{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/203/2030780.htm","path":"chr/ecf/203/2030780.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/203/2030780.htm","text":"\u201cThis is a great spear with which the devil is pierced, he, \u2018who is the universal cause of sin,\u2019 if he is to render account of his works, like a man, and \u2018with his angels possess the inheritance of eternal fires.\u2019 This, no doubt, was what was lacking to him, that, having brought mankind into torment, he should himself \u2018possess the eternal fires\u2019 which he had all the while been longing for.\u201d\nYou seem to me here to speak a little too hardly of the devil, and to assail the accuser of all with false accusations. You say \u2018he p. 504 is the universal cause of sin;\u2019 and, while you make him the author of all crimes, you free men from fault, and take away the freedom of the will. Our Lord says that 3091 \u2018from our heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, railings,\u2019 and of Judas we read in the Gospel; 3092 \u201cAfter the sop Satan entered into him,\u201d that is, because he had before the sop sinned voluntarily, and had not been brought to repentance either by humbling himself or by the forbearance of the Saviour. So also the Apostle says; 3093 \u201cSuch men I delivered to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.\u201d He delivered to Satan as to a torturer, with a view to their punishment, those who, before they had been delivered to him learned to blaspheme by their own will. David also draws the distinction in a few words between the faults due to his own will and the incentives of vice when he says 3094 \u201cCleanse thou me from my secret faults, and keep back thy servant from alien sins.\u201d We read also in Ecclesiastes 3095 \u201cIf the spirit of a ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place;\u201d from which we may clearly see that we commit sin if we give opportunity to the power which rises up, and if we fail to hurl down headlong the enemy who is scaling our walls. As to your threatening your brothers, that is, those who accuse you, with eternal fire in company with the devil, it seems to me that you do not so much drag your brethren down as raise the devil up, since he, according to you, is to be punished only with the same fires as Christian men. But you well know, I think, what eternal fires mean according to the ideas of Origen, namely, the sinners\u2019 conscience, and the remorse which galls their hearts within. These ideas he thinks are intended in the words of Isaiah: 3096 \u201cTheir worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched.\u201d And in the words addressed to Babylon: 3097 \u201cThou hast coals of fire, thou shalt sit upon them, these shall be thy help.\u201d So also in the Psalm it is said to the penitent; 3098 \u201cWhat shall be given to thee, or what shall be done more for thee against the false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with desolating coals;\u201d which means (according to him) that the arrows of God\u2019s precepts (concerning which the Prophet says in another place, 3099 \u201cI lived in misery while a thorn pierces me\u201d) should wound and strike through the crafty tongue, and make an end of sins in it. He also interprets the place where the Lord testifies saying: 3100 \u201cI came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish that it may burn\u201d as meaning \u201cI wish that all may repent, and burn out through the Holy spirit their vices and their sins; for I am he of whom it is written, 3101 \u201cOur God is a consuming fire;\u201d it is no great thing then to say this of the devil, since it is prepared also for men.\u201d You ought rather to have said, if you wished to avoid the suspicion of believing in the salvation of the devil; 3102 \u201cThou hast become perdition and shalt not be for ever;\u201d and as the Lord speaks to Job concerning the devil, 3103 \u201cBehold his hope shall fail him and in the sight of all shall he be cast down. I will not arouse him as one that is cruel, for who can resist my countenance? Who has first given to me that I may return it to him? for all things beneath the heaven are mine. I will not spare him and his words that are powerful and fashioned to turn away wrath.\u201d Hence, these things may pass as the work of a plain man. Their bearing is evident enough to those who understand these matters; but to the unlearned they may wear the appearance of innocence.\nIsa. 47:14, 15. \u201cThere shall not be a coal to warm at nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee for whom thou hast laboured.\u201d A.V. in almost exact agreement with Vulgate. Jerome must have quoted memoriter from an older version.\n504:3098 504:3099\nProbably a loose reference to Ps. 42:9, 10\n504:3100 504:3101 504:3102\nPerhaps from Jer. li. 26\n504:3103\nLeviathan, Job xli. 9-12. Vulg.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. III: Life a...","type":"page"}