On the Governance of God 2.1–3.12

What we have said, then, of examples is enough, by which our God is shown always to be a most attentive observer, a most kind governor, and a most just judge. But perhaps one of the less instructed thinks: “If all things are now done by God as they were done then, why is it that the wicked prevail and the good are afflicted, and while then the wicked felt wrath and the good mercy, now the good seem in some way to feel wrath and the wicked favor?” I shall answer that a little later. Now, since I promised to prove these three things, that is, God’s presence, governance, and judgment, by these three means, that is, by reason, examples, and testimonies, and since we have satisfied reason and examples, it remains to declare it by testimonies; though the examples we have given ought to be held as testimonies, since that is rightly called a testimony by which the truth of things is proved.

Which, then, of the three things mentioned above should first be proved by sacred testimonies: presence, governance, or judgment? Presence, I think, because whoever is to rule or judge must without doubt be present, so that he can rule or judge whatever it is. The divine word, speaking in its volumes, says this: “In every place the eyes of the Lord behold the good and the wicked.” Here you have him present, here watching, here in every place and vigilant by sight. For he said that both the good and the wicked are observed by him precisely to prove that nothing is neglected by one whom he showed to search out all things.

To grasp this more fully, hear what the same Holy Spirit testifies in another place of the Scriptures: “The eyes of the Lord,” it says, “are upon those who fear him, to rescue their souls from death and nourish them in famine.” See why God is said to look upon righteous men: to preserve them, to protect them. For the gaze of the propitious Godhead is the gift of human life. And elsewhere the same divine Spirit says: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears toward their prayers.” See with what kindness Scripture says God deals with his own. In this, that it says the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, the affection of the one who looks is shown; in this, that his ears are always ready for their prayers, the generosity of one who hears is shown. Though by saying that the divine ears are always on the prayers of the righteous, not only God’s hearing but a kind of obedience of God is indicated.

For how are the divine ears on the prayers of the righteous? How, unless that they always hear, always answer, promptly grant what is heard, at once concede what is answered? Always, then, are our Lord’s ears ready, always attentive, to hear the prayers of the saints. How blessed we would all be, if we were as ready to listen to God as we read that God is ready to listen to us! But perhaps you say that this, that God is read to look upon the righteous, does little for the case, because it is not a general regard of the Godhead which is given only to the righteous by special kindness.

The sacred word has already testified above that “the eyes of the Lord behold the good and the wicked.” But if you want to prove it more fully even now, look at what follows; for this is added: “But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth.” You see without doubt that you cannot complain that God does not look on the unrighteous too, since you understand that the Lord’s sight is general over all but differs according to the difference of merits. The good are looked upon to be preserved, the wicked to be destroyed. And you, who deny that men are looked upon by God and have a share with them, understand plainly that you are not only seen by the Lord but recognize without doubt that you will perish too. For since the Lord’s face is against evildoers to destroy their memory from the earth, you who faithlessly deny that God’s face looks must learn the wrath of the one who looks by your destruction. So much, then, for the presence and gaze of God.

Let us now see whether he who looks also rules, since the very reason for looking contains in itself the reason for governing, because he does not look so that, having looked, he may neglect; he is understood not to neglect by the very fact that he deigns to look, especially since the sacred word has testified above that the wicked are looked upon by God for destruction and the good for salvation. By this very thing the dispensation of divine governance is shown; for this is to rule with just governance, to treat each man according to the difference of his merits.

But receive fuller testimony on this matter. The Holy Spirit says to God the Father in the psalm: “You who rule Israel, give heed.” Israel is interpreted “seeing God”; and since Christians, who believe faithfully, see him by faith and heart, though God is governor of all, rule is said to be given by God specially to those who deserve to be specially ruled by the Godhead. Hence you too, whoever you are, if you are a Christian, must believe that you are ruled by God. But if you do not think at all that you are governed by God with the other Christians, you must recognize that you are outside all Christians.

But if, as we said above, you seek rather what belongs to all men, not to Christians only, behold, the sacred volume says plainly that all things are ruled daily by the nod of the Godhead and governed by God without ceasing; for “he loves,” it says, “counsel and discipline. For there is no other God who has care of all. Since you are just, you dispose all things justly, and with great reverence you dispose us.” Here you have God continually disposing, continually governing; though in this place of Scripture not only the sacred governance but also human dignity is declared. For in saying “you dispose us” the force of divine governance is shown, and in saying “with great reverence” the height of human dignity.

