me 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." 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 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
masters in this; also the apostles, especially St. Paul, who did not
allow it to trouble them whether the highest or the lowest priest had
said it, or had done it in God's Name or in his own. They looked on
the works and words, and held them up to God's Commandment, no matter
whether big John or little Nick said i