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| The Character of God.
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Chapter
XX.—The Character of God.
“Behold, then, the character of that God to
whom you, Simon, wish to persuade us to be ungrateful, and the earth
continues to bear you, perhaps wishing to see who will venture to
entertain similar opinions to yours. For you were the first to
dare what no other dared: you were the first to utter what we
first heard. We first and alone have seen the boundless
long-suffering of God in bearing with such great impiety as yours, and
that God no other than the Creator of the world, against whom you have
dared to act impiously. And yet openings of the earth took not
place, and fire was not sent down from heaven and went not forth to
burn up men, and rain was not poured out,1307
| 1307 One
ms. reads, “was not
restrained.” |
and a multitude of beasts was not sent from the thickets, and upon us
ourselves the destructive wrath of God did not begin to show itself, on
account of one who sinned the sin, as it were, of spiritual adultery,
which is worse than the carnal. For it is not God the Creator of
heaven and earth that in former times punished sins, since now, when He
is blasphemed in the highest degree, He would inflict the severest
punishment.1308
| 1308 We have inserted
ἄν, and suppose the sentence to be ironical.
The meaning might be the same without ἄν. The text of Dressel is as follows:
“For is not He who then punished the sins God, Creator of heaven
and earth; since even now, being blasphemed in the highest degree, He
punished it in the highest degree?” | But, on
the contrary, He is long-suffering, calls to repentance, having the
arrows which end in the destruction of the impious laid up in His
treasures, which He will discharge like living animals when He shall
sit down to give judgment to those that are His.1309
| 1309 Cotelerius
translates: “to His enemies.” | Wherefore let us fear the just God,
whose shape the body of man bears for honour.”
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