# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1857_S367
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

367

The Lutheran-Theological Pastor's Library.

(Continuation.)

2. Besides the fact that there are certain periods in the development of the church, such as that of the Reformation, concerning which the Lutheran pastor has the need to learn more particulars than general church history offers him, there are also certain points within it which have for him so great an importance that he does not find himself fully satisfied with the notice and treatment which these receive in a general church history. Such points are especially the history of doctrine and of worship; which accordingly, in order to meet that need, have been treated in a separate presentation.

a. As regards the presentation of the history of doctrine, excellent work has indeed been produced in more recent times, especially in monographs. But the tendency followed in the newer works answers more to the need of the learned researcher and critic than to that of a Lutheran pastor, as we conceive him and as we wish to serve him through our „Library“. The nearest and most important purpose of the history of doctrine for a Lutheran pastor is, in our judgment, to furnish the proof that there is a successio doctrinalis, that is, that along with the church its doctrine has propagated itself unbrokenly and has continually had its confessors and witnesses, and that therefore the doctrine of our church is not a new and temporary one, but the old, original, and constant doctrine of the true church. To become convinced of this, there already serves excellently the great work of Gerhard, „Loci theologici“, and, so far as the scholastic age in particular is concerned, his „Confessio catholica“, both of which works we have reviewed at length in an earlier place; but as a compact, well-ordered, connected presentation we believe we must further recommend the following little work: „Dr. Joh. Guil. Baieri Compendium theologiae historicae. Vinariæ 1690.“ 8vo. The author we have already characterized on occasion of our review of his „Compendium theologiæ positivæ“. As regards the history of doctrine here named, it is indeed an opus posthumum, yet it was published by the author's son, J. Wilh. Baier (died as Doctor and Professor of Theology at Altorf 1729), from a manuscript left behind, with as great care as expert knowledge. The book contains, in something over 700 pages, the history of the pure doctrine and its fortunes through all the periods of the Christian era down to the year 1674, arranged under 21 loci: 1. of Holy Scripture; 2. of the triune God; 3. of creation; 4. of the angels; 5. of providence; 6. of the creation of man after the divine image; 7. of original sin; 8. of actual sins; 9. of the person of Christ; 10. of predestination; 11. of the regeneration and conversion of man; 12. of justi-