heaven to regenerate in us the image of God. For having been conceived of a woman He walked among men; then, having died, He rose again and ascended into heaven, nor had death any more dominion over Him. Now He has been called “our forerunner” (Hebr. vi. 20), “the firstborn among his brethren” (Rom. viii. 30), “the head over all things” (Ephes. i. 22), and the archetype of all who are to be formed in the image of God (Rom. viii. 29). As then, He did not visit this earth in order to remain on it, but that, when His course was run, He might pass to the eternal mansions; so we also, His companions, must pass on and must not make this our abiding-place.
10. To each of us, then, his life and his abiding-place is threefold. The mother’s womb, the earth, and the heaven. From the first into the second he passes by nativity, and from the second into the third by death and resurrection. From the third he makes no move, but rests there for all eternity.
In the first stage we find life in its simplicity, with the commencement of movement and of feeling. In the second we have life, motion, sense, and the elements of intellect. In the third we find the full plenitude of all.
11. The first life is preparatory to the second, and the second to the third, while the third exists for itself and is without end. The transition from the first into the second and from the second into the third, is narrow and accompanied by pain; and in both cases some covering or surrounding must be laid aside (in the first case the after-birth, in the second the body itself), just as the egg-shell is discarded when a chicken is hatched. Thus the first and second abiding-places are like workshops in which are formed, in the first the body, for use in the following life; in the second the rational soul, for use in the life everlasting. In the third abiding-place the perfection and fruition of both will be realised.
12. Thus (to use them as a type) were the Israelites born in Egypt. Thence, through the passes of the
