# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1856_S291
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Distinction of Estates in the Church.                    291

—cure. Therefore the Lutheran Church rightly sings: "How blessed is now
this city that is ruled by God himself, the house that has a master whom
God guides in his ways." For through this estate the whole Word of God
is to pass over into daily life; for the citizens of Jerusalem, together with
their households, are to serve the Lord, and not idols. Therefore we must
not think that the household estate, founded by God, has little or no
part in the government of the Church within it. It has the strong task
of securing recognition for the Word of God within its own sphere of
calling, for there we hear: the wife shall ask her husband; the fathers
shall teach their children (Ps. 74), they shall bring them up in the discipline
and admonition of the Lord, Eph. 6. The men shall pray and lift
up holy hands without wrath and doubting. They shall convert the sinner,
etc., Jas. 5:19–20. In the tents of the righteous there shall be singing,
etc., Ps. 118. They have the charge to admonish the unruly, etc., 1 Thess.
5:14. Indeed we hear that even in this estate the first and second admonition
of a sinner is to proceed, Matt. 18, and that it is drawn in again at
the third and final stage of admonition, where Christ says: "Tell it unto
the church." Thus even ecclesiastical judges" (in what sense?) "must
come from the household estate. From this estate the apostles let seven
men be chosen" (and not also for preachers?) "as almoners, men who
have sound judgment and wisdom. And the household estate chooses
them, the apostles install them. We surely no longer ask whether the
Christian-believing household estate is such a member of the visible
Church as belongs also to the government of the Church? For God has
drawn it in to this before we so asked. The gift that is given by God to
its calling is also to be used for the common good. In the Christian constitution
of the Church it is therefore only a matter of drawing it in, as a
member, in the way God wills it in his Word. But this has hitherto been
a misfortune, that the new doctrine of the Church sought something
else; it sought not the Christian estate, but rather to bring the number
of heads into honor, and the will of the crowd, instead of obedience to
God's Word" (a shameless imputation!) ... "Here we come to the third
member of the Church, whose task is likewise to plant and preserve
obedience to the holy Word of God. It is the estate of the magistracy,
namely when it (!) has entered into the fellowship of faith of the Church,
with public confession, and has kissed the Son of God in faith, Ps. 2. The
Smalcald Articles call this same estate (whom? — the estate? — God
forbid! then whom?) "distinguished members of the Church." It follows
accordingly" (from what?), "that then the magistracy and judges on
earth enter into the Church not merely with their person, but also with
their God-ordained estate, just as a father of a household does with his
estate; and that now the persons of estate from the magistracy, with
their God-given authority and gift of gov-