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Chapter
XLVIII.
And perhaps also from the words, “For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the base things,
and the things which are despised, hath God chosen, and things which
are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh may glory in
His presence;”3589 some have been led
to suppose that no one who is instructed, or wise, or prudent, embraces
the Gospel. Now, in answer to such an one, we would say that it
has not been stated that “no wise man according to the
flesh,” but that “not many wise men according to the
flesh,” are called. It is manifest, further, that amongst
the characteristic qualifications of those who are termed
“bishops,” Paul, in describing what kind of man the bishop
ought to be, lays down as a qualification that he should also be a
teacher, saying that he ought to be able to convince the gainsayers,
that by the wisdom which is in him he may stop the mouths of foolish
talkers and deceivers.3590 And as he
selects for the episcopate a man who has been once married3591
3591 Μονόγαμον.
Cf. Can. Apost., c. xvii.: “ὁ δυσὶ γάμοις
συμπλακεὶς
μετὰ τὸ
βάπτισμα, ἢ
παλλακὴν
κτησάμενος,
οὐ δύναται
εἶναι
ἐπίσκοπος, ἢ
πρεσβύτερος,
ἢ διάκονος, ἢ
ὅλως τοῦ
καταλόγου
τοῦ
ἱερατικοῦ.”
Cf. note in Benedictine ed. | rather than he who has twice entered the
married state,3592
3592 [Origen agrees with
Tertullian, passim, on this subject. Hippolytus makes
Callistus, Bishop of Rome, the first to depart from this
principle,—accepting “digamists and trigamists.”] | and a man of
blameless life rather than one who is liable to censure, and a sober
man rather than one who is not such, and a prudent man rather
than one who is not prudent, and a
man whose behaviour is decorous rather than he who is open to the
charge even of the slightest indecorum, so he desires that he who is to
be chosen by preference for the office of a bishop should be apt to
teach, and able to convince the gainsayers. How then can Celsus
justly charge us with saying, “Let no one come to us who is
‘instructed,’ or ‘wise,’ or
‘prudent?’” Nay, let him who wills come to us
“instructed,” and “wise,” and
“prudent;” and none the less, if any one be ignorant and
unintelligent, and uninstructed and foolish, let him also come:
for it is these whom the Gospel promises to cure, when they come, by
rendering them all worthy of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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