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| Chapter XLIII
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Chapter
XLIII.
We shall therefore say, in the first place, that
if he who disbelieves the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form of
a dove had been described as an Epicurean, or a follower of Democritus,
or a Peripatetic, the statement would have been in keeping with the
character of such an objector. But now even this Celsus, wisest
of all men, did not perceive that it is to a Jew, who believes more
incredible things contained in the writings of the prophets than the
narrative of the appearance of the dove, that he attributes such an
objection! For one might say to the Jew, when expressing his
disbelief of the appearance, and thinking to assail it as a fiction,
“How are you able to prove, sir, that the Lord spake to Adam, or
to Eve, or to Cain, or to Noah, or to Abraham, or to Isaac, or to
Jacob, those words which He is recorded to have spoken to these
men?” And, to compare history with history, I would say to
the Jew, “Even your own Ezekiel writes, saying, ‘The
heavens were opened, and I saw a vision of God.’3141
After relating which, he adds,
‘This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the
Lord; and He said to me,’”3142
| 3142 Cf. Ezek. i. 28 and ii. 1. | etc. Now, if what is related of Jesus
be false, since we cannot, as you suppose, clearly prove it to be true,
it being seen or heard by Himself alone, and, as you appear to have
observed, also by one of those who were punished, why should we not
rather say that Ezekiel also was dealing in the marvellous when he
said, “The heavens were opened,” etc.? Nay, even
Isaiah asserts, “I saw the Lord of hosts sitting on a throne,
high and lifted up; and the seraphim stood round about it: the
one had six wings, and the other had six wings.”3143
How can we tell whether he really saw
them or not? Now, O Jew, you have believed these visions to be
true, and to have been not only shown to the prophet by a diviner
Spirit, but also to have been both spoken and recorded by the
same. And who is the more worthy of belief, when declaring that
the heavens were opened before him, and that he heard a voice, or
beheld the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted
up,—whether Isaiah and Ezekiel or Jesus? Of the former,
indeed, no work has been found equal to those of the latter; whereas the good deeds
of Jesus have not been confined solely to the period of His
tabernacling in the flesh, but up to the present time His power still
produces conversion and amelioration of life in those who believe in
God through Him. And a manifest proof that these things are done
by His power, is the fact that, although, as He Himself said, and as is
admitted, there are not labourers enough to gather in the harvest of
souls, there really is nevertheless such a great harvest of those who
are gathered together and conveyed into the everywhere existing
threshing-floors and Churches of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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