HOMILY XII
(Regarding what is written: *Every skin shall be filled with wine; and up to that word: And your eyes shall draw forth tears, for the flock of the Lord is shattered.*)
A It is the Prophet who is ordered by God to speak, and he ought to be worthy of God. But it does not seem worthy if we remain in the letter and seek nothing higher, as if we were to accommodate the ear of a simple auditor to these things, and only know what is read. This is the saying of the animal man: *The animal man does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him.* Let us consider, therefore, what God’s discourse orders: *And you shall say to this people: Thus says the Lord God of Israel.*
Is it worthy, I ask, of the Lord God of Israel, that *every skin shall be filled with wine*? And if they answer you: *Do we not know that every skin shall be filled with wine?* And if those who remain in the letter say these things, B and say they know that every skin shall be filled with wine—are there not then skins filled with oil, or with another liquid? They are mistaken if they think *every skin shall be filled with wine*. But if we know the differences of wines, and follow the skins, we shall see that it is true that *every skin shall be filled with wine*. Whether you call a good person a "skin," he will be filled with wine according to his own goodness; or whether you call a wicked person a "skin," and in the judgment concerning skins he is wicked, he will be filled with wicked wine. C How, then, can we take from Scripture about the different wines? Concerning the worse ones it is written: *For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their shoot of Gomorrah. Their grape is a grape of gall, a cluster of bitterness; their wine is the fury of dragons, and the fury of asps is incurable.* Concerning these it is said as of the worst. But Wisdom calls to her own wine-press, saying: *Come, eat of my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you.* There truly is wine from Sodom, and there is the wine which Wisdom mixes. And again: *The vine was brought over, that which was beloved in the fertile place, planted by God, being the chosen vine, Sorek, and marvelous.* Is there also a vine of the Egyptians, which God strikes, according as it is written: *He struck their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.* D
Consider, then, for me that all people are now figuratively capable of wine. And I name them...
I say, as the base man who is full of the wine of the vine of Sodom and the Egyptians, full of the wine of the enemies of Israel; but the holy man, and he who profits in virtues, is full of the wine of the vine of Sorek, of the wine about which it is written: *Thy cup that makes me drunk, how excellent it is!* And again, he is filled who is holy, since he has drunk from what Wisdom has mixed. Let this, then, be understood by me in accordance with vice and virtue, so that it may be observed that everyone is filled. But if one must see that because of vice and because of virtue, those who are filled—punishments for vice, but blessings and promises for virtue—let us demonstrate from the Holy Scriptures in what manner punishments and promises are, so to speak, called wine. Take the cup A of this unmixed wine, and you shall make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. Jeremiah says these things; and what does he infer? *And they shall drink, and they shall come, and they shall be maddened, and they shall fall.* It follows, then, that he has named punishments *unmixed wine* in this place; those who drink it are worthy of unmixed torments; but others drink wine, though not entirely unmixed, but in some part tempered: *For a cup is in the hand of the Lord of pure wine full of mixture, and he has inclined it from this into that, but the dregs thereof are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink of it.* If you wish to look toward the cup of blessings which the righteous drink, the testimony of Wisdom suffices, where it says: *Drink the wine which I have mixed for you*; yet see how the Savior also, ascending into the great upper room, spread and cleared, and keeping the Passover with his disciples, and granting them that cup, of which the Gospel says he mixed it, and he thus delivered it; Jesus, gladdening, pours out the cup for the disciples, and says: *Take and drink: This is my blood which is shed for you in remission of sins. Do this, as often as ye drink, in my remembrance.* And: *Amen I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth [of this fruit of the vine] until I drink it with you new in the kingdom of God.* You see the cup of punishments which we explained above, full of pure wine, B or is it another cup, which is mixed for you in compensation for the good things you have done, or for the evils? Understand for me those who have departed entirely from piety, and are turned in every way to the religion of the world, in that they live by chance and by sin, drinking the cup of pure wine, which Jeremiah brings forth: *but they were sinners, and are judged unworthy of the cup of the New Testament, and often do good deeds, frequently contrary things, drinking the cup of mixed wine. For God has inclined from this into that. What is it that is said: from this into that? I see two cups.* C Concerning the veil that is laid upon the face of those who do not turn toward the Lord, it has often been spoken by us; because of which veil, "if Moses is read," the sinner does not understand him; for "a veil lies upon his heart"; because of which veil, if the Old Testament is read, the hearer will not understand; because of which veil, also "the gospel is veiled to them that are perishing." We said, therefore, concerning the veil, that shame is the veil; for so long as we possess the works of shame, it is manifest that we possess the veil according to what is said somewhere in the forty-third Psalm: "And the shame of my face has covered me." I set forth that he who does not have the works of shame does not have a veil, such as Paul was, saying: "But we all with open face beholding the glory of the Lord are transformed." Paul, therefore, has an unveiled face; for he does not have the works of shame; he who is not as Paul is, has his face veiled. As, therefore, there it is said in the forty-third Psalm, "the shame of my face has covered me," in the same manner it is said here: "Our disgrace has covered us." So long as we perform the works of disgrace, we have a veil lying upon our heart. And there follows for those who dogmatize these things from the whole heart the removal of what is in our own power; for which reason also praise and blame and acceptable actions, and again, on the other hand, things worthy of blame. Which, if they are so, the things of the proclaimed judgment of God depart, and threats toward those who have sinned as about to be punished, and honors again toward those who have given themselves to the better things, and beatitudes; for nothing of these will any longer be happening reasonably. And if one were to see the consequences for himself upon what he dogmatizes, and faith will be vain, and the arrival of Christ achieving nothing, and the whole dispensation through the law and the prophets, and the labors of the apostles for the purpose of establishing the churches of God through Christ; unless perhaps, according to those who so dare, even Christ, having been born under the necessity of the movement of the stars by having assumed a genesis, has done and suffered everything, not because the God and Father of all granted him the paradoxical powers, but the stars. To which godless and impious doctrines there follows also this: that those who believe are said to believe in God while being led by the stars. D
If we wish to put off the veil that comes from dishonor, let us attain to the works of honor and understand that which was said by the Savior: "That all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father," and let us understand also that which was said by the Apostle: "Through breaking the law you dishonor God." The righteous man "as he honors the Father, so he honors the Son"; dishonor, when I dishonor the Son—that very act by which I dishonor the Father or the Son—becomes a veil upon my face, and I say: "And dishonor has covered us." Therefore, having understood the veil that is laid upon us from the works of shame, from the deeds of dishonor, let us remove the veil. It is in our power to have the veil removed, it is in no one else’s; for "whenever Moses returned to the Lord, the veil was removed." And we might inquire of them, for what reason did God, wishing for such a world, create it so that some men in it suffer the lot of women, in no way having become the cause of their own lasciviousness, while others have taken on the nature of wild beasts, because the motion of the universe has made them such, so that God has ordered the whole such that they surrender themselves to the most cruel and utterly inhuman acts, and to murders and piracies? And what need is there for us to speak of the things that happen among men and are sinned by them, being of ten thousand kinds, whom those who stand as proponents of these grand arguments absolve of every charge, while ascribing to God the cause of all things that are done evilly and worthily of blame? But if some of them, as if offering an apology for God, say that there is another who is good, having no part in the origin of these things, but ascribe all such things to the Creator; first, not even in this way will they be able to prove that He is just; for how could the father of so many evils, according to them, be reasonably thought of as just? And second, we must examine what they will say concerning themselves.
A Jerusalem, says God, I will fill with drunkenness, and I will scatter them, a man and his brother, and their fathers, and their sons in the same place. We shall understand these things in this way: God gathers the righteous, but he scatters the sinners. Therefore, when men were not moving from the east, God did not scatter them; but when they moved from the east and man said to his neighbor, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower, whose top shall reach to heaven," God says concerning these things, "Come, and let us go down and there confound their tongue." And everyone is confounded, and he is scattered to some place on the earth. And the people of Israel, while they were not sinning, were in Judea; but having sinned, they were afterwards scattered from the inhabited world and dispersed everywhere. B You should think of something of this kind concerning us all. There is a Church of the firstborn enrolled in the heavens, where Mount Sion is, and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The blessed ones shall be gathered there, so that they may be together. But even in this, the sinners are punished, that they may not be with one another. I know some in this life who, wishing to punish those who have harmed their kingdom, are accustomed to deport them to desert islands; and as a great punishment, they order that they should not endure the hardship of exile in one place, but that the wife should be exterminated to one part of the world, and the children to another; and the son here, and then the other elsewhere; so that not even in their calamity may they enjoy the consolation of the mother of the son, or the brother of the brother. Think of something of this kind concerning the unrighteous. You must taste something of a bitterness from the sinner who is being governed by God, so that being disciplined, you may be saved. C Just as you do not punish a servant or a son who is being chastised by you because you simply wish to torture him, but so that you may bring him back through his pains; so also God will discipline those who do not turn back by his word, and those who have not been healed, through the pains of lessons, since discipline involves it, according to that which is said: "With every pain and scourge you shall be disciplined, O Jerusalem." In order, therefore, that the disciplining pain may increase, those who are suffering are scattered from one another, so that this man and that man may not be together. For the intensity of the pain would be dissolved by the consolation of each one toward the other.
D But if one must add to the discourse another reason for the scattering, I shall present this as well. Evil men, when they are together, devise and increase evil things; just as the good, when they are with the good, take thought for good things and are gathered. And an evil counsel is divided and grows weak even among those who are like-minded, when the wicked are scattered from one another. For this reason, God manages that the base should not be with one another, perhaps even providing for them so that their wickedness may not increase together, but may be diminished, being dissolved. These things are for this reason: "I will scatter them, a man and his brother, and their fathers, and their sons in the same place, says the Lord; I will not relent, and I will not spare, and I will not have pity, so as to turn from their destruction."
A Those who belong to the heresies press upon such sayings, saying: "Do you see what the Creator is like, and the God of the prophets, who says, 'I will not spare, and I will not have pity from their destruction'? How can this one be good?" If I should take as an example B a judge who does not have pity when it is for the common good, I shall be able, through that example, to persuade them that, by sparing many, God does not spare the one; and I shall take as an example the art of medicine, showing that by sparing the whole body, it does not spare one single limb. For instance: Let the judge before us have this purpose—to produce peace and to establish for the people under him what is advantageous. Now let a murderer be brought forward, fair in appearance and handsome to look upon. Let his mother come forward, offering pitiful words to the judge that he might have mercy upon her old age; let the wife of this unworthy man plead for him that he might find mercy; let his children standing around beg for him. In these circumstances, what is advantageous to the community? Is it for this man to be pitied, or not to be pitied? If he is pitied, he will return to the same deeds; but if he is not pitied, he himself will die, but the community will be improved. C Thus, if God spares the sinner and shows him mercy, so as not to punish him, who then of the wicked will be restrained? And failing to be restrained from sins through the fear of punishments, will he not become worse? Such instances can also be seen occurring in the Churches. Someone has sinned and, after the sin, asks for communion. If he is quickly shown mercy, the community is harmed, and the sin of others increases. But if, with reasoning—not as though he were unmerciful or a cruel judge, but as one who provides for the individual, yet provides more for the many than for the one—he considers the damage that will occur to the community from the communion and the pardon of that person's sin, it is clear that he will cause the one to be cast out, so that he may save the many. Look also at the physician with me. If he is sparing D in cutting when he ought to cut, if he is sparing in cauterizing because of the pains that follow such remedies, in some way the disease increases and becomes worse. But if he approaches the cutting and the burning with more boldness, he heals because he did not show mercy, and by seeming not to have pity on the one who is being cauterized and cut. Thus also, God does not manage only one man, but He manages the whole world; He governs the things in heaven, the things on earth, everywhere. Therefore, He considers what is advantageous to the whole world and to all who exist, as far as is possible. He considers also what is advantageous to the one, yet not so that the advantage of the one becomes the ruin of the world. For this reason, eternal fire has been prepared, for this reason Gehenna has been made ready, and for this reason there is also outer darkness, which are necessary not only for the one being punished, but especially for the common good.
A 6. If, however, you wish to take the Scripture as a witness that sinners are punished for the instruction of others, even if these sinners themselves are beyond hope of cure, hear Solomon saying in the Proverbs: *When the pestilent man is flogged, the imprudent will become more clever* (Prov. XIX, 25). He did not say that the one being flogged would become more clever and wiser on account of his own chastisement, but he says that the imprudent man turns from foolishness to prudence on account of the floggings brought upon the pestilent one. For this is what is signified here by the name of "cleverness," and the imprudent man changes by seeing others being flogged. Therefore, it is advantageous for us—if indeed we are worthy of salvation—that others be punished for our utility. And just as the transgression of Israel was useful for the salvation of the Gentiles, so the punishment of some is useful for the salvation of others. And therefore the good and merciful God says: *I will not spare, and I will not have mercy from their destruction.*
7. But having circumscribed the one chapter, let us see what the following Scripture teaches us: *Hear and perceive with your ears, and do not be exalted, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains; and you shall wait for light, and there is the shadow of death, and they shall be placed into darkness. But if you will not hear secretly, your soul shall weep from the face of insult, and your eyes shall shed tears, because the flock of the Lord has been shattered* (Jer. XIII, 15-17). He wishes them to hear and to perceive with their ears, not being content with hearing alone, nor with the perception of their ears; for which reason he says: *Hear and perceive with your ears,* and, what is greater than these, *do not be exalted,* and the remaining things which follow. B What is it, therefore, to hear, and what is it to perceive with the ears? Let us consider this from the words themselves. To perceive with the ears is, as it seems to me, to hear with the ears what is being said. But the word that precedes, "hear," if it is said with a distinction from that precept which is introduced afterward, "perceive with your ears," commands that they should take into the mind and sense those things which are said. Yet this is not only in this place, but in all Scripture there are certain things both easy and prompt to understand, which as soon as they have been read, grant utility to those who read them. There are other things more secret and ineffable, and, so to speak, wrapped in certain obscurities. Therefore, of those things which lie hidden and require exposition, I think it is now said: *Hear;* but of those things which are advantageous to the hearer without the scruple of interpretation: *Perceive with your ears.* C Let us run through the whole of the Scriptures, and having become proven money-changers, let us say: this we must "hear," and this we must "perceive with our ears." Finally, when we have heard and perceived with our ears what is said, D he commands us: *And do not be exalted; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled* (Luke XIV, 11). And the Savior also, when saying: *Learn from me, because I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls* (Matt. XI, 29), teaches us the
way of not being puffed up. For with other human evils this sin is also very much within us, when we are being puffed up in a completely irrational manner, and over things which one should not be puffed up about at all; at other times, with some plausibility, we are puffed up over that which is reasonable, although it is not healthy to be puffed up even then.
B 8. I will take an example so that it might become clear. There are some who are puffed up because they are children of rulers, or because they are of the lineage of people with great secular positions. Such people, even though they are puffed up over matters that are indifferent by choice and in fact, do not have a reasonable plausibility for the puffed-up pride that is brought forward by them. There are those who are puffed up because they have the power to kill men; and they think themselves to be so exalted that they want to behead men. The glory of such people is in their shame. And others are puffed up over riches, not the true ones, but those that are of the earth below. And others are puffed up, if I may say so, over having a fine house or many fields. None of these are things one should be puffed up over. And the plausibility that exists regarding being puffed up occurs when a wise man is puffed up, and is conscious within himself that already from ten years of age he kept himself from sexual acts, or that from childhood he has remained chaste. And again, another is puffed up, because he bore chains for Christ. Plausibility is what is being hinted at here, that it is reasonable to be puffed up. But even in this case, it is not reasonable to be puffed up. Paul had something to be puffed up about because of his visions, because of his sights, and because of his signs and wonders, because of the labors which he performed for Christ, because of the churches which he ambitiously cared for, where Christ had not been named, having established the Church. All these were the material of his puffing up, if one might call it that, and he had a plausibility in being puffed up, in that it seemed to some that it was right for him to be puffed up. C But nevertheless, since it is not without danger even for such people to be puffed up, the kind Father, who granted him those visions and sights, also in the portion of gifts gave him the angel of Satan, that he might buffet him, so that he might not be puffed up; and concerning this he besought the Lord three times, that the angel of Satan might depart from his [d] (which in accordance with his dispensation for him, was given so that he might not be puffed up), and the Lord answered Paul (for Paul was worthy of the Lord’s reply), and said to him: *My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness* (II Cor. XII, 9). For he is not to be puffed up over anything; for it is followed by this: *Before destruction the heart of a man is exalted, and before glory it is humbled* (Prov. XVIII, 12). These things are for saying: *Hear, and be not puffed up, because the Lord has spoken*.
For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I will call thee by thy name, and I will accept thee* (Isa. XLV, 4). For it is clearly shown even by these things that for the sake of the people whom Cyrus benefited, God granted him, who did not know the religion according to the Hebrews, to rule over many nations; and it is possible to learn these things even from the Greeks who have written about the prophesied Cyrus. Furthermore, in Daniel as well, while the Babylonians were ruling then, the kingdoms to come after him are shown to Nebuchadnezzar. They are shown through the image: the Babylonian rule being named gold, that of the Persians silver, that of the Macedonians bronze, and that of the Romans iron. And again, in the same prophet, things concerning Darius and Alexander and the four successors of Alexander the Macedonian king, and Ptolemy who ruled Egypt and was called Lagus, are prophesied thus: *And behold, a he-goat came from the west upon the face of the whole earth; and there was a horn between the eyes of the goat. And it came even unto the ram that had the horns, which I had seen standing before the Ulai, and it ran at him in the fury of its power.
And I saw him reach unto the ram, and he was moved with rage against him, and he struck the ram, and broke both his horns; and there was no strength in the ram to stand before him; and he cast him down to the ground, and trampled upon him, and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. And the he-goat of the goats magnified himself exceedingly; and when he had become strong, his great horn was broken, and there came up other four horns under it toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth one strong horn, and he grew exceeding great, toward the south and toward the west.» What need is there to mention the prophecies concerning Christ, such as his place of birth, Bethlehem, and the place of his upbringing, Nazara, and his flight into Egypt, and the miracles that he performed, and in what manner he was betrayed by Judas, who had been called to the apostleship? For all these things are signs of the foreknowledge of God. But the Savior himself also says: «When you behold Jerusalem being encircled by armies, then you shall know that her desolation has drawn near.» For he foretold the end result that subsequently came to pass regarding the razing of Jerusalem.
A Since it has been demonstrated to us, therefore, that God is a foreknower—and not inappropriately, so that we may explain how the stars serve as signs—it must be understood that the stars have been ordered to move in such a way that the so-called wandering stars travel in opposition to the fixed stars, so that from the configuration of all the stars, both those pertaining to the individual and those of a general nature, observers might gain knowledge. Yet it is not men who do this—for the ability to apprehend, in accordance with truth, the things pertaining to the actions and experiences of every individual from the movement of the stars is far too great a task for man—but rather the Powers, which it is necessary to know by reason of these many matters, as we shall endeavor to show in what follows. B Humans, however, having become puffed up from certain observations, or perhaps from the teachings of angels who had transgressed their own proper order and, for the ruin of our race, had instructed them in some of these things, supposed that those objects from which they think they receive signs are the very causes of the things which the text says they signify. Regarding these things themselves, we shall straightway provide a more careful, albeit concise, discussion to the best of our ability. Therefore, these are the problems that lie before us:
A How, when God has had foreknowledge from eternity concerning the things deemed to be done by each person, our free will remains intact; B and in what manner the stars are not the causes of things in human life, but are only signs; C and that human beings cannot possess exact knowledge regarding these matters, but the signs are set forth for powers superior to those of men; D and finally, a fourth point: what is the reason for God having created the signs for the knowledge of these powers?
Let us, then, examine the first point, regarding which certain of the Greeks—fearing that things are necessitated and that our free will could not possibly be preserved if God foreknows the future—have dared to adopt an impious doctrine rather than accept that which they call glorious concerning God, yet which destroys our free will and, consequently, praise and blame, as well as the praiseworthiness of virtues and the blameworthiness of vices.
thee, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall turn aside to ask for peace to thee?” Thou hast turned away from me, saith the Lord. A Thou goest backward, and I will stretch out my hand over thee, and I will destroy thee, and I will no longer allow thee, and I will scatter them in dispersion. I said: “My sons are finished; want has taken hold.” I will take an example: if some enemy and rebel against the king who is judged by this man is taken away from all mercy; that is, while he is condemned, even if someone starts to offend the one condemning, it is not permitted for such a person to show mercy, lest he seem to be displeased at the king who condemned him. If you have understood this, look at the one condemned B by God for his many sins, and see how he is judged by the innumerable angels who preside over human generation as someone not worthy of even the slightest mercy. Each of the angels, looking at the one who condemned, and seeing that it is God who has condemned, that it is the Creator who is the adversary, and that the sin is such that even the good God, so to speak, is compelled to bring judgment against the one who has sinned, each of the spectators does not spare him, does not pity him, does not turn away, nor does he pray for peace for him. Jerusalem, therefore, even in her former wickedness, added this, that she crucified my Lord Jesus, and arose in such a great crime, that the Savior said C about her: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not? Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” Therefore it is left and until 206 the present time is destitute. The angels, indeed, who always helped her, and for whom the law of Moses given to her was arranged by angels in the hand of the Mediator, deserted her, and said: “Oppressed by many sins, she killed Jesus, and laid hands on our Lord.” When she sinned in lesser matters, we could pray for her, we could beseech the Lord, we could spare her: but this D is a matter of pity! If a man has sinned against a man, he will be prayed for; but if a man has sinned against God, who will pray for him? Jerusalem has committed a great wickedness, a great crime; therefore she is in agitation; and it is said to her: “We do not sorrow over Jerusalem, and over her calamities, and over all her people. For salvation has been made for us to provoke them to emulation.” And because she has so sinned that it is said by the voice of the Lord: “Who shall pity thee, O Jerusalem? And who shall sorrow over thee?” towards those transgressions: our salvation has become a reality, to provoke them to emulation. And that transgression, these will seem to spring up of their own accord; but the truth is that they will not spring up of themselves after their mention, but God will increase them: “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” And if anyone has been able to understand the scriptures, he has done the ploughing, and having done the ploughing, he has sown not among thorns.
These seeds are cared for by God so that the ears of corn should not appear suddenly, but as in the Gospel according to Mark, “first the blade, then the ear,” and then it becomes ready “for the harvest.” When it is ready for the harvest, those who are sent out for the harvest will come; when it is ready for the harvest, they will come to those of whom the Word says: “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest already.” He says to us, therefore: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.” If, however, before you cleanse your soul, you still having thorns, you approach someone who is either able or considered or claims to be a teacher, and you ask for teachings and spiritual seeds, you transgress the commandment that says: “Sow not among thorns.” And following this, it is said: “Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart.” “Circumcise yourselves to your God”: the addition “to your God” is necessary, and you will understand it from the tangible example. People are circumcised—I speak of the tangible context—not only those of the circumcision according to the Law of Moses, but also many others.
forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before, let us thus present ourselves. The righteous man reaches forward to the things before, and forgets the things behind. It is clear that the contrary is true for the one who dwells on the things behind, who remembers them and does not reach out to the things before; for the one who remembers the things behind disobeys the Lord, who teaches and says: "Let him not turn back to take his garment." He disobeys the Lord, who says: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." And it is written in the Law that the angels said to Lot when he was leaving Sodom: A "Do not look back, and do not stand in all the region: flee to the mountain, that you not be caught." And you have this understanding worthy of the Spirit of God: Do not, He says, look back, that is, do not reach toward the things behind. You have dismissed Sodom, do not return to Sodom. You have dismissed vice and sins, do not return to them. Do not stand in all the region. Even if you hold the Lord’s command, of whom it is said: "Do not look back," it is not enough for your salvation, unless you observe what follows: "Do not stand in all the region"; for it is not expedient for one who has started to make progress that he should stand in the region of the Sodomites. And if you have departed from Sodom 208 and are departing from the region of Satan, and you are beginning to be rid of punishments, it is expedient that you be saved in the mountain; "flee to the mountain lest you be caught." If you wish not to be caught in the ruin of the Sodomites, do not look back, do not stand in their region, and do not proceed to other places, but when you have departed from there, ascend to the mountain in which alone there is salvation, the name of Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and empire for ever and ever. B Amen.
For there is the only place to be saved. And the mountain is the Lord Jesus, to whom is the glory and the power for ever. Amen.
HOMILY XIV
(According to Jerome XI.)From the place where it is written: "Woe is me, mother, up to the place where it says: "If you will return, I will restore you."
By the same interpreter.
Physicians of bodies, attending upon the sick, and wishing according to the discipline of their art to cure those who are established in infirmities, see sad matters, C and in the misfortunes of others they are consumed by their own grief: for their conversation is always in groaning, always in cares; they never have a share in joys; they are with the wounded, with those whose flesh is weakened by various ailments, who are burning with fevers, who are tortured with pain, and persist in constant service. And if any of them wishes to fulfill the medicine, he does not grow indignant, nor does he forget the purpose of his art, even when he is mentioned in speech as we have done here. Therefore, we said in the beginning that the prophet is a kind of physician of souls, and always D the priests of the Egyptians circumcise themselves for the sake of idols, but that circumcision is a circumcision for idols and it is not a circumcision performed "unto God"; but that of the Jews perhaps, and certainly at that time, was performed "unto God." If, therefore, the Word says: "Be circumcised unto your God," having understood the plain meaning, pass on also to the figurative sense, so that you may find how of those who are circumcised figuratively—so that some of them might perhaps say: "We are the circumcision"—some are circumcised unto God, but others are indeed circumcised, yet not unto God. There are also other words besides the word of truth, besides the word of the Church; they circumcise their characters and their hearts, so that those who philosophize might say they are instructing, those who are from the heresies are instructing, and a circumcision comes to pass for them, but it is a circumcision indeed, yet not unto God; for circumcision by a false word comes to pass among them; but when you are in communion according to the ecclesiastical rule and according to the intention of sound doctrine, you have not only been circumcised, but you have been circumcised "unto God." "Be circumcised," therefore, "unto your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart." Who does not pass over these things as clear? Therefore, there is a certain foreskin of the heart, and this must be circumcised.
He who examines the word precisely will investigate by inquiring into the place: foreskin is born with us, whereas circumcision is acquired; and circumcision removes that which has come from birth. If, therefore, the word commands that the "foreskin of the heart" be removed, there must be something innate to the heart which it calls a foreskin, which must be removed in order for someone to be circumcised in the "foreskin of the heart." If someone understands the phrase "we were by nature children of wrath, even as others," if someone understands the "body of humility" in which we were born, if someone understands, "No one is free from stain, not even if his life has been but a single day; his months are numbered," he will see in what manner we were born with impurity and the foreskin of our hearts.
In order that this may be spoken of according to a simpler example, one capable of leading you to see "the foreskin of the heart," I shall propose that in our first age, false opinions arise in the soul; for it is not possible that a human being should receive true and pure doctrines from the beginning. Now the divine Word has provided for history and for Scripture according to the literal sense, in order that it might nourish him who was born according to the flesh to Abraham, first in the matters according to the flesh, so that "he who is from the bondwoman" might be first, to the end that after him might be born "he of the freewoman" and "he given through the promise." If this is understood as to why it was accepted, the foreskin of the heart, which comes to be before the circumcision, may be understood. Therefore, we have need to take up the Word that cleanses the doctrines and removes everything that arises among us according to false opinion. For thus, indeed, the foreknowledge of the good that is to be might become a kind of hindrance. At any rate, God, rightfully ordering all things in the world, has reasonably blinded us also toward things future. For the knowledge of these would have released us from struggling against wickedness, but would have crushed us, having deemed it to be already grasped, so that we, not having wrestled against sin, would more quickly have become subject to it. At the same time, it also became a struggle against one becoming fine and good, that the foreknowledge should have come to a certain person that he will certainly be good. For in those matters wherein we have need of intensity and of greater tension in order to become fine and good, the foreknowledge, having been anticipated, that one will certainly be fine and good, weakens the exercise. Wherefore, it is beneficially that we do not know whether we shall be good or whether we shall be evil. Since we have said that God has blinded us toward the future, see if we are able, from a passage in Exodus that is called into question, to explain it thus: "Who has made the slow of hearing and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? Is it not I, the Lord God?" So that He might have made the same man blind and seeing: seeing indeed the things present, but blind toward the things future.
This then is the putting away of the foreskin of our hearts. For if the heart is that which possesses our ruling faculty, where thoughts reside, from whence "evil thoughts proceed," he who removes evil thoughts removes "the foreskin of the heart," and he who lays aside false doctrine has circumcised "the foreskin of his heart" and becomes "a man of Judah" and a "dweller in Jerusalem," being purely circumcised. But if anyone does not put away "the foreskin of his heart," let us see what the Word threatens him with: "Lest," he says, "my wrath go forth like fire and be kindled, and there be none to quench it." The wrath of the Lord goes forth therefore like fire upon those who have not been circumcised unto God, upon those who have not put away "the foreskin of their heart," "and there shall be none to quench it because of the wickedness of your doings." That fire has for its fuel the wickedness of our doings; where there is no wickedness of doings, the fire has nothing to feed upon. And that the fuel of that fire is the wickedness of our doings, hear the prophet saying: "and there shall be none to quench it because of the wickedness of your doings." For as for what is said concerning the deaf and the blind, it is not the time to recount it now.
However, that many of the things which are in our power are caused by many things which are not in our power, we also will admit. Yet if the latter—that is, the things not in our power—did not exist, some of those things which are in our power would not be performed; yet some of those things which are in our power are performed consequent to those things which happened before and are not in our power, though it is possible, given the same preceding events, to have done other things than those we did. But if anyone seeks for what is in our power to be absolutely stripped of the whole, so that we do not choose these things because of those things that have happened to us, he has forgotten that he is a part of the world and is contained within the communion of men and the whole that encompasses him.
Moderately then, as in an epitome, I think it has been demonstrated that the foreknowledge of God is not strictly causative of the things foreknown. More on the same subject may be found in the second volume of the work *Against Celsus* in the following terms. Celsus thinks that for this reason things happen, because they were foretold by some foreknowledge, since it was foretold;
we, however, not admitting this, say that the one who utters the prophecy is not the cause of what is to come, even though he foretold that it would happen, but that the thing which is to come, which would come to pass even if it were not prophesied, has provided the cause for the one who has foreknowledge to foretell it. And indeed, this whole matter exists in the foreknowledge of the one who prophesies it; for when a thing is able to happen, and is also able not to happen, one of those two will occur. And we do not say that the one who has foreknowledge, by taking away the possibility of its happening or not happening, says, as it were, something like this: "This will absolutely happen, and it is impossible for it to happen otherwise." And this kind of analysis extends to all foreknowledge concerning that which is up to us, whether according to the divine Scriptures or according to the histories of the Greeks. Furthermore, the so-called "idle argument" among the dialecticians, which is a sophism, will not be a sophism as far as Celsus is concerned, but according to sound reasoning, it is a sophism. But in order for this to be understood, I shall use from Scripture the prophecies concerning Judas or the foreknowledge of our Savior regarding him as one who would betray Him; and from the Greek histories, I shall use the oracle given to Laius, granting for the present that it is true, since it does not trouble the argument.
"Declare in Judah, and let it be heard in Jerusalem: say, [declare,] sound the trumpet in the land, and cry aloud." These things, he says, are the things to be declared, "say in Judah," to those from the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Christ, "for it is manifest that from Judah our Savior has sprung." "Sound the trumpet in the land": the sublime word, which stirs up the listener, which prepares him "for the war" against the passions, "for the war" against the workings of the adversaries, which prepares him for the heavenly "feasts"—for it is spoken for both these things—a trumpet is employed. In the book of Numbers such a word is a trumpet; for example, the Word commands me, and if anyone else—for it is given to whoever wills it and seeks the meaning of the Scriptures—commands us to make "trumpets of hammered silver." Thus says the Word: "Sound the trumpet in the land, and cry aloud: say, Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the walled cities." The Word of God does not wish us to enter into an unwalled city, but into one that is walled. "The Church of the living God" is walled by "the truth" of the Word; for this is the wall, as it is set down in the seventeenth Psalm, that God also is a "wall."
A "Take refuge and flee to Sion," you who are outside of Sion; "take refuge, flee to Sion; hasten, do not stand still." You who are in progress, hasten to the Watchtower, "for I bring evil from the north, and a great destruction." Since evils are being brought "from the north"—the north of the adversary, as has often been said—whoever is found not having hastened or entered "into the walled cities," not having made himself "in the churches of God," but standing outside, he, having been seized by the enemies, shall be destroyed.
And who is the enemy? Let us see from the following in what manner it is said: "A lion has come up from his lair, destroying nations, he has set out." This is the enemy whom we must flee.
Therefore, concerning Judas, it is said in the one hundred and eighth Psalm in the person of the Savior, the beginning of which is: "O God, do not keep silence at my praise; for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful have been opened against me." And if you observe the things said in the psalm, you will find that, just as it was foreknown that he would betray the Savior, so he was also the cause of the betrayal and worthy of the curses mentioned in the prophecy because of his malice. For let him suffer these things, for "Because," it says, "he did not remember to show mercy, but pursued the poor and needy man." Therefore, he was able to remember to show mercy and not pursue him whom he pursued; but being able, he did not do so, but betrayed him; so that he is worthy of the curses pronounced against him in the prophecy.
And we shall also use the saying against the Greeks in this manner, in relation to Laius, whether the tragic poet recorded it in these very words or something equivalent to them. For it is said to him by one who truly knew the things that were to come: Do not sow the furrow of children against the will of the gods; For if you beget a child, he who begot him shall kill you, And your whole house shall pass away through blood.
And in this, therefore, it is clearly shown that it was possible for Laius not to sow the furrow of children;
A taking the form of a servant, he now also speaks: *My strength has failed in those who curse me.*
10. Let us see, moreover, if, while the Word Himself grants us understanding, we can also say something clearer than what has been spoken regarding the passage: *My strength has failed in those who curse me.* The *true light* was that *which enlightens every man coming into the world*. And whoever is rational participates in the true light. Now, every man is rational. Since, therefore, all men are rational, in some the rational virtue increases, while in others it diminishes. If you see a soul full of vices and a slave to perturbations, you will see how the virtue of the Word fails in it; but if you see a holy and just soul, you will see that the virtue of God makes progress and grows in it every day: and that which is written concerning Jesus is applied to it. For not only did Jesus increase *in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men*, but He also increases in wisdom, age, and grace with God and men in those who individually receive the progress of wisdom, age, and grace. The Word, therefore, the Son of God, who was God the Word, who dwells in the one saying, "Woe is me, my mother," and the rest, speaks according to the nature of His majesty: *My strength has failed in those who curse me.* If anyone curses the Word, this person immediately receives retribution for cursing the Word, for blaming the teaching of Jesus. For the strength of Jesus fails in such a person, and there is no strength of the Word in him; just as, conversely, if you bless Jesus and receive Him, His strength suffers the opposite of what it suffered in those who curse Him; for just as it failed in those who curse, so here it increases in those who bless. B C
11. *Let it be, O Lord, that they be directed, if I have not stood by you in the time of their evils.* What is this which is said: *Let it be, O Lord*? Let him who is able understand this from the discourse itself. That is, *O Lord, let them be directed*—those who were cursing me—*let the virtue which was failing in them be made (fiat) in them*, when, having changed to repentance after the curses with which they were persecuting me, they have begun to walk in the right way. *Let it be, O Lord, that they be directed, if I have not stood by you.* He gives the reason why he asks for direction and virtue for those who were cursing him, saying: *If I have not stood by you in the time of their evils.* He stood by the Father as a propitiation for our sins, and he interceded for them at the very time of our evils; for he did not stand by after the time of our affliction, but *while we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us*. *If I have not stood by you in the time of their evils, and in the time of their tribulation, let the enemy rise up: I have stood by you for them.* But who is our enemy, if not the Devil, who was afflicting us and pressing us down with the yoke of servitude? Against him the Savior stood by the Father, and, delivering us from captivity, D our, and he pleaded for our captivity, so that we might be redeemed and rescued from…
the enemy. A Let the Savior, or indeed the prophet, have said these things. For the prophet is also able to say such things, and to have prayed for the people in the time of their troubles.
