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Treatise VII.
On the Mortality.3468
| 3468
Eusebius in his Chronicon makes mention of the occasion on
which Cyprian wrote this treatise, saying, “A pestilent disease
took possession of many provinces of the whole world, and especially
Alexandria and Egypt; as Dionysius writes, and the treatise of Cyprian
‘concerning the Mortality’ bears witness.”
a.d. 252. |
Argument.—The Deacon Pontius in a Few Words Unfolds the Burthen of
This Treatise in His Life of Cyprian.3469
| 3469
He says: “By whom were Christians,—grieved with
excessive fondness at the loss of their friends, or what is of more
consequence, with their decrease of faith,—comforted with the
hope of things to come?” [See p. 269,
supra.] | First of All, Having Pointed
Out that Afflictions of This Kind Had Been Foretold by Christ, He Tells
Them that the Mortality or Plague Was Not to Be Feared, in that It
Leads to Immortality, and that Therefore, that Man is Wanting in Faith
Who is Not Eager for a Better World. Nor is It Wonderful that the
Evils of This Life are Common to the Christians with the Heathens,
Since They Have to Suffer More Than Others in the World, and Thence,
After the Example of Job and Tobias, There is Need of Patience Without
Murmuring. For Unless the Struggle Preceded, the Victory Could
Not Ensue; And How Much Soever Diseases are Common to the Virtuous and
Vicious, Yet that Death is Not Common to Them, for that the Righteous
are Taken to Consolation, While the Unrighteous are Taken to
Punishment.3470
| 3470
Then to the tacit objection that by this mortality they would be
deprived of martyrdom, he replies that martyrdom is not in our power,
and that even the spirit that is ready for martyrdom is crowned by God
the judge. Finally, he tells them that the dead must not be
bewailed in such a matter as that we should become a stumbling-block to
the Gentiles, as if we were without the hope of a resurrection.
But if also the day of our summons should come, we must depart hence
with a glad mind to the Lord, especially since we are departing to our
country, where the large number of those dear to us are waiting for
us: a dense and abundant multitude are longing for us, who, being
already secure of their own immortality, are still solicitous about our
salvation. |
1. Although in very many of you, dearly beloved
brethren, there is a stedfast mind and a firm faith, and a devoted
spirit that is not disturbed at the frequency of this present
mortality, but, like a strong and stable rock, rather shatters the
turbulent onsets of the world and the raging waves of time, while it is
not itself shattered, and is not overcome but tried by these
temptations; yet because I observe that among the people some, either
through weakness of mind, or through decay of faith, or through the
sweetness of this worldly life, or through the softness of their sex,
or what is of still greater account, through error from the truth, are
standing less steadily, and are not exerting the divine and
unvanquished vigour of their heart, the matter may not be disguised nor
kept in silence, but as far as my feeble powers suffice with my full
strength, and with a discourse gathered from the Lord’s lessons,
the slothfulness of a luxurious disposition must be restrained, and he
who has begun to be already a man of God and of Christ, must be found
worthy of God and of Christ.
2. For he who wars for God, dearest
brethren, ought to acknowledge himself as one who, placed in the
heavenly camp, already hopes for3471
| 3471 Some
read “breathes.” | divine things, so that we may have no
trembling at the storms and whirlwinds of the world, and no
disturbance, since the Lord had foretold that these would come.
With the exhortation of His fore-seeing word, instructing, and
teaching, and preparing, and strengthening the people of His Church for
all endurance of things to come, He predicted and said that wars, and
famines, and earthquakes, and pestilences would arise in each place;
and lest an unexpected and new dread of mischiefs should shake us, He
previously warned us that adversity would increase more and more in the
last times. Behold, the very things occur which were spoken; and
since those occur which were foretold before, whatever things were
promised will also follow; as the Lord Himself promises, saying,
“But when ye see all these things come to pass, know ye that the
kingdom of God is at hand.”3472
The kingdom of God, beloved
brethren, is beginning to be at hand; the reward of life, and the
rejoicing of eternal salvation, and the perpetual gladness3473
and
possession lately lost of paradise, are now coming, with the passing
away of the world; already heavenly things are taking the place of
earthly, and great things of small, and eternal things of things that
fade away. What room is there here for anxiety and
solicitude? Who, in the midst of these things, is trembling and
sad, except he who is without hope and faith? For it is for him
to fear death who is not willing to go to Christ. It is for him
to be unwilling to go to Christ who does not believe that he is about
to reign3474
| 3474
Some add, “for ever.” | with
Christ.
