Chapter XXV.—Christ Thanks the Father for Revealing to Babes What He Had Concealed from the Wise. This Concealment Judiciously Effected by the Creator. Other Points in St. Luke’s Chap. X. Shown to Be Only Possible to the Creator’s Christ.

Who shall be invoked as the Lord of heaven, that does not first show Himself2144    Ostenditur. to have been the maker thereof? For He says, “I thank thee, (O Father,) and own Thee, Lord of heaven, because those things which had been hidden from the wise and prudent, Thou has revealed unto babes.”2145    Luke x. 21. What things are these? And whose?  And by whom hidden? And by whom revealed? If it was by Marcion’s god that they were hidden and revealed, it was an extremely iniquitous proceeding;2146    Satis inique. for nothing at all had he ever produced2147    Præmiserat. in which anything could have been hidden—no prophecies, no parables, no visions, no evidences2148    Argumenta. of things, or words, or names, obscured by allegories and figures, or cloudy enigmas, but he had concealed the greatness even of himself, which he was with all his might revealing by his Christ.  Now in what respect had the wise and prudent done wrong,2149    Deliquerant. that God should be hidden from them, when their wisdom and prudence had been insufficient to come to the knowledge of Him?  No way had been provided by himself,2150    On the Marcionite hypothesis. by any declaration of his works, or any vestiges whereby they might become2151    Deducerentur. wise and prudent. However, if they had even failed in any duty towards a god whom they knew not, suppose him now at last to be known still they ought not to have found a jealous god in him who is introduced as unlike the Creator.  Therefore, since he had neither provided any materials in which he could have hidden anything, nor had any offenders from whom he could have hidden himself: since, again, even if he had had any, he ought not to have hidden himself from them, he will not now be himself the revealer, who was not previously the concealer; so neither will any be the Lord of heaven nor the Father of Christ but He in whom all these attributes consistently meet.2152    In quem competunt omnia. For He conceals by His preparatory apparatus of prophetic obscurity, the understanding of which is open to faith (for “if ye will not believe, ye shall not understand”2153    Isa. vii. 9.); and He had offenders in those wise and prudent ones who would not seek after God, although He was to be discovered in His so many and mighty works,2154    Rom. i. 20–23. or who rashly philosophized about Him, and thereby furnished to heretics their arts;2155    Ingenia. and lastly, He is a jealous God.  Accordingly,2156    Denique. that which Christ thanks God for doing, He long ago2157    Olim. announced by Isaiah: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of the prudent will I hide.”2158    Isa. xxix. 14, Sept. So in another passage He intimates both that He has concealed, and that He will also reveal:  “I will give unto them treasures that have been hidden, and secret ones will I discover to them.”2159    Isa. xlv. 3, Sept. And again:  “Who else shall scatter the tokens of ventriloquists,2160    Ventriloquorum, Greek ἐγγαστριμύθων. and the devices of those who divine out of their own heart; turning wise men backward, and making their counsels foolish?”2161    Isa. xliv. 25, Sept. Now, if He has designated His Christ as an enlightener of the Gentiles, saying, “I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles;”2162    Isa. xlii. 6 and xlix. 6. and if we understand these to be meant in the word babes2163    Luke x. 21.—as having been once dwarfs in knowledge and infants in prudence, and even now also babes in their lowliness of faith—we shall of course more easily understand how He who had once hidden “these things,” and promised a revelation of them through Christ, was the same God as He who had now revealed them unto babes. Else, if it was Marcion’s god who revealed the things which had been formerly hidden by the Creator, it follows2164    Ergo. that he did the Creator’s work by setting forth His deeds.2165    Res ejus edisserens. But he did it, say you, for His destruction, that he might refute them.2166    Uti traduceret eas. Therefore he ought to have refuted them to those from whom the Creator had hidden them, even the wise and prudent. For if he had a kind intention in what he did, the gift of knowledge