For The Benefit Of Souls

Ita ut elegit nos in ipso ane constitiutionem mundi, ut essemus sancti.. Ergo mysterio quod hic implevit, et carne, et cruce, et morte, et resurrectione, subventum est animis: etsi in Christo fides sumatur, ille suscipit hujusmodi animas et adjuvat et liberat. Christum enim credere, et in Christum fidem sumere, jam spiritaliter sentire, et jam tolli a desideriis carnalibus et materialibus: et ex hoc veluti cognatio intelligendi nos jungit et sociat Christo: et dum Christo sociaverit, inquit, et Deo. Per Christum enim Deo jungimur, neque spes ulla salutis nostrae nisi Christum credere. Hoc est spiritaliter jam sentire, et capere sensum, et mundi et materiae motibus non exagitari: quibus omnibus homo totus in spiritu vero est, et ex hoc jam in Christo est vita: cum autem in Christo vita est; jam mysterio acto a Christo recipimur, et per Christum in numerum filiorum suscipimur a Deo, spiritales facti, ut nos quoque de mundo resurgamus et de morte per Dei voluntatem, sed in Christo tamen. Hoc enim et nunc, et saepe et ubique praecipitur, ut in Christo tota sit vita nostra, tota spes, totus intelligendi labor. Omnis enim ratio aeternitatis nostrae et gloriae et salvationis, et Christus est, et in Christo est, si projicientes omnia spiritaliterque sentientes, separemus a nobis mundanas cogitationes, mundanos affectus, carnalia quodammodo desideria, carnales dignitates, carnales potestates, et mundi etiam velle potentias vel dignitates. Omne enim quidquid mundanum est, licet coeleste sit in mundo etiam vel aetherium vel quodlibet aliud divinum nominatur secundum mundum et aeternum, sed secundum mundum tamen, neque divinum est neque aeternum est; etenim materiale: et quicquid materiale est, et temporale est et caducum et corruptibile. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Primus, Caput I Source: Migne PL 8.1240c-1241a

Thus He chose us before the establishment of the world, so that we would be holy... 1 Therefore in a mystery He fulfills it, and the flesh and the cross and the death and the resurrection were for the benefit of souls. Even if we have taken up faith in Christ, He is the one who takes up souls and helps and frees them. For to believe in Christ and to take up faith in Christ is to understand spiritually, and so to be taken from carnal desires and things. And from this, with a certain likeness of understanding, we are joined and associated with Christ, and while we associate with Christ, he says, it is also with God. For it is through Christ that we are joined to God, and there is no hope of salvation unless to believe in Christ. This is to understand spiritually, and to grasp the sense, and not to be troubled by the changes of the world and matter, because of which the whole man becomes truly spiritual, and through this there is now life in Christ, and when there is life in Christ we are received by Christ in mystery, and through Him we are taken up into the number of the sons of God, having been made spiritual, so that we also rise up from the earth and from death by the will of God, but in Christ. Indeed here and now, and often and everywhere, it is exhorted that our whole life, our whole hope, the whole work of our understanding, should be in Christ. For every cause of our eternity and glory and salvation is Christ, and is in Christ, if advancing in all spiritual understanding we separate ourselves from worldly thought, and from worldly loves, and from every carnal desire and honour and power, and every office and dignity of the world. For everything worldly, even if named celestial, ethereal, or divine, is named according to the world and eternity, but according to the world there is nothing divine nor anything eternal, for matter, and whatever is of matter, is transient, and passes away and is corruptible. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book One, Chapter One 1 Ephes 1.4

Ascending And Descending

Quod autem ascendit, quid est nisi qui et descendit in inferiora terrae? Positum est in psalmo ascendens altitudinem ex quo verbo capiamus intelligentiam quia is ascendit, qui descendit. Natura etenim rei sic se habet, ut ascendere in coelum non possit nisi qui inde descendit. Hoc circa coelestia: nam circa alia hujusmodi terrena potest aliquis ascendere, qui non descendit: sed in coelum atque in coelos nemo ascendit, nisi qui inde descendit. Sic enim Salvator in Evangelio dixit: nisi quis renatus fuerit, non potest regnum Dei tenere. Deinde subjunxit, quoniam quod ex carne nascitur, caro est; quod autem ex spiritu nascitur, spiritus est. Spiritus autem de supernis est; ergo spiritus ad superna redit. Nam et cum resurrectio fuerit, omnia spiritus erunt; et totus homo spiritus factus, in coelum ascendet, scilicet per spiritum. Ergo necessarium factum est ut qui ascendit in coelum, ipse sit qui descendit. Christus ergo, de quo dictum est, quia ascendit in coelum, intelligitur quod descenderit: et si descendit, utique in terrae inferiora descendit; non solum in terram, sed in inferiora terrae. Lectum est enim, quia in infernum descendit Salvator passione illa crucis, ut omnem animam liberaret, et ex omnibus locis redimeret membra sua. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Secundus, Caput IV Source: Migne PL 8.1273d-1274a

And who ascends but he who descends into the interior of the earth? 1 It has been written in the Psalm: 'Rising to the height,' 2 from which we should understand that this one who ascends is he who descends. Indeed the nature of it is such that he who ascends into heaven cannot do so unless he came down from there. And this ascent is into the heavenly places, for someone is able to ascend into some other terrestrial place who does not descend, but no one ascends into heaven and heavenly things unless he who descends from there. So the Saviour says in the Gospel: 'Unless a man has been reborn, he is not able to lay hold of the kingdom of God.' Then He continues, 'Because what is born from flesh is flesh and what is born from the spirit is spirit.' 3 And the spirit is from above, therefore the spirit returns to things above. For come the resurrection everything will be spirit, and having been made a spirit the whole man will ascend into heaven, that is, through the spirit. Therefore it was necessary that he who ascends into heaven is he who descends. Therefore Christ says about this that he who ascends into heaven is understood as he who has descended, 4 and if he descends, he descends even into the interior of the earth; and not only to earth, but even into the interior of the earth. For it is written that in the passion of the cross the Saviour descended to hell so that he might free every soul and redeem his members from every place. 5 Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book Two, Chapter Four 1 Ephes 4.9 2 Ps 67.19 3 Jn 3.5-6 4 Jn 3.13 5 1 Peter 3.18-19

Teaching And Vice

Qui desperantes semetipsos tradiderunt impudicitiae, in opertionem omnis immunditae et avartiae... De gentibus loquitur, quibus caecatum cor est, et nihil sperant, id est mortales se et fatentur et probant; neque de aeternitate sua aliquid credunt: ac propterea vitam mundi, quasi ea frui volentes, et rapiunt, et libidinose vivunt, et cum impudicitia exercentes, ut credunt, voluptatem habendi cupidi, et in usu vivendi ducti omnibus turpissimis voluptatibus. Vos autem non ita didicistis Christum; si tamen audistis illum et in illo credidistis. Contra Ephesios docet non ita vivere ut gentes: quippe qui didicerint Christum: quia Christus ut immortales nos faceret, egit mysterium, praesto in carne fuit, docui ut cognosceremus patrem, et in ipsum fidem haberemus, et est aeternitas nobis viventibus secundum ejus mandata. Vos igitur non ita didicistis, ut gentes: quippe quia vos Christum audistis, si tamen audistis illum, id est intellexistis et credidistis. Hoc est enim quod adjunxit, qui in illum credidistis: quia, ut diximus et dicimus semper, credere in Christum, immortalitem consequi est, et vitam aeternam mereri; ipse enim est vita, ipse lux, ipse aeternitas, ipse qui mortem vincit et vicit, et nobis vicit, per mysterium quod implevit. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Secundus, Caput IV Source: Migne PL 8.1277b-c

Who despairing of themselves have given themselves over to shamelessness, to the doing of every vile thing, and avarice... 1 He speaks of the Gentiles, whose hearts are blind, and who hope for nothing, for they confess themselves to be mortal and act on it, believing nothing of eternal things, and thus they seize on the world's life as something to be enjoyed, and they live lustfully and exert themselves in shamelessness, so that, as they think, they will have the joy of their desires, and by such a way of life they have been led away into every sort of vile pleasure. You did not learn this from Christ, if indeed you have listened to Him and believed in Him... Opposing the Ephesians, he teaches that they should not live like the Gentiles, certainly if they have learnt from Christ, because Christ, so that He might make us immortal, worked a mystery, coming forth in the flesh and teaching so that we might come to know the Father and have faith in Him, and it is eternity for us to live according to His commands. You, therefore, did not have the learning of the Gentiles, but certainly you listened to Christ, if indeed 'you listened to Him,' that is, if you understood and believed. For this is what he adds, you who 'believed in Him,' so that as we have said, and as we shall always say, to believe in Christ achieves immortality, and it merits eternal life, for He is the life and the light and eternity, He is the one who conquers death and conquered it, and conquered for us, through the mystery which He fulfilled. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book Two, Chapter Four 1 Ephes 4.19

Perfection And Knowledge

Ut ultra non simus parvuli fluctantes... Cum enim non sumus perfecti, parvuli sumus: et cum parvuli eramus, fluctuabamus: cum autem fide confirmamur, non fluctamus. Cum cognoscimus Christum, viri efficimur. Et jam non parvuli circumferamur, omni vento doctrinae, in nequitia hominum, in astutia, ad remedium erroris. Cum enim perfecti non sumus, et in fide labimur et vacillamus et multa nos perturbant; cum per doctrinas plurimas discurrentes, vento intelligendi vario agitamur. Quae doctrina, nequitia est hominum et calliditas et astutia, et quasi quaedam remedia erroris; ut quod sentis, quasi quorumdam sapientium sensu et intelligentia sentire credas; et sit erroris tui remedium intellectus alienus. Quae omnia dimittenda sunt, ut his duabus rebus refecti simus, et virum compleamus, fide scilicet et agnitione Christi. Denique haec veluti duo scilicet fides Christi, id est in Christum, et agnitio Christi, beatum faciunt: qui vir beatus non fluctuat, non circumfertur doctrina, in nequitia hominum. Haec ita tetigit beatus propheta Davd in eodem primo psalmo: nam beatus, inquit, vir: quem nos dicimus fieri fide et Christi cognitione; qui nescit doctrinas, nescit nequitiam et errores: quos errores doctrinasque sic enumerat David dicendo: qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, et in via peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra pestilentiae non sedit. In cathedra pestilentiae sedere, est docere haereticas disciplinas: abire in consilium impiorum, est in nequitia hominum versari: stare in via peccatorum, est in astutia versari ad remedium erroris. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Secundus, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 8.1276b-1277a

So that we are no longer children, thrown about...' 1 We are children when we are not perfect, and when we were children we were thrown about here and there, but when we are confirmed in the faith we are not thrown about. We are made men when we know Christ, and now not children 'carried away by every wind of teaching in the wickedness of men, in cleverness,' 1 it is the cure for error. For when we are not perfect, we stumble and and we waver even in the faith and many things trouble us, and rushing about among many teachings we are disturbed by the shifting winds of understanding, which teachings are from the wickedness of men and their cleverness and cunning, as if they were a sure cure of error, so that you think you know through the sense and understanding of such wise fellows, and that such estranged minds are a cure for confusion. Which must be utterly dismissed so that we may be renewed and attain maturity by these two things, faith and the knowledge of Christ. Finally, the faith of Christ is as if twofold, that is, what makes one blessed is to be in Christ and to have knowledge of Christ. He who is a blessed man is not thrown about, nor is he whirled about by teachings amid the wickedness of men. The prophet David has touched on this in the first Psalm. 'Blessed is the man,' he says, the man whom we say has the faith and knowledge of Christ, who does not know the mentioned teachings, nor wickedness and error. Which errors and teachings David enumerates, saying, 'He who has not gone off into the counsel of the wicked, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence.' 2 To sit in the chair of pestilence is to teach heresy. To go off into the counsel of the impious is to be embroiled in the wickedness of men. To stand in the way of sinners is to be striving amid cleverness as a cure for error. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book Two, Chapter Four 1 Ephes 4.14 2 Ps 1.1

