Chapter 27

§ 1.

As I have heard from a certain Presbyter, who had heard from those who had seen the Apostles,¹ and from their scholars:—that it is enough for the ancients to be reproved as they are by the Scriptures for what they did without counsel from the Spirit. For God being no respecter of persons, upon things not done to His pleasure, He brings such reproof² as is suitable. In the reign of David, e.g. when on the one hand he suffered persecution from Saul for righteousness’ sake, and was flying from King Saul, and avenged not himself on his enemy, and sang of Christ’s Advent, and taught the nations wisdom, and did all by the suggestion of the Spirit, he pleased God. But when for lust he took to his own self Bersheba Uriah’s wife, the Scripture hath said of him,³ But the thing which David did was evil in the eyes of the Lord: and Nathan the Prophet is sent unto him, shewing him his sin, that he passing sentence on himself, and judging himself, may find mercy and forgiveness from Christ.

And he said unto him,⁴ There were two men in one city, one rich and one poor: the rich had very many herds of oxen and sheep, and the poor none but one little ewe lamb, which he had and fed, and it had been with him and with his children as well; it eat of his own bread, and drank of his cup, and was to him as a daughter. And there came a traveller to the rich man; and he spared to take of the flock of his own ewe lambs and of the herds of his own oxen, and to dress it for the stranger: and he took the poor man’s lamb, and set it before the man who had come unto him. And David was very angry with that man: and he said unto Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man who did this is guilty of death; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this deed, and because he spared not the poor man. And Nathan said unto him, Thou art the man who didst this; and goes over the rest in order, upbraiding him, and reckoning up God’s favours towards him, and how he had provoked the Lord in having done this. For that such conduct pleases not God, rather great anger is hanging over his house.

And hereupon David was pricked to the heart, and said,⁵ I have sinned against the Lord, and afterwards he chanted the Psalm of confession, waiting for the coming of the Lord, who washes and cleanses the man who had been bound in sin.

And so it is also concerning Solomon, as long as he went on to judge rightly, and to declare wisdom, and was building the figure of the true Temple, and setting forth the glories of God, and announcing the peace which should come to the Gentiles, and prefiguring the Kingdom of Christ,⁶ and was speaking his three thousand parables on the coming of the Lord,⁷ and his five thousand songs, by way of hymn to God, and gathering accounts of God’s wisdom in the Creation, after the manner of a natural philosopher, from every tree, and from every herb, and from all fowls and quadrupeds, and fishes:—and he said, Will God indeed,⁸ whom the Heavens contain not, dwell on the earth with men? And he pleased God, and was admired by all, and all the Kings of the Earth sought his face, to hear his wisdom which God had given him, and the Queen of the South came to him from the ends of the Earth, to know the wisdom which was in him;—who also, as the Lord saith, will rise again in the judgment with the generation⁹ of those who hear His words and believe not in Him,¹⁰ and will pass sentence upon them: because, while she submitted herself to the wisdom declared by the servant of God, they despised that wisdom which was given by the Son of God. For Solomon was a servant, but Christ the Son of God, and the Lord of Solomon. Well then: as long as he served God without offence, and ministered to His purposes, so long he was glorified: but when he took wives of all nations, and permitted them to set up idols in Israel,¹¹ the Scripture hath said of him, And King Solomon was a lover of women,¹² and took to himself foreign wives: and it came to pass in the time of Solomon’s old age, that his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God. And the strange women turned aside his heart after strange gods. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord:¹³ he went not after the Lord as did David his father.¹⁴ And the Lord was angry with Solomon: for his heart was not perfect in the Lord as the heart of David his father. The rebuke laid on him by Scripture was sufficient, as that Presbyter affirmed, that no flesh might glory before the Lord.

§ 2.

And therefore, he said, the Lord descended to the parts under the earth, announcing to them also the good news of His coming; there being remission of sins for such as believe in Him. And those all believed in Him, who were hoping for Him: i.e., who foretold His coming and ministered to His purposes, righteous men and Prophets and Patriarchs: whose sins He forgave, even as He did us, neither ought we to impute the same unto them, if there be any who despised the grace of God more than we do. For as they did not use to charge us with our irregularities, wrought before Christ was manifested in us; so neither is it just for us to charge the like, before the coming of Christ, on such as sinned. For all men need the glory of God,¹⁵ and are justified not of themselves, but by the coming of the Lord:—those I mean who look steadily on His Light.

