Part 26
Saint Peter also, when instructing pastors concerning their office, exhorts them to feed the flock without exercising dominion over God's heritage. By this name he means God's inheritance—that is, believers.
Feed the flock of God entrusted to you, exercising oversight not by compulsion but willingly; not for shameful gain but eagerly; neither as exercising dominion over God's heritage, but by being examples to the flock.
—1 Peter 5:2–3
Thus all the power boasted of by those who would exalt themselves apart from the word of God is overthrown and uprooted. For nothing was given to the Apostles by which they might establish their own kingdom and doctrine, but only what served to exalt and magnify the kingdom and doctrine of God.
I am well aware that they reply that their traditions do not originate with themselves but with God. For, as they claim, they do not teach their own inventions but merely dispense to the Christian people what they have received from the Holy Spirit, having been appointed by God's providence to govern them.
They offer several arguments in support of this claim. They say that our Lord has bestowed great and excellent titles upon his Church, calling her holy and blameless, without spot or wrinkle.
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her . . . and present her to himself as a glorious Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.
—Ephesians 5:25–27
They further argue that the Church possesses the clearest promises by which Jesus Christ has assured her that the presence of his Spirit will never fail her. Therefore, they say, anyone who doubts the authority of the Church not only does injury to her but blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, by whose guidance the Church is assuredly governed.
For this reason, they continue, Jesus Christ commanded that anyone who refused to hear the Church should be regarded as a heathen and a tax collector.
If he refuses to hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.
—Matthew 18:17
According to their opinion, therefore, this must be universally accepted as settled: that the Church cannot err in matters necessary to salvation.
Moreover, they apply to themselves everything said concerning the Church, as though it belonged particularly to them. For, they claim, if they should fall, the whole Church would collapse, since it is supported upon their shoulders alone.
They therefore conclude that we should possess as much confidence in the truth of the Church's councils as in the Church herself, since she is represented by them, and that we must not doubt that councils are directly governed by the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot err.
From this it likewise follows that their traditions are revelations of the Holy Spirit, which cannot be despised without despising God. And to give their constitutions still greater plausibility and authority, they claim that a large portion of them descended from the Apostles, such as prayers for the dead and almost the whole order of their ceremonies.
For they take it as settled that many things were revealed to the Apostles after the ascension of Jesus Christ which were never committed to writing, since our Lord had said to them:
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. You shall know them afterward.
—John 16:12–13
They further argue that one example sufficiently demonstrates what the Apostles did in all other matters: when they assembled together, they commanded, by the authority of the council, that all Gentiles abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, and from the flesh of strangled animals.
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, and from things strangled.
—Acts 15:28–29
But I shall enable all who have the patience to examine these arguments with me in order to understand easily how foolish and frivolous they are. Indeed, I would earnestly entreat these men themselves to listen if I thought that instructing them would accomplish anything. But since their whole intention is to disregard the truth so that they may serve their own interests by every possible means, I shall not suppose myself to be dealing with them.
I shall simply show those who fear God and possess a zeal for the truth—whom I have undertaken here to instruct—how they may escape from these men's snares.
They must first be warned not to be readily moved by the name of the Church, which is falsely claimed by these tyrants, who are in truth deadly plagues of the Church. For they allege nothing different from what the Jews formerly alleged when God's Prophets accused them of blindness, impiety, and idolatry.
As those Jews sheltered themselves beneath the name of the Temple, its ceremonies, and its priesthood—things in which they imagined the Church consisted—so these men likewise present us with certain outward marks as though they constituted the Church, although they are often far removed from the Church and the Church can very well exist without them.
We therefore need no other argument to refute them than that by which Jeremiah opposed the vain confidence of the Jews: they must not glory in lying words, saying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord."
Do not trust in lying words, saying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord."
—Jeremiah 7:4
For the Lord acknowledges nothing as his own in any place except where his word is heard and reverently kept. This is the perpetual mark by which the Lord has distinguished his people:
Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.
—John 18:37
Likewise, Christ declares that he is the good Shepherd who knows his sheep and is known by them, and that they hear his voice and follow him.
I am the good Shepherd, and I know my sheep and am known by them.
—John 10:14
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
—John 10:27
Shortly before this he had said that the sheep follow their shepherd because they know his voice, and that they will not follow a stranger but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.
The sheep follow him, for they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
—John 10:4–5
Why, then, do we willingly go astray when discerning the Church, when Jesus Christ has marked her with so certain a sign? Wherever this sign appears, it cannot fail to identify the Church with certainty. Conversely, where it is absent, nothing remains that can provide a true indication of the Church.
Rather, Jerusalem must be distinguished from Babylon, and the Church of Christ from the company of Satan, according to the distinction established by our Lord:
He who is of God hears the words of God. You therefore do not hear them because you are not of God.
—John 8:47
In sum, since the Church is the kingdom of Christ, and since Christ reigns only through his word, can we still doubt that those are lying words which imagine the kingdom of Christ without his scepter—that is, without his holy word?
Now, if we cast aside all pretense and falsehood and consider what we truly need to examine—namely, what kind of Church Jesus Christ requires, so that we may submit ourselves to and conform to its rule —it will be sufficiently evident that this is not the Church which, transgressing the boundaries of the word of God, delights in making new laws and inventing new forms of divine worship.
For does not the law once given to the Church remain forever?
Take care to do everything that I command you. You shall neither add to it nor take away from it.
—Deuteronomy 12:32
And again:
Do not add to the words of the Lord, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
—Proverbs 30:6
Since it cannot be denied that these words were addressed to the Church, what do those men accomplish by saying that, despite such prohibitions, she dared to add her own inventions to the word of God, except to accuse her of rebellion against God?
But let us not listen to the falsehoods by which they inflict so grave an injury upon the Church. Rather, let us recognize that the name of the Church is falsely invoked whenever men attempt to conceal beneath it their foolish presumption, by which they break through the boundaries of God's word to make room for their own inventions.
The words forbidding the universal Church to add anything to or subtract anything from the word of God are neither difficult, ambiguous, nor uncertain. They will say that this was spoken only of the law, after which came the Prophets. I grant this, provided they understand that the Prophets served more to fulfill the law than to add anything to it or take anything away from it.
