In cosmogoniam homilia 4

Of the same author, on the fourth day of cosmogony. Yesterday, our voice, which was faltering, was strengthened by the grace of God through your prayers and your longing. Having used that experience as a teacher, I come again to the same exhortation, as far as longing and zeal for love of God prevail, again beseeching you to ask for the same grace on your behalf. For if Paul, the chosen vessel, who had Christ speaking within him, who was guided by the Holy Spirit, secured the prayer of his hearers by saying, "Brothers, pray for me, that speech may be given to me when I open my mouth," how much more do we, the humble and, so to speak, nothing, ask for your intercession, that the bond of the tongue may be loosed and the word of frankness may be opened; and may divine grace itself keep the instrument unimpeded and supply an abundance of thoughts—not so that the speaker alone may gain the divine things, but so that I may draw the heavenly wealth together with you. Come then, let us touch upon the sequence. For it is fitting, I think, just as the lawgiver Moses himself completed the account of creation with sequence and order, so also we, linking second things to first and third things to second, should judge well and hand over to you the exposition of the word without confusion. The heaven was fixed, the firmament was established, the sea was separated, the earth was laid bare, it was adorned with fruits, plants, trees, springs, and was beautified with everything, in a word, that was necessary. For the growth that came from it was not simple, but varied and diverse.

Some things adorned the earth itself, others were for the nourishment of humans or irrational animals, and still others provided use to the aforementioned humans. For it is not the present occasion to go through the various things that have sprung up from the earth, lest the length of the discourse weary your ears. The heaven also received its own adornment. Then God proceeds to the waters and makes them bring forth a living soul, the great and all-wise creator, who by an unforced nod and by the holy word accomplished everything, as you have learned the truth of things from the truth of the word itself, when you heard him saying, "Let the waters be gathered together," and immediately the work followed the word. And again, "Let the earth bring forth, and let the waters bring forth, and let the luminaries be made." And it would be a long time now to go through all the things that came to be by the word. For let us leave aside the things of the old creation and come to those that came to be by his word alone in the new covenant. For this is the one who created the old and made the new, according to John who says, "All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be." What discourse will be able to expound these things accurately? But let us keep to the sequence. This all-wise creator, then, as we said earlier, adorned what he first made; he also gave adornment to the second thing that came to be; likewise to the third and the fourth and to all the rest in order, providing both creation and good order. And what was he accomplishing by this?

Or perhaps he wished to teach us to honor boundaries and recognize order even among the elements themselves. First, then, he made the heaven above, second the earth, third the firmament, fourth he set apart the waters. What he made first, he adorned first. How then, someone of the more precise sort will surely say, did he adorn the earth first, though it was second, and will wish to seize upon my argument as contradicting itself? To this one must say that nothing contrary has been said by us on the present occasion, but rather the argument is entirely consistent with itself. For before this firmament, which came into being after the heaven above, the earth was adorned, which also received its formation on the second day. For the prerogatives had to be preserved in sequence. When he adorned the earth with plants and fruits, when he beautified the heaven with the sun and moon and the rest of the chorus of stars, he came to the waters. And what does the historian say? And God said, he says: Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls and birds flying over the earth according to the firmament of the heaven. See the word of God bringing deeds to accompany the words, and the words accomplishing things. Behold the syllables and small words of God filled with divine power. Let the waters bring forth. The word of God is labor. I think that the deeds anticipated the word. For the power was swifter than the utterances. The word had not yet been spoken, and the deed was receiving its own order. And the marvelous thing: to each of these elements God provided a double order. He gave the firmament luminaries and dew.

But again, the use of these luminaries is different, as is evident even from the very words of Scripture. Concerning these, to the best of our ability, if not according to their worth, we discoursed previously when we set forth for you the discourse about them; to speak about them again at present is not useful. To the earth, sown crops and plants; to the waters, swimming creatures and flying creatures: "Let the waters bring forth creeping things, living souls, and flying birds." He calls fish "creeping things," since they crawl rather than walk. Hence also the blessed David, following the lawgiver, says: "This is the great and spacious sea; there creeping things, of which there is no number." A strange thing, a strange arrangement, a strange promise of the word. Why? Because the maker of all things has before his eyes, as it were, both what has preceded, what is present, and what is to come, as we do not with our own eyes. Since he was about to supply the first life to the world through the waters, he first entrusts to the waters the task of bringing forth a life-bearing nature, so that you may learn whence the root of life comes. When I see those being baptized coming out of the holy waters, having entered into baptism with many evils like creeping things, but emerging with eternal life, I see the lawgiver saying: "Let the waters bring forth what were once creeping things, now a living soul." How does this become clear to us? Because those who approach the font, on account of their former sins, receive the appellation of "creeping things." Many came to the baptism of John; he says to those who came: "Snakes, offspring of vipers, who showed you to flee from the coming wrath?

