講道與短論 第 5 章 第 1/4 段

AGAINST THOSE WHO DENY THAT ANYTHING PERTAINS TO GOD. FIRST QUESTION. — To many, whom that worldly darkness has blinded, we are exceedingly displeasing, if we solicitously keep the precepts of God, if we flee occasions of sinning, if we strive to fulfil all good things with a saving zeal, if we neglect the seductive blandishments of allurements and vices, if we suffer ourselves to be captured by no worldly sweetness, if of our own accord we undergo tortures and punishments for the name of God, if we despise death itself by the virtue of the spirit. To those, forsooth, whom this mortal sense has persuaded that everything which is done is worthy neither of praise nor of blame. For they are unwilling that any of these things should pertain to God.

Some, indeed, desiring to defend their crimes and misdeeds, say: «It profits nothing whether you live well or ill. For God now has no such care as anxiously to hasten to behold you conducting yourself in diverse ways according to your own bent and disease, and at times to mingle His eyes with your foul deeds. Vain are all things which are performed as one pleases: He who pertains to God is set apart and removed from these human affairs, and therefore neither grows angry nor is moved; He has no contemplation of human affairs, none of our conduct; the whole course of the whirling age, and a certain inexplicable rolling of the earthly world, so seizes, snatches and casts us about, that anyone would be deemed a fool who should think he could recall himself to the care of God.»

«Nor indeed is the disposition of the martyrs to be approved, who reckon that their God, whom they proclaim to be merciful, is delighted by the shedding of their own blood. Nothing in us is dear to Him, nothing is hateful; He rejoices in no condition of our death, in no soundness of our health; nor does He desire to know what is being done anywhere: not because it is impossible for the divine majesty to have knowledge of well-nigh all things that have been done or are being done, but because He is unwilling to know the miseries of men and the vanities of the world. Thus, in fine, it is written: «Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity» (Eccles. I, 2).»

Their opinion, made firm by despair, as it is dissolved by the authority of the divine sense, so also is it convicted and overthrown by their own common sacred speech, which is held most in use. For when, amid business dealings and the contracts of various parties, fidelity and perfidy contend, the divine power is called upon as witness — that same power which is at times denied to know what we do. «God is witness,» they say; «may God see, may God judge, may God act, may God repay.» And when it comes to the necessity of an oath, and the mind of the swearer fears lest something befall him if he swear falsely; he both demands an oath, and gathers that requital can be made to him who has sworn ill to him. And when health has been longed for and good soundness attained, thanks are rendered to the divine power.

And when, some falling object having given way, the near mishap has passed off unharmed, the good God is said to have granted it. And when, by the adverse blast of the winds, the waves of the troubled sea rise up, and the ship, battered on every side, is shaken, the crowds of voyagers stretch out their hands to heaven, entreat God with suppliant voice, and are confident that they can be heard and delivered. Whence is this? If God has no care of us, if what we do is unknown to Him — then vain is this persuasion. All things are known to God. Let no one flatter himself concerning impunity for the crimes he has committed. The greatest fruit of a good life is that perpetual punishment and alternating torments are the fruit of an evil one.

Therefore to us, who believe that God knows all things, who devoutly hasten toward martyrdom, an inestimable reward and everlasting life will be granted; but to the impious, who have taught that God does not know the hidden things of their crimes and misdeeds, a consuming flame of fire and a fire never failing will be meted out. II. — Whether the Spirit that was borne over the waters is to be understood as the Holy Spirit, since it is said, 'The Spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters' (Gen. 1:2)? If for this reason He is by some supposed to be the Holy Spirit, because it is read that He is the Spirit of God, etc. III. — Whether Adam, when made and animated by God, received the Holy Spirit, since it is written, 'God breathed into his face the breath of life' (Gen. 2:7).

It was not in the order of things that he should receive the Holy Spirit, because this was reserved by God for a later time, that in the last days, when the mystery of the one God had been made manifest, He might be given to believers. From the beginning indeed the Trinity was proclaimed, but the understanding of it was as if under a veil. For the person of God the Father was first proclaimed and made manifest without hesitation and without figure, because from Him are all things. But the persons of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit were not passed over in silence, yet neither were they made manifest. In short, concerning the Lord the Son a question was raised by the faithless, and concerning the Holy Spirit. For certain madmen call the Holy Spirit the Father Himself, just as Sabellius too calls Him the Father whom he also calls the Son.

