nor the Holy Spirit cease being what He is by hypostasis. For nothing in the Trinity shall be diminished; there shall be no end of eternity, or of communion, or of the kingdom. For the Son of God was not called King because He became man for our sake and defeated our adversary the tyrant and brought back such a victory over his enemy in the flesh; but because He is always God and Lord, for that reason He is King, even as His Begetter is; and He is King now, just as He had been before, and unto eternity. Do not blaspheme against the kingdom of Christ, O heretic, lest you dishonor the Begetter also. If you are faithful, draw near faithfully to Christ, our true God, and do not possess liberty as though it were a cloak of malice. If you are a servant, be subject to the Master with trembling: for a disputant is not well-disposed, but openly hostile. For it is written: He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him (John 5:23). B We have gone out, C beloved, and let us return, crying out in word, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," the good Shepherd who laid down His soul for His sheep; so that, just as those who hunt wolves feeding on sheep-flesh catch them by offering a sheep, so the Prince of shepherds, offering Himself as a man to the soul-destroying wolves, might hold out a hunting spear to them—that is, to those who had long ago hunted Adam. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," God against the devil, not openly through invisible power, but through the infirmity of the flesh, so that He might bind the one who was strong against us. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," King against the tyrant, not through omnipotent power and wisdom, but through the foolishness of the Cross, as it was thought, so that He might despoil the spoils of the snake who was wise in iniquity. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," the Truthful against the liar, the Savior against the destroyer, the Prince of peace against the pugnacious one, the lover of mankind against the hater of mankind. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," at whose will it is to save the erring man, to dissolve error, to bathe those who were in darkness with light, to destroy the deception of idols, to introduce the saving knowledge of God, to sanctify the world, to eliminate an execrable and vain cult. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," One for many, to rescue the human race from the hand of those stronger than it, the needy and poor from those who plunder them. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," to pour wine and oil upon him who fell among robbers and who was despised. "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," to save them by Himself, as the prophet says: Not a messenger, nor an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them (Isai. 63:9). Therefore we also bless You, Lord, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit art blessed before the ages and unto the ages of ages: before the ages and up to this time, incorporeal; but now and unto the ages, with Your divine, immutable, and indivisible incarnation. Let us see the rest. What says the divine evangelist? When the Lord had entered the temple, the blind and the lame approached Him, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and Pharisees saw the miracles that He was doing, and the children crying out and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 21:14-15), they could not endure His honor. Wherefore, D approaching Him, they said, "Do you not hear what these are saying?" (Ibid. v. 16). Do you not feel aggrieved that you are being glorified as God? Do you not feel aggrieved when you hear from these innocents those things which befit God alone? Has not God long ago declared through the prophet, "My glory I will not give to another" (Isai. 42:8)? And, "How do you, being a man, make yourself God?" (John 10:33). But what does He, the long-suffering One, rich in mercy and slow to anger, say to these things? He endures the raging, He calms anger by excusing Himself, He sets the Scriptures in opposition, He brings forward opportune testimonies, and He does not cease to interrogate, and therefore He says: "Have you never heard Me saying through the prophet: Then you shall know that I am He who speaks, being present? Or again, Out of the mouths of infants and nursing children You have perfected praise because of Your enemies, that You might destroy the enemy and the avenger" (Ps. 8:2-3)? Such are you, who pay heed to the Law and read the prophets, and yet despise that which is preached in the Law. For you seem to vindicate the glory of God under the pretext of piety; not understanding that he who despises Me, despises also the Father. For I went out from God, and have come into the world: and My glory is the glory of My Father. Thus confuted by our Savior God, those insane men ceased to contradict, reined in by the truth; but, introducing another insane thought, they entered into counsel against Him. But let us sing: "Great is our Lord, and great is His power, and of His wisdom there is no number" (Ps. 