When a soul enters into baptism, having lived for many years in wickedness, and emerges having laid this aside, see whether the master's voice does not shine forth through these very works, the voice that says: "Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living souls and flying birds." For the one who is saved receives a double grace: his soul is given life, and he becomes a bird henceforth, reaching the vaults of the heavens, dwelling with angels, and having his own place among the higher order. And "flying birds upon the earth according to the firmament of the heaven." Upon the earth because of the body, in the heavens because of the way of life. We have introduced these things not by allegorizing, but we have observed them according to the history. It is one thing to force the history into allegory, another to both preserve the history and conceive a spiritual interpretation. And to show that by "creeping things" it means winged flying creatures, those in the sea, it added: "And God made the great sea monsters and every living soul of creeping things, which the waters brought forth, and the winged flying creature." For is there a flying creature that is not winged? What need was there to say "every winged flying creature"? The word "to fly" is derived from spreading out the hands. And there is also a flying of hands, as the prophet says: "All day long I spread out my hands toward a disobedient and gainsaying people," not because hands have wings, but because flying is spreading out. And so the creeping thing is a flying creature from creeping and spreading out. Hence David says: "Creeping things and winged flying creatures." So God made the great sea monsters, that is, the great dragons, those in the sea. For the other interpreters say:

God made the great serpents. I did not say the sea monsters, but the serpents. First, nothing among the living creatures in the sea came into being except a serpent. For this reason David says: Praise the Lord from the earth, serpents and all abysses. And elsewhere: This is the great and spacious sea; there are reptiles there of which there is no number; small animals with large; there ships sail. This serpent, which you fashioned to play with it. And elsewhere, wishing to show that there is not one but many serpents, he says: You crushed the heads of the serpents upon the water. So he made the great sea monsters. And God saw that all were good. Why did he say good? Is it not good because of the multitude? But when he made the stars and the sun and the moon, with many things having come into being, he says: God saw that it was good. There are many stars and countless myriads of them, and he did not say: God saw that they were good, but that it was good. Why? Because even if there are many luminaries, they are all from one light and of the same function. For they were appointed to give light. But here, since there is great diversity among the reptiles and the birds and the swimming creatures—for the nature of swimming creatures is one, that of birds another, that of reptiles another—and in each kind there are many and various things, he says: God saw that they were good. The praise corresponds to the variety of the works. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply and fill the waters, and let the birds multiply.

Why, when he made the stars, did he not bless them? Why, when he made plants and trees, did he not bless them? Some things he blesses, others he does not bless. What is the cause that has become the reason for this virtue of his? Pay attention. The stars, as many as came into being from the beginning, remain the same in number, and it is not possible for anything to be added either to their number or to their magnitude; since they are to remain in the self-identity of their nature, they had no need of the blessing that multiplies them. But those things that are multiplied by succession and receive increase in no other way necessarily also received the blessing. I say the same thing again, so that what has been said may be more firmly fixed in the mind. For neither does a plant that is simply and casually placed in the furrows of the earth, brothers, have a secure position, but only when it is placed with all security in the depth of the earth. The stars had no need of blessing. For it did not grant them multiplication. But birds, and swimming creatures, and man desired this blessing because of their successions. And where something cannot be multiplied otherwise, there the matters of blessing have a place; where the few are multiplied and the small admit of increase. Since, then, we have learned the reason for which these things have been deemed worthy of blessing, it is necessary henceforth to devote ourselves to the other passages of the scriptures. Increase, since you are small; Multiply, since you are few; Fill the waters, since you are in part. But it is necessary to inquire on another occasion why he deemed only the fish and the birds and man worthy of blessing, but did not impart this to the rest. For now, as we promised, let us keep to the sequence. And God said:

Let the earth bring forth a living soul. God surrounds the earth with a double honor. For first it generates seeds and plants, and after these the animals, not without reason, but because it was destined to become the dwelling place of man. Not only this, but also because from this very earth the same man was to be nourished, he honors it as nurse and mother of this great living being. Observe here too how he employed sequence. First he prepares the foods; then he introduces those that enjoy the food, just as he did also in the case of man. First he completed the house, and then he brought in the householder. Let the earth bring forth a living soul. How does the inanimate earth generate a living soul? Whence came a roaring lion, or a running horse, or a working ox, or a burden-bearing donkey? Whence the differences among animals? Whence from the inanimate such numerous souls? And the children of the heretics are not ashamed that the inanimate earth, which does not possess soul, produces soul. But if they hear that God begot from his own substance, they immediately stir up the intricacies of their reasonings and introduce: Therefore he was cut, therefore he was divided, therefore he suffered, and such things as they are accustomed to say. For it is not the present occasion to go through all the things said by them against the Only-begotten, or rather against their own salvation. For God neither gains when praised nor is harmed when blasphemed, unless perhaps one might call God’s gain our salvation. For he himself is full of every good, being in need of nothing in all things, himself enriching all while needing nothing.

Yet what could one give to the one who stands as the source of all good things, from whom alone everything depends on his benevolence? As David says: All things look to you. You open your hand, and you fill every living creature with contentment. But let us bring the matter at hand to completion. For this is pleasing both to us and to the order of things. What does the earth not have to bring forth, obedient as it is to the command? What does the divine and pure nature not generate? But again, let no one take the phrase "to have" in a more human sense, saying: Do you see how the teacher himself granted that the father exists prior to the son? Rather, grant pardon to the discourse, since we are humans possessing a tongue of clay and making an address to humans about the divine nature, which surpasses all discourse. For being humans, we have been taught to speak as humans. Do not the wretched ones know that when they discuss God, they utter words that are not fitting to be said of God? And observe the malice. When they pose the questions, they speak from human reasoning, such as: Everything that is generated, they say, has a beginning of existence. And why? They immediately say: Were you not generated, did you not have a beginning? Your father, your grandfather? If you present to him from the same reasoning another argument capable of dissolving his madness, he immediately becomes clever. It is a discourse about God, and you introduce human reasoning to me? And they bring forth the root of evils from common reasoning, but they do not wish to accept the dissolution of evils from the same reasoning.

He often says: "Can one both exist and be begotten?" If, then, I show from Scripture that it introduces such a thing not only in the case of God but also in the case of men, what will you do? The children of the blessed Abraham, Scripture does not say they are begotten as not existing, but as pre-existing. For Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Levi, from whom comes the priestly tribe. Since, then, this man—I mean Abraham—met with Melchizedek, the apostle Paul, interpreting the history at that time theologically, says: "Melchizedek met Abraham and blessed him." And he immediately adds: "And so to speak, through Abraham and Levi, the one who receives tithes was tithed; for he was still in the loins of his father Abraham." And the mortal existed before being born. Since the root was entirely alive, he introduced the fruit together with the living root. But here, where there is no passion, no mode of succession, no gestation, no sequence of human affections, he does not wish to say that one who exists was begotten from one who exists, while remaining eternally. But if he was begotten, he says, how was he always? For everyone who is begotten takes a beginning. The name of father comes to us through many stages. For example: suppose a young man desiring marriage. First he becomes a suitor, then a bridegroom, then a husband. And if he begets, then he is called father; and if the offspring does not bestow that name upon him, even if he spends countless years with his wife, he is not called father. Similarly, the mother: first a virgin, then a betrothed, then a bride, then a wife. She conceives, carries the fruit; and if it does not come forth in this way, she is not called mother.

Even if the root bears the fruit, unless the child, having come forth, grants it the recompense for its labors—the name—it is not called mother. And God did this as a wise one, so that fathers might not boast against their children, so that the father might not say to the child: "I granted you life, you were begotten through me, through me you were brought into being," but so that even if he says these things, he might immediately hear: "I was begotten through you, through me you also are father." Similarly also in the case of the mother: "You granted me the being a son, I granted you the being a mother." Among us these things involve a certain grace and reciprocity. Likewise, the son is not immediately a son, but first seed, then embryo, and when he is born, then son. These things are subject to the necessities of time, these things fall under affections, these things belong to a bodily condition. But where the begetting nature is incorporeal, where the begotten fruit is incorporeal, what account does it admit, that there was once when it was not and later it was begotten? And we say thus: If God is always thus, if he never acquires anything, he is always father. But if he is always father, he always receives the son; therefore the son is coeternal with the father. We say that the son was begotten impassibly, but we do not know how to interpret the manner of the begetting. This is true knowledge: to confess that we do not know things that exceed our nature. Therefore we venerate the offspring, but we do not pry into the nature. If, then, the begetter were human, he would have made the begetting also human. If he had a body, he begot as a body. But if he is free from body, do not attach the affections of a body to the incorporeal.

