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| Chapter XII. That in our spiritual contest we ought to draw an example from the carnal contests.
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Chapter XII.
That in our spiritual contest we ought to draw an
example from the carnal contests.
“One who strives in
the games is not crowned unless he has contended
lawfully.”834
One who wants
to extinguish the natural desires of the flesh, should first hasten to
overcome those vices whose seat is outside our nature. For if we desire
to make trial of the force of the Apostle’s saying, we ought
first to learn what are the laws and what the discipline of the
world’s contest, so that finally by a comparison with these, we
may be able to know what the blessed Apostle meant to teach to us who
are striving in a spiritual contest by this illustration. For in these
conflicts, which, as the same Apostle says, hold out “a
corruptible crown”835
to the victors,
this rule is kept, that he who aims at preparing himself for the crown
of glory, which is embellished with the privilege of exemption, and who
is anxious to enter the highest struggle in the
contest, should first in the Olympic and
Pythian games give evidence of his abilities as a youth, and his
strength in its first beginnings; since in these the younger men who
want to practise this training are tested as to whether they deserve or
ought to be admitted to it, by the judgment both of the president of
the games and of the whole multitude. And when any one has been
carefully tested, and has first been proved to be stained by no infamy
of life, and then has been adjudged not ignoble through the yoke of
slavery, and for this reason unworthy to be admitted to this training
and to the company of those who practise it, and when thirdly he
produces sufficient evidence of his ability and prowess and by striving
with the younger men and his own compeers has shown both his skill and
valour as a youth, and going forward from the contests of boys has been
by the scrutiny of the president permitted to mix with full-grown men
and those of approved experience, and has not only shown himself their
equal in valour by constant striving with them, but has also many a
time carried off the prize of victory among them, then at last he is
allowed to approach the most illustrious conflict of the games,
permission to contend in which is granted to none but victors and those
who are decked with many crowns and prizes. If we understand this
illustration from a carnal contest, we ought by a comparison with it to
know what is the system and method of our spiritual conflict as
well.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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