Soon after Easter (April 12), 1528 (Part 7)

The Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors in Electoral Saxony is published and distributed. Today’s Quotation comprises the central part of the fifteenth section of the Instructions, concerning daily worship in the congregations.

Quotation:

[continued from the previous post] On festival days there should be preaching in the morning [1] and at vespers, on the gospel in the morning. Because the servants and young people come to church in the afternoon, we think it good that the Ten Commandments, the Articles of the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer should be preached on Sunday afternoons with constant repetition and exposition. The Ten Commandments should be used, because they exhort people to fear God, then the Lord’s Prayer so that people know what to pray. After these, the articles of the Creed are to be preached and the people diligently shown the three main articles contained in the Creed: creation, salvation, and sanctification. We think it useful to teach about creation in such a way that people know that God still creates, nourishes us daily, gives us growth, etc. This should encourage people to believe that we should ask God for food, life, health, and such bodily needs. Then the people are to be taught about redemption, how our sins are forgiven through Christ. This includes all the articles on Christ, how he was born, died, rose, etc. The third article, sanctification, deals with the work of the Holy Spirit. The people are to be admonished to ask God to rule and protect us through his Holy Spirit; and are to be shown how weak we are, and how dreadfully we fail, if God does not draw us to himself and keep us by His Holy Spirit.

When on Sundays the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Creed are preached one after the other, one should also diligently preach about marriage and the sacraments of baptism and the altar. The Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the articles of the Creed are to be spoken word for word for the sake of the children and other simple, uneducated people.

The preachers should also refrain from all abusive language and, without becoming personal, condemn the vices of which they are personally aware, [2] and not preach about those who do not hear them, such as the pope, the bishops, or the like, except where it is necessary to warn the people and give them examples. For those have not yet overcome the pope who let themselves imagine that they have done so.

On the festival days such as Christmas Day, Circumcision, [3] Epiphany, Easter, Ascension Day, Pentecost, or others, the pastor may also preach in the afternoon [4] on the festival, if that has been the custom of the congregation. As stated above, the feasts of Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost are to be observed. As also mentioned above, we should observe the solemn days of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday, on which portions of the Passion are preached. [to be continued in the next post]

Notes

[1] I.e., at matins.

[2] I.e., of those in the congregation who hear the preaching.

[3] January 1. [Luke 2:21]

[4] I.e., at vespers.