Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| He Shows by the Example of Victorinus that There is More Joy in the Conversion of Nobles.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter IV.—He Shows by the
Example of Victorinus that There is More Joy in the Conversion of
Nobles.
9. Haste, Lord, and act; stir us up, and call us
back; inflame us, and draw us to Thee; stir
us up, and grow sweet unto us; let
us now love Thee, let us “run after Thee.”630
Do not many men, out of a deeper
hell of blindness than that of Victorinus, return unto Thee, and
approach, and are enlightened, receiving that light, which they
that receive, receive power from Thee to become Thy sons?631
But if they
be less known among the people, even they that know them joy less
for them. For when many rejoice together, the joy of each one is
the fuller in that they are incited and inflamed by one another.
Again, because those that are known to many influence many towards
salvation, and take the lead with many to follow them. And,
therefore, do they also who preceded them much rejoice in regard to
them, because they rejoice not in them alone. May it be averted
that in Thy tabernacle the persons of the rich should be accepted
before the poor, or the noble before the ignoble; since rather
“Thou hast chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things which are mighty and base things of the world, and things
which are despised, hast Thou chosen, yea, and things which are
not, to bring to naught things that are.”632
And yet, even that “least of the
apostles,”633
by whose
tongue Thou soundest out these words, when Paulus the proconsul634
—his pride
overcome by the apostle’s warfare—was made to pass under the
easy yoke635
of Thy
Christ, and became a provincial of the great King,—he also,
instead of Saul, his former name, desired to be called Paul,636
| 636 “‘As Scipio, after the conquest of Africa, took
the name of Africanus, so Saul also, being sent to preach to the
Gentiles, brought back his trophy out of the first spoils won by
the Church, the proconsul Sergius Paulus, and set up his banner, in
that for Saul he was called Paul’ (Jerome, Comm. in Ep. ad
Philem. init). Origen mentions the same opinion (which is
indeed suggested by the relation in the Acts), but thinks that the
apostle had originally two names (Præf. in Comm. in Ep. ad
Rom.), which, as a Roman, may very well have been, and yet that
he made use of his Roman name Paul first in connection with the
conversion of the proconsul; Chrysostom says that it was doubtless
changed at the command of God, which is to be supposed, but still
may have been at this time.”—E. B. P. | in testimony
of so great a victory. For the enemy is more overcome in one of
whom he hath more hold, and by whom he hath hold of more. But the
proud hath he more hold of by reason of their nobility; and by them
of more, by reason of their authority.637
| 637 “Satan makes choice of persons of place and
power. These are either in the Commonwealth or church. If he
can, he will secure the throne and the pulpit, as the two forts
that command the whole line.…A prince or a ruler may stand for a
thousand; therefore saith Paul to Elymas when he would have turned
the deputy from the faith, ‘O full of all subtilty, thou child of
the devil!’ (Acts. xiii. 10). As if he had said, ‘You
have learned this of your father the devil,—to haunt the courts
of princes, wind into the favour of great ones. There is a double
policy Satan hath in gaining such to his side.—(a) None
have such advantage to draw others to their way. Corrupt the
captain, and it is hard if he bring not off his troop with him.
When the princes—men of renown in their tribes—stood up with
Korah, presently a multitude are drawn into the conspiracy (Num. xvi.
2; 19). Let Jeroboam set
up idolatry, and Israel is soon in a snare. It is said [that] the
people willingly walked after his commandment (Hos. v.
11). (b) Should the sin
stay at court, and the infection go no further, yet the sin of such
a one, though a good man, may cost a whole kingdom dear. Satan
stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel (1 Chron.
xxi. 1). He owed Israel a
spite, and he pays them home in their king’s sin, which dropped
in a fearful plague upon their heads,”—Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour,
vol. i. part 2. | By how much the more welcome, then,
was the heart of Victorinus esteemed, which the devil had held as
an unassailable retreat, and the tongue of Victorinus, with which
mighty and cutting weapon he had slain many; so much the more
abundantly should Thy sons rejoice, seeing that our King hath bound
the strong man,638
and they saw
his vessels taken from him and cleansed,639
and made meet for Thy honour, and
become serviceable for the Lord unto every good work.640
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
