Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 9.djvu/35

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Book iv.]
IRENÆUS AGAINST HERESIES.
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11. For some of them, beholding Him in glory, saw His glorious life (conversationem) at the Father's right hand;[1] others beheld Him coming on the clouds as the Son of man;[2] and those who declared regarding Him, "They shall look on Him whom they have pierced,"[3] indicated His [second] advent, concerning which He Himself says, "Thinkest thou that when the Son of man cometh. He shall find faith on the earth?"[4] Paul also refers to this event when he says, "If, however, it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you that are troubled rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with His mighty angels, and in a flame of fire."[5] Others again, speaking of Him as a judge, and [referring], as if it were a burning furnace, [to] the day of the Lord, who "gathers the wheat into His barn, but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire,"[6] were accustomed to threaten those who were unbelieving, concerning whom also the Lord Himself declares, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels."[7] And the apostle in like manner says [of them], "Who shall be punished with everlasting death from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in those who believe in Him."[8] There are also some [of them] who declare, "Thou art fairer than the children of men;"[9] and, "God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows;"[10] and, "Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O most Mighty, with Thy beauty and Thy fairness, and go forward and proceed prosperously; and rule Thou because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness."[11] And whatever other things of a like nature are spoken regarding Him, these indicated that beauty and splendour which exist in His

  1. Isa. vi. 1; Ps. cx. 1.
  2. Dan. vii. 13.
  3. Zech. xii. 10.
  4. Luke xviii. 8. There is nothing to correspond with "putas" in the received text.
  5. 2 Thess. i. 6–8.
  6. Matt. iii. 12.
  7. Matt. xxv. 41.
  8. 2 Thess. i. 9, 10.
  9. Ps. xlv. 2.
  10. Ps. xlv. 7.
  11. Ps. xlv. 3, 4.