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Three Homilies concerning the Power of Demons - St John Chrysostom · The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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  Speaker 1: Introduction two. Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LIBRIVANX recording. All librivanks recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: librivanx dot org. Three Homilies Concerning the Power of Demons
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  Speaker 1: by John Crossostom, translated by Thomas Brandram. Introduction by Reverend W. R. W. Stephens.
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  Speaker 1: The three following homilies are closely connected in subject, and
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  Speaker 1: the opening sentence of the third clearly proves that it
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  Speaker 1: was delivered two days after the second, but it is
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  Speaker 1: impossible to say whether that which is placed first was
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  Speaker 1: really delivered before the other two. It must, however, have
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  Speaker 1: been spoken at Antioch, since Chrysostom refers at the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of it to his sermons on the obscurity of prophecies
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  Speaker 1: in which passages occur, which clearly imply that he was
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  Speaker 1: not then a bishop. The second of the three homilies
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  Speaker 1: here translated was delivered in the presence of a bishop,
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  Speaker 1: as is clearly indicated by the commencement, and as the
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  Speaker 1: third was, as already mentioned, delivered two days after the second,
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  Speaker 1: we may safely affirm that they were all spoken at
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  Speaker 1: Antioch when Chrysostom was a presperter there under the Episcopate
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  Speaker 1: of Flavian. They deal with errors against which Chrysostom, throughout
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  Speaker 1: his life most strenuously contended. In an age of great depravity,
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  Speaker 1: there seemed to have been many who tried to excuse
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  Speaker 1: the weak resistance which they made to evil, both in
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  Speaker 1: themselves and in others, by maintaining that the world was
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  Speaker 1: abandoned to the dominion of devils or to the irresistible
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  Speaker 1: course of fate. To counteract the disastrous effects of such philosophy,
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  Speaker 1: which surrendered man to the current of his passions, it
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  Speaker 1: was necessary to insist very boldly and resolutely on the
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  Speaker 1: essential freedom of the will, on moral responsibility, and the
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  Speaker 1: duty of vigorous exertion in resisting temptation. And Chrysostom did
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  Speaker 1: this to an extent which some thought carried him perilously
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  Speaker 1: near the errors of the Pallagian heresy. No one, however,
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  Speaker 1: has described in more forcible language the powerful hold of
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  Speaker 1: sin upon human nature and the inner efficiency of man
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  Speaker 1: to shake it off without the assistance of divine grace.
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  Speaker 1: What he does most earnestly combat both in the following
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  Speaker 1: homilies and very many others, is the doctrine that evil
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  Speaker 1: was an original, integral part of our nature. He maintains
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  Speaker 1: that it is not a substantial inherent force Luna miss
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  Speaker 1: en Bostatos. If evil was a part of our nature
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  Speaker 1: in this sense, it would be no more reprehensible than
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  Speaker 1: natural appetites and affections. We do not try to alter
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  Speaker 1: that which is by nature Fuzi. Sin therefore is not
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  Speaker 1: by nature, because by means of education, laws, and punishments
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  Speaker 1: we do seek to alter that. Sin comes through defect
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  Speaker 1: in the moral purpose proeiresis. Our first parents fell through
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  Speaker 1: indolence of moral purpose Rathumia, and this is the principal
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  Speaker 1: cause of sin. Now they marked out a path which
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  Speaker 1: has been trodden ever since the force of will has
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  Speaker 1: been weakened in all their posterity, So that though evil
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  Speaker 1: is not an ansherrent part of man's nature, yet he
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  Speaker 1: is readily inclined to it ok Surrepees proska Chian. And
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  Speaker 1: this tendency must be perpetually counteracted by vigorous exertion and
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  Speaker 1: a bracing up of the moral purpose with the aid
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  Speaker 1: of divine grace. Profoundly convinced. Therefore, on the one hand,
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  Speaker 1: of a strong and universal tendency to sin, but on
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  Speaker 1: the other of an essential freedom of the will. Crysostom
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  Speaker 1: sounds alternately the note of warning and encouragement, warning against
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  Speaker 1: that weakness, indolence, languor of moral purpose which occasions a fall,
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  Speaker 1: encouragement to use to the full all the powers with
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  Speaker 1: which man is gifted, in reliance on God's forbearance and love,
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  Speaker 1: and on his willingness to help those who do not
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  Speaker 1: despair of themselves. Despair is the devil's most potent instrument
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  Speaker 1: for affecting the ruin of man form. It is that
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  Speaker 1: which prevents him from rising again after he has fallen.
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  Speaker 1: Saint Paul, repented and not despairing, became equal to angels.
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  Speaker 1: Judas repenting but despairing, rushed into perdition. End of introduction,
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  Speaker 1: Homily one of three Homilies concerning the Power of Demons
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  Speaker 1: by John Crossostom, translated by Thomas Bradram. This LIBRIVANX recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain against those who say that
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  Speaker 1: demons govern human affairs, and who are displeased at the
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  Speaker 1: chastisement of God and are offended at the prosperity of
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  Speaker 1: the wicked and the hardships of the just. I indeed
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  Speaker 1: was hoping that from the continuance of my discourse you
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  Speaker 1: would have had a surfeit of my words. But I
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  Speaker 1: see that the contrary is happening, that no surfeit is
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  Speaker 1: taking place from this continuance, but that your desire is increased,
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  Speaker 1: that an addition is made not to your satiety but
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  Speaker 1: to your pleasure. That the same thing is happening which
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  Speaker 1: the wine bibbers at heathen drinking bards experience. For they
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  Speaker 1: the more they pour down unmixed wine so much, the
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  Speaker 1: rather they kindle their first and in your case, the
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  Speaker 1: more teaching we inculcate so much, the rather do we
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  Speaker 1: kindle your desire. We make your longing greater, your love
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  Speaker 1: for it the stronger. On this account, although I am
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  Speaker 1: conscious of extreme poverty, I do not cease to imitate
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  Speaker 1: the ostentatious among entertainers, both setting before you my table
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  Speaker 1: continuously and placing on it the cup of my teaching
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  Speaker 1: filled full. For I see that after having drunk it all,
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  Speaker 1: you retire again thirsting. And this indeed has become evident
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  Speaker 1: during the whole time, but especially since the last Lord's Day,
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  Speaker 1: for that you partake of the divine oracles insatiably. That
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  Speaker 1: day particularly showed whereon I discoursed about the unlawfulness of
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  Speaker 1: speaking ill one of another, when I furnished you with
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  Speaker 1: a sure subject for self accusation, suggesting that you should
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  Speaker 1: speak ill of your own sins, but should not busy
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  Speaker 1: yourselves about those of other people. When I brought forward
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  Speaker 1: these saints as accusing themselves indeed, but sparing others. Paul
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  Speaker 1: saying I am the chief of sinners, and that God
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  Speaker 1: had compassion on him who was a blasphema and a persecutor,
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  Speaker 1: and injurious, and calling himself one born out of due time,
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  Speaker 1: and not even thinking himself worthy of the title of apostle.
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  Speaker 1: Peter saying, depart from me, because I am a sinful man.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew styling himself a publican even in the days of
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  Speaker 1: his apostleship. David crying out and saying, my iniquities have
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  Speaker 1: gone over my head, and as a heavy burden of
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  Speaker 1: being burdensome to me, and Isaiah lamenting and bewailing I
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  Speaker 1: am unclean and have unclean lips. The three children in
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  Speaker 1: the furnace of fire, confessing and saying that they have
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  Speaker 1: sinned and transgressed, and have not kept the commandments of God.
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  Speaker 1: Daniel again makes the same lamentation when after the enumeration
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  Speaker 1: of these saints, I called their accusers flies, and introduced
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  Speaker 1: the right reason for the comparison, saying that just as
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  Speaker 1: they fastened themselves upon the wounds of others, so also
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  Speaker 1: the accusers bite at other people's sins, collecting disease therefrom
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  Speaker 1: for their acquaintance. And those who do the opposite I
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  Speaker 1: designated bees, not gathering together diseases, but building honeycombs with
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  Speaker 1: the greatest devotion, and so flying to the meadow of
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  Speaker 1: the virtue of the saint. Then accordingly, then ye showed
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  Speaker 1: your insatiable longing. For when my discourse was extended to
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  Speaker 1: some length, yea to an interminable length such as never
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  Speaker 1: war cause many indeed expected that your eagerness would be
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  Speaker 1: quenched by the abundance of what was said. But the
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  Speaker 1: contrary happened. For your heart was the rather warmed, your
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  Speaker 1: desire was the rather kindled. And whence was this evident,
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  Speaker 1: the acclamations, at least which took place at the end,
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  Speaker 1: were greater, and the shouts more clear, And the same
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  Speaker 1: thing took place as at the forge. For as there
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning, indeed, the light of the fire is
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  Speaker 1: not very clear. But when the flame has caught the
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  Speaker 1: whole of the wood that is laid upon it, it
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  Speaker 1: is raised to a great height. So also accordingly this
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  Speaker 1: happened on the occasion of that day. At the beginning, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: this assembly was not vehemently stirred by me. But when
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  Speaker 1: the discourse was extended to some length and gradually took
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  Speaker 1: hold of all the subjects, and the teaching spread more widely,
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  Speaker 1: then accordingly then the desire of listening was kindled in you,
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  Speaker 1: and the applause broke forth more vehemently. On this account,
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  Speaker 1: although I had been prepared to say less than was spoken,
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  Speaker 1: I then exceeded the measure. Nay, rather, I never exceeded
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  Speaker 1: the measure, For I am wont to measure the amount
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  Speaker 1: of their teaching not by the multitude of the words spoken,
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  Speaker 1: but by the end disposition of the audience. For he
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  Speaker 1: who meets with a disgusted audience, even if he abridges teaching,
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  Speaker 1: seems to be vexatious. But he who meets with eager
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  Speaker 1: and wide awake and attentive hearers, though he extend his
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  Speaker 1: discourse to some length, not even thus fulfills his desire.
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  Speaker 1: But since it happens that there are in so great
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  Speaker 1: a congregation certain weak ones unable to follow the length
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  Speaker 1: of the discourse, I wish to suggest this to them,
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  Speaker 1: that they should hear and receive as much as they can, and,
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  Speaker 1: having received enough, should retire. There is no one who
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  Speaker 1: forbids or compels them to remain beyond their natural strength.
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  Speaker 1: Let them, not, however, necessitate the abridgment of the discourse
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  Speaker 1: before the time and the proper hours thou art replete,
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  Speaker 1: but thy brother still hungers. Thou art drunk with the
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  Speaker 1: multitude of the things spoken, but thy brother is still thirsty.
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  Speaker 1: Let him, then not distress thy weakness compelling thee to
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  Speaker 1: receive more than thine own power allows. Nor do thou
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  Speaker 1: vex his zeal by preventing him from receiving all that
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  Speaker 1: he can take. In this also happens at secular feet.
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  Speaker 1: Some indeed a more quickly satisfied, some more tardily. And
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  Speaker 1: neither do these blame those, nor do they condemn these.
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  Speaker 1: But there, indeed, to withdraw more quickly is praiseworthy. But
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  Speaker 1: here to withdraw more quickly is not praiseworthy, but excusable.
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  Speaker 1: There to leave off more slowly is culpable and faulty.
