Polemical Works 3 part 1/3

Since you deign to hold the customary word—for unless you both believed sincerely and supposed that these things you do concerning us were pleasing to God, you would already have been struck dead—I have desired to disclose to you the deeds of a few kings, equal to you in apostasy and cruelty, so that that saying of yours might be buried, which declares: 'Unless the catholic faith were that of Arius, that is, mine; unless it were pleasing to God that I persecute that faith which they wrote against us at Nicaea, I should assuredly never yet be flourishing in empire.' I make no mention of those kings who were strangers to the knowledge of God; I treat only of those who are known to have reigned in Judaea. In the Book of Judges we find Jerubbaal the son of Joash chosen by God, and it was said to him:

'Go in this thy strength, and thou shalt save Israel out of the hand of Midian. Have not I sent thee?' And further on: 'I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite Midian as one man.' This Midian, the Scripture says, had a multitude like the sand of the sea. But when all that God had promised to Gideon was fulfilled, when he saw himself exalted from a lowly state, enriched from poverty, made king out of a plebeian condition—what does he straightway do? Surely he says to the people: 'Give me, each of you, an earring out of his spoil.'

And when he had received a weight of golden earrings amounting to seventeen hundred shekels, besides the bracelets and the chains and the coverings and the purple that were upon the kings of Midian, and besides the golden collars that were on the necks of the enemies' camels—what does the sacred Scripture say Gideon did? 'And Gideon made of them an ephod, and set it up in his city Ophrah; and the children of Israel went a-whoring there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.' Did he then delay for some days, and thus work this malignant work against God? Could he possibly have remembered, when he had set out to do this, that God had said to him: 'Go, I will be with thee'?

Where is that deed by which, according to God's command, he demolished Baal and cut down his groves and offered a sacrifice to God? Where is that word which he spoke to God's messenger who said to him, 'The Lord is with thee, mighty in valor'—'In me, O Lord? And if the Lord is with us, why then have all these evils laid hold on us? And where are his wonders, which our fathers recounted to us, saying: Did not God bring us up out of Egypt? And now the Lord has spurned us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.' Did he then recall, at the time when he attempted to act against God, that those evils had befallen them on account of idolatry?

But when they had been rescued, that they might live without fear of their adversaries, from all those evils by which he said the whole people was weighed down together with him, he immediately did a deed by which both he and all the people alike would have been delivered, on account of idolatry, into the hands of their adversaries. He had heard that, because they had served idols and forsaken God, all those evils had befallen them; he remembered that the prophet had spoken; and yet on that very day, on which their enemies were brought to nothing before them, that king judged, in the madness which you deign to resemble, that service ought to be rendered to idols rather than to God who had granted these things to him.

'And the children of Israel,' says the Scripture, 'did that which was evil before the Lord God, and he delivered them into the hands of Midian seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed exceedingly over Israel. And the children of Israel made themselves, because of the face of Midian, hiding-places in the mountains, and caves, and strongholds. And it came to pass that whenever Israel sowed, Midian and Amalek and the children of the East came up against them, and encamped against them and destroyed the fruits of the land, as far as thou comest to Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor calf nor ass.'

'For they and their cattle came up, and they brought their tents and led their camels, and came like locusts in multitude, for there was no number of them; and they came upon the land to destroy it. And Israel was made poor before the face of Midian. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord; and it came to pass, because the children of Israel had cried to the Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a man, a prophet, to the children of Israel, and said to them: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I am he who brought you up out of Egypt, and led you out of the house of bondage, and took you from the hand of the king of Egypt, and from the hand of all who persecuted you, and cast them out from before your face, and gave you their land. And I said to you:'

'I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you did not hearken to my voice.' What, after this rebuke of the Lord, does Jerubbaal, who is also called Gideon, do? As soon as he sees his enemy brought to nothing, as soon as all those adversaries who are said to have been like the sand of the sea are slain—and that not by a vast number of Israelites, but by three hundred men—as soon as he sees all the foreign kings slain, he fashions that thing by which the children of Israel might sin against God; and yet, even after so great a crime committed, he is found to have reigned here in Israel for forty years.

It will be no wonder, then, if you too, a sacrilegious man, still live on in the body, when you see that Gideon the king lived forty years after committing idolatry and continued in possession of his kingdom; for the sacred Scripture tells that the Israelites rested forty years, and that no adversaries at all were permitted against them, nor was there any dominion of foreigners over them, because they had cried out to God. Such good things did God do concerning your fellow-sacrilegious ones, showing himself indeed all-powerful, yet showing them unworthy to attain rest, since they would not choose to serve, even for a single day after receiving rest from so great dangers, him who had granted so great a mercy.

Though the Israelites were such, yet for his own mercy he spared them even after this, when they were committing idolatry, and did not requite them at once, but again requited them at the time when it pleased him; the guilt of idolatry could not pass by them with impunity. So also to you, Constantius, will he render recompense, unless meanwhile you provide for yourself. If the Israelites, serving demons, forsaking God, though they had already been made strangers to the knowledge of God, yet—as soon as it rose up in their hearts that he is God, all-powerful, who had led their fathers out of the land of Egypt—were heard and delivered from the hand of Midian and from all who persecuted them, do you imagine that we Christians can be snatched from your hands?

Or do you deny—and, as far as I know, you do not clearly perceive—that we worship only the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all the prophets and apostles and martyrs? Believe me, that we have been heard and shall be heard, so that you, with all your frail loftiness, may lie beneath the heel of all his servants; but that certain little delays occur, so that he does not yet, once you Arians are extinguished, grant to his holy Church the full security of peace, the cause is this: that it is fitting, while an adversary rages, that a proving of all should come to pass. You say: 'If I had done ill, if I held heresy, God would already have avenged himself upon me.' You hear the sacred Scripture declaring that the Lord spared even foreigners for a long time, and yet that afterward they obtained the deserts of their deeds.

Samuel said to Saul: 'The Lord sent me to anoint thee king over Israel; and now hear the voice of the word of the Lord: Thus says the Lord almighty: Now I will requite what Amalek did to thee, O Israel, how he withstood thee in the way, when thou camest up out of Egypt. And now go and smite Amalek and all that is his, and thou shalt not covet anything of theirs, but thou shalt utterly destroy him and put him under the ban, and all that is his, and thou shalt not spare him, but shalt slay all that is his, from man to woman, and from infant to suckling.' And further on: 'And Saul came as far as the city of Amalek, and drew near and laid siege to Amalek in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenite:'

'Go and turn aside from the midst, and turn away from Amalek, and do not set thyself with him, for thou didst show mercy to the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. And the Kenite turned aside from the midst of Amalek. And Saul smote Amalek from Havilah as far as Shur, which is over against the face of Egypt. And Saul took Agag the king of Amalek alive, and all his people he slew with the edge of the sword.' You see how, late though it was, they attained the reward of their crime; and you say: 'Unless I acted well, I should never reign so long.' We find that Saul too, because he acted against the Lord's command, was reprobated, and yet reigned a long time after his reprobation, after God had said to Samuel: 'It repents me that I anointed Saul king.'

And you say: 'Unless I had believed rightly, unless I lived as is pleasing to God, I should assuredly never have ruled until now.' And that you may thoroughly drink in what we say concerning Saul, receive what he did against the Lord's command: 'And Saul and all his people took Agag the king, and the good things of the flocks and herds, and of the foods and the vineyards, and of all good things, and they would not destroy all the good things, but they reserved every precious work and destroyed what was superfluous. And the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying: It repents me that I set up Saul as king, for he has turned away from me and has not established my words.'

'And Samuel was grieved, and cried to God all night and before dawn; and Samuel went out to meet Israel.' And further on: 'And Samuel came to Saul, and behold, Saul was offering a burnt offering to the Lord, and the firstfruits of the spoils which he had brought from Amalek. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him: Blessed art thou of the Lord; I have established all that the Lord spoke. And Samuel said: What then is this voice of the flock in my ears, and the voice of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said: I have brought them from Amalek, the things which the people spoiled, the best of the flock and of the oxen, that they might be sacrificed to the Lord thy God the king; but the rest I have destroyed and put under the ban. And Samuel said to Saul:'

