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1. An exhortation from the prooemia to repentance and on the saying of the Apostle: "Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined" and what follows; and against those who twist both it and all the divine Scripture.
2. That all those who were baptized into Christ and believed in Him are foreknown and predestined by God to be conformed to His Son and on the saying of Moses: "When the Most High divided the nations" and what follows; in which also is about the calling and rejection of Israel and of its union again with the nations.
3. A recapitulation of the things said in the first discourse concerning Adam and Eve and the seven days and ages and the natural contemplation of paradise.
4. Concerning the flood and of what things in the ark were images, and concerning Abraham and the remnant according to election, and what this remnant is, and concerning Israel and circumcision.
5. That with the first world produced in the beginning, two others were also generated, of which the last is a type of the things that will come to be after these things, being a middle between the ancient and the later things; and of what the promised land was an image, of what the ark, of what the law, of what the jar, of what Moses; of what things the events in paradise and those in Adam himself were types.
6. On the saying of the Apostle: "For if their trespass has become riches for the world" and what follows; and a personification of both peoples, I mean the nations and Israel.
(114) 7. That the Church of Christ is a new world and faith in Him is a new paradise; and in addition to these, a recapitulation of the first world, contrasting the things done in that one with the things accomplished in the Church through Christ; and at the end, a repetition of the apostolic saying: "Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined….".
1. An exhortation from the prooemia to repentance; and on the saying of the Apostle:
"Those whom He foreknew, He also predestined" and what follows; and against those who twist both it and all the divine Scripture. (114)
I have heard many men saying: "Since it says: those whom
God foreknew, these He also predestined; and those whom He predestined, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also glorified, what benefit is it to me if I undertake many labors, if I show conversion and repentance, but I am not foreknown by God nor predestined to be saved and become conformed to the glory of His Son and God?" To whom it is fitting to reply and say: O you people, why do you consider not the things that save you but the things that destroy you, and selecting the difficult things of the divinely inspired Scripture, do you seize and twist them, interpreting them to your own destruction? Do you not hear the Savior crying out every day: "As I live, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live"? Do you not hear Him saying: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and again: "Truly I say to you, there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents"? Did He say or does He say to some, "Do not repent, for I will not receive you," (115) and to others, as it were to the predestined, "But you, repent, for I have foreknown you"? By no means, but daily in the whole world and in every church He cries out: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Come, He says, you who are burdened with many sins, to the one who takes away the sin of the world; come, you who are thirsty, to the ever-flowing and immortal spring.
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α΄. Προτρεπτικός ἐκ προοιμίων εἰς μετάνοιαν καί εἰς τό ῥητόν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου· "Οὕς προέγνω, τούτους και προώρισε" καί εἰς τά ἑξῆς· καί κατά τῶν στρεβλούντων αὐτό τε καί πᾶσαν τήν θείαν Γραφήν.
β΄. Ὅτι πάντες οἱ εἰς Χριστόν βαπτισθέντες καί πιστεύσαντες εἰς αὐτόν προεγνωσμένοι καί προωρισμένοι εἰσί τῷ Θεῷ εἰς τό συμμόρφους γενέσθαι αὐτούς τοῦ Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ καί εἰς τό ῥητόν τοῦ Μωσέως· "Ὅτε διεμέριζεδν ἔθνη ὁ Ὕψιστος" καί εἰς τά ἑξῆς· ἐν ᾧ καί περί τῆς κλήσεως καί ἀποβολῆς τοῦ Ἰσραήλ καί τῆς μετά τῶν ἐθνῶν αὖθις τούτου ἑνώσεως.
γ΄. Ἀνακεφαλαίωσις τῶν ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ λόγῳ ῥηθέντων περί τῆς τοῦ Ἀδάμ καί τῆς Εὔας καί τῶν ἑπτά ἡμερῶν καί αἰώνων καί τῆς τοῦ παραδείσου φυσικῆς θεωρίας.
δ΄. Περί τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ καί τίνων εἰκόνες ἦσαν τά ἐν τῇ κιβωτῷ, καί περί τοῦ Ἀβραάμ καί τοῦ κατ᾿ ἐκλογήν λήμματος, καί τί ἐστι τό λῆμμα τοῦτο, καί περί Ἰσραήλ καί τῆς περιτομῆς.
ε΄. Ὅτι τῷ παραχθέντι πρώτῳ κατ᾿ ἀρχάς κόσμῳ ἕτεροι δύο συνεπεγένοντο, ὥν ὁ ἔσχατος τύπος ἐστί τῶν μετά ταῦτα μελλόντων γενέσθαι, μέσος τις ὥν τῶν ἀρχαίων καί τῶν ἐς ὕστερον· καί τίνος ἦν εἰκών ἡ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας γῆ, τίνος δέ ἡ κιβωτός, τίνος ὁ νόμος, τίνος ἡ στάμνος, τίνος ὁ Μωϋσῆς· τίνων τύπους ἔφερον τά ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ γεγονότα καί τά ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ Ἀδάμ.
στ΄. Εἰς τό ῥητόν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου· "Εἰ γάρ τό αὐτῶν παράπτωμα πλοῦτος κόσμου γέγονε" καί τά ἑξῆς· καί προσωποποιΐα τῶν ἑκατέρων λαῶν, τῶν ἐθνῶν φημι καί τοῦ Ἰσραήλ.
(114) ζ΄. Ὅτι νέος κόσμος ἡ τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἐκκλησια καί νέος παράδεισος ἡ πρός αὐτόν πίστις· καί πρός τούτοις ἀνακεφαλαίωσις τοῦ πρώτου κόσμου, ἀντιπαρατιθεμένων τοῖς ἐν ἐκείνῳ πραχθεῖσι τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἐκκλησιᾳ διά Χριστοῦ τελεσθέντων· καί πρός τό τέλος ἐπανάληψις τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ ῥητοῦ· "Οὕς προέγνω, τούτους καί προώρισε….".
α΄. Προτρεπτικός ἐκ προοιμίων εἰς μετάνοιαν· καί εἰς τό ῥητόν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου·
"Οὕς προέγνω, τούτους καί προώρισε" καί εἰς τά ἑξῆς· καί κατά τῶν στρεβλούντων αὐτό τε καί πᾶσαν τήν θείαν Γραφήν. (114)
Πολλούς ἀκήκοα λέγοντας τῶν ἀνθρώπων· "Ἐπειδήπερ φησίν· οὕς προέγνω ὁ
Θεός, τούτους καί προώρισεν· οὕς δέ προώρισε τούτους καί ἐκάλεσεν· οὕς δέ ἐκάλεσε, τούτους καί ἐδόξασε, τί μοι τό ὄφελος ἐάν πολλούς παραβάλλωμαι κόπους, ἐάν ἐπιστροφήν καί μετάνοιαν ἐπιδείξωμαι, προεγνωσμένος δέ οὐκ εἰμί ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐδέ προωρισμένος εἰς τό σωθῆναι καί σύμμορφον γενέσθαι με τῆς δόξης τοῦ Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ καί Θεοῦ;" Πρός οὕς εἰκότως ἀποφθέγξασθαι χρή καί εἰπεῖν· Ὦ οὗτοι, διατί μή τά σῴζοντα ὑμᾶς ἀλλά τά ἀπολλύοντα συλλογίζεσθε καί τά δυσνόητα τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς ἐκλεγόμενοι διαρπάζετε καί στρεβλοῦτε ταῦτα πρός ἀπώλειαν ὑμῶν ἐκλαμβάνεσθε; Οὐκ ἀκούετε καθ᾿ ἑκάστην τοῦ Σωτῆρος βοῶντος· "Ζῶ ἐγώ, ὅτι οὐ θελήσει θέλω τόν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ ὡς τό ἐπιστρέψαι καί ζῆν αὐτόν"; Οὐκ ἀκούετε αὐτοῦ λέγοντος· "Μετανοεῖτε· ἤγγικε γάρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν", καί πάλιν· "Ἀμήν λέγω ὑμῖν, χαρά γίνεται ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐπί ἑνί ἁμαρτωλῷ μετανοοῦντι"; Μή εἶπεν ἤ λέγει τισί μέν· "Μή μετανοεῖτε, οὐ γάρ προσδέξομαι ὑμᾶς", (115) τισί δέ οἱονεί τοῖς προωρισμένοις· "Ὑμεῖς δέ μετανοεῖτε, προέγνωκα γάρ ὑμᾶς"; Οὐδαμῶς, ἀλλά καθ᾿ ἡμέραν ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ καί ἐν πάσῃ βοᾷ ἐκκλησίᾳ· "∆εῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καί πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγώ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς". ∆εῦτε, φησίν, οἱ ἐν πολλαῖς ἁμαρτίαις βαρούμενοι πρός τόν αἴροντα τήν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου· δεῦτε οἱ διψῶντες πρός τήν ἀέναον πηγήν καί ἀθάνατον.