Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
And in this way also is to be understood the declaration,
“A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good
things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil
things.”[214] For here also he assumed that there was a _genus_ in good
or evil, pointing out unquestionably that in a good man there were both
justice, and temperance, and prudence, and piety, and everything that
can be either called or understood to be good. In like manner also he
said that a man was wicked who should without any doubt be unjust, and
impure, and unholy, and everything which singly makes a bad man. For as
no one considers a man to be wicked without these marks of wickedness
(nor indeed can he be so), so also it is certain that without these
virtues no one will be deemed to be good. There still remains to them,
however, that saying of the Lord in the Gospel, which they think is
given them in a special manner as a shield, viz. “There is none good but
one, God the Father.”[215] This word they declare is peculiar to the
Father of Christ, who, however, is different from the God who is Creator
of all things, to which Creator he gave no appellation of goodness. Let
us see now if, in the Old Testament, the God of the prophets and the
Creator and Legislator of the world is not called good. What are the
expressions which occur in the Psalms? “How good is God to Israel, to
the upright in heart!”[216] and, “Let Israel now say that He is good,
that His mercy endureth for ever;”[217] the language in the Lamentations
of Jeremiah, “The Lord is good to them that wait for Him, to the soul
that seeketh Him.”[218] As therefore God is frequently called good in
the Old Testament, so also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is styled
just in the Gospels. Finally, in the Gospel according to John, our Lord
Himself, when praying to the Father, says, “O just Father, the world
hath not known Thee.”[219] And lest perhaps they should say that it was
owing to His having assumed human flesh that He called the Creator of
the world “Father,” and styled Him “Just,” they are excluded from such a
refuge by the words that immediately follow, “The world hath not known
Thee.” But, according to them, the world is ignorant of the good God
alone. For the world unquestionably recognises its Creator, the Lord
Himself saying that the world loveth what is its own. Clearly, then, He
whom they consider to be the good God, is called just in the Gospels.
Any one may at leisure gather together a greater number of proofs,
consisting of those passages, where in the New Testament the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ is called just, and in the Old also, where the
Creator of heaven and earth is called good; so that the heretics, being
convicted by numerous testimonies, may perhaps some time be put to the
blush.
Footnote 203:
Ezek. xviii. 3.
Footnote 204:
Pœnitentiam egissent.
Footnote 205:
Matt. xxii. 12, 13.
Footnote 206:
Phil. iv. 8, 9.
Footnote 207:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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