On Divine Providence 1 part 6/11

imitate those three youths, who, delivered to the furnace, summoned even the lifeless creation into fellowship of doxology, and drew the tyrant who had cruelly delivered them to the furnace to behold the wonder, and by their miracle compelled him to worship the God whom he had warred against.

Neither did the furnace compel their tongue to blasphemy; rather, though delivered to so great a flame, they honored their benefactor with hymns.

But as for you, neither furnace nor lions compel you to blaspheme; rather, while luxuriating in God-given blessings, you fail to perceive the gifts.

But if you would be persuaded by me, you will adorn your tongue with piety, and you will praise creation but hymn the Creator, and you will worship his providence, present everywhere, for to him belong glory and might, now and always, and unto the ages.

That slavery and mastery are expedient for this present life

The Maker of the universe has no need of the human tongue for the supply of hymns;

for he does not receive even the doxology of the angels as one in need, but, beholding their good will, he accepts their gratitude;

and when those who offered the sacrifices of the Law offered them, they brought them not, surely, as fulfilling some need of God, but attempting to render such thanks as they were able for the countless benefactions they had received.

One may see at once, then, that not all offered one and the same sacrifice.

For one sacrificed a calf, another a lamb, another a goat;

and one offered more victims, another fewer;

and another, lacking these and living with poverty, offered a pair of turtledoves, or young pigeons;

and another, wanting even these, offered a little fine flour and a small quantity of frankincense.

From this, then, we are surely taught that the just judge attends to the quality of the intention, not to the quantity of the gifts.

And we too offer our humble words, not that by the tiniest drop we might increase the abyss of divine wisdom, but attempting to display the good will befitting servants, and to refute the insolence of our fellow-servants, and taking forethought to lay the master's yoke upon them.

For we are altogether grieved to see the wisdom of God, which governs all things, being slandered by them;

for which reason we have undertaken the present labor of this discourse, and attempt by our refutations to bring their blasphemy to an end.

That they very foolishly find fault with the seeming inequality of life, and, having lost their way, fail to perceive what is fitting, the preceding discourse has sufficiently shown, both by demonstrating the usefulness of poverty and by exposing the deficiency of wealth.

But since they not only accuse poverty, but also bewail slavery, and lament the royal taxes, and other things which are very fitting to this present life;

come, let us also discuss these matters briefly, and imitate the best of physicians, who, seeing the sick refusing food and loathing all the dishes set before them, very skillfully outwit their distaste by certain medical arts.

For by mingling in drier and more astringent seasonings, they render what seemed loathsome to the sick man most pleasant.

And these men likewise, just as those sick patients, find fault with all that is seen and all that happens.

But in their case, the illness befalls them against their will, and though they suffer greatly they abstain from food, and though they long to partake, they are hindered by the disease;

but for these men, their sufferings war against them voluntarily and by their own choice, and their distaste is not concerning food and dishes, but concerning all the things wisely and justly administered by divine providence.

And when sowing they desire the rains, but when traveling they denounce the rains.

They need the sun's ray to be hotter, so that it may ripen the fruits of their seeds;

and again they are vexed, and blame the scorching heat.

They undertake every labor for the sake of the belly — farming, seafaring, and long journeys;

and again they become bitter accusers of it;

as though it were not appointed to serve the promptings of the soul, but to rule.

They find fault with thunderbolts and hailstorms and such chastisements, and again they accuse the longsuffering of God;

and neither his justice nor his longsuffering puts them to shame.

But even while committing great offenses, they themselves pray to enjoy his longsuffering;

yet they wish those who have wronged them to receive the full, unmixed onset of justice.

They saw a poor man, and immediately set their tongue in motion against Providence, and buried his poverty under many taunts.

They beheld a rich man walking on the tips of his toes, with a lion-like glance, swaying his shoulders this way and that, or being carried in a chariot, surrounded by many servants and rod-bearers — and they transfer their blasphemy onto the subject of wealth.

...life, as being full of inequality — and yet they hate death, which puts an end to that inequality and grants equal honor to all bodies.

And yet those who find fault with death ought to admire life, or those who blame life ought to speak well of death.

For death and life are diametrically opposed.

But they blaspheme all things indiscriminately, and accuse all things alike;

and while they are children, they call the men blessed, but once they have become men, they call children enviable.

