23.
misinterpreted. It is really a tremendous proof of what the
misunderstanding of a few words can do. That even Luther partook of the
delusion, this paragraph gives proof. But that a delusion it is; that
the commission given to the Seventy whom Christ sent out to proclaim and
offer the kingdom of God, and afterwards to the Apostles, refers either
to the power of making rules and ordinances in the Church, or otherwise
to the gifts of miraculous healing, which our Lord at that time
conferred on them; and that 'per figuram causce pro effecto', 'sins'
here mean diseases, seems to me more than probable. At all events, the
text surely does not mean that the salvation of a repentant and
believing Christian depends upon the will of a priest in absolution.
Ib. p. 161.
And again, they are able to absolve and make a human creature free and
loose from all his sins, if in case he repenteth and believeth in
Christ; and on the contrary, they are able to detain all his sina, if
he doth not repent and believeth not in Christ.
In like manner if he sincerely repent and believe, his sins are
forgiven, whether the minister absolve him or not. Now if M + 5 =5, and
5-M = 5, M = O. If he be impenitent and unbelieving, his sins are
detained, no doubt, whether the minister do or do not detain them.
Ib. p. 163.
Adam was created of God in such sort righteous, as that he became of a
righteous an unrighteous person; as Paul himself argueth, and withall
instructeth himself, where he saith, The law is not given for a
righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.
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