For that he did not remain in death; and that he made the blows inflicted upon the body by the iron no impediment to his being; and that he appeared, after the resurrection, to the disciples at will, being present with them unseen when he wished, and coming to be in their midst with no need of entrance through the doors; and that he strengthened the disciples by the in-breathing of the Spirit, and promised to be with them, and to be walled off by no intervening barrier; and that to the visible eye he ascended to heaven, while to the understanding he is everywhere—and whatever such things history contains, needs nothing of the support drawn from reasonings in order to be divine and of the lofty and surpassing power.
But since a certain part of the mystical teachings is also the dispensation concerning the washing—which, whether one wishes to name it baptism or illumination or regeneration, we dispute nothing as to the name—it would be well to go through a few things also concerning this.
For whenever they hear such a thing from us—that, the mortal passing over to life, it was consistent that, since the first birth brings into a mortal life, another birth should be found out, beginning neither from corruption nor ending in corruption, but bringing the one born into immortal life, so that, just as from a mortal birth the one born necessarily came into being mortal, so from that which does not admit corruption the one born might become superior to the corruption from death;
whenever, then, they hear these and such things, and are previously taught the manner—that prayer to God, and the invocation of heavenly grace, and water, and faith, are the things through which the mystery of regeneration is fulfilled—they are hard to persuade, looking to what appears, as though what is performed bodily did not accord with the promise.
For how, they say, does prayer and the invocation of divine power upon the water become the author of life to those initiated? To whom, if indeed they should not be too resistant, a simple argument suffices to bring them to assent to the doctrine.
For let us ask in turn, the manner of birth according to the flesh being evident to all, how that which is cast down for the occasion of the constitution of the living being becomes man.
For what has the definition of man in common, when compared with the quality contemplated in that? Man is a rational and intellectual thing, receptive of mind and knowledge;
Whatever answer, then, is likely to be given to us by those questioned—as to how it is credible that a man is constituted from that—this same answer we too, being questioned concerning the regeneration that comes about through water, will give.
For there too it is ready to hand for each of those questioned to say that by divine power that becomes man, in whose absence that thing is motionless and inactive.
If, then, there it is not the underlying matter that makes the man, but the divine power transforms what appears into the nature of man, it would be of the utmost senselessness, while there attributing to God so great a power, to suppose that in this matter the Deity is too feeble for the accomplishment of its will.
"What has water in common with life?" they say. And what, we shall say to them, has moisture in common with the image of God? But there is nothing strange there, if, God willing, the liquid passes over into the most honored of living beings.
For it having been shown that the one manifested in flesh was God, who through the miracles that came to pass displayed his own nature, there was demonstrated together with it that he is present at the things performed at every season of invocation.
For just as there is for each of the things that exist a certain property that makes its nature known, so it is proper to the divine nature to be truth.
But surely he has promised always to be present to those who call upon him, and to be in the midst of those who believe, and to remain in all and to be with each one.
No longer, then, should we need any other proof for the Deity's being present at the things performed—having believed that he is God through the miracles themselves, and knowing that it is proper to the Deity to be unmixed with falsehood, and not doubting that, in the truthfulness of the promise, the thing promised is present.
And that the calling through prayer precedes the divine dispensation is a certain superabundance of the proof that what is being worked is accomplished according to God.
For if, in the other kind of human procreation, the impulses of the begetters—even if the Deity be not invoked by them through prayer—form the one being born by the power of God, as was said before, in whose absence the effort is ineffective and profitless, how much more, in the spiritual manner of birth—God both having promised to be present at the things performed and having implanted his own power in the work, as we have believed, and our free choice having its impulse toward what is earnestly pursued—if the assistance through prayer be fittingly taken along, will the thing pursued be the more accomplished? For just as those who pray to God that the sun may shine upon them in no way blunt what comes to pass in any case, nor will anyone say that the zeal of those who pray is useless, if they entreat God concerning what will assuredly be, so those who have been persuaded, according to the unlying promise of the One who promised, that grace is by all means present to those regenerated through this mystical dispensation, either make some addition to the grace, or do not turn away the grace that is present.