B To these things, what does God reply to the people accused by the prophet or by Christ? And he says these things to them: *Iron and a bronze covering is your strength.* Hard, unyielding, not driven, like something sharp and dividing, your strength, not being a strength for good. *And I will give your treasures for plunder, as an exchange for all your sins.* What treasures of those who sin does God give for plunder, and give them as an exchange for all their sins? Is it, perchance, those stored up for them on earth? For every man gathers treasure: if he is base, on earth; but if he is noble, in heaven, as we were taught by the Gospel. Or is he saying to that people that, "Because of your sins, I am about to give your treasures for plunder"? Now, one of the treasures was Jeremiah; another treasure was Isaiah; a treasure was also Moses. God took these treasures away from that people; and through Christ who said: *The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation producing its fruits* (Matt. xxi, 43), he bestowed them upon us. "I will give, therefore, because of your sins, your treasures for plunder." And the Lord gave the treasures of that people to us; for they were first entrusted with the oracles of God; then, after them, we. We were entrusted, the oracles of God having been taken from them and given to us. And we say that, *The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation producing its fruits*, to have been spoken by the Savior and to have been fulfilled; not because Scripture was taken away from them, but now they (2) do not have the law and the prophets, so as to perceive the mind within them; for they do have the books. But how was the kingdom of God taken away from them? The mind of the Scriptures was taken away from them; no longer is the legal or prophetic narrative preserved among them, but they are reading and C not understanding; for through the coming of Christ, that which was said has been fulfilled: *Say to this people: By hearing you shall hear, and you shall not understand, and seeing you shall see, and you shall not perceive; for the heart of this people has grown fat.* There has also been fulfilled that which was said by Isaiah (Isa. iii, 1-2), that: *The Lord will take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the mighty man and the mighty woman, the giant and the warrior man, the judge and the prophet, and the guesser, and the wise architect, and the understanding hearer.* All these things God took away from them, and gave the Gospel to us who are from the Gentiles; these things because of the [words], *And I will give your treasures for plunder, as an exchange for all your sins, and in all your borders.* D As if saying because of your sins, which have reached to all your borders. For there is no border of that people which has not been filled with its sins; nor could all its borders not be filled with sins, which, as much as it was in its power, killed justice—if Christ is justice—killed wisdom—if Christ is wisdom—killed...
truth—if Christ is truth. For by having condemned the Son of God to death, they cast away and lost all these things. And my Lord Jesus, having risen from the dead, no longer appeared to those who killed him; for we do not find in history that he appeared to those who killed him, but he appeared risen from the dead only to those who believed. B
15. *And I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you did not know.* The people of the Jews served their enemies and were scattered into a land which they did not know. *Because a fire has been kindled in my wrath, it will burn upon you.* After these things which we have set forth, and the words of warning spoken to the people, he who had prayed above completes his prayer, and joins to the preceding things that which follows: *You have known, O Lord, remember me, and visit me; make me innocent from those who are persecuting me, not in patience.* And the prophet can say this, having suffered persecution from those whom he rebuked, who did not wish to hear the truth, for he became an enemy to them by speaking the truth. But the Savior could also say these things, who suffered persecution from the people even to the cross, not in patience. What is this which he says: *Not in patience*? It is this: "You were always long-suffering in patience toward this sinning people, but because they have raised their rashness against me through this, do not be long-suffering." And truly God was not patient; for if you consider the times of the Lord’s passion and the ruin of Jerusalem, when it was overturned, you will see how God did not continue to use patience with them. For from the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar up to the subversion of the temple of God (because it was fitting that some small amount of time intervene), he left them in patience, on account of those who were to believe through the signs and wonders of the apostles. C
14. *Know how I have accepted reproach on your behalf from those who despise your words.* It is possible that the prophet says this, being treated with contempt by the sinful people concerning those things which he was preaching; for he says elsewhere: *I have spent my days in mockery.* Therefore, he suffers reproach from those who despise the words of God, and he prays to have the help of God, saying: *Know how I have accepted reproach on your behalf from those who despise your words.* The prophet is speaking, and being treated with contempt by sinners D because of what he was saying, being despised; for he says: *I have continued to be mocked.* Therefore, he was being reproached by those who despised the words spoken through him by God; and he prays that, because he was reproached, he might be helped by God, saying, *Know how I have accepted...*
your reproach because of those who despise your words.* A *Consummate them.* Perhaps a prophet can say this, but it is more fitting for the Savior, after whose passion the consummation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish people took place. Since the prophets suffered much on account of their mission of the Word and the rebukes from God which they brought to the people, it is necessary to remind the listeners of their life, their promises, and our own intention, so that, if we wish to attain rest with the prophets, we may strive to do their works as far as our strength allows.
What I mean is of this sort: we frequently say in our prayers, "Almighty God, give us a share with the prophets; give us a share with the apostles of your Christ, that we may be found following in the footsteps of your Only-begotten." When we say these things, we do not grasp what we are asking; for in effect we are saying this: "Make us to be hated just as the prophets were hated, and grant us words such as those for which we might suffer persecution; grant that we might fall into the same calamities that the apostles endured." Indeed, to say, "Give me a share with the prophets," while unwilling to suffer what the prophets suffered, is the most unjust thing of all. To say, "Give me a share with the apostles," while unwilling to speak truthfully from the affection of Paul—*in labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often* B and all the rest—is most inequitable.
If, therefore, you wish to be with the prophets, look at the lives of the prophets, since it was from their rebuking, their reproving, and their castigating that they were judged, condemned, and sentenced. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the edge of the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandering in deserts and in mountains and in caves and in holes of the earth. What is it, then, so paradoxical if someone, wishing to emulate the prophetic life—rebuking and reproving the sinner—is slandered, hated, and plotted against? So it must also be in the present time in the Church of God. Someone has been found guilty because, while sitting [in his position], he was doing this or that. There had to be ecclesiastical justice, C and it has taken place. The one entrusted with the work has done what he was required to do; that same person goes around speaking evil of the one who defended the truth. But let us do only this: let us not offer our ears to those who, because they have been cast out, speak evil of the one who cast them out or of the one who was of the same mind. For even when injustice is rebuked and justice has been done, the wondrous apostles, while suffering countless insults for the sake of the truth, say: *Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in anxieties for Christ’s sake.* D It is fitting to labor only for this: that we endure insult for no other cause than for Christ, and that the cause of our necessity be Christ. Let us desire that, having suffered reviling, we realize that we are reviled for the sake of the truth.
and intercede for those written in the scriptures, that all things may occur according to the Word of God, and that for this we are reviled. And we all, as much as we are able, let us hasten toward the prophetic life, toward the apostolic life, not fleeing from the toil of that athletic struggle, for the athlete, if he flees from the difficulty of the struggle, will not be crowned with joy, nor will he attain the glory of praise.
A 45. *And your word was to me for joy.* He says not: "It was," but "It will be," because in the present time, prisons, exile, insults, and labors are allotted to me; but the end of all these things is joy. *And your word was to me for joy, and for the rejoicing of my heart, for your name is called upon me, O Lord God Almighty.* Even if Christ says this, it is not unreasonable; for the name of the Father is called upon Him. *I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers.* If he saw that the assembly of the prophets was not of those of concern, but of those mocking, he used to flee from it. Whence it is necessary to know the differences between assemblies, of the concerned and of the mocking. This assembly of ours is a concerned one, if it seeks after all things with ecclesiastical diligence, if the word is with discipline, if life is concerned; it is business with caution, it is an assembly, not of mockers, but of the concerned. But if it abandons the study of religion and wastes time in the mocks of this world, which come from wickedness, it is an assembly of mockers. Therefore, it says: *I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, and I feared from the face of your hand.* Two things were proposed: B either to sit in the assembly of mockers, and to offend you, O God, and not to please You, or to rise from the assembly of mockers, and to do those things which were pleasing to You. I chose rather to rise from the assembly of mockers, and to be a friend to You, than by doing the contrary, to be numbered among those who are enemies. *I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, but I feared from the face of your hand.* And our Savior, not sitting in the assembly of the mockers, but rising, teaching us, said: *Your house is left to you desolate.* He left the divine assembly of the Jews, and another assembly He gathered for Himself from the nations.
46. *I sat alone.* And the words here build up those who hear. When the multitude of those who sin, C and who do not sustain the just man to live piously, exists, then it is necessary to flee the congregation of them, and to imitate the prophet who laments miserably: *Lord, they have killed your prophets, and have digged down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.* But if we wish to accept something sacred in that saying: *I sat alone,* perhaps we shall find one worthy of interpretation by the Holy Spirit. When we imitate the life of the multitude, neither is our conversation better than the people, nor is our contempt for the wickedness of men judged by God D as known, that I am not reviled for any other reason than for Christ, and as one who has come into necessities, Christ is the cause. I would that, with the rest, it be known that the pretext for the reviling is naught else than that I defend the truth, and intercede for those things written, so that in accordance with the Word, all things may occur, and that for this I am reviled. And we all, as much as we are able, let us hasten toward the prophetic life, toward the apostolic life, not fleeing from the toil of that athletic struggle, for the athlete, if he flees from the difficulty of the struggle, will not be crowned with joy, nor will he attain the glory of praise.
45. *And your word was to me for joy.* He says not: "It was," but "It will be," for indeed in the present time my word is prisons, judgements, deeds, for insults, for toils, but the end of these things is joy. And *your word is for me for joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for your name is called upon me, O Lord God Almighty.* And if Christ says, the name of the Father is called upon Him. *I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers.* If I saw that the council of the prophets was not of those laboring, but of those mocking, I fled rather the gathering, than hastened toward the gathering of those mocking. Therefore it is necessary to know the difference between the assembly of those mocking, and those laboring. This assembly is concerned, and does everything with diligence, and with concerned worth, and according to what is said, concern is the word, concern is the life, and in every way the assembly is not of mockers, but of those laboring. But when the assembly abandons the concern for necessary things, and idles with the mocks of this world and with the mocks that arise from wickedness, it becomes an assembly of mockers. By saying this: *I did not sit in the assembly of those mocking, but I feared from the face of your hand.* With two things proposed, either to sit in the assembly of the mockers, and to offend God and not please Him, or to arise from the assembly of the mockers, and to do those things which were pleasing to You, I chose rather to arise from the assembly of the mockers, and to be a friend to You, than by doing the contrary to become an enemy to blessedness! I did not sit in the assembly of those mocking, but I feared from the face of your hand. And our Savior did not sit in the assembly of those mocking. And this is the sign of the Savior arising from the assembly of those mocking, the saying to it: *Your house is left to you desolate.* For the Word of God left the assembly of the Jews, and another assembly He gathered for Himself from the nations.
46. *I sat alone.* And the words here build up. When the multitude of sinners is present, and does not bear the one living justly, then it is nothing strange for the one fleeing the assembly of wickedness to imitate the one saying: *Elias: Lord, they have killed your prophets, and have digged down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek to take my life.* Perhaps, even if you examine it more deeply, *I sat alone*, you will find some one worthy of the depth of the prophetic. "When you imitate the life of the many, so that you are separated from them, and better and more excellent than the many, you are able to say, *I sat alone*, but..."
when my life becomes difficult to imitate, so that no one is comparable to me in my character, in my life, in my deeds, in my wisdom, then I am able to say, *I sat alone* in relation to the many, and I have no one to imitate me." A *I sat alone.* Is it permitted, then, even for one who is not a presbyter, or a bishop, or a deacon, or dignified by any ecclesiastical honor, if he lives well, to say this: *I sat alone, because I am full of bitterness?* If the path is narrow and constrained that leads to life, you must be satisfied to be filled with bitterness in this life; you can enjoy nothing sweet. Or do you not know that the feast takes place with bitter herbs? For "the festival" he says, "must be eaten with bitter herbs." What is the meaning of the Word speaking, that the one who feasts to God must eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs? Consider this. The unleavened bread has been explained; but the consequence of the interpretation of the bitter herbs must also be related, and be close to the apostolic account. The Apostle related the unleavened bread by saying, "We celebrate the festival not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." It is necessary to provide the account of the bitter herbs in a way that follows the unleavened bread being sincerity and truth. You possess sincerity and truth, and bitterness will accompany you, and you will eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth with bitter herbs; just as Paul, since he ate the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, ate also the bitter herbs, B saying, "Have I become your enemy by telling the truth?" How did he eat bitter herbs when he was beaten, and in toil, and in sleeplessness, and in hunger and thirst, often, apart from the hardships he suffered? If these were not truth with bitterness—"You shall eat the unleavened bread with bitter herbs"—he did not say, "You shall eat the unleavened bread with bitter herbs, and you will be filled, just as it is said of the others: 'You shall eat and you will be satisfied.'" The prophet does not retract, saying he did not eat the bitter herbs, but: "I was filled with bitterness," as much as possible partaking of bitter things, so that he might partake of the most perfect bitter herbs.
"That those who persecute me may be put to shame." He had many affairs, and suffered from those who wished to hear the truth, and yet they did not wish to hear it. It is possible here in this age, because the kingdom of God is not of this age, C but of that which is more excellent, as the Savior says: "If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would struggle so that I would not be handed over to the Jews," and they would not be comforted. D Many things was Jeremiah suffered at the hands of those who did not wish to hear the truth, and they were stronger in this age, because the kingdom of God is not of this world, but of another region of the living, as the Savior says: If this were my kingdom of this world, my servants would struggle so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; and they, for the sake of, say, telling of this person, that he will suffer this and will die having fallen among robbers and having been killed, they say that he is able to receive this from his own nativity, even if it happens that he has many brothers, and from the nativity of each one of them. For they think that the nativity of each one contains a brother who is going to be killed by robbers, and likewise that of his father and mother, and of his spouse, and of his children, and of his servants, and of his dearest ones, and perhaps even that of the killers themselves. How, therefore, is it possible for one encompassed by so many nativities—if this were to be granted to them—to be shaped by the configuration of the stars of this nativity more than those? For it is also implausible to claim that the configuration in the nativity of this person himself has brought these things about, but that the one in the nativity of those others has not brought it about, but only signified it; for it is foolish to say that the nativity of all contained in each case the power for this person to be killed, so that in fifty nativities, for the sake of argument, it is contained that this person should be killed.
I do not know how they will be able to sustain the claim that the formation of nearly all those in Judea at birth is such that they receive circumcision on the eighth day, having their extremities mutilated, suffering from wounds and inflammation, and requiring physicians at the very entrance into life, while the formation of those among the Ishmaelites in Arabia is such that all are circumcised at thirteen years of age—for this is what is recorded about them—and again that some among these Ethiopians have the caps of their knees removed, and the Amazons one of their breasts. For how do the stars bring these things about for these nations? I believe that if we were to pay attention, we would not be able to state anything true about them, not even to the point of setting it forth. With so many predictive methods being circulated, I do not know how men have drifted away from saying that augury and the art of sacrifice do not contain the causing factor but only provide a sign, while holding this to be true for astrology, but not for the calculation of nativities.
Since, then, everything comes to us from providence so that we might be completed and perfected, yet we do not accept the things of providence that draw us toward perfection, it may be said by the one who understands concerning God: "O Lord, You have finished them, and they have refused to receive instruction. They have made their faces harder than a rock." You will understand this also from more bodily things. Of those who sin, some, when they hear words of rebuke for their sin, blush and sink down and fall under the weight of the rebuking Word; others are of such a sort that they are shameless, not feeling shame for those things for which they are rebuked, or for those things in which they have sinned. You might say, then, concerning those who do not feel shame: "They have made their faces harder than a rock." If you have understood this in regard to physical things, cross over with me in your understanding to the soul, considering the "face," concerning which it is said, "Then face to face," and see a hard soul, such as the heart of Pharaoh, which was hardened, so that it stood as an image against the things being announced, and, as if casting off what was being said, it was not fashioned according to the things announced; for there you will find that "They made their faces harder than a rock" is fitting. For if, since it is known, that we might also grant what is known, it comes from that source from which knowledge is taken, why should future events come more from the stars than from auguries, or more from auguries than from the entrails of sacrificial victims, or from shooting stars? These things, then, will suffice for the present to refute the idea that the stars are the makers of human affairs.
C But that which we have conceded—for it did not trouble the argument—namely, that men are able to grasp the heavenly configurations and the signs and that of which they are signs, let us now examine whether it is true. The experts in these matters say, therefore, that he who is about to grasp accurately the affairs of the calculation of nativities must know not only in which dodecatemorion the so-called star is found, but also in which degree of the dodecatemorion and in which sixtieth; and the more precise ones, even in which sixtieth of a sixtieth. And they say that this must be done for each of the wandering stars, examining its relation to the fixed stars.