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  Speaker 1: Here to withdraw more tardily brings the greatest commendation and
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  Speaker 1: good report. Pray, why is this? Because there, indeed the
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  Speaker 1: tardiness arises from greediness. But here the endurance and patience
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  Speaker 1: are made up of spiritual desire and divine longing. But
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  Speaker 1: enough of preamble, and we will proceed hereupon to that
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  Speaker 1: business which remained over to us from that day. What
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  Speaker 1: then was that which was then spoken that all men
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  Speaker 1: had one's speech, just as also they had one nature,
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  Speaker 1: and no one was different in speech or in tongue.
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  Speaker 1: Whence then comes so great a distinction in speech from
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  Speaker 1: the carelessness of those who received the gift of both
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  Speaker 1: of which matters. We then spoke, showing both the loving
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  Speaker 1: kindness of the Master through this unity of speech, and
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  Speaker 1: the senselessness of the servants through their distinction of speech.
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  Speaker 1: For He, indeed, foreseeing that we should waste the gift,
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  Speaker 1: nevertheless gave it, and they to whom it was entrusted,
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  Speaker 1: waxed evil over their charge. This is then, one way
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  Speaker 1: of explanation, not that God rested the gift from us,
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  Speaker 1: but that we wasted what we had been given. Then
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  Speaker 1: next after that that we received afterwards gifts greater than
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  Speaker 1: those lost. In place of temporal toil, he honored us
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  Speaker 1: with eternal life. In place of thorns and thistles, he
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  Speaker 1: prepared the fruit of the spirit to grow in our souls.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing was more insignificant than man, and nothing became more
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  Speaker 1: honorable than man. He was the last item of the
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  Speaker 1: reasonable creation, but the feet became the head, and by
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  Speaker 1: means of the first fruits were raised to the royal throne.
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  Speaker 1: For just as some generous and opulent man, who has
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  Speaker 1: seen someone escape from shipwreck, and only able to save
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  Speaker 1: his bare body from the waves, cradles him in his
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  Speaker 1: hands and casts about him a bright garment, and conducts
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  Speaker 1: him to the highest honors, so also God has done
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  Speaker 1: in the case of our nature. Man cast aside all
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  Speaker 1: that he had, his right to speak freely, his communion
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  Speaker 1: with God, his sojourn in paradise, his unclouded life, and
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  Speaker 1: as from a shipwreck, went forth bare But God received
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  Speaker 1: him and straightway clothed him, and taking him by the hand,
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  Speaker 1: gradually conducted him to heaven. And yet the shipwreck was
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  Speaker 1: quite unpardonable, for this tempest was due entirely not to
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  Speaker 1: the force of the winds, but to the carelessness of
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  Speaker 1: the sailor. And yet God did not look at this,
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  Speaker 1: but had compassion for the magnitude of the calamity. And
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  Speaker 1: him who had suffered shipwreck in harbor he received as
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  Speaker 1: lovingly as if he had undergone this in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of the open sea. For to fall in paradise is
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  Speaker 1: to undergo shipwreck in harbor. Why so, because when no
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  Speaker 1: sadness or care, or labors or toil, or countless waves
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  Speaker 1: of desire assaulted our nature, it was upset and it fell.
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  Speaker 1: And as the miscreants who sailed the sea often bore
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  Speaker 1: through the ship with a small iron tool and let
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  Speaker 1: in the whole sea to the ship from below, so
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  Speaker 1: accordingly then when the devil saw the ship of Adam,
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  Speaker 1: that is his soul, full of many good things, he
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  Speaker 1: came and bored it through with his mere voice, as
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  Speaker 1: with some small iron tool, and ended him of all
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  Speaker 1: his wealth, and sank the ship itself. But God made
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  Speaker 1: the gain greater than the loss, and brought our nature
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  Speaker 1: to the royal throne. Wherefore Paul cries out and says,
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  Speaker 1: he raised us up with him and made us to
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  Speaker 1: sit with him on his right hand in the heavenly places,
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  Speaker 1: that in the ages to come, he might show the
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  Speaker 1: exceeding riches of his grace in kindness towards us. What
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  Speaker 1: dost thou say, The thing has already happened and has
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  Speaker 1: an end, And dost thou say, in order that he
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  Speaker 1: might show to the ages to come? Has he not shown?
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  Speaker 1: He has already shown, But not to all men, but
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  Speaker 1: to me, who am faithful, but to me, who am faithful.
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  Speaker 1: But the unbelieving has not yet seen the wonder. But
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  Speaker 1: then in that day the whole nature of man will
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  Speaker 1: come forward and will wonder at that which has been done.
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  Speaker 1: But especially will it be more manifest to us, For
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  Speaker 1: we believe even now. But hearing and sight do not
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  Speaker 1: put a wonder before us in the same way. But
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  Speaker 1: just as in the case of kings, when we hear
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  Speaker 1: of the purple robe, and the diadem, and the golden raiment,
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  Speaker 1: and the royal throne, we wonder, indeed, but experience this
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  Speaker 1: in greater degree when the curtains are drawn aside, and
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  Speaker 1: we see him seated on the lofty judgment seat. So
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  Speaker 1: also in the case of the Only Begotten, when we
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  Speaker 1: see the curtains of heaven drawn aside, and the King
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  Speaker 1: of Angels descending thence and with his bodyguard of the
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  Speaker 1: heavenly hosts, then we perceive the wonder to be greater
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  Speaker 1: from our sight of it. For consider with me what
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  Speaker 1: it is to see our nature born upon the Cherubim
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  Speaker 1: and the whole angelic force surrounding it. But look with
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  Speaker 1: me too the wisdom of Paul, how many expressions he
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  Speaker 1: seeks for so as to present to us the loving
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  Speaker 1: kindness of God. For he did not speak merely the
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  Speaker 1: word grace nor riches. But what did he say the
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  Speaker 1: exceeding riches of his grace in kindness? But notwithstanding even
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  Speaker 1: so he is below the mark. And even as these
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  Speaker 1: slippery bodies, when grasped by countless hands, escape our hold
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  Speaker 1: and slip through easily, so also are we unable to
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  Speaker 1: get hold of the loving kindness of God in whatever
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  Speaker 1: expressions we may try to grasp it. But the exceeding
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  Speaker 1: magnitude of it baffles the feebleness of our utterances. And Paul, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: experiencing this and seeing the force of words defeated by
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  Speaker 1: its magnitude, desists after saying one word, and what is this?
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  Speaker 1: Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift, For neither
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  Speaker 1: speech nor any mind is able to set forth the
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  Speaker 1: tender care of God on this account. He then says
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  Speaker 1: that it is past finding out and elsewhere. The peace
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  Speaker 1: of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts.
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  Speaker 1: But as I was saying, these two ways of explanation
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  Speaker 1: are found in the meantime. One indeed, that God has
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  Speaker 1: not rested the gift that we have lost. And next
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  Speaker 1: that the good things which have been given to us
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  Speaker 1: are even greater than those which we have lost. And
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  Speaker 1: I wish also to mention a third. Two, What then
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  Speaker 1: is the third? That even if He had not given
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  Speaker 1: the things after these which were greater than those we
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  Speaker 1: had lost, but had only taken away what had been
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  Speaker 1: given to us, as we furnish the reason why for
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  Speaker 1: let this be added, Even this is enough of itself
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  Speaker 1: to show His tender care towards us, For not only
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  Speaker 1: to give, but also to take away what was given
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  Speaker 1: is a mark of the greatest loving kindness. And if
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  Speaker 1: He will let us lay bare the matter in the
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  Speaker 1: case of paradise. He gave paradise this of his own
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  Speaker 1: tender care. We were seen to be unworthy of the gift,
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  Speaker 1: this of our own senselessness. He took away the gift
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  Speaker 1: from those who became unworthy of it. This came of
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  Speaker 1: his own goodness. And what kind of goodness is it,
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  Speaker 1: says one to take away the gift? Wait, and thou
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  Speaker 1: shalt fully hear. For think what came would have been
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  Speaker 1: dwelling in Paradise after his blood guiltiness. For if when
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  Speaker 1: he was expelled from that abode, If when condemned to
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  Speaker 1: toil and labor, and beholding the threat of death hanging
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  Speaker 1: over his head, If seeing the calamity of his father
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  Speaker 1: before his eyes, and holding the traces of the wrath
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  Speaker 1: of God still in his hands, and encompassed with so
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  Speaker 1: great horrors, he lashed out into such great wicky witness
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  Speaker 1: as to ignore nature and to forget one born from
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  Speaker 1: the same both panks, and to slay him who had
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  Speaker 1: done him no wrong, to lay hold on his brother's person,
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  Speaker 1: and to dye his right hand with blood, And when
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  Speaker 1: God wanted him to be still, to refuse submission, and
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  Speaker 1: to affront his maker, to dishonor his parents. If this
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  Speaker 1: man had continued to dwell in Paradise, look into how
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  Speaker 1: great evil he would have rushed. For if when so
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  Speaker 1: many restraints were laid upon him, it leapt with fatal leaps,
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  Speaker 1: And if these walls were set at naught, whither would
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  Speaker 1: he not have precipitated himself? Wouldt thou learn too from
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  Speaker 1: the mother of this man, what a good result the
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  Speaker 1: expulsion from the life of Paradise had. Compare what Eve
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  Speaker 1: was before this and what she became afterwards. Before this, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: she considered that deceiving devil, that wicked demon, to be
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  Speaker 1: more worth believing than the commandments of God. And at
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  Speaker 1: the mere sight of the tree she trembled under foot
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  Speaker 1: the law which had been laid down by him. But
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  Speaker 1: when the expulsion from Paradise came, consider how much better
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  Speaker 1: and wiser she grew. For when she bare a son,
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  Speaker 1: she says, I have gotten a man through the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: She straightway flew to the Master, who before this had
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: despised the Master. And she neither ascribes the matter to nature,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: nor puts the birth down to the laws of marriage.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: But she recognizes the Lord of Nature and acknowledges thanks
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: to Him for the birth of the little child. And
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: she who before this deceived her husband, afterwards even trained
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the little child and gave him a name, which of
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: itself was able to bring the gift of God to
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: her remembrance. And again, when she bare another, she says,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: God hath raised up seed to me in the place
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: of Abel whom kinslow. The woman remembers her calamity and
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: does not become impatient, but she gives thanks to God
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: and calls the little child after his gift, furnishing it
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: with constant material for instruction. Thus, even in his very deprivation,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: God conferred greater benefit. The woman suffered expulsion from paradise,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: but by means of her rejection, she was led to
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: a knowledge of God, so that she found a greater
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: thing than she lost. And if it were profitable, says one,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: to suffer expulsion from paradise, for what cause did God
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: give paradise at the beginning? This turned out profitably to
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: man on account of our carelessness, Since if at least
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: they had taken heed to themselves and had acknowledged their Master,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: and had known how to be self restrained and to
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: keep within bounds, they would have remained in honor. But
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: when they treated the gifts which had been given them
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: with insolence, then it became profitable that they should be ejected.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: For what cause, then did God give at first? In
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: order that he might show forth his own loving kindness,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and because he himself was prepared to bring us even
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: to greater honor. But we were the cause of chastisement
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and punishment on all sides, ejecting ourselves through our indifference
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to goods which were given to us. Just as therefore,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: an affectionate father at first indeed suffers his own son
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to dwell in his home and to enjoy all his
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: father's goods. But when he sees that he has become
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: worthless of the honor, he leads him away from his table,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and puts him far from his own sight, and often
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: casts him forth from his paternal home, in order that he,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: suffering expulsion and becoming better by this slight and this
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: dishonour may again show himself worthy of restoration, and may
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: succeed to his father's inheritance. So has God done. He
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: gave paradise to man. He cast him out when he
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: appeared unworthy, in order that by his dwelling outside, and
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: through his dishonour he might become better and more self restrained,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: and might appear worthy again of restoration. Since after those
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: things he did become better, he brings him back again
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and says, today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Dost thou see that not the gift of paradise, but
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: even the ejection from paradise, was a token of the
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: greatest tender care. For had he not suffered expulsion from paradise,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: he would not again have appeared worthy of paradise. This argument, therefore,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: let us maintain throughout, and let us supply it to
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: the case of the subject lying before us. God gave
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a speech common to all. This is part of his
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: loving kindness to men. They did not use the gift rightly,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: but they lapsed to outter folly. He took away again
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: that which had been given. For if when they had
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: one speech they fell into so great folly as to
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: wish to build a tower to heaven, had they not
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: immediately been chastised, would they not have desired to lay
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: hold on the height of Heaven itself? For why if
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: indeed that were impossible for them? Yet, notwithstanding their impious
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: thoughts are made out from their plan all which things
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: God foresaw. And since they did not use their oneness
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: of speech rightly, he rightly divided them by difference of speech.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: And see with me his loving kindness. Behold, saith He,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: they all have one speech, and this they have begun
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: to do. For what reason did he not at once
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: proceed to the division of tongues, but first of all
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: defend himself as if about to be judged in a
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: law court. And yet at least no one can say
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to him, why hast thou thus done? Yea, he is
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: at liberty to do all things as he wills, but
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: still as one about to give account. He thus sets
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: up a defense, teaching us to be gentle and loving.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: For if the Master defends himself to his servants, even
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: when they have done him this wrong, much more ought
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: we to defend ourselves to one another, even if we
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: wrong to the highest degree. See at least how he
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: defends himself. Behold, they have all one mouth and one's speech,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: saith He, and this they have begun to do. As
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: if he said, let no one accuse me of this
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: when he sees the division of tongues. Let no one
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: consider that this difference of speech was made over to
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: men from the beginning. Behold, they all have one mouth
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and one's speech, but they did not use the gift
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: to right. And in order that thou mayst understand that
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: he does not chastise for what has taken place, so
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: much as he provides for improvement in the future. Here
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: the sequel, and now none of the things will fail
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: them which they set on foot to do. Now what
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: he says is of such a kind as this. If
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: they do not pay the penalty now and be restrained
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: from the very root of their sins, they will never
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: cease from wickedness. For this is what. None of the
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: things will fail them which they set on foot to do,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: means as if he said, and they will add other
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: deeds yet more monstrous. For such a thing is wickedness,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: if when it has taken a start, it be not
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: hindered as fire catching wood, so it rises to an
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: unspeakable height. Dost thou see that the deprivation of oneness
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: of speech was a work of much loving kindness. He
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: inflicted difference of speech upon them in order that they
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: might not fall into greater wickedness. Hold fast this argument
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: then with me, and let it ever be fixed and
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: immovable in your minds, that not only when he confers benefits,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: but even when he chastises, God is good and loving,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: For even his chastisements and his punishments are the greatest
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: part of his beneficence, the greatest form of his providence. Whenever, therefore,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: thou seest that famines have taken place, and pestilences, and drought,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and immoderate reigns, and irregularities in the atmosphere, or any
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: other of the things which chasten human nature, be not distressed,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: nor be desponded, but worship Him who caused them. Marvel
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: at him for his tender care. For he who does
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: these things is such that he even chastens the body,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that the soul may become sound. Then does God these things?
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Saith one, God does these things. And even if the
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: whole city, nay, even if the whole universe, I would
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: not shrink from saying this, would that my voice were
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: clearer than a trumpet, and that it were possible to
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: stand in a lofty place and to cry aloud to
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: all men, and to testify that God does these things.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I do not say these things in arrogance. But I
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: have the prophets standing at my side, crying and saying,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: there is no evil in the city which the Lord
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: hath not done. Now, evil is an ambiguous term, and
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I wish that you shall learn the exact meaning of
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: each expression, in order that on account of ambiguity you
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: may not confound the nature of things and fall into blasphemy.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: There is then evil, which is really evil, fornication, adultery, covetousness,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and the countless dreadful things which are worthy of the
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: utmost reproach and punishment. Again, there is evil, which rather
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: is not evil, but is called so famine, pestilence, death, disease,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and others of a like kind. For these would not
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: be evils on this account, I said, they are called so.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Only why then, because were they evils, they would not
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: have become the sources of good to us, chastening our pride,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: goading our sloth, and leading us on to zeal make
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: us more attentive. For when saith one, he slew them,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: then they sought him, and they returned and came early
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: to God. He calls this evil therefore, which chastens them,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: which makes them purer, which renders them more zealous, which
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: leads them on to love of wisdom. Not that which
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: comes under suspicion and is worthy of reproach, for that
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: is not a work of God, but an invention of
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: our own will. But this is for the destruction of
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the other. He calls, then, by the name of evil,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the affliction which arises from our punishment, thus naming it
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: not in regard of its own nature, about according to
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: that view which men take of it. For since we
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: are accustomed to call by the name of evil not
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: only thefts and adulteries, but also calamities, so he has
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: called the matter according to the estimate of mankind. This then,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: is that which the prophet saith. There is no evil
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: in the city which the Lord hath not done. This too,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: by means of Isiah, God is made clear, saying, I
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: am God, who maketh peace and createth evil, again naming
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: calamities evil. This evil also Christ hints at, thus saying
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to the disciples, sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: that is to say, the affliction, the misery it is manifest.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Then on all sides that he here calls punishment evil,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and himself brings these upon us, affording us the greatest
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: view of his providence. For the physician is not only
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: to be commended when he leads forth the patient into
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: gardens and meadows, nor even into baths and pools of water,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: nor yet when he sets before him a well furnished table,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: but when he orders him to remain without food, when
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: he oppresses him with hunger and lays him low with
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: first confines him to his bed, both making his house
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: a prison and depriving him of the very light, and
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: shadowing his room on all sides with curtains. And when
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: he cuts, and when he cauterizes, and when he brings
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: his bitter medicines, he is equally a physician. How is
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: it not then preposterous to call him a physician who
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: does so many evil things, but to blaspheme God if
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: at any time he doeth one of these things, if
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: he bring on either famine or death, and to reject
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: his providence over all. And yet he is the only
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: true physician, both of souls and bodies. On this account,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: he often seizes this nature of ours wantoning in prosperity
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and travailing with a fever of sins, and by want
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: and hunger and death and other calamities, and the rest
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: of the medicines of which he knows frees us from diseases.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: But the poor alone feel hunger, says one. But he
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: does not chasten with hunger alone, but with countless other things.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Him who is in poverty he has often corrected with hunger,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: but the rich and him who enjoys prosperity with dangers, diseases,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: untimely deaths. For he is full of resources, and the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: medicines which he has for our salvation are manifold. Thus
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: to the judges do they do not honor or crown
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: those only who dwell in cities, nor do they provide
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: gifts alone. But they also often correct on this account.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Both the sword is sharpened by them, and tortures are prepared,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: both the wheel and the stocks, and the executioners and
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: countless other forms of chastisement. That which the executioner is
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: to the judges, famine is to God as an executioner,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: correcting us and leading us away from vice. This too,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: it is possible to see in the case of the husbandman.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: They do not then only protect the root of vine,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: nor hedge it round, but prune it and lop off
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: many of the branches. On this account, not only have
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: they a hoe, but a sickle too suitable for cutting. Yet, notwithstanding,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: we do not find fault with them. But then, above
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: all we admire them when we see them cutting off
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: much that is unserviceable, so as through the rejection of
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: what is superfluous to afford great security to that which remains.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: How is it not then preposterous that we should thus
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: approve of a father, indeed, and a physician, and a judge,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: and a husbandman, and should neither blame nor censure him
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: who casts his son out of his house, nor the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: physician who puts his patient to torture, nor the judge
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: who corrects, nor the husbandman who prunes. But that we
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: should blame and smite with countless accusations. God, if he
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: would at any time raise us up, we are, as
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: it were, besotted through the great drunkenness which comes of wickedness.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: How great madness would it not be not even to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: allow God a share of the same self justification of
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: which we allow our fellow servants a share Fearing these things.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: For them who reproach God, I speak now in order
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: that they may not kick against the pricks and cover
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: their own feet with blood, that they may not throw
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: stones to heaven and receive wounds on their own head.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: But I have somewhat else, far beyond this to say,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: for omitting to ask, I say this by way of concession.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: If God took from us to our profit, I say
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: only this, that if he took what had been given,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: not even thus could any one be able to reproach him,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: For he was lord of his own among men. Indeed,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: when they intrust us with money and lend us silver,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: we give them our thanks for the time during which
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: they lent it. We are not indignant at the time
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: at which they take back their own. Shall we reproach
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: God who wishes to take back his own? Indeed, now
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: is this not the extreme of folly? Yea, the great
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and noble Joe Robe did not act thus, For not
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: only when he received, but even when he was deprived.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: He gives the greatest thanks to God, saying the Lord gave,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: the Lord hath taken away. May the name of the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Lord be blessed forever. But if it is right to
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: give thanks for both these even separately, and deprivation is
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: not the less serviceable than bestowal. What excusableness should we
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: have tell me in recompensing in a contrary spirit and
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: being impatient with him when we ought to worship who
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: is so gentle and loving and careful, who is wiser
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: than every physician, and more full of affection than any father,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: juster than any judge, and more anxious than any husbandman,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: in healing these souls of ours? What then, could be
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: more insane and senseless than they, who, in the midst
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: of so great good order, say that we are deprived
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: of the providence of God. For just as if some
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: one were to contend that the soul was murky and cold,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: he would produce an example of extreme insanity by his opinion.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: So if any one doubts about the providence of God,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: much rather is he liable to charges of madness not
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: so manifest as the sun. As the providence of God
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: is clear. But nevertheless, some dare to say that demons
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: administer our affairs? What can I do? Thou hast a
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: loving master? He chooses rather to be blasphemed by THEE
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: through these words, than to commit thine affairs to the
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: demons and persuade THEE by the reality. How demons administer,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: For then thou wouldst know their wickedness well by the
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: experience of it. But rather, indeed, now it is possible
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: to set it before you, as it were by a
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: certain small example, certain men possessed of demons, coming forth
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: out of the tombs, met Christ, and the demons kept
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: beseeching him to suffer them to enter the hood of swine.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: And he suffered them, and they went away, and straightway
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: precipitated them all headlong. Thus do demons govern, And yet
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: to them the swine were of no particular account. But
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: with thee there is ever a warfare without a truce,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: and an implacable fight, and undying hatred. And if in
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the case of those with whom they had nothing in common,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: they did not even endure that they should be allowed
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: a brief breathing space of time. If they had gotten
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: unto their power, ask their enemies, who are perpetually stinging them,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: what would they not have done? What incurable mischief would
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: they not have accomplished? For for this reason, God let
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: them fall upon the herd of swine, in order that
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: in the case of the bodies of irrational animals, thou
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: mayst learn their wickedness, and that they would have done
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: to thee possessed the things which they did to the swine,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: had not the demoniacs, in their very madness experienced the
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: providence of God is evident to all. And now, therefore,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: when thou seest a man excited by a demon, worship
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the Master, learn the wickedness of the demons. For it
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: is possible to see both things in the case of
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: these demons, the loving kindness of God and the evil
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: of the demons. The evil of the demons when they
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: harass and disturb the soul of the demented, and the
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: loving kindness of God whenever he restrains and hinders so
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: savage a demon who has taken up his abode within
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: and desires to hold the man headlong, and does not
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: allow him to use his own power to the fool,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: but suffers him to exhibit just so much strength as
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: both to bring the man to his senses and make
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: his own wickedness apparent. Dost thou wish to form another
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: example to see once more how a demon arranges matters
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: when God allows him to use his own power. Consider
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the herds the flocks of job, how, in one instant
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: of time he annihilated all. Consider the pitiable death of
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: the children, the blow that was dealt to his body,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: and thou shalt see thee savage and inhuman and unsparing
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: character of the wickedness of the demons. And from these
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: things thou shalt know clearly that if God had entrusted
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: the whole of this world to their authority, they would
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: have confused and disturbed everything, and would have assigned to
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: us their treatment of the swine and of those herds,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: since not even for a little breathing space of time
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: could they have endured to spare us our salvation. If
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: demons were to arrange affairs, we should be in no
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: better condition than possessed men. Yea, Rather, we should be
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: worse than they, for God did not give them over
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: entirely to the tyranny of the demons, otherwise they would
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: suffer far worse things than these which they now suffer.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: And I would ask this of those who say these things,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: what kind of disorder they behold in the present, that
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: they set down all our affairs to the arrangement of demons.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: And yet we behold the sun for so many years,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: preceding day by day in regular order, a manifold band
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: of stars keeping their own order, the courses of the
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: moon unimpeded, an invariable succession of night and day, all
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: things both above and below, as it were, in a
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: certain fitting harmony. Yea rather even far more and more accurately,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: each keeping his own place, and not departing from the
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: order which God who made them, ordained from the beginning.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: And what is the use of all this, says one?
