# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1861_S376
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

376 The Axioms.

...your neighbor wherever you can. For that same lazy rascal who will not budge, and whose fists refuse to work, whose feet will not go where they should, whose eyes will not look chastely, for him you may well take stone tablets and beat the donkey with them so that he must go on. Therefore, where you attack me, in a matter where it is right to do so, one should say to Moses: I will gladly hear and obey you there — namely, as to my fist and my life apart from the faith and righteousness of my conscience before God; there you may rule like a taskmaster over the servants in the house, and bid me be obedient, chaste, patient, to do good to my neighbor, to help the poor, to praise and glorify God, and besides that let myself be reviled and slandered for his Word's sake, and suffer the world to heap every plague upon me — with all that I am well content, and will indeed do more than I could accomplish according to the outward man. For the spirit is willing, says Christ, and more than willing, even though the flesh is weak... But if you want to reach further, to where you have no business coming — into my heart and faith — there I will neither hear nor see you: for there I have another great, unspeakable treasure, which is called Christ with his baptism and Gospel. In sum, as far as the outward man is concerned, you cannot lay on and drive him too much; but upon the conscience you must lay nothing at all; for wherever the Spirit is that brings us Christ, it is above all laws, as St. Paul says, 1 Timothy 1:9: To the righteous no law is given — and yet he does far more than he could ever fulfill according to the flesh. For according to that same flesh we are nothing but sinners, and as far as our own person is concerned we would indeed have to remain condemned under the Law; but for Christ's sake and for the sake of baptism we soar high above all laws. So then Moses, apart from Christ, is to carry on his office, driving those who are not Christians, or in any case the old man. For he does not thereby make Christians godly or righteous; but this he does indeed accomplish: he shows them what their office is, so that they may gladly do it according to the Spirit — even though the flesh does not want to follow so readily, nor can it follow the Spirit, so that they still need admonition and restraint for it; yet all the while the conscience remains free, so that the Law has no right to accuse or condemn them before God. Therefore such teaching and admonition must also be allowed to continue in Christendom, just as the apostles also did, so that each person is admonished and reminded of what he ought to do in his own calling." (Luther's Works, Erlangen Edition XIII, 39-41; Walch's Edition XI, 1692-1694.)

(Submitted by Prof. Cramer.)

The Axioms.

The dear readers of "Lehre und Wehre" will certainly feel heartfelt gratitude toward that pastoral conference which prompted its editor to publish his excellent collection of theological axioms in this journal...