A the Spirit’s movement; it is touched by this light; be delighted in this plant and dance with the angels, glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.
VIII. BY THE SAME, ON THE TEXT, "IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, THERE IS A NEW CREATION; THE OLD THINGS HAVE PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, ALL THINGS HAVE BECOME NEW." (II Cor. V, 17)
Great truly is the eagerness with which a farmer casts his seeds, once he sees that the field has been cleared, nor is there a multitude of thorns to hinder the growth of the shoots, nor a stone to strike against the plow. But there is a greater ease for him who is about to bring forth the sermon when he sees a prepared auditor. For I see a field cleared, and nowhere is there a thorn sprouting; and the thorn is the anxiety of wealth, which chokes the word. I say these things, not because there are no rich people present, but because I am manifesting the philosophy of the poor in the hearing of the sermon. For there is need not only of the speaker, but also of a prudent auditor; for Scripture requires both—the wise teacher and the prudent auditor—so that our labor may not turn out useless through the idleness of the hearers. B For the anxiety of wealth does not allow what is said to fall into the mind, but snatches away the understanding of the hearers. Since, therefore, I see all of you prepared—for I do not know the secrets of the mind, but I examine the eyes of each of you curiously, and I see eyelids standing like horns and eyes not wavering, indicating the stillness of the mind, and each one exempt from the cares of this life, observing only this, thinking only of this, how he may receive what is said—apply your mind with greater care; open the lap of your soul, so that the seeds may be sown more easily. C For a long time now I have wanted to let my tongue loose upon Paul’s table, and I shall not stop calling him an idiot, an obscure and ignoble man, a tentmaker. These are my prerogatives, these my praises, that I have such masters, shining not with the riches of this life, but with spiritual virtues. If someone of the Greeks says to me, "Whom do you have as a master?" I answer, "The tentmaker." "And whom else?" "The fishmonger." "And whom else?" "The tax collector." "And whom else?" "The magi and the harlot." "And whom else?" "The thief." And I am not ashamed of these, but I glory in them. "Do you glory in having a street-peddler as a master?" Assuredly. Why? Because if the lowliness of the disciple shows the power of the master, the lowliness of the master shows that the preaching is divine. For even if men preached it, still men did not invent it; if men preached it, still men did not produce it. Men are the instruments, God is the artisan; they are the D lyre, this mighty hand has moved the string. Therefore, the prophet, even though he was a king and clad in purple and adorned with a diadem, and addressing the world, having left behind that worldly pomp—so that no one might think he was speaking royal words—said: "My heart has erupted a good word, I speak my works to the King. My tongue is the pen of a scribe" (Ps. XLIV, 2). Why do you call it a pen? So that you might learn that what is written is not mine, but the right hand’s that holds it. For a pen does not write by itself, but [writes] whatever the hand holding it wills. And "my tongue is the pen of a scribe"—for the Holy Spirit holds it. When, therefore, the Greek says to you: "Who is your master?" do not be ashamed, do not blush, but say: "The street-peddler, the tentmaker, who stood in the forum, who stitched hides." "But who is your master?" "Plato, Pythagoras; not a street-peddler, but a philosopher." But if I say, "Who is your master?" "A philosopher; your master is from a noble fatherland; your master is rich; your master has a sharp tongue, more fluent than the rivers themselves, enjoying honor, rejoicing in the splendor of his ancestors, honored everywhere." My master, on the contrary, has: this is the victory, so that the trophy might be more brilliant. He solecizes, so that yours might Atticize; but the one who solecizes has defeated the one who Atticizes. He solecizes in language, but he philosophizes in mind; I have no need of words, but of thoughts. Mine has defeated yours: how? The idiot the wise man, the rustic the orator. "And from where," he says, "is it clear that he has won?" Impudent man, do you not see the very facts crying out? Where is Plato? Nowhere. Where is Paul? *In everyone’s mouth.* Where is Plato? There is silence about him, he is consigned to oblivion. Where, however, is Paul? He took the regal Rome, which he not only possessed while living, but even dead he conquered. He died in the body so that he might live in the spirit; the parchment was torn, yet the letters remain—for it was not written with ink, but confirmed by the Spirit. It is easier to pass by the sun than Paul’s words. 