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| The change wrought by the Cross in the relation of Death to Man.
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§27. The
change wrought by the Cross in the relation of Death to Man.
For that death is destroyed, and that the Cross
is become the victory over it, and that it has no more power but is
verily dead, this is no small proof, or rather an evident warrant, that
it is despised by all Christ’s disciples, and that they all take
the aggressive against it and no longer fear it; but by the sign of the
Cross and by faith in Christ tread it down as dead. 2. For of old, before the
divine sojourn of the Saviour took place, even to the saints death was
terrible276
| 276 Cf. Ps. lv. 4, lxxxix. 47; Job. xviii. 14. | , and all wept for the dead as though
they perished. But now that the Saviour has raised His body, death is
no longer terrible; for all who believe in Christ tread him under as
nought, and choose rather to die than to deny their faith in Christ.
For they verily know that when they die they are not destroyed, but
actually [begin to] live, and become incorruptible through the
Resurrection. 3. And that devil that once maliciously exulted in death,
now that its277
pains were loosed, remained the only
one truly dead. And a proof of this is, that before men believe Christ,
they see in death an object of terror, and play the coward before him.
But when they are gone over to Christ’s faith and teaching, their
contempt for death is so great that they even eagerly rush upon it, and
become witnesses for the Resurrection the Saviour has accomplished
against it. For while still tender in years they make haste to die, and
not men only, but women also, exercise themselves by bodily discipline
against it. So weak has he become, that even women who were formerly
deceived by him, now mock at him as dead and paralyzed. 4. For as when
a tyrant has been defeated by a real king, and bound hand and foot,
then all that pass by laugh him to scorn, buffeting and reviling him,
no longer fearing his fury and barbarity, because of the king who has
conquered him; so also, death having been conquered and exposed by the
Saviour on the Cross, and bound hand and foot, all they who are in
Christ, as they pass by, trample on him, and witnessing to Christ scoff
at death, jesting at him, and saying what has been written against him
of old: “O death278
, where is thy
victory? O grave, where is thy sting.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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