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| Chapter XXXII
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Chapter
XXXII.
And by this means let those who have the capacity
of comprehending truths so profound, learn that he to whom were
allotted those who had not formerly sinned is far more powerful than
the others, since he has been able to make a selection of individuals
from the portion of the whole,4190
| 4190 ἀπὸ
τῆς πάντων
μερίδος. | and to separate
them from those who received them for the purpose of punishment, and to
bring them under the influence of laws, and of a mode of life which
helps to produce an oblivion of their former transgressions. But,
as we have previously observed, these remarks are to be understood as
being made by us with a concealed meaning, by way of pointing out the
mistakes of those who asserted that “the various quarters of the
earth were from the beginning distributed among different
superintending spirits, and being allotted among certain governing
powers, were administered in this way;” from which statement
Celsus took occasion to make the remarks referred to. But since
those who wandered away from the east were delivered over, on account
of their sins, to “a reprobate mind,” and to “vile
affections,” and to “uncleanness through the lusts of their
own hearts,”4191
| 4191 Cf. Rom. i. 24, 26, 28. | in order that,
being sated with sin, they might hate it, we shall refuse our assent to
the assertion of Celsus, that “because of the superintending
spirits distributed among the different parts of the earth, what is
done among each nation is rightly done;” for our desire is to do
what is not agreeable to these spirits.4192
| 4192 ἀλλὰ
καὶ
βουλόμεθα,
οὐχ ὅπη ᾖ
ἐκείνοις
φίλον, ποιεῖν
τὰ ἐκείνων. | For we see that it is a religious act
to do away with the customs originally established in the various
places by means of laws of a better and more divine character, which
were enacted by Jesus, as one possessed of the greatest power, who has
rescued us “from the present evil world,” and “from
the princes of the world that come to nought;” and that it is a
mark of irreligion not to throw ourselves at the feet of Him who has
manifested Himself to be holier and more powerful than all other
rulers, and to whom God said, as the prophets many generations before
predicted: “Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen
for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy
possession.”4193
For He, too,
has become the “expectation” of us who from among the
heathen have believed upon Him, and upon His Father, who is God over
all things.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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