For since the manner of our salvation became effective not so much by the instruction of teaching as through the very things which he did who took upon himself fellowship with man, having by deed wrought life, so that through the flesh taken up by him and deified together with him all that is kindred and of the same race with it might be saved together—it was necessary that some manner should be devised in which there should be a certain kinship and likeness, in the things performed, of the follower toward the leader.
It is needful, then, to see in what things the leader of our life was contemplated, so that, as the apostle says, according to the author of our salvation the imitation may be rightly accomplished by the followers.
For just as those instructed in tactics for skill in arms are led up to it—they who are trained, through the things they watch, toward the rhythmic and armed movement—while the one who does not do what is shown remains without share in such skill, in the same way for the one who guides toward our salvation, all in whom there is an equal zeal for the good are alike under necessity to follow by imitation, bringing into deed what was shown by him.
Those who, being unable to find their way through the wanderings of labyrinths, if they should chance upon someone experienced, following behind him pass through the varied and deceptive turnings of the passages—which they would not have passed through, had they not followed step by step the one going before—so consider to me also that the labyrinth of this life is impassable to human nature, unless one should take the same way by which the one who came to be in it stood outside of what encompasses it.
What, then, is the device through which the imitation of what was done by him is fulfilled also in us? Everything that has been put to death has a certain proper and natural place, the earth, in which it is laid and hidden away.
And earth and water have much kinship with one another, being alone of the elements heavy and downward-tending, and remaining in one another and held fast by one another.
Since, then, the death of the leader of our life came to be under the earth according to the common nature, the imitation of the death which is performed by us is figured in the neighboring element.
And as that Man from above, having taken on the deadness, after the placing under the earth, on the third day ran back again to life, so everyone who is joined to him according to the nature of the body, looking toward the same achievement—I mean the end that is according to life—pouring water over himself instead of earth, and sinking under the element in three immersions, imitated the grace of the three-day resurrection.
And such a thing has been said also in what preceded—that according to a dispensation death was brought upon human nature by the divine providence, so that, vice having flowed out in the dissolution of body and soul, man might again, through the resurrection, be re-constituted whole and free from passion and uncorrupted and alien to all admixture with vice.
But in the case of the leader of our salvation, the dispensation according to death had its perfection, having been completely fulfilled according to its proper aim.
For the things united were separated through death, and the things separated were again brought together, so that, nature having been cleansed in the dissolution of the things naturally joined—I mean soul and body—the return again of the things separated might come to be pure from the alien admixture;
but in the case of those who follow the leader, nature does not admit the exact imitation throughout, but, having now received as much as it is able, reserves the remainder for the time thereafter.
What, then, is it that it imitates? To work, in the image of the deadness brought about through the water, the doing away of the mingled vice—not indeed a perfect doing away, but a certain interruption of the continuity of the evil, two things having concurred toward the abolition of vice: the repentance of the one who has trespassed and the imitation of death—through which the man is in a way loosed from the natural growth toward evil, advancing by repentance into hatred of and estrangement from vice, and by death working the doing away of evil.
But if it were possible for the one imitating to come to be in perfect death, what came to pass would no longer be imitation, but identity, and evil would be utterly done away from our nature, so that, as the apostle says, one should die once for all to sin.
But since, as has been said, we imitate the surpassing power only so far as the poverty of our nature has room, pouring the water thrice over ourselves and again coming up from the water, we enact the saving burial and resurrection which came to pass in the three-day period of time, taking this to mind: that, as it is in our power both to come to be in the water and again to rise up out of it, so it was in the power of the One who holds the sovereignty over the universe—as we in the water, so he, having gone down into death, again to return to his own blessedness.
If, then, anyone should look to what is likely, and judge the things that come to pass according to the power in each, he will find in the things that come to pass no
For just as water is at hand for a man, that he may touch it without danger if he wishes, so death lies ready, with immeasurably greater ease, to the divine power, both to enter into it and not to be turned aside into suffering.
For this reason, then, it was necessary for us to rehearse beforehand in the water the grace of the resurrection, so that we might know that it is equally easy for us both to be baptized in water and to rise up again out of death.