222 For what does He who granted him the words say? "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Matth. XXIV, 35). If they are mere words, refute them; if they are *things*, adore them. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. It is easier for the sun to be extinguished and the heaven to be taken from sight than for the words of my Lord to be dissolved. And the experience of things bears witness to these, and the length of time, and the incursions of enemies; for this is worthy of admiration, not only that they have not been dissolved, but that they have even overcome when besieged in war. Attend carefully to my words. Paul cried out, the fisherman and evangelist John cried out, he who cast the net and caught the Gospel, who let go the fishing-pole and took up the Word of the Master. What did he cry out, and what did the fisherman say? Let us see if I can fish out the words of the fisherman and not of the fisherman: of the fisherman, indeed, because he cried it out; not of the fisherman, however, because the words were of the Spirit. For what does he say? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Joan. I, 1). What does the Jew say? He thinks great things of Moses, because he split the sea and divided the deep and made it stand, and changed the air, and split the rock, and brought down manna, and cut down cities along with their inhabitants, and was a victor in wars without arms. Are you thus haughty? Hear what Moses said, what the fisherman [said], so that you may see what the poverty of the old Law is, and what the abundance of grace. What, then, did Moses say? "In the beginning God made heaven and earth" (Gen. I, 1). What, however, the fisherman? He nowhere puts that word, "He made," but what? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." The one starts from created things, this one from the Creator. Do you see how he ascends higher than Moses? He heard Moses saying that God made heaven; he dismissed the heaven and ascended higher. Angels met him and he passed them by; archangels, and he went past them; Cherubim, and he did not stop there. Where are you running? "I seek something else: if the Cherubim shine, still they are works; if the Seraphim sing, they are still fellow-servants just as I am. What do you seek? If Principalities and Dominations, these also are servants and creatures; if Powers, your things also are created." "Where are you going?" "I seek the Creator Himself, I seek Him who is of the same substance as the Father; and I will not desist until I find Him, as a man can find Him." Moses spoke of the heaven, and stopped; for he did not receive the spirit that I have (Rom. VIII, 15); for he did not receive the spirit of bondage in fear, but he received the spirit of adoption of sons unto the obedience of faith. Greater things have been entrusted to me. Therefore my Lord descended from on high below, so that I, placed below, might ascend on high. "What do you seek?" "The Creator Himself; when I find Him, then I shall stand." He found, and what does he say? "In the beginning was the Word." Nowhere, "He was made"; for there is no beginning for the Creator, nor in the teaching. "In the beginning was the Word." How many tyrants have wanted to abolish this word of the fisherman, and could not; but, wherever you go, you hear that "In the beginning was the Word"—whether in the country or in the city, [this] prevailed, "In the beginning was"
the Word." A And in Persia, and in India, and in the land of the Moors, this saying shines more brightly than the sun. For the sun shines by day, but in the night it is hidden; but the saying sends forth its own radiance even in the night, for it is inscribed in the intuition of everyone. The one who wrote it has died, and the saying shines; the body of him who spoke it has been dissolved, and the saying flourishes above the sun. Wherever you go, the saying has gone before: "In the beginning was the Word." And everyone—both woman and man, and slave and free, and king and private citizen, and rulers and ruled—meditate upon it in their heart, and no one is able to erase this most beautiful inheritance, but it remains, preserving [its] wealth. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." The devil could not erase the saying; why? Because it was not a mere saying, but the saying of God. Do not, therefore, be ashamed when you hear: "This the fisherman uttered, this the tentmaker stitched." B Did you see how he sat in the very bottom of poverty and ascended to the summit of virtue? But that I may not, having begun with others, carry the discourse to other things in the rush of what is being said, allowing the thoughts to roll out, come, by using a bridle on my tongue, let us bring the subject back to the previous promise.
