1. Two Classes, Two Kingdoms, Two Kinds of Laws.
Philistines and deliver the children of Israel. Though he used them as an occasion to advance his own cause, still he did not do so to avenge himself or to seek his own interests, but to serve others and to punish the Philistines. No one but a real Christian and one who is full of the Spirit will follow this example. If reason also were to follow this example, it would indeed pretend not to be seeking its own, but this would be untrue. It cannot be done without grace.
Therefore, first become like Samson, and then you can also do as Samson did.
SECULAR AUTHORITY –
PART TWO: HOW FAR IT EXTENDS
We come now to the main part of this treatise. For as we have learned that there must be temporal authority on earth, and how it is to be employed in a Christian and salutary way, we must now learn how far its arm extends, and how far its hand reaches, lest it extend too far and encroach upon God's kingdom and rule. And it is very necessary to know this, since where it is given too wide a scope, intolerable and terrible injury follows; and on the other hand, it cannot be too restricted without working injury. In the latter case, the punishment is too light; in the former, it is too severe. It is more tolerable, however, to err on the latter side and punish too little, because it is always better to let a knave live than to kill a good man; for the world will still have knaves, and must have them, but there are few good men.
1. Two Classes, Two Kingdoms, Two Kinds of Laws.
In the first place, it must be noted that the two classes of Adam's children, the one in God's kingdom under Christ, the other in the kingdom of the world under the State, have two kinds of laws, as was said above. Every kingdom must have its own laws and regulations; and without law, no kingdom or government can exist, as daily experience sufficiently proves.
Worldly government has laws which extend no further than to life and property and what is external upon earth. For God can and will let no one rule over the soul but Himself.
Therefore, where temporal power presumes to prescribe laws for the soul, it encroaches upon God's government and only misleads and destroys the souls. We desire to make this so clear that everyone shall grasp it, and so that our junkers, the princes and bishops, may see what fools they are when they seek to coerce the people with their laws and commandments into believing one thing or another.
When a man-made law is imposed upon the soul, in order to make it believe this or that, as that man prescribes, there is certainly no word of God for it. And if there is no word of God for it, then it is uncertain whether God would have it so, for we cannot be certain that what
He does not command pleases Him. No, we are sure that it does not please Him. For He desires that our faith be grounded simply and entirely on His divine Word, as He says in Mat
16:18, "On this rock will I build my church"; and in John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice and know me; but the voice of strangers they do not listen to, but flee from them." It follows from this, that the secular power forces souls to eternal death with such an outrageous law; for it compels them to believe as right and certainly pleasing to God, what is nevertheless uncertain — indeed, what is certainly displeasing to Him, since there is no clear word of God for it. For whoever believes to be right, what is wrong or uncertain, denies the truth, which is
God Himself; he believes in lies and errors, and counts that right which is wrong.
Hence, it is the height of folly when they command that one shall believe the Church,1 the fathers, the councils, though there is no word of God for it. The devil's apostles command
1 The church organization.