A Study of Peter Chelčický's Life and a Translation from Czech of Part I of His Net of Faith (1947)/Part 2/Section 8a
CHAPTER XXXII
THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST
(CONTINUED)
Now concerning the second difference between the rule law of Christ and the pagan rule, the Master Adversary says1 that the civil or state law of the pagans is (real)Wyclif's
Dualism law by virtue of the sinfulness of men and for the purpose of obtaining justice through compulsion, while the law of the holy gospel exists for the (sole) purpose of obtaining spiritual gifts of grace. . . (:Civil law administers justice through compulsion, while the law of Christ establishes justice through love:)
(:But while law checks – to a certain degree –in
/justice within one's own country, it does nothing when iniquities are committed abroad:) The straying Christians like to depend on secular power;Chelc̄icky̍'s
Objections they even seek it and cherish it since it serves their inclinations. . . Thus a material-minded people asks to have secular power (over them) be cause it enables them to rest in peace around fleshpots, under the protection of (state) authority; and if, peradventure, some hardship or threat to life or property should come about, these things will be of the defended by authority of the king, through war, driving away the disturber, revenge. . . (:These Christians that have strayed from the law of Christ and are under the jurisdiction of the civil law are regarded as just and good as long as they live up to the standards of the civil courts and offices. But righteousness by law has nothing in common with righteousness in the eyes of God:) The truth of Jesus is nothing but foolishness2 to proud men, an oddity, an offense, a pain and a shame.
Here it is necessary to ask: in what consists the superiority of the law of Christ over pagan civil laws? In this, that a (Christian) man adjusts his conduct in accordance with his conscience. . . keeping in mind the grace of God and the reward of salvation; a subject of the state adjusts his conduct in accordance with the advantageous protection of his temporal legal honor and property. A pagan fights to protect his rights and his property in court or in field; a Christian conducts his life with love, patiently enduring injustice, as he will be rewarded by an eternal gain. . . He refuses to have any dealings with commercial enterprises and with any profitable speculations, lest he harm his soul. . . And this is foolishness to the pagan (world).
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)
(:Evil has a tendency to perpetuate itself and to grow. The Christians, having fallen away from the way of perfection, keep on falling deeper and deeper. The government of kings and of civil laws only helps in this falling.The Fall of
Christianity For even though the civil law seems to check evil, it encourages a continuing fall of man:) It still does perpetuate lawsuits, punishments, revenge; it returns evil for evil, perpetuates falsehoods, taxes patience, . . . and in all these matters it is an accomplice of the fall, departing farther and farther from the original state of innocence.
(:Speaking of the general state of this 'fallenness' Chelc̄icky̍ suggests that there is only one antidote: utter obedience to the law of Christ.:)The Only Way His law alone can check the fall. The 'fallenness' of man is the root of evil death from which all mortal things are growing: addiction to do evil, possessiveness, anger, hatred, avarice. . . And knowing that our old self was crucified with our sins1. . . man can be rescued through his obedience to the laws of Christ. (:By persecuting, the evil of the civil law grows; by being persecuted, the innocence of the true Christian grows:) and with it, his life of grace.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)
The third peculiarity with which the civil law and the administration of pagan kings compares unfaforably with the law of the gospel consists in the fact that civil law and rulers compel against the people's will.
The temporal power is called sovereignty be cause it has the authority to enforce; even when it desires (the common) good without which the world could not stand together, it does so by compulsion.The Evil of
Compulsion The temporal authority can do so only because the sovereignty of God suffers it in order to keep the world together. If God should desire it, he could wipe out the whole world on account of its iniquity and all the kings of the earth (put together) with their combined sovereignties could not prevent it!. . . Therefore Jesus Christ who is the sovereign of his people requires from them the sovereignty of goodness. And his sovereign goodness is so perfect that he does not even compel his people to be good. Does he not say,
And if your physical will does not want it and rebels against it, compel it yourself, deny yourself.::Personal Discipline You yourself must rebel against your unwilling will and follow reason. Cling to God through grace, fulfill His good will by emptying your own ill will, for the love of God your Lord! . . . No one can be a follower of Lord Jesus unless he becomes one by his own volition. If one is filled by unwillingness, let him break it and resist it.:: CHRistian Discipleship If he does not break his ill will and tame his will, who else shall do it for him?. . . Does not God say, "Under thee shall be thy desire and thou shalt rule over it"?2. . .
Christ's dominion is perfect . . . and therefore it never uses compulsion. . . The virtue, which he expects from every (Christian). . . springs from a good and free will;Free Will
& Choice originating in freedom, it has (the responsibility) of choice, to choose either the best good or the worst evil. Both the se choices stand before man. The Lord Jesus calls us to the best good, the devil and the world calls us to the worst evil. Therefore, choose joy or hell. The choice for either of these (ways) is in thy hands.
Christ's dominion leads to perfect goodness (: and they that follow him follow a king whose rule was ushered in with the words,
goodwill toward all men!3
They who submit to the will of Jesus Christ and to his. . . sweet truth. . . will have peace on earth through him and no one else. . . They shall be like sheep following his voice; they hear him and he will give them eternal life. And nobody will take them from his hands, for they hear and know his voice4. . . and live in his perfection, rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name.5 Even the Scripture gives this interpretation when it says,
They, the sons of wisdom. . . who trust in him will understand the truth, and, faithfully clinging to him in love,7 they will gladly do his will.
