# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1859_S17
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The History of the Doctrine of the Spiritual Office, etc.        17

—is incorporated, through right faith, hope, and love, into the
fellowship of Christ and of all the saints, which is signified and
given in the sacrament.

"The other fellowship is outward, bodily, and visible; that is, when
someone is admitted so that he partakes of the holy sacrament and,
together with others, receives and shares in it." 17)

"The church is a spiritual assembly that hears this Shepherd, and
believes in him, and is ruled by him through the Holy Spirit, and is
outwardly recognized only by this, that it has his word — that is, the
preaching of the gospel — and his sacraments; but inwardly it is known
to him alone." 18)

"Christ's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, which is ruled only through
the scepter, as stands written in Ps. 110:2, that is, through the word
of the gospel. Wherever this gospel is preached purely and clearly, be
it in whatever place it may, there is Christ's kingdom. And this mark
of the church, or of the kingdom of Christ, cannot deceive. For where
the word is, there is the Holy Spirit, whether with the hearer or with
the teacher." 19)

11. Where there is faith in the word, there is fellowship with
the office of Jesus in the word. To become conformed to the
word through faith means to become a servant of the office of
Jesus.

"Therefore everyone who wants to be a Christian should be certain, and
should well consider within himself, that we are all priests alike,
that is, that we have equal power over the word of God and over every
sacrament." 20)

"But unless I am deceived, once this sacrament and its fabrication one
day fall, the papacy will scarcely stand with its indelible characters
[the supposed sacramental mark of ordination], and there will return
to us that joyful freedom in which we all recognize ourselves equal
with all rights, and, once the tyrannical yoke is thrown off, will
first understand that everyone who is a Christian has Christ. And
whoever has Christ has also everything that is Christ's, and can do
everything." 21)

"Just as Christ has the birthright with its honor and dignity, so he
shares it with all his Christians, so that through faith they must all
also be kings and priests together with Christ." 22)

"We will be, and be called, not made but born priests, and have our
priesthood as an inheritance through our birth from father and mother.
For our Father is the true priest and high priest, as stands written
in the 110th Psalm: God has sworn, and will not repent of it: Thou art
a priest forever, after the manner

17) Sermon on the Ban, vol. 19, 1100, 1101. 18) Vol. 11, 1124, Church
Postil, on Jn. 10. 19) Vol. 6, 44. 20) On the Babylonian Captivity, vol.
19, 139. 21) The same, p. 141. 22) Sermon on the Freedom of a
Christian, vol. 19, p. 1218.