Feed us, the children, as sheep. Yea, Master, fill us with righteousness, Thine own pasture; yea, O Instructor, feed us on Thy holy mountain the Church, which towers aloft, which is above the clouds, which touches heaven. "And I will be," He says, "their Shepherd," [1254] and will be near them, as the garment to their skin. He wishes to save my flesh by enveloping it in the robe of immortality, and He hath anointed my body. "They shall call Me," He says, "and I will say, Here am I." [1255] Thou didst hear sooner than I expected, Master. "And if they pass over, they shall not slip," [1256] saith the Lord. For we who are passing over to immortality shall not fall into corruption, for He shall sustain us. For so He has said, and so He has willed. Such is our Instructor, righteously good. "I came not," He says, "to be ministered unto, but to minister." [1257] Wherefore He is introduced in the Gospel "wearied," [1258] because toiling for us, and promising "to give His life a ransom for many." [1259] For him alone who does so He owns to be the good shepherd. Generous, therefore, is He who gives for us the greatest of all gifts, His own life; and beneficent exceedingly, and loving to men, in that, when He might have been Lord, He wished to be a brother man; and so good was He that He died for us.
Further, His righteousness cried, "If ye come straight to me, I also will come straight to you but if ye walk crooked, I also will walk crooked, saith the Lord of hosts;" [1260] meaning by the crooked ways the chastisements of sinners. For the straight and natural way which is indicated by the Iota of the name of Jesus is His goodness, which is firm and sure towards those who have believed at hearing: "When I called, ye obeyed not, saith the Lord; but set at nought my counsels, and heeded not my reproofs." [1261] Thus the Lord's reproof is most beneficial. David also says of them, "A perverse and provoking race; a race which set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God: they kept not the covenant of God, and would not walk in His law." [1262]
Such are the causes of provocation for which the Judge comes to inflict punishment on those that would not choose a life of goodness. Wherefore also afterwards He assailed them more roughly; in order, if possible, to drag them back from their impetuous rush towards death. He therefore tells by David the most manifest cause of the threatening: "They believed not in His wonderful works. When He slew them, they sought after Him, and turned and inquired early after God; and remembered that God was their Helper, and God the Most High their Redeemer." [1263] Thus He knew that they turned for fear, while they despised His love: for, for the most part, that goodness which is always mild is despised; but He who admonishes by the loving fear of righteousness is reverenced.
There is a twofold species of fear, the one of which is accompanied with reverence, such as citizens show towards good rulers, and we towards God, as also right-minded children towards their fathers. "For an unbroken horse turns out unmanageable, and a son who is let take his own way turns out reckless." [1264] The other species of fear is accompanied with hatred, which slaves feel towards hard masters, and the Hebrews felt, who made God a master, not a father. And as far as piety is concerned, that which is voluntary and spontaneous differs much, nay entirely, from what is forced. "For He," it is said, "is merciful; He will heal their sins, and not destroy them, and fully turn away His anger, and not kindle all His wrath." [1265] See how the justice of the Instructor, which deals in rebukes, is shown; and the goodness of God, which deals in compassions. Wherefore David--that is, the Spirit by him--embracing them both, sings of God Himself, "Justice and judgment are the preparation of His throne: mercy and truth shall go before Thy face." [1266] He declares that it belongs to the same power both to judge and to do good. For there is power over both together, and judgment separates that which is just from its opposite. And He who is truly God is just and good; who is Himself all, and all is He; for He is God, the only God.
For as the mirror is not evil to an ugly man because it shows him what like he is; and as the physician is not evil to the sick man because he tells him of his fever,--for the physician is not the cause of the fever, but only points out the fever;--so neither is He, that reproves, ill-disposed towards him who is diseased in soul. For He does not put the transgressions on him, but only shows the sins which are there; in order to turn him away from similar practices. So God is good on His own account, and just also on ours, and He is just because He is good. And His justice is shown to us by His own Word from there from above, whence the Father was. For before He became Creator He was God; He was good. And therefore He wished to be Creator and Father. And the nature of all that love was the source of righteousness--the cause, too, of His lighting up His sun, and sending down His own Son. And He first announced the good righteousness that is from heaven, when He said, "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; nor the Father, but the Son." [1267] This mutual and reciprocal knowledge is the symbol of primeval justice. Then justice came down to men both in the letter and in the body, in the Word and in the law, constraining humanity to saving repentance; for it was good. But do you not obey God? Then blame yourself, who drag to yourself the judge.
[1210] Ecclus. vii. 23, 24.
[1211] Matt. xxiii. 37.
[1212] Jer. iii. 9, vii. 9, xi. 13, xxxii. 29.
[1213] Ezek. ii. 6, 7.
[1214] Ex. iii. 18, 19.
[1215] Isa. xxix. 13.
[1216] Jer. v. 8, 9.
[1217] Prov. i. 7.
[1218] Hos. iv. 14: "understood not" in the A.V.
[1219] Isa. i. 2, 3.
[1220] Jer i. 16, ii. 13, 29.
[1221] Or, rebuke.
[1222] Isa. xxx. 1.
[1223] Lowth conjectures epistomon or epistomizon, instead of anastomon.
[1224] Isa. i. 4.
[1225] Jer. ii. 12, 13.
[1226] Lam. i. 8.
[1227] H. reads dektikon, for which the text has epideiktikon.
[1228] Prov. iii. 11, 12.
[1229] Ecclus. xxxii. 21.
[1230] Ps. cxli. 5.
[1231] Jer. vi. 10.
[1232] Jer. ix. 26.
[1233] Isa. xxx. 9.
[1234] Matt. xxiii. 37-39.
[1235] Isa. i. 4.
[1236] Nothing similar to this is found in the fourth Gospel; the reference may be to the words of the Baptist, Matt. iii. 7, Luke iii. 7.
[1237] Ps. xviii. 43-45.
[1238] Jer. iii. 8.
[1239] Jer. v. 11, 12.
[1240] Lam. i. 1, 2.
[1241] Jer. iii. 3, 4.
[1242] Nahum iii. 4.
[1243] Deut. xxxii. 5, 6.
[1244] Isa. i. 23.
[1245] Ecclus. xviii. 13, 14.
[1246] Ecclus. xvi. 12.
[1247] Prov. xxiii. 14.
[1248] Prov. xxiii. 13.
[1249] Rom. xiii. 3, 4.
[1250] Gal. iv. 16.
[1251] John iv. 13, 14.
[1252] Matt. iii. 12; Luke iii. 17.
[1253] Ezek. xxxiv. 14, 15, 16.
[1254] Ezek. xxxiv. 14-16.
[1255] Isa. lviii. 9.
[1256] Isa. xliii. 2.
[1257] Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45.
[1258] John iv. 6.
[1259] Matt. xx. 28.
[1260] Here Clement gives the sense of various passages, e.g., Jer. vi., Lev. xxvi.
[1261] Prov. i. 24, 25.
[1262] Ps. lxxviii. 8, 10.
[1263] Ps. lxxviii. 32-35.
[1264] Ecclus. xxx. 8.
[1265] Ps. lxxviii. 38.
[1266] Ps. lxxxix. 14.
[1267] Luke x. 22.