December 7

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.— Romans 8:17.

OBSERVE how he enhances the gift by little and little. For since it is a possible case to be children, and yet not become heirs,—for it is not all children that are heirs,—he adds this besides, that we are heirs. But the Jews, besides their not having the same adoption as we, were also cast out from the inheritance. For, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out the vineyard to other husbandmen: and before this, he said, that many shall come from the east, and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out. But even here he does not pause, but sets down something even greater than this. What may this be then? That we are heirs of God; and so he adds heirs of God. And what is still more, that we are not simply heirs, but also joint-heirs with Christ. Observe how ambitious he is of bringing us near to the Master. For since it is not all children that are heirs, he shows that we are both children and heirs; next, as it is not all heirs, that are heirs to any great amount, he shows that we have this point with us too, as we are heirs of God. Again, since it were possible to be God's heir, but in no sense joint-heir with the Only-Begotten, he shows that we have this also. And consider his wisdom. For after throwing the distasteful part into a narrow compass, when he was saying what was to become of such as live after the flesh, for instance, that they shall die, when he comes to the more soothing part, he leadeth forth his discourse into a large room, and so expands it on the recompense of rewards, and in pointing out that the gifts too are manifold and great. For if the being a child were a grace unspeakable, just think how great a thing it is to be heir too! But if this be great, much more is it to be joint-heir. Then to show that the gift is not of grace only, and to give at the same time a credibility to what he says, he proceeds, If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. If, he would say, we be sharers with him in what is painful, much more shall it be so in what is good. For he who bestowed such blessings upon those who had wrought no good, how when he seeth them laboring and suffering so much, shall he do else than give them greater requital! Having then shown that the thing was matter of return, to make men give credit to what was said, and prevent any from doubting, he shows further that it has the virtue of a gift. The one he showed, that what was said might gain credit even with those that doubted, and that the receivers of it might not feel ashamed, as being evermore receiving salvation for naught; and the other, that you might see that God outdoeth the toils by his recompenses. And the one he hath shown in the words, If we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. But the other in what follows respecting the greatness of the reward.

For we shall receive again our bodies incorruptible, and be glorified together, and reign together with Christ. How great this is we shall see from hence—or rather there is no means of making us see it clearly now. But to start from our present blessings, and to get from them at least some kind of scanty notice of it, I will endeavor so far as I may be able to put before you what I have been speaking of. Tell me then, if when you were grown old, and were living in poverty, and any one were to promise suddenly to make you young, and to bring you to the very prime of life, and to render you very strong, and preeminently beautiful, and were to give you the kingdom of the whole earth for a thousand years, a kingdom in a state of the deepest peace, what is there that you would not choose to do and to suffer to gain this promise? See, then, Christ promises not this, but much more than this. For the distance between old age and youth is not to be compared with the difference of corruption and incorruption, nor that of a kingdom and poverty to that of the future glory and the present, but the difference is that of dreams and a reality. Or rather, I have yet said nothing to the purpose, since there is no language capable of setting before you the greatness of the difference between things to come and things present. And as for time, there is no place for the idea of difference. For what mode is there for a man to compare with our present state a life that hath no end? And as for the peace, it is as far removed from any present peace, as peace is different from war; and for the incorruption, it is as much better as a clear pearl is than a clod of clay. Or rather, say as great a thing as one may, nothing can put it before you. For were I even to compare the beauty of our bodies to the light of the sunbeam, or the brightest lightning, I shall not yet be saying aught that is worthy of their brilliancy. At present, if any one were to lead thee into a palace, and in the presence of all were to give thee an opportunity of conversing with the king, and make thee sit at his table, and join in his fare, thou wouldst call thyself the happiest of men. But when you are going up to heaven, and stand by the king of the universe himself, and vie with angels in brightness, and enjoy even that unutterable glory, do you hesitate? And suppose one must need give up property, or put off even life itself, one ought to leap and exult, and mount on wings of pleasure. But you, that may get an office, as a place to pillage from, (for call a thing of this sort gain, I can not,) put all you have to hazard. But when the kingdom of heaven is set before you, that office which hath none to supersede you in it, and God bids you take not a part of a corner of the earth, but the whole heaven entirely, are you hesitating, and reluctant, and gaping after money, and forgetful that if the parts of that heaven which we see are so fair and beautiful, how greatly so must the upper heaven be, and the heaven of heaven? But since we have as yet no means of seeing this with our bodily eyes, ascend in thy thought, and standing above this heaven, look up unto that heaven beyond this, into that height without a bound, into that light surcharged with awe, into the crowds of angels, into the endless ranks of archangels, into the rest of the incorporeal powers. What language is to set before us that blessedness, brightness, glory? Alas! my soul. For weeping comes upon me and great groaning, as I reflect what good things we have fallen from, what blessedness we are estranged from.

For estranged we are; speak not then of hell to me now, for more grievous than any hell is the fall from this glory, worse than punishments unnumbered the estrangement from that lot. But still we are gaping after this present world, and we take not thought of the devil's cunning, who by little things bereaves us of those great ones, and gives us clay that he may snatch from us gold, or rather that he may snatch heaven from us, and showeth us a shadow that he may dispossess us of the reality, and puts phantoms before us in dreams, (for such is the wealth of this world,) that at daybreak he may prove us the poorest of men. Laying these things to heart, late though it be, let us fly from this craft, and pass to the side of things to come.

"Arise my soul, on wings sublime, Above the vanities of time; Let faith now pierce the veil, and see The glories of eternity. Born by a new, celestial birth, Why should I grovel here on earth? Why grasp at vain and fleeting toys, So near to heaven's eternal joys?"