# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1855_S48
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

48                    On the Doctrine of the Holy Office of the Ministry.

...it says: And on this rock I will build my church — there the church is surely built not on the reputation of a man, but on the office of the confession that Peter had made, namely that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God; therefore he also addresses him as a servant of that office, and says: Upon this rock, that is, upon this preaching and office of preaching." (If the church is not [built] on the reputation and power of a man, then it must be founded on divine authority; but that authority rests solely in the Word, without which the Spirit's testimony does not come to us; now the Word, which originally went forth from the mouth of Christ without mediation, first works faith; therefore, together with faith, the ministry of the Word must also be given at the same time — for it is faith that produces confession, and not the reverse; the confession is not the cause of the faith. Upon Christ, as he first preached himself, and thus upon his office, the church is founded; it continually builds itself up further on that same office through the ministry of that office. This is confirmed by what follows.) "Now the preaching office of the New Testament is indeed bound to no fixed place or person, as the service of the Levites was under the Law, but is scattered throughout the whole world, and is present wherever God gives his gifts — apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, etc." (Wherever these gifts of God are, there the office is to be established through those to whom the persons for this purpose — which alone can be taken into consideration in them — have been granted; nothing else can even be conceived.) "And the person" (with or without the papists' consecration) "contributes nothing at all to such a word and office, commanded by Christ; let whoever will preach and teach it; wherever there are hearts that believe it and hold fast to it, it happens to them just as they hear and believe. In this way — — Bede. So says Chrysostom: 'Upon this rock, not upon Peter; for it is not upon a man, but upon the faith of Peter, that he has built his church; but what kind of faith was that? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Hilary: 'To Peter the Father revealed it, so that he said: Thou art the Son of the living God; upon this rock of confession, then, is the building of the church; this faith is the foundation of the church.' — To this let one add further what is read in ed. Lat. R. p. 858: 'For wherever the church is, there is the jus administrandi evangelii [the right to administer the Gospel];' and how these words, and those that follow them (also cited in part by Wucher, p. 88f.), are to be understood is taught by the conclusion: Here belong the sayings of Christ which testify that the keys are given to the whole church, and not to certain individual persons (thus also not the jus ordinandi, that is, the right of installing, given first of all to the pastors), as — the text says: Where two or three [are gathered] in my name," etc.

Upon Matt. 18:20, then, Luther and the confession of the Lutheran church have grounded their doctrine before all other dicta, and from it have confirmed that the office was originally and immediately conferred upon the believers