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. LXXI. The seducing or infecting of others, discussed. CHAP. LXXI. The seducing or infecting of others, discussed. Peace. “Your next author,” saith he,[186] “Jerome, crosseth not the truth, nor advantageth your cause; for we grant what he saith, that heresy must be cut off with the sword of the Spirit: but this hinders not, but that being so cut down, if the heretic will persist in his heresy to the seduction of others, he may be cut off also by the civil sword, to prevent the perdition of others. And that to be Jerome’s meaning, appeareth by his note upon that of the apostle, A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Therefore,” saith he, “a spark as soon as it appeareth, is to be extinguished, and the leaven to be removed from the rest of the dough; rotten pieces of flesh are to be cut off, and a scabbed beast is to be driven from the sheepfold; lest the whole house, body, mass of dough, and flock, be set on fire with the spark, be putrefied with the rotten flesh, soured with the leaven, perish by the scabbed beast.” The answerer trusteth not to the sword of the Spirit only, in spiritual causes. Truth. I answer, first, he granteth to Jerome,[187] that heresy must be cut off with the sword of the Spirit; yet, withal, he maintaineth a cutting off by a second sword, the sword of the magistrate; and conceiveth that Jerome so means, because he quoteth that of the apostle, A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Answ. It is no argument to prove that Jerome meant a civil sword, by alleging 1 Cor. v. 6, or Gal. v. 9, which properly and only approve a cutting off by the sword of the Spirit in the church, and the purging out of the leaven in the church, in the cities of Corinth and Galatia. The absolute sufficiency of the sword of the Spirit. And if Jerome should so mean as himself doth, yet, first, that grant of his, that heresy must be cut off with the sword of the Spirit, implies an absolute sufficiency in the sword of the Spirit to cut it down, according to that mighty operation of scriptural weapons, 2 Cor. x. 4, powerfully sufficient, either to convert the heretic to God, and subdue his very thoughts into subjection to Christ, or else spiritually to slay and execute him. The church of Christ to be kept pure. Secondly. It is clear to be the meaning of the apostle, and of the Spirit of God, not there to speak to the church in Corinth, or Galatia, or any other church, concerning any other dough, or house, or body, or flock, but the dough, the body, the house, the flock of Christ, his church: out of which such sparks, such leaven, such rotten flesh, and scabbed sheep, are to be avoided. A national church not instituted by Christ Jesus. Nor could the eye of this worthy answerer ever be so obscured, as to run to a smith’s shop for a sword of iron and steel to help the sword of the Spirit, if the Sun of righteousness had once been pleased to show him, that a national church, which elsewhere he professeth against, a state-church, whether explicit, as in old England, or implicit, as in New, is not the institution of the Lord Jesus Christ.[188] The national church of the Jews. 1 Sam. xiii. The national, typical state-church of the Jews, necessarily called for such weapons; but the particular churches of Christ in all parts of the world, consisting of Jews or Gentiles, are powerfully able, by the sword of the Spirit to defend themselves, and offend men or devils, although the state or kingdom, wherein such a church or churches of Christ are gathered, have neither carnal spear nor sword, &c.; as once it was in the national church of the land of Canaan.