Now, if the Lord did not permit anything to be added to or subtracted from the ministry of Moses—although it remained shrouded in obscurity until he provided clearer doctrine through his servants the Prophets, and finally through his beloved Son—why should we not judge it even more strictly forbidden to add anything to the law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the gospel?
The Lord has certainly not changed his will. Long ago he declared that nothing offends him more grievously than when men attempt to worship him by means of their own inventions. We possess excellent testimonies of this in the Prophets, which ought continually to remain before our eyes.
In Jeremiah:
When I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I gave them this command, saying, "Hear my
voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the ways that I command you."
—Jeremiah 7:22–23
Again:
I solemnly charged your fathers, saying, "Hear my voice."
—Jeremiah 11:7
There are many other passages like these, but the following testimony recorded in Samuel is especially noteworthy:
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to his voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion against God is like witchcraft, and refusal to submit to him is like idolatry.
—1 Samuel 15:22–23
Since, therefore, all the inventions defended under the authority of the Church cannot be excused from impiety, it is easy to conclude that they are falsely attributed to the Church.
For this reason, we contend boldly against the tyranny of human traditions upheld under the name of the Church. We do not despise the Church, as our adversaries falsely accuse us of doing in order to make us odious; rather, we ascribe to her the praise of obedience, the highest praise she could desire.
It is they who grievously insult the Church by portraying her as rebellious against her Lord, since according to their claim she has transgressed the commandment of God. I shall say nothing further about their great imprudence and malice in continually appealing to the power of the Church while concealing and passing over both the commission she has received from God and the obedience she owes him.
But if we desire, as we ought, to agree with the Church, we must instead examine and consider what God has commanded both us and the whole Church, so that with one accord we may obey him. For there can be no doubt that we shall agree perfectly with the Church if in all things and everywhere we render ourselves obedient to God.
But they say that the Church is furnished with the fullest promises: that she will never be abandoned by Christ her Bridegroom, but will be guided by his Spirit into all truth.
First, all the promises they commonly allege are given no less to each individual believer than to the whole body of believers. For although our Lord was speaking to his twelve Apostles when he said—
I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.
—Matthew 28:20
—and again—
I will pray to my Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither
sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and shall be in you.
—John 14:16–17
—he did not make these promises merely to the Twelve as a body, but to each one of them and to all his disciples whom he had already chosen or would afterward choose.
When they interpret these promises, which are full of singular consolation, as though they had been given to no individual Christian but only to the whole Church collectively, what do they do except deprive every Christian of the consolation that should come to him from them?
I do not deny that the Lord, though abounding in mercy and goodness toward all his people, nevertheless pours out his gifts more abundantly upon some than upon others. It is necessary that those appointed as teachers of the Church should possess excellent gifts above others.
Likewise, I do not deny that the gifts of God, being diverse, are distributed in different ways, nor that the fellowship of believers, furnished with this diversity of graces, is collectively far richer in all heavenly wisdom than any individual believer separately.
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
—1 Corinthians 12:4
My only contention is that they perversely distort our Lord's words into a meaning different from that in which they were spoken.
We therefore confess, as the truth requires, that the Lord remains with his people forever and guides them by his Spirit. This Spirit is not a spirit of error, ignorance, falsehood, or darkness, but of revelation, truth, wisdom, and light. By him they may learn without deception the things freely given to them by God: namely, the hope of their calling, the riches of the glory of God's inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of his power toward all who believe.
We have received the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.
—1 Corinthians 2:12
That you may know the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe.
—Ephesians 1:18–19
Furthermore, we confess that the Lord has established such a diversity of graces in his Church that there will always be particular persons who excel in his gifts for her edification. For he has given Apostles, Prophets, teachers, and pastors, all of whom, though serving in different offices, labor with one purpose for the edification of the Church until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity and to the full measure of the stature of Christ.
He gave some to be Apostles, some Prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for
the edification of the body of Christ, until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
—Ephesians 4:11–13
Yet since believers receive in this flesh only a foretaste and beginning of that Spirit—even those who above others abound in the riches of God's grace—nothing better remains for them than to acknowledge their weakness and keep themselves carefully within the bounds of God's word. Otherwise, if they attempt to advance beyond it according to their own understanding, they will immediately wander from the right path.
Indeed, there can be no doubt that if they depart from this word in the slightest degree, they will fall into many errors, because they still lack the fullness of that Spirit by whose teaching alone the mysteries of God are understood.
When Saint Paul says that Christ cleansed his Church by the washing of water with the word of life, that he might present her to himself as a glorious bride having neither spot nor wrinkle, but holy and blameless, he shows us more what Christ daily accomplishes in his elect than what he has already perfected in them.
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her by the washing of water with the word, and present her to himself as a glorious Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.
—Ephesians 5:25–27
For if he sanctifies, purifies, polishes, and cleanses them from their stains day by day, it is evident that they are still wrinkled and defiled and that something remains lacking in their sanctification. Moreover, to imagine the Church already holy and spotless while her members remain defiled and unclean—is this not sheer mockery?
It is therefore true that Christ has washed his Church by the washing of water through the word of life. That is, he has purified her by the forgiveness of sins, of which purification Baptism is the sign, and he has purified her in order to sanctify her. But only the beginning of this sanctification appears here. Its completion and perfection will be fully accomplished when Christ, the Holy One of holies, fills her entirely with his holiness.
Thus the Church, trusting in such promises, has abundant grounds for sustaining her faith, since she does not doubt that she will always possess the Holy Spirit as her most faithful guide and director in the right path. Nor will she be deceived in this confidence, for the Lord will not mislead his people or nourish them with empty expectations.
On the other hand, by acknowledging her ignorance, the Church receives a salutary warning to keep her ear continually attentive to the teaching of her Master and Bridegroom, as befits a modest bride and pupil. She is therefore not wise in herself and invents nothing from herself, but sets the boundary of her wisdom where Jesus Christ ceases to speak.
Thus she distrusts all the inventions of her own reason. But wherever she is supported by the word of God, she neither wavers nor doubts;
rather, she rests upon it securely with great certainty and steadfastness.
Indeed, we must carefully consider what use the Lord intends his Church to make of his Spirit. He says:
The Spirit whom I will send to you from the Father will guide you into all truth.
—John 15:26; 16:13
But how will he do this? Christ immediately adds:
He will bring to your remembrance all things that I have taught you.
