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| Chapter XX.—God showed himself, by the fall of man, as patient, benign, merciful, mighty to save. Man is therefore most ungrateful, if, unmindful of his own lot, and of the benefits held out to him, he do not acknowledge divine grace.
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Chapter XX.—God showed himself, by
the fall of man, as patient, benign, merciful, mighty to save. Man is therefore
most ungrateful, if, unmindful of his own lot, and of the benefits held out to
him, he do not acknowledge divine grace.
1. Long-suffering therefore
was God, when man became a defaulter, as foreseeing that victory which
should be granted to him through the Word. For, when strength was made
perfect in weakness,3683
it showed the kindness
and transcendent power of God. For as He patiently suffered Jonah to be
swallowed by the whale, not that he should be swallowed up and perish
altogether, but that, having been cast out again, he might be the more
subject to God, and might glorify Him the more who had conferred upon him
such an unhoped-for deliverance, and might bring the Ninevites to a
lasting repentance, so that they should be converted to the Lord, who
would deliver them from death, having been struck with awe by that
portent which had been wrought in Jonah’s case, as the Scripture
says of them, “And they returned each from his evil way, and the
unrighteousness which was in their hands, saying, Who knoweth if God will
repent, and turn away His anger from us, and we shall not
perish?”3684
—so also, from
the beginning, did God permit man to be
swallowed up by the
great whale, who was the author of transgression, not that he should
perish altogether when so engulphed; but, arranging and preparing the
plan of salvation, which was accomplished by the Word, through the sign
of Jonah, for those who held the same opinion as Jonah regarding the
Lord, and who confessed, and said, “I am a servant of the Lord, and
I worship the Lord God of heaven, who hath made the sea and the dry
land.”3685
[This was done] that man,
receiving an unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the dead,
and glorify God, and repeat that word which was uttered in prophecy by
Jonah: “I cried by reason of mine affliction to the Lord my God,
and He heard me out of the belly of hell;”3686
and that he might always continue glorifying God, and giving
thanks without ceasing, for that salvation which he has derived from Him,
“that no flesh should glory in the Lord’s
presence;”3687
and that man should never
adopt an opposite opinion with regard to God, supposing that the
incorruptibility which belongs to him is his own naturally, and by thus
not holding the truth, should boast with empty superciliousness, as if he
were naturally like to God. For he (Satan) thus rendered him (man) more
ungrateful towards his Creator, obscured the love which God had towards
man, and blinded his mind not to perceive what is worthy of God,
comparing himself with, and judging himself equal to, God.
2. This, therefore, was
the [object of the] long-suffering of God, that man, passing through all
things, and acquiring the knowledge of moral discipline, then attaining
to the resurrection from the dead, and learning by experience what is the
source of his deliverance, may always live in a state of gratitude to the
Lord, having obtained from Him the gift of incorruptibility, that he
might love Him the more; for “he to whom more is forgiven, loveth
more:”3688
and that he may know
himself, how mortal and weak he is; while he also understands respecting
God, that He is immortal and powerful to such a degree as to confer
immortality upon what is mortal, and eternity upon what is temporal; and
may understand also the other attributes of God displayed towards
himself, by means of which being instructed he may think of God in
accordance with the divine greatness. For the glory of man [is] God, but
[His] works [are the glory] of God; and the receptacle of all His wisdom
and power [is] man. Just as the physician is proved by his patients, so
is God also revealed through men. And therefore Paul declares, “For
God hath concluded all in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon
all;”3689
not saying this in
reference to spiritual Æons, but to man, who had been disobedient to
God, and being cast off from immortality, then obtained mercy, receiving
through the Son of God that adoption which is [accomplished] by Himself.
For he who holds, without pride and boasting, the true glory (opinion)
regarding created things and the Creator, who is the Almighty God of all,
and who has granted existence to all; [such an one,] continuing in His
love3690
and subjection, and giving of thanks, shall
also receive from Him the greater glory of promotion,3691
| 3691 “Provectus.” This word has
not a little perplexed the editors. Grabe regards it as being the
participle, Massuet the accusative plural of the noun, and
Harvey the genitive singular. We have doubtfully followed the
latter. | looking forward to the time when he shall become like
Him who died for him, for He, too, “was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh,”3692
to condemn sin, and to
cast it, as now a condemned thing, away beyond the flesh, but that He
might call man forth into His own likeness, assigning him as [His own]
imitator to God, and imposing on him His Father’s law, in order
that he may see God, and granting him power to receive the Father;
[being]3693
| 3693 The punctuation
and exact meaning are very uncertain. | the Word of God who
dwelt in man, and became the Son of man, that He might accustom man to
receive God, and God to dwell in man, according to the good pleasure of
the Father.
3. On this account, therefore, the Lord Himself,3694
| 3694 The construction and sense of
this passage are disputed. Grabe, Massuet, and Harvey take different
views of it. We have followed the rendering by Massuet. | who
is Emmanuel from the Virgin,3695
is the
sign of our salvation, since it was the Lord Himself who saved them,
because they could not be saved by their own instrumentality; and,
therefore, when Paul sets forth human infirmity, he says: “For I
know that there dwelleth in my flesh no good thing,”3696
showing that the “good thing” of
our salvation is not from us, but from God. And again: “Wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?”3697
Then he introduces the
Deliverer, [saying,] “The grace of Jesus Christ our Lord.”
And Isaiah declares this also, [when he says:] “Be ye strengthened,
ye hands that hang down, and ye feeble knees; be ye encouraged, ye
feeble-minded; be comforted, fear not: behold, our God has given judgment
with retribution, and shall recompense: He will come Himself, and will
save us.”3698
Here we see, that not by
ourselves, but by the help of God, we must be saved.
4. Again, that it should not be
a mere man who should save us, nor [one] without flesh—for the
angels are without flesh—[the same
prophet]
announced, saying: “Neither an elder,3699
| 3699 Grabe remarks that the word πρέσβυς, here
translated “senior,” seems rather to denote a mediator
or messenger. | nor angel, but the Lord Himself will
save them because He loves them, and will spare them: He will Himself set
them free.”3700
And that He should
Himself become very man, visible, when He should be the Word giving
salvation, Isaiah again says: “Behold, city of Zion: thine eyes
shall see our salvation.”3701
And
that it was not a mere man who died for us, Isaiah says: “And the
holy Lord remembered His dead Israel, who had slept in the land of
sepulture; and He came down to preach His salvation to them, that He
might save them.”3702
| 3702
Irenæus quotes this as from Isaiah on the present occasion; but in book
iv. 22, 1, we find him referring the same passage to Jeremiah. It is
somewhat remarkable that it is to be found in neither prophet, although
Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, [chap. lxxii. and notes,
Dial. with Trypho, in this volume,] brings it forward as an argument
against him, and directly accuses the Jews of having fraudulently removed
it from the sacred text. It is, however, to be found in no ancient
version of Jewish Targum, which fact may be regarded as a decisive proof
of its spuriousness. | And Amos (Micah) the prophet declares
the same: “He will turn again, and will have compassion upon us: He
will destroy our iniquities, and will cast our sins into the depths of
the sea.”3703
And again, specifying the
place of His advent, he says: “The Lord hath spoken from Zion, and
He has uttered His voice from Jerusalem.”3704
And that it is from that
region which is towards the south of the inheritance of Judah that the
Son of God shall come, who is God, and who was from Bethlehem, where the
Lord was born [and] will send out His praise through all the earth,
thus3705
| 3705 As Massuet
observes, we must either expunge “sciut” altogether, or read
“sic” as above. | says the prophet Habakkuk:
“God shall come from the south, and the Holy One from Mount Effrem.
His power covered the heavens over, and the earth is full of His praise.
Before His face shall go forth the Word, and His feet shall advance in
the plains.”3706
Thus he indicates in
clear terms that He is God, and that His advent was [to take place] in
Bethlehem, and from Mount Effrem which is towards the south of the
inheritance, and that [He is] man. For he says, “His feet shall
advance in the plains:” and this is an indication proper to
man.3707
| 3707 This quotation from
Habakkuk, here commented on by Irenæus, differs both from the Hebrew and
the LXX., and comes nearest to the old Italic version of the passage.
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