and invincible is the kingdom of Christ; but by the word he indicated the power, and with a short saying he fortified the promise: B *Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.* Two words—not bare or empty words, but the words of God. For he who established the heaven by a word, and founded the earth by a word, also built the Church; and he walled it in, and established the inhabited world, which shall not be shaken. Let us therefore, beloved, fall before him who established the inhabited world, and let us weep and implore him, that through his philanthropy and unspeakable power, having remained steadfast and immovable upon the excellent and unbreakable foundation, we may send up glory and thanksgiving to him always, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
NOTICE
We would not even have thought to bring light to a work worthy of eternal darkness, had Savile not already made it public. But I marvel that he, who with excellent judgment had left many other trifles of the lowest quality in neglect and dust, did not deem this insipid oration to be of a similar condition. He published this assessment of it in his notes: "An oration full of ineptitudes, full of solecisms and wounds, which it is not my place to heal, nor perhaps worth the effort: nevertheless, in not a few places we have attempted something; with what success, I know not." Moreover, the oration has three parts: first, an encomium of fasting; second, a brief interpretation of the first three chapters of Genesis; third, an invective, sufficiently cold, with insults and common abuses against wicked women. We have tried to repair the speech somewhat with the aid of two manuscripts. One of them presented many additions here and there; for the librarian, having observed the trifles, repeatedly added other trifles besides. This insipid work we translate into Latin.
ON THE BEGINNING OF THE FAST, ON THE EXILE OF ADAM, AND A CONCOURSE ON WICKED WOMEN
1. There is set before us, beloved, a spiritual table, filled from the divine Scriptures; full of good things, not of perishable foods, but a feast pouring forth the doctrines of truth; bringing not temporary bread, but nourishing souls with a panoply of spiritual thoughts; not offering wine that produces drunkenness, but inflaming the heart with the fervor of the Spirit; not dripping with perishable juices, but letting drop heavenly pleasure; not sending forth the sound of the cithara or the flute, but chanting psalms and hymns pleasing to God; not exhausting the sight of the physical eyes with harlot-like dances, but rousing the eyes of the heart toward the desire of the kingdom of heaven; not exhibiting the tumult of mimes and wicked men, but leading the ears of our mind toward soul-benefiting instruction through prophetic trumpets; not casting the outer man into distractions and laughter and into the abysses of licentiousness, but igniting within him the love for the knowledge of God, and renouncing the composition and mixture of all worldly things, it elevates us toward the only path of the ever-living kingdom.
And concerning the physical table, if one partakes of foods excessively, he pains his belly, and causes no small harm to his churning internal organs; but at the spiritual table, the opposite occurs: if you feast on it greedily, you will be able both to succeed in your way of life and to practice conduct pleasing to God; and the more you feast, the more you rouse yourself to greater desire. Again, at the first table, if you partake of wine to satiety, you both hinder the walking of your feet, and see things not becoming with your eyes, and speak things you did not intend with your tongue, and bring up frequent belches from the depths of your chest, and show yourself laughable to your friends, and contemptible to your servants, as having lost your wits in wine. But at this second table, if you draw greedily from its thoughts, you will walk the paths straight toward the commandments which you have received from the Lord; and with the eyes of your mind you will contemplate other things, and from the depth of your heart you will belch forth good words, according to the prophet saying: *My heart has belched forth a good word* (Ps. 44:2), and you will appear adorned to your friends, and toward your servants you will be shown to be useful and affable and gentle.
Let us see, therefore, the gains of the spiritual table; let us unfold the elegance of its thoughts; let us spice it to satiety with the unclouded must dripping from it. Let us hear its hymns and its odes, whose hymn turns back demons and whose odes turn away the prince of darkness. *Blow the trumpet at the new moon, in the marked day of our feast* (Ps. 80:4). Fasting was introduced, the friend of the apostles; fasting was introduced, the ornament of the martyrs; fasting was introduced, the companion of monks; fasting was introduced, which the Lord himself, while walking in the flesh, kept within its bounds. And if you wish, beloved, hear its triumphs. Not having guarded the fast, Adam became an exile from paradise, and was ordered to till the thorn-bearing earth. Not having guarded the fast, the people of the time of Noah experienced the divine indignation and underwent the punishment of a universal flood. Noah, having abandoned the fast for a little while, lay exposed and naked before his sons. Not having guarded the fast, Esau lost the honor of the birthright and became a stranger to the paternal blessing. Not having guarded the fast, the sons of Israel fell from the heavenly feast and the divine grace. You have learned what those who did not honor it suffered; recognize also those who guarded it, how much [grace they attained, if indeed they kept the fast].