"And they would not turn back, and I said: Perhaps they are poor, because they would not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God; I will go to the great and will speak to them." Having understood these things concerning those who do not wish to be instructed, and who do not understand the scourges of God, he says, having perceived the cause of this: Their soul is poor. "And I said: Perhaps they are poor, because they could not, because they did not know the way of the Lord and the judgment of God; I will go to the great and will speak to them." The "great" are spoken of in praise regarding their souls. For among the Greeks, the term "great" (*hadron*) is frequently used to denote also the magnificence of the rational soul. For when someone applies himself to great matters and has noteworthy purposes and always contemplates what is necessary—how he might live according to right reason, wishing to see or do nothing base or small—such a person possesses greatness and nobility in his soul. Since, therefore, those whom the Word previously censured were "poor," they did not hear, the prophet says; for this reason they did not hear, since they are poor. "I will go to the great and I will speak to them." And if it is a blessed thing to be able to say, "in the ears of those who are listening," it is indeed a blessed thing if one happens upon a great and noble hearer.
Therefore, with these things being said in this way, since we know that the failure to accept what is announced is not so much a detriment to those who speak as it is to those who hear—and it accuses their mind and understanding of poverty—let us pray to God to receive, as the Word in us grows, fullness and magnificence in Christ Jesus, so that we may be able to hear the sacred and holy words, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
7. On the text: "And it shall be in those days, says the Lord your God, I will not strike you to the end," up to: "so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours." Homily 17.
Homily 17
God, who A "judges little by little," gives the punished "a place for repentance," and does not, as soon as one has sinned, bring the "completion" of the punishment upon the wrongdoer. For this reason, in "judging little by little," he punishes, and the example of this is in Leviticus. For in the curses against those who transgress the Law, it is recorded after the earlier punishments: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn, says the Lord, I will also add to you seven plagues," and again he recounts another punishment: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn, but walk perversely with me, I also will walk with you in a perverse wrath." B And you will find God adding punishments with sparingness, since he desires to lead the one who has sinned to repentance, and does not render them all at once.
Such, therefore, insofar as the literal sense goes, was what happened to the people; and the Word, in threatening them with what they would suffer after those things, says: "And it shall be in those days, saith the Lord thy God, I will not smite you to an end." But if you ask whether these things extend even to the future punishments, if not, let him who is able to transition from the events that occurred in life regarding the people, transfer also to those. For I, being persuaded, would say that as "they serve the copy and shadow of heavenly things," so, as a copy and shadow of the true punishments, that people was punished for their own sins, in such a way that every punishment recorded according to the law and the prophets regarding the people contains a shadow of true punishments. If, therefore, for them an end did not come upon their sins, but at the conclusion of time, perhaps in this way there will also be punishment for those who have sinned after their departure from this life; but the end for Jerusalem is when the captivity of Nebuchadnezzar occurs.
Yet someone might say that this is not even then the consummation, nor even in the time of the Maccabees, but rather the consummation for the people is at the arrival of my Lord Jesus Christ. For as long as the Savior did not say to them, "Behold, your house is left unto you," it was not left; but when He wept over Jerusalem, saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate," the house was left, and Jerusalem was compassed "by camps," as the house had been left and "its desolation approached." Then, after their transgression, "salvation" came to us, "to the Gentiles." They were therefore being punished, and the consummation did not reach them until the arrival of my Lord Jesus. I consider, however, whether such things exist also for us, and whether certain punishments come about so that some may not have the experience of second punishments but be satisfied with the first, while others come even to the second, though not to the third, and others will come even to the fourth. "For this same cause have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." For if Pharaoh was preserved for a demonstration of the power of God and the declaration of His name in all the earth, consider how much of a demonstration of the power of God the heavenly signs contain, since everything from the beginning of the age until the consummation is inscribed in the worthy book of God, the heaven. Secondly, I conjecture that the signs are set before the powers that manage human affairs so that they may know some things while executing others; just as in the books among us, some things are written so that we may know them, such as those concerning the creation of the world and any other mysteries; while others are for us to do after having known them, such as those concerning the commandments and the ordinances of God. It is possible, then, that the heavenly letters, which angels and divine powers are well able to read, contain some things to be read by the angels and ministers of God, so that they may rejoice in knowing them, while others they perform as if receiving them as commandments. And we shall not commit an error in saying that the heaven and the stars correspond to those things which are in the Law.
For the phrase “I will add seven plagues” indicates whatever mystery belongs to a single plague occurring, and a second, and a third, up to the seven mentioned, against certain people. Yet not all are struck with seven plagues; but I think some will be struck with six plagues, others five, others four, others three or two, while those who are inferior to all in their punishments, I think, will be struck with one plague. God, therefore, knows even the matters concerning the plagues, for which reason it is written here at the beginning of the reading: “And it shall be in those days,” those concerning the things mentioned, “I will not bring you to an end.” But the end is not in those days, for there are certain days when He will bring those whom He will bring to an end. “And it shall be when you say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these evils to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘Because you have forsaken me and served strange gods in your land, so you shall serve others in a land that is not yours.’” Let the passage be understood, and, for the present, it suffices to set forth the reminder to those who are able to hear from the passage. Therefore, the sons of Israel had the holy land, the temple, the house of prayer. If, however, worse and other activities of man produce something of those things foreknown and signified in the heaven, there is no necessity that they, being reminded by the scriptures of God, do what they do. But just as men doing wrong—not having learned that God had foreknown that such a one would be wronged by them—perform the wrongdoing out of their own wickedness, so too the opposing powers—with God having foreknown the wickedness of the men and powers who intend evil—carry out [these things] by their own most shameful will. The holy angels, however, the ministering spirits sent forth for service, it is likely that, as though receiving the commandments from the written law of God, they perform the better things in an orderly manner, when it is necessary, as it is necessary, and as much as is necessary; for it is absurd that they, being divine, should come by chance and not definitely, for instance, to grant an oracle to Abraham, or to do something for Isaac, or to rescue Jacob from danger, or to stand by the spirit of this or that prophet. In order, therefore, that they may not do this by chance nor by coincidence, they read the book of God and thus perform the tasks that fall to them.
It was their duty to worship God, but in transgressing the divine commandments they were idolaters, and they adopted the idols of Damascus, as is written in the Books of Kings, and they accepted other idols of the nations into the holy land. By accepting the idols of the nations, they made themselves worthy to be cast down into the land of the idols, to settle there where they used to worship those idols. The Word therefore says to them according to the literal meaning: "Forasmuch as you have forsaken me and served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strange gods in a land not yours." Everyone, moreover, who deifies something serves strange gods. Do you deify foods and drinks? "Your belly" is your "god." Do you honor silver as a great good and wealth that is below? Mammon is your god and lord. For Jesus called him the lord of the covetous, saying: "You cannot serve God and Mammon; no one can serve two masters." Therefore, he who honors silver and marvels at riches and considers them to be a good, and who accepts the rich as gods, while despising the poor as though they did not possess their God, this man deifies silver.
As we said before, what we do, or the opposing energies that are performed upon us, we do by our own free choice; by an unruly choice, when we sin; but by a disciplined choice—not without angels, nor without divine scriptures, nor without holy ministers—when we do things pleasing to God.
Clement of Rome, a disciple of Peter the Apostle, in agreement with these things on the present problem in his address to his father in Laodicea as recorded in the *Periodoi* (Journeys), says something most necessary at the conclusion of his discourses concerning this subject, in Book 14, regarding those who seem to have turned out according to their horoscope.
"And the father said: 'Forgive me, my child; for your words yesterday, being true, persuaded me to agree with you. But my conscience still torments me a little toward unbelief, like the remnant of a fever, for I am conscious to myself that all the things of my horoscope were fulfilled for me.'
"And I answered: 'Consider with me, father, what nature this study has, from what I advise you to do. When you meet with an astrologer, say first to him: "Such and such evil things happened to me at such and such a time; I wished to learn from which of the stars this happened to me."
And he will tell you that it was because Mars or Saturn, or one of these, took charge of your times, or that some of these were in ap...
oversaw this year from a square or a diameter, or was in conjunction, or was centered, or was apart from its sect. Nevertheless, he has also ten thousand other things to say. In addition to these, he will say that either a benefit-bringing planet was bound to an evil one, or was unobserved, or was in a certain configuration, or was apart from its sect, or was in an eclipse, or was without configuration, or was among dim stars. And yet, for the many excuses that exist, he has proofs to provide for the things you heard. After this mathematician, then, approach another and say the opposite: "This good thing has happened to me at this time." But you name the same time and demand to know from which part of his nativity this has happened. And yet, as I said before, though you are lying to him, he has the power to find one configuration out of many, and a second and a third and more, as the very one that operated from where he will say the good things happened. For it is impossible in any nativity of men that at every hour some of the stars should not be situated well and others evilly; for there is an equal-portioned, varied circle, having infinite excuses for which each one has what he wishes to say.
B Those from the Britannic Ocean are taken as if among pearls; third, but falling short not only of the first but also of the second, are those found on the Bosporus around Scythia. B Furthermore, these things were said about the Indian pearl, that it is formed in shells C resembling in their nature very large conchs. These are reported to graze, as it were, throughout the whole sea, as if some leader of the flock were directing them, remarkable in color and size, and differing from those under him; so that he has a relationship D to what is called the king bee. There is also a story about the hunting of the distinguished ones, that is, those in India, as follows: that the locals, enclosing a large circle of the shore with nets, dive down, seeking to seize the leader from among them all; for when this one is caught, they say the hunting of the flock under him becomes effortless, as none of those 820A which follow him any longer remain still, but are as if bound by a strap and following the leader. It is said also that the generation of the pearls in India occurs over time, with the animal undergoing many turnings and changes, until it is perfected. Furthermore, this is also reported, that the shell of the animal bearing the pearl opens in a gap, B and once opened, it receives the heavenly dew into itself; and if it is filled with this, if it is pure and unclouded, it becomes bright, and brings forth a large and symmetrical stone. But if at any time it receives dark, uneven, and wintry dew, it gives birth to a cloudy pearl, blemished with spots. C And we have also found this, that if one wandering toward its completion is intercepted, it is said that the rest of the procession of pearls immediately revolves around it; but if the king escapes them, it is no longer possible for them to catch the others. Those who were caught they leave to have their flesh putrefy, while using the bone for ornament. D Megasthenes says pearl-bearing shells are caught with nets: Pliny, Aelian, and Origen mention the care of divers and nets; these two different types of fishing they have confounded into one. This method of fishing, which is done by means of nets, has almost died out, except in certain regions of the New World. But that method which Philostratus describes in Book II of *The Life of Apollonius*, chapter 16—which is perhaps a fable, such as almost all those things which the idle sophist proposed in this book—has gone completely into disuse. Almost the only one in use is that which is done by divers.
A And may they attain rest and blessedness with the prophets. It is possible in many ways to gather together the excellent virtues of the prophets, their freedom, their constancy, their vigilance, and their readiness; for, being set in the midst of dangers, they exhibited such freedom of spirit that they were not in the least concerned as to how they should rebuke and how they should convert; inasmuch as the prophets, with liberty, announced the word of God, rebuking sinners even if those whom they rebuked seemed to possess great power. Although it is possible to prove this from every side, let us consider it from what has been read today. The prophet rebukes many, and he had spoken to many; for he was indeed born in a time of sinners, as is clear from the fact that the captivity occurred in his own age. Having rebuked many and having been judged by many, he utters such things as these.
2. Let us first see the literal meaning of the prophetic word, and then also the anagogical, if we have first put on the constancy, the freedom, the virtue, and the confidence of the prophet. "Woe is me, mother, that thou hast born me a man to be judged and discriminated in all the earth?" (Jer. xv, 10). O mother, to what purpose hast thou born me, a man to contend in judgment B with all who are on the earth, and to be discriminated against by all who are on the earth? For it was the purpose for this prophet, as for Isaiah and the others, to teach, to rebuke, and to convert in the prophetic manner. It was therefore the purpose for this prophet, who was able to discriminate, to rebuke, and to judge, also to contend in judgment with sinners and to rebuke the sins of the people. And as for what the people perpetrated against them, what is the need to speak? They stoned one, they sawed asunder another, they slew another between the temple and the altar, and him, when they were rebuked, they cast into a pit of mire. But C indeed, our Savior did this more than all, and more excellently than they, as He is the Lord of the prophets. For since He Himself was scourged and crucified, and delivered up by the Jews—or rather, by the teachers of the Jews and the leader of the people—He said: "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" (Matt. xxiii, 13). And He adds "woe" to each one, assigning this or that reason. Let us therefore strive for the beatitudes of the prophets, and let us do the same things, so that by speaking, and by being judged by many people, we also may say: "Woe is me, mother, that thou hast born me a man to be judged and discriminated in all the earth!"
3. Truly, this can the more authoritatively be regarded as prophetic when referred to the Savior. D For let us suppose the prophet is saying this; yet he will not say it truly, but perhaps hyperbolically; for he did not contend in judgment with the whole earth. But if I come to my Savior and Lord, and especially because of that saying: "He shall come into judgment" (John ix, 39), and that: "That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art..."
appraised," A I say, that the Savior and Lord is about to stand before the Father, being judged with all of us men. And He is judged with all men; I say, He is judged, He is examined, and He acts as one who champions the truth, but not as an accuser. Woe is me, mother! Why did you give birth to me as a man to be judged and discerned in all the earth? B The prophet cannot say "in all the earth," but I know those who love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and not only who love Him, but who are indeed devoted to Him, are indignant and say that these words are not of the Savior, nor do they befit the Son of God. It must be shown, therefore, that this "Woe is me, mother!" is not at all alien to the Son of God. For these words: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death" (Matt. xxvi, 38) and "My soul is troubled" (John xii, 27), and those which are similarly found in the prophets, are akin to this: "Woe is me, mother, why did you give birth to me as a man, to be judged and discerned in all the earth?" or: "When the grape-gleaning is perished, so as to find a bunch, woe to me, my soul, for the godly man is perished from the earth, and there is none who can set things right among men" (Mich. vii, 1-2). Who says there: "Woe is me, for I am become as one that gathereth stubble in the harvest?" (Mich. vii, 1). Did the prophet gather, or did he want to gather? Did the prophet have a field? But it belongs to no one to gather everything from the harvest and the sown fields, except the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Since, therefore, there are many crimes among the nations, C and indeed among us who are esteemed as a part of the Church, He laments and mourns our sins, saying: "Woe is me, for I am become as one that gathereth stubble." Let each of us examine himself whether he be wheat, and whether the Son of God will find in him what to harvest or to reap. We shall indeed find that we are some of us corrupted by the wind. Even if we have a little something, two or three grains, surely our many sins are upon us. Seeing, therefore, the churches which now exist, full of sinners, He says: "Woe is me! For I am become as one that gathereth stubble in the harvest, and as a gleaning in the vintage." He came seeking fruit in the vineyard. For each of us is planted like a vine in a rich place; and: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt" (Ps. lxxix, 9). "Yet I have planted thee a fruitful vine, all true" (Jerem. ii, 21). D He comes, He seeks how He might harvest, He finds a certain gleaning and small bunches, not thriving, nor many. Who among us has bunches of virtue? Who among us has the offspring of God? O Lord our God, how wonderful is Thy name in all the earth! (Ps. viii, 1). These things I have said by way of digression, that the "Woe is me, mother," is not foreign to our Savior.
[Note: The previous page’s ending, already fixed and immutable, is here repeated for context as instructed:]
(For this first page of the sequence, the entry point is the beginning of the text provided.) A Or let those who introduce natural dispositions from the parable of the net tell us: the wicked man who later turns away from all his sins which he has committed, and keeps the commandments 81 of the Lord, and does justice and mercy—of what nature was he when he was wicked? Not, surely, of a praiseworthy one. But if he is then of a blameworthy one, of what nature could it be reasonably said he is when he turns away from all the sins he has committed? For if he was of a base nature because of his former deeds, how did he change to better things? But if he was of a noble nature because of his later deeds, how was he wicked while being of a noble nature? A similar objection will arise regarding the just man who turns away from his justice and commits injustice according to all the sins; for before he turned away from justice, while he was in just works, he was not of a base nature; for a base nature could not exist in justice, since evil, which is a corrupt tree, cannot produce good fruits which are from virtue. Again, on the other hand, being of a noble and unchangeable nature, he would not turn away from the good, after being accounted just, from his justice, to do injustice according to all the sins which he committed.
B These things having been said, it must be thought that “the kingdom of heaven is likened to a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind” 83, in order to represent the variety of moral choices in men, which have a very great difference among themselves, so that the phrase “gathered of every kind” 84 comprehends those who are praiseworthy and those who are blameworthy in their inclinations toward the forms of either virtues or vices. The kingdom of heaven is likened to a net of varied texture 85, in accordance with the Old and New Scripture, interwoven from all-embracing and varied thoughts. Just as of the fish falling under the net, some are found in these parts of the net, and others in others, and each is in that part by which he has been caught; so you would find also among those who have come under the net of the Scriptures, some caught under the prophetic texture—to say, for instance, under Isaiah because of this pronouncement, or Jeremiah, or Daniel; others under the legal [texture], others under the evangelical, and some under the apostolic. For one, when first being caught by the Word, or seeming to be caught, is taken from a certain part of the whole net. And there is nothing absurd if some of the caught fish are encompassed by the whole texture of the net which is in the Scriptures, and are held and grasped from every side, not being able to escape, but are as if completely enslaved, and are not permitted to fall out of the net. And this net was cast 86...
The subject of possibilities also pertains to logical agility and contemplation, so that he who has cleansed the eye of his soul may be able, by following the subtlety of the proofs, to understand how, even in the case of random events, that a thing might be one of many possibilities is not hindered, since the thing that will come to pass is one of many, and yet it will not come to pass by necessity. For it is foreknown in this way: that it will be, but it will not be of necessity, but since it is possible for it not to happen, that which was not stated by conjecture but truly foreknown shall come to pass. Let no one think that we have passed over the phrase "according to purpose" as if it creates an obstacle to our argument; since Paul says: "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose." But let him observe that the Apostle immediately provided the reason for being called according to purpose, saying: "For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." And who more than those who love Him ought to have been included in the call that justifies by the purpose of God? Truly, he clearly sets forth the reason for the purpose and foreknowledge as stemming from that which is within our own power.
