unanimously separated from the communion of the church. Judge now, what Gellius can substantiate hereby; since he and his, never having been separated from the world, are not the church of Christ. Yea he, good fellow, does nothing more nor less than that he hereby manifests his cross-fleeing and open disobedience, and that he covers tip and defends the abominable transgressions of his disciples, however gross they be, with the precedents of others.
In the eighth place he writes, "In the third place I refer them to the parable of Christ, of John the baptist, and of Paul. Christ likens the church unto a field in which the tares grow with the wheat until the harvest. Again, she is likened unto a net in which both good and bad fish are caught. Again, unto the virgins, of whom five were wise and five were foolish. Moreover, unto a royal wedding, where the good and evil are gathered together, one of whom is found by the king, to be without a wedding garment."
Answer. This first parable is explained by Christ himself, saying, "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world" (understand it rightly, Christ says. It is the world, and not the church, as Gellius claims); "the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels," Matt. 13: 37–39.
Reader, understand it rightly. Christ, the Son of man, sows his seed (God's word), through his Spirit, in the world; all who hear, believe and obey it, are called the children of the kingdom. In the same manner the opponent sows his tares (false doctrine), in the world, and all that hear and follow him are called the children of evil. Now, both wheat and tares grow together in the same field, namely in the world. The husbandman does not want the tares to be plucked out before their time, that is, he will not have them destroyed by rooting them up, but wants them left until the harvest, lest the wheat be destroyed with the tares, Matt. 13: 29, 30.
O, reader, if the preachers rightly understood this parable and feared God, they would not cry so loudly against us, who, alas, are every where called tares, heretics, and conspirators, "Down with the heretics;" even if we were heretics, from which God save us. Oh! what noble wheat they destroy! But what does it avail? Satan must rebel and murder; for it is his nature and work, as the Scriptures teach, Gen. 3: 4; John 8.
Some of the other parables, as of the net in which good and bad fishes are caught; of the wise and foolish virgins and their lamps; of the wedding of the king's son and the guests, and of the threshing floor with wheat and chaff, although the Lord spoke them in allusion to the church, yet they were not spoken for the purpose that the church should knowingly and willfully accept and suffer open transgressors, drunkards, carousers, defilers of women, avaricious, robbers, gamblers, and usurers, in their communion; because, then, Christ and Paul would differ in doctrine; for Paul says that we should avoid and shun such. But they were spoken because many intermix with the Christians, in semblance only, and place themselves under the word and sacraments, who, in fact, are no Christians, but are hypocrites and enemies before their God; and these are likened unto the refuse fish; unto the foolish virgins who had no oil in their lamps; unto the guest without a wedding garment, and unto the chaff, which will be cast out by the angels, at the day of Christ. For they pretend that they fear God and seek Christ; they receive baptism and the Lord's Supper, and outwardly act in semblance, but, in fact, no faith, repentance, true fear, and love of God; no Spirit, power, fruit, nor work is found in them.
But, as to the two kinds of laborers in the vineyard, Matt. 2: 28, 29, and as to those called to the great supper, Luke 14: 16, the reader should know, that they have a different meaning and cannot conform to his sentiments. Whosoever loves truth, may examine them, and judge by the Holy Scriptures what their proper meaning is. Again, as to his citation of the vessels to dishonor, I will let Paul's words explain them. He says, "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work," 2 Tim. 2: 21.
Behold, dear reader, here you may ob-
