When the prophetic word was sent only to the Jews, the names of Jewish kings were put in the headings of the prophecies. For example, the vision that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw, against Judea and against Jerusalem, during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.^[1] In the time of Isaiah, I see no one else named except the kings of Judah. In some prophets we also read the names of the kings of Israel, as in this instance: And in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. But then the mystery of the gospel was to be preached, and the gospel spread throughout the whole world. The initiator of that gospel was John, in the desert. The authority of Tiberius ruled the world. Then, in [his] fifteenth year, it is recorded that the word of the Lord came to John.^[2]

You must slay the allurements to vice while they are still only thoughts and dash the little ones of the daughter of Babylon against the stones^[1] where the serpent can leave no trail. Be wary and lay claim to the Lord’s promise: Let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.^[2] For elsewhere also the Scripture testifies, I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.^[3] That is to say, God will not punish us at once for our thoughts and resolves but will send retribution upon their offspring or upon the evil deeds and habits of sin, which arise out of the offspring. As he says by the mouth of Amos, For three transgressions of such and such a city and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof.

The [false teachers] are also to be admonished to consider well, how sacred Scripture is set up as a kind of lantern for us in the night of this life. When the words are not rightly understood, darkness is the result. And obviously, their perverse mind would not hurry them into a false understanding unless they were first inflated with pride. For while they think themselves wiser than others, they scorn to follow others in matters which these understand better. What is more, in order that they may extort from the untutored crowd a reputation for knowledge, they make every endeavor to discredit what these rightly understand and to confirm their own perverse views. Therefore, it is well said by the prophet, They have ripped up the women with child of Gilead to enlarge their border. Now Gilead is interpreted as meaning a heap of testimony.^[1] Since the whole congregation of the church together serves by its confession of it, as a witness to the truth, the church is not ineptly expressed as Gilead, for it witnesses to all truth concerning God by the mouth of all the faithful. But souls are said to be with child when they conceive an understanding of the Word by divine love, so that when they come to full term, they will bring forth the understanding conceived by them in showing forth their deeds. Again, to enlarge the border is to extend one’s own reputation. Thus they ripped up the women with child of Gilead to extend their border—that is to say, heretics by their perverse preaching slay the minds of the faithful who have already conceived some measure of the understanding of truth, and so they extend their reputation for knowledge. The hearts of little ones, already big with conception of the Word, they cleave with the sword of error, and thereby make a reputation, as it were, for their teaching. When, therefore, we endeavor to instruct these people not to entertain perverse views, we must first admonish them not to seek their own interests. For if the root of pride is cut away, the branches of false assertions become withered.