神學與倫理章句 第 1 章 第 18/27 段

A certain man, serving a rebel who was an adversary and enemy of the emperor of the Christians, and winning many trophies and performing feats of valor against his servants, was held in the highest honor by that tyrant and by the troops under him; he was sent word repeatedly by the emperor of the Christians to come and be with him, and to be deemed worthy of great gifts, and to reign together with him.

But he was unwilling for some time, and from then on rather stirred up the war against him even more fiercely.

Then one day, coming to himself and repenting, he resolved to take flight and go alone to the emperor, reasoning within himself thus: "Even though up to now I have not obeyed the emperor when he sent word to me, yet I believe that, now that I am returning, the delay of so many years and my slowness will not be held against me, because he is, as I hear, compassionate and a lover of good; he will have compassion on me, and will fulfill for me all that he promised."

So then, as he reasoned these things from his heart, he also put them into action;

coming to the emperor and taking hold of his feet, he begged for forgiveness with weeping.

Him that good emperor, immediately seized with unexpected joy, received; and he marveled at this man's change and humiliation -- though instead of lying there lamenting his slowness and the evils he had formerly done, this man ought rather to have been bold and to have demanded honors for the love and faith he had shown by abandoning the rebel and coming over to his kingdom. But the emperor, raising him up, fell upon his neck and kissed him all over, and his weeping eyes, for many hours.

Then, having ordered that a crown and a robe and sandals like those he himself wore be brought, he himself with his own hands clothed his former enemy and adversary, reproaching him not at all;

and not this alone, but rejoicing with him and making merry with him night and day, embracing him and kissing him mouth to mouth, he loved him so exceedingly that he would not even be parted from him while he slept, but reclined together with him and embraced him upon the bed, covering him on every side with his own cloak, and laying his own face upon all his limbs.

Such too is our relationship with God, and I know that God, who loves the good, receives and loves those who repent in just this manner, who flee the deceitful world and the ruler of this world, and who come to him, as to a king and God, stripped of the affairs of this life -- unless indeed it seems burdensome to some to leave the mother who bore them and to renounce their own friends and relatives and to let go of perishable wealth; since I myself, for my part, found nothing burdensome or grievous or oppressive when I fled for refuge to God, my Savior.

But if I must tell you the truth, and lay bare to your love things I did not wish to make plain to all -- that I might give some benefit to some of you -- rather, in every distress and affliction and what is thought to be hardship, I saw joy and gladness overflowing abundantly in me, through the revelation and manifestation of his face, so that in me was clearly fulfilled the saying of Paul that speaks thus:

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding weight of glory"; and that of David:

"When I was in distress, you gave me room" -- so that henceforth I counted the afflictions and temptations that came upon me as nothing in comparison with the glory of Jesus Christ, which is not future but revealed to me immediately through the Holy Spirit; by participation in and vision of which glory I counted as nothing even sicknesses unto death, and whatever other more unbearable pain arises for men through sufferings, forgetting all pain and grief of the body;

thus from that very moment I reckoned the burden of the commandments light and the yoke of the Lord easy; but in not finding some occasion to die for his sake speedily, this, believe me, was an unbearable affliction to me.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, let us leave all things behind and run stripped, and coming to Christ our Master, let us fall down and weep before his goodness, so that he too, beholding our faith and humility, may receive and honor us in like manner -- or rather, even more greatly -- and adorn us with his own robe and diadem, and make us worthy guests at the heavenly bridal chamber.

For it is not equal to come from one perishable king to another perishable king and to attain an earthly kingdom, and to ascend from earth to the heavens and be deemed worthy of eternal glory and an imperishable kingdom, and to become a fellow-heir and fellow-partaker with God, and not only to become a king but even to become a god from God, and to rejoice together with God unto ages of ages.

Let us not, then, prefer anything earthly and perishable, I beg you, brothers, lest we fall short of the glory and communion of Christ; but let us, purifying ourselves already from this present time, be eager to receive the pledges -- or rather, to acquire that One himself, who is over all and in all and is every good thing.

I myself received Christ from holy baptism and have him; but let each one learn that not all who are baptized receive Christ through baptism, but only those who are firm in faith and who have prepared themselves either with perfect knowledge or with prior purification, and who thus come to baptism.

And whoever searches the Scriptures will know this from the words and deeds of the apostles;

Now when the apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who, going down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit;

for as yet the Spirit had fallen upon none of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Do you see how not all who are baptized immediately receive the Holy Spirit?

they had need of the laying on of the apostles' hands;

for in receiving the Holy Spirit, they were receiving the Lord Jesus.

For Christ is not one thing and the Spirit another;

if, then, Christ is God, he is spirit according to the nature of the Godhead, and he who has him has the Holy Spirit;

and he who has the Spirit, in turn has the Lord himself, just as Paul also says:

"Now the Lord is the Spirit."

We must, therefore, brothers, examine ourselves and carefully consider our own souls, whether we have received the Lord Jesus who was proclaimed to us in the gospel, and whether we possess him within ourselves, so that, as the evangelist John says, we may know whether we have received from him the authority to become children of God.

Let each one, therefore, pay attention to what is said by the holy Scriptures, and examine himself, as we have said, lest, vainly deceiving his own mind, thinking himself to be a believer, he be found an unbeliever, and, imagining that he has the Lord within himself, he depart from the body empty, and be condemned as having nothing, having even what he seems to have taken away from him, and be cast into the fire.

How then shall we know whether Christ is in us, and how shall we thoroughly understand ourselves?

By gathering up the sayings from the divine Scriptures and setting them like mirrors before our souls, let us in them come to know ourselves fully.

But let us raise our discourse higher, and, God granting speech at the opening of my unclean mouth, I shall set forth for you, my brothers, in some measure the manner of understanding.

For the discourse concerns fearful things.

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;'

'the same was in the beginning with God.'

'In him was life, and the life was the light of men;'

'and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.'

Having said these things, then, he made known the undivided Trinity, calling the Father God, the Son Word, (and) the Holy Spirit life, which three are also one light shining in the darkness.

By this he certainly means: in the creation of things that are seen.

for God is present to everyone and everywhere, being light and shining;

and 'the darkness did not overcome him' means instead this:

the defilement of sin never approached him at all, nor did creation hinder him from shining, nor did it know him, nor find him, nor was united to him, nor did it see him.

Therefore, repeating the same thought in order to make it clear, he added and said:

'That was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world;'

'he was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.'

From the beginning, he says, God was everywhere, giving life to every man coming into the world, and even before making the world he was in the world.

For all things had already subsisted with him and in him beforehand;

for those not yet born exist with God not as though not being, but as though already having come to be.

Then, having made the world, he says, he was not separated from the world by place, but was in it, 'and the world did not know him.'

How then was he everywhere before making the world, and, having made the world, was in the world shining, and yet the world did not comprehend him?

He who is everywhere present and fills all things was not separated by place, he says, when God brought forth this sensible world, but remained so by the nature and glory of his divinity, since clearly nothing among the things that came into being approached him or comprehended him at all;

for being inseparable from all things, he is manifestly present in all things.

'And no one knows him,' he says, 'except the Son, and to whomever the Son wills to reveal him.'

This one, then, being in the world and unknown by the world, 'came unto his own, and his own received him not.'

He called the world and those who are in the world his own, both because he is their creator and master, and because of kinship according to the flesh.

He enlightens man — he who, before the world, was in the world, and made the world, and exists in it, and is unknown by the world and not comprehended by it — came, embodied, into the world, so that to those who receive him in faith as God, and keep his commandments, and take up the cross, he might be revealed as God and known as he is: now indeed but moderately, according as each is able to receive, but in the resurrection more clearly.

'For as many as received him,' he says, 'to them he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name; who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'

'And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.'

