Who can rightly come to know the one God of the heavens, unless He Himself lift him from his wicked error? I was wandering, ignorant, roaming, caught by empty hope, while the frenzy of my early years bore me into the winds. I was more worthless than chaff, lighter than chaff; as though a hundred heads weighed on my shoulders, so headlong was I carried wherever I went. Not content with these things, I was at last all but made a guilty enchanter, charming malignant herbs. But thanks be to the Lord (nor does my voice suffice to render so much) who at last shone upon a wretch tottering! And having been led on, I was committed to the book of the Law, that I might there discover something; at once the lamp shone upon me. Then truly I knew God, the Lord most high in the heights, and therefore I exhort such men to withdraw from error. What better physician than one made greater by suffering of a wound?
Many indeed are brutish and unknowing, drowsy in heart; they set nothing before themselves to learn; after the manner of beasts they seek what they may plunder, or by whose blood they may live. So long as they rejoice, fattened, to live like pigs, they heap themselves up as a fine tomb, while they applaud their riches. The rich will be changed by their disdain from their once-poor garb. Surely it would suffice them, what they more readily eat. If a man is rich in wealth, let it be for himself, or worthy of Caesar: why do they prefer their own goods? The frail man regards no one. Rather let such a man share his goodness among all, to whom the Most High added riches and lofty honors. For I do not blame the riches given by the Most High, but he will be blameworthy who exalts himself above others by them. I now therefore urge alike the lofty and all the lowly, that they read diligently either these things or the rest of the Law.
Behold how brief is the life entrusted to us. Learn, therefore, why we, though born, must die, O prudent ones! Why do we die dull and stupid? What did it profit to have seen the light? If you inquire into nothing, this is to be present like the beasts. Surely the most high God set man over the fields, not the wild beast nor the cattle. Why should we make ourselves like that? The Almighty willed that man should render Him praises; therefore He Himself, the divine One, taught us things to come. That we might believe in Him, He did not merely sound it forth in word, but also demonstrated mighty deeds, with Pharaoh deceived. Not only this did He do: He also showed in the times of Noah what things He could do, since no one was seeking God. Thence, little by little, He began to be gentler, after the flood had been made, by which the earth could be filled again.
Now nearly the midpoint of the six thousand years was passing, and no one knew the Lord, and men were living loosely everywhere. But God, when He saw the hearts of men too tightly closed, addressed Abraham, whom Moses himself proclaims. He Himself gave the law to the people, Pharaoh having been slain, and He Himself foretold by him who He was, the Lord. Nor content with a single prophetic utterance does He reveal Himself, but He brought forward many witnesses who cry out concerning Him. This One, therefore, when you read the proclamations of the many seers, you will find that He took on flesh for our sake. Whence men now go astray, that the Most High ordained such things, and as it were they mock — nor do they know that they are laughed at by Him. From time to time I add how I have read the prophets beforehand, and I teach the untutored where the hope of life is to be placed.
What God did in the beginning, and in what manner He made each thing, Moses has already taught; but we teach concerning Christ. I am not a seer, nor was I bidden to be a teacher, but I unfold the things foretold by the seers to those wandering in the south winds. Therefore, you who are like me, whom the breeze swiftly carries away, seek now the harbor where there are no perils. The skilled farmer discerns the storms from afar, and before they come he gathers himself away under the caves. Be prudent; see beforehand what threatens, and before the disasters come, provide for your safety. Sloth is fit for boys, not surely for the robust: if this becomes the untrained, it does not befit those ripe in age. Indeed, O portion of mankind, unless old age be tempered, it will be just like a ham scarcely salted: it will rot.
No one subdues the rock except fire alone, for fuel: so stony men soften late, by the fire of Gehenna. We cry out in vain to the deaf, our words to be carried off by the gales, and we offer light to the blind, holding it forth without cause. The soldier stands at his post: one hears, and another shakes it off, nor receives the warnings in his heart, but, ruined, goes astray. Who, pray, is the one who deserts (be judges of these things!) — he who admonishes, or he who will not obey the word? I trust, he is not guilty who heeds the commands of Caesar; but the contrary man, proud, destroys his own life. From time to time I, who once erred first, point out what is mine — the straight way to you, who still wander empty. Yet you yourselves choose, pleasing your own judgment, whether one wishes poison, or the sweet cups of life!
