'O generation of vipers, who hath shown you to flee from the wrath to come?' For since it was owing to them, on account of their impiety, to be punished by the appointment of penalty, they nevertheless were fleeing this wrath to come by the confession of repentance. The apostle also thus makes mention of this wrath, saying: 'For if, when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more, being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him' — showing, namely, the wrath to be the penalty of an abiding ordinance. God is therefore not movable to change, nor to be transferred from one thing to another: since He Himself is of a sure and constant nature, He remains as He is, seeing that He said: 'I am who I am, and I change not.'
That blessed and perfect goodness of eternal virtue does not suffer conversion, nor is it changed by the impulse of any accident moving it from one thing to another. And this same thing the prophet here attests, thus speaking by the Holy Spirit, saying: 'God is a just judge, strong and long-suffering; will He be angry every day? Unless ye be converted, He hath brandished His sword, He hath bent His bow and made it ready; and in it He hath prepared instruments of death, He hath wrought His arrows for them that shall burn.' The long-suffering One, then, is not changed unto wrath, but the mighty judge has decreed penalty for guilt. For upon those who would not be converted He brandished the sword and bent the bow, and in it prepared instruments of death, and wrought His arrows for them that shall burn.
But He wrought them not by a motion of sudden wrath, kindled suddenly through a desire of avenging, but He wrought them for those that shall burn, who by their impenitent will appoint themselves to be burned. And for those who would not be converted the sword was brandished, not to be drawn against individuals from a change of wrath — for He who is long-suffering is not angry day by day — but because He decreed judgment, His sword is already drawn from the appointment of the penalty. But the spiritual ministries of penal judgment are mentioned in the sword, the bow, and the arrows; which, because they are held ready for those that shall burn,
are not prepared from a motion of temporary wrath, but God has moderated them, out of the appointment of His decree, by the most tempered equableness of His goodness: not, namely, leaving the severity of this very ordinance hidden and unknown, but forewarning of its terror by His denunciations, and delaying that very appointed penalty, though appointed, by a long postponement unto repentance for sin. And therefore, after the nations raged and the kings stood up, after the peoples meditating vain things gathered together as one against the Lord and His Christ, and after they were derided and mocked, there was subjoined: 'Then shall He speak to them in His wrath, and in His indignation shall He trouble them.'
But in what manner the Lord is wont always to speak in His wrath, we shall bring a most weighty and greatest example from prophetic teaching, Isaiah saying: 'Hear the word of the Lord, ye princes of Sodom; give ear to the word of God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord; I am full. The holocausts of rams, and the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and of goats, I will not have; nor if ye come to appear before me — for who hath required these things at your hands? — ye shall not tread my court again. If ye bring fine flour, it is in vain; incense is an abomination to me. The new moons and sabbaths and the great day I will not endure; the fasting and the holidays and your new moons and your festivals my soul hateth.'
'They are become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing your sins. When ye stretch forth your hands, I will turn away mine eyes from you; and though ye multiply prayer, I will not hear you: for your hands are full of blood.' And these things indeed are dreadful and full of wrath — that the noble family of Abraham should be called princes of Sodom, that the people chosen as an inheritance, Israel, should be called the people of Gomorrah; that the sacrifices are unapprovable, the solemnities abominable, the fasts wearisome; that the eyes are to be turned away from the sight of those who approach, the ears to be stopped from the hearing of those who pray, because their hands are full of blood: what is graver than this threatening? what more severe than these menaces? But let us see in what manner God speaks in His wrath. For it follows, after it was said:
'Your hands are full of blood; wash you, be clean, put away your iniquities from your souls, from before mine eyes. Learn to do good, seek judgment, deliver him that suffers wrong, judge for the fatherless and justify the widow: and come, let us reason together, saith the Lord. And if your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow: but if they be as crimson, I will make them white as wool. And if ye be willing and hearken to me, ye shall eat the good things of the land: but if ye be unwilling and hear me not, the sword shall devour you. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things.' Kindness follows terror. And to those to whom vengeance for their crime is already due, there yet remains the blessed confession of a penitent conscience.
