Exhortation to the Greeks 9.82

And I could bring you countless Scriptures, of which not even “one stroke will pass away” without being fulfilled; for the mouth of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, has spoken these things. “No longer, then,” he says, “my son, make light of the Lord's discipline, nor lose heart when you are reproved by him.” O surpassing love for humankind! Not as a teacher to his pupils, nor as a master to his servants, nor as God to human beings, but “as a gentle father” he admonishes his sons. Moses confesses that he is “terrified and trembling” when he hears about the Word; and do you, when you listen to the divine Word, not fear? Are you not anxious? Are you not at once cautious and eager to learn, that is, eager for salvation, fearing the wrath, loving the grace, zealous for the hope, so that you may escape the judgment? Come, come, my young people! “For unless you become again as little children and are born again,” as the Scripture says, you will not receive him who is truly Father, “nor will you ever enter the kingdom of heaven.” For how is the stranger permitted to enter? But when, I think, he is enrolled and made a citizen and receives the Father, then he will be “in the Father's house,” then he will be counted worthy to inherit, then he will share the Father's kingdom with the true Son, “the Beloved.” For this is the firstborn church, made up of many good children; these are “the firstborn enrolled in heaven,” who hold festival with so many “myriads of angels.” And we are firstborn children, the nurslings of God, the true friends of “the Firstborn,” the first of all humankind to know God, the first to be torn away from our sins,