Origen, ON THE PRINCIPLES (PERI ARCHON - DE PRINCIPIIS), Complete

Translated by Frederick Crombie.

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128 Pages

Page 105

In this way, then, that soul which, like an iron in the fire, has been perpetually placed in the Word, and perpetually in the Wisdom, and perpetually in God, [2160] is God in all that it does, feels, and understands, and therefore can be called neither convertible nor mutable, inasmuch as, being incessantly heated, it possessed immutability from its union with the Word of God. To all the saints, finally, some warmth from the Word of God must be supposed to have passed; and in this soul the divine fire itself must be believed to have rested, from which some warmth may have passed to others. Lastly, the expression, "God, thy God, anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows," [2161] shows that that soul is anointed in one way with the oil of gladness, i.e., with the word of God and wisdom; and his fellows, i.e., the holy prophets and apostles, in another. For they are said to have "run in the odour of his ointments;" [2162] and that soul was the vessel which contained that very ointment of whose fragrance all the worthy prophets and apostles were made partakers. As, then, the substance of an ointment is one thing and its odour another, so also Christ is one thing and His fellows another. And as the vessel itself, which contains the substance of the ointment, can by no means admit any foul smell; whereas it is possible that those who enjoy its odour may, if they remove a little way from its fragrance, receive any foul odour which comes upon them: so, in the same way, was it impossible that Christ, being as it were the vessel itself, in which was the substance of the ointment, should receive an odour of an opposite kind, while they who are His "fellows" will be partakers and receivers of His odour, in proportion to their nearness to the vessel.

[2160] Semper in verbo, semper in sapientia, semper in Deo.

[2161] Ps. xlv. 7.

[2162] Illi enim in odore unguentorum ejus circumire dicuntur; perhaps an allusion to Song of Sol. i. 3 or to Ps. xlv. 8.

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