“We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.” For he has practically said that if all things work together for good, it is because those who love God are worthy of this cooperation. At the same time, let us also query those who say the opposite, and let them answer us regarding these things. Let it be assumed that there is something within our own power; and this we shall say to them who abolish what is within our own power, until their argument is proven unsound from the very premise they have given. Since, then, there is that which is within our own power, did God, establishing the sequence of future events, foresee what would be done by each of those who have this power of agency within themselves, or did He not foresee it? Now, to say that He does not foresee it is to be ignorant of the Mind over all and the greatness of God. But if they grant that He does foresee it, we shall again ask them: is the fact that He knew it the cause for the occurrence of what will be, given the fact that there is that which is within our own power? Or is it because it will come to pass that He foreknew it, and the foreknowledge is in no way the cause of the future events derived from the agency of each person? It was, therefore, possible for a person created with free will to have acted not in this way, but that way, when certain circumstances occurred. Therefore, as such and similar things might be said, there is preserved also the statement:
A We said that the saints are clouds; for "Thy truth [reaches] even to the clouds" cannot be referred to inanimate clouds, but the truth of God is even to the clouds, which hear the command of God and know where they send down rain and from what [places] they withhold it; for as there are clouds to which God commands not to rain or to rain, it is written: "I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." Therefore, in the case of these clouds, if there is no rain, God does not command the clouds not to rain upon the vineyard or the country, but rather no cloud appears at all, as it is written in the Third [Book] of Kingdoms, where during the time of drought no cloud appeared, but when, according to the word of the prophecy of Elijah, the rain was about to come, a trace of a cloud was seen "like a man's footprint," and there came a cloud producing the rain; but as the clouds exist, yet are commanded not to rain when the soul is unworthy of the rain, the text is said: "I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." B "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many; enter into the joy of thy lord"; and every [other] praise. And the reasonableness of the saying is also preserved: "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have put my money to the bankers." For thus will the things justly said be preserved only in this way: to those on the right: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat," and the rest; and to those on the left: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and ye gave me no food," and the rest. But also, if the passage "Separated unto the gospel of God," C and that which says, "He who set me apart from my mother's womb," contained some necessity, how could he reasonable have said: "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway"? And that:
A Since every one of the saints is a cloud—Moses was a cloud, and as a cloud he said: "Give ear, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. Let my speech be looked for as the rain"—(if he had not been a cloud, he would never have said: "Let my speech be looked for as the rain")—"and let my words descend as the dew"; as a cloud he says: "as the rain upon the grass, and as the snow upon the hay, because I have called upon the name of the Lord." Thus also Isaiah speaks as a cloud: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken." And because he himself was also a cloud, and he called those who prophesied with him clouds, he says by way of prophecy: "I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." If, then, it is understood by us who the clouds are, let us see how God is he who "brings up the clouds from the end of the earth." "For woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel!" For he clearly demonstrates from these things that if he did not keep under his body and bring it into subjection, it was possible for him, having preached to others, to become a castaway, and that it was possible for woe to come upon him if he did not preach the gospel. B Perhaps, therefore, with these things in mind, God set him apart from his mother's womb and set him apart for the gospel of God, having seen the reason for this righteous separation—that he would keep under his body and bring it into subjection, fearing lest, having preached to others, he himself might become a castaway; and that, knowing a woe would be upon him if he did not preach the gospel, he would not be silent, but—out of fear toward God—preach the gospel, so that he would not fall into that woe. And he who set him apart from his mother's womb and set him apart for his own gospel saw these things as well: that "he will be in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often; of the Jews five times he will receive forty stripes save one, thrice he will be beaten with rods, once he will be stoned"—and that he will suffer these things while glorying in tribulations, and knowing that tribulation works patience, and he will persevere.
How is it "from the end of the earth"? The Savior says, "He who wishes to be first among you shall be the last of all." Paul kept this commandment, and he was last in this world; wherefore he says, "For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men doomed to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men." If, therefore, anyone is keeping the Savior’s commandment and has become last in relation to this life, he becomes a cloud, and God raises up clouds not from the first of the earth, He does not raise up clouds from those in high office, He does not raise them up from rulers, He does not raise them up from the wealthy; for "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Do you see how God raises them up from the last and gives substance to the clouds? For this reason, if we wish to become "clouds, upon which the truth" of God reaches, let us become last of all and let us say in our works and disposition that "For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last." And even if I am not an apostle, it is possible for me to become last, so that God, in raising up clouds from the "end of the earth," may raise me up. Because of these things, it was fitting for him to be set apart for the gospel of God, being foreknown to be such, and to be set apart from his mother’s womb. And he was being set apart for the gospel of God not because of a nature having something exceptional and greater than the natures of those who are not such, as far as concerns the constitution, but because of the actions foreknown beforehand, which came about later, each one from the preparation and the apostolic predisposition. But now, to give an account of the statement from the Psalm was not opportune, for it was a digression; therefore, it will be given in its proper order, God granting, when we expound the Psalm. These things, added for the sake of the word "Set apart," will suffice.
Concerning which things are good and which are evil, and that these are found in things involving choice and in that which is without choice, and according to the teaching of Christ, but not as Aristotle thinks. From the Tome on the 4th Psalm, on the text: "Many say, Who will show us good things?"
Since there is much searching among men concerning which things are good and which are evil—and while some say that good things and evil things are things without choice, as if declaring pleasure to be a good, and pain to be an evil;
"And he hath made lightnings unto rain." Those skilled in these matters say that the generation of lightnings comes from the clouds rubbing against one another; for just as it happens with flint stones on earth, so that when two stones strike each other fire is produced, they say that the same occurs in the clouds; when the clouds strike one another during the winter, the lightning occurs. For this reason, lightning happens for the most part together with thunder, the thunder manifesting the sound of the collision of the clouds, and the lightning producing the light. If you have understood the example, look with me also at the intelligible cloud. Moses was a cloud, Joshua the son of Nun was a cloud; they converse with each other, and from their words lightning is produced. Jeremiah was a cloud, Baruch was a cloud; they converse with one another; the lightning came from the words of Jeremiah and the words of Baruch. In this way, if you are able, gather from the Scriptures the manner in which lightning comes; and in the New Testament, Paul and Silvanus were two clouds, they came to the same place, and the lightning of the epistle was produced. God, therefore, "hath made lightnings unto rain and hath brought forth winds out of his treasures."
Are these winds, then, in storehouses? Or does the nature of these winds, as they blow upon the earth, not reveal how they come to be? But there are certain storehouses of winds, storehouses of spirits: "the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness," "the spirit of the fear of God," "the spirit of power and love and self-control"; and you yourself might gather these winds from the Scriptures. These spirits are in storehouses. And what are these storehouses? "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"; these treasures are in Christ. From there, then, these winds, these spirits, come, so that one may be wise, another faithful, another have knowledge, or another receive whatever gift of God: "For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit." A He "causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries." And we also, through God, hope to arrive at these treasure-stores; and since there are many treasure-stores, perhaps according to the ranks of those who are rising B there will be rest in the treasure-stores of God. What I mean is like this:
A there is the one spring and the one well. And in turn it is called sometimes a spring, sometimes a well. Let him who can consider this, that for the one who remains on the surface it is a spring, but for him who has penetrated more deeply it is a well. This is my prelude to the explanation, concerning the pottery which fell from the hands of the potter and was molded again. Some have considered these things too simply and have understood them in a way lacking depth. We shall set before you the word and the account after these things, if we possess anything deeper, and we shall explain that too. It is possible, they say, for it to be indicated here concerning the resurrection. For if the vessel fell from the hands of the potter, and from the same lump of clay he makes the same vessel into another, as it pleased him, B the potter—that is, God, the creator of our nature—is able, when this has fallen and been broken for any reason whatsoever, to take it up and renew it, and to make it another vessel, more beautiful and better, as it pleased him to do. Let this account also have its favor.
5. But let us hear the Lord himself relating and saying: *If, as this potter, I shall not be able to make you, O house of Israel? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay of the potter, so are you in my hands.* I will speak in summary C of a nation and a kingdom, to pluck them up and destroy them; and if that nation turns from all the evil things of which I have spoken against it, I will repent of the evils which I thought to do to them. And in summary I will speak of a nation and a kingdom, to build up and to plant; and if they do evil things before me, not listening to my voice; and I will repent of the good things which I spoke to do to them, saith the Lord. That which is said about the potter is not referred to one, but we see it referred to two nations. For he says at the beginning that he is about to speak of nations, so that, to those who are able to hear, he might propose some hidden mystery. D *I will speak in summary of a nation.* He asks about the summary and the first nation, that of destruction on account of its sins. And he speaks of extermination on account of sins, nevertheless he promises that if it repents, he also will repent of the evils which he said he would bring upon it. And again he speaks of another nation; and because this nation, which is to be built up and planted, has good promises, he speaks after this, saying: *If they recede from good works, I will repent of the good things which I spoke to do to them.* Which then are the two nations? The first, already named, which the word threatens; and the second, to which he promises. Yet he threatens, so that if it repents, there might not be destruction; and he promises, so that if the other nation renders itself unworthy of the promises, it might not attain them. Concerning the two nations, he says: [index: entries preserved]
entire wisdom concerning humans in this world depends on all of God's economy. The first nation was Israel, the second after the advent of Christ is this nation. To the former, God threatened what he threatened, and we see A fulfilled the threats against the former nation. In captivity it was taken, its city was torn down, the holy place was razed, the altar was cast down; nothing of the ancient solemnities remains for them. For God said to that nation: Repent; and they did not repent. After these things were said to that one, he says to this second one: God desires also this nation to be rebuilt. But see that these also are men, who can fall again: therefore B he threatens also this one, and says: If I have predicted the things pertaining to the building, and the things pertaining to the planting, and the agriculture, yet because this nation also is a sinful nation, the same things shall happen that were said concerning the other because of sins, and it will undergo the same penalties, if it does not repent. Search all the Scripture, and you will find that it is said of these two C nations. God chose the fathers, gave the promise to them, a people who traced their origin from the fathers, led them out of Egypt; he tolerated them as they sinned; like a father he trained them, brought them in, gave them the promised land; through the prophets he instructed them and turned them from sins; he was always patient, sending physicians, until the prince of physicians came, the physician more excellent than the physicians. When he had come, they betrayed him, and killed him, carry him off, carry him off, they shouted, to the ground: crucify, crucify him. D Immediately this nation was visited; and the place where Jesus my Lord was crucified was reduced to solitude. He chose another nation. You see how ample the harvest is, although the laborers are few. Or does he not otherwise dispense the net, so that it is cast into the world of this life to be drawn: fish of every kind are gathered, he sends out many, he sends forth the hunters; they hunt from every mountain, they hunt from every hill. See how much providence there is in saving the nations. See therefore A the kindness and the severity of God. Upon the former nation that fell, severity; upon the other, indeed, the promise and the kindness, provided it remains in goodness, otherwise it too will be cut off. For not then for the first time was the axe placed at the root of the trees: it was prepared also to come. For the axe was placed at the root of the trees, he was saying, even Jesus my Lord, of Israel, before whom the axe was, prophesying: it is itself the fruitless axe. Whatever trees there did not bear fruit, they were cut out, B and delivered to the fire, and subjected to punishments. But now another crop has arisen, not unlike the first, of which it was said: Introducing you plant them into the mountain of your inheritance, into the prepared habitation of yours. God introduces his own nation into the mountain of his inheritance. I seek the mountain, not as the Jews...
A in a matter without sense; our mountain is Christ; in him we are planted, in him we are founded. See, therefore, lest after he has been long-suffering, the Father of the household should say: "For three years I have been coming even to this fig tree, and have found no fruit; cut it down; why does it also make the land useless?" For the good land occupies the earth, Christ, the mystery of the Church, and whoever comes to the assembly, and brings no fruit.
The end, B I will speak concerning a nation, or also concerning a kingdom. I will speak simply concerning the end. But the end is said in such a way: "I will tear down," it is said to the previous nation, the end to the second nation, "I will build you up." And again, "I will root out" is said to the first, and "I will plant" to the second. Is it the case, therefore, that because the end is spoken of, the end must come? God, though not prone to regret by nature, is said to repent in the Scriptures. And let us attend to the word, so that, if we are able, we might render a rationale why these things are said, if we admit the word. C And I will speak, he says, concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to uproot and to destroy them. And if that nation has turned from its evils, and itself repents of the evils which I had reckoned to do to them. And concerning the end, I will speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build up and to plant; and if they do evil before me, that they may not hear my voice, then I will repent of the good things which I had spoken to do to them. We are required to render an account concerning the repentance of God; it seems that it is not only reprehensible and unworthy for God, but even for a wise man to repent. For I do not praise D a wise man repenting. But he who repents is, by the custom of usage of the word, one who acts upon his having taken good counsel. Now God, being a foreknower of things to come, cannot fail to take good counsel, and for this reason repent. How then does Scripture introduce him saying: "I will repent"? Or, I say, that since in the Books of Kings it is said: "I have regretted, for I have made Saul king." And when it is spoken of him universally, that he does not repent in his wickedness. But see what we are taught concerning God, when it is said: "Not as a man does God change;" nor are we taught that God is not like a human being; to others, however, God is like a human being, as they say: "For the Lord your God has educated you, as if a man were to educate his own son." And again: "He carried you as a man carries his son." Therefore, with God, as he is, the speech
A of the Scriptures does not have God, nor does it touch upon his providence regarding human affairs, they say, as if his greatness were not without limit; and: "Terrible is he above all gods," and: "Praise him, all angels 248 of God; praise him, all his powers; praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you stars and light," and countless other things collected from the holy Scriptures, which you will find, to which you might apply: "There is no man like God." When divine providence concerns itself with human affairs, it adopts human senses, and habits, and words. For just as we, when addressing a two-year-old child, stammer—not that it is possible, when we address children, that they understand us, unless we descend a little from the dignity of the perfect man to their own dialect—so I wish you to contemplate something similar regarding God, when he addresses the human race, and especially those who are still in the state of infancy. See how we transform names B when we—the mature—speak to infants. Bread, indeed, we name for them in a peculiar way, and drink by another word; not that we use that word when we address perfect men, our peers, but rather that we use a childlike and infant-like word: and we do not apply their clothing to children, but we impose upon them other names, as if forging a childlike name. Are we, then, imperfect? And if one of us hears a man speaking to children, will he say, "This old man has become senseless, this man has forgotten his own lineage and the age of a man," because he has yielded to the custom of a child speaking and does not use the dialect of an elder, nor a perfect one, but a childlike one? And God, in fact, speaks to children. "Behold," he says, "I and the children whom God has given me." C If I were to say to a senior speaking to a child in a childlike way, or to speak more emphatically, "in an infantile way," that he has carried his son and assumed his condition, notice how you understand the Scripture saying: "The Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son." And those who translated from the Hebrews into Greek, not finding a word used literally, composed this new one, just as they did many others, that "he carried you" (etrophorēsen), that is, he bore your customs, O Lord your God/Lord our God, just as if one were to use the example I produced about himself accommodating to the customs of his son. When, therefore, God repents, because we repented, he addresses us, saying: "I repent," D and he threatens us, not because he possesses premonition of things, but just as a father threateningly addresses his children, we assume the customs of the infants. Take, therefore, the Scripture saying: "The Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son." And it seems that those who translated from the Hebrews, not finding the word used among the Greeks, have entwined this—as in many other cases—and have done this, the "Lord your God carried you," that is, he bore your customs, as a man bears, according to this example which he has spoken, his own son. Since, therefore, we repent, those who say such things will pass on even to the future age, asserting that it is an evil for the sinful to be delivered to eternal fire; but if pain is an evil, it is necessary that pleasure be a good. It is clear, therefore, from what has been said, that the things which are able to shame those who are not able to solve the things brought forward concerning the three types of goods and the three of evils are according to the account of the Scriptures. This deception, therefore, has not only deceived those who are confessedly simple among the faithful, but even some of those who profess the wisdom according to Christ, imagining that the Creator has such promises, and that nothing beyond what is revealed by the literal wording is meant concerning the threats. To all, therefore, who suppose such things from the Scriptures, one ought to inquire whether the prophets kept the Law, whose sins are not denounced; for instance, Elijah the most destitute, so that he did not even have bread to eat at his own house and therefore was sent to a woman in Sarepta of Sidonia; and Elisha, who received at the Shunammite's a very small lodging and a stool and a cheap lamp, who also, having fallen sick, died.
And Isaiah who walked naked and barefoot for three years; and Jeremiah who was cast into a pit of mire and was always mocked, so that he even prayed to dwell in a desert; and John who spent his time in the deserts, partaking of nothing but locusts and wild honey, girded with a leather garment about his loins, and clothed with camel’s hair. For they will acknowledge that these held to the law. And we shall demand to know if the things they conceive of as "good" were possessed by those who held to these things. But since they cannot show it, they will be shut up into the alternative that either the promises said to be given to the godly are false, or, if they happen to be true, they require an allegorical interpretation. And if, compelled, they come to allegory, their belief will be invalidated—that belief which suggests that the Law threatens bodily disease and what are considered external evils to those who have acted impiously, or promises that the bodies of those who have followed the Lord will be healthy and that there will be abundance. And how is it not foolish to be proud and to boast in evils, when one is actually in them? For if tribulations are evils—and the Apostle says that we should boast in tribulations—it is clear that he would be boasting in evils; but this is foolish, and the Apostle is not foolish.
