ave it obtain. They are not wholly satisfied
even to murder the innocent; they would prefer to be justified in
their action--to have us confess to wrong-doing. But that is something
no Christian heart will do; it may be left to the devil.

33. But the Papists will say: "However, it is written, You must suffer
and not revile; you must thank God for persecution and pray for your
enemies." That is true; but it is one thing to suffer patiently, the
while wishing your enemies well and praying for them, and quite a
different thing to justify them in their conduct. I must cease not to
confess the truth and maintain my innocence, both in heart and with my
lips. But if men will not accept my word, my heart must tell me I have
suffered injustice. Rather should I endure ten deaths, could my
enemies inflict them, than to condemn myself in violation of
conscience. So, when Peter made this little statement about Christ not
reviling nor threatening, which was true, he did not mean that Christ
justified his persecutors in their treatment of him. But what are we
to do? If we do not justify our enemies when they make us suffer, they
will do even worse things to us; for they desire the name and the
credit, in the eyes of the world, of having done right by us. Yes, as
Christ has somewhere said, they would have it thought they do God
great service by murdering us. Now, who is to judge and decide the
question?

34. Peter declares that Christ committed the matter to him who judges
righteously. How should he do otherwise, knowing that his persecutors
treated him unjustly and yet maintained the contrary? There was for
him no judge on earth. He was compelled to commit the matter to that
righteous judge, his Heavenly Father. Well he knew that such sins and
blasphemies could not go unpunished. No, the sentence was already
passed, the sword sharpened, the angels given orders, for the
overthrow of Jerusalem. Previous to his sufferings, on his way to
Jerusalem, as Christ beheld the city, he announced its coming doom and
wept over it. Therefore, he prays for his enemies, saying: "Dear
Father, I must commit the matter to thee, since they refuse to hear or
to see the wrong they do. Well I know they are rushing into thy wrath
and thy terrible punishment, but I pray thee to forgive them what they
do to me." And so they would have been forgiven had they afterward
repented at the apostles' preaching, and had they not further sinned
in persecuting God's Wo