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| Relation of Men to Angels.
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13. Relation of Men to Angels.
From this it does not follow, as some suppose, that the
men who are saved in Christ are superior even to the holy angels; for
how can those who are cast by the holy angels into vessels be compared
with those who cast them into
vessels, seeing that they have been put under the authority of the
angels? While we say this, we are not ignorant that the men who
will be saved in Christ surpass some angels—namely, those who
have not been entrusted with this office—but not all of
them. For we read, “Which things angels desire to look
into,”5216
where it is not
said “all” angels. And we know also
this—“We shall judge angels”5217
where it is not said “all” angels. Now since these
things are written about the net and about those in the net, we say
that he who desires that, before the consummation of the age, and
before the coming of the angels to sever the wicked from among the
righteous, there should be no evil persons “of every kind”
in the net, seems not to have understood the Scripture, and to desire
the impossible. Wherefore let us not be surprised if, before the
severing of the wicked from among the righteous by the angels who are
sent forth for this purpose, we see our gatherings also filled with
wicked persons. And would that those who will be cast into the
furnace of fire may not be greater in number than the righteous!
But since we said in the beginning, that the parables and similitudes
are not to be accepted in respect of all the things to which they are
likened or compared, but only in respect of some things, we must
further establish from the things to be said, that in the case of the
fishes, so far as their life is concerned, an evil thing happens to
them when they are found in the net. For they are deprived of the
life which is theirs by nature, and whether they are cast into vessels
or cast away, they suffer nothing more than the loss of the life as it
is in fishes; but, in the case of those to whom the parable refers, the
evil thing is to be in the sea and not to come into the net, in order
to be cast along with the good into vessels. And in like manner
the bad fishes are cast without and thrown away; but the bad in the
similitude before us are cast into “the furnace of fire,”
that what is said in Ezekiel about the furnace of fire may also
overtake them—“And the Word of the Lord came unto me
saying, Son of man behold the house of Israel is become to me all mixed
with brass and iron,” etc., down to the words, “And ye
shall know that I the Lord have poured My fury upon
you.”5218
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