'Wast thou not least in thy own sight, yet made leader of the sceptres of the tribe of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel, and the Lord sent thee on the way and said to thee: Go and destroy those who sin against me, Amalek, and thou shalt make war against them until thou consume them. And why didst thou not hearken to the voice of the Lord, but didst rush upon the spoil and do what is evil before the Lord? And Saul said: Because I hearkened to the people, I went on the way on which God sent me, and I brought Agag the king of Amalek, and Amalek I destroyed. And the people took of the spoil, flocks and the choicest herds of those I destroyed, to sacrifice before the Lord our God in Gilgal. And Samuel said:'

'Does the Lord desire burnt offerings and sacrifices more than to obey the voice of the Lord? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. Since sin is an abomination, thou hast brought upon thyself sorrows and groanings. Because thou hast made of no account the word of the Lord, the Lord shall make thee of no account, that thou shalt not reign.' And Saul said to Samuel: 'I have sinned, because I have transgressed the word of the Lord and thy word, for I feared the people and hearkened to their voice. And now take away my sin, return with me, and I will worship the Lord thy God.' And Samuel said to him: 'The Lord will rend thy kingdom from Israel out of thy hand this day, and will give it to thy neighbor better than thee.' And further on:

'And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, for Samuel mourned over Saul, and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. And the Lord said to Samuel: How long dost thou mourn over Saul? Behold, I cast him off, that he should not reign over Israel; and fill thy horn with oil, and come, I will send thee to Jesse, as far as Bethlehem, for I have provided for myself a king among the sons of Jesse.'

You can now recognize, Constantius, that even those reprobated by the Lord, even those destined to eternal death, reign a long time after a grievous offense committed, since you see that, after the glorious son of Jesse, David, had been anointed king, Saul nonetheless reigned a long time and had power even to persecute him whom God had chosen for himself as prophet and king; the wicked persecuted the good, the unjust the just, the man hateful to God persecuted him whom God loved. Since these things are so, do not boast because, after so great a crime perpetrated, you are living thus far as Saul lived; but consider what manner of vengeance came to pass concerning Saul, which may come to pass concerning you also, unless you take counsel for yourself.

For if the Lord was so indignant concerning him, first because he took spoil contrary to the interdict, second because he persecuted David his man, how much more necessarily does the vengeance of his indignation proceed concerning you—concerning you, whose crimes are so enormous that you have even come into the guilt of sacrilege? 'If I had done ill,' you say, 'if I were a heretic as Lucifer says, God would already have taken away my kingdom from me.' Consider also that Solomon survived after committing idolatry, and deign to understand that you too are such as he was after his idolatry. 'And the Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, and Rezon the son of Eliada in Bemathad, Hadadezer king of Zobah his lord.'

'And men gathered themselves to him, and he was chief of the band, and he seized the city of Damascus and dwelt in it and reigned in Damascus; and they were adversaries to Solomon and to Israel all the days of Solomon.' We have proved to you that Solomon too reigned some years after his idolatry, and indeed serving no longer God but the devil, whence he is noted to have clung to devilish men; so you too are one clinging to your fellow-sacrilegious Arians, who, though you are still in the body, though you continue in the kingdom, are nonetheless found to be such as Solomon was after he forsook God and followed idols. You wished us to cleave to such as Solomon made the Israelites cleave to.

Where was that love of God, which is recounted through the sacred Scriptures to have been in Solomon, at that time when he deigned to follow idols and to forsake God? Whence came this? Except that he had become altogether a man estranged from sober understanding. I do not wish you to applaud yourself because, though you are a blasphemer and a destroyer of the religion of God, you nonetheless still have a kingdom and are exalting yourself after your sacrilege, since we find that Rehoboam the son of Solomon, practicing idolatry, lived on in the kingdom twenty years. For the sacred Scripture says of him: 'And king Solomon slept with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Rehoboam reigned in his stead in Jerusalem, and he was sixteen years old when he reigned, and he reigned twenty years in Jerusalem.' And further on:

'And he did that which was malignant before the sight of the Lord, and walked not in the way of David his father.' Therefore, just as Solomon, from the time he deigned to enslave himself to idols, and his son Rehoboam, who was always serving idols—although they walked not in the ways of David—nonetheless lived on in the kingdom, and both, reigning, arrived at the last day of their life: how do you marvel at yourself, that after committing sacrilege, living on in that crime, you reign in your pride, seeing that neither kingdom nor life is taken from you by God? When you see that even Jeroboam attempted, as you did, to overthrow the religion of the Lord from its foundations, and yet survived very many years, and indeed remaining in that crime, as it is written:

'And there was a man from Mount Ephraim, a servant of Solomon, and his name was Jeroboam, and the name of his mother was Zeruah, a harlot woman'; and in another place: 'And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, they sent and called him into the assembly and made him king over Israel'; and further on: 'And Jeroboam said in his heart: Now shall the kingdom return to David. If this people go up to offer sacrifice in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, then the heart of the people will turn back to their lord Rehoboam king of Judah. Then therefore Jeroboam took counsel and went away. And he made two golden calves and said to the people: Let it suffice you to have gone up to Jerusalem.'

'Behold, these are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin, and the people went before the face of the one calf as far as Dan. And they made houses on the high places, and he made priests of a certain part of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, according to the feast of Judah, and he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel, to sacrifice before the calves which he had made, and he set up in Bethel priests of the high places which he had made. And he went up to the altar which he had made on the fifteenth day, in the eighth month, on the feast which he had devised out of his own heart, and he made a feast for the children of Israel.'

I do not want you, then, to boast that, though you practice idolatry, you nevertheless live possessing the glory of a kingdom, when you see that this Jeroboam made golden calves, turned the people of Israel to idolatry, and yet was not only not destroyed at once when he had sinned, but was even permitted to live long. Could not God have removed those same idolatrous kings? But it was shown how ungrateful to God you are, who, though you are so exalted, nevertheless not only forget the very One who exalts you, but even persecute Him in His servants, desiring to remove His religion from the midst.

Recognize that this is so from the deed of that king Jeroboam, who, though he was the son of a slave-woman, though he remembered that he was born of a harlot, though he received the kingdom of his lord Solomon to the reproach of that same Solomon — why, forsaking God, did he turn himself to idols? Since, I say, Jeroboam knew that the kingdom had been given him by God for the reason that Solomon his lord had followed idols, yet counting all these things as nothing, he resolved to make idols, and to be enslaved to them together with all the people that served God, rather than to the living God, who had made him, the son of a harlot woman, hold the kingdom of Solomon his lord. Do not, therefore, wonder that to you...

...spares you ungrateful ones though you sin against Him; but this I urge you to see: that, though late, if you remain in this wickedness of yours, you will receive those things which all your predecessors received in their sacrilege. We urge you to deign to snatch yourself away from such great evils. And you have examples besides; you are not the first to do this. We see too that this Jeroboam counted the Lord's admonition as nothing. 'And it came to pass,' it says, 'at that time, that Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the Shilonite the prophet found him on the way; and Ahijah was clad in a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the field. And Ahijah took hold of his new garment that he had upon himself, and tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam:'

Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I rend the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten sceptres; and two sceptres shall be his for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem the city, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel — because Solomon has forsaken me, and has made offering to Astarte the unclean idol of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh the idol of Moab, and to their king the religion of the children of Ammon, and has not walked in my ways to do what is right before me, as David his father did. Yet I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand in the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, though I will act against him all the days of his life.

And I will take the kingdom from the hand of his son, and I will give you ten sceptres, but to his son I will give two sceptres, that there may be a standing for my servant David all the days before me in Jerusalem the city, which I chose for myself, to put my name there. And I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. And it shall be, if you keep all whatsoever I command you, and walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight, and keep my precepts and my commandments, as David my servant did, then I will be with you, and I will build you a faithful house, as I built for David.

When this man, sprung from a harlot, this man who remembered that he was born of servile stock, had heard these things from God, did he — after all the things that the Lord had promised were fulfilled — obey Him who had promised him such great things? And did he not, as soon as he saw himself exalted, take up arms against Him? Was not effort at once given, through Jeroboam, that God should be forsaken by all His worshippers? It is said to you by us, that unless you correct yourself, unless you begin to be in the ways pleasing to God, you will perish by a new example; yet you remain in your iniquity, you persevere in your sacrilege.

