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| Sermon on the Mount Continued. Its Woes in Strict Agreement with the Creator's Disposition. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament in Proof of This.
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Chapter
XV.—Sermon on the Mount Continued. Its Woes in Strict Agreement
with the Creator’s Disposition. Many Quotations Out of the
Old Testament in Proof of This.
“In the like manner,” says
He,3982
“did their fathers unto the
prophets.” What a turncoat3983
| 3983 Versipellem. An
indignant exclamation on Marcion’s Christ. | is
Marcion’s Christ! Now the destroyer, now the advocate of
the prophets! He destroyed them as their rival, by converting their
disciples; he took up their cause as their friend, by
stigmatizing3984
their persecutors.
But,3985
in as far as the defence of the
prophets could not be consistent in the Christ of Marcion, who came to
destroy them; in so far is it becoming to the Creator’s
Christ that He should stigmatize those who persecuted the prophets, for
He in all things accomplished their predictions. Again, it is more
characteristic of the Creator to upbraid sons with their fathers’
sins, than it is of that god who chastizes no man for even his own
misdeeds. But you will say, He cannot be regarded as defending
the prophets simply because He wished to affirm the iniquity of the
Jews for their impious dealings with their own prophets. Well, then, in
this case,3986
no sin ought to
have been charged against the Jews: they were rather deserving of
praise and approbation when they maltreated3987
| 3987 Suggillaverunt. This
is Oehler’s emendation; the common reading is
figuraverunt. |
those whom the
absolutely good god of Marcion, after so long a time, bestirred
himself3988
to destroy. I
suppose, however, that by this time he had ceased to be the absolutely
good god;3989
he had now
sojourned a considerable while even with the Creator, and was no longer
(like) the god of Epicurus3990
| 3990 That is, apathetic,
inert, and careless about human affairs. | purely and simply.
For see how he condescends3991
to curse, and
proves himself capable of taking offence and feeling anger! He actually
pronounces a woe! But a doubt is raised against us as to the
import of this word, as if it carried with it less the sense of a curse
than of an admonition. Where, however, is the difference, since even an
admonition is not given without the sting of a threat, especially when
it is embittered with a woe? Moreover, both admonition and
threatening will be the resources of him3992
who knows how to feel angry. For no one will forbid the doing of a
thing with an admonition or a threat, except him who will inflict
punishment for the doing of it. No one would inflict punishment,
except him who was susceptible of anger. Others, again, admit that the
word implies a curse; but they will have it that Christ pronounced the
woe, not as if it were His own genuine feeling, but because the woe is
from the Creator, and He wanted to set forth to them the severity of
the Creator in order that He might the more commend His own
long-suffering3993
in His beatitudes.
Just as if it were not competent to the Creator, in the pre-eminence of
both His attributes as the good God and Judge, that, as He had made
clemency3994
the preamble of His
benediction so He should place severity in the sequel of His curses;
thus fully developing His discipline in both directions, both in
following out the blessing and in providing against the curse.3995
| 3995 Ad maledictionem
præcavendam. | He had already said of old, “Behold, I
have set before you blessing and cursing.”3996
Which statement was really a presage
of3997
this temper of the gospel. Besides, what
sort of being is that who, to insinuate a belief in his own goodness,
invidiously contrasted3998
with it the
Creator’s severity? Of little worth is the recommendation which
has for its prop the defamation of another. And yet by thus setting
forth the severity of the Creator, he, in fact, affirmed Him to be an
object of fear.3999
Now if He be an
object of fear, He is of course more worthy of being obeyed than
slighted; and thus Marcion’s Christ begins to teach favourably to
the Creator’s interests.4000
Then, on the
admission above mentioned, since the woe which has regard to the
rich is the Creator’s, it follows that it is not Christ, but the
Creator, who is angry with the rich; while Christ approves of4001
the incentives of the rich4002
—I mean, their pride, their
pomp,4003
their love of the world, and their contempt
of God, owing to which they deserve the woe of the Creator. But how
happens it that the reprobation of the rich does not proceed from the
same God who had just before expressed approbation of the poor?
There is nobody but reprobates the opposite of that which he has
approved. If, therefore, there be imputed to the Creator the woe
pronounced against the rich, there must be claimed for Him also the
promise of the blessing upon the poor; and thus the entire work of the
Creator devolves on Christ.—If to Marcion’s god there be
ascribed the blessing of the poor, he must also have imputed to him the
malediction of the rich; and thus will he become the Creator’s
equal,4004
both good and
judicial; nor will there be left any room for that distinction whereby
two gods are made; and when this distinction is removed, there will
remain the verity which pronounces the Creator to be the one only God.
