it may make them better, yet it also calls those who are much better than these, since the Christ is the Saviour of all men, and specially of such as believe, whether prudent or simple.

The true ground of Old Testament Inspiration. In this our Demonstration in brief of the divinity of 5 Jesus, and in our use of the words of the Prophets concerning Him, we are making simultaneous demonstration of the inspiration of those scriptures which prophesy about Him, and proving the literature which proclaims His coming to be an utterance of full power and authority, 10 which for that reason has laid firm hold of the elect of the Gentiles. Indeed, we may say that the inspired character of the prophetic writings and the spirituality of the law of Moses shone out when Jesus came. Clear proofs of the inspiration of the Old Testament could not well be given 15 before the Christ had come. Till then the law and the prophets were open to a suspicion of not being truly divine: it was the coming of Jesus that set them in a plain light as records made by the grace of heaven. He who with diligent attention reads the words of the prophets 20 will from his very reading experience a trace and vestige of inspiration in himself, and this personal experience will convince him that those are no compilations of men, which we are firmly persuaded are the words of God. The light, too, that was always there in the Mosaic law, though 25 covered with a vail, shone out simultaneously with the coming of Jesus, when the vail was taken away and the good things came little by little into view, those good things whose shadow was found in the letter.

R.

The Parabolic Element in Scripture Narratives.

What intelligent person would fancy, for instance, that 30 a first, second, and third day, evening and morning, took

γονέναι και σελήνης και αστέρων και την δε οιονεί πρώτην και χωρίς ουρανού και τις δ' ούτως ηλίθιος ως οιηθήναι τρόπον ανθρώπου γεωργου τον θεόν πεφυτευκέναι παράδεισον εν 'Εδέμ κατά ανατολάς, και ξύλον ζωής εν αυτώ και πεποιηκέναι ορατών και αισθητόν, ώστε διά των σωματικων οδόντων γευσάμενον του καρπού το ζην αναλαμβάνειν και πάλιν καλού και πονηρού μετέχειν τινά παρά το μεμασήσθαι το από τούδε του ξύλου λαμβανόμενον ; εάν

δε και θεός το δειλινόν εν τω παραδείσω περιπατείν το λέγηται, και ο Αδάμ υπό το ξύλον κρύπτεσθαι" ουκ οίμαι

διστάξειν τινά περί του αυτή τροπικώς διά δοκούσης ιστορίας και ου σωματικώς γεγενημένης, μηνύειν τινά μυστήρια, αλλά και Κάιν εξερχόμενος από προσώπου

. του θεου σαφώς τους επιστήσασι φαίνεται κινείν τον 15 εντυγχάνοντα ζητείν πρόσωπον θεού και εξέρχεσθαί τινα

απ' αυτού, και τι δεί πλείω λέγειν, των μη πάνυ αμβλέων μυρία όσα τοιαύτα δυναμένων συναγαγείν, αναγεγραμμένα μεν ως γεγονότα, ου γεγενημένα δε κατά την

λέξιν, αλλά και τα ευαγγέλια δε του αυτού είδους των 2ο λόγων πεπλήρωται εις υψηλών όρος τον Ιησούν ανα

βιβάζοντος του διαβόλου, ίν' εκείθεν αυτώ δείξη του παντός κόσμου τας βασιλείας και την δόξαν αυτών. τίς γάρ ουκ άν των μη παρέργως αναγινωσκόντων τα τοιαύτα

καταγινώσκοι των οίομένων τω της σαρκός οφθαλμώ, 25 δεηθέντι ύψους υπέρ του κατανοηθήναι δύνασθαι τα κατω

τέρω και υποκείμενα, έωράσθαι την Περσών και Σκυθών και Ινδών και Παρθυαίων βασιλείαν, και ως δοξάζονται παρά ανθρώποις οι βασιλεύοντες και παραπλησίως δε τού

τους και άλλα μυρία από των ευαγγελίων ένεστι τον 30 ακριβούντα τηρήσαι, υπέρ του συγκαταθέσθαι συνυφαί

νεσθαι ταϊς κατά το ρητόν γεγενημέναις ιστορίαις έτερα μη συμβεβηκότα,

Id. De Principiis, iv. 16 = Philoc. p. 24.

