#7 Liberty
from The Two Mysteries, by Samuel Froehlich
Isaiah 5:1 “Now will I sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard.” There was, in olden times, a small people, who, content and happy and enjoying their freedom in their innocence, grazed their herds on the mountains, until in the neighboring country a new king came to the throne, who did not care for the welfare of the country of which the happy people formed a part, but who only strove to increase his own dynastic power. And doing this, he stretched his greedy and imperious hands out over the small people also, robbed them of their freedom and in the harsh constraint of servitude, brought them under the staff of ruthless governors. In vain, the children of the mountains sent their messengers to the king begging for their former freedom; with harsh words they were turned away and told they should keep silence and continue to serve. For a long, hard time the helpless herdsmen bore the yoke of bondage, groaning under its weight. But the governors, in the name of their ruler, carried violence and wrong further and further. At last the yoke became too heavy. Three men united in secret (and resolved) to break it; and they did break it and the herdsmen were free again as before.
No doubt you were glad to hear “the song of the vineyard of my beloved,” you inhabitants of Switzerland, filled with love and pride of liberty! For which of you would condemn as rebels and deserters those founders of the Swiss confederacy and authors of their established freedom, because they would no longer be in bondage to the Dukes of Austria? Were they really deserters? The Duke of Austria and his governors, of course, thought they were and for many years waged war against them, hoping soon to bring to reason the rebellious peasants in the forest cantons. But they were no deserters; they fought, and thus gained their liberty that they might remain with the German empire to which they rightfully belonged. It was not their desire to be without a chief or without an alliance, only they would not serve a foreign lord. They were unanimous in this, that they must join themselves either to the German empire or to Austria. Hence, they renounced Austria that they might not fall off from the empire!
And now, inhabitants of free Switzerland, judge between your sentiments and your actions. Why do you claim to be liberty-loving in your sentiments while in your actions you are the oppressors of liberty? I am not speaking of your political freedom now, but of the true spiritual freedom of the children of God which Christ gives to His believers and saints, and of which no visible or invisible power or creature, neither angel nor principality nor power, neither height nor depth, neither life nor death can rob them, namely those whom Christ has actually freed from the abominable bondage of sin and the devil. But mark it well: we do not in the least complain of the external oppression and suffering which we are made to bear for the name of Christ; we rather rejoice in this sign of the living Christ within us that we, for His sake, are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But we must tell you that we will not, and must not, be robbed of the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, by the sufferings of this present time. Just continue to do what you must; this does not grieve us for our sake but for the sake of you who are servants of corruption, while you boast of your carnal liberty. You imagine that Satan, the prince of darkness in this world, is still carrying on his work in heathen lands, perhaps, but no longer among you! Indeed, he is still active also there, but his chief work is with you. He only does what by his nature he cannot help doing, as he has done from the beginning. He is an enemy of all men, even those who serve him and through this service will be cast into perdition; but still he, chiefly, is the adversary of Christ and those that belong to Him and serve Him out of a pure heart and a good conscience. Against them he breathes out threatening and slaughter.
From the beginning of the gospel, Christ, through His Holy Spirit, was the only Lord of His church. Afterwards, Satan came in unawares and changed the church of God into a synagogue of Satan; and all was enslaved to him under the semblance and the name of Christ. And therefore, as the Swiss said: we will not belong to the house of Austria and become her bondsmen, but will join the German Empire and remain free; so we say: we renounce, not the church of Christ but the false anti-Christian kingdom; we separate ourselves, not from the true Lord, but from the false illegitimate usurper! Yes, we do not only not part from the church of Christ, but in order not to be parted from it, we sever our connection with the established church and, with joy, suffer for this. As the Swiss said, “We will remain with the empire and therefore will not belong to Austria.” Well, this the Swiss understand and praise, but the truth in Christ, which gives us true freedom, they will not understand or praise!