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Translated by Frederick Crombie.
Origen Resources OnLine & in Print
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128 Pages
Page 99
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." [2136] 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 word is not called good. What are the expressions which occur in the Psalms? "How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart!" [2137] and, "Let Israel now say that He is good, that His mercy endureth for ever;" [2138] the language in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, "The Lord is good to them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him." [2139] 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." [2140] 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.
[2136] Matt. xix. 17.
[2137] Ps. lxxiii. 1.
[2138] Ps. cxviii. 2.
[2139] Lam. iii. 25.
[2140] John xvii. 25: Juste Pater.
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/origen/principia.asp?pg=99
