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What, then, have the Christians suffered in that calamitous period,
which would not profit every one who duly and faithfully considered the
following circumstances? First of all, they must humbly consider
those very sins which have provoked God to fill the world with such
terrible disasters; for although they be far from the excesses of
wicked, immoral, and ungodly men, yet they do not judge themselves so
clean removed from all faults as to be too good to suffer for these even
temporal ills. For every man, however laudably he lives, yet yields
in some points to the lust of the flesh. Though he do not fall into
gross enormity of wickedness, and abandoned viciousness, and
abominable profanity, yet he slips into some sins, either rarely or so
much the more frequently as the sins seem of less account. But not to
mention this, where can we readily find a man who holds in fit and just
estimation those persons on account of whose revolting pride, luxury,
and avarice, and cursed iniquities and impiety, God now smites the
earth as His predictions threatened? Where is the man who lives with
them in the style in which it becomes us to live with them? For often
we wickedly blind ourselves to the occasions of teaching and admonishing
them, sometimes even of reprimanding and chiding them, either because
we shrink from the labor or are ashamed to offend them, or because we
fear to lose good friendships, lest this should stand in the way of our
advancement, or injure us in some worldly matter, which either our
covetous disposition desires to obtain, or our weakness shrinks from
losing. So that, although the conduct of wicked men is distasteful to
the good, and therefore they do not fall with them into that damnation
which in the next life awaits such persons, yet, because they spare
their damnable sins through fear, therefore, even though their own
sins be slight and venial, they are justly scourged with the wicked in
this world, though in eternity they quite escape punishment. Justly,
when God afflicts them in common with the wicked, do they find this
life bitter, through love of whose sweetness they declined to be bitter
to these sinners.
If any one forbears to reprove and find fault with those who are doing
wrong, because he seeks a more seasonable opportunity, or because he
fears they may be made worse by his rebuke, or that other weak persons
may be disheartened from endeavoring to lead a good and pious life, and
may be driven from the faith; this man's omission seems to be
occasioned not by covetousness, but by a charitable consideration.
But what is blame-worthy is, that they who themselves revolt from the
conduct of the wicked, and live in quite another fashion, yet spare
those faults in other men which they ought to reprehend and wean them
from; and spare them because they fear to give offence, test they
should injure their interests in those things which good men may
innocently and legitimately use, though they use them more greedily
than becomes persons who are strangers in this world, and profess the
hope of a heavenly country. For not only the weaker brethren who enjoy
married life, and have children (or desire to have them), and own
houses and establishments, whom the apostle addresses in the churches,
warning and instructing them how they should live, both the wives with
their husbands, and the husbands with their wives, the children with
their parents, and parents with their children, and servants with
their masters, and masters with their servants, not only do these
weaker brethren gladly obtain and grudgingly lose many earthly and
temporal things on account of which they dare not offend men whose
polluted and wicked life greatly displeases them; but those also who
live at a higher level, who are not entangled in the meshes of married
life, but use meagre food and raiment, do often take thought of their
own safety and good name, and abstain from finding fault with the
wicked, because they fear their wiles and violence. And although they
do not fear them to such an extent as to be drawn to the commission of
like iniquities, nay, not by any threats or violence soever; yet
those very deeds which they refuse to share in the commission of they
often decline to find fault with, when possibly they might by finding
fault prevent their commission. They abstain from interference,
because they fear that, if it fail of good effect, their own safety or
reputation may be damaged or destroyed; not because they see that their
preservation and good name are needful, that they may be able to
influence those who need their instruction, but rather because they
weakly relish the flattery and respect of men, and fear the judgments
of the people, and the pain or death of the body; that is to say,
their non-intervention is the result of selfishness, and not of love.
Accordingly this seems to me to be one principal reason why the good
are chastised along with the wicked, when God is pleased to visit with
temporal punishments the profligate manners of a community. They are
punished together, not because they have spent an equally corrupt
life, but because the good as well as the wicked, though not equally
with them, love this present life; while they ought to hold it cheap,
that the wicked, being admonished and reformed by their example, might
lay hold of life eternal. And if they will not be the companions of
the good in seeking life everlasting, they should be loved as enemies,
and be dealt with patiently. For so long as they live, it remains
uncertain whether they may not come to a better mind. These selfish
persons have more cause to fear than those to whom it was said through
the prophet, "He is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will
I require at the watchman's hand." For watchmen or overseers of the
people are appointed in churches, that they may unsparingly rebuke
sin. Nor is that man guiltless of the sin we speak of, who, though
he be not a watchman, yet sees in the conduct of those with whom the
relationships of this life bring him into contact, many things that
should be blamed, and yet overlooks them, fearing to give offence,
and lose such worldly blessings as may legitimately be desired, but
which he too eagerly grasps. Then, lastly, there is another reason
why the good are afflicted with temporal calamities, the reason which
Job's case exemplifies: that the human spirit may be proved, and
that it may be manifested with what fortitude of pious trust, and with
how unmercenary a love, it cleaves to God.
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