For God does not straightway slay in His wrath, but He speaks and, the penalty being still deferred, only troubles them in His indignation. For those who were discolored like crimson and scarlet with the blood overflowing onto their hands, these shall grow white as snow and shall be robed in the garment of a blessed fleece. And these things indeed have been taken from the authority of the Old Testament: let us see whether also in the New the wrath of God is understood to be of such a kind that it may save. For John admonishes unto salvation those whom he reproaches as being a generation of vipers on account of the malice of their fathers' impiety, thus: 'Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance.' And again the Lord Himself: 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.'
But to those who rage against Him — and not only in the Passion, but even after the Passion, not, I say, gathering together as one, but breathing out persecution of the Church, the flight of the apostles, the slaughter of martyrs — God thus speaks in wrath: 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?' And he said: 'Who art thou, Lord?' But the Lord: 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.' And he, trembling and afraid at what had befallen him, said: 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' Thus He speaks in wrath, thus He troubles in indignation, when to those very ones for whom penalty is decreed on account of the merit of their impiety, fear and terror are brought through an admonition to desist.
But not even the chief and greatest proclamation of speaking in wrath and troubling in indignation did the prophet pass over. For after that which he says: 'Then shall He speak to them in His wrath, and in His fury shall He trouble them,' in order to show what that word of wrath was and what disturbance would be begotten from it, he added: 'But I am set up king by Him upon Sion His holy mount, proclaiming His decree. The Lord said unto me: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron, thou shalt break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.' Speaking in anger and troubling in indignation, He tempers both the manner of being angry and of speaking.
For neither does He conceal His wrath, His power being set forth, nor does He depart from His goodness, terror being premised, so that fear of Him whose power had been demonstrated might recall us to piety. Therefore those who rage and meditate vain things are troubled, when they know Him to be king, when they hear Him to be the Son of God, when they learn that He is the possessor of the ends of the earth and heir of the nations, when they recognize that the right of ruling with a rod of iron is His, when they understand that the peoples are to be crushed with the ease and manner of a potter's vessel. Thus He speaks in wrath, thus He troubles in indignation, not punishing the impiety committed, but troubling the impenitent unto the confession of repentance by the remembered terror of His power.
But although through the spirit of prophecy, which records deeds done in place of deeds to be done — since God is wont, through an unambiguous foreknowledge of things to be done, to signify things future as though past — it might be understood absolutely that all these things were spoken from the person of the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and though it would be the greatest infidelity to bring a mind wavering with ambiguous opinion to these matters, nevertheless it must be shown also from evangelical and apostolic teachings. The prophet has prophesied beforehand nothing of those things that were to be done and proclaimed — especially since no small error arises for the ignorant and simple in that which is said: 'This day have I begotten thee.'
For since the only-begotten Son of God abides before all times, it is understood not to be fitting and consonant that He should be begotten on a day, since all days are within time. For times, according to the knowledge prescribed to us by Moses, have been measured out into this their motion and course from the origin of the world and its constitution, since they are distinguished by moments and hours and months and the year in a succession revolving upon itself; and time was instituted out of time, because the mutual substitution of times both begets and terminates all times. And on this account a day is within time, through which the whole of time both, having begun, ceases and, ceasing, begins. But the only-begotten Son of God, as He is the Word of God, so He is God the Word; He is not with times, but before times;
He is not in anything, but before all things. For He was, when times were made, seeing that He made them. He was, therefore, always. For He is not defined within time, nor subject to number; but He through whom is the origin of all those things which both are and can be said to be, He Himself, by the birth of His own infinite eternity, as begotten from eternity, persists in being. Therefore, in order that the meaning of the prophetic saying, in which he says 'This day have I begotten thee,' may be understood, evangelical and apostolic authority must be brought to bear by us, so that we may understand the prophet from the apostle or the apostle from the prophet. And the same order of the evangelical sayings must be held that is in the psalm. For this is first: 'But I am set up king by Him upon Sion His holy mount.'
