Page 79 - 07 - The Four Beasts

DANIEL AND THE REVELATION-Uriah Smith

~The Response of History to the Voice of Prophecy~

Chapter 7 – The Four Beasts
To show the relation of the secular power to

the church, as held by Romanists, we quote the

answer of the same writer to the argument

that the only weapon committed to the church

is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word

of God.” To this he replied: “As the church has

ecclesiastical and secular princes, who are her

two arms, so she has two swords, the spiritual

and material; and therefore when her right

hand is unable to convert a heretic with the

sword of the Spirit, she invokes the aid of the

left hand, and coerces heretics with the

material sword.” In answer to the argument

that the apostles never invoked the secular

arm against heretics, he says, “The apostles

did it not, because there was no Christian

prince whom they could call on for aid. But

afterward, in Constantine’s time, ... the church