What, then, says the tentmaker, the man of the marketplace? For I shall not cease constantly to sound abroad these words, because of the madness of the many and their unphilosophic mind. For since many in the marketplace, when they draw water, say, "Marketplace-dweller," what is it, "Marketplace-dweller"? What is a marketplace-dweller? Tell me: is it an accusation to be a marketplace-dweller? Is it an accusation to stand in the marketplace and work? It is an accusation to remain inside and plunder the things of others. Learn what is an insult, and what is an encomium, and do not laugh; to be a man of the marketplace is not an accusation, but to be a plunderer is, to be a covetous man. What do you profit me, that you sit in your chamber, and are a wolf? What does it harm me [that] the poor man [stands] in the marketplace, walking and imitating the ox and the plowman? Are you a marketplace-dweller, are you a craftsman? These are not accusations; these are encomiums, because you gather your food from just [labors], not being busy with others' houses. It is not, then, an accusation to be a marketplace-dweller, nor to be a craftsman; but what is an accusation? To live idly; and I would that it were [only] idle, and not practicing evil. Paul was a marketplace-dweller, and stood at his workshop; and he was not such before the Gospel, but after the Gospel he was changed. C But he both preached and stitched skins; he preached and remained with Priscilla and Aquila, because [they were] of the same trade, for they were tentmakers by trade. O the philosophy of Paul! O the exalted mind, and the unconquerable will! O the intellect that touched the heaven! O the soul that looked down on all things that are seen! O the will that considered the phantasies of life [as] a spider's web; he did not go away to kings, he did not go away to the wealthy, he did not go away to the affluent, but he went away to tentmakers because of [their] being of the same craft, and he was not ashamed of revealing his own trade, but made it manifest to all. He stood in the marketplace preaching the Gospel, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and he was not ashamed of the place, but prided himself on his way of life, and he stood in the marketplace; and the one was handing over skins, and the others were saying, "Raise up the dead man"; and there stood two women, the one saying, "Make for me the skin a bed-covering," and the other saying, "Raise up my son," and he answered both; and this did not become a hindrance to that, but the hands were working, and the grace was operating, and the tentmaker answered both, providing to the one that which came from [his] trade, and to the other that which came from grace. What do you wish? I make the skin into a bed-covering; for I stitch skins. What do you wish? I make your dead man to be raised; for I entreat God. D No reproach to [his] trade. He did not go away into a wealthy house and [an] affluent [one]; for he was fulfilling the Lord’s law that says: "Into whatever city or house you enter, ask who is worthy in it, and remain there." And indeed, is the tentmaker worthy of Paul? And very much so. Why not? Since he was a tentmaker according to the love of poverty. Shall I tell you his encomium, better than a diadem, more brilliant than purple? "Greet Priscilla and Aquila," and he puts the wife before the husband, that you may learn that virtue is greater in the woman. "Greet Priscilla and Aquila," writing to the Romans, "who for my life laid down their own necks." Did you see an encomium? Did you see living witnesses? "Who for my life laid down their own necks." A martyrdom completed, not by the shedding of blood, but by the resolve of the mind. Do not tell me, "They were not slaughtered"; for even if they were not slaughtered in the trial, yet they were slaughtered in their will; and God does not seek the end, but the preparation; since even Abraham slaughtered his son, though not slaughtering; for the knife was clean; and He says: "You did not spare your beloved son for my sake; you did not spare [him] in [your] will, but I spared [him] in the trial." "Who for my life laid down their own necks." They accepted the Apostle with blood. Did you understand what I said? For they did not sacrifice swine and birds to him, but they poured out their own blood. O the excess of hospitality! If others give[s] ten obols, they do not deign to be troubled; those [two] poured out their own blood, and despised the present life. The lover of hospitality thus appears, not like those of today, with a morose countenance, and raising [their] eyebrows, if they give a poor man ten obols, and those through a servant. But these [were] not [so], but they themselves were also becoming servants. So also Abraham and Sarah; for she kneaded the flour, not according to the sloth of the women of today, who by gold and silk garments make their nature softer. But she performs the works of a mill-woman; and her husband says to her, "Hasten and knead three measures of fine flour." And she did not say, "Are these things tolerable? Did you take me as a baker, [my] kinswoman? Did I not bring a dowry? Am I not free? You command me the things of servants; for these hopes did I come into your house?" She said none of these things, but she hastened and kneaded; for she was the wife of Abraham, not by the law of life only, but also by the virtue of [good] works. "Let hospitality be common," he says, "may we reap the fruit in common." "It