was due to those from whom the Creator had detained it, instead of the babes, to whom the Creator had grudged no gift. But after all, it is, I presume, the edification2167    Constructionem. rather than the demolition2168    Destructionem. of the law and the prophets which we have thus far found effected in Christ. “All things,” He says, “are delivered unto me of my Father.”2169    Luke x. 22. You may believe Him, if He is the Christ of the Creator to whom all things belong; because the Creator has not delivered to a Son who is less than Himself all things, which He created by2170    Per. Him, that is to say, by His Word. If, on the contrary, he is the notorious stranger,2171    ἐπερχόμενοςille; on which see above, chap. xxiii. p. 385. what are the “all things” which have been delivered to him by the Father? Are they the Creator’s? Then the things which the Father delivered to the Son are good, and the Creator is therefore good, since all His “things” are good; whereas he2172    Marcion’s god. is no longer good who has invaded another’s good (domains) to deliver it to his son, thus teaching robbery2173    Alieno abstinere. of another’s goods. Surely he must be a most mendacious being, who had no other means of enriching his son than by helping himself to another’s property!  Or else,2174    Aut si. if nothing of the Creator’s has been delivered to him by the Father, by what right2175    Ecquomodo. does he claim for himself (authority over) man?  Or again, if man has been delivered to him, and man alone, then man is not “all things.” But Scripture clearly says that a transfer of all things has been made to the Son. If, however, you should interpret this “all” of the whole human race, that is, all nations, then the delivery of even these to the Son is within the purpose of the Creator:2176    Creatoris est. “I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.”2177    Ps. ii. 8. If, indeed, he has some things of his own, the whole of which he might give to his son, along with the man of the Creator, then show some one thing of them all, as a sample, that I may believe; lest I should have as much reason not to believe that all things belong to him, of whom I see nothing, as I have ground for believing that even the things which I see not are His, to whom belongs the universe, which I see.  But “no man knoweth who the Father is, but the Son; and who the Son is, but the Father, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him.”2178    Luke x. 22. And so it was an unknown god that Christ preached! And other heretics, too, prop themselves up by this passage; alleging in opposition to it that the Creator was known to all, both to Israel by familiar intercourse, and to the Gentiles by nature. Well, how is it He Himself testifies that He was not known to Israel?  “But Israel doth not know me, and my people doth not consider me;”2179    Isa. i. 3. nor to the Gentiles: “For, behold,” says He, “of the nations I have no man.”2180    This passage it is not easy to identify. [See Is. lxiii. 3.] The books point to Isa. lxv. 5, but there is there no trace of it. Therefore He reckoned them “as the drop of a bucket,”2181    Isa. xl. 15. [Compare Is. lxiii. 3. Sept.] while “Sion He left as a look-out2182    Speculam. in a vineyard.”2183    When the vintage was gathered, Isa. i. 8. See, then, whether there be not here a confirmation of the prophet’s word, when he rebukes that ignorance of man toward God which continued to the days of the Son of man. For it was on this account that he inserted the clause that the Father is known by him to whom the Son has revealed Him, because it was even He who was announced as set by the Father to be a light to the Gentiles, who of course required to be enlightened concerning God, as well as to Israel, even by imparting to it a fuller knowledge of God. Arguments, therefore, will be of no use for belief in the rival god which may be suitable2184    Quæ competere possunt. for the Creator, because it is only such as are unfit for the Creator which will be able to advance belief in His rival.  