# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1860_S290
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

290 Old Testimonies against New Errors Concerning the Effect, etc.

overflowingly rich in his grace. First, through the spoken Word, in which forgiveness of sin is preached in all the world, which is the proper office of the Gospel. Second, through Baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth, through the power of the keys. And also per mutuum colloquium et consolationem fratrum [through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren], Matt. 18: Ubi duo fuerint congregati [where two are gathered together] (through the mutual conversation and comforting of the brethren, according to Matt. 18: Where two are gathered together, etc.)." Part III, Art. 4.

In the same place: "In these points, so far as they concern the spoken, outward Word, it is to be firmly maintained that God gives no one his Spirit or grace except through and with the preceding outward Word. For even those who believe before Baptism, or who become believing in Baptism, have it through the outward preceding Word." Part III, Art. 8.

Apology: "The Word and the outward sign work the same thing in the heart. As Augustine spoke a fine word: The Sacrament, he says, is a visible word; for the outward sign is like a picture by which that which is preached through the Word is signified; therefore both accomplish the same thing." Art. 13, Of the Sacraments and Their Right Use.

In the same place: "The Word offers us forgiveness of sin. The outward sign is like a seal and confirmation of the Word and promise, as Paul also calls it (Rom. 4:11). Therefore, just as the promise is in vain if it is not grasped by faith, so also the ceremony or outward sign is of no use unless faith is present, which truly holds that forgiveness of sin is granted to us. And this same faith comforts the terrified conscience; and just as God gives the promise in order to awaken such faith, so also the outward sign is given alongside it and set before the eyes, that it may move the hearts to believe and strengthen faith. For through these two, through the Word and the outward sign ("videlicet per verbum et sacramentum" [namely, through the word and the sacrament]), the Holy Spirit works." Art. 3, Of Abuses: Of the Right Use of the Sacrament and of the Sacrifice.

Formula of Concord: "Against these two parties (the Synergists) the pure teachers of the Augsburg Confession have taught and contended that man, through the fall of our first parents, is so corrupted that in divine things — as regards our conversion and the salvation of the soul — he is by nature blind, so that when God's Word is preached, he neither understands nor can understand it, but holds it for foolishness; nor does he of himself draw near to God, but is and remains an enemy of God, until he is converted, made believing, born again, and renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preached and heard Word, out of pure grace, without any doing of his own." (Art. 2 of the Repetition [Epitome].)