Since, therefore, “woe” is a word indicative of
malediction, or of some unusually austere4005
exclamation; and since it is by Christ uttered against the rich, I
shall have to show that the Creator is also a despiser4006
of the rich, as I have shown Him to be the
defender4007
of the poor, in
order that I may prove Christ to be on the Creator’s side in this
matter, even when He enriched Solomon.4008
But with respect to this man, since, when a choice was left to
him, he preferred asking for what he knew to be well-pleasing to
God—even wisdom—he further merited the attainment of the
riches, which he did not prefer. The endowing of a man indeed with
riches, is not an incongruity to God, for by the help of riches even
rich men are comforted and assisted; moreover, by them many a work of
justice and charity is carried out. But yet there are serious
faults4009
which accompany
riches; and it is because of these that woes are denounced on the rich,
even in the Gospel. “Ye have received,” says He,
“your consolation;”4010
that is, of
course, from their
riches, in the pomps and vanities of the world which these purchase for
them. Accordingly, in Deuteronomy, Moses says: “Lest,
when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and
when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, as well as thy silver and thy
gold, thine heart be then lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy
God.”4011
In similar terms,
when king Hezekiah became proud of his treasures, and gloried in them
rather than in God before those who had come on an embassy from
Babylon,4012
| 4012 Tertullian says, ex
Perside. | (the Creator)
breaks forth4013
against him by the
mouth of Isaiah: “Behold, the days come when all that is in
thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store, shall be
carried to Babylon.”4014
So by Jeremiah
likewise did He say: “Let not the rich man glory in his riches
but let him that glorieth even glory in the Lord.”4015
Similarly against the daughters of Sion does
He inveigh by Isaiah, when they were haughty through their pomp and the
abundance of their riches,4016
just as in another
passage He utters His threats against the proud and noble: “Hell
hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth, and down to it shall
descend the illustrious, and the great, and the rich (this shall be
Christ’s ‘woe to the rich’); and man4017
| 4017 Homo: “the
mean man,” A.V. | shall be humbled,” even he that exalts
himself with riches; “and the mighty man4018
shall be dishonoured,” even he who is mighty from his
wealth.4019
Concerning whom He
says again: “Behold, the Lord of hosts shall confound the pompous
together with their strength: those that are lifted up shall be
hewn down, and such as are lofty shall fall by the
sword.”4020
And who are these
but the rich? Because they have indeed received their consolation,
glory, and honour and a lofty position from their wealth. In Psalm
xlviii. He also turns off our care from these and says: “Be not
thou afraid when one is made rich, and when his glory is increased: for
when he shall die, he shall carry nothing away; nor shall his glory
descend along with him.”4021
So also in Psalm
lxi.: “Do not desire riches; and if they do yield you their
lustre,4022
do not set your
heart upon them.”4023
Lastly, this very
same woe is pronounced of old by Amos against the rich, who also
abounded in delights. “Woe unto them,” says he, “who
sleep upon beds of ivory, and deliciously stretch themselves upon their
couches; who eat the kids from the flocks of the goats, and sucking
calves from the flocks of the heifers, while they chant to the sound of
the viol; as if they thought they should continue long, and were not
fleeting; who drink their refined wines, and anoint themselves with the
costliest ointments.”4024
Therefore, even if
I could do nothing else than show that the Creator dissuades men from
riches, without at the same time first condemning the rich, in the very
same terms in which Christ also did, no one could doubt that, from the
same authority, there was added a commination against the rich in that
woe of Christ, from whom also had first proceeded the dissuasion
against the material sin of these persons, that is, their riches. For
such commination is the necessary sequel to such a dissuasive. He
inflicts a woe also on “the full, because they shall hunger; on
those too which laugh now, because they shall mourn.”4025
To these will correspond these opposites
which occur, as we have seen above, in the benedictions of the Creator:
“Behold, my servants shall be full, but ye shall be
hungry”—even because ye have been filled; “behold, my
servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed”4026
—even ye who shall mourn, who now are
laughing. For as it is written in the psalm, “They who sow
in tears shall reap in joy,”4027
so does it run
in the Gospel: They who sow in laughter, that is, in joy, shall reap in
tears. These principles did the Creator lay down of old; and Christ has
renewed them, by simply bringing them into prominent view,4028
not by making any change in them. “Woe
unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their
fathers to the false prophets.”4029
With equal stress does the Creator, by His prophet Isaiah, censure
those who seek after human flattery and praise: “O my people,
they who call you happy mislead you, and disturb the paths of your
feet.”4030
In another passage
He forbids all implicit trust in man, and likewise in the applause of
man; as by the prophet Jeremiah: “Cursed be the man that trusteth
in man.”4031
Whereas in Psalm
cxvii. it is said: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in man; it is better to trust in the Lord than to place hope
in princes.”4032
Thus everything
which is caught at by men is adjured by the Creator, down to their
good words.4033
| 4033 Nedum
benedictionem. | It is as much His property to condemn the
praise and flattering words bestowed on the false prophets by their
fathers, as to condemn their vexatious and persecuting treatment of the
(true) prophets. As the injuries suffered by the prophets could not be
imputed4034
| 4034 Non pertinuissent
ad. | to their own God,
so the applause bestowed on the false prophets could not have been
displeasing to any other god but the God of the true
prophets.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
