y, we provide a sufficient proof to those who wish to be very shameless that we are heralds of the truth, and that some divine power is in us, and is making all these things light. A And thus, the chain is a confirmation of the Gospel, not only for those, but also for us who suffer; for it renders us more approved and stronger, and it makes us despise snares. Wherefore he said: "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, probation; and probation, hope; and hope confoundeth not" (Rom. V, 3, 4, 5).
5. Do you see how tribulation confirms the Gospel? For this reason also, elsewhere, when he prayed to be delivered from temptations, and often approached the Lord for that cause, he heard: "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my power is made perfect in infirmity" (II Cor. XII, 9). By infirmity he here calls persecutions, temptations, dangers, snares, and troubles. But this is what he wishes to signify: I could have hindered this and extinguished the war, and repressed the waves; but I did not do so, that my power might be more manifest. For his power would not have been shown in this way, if these things had not been done; just as when they were indeed done, they could do nothing. For we call that pilot best, not who can steer a ship correctly in a calm sea, but who preserves the passengers amid reefs, and waves, and tempests, and winds; and we call that physician skilled who saves a sick man when a thousand diseases beset him; and a leader of an army who, when enemies are rushing in from every side and attacking, still can erect a trophy; and a good shepherd who, when a thousand wolves and other ambushers are breaking in, keeps the flock in safety. So then also, the thing was rendered wondrous, because, although suffering countless things, they still conquered and overcame those who were afflicting them. B When therefore they cast Peter and John—the son of thunder and the foundation of the faith—into prison, consider how, when they were dismissed, they hesitated. When they had brought them into the middle of the theater, they said: "What shall we do to these men?" (Acts IV, 16). The Jews, who had been reared in the blood of the prophets, a people furious and driven by rage, who had destroyed altars, who had killed the prophets, who had been educated in slaughters, who were more savage than beasts, who were still shedding the drops of the Lord's blood, who had crucified him—these, having apprehended two fishermen, illiterate, uneducated, obscure, and more mute than fish, one of whom had not even withstood the simple threats of a portress—these, I say, having them apprehended in the midst, bound, naked, not instructed by the help of money, not by bodily strength, not by eloquence of speech, not by rhetorical force, not by splendor of lineage, not by the greatness of their country—fishermen sprung from fishermen, laboring in extreme poverty—they hesitate how they are to act with them, and they say, "What shall we do to these men?" C Do you see how great a thing virtue is? How temptations are a confirmation of the Gospel? They say to them: "Did we not strictly command you that you should not speak in this name? And you wish to bring upon us the blood of this man?" (Acts V, 28). If he is only a man, why do you fear? But if he is God, why do you not adore him? Were you not crying out recently, "His blood be upon us and upon our children?" (Matt. XXVII, 25)? Whence do you fear his blood? What has agitated your mind? Did you not bind him? Did you not scourge him? Did you not crucify him? Did you not see him dead, taken down from the cross? Did you not see him buried, and covered with earth? Did you not set seals upon the sepulcher? Did you not buy the soldiers with money? Did you not spread the rumor that his disciples stole him? Why then do you fear? Why do you dread his blood? Do you see the truth shining through all things? Because they saw after those snares the matter being carried forward, and the beginnings were splendid and brighter than the sun itself, and exhibited from the very beginning of its course, and that it was going to comprehend the whole world, that error would be driven to the extremes, and could not withstand its ineffable force; they fear his virtue, they dread the bound, the condemned, the scourged, the surrounded by snares, the two, and those uneducated ones. Therefore Paul calls temptations a confirmation of the Gospel; therefore he also says elsewhere: "But I would have you understand, brethren, that the things which have happened to me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the Gospel; so that many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear" (Phil. I, 12, 14). Who has seen, who has heard, that bonds grant boldness, and chains bestow confidence, not only to the bound one, but also to his disciples? Yet when these things were happening, through things contrary the preaching was exalted, and the disciples, when the master was being opposed, was being assailed by snares, was being bound, trusted more, exulted more, leapt more. Did you praise the things spoken? Then let us imitate the fortitude, let us emulate the virtue; let nothing frighten us, let no temptations disturb us. For these are the incentives of piety, D these are the arts of philosophy; these render us stronger and invincible, these give greater confidence before God, and draw down more of his benevolence, and confirm much grace within us. That we may therefore enjoy all these things, let us bear everything that happens, I pray, glorifying God through all things, because to him belongs glory, honor, power, together with his only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.
HOMILY VIII
The homily of the same, delivered in the church of Paul, with Goths reading, after a Goth presbyter had preached.1. I wish the Greeks were present today, that they might hear and learn what the power of the Crucified is, what the power of the cross is, what the nobility of the Church is, what the firmness of faith is, what the turpitude of error is, what the mockery of the demons is. For the things of the philosophers, and among those of the same tongue, are destroyed, but ours, and those of [people] of other tongues, have much power, and are broken more easily than a spider's web, but ours are fixed more firmly than adamant.
t apud demones et apud omne genus hominum perierunt; nostræ autem res singulis diebus clariores fiunt. Apostoli et prophetæ, vincti et occisi, terrarum orbem tenuerunt et vicerunt.
VIII. THE HOMILY DELIVERED AFTER THE GOTHIC PRESBYTER, ETC.
Where are the things of Plato and Pythagoras and those who were in Athens? They have been extinguished. Where are the things of the fishermen and the tentmakers? Not only in Judea, but even in the language of the barbarians, as you heard today, it shines brighter than the sun. And the Scythians and Thracians and Sarmatians and Moors and Indians, and those who dwell at the very extremities of the inhabited world, each having translated into their own tongue, philosophize upon these things A that were spoken; things which not even in a dream did those who among the Greeks wear the beard imagine—those who with their staff drive away those they meet in the marketplace, tossing their locks from their heads, showing faces more of lions than of men. But our things are not such, nor in outward form, but in temperance does philosophy consist. For the harlot, since she does not possess natural beauty, by means of cosmetics and paints and white garments and other such artifices, imposes upon herself a man-made grace, masking the ugliness of nature; but the maiden who is naturally fair and lovely and noble allows the gift of nature to struggle naked, needing none of these aids, but warding them off, so as not to mask her natural grace with these veils. This it is possible to see both in the Church and among those outside. For those men, not having natural beauty, nor being able to be adorned by piety, magnify their own condition with eloquence and rounded phrases, and combinations of words, and hairstyles and fine clothing and other such things; but those among us are not so, but rejecting all these things, and casting aside external display, they exhibit natural beauty, not sharpening their tongue, nor chasing after elegant speech, but philosophizing in the power of their thoughts, and by the demonstration of deeds and the accuracy of their conduct, they proclaim through all things the grace of God dwelling in them.
Therefore, they have caught in their nets not only the inhabited world, but even the uninhabited; not the land only, but even the sea; not cities only, but even mountains and hills and glens; not Greece only, but even the barbarian; not those in high office only, but even those in extreme poverty; not men only, but even women; not only the aged, but even the young. And they did not stop even here, but proceeded further, and not being satisfied with the world known to us, they went out even to the Ocean itself, and took the barbarian lands and the British isles into their own nets; and wherever you should arrive hereafter, you will see the names of the fishermen circulated in the mouths of all, not by the power of the fishermen, but by the strength of the Crucified One, who prepared the way for them everywhere, and rendered the uneducated wiser than the philosophers, and the illiterate and more silent than fish, more vigorous than rhetoricians and speech-writers and sophists.
Do not, therefore, let anyone consider it a shame B to the Church that we have prepared barbarians to rise up and speak in the midst; for this is the glory of the Church, this is her ornament, this is the demonstration of the power which is in the faith; this is what the prophet also declared from on high: There are no speeches or words, whose voices are not heard; into all the earth their sound has gone out, and into the ends of the inhabited world their words (Ps. XVIII, 4-5). This, another [prophet] also indicated, declaring it in other words, saying: Wolves and lambs shall pasture together, and the leopard shall rest with the kid, and the lion as the ox shall eat straw (Is. LXV, 25); not speaking of lions and lambs and leopards and kids, but proclaiming to us and showing that the beastliness of men will reach to such gentleness, having been tempered by the philosophy of the preaching, that it will herd together with the tame and most gentle of men. And this you have seen today, those who were more barbaric than all men standing with the sheep of the Church, and the pasture being common, and the fold one, and one table spread for all.
2. Let those Jews who read the scriptures but are ignorant of their meaning be ashamed; let them hide their faces in shame, seeing the truth shining brighter than the ray of the sun, those who sit by the stones and pursue darkness: let the Church be glorified, which shines through all things and is flying. For just as the sun is common and the earth is common and the sea and the air, so much more has the word of the preaching become common; wherefore Paul also said: That I may have some fruit even in you, as also in the other nations. To Greeks and to barbarians, to wise and to foolish I am a debtor: so that according to my part, I am ready to evangelize even those of you in Rome (Rom. I, 13-15). And what do you wonder if this happens in the New, since it is done even in the Old? For the first ancestor of both the Church and the Synagogue, according to the flesh to those [the Jews], but according to the spirit to us—he who was the patriarch Abraham—was himself a barbarian, and was led from the midst of Persia, and he had neither heard the scriptures, nor partaken of prophecy, nor did he have a teacher, nor had he received a history; for Moses was not yet born; nor had he learned anything from those before him, nor had he been taught the things that were to be after him, but born and reared in the midst of the Persian land, he philosophized so suddenly, that he forestalled many of the commands of the New Testament, and demonstrated them through his deeds. For when he was commanded to go out from his country, and to leave house and friends and kin, and to come into a strange land, he suffered nothing human, nor was he held captive by sympathy, nor did he calculate with himself and say: Shall I leave those things which are manifest and clear, and depart for things unseen and obscure? But having faith as his guide, and having acquired the promise of God in place of a staff, he let go of what was in his hands, and laid hold of what was in hope; for in this too he was an ancestor of the Church. For we too are commanded to look down upon worldly affairs and visible things, but to stretch our hope toward the unseen, and to hold to faith, the anchor of our salvation, and to seek those things; wherefore Paul also said: For by hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is not hope (Rom. VIII, 24); and again: For our present light affliction works for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Having gone out from the land of his birth, the blessed man C
A Abraham, when he had settled in a foreign hut, again demonstrated the apostolic commands through his deeds. For when he had raised that splendid trophy and won a wondrous victory and overcome the barbarians, not by the strength of the body but by the power of faith, being bid to receive a reward for those labors—for when the barbarian said to him, "Take for yourself the horses and give us the men," what does he say? "I raise my hand to God the Most High, if I shall take from you even so much as a thread or a shoelace" (Gen. XIV, 21-23). Do you see how he fulfilled that evangelical precept which says, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. X, 8)? B Moses too was raised in a barbarian house and grew up; yet he received no harm from it, but he also philosophized, no less than the patriarch, mocking the Sybaritic table and becoming loftier than the delicacies of those men, despising riches and the kingdom and the scepters of Egypt, and voluntarily turning instead to clay and brick-making. Therefore, even Paul, admiring him, said that he considered the reproach of Christ "greater riches than the treasures of Egypt" (Heb. XI, 26). Then, showing the teacher of these good things, he added, saying, "For he endured as seeing him who is invisible"—which was a sign of the greatest faith. C Let us not, then, think it a subject of shame for us that there are barbarians in the Church, but rather a great ornament; for the Lord Himself, our Jesus Christ, when He came to the inhabited world, called the barbarians first. For after He was born and placed in the manger, the Magi coming from Persia worshipped Him. O strange and unlooked-for events! When a king is about to enter a city, veils and lamps are set up; and all who are in dignity and power come to meet him with elegant attire, and flutes, pipes, lyres, and every kind of music; and the garments are splendid, and wreaths, and there is great magnificence. But when the King of heaven was about to enter the inhabited world, there was nothing of the kind, but all was the opposite: a hut and a tabernacle and a manger, and a mother who was lowly, as she seemed; great need and poverty. And yet if He had wished, He could have come shaking the heaven, moving the earth, sending forth lightnings; and why do I say these things? If He had shown nothing but His bare divinity, would this not have been greater than all splendor and festivity? But He did not do so; for He did not wish to destroy, but to save; D not to terrify, but to correct, and from the outset to trample upon human pride and bring down arrogance. Therefore, He becomes not only a man, but a poor man, and chooses such a mother and a vile lodging, embracing the extreme limit of poverty from the beginning and from the very birth. For tell me, what woman, even if she were the most destitute of all men, even if she were a beggar, does not have a bed whereon to lay her newborn infant? But He was not laid in a bed, but in a manger simply and as it happened, and in a hut, and not in an inn. These are the preludes of His entry, so splendid and magnificent. When you hear of [His] entry, do not think of a transition from place to place, but of a tempering of the economy.
A For when Paul says, "When He brings the First-born into the inhabited world" (Heb. I, 6), he announces the economy to us; for He that is present everywhere and fills all things, whither could He have entered? But he called that manifestation through the economy thus. Entering, therefore, into the inhabited world, He entered with a lowly bearing, trampling upon pride, depressing arrogance, persuading all to act with moderation, not to despise poverty nor to disdain begging; let them not sigh for riches, nor think human pride to be something great, but [rather] something thinner than a shadow, viler than leaves, and more deceptive than dreams. Having entered, He called the barbarians, and not simply barbarians, but Magi, the worst kind of impiety. Because all things in the inhabited world were ill-affected, and impiety reigned everywhere, and there was a stench and smoke; and neither law was able to [help], nor had the prophets corrected, nor had warnings profited, nor miracles, nor punishment, nor torments; and the earth was defiled with human blood, and nature itself was ignored—for "they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons" (Ps. CV, 37). Altars were being destroyed, prophets were being slain, and the temple of piety had been turned into ruins and a receptacle for idols, and the Jewish people who had existed to instruct others became an occasion of blasphemy to others: "For my name," He says, "is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you" (Isai. LII, 5). And the festivals and the memories and the sabbaths, and the rest of the kinds of worship were being rejected, with virtue neglected; and there was a voice from above of God accusing, and voices of the prophets on earth lamenting, and voices from everywhere, as things were going badly, and the power of wickedness was great, and there was a dense cloud and profound night, and wickedness acted boldly and confidently, while those things that pertain to virtue were being eliminated. The storm was rising on high, wave followed wave, shipwrecks happened frequently, all were being submerged, and no voice of a pilot was heard, nor could the art of sailors do anything; but malevolent spirits were reigning, and there was no hope of salvation, and no one dared to call upon God; for how would he have dared, when the prophets were accusing, and the angels, who were patrons of the individual nations, were hiding themselves for shame? The time, therefore, called out to the Creator of all, the Founder Himself, who had fashioned our race from the beginning. Since, then, the sickness was most grave, which had been born mostly of arrogance and audacity; since both the beginning and the middle and the end of things were being corrupted: He sprang from the paternal throne and came to the earth. When, however, you hear that "He sprang [from]," beware of thinking that He changed places and abandoned the heavens: for when He was in the virginal womb, He was with the Father: but how, do not ask, nor search for causes. For when God works, there is need only of faith, and likewise of consent and confession. When, therefore, He had come and had seen the sick man lying on the bed and despaired of (when I say "sick man," I am speaking of the human race, not lying on an ordinary bed, but on a bed of wickedness), abandoned by physicians, possessed by the vices of the soul, held fast by disease; when He had seen every kind of sickness having invaded human nature, and the man himself having now given up on himself, and the physician whom he consulted becoming a bitter accuser of him—I mean the Law—and increasing his sins, and making the man liable to a greater punishment.
A And if he had considered the tyranny of his wickedness and the excess of his evils, he would have sought no one else but Him who formed us from the beginning. See then what He does from the very outset, how He encompasses our nature, which had become infirm and defeated, so that it might fight and wrestle through it; and how from the very vestibule and the beginning He roots out the nature of arrogance; for this became the cause of all evils. For it made the devil, who was not a devil, to be a devil; and Paul points this out, saying, *Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil* (1 Tim. 3: 6). This cast Adam out of paradise; for when he heard, *You shall be as gods* (Gen. 3: 5), deceived by this hope, he laid his hand on the tree, and trampled the Law, and transgressed the commandment. For this reason, God also prepared a remedy suited to the wound. Even as in bodies, contraries are the healing of contraries, as the students of medicine say, and we warm that which has been chilled, and moisten that which has been dried: so also did God act regarding the passions of the soul. Since arrogance had lifted it up and caused it to swell, He applied a medicine to settle its inflation and purge the swelling. And what is the medicine? He set death as a wall against it. For this reason, He made the body not only mortal, but also caused it to rot and decay, and to bring forth fountains B of corruption, and to dissolve into rheum and be filled with stench, laying foundations of humility, and never letting even the man who is exceedingly arrogant think highly of himself. For what is more foul than a human corpse? What is more worthless than a person who has died?
4. But do not be grieved, beloved; rather, even here consider God's providence. For neither does the one who has died perceive what is happening, so as to suffer, and he who is living is taught to philosophize in another's body. For even if he should ten thousand times raise his eyebrow and boast greatly, having come to the tomb, and perceiving the stench that arises, and remembering our worthlessness, he is settled and collapses, and descends into himself. And that you may learn that this happened for this reason—not because He dishonors our nature, but because He bridles the arrogance of the mind and keeps man in perpetual humility, since his sin from the beginning came from this source—listen to what the prophet Isaiah says: *How has the Morning Star, which rose in the morning, fallen from heaven?* (Is. 14: 12). He is not speaking of the morning star; for the morning star has never fallen, but stands fixed, having been founded once in heaven, and it maintains its own course. What then is it that the prophet says, *How has the Morning Star, which rose in the morning, fallen from heaven?* He is speaking of a certain barbarian king. He calls him the Morning Star because of his brilliance, because of the diadem, because of the purple, because of the splendor of the guards, because of the gleam from the armor, because of the gold that shines, because of the lances that are sharpened and glistening, because of all the other show, because of the way he leads and carries everything along. For C that he is not speaking about the morning star, but has used the name metaphorically saying, *How has the Morning Star, which rose in the morning, fallen from heaven?* in what follows he says, *But you said in your heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, and I will be like the Most High"* (Is. 14: 13). That a star has neither thought, nor mind, nor steps, is plain to everyone; but he is speaking about a king, a certain blasphemous, arrogant, and boastful man who brags of such things. And who is this king? It is possible for us to say, but in order that you may not learn everything from us, but may also yourselves be caring and watchful, searching the treasures of divine Scripture, go over the passage of the prophet, and you will know who the king is, and of what nation, and when he lived—for He says: *Give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will be wiser* (Prov. 9: 9). Since, therefore, this king, being brilliant and conspicuous, and possessing a great abundance of wealth, and having gone over the whole world, and extended his own kingdom, was suddenly snatched away and died—the prophet, knowing the mutability of men, said, *How has the Morning Star, which rose in the morning, fallen from heaven, he who used to shake kings, who made the whole world a desert?* And addressing him and mocking him, he says: *But you said, "I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, and I will be like the Most High." Now, however, you will descend to Hades, under you they will spread rot, and your covering will be worms.* Do you see how, as I said, He caused our end to have such a lot, so that it might be a medicine for arrogance? Seeing him, then, to be arrogant, He instructs him from what happens after death, reminding him of worms, of the stench, of the rheum, so that by pondering that, he may abate his arrogance, not looking at present things and being puffed up, but at what end he will encounter, what a change he will receive. For this reason we were allotted a body subject to passion, and after death, one so foul-smelling. For if, with nature being such as it is, many of the foolish have drifted into such arrogance as to imagine themselves equal to God and to aim for heaven; if they were not held by this bridle, where would they not have broken out into lawlessness? And this is not the only king; but another is found imagining this very thing; for in this way, the prophet Ezekiel also, mocking him, said: *But you said, "I am God, and not a man, dwelling in the heart of the sea"; will you say in the hand of those who kill you, that I am God, and not a man?* (Ezech. 28: 2). Do you see that he also hinted that for this reason death entered in, so that it might suppress arrogance, so that it might root out that wicked notion which the devil had sown in the first-formed man from the beginning? For idolatry indeed came from this source, the colophon of the evils of the many, as they take themselves into arrogance and desire to be equal to God. D At any rate, all the gods among the Greeks were fashioned by men; and in order that this might not happen, God set death as a wall, proving the weakness of nature. For this reason, the Only-begotten Son of God, suppressing arrogance, prepared such things as the beginning of His entry—a hovel, and poverty, and a poor mother—persuading all by His deeds to trample underfoot human vanity; and having arrived, He first calls the barbarians. For what reason and why? Because the race of men was in a bad state (for I will take up the same argument again), and all had despaired of salvation, He shifts the stronghold of the devil and his most powerful weapons first, so that...
no man might despair. A Moreover, this happens to the shame of the Jews, that they would have hesitated to approach, while these others undertook a long journey to see and adore Him; and wandering about they say: “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” (Matt. 2:2).
On the star that appeared, and why it appeared. Why Paul circumcised Timothy
O marvelous and unexpected things! Through a barbarian tongue for the first time the only-begotten Son of God is proclaimed in Judea, where there are prophets, and patriarchs, and righteous men, and the Law, and the ark, and the covenant, and the temple, and sacrifices, and worship; and those who had been nurtured in these things are instructed by barbarians, while those who had never even thought of such things become the teachers of those who meditate upon them. Therefore, the prophet David, rebuking them, said: “Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate vain things?” (Ps. 2:1). For how were they not vain, not receiving the one who was prophesied? But not so the Magi; but they, leaving behind their country and home and friends and kindred, and having undertaken a long journey, cast themselves into dangers. For coming into the royal city, they were asking where the king was born, suspecting neither the wrath of the king then reigning, nor the tumult of the people, nor the plots of the city. For because they had received the proclamation, they suddenly become both philosophers and living martyrs, not fearing death, despising dangers, scorning the present life, proclaiming with boldness the things they had learned, in the midst of the city, in the midst of the people, announcing Him who was born. B Therefore, the star is hidden, so that, with the guide not appearing, they might be forced to inquire from the Jews—or rather, by inquiring, to teach them; for they only seek the place, but that He was born they had learned beforehand. But see the wisdom of God, how He called them. He did not send a prophet, for they would not have accepted him; He did not send an apostle, for they would not have heeded him; He did not send the Scriptures, for they did not know them: but He leads them away from error by things familiar to them, in which they had been nurtured. For because they were Magi, and their art consisted in the study of stars, a star appears, drawing them away from their own borders; the star [was] not one of those we see, but a certain divine and invisible power transformed into the likeness of a star. And the star draws them, so that it might lead them thereafter away from the speculation of stars and dissolve the tyranny of astrology. Thus also did Paul, imitating his Master; for he says, “Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 4:16). For just as His Master, calling the Magi, sent a star in their sight, so that recognizing a familiar thing they might easily obey, and coming, might see the Lord of the stars, and leaving that servitude, might submit themselves to this dominion: so also he, being about to abolish circumcision, sent Timothy with circumcision. For because the Jews were to receive him, and he was the son of a believing Jewess but of a Gentile father, and on that account uncircumcised, he circumcised him, acting with the wisdom of fishermen: for these also do not cast a bare hook into the sea, but surround it with flesh. Let, then, the Synagogue be the sea, the Jews the fish, Timothy the hook, circumcision the flesh surrounding the hook, and Paul the fisherman: he casts the hook into the sea, therefore, but not bare; he casts Timothy, circumcised, and not uncircumcised. For if he had sent him uncircumcised, the fish would have fled, seeing the bare hook; therefore he fortifies him with circumcision, that seeing a familiar thing they might rush to the prey, and that he might not scare away those approaching by fear; C but through circumcision they might be attracted, and be held by the word of doctrine, as indeed happened. For having entered and being circumcised, he abolished the circumcision. For these are the modes of economy: first it adapts itself, and then it draws. Thus also Christ did, calling the barbarians. For as He, calling men, put on a man, both according to appearance and according to nature: so calling the Magi, He changed an invisible power into the form of a star. For that it was not a star from the number of other stars, one might learn from its course. For it did not run from East to West, but from North to South; for thus is Palestine situated with regard to Persia: and it appears not by night, but by day, which a star does not do; and therefore it both appears and is hidden, which also would not be for a star: it is hidden when they betake themselves to Jerusalem, and appears after they had departed from the king. Whence it is plain that it was an intelligent power that was observing all things to fulfill the commands. And not from that alone is this plain; but also because, when it had led them to the manger, it is not shown to them from on high, but descending below, it stood where the child was, above his head, so to speak: for if it had been a star, it would not have pointed out a place so narrow and circumscribed. For you know well that on account of the excess of its height, a star could not point out the place of a city, nor can it be clearly directed to the perpendicular, being placed so high. But that one showed a small place and the manger, being placed near the head; and having shown it, it immediately departed: which was not the way of a star. D Being led there, they were freed from error. For that they were freed from error as soon as they saw the star, is plain from the fact that they adored the child: for if they had thought it were some common star, they would not have adored Him. For what could they, strangers, aliens, and barbarians, hope from a little child? Whence could they know that He would live and would make a return for their gifts, when they were so far distant? How did they not foresee the present danger? How did they not consider that there was a danger that He might be snatched away from this life, and that he who was reigning might kill Him? What sign of a king did they see at last? What courts? What satellites? What guards? What retinue? What golden shields? What halls? What a herd of eunuchs? Nothing of these, but all that is contrary: a manger, a shed, an inn, a poor mother, and great poverty—swaddling clothes. To whom, therefore, were they offering gold, and frankincense, and myrrh? Is it not manifest that they were already instructed by the wings of faith? And great is the excellence of the gifts, which might also refer to the nature of the proclamation. For that opinion is not to be rejected which is spread among the common people, that by the frankincense they confessed Him to be God, by the gold to be a King, and, by the myrrh, One suffering…
A in the flesh for its salvation; so then, since He was buried, and for the things which they did they were prophesying. Therefore it was not the virtue of astronomy that wept, nor the economy of God; for He who came to teach virtue would not have introduced astronomy; but he utterly eliminates it, since in the willing and the not willing, He determined everything to be both the good and the not good. For this reason He also threatened Gehenna, and prepared a kingdom: for He would not have prepared crowns for those bound by necessity, nor would He have threatened punishment; for both of these pertain to things that are in our own power; He would not have laid down laws, He would not have given exhortations, He would not have wrought so many things, if the human race were bound by necessity. But since we are free and masters of our own choice, becoming wicked through sloth and upright and moderate through diligence, He came providing the saving medicines that lead to this, by the fear of Gehenna and by the promise of the kingdom correcting the many, and teaching them to practice philosophy through the laws.
B Against Genethlialogy. — For that there is neither fate, nor course of stars governing human affairs, is manifest even without the Scriptures from the very facts. For if human affairs are subject to fate, why do you scourge the servant who has stolen? Why do you drag the wife who has committed adultery to the courts? Why are you ashamed when doing evil things? For if the sin is of necessity, why do you not even bear the words of reproach, but if someone calls you an adulterer, or a fornicator, or a murderer, do you call the thing an insult? For if sins are not of your own choice, neither is the act a crime, nor is the thing said an insult. But now, even by the things that you judge in others, and by the things for which you do not forgive those who sin, and by the things for which you are yourself ashamed when doing them and try to escape notice, and you consider those who bring these things against you to be insulting, you acknowledge through all of these that our affairs are not bound by necessity, but are honored with freedom. For we certainly know how to forgive those held by necessity. If, then, someone held by a demon strikes us, and tears our tunic, or inflicts blows, we not only do not punish him, nor do we drag him to courts, but we even pity and forgive him. Why so? Because it was not the freedom of choice, but the necessity of the demon that wrought these things. So if the C other sins were from the necessity that is according to fate, we would forgive them; but since we know that we are not of necessity, for this reason we do not forgive, neither masters their servants, nor husbands their wives, nor wives their husbands, nor fathers their children, nor teachers their students, nor rulers those ruled, nor lawmakers those for whom laws are made, but we become bitter examiners and punishers of the things dared, and we occupy courts, and we inflict blows, and we use reproofs, and we do everything so that we may deliver both the servant from wickedness and the son D from evil. Whence we also appoint tutors for them, and sending them to teachers we threaten them, and we apply blows. For what reason, tell me, and why? For if it were fated for him to be wicked, what is the need of such helps? Therefore it is manifest that he is not bound by necessity, but everything lies in our choice. Wherefore we also bring in helps, and we draw away from sloth, and we guide toward virtue. For what reason do we sail the sea, plow the earth, and build cities, and act with much diligence when sick, and spend money, and call doctors, and prepare medicines, and restrain the belly, and punish desire? For if, as you say, it is fated to live and to die, the expenditures of money are superfluous, the visits of doctors are superfluous, the accuracy of the philosophy of the sick is superfluous. But now, from the things that everyone does, they show that none of these is superfluous, but that the things of fate are nothing, and that our affairs are moved by no necessity, but everything is honored with the freedom of choice. What is the need for the toils and sweats for the sake of virtue? For if it is fated to become good, and the one such as this, even while sleeping and snoring, will be good; or rather, it is not even possible to call such a person good, as one who becomes this by necessity. What is the need for such toils and sweats? For if it is fated to become evil, even if someone suffers ten thousand things, he will be evil; or rather, it is not even possible to call such a person evil, as one who is pushed by necessity. For just as when a person is demon-possessed, even if he speaks abusively (for I use the same example again), we will not call him an insulting person, nor do we consider the abuse to be an insult, but to be of the necessity of the demon; so also the evil person, if he is pushed by fate and necessity, let us not call him evil, just as we do not call the good person good. For if we do this, everything will be confusion and disturbance and a subversion of affairs, and there will be neither virtue, nor vice; no crafts, no laws, nothing else of such things at all. Do you see where the devil’s lure tends, and what he desired to work upon the world, and to what end it meets? Knowing all these things then and more than these (for it was possible to say more than these, but for the more sensible even these are enough), let us flee evil, let us choose virtue, so that primarily we may have God propitious, and then also we may be delivered from Gehenna, and may enjoy eternal goods; of which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father glory together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.