Глава 3. Божественная дилемма и ее решение в воплощении (продолжение)

11) God, who possesses everything, when He created the human race with His own Word, also seeing the weakness of human nature, namely, that it does not have sufficient strength to know the Creator by itself and generally acquire for itself the concept of God, because God is not born, and creatures came from nothing, God is incorporeal, and people in the body were created somewhere down, and in general, everything created lacks much in understanding and to the knowledge of the Creator, noting, I say, this and, having compassion again on the human race, as the Good One, did not leave people deprived of knowledge of Him, so that existence itself would not become useless for them. For what is the use of being created and not knowing your Creator? Or how could people be verbal without knowing the Word of the Father by whom they were created? They would be no different from the dumb if they knew nothing but earthly things. Why would God have created them if He had not wanted them to know Him? Therefore, so that people do not remain ignorant of God, like the Good One, He communicates to them His own image, our Lord Jesus Christ, and creates them in His image and likeness, so that with such grace, imagining the Image, I mean the Father’s Word, they can acquire the concept of the Father himself, and knowing the Creator, live a prosperous and truly blessed life. But foolish people, having also neglected the grace given to them, deviated so much from God and became so darkened in their souls that they not only consigned the concept of God to oblivion, but began to invent one thing instead of another. For instead of the truth, they built idols for themselves, they preferred the non-existent to the existing God, serving the creature instead of the Creator, and what’s worse, they transferred the honor of God to trees, to stones, to every substance, and to people, and did even worse than this, as was said in the previous word. They reached such wickedness that they finally began to worship demons, and, fulfilling their wishes, called them gods, and constantly becoming more entangled in the frantic passions that the demons aroused in them, to please them (as was said before) they began to sacrifice dumb animals and slaughter people. That’s why we learned magic from them; in places people were deceived by soothsayers; They began to attribute the reasons for their birth and existence to the stars and everything in the sky, not thinking about anything other than what was visible. In general, everything became filled with wickedness and lawlessness; only God and His Word were not knowable, although He did not hide Himself from people in obscurity, and did not simply give them knowledge of Himself, but revealed it to them in a variety of ways and times. 12) For although the grace communicated in the image of God was sufficient to lead to the knowledge of God the Word, and through Him to the knowledge of the Father; however, God, knowing the weakness of people, provided for them even in the event of their negligence, so that even if they neglected to recognize God in themselves, they would not remain ignorant of the Creator, having the works of creation before their eyes. Because negligence gradually descended to the worse; then God did not again leave such human weakness without His providence, giving the law and sending prophets known to people to people, so that if they are lazy to raise their eyes to heaven and know the Creator, they would have teaching near them; because people are closest to learning the best from people. So, looking at the greatness of the sky and considering the harmony of creation, it was possible for people to know the Leader of creation - the Father's Word, Who through His providence makes it possible for everyone to know the Father, and for this purpose sets the universe in motion, so that through Him everyone knows God. Or if even this was hard for them; then they could talk with the saints and from them learn the Creator of all God and the Father of Christ, learn that the worship of idols is godlessness and is full of all wickedness. And having learned the law, they could also stop all lawlessness and live a virtuous life. For the law was not given for the Jews alone, and it was not for their sake alone that the Prophets were sent; but although they were sent to the Jews and were persecuted by the Jews, nevertheless, for the whole universe they served as a sacred school of knowledge about God and inner life. Such was God's goodness, such was his love for mankind. However, people, overcome by momentary pleasures, demonic dreams and delights, did not raise their gaze to the truth, but burdened themselves with an even greater number of evils and sins, so that they no longer seemed like verbal creatures, but in their morals one could recognize them as dumb. 13) Therefore, when people became so dumb, and demonic delusion everywhere overshadowed and hid the knowledge of the true God, what should God have done? Should all this pass in silence? Should we allow people to be deceived by demons and not know God? What was the need to create man in the beginning in the image of God? It was necessary for him to simply be created dumb, or for someone created verbal not to live the life of the dumb. What was the general need for man to acquire the concept of God in the beginning? If now he is not worthy of this acquisition, then it should not have been given to him in the beginning. What was the need for God who created this, or what glory is there in Him, if the people He created do not worship Him, but recognize others as their creators? It turns out that God created them not for Himself, but for others. The king, although a man, does not allow the cities he founded to be given into slavery to others or resorted to by anyone else; but he reminds them with writings, often sends friends to them, and if need demands, he himself comes to shame them, finally, with his presence, so that they do not servile others, and his work would not be in vain. Will not God all the more spare His creatures, so that they do not deviate from Him and serve the non-existent, especially when such deviation becomes the cause of death and destruction for them? It was not right for those who had once become partakers of God’s image to perish. So what should God have done? Or what had to happen if not the renewal of what was created in the Image, so that through this Image people could again know God? Could this have happened if the Image of God Himself, our Savior Jesus Christ, had not come? This could not be accomplished through people, because they themselves were created in the image; it could not - and through the Angels; because they are not images either. Therefore, God’s Word came in person, so that He, as the Father’s Image, could be recreated in the image of created man. On the other hand, again this would not have happened if death and corruption had not been destroyed. Therefore, the Word needed to take upon Himself a mortal body, so that by Him death could finally be destroyed, and people would again be renewed in the image. So, no one else was sufficient for this work except the Father’s Image. 14) Since the face painted on the tree became invisible due to external impurities, it was necessary for the person whose face it was to come again so that the image could be renewed on the same substance; for for the sake of the depicted face, the very substance on which it is written is not thrown away, but the face is restored on it. Likewise, the all-holy Son of the Father, as the Father’s image, came to our countries to renew man created in this Image, and, as it were, to seek the lost by the remission of sins, as He Himself says in the Gospels: “I will come to seek and save the lost” (Matthew 18:11). Why did He say to the Jews: “unless one is born” (John 3:3), not meaning birth from a wife, as they understood, but meaning rebirth and re-creation in the soul of that which is in the image. Because idolatry and atheism took possession of the universe, and the knowledge of God became hidden; then who was to teach the universe about the Father? If they say - to a person; it was impossible for people to go around the entire sunflower; by their nature they would not be able to complete such a journey, they would not be able to earn the credit for this, they would not have sufficient strength to resist such demonic seduction and dreaming on their own. Because everyone was spiritually amazed and confused by demonic delusion and idolatry vanity; then how could people change the faith of the human soul and the human mind when they could not even see them? And what someone doesn’t see, can it be transformed? But perhaps they will say that the creature was enough for this. But if there had been enough creatures, so many evils would not have happened. There was a creature; but nevertheless people were mired in the same delusion about God. Therefore, in whom was there a need again, if not in God - the Word, Who sees both the soul and the mind, sets everything in motion in creatures, and through creatures makes it possible to know the Father? The One who, through His own providence and the order of the universe, teaches about the Father, had to renew this teaching. How would this happen? They will say, perhaps: this could have been done in the same way, that is, again to show by the works of creation what you need to know about God. But this was no longer reliable, and even unreliable; because people had already ignored this, and their eyes were no longer directed toward grief, but down. Therefore, wanting to provide faithful help to people, the Word of God comes as a man, taking upon Himself a body similar to human bodies, and helps those below, that is, through His bodily deeds, so that those who did not want to know Him from His providence about the universe and from governing it, although from His bodily deeds, came to know the Word of God in the flesh, and through Him the Father. 15) As a good teacher, caring for his students, condescending to those who are not able to use higher knowledge, of course, teaches them lower knowledge; This is what God’s Word did, as Paul also says: “Because in the wisdom of God we did not understand the world through the wisdom of God, God deigned to save those who believe by the violence of preaching” (1 Cor. 1:21). Because people, having shied away from speculation about God, and as if plunging into the depths, fixing their eyes downwards, sought God in things that are born and sensible, imagining mortals and demons as gods; then the man-loving and common Savior of all, God's Word, takes upon himself the body, as a man lives among people, and turns the feelings of all people to Himself, so that those who imagine God in the body from what the Lord produces through His bodily deeds understand the truth, and through Him come to the thought of the Father, and so that they, like people, having everything human in their thoughts, see that wherever they turn their feelings, they are everywhere warned by these deeds, and everything teaches them truth. If you were amazed at the creation, you will see that the creation confesses Christ the Lord. If their thought was biased in favor of people, and they revered them as gods; then from the deeds of the Savior, compared with the deeds of men, it will become clear that the only Savior among people is the Son of God; because those recognized as gods do not have such deeds as were accomplished by the Word of God. And if they were prejudiced in favor of demons; then seeing how the Lord drives them out, they recognize that he alone is God’s Word, and demons are not gods. If their minds were occupied by people who had already died, and therefore they worshiped heroes and those whom the poets called gods; then, seeing the resurrection of the Savior, they confess that those gods are false, and that there is one true Lord - the Father's Word, who rules over death. For this reason, the Lord was born, and appeared as a man, and died and rose again, by His deeds humiliating and darkening the deeds of people who had ever lived, in order to distract them from everything that people were prejudiced against, and to teach them the knowledge of His true Father, as He Himself says: “He will come... to seek and save the lost” (Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10). 16) Since human thought once descended into the sensory, the Word deigned to make Himself visible through the body, so that, having become a man, he could draw people’s attention to Himself, distract their feelings to Himself, and when they see Him as a man, by the deeds that He performs, they would finally convince them that He is not only a man, but also God, the Word and Wisdom of the true God. Intending to express this, Paul says: “rooted and grounded in love, that ye may be able to understand with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and understand the love of Christ which surpasseth understanding, that ye may be filled unto all the fulfillment of God” (Eph. 3:17-19). For the Word, having spread everywhere, both mountain and valley, both in depth and in breadth, mountain in creation, valley in incarnation, depth in hell, and breadth in the world, filled everything with the knowledge of God. And therefore, He does not immediately upon His coming make a sacrifice for everyone, giving up the body to death, and resurrecting it, and making Himself invisible bodily; on the contrary, with his very body he attracts the eyes of people to Himself, being in the body and doing such things, showing such signs that showed in Him no longer a man, but God - the Word. For the Savior, by His incarnation, demonstrated His deep love for mankind, both by destroying death in us and renewing us, and by the fact that, being unknown and invisible, He revealed Himself in deeds and showed that He is the Father’s Word, the Leader and King of the universe. 