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| Chapter XV
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Chapter XV.
Observe, now, here at the very beginning, how, in
ridiculing the doctrine of a conflagration of the world, held by
certain of the Greeks who have treated the subject in a philosophic
spirit not to be depreciated, he would make us, “representing
God, as it were, as a cook, hold the belief in a general
conflagration;” not perceiving that, as certain Greeks were of
opinion (perhaps having received their information from the ancient
nation of the Hebrews), it is a purificatory fire which is brought upon
the world, and probably also on each one of those who stand in need of
chastisement by the fire and healing at the same time, seeing it
burns indeed, but does not consume, those who are without
a material body,4129
which needs to be
consumed by that fire, and which burns and consumes those who by their
actions, words, and thoughts have built up wood, or hay, or stubble, in
that which is figuratively termed a “building.”4130
And the holy Scriptures say that the
Lord will, like a refiner’s fire and fullers’
soap,4131
visit each one of those who require
purification, because of the intermingling in them of a flood of wicked
matter proceeding from their evil nature; who need fire, I mean, to
refine, as it were, (the dross of) those who are intermingled with
copper, and tin, and lead. And he who likes may learn this from
the prophet Ezekiel.4132
But that we
say that God brings fire upon the world, not like a cook, but like a
God, who is the benefactor of them who stand in need of the discipline
of fire,4133
will be testified
by the prophet Isaiah, in whose writings it is related that a sinful
nation was thus addressed: “Because thou hast coals of
fire, sit upon them: they shall be to thee a
help.”4134
Now the
Scripture is appropriately adapted to the multitudes of those who are
to peruse it, because it speaks obscurely of things that are sad and
gloomy,4135
in order to terrify
those who cannot by any other means be saved from the flood of their
sins, although even then the attentive reader will clearly discover the
end that is to be accomplished by these sad and painful punishments
upon those who endure them. It is sufficient, however, for the
present to quote the words of Isaiah: “For My name’s
sake will I show Mine anger, and My glory I will bring upon thee, that
I may not destroy thee.”4136
We have thus
been under the necessity of referring in obscure terms to questions not
fitted to the capacity of simple believers,4137
| 4137 [See
Robertson’s History of the Church, vol. i. p. 156,
157. S.] |
who require a simpler
instruction in words, that we might not appear to leave unrefuted the
accusation of Celsus, that “God introduces the fire (which is to
destroy the world), as if He were a cook.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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