Elsewhere also in the prophet: “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” he says. And why he fills all things he himself declares: “Because I am with you,” he says, “to save you.” For behold, the Lord shows not only his rule and his filling but also the force and benefit of that filling; for the filling of the Godhead has this fruit in it, that it saves what it fills. And so in the Acts of the Apostles the most blessed Paul says: “In him we live and move and have our being.” He is without doubt more than the governor of life in whom is the very movement of the living. For he did not say that we are moved by him but in him, teaching that the substance of all of us is implanted within the sacred powers; for surely in him

we live, from whom we draw this very thing that we are. And the Savior himself in the gospel: “Behold,” he says, “I am with you all days until the end of the age.” He said not only that he is with us but that he is with us all days. Do you, O most ungrateful man, say that he who is with us without ceasing has neither care nor regard for us? What then is he doing with us? Is he with us so as not to regard us, so as to neglect us? And how do both agree, that he who grants his presence out of kindness should give unconcern out of unkindness? “For behold,” he says, “I am with you all days until the end of the age.”

We interpret God’s affection splendidly, no doubt, if we slander him by saying we are continually neglected by him, when he testifies that we are never abandoned by him. He wished to show by this that he never departs from us in affection and protection, because he is not absent from us even in presence. We turn the divine love into contempt of ourselves; we change the testimonies of love into arguments of hatred. For this, that he says he is present, we would have be a testimony of hatred rather than of love. For if the Lord had said he would be absent, we could perhaps complain less of the unconcern of one absent. It is a matter of greater contempt and disdain if he continually neglects us who never withdraws from us; and it would contain more hatred of us if he remained always with us only so that he who never deserts us in presence might always reject us in affection.

But far be it to believe this of the most kind and merciful God, that he wished always to be with us only to seem, being present, to neglect us with greater disdain: far be it to say such a crime. For no one, I think, even in the whole human race, is so wicked as to want to be with any man because he does not love him, and to wish to use his presence only so as to be able to despise the one present with greater profit of hatred. Let human nature itself teach or overcome us, if it is not because we love the one we wish to be with that we wish to be with anyone. And because we love him, we wish our presence to benefit him whom we love. What, then, we cannot take away even from a wicked man, we take from God, and we make God worse than the worst men, as though he said he would be with us only so as to neglect us more disdainfully when he was. But enough of this.

It remains, since we have now proved by sacred testimonies that all things are both regarded and ruled by God, to show also that very many things are judged by the Godhead in this age. Holy David, when he had suffered the wrong of an insult from Nabal of Carmel, because he refrained from avenging himself, at once received vengeance with God as executor. So when his adversary was extinguished a little later and overwhelmed by the heavenly hand, he spoke thus: “Blessed be the Lord, who has judged the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal.”

When a persecuting son had driven the same David from the kingdom, the Lord as judge soon avenged him, and not only avenged him but avenged him more fully than the one avenged himself wished, so that God might show that the injury of those who endure injustice is graver to him than their own is to them. For what does he who avenges beyond the wish of the one avenged want understood except that he himself is avenged in the one he so avenges? So when the parricide son had been driven to a cross not made by hands, the divine word reports the vengeance divinely granted to David as announced thus: “I bring good news, my lord king; for the Lord has judged for you today from the hand of all who rose up against you.”

Do you see how the divine writings prove through sacred witnesses, not only by facts and examples, as we said above, but by the very name and designation of judgment, that God judges even in the present age? But perhaps you think this was specially granted by God to a holy man, that he should judge at once concerning his adversaries. The day would fail me if I wished to speak of the present sentences and judgments in this world. Yet, so that you may plainly recognize that he gives his strictness and sacred examination not so much according to persons as according to causes, hear how God the judge, who constantly gave clear sentence for his servant David, more often judged against David himself; and this not in the business of many men or, what might perhaps have moved God more, of saints, but in the cause of one man, and a barbarian, and where nothing at all about the person would have burdened so great a man had the cause not condemned him.

When Uriah the Hittite, a man of an impious race and an enemy nation, had been killed, at once the divine word came to David: “You struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife as your wife, and killed him with the sword of the Ammonites; therefore the sword shall not depart from your house forever. So says the Lord: Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing in the sight of all Israel and in the sight of the sun.”