3. For
it is written that the just lives by faith.3475
If you are just, and live by
faith, if you truly believe in Christ, why, since you are about to be
with Christ, and are secure of the Lord’s promise, do you not
embrace the assurance that you are called to Christ, and rejoice that
you are freed from the devil? Certainly Simeon, that just man,
who was truly just, who kept God’s commands with a full faith,
when it had been pledged him from heaven that he should not die before
he had seen the Christ, and Christ had come an infant into the temple
with His mother, acknowledged in spirit that Christ was now born,
concerning whom it had before been foretold to him; and when he had
seen Him, he knew that he should soon die. Therefore, rejoicing
concerning his now approaching death, and secure of his immediate
summons, he received the child into his arms, and blessing the Lord, he
exclaimed, and said, “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in
peace, according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation;”3476
assuredly
proving and bearing witness that the servants of God then had peace,
then free, then tranquil repose, when, withdrawn from these whirlwinds
of the world, we attain the harbour of our home and eternal security,
when having accomplished this death we come to immortality. For
that is our3477
| 3477
Baluzius interpolates here, without authority, “true.” | peace, that
our faithful tranquillity, that our stedfast, and abiding, and
perpetual security.
4. But for the rest, what else in the world than a
battle against the devil is daily carried on, than a struggle against
his darts and weapons in constant conflicts? Our warfare is with
avarice, with immodesty, with anger, with ambition; our diligent and
toilsome wrestle with carnal vices, with enticements of the
world. The mind of man besieged, and in every quarter invested
with the onsets of the devil, scarcely in each point meets the attack,
scarcely resists it. If avarice is prostrated, lust springs
up. If lust is overcome, ambition takes its place. If
ambition is despised, anger exasperates, pride puffs up, wine-bibbing
entices, envy breaks concord, jealousy cuts friendship; you are
constrained to curse, which the divine law forbids; you are compelled
to swear, which is not lawful.
5. So many persecutions the soul suffers
daily, with so many risks is the heart wearied, and yet it delights to
abide here long among the devil’s weapons, although it should
rather be our craving and wish to hasten to Christ by the aid of a
quicker death; as He Himself instructs us, and says, “Verily,
verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world
shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be
turned into joy.”3478
Who would not desire to be
without sadness? who would not hasten to attain to joy? But when
our sadness shall be turned into joy, the Lord Himself again declares,
when He says, “I will see you again, and your heart shall
rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you.”3479
Since, therefore, to see Christ is to rejoice, and we cannot have joy
unless when we shall see Christ, what blindness of mind or what folly
is it to love the world’s afflictions, and punishments, and
tears, and not rather to hasten to the joy which can never be taken
away!
6. But, beloved brethren, this is so,
because faith is lacking, because no one believes that the things which
God promises are true, although He is true, whose word to believers is
eternal and unchangeable. If a grave and praiseworthy man should
promise you anything, you would assuredly have faith in the promiser,
and would not think that you should be cheated and deceived by him whom
you knew to be stedfast in his words and his deeds. Now God is
speaking with you; and do you faithlessly waver in your unbelieving
mind? God promises to you, on your departure from this world,
immortality and eternity; and do you doubt? This is not to know
God at all; this is to offend Christ, the Teacher3480
of believers, with the sin of
incredulity; this is for one established in the Church not to have
faith in the house of faith.
7. How great is the advantage of going out
of the world, Christ Himself, the Teacher of our salvation and of our
good works, shows to us, who, when His disciples were saddened that He
said that He was soon to depart, spoke to them, and said, “If ye
loved me, ye would surely rejoice because I go to the
Father;”3481
teaching
thereby, and manifesting that when the dear ones whom we love depart
from the world, we should rather rejoice than grieve. Remembering
which truth, the blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle lays it down,
saying, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain;”3482
counting it
the greatest gain no longer to be held by the snares of this world, no
longer to be liable to the sins and vices of the flesh, but taken away
from smarting troubles, and freed from the envenomed fangs of the
devil, to go at the call of Christ to the joy of eternal
salvation.