And what need is there to recount all the things slandered by this evil malady? For there is nothing that happens which does not receive the arrow of abuse shot by their tongue.

Come, then, let us employ the methods of physicians and show them, as most pleasant, the very things that have hitherto vexed them.

Concerning wealth and poverty, then, and the seeming inequality found in them, we have sufficiently discoursed in the preceding oration, showing the usefulness both of the one and of the other.

But that the Maker himself did not, from the beginning, divide human nature into slavery and mastery, we shall now show.

For the Maker, having taken a single rib from him, fashioned this race in such a way that she should not be thought to be of a different nature because of the diversity of her form.

One man, then, was fashioned from the earth, and the woman from the man, and from both the entire nature of mankind.

For the Maker did not, from the beginning, allot slavery to some and mastery to others, but created one single race for all.

And when he commanded Noah to construct an ark, and provided him salvation as a wage for his righteousness, he ordered him, together with his wife, his sons, and their wives, to enter the ark that had been constructed — and not a single slave entered.

For human nature had not yet received this division;

but only the truly servile creatures — the races of irrational animals — which the Maker of the universe brought into this life for this very purpose, were slaves.

But since afterward he saw great disorder arising from the absence of rule, and every lawlessness being carried out without restraint, he divided the human race into rulers and ruled, so that the fear of rulers might diminish the multitude of sins.

For fear knows how to bridle the impulses of irrational passions, and to blunt the soul's inclination toward the worse.

And often what reason did not achieve, fear has accomplished.

For since nature ran aground toward the worse, and the mind, engulfed by the passions and submerged beneath them, like some unballasted vessel, left the body to be carried along in disorder, we necessarily had need of laws, as of a kind of anchor, to steady the vessel and to check its forward drift, and to allow the pilot to surface again and take hold of the helm.

But it was not possible for these laws to come into being while there was equality of power, and equality before the law prevailed as the constitution.

For not even in democratically governed cities, where the people held authority over public affairs, did all share equally;

but some were framers of ordinances, others legislators, others generals, and others filled the rank of the governed;

and the popular leader held sway both over the magistrates and over the leaders.

And in oligarchically governed cities too, the many filled the roll of subjects;

while the few, excelling in prudence and shining forth in virtue, obtained the offices of administering public affairs and of governance;

and some were ephors, others admirals, others governors;

and they led the multitude in whatever way seemed best to them.

Therefore sin introduced the need for laws;

and the laws required the authority of those who established them, and not only of those who established them, but also of those able to punish transgressors.

And sin introduced disorder;

he checked it with a kind of bridle, namely the laws;

and he entrusted the reins of this bridle to the rulers, as to charioteers.

By these both cities are ordered, and villages, and armies;

For if, even while the laws threaten and the rulers punish, there are some who are disposed toward their neighbors more savagely than any wild beast, and dart upon them like scorpions, and bite like serpents, and rage like mad dogs, and gnash their teeth against their own kindred, as lions do against foreign creatures — what would they not have done if there were no laws, and the rulers did not punish? But as it is, though lawless acts are ventured by some, those who venture them nevertheless try to escape notice, fearing the laws, and attempt to conceal their injustice with the cleverness of their words;

and the one who suffers injustice approaches the judges without fear, and brings in a written charge of the wrong, and does not fear the power of the wrongdoer, nor shudder at the splendor of his wealth;

but he runs to the courtroom as to a harbor, and recounts the particulars of the injustice, and calls for the laws to be brought forward into their midst, and beseeches the judge to render judgment according to them.

And he pronounces the verdict, and orders that the house, or the field, or the vessel that was seized be restored to the wronged party;

and often he also punishes with a fine of money the one who dared to commit the injustice.

Otherwise, taking up daggers, they would have slaughtered all whom they happened upon, and divided up their possessions among themselves.

But since they fear, most remain quiet, while those who dare wickedness either lie in ambush on the more deserted roads, or work mischief by night in the cities, taking the darkness, and sleep, and the stillness of all as allies of their brigandage.

And when two or three of these are caught and punished by the laws, they become a sufficient example of benefit to the rest; and seeing the punishment of those of like disposition, others come to hate wickedness, as the mother of such deaths.

But indeed I do not know how I have wandered into these remarks, when I wished to set forth the cause of servitude;

it is time, then, to return to the point from which I digressed.

