五十篇屬靈講道 第 1 章 第 15/19 段

but he alone, having come, healed that incurable wound of the soul.

Let us, then, receive God and the Lord, the true physician, who alone is able, having come, to heal our souls, having toiled much for our sake.

For he ever knocks at the doors of our hearts, that we may open to him, and that, having entered, he may find rest in our souls, and that we may wash and anoint his feet, and he may make his abode with us.

For there too the Lord rebukes the one who did not wash his feet, and again elsewhere he says:

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock;

if anyone opens to me, I will come in to him.”

For this reason he endured to suffer many things, giving his own body over to death and ransoming us from slavery, that, having come into our soul, he might make his abode with it.

For this reason the Lord says to those on the left, who at the judgment are sent by him into Gehenna with the devil:

“I was a stranger, and you did not take me in;

I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat;

I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink.”

For his food and his drink and clothing and shelter and rest are in our souls.

Always, then, he knocks, wishing to come in to us.

Let us, then, receive him and bring him inside us;

for he himself is our food and drink and eternal life.

And every soul that has not received him within now and given him rest—or rather, that has not rested in him—has no inheritance with the saints in the kingdom of heaven, nor can it enter into the heavenly city.

But do you yourself, Lord Jesus Christ, bring us into it, as we glorify your name together with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages.

For the supremely beautiful is God,

toward whom you ought to gather your mind and your thoughts, and to think of nothing else than to keep your gaze upon the expectation of him,

(awaiting) when he may come in truth and gather it together.

Since the future is uncertain, let the soul hope all the more, setting its good hope upon the Pilot, and let it remember how Rahab also, being among the foreigners, believed the Israelites and was counted worthy together with them;

but the Israelites, by their love, turned back to Egypt.

As, then, dwelling among the foreigners did Rahab no harm, but faith made her a member of the portion of the Israelites; so too sin will do no harm to those who in hope and faith await the Redeemer, who, having come, changes the thoughts of the soul and makes them divine, heavenly, good, and teaches the soul true prayer, undistracted and unwandering.

“Do not fear,” he says, “I go before you and will level mountains, I will shatter doors of bronze and break in pieces bars of iron”; and again:

“Take heed to yourself,” he says, “lest there be in your heart a secret word that is iniquity”;

do not say in your heart:

“This nation is great and strong.”

If we do not grow slack and hand over the pastures to the disorderly thoughts of wickedness, but draw the mind by our will, forcing the thoughts toward the Lord, then assuredly the Lord, by his own will, will come to us and in truth gather us to himself;

for all the pleasing of God and the service of him is in the thoughts.

Therefore, be diligent to please the Lord, ever awaiting him within, seeking him in your thoughts and forcing and constraining your own will and deliberate choice always to be stretched out toward him.

And see how he comes to you and makes his abode with you.

For as much as you gather your mind to the seeking of him, by so much the more is he himself constrained, by his own compassion and kindness, to come to you and give you rest.

For he stands beholding your mind, your thoughts, your reflections, watching how you seek him, and whether it is from your whole soul, whether not sluggishly, whether not carelessly.

And when he sees your diligence toward the seeking of him, then he manifests himself and appears to you and imparts his help to you and works the victory for you, delivering you from your enemies.

For having first beheld your seeking toward him, and how you keep your whole expectation unceasingly toward him, thus he teaches and gives you true prayer, true love, which is he himself becoming in you all things—paradise, tree of life, pearl, crown, builder, farmer, the suffering one, the impassible one, man, God, wine, living water, sheep, bridegroom, warrior, weapon, Christ all in all.

And just as the infant does not know how to tend or care for itself, but only looks toward its mother, weeping until she, moved with compassion, takes it up, so too the faithful souls ever set their hope upon the Lord alone, ascribing all righteousness to him.

For just as without the vine the branch withers, so too is he who wishes to be justified apart from Christ.

He is like the robber and the thief who does not enter through the door but climbs up some other way—like one who justifies himself apart from him who justifies.

