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PREFACE
Page:Commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, volume 1.djvu/48
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of excellence, testifies about this. "The doctrine, to be sure, outside of the doctrine of the Christ, had already opened a door to us that we might look below into corporeal natures, but the doctrine of the Christ makes a believing mind wander among heavenly things every hour, and does not allow it to dwell on earthly things,[t 1] as truly the Apostle also philosophized, Seek the things that are above, and not those which are on the earth, f. 1 b and we compare, it is said, spiritual things with spiritual people, etc."[t 2] And it is right that we should know, even if the Testaments differ from one another, according to what I said, inasmuch as the one gives milk to babes to drink, and herbs for the sick to eat, but the other is meat and wine for adults, that yet there is one Governor of both, and one governance according to the stature of the growth of the disciples; therefore they follow one another, and are bound and joined together, and send the hearers to one after the other, that they may suck from both of them the things that make sustenance and life, as even our Saviour did not hesitate to send the sons of this one to that former one, that they might learn sufficiently from their mother about Him and about the truth. p. ܓ Search the Scriptures, namely, for in them ye think, etc.,[t 3] and Go, learn, that is, from your Scriptures, what is 'I will have mercy'; and truly Moses wrote about me, etc.[t 4] And it is asked, Why after all should a New Testament be given? we say it was on account of abundant reasons; first, because our nature now arrived at perfection; and second, that He might show His love towards us, and on account of this, and by this, not by means of servants He visited us as formerly, but by means of His beloved Son; and third, that the power of His guidance should be preached, (which is) full of excellencies; and fourth, because men did not find out how to know Him from His creation;[t 5] and fifth, because the Law was weak by reason of the infirmity of the body, etc., God sent His Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, etc.; sixth, that the full knowledge about the Unity of the Godhead might be revealed, which in three Persons is confessed, and how our Lord God the Word took from our race a complete Man, and joined it with Him in the Unity of the Person of the Sonship and the Lordship, and of power and of energy, a secret which was hidden from former ages; and seventh, that the door might be opened to the hearers for the pardon of debts and sins, and for the resurrection and renewal of ail, and for punishment and reward, and for the kingdom and Hell, and for other things which were put in eclipse for the ancients because of their not being full-grown. And if any one asks. Why did not the Messiah come from the beginning? why did He delay the help of our nature?
