rs, and the one which Luther has styled the _articulus stantis
vel cadentis ecclesiae_, the doctrine with which the church must stand
or fall." The Scriptures and also the Reformers, teach that pardon or
justification can be obtained only through the merits of Christ, which
merits must be apprehended by a living faith, which living faith can be
found only in the regenerate or converted soul. Hence, as none but a
regenerate sinner can exercise living faith, no other can be pardoned,
whatever else he may do or possess. Now those who attend confession are
either regenerate, or they are not. If they were regenerated or
converted before they went to confession, they had faith, and were
pardoned before; if they were unregenerate or unconverted, then neither
their confession, nor the priest's absolution, can confer pardon on
them, because they have not a living faith, although they may be
sincere and exercise some sorrow for their sins. On the other hand, if
any amount of seriousness and penitence, short of true conversion or
regeneration, could, through the confessional, or any other rite,
confer pardon of sin; the line of distinction between converted and
unconverted, between mere formalists and true Christians would be
obliterated; we should have pardoned saints and pardoned sinners in the
church, converted and unconverted heirs of the promise, believing and
unbelieving subjects of justification, and the words of the Lord Jesus
would prove a lie, "That, _unless a man be born again, he cannot enter
the kingdom of heaven!_"-Def. Platform, p. 25.

On the subject of this rite, we regret to state, that a more careful
study of the subject, as presented in the above results, will not
permit us to speak as favorably of the practice of the Reformers, as we
did in some of our former publications, twenty years ago, and even
later. The positions above maintained, we think, cannot be successfully
controverted, as our investigations of the original sources has been
sufficiently extensive to dispel all doubt.

Note 1. See Koecher, p. 515.

Note 2. Funk's Kirchenordnungen, pp. 189, 190.

Note 3. Mueller's Symb. B., p. 364.

Note 4. Page 97.

Note 5. Mueller's Symb. B., p. 185.

Note 6. Pleiffer, p. 534. [sic]

Note 7. Vol. iii. pt. 1, p. 125.

Note 8. Vol. i., pp. 199, 206.

Note 9. Vol. iv., p. 781.

Note 10. Lutheran Manual, p. 293.

CHAPTER VII.
DENIAL OF THE DIVINE INSTITUTION AND OBLIGATION OF CHRISTIAN SABBATH.