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| Chapter IV.—Antichrist is at hand: let us therefore avoid Jewish errors.
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It therefore behoves us,
who inquire much concerning events at hand,1468
| 1468 Or it might be rendered, “things
present.” Cotelerius reads, “de his instantibus.”
| to search diligently into those things which are able to save us.
Let us then utterly flee from
all the works of iniquity, lest these should take hold of us; and let us
hate the error of the present time, that we may set our love on the world
to come: let us not give loose reins to our soul, that it should have
power to run with sinners and the wicked, lest we become like them.
The
final stumbling-block (or source of danger) approaches, concerning which
it is written, as Enoch1469
says,
“For for this end the Lord has cut short the times and the days,
that His Beloved may hasten; and He will come to the inheritance.”
And the prophet also speaks thus: “Ten kingdoms shall reign upon
the earth, and a little king shall rise up after them, who shall subdue
under one three of the kings.”1470
In like manner Daniel says concerning the same,
“And I beheld the fourth beast, wicked and powerful, and more
savage than all the beasts of the earth, and how from it sprang up ten
horns, and out of them a little budding horn, and how it subdued under
one three of the great horns.”1471
Ye ought therefore to understand. And
this also I further beg of you, as being one of you, and loving you both
individually and collectively more than my own soul, to take heed now to
yourselves, and not to be like some, adding largely to your sins, and
saying, “The covenant is both theirs and ours.”1472
| 1472 We here follow the Latin text
in preference to the Greek, which reads merely, “the covenant is
ours.” What follows seems to show the correctness of the Latin, as
the author proceeds to deny that the Jews had any further interest in the
promises. | But they thus finally lost it, after Moses had
already received it. For the Scripture saith, “And Moses was
fasting in
the mount forty days and forty nights, and
received the covenant from the Lord, tables of stone written with the
finger of the hand of the Lord;”1473
but turning away to idols, they lost it. For
the Lord speaks thus to Moses: “Moses go down quickly; for the
people whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt have
transgressed.”1474
And Moses understood [the meaning of God], and cast the two
tables out of his hands; and their covenant was broken, in order that the
covenant of the beloved Jesus might be sealed upon our heart, in the hope
which flows from believing in Him.1475
Now, being desirous to write many
things to you, not as your teacher, but as becometh one who loves you, I
have taken care not to fail to write to you from what I myself possess,
with a view to your purification.1476
| 1476 The Greek is here incorrect and unintelligible; and as
the Latin omits the clause, our translation is merely conjectural.
Hilgenfeld’s text, if we give a somewhat peculiar meaning to
ἐλλιπεῖν, may be
translated: “but as it is becoming in one who loves you not to fail
in giving you what we have, I, though the very offscouring of you, have
been eager to write to you.” | We take earnest1477
| 1477 So the Cod. Sin. Hilgenfeld
reads, with the Latin, “let us take.” | heed in
these last days; for the whole [past] time of your faith will profit you
nothing, unless now in this wicked time we also withstand coming sources
of danger, as becometh the sons of God. That the Black One1478
| 1478 The Latin here departs
entirely from the Greek text, and quotes as a saying of “the Son of
God” the following precept, nowhere to be found in the New
Testament: “Let us resist all iniquity, and hold it in
hatred.” Hilgenfeld joins this clause to the former sentence.
| may find no means of entrance, let us flee from every vanity, let
us utterly hate the works of the way of wickedness. Do not, by retiring
apart, live a solitary life, as if you were already [fully] justified;
but coming together in one place, make common inquiry concerning what
tends to your general welfare. For the Scripture saith, “Woe to
them who are wise to themselves, and prudent in their own
sight!”1479
Let us be
spiritually-minded: let us be a perfect temple to God. As much as in us
lies, let us meditate upon the fear of God, and let us keep His
commandments, that we may rejoice in His ordinances. The Lord will judge
the world without respect of persons. Each will receive as he has done:
if he is righteous, his righteousness will precede him; if he is wicked,
the reward of wickedness is before him. Take heed, lest resting at our
ease, as those who are the called [of God], we should fall asleep in our
sins, and the wicked prince, acquiring power over us, should thrust us
away from the kingdom of the Lord. And all the more attend to this, my
brethren, when ye reflect and behold, that after so great signs and
wonders were wrought in Israel, they were thus [at length] abandoned. Let
us beware lest we be found [fulfilling that saying], as it is written,
“Many are called, but few are chosen.”1480
| 1480 An exact quotation from Matt.
xx. 16or Matt. xxii. 14. It is worthy of
notice that this is the first example in the writings of the Fathers of a
citation from any book of the New Testament, preceded by the
authoritative formula, “it is written.” | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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