Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| The Specimen of Catechetical Discourse Continued, in Reference Specially to the Reproval of False Aims on the Catechumen’s Part.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter 17.—The
Specimen of Catechetical Discourse Continued, in Reference
Specially to the Reproval of False Aims on the Catechumen’s
Part.
26. “For there are some whose
reason for desiring to become Christians is either that they may
gain the favor of men from whom they look for temporal advantages,
or that they are reluctant to offend those whom they fear. But
these are reprobate; and although the church bears them for a time,
as the threshing-floor bears the chaff until the period of
winnowing, yet if they fail to amend and begin to be Christians in
sincerity in view of the everlasting rest which is to come, they
will be separated from it in the end. And let not such flatter
themselves, because it is possible for them to be in the
threshing-floor along with the grain of God. For they will not be
together with that in the barn, but are destined for the fire,
which is their due. There are also others of better hope indeed,
but nevertheless in no inferior danger. I mean those who now fear
God, and mock not the Christian name, neither enter the church of
God with an assumed heart, but still look for their felicity in
this life, expecting to have more felicity in earthly things than
those enjoy who refuse to worship God. And the consequence of this
false anticipation is, that when they see some wicked and impious
men strongly established and excelling in this worldly prosperity,
while they themselves either possess it in a smaller degree or miss
it altogether, they are troubled with the thought that they are
serving God without reason, and so they readily fall away from the
faith.
27. “But as to the man who has in
view that everlasting blessedness and perpetual rest which is
promised as the lot destined for the saints after this life, and
who desires to become a Christian, in order that he may not pass
into eternal fire with the devil, but enter into the eternal
kingdom together with Christ,1434
such an one is truly a Christian;
(and he will be) on his guard in every temptation, so that he may
neither be corrupted by prosperity nor be utterly broken in spirit
by adversity, but remain at once modest and temperate when the good
things of earth abound with him, and brave and patient when
tribulations overtake him. A person of this character will also
advance in attainments until he comes to that disposition of mind
which will make him love God more than he fears hell; so that even
were God to say to him, ‘Avail yourself of carnal pleasures for
ever, and sin as much as you are able, and you shall neither die
nor be sent into hell, but you will only not be with me, he would
be terribly dismayed, and would altogether abstain from sinning,
not now (simply) with the purpose of not falling into that of which
he was wont to be afraid, but with the wish not to offend Him whom
he so greatly loves: in whom alone also there is the rest which eye
hath not seen, neither hath ear heard, neither hath it entered into
the heart of man (to conceive),—the rest which God hath prepared
for them that love Him.1435
28. “Now, on the subject of this
rest Scripture is significant, and refrains not to speak, when it
tells us how at the beginning of the world, and at the time when
God made heaven and earth and all things which are in them, He
worked during six days, and rested on the seventh day.1436
For it was
in the power of the Almighty to make all things even in one moment
of time. For He had not labored in the view that He might enjoy (a
needful) rest, since indeed “He spake, and they were made; He
commanded, and they were created;”1437
but that He might signify how,
after six ages of this world, in a seventh age, as on the seventh
day, He will rest in His saints; inasmuch as these same saints
shall rest also in Him after all the good works in which they have
served Him,—which He Himself, indeed, works in them, who calls
them, and instructs them, and puts away the offenses that are past,
and justifies the man who previously
was ungodly. For as,
when by His gift they work that which is good, He is Himself
rightly said to work (that in them), so, when they rest in Him, He
is rightly said to rest Himself. For, as regards Himself, He seeks
no cessation, because He feels no labor. Moreover He made all
things by His Word; and His Word is Christ Himself, in whom the
angels and all those purest spirits of heaven rest in holy silence.
Man, however in that he fell by sin, has lost the rest which he
possessed in His divinity, and receives it again (now) in His
humanity; and for this purpose He became man, and was born of a
woman, at the seasonable time at which He Himself knew it behoved
it so to be fulfilled. And from the flesh assuredly He could not
sustain any contamination, being Himself rather destined to purify
the flesh. Of His future coming the ancient saints, in the
revelation of the Spirit, had knowledge, and prophesied. And thus
were they saved by believing that He was to come, even as we are
saved by believing that He has come. Hence ought we to love God who
has so loved us as to have sent His only Son, in order that He
might endue Himself with the lowliness1438
| 1438 Humanitate, = humanity, also occurs instead of
humilitate. | of our mortality, and die both at
the hands of sinners and on behalf of sinners. For even in times of
old, and in the opening ages, the depth of this mystery ceases not
to be prefigured and prophetically announced.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
