ars, lie and
deceive" [Ps. 116:11]; for the real good works they neglect, and
adorn and paint themselves with the most insignificant, and want
to be pious, to mount to heaven in peaceful security.

But if you should say: "Why does not God do it alone and Himself,
since He can and knows how to help each one?" Yes, He can do it;
but He does not want to do it alone; He wants us to work with
Him, and does us the honor to want to work His work with us and
through us. And if we are not wilting to accept such honor, He
will, after all, perform the work alone, and help the poor; and
those who were unwilling to help Him and have despised the great
honor of doing His work, He will condemn with the unrighteous,
because they have made common cause with the unrighteous. Just as
He alone is blessed, but He wants to do us the honor and not be
alone in His blessedness, but have us to be blessed with Him. And
if He were to do it alone, His Commandments would be given us in
vain, because no one would have occasion to exercise himself in
the great works of these Commandments, and no one would test
himself to see whether he regards God and His Name as the highest
good, and for His sake risks everything.

[Sidenote: Against Spiritual Wickedness]

XXXI. It also belongs to this work to resist all false,
seductive, erroneous, heretical doctrines, every misuse of
spiritual power. Now this is much higher, for these use the holy
Name of God itself to fight against the Name of God. For this
reason it seems a great thing and a dangerous to resist them,
because they assert that he who resists them resists God and all
His saints, in whose place they sit and whose power they use,
saying that Christ said of them, "He that heareth you, heareth
Me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me." [Luke 10:6] On
which words they lean heavily, become insolent and bold to say,
to do, and to leave undone what they please; put to the ban,
accurse, rob, 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