PART II. THE DOCTRINE OF THE Evangelical Lutheran Church. CONTAINING The Augsburg Confeflion WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES & REMARKS. "Prove all things: hold fast that which is good." PAUL-1 Thess. v. 21. THE DOCTRINE, &c. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 1. THE Lutheran tenets must not be taken from the works of Luther, written before the year 1530; for before that time he held several doctrines, which he afterwards rejected. He had been an Augustine monk, and had imbibed principles laid down in the works of Augustinus; and as a violent papist, he was tenacious of many doctrines and customs which he afterwards renounced. "I entreat you," says he, “in an address written near the close of his life;"I entreat you to read my writings with cool consideration, and even with much pity. I wish you to know, that when I began the affair of indulgences, I was a monk and a most mad papist. So intoxicated was I, and immersed in papal dogmas, that I would have been ready to assist in murdering any person, who should have uttered a syllable against the pope; and I was always earnest in defending doctrines, which 1 professed. I went seriously to work as one who had a horrible dread of the day of judgment, and who, from his inmost soul, was anxious for salvation. You will find, therefore, in my earlier writings, many things, of which I do not now approve. This, may be called inconsistency by my slanderers, but you, my pious reader, will have the kindness to make some allowance on account of the times and my own inexperience. I stood absolutely alone at first, and certainly was very unfit to undertake matters of such vast importance. It was by accident, and not wils lingly, nor by design, that I fell into those vi, olent disputes. God is my witness." The Lutheran doctrines must therefore be taken only from the latter writings of Luther.-. Their symbolical books are, "The Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the confession, the short and larger Catechism, and the Smalkalden articles. See Luther's works and Cyclopedia, art. Luther. 2. Luther was very much opposed to his followers being called Lutheran, and so were the supporters of his cause. In an address, of the elector of Saxony and others, to the emperor, we find the following words: "The doctrines of Luther we only receive as far as they agree with the word of God. On this word we ground ourselves, and not on the person or doctrines of a man, let him be Luther or any other person; because all men may err. We will therefore be judged only by the word of God." The name of Lub theran was given to them by their opponents; the name by which they desired to be denominated is, "The Evangelical Church." 3. The great and leading principle of the Lutheran church, says Mosheim (Eccl. hist. vol. 4) is, that the holy scriptures are the only source, from whence we are to draw our religious sentiments, whether they relate to faith or practice. There are, indeed, several formularies adopted by the church, which contain the principal points of its doctrine: but the books, containing these formularies, have no authority beyond what they derive from the scriptures, whose sense and meaning they are designed to convey; nor are the Lutheran doctors permitted to interpret or explain these books, so as to draw from thence any propositions, that are inconsistent with the express declarations of God. 4. One of the fundamental maxims of this church, says the same author, is, that christians are accountable to God alone for their religious principles, and that no indi vidual could be justly punished by magistrates for his erroneous principles, as long as he conducted himself like a virtuous and obedient subject, and made no attempt to disturb the peace and order of civil society. 5. The Augsburg confession contains twenty-eight chapters or articles. Some of them however only point out the errors and abuses, that occasioned their separation from the church of Rome. Presuming, that such articles would be of little use to christians of our days, we have contented ourselves with translating and making remarks on such only |