All acknowledge the superiority of unchangeable:
wisdom to that which is variable
Now, no one is so egregiously silly
as to ask, "How do you know that a life of unchangeable
wisdom is preferable to one of change?" For that very truth
about which he asks, how I know it? is unchangeably fixed in
the minds of all men, and presented to their common contemplation.
And the man who does not see it is like a blind man in the sun,
whom it profits nothing that the splendour of its light, so clear
and so near, is poured into his very eyeballs. The man, on the
other hand, who sees, but shrinks from this truth, is weak in
his mental vision from dwelling long among the shadows of the
flesh. And thus men are driven back from their native land by
the contrary blasts of evil habits, and pursue lower and less
valuable objects in preference to that which they own to be more
excellent and more worthy.
To see God, the soul must be purified
Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to enjoy the truth which
lives unchangeably, and truth for the things which He has made,
the soul must be purified that it may have power to perceive
that light, and to rest in it when it is perceived. And let us
look upon this purification as a kind of journey or voyage to
our native land. For it is not by change of place that we can
come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation
of pure desires and virtuous habits.
Wisdom becoming incarnate, a pattern to us of purification
But of this we should have been wholly incapable, had not Wisdom
condescended to adapt Himself to our weakness, and to show us
a pattern of holy life in the form of our own humanity. Yet,
since we when we come to Him do wisely, He when He came to us
was considered by proud men to have done very foolishly. And
since we when we come to Him become strong, He when He came to
us was looked upon as weak. But "the foolishness of God
is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
And thus, though Wisdom was Himself our home, He made Himself
also the way by which we should reach our home.
In what sense the Wisdom of God came to us
And though He is everywhere present to the inner eye when it
is sound and clear, He condescended to make Himself manifest
to the outward eye of those whose inward sight is weak and dim.
"For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe." Not then in the sense of traversing
space, but because He appeared to mortal men in the form of mortal
flesh, He is said to have come to us. For He came to a place
where He had always been, seeing that "He was in the world,
and the world was made by Him." But, because men, who in
their eagerness to enjoy the creature instead of the Creator
had grown into the likeness of this world, and are therefore
most appropriately named "the world," did not recognize
Him, therefore the evangelist says, "and the world knew
Him not." Thus, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God. Why then did He come, seeing that He was already
here, except that it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe?
The Word was made flesh
In what way did He come but this, "The Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us"? Just as when we speak, in order that
what we leave in our minds may enter through the ear into the
mind of the hearer, the word which we have in our hearts becomes
an outward sound and is called speech; and yet our thought does
not lose itself in the sound, but remains complete in itself,
and takes the form of speech without being modified in its own
nature by the change: so the Divine Word, though suffering no
change of nature, yet became flesh, that He might dwell among
us.
How the wisdom of God healed man
Moreover, as the use of remedies is the way to health, so this
remedy took up sinners to heal and restore them. And just as
surgeons, when they bind up wounds, do it not in a slovenly way,
but carefully, that there may be a certain degree of neatness
in the binding, in addition to its mere usefulness, so our medicine,
Wisdom, was by His assumption of humanity adapted to our wounds,
curing some of them by their opposites, some of them by their
likes. And just as he who ministers to a bodily hurt in some
cases applies contraries, as cold to hot, moist to dry, etc.,
and in other cases applies likes, as a round cloth to a round
wound, or an oblong cloth to an oblong wound, and does not fit
the same bandage to all limbs, but puts like to like; in the
same way the Wisdom of God in healing man has applied Himself
to his cure, being Himself healer and medicine both in one. Seeing,
then, that man fell through pride, He restored him through humility.
We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent: we are set free
by the foolishness of God. Moreover, just as the former was called
wisdom, but was in reality the folly of those who despised God,
so the latter is called foolishness, but is true wisdom in those
who overcome the devil. We used our immortality so badly as to
incur the penalty of death: Christ used His mortality so well
as to restore us to life. The disease was brought in through
a woman's corrupted soul: the remedy came through a woman's virgin
body. To the same class of opposite remedies it belongs, that
our vices are cured by the example of His virtues. On the other
hand, the following are, as it were, bandages made in the same
shape as the limbs and wounds to which they are applied: He was
born of a woman to deliver us who fell through a woman: He came
as a man to save us who are men, as a mortal to save us who are
mortals, by death to save us who were dead. And those who can
follow out the matter more fully, who are not hurried on by the
necessity of carrying out a set undertaking, will find many other
points of instruction in considering the remedies, whether opposites
or likes, employed in the medicine of Christianity.
Faith is buttressed by the resurrection and ascension of Christ,
and is stimulated by His coming to judgment
The belief of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead, and
of His ascension into heaven, has strengthened our faith by adding
a great buttress of hope. For it clearly shows how freely He
laid down His life for us when He had it in His power thus to
take it up again. With what assurance, then, is the hope of believers
animated, when they reflect how great He was who suffered so
great things for them while they were still in unbelief! And
when men look for Him to come from heaven as the judge of quick
and dead, it strikes great terror into the careless, so that
they retake themselves to diligent preparation, and learn by
holy living to long for His approach, instead of quaking at it
on account of their evil deeds. And what tongue can tell, or
what imagination can conceive, the reward He will bestow at the
last, when we consider that for our comfort in this earthly journey
He has given us so freely of His Spirit, that in the adversities
of this life we may retain our confidence in, and love for, Him
whom as yet we see not; and that He has also given to each gifts
suitable for the building up of His Church, that we may do what
He points out as right to be done, not only without a murmur,
but even with delight?
Christ purges His Church by medicinal afflictions
For the Church is His body, as the apostle's teaching shows us;and
it is even called His spouse. His body, then, which has many
members, and all performing different functions, He holds together
in the bond of unity and love, which is its true health. Moreover
He exercises it in the present time, and purges it with many
wholesome afflictions, that when He has transplanted it from
this world to the eternal world, He may take it to Himself as
His bride, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.
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