HISTORICAL DIALOGUE OF PALLADIUS, BISHOP OF HELENOPOLIS, WITH THEODORE, DEACON OF THE ROMAN CHURCH, CONCERNING THE LIFE AND CONVERSATION OF THE BLESSED JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
A Cap. I. — The gifts of God, most excellent brother Theodore, are in some respects, it seems, common and undivided; but in others, common and divided. A third class of these consists of those which are neither common, nor divided, nor undivided, but personal, given according to a special grace to those to whom they are given.
Deacon. Come, tell us the order of each kind; for you have prefaced this plausibly.
Bishop. Those natural goods, without which life is grievous and impious, are common and undivided.
Deacon. How so, Father?
Bishop. First of all, the God of the universe, with His only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, is common and undivided; for it is permitted to every one who wills it, without any trouble, to embrace Him entirely in contemplation. Then, after God, the divine Scriptures and the supermundane powers. Furthermore, the heaven, the sun, the moon, and all the choir of the stars, and the very air are common and undivided, as being all things for all. Within these, the class of undivided things remains for us. At one time the earth was also common and undivided, along with the flowing of the waters; but from the time when the fervor of avarice occupied the minds of the voluptuous, the heavier elements of earth and water were divided.
Deacon. What you have said is very clear; but complete the account of the second kind, the divided things.
Bishop. It is necessary that the context of the argument should not be left incomplete. Gold, therefore, and silver and all metallic nature, and moreover timber materials, and to say it in one word, whatsoever things are intermediate, are indeed common, but yet divided; for they are not entirely in the power of any one as he pleases.
Deacon. This statement is also still evident. But I fear that you may fail in the demonstration of the third kind of special gifts, having promised to show that there are some things which are neither common nor divided, but personal, according to the privilege of those who have been worthy of that gift. But having put an end to this discourse, tell us whence you came, and the things the truth of which we desire to know.
Bishop. If it lies with me, and if I have knowledge of the things which you wish to know, I will not refuse, nor conceal anything; I will discharge the debt of the promised discourse as far as I am able. Therefore, you will find virginity and the rest of chastity to be undivided; for they are not of the class of common or divided things, since not every one who wishes keeps virginity, but he who can; for most of those who are joined in matrimony desire it indeed, but do not attain it, because they are preoccupied by marriage. Just as in the Olympic games the herald calls him who wishes to compete, but he crowns him who has conquered, so also is it in chastity, as the Gospel says. For when Peter had answered the Savior: "If such is the cause of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry" (Matt. 19. 10, 11), the Savior said to this: "Not all can receive this word, but those to whom it is given." Do you see that it is not for all, but for those to whom it is given?
Deacon. I thought you would have difficulty in explaining what the special gifts are, but you have persuaded us surely and strongly by the testimony of Scripture.
Bishop. If these things are clear to you, I will adorn my discourse with remaining testimonies, so that those who are depraved in mind, being persuaded by these, may cease to snatch at what they could not take. For we find that the priesthood also in the divine Scriptures is neither common nor divided, but proper to those who are worthy of it, as that man of exalted mind, Paul, admonishes the Hebrews, B saying: "For no one takes the honor to himself, but he who is called by God" (Hebr. 5. 4). So also, he says, Aaron did not pride himself in being high priest. For when there were six hundred thousand men, and many of them had a zeal for God, Aaron alone was declared high priest, whom God had assumed to be pontiff, as the miracle of the rod, which produced nuts, persuaded the multitude (Num. 17. 8). But many, ignorant of all goods, struck by the goad of vain glory, having opined that the priesthood is among common and divided things, chosen by themselves, seize that thing—having found a end worthy of their madness—while they make the very land of their synagogue a witness to their rashness. For Dathan and Abiron (Num. 16. 32), when with meretricious eyes they had coveted the dignity of the priesthood, perished swallowed by the earth with all their followers, having found for their synagogue an impromptu sepulcher. After these, Oza, unmindful of higher things, seized by the same greed, sought that thing. For when one day the ark was being carried in a wagon (2 Reg. 6. 6), it happened by chance that the calf which was drawing it disturbed it, causing it to shake. Oza, therefore, who was following, caught it with his hand, not suffering it to be overturned. But when God saw this, and it did not please Him—since from that a custom might arise for the rash to handle the Ark—He prohibited it, Oza being struck dead, teaching those who came after to desist from similar rashness. And at length, after a long intervening time, after the advent of Christ, Simon Magus from the village of Githon, an artificer of doctrines adverse to the truth, that crafty one in wickedness, fearing the punishments of those above, handles wickedness with art, that if he had sown similar things, he might reap equal ones. Therefore, covering the wolf with a sheep's skin, he approaches the apostles blandly (Act. 8), with gold coins, so that he might not seem to seize what he was most wickedly striving to buy: saying things which both He and all who imitate him,