6. The
Exposition Continued.
And at this point you will inquire, whether the kingdom
of heaven is likened only to the treasure hidden in the field, so that
we are to think of the field as different from the kingdom, or is
likened to the whole of this treasure hidden in the field, so that the
kingdom of heaven contains according to the similitude both the field
and the treasure hidden in the field. Now a man who comes to the
field, whether to the Scriptures or to the Christ who is constituted
both from things manifest and from things hidden, finds the hidden
treasure of wisdom whether in Christ or in the Scriptures. For,
going round to visit the field and searching the Scriptures and seeking
to understand the Christ, he finds the treasure in it; and, having
found it, he hides it, thinking that it is not without danger to reveal
to everybody the secret meanings of the Scriptures, or the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge in Christ. And, having hidden it, he goes
away, working and devising how he shall buy the field, or the
Scriptures, that he may make them his own possession, receiving from
the people of God the oracles of God with which the Jews were first
entrusted.
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And when the
man taught by Christ has bought the field, the kingdom of God which,
according to another parable, is a vineyard, “is taken from them
and is given to a nation bringing forth the fruits
thereof,”
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—to him who in
faith has bought the field, as the fruit of his having sold all that he
had, and no longer keeping by him anything that was formerly his; for
they were a source of evil to him. And you will give the same
application, if the field containing the hidden treasure be Christ, for
those who give up all things and follow Him, have, as it were in
another way, sold their possessions, in order that, by having sold and
surrendered them, and having received in their place from
God—their helper—a noble resolution, they may purchase, at
great cost worthy of the field, the field containing the treasure
hidden in itself.
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Rom. iii. 2
.
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Matt. xxi. 43
.