XXXVII. For what further need has God of the mysteries of love?65    Segaar reads: For what more should I say? Behold the mysteries of love. And then thou shalt look into the bosom of the Father, whom God the only-begotten Son alone hath declared. And God Himself is love; and out of love to us became feminine.66    Ἐθηλύνθη, which occurs immediately after this, has been suggested as the right reading here. The text has ἐθηράθη. In His ineffable essence He is Father; in His compassion to us He became Mother. The Father by loving became feminine: and the great proof of this is He whom He begot of Himself; and the fruit brought forth by love is love.

For this also He came down. For this He clothed Himself with man. For this He voluntarily subjected Himself to the experiences of men, that by bringing Himself to the measure of our weakness whom He loved, He might correspondingly bring us to the measure of His own strength. And about to be offered up and giving Himself a ransom, He left for us a new Covenant-testament: My love I give unto you. And what and how great is it? For each of us He gave His life,—the equivalent for all. This He demands from us in return for one another. And if we owe our lives to the brethren, and have made such a mutual compact with the Saviour, why should we any more hoard and shut up worldly goods, which are beggarly, foreign to us and transitory? Shall we shut up from each other what after a little shall be the property of the fire? Divinely and weightily John says, “He that loveth not his brother is a murderer,”67    1 John iii. 14, 15. the seed of Cain, a nursling of the devil. He has not God’s compassion. He has no hope of better things. He is sterile; he is barren; he is not a branch of the ever-living supercelestial vine. He is cut off; he waits the perpetual fire.

37.1 Τί γὰρ ἔτι δεῖ; θεῶ τὰ τῆς ἀγάπης μυστήρια, καὶ τότε ἐποπτεύ σεις τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρός, ὃν ὁ μονογενὴς θεὸς μόνος ἐξηγήσατο. 37.2 ἔστι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη καὶ δι' ἀγάπην ἡμῖν ἐθεάθη. καὶ τὸ μὲν ἄρρητον αὐτοῦ πατήρ, τὸ δὲ εἰς ἡμᾶς συμπαθὲς γέγονε μήτηρ. ἀγαπήσας ὁ πατὴρ ἐθηλύνθη, καὶ τούτου μέγα σημεῖον ὃν αὐτὸς 37.3 ἐγέννησεν ἐξ αὑτοῦ· καὶ ὁ τεχθεὶς ἐξ ἀγάπης καρπὸς ἀγάπη. διὰ τοῦτο καὶ αὐτὸς κατῆλθε, διὰ τοῦτο ἄνθρωπον ἐνέδυ, διὰ τοῦτο τὰ ἀνθρώπων ἑκὼν ἔπαθεν, ἵνα πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν ἀσθένειαν οὓς 37.4 ἠγάπησε μετρηθεὶς ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν ἀντιμετρήσῃ. καὶ μέλλων σπένδεσθαι καὶ λύτρον ἑαυτὸν ἐπιδιδοὺς καινὴν ἡμῖν δια θήκην καταλιμπάνει· "ἀγάπην ὑμῖν δίδωμι τὴν ἐμήν." τίς δέ ἐστιν αὕτη καὶ πόση; ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἑκάστου κατέθηκε τὴν ψυχὴν τὴν ἀντα 37.5 ξίαν τῶν ὅλων· ταύτην ἡμᾶς ὑπὲρ ἀλλήλων ἀνταπαιτεῖ. εἰ δὲ τὰς ψυχὰς ὀφείλομεν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, καὶ τοιαύτην τὴν συνθήκην πρὸς τὸν σωτῆρα ἀνθωμολογήμεθα, ἔτι τὰ τοῦ κόσμου, τὰ πτωχὰ καὶ ἀλλότρια καὶ παραρρέοντα, καθείρξομεν ταμιευόμενοι; ἀλλήλων ἀπο 37.6 κλείσομεν, ἃ μετὰ μικρὸν ἕξει τὸ πῦρ; θείως γε καὶ ἐπιπνόως ὁ Ἰω άννης "ὁ μὴ φιλῶν" φησὶ "τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἐστί", σπέρμα τοῦ Κάιν, θρέμμα τοῦ διαβόλου, θεοῦ σπλάγχνον οὐκ ἔχει, ἐλπίδα κρειττόνων οὐκ ἔχει, ἄσπορός ἐστιν, ἄγονός ἐστιν, οὐκ ἔστι κλῆμα τῆς ἀεὶ ζώσης ὑπερουρανίας ἀμπέλου, ἐκκόπτεται, τὸ πῦρ ἄθρουν ἀναμένει.