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We say that there are not two but only one word of God, and the word of divine evangelical preaching is truly the word of the Holy Spirit and of God, for the divine Holy Spirit has spoken through and out of the heart and mouth of the Apostles.

The external word which is preached, or the word which the Apostles proclaimed, is the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). It is made power, spirit and life in the heart through faith; and thus the divine Holy Spirit is received.

But if anyone desires to repent and turn away from the power of darkness to the glorious light of grace, desires to obey the Word as the sword of the Spirit and, again, enter the true church of Christ which is governed by the Spirit through the word of grace which is to be observed and manifested in the outward life to the glory of God as a light to the world, then he

must enter through baptism;

must kill the old man and become truly alive in Christ;

must observe in remembrance of Christ the Lord's supper in love and in the fellowship of the body of Christ;

must, in accord with this fellowship, which is his body, separate from, judge, condemn and exclude all evil, whether in himself or in others; and

must recognize as the believing church and fellowship of Christ only such as are under the power and discipline of the Spirit, that is, those who live in obedience to the Word.

And this power of the Holy Spirit does not resist or withstand the temporal power, but is obedient, whether to do or to suffer, through patience unto bodily death, that is, it will obey whatever the earthly power commands so long as the same is not contrary to God and conscience. But whenever and wherein the worldly and temporal power commands what is against God and conscience, in this it will suffer patiently until death, which is in truth rendering to God what is God's and to Caesar what is Caesar's. 183