It is nothing new, since to this King Jeroboam too God, through His man, caused those things already spoken to be delivered; and when his son was held by a mighty sickness, he sent to God's intimate and heard the things to come, and yet, though he saw the things which had been promised him — even the evil ones — being fulfilled, he acted more and more against God, and wished the house of God to be destroyed. 'And there was a man,' it says, 'from Shiloh, and his name was Ahijah, and he was sixty years old, and the word of the Lord was with him. And Jeroboam said to his wife: Arise, and take in your hand for the man of God loaves, and cakes for his sons, and grapes, and a jar of honey. And the woman arose and did as her husband told her.'

And Ahijah was a very old man, and his eyes were dim to see. And the woman arose from Baria and departed. And it came to pass, when she had entered into the city to Ahijah the Shilonite, that Ahijah said to his servant: Go out now to meet Anna the wife of Jeroboam, and you shall say to her: Come in and do not stand still, for thus says the Lord: I am sending harsh things upon you. And Anna came in to the man of God, and Ahijah said to her: Why have you brought me loaves and grapes and cakes and a jar of honey? Thus says the Lord: Behold, you shall go from me, and it shall be, when you enter the gate of the city of Arira, your maidens shall come out to meet you and shall say to you: The boy is dead. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I destroy every male of this Jeroboam;

and those of Jeroboam who die in the city, the dogs shall eat them, and those dead to him in the field, the birds of heaven shall eat them. It is nothing new, I say, if you persist in this obstinacy, since you know that this Jeroboam was not deterred by all these things; for at once, as had been said by the man of God, as soon as the woman entered the city, their son died; and yet Jeroboam did not perceive what God — because he had forsaken Him and had caused the people to perish with him — was about to bring upon him, nor did he fear from the death of his son that the rest also might follow him, but he grew old in his craftiness;

For to such a degree had Jeroboam been made out of his mind, from the time he departed from Him who had handed over the kingdom to him, that although he had said, 'Go to the man of God and learn whether our son shall die,' and had learned through the man of God that not only would their son die, but that dangers loomed over his whole kingdom, he nevertheless, as he had once decided, preferred to serve the devil. He sends to inquire of the man of God about the future, and upon Him whose man he sends to, he spits, and to the insult of His majesty he makes calves and makes the people worship them with him. These things he did, and yet was not destroyed on the spot, but survived long in the kingdom. And you say:

'If I were a heretic, if, as Lucifer, Pancratius and Hilarius say, I were assailing the religion of God, vengeance would already have been taken upon me.' Hear yet further what befell this King Jeroboam, and how, even so, he did not turn to God, but rather, persevering in his crime, died, and perished in his sacrilege:

And Jeroboam made a feast day in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, after the feast day of Judah, and he went up to the sacrifice which he had made in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves which he had made; and he appointed in Bethel priests of the high places whom he had made, and he went up to the shrine which he had made, on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, on the feast day which he had devised from his own heart; and he made a feast day for the children of Israel, and went up to the shrine to sacrifice. And behold, a man of God from Judah came by the word of the Lord to Bethel, and Jeroboam was standing over his altar to sacrifice; and the prophet cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, saying: O shrine, shrine, thus says the Lord:

Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, and Josiah shall be his name, and he shall sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who sacrifice upon you, and he shall burn men's bones upon you. And he gave on that day a portent which the Lord had spoken: Behold, the shrine shall be rent, and the fatness that is in it shall be poured out. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the man of God calling out against the altar which was in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand toward the altar, saying: Seize him. And the king's hand which he stretched out against him became withered, and he could not draw it back to himself. And the sacrifice was rent, and its fatness was poured out from the shrine, according to the portent which the man of God had spoken in the word of the Lord. And the king answered and said to the man of God:

Entreat the face of the Lord your God, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the face of the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him, and became as it was before. When he had seen fulfilled both the portents which had been uttered by the mouth of the man of God, and the impious arm stretched out to slay the man of God suddenly made withered in his terror, and forthwith made whole again through the prayer of God's worshipper — did he destroy the idolatry which he himself had established? Did he at last remove from the midst the feast day which he himself had devised out of his own heart? By no means; but in that obstinacy of his presumption he is found to have met the day of his death.