# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1890_S12
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

12 Proceedings of the thirteenth convention

is found that says that spiritual goods too are subject to government, that they too are not only God's but also the emperor's. Whoever, then, wants to assign government this right and this duty will have to begin with the 1st chapter of the 1st Book of Moses and search through to Revelation, and when he has found a passage, he is to say so. But if he has found none, if he has found only such as speak of its authority over temporal things, then he is to acknowledge that government is not government over spiritual, heavenly goods. For if anyone wants to maintain the opposite, so that it is to bind consciences, he must bring God's Word. And if on the other hand we do find passages enough in which the administration of temporal things is assigned to government, then we recognize from God's Word that the power of government does extend over these temporal things, and that we resist God's ordinance if we resist government in this its administration, and that the sword of government rightly punishes us, which is given it for the purpose of punishing evildoers and of exercising vengeance on those who have offended against what it can demand in God's name.

Now it is works, as we hear in Rom. 13:3, with which government has to do. Works, of course, are of many kinds. Even when we pray, that is a work. When we bring our gifts for the Negro Mission (*Negermission*), that is a work. But what kind of work is that? Is that a work that can be subject to government? No. If government is to be able to judge, then judgment must not only be assigned to it but also be possible for it. In government we have a "human ordinance," that is, a creation for human affairs; and government is therefore to be able to judge and decide in the things that are subject to it. Then the question is, what can government judge? Can Emperor Nero judge whether what Paul writes is rightly and well written, whether what St. Peter prays is prayed in a manner pleasing to God? Can any government at all, insofar as it is a government, a human ordinance which we must recognize for conscience' sake, judge spiritual, heavenly things? Our Confession says to this: No. It says (Müller, p. 91): "For God the Lord wills that gross sins be restrained by outward discipline, and to maintain this he gives law, ordains government, gives learned and wise people who serve in the government. And so to lead an outwardly honorable life and conduct reason is able to some extent from its own powers, although it is often hindered in this by innate weakness and by the devil's cunning." So in these external, earthly things natural men have to some extent knowledge, a right judgment and the will that corresponds to this judgment. Government can, by natural reason, recognize these things, so that