And nature too bears witness to the divine Scripture.

For both those who have obtained the regions toward the rising and setting sun, and those who have obtained the southern and northern parts, and those who dwell in the middle regions of the earth, possess one and the same form of bodily formation, the same number of the senses, differing only in customs and in colors.

But it is customs that produce character, and the soul's freedom of will.

And this same difference one can find even among ourselves.

But the variation in colors is produced by the position of the regions.

For those who dwell far from the sun's ray have a whiter surface of the body.

But those who have obtained by lot to dwell in the eastern and western portions of the southern region of the heavens, being nearer to the sun's ray, become black in body, in the manner of certain pieces of wood that are charred by prolonged contact with fire, and take on a black color.

Therefore the nature of human beings is one — of rulers and ruled, of subjects and kings, of slaves and masters.

And having preserved for them the same character, it accuses sin, which introduced this necessity, while it demonstrates here too the equality established by the Maker.

For it preserved to the end the identity of essence, and drove out the disorder of sin by the order of governance, and regulated its excess by the rule of legislation, just as a shipwright straightens planks with a certain cord, and removes what is excessive.

But you, when you see a vessel being carried along with favorable winds, and the passengers sitting quietly, while the sailors either row with the oars, or haul the forestays, or perform some other of the tasks commanded, and the lookout scanning for reefs and shoals and rocks and reporting to the pilot, and the pilot overseeing all and steering the vessel with the rudders — you admire the order, and you do not demand that all be pilots, nor do you entrust the command of the ship to all;

and seeing some at rest, others doing what is commanded, another announcing beforehand what appears, and another presiding over all together, you are not indignant, nor do you accuse it of disorder, but you continue greatly admiring the order;

yet you are unwilling that households be governed in a manner similar to merchant ships, but you become vexed when you see the one who leads the household, and those who are led.

And yet a household and a ship, in respect of their management, closely resemble one another.

For the master, like a pilot, having taken hold of the helm of the household, presides over all;

and the chief of the household servants, who is entrusted with the care of all the others, imitates the lookout, and instructs the master in what he considers advantageous.

Of the other household servants, some, like the sailors, having been entrusted with particular tasks, do what is commanded;

and the rest, in the manner of passengers, are in the midst of these, being guided by them, and obtaining necessities through them.

Why then, pray, do you praise a vessel governed in this way, while you persist in mocking a household that receives the same management? I, for my part, suppose that you also praise an army, which the general leads, whose companies the captains guard, and whose ranks the taxiarchs lead in order;

and centurions and tribunes convey to them the signals from the general, and now they set the army in a phalanx, now in a hollow square formation, and at other times lead it in a column.

And there are times when, extending each wing as far as possible, they encircle the enemy, not even allowing them to flee, but releasing their missiles equally from every side, and destroying all of them utterly.

But none of this would have come about, had the army not been divided into rulers and ruled;

for a multiplicity of commanders in an army is of all things the most harmful, cutting it into many parts, tearing apart concord, and, while attempting to steer it by many counsels, doing harm rather than governing it.

How then is it not absurd that you, admiring in a ship the leadership of one man, and praising in an army the order which the ordinances of the generals produce, should nevertheless find fault with a household governed in this same manner? 'But,' he says, 'it is a bitter thing to be a slave, and to have one's enjoyment of necessities in the power of masters, and to be worn out by unceasing labors.'

But if you should be willing to examine each of these statements with a love of truth, bidding farewell to contentious arguments, you will find some full of discouragement, and others full of much benefit.

For the master of the household is besieged by many cares, considering how he may provide necessities for his household, how he may pay the appointed tribute to the sovereigns, how he may sell off the surplus of his income, and purchase what is lacking.

in this way somehow imitating the ingratitude of human beings toward the Maker;

and he is distressed, and looks about for creditors, and draws up bonds, and brings upon himself voluntary servitude.

The earth has brought forth its fruits, and is laden with its birth-pangs, and is covered with standing grain, and, weighing down the branches of the trees with the abundance of fruit, forces them to bend toward itself;

but he again is stung in another way;

for, looking about for buyers of his produce, he does not find them, and the abundance of his good harvest becomes for him somewhat more unbearable than scarcity.