And their deeds,¹⁶ he said, were written for our admonition: to teach us, first of all, that our God and theirs is One;—whom sins please not, though wrought by renowned persons:—and next that we should abstain from evils. For if those elders who went before us in God’s special graces, for whom the Son of God had not yet suffered, were visited with such disgrace, if they transgressed in some one thing, and became slaves to fleshly concupiscence; what shall this generation suffer, as many as have despised the coming of the Lord, and turned utter slaves to their own pleasures?

And they indeed had our Lord’s death for the healing and remission of their sins: but for those who now sin,¹⁷ Christ shall no more die, for death shall no more have dominion over Him; but the Son shall come in the glory of the Father,¹⁸ exacting from His agents and stewards the money which He lent them, with usury: and to whom He gave most,¹⁹ of him will He require most.

We ought not therefore, said that Elder, to be proud, nor to reproach the ancients, but ourselves to fear, lest haply, after the knowledge of Christ, if we do anything which pleases not God, we no longer have remission of our sins, but find ourselves shut out of His Kingdom.²⁰ And to this he referred Paul’s saying, For if He spared not the natural branches, lest haply He spare not either thee,²¹ who being a wild olive tree, wast grafted into the fatness of the olive, and made partner in the fatness thereof.

§ 3.

In like manner again the transgressions of the people, you see, are written down, not for their sake who did then transgress, but for our rebuke, and that we might know that it is one and the same God, against whom they sinned, and against whom sin even now certain of those who say they have believed. And this again, he said, the Apostle did most clearly point out, saying in the Epistle to the Corinthians,²² For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our Fathers were all under the cloud, and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; all did eat the same spiritual meat, and all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock which attended on them, and the Rock was Christ. But with the greater part of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. These things were for a figure of us, that we should not be lusters after evil things, as they also lusted: neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them: as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and perished by the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them in figure; and they were written for our admonition, on whom the end of the ages²³ hath come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

§ 4.

Whereas therefore the Apostle declares, in a way which admits not of doubt or gainsaying, that it is one and the same God, who both judged the things which then were, and searches out those which now are, and since he tells us the purpose of their being set down: unlearned and daring and senseless withal are all those proved to be, who take occasion from the sin of them of old time, and the disobedience of the greater part of them, to affirm that their God (who is also the Maker of the world, and is in decay) is a different Being from the Father taught by Christ, and that it is this latter who is mentally received by every one of them. Because they consider not, that as in that case God was not well pleased with the greater part of them, being sinners,²⁴ so also in this case many are called but few chosen: as among them the unjust and idolaters and fornicators lost their life, so also among us. For both the Lord proclaims that such are sent into the eternal fire,²⁵ and the Apostle saith, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor such as defile themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall possess the Kingdom of God.

And in proof that he said this not to those who are without, but to us, lest we be cast out of the Kingdom of God, for doing some such thing, he hath subjoined, And these things ye indeed were:²⁶ but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

And as in that case those were condemned and cast out,²⁷ who did evil, and led the rest astray, so in this case also the very eye is dug out which gives offence, and the foot, and the hand, that the rest of the body perish not alike.²⁸ And we have it ordained, If any is named a brother who is a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a calumniator, or drunken, or an extortioner, with such an one not even to take food. And again the Apostle saith,²⁹ Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of unbelief. Be not ye then partakers in them.

And as then the condemnation of them that sinned imparted itself also to the rest, in that they were pleased with them, and they held converse together: so here also a little leaven corrupteth the whole mass.³⁰

And as there God’s anger came down against the unrighteous, here also saith the Apostle in like manner,³¹ For the Wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven upon all the impiety and unrighteousness of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

And as there upon the Egyptians, who were punishing Israel unjustly, vengeance from God took place, so here also; since both the Lord saith,³² And shall not God avenge His own elect, whosoever cry unto Him day and night? Yea I say unto you, He will avenge them speedily:—and the Apostle in the Epistle to the Thessalonians declares as follows:³³ Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay recompence to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with us, in the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven with the Angels of His Might, and in a flame of fire, to take vengeance on those who know not God, and on those who obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who also will pay eternal penalties of destruction from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His Power, when He shall have come to be magnified in His Saints, and to be admirable in all who have believed in Him.