Concerning this repentance John preached, and afterwards Christ in the Gospel, and we also. With this repentance we shall subvert the pope and all that is based on the good works of men. For all that is called good works or law is built on a rotten, vain foundation, when at the same time there are no good works present, but evil works entirely. And no one keeps the law, as Christ, John 7, 19, says, but all have transgressed. This fabrication is, therefore, nothing but falsehood and hypocrisy, even in its most holy and beautiful features.

And this repentance continues with Christians till death; for it strives with the sins remaining in the flesh during the whole course of life, as Paul, Rom. 7, 23, testifies, that he struggles with the law of his members, &c.; and this he does not by his own strength, but through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which follow after the remission of sins. These gift purify and expel the remaining sins daily, and labor to make the person upright, pure, and holy.

Concerning this, neither pope, theologians, jurists, nor any other class of men know any thing from their own reason, but it is a doctrine from heaven, revealed through the Gospel, and must be called heresy by the ungodly.

If, moreover, certain factious persons should rise up, as there may perhaps be some already present, and as at the time of the sedition men came before my own eyes, maintaining that all those who once had received the Spirit or remission of sins, or had obtained faith, if they afterwards committed sins, still however remained in faith, and that such sins do not injure them; and thus exclaiming: "Do whatever you will, it does you no injury, faith exterminates all sins," &c, And who add: "If any one, after having received faith and the Spirit, sins, he did not truly have the Spirit and faith." Many insane persons like these have I seen and heard, and Į fear that such demon still exists in some.

It is, for this reason, necessary to know and to teach that if holy people, who still have and feel hereditary sin, and daily repent of, and strive against it, at some time fall into open sins,-like David who fell into adultery, murder, and blasphemy,-faith and the Holy Spirit were not present at the time. For in the presence of the Holy Spirit sin cannot rule, prevail or be perpetrated, but is repressed and restrained from accomplishing its purposes. If it, however, accomplishes these purposes, faith and the Holy Spirit are not present at the time; for it is as St. John, 1 John, 3, 9, says: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, and he cannot sin." And yet it is also true, as St.

John further writes, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us," 1 John, 1, 10.

IV. OF THE GOSPEL.

We shall now return to the Gospel, which affords us not only one and the same means, counsel, and assistance, in opposition to sins; for God is superabundantly rich in his grace and favors:-First, through the oral word, in which is preached remission of sins in all the world, and this is properly the office of the Gospel; second, through baptism; third, through the holy sacrament of the altar; fourth, through the power of the keys, and also through the mutual conference and admonition of brethren, Matt. 18, 20: "Where two or three are gathered together," &c.

V. OF BAPTISM.

Baptism is nothing else, but the word of God connected with water, commanded through his institution, or as St. Paul says: "A washing of water, by the word," Eph. 5, 26; also as Augustine says: "The word is added to the element, and becomes a sacrament." And for this reason we cannot hold with Thomas and the Dominicans, who forgetting the word and God's institution, say: "God has placed a spiritual power in the water, which washes away sins through the water." Nor can we agree with Scot and the Franciscans, who teach that baptism washes away sins through the assistance of the divine will; thereby asserting that this washing away comes to pass, alone through the will of God, and not at all through the word or water.

Concerning infant baptism we hold that children should be baptized; for they also belong to the promised redemption effected through Christ; and the church shall administer it to them.

VI. OF THE SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR.

Concerning the sacrament of the altar, we hold that bread and wine in the Eucharist,* are the true body and blood of Christ, and are administered and received not only by pious, but also by impious Christians.

In treating on this subject, in the twentieth vol. of his works, by Walch, page 1293, sec. 347, 348, 349, Dr. Luther says:-"In the fourth place, the Evangelists write that the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ in the form of a dove in Jordan, John 1, 32; again, that he came upon the disciples in the form of winds and fiery tongues on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2, 2; again, on mount Tabor, in the form

And we hold that more than one element should be administered. And we have no need of the transcendental refinement which teaches us, that there is as much in one element as in both, as the sophists and the council at Constance teach us. For even if it were true that there is as much in one element as in both, still the one element is not the whole order and institution established and commanded by Christ. And especially do we condemn and imprecate in the name of God those who do not only omit the second element, but also very imperiously forbid, condemn, and calumniate it as heresy, and thus place themselves against and above Christ, our Lord and God.

Concerning transubstantiation, we do by no means regard the subtile sophistry, in which they teach that bread and wine part with, or lose their natural essence, the form and color only remaining, but are no longer real bread and wine; for it corresponds best with the Scripture, that bread is and remains here, as St. Paul himself calls it, "The bread which we break," 1 Cor. 10, 16. "And so let him eat of that bread," 1 Cor. 11, 28.

