Chapter XXXI.—Christ’s Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator’s Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. The Rejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament. Marcion’s Christ Could Not Fulfil the Conditions Indicated in This Parable.  The Absurdity of the Marcionite Interpretation.

What kind of persons does He bid should be invited to a dinner or a supper?2405    Luke xiv. 12–14. Precisely such as he had pointed out by Isaiah: “Deal thy bread to the hungry man; and the beggars—even such as have no home—bring in to thine house,”2406    Isa. lviii. 7. because, no doubt, they are “unable to recompense” your act of humanity. Now, since Christ forbids the recompense to be expected now, but promises it “at the resurrection,” this is the very plan2407    Forma. of the Creator, who dislikes those who love gifts and follow after reward. Consider also to which deity2408    Cui parti. is better suited the parable of him who issued invitations: “A certain man made a great supper, and bade many.”2409    Luke xiv. 16. The preparation for the supper is no doubt a figure of the abundant provision2410    Saturitatem. of eternal life. I first remark, that strangers, and persons unconnected by ties of relationship, are not usually invited to a supper; but that members of the household and family are more frequently the favoured guests. To the Creator, then, it belonged to give the invitation, to whom also appertained those who were to be invited—whether considered as men, through their descent from Adam, or as Jews, by reason of their fathers; not to him who possessed no claim to them either by nature or prerogative.  My next remark is,2411    Dehinc. if He issues the invitations who has prepared the supper, then, in this sense the supper is the Creator’s, who sent to warn the guests. These had been indeed previously invited by the fathers, but were to be admonished by the prophets. It certainly is not the feast of him who never sent a messenger to warn—who never did a thing before towards issuing an invitation, but came down himself on a sudden—only then2412    Tantum quod…jam. beginning to be known, when already2413    Tantum quod…jam. giving his invitation; only then inviting, when already compelling to his banquet; appointing one and the same hour both for the supper and the invitation. But when invited, they excuse themselves.2414    Luke xiv. 18. And fairly enough, if the invitation came from the other god, because it was so sudden; if, however, the excuse was not a fair one, then the invitation was not a sudden one. Now, if the invitation was not a sudden one, it must have been given by the Creator—even by Him of old time, whose call they had at last refused. They first refused it when they said to Aaron, “Make us gods, which shall go before us;”2415    Ex. xxxii. 1. and again, afterwards, when “they heard indeed with the ear, but did not understand”2416    Isa. vi. 10. their calling of God. In a manner most germane2417    Pertinentissime. to this parable, He said by Jeremiah:  “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and ye shall walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you.”2418    Jer. vii. 23. This is the invitation of God. “But,” says He, “they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear.”2419    Jer. vii. 24. This is the refusal of the people. “They departed, and walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart.”2420    Jer. xi. 8. “I have bought a field—and I have bought some oxen—and I have married a wife.”2421    Luke xiv. 18–20. And still He urges them: “I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early even before daylight.”2422    Jer. vii. 25; also xxv. 4, xxvi. 5, xxxv. 15, xliv. 4. The Holy Spirit is here meant, the admonisher of the guests. “Yet my people hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck.”2423    Jer. vii. 26. This was reported to the Master of the family. Then He was moved (He did well to be moved; for, as Marcion denies emotion to his god, He must be therefore my God), and commanded them to invite out of “the streets and lanes of the city.”2424    Luke xiv. 21. Let us see whether this is not the same in purport as His words by Jeremiah: “Have I been a wilderness to the house of Israel, or a land left uncultivated?”2425    Jer. ii. 31. That is to say: “Then have I none whom I may call to me; have I no place whence I may bring them?”  “Since my people have said, We will come no more unto thee.”2426    Jer. ii. 31. Therefore He sent out to call others, but from the same city.2427    Luke xiv. 23. My third remark is this,2428    Dehinc. that although the place abounded with people, He yet commanded that they gather men from the highways and the hedges. In other words, we are now gathered out of the Gentile strangers; with that jealous resentment, no doubt, which He expressed in Deuteronomy: “I will hide my face from them, and I will show them what shall happen in the last days2429    ἐπ᾽ ἐσχάτων ἡμερῶν, Septuagint. (how that others shall possess their place); for they are a froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy by that which is no god, and they have provoked me to anger with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people: I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation”2430    Deut. xxxii. 20, 21.—even with us, whose hope the Jews still entertain.2431    Gerunt: although vainly at present (“jam vana in Judæis”—Oehler); Semler conjectures “gemunt, bewail.” But this hope the Lord says they should not realize;2432    Gustaturos. “Sion being left as a cottage2433    Specula, “a look-out;” σκηνή is the word in LXX. in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,”2434    Isa. i. 8. since the nation rejected the latest invitation to Christ. (Now, I ask,) after going through all this course of the Creator’s dispensation and prophecies, what there is in it which can possibly be assigned to him who has done all his work at one hasty stroke,2435    Semel. and possesses neither the Creator’s2436    This is probably the meaning of a very involved sentence: “Quid ex hoc ordine secundum dispensationem et prædicationes Creatoris recensendo competit illi, cujus (“Creatoris”—Oehler) nec ordinem habet nec dispositionem ad parabolæ conspirationem qui totum opus semel facit?” course nor His dispensation in harmony with the parable? Or, again in what will consist his first invitation,2437    “By the fathers.” See above. and what his admonition2438    “By the prophets.” See also above. at the second stage? Some at first would surely decline; others afterwards must have accepted.”2439    An obscure sentence, which thus runs in the original: “Ante debent alii excusare, postea alii convenisse.” But now he comes to invite both parties promiscuously out of the city,2440    The Jews. out of the hedges,2441    The Gentiles. contrary to the drift2442    Speculum. of the parable. It is impossible for him now to condemn as scorners of his invitation2443    Fastidiosos. those whom he has never yet invited, and whom he is approaching with so much earnestness. If, however, he condemns them beforehand as about to reject his call, then beforehand he also predicts2444    Portendit. the election of the Gentiles in their stead.  Certainly2445    Plane: This is a Marcionite position (Oehler). he means to come the second time for the very purpose of preaching to the heathen. But even if he does mean to come again, I imagine it will not be with the intention of any longer inviting guests, but of giving to them their places.  Meanwhile, you who interpret the call to this supper as an invitation to a heavenly banquet of spiritual satiety and pleasure, must remember that the earthly promises also of wine and oil and corn, and even of the city, are equally employed by the Creator as figures of spiritual things.

CAPUT XXXI.

