683 SPURIA. one mind, one sentiment, and we imitate the modulated and magnificent melody of the Cherubim for the singing of hymns to God. For just as they succeed each other, one taking up from another, to sing the thrice-holy hymn, so too do we, by establishing two choirs after their pattern and responding to one another, sing a spiritual melody. It is a wondrous thing to those who are outside, desirable to those who see it, and it engenders love in those who hear it, and a divine and efficacious feeling is found within us, by which we perceive that the causes of corrupt habits and dissensions have been torn away from us. Because of us, all shall glorify God, seeing a heavenly life on earth. Therefore, Paul taught us all to think the same thing and to say the same thing (Phil. 2:2); therefore, Christ sends the apostles in pairs; He even instructed women in concord, so that He might not constitute even the company of virgins lacking in this angelic imitation. Therefore He says, *I beseech Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord* (Phil. 4:2). He ordered them to count others as better than themselves, so that they might not be separated by ambition, or rather by vainglory; but, deferring honor to their neighbor, they might be joined and associated with them. Honorific surely are our things, and truly above worldly things are those which pertain to sacred and divine love. Let us look also at the teaching of the Law. You shall not be proud, He says, toward the needy, but you shall distribute liberally; the poor man shall enjoy your fruits; and the poor man shall have the remnants of the harvest and the vintage for his food; in the seventh year the slave shall be sent away into liberty; and in the fiftieth year every debt shall be cancelled; and those who have sold their possessions shall receive them back, not giving a price. You shall not exact interest; you shall not take as a pledge 684 either the mill or the upper millstone, nor shall you take the garment of the poor as a pledge, nor shall you violently invade to take a pledge. You shall not leave the beast of burden of your neighbor, even if he should be your enemy; but you shall return even the stray animal to him, having become a servant to him, as to a friend, and dissolving enmities, the occasion being offered. Furthermore, all these precepts were given for no other reason than for the sacred and desirable love of God: for the evangelical precepts also concur in this. For after He said many things pertaining to the fulfilling of the Law, He added: *Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you* (Matt. 5:44); in all things dissolving enmity and inserting love. Let there be a debt among you, to love one another, which is never ended: for Paul says, *Owe no one anything, except to love one another* (Rom. 13:8). For just as we seek food daily, and previous satiety does not prevent us from seeking nourishment daily; but that, nature demanding, is as it were our debt: so let us follow the same form in love. *The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing* (Eccles. 1:8). Sweet is light to the eyes, and no one seeing it is fatigued by the eyes, nor by the ears in hearing: so also the desirable duty of love is to be fulfilled unweariedly, nor ought one ever to be satisfied. For much water shall not be able to extinguish love: *There remain, He says, these three: faith, hope, love* (1 Cor. 13:13). For as it was from the beginning, so it shall remain unto the ages: following which, would that we might attain eternal goods, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ON THAT SAYING, "IF THOU ART THE SON OF GOD, CAST THYSELF DOWN" (Matt. 4:6), AND "THE DEVIL TAKETH HIM UP INTO AN EXCEEDINGLY HIGH MOUNTAIN," ETC.
The sun indeed, performing its course above the earth and riding toward us from the east, takes away the night and awakens the sleepers, and hands them over to the works: but the light of divine cognition awakens the soul, illuminates thoughts, and excites it unto virtues. This truly is more to be desired by us than the light of the sun. For one can live without the sun; for he lives blind, who knows the sun only by hearing: but souls destitute of the sun of the knowledge of God are dead, even if they seem to live; of whom the Lord says: *Let the dead bury their own dead* (Matt. 8:22). But He who wrestled with the author of death delivered the life of men from both deaths. For there is a double death among us: that, namely, which proceeds from nature; and the other which happens from ignorance: for ignorance of God is like unto mortal insensibility. The devil wrought both deaths: by shattering which, Christ delivered nature from both deaths, where He restored the soul with life-giving dogmas, and by resurrection restored that which was mortal. For when he who impelled falls, he who was impelled shall stand. And the arena of that struggle has been left to the human race, that, looking upon it, human nature might be strengthened. Where is that arena? Look at the desert: for there grace raised Him up by the image, by which the tyrant is killed, and which puts the tyrant to flight through deserts. We see the desert as the place of the struggle, the devil as the hand that brings hunger upon the Lord; and three struggles, three responses: for the law of battle is that the struggle be tripled. Enumerate the triple struggle: "If you are the Son of God, say that these stones become loaves." Here the devil clashes with the Lord. But Christ says to him: *Man shall not live by bread alone.* The Lord avoided the harm. "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down." These are the second struggles of the demon. *You shall not tempt the Lord your God.* This saying solved the attempt. "All these things I will give you, if falling you will worship me." This is the beginning of the third struggle, by which the Savior, like some athlete, threw the contentious adversary the devil out of the stadium. *Get behind me, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.