Having harvested the fast, Moses received the Law, and was declared worthy as the leader of Israel. Having harvested the fast, Elijah was carried by a fiery chariot into heaven, by whom the sheepskin became more precious than royal purple. When Daniel cultivated the fast in the pit, he muzzled the mouths of wild beasts, and came forth from them unharmed. The three children embraced the fast, quenched the furnace that had been heated sevenfold, and made the fire like a whistling spirit of dew. John embraced the fast, was declared greater among the prophets, and merited to baptize the Lord of glory in the Jordan. What need is there to bring the prophets and the just into the midst? Christ Himself embraced the fast, overthrew the enemy, and deigned that we should be spectators of this A conquest. Therefore let us undertake the fast, the precious gift, the holy treasure, the image of truth, the head of piety, the advocate of spiritual teaching, the destruction of the soul’s sickness, the excision of sin, the adversary of wickedness, equal in glory to virginity, the ruin of demons, the rebuke of the devil, the destruction of idols, the adornment of the Churches, the strength of emperors, the ornament of priests, the wisdom of men, the temperance of women, the training of children, the liberation of servants, the consolation of the poor. Who that embraced the fast did not attain glory? Who that served it did not become great? Who that was addicted to its laws was not called blessed? Who that embraced it did not overcome temptations? Who that heard its promises was not only honored among men, but also snatched from the wrath and indignation of God? Was not Ahab, by being armed with it, snatched from the wrath sent by God? That man, I say, who was given as food to the birds and wild beasts, and of whom it is said, "In whose blood the harlots shall wash" (3 Kings 22:38), was snatched by the fast from the danger of death—a fast which, to be sure, appeared B more powerful than the prophet himself. Did not the Ninevites, by keeping this, both men and beasts, escape the threat of three days, and the word of the prophet Jonah became void of effect? Did not the prophets, by keeping this, become worthy of the contemplations and visions of the Almighty God, and foresee and prophesy future things as if they were present? Did not the Apostles, by being armed with it, sound out: "Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world" (Ps. 18:4)? Did not the martyrs, strengthened by it, overthrow the temples, the altars, and the smoke of idols, and count the fury of tyrants as nothing? Did not the saints, led by the love of it, abandon the world and all worldly things, and dwelling in deserts, mountains, and pits and caves of the earth, according to the Apostle Paul, defeat the devil and his armies as they were set against them (Heb. 11:38)? Let us also keep this fast, the tranquility of souls, the medicine of bodies, the peace of thoughts, the extinction of desires, which keeps one from snatching at the wealth of others, which does not allow the orphan to be wronged, which brings no mourning to widows for their losses, which does not permit us to be occupied with worldly C cares, which procures for mortals the fellowship of the angels, which bids us meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. For it is of this that the prophet Zacharias speaks, and clearly revealing its glory, cries with a loud voice: "Thus saith the Lord Almighty: The fourth fast, and the fifth fast, and the seventh fast shall be to the house of Judah for joy and for gladness and for good feasts" (Zach. 8:19). Do you see, all of you, how the fast unfolds the argument of the feasts? Have you learned how it announces its virtue and glory more clearly? Recognize how it raises those who undertake it to spiritual love. Do you wish to learn its hypothesis more clearly? Open the ears of your mind, and receive into your thoughts spiritual songs, perennial streams, flowing from the fountain of immortality. What do you say, prophet? Whom do you introduce as Israel? Is it the carnal one, or the mind that sees God? Is it the one polluted by unlawful sacrifices, or the one that is introduced through the doctrine of the Apostles? Is it the one who sacrifices through the blood of rams and bulls, or the one who sacrifices without blood, the one who removes the sin of the world? D Is it the one who sacrificed to graven images as if to God, or the one who has been snatched from altars and idols, and called into spiritual adoption? It is clearly manifest that the new people, made special through baptism, is spoken of, who is purified in water and fire. For through the prophet Isaiah He cries out manifested: "Your new moons and your sabbaths and the great day I do not endure; my soul hates your fasting and feasts" (Isa. 1:13-14). Consider that He calls the new people through the prophet to perform the duty of the fast: not that God rejects their fasting, supplication, new moons, and sabbaths, but that they are full of them. For they, through profane works, have abandoned God and wickedly killed the chosen people who proclaimed the advent of His only-begotten Son, some with a wooden saw, others led into a pit of mud. And why do I speak of the prophets? For they themselves crucified and killed their own Lord as if He were a criminal, saying: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him" (Matt. 21:38). Do you see how they made themselves strangers through unworthy works? Therefore, it was not the Lord who repelled them, but they who made themselves strangers to the confidence of their ancestors. These things the sons of Israel meditated upon; thus the chosen people of the Lord raged, according to the words of David, the father of Christ: "Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate on vain things?" (Ps. 2:1). Do you see, faithful ones, the grace of the fast? Do you regard the rewards which it procures for those who keep it with a firm mind? Or do you consider how hard and harsh it brings to those who despise it? The sword is unsheathed, standing at the threshold of the kingdom of God, and terrifying those who do not receive it with fairness and gentleness; but it turns its back in peace to those who admit it with a pure conscience, and leads to eternal life, pure joy, and pleasure that is free from pain, and provides infinite good things. And if you wish that we gather a few from many, who that observed the fast was ever addicted to secular cares? Who that embraced it did not walk straight in the ways of the Lord? Who that kept it did not rightly measure the earthly voyage? Who that cherished it wronged an orphan or widow? Who that taught it did not bear the pleasure of the air with tranquility? Who that embraced it was not deigned worthy of the visions and contemplations of the Lord? Who that rejoiced in its sweet fruit ceased meditating on the law of the Lord day and night? Do you see its confidence? Do you see the honor with which it is surrounded? How it has ruled over the pious from the beginning of the world? How they kept its measure from the foundation of the world? How it affects its worshippers with glory, but its despisers with ignominy? As was said above, we know that the first man, because he did not keep the fast, was situated in hardships and in extreme poverty and far from paradise on account of his contempt for it.
