# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1862_S166
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report on the Right Mean of the Lutheran Liturgy. 166

except in the Roman Church. Nor would it be tenable, even had they ordained something of this sort as a law, since this matter cannot be grasped by laws. Further, although others held to a different manner, no one should either judge or despise another on that account, but each should be sure of his own opinion, and yet all have one and the same mind and judgment; and though we do not all hold to one and the same manner, still each should let the other's manner please him, so that from a variety of unequal manners a variety of opinions and sects should not likewise arise, as has happened in the Roman Church. For though we can no more do without outward manners than we can do without eating and drinking, yet they do not commend us before God, any more than food does. But faith and love commend us before God. Therefore let St. Paul's saying prevail here: "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." So also no outward gesture is the kingdom of God, but the faith that is in you."

The same, further: "That some might perhaps wish the whole order to be established by the writings and examples of the fathers troubles us but little, since we have said above that in this matter one should act freely, without any compulsion or necessity, and that it is not fitting to take captive the conscience of Christians, whether by laws or by commandments. Hence Scripture also ordains nothing conclusive concerning these matters, but leaves the freedom of the spirit to be sure of its own judgment according to the circumstance of place, time, and persons. So, too, the examples of the fathers are in part unknown. And of those that are known, they are so various that nothing certain can be concluded or ordained from them, since they too made use of their freedom. And even if they were certain and uniform, that would still impose upon us neither law nor necessity to follow those same examples."

Preface to the German Mass and Order of Divine Service, 1526: "Above all things I would very kindly request, and that too for God's sake, all those who see this our order of service, or wish to follow it, that they by no means make of it a necessary law, nor thereby entangle or ensnare anyone's conscience; but that, according to Christian liberty, they use it as they please, where, when, and as long as circumstances call for and require it. For we do not intend by this to imply that we wish to master anyone in the matter, or to govern by laws; but rather, since everywhere there is a pressing demand for German Masses and services, and much complaint and offense arises over the manifold ways of the new Masses — everyone making his own — some out of good intention, others out of mere curiosity, so that they too might produce something new and, among other things, appear to be no mean masters (as always happens with Christian liberty, that few make use of it otherwise than for their own pleasure or advantage, and not for God's honor and the neighbor's improvement)." (Erlangen Edition 22, 227-228.)

Augsburg Confession, Art. 7: "This is enough for the true unity of the