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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: cohabiting] honestly in marriage with one another. Therefore
we are unwilling to assent to their abominable celibacy, nor
will we [even] tolerate it, but we wish to have marriage free
as God has instituted [and ordained] it, and we wish neither
to rescind nor hinder His work; for Paul says, 1 Tim. 4, 1
ff., that this [prohibition of marriage] is a doctrine of
devils.
XII. Of the Church.
We do not concede to them that they are the Church, and [in
truth] they are not [the Church]; nor will we listen to those
things which, under the name of Church, they enjoin or forbid.
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