# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 12 11_S59
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59

fession." *) (Scripta Wittenberg. publ. in academ. propos. Tom. VII, p. 443.) Thus then Herr Dr. Sprecher has herewith the testimony of friends and foes, of genuine and false brethren, that above all the Augsburg Confession had from the beginning a normative, binding authority, and was meant to have it, for all who wished to be Lutherans.

*) It appears that Wittenberg College in Springfield has formed itself after the model of the Wittenberg University in the times of Peucer, and has therefore taken a fancy to this name.

We can, however, serve the Herr Doctor with still more. Calvin himself, namely, has, as he himself confesses, subscribed the Augsburg Confession. He writes, namely, in a letter to M. Schalling, preacher at Regensburg, in the year 1557: "Nor do I reject the Augsburg Confession, which I formerly signed willingly and gladly." (Epist. et resp. ed. sec. Lausannae. Ep. 236.) How Calvin came to it, Sal. Cyprian tells us in his "Unterricht von kirchlicher Vereinigung." For when Calvin in the year 1538 was driven out by the council at Geneva, he turned to Strasbourg, where a theological professorship and the pastorate at the newly founded French church there were entrusted to him. It was here that he had to sign the Augsburg Confession. He adds indeed to the above confession: "as the author himself has explained it," but this proves only against the honesty of his mind, not against the fact itself; for it is not only known that in the year 1539 Melanchthon did not explain the Confession otherwise than as it reads, it also goes without saying that Calvin was not required to confess himself to the Confession according to the sense of any private man, but according to the sense of the Church which demanded his signature.**) — Further, in the year 1542, at the instigation of Bucer of Strasbourg, several other confessional writings also were solemnly subscribed by all the members of the Frankfurt Ministerium. We find this in Bucer's so-called "Concordia," which, besides Bucer, is signed by the eight Frankfurt preachers. In it, § 17, it says: "And there shall be taught faithfully and with Christian devotion what stands in Holy Scripture and is explained in our Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the same, likewise also in the Articles at Regensburg, delivered by our Estates to the Emperor, and lastly in the Formula Concordiae, made and set up at Wittenberg; to which all the aforesaid preachers, with Christ's help, will constantly and faithfully conform and in which they will abide." (Luthers Werke. Hall. Ed. XVII, 2623.) We have, indeed, still before us a whole mass of documents which testify that already in Luther's time the Lutheran preachers bound themselves by oath to the symbols then existing; the ones cited will, however, suffice to establish our assertion.

**) In this manner of giving the signature, Calvin was followed by the Predestinarian Zanchi in Strasbourg, who signed as follows: He would teach "according to the doctrine truly and orthodoxly understood, contained in the Augsburg Confession." (Carpzovii Isagog. p. 112.)

In conclusion, let Luther himself speak. When the Emperor Charles V, in the Augsburg Recess of the Diet, wished to grant ecclesiastical liberty only to those who precisely at that time had signed the Augsburg Confession or would sign it forthwith, and moreover referred to a council which was to be summoned for the settlement of the disputes, Luther wrote, among other things, the following: "If we were to say Yes to this, it would be as much as if we said: Christ shall not live, but be crucified again. Besides, we must confess that the doctrine preached and delivered at Augsburg is the true and pure Word of God, and that all who believe and hold it are children of God and shall be saved, whether they believe already now or are enlightened hereafter; which confession shall last unto the end of the world and unto the last day. For it is written: ''Whosoever believeth and calleth upon (God) shall be saved.'' And one must have regard not only to those who are yet to come to it, but also to the Christian Church which preaches the Word, and to ours who are its members. For it is written, Gal. 6:16: ''As many as walk according to this rule,'' etc., by which saying no one is excluded. If then all who believe and live according to the doctrine of the Confession and the Apology are, according to such faith and doctrine, our brethren, then their danger concerns us as much as our own. We also cannot forsake them as members of the true Church, let them join us if they will; let them do it in quiet or openly; let them live among us or abroad. This we say and confess..... Since the LORD says: ''The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church,'' and yet such gates do not rest, it follows necessarily that the doctrine is bound to no certain time, place or person, but shall ever endure and remain for all those who either already believe or shall hereafter believe.... The article of the Council is necessary to be believed, confessed and held only so far as it allows that our doctrine which we confess is true, and that no angel from heaven also can judge or alter it, but an angel who would do the like must be accursed and banned." (Ibid. XVI, 1856 ff.) According to this let the reader now judge the utterance of Herr Prof. Dr. Sprecher: "In Luther's lifetime the symbols of the Church then existing were regarded by their authors or others not as clothed in every respect with obligatory authority or as binding upon posterity, but solely as their confession of faith and as their testimony to the truth. They were therefore regarded as confessions which still admit of alterations and improvements." We confess we are ashamed that it has come to this in the so-called American Lutheran Church, that even its professors and doctors of theology may so unabashedly defy all the testimonies of history in public.

(To be concluded.)

Something Good from the "Apologete."

In the 566th number of this paper we find the following lovely narrative, which we communicate with true joy to the readers of the "Lutheraner":

"A Methodist preacher in Ireland had a special gift for making the nature of justifying faith plain to penitent souls. A very cultivated woman at the altar of prayer was near despair. After they had prayed with her for some time, he said to her: ''Rise up, sister, and sit down before me; I have some questions to put to you. Do you believe in the Bible?'' — Yes. — ''Can you tell me who made the world?'' The woman was almost offended, was silent a while, and then said, God. ''How do you know it? Were you there when he made the world?'' — No, but the Word of God says so. — ''So, so, then you believe what the Bible says?'' — Certainly. — ''We shall see. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him. Who said this?'' — The Father. — ''Now, will you do what the Father says? He commands you to hear His Son. And what says the Son? Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Come unto me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls: Daughter, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee. Did he not say all this also to you? But you do not believe him; I tell you, you do not yet believe what the Bible says.'' The woman recognized in that moment the sin of her unbelief, and at once conceived a trust in the power, love and faithfulness of the Savior; she found a present Savior."

When we read such narratives in the "Apologete," we really do not know how Methodists of Christian mind can reject the Lutheran doctrine of holy absolution as unscriptural and dangerous; for what else did that Irish Methodist do but absolve the afflicted woman? If only truth-seeking and truth-loving Methodists would take the trouble to become better acquainted with our doctrine of absolution, they would find it is simply this: The message of grace of the Gospel, which God has proclaimed to the whole world, is also directed to every single sinner and is to be applied also to every single