On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God

Contents

Reading pages: 1–6 · 7–12 · 13–18 · 19–24 · 25–31 · 32–35

1. 1Lucifer answers Constantius's complaint that the bishops insulted him by pointing to Moses and the Levites and to Phinehas, who punished idolaters, and asks by what authority the emperor would lead them from the way of all the saints.
2. 2Applying Deuteronomy's law against prophets and kinsmen who entice to other gods, Lucifer argues that the patriarchs and apostles shared one faith in the Son and that Constantius, urging the bishops to abandon it, is an enemy of God.
3. 3Lucifer sets out the whole story of Achan's theft and stoning as a warning to Constantius, who by denying the Son has himself become a thing devoted to destruction.
4. 4Lucifer defends the bishops' plain speech by the example of Samuel rebuking and mourning for Saul and of Elisha calling the king of Israel a murderer's son, and insists that calling Constantius a persecutor and denier of the Son is simply telling the truth.
5. 5Citing Jehu's reward for destroying Ahab's house and the fate of Amaziah, who persecuted the prophet that rebuked his idolatry, Lucifer argues that apostate kings always persecute those who warn them, and that Constantius should remember Arius's death.
6. 6From the priests who drove the leprous King Uzziah out of the temple, Lucifer argues that the bishops may rightly tell Constantius that an Arian may not assemble with the church, and contrasts Josiah, who killed idolaters, with the mere words the bishops have used.
7. 7Lucifer quotes at length the account of Josiah's reform, in which idolatrous priests were burned and their altars defiled, to show that, compared with Josiah's sword, the bishops' words to Constantius are mild.
8. 8Lucifer compares himself to Amos rebuked by the priest of Bethel and to Tobit, who buried the dead in defiance of the king's edict, to show that God's servants fear God, not tyrants.
9. 9Lucifer applies God's charge to Ezekiel not to fear the rebellious house that surrounds him like scorpions, and tells Constantius that by his deeds he shows himself one of those scorpions.
10. 10Citing God's appointment of Ezekiel as watchman, whose silence would make him answerable for the sinner's blood, Lucifer argues that bishops must warn the emperor, and quotes Judith's prayer for the destruction of Israel's enemies.
11. 11Lucifer argues that bishops are shepherds who must face the wolf rather than flee like hirelings, and that warning Constantius of destruction is no insult but their duty to Christ's flock.
12. 12Lucifer quotes the first book of Maccabees on Antiochus's decree abolishing the law and on Mattathias's refusal to sacrifice and his zeal, presenting Antiochus as Constantius's model.
13. 13Contrasting Mattathias's and Phinehas's swords with his own words, Lucifer ironically wonders why the emperor has not killed him and argues from God's charge to Jeremiah that a bishop must rebuke even a king.
14. 14Lucifer calls Constantius one of John's many antichrists, quotes Mattathias's armed defence of the law, and cites the builders of Jerusalem's walls who prayed against their adversaries, to show that God's servants never spared the enemies of religion.
15. 15Lucifer cites Moses' song against Israel's enemies and Mattathias's dying charge to his sons to be zealous for the law and not fear a sinful man whose glory is dung and worms, and refuses to spare the emperor.
16. 16Lucifer sets Judas Maccabeus's zeal and the apostles' refusal to stop preaching in Jesus' name, after the healing of the lame man, against Constantius's demand for silence.
17. 17From the apostles' miracles, imprisonment, angelic release and answer that God must be obeyed rather than men, Lucifer argues that the bishops, imprisoned for preaching the Son, are no more insolent than the apostles.
18. 18Lucifer argues that Constantius's Arianism differs from Photinus's and Paul of Samosata's denial of the Son only in words, quotes the Nicene Creed with its anathemas, and warns him from John the Baptist's imprisonment and the parable of the pounds.
19. 19Lucifer says the bishops pray for the emperor as Paul commands, but must also rebuke him publicly without partiality, as Paul charged Timothy, and must, like the apostles beaten by the council, go on preaching Christ.
20. 20Lucifer compares Constantius's anger with the Jews' rage at Stephen's rebuke and cites Paul's blinding of the magician Elymas, whom he called a son of the devil, to show that saints have always spoken so to enemies of the truth.
21. 21Lucifer calls Constantius a second Bar-Jesus, resisting the faith as the false prophet did, and quotes the fourth, fifth and sixth Maccabean brothers' defiance of Antiochus as precedents for his own words.
22. 22Lucifer defends urging the persecuted to resist by the example of the Maccabean mother, quoting at length her charge to her youngest son and his defiant speech to Antiochus.
23. 23Lucifer applies the Maccabean youth's words to Constantius point by point, then from Peter's command to resist the devil and Moses' song argues that the emperor, drunk with the devil's wine, must be named for what he is.
24. 24From John's command to test the spirits, Lucifer argues that, as those who deny Christ's incarnation are antichrists, so the Arians, who deny that the Son is truly born of the Father's substance, carry the spirit of Antichrist.
25. 25Lucifer argues that the Arian denial of the true Son shows that the Spirit who spoke in the prophets and apostles is not in Constantius, calls him a wolf and a brood of vipers, and warns him from Jesus' words to Peter that those who take the sword perish by it.
26. 26Lucifer compares Constantius with Judas Iscariot, arguing that the emperor, who has had the Nicene faith condemned and bought support with money, is worse than Judas, who at least repented and betrayed Christ only to unbelievers.
27. 27Lucifer applies Paul's warnings against the serpent's deceit and against false apostles disguised as ministers of righteousness to Constantius, who feigns piety while deposing catholic bishops, and cites the girl with the spirit of divination at Philippi.
28. 28Lucifer argues that, as the spirit of divination stirred up Philippi against Paul and Silas, so unclean spirits drive Constantius, who cannot have the Holy Spirit without faith in the Son, and that like Saul he persecutes Christ in his servants.
29. 29From Paul's farewell charge to the Ephesian elders to guard the flock against fierce wolves, and his rebuke of the high priest Ananias, Lucifer argues that bishops must not spare the emperor or revere his regalia.
30. 30To justify calling Constantius the forerunner of Antichrist, Lucifer quotes in full Daniel's vision of the four beasts and the little horn that makes war on the saints.
31. 31Lucifer explains that he quoted Daniel's whole vision to show that persecuting tyrants are called beasts, and argues that Constantius, speaking against God by calling the Son a creature, is either Antichrist or his forerunner.
32. 32Lucifer warns Constantius of the river of fire, defends calling him a beast by Paul's words on the Cretans, and answers the emperor's appeal to the duty of obeying kings with Paul's command to Titus to rebuke with all authority.
33. 33Lucifer grants that Christians owe obedience to rulers, as Paul tells Titus, but only in good works, not in condemning the innocent unheard or denying the Son, and says no Christian may yield to an emperor who commands apostasy.
34. 34From Paul's anathema on any other gospel and his rebuke of the “foolish Galatians”, and from Isaiah and Psalm 22's names for God's enemies, Lucifer justifies calling Constantius anathema, foolish, and one of the dogs that surround Christ.
35. 35Closing his work, Lucifer compares the bishops' sufferings under Constantius with the Jews' under Antiochus's decrees in 2 Maccabees and urges the emperor to repent and return to the church before he joins the tyrants in punishment.