whom Christ died.
And all this is to be done to avoid a blow, a slander, an insulting
word, or some other offence for which neither the law nor any authorised
judge could assign the penalty of death.

Not only so, but even a priest is held to have contracted neither sin
nor irregularity in this infliction of death without authority and
against law. Can these be religious men and priests who speak in this
way? Are they Christians or Turks--men or demons? Spread over the whole
earth, according to St. Augustine, there are two peoples and two
worlds--the world of the children of God, who form one body, of which
Jesus Christ is king, and the world of the enemies of God, of whom the
devil is king.

Now, Christ has founded honour on suffering; the devil has founded it on
the refusal to suffer. Christ has taught those who receive a blow to
offer the other cheek; but the devil has taught those who are in danger
of a blow to kill the enemy who threatens them.

Consider, therefore, fathers, to which of these two kingdoms you belong.
You have heard the language of the city of peace, which is called the
mystical Jerusalem, and you have heard the language of the city of
turmoil, which is called in the Scriptures the spiritual Sodom. Which of
these two languages do you understand? According to St. Paul, those who
belong to Christ act and speak on his principles; and, according to the
words of Christ, those who are the children of the devil, who has been a
murderer from the beginning of the world, follow his maxims. We listen,
therefore, to the language of your teachers, and ask of them whether
when a blow is threatened, we ought to suffer it rather than slay the
offender, or whether we may kill him in order to escape the affront?

Lessius, Molina, Escobar, and other Jesuits say that it is lawful to
kill the man who threatens a blow. Is that the language of Jesus Christ?

* * * * *

WILLIAM PENN

SOME FRUITS OF SOLITUDE

William Penn was born in London on October 14, 1644. In early
life he joined the Quakers, and while still a young man
underwent imprisonment for the expression of his religious
views. For "A Sandy Foundation Shaken," an attack on the
Athanasian Creed, he was in 1668 sent to the Tower, where he
wrote, "No Cross, No Crown." Under James II., however, he was
high in the favour of the court, and received a grant of the
region afterwards