§ 54
Suppose, then, a man should wish to see God, who is invisible by nature and not seen at all. Then he comes to know God, and lays hold of Him, from His works. In just the same way, let the man who does not see Christ with his understanding at least learn of Him from the works of the body, and let him test whether they are a man's works or God's works. If they are a man's, let him mock. Yet if they are not a man's works but the works of God, let him not laugh at what is no matter for laughter.
Let him rather marvel that through so lowly a thing the divine has been made plain to us, and that through death immortality has reached all men, and that through the Word becoming man the providence over all things has been made known, and with it the One who gives and fashions that providence, the very Word of God.
For He became man that we might be made God. He made Himself known through a body that we might receive the knowledge of the unseen Father. He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit incorruption. For He Himself was harmed in nothing, being impassible and incorruptible and the very Word and God. But the men who were suffering, for whose sake He endured all this, He kept and preserved in His own freedom from suffering.
Taken all together, the achievements of the Saviour, wrought through His becoming man, are of such a kind and so many that anyone who wished to recount them would be like a man gazing at the open sea and wanting to number its waves. For the eye cannot take in all the waves, since those still coming outrun the sense of the one who tries to count them. So too, for the man who would take in all the achievements of Christ done in the body, it is impossible to grasp the whole, even in thought, since what escapes his mind is more than what he supposes he has grasped.
It is better, then, not to speak of the whole, when one cannot do justice even to a part, but to mention one thing more and leave the whole for you to marvel at. For all of it alike holds wonder, and wherever a man turns his gaze, from that side he beholds the divinity of the Word, and is struck with exceeding awe.
§ 55
This, then, after what has already been said, is worth your understanding, and worth laying down as a starting point for what has not been said, and worth marveling at greatly: that since the Saviour came to dwell among us, idolatry has not only ceased to increase, but what there is of it is dwindling and little by little coming to an end. Since He came, the wisdom of the Greeks advances no further, and what there is of it is now fading away. And since He came, the demons no longer deceive by illusions and divinations and works of magic; if they so much as dare to attempt it, they are put to shame by the Sign of the Cross.
To say it in short, look how the teaching of the Saviour increases everywhere, while all idolatry and everything set against the faith of Christ grows daily less, and weakens, and falls. Seeing it so, worship the Saviour who is over all things, the mighty God the Word; and condemn the things that are being lessened and done away by Him. For as, when the sun has risen, the darkness no longer prevails, but if any of it is left anywhere it is driven off, so when the divine appearing of the Word of God has come, the darkness of the idols prevails no longer, and every part of the inhabited world in every direction is lit up by His teaching.
Think of a king reigning in some country who does not show himself, but stays indoors in his own house. Often certain disorderly men, taking advantage of his seclusion, proclaim themselves king; and each of them, playing the part, passes himself off as king before simple folk. So men are led astray by the name, hearing that there is a king but not seeing him, chiefly because they cannot go inside the house. But when the true king comes forth and appears, then the disorderly impostors are exposed by his presence, and men, seeing the true king, leave behind those who had been deceiving them.
In just this way the demons and men of old used to deceive, clothing themselves in the honor that belongs to God. But when the Word of God appeared in a body, and made His own Father known to us, then at last the deceit of the demons vanishes and ceases, and men, looking to the Father's true Word, who is God, leave the idols behind and from then on acknowledge the true God. And the mark that Christ is God the Word and the Power of God is this: human things come to an end, but what Christ has spoken remains; and from this it is plain to all that what comes to an end is temporary, while He who remains is God, and God's true Son, the only-begotten Word.
§ 56
Let this, then, be set down by us for you in brief, O man who loves Christ, as a first grounding and an outline of the faith that is according to Christ and of His divine appearing to us. But take this as your starting point; and should you come upon the writings of the Scriptures, and set your mind to them in earnest, you will learn from them more fully and more clearly the exactness of what has been said. For those writings were spoken and written by God, through men who spoke of God. But we, having learned from inspired teachers who were conversant with them, and who became martyrs for the Godhead of Christ, pass on what we learned to your own love of learning.
And you will learn also of His second appearing to us, glorious and truly divine: when He comes no longer in lowliness but in His own glory, no longer in humble guise but in His own majesty, no longer to suffer but from now on to render the fruit of His own Cross to all. I mean the resurrection and incorruption. He is no longer judged, but will judge all men by what each has done in the body, whether good or evil. In that day the kingdom of heaven is laid up for the good, while for those who have done evil there is eternal fire and the outer darkness.
For so the Lord Himself says: I tell you, from now on you shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven in the glory of the Father. And for this very reason there is a saving counsel that prepares us for that day, saying: be ready and keep watch, for He comes at an hour you do not know. For, as the blessed Paul says, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
§ 57
But for the searching of the Scriptures and for true knowledge of them, there is need of a good life and a pure soul and the virtue that is according to Christ, so that the mind, travelling by that virtue, may reach what it longs for and lay hold of it, so far as it is possible for human nature to learn concerning the Word of God. For without a pure mind, and without shaping the life after the saints, no one could lay hold of the words of the saints.
For suppose a man should wish to see the light of the sun. He wipes his eye clean and makes it bright, cleansing himself until he is almost like the thing he longs for, so that the eye, having itself become light, may see the sun's light. Or suppose a man should wish to see a city or a country. He goes to the place in order to see it.
In just this way, the man who would lay hold of the mind of those who speak of God must first wash and cleanse his soul by the way he lives, and must come to the saints themselves by likeness of deeds. He must do so in order that, joined with them in a shared manner of living, he may understand what was revealed to them by God; and in order that, knit to them from then on, he may escape the peril of sinners and their fire on the day of judgment, and may receive what is laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven.
And what is laid up is this: things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, which have never entered into the hearts of men, all that has been prepared for those who live according to virtue and love God the Father, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Through Him, and with Him, to the Father Himself, together with the Son Himself, in the Holy Spirit, be honor and might and glory unto the ages of ages, Amen.