15.

For this is to change what you had been, and to begin to be what you were not, that the divine birth might shine forth in you, that the godly discipline might respond to God, the Father, that in the honour and praise of living, God may be glorified in man; as He Himself exhorts, and warns, and promises to those who glorify Him a reward in their turn, saying, "Them that glorify me I will glorify, and he who despiseth me shall be despised." ¹ For which glorification the Lord, forming and preparing us, and the Son of God instilling ² the likeness of God the Father, says in His Gospel: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them which persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise on the good and on the evil, and sendeth rain upon the just and on the unjust." ³ If it is a source of joy and glory to men to have children like to themselves--and it is more agreeable to have begotten an offspring then when the remaining ⁴ progeny responds to the parent with like lineaments--how much greater is the gladness in God the Father, when any one is so spiritually born that in his acts and praises the divine eminence of race ⁵ is announced! What a palm of righteousness is it, what a crown to be such a one ⁶ as that the Lord should not say of you, "I have begotten and brought up children, but they have despised me!" ⁷ Let Christ rather applaud you, and invite you to the reward, saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which is prepared for you from the beginning of the world." ⁸