# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 04 02_S122
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

122

him not, hold him as a heathen and a publican." There you have a sure measure and manner, comprehended in God's Word, which lets you not err, and you can use the key without fear and care, divinely and well; for thereupon follows the text of the keys: "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth" etc. (Verse 18.) . . . You hear here that they must be certain public sins, of certain known persons, where one brother sees the other sin, and moreover such sin as has been first punished in brotherly fashion and finally convicted publicly before the congregation. Therefore the bulls and letters of the ban, wherein it stands thus: Excommunicamus ipso facto, lata sententia, trina tamen monitione praemissa. Item, De plenitudine potestatis, which is called in German a Sch . . . ban; I call it the devil's ban and not God's ban, where people were banned by a wanton act, before they were publicly convicted before the congregation, contrary to Christ's ordinance. . . . . If a bishop or official will put anyone under the ban, let him go or send them to the congregation and before the pastor, where the same is to be put under the ban, and do to him as is right, according to these words of Christ. And all this I say for this reason, that the congregation, which is to hold such a one as banned, ought to know and be certain how he has deserved the ban and come into it, as the text of Christ gives it; otherwise it might be deceived, and accept a lying ban and thereby do wrong to the neighbor. That would be to blaspheme the keys and to dishonor God and to injure love toward the neighbor, which is not to be endured by a Christian congregation: for it also has a part in it, when anyone is to be banned in its midst, says Christ here, and it is not bound to believe the official's note nor the bishop's letters, yea, it is bound not to believe here, for men are not to be believed in God's affairs. Thus a Christian congregation is not an official's handmaid, nor the bishop's jailer, that he may say to it: here, Gretha, here, Hans, hold me this one or that one under the ban. . . . Well, yes, be welcome to us, dear official; in worldly government such a thing might well have a meaning, but here, where it concerns souls, the congregation is also to be judge and lady (mistress of the house). St. Paul was an apostle, yet he would not put under the ban him that had taken his stepmother, he would have the congregation in it as well. 1 Cor. 5, 1—5. (Schrift von den Schlüsseln, of 1530. XIX., 1181. 82.)

12. By lightly and frequently putting under the ban nothing more is accomplished than much offence and occasion for sins, whereby God is angered, whereas the ban is ordained to reconcile Him. (XIX., 1118.) The ban is dangerous and harmful to no one more than to those who pronounce it, even if it be pronounced rightly and only for the sake of misdeed, because they seldom or never have such a purpose (to save the soul of the banned), and moreover act without fear, not considering how perhaps they would before God be much more worthy of a hundred bannings. (Ib. 1104.)

By the Ban No One Shall Be Punished in His Civil Livelihood.

13. But I fear that on our side our pastors will be so bold as to reach into bodily things, after property, like the Pope; when he excommunicated one and put him under the ban, and he did not heed it, he would say: Ah, we must forbid him also the market, etc., that he may neither buy nor sell. That is the devil, when one wants to reach too far. (XXII., 975.)

The Power of the Ban.

14. But you say, as the fanatics and sophists also do: many hear the keys' binding and loosing, yet pay no heed to it and remain unbound and unloosed; therefore something other must be there than the Word and the keys: the Spirit, Spirit, Spirit must do it. But do you think that he is not bound who believes not the binding key? He shall well find out in his time that on account of his unbelief the binding has not been in vain, and has not failed. So also, whoever believes not that he is loosed and his sin forgiven (through the loosing key or absolution), he shall in time well find out how very certainly his sins were forgiven him now, and he would not believe it. St. Paul says Rom. 3, 3.: Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? So we speak now also not of who believes the keys or not; we know right well that few believe; but we speak of what the keys do and give. He that receives it not, has indeed nothing; the key fails not on that account. Many believe not the Gospel, but the Gospel fails not and lies not on that account. A king gives you a castle; if you accept it not, the king has not therefore lied nor failed, but you have deceived yourself and it is your own fault; the king has surely given it. (Schrift von den Schlüsseln, of 1530. XIX., 1175. 76.)

15. The binding key is the power or office to punish the sinner (who will not repent) with a public judgment to eternal death by separation from Christendom. And when such judgment goes forth, it is just as much as if Christ himself judged; and, if he so remains, he is surely eternally damned. (XIX., 1183.)

16. The ban is no slight or small matter, as that which straightway shuts out and separates from the kingdom of Christ, and retains the sin, without hope of forgiveness, unless one do repentance. (XXII., 963.)

The Purpose of the Ban.

17. Where the ban is pronounced rightly and deservedly, as is fitting, there it is a sign, admonition and punishment, whereby the banned person is to perceive that he himself has delivered his soul to the devil by misdeed and sin, depriving himself of the communion of all saints with Christ. For such intolerable harm of sin the mother of the holy Church would show to her dear son by the punishment of the ban, and thereby bring him again from the devil to God. Just as if a natural, bodily mother threatens and punishes her son when he does evil, she does not thereby give him to the hangman or to the wolf, nor does she make a rogue of him, but restrains him and shows him by that same punishment how he might come to the hangman, and keeps him in his father's inheritance. So where a spiritual authority*) puts anyone under the ban, it shall think thus: behold, you have done this and that, whereby you have given your soul to the devil, deserved God's wrath, deprived yourself of all Christian fellowship and fallen before God into the inward spiritual ban, and will not cease nor come again; well then, so I put you also outwardly before men under the ban and, to your shame, deprive you of the Sacrament and of the fellowship of men, until you come to yourself and recover your poor soul. (Luther's Sermon on the Ban, of the year 1519. Werke. Hall. Ed. XIX., 1103. 4.)

The Wholesomeness of the Ban or Binding Key.

18. And both keys are exceedingly necessary parts in Christendom, for which one can never thank God enough. For a truly terrified, sinful conscience no man can comfort in its sins; it is yet hard enough for the loosing key to accomplish this; so great a sickness is it with a timid, weak conscience, that here faith must be driven very forcibly upon the judgment of the key by preachers, pastors and other Christians. Of which faith in the Papacy never a word has ever been heard. Again, there are among Christians some rough, wanton hearts and wild people, so that the pious could have no rest nor peace from such false Christians, if the binding key with its rod were not there and nothing but grace and security were perceived; yet even so it is still hard enough, how sharp and great such punishment and judgment is. Thus the iron and hard binding key is to pious Christians a great comfort, protection, wall and fortress against the wicked, and yet besides also to the wicked themselves a wholesome medicine, profit and benefit, though it be terrible and vexing to the flesh. Therefore we should hold both dear keys precious and worth from the bottom of our heart, as our two unspeakable treasures and jewels for our souls. For the dear Man, the faithful, hearty Bishop of our souls, JEsus Christ, has well seen that his dear Christians, being frail, and moreover tempted by the devil, flesh and world manifoldly and without ceasing, would at times fall and sin. Against this he has appointed this medicine, the binding key, that

*) That is, according to our constitution here, each congregation, the hearers with their pastor.