is a treasure," he says; "let us partake together; I [give] the calf, you the flour." He sacrificed a calf, and [she] received Isaac; she kneaded the flour, "And her seed became as the stars of the heaven and as the sand of the sea." These things I say [to] humble human arrogance, and to treat with contempt the madness of all who are wealthy, and to comfort the poor, that no one may be baptized in poverty, nor lifted up in wealth; both these are hindrances to virtue. But the intellect holds the rank of a pilot, neither being baptized by the storm, nor rendered flaccid by the calm, but in the time of unevenness keeping the same philosophy for itself, not yet being shaken by the difference, and becoming this or that; just as Job was neither a blasphemer in poverty, nor lifted up in wealth, but when he was wealthy, he opened [his] door, [and] when he became poor, he opened his own sides; [then] being a lover of poverty, but afterward becoming a philosopher, and trampling upon the difference of worldly things. But since [so much has been said] about the tentmaker, come, let us also handle some of the things that have been said, bringing few words into the middle, but opening a boundless sea of thoughts for ourselves. For such is the treasure of the Scriptures; not by the multitude of the words, but by the power of the thoughts, [the] abundance is demonstrated to you. What, then, says the tentmaker, [his] mouth filled with holiness, the tongue [that is] fearful to death? What writes that right hand that was adorned with a chain and [was] wearing bonds, and raising the dead? What writes [it]? What says the tongue? What writes the right hand? "We, even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, but now we know [him] no longer. So that if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creation." Pay attention, we are descending into the depth. "So that if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creation; the old things passed away, behold, the all [things] have become new, and the all [things] are from God." A treasure, therefore, hidden, but let us dig [it] up, and [penetrate] the depths to the depth; for it is not a deep [abyss] having darkness, but a deep [abyss] springing forth light. If the discourse is unclear, I will try to make it easy even for the unlearned and the poor and the servant and the cook and the sailor and the woman and the free and the slave. For the things of God are proposed in common to all, [being] unclear [when] obscured, but becoming easy to grasp by interpretation. But if there is any slowness, by the ease of the teaching I will make the table clearer; only let
me have a mind prepared for hearing, and do not relax in any way, for I have learned by experience the obedience of your mind in listening. Therefore, I have often approached even difficult matters, although I did not expect them to be easy to grasp; but I saw that difficult things were made easy through the zeal of listening. Be a vigilant mind, and nothing will be difficult; be an intent thought, and all things are clear. Therefore, B if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things have passed away. Those who read these things, the Greeks, laugh and mock us. Such things, they say, Paul says: If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. "You are inflating us, O Paul" (I am repeating their words), "you have lifted up our mind, you fill our ears with new thoughts. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature." Learn first not to be rashly blinded; you are throwing yourself into a chasm. For do you know what you have heard? For the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit: for it is foolishness unto him (1 Cor. II, 14). Do you truly know the treasure? The treasure has thorns and stones on the surface; but when it is dug through, pearls are found. Do not give me words only, but the meaning; do not give me words: learn diligently what "new creature" is; learn what "in Christ" is; learn, and descend into the light. For even a little child often sees a king passing by, and laughs; and the king looks on, and cares nothing for it. For it is not the king’s reproach, but the defect of age. Be present, I will lead you into the inner chambers: do not look simply from the vestibule: be present, I will reveal to you the whole mystery of the secret things. "And what," he says, "do you have to tell me? Has he not said that it is a new creature for Christians?" Assuredly. "Show me, then," he says, "a new creature: show me that the heaven has been made new; that before Christ arrived it was one thing, but afterwards it was made another; that the earth is another thing, the seeds other things, the nature other, that the fruit is other, the rivers other, the winds other: for all these are old; and you say that it is a new creature." Restrain yourself: the more you contradict, the more the eminence of the truth grows. "Am I insane?" he says: "do I contradict? Behold, I am quiet." Be quiet; I will question you. Question me. He says, before Christ arrived, the heaven was one thing; after He arrived, it was made another. And yet before He arrived according to the flesh, it was the same heaven; and after He arrived, the same heaven remained, and earth, and sea, and air, and winds. Why then, he says, does Paul boast, saying: If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new? "I," he says, "see nothing new." For you do not have eyes to see: draw near, I will