—John 14:26
He therefore declares that we should expect nothing further from his Spirit than that, by enlightening our minds, he should cause us to receive the truth of his doctrine.
For this reason, the statement of Chrysostom is noteworthy:
Many boast of the Spirit, but those who introduce anything of their own falsely claim him. As Christ testified that he did not speak from himself, because his doctrine was taken from the law and the Prophets, so if anything is presented to us under the name of the Spirit that is not contained in the gospel, let us not believe it. For as Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the Prophets, so the Spirit is the fulfillment of the gospel.
It is therefore no wonder that Jesus Christ commended the authority of his Church so highly that he commanded anyone who refused to hear her to be regarded as a tax collector and a Gentile, adding the singular promise that wherever two or three are gathered in his name, he will be in their midst.
If he refuses to hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.
—Matthew 18:17
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
—Matthew 18:20
But it is astonishing that these deceivers are so shameless as to dare boast of this testimony. For what can they conclude from it except that we are not permitted to despise the agreement of the Church, which never agrees except in the truth of God?
"The Church must be heard," they say. Who denies it? We must hear her because she pronounces nothing except from the word of God. If they demand anything beyond this, they should understand that these words of Christ lend them no support.
For since the promise is given to those gathered in Christ's name, and since such an assembly is called the Church, we acknowledge no Church except that which is gathered in Christ's name. But is it to be gathered in Christ's name when men despise God's command
forbidding them to add anything to or take anything from his word, and then invent whatever doctrine pleases them?
Finally, they conclude that the Church cannot err in matters necessary to salvation. We do not contradict this, but we differ sharply from them concerning its meaning. We believe that the Church cannot fail because, laying aside all confidence in her own wisdom, she permits herself to be taught by the Holy Spirit through the word of God.
They, on the contrary, maintain that because the Church is governed by the Spirit of God, she may safely proceed without the word, and that whatever she does, she can neither think nor speak anything but the truth.
But even if we were to grant them everything they demand concerning the Church, they would still have gained nothing in support of their traditions.
They imagine that truth cannot remain in the Church unless it resides among the pastors, and that the Church herself cannot exist unless she is represented in general councils. Yet this has been far from universally true, if the testimonies left by the Prophets concerning their own times are reliable.
Isaiah says:
All her watchmen are blind; they know nothing. They are all mute dogs that cannot bark. They sleep and love to slumber. The shepherds possess neither knowledge nor
understanding; they have all turned aside, each to his own way.
—Isaiah 56:10–11
Jeremiah likewise says:
From the prophet even to the priest, everyone practices falsehood.
—Jeremiah 6:13
Again:
The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them.
—Jeremiah 14:14
To avoid spending too long recounting all such declarations, the reader may consult what is written concerning them in the twentythird and fortieth chapters of Jeremiah.
Ezekiel likewise writes:
The conspiracy of her prophets within her is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They have devoured lives, seized precious possessions, and multiplied widows within her. Her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between what is common and what is consecrated to me. Her prophets have covered their work with worthless mortar, seeing false
visions and divining lies, saying, "The Lord has spoken," when the Lord has not spoken.
—Ezekiel 22:25–28
Micah also, having learned more than sufficiently by experience how deceptive such titles are when the reality does not correspond to them, introduces the Lord speaking to the prophets who were leading the people astray:
Therefore night shall come upon you without vision, and darkness without divination.—[continues]
—Micah 3:6
The sun shall set upon the Prophets, and the day shall grow dark over them. Those who see visions shall be confounded, and the diviners put to shame. They shall all cover their faces because there is no answer from the Lord.
—Micah 3:6–7
Zephaniah likewise says:
Her Prophets are unstable and treacherous men. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary and violated the law.
—Zephaniah 3:4
Someone will say that these things occurred among the Jews and have no bearing upon our own time. Would to God that this were
true! But Saint Peter foretold that precisely the same thing would happen among us:
As there were false Prophets among the people of Israel, so there shall be false teachers among you, secretly introducing destructive sects.
—2 Peter 2:1
Do you see how he warns that the danger will arise not from unlearned members of the common people, but from those who proudly assume the titles of teachers and pastors?
Moreover, how often did Christ and his Apostles foretell how great a danger the Church would face from her own pastors? Without filling many pages by pursuing this subject further, we are warned not only by the examples of that age but by those of every age that truth is not always nourished in the bosom of pastors, and that the salvation of the Church does not depend entirely upon their good government.
They ought indeed to be faithful guardians of the Church's peace and salvation, for they were appointed to preserve them. But it is one thing to fulfill one's duty and another to be under obligation to do what one does not in fact perform.
Yet I do not wish these statements to be understood as though I desired the authority of pastors to be treated lightly or rashly despised. I desire only that discernment be exercised in distinguishing true pastors, so that men are not immediately regarded as pastors merely because they bear the title.
For we must firmly maintain that their entire office is limited to the administration of the word of God; all their wisdom, to the knowledge of that word; and all their eloquence, to its proclamation. If they depart from it, they become foolish in their understanding, stammerers in their speech, and treacherous and unfaithful in the whole discharge of their office, whoever they may be—Prophets, bishops, teachers, or persons established in still higher dignity.
I am not speaking merely of one or two individuals. Even if the whole body of pastors together should attempt to govern itself according to its own understanding while abandoning the word of God, it could only become senseless.
Yet these men have no other reason for giving free rein to their inventions and departing from the word of God than that they are pastors. As though Joshua had not been a pastor, to whom it was said that he must turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, but carefully observe all the commandments of the law.
Take care to act according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left.
—Joshua 1:7
Meanwhile, they would have us believe that the light of truth can never fail them, that the Holy Spirit rests upon them, and that the Church is supported by them and cannot otherwise continue—as though the judgments of God were no longer in force and could not bring about today what the Prophets threatened against the leaders of their own time:
The priests shall be confounded, and the Prophets astonished.
—Jeremiah 4:9
And again:
The law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
—Ezekiel 7:26
They proceed as though the warnings of Christ and his Apostles were likewise false. Jesus Christ says:
Many false Prophets shall arise and deceive many.
—Matthew 24:11
Saint Paul says to the bishops of Ephesus:
I know that after my departure savage wolves will enter among you, not sparing the flock. Even from among yourselves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw disciples after them.