Moses, the inspector of God, explained this to future generations, or rather the God of Moses, as a kind father, has revealed it to us. But apply your mind, I pray, to what is said: for I wish to finish the matter in a few words. "In the beginning God created heaven and earth; and the earth was invisible and uncomposed, and darkness was over the abyss; and the Spirit of God was carried over the water. And God said: Let there be light; and there was light: and God saw the light, that it was good" (Gen. 1:1-4).
On the beginning of the fast, the exile of Adam, and wicked women
What sort of explanation does the Scripture provide here? "And God saw that it was good." For before light came into the world, He knew its nature was good; but this is said to stir our mind to contemplate the power of the Creator. Unless it were good, He would not have created it, nor would He have separated the darkness from it; unless it were lovable, He would not have called it light, nor the darkness night, so that we might always walk in His light, and meditate on His studies and works. For God could have produced in the blink of an eye, with one word, with a simple nod, what He did in six days. But He did not give a place to those who would come later, namely the Greeks and those wise men who became foolish in their own wisdom; for they did not observe His law; wherefore...also their wisdom was judged to be ignorance. For those who mythologize the creation did not fear to say that the things created in six days came to be spontaneously, both heaven and earth, sun and moon, and all things that are seen. If the wisdom of God had made these in one hour, what pretense of impudence would they not have had to put forward? But He, as a provider, restrained their unjust and venomous tongues, which were raised up against the Creator and had served the creature in place of the Creator. A But let us return to the proposed subject, carrying forward the sequence of the account. "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night; and there was evening, and there was morning, one day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be dividing between water and water. And God called the firmament heaven." Do you see a work striking to the minds of mortals, that without pillars and without bolts this creation has stood until the consummation of the age? How wonderful are the works of the Lord, and who is sufficient to trace them out? "And God saw that it was good; and there was evening, and there was morning, a second day. And God said, Let the water under the heaven be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear. And the water under the heaven was gathered into their gatherings, and the dry land appeared. And God called the dry land earth, and the gatherings of the waters he called seas. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the herb of grass, sowing seed according to its kind and according to likeness, and a fruit-bearing tree producing fruit." These things, by the word of Him who commanded, were produced all at once; there was nothing hindering, nothing obstructing. And there was evening, and there was morning, a third day. Do you see Scripture opening our minds to the most perfect things? Where are those who say, "This fruit is bitter," "this herb brings forth poison," "this bird of prey, what good does it provide us?" Another croaks and threatens death; another, by its voice, signifies winter; another brings upon us every calamity. For I have heard many arguing and babbling these things. Is this not a rejection of Christians? For what God saw and said was very good, do not you revile. B And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven for illumination of the day and for the lighting of the night. And God made the great light, that is, the sun, for the rule of the day, and the lesser light for the rule of the night, and the stars. And they shall be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years." What shall we humans admire first? The sun’s immeasurable height, its magnitude, its intensity, its light which cannot be measured, or the heat which cannot be hindered? How, from one wick and from one essence, are all these things beautified, He finishing His course, confounding mind and understanding, as in one day He is seen appearing from the east and coming towards the west, so that no place will be hidden from His heat? Where are the children of the Persians, who worship him as a god and, leaving the Creator, offer honor to His creature? Does not the sun itself daily finish its own course with great fear and order, sometimes being covered by clouds, at other times, when the south wind blows, diminishing its rays? This is your sun, in whom you trust and offer worship! All the works of the Lord are very good, and fearful and extraordinary; but they are established for our service, not for lordship. But how also was the moon brought forth for the lighting of the night at the command of the Creator, and sometimes it receives an increase, at other times it endures a lessening, and sometimes while shining it emits glimmers of light, and at other times ceasing, it preserves its measures undisturbed with the stars of manifold hosts? But let us come to the sequence of the discourse. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, "Let the waters bring forth reptiles of living souls according to their kind, and birds flying according to the firmament of heaven. C And God made the great sea monsters." Mark accurately the word of the Almighty. How many kinds of fish in the sea He produced, and what a host of birds He prepared in the air, the small ones, the greater ones—and wonder at the excess of His wisdom, how by one word all things were produced. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth a living soul according to its kind, quadrupeds, reptiles, and beasts, and every cattle according to its kind and according to likeness." Oh the greatest wisdom! Oh the unutterable goodness! All the cattle and the beasts He made in a blink of an eye: lion, bear, dragon, ox, and horse, and whatever things are much-desired and domesticated for the service of men. Do you see the understanding of the Creator? He made all things in six days: light, heaven, earth, sea, sun, moon, stars, mountains, hills and plains, beasts, cattle, fish, sea monsters, the things in the sea, the things on the dry land. Wherefore, desiring to accomplish a more precious counsel and a greatest work, the Father of lights, He who is and who was, the beginningless mind, the unbegotten, says to the Only-begotten: to Him who was begotten of Him without flux, the Son, the Word, the incomprehensible wisdom, He introduces a divine and mystical counsel, saying: "Let us make man according to our image, and according to likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heaven, and the cattle, and all the earth, and all the reptiles creeping upon the earth." And God made man, having taken dust from the earth. And so that He might not show the Holy Spirit alien to the creation, He breathed into his face the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. D Did you see an excellent creature of God’s creation? Did you see Adam established as king of the creation? Did you see an honor exceeding him who was created by hand? Learn also of the gifts which God granted him after the creation. "And God planted a paradise in Eden in the east, and put there the man whom he formed; and he caused to spring up from the earth a tree beautiful to behold, and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the paradise, and the tree of knowing good and evil." Hail to the honor of God which was done for us! Hail to the philanthropy which He showed to the race of men! Hail to the unutterable goods of which Adam partook! For His ineffable care was not satisfied that He had made him from nothing, that He had appointed him king of creation from dust; from earth He showed him more precious than the angels; from the soulless He introduced a soulful image. What virtue did Adam show, that He granted him such a reward? What struggles and sweats did he endure, that he attained such crowns? What doxology did he bring to Him who made him, that He showed him an inhabitant of the midst of paradise? What glorious work did he perform, that he drew for himself a life without toil? What God-pleasing servitude did he execute, that he enjoyed such a gift? But nevertheless, the lover of men adorned the creature with such gifts, wherefore he also showed forth another work for greater joy and exultation. For He cast, He says, an ecstasy upon Adam, and he slept, and He took one of his ribs and fashioned a woman. Truly wonderful are the works of the Lord! Truly unsearchable are His ways! Truly unutterable is His goodness! For He was not satisfied to have commanded Adam to be a man from dust and to enjoy the paradise of delight, but He also made for him a helper. How much joy had Adam received then, when he beheld the woman sitting beside him after his sleep! With how much gladness was his soul filled, beholding the woman as a companion, and her established as like-mannered and like-minded to him! With how much delight and prophecy was he counted worthy, in Adam seeing Eve, with his own sensible eyes beholding his own form and character standing opposite! Wherefore, in exultation
A of man, he made him a stranger to Paradise. O wickedness! O folly! O deceit! He persuades the man with various words, and having taken the fruit, brings the deceived one down into the abyss of Hades, casting down the one who appeared on high—superior to the beasts and birds—casting down the mind of the one who was most pure of all things under heaven, quenching the light of the eyes that beheld God at every moment, casting fear into the mind of the one who was constantly conversing with Him. He undoes the hands that blessed the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, and to which he had given names. The king becomes a pauper, the rich man a beggar; the friendly association with God turns into a hiding like a thief under a tree; the prince, a servant pure in heart, becomes totally foul; the one who was splendid in soul becomes dark. And when suddenly he was as if shining B, he is set before the dreadful demons as a plaything, like one who had been created free, hiding like a slave; the honored and esteemed one is set before them as wretched and base, as one lying in dirt. Therefore, O well-disposed listeners, in recounting this history, let us see the abyss of Scripture, showing the sequence of the narrative. "And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes to behold, and fair to look upon. And taking of its fruit, she ate, and gave to her husband" (Gen. 3. 