The Son of God, Christ, sojourned among the visible creation by the appointments of the Father, in order that, overthrowing the dominions of the demons that tyrannized over them, He might deliver souls from their bitter slavery—souls in return for which our nature, bewitched by the foretastes of unrighteousness, had been filled with tumult and disorder, being no longer able in any way to run back to the remembrance of what is profitable.
Wherefore it was easily drawn even toward the idols, since evil had flooded over all things and had taken possession of all the generations, by the alteration that had come upon our fleshly tabernacles from disobedience—until the Lord Christ, by the flesh in which He appeared in this life, dimming the assaults of the pleasures with which the lower powers were arming themselves against us to enslave the reasoning faculty, showed man to be free from all evils.
For on this account also the Lord Jesus wore flesh, and became man, and was nailed to the cross in the divine economy, in order that, through that flesh by which the demons had boastfully exalted themselves as gods, having hooked souls toward death by methods of deceit, they might through this very flesh be overthrown and exposed as being no gods.
For He became man to hinder their vainglory from being exalted further, in order that, through that body by which the rational race, being alienated from the religion of the true God, had been corrupted, through this very body—the Word having been contained in it by the unspeakable arts of His wisdom—they might be convicted as destroyers, and not benefactors, of souls.
Now it would have been no marvel for the Christ of God to strike down the opposing natures of the demons by the greatness of His unchangeable power. But since this very thing also brought them grief (for they would rather have chosen to be conquered by the Greater One), for this reason He ordained the outcome unto the salvation of all through a man, in order that, on the one hand, life itself and truth having descended bodily upon them, men might be enabled to run back toward the conformation and the illumination of the Word, [casting off] the enticements of sin; and on the other hand, the demons, conquered by the weaker and held in contempt, might cease from their boldness, bound in inflammation like Typhon.
For on this account especially the cross also was introduced, set up as a trophy against unrighteousness and a thing of astonishment, so that man should henceforth no longer be liable to wrath—having wrestled back the defeat that came through disobedience, and having lawfully conquered the lower powers, and having been shown free from every debt by the gifts of God. For thus indeed the first-begotten Word of God, fencing man about with the weapons of righteousness, in whom He had tabernacled, fought down the powers that had enslaved us, through the cross-shaped figure, as has been said, showing the man who had been dominated by corruption to be free, with hands outstretched.
For this, if one must speak by way of definition, is the figure: the stronghold of victory, the descent of God upon man, a trophy against the material spirits, a release from death, the means of ascent toward the true Day, and a ladder for those hastening to enjoy the light that is there—a contrivance by which those who are well-fitted for the building of the Church below, like a four-square stone, are drawn up to be fitted together with the divine Word.
Hence the kings here below, perceiving that the cross-shaped figure is taken up for the scattering of every evil disposition, contrived the things called in the Roman tongue 'vexilla' (military standards). Hence the sea too, yielding to this figure, offers itself navigable to men. For the whole creation, so to speak, is clothed toward freedom in this sign; for the birds flying on high hint at the cross-shaped figure in the spreading-out of their wings, and man himself, spreading out his hands, appears to be nothing else but this.
Whence, fashioning man by this very figure, with which he had been adorned from his constitution, the Lord blended him with deity, in order that he might henceforth be an instrument, a holy thing of God, freed from all discord and want of rhythm.
For neither is it any longer possible, after man has been fitted to piety and has been attuned to the undefiled melody of truth, through which he has received deity into himself, being fitted to the tree of life like strings and tones, for him to pass over into disproportion and corruption.