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: When the heaven, indeed, and sun and moon, and the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: band of stars and all the rest keep much good order.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: But our affairs are full of confusion and disorder. What
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: kind of confusion a man? And disorder? A certain one says?
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: He is rich and overbearing, He is rapacious and covetous.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: He drains the substance of the poor day by day,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: and suffers no terrible affliction. Another lives in forbearance, self resish,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: strained and uprightness, and is ordained with all other good qualities,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and is chastened with poverty and disease and extremely terrible afflictions.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Are these, then, the matters which offend thee yes? These
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: says he? If then thou seest both of the rapacious,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: many chastened and of those living virtuously, yea, some even
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: enjoying countless goods. Why dost thou not abandon thine opinion
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: and be content with the Almighty? Because it is this
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: very thing which offends me more. For why, when there
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: are two evil men, is one chastened and another gets
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: off and escapes. And when there are two good men,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: one is honored and the other continues under punishment. And
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: this very thing is a very great work of God's providence.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: For if he were to chasten all the evil men here,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: and were to honor here all the good men a
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: day of judgment were superfluous. Again. If he were to
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: chasten no wicked men, nor were to honor any of
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the good then the base whould become baser and worse,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: as being more careless than the excellent. And they who
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: are minded to blaspheme would accuse God all the more
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: and say that our affairs were altogether deprived of his providence.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: For if when certain evil men are chastened and certain
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: good men punished, they likewise say that human affairs are
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: subject to no providence. If even this did not happen,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: what would they not say? And what words would they
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: not set forth on this account. Some of the wicked
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: he chastens, and some he does not chasten, And some
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: of the good he honors, and some he does not honor.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: He does not chasten all in order that he may
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: persuade thee that there is a resurrection. But he chastens
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: some in order that he may make them more careless
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: through fear, by means of the punishment of the others
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: more in earnest. Again, he honors certain of the good,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: in order that he may lead on others, by his honors,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: to emulate their virtue. But he does not honor all,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: in order that thou mayst learn that there is another
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: season for rendering to all their recompense. For if indeed
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: all were to receive their deserts here, they would disbelieve
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the account of the resurrection. But if no one were
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: to receive his desert here, the majority would become more careless.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: On this account, some he chastens, and others he does
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: not chasten, profiting both those who are chastened and those
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: who are not chastened, For he separates their wickedness from those,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: and he makes the others, by their punishment more self restrained.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: And this is manifest from what Christ himself said. For
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: when they had announced to him that a tower had
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: been brought to the ground and had buried certain men,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: he saith to them, what think ye that these men
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: were sinners? Only? I say to you nay, But if
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: ye do not repent, ye also shall suffer the same thing.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Dost thou see how those perished on account of their sin,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: and the rest did not escape on account of their righteousness,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: but in order that they might become the better by
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: the punishment of the others, were not then he chastened
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: unjustly dealt with, says one. For they could, without being
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: chastened themselves, become better by the punishment of others. But
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: if he had known that they would become better from penitence,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: God would not have chastened them. For if when he
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: foresaw that many would profit nothing from his long suffering,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: he nevertheless bears with them with much tolerance, fulfilling his
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: own part and affording them an opportunity of coming out
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: of their own senselessness to their sober senses one day.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: How could he deprive those who were about to become
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: better from the punishment of others of the benefit of repentance,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: so that they are in no way unjustly treated. Both
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: their evil being cast off by their punishment, and their
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: chastening is to be lighter there because they suffered here beforehand. Again,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: they who were not chastened are in no way unjustly treated,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: For it was possible for them, had they wished to
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: have used the long suffering of God to accomplish a
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: most excellent change, and wondering at his tolerance, to have
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: become ashamed at his exceeding forbearance, and one day to
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: have gone over to virtue, and to have gained their
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: own salvation by the punishment of others. But if they
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: remain in wickedness, God is not to blame who, on
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: this account, was long suffering that He might recover them.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: But they are unworthy of pardon who did not rightly
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: use the long suffering of God. And it is not
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: only possible to use this argument as a reason why
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: all the wicked are not chastened here, but another also,
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: not less than this. Of what kind, then, is this
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: that if God brought upon all the chastenings which their
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: sins deserved, our race would have been carried off and
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: would have failed to come down to posterity. And in
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: order that thou mayst learn that this is true. Hear
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: the prophet saying, if thou observest iniquity, O Lord, who
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: shall stand, and if it seems good to THEE to
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: investigate this saying, leaving the accurate inquiry into the life
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: of each alone, For it is not possible even to
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: know all that has been accomplished by each man. Let
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: us bring forward those sins which all, without contradiction commit,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And from these it will be plain and manifest to
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: us that if we were chastened for each of our sins,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: we should long ago have perished. He who has called
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: his brother fool is liable to the hell of fire saith.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: He is there, then, any one of us who has
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: never sinned this way? What then ought he to be
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: straightway carried off? Therefore we should have been all carried
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: off and would have disappeared long ago, indeed very long ago. Again,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: he who swears saith, He, even if he fulfills his oath,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: doeth the works of the wicked. One? Who is there then,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: who has not sworn yea Rather, who is there who
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: has never sworn falsely? He who looketh on a woman saith,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: he with unchaste eyes is wholly an adulterer, And of
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: this sin any one would find many guilty. When then
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: these acknowledged sins are such and so insufferable, and each
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: of these of itself brings upon us inevitable chastisement. If
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: we were to reckon up the secret sins committed by us,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: then we shall see especially that the providence of God
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: does not bring upon us punishment for each sin. So
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: that when thou seest any one rapacious, covetous, and not chastened,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: then do thou unfold thine own conscience, reckon up thine
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: own life, go over the sins which have been committed,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: and thou shalt learn rightly that in thine own case, first,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: it is not expedient to be chastened for each of
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: thy sins. For on this account the majority make reckless utterances,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: since they do not look on their own case before
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: that of others. But we, all, leaving our own alone,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: examine that of the rest. But let us no longer
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: do this but the reverse. And if thou seest any
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: righteous man chastened, remember job, for if any one be righteous,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: he will not be more righteous than that man, nor
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: within a small distance of approaching him. And if he
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: suffer countless ills, he has not yet suffered so much
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: as that man. Taking this, then into thy mind, cease
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: charging the master, learning that it is not by way
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: of deserting him does God let such an one suffer ill,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: but through desire to crown him and make him more distinguished.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: And if thou seest a sinner punished, remember thee paralytic
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: who passed thirty eight years on his bed. For that
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: that man was delivered over then to that disease through sin,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: here Christ saying, behold, thou art made whole sin no
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: more lest a worst thing happen to thee. For either
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: when we are chastened, we pay the penalty of our sins,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: or else we receive the occasion of crowning. If when
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: we live in rectitude we suffer ill, So that whether
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: we live in righteousness or in sins, chastening is a
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: useful thing for us. Sometimes may he us more distinguished,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: sometimes rendering us more self controlled, and lightening our punishment
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: to come for us. For that it is impossible that
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: one chastened here and bearing it thankfully, should experience mild
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: the punishment there here Saint Paul, saying, for this reason
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: many are weak and sickly, and some sleep. For if
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: we judged ourselves, we should not be judged. But when
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: we are judged, we are corrected by the Lord, that
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: we should not be condemned. With the world knowing all
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: these things. Therefore, let us both moralize in this way
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: on the providence of God, and stop the mouths of
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: the gainsayers. And if any of the events which happen
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: pass our understanding, let us not from this consider that
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: our affairs are not governed by providence, but perceiving His
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: providence in part in things incomprehensible. Let us yield to
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: the unsearchableness of His wisdom. For if it is not
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: possible for one not conversant with it to understand a
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: man's art, much rather is it impossible for the human
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: understanding to comprehend the infinity of the providence of God.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: For his judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: But nevertheless, from small portions we gain a clear and
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: manifest faith about the whole. We give thanks to Him
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: for all that happens. For there is even another consideration
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: that cannot be contradicted for those who wish to moralize
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: about the providence of God. For we would ask the gainsayers,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: is there then a God? And if they should say
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: there is not, let us not answer them, For just
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: as it is worthless to answer madmen, so to those
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: who say there is no God. For if a ship
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: having few sailors and passengers would not be conducted safely
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: for one mile, even without the hand which guides it,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: much more, such a world as this, having so many
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: persons in it, composed of different elements, would not have
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: continued so long a time, were there not a certain
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: providence presiding over it, both governing and continually maintaining this
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: whole fabric. And if in shame, through the common opinion
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: of all men and the experience of affairs, they confess
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: that there is a God, let us say this to them.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: If there is a God, as indeed there is, it
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: follows that he is just. For if he is not just,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: neither is he God. And if he is just, he
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: recompenses to each according to their desert. But we do
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: not see all here receiving according to their desert. Therefore
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: it is necessary to hope for some other requital awaiting
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: us in order that by each one receiving according to
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: his desert, the justice of God may be made manifest.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: For this consideration does not only contribute to our wisdom
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: about providence alone, but about the resurrection. And let us
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: teach others, and let us do all diligence to shut
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the mouths of them who rave against the Master, and
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: let us ourselves glorify him in all things, For thus
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: shall we win more of his care and enjoy much
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: of his influence. And thus shall we be able to
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: escape from real evil and obtain future good through the
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: whom and with whom be glory to the Father with
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, now and always, for ever and ever
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: are men. End of Homily one, Homily two of three
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Homilies concerning the Power of Demons by John Crysostom, translated
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: by Thomas Brandram. This LibriVox recording is in the public
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: domain against those who object, because the devil has not
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: been put out of the world, and to prove that
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: his wickedness does no harm to us if we take heed.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: And concerning repentance, when Isaac in old time was desirous
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: to eat a meal at the hands of his son.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: He sent his son forth from the house to the chase.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: But when this Isaac was desirous to accept a meal
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: at my hands, he did not send me forth from
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: that house, but himself ran to our table. What could
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: be more tenderly affectionate than he, what more humble, who
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: thought fit to show his warm love thus and deigned
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: to descend so far On this account, surely, we also,
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: having spent the tones of our voice at the strength
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: of our feet over the morning discourse, when we saw
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: his his fatherly face, forgot our weakness, lay aside our fatigue,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: were uplifted with pleasure. We saw his illustrious, hoary beard,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: and our soul was filled with light. On this account too,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: we set at our table with readiness, in order that
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: he should eat and bless us. There is no fraud
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: and guile here as there was then there. While indeed
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: was commanded to bring the meal, but another brought it.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: But I was commanded to bring it, and brought it
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: to bless me. Then O my father with spiritual blessing,
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: which we all also pray ever to receive, and which
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: is profitable not only to thee but also to me.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: And to all these entreat the common master of us
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: all to prolong thy life to the old age of Isaac.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: For this is both for me and for these, more
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: valuable and more needful than the due of heaven and
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: the fatness of the earth. But it is time to
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: proceed to set our table. What then, is this the
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: remains of what was lately said with a view to
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: our love of you. For still still we renew our
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: discourse concerning the Devil, which we started two days ago,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: which we also addressed to the initiated this morning, when
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: we discourse to them about renunciation and covenant. And we
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: do this not because our discourse about the devil is
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: sweet to us, but because the doctrine about him is
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: full of security for you. For he is an enemy