Let us, then, take up this body and make of it an altar, and lay upon it all our deliberation;

let us entreat the Lord to send from heaven the invisible and great fire, that it may consume the altar and all that is upon it, and that all the priests of Baal may fall—who are the opposing energies—and then we shall see the spiritual rain coming into the soul like the footstep of a man, so that the promise of God may come to be in us, even as is said in the prophet:

that upon the soul which spends its life in night and darkness, in the drunkenness of ignorance, the Lord by his own kindness may shine, and so that soul, sobered up, may journey without stumbling, accomplishing the works of the day and of life;

the soul, wherever it also eats—whether from this present age or from the Spirit of God,

there too God is nourished and lives and rests and dwells.

Henceforth let each one, if he wishes, test himself, from what source he is nourished and where he lives and in what things he is, so that, having thus understood and acquired accurate discernment, he may give himself over completely to the impulse toward the good.

Henceforth, when you pray in prayer, take heed to yourself, attending to the thoughts and the energies, from where they are—from God or from the adversary—and who it is that offers nourishment to the heart, the Lord or the world-rulers of this age.

And having tested and recognized this, O soul, ask the Lord with toil and longing for heavenly nourishment and growth and the working of Christ, according to what is said:

“But our citizenship is in heaven,” and it is not in outward form and figure, as some suppose.

For behold, the mind and the understanding of those who have only the form of godliness resemble the world.

Behold the quaking and the tossing of their deliberate choice, the unstable mind, the cowardice and the fear, according to what is said:

“You shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth,” according to the unbelief and confusion of the unstable thoughts;

at every hour shaken about like all the rest of men.

Such people differ from the world only in outward form and intention and in the bodily achievements of the outer man, but in heart and mind they are dragged about in the world, and are encompassed by earthly bonds and unprofitable cares, not having acquired in the heart the peace from heaven, as the apostle says, that “the peace of God rule in your hearts”—which reigns and renews the minds of the faithful in the love of God and of all the brotherhood.

Glory and worship to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit unto the ages.

The tongues of this world are various;

for every nation has its own tongue.

But Christians learn one new tongue and are all taught under one wisdom, the wisdom of God, not of this world nor of the age that passes away.

And as Christians walk about in this creation, they fall upon newer heavenly sights and upon glories and mysteries, taking their occasions from the things that are visible.

There are kinds of tame animals, such as the horse and the ox;

each of them has its own body and its own voice.

The same also among the wild beasts;

the lion has its own body and its own voice, the deer likewise, and among the reptiles there is much variety.

And among the birds there are many bodies; one body and voice of the eagle, and another body and voice of the hawk.

The same also in the sea, there are many bodies, not resembling one another.

And in the earth there are many seeds, but each seed has its own fruit.

And there are many trees, but there are larger trees and there are smaller trees, and these fruits have much difference;

for each of them has its own taste.

And there are herbs, and among them many differences, some advancing toward health, others toward fragrance alone.

Each of the trees brings forth from within its visible garments—leaves and blossoms and fruits;

likewise the seeds too bear from within visible garments;

and the lilies bring forth from within their garments and beautify the grass.

So too, as for those Christians who have been counted worthy to acquire from this present time the heavenly garment, they have that very thing abiding in their souls.

From now on Christians receive an invisible and heavenly gift and garment.

And just as the sheep or the camels, finding grass, greedily and swiftly come to their food and store up nourishment for themselves, and in time of hunger bring up that very food from the belly and chew the cud, and have as nourishment what they stowed away before; so too all those who have now seized the kingdom of heaven and tasted the heavenly food, living in the Spirit, at the time of the resurrection have that very thing covering and warming all their members.

As, then, we have spoken of the difference of seeds, that many are sown in one earth and yield various fruits not resembling one another, and likewise concerning the trees, that some of them are larger and others smaller, while one earth holds the roots of all; so too the heavenly Church, being one, is countless, and each one is individually adorned by the glory of the Spirit.

For just as the birds bring forth from the body the garments of their feathers, but there is much difference among them;

for some fly nearer the ground, and others fly in the air;

or just as the heaven is one and has many stars within it, some brighter, some larger, some smaller, yet all are fixed in the heaven, so too the saints are variously rooted in one heaven of the Godhead and in the invisible earth.

And likewise, the thoughts that come even into Adam himself are various, but the Spirit, coming into the heart, makes one thought and one heart;

for those below and those above are governed by one Spirit.

But what are the animals that part the hoof? Since with the two cloven hoofs it walks the road suitably, it stands as a type of those who walk rightly in the law.

