The Pride of Man and the Patience of God

Leading into life, and few are those finding it. They remembered the patriarch Abraham, that being alone in all the land a worshiper of God, he did not follow the multitude of the impious, but a law of piety and righteousness was to him a struggle; whence it is appropriate that from him, like from some good root, these fruits of piety have grown. For from him also came patriarchs, and the lawgiver Moses, and the prophets, and all the theologians; and from him previously also that salvation and immortal flower of righteousness, the incarnation of the Savior; and from that root also these three children did not deny their nobility. They remembered also Lot, dwelling in Sodoms, but being far removed from its ways; and they took to mind also Joseph, alone in Egypt, practicing self-control, and being a guardian of piety.

Wherefore also these, threatened by so many myriads, seeing the many, thought that the way leading to destruction is wide and spacious (Matthew 7:13), and many are those finding it; but looking again at themselves and the furnace, they remembered also the wisdom saying here, that just as gold is tested in a furnace, so God chooses hearts. Because of this, neither the war-sounding trumpet-blast frightened them, nor the lyre, delighting the ears with the tones of piety, dissolved their resolve, nor indeed did all the rest of the musical harmony dissolve the beautiful and harmonious harmony of piety, but they set the beautiful confession against the beautiful harmony. And that wicked-minded and impious tyrant, as it was foretold concerning those disobeying the command of iniquity, being pressed by the diabolical blindness, and having, so to speak, taken upon it the face of the ruler of evil, calls to them, he says: 'If truly, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you do not worship my gods, and do not worship the golden image which I have set up?' (Daniel 3:12). He deemed piety to be a mere form, and asks if they truly dare to oppose royal commands, they who profess piety; but it was about to be taught through this trial, that the men of God do not only endure the threats of the tyrant, but also the intensity of the fire.

They will trample by the power of impiety. Now, so that when you hear the sound of the trumpet, and the pipe and lyre, and the cymbals and psaltery, and the symphony, and every kind of musical instrument, falling down you worship the golden image which I have set up.

4. You have rightly interpreted the worship of the demons: 'Falling down, worship.' It is impossible for those worshiping demons not to fall either into destruction or to fall away from the truth. But if not, he says, you will be thrown at that very hour into the furnace of fire that burns. Certainly, if it is a furnace, it is evident that it is fire; and if it is fire, it is evident that it is burning. But he enlarges and widens the threat, in order to bend the mind of impiety: 'At that very hour you will be thrown into the furnace of fire that burns.' And the things of arrogance are indeed portable until this point; but see what he adds after this: 'And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?' Another is this Pharaoh; for he also says to Moses: 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?' (Exodus 5:2). 'I do not know,' says the impious one, 'the Lord, and I will not send the people.' Oh, the much pride of men! Oh, the great patience of God! A man speaks, and God endures; the clay speaks, and the Maker endures; a fleshly tongue speaks, and the Master of the incorporeal angels is moved to compassion. He who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. It is timely in this to remember Isaiah saying: 'Why does the earth and dust act insolently?' (Isaiah 41:20). Do you wish to marvel at God's patience? Consider the insolence that has happened to you; how you have been thought to be beyond reproach. Someone is often insulted by a servant, and immediately, putting forward the insolence of liberty, he demands justice for the audacity, punishing the one insulting him with necessary death; someone is insulted again by a trivial and private person, while he himself is being examined in the affairs of the world; and immediately, being bitten by the insolence, he hastens toward punishment, not regarding common nature and the equal value of all things, but rejecting the surrounding dignity, the removal of which is the only way to see the equal value of the race, that we were all fashioned from earth, and into earth we are dissolved; but there is one way into life, and the exit is the same. From clay, he says, you were preserved.