0437CAd prandium vel ad coenam quales vocari jubet? Quales ostenderat per Esaiam (Is., LVIII, 7): Confringe panem tuum esurienti, et mendicos, et qui sine tecto sunt, induc in domum tuam; qui scilicet humanitatis istius vicem retribuere non possint. Hanc si Christus captari vetat, in resurrectione eam repromittens, Creatoris est forma, cui non placent amantes munera, sectantes retributionem. Etiam invitatoris parabola cui magis parti occurrat, expende . Homo quidam fecit coenam, et vocavit multos. Utique coenae paratura vitae aeternae saturitatem figurat. Dico primo, extraneos et nullius juris affines invitari ad coenam non solere; certe facilius solere domesticos et familiares. Ergo Creatoris est invitasse, ad quem pertinebant qui invitabantur, et per Adam qua homines, et per Patres qua Judaici, non ejus ad quem neque natura pertinebant, neque praerogativa. Dehinc, si is mittit ad convivas, qui coenam paravit; sic quoque Creatoris est coena, qui misit ad convivas admonendos, ante jam vocatos per Patres, admonendos autem per Prophetas: non qui neminem miserit ad monendum, nec qui nihil prius egerit ad vocandum, sed ipse descenderit 0438A subito: tantum quod innotescens, jam invitans; tantum quod invitans, jam in convivium cogens; eamdem faciens horam coenandi, et ad coenam invitandi. Excusant se invitati. Si ab alio Deo, merito, quia subito invitati. Si non merito, ergo nec subito. Si autem non subito invitati; ergo a Creatore, a quo olim. Cujus denique declinaverant vocationem tunc primo dicentes ad Aaronem (Exod., XXXII, 1): Fac nobis deos, qui praeeant nobis; atque exinde (Is., VI, 10): Aure audientes et non audientes, vocationem scilicet Dei; qui pertinentissime ad hanc parabolam per Hieremiam (Jerem., XI, 40): Audite, inquit, vocem meam, et ero vobis in Dominum, et vos mihi in populum; et ibitis in omnibus viis meis quascumque mandavero vobis. Ecce invitatio Dei. Et non audierunt, inquit, 0438Bet non adverterunt aurem suam. Ecce recusatio populi. Sed abierunt in iis quae concupierunt corde suo malo. Agrum emi, et boves mercatus sum, et uxorem duxi. Et adhuc ingerit (Jerem., VII, 24): Et emisi ad vos omnes famulos meos Prophetas. Hic erit Spiritus Sanctus admonitor convivarum, die et ante lucem. Et non audiit populus meus, et non intendit auribus suis, et obduravit collum suum. Hoc ut patrifamilias renuntiatum est, motus tunc (bene quod et motus; negat enim Marcion moveri Deum suum, ita et hoc meus est), mandat de plateis et vicis civitatis facere sublectionem. Videamus an eo sensu quo rursus per Hieremiam (Jerem., II, 31): Numquid solitudo factus sum domui Israelis? aut terra in incultum derelicta? id est, Numquid non habeo quos allegam, aut unde 0438C allegam? Quoniam dixit populus meus, Non venimus ad te. Itaque misit ad alios vocandos, ex eadem adhuc civitate. Dehinc loco abundante, praecepit etiam de viis et sepibus colligi, id est, nos jam de extraneis gentibus; illa scilicet aemulatione, qua in Deuteronomio (Deut., XXXII, 20): Avertam faciem meam ab eis, et monstrabo quid illis in novissimis, id est alios possessuros locum eorum: quoniam genitura perversa est, filii in quibus fides non est. Illi obaemulati sunt me in non Deo, et provocaverunt in iram in idolis suis; et ego obaemulabor eos in non natione, in natione insipienti provocabo eos in iram; in nobis scilicet, quorum spem Judaei gerunt, de qua illos gustaturos negat Dominus: derelicta Sione (Is., I, 8) tanquam specula in vinea et in cucumerario casula, posteaquam 0438D et novissimam in Christo invitationem recusavit. Quid ex hoc ordine secundum dispositiones et praedicationes Creatoris recensendo competere potest illi, cujus nec ordinem habet, nec dispositionem ad parabolae conspirationem, qui totum opus semel fecit? Aut quae erit prima vocatio ejus, et quae secundo actu admonitio? Ante debent alii excusare, postea alii convenisse. 0439A Nunc autem pariter utramque partem invitare venit, de civitate, de sepibus, adversus speculum parabolae. Nec potest jam fastidiosos judicare, quos nunquam retro invitavit, quos cum maxime aggreditur. Aut si de futuro eos judicat contempturos vocationem; ergo et sublectionem loco eorum ex gentibus de futuro portendit. Plane ad hoc secundo venturus est ut gentibus praedicet. Et si venturus est autem, puto non quasi vocaturus adhuc convivas, sed jam collocaturus. Interea qui coenae istius vocationem in coeleste convivium interpretatis spiritalis saturitatis et jucunditatis, memento et terrenas promissiones vini et olei et frumenti, et ipsius civitatis, aeque in spiritalia figurari a Creatore.