8. But nevertheless it disturbs some that the
power of this Disease attacks our people equally with the heathens, as
if the Christian believed for this purpose, that he might have the
enjoyment of the world and this life free from the contact of ills; and not as one who
undergoes all adverse things here and is reserved for future joy.
It disturbs some that this mortality is common to us with others; and
yet what is there in this world which is not common to us with others,
so long as this flesh of ours still remains, according to the law of
our first birth, common to us with them? So long as we are here
in the world, we are associated with the human race in fleshly
equality,3483
but are
separated in spirit. Therefore until this corruptible shall put
on incorruption, and this mortal receive immortality, and the
Spirit3484
| 3484
A few codices read, for “the Spirit,”
“Christ.” | lead us to
God the Father, whatsoever are the disadvantages of the flesh are
common to us with the human race. Thus, when the earth is barren
with an unproductive harvest, famine makes no distinction; thus, when
with the invasion of an enemy any city is taken, captivity at once
desolates all; and when the serene clouds withhold the rain, the
drought is alike to all; and when the jagged rocks rend the ship, the
shipwreck is common without exception to all that sail in her; and the
disease of the eyes, and the attack of fevers, and the feebleness of
all the limbs is common to us with others, so long as this common flesh
of ours is borne by us in the world.
9. Moreover, if the Christian know and keep
fast under what condition and what law he has believed, he will be
aware that he must suffer more than others in the world, since he must
struggle more with the attacks of the devil. Holy Scripture
teaches and forewarns, saying, “My son, when thou comest to the
service of God, stand in righteousness and fear, and prepare thy soul
for temptation.”3485
And again: “In pain
endure, and in thy humility have patience; for gold and silver is tried
in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of
humiliation.”3486
10. Thus Job, after the loss of his wealth,
after the death of his children, grievously afflicted, moreover, with
sores and worms, was not overcome, but proved; since in his very
struggles and anguish, showing forth the patience of a religious mind,
he says, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked also
I shall go under the earth: the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken
away; as it seemed fit to the Lord, so it hath been done. Blessed
be the name of the Lord.”3487
And when his wife also urged
him, in his impatience at the acuteness of his pain, to speak something
against God with a complaining and envious voice, he answered and said,
“Thou speakest as one of the foolish women. If we have
received good from the hand of the Lord, why shall we not suffer
evil? In all these things which befell him, Job sinned not with
his lips in the sight of the Lord.”3488
Therefore the Lord God gives
him a testimony, saying, “Hast thou considered my servant Job?
for there is none like him in all the earth, a man without complaint, a
true worshipper of God.”3489
And Tobias, after his
excellent works, after the many and glorious illustrations of his
merciful spirit, having suffered the loss of his sight, fearing and
blessing God in his adversity, by his very bodily affliction increased
in praise; and even him also his wife tried to pervert, saying,
“Where are thy righteousnesses? Behold what thou
sufferest!”3490
But
he, stedfast and firm in respect of the fear of God, and armed by the
faith of his religion to all endurance of suffering, yielded not to the
temptation of his weak wife in his trouble, but rather deserved better
from God by his greater patience; and afterwards Raphael the angel
praises him, saying, “It is honourable to show forth and to
confess the works of God. For when thou didst pray, and Sara thy
daughter-in-law, I did offer the remembrance of your prayer in the
presence of the glory of God. And when thou didst bury the dead
in singleness of heart, and because thou didst not delay to rise up and
leave thy dinner, and wentest and didst bury the dead, I was sent to
make proof of thee. And God again hath sent me to heal thee and
Sara thy daughter-in-law. For I am Raphael, one of the seven holy
angels, who are present, and go in and out before the glory of
God.”3491
11. Righteous men have ever possessed this
endurance. The apostles maintained this discipline from the law
of the Lord, not to murmur in adversity, but to accept bravely and
patiently whatever things happen in the world; since the people of the
Jews in this matter always offended, that they constantly murmured
against God, as the Lord God bears witness in the book of Numbers,
saying, “Let their murmuring cease from me, and they shall not
die.”3492
We must
not murmur in adversity, beloved brethren, but we must bear with
patience and courage whatever happens, since it is written, “The
sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God
does not despise;”3493
since also in Deuteronomy the Holy
Spirit warns by Moses, and says, “The Lord thy God will vex thee,
and will bring hunger upon thee; and it shall be known in thine heart
if thou hast well kept His commandments or no.”3494
And again:
“The Lord your
God proveth you, that He may know whether ye love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul.”3495
12. Thus Abraham pleased God, who, that he
might please God, did not shrink even from losing his son, or from
doing an act of parricide. You, who cannot endure to lose your
son by the law and lot of mortality, what would you do if you were
bidden to slay your son? The fear and faith of God ought to make
you prepared for everything, although it should be the loss of private
estate, although the constant and cruel harassment of your limbs by
agonizing disorders, although the deadly and mournful wrench from wife,
from children, from departing dear ones; Let not these things be
offences to you, but battles: nor let them weaken nor break the
Christian’s faith, but rather show forth his strength in the
struggle, since all the injury inflicted by present troubles is to be
despised in the assurance of future blessings. Unless the battle
has preceded, there cannot be a victory: when there shall have
been, in the onset of battle, the victory, then also the crown is given
to the victors. For the helmsman3496
| 3496
According to some, “the ship’s helmsman.” [Vol.