If you look also into the next words, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things which ye see, for I tell you that prophets have not seen the things which ye see,”2185    Luke x. 23, 24. you will find that they follow from the sense above, that no man indeed had come to the knowledge of God as he ought to have done,2186    Ut decuit. since even the prophets had not seen the things which were being seen under Christ. Now if He had not been my Christ, He would not have made any mention of the prophets in this passage. For what was there to wonder at, if they had not seen the things of a god who had been unknown to them, and was only revealed a long time after them? What blessedness, however, could theirs have been, who were then seeing what others were naturally2187    Merito. unable to see, since it was of things which they had never predicted that they had not obtained the sight;2188    Repræsentationem. if it were not because they might justly2189    Æque. have seen the things pertaining to their God, which they had even predicted, but which they at the same time2190    Tamen. had not seen? This, however, will be the blessedness of others, even of such as were seeing the things which others had only foretold. We shall by and by show, nay, we have already shown, that in Christ those things were seen which had been foretold, but yet had been hidden from the very prophets who foretold them, in order that they might be hidden also from the wise and the prudent. In the true Gospel, a certain doctor of the law comes to the Lord and asks, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” In the heretical gospel life only is mentioned, without the attribute eternal; so that the lawyer seems to have consulted Christ simply about the life which the Creator in the law promises to prolong,2191    Ex. xx. 12 and Deut. vi. 2. and the Lord to have therefore answered him according to the law, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength,”2192    Luke x. 27. since the question was concerning the conditions of mere life. But the lawyer of course knew very well in what way the life which the law meant2193    Legalem. was to be obtained, so that his question could have had no relation to the life whose rules he was himself in the habit of teaching. But seeing that even the dead were now raised by Christ, and being himself excited to the hope of an eternal life by these examples of a restored2194    Recidivæ. one, he would lose no more time in merely looking on (at the wonderful things which had made him) so high in hope.2195    This is perhaps the meaning of “ne plus aliquid observationis exigeret sublimior spe.” He therefore consulted him about the attainment of eternal life. Accordingly, the Lord, being Himself the same,2196    Nec alius. and introducing no new precept other than that which relates above all others2197    Principaliter. to (man’s) entire salvation, even including the present and the future life,2198    Et utramque vitam. places before him2199    Ei opponit. the very essence2200    Caput. of the law—that he should in every possible way love the Lord his God. If, indeed, it were only about a lengthened life, such as is at the Creator’s disposal, that he inquired and Christ answered, and not about the eternal life, which is at the disposal of Marcion’s god, how is he to obtain the eternal one?  Surely not in the same manner as the prolonged life. For in proportion to the difference of the reward must be supposed to be also the diversity of the services. Therefore your disciple, Marcion,2201    Dei tui…Marcionites. will not obtain his eternal life in consequence of loving your God, in the same way as the man who loves the Creator will secure the lengthened life. But how happens it that, if He is to be loved who promises the prolonged life, He is not much more to be loved who offers the eternal life? Therefore both one and the other life will be at the disposal of one and the same Lord; because one and the same discipline is to be followed2202    Captanda. for one and the other life. What the Creator teaches to be loved, that must He necessarily maintain2203    Præstet. also by Christ,2204    i.e., he must needs have it taught and recommended by Christ. for that rule holds good here, which prescribes that greater things ought to be believed of Him who has first lesser proofs to show, than of him for whom no preceding smaller presumptions have secured a claim to be believed in things of higher import. It matters not2205    Viderit. then, whether the word eternal has been interpolated by us.2206    As Marcion pretended. It is enough for me, that the Christ who invited men to the eternal—not the lengthened—life, when consulted about the temporal life which he was destroying, did not choose to exhort the man rather to that eternal life which he was introducing.  Pray, what would the Creator’s Christ have done, if He who had made man for loving the Creator did not belong to the Creator? I suppose He would have said that the Creator was not to be loved!

