nterfere with civil government; no more than the art
of singing interferes with civil government. For civil government deals
with other things than does the Gospel. The civil rulers defend not
minds, but bodies and bodily things against manifest injuries, and
restrain men with the sword and bodily punishments in order to preserve
civil justice and peace.

Therefore the power of the Church and the civil power must not be
confounded. The power of the Church has its own commission to teach
the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments. Let it not break into the
office of another; Let it not transfer the kingdoms of this world; let
it not abrogate the laws of civil rulers; let it not abolish lawful
obedience; let it not interfere with judgments concerning civil
ordinances or contracts; let it not prescribe laws to civil rulers
concerning the form of the Commonwealth. As Christ says, John 18, 33: My
kingdom is not of this world; also Luke 12, 14: Who made Me a judge or
a divider over you? Paul also says, Phil. 3, 20: Our citizenship is in
heaven; 2 Cor. 10, 4: The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty through God to the casting down of imaginations.

After this manner our teachers discriminate between the duties of both
these powers, and command that both be honored and acknowledged as gifts
and blessings of God. If bishops have any power of the sword, that power
they have, not as bishops, by the commission of the Gospel, but by
human law having received it of kings and emperors for the civil
administration of what is theirs. This, however, is another office than
the ministry of the Gospel.

When, therefore, the question is concerning the jurisdiction of bishops,
civil authority must be distinguished from ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
Again, according to the Gospel or, as they say, by divine right, there
belongs to the bishops as bishops, that is, to those to whom has been
committed the ministry of the Word and the Sacraments, no jurisdiction
except to forgive sins, to judge doctrine, to reject doctrines contrary
to the Gospel, and to exclude from the communion of the Church wicked
men, whose wickedness is known, and this without human force, simply by
the Word. Herein the congregations of necessity and by divine right must
obey them, according to Luke 10, 16: He that heareth you heareth Me.
But when they teach or ordain anything against the Gospel, then the
congregations have a commandment of God prohibiting obed