# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1861_S333
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report on the Law. 333

says: Whosoever lets himself be circumcised is bound to keep the whole law. So too, whoever breaks images or keeps the Sabbath (that is, whoever teaches that it is necessary to keep them) must also let himself be circumcised and keep the whole of Moses — which indeed, if one allowed these spirits room, they would in time truly be driven to do, to teach, and to hold. You might say here: Surely you will not say that the first commandment is abolished — one certainly must have a God! Likewise, one certainly must not commit adultery, murder, or steal? Answer: I have spoken of the law of Moses as the law of Moses. For to have a God is not the law of Moses alone, but also a natural law, as St. Paul says, Romans 1:20, that the Gentiles know of the Godhead, that there is a God. This is also proved by the fact that they set up gods and instituted forms of worship — which would have been impossible if they had known or thought nothing of God; rather, God has revealed it to them through his works, etc., Romans 1:19. That the Gentiles have now missed the true God and worshiped idols in God's place — what wonder is that? Did not the Jews also miss it, and worship idols in God's place, even though they had the law of Moses? And do they not still today miss the Lord Christ, even though they have Christ's gospel? So then this too is not the law of Moses alone: Thou shalt not murder, commit adultery, steal, etc., but also the natural law written in everyone's heart, as St. Paul teaches, Romans 2:1. Christ himself too, Matthew 7:12, sums up all the prophets and laws in this natural law: Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. So too does St. Paul, Romans 13:9, where he gathers all the commandments of Moses into love, which also naturally teaches the law of nature: Love thy neighbor as thyself. Otherwise, where it did not stand written naturally in the heart, one would have to teach and preach the law a long time before the conscience would accept it: it must also find and feel it so within itself, otherwise no one's conscience would ever be troubled by it. Although the devil so blinds and possesses hearts that they do not always feel this law. Therefore one must write and preach it, until God works along with it and enlightens them, so that they feel in their hearts what the word says. Now since the law of Moses and the law of nature are one and the same thing, the law remains, and is not abolished outwardly, except spiritually through faith; which is nothing other than fulfilling the law, Romans 3:28. Therefore image-worship and the Sabbath, and everything that Moses set beyond and above the natural law — since it does not have the natural law behind it — is free, released, and done away with, and was given to the Jewish people alone, in particular: not otherwise than when an emperor or king makes special laws and ordinances in his own land, such as the Sachsenspiegel in Saxony, and yet the common natural laws nevertheless run and remain throughout all lands — such as honoring parents, not murdering, not committing adultery, serving God, etc. Therefore let Moses be the Sachsenspiegel of the Jews, and let us