Sermon on the Barbarian Time

Contents

Reading pages: 1–6 · 8

1. 1God’s wrath shown in the barbarian invasion calls for repentance, yet the city still throngs the shows; all are guilty, preachers and hearers alike, and should stop slandering one another.
2. 2God’s word calls all to repent and bear fruit before the axe falls; his delay is patience, as in the parable of the barren fig tree, for which Paul intercedes.
3. 3The good suffer with the wicked because none is perfectly good but God; their trials are a refining, while parents who love their children more than Christ and tolerate blasphemy and the shows share the blame.
4. 4The fathers of old put God before every human tie, from Phinehas and Moses to Daniel and the three youths, whereas the city now sacrifices souls by watching idolatrous night shows; let it fear eternal fire more than the barbarian sword and repent.
5. 5Perpetua and Felicity, whose feast had just been kept, show that grace made women braver than men and undid Eve’s fall; their names, perpetual felicity, are the reward of all martyrs.
6. 6Job conquered temptation and blessed God when he lost everything; (chapter 7) in the parable of the prodigal son the younger son is the repentant robber on the cross and the elder son Peter, who denied and was restored, and all may enter paradise through Christ’s opened side.
7. 8Through the narrow gate of Christ’s opened side the robber, the Jews, and the pagans enter, while the Arian heretic goes out; the faithful must not be rebaptized, and must help the captives and refugees of the invasion.