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| Chapter XXX
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Chapter
XXX.
If,
however, any one thinks to refute our argument on this ground, that
even after the application of the remedial process the life of man is
still in discord through its errors, let us lead him to the truth by an
example taken from familiar things. Take, for instance, the case of a
serpent; if it receives a deadly blow on the head, the hinder part of
the coil is not at once deadened along with it; but, while the head is
dead, the tail part is still animated with its own particular spirit,
and is not deprived of its vital motion: in like manner we may see Sin
struck its deadly blow and yet in its remainders still vexing the life
of man. But then they give up finding fault with the account of
Revelation on these points, and make another charge against it; viz.
that the Faith does not reach all mankind. “But why is it,”
they ask, “that all men do not obtain the grace, but that, while
some adhere to the Word, the portion who remain unbelieving is no small
one; either because God was unwilling to bestow his benefit
ungrudgingly upon all, or because He was altogether unable to do
so?” Now neither of these alternatives can defy criticism. For it
is unworthy of God, either that He should not will what is good, or
that He should be unable to do it. “If, therefore, the Faith is a
good thing, why,” they ask, “does not its grace come upon
all men?” Now2011
| 2011 The
following passage is anti-Calvinistic. Gregory here, as continually
elsewhere, asserts the freedom of the will; and is strongly supported
by Justin Martyr, i. 43: “If it has been fixed by fate that one
man shall be good, and another bad, the one is not praiseworthy, the
other not culpable. And again, if mankind has not power by a free
choice to flee the evil and to choose the good, it is not responsible
for any results, however shocking.” | , if in our
representation of the Gospel mystery we had so stated the matter as
that it was the Divine will that the Faith should be so granted away
amongst mankind that some men should be called, while the rest had no
share in the calling, occasion would be given for bringing such a
charge against this Revelation. But if the call came with equal meaning
to all and makes no distinction as to worth, age, or different national
characteristics (for it was for this reason that at the very first
beginning of the proclamation of the Gospel they who ministered the
Word were, by Divine inspiration, all at once enabled to speak in the
language of any nation, viz. in order that no one might be destitute of
a share in the blessings of evangelical instruction), with what
reasonableness can they still charge it upon God that the Word has not
influenced all mankind? For He Who holds the sovereignty of the
universe, out of the excess of this regard for man, permitted something
to be under our own control, of which each of us alone is master. Now
this is the will, a thing that cannot be enslaved, and of
self-determining power, since it is seated in the liberty of thought
and mind. Therefore such a charge might more justly be transferred to
those who have not attached themselves to the Faith, instead of resting
on Him Who has called them to believe. For even when Peter at the
beginning preached the Gospel in a crowded assembly of the Jews, and
three thousand at once received the Faith, though those who disbelieved
were more in number than the believers, they did not attach blame to
the Apostle on the ground of their disbelief. It was, indeed, not in
reason, when the grace of the Gospel had been publicly set forth, for
one who had absented himself from it of his own accord to
lay the blame of his exclusion on another rather than
himself.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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