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| Chapter XXVII—The sins of the men of old time, which incurred the displeasure of God, were, by His providence, committed to writing, that we might derive instruction thereby, and not be filled with pride. We must not, therefore, infer that there was another God than He whom Christ preached; we should rather fear, lest the one and the same God who inflicted punishment on the ancients, should bring down heavier upon us.
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Chapter XXVII—The sins of the men of
old time, which incurred the displeasure of God, were, by His providence,
committed to writing, that we might derive instruction thereby, and not be
filled with pride. We must not, therefore, infer that there was another God
than He whom Christ preached; we should rather fear, lest the one and the same
God who inflicted punishment on the ancients, should bring down heavier upon
us.
1. As
I have heard from a certain presbyter,4174
| 4174 Polycarp, Papias, Pothinus, and others, have been
suggested as probably here referred to, but the point is involved in
utter uncertainty. [Surely this testimony is a precious intimation of the
apostle’s meaning (Rom. ii. 12–16), and
the whole chapter is radiant with the purity of the Gospel.] |
who had heard it from those who had seen the apostles, and from those who
had been their disciples, the punishment [declared] in Scripture was
sufficient for the ancients in regard to what they did without the
Spirit’s guidance. For as God is no respecter of persons, He
inflicted a proper punishment on deeds displeasing to Him. As in the case
of David,4175
when he suffered persecution from Saul
for righteousness’ sake, and fled from King Saul, and would not
avenge himself of his enemy, he both sung the advent of Christ, and
instructed the nations in wisdom, and did everything after the
Spirit’s guidance, and pleased God. But when his lust prompted him
to take Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Scripture said concerning him,
“Now, the thing (sermo) which David had done appeared wicked
in the eyes of the Lord;”4176
and Nathan the prophet is sent to him, pointing out to him his
crime, in order that he, passing sentence upon and condemning himself,
might obtain mercy and forgiveness from Christ: “And [Nathan] said
to him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds; but the poor man had
nothing, save one little ewe-lamb, which he possessed, and nourished up;
and it had been with him and with his children together: it did eat of
his own bread, and drank of his cup, and was to him as a daughter. And
there came a guest unto the rich man; and he spared to take of the flock
of his own ewe-lambs, and from the herds of his own oxen, to entertain
the guest; but he took the ewe-lamb of the poor man, and set it before
the man that had come unto him. And David’s anger was greatly
kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the
man that hath done this thing shall surely die (filius mortis
est): and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he hath done
this thing, and because he had no pity for the poor man. And Nathan said
unto him, Thou art the man who hast done this.”4177
And then he proceeds with the rest [of the narrative],
upbraiding him, and recounting God’s benefits towards him, and
[showing him] how much his conduct had displeased the Lord. For [he
declared] that works of this nature were not pleasing to God, but that
great wrath was suspended over his house. David, however, was struck with
remorse on hearing this, and exclaimed, “I have sinned against the
Lord;” and he sung a penitential psalm, waiting for the coming of
the Lord, who washes and makes clean the man who had
been
fast bound with [the chain of] sin. In like manner it was with regard to
Solomon, while he continued to judge uprightly, and to declare the wisdom
of God, and built the temple as the type of truth, and set forth the
glories of God, and announced the peace about to come upon the nations,
and prefigured the kingdom of Christ, and spake three thousand parables
about the Lord’s advent, and five thousand songs, singing praise to
God, and expounded the wisdom of God in creation, [discoursing] as to the
nature of every tree, every herb, and of all fowls, quadrupeds, and
fishes; and he said, “Will God whom the heavens cannot contain,
really dwell with men upon the earth?”4178
And he pleased God, and was the admiration of
all; and all kings of the earth sought an interview with him
(quærebant faciem ejus) that they might hear the wisdom which God
had conferred upon him.4179
The queen of the south,
too, came to him from the ends of the earth, to ascertain the wisdom that
was in him:4180
she whom the Lord also referred to as
one who should rise up in the judgment with the nations of those men who
do hear His words, and do not believe in Him, and should condemn them,
inasmuch as she submitted herself to the wisdom announced by the servant
of God, while these men despised that wisdom which proceeded directly
from the Son of God. For Solomon was a servant, but Christ is indeed the
Son of God, and the Lord of Solomon. While, therefore, he served God
without blame, and ministered to His dispensations, then was he
glorified: but when he took wives from all nations, and permitted them to
set up idols in Israel, the Scripture spake thus concerning him:
“And King Solomon was a lover of women, and he took to himself
foreign women; and it came to pass, when Solomon was old, his heart was
not perfect with the Lord his God. And the foreign women turned away his
heart after strange gods. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord:
he did not walk after the Lord, as did David his father. And the Lord was
angry with Solomon; for his heart was not perfect with the Lord, as was
the heart of David his father.”4181
The
Scripture has thus sufficiently reproved him, as the presbyter remarked,
in order that no flesh may glory in the sight of the Lord.
2. It was for this
reason, too, that the Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth,
preaching His advent there also, and [declaring] the remission of sins
received by those who believe in Him.4182
Now all those believed in Him who had hope towards Him, that is, those
who proclaimed His advent, and submitted to His dispensations, the
righteous men, the prophets, and the patriarchs, to whom He remitted sins
in the same way as He did to us, which sins we should not lay to their
charge, if we would not despise the grace of God. For as these men did
not impute unto us (the Gentiles) our transgressions, which we wrought
before Christ was manifested among us, so also it is not right that we
should lay blame upon those who sinned before Christ’s coming. For
“all men come short of the glory of God,”4183
| 4183 Rom. iii. 23.
