# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1855_S44
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

44 On the Doctrine of the Holy Preaching Office

confesses the Triune God; for if they did not exist, the latter could not take place either. Moreover, the words from Conf. Aug., ed. Rechenb., p. 39: “Hic necessario — me audit” must not be understood in contradiction to Apol., p. 295 ff., still less to Matthew 18:17–18. Wucherer, too, explains on p. 53 that in matters of discipline the leaders of the congregations are fairly powerless and ineffective without the earnest cooperation of the congregations, and that the Lord Himself has solemnly laid the practice of discipline upon the conscience of the congregation. But if the whole church, pastors and congregation members, rightly possesses the authority to exercise church discipline, then every excommunication is false that the former carry out without the knowledge and participation in the decision, without the judicial verdict, of the latter or of their representatives—whether expressly or tacitly recognized—or at least without the congregation’s convinced consent, unless that consent runs contrary to the clear Word of God. The congregation is not merely to admonish the person whom the preacher finds guilty; rather, by virtue of the authority once received from Christ, he exercises the Office of the Keys common to all (see above, p. 5 ff.) over well-known and publicly revealed sins just as over secret sins, not without the continually renewed exercise of the church’s authority, through which the divine life-force of the congregation reacts against the spirit of the world that has intruded. (Matthew 18:17–18.)

This is also testified quite plainly, in accordance with the truth, by the Lutheran Confession. Wucherer cites the principal passage relevant here from the Smalcald Articles on p. 85, but unfortunately will not concede that it speaks in favor of our doctrine concerning the right of the spiritual priesthood. Let us examine it more closely, comparing the German text with the Latin. Luther begins: “Finally, how can the pope by divine right be over the whole church, since the right of election belongs to the church, and since in the course of time it became customary for the Roman bishops to be confirmed by the emperors?” (Note that Luther places the church above the pope because the right of election belongs to it, as indeed it cannot be otherwise; for God bestows the episcopal ministry only through and together with the one who has the authority to elect and call. Belonging to the church comes first; only for that reason can anyone become pope. And the one who confers an office stands higher than the one upon whom it is conferred. The preacher is placed over each individual believer taken separately; but the believers as a community, which has jurisdiction over him, are indeed above him. The mother and wife in the household stands above the children she has borne and the servants appointed as overseers.) “Here several passages are cited against us, such as Matthew 16:18–19 and John 21:17. (‘Feed My sheep,’ etc., etc.) But since this whole matter has previously been treated diligently and adequately by our theologians, we will refer to these writings”—(thus also to Luther’s own writings: the Church Postil, the Letter to the Council and Congregation of the City of Prague, and the booklet Ground and Reason from Scripture That a Christian Assembly or Congregation Has the Right and Power