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| Chapter XXII
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Chapter
XXII.
What,
then, under these circumstances is justice? It is the not exercising
any arbitrary sway over him who has us in his power1996
| 1996 Compare a passage in Dionysius Areop. (De eccles. hierarch.
c. iii. p. 297). “The boundless love of the Supreme Goodness did
not refuse a personal providing for us, but perfectly participating in
all that belongs to us, and united to our lowliness, along with an
undiluted and unimpaired possession of its own qualities, has gifted us
for ever with a communion of kinship with itself, and exhibited us as
partners in Its glories: undoing the adverse power of the Rebel throng,
as the secret Tradition says, “not by might, as if it was
domineering, but, according to the oracle secretly delivered to us, by
right and justice” (quoted by Krabinger). To the words
“not by might,” S. Maximus has added the note, “This
is what Gregory of Nyssa says in the Catechetic.” See next
note. | , nor, by tearing us away by a violent
exercise of force from his hold, thus leaving some colour for a just
complaint to him who enslaved man through sensual pleasure. For as they
who have bartered away their freedom for money are the slaves of those
who have purchased them (for they have constituted themselves their own
sellers, and it is not allowable either for themselves or any one else
in their behalf to call freedom to their aid, not even though those who
have thus reduced themselves to this sad state are of noble birth; and,
if any one out of regard for the person who has so sold himself should
use violence against him who has bought him, he will clearly be acting
unjustly in
thus arbitrarily rescuing one who has been legally purchased as a
slave, whereas, if he wishes to pay a price to get such a one away,
there is no law to prevent that), on the same principle, now that we
had voluntarily bartered away our freedom, it was requisite that no
arbitrary method of recovery, but the one consonant with justice1997
| 1997 one consonant with justice. This view
of Redemption, as a coming to terms with Satan and making him a party
or defender in the case, is rather remarkable. The Prologue to the Book
of Job furnishes a basis for it, where Satan enters into terms with
God. It appears to be the Miltonic view: as also that Envy was the
first sin of Satan. | should be devised by Him Who in His goodness
had undertaken our rescue. Now this method is in a measure this; to
make over to the master of the slave whatever ransom he may agree to
accept for the person in his possession.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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