146:5). For all these things came to pass so that the Lamb and Son of God, who takes away the sin of the world, might voluntarily come to the saving passion, and be recognized in the praetorium, and that those who despised Him, who redeemed the world with His life-giving blood, might agree upon thirty pieces of silver, and Christ be sacrificed for us: so that those who have been sprinkled with His precious blood, whose lips have been sealed like lintels, might escape the shafts of that destroyer; and thus, Christ, who suffered in the flesh and rose on the third day, may be honored by every creature with equal honor and glory alongside the Father and the Holy Spirit; for to Him every knee of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth shall bow, rendering glory to Him unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ADMONITION ON THE FOLLOWING ORATIONS CONCERNING THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
The following sermons concerning the B. V. Mary are of the same make, which would have rightly lain in darkness had not Savile published them. Perhaps, however, they proceeded from the same source and the same author.ON THE S. VIRGIN AND THEOTOKOS MARY
All memorable celebrations are indeed admirable, and comparable to the splendor of the stars. For just as the stars are fixed in their position in heaven, and are more spectacular due to the interval between each one, and illuminate the whole circle of the earth; and the same star is seen by the Indians and is not hidden from the Scythians; it shines on the continent and illuminates the sea, and guides those who are sailing; and the names of these stars, [index: entries preserved]in His very paradise; for the God who there passed judgment upon Adam was here given hospitality by the patriarch. The bones of Joseph are encompassed by a tomb, and those things which shake the ends of the world [are finished] by the war against the Egyptian woman. Not even the monument of Moses can be found, yet after his death he proclaims Him who, by means of a rod, parted the Red Sea. And where Isaiah is buried, we do not know; yet the whole Church cries out through his prophecy: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son." Daniel was set in Babylon, and through all the earth he cries out: "Behold, one like a Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven." The youths around Ananias also fell asleep in Babylon, and through them the whole world cries out every day: "Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord." Ezekiel was hidden away among the Persians, and with the Cherubim he cries out: "Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place." Thus, the devil did not profit by putting Adam to death in paradise; for God opened to the righteous a door of boldness through death. But all memorials of the saints are wondrous; yet none is so great in glory as the present festival. Abel is named for his sacrifice, Enoch is remembered for his pleasing of God, Melchizedek is proclaimed as a type of God, Abraham is praised for faith, Isaac is commended for the type, Jacob is blessed for his struggle, Joseph is honored for his temperance, Job is blessed for his patience, Moses is lauded as a lawgiver, Joshua the son of Nun is remembered as a general, Samson is blessed as a familiar of God, Elijah is testified to as a zealot, Isaiah is recorded as a theologian, Daniel is proclaimed as prudent, Ezekiel is marveled at as a viewer of mysteries, David is spoken of as the father of the mystery according to the flesh, Solomon is admired as wise; but none is like the Theotokos Mary. For Him whom they all saw in enigmas, she carried in her womb, having been made flesh; and nothing hindered the ineffable economy of the Word of God. Bulk? No, for that is a material passion; but the Word is alien to bulk and passion. The magnitude of such a defect? No, for the Godhead is not circumscribed. Defilement? No, for He whom she fashioned she did not defile when He was made flesh in her, and from her He was not defiled; nay, rather, her philanthropy brings glory to the King. Birth? No, but birth did not diminish the Beginningless One. The Incarnation by birth? No, for the divine nature underwent no change. She has a mother according to the flesh, but she did not lose being motherless according to his Godhead. The Manger? No, it did not strip bare the bosom of the Father. The Cave? No, the Trinity never abandoned its throne. There is nothing in life, therefore, like the Theotokos Mary. Go around, O man, throughout all creation in your mind, and see if there is anything equal or greater than the holy and Theotokos 237 Virgin. Traverse the earth, look about the sea, investigate the air, search the heavens with your mind, consider all the invisible powers, and see if there is another such wonder in all creation. For the heavens declare the glory of God, angels minister with fear, archangels worship with trembling, the Cherubim shudder, failing to endure it, the Seraphim do not draw near, but flying about cry out with trembling: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of His praise." The lake could not endure the sound, the clouds became a chariot for the Ascension in trembling, the sun shuddered, not enduring the insult, Hades in fear vomited up the dead. The gatekeepers were struck with fear, the mountain that received the visitation smoked, the bush that did not endure the vision was consumed, the Jordan shuddered and turned back, the sea, having feared, was parted, having been made gentle for the sake of the Master's type, the rod of Aaron bloomed beyond nature for the sake of the image, the fire in Babylon was restrained by the number of the Trinity. Number, then, the paradoxes, and marvel at the victory of the Virgin; for whereas all creation hymned with fear and trembling, she alone chambered Him without interpretation. Blessed are all women because of her; the female is no longer in a curse. For the race has found one from whom it will even conquer the angels unto glory. Eve has been healed, the Egyptian woman silenced, Delilah buried, Jezebel forgotten, and Herodias is not mentioned; and now the catalog of women is admired. Sarah is lauded as the field of nations, Rebekah is honored as the cunning purveyor of blessings, Leah is admired as the mother of the ancestor according to the flesh; Deborah is praised as having acted as a general beyond nature; Elizabeth is blessed as having been made a leaping for joy by the Forerunner of grace; and Mary is worshipped because she became mother, and handmaid, and cloud, and chamber, and ark of the Master. Mother: for she gave birth to Him who willed to be born. Handmaid: for I confess the nature, and I proclaim the grace. Cloud: for she conceived from the Holy Spirit Him whom she brought forth without passion. Chamber: for like a bridal chamber, the Word of God dwelt in her. Ark: not having carried the law, but having carried the Lawgiver. Therefore let us say to her: "Blessed are you among women, the only one to have healed the sorrow of Eve, the only one to have wiped away the tears of the groaning one, the only one to have carried the ransom of the world, the only one entrusted with the treasure of the pearl, the only one who attained greatness without pleasure, and brought forth without passion, the only one who gave birth to Emmanuel as He Himself willed." Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit: not the seed, but the flower; not the passion, but the radiance; not the creature, but the co-throned; not the servant, but the sun; not the sand, but the one worshipped, not the creature; the ransom, not the one under obligation. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb; for the sake of all, the prophet suffices for your praise, crying out: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son." He told the wonder, and was silent as to the manner. "And she shall bear a son." He proclaimed the labor, and did not corrupt the relation. "And they shall call His name Emmanuel." He spoke the mystery, and thundered forth the calling. Which is interpreted: "God with us." He proclaimed the God who was born, and stopped the mouths of the Jews. God with us, and error is extinguished; God with us, and circumcision is made void; God with us, and the demons were put to flight; God with us, and the devil is rendered idle; God with us, and the font gives birth without labor; God with us, and kings are pious; God with us, and Churches are crowded; God with us, and death has become sleep; God with us, and the dead, leaping, cry out with freedom: Not an angel, not an ambassador, but the Lord Himself came and saved us; to Him be the glory unto the ages. 258 Against Heretics, and on the Holy Theotokos. 1. Again, with the boldness of the Holy Spirit, breaking the chains of ignorance, I take upon myself the teacher's throne, not ashamed of my poverty; for you, being lovers of the poor, take pity on me for the sake of the generosity of love. For while being poor, I reach out to the rich, not putting forward the sickness of arrogance, but fulfilling the desire of your God-loving soul. For you take pleasure in my words, as I rejoice in your ways. I do not notice my poverty, and weak voice, as I behold this good and desirable theater. For I know that you assemble not as judges of my words, or spectators of contests, but that you may strengthen me like sons to fathers. For I speak with the tongue, but you speak with the heart to God, that a word may be given to us in the opening of the mouth; for being lovers of children and lovers of your offspring, you consider our labors as your own crowns. Therefore I do not hesitate to speak; for the love I have for you relieves my hesitation, and holy prayer transforms my ignorance into virtuous teaching. But let these things be said in the prologue. And I, having girded my loins today with...
truth, clothed in the breastplate of justice, and having shod my feet in the preparation of the gospel of peace, enter into the contest against the heretics. I join the battle, not by adding words to words, nor by dissolving the links of arguments with rhetorical gravity, but by dispersing the trivial problems of the heretics—like a spider’s web—based on the accurate reading of the divine voice.
This is that apostolic reading: A “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!” (Rom. XI, 33). What are you saying, O Paul? Do the riches of God lie in the deep, and are they known in the high? “Indeed,” he says, “in the deep and in the high: in the deep on account of the humanity; in the high on account of the divinity.” For thus, revealing the economy through the prophet, He said to Ahaz: “Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God, in the deep or in the high” (Isai. VII, 11). In the deep, on account of the economy or incarnation; in the high, on account of the theology. For the sign in the deep is to be born from a Virgin; B the high is the preaching that God is born from God. You, therefore, O man, neither comprehend the high by curiously scrutinizing it, nor do you find the deep by any amount of exertion. For the generations of Christ are venerable: one is according to nature, the other is beyond nature. For He was born from the Virgin beyond nature in the latest times; but He was born from the Father before the ages according to nature, as the Begetter knows. The supernal generation is most true. For truly God was born from God; truly God was born from the Virgin as man with men. Above, the one from the One, the Only-Begotten; on earth, the one from the one, the Only-Begotten. And just as in the supernal generation it would be impious to suspect a mother, so too with the Virgin it would be blasphemous to suspect a father. The Father begot without flux; the Virgin gave birth incorrupt. For neither did God suffer flux in begetting; for He begot as was fitting for God. Nor was the Virgin subject to corruption in giving birth; for she bore spiritually. O new miracle! O venerable and ineffable mystery! I would dare to say, and I will not err in saying it, that even above, the virgin nature gave birth; for the substance of the Divinity is pure and incorrupt. And on earth, the Virgin bore the Uncorrupt in an incorruptible way; for: “You will not let Your Holy One see corruption” (Act. II, 27).
When nature proceeds C in its order, then seek those things which are according to nature, O man; but when God commands something, then nature denies its own order, and does that which the law of God desires. For example, God commanded the rock in the desert to pour forth waters, and it poured them forth—not what it had in its bosom, but what the command instilled. Just as, therefore, the rock, by the nod of God, became a fountain and brought forth torrents of waters, not from an underlying vein, nor borrowed from a river, but dry, without vein or moisture, it immediately became a mother of rivers, pouring forth abundantly the water which it did not possess; so the Virgin, free from wedlock, the Holy Spirit overshadowing her, bore our Lord according to the flesh, not moved by the order of nature, but progressing toward birth by the power of the Most High. For she did not borrow from elsewhere to bear beyond the law of nature, but, strengthened by the Holy Spirit, she bore as the grace of God willed. For He says: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke I, 35).
If you wish to know how nature denies its own order in order to minister to the will of God, ask Aaron’s rod: Tell me, O dry rod, how did you bring forth leaves and fruit in a moment beyond nature? Moses did not place you in the earth first, did not irrigate you with rains, nor did time warm and nourish your roots; you did not see summer, nor spring, D nor saw winter or autumn. How, therefore, did you bring forth leaves, flowers, and fruit? “I did not serve the changes of the air,” says the rod, “nor the mutations of the seasons; but ministering to the divine Word, I trampled nature, and I gave fruit beyond nature, so that we might serve the will of the most excellent Artificer both according to nature and beyond nature.” Just as, therefore, the rod gave fruit beyond nature, O man, so that Judea might believe, so too the living rod, the royal Virgin, gave birth without legal wedlock, so that salvation might be brought forth to the world.
On the virgin who gives birth
. But if you say: “The rod was a type of the Virgin, and the Virgin is the reality,” learn that there is a great difference in the likeness. For the rod was a figure of the Virgin; that was an image, this is the truth; that was a prior indication, this is the demonstration. For just as that rod gave fruit beyond nature, so too does this Virgin germinate a flower of nature beyond nature. For he says: “A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall ascend from it” (Isai. XI, 1). A It is not in vain, therefore, that Paul marvels at the riches of God; it is the carnal economy of Christ. O the incredulity of the heretics! O the rage and the tongue hostile to God! Paul, the citizen of heaven, the spectator of paradise, the fervent lover of Christ, the auditor of the ineffable mysteries—when he explored the economy, he trembled and was suffused with darkness; and do you, explaining the divinity, not shudder? Paul says the judgments of God are unsearchable, and do you search out the nature of the Father as if it were easily grasped? It is time to call you forth, so that, sorrowful, you may turn back against those ineffable things which you said. How the Virgin gave birth, you do not know, and you wish to know how God begot? You do not know the generation of Christ according to the flesh under Herod, how indeed it happened; and do you dare to interpret and attempt to explore that generation from the Father, without beginning, inexplicable, venerable, and ineffable, before all intellect, before times and ages, done without a medium? If Thomas, touching the crucified body of Christ, did not remain without reproach, even though he was an apostle, what punishment are they worthy of, who do not touch the body of Christ with their hands, but with their tongue search out the eternal nature of His divinity? Thomas, indeed, touched the body which he knew; B they searched out the divinity which they did not know, as if they saw it. Tell me, I pray, grave and expert rhetorician Eunomius, who judge the nature of the divinity in three ways, who are little short of fabricating gods again, why do you say that Christ was created, not begotten? “Lest,” he says, “I attribute the reason of flux to the uncreated nature of God; for it is necessary that the one who begets undergoes flux.” Therefore, it is also necessary that the one who creates undergoes labor. For does he who creates, not create with labor? If, therefore, in order to avoid the reason of flux, you refuse to speak of the Father, lest you speak of the Creator, lest you inject a suspicion of labors and sweat. “But,” he says, “we ought not to have the same opinion concerning God that we have concerning men. For men, when they create, create with labor and sweat; but God, creating, creates without labor; for He is by nature simple.” C Since, therefore, O sophist and learned one, God, creating, creates without labor, but cannot truly beget without flux, but when He creates, as God, He creates without labor? But when He begets, as man He suffers flux? And creating, He creates without passion, but begetting, He falls into human passion? I shudder, I fear, I tremble at the blasphemous, impudent, and unbridled tongue of the heretics, when I think that they indeed believe the Virgin gave birth without corruption, but doubt whether God begot without flux. The incorrupt womb of the Virgin remained whole after birth, O man, and does the nature of the Father, begetting, not avoid flux? But the Virgin remained a virgin after childbirth, and did not lose her virginity from the birth; but the Father, after He begot, could not remain the same, so that His substance remained without flux and mutation? And where are the mass of the body, the harmony of members, the structure of bones, the order of nerves, the fullness of veins, the bonds of joints, the infant as He himself knows, coming forth, forming Himself in the virginal womb in an ineffable way; but where there is no body, no members, no joints, no nerves, no bones, no veins, but an intact, incorporeal, invisible nature, you introduce flux and contemplate diminution! She comes forth from the womb, and the womb remained whole. For He who without seed fashioned for Himself an ensouled temple in the Virgin, He Himself DA B C D
ON THE BETRAYAL OF THE SAVIOR, AND OTHER MATTERS
3 But tell me, you who raise the question, how Christ proceeding from a closed womb did not destroy the seal of virginity, just as from virginal Adam the virgin Eve proceeded. For the Theotokos Mary, not knowing a man, gave birth to a man; the first-formed Adam, not knowing a woman, brought forth a woman. But to give birth while a virgin, even if it is paradoxical, yet it holds to reason, inasmuch as the womb and the matrix are naturally the predetermined path for those born; but in the case of Adam, all things are strange. For who has seen a man born from a rib? And when did a rib provide fruitfulness? God cast a sleep upon Adam, so that he would not be pained by the removal of the rib; yet his bonds were put to sleep; for nerves are the bonds of nature. And Daniel is a witness, saying, *And I saw the vision, and I fell; and the bonds of my loins were loosed* (Dan. 10. 8, 9). How then did He remove the rib, which was secured by the law of nature, woven with nerves, joined with flesh, and united with veins? How did He tear it away? How did the rib come out and Adam remain whole? How? He who loosed it knows; He who loosed and bound it. For if another had bound it and another had loosed it, there would be an inquiry; but if He who fitted it together also loosed it, and He who fashioned the rib from the earth took away the rib, He alone knows how He loosed it, He who also alone knows how He composed the harmony of the members. Just as then even after the removal of the rib Adam remained whole, so also after the emergence of the infant the Virgin remained incorrupt. For neither was the harmony of Adam’s members damaged by the taking of the rib, nor was the seal of virginity insulted by the child’s emergence. For just as with us, if someone wishes to loose a foreign bond, he destroys it and hacks it to pieces through inexperience, but he who bound it looses it without effort (for he knows the harmony of the things he bound); so also God, who fitted it together, who tightened it, who knotted the body, knew the bonds of the nerves, and how He joined rib to rib, and joint, and member; and from the things He had bound, He skillfully and most wisely lifted a rib, and did not diminish Adam. The only-begotten Son of God fashioned Him in the Virgin, and He did not destroy the virginity in the fashioning, nor did He destroy the womb by proceeding through the womb. Tell me then, O sage and expert, what is easier: for a virgin to give birth and after giving birth to remain a virgin again; or for a rod to be ensouled into an animal, and from an animal to become a rod again? How was the rod of Moses transformed into a dragon? How did the inanimate receive a soul, how did the motionless creature crawl upon the earth? And how did it again become a rod from a dragon, recognizing its own nature? For at one time it was a dragon from a rod, and at another time a rod from a dragon. Just as then the rod of Moses, O man, by nature was a rod, but by dispensation a dragon; so also Mary by nature was a virgin, but by dispensation she became a mother, so that the Magi of the Chaldeans might believe, just as, so that Egypt might be afraid, the rod became a dragon. Therefore, that the inhabited world might be saved, did you not want the Virgin to be revealed? Yet, when earthquakes occur, walls are divided and joined; when Christ was being born, the womb was not opened, and again it weaves itself together. And indeed in earthquakes walls are so divided as to threaten death; and they are so united that not even a trace or mark of the division appears; but in that incorrupt birth, did you not want the womb to be loosened for the honor of the One being born, and to come together and be united and recover the shape of virginity by the power of the One who works? And do not tell me: "Whence did the body receive flesh and blood, without seed being present?" For it is possible to learn from the things among us that which is above us. And call to my aid the sons of painters as an example of what is said, who often paint plants and trees and meadows and rivers, and when they do not have nature working with them, they force by the art of mixing colors to present the images of things. For they make a river, not borrowing a stream from rivers, and they form a man, not begging anything from human nature. Just as then painters through colors paint both a man and a spring and a river, not taking anything from a spring or river or man; in the same way the Holy Spirit also shone into the Virgin—not with colors, but by His will—and fashioned an ensouled man, not borrowing seed from human nature for the structure of the One being fashioned. God took dust from the earth, and not by human hands (for the nature of Deity is simple) shaped Adam as He willed; but the Holy Spirit did not take dust, nor did He allow seed to be deposited by natural law, but only by shining, He fixed bones and stretched nerves, and set up ears, eyes and tongue, hands and feet, soul and mind and reason and word—even if the sons of the heretics be unwilling. For just as those who lean over a mirror see an image of themselves rising up to their sight from the shapeless matter, an image often smiling, or weeping, and moving, and changing in various ways, and imitating the shapes of the living form; so also the Holy Spirit shone into a pure mirror, the stainless body of the Virgin, and completely created a man—not by the law of nature, not by time, not by human seed, but by sight alone, by a certain intellectual and holy power He moved the Virgin toward labor, weaving the infant within her as if it were a garment, for the salvation of men. These things then are so; but let us send up glory for the things mentioned to Him who for us became man, because to Him is the glory, and to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of the ages. Amen.
ON THE BETRAYAL OF THE SAVIOR, AND OTHER MATTERS
1. I wished to bring to an end the contemplations on the cross, not as having exhausted the thoughts, but expounding what is possible to the faithful. For the word is not idle toward the explanation of the divine oracles, but what is said is measured by human power, not as if the power itself were sufficient to grasp it, but as God provides; not as much as the Giver is able to give, but as much as the receiver is able to hold. For just as a mother to an infant being nourished with milk is herself able to provide more, but it has not the strength to receive it; so also it is not impossible for God to provide greater and super-cosmic wisdom, but we are unable to receive it. For dwelling in a mortal body, we should attribute the explaining of the words; but we must not commit it to human faculty, as if human ability were sufficient for understanding, but as if [granted] by God; not