make eyes for you, and you will see. Do you also make eyes? Certainly. Are you a creator? Certainly. Are you delirious? By no means. Make, therefore, corporeal eyes. Nay rather, what is greater, I will make the eyes of the mind. Do you make eyes for me? Most certainly. Do I not have them? No. Then you have eyes, and I do not have them: how? Tell me. When you enter into a temple, and there you see a naked statue, a mute stone, and you say, "This is a god," do you have eyes? When you call a stone a god, how do you have eyes? What use are external eyes, when the internal ones are blinded? You see that it is necessary for me to make eyes for you, so that you may see a stone as a stone, so that you do not mix things that should not be mixed, so that you do not join things that are disjoint. Do you have eyes, when you see wood and worship it, while I handle it and burn it? Do you have eyes, when you call that which is burned a god, when you make vices gods? A man is drunk and is carried about, and from drunkenness, though he is a man, he is made a brute: you say, "Drunkenness is a god," and you call it Bacchus: "Whoredom is a goddess," and you call it Venus: "Theft is a god," and you call it Mercury. When, therefore, you make vices and woods gods, how do you have eyes? You do not see things visible, and can I entrust to you things invisible? Do you see that you are in need of eyes? Bacchus is a rotten C stone, and Venus is wood. Do you not give credence to my words? Believe the axe, I push and throw this: give me fire, and I consume it. This is the vice of drunkenness: that law punishes it, and you make those things gods? Do you have eyes? Do you see that it is necessary that I should make eyes for you through speech? Since such were the Jews: they had eyes, and did not see; the blind man did not have them, and he saw. Christ says to the blind man, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" and he says, "I believe, and he worshipped (John IX, 35): but the Jews, seeing, crucified Him. The blind man worships, and he who sees crucifies: for this reason it says, "I have come into this world for judgment, that those who do not see might see, and those who see might be made blind." Do you have eyes? Do you wish, therefore, that I should make eyes for you through speech? The eyes of faith, the eyes of the intellect, the eyes perceiving invisible things? For such are the eyes of us who perceive by faith: they do not see visible things, but invisible. And if you wish to follow, follow; if you do not wish, I do what is mine, I instruct. For the speech is varied: it transforms the contrary, corrects those familiar, introduces many persons, and is complete in every part. Therefore, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." O mouth! O splendor! For I see the treasure before I reveal it; I see the whole vessel of the Creator. O eyes, what things you perceive! Turn yourself to me, raise yourself up. Creation in Scripture is called, not only a production out of non-existent things into existence, but also the changing of an existing thing for the better. It was briefly stated: but it is necessary to set this forth more clearly. God is said to create, not only when He effects that which did not exist, but also when He corrects and purges that which existed, distorted or fouled. For example: God created man; this is to effect that which did not exist: and when He makes a wicked man good, this is the changing of things for the better. There is the production of a non-existent thing; here, the changing of an existing, but depraved thing, for the better. And that you may learn that creation is said not only to be a production out of non-existence into existence, but also when He corrects and purges anything depraved, hear David saying, for even he himself had been created, and his heart had been created, but it was polluted by adultery and murder. He invokes, therefore, God and says: "Create a clean heart in me, O God" (Ps. L, 12). Was he therefore without a heart previously? How then did he strike down Goliath? How did he please God? He does not speak of the substance of the heart, but of its best disposition. Behold, therefore, creation is called not the production of a substance out of non-existence into existence, but the conversion of an existing, but corrupt, thing for the better. When you see some unbridled person made sober, say, "A mind has been created for him": when you see a harlot given to continence, say, "A mind has been created for her": when you see a rapacious man made merciful, say, "His heart has been created." For he who was a wolf, has become a sheep; he who was a hawk, is now a dove. For this reason it is called creation. For this reason also the laver of regeneration is called creation: "Putting off, for he says, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of his flesh, but putting on the new man made according to the image of Him who created him" (Ephes. IV, 22). Therefore, creation is His work. For "we are created in Christ Jesus in good works" (Col. II, 10): but previously in corrupt works. Then the Father took clay, and made man. The Son takes water, and makes it wine. There He has an element, and here also an element; the change of the element, and the creation is made better. "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature." You see, therefore, that it is a new creature. For what is the benefit to me if a heaven is made? Nay-
