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Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.
128 Pages
Page 66
And He counsels what is salutary: for counsel has for its end, choosing or refusing a certain course; as He does by David, when He says, "Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsels of the ungodly, and standeth not in the way of sinners, and sitteth not in the chair of pestilences; but his will is in the law of the Lord." [1269] And there are three departments of counsel: That which takes examples from past times; as what the Hebrews suffered when they worshipped the golden calf, and what they suffered when they committed fornication, and the like. The second, whose meaning is understood from the present times, as being apprehended by perception; as it was said to those who asked the Lord, "If He was the Christ, or shall we wait for another? Go and tell John, the blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised up; and blessed is he who shall not be offended in Me." [1270] Such was that which David said when he prophesied, "As we have heard, so have we seen." [1271] And the third department of counsel consists of what is future, by which we are bidden guard against what is to happen; as also that was said, "They that fall into sins shall be cast into outer darkness, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth," [1272] and the like. So that from these things it is clear that the Lord, going the round of all the methods of curative treatment, calls humanity to salvation.
[1269] Ps. i. 1, 2.
[1270] Matt. xi. 3-6; Luke vii. 19, 22, 23.
[1271] Ps. xlviii. 8.
[1272] Matt. xxii. 13, xxv. 30.
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