6). Do you see the pleasure that casts one into Hades? Do you see the tasting that makes the taster a stranger to Paradise? Let no wise man blame the tree, but the one who ate. For just as if a king should command a soldier not to allow any of the princes to enter the royal bedchamber, or, revealing a mystery to him, should forbid him to let anyone else learn it—and he, having gone out, should report it to others at his pleasure—tell me, will he not pay the penalty, he who has ignored the royal command? The same is the case here. God had given him all things for enjoyment; the trees, the fruits, the waters, the delights of Paradise, the sun, the moon, and the stars: but of one tree alone He deprived him, providing a sign of authority, and giving a command for obedience. The man, however, had not yet within these bounds attained the greatness of that dignity, nor did he keep the liberty of his own rule, but having heard the enemy of the truth, he became disobedient, and from immortal he became mortal, and was deprived of his habitation in Paradise; the one who walked in it became a laughingstock for demons; the one who was full of the Holy Spirit became filled with wicked spirits; the one who was shining with the gift of prophecy, not even knowing what he was, became naked. C And finally, when that deadly disobedience was completed, when they perceived, Adam and Eve, that they were naked by reason of the transgression—for when they were clothed with the divine garment and ornament of immortality, they did not see their nakedness; but when the transgression drew near, and the work of disobedience was perfected, then they saw their shame. "Then they heard," it says, "the voice of the Lord walking in Paradise in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God" (Gen. 3. 8). The cause of boldness was cut off: transgression came, and they hide themselves from the Omnipotent. Such are those who are burdened and overwhelmed by sins. For when anyone has committed fornication or adultery, and has gone out from the door of the harlot, and has met a man or a woman who speak of such things, he who has committed the sin thinks that the conversation is about himself, and then he is affected with shame and blushing, the conscience of the sin reproving him. The same thing was experienced by Adam and Eve. For though God had often walked in Paradise, they had never been ashamed to meet Him: but after the sin and the disobedience, they hide themselves from the face of God, who beholds all things, hoping to gain something from this; but their prudence was in vain. Wherefore, as if they had no handle for defense or boldness towards the Knower of hidden things, He Himself, the searcher of heart and reins, says to Adam: "Adam, where art thou?" (Gen. 3. 9), providing them an opening for a defense: "Where art thou? Already thou hast eaten from the tree, and hast not obtained what thou didst desire: already thou hast fallen into transgression, and hast fallen away from divinity. Adam, where art thou?" But he: "I heard Thy voice walking in Paradise, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself" (Ibid. v. 10). Do you see the shame of sin? Do you see the baseness of sin? Do you see the tribunal set up within Adam, accusing him that he had alienated himself from God? "And God said: Who told thee that thou wast naked, unless thou hast eaten of the tree, of which alone I commanded thee not to eat?" (Ibid. v. 14). You dismissed Me the Creator, and slipped away to the enemy: you left Me the Creator, and agreed with the seducer. I had commanded you not to eat from that one tree, and you entered into a counsel with the devil? Adam answered: "The woman whom Thou gavest with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate" (Gen. 3. 12). O excuse empty of reason! O defense useless to one speaking to the D
A Lord! O bitter word that saves not the speaker! I gave you the woman as a helper, not as one to command; as a companion, not as a mistress; as one of the same mind, not as a teacher; as a wife, not as a ruler; as one subject to you, not as one superior; as one stooping with you, not as one mastering you. Since, therefore, you have listened to the enemy and disobeyed Me, receive the complete rebuke which long ages shall not cast aside, which no one shall transgress within its limits, and which one who bears a body and comes into the world shall not pass beyond. Behold, Adam, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, of it alone not to eat, cursed is the earth in your works; with labors shall you eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth for you, and you shall eat the grass of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken; for earth you are, and to earth you shall go" (Gen. 3. 17-19). O that curse, which made the visible and invisible tremble! O that word, which endless ages have not shaken! O that rebuke, by which the long-standing world has not grown old! O that sentence, which kings and princes, rich and poor, shudder at and fear! B And the Lord cast out Adam and his wife from the paradise of delight, to till the earth from which he was taken; and the Lord commanded the Cherubim and the flaming sword to keep the Paradise of Eden and to guard the entrance as impassable, so that no one who wears flesh and is clothed with the thickness of the body might pass through its gate. But the Lord’s word became an eternal deed, and this decision brought death into the world; for kings fear this voice, and princes tremble at this word, the rich are contained in this decision, and the poor await it as a debt, and all mortals, as sharers in nature, await death.
For what was Adam doing, sitting outside Paradise? He was digging, working with weeping, with groaning, bathed in sweat, carrying burdens, not bearing the heat of the sun, frozen by the frost of the night, and he did not cease weeping as he pondered of what delight he was deprived; he used lamentations from the bottom of his heart, and painful words were spewed forth from his mouth; and opening his eyes toward Eden, and shaking his head this way and that, he woefully lamented, and in inconsolable weeping he cried out with a loud voice: "O from what good things of yours have I been alienated, O all-blessed Paradise! C O with what gladness was my soul filled as I beheld your beauty! O what exultation I enjoyed sitting within you! How I was gladdened by the scent of your flowers! How the laborless table was set before me! How the ever-living cup flowed for me! How the conduct of the angels sweetened my spirit! How the light, the over-bright light, shone around my eyes. All creatures offered honor to me as to a king! To all the beasts I was formidable; all the birds I commanded as I wished; the whole creation looked upon me as its master. I have been alienated from these as a transgressor; I have been exiled from the delight as a slave; I have been driven from your joy as a lawbreaker; I have been cast out of your dwelling as a fugitive. What shall I weep for first, what second? The loss of your beauty? The joy that was unending, the life free from care? The unblemished glory? The alienation from the angels? The deprivation of the archangels? The splendor of the kingdom? The pleasantness of the trees? The illumination of your light? The unblemished brightness? The nakedness in which I am clothed? The remnants of shame? The reproach of the angels? The uncontrollability of the beasts? The unyielding nature of the cattle? The friendship of God? The alienation from the Spirit? The eternal blessing? What wailing shall I utter? What weeping shall I lament? What humility shall I embrace? What tragedy shall I begin? What groaning shall I send up? What pain shall I calm—that which is now present? Or those that follow? D Those in the netherworld, those in the sweat of the face? The growth of thorns? The rebuke of the earth? I do not bear the remnants of grief, I do not bear the groaning, I do not bear to sit opposite your delight and see you. For I have become a stranger to your resort, a stranger to your dwelling, an alien to the eternal enjoyment, and I have made myself a stranger to God by my own will. Henceforth I shall be a stranger to your contemplation and vision. No longer shall I enjoy your delight, no longer be sweetened by your blessedness, no longer enjoy the sight of you. No longer shall I be illuminated by your brightness, no longer shall I dwell in you. Everything has become empty to me; everything has passed away as a shadow; everything has gone by as a dream; everything has vanished as non-existent from my eyes. If you are able, even you, entreat the Creator, so that I might not be separated from your company. Bend down your trees, and fall before the compassionate One, and with the sound of your leaves cry out in power. You have become all-blessed by the command of the Master, and you have boldness as the house of our God. Raise up, as it were, eyes from the forms of your fruits, and as a talking mouth the fragrance of the plants, so that you may remain opened to the One who loved you. Behold, now my mouth is weary from crying; behold, my tongue has ceased to speak; behold, my throat is bound by silence. As a traitor I have been condemned, as a wretch I have been stripped, as a lawless one I have been cast out, as an earthly one I have been delivered to the earth from which I came out; from where I was fashioned, I dissolve, and no longer do I behold the beauty of your brightness."
Then, turning to the woman, he used reproaches, and in the bitterness of his soul he said: "Why did you harvest immortality away from me, woman? Why did you make the high humble? Why did you make the ruler of creation a beggar? Why did you show the king of creation to be a slave? Why did you blind my bright eyes? Why did you strip me of the robe that you did not weave? Why did you envy me my honor? Why did you darken my archetypal beauty? Why, called life, have you become death to me? Why, having alienated me from the angels, have you made me dwell with demons? Why, having deprived me of the kingdom, have you brought me down to extreme poverty? Why have you stopped my ears, which were continually hearing the voice of God, like a deaf adder that will not listen to the voice of the enchanter? I do not bear the rebuke; before the union I seek the dissolution; before the dwelling I meditate on the departure; before the entanglement I am anxious about the separation; before being joined to you I pray to stand apart. Go away from me, woman. When shall I till the earth? When shall I pull up thistles? When shall I reap the ripe wheat? When, having made flour, shall I prepare bread? When shall I sit down and eat it free from care? When shall I sleep without pain? When shall I strip off the leaves of the fig tree? When shall I cover the shame of my flesh? When shall I put shoes on my feet, so as not to be pricked by the thorn that sprouted up for me from God? When shall I make a covering to wipe away the sweat of my face, which you, woman, have caused for me out of folly? You, remaining idle, do not see the calamity; but when you bear a child, then the judgment of the sentence shall rise over you. When the offspring is about to come out from your womb, then you shall remember my words; when you endure the pains in agony, then the time of the sentence shall blossom for you; when the labor pains seize you, then you shall remember God’s curse." These things and things like these Adam was speaking to his spouse in the bitterness of his soul; with these words striking Eve every day...
