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| The Malignity of the Devil as an Imitator in All Things; Two Kinds of Fig-Trees and Vines.
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Chapter
V.—The Malignity of the Devil as an Imitator in All Things; Two
Kinds of Fig-Trees and Vines.
The fig-tree, as I said, from the sweetness and
excellence of its fruit, being taken as a type of the delights of
paradise, the devil, having beguiled the man by its imitations, led him
captive, persuading him to conceal the nakedness of his body by
fig-leaves; that is, by their friction he excited him to sexual
pleasure. Again, those that had been saved from the deluge, he
intoxicated with a drink which was an imitation of the vine of
spiritual joy; and again he mocked them, having stripped them of
virtue. And what I say will hereafter be more clear.
The enemy, by his power, always imitates2790
| 2790
[Diabolus simia Dei, an idea very common to the Fathers.
He is the malignant caricature of the Most High, exulting in the
deformity which he gives to his copies. Exod. vii. 11.] | the forms of
virtue and righteousness, not for the purpose of truly promoting its
exercise, but for deception and hypocrisy. For in order that
those who fly from death he may entice to death, he is outwardly dyed
with the colours of immortality. And hence he wishes to seem a
fig-tree or vine, and to produce sweetness and joy, and is
“transformed into an angel of light,”2791
ensnaring many by the appearance of
piety.
For we find in the Sacred Writings that there are
two kinds of fig-trees and vines, “the good figs, very good; and
the evil, very evil;”2792
“wine that maketh glad the heart
of man,”2793
and wine
which is the poison of dragons, and the incurable venom of asps.2794
But from the time when chastity
began to rule over men, the fraud was detected and overcome, Christ,
the chief of virgins, overturning it. So both the true fig-tree
and the true vine yield fruit after that the power of chastity has laid
hold upon all men, as Joel the prophet preaches, saying:
“Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do
great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field; for the
pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit,
the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then,
ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He hath
given you food unto righteousness;”2795
| 2795
Joel ii.
21–23. The
last words of the quotation are from the LXX.
version.—Tr. | calling the former laws the vine and the
fig, trees bearing fruit unto righteousness for the children of the
spiritual Zion, which bore fruit after the incarnation of the Word,
when chastity ruled over us, when formerly, on account of sin and much
error, they had checked and destroyed their buds. For the true
vine and the true fig-tree were not able to yield such nourishment to
us as would be profitable for life, whilst as yet the false fig-tree,
variously adorned for the purpose of fraud, flourished. But when
the Lord dried up the false branches, the imitations of the true
branches, uttering the sentence against the bitter fig-tree, “Let
no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever,”2796
then those which were truly
fruit-bearing trees flourished and yielded food unto
righteousness.
The vine, and that not in a few places, refers to
the Lord Himself,2797
and the
fig-tree to the Holy Spirit, as the Lord “maketh glad the hearts
of men,” and the Spirit healeth them. And therefore
Hezekiah is commanded2798
first to make a plaster with a lump
of figs—that is, the fruit of the Spirit—that he may be
healed—that is, according to the apostle—by love; for he
says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance;”2799
which, on account of their great
pleasantness, the prophet calls figs. Micah also says,
“They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree;
and none shall make them afraid.”2800
Now it is certain that those who
have taken refuge and rested under the Spirit, and under the shadow of
the Word, shall not be alarmed, nor frightened by him who troubles the
hearts of men.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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