But since he has represented those whom he regards as worms, viz. the
Christians, as saying that “God, having abandoned the heavenly regions,
and despising this great earth, takes up His abode amongst us alone, and
to us alone makes His announcements, and ceases not His messages and
inquiries as to how we may become His associates for ever,” we have to
answer that he attributes to us words which we never uttered, seeing we
both read and know that God loves all existing things, and loathes[571]
nothing which He has made, for He would not have created anything in
hatred. We have, moreover, read the declaration: “And Thou sparest all
things, because they are Thine, O lover of souls. For Thine
incorruptible Spirit is in all. And therefore those also who have fallen
away for a little time Thou rebukest, and admonishest, reminding them of
their sins.”[572] How can we assert that “God, leaving the regions of
heaven, and the whole world, and despising this great earth, takes up
His abode amongst us only,” when we have found that all thoughtful
persons must say in their prayers, that “the earth is full of the mercy
of the Lord,”[573] and that “the mercy of the Lord is upon all
flesh;”[574] and that God, being good, “maketh His sun to arise upon the
evil and the good, and sendeth His rain upon the just and the
unjust;”[575] and that He encourages us to a similar course of action,
in order that we may become His sons, and teaches us to extend the
benefits which we enjoy, so far as in our power, to all men? For He
Himself is said to be the Saviour of all men, especially of them that
believe;[576] and His Christ to be the “propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”[577] And
this, then, is our answer to the allegations of Celsus. Certain other
statements, in keeping with the character of the Jews, might be made by
some of that nation, but certainly not by the Christians, who have been
taught that “God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us;”[578] and although “scarcely for a
righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would
even dare to die.”[579] But now is Jesus declared to have come for the
sake of sinners in all parts of the world (that they may forsake their
sin, and entrust themselves to God), being called also, agreeably to an
ancient custom of these Scriptures, the “Christ of God.”
Footnote 571:
βδελύσσεται.
Footnote 572:
Cf. Wisd. of Solom. xi. 26, xii. 1, 2.
Footnote 573:
Ps. xxxiii. 5.
Footnote 574:
Ecclus. xviii. 13.
Footnote 575:
Cf. Matt. v. 45.
Footnote 576:
Cf. 1 Tim. iv. 10.
Footnote 577:
Cf. 1 John ii. 2.
Footnote 578:
Cf. Rom. v. 8.
Footnote 579:
Cf. Rom. v. 7.