CAPUT XXV.

0421C

Quis Dominus coeli invocabitur, qui non prius factor ostenditur? Gratias enim, inquit, ago et confiteor, Domine coeli, quod ea quae erant abscondita sapientibus et prudentibus, revelaveris parvulis. Quae ista? et cujus? et a quo abscondita? et a quo revelata? Si a Deo Marcionis abscondita et revelata, qui omnino nihil praemiserat, in quo aliquid absconditum esset potuisset, non prophetias, non parabolas, non visiones, non ulla rerum aut verborum, aut nominum argumenta, per allegorias et figuras, vel aenigmatum nebulas obumbrata; sed ipsam magnitudinem sui absconderat, quam cum maxime per Christum revelabat, satis inique. Quid enim deliquerant sapientes et prudentes, ut absconderetur illis Deus? ad quem cognoscendum 0421D non suffecerat sapientia atque prudentia illorum, nulla via data ab ipso per aliquam operum praedicationem; vel vestigia, per quae sapientes atque prudentes deducerentur. Quanquam et si in aliquo 0422A deliquissent erga Deum ignotum, pone tunc notum; non tamen zelotem eum experiri debuissent, qui dissimilis Creatoris inducitur. Igitur si nec materias praemiserat, a quibus aliquid occultasset; nec reos habuerat, a quibus occultasset; nec debuerat occultasse, etiam si habuisset; jam nec revelator ipse erit, qui absconditor non fuit: ita nec Dominus coeli, nec Pater Christi; sed ille, in quem competunt omnia. Nam et abscondit praemisso obscuritatis propheticae instrumento, cujus intellectum fides mereretur: Nisi enim (Is., VII, 9), credideritis, non intelligetis; et reos habuit (Rom. I) sapientes atque prudentes, ex ipsius operibus tot ac tantis intelligibilem Deum non requirentes, vel perperam in illum philosophantes, et ingenia haereticis subministrantes; et novissime, 0422B zelotes est. Denique olim hoc per Isaiam concionabatur, quod Christus gratulatur (Is., XXXIX, 14): Perdam sapientiam sapientium, et prudentiam prudentium celabo. Sicut et alibi (Is., XLV, 3) tam abscondisse, quam revelatum esse significat: Et dabo illis thesauros absconditos, invisibiles aperiam illis. Et rursus (Is., XLIV, 20): Quis alius disjiciet signa ventriloquorum, et divinationes ex corde; avertens in posteriora sapientes, et cogitationes eorum infatuans? Si autem et Christum suum illuminatorem nationum designavit (Is., XLII, 6): Posuit te in lucem nationum; quas intepretamur in nomine parvulorum, sensu scilicet retro parvas, et imprudentia infantes; jam vero et humilitate fidei pusillas: facilius utique credemus eumdem etiam parvulis revelasse per Christum, 0422C qui et retro absconderit, et per Christum revelaa Creatore abscondita retrofuerant, patefecit; ergo jam Creatori negotium gessit, res ejus edisserens. Sed in destructionem, inquis, uti traduceret eas: ergo illis traduxisse debuerat, quibus Creator abscondidit, tionem repromiserit. Aut si Deus Marcionis, ea quae sapientibus et prudentibus. Si enim benignitate faciebat, illis erat agnitio praestanda, quibus fuerat negata; non parvulis, quibus nihil Creator inviderat. Et tamen usque adhuc, puto, probamus extructionem potius Legis et Prophetarum inveniri in Christo, quam destructionem. Omnia sibi tradita dicit a Patre. Credas si Creatoris est Christus, cujus omnia; qui non minori se tradidit omnia Filio Creator, quae per eum condidit, per sermonem 0422D suum scilicet. Caeterum, si eperchomenos ἐπερχόμενος ille, quae sunt omnia quae illi a Patre sunt tradita? quae sunt Creatoris? Ergo bona sunt quae Pater Filio tradidit; et bonus jam Creator, 0423A cujus omnia bona sunt; et ille jam non bonus, qui in aliena bona invasit, ut Filio traderet, docens alieno abstinere. Certe mendicissimus, qui nec filium unde ditaret habuit, nisi de alieno. Aut si nihil de Creatoris traditum est ei a Patre, et quomodo hominem Creatoris sibi vindicat? Aut si solus homo ei traditus est; omnia homo non est. Scriptura autem omnium edicit traditionem Filio factam. Sed etsi omnia ad hominum genera, id est, ad omnes nationes interpretaberis, et has Filio tradidisse Creatoris est: (Ps. II, 8) Dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam terminos terrae. Aut si habet et ipse aliqua sua, quae omnia Filio traderet, pariter cum homine Creatoris, ostende unum aliquod ex omnibus, in fidem, in exemplum; ne tam