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| Chapter XI.—How Great are the Benefits Conferred on Man Through the Advent of Christ.
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Chapter XI.—How Great are the Benefits Conferred on Man Through the Advent of Christ.
Contemplate a little, if agreeable to you, the
divine beneficence. The first man, when in Paradise, sported free,
because he was the child of God; but when he succumbed to pleasure (for
the serpent allegorically signifies pleasure crawling on its belly,
earthly wickedness nourished
for fuel to the flames), was as a child
seduced by lusts, and grew old in disobedience; and by disobeying his
Father, dishonoured God. Such was the influence of pleasure. Man, that
had been free by reason of simplicity, was found fettered to sins. The
Lord then wished to release him from his bonds, and clothing Himself
with flesh—O divine mystery!—vanquished the serpent, and
enslaved the tyrant death; and, most marvellous of all, man that had
been deceived by pleasure, and bound fast by corruption, had his hands
unloosed, and was set free. O mystic wonder! The Lord was laid low,
and man rose up; and he that fell from Paradise receives as the reward
of obedience something greater [than Paradise]—namely, heaven
itself. Wherefore, since the Word Himself has come to us from heaven,
we need not, I reckon, go any more in search of human learning to Athens
and the rest of Greece, and to Ionia. For if we have as our teacher Him
that filled the universe with His holy energies in creation, salvation,
beneficence, legislation, prophecy, teaching, we have the Teacher from
whom all instruction comes; and the whole world, with Athens and Greece,
has already become the domain of the Word.1009
| 1009 [The Catholic instinct is here; and an all-embracing
benevolence is its characteristic, not worldly empire.] | For
you, who believed the poetical fable which designated Minos the Cretan
as the bosom friend of Zeus, will not refuse to believe that we who
have become the disciples of God have received the only true wisdom;
and that which the chiefs of philosophy only guessed at, the disciples
of Christ have both apprehended and proclaimed. And the one whole Christ
is not divided: “There is neither barbarian, nor Jew, nor Greek,
neither male nor female, but a new man,”1010
transformed by
God’s Holy Spirit. Further, the other counsels and precepts
are unimportant, and respect particular things,—as, for example,
if one may marry, take part in public affairs, beget children; but the
only command that is universal, and over the whole course of existence,
at all times and in all circumstances, tends to the highest end, viz.,
life, is piety,1011
—all
that is necessary, in order that we may live for ever, being that we
live in accordance with it. Philosophy, however, as the ancients say, is
“a long-lived exhortation, wooing the eternal love of wisdom;”
while the commandment of the Lord is far-shining, “enlightening
the eyes.” Receive Christ, receive sight, receive thy light,
“In order that you may know well both God and
man.”1012
“Sweet is the Word that gives us
light, precious above gold and gems; it is to be desired above honey
and the honey-comb.”1013
For how can it be other than desirable, since
it has filled with light the mind which had been buried in darkness, and
given keenness to the “light-bringing eyes” of the soul? For
just as, had the sun not been in existence, night would have brooded
over the universe notwithstanding the other luminaries of heaven; so,
had we nor known the Word, and been illuminated by Him; we should have
been nowise different from fowls that are being fed, fattened in darkness,
and nourished for death. Let us then admit the light, that we may admit
God; let us admit the light, and become disciples to the Lord. This, too,
He has been promised to the Father: “I will declare Thy name to
my brethren; in the midst of the Church will I praise Thee.”1014
Praise and
declare to me Thy Father God; Thy utterances save; Thy hymn teaches1015
that hitherto I have wandered in
error, seeking God. But since Thou leadest me to the light, O Lord,
and I find God through Thee, and receive the Father from Thee, I become
“Thy fellow-heir,”1016
since Thou “wert not ashamed of me
as Thy brother.”1017
Let us put away, then, let us put away oblivion of
the truth, viz., ignorance; and removing the darkness which obstructs, as
dimness of sight, let us contemplate the only true God, first raising our
voice in this hymn of praise:1018
| 1018
[A quotation from another hymn, in all probability.] | Hail,
O light! For in us, buried in darkness, shut up in the shadow of death,
light has shone forth from heaven, purer than the sun, sweeter than
life here below. That light is eternal life; and whatever partakes
of it lives. But night fears the light, and hiding itself in terror,
gives place to the day of the Lord. Sleepless light is now over all,
and the west has given credence to the east. For this was the end of the
new creation. For “the Sun of Righteousness,” who drives His
chariot over all, pervades equally all humanity, like “His Father,
who makes His sun to rise on all men,” and distils on them the
dew of the truth. He hath changed sunset into sunrise, and through the
cross brought death to life; and having wrenched man from destruction,
He hath raised him to the skies, transplanting mortality into immortality,
and translating earth to heaven—He, the husbandman of God,
“Pointing out the favourable signs and rousing the nations
To good works, putting them in mind of the true sustenance;”1019
having bestowed on us the truly
great, divine, and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying man
by heavenly teaching, putting His laws
into our minds, and writing them on our
hearts. What laws does He inscribe? “That all shall know God, from
small to great;” and, “I will be merciful to them,”
says God, “and will not remember their sins.”1020
Let us receive the laws of life, let us comply with
God’s expostulations; let us become acquainted with Him, that
He may be gracious. And though God needs nothing let us render to Him
the grateful recompense of a thankful heart and of piety, as a kind of
house-rent for our dwelling here below.