And just as the shadow of the body is from the body itself, yet cannot fulfill a fleshly service (for a shadow cannot bind up wounds, nor give food, nor speak), but is from the body itself and, going before, indicates the coming of the body; so too the old law is a shadow of the new covenant.

The shadow foreshows the truth, but it did not have the ministry of the Spirit.

For Moses, clothed in flesh, was not able to enter into the heart and take away the filthy garments of darkness, unless Spirit from Spirit and fire from fire loose the power of the evil darkness.

For the circumcision that is in the shadow of the law indicates the true circumcision of the heart drawing near, and the baptism of the law is a shadow of the true realities.

For that one washed the body, but here the baptism of fire and the Spirit cleanses and washes the defiled mind.

There a priest, clothed in weakness, entered into the holy place, offering sacrifices both for himself and for the people; here the true high priest, Christ, entered once into the tabernacle not made with hands and the altar above, ready to cleanse those who ask him, even the defiled conscience.

“I will be with you until the consummation of the age.”

The high priest had upon his breast two precious stones, and they bore the names of the twelve patriarchs.

What took place there is a type.

For so too the Lord, having clothed himself with the apostles, sent them forth as evangelists and heralds of the whole world.

Do you see how the shadow shows the truth drawing near?

And in the way that the shadow has no ministry nor heals pains, so too the old law was not able to heal the wounds and pains of the soul;

Man was made according to the image and likeness of God; he has two eyes, two eyebrows, two hands, two feet, and if it happens that someone is one-eyed or one-handed or one-footed, he is, as it were, marred;

if the soul remains and does not receive the mingling and the fellowship of the heavenly nature, nothing has been set right, but it remains naked and marred in its nature, in much filth.

For this soul has been called a temple of God and a dwelling place and the bride of the King;

“I will dwell in them and walk about among them.”

Thus God was well-pleased, that, having come down from the holy heavens, he took to himself your rational nature, the flesh that is from the earth, and mingled it with his divine Spirit, that you also, the man of dust, might receive the heavenly soul.

And when your soul has fellowship with the Spirit and a heavenly soul enters into your soul, then you are a perfect man in God, and an heir and a son.

And just as the greatness of God and his incomprehensibility neither the ages above nor those below can contain, so again the subtlety of God, and how he makes himself small among the small and minute, neither the worlds above nor the earthly ones are able to comprehend.

For just as his greatness is incomprehensible, so too is his subtlety.

And it comes to pass that he dispenses for you to be in afflictions and sufferings and stigmata, and the things you think are adverse, these come about for the sake of your soul.

If you wish to be in the world and to be rich, misfortune meets you.

You begin to reason within yourself: “Since I have not prospered in the world, I will go away and at least renounce it and serve God.”

Then, coming here, you hear the commandment that says: “Sell what you possess, hate fleshly fellowship, serve God”;

then you begin to give thanks for your misfortune in the world, that “through this occasion I am found obedient to the commandment of Christ.”

So then, in part, in things visible, you have changed your mind and withdrawn from the world and from fleshly fellowship;

thus, then, you ought also to be changed in your mind, from a fleshly mind-set to a heavenly mind-set.

Henceforth, at that very hearing, you begin to exercise discernment, and you no longer have rest, but only the care and the toil, that you may acquire what you have heard.

And when you think you have done everything, having renounced all, the Lord reasons with you,

saying: Why do you boast? Did I not create your body and your soul? Did I not make the gold and the silver? What have you done? Then the soul begins to confess and to entreat the Lord, and to say that all things are yours:

the house I dwell in is yours;

from you I am nourished, and by you I am provided for in every need.

Then the Lord begins to say in answer to these things:

I thank you; your possessions are your own, your good will is your own;

and because of your love toward Me, since you have fled to Me for refuge, come now, henceforth I will give you what neither you have yet acquired nor men on earth possess.

Take Me, your Lord, together with your soul, that you may be forever with Me, rejoicing and exulting.

For just as a woman betrothed to a man brings to him out of great love all her possessions and her whole dowry, casting them into the hands of her husband, and says this:

I have nothing of my own; what is mine is yours, and the dowry is yours, and my soul and my body are yours — so also the chaste soul is a virgin to the Lord, sharing in His Holy Spirit.

But you must, just as He Himself came to earth and suffered and was crucified, also suffer with Him.

For when you withdraw from the world and begin to seek God and to discern, then you do battle with your nature, in its old habits and the custom with which you were born and bred.

And in battling against habit you find thoughts that oppose you and contend with your mind, and the thoughts drag you and toss you about, back to whence you came, to the visible world.

Then you begin to wage a struggle and a war, setting thoughts against thoughts, mind against mind, soul against soul, spirit against spirit.

And then it is that the soul agonizes there.

For there is revealed a certain hidden and subtle power of darkness, seated in the heart.

Yet for a while He allows you to be disciplined, and grace dispenses you even into those very afflictions.

And when you come to rest, it makes itself known to you and shows you that it was for your benefit that it permitted you to be exercised.

Just as when there is a rich man's child who has a tutor, for a time the tutor torments him with whips, and the discipline and the wounds and the blows seem heavy, until he becomes a man;

but then he begins to give thanks to the tutor — so also grace disciplines you according to its dispensation, until you arrive at the perfect man.

The farmer casts the seed everywhere, and he who plants a vineyard wishes that all of it should bear fruit;

so then he brings out the sickle, and if he finds no fruit, he is grieved.

Thus also the Lord wishes His word to be sown in the hearts of men.

But just as the farmer is grieved over the barren field, so also the Lord is grieved over the barren heart that bears no fruit.

Just as the winds blow everywhere over all creation, and just as the sun shines upon the whole inhabited world, so the Godhead is everywhere and is found everywhere.

If you seek Him in the heavens, there He is found, in the thoughts of the angels;

if you seek Him on earth, here too He is found, in the hearts of men.

But out of many, few are found to be Christians well-pleasing to Him.

Glory and majesty to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit unto the ages.

And thus, both when one ought to keep silence and when one ought to cry out and pray with a loud voice, only let the mind be firmly fixed upon God.

For just as the body, when it works at anything, is wholly occupied throughout, intent upon the work, and all its members help one another, so also let the whole soul be given wholly throughout to its petition and love toward the Lord, not wandering and carried about by thoughts, but as far as is in its power striving and gathering itself together with all its thoughts, devoted in expectation to Christ.

And thus He Himself will shine forth, teaching true petition, granting pure spiritual prayer worthy of God, and the worship in spirit and in truth.

Just as he who has taken up the trade of commerce does not have a single-track scheme for profit, but is eager to increase and multiply his gain from every side, passing from one device to another and running from there to yet another resource, and ever leaping away from what yielded nothing and running toward what is more profitable — so let us too furnish our soul variously and skillfully, that we may gain the true and great gain, even God, who teaches us to pray in truth.

For thus the Lord will rest upon the good disposition of the soul, making it a throne of glory, sitting upon it and resting upon it.

For thus we have heard from Ezekiel the prophet concerning the spiritual living creatures yoked to the chariot of the Master;

for he presents them to us as full of eyes, even as the soul that bears God — or rather is borne by God — is;

for it becomes wholly an eye.

And just as a house, having its master present, is full of all good order and beauty and seemliness, so also the soul that has its Master present with it and abiding in it is full of all beauty;

for it has the Lord with His spiritual treasures dwelling within and as its charioteer.

But the soul without Him is full of uncleanness and disorder;

there, according to the prophet, sirens and demons dwell;

for in the desolate house there are wildcats and dogs and all uncleanness.

Woe to the soul that does not rise up from its grievous fall and receive the good Householder, Christ, as its indwelling guest, but remains in its uncleanness, having within itself those who persuade and compel it to bear enmity against its own Bridegroom, and who desire to corrupt its thoughts away from Christ.

But when the Lord sees that it gathers itself together as far as it is able, ever seeking the Lord and waiting for Him night and day and crying out to Him, as He commanded us to pray without ceasing in everything, He will execute its vindication as He promised, cleansing it from the evil within it, and He Himself will present it to Himself a bride without blemish and without spot.

If then you believe these things to be true, as indeed they are, take heed to yourself, whether your soul has found the light that guides it and the true food and drink, which is the Lord.

But if you have not, seek night and day, that you may receive.

When therefore you see the sun, seek the true Sun;

when you behold light, look into your soul, whether you have found the true and good Light;

for all visible things are a shadow of the true realities of the soul.

For besides the visible man there is another man within, and eyes which Satan has blinded, and ears which he has deafened;

and Jesus came to make this inner man whole.

To whom be the glory and the might, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages.

Just as the bodily eyes see all things clearly, so also to the souls of the saints the beauties of the Godhead are manifest and visible, into which Christians are mingled and toward which they are minded.

But to the bodily eyes that glory is hidden, while to the believing soul it is clearly revealed — the soul which the Lord, when it was dead, raises up from sin, just as He raises also the dead bodies, preparing for it a new heaven and a new earth and a sun of righteousness, giving it all things out of His own Godhead.

There is a true world, and a living earth, and a fruitful vine, and the bread of life, and living water, as it is written:

I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living; and again:

Unto those who fear the Lord shall arise the sun of righteousness, with healing in its wings; and the Lord said:

I am the true vine; and again:

I am the bread of life; and again:

He who drinks of the water that I shall give him, in him it shall become a spring of water leaping up unto eternal life.

For the whole coming of the Lord took place for the sake of man, who had been put to death in the tomb of darkness, of sin, of the unclean spirit and of evil powers, that in this present age He might now raise him up and quicken him, and cleanse him from all blackness, and enlighten him with His own light, and clothe him with His own heavenly garments of the Godhead.

But at the resurrection of the bodies — whose souls have already risen and been glorified beforehand — then the bodies too are glorified together with, and enlightened by, the soul that has been enlightened and glorified from now.

for their house and tabernacle and city is the Lord.

And they are clothed with the dwelling from heaven, the one not made with hands, the glory of divine light, having become children of light.

They will not regard one another with an evil eye;

there is no male and female there, slave and free, for all are transformed into a divine nature, having become Christs and gods and children of God.

There, without shame, brother will then speak peace to sister;

for all, men and women, are one in Christ.

Resting, each will give heed to the other, and in giving heed they will straightway again shine forth into truth, into the true vision of unutterable light.

Thus in many forms and in many and varied divine glories they behold one another, and each is amazed and exults with unspeakable exultation as he gazes upon the glory of the other.

Do you see how the glories of God are inexpressible and incomprehensible, being of unutterable light and eternal mysteries and innumerable good things?

For just as among visible things it is impossible for anyone to grasp by number the plants or seeds or the varied flowers of the earth, and impossible for anyone to measure or know all the riches of the earth; or as in the sea it is impossible for any man to grasp the living creatures in it, whether their number or their kinds or their differences, or the measure of its water or the extent of its place; or as in the air it is impossible to know the number of the birds or their kinds or their variety; or as it is impossible to grasp the magnitude of heaven or the positions of the stars or their course — so it is impossible to tell or to declare the boundless and incomprehensible riches of Christians.

For if these created things are so infinite and incomprehensible to men, how much more is He who created and fashioned them!

One ought therefore the more to exult and rejoice, that such riches and inheritance have been prepared for Christians, so that no one can tell or declare them.

With all diligence, therefore, and humility one must approach the struggle of Christians and lay hold of those riches;

for the inheritance and portion of Christians is God Himself;

for the Lord says: The portion of my inheritance and of my cup.

Glory to Him who gives Himself and mingles His holy nature with the souls of Christians, unto the ages.

In the shadow of the law given through Moses, God commanded each one to rest on the Sabbath and to do nothing.

But this was a type and shadow of the true Sabbath given to the soul by the Lord.

For the soul counted worthy of the true Sabbath ceases and rests from shameful and filthy thoughts, and keeps a true Sabbath and rests a true rest, ceasing and being freed from all dark works.

For there, on the typical Sabbath, though they rested bodily, yet their souls were bound to wickednesses and vices.

But this true Sabbath is the true rest of a soul that ceases and is cleansed from the reasonings of Satan and rests in the Lord's eternal rest and joy.

For just as then He commanded even the irrational animals to rest on the Sabbath — the ox not to be dragged under the yoke of compulsion, the ass not to be loaded (for the animals too rested from heavy labors) — so the Lord, having come and given the true and eternal Sabbath, gave rest to the soul weighed down and burdened with loads of lawlessness and unclean reasonings, working works of iniquity under compulsion, as one enslaved under bitter masters, and He relieved it of the unbearable burdens of vain and filthy reasonings.