people, having become transgressors, shall be bound by the chains of their own sins. But the breaking of the bonds of their own accord indicates that, upon repentance, they shall be again loosed from the shackles of sin.
XLIV.
It[1] is not an easy thing for a soul, under the influence of error, to be persuaded of the contrary opinion.
XLV.
"And[2] Balaam the son of Beor they slew with the sword."[3] For, speaking no longer by the Spirit of God, but setting up another law of fornication contrary to the law of God,[4] this man shall no longer be reckoned as a prophet, but as a soothsayer. For, as he did not continue in the commandment of God, he received the just reward of his evil devices.
XLVI.
"The[5] god of the world;"[6] that is, Satan, who was designated God to those who believe not.
XLVII.
The[7] birth of John [the Baptist] brought the dumbness of Zacharias to an end. For he did not burden his father, when
- ↑ We give this brief fragment as it appears in the editions of Stieren, Migne, and Harvey, who speculate as to its origin. They seem to have overlooked the fact that it is the Greek original of the old Latin, non facile est ab errore apprehensam resipiscere animam,—a sentence found towards the end of book iii. chap. ii.; see vol. i. p. 260, lines 23, 24, of our translation.
- ↑ With the exception of the initial text, this fragment is almost identical with No. xxv.
- ↑ Num. xxxi. 8.
- ↑ Rev. ii. 14.
- ↑ From the Catena on St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians, edited by Dr. Cramer, and reprinted by Stieren.
- ↑ 2 Cor. iv. 4.
- ↑ Extracted from a ms. of Greek theology in the Palatine Library at Vienna. The succeeding fragment in the editions of Harvey, Migne, and Stieren, is omitted, as it is merely a transcript of lib. iii. ch. x. 4; see vol. 1. p. 285, lines 8–12.
