# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S67
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1884. 65

We see, then, that the holy Cyprian also speaks of a tradition, but understands by it what is handed down in the Gospels, in the Acts of the Apostles and in the epistles of the apostles. As for these, he is ready to submit to them; but he calls it stubbornness and presumption to want to bind him to human traditions. We must therefore not let ourselves be confused when the Jesuits say that even the oldest church fathers acknowledged tradition. For we see here that when they speak of traditions to be accepted they mean Scripture, for tradition means "handing down." But the papists now understand something quite different by traditions; they understand by them not the written word of the apostles and prophets, but that which, as coming from Christ or the apostles, has been handed down by word of mouth beside Scripture and in part taken up by the church fathers into their writings. Of precisely these, however, Cyprian says that one should not submit to them, but only to the handing down of Holy Scripture. The papists' doctrine of tradition is therefore a new doctrine, adopted by Antichrist, who wants thereby to escape the judgment of Holy Scripture.

Augustine was without doubt the greatest teacher of the old church, whom Luther also studied most, since he was indeed an Augustinian monk. This man had, as regards the gospel, the most light of knowledge among all the church fathers. Of him Chemnitz writes: "Among the church fathers, in the judgment of all the learned, the palm belongs to Augustine, but one must consider why and in what matters. His life fell in those times in which many controversies were stirred up over chief articles of faith, and since all the churches looked to him, he was compelled to set refutations against them and to seek out the ground of the right opinion." (For as soon as Augustine appeared, Christendom noticed that a great light had risen for it in him; his writings shone brightly. One said at once: That is the right man, he will sweep all heretics out of the church. — We possess ten great folios of his glorious writings.) "And hence it has come about that he not only has complete expositions on many articles, but that he also sets forth and explains the true opinion of the church much more properly and conveniently than the other fathers, who, since these disputations were not yet stirred up, often spoke somewhat carelessly, as Augustine himself says." (So the very first church fathers also spoke somewhat carelessly, *securius*, somewhat too securely, too unconcernedly, whereby one can easily fall into false thoughts. We too are now in so dreadful a dispute, such as has not yet been conducted in the Lutheran church over election [*Gnadenwahl*]. We must therefore not wonder if we find that some misleading expressions about this doctrine have likewise been chosen carelessly in the dogmaticians and