kingdom, until he shall deliver it up to his Heavenly Father, as Paul writes (1 Cor. xv., 24), until God shall be all in all. Even that is the secret [mystery] in Christ and his Church, according to the contents of the letter to the Ephesians, chapter v.
The other command relates to the external and temporal authority and government, which originally was given by God to Adam after his fall, when he said to Eve, "Under the man's authority shalt thou be, and he shall rule over thee" (Gen. iii., 16). If now Adam was set in authority over his Eve, then he received authority over all flesh that should be borne by Eve in pain. In like manner also God entrusted the sword to certain other god-fearing men, for example, to Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon and Samuel. After that the wickedness of men increased and became overflowing, yea, the bulk of it became rampant. The people at one time demanded from Samuel a king and abandoned God. The same king, at the command of God, Samuel gave them; and they thereby became bound to endure the royal authority and subjection that the king exercised thereafter, for their sins, since they had despised and abandoned God and had earnestly demanded from Samuel and not from God a king, like the other nations. Such subjection and burden we must and shall now day by day suffer, endure and bear, obediently and willingly; also give and render tribute to whom tribute belongs, tax to whom tax belongs, fear to whom fear belongs, honour to whom honour belongs.
And for this our sins are to blame, as the sins of Eve that she must bring forth in pain, and as the sins of Adam, that he must eat his bread in the sweat of his face. For if we were pleased to be obedient to God and
