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| Abraham's Sacrifice of a Heifer Three Years Old, of a Goat, and of a Ram Also Three Years Old: Its Meaning; Every Age to Be Consecrated to God; The Threefold Watch and Our Age.
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Chapter
II.—Abraham’s Sacrifice of a Heifer Three Years Old, of a
Goat, and of a Ram Also Three Years Old: Its Meaning; Every Age
to Be Consecrated to God; The Threefold Watch and Our Age.
I must endeavour, O virgins, by a true exposition,
to explain to you the mind of the Scripture according to its
meaning.2637
| 2637
There are two readings. The above rendering may fairly embrace them
both. | Now, he
who watches over and restrains himself in part, and in part is
distracted and wandering, is not wholly given up to God. Hence it
is necessary that the perfect man offer up all, both the things of the
soul and those of the flesh, so that he may be complete and not
lacking. Therefore also God commands Abraham,2638
“Take Me an heifer of three
years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years
old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon;” which is admirably
said; for remark, that concerning those things, He also gives this
command, Bring them Me and keep them free from the yoke, even thy soul
uninjured, like a heifer, and your flesh, and your reason; the last
like a goat, since he traverses lofty and precipitous places, and the
other like a ram, that he may in nowise skip away, and fall and slip
off from the right way. For thus shalt thou be perfect and
blameless, O Abraham, when thou hast offered to Me thy soul, and thy
sense, and thy mind, which He mentioned under the symbol of the heifer,
the goat, and the ram of three years old, as though they represented
the pure knowledge of the Trinity.
And perhaps He also symbolizes the beginning, the
middle, and the end of our life and of our age, wishing as far as
possible that men should spend their boyhood, their manhood, and their
more advanced life purely, and offer them up to Him. Just as our
Lord Jesus Christ commands in the Gospels, thus directing:
“Let not your lights be extinguished, and let not your loins be
loosed. Therefore also be ye like men who wait for their lord,
when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and
knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are ye,
when he shall make you sit down, and shall come and serve you.
And if he come in the second, or in the third watch, ye are
blessed.”2639
For
consider, O virgins, when He mentions three watches of the night, and
His three comings, He shadows forth in symbol our three periods of
life, that of the boy, of the full-grown man, and of the old man; so
that if He should come and remove us from the world while spending our
first period, that is, while we are boys, He may receive us ready and
pure, having nothing amiss; and the second and the third in like
manner. For the evening watch is the time of the budding and
youth of man, when the reason begins to be disturbed and to be clouded
by the changes of life, his flesh gaining strength and urging him to
lust. The second is the time when, afterwards advancing to a
full-grown man, he begins to acquire stability, and to make a stand
against the turbulence of passion and self-conceit. And the
third, when most of the imaginations and desires fade away, the flesh
now withering and declining to old age.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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