Both good and evil were created in this nature, that man, after his death, might be proved who is worthy of God. Approach now, whoever you are, to know things everlasting: learn who God is, or by what name He is present! There is God Almighty, one, created from Himself, whom you will find below to be great and Himself lowly. He was placed in the Word, marked out for Himself alone, who is called Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But from the moment He decreed to compose the world with its constellations, He set in place fire, dread even to the angels themselves. These nevertheless He distributed, made of lesser power, that they might govern the heavens and the earth and the things beneath the earth. This One, therefore, not even the messengers themselves can discern, of what sort or how great He is, except that they follow His precepts.
There is an honor hidden from us and from the angels themselves; it shines back immeasurable above the heavens and without end; it is wholly golden, which is as a flaming power. There the divinity of God is so great, without known form; those are the secrets of the heavens, known to God alone. This glory of God is unique above all the angels; this is the God of eternal light, this the Spirit of the age. In His primal state, of what sort He is, is seen by none; He is transfigured, as He wills to show Himself. He presents Himself visible to the angels according to their form, and to man He becomes a man; yet otherwise God is proved by word. Therefore the form of so great a God cannot be discerned; whatever He is, He is one, alone in measureless light; where face or eyes or mouth or limbs are marked, thence in His fist to enclose the circle of the world.
Yet nevertheless, when He willed it to be known concerning Himself who He was, out of so great a divinity He made Himself able to be seen. There are those to whom He appeared in fire, speaking with a voice; He was taken up into flesh, He whom no region could contain. This God Almighty, Lord of His own creation, though He is invisible, makes Himself seen by certain ones. He who is now formed, now pours Himself out into the breezes, whose beginning nor end it is lawful to seek. This One is God always without beginning and without end, who, before He made the heaven, was borne in eternity; whatever the heaven holds, He looks out everywhere from heaven, and He penetrates the whole with His eyes and hears with His ears. To Him, therefore, it was pleasing to assume the fleshly course of the world, that the sole everlasting majesty might be exalted. For what He was before, it is now a hard matter to relate;
though it be set down in writing, let there be no concern for us about those things. Since these things which we see we cannot wholly touch, who will be able to know what lies beyond the bound of the Ocean? We see the heaven, but what is done within there it is given to no one to know, until the end of the age comes. Let it suffice only to know the promises about what is to come; let us strive toward those things eagerly, devoted with all our mind. As the bird Phoenix meditates on being reborn from death, it gives us an example that we can rise after our funerals; this above all the Almighty God persuades us to believe — that the time will come for the dead to live again;
though one be now dust, though the bared bones lie, man is restored, as he had been, who once died, and the grace of that age shall then be greater. There shall then be no grief nor tears in our body, the flesh shall receive no sword, no blister shall arise. This God shall establish, that to Him there may be the greater glory. He had first made man, that he should be eternal, but that man fell into death, the precepts neglected. On account of which God prepared such great histories to be, that He might uncover all the devil's devices. God had given that angel as a ruler upon the earth: who, while he envies man, himself, and first, perishes. Meanwhile He discerns the righteous among those very deeds, and reserves the wicked Cain for Gehenna.
In wickedness the whole human race began to be engaged, nor did they regard who was their creator. This God most high endured unworthily, and resolved to cast down nearly all created things. He is cast down, and one reads that Noah was delivered from the water, while the rest perished in the flood by heavenly wrath. Hence, as in the beginning, the earth is gradually filled again. The first crime had passed away, but another disaster clung on. Foolish men set about to build a tower beneath the stars, that through it, as it were, they might ascend the heavens. When God saw this being done under a single speech, He came down and made them speak in diverse tongues. Whom thence He scattered, set apart through the islands of the earth, that they might become nations speaking with varied speech. Then the untrained race was leading a life of savagery;
no one knew God, no one disputed about life. For that reckless one had crept in upon the untrained, through the waters of the soul; he depraved their embittered minds and by guile persuaded them to love unspeakable couplings, to live in plunder, in joy, with blood poured out. This glory the foolish pursue for a brief time; from which no pardon frees them by their saying they were seduced. If the adulterer persuades, it is your fault to follow such a one; he does not condemn you, but you of your own will condemn yourself. The untaught wandered through the deceit of the ancient foe, forgetful of the Lord, following malignant works. Lest, therefore, the robber's great pillaging should go on long, in due time He at last had mercy, taking it away. It pleased Him to converse with one out of many, that He might make a people beloved by passing over to Himself.
