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| Chapter XXXIX
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Chapter
XXXIX.
For,
while all things else that are born are subject to the impulse of those
that beget them, the spiritual birth is dependent on the power of him
who is being born. Seeing, then, that here lies the hazard, namely,
that he should not miss what is for his advantage, when to every one a
free choice is thus open, it were well, I think, for him who is moved
towards the begetting of himself, to determine by previous reasoning
what kind of father is for his advantage, and of what element it is
better for him that his nature should consist. For, as we have said, it
is in the power of such a child as this to choose its parents. Since,
then, there is a twofold division of existences, into created and
uncreated, and since the uncreated world possesses within itself
immutability and immobility, while the created is liable to change and
alteration, of which will he, who with calculation and deliberation is
to choose what is for his benefit, prefer to be the offspring; of that
which is always found in a state of change, or of that
which possesses a nature that is changeless, steadfast, and ever
consistent and unvarying in goodness? Now there have been delivered to
us in the Gospel three Persons and names through whom the generation or
birth of believers takes place, and he who is begotten by this Trinity
is equally begotten of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost—for thus does the Gospel speak of the Spirit, that
“that which is born of Spirit is spirit2045
,” and it is “in Christ2046
” that Paul begets, and the Father is
the “Father of all;” here, then, I beg, let the mind of the
hearer be sober in its choice, lest it make itself the offspring of
some inconstant nature, when it has it in its power to make the
steadfast and unalterable nature the founder of its life. For according
to the disposition of heart in one who comes to the Dispensation will
that which is begotten in him exhibit its power; so that he who
confesses that the Holy Trinity is uncreate enters on the steadfast
unalterable life; while another, who through a mistaken conception sees
only a created nature in the Trinity and then is baptized in
that, has again been born into the shifting and alterable life.
For that which is born is of necessity of one kindred with that which
begets. Which, then, offers the greater advantage; to enter on the
unchangeable life, or to be again tossed about by the waves of this
lifetime of uncertainty and change? Well, since it is evident to any
one of the least understanding that what is stable is far more valuable
than what is unstable, what is perfect than what is deficient, what
needs not than what needs, and what has no further to advance, but ever
abides in the perfection of all that is good, than what climbs by
progressive toil, it is incumbent upon every one, at least upon every
one who is possessed of sense, to make an absolute choice of one or
other of these two conditions, either to believe that the Holy Trinity
belongs to the uncreated world, and so through the spiritual birth to
make It the foundation of his own life, or, if he thinks that the Son
or the Holy Ghost is external to the being of the first, the true, the
good, God, I mean, of the Father, not to include these Persons in the
belief which he takes upon him at the moment of his new birth, lest he
unconsciously make himself over to that imperfect nature2047
| 2047 imperfect nature: i.e. of a creature
(κτιστός); for instance, of a merely human Christ, which himself needs,
and therefore cannot give, perfection. | which itself needs some one to make it good,
and in a manner bring himself back again to something of the same
nature as his own by thus removing his faith2048
| 2048 removing his faith: i.e. as he would
do, if he placed it on beings whom he knew were not of that
higher, uncreated, world |
from that higher world. For whoever has bound himself to any created
thing forgets that, as from the Deity, he has no longer hope of
salvation. For all creation, owing to the whole equally proceeding from
non-existence into being, has an intimate connection with itself; and
as in the bodily organization all the limbs have a natural and mutual
coherence, though some have a downward, some an upward direction, so
the world of created things is, viewed as the creation, in oneness with
itself, and the differences in us, as regards abundance or deficiency,
in no wise disjoint it from this natural coherence with itself. For in
things which equally imply the idea of a previous non-existence, though
there be a difference between them in other respects, as regards this
point we discover no variation of nature. If, then, man, who is himself
a created being, thinks that the Spirit and the Only-begotten God2049
| 2049 and the Only-begotten God. One Cod.
reads here υἱ&
231·ν (not θεόν), as it is
in S. John i. 18, though even there “many very ancient
authorities” (R.V.) read θεὸν. The Latin of
Hervetus implies an οὐκ here; “et
unigenitum Deum non esse existimant;” and Glauber would
retain it, making κτιστὸν = θεὸν οὐκ
εἶναι. But Krabinger
found no οὐκ
in any of his Codd. | are likewise created, the hope which he
entertains of a change to a better state will be a vain one; for he
only returns to himself2050
| 2050 πρὸς ἑαυτὸν
ἀναλύων,
as explained above, i.e. εἰς τὸ
ὁμογενὲς
ἑαυτὸν
εἰσαγάγῃ. | . What happens then
is on a par with the surmises of Nicodemus; he, when instructed by our
Lord as to the necessity of being born from above, because he could not
yet comprehend the meaning of the mystery, had his thoughts drawn back
to his mother’s womb2051
. So that if a man
does not conduct himself towards the uncreated nature, but to that
which is kindred to, and equally in bondage with, himself, he is of the
birth which is from below, and not of that which is from above. But the
Gospel tells us that the birth of the saved is from above.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