* While you see the battle, learn to fight: from a spectator, may you become a pugilist. The first struggle of the Lord against the devil teaches you a struggle against the pleasures: for the beginning of the struggles was hunger; hunger, the tyrannical concupiscence; hunger, the head of pleasures. For concupiscence of food is an unbridled desire: for the belly sees a relentless pleasure, which many, not being able to cherish, have rushed to the point that they denied providence, as if God cared nothing for the famished. The devil impels Christ also to this matter, hoping that he would shake him off as a man pressed by hunger: for he did not know that divinity was conjoined to him: since he would not have attacked him if he knew he was hungry. He who knew that his nature would never be hungry, had he known that God was present, would not have spoken of food. But seeing him as a man, he addresses him as a man: "If you are the Son of God, say that these stones become loaves." An examiner of filiation not sought after, he cares for the food more pernicious than the hunger. First he had supposed divinity to arise from the tree; now, on the occasion of appetite, he shows that the desert has nothing else than stones, so that from the place of hunger increasing desperation, he might shake the mind with incredulity, and solve the question of whether he were the Son. But let us look at the tempter, and let us explore the snares of his words. "If you are the Son of God," he says, "say that these stones become loaves." You were recently called the Son, he says, when you were baptized, and we heard this voice: *This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased* (Matt. 3:17). I was mocking the appellation, the irony, the ridiculous praise, empty of honor: where truly that saying was perchance a pleasure, and you believe as though truly beloved, and you trust as though established in heaven, and you were rejoicing as being cared for by God. What father is not solicitous about a hungry son? What patron does not feed him who flees to him? You truly are being macerated for forty days fasting, and your father does not care for you as you are hungry, and despises long-lasting hunger? What father loving his offspring does not distribute bread to a hungry son?
A Show your love by supplying bread: nourish the Son who is hungry in the wilderness. He can turn stones into bread: if you believe He is God, offer grace so that the Son may be glorified; before you receive it, do not admit such a ridiculous title. O inhumanity! O ruinous compassion! O stinging poison! He incites him to unbelief, and invites him to ask for food, not that he might nourish the hungry, but that he might reject him when he asks for bread, as if he were an unbeliever toward God. Look at God who speaks falsely: *This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased*. What then, does the Master Christ do? He does not reveal the hidden God, lest he frighten away the prey, but He answers him as a mere man. *For it is written*, he says, *Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God*. He says: "The scarcity of food does not perplex me, nor does hunger in the wilderness trouble me; I do not ask for bread to be made from stones; for there are many paths of divine providence, and manifold ways of protection. For He gave to men food from nourishment, and the structure of the flesh is food; but the divine letter 735 taught me that God transcends the limits of nature. I remember the divine voice crying out to men, not to fear hunger when God cares for them. Do not therefore spare the hungry, and show the wilderness as a place of despair; let God care, even if bread is not present. For God is life-giving even without food, and flesh shall live without food, if God commands it to be so. Thus it is written, he says, and I believe, trusting in divine words, and I do not expect life from food alone. Through what Adam offended, Christ reconciles. For because Adam fell through unbelief and food (having disbelieved God and eaten, he was brought low), Christ came and revived nature, beginning from temperance and faith. Therefore, the devil now faces him directly. For *before the birth*, he says, *because of the suspicion of adultery I conspired against the birth; having fallen from hope, I failed by hunting Him born through Herod; remaining defeated, I shall now fight through myself.* Oh, blind contender! He was defeated when He was an infant, and he encounters Him as a mature man! Approach, O devil, and taste of the mature man; learn His strength a second time. For having already approached Him while He was hungry, he was shattered (and you have heard the manner of the fall); expecting to regain his lost ground, he doubles his daring. For just as he was deceived by his first machine, and having approached Him while hungry did not deceive Him, he introduces a second piece of wickedness. "My old device is useless," he says; "I renounce the art that cast down Adam; I set aside the bait of food; for this one seems to be a king of pleasures. For he who is not puffed up by the nourishment of pleasure does not seek bread in a long duration. Not being persuaded by hunger, he is unassailable by the battle of the flesh. I have plotted a device for another wrestling bout: I have a sweeter hook, the sweet-hunting glory. It is the snare of vainglory; it is not only sweet, but also double-knotted; for the passion of madness is interwoven with vainglory. For he who is captivated by glory is prompt toward ostentation; and in this, the pretext for the passion is present. Perhaps he thinks something more, as one who has fasted for many days. I will tickle him toward pride; approaching as if to a righteous man, I will puff him up with psalms, as if predicted of him, and I will lure him with