Chapter 12.—The Devil the Mediator of Death, Christ of Life.

15. In no wise therefore are souls cleansed and reconciled to God by sacrilegious imitations, or curious arts that are impious, or magical incantations; since the false mediator does not translate them to higher things, but rather blocks and cuts off the way thither through the affections, malignant in proportion as they are proud, which he inspires into those of his own company; which are not able to nourish the wings of virtues so as to fly upwards, but rather to heap up the weight of vices so as to press downwards; since the soul will fall down the more heavily, the more it seems to itself to have been carried upwards. Accordingly, as the Magi did when warned of God,498    Matt. ii. 12 whom the star led to adore the low estate of the Lord; so we also ought to return to our country, not by the way by which we came, but by another way which the lowly King has taught, and which the proud king, the adversary of that lowly King, cannot block up. For to us, too, that we may adore the lowly Christ, the “heavens have declared the glory of God, when their sound went into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”499    Ps. xix. 1, 4 A way was made for us to death through sin in Adam. For, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.”500    Rom. v. 12—in quo. Of this way the devil was the mediator, the persuader to sin, and the caster down into death. For he, too, applied his one death to work out our double death. Since he indeed died in the spirit through ungodliness, but certainly did not die in the flesh: yet both persuaded us to ungodliness, and thereby brought it to pass that we deserved to come into the death of the flesh. We desired therefore the one through wicked persuasion, the other followed us by a just condemnation; and therefore it is written, “God made not death,”501    Wisd. i. 13 since He was not Himself the cause of death; but yet death was inflicted on the sinner, through His most just retribution. Just as the judge inflicts punishment on the guilty; yet it is not the justice of the judge, but the desert of the crime, which is the cause of the punishment. Whither, then, the mediator of death caused us to pass, yet did not come himself, that is, to the death of the flesh, there our Lord God introduced for us the medicine of correction, which He deserved not, by a hidden and exceeding mysterious decree of divine and profound justice. In order, therefore, that as by one man came death, so by one man might come also the resurrection of the dead;502    1 Cor. xv. 21, 22 because men strove more to shun that which they could not shun, viz. the death of the flesh, than the death of the spirit, i.e. punishment more than the desert of punishment (for not to sin is a thing about which either men are not solicitous or are too little solicitous; but not to die, although it be not within reach of attainment, is yet eagerly sought after); the Mediator of life, making it plain that death is not to be feared, which by the condition of humanity cannot now be escaped, but rather ungodliness, which can be guarded against through faith, meets us at the end to which we have come, but not by the way by which we came. For we, indeed, came to death through sin; He through righteousness: and, therefore, as our death is the punishment of sin, so His death was made a sacrifice for sin.

CAPUT XII.

15. Diabolus mortis, Christus vitae mediator. Nequaquam igitur per sacrilegas similitudines et impias curiositates et magicas consecrationes animae purgantur et reconciliantur Deo: quia falsus mediator non trajicit ad superiora, sed potius obsidens intercludit viam per affectus, quos tanto maligniores, quanto superbiores suae societati inspirat; qui non possunt ad evolandum pennas nutrire virtutum, sed potius ad demergendum pondera exaggerare vitiorum, tanto gravius anima ruitura, quanto sibi videtur evecta sublimius. Proinde, sicut Magi fecerunt divinitus moniti (Matth. II, 12), quos ad humilitatem Domini adorandam stella perduxit; ita et nos, non qua venimus, sed per aliam viam in patriam redire debemus, quam rex humilis docuit, et quam rex superbus humili regi adversarius obsidere non possit. Et nobis enim, ut adoremus humilem Christum, coeli enarraverunt 0898 gloriam Dei, cum in in omnem terram exiit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum (Psal. XVIII, 2, 5). Via nobis fuit ad mortem per peccatum in Adam. Per unum quippe hominem peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors; et ita in omnes homines pertransiit, in quo omnes peccaverunt (Rom. V, 12). Hujus viae mediator diabolus fuit, persuasor peccati, et praecipitator in mortem. Nam et ipse ad operandam duplam mortem nostram, simplam attulit suam. Per impietatem namque mortuus est in spiritu, carne utique mortuus non est: nobis autem et impietatem persuasit, et per hanc ut in mortem carnis venire mereremur effecit. Unum ergo appetivimus iniqua suasione, alterum nos secutum est justa damnatione: propterea quippe scriptum est, Deus mortem non fecit (Sap. 1, 13), quia causa mortis ipse non fuit; sed tamen per ejus retributionem justissimam mors irrogata est peccatori. Sicut supplicium judex irrogat reo, causa tamen supplicii non est justitia judicis, sed meritum criminis. Quo ergo nos mediator mortis transmisit, et ipse non venit, id est, ad mortem carnis; ibi nobis Dominus Deus noster medicinam emendationis inseruit, quam ille non meruit, occulta et nimis arcana ordinatione divinae altaeque justitiae. Ut ergo sicut per unum hominem mors, ita et per unum hominem fieret resurrectio mortuorum (I Cor. XV, 21, 22), quia magis vitabant homines quod evitare non poterant, mortem carnis, quam mortem spiritus, id est, magis poenam quam meritum poenae (nam non peccare, aut non curatur, aut parum curatur; non mori autem quamvis non obtineatur, vehementer satagitur); vitae Mediator ostendens, quam non sit mors timenda, quae per humanam conditionem jam evadi non potest, sed potius impietas, quae per fidem caveri potest, occurrit nobis ad finem quo venimus, sed non qua venimus. Nos enim ad mortem per peccatum venimus; ille, per justitiam: et ideo cum sit mors nostra poena peccati, mors illius facta est hostia pro peccato.