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Salvian the Presbyter

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 57 passages across 20 books

Commentary

21–40 of 57
Ezekiel 28:18

Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

What is more true than this? The fire of sin went forth from the midst of their sin, a fire that devoured the good fortune of former times.

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 7:14

Genesis 4:9-10

And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

Cain was at once the most wicked and foolish of men in believing that for committing the greatest of crimes it would be sufficient if he avoided other human witnesses. In fact God was the primary witness to his fratricide. Because of this, I think he then shared the opinion held by many today: that God pays no attention to earthly affairs; neither does he see those done by wicked men. There is no doubt that Cain, when summoned by the word of God after his misdeed, answered that he knew nothing of his brother’s murder. He believed God was so ignorant of what had been done that he thought this most deadly crime could be covered by a lie. But it turned out otherwise than he thought. When God condemned him, he realized that God, whom he thought had not seen his crime of murder, had seen him.

GOVERNANCE OF GOD 1.6

Genesis 6:6-7

And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Let us consider how both the solicitude and severity of the Lord are shown equally in all these words. First, he said, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great.” Second, he said, “He was touched inwardly with sorrow of heart.” Third, “I will destroy man whom I have created.” In the first statement, wherein it is said that God sees all things, his providential care is shown. In the statement that he has sorrow is shown his solicitude amid the dread of his wrath. The statement about his punishment shows his severity as a judge. Holy Scripture says, “God repented that he had made man on earth.” This does not mean that God is affected by emotion or is subject to any passion. Rather, the Divine Word, to impart more fully to us a true understanding of the Scriptures, speaks “as if” in terms of human emotions. By using the term “repentant God,” it shows the force of God’s rejection. God’s anger is simply the punishment of the sinner.

GOVERNANCE OF GOD 1.7

Genesis 7:10-12

And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

And then what? “All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened. And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” And a little later: “And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth.” And again, “And Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in the ark.” Here and now I wish to ask them who call God indifferent to human affairs whether they believe that at that time he either cared for earthly affairs or intervened in them.

GOVERNANCE OF GOD 1.7

Genesis 18:20-21

And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is multiplied, he said. Well did he say that sins can cry out. Great surely is the cry of sinners as it mounts from earth to heaven. But why does he say that the sins of people cry out? It is because God says his ears are assaulted by the cries of our sins that the punishment of sinners be not delayed. Truly is it a cry, and the cry is great when the love of God is overpowered by the cries of sins to the extent that he is forced to punish the sinners. The Lord shows how unwilling he is to punish even the gravest sinners when he said that the cry of Sodom ascended to him. This means: My mercy urges me to spare them, but the cry of their sins compels me to punish them.

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 1.8

Genesis 19:13

For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.

However, how do we account for the fact that the Savior himself has brought to mind that all who spurned the gospel were worse? Finally to Capernaum he said, “If in Sodom had been wrought the miracles that had been wrought in you, perhaps it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” If he says the people of Sodom are less worthy of damnation than all those who neglect the Gospels, then it is most certainly reasonable that we, who neglect the Gospels in most things, should have all the more fear. This is especially so because we are unwilling to be content with sins to which we are already long accustomed and, as it were, on daily familiarity.

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4.9

Hosea 1:9

Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

For this reason, our God spoke elsewhere about the Hebrew people to the prophet, saying, “Call his name Not Beloved,” and again to the Jews, “You are not my people, and I am not your God.” But he himself showed clearly elsewhere why he said this about them, for he said, “They have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters,” and again, “For they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.”

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4:1

Isaiah 1:3

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

They who have long since put aside the worship of God cannot be called the people of God. Neither can that people be said to see God who have denied the Son of God.

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4

Isaiah 5:20

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Must we be servile to the whim of those who are wicked? If they wish valueless praise conferred upon them, is it becoming that we, too, heap valueless and laughable praise on them? And this especially since they who wish to be ridiculous should not be laughed at by those who are honorable, just as they who desire to be decorated even with the label of false praise should not be praised in a lying manner. Our prime consideration should be not so much what they wish to hear as what it is fitting for us to say, especially since the prophet says, “Woe to them who speak sweet for bitter things and bitter for sweet things.”

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 8

James 2:5

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

The apostle’s testimony is a very serious matter. Do the nobility think that they are immune from his strictures, because he referred only to the rich and not to the noble as well? But there is so great an overlap between these two groups in practice that it makes little difference which one of them the apostle was speaking about. His words certainly apply to both.