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: and a foe, and it is a great security to
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: know clearly the tactics of your enemies. As we have
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: said lately, that he does not overcome by force, nor
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: by tyranny, nor through compulsion, nor through violence, since were
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: this so, he would have destroyed all men. And in
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: testimony of this we brought forward the swine against which
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: the demons were unable to venture anything before the permission
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: of the master the herds and flocks of Job. For
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: not even did the devil venture to destroy these until
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: he received power from above. We learnt therefore this one thing, first,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: that he does not overcome us by force or by compulsion.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Next after that we added that even when he overcomes
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: by deceitfulness, not thus does he get the better of
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: all men. Then again we brought that athlete Job himself
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: into the midst against whom he set countless schemes going,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: and not even thus got the better of him. But
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Withdrew defeated, one question still remains, what then is this
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: matter that if he does not overcomes his one by force,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: yet by deceitfulness, And on this account it were better
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: that he should be destroyed. For if Job got the
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: better of him, yet Adam was deceived and overthrown. Now,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: if once for all he had been removed from the world,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: Adam would never have been overthrown. But now he remains
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: and is defeated indeed by one, but gets the better
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: of many. Ten overcame him, but he himself overcomes and
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: wrestles down ten thousand. And if God took him away
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: from the world, these ten thousand would not have perished.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: What then shall we say to this? That first of all,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: they who overcame are more valuable far than they who
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: are defeated, even if the latter be more and the
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: former less. For better is one saith he that doeth
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: the will of God than ten thousand transgresses. And next
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: that if the antagonist were taken away, he who overcomes
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: is thereby injured. For if thou letst the adversary remain,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: the more slothful are injured, not on account of the
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: more diligent, but by their own slothfulness. Whereas if thou
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: takest away the antagonist, the more diligent are betrayed on
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: account of the slothful, and neither exhibit their own power
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: nor win crowns. Perhaps ye have not yet understood what
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: has been said. Therefore it is necessary that I should
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: say it again more clearly. Let there be one antagonist,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: but let there be also two athletes about to wrestle
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: against him. And of these two athletes, let one be
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: consumed with gluttony, unprepared, void of strength, nerveless, but the
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: other diligent of good habit, passing his time in the
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: wrestling school in many gymnastic exercises and exhibiting all the
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: practice which bears upon the contest. If then thou takest
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: away the antagonist, which of these two hast thou injured,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: the slothful, prey and unprepared, or the earnest one who
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: has toiled so much? It is quite clear that it
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: is the earnest one, for the one indeed is wronged
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: by the slothful after the antagonist has been taken away.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: But the slothful, while he remains, is no longer injured
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: on account of the earnest, for he has fallen owing
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: to his own slothfulness. I will state another solution to
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: this question, in order that thou mayst learn that the
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: devil does not injure, but their own slothfulness everywhere overthrows
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: those who do not take heed. Let the devil be
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: allowed to be exceeding wicked, not by nature, but by
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: choice and conviction. For that the devil is not by
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: nature wicked. Learn from his very names. For the devil
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: the slanderer, that is is so called from slandering, for
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: he slandered man to God, saying, doth job reverence thee
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: for nought, But put out thine hand and touch what
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: he hath see if he will not blasphem thee to
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: thy face. He slandered God again to man, saying fire
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: fell from heaven and burnt up the sheep. For he
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: was anxious to persuade him that this warfare was stirred
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: up from above out of the heavens. And he set
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: the servant at variance with the master, and the master
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: with his servant. Rather, he did not set them at variance,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: but attempted to, indeed, but was not able in order
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: that whenever thou mayst set another servant at variance with
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: his master, adam with God, and believing the devil's slander,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: thou mayst learn that he gains strength not owing to
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: his own power, but from that man's slothfulness and carelessness.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: He is called the devil. Therefore on that account. But
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: to slander and to refrain from slander is not natural
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: about an action which takes place and which ceases to
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: take place, occurring and ceasing to occur. Now, such things
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: do not reach the rank of the nature or of
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: the essence of a thing. I know that this consideration
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: about essence and accident is hard to be grasped by many.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: But there are they who are able to lend a
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: finer ear. Wherefore also we have spoken these things, Do
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: you wish that I should come to another name? You
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: shall see that that also is not a name which
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: belongs to his essence or nature. He is called wicked,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: But his wickedness is not from his nature, but from
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: his choice. For even this at one time is present,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: at another time is absent. Do not thou then say
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: this to me that it always remains with him? For
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: it was not indeed with him at the beginning, but
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: afterwards came upon him. Wherefore he is called apostate. Although
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: many men are wicked, he alone is called wicked by
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: pre eminence. Why then is he thus called, because though
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: in no way wronged by us, having no grudge, whether
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: small or great, when he saw mankind had in honor,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: he straightway envied him his good. What therefore could be
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: worse than this wickedness, except when hatred and war exist
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: without having any reasonable cause. Let the devil then be
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: let alone, and let us bring forward the creation, in
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: order that thou mayst learn that the devil is not
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: the cause of ills to us. If we would only
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: take heed in order that thou mayst learn that the
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: weak in choice, and the unprepared and slothful, even were
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: there no devil, falls and casts himself into many a
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: depth of ear. Evil. The devil is evil. I know
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: it myself, and it is acknowledged by all. Yet give
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: heed strictly to the things which are now about to
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: be said. For they are not ordinary matters, but those
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: about which many words, many times, and in many places arise,
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: about which there is many a fight and battle, not
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: only on the part of the faithful against unbelievers, but
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: also on the part of the faithful against the faithful.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: For this is that which is full of pain. The devil,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: then is acknowledged, as I said, to be evil by all.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: What shall we say about this beautiful and wondrous creation? Pray,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: is the creation too wicked? And who is so corrupt?
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Who so dull and demented as to accuse the creation?
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: What then shall we say about this? For it is
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: not wicked, but is both beautiful and a token of
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: the wisdom and power and loving kindness of God. Here
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: at least, how the prophet marvels at it, saying, how
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: are thy works magnified? O, Lord, in wisdom, thou hast
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: made them all? He did go through them one by one,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: but withdrew before the incomprehensible wisdom of God, and that
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: He has made it thus beautiful and vast. Here a
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: certain one saying, from the vastness and beauty of the creatures,
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: the originator of them is proportionably seen here too, Paul saying,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: for the invisible things of Him, since the creation of
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: that are made for each of these by which he
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: spake declared that the creation leads us to the knowledge
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: of God because it causes us to know the Master fully.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: What then, if we see this beautiful and wondrous creation
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: itself become a cause of impiety to many? Shall we
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: blame it in no wise but them who are unable
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: to use the medicine rightly? Whence then, is this which
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: leads us to the knowledge of God a cause of impiety?
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: The wise saith he were darkened in their understanding, and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: worshiped and served the creature more than the creator. The
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: devil is nowhere here, a demon is nowhere here. But
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: the creation alone is set before us as the teacher
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: of the knowledge of God. How then, has it become
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: the cause of empire, not owing to its own nature,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: but owing to the carelessness of those who do not
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: take heed. What then shall we take away even the creation?
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: Tell me, and why do I speak about the creation?
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: Let us come to our own members, For even these
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: we shall find to be a cause of destruction if
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: we do not take heed, not because of their own nature,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: but because of our sloth. And look. An eye was
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: given in order that thou mayst behold the creation and
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: glorify the Master. But if thou dost not use the
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: eye well, it becomes to THEE the minister of adultery.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: A tongue has been given in order that thou mayst
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: speak well, in order that thou mayst praise the Creator.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: But if thou givest not excellent heed, it becomes a
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: cause of blasphemy to thee. And hands were given thee
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: that thou mayst stretch them forth unto prayer. But if
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: thou art not weary, thou stretchest them out unto covetousness.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: Feet were given in order that thou mayst run unto
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: good works. But if thou art careless, thou wilt cause
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: wicked works. By means of them, dost thou see that
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: all things hurt the weak man. Dost thou see that
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: even the medicines of salvation inflict death upon the weak,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: not because of their own nature, but because of his weakness.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: God made the heaven in order that thou mayst wonder
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: at the work and worship the Master. But others, leaving
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: the Creator alone, have worshiped the heaven, and this from
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: their own carelessness and senselessness. But why do I speak
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: of the creation assuredly? What could be more conducive to
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: salvation than the Cross? But this cross has become an
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: offense to the weak. For the word of the Cross
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: is to them that are perishing foolishness, But to those
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: which are being saved, it is the power of God.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: And again we preach Christ crucified unto Jews a stumbling block,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: and unto gentiles foolishness. What could be more fit for
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: teaching than Paul and the Apostles. But the apostles became
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: a savor of death to many. He says, at least
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: to one a savor from death unto death, to the
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: other a savor from life unto life. Dost thou see
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: that the weak is hurt even by Paul. But the
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: strong is injured, not even by the devil. Dost thou
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: wish that we should exercise the argument in the case
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. What is equal to that salvation? What
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: more profitable than that presence? But this very saving presence,
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: so profitable, became an additional means of chastening to many.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: For for judgment, sayth he came I into this world
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: that they which see may not see, and that they
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: which see may become blind. What dost thou say the
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: light became a cause of blindness? The light did not
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: become a cause of blindness, But the weakness of the
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: eyes of the soul was not able to entertain the light.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: Thou hast seen that a weak man is hurt on
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: all sides, but the strong is benefited on all sides.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: For in every case the purpose is the cause. For
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: in every case, the purpose is the cause. In every
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: case the disposition is master. Since the devil, if thou
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: wouldst understand, it is even profitable to us if we
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: use him aright, and benefits us greatly, and we gain
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: no ordinary advantages. And this we showed in a small
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: degree from the case of job. And it is possible
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: also to learn this from Paul, For writing about the faunicator,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: he thus speaks, deliver such an one unto Satan for
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. Behold,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: even the devil has become a cause of salvation, but
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: not because of his own disposition, but because of the
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: skill of the apostle. For as the physicians, taking serpents
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: and cutting off their destructive members, prepare medicines for antidotes,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: so also did Paul. He took whatever was profitable of
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: the chastening that proceeds from the devil, and left the
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: rest alone, in order that thou mayst learn that the
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: devil is not the cause of salvation, but that he
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: hasted to destroy and devour mankind, but that the Apostle,
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: through his own wisdom, cut his throat. Here in the
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: second Epistle to the Corinthians, what he saith about this
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: very fornicator. Confirm your love towards him, lest by any
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: means such an one should be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: and we be taken advantage of by Satan. We have
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: snatched beforehand the man from the gullet of the wild beast.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: He saith for the apostle often use the devil as
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: an executioner. For the executioners punish those who have done wrong,
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: not as they choose, but as the judges allow. For
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: this is the rule for the executioner to take vengeance,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: giving heed to the command of the judge. Dost thou
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: see to what a dignity the apostle mounted he who
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: was invested with a body, use the bodiless as an executioner,
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: and that which their common master saith to the devil
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: concerning job, charging him thus touch his flesh, but thou
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: shalt not touch his life, giving him a limit and
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: measure of vengeance, in order that the wild beast might
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: not be impetuous and leap upon him too shamelessly. This
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: too the apostle does for delivering the faunicator over to him,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: he says, for the destruction of the flesh, that is,
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: thou shalt not touch his life. Dost thou see the
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: authority of the servant. Fear not therefore the devil, even
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: if he be bodiless, for he has come in contact
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: with him, And nothing is weaker than he who has
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: come into such contact, even though he be not invested
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: with a body, as then nothing is stronger than he
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: who has boldness, even though he bear about a mortal body.
