{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">3. And now, what we have drawn from the authority\r\nof Scripture ought to be sufficient to refute the arguments\r\nof the heretics. It will not, however, appear improper if we\r\ndiscuss the matter with them shortly, on the grounds of reason\r\nitself. We ask them, then, if they know what is regarded\r\namong men as the ground of virtue and wickedness, and if it\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_101\">101</span>appears to follow that we can speak of virtues in God, or, as\r\nthey think, in these two Gods. Let them give an answer\r\nalso to the question, whether they consider goodness to be a\r\nvirtue; and as they will undoubtedly admit it to be so, what\r\nwill they say of injustice? They will never certainly, in my\r\nopinion, be so foolish as to deny that justice is a virtue. Accordingly,\r\nif virtue is a blessing, and justice is a virtue, then\r\nwithout doubt justice is goodness. But if they say that\r\njustice is not a blessing, it must either be an evil or an indifferent\r\nthing. Now I think it folly to return any answer\r\nto those who say that justice is an evil, for I shall have the\r\nappearance of replying either to senseless words, or to men\r\nout of their minds. How can that appear an evil which is\r\nable to reward the good with blessings, as they themselves\r\nalso admit? But if they say that it is a thing of indifference,\r\nit follows that since justice is so, sobriety also, and prudence,\r\nand all the other virtues, are things of indifference. And\r\nwhat answer shall we make to Paul, when he says, “If there\r\nbe any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things,\r\nwhich ye have learned, and received, and heard, and seen in\r\nme?”<a id=\"r206\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f206\"><sup>[206]</sup></a> Let them learn, therefore, by searching the holy\r\nScriptures, what are the individual virtues, and not deceive\r\nthemselves by saying that that God who rewards every one\r\naccording to his merits, does, through hatred of evil, recompense\r\nthe wicked with evil, and not because those who have\r\nsinned need to be treated with severer remedies, and because\r\nHe applies to them those measures which, with the prospect\r\nof improvement, seem nevertheless, for the present, to produce\r\na feeling of pain. They do not read what is written\r\nrespecting the hope of those who were destroyed in the deluge;\r\nof which hope Peter himself thus speaks in his first epistle:\r\n“That Christ, indeed, was put to death in the flesh, but\r\nquickened by the Spirit, by which He went and preached to\r\nthe spirits who were kept in prison, who once were unbelievers,\r\nwhen they awaited the long-suffering of God in the days of\r\nNoah, when the ark was preparing, in which a few, <i>i.e.</i> eight\r\nsouls, were saved by water. Whereunto also baptism by a\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_102\">102</span>like figure now saves you.”<a id=\"r207\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f207\"><sup>[207]</sup></a> And with regard to Sodom and\r\nGomorrha, let them tell us whether they believe the prophetic\r\nwords to be those of the Creator God—of Him, viz.,\r\nwho is related to have rained upon them a shower of fire and\r\nbrimstone. What does Ezekiel the prophet say of them?\r\n“Sodom,” he says, “shall be restored to her former condition.”<a id=\"r208\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f208\"><sup>[208]</sup></a>\r\nBut why, in afflicting those who are deserving of\r\npunishment, does He not afflict them for their good?—who\r\nalso says to Chaldea, “Thou hast coals of fire, sit upon them;\r\nthey will be a help to thee.”<a id=\"r209\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f209\"><sup>[209]</sup></a> And of those also who fell in\r\nthe desert, let them hear what is related in the seventy-eighth\r\nPsalm, which bears the superscription of Asaph; for he\r\nsays, “When He slew them, then they sought Him.”<a id=\"r210\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f210\"><sup>[210]</sup></a> He\r\ndoes not say that some sought Him after others had been\r\nslain, but he says that the destruction of those who were\r\nkilled was of such a nature that, when put to death, they\r\nsought God. By all which it is established, that the God of\r\nthe law and the Gospels is one and the same, a just and good\r\nGod, and that He confers benefits justly, and punishes with\r\nkindness; since neither goodness without justice, nor justice\r\nwithout goodness, can display the [real] dignity of the divine\r\nnature.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK II.","CHAPTER V. ON JUSTICE AND GOODNESS."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-149"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"65f29c8ed2dcdf97061b7328bd838ed3f144a4479c174f7dd09b1cb3fc614935","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"EZK","chapter":16,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ezek. xvi. 55","verse":55,"verse_end":55}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f208","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1869 English translation; translator died 1889. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f208","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f208\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r208\">208</a>. </span><abbr title=\"Ezekiel\">Ezek.</abbr> <abbr title=\"sixteen\">xvi.</abbr> 55, <abbr class=\"spell\">cf.</abbr> 53.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f208","text_sha256":"4d37350b3a3d4bfa13f74fc4c2b30909b26e7a91233d531cf46c9dde423140fa","verified":false,"work_id":null}