# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1878_S42
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 42 —

penetrate to him; but never so far that he is convinced in his soul of the righteousness of the matter; without which assurance, however, the conscience does not permit one to undertake the thing, where the man, to speak of the matter at its mildest, must fear that he might do against God's will. Therefore in such a condition there is of course no other means than to choose the safest part, and so to refrain from this doubtful matter; for in that he is certain that he does not sin, even if it were otherwise no forbidden thing." (Opinion of the year 1681, II, 540 ff.)

To this it was remarked: Whoever wants to enter marriage with his sister-in-law must concede that it does not stand in Scripture that he may do it. But now most people infer from Leviticus 18:18 that it is possible that they may do it; and on that they actually enter the marriage with a deceased wife's sister (*Schwagerehe*). In so doing they do nothing other than pay homage to Jesuitical probabilism, which consists in this, that the Jesuits teach: if it is probable to you that you are not sinning, then you are without guilt. —

Nor does it help anyone to appeal to the old preachers, who were also pious and did not punish the *Schwagerehe*. For to rely on the standing of persons in this way is not Lutheran but thoroughly papistic. For a Christian it must be as firm as an article of faith: what I now want to do is pleasing to God. So he must also feel with regard to the *Schwagerehe*. Many a man thinks: oh, I feel no temptation at all on this account. But either his conscience has not yet awakened at all, or the devil saves up the temptation about it for him until the hour of death. This everyone should write into his soul, that if one does something without a good conscience, one is in danger that faith will then be extinguished by the evil conscience that follows. Preachers should therefore remind Christians of the danger to the soul into which they put themselves when they do anything at all of which they are not certain that it is right, and especially when they enter into the *Schwagerehe* while the conscience cries in them: after all, you are not acting rightly in the end. — It was also recalled that formerly in Saxony and Württemberg the marriage laws were publicly read twice a year, and that it might perhaps be advisable here also to have a schedule read in church from time to time that contains the result of the Mosaic marriage prohibitions. Preachers surely sin against their people if they keep these silent from them.

Thesis 5 was thereupon adopted.

Thesis 6.

The question whether all unions already entered into contrary to Leviticus 18 and 20 must necessarily be dissolved again is a practical

[“18:18”: the first figure of the verse number is a damaged 1 — only a dot printed in the gap before the 8; read 18.]