Chapter X.—That the Same God, by the Same Word, Restrains from Sin by Threatening, and Saves Humanity by Exhorting. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter X.—That the Same God, by the Same Word, Restrains from Sin by Threatening, and SavesHumanity by Exhorting.
If, then, we have shown that the plan of dealing
stringently with humanity is good and salutary, and necessarily adopted
by the Word, and conducive to repentance and the prevention of sins; we
shall have now to look in order at the mildness of the Word. For He has
been demonstrated to be just. He sets before us His own inclinations which
invite to salvation; by which, in accordance with the Father’s will,
He wishes to make known to us the good and the useful. Consider these. The
good (τὸ
καλόν) belongs to the panegyrical
form of speech, the useful to the persuasive. For the hortatory and
the dehortatory are a form of the persuasive, and the laudatory and
inculpatory of the panegyrical.
and so on. And He counsels what is salutary:
for counsel has for its end, choosing or refusing a certain course; as He
does by David, when He says, “Blessed is the man who walketh not
in the counsels of the ungodly, and standeth not in the way of sinners,
and sitteth not in the chair of pestilences; but his will is in the law
of the Lord.”1269
And
there are three departments of counsel: That which takes examples
from past times; as what the Hebrews suffered when they worshipped the
golden calf, and what they suffered when they committedfornication,
and the like. The second, whose meaning is understood from the present
times, as being apprehended by perception; as it was said to those
who asked the Lord, “If He was the Christ, or shall we wait for
another? Go and tell John, the blind receive their sight, the deaf
hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised up; and blessed is
he who shall not be offended in Me.”1270
And the third department of counsel consists
of what is future, by which we are bidden guard against what is to
happen; as also that was said, “They that fall into sins shall be
cast into outer darkness, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of
teeth,”1272
and the like. So that from these things it is clear
that the Lord, going the round of all the methods of curative treatment,
calls humanity to salvation.
and that which is added the Lord speaks in
His own person. And very clearly He calls to goodness by Solomon,
when He says, “Blessed is the man who hath found wisdom, and the
mortal who hath found understanding.”1275
By Moses, too, by reason
of the love He has to man, He promises a gift to those who hasten to
salvation. For He says, “And I will bring you into the good land,
which the Lord sware to your
fathers.”1279
He says by Isaiah. And
still another form of instruction is benediction. “And blessed is
he,” He saith by David, “who has not sinned; and he shall be
as the treeplanted near the channels of the waters, which will yield
its fruit in its season, and his leaf shall not wither”1281
(by this He made an allusion to the resurrection); “and whatsoever
he shall do shall prosper with him.” Such He wishes us to be, that
we may be blessed. Again, showing the opposite scale of the balance of
justice, He says, “But not so the ungodly—not so; but as the
dust which the wind sweeps away from the face of the earth.”1282
By showing
the punishment of sinners, and their easy dispersion, and carrying off by
the wind, the Instructor dissuades from crime by means of punishment;
and by holding up the merited penalty, shows the benignity of His
beneficence in the most skilful way, in order that we may possess and
enjoy its blessings. He invites us to knowledge also, when He says by
Jeremiah, “Hadst thou walked in the way of God, thou wouldst
have dwelt for ever in peace;”1283
for, exhibiting there
the reward of knowledge, He calls the wise to the love of it. And,
granting pardon to him who has erred, He says, “Turn, turn,
as a grape-gatherer to his basket.”1284
Do you see the goodness of
justice, in that it counsels to repentance? And still further, by
Jeremiah, He enlightens in the truth those who have erred. “Thus
saith the Lord, Stand
in the ways, and look, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord,
what is the good path, and walk in it, and ye shall find purification
for your souls.”1285
And in order to promote our salvation, He leads
us to repentance. Wherefore He says, “If thou repent, the Lord will purify thy heart, and the
heart of thy seed.”1286
We might have adduced, as supporters on this
question, the philosophers who say that only the perfect man is worthy
of praise, and the bad man of blame. But since some slander beatitude,
as neither itself taking any trouble, nor giving any to any one else,
thus not understanding its love to man; on their account, and on account
of those who do not associate justice with goodness, the following
remarks are added. For it were a legitimate inference to say, that rebuke
and censure are suitable to men, since they say that all men are bad;
but God alone is wise, from whom cometh wisdom, and alone perfect, and
therefore alone worthy of praise. But I do not employ such language. I
say, then, that praise or blame, or whatever resembles praise or blame,
are medicines most essential of all to men. Some are ill to cure, and,
like iron, are wrought into shape with fire, and hammer, and anvil,
that is, with threatening, and reproof, and chastisement; while others,
cleaving to faith itself, as self-taught, and as acting of their own
free-will, grow by praise:—
“For virtue that is praisedGrows like a tree.”
And comprehending this, as it seems
to me, the Samian Pythagoras gives the injunction:—
“When you have done base
things, rebukeyourself;But when you have done good things, be glad.”
Chiding is also called admonishing;
and the etymology of admonishing (νουθέτησις)
is (νοῦ
ἐνθεματισμός)
putting of understanding into one; so that rebuking is bringing one to
one’s senses.
Wherefore by Solomon He commands the children
to beware: “My son, let not sinnersdeceive thee, and go not
after their ways; and go not, if they entice thee, saying, Come with
us, share with us in innocentblood, and let us hide unjustly the
righteous man in the earth; let us put him out of sight, all alive as
he is into Hades.”1288
This is accordingly likewise a
prediction concerning the Lord’s passion. And by Ezekiel, the
life supplies commandments: “The soul that sinneth shall die;
but he that doeth righteousness shall be righteous. He eateth not upon
the mountains, and hath not set his eyes on the devices of the house
of Israel, and will not defile his neighbour’s wife, and will
not approach to a woman in her separation, and will not oppress a man,
and will restore the debtor’s pledge, and will not take plunder:
he will give his bread to the hungry, and clothe the naked. His money
he will not give on usury, and will not take interest; and he will turn
away his hand from wrong, and will executerighteousjudgment between
a man and his neighbour. He has walked in my statutes, and kept my
judgments to do them. This is a righteous man. He shall surely live,
saith the Lord.”1289
These words contain a description of
the conduct of Christians, a notable exhortation to the blessedlife,
which is the reward of a life of goodness—everlasting life.