i. 94.] | is recognised in the tempest; in the
warfare the soldier is proved. It is a wanton display when there
is no danger. Struggle in adversity is the trial of the
truth.3497
| 3497
Some read, “of virtue.” [In the Ignatian
manner. Compare vol. i. p. 45.] | The tree
which is deeply founded in its root is not moved by the onset of winds,
and the ship which is compacted of solid timbers is beaten by the waves
and is not shattered; and when the threshing-floor brings out the corn,
the strong and robust grains despise the winds, while the empty chaff
is carried away by the blast that falls upon it.
13. Thus, moreover, the Apostle Paul, after
shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many and grievous tortures of the
flesh and body, says that he is not grieved, but benefited by his
adversity, in order that while he is sorely afflicted he might more
truly be proved. “There was given to me,” he says,
“a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, that
I should not be lifted up: for which thing I besought the Lord
thrice, that it might depart from me; and He said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee, for strength is made perfect in
weakness.”3498
When, therefore, weakness and inefficiency and any destruction seize
us, then our strength is made perfect; then our faith, if when tried it
shall stand fast, is crowned; as it is written, “The furnace
trieth the vessels of the potter, and the trial of tribulation just
men.”3499
This,
in short, is the difference between us and others who know not God,
that in misfortune they complain and murmur, while adversity does not
call us away from the truth of virtue and faith, but strengthens us by
its suffering.
14. This trial, that now the bowels, relaxed
into a constant flux, discharge the bodily strength; that a fire
originated in the marrow ferments into wounds of the fauces; that the
intestines are shaken with a continual vomiting; that the eyes are on
fire with the injected blood; that in some cases the feet or some parts
of the limbs are taken off by the contagion of diseased putrefaction;
that from the weakness arising by the maiming and loss of the body,
either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing is obstructed, or the
sight darkened;—is profitable as a proof of faith. What a
grandeur of spirit it is to struggle with all the powers of an unshaken
mind against so many onsets of devastation and death! what sublimity,
to stand erect amid the desolation of the human race, and not to lie
prostrate with those who have no hope in God; but rather to
rejoice,3500
| 3500
Some read, “rather it behoves us to rejoice.” | and to embrace
the benefit of the occasion; that in thus bravely showing forth our
faith, and by suffering endured, going forward to Christ by the narrow
way that Christ trod, we may receive the reward of His life3501
and faith according
to His own judgment! Assuredly he may fear to die, who, not being
regenerated of water and the Spirit, is delivered over to the fires of
Gehenna; he may fear to die who is not enrolled in the cross and
passion of Christ; he may fear to die, who from this death shall pass
over to a second death; he may fear to die, whom on his departure from
this world eternal flame shall torment with never-ending punishments;
he may fear to die who has this advantage in a lengthened delay, that
in the meanwhile his groanings and his anguish are being
postponed.
