25. Nor indeed hath the Holy
Spirit failed to speak what should be of open and unshaken avail
against these men, most shamelessly and madly obstinate, and should
repel their assault, as of wild beasts, from His sheep-fold, by
defences that may not be stormed. For, after He had said concerning
eunuchs, “I will give unto them in My house and in My wall a
named place, much better than of sons and daughters;”2069
lest any
too
carnal should think that there was any thing temporal to be
hoped for in these words, straightway He added, “An
eternal name
I will give unto them, nor shall it ever
fail:” as though He
should say, Why dost thou draw back, impious
blindness? Why dost
thou draw back? Why dost thou pour the
clouds of thy perverseness
over the clear (
sky) of
truth? Why in so great
light of Scriptures
dost thou
seek after
darkness from out which to lay
snares? Why
dost thou
promise temporal
advantage only to holy persons
exercising continence? “An
eternal name I will give unto them:”
why, where persons keep from all sexual intercourse, and also in
the very fact that they
abstain from these, have thought of the
things of the
Lord, how to please the
Lord, do you essay to refer
them unto earthly
advantage? “An
eternal name I will give unto
them.” Why
contend you that the
kingdom of
heaven, for the sake
of which holy
eunuchs have made themselves
eunuchs, is to be
understood in this
life only? “An
eternal name I will give unto
them.” And if haply in this place you endeavor to take the word
itself
eternal in the sense of lasting for a long time, I add, I
heap up, I tread in, “nor shall it ever
fail.” What more
seek
you? What more say you? This
eternal name, whatever it be, unto the
eunuchs of
God, which assuredly signifies a certain
peculiar and
excellent glory, shall not be in common with many, although set in
the same kingdom, and in the same house. For on this account
also, perhaps, it is called a name, that it distinguishes those, to
whom it is given, from the rest.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
