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| Chapter LXXVIII
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Chapter
LXXVIII.
After having brought against us charges of so
serious a kind, he wishes to make it appear that, although he has
others to adduce, he passes them by in silence. His words are as
follows: “These charges I have to bring against them, and
others of a similar nature, not to enumerate them one by one, and I
affirm that they are in error, and that they act insolently towards
God, in order to lead on wicked men by empty hopes, and to persuade
them to despise better things, saying that if they refrain from them it
will be better for them.” In answer to which, it might be
said that from the power which shows itself in those who are converted
to Christianity, it is not at all the “wicked” who are won
over to the Gospel, as the more simple class of persons, and, as many
would term them, the “unpolished.”3673
| 3673 The reading in the
text is κομψοί, which is so opposed
to the sense of the passage, that the conjecture of Guietus,
ακομψοι, has been
adopted in the translation. | For such individuals, through fear of
the punishments that are threatened, which arouses and exhorts them to
refrain from those actions which are followed by punishments, strive to
yield themselves up to the Christian religion, being influenced by the
power of the word to such a degree, that through fear of what are
called in the word “everlasting punishments,” they despise
all the tortures which are devised against them among men,—even
death itself, with countless other evils,—which no wise man would
say is the act of persons of wicked mind. How can temperance and
sober-mindedness, or benevolence and liberality, be practised by a man
of wicked mind? Nay, even the fear of God cannot be felt by such
an one, with respect to which, because it is useful to the many, the
Gospel encourages those who are not yet able to choose that which ought
to be chosen for its own sake, to select it as the greatest blessing,
and one above all promise; for this principle cannot be implanted in
him who prefers to live in wickedness.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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