must be God's people; and conversely. For such holy things no one has, gives, exercises, uses, and confesses, except God's people alone, although some false unbelieving Christians are secretly among them: for the manifest one does not suffer the Church and God's people to endure him among them, but rebukes and sanctifies him also, or, if they will not, thrusts them out by the ban from the holy thing, and holds them as heathen, Matt. 18:17.

Fourthly, one recognizes God's people or holy Christians by the keys, which they use publicly, that is, as Christ sets forth in Matt. 18:15, 16, that when a Christian sins, he is to be rebuked, and if he does not amend, he is to be bound and cast out; if he amends, he is to be absolved. These are the keys. Now the use of the keys is twofold, public and private. For there are some so timid and dismayed in conscience, even though they are not publicly condemned, that they nevertheless cannot comfort themselves until they receive an absolution especially from the pastor. Conversely, there are also some so hard that even in their heart and before the pastor in secret they will not forgive nor cease from sins. Therefore the use of the keys must go on in every manner, publicly and privately. Where, then, you see that sin is forgiven or rebuked in some persons, whether publicly or privately, know that God's people is there. For where God's people is not, there the keys are not, and where the keys are not, there God's people is not. For Christ left them behind him for this reason, that they should be a public sign and holy thing, whereby the Holy Ghost (obtained by Christ's death) sanctifies again the fallen sinners, and the Christians thereby confess that they are a holy people under Christ in this world. And those who will not be converted and be sanctified again are to be cast out from such holy people, that is, bound and shut out by the key, as will happen to the impenitent Antinomians.

Here you must not turn aside to the two keys of the pope, which he has made into two picklocks for the chests and crowns of all kings. For where he will not bind or rebuke sin, whether public or private (as indeed he does), then let it be rebuked and bound in your parish. When he will not loose nor forgive it, then let it be loosed and forgiven in your parish. For his reserving or binding, his relaxing or permitting neither unsanctifies nor sanctifies you, since he cannot have the keys, but has mere picklocks. The keys are not the pope's (as he lies), but the Church's, that is, of the people of Christ, of the people of God, or of the holy Christian people, as far as the whole world extends, or where Christians are. For they cannot all be at Rome, unless the whole world were first at Rome, which will not happen for a long time yet. Just as Baptism, the Sacrament, God's Word are not the pope's, but the people of Christ's, and are also called claves Ecclesiae, not claves Papae.*)

*) That is, keys of the Church, not keys of the pope.

Fifthly, one recognizes the Church outwardly by this, that it ordains or calls ministers of the Church, or has offices which it is to fill. For one must have bishops, pastors, or preachers, who publicly and privately give, administer, and exercise the aforementioned four holy things, on behalf of and in the name of the Church, but much more by Christ's institution, as St. Paul says, Eph. 4:11: Accepit dona in hominibus: He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, teachers, governors, etc. For the whole multitude cannot do this, but must commit it to one and let it be committed to him. What would otherwise become of it, if each one would speak or administer and none would yield to another? It must be committed to one alone, and let him alone preach, baptize, absolve, and administer the Sacrament, and all the others be content with that and consent to it. Where you now see this, be certain that there is God's people and the Christian, holy people.

It is true, however, that in this matter the Holy Ghost has excepted women, children, and unfit persons, and has chosen for this purpose only fit men (except in case of necessity), as one reads here and there in St. Paul's Epistles, that a bishop shall be apt to teach, godly, and the husband of one wife, 1 Tim. 3:2, and 1 Cor. 14:34: "A woman shall not teach among the people"; in sum, it must be a skilled, chosen man, whereas children, women, and other persons are not fit, although they are fit to hear God's Word, to receive Baptism, the Sacrament, absolution, and are true holy Christians along with us, as St. Peter says, 1 Epist. 3:7. For nature and God's creature also gives such a distinction, that women (much less children or fools) cannot and ought not to have rule, as experience shows, and Moses, Gen. 3:15, says: "Thou shalt be subject to the man." But the Gospel does not abolish such natural right, but confirms it as God's ordinance and creation.

Here the pope will object to me through his bawlers and rending devils (devil-rippers): St. Paul speaks not only of pastors and preachers, but also of apostles, evangelists, prophets, and other high spiritual estates; therefore there must indeed be higher estates in the Church than the pastors and preachers are. Whither now, Domine Luther? Where shall I go? There will I go: If they now themselves become apostles, evangelists, prophets, or show me one, ah, what a fool I am! if they show me one among them who is worth a schoolboy in the schools, or who knows as much of Christian doctrine and Holy Scripture as a little girl of seven years, I will yield myself captive. Now I know for a certainty that an apostle, evangelist, prophet knows more, or at least as much, as a little girl of seven years (I speak of the Holy Scripture and of faith). For that they know more of human doctrine, and more of knavery too, I believe very well, and more firmly than I believe in God, since they convince me of it before my eyes in deed. Therefore,