# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1860_S56
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— Page 56 —

...specification of that command, expressed in a particular way. To
the question now raised again — whether, precisely because of the
special institution of private absolution, a special comfort does not
also lie in it — the answer followed: one can indeed say that a
special comfort lies in it, provided one does not thereby mean that a
special good lies in it; the special comfort, rather, is that I know
I receive forgiveness here for my own person. Private absolution is
thus indeed a special institution of God, but it is not the case that
in this special institution a special good is given to us which does
not already lie in the general preaching of the Gospel. The best way
to put it is this: private absolution can serve me by
making me more certain of the comfort of forgiveness; it
is not a greater assurance than the publicly preached
word, but it can make me more certain, because there it
is said: You, you are the man; to you, to you your sins
are forgiven — it therefore helps me with something that
the public sermon does not help me with. To make this quite clear,
the following comparison served: a whole city had rebelled against
its king, and all its inhabitants were threatened with being broken
on the wheel, starting from the lowest; but the king is gracious and
has pardon proclaimed to the whole rebellious citizenry. Now since
some ringleaders among them (for true Christians always count
themselves the ringleaders and the foremost among sinners, along with
the Apostle) think, trembling and quaking: who knows whether you are
included in the pardon! — yes, if only each of you held the pardon in
your own hands for your own person! — if, then, the king sent his
messengers and had each one told: You, Hans, Peter, or whatever your
name may be, are pardoned, this would doubtless make them wholly
certain of the grace and gladden their hearts.

Against the foregoing remarks it was objected: if there is no
essential difference between private absolution and the preaching of
the Gospel, and the one offers nothing different but exactly the same
good as the other, then one cannot understand why private absolution
is so greatly emphasized and praised; for anyone would have to be
utterly without understanding not to be able to accept and take
comfort from the public sermon just as well as from private
absolution. — To this it was answered: in that case one likewise
cannot understand why the Lord Christ instituted baptism and the Holy
Supper alongside preaching, since there is likewise no essential
difference between these and preaching. Then one must also wonder why
Christ, after his resurrection, says, "Tell it to his disciples and
Peter" — one would then have to say that Peter had no understanding,
that he could not have appropriated the comfort even though it was
brought to the apostles in general, to whom he indeed belonged; but
Peter thought: you are no longer an apostle, and so the Lord had
comfort brought to him in particular. Our forefathers say: what
troubles the Christian's conscience is not whether the world is
redeemed, but whether he himself is redeemed — that is, whether the
general redemption concerns him too, for his own person. We ought to
fall on our knees and thank God that he has opened to us such a
fountain of comfort, that upon our...