Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/679

236* (:They close their eyes before other sins evil in the sight of God. They serve not God with their authority, but themselves.:) When the servant of the Church – who thinks he is the successor of the apostles – leads the people to repentance saying that Christ has not come to save the righteous but the sinful he contradicts the intention of the servant with the sword who thinks he serves God by executing the sinners. If the servant of the sword cuts off the heads of the evil-doers he deprives them of their chance of salvation And so these two 'servants of God,' one spiritual and the other secular, stand in each other's way. The ridiculousness of this situation is often apparent: when the servant of the state leads a sinner to execution, the servant of the Church runs there trying to prevent this and to lead the sinner to repentance. The one wants to condemn to death by the judgment of St. Paul, the other wants to save by confession on the basis of the Scripture. Both claim to serve the same Lord. When men lose sight of truth they wander as blind in darkness, clutching this or that, whatever their hands can find.

Both the state and the Church depend upon the sword as their final argument. And both surpass the pagans in their quarrulousness, for even the pagans are more moderate in their use of the sword since they do not have to contend with so  i.e. of the state, of the 'Emperor.'