Therefore, such exercises of the saint are not evils; for he, though afflicted in everything, is not crushed; though perplexed, he is not driven to despair; though persecuted, he is not forsaken; though he seems to be poor, he makes many rich; and though he is supposed to possess nothing, he possesses all things. For the whole world of wealth belongs to the faithful, whereas not even a single obol belongs to the unbeliever. Furthermore, it follows for those who suppose—according to Scripture—that there are three kinds of goods (and clearly, therefore, three kinds of evils as well) that the righteous are always in many evils, according to the truth of the prophecy which says: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." Nor is it untimely to remind those who consider such things to be evils of what happened to Job; to him, the divine response, after he had borne his surrounding struggles most nobly, says: "Do you think that I have dealt with you otherwise than that you might appear righteous?" For if Job does not appear righteous in any other way than through these very afflictions having come upon him, how could we say that those causes which prompted the manifestation of his righteousness are evils for him? It would follow from this that even the devil himself is not an evil to the saint. To Job, at any rate, the devil was not an evil.
in their ways, with everlasting chains, to walk in paths that have no way for traveling, to set their land for astonishment and an everlasting hissing. A He has recounted here the distinctions of the waters: first, in the words, "Shall the breasts from the rock fail?" Second, "Or the snow of Lebanon?" And third, in the words, "Shall water be turned aside that is borne away by a violent wind?" These three kinds of waters are the fountains of waters which the soul of the righteous, likened to a deer, longs for, so that each one might say: "As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God." Who, then, has become a deer hostile to the race of serpents, suffering no harm from their poison, as the story of the deer tells? Who has thus thirsted for God, so as to be able to say: "My soul has thirsted for the living God"? B Who has thus thirsted for the breasts of the rock? And the rock was Christ. Who has thus thirsted for the Holy Spirit, so as to be able to say: "As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God"? Unless we thirst for these three fountains of waters, we shall find no fountain of waters. The Jews seemed to have thirsted for one fountain of the waters of God; but because they did not thirst for Christ and the Holy Spirit, they possess nothing to drink, not even from God. Those who are from the heresies seemed to have thirsted for Christ Jesus; but because they did not thirst for the Father, who is the God of the Law and the prophets, for this reason they do not drink even from Jesus Christ. But those who worship one God, yet treat the prophecies with contempt, did not thirst for the Holy Spirit who spoke in the prophets; for this reason they do not drink from the paternal fountain, nor from him who C cried out in the temple and said: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and drink." The breasts, therefore, do not fail from the rock, but those men abandoned the fountain of living water. The fountain of living water did not abandon them. For God distances himself from no one, but those who distance themselves from him shall perish; rather, God draws near to certain ones, and meets the one who is coming to him. When, therefore, the son who had devoured his substance returned, the father met him. And he makes promise through the prophets, saying: "I will draw near to them as the garment of their skin." For God, he says, is drawing near, "I am, and not a God far off," says the Lord. The breasts, therefore, do not fail from the rock—that is, the waters of Jesus—nor does the snow fail from Lebanon—that is, the paternal waters. For Lebanon is the sacred incense according to the law of God; and clear frankincense is offered upon the altar, D equal to equal. The name of this mountain and the incense is common, and it is the snow descending from Lebanon, in the same way as the water of the Holy Spirit, about whom it is said: "Shall water be turned aside?" For it is borne by the wind; the water of the Holy Spirit shall not be turned aside, it does not flee, but each one of us, while we sin, flees so as not to drink of the water of the Holy Spirit.
B 40. "For my people have forgotten me; they have offered incense in vain." Every one who sins has forgotten God; but the righteous man says: "All this has come upon us, and we have not forgotten you, nor have we dealt unjustly in your covenant" (Ps. XLIII, 18). But that people truly forsook God, and offered incense in vain. What "offered incense in vain" means, we must consider. If we recall what was said recently concerning the hundred and fortieth Psalm, we shall understand what "they offered incense in vain" means. For there was something similar said in that Psalm: "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you" (Ps. CXLI, 2). Therefore, my prayer, composed of a sincere heart, when our heart is not hardened, being sent up, becomes as incense before God. If, then, the prayer of the righteous is incense before God, the prayer of the unrighteous is indeed incense, but such incense that it can be said of him and of the unrighteous person who prays: "They offered incense in vain," just as it is written concerning Judas: "Let his prayer become sin" (Ps. CVIII, 7). He, by the way he was praying, offered incense in vain. And who it is that offers incense in vain, let us understand even more in this way: "Three times in the year," he says, "all your males shall appear before the Lord your God" (Exod. XXIII, 17), to which is immediately added: "You shall not appear before me empty" (Exod. XXIII, 15). From this it is clear to the eye of the Scripture that perceives the explanation of the sacred letters. These things have been said by me in the preface, rousing and stirring up both myself and the hearers to attend to what has been read, that we may ask Jesus to come, and to appear to us, and C to teach us now the things written here.
41. "Jeremiah prophesied, and Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest, heard the words of the prophecy" (Jer. XX, 1). Even though so many men, as is likely from the bare sequence of the prophecy, heard Jeremiah, yet no other is recorded to have heard him so quickly except Pashhur. It was the concern of the Scripture to say whose son he was, namely, Immer; and that he was a priest; and what rank he held among the people, namely, that he was a supervisor of the house of the Lord at the time when Jeremiah was delivering these prophetic sermons. And it is written that, having heard the words of this prophecy, Pashhur beat Jeremiah, and he was not content with having beaten him, but he also threw him into a certain stocks. The Scripture was also careful to say where these stocks were: namely, in the gate of Benjamin, at the upper chamber. Yet the chamber was that of none other than the house of the Lord. The Holy Spirit wrote that these things happened to Jeremiah by the agency of Pashhur on account of the prophecy; then it says: "On the next day Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks, and being brought out, Jeremiah said to Pashhur: The Lord has not called your name Pashhur; D
A but your name has been set as Israel was to Jacob, as Abraham to Abram, as Sarra to Sarah; thus he has set for you the name 'Migrator' (Magor-missabib)." And therefore He called you Migrator, because the Lord says: "Behold, I will give you over to migration with all..." with whom? Not with your wife and children, but with your friends. And when you are given over to migration, your friends will fall by the sword. Then, as if it mattered whether those who fall by the sword, fall by the sword of enemies or by the sword of others, he says that the friends of the one who had cast Jeremiah into the stocks would fall by the sword of his enemies. "And your eyes," he says, "shall see these things that are prophesied: But you and all Judah I will give into the hands of the king of Babylon; and after these things have happened to your friends, they shall also lead them into migration to Babylon and shall slaughter them." For they shall slaughter the king of Judah and those born of Judah with the sword. And it is no longer added "of their enemies," as in the previous instances, where they were said to be friends of Pashhur. Then He says: "And I will give all the strength of this city, and all the treasures of the king of Judah, and all the labors of this city, into the hands of their enemies, that the enemies may plunder the treasures and seize the things mentioned, and lead Judah and its king into Babylon. But you, O Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied falsely." This entire section needed to be divided, and it was not fitting to declare its profound meaning first, if we happen to grasp it, but rather the literal sense, which anyone can easily understand, provided he pays attention and does not run through it cursorily. What, then, do these things mean? Here the struggle is to set forth the intention of these writings. And indeed I confess regarding myself that I am unable to expound them, but I need, as I have said before, the manifestation of the power of Jesus, according as He is wisdom, according as He is the Word, according as He is the truth, that His manifestation might shed light upon the face of my soul.
D And Pashhur, the son of Immer, a priest (and he was established as the leader of the house of the Lord), heard Jeremiah prophesying these words, and he struck him, and so on. The magicians of the Egyptians also had rods, which sought to cast envy upon the rods of Moses and Aaron, as though they were not from God. But the things that are of God overturn those that were of the sophists and magicians. The rod of Aaron swallowed them; for it was sufficient for this even without the rod of Moses. Pashhur therefore struck Jeremiah the prophet, and that grievously. It is also added: "the prophet." Here, then, the one who struck Jeremiah struck a prophet. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles that at the order of Ananias, the high priest, Paul was struck by someone; wherefore Paul said: "God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall." And even today, by the order of a high priest of their own impious mind, the Ebionites [persecute] the Apostle of Jesus Christ.
with abusive words. And Paul says as regards such a high priest: "God is about to strike." And such a high priest is, on the surface, fair and a whited wall, but within he is full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. What do I say of Paul and Jeremiah? My Lord Jesus Christ himself says: "I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the blows, and I did not turn away my face from the shame of spitting." These things simple people think happened only at that time when Pilate scourged him, when the Jews plotted against him; but I see Jesus daily being lacerated by the lashes of the Jews. Go into the synagogues of the Jews and behold Jesus being lacerated by their tongues of blasphemy. Behold those gathered from the nations, plotting against Christians, in what way they catch Jesus. And he himself offers his back to the lashes. Consider the Word—insulted, vexed by malice, hated by the faithless; see how he has given over his cheeks to the blows; and when he has taught that if anyone strikes you on one cheek, you should offer the other, he does this himself. A For there are those who strike him with blows and scourge him, and he is silent and does not speak; for the Scripture says he is silent amid the lashes, and his face he does not turn away from the insult of spitting. Who of them that despise his teaching, even until this day, in a way does not defile Jesus by their tolerance? Jesus has not turned away from the shame of spitting. Who of those who insult his teaching is not, as it were, spitting upon Jesus until this day?
C 13. It remains, after the prophet’s striking, to speak of those who were struck, as, for instance, the Apostle, and if any other has been struck, not from among those who have suffered what Jesus suffered. Therefore Pashur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and cast him into the cataract which was in the gate of Benjamin. Now the upper gate of Benjamin contains the cataract. To Benjamin belongs the return to Jerusalem, in which the temple is assigned in the diving readings, so that it becomes manifest if you look at what is written in the Book of Joshua concerning the allotment. Since then the temple was in the inheritance of Benjamin, which is interpreted "son of the right hand," for there is nothing sinister concerning the temple of God, therefore he casts him into the cataract which was in the gate of Benjamin, in the upper gate in the house of the Lord. He cast the prophet into the cataract. But let us too, having taken the prophet Jeremiah, bring him into the upper part of the house; for this sentiment is sublime and exalted in Scripture, where it testifies that the saints were received in the upper part of the house by them. In the third Book of Kings it is written that the widow of Sarepta of Sidon received the prophet in the upper part of the house; and in the fourth Book, that the Shunammite received and prepared for Elisha a dwelling in the upper part of the house. D Now the sinner Ahaziah ...
A fell from the upper part of the house. And Jesus also gives you the command not to descend from the roof. When it says, "when this and that happens, then let him who is on the roof not come down to take what is in his house." He who flees during the time of persecution should not go up to the roof, but if he is on the roof, he should not come down to take what is in the house. It is good, therefore, to be in the upper parts of the house, it is good to be on the roofs, and to be above. And the marvelous apostles, as is written of them in the Acts B when they were in the same place 256 gathered together, were occupied in prayers and in the word of God, they were in the upper room; and because they were in the upper room, they were not below, and therefore there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire. And Peter, when he was praying to God, went up to the housetop, or else he would not have seen from heaven the vessel descending, as it were a sheet let down from heaven by four corners. And she who did the almsgivings, Tabitha, who C is interpreted as Dorcas, was not below, but in the upper room, where Peter having gone up raised her from the dead. And Jesus himself also, about to celebrate with the disciples this feast, of which we make the symbol the Passover, being asked by them: "Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee the Passover?" said: "There shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water," follow him; "he will show you a large upper room furnished, prepared, there make ready." No one, therefore, who celebrates the Passover as Jesus wills, is below the upper room; but he feasts with Jesus, D staying in a large upper room, in an upper room furnished, in an upper room adorned and prepared. But if you go up with him to celebrate the Passover, he gives you the bread of blessing and his own body, and bestows his own blood upon you. Therefore we exhort you, go up to the height, lift up your eyes to the height. And to me, teaching the divine word, the Word says, "Get you up into the high mountain who bringest good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength who bringest good tidings to Jerusalem. Lift up, be not afraid." He said these things because of Pashur, that he had placed the upper room in the house of the Lord, in the gate of Benjamin; he did not make the prophet go up to the upper room, but cast him into the dungeon below.
And it came to pass on the morrow, and Pashur brought B Jeremiah out of the dungeon. O Lord Jesus, be present again; explain these things also to me and to those who have come for spiritual food. How on the morrow does he himself bring Jeremiah out of the dungeon? "This present age is, as it were, this day," and the sinner casts the prophet down into the dungeon below; if he falls in the present day, and tomorrow comes, then he brings him out, having repented from the dungeon. Then Jeremiah says to him what Pashur will suffer. He says to him: Pashur did not call your name, but C Migor — for thus saith the Lord. "You will be about to be fearful," he says... (And God also brought us "out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace," especially according to him who understands what is written in the Revelation of John, that the place "where their Lord was crucified is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt." For if "it is called spiritually Egypt," and this which is spiritually called Egypt is not the Egypt which is perceived by sense, it is evident that if you understand the spiritually called Egypt and go out from it, you are the one who has gone out "from the land of Egypt and from the iron furnace," and it is said to you: "Hear my voice and do according to all these things." Then there is a promise of God to those who hear, if they do what has been commanded, saying: "And you shall be my people, D and I will be your God." Not everyone who says he is the people of God is the people of God. Therefore, he who promised to be the people of God, "you are not my people," they heard in the "because you are not my people," and it was said to that people "not my people," and again this people was called "people"; for "they provoked me with that which is no god"—but he speaks about those—"they angered me with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a nation, I will provoke them with a foolish nation." We suppose such a cause also for that which is said concerning Ezekiel, that he walked blamelessly in all his ways until iniquity was found in him, to be his having fallen, according to Isaiah, from heaven, having once been Lucifer, rising in the morning, later broken upon the earth. For it is not only in the case of the sons of men, if one be perfect, in the absence of the wisdom from God, true that he is accounted as nothing; but also in the case of the angelic and princely order, and all that is divine insofar as God is present to them. Perhaps, therefore, the holy apostle seeing our own act of choice to be much less than the power of God for obtaining good things, says the end is "not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy"—not as if the God that showeth mercy were without willing and running, but as if the willing and running were nothing in comparison to the mercy of God; and for this reason it is more fitting to attribute the inscription of the good to the mercy of God rather than to human willing and running. We have examined these things, appearing to have digressed at length, being persuaded that they are necessary for the: "Many say:
"Who will show us good things?" For according to his ability, the Word stands by those who say, "Who will show us good things?" and shows what the *good things* are, and it is manifest that he also shows what the *evil things* are, so that through both exercises and prayers we may acquire the good and overturn the evil from our souls. But since it is the case in speaking that one sometimes uses words literally and sometimes uses them figuratively, it is no wonder if we sometimes find the appellation of "good" and "evil" applied to bodily things and those called "external" by those who do not hold sound doctrines; for example, in Job: "If we have received the good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure the evil?" And in Jeremiah: "Evil has descended from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem." For instead of saying: "If we have received such things as happen to be beneficial and pleasant, having come to us from Providence, shall we not willingly bear the bitter and painful things?" it is said: "If we have received the good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure the evil?" And instead of saying: "According to providence, these things have happened to Jerusalem for the sake of disciplining those who dwell in it," it is written: "Evil has descended from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem."
What, then, does God promise me? "You shall be to Me for a people, and I shall be to you for a God." He is not the God of all, except of those to whom He grants Himself, just as He granted Himself to that patriarch to whom He said, "I am your God," and again to another, "I shall be your God," and concerning others, "I shall be their God." When, therefore, do we reach this point—I speak of each one individually—that God is our God?
If you wish to learn whose God He is, and to whom He grants the invocation of Himself: "I," He says, "am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob," and in explaining such a thing, the Savior says, "God is not of the dead, but of the living." Who is the dead one? He who is a sinner, he who does not have the One who said, "I am the life," he who has "dead works," he who has not yet repented from "dead works," concerning which the Apostle says, "Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works." If, therefore, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," and we know who the living one is—that he is the one living according to Christ and remaining with Him—if we wish for God to be ours, let us renounce the works of death, so that He may fulfill His promise which says, "And I shall be to you for a God, in order to establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey." Note that He says, "I shall establish My oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey," as if He had not yet given them the "land flowing with milk and honey." For this is not the land which God promised to be "flowing with milk and honey," but rather that land concerning which the Savior taught, saying, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
Then, to the things mentioned before by the Lord, the prophet answers, to the statement "Cursed is the man who will not listen to the words of this covenant," and he says, "And I answered and said, So be it, Lord." What is "So be it, Lord"? Cursed is the one who will not abide "by the words of this covenant." Therefore, it is necessary for those who understand the matters not to be stingy with the terminology, but to grasp when these things are properly assigned to the realities, and when they are used in a secondary sense due to the scarcity of terms.
If the Savior also healed certain people of these things, and gifted health, and sights, and hearing to men, primarily the figurative meaning of them must be sought, as the Word is shown to heal the passions of the soul through these accounts. It is not absurd, regarding such things, to understand that the events told in history also took place for the sake of striking wonder in the people of that time, so that those who were not persuaded by demonstrative and instructional words might be shamed by the miraculous powers and give their assent to the Teacher.
Regarding the text: "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh." "And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not want to send them away." The statement, "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh," occurring many times in Exodus—and "I will harden the heart of Pharaoh"—disturbs almost everyone who encounters it, both those who disbelieve it and those who claim to believe.
And the Lord said to me: "Read these words in the cities of Judah and without Jerusalem"—and to those who are outside we read the words of God, calling them to salvation—"saying: Hear the words of this covenant and do them." And they did not do them. And the Lord said to me: "A conspiracy *[sundesmos]* is found among the men of Judah and among those who dwell in Jerusalem." Were we about to repent for the sins mentioned regarding the men of Judah, knowing that we are the men of Judah for the sake of Christ, who was prophesied and called Judah? Perhaps, since there are some sinners among us acting against the right word, for this reason the prophet says: "A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among those who dwell in Jerusalem." For whenever a "conspiracy of iniquity" and a bond of sins is found in some who are called by the name of the Church, so that one might apply to the sinner the words, "each is bound by the cords of his own sins," God might say: "A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah." But may no conspiracy be found among us. How, then, is a conspiracy not found among us, if even until now there is a conspiracy among some? "Loose every bond of iniquity, break the knots of forced contracts, tear up every unjust agreement." For to those who disbelieve, along with many other things, this also seems to be a cause of unbelief: that things unworthy of God are said about God. And it is unworthy of God to effect hardening in the heart of anyone, and to effect hardening so that he disobeys the will of the one who is hardening him who is being hardened. "And how," they say, "is it not absurd for God to effect something for the purpose of disobeying His own will?" For it is clear that He did not desire to have Pharaoh obey the things He commands. But for those who are considered to believe, no slight disagreement has arisen because of the text: "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh." For those who are persuaded believe that there is no other God than the Creator, and as a result they think that God "has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens," with there being no reason why one is shown mercy and another is hardened by Him. Others, however, who hold a better view than these, say that many other meanings of the Scripture are hidden from them, and that they do not turn away from the sound faith because of this; and that one of the hidden things is the sound reason regarding this passage of Scripture.
Homily XVIII
A I shall set forth the history of how God, for the sake of salvation, deceives, and speaks a certain thing so that the sinner might cease from doing what he had done; for if he had heard these words of the prophecy, "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," whether He is telling the truth or deceiving—if he repents, which he would not have done if this had not been said—it is no longer a deception, but it is the truth that is spoken. And the destruction of Nineveh followed from this truth. B It was not against those hearing, nor against those who were deceived and trusted these words as if they were true—for, because the thing did not occur as spoken, and he was not deceived but understood that what was said would not happen, and, despising those words which were in deception, suffered not that which was said, "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," but I dare to say something much more grievous than: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." For against those who, because of the premise, had sinned and not repented, Nineveh perhaps would have been overthrown. But because this did not happen—it became something worse: they were handed over to eternal fire. Therefore, there is another punishment according to the law, as was the case for those who were being trained as children, to whom, when the fullness of time had come, other punishments were prescribed. If you compare the punishments for sins according to the law with the punishments for sinners according to the Gospel, you will see that they heard the punishment as children—the sort suited to children—while we, as those mature in age, hear of heavier punishments. C If one had committed adultery or fornication then, Gehenna, that eternal fire, 261 was not held out to him, but he was to be overwhelmed by stones. "Stone him," he says, "all the congregation." Any adulterer found is to be killed, or the adulteress caught in the act: I wish even that this were said of me, that the people should stone me, and that I should not be reserved for eternal fire. For one who is condemned to the fire of Gehenna is not only the adulterer, but also he who says to his brother, "Fool." But if he who says to his brother, "Fool," shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna, whose shall the adulterer be liable to? Does the fire of Gehenna ask for anything more severe, or is it possible that at the judgment, secret sins—which can be expiated—are counted as Gehenna? Just as it is said of the good things of the just: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him," so, too, that which is prepared for sinners—for whoring, for committing adultery—has not entered into the heart of man. For he who has become liable because he said to his brother, "Fool," D clearly has a liability that is greater than what has entered the heart of man for those who have sinned more grievously. But I cannot conceive of anything greater than Gehenna, but I only believe that something greater than Gehenna is prepared for those who commit adultery. Thus I come to the rest of the punishments of the law, and I take a word of the Apostle which agrees with the works; which conversion, if it had not followed, there would have been no deception, but it would have been the truth that forsooth was said, and the overthrow of Nineveh would have followed. It was in the will of the listeners, or of the deceivers, and of those who believed that what was said was true, to be benefited and not overthrown; but if they had not repented, then the prophecy would no longer have been a deception but the truth, and they would have suffered not merely the predicted destruction, not that which was said: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown"; but I dare say many things more grievous than this: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." From the hypothesis, unless the Ninevites had repented, perhaps the event would have been: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." But let us assume that what was future might not have happened, had they been handed over to eternal fire. Therefore, by the law, another penalty was constituted for those who were being trained like children; for whom, when the fullness of time arrived, other penalties were assigned. Compare these penalties, which the law imposes upon sinners, with those which the Gospel imposes upon the wayward, and you will see that they heard the punishment as infants, suited to infants. We, however, as those perfect in age, are subjected to much more severe ones. If one were then an adulterer or an adulteress, Gehenna was not being threatened, nor eternal fire, but he was to be pelted with stones. "Stone him," he says, "all the congregation." The one found to be an adulterer, or the woman who is caught in adultery: I wish even that it were said over me: let the people pelt me with stones, and let me not be reserved for eternal fire. For the one liable to the fire of Gehenna is not only the adulterer, but he who says to his brother, "Fool." But, "if thou hast called thy brother 'fool,' thou shalt be liable to the fire of Gehenna." Does the fire of Gehenna seek anything else more severe, or is it perhaps possible to think that Gehenna is for those who are unintentional, who can be purified? Just as it is said concerning the good of the just: "What has not entered into the heart of man, God has prepared for those who love Him," so too He has prepared for sinners—for those who whore, for those who commit adultery—what has not entered into the heart of man. For he who has become liable by saying to his brother, "Fool," clearly is greater than what has entered into the heart of those who have sinned worse. But I cannot conceive of anything greater than Gehenna, but I only believe that it is something greater than Gehenna, that which is prepared for those who commit adultery. Thus, I come to look at the remaining punishments of the law, and I take a word of the Apostle agreeing with what has been done:—if this conversion had not followed, there was no deception, but the truth was what was said, and the overthrow of Nineveh followed. It was in the judgment of the hearers, either of the deceivers or those who believed that what was said was true, to be benefited and not to be overthrown. But if it was not true, that which was said, it was in the power of those who heard and were not deceived, but understood that what was said would not happen, and did not suffer what was said: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown"—but I dare to say many things more grievous than this. "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." From the premise, if those who had sinned had not repented, perhaps "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" would have happened. But as it was, it did not happen, it became something worse: they were handed over to eternal fire. Therefore, there was another punishment according to the law for those who were being instructed as children; to whom, when the fullness of time arrived, other punishments were assigned. Compare those punishments which the law inflicts upon sinners with those which the Gospel imposes upon the wayward, and you will see that they, as infants, heard a punishment suited to infants; we, however, as those mature in age, hear of more severe punishments. If then there were a man who was an adulterer, or a woman who was an adulteress, Gehenna, that is, eternal fire, was not being 261 threatened, but he was to be crushed by stones. "Stone him," he says, "all the congregation. Any adulterer that is found to be such, or the woman caught in adultery: I wish even that it were said over me: let the people overwhelm me with stones, and not be reserved for the eternal fire. For he who is liable to the fire of Gehenna is not only the adulterer, but also he who says to his brother, 'Fool.' But he who says to his brother, 'Fool,' shall be liable to the fire of Gehenna; what will the adulterer be liable to? Does the fire of Gehenna seek something more severe, or is it possible that the fire of Gehenna is to be counted among involuntary sins that can be expiated? Just as it is said concerning the good of the just: 'What has not entered into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him, nor has it entered into the heart of man.' For he who says to his brother, 'Fool,' is surely liable to something more than that which is greater than what has entered the heart of man. I can conceive of nothing greater than Gehenna, but I believe that something greater than Gehenna is prepared for adulterers. I say the same of the remaining legal punishments, and using this apostolic saying, which I take, if I have sinned, I will not be spared. I have been deceived, willing to be well deceived. What, then, does the Apostle say? 'He who has treated the law of Moses as nothing, dies without mercy, under two or three witnesses; how much worse do you think he deserves to suffer, who has trampled underfoot the Son of God?'" Shame, o
punishment; express it. I shall not say, he says, "it is greater than those things which are spoken of as punishment in the Gospel, greater than those which are heard, greater than those which are devised." The prophet, having heard, had feared, had been instructed, and afterwards after attaining perfection, was led to say: "You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived." And so while you are a child, fear the threats, those things which are above punishments, suffer eternal penalties, inextinguishable fire, or perhaps something even greater than this, which is reserved for those who continue to live otherwise than by right reason. Of all of which may we never make trial, but rather, having attained perfection in Christ Jesus, may we be justified, so that we may become worthy of the celestial celebrations and of that Passover, which is there fulfilled according to the anagogical sense, in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and empire B for ever and ever. Amen.
HOMILY XIX
On that which is written: "You have deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived," up to: "the Lord who proves the righteous."1. All things which are written by God, however much they may seem in themselves absurd, must yet be thought worthy of the good God. For who would deny that things attributed to God, such as anger, being inflamed, being led to repentance, or even sleeping, are absurd? But each of these must be understood by the person who knows how to hear them, as being worthy of God. For his anger is fruitless, but just as his Word instructs, so also does his anger; for whom his Word does not instruct, his anger does instruct, and it is necessary for God to use that which is called anger, just as he uses that which is named the Word. For his Word is not such as any of the words of all men. No word is living, no word is God. No word was in the beginning with God, whose word it was. Although it was alone, it was from no beginning. Similarly, God’s anger is not anger, whose it is. And just as the Word of God has something peculiar to itself compared to any other word, and this is peculiar to it, to be God, and a living Word subsisting and ministering to the Father; so where the anger of God is once named, it has something peculiar and different from any human anger. In the same way, his fury has a peculiar quality. For when he argues in anger, his fury arises from a purpose: he wants to convert the one being rebuked by the rebuke. He argues, just as the Word instructs, but he does not argue as the Word to rebuke. For those who are not C called back to better fruit by the rebuke of the Word, it is necessary...
D Therefore, our fathers are twofold. But "forget your father’s house," the former one. If, having forgotten your former house, you turn back again to sins, you have committed the sins mentioned here: "They turned back to the iniquities of their fathers, the former ones." I was saying that even the devil was our father before, before God became our Father, if indeed the devil is not even now our father; which we shall also demonstrate from the Catholic Epistle of John, in which it is written: "Everyone who commits sin is born of the devil." If "everyone who commits sin is born of the devil," we are born of the devil as often as we sin. Wretched, therefore, is he who is always being born of the devil, just as, on the other hand, blessed is he who is always being born by God; for I shall not say that the righteous man was born by God once, but that he is always being born with every good deed in which God begets the righteous man. If, therefore, I establish for you concerning the Savior, that the Father did not beget the Son and then release him from his generation, but is always begetting him, I shall also show a parallel case regarding the righteous man.
A Let us see who our Savior is: "The radiance of [His] glory." The radiance of the glory is not begotten once, nor is it [only] being begotten; but as much as the "light" is the productive source of the radiance, to that extent the radiance of the glory of God is being begotten. Our Savior is the "wisdom of God"; and wisdom is the "radiance of eternal light." If, therefore, the Savior is always being begotten—and for this reason He says: "Before all the hills He begets me," not: "Before all the hills He has begotten me," but: "Before all the hills He begets me"—and the Savior is always being begotten by the Father, so also you, if you have "the spirit of adoption," God is always begetting you in Him, in every work and in every thought; and being thus begotten, you are always becoming a child of God, being begotten in Christ Jesus; to whom be the glory and the power unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Homily XX on [the passage] "Make known to me, O Lord, and I shall know," up to "Gather all the beasts of the field, and let them come to devour it."
Homily XIX
If the oracles of God are in the Law and the Prophets, in the Gospels and the Apostles, then one who is being instructed in the oracles of God must inscribe God as his teacher. For "God is the one who teaches man knowledge," as it is written in the Psalms, and the Savior too bears witness that no one on earth should be inscribed as a teacher, saying: "And you, do not call any teacher on earth; for one is your teacher, the Father who is in the heavens." Now "the Father who is in the heavens" teaches either by Himself, or through Christ, or in the Holy Spirit, or through Paul, for example, or through Peter, or through any of the other saints; only let the Spirit of God and the Word of God visit and teach. For what reason is this said by me? Because the prophet says: "Make known to me, O Lord, and I shall know"; for I shall not know unless You make it known to me, but if I know when You are making it known, "then" I shall see "their practices" and I shall understand what each one does and what his disposition is. Thus the prophet. Then let us see what the Savior says in the prophet: "I, as a guileless lamb led to be sacrificed, did not know."
But we, persuaded from many quarters, both from the Holy Scriptures and from the operation according to the magnitude and order of the created things, by God who created things visible and invisible, the temporal and the eternal—as being one and the same in all things with the Father of our Lord and Savior, a good, just, and wise God—strive to bring the Scriptures to that goal, namely, to show that everything is of a good, just, and wise God, and not to fall into suspicions that might occur to those who have intelligence, but according to whether the things said fit or do not fit His goodness, justice, and wisdom, we stand in need of God the Savior. Such things, therefore, do we also conceive concerning the passage: "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh." The Word of God is a physician of the soul, using ways of healing that are most varied and appropriate for those who are ill, and most timely; and of the ways of healing, some produce more pain and torment in those being led to a cure, while others produce less; and again, remedies sometimes appear unseemly, while other times it is not so; and again, they act either more quickly or more slowly.
And after one has been sated with sin, or after he has, so to speak, only tasted it. A And the whole of divinely inspired Scripture is full of testimonies for each individual case, recording how more somber remedies have come upon the people, for the sake of conversion and correction, in greater or lesser wars, and in famines of longer or shorter duration; while also recording things that seem unseemly, as in: "I will not visit your daughters when they play the harlot, and your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery." For perhaps He abandons the souls that are over-eager for things that are thought to be bodily and pleasant, until, sated, they turn away from the things they desire, as if desiring also to vomit them up, and not easily falling into the same things again, because they have been sated and tormented by them to such a degree. B But those who would have despised a second fall into the same things are led to their cure more slowly, on account of having been rid of their evils too quickly. God, the Craftsman, knows the dispositions of each, and, as befits Him alone, is able to apply remedies skillfully, knowing what is necessary and when to do it for each one.
A Just as in certain bodily ailments, where the evil has penetrated to the depth, so to speak, the physician, by means of certain medicines, draws it out and pulls the matter to the surface, causing severe inflammations, swellings, and pains greater than those someone had before setting out to be healed—just as it is their custom to do for those bitten by mad dogs and others who have suffered similar things—so I think that God manages the hidden wickedness that has reached the depth of the soul.
And just as a physician might say regarding someone: "I will cause inflammation around the place of relief, and I will compel these specific parts to swell, so as to produce a severe abscess"—and while the physician is saying these things, someone who hears him with more scientific understanding will not blame him but will even praise the one who is, as it were, threatening to produce these effects, whereas someone else will censure him, claiming that making a person who ought to be healing lead instead to inflammations and abscesses is foreign to the profession of physicians. It is in this way, I think, that God also has said: B
"I will harden Pharaoh's heart." When these things are written, one who hears them as the oracles of God accepts them while preserving the dignity of the speaker, and everyone who seeks finds how to demonstrate that goodness of God is occurring even in these events. A It is more manifest regarding the salvation of the people, being confirmed through many wonders, and secondly regarding those Egyptians who were destined to be struck with fear by what was happening and follow the Hebrews: "For a mixed multitude of Egyptians went up with them," he says; but it is more hidden and deeper, perhaps, even regarding the benefit to Pharaoh himself, who was no longer hiding his poison nor restraining his condition, but was drawing it out and bringing it into the open, and perhaps by acting was exhausting it, in order that, having finished all the emissions of the wickedness residing within him, he might later have the tree that bears evils powerless, perhaps even drying up at the end, when he is drowned—not, as one might think, to perish utterly, but so that, casting off his sins, he might be unburdened, and perhaps go down to Hades in peace or at least not in so great a war of the soul.
But it is likely that those who encounter this will be hard to persuade, supposing that what is said is forced, as if it were really beneficial for Pharaoh that his heart was hardened, and that all the things written concerning him happened even until his drowning. Consider whether we can from this remove the difficulty and produce persuasion regarding what has been said. "Many are the scourges," says David, "of sinners," while his son teaches that "God scourges every son whom He receives." Furthermore, David himself, prophesying the promise concerning Christ and those who believe in Him, says: "If his sons forsake my law, and do not walk in my judgments; if they profane my statutes, and do not keep my commandments; I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their iniquities with scourges; but my mercy I will not take away from them." Therefore, it is a grace of the Lord for the lawless to be visited with a rod and the sinner with scourges. And in so far as the one who sins is not scourged, he is not yet subjected to discipline and correction.
A Sequitur promissio: *Quoniam ridebitis.* Just as the promise is, "They shall be called sons of God," and "They shall see God," and "They shall inherit the earth," and "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven," so there is a promise of laughter, to which is opposed the mourning that is called blessed. You will ask whether to this good laughter there corresponds, in one sense or another, the mourning that is called blessed, and whether, on the other hand, another mourning is opposed to it which is declared miserable B and awaits those who, by contrast, are laughing now. "Woe to those who laugh now, for they shall mourn and weep." For one mourning is that which is called blessed, and another is that which awaits those who have lived wickedly. Whether the latter also has some useful end, I do not know. What do I mean? Hear Paul. When he was teaching, he strove to make his audience sorrowful; and he confesses that he was then most delighted when someone was made sorrowful by him. For he says: "And who is he that makes me glad, but he who is made sorrowful by me?" And if anyone is capable of moving the soul of a listener, especially one who has sinned, he desires to bring forward such words as, by their power, order, divinity, and the weight of their sacred meanings, may strike the soul of the hearer and move it to mourning, to weeping, and to tears, so that the orator rejoices when he sees the listeners C, who were steeped in joy at what was being said, smiling. For when he leads them to the promises as if by a narrow and affliction-filled path to life, in that way he leads them through weeping to the blessed laughter. But when he does not accomplish this, I fear lest he say such things as: "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." But why have these things been said by me, except that I wished to indicate obscurely what he says with these words: "I shall laugh at my bitter word," and to show that the laughter is of weeping, and that the weeping which those who laugh here will shed—perhaps with God forcing them to mourn—is that of which it is written, "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And God effects this, seeing that the one who weeps over his own sins, the one who laments over his own transgressions, has already arrived at a consciousness of his own evils. Would that each of us, for his individual sins, might say: "I will wash my bed every night, and with my tears I will water my couch." Would that D each of us, for his own sins, might say, weeping: "My tears have been my bread day and night." If my discourse here should be more bitter, and bitter because I am in pain, the listeners who are being rebuked bear it ill; but when they bear it ill that I am speaking, I know that the end of my bitter word will be laughter—the laughter of the blessed. Perhaps the prophet, knowing this, was saying: "For with my bitter word I shall laugh." Now indeed with a bitter word, and I do not yet laugh, but with my bitter word I shall laugh. "I shall call upon disobedience and misery." The righteous man calls upon God, the unjust man also calls upon wisdom. "For there will be," he says, "when you call upon me, but I shall not..."
