“As a warrior cannot exist without arms, so virtue is not attained without the practice of it. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel: ‘From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven has been enduring assault and the violent have been seizing it,’ And elsewhere: ‘Seek the kingdom of God and behold all things are yours.’ Rewards are promised not to those who sleep or who idle away their time, but to those who strive. Toil has its recompense. Although it may not be pleasant or sweet, labor provides a wealth of compensation.”
“He was baptized as Man — but He remitted sins as God — not because He needed purificatory rites Himself, but that He might sanctify the element of water. He was tempted as Man, but He conquered as God; yea, He bids us be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world. John 16:33. He hungered — but He fed thousands; yea, He is the Bread that gives life, and That is of heaven. He thirsted — but He cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. Yea, He promised that fountains should flow from them that believe. He was wearied, but He is the Rest of them that are weary and heavy laden. Matthew 11:28. He was heavy with sleep, but He walked lightly over the sea. He rebuked the winds, He made Peter light as he began to sink. He pays tribute, but it is out of a fish; yea, He is the King of those who demanded it. John 19:19. He is called a Samaritan and a demoniac; — but He saves him that came down from Jerusalem and fell among thieves; the demons acknowledge Him, and He drives out demons and sinks in the sea legions of foul spirits, Luke 8:28-33, and sees the Prince of the demons falling like lightning. He is stoned, but is not taken. He prays, but He hears prayer. He weeps, but He causes tears to cease. He asks where Lazarus was laid, for He was Man; but He raises Lazarus, for He was God. John 11:43. He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only for thirty pieces of silver, Matthew 26:15; but He redeems the world, and that at a great price, for the Price was His own blood. 1 Peter 1:19. As a sheep He is led to the slaughter, Isaiah 53:7, but He is the Shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world also. As a Lamb He is silent, yet He is the Word, and is proclaimed by the Voice of one crying in the wilderness. John 1:23. He is bruised and wounded, but He heals every disease and every infirmity. Isaiah 53:23. He is lifted up and nailed to the Tree, but by the Tree of Life He restores us; yea, He saves even the Robber crucified with Him, Luke 23:43; yea, He wrapped the visible world in darkness. He is given vinegar to drink mingled with gall. Who? He who turned the water into wine, John 2:1-11, who is the destroyer of the bitter taste, who is Sweetness and altogether desire. Song of Songs 5:16. He lays down His life, but He has power to take it again, John 10:18; and the veil is rent, for the mysterious doors of Heaven are opened; the rocks are cleft, the dead arise. Matthew 27:51. He dies, but He gives life, and by His death destroys death. He is buried, but He rises again; He goes down into Hell, but He brings up the souls; He ascends to Heaven, and shall come again to judge the quick and the dead, and to put to the test such words as yours. If the one give you a starting point for your error, let the others put an end to it.”
Gregory of Nazianzus (ca. 329-390), Theological Orations 3.20
Beautiful without doubt is the world, excelling, as well in its magnitude as in the arrangement of its parts, both those in the oblique circle and those about the north, and also in its spherical form. Yet it is not this, but its Artificer, that we must worship. For when any of your subjects come to you, they do not neglect to pay their homage to you, their rulers and lords, from whom they will obtain whatever they need, and address themselves to the magnificence of your palace; but, if they chance to come upon the royal residence, they bestow a passing glance of admiration on its beautiful structure: but it is to you yourselves that they show honour, as being all in all. You sovereigns, indeed, rear and adorn your palaces for yourselves; but the world was not created because God needed it; for God is Himself everything to Himself — light unapproachable, a perfect world, spirit, power, reason. If, therefore, the world is an instrument in tune, and moving in well-measured time, I adore the Being who gave its harmony, and strikes its notes, and sings the accordant strain, and not the instrument. For at the musical contests the adjudicators do not pass by the lute-players and crown the lutes. Whether, then, as Plato says, the world be a product of divine art, I admire its beauty, and adore the Artificer; or whether it be His essence and body, as the Peripatetics affirm, we do not neglect to adore God, who is the cause of the motion of the body, and descend to the poor and weak elements, adoring in the impassible air (as they term it), passible matter; or, if any one apprehends the several parts of the world to be powers of God, we do not approach and do homage to the powers, but their Maker and Lord. I do not ask of matter what it has not to give, nor passing God by do I pay homage to the elements, which can do nothing more than what they were bidden; for, although they are beautiful to look upon, by reason of the art of their Framer, yet they still have the nature of matter. And to this view Plato also bears testimony; for, says he, that which is called heaven and earth has received many blessings from the Father, but yet partakes of body; hence it cannot possibly be free from change. If, therefore, while I admire the heavens and the elements in respect of their art, I do not worship them as gods, knowing that the law of dissolution is upon them, how can I call those objects gods of which I know the makers to be men?
Athenagoras of Athens, A Plea for the Christians, ch. 16
“The principles involved in this plan for the support of the religious orders are still applicable. God alone is the absolute Proprietor of all things. We are all stewards, and are responsible for the use, no less than the acquisition, of what we may have. By the covenant of grace, a competent livelihood is still secured to all the true children of Abraham. Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come (1 Tim. iv. 8). And God still retains His claim to a tribute. And is it not a just and interesting view of the matter to say that this tribute is properly due to Christ as priest? It is through Him that God blesses His people. It is through Him they serve and worship God.”
“For there is no man free, save only he who lives for Christ. He stands superior to all troubles, and if he does not choose to injure himself no one else will be able to do this, but he is impregnable; he is not stung by the loss of wealth; for he has learned that we brought nothing into this world, neither can we carry anything out;1 Timothy 6:7 he is not caught by the longings of ambition or glory; for he has learned that our citizenship is in heaven; Philippians 3:20 no one annoys him by abuse, or provokes him by blows; there is only one calamity for a Christian which is, disobedience to God; but all the other things, such as loss of property, exile, peril of life, he does not even reckon to be a grievance at all. And that which all dread, departure hence to the other world — this is to him sweeter than life itself. For as when one has climbed to the top of a cliff and gazes on the sea and those who are sailing upon it, he sees some being washed by the waves, others running upon hidden rocks, some hurrying in one direction, others being driven in another, like prisoners, by the force of the gale, many actually in the water, some of them using their hands only in the place of a boat and a rudder, and many drifting along upon a single plank, or some fragment of the vessel, others floating dead, a scene of manifold and various disaster; even so he who is engaged in the service of Christ drawing himself out of the turmoil and stormy billows of life takes his seat upon secure and lofty ground. For what position can be loftier or more secure than that in which a man has only one anxiety, How he ought to please God? 1 Thessalonians 4:1 Have you seen the shipwrecks, Theodore, of those who sail upon this sea? Wherefore, I beseech you, avoid the deep water, avoid the stormy billows, and seize some lofty spot where it is not possible to be captured. There is a resurrection, there is a judgment, there is a terrible tribunal which awaits us when we have gone out of this world; we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.Romans 14:10 It is not in vain that we are threatened with hell fire, it is not without purpose that such great blessings have been prepared for us. The things of this life are a shadow, and more naught even than a shadow, being full of many fears, and many dangers, and extreme bondage. Do not then deprive yourself both of that world, and of this, when you may gain both, if you please. Now that they who live in Christ will gain the things of this world Paul teaches us when he says: But I spare you;1 Corinthians 7:28 and again But this I say for your profit.1 Corinthians 7:35 Do you see that even here he who cares for the things of the Lord is superior to the man who has married? It is not possible for one who has departed to the other world to repent; no athlete, when he has quitted the lists, and the spectators have dispersed, can contend again.”
Chrysostom, Two Exhortations to Theodore After His Fall
Robert Trail on 1 Cor. 15:45, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” The First Adam, however generative he was in the procreation of all mankind by the longsuffering of God, nevertheless only imparted temporal life, blighted by the curse. He gave life that was as good as dead. But the Second Adam was not so. While he took no wife and bore no physical seed before being “cut off out of the land of the living” (Isa. 53:8), He generated a world teeming with spiritual, indeed, eternal life! Let us circumcise the flesh, cutting off all confidence in man’s powers, relying wholly on Christ, the Second Adam.
Now, O men, if ye will not be allured with the beauty and excellency of the princess, wisdom herself [Prov. 3:13-19], then, I pray you, look what follows her. That which now ye are pursuing after with much labour and pains, and all in vain too, is here in her train. Look how the comparison is stated. Christ Jesus would catch us with a holy guile, and, if it had success, O! it would be a blessed guile to us. Ye have large and airy apprehensions of temporal things, which ye call needful, and ye cannot behold eternal things. Ye know not the worth of this kingdom. Ye conceive that godliness is prejudicial unto you in this life, that the kingdom of grace will make you miserable here; and that ye cannot endure. Ah, be not mistaken, come and look again. If godliness itself will not allure you, if the kingdom itself will not weigh with you, then, I pray you, consider what an appendix, what a consectary these have. Consider that the sum is added to the principal, which ye so much seek after. But ye refuse the principal, the kingdom. Ye have not right thoughts of godliness, “for godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come,” 1 Tim. iv. 8. Now, is not this “a faithful saying?” If ye believe it so to be, is it not “worthy of all acceptation?”
