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THEODORE: It is needful that one must either, as the Apostle says, "be
renewed in the spirit of the mind," and daily advance by "pressing
forward to those things which are before," or, if one neglects to do
this, the sure result will be to go back, and become worse and worse. And
therefore the mind cannot possibly remain in one and the same state. Just
as when a man, by pulling hard, is trying to force a boat against the
stream of a strong current he must either stem the rush of the torrent by
the force of his arms, and so mount to what is higher up, or letting his
hands slacken be whirled headlong down stream. Wherefore it will be a clear
proof of our failure if we find that we have gained nothing more, nor
should we doubt but that we have altogether gone back, whenever we find
that we have not advanced upwards, because, as I said, the mind of man
cannot possibly continue in the same condition, nor so long as he is in the
flesh will any of the saints ever reach the height of all virtues, so that
they continue unalterable. For something must either be added to them or
taken away from them, and in no creature can there be such perfection, as
not to be subject to the feeling of change; as we read in the book of Job:
"What is man that he should be without spot, and he that is born of a woman
that he should appear just? Behold among His saints none is unchangeable,
and the heavens are not pure in His sight." For we confess that God only
is unchangeable, who alone is thus addressed by the prayer of the holy
prophet "But Thou art the same," and who says of Himself "I am God, and
I change not," because He alone is by nature always good, always full
and perfect, and one to whom nothing can ever be added, or from whom
nothing can be taken away. And so we ought always with incessant care and
anxiety to give ourselves up to the acquirement of virtue, and constantly
to occupy ourselves with the practice of it, lest, if we cease to go
forward, the result should immediately be a going back. For, as we said,
the mind cannot continue in one and the same condition, I mean without
receiving addition to or diminution of its good qualities. For to fail to
gain new ones, is to lose them, because when the desire of making progress
ceases, there the danger of going back is present.
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