the veil of Moses being thus removed from them, in teaching them to live and lead a truly pious life, a controversy arose among some few theologians, concerning the third and last use of the law. The one party taught and held that it is not necessary that the regenerate should learn the new obedience from the law, neither should the law direct their good works, nor should the doctrine of obedience be urged from it, since they are made free by the Son of God, become temples of his Spirit, and are so free that, even as the sun of himself, without any compulsion, performs his regular course, so they also of themselves, through the inspiration and impulse of the Holy Spirit, perform that which God requires of them. In opposition to this, the other party taught, that although genuine believers are truly impelled by the Spirit of God, and consequently, according to the inward man, they do the will of God out of a free spirit yet ever the Holy Spirit uses the written law for doctrine among them; through which even true believers learn to serve God, not according to their own thoughts, but according to his written law and word, which are a certain rule and guide, by which the conduct of life, may be regulated according to the eternal and immutable will of God.

In order to explain and determine this dissension, we believe, teach, and confess unanimously, that, although true believers and those Christians who are really converted to God and justified, are released and liberated from the curse of the law, they should nevertheless exercise themselves daily in the law of the Lord, as it is written, Psalm 1, 2, and 119, 1: Blessed is the man that delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates upon it day and night. For the law is a mirror, in which the will of God and that which is pleasing to him, are properly portrayed; it should, therefore, be continually impressed upon believers, and urged among them diligently and incessantly.

For, although, as the Apostle, 1 Tim. 1, 9, testifies, there is no law given for the righteous, but for the unrighteous; yet this must not be understood simply as if the righteous should live without law; for the law of God is written in their hearts, Heb. 8, 8, and 10, 16, and unto the first man immediately after his creation there was also a law given, according to which he should live. But the true meaning of St. Paul is, that the law cannot burden with its curse those who are reconciled unto God through Christ, and that it dare not fet ter the regenerate with its constraint, for they delight in the law of God, after the inward man, Rom. 7, 22.

And indeed, if the believing and elect children of God were perfectly renovated in this life by the indwelling Spirit, so that they would be

entirely freed from sin in their nature and all its faculties, they would need no law, and consequently no compulsion; but of themselves, and with entire voluntariness, without any instruction, admonition, solicitation, or injunction of the law, they would do that which they are under obligation according to the will of God to do: even as the sun, the moon, and the whole host of heavenly bodies, perform of themselves their regular course unimpeded, without admonition, solicitation, or force, according to the order of God, which he once gave unto them: yes, as the holy angels render an entirely voluntary obedience.

But inasmuch as believers are not perfectly and entirely, completive vel consummative, renovated in this life; although their sins are covered by the perfect obedience of Christ, so that they are not imputed, for their condemnation; and although the mortification of the old Adam and the renovation in the spirit of their minds, are commenced by the Holy Spirit; yet the old Adamic nature ever inheres in their nature and in all its mental and physical powers; concerning which the Apostle, Rom. 7, 18, writes: "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing;" and moreover, in verse 15: "For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." Again, verse 23: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin." Again, Gal. 5, 17: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that would."

ye

Wherefore, in consequence of this lusting of the flesh, the believ ing, the elect, and regenerate children of God, in this life need, not only the daily instruction and admonition, the warning and menaces, but frequently the punishments of the law, in order that they may be encouraged, and may submit to the Spirit of God, as it is written, Psalm 119, 71: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes." And again, 1 Cor. 9, 27: "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Again, Heb. 12, 8: "If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons;" as doctor Luther, in the Church Postil, has more amply and fully explained this in his exposition of the Epistle on the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

But that which the Gospel performs in the new obedience of believers, and that which is the office of the law therein, so far as good works concern believers, must be separately explained.

ence.

For the law declares indeed, that it is the will and the command of God, that we should walk in a new life, but it does not give the power and ability, by which we can begin and accomplish this new obediBut the Holy Spirit, who is given and received, not through the law, but through the preaching of the Gospel, renews the heart of man, Gal. 3, 5, 14. Afterwards the Holy Spirit uses the law for the purpose of teaching the regenerate, and in the Ten Commandments he indicates what is the will of God, and what is wellpleasing to him, Rom. 12, 2. In these good works those should walk, whom God has before prepared, Eph. 2, 10. The Holy Spirit exhorts them to good works, and, if in these they are remiss and negligent, or disinclined in consequence of the flesh, he reproves them for it through the law. In this manner he bears both offices together; he kills and he makes alive; he brings down to the grave, and he brings up again; whose office is not only to console, but also to reprove. As it is written, John 16, 8: "When the Holy Spirit is come, he will reprove the world" (in which the old Adam is intimated) "of sin, and. of righteousness, and of judgment.". But all that is contrary to the law of God is sin. And St. Paul, 2 Tim. 3, 16, asserts: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof," and to reprove is the proper office of the law. Therefore, as often as believers stumble, they are reproved by the Holy Ghost through the law, and again raised up and consoled by this same Spirit through the preaching of the holy Gospel.