But concerning the person of God the Father no one doubts. When therefore the manifestation of the Trinity takes place, then at last the Holy Spirit is given to believers, so that both His person may be made manifest, and those who receive Him may have a sign that they are sons of God, through this: that they have within them the Spirit of God, who is assuredly from God. For this is the signification of perfection, when it is known that both the Father is, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This perfection bestows this gift. For the Son of God, coming and disclosing and manifesting these things, owed something to the godly, and it was fitting to bestow this perfection upon believers; because neither in the Son alone, nor in the Father alone, is there perfection or salvation, but in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Whence John the Evangelist says that of His fullness we have all received, grace for grace: for the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:16-17). It is plain that at the Savior's coming the fullness of truth was accomplished. For the things that lay hidden, and that which was promised, when it is revealed and made manifest, become the fullness of truth: then believers, having received the Holy Spirit, become sons of God. For the inspiration that is said to have been made by God into Adam is the imparting of a soul: for we frequently put 'spirit' for 'soul,' since the Gospel says, among other things, 'And her spirit returned to her' (Luke 8:55). And in the Psalm:

'A troubled spirit,' it says, 'and a contrite heart God does not despise' (Ps. 50:19). Yet frequently some manuscripts do not read thus, 'God breathed in,' but 'God blew into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.' It is not because it said 'the breath of life' that it therefore signified the Holy Spirit. For of the animals also it says thus: 'In which was the breath of life' (Gen. 7:22). It is called the breath of life, because it brings living bodies to life. IV. — Why did Adam, when placed in the world, receive a commandment or law, since he himself held dominion over the rest? Although Adam was placed as lord in the world, yet because he received this not from himself but from God, he ought to receive a token of this fact from the law;

so that he himself, who is seen to be lord, might through the law be made subject to Him who had given him this power; that the authority of the Creator might command reverence toward Himself through the law, lest so great a dominion should exalt him and make him forgetful of God his Founder. V. — Why does God say, 'My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh: their years shall be a hundred and twenty,' etc. (Gen. 6:3)? Since there were giants upon the earth in those days, pestilent and proud, lifted up by the stature of their greatness, going after these things of the flesh, apostates by birth; then, when it displeased God, He promised that the human race would be destroyed by a flood, and He set a time;

so that if anyone, having heard of the wrath and indignation of God, should wish on this account to correct himself, he might have space for amendment. Accordingly the ark is seen to have been built by this reckoning over a hundred years. But before the beginning of the ark, twenty years are reported to have passed. Yet the narrative seems to obscure this, in that, after speaking of the number of Noah's years, it adds this. For this sentence is recognized to have been pronounced before Noah was five hundred years old. For what does it say? 'My Spirit shall not remain in these men'; and therefore it added, 'Because malice has increased upon the earth, I will blot out man from the face of the earth, even to the beasts'; which was indeed fulfilled when the flood came. For we remember that men lived for many years even after the flood:

and Aaron, the brother of Moses, is recorded to have lived a hundred and twenty-three years (Num. 33:38-39). But Moses himself, so that he could not pass a hundred and twenty years, brought this about by not glorifying God at the contradiction of the waters. For was he to enter the land of promise, had not sin stood in the way (Deut. 34:7 and 32:48-52)? For to some this seems to have been said as pertaining to the time of Moses, since Jehoiada the priest is found to have lived a hundred and thirty years (2 Chron. 24:15). VI. — What does the blessing of Jacob contain, which he gave to his sons (Gen. 48, 49)?

Not only did he foretell the future of each tribe from present causes, but he also signified future things concerning the future, of which as yet there was no shadow, in the Jewish people. For he showed what the several tribes would be in character, faith, discipline, luxury, wantonness, contempt of faith, so that, although they were of one stock, and yet did not preserve their oneness. For some indeed advanced toward the better, others grew worse, others remained the same:

so that by this they might not claim for themselves the prerogative of their lineage, since it had been foretold by him that certain of these, who were indeed of his stock, would prove reprobate, nay that many would perish, so that others were signified to enter in who would be grafted into the nature from which those had fallen, to their disgrace and condemnation. He therefore declared that a mixed people would be in all the tribes: by which variety both the good, though few, and the evil, though many, might be understood. And although he gave the scepter to his son Joseph for a time, he nevertheless set Judah over all. Not because all who were of Judah would be worthy, but because the Savior, who is truly King, was to spring from that tribe according to the flesh. VII.

