Thomas Covenant

“He said that I dream the truth. He said that I am very fortunate. He said that people with such dreams are the true enemies of Despite — it isn’t Law, the Staff of Law wasn’t made to fight Foul with — no, it’s wild magic and dreams that are the opposite of Despite.” — The Illearth War, Donaldson, pp. 155-6

Simeon the New Theologian

From the time of Adam’s banishment from paradise, when we became corruptible and mortal through sin, right up until the present day, not a single human being has ever been free from corruption or death. So if we are to ever regain the original state in which God created us, to become free from corruption, no human free will whatsoever can raise us up to this state. Only the power of God can do this, received by human beings through union with the divine nature.

Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022), The First Created Man, Homily 38, from 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, Part Two: The Middle Ages, by N. R. Needham, p. 141

a new covenant

For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one. But showing its fault, God says to them,

Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.”

When he speaks of a new covenant, he makes the first obsolete. Now what is growing obsolete and aging is about to disappear. Hebrews 8, NET