(:How different is the secular authority with its compulsion and force!:) Therefore a faithful Christian who is a servant of Christ and of his perfect rule cannot be a king with un-Christian authority and with rights contrary to the law of Christ. . . lest he pollute the blessed ferment of the wine with stinking poison. . .
CHAPTER XXXV
THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)
Fourthly no true Christian can become a ruler over a people who se true king is Christ. (:A true Christian can have no other sentiments but those of equality with others; any action which would spoil the brotherly relation is un-Christian:) He must keep a brotherly equality with all and everybody, love his neighbor as himself,1 and do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than himself.2 . . . How could he be a king if the gospel prescribes to "bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ?"3 . . .
It is shown in the example of Solomon . . . that the burden of rulership is difficult.The Disruption of
Solomon's Kingdom When he died and his son was about to become king, the Jewish people came to him asking him to be kind and to lighten the heavy burden which his father had imposed upon them. And he,4 taking counsel with fools, and being a fool himself, answered the people saying, "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins!"5 In other words, he would burden the people more than his father. Because of this foolish answer ten tribes left him. All this shows that even Solomon, with all his wisdom, burdened his people with great oppression.
Therefore a good Christian who is obliged to carry his neighbor's burdens cannot impose the pagan burden of authority on others.Kingly Rule
Contrary to
Christian Principles When, one day, the disciples of Christ disputed who was the greatest of them, Jesus said to them: "Do you know that the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over the people, seeking authority, honors and enrichment?"6 And they call it a good thing! Therefore Jesus forbids his disciples all lordship with its pride and cruelty and compulsion. . ." Do you want to be like them? You do not know what you ask for. But not so with you; rather let the greatest among you become as the least."7
Such pagan lordship does not befit the people of Jesus which ought to stand together in an equality of a fellowship of love, and whose ruler is King Jesus. This has been confirmed by that faithful Jew of the Old Testament, Gideon.Old Testament
Proof that
Secular Rule
and Authority
Is Wrong He, after winning a great victory over his pagan enemies, was asked by the liberated Jews to become their king. . . But he answered them saying, "I will not rule over you, nor shall my sons rule over you, since God the Lord rules over you."8 Behold the nobility of this honest man who realized . . . that God alone should be their king. (:All this proves that the exercise of authority is not becoming a Christian.:)
5 L-Kings 12: "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins! And now, whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions!" (v.11, AT).
7 Luke 22: 26.
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)
The fifth objection against a good Christian's participation in government is this: . . . He cannot be king even over evil men. . . that is, the Christians who have strayed from . . . the path of perfection. No matter how good the intention of a Christian ruler would be, (:the result would always be bad and the man himself would get involved in the snares of evil.:) A good king . . . must abide by a law which he orders . . . his people to obey. There exists no king who could rule without having some law. . .Problems of
Sovereignty A good Christian who would intend to be a king over an evil people for the purpose of their improvement, could have no better law for this end than the divine law. (:In other words, this divine law would make human laws as well as his rule superfluous:)
And what if he who purports to be a king for (the purpose of) betterment of evil people takes the Old Teatament for his (law)?Sovereignty
And the Old
Testament And it is a good law since God Himself gave it to His chosen people. The Jewish kings. . . led people to do good even by coërcion. They were even allowed to war in accordance with this law. . . But a Christian cannot obey this law because Christ is the end of the Jewish law for the justification of the believers. (In this way we must understand) Saint Paul when he says,
. . . Being circumcised, that is, being bound by obedience to the Law, they could war, murder, steal and otherwise shed blood, all in accordance with the Law; but obeying this Law leads not to salvation in Christ. Thus, a true Christian desiring to be a king could not abide by the old Jewish Law in order to improve evil men. If he really desires to make his pe iple better, he can do this according to the law of Christ . . . which means to love God and all neighbors. . .
But here comes the difficulty: an evil man can hardly be forced by compulsion to love God; for, indeed, the loving of God depends on free will and on the love of man's heart, a love which originates in the word of God. . .
A good king could only by preaching the word of God persuade an evil people to love God; for otherwise, by forcing them he will not succeed.King or Priest? But if a king has to better a people by preaching . . . he is no more a king, he becomes a priest. As a king he could do naught but hang all evil men. For no king, not even the best one, could succeed in correcting an evil people except by the law of Christ. This law alone is capable of making sinful men better through their conscience. The king, having no power to force his people to obey this law, he also has no authority to force their consciences,2 not to speak of the right to coërce their improvement through royal or civil laws; just as a fruit-tree cannot blossom in a winter season of cruel frosts, neither goodness can prosper through the laws of the Emperor. . .
Therefore a Christian who takes account of his conscience must have no part in that office . . . since his good intention cannot succeed with his exercise of its authority. . .
