6. Against those who believe that the name "children" and "infants" means the initial stage of education.

In addition, let us be allowed to show the wrongness of those who degrade these names. The Scriptures call us "children" and "infants" with an attitude not to the childish state of our teaching and its low value, with which traits those who boast of their knowledge falsely characterize it (1 Cor. 8:1). With regeneration we immediately attain the perfection to which we aspire. For in baptism we receive into our souls the light of the knowledge of God. But he cannot be called imperfect who knows the perfect; and let no one blame me for claiming that I know God. This expression is pleasing to the Logos, and He is free (John 8:35-36). Immediately after the baptism, a voice from heaven sounded over the Lord, bearing witness to Him as beloved: Thou art My beloved Son; I have begotten you this day. Now let us ask these wise men: Christ, of whom the Scriptures say that He is now (born)born. Is he perfect or, which is very incongruous, is he not perfect? If He was imperfect, then He had to learn something. But He had nothing to learn, because He is God. There is no being greater than the Logos; for the only Teacher there is no teacher. Must they not, therefore, confess against their will that the Logos came perfect from the perfect Father, and that He was fully and perfectly regenerated by the disposition of our salvation? But being perfect, why did He, being perfect, receive baptism? They answer that He had to fully satisfy the form of life He took upon Himself in the form of a man. Exactly. I agree with this. Consequently, does baptism from John immediately make Him perfect? Obviously. Consequently, he had nothing to learn from John? Nothing. Does He attain perfection, therefore, in a simple washing and is sanctified through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him? So. The same thing happens to us, for whom Christ is the prototype. Through baptism we receive light into the soul, with light we receive the right to sonship, with sonship – perfection, with perfection – immortality. I said, it is said, "you are gods, and the sons of the Most High are all of you" (Psalm 81:6). This act is variously called grace, enlightenment, perfection, and ablution. It is called ablution because in baptism our sins are washed away; by grace, because in it we are freed from the punishment of sins; enlightenment - because in it we see the heavenly saving light, i.e. we come to know God. We call perfection the absence of any defect; but what is lacking for him who knows God? In truth, it would be senseless to call something that does not have the full degree of perfection a gift of God. Being perfect, God also squanders the gifts, of course, which are perfect (James 1:17). As everything happens according to His word, so His grace-filled will is followed by a perfect gift. What is yet to happen to us is preempted in baptism by the omnipotence of the Divine will. - Further: the forgiveness of sins for us is already the beginning of our salvation. Therefore, whoever achieves the goals of life is already perfect. And whoever escaped death is alive. Salvation, therefore, consists in following Christ. For what happened in Him is life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed from death unto life (John 5:24). Therefore, only faith and regeneration represent perfection in life. Because God doesn't do anything wrong. As His will is already an action and is seen by us in the form of this world, in the same way the will of God is the salvation of man, and it is called the Church. God knows those who are called by Him. Saved by him. But calling and salvation for God are one and the same. You yourselves are learned by God, says the Apostle (1 Thess. 4:9). But it is not permissible to consider what God Himself teaches imperfect. This teaching is the teaching of eternal salvation, mediated by the eternally existing Saviour, to whom be praise forever. Amen. Inseparably linked with the concept of man, regenerated and enlightened, is the concept of man brought out of darkness; This is already given by the literal meaning of those words: in the light those people walk from that very moment (enlightenment and rebirth). Like a dream, those who shake off their eyelids immediately become spiritually awake; Or rather, as those who try to clear their vision, which is weakened by a smudge, do not help the eye by attracting light from without, but remove the obstacle from the eye, thus freeing the pupil of the eye, so we, too, with the help of the Holy Spirit, having washed in baptism the eye of our spirit, which is covered with mists and covered with the darkness of sin, then have it pure, healthy, and bright. We know God only because (in baptism) the Holy Spirit is poured out upon us from heaven. A celestial ray enters our eye, giving it the ability to see heavenly light. Like is friends with like; The holy is friends with its original source, and this one is primarily called light. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8). That is why man, I think, is called light, j w V.

"But," they object, "the baptized man receives a gift that is not yet perfect." but he walketh in the light, and darkness hath not overtaken him (John 1:3); and between light and darkness there is no intermediate state.

"The faithful," they further object, "are to be perfected in the resurrection. But this perfection is not the attainment of any special good, but nothing else than the fulfillment of the promise received (in baptism). But it is impossible to admit that at one and the same time both the attainment of the goal and the hope of this can exist together. therefore, the goal cannot be identified with the aspiration." - Undoubtedly. In fact, it is a different matter for a person to strive for a goal and which he achieves, and another thing for a person who strives for it and achieves it. Striving is, so to speak, the faith of this life, and the goal is the fulfillment of the promise in eternity. But the Lord Himself clearly identifies both of these moments in salvation with the words: "The Leader of Him who sent Me is this, that whosoever seeth the Son and believeth in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:40). We therefore believe in our perfection as far as it is possible in this life. By this moment He means the last day, until which it will be preserved (cf. 2 Pet. 2:4, 9; 3:7, where to preserve means to exist) and at the onset of which it will be destroyed. Faith is the perfection of doctrine; therefore He says: He who believes in the Son has eternal life (John 3:36). If, therefore, life is characteristic of us as a result of faith, what else is to come to us in the time to come, if not the inheritance of life in its heavenly form? Faith is not something insufficient; it is by its very essence something perfect, and it is characterized by fullness (perfection). If faith is characterized by any defect, it means that it is not completely perfect; Faith has no faults, and it makes believers await (the fulfillment of the promise) not only after departing from this world, but already here on earth, endowing them all without distinction with pledges (the fulfillment of the promise). Of what through faith we know beforehand that in the future will become our inheritance, the same after the resurrection we will receive in our possession in reality; and then the word will be fulfilled over us: According to faith, let the plough be done unto you. (Matt. 9:29). Where there is faith, there is the promise; but the fulfillment of the promise is rest (in God). Gnosis, therefore, consists in enlightenment, and the goal of gnosis is peace, the ultimate limit of what is attainable. As a result of experience, inexperience disappears; As with abundance lack ceases, so darkness must disappear through enlightenment. And by darkness must be understood ignorance, as a result of which we fall into sin, remaining blind to the truth. Gnosis is, therefore, that enlightenment by which ignorance is banished, and in which we are granted the organ of sight. But even in the abandonment of the worst there is a knowledge of the best. For what is kept in a morbidly bound state by ignorance (Isaiah 58:6), is gloriously resolved by knowledge. These fetters are quickly broken by man's faith and Divine grace, which in baptism into the Logos, as if through some kind of Paeonian grass, heals us from sins. All our sins are washed away by baptism, and immediately we cease to walk in the ways of evil. The grace-filled effect of enlightenment consists, therefore, in the fact that we abandon our former morals after washing. But since the sun of gnosis rises over us with enlightenment, illuminating our spirit, we, who are (hitherto) ignorant, are immediately reputed to be "disciples" who are informed in the teaching. And if so, when did we listen to the teaching? Truly, it is impossible to determine these moments with precision. Catechetical catechesis only leads to faith; it means that in baptism itself the Holy Spirit teaches us. That faith is the means of salvation common to all mankind, and that God, who is just and loving men, is equally well pleased with all, the Apostle clearly teaches in the words: "And before the coming of faith we were imprisoned under the custody of the law, until the time when faith should have been revealed. Therefore the law was for us to guide children to Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but after the coming of faith we are no longer under the guidance of a tutor (Gal. 3:23-23). Do you hear? We are no longer under a law based on the principle of fear, but are guided by the Logos, the Teacher of freedom. Then the Apostle added a saying, in which there is nothing about the preference of certain persons: "For all of you," he says, "are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus; all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:26-28).

It is not so, therefore, that it is necessary to understand that some are in the Logos, the Gnostics (endowed with knowledge), and others remain natural people (who have only a common life with all animate beings), but in such a way that all of us, after abandoning carnal desires, have equal dignity before the Lord, all are spiritual. In another place the Apostle writes: For we are all baptized by one Spirit in one^ forehead. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free; and all are drunk with one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).

It is not unseemly to use the own words of (our) opponents. "The thought of the best" they call "the product of the straining of the spirit" d i u l i s m o n, because the thought of the best is connected with the abandonment of the worst. "But the thought of the best necessarily follows the repentance of the bad. Our adversaries, then, must admit that the breath of the same Spirit also leads to repentance. But that's exactly how it is with us. Through baptism we are cleansed and return to the light, as children we draw closer to the Father, having previously repented of our sins and sworn to renounce their repetition. Wherefore, rejoicing in the spirit, Jesus says, "I will crush thee, Father, Lord" (Lk. X, 21; Mf. 11:25) of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes (Luke 10:21). The Pedagogue and Teacher call us "babes" because they are more inclined to salvation than the wise men of this world, who, imagining themselves to be wise, have gone mad (Romans 1:22). And He, rejoicing and triumphant, as if singing together with the children, says: Yes, Father! For such was Thy good pleasure (Luke 10:21). Therefore, that which is hidden from the wise and prudent of this world is revealed to babes. In justice we are called children of God, we who have put off the former way of life of the old man (Eph. 4:22), who have put off our garments which are defiled by the flesh (Jude 23:2; Corinthians 5:4), who have put on the immortality of Christ (1 Corinthians 13:33), so that we who have been reborn into a new holy nation may preserve in ourselves the unblemished man (Eph. 4:24). And this child, as the nurturer of God, is pure from debauchery and wickedness.

But let us leave the further exposition of this subject better to Paul, who exempts us from this exposition, because in the First Epistle to the Corinthians he writes thus: "Brethren, be not children of mind: you shall be babes of evil, but of course in mind be of full age" (1 Cor. 14:20). And the word: "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child" (1 Corinthians 13:11) means his life under the law, when he, not wanting to be a simpleton, recklessly persecuted the Church of God, thinking like a child. Speaking recklessly, he acted impiously against the Logos. The word "baby" has a double meaning. And because the flock was a man, says Paul again, he forsook the things of infancy (1 Corinthians 13:11). He does not mean here an imperfect age or a definite period of time in general, nor does he mean the highest mysterious teaching appointed for men, because he extends the state of childhood beyond its boundaries, he who asserts that he proclaims that he proclaims God's recognition of us as children, but by infants he means those who were subject to the law, fearing as scarecrow children fear; and by men he means those who obey the Logos, who have the right to self-determination. We, believers, attain salvation by choosing it freely; Fear is distinguished in us by a rational character, and not by an irrational one. The Apostle himself bears witness to this, calling the Jews heirs according to the Old Testament, and us heirs of the promise. I will also say, he writes, that the heir, as long as in childhood, does not differ in any way from a slave, although he is the master of all: he is subject to the trustees and stewards until the time appointed by the father. In the same way, while we were in childhood, we were enslaved to the material principles of the world. But when the fullness of time came. God sent His Only-begotten Son, Who was born of a woman, and was under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might learn adoption as sons (Gal. 4:1-5). Notice that the Apostle here called the slaves of fear and sin children, but the believers he called sons and recognized them as adults, in contrast to the children who are under the law. Therefore you are no longer a slave, he says, but a son; and if a son, then also an heir of God through Jesus Christ (Gal. 4:7). (But what else does the son lack after entering into the inheritance rights?) This passage: When I was a child, it is best, therefore, to explain thus: "When I was a Jew"; Previously, the apostle was a Jew. Then I thought like a child, because I followed the law; but when I became a man, I forsook the things of a child, that is, what the law says, but I think of what a man says, that is, Christ, whom the Scriptures, as we have shown above, call one man; I have left the things of my infancy. - Childhood in Christ, in comparison with the law, is perfection. We must take our childhood under protection here.

It is also necessary to interpret the following saying of the Apostle: (As to babes in Christ) I nourished you with milk, and not with solid food, for you were not yet able, and even now are not able (1 Corinthians 3:2). This saying, it seems to me, can no longer be interpreted in relation to Judaism, if we oppose it with another text of Scripture: "I will bring you out into a land flowing with milk and honey" (Exodus 3:8, 17 and in many other places). Whoever thinks more carefully about these passages of Scripture encounters a considerable difficulty here. If the initial phase of faith in Christ is the infantile age (of faith) nourished by milk, and if this phase is equivalent to its imperfection, then how then is the blessed rest of the Christian, with the knowledge of the gifted (Gnostic) and the perfect, which comes after the tasting of this (solid) food, again called milk, i.e. the food of infancy? It is impossible to think that this passage contains anything contradictory; it is, of course, very accurate and should be read something like this: I fed you with milk in Christ. Now let us add to this another expression, which stands after a certain interval: as to infants. This combination of separate expressions gives the following meaning: Through the oral presentation of the doctrine of Christ to you, I have nourished you with simple, nourishing, and age-appropriate spiritual food. For it is precisely these properties that distinguish the milk flowing from a loving breast, which nourishes all living things. Consequently, on the whole, that word of the Apostle should be understood in this way: as wet nurses nourish newborn children with milk, so I also nourished you with the milk of Christ, the Divine word, pouring into you drop by drop this spiritual food. It follows, therefore, that milk is far from being imperfect food, but is perfect food, since it leads to eternal bliss. That is why the same milk and honey are promised to us in the place of rest. So naturally does the Lord here again promise milk to the righteous, so that by this promise He may speak clearly of both, both of the Alpha and of the Omega, of the beginning and of the end (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13), for under the image of milk the Logos is allegorically spoken. Homer sings about the same thing. Being an unwitting prophet, he calls the righteous "galactophagi" (mammals).

But this passage of Scripture can also be understood in this way: I could not speak to you, brethren, as to spiritual ones, but as to carnal ones, as to babes in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1). By carnal people and by babes in Christ we must understand those who were recently catechumenized; the Apostle addresses those who already believe in the Holy Spirit as spiritual people, and the newly-catechumens as carnal people and have not yet been cleansed (by holy baptism). These, almost like pagans, he still justly calls carnal people, because they were imbued with carnal dispositions. For if there is envy, contention, and dissension among you, are you not carnal? and do you not walk according to human custom" (1 Cor. 3:3)? Wherefore, he says, I have given you milk to drink, I have poured out knowledge (gnosis) in you, I have made you known a doctrine that ought to sustain eternal life in you. But the expression "I have drunk you" also indicates the perfection of the message; because the word to drink is used in relation to adults, but when it is said about children, it is used to suck. My blood, says the Saviour, is truth, is drink (John 6:53). By the expression "I gave you milk to drink," does not the Apostle therefore mean that fullness of joy which is contained in the milk of the Logos, namely, the knowledge of the truth?

In the following words, "And not with (solid) food, for you were not yet able," (solid) food may mean the removal of the veil in the future life, seeing face to face. Because now we see as if through a glass darkly, divinationly, says the same Apostle, then face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). That is why he adds: "But even now you are not able, for you are still carnal, you think carnally, you are not free from carnal desires, you are inclined to sensual love, to passion, to anger, to envy" (cf. Gal. 5:19-21).

"But we are no longer in the flesh (Rom. 8:9), some assert, for though with flesh, yet with a face like an angel, we see the promise face to face." - But if this is really the contemplation of that promise, which will be fulfilled only after death, if this is the contemplation of that which the eye has not seen, and has not entered into the heart of man (1 Corinthians 2:9), then how is it that they are able to contemplate this promise even now, when they have not heeded spiritual inspiration, but through teaching, which no other ear has ever heard? except the ear of him who was caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2-4) and there received a command to be silent about it? If, however, this self-boasting knowledge (gnosis) is human wisdom, then there is a commandment of the Scriptures concerning it: Let not the wise boast of his wisdom, let not the strong man boast of his strength. But he who boasts, let him boast that he understands and knows Me (Jeremiah 9:23). But we have been taught by God (1 Thess. 4:9), and we boast in this in the name of Christ.

This is how we understand the Apostle's words about the milk of infants; And why not understand it this way? If we, the leaders of the Church, are shepherds following the example of the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14), and you are sheep, then should we not admit, so that the comparison remains fully sustained, that we can speak of the Lord's flesh and blood under the image of the milk of the flock? Such an allegory is in perfect accord with the above words of the Apostle: "I have given you milk to drink, and I have not nourished you with (solid) food.

By (solid) food, which we are talking about after milk, we must understand nothing else than the same thing in the essence of the matter. For the teaching remains the same, whether it is offered in the form of artless and simple, in the form of milk, or in the form of a whole, ordered and coherent, in the form of (solid) food. But truly, if this is the meaning of these words of the Apostle, then by milk we can understand the preaching that has spread everywhere, and by food the faith, which after hearing the catechetical teaching is strengthened to the foundation, and which, being much more reliable than the catechetical teaching, is likened to the food that the soul assimilates to its body.

About food of this kind in other places of the Gospel of John, the Lord spoke symbolically and in another way: "Eat my flesh and drink my blood" (John 6:54). Obviously, He speaks here allegorically about faith and promises, and by which the Church, like a man consisting of many members, receives its vital juices and by the power of which it grows. But faith is composed and connected from two component parts: from the body, i.e., faith proper, and from the soul, i.e., hope, just as the Lord is composed of flesh and blood. In fact, hope is the blood of faith; by hope faith is kept in agreement with itself, as if by a quickening soul. But if hope, like blood flowing out, evaporates, then the liveliness of faith is also extinguished.