[Another testimony to the mercy of God in the judgment of the
unevangelized. There must have been some reason for the secrecy with
which “that presbyter’s” name is guarded. Irenæus may
have scrupled to draw the wrath of the Gnostics upon any name but his
own.] | and are not justified of themselves, but by the advent
of the Lord,—they who earnestly direct their eyes towards His
light. And it is for our instruction that their actions have been
committed to writing, that we might know, in the first place, that our
God and theirs is one, and that sins do not please Him although committed
by men of renown; and in the second place, that we should keep from
wickedness. For if these men of old time, who preceded us in the gifts
[bestowed upon them], and for whom the Son of God had not yet suffered,
when they committed any sin and served fleshly lusts, were rendered
objects of such disgrace, what shall the men of the present day suffer,
who have despised the Lord’s coming, and become the slaves of their
own lusts? And truly the death of the Lord became [the means of] healing
and remission of sins to the former, but Christ shall not die again in
behalf of those who now commit sin, for death shall no more have dominion
over Him; but the Son shall come in the glory of the Father, requiring
from His stewards and dispensers the money which He had entrusted to
them, with usury; and from those to whom He had given most shall He
demand most. We ought not, therefore, as that presbyter remarks, to be
puffed up, nor be severe upon those of old time, but ought ourselves to
fear, lest perchance, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if
we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of
sins, but be shut out from His kingdom.4184
| 4184 Rom. iii. 23. [Another testimony to
the mercy of God in the judgment of the unevangelized. There must have
been some reason for the secrecy with which “that
presbyter’s” name is guarded. Irenæus may have scrupled to
draw the wrath of the Gnostics upon any name but his own.] |
And therefore it was that Paul said, “For if [God] spared not the
natural branches, [take heed] lest He also spare not thee, who, when thou
wert a wild olive tree, wert grafted into the fatness of the olive tree,
and wert made a partaker of its fatness.”4185
3. Thou wilt notice, too, that the transgressions of
the common people have been described in like manner, not for the sake of
those who did then transgress, but as a means of instruction unto us, and
that we should understand that it is one and the same God against whom
these
men sinned, and against whom certain persons do now
transgress from among those who profess to have believed in Him. But this
also, [as the presbyter states,] has Paul declared most plainly in the
Epistle to the Corinthians, when he says, “Brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the
cloud, and were all baptized unto Moses in the sea, and did all eat the
same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they
drank of that spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ.
But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown
in the wilderness. These things were for our example (in figuram
nostri), to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as
they also lusted; neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them, as it is
written:4186
The people sat down to eat and drink,
and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them
also did, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us
tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of
serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed
of the destroyer. But all these things happened to them in a figure, and
were written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the world
(sæculorum) is come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth,
take heed lest he fall.”4187
4. Since therefore, beyond all doubt and contradiction,
the apostle shows that there is one and the same God, who did both enter
into judgment with these former things, and who does inquire into those
of the present time, and points out why these things have been committed
to writing; all these men are found to be unlearned and presumptuous,
nay, even destitute of common sense, who, because of the transgressions
of them of old time, and because of the disobedience of a vast number of
them, do allege that there was indeed one God of these men, and that He
was the maker of the world, and existed in a state of degeneracy; but
that there was another Father declared by Christ, and that this Being is
He who has been conceived by the mind of each of them; not understanding
that as, in the former case, God showed Himself not well pleased in many
instances towards those who sinned, so also in the latter, “many
are called, but few are chosen.”4188
As then
the unrighteous, the idolaters, and fornicators perished, so also is it
now: for both the Lord declares, that such persons are sent into eternal
fire;4189
and the apostle says, “Know ye not
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not
deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit
the kingdom of God.”4190
And
as it was not to those who are without that he said these things, but to
us, lest we should be cast forth from the kingdom of God, by doing any
such thing, he proceeds to say, “And such indeed were ye; but ye
are washed, but ye are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and by the Spirit of our God.” And just as then, those who led
vicious lives, and put other people astray, were condemned and cast out,
so also even now the offending eye is plucked out, and the foot and the
hand, lest the rest of the body perish in like manner.4191
And we have the precept: “If any man that
is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a
railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one go not to
eat.”4192
And again does the apostle say,
“Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these
things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of mistrust. Be not ye
therefore partakers with them.”4193
And as
then the condemnation of sinners extended to others who approved of them,
and joined in their society; so also is it the case at present, that
“a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”4194
And as the wrath of God did then descend upon the unrighteous,
here also does the apostle likewise say: “For the wrath of God
shall be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of those men who hold back the truth in unrighteousness.”4195
And as, in those times, vengeance came from
God upon the Egyptians who were subjecting Israel to unjust punishment,
so is it now, the Lord truly declaring, “And shall not God avenge
His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him? I tell you, that He will
avenge them speedily.”4196
So
says the apostle, in like manner, in the Epistle to the Thessalonians:
“Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation
to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, at
the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with His mighty
angels, and in a flame of fire, to take vengeance upon those who know not
God, and upon those that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
who shall also be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be
glorified in
His saints, and to be admired in all them who
have believed in Him.”4197
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