A and that condemnation proceeds, and its measure shall not be moved until the age. Approach, and having perceived the words of truth in your mind, lend your ears to these things calmly. For we do not bring forward a stage-play of temperate and frugal women, but we shall deal with the wicked, lascivious, and profane. What order of them shall the speech pursue? Would it be of the virgins, who have not experienced men? Or of those who, having been left in the nuptial bed and bestowing labor on children, have become mothers? Or of those who, left in widowhood, are not adorned by the fear of God? But it is worth the effort first to discuss the first age, and then to pass on to the other stages. Come, let us bring into the middle the order of young women who seem to be virgins and boast of their chastity, and let us speak about them. What shall I mention of them? Their dress, their manners, their cunning, how they catch youths with their allurements (4), often thrusting themselves into their chambers, and running from one place to another, producing noise with their walking and uproar with their laughter, and in this way insinuating themselves into their ears; and proceeding from window to window and unfolding their hands, they stretch them out shamelessly as far as their chest; they attack the eyes of the lascivious with satanic nods as if with arrows; they adorn their chest with gold, their hands with rings, their ears with earrings of gems and hyacinths; they add paint to the natural beauty of their faces, they smear their cheeks with white lead and vermilion, and like an inanimate statue they gleam with their neck; every hour, every day they plait and curl their locks, even up to their brow, they smear their eyebrows with a black color; surely an act of wicked habit. Are not such manners of the wicked? Are not these absurd works and useless things? Is not their hope insane? Those whom they cannot openly ensnare, against them they secretly stretch their bows and arrows: just as Eve secretly ensnared Adam. For I have heard that many of them peer through the hole of a partition and observe those who walk through the streets, both small and great; and one's way they mock, another's height they disparage, another's hair or clothing they ridicule. And they show themselves off as mimes, not as frugal women; they spend feast days and Sundays in idleness, and never rise from their lethargy, neither for food, nor for drink, nor for securing sleep for themselves; but they limit their daily labor and care to the bounds of a single day: they use no reverence before father and mother, no shame before brothers, no modesty before servants and maids; but they make themselves a sport for all, and are like those tossed by the waves in all things. Look at the tombs, O daughters B of Zion, and offspring of the sacred font, and contemplate that image you adorn, as well as your vain and untimely care and dress, how all things are dust, how all things wither through a most bitter death, how all things are ashes, how all things are full of stench. But let not the assembly of women strike me, as if I were reviling them. For I have already warned that I am not speaking of prudent and frugal women, but of the depraved, imprudent, and insane. For I know many temperate and upright women, of whom the Apostle makes mention in the book of life. But come, let us explore the crowd of other orders. For I promised that I would exhibit for your magnificence three orders: namely, of virgins, of those joined in marriage, and of widows. But since I have already recounted a few things to your charity concerning the virgins about many things, let us now deal with women who boast of marriage; who are surely like an asp to their husbands. For how many women have I seen who brought sudden death upon their own husbands? How many have I known who, when they could not inflict death with their husbands, force them to live in groaning and trembling through their own wickedness, and do not show them as much honor as brute animals? C Truly, if she is rich, boasting of her wealth day and night, she does not allow her spouse to live in peace. If she is poor, wandering from place to place, from house to house, she stirs up strife and quarrels, and excites disturbances daily; she does not allow her husband to have peace either with a neighbor or an acquaintance, but she treats everyone with insults, she litigates with everyone, she attacks everyone, she disturbs everyone; she betakes herself to the magistrates of her own accord shamelessly, she appears at the tribunals as one injured, she pours out words in the baths, she mixes in untimely conversations in the churches, and she says these futile things: "I make an accession to my life and to my fortunes, I am a pedagogue to my servants, I care for what pertains to sustenance: my husband holds the first place in vain, he cares for no business; he does not know what I do at home; he knows one thing, the bread which he eats from the table; he does not even know the wine which he drinks." O manifest impudence! Rightly cries wisdom: *Give no heed to a wicked woman: for honey flows from her lips, which for a time will be sweet to your throat, but afterwards you will find it more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword* (Prov. 5:3-4). For this is a kind of disease and wickedness. For how many women killed their husbands through letters, while secrets, which both alone knew, came into knowledge through her letters, and from there the event of the matter occurred. How many women have I known who sent sealed papers to the most wicked men and their paramours, and with long hands killed their husbands? Some through poisons, others walking by night, causing many to depart into the field, whether with a sword, or a stone, or a cudgel, when anyone, striking either the temples, or the head, or the back, brought a sudden end. Those women shamelessly go to the churches as if for the sake of praying, and they swear by the unstained body and blood of the Son of God, or by His Mother, or by one of the saints; many even by the life-giving wood, that they will not violate their wicked acts, but will keep their agreements firm. O most miserable woman! You invoke the tremendous name of the Lord for the assistance of your adultery? Foolish and insane woman, do you establish the unstained Virgin and Theotokos Mary as an assistant of your wicked counsel? O savage beast, and crow that eats flesh, do you make the innocent houses of the saints a den of thieves, blood-stained? But the temple of God is holy and pure and is not defiled, but you, in an opportune time, will bring back the fruit of your insanity, according to the apostle Paul crying: *If any man shall violate the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of the Lord is holy* (1 Cor. 3:17). D ...counsels? If this woman has upright neighbors, she observes them daily, she inveighs against them, and if she sees any of her acquaintances and kinsmen entering their houses, she reproaches them with her own vices, calling them harlots and maenads, even if they are liberal in both body and mind. If she has children, she looks upon them as if they were wild beasts; if she has servants or maids, she uses no gentleness, but on account of their servitude she beats them by day, but by night, indeed, she brings upon them the harassment of working. *There is no fear of God before her eyes* (Ps. 35:2). She does not leave him the power of sleeping, but incites him against the domestics, she fires him up to move strife with the neighbors. "This servant despises me, this maid mocks me, this neighbor is perpetually reviling me in the churches, among friends, in the forum: avenge me; otherwise I will not sit with you at the table again, I will not eat bread before you, I will not sleep with you": because this man and that have no consideration for me, but look upon me as mud. But if you think I say this by conjecture, look upon the Egyptian woman, who set snares for Joseph, and set her own husband on fire with fury and anger; and intended at last to kill the just man, had not that wakeful eye [of God] anticipated her, and saved him. Look upon Herodias, who killed John. For the Forerunner was saying to Herod: *It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your brother Philip* (Mark 6:18); she, however, having him bound, greater than those born of women, at the banquet of friends reclining, cut off his head; and what Herodias could not do while her husband was living, she [did] wickedly after his passing...
