26. What then, say they, is
the meaning of that penny, which is given in payment to all alike
when the work of the vineyard is ended? whether it be to those who
have labored from the first hour, or to those who have labored one
hour?2070
What
assuredly doth it signify, but something, which all shall have in
common, such as is
life eternal itself, the
kingdom of
heaven
itself, where shall be all, whom
God hath
predestinated, called,
justified,
glorified? “For it behoveth that this corruptible put
on incorruption, and this
mortal put on immortality.”
2071
This is
that
penny,
wages for all. Yet “
star differeth from
star in
glory; so also the resurrection of the dead.”
2072
These are the different merits of
the
Saints. For, if by that
penny the
heaven were signified, have
not all the
stars in common to be in the
heaven? And yet, “There
is one
glory of the sun, another
glory of the
moon, another of the
stars.” If that
penny were taken for
health of body, have not all
the members, when we are well,
health in common; and, should this
health continue even unto
death, is it not in all alike and
equally? And yet, “
God hath set the members, each one of them, in
the body, as He would;”
2073
that neither the whole be an
eye,
nor the whole hearing, nor the whole smelling: and, whatever else
there is, it hath its own property, although it have
health equally
with all. Thus because
life eternal itself shall be alike to all,
an equal
penny was assigned to all; but, because in that
life
eternal itself the lights of merits shall shine with a distinction,
there are “many
mansions” in the
house of the Father:
2074
and, by
this means, in the penny not unlike, one lives not longer than
another; but in the many mansions, one is honored with greater
brightness than another.
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