They see there righteousness itself and prudence, and love itself, and truth and temperance, and other flowers and plants of wisdom, equally splendid, of which we here behold only the shadows and apparitions, as in dreams, and think that they consist of the actions of men, because there is no clear image of them here, but only dim copies, which themselves we see often when making dark copies of them. For never has any one seen with his eyes the greatness or the form or the beauty of righteousness itself, or of understanding, or of peace; but there, in Him whose name is I AM, they are seen perfect and clear, as they are. For there is a tree of temperance itself, and of love, and of understanding, as there are plants of the fruits which grow here\u2014as of grapes, the pomegranate, and of apples; and so, too, the fruits of those trees are gathered and eaten, and do not perish and wither, but those who gather them grow to immortality and a likeness to God. Just as he from whom all are descended, before the fall and the blinding of his eyes, being in paradise, enjoyed its fruits, God appointing man to dress and to keep the plants of wisdom. For it was entrusted to the first Adam to cultivate those fruits. Now Jeremiah saw that these things exist specially in a certain place, removed to a great distance from our world, where, compassionating those who have fallen from that good state, he says: \u201cLearn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is understanding; that thou mayest know also where is length of days, and life, where is the light of the eyes, and peace. Who hath found out her place? or who hath come into her treasures?\u201d The virgins having entered into the treasures of these things, gather the reasonable fruits of the virtues, sprinkled with manifold and well-ordered lights, which, like a fountain, God throws up over them, irradiating that state with unquenchable lights.
\n— Methodius “Concerning Chastity” ANF06<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
They see there righteousness itself and prudence, and love itself, and truth and temperance, and other flowers and plants of wisdom, equally splendid, of which we here behold only the shadows and apparitions, as in dreams, and think that they consist of the actions of men, because there is no clear image of them here, but only dim copies, which themselves we see often when making dark copies of them. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[42,79,129],"class_list":["post-1252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-methodius","tag-chastity","tag-garden-of-eden","tag-spiritual-garden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21839,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/eusebius-church-history-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":0},"title":"Eusebius: Church History I","author":"Nemo","date":"January 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Pre-existence of Christ For who beside the Father could clearly understand the Light which was before the world, the intellectual and essential Wisdom which existed before the ages, the living Word which was in the beginning with the Father and which was God, the first and only begotten of God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eusebius of Caesarea"","block_context":{"text":"Eusebius of Caesarea","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/eusebius\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1288,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/lactantius-the-divine-institutes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":1},"title":"Lactantius: The Divine Institutes","author":"Nemo","date":"January 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Critique of Plato's Republic [Plato says] they must have nothing private or their own; but that they may be equal, as the method of justice requires, they must possess all things in common. Where, then, is the virtue of chastity? where conjugal fidelity? But what motive did he advance for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lactantius"","block_context":{"text":"Lactantius","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/lactantius\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/origen-what-is-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":2},"title":"Origen: What Is Worship","author":"Nemo","date":"January 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Altar, Statue, and\u00a0Temple 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, \u201cThe odours are the prayers of saints;\u201d and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Origen"","block_context":{"text":"Origen","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/origen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/clement-of-alexandria-the-perfect-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":3},"title":"Clement of Alexandria: The Perfect Man","author":"Nemo","date":"January 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The perfect man, who is incapable of exercising courage: for neither does he meet what inspires fear, as he regards none of the things that occur in life as to be dreaded; nor can aught dislodge him from this\u2014the love he has towards God. Nor does he need cheerfulness of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Clement of Alexandria"","block_context":{"text":"Clement of Alexandria","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/clement-of-alexandria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":490,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/origen-immortality-and-incarnation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":4},"title":"Origen: Immortality and Incarnation","author":"Nemo","date":"January 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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, \u201cPut ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d(Rom.13;14) As Christ, then, is the clothing of the soul, so is the soul said to be the clothing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Origen"","block_context":{"text":"Origen","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/origen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":419,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/origen-on-first-principles\/","url_meta":{"origin":1252,"position":5},"title":"Origen: On First Principles","author":"Nemo","date":"June 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Nature of Mind The mind requires magnitude of an intellectual kind. It is not enlarged by means of corporal additions, but is sharpened by exercises of learning. The powers implanted within it are called forth, and it is rendered capable of greater intellectual efforts, being polished by learned exercises.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Origen"","block_context":{"text":"Origen","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/origen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-kc","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}