But he begot," it is said, "from his own substance; he begot through passion, through division, through flux." I will persuade from earthly things. The vine gives birth, the olive gives birth, and water gives birth, not according to our nature, but according to its own order. Every woman, when she receives from God the capacity to become a mother, is swollen while carrying the child, but after she has put forth the fruit, she contracts. In the case of trees, one can find the opposite. Before the fruit is born, the tree is not swollen; when it gives birth, then it becomes thick; the fruit grows and the root increases, and there is neither diminution for the root that gives birth nor loss for what is born. The vine gives birth not as we do. If you hear that God begot, do you attach human passions to the one who transcends every human nature? And God said, "Let the earth bring forth a living soul according to kind: quadrupeds, reptiles, wild beasts." The quadrupeds are domestic animals; reptiles, wild beasts: the serpent, the dragon. For not only the wild beasts that fall under this category are called domestic animals, but also the beasts of burden. Every grass-eating animal, whether ox or sheep, is called a domestic animal, "domestic animal" from being a possession of man. And that sheep and oxen are called domestic animals, Scripture bears witness: "And he had domestic animals of sheep and domestic animals of oxen." The earth was filled, it teemed with fruits, it brought forth the animals; the master of the house was still lacking. The heaven was adorned, the earth was variegated, the sea was filled, the air was decorated with a multitude of birds. Everything was ready, and man was lacking. He is not insulted by being last, but honored. For the house is prepared, and the master of the house is brought in. For God does nothing either unseasonably or immoderately, but everything for a purpose.

And observe the order. First God made grass and herbage, and then the beasts that feed on them. And if the nourishing things did not exist, the creation of the animals would have been untimely, damaged by the lack of produce. He made the nourishing things and then prepares the nourished things: first the necessities, and thus he introduces the things that will partake of the necessity. So also he did with the scriptures. The scriptures preceded Christ, first proclaiming him, and then the one testified to came. The testimonies preceded, so that the one testified to might be believed; the law preceded, so that it might proclaim the lawgiver; the prophets preceded, so that they might interpret the one prophesied. And see the wisdom of God. He did not allow the scriptures of the prophets to be only in the church, but also among the Jews; so that they might be refuted, he left them also among the Jews, the unworthy, the God-fighters, the enemies of Christ. Why then did he do this and not take them away from them? The reason is clear and does not require much elaboration. So that my proclamation might be above suspicion. If I alone had the prophets, it would be possible for the unbeliever to object. Would I have dared to say that Moses said, or Isaiah said, or the rest of the order of prophets said, concerning Christ and the things that were to happen at the time of his coming? It would be possible for anyone who wished to object and claim: How is this, that Moses was some prophet and said these things, or proclaimed them, as you Christians have wished for the establishment of your own doctrines, and have fabricated prophets and invented names? Should we suffer prejudice from this?

Now, for anyone wishing to contradict, even if they have a lengthy defense, the pretext has been removed because these testimonies happen to be among them, which we bring for the establishment of our own doctrines. For how is it not possible to refute their deceit? So, in order that these things not be said, he permitted the books of the Scriptures to be among them, so that even if I am disbelieved as fabricating for the favor of my own doctrines due to kinship, they might be believed due to their foreignness. If you ask a Jew—I do not mean the common and vulgar crowd, but one versed in learning and law—"Is there a Christ?" he does not say that there is not, but that there is one, yet not the one you speak of, but another. At least he did not overturn the matter, but he doubted concerning the person. For it is one thing to deny a matter, and another to deny a person. For example, if someone brings a charge against me concerning a debt, it is one thing to say "I do not owe," and another to say "I do not owe you, but another." At least the debt is acknowledged. So they acknowledge that there is a Christ, but they doubt whether this is the one proclaimed by us, and they expect the one who does not exist, since they have denied the one who does. And observe the lawgiver Moses himself, in the very construction of man, introducing the Son and his knowledge. He said, "Let a firmament be made," he said, "Let the earth sprout," he said, "Let it bring forth waters." When he came to man, he says: "And God said, 'Let us make man.'" I ask a Jew: if he is alone and there is not with him a Son whom we proclaim, if there is not a Holy Spirit whom we worship, to whom did he say, "Let us make man"?

He makes the heaven by command alone, the earth likewise and the rest; when he creates man, then wishing to let the knowledge of the Son peep through as if through windows, he says, "Let us make man," in order to show that even the first things had him as a coworker. So the Jews, being hard pressed and unable to shift the obvious meaning of the expression, say that he spoke to the angels. Since they cannot openly deny the nature of the expression, they introduce this denial in another way. To whom then did he say "Let us make"? To angels, they say. I ask, who are greater, angels or men? Surely angels. For when we reach the utmost measure of virtue, we do not surpass them, but we become equal to them. But now we have fallen far short of their nature and are inferior to the incorporeal state of the angels. Hear David testifying about this: "What is man that you remember him, or son of man that you visit him?" You have made him a little less than angels. For the present we are inferior to angels; we are lesser, the angels are greater. If when making man, the lesser, he had need of counselors or coworkers among the angels, then when he made the greater, he would not have made one angel, but all those countless myriads together. For just as he made the luminaries all together, so he made angels and archangels together. And they are so many that they surpass the nature of numbers, and Daniel cries out: "Ten thousand times ten thousand served him, and a thousand times a thousand stood by him.

He made myriads upon myriads of angels and thousands upon thousands of archangels, and had no need of a counselor or fellow worker; and when making a single man of clay, does he use counsel, introduce a word, take advice? What is man? Is he not earth and from earth? Is he not merely dust and ash? And Abraham proclaims his own lowliness: "I am earth and ashes." What are angels? Are they not spirit? Are they not fire? And listen to David crying out: "He who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a blazing fire." When working the nature of fire, the intellectual and incorporeal spirits, he had no need of a counselor, no fellow worker, no other for assistance in what was made; and when making man from earth, the pitiable, the lowly, the one who will later be nothing, the one dissolved in the tomb, the one consumed by time, does he introduce counsel, does he engage in deliberation? Yes, he says, it is possible that the master, out of great goodness, said to the servants standing by: "What must be done? What should we do?" I grant even this, and after such a struggle I concede that "let us make" was said to the angels. You heard "let us make," but did you not see "according to the image and likeness"? For by this word I must stop the mouths of both Jews and heretics. For neither a Jew nor again a heretic is truly the same as a Jew, but rather worse: for the former crucified the visible body, while the latter war against the invisible divinity, or rather against their own salvation. But those too were refuted, having attempted impossible things.

Therefore, they have already paid a partial penalty for this audacity at present, having seen their own race scattered throughout the whole world. For later, the full penalty will be imposed upon them, when the universal judgment is to be convened. And they themselves, at the appropriate time, will be required to pay the fitting penalties by the same judge. So is this the reason I have set forth all these words to you? For I wish to return again to the sequence. Neither a heretic nor a Jew dares to say that there is one image and likeness of God and of angels. For were the angels who came into being fellow workers of God? They are only ministers, singing hymns, giving thanks, knowing that they came into being, that before this they did not exist and came into being by a nod of goodness; and they stand as spectators, watching the things that come into being after them. For they saw heaven coming into being from non-being and were astonished, the sea being separated and they marveled, they beheld the earth being adorned and they trembled. And that the angels were not fellow workers, but admirers, God says to Job: "When I made the stars, all the angels praised me and sang hymns.

Let us make man. The verb indicates both the speaker and the hearer. See the ray of orthodox faith always shining; and the sun, as it shines, has joined its own ray. "Let us make man according to our image and likeness." It preserved both the order of the hypostases and the unity of the essence. "Let us make man according to image." Not according to images. For the image of the Father is not one, and that of the Son another. "Let us make," so that the plural may indicate the hypostases, "according to our image," so that it may interpret the consubstantiality. Who is the partner in this great word and this marvelous creation? Jews object and, being silenced, are ashamed; heretics rave; truth is assailed; the word of piety has an invincible confession. From where, then, shall we demonstrate to whom he said "let us make man"? Or who is his counselor? For "let us make" requires the presence of a counselor. Therefore, the blessed Isaiah says concerning the only-begotten son of God, who for our sake sojourned in a form like ours, that "a child was born to us, a son and a youth was given." That which was not a child was born; but the one who was a son was given. And his name is called "angel of great counsel," of the child a son because of the divinity, but a child because of the humanity. "Angel of great counsel," a marvelous counselor. But if you call the counselor, to whom he said "let us make man according to our image and likeness," "angel of great counsel," you have not yet, O prophet, revealed the dignity of the counselor proclaimed by you. For Moses also became a counselor. For he seemed to counsel, saying:

Do not kill them, lest the nations say, "Because he was unable to beget children, he killed them." But do not limit the wonder to the counselor; do not make the name common. Even if there are many counselors, let the one not be insulted. "But you have not yet understood," he says, "the dignity of the one proclaimed. Listen concerning the wonderful counselor." For Isaiah interprets the consequence from what has gone before. "Wonderful counselor," he says, "mighty God." He rightly added "mighty" to "God." Why? For just as there came to be many counselors, and because of this the dignity of the one counselor was not to be wounded, so also, since there came to be many gods—for I said, "You are gods and sons of the Most High, all of you." And again God said to Moses, "Behold, I have set you as a god to Pharaoh"—this one who is proclaimed ought not to be insulted. And lest you think that "god" is like Moses or like the apostles, he added "mighty God." Moses is a god, not mighty, but strengthened. One thing is strengthened, another mighty. One thing is lending grace, another receiving. "Mighty God." Moses is a strengthened god, even if he is a worker of great wonders, but he receives grace. The apostles are subordinate; the Savior is the one with authority and gives. "Mighty God." But he was not satisfied even with this, but adds "the one with authority," in order to teach both us and heretics not to call the ruler of authority subordinate. One thing is subordinate, another is the one with authority. Do you wish to learn the difference between autonomous and subordinate? The apostles are subordinate; the Savior is the one with authority. Paul saw in Macedonia a slave girl having a spirit of Python and speaking before all.

These men are servants of the Most High God. But Paul, being distressed and turning back, said to the spirit—not to the one being acted upon, but to the one acting: "I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come out of her." He calls him "Lord" in order to show himself a servant. Since the wonder—that demons obey men—was beyond human capacity, so that the sight might not snatch away the voice and the servants of God be thought gods, he says, "I command you in the name of the Lord." It is the servant's role to command, the master's to exercise authority. Have you seen a servant giving a command? Behold the master issuing an order. Someone possessed by a deaf and mute demon was brought to the master. The master did not say, "I command you, the deaf and mute demon," but "I order you." Paul's command is that of a servant; the master's is to issue orders. "I order you: come out of him and never enter again." The demon obeyed, for it recognized the authority. Let the blessed Ezekiel say to the heretical synagogue: "As I live, says the Lord, your sister Sodom has been justified more than you." And what is it that he says? For if you do not learn what he says, you cannot be equipped for the comprehension of the vision. The Sodomites, being abhorrent—for they lived in lawlessness—were therefore consumed by a fire sent from God. And Jerusalem, after their destruction and the burning of their city, after many generations, was flourishing in appearance but producing greater wickedness. So when these surpassed the wickedness of Sodom, God swears through Ezekiel, saying thus: "As I live, Adonai, says the Lord, speak to the faithless daughter of Jerusalem.

Your sister city Sodom did not sin even half as much as you, and Sodom was justified in comparison to you—that is, in contrast to you, Sodom is righteous. As if one were to say to heretics: "Even the Jews were justified by the excess of madness among heretics; even demons were justified, because some say the Son is a creation, others a product." Sodom was justified in comparison to you. I inquire in passing into the reason why those who committed the acts of the Sodomites were not destroyed as the Sodomites were, or rather, if they doubled the sins, why were they not laid waste like those? God, then, saw not only the rampant impiety of the Jews, but also the subsequent piety of the faithful. He foreknew that from Judea the holy Theotokos Virgin was to come forth; he foresaw the chorus of the apostles; he foresaw the ranks of the confessors, the myriads of Jews who were to believe. For when Paul went up to Jerusalem, the fellow apostles say: "Do you see, brother Paul, how many myriads of Jews have become believers?" Having foreseen those who would believe, he spared those who disbelieved—not for their sake, but for the fruit that was to be born from them. And Isaiah bears witness: "And if the Lord Sabaoth had not left us seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah." But have we perhaps forced the word, and did Isaiah speak of something else? But listen to Paul, the brother and interpreter of the prophets, saying: "Brothers, now a remnant has come into being by election of grace, so that the remnant might be saved." And as Isaiah said: "If the Lord Sabaoth had not left us seed, we would have become like Sodom.

For God foresaw everything, and He does not learn things through experience over time as we do. Again, as I have often said, He saw the ends of the ages: He saw Adam sinning, and He also foresaw the righteous who would come from him; He saw him being cast out of paradise, but He foresaw that a kingdom was prepared for him. And the remarkable thing is that the kingdom existed before paradise. Do you marvel that Adam was cast out of paradise? Marvel that the kingdom of heaven was prepared for him before paradise. The Savior says: "Come, the blessed ones of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Let the heretics be ashamed. Were the things prepared for the saints before the foundation of the world, and was the Son ever not? In appearance they acknowledge the Only-Begotten, since they cannot erase the text; they grant the word and steal the reality. If we say "Only-Begotten Son," they immediately say: "It is written 'Firstborn of the whole world.'" Therefore, according to the heretics, the two conflict. For if He is Firstborn, He is not Only-Begotten. For the Firstborn, when he has brothers, is called Firstborn, but the Only-Begotten, if he has brothers, is not called Only-Begotten. For Only-Begotten is the one who is the sole offspring from someone, just as Scripture also testifies, saying to Abraham: "Take your only-begotten son." Firstborn is said of one who has brothers; for he is first in being born first, while the Only-Begotten is called Only-Begotten because he has no brothers. And in another way, Only-Begotten is the one who is the sole offspring from someone, not the one who came into being alone, as the heretics craftily argue.

Only-begotten, because he alone was born such. Therefore also Elijah is only-begotten, because he alone was born such. This has no logic. But Scripture is accustomed to call only-begotten the one born alone from someone, according to the demonstration previously set forth with the word. Pay attention. The firstborn, if he has no brothers, is only-begotten. I find not one, not two, not three, but many firstborn. A strange thing. How can there be many firstborn? For there ought to be one. I have extended the discourse on account of the firstborn and the only-begotten; let us resolve the difficulty. God calls the first believer in his own generation firstborn, not as the first among other believers, but as the one who appeared first in his own times. For example, the people were in Egypt, God says through Moses: My firstborn son Israel. I said: Send me my people. Behold, a firstborn people, because at that time it was the first people to have known God. After this, David arose, after the law, after many generations, and God promises, saying that he will raise up the Christ from his seed, and he speaks thus: I found David my servant, I anointed him with holy oil. He will call upon me, you are my father. And I will set him as firstborn. If David is firstborn, the people are also firstborn. Adam is firstborn in his own generation, Noah, Shem are firstborn, Abraham is firstborn in his own generation, Moses, Isaiah, because in their own times they advanced in piety. From these many firstborn a great church was gathered and is in heaven. Paul testifies.

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, Jerusalem, and to the festal assembly of myriads of angels and to the church of the firstborn enrolled in the heavens. Of those firstborn, Christ is one according to the flesh, but according to the divinity he is only-begotten. For since he takes up those who advance in each generation, he is called firstborn along with all of them. For this reason Paul says: "Firstborn among many brothers." But there is much to say about the human being, and the account is reserved for the following day, the sixth day, on which he was also fashioned, so that with the grace of God cooperating, the discourse may be clarified more completely according to our ability. Not from what we reason, but from what we are taught. For the source is common, all the gifts set before us are common, if only we ourselves are willing to strive with all eagerness. Let us turn the discourse to the care of morals. Yesterday it was shown how there must be a raising of hands that are emboldened in piety. Let the one who gives to the poor say: "The raising of my hands." Let the one who raises the fallen say: "The raising of my hands." Let us examine the prelude of the psalm, since it is necessary to know what we sing. Why do we say: "Let my prayer be directed like incense before you"? For every incense is directed. For God is not pleased by the fragrance of ointments. What then is "Let my prayer be directed"? The article is missing, so that what is said is this: "Let my prayer be directed like incense before you." What incense? There were two altars in the tabernacle: one in the court outside in the open air, and another in the sanctuary under a roof.

The inner altar was for incense only, not for the shedding of blood, while the outer altar was for the sacrifice of animals and the offering of loaves and certain other things. And God commands Moses to make the outer altar from unhewn stones, but the inner one in the tabernacle from turned gold. What the grace of God hints at through these things it is necessary to investigate. Two peoples serving the glory of God: one uneducated people, the other educated. The one who commits solecisms or barbarisms in diction has unhewn stones, yet they are still advanced to the altar. Again, turned gold is called a precious stone. And neither is this one exalted nor that one cast out. For there is an altar of God there and an altar of God here. The myrrh was composed of four kinds: stacte, onycha, galbanum, and frankincense. Since, then, the myrrh is composed of different things, and virtue also is composed of different things, he says, "Let my prayer be directed as incense before you," like that which is composed of many things and perfected into a single fragrance. Since one enters with prayer, having fasting, almsgiving, faith, let the fourfold virtue, he says, be likened to that incense which is directed before you. Thus also the blessed David elsewhere: "Behold," he says, "what is good or what is pleasant, but for brothers to dwell together? Like myrrh on the head that runs down together? Like myrrh on the head that runs down onto the beard, the beard of Aaron." He likens love to priestly myrrh, prayer to priestly incense.

Do you have chastity? You are a brother of the priest. Priesthood, for example, I do not have, but I have chastity. My chastity is the sister of your priesthood. How is this? For that one who performs the sacred rites must be pure, and I who serve must also be pure. If I have chastity, I receive priesthood. How is this? David, fleeing from Saul, came to Abiathar the high priest and said to him: Give me loaves, since I was suddenly sent by the king and I have no provisions. The high priest, experienced in the laws, says: We have no other bread but the sacred bread, which it is not lawful for anyone else to eat except the priest. Since he saw the necessity, but feared to betray the loaves of the presentation, he seeks purity from those who are not priests and says: If the young men with you are pure from women, take it. For he considered chastity the sister of priesthood. And so that no one might take the giving of the loaves to those who were not priests as a reproach against the priest, hear how the Savior remembers his action as good. The Jews once accused the apostles of plucking ears of grain and rubbing them with their hands and eating them. The Savior says to them: Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and he ate the loaves of the presentation, which it was not lawful for him or those with him to eat, but only the priests? Did you see chastity as the sister of priesthood? Did you see how God does not look at persons, but tests the truth?

Let us therefore prepare ourselves for beneficence, for righteousness, so that fasting may take wings. For just as a bird, if it does not have the cooperation of its wings, cannot fly, so also fasting has two wings, prayer and almsgiving, without which it cannot run upward. Observe Cornelius, who possessed fasting together with these wings. Hence, when a voice came to him from heaven, he heard: "Cornelius, your prayers and your alms have ascended to God." Suppose, beloved, that fasting is a living creature. And again, that its wings are almsgiving and prayer, without which it cannot run upward. Such a person, even if he does not speak, proclaims righteousness with a great tongue. For virtue is a great advocate of righteousness. Hence it says: "Hearken, O Lord, to my righteousness." First and greatest good, then, is prayer and almsgiving and righteous action, but the secure and unshakable foundation and root of all is knowledge concerning God, the worship of the Only-Begotten, the confession of the Holy Spirit, one faith, undivided, secure, unrent, unparted. It has been said, what I am about to say, but nevertheless I say it again. God, being wise, permitted the heresies to have their appellations from their own founders, from their own doctrines, so that it might be manifest that what is glorified by them is not a doctrine of God but a human invention: for example, Macedonians from Macedonius, Arians from Arius, Eunomians from Eunomius; and similarly the remaining heresies. The faith of the apostles, however, wishing to keep it invulnerable, he did not permit to be named after any human being.

er and beneficence. For even if they call themselves Homoousiasts, they are not interpreting a human being, but proclaiming the faith. For that being named after men is not characteristic of the faithful, but of heretics, as Paul says, rebuking the Corinthians: "I hear there are divisions among you; for one says, 'I am of Paul,' another, 'I am of Apollos,' another, 'I am of Cephas.'" Do you see that being named after men is a mark of divisions? Was not Peter more trustworthy than Macedonius? The names of the apostles give way, yielding to the glory of Christ, and do you cut up the faith, the undivided kingdom, the undivided glory? But enough of this. For we have the lamp and the light. "For your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths." Why a lamp? Why a light? A lamp for the catechumens, a light for the perfected. I exhort your love to keep your fast pure, unstained by injustice, clean from greed. Observe the vanity of those who are zealous about abstaining from foods but do not care about abstaining from sins. "I do not drink wine," one says, "I do not eat oil, I do not eat meat." Truly good for the sake of God. These things are good too. But let us examine the matter. Bread, water, wine, meat, oil—all these are creations of God; but greed, injustice, and impiety are works of the devil. Do you abstain from the works of God through fasting, but do not abstain from the works of the devil through fasting? Bread, wine, oil, and all other things are works of God, all good and very good. Paul says: "Every creature of God is good and nothing is to be rejected; let us receive them with thanksgiving, for they are sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.

If then it is blessed, if then it is sanctified, why do we abstain? But injustices and greed and such things are works of the devil. Do you separate yourself from the works of God through fasting, and yet not separate yourself from the works of the devil through piety? And indeed, brothers, no judgment has been defined against the one who does not fast, but punishment has been threatened against the one who does wrong. Do we flee from things that are blameless, and not flee from things that are liable? Almsgiving is good; for in appearance it scatters, but in truth it gathers. For just as a farmer lends to the land, from which he recovers the seeds, so almsgiving seems to be given to others, but in truth it is stored up for the giver. For David says, "He scattered, he gave to the poor; his righteousness remains forever." Thus let us fast, thus let us worship, thus let us believe, glorifying the Father, hymning the Son, worshipping the Holy Spirit, because glory belongs to him for the ages. Amen.