Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

^4. We have begun to be some great thing; let no man despise himself: we were once nothing; but we are something. We have said unto the Lord, “Remember that we are dust;” but out of the dust He made man, and to dust He gave life, and in Christ our Lord has He already brought this same dust to the Kingdom of Heaven. For from this dust took He flesh, from this took earth, and has raised earth to heaven, He who made heaven and earth. If then these two new things, not yet done, were set before us, and it were asked of us, “Which is the most wonderful, that He who is God should be made Man, or he who is man should be made a man of God? Which is the more wonderful? Which the more difficult?” What has Christ promised us? That which as yet we see not; that is, that we should be His men, and reign with Him, and never die? This is so to say with difficulty believed, that a man once born should arrive at that life, where he shall never die. This is what we believe with a heart well cleansed, cleansed, I mean, of the world's dust; that this dust close not up our eye of faith. This it is that we are bid believe, that after we have been dead, we shall be even with our dead bodies in life, where we shall never die. Wonderful it is; but more wonderful is that which Christ has done. For which is the more incredible, that man should live for ever, or that God should ever die? That men should receive life from God is the more credible; that God should receive death from men I suppose is the more incredible. Yet this has been brought to pass already: let us then believe that which is to be. If that which is the more incredible has been brought to pass, shall He not give us that which is the more credible? For God has power to make of men Angels, who has made of earthy and filthy spawn, men. What shall we be? Angels. What have we been? I am ashamed to call it to mind; I am forced to consider it, yet I blush to tell it. What have we been? Whence did God make men? What were we before we were at all? We were nothing. When we were in our mother's wombs, what were we? It is enough that you remember. Withdraw your minds from the whence you were made, and think of what you are. You live; but so do herbs and trees live. You have sensation, and so have cattle sensation. You are men, you have got beyond the cattle, you are superior to the cattle; for that you understand how great things He has done for you. You have life, you have sensation, you have understanding, you are men. Now to this benefit what can be compared? You are Christians. For if we had not received this, what would it profit us, that we were men! So then we are Christians, we belong to Christ. For all the world's rage, it does not break us; because we belong to Christ. For all the world's caresses, it does not seduce us; we belong to Christ.