What do you say, you who believe not only that whatever we do is not judged, but that it is not even regarded at all by God? Do you see that God’s eyes were not absent even from that secrecy in which David once fell? Hence you too, who, I suppose for the comfort of your sins, think our acts are not considered by God, understand from this very thing that you are always seen by Christ, and recognize that you may perhaps soon be punished, since you see that even holy David could neither cover his one error with the secrecy of hidden chambers nor rescue himself from present punishment even by the privilege of great works. For what does the Lord say to him? “I will take your wives in your sight, and the sword shall not depart from your house forever.”

You see how present a judgment so great a man receives at once for one error. Condemnation followed the fault immediately, and a condemnation punishing at once, reserving nothing, restraining the guilty man forthwith, not postponing the guilt to the future. And so he did not say: “Because you did this, you will feel the coming judgment of God and be tormented by the future fire of Gehenna,” but: “You will feel present torments and will bear the sword of divine severity already hanging over your neck.” And what after this?

The guilty man, of course, acknowledges his fault; he is humbled, pierced with compunction, he confesses, mourns, repents, implores; he renounces the royal gems, lays aside the garments curling with woven gold, is stripped of purple, dishonored of the diadem, changed in dress and body; he casts off the whole king with his ornaments and takes on the penitent fugitive with the patronage of a striving squalor; he is exacted by fasting, dried by thirst, poured out in weeping, imprisoned in solitude. And yet a king of so great a name, greater in holiness than in power, surpassing by the privileges of his earlier merits, though he made supplication with such effort, does not escape.

And here the only fruit of so great a repentance is that he is not indeed condemned to eternal penalties, yet he does not deserve pardon in the present. In short, what does the prophet say to the penitent? “Because you have made the enemies of the Lord blaspheme, the son who is born to you shall die.” Besides the penalty of bitter bereavement, God wished this understanding of the highest punishment to be added to the most loving father: that the father who grieved should himself be the cause of death to his dearest son, since the crime itself killed the child born of the crime which had produced him.

This, then, is the first beginning of divine punishment, the first indeed but not the only one. For a long series of huge calamities followed, and an almost continuous succession of evils never left his house. Tamar is violated by the frenzy of Amnon; Amnon is murdered by Absalom. A great crime is committed by one brother, but it is avenged by a worse one by the other. Amid this, David the father is punished by the deed of both. Two sons sin, but three are lost by the crime of the two; for in Tamar virginity is lost, in Amnon the perdition of Absalom too is mourned. And indeed you could not tell which of the two sons so good a father lost more grievously: the one killed by his brother’s hand in this age, or the one who perished by his own in the future.

From here on, according to the word of God, came a heap of incalculable evil. The father long suffers plots from his son, is driven from the kingdom, and departs a fugitive so as not to be killed. You could not tell whether the son was more impure or more bloody: because he cannot kill his father by parricide, he defiles him by incest, and indeed by an incest made public, beyond the outrage of incest, by deliberate effort to heap up the crime; since the persecutor of his parent committed openly a deed that secrecy itself would make abominable, so that by a most savage crime not only the absent father might be disgraced, but the eyes of the whole world also be defiled by public incest.

If the appearance of the flight itself is to be added too, what was it like when so great a king, of so great a name, higher than all kings, greater than the world, fled all his own with very few servants, needy in comparison with what he had lately been, alone in comparison with himself, fleeing with fear, with disgrace, with mourning, “walking,” says Scripture, “with head covered and bare feet”; survivor of his former state, an exile from himself, almost already living after himself, cast down even to the insult, which is grievous, or, which is more grievous, the pity of his own servants, so that Ziba fed him and Shimei did not fear to curse him publicly; made by the judgment of God so different from himself that one enemy insulted to his face the man whom perhaps the whole world had feared.

Where are those who deny that human affairs are regarded by God? Behold how often the sacred witnesses have taught, in the person of one man, that God not only regarded but also judged. And why all this? Why indeed, unless that we should understand that the Lord’s strictness and coercion in the world will always be the same as it was?

And so we read that even holy men were once chastised by the judgment of God, so that we might know that we too are to be judged with God as judge even in the present age; because as God is always, so God’s justice is always; as the Lord’s omnipotence is unfailing, so his strictness is unchangeable; as God is perpetual by right, so his justice persists. And therefore all the saints in the sacred books, placed amid fears of impending dangers and the swords of persecutors, ask for God’s present judgment.

For so the righteous man says in the psalm: “Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy nation.” And lest this be drawn to God’s future judgment, he added at once: “Rescue me from the unjust and deceitful man.” He certainly asks for God’s present judgment who implores to be freed from the hand of a persecutor. And well, with the conscience of a good cause, does he pray not so much for the Lord’s support as for his judgment, because the best support is always given to a good cause if it is judged with justice. Elsewhere also, most plainly:

“Judge, O Lord, those who harm me, fight against those who fight me; take hold of arms and shield and rise up to help me.” You see that in this place too it is not the severity of the future examination but the strictness of present judgment that is asked for. For this is what he says: “Take hold of the shield and seize the sword”: the shield, that is, for protection, the sword for vengeance; not because God in judging needs this equipment, but because in this age these names of terrible things are the instruments of terrible judgments; speaking to human understanding through the meanings of human things, since he prayed to be judged and avenged on his adversaries, he expressed the force of divine punishment through the instruments of this earthly vengeance.

Finally, elsewhere the same prophet showed what the difference is between God’s present and future judgment. For what does he say to the Lord of the strictness of present examination? “You sit upon the throne, you who judge equity.” And what of God’s future and eternal judgment? “He will judge the world,” he says, “in equity”; and again: “He will judge the peoples with justice.” By the very words of present and future time he distinguished the time of each judgment. To show present judgment he put “you judge”; to distinguish the future from the present he added afterwards “he will judge.” This, then, is enough to have proved by reason, examples, and testimonies concerning God’s care for us, his governance, and his judgment, especially since what will follow after this will all bear on the same point. Now, if we receive strength to act from God, whose business we are doing, we shall try both to bring forward and to refute what is usually said against this by our adversaries.

So far, so good: the foundations of the work have been laid, a work begun with pious effort and undertaken for love of a divine duty. So they are not laid in dissolving mud nor built of temporal stone, but strengthened by the preparation of sacred materials and made firm by the art of divine teaching: such that, as God himself says in the gospel, they can neither be shaken by raging winds, nor undermined by the flooding of rivers, nor dissolved by the pouring of rains. For since the hand, as it were, of the divine volumes has built this work, and the joinery of the heavenly Scriptures has made it solid, what has been made must through the Lord Jesus Christ be as firm as what made it. So this building takes the nature of its stability from its root and cannot be shaken while its authors stand. For as in earthly buildings no one can throw down the walls unless he throws down the stones and the mortar, so no one can dissolve the building we have constructed unless he first dissolves that from which it was built and completed; and since that can in no way be shaken, we rightly presume the safety of a building whose stability is held together by immortal supports.

The question is asked, then, since this is so: if everything in this world is done by the care, governance, and judgment of God, why is the condition of the barbarians much better than ours? Why among ourselves too is the lot of the good harder than that of the wicked? Why do the upright lie low and the wicked flourish? Why does everything give way to unjust powers above all? I could indeed say reasonably and quite firmly: “I do not know”; for I am ignorant of the secret and counsel of the Godhead. The oracle of the heavenly word is enough for me to prove this case. God says, as we proved in the preceding books, that all things are regarded, ruled, and judged by him.

If you want to know what must be held, you have the sacred writings: the perfect reason is to hold what you have read. But why God does these things of which we speak, I do not want you to ask of me. I am a man; I do not understand the secrets of God; I do not dare to investigate them, and so I fear even to attempt it, because this very thing is a kind of sacrilegious rashness, to wish to know more than you are allowed. Let it be enough for you that God testifies that all things are done and disposed by him. Why do you ask me why one is greater and another lesser, one wretched and another happy, one strong and another weak? Why God does these things I do not understand; but for the fullest reason it is abundantly enough that I show they are done by God. For as God is more than all human reason, so the fact that I know all things are done by God ought to be more to me than reason. There is no need, then, in this matter to hear anything new: let God as author be enough in place of all reasons. Nor may you call one of the things done by divine decision just and another unjust, because whatever you see and are convinced is done by God, you must confess to be more than just.

These things, then, can be said most readily and most certainly about God’s governance and judgment. Nor is there any need for me to prove by arguments what is proved by this very fact, that it is said by God. So when we read that God said he looks continually on all the earth, we prove by this very fact that he looks, because he says he looks; when we read that he rules all he has made, we prove by this very fact that he rules, because he testifies that he rules; when we read that he disposes all things by present judgment, it is evident by this very fact that he judges, because he affirms that he judges. For all other words, that is, human ones, need arguments and witnesses; but the word of God is its own witness, because whatever incorrupt truth speaks must be the incorrupt testimony of truth.

