guilt. For we would all be Christians and evangelical by taking wives and eating flesh, never sacrificing, never fasting, by blasphemy, usury, lying, deceit, oppression, trickery, compulsion, driving, stealing, robbery, burning, playing, dancing, banqueting, idleness, whoring, adultery, seduction of girls, tyranny, strangling, killing. The lightness and freedom of the flesh sits on the topmost bench; on the uppermost seat the pride of this world reigns, sings and triumphs in all things. No Christian shines forth among all men. Brotherly love and faith is wholly extinguished, and all this, sad to say, takes place under the seeming of the gospel.
"For, as soon as you say to such evangelical people, 'It is written, brother, "Cease from evil and do good,"' he immediately answers, 'It is written, "We cannot do anything good." All things take place by the destiny of God and of necessity.' They mean by this that it is permitted them to sin. If you say further, 'It is written, "Those that do evil shall go into eternal fire,"' straightway a girdle made of fig-leaves is found to cover their crime, and they say, 'It is written, "Faith alone saves, and not our works."' With such subtleties we are nevertheless good evangelicals, and know how to quote, flourish and bounce around in a masterly way with the holy Scriptures—as the friends of Job, yea as the devil (Matt, iv.)—for the defence of our freedom and the sauciness of the flesh."[1]
To comprehend Hübmaier's Anthropology, it is necessary to understand at the outset that he believes the Scriptures to teach clearly the trichoto-
- ↑ On Brotherly Discipline, Op. 21.