a deceitful question. Let the precipice be the place for my question; having seized him at the wing of the temple, I will pull him up, and to him who has reached the height, I will hold out: *If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone*. By all means, either he will accept the trial, or he will flee. If then he accepts, being eager as a righteous one, he will consent to the proposal of the fall; he will cast his body down from the height; and I, if he falls and dies, will laugh at the dead man; but if he lives, I will have wounded him with the passion of vainglory, having persuaded him to cast himself down for my proof. And if I were to see him declining, I will strike against God, just as with Job, slandering the gift of sonship thus: 'I have read a saying written for him by you, I spoke of the promise of your salvation, and he did not dare to cast himself into the deep, it is clear that he does not trust what you promised; how then did you call one so faithless a Son?' But the thought did not escape the Master, and He gives Himself to delay, as a man accompanying a man. And He holds out the thought to him who has ascended. *If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down*. We answer the devil who proposes this: 'If you judge that having God as Father is a sign of a man remaining unharmed in a harmful situation, you have proof of what you propose; for this very thing, O devil, is the proof of sonship, that He does not push you when you stand beside Him at the precipice, though you are eager to cast Him down from a great height.' But it is nothing other than this, that he says, 'While you invite me to fall, and you wish that I be brought down willingly; *Cast thyself down*, for it is written that *He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone*' 736. Since he also exhibits these things as God and knows Him. For if the adversary knew Him to be God, he would not have proposed the fall from the height to Him; for he knew that God is not defined by height or breadth, but is filled by being exalted with the high, and by His broadness. He knew the divine to be free from stumbling blocks; for stumbling is for human feet, not for God. That he did not speak to Him as God, the words of the devil testify. But let us hear also the meaning of the words. 'A little while ago,' he says, 'you said: *It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God*; and I praised your faith toward the Divine; but since there is another saying of God saying that *He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone*, show that you trust the saying of God, and having cast yourself down, falling harmlessly, use this precipice as a judge of your sonship, use the fall as a proof of divine care. For if, having fallen from there, you arise unharmed, the claim of sonship spoken to you is true; for this God previously promised you, that *He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways*.' You hold out the oil from a stinking vessel, O devil, having renewed an ancient story. A certain lion was destroyed over Samson, which, having a honeycomb in its mouth, was foul-smelling; and you drip lion-like Scriptural honey through your mouth, and you are found out, having fallen by the Master’s answer. *For it is written*, He says, *Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God*. He neither refused to cast himself down, nor did he consent to it. For if He had refused to cast Himself down, He would have given the devil a handle, who, not trusting in God, and having agreed to the proposal of the fall, would have seemed boastful and ready for display. 'Without having consent or refusal,' *Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God*; saying this to the devil, 'You shall not tempt Me, your Master.' For if he had learned this, he would not later have approached Him as a man, promising: *All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me*. I receive the voices of the Psalms as true, for God promising protection; I know Him to be commanding angels on behalf of men; but not when they tumble into precipices, not when they kill themselves willingly, not when they tempt without need. Having fallen in this second attempt, the devil rises up to a third trial. But the account of the third issues out as a debtor, and the handwriting of the debt departs to all of you. For this handwriting is sweet, and bitter only to the devil; for he has the payment from his own falls. Therefore, I am convinced that there are two installments of the handwriting of the promise; but the debt remains for me, which I think is more grievous than the rest for the whole. For the rest of the debt is the third cunning of the devil, third in order, but first in magnitude; last in the number of his wandering, but first in the wickedness of his art. For the first ones were a heap of evils; for he did not ask for apostasy from God openly, but using the divine memory, and naming the *If thou be the Son of God* to Him, he fashioned the art of the God-fighter with a pious face; but in the third trial, the madness of wickedness is naked, the evil peering out uncovered; for he asked for worship from the one who is worshipped, having imagined the worship from what he had heard. For since he saw Him speaking of the Master everywhere with faith, and saying not to tempt God, he drove the Master toward an easy-to-lead faith, and not to investigate the examination of this. And indeed, he approaches with a glorious appearance, as if to strike with the sight. *For the devil takes Him*, he says, *to an exceeding high mountain, and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory*. For having sketched an airy and false version of the forms of the air, and having composed an uncomposed cosmography, and having fashioned beauties of a misrepresenting kingdom, he hoped that the piety toward the Master would be led away by the luster of the fantasy. Now indeed