murder, and practise all their wickedness, in whatever way they
please and can invent, without any hindrance.

Now Christ did not mean that we should listen to them in
everything they might say and do, but only then when they present
to us His Word, the Gospel, not their word, His work, and not
their work. How else could we know whether their lies and sins
were to be avoided? There must be some rule, to what extent we
are to hear and to follow them, and this rule cannot be given by
them, but must be established by God over them, that it may serve
us as a guide, as we shall hear in the Fourth Commandment.

It must be, indeed, that even in the spiritual estate the greater
part preach false doctrine and misuse spiritual power, so that
thus occasion may be given us to do the works of this
Commandment, and that we be tried, to see what we are willing to
do and to leave undone against such blasphemers for the sake of
God's honor.

Oh, if we were God-fearing in this matter, how often would the
knaves of officiales have to decree their papal and episcopal ban
in vain! How weak the Roman thunderbolts would become! How often
would many a one have to hold his tongue, to whom the world must
now give ear! How few preachers would be found in Christendom!
But it has gotten the upper hand: whatever they assert and in
whatever way, that must be right. Here no one fights for God's
Name and honor, and I hold that no greater or more frequent sin
is done in external works than under this head. It is a matter
so high that few understand it, and, besides, adorned with God's
Name and power, dangerous to touch. But the prophets of old were