I might say that those who deny Christianity on oath at the tribunals or before they have been put on trial do not worship but only bow down to idols when they take God from the name of the Lord God and apply it to vain and lifeless wood. Thus the people who were defiled with the daughters of Moab bowed down to idols but did not worship them. Indeed, it is written in the text itself, They invited them to the sacrifices of their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices, and they bowed down to their idols, and performed the rites to Baal Peor. Observe that it does not say and they worshiped their idols; for it was not possible after such great signs and wonders in one moment of time to be persuaded by the women with whom they committed fornication to consider the idols gods.

If Phinehas by his zeal in slaying the evildoer appeased the wrath of God, shall not Jesus, who slew no other but gave himself a ransom for all,^[1] take away God’s wrath against humanity?

Now if we have been conformed to his death, sin henceforth in us is surely a corpse, pierced through by the javelin of baptism, as that fornicator was thrust through by the zealous Phinehas.

Slaughter has brought about righteousness, and mercy has been a cause of condemnation more than slaughter, because the latter has been according to the mind of God, but the former has been forbidden. It was reckoned to Phinehas for righteousness that he pierced to death the woman who committed fornication, together with the fornicator. But Samuel, that saint of God, although he wept and mourned and entreated for whole nights, could not rescue Saul from the condemnation which God issued against him, because he saved, contrary to the design of God, the king of the alien tribes whom he ought to have slain.^[1]

As far as that goes, we too have examples from this same past in favor of our own way of thinking, examples of a judgment on fornication which was not only not remiss but rather immediately executed. It is quite enough, I should think, that so great a number of the chosen people, twenty-four thousand, perished at one stroke after they had fornicated with the daughters of Midian. I prefer, however, for the glory of Christ, to derive ecclesiastical discipline from Christ.

And lest we appear to you to bring these things forth from our own understanding rather than from the authority of the divine Scriptures, go back to the book of Numbers and recall what Phinehas the priest did when he saw a harlot of the Midianite people with an Israelite man clinging in impure embraces in the eyes of all. Filled with the wrath of divine jealousy, he drove a sword, which he had seized, through the breast of both. This work was imputed to him by God for righteousness when the Lord says, Phinehas appeased my rage, and it shall be imputed to him for righteousness. That earthly food of anger therefore becomes our food when we use it rationally for righteousness.

God is neither unjust nor is his judgment changeable. For God laid hold of [Balaam’s] mind and the secrets of his heart. For that reason he tested him as a diviner; he did not elect him as a prophet. And certainly he ought to have been converted by the grace of such great oracles and the sublimity of the revelations. But his soul, full of vileness, put forth words, but it did not bring forth faith. He desired to undermine by his counsel what he announced would happen. Since he was not able to give the lie to the oracles, he proposed fraudulent counsels. By these counsels the fickle people of Israel were indeed tested, but they were not overcome. For by the justice of one man, a priest, every plan of that villainous man was undone. It is much more amazing that the multitude of our fathers could be freed through one man than be deceived through one man.

After Scripture has indicated that the people arrived at the border established by God, God again asks for a census of the men suitable for military service. For, since the fathers who had been counted previously had died,^[1] their sons are summoned for a census. David attests that the Lord said, If they shall enter into my rest^[2] and what follows. Their sons were the type of the faithful people who receive Christ, the end of the law.

There is a spiritual stain of blood that is also circumcision, as Paul attests: For we, he says, are the circumcision, as many of us as worship God in spirit.^[3] And again, You have been circumcised without the ministry of hands.^[4] Joshua is the type of these men, for he circumcises those who came after him. But because that circumcision was not the true one, Scripture says elsewhere, Cut away the hardness of your hearts.^[5]

So Moses counts the sons of the dead but not in the way it had been done previously—that is, first counting the tribes that come from free women and then those born of slave women.^[6] He has no reason to distinguish these two sorts. He first enumerates the five sons of Leah,^[7] apart from the beloved tribe of Levi, since that tribe is destined to have its own place, namely, that of sacred ministry. Then he counts Gad and Asher,^[8] sons of the slave girl. Then he counts the three sons of the free woman Rachel, among whom he first counts the sons of Joseph, according to the order of their generation: Manasseh and Ephraim,^[9] and then Rachel’s last son, Benjamin.^[10] To these he adds the sons of the slave girl, Dan^[11] and Naphtali.^[12] He has before his eyes the union of Israel, who was led by the spirit of servitude, and us, who are called through adoption into the spirit of freedom. Thus the words of Moses, The nations rejoiced with this people.^[13] And the Savior said, There will be one flock and one shepherd.^[14] The numbers of the remaining tribes decreased from the previous census, but the tribe of Levi increased.^[15] For the elect people always grows, while the people opposed to them diminishes.