—Acts 20:29–30
Saint Peter likewise writes:
There were false Prophets among the people of Israel, just as there shall be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive sects.
—2 Peter 2:1
There are many other similar passages. Yet these foolish men fail to understand that, in arguing against us in this manner, they are singing the same song once sung by those who opposed the word of God with the very same confidence in which they now pride themselves.
For their words were:
Come, and let us devise schemes against Jeremiah. For the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the Prophet.
—Jeremiah 18:18
Therefore, let them appeal as much as they please to councils of bishops; they will accomplish very little. Nor will they persuade us of what they claim—that they are governed by the Holy Spirit—until they have proved that they are gathered in the name of Christ. For wicked bishops may conspire against Christ just as readily as good bishops may assemble in his name.
Many decrees issued by such councils bear witness to this. I could easily demonstrate their wickedness by evident arguments if I were not striving for the brevity required by this treatise.
Nevertheless, if we wish to judge the others by some of these decrees, Saint Paul declares that forbidding marriage and the use of certain foods is demonic falsehood and hypocrisy.
In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding marriage and commanding abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving.
—1 Timothy 4:1–3
They must not attempt to excuse themselves by referring Saint Paul's statement exclusively to the Manichaeans and Tatianists, on the ground that those heretics entirely condemned marriage and the eating of meat, whereas they themselves forbid marriage only to certain persons and meat only on particular days. For they cannot deny that their decrees prohibit both marriage and the use of foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving.
Since these ordinances of Satan have been established by councils, let everyone consider what may be expected in all other matters from those who have once begun to serve as Satan's instruments.
Moreover, why is it necessary to recount the contradictions among councils and how what was established by one was undone by another? They say that such differences concern only outward discipline, in which no harm arises from making different laws for different times. But the truth is that even in matters of doctrine there has been great conflict and contradiction among councils.
This may be seen in the council at Constantinople convened by Emperor Leo and the council at Nicaea assembled by Irene, his mother, in opposition to him. The first concluded that images should
be torn down and destroyed; the second decreed that they should be restored.
In short, scarcely any true agreement has ever existed between the churches called Eastern and Western. Let them now go and boast, as they habitually do, that the Holy Spirit is bound and attached to their councils.
Yet I do not intend to condemn all councils or reject every judgment and doctrine that has proceeded from them. Indeed, I perceive in some of them—especially the ancient councils—a genuine devotion to godliness and great evidence of learning, prudence, and spiritual discernment. Nor do I doubt that other ages likewise possessed good bishops.
But in more recent councils, the same thing has occurred of which the Roman senators complained concerning the poor ordering of their senate: when opinions were counted without weighing their reasons, and decisions were reached merely according to the majority, the greater number often prevailed over the better judgment.
Even the ancient councils, which were the purest, are not entirely beyond criticism. The bishops of that time, though learned and prudent men, were so occupied with the particular matters for which they had assembled that they paid little attention to other questions. Or, being occupied with matters of great importance, they overlooked those of lesser consequence. At other times they could err through ignorance, or they might occasionally be carried away by excessive passion.
This last statement may appear especially severe, yet we possess a notable example in the first Council of Nicaea, whose dignity has been esteemed above that of every other council.
The bishops had assembled there to defend the chief article of our faith. They saw Arius present before them, ready to contend, and knew that to refute him they needed to remain united. Nevertheless, as though they had deliberately assembled to gratify him, and without concern for the danger threatening the Church, they began to bite, accuse, and insult one another. They presented defamatory charges exposing the whole course of one another's lives. In short, they neglected Arius in order to destroy one another.
They were so intemperate and bitterly set against one another that their disputes would never have ended if Emperor Constantine had not restrained them, declaring that he would not act as their judge. How much more likely is it that the councils which followed afterward were also liable to error?
Someone might think me unwise to point out such faults, since our adversaries themselves admit that councils can err in matters not necessary to salvation. Yet I do not do so without reason. For although they make this admission when compelled, they nevertheless insist that every determination of a council, in every matter and without exception, must be received as a revelation of the Holy Spirit. In this they demand more than their admission permits.
What do they seek by this except to persuade us that councils cannot err at all—or that if they do err, we are not permitted to recognize the truth but must consent to their error?
Therefore, no titles of councils, pastors, bishops, or the Church— which may be claimed falsely as readily as legitimately—should prevent us, having received such warnings, from testing every spirit by the rule of God's word to determine whether it is from God.
Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine whether they are from God.
—1 John 4:1
As for their claim that their traditions originated with the Apostles, it is sheer deception. For the whole doctrine of the Apostles tends toward this end: that consciences should not be burdened with new traditions and that the Christian religion should not be corrupted by our inventions.
Moreover, if the ancient histories are to be believed, the things they attribute to the Apostles were not merely unknown to them; the Apostles never even heard of them.
Nor should they babble that many Apostolic constitutions were received through custom though never committed to writing—things which the Apostles supposedly could not understand before the death of Jesus Christ but learned after his ascension through the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.
—John 16:12–13
What shamelessness is this? I readily confess that the disciples were still unlearned and ignorant when our Lord spoke these words to them. But did they remain in such ignorance when they committed their doctrine to writing that they afterward needed to supplement orally what was lacking in their writings?
If they wrote their doctrine after the Spirit of God had already guided them into all truth, what could have prevented them from committing to writing the whole and perfect knowledge of the doctrine of the gospel and leaving it to us as something signed and sealed?
Furthermore, they make themselves ridiculous when, attempting to explain what these great mysteries were that remained unknown to the Apostles for so long, they produce partly ceremonies borrowed and mingled from practices long common among Jews and Gentiles, and partly foolish inventions and senseless ceremonies known by heart even to ignorant priests who can scarcely walk or speak. Indeed, fools and children imitate them so perfectly that one would think they possessed the whole science of them in their heads.
The example of the Apostles which they allege to give authority to their tyranny serves their purpose no better.
"The Apostles and elders of the primitive Church," they say, "made an ordinance beyond the commandment of Christ, by which they forbade the Gentiles to eat things sacrificed to idols, the flesh of strangled animals, or blood. If they did this lawfully, why may their successors not follow their example whenever necessity requires it?"
I wish they would follow the Apostles both in this matter and in all others. For I deny that the Apostles instituted or ordained anything new in this instance, as may easily be proved.