merito non 0423B credam ejus esse omnia cujus nihil video, quam merito credam, etiam quae non ideo ejus esse, cujus sunt universa quae video. Sed (Matt. XI, 27): Nemo scit qui sit Pater nisi Filius; et qui sit Filius, nisi Pater, et cuicumque Filius revelaverit . Atque ita Christus ignotum Deum praedica vit. Hinc enim et alii haeretici fulciuntur, opponentes Creatorem omnibus notum, et Israeli, secundum familiaritatem, et nationibus secundum naturam. Et quomodo ipse testatur nec Israeli cognitum se (Is. I, 3): Israel autem me non cognovit, et populus me non intellexit? nec nationibus (Is. LXV, 5): Ecce enim nec de nationibus, inquit, nemo? Propter quod et illas stillicidium situlae deputavit, et Sionem tanquam speculam in vinea dereliquit (Is. LVXI, 15): Vide ergo an confirmatio 0423C sit propheticae vocis, exprobrantis ignorantiam in Deum humanam, quae fuerit ad Filium usque. Nam et ideo subtexuit, ab eo cognosci Patrem, cui Filius revelaverit (Is. XLII): quoniam ipse erat, qui positus a Patre illuminatio Nationum annuntiabatur, utique Deo illuminandarum etiam Israelis, utique per agnitionem Dei pleniorem. Ita non proficient argumenta in fidem Dei alterius, quae Creatori competere possunt; quia quae non competent Creatori, haec poterunt in fidem proficere Dei alterius. Si et sequentia inspicias: Beati oculi qui vident quae videtis: dico enim vobis, quia prophetae non viderunt quae vos videtis; de superiori sensu descendunt; adeo neminem, ut decuit, Deum cognovisse: quando nec prophetae vidissent quae sub Christo videbantur. Nam si non meus 0423D esset Christus, nec prophetarum hoc in loco mentionem collocasset. Quid enim mirum si non viderant res Dei ignoti, et tanto post aevo revelati? Quae autem fuisset felicitas eorum qui tunc videbant, quae alii 0424A merito vidisse non poterant, si non erant consecuti repraesentationem eorum quae nunquam praedicarant, nisi quoniam poterant vidisse, qui Dei sui res quas etiam praedicaverant, non tamen viderant? Haec autem felicitas erit aliorum, qui videbant, quae alii tantum praedicaverant. Denique ostendemus, et jam ostendimus, ea visa in Christo, quae fuerant praedicata; abscondita tamen et ab ipsis prophetis, ut absconderentur et a sapientibus et a prudentibus saeculi. In Evangelio veritatis, legis doctor Dominum aggressus: Quid faciens, inquit, vitam aeternam consequar? In haeretico vita solummodo posita est, sine aeternae mentione, ut doctor de ea vita videatur consuluisse, quae in lege promittitur a Creatore longaeva ; et Dominus ideo illi secundum legem responsum dedisse 0424B : Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et totis viribus tuis; quoniam de lege vitae sciscitabatur. Sed sciebat utique legis doctor, quo pacto vitam legalem consequi posset, ut non de ea interrogasset, cujus regulas etiam docebat. Sed quia et mortui jam suscitabantur a Christo, exsuscitatus ad spem aeternae vitae per exempla recidivae, ne plus aliquid observationis exigeret sublimior spes , idcirco consuluit de aeternae vitae consecutione. Itaque Dominus ut nec ipse alius, nec aliud novum inferens praeceptum, quam quod principaliter ad omnem salutem, et utramque vitam facit, ipsum caput ei legis opponit omnifariam diligendi Dominum Deum suum. Denique, si de vita longaeva et ille consuluit, et Christus respondit, quae sit penes Creatorem; 0424C non de aeterna, quae sit penes Marcionis Deum, quomodo consequitur aeternam? Non utique codem modo quo et longaevam. Pro differentia enim mercedum, operarum quoque credenda distantia est. Ergo non ex dilectione Dei tui consequetur vitam aeternam Marcionites, sicut longaevam dilector Creatoris. Sed quale est, ut non magis diligendus sit, qui aeternam pollicetur, si diligendus est qui longaevam repromittit? Ergo ejusdem erit utraque vita, cum eadem est utrique vitae captanda disciplina. Quod Creator docet, id et Christo opus est diligi , ut praestet, interveniente et hic illa praescriptione, qua facilius apud eum debeant credi majora apud quem minora praecedunt; quam apud eum cui nullam de majoribus fidem aliqua minora praeparaverunt. Viderit nunc si aeternam 0424D nostri addiderunt. Hoc mihi satis est, quod Christus ille aeternae, non longae vitae invitator, de longaeva consultus quam destruebat, non ad aeternam potius exhortatus est hominem, quam inferebat. 0425A Quid, oro te, fecisset Christus Creatoris, si qui Creatori diligendo aedificaverat hominem, non erat Creatoris? Credo negasset diligendum Creatorem.