— Why did the angel sent to speak to Moses appear in fire and in the bush? The angelic nature is in itself simple, whose substance seeks higher things, etc. VIII. — There was no other sign that was performed by Moses openly before Pharaoh except the serpent (Exod. 7:9). Let him who thinks this blameworthy say what else ought to have been done. For assuredly he made a serpent, which both struck terror, yet did not harm, in that by a certain stupor it is rather slow to do injury. For if he had made a lion, or a bear, or some such thing, how would those who beheld it escape? For he did not wish to kill anyone, but only to instill fear, and to show forth power;

so that, because the first transgression began through the serpent, likewise both the remembrance of the knowledge of God and the amendment of morals might come forth through the sign of the serpent, that as sin was committed, so it might also be amended: just as, since sin was wrought through a woman, it was through a woman taken away, namely through Mary the mother of the Lord, from whom Christ, being born, condemned sin. Eve transgressed while yet a virgin, just as Mary too was a virgin. In this way therefore the things that had perished were recalled to their former state: because both the kingdom had been lost through the tasting of the tree, and again through the tree it was sought. 'For the Lord,' it says, 'reigned from the tree' (Ps.

95:10). In like manner also the world, in which he was made, is to be reformed into heaven, that is, at the beginning of the first month, which is the Passover: for no nature will be evil except transgression alone; since sin was amended through that by which it was also committed. IX. — If there is one God, why is the hope of salvation in three, and not in two, or four, or at least in one; and why was the Trinity not proclaimed earlier? There is indeed one God, but He is not solitary, etc. X. — Why were circumcision and precepts given to the people, which formerly did not exist, nor are they now held in authority?

Circumcision is a sign of the faith of Abraham, so that when this sign was seen in his sons, they might be known to be the sons of him who, believing God, received this sign (Gen. 17:10-11). But the precepts of the sabbaths were given both by the testimony of things past, and as a figure of things to come (Exod. 20:9-11). For this sabbath, which was made into the completed week, is a figure of the future sabbath, which will grant rest in the eternal things. But the law of foods was not given at the beginning of the Law, but when, through faithlessness, refusing to give faith to God's warnings and promises, they received, for the hardness of their heart, precepts that were not good, as the prophet Jeremiah says (Ezek. 20:25).

This indeed was done, that their neck might be bowed, for their profit. For the whole creation ought not to be made subject to proud and stubborn men. But afterward, when the mercy of God came, the freedom of eating was restored. Whence the apostle Peter says: 'Why do you place a yoke upon the neck of the brethren, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?' (Acts 15:10). XI. — If on account of their distrust and detractions the Jews received harsh commandments, what had their sons sinned, that they too should be bound by these commandments? The law was given to the fathers, which was a burden to sons like them. For afterward they sinned against God no less, but perhaps even more, than their fathers.

For God, foreknowing, gave this law rather to the sons; because they all died in the wilderness. XII. — Why in the Law was it said even to Aaron himself that he should offer holocausts for his own sins, since David says, 'For offenses you did not require a holocaust' (Ps. 39:7); and in what follows, 'You will not delight in holocausts' (Ps. 50:18)? How did He command that to be offered in which He does not delight? It is manifest that God does not delight in holocausts, but that pardon can be merited, for the satisfaction of sin, by the groaning and sorrow of the heart. But He willed the sacrifice to be a testimony of sin, so that the sinner might, through the offering of the sacrifice, confess that he had sinned.

But how remission might be obtained, He Himself shows in another place, saying, 'Break your bread to the hungry: if you see one naked, clothe him, and do not despise the household of your own seed' (Isa. 58:7): or certainly, 'A contrite and humbled heart God does not despise' (Ps. 50:19). First therefore He admonished that the offense must be confessed; then He showed how it can be pardoned. For never did He command a sacrifice for a manifest offense, but for things unknown; because a man sins even when he does not know it, and when he thinks he is acting rightly, by a certain intention he offends. Such a sin He said could be purged through sacrifice. XIII. — What is the meaning that death, when sent to Jacob, came upon Israel; since Jacob himself is Israel? He set down two names for one people.

