s either a case of relapse
into Romanism, or, what seems to be the more probable alternative,
Osiander never attained to a clear apprehension of the Lutheran truth
nor ever fully freed himself from the Roman doctrine, especially in its
finer and more veiled form of mysticism.

176. Opposed by Moerlin and Lutherans Generally.

Osiander, as stated, had conceived the fundamental thoughts of his
system long before he reached Koenigsberg. In 1524, when only twenty-six
years of age, he laid down the outlines of his theory in a publication
entitled: "_A Good Instruction (Ein gut Unterricht) and Faithful Advice
from the Holy Divine Scriptures What Attitude to Take in These
Dissensions Concerning Our Holy Faith and Christian Doctrine_, dealing
especially with the questions what is God's Word and what human
doctrine, what Christ and what Antichrist." Here he says: "Whoever
hears, retains, and believes the Word, receives God Himself, for God is
the Word. If, therefore, the Word of God, Christ, our Lord, dwells in us
by faith and we are one with Him, we may say with Paul: 'I live, though
not I, but Christ lives in me,' and then we are justified by faith."
(Gieseler 3, 2, 270.) In the following year, 1525, he wrote in his
_Action of the Honorable Wise Council in Nuernberg with their Preachers
(Handlung eines ehrsamen weisen Rats zu Nuernberg mit ihren
Praedikanten)_: "The one and only righteousness availing before God is
God Himself. But Christ is the Word which we apprehend by faith, and
thus Christ in us, God Himself, is our Righteousness which avails before
God." "The Gospel has two parts; the first, that Christ has satisfied
the justice of God; the other, that He has cleansed us from sin, and
justifies us by dwelling in us (_und uns rechtfertigt, so er in uns
wohnet_)." (271.) The embryonic ideas of these early publications
concerning the image of God and justification were fully developed by
Osiander in his book of 1550, _Whether the Son of God would have had to
be Incarnated (An Filius Dei fuerit Incarnandus), if Sin had Not Entered
the World;_ and especially in his confession of September, 1551,
_Concerning the Only Mediator Jesus Christ (Von dem einigen Mittler Jesu
Christo) and Justification of Faith_ which appeared also in Latin under
the title _De Unico Mediatore_, in October of the same year.

The public conflict began immediately after Osiander had entered upon
his duties at the university. In his inaugural disputatio