{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">We speak, indeed, of the “wrath” of God. We do not,\r\nhowever, assert that it indicates any “passion” on His part,\r\nbut that it is something which is assumed in order to discipline\r\nby stern means those sinners who have committed many and\r\ngrievous sins. For that which is called God’s “wrath,” and\r\n“anger,” is a means of discipline; and that such a view is agreeable\r\nto Scripture, is evident from what is said in the sixth Psalm,\r\n“O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chasten me in\r\nThy hot displeasure;”<a id=\"r762\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f762\"><sup>[762]</sup></a> and also in Jeremiah, “O Lord, correct\r\nme, but with judgment: not in Thine anger, lest Thou bring\r\nme to nothing.”<a id=\"r763\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f763\"><sup>[763]</sup></a> Any one, moreover, who reads in the second\r\nbook of Kings of the “wrath” of God, inducing David to\r\nnumber the people, and finds from the first book of Chronicles\r\nthat it was the devil who suggested this measure, will, on comparing\r\ntogether the two statements, easily see for what purpose\r\nthe “wrath” is mentioned, of which “wrath,” as the Apostle\r\nPaul declares, all men are children: “We were by nature\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_238\">238</span>children of wrath, even as others.”<a id=\"r764\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f764\"><sup>[764]</sup></a> Moreover, that “wrath”\r\nis no passion on the part of God, but that each one brings it\r\nupon himself by his sins, will be clear from the further statement\r\nof Paul: “Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness,\r\nand forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the\r\ngoodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy\r\nhardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath\r\nagainst the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment\r\nof God.” How, then, can any one treasure up for himself\r\n“wrath” against a “day of wrath,” if “wrath” be understood in\r\nthe sense of “passion?” or how can the “passion of wrath” be\r\na help to discipline? Besides, the Scripture, which tells us not\r\nto be angry at all, and which says in the thirty-seventh Psalm,\r\n“Cease from anger, and forsake wrath,”<a id=\"r765\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f765\"><sup>[765]</sup></a> and which commands\r\nus by the mouth of Paul to “put off all these, anger, wrath,\r\nmalice, blasphemy, filthy communication,”<a id=\"r766\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f766\"><sup>[766]</sup></a> would not involve\r\nGod in the same passion from which it would have us to be\r\naltogether free. It is manifest, further, that the language used\r\nregarding the wrath of God is to be understood <i>figuratively</i> from\r\nwhat is related of His “sleep,” from which, as if awaking Him,\r\nthe prophet says: “Awake, why sleepest Thou, Lord?”<a id=\"r767\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f767\"><sup>[767]</sup></a> and\r\nagain: “Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a\r\nmighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.”<a id=\"r768\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f768\"><sup>[768]</sup></a> If, then, “sleep”\r\nmust mean something else, and not what the first acceptation of\r\nthe word conveys, why should not “wrath” also be understood\r\nin a similar way? The “threatenings,” again, are intimations\r\nof the [punishments] which are to befall the wicked: for it is\r\nas if one were to call the words of a physician “threats,”\r\nwhen he tells his patients, “I will have to use the knife, and\r\napply cauteries, if you do not obey my prescriptions, and\r\nregulate your diet and mode of life in such a way as I direct\r\nyou.” It is no human passions, then, which we ascribe to God,\r\nnor impious opinions which we entertain of Him; nor do we\r\nerr when we present the various narratives concerning Him,\r\ndrawn from the Scriptures themselves, after careful comparison\r\none with another. For those who are wise ambassadors of the\r\n“word” have no other object in view than to free as far as\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_239\">239</span>they can their hearers from weak opinions, and to endue them\r\nwith intelligence.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK IV.","Chapter LXXII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-293"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"bebf101465d63db5c9345996cc5248dc88a07770116903324b8ccbc68c354b90","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"JER","chapter":10,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Jer. x. 24","verse":24,"verse_end":24}],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f763","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 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f763","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f763\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r763\">763</a>. </span><abbr class=\"spell\">Cf.</abbr> <abbr title=\"Jeremiah\">Jer.</abbr> <abbr title=\"ten\">x.</abbr> 24.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f763","text_sha256":"e1bf1abff2289477474db7552079b3afbd2a58366377f7105db4b4fad03fcd26","verified":false,"work_id":null}