The Apology of the Augsburg ConfessionMelanchthon, Philipp
Religion
The Apology of the Augsburg Confession
Melanchthon, Philipp
Lutheran Church -- Catechisms
But although our case has already been stated, yet, because the
adversaries foolishly pervert many passages of Scripture to the
defense of their errors, we shall add a few things on this topic. In
the _Confutation_ they have said many things concerning "sacrifice,"
although in our Confession we purposely avoided this term on account
of its ambiguity. We have set forth what those persons whose abuses
we condemn now understand as a sacrifice. Now, in order to explain
the passages of Scripture that have been wickedly perverted, it is
necessary in the beginning to set forth what a sacrifice is. Already
for an entire period of ten years the adversaries have published
almost infinite volumes concerning sacrifice, and yet not one of them
thus far has given a definition of sacrifice. They only seize upon
the name "sacrifices" either from the Scriptures or the Fathers [and
where they find it in the Concordances of the Bible apply it here,
whether it fits or not]. Afterward they append their own dreams, as
though indeed a sacrifice signifies whatever pleases them.
Part 30
_What a Sacrifice Is, and What Are the Species of Sacrifice._
[Now, lest we plunge blindly into this business, we must indicate, in
the first place, a distinction as to what is, and what is not, a
sacrifice. To know this is expedient and good for all Christians.]
Socrates, in the Phaedrus of Plato, says that he is especially fond
of divisions, because without these nothing can either be explained
or understood in speaking, and if he discovers any one skilful in
making divisions, he says that he attends and follows his footsteps
as those of a god. And he instructs the one dividing to separate the
members in their very joints, lest, like an unskilful cook, he break
to pieces some member. But the adversaries wonderfully despise these
precepts, and, according to Plato, are truly _kakoi mageiroi_ (poor
butchers), since they break the members of "sacrifice," as can be
understood when we have enumerated the species of sacrifice.
Theologians are rightly accustomed to distinguish between a Sacrament
and a sacrifice. Therefore let the genus comprehending both of these
be either a ceremony or a sacred work. A Sacrament is a ceremony or
work in which God presents to us that which the promise annexed to
the ceremony offers; as Baptism is a work, not which we offer to God
but in which God baptizes us, i.e., a minister in the place of God;
and God here offers and presents the remission of sins, etc.,
according to the promise, Mark 16, 16: He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. A sacrifice, on the contrary, is a ceremony
or work which we render God in order to afford Him honor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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