And I know not for whom it may be safe to doubt that Christ is king, when the thief himself confesses this very thing in the Passion of the cross: 'Remember me, Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom.' But the confession of the thief, professing Him to be king, does not suffice. The Magi also, about to adore Him, bear witness, when they ask: 'Where is He that is born king of the Jews?' Pilate too bears witness, asking: 'Art thou the king of the Jews?' And the Lord professes it in answering: 'Thou sayest.' Being questioned, He denies it not, nor, being about to be humbled unto death, does He boast. Since there is no confession except from a response, thus He neither put Himself forward as the author of the profession, nor begrudged the questioner the truth of knowledge. But it does not suffice to have answered that He is king; let us hear also this, and who this is that is king.
For the chief of the priests questions Him even with an oath, saying: 'I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.' And Jesus saith to him: 'Thou sayest.' Here too the questioning is not disapproved, but both boasting and the glorying of a spontaneous profession are avoided; yet the truth sought is not denied. And thus the modesty of humility and the confession of truth are tempered, so that there is both dutifulness in the response and knowledge in the questioning. But we must await what at length is the outcome of this response, that Christ is the Son of God; namely, what follows upon that which was said: 'Thou sayest'?
Truly I say to you, from this moment you shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven. He who is the Son of Man is likewise also the Son of God: the nature of his high birth is not lost in his assumption of the Son of Man. For he is not therefore not the Son of God because he is also the Son of Man. For the addition of lowliness does not come about with any departure of divinity; nor did his power incur reproach through its partnership with weakness, since rather that weakness was endowed with the honour of his power. For the Son of Man sits at the right hand of God, to be beheld coming with the clouds of heaven. By which saying that prophecy is fulfilled which said: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
This King, therefore, has been established over Sion, the holy mountain of God, announcing the commandment of the Lord: not indeed over that mountain of the ruined city, of that Jerusalem to be bewailed, the murderer and slayer of her own kin; but over his own Jerusalem, which is in the heavens, which is our mother, which is the city of the great King, whose inhabitants, as I think, are today rising again in the Passion of the Lord. And so this King, being established, announces the commandment of God, that they might remember that he would come with the clouds of heaven, against whom they raged and gathered together, so that through the recognition of his divine coming, being confounded over the outrage of the humility they had mocked in his body, they might repent. And the evangelical teaching keeps the order of the prophecy.
For in that very passage the reason of both sayings is contained, namely of this saying: But I have been established King by him over Sion his holy mountain, announcing his commandment. The Lord said to me: You are my Son, this day I have begotten you. For when he says: From this moment you shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, he shows the time when the Son of Man, who is both Christ and the Son of God, was to be worthy of sitting together with God: so that, because he was previously the Son of God, and then also was the Son of Man, that which he then is as Son of Man might be begotten unto the perfect Son of God, that is, unto the resuming and granting to his body the glory of his own eternity through the power of the resurrection: which glory, being now in the body, he was demanding back from the Father.
For he who was in the form of God had taken the form of a servant. And for this form of a servant, in which he remained, he demands the glory of God, saying: Father, glorify me with your own self, with that brightness which I had with you before the world was. He seeks nothing new, he desires nothing foreign: he asks to be such as he had been, and prays that he himself may be what he was before, that is, to be begotten unto that which was his own. But he was not then wholly that same thing which he prayed to become: yet to become wholly he was asking for nothing other than what he had been. But when that which was becomes, and he is about to be that which was not, unto that which he had been, that which was not wholly was being born by a certain beginning of a new birth.
Therefore this is the day of his resurrection for taking up the glory through which he is born unto that which he was before time. But being born unto that which he was before time, he is nevertheless born in time to be that which he was not. And for this reason the Son of Man is to be seen from this moment sitting at the right hand of Power, because the nature of the flesh, after the resurrection being glorified, was being advanced unto the enhancement of that brightness which it had had before: when the Son of Man, about to sit together with the Father, and the corruption of the flesh being absorbed into immortality, was then born unto a living Son of God who would die no more.
