this very word, These (he says) are the children that the Lord has given me: it
CHAPTER 5: Persecution Reproach and the Worlds Praise
this very word, These (he says) are the children that the Lord has given me: it was necessary that they be as if to frighten people, and to be like frightening things, and which are loathsome by nature. We therefore see how both Isaiah and those who were joined to him to serve purely God were rejected. And from whom? he does not speak of the Egyptians, and of their fellows who were idolaters by profession, but of the two houses of Israel, of both these kingdoms which were consecrated in the name of God. For although the ten Lineages in separating themselves from the house of David had made a revolt, as if to renounce God, still if there was still some reserve, knowing that God wanted to be honored there. And in fact, the anointing was in no way in that Kingdom, as in Judea. He therefore says that both these nations, that is to say all those who at that time were renowned the holy church and the holy lineage of Abraham, abhorred the true prophets and true disciples of God. When then Jesus Christ appeared, according as the celestial doctrine was then declared in greatest perfection, it was also necessary may the rage of the devil and all the wicked be is sharp, there has been a fire lit, and exerted a more than furious rage against the children of God: and not only for the torment and afflict them in their bodies, but for them blaming, even and under the very shadow of order which God had established in his church.
For excommunication was a sacred thing, because God willed that at all times the church be purged of all filth, and that those who committed scandals and dissolutions there were cut off, as is quite right: for the heathen philosophers themselves have always had excommunication recommended. They were ashamed that the wicked and those who were defiled should mix among their sacrifices. It was a profanation that they could not tolerate. If the blind poor observed such a policy, it was necessary that in the church of God there was such an order. Now Jesus Christ declares that his disciples will have to come to this battle, and that they will be dismissed from the synagogue, that they will be held as reprobate people, and as filthy and stinking.
We now see in short what we have to remember from this passage, it is according to what we have alleged from Paul, that not only do we have to be patient when we are afflicted in our persons, when we are outraged, even to the point of life: that not only do we have to be equipped with constancy in this case, but also that when we are blamed, when we are torn to pieces by slander, when we are charged, false crimes, we must still bow our heads, and wait with peaceful courage for God to shine upon our integrity, like the dawn of the day, as is spoken of in the other passage, and follow Jeremiah, who, when he calls