ON THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 3.10

James 2:19

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

Good works are witnesses to the Christian faith, because otherwise a Christian cannot prove that he has that faith. If he cannot prove it, it must be considered completely nonexistent.

ON THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4.2

Jeremiah 2:37

Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.

Our soldiers were brought low by a similar disdaining pride and by the same outcome. That saying of the prophet was brought home to our army: “The Lord shall cast aside your confidence, and you shall not have prosperity.” We were confident in our own wisdom and strength, contrary to the command of God, who says, “Let not the wise person glory in his wisdom or the strong person in his strength, but let him who glories glory in this, to know and understand me, because I am the Lord.”

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 7:11

Jeremiah 5:2

And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

Who among us has amended his life, or what part of the Roman world, no matter how afflicted, is corrected? As we read, “For all have declined, they have become useless at same time.” Therefore, the prophet cries out to God and says, “You have struck them, and they have not sorrowed. You have consumed them, and they have refused to accept discipline. They have hardened their faces harder than a rock and were unwilling to return.” Present affairs show how truly this applies to us.

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 7:12

Jeremiah 5:8

They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

Murder is rare among slaves because of their dread and terror of capital punishment, but it is common among the rich because of their hope and trust in impunity. Perhaps we are wrong in putting in the category of sins what the rich people do, because, when they kill their slaves, they think that it is legal and not a crime. Not only this, they abuse the same privilege even when practicing the filth of unchastity. How few among the rich, observing the sacrament of marriage, are not dragged down headlong by the madness of lust? To how few are not home and family regarded as harlots? How few do not pursue their madness toward anybody on whom the heat of their evil desires centers? It was about such people that the divine Word said, “They are become as stallions rushing madly on the mares.”

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4:5

Jeremiah 8:9

The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

What is a holy title without merit but an ornament set in the mud? The Holy Scriptures have testified to this in writing: “A golden ring in a swine’s snout, a woman fair and foolish.” And in us the title Christian is like a golden ornament. If we use it unworthily, we seem to be swine with an ornament.…For this reason, our God spoke elsewhere about the Hebrew people to the prophet, saying, “Call his name, Not Beloved.” And again to the Jews, “You are not my people, and I am not your God.” But he showed clearly elsewhere why he said this about them, for he said, “They have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters.” And again: “For they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.”

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 4:1

Jeremiah 23:24

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.

Elsewhere we read the words of the prophet: “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” God tells why he fills all things: “because I am with you to save you.” Behold, the Lord shows us not only his rule and its all pervading fullness but also the power and benefits accruing from this very fullness. For the fullness of divinity carries as its reward the salvation of what it fills. Paul, in the Acts of the Apostles, said, “for in him we live and move and are.”

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 2:2

Jeremiah 44:21-22

The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into his mind?

God spoke to sinners through his prophet, because “the Lord remembered these things and,” he says, “he ascended over his heart, and the Lord was not able to bear more because of the evil of your endeavors and the abominations that you have done; and your land is made into a desolation, a wonder and a curse.” Through these things, therefore, it has already happened that the greater part of the Roman world is become a desolation, a wonder and a curse.

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 6:8

Jonah 4:11

And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

When, at one time, God had been offended by the sins of the Ninevites, he was appeased by the crying and wailing of children. For though we read that the whole people wept, yet the lot of innocence of the little ones merited the greatest mercy. God said to Jonah, “You are greatly grieved over the vine.” And a little later, “Should I not spare Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120, persons, who know not their left hand from their right hand?” He thereby declared that because of the purity of the innocent ones, he was also sparing the faults of the guilty ones.

LETTER 4

Joshua 7:1

But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

You say these were the disgraceful acts of a few men and what was not done by all could not injure all. Indeed, I have said above quite often that the crime of one man was the destruction of many among the people of God, just as the people were ruined by Achan’s theft, just as pestilence arose from Saul’s jealousy, just as death came from the counting of the people by the holy David. The church of God is as the eye. As a speck of dirt, even though small, which falls into the eye blinds the sight completely, in the same way, if some, even though they are a few in the body of the church, commit filthy acts, they block almost all the light of the splendor of the church.

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 7.19

Judges 4:21-22

Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.

We read that when God wished it clearly understood that great deeds were done by him, they were done through a few or through the lowliest, lest the work of his heavenly hand be attributed to human strength. In this way the leader Sisera, before whom the Hebrew army trembled, was laid low by a woman.

THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 7.8

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