The definition of repentance.
The definition of repentance.
§ 145. From the things stated thus far we collect the following definition: True and salutary repentance is the kind of turning to God by which the sinner is moved inwardly by the grace of the Holy Spirit and by the ministry of the Word to acknowledge his sins from the Law, to grieve earnestly because of the wrath of God against them, and in turn to lift himself up by faith in Christ, which has been conceived from the Gospel. Because of Him, he considers it certain that his sins are forgiven him, and this faith is followed by his intent and zeal for a better life and by good works as fruits pleasing to God and worthy of repentance.
Convert us, O God, that we may be converted to You. Bind up the wounds of our souls that we may be healed. Amen.
1 in quarto modo proprium. Philosophers and logicians distinguished four ways in which something could belong properly to, or be the property of, a species. First, it could be the property only of the individuals of the species but not of all of them. Second, it could be the property of all the individuals of the species but not only of them. Third, it could be the property only of the individuals of a species and of all of them, but not always. Fourth, it could be the property only of the individuals of a species, of all of them, and always. This fourth mode is the strongest way that something can be a property. Here Gerhard means that only sin offends God, that all sin offends God, and that sin always offends God. (See Micraelius, Lexicon Philosophicum, s.v. “Proprius,” 1153–54.)
2 See WA DB 8:421.
3 Homer, Iliad 18:23 (LCL 171 [1999], pp. 288–89).
4 WA DB 11/1:295.
5 For the meaning of the συντήρησις in scholastic thought, see Deferrari, Lexicon of St. Thomas Aquinas, s.v. “synderesis.”
6 Cf. Commentarius in Micham prophetam, ed. Veit Dietrich (1542) (E ex 26:436).
7 A formal cause gives being to an effect by forming a material. See also above, the definition of “form,” p. 48 n. 1; and the definition of “impulsive cause,” p. 36 n. 4.
8 That is, as the one effecting it.
9 Read passione sensitivae partis instead of passione sensitiva partis.
10 Lectures on Galatians (1535), WA 40/1:527 (cf. AE 26:343).
11 Bellarmine, “De Poenitentia,” bk. 2., ch. 4, in Disputationum, vol. 3 (Ingolstadt: Sartorius, 1601), cols. 1268–69, quoted Luther, Sermo de poenitentia (1518), WA 1:320.41–321.6, and a few other texts.
12 Sermo de poenitentia (1518), WA 1:321.12–15, 321.27–34.
13 An argument from nondistributed to distributed is a fallacious argument that moves from what is unspecified to what is specified. It starts from a premise of something that holds true for part of a set, and then concludes that this same thing holds true for the entire set. (See Micraelius, Lexicon philosophicum, s.v. “Enunciatio.”)
14 Ap V (III) 156–64 (277–85) (Concordia, 124–26).
1 Ein Brief an die zu Frankfurt am Main (1532), WA 30/3:567–68. Luther here gives an archaic spelling of the noun Urgicht (“confession”) and the verb gichten (“to confess”).
2 Von Herrn Lenhard Keiser in Baiern, um des Euangelii willen verbrannt (1527), WA 23:455.34.
3 The church orders prepared by Martin Chemnitz (1522–86) and Jacob Andreae (1528–90), as well as by Gerhard, placed the confession and public absolution after the sermon and before the general prayer. See Chemnitz and Andreae, Church Order, Chemnitz’s Works 9 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2015), 84–87; Johann Gerhard, Ordnung Wie es in deß Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Johann Casimiri. . . Fürstenthumb und Landen,. . . gehalten werden solle (Coburgk: Forckel, 1626), 15–17.
4 πρὸς ἕν. The term was used by Aristotle when speaking about an “imperfect genus” (called “analogous genus” [genus analogum] by the Scholastics), a category of things in which a quality could not be predicated equally about all members of the category; the quality would belong more to an individual or to part of the category than to another individual or part. Here it means that, according to Beza, even if Scripture attributes forgiveness of sins to absolution, it really is not worked by this but by God, the “efficient cause,” apart from means.
5 AC XI 1 (cf. Concordia, 35–36).
6 SA III VIII 1 (cf. Concordia, 280).
7 Ein Brief an die zu Frankfurt am Main (1532), WA 30/3:565–66 (cf. 565–71).
8 Aside from the first reference, the remainder of this string of references to Luther’s writings does not deal with confession and absolution.
9 Volume 6 of the Jena German edition is intended: Ein Brief an die zu Frankfurt am Main (1532), WA 30/3:569–70.
10 Ein Brief an die zu Frankfurt am Main (1532), WA 30/3:566–67.
11 I.e., members of the clergy (such as priests and monastics).
12 Read confessionem instead of remissionem.
13 Read ministerium with Cotta instead of mysterium.
14 Von der Beichte, ob die der Papst Macht habe zu gebieten (1521), WA 8:154–55.
15 Chemnitz’s Works 2:599–600.
16 Lectures on Galatians (1535), WA 40/1:264–65 (cf. AE 26:154).
1 AC XXIV 21 (cf. Concordia, 48).
2 Exhortation to All Clergy (1530), WA 30/2:288–89 (cf. AE 34:19–20).
3 Exhortation to All Clergy (1530), WA 30/2:291–92 (cf. AE 34:21–22).
4 Chemnitz’s Works 2:635.
5 Read vero with Cotta and Jena edition instead of vere.
6 That is, commutative justice, which requires exact repayment. (See Thomas Aquinas, ST, 2.2., q. 61, art. 2.)
7 Chemnitz’s Works 2:637–38.
8 Verantwortung der aufgelegten Aufruhr von Herzog Georg (1533), WA 38:105.
9 Chemnitz’s Works 2:635.
10 Volume 1 of the Latin Jena edition of Luther’s writings contains his works written between 1517 and 1520. Volume 1 of the German Jena edition contains his works written between 1517 and 1522. See Kurt Aland, ed., Hilfsbuch zum Lutherstudium, 4th ed. (Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 1996), 572–73, 585–86.
11 aureorum. Likely Gerhard has the German Gulden or Venetian ducat in mind.
12 Resolutiones Lutherianae super propositionibus suis Lipsiae disputatis (1519), WA 2:408.34–36.
13 Sermo de poenitentia (1518), WA 1:322.11–12.
14 Ninety-Five Theses (1517), WA 1:233 (cf. AE 31:25).