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An Evangelical Reformer
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zeal of love, not burning without the word of God. 5. If they will not be taught by strong proofs or evangelic reasons, then let them be, and leave them to rage and be mad (Tit. iii., 2, 3), that those who are filthy may become more filthy still (Rev. xxii., 11). 6. The law that condemns heretics to the fire builds up both Zion in blood and Jerusalem in wickedness. 7. Therefore will they be taken away in sighs, for the judgments of God (whose right it is to judge) either convert or harden them, that the blind lead the blind and both the seduced and the seducer go from bad to worse. 8. This is the will of Christ who said, 'Let both grow together till the harvest, lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them' (Matt. xiii., 29). 'For there must be also heresies among you, that they that are approved may be made manifest among you' (1 Cor. xi., 19). 9. Though they indeed experience this, yet they are not put away until Christ shall say to the reapers, 'Gather first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them' (Matt, xiii., 30). 10. This word does not teach us idleness but a strife; for we should unceasingly contend, not with men but with their godless doctrine. 11. The unwatchful bishops are the cause of the heresies. 'When men slept, the enemy came' (Matt. xiii., 25). 12. Again, 'Blessed is the man who is a watcher at the door of the bridegroom's chamber' (Prov. viii.),[1] and neither sleeps nor
  1. Hübmaier's quotations of Scripture are usually very accurate, and his references can almost always be easily identified, though, as the verse divisions had not then been made, he refers only to chapters. But there is nothing in Prov. viii. in the least corresponding to the above words. Had they not been given as a verbatim quotation, they might have been received as an allusion to some text like Matt.