75. You may object and
rejoin, Why was the Saviour sent forth so late? In unbounded,
eternal ages, we reply, nothing whatever should be spoken of as
late. For where there is no end and no beginning, nothing is too
soon,3906
| 3906 These
words having been omitted by Oberthür, are omitted by Orelli also,
as in previous instances. |
nothing too
late. For time is perceived from its beginnings and endings,
which an unbroken line and
endless3907
| 3907
The ms. and first ed. read
etiam moderata continuatio; corrected, et immod. con. by
Gelenius. |
succession of ages cannot have.
For what if the things themselves to which it was necessary to bring
help, required that as a fitting time? For what if the condition
of
antiquity was different from that of later times? What if it
was necessary to give help to the men of old in one way, to
provide for
their descendants in another? Do ye not hear your own writings
read, telling that there were once men
who were demi-gods,
heroes with immense and huge bodies? Do you not read that
infants
on their mothers’ breasts shrieked like Stentors,
3908
| 3908 So
the edd., reading infantes stentoreos, except Oehler, who
retains the ms. reading
centenarios, which he explains as “having a hundred”
heads or hands, as the case might be, e.g., Typhon, Briareus, etc. |
whose
bones,
when dug up in different parts of the
earth, have made the discoverers almost
doubt that they were the remains of human limbs? So, then, it may
be that
Almighty God, the only
God, sent forth
Christ then indeed,
after that the human race,
becoming feebler, weaker, began to be
such as we are. If that which has been done now could have been
done
thousands of years ago, the
Supreme Ruler would have done it; or
if it had been proper, that what has been done now should be
accomplished as many
thousands after this, nothing compelled God to
anticipate the necessary lapse
3909
of time. His plans
3910
are executed in fixed ways; and that which has been once decided on,
can in no wise be changed again.
3911
| 3911 Lit.,
“can be changed with no novelty.” |
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