65. Nay, my opponent
says, if God is powerful, merciful, willing to save us, let Him
change our dispositions, and compel us to trust in His promises.
This, then, is violence, not kindness nor the bounty of the Supreme
God, but a childish and vain3854
| 3854 So
most edd., reading inanis for the ms. animi; retained, though not very
intelligible, in LB., while Hild. reads
anilis—“foolish.” |
strife in seeking to get the
mastery. For what is so
unjust as to force men who are reluctant
and
unwilling, to reverse their inclinations; to impress forcibly on
their minds what they are
unwilling to receive, and shrink from;
to
injure before benefiting, and to bring to another way of thinking
and feeling, by taking away the former? You who wish yourself to
be changed,
3855
| 3855
So the ms. now reads verti;
but this word, according to Pithœus, is in a later handwriting,
and some letters have been erased. |
and to
suffer
violence, that you may do and may be compelled to take to yourself that
which you do not wish, why do you refuse of your own
accord to select
that which you wish to do, when changed and
transformed? I am
unwilling, He says, and have no wish. What, then, do you
blame
God as though He
failed you? do you wish
Him to bring you
help,
3856
| 3856 So
the edd., reading tibi desit? opem desideras tibi, except
Hild. and Oehler, who retain the ms.
reading, t. d. o. desideranti—“as
though He failed you desiring Him to bring
help.” |
whose
gifts
and
bounties you not only
reject and
shun, but term empty
3857
| 3857
So Ursinus, reading in ania cognomines for the
ms. in alia, which Orelli would
interpret, “call the reverse of the truth.” |
words, and
assail with jocose witticisms? Unless, then,
my opponent
says, I shall be a
Christian, I cannot
hope for
salvation. It
is just as you yourself say. For, to bring
salvation and impart
to
souls what should be bestowed and must be added,
Christ alone
has had given into His charge and entrusted
3858
| 3858
Lit., “For the parts of bringing…has enjoined and given
over,” partes…injunctum habet et traditum, where it
will be important to notice that Arnobius, writing rapidly, had carried
with him only the general idea, and forgotten the mode in which this
was expressed. |
to Him by
God the
Father, the remote
and more
secret causes being so disposed. For, as with you,
certain gods have
fixed offices, privileges, powers, and you do not ask
from any of them what is not in his
power and permitted to him, so it
is the right of
3859
Christ
alone to give
salvation to
souls, and assign them
everlasting
life. For if you believe that
father Bacchus can give a good
vintage,
but cannot give
relief from sickness; if
you
believe that Ceres
can give good crops, Æsculapius
health, Neptune one thing, Juno
3860
| 3860
Here, too, according to Pithœus, there are signs of erasure. |
another, that Fortune, Mercury, Vulcan,
are each the
giver of a
fixed and particular thing,—this, too,
you must needs receive from us,
3861
that
souls can receive from no one
life and
salvation, except from Him to whom the
Supreme Ruler gave this
charge and
duty. The
Almighty Master of the
world has determined
that this should be the way of
salvation,—this the
door, so to
say, of life; by Him
3862
| 3862
This passage at once suggests John x. 9 and xiv. 6, and it is therefore the more necessary
to notice the way in which Arnobius speaks (“so to say”),
which is certainly not the tone of one quoting a passage with which he
is well acquainted. [Elucidation I.] |
alone is there access to the
light: nor may men either creep in or enter elsewhere, all other
ways being shut up and secured by an impenetrable
barrier.
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