# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1863_S270
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

270 Theological Axioms.

94. Non ab organica causa, sed efficiente principali vis sacramentorum dependet. (Kromayer.)

The power of the Sacraments depends not on the instrumental cause, but on the acting original cause.

95. Non dependet remissio peccatorum a sono verborum, quem minister addit, sed a virtute Christi, qui mentiri nescit. (Balduin.)

The forgiveness of sins depends not on the sound of the words that the minister adds thereto, but on Christ's power, who cannot lie.

96. When Christ says: Whosesoever sins ye remit, unto them they are remitted, etc., thereby is instituted not the power of him who speaks, but of those who believe. (Luther.)

97. Our faith and the Sacrament must not rest upon the person, whether he be pious or wicked, ordained or unordained, rightly called or one who has crept in — the devil or his mother; but upon Christ, upon his Word, upon his office,*) upon his command and ordinance. Where these prevail, there it must go and stand rightly, whoever and however the person may be or be able to be.

98. Puritas doctrinae distinguit verum doctorem a falso, vita ornat. (Dannhauer.)

The purity of doctrine distinguishes a true prophet from a false one; life adorns him.

99. Vim sacramenti non mutat vita ministri. (Proverbium.)

The life of the minister does not change the power of the Sacrament.

100. Turpe est doctori, si culpa redarguit ipsum. (Proverb.)

It is shameful for a teacher when his own guilt accuses him.

101. Fugisti, quia tacuisti. (Augustine.)

You have already fled and become a hireling, if you have kept silent.

102. Vim vox mirificam viva docentis habet. (Proverb.)

The living voice of the one who teaches has a wonderful power.

103. Malo audire magistrum, quam audiri magister. (Augustine.)

I would rather hear the Master than be taken for a master.

104. Beneficium datur propter officium. (Proverb. Art. Schm.)

The benefice is given for the bearing of the burden of office.

105. Ministerium ecclesiasticum est incompossibile cum statu politico. (Dannhauer.)

The ecclesiastical office is incompatible with the estate of civil authority.

*) Thus it is not ordination, nor calling either, that first makes the office be administered, but rather the doing of that which God has commanded and ordained in his Word. Ströbel writes quite rightly: "The 'office' is, for the apostles and the reformers, not something different from, but identical with, a function ordered by God. For them it is not the case that whoever holds the office performs its functions, but rather: whoever performs the functions of the office holds the office." See Rudelbach's Zeitschrift, year 1854, p. 778.