A hear you." There, indeed, the unjust and the righteous alike clearly call upon wisdom. And "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved"; but here the prophet says: "I shall call upon disobedience and misery." Just as one would upon God, so too upon disobedience; just as upon the Lord, so too upon misery. Is it a good thing, then, that Jeremiah calls upon, when he promises, saying: "I shall call upon disobedience and misery"? But it is necessary to consider the covenants we make, and how they are broken; for sometimes covenants are formed iniquitously, and regarding these, once made iniquitously, would that we might call upon disobedience!
So too, if I consider the broad and spacious way that leads to destruction, and that in journeying upon it I suffer no affliction, I depart from the broad and spacious way and come to the narrow and constricted one, and being afflicted, I say: "I shall call upon misery." For I intend to break the covenants made with the world and worldly things, so that I may take up heavenly covenants. "I shall call upon disobedience." Thus, having abandoned the life of the broad and spacious way, and coming to the narrow and constricted one, in order that I may become wretched like Paul, I say: "I shall call upon misery." B For not every man will say: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" But he who has understood the body of death, he who wishes to be liberated from this body of death, he will say: "Wretched man that I am." But he who loves the body—the common man, the one who does not believe in the age to come—does not say: "Wretched man that I am," but considers himself blessed that he is a man and that he exists in this body of death. If, therefore, I could perceive how Paul said: "Wretched man that I am," and I have not yet called upon misery, I shall call upon it by breaking my pacts with sin, and I shall say with Jeremiah: "I shall call upon disobedience and misery." For he did not say: "I shall call upon the disobedience of God."
I wish to bring an example from Scripture of a righteous person breaking a pact, in order to demonstrate how she called upon disobedience through her deed. Judith made a pact C with Holofernes that, after so many days had passed, she would go out to pray to God, and after those days she would surrender herself to the bed of Holofernes. Holofernes accepted these pacts; he granted Judith the power to pray to God outside the tents. What was Judith to do? Was the pact to be kept or broken? Certainly it was to be broken, as all admit. For to violate the pacts entered into with Holofernes was blessed in the sight of God. Judith was about to violate the pact with Holofernes, and she said: "I shall call upon disobedience"; and indeed she did call upon disobedience. Would that I, too, might become such a one as to say: "I shall call upon disobedience," and I shall call upon the disobedience of the pact with the serpent, the pact with the devil. A covenant was once made D by the serpent with Eve. That one was friendly to her, and the serpent was a friend to the woman. But God, being good, saw to it that these pacts were dissolved and this wicked friendship destroyed, and as a good God says: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed." Piously, therefore, let us hear in what way God [set] enmity...
towards the latter, so that He may fashion friendship towards Christ; for it is impossible to be a friend at the same time to opposites. And just as no one can serve two masters, so no one can be a friend both to God and Mammon, a friend both to Christ and to the serpent; but it is necessary that the friendship for Christ should create enmity towards the serpent, and that the friendship for the serpent should give birth to enmity towards Christ.
"I will invoke transgression and misery." But so that you may better understand what is meant by "I will invoke misery," I will describe what is accustomed to happen among ascetics B. For often, when it is open to one to marry and thus avoid the vexation of the flesh rising up against the spirit, someone chooses not to use the power to marry, but to suffer and to toil, to discipline the body with fastings, and to lead it into subjection by abstinence from such foods, and in every way to mortify by the spirit the deeds of the flesh. Has not such a one "invoked misery," when he could have given himself over to delights and pleasures and not "invoked misery"? If, therefore, anyone can imitate the prophet, let him invoke "transgression," as we have explained, and let him also invoke "misery" in his pious exercises. And it is true that this also occurred in the case of Jeremiah, since he lived chastely as a celibate; for God said to him: "You shall not take a wife, nor shall you beget children"; and he lived in chastity. For he "invoked transgression and misery."
"For the word of the Lord has become a reproach to me." C Blessed is Jeremiah, having no other reproach than the word of the Lord; but we wretched ones have reproaches not because of the word of the Lord, but because of our own sins! And we are reproached for the faults into which we have fallen and continue to fall, and we are reviled for our evil deeds. But the Savior does not wish us to be vexed by such reproaches when He says: "Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you for my sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy." The word, therefore, he says, of the Lord has become to me a reproach and for a derision all the day. Then consider how the prophets are candid men, not, as we do, concealing their own sins, but saying openly—not only to the men of their own age, D but to all generations—if they have sinned. For my part, I hesitate to confess my iniquities here before a few, since those who hear me are about to condemn me; but Jeremiah, when he had committed some fault, did not blush, but committed his sin to writing. For the sin was what follows: "And I said: I will not mention the name of the Lord, nor will I speak anymore in His name." You have been taught to do all things in the name of the Lord; but you say: "I will not mention the name..."
of the Lord, and I will not speak any more in His name." A You see how one who has suffered something human—which we too often run the risk of suffering—speaks this way? And indeed, when someone is conscious of having been mistreated because of his teaching and his word, and has been vexed and held in hatred, he often says: "I am departing; what have I to do with these troubles? Because of this I am hated, because of this instruction, because of this word." Why then do I not rather depart into solitude and quiet? A prophet, too, has felt something like this when he said: "I will not mention the name of the Lord, nor will I speak anymore in His name." But the good Lord, who prevents the sins of so many, did not allow the prophet to stop at these things said, and to fall into this falsehood; but He willed that he should call out against his transgression. B He said, in fact: "I will not mention the name of the Lord, nor will I speak anymore in His name." "But there has become in my heart as it were a burning fire, flaming in my bones, and I am dissolved on all sides, and I cannot bear it." The word of the Lord has become a burning fire in his heart. "It has become as a burning fire, flaming in my bones." He submitted the sin he had committed, saying: "I will not mention the name of the Lord, nor will I speak anymore in His name," and he simultaneously confessed the sin of Jeremiah, that he had uttered a word worthy of rebuke, feeling in his heart a burning fire, a fire in my bones, so that I cannot bear it. Boldly, even if it is stated, whether this is to be profitable to these listeners, I do not know. C He said that there is a certain kind of fire, a fire not perceived by sensation, a fire that punishes the one being punished with such pain that it is intolerable. He said, in fact: "It has become in my heart as a burning fire, and it is burning not only in my heart, but in my bones, and I am dissolved, and I cannot bear it." I fear lest there be reserved for us a fire like that which was in the heart of Jeremiah. But we, not being experienced in this, if we were to be proposed two fires—this one, and the external one which we see burning those who are punished by the rulers of the nations—we would prefer this one to the other; for that one burns the surface, but this one burns the heart, and starting from the heart it permeates through all the bones, through all the parts of the body, and so it invades so that it consumes what it burns. D Who can speak of such a fire? And I cannot bear it? I know also of robbers, who, because of the force of the pain which it inflicts, could not bear this fire. It is another pain, which the fire that Jeremiah describes brings, saying: "And it became in my heart as a burning fire, burning in my bones, and I am dissolved on all sides, and I cannot bear it." The Savior kindles this fire, and says: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth." And because He Himself kindles that fire, He therefore says to those beginning to listen to Him:
He casts fire first upon their hearts, just as Simon and Cleopas confess, saying regarding His words: "Did not our heart burn within us, as He opened to us the Scriptures?" And the heart burns with fire, both Simon's and Cleopas's; listen to them saying: "Was not our heart burning?"
Who is now worthy to receive that fire into his heart? If he has not received it in vain, I wish to describe who it is that has this fire in his heart. I am describing two who have sinned the selfsame sin: the defiled one, and the impure fornication—and of these two who have committed fornication, the one is not sorrowing, nor pained, nor stung, but suffers what is said in Proverbs regarding the harlot woman, who, whatever she does, washing herself, says she has done nothing amiss. See the other, who after his fall cannot bear it, but is tortured by his conscience, and experiences the torments of the heart, neither being able to eat nor drink, and even if she fasts under judgment, it is not from a willing heart, but because she lacks sustenance due to the pain of repentance; furthermore, she is sad all day long, afflicted, wandering, roaring from the groaning of her heart, having her sin before her eyes, and is always being reproved. And such a person is not for one day, or for one night, but for a long time tortured. Which of the two do you prefer? Which one do you say has hope in God? Or is it the one who fornicated and did not care, but became hardened, as if having surrendered himself to licentiousness; or the one who after that one sin is mourning and lamenting? This one is clearly superior in hope. For exactly as much as one is burned by the pain of the fire, by so much the more is he pitied, and for him the time of this punishment is sufficient, just as for those who are punished for the one who fornicated and is sorrowful. And since time is profitable for this one to be punished here, for this reason He brought about the punishment of the fornicator; and when He punished him through sorrow, and saw the sorrow to be sufficient, He says: "Lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive sorrow, confirm charity towards him." Each of us must examine his own conscience, and see if he has sinned. Since it is necessary for him to be punished, let him pray to God for this fire of Jeremiah to come upon him, and then he will be kept from the other fire; for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned and did not take care, he will be kept for that other fire. For if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be kept for that other fire; for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned and took no care, he will be reserved for the other fire—for if he did not receive fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be kept for the other fire—for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be kept for that other fire; for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be kept for the other fire—for if he did not take the fire here, but sinned and took no care, he will be reserved for the other fire—for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned and took no care, he will be kept for that other fire; for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be kept for the other fire—for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be reserved for the other fire; for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be kept for the other fire—for if he did not receive the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be reserved for the other fire; for if he did not take the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be kept for the other fire—for if he did not take the fire here, but sinned, and did not take care, he will be reserved for the other fire; for if he did not take the fire here, but sinned and did not take care, he will be reserved for the other fire. And indeed the blessed Jeremiah, except, I say, for the qualification of this minor sin, and he "leaves 'father and mother'"—that is, the "Jerusalem above"—and comes to the earthly place and says: "I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance"—for that was his inheritance, the places with the angels, the order with the holy powers—"I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies"; He delivered His soul into the hands of the enemies of the soul, into the hands of the Jews who killed Him, into the hands of the rulers gathered against Him, into the hands of kings, when "the kings of the earth stood, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ." "My inheritance has become to me as a lion in a forest." This, his inheritance on earth which he has inherited, became beast-like toward Him, and the inheritance became the Jews, who grew savage against Him "as a lion in a forest." It is no wonder if then His inheritance became "as a lion in a forest"; even now, there are lions in a forest desiring to anathematize Jesus and blaspheming Him and plotting against those who believe in Him. "My inheritance" therefore "became to me as a lion in a forest, it has lifted up its voice against me, therefore I have hated it." "And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to afflict you and test you, and that what was in your heart might be known, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He afflicted you, and made you hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God shall man live." For He keeps in these things that God afflicts and tests, so that what is in the heart of each may be known, as being indeed there, but stored up in the depth and coming to light through the afflictions. Such also is that which is told in Job by the Lord through whirlwinds and clouds to Job thus: "Do you think that I have dealt with you otherwise than that you might appear righteous?" For He did not say: "that you might become righteous," but "that you might appear"; being such even before the trials, but appearing so in the things that have happened. And again in another place in the same notes on Exodus—
"Is mine inheritance to me as a hyena's den?"
He prophesies concerning this inheritance: "Has my inheritance become a hyena's den?" A hyena's den, that most wild creature, that eater of corpses, that haunts the tombs, that devours dead bodies? "Is mine inheritance to me as a hyena's den? Or is there a den in it round about it? Go,"—since they have become such, I command you, the angels, to go and gather together the wild beasts and deliver them to the beasts—"go and gather together all the beasts of the field, and let them come to eat it up." The "beasts of the field" have come, they are devouring that people; look at their hearts being devoured by the opposing powers.And one of our own people, seeking to explain the difficulty from common usage, said that often good masters, being long-suffering toward their sinning servants, are accustomed to say: "I have ruined you," and "I have made you evil," indicating in their manner that their goodness and long-suffering seemed to have become the pretext for greater wickedness. Just as, when such things are said, a slanderer might say that the master has confessed to having made the servant evil, so too, the things brought about by the goodness of God have been recorded as having hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the goodness becoming the pretext for Pharaoh's hardness. But this man will further support what he has understood by citing words from the Apostle: "Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds." The same apostle, at any rate, in the same Epistle to the Romans says:
If Jesus did not spare them, but said, "Go, gather the beasts," how much more will He not spare us? If we do not keep the law of God, the word of the Gospel, He will say again: "Go, gather the beasts, and deliver her up." But we have boldness, so that we may say in our prayers: "Do not deliver to the beasts a soul that confesses to You." Let us confess our transgressions, repenting, and we shall not be delivered to the beasts, but to holy angels who shall be our nurturers, carrying us in their bosoms, transferring us from this age to the age to come in Christ Jesus, to whom is the power and the glory unto the ages. Amen.
11. On "Because of me, the whole earth has been destroyed by destruction" and on "the girdle." Homily 11.
"But if God, willing to show His wrath and to make known His power, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction"—as if the longsuffering of God had endured the vessels of wrath and, as it were, given birth to them. For if, because of His forbearance in not punishing those who sin but having mercy upon them, they abounded in the pouring out of wickedness, He in a way endured the vessels of wrath by His own longsuffering, and, if I may so say, He Himself made them vessels of wrath, and according to this He Himself hardened their heart. For when, with so many signs and wonders taking place, Pharaoh is not persuaded, but resists after such great things, how is he not proved to be harder and more unbelieving, the hardness and unbelief seeming to have come about from the miraculous powers? Similar also is that which is in the Gospel: "For judgment I came into this world"—for the Savior did not purpose to come for judgment, but there followed upon His coming that He came for judgment for those who, after the wonders, did not believe Him; but He also came for the fall of many; not purposing when He was coming to cause those to fall for whose fall He had come. And after other things:
Who is he that says: "Because of Me, the whole earth has been utterly devastated"? Christ says these things, before whose coming many sins had indeed been committed by the people, but not such that they were entirely forsaken and delivered into long-lasting captivity. But when they "filled up the measure of their fathers," and added to the slaying of the prophets and the persecution of the righteous the killing of "the Christ of God," then came to pass that saying, "Your house is left unto you," and because of Him they have suffered these things, and "the whole earth has been utterly devastated." But if you wish to hear a higher meaning of "Because of Me, the whole earth has been utterly devastated," observe how the earth within you has been devastated by the coming of Jesus; for it has been devastated through the "mortifying of the members that are upon the earth," and the earth no longer produces its own fruits. No longer do "the works of the flesh," which once made the flesh flourish, occur in the righteous man; no longer "fornication," no longer "uncleanness," no longer "lasciviousness," no longer "idolatry," no longer "sorcery," and the rest.
Thus, the wonders that were performed were a mercy to those who received them and believed, just as they were to the mixed multitudes of Egyptians who had accompanied the people; but to the disobedient, they brought hardness to their hearts. And from the Gospel, beyond what has already been said, it is possible to set forth similar things concerning the fact that the Savior appeared to be the cause of evils to some: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you," He says, "Capernaum," and what follows. For since the Savior was a foreknower of the unbelief of those in Chorazin and in Bethsaida and in Capernaum, and that it would be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for them, why did He perform the wonders in Chorazin and in Bethsaida, seeing that because of them it would be more tolerable for the Tyrians and Sidonians in the day of judgment than for these?
And after other things: "But you shall say to Pharaoh: Thus says the Lord: Israel is My firstborn son; and I said to you: Let My people go, that they may serve Me."
And the Savior also says: "Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? I have not come to bring peace but a sword." For truly, before He came, there was no sword on earth, nor did "the flesh lust against the Spirit, nor the Spirit against the flesh." But when He came and we were taught what things are of the flesh and what are of the Spirit, this teaching, having become like a "sword" on earth, separated the flesh and the earth from the Spirit. And "the earth" is indeed "made to disappear" when "we bear about the dying of Jesus in the body," and we no longer "live according to the flesh," but the Spirit lives, and we sow nothing "to the flesh" but everything "to the Spirit," so that we may not "reap corruption" from the flesh, but "from the Spirit eternal life." And it is said to those who have sinned: "Sow wheat and reap thorns." For even if they discourse on the oracles of God, those who do not discourse on them well, nor live in the manner that they ought, nor believe, sow wheat and reap thorns. And these things are most especially to be understood regarding the heterodox who encounter the Scriptures and reap thorns, not from the Scriptures, but from their own inventions.
"Their lots shall not profit them." These things others have explained before us; and since we do not reject their explanation, we gratefully bring it forth, not as having discovered it ourselves, but as having learned a good lesson. This word will profit both you and us, if we pay attention to what is written, we who seem to be seated before you as being from a "lot," so that some wish to come to this lot. But know that the lot does not save entirely; for many elders will perish, and many among the laity will be shown to be blessed. Since, therefore, there are some in the lot who do not live in such a way as to profit and adorn the lot, for this reason, they who have explained it say, it is written: "Their lots shall not profit them"; for that which profits is not the very fact of sitting in the presbytery, but living in a way worthy of the place, as the Word requires.