15. Many of our people die in this mortality, that
is, many of our people are liberated from this world. This
mortality, as it is a plague to Jews and Gentiles, and enemies of
Christ, so it is a departure to salvation to God’s
servants. The fact that, without any difference made between one
and another, the righteous die as well as the unrighteous, is no reason
for you to suppose that it is a common death for the good and evil
alike. The righteous are called to their place of refreshing, the
unrighteous are snatched away to punishment; safety is the more
speedily given to the faithful, penalty to the unbelieving. We
are thoughtless and ungrateful, beloved brethren, for the divine
benefits, and do not acknowledge what is conferred upon us. Lo,
virgins depart in peace, safe with their glory, not fearing the threats
of the coming Antichrist, and his
corruptions and his brothels. Boys escape the peril of their
unstable age, and in happiness attain the reward of continence and
innocence. Now the delicate matron does not fear the tortures;
for she has escaped by a rapid death the fear of persecution, and the
hands and the torments of the executioner. By the dread of the
mortality and of the time the lukewarm are inflamed, the slack are
nerved up, the slothful are stimulated, the deserters are compelled to
return, the heathens are constrained to believe, the ancient
congregation of the faithful is called to rest, the new and abundant
army is gathered to the battle with a braver vigour, to fight without
fear of death when the battle shall come, because it comes to the
warfare in the time of the mortality.
16. And further, beloved brethren, what is
it, what a great thing is it, how pertinent, how necessary, that
pestilence and plague which seems horrible and deadly, searches out the
righteousness of each one, and examines the minds of the human race, to
see whether they who are in health tend the sick; whether relations
affectionately love their kindred; whether masters pity their
languishing servants; whether physicians do not forsake the beseeching
patients; whether the fierce suppress their violence; whether the
rapacious can quench the ever insatiable ardour of their raging avarice
even by the fear of death; whether the haughty bend their neck; whether
the wicked soften their boldness; whether, when their dear ones perish,
the rich, even then bestow anything,3502
| 3502 Some
add, “on the poor.” | and give, when they are to die without
heirs. Even although this mortality conferred nothing else, it
has done this benefit to Christians and to God’s servants, that
we begin gladly to desire martyrdom as we learn not to fear
death. These are trainings for us, not deaths: they give
the mind the glory of fortitude; by contempt of death they prepare for
the crown.
17. But perchance some one may object, and
say, “It is this, then, that saddens me in the present mortality,
that I, who had been prepared for confession, and had devoted myself to
the endurance of suffering with my whole heart and with abundant
courage, am deprived of martyrdom, in that I am anticipated by
death.” In the first place, martyrdom is not in your power,
but in the condescension of God; neither can you say that you have lost
what you do not know whether you would deserve to receive. Then,
besides, God the searcher of the reins and heart, and the investigator
and knower of secret things, sees you, and praises and approves you;
and He who sees that your virtue was ready in you, will give you a
reward for your virtue. Had Cain, when he offered his gift to
God, already slain his brother? And yet God, foreseeing the
fratricide conceived in his mind, anticipated its condemnation.
As in that case the evil thought and mischievous intention were
foreseen3503
by a foreseeing
God, so also in God’s servants, among whom confession is purposed
and martyrdom conceived in the mind, the intention dedicated to good is
crowned by God the judge. It is one thing for the spirit to be
wanting for martyrdom, and another for martyrdom to have been wanting
for the spirit. Such as the Lord finds you when He calls you,
such also He judges you; since He Himself bears witness, and says,
“And all the churches shall know that I am the searcher of the
reins and heart.”3504
For God does not ask for our blood,
but for our faith.3505
| 3505 Some
originals read, “does not desire our blood, but asks for our
faith.” | For neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor
Jacob were slain; and yet, being honoured by the deserts of faith and
righteousness, they deserved to be first among the patriarchs, to whose
feast is collected every one that is found faithful, and righteous, and
praiseworthy.
18. We ought to remember that we should do not our
own will, but God’s, in accordance with what our Lord has bidden
us daily to pray. How preposterous and absurd it is, that while
we ask that the will of God should be done, yet when God calls and
summons us from this world, we should not at once obey the command of
His will! We struggle and resist, and after the manner of froward
servants we are dragged to the presence of the Lord with sadness and
grief, departing hence under the bondage of necessity, not with the
obedience of free will; and we wish to be honoured with heavenly
rewards by Him to whom we come unwillingly. Why, then, do we pray
and ask that the kingdom of heaven may come, if the captivity of earth
delights us? Why with frequently repeated prayers do we entreat
and beg that the day of His kingdom may hasten, if our greater desires
and stronger wishes are to obey the devil here, rather than to reign
with Christ?
19. Besides, that the indications of the divine
providence may be more evidently manifest, proving that the Lord,
prescient of the future, takes counsel for the true salvation of His
people, when one of our colleagues and fellow-priests, wearied out with
infirmity, and anxious about the present approach of death, prayed for
a respite to himself; there stood by him as he prayed, and when he was
now at the point of death, a youth, venerable in honour and majesty,
lofty in stature and shining in aspect, and on whom, as he stood by
him, the human glance could
scarcely look with fleshly eyes, except that he who was about to depart
from the world could already behold such a one. And he, not
without a certain indignation of mind and voice, rebuked him, and said,
You fear to suffer, you do not wish to depart; what shall I do to
you? It was the word of one rebuking and warning, one who, when
men are anxious about persecution, and indifferent concerning their
summons, consents not to their present desire, but consults for the
future. Our dying brother and colleague heard what he was to say
to others. For he who heard when he was dying, heard for the very
purpose that he might tell it; he heard not for himself, but for
us. For what could he, who was already on the eve of departure,
learn for himself? Yea, doubtless, he learnt it for us who
remain, in order that, when we find the priest who sought for delay
rebuked, we might acknowledge what is beneficial for all.
20. To myself also, the very least and last,
how often has it been revealed, how frequently and manifestly has it
been commanded by the condescension of God, that I should diligently
bear witness and publicly declare that our brethren who are freed from
this world by the Lord’s summons are not to be lamented, since we
know that they are not lost, but sent before;3506
| 3506
[Sciamus non eos amitti sed præmitti. Current even in our
day.] | that, departing from us, they precede us as
travellers, as navigators are accustomed to do; that they should be
desired, but not bewailed; that the black garments should not be taken
upon us here,3507
| 3507
[The clouds of black which are still customary in affliction are
not according to the faith, in Cyprian’s idea. Leighton,
St. Peter, ii. 24.] | when they have
already taken upon them white raiment there; that occasion should not
be given to the Gentiles for them deservedly and rightly to reprehend
us, that we mourn for those, who, we say, are alive with God, as if
they were extinct and lost; and that we do not approve with the
testimony of the heart and breast the faith which we express with
speech and word. We are prevaricators of our hope and
faith: what we say appears to be simulated, feigned,
counterfeit. There is no advantage in setting forth virtue by our
words, and destroying the truth by our deeds.
21. Finally, the Apostle Paul reproaches,
and rebukes, and blames any who are in sorrow at the departure of their
friends. “I would not,” says he, “have you
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow
not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them which are asleep in Jesus will
God bring with Him.”3508
He says that those have sorrow in
the departure of their friends who have no hope. But we who live
in hope, and believe in God, and trust that Christ suffered for us and
rose again, abiding in Christ, and through Him and in Him rising again,
why either are we ourselves unwilling to depart hence from this life,
or do we bewail and grieve for our friends when they depart as if they
were lost, when Christ Himself, our Lord and God, encourages us and
says, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that
believeth in me, though he die, yet shall live; and whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall not die eternally?”3509
If we believe in Christ, let us
have faith in His words and promises; and since we shall not die
eternally, let us come with a glad security unto Christ, with whom we
are both to conquer and to reign for ever.
22. That in the meantime we die, we are
passing over to immortality by death; nor can eternal life follow,
unless it should befall us to depart from this life. That is not
an ending, but a transit, and, this journey of time being traversed, a
passage to eternity. Who would not hasten to better things?
Who would not crave to be changed and renewed3510
into the likeness of Christ, and to arrive
more quickly to the dignity of heavenly glory, since Paul the apostle
announces and says, “For our conversation is in heaven, from
whence also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change the
body of our humiliation, and conform it to the body of His
glory?”3511
Christ the
Lord also promises that we shall be such, when, that we may be with
Him, and that we may live with Him in eternal mansions, and may rejoice
in heavenly kingdoms, He prays the Father for us, saying,
“Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me
where I am, and may see the glory which Thou hast given me before the
world was made.”3512
He who is to attain to the throne of
Christ, to the glory of the heavenly kingdoms, ought not to mourn nor
lament, but rather, in accordance with the Lord’s promise, in
accordance with his faith in the truth, to rejoice in this his
departure and translation.
23. Thus, moreover, we find that Enoch also
was translated, who pleased God, as in Genesis the Holy Scripture bears
witness, and says, “And Enoch pleased God; and afterwards he was
not found, because God translated him.”3513
To have been pleasing in the sight
of God was thus to have merited to be translated from this contagion of
the world. And moreover, also, the Holy Spirit teaches by
Solomon, that they who please God are more early taken hence, and are
more quickly set free, lest while they are delaying longer in this
world they should be polluted with the contagions of the world.
