Part 23 (1/2)

For there is no person to be compared with a Christian brother And the observance of places, times, days, persons, and all other superstitious , to the injury of those which are everything; as if aught could be greater or of lory of Christian brotherhood!

Thus they bind us to places, days and persons, that the nahtly estee free--we to whos are one and the same

[Sidenote: 3 Satisfaction]

Hoorthily they have dealt with satisfaction, I have abundantly shown in the controversies concerning indulgences[127] They have grossly abused it, to the ruin of Christians in body and soul To begin with, they taught it in such a manner that the people never learned what satisfaction really is, namely, the renewal of a man's life Then, they so continually harp on it and emphasize its necessity, that they leave no room for faith in Christ With these scruples they torture poor consciences to death, and one runs to Rome, one to this place, another to that, this one to Chartreuse, that one to soes hiils, and all cry with the same mad zeal, ”Lo here is Christ! lo there!” [Luke 17:20 f] believing that the kingdom of heaven, which is within us, will cos we are indebted to thee, O Roman See, and thy murderous laws and ceremonies, hich thou hast corrupted all mankind, so that they think by works to make satisfaction or sin to God, Who can be satisfied only by the faith of a contrite heart! This faith thou not only keepest silent with this uproar of thine, but even oppressest, only so thy insatiable horseleech have those to who!” [Prov 30:15] and one even farther and have constructed those instru souls to despair,--their decrees that the penitent lected to make the imposed satisfaction Yea, ould not they venture to do, ere born for the sole purpose of carrying all things into a tenfold captivity?

Moreover, how many are possessed with the notion that they are in a saved state and aresatisfaction for their sins, if they but mumble over, word for word, the prayers the priest has ihttheir life!

They believe that their life is changed in the one moment of contrition and confession, and it remains only to make satisfaction for their past sins How should they know better, when they are not taught otherwise? No thought is given here to theof the flesh, no value is attached to the example of Christ, Who absolved the woman taken in adultery and said to her, ”Go, and sin noupon her the cross--the reatly encouraged by our absolving sinners before the satisfaction has been co the satisfaction which lies before them, than they are about contrition, which they suppose to be past and over when they have ht rather to follow on the completion of satisfaction, as it did in the ancient Church, with the result that, after coreater diligence to faith and the living of a new life

But this must suffice in repetition of what I have eneral thisthe three sacraments, which have been treated, and yet not treated, in so ical as well as juristic It remains to attempt some discussion of the other sacraments also, lest I seem to have rejected them without cause

CONFIRMATION

I wonder what could have possessed the on of hands, which Christ e children [Mark 10:16], and the apostles when they imparted the Holy Spirit [Acts 8:17; Acts 19:6; Acts 6:6; Mark 16:18], ordained elders and cured the sick, as the Apostle writes to Timothy, ”Lay hands suddenly on no man” [1 Tim 5:22] Why have they not also turned the sacrament of the bread into confirmation? For it is written in Acts ix, ”And when he had taken thened,”[129] and in Psalm civ, ”And that bread may cheer[130] man's heart” [Ps

104:15] Confirmation would thus include three sacraments--the bread, ordination, and confir the apostles did is a sacra a sacrament?

I do not say this because I condemn the seven sacraments, but because I deny that they can be proved from the Scriptures Would to God we had in the Church such a laying on of hands as there was in apostolic ti! But there is nothing left of it now but e ourselves have invented to adorn the office of the bishops, that theyto do in the Church For after they relinquished to their inferiors those arduous sacra too common for themselves,--since, forsooth, whatever the divine Majesty has instituted ht that we should discover soreat heroes to do, and should by nocommon--for whatever hu men! Therefore, as are the priests, so let their ministry and duty be For a bishop who does not preach the Gospel or care for souls [1 Cor 8:4], what is he but an idol in the world, having but the name and appearance of a bishop?

But we seek, instead of this, sacra which we see no reason for nu confirmation

For, in order that there be a sacras a word of divine promise, whereby faith ave a proh He laid hands on ns in Mark xvi: ”They shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover” [Mark 16:18] Yet no one referred this to a sacraard confirmation as a certain churchly rite or sacramental cere of holy water and the like For if every other creature is sanctified by the word and by prayer [1 Tim 4:4 f], why should not much rather s cannot be called sacraments of faith, because there is no divine promise connected with them, neither do they save; but sacraments do save those who believe the divine proarded as a sacrament without the least warrant of Scripture, but the very traditions which extol it as a sacrament have turned it into a farce Let me explain

We said[131] that there is in every sacrament a word of divine pron, and that the sign alone cannot be a sacrament Noe read nowhere that the race of God Nay, there is not even a divinely instituted sign in e was instituted by God to be a sign of anything To be sure, whatever takes place in a visibleinvisible; but types and figures are not sacraments in the sense in which we use this ter of the world and is still found a unbelievers, it cannot possibly be called a sacrament of the Ne and the exclusive possession of the Church The es of the ancients were no less sacred than are ours, nor are those of unbelievers less true arded as sacra believers married folk who are wicked and worse than any heathen; why shouldthe heathen? Or are we going to prate so foolishly of baptise is a sacrament only in the Church, just as some make the mad claim that temporal power exists only in the Church? That is childish and foolish talk, by which we expose our ignorance and our arrogance to the ridicule of unbelievers

But they will say: The Apostle writes in Ephesians v, ”They shall be two in one flesh This is a great sacra to contradict so plain a stateuent and thoughtless reading of Scripture Nowhere in Holy Scripture is this word sacra to which we are accusto For wherever it occurs it signifies not the sign of a sacred thing, but a sacred, secret, hidden thing Thus Paul writes in i Corinthians iv, ”Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ, and dispensers of the mysteries[132]--i e, sacraments--of God” [1 Cor 4:1] Where we have the word _sacrament_ the Greek text reads _mystery_, which word our version sometimes translates and sometimes retains in its Greek form

Thus our verse reads in the Greek: ”They shall be two in one flesh; this is a great _mystery_” [Eph 5:31] This explains how they ca they would never have done if they had read the word _mystery_, as it is in the Greek[133]

Thus Christ Hireat is the sacrament--i e, mystery--of Godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is believed by the world, is taken up in glory”[1 Tie an eighth sacrament of the Ne, since they have the clear authority of Paul? But if they restrained themselves here, where they had a most excellent opportunity to unearth a new sacrae?

It was their ignorance, forsooth, of both words and things; they clung to the mere sound of the words, nay, to their own fancies For, having once arbitrarily taken the word sacraht or scruple, n of it every time they cas of words and such hued into Holy Writ, and confore whatsoever Thus they continually chatter nonsense about the terhteousness, virtue, and wellnigh every one of the fundas For they es of men, to the detriment both of the truth of God and of our salvation

Therefore, _sacras, is that wisdom of the Spirit, hidden in a mystery [1 Cor 2:7 ff], as he says in i Corinthians ii, which is Christ, Who is for this very reason not known to the princes of this world, wherefore they also crucified Him, and Who still is to the [1 Cor 1:23; Roainst [Luke 2:34] The preachers he calls dispensers of these mysteries because they preach Christ, the power and the wisdom of God [1 Cor 1:23 f; 4:1], yet so that one cannot receive this unless one believe

Therefore, a sacra, which is set forth in words and is received by the faith of the heart Such a sacrament is spoken of in the verse before us--”They shall be two in one flesh This is a great sacrae, whereas Paul wrote these words of Christ and the Church, and clearly explained his , ”But I speak in Christ and in the Church” Ay, hoell they agree with Paul! He declares he is setting forth a great sacrament in Christ and the Church, but they set it forth in a man and a woman! If such wantonness be permitted in the Sacred Scriptures, it is s one please, even a hundred sacraments

Christ and the Church are, therefore, a , which it was possible and proper[135] to represent by ory, but that was no reason for their calling e a sacrament The heavens are a type of the apostles, as Psalm xix declares; the sun is a type of Christ; the waters, of the peoples [Ps 19:1 ff]; but that does not s sacra both the divine institution and the divine promise, which constitute a sacra his own mind[136], applies to Christ these words in Genesis ii about eneral view,[136] he teaches that the spiritual : ”As Christ cherisheth the Church: because we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh This is a great sacrament; I speak in Christ and in the Church” [Eph 5:29 ff] You see, he would have the whole passage apply to Christ, and is at pains to admonish the reader to find the sacrae[137]

Therefore we grant that e is a type of Christ and the Church, and a sacrament, yet not divinely instituted, but invented by norance both of the word and of the thing Which ignorance, since it does not conflict with the faith, is to be charitably borne with, just as norance are borne with in the Church, so long as they do not conflict with the faith and with the Word of God But we are now dealing with the certainty and purity of the faith and the Scriptures; so that our faith be not exposed to ridicule, when after affir is contained in the Sacred Scriptures and in the articles of our faith, we are refuted and shown that it is not contained therein, and, being found ignorant of our own affairs, beco-block to our opponents and to the weak; nay, that we destroy not the authority of the Holy Scriptures For those things which have been delivered to us by God in the Sacred Scriptures uished from those that have been invented by men in the Church, it matters not how eminent they be for saintliness and scholarshi+p

[Sidenote: Hindrances to Marriage]

So far concerning e itself But what shall we say of the wicked laws of men by which this divinely ordained manner of life is ensnared and tossed to and fro? Good God! it is dreadful to contemplate the audacity of the Roain force theiven over to the wantonness of these men, for them to mock and in every way abuse and make of them whatever they please, for filthy lucre's sake?

There is circulating far and wide and enjoying a great reputation, a book whose contents have been poured together out of the cesspool of all huelic Suht rather to be ”The More than Devilish Su endless other monstrosities, which are supposed to instruct the confessors, while they most mischievously confuse thehteen hindrances to e[139] If you will examine these with the just and unprejudiced eye of faith, you will see that they belong to those things which the Apostle foretold: ”There shall be those that give heed to spirits of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding toto marry if it is not this--to invent all those hindrances and set those snares, in order to preventor, if they be ave this power to men?