And not only do cares assail them by day, and surround and trouble the soul, but by night they war even more grievously.

For the soul, being at rest and released from external affairs, perceives more precisely its own affairs, whether good or bad.

But the household servant, though enslaved in body, has a soul that is free, and released from all these things.

For he does not lament the earth's barrenness, nor bewail the unsold state of his goods;

he is not pained at the sight of his creditor, he does not fear a swarm of tax-collectors, he is not compelled to sit attending upon the courts, nor does he dread the crier's voice, nor a judge displaying a fierce countenance;

He receives his ration of grain by measure, but it is free from care.

He sleeps upon the bare ground, but no anxiety drives away his sleep; rather, sweet sleep, being poured out upon his eyelids, does not allow him to feel the hardness of the ground.

And explaining this according to nature, the Wise Man said:

"Sweet is the sleep of the slave." He covers his body with a single tunic, but he has a body more robust than his master's.

He eats bread made of bran, not even enjoying a small relish;

but he enjoys his food more pleasantly than his master does.

For the one who is continually gorging himself, and exceeding the bounds of satiety, forces down his food, and passes it on, of necessity, to the stomach;

But he who measures his portion by need, and apportions prudently the ration given to him, receives his food with appetite, and digests it easily, having taken labor as his ally.

But you see the servitude, yet you do not see the health;

and you see the service, but you do not observe the gladness of heart;

and you accuse the labor, but you do not call the carefree life blessed;

and you slander the service, but you do not see the sweetest sleep.

And yet from this too one ought to have discerned the providence of God, and to have observed the equity of his dispensation.

For since the necessity of sin divided human nature into rule and servitude, to the one class, together with rule, He joined also cares, and allotted to it sleeplessness, and assigned to it more diseases;

but to servitude He gave more health, and a sweeter enjoyment of food, and sleep that is pleasant and longer, able to release the body from fatigue, and to render it stronger for the next day's labors.

Do not, then, look only at the labors, but observe also the consolations of the labors, and through all things hymn the Ruler of the universe.

Why then do you slander labors, you who so readily calumniate everything? What human good is achieved apart from labor? What prosperity does human nature reap that is not through labors? The goods that come from farming we reap through labors, and the fruits of commerce likewise;

we build cities, constructing them with labor;

with labors leading the way, we enjoy houses, we cover the body with clothing, we put shoes on our feet, we partake of food of every kind.

And what need is there to enumerate all the needs of men, of which labors are the makers? But you seem to be a kind of drone, reared together with idleness, reaping the fruits of others' labors, while you yourself contribute nothing to life, but only a tongue entrusted with mocking everything.

But even this nonsense, and this excessive garrulity, idleness has begotten.

For he who is occupied with labors speaks little, but works very much.

everything is accomplished thereby — do not, my friend, slander servitude on account of its labors;

but consider that many masters labor no less than their servants — indeed much more, if you reckon their cares together with their tasks.

Consider, then, the diligent men of the present age; but I will show you the ancients, who labored more than servants do.

Behold the blessed Noah, cutting timber, and planing it with the adze, and smoothing it to a straight edge, and constructing the ark, as he was commanded, out of squared timbers, and binding the joints together with pegs, and in this manner weaving the whole together, and coating it with bitumen and pitch, and walling off the inflow of the waters.

And the great patriarch Abraham, master of three hundred and eighteen home-born servants, working with his own hands, and serving the strangers, and running to the herds, and dragging the calf, and urging his wife on to the baking of bread;

and she likewise kneading the flour, and baking the cakes hidden in the ashes, and not entrusting the service to the maidservants;

and that admirable old man himself standing beside the strangers, not sharing in the table, but fulfilling the service.

Behold Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, the granddaughter of Nahor, having reached the age of marriage, and radiant in her beauty, yet not enduring to linger in her chambers, but working with her own hands and carrying water, and running to the spring before the city;

and not only bringing the water home, but also offering this labor to those who arrived, drawing up the water and giving it both to them and to their camels, and preserving safe the fair possession of chastity, and keeping her virginity undefiled, and choosing labors with all eagerness, and being adorned by these rather than made resplendent by her beauty.

In such labors her son — being indeed her son — the great Jacob, spent twenty years, shepherding and wrestling with wild beasts, and enduring the painful heat of the sun's rays, and unable even at night to take his fill of sleep;

and his wives too, for whose sake he endured the labors, we find in the histories tending sheep.