(The profession of government) is a heavy burden; not only does it weigh one down with its own burdens of sin, but even with the sins of the subjects; the sins which they committed by his orders or the sins which they committed (not by his orders) but which he could have prevented, they all fall upon his head. It becomes evident that only they can enjoy with good conscience offices with pagan lordship who do not care about truth and who have no compassion; authority becomes in their hand the law of injustice, enabling them to do what they want, not allowing their conscience to interfere with their wilfullness.3 (:The only precaution they take is that all iniquities and every violence be done according to the letter of the law.:) To them can be rightly applied the parable of the trees found in the Jewish Law which says:
Then the trees said to the fig tree, "Do you come and reign over us!" But the fig tree said to them, "Do I lack my sweetness and good fruit that I should go begging to the trees?"
Then the trees said to the vine, "Do you come and reign over us!" But the vine said to them, "Do I lack my wine, which cheers gods and men, that I should go begging to the trees?"
Finally the trees said to the thorn, "Do thou come and reign over us!" But the thorn said to the trees, "If in good faith you are anointing me as king over you, come and take shelter in my shade; but if not, fire shall burst forth from the thorn, and consume the cedars of Lebanon!"43 "Sovereignty is a supreme power over citizens and subjects, itself unrestrained by law." This is the definition of sovereignty made in 1576 by Jean Bodin, one of the founders of political philosophy. (Cf. Coker, Readings in Political Philosophy, 1938, p.374). "Jean Bodin's unique contribution to political thought was the doctrine of sovereignty." (C.C. Maxey, Political Philosophies, 1938, p.164). In this chapter Chelc̄icky̍ anticipates Bodin by 161 years.
4 Jotham's fable, originally probably intended as a satire on the monarchy. Judges 9: 8–15, AT.
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONTINUED)
First, the trees came to the olive tree asking it to reign over them; but the olive tree refused; it has substance suitable in men's food and useful in medicines.Interpretation
of the Parable
of the Trees It signifies men abounding in divine grace who are filled with the Spirit and who are the medicine for the sorrows and sufferings of men. The fig tree has delicious fruit which contains both little seeds as well as honey; it signifies the loving brotherhood in which a multitude becomes one body of Christ.1 The vine contains satisfaction and joy; it signifies good conscience pertaining to communion at a divine feast, for only there conscience is a constant feast and the mind in safety. That is why all these tasty fruit trees refused to rule and to be exalted above other wild (fruit-less) trees lest they lose their fat substance and sweetness and consolation.
Let us see what many useful things this parable can show us. (:People who are partakers of the gifts of God will not forfeit these for the sake of temporal advantages, prestige, and authority, seeing that these 'advantages' entail violence and cruelty.:) But the true word of God says, "The earth is the Lord's and its fulness, that is, its mountains, and valleys, and all regions."2. .God is the only rightful ruler of this earth.
(:And what title has the nobility to the land and people? It got it by tricks.:) Who is not God's, has no right to possess or to hold anything that belongs to God, unless he has taken possession of it illegally and by violence. Thus, contrary to the divine law, our fathers bought and established illegal claims for us and this is our natural heritage: poverty and shame and death, and after that hell. (:Shame, trickery, falsehood, cruelty these are the true signs of our coats-of-arms. But God shall regard all these unlawful property holders as traitors of the kingdom of God:)
And if you who are heavy and round with fat object, saying, "Our fathers have bought these people and those manors for our inheritance,"Aristocracy
Is Based On
Falsehoods then, indeed, they made an evil business and an expensive bargain! For who has the right to buy people, to enslave them and to treat them with indignities as if they were cattle led to slaughter?. . . You prefer dogs to people whom you cuss, despise, beat, from whom you extort taxes and for whom you forge fetters. . . while at the same time you will say to your dog, "Setter, come here and lie down on the pillow!" Those people were God's before you bought them! . . .
Who has the right to buy people? . . . They were God's and . . . after they were enslaved . . . Christ Jesus bought this people to himself, not with silver or gold, but with his own precious blood and terrible suffering.Christ Came
to Make Men
Free He loves one human being more than all the riches of the earth together. . . The heavenly Lord redeems and buys (the people) for his inheritance. And the earthly lord buys them in order to increase his pleasures through their pain, to make a bridge out of their bent backs, to make himself a soft bed by their labor; and he puts on them all the burden of his groaning table (as rich men have), of his bright and soft garments and other physical pleasures. Look, you fat one, what a sodomitic life you have prepared for your people! What will you say on the Day of Judgment when the Lord will seat Himself on the judgment seat, and when all injustices committed against this people yea, the very people which He Himself bought with His blood will be arraigned against you? And He will say to you, "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."3 "Go to hell!"
. . . And no high titles, no archives and records, no documents with seals . . . will save you from perdition.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE LAW OF MEN AND THE LAW OF CHRIST (CONCLUSION)
(:Chelc̄icky̍ recapitulates his account of how the early Church remained faithful to Christ for the first three hundred and twenty years, how the Emperor and the Pope made an alliance, bartering their powers, and how the faith became corrupted with the defilement of the Church.:)
But remember this, Christians who follow faith and arrange their life accordingly cannot in truth rule over each other in the manner of pagan rulership. A Christian lord cannot buy people and rule over them. . .