And what of Dalilah? Did she not A hand over the most beautiful and strongest Samson to the aliens, having shorn and bound him through adultery, and kill him? Behold, I have produced three trustworthy witnesses; not only these who are contained in the Scripture. But "at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established" (Matt. 18:16), so that we might not extend the account of the story to a great length. Therefore may the Lord God snatch us away from this error and shame and reproach, and dispose us to live in modesty; and may He bestow upon you to be with a pure conscience toward your spouses, and to make your children, servants, and neighbors gentle and cheerful, so that you may be judged worthy to become partakers of the kingdom of heaven. But since I also promised to speak of the third order, that of widowhood, I shall do this, using but few steps regarding them. A widow woman, according to the apostle Paul (1 Tim. 5:10), ought to be such a one: a nurturer of children, one sharing in the needs of the saints, performing the ministry for strangers, and not running about in the occupations of her own thoughts. For he says, B being clothed, after the death of her husband, in the tunic of widowhood, and being pricked in heart, showing herself in all her habits. But a disorderly widow exists as a wild beast, and going through houses, she displays unbecoming steps: "I am a poor woman, in a helpless state of old age; vast wealth was once mine in fields, in houses, and in livestock and garments, and my husband was quite luxurious; everything I said to him, he would not hear, but because he was a man unskilled in worldly business, he spent it all on his own mind's inclinations; what I did not wish he would embrace, and this man, after his death, has made a triumph for his friends and kinsmen; he left me nothing." The one whom she embraced with her arms while he was living, this one she looks around for here and there after his death, where she might find a secret bedfellow, and under the pretext of prayer or the care C of her house, she becomes a spectacle to the many; and performing lawless deeds, and conceiving in her womb, she keeps it a secret, procuring for herself a myriad of contrivances to abort the infant from her belly, whether through poison or through other unlawful women. And she does not keep the fear of God, who overlooks all things, in her own heart; but practicing sin, she does not blush, and she is ashamed and abashed at the fruit that is born of it. For how many servants have I seen masters due to the love of pleasure of such wicked women! Seeing free-born children standing by them with fear and trembling, having their hands bound upon their breasts, even if they do not wish it, and these men walking about wearing gold belts and silk clothes. Have you heard, lovers of Christ, the explanation of the discourse? Have you recognized the hypothesis of the story? I have recounted the trophies of the unchaste and foolish women. These ways Eve D taught; and the rebuke of her, and the tasting of the disobedience. But having remembered the temperate and glorious women for a little while, we shall cease the discourse. Behold for me the temperate woman, the Sarephthan woman, who nourished the prophet Elijah in the time of famine. Behold for me the Shunammite, who showed hospitality to Elisha in her house, at which [act] he even raised her child. Behold for me Anna, who loosened the bonds of barrenness, and bore Samuel, and through prayer and supplication was declared a mother. Behold for me Sarah and Rebecca, the pure and undefiled cohabitation of them, which they displayed to the patriarchs. Behold for me Susanna, who through modesty condemned unjust elders to death. Emulate these women, the undefiled nature of the one, the prayer of another; the hospitality of one, the temperance of another, the God-pleasing life of another, so that you may obtain the kingdom of heaven, which may it be granted to us all to obtain, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be honor and glory, together with the holy and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
CONCERNING ABRAHAM AND ISAAC
God relocates the righteous Abraham from his kinsmen, and from all his own people, and he was persevering in his troubles in a foreign land, awaiting the hope of the promise. A great trial is brought to the patriarch, through which the steadfastness toward God was shown. Much time passed; youth was finally withering like a flower; old age was at the doors. Nature, suffering its own fate, was becoming enfeebled, bending toward old age. The power and strength for childbearing was extinguished in him [alt-version omitted] and in his wife; the body of both was yielding to nature, their youth having been spent. But the hope toward God, flourishing within them, was not only ageless, but also invincible. Whence, even beyond hope, she bore Isaac, who bore the image of the Master in all things. It was not a work of nature for a dead womb to conceive, and for dried breasts to provide milk for Isaac; it was not a work of nature for the Virgin Mary to conceive without a man, and without corruption to bring forth the Savior of all. He made Sarah a mother in old age, and revealed Mary as a virgin after birth-giving. An angel in the tent said to the patriarch: "At this time there shall be a son for Sarah" (Gen. 18:10); an angel in Bethlehem said to Mary: "Behold, you, the blessed one, shall bear a son." Sarah laughed, seeing the barrenness, beholding the deadness, disbelieving the word: "How," she says, "will this be, when I and Abraham are both inactive toward child-bearing?" Mary also, seeing her virginity, and holding its seals unbroken, wondered: "For how shall this be for me, [having known] no man?"