Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter IV.—Answer to another objection, showing that the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the city of the great King, diminished nothing from the supreme majesty and power of God, for that this destruction was put in execution by the most wise counsel of the same God.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter IV.—Answer to another
objection, showing that the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the city of the
great King, diminished nothing from the supreme majesty and power of God, for
that this destruction was put in execution by the most wise counsel of the same
God.
1. majesty" title="465" id="ix.vi.v-p1.1"/>God" title="465" id="ix.vi.v-p1.2"/>Further,
also, concerning Jerusalem and the Lord, they venture to assert that, if
it had been “the city of the great King,”3833
it would not have been deserted.3834
This is just as if
any one should say, that if straw were a creation of God, it would never
part company with the wheat; and that the vine twigs, if made by God,
never would be lopped away and deprived of the clusters. But as these
[vine twigs] have not been originally made for their own sake, but for
that of the fruit growing upon them, which being come to maturity and
taken away, they are left behind, and those which do not conduce to
fructification are lopped off altogether; so also [was it with]
Jerusalem, which had in herself borne the yoke of bondage (under which
man was reduced, who in former times was not subject to God when death
was reigning, and being subdued, became a fit subject for liberty), when
the fruit of liberty had come, and reached maturity, and been reaped and
stored in the barn, and when those which had the power to produce fruit
had been carried away from her [i.e., from Jerusalem], and scattered
throughout all the world. Even as Esaias saith, “The children of
Jacob shall strike root, and Israel shall flourish, and the
whole world shall be filled with his fruit.”3835
The fruit, therefore, having been sown throughout all the world,
she (Jerusalem) was deservedly forsaken, and those things which had
formerly brought forth fruit abundantly were taken away; for from these,
according to the flesh, were Christ and the apostles enabled to bring
forth fruit. But now these are no longer useful for bringing forth fruit.
For all things which have a beginning in time must of course have an end
in time also.
2. Since, then, the law originated with Moses, it
terminated with John as a necessary consequence. Christ had come to
fulfil it: wherefore “the law and the prophets were” with
them “until John.”3836
And
therefore Jerusalem, taking its commencement from David,3837
and fulfilling its own times, must have an end of
legislation3838
| 3838 The text
fluctuates between “legis dationem” and “legis
dationis.” We have followed the latter. | when the new
covenant was revealed. For God does all things by measure and in order;
nothing is unmeasured with Him, because nothing is out of order. Well
spake he, who said that the unmeasurable Father was Himself subjected to
measure in the Son; for the Son is the measure of the Father, since He
also comprehends Him. But that the administration of them (the Jews) was
temporary, Esaias says: “And the daughter of Zion shall be left as
a cottage in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of
cucumbers.”3839
And when shall these things
be left behind? Is it not when the fruit shall be taken away, and the
leaves alone shall be left, which now have no power of producing
fruit?
3. But why do we speak of Jerusalem, since, indeed, the
fashion of the whole world must also pass away, when the time of its
disappearance has come, in order that the fruit indeed may be gathered
into the garner, but the chaff, left behind, may be consumed by fire?
“For the day of the Lord cometh as a burning furnace, and all
sinners shall be stubble, they who do evil things, and the day shall burn
them up.”3840
Now, who this Lord is that
brings such a day about, John the Baptist points out, when he says of
Christ, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire,
having His fan in His hand to cleanse His floor; and He will gather His
fruit into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable
fire.”3841
For He who makes the
chaff and He who makes the wheat are not different persons, but one and
the same, who judges them, that is, separates them. But the wheat and the
chaff, being inanimate and irrational, have been made such by nature. But
man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect like to God, having
been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself the
cause to himself, that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff.
Wherefore also he shall be justly condemned, because, having been created
a rational being, he lost the true rationality, and living irrationally,
opposed the righteousness of God, giving himself over to every earthly
spirit, and serving all lusts; as says the prophet, “Man, being in
honour, did not understand: he was assimilated to senseless beasts, and
made like to them.”3842
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