Yet since our God has willed that we know through the sacred Scriptures certain things, as it were, from the secret of his soul and mind, because the oracle of sacred Scripture is in a sense the mind of God, I will not keep silent whatever God has willed to be known or preached through his own. One thing, though, I would like to know before I begin to speak: whether I must speak with Christians or with pagans. If with Christians, I have no doubt that I shall prove what I am about; but if with pagans, I shall not bother to prove it, not because I lack proof but because I despair that what I say will be of use; for labor is fruitless and empty where a perverse hearer does not accept proof. Yet since I think there is no man at all of the Christian name who does not wish to seem a Christian, I shall deal with the Christian. For although someone may be of impious and pagan unbelief, it is enough for me that what I say is proved to a Christian.

You complain, then, about why it is that we Christians, who believe in God, are more wretched than all. It might indeed be enough for me to answer here what the apostle said to the churches: “Let no one be moved in tribulations; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.” And so, since the apostle says we have been appointed by God to bear hardships, miseries, and sorrows, what wonder is it if we bear every evil, we who serve as soldiers to endure all adversities? But because many do not understand this and think that Christians ought to receive from God this as the pay of their faith, that, being more religious than all nations, they should also be stronger than all, let us go along with their opinion and judgment.

But let us see, nevertheless, what it is to believe God faithfully. For we who want the reward of belief and faith in this age to be so great must consider what kind of belief or faith itself ought to be. What, then, is belief or faith? I think it is for a man to believe Christ faithfully, that is, to be faithful to God, that is, faithfully to keep God’s commands. For as the slaves of rich men or stewards, to whom abundant furnishings or rich storerooms are entrusted, can without doubt not be called faithful if they devour what is handed to them, so surely Christian men too are unfaithful if they corrupt the goods assigned to them by God.

Perhaps it is asked what the goods are which God assigns to Christian men. What, but all those through which we believe, that is, through which we are Christians at all? First the law, then the prophets, third the gospel, fourth the apostolic readings, and lastly the gift of new regeneration, the grace of holy baptism, the anointing of the divine chrism; so that, as once among the Hebrews, that is, God’s special and own nation, when the honor of the judges had passed into royal power, God called the most proven and chosen men to kingship by the royal ointment, so all Christian men, when after the church’s chrism they had done all God’s commands, would be called to heaven to receive the reward of their labor.

Since, then, these are all the things by which faith stands, let us see who keeps these great sacraments of faith so as to seem faithful, because, as we said, he who does not keep what was entrusted to faith must be unfaithful. And indeed I do not ask that he do everything the testaments of the two times command: I remit the strictness of the old law, I remit the threats of the prophets, I remit even what can in no way be remitted, the most severe instruction of the apostolic books and the teaching of the gospel volumes full of every kind of perfection: I ask who obeys at least the very fewest commands of God.

I do not mean those which so many flee that they almost curse them. So far has honor and reverence for God advanced among us that what we do not do from lack of devotion we even think worthy of hatred. In short, who deigns to hear the Savior’s prohibition against thinking of the morrow? Who accepts his command to be content with a single tunic? Who thinks his precept to walk barefoot not only something to do but even something to bear? So I pass these over. For faith, through which we trust, has fallen to this, that we judge superfluous what the Lord wished to be saving for us. “Love your enemies,” says the Savior, “do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and slander you.” Who does all this? Who deigns to do for his enemies what God commanded, I do not say in prayers, but at least in words?

And even if someone forces himself to do these things, he does them with the mouth, not the mind: he performs the service of the voice but does not change the disposition of the soul. And so, even if he forces himself to pray for his adversary, he speaks; he does not pray. It is long to speak of each thing. But I will add something more, so that we may understand that we not only fail to obey all God’s words but obey almost none of his commands. And so the apostle cries out: “For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

For we add this to our crimes, that, though guilty in everything, we also believe ourselves good and holy, and so in us the offenses of iniquity are heaped up even by the presumption of righteousness. “He who hates his brother,” says the apostle, “is a murderer.” We can understand, then, that there are many murderers who think themselves innocent, because, as we see, murder is committed not only by the hand of the killer but also by the mind of the hater. Hence the Savior heaped up the rule of this command with a still severer strictness, saying: “Whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment.” Anger is the mother of hatred; and so the Savior wished to exclude anger, so that hatred might not be born of anger.