produced without offense to consciences ought to be preferred to all
other advantages [all other less important matters]. But concerning
this entire subject we shall speak after a while, when we shall treat
of vows and ecclesiastical power.




Part 21


Article XVI: _Of Political Order._

The Sixteenth Article the adversaries receive without any exception,
in which we have confessed that it is lawful for the Christian to
bear civil office, sit in judgment, determine matters by the imperial
laws, and other laws in present force, appoint just punishments
engage in just wars, act as a soldier, make legal contracts, hold
property, take an oath when magistrates require it, contract marriage;
finally, that legitimate civil ordinances are good creatures of God
and divine ordinances, which a Christian can use with safety. This
entire topic concerning the distinction between the kingdom of Christ
and a political kingdom has been explained to advantage [to the
remarkably great consolation of many consciences] in the literature
of our writers, [namely] that the kingdom of Christ is spiritual
[inasmuch as Christ governs by the Word and by preaching], to wit,
beginning in the heart the knowledge of God, the fear of God and
faith, eternal righteousness, and eternal life; meanwhile it permits
us outwardly to use legitimate political ordinances of every nation
in which we live, just as it permits us to use medicine or the art of