# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 05 02_S141
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...to my Lord, nothing could be dearer than that these people should be truly and thoroughly one with us; then no death would be too bitter for me that I would not be willing to suffer for that cause.

Meanwhile the work of union proceeded quietly onward, since God spoke to hearts in manifold ways. Zwingli's terrible death and Oecolampadius's sudden end were such manifest voices of awakening and warning from the Lord, that many were roused out of sinful security, smote their breasts, and renounced fellowship with the false doctrine. Luther therefore rightly cited their fall as a warning against their errors, while nevertheless bearing witness to his sincere sympathy: "The poor people! their misfortune grieves us from the heart." He also wrote to the upper-German cities of Augsburg and Frankfurt, warning them to guard against the Zwinglian heresy. Such testimonies served to make the truth more clearly recognized and to increase the love for the noble peace of the church. Bucer, although regarded with a jealous eye by the strict Zwinglians on this account, remained continually in lively correspondence with our people, who did not withhold their recognition from his endeavor, so long as they were convinced of its sincerity.

So Melanchthon wrote to him: "You may be assured on my part, that you and the other upright men, your fellow laborers, are heartily loved by me. One can readily see what my aim has been from the beginning, namely that through common deliberation both the truth might be made manifest and unity confirmed. And I do not hold it profitable for the church that each one, setting aside the judgment of the brethren, should undertake something new; and I wish once more with my whole heart, that the pious and learned men might at last confer with one another in love and freedom. Knowingly and willingly I will not have the truth darkened by me, nor the scattered churches yet further destroyed; rather I seek, so far as lies in my power, to unite the churches and to give counsel to doubting consciences."

Thereupon there followed at Cassel a colloquy between Melanchthon and Bucer, which lasted from December 1534 into January 1535. Luther gave Melanchthon for this meeting a memorandum on the manner in which the concord was to be established. "First," he says, "one must by no means allow it to be said of us that we had not previously come to an understanding on both sides, for this expedient would serve little in matters of such magnitude, since we ourselves would not hold it to be true. Second, it is in no way feasible, if for the sake of unity one wished to set up a new, middle opinion, for that the conscience cannot bear, and moreover people would thereby be inclined to all manner of strange notions and finally brought to the point of believing nothing at all any longer. Furthermore we have the clear, plain text of the Gospel and many sayings of the Fathers on our side, which cannot with a good conscience be interpreted otherwise than as they read, because the manner of the language accords so strongly with the text. This too is for us, that it is very dangerous to conclude that the church, for so many hundred years throughout all Christendom, did not have the true understanding of the sacrament, since we all indeed confess that the sacraments and the Word, though covered with manifold abominations, have nevertheless remained." Thereupon he shows that the sayings of holy Augustine, too, are not against us, as can be proven from his books; for when he speaks of signs, he speaks of the signs of the present body, in order to refute the error of the Jews and the heathen, as though among Christians the visible body of Christ were eaten, and thereby he defended the faith of the sacrament. Again, he had to teach against the false Christians that the sacrament must be eaten spiritually, and thereby he promoted love in the sacrament. "If one," Luther adds, "will grant me these points, as they have now been related, I will not need to be much entreated. For God be my witness, I would gladly, were it possible, purchase this controversy with my own body and blood, even had I more than one body."

In another writing which Luther composed on this occasion, he summarized the doctrine of the holy Supper briefly thus: "Christ is present with the bread in the holy Supper, not merely through his power and working, nor merely according to his deity, but Christ's body and blood are essentially present with the bread and wine in the Supper. It is not true that Christ's body is present only spatially, according to length and breadth, in one place; rather the body of Christ may also, in another manner, be at several places at once. Accordingly the body of Christ is also present in the Supper, even though unbelievers partake of it."

Luther's memorandum above was laid as the foundation for the negotiations at Cassel. Bucer confessed that he had not rightly understood Luther's doctrine before the great confession published by him. For the rest he declared himself in agreement with him, and wished only to guard against three things (which our people had, moreover, never maintained): that one should not assume any natural union of the body of Christ with the bread and wine; that the body of Christ should not become food for the belly, nor be subject to its workings; and that the sacramental union should not be extended so far that whoever receives the sacrament should on that account immediately be regarded as though he partook of and possessed the food of eternal life just as the food of bodily life (by which he means to say that faith is necessary for a blessed enjoyment of the Supper). At the same time he promised that he and the preachers of like mind with him in the upper-German cities would henceforth teach according to the Augsburg Confession and its Apology; of the Augsburg preachers he reported that they were already doing so.

So Melanchthon could report of them: "They now incline to Luther's side; there are many honest men among them, and he hopes that a right, firm unity, without deceit and cunning, may be reached, if the matter is treated in love, one with another, being so weighty a cause." And Luther declared: "Since the preachers report thus, I for my part do not know how to refuse the concord. If their heart stands as the words read, I do not know at this time how to find fault with the words."

The prospect of a peaceful concord thus drew ever nearer. Luther advised, however, not to hasten it, for the discord had broken in wide and deep from the beginning; on both sides a good deal of mistrust still prevailed; one ought therefore to continue dealing with one another in a friendly manner, so that the troubled water would gradually settle, and at last all would freely and willingly agree from right grounds. It was, after all, not the affair of one individual, but of the whole church. And lifting his gaze to the great whole, he said: "Look first upon the present, past, and future peoples; then upon the passages of Scripture, upon the sayings of the Fathers, upon the custom of the church. If we should fall by that measure, then let the world perish, so long as what is right is upheld."

(To be continued.)

Why are the words of institution, "This is my body; this is my blood," properly to be understood?

(Continuation.)

2. A further reason which compels and constrains us not to take the words of institution here in question in a figurative sense, is that here we are dealing with a sacrament not of the Old, but of the New Testament. To be sure, we must not suppose that the sacraments of the Old Testament, namely circumcision and the Passover lamb, were empty, powerless signs, and did not likewise offer, present, apply, and seal the divine grace;*) no, the sacraments of the Old Testament had the very same purpose, the very same power, and the very same benefit as those of the New Testament. They too were the visible Word; they

*) The Papists deny this. They say, indeed, that the sacraments of the Old Testament were grace-giving and justifying not ex opere operato, but rather ex opere operantis; by which, however, they understand this, that the use of the sacraments in the Old Testament was an act of obedience toward God's commandment; since Paul says: "Those who do the law shall be justified" (Rom. 2:13), the Israelites too, they hold, were made righteous before God through the fulfillment of the law by circumcision and the Passover lamb. Far, then, from the Papists in truth acknowledging the sacraments of the Old Testament as means of grace, they teach rather the very opposite, in that they ascribe justification not to faith in the sacraments, but to the work of circumcision, etc., contrary to the clear declaration of St. Paul: Rom. 4:9-12.