Behold, these words are the mirror of which I spoke to you beforehand.

And observe for me the precision of the gospel words, how clearly it teaches us the marks of the faithful, so that each of us may recognize both himself and his neighbor.

'But as many as received him,' he says — that is, those who through faith confessed him to be God, and not merely man — he gave them authority through baptism to become children of God, freeing them from the tyranny of the devil, so that they might not only be believers, but, if they should be willing to walk in his commandments, might also acquire holiness in addition through the practice of the commandments, as he says elsewhere:

'Be holy, for I am holy'; and again:

'Be merciful, as your heavenly Father also is merciful.'

Then after these things he also makes clear the manner of adoption, saying:

'Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'

Here he calls 'birth' the spiritual transformation which is worked and perceived in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord himself, who cannot lie, says thus:

'John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'

In this, then, those who are baptized become, as it were, light within light, and come to know the one who begot them;

But that baptism alone is not sufficient for us unto salvation, but that partaking of the flesh of Jesus — who is both God and man — and of his precious blood is more intimate and more necessary for us, hear what follows:

'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.'

And that these words signify this, hear the Lord saying here:

'He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.'

For once this has come to pass — we having been baptized spiritually by the all-holy Spirit and having become children of God, and the incarnate Word having dwelt in us as light through the partaking of his immaculate body and blood — we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father.

Having been born, he says, by him and of him spiritually, and he having dwelt bodily in us, and we having come to dwell in him knowingly, then, at that very moment, at that very hour when these things came to pass, we beheld the glory of his divinity, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, such as clearly no one else possesses — neither angel nor man.

For since the Father is one God, and his only-begotten Son is likewise one, the glory of both is one, made known and revealed to all to whom the Son wills, through the Spirit who proceeds from the Father.

Therefore let each of you, brothers, bending his own mind toward the power of these words, examine himself,

not by word alone, but in deed, of grace and truth.

Let us abide, brothers, in this mirror of truth, and let us stand apart from the harmful and heretical teaching and suspicion of those who say that the glory of the divinity of the Lord Jesus is not now revealed in us the faithful through the gift of the Holy Spirit;

for the gift is given in revelation, and the revelation is effected through the gift.

Therefore no one receives the Holy Spirit without it being revealed and seen noetically; nor does anyone see revelation unless he is illumined in the Holy Spirit; nor can anyone be called a perfect believer unless he receives the Spirit of God, just as Christ said to the Samaritan woman:

'Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but it will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.'

And this, the evangelist says, he spoke concerning the Spirit, which those who believed in him were about to receive.

Do you see how those who do not have the Spirit working and speaking within themselves are unbelievers?

For Christ cannot lie, because he committed no sin, nor was guile found in his mouth.

If, then, he says that he gives the Spirit to those who believe in him, then surely those who do not have the Spirit are not believers from the heart.

But if anyone should say that each of us believers receives and possesses this unknowingly and insensibly, he blasphemes, making Christ — who said, 'It will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life' — out to be a liar; and again he said:

'He who believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.'

If, then, the fountain gushes forth, surely the river too, as it goes out and flows down, is seen by those who look;

but if these things, according to those who think this way, work in us unknowingly, with none of us perceiving them at all, it is clear that we would receive no perception at all even of the eternal life that accompanies them and abides in us, nor would we behold the light of the Holy Spirit, but would remain dead, blind, and insensible, just as now, so also then;

and thus, according to them, our hope has become vain and our race is run for nothing, since we remain in death and receive no perception of eternal life.

But it is not so, it is not; but rather what I have often said, and will say again, and will never cease to say:

The Father is light, the Son is light, the Holy Spirit is light: one light, timeless, undivided, unconfused, eternal, uncreated, without quantity, without need, invisible, as being outside all things and above all things both in existence and in conception — which no man was ever able to behold before being purified, nor did he receive it before beholding it.

For many have seen it, yet did not possess it, like those deemed worthy to see a great treasure in the royal treasuries, and yet who departed empty-handed.

And if some give themselves wholly, even unto death, and seek it laboriously, presenting themselves worthy and blameless in all things before the Lord, they receive it again, returning to them in full;

but if they grow slightly negligent and refuse to cast themselves into greater labors, loving their own souls, they become unworthy of such a gift, and while still in the body they do not enter into eternal life;

and if not now, then clearly neither will they enter after the departure of the body.

For if the one who received the one talent and hid it was condemned because he did not multiply it, how much more will he be condemned who did not even keep what he received, but through negligence lost it.

Here, then, as all Scripture, being God-inspired, says, is the festival, here are the contests, and here to those who conquer are given the betrothal crowns of the prizes, while to those who are defeated the beginning of shame and punishment becomes evident and manifest.

And observe that both the holy Forty Martyrs and all others who bore witness for Christ testify together with this word.

For while still in that very lake of water, they received the crowns from the hand of God; but he who fled to the warm bath was straightway dissolved and departed to the eternal fire.

And Eustratius, renowned for virtue, being tormented for Christ's sake, said, 'Now I have known that I am a temple of God, and his Spirit dwells in me.'

Depart from me, all you workers of lawlessness.

If the senses of your mind had not been altered, and your soul had not been transformed toward the earthly by the mixture of the passions, I would have shown you that this crucified one is your Savior and Redeemer and Benefactor.

Do you see how faith without works is dead?

For before the saint entered into the contests of martyrdom, since he had faith alone, he did not have the Holy Spirit within himself; but when he demonstrated his faith by works, then he recognized himself as a temple of God and beheld with the eyes of his mind His Holy Spirit dwelling knowingly within himself.

What could be more manifest than this testimony?

But if some should say that those were martyrs, that they suffered for Christ, and how is it possible for us to become equal to them, we would say to them this: that you yourselves also, if indeed you wish, by suffering and being punished for Christ, will bear witness daily just as they did — not only by day, but also by night and at every hour.

If you also array yourselves against the destructive demons, if you always stand firm against sin and your own will.

For they contended against tyrants, but we contend against demons and the destructive passions of the flesh, which every day and night and hour assail our souls tyrannically and force us to do what does not belong to piety and what provokes God.

If, then, we stand firm against these things and do not bend the knee to Baal, nor be persuaded by the counsels of the evil demons, nor serve the flesh, making provision for it unto its desires, we too shall reasonably become martyrs, contending against sin, remembering indeed the martyrs and calling to mind the unbearable scourges they endured, and for this reason standing firm against the devil;

but also, looking to their labors and considering from the soul, and groaning, how far short we fall of their contest, let us be counted worthy of the same crowns as theirs — if not in quantity, then at least in quality, according to the goodness of God toward us from above; and even if we are not equal to them in boldness, yet we shall certainly be equal in endurance and in giving thanks amid the terrors of our labors.

For they, from the works and labors of contest, and we, from the works and labors of asceticism, hope to be saved — and the whole matter from the loving-kindness and grace of the Master;

they from the sweats and struggles of martyrdom, we from the tears and struggles of asceticism;

they from the shedding of their own blood, we from the cutting off of our own will, and by always standing firm and holding within ourselves the sentence of death, and awaiting death at every hour, readily stretching out our neck to die at every commandment of our Master and God rather than accept to transgress it even by a bare word.

For this reason, therefore, we all ought equally with them to despise present things, brothers.

For it is not, it is not possible for us all to receive the incorruptible things without abhorring the corruptible things as refuse, nor for those who cling to perishable things to gain the eternal things, nor for one whose heart is mastered even by a single, small passion to have Christ dwelling within through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

For God, brothers, as I shall say again, is light, just as He himself says:

'I am,' He says, 'the light of the world.'

and then also of us; and thus, according to you, has the whole world become dark?

But if you confess that He, in His divinity, is called the light of the world, how can you say that you do not see Him, and yet suppose that He is in you?

If Christ is the light of the world, then those who do not see Him are at once blind;

and if the Holy Spirit too is light, as indeed He is, how can you say you do not see Him, and yet suppose that He is in you without your knowing it?

But if you say that the Spirit is covered over in you by the passions, then, as one who does not know, you make the Divine to be something circumscribed and mastered by evil;

for an evil disposition is darkness even apart from bodily sin.

He, then, who says that he has the light in his own heart, covered over by the darkness of the passions and not seen by him, is saying that the light is being overpowered by the darkness;

and thereby he pronounces the Holy Spirit, who speaks as follows, to be lying:

'And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it' — this he declares to be false.

The Holy Spirit says that the light is not overcome by the darkness, and do you say that it is hidden away in you by the gloom of the passions?

Know yourself first, then, whoever you may be who says this — that you are clearly sinning knowingly;

for if you confess that the darkness of the passions has become a covering over the light within you, you already, in the first place, indict and accuse yourself, in that you know you are sitting in darkness and are enslaved to the passions; and though you received the power to become a child of God — that is, of the light — and to be styled a son of day, yet, being inactive and idle, you pass your time in night, unwilling to rise up to the working of God's commandments and to drive away the cloud of the passions, but instead, as though lying in mire — in your own filthy heart — you look past Him who came down from the heavens for your salvation, and He lies there neglected.

Out of your own mouth I will judge you, wicked servant, in that, though I came, as you yourself say, and dwelt within you — I who am inaccessible even to the ranks above — you, knowing this yourself, left me to lie under darkness, cut off from your own evils, even as you yourself say this;

and though I persevered for so long a time, awaiting your repentance and waiting for the working of my commandments, you were unwilling, even to the end, to seek me out even a little, nor did you have pity on me as I was being stifled and constrained within you, nor did you allow me to find you, the drachma that I had lost, but you left it so that I was not permitted to be kindled and to behold you and to be beheld by you, but rather to be perpetually covered over by the passions within you.

Depart, therefore, from me, worker of lawlessness, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, since I hungered for your turning back and repentance, and you gave me nothing to eat;

I thirsted for your salvation, and you gave me nothing to drink;

I was naked of your virtuous deeds, and you did not clothe me with them;

I was in the most cramped, filthy, and dark prison of your heart, and you were unwilling to visit me or to bring me out into the light;

You knew that I lay sick in the weakness of your listlessness and inactivity, and you did not minister to me through your good works and deeds.

These things, therefore, He will say — and indeed the Lord says even now — to those who say that they have the Holy Spirit within themselves, yet covered over and hidden by the darkness of their own passions, and not even seen by the noetic eyes of their soul.

But to those who say that they know Him, yet confess that they do not see the light of His divinity, He says this:

'If you had known me, you would have known me as light;'

'for I am truly the light of the world.'

For if He is the light of the world, and said to His apostles that He would be with us until the end of the age, how, since He is with us, will He come again?

dying in Him, we shall also live together with Him, as Paul says:

What the sun is to things perceptible, that God is to things intelligible.

For He himself will be the age to come, and the day without evening, and the kingdom of heaven, the bridal chamber and the bridal bower, and the land of the meek, and the divine paradise, and king and servant, just as He himself has thus said:

'Blessed are those servants whom the lord, when he comes, will find watching;'

'for truly I say to you, he will have them recline at table, and he, girding himself, will serve them.'

All these things, then, and many more besides these which no one can number, Christ will become to those who believe in Him — not only in the age to come, but first in this present life, and then afterward also in the age to come.

For even though here it is more dimly, and there more perfectly, nevertheless the faithful already, from this present life, clearly see and receive the firstfruits of all those things there.

for neither do they receive all the promises here in full,

nor, while hoping for the whole there, do they remain, while here, without a share and without a taste of the good things to come.