But just as among the things that occur in life some are more foundational than others—things without which the result could not be accomplished, even though, if the beginning be judged by its end, the beginning seems to be nothing of the matter when compared with the end—
for what comparison is there between a man and that which is laid down for the constitution of the living being? And yet, unless that existed, neither would this come to be—
And I say that man cannot come to be in the resurrection apart from the regeneration that takes place in the laver—not looking to the refashioning and re-elementing of our composite frame;
for to this nature must by all means proceed, driven by its own necessities according to the dispensation of Him who appointed it, whether it has received the grace from the laver or has remained without a share in such initiation;
For not all who receive their return to existence again through the resurrection come back to the same kind of life; rather, there is a great difference between those who have been purified and those who still stand in need of purification.
But for those upon whom the passions have grown hard, and to whom no cleansing of the stain has been applied—neither the mystical water, nor the invocation of the divine power, nor the correction that comes from repentance—it is altogether necessary that these too come into that which is suited to them.
And suited to debased gold is the smelting-furnace, so that, the evil mingled in them being melted away after long ages, nature may be preserved pure for God.
Since, then, there is a certain cleansing power in fire and in water, those who have washed away the filth of evil through the mystical water do not need the other kind of purification;
For that it is not possible—both common reason and the teaching of the Scriptures show this—for one to come within the divine choir who has not purely washed away all the stains arising from evil.
For what toil is there in the matter—to believe that God is everywhere, and being in all things, is present also to those who call upon His life-giving power, and being present, does what is proper to Him? And it is proper to the divine activity to bring salvation to those in need.
1:621
αὕτηδὲδιὰτῆςἐνὕδατικαθάρσεωςἐνεργὸςγίνεται
這拯救乃是藉著水中的潔淨而生效。
And this becomes operative through the cleansing in water.
Do you see how small and easy to accomplish is that which lies at the beginning—faith and water; the one lying within our own free choice, the other being the natural companion of human life?
But since the human being is twofold, compounded of soul and body, it is necessary that those who are being saved should lay hold of the One who leads to life by means of both.
For just as those who have taken poison by treachery quench its destructive power by another drug, and it is necessary that, like the deadly thing, the antidote too should come within the human inward parts, so that through them the power of the remedy may be distributed throughout the whole body—so too, having tasted of that which dissolves our nature, we again necessarily had need of that which gathers together what had been dissolved, so that such an antidote, coming to be within us, might by its own counter-action drive out the injury of the poison previously introduced into the body.
For just as a little leaven, as the apostle says, assimilates the whole lump to itself, so the Body that was made immortal by God, coming to be within ours, transforms and translates the whole to itself.
For as, when the destructive thing is mixed with the healthy, the whole that was commingled is rendered useless, so too the immortal Body, coming to be in the one who has received it, transformed the whole also into its own nature.
But indeed it is not otherwise possible for anything to come to be within the body, except by being mingled with the inward parts through eating and drinking.
But since that God-receiving Body alone received this grace, while it has been shown otherwise impossible for our body to come to be in immortality unless it comes to share in incorruption through communion with the immortal, it is fitting to consider how it became possible for that one Body, distributed forever among so many myriads of the faithful throughout the whole inhabited world, to come to be whole in each one through the portion, and itself to remain whole in itself.
Accordingly, in order that our faith, looking to what follows, may have no doubt concerning the proposition before us, it is fitting to delay the discourse a little upon the natural constitution of the body.
For who does not know that the nature of our body has no life in itself in any individual subsistence, but holds itself together and continues in existence through the power that flows into it, by ceaseless motion drawing to itself what is lacking and thrusting away what is superfluous? And just as a wineskin full of some liquid, if the contents should escape at the bottom, would not keep the shape about its bulk unless another came in from above to replace what was being emptied—so that one who beheld the swollen compass of this vessel might know that it does not belong properly to what appears, but that what flows in, coming to be within it, gives shape to that which contains the mass—
so too the structure of our body has nothing of its own that is known to us for its own subsistence, but continues in existence through the power that is introduced into it.
And for the maintenance and preservation of moisture, drink is provided—not water alone, but often water sweetened with wine, as an ally to the heat within us.
for those things, coming to be in me, become blood and body, the food being suitably transformed into the form of the body through the assimilative power.
