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| Chapter VI
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Chapter VI.
But if you will have us to meet the most
ridiculous among the charges of Celsus, listen to him when he
says: “Now God, being unknown amongst men, and deeming
himself on that account to have less than his due,3701
| 3701 καὶ παρὰ
τοῦτ᾽
ἔλαττον
ἔχειν
δοκῶν. | would desire to make himself known, and to
make trial both of those who believe upon him and of those who do not,
like those of mankind who have recently come into the possession of
riches, and who make a display of their wealth; and thus they testify
to an excessive but very mortal ambition on the part of
God.”3702
| 3702 καθάπερ οἱ
νεόπλουτοι
τῶν ἀνθρώπων
ἐπιδεικτιῶντες,
πολλήν τινα
καὶ πάνυ
θνητὴν
φιλοτμίαν
τοῦ Θεοῦ
καταμαρτυροῦσι. | We answer,
then, that God, not being known by wicked men, would desire to make
Himself known, not because He thinks that He meets with less than His
due, but because the knowledge of Him will free the possessor from
unhappiness. Nay, not even with the desire to try those who do or
who do not believe upon Him, does He, by His unspeakable and divine
power, Himself take up His abode in certain individuals, or send His
Christ; but He does this in order to liberate from all their
wretchedness those who do believe upon Him, and who accept His
divinity, and that those who do not believe may no longer have
this as a ground of excuse, viz., that their unbelief is the
consequence of their not having heard the word of instruction. What
argument, then, proves that it follows from our views that God,
according to our representations, is “like those of mankind who
have recently come into the possession of riches, and who make a
display of their wealth?” For God makes no display towards
us, from a desire that we should understand and consider His
pre-eminence; but desiring that the blessedness which results from His
being known by us should be implanted in our souls, He brings it to
pass through Christ, and His ever-indwelling word, that we come to an
intimate fellowship3703
with Him. No
mortal ambition, then, does the Christian doctrine testify as existing
on the part of God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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