In that very passage, Saint Peter declares that imposing any burden upon the disciples would be to tempt God. He would therefore contradict his own judgment if he afterward permitted a burden to be imposed upon them.
Why do you tempt God by placing a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
—Acts 15:10
It would certainly have been a burden if the Apostles, by their own authority, had decreed that the Gentiles were forbidden to eat things sacrificed to idols, the flesh of strangled animals, or blood.
Nevertheless, a difficulty remains, since they appear to have forbidden these things. But the solution is easy if one carefully considers the meaning of their ordinance.
Its first and principal point is that the Gentiles must be left in their liberty, without being troubled or burdened by observances of the law. Thus far, the ordinance directly supports our position.
The exception that follows concerning things sacrificed to idols, strangled flesh, and blood is not a new law enacted by the Apostles, but the eternal commandment of God requiring the preservation of love. It does not diminish the liberty of the Gentiles in any respect,
but merely instructs them how they should accommodate themselves to their brethren so that they do not give offense through the exercise of their liberty.
Let us therefore observe that this is the second point: the liberty of the Gentiles must neither harm nor give offense to their brethren.
If anyone still insists that the Apostles prescribed certain particular things, I answer that they merely indicated, as the circumstances of that time required, the matters in which the Gentiles might give offense to their brethren, so that they might avoid them. They added nothing of their own to God's eternal law, which forbids giving offense.
The situation is similar today. In regions where the churches are not yet well ordered, faithful pastors might instruct those who are already well established in the faith not to eat meat publicly on Friday or labor publicly on a feast day until those who are weak in faith have been strengthened by more certain instruction.
For although such things, once superstition is removed, are in themselves indifferent, they are not without sin when practiced in a manner that gives offense to weaker brethren. And present circumstances are such that believers could not do these things in the presence of their weaker brethren without grievously wounding their consciences.
Who, unless he wished to utter a gross slander, would dare say that faithful pastors acting in this manner were making a new law, when it is evident that they would merely be preventing offenses, which God has plainly forbidden?
The same may be said of the Apostles, whose intention was simply to uphold God's law requiring the avoidance of offenses. It was as though they had said: "God commands you not to offend your weaker brethren. You cannot eat things offered to idols, the flesh of strangled animals, or blood without offending them. We therefore command you, by the word of God, not to eat such things in a manner that causes offense."
Saint Paul testifies that this was the Apostles' intention when, in agreement with their ordinance, he writes:
Concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world. Yet some eat such food with the consciousness that it has been dedicated to an idol, and their weak conscience is defiled. Take care, therefore, that this liberty of yours does not become an occasion of stumbling to the weak.
—1 Corinthians 8:4, 7, 9
Anyone who carefully considers these things will no longer be easily deceived by those who would persuade us that the Apostles, through this ordinance, began to restrict the liberty of the Church.
Although we have not said everything that might have been brought forward here, and although even what we have said has been treated only briefly, I believe that I have so thoroughly refuted our adversaries that no one should any longer doubt that the spiritual power in which the Pope and his whole kingdom glory is a blasphemous tyranny against the word of God and an unjust tyranny over his Church.
Under the name of spiritual power, I include their presumption in disseminating new doctrines to turn the poor people away from the pure simplicity of God's word; their audacity in making new laws by which they have cruelly tormented miserable consciences; and, in sum, all their so-called ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which they exercise through their suffragan bishops, vicars, penitentiaries, and judicial officials.
For if we permit Christ to reign among us, all this dominion is immediately overthrown and brought to ruin.
It does not belong to the present subject to treat the other kind of their lordship, which consists in possessions and estates, since it is not exercised over consciences. Yet even here one may perceive that they remain entirely true to themselves—that is, they are nothing less than the pastors of the Church they desire to be called.
I am not speaking here of the personal vices of particular men, but of an evil common to their whole estate, since they do not consider it properly ordered unless it is exalted in riches and pride.
First, was it proper for bishops to involve themselves in judicial affairs, assume the government of cities and countries, and undertake other duties that do not belong to them at all, when the burden of their proper office is so great that even if they devoted themselves to it continually, they could scarcely discharge it?
Was it fitting that in their retinues of servants and in the splendor of their clothing, tables, and houses, they should imitate princes, when their lives ought to have served as examples of sobriety, temperance, modesty, and humility?
Was it consistent with the office of pastors and bishops for them to seize not only cities, towns, and castles, but also great counties and duchies, and finally to stretch out their claws toward kingdoms and empires, when God's inviolable command forbids them all covetousness and greed?
Yet they are so shameless that they still dare to evade the matter and boast that it is entirely fitting for the dignity of the Church to be upheld by such splendor. Meanwhile, they claim that these things do not so greatly distract them from the duties of their calling that they cannot still attend to them properly.
As to the first claim, if it is a suitable support for their dignity that they should be raised to such heights that even the greatest princes of the world fear and dread them, then they have grounds for complaint against Jesus Christ, who has, according to their reasoning, grievously dishonored them.
For in their judgment, what greater injury could he have inflicted upon them than to say:
The kings and princes of the nations exercise dominion over them, but it shall not be so among you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the one who governs as one who serves.
—Matthew 20:25–27; Luke 22:25–26
By these words, he places their office far from all the grandeur and glory of this world.
As for their second claim, I wish it were as easy for them to demonstrate it by experience as it is to boast of it without reason.
But if the Apostles did not consider it right to neglect the word of God in order to administer alms, this proves that one man cannot properly discharge the offices of both a good prince and a good bishop.
It is not fitting that we should neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.
—Acts 6:2
The Apostles, by reason of the excellent gifts they had received from God, were far more capable of bearing great responsibilities than anyone who has succeeded them. Yet even they confessed that they could not attend simultaneously to the ministry of the word and the distribution of alms without failing beneath the burden. How, then, could these men, who are nothing in comparison with the Apostles, surpass their diligence a hundredfold?
It was certainly an excessively rash undertaking even to attempt such a thing, yet the attempt was made. Everyone can see what resulted from it, and indeed no other outcome was possible: these men abandoned their own calling in order to perform the work of others.
The princes who bestowed so much of their possessions upon the bishops to enrich them may have acted from some zeal for godliness. But by this excessive generosity they made exceedingly poor provision for the good of the Church, whose true and ancient integrity they corrupted—or rather, entirely destroyed.
