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 shrewd appreciation of both the strength and the weakness of his adversaries, good sense, tact and humour. He cites one after another the fifteen texts on which the opponents of magistracy chiefly relied: John xviii., 36; Matt. xxvi.,53, 54; Luke ix., 54, 55; xii., 13, 14; Matt. v., 40; 1 Cor. vi., 7, 8; Matt, xviii., 15-17; Matt. v., 38, 39, and Luke vi., 29; Eph. vi., 14-17; 2 Cor. x., 4, 5; Matt. v., 43-48; v., 21; Luke xxii., 25, 26; Rom. xii., 19, 20; Eph. iv., 15, and Col. i., 18. Each of these texts is subjected to a thorough and candid examination. Hübmaier here appears to great advantage as an interpreter of Scripture. His exegesis is thoroughly good; there is hardly a word that one would wish to see changed; and he points out, with equal kindness and distinctness, the errors of his brethren. These had been caused by a too rigid literalism of interpretation, and a refusal (or at least a failure) to compare Scripture with Scripture.

It is by this method clearly shown that Paul speaks of a twofold sword, the spiritual and the temporal. The former is the word of God, with which the Christian is to overcome his adversaries. The latter is borne by the magistrate, for the protection of the innocent and the punishment of the evil doer. Governments are of God; the magistrate is his minister. When Jesus forbade his followers to use the sword, he spoke to men who had no right to use it—they had not been elected or appointed for that purpose. He refused to be a judge—that was not his office—but he did not condemn those whose business it was to judge. He that takes the sword without authority shall perish by the sword, but not he that bears the sword according to God's command and order. A Christian ought to suffer wrong rather than