# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 07 11_S90
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

to find on my own the way to my salvation, or to believe in Jesus Christ, my God and Savior; and just as unable to make myself worthy or capable of grace — I believe in the Holy Ghost, true God, through whose grace we are sanctified, a grace so superabundantly rich that in the work of our conversion it begins, works, and completes everything in us, which keeps us united with Christ to the end, which proves itself equally powerful in all men to save them and make them blessed, but which nevertheless is not irresistible or coercive, and can be lost again through willful sins.

I believe in one Church, whose members are the true believers and righteous, who are scattered here and there over the whole earth; visible in this respect, that the Church is outwardly recognizable by the pure preaching of the Gospel and by the right administration of the Sacraments, but invisible with respect to the believers and elect, who persevere steadfastly in faith to the end and whom no one knows but God alone; holy, because the atoning blood of Christ is imputed to it through faith; catholic, with respect to place and time. A communion — not merely an outward one of the word, the sacraments, the ceremonies, the confession, and fellowship, but chiefly an inward communion of faith and of the love of the saints; on the one hand because a righteousness not their own, namely the righteousness of Christ, is imputed to them, and on the other hand because their heart, will, understanding, and whole life are changed and sanctified, and the spiritual powers and virtues — knowledge, the fear of God, hope, love — grow and increase more and more in them. Forgiveness of sins, in which man's justification before God consists, a free remission of all sins and their penalties without any regard to merit on man's part, so that even the good works of one who is justified, or his indwelling (habitual) righteousness, contribute nothing to his justification, but are solely its fruit — since faith, through which man attains justification, cannot by its nature remain idle, but is ceaselessly active through love. The resurrection of the flesh, which we now bear about with us and which decays in death, and life everlasting, freely given by grace.

II. The Apostles' Creed in the Sense of the Papists.

I believe — a) by mere assent, without confidence of heart — b) the ground of which faith is not only the written but also the unwritten Word of God — c) and I hold as genuine and divine those books of Holy Scripture which the Tridentine Council has declared to be such, d) and likewise regard as the only correct text the one given by the Latin Vulgate, e) whose infallible interpreter is the Pope and the Roman Church — in God and f) the deified saints in heaven — "the Father, almighty" — who, g) according to the Thomists, has foreordained evil and is consequently an author of sin; who also h) has, mercilessly enough, out of sheer pleasure in punishing, consigned many thousand innocent souls to eternal damnation — "maker of heaven and earth" — and on earth, of man, to whom the i) image of God was not created along with him but was only imparted as an addition, and who also k) bore within himself the seed of sin and was mortal.

a) Bellarmine, book 1, De justificatione, ch. 7; Council of Trent, session 9, canon 12. b) Council of Trent, session 4, decree 1. c) Council of Trent, session 4, decree 1. d) Council of Trent, loc. cit. e) Bellarmine, book 4, De Romano Pontifice, ch. 1, 2, 3. f) "And the deified saints, the heaven-dwellers, the angels" — Agenda of Cologne, p. 373. g) Bellarmine, book 2, De amissione gratiae et statu peccati, ch. 13; Tanner, vol. 1, q. 11, dub. 1. h) for concerning children who die before baptism, the Roman Church maintains that they are condemned to eternal punishment; the conclusion is drawn by Becanus, vol. 5, De opusculis, ch. 3, sect. 14. i) Catechismus Romanus, part 1, ch. 2, p. 24. k) Bellarmine, De gratia primi hominis, ch. 2, 6; Catechismus Romanus, 1, 2, 19.

I believe in "Jesus Christ," who a) is divided within himself and is not the b) sole Savior: an c) imperfect mediator, who has rendered only a half-valid and partial satisfaction; "his only-begotten Son, etc., suffered, was crucified, died, was buried" — d) all this only according to his mere humanity; e) descended to the spirits below, with his soul alone, in order to free the fathers from the outer forecourt; "ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the almighty Father," f) inasmuch as the human nature of Christ was only incidentally exalted along with him, like the purple robe upon a king; "from thence he shall come, etc."

a) "Divided," because they say that the Word exists outside the flesh (Bellarmine, book 3, De Incarnatione, ch. 17), that the true divine attributes were not communicated to the human nature of Christ (Bellarmine, book 3, De Christo, ch. 6), that the human nature alone is the mediator (Bellarmine, book 5, De Christo, ch. 1), and that one cannot worship Immanuel in one and the same manner, but that divine worship belongs to his deity, while a lesser veneration (hyperdulia) belongs to his humanity (Bellarmine, book 1, De beatitudine Sanctorum, ch. 12).

b) Not the only Savior, for the Virgin Mary is also made one, together with the whole choir of the saints in heaven (Bellarmine, book 1, De beatitudine Sanctorum, ch. 20); likewise human merits (Council of Trent, De justificatione, canon 31); likewise human satisfactions (Council of Trent, ch. 10, De operibus satisfactoriis); likewise the sacrifice of the Mass (Council of Trent, session 9); likewise infused righteousness.

c) As one who has not tasted the bitterness of eternal death, or suffered the pains of hell in our stead. Bellarmine, book 4, De anima Christi, ch. 8. d) Bellarmine, book 3, De Christo, ch. 9. e) Bellarmine, book 4, De anima Christi, ch. 12. g) Bellarmine, book 3, De Christo, ch. 15.

I — a) to whom the first stirring of desire cannot be reckoned as sin; b) endowed with the same active power of free will that man possessed before the Fall, with an inclination toward the good even before the supernatural influence of grace is added, which, once it is added, then drives forward the natural power toward the good and unites with it to accomplish holy and divine works — "believe in the Holy Ghost," c) who sanctifies us not through imputed but through infused righteousness; "a Church," not merely a militant and triumphant one, but also d) one that sweats in purgatory: I believe in the Roman Church e) as the mother and mistress of all churches, f) as the only true one, outside of which there is no salvation, g) which has sixteen marks, h) always and necessarily visible, i) infallible — yet infallible in such a way that it nevertheless k) includes within itself grave and public sinners, hypocrites, and goats; "a universal Church," which l) is held together under one visible head, the Roman Pope; "a communion of saints," outside this life, m) whom one is to invoke. "Forgiveness" — which n) eradicates the very root of sin and o) is uncertain — of sins, p) including even mortal sins that are not repented of. "The resurrection of the flesh and life everlasting," which q) is given as a reward for merits and good works.

a) Becanus, book 1, Manuale, ch. 17. b) Council of Trent, session 6, ch. 1, 4, 5. c) Council of Trent, session 8. d) Council of Trent, session 9. e) Council of Trent, session 7, De baptismo, 5. f) Canisius, p. 26. g) Bellarmine, book 4, De Ecclesia, ch. 3. h) Bellarmine, book 3, De Ecclesia, ch. 2. i) Bellarmine, book 2, De Ecclesia, ch. 13. k) Catechismus Romanus; part 1, De Romano Pontifice; Agenda of Cologne, p. 385. m) Bellarmine, De cultu Sanctorum et purgatorio. n) Becanus, De justificatione, ch. 3. o) Bellarmine, book 3, De justificatione, ch. 2, 3. p) for the lesser sins are, already by their own nature, venial sins in themselves — Bellarmine, book 1, De amissione gratiae, ch. 11, 12. q) Council of Trent, session 6, canon 32.

(Conclusion to follow.)

Reports from Saxony.

It will surely be welcome to my dear Saxon fellow believers to learn something detailed about their old homeland. The Saxon People's Paper and the Pilgrim from Saxony sketch the following picture of church conditions in the Kingdom of Saxony up to February of this year. "A calamitous storm," thus begins the preface of the Saxon People's Paper of October 2 of last year, "has gathered over state and church. The seed that has been sown since the end of the last century, under alluring promises of light and freedom, has come to ripeness. The falling away from biblical Christianity