Mindful
of this rule, we can render service even “to magistrates and powers,” after the
example of the patriarchs and the other forefathers, who obeyed idolatrous
kings up to the confine of idolatry. Hence arose, very lately, a dispute
whether a servant of God should take the administration of any dignity or
power, if he be able, whether by some special grace, or by skillfulness, to
keep himself intact from every species of idolatry; after the example that both
Joseph and Daniel, clean from idolatry, administered both dignity and power in
the attire and purple of the prefecture of entire Egypt or Babylonia.
And so
let us grant that it is possible for any one to succeed in moving, in
whatsoever office, under the mere name of the office, neither sacrificing nor
lending his authority to sacrifices; not farming out victims; not assigning to
others the care of temples; not looking after their tributes; not giving
spectacles at his own or the public charge, or presiding over them; making
proclamation or edict for no solemnity; not even taking oaths: moreover (what
comes under the head of power), neither sitting in judgment on any one’s life
or character, for you might bear with his judging about money; neither
condemning nor fore-condemning; binding no one, imprisoning or torturing no
one. Now, is it believable that all this is possible? …
Now by
this time, you who argue about “Joseph” and “Daniel,” know that things old and
new, rude and polished, begun and developed, slavish and free, are not always
comparable. For they, even by their circumstances, were slaves; but you, the
slave of none, in so far as you are the slave of Christ alone, who has freed
you likewise from the captivity of the world, will incur the duty of acting
after your Lord’s pattern. That Lord walked in humility and obscurity, with no
definite home: for “the Son of man,” said He, “has not where to lay His head;”
unadorned in dress, for else He had not said, “Behold, they who are clad in
soft raiment are in kings’ houses:” in short, inglorious in countenance and
aspect, just as Isaiah in addition had fore-announced.
If, also,
He exercised no right of power even over His own followers, to whom He
discharged menial ministry; if, in short, though conscious of His own kingdom,
He shrank back from being made a king, He in the fullest manner gave His own an
example for turning coldly from all the pride and garb, as well of dignity as
of power. For if they were to be used, who would rather have used them than the
Son of God? What kind and what number of weapons would escort Him? What kind of
purple would bloom from His shoulders? What kind of gold would beam from His
head, had He not judged the glory of the world to be alien both to Himself and
to His? Therefore what He was unwilling to accept, He has rejected; what He
rejected, He has condemned; what He condemned, He has counted as part of the
devil’s pomp.
