# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1860_S38
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— Page 38 —

to practice preaching and the catechism on them, to guard
them against unworthy use of the sacrament, to give all kinds
of counsel in difficult cases of conscience; finally it is an
exercise in self-humbling. In sum: it is an exercise of the
Law and the Gospel.

Letter to the People of Frankfurt: "For such confessing does not
happen solely so that they may recite their sins, but so that they
may be examined as to whether they know the Lord's Prayer, the
Creed, the Ten Commandments, and what the catechism teaches. For we
have indeed learned how little the common people and the young learn
from preaching alone, if they are not specifically questioned and
examined."

In the Sermons against the Iconoclasts: "There are many doubtful,
confusing matters which a person alone cannot properly manage or even
grasp. When he stands in such doubt and does not know which way to
turn, he takes his brother aside and lays before him his pressing
trouble, complains to him of his failings, his unbelief, and his sin,
and asks him for comfort and counsel."

In the Visitation Articles: "No one should be allowed to go to
the sacrament unless he has first been examined by his parish pastor
as to whether he is fit to go to the sacrament. For St. Paul says in
1 Corinthians 11 that whoever partakes unworthily is guilty
concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Now the sacrament is
dishonored not only by those who receive it unworthily, but also by
those who give it to the unworthy. For the common people run to the
sacrament out of mere habit and do not know why they should use it.
Whoever does not know this should not be admitted to the sacrament."

On Confession, to [Franz von] Sickingen: "That we confess
willingly and gladly should be spurred, in the first place, by the
holy cross — that is, the shame and disgrace of a person willingly
exposing himself before another person and accusing and disgracing
himself. That is a precious piece of the holy cross. Oh, if we only
knew what punishment such willing shame forestalls, and how it makes
God gracious, in that a person, to God's honor, so humbles and
abases himself, we would dig confession up out of the ground and
fetch it from a thousand miles away."

8. Confession is not commanded by God, yet is supremely useful.
It is therefore not to be enforced as a necessary element; but
where it exists, it is to be preserved, and where it has
fallen into disuse, it is to be restored through commendation
and the promotion of its benefit.

Church Postil, 14th Sunday after Trinity: "The papists cannot
prove from the New Testament that one is obligated to confess sin."

II.

The doctrine of Absolution and the doctrine of Justification
stand in an exact reciprocal relationship. This becomes clear,
A., from the fact that the doctrine of Justification is the
foundation on which the doctrine of Absolution rests, and the