From him the profane began to hold that there is one God, and to become a people according to God's decrees. For Rebecca had distinguished two peoples out of herself: this one was made the first, that the other might succeed it. In Egypt the nursling first grew up in Israel; thence God cast them out with Moses as leader, through whom He Himself gave them the law on Mount Sinai, that our posterity might know the one Lord. Then He bade prophets from among them to declare that God is debased into a man by them. The Lord had brought them into the promised land, that there they might live under the law, until He Himself should come. The people, ungrateful for good things, refused to bear the yoke of the precepts, but rather, rolled back into ancient wickedness, flourished therein; nor did they ever cease: even today such are they held to be;
having set God aside, it prefers the luxury of the world. This above all the Lord compels His beloved to shun; He forewarns that they be cut off wholly from the world. If He has called them sons, let us abide in His holy things; why do we go forth outside as adulterers, following the world's pomps? The ancient seducer deceives all through such things: he sends in luxuries, by which he may destroy the sons of the Most High — to be sent to spectacles, to go to bloody shows or to those exceedingly obscene, for the chaste to learn impure things. If one had been chaste, he advances thence to the incestuous, and, pleasing and smiling, when evil joys then tempt him. In these luxuries the primal people walked, and ever departed unarmed from the law of God. To cleanse them God often sent His nurslings, that they might correct those depraved anew from the Most High.
They never were willing to receive the divine words, but by their own will they raged ever, the foolish ones. They slaughtered the righteous who unjustly reproved them, while they would not accept the bridle of heavenly discipline. They saw Isaiah asunder, they stoned Jeremiah, the haughty; they beheaded John, they slew Zechariah at the altars. And He Himself came, who had been foretold by them, and suffers, as He willed, under our likeness. In whose death all prophecy was fulfilled. Daniel had said that this One was to be the last of the prophets. He was the one for whose sake the seers sang of the trumpet, who would come into His own, whom His own would deny. Improvident always and stiff-necked, kicking back, while they spurn the form, they lose the sacraments of the law.
Neither did His righteousness, nor the lowly flesh born, break them, nor His so great goodness or care for the sick from a word. O holy religion, O majesty so worthy of veneration, whose healing thus prospered upon the earth! He cut nothing with iron, He cured with no plaster, but without torment healed at once by His own word. Seeing such things the Jews were troubled in mind, who, led rather by envy, were caught in the zeal of malice, not regarding the buried sayings of the prophets, that such a man should come who would scatter them. Until the Lord should come, the prophets sang; from the time He came, prophecy fell silent to the Jews. After whom they came into exile with hardened heart, nor even now do they discern why they have suffered such things.
It had been foretold to them by the prophet Isaiah, and likewise by Daniel, that the land would perish; yet not before the leader of the city should hang upon the wood within it, then afterward it would become desolate. Suddenly what glory shone upon the nation, that there should be a people, a people which was not before! Was not Esau, beloved by his father, astounded that the younger brother should bear off the birthright? So neither could the synagogue recognize the time, when and by what leader it would fall from its own privilege; just as it was written, that the bird knows its own seasons, 'for this people did not understand that I was present.' The time came that the very ruler of heaven should come: according to the scriptures He was not reckoned by them. Foreknowing this, the Lord, as one who knows all things;
therefore through the mouths of the prophets He foretold these things. The exceedingly stiff-necked and ever-rebellious nation, while it claimed primacy for itself, has had its cause cut off. Into their courses He set the Gentiles to be foremost; He had said this before: 'The nations shall hope in Him.' For He Himself is the stone set in the foundations of Zion; whoever should believe in Him would have eternal life. This Holy of Holies Daniel marks out as anointed, and the royal chrism to be cut off after Him. David said it, that the silent one would be pierced with nails: 'They dug,' he says, 'my hands and my feet.' Solomon too so openly prophesies of Him, that the Jews would say, 'Let us slay the just one!' Jeremiah figuratively shows the cross with as many words: 'Come, let us put wood into His bread!' they say.
But their own leader Moses proclaims to them: 'Before your eyes shall hang life, slain.' Here the Father came in the Son, the one God everywhere: nor was He called Father, unless the Son had been begotten. For He did not leave heaven, that He might appear on earth, but, as He had disposed, His majesty was seen on earth. Out of His own power He caused Himself to be born in the flesh ... (gap) ... though it be allowed to make a single fringe. Now the flesh was God, in which the power of God was working. What of this, that the prophets sing the invisible One was to be seen, that so great a brightness should become a man also for our sake? Nor would our people have leaped forth into the new law, had not the Almighty ordained beforehand concerning us.
This was the Almighty, in whose name the nations should altogether believe, as the prophet Isaiah said: 'A man shall arise in Israel from the root of Jesse; in Him the Gentiles shall hope, by whose sign they are guarded.' And another said that He is a witness throughout the world, that He, the very prince, would be made manifest to the nations. In the psalms it is sung: 'The Lord has reigned from the tree; let the earth exult, let the many islands rejoice.' So too the patriarch Jacob: a true blessing appeared upon the nations; 'this shall be the hope of the nations,' he says. Under heaven there is no other name set forth but Christ's, in whose name the nations everywhere have believed. We are not thus persuaded to believe for the sake of the time of suffering, but for the sake of the future time, living in the eternal.
This is the hope we are to hope for: to enjoy the everlasting, not these things which, frail, quickly change our joys. Though riches be present before the eyes, splendidly to be enjoyed, you are shut out from them, by a fleeting death set in their stead; or if you persevere, you yourself shudder in living; or if your health be bad, of what use to you is life? It is all torment, in which we live under this age; hence indeed our hope is to be sought in the future. This God exhorts, this the law, this the passion of Christ — that we believe we shall rise again in the new world. So the law of God cries out: when the Most High should become lowly, hell should yield, that Adam might be lifted from death. The Lord descended into the tomb, having pity on His own creature, and thus through hidden things He emptied out the strong powers of death.
The Lord stole upon the ancient brigand in disguise, and willed to suffer, that He might the more utterly lay him low. That foe, indeed, bold and ever savage as an enemy, while he hoped to rage against a man, was conquered by the Most High. By the very means through which the wicked one had once cast man down into death, by that same means he was vanquished; and thence life came forth for us. Adam, when he had tasted the apple, was bidden to die and passed away; and from his sin we all alike die likewise. But again the Lord said: 'If a man shall take of the tree of life, let him live for ever in honour.' Death was in a tree, and life lay hidden in a tree, on which God the Lord hung, the restorer of our life. The Lord had foretold that this should be the tree of life, so that whoever shall believe in Him, it is as though he took from it.
He takes and tastes sweetly the commands of the Most High God, and departs, since he rises again the stronger, freed from death. Whoever believes in Christ tastes of the tree of life, on which the Lord was hung, as Moses foretold. Isaiah declares Him to be lowly and utterly cast down, as though He bore the form of a servant: 'And we saw Him, and He had no comely form, a man laid low in affliction, knowing how to bear all things.' He grieves for us and bears away our sins, and for our crime God delivered Him up. He, when He was tormented, kept silence like a lamb at the altar. This One was now no longer a man, but God in flesh for us; which is plainly evident, for this was the rising of the name of God, a name now held glorious among the nations.
This Malachi the prophet sings, who is himself also a messenger, when he rebukes the sacrifices of the Jews, saying: 'Your sacrifice shall not be accepted by Me, but in every place the nations offer to My name, among whom My name is exalted as excellent, who offer purely to My name without blood.' For He Himself was that lowly One, hidden under a great name, who concerning Himself cries out through the mouths of the prophets: 'I am not stubborn,' He says, 'nor do I contradict the one who harms me; I have set my back also to the scourges to be smitten, and offered my cheeks to be struck by wicked hands, nor did I turn away my face from their spittle.' Folly came upon many, that God should suffer such things, that the Maker of the world should be proclaimed crucified.
Thus it pleased Him (using no one's counsel, nor could another do it) thus to come for us. He devised death, while He was the envious enemy, which the Lord drank when He suffered, rising again from hell. Therefore He would not reveal what He was, but said that He had been sent as a Son by the Father. Thus He Himself had given Himself to be spoken of by the prophets, that God on earth should be the Son of the Most High. At this He Himself groans, while He was lowly in the flesh, and bears witness to the Father, that He might confirm the prophetic words. From Israel we read that such a man rises again, and 'He is a man,' it says, 'and who among them knew Him?'—so Jeremiah says. 'This is our God, our equal'; and after these things He was seen also on earth, dwelling among men. But Isaiah says: 'Thou art God, and we knew it not.'
'And God is in thee, and besides thee there is no other.' And who in the West should come at the prophets' law? 'Sing to the Lord—God is His name—who comes!' And the forty-fourth psalm says concerning Him: 'I shall be exalted among the nations in a great name.' And elsewhere we read: 'This day I have begotten thee, my son; ask, and I will give thee, and thou shalt have the nations for thine inheritance.' Surely now it appears who is God, and who is in Him, and in whose name we nations everywhere should believe. It was said to my Christ, whose right hand I hold, this: 'Let the nations hear, and let Him Himself rule the nations.' What need is there of more, when the matter is so openly proved, when that people which is rebuked already rejoices in Him?
But those wretched ones, who deck out empty fables and defame Him as a magician, would have shut the mouths of those who sing. What shall I call them—before they were scattered, whom not even the necessity of exile broke? If He was a magician, why then did the prophets sing that He would come from heaven, that He Himself might be the hope of the nations? If they falsely declare about themselves that He would destroy the land—since what came upon them turns out true—then their words about Him too shall be false. But because they have always been despised because they were bloodthirsty, against their own Lord they rebel, calling Him a magician. Nor will they hear what the seers said against them: that they should not understand at all even at the very end. God Himself described them: 'With closed breast, may they neither see with their eyes nor understand with a hardened heart.'
For the heart of this wicked people has grown fat, so that they recognize nothing, until they are healed by My word. It was foretold that God should be born in the flesh for us, that there might justly come upon them a greater torment: 'Behold, God Himself shall give you a sign from on high: a virgin shall conceive and the earth shall bring forth a heavenly One; let Him be called Emmanuel'—He had commanded them this—which in the Latin tongue unfolds as 'God with us.' Hear, that He Himself should be nourished with honey and butter, and: 'He should take Samaria before He could speak.' But this is a hidden history, which the learned unfold, that a suckling babe should win spoils without a fight; whose Passion was foretold in such a way before, that God should become capable of suffering with shed blood. Isaiah says:
'Like a sheep led to the altar, He did not cry out with His voice, but bore all things patiently.' He is fastened with nails, which David had foretold of old; and according to the Scriptures they gave Him vinegar to drink. And: 'Upon my garments,' He said, 'they cast lots'—which was done, and we read that in Him all things were accomplished. There came also darkness for three hours from the sixth hour, and the day hastened to bring on the stars of night. This had been foretold to come to pass through the prophet Amos, that it should suddenly veil itself amid the holy solemnities. O evil offspring, O people of treacherous brow! 'I begot offspring,' God said, 'who would deny me.' And He said: 'Hear the voice of the trumpet.' 'We will not,' they say. This Ezekiel says: 'The nations afar off shall therefore hear.' With one heading I wish to touch the book of Deuteronomy:
'You nations shall be at the head; for the unbelieving are behind.' If the rebellious utterly reject all that is said above, know what they put forward, when the matter is stated so plainly. See then now, you doubters who until now have wavered, that according to Scripture the nations were before in the Lord. Now therefore it is right to believe in Him whom the books designate, and not in empty idols, who are vainly worshipped for life; nor to be joined to those voluptuous and unbridled men, who love their luxuries more than the precepts of the Most High. It is not enough of a fault, that they will not believe, but rather they slander: 'We cast Him into a pit.' Wherefore the Lord also, being indignant, chides them: 'Because of you My name is blasphemed among the nations,' He says. If He was cast into a pit, then why is it proclaimed that He rose again?
'From the depths, O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul: I slept,' He says, 'and took my rest secure; by the help of the Lord I rose again, having suffered no harm.' And again He says: 'Thou wilt not leave me in hell, nor wilt thou give thy holy one to see corruption.' Here resounding He says: 'Son of the prophet, I ascend, that I may declare the Lord, the Most High, suffered through misery.' And in the book of Psalms it is cried concerning the death of the Lord—not, as they suppose, that David refers it to himself. Or if they suppose that, does all that he said agree? David was not scourged, nor lifted up on a cross. What? The Jews prophesy after the manner of Saturn, they gather in fables, when judgment is already declining upon them. Not as upon a malefactor is one struck and lifted on a cross. To the ignorant, the untaught, those who know nothing, they feign such things.
'Who is that God whom we fixed to the cross?' they say, unwilling to regard the Scriptures, blinded in heart. Behold, another prophet sings, repeating yet again, by whose voice nevertheless such a decree is inscribed: 'Now I shall arise,' says the Lord, 'now I shall be glorified, now you shall be humbled, now your foolishness shall come upon you; now you understand, now shall be your confusion: you devise vain things, therefore the fire shall hold you.' This Isaiah says. Then thus also that very Majesty, when He was in the flesh, Himself professes who He was: 'No one striving had power to take away my soul, but of my own accord I lay it down of myself by my own decree. And I have power again to take it up.' But more openly it is cried concerning the death of the Just One, that it may appear the Jews were the more hardened:
'Behold, the Just One perishes, and no one even understands it; but the burial of this Beloved shall be in peace.' Why do they slander, saying He was let down into a pit, when we read that He was delivered to burial? Shameful, cruel, blind, proud men, who ought rather to mourn over the deed, applaud! For inspired Solomon prophesies concerning Him, and pursues it further, to show the Just One more fully: 'Let us surround the Just One, if He seems to us to be a burden, who strongly opposes our works as contrary; He reproaches us utterly that nothing of our law is kept, and still affirms that He is the Son of the Most High. In every way He rejects and esteems us to be triflers; He keeps himself apart from us and walks in another way.'
'He calls us unclean, and pursues another righteousness, and rejoices to himself that the Lord, Father of the heavens, is his. Therefore, if his words are true, let us prove them; let us test this God, seeing what is in Him; let us question Him, at peace amid every torment; let us condemn Him to a most shameful death,' they say. When they had done these things, they wagged their hanging heads: 'Let the Father save Him, or let Him come down from there!' That Solomon might openly show them to be blind, thus, as though now recounting it, he also blames them for having done such things: 'While they devise these things, they were led into impious error; their own malice blinded them to rage.' Behold, because they themselves are blind, yet call others so, Solomon said to them: 'They knew not the secrets of God.' Whatever all the former witnesses spoke, in Christ were they accomplished.
Or shall they say it is of another? If they wish to do this, frustrated in their speech, let them mock themselves, when they see the people in Him. Who was that Just One of whom the prophets sang, since no one is just on earth, unless He had come from heaven? For David the prince sinned by loving a girl; Solomon also sinned; and yet they repented. Since these men, so famous and distinguished, their kings, were not just, but they themselves sang of the Just One; nor indeed did Isaiah the seer say such things of himself, who was sawn asunder by King Manasseh with a saw. One was stoned, another was slaughtered at the altar, another Herod ordered to be beheaded while shut up in prison. All the just seers were destroyed by another death, whereas the Lord hung upon a tree, by the voice of Moses: