And no wonder; for Porphyry lived in an age when this universal way of the soul's deliverance,--in other words, the Christian religion,--was exposed to the persecutions of idolaters and demon-worshippers, and earthly rulers,(2) that the number of martyrs or witnesses for the truth might be completed and consecrated, and that by them proof might be given that we must endure all bodily sufferings in the cause of the holy faith, and for the commendation of the truth.Porphyry, being a witness of these persecutions, concluded that this way was destined to a speedy extinction, and that it, therefore, was not the universal way of the soul's deliverance, and did not see that the very thing that thus moved him, and deterred him from becoming a Christian, contributed to the confirmation and more effectual commendation of our religion.
This, then, is the universal way of the soul's deliverance, the way that is granted by the divine compassion to the nations universally.And no nation to which the knowledge of it has already come, or may hereafter come, ought to demand, Why so soon? or, Why so late?--for the design of Him who sends it is impenetrable by human capacity.This was felt by Porphyry when he confined himself to saying that this gift of God was not yet received, and had not yet come to his knowledge.For though this was so, he did not on that account pronounce that the way it self had no existence.This, I say, is the universal way for the deliverance of believers, concerning which the faithful Abraham received the divine assurance, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed."(1) He, indeed, was by birth a Chaldaean; but, that he might receive these great promises, and that there might be propagated from him a seed "disposed by angels in the hand of a Mediator,"(2) in whom this universal way, thrown open to all nations for the deliverance of the soul, might be found, he was ordered to leave his country, and kindred, and father's house.Then was he himself, first of all, delivered from the Chaldaean superstitions, and by his obedience worshipped the one true God, whose promises he faithfully trusted.This is the universal way, of which it is said in holy prophecy, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us;that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations."(3) And hence, when our Saviour, so long after, had taken flesh of the seed of Abraham, He says of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."(4) This is the universal way, of which so long before it had been predicted, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths:
for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."(5) This way, therefore, is not the property of one, but of all nations.The law and the word of the Lord did not remain in Zion and Jerusalem, but issued thence to be universally diffused.And therefore the Mediator Himself, after His resurrection, says to His alarmed disciples, "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me.Then opened He their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: