st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
"<br />
SERMONS. j j<br />
3<br />
Damascenus takes occasion to run over the command<br />
ments, as being part<br />
<strong>of</strong> that divine utterance to<br />
which we are to li<strong>st</strong>en ;<br />
and he thus concludes :<br />
"These ordinances <strong>of</strong> God let us keep with all<br />
watchfulness, that we too may luxuriate in His<br />
divine beauty, and may have our fill in ta<strong>st</strong>ing His<br />
sweetness, both in this life, as far as is possible for<br />
those who are weighed down with this earthly taber<br />
nacle <strong>of</strong> the body, and hereafter in greater clearness<br />
and purity ;<br />
when the righteous shine forth as the sitn,<br />
and when, released from the con<strong>st</strong>raints <strong>of</strong> the body<br />
they will be as the angels, living imperishably with<br />
the Lord, in the great and glorious revelation from<br />
heaven <strong>of</strong> our Lord, and God, and Saviour, Jesus<br />
Chri<strong>st</strong> Himself; to whom be glory and dominion,<br />
now, henceforth, and for ever. Amen.<br />
The sermon on the Withered Fig-Tree, which follows,<br />
though considerably shorter than that on the Trans<br />
figuration, takes a wider sweep, and is not so close<br />
an exposition <strong>of</strong> its subject. From the title, it would<br />
appear to have been delivered in a church <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Holy Resurrection," presumably in Jerusalem. At<br />
the outset, the preacher says that he was moved to<br />
utterance by<br />
"the subsi<strong>st</strong>ent Word <strong>of</strong> God the<br />
Father, who departed not from the bosom <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Father, and yet was conceived incomprehensibly in<br />
the Virgin s womb ;<br />
who for<br />
my sake became what I<br />
am ; who, though free from passions in His godhead,<br />
put on a human body <strong>of</strong> like passions with myself;<br />
who, while riding on the chariots <strong>of</strong> the cherubim,<br />
yet seated Himself, when on earth, upon the foal <strong>of</strong><br />
i