53. Cease in your ignorance
to receive such great deeds with abusive language, which will in no
wise injure him who did them, but which will bring danger to
yourselves—danger, I say, by no means small, but one dealing with
matters of great,3347
| 3347
So the edd., reading in rebus eximiis for the ms. exi-gu-is, which would, of course,
give an opposite and wholly unsuitable meaning. |
aye, even
the greatest importance, since beyond a doubt the
soul is a precious
thing, and nothing can be found dearer to a man than himself.
There was nothing magical, as you suppose, nothing human, delusive, or
crafty in
Christ; no
deceit lurked in Him,
3348
| 3348
So generally, Heraldus having restored delitu-it in Christo
from the ms., which had omitted
-it, for the reading of Gelenius, Canterus, and Ursinus,
delicti—“no deceit, no sin was,”
etc. |
although you smile in derision, as
your wont is, and though you split with
roars of laughter. He was
God on high,
God in His inmost
nature,
God from unknown realms, and was
sent by the
Ruler of all as a Saviour
God; whom neither the sun
himself, nor any
stars, if they have powers of perception, not the
rulers and
princes of the
world, nor, in fine, the great gods, or those
who, feigning themselves so,
terrify the whole human race, were able to
know or to guess whence and who He was—and naturally so.
But
3349
| 3349 So
emended by Salmasius, followed by most later edd. In the earlier
edd. the reading is et merito exutus a corpore (Salm. reading
at instead of a, and inserting a period after
mer.)—“and when rightly freed from the body,”
etc. |
when, freed
from the body, which He carried about as but a very
small part of
Himself, He allowed Himself to be seen, and
let it be known how
great He was, all the
elements of the universe bewildered by the
strange events were thrown into confusion. An
earthquake shook
the
world, the
sea was heaved up from its
depths, the
heaven was
shrouded in
darkness, the sun’s
fiery blaze was checked, and his
heat became moderate;
3350
| 3350 It
may be instructive to notice how the simpler narrative of the Gospels
is amplified. Matthew (xxvii. 51) says that the earth trembled, and Luke
(xxiii. 45) that the sun was darkened; but they go
no further. [See p. 301, note 4, supra.] |
for what else could occur when He was discovered to be God who
heretofore was reckoned one of us?
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
