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Passages similar to: Stromata (Miscellanies) — Chapter IV: The Praises of Martyrdom.
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Christian Mysticism
Stromata (Miscellanies)
Chapter IV: The Praises of Martyrdom. (1)
Whence, as is reasonable, the gnostic, when Galled, obeys easily, and gives up his body to him who asks; and, previously divesting himself of the affections of this carcase, not insulting the tempter, but rather, in my opinion, training him and convincing him,- "From what honour and what extent of wealth fallen," as says Empedocles, here for the future he walks with mortals. He, in truth, bears witness to himself that he is faithful and loyal towards God; and to the tempter, that he in vain envied him who is faithful through love; and to the Lord, of the inspired persuasion in reference to His doctrine, from which he will not depart through fear of death; further, he confirms also the truth of preaching by his deed, showing that God to whom he hastes is powerful. You will wonder at his love, which he conspicuously shows with thankfulness, in being united to what is allied to him, and besides by his precious blood, shaming the unbelievers. He then avoids denying Christ through fear by reason of the command; nor does he sell his faith in the hope of the gifts prepared, but in love to the Lord he will most gladly depart from this life; perhaps giving thanks both to him who afforded the cause of his departure hence, and to him who laid the plot against him, for receiving an honourable reason which he himself furnished not, for showing what he is, to him by his patience, and to the Lord in love, by which even before his birth he was manifested to the Lord, who knew the martyr's choice. With good courage, then, he goes to the Lord, his friend, for whom he voluntarily gave his body, and, as his judges hoped, his soul, hearing from our Saviour the words of poetry, "Dear brother," by reason of the similarity of his life. We call martyrdom perfection, not because the man comes to the end of his life as others, but because he has exhibited the perfect work of love. And the ancients laud the death of those among the Greeks who died in war, not that they advised people to die a violent death, but because he who ends his life in war is released without the dread of dying, severed from the body without experiencing previous suffering or being enfeebled in his soul, as the people that suffer in diseases. For they de part in a state of effeminacy and desiring to live; and therefore they do not yield up the soul pure, but bearing with it their lusts like weights of lead; all but those who have been conspicuous in virtue. Some die in battle with their lusts, these being in no respect different from what they would have been if they had wasted away by disease.
Christian Mysticism
The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite
The Letters, Letter VIII: To Demophilus, Therapeutes. About minding ones own business, and kindness (6)
When I was once in Crete, the holy Carpus entertained me,--a man, of all others, most fitted, on account of great purity of mind, for Divine Vision....
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Western Esoteric
Paradiso: Canto VIII (4)
If evil lordship, that exasperates ever The subject populations, had not moved Palermo to the outcry of 'Death! death!' And if my brother could but...
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Greek
Book X (621)
Now after they had gone to rest, about the middle of the night there was a thunderstorm and earthquake, and then in an instant they were driven...
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Christian Mysticism
The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite
The Letters, Letter VIII: To Demophilus, Therapeutes. About minding ones own business, and kindness (4)
Thyself, then, assign their due limit to passion and anger and reason. And to thyself, let the divine Leitourgoi assign the due limit, and to these,...
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Western Esoteric
Inferno: Canto XVI (3)
Then I began: "Sorrow and not disdain Did your condition fix within me so, That tardily it wholly is stripped off, As soon as this my Lord said unto m...
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Hermetic
9. On Thought and Sense (4)
The seeds of God, 'tis true, are few, but vast and fair, and good - virtue and self-control, devotion. Devotion is God-gnosis; and he who knoweth...
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Western Esoteric
Purgatorio: Canto XXVI (6)
To clamour more than truth they turn their faces, And in this way establish their opinion, Ere art or reason has by them been heard. Thus many...
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Western Esoteric
Inferno: Canto XIX (3)
I stood even as the friar who is confessing The false assassin, who, when he is fixed, Recalls him, so that death may be delayed. And he cried out:...
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Western Esoteric
Paradiso: Canto V (2)
Now wilt thou see, if thence thou reasonest, The high worth of a vow, if it he made So that when thou consentest God consents: For, closing between...
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Western Esoteric
Inferno: Canto XXXIII (1)
His mouth uplifted from his grim repast, That sinner, wiping it upon the hair Of the same head that he behind had wasted. Then he began: "Thou wilt...
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Christian Mysticism
The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite
The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, Caput II (5)
When the man, out of love to God, has confessed, according to the instruction of his sponsor, his ungodliness, his ignorance of the really beautiful,...
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Gnostic
Testimony of Truth (10)
Those who receive him to themselves with uprightness and power and every knowledge are the ones whom he will transfer to the heights, unto life eterna...
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Gnostic
Testimony of Truth (5)
The foolish - thinking in their heart that if they confess, "We are Christians," in word only (but) not with power, while giving themselves over to...
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Western Esoteric
Secret Teachings of All Ages
Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity (48)
From a consideration of all these ancient and secret rituals it becomes evident that the mystery of the dying god was universal among the illumined...
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Western Esoteric
Paradiso: Canto XX (3)
He who comes next in the circumference Of which I speak, upon its highest arc, Did death postpone by penitence sincere; Now knoweth he that the...
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Christian Mysticism
The Three Principles of the Divine Essence
Chapter 26: Of the Feast of Pentecost. Of the Sending of the Holy Spirit to his Apostles, and the Believers. The Holy Gate of the Divine Power. (7)
But thus all Generations shall see him and know him, and the Unbelieving shall weep and wail, that they went so out of their Flesh and Blood into anot...
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Western Esoteric
Inferno: Canto X (4)
"And if," continuing his first discourse, "They have that art," he said, "not learned aright, That more tormenteth me, than doth this bed. But fifty t...
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Christian Mysticism
Chapter 55: How they be deceived that follow the fervour of spirit in condemning of some without discretion (1)
SOME men the fiend will deceive on this manner. Full wonderfully he will enflame their brains to maintain God’s law, and to destroy sin in all other...
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Christian Mysticism
The Three Principles of the Divine Essence
Chapter 9: Of the Paradise, and then of the Transitoriness of all Creatures; how all take their Beginning and End; and to what End they here appeared. The Noble and most precious Gate [or Explanation] concerning the reasonable Soul. (10)
He ought not to think his Cap becomes him so finely; nor ought he to boast of his human Calling, as if he did sit in his Calling by the Ordinance of G...
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Christian Mysticism
The Three Principles of the Divine Essence
Chapter 19: Of the Entering of the Souls to God, and of the wicked Souls Entering into Perdition. Of the Gate of the Body's Breaking off [or Parting] from the Soul. (43)
Although indeed they are redeemed out of Hell, and have Fruition of the heavenly Joy; yet the greatest Joy stands in the earnest Regeneration, wherein...
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