And the blessed Apostle held to this new begetting of this temporal nativity in him, distinct from that which is before time, and its subdivided signification. For when he had said of that blessed nativity, circumscribed by no times: the firstborn of every creature, because in him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, he also afterwards commemorates the firstborn from the dead in the resurrection, saying: the firstborn from the dead, that he himself might have the primacy in all things. For he is born unto that which he was not, while nevertheless he becomes that which he had been. For he is the firstborn from the dead who was the firstborn of creation:
He is the firstborn from the dead for this reason, that he might remain the firstborn of creation. For the same is the firstborn from the dead who was the firstborn of creation. He is not now something other than what he was before, although he himself also was something other out of another; but that which out of another also was something other, into that very thing from which it before came to be, is born again as another. For he who was born of the Virgin is man, yet was even then the Son of God: but he who is the Son of Man, the same was also the Son of God. And again he was born of baptism, and then too the Son of God, so that he might be born both into the same thing and into another. And it is written, when he had ascended from the water: You are my Son, this day I have begotten you.
But according to the begetting of the man being reborn, he too was then being reborn unto God as a perfect Son, so that being made Son of Man he might likewise in baptism be brought forth as Son of God. But that which is now in the psalm: You are my Son, this day I have begotten you, does not pertain to the birth of the Virgin nor to the begetting of the laver, but to the firstborn from the dead, as apostolic authority declares. For in the book of the Acts of the Apostles it is thus said: And we proclaim to you the good news, that the promise which was made to the fathers, this God has fulfilled to our children, in raising up our Lord Jesus, as also in the first psalm it is written: You are my Son, this day I have begotten you, when he raised him from the dead, no more to return to destruction.
Therefore this voice of God the Father, according to the Apostle, arises on the day of the resurrection; and let us see whether the evangelists also teach the same thing. For the Lord rising again used such a voice to the apostles: All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Go now and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For rising again he obtained all right in heaven and on earth. But in that he says: It is given, he shows that he had asked for that which he received. For there follows: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. Therefore he received the inheritance of the nations which he had asked for. For he asked when he says: Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you.
Just as you also have given him power over all flesh, so that everything you have given him, he may give to it eternal life. And again: I pray not for these only, but also for those who through their word are to believe in me. This therefore is his inheritance, that he may give eternal life to all flesh, that all nations, baptized and taught, may be reborn unto life; no longer, according to that divine song of Moses, handed over to the dominion of angels nor divided according to their number, but taken up into the Lord's household and reckoned among the domestics of God, and translated from the unjust and sinful and perverse rule of those who lord it, into the eternal and divine kingdom.
For no longer is Israel merely the portion of the Lord, nor Jacob the cord of his inheritance, but all the nations, previously divided according to the number of the angels, are now already the people of the one God and this whole universality of the nations is one; and this is the eternal inheritance of all who rise from the dead, the inheritance of this firstborn from the dead, the eternal heir. But in that which is added: and the ends of the earth for your possession, it is not to be thought that the repeated saying signifies the very same thing, as if to him alone the possession of the lands inhabited by the nations were given. For he does not say: and your possession as far as the ends of the earth, but the ends of the earth. And that which bounds differs from that which is bounded.
Nor is that which is bounded the same as that which bounds. Nor is it one and the same to take up a measure and to set the measure: of which the one inwardly receives a measure, the other outwardly by a certain encompassing and confronting sets bounds. For the earth is not so sunk into the deep, nor extended in breadth, nor thrust up into height, that it is not on every side contained by the confrontation of a nature either poured around it or lying beneath it. For the sunken and immense abyss of the infernal vastness upholds it, and the breath of the surrounding and upper air overshadows and encompasses it. But that it hangs suspended over the abyss subjected to it, the prophet testifies, saying: He himself founded it upon the seas and prepared it upon the rivers. And again: Who established the earth upon the waters.
And Scripture is accustomed to name this immense and infinite vastness 'the abyss', as when Jonah prays within the whale and says: A great abyss surrounded me. And indeed this infinite immensity, which according to the proper meaning of the word is understood to be signified by the abyss, is circumscribed by the spiritual power of the divine substance, according to that saying of the Apostle: For all things are in him and through him, to him be glory unto the ages of ages. But that there are many inhabitants of this infernal region and vast abyss, we are taught by the Apocalypse of blessed John, when no one, neither in heaven, nor above the earth, nor beneath the earth, was found worthy to open the sealed book.
It is not understood to signify those who are dead and buried in the earth, since for the demonstration of a third habitation it speaks not of those who are within the earth, but of those who are beneath the earth, and not of those who are dead, but of those who live, none of whom had within himself any authority for unsealing the book. When therefore the possession of the bounds of the earth is given to the Lord, not so much is the earth given as those things by which the earth is bounded. For he received the bounds of the earth, by which the earth itself is determined. The whole mystery of which thing blessed Paul the Apostle, by whose mouth indeed Christ spoke concerning himself, expounded, saying: Who, being in the form of God,
did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being constituted in the likeness of men and found in habit as a man: he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and death on a cross: wherefore God also exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. And so, remaining in the form of God, he took the form of a servant, that is, born a man out of God. And after the death of the cross he is exalted into the name which is above every name:
for he is advanced into God, since there is no name beyond God, and to him, asking this—namely, that he might be what he was before—it is granted. For he had taken the form of a servant while remaining in the form of God. He received then the possession of the bounds of the earth, that is, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father: not the earth alone, but also the things above and beneath are given, and those by which the earth is enclosed. And in the glory of God the Father he is this day begotten and born, that is, into the form of God remaining beforehand, through the reward of death the assumption of the servant's form is honoured;
and there comes to be, under time, a new yet not unwonted nativity, when he who out of the form of God had been found in the form of a servant was born the firstborn from the dead, for the resuming of the glory of God the Father. There follows then: You shall rule them with a rod of iron, you shall shatter them like a potter's vessel. To many, either thinking ill or ignorant of the force and proper meaning of the divine words, these things seem contrary to the goodness of God, that the nations, which the Son of God asked for as a possession and received as an inheritance, he should rule with the terror of a rod of iron and shatter after the manner of a potter's vessel. For it belongs to no good person to give and receive things destined to perish.
And he who prefers the repentance of sinners rather than their death is not to be supposed, according to the profession of his own nature, to be about to act thus, if he should shatter with a rod of iron those whom he asked to be given to him as an inheritance. And first, lest any occasion lie open for this rash and impious presumption, the proper meanings of the very words translated into the Roman tongue must be understood. For that which stands with us: You shall rule them with a rod of iron, although the very word 'rule' is neither tyrannical nor unjust, but demonstrates a rational governance according to the judgement of equity and moderation, yet the Greek proper term signifies a still gentler disposition of the ruler. For that which stands with us:
'You shall rule them', is with them 'poimaneis autous', that is, 'you shall shepherd them as ruler', namely one who will have the care of ruling them with the affection of a shepherd: for he himself is the good shepherd, whose sheep we are, for whom he laid down his life. But lest we suppose a tyrannical right to be signified in the 'rod', what the proper meaning is in the naming of 'rod' must be learned from the New and the Old Testament. Blessed Paul, writing to the Corinthians, whom by measured and useful exhortation he was recalling from many sins to repentance, says: What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and the spirit of meekness? Did Paul have the praetor's right, to threaten with a rod and to be present at the Church of Christ with the office of a lictor?
It is certainly not to be thought so. But because every word of God, by which we are drawn back from error into truth, by which through the threat and terror of judgement we are guided into the way of an innocent and holy life, is called a 'rod', by which, being restrained within the discipline of divine fear, we are held in check by the admonition of a moderate and provident ruler—the blessed Apostle added the condition of choosing his coming to those whom he was admonishing, whether they would prefer him to be present in the severity of teaching and rebuke, or in the spirit of gentleness. Both of which were necessary according to the tenor of moderation, that he might come gentler to the obedient, but sterner to the insolent. And this indeed is presumed from the authority of the New Testament.
But that this teaching of the word is called a 'rod' is thus known from the Old Testament, when it is said: The rod of direction is the rod of your kingdom; because this same is the direction of the rod, by which through teaching we are directed into a level and useful way, and that which is the rod of the kingdom must be that very teaching of the kingdom. And that our Lord himself, on account of the useful and moderate preaching of his teaching, is called a 'rod', we have thus received, Isaiah saying: There shall come forth, he says, a rod from the root of Jesse. And lest anyone should dare to suppose a tyrannical severity in him through the naming of the 'rod', the prophetic word immediately added: