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Methodius of Olympus, The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity
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The Banquet of the Ten Virgins or Concerning…
Chapter IV.—Human Generation, and the Work of God Therein Set Forth.
Chapter V.—The Holy Father Follows Up the Same Argument.
Chapter VI.—God Cares Even for Adulterous Births Angels Given to Them as Guardians.
Chapter III.—Comparison Instituted Between the First and Second Adam.
Chapter V.—A Passage of Jeremiah Examined.
Chapter VII.—The Works of Christ, Proper to God and to Man, the Works of Him Who is One.
Chapter IX.—The Dispensation of Grace in Paul the Apostle.
Chapter X.—The Doctrine of the Same Apostle Concerning Purity.
Chapter XI.—The Same Argument.
Chapter XII.—Paul an Example to Widows, and to Those Who Do Not Live with Their Wives.
Chapter XIII.—The Doctrine of Paul Concerning Virginity Explained.
Chapter XIV.—Virginity a Gift of God: the Purpose of Virginity Not Rashly to Be Adopted by Any One.
Chapter IV.—The Author Goes on with the Interpretation of the Same Passage.
Chapter V.—The Gifts of Virgins, Adorned with Which They are Presented to One Husband, Christ.
Chapter VI.—Virginity to Be Cultivated and Commended in Every Place and Time.
Chapter III.—Far Best to Cultivate Virtue from Boyhood.
Chapter IV.—Perfect Consecration and Devotion to God: What It is.
Chapter V.—The Vow of Chastity, and Its Rites in the Law Vines, Christ, and the Devil.
Chapter VII.—The Church Intermediate Between the Shadows of the Law and the Realities of Heaven.
Chapter VIII.—The Double Altar, Widows and Virgins Gold the Symbol of Virginity.
Chapter III.—The Same Endeavour and Effort After Virginity, with a Different Result.
Chapter IV.—What the Oil in the Lamps Means.
Chapter V.—The Reward of Virginity.
Chapter III.—Virgins Being Martyrs First Among the Companions of Christ.
Chapter VIII.—The Human Nature of Christ His One Dove.
Chapter IX.—The Virgins Immediately After the Queen and Spouse.
Chapter III.—The Lot and Inheritance of Virginity.
Chapter VIII.—The Faithful in Baptism Males, Configured to Christ The Saints Themselves Christs.
Chapter IX.—The Son of God, Who Ever Is, is To-Day Begotten in the Minds and Sense of the Faithful.
Chapter XVI.—Several Other Things Turned Against the Same Mathematicians.
Chapter XVII.—The Lust of the Flesh and Spirit: Vice and Virtue.
Chapter III.—How Each One Ought to Prepare Himself for the Future Resurrection.
Chapter V.—The Mystery of the Tabernacles.
Chapter IV.—The Law Useless for Salvation The Last Law of Chastity Under the Figure of the Bramble.
Chapter V.—The Malignity of the Devil as an Imitator in All Things Two Kinds of Fig-Trees and Vines.
Chapter VI.—The Whole Number of Spiritual Sheep; Man a Second Choir, After the Angels, to the Praise of God; The Parable of the Lost Sheep Explained.
Now, since He truly was and is, being in the beginning with God, and being God,70 St. John i. 1. He is the chief Commander and Shepherd of the heavenly ones, whom all reasonable creatures obey and attend, who tends in order and numbers the multitudes of the blessed angels. For this is the equal and perfect number of immortal creatures, divided according to their races and tribes, man also being here taken into the flock. For he also was created without corruption, that he might honour the king and maker of all things, responding to the shouts of the melodious angels which came from heaven. But when it came to pass that, by transgressing the commandment (of God), he suffered a terrible and destructive fall, being thus reduced to a state of death, for this reason the Lord says that He came from heaven into (a human) life, leaving the ranks and the armies of angels. For the mountains are to be explained by the heavens, and the ninety and nine sheep by the principalities and powers71 Eph. i. 21; iii. 10. which the Captain and Shepherd left when He went down to seek the lost one. For it remained that man should be included in this catalogue and number, the Lord lifting him up and wrapping him round, that he might not again, as I said, be overflowed and swallowed up by the waves of deceit. For with this purpose the Word assumed the nature of man, that, having overcome the serpent, He might by Himself destroy the condemnation which had come into being along with man’s ruin. For it was fitting that the Evil One should be overcome by no other, but by him whom he had deceived, and whom he was boasting that he held in subjection, because no otherwise was it possible that sin and condemnation should be destroyed, unless that same man on whose account it had been said, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return,”72 Gen. iii. 19. should be created anew, and undo the sentence which for his sake had gone forth on all, that “as in Adam” at first “all die, even so” again “in Christ,” who assumed the nature and position of Adam, should “all be made alive.”73 1 Cor. xv. 22.