醫治希臘病 第 1 章 第 15/16 段

but now, having been freed from sin and made slaves to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death;

but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The gift of freedom, he says, even by itself, is sufficient to display to you the fruit of piety; yet out of munificence the bountiful and great-giving Lord grants you eternal life as well, that you may learn the difference between sin and righteousness.

For the one had death as its end, but the other eternal life.

Then, after very many things, he displays also the greatest of the gifts:

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God;

for you did not receive a spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you received a spirit of sonship, in which we cry, 'Abba, Father';

the Spirit itself bears witness together with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs also;

heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him." And writing to the Galatians too he said similar things:

"So that you are no longer a slave, but a son;

and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." And to Timothy too he wrote the same sense:

"for if we have died together with Him, we shall also live together with Him;

if we endure, we shall also reign together with Him." And having written him another epistle, he inserted these things too:

"and the time of my departure has come.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;

henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing." This man also wrote concerning the resurrection of the bodies to the Corinthians and the Thessalonians and the Philippians and many others.

"And now, he says, it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption;

it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory;

it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." And again:

"For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed;

for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." And again:

"But our commonwealth exists in the heavens;

from whence also we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus, who will transfigure the body of our humiliation, so that it becomes conformed to the body of His glory." And the Lord Himself too said to the Jews:

"Do not marvel at this, that He is the Son of Man;

for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth: those who have done good things, to a resurrection of life, but those who have practiced base things, to a resurrection of judgment." And again, recounting the things concerning the common end, He added these too:

"But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken;

and then the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven."

Then, having told the parable concerning the virgins—how some entered into the bridal chamber bearing their lamps, while the foolish were shut out from the bridal hall, since their lamps had gone out—and having added also the things of the talents and of the diligent servants and of the idle one who buried his talent and was sent away into the outermost darkness, He went on:

"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all His holy angels with Him, then He shall sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all the nations.

And He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;

and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say to those on His right hand:

Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink;

I was a stranger, and you took Me in;

naked, and you clothed Me;

sick, and you visited Me;

I was in prison, and you came to Me. But when those said that they had never done any of these things—for it is characteristic of the athletes of virtue to be modest and to hide their riches—the King, He says, will say to them:

Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of these least of My brothers who believe in Me, you did it to Me. Having thus proclaimed these, and having given them the rewards of their labors, He says, He will also say to those on the left:

for none of those did the deeds which the choir of the just accomplished, and they do not even emulate the least of their reverence.

For those, though they had done all those things, denied them;

but these, even though they had not done them, claimed to have done them;

but they shall both receive the refutation and be handed over to punishment.

These things, O men, compare with the praised words of Plato.

For surely the rest of his nonsense, both his and that of the others, is worthy of that darkness;

but those things which we too have praised have a certain kinship to these.

For he too acknowledged that the punishments and the recompenses of good things exist, and the divine oracles confirmed them, both the new and the old;

but he brought in other judges, Aeacus and Minos and Rhadamanthus, men not even praised in all respects, and against Minos in particular some bring many accusations;

but we await as judge our own Maker, who both knows exactly the nature which He fashioned, and knows not only its deeds and words, but also the very movements of its thought.

for the nature of the Godhead is invisible.

Wherefore indeed He called Himself the Son of Man, since it is this nature that those being judged behold.

"The times of ignorance, then, God having overlooked, now commands all men everywhere to repent, inasmuch as He has set a day in which He is about to judge the inhabited world in righteousness, by a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead." But if anyone disbelieves the things said and reckons the words of the apostles to be nonsense, let him learn the truth of these from the following.

Many things concerning the life to come both the Master Christ and His heralds foretold;

and they prophesied also certain other things, in no way pertaining to that life, but to this present life.

Examine, then, O men, the predictions made concerning this present life;

and if you find them true and clearly agreeing with the facts, accept without dispute those things prophesied concerning the things to come.

And this must be examined somewhat thus:

the Master Christ foretold the siege of Jerusalem, and how that far-famed temple would be utterly demolished, and how the race of those who had crucified Him would be scattered into the whole inhabited world.

Let us see, then, whether the word did not receive its fulfillment.

And concerning the Jews I do not think you will dispute;

for they have both been driven out of that city and become sojourners over the inhabited world;

and as for the desolation of the temple and its overthrow from the foundations, you who have beheld it, confess it as lovers of truth, while the rest of you, believe those who recount it.

For I too have been an eyewitness of that desolation, and the prediction which I received with my ears I beheld with my eyes, and I hymned and worshiped the truth.

That this word, then, is free from falsehood, the facts cry out, employing a mighty voice;

but let us seek also the fulfillment of another prophecy.

The Master Christ foretold to the apostles the struggles and dangers which they were about to suffer as they brought the teaching to both the nations and the Jews:

"They will hand you over to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you, and you will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations." And a little after:

"Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his children;

and children will rise up against parents and put them to death;

and you will be hated by all on account of My name.

But the one who endures to the end, this one shall be saved." And again:

"If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household?" And again:

"Do not think that I came to cast peace upon the earth.

I came not to cast peace, but a sword.

For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

and a man's enemies will be those of his own household." Each of these things, O friend, one can see fulfilled in deed.

For amid these dangers the apostles enlightened the inhabited world, and those after them guarded the faith which they had received;

and the tombs of the martyrs bear witness, flashing forth everywhere on land and sea, and proclaiming the truth of the divine predictions;

for not only the dangers, but also the victory He foretold to them.

For He said, "Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." And it is possible to see, in accordance with the prediction, the households divided;

for either the men, taken captive by the faith, contend against their wives who still disbelieve, or the women, having received the yoke of piety, strive to draw in their husbands who still wander astray.

And the necessary division works out a praiseworthy union.

And, that I may leave aside the other predictions, a certain woman brought an alabaster jar of ointment to His holy feet.

Accepting her faith, He said to the choir of the disciples:

"Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed, what this woman has done shall also be proclaimed, for a memorial of her." And this prediction too one can now see being fulfilled;

for everywhere on land and sea the divine gospel is read, and the faith of the woman is proclaimed.

Since, then, the Master foretold these things too, and predicted the things that would come to pass in that life, and we see manifestly the truth of these, let us unquestioningly accept those things also, being guided by the things already come to pass toward those things, and using these as proofs of those.

For it is for this very reason that He foretold both these things and those, so that through these He might make those firm as well.

And honors which He had not promised He bountifully bestowed on those who had believed in Him;

and not only did He give great renown to those who are living, but He also allotted abundant reverence to those who have died most nobly, so that through the things which He did not promise but gave, we might believe the things which He promised.

For He who has freely given the things not included in the covenants, and has surpassed His promises with munificence, will assuredly give all that He promised, and the prizes which He set forth for those who contend.

For it would be monstrous that the gymnasiarchs should provide the athletes the promised wage, and that those who hire some for a task should after the labor fulfill the agreements, but that the Maker of all things—who out of goodness alone granted being even to things that were not, and accomplished the mystery of the economy, and bestowed on those who do not see the light the light of the knowledge of God—that He should fail to fulfill His own promises.

But if the promise is true—as indeed it is true, for it is divine—then, O dear men, the teachings of the divine instruction are not unprofitable.

For He promised to those who obey a kingdom of the heavens and a life that admits no end and intelligible light and the dance together with the bodiless ones, just as on the other hand He threatened eternal punishment to those who disbelieve;

for this indeed He made plain also in the parable of the tares.

For having interpreted it, He went on:

"So shall it be in the consummation of this age;

[the angels shall gather out of] His kingdom all the stumbling-blocks and those who work lawlessness, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire;

there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Then the just shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Having said these things, He added:

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." These things we too say to you, O dear men, by way of exhortation.

For we do not compel the unwilling to receive the divine gifts, but we exhort, and entreat, and display their greatness.

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." CONCERNING PRACTICAL VIRTUE

The roots bear up the trees and nourish them, but the branches and the leaves and the fruit suspended between them adorn them.

For if one were to cut off the branches and strip bare the foliage, [the tree] becomes useless and is stripped of its comeliness, and the base of the roots is shown to be wholly superfluous.

And the body likewise needs eyes that see and guide the other senses, and needs feet that move about and carry the body, and hands that work, and that provide for all the members both food and drink and the other necessities.

And indeed tunics and cloaks and outer-garments and, in a word, all clothing are not made by the warp-threads alone;

for there is need also of the weft being woven in and fitted together with the warp-threads.

Why ever have I recounted these things? Not because I delight in idle chatter, O men, but in order to display, by means of these images, the materials of the most perfect philosophy.

For the knowledge of divine things is truly the greatest and most exceedingly great good, but it does not suffice to render perfect the one deemed worthy of it.

For what the root is to a tree, and the eye to the body, and the warp-threads to woven fabrics, this the knowledge of the truth and firm faith become to souls.

And one must not only know what it is fitting to hold concerning the Divine, but must also conduct one's life according to His laws.

For just as those being trained in painting or shoemaking or some other craft are eager to learn these things not merely so that they may know them, but so that they may also practice them with their hands and show themselves by their works to be imitators of their teachers, so too must the lovers of piety be instructed not only in theology and the study of nature, but also be trained in the laws of practical virtue, and keep these to the best of their power, and according to these endeavor to mold and fashion the form of the soul.

For he who thus regulates and shapes his soul not only takes the imprint of the characters of the divine laws, but also becomes a kind of living and rational image of the Lawgiver Himself.

Teaching this, the great herald of the truth also cries aloud:

"Be, therefore, imitators of God." And indeed His Master too exhorts, saying:

"Be imitators of your Father who is in the heavens." And again:

"Be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." And he imitates, as far as is possible, the God of the universe who longs for those things and likewise hates those things which the Master Himself hates and loves.

Who is hateful to Him, and who again is dear, the divine teachers plainly instruct us.

"For You are not a God who delights in lawlessness; the evildoer shall not sojourn with You, nor shall the lawless remain before Your eyes;"

"You hated, O Lord, all who work iniquity;"

"You will destroy all who speak falsehood."

"The Lord abhors the man of blood and deceit." Having shown us in these words the disposition of the Lawgiver, in another psalm He brought forward a person who has exactly impressed these traits upon himself and prays to the Lawgiver, saying:

"I did not set before my eyes any lawless thing."

"I hated those who commit transgressions."

"A crooked heart did not cleave to me;"

"when the evil one turned away from me, I knew it not."

"Whoever secretly slandered his neighbor, him I drove away;"

"with one of haughty eye and insatiable heart, with him I did not eat."

"My eyes are upon the faithful of the land, that they may sit together with me;"

"whoever walked in a blameless way, he ministered to me;"

"no one who practices pride dwelt within my house."

For He did not command us to create heaven and earth and sun and moon and the rest, nor to possess a simple and uncircumscribed nature, but only to hate the things He has hated, and to love the things He has greatly loved.

Having attained this virtue, the prophet cries out to the Master with boldness:

"To me, O God, Your friends are exceedingly honored;"

"exceedingly mighty have their rule become." And a little later:

"Have I not hated those who hate You, O Lord, and pined away over Your enemies? With a perfect hatred I hated them;"

"they became enemies to me." And again:

"Men of blood, turn away from me." And again:

"Depart from me, you evildoers, and I will search out the commandments of my God." And again:

"The lawless I have hated, but Your law I have loved." And again:

"How I love Your law, O Lord!"

"It is my meditation all the day." And:

"How sweet are Your sayings to my throat,"

"sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth." And one might find many other things beyond what has been quoted in this psalmody;

for the prophecy is full of such teaching.

And Moses too, the lawgiver, shows in the laws what pleases the God of all things, and what again is hateful to Him.

And the very God of these things said in the Gospels:

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of God, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." And again:

"He who does and teaches shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." And again:

"He who loves Me will fulfill My commandments." Moreover, in the parable of the talents He showed that He will demand not only the number of what He has given, but will also exact the labor;

and the one who does not have this He stripped of grace and handed over, bound, to the darkness.

And the virgins who did not have sufficient oil He left outside the bridal chamber, and that though calling them virgins.

And the man clothed in a garment unfitting for the wedding He separated from the guests and drove out from the feast;

and yet, being invited, he had entered, and had not rushed in uninvited;

but since, having enjoyed the invitation solely through the bridegroom's munificence, he did not change his robe, he suffered what he suffered.

"For if we sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire about to consume the adversaries." Then by an example he strengthens this argument:

"Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses."

"How much worse punishment, do you think, will he be deemed worthy of, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the One who said:"

"'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord."

"The Lord will judge His people." Then he frightens those who live in ease and says:

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." And elsewhere he cries:

That knowledge therefore needs practical virtue, even these things are sufficient to make clear;

but let us see what the philosophers of the Greeks also thought concerning these matters.

For we shall see that Plato and certain others who emulated his philosophy agree with this teaching;

for in the Laws he speaks thus:

"He, then, who is to become dear to God must, so far as possible, himself also become such;"

"and according to this principle the temperate among us is dear to God,"

"for he is like Him; while the intemperate is unlike Him and at variance with Him." Nothing different, then, has this man said either, but he himself also concurs that, so far as possible, in our dispositions toward the good we are to imitate the God who made us;

here, however, by "temperate" he did not call the one who masters pleasures, but the one who has preserved his rational faculty sound and whole.

And similar things he has written also in the Theaetetus:

"But it is not possible, Theodorus, for evils to be destroyed—for there must always be something contrary to the good—nor can they be established among the gods, but of necessity they hover about mortal nature and this region;"

"wherefore one must endeavor to flee from here to there as quickly as possible."

"And the flight is a likening to God, so far as is possible;"

"and the likening is to become just and holy with wisdom." Very clearly and very wisely in these words he has taught the manner of imitation.

For first he bade us flee the things here below, not by going outside the earth, but by being delivered from earthly affairs;

for he made this clear in what he added:

for he says, "I have called 'flight' the likening to the divine." Praiseworthy too is the addition;

for he did not simply legislate that one be made like, but "so far as is possible for human beings."

Then he showed the form of the likening:

for he says, "I have named 'likening' the becoming holy and just with wisdom." And this addition too is admirable.

For there are indeed some who take very great care of justice, but mar the beauty of the right deed by clumsiness.

Then, at greater length, in that very dialogue he teaches the perfection of virtue, writing somewhat thus:

"Let us speak then about the foremost men."

"For what should one say of those who pass their time lawfully in philosophy? These men neither know the way to the marketplace, nor where the courthouse is, or the council chamber, or any other public assembly of the city;"

"laws and decrees, whether spoken or written, they neither see nor hear;"

"the zealous strivings of political factions for office, and the gatherings and banquets and revels with flute-girls—it does not occur to them to do such things, not even in a dream."

"Nor, if someone has been base in the city, or if some evil has come upon a man from his ancestors, whether on the men's or the women's side, is it any more known to him than, as the saying goes, the number of pints in the sea."

"And of all these things he does not even know that he does not know them;"

"for he does not even hold aloof from them for the sake of reputation, but in truth only his body resides and dwells in the city, while his mind, deeming all these things small and worth nothing, despises them and flies everywhere, as Pindar says, 'measuring the things beneath the earth and the surfaces above, and doing astronomy beyond the heavens, and searching out every nature in every way.'" In these words Plato painted the polity of our philosophers;

for among those people no one of such a kind ever arose.

For Socrates, the foremost of the philosophers, continually held discussions both in the gymnasia and in the workshops;

and at one time he spent his time in the city, at another, going down to the Piraeus, he watched the processions;

and indeed, going off to the common meals, he put up even with Aristophanes mocking him in comedy and Alcibiades revelling—for this is what Plato's Symposium teaches—and going up to the theater he watched together with the populace.

Least of all, then, do Plato's words befit him.

But if they did not befit him, then they would hardly fit anyone else.

But those who fell in love with the evangelical philosophy have kept far from political tumults;

[living] a life not caring for wives and children and possessions, but directing their souls according to the canon of the divine laws, and like some excellent painters painting the noetic images of their virtue after the archetypes of virtue.

For that Plato's words indeed befit these men, he himself is a witness, having said after a great deal:

"From lack of leisure such a man must of necessity become no less rustic and uneducated than a herdsman, throwing his wall around a fold on a mountain."

"And whenever he hears that someone owns ten thousand plethra of land or even more, that he possesses wondrous quantities, it seems to him a very small thing to hear, being accustomed to look upon the whole earth." That none of those who have philosophized among the Greeks ever built a fold on a mountain and dwelt there, the ancient writings are sufficient to show, and you yourselves bear witness, since you bear ill-will toward those who pursue this kind of life.

But Plato said that such a man is most admirable;

and in agreement, in the second book of the Republic he said:

for, having set up such a one, he says, "let us in turn set up beside him in our argument the just man, a man simple and noble, who, as Aeschylus says, wishes not to seem but to be good;"

"for if he should seem to be just, there will be honors and gifts for him, since he is thought to be such;"

"it is unclear, then, whether he is such for the sake of justice or for the sake of the gifts and honors."

"He must therefore be stripped of everything except justice, and made to be disposed in the opposite way to the former man."

"For though having nothing, let him have the greatest reputation for injustice, so that he may be tested with respect to justice, by not being moved by ill repute and what comes from it;"

"but let him be unwavering until death, seeming throughout his life to be unjust." And these things likewise befit our athletes of virtue.

But you are unwilling either to behold or to admire those who contend in this way.

And if you should see some who wear this outward guise, but do not embrace a life that wholly agrees with the garb, you immediately stir your tongue to abuse.

And if you assailed only those, the thing done would have some reason;

but since, along with those, you also attempt to ridicule and tear down those who are directly opposed to them and who truly philosophize, you make manifest your most unjust aim.

For you are not hostile to the wicked, but you slander the praiseworthy life, doing the same thing as if someone, having seen an ape imitating a man, should on account of that imitation hate the very nature of men.

And of this opinion not I alone, but Plato also is the accuser;

for indeed in the Theaetetus he says:

"Come now, if someone should praise the rearing of goats, and the creature itself as a possession, how fine it is, but another, having seen goats grazing without a goatherd, doing damage in cultivated lands, should find fault with them, and seeing every flock that is without a leader or under bad leaders should likewise blame it—do we think such a man's censure could ever be a sound one of anything? — How could it be?" These, gentlemen, are Plato's words, not mine.

He taught that one should not mock all the flocks because of those that are ill-led by bad leaders or wholly deprived of a leader.

And elsewhere again he plainly teaches that a multitude of philosophers is impossible:

"for many," he says, "are the wand-bearers, but few the Bacchants."

This too the Master Christ said:

"For many," He said, "are called, but few are chosen."

In harmony with these things Plato also says, in the Epinomis:

"I declare that it is not possible for human beings to become blessed and happy, except for a few, so long as we live—this I lay down as my conclusion."

...having emulated [them]? For one ought to have done quite the opposite;

to marvel exceedingly at those, as having leapt over the barriers of nature, but to grant some pardon to these, as being dragged down by their inborn passions.

For that these things are exceedingly difficult, you yourselves also know;

"for you were not born from an oak," according to the poetic saying, "or from a rock."

"Know well that for my part, the more those other pleasures of the body fade away, the more do the desires and pleasures concerning discourse increase." Then, when Socrates inquired whether the passion of the pleasures still rose up against him, taking up the question he said: