That we should not be entirely ignorant of the superabundance of His compassion for us and the abyss of His wisdom, God deferred mans death, allowing him to live for a considerably longer time. From the first, God shows that His discipline is merciful or, rather, that He delays a just chastisement so that we do not utterly despair. He also granted time for repentance and for a new life pleasing to Him, while through the succession of generations He eased the sorrow produced by death. He increased the human race with descendants so that initially the number of those being born would greatly exceed the number of those who died. In the place of one man, Adam, who became pitiable and impoverished through the sensible beauty of a tree, God brought forth many men who by means of things perceptible to the senses became blessedly enriched with divine wisdom, with virtue, with knowledge and divine favor: for example, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Melchisedec, Abraham, and those who were their contemporaries or who lived before them and after them, and who proved to be their equals, or nearly so. But there was no one among these great men who passed his life utterly free of sin, so that he might - retrieve the defeat which our forefathers had suffered, - heal the wound at the root of our race and - be sufficient warranty for the sanctification, blessing and return to life of all who followed. God foreknew this; and during the course of time He chose out people from among the races and tribes who would produce that celebrated staff from which would blossom the Flower that was to accomplish the saving economy of our whole race (cf. Num. 17:8; Isa. 11:1). St Gregory Palamas Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life: One Hundred and Fifty Texts
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 12:48:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015