# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1859_S52
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

J. Ch. Köcher's Proof that the Evangelical-Lutheran Religion, etc.                    52

-vent something like this. For what is not permitted to them after blasphemy
against God? But even if they do invent something, it will nonetheless be
of no help to them. For their own doctrine, when compared with the
apostolic doctrine, will, by virtue of its contradiction and disagreement,
betray of itself that it has its origin neither from an apostle nor from an
apostolic man; because, just as the apostles do not contradict one another
in doctrine, so too the apostolic teachers cannot be opposed to one
another, except those who have fallen away from the apostles and teach
otherwise;"

in the third century by Caecilius Cyprian ¹): "Whence does this ordinance
derive its origin? Does it carry a divine and evangelical authority; or is
it founded on the commands and letters of the apostles? For that one must
do what is written, God testifies when he says to Joshua: Let not this
book of the law depart out of your mouth, but consider it day and night,
that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. So too the Lord,
when he sent out his messengers, commanded them to baptize all nations and
to teach them to observe all that he had commanded. If, then, it is
commanded in the Gospel, or contained in the letters or accounts of the
apostles, that those coming from heretics should not be baptized, then
this divine and holy ordinance must be observed;"

and Origen ²): "Just as the Savior, by the word of his teaching, imposed
silence upon the Sadducees, and forcefully refuted the false doctrine that
they held to be truth; so also will the followers of Christ do, by means
of the examples of Scripture, by whose power of pure doctrine the mouth of
Pharaoh must be wholly silenced;"

in the fourth century by Ambrose ³): "They (the Arians) say,

comparata, ex diversitate et contrarietate sua pronunciabit, neque Apostoli alicuius
autoris esse, neque apostolici: quia sicut Apostoli non diversa inter se docuissent,
ita et apostolici non contraria Apostolis edidissent, nisi illi, qui ab Apostolis de-
sciverunt, et aliter praedicaverunt.

1) Epistola LXXIV. p. 211. Opp. Unde est ista traditio? Utrumne de Domi-
nica et Evangelica auctoritate descendens, an de Apostolorum mandatis et Epistolis
veniens? Ea enim facienda esse, quae scripta sunt, Deus testatur, et proponit ad
Iesum Nave, dicens: Non recedet liber legis huius ex ore tuo, sed meditaberis in eo die
ac nocte, ut observes facere omnia, quae scripta sunt in eo. Item Dominus Apostolos
suos mittens, mandat baptizari gentes et doceri, ut observent omnia, quaecunque
Ille praecepit. Si ergo aut in Evangelio praecipitur, aut in Apostolorum Epistolis aut
Actibus continetur, ut a quacunque haeresi venientes non baptizentur, sed tantum
manus illis imponatur in poenitentiam: observetur divina haec et sancta traditio.

2) Tract. XXIII. in Matthaeum cap. 1. Opp. Tom. III p. 830. Sicut Salvator
verbo doctrinae suae silentium imposuit Sadducaeis, et falsum dogma, quod apud
illos veritas putabatur, convicit fiducialiter; sic facient et Christi imitatores exemplis
scripturarum, quibus oportet secundum sanam doctrinam omnem vocem obmutescere
Pharaonis.

3) Lib. I. de fide cap. 4. initio: Dissimilem igitur dicunt esse, Nos negamus
imo potius horremus hanc vocem. Sed nolo argumento credas, sancte Imperator