Page:Chelčický, Molnar - The Net of Faith.djvu/101

 on the goodness and love that come from the inner life. Chelčický finds this authority of the ‘inner man’ even in the Old Testament. ]

The Jews, having been brought into the Promised Land, lived safely under the protection of God and His laws, living in perfect freedom and having no temporal lord with authority to rule over them and no one to whom they were obliged to pay taxes. And they remained in this freedom for four hundred years, as can be found in the Scriptures. But later, through Satan’s insinuations and through their own sins – having rejected their Lord God and His protection – they begged Samuel for a king saying:

“Set up for us a king that may judge us like all the nations around us!” But the thing was evil in the eye of Samuel who spoke of these things to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people according to all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you but me from being king over them. Like all the deeds that they have done to me from the day I have brought them up from Egypt even to this day, inasmuch as they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now, therefore, listen to their utterance, and give them a pagan king.”[357]

Having asked for a pagan king, they committed a great sin. The Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and the Jewish people said,

“We have added to all our sins the wickedness of asking for ourselves a king.”[358]

[ In asking for a temporal ruler, the Jews scorned God and His law. Just as they rejected divine order by inviting a king to rule over them, similarly also the Christians rejected God by accepting the Donation of Constantine. Before, Christ had specifically set his people apart from pagan authority, not geographically, but spiritually ] by purity and innocence, setting the Church apart as a pure bride to be betrothed to her one husband, Christ.[359] They belonged no more to themselves but to him who died for them.

[ It was only in that perfect separation from the evil world of temporal affairs that it was possible for the “dwelling of God to be with men.”[360] ]

What the Emperor could not accomplish by tortures he obtained by favors and gifts; he joined their faith only to drag it into the unfaith of his paganism.

[ Emperor Constantine and Pope Sylvester are accomplices in a great conspiracy against God. But this would not be so bad as the fact that they declared their transaction to be of divine sanction. The alliance of Church and state was declared to be in accordance with the true faith, and whoever now dares challenge it is condemned as a heretic. ]