“He was taken away,” says he, “lest wickedness should
change his understanding. For his soul was pleasing to God;
wherefore hasted He to take him away from the midst of
wickedness.”3514
So also in the Psalms, the soul
that is devoted to its God in spiritual faith hastens to the Lord,
saying, “How amiable are thy dwellings, O God of hosts! My
soul longeth, and hasteth unto the courts of God.”3515
24. It is for him to wish to remain long in
the world whom the world delights, whom this life, flattering and
deceiving, invites by the enticements of earthly pleasure. Again,
since the world hates the Christian, why do you love that which hates
you? and why do you not rather follow Christ, who both redeemed you and
loves you? John in his epistle cries and says, exhorting that we
should not follow carnal desires and love the world. “Love
not the world,” says he, “neither the things which are in
the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is
not in him. For all that is in the world is the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of
the Father, but of the lust of the world. And the world shall
pass away, and the lust thereof; but he who doeth the will of God
abideth for ever, even as God abideth for ever.”3516
Rather,
beloved brethren, with a sound mind, with a firm faith, with a robust
virtue, let us be prepared for the whole will of God: laying
aside the fear of death, let us think on the immortality which
follows. By this let us show ourselves to be what we believe,
that we do not grieve over the departure of those dear to us, and that
when the day of our summons shall arrive, we come without delay and
without resistance to the Lord when He Himself calls us.
25. And this, as it ought always to be done by
God’s servants, much more ought to be done now—now that the
world is collapsing and is oppressed with the tempests of mischievous
ills; in order that we who see that terrible things have begun, and
know that still more terrible things are imminent, may regard it as the
greatest advantage to depart from it as quickly as possible. If
in your dwelling the walls were shaking with age, the roofs above you
were trembling, and the house, now worn out and wearied, were
threatening an immediate destruction to its structure crumbling with
age, would you not with all speed depart? If, when you were on a
voyage, an angry and raging tempest, by the waves violently aroused,
foretold the coming shipwreck, would you not quickly seek the
harbour? Lo, the world is changing and passing away, and
witnesses to its ruin not now by its age, but by the end of
things. And do you not give God thanks, do you not congratulate
yourself, that by an earlier departure you are taken away, and
delivered from the shipwrecks and disasters that are imminent?
26. We should consider, dearly beloved
brethren—we should ever and anon reflect that we have renounced
the world, and are in the meantime living here as guests and
strangers. Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his
own home, which snatches us hence, and sets us free from the snares of
the world, and restores us to paradise and the3517
| 3517 Some
have “heavenly.” | kingdom. Who that has been placed
in foreign lands would not hasten to return to his own country?
Who that is hastening to return to his friends would not eagerly desire
a prosperous gale, that he might the sooner embrace those dear to
him? We regard paradise as our country—we already begin to
consider the patriarchs as our parents: why do we not hasten and
run, that we may behold our country, that we may greet our
parents? There a great number of our dear ones is awaiting us,
and a dense crowd of parents, brothers, children, is longing for us,
already assured of their own safety, and still solicitous for our
salvation. To attain to their presence and their embrace, what a
gladness both for them and for us in common! What a pleasure is
there in the heavenly kingdom, without fear of death; and how lofty and
perpetual a happiness with eternity of living! There the glorious
company of the apostles3518
| 3518 [A
prelude to the Te Deum, and very possibly from a Western
hymn:—
Apostolorum gloriosus chorus;
Prophetarum exultantium numerus;
Martyrum innumerabilis populus.] | —there the host of the rejoicing
prophets—there the innumerable multitude of martyrs, crowned for
the victory of their struggle and passion—there the triumphant
virgins, who subdued the lust of the flesh and of the body by the
strength of their continency—there are merciful men rewarded, who
by feeding and helping the poor have done the works of
righteousness—who, keeping the Lord’s precepts, have
transferred their earthly patrimonies to the heavenly treasuries.
To these, beloved brethren, let us hasten with an eager desire; let us
crave quickly to be with them, and quickly to come to Christ. May
God behold this our eager desire; may the Lord Christ look upon this
purpose of our mind and faith, He who will give the larger rewards of
His glory to those whose desires in respect of Himself were
greater!E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
