sons by adoption.31 This will be given you free, conferred on you for nothing,
SERMON 216 171
What we are doing for you by invoking the name of your redeemer,23 you must complete by thoroughly scrutinizing and crushing your hearts. We block the wiles of the ancient and obstinate enemy with prayers to God and with stem rebukes; you must stand up to him with your earnest prayers and contrition of heart, in order to be snatched from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his glory.24 This is now your task, and this your toil. We heap curses on him, appropriate to his vile wickedness; it is for you, rather, to join glorious battle with him by turning away from him and devoutly renouncing him.25 He has to be crushed, bound, shut out, this enemy of God and of you, and above all of himself. His fury, you see, is shown up as being impudent against God, abominable against you, and ruinous against himself. Let him breathe out slaughter all round, let him set his traps and snares, let him sharpen his multiple and deceitful tongues. Empty out all his poisons from your hearts by calling on the name of the savior.
Strive to be brought forth in health, not fatally aborted
7. Whatever he used to let loose against you in the way of utterly criminal suggestions, whatever in the way of infamous enticements, shall now be drained away,26 shall now be made public. Now shall his slave state be devastated, under whose tyrannical regime he kept you in his possession. The yoke with which he brutally oppressed you shall be lifted, and set upon his own neck instead; all you have to do for your liberation is give your consent to your redeemer.
Hope in him, you whole assembly of the new commons, you, a people being bom, which the Lord has made. Strive to be brought forth in health, not fatally aborted. Look, mother Church is in labor, see, she is groaning in travail to give birth to you, to bring you forth into the light of faith. Do not agitate her maternal womb with your impatience,27 and thus constrict the passage to your delivery. You, a people now being created, praise your God; praise him, you that are now being created, praise your Lord. Because you are being suckled, praise him; because you are being nourished, praise him; because you are being reared, advance in wisdom and age.28
He too accepted this slow business of coming to birth in time, though he neither fails for lack of time nor progresses by length of time, but has excluded all limitations and measures of time from the days of his eternity. Do not here, as a certain kindly nurse admonishes a child, become children in mind, but in malice be babes; in mind you should be perfect (1 Cor 14:20). As competentes or suitors, grow up suitably29 in Christ, so that you may be joined in the prime of youth to the perfect Man (Eph 4:13). Gladden your father, as it is written, by your progress in wisdom, and do not sadden your mother by your want of it.30
There immortality is serene; there serenity is immortal
8. Love what you will be. What you will be, you see, is children of God, and sons by adoption.31 This will be given you free, conferred on you for nothing,