For assuredly he who was formerly called Jacob, etc. XIV. — If the soul that sins shall itself die, what is the meaning that, when Carmi sinned, thirty-six men are seen to have been killed on his account? Carmi indeed sinned, and died by stones. But those thirty-six men, etc. XV. — What does the prophet mean when he says, 'Rejoice, barren one who do not bear; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband'? In this place we understand two mothers, the heavenly and the earthly, that is, the free Jerusalem, etc. XVI. — 'Let the earth bless the Lord,' it says, that is, let it praise and confess Your power:

how then in the Psalms does it say, 'Shall the dust confess to You, or declare Your power?' It is not to be understood as it is read and as the words sound, etc. XVII. — 'In the sun,' it says, 'He set His tabernacle' (Ps. 18:6), that is, His body in which Christ dwelt, who was scourged with whips by Pilate: how then is it said in the Psalm concerning Christ, 'The scourge shall not come near your tabernacle' (Ps. 90:10)? seeing that He called His body a temple. And the body both of the son of man and of the Son of God is understood to be a temple. Yet God, that is, the Son of God, although He came in the flesh, nevertheless dwelt in the soul. Therefore both

the soul as well as the body is the tabernacle of the Son of God, who is both God and man, the Son of God and the son of man. Therefore in this respect the scourge is said not to have come near His tabernacle; that is, His soul, in which His divinity dwells, was immune from the punishment of hell or of its princes. Lest, because He was here crucified as though a sinner, when He is innocent, and the flesh suffered, His soul should be thought to have suffered some sadness among the powers below, Scripture shows that His soul could not be troubled among the powers below, because He descended for this purpose, that is, He permitted Himself to suffer, in order to confound the darkness and to send back its princes dulled. Whence the Lord Himself says: 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death' (Matt. 26:38).

For it was permitted, as belonged to His nature, that He should be saddened, at once bearing back the trophy, and the spoils of those by whom He had been saddened even unto death, after death now established in eternal joy. It can also be understood of the whole man; because He who knew no sin could not be scourged by the law. XVIII. — Why did Solomon have the spirit of wisdom (1 Kings 3), when he did not have a pure life? for he greatly delighted in women, and through this he sinned (ibid. 11). First by his own merit he received the spirit of prudence; but afterward, when he began to indulge too much in women, and through this to sin, if he had the spirit of wisdom, he had it by the merit of the kingdom; just as Nebuchadnezzar too, by the merit of the kingdom, saw Christ in the furnace. XIX.

— In Solomon it says, 'There is hope in the darkness, and a living dog is better than a dead lion.' Darkness signifies ignorance and heathenism: because there is more hope in a heathen than in an apostate, etc. XX. — In Wisdom it says, 'Who created the world out of unseen matter': and on the contrary, that we were made out of nothing (Wisd. 11:18 and 2:2). That God created the confused substances together, the sense of the Scriptures makes clear, darkness assuredly being mingled in. This confusion of things, that is, air, fire, water, earth, darkness, He called unseen matter, as it is read in Genesis: 'But the earth,' it says, 'was invisible and unformed' (Gen. 1:2).

Out of this confusion therefore He created the world, having established the firmament, so that within it, the waters being gathered into one, a habitation might be made for the human race. For, the substances being distinguished and separated, He made a habitable dwelling in the hollow. FIRST QUESTION. — Why were the deeds and words of the Lord set down in Scripture in four volumes by four writers? It was fitting that the acceptable year of the Lord, as the prophet says (Isa. 61:2), should be contained by four volumes, as it were by four turns. For just as the year unfolds in four seasons, so that they need one another in turn, so also the deeds and words of the Lord were defined in four books, so that one has need of another: yet together they are made complete in fullness.

But that they should be arranged by four writers, this was the reason: that, because the names of the seasons are diverse, the titles of the Gospels also should be diverse. And if any things seem contrary in words, yet in sense they do not disagree, through an interpretation fitted to the matter: just as the seasons, though they seem indeed diverse in name, in the air, and in the course of the stars, yet in the effect of the things that are brought forth they do not disagree. II. — Since it is established that four books of the deeds and words of the Lord were rightly written, it must be known what their order is. The Gospel is gathered by arrangement rather than by time.

Matthew therefore is to be placed first, because he took his beginning from the very promise, that is, from Abraham, to whom the promise was made of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. After him Luke, because he narrates how this incarnation was accomplished. Third, Mark, who attests that the Gospel which was preached by Christ was promised in the Law. But fourth, John, because—Him who was promised to Abraham as to be incarnate, and to whom it was told by Luke how He was incarnated, and by Mark shown that His Gospel was preached according to the prophet Isaiah—John, with open voice, shows to be God, saying, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John 1:1). III.

— Why, when describing the Gospel of Christ, does Matthew say, 'The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David' (Matt. 1:1); when Abraham is prior? For this reason he thus began, that he might first speak of Him from the promise of His incarnation, describing His genealogy, as the Apostle says, 'Whose are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh' (Rom. 9:5). Therefore he said, 'The book of the generation'; because the incarnation of Christ consists of many and diverse persons, so that, since diverse men began to be from one, He might draw bodily substance from all. From Jews and Gentiles, and from the worthy and the unworthy: for Ruth was a Moabitess, and Bathsheba, from an adulteress, was made a wife; so that, drawing the flesh of all to Himself, He might recall them to true unity.

Therefore he says, 'of Jesus Christ, the son of David,' although Abraham is prior; because Christ is specially called the son of David, on account of the kingdom: so that, as God from God, so also He might take His rise as King from a king according to the flesh. For thus it was said to David: 'Of the fruit of your womb I will set upon your throne' (Ps. 131:11). IV. — Why did the aforesaid apostle Matthew divide all the generations into three parts (Matt. 1:17)? Causes and times make the divisions. For this reason he distinguished from Abraham until David. For the first part of the cause is from Abraham until David; because Abraham is the father of faith, and David the father of the kingdom. For Saul, being made unworthy, deprived himself of the kingdom.

But from David until the deportation there came together another part, in which they lost the kingdom, the Jews being made reprobate. But after the deportation of Babylon until Christ, the third part, of lamentation and misery, of their captivity and dispersion: because, although after the deportation of Babylon and the time of seventy years, when, dismissed by Cyrus, they returned to their own land, yet they never had rest or repose. For neither afterward could Judea reign, but they were always anxious and wandering. For assuredly at the time of Christ's nativity they were captives, saying: 'We have no king but Caesar' (John 19:15).

For this reason therefore Matthew made three stages of the generation, that he might also show the changes of merits and causes from the promise made until Christ, but that the seasons of the year continue in one grace until the end. V. — Why, when there are forty-one generations, does the Evangelist seem to have counted forty-two (Matt. 1:17)? For three times fourteen—what do they make but forty-two? According to the number, forty-one generations are counted; but according to the reckoning, forty-two are proved. But Jechoniah, begotten in the deportation, that is, made king, as is contained in Chronicles, made the end of the second part:

and because after the deportation he remained in the kingdom by the permission of King Nebuchadnezzar, from him the third part begins, which comes down to Christ. And therefore he is reckoned in both, so that he both concludes the second part and begins the third—Jechoniah. For thus it reads: 'And after the deportation of Babylon, Jechoniah begot Salathiel' (Matt. 1:12). But down to this Salathiel there reigned those who are of Judah, namely those from whose root Joseph is born. For Jechoniah first had a son named Assur. But since Joseph draws his origin through the root of Salathiel, Assur being passed over, Salathiel was joined to Jechoniah his father, so that one might come to Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary was betrothed. For after Josiah, Jechoniah follows.

But because through Joachim, the father of Jechoniah, one comes to Joseph, he passed over him, that is Joachim, and set down Jechoniah, so as not to exceed the number of fourteen generations, and because after Jechoniah are Salathiel and his son, through whom Joseph arises. VI. — Why in Matthew is the father of Joseph written as Jacob, and in Luke as Heli; so that either he is unskillfully described as having two fathers, or at least it is not known who is truly his father? It is not doubtful that the father of Joseph was Jacob. For the order, holding its course through Solomon from David, comes by a straight track to Jacob, etc. VII. — It is manifest that when the Savior, the Son of God, was born He was called Christ: why then, after His baptism, did the tempter approach Him, saying, 'If you are the Son of God?'

etc. (Matt. 4:3). The Savior was so born of the Virgin that He was both Christ and the Son of God, not by making, but by birth. But still, in His lesser age, emptying His power, that is, dissembling from His own authority, He did not provoke the impudence of the devil. But when He was baptized, the Holy Spirit descending upon Him, when He had appeared to men by the testimony of God the Father, the enemy, led by the emulation of zeal, was drawn to do injury, seeing that this deed was against himself: for he understood that the ordinance of baptism was procured for the salvation of men. And therefore he approaches the Savior, the author of this thing, not to approve it, but to find an occasion for overthrowing it. For temptation is sometimes made for proving, sometimes with guile for subversion.