Since Paul's enemies refuse instruction and will not cease their
raging, since they refuse to learn against whom they rage, he must
make known to them who is the object of their persecution. It is
neither Paul nor an apostle, but he to whom it was said (Ps 110, 1),
"Sit thou at my right hand." It is a perilous thing to take liberties
with him. He is now seated where he will brook no suffering. The
enemies of the Christians must behold such things as did the Jews who
delivered Paul into the Emperor's hands, and as the Romans witnessed.
Soon after Paul's execution, Jerusalem lay in ashes, and not a great
while after, the city of Rome was destroyed. For when Christ was
oppressed, when in the person of his apostles and martyrs he was
seized and put to death, he had no alternative but to destroy a whole
city. And Germany may expect a similar fate.