The Augsburg Confession: The confession of faith, which was submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V at the diet of Augsburg in the year 1530 — John Shaqi
The Augsburg Confession: The confession of faith, which was submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V at the diet of Augsburg in the year 1530Melanchthon, Philipp
Religion
The Augsburg Confession: The confession of faith, which was submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V at the diet of Augsburg in the year 1530
Melanchthon, Philipp
Lutheran Church -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
Moreover, it is disputed whether bishops or pastors have the right to
introduce ceremonies in the Church, and to make laws concerning meats,
holy-days and grades, that is, orders of ministers, etc. They that give
this right to the bishops refer to this testimony John 16, 12. 13:
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into
all truth. They also refer to the example of the Apostles, who commanded
to abstain from blood and from things strangled, Acts 15, 29. They refer
to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary
to the Decalog, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they
make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath-day. Great, say
they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the
Ten Commandments!
But concerning this question it is taught on our part (as has been shown
above) that bishops have no power to decree anything against the Gospel.
The Canonical Laws teach the same thing (Dist. IX). Now, it is against
Scripture to establish or require the observance of any traditions, to
the end that by such observance we may make satisfaction for sins, or
merit grace and righteousness. For the glory of Christ's merit suffers
injury when, by such observances, we undertake to merit justification.
But it is manifest that, by such belief, traditions have almost
infinitely multiplied in the Church, the doctrine concerning faith and
the righteousness of faith being meanwhile suppressed. For gradually
more holy-days were made, fasts appointed, new ceremonies and services
in honor of saints instituted, because the authors of such things
thought that by these works they were meriting grace. Thus in times past
the Penitential Canons increased, whereof we still see some traces in
the satisfactions.
Again, the authors of traditions do contrary to the command of God when
they find matters of sin in foods, in days, and like things, and burden
the Church with bondage of the law, as if there ought to be among
Christians, in order to merit justification a service like the
Levitical, the arrangement of which God had committed to the Apostles
and bishops. For thus some of them write; and the Pontiffs in some
measure seem to be misled by the example of the law of Moses. Hence are
such burdens, as that they make it mortal sin, even without offense
to others, to do manual labor on holy-days, a mortal sin to omit the
Canonical Hours, that certain foods defile the conscience that fastings
are works which appease God that sin in a reserved case cannot be
forgiven but by the authority of him who reserved it; whereas the Canons
themselves speak only of the reserving of the ecclesiastical penalty,
and not of the reserving of the guilt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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