_The Confession of Faith:
             Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V
                  At the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530_.
                        by Philip Melanchthon, 1497-1560
                   Translated by F. Bente and  W. H. T. Dau
                                 Published in:
                   _Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books
                         of the Ev. Lutheran Church_.
           (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), pp. 37-95.


        Article XII: Of Repentance.  
         
        Of Repentance they teach that for those who have fallen after Baptism 
        there is remission of sins whenever they are converted  and that 
        the Church ought to impart absolution to those thus returning to 
        repentance. Now, repentance consists properly of these two parts: 
        One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through 
        the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the 
        Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ's sake, 
        sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from 
        terrors. Then good works are bound to follow, which are the fruits
        of repentance.  
         
        They condemn the Anabaptists, who deny that those once justified
        can lose the Holy Ghost. Also those who contend that some may
        attain to such perfection in this life that they cannot sin.  
         
        The Novatians also are condemned, who would not absolve such as had 
        fallen after Baptism, though they returned to repentance.  
         
        They also are rejected who do not teach that remission of sins comes 
        through faith but command us to merit grace through satisfactions of 
        our own.  
         
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       file: /pub/resources/text/wittenberg/concord: augs-012.txt

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