A Nay, if I myself remain the same, if I remain diseased? If you see a physician coming into a house, and not even taking care of the sick person, but whitewashing the walls, adorning the ceiling, and not curing the patient—O man, why do you adorn the house? Does Christ also come into this world, in which he found my nature? Again, attend to my saying: The physician enters a great house, he finds the human nature sick—sick, I say, not lying upon a bed, but cast away in wickedness, the common harmony corrupted, altars ignited, the air polluted by the savor of sacrifices, children slaughtered by their parents, nature trodden underfoot, the laws of existence shaken, sympathy dishonored: "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons" (Ps. CV, 37); men behaving wantonly like bacchanals—this one a fornicator, that one an adulterer, another a murderer—the whole earth perishing, men lying on the bed of wickedness, the devil standing by, lighting the furnace, filling the houses, the physicians failing—the prophets, I mean, accusing, not correcting; the physicians B sitting by, preparing medicines, yet not helping, but accusing everyone. "There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that seeks after God" (Ps. XIII, 3; Ez. XXXIV, 6). Is the physician accusing the sick? What hope then is there, when the physician accuses the patient? One indeed said: "They became as neighing horses, each one neighed after his neighbor’s wife" (Jer. V, 8). Another sat in the desert as a crow: "Woe is me, for the godly man has perished from the earth, and there is none who uprightly performs among men; a curse, and falsehood, and theft, and adultery are poured out upon the earth" (Mic. VII, 2). Another: "Woe, nation of sinners!" (Is. I, 4). The physician goes out weeping; but what hope has the sick man, when he sees the physician weeping? What hope have you, when you see him who has despaired? What good have you to expect for the patient? And yet, physicians often, even knowing the final hour, in order not to grieve those related to them, overcome their passion by philosophy, and show a cheerful face of their own composure, so that they might not cast down the courage of the sick. For when the sick man sees the physician turning his countenance, what good has he to hope for? But here, the disease has so conquered that the physician himself weeps; what have I to do? Ulcers, putrefaction, worms, ten thousand evils. "Woe, sinful nation!" And another wrote whole lamentations, Jeremiah; the one mourns, the other wails, the other exhorts; God from above: "I have forsaken my house." What hope is left, when God says, C "I have forsaken all things, I have abandoned my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of my enemies"? Elijah from below: "Lord, they have dug down your altars, and killed your prophets, and I am left alone, and they seek my soul" (1 Kings XIX, 10). If these things were in Judea, where the law was, where the temple was, where the ark was, where the Jewish sacrifice was; what was it where there were idols, where there was savor and smoke, unlawful rites, impieties; where the passions were deified, where they mimicked the sound of dogs, those who celebrated the orgies of Dionysus—skins of goats and the sound of dogs, so that they might lose their nobility from every side? The devil made them dogs, made them swine, made them beasts, worked them into serpents, fashioned them as white as asps. The law is powerless, the prophets are accusing. What then, O wretched man? Entering and finding the world so suffering, was he about to beautify the heaven and leave [us] in the sickness? But he did not do this, but he ran to the sick one, for whose sake heaven and earth and sea and air and all other things. D For this reason, he did not take on the form of heaven; for he was not about to heal heaven, but man. For this reason, he recovered the kinship of the sick one, and he comes as that very same sick one—not being sick himself! For "he committed no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth," but he came having a vessel akin to his nature. He did not come in naked divinity, so that the sick person might not flee, so that he might not scare away the prey; but just as a physician, often being noble and illustrious, having the eminence of ancestors, and clothed in silken garments, when he enters to a poor sick man in need of surgery, or something else, he strips off his garments and leaves the adornment and takes a linen cloth, and girds himself, being about to cauterize, being about to cut, and he does not seek his own worth, but the care of the sufferer; so also the Master of the angels did, whose glory is ineffable: he descended as a man, he girded himself with a linen cloth, he girded himself with our nature. For the loads of the sick are disease, disorder, fornication, theft, falsehood, false testimony; for there is no load as heavy as an evil conscience. But since the sick person fears the physician, especially when the disease is severe, lest he sharpen an iron tool, lest he burn with fire, and many of the sick chose to die in their diseases rather than endure the pain from the treatment and reap the health from the pain, so that no one might fear this—that "he has come," he says, "he demands of us an accounting of our sins; he demands from us for our transgressions; he has to punish us, and then he corrects us"—so that no one, thinking this, might flee, "Come," he says, "unto me." I did not come to judge the world