_The Confession of Faith:
             Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V
                  At the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530_.
                        by Philip Melanchthon, 1497-1560
                   Translated by F. Bente and  W. H. T. Dau
                                 Published in:
                   _Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books
                         of the Ev. Lutheran Church_.
           (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), pp. 37-95.


        Article XVI: Of Civil Affairs.  
         
        Of Civil Affairs they teach that lawful civil ordinances are 
        good works of God, and that it is right for Christians to bear 
        civil office, to sit as judges, to judge matters by the 
        Imperial and other existing laws, to award just punishments, 
        to engage in just wars, to serve as soldiers, to make legal 
        contracts, to hold property, to make oath when required by the 
        magistrates, to marry a wife, to be given in marriage.  
         
        They condemn the Anabaptists who forbid these civil offices to 
        Christians.  
         
        They condemn also those who do not place evangelical 
        perfection in the fear of God and in faith, but in forsaking 
        civil offices, for the Gospel teaches an eternal righteousness 
        of the heart. Meanwhile, it does not destroy the State or the 
        family, but very much requires that they be preserved as 
        ordinances of God, and that charity be practiced in such 
        ordinances. Therefore, Christians are necessarily bound to 
        obey their own magistrates and laws save only when commanded 
        to sin; for then they ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 
        5, 29.  
        

       _________________________________________________________________

       This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by
       Allen Mulvey and is in the public domain.  You may freely
       distribute, copy or print this text.  Please direct any comments
       or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at
       Concordia Theological Seminary.
       
                        E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu
          Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft.  Wayne, IN 46825 USA
       Phone: (260) 481-2123                        Fax: (260) 481-2126
       ________________________________________________________________ 




       file: /pub/resources/text/wittenberg/concord: augs-016.txt

       .