VII. OF THE KEYS.

The keys are an office and a power of the church, given by Christ, to bind and to loose sins, not only enormous and manifest, but also subtile and secret sins, which God alone perceives; as it is written in the 19th Psalm, verse 12: "Who can understand his errors?" And St. Paul, Rom. 7, 25, complains: "That with the flesh he

of a cloud, Matt. 17, 5. Here Wickliffe and the sophists may philosophize and assert, that this dove is without the Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit is without the dove. We say in opposition to both propositions, that if reference is had to the dove, it is correctly and appropriately said, this is the Holy Spirit; because here the two different essences, as Spirit and dove, are also, in some manner, one essence, not natural or personal. Well! they are a like formal union, because the Holy Spirit desired to reveal himself in such form. And here the Scripture declares freely that whoever sees such dove, sees the Holy Spirit, as John, John 1, 33, says: Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him,' &c.

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Why then should we not also much rather say in the Eucharist: this is my body, even if bread and body are two different essences, and construe the word this to the bread? For here also has taken place a union out of two kinds of essence: this I shall call sacramental union, because Christ's body and bread are given to us there for a sacrament. For it is not a natural or personal union, as in Christ; so it is also perhaps a different union to that which the dove has with the Holy Spirit, and the flame, with the angel: nevertheless, it is indeed a sacramental union.

"For this reason, it is correctly said, that, if we point to the bread, and say, this is the body of Christ, and whoever sees this bread, sees the body of Christ; precisely as John says, that he saw the Holy Spirit, when he saw the dove," &c.-TRANS

serves the law of sin." For it does not lie within our power, but in that of God alone, to judge which are sins, their enormity and qauntity; as it is written in the 143d Psalm, verse 2: "Enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." And Paul, 1 Cor. 4, 4, also says: "For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified."

VIII. OF CONFESSION.

Since absolution or the power of the keys, instituted in the Gospel by Christ, affords comfort and support against sin and an evil conscience, confession or absolution shall by no means be abolished in the church, especially, on account of weak and timid consciences, and also on account of untutored youth, in order that they may be examined and instructed in the Christian doctrine.

But the enumeration of sins should be free to every one, to enumerate, or not to enumerate, such as he wishes; for while we are in the flesh, we shall not falsify ourselves, if we say, we are miserable persons, full of sins. Rom. 7, 23: "I see another law in my members," &c. And since absolutio privata results from the office of the keys, it should not be contemned, but it should be regarded high and valuable, like all other offices of the Christian church.

And in respect to those points, which touch the oral, external word, we should maintain firmly, that God grants his Spirit or grace to no one, unless through or with the preceding, external word. Thus we shall fortify ourselves against the enthusiasts, that is, spirits who boast of being in possession of the Spirit, without and prior to the word, and accordingly judge, explain, and distort the Scripture or the oral word at their pleasure, as Münzer did, and many others still do at the present day, who wish to be keen judges between the Spirit and the letter, but know not what they say or resolve, For popery is also a mere enthusiasm, in which the pope boasts, that all rights are in the shrine of his heart, and whatever he judges and commands in his church, must be Spirit and right, even if it is contrary to the Scripture, or the oral word.

All this is the ancient Satan and serpent, who made enthusiasts of Adam and Eve, leading them from the external word to spirituality and self-conceit, and did it however also by external words. Precisely as our enthusiasts condemn this external word, and yet they themselves do not keep silence, but fill the world with garulity and contentions, as if the Spirit could not approach through the Scripture or the oral word of the Apostles, but that through their writing and words he must come. Why then do they not also permit their own

preaching and writings to be deferred, till the Spirit himself enters into the people without and prior to their writing, as they boast, that he entered into them without the preaching of the Gospel? Here we have not time further to dispute concerning this subject; we have sufficiently urged it in other places.

For those also, who believed prior to their baptism, or who in their baptism began to believe, have obtained faith through the external, preceding word: as adults, for instance, must previously have heard that he who believes and is baptized, shall be saved, even if he does not believe at first, and ten years afterwards receives the Spirit and baptism. Cornelius, Acts 10, had heard long before among the Jews, of the future Messiah, through whom he was justified in the sight of God; and his prayer and alms were accepted in this faith, as Luke calls him just and pious,, and not without such preceding word or hearing could he believe or be justified. But St. Peter had to reveal unto him that this Messiah, in whom he had hitherto believed as yet to come, had now come, so that his faith concerning the future Messiah might not hold him captive among the obdurate, unbelieving Jews; but that he might know, that he must now be saved through the present Messiah, and not deny or reject him with the Jews.

In short, enthusiasm has infected and will infect Adam and his posterity, from the beginning of the world to its end, implanted and infused by the old Dragon with his venom; and it is the source of every species of heresy, even the spring, the might, and the power of popery and Mahometanism. We should and must, therefore, constantly maintain that God will not confer with us frail beings, unless through his external word and sacraments. But all that is boasted of, independent of such word and sacrament, in reference to Spirit, is criminal. For God desired first to appear to Moses, through a burning bush and the oral word; and no prophet, neither Elijah nor Elisha, independent of, or without the ten commandments, received the Spirit. Neither was John the Baptist conceived without the preceding words of Gabriel, nor did he leap in his mother's womb without the voice of Mary. And St. Peter, 2 Pet. 1, 21, says: "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." But without the external word they were not holy, much less were they, as still unholy, impelled by the Holy Ghost to speak; for they were holy, says Peter, when the Holy Spirit spoke through them.

IX. OF EXCOMMUNICATION.

The greater excommunication, as the pope denominates it, we re