{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c005\">17. We asserted also, when investigating the subject of\r\nPharaoh, that sometimes a rapid cure is not for the advantage\r\nof those who are healed, if, after being seized by troublesome\r\ndiseases, they should easily get rid of those by which\r\nthey had been entangled. For, despising the evil as one that\r\nis easy of cure, and not being on their guard a second time\r\nagainst falling into it, they will be involved in it [again].\r\nWherefore, in the case of such persons, the everlasting God,\r\nthe Knower of secrets, who knows all things before they\r\nexist, in conformity with His goodness, delays sending them\r\nmore rapid assistance, and, so to speak, in helping them does\r\nnot help, the latter course being to their advantage. It is\r\nprobable, then, that those “without,” of whom we are speaking,\r\nhaving been foreseen by the Saviour, according to our\r\nsupposition, as not [likely] to prove steady in their conversion,<a id=\"r519\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f519\"><sup>[519]</sup></a>\r\nif they should hear more clearly the words that were\r\nspoken, were [so] treated by the Saviour as not to hear distinctly\r\nthe deeper [things of His teaching],<a id=\"r520\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f520\"><sup>[520]</sup></a> lest, after a rapid\r\nconversion, and after being healed by obtaining remission of\r\nsins, they should despise the wounds of their wickedness, as\r\nbeing slight and easy of healing, and should again speedily\r\nrelapse into them. And perhaps also, suffering punishment\r\nfor their former transgressions against virtue, which\r\nthey had committed when they had forsaken her, they had\r\nnot yet filled up the [full] time; in order that, being abandoned\r\nby the divine superintendence, and being filled<a id=\"r521\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f521\"><sup>[521]</sup></a> to\r\na greater degree by their own evils which they had sown,\r\nthey may afterwards be called to a more stable repentance;\r\nso as not to be quickly entangled again in those evils in\r\nwhich they had formerly been involved when they treated\r\nwith insolence the requirements of virtue, and devoted themselves\r\nto worse things. Those, then, who are said to be\r\n“without” (manifestly by comparison with those “within”),\r\nnot being very far from those “within,” while those “within”\r\nhear clearly, do themselves hear indistinctly, because they\r\nare addressed in parables; but nevertheless they do hear.\r\nOthers, again, of those “without,” who are called Tyrians,\r\nalthough it was foreknown that they would have repented\r\nlong ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, had the Saviour\r\ncome near their borders, do not hear even those words which\r\nare heard by those “without” (being, as is probable, very far\r\ninferior in merit to those “without”<a id=\"r522\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f522\"><sup>[522]</sup></a>), in order that at another\r\nseason, after it has been more tolerable for them than for\r\nthose who did not receive the word (among whom he mentioned\r\nalso the Tyrians), they may, on hearing the word at\r\na more appropriate time, obtain a more lasting repentance.\r\nBut observe whether, besides our desire to investigate [the\r\ntruth], we do not rather strive to maintain an attitude of\r\npiety in everything regarding God and His Christ,<a id=\"r523\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f523\"><sup>[523]</sup></a> seeing\r\nwe endeavour by every means to prove that, in matters so\r\ngreat and so peculiar regarding the varied providence of God,\r\nHe takes an oversight of the immortal soul. If, indeed, one\r\nwere to inquire regarding those things that are objected\r\nto, why those who saw wonders and who heard divine words\r\nare not benefited, while the Tyrians would have repented\r\nif such had been performed and spoken amongst them; and\r\nshould ask, and say, Why did the Saviour proclaim such\r\nto these persons, to their own hurt, that their sin might be\r\nreckoned to them as heavier? we must say, in answer to such\r\nan one, that He who understands the dispositions<a id=\"r524\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f524\"><sup>[524]</sup></a> of all those\r\nwho find fault with His providence—[alleging] that it is\r\nowing to it that they have not believed, because it did not\r\npermit them to see what it enabled others to behold, and did\r\nnot arrange for them to hear those words by which others,\r\non hearing them, were benefited—wishing to prove that their\r\ndefence is not founded on reason, He grants those advantages\r\nwhich those who blame His administration asked; in order\r\nthat, after obtaining them, they may notwithstanding be\r\nconvicted of the greatest impiety in not having even then\r\nyielded themselves to be benefited, and may cease from such\r\naudacity; and having been made free in respect to this very\r\npoint, may learn that God occasionally, in conferring benefits\r\nupon certain persons, delays and procrastinates, not conferring\r\nthe favour of seeing and hearing those things which,\r\nwhen seen and heard, would render the sin of those who did\r\nnot believe, after acts so great and peculiar, heavier and more\r\nserious.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK III.","FROM THE GREEK."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-230"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"b408262093ff0cde5373c7c160e0310aae120a3f44969b21a7c59f428db26bee","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f524","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":"f524","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f524\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r524\">524</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">διαθέσεις.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f524","text_sha256":"19e959ae7f1e02aeee9f0b91e7a9427e1257ad2dfc51bbff832e8bc079dff23c","verified":false,"work_id":null}