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LUTHERAN CHURCH 731 Hora Germanicce, and Catharine Winkworth in the two series of Lyra Germanica, repub- lished in New York (1858). Of his commen- taries, we have English translations of those on Genesis, the Epistle to the Galatians, and the lirst Epistle of St. Peter. But generally speaking the style of Luther, especially the German, is so thoroughly original, idiomatic, hearty, and characteristic, that it baffles the skill of the most experienced translators. LUTHERAN CHURCH. The Lutheran church has been known by various titles. Her own earliest preference was for the name "Evan- gelical " (1525), and many of her most devoted sons have insisted on giving her this name without any addition. At the diet of Spire (1529) her confessors received the name of Protestants, which continued to be the diplo- matic style of the church till the peace of "West- phalia (1648), and which to a large extent in European usage is still confined to the Luther- ans. In Poland and Austria her official title is 44 Church of the Augsburg Confession." The name Lutheran was first used by Eck when he published the bull against Luther, and was ap- plied to all who took part against the pope. Luther strongly disapproved of the name, and the church, while tolerating it to avoid the confusion which would arise if it was laid aside, does so with a protest against the misap- prehension the name might create, that she con- cedes to Luther any other position than that of a witness for the truth. As distinct on the one side from the Roman Catholic church, and on the other from the various other Protestant bodies, she is known as the "Evangelical Lu- theran Church." I. DOCTEINE. In the three general creeds and in the unaltered Augsburg Confession (1530) the Lutheran church has a bond of her distinctive life throughout the en- tire world. As a further development of her doctrines, the larger part of the church recog- nizes the confessional character of the " Apolo- gy for the Confession " (1530), the larger and smaller catechisms of Luther (1529), the Smal- cald articles (1537), and the Concordim For- mula (1577), all which were issued together in 1580, with a preface signed by 51 princes and by the official representatives of 35 cities. The whole collection bore the title of the "Book of Concord." The fundamental doc- trine of the Lutheran church is that we are justified before God, not through any merit of our own, but by his tender mercy, through faith in his Son. The depravity of man is total in its extent, and his will has no positive ability in the work of salvation, but has the negative ability of ceasing its resistance under the general influence of the Spirit in the Word and sacraments. Jesus Christ offered a proper vicarious and propitiatory sacrifice. Faith in Christ presupposes a true penitence. The re- newed man co-works with the Spirit of God. Sanctification is progressive, and never reaches absolute perfection in this life. The Holy Spirit works through the Word and the sacra- ments, which alone, in the proper sense, are means of grace. Both the Word and the sacraments bring a positive grace which is offered to all who receive them outwardly, and which is actually imparted to all who have faith to embrace it. Luther, in consequence of his rigid training in the Augustinian theolo- gy, had maintained at an earlier period a par- ticular election, a view which he gradually abandoned. The views of Arminius himself in regard to the five points were formed under Lutheran influences, and do not differ essen- tially from those of the Lutheran church ; but on many points in the developed system now known as Arminianism, the Lutheran church has no affinity whatever with it, and on these points would sympathize far more with Calvin- ism. The "Formula of Concord " touches the five points almost purely on their practical sides, and on them arrays itself against Calvinism rather by the negation of the inferences which result logically from that system than by express condemnation of its fundamental theory in its abstract form. In the United States the doc- trinal test has varied in strictness in different synods, from an ex animo subscription to the whole body of symbols, down to the mere declaration, after the somewhat vague formula formerly recommended by the general synod, that " the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God are taught in a manner substantially correct in the doctrinal articles of the Augs- burg Confession." But the tendency has been marked toward a clearer doctrinal position. The general synod in its revised constitution says : " We receive and hold, with the Evan- gelical Lutheran church of our fathers, the Word of God, as contained in the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and the Augsburg Confession as a correct ex- hibition of the fundamental doctrines of the Divine Word, and of the faith of our church founded upon that Word." The general coun- cil in its "Fundamental Principles" declares: " We accept and acknowledge the doctrines of the unaltered Augsburg Confession, in jts origi- nal sense, as throughout in conformity with the pure truth of which God's Word is the only rule. . . . The ' Apology of the Augsburg Confession,' the 'Smalcald Articles,' the cate- chisms of Luther, and the 'Formula of Con- cord ' . . . are, with the unaltered Augsburg Confession, in the perfect harmony of one and the same Scriptural faith." The second of these forms gives the position of the great ma- jority of Lutherans in the United States. The Evangelical Lutheran church regards the Word of God, the canonical Scriptures, as the abso- lute and only law of faith and of life. What- ever is undefined by its letter or its spirit is the subject of Christian liberty, and pertains, not to the sphere of conscience, but to that of order ; no power may enjoin upon the church as necessary what God has forbidden or has passed by in silence, as none may forbid her V