“Gold for brass,
A hundred oxen’s worth for that of nine;”1021
| 1021 Il., vi. 236. [The exchange of Glaucus.] |
that is, for your little faith
He gives you the earth of so great extent to till, water to drink and
also to sail on, air to breathe, fire to do your work, a world to dwell
in; and He has permitted you to conduct a colony from here to heaven:
with these important works of His hand, and benefits in such numbers,
He has rewarded your little faith. Then, those who have put faith in
necromancers, receive from them amulets and charms, to ward off evil
forsooth; and will you not allow the heavenly Word, the Saviour, to
be bound on to you as an amulet, and, by trusting in God’s own
charm, be delivered from passions which are the diseases of the mind,
and rescued from sin?—for sin is eternal death. Surely utterly
dull and blind, and, like moles, doing nothing but eat, you spend your
lives in darkness, surrounded with corruption. But it is truth which
cries, “The light shall shine forth from the darkness.”
Let the light then shine in the hidden part of man, that is, the heart;
and let the beams of knowledge arise to reveal and irradiate the hidden
inner man, the disciple of the Light, the familiar friend and fellow-heir
of Christ; especially now that we have come to know the most precious
and venerable name of the good Father, who to a pious and good child
gives gentle counsels, and commands what is salutary for His child. He
who obeys Him has the advantage in all things, follows God, obeys the
Father, knows Him through wandering, loves God, loves his neighbour,
fulfils the commandment, seeks the prize, claims the promise. But it
has been God’s fixed and constant purpose to save the flock of
men: for this end the good God sent the good Shepherd. And the Word,
having unfolded the truth, showed to men the height of salvation, that
either repenting they might be saved, or refusing to obey, they might be
judged. This is the proclamation of righteousness: to those that obey,
glad tidings; to those that disobey, judgment. The loud trumpet, when
sounded, collects the soldiers, and proclaims war. And shall not Christ,
breathing a strain of peace to the ends of the earth, gather together His
own soldiers, the soldiers of peace? Well, by His blood, and by the word,
He has gathered the bloodless host of peace, and assigned to them the
kingdom of heaven. The trumpet of Christ is His Gospel. He hath blown it,
and we have heard. “Let us array ourselves in the armour of peace,
putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and taking the shield of
faith, and binding our brows with the helmet of salvation; and the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”1022
let us sharpen. So
the apostle in the spirit of peace commands. These are our invulnerable
weapons: armed with these, let us face the evil one; “the fiery
darts of the evil one” let us quench with the sword-points dipped in
water, that, have been baptized by the Word, returning grateful thanks for
the benefits we have received, and honouring God through the Divine Word.
“For while thou art yet speaking,” it is said, “He
will say, Behold, I am beside thee.”1023
O this holy and blessed power,
by which God has fellowship with men! Better far, then, is it to become
at once the imitator and the servant of the best of all beings; for only
by holy service will any one be able to imitate God, and to serve and
worship Him only by imitating Him. The heavenly and truly divine love
comes to men thus, when in the soul itself the spark of true goodness,
kindled in the soul by the Divine Word, is able to burst forth into
flame; and, what is of the highest importance, salvation runs parallel
with sincere willingness—choice and life being, so to speak,
yoked together. Wherefore this exhortation of the truth alone, like
the most faithful of our friends, abides with us till our last breath,
and is to the whole and perfect spirit of the soul the kind attendant
on our ascent to heaven. What, then, is the exhortation I give you? I
urge you to be saved. This Christ desires. In one word, He freely
bestows life on you. And who is He? Briefly learn. The Word of truth,
the Word of incorruption, that regenerates man by bringing him back to
the truth—the goad that urges to salvation—He who expels
destruction and pursues death—He who builds up the temple of God
in men, that He may cause God to take up His abode in men. Cleanse the
temple; and pleasures and amusements abandon to the winds and the fire,
as a fading flower; but wisely cultivate the fruits of self-command, and
present thyself to God as an offering of first-fruits, that there may be
not the work alone, but also the grace of God; and both are requisite,
that the friend of Christ may be rendered worthy of the kingdom, and be
counted worthy of the kingdom.
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