[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.But1003blessed are your eyes, which see the things that ye see; and your ears,which hear what ye do hear.For one and the same God [that blessesothers] inflicts blindness upon those who do not believe, but who set Himat naught; just as the sun, which is a creature of His, [acts with regard] tothose who, by reason of any weakness of the eyes cannot behold his light;but to those who believe in Him and follow Him, He grants a fuller andgreater illumination of mind.In accordance with this word, therefore, doesthe apostle say, in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians:  In whom thegod of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest thelight of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine [unto them]. Andagain, in that to the Romans:  And as they did not think fit to have God intheir knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those thingsthat are not convenient. Speaking of antichrist, too, he says clearly in theSecond to the Thessalonians:  And for this cause God shall send them theworking of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might bejudged who believed not the truth, but consented to iniquity.2.If, therefore, in the present time also, God, knowing the number of thosewho will not believe, since He foreknows all things, has given them over tounbelief, and turned away His face from men of this stamp, leaving them inthe darkness which they have themselves chosen for themselves, what isthere wonderful if He did also at that time give over to their unbelief,Pharaoh, who never would have believed, along with those who were withhim? As the Word spake to Moses from the bush:  And I am sure that theking of Egypt will not let you go, unless by a mighty hand. And for thereason that the Lord spake in parables, and brought blindness upon Israel,that seeing they might not see, since He knew the [spirit of] unbelief inthem, for the same reason did He harden Pharaoh s heart; in order that,while seeing that it was the finger of God which led forth the people, hemight not believe, but be precipitated into a sea of unbelief, resting in thenotion that the exit of these [Israelites] was accomplished by magicalpower, and that it was not by the operation of God that the Red Seaafforded a passage to the people, but that this occurred by merely naturalcauses (sed naturaliter sic se habere).1004CHAPTER 30REFUTATION OF ANOTHER ARGUMENT ADDUCEDBY THE MARCIONITES, THAT GOD DIRECTEDTHE HEBREWS TO SPOIL THE EGYPTIANSI.Those, again, who cavil and find fault because the people did, by God scommand, upon the eve of their departure, take vessels of all kinds andraiment from the Egyptians, and so went away, from which [spoils], too,the tabernacle was constructed in the wilderness, prove themselvesignorant of the righteous dealings of God, and of His dispensations; as alsothe presbyter remarked: For if God had not accorded this in the typicalexodus, no one could now be saved in our true exodus; that is, in the faithin which we have been established, and by which we have been broughtforth from among the number of the Gentiles.For in some cases therefollows us a small, and in others a large amount of property, which wehave acquired from the mammon of unrighteousness.For from what sourcedo we derive the houses in which we dwell, the garments in which we areclothed, the vessels which we use, and everything else ministering to ourevery-day life, unless it be from those things which, when we wereGentiles, we acquired by avarice, or received them from our heathenparents, relations, or friends who unrighteously obtained them?  not tomention that even now we acquire such things when we are in the faith.For who is there that sells, and does not wish to make a profit from himwho buys? Or who purchases anything, and does not wish to obtain goodvalue from the seller? Or who is there that carries on a trade, and does notdo so that he may obtain a livelihood thereby? And as to those believingones who are in the royal palace, do they not derive the utensils theyemploy from the property which belongs to Caesar; and to those whohave not, does not each one of these [Christians] give according to hisability? The Egyptians were debtors to the [Jewish] people, not alone asto property, but as their very lives, because of the kindness of thepatriarch Joseph in former times; but in what way are the heathen debtorsto us, from whom we receive both gain and profit? Whatsoever they amasswith labor, these things do we make use of without labor, although we arein the faith.10052.Up to that time the people served the Egyptians in the most abjectslavery, as saith the Scripture:  And the Egyptians exercised their powerrigorously upon the children of Israel; and they made life bitter to them bysevere labors, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in thefield which they did, by all the works in which they oppressed them withrigor. And with immense labor they built for them fenced cities, increasingthe substance of these men throughout a long course of years, and bymeans of every species of slavery; while these [masters] were not onlyungrateful towards them, but had in contemplation their utter annihilation.In what way, then, did [the Israelites] act unjustly, if out of many thingsthey took a few, they who might have possessed much property had theynot served them, and might have gone forth wealthy, while, in fact, byreceiving only a very insignificant recompense for their heavy servitude,they went away poor? It is just as if any free man, being forcibly carriedaway by another, and serving him for many years, and increasing hissubstance, should be thought, when he ultimately obtains some support,to possess some small portion of his [master s] property, but should inreality depart, having obtained only a little as the result of his own greatlabors, and out of vast possessions which have been acquired, and thisshould be made by any one a subject of accusation against him, as if he hadnot acted properly.He (the accuser) will rather appear as an unjust judgeagainst him who had been forcibly carried away into slavery.Of this kind,then, are these men also, who charge the people with blame, because theyappropriated a few things out of many, but who bring no charge againstthose who did not render them the recompense due to their fathersservices; nay, but even reducing them to the most irksome slavery,obtained the highest profit from them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]