The bishops, for their part, who exploited the generosity of princes for their own advantage, have thereby sufficiently demonstrated that they are not bishops at all.
To conclude briefly concerning both kinds of power which they now contend so vigorously to preserve, it is easy to see what they are seeking. If they surrendered their spiritual kingdom and yielded it to Jesus Christ, there would be no danger to the glory of God, sound doctrine, or the welfare of the Church.
Likewise, if they relinquished their secular power, the common welfare of the Church would suffer no loss. But because they imagine that nothing can prosper unless they rule—as the Prophet says—with harshness and force, they are carried away and blinded by an insatiable lust for dominion.
With force and cruelty you have ruled them.
—Ezekiel 34:4
But enough has been said in passing concerning the temporal possessions of the Church. I now return to the spiritual kingdom, which is properly the subject under consideration.
When they find themselves deprived of every rational defense of this kingdom, they retreat to this final and miserable refuge. They claim that although they are ignorant in understanding and corrupt in heart, the word of God nevertheless remains in force, commanding us to obey our superiors. And although they impose harsh and unjust laws, our Lord commands us to do everything the scribes and
Pharisees say, even when they bind together unbearable burdens that they themselves would not touch with a finger.
The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they command you to observe, observe and do. But do not act according to their works, for they say and do not. They bind heavy and unbearable burdens and lay them upon men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
—Matthew 23:2–4
What, then? If we were required to receive the teaching of every pastor without distinction, why was it necessary for us to be warned so frequently and carefully by the word of God not to listen to the teaching of false Prophets and false pastors?
The Lord says:
Do not listen to the words of the Prophets who prophesy to you, for they teach you falsehood and proclaim visions from their own hearts, not what has proceeded from the mouth of the Lord.
—Jeremiah 23:16
Again:
Beware of false Prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
—Matthew 7:15
Nor would Saint John have warned us without reason to test the spirits to determine whether they are from God.
Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine whether they are from God.
—1 John 4:1
The messengers of the devil are not exempt from this examination, since even the angels of heaven are subject to it.
Moreover, does not our Lord's declaration that if one blind man leads another, both will fall into the ditch sufficiently show us that we must carefully consider which pastors we hear, and that it is unwise to listen indiscriminately to them all?
If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
—Matthew 15:14
They cannot, therefore, terrify us with their titles of authority and draw us into their blindness. On the contrary, we see how carefully our Lord warns us, so that we may not readily allow ourselves to be led astray by the error of others, whatever imposing title may serve as its disguise. For if his word is true, all blind guides—whether called bishops, prelates, or pontiffs—can do nothing but draw those who follow them into the same ruin.
There remains their other claim concerning laws which, they say, must be obeyed even if they are a hundred times wicked and unjust. They argue that the question is not whether we assent to errors, but
only whether we who are subject to authority obey the rigorous commands of our superiors, which we are not permitted to reject.
But our Lord, by the truth of his word, fully defends us against this sophistry and delivers us from servitude, preserving us in the liberty he purchased for us by his sacred blood. For it is not true—as they maliciously pretend—that the matter concerns only the endurance of some harsh oppression in our bodies. Their aim is to deprive our consciences of their liberty, that is, of the fruit they receive through the blood of Christ, and to torment them with miserable servitude.
Yet let us pass over this point as though it were of slight importance. Do we imagine it a matter of little consequence to rob God of his kingdom, which he desires above all things to preserve for himself? Yet he is robbed of it whenever he is worshiped according to laws invented by men, since he wills to be the sole Lawgiver of his own worship and service.
Lest anyone regard this as a matter of little importance, let him hear how highly our Lord esteems it:
Because this people has worshiped me according to the commandments and doctrines of men, behold, I will again perform a great and marvelous work among them. The wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be brought to nothing.
—Isaiah 29:13–14
In another place:
In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
—Matthew 15:9
Many find it strange that our Lord threatens to bring such a marvelous judgment upon a people because they worshiped him according to the commandments and doctrines of men, and that he declares such worship vain. But if they understood what it means to depend upon the mouth of God alone in matters of religion—that is, in matters of heavenly wisdom—they would likewise see that the Lord has no slight reason for abhorring all disorderly worship offered to him according to the foolish desires of men.
Although those who worship him in this manner possess some appearance of humility by submitting themselves to human laws for his honor, they are not at all humble before God. Indeed, they impose upon him the very laws they themselves observe.
For this reason Saint Paul so diligently exhorts us to beware of being deceived by human traditions. He employs a very fitting Greek term signifying "will-worship"—that is, worship invented by the will of men without the word of God.
These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in willworship and false humility.
—Colossians 2:23
It is certain that both our own wisdom and the wisdom of all men must become foolishness to us, so that we may acknowledge God
alone as wise. Those who imagine that they please him through observances invented according to human preference are far removed from this path.
This has been done for many ages, even within our own memory, and continues today in lands where the creature possesses greater authority than the Creator. Their religion—if it deserves to be called religion—is confused with more numerous and foolish superstitions than ever existed in pagan idolatry. For what can the human mind produce except carnal and foolish things that clearly reveal the author from whom they proceeded?
There is something worse still. Once men begin to place religion in these vain traditions, that perversity is immediately followed by the execrable corruption Christ reproached in the Pharisees: the commandment of God is despised and abolished in order to preserve the commandments of men.
You have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
—Matthew 15:6
I shall not contend against our present lawmakers merely with my own words. I grant them the victory if they can prove that this accusation of Christ is not directed against them.
But how can they excuse themselves, when among them it is considered a hundred times more horrible a sin not to have confessed once a year into the ear of a priest than to have lived wickedly throughout the entire year; to have touched meat with the
tip of one's tongue on Friday than to have defiled every member of one's body each day by fornication; to have put one's hand to honest labor on a feast day than to have employed one's whole body in wicked deeds throughout the week; for a priest to be joined in lawful marriage than to be stained with a thousand adulteries; to have failed to fulfill a vow of pilgrimage than to have broken one's faith in every promise; not to have spent one's money upon the extravagant splendor of their churches than to have abandoned a poor person in extreme need; to have passed before an idol without removing one's hat than to have despised every person in the world; or not to have muttered long and meaningless words at appointed hours than never to have prayed with genuine affection?
What does it mean to nullify the commandment of God for the sake of human traditions, if this is not it?
They coldly commend obedience to God's commandments as though merely discharging a formal obligation, while demanding complete obedience to their own with as much earnestness as though the whole power of godliness consisted in them.
They punish transgressions of God's law with the fines of trivial satisfactions, yet punish the violation of one of their own decrees with nothing less than imprisonment, fire, or the sword. They are ready enough to pardon those who despise God, but pursue those who despise their authority with implacable hatred even to death.
They so instruct those whom they hold captive in ignorance that they would rather see the whole law of God overthrown than a single point of what they call the commandments of the Church.
First, it is already a serious departure from the right path when, over matters that are slight and—if judged according to God's standard— indifferent, one person despises, condemns, and rejects another. Yet, as though this evil were not already great enough, these weak and beggarly elements of the world, as Saint Paul calls them, are now esteemed more highly than the heavenly ordinances of God.
How do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be enslaved?
—Galatians 4:9
A man is absolved of adultery but condemned for what he eats. A lawful wife is forbidden to one who is permitted to keep a prostitute. This is the fruit of such corrupt obedience: the more it bows before men, the further it withdraws from God.
"Why, then," they ask, "did Christ command men to bear the intolerable burdens imposed by the scribes and Pharisees?"
But I ask them in return: why did Christ elsewhere command us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, calling their leaven—as the Evangelist Saint Matthew explains it—everything they mingled from their own teaching with the pure word of God?
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
—Matthew 16:6
Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
—Matthew 16:12
What more do we require when we are commanded to flee from and guard ourselves against all their doctrine? It is therefore perfectly evident that in the other passage our Lord did not intend the consciences of his people to be burdened with the Pharisees' own traditions.
The words themselves, unless twisted by sophistry, do not approach such a meaning. Our Lord was about to speak publicly against the wicked lives of the Pharisees. He therefore first instructed his hearers that although they saw nothing in the Pharisees' conduct worthy of imitation, they should not reject what the Pharisees taught verbally when they sat in Moses' seat—that is, when they explained the law.
The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they command you to observe, observe and do; but do not act according to their works, for they say and do not.
—Matthew 23:2–3
Some simple people, upon hearing that believers' consciences must not be bound by human traditions and that God is worshiped in vain by means of them, suppose that the same must be said of regulations established to preserve order in the Church. We must therefore correct their error.
It is admittedly easy to be mistaken here, since at first sight the difference between these two kinds of regulations is not apparent.
But we shall explain the whole matter so clearly that no one should afterward be deceived by their resemblance.
Let us begin with this consideration: if we recognize that every human society requires some form of government to preserve peace and concord, and that every undertaking requires some order to maintain public decency and even basic civility among men, then these things must especially be observed in churches. Churches are preserved by good order and are entirely dissipated by discord.
Therefore, if we desire to provide properly for the preservation of the Church, we must diligently ensure that everything is done decently and in good order, as Saint Paul commands.
Let all things be done decently and in good order.
—1 Corinthians 14:40
Since there is such great diversity among human minds and judgments, no system of government could continue among them unless it were established by definite laws, and no order could be properly maintained without some settled form.
Far from condemning laws directed toward this end, we affirm that without them churches would immediately become disordered and deformed. For Saint Paul's requirement that everything be done decently and in order could not otherwise be fulfilled unless order and propriety were preserved by some settled form.
Nevertheless, we must always take great care that such observances are not regarded as necessary to salvation and thus made binding
upon consciences, nor that the honor and worship of God be placed in them as though true godliness consisted in their observance.
This distinction alone separates the accursed constitutions by which, as we have said, true religion is obscured and consciences plunged into ruin from the holy ordinances of the Church, which always aim at one of two ends: either to preserve decency in the fellowship of believers or to maintain peace and concord among them.
Once it is understood that a law has been established as a rule of propriety, the superstition into which those fall who place the worship of God in human inventions is removed. Furthermore, once it is understood that the law aims only at the common good of men, the false notion of obligation and necessity is overthrown—the notion that troubles consciences when traditions are regarded as necessary to salvation.
The purpose of recognizing this distinction is simply that we may nourish love among ourselves by serving one another.
We have examples of the first kind in Saint Paul, when he forbids women to teach publicly and directs them not to appear except with their heads covered.
Let your women keep silence in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak.
—1 Corinthians 14:34
Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.
—1 Corinthians 11:5
We also possess everyday examples among ourselves: praying publicly on our knees and with uncovered heads; not burying the dead without first wrapping them in a burial cloth; and not handling the sacraments of our Lord irreverently or indecently.
What, then? Is there so great a mystery in a woman's head covering that it is a serious crime for her to go into the street bareheaded? Is silence so absolutely commanded to her that she cannot speak without committing a grave offense? Is there such inherent sanctity in bending the knees or wrapping a dead body that these practices cannot be omitted without sin?
Certainly not. If the urgent need of her neighbor left a woman no time to cover her head, she would commit no sin by running to his aid bareheaded. There are also occasions when it would be better for her to speak than to remain silent. Nothing prevents a sick person who cannot kneel from praying while standing upright. Finally, if no cloth is available in which to wrap a dead body, it is better to bury it naked than to leave it unburied.
Nevertheless, in governing ourselves in these matters, we should follow the customs and laws of the country in which we live, together with a settled rule of modesty showing us what ought to be practiced and what ought to be avoided.
If anyone fails in these matters through forgetfulness or inadvertence, there is no sin. If he does so out of contempt, his obstinacy deserves condemnation. If anyone wishes to argue and
appear wiser than he ought, let him consider whether he can justify himself before God.
As for us, Saint Paul's words should satisfy us:
We have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.
—1 Corinthians 11:16
Examples of the second kind include appointed times for public prayers, preaching, and baptisms; places designated for these purposes; the singing of hymns or psalms; the days appointed for receiving the Lord's Supper; the manner of administering excommunication; and other similar matters.
It makes no essential difference which days or hours are chosen, what form the building takes, or which psalms are sung on one day or another. Nevertheless, settled days and hours must be appointed, and the place must be large enough to receive the congregation, if peace and concord are to be preserved.
For what disputes and confusion would arise if everyone were permitted to alter according to his own preference the things belonging to public order? No single arrangement would ever please everyone if such matters were left unsettled and subject to each person's will.
We must therefore take diligent care that no error arises to obscure or pollute the pure integrity of this practice. This may be accomplished if every ceremony employed possesses some evident usefulness, if only a few are adopted, and especially if the pastor
remains watchful to close the way against all false opinions through sound teaching.
Such knowledge will preserve the full liberty of each one of us in all these matters. Nevertheless, each person will voluntarily place some restraint upon his liberty whenever the propriety or love of which we have spoken requires it.
It will also cause us to observe these practices without superstition and prevent us from compelling others to observe them with excessive rigor. We shall not imagine that the worship of God is improved by a multitude of ceremonies, nor will one church despise another because of differences in outward forms.
Finally, rather than establishing a perpetual law concerning such matters, we shall direct the whole purpose and use of ceremonies toward the edification of the Church. According to the requirements of that edification, we must be prepared to permit not only the alteration of a particular ceremony but also the removal and abolition of all those previously observed.
The present age provides certain proof that, according to the needs of the time, it is often exceedingly beneficial to abolish certain observances which are neither indecent nor evil in themselves.
In former times, such blindness and ignorance prevailed that churches clung to ceremonies with so corrupt an opinion and so obstinate a zeal that they can scarcely be properly cleansed from the horrible superstitions in which they have been buried unless many ceremonies are removed—ceremonies which may originally have
been established for good reasons and which are not in themselves blameworthy.
If anyone stubbornly insists upon defending them, his obstinacy would be both wicked and harmful. Considered in themselves, we have already confessed that there is nothing evil in them. But when considered together with their circumstances, it becomes evident that the abuse of ceremonies has rooted such error in human hearts that it cannot easily be corrected unless the objects that continually renew the occasion for error are removed.
For this reason, Hezekiah is praised by the testimony of the Holy Spirit for breaking and destroying the bronze serpent which Moses had raised at God's command.
He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it.
—2 Kings 18:4
There would have been nothing wrong in preserving it as a memorial of God's grace if it had not begun to serve the people's idolatry. But since the good king had no other means of correcting the impiety committed by the people through their abuse of that serpent, he had no less reason to destroy it than Moses had possessed for raising it.
For corrupt human judgment must be treated like a weak stomach, from which foods difficult to digest are withheld, even though those same foods would have been wholesome for a strong and healthy stomach.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Of Civil Government
Since we have established that there are two kinds of government in man, and have already spoken sufficiently of the first—which resides in the soul or the inner man and concerns eternal life—the present place requires us to explain the second, which pertains only to the establishment of civil justice and the regulation of outward conduct.
Before proceeding further into this subject, we must recall the distinction previously made, lest we fall into the error common to many and carelessly confuse two things that are entirely different.
When such persons hear that the gospel promises a liberty which acknowledges no king or master among men but submits to Christ alone, they imagine that they receive no benefit from this liberty so long as they see any earthly power raised above them. They therefore suppose that nothing can prosper unless the whole world is transformed into a new order in which there are neither courts, laws, nor magistrates, nor anything else of the kind which they imagine restricts their liberty.
But whoever knows how to distinguish between body and soul, between this present transitory life and the eternal life to come, will likewise understand clearly enough that the spiritual kingdom of Christ and civil government are very different things.
Since it is a Jewish folly to seek and confine Christ's kingdom beneath the elements of this world, let us rather consider—as
Scripture plainly teaches—that the fruit we receive from the grace of Christ is spiritual. Let us therefore take diligent care to preserve within its proper bounds the liberty promised and offered to us in Christ.
Why does the same Apostle who commands us to stand firm and not submit again to a yoke of bondage elsewhere instruct servants not to be troubled by their earthly condition, unless spiritual liberty can very well coexist with civil servitude?
Stand firm, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not submit again to a yoke of bondage.
—Galatians 5:1
Were you called while a servant? Do not be troubled by it.
—1 Corinthians 7:21
In the same sense we must understand his other statements:
In the kingdom of God there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, servant nor free.
—Galatians 3:28
And again:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, servant nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
—Colossians 3:11
By these statements he means that it makes no difference what condition we occupy among men or under the laws of what nation we live, since the kingdom of Christ does not consist in any of these things.
Yet this distinction is not intended to make us regard civil government as something polluted or as having no relevance to Christians.
It is true that certain fanatics today speak in this manner. They say that because through Christ we have died to the elements of this world and have been transferred into the kingdom of God among heavenly things, it is beneath us and unworthy of our high calling to occupy ourselves with the impure and profane cares belonging to worldly affairs, from which Christians ought to remain entirely removed.
"What purpose do laws serve," they ask, "without lawsuits and judicial proceedings? And what do lawsuits have to do with a Christian? Indeed, if it is unlawful to kill, what need have we of laws and courts?"
But as we have recently warned that this kind of government differs from the spiritual and inward kingdom of Christ, we must likewise understand that it is in no way opposed to it.
That spiritual kingdom already begins within us upon earth a certain foretaste of the heavenly kingdom, and within this mortal and transitory life a certain foretaste of immortal and incorruptible blessedness.
The purpose of temporal government, however, is to order our life in human society during the time we must live among men; to form our conduct according to civil justice; to reconcile us with one another; and to maintain and preserve common peace and tranquility.
I confess that all these things would be unnecessary if the kingdom of God, as it now exists within us, brought this present life to an end. But if it is the Lord's will that we should journey upon earth while aspiring toward our true country, and if such aids are necessary for our journey, then those who would separate them from man deprive him of his human nature.
They allege that such perfection ought to exist in the Church of God that it would itself be sufficient in place of all laws. But they foolishly imagine a perfection that could never be found in human society.
For since the insolence of the wicked is so great and their malice so rebellious that it can scarcely be restrained by the severity of laws, what may we expect from them if they perceive that they possess unbridled license to do evil, when even force can scarcely prevent them from committing it?
There will be a more suitable occasion later to discuss the usefulness of civil government. For the present, we wish only to make clear that to reject it is an inhuman barbarity, since it is no less necessary among men than bread, water, sunlight, and air—and its dignity is far greater still.
Civil government does not merely provide that men may eat, drink, and be sustained in life, although it includes all these things by making it possible for them to live together. It serves a higher