For the question was, how that one Body of Christ gives life to the whole nature of men, in as many as have faith, being distributed to all and itself not diminished.
1:648
τάχατοίνυνἐγγὺςτοῦεἰκότοςλόγουγινόμεθα
那麼，或許我們如今已接近合理的解釋了。
Perhaps, then, we are coming near to the likely account.
The subsistence comes from nourishment, and this is food and drink; and in the food is bread, and in the drink water sweetened with wine. But the Word of God—who, as was distinguished in what was said at the first, is both God and Word—was commingled with human nature, and coming to be in our body, introduced no other strange constitution into the nature, but gave continuance to His own body through the customary and suitable means, sustaining its subsistence by food and drink; and the food was bread.
Just as, then, in our case—as has already been often said—he who sees bread sees, in a certain manner, the human body, because that bread, coming to be in this, becomes this; so too there the God-receiving Body, having received the nourishment of bread, was in a certain sense identical with it, the food, as has been said, being transformed into the nature of the body.
For that which is common to all was acknowledged also concerning that flesh: that by bread too that Body was sustained, and the Body, by the indwelling of God the Word, was transformed unto the divine dignity.
and here likewise the bread, as the apostle says, is sanctified through the word of God and prayer—not advancing through eating to become the Body of the Word, but immediately transformed into the Body through the Word, as it was said by the Word, 'This is my body.'
1:657
πάσηςδὲσαρκὸςκαὶδιὰτοῦὑγροῦτρεφομένης·
又因一切肉身也是藉著水分得滋養——
And since all flesh is nourished also through moisture—
just as by solid and resistant food we support the solid part of the body, in the same manner we make the addition to the moist part also from nature of the same kind, which, coming to be in us, is by the assimilative power turned into blood—and especially if it receives, through wine, the power for transformation into heat.
Since, then, that God-receiving flesh also received this part for its own constitution, and the God who was made manifest, for this reason mingled Himself with our perishable nature—that by communion with the Godhead the human might be deified together with it—for this cause He sows Himself, through the flesh whose constitution is of wine and bread, into all who have believed in the dispensation of grace, blending Himself with the bodies of the believers, so that by union with the immortal man too might become a partaker of incorruption.
I think that nothing of what is sought concerning the mystery is lacking in what has been said, except the account concerning faith, which we shall set forth but briefly in the present treatise as well.
But to those who seek the more complete account, we have already set it forth beforehand in other labors, having there unfolded the argument with all accuracy by the diligence in our power, in which we both contended in debate against our opponents and considered by ourselves the questions brought to us.
But for the present discourse, we thought it well to say so much concerning faith as the voice of the Gospel comprises: namely, that he who is born according to the spiritual rebirth should know from whom he is begotten and what kind of living being he becomes;
For the rest of the things that are born come into being by the impulse of those who beget them, but the spiritual birth is dependent upon the authority of the one being born.
Since, then, the danger lies in this—in not failing of what is profitable, the choice being set before everyone in accordance with his authority—I say it is well that the one hastening to his own birth
Since, then, things are divided into two, into the created and the uncreated, and the uncreated nature possesses in itself the unchangeable and immutable, while the creation is altered toward change—the one who chooses by reasoning what is profitable, of which will he rather choose to become a child: of that which is contemplated in change, or of that which possesses its nature unchangeable, fixed, and ever the same in the good? Since, then, in the Gospel three Persons and names are handed down through which the birth comes to those who believe, and the one begotten in the Trinity is equally begotten of Father and Son and Holy Spirit—
for thus the Gospel says concerning the Spirit, that 'That which is born of the Spirit is spirit' (John 3:6); and Paul begets in Christ; and 'The Father is Father of all.'
Here let the hearer's mind be sober, lest it make itself the offspring of the unstable nature, when it is possible to make the unchangeable and unalterable the author of one's own life.
For according to the disposition of the heart of the one approaching the dispensation, the thing accomplished also has its power: so that he who confesses the Holy Trinity as uncreated enters into the unchangeable and unalterable life, while he who beholds in the Trinity the created nature through a deceived supposition, and is then baptized into it, is again begotten into the changeable and altering life;