praise. By what title dost thou call them? I said before, “Ye servants of the most high God.”
Yes, to the servants of God, all things are possible; for if some, who are the servants of men,
have, nevertheless, power, and authority, and the disposal of their concerns, much more
have the servants of God. He called them by the name most delightful to them, he knew
that by this means he flattered them most: for indeed, if it was in order to continue servants
of God, that they entered into the fire, there could be no sound more delightful to them
than this. Had he called them kings, had he called them lords of the world, yet would he not
so truly have rejoiced them as when he said, “Ye servants of the most high God.” And why
marvel at this? when, in writing to the mighty city, to her who was mistress of the world,
and prided herself upon her high dignities, Paul set down as equivalent in dignity, nay, as
far greater, yea incomparably greater than consulship, or kingly name, or than the empire
of the world, this title, “Paul, a servant268 of Jesus Christ.” (Rom. i. 1.) “Ye servants of the
most high God.” “Yes,” he would say, “if they show so great zeal as to be bond-servants,
doubtless this is the title by which we shall conciliate them.”
Again, observe also the piety of the Children: they showed no indignation, no anger,
no gain-saying, but they came forth. Had they regarded it as an act of vengeance that they
had been thrown into the furnace, they would have been grieved against the man who had
cast them in; as it is, there is nothing of the kind; but, as though they were going forth from
Heaven itself, so went they forth. And what the Prophet says of the Sun, that “He is as a
bridegroom coming forth out of his chamber,” (Ps. xix. 5.) one would not go amiss in saying
also of them. But though he goes forth thus, yet came they forth there more gloriously than
he, for he indeed comes forth to enlighten the world with natural light, they to enlighten
the world in a different way, I mean, spiritually. For because of them the king straightway
issued a decree, containing these words, “It hath seemed good unto me to show the signs
and wonders that the Most High God hath wrought toward me. How great are His signs!
And how mighty are His wonders!” (Dan. iv. 2, 3.) So that they went forth, shedding a yet
more glorious radiance, beaming indeed in that region itself, but, what is more than all,
capable, by means of the king’s writings, of being diffused over the world and thus of dis-
pelling the darkness which every where prevails. “Come forth,” said he, “and come hither.”
He gave no commandment269 to extinguish the flame, but hereby most especially honored
them, by believing that they were able not only to walk within it, but even to come out of it
while it was still burning.
268 [The word in the Greek δοῦλος which means a bond-slave, though softened in the Auth. Ver. to “servant”
and in the Rev. Ver. to “bond-servant.”—G.A.]
269 [Field’s text has here ἐτὸλμησε, ‘he did not venture;’ but that gives a sense less satisfactory than the text
of Savile and the Oxford translator, ἐκέλευσε, which is well attested.—G.A.]
175
Ephesians 4:1,2