place without sun, moon, and stars; and the first, as we call it, without even a heaven? Who would be so childish as to suppose that God after the manner of a human gardener planted a garden in Eden towards the east, and made therein a tree, visible and sensible, so that one could 5 get the power of living by the bodily eating of its fruit with the teeth; or again, could partake of good and evil by feeding on what came from that other tree? If God is said to walk at eventide in the garden, and Adam to hide himself under the tree, I fancy that no one will 10 question that these statements are figurative, declaring mysterious truths by the means of a seeming history, not one that took place in a bodily form. And Cain's going forth from the presence of God, as is plain and clear to attentive minds, stirs the reader to look for the meaning 15 of the presence of God, and of any one's going forth from it. What need of more, when all but the dullest eyes can gather innumerable instances, in which things are recorded as having happened which did not take place in the literal sense ? Nay, even the Gospels are full of sayings of the 20 same class : as when the devil takes Jesus up into a high mountain, to show him from thence the kingdoms of the whole world and the glory of them. Who but a careless reader of such words would fail to condemn those who think that by the eye of flesh, which needed a height 25 to bring into view what lay far down beneath, the kingdoms of Persians, and Scythians, and Indians, and Parthians, were seen, and the glory men give to their rulers ? Countless cases such as this the accurate reader is able to observe, to make him agree that with the histories which 30 literally took place other things are interwoven which did not actually happen.

LII. Ούκούν εγκαταλείπεται θεία κρίσει και εγκαταλειπόμενος, και μακροθυμεί επί τινας των αμαρτανόντων ο Θεός ουκ αλόγως, αλλ' ως αυτοίς συνοίσοντας ως προς την

αθανασίαν της ψυχής και τον άπειρον αιώνα του μη ταχύ 5 συνεργηθήναι εις σωτηρίαν, αλλά βράδιον επί ταύτην άχ

θηναι μετά το πειραθήναι πολλών κακών. ώσπερ γάρ τινα και ιατροί δυνάμενοι τάχιον ιάσασθαι, όταν έγκεκρυμμένον τον υπονοώσιν υπάρχειν περί τα σώματα, το εναντίον

το ιάσασθαι εργάζονται, διά το ιάσθαι βούλεσθαι ασφαλέτο στερον τούτο ποιoύντες" ηγούμενοι κρείττον είναι πολλά

χρόνο παρακατασχειν τινα εν τω φλεγμαίνειν και κάμνειν υπέρ του βεβαιότερον αυτόν την υγείαν απολαβείν, ήπερ τάχιον μεν ρωσαι δοκείν ύστερον δε αναδύναι και πρόσ

καιρον γενέσθαι την ταχυτέραν ίασιν τον αυτόν τρόπον 15 και ο Θεός, γινώσκων τα κρύφια της καρδίας και προ

γινώσκων τα μέλλοντα, διά της μακροθυμίας επιτρέπει τάχα και διά τών έξωθεν συμβαινόντων εφελκόμενος το έν κρυπτώ κακόν, υπέρ του καθαραι τον δι' αμέλειαν τα

σπέρματα της αμαρτίας κεχωρηκότα, ίνα είς επιπολήν 20 ελθόντα αυτά τις εμέσας, ει και επί πλείον εν κακοίς

γεγένηται, ύστερον δυνηθή καθαρσίου τυχών του μετά την κακίαν αναστοιχειωθήναι. Θεός γάρ οικονομεί τας ψυχάς ούχ ως προς την φέρ' ειπείν πεντηκονταετίαν

της ενθάδε ζωής, αλλ' ως προς τον απέραντον αιώνα 25 άφθαρτον γάρ φύσιν πεποίηκε την νοεράν και αυτό

συγγενή, και ουκ αποκλείεται ώσπερ επί της ενταύθα ζωής η λογική ψυχή της θεραπείας.

ID. De Principiis, iii. 13.

a

The Method of God's dealing with Sinners. He therefore that is left is left to the divine judgement; and God is long-suffering towards certain sinners, not unreasonably, but with intent to profit them, with a view to the immortality of the soul and the unending age, that they be not quickly brought into salvation, but led to it 5 more slowly, after they have had trial of many evils. For even as physicians (though able to heal a man more quickly), when they suspect that there is hidden poison anywhere in the body, do the reverse of healing, and this they do because they wish to heal the more surely; 10 counting it better to keep a man for a long time in inflammation and sickness that he may the more certainly recover his health, than that he should seem to gain strength more quickly and afterward fall back again, so that the quicker healing is but for a time; in the same 15 way God also, knowing the secret things of the heart and foreknowing the things to come, through His long-suffering permits (sins], peradventure by means of outside events drawing together the evil that is in secret, for the sake of cleansing him who by reason of carelessness has received 20 the seeds of sin, to the end that when they have come to the surface a man may spue them out, and even if he have been deep in wickednesses, may afterward be able to obtain cleansing after his wickedness and be renewed. For God disposes souls not as for say the fifty years of life on earth, 25 but as for the unending age ; for He has made the intelligent nature incorruptible and akin to Himself, and the rational soul is not shut out from cure as in this present life.