Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — März 1859, Seite 86

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86	J. Ch. Köcher's Beweis, daß die evangelisch⸗lutherische Religion ꝛc.

nung auf allerlei Art befestigten, so muß man uns doch die Thorheit nicht aufbürden, als ob wir dafür hielten, daß das Fleisch von Christo, als ein sündliches, entfernet sein müsse; sintemal wir wissen, daß dasselbe zur Rechten des Vaters im Himmel sitze, und bekennen, daß es einmal von dannen auf dem Thron der väterlichen Klarheit kommen werde": 1) „Nun erkläret der Engel deutlich die Ordnung und Weise eines so großen Geheimnisses, indem er saget: das Heilige, das von dir geboren wird, wird Gottes Sohn genennet werden, welches er daher beweiset, weil der Sohn Gottes hernieder kommen ist. Da nun dieser des Menschen Sohn in seine Selbstständigkeit aufgenommen hat, so hat er folglich denselben zum Sohn Gottes gemacht; weil der Sohn Gottes sich mit ihm verbunden und vereiniget hat. Solchergestalt hat der Sohn des Menschen, indem er vermöge der Geburt dem Sohn Gottes beigesellet ist, durch diese Vereinigung dasjenige gewonnen und mitgetheilt bekommen, was er nach seiner eigenen Natur nicht besitzen konnte. Und so ist, nach dem Wort des Engels, welches die Ketzer leugnen, zwischen dem Sohn Gottes und des Menschen ein Unterschied entstanden, doch mit Beibehaltung ihrer Vereinigung; und das nöthiget dieselben, daß sie Christum des Menschen Sohn, den Menschen, auch als Gottes Sohn ansehen, und den Menschen für Gottes Sohn, das ist für das Wort, für Gott halten, und also vermöge der Wahrheit der Schrift, die eben dieses bezeuget, erkennen müssen, daß Christus IEsus der HErr aus beiden, daß ich so rede, zusammen gefüget und entstanden, und, in der Gemeinschaft und gegenseitigen Verbindung der beiden Substanzen, vereinigter Gott und Mensch sei;“

im dritten Jahrhundert Cyprianus 2): „JEsus Christus ist, von einer Wolken bedecket, gen Himmel gefahren, daß er den Menschen, welchen er angenommen, welchen er von der Gewalt des Todes errettet hat, dem Vater als einen Ueberwinder darstellen möchte, und wird bald vom Himmel wiederkommen zur Strafe des Teufels, zur Beurtheilung des menschlichen Geschlechts, mit der Macht und Gewalt eines Richters;“

1) in libro de Trinitate pag. 635. Opp. Nunc particulatim exponens tam magni sacramenti ordinem atque rationem, evidenter expressit, ut diceret, et quod ex te nascetur sanctum, vocabitur filius Dei: probans quoniam filius Dei descendit. Qui dum filium hominis in se suscepit, consequenter illum filium Dei fecit, quoniam illum filius sibi Dei sociavit et iunxit. Ut, dum filius hominis adhaeret in nativitatem filio Dei, ipsa permixtione foeneratum et mutuatum teneret, quod ex natura propria possidere non posset. Ac sic facta est angeli voce, quod nolunt haeretici, inter filium Dei hominisque, cum sua tamen sociatione, distinctio; urgendo illos, uti Christum hominis filium, hominem intelligant quoque Dei filium, et hominem Dei filium, id est, verbum (sicut scriptum est) Deum accipiant: atque ideo Christum Iesum dominum ex utroque connexum, (ut ita dixerim) ex utroque contextum atque concretum et in eadem utriusque substantiae concordia mutui ad invicem foederis confibulatione sociatum, hominem et Deum, scripturae hoc ipsum dicentis veritate, cognoscant.

2) de Idolorum vanitate in fine: Tunc in coelum circumfusa nube sublatus est; ut hominem, quem dilexit, quem induit, quem a morte protexit, ad patrem victor imponeret, iam venturus e coelo ad poenam diaboli, et ad censuram generis humani, ultoris vigore et judicis potestate.

86	J. Ch. Koecher's Proof that the Evangelical Lutheran Religion, etc.

-ion by all manner of arguments, still no one should charge us with the folly of holding that the flesh of Christ, as though sinful, had to be done away with; since we know that it sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and confess that it will one day come from there on the throne of the Father's glory": 1) "Now the angel clearly declares the order and manner of so great a mystery, when he says: that Holy One who is born of you shall be called the Son of God — which he thereby proves, because the Son of God has come down. Since, then, this Son of Man has been taken up into his [the Son of God's] own subsistence, he has accordingly made the same one the Son of God; because the Son of God has joined and united himself with him. In this way the Son of Man, inasmuch as by birth he is joined to the Son of God, has through this union gained and received that which by his own nature he could not possess. And so, according to the word of the angel — which the heretics deny — a distinction has arisen between the Son of God and the Son of Man, yet with the preservation of their union; and this compels them to regard Christ, the Son of Man, the man, also as the Son of God, and to hold the man to be the Son of God, that is, to be the Word, to be God; and thus, by virtue of the truth of Scripture, which testifies to this very thing, they must acknowledge that Christ Jesus the Lord, composed and arisen out of both — if I may put it so — is, in the fellowship and mutual union of the two substances, God and man united;"

in the third century, Cyprian 2): "Jesus Christ, covered by a cloud, ascended into heaven, that he might present to the Father, as a conqueror, the man whom he had assumed, whom he had rescued from the power of death; and he will soon come again from heaven to punish the devil and to judge the human race, with the power and authority of a judge;"

1) in libro de Trinitate pag. 635. Opp. [Now setting forth point by point the order and reason of so great a sacrament, he clearly expressed it, so as to say, and that which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God: proving that the Son of God has come down. Since the Son of God, in taking to himself the son of man, consequently made him the Son of God, because the Son of God joined and united him to himself. So that, while the son of man clings to the birth of the Son of God, he might hold, by that very intermingling, what was lent and borrowed, which by his own nature he could not possess. And thus, by the voice of the angel — which the heretics do not want — a distinction has come about between the Son of God and the son of man, yet with their association preserved; pressing upon them that they should understand Christ, the son of man, the man, also as the Son of God, and should accept the man, the Son of God, that is, the Word (as it is written), as God: and therefore they should acknowledge that Christ Jesus the Lord, joined from both — if I may so express it — woven and compacted from both, and, in the harmony of both substances into one, bound together by the mutual bond of a shared covenant, man and God, by the truth of Scripture which itself declares this.]

2) de Idolorum vanitate in fine: [Then, wrapped in a surrounding cloud, he was taken up into heaven; that as a victor he might present to the Father the man whom he loved, whom he had put on, whom he had protected from death, being now about to come from heaven to punish the devil and to judge the human race, with the force of an avenger and the power of a judge.]