# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1859_S21
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The History of the Doctrine of the Spiritual Office, etc.        21

—make new, holier, and better priests than the baptized Christians
are. 34)

"For none of us is born in baptism an apostle, preacher, teacher, or
pastor, but we are all born nothing but priests and clerics; afterward
one takes from among such born priests, and calls or elects them to
such offices, that they may carry out this office on behalf of all of
us." 35)

19. From this follows the relationship to the congregation.
The called ministers publicly attend to what each individual
has for himself, in place of the others and for the others.

"Do you ask what difference there is, then, between priests and
laypeople in Christendom, seeing that they are all priests? Answer:
wrong has been done to the little words 'priest,' 'cleric,' and the
like, in that they have been drawn out of the common crowd into the
small crowd now called the clerical estate. Holy Scripture gives no
such distinction, except that it calls the learned or the ordained
ministros, servos, oeconomos — that is, servants, bondmen, stewards —
who are to preach Christ, faith, and Christian freedom to the others.
For although we are indeed all equally priests, we cannot all serve,
or administer, and preach." 36)

"Here take note: just as they have fabricated for themselves a
special priesthood and sacrifice, unknown and foreign to true
Christians, so too have they invented and introduced a new,
unchristian office of preaching. And that it may become known and
manifest to everyone, I will prove from the outset, with irrefutable
Scripture, that the one, true, genuine preaching office — like the
priesthood and the sacrifice — is common to all Christians. Paul
says, 2 Cor. 3:6: who has made us competent ministers of the New
Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit. These words St. Paul
spoke to all Christians, that he might make ministers of the Spirit
out of all of them. A minister of the Spirit preaches grace, the
forgiveness of sin; just as a minister of the letter preaches the
words of the law. The one belongs to Moses, the other to Christ. And
Peter says to all Christians, that ye should proclaim the excellencies
of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1
Pet. 2:9. Since, then, all Christians are called out of darkness,
each one is obligated to proclaim the power of him who called him.
This we readily grant, that many should not preach all at once,
although they all have the power to do so. For when Paul spoke,
Barnabas kept silent, Acts 14:2. Should Barnabas therefore not have
had the power to preach? For all things are to be done decently and
in order, 1 Cor. 14:40. But by this the common possession of the
office of preaching is not abolished; indeed, it is thereby
confirmed—

34) On the Private Mass and the Ordination of Priests, vol. 19, 1536.
35) The same. 36) On the Freedom of a Christian, vol. 19, 1219, 1220.