But in order to avoid, as much as possible, all misunderstanding,— to preserve and inculcate, with due caution, the distinction between the works of the law and those of the Spirit, it must be remarked with special diligence, that when good works are spoken of, which are conformable with the law of God, (for otherwise they are not good works,) that the word law is synonymous with the immu table will of God, according to which, in their whole course of conduct, men should act.

The difference in works, however, exists, in consequence of the difference in the persons who endeavor to live according to this law or will of God. For as long as a man is unregenerated, and endeav ors to live according to the law, performing its duties because they are commanded, through the fear of punishment or the hope of res ward, that man is still under the jurisdiction of the law, and his works are by St. Paul properly called works of the law; for these works are extorted by the law as from bondmen, who, like Cain, are unwilling worshippers.

But when a person is born anew through the Spirit of God, and is liberated from the law, that is, from the constraint of the law, and impelled by the Spirit of Christ, he lives according to the unchangeable will of God revealed in the law, and does all, so far as he is born anew, through a free and cheerful spirit. And such works are not properly called works of the law, but works and fruits of the Spirit, Gal. 5, 22, or, as St. Paul, Rom. 7, 23, 25, terms it, the law of the mind, and 1 Cor. 9, 21, the law of Christ. For such persons are no more under the law, but under grace, as St. Paul, Rom. 8,2, declares.

Since, however, believers are not perfectly renewed in this life, but the old fallen nature cleaves to them even to their graves, the contest between the Spirit and the flesh also continues. Therefore they "delight in the law of God, after the inward man," Rom. 7, 22; but the law in their members strives against the law of their mind. Thus they are never without law, and yet they are not under, but in the law, living and walking in the law of the Lord, and yet performing nothing through constraint of the law.

But with respect to whatever pertains to the old Adam, who still inheres in them, it is evident that he must be urged, not only by the law, but by chastisements: who nevertheless does all through unwillingness and constraint, no less than the ungodly, who are urged by the denunciations of the law, and kept in obedience, 1 Cor. 9, 27, and Rom. 7, 18, 19.

Consequently, this doctrine of the law is likewise necessary for believers, lest they should depend on their own sanctimoniousness and devotion, and under the pretext of the Spirit of God, institute selfchosen methods of worship, without the word and command of God, as it is written, Deut. 12, 8, 32: "Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."

The doctrine of the law is also necessary to believers in the exercise of good works; for otherwise a person may very easily imagine, that his works and life are entirely pure and perfect. But the law of God describes good works to believers in such a manner, as, in a mirror, to give us an internal perception of their imperfection and impurity during this life; so that we must say with Paul: "I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified," 1 Cor. 4, 4. Thus, where Paul exhorts the regenerate to good works, he expressly holds forth unto them the Ten Commantiments, Rom. 13, 8; and the fact that his good works are imperfect and impure, he perceives from the law, Rom, 7, 7, 14. And David, Psalm 119, 32, says:

But "enter not

"I will run the way of thy commandments." into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified," Psalm 143, 2.

But how and from what reason, the good works of believers, although they are imperfect and impure in this life in consequence of the sin which inheres in the flesh, are nevertheless acceptable and well-pleasing to God, this the law does not teach; which law requires an obedience altogether perfect and pure, if it shall please God. But the Gospel teaches, that our spiritual sacrifice is acceptable to God through faith for Christ's sake, 1 Pet, 2, 5; Heb. 11, 6, and ch. 13, 16, 21. In this manner Christians are not under the law, but under grace, because they are freed from the curse and condemnation of the law through faith in Christ, and because their good works, although still imperfect and impure, are acceptable to God through Christ. Because, moreover, so far as they are born anew according to the inward man, they do from their hearts that which is pleasing to God, not through a constraint imposed by the law, but through the renewal of the Holy Spirit. But nevertheless, they sustain a continual struggle with the old Adamic nature.

For the old fallen nature with its indomitable and obstinate propensity, still constitutes a portion of them, which must be forced into the obedience of Christ, not only by the teaching, the admonition, the impulsion, and denunciations of the law, but frequently by chastisement and affliction, until this sinful flesh is wholly and entirely removed, and they are perfectly renewed in the resurrection; when they will no longer need either the preaching of the law, or its menaces and chastisements, or of the Gospel, which belong to this imperfect life. But as they will behold God face to face, so by virtue of the indwelling Spirit of God, they will do the will of their hea venly Father, freely, without any constraint, and without any impediment, most purely and perfectly, with the greatest pleasure, delighting in it eternally.

Accordingly, we reject and condemn as an error pernicious to Christian discipline and true piety, the doctrine, in which it is as serted, that the law is not to be urged in the manner and to the extent mentioned above, among Christians and true believers, but only among the unbelieving, the impious, and the impenitent.

VII. OF THE HOLY SUPPER OF CHRIST. Although the exposition of this article should not, perhaps, according to the opinion of some, be laid down in this treatise, in which we have undertaken to explain only those articles which were brought