The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience Discussed and Mr. Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered, by Roger Williams CHAP. L. CHAP. L. Peace. Which is the third argument against the civil magistrates’ power in spiritual and soul-matters out of this scripture, Rom. xiii.? Truth. I dispute from the nature of the magistrates’ weapons, ver. 4. He hath a sword, which he bears not in vain, delivered to him, as I acknowledge from God’s appointment in the free consent and choice of the subjects for common good. We must distinguish of swords. Four sorts of swords mentioned in the New Testament. We find four sorts of swords mentioned in the New Testament. First, the sword of persecution, which Herod stretched forth against James, Acts xii. 1, 2. Secondly, the sword of God’s Spirit, expressly said to be the word of God, Ephes. vi. [17]. A sword of two edges, carried in the mouth of Christ, Rev. i. [16], which is of strong and mighty operation, piercing between the bones and the marrow, between the soul and the spirit, Heb. iv. [12]. Thirdly, the great sword of war and destruction, given to him that rides that terrible red horse of war, so that he takes peace from the earth, and men kill one another, as is most lamentably true in the slaughter of so many hundred thousand souls within these few years in several parts of Europe, our own and others. None of these three swords are intended in this scripture. The civil sword. Therefore, fourthly, there is a civil sword, called the sword of civil justice, which being of a material, civil nature, for the defence of persons, estates, families, liberties of a city or civil state, and the suppressing of uncivil or injurious persons or actions, by such civil punishment, it cannot, according to its utmost reach and capacity, now under Christ, when all nations are merely civil, without any such typical, holy respect upon them, as was upon Israel, a national church—I say, cannot extend to spiritual and soul-causes, spiritual and soul-punishment, which belongs to that spiritual sword with two edges, the soul-piercing,—in soul-saving, or soul-killing,—the word of God.[158]