Grace And Salvation

Et vos cum essetis mortui delictis et peccatis vestris, in quibus aliquando ambulastis secundum saeculum hujus mundi... Totus hic sensus jugendus est, et de Ephesiis quod in peccatis fuerint, et de se ipso quod Paulus in desideriis carnis et in consiliis carnalibus fuerit. Illis, inquam, omnibus, jugendum est illud quod Deus, qui dives in misericordia, salvos omnes fecerit, et ipsum Paulum, et Ephesios. Sic enim concludit, cujus gratia estis salvi facti, cum ambularetis mortui delicitis; et vos cum ambulaveritis mortui delictis et peccatis vestris. Frequenter monui, mortem duplici modo accipi, illam unam notam, cum fine vivendi in mundo anima separatur a copore; aliam, cum in ipso corpore constituta, desideria carnis agit atque in peccatis vivit. Vos, inquit, cum essetis mortui: et designavit mortis genus, delictis et peccatis vestrs, in quibus aliqunado ambulastis secundum saeculum hujus mundi. Ostendit quae sunt peccata, scilicet desideria in mundo, de mundo, divitiarum, vel voluntatis vel scientiae mundanae, vel religionis de mundo, et caetera hujus mundi quae animam perdunt errantam a scientia veritatis. Quod autem dixit saeculum hujus mundi, sunt enim et superiora, et illa saecula aeterna, quae quomodo intelligantur, et quam significantiam habeant, aliis a me libris est replicatum. Saeculum hujus mundi autem omnis regio mundana, vel omnis mundus, in mundo motus rerum tempus faciens et involvens. Non eodem modo saeculum in aeternis est: esse autem aeternorum saecula, etiam Paulus declaravit, et omnes prophetae: siquidem dicitur et frequentur dicitur benedictus Deus in saecula saeculorum. Etenim saeculum finitur; saecula autem saeculorum, et de aeternis et in aeternum sunt. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber I, Cap II Source: Migne PL 8.1252d-1253b

And you when you were dead in your errors and in your sins, in which you walked according to the age of this world... 1 One should join together all the meaning here, both regarding the Ephesians, that they were in sin, and concerning Paul who was in the desires of the flesh and the counsel of it. Then to all these one must join God, who is rich in mercy and would save everyone, 2 Paul himself and the Ephesians. So indeed it concludes that by His grace you have been saved, 3 when you were walking dead in your errors, and when you had walked dead in your errors and sins. I have frequently given the warning that death should be understood in two ways, that one is to be noted in the separation of the soul from the body at the end of this life in the world, and the other is when in the body a man works the desires of the flesh and lives in sin. 'You,' he says, 'when you were dead,' and then specifies the type of death, 'in your errors and your sins, in which you were walking according to the age of this world,' He reveals what sins are, that is, the desires of the world, and for the world, the wealth of it, either the wish for or the knowledge of worldly things, or for the cults of the world, and the rest of the things of this world which ruin the soul, which is a wandering from the knowledge of the truth. Whence he says 'the age of this world', for there are greater things, even the eternal ages, and how they should be understood, and what signficance they have, I have treated in other books. For the age of this world is every part of the world, or the whole world, in which world time makes and unmakes amid the changes of things. But in no way is it the age of eternity. And what the ages of eternity are, even Paul has declared and all the prophets, as it is said, and frequently, 'Blessed be God in the age of the ages.' Indeed the age ends, but the age of the ages speaks of eternal things which are in eternity. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book One, Chapter Two 1 Ephes 5.13 2 cf Ephes 1.7 3 Ephes 2.4-5

Light And Illumination

Omnia autem quae objurgantur, a lumine manifestantur.... Quia praeceptum dedit ut et objurgent male facientes, adjuecti quantum sit munus objurgatio: quoniam peccata illa in occulto, quasi lumine manifestantur cum objurgantur. Is enim qui objurgat, ostendit quantum malum sit illud quod objurgat: et dum ostendit, quasi illuminat malum: quod cum intellixerit ille qui admittit, discutit tenebras et ad lumen accedit. Omne enim quod manifestatur, lumen est. Ostendit ipse, quod exposuimus. Intellectum enim quodcumque est, et manifestatur, et lux est, et videtur, et apertum. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Secundus, Caput V Source: Migne PL 8.1285c

All things which are chastised are made manifest by light... 1 Because he has given the teaching that they should chastise all who do evil, he adds how great the gift of chastisement may be, that is, that when hidden sins are chastised they are made manifest as by light. The one who chastises shows how much evil there is in what he chastises, and while he shows it, it is as he illuminates the evil, because when the other understands, he who admits it, he drives off the darkness and comes to the light. 'Everything which is made manifest is light.' 1 Which shows what we have explained. For that which is understood is made manifest, and it is light, and it appears, and it is revealed. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book Two, Chapter Five 1 Ephes 5.13

The New Man

Renovamini autem spiritu mentis vestrae, et induite novum hominem, qui secundum spiritum creatus est in justitia et sanctitate veritatis. Ut dixi, novus homo est, qui secundum spiritum sapit. Hoc ait: renovamini spiritu mentis vestrae. Ita anima melior, pura, integra; mens vero fortior spiritus est. Renovamini ergo, inquit, spiritu mentis vestrae, et induite novum hominem, ut jam secundum ipsum vivatis; qui spiritalis est, cum ex spiritu sapit; qui ipse ille homo spiritalis secundum Deus creatus est, id est juxta Deus: quomodo dictum est, faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram. Non autem vultum Deus habet aut faciem; sed quemadmodum Deus spiritus est, ita et nos secundum Deum creati sumus, ut secundum spiritum sapiamus; id est nihil carnaliter, nihil in mundo. Denique quid est secundum Domini creatum esse hominem, ipse dixit in sanctitate et justitia et veritate: id est, ut sit justus, ut sit sanctus, sit et verus: etenim qui mundanum sapit, secundum carnem sapit: qui carnem sapit, verum non sapit neque justum, neque sanctum. Ergo quoniam spiritus sanctificat, spiritus vivificat et justificat, spiritus qui vere est, et semper est, et magis solus est, ipse est veritas. Haec igitur omnia sic intelligentes, novum hominem induunt, renovati in spiritu mentis suae. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Secundus, Caput IV Source: Migne PL 8.1279a-c

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, who according to the spirit is created in righteousness and in the sanctity of truth.' 1 As I said, he is the new man who knows according to the spirit. He says: 'Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.' Thus the soul is better when purer and more clean, the mind however when stronger in the spirit. Be renewed, therefore, in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, that now you live according to him. He who is spiritual, knows from the spirit, he is as that spiritual man who was created according to God, that is, in the fashion of God, whence it was said, 'Let us make man according to our image and likeness.' 2 For God does not have a countenance, or a face, and as God is a spirit, so even we who are created according to God, that we know according to the spirit, that is, that we know nothing carnal, nothing in the world. Finally what it is to be man created according to God, he says: in sanctity and righteousness and truth; that is, that he be righteous and holy and true. For indeed he who knows mundane things knows according to the flesh. He who knows according to the flesh does not know what is true, nor what is righteous, nor what is holy. Therefore because the spirit sanctifies, the spirit gives life and justifies, the spirit who is true, and always is, and greater only is He who is the truth. So understanding all these things they put on the new man, renewed in the spirit of their mind. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book Two, Chapter Four 1 Ephes 4.23 2 Gen 1.26

Blessings And Suffering

Deinde subjunxit causam, quomodo benedictus qui nos, inquit, benedixit in omni benedictione spiritali in coelestibus. Hic hominium miserandus error attendat, benedictos nos dixit et in omni benedictione benedictos: ergo nihil mali pati debet qui benedictus est. Sed quid adjunxit? Id est in omni benedictione spiritali, non carnali. Quod si quid hic in mundo patimur malorum, si quid etiam extra, non adscribamus Dei, sed nobis magis. Tunc enim benedictionem consequimer si spiritales simus, et spiritaliter sapiamus, et spiritalia bona quaeramus. Et potest quidem fieri ut haec omnia sentiamus; nec obsit, si haec et alia sentientes, patiamur tamen aliquid adversi in mundo. Namque multi spiritaliter agentes, spiritaliter viventes, multi substinent adversa, ut Paulus, ut Petrus, ut caeteri. Verum ubi est illa benedictio, quae nos benedictos facit? Dei benedictio: non spiritali tantum benedictione, sed in coelestibus, id est cum ex hoc mundo exierimus. Ergo ferenda sunt omnia, quia quae nobis promittuntur ex Dei benedictione, et spiritalia sunt in coelestibus sunt, id est extra mundum supra caelos. Et haec tamen omnia, sicuti dicit, in Jesus Christo: ipse est enim spiritus. Et spiritalia cum promittuntur in Christo promittuntur: et nos tunc consequemur spiritalia, si Christum sequemur. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Primus, Caput I Source: Migne PL 8.1238a-b

Then he adds the reason, how He has blessed us, saying, 'He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.' 1 Here a woeful error may attend men, that when he says He blesses us with every blessing, that therefore he who is blessed should not suffer any evil. But what does he add? That it is with every spiritual blessing, and not then carnal. That if we suffer evils here in the world, if indeed it is from without, we should not ascribe it to God but rather to ourselves. Then indeed we attain the blessing  if we are spiritual, and we think spiritually, and we seek spiritual goods. And it is possible that pondering all these things we are not harmed, if thinking of these things and other things, we suffer something adverse in the world. For many being spiritual, living spiritually, endured many adverse things; so Paul, so Peter, so others. Truly where is that blessing with which he makes us blessed? The blessing is of God. Not only a spiritual blessing, but in the heavens, that is, when we have gone from this world. Therefore we must bear everything, because those things promised to us from the blessing of God are the spiritual things in the heavenly places, that is, outside the world, and beyond the skies. And yet all these things, as he says, are in Jesus Christ, and therefore we will achieve spiritual things, if we follow Christ. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book One, Chapter 1 1 Ephes 1.3

Humility And Meekness

Cum omni humilitate et mansuetudine et patientia. Et tolerantiam multam ponit, ne efferantur, ne superbi sint. Primo posita humilitas, deinde mansuetudo. Humilitas animi dejectio est. Frenum superbiae et immanitatis mansuetudo est. At vero quae sequitur patientia, in eo quod tolerant, si quid adversi evenerit. In prioribus, ne vereantur pati, duo posita, humilitas et mansuetudo. In his quae sequuntur, si passi fuerint, quales sint patientia, inquit. Deinde quod subjungit cum omni magnanimitate. Haec enim magnanimitas in hoc est, ut non solum patientier feras, sed erecto animo semper sis. Denique hoc subjungit, ut si passus fueris patienter, et magnanimiter feras sufferentes omnia quaecumque acciderint portantes invicem in charitate. Potest et ad sufferentes invicem in charitate, referri. Potest tamen integer esse sensus qui sequitur: Solliciti servandae unitatis spiritus in vinculo pacis. Ut spiritus unitatem servetis, aut unum spiritum servetis servandae pacis et in vinculo pacis, hortor vos ut soliciti sitis. Dat tamen rationes quare unitatis spiritus in vinculo solliciti esse debent: Unum corpus, inquit, et unus spiritus. Quia unum corpus est tota Ecclesia et unus spiritus, Ita ut et vocati estis in una spe vocationis vestrae. Et hoc argumentum est ad unitatem spiritus servandam in vinculo pacis, quod ita et isti vocati in una spe: non enim diversam spem habent, sed unam omnes, qui vocati sunt, promissorum Dei. Quae autem promissa sunt, notum est omnibus. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Primus, Caput IV Source: Migne PL 8.1271b-1272a

With every humility and meekness and patience. 1 And much endurance he proposes, lest they are made wild, lest they become proud. First he proposes humility, then meekness. Humility is a lowering of the soul. Meekness is the bridle on pride and brutality. Then what follows is patience, by which they endure, if adverse things should befall. Initially, then, lest they fear to suffer, two things he proposes, humility and meekness. Following these things, if they were to suffer, so they would be patient, he says. Then he continues 'with every magnanimity'. 2 And this magnanimity here is so that not only you suffer patiently, but you always do so with an upright soul. Then he adds, that if you were to suffer patiently, and endure magnanimously, suffering everything which befalls: 'bearing with one another in charity.' 1 And it is possible that 'suffering one another in love,' is all that is referred to. It is possible, however, that the sound sense is in what follows: 'Being anxious to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.' 3 That you attend to the unity of the spirit, or that you attend to the one spirit in the guarding of peace in the bond of peace, I exhort you that you be anxious to do so. Now let reasons be given why they should be anxious for the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. 'One body,' he says, 'and one spirit.' 4  Because one is the body of all the Church and one is the spirit. 'Thus you have been called into the one hope of your calling.' 4 And this is the argument for the guarding of the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, that thus they are called in one hope, not having different hopes, but there is one for all who are called regarding the promises of God. For those things which are promised are known to all. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book One, Chapter 4 1 Ephes 4.2 2 Vetus Latina 3 Ephes 4.3 4 Ephes 4.4