{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030430.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030430.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030430.htm","text":"p. 401 Chapter XXXI.\u2014Christ\u2019s Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator\u2019s Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. The Rejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament. Marcion\u2019s Christ Could Not Fulfil the Conditions Indicated in This Parable. The Absurdity of the Marcionite Interpretation.\nWhat kind of persons does He bid should be invited to a dinner or a supper? 4726 Precisely such as he had pointed out by Isaiah: \u201cDeal thy bread to the hungry man; and the beggars\u2014even such as have no home\u2014bring in to thine house,\u201d 4727 because, no doubt, they are \u201cunable to recompense\u201d your act of humanity. Now, since Christ forbids the recompense to be expected now, but promises it \u201cat the resurrection,\u201d this is the very plan 4728 of the Creator, who dislikes those who love gifts and follow after reward. Consider also to which deity 4729 is better suited the parable of him who issued invitations: \u201cA certain man made a great supper, and bade many.\u201d 4730 The preparation for the supper is no doubt a figure of the abundant provision 4731 of eternal life. I first remark, that strangers, and persons unconnected by ties of relationship, are not usually invited to a supper; but that members of the household and family are more frequently the favoured guests. To the Creator, then, it belonged to give the invitation, to whom also appertained those who were to be invited\u2014whether considered as men, through their descent from Adam, or as Jews, by reason of their fathers; not to him who possessed no claim to them either by nature or prerogative. My next remark is, 4732 if He issues the invitations who has prepared the supper, then, in this sense the supper is the Creator\u2019s, who sent to warn the guests. These had been indeed previously invited by the fathers, but were to be admonished by the prophets. It certainly is not the feast of him who never sent a messenger to warn\u2014who never did a thing before towards issuing an invitation, but came down himself on a sudden\u2014only then 4733 beginning to be known, when already 4734 giving his invitation; only then inviting, when already compelling to his banquet; appointing one and the same hour both for the supper and the invitation. But when invited, they excuse themselves. 4735 And fairly enough, if the invitation came from the other god, because it was so sudden; if, however, the excuse was not a fair one, then the invitation was not a sudden one. Now, if the invitation was not a sudden one, it must have been given by the Creator\u2014even by Him of old time, whose call they had at last refused. They first refused it when they said to Aaron, \u201cMake us gods, which shall go before us;\u201d 4736 and again, afterwards, when \u201cthey heard indeed with the ear, but did not understand\u201d 4737 their calling of God. In a manner most germane 4738 to this parable, He said by Jeremiah: \u201cObey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and ye shall walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you.\u201d 4739 This is the invitation of God. \u201cBut,\u201d says He, \u201cthey hearkened not, nor inclined their ear.\u201d 4740 This is the refusal of the people. \u201cThey departed, and walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart.\u201d 4741 \u201cI have bought a field\u2014and I have bought some oxen\u2014and I have married a wife.\u201d 4742 And still He urges them: \u201cI have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early even before daylight.\u201d 4743 The Holy Spirit is here meant, the admonisher of the guests. \u201cYet my people hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck.\u201d 4744 This was reported to the Master of the family. Then He was moved (He did well to be moved; for, as Marcion denies emotion to his god, He must be therefore my God), and commanded them to invite out of \u201cthe streets and lanes of the city.\u201d 4745 Let us see whether this is not the same in purport as His words by Jeremiah: \u201cHave I been a wilderness to the house of Israel, or a land left uncultivated?\u201d 4746 That is to say: \u201cThen have I none whom I may call to me; have I no place whence I may bring them?\u201d \u201cSince my people have said, We will come no more unto thee.\u201d 4747 Therefore He sent out to call others, but from the same city. 4748 My third remark is this, 4749 that although the place abounded with people, He yet commanded that they gather men from the highways and the hedges. In other words, we are now gathered out of the p. 402 Gentile strangers; with that jealous resentment, no doubt, which He expressed in Deuteronomy: \u201cI will hide my face from them, and I will show them what shall happen in the last days 4750 (how that others shall possess their place); for they are a froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy by that which is no god, and they have provoked me to anger with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people: I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation\u201d 4751 \u2014even with us, whose hope the Jews still entertain. 4752 But this hope the Lord says they should not realize; 4753 \u201cSion being left as a cottage 4754 in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,\u201d 4755 since the nation rejected the latest invitation to Christ. (Now, I ask,) after going through all this course of the Creator\u2019s dispensation and prophecies, what there is in it which can possibly be assigned to him who has done all his work at one hasty stroke, 4756 and possesses neither the Creator\u2019s 4757 course nor His dispensation in harmony with the parable? Or, again in what will consist his first invitation, 4758 and what his admonition 4759 at the second stage? Some at first would surely decline; others afterwards must have accepted.\u201d 4760 But now he comes to invite both parties promiscuously out of the city, 4761 out of the hedges, 4762 contrary to the drift 4763 of the parable. It is impossible for him now to condemn as scorners of his invitation 4764 those whom he has never yet invited, and whom he is approaching with so much earnestness. If, however, he condemns them beforehand as about to reject his call, then beforehand he also predicts 4765 the election of the Gentiles in their stead. Certainly 4766 he means to come the second time for the very purpose of preaching to the heathen. But even if he does mean to come again, I imagine it will not be with the intention of any longer inviting guests, but of giving to them their places. Meanwhile, you who interpret the call to this supper as an invitation to a heavenly banquet of spiritual satiety and pleasure, must remember that the earthly promises also of wine and oil and corn, and even of the city, are equally employed by the Creator as figures of spiritual things.\nJer. 7:25, Jer. 25:4, Jer. 26:5, Jer. 35:15, Jer. 44:4.\n401:4744 401:4745 401:4746 401:4747 401:4748 401:4749 402:4750\n\u1f10\u03c0\u1fbd \u1f10\u03c3\u03c7\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u1f21\u03bc\u03b5\u03c1\u1ff6\u03bd, Septuagint.\n402:4751 402:4752\nGerunt: although vainly at present (\u201cjam vana in Jud\u00e6is\u201d\u2014Oehler); Semler conjectures \u201cgemunt, bewail.\u201d\n402:4753 402:4754\nSpecula, \u201ca look-out;\u201d \u03c3\u03ba\u03b7\u03bd\u03ae is the word in LXX.\n402:4755 402:4756 402:4757\nThis is probably the meaning of a very involved sentence: \u201cQuid ex hoc ordine secundum dispensationem et pr\u00e6dicationes Creatoris recensendo competit illi, cujus (\u201cCreatoris\u201d\u2014Oehler) nec ordinem habet nec dispositionem ad parabol\u00e6 conspirationem qui totum opus semel facit?\u201d\n402:4758 402:4759\n\u201cBy the prophets.\u201d See also above.\n402:4760\nAn obscure sentence, which thus runs in the original: \u201cAnte debent alii excusare, postea alii convenisse.\u201d\n402:4761 402:4762 402:4763 402:4764 402:4765 402:4766\nPlane: This is a Marcionite position (Oehler).","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: Christ...","type":"page"}