Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/484

 of the wicked with moderation, and less sharply. As I acknowledge my fault in this matter, I hope that pardon will be denied me by no one who once considers what lions of Moab, what Rabshakehs of the Assyrians, how many Shimeis I alone have long been forced to bear with, to my own loss and that of many whom I might have profited in the Word of God. Thus my mind has been tossed by these whirlwinds and yet has never given up hope of getting peace sometime, by which I might please your Highness, through whom, we may not doubt, the mercy of God has brought not a little profit to Christ's gospel.

But as I see that my hope was merely human imagination, and that I am daily more deeply involved in this great sea, in which innumerable reptiles and great and small animals join forces against me, I also see that my hope was a temptation of Satan who only sought to puff me up with the vanity of my own thoughts to divert me at length from my main pur- pose. He wanted me to go to Babylon before I had fortified and provisioned my Jerusalem. So clever is his wickedness! Considering this I remembered that holy man Nehemiah, and leaving idle musings to Esra, the learned scribe, I began to despair of peace, and arming myself equally for peace or war, I held the sword with one hand to repulse my Arabians, and with the other built the wall,^ lest, should I give my whole attention to either pursuit I should accomplish neither. Jerome, too, says that one who does not resist enemies of the Church does her as much harm as he does good by building up another part.

The apostle* also commands a bishop not only to be power- ful in exhortation in sound doctrine, but also to refute those who attack it. Not that I think I am a bishop, for I have not the wealth and insignia of office which to-day are the principal marks of a bishop, but one who ministers to the Word does an episcopal office. Such must needs be an ambi- dextrous Ehud with his left hand prepared to thrust a dagger into fat Eglon and slay him.* So I, in the midst of the papists' sword, bulls, trumpets and horns trying in vain to terrify

^Nehemiali, iy. 17. Titus, i. 9.

'Judges, iii. x6£F.

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