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| Chapter LIX
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Chapter LIX.
Celsus, in the next place, suspecting, or perhaps
seeing clearly enough, the answer which might be returned by those who
defend the destruction of men by the deluge, continues:
“But if he does not destroy his own offspring, whither does he
convey them out of this world4579
which he himself
created?” To this we reply, that God by no means removes
out of the whole world, consisting of heaven and earth, those who
suffered death by the deluge, but removes them from a life in the
flesh, and, having set them free from their bodies, liberates them at
the same time from an existence upon earth, which in many parts of
Scripture it is usual to call the “world.” In the
Gospel according to John especially, we may frequently find the regions
of earth4580
| 4580 τὸν
περίγειον
τόπον. | termed
“world,” as in the passage, “He was the true Light,
which lighteneth every man that cometh into the
‘world;’”4581
as also in this,
“In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I
have overcome the world.”4582
If,
then, we understand by “removing out of the world” a
transference from “regions on earth,” there is nothing
absurd in the expression. If, on the contrary, the system of
things which consists of heaven and earth be termed
“world,” then those who perished in the deluge are by no
means removed out of the so-called “world.” And yet,
indeed, if we have regard to the words, “Looking not at the
things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen;”4583
and also to these,
“For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made,”4584
—we might say
that he who dwells amid the “invisible” things, and what
are called generally “things not seen,” is gone out of the
world, the Word having removed him hence, and transported him to the
heavenly regions, in order to behold all beautiful
things.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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