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| Chapter XLIV
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Chapter
XLIV.
For it is impossible that the good which is the
result of accident, or of communication, should be like that good which
comes by nature; and yet the former will never be lost by him who, so
to speak, partakes of the “living” bread with a view to his
own preservation. But if it should fail any one, it must be
through his own fault, in being slothful to partake of this
“living bread” and “genuine drink,” by means of
which the wings, nourished and watered, are fitted for their purpose,
even according to the saying of Solomon, the wisest of men, concerning
the truly rich man, that “he made to himself wings like an eagle,
and returns to the house of his patron.”4504
| 4504 Cf. Prov. xxiii. 5. [See Neander’s
History of the Church, vol. ii. p. 299, with Rose’s
note. S.] | For it became God, who knows how to
turn to proper account even those who in their wickedness have
apostatized from Him, to place wickedness of this sort in some part of
the universe, and to appoint a training-school of virtue, wherein those
must exercise themselves who would desire to recover in a “lawful
manner”4505
the possession
(which they had lost); in order that being tested, like gold in the
fire, by the wickedness of these, and having exerted themselves to the
utmost to prevent anything base injuring their rational nature, they
may appear deserving of an ascent to divine things, and may be elevated
by the Word to the blessedness which is above all things, and so to
speak, to the very summit of goodness. Now he who in the Hebrew
language is named Satan, and by some Satanas—as being more in
conformity with the genius of the Greek language—signifies, when
translated into Greek, “adversary.” But every one who
prefers vice and a vicious life, is (because acting in a manner
contrary to virtue) Satanas, that is, an “adversary” to the
Son of God, who is righteousness, and truth, and wisdom.4506
With more propriety, however, is
he called “adversary,” who was the first among those
that were living a peaceful and happy life to lose his wings, and to
fall from blessedness; he who, according to Ezekiel, walked faultlessly
in all his ways, “until iniquity was found in
him,”4507
and who being the
“seal of resemblance” and the “crown of beauty”
in the paradise of God, being filled as it were with good things, fell
into destruction, in accordance with the word which said to him in a
mystic sense: “Thou hast fallen into destruction, and shalt
not abide for ever.”4508
We have
ventured somewhat rashly to make these few remarks, although in so
doing we have added nothing of importance to this treatise. If
any one, however, who has leisure for the examination of the sacred
writings, should collect together from all sources and form into one
body of doctrine what is recorded concerning the origin of evil, and
the manner of its dissolution, he would see that the views of Moses and
the prophets regarding Satan had not been even dreamed of either by
Celsus or any one of those whose soul had been dragged down, and torn
away from God, and from right views of Him, and from His word, by this
wicked demon.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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