# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1858_S52
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

52 Menius and Flacius in Their Dispute over Ministry and Priesthood.

"Answer. I exalt myself above no one. I command no one anything, nor do I forbid anything. It is not exalting oneself above all churches and schools when Paul rebukes Peter, or likewise when one ordinary Christian rebukes another. Matthew 18."

"Secondly, I have, in the sum of the Ten Commandments, a hard commandment and a solemn charge, that I should love God with my whole heart and my neighbor as myself. I must love not with words alone, but also in deed, so that in time of necessity I lay down my life for him. And in such evil times and utmost necessity, with what could I better love both God and my neighbor than precisely in the defense of his heavenly, wholesome truth, and its vindication, and also the refutation of the manifold swiftly-spreading errors?"

"I have not been able, nor needed, to debate with myself for long over who my neighbor might be. For I have had him before me, and have seen so many thousand pusilli of Christ — poor consciences — grievously not only wounded but also slain by the Interimists and Adiaphorists."

"Thirdly, Paul says that the word of God should dwell richly among us Christians, and that we should admonish and comfort one another with Scripture, Colossians 3. There, surely, is a clear command of God that a Christian indeed has the power — nay, is even obliged — to strengthen and teach the other, and also to rebuke seducers."

"Fourthly: Christ, in Matthew 18, commits the keys to every individual person, where he says: If your brother sins, etc. See Luther, in the book De instituendis ministris, on this passage."

"Fifthly: Paul also writes, 1 Corinthians 14, that we can all prophesy, that is, teach, and he also commands that if something is revealed to one who is sitting, the other should be silent. Dr. Martin Luther understands this, in the booklet De instituendis ministris, to apply to all Christians. For Paul, too, wrote that epistle not only to all the ordained, but to all the Corinthians. Therefore I too have this power, as a Christian."

"Sixthly: among the Ten Commandments there is one that reads thus: Thou shalt not bear false witness. Which amounts to just as much, and means: Thou shalt bear witness to the truth. — — We have an earnest command that we should flee idolatry and false teachers. But how can we do that if we are not to judge all teachers and all doctrine? ——"

"Seventhly: we also have a very strict command that we must and shall confess Christ and his doctrine. Which is even so necessary that Junker Major dares to write: we are saved by it. But confession comprises within itself both the praise of the truth and the condemnation of falsehood. What sort of confession, then, is it, if it does not happen publicly? — —"

"Eighthly: God also commands, through Solomon, Proverbs 24: If