17) He was not so enveloped by the body that when He was in the body, He was not outside the body, and when He set the body in motion, then the universe was deprived of His action and providence. But what is most surprising is that He, as the Word, was not contained by anything, but most of all He Himself contained everything. And how, being in the whole creation, although in essence He is outside of everything, nevertheless, by His forces He is present in everything, arranging everything, extending His providence to everything and in everything, reviving each creature and all creatures in the aggregate, embracing the whole universe, and not being embraced by it, but completely abiding in His one Father; Thus, being in the human body, and Himself quickening it, without any doubt, He quickened the universe, remained in all creatures, and was outside the universe, allowed Himself to be known in the body by deeds, and did not cease to reveal Himself in actions on the universe. It is characteristic of the soul, although it considers in thoughts what is outside its body, however, it does not extend its actions to anything outside its body, and does not set in motion with its presence what is distant from the body. A person, when he thinks about something distant, does not thereby set the still distant thing in motion and does not transfer it from one place to another. And if someone sits in his house and meditates on what is in the sky, then through this he does not yet move the sun and do not turn the sky; but, although he sees them moving and created, however, he cannot therefore produce them. This was not the way God's Word was in man. It was not bound by the body; but on the contrary, Itself possessed it most of all; therefore, It was in the body, and was in all creatures, and was outside of creatures, and rested in the One Father. And, what is most wonderful of all, she lived through life like a man, gave life to everything like the Word, and coexisted with the Father like the Son. Therefore, when the Virgin gave birth, It did not suffer, and being in the body, it was not defiled, but on the contrary, it especially sanctified the body; because, even though it dwells in all creatures, It does not become involved in everything; but on the contrary, everything is especially enlivened and nourished by Him. If the sun, created by Him and visible to us, circling in the sky, is not defiled by touching earthly bodies and is not darkened by darkness, but on the contrary, it itself illuminates and purifies them, then all the more the all-holy Word of God, the Creator and Lord of the sun, allowing Himself to be known in the body, did not accept filth upon Himself, but on the contrary, being incorruptible, revived and cleansed the mortal body too. For it is said: “He who did not commit sin, lest deceit be found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). 18) Therefore, when theologians say about the Word that It eats, drinks, and was born; Then know that the body, as a body, was born and fed on decent food, while the Word of God itself, which resides in the body, arranged everything well, and by what It did in the body, it showed in Itself not man, but God’s Word. This is said about Him because the body that ate food, was born, suffered, was not the body of anyone else, but the Lord. And because the Lord became man; then it was proper to talk about Him and this as about a person, so that it would be clear that He really, and not dreamily, has a body. But just as from this they knew Him to be present bodily, so by the works that He accomplished through the body, He made it understood that He was the Son of God in Himself. That is why he appealed to the unfaithful Jews, saying: “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not have Me faith: if I do, even if you do not believe Me, you believe by My work: that you may understand and know that the Father is in Me, I am in the Father” (John 10:37-38). Just as, being invisible, He is known from the works of creation, so, having become a man, and invisible under the cover of the body, through His works He makes it known that the one who performs these works is not a man, but God’s Power and God’s Word. For it is not human work, but God’s, to command demons and cast them out. And seeing how He healed the diseases into which the human race was plunged, who would honor him as a man and not as God? He cleansed the lepers, gave the lame strength to walk, opened the hearing of the deaf, made the blind see, in general, drove away all kinds of illnesses and all kinds of infirmities from people. And from this everyone could discern His Divinity. For seeing that He returned to man what was missing from birth, and opened the eyes of the one born blind, who would not conclude from this that human birth itself is subordinate to Him, that He is its Creator and Creator? Whoever gives back to a person what he did not have from birth, it is clear, without a doubt, that He is the Lord of human birth. That is why, at the beginning, coming to us, he creates for himself a body from the Virgin, in order to show everyone in this no small sign of his divinity; because the One who created this body is the Creator of other bodies. And seeing that the body comes from a single virgin without a husband, who would not come to the thought that He who appeared in this body is the Creator and Lord of other bodies? Also, seeing that the essence of water is changed and transformed into wine, who will not conclude that the one who created this is the Lord and Creator of the essence of all waters? Therefore, as the Lord, He steps on the sea, and walks on it as on dry land, and in this showing to those who see a sign of His dominion over everything. By feeding a large number of people with a small amount of food, and from a shortage producing an abundance, so that five thousand people were satisfied with five loaves, and the same number remained, he meant nothing else by this, but the very fact that He is the Lord of the providence of the universe.