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: All these things have been now said by me, not
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: in order that I may discharge the devil from blame,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: but that I may free you from slothfulness. For he
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: wishes extremely to attribute the cause of our sins to himself,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: in order that we, being nourished by these hopes and
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: entering on all kinds of evil, may increase the chastening
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: in our own case, and may meet with no pardon
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: from having transferred the cause to him, just as Eve
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: met with none. But let us not do this, But
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: let us know ourselves, let us know our wounds, for
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: thus shall we be able to apply the medicines. For
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: he who does not know his disease will give no
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: care to his weakness. We have sinned much. I know
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: this well, for we are all liable for penalties. But
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: we are not deprived of pardon. Nor shall we fall
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: away from repentance, for we still stand in the arena
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: and are in the struggles of repentance. Art thou old,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: and hast thou come to thee last outlet of life?
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: Do not consider even thus that thou hast fallen from repentance,
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: nor despair of thine own salvation. But consider the robber
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: who is freed on the cross, for what was briefer
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: than that hour in which he was crowned, Yet notwithstanding
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: even this was enough for him for salvation. Art thou young,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: do not be confident in thy youth, nor think that
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: thou hast a very fixed term of life. For the
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: the night. On this account, he has made our end invisible,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: in order that we might make our diligence and our
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: forethought plain. Dost thou not see men taken away prematurely
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: day after day? On this account, a certain one admonishes
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: make no tarrying to turn to the Lord, and put
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: not off from day to day, lest at any time
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: as thou delayest, thou art destroyed. That the old man
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: keep this admonition. Let the young man take this advice.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: Yea art thou insecurity, and art thou rich, And dost
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: thou abound in wealth? And does no affliction happen to
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: thee Still hear what Paul says. When they say peace
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. Affairs are
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: full of much change. We are not masters of our end.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Let us be masters of virtue. Our Master Christ is loving.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: Do wish that I shall speak of the ways of repentance.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: They are many and various and different, and all lead
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: to heaven. The first way of repentance is condemnation of sins.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: Declare thou first thy sins, that thou mayst be justified.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: Wherefore also the prophet said, I said, I will speak
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: out my transgression to the Lord, and thou remittest the
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: iniquity of my heart. Condemn thyself. Therefore for thy sins.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: This is enough for the Master by way of self defense.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: For he who condemns his sins is slower to fall
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: into them again. Awake thy conscience, that inward accuser, in
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: order that thou mayst have no accuser at the judgment
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: seat of the Lord. This is one way of repentance,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: the best. And there is another not less than this.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Not to bear a grudge against thine enemies, to overcome anger,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: to forgive the sins of our fellow servants. For so
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: will those which have been done against the Master be
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: forgiven us. See the second expiation of sis sins. For
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: if he forgive saith he your debtors. Your heavenly father
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: will also forgive you. Dost thou wish to learn a
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: third way of repentance, fervent and diligent prayer, and to
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: do this from the bottom of the heart. Hast thou
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: not seen that widow how she persuaded the shameless judge.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: But thou hast a gentle master, both tender and kind.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: She asked against her adversaries. But thou dost not ask
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: against thine adversaries, but on behalf of thine own salvation.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: And if thou wouldst learn a fourth way, I will
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: say almsgiving. For this has a great power and unspeakable.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: For Daniel says to Nebicuate Nezza, when he had come
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: to all kinds of evil and had entered upon all impiety,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: O King, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee redeem
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: thy sins by almsgiving, and thine iniquities by compassion on
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: the poor. What could be compared with this loving kindness
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: after countless sins, after so many transgressions. He has promised
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: that he will be reconciled with him he has come
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: into conflict with, if he will show kindness to his
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: own fellow servants, and modesty and humility, not less than
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: all words spoken exhaust the nature of sins. And the
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: publican is proof, being unable to declare his good deeds
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: in sight of all, bringing forward his humility, and laying
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: aside the heavy burden of his sins. See we have
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: shown five ways of repentance, First the condemnation of sins,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: Next the forgiveness of our neighbor's sins. Thirdly that which
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: comes of prayer, forth, that which comes of alms giving,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: Fifth that which comes of humility. Do not thou then
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: be lazy, but walk in all these day by day,
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: For the ways are easy. Nor canst thou plead poverty.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: And even if thou livest poorer than all, thou art
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: able to leave thine anger and be humble, and to
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: pray fervently, and to condemn sins, And thy poverty is
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: in no way hindrance. And why do I speak thus
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: when not even in that way of repentance in which
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: it is possible to spend money, I speak of alms giving.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: Not even there is poverty any hindrance to us from
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: obeying the command. The widow who spent the two mites
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: is a proof. Having learned then the healing of our wounds,
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: let us constantly apply these medicines in order that we
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: may return to health and enjoy the sacred table with
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: assurance and with much glory. Reach Christ, the King of Glory,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: and attained to everlasting good by the grace and compassion
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: and with whom be glory, power, honor to the Father,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: Together with the all holy and good and quickening Spirit,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: now and always and forever and ever are men. End
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: of Homily two, Homily three of three Homilies concerning the
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: Power of Demons by John Crysostom, translated by Thomas Bradram.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. That evil
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: comes of sloth, and virtue from diligence, and that neither
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: wicked men nor the devil himself are able to do
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: the weary man any harm. The proof of this from
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: many passages, and amongst others, from those which relate to
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Adam and to job. The day before yesterday we set
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: on foot our sermon concerning the devil out of our
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: love for you, but others. The day before yesterday while
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: these matters were being set on foot, here took their
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: places in the theater and were looking on at the
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: devil's show. They were taking part in lascivious songs. Ye
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: were having a share in spiritual music. They were eating
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: of the devil's garbage. Ye were feeding on spiritual unguents.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: Who pray? Decoit them? Who pray separated them from the
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: sacred flock? Did the devil pray deceive them? How did
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: he not deceive you? You and they are men alike.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, as regards your nature, you and they have
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: the same soul, You have the same desire, so far
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: as nature is concerned. How is it then that you
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: and they were not in the same place, because you
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: and they have not the same purpose. On this account,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: they indeed are under deception, but you beyond deception. I
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: do not say these things again as discharging the devil
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: from accusation, but as desiring earnestly to free you from sins.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: The devil is wicked, I grant this indeed, But he
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: is wicked for himself, not towards us. If we are weary,
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: for the nature of wickedness is of this kind. It
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: is destructive to those alone who hold to it. Virtue
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: is the contrary. It is not only able to profit
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: those who hold to it, but those nearest at hand too.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: And in order that thou mayst learn that evil is
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: evil in itself, but good is also good to others,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: I provide thee with proverbial evidence. My son saith he,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: if thou art become evil, thou shalt bear thine evils alone,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: But if wise, for thyself and thy neighbor. They were
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: deceived in the theater, but ye were not deceived. This
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: is the greatest proof of things, a clear testimony and
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: unquestionable reasoning that in every case the purpose is master.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: Do thou accordingly use this method of proof. If thou
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: seest a man living in wickedness and exhibiting all kinds
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: of evil, then blaming the providence of God, and saying
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: that by the necessity of fortune and fate, and through
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: tyranny of demons, he gave us our nature and on
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: all all sides, shifting the cause from himself, indeed, and
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: transferring it to the creator who provides for all silence
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: his speech not by word, but by deed, showing him
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: another fellow servant living in virtue and forbearance. There is
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: no need of long speeches, no need of a complex plan,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: nor even of syllogisms. By means of deeds, the proof
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: is brought about. He said to him, thou art a servant,
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: and he is a servant. Thou art a man, and
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: he is a man. Thou livest in the same world
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: thou art nourished with the same nourishment under the same heaven.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: How is it that thou art living in wickedness, he
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: in virtue. On this account, God allowed the wicked to
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: be mingled with the good, and did not give one
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: law to the wicked. Indeed, and appointed another world as
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: a colony for the good, but mixed these and those
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: conferring great benefit for the good appear more thoroughly approved
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: when they are in the midst of those who try
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: to hinder them from living rightly, and who entice them
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: to evil. And yet keep hold of virtue, for they must.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: He saith be also heresies among you, that they which
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: wich are approved, may be made manifest among you. Therefore,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: also on this account, He has left the wicked to
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: be in the world, in order that the good may
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: shine the brighter. Dost thou see how great is the gain.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: But the gain is not owing to the wicked, but
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: owing to the courage of the good. On this account
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: also we admire Noah, not because he was righteous, nor
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: yet because he was perfect alone, but because in that
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: perverse and wicked generation he preserved his virtue when he
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: had no pattern of virtue, when all men invited him
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: to wickedness, and he went his whole way contrary to them,
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: like some traveler pursuing his way while the great multitude
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: is being borne along vehemently. On this account, he did
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: not simply say Noah was just perfect, but added in
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: his generation, in that perverse, that desperate generation, when there
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: was no acquisition of virtue to the good, indeed, then
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: this was the gain from the wicked. Thus, at all events,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: also trees tossed about by contrary winds become stronger, and
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: there is a gain to the wicked from their mixing
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: with the good. They feel confusion, they are ashamed, they
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: blush in their presence, and even if they do not
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: abstain from evil, yet nevertheless they dare what they dare
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: with secrecy. And this is no small thing not to
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: have transgression publicly committed. For the life of the others
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: becomes the accuser of the wickedness of these. Here at last,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: what they say about the righteous man, He is grievous
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: to us even when beheld. And it is no small
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: beginning of amendment to be tormented in his presence. For
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: if the sight of the righteous Man did not torment them,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: this word would not have been uttered. But to be
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: stung and pinged in conscience at his presence would be
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: no little hindrance in indulging in wickedness with pleasure. Dost
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: thou see how great is the gain both to the
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: good from the wicked, and to the wicked from the good.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: On this account, God has not set them apart, but
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: allowed them to be mingled together. That our argument also
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: about the devil be the same, For on this account
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: He hath left him also to be here, in order
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: that he might render thee the stronger, in order that
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: he may make the athlete more illustrious, in order that
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: the contests may be greater. When therefore anyone says, why
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: has God left the devil here, say these words to him,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: because he not only does no harm to the weary
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: and the heedful, but even profits them, not owing to
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: his own purpose, for that is wicked, but owing to
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: their courage, who have used that wickedness. Aright, since he
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: even fixed upon job, not on this account that he
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: might make him more illustrious, but in order that he
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: might upset him. On this account, he is wicked, both
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: because of such an opinion and such a purpose. But notwithstanding,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: he did no harm to the righteous man, but he
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: rather rejoiced in the conflict, as we accordingly showed. Both
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: the demon showed his wickedness and the righteous man his courage.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: But he does upset, many, says one, owing to their weakness,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: not owing to his own strength. For this too has
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: been already proved by many examples. Direct thine own intention, aright, then,
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: and thou shalt never receive harm from any but shalt
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: get the greatest gain, not only from the good, but
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: even from the wicked. For on this account, as I
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: have before said, God has suffered men to be with
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: one another, and especially the wicked, with the good, in
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: order that they may bring them over to their own virtue.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: Here at last, what Christ saith to his disciples the
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a woman who took
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: leaven and hid it in three measures, of meal, so
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: that the righteous have the power of leaven, in order
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: that they may transfer the wicked to their own manner
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: of conduct. But the righteous are few, for the leaven
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: is small. But the smallness in no way injures the lump.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: But that little quantity converts the whole of the meal
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: to itself, by means of the power inherent in it.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: So accordingly, the power also of the righteous, has its
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: force not in the magnitude of their number, but in
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: the grace of the spirit. There were twelve apostles. Dost
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: thou see how little is the leaven. The whole world
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: was in unbelief. Dost thou see how great is the lump.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: But those twelve turn the whole world to themselves. The
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: leaven and the lump has the same nature, but not
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: the same manner of conduct. On this account, he left
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: the wicked in the midst of the good, that since
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: they are of the same nature as the righteous, they
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: may also become of the same purpose. Remember these things.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: With these stop the mouths of the indolent, the dissolute,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: the slothful, the indisposed towards the labors of virtue. Those
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: who accuse their common master thou hast sinned, he saith be. Still,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: do not add a second more grievous sin. It is
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: not so grievous to sin as after the sin to
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: accuse the Master. Take knowledge of the cause of the sin,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: and thou wilt find that it is none other than
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: thyself who has sinned. Everywhere there is a need of
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: a good intention. I have shown you this not from
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: simple reasoning only, but from the case of fellow servants
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: living in the world itself. Do thou also use this proof?
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: Thus to our common master will judge us. Learn this
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: method of proof, and no one will be able to
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: reason with you. Is any a faunicata? Show him another
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: who is self restrained? Is any covetous and rapacious? Show
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: him one who gives alms? Does he live in jealousy
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: and envy? Show him one clean from passion? Is he
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: overcome by anger? Bring into the midst one who is
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: living in wisdom? For we must not only have recourse
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: to ancient example, but take our models from present times.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: For even to day, by the grace of God, good
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: deeds are done not less than of old. Is a
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: man incredulous and does he think that the scriptures are false.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: Does he not believe that job with such as he was,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: show him another man emulating the life of that righteous person.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: Thus will the Master also judge us. He places fellow
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: servants with fellow servants, nor does he give sentence according
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: to his own judgment, in order that no one may
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: begin to say, again, as that servant said, who was
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: entrusted with the talent, and who, instead of a talent,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: brought the accusation, Thou art an auste a man, for
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: he ought to mourn because he did not double the talent,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: but rendered his sin the more grievous by adding to
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: his own idleness his accusation against the Master. For what
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: saith he and knew thee that thou art an austere man,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: a miserable and wretched, ungrateful and lazy man. Thou oughtest
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: to have accused thine own idleness, and to have taken
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: away somewhat from thy former sin. But thou, in bringing
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: an account against the Master, hast double thy sin instead
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: of doubling thy talent. On this account, God places together
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: servants and servants in order that the one set may
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: judge the other, and that some being judged by the
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: others may not be able for the future to accuse
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: the master. On this account, he says, the son of
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: Man cometh in the glory of his father, see the
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: equality of the glory. He does not say in glory
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: like to the glory of the Father, but in the
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: glory of the Father, and will gather together all the nations.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: Terrible is the tribunal terrible to the sinful and the accountable,
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: Since to those who are conscious to themselves of good works,
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: it is desirable and mild. And he will place the
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: sheep on his right hand and the kids on his left.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: Both these and those are men. What reason, then, are
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: those indeed sheep, but these kids? Not that thou mayst
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: learn a difference in their nature, but the difference in
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: their purpose. But for what reason are they who did
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: not show compassion kids? Because that animal is unfruitful and
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: is not able to contribute services, either by its milk
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: or by progeny, or by its hair to those who
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: possess it, being on all sides destitute of such a
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: contribution as this, on account of the immaturity of its age.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: On this account he has called those who bear no
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: fruit by comparison kids, But those on the right hand sheep.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: For from these the offering is great, both of their
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: natural wool, their progeny, and their milk. What then does
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: he say to them, He saw me hungering, and ye
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: fed me naked, and he clothed me a stranger, and
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: he took me in again to those, he says the contrary.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: And yet both these and those were alike men. Both
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: these and those received the same promises, The same rewards
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: were assigned to both. On doing right. The same person
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: came both to these and to those with the same nakedness,
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: And to these and to those with the same hunger,
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: and in the same way and a stranger. All things
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: were alike to those and to these. How then, was
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: the end not the same, because the purpose did not
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: permit it. For this alone made the difference. On this account,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: the one set went to Gehenna, but the other to
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: the kingdom. But if the devil were the cause to
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: them of their sins, these would not be destined to
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: be chastened when another sinned and drove them on. Dost
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: thou see here both those who sin and those who
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: do good works. Dost thou see how, on seeing their
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: fellow servants, they were silenced. Come, and let us bring
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: our discourse to another example for thy benefit. There were
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: ten virgins. He says, Here again there are purposes which
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: are upright, and purposes which are sinful. In order thou
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: mayst see side by side both the sins of the
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: one and the good works of the others. For the
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: comparison makes these things the plainer. And these and those
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: were virgins, And these were five, and also those all
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: awaited the bridegroom. How then did some enter in and
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: others did not enter in, because some, indeed were churlish,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: and others were gentle and loving. Dost thou see again
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: that the purpose determined the nature of the end, not
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: the devil. Dost thou see that the judgments were parallel,
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: and that the verdict given proceeds from those who are
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: like each other. Fellow servants will judge fellow servants. Dost
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: thou wish that I should show thee a comparison arising
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: from contrasts. For there is one also from contrasts, so
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: that the condemnation may become the greater. The men of Nineveh,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: he saith, shall rise up and shall condemn this generation.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: The judged are no longer alike. For the one are barbarians,
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: the others are Jews. The one enjoyed prophetic teaching, the
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: others were never partakers of a divine instruction. And this
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: is not the only difference, but the fact that in
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: this case a servant went to them in this the Master,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: and that man came and proclaimed an overthrow. But this
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: man declared the glad tidings of a kingdom of heaven.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: Which of these was it the more likely would believe?
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: The barbarians and ignorant, and they who had never partaken
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: of divine teaching, or those who had from their earliest
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: age been trained in prophetic books. To every one, it
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: is plain that the Jews would be more likely to believe.
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: But the contrary took place, and these disbelieved the Master
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: when he preached a kingdom of heaven, but those believed
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: their fellow servant when he threatened an overthrow. In order
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: that their goodness and these men's folly might be manifested
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: to a greater degree, is there a demon, a devil,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: chance or fate? Has not each become the cause to
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: himself both of evil and of virtue. For if they
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: themselves were not to be liable to account. He would
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: not have said that they shall judge this generation, nor
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: would he have said that the Queen of the South
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: would condemn the Jews. For then, indeed, not only will
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: one people condemn another people, but one man will often
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: judge a whole people. When they, who it is allowed,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: might readily have been deceived, are found to remain undeceived,
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: and they who ought in every way to have the
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: advantage turn out to be worsted. On this account we
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: made mention of Adam and of Job, for there is
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: necessity to revert to that subject, so as to put
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: the finish to our discourse. He attacked Adam, indeed by
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: means of mere words, but Job by means of deeds.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: For the one he denuded of all his wealth and
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: deprived of his children. But from this man he took
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: not away anything great or little of his possessions. But
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: let us rather examine the very words and the method
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: of the plot. The serpent came saith He and said
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: to the woman, what is it that God hath said,
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: ye shall not eat of every tree which is in
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: the garden. Here it is a serpent, there a woman.
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: In the case of Job. Meanwhile, great is the difference
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: between the counselors. The one is a servant, the other
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: a partner of the man's life. She is a helpmate,
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: but the other is under subjection. Dost thou see how
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: unpardonable this is? Eve? Indeed, the servant in subjection deceived,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: but him, not even his partner and helpmate could overthrow.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: But let us see what he saith. What is this
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: that God hath said, thou shalt not eat of every tree? Assuredly? Indeed,
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: God did not say this, but the opposite. See the
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: villainy of the devil. He said that which was not spoken,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: in order that he might learn what was spoken. What
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: then did the woman She ought to have silenced him,
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: She ought not to have exchanged a word with him.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: In foolishness, she declared the judgment of the master. Thereby
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: she afforded the devil a powerful handle. See what an
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: evil it is to commit ourselves rashly to our enemies
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: and to conspiratus against us. On this account, Christ used
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: to say, give not holy things to the dogs, Neither
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: cast ye your pulls before the swine, lest they turn
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: and rend you. And this happened in the case of Eve.
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: She gave thee holy things to the dog, to the swine.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: He trod underfoot the words, and turned and rent the woman.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: And see how he works evil. Ye shall not die
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: the death, saith. He give me your attention on this
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: point that the woman was able to understand the deceit,
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: for he immediately annw onst his enmity and his warfare
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: against God. He immediately contradicted him. Let it be so
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: before this thou declaredest the judgment to one who wished
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: to learn it. After this, why didst thou follow one
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: who said the opposite? God said, ye shall die the death?
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: The devil made answer to this and said, ye shall
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: not die the death. What could be clearer than this warfare?
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: From what other quarter ought one to learn the enemy
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: and the foe than from his answer returned to God.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: She ought then immediately to have fled from the bait.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: She ought to have started back from the snare. Ye
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: shall not die the death, saith. He. For God knoweth
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: that on the day on which ye eat, your eyes
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods. In
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: hope of a greater promise, she cast away the goods
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: in her hand. He promised that he would make them
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: gods and cast them down into the tyranny of death. Whence, then,
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: O woman, didst thou believe the devil? What good didst
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: thou discern? Was not the trustworthiness of the law giver
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: sufficient to prove that the one was God, both creator
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: and framer of the world, and the other the devil
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: and an enemy. And I do not say the devil thou,
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: thoughtest that he was a mere serpent, ought a serpent
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: to claim such a quality that thou shouldst tell him
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: the master's judgment. Thou seest that it was possible to
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: perceive the deceit, but she would not. And yet God
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: gave many proofs of his own beneficence, and showed forth
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: his care of his works. For he formed man who
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: had not existed before, and breathed a soul into him,
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: and made him according to his image, making him ruler
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: of all things upon the earth, and granted him a helpmate,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: plunted paradise, and having committed to him the use of
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: the rest of the trees, refused him the taste of
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: one only. And this very prohibition he made for man's advantage.
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: But the devil manifested no good things by his deed,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: whether little or great, but exciting the woman with mere
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: words and puffing her up with vain hopes. Thus he
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: deceived her. But nevertheless she considered the devil to be
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: more worthy of credit than God. Although God showed forth
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: his good will by his works, the woman believed in
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: one who professed mere words and nothing else. Dost thou
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: see how from folly alone and sloth, and not from force,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: the deceit happened. And in order that thou mayst learn
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: it more clearly, here how the scripture accuses the woman,
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: for it does not say being deceived, but seeing the
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: tree that it was fair she ate, so that the
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: blame belongs to her uncontrolled vision, not to the deceit alone,
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: which comes from the devil. For she was defeated by
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: yielding to her own desire, nor by the wickedness of
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: the devil. On this account she did not have the
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: benefit of pardon. But though she said the serpent deceived me,
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: she paid the uttermost penalty, for it was in her
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: power not to have fallen. And in order that thou
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: mayst understand this more clearly, come, let us conduct our
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: discourse to the case of job from the defeated to
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: the vanquisher, from the conquered to the conqueror. For this
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: man will give us greater zeal, so that we may
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: raise our hands against the devil. There he who deceived
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: and conquered was a serpent. Here the tempter was a woman,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: and she did not prevail. And yet at least she
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: was far more persuasive than he. For to Job, after
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: the destruction of his wealth, after the loss of his children,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: after being stripped bare of all his goods, her wires
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: were added. But in the other case there was nothing
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: of this kind. Adam did not suffer under the destruction
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: of his children, nor did he lose his wealth. He
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: did not sit upon a dunghill, but inhabited a paradise
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: of luxury, and enjoyed all manner of fruits and fountains
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: and rivers, and every other kind of security. Nowhere was
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: their labour or pain, or despair, or cares, or reproaches
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: and insults, or the countless ills which assailed Job. But nevertheless,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: when nothing of this kind existed, he fell and was overthrown.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: Is it not evident that it was an account of sloth?
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: Even so, therefore, as the other when all these things
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: beset him and weighed upon him, stood nobly and did
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: not fall. Is it not evident that his steadfastness was
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: owing to his vigilance of soul. On both sides, Beloved
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: reaped the utmost gain, and of wi the imitation of Adam,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: knowing how many ills are forgotten of indolence, and imitate
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: the piety of job, learning how many glorious things spring
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: from earnestness. Consider him the conqueror throughout, and thou shalt
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: have much consolation in all pain and peril, For as
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: it were in the common theater of the world, that
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: blessed and noble man stands forth, and by means of
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: these sufferings which happen to him, discourses to all to
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: bear all things which befall them nobly, and never give
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: in to the troubles which come upon them. For verily
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: there is no human suffering which cannot receive consolation from thence,
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: for the sufferings which are scattered over the whole world,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: these came together and bore down upon one body, even
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: his What pardon then shall there be for him who
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: is unable to bear with thankfulness his share of the
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: troubles which are brought upon him, since he appears not
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: bearing a part only, but the entire ills of all men.
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: And in order that thou mayst not condemn the extravagance
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: of my words, come and let us take in hands
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: severally the ills that came up upon him, and bring
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: forward this fulfillment of them. And if thou wishest, let
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: us first bring forward that which seems to be the
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: most unendurable of all, I mean poverty and the pain
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: which arises from it, For everywhere all men bewail this.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: What was poorer then than job, who was poorer than
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: the outcasts at the baths, and those who sleep in
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: the ashes of the furnace, poorer in fact than all men,
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: For these indeed have one ragged garment. But he sat
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: naked and had only the garment which nature supplies, the
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: clothing of the flesh. And this the devil destroyed on
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: all sides with a distressing kind of decay. Again, these
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: poor folk are at least under the roof of the
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: porches at the baths, and are covered with a shelter.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: But he continued always to pass his nights in the
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: open air, not having even the consolation of a bare roof.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: And what is still greater the fact that these are
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: conscious of many terrible evils within themselves. But he was
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: conscious of nothing against himself. For this is to be
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: noticed in each of the things which happened to him,
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: a thing which caused him greater pain and produced more
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: perplexity the ignorance of the reason of what took place.
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: These persons, then, as I said, would have many things
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: with which to reproach themselves. And this contributes no little
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: to consolation in calamity, to be conscious in oneself of
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: being punished justly. But he was deprived of this consolation,
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: and while exhibiting a conversation full of virtue, endured the
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: fate of those who had dared to do extreme wickedness.
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: And these folk who are with us are poor from
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: the outset, and from the beginning are versed in calamity.
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: But he endured calamity in which he was unversed, experiencing
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: the immense change from wealth. As then, the knowledge of
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: the cause of what takes place is the greatest consolation.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: So it is not less than this to have been
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: versed in poverty from the beginning, and so to continue
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: in it. Of both these consolations that man was deprived,
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: and not even then did he fall away. Dost thou
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: see him indeed come to extreme poverty, even in comparison
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: with which it is impossible to find a fellow. For
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: what could be poorer than the naked who has not
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: even a roof over him? Yea, Rather, not even was
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: it in his power to enjoy the bare ground, but
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: he sat upon the dunghill. Therefore, whenever thou seest thyself
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: come to poverty, considered the suffering of the just one,
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: and straightway thou shalt rise up and shake off every
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: thought of despondency. This one calamity, therefore seems to men
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: to be the groundwork of all sufferings together. And the
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: second after it, Yea, rather before it is the affliction
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: of the body who then was even so disabled, who
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: endured such disease, Who received or saw any one else
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: received so great an affliction, no one. Little by little,
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: his body was wasted, and a stream of wormbs on
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: every side issued from his limbs. The running was constant,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: and the evil smell which surrounded him was strong, and
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: the body being destroyed little by little and decaying. Where
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: such putrefaction used to make food distasteful, and hunger was
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: to him strange and unusual. For not even was he
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: able to enjoy the nourishment which was given to him,
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: For sa he I see my food to be loathsome
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: whenever then thou fallst into weakness, O man, Remember that
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: body and that saintly flesh, for it was saintly and pure,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: even when it had so many wounds. And if any
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: one belonged to the army, and then, unjustly and without
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: any reasonable pretext, be hanged upon the pillory, and has
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: his sides rasped to pieces. Let him not think the
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: matter to be a reproach, nor let him give way
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: to the pain when he thinks upon this saint. But
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: this man says one as much comfort and consolation in
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: knowing that God was bringing these sufferings upon him. This
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: indeed especially troubled and disturbed him to think that the
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: just God, who had in every way been served by him,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: was at war with him. And he was not able
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: to find any reasonable pretext for what took place. Since
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: when at least he afterwards learnt the cause, see what
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: piety he showed. For when God said to him, dost
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: thou think that I have had dealings with Thee, in
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: order that thou mightst appear righteous conscience stricken, he says,
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: I will lay my hand upon my mouth once I
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: have spoken, but to a second word I will not proceed.
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: And again, as far as the hearing of the ear,
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: I have seen THEE before. But now mine eye hath
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: seen THEE. Wherefore I have held myself to be vile
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: and am wasted away, and I consider myself to be
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: earth and ashes. But if thou thinkest that this is
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: sufficient for consolation, thou wilt thyself also be able to
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: experience this comfort. And even if thou dost not suffer
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: any of these misfortunes at the hands of God, but
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: owing to the insolence of men, and yet givest thanks,
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: and dost not blaspheme him who is able to prevent them, indeed,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: but who permits them for the sake of testing THEE.
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: Just as they who suffer at the hands of God
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: are crowned, so also thou shalt obtain the same reward.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: Because thou hast borne nobly the calamities which were brought
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: upon THEE from men, and didst give thanks to him
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: who is able, indeed to hinder them, but not willing behold.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: Then thou hast seen poverty and disease, and both in
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: the extremest degree brought upon this just man. Dost thou
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: wish that I should show thee the warfare at nature's
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: hands in such excessive degree waged then against this noble man.
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: He lost ten children, the ten at one fell swoop,
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: the ten in the very bloom of youth, ten who
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: displayed much virtue, and that not by the common law
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: of nature, but by a violent and pitiable death. Who
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: could be able to recount so great a calamity no one. Whenever. Therefore,
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: thou losest son and daughter together have recourse to this
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: just man, and thou shalt find altogether much comfort for thyself.
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: Were these then the only misfortunes which happened to him?
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: The desertion and treachery of his friends, and the gibes
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: and raillery, and the mockery and derision, and the tearing
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: in pieces by all was something intolerable. For the character
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: of calamities is not of such a kind that they
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: who reproach us about our calamities are wont to vex
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: our soul. Not only was there no one to soothe him.
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: But many, even on many sides, beset him with taunts,
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: and thou seest him, lamenting this bitterly, and saying, but
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: even you too fell upon me. And he calls them pitiless,
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: and says, my neighbors have rejected me, and my servants
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: spake against me. And I called the sons of my concubines,
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: and they turned away from me, and others saith he
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: spought upon me, and I became the common talk of all,
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: and my very raiment saith he abhorred me. These things,
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: at least, are unbearable to hear, still more to endure
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: in their reality. Extreme poverty and intolerable disease, knew and strange,
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: the loss of children, so many and so good, and
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: in such a manner, reproaches and gibes and insults from men,
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: some indeed mocked, and some reproached, and others despised, not
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: only enemies but even friends, not only friends, but even servants.
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: And they not only mock and reproach, but even abhorred him.
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: And this not for two or three or ten days,
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: but for many months, And a circumstance which happened in
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: that man's case alone, not even had he comfort by night,
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: but the delusions of terrors by night were a greater
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: aggravation of his misfortunes by day, For that he endured
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: more grievous things in his sleep. Here what he says,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: Why dost thou frighten me in sleep and terrify mes?
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: What man of iron, what heart of steel, could have
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: endured so many misfortunes? For if each of these was
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: unbearable in itself, consider what a tumult there simultaneous approach excited.
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: But nevertheless he bore all these, and in all that
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: happened to him, he sinned not, nor was their guile
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: in his lips. Let the sufferings of that man then
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: be the medicines for our ills, and his grievous surging
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: sea the harbor of our sufferings. And in each of
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: the accidents which befall us, let us consider this saint, and,
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: seeing one person exhausting the misfortunes of the universe, we
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: shall conduct ourselves bravely in those which fall to our share.
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: And as to some affectionate mother stretching forth her hands
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: on all sides and receiving and reviving her terrified children,
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: so let us always flee to this book. And even
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: if the pitiable troubles of all men assail us, let
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: us take sufficient comfort for all, and so depart. And
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: if thou sayest he was job and for this reason
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: bore all this, but I am not like him, Thou
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: suppliest me with a greater accusation against thyself and fresh
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: praise for him. For is it more likely that thou
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: shouldst be able to bear all this than he? Why pray?
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: Because He indeed was before the day of grace and
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: of the law, when there was not much strictness of life,
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: when the grace of the spirit was not so great,
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: when sin was hard to fight against, when the curse prevailed,
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: and when death was terrible. But now our wrestlings have
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: become easier, all these things being removed after the coming
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: of Christ, so that we have no excuse when we
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: are unable to reach the same standard as he after
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: so long a time, and such advantage that so many
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: gifts given to us by God. Considering therefore all these things,
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: that misfortunes were greater for him, and that when the
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: conflict was more grievous, then he stripped for the contest.
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: Let us bear all that comes upon us nobly and
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: with much thankfulness, in order that we may be able
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: to obtain the same crown as he, by the grace
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: and loving kindness of Jesus Christ, our Lord, with whom
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit,
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: now and always and for ever and ever Amen. End
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: of Homily three. End of three Homilies concerning the Power
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: of Demons by John Chrysostom, translated by Thomas Brandram