And his sons too were cattle-herders, and workers with their own hands, and shepherds, enduring labor many times greater than that of servants.

And the most divine Moses too spent forty years living in this manner.

And his wife too, being a priest's daughter, tending sheep, and delivered from the unjust shepherds through his help, received the betrothal.

But indeed it is superfluous to prolong the discourse, and to bring forward all those in the divine Scripture who ran the double course of life with labors.

If, then, laboring belongs not only to servants but also to masters, why do you accuse servitude on account of its labors? For in labors slaves have their masters as partners, but in cares they do not share with their masters.

But if labor is common to slaves and masters, while care belongs peculiarly to masters, how is it that we do not judge those free from cares to be blessed, but instead reckon them among the wretched? Since, then, the providence of the Guardian of the universe has been shown plainly here too, come, let us gather each of the things we have said into one, recapitulate them, and make our understanding of them clearer.

We have demonstrated, then, that the Maker created a single nature from the beginning, and honored this nature with the principle of free will;

then, that this nature, using the self-determination of its judgment for what was not fitting, inclined toward the worse, and ran aground into countless kinds of transgressions.

It was necessary, therefore, to check the onrush of sin by laws, but the laws needed those who would establish them.

some were appointed to rule, and others to obey the rulers;

so that the fear of the laws, and the dread of the rulers, might check the great onrush of wickedness.

Rulers, accordingly, rule over cities;

and over both these and those, kings;

over athletes, the trainers;

the schoolteacher, over the youths;

the shoemaker, over his apprentices;

likewise the coppersmith rules over those wishing to learn the craft from him.

The master, accordingly, rules also over the household.

For it is not possible for a household to fare well without a master;

and those households deprived of them bear witness to this, being utterly laid waste.

This same governance the hosts of the angels also possess;

for we are taught by the divine Scripture that the heaven above our heads has as its inhabitants not only angels, but also archangels;

and some hold command, while others obey.

But if even that realm free from transgression, and that nature superior to bodies and passions, has not rejected this order, but some obey compliantly while others govern with good order, why then, O man, are you vexed at seeing among men — where the inclination toward the worse is so strong — the ruling and the ruled? For as a kind of remedy warding off evil for the wounds of lawlessness, the Maker has set in place the governance of rulers.

A father also rules over his children, and disciplines the children when they act unrestrainedly, and praises them when they are self-controlled.

The teacher rules over children, the husband over his wife, and the master over his servants, welcoming the more well-disposed among them and deeming them worthy of honor, and of favorable treatment, and often of freedom;

but disciplining those who are sluggish and accustomed to wrongdoing, and teaching them nobility of character.

This same order the God of the universe has given also to the priests;

and He deemed some worthy of the priesthood, while to others He entrusted the leadership over them;

and He has made other kinds of ranks under them.

But if, seeing some masters exceedingly cruel and utterly unrestrained, and some rulers selling justice for bribes, you stumble and travail with objection, I forestall the evil offspring of your thought, and I say that to such men God did not entrust the governance, but rather the wickedness of those ruled drew this rule upon them.

For since they were unwilling to draw any benefit from those who instructed them well and rightly, but instead, by the depravity of their character, insulted the teaching of those men, they deprived themselves of divine care;

then, being stripped of the divine dispensation, they came to have such rulers, so that by the experience of worse things they might come to remember the better, and might call to mind the fair and good instruction of those former teachers.

And we find that the God of the universe, on account of the excess of human wickedness, often lets the reins loose, and permits the human race to be carried along as it wishes.

And teaching us this Himself through the prophet, He said to Israel:

"Let that which is dying die, and let that which is perishing perish, and let the rest devour, each one, the flesh of his neighbor." It is necessary, therefore, when wicked rulers hold sway, and cruel and bitter masters govern households, to entreat the Ruler of the universe, and by a change of life and an alteration of ways, to make Him propitious, and to rouse Him to help, and fervently to beseech Him to transform the harshness of the season.

For that He readily listens to those who entreat Him sincerely — being good, and by nature disposed to show mercy, or rather being the very fountain of mercy — He Himself is witness, promising those who entreat Him thus, and saying, "You shall call, and I will listen to you."