65. Oh ungrateful and
impious age, prepared3391
| 3391 So
Ursinus suggested in the margin, followed by LB. and Orelli, reading
in privatam perniciem p-a-r-atum for the ms. p-r-iv-atum, which is clearly derived
from the preceding privatam, but is, though unintelligible also,
retained in the two Roman edd. The conclusion of the sentence is,
literally, “obstinacy of spirit.” |
for its own
destruction by its
extraordinary obstinacy! If there had come to you a
physician
from
lands far distant and unknown to you before, offering some
medicine to keep off from you altogether every
kind of
disease and
sickness, would you not all eagerly hasten to
him? Would
you not with every
kind of
flattery and honour receive him into your
houses, and treat him kindly? Would you not wish that that
kind
of medicine should be quite
sure, and should be genuine, which
promised that even to the utmost limits of
life you should be free from
such countless bodily
distresses? And though it were a doubtful
matter, you would yet entrust yourselves
to him; nor would you
hesitate to drink the unknown
draught, indited by the
hope of
health
set before you and by the
love of
safety.
3392
| 3392 In
the original, spe salutis proposita atque amore
incolumitatis. |
Christ shone out and appeared to
tell us news of the utmost importance, bringing an omen of prosperity,
and a message of
safety to those who believe. What, I
pray you,
means
3393
this
cruelty, what such barbarity, nay rather, to speak more truly,
scornful
3394
| 3394 So
all the edd., reading fastidi-os-um supercilium, which
Crusius says the ms. reads with
os omitted, i.e., “pride, scorn.” |
pride, not
only to harass the messenger and bearer of so great a
gift with
taunting words; but even to assail Him with
fierce hostility, and with
all the
weapons which can be showered upon Him, and
with all modes
of destruction? Are His words displeasing, and are you
offended when you hear them?
Count them as
but a
soothsayer’s empty tales. Does He speak very stupidly, and
promise foolish
gifts?
Laugh with
scorn as
wise men, and leave
Him in His
folly3395
| 3395 So
the edd., reading fatuita-tem, for the ms. fatuita-n-tem, which may, however, point
to a verb not found elsewhere. |
to be tossed about among His
errors. What means this fierceness, to repeat what has been said
more than once; what a passion, so murderous? to declare implacable
hostility towards one who has done nothing to deserve it at your
hands;
to wish, if it were allowed you, to tear Him limb from limb, who not
only did no man any harm, but with uniform
kindness3396
| 3396
i.e., to friends and foes alike. The ms. reads æqualiter benignus hostibus
dicere, which is retained by Orelli, supporting an ellipsis of
fuerit, i.e., “He was kind to say,”
which might be received; but it is more natural to suppose that
-t has dropped off, and read diceret as above, with the
two Roman editions and LB. Gelenius, followed by Ursinus, emended
omnibus docuerit—“with uniform kindness taught to
all.” It may be well to give here an instance of the very
insufficient grounds on which supposed references to Scripture are
sometimes based. Orelli considers that Arnobius here refers
(videtur respexisse, he says) to Col. i. 21, 22, “You, that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works, yet now hath He
reconciled in the body of His flesh through death,” to which,
though the words which follow might indeed be thought to have a very
distant resemblance, they can in no way be shown to refer. |
told His
enemies what
salvation was
being brought to them from
God Supreme, what must be done that they
might
escape destruction and obtain an immortality which they knew not
of? And when the
strange and unheard-of things which were held
out
staggered the minds of those who heard Him, and made them hesitate
to believe,
though master of every
power and destroyer of
death
itself He
suffered His human form to be slain, that from the
result
3397
| 3397
i.e., from His resurrection, which showed that death’s power was
broken by Him. |
they might
know that the hopes were
safe which they had long
entertained about the
soul’s salvation, and that in no other way could they avoid the
danger of death.
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