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| Chapter XIV. The answer to the point raised by the questioner.
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Chapter XIV.
The answer to the point raised by the questioner.
Theodore: It is needful
that one must either, as the Apostle says, “be renewed in the
spirit of the mind,”1427
and daily
advance by “pressing forward to those things which are
before,”1428
or, if one
neglects to do this, the sure result will be to go back, and
become
worse and
worse. And therefore the mind cannot possibly remain in one and the
same state. Just as when a man, by pulling hard, is trying to force a
boat against the stream of a strong current he must either stem the
rush of the torrent by the force of his arms, and so mount to what is
higher up, or letting his hands slacken be whirled headlong down
stream. Wherefore it will be a clear proof of our failure if we find
that we have gained nothing more, nor should we doubt but that we have
altogether gone back, whenever we find that we have not advanced
upwards, because, as I said, the mind of man cannot possibly continue
in the same condition, nor so long as he is in the flesh will any of
the saints ever reach the height of all virtues, so that they continue
unalterable. For something must either be added to them or taken away
from them, and in no creature can there be such perfection, as not to
be subject to the feeling of change; as we read in the book of Job:
“What is man that he should be without spot, and he that is born
of a woman that he should appear just? Behold among His saints none is
unchangeable, and the heavens are not pure in His
sight.”1429
For we confess
that God only is unchangeable, who alone is thus addressed by the
prayer of the holy prophet “But Thou art the
same,”1430
and who says of
Himself “I am God, and I change not,”1431
because He alone is by nature always
good, always full and perfect, and one to whom nothing can ever be
added, or from whom nothing can be taken away. And so we ought always
with incessant care and anxiety to give ourselves up to the acquirement
of virtue, and constantly to occupy ourselves with the practice of it,
lest, if we cease to go forward, the result should immediately be a
going back. For, as we said, the mind cannot continue in one and the
same condition, I mean without receiving addition to or diminution of
its good qualities. For to fail to gain new ones, is to lose them,
because when the desire of making progress ceases, there the danger of
going back is present.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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