Altar, Statue, and Temple We regard the spirit of every good man as an altar from which arises an incense which is truly and spiritually sweet-smelling, namely, the prayers ascending from a pure conscience. Therefore it is said by John in the Revelation, “The odours are the prayers of saints;” and by the Psalmist, “Let my prayer come up before Thee as incense.” And the statues and gifts which are fit […]
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Origen: Immortality and Incarnation
Immortality of the Body Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Lord and Creator of the soul, is said to be the clothing of the saints, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”(Rom.13;14) As Christ, then, is the clothing of the soul, so is the soul said to be the clothing of the body, seeing it is an ornament to it, covering and concealing its mortal nature…a soul possessing in itself […]
Read moreOrigen: The Origin and End of Man
The Masterpiece of God When one would paint an image, he were first with a light pencil to trace out the outlines of the coming picture, and prepare marks for the reception of the features that are to be afterwards added, this preliminary sketch in outline is found to prepare the way for the laying on of the true colours of the painting; so, in a measure, an outline and […]
Read moreOrigen: The Implanted Desire
And as, when our eye beholds the products of an artist’s labour, the mind, immediately on perceiving anything of unusual artistic excellence, burns to know of what nature it is, or how it was formed, or to what purposes it was fashioned; so, in a much greater degree, and in one that is beyond all comparison, does the mind burn with an inexpressible desire to know the reason of those […]
Read moreOrigen: Threefold Meaning of The Scripture
Threefold Scripture For Tripartite Man The way, then, as it appears to us, in which we ought to deal with the Scriptures, and extract from them their meaning, is the following, which has been ascertained from the Scriptures themselves. By Solomon in the Proverbs we find some such rule as this enjoined respecting the divine doctrines of Scripture: “And do thou portray them in a threefold manner, in counsel and […]
Read moreOrigen: The Riches Of The Christian
When the letter of the law promises riches to the just, … it refers to those riches which enlighten the eyes, and which enrich a man “in all utterance and in all knowledge.” And in this sense we “charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that […]
Read moreThe Beloved of Christ
For none of these plainly declared His Godhead, as John does when he makes Him say, “I am the light of the world,” “I am the way and the truth and the life,” “I am the resurrection,” “I am the door,” “I am the good shepherd;” and in the Apocalypse, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” … No one […]
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