The Apology of the Augsburg ConfessionMelanchthon, Philipp
Religion
The Apology of the Augsburg Confession
Melanchthon, Philipp
Lutheran Church -- Catechisms
If we call Sacraments rites which have the command of God and to
which the promise of grace has been added, it is easy to decide what
are properly Sacraments. For rites instituted by men will not in
this way be Sacraments properly so called. For it does not belong to
human authority to promise grace. Therefore signs instituted without
God's command are not sure signs of grace, even though they perhaps
instruct the rude [children or the uncultivated], or admonish as to
something [as a painted cross]. Therefore Baptism, the Lord's Supper,
and Absolution, which is the Sacrament of Repentance, are truly
Sacraments. For these rites have God's command and the promise of
grace, which is peculiar to the New Testament. For when we are
baptized, when we eat the Lord's body, when we are absolved, our
hearts must be firmly assured that God truly forgives us for Christ's
sake. And God, at the same time, by the Word and by the rite, moves
hearts to believe and conceive faith, just as Paul says, Rom. 10, 17:
Faith cometh by hearing. But just as the Word enters the ear in
order to strike our heart, so the rite itself strikes the eye, in
order to move the heart. The effect of the Word and of the rite is
the same, as it has been well said by Augustine that a Sacrament is a
visible word, because the rite is received by the eyes, and is, as it
were, a picture of the Word, signifying the same thing as the Word.
Therefore the effect of both is the same.
Confirmation and Extreme Unction are rites received from the Fathers
which not even the Church requires as necessary to salvation, they do
not have God's command. Therefore it is not useless to distinguish
these rites from the former, which have God's express command and a
clear promise of grace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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