On Divine Providence 1 part 9/11

while the fact that not all the workers of these virtues obtain equal shares proves the life to come, and confirms the hope of the things expected.

For this reason the Ruler of all things does not proclaim all who have lived well and nobly in the present life, nor does he likewise punish all who have lived in company with wickedness;

but he hands some over to punishment, thereby exhibiting the justice of his sentence, and through these deterring the rest, and calling them to repentance;

while, by letting the workers of wickedness vanish unpunished, he again signifies to us the life to come.

But if there is no other life after departure from this world, then those who were punished here have plainly been wronged, since others have escaped justice;

and manifestly and greatly wronged are also those who embraced philosophy, yet enjoyed no attention or honor because of it, while others, who achieved similar things in life, passed through life in great renown.

But to call the fountain of justice unjust surpasses every blasphemy, and leaves no excess of madness beyond it.

But if the Overseer of all things is just, as indeed he is just, and sees what happens, and judges justly, and holds the scales of justice evenly, even if he should wish to tip them, he adds a vote of loving-kindness, but not of injustice;

then there is another life, in which both those who escaped punishment here will pay the penalties they deserve, and those who enjoyed no honor in the present life for the labors of virtue will receive the recompense of their toils.

But perhaps you too would agree to this.

For indeed the sons of the Greeks, having received no prophet, no apostle, no evangelist as herald, but guided by nature alone, supposed that these things were so—even though they underwent much error, mingling the mythical with true opinions—

since both poets and philosophers believed and taught that there would be punishments for wicked men and rewards for righteous men after their departure from this world, and left the memory of this teaching in their writings.

It is reasonable, then, that you too, being persuaded by nature, and having been taught those things, and being pressed by what has just now been said, should agree, and confess that these things are so;

yet suppose that relief or punishment will come to souls alone, while the body has been thus cast away, given over to decay, as being altogether useless and irrational.

And how would it make sense that the soul, having contended and conquered together with the body, should be crowned alone; or, being deprived of it, should alone be handed over to punishment? For the one being punished might reasonably say to the judge:

or rather, if I must speak the truth, it was that body which dragged me down into the pit of sin;

enticed by its eyes, I plundered another's marriage-bed, and coveted a beauty belonging to another;

I desired possessions and money, since they compelled me to look upon these things;

and from there I fell into the depth of injustice;

for its passions enslaved me, and took away the freedom which you gave;

for I was compelled to serve it as one of the same nature and a fellow-slave, and to minister to its needs.

The belly urged on to gluttony, and gluttony produced greediness, and greediness gave birth to schemes of injustice.

And often I resisted, and nobly repelled the assaults that came from that quarter;

but the constant warfare often overcame me, and I, wretched, was taken captive, submitting to my sister, and I was distressed, being worn down by this.

For I in turn received the pain, and, though nourishing it, was plotted against;

for I again received the leapings that arose from this, and did not know what was to be done;

for the affliction of this body wrought much distress in me, and the tending of it made the battle fiercer, and fanned the conflict into flame.

But the body too, having well served the counsels of the soul, might likewise say to the just judge, if it were to be granted some voice:

if I must trace the whole course of nature from the beginning, I first enjoyed the work of creation, and then you implanted in me the vital power of the soul.

I also enjoyed dwelling in paradise together with it;

together we passed through the time of gestation in the womb.

together, when the birth-pangs were released, we came forth into this life, and enjoyed this light, and drew in the use of the air;

She never wrought any good thing by herself alone, but using me, the flesh, as her fellow-worker, gathered the wealth of virtue.

I, receiving the wasting effects of fasting, and vigils, and sleeping on the ground, and of every other hardship, gathered for her from this the wealth that resulted.

I supplied the tear as she prayed;

I furnished her the heart to groan, for the service of the Spirit, as she pressed eagerly on;

using my lips as her instruments, she offered up her petitions to you;

stretching out my hands to heaven, she gathered the fruits of your loving-kindness;

borne upon my feet, she ran to your sacred shrines

I furnished her with ears, for the reception of your oracles;

using my fingers as her instruments, she inscribed your divine teachings in writing, and left behind an undying remembrance of them

using me as her fellow-worker, she fulfilled the laws of love;

through my hands she washed the feet of the saints;

through my hands she came to the aid of the afflicted; she deemed worn-out bodies worthy of her care

but render one crown to those who have run one race;

for this is proper to your equity;

this befits your righteous verdict

This is what the body too would say — the body that strove nobly together with the soul — if it should partake of some voice

But neither will the body say this, nor that soul which has lived in fellowship with iniquity

For the judge has no need of such supplication;

but just as he governs wisely, so he judges justly;

and in restoring bodies to souls, he thus apportions to all according to their worth

For would it not be fitting that a man who, as champion, has won victory in the line of battle, and is honored by his countrymen with a statue — together with that very equipment with which he routed the enemy — should be painted, or molded, or carved, whatever the material of the image may be: stone, or bronze, or wood —

and if he conquered using bows, he is depicted together with the bows themselves;

but if with spear, and helmet, and shield, again together with this same equipment;

for each of these, together with the guise in which he conquered, receives his stance in the images

And one stands with the buskins and the general's robe, wearing the mask of some Oenomaus, or Creon, all but saying to everyone: 'With these I performed my role, and with these I have conquered'

And another runs naked, showing the very form of the contest;

he holds the crown, and teaches those who do not know what kind of contest he has contended

and another boxes, and strikes his opponent;

and another shows, by his posture and his whip, what art he pursued to obtain victory

Do not, then, declare nature — through which each of these things is achieved — more dishonored than all these;

nor suppose God, the fountain of righteousness, to be more unjust than men;

nor suspect that he honors his own victors in a manner like that of men

For if men, though often not valuing justice highly, but rather greatly disregarding it, are nevertheless accustomed to honor in this way those who compete in these paltry and profitless contests, how much more will he who is both the lawgiver and the judge of the contest of virtue honor and crown its brilliant and great contestants, and surpass justice by the magnitude of his gifts

But I know from what source you have run aground into this blasphemy;

for you infer divine things from your own weakness, and you make your own weakness the boundary of divine power, and you suppose that things utterly impossible for you are likewise impossible for God

But it is not so, it is not so

For the clay is not able to do what the potter can, and yet both belong to one and the same nature;

for both this one and that one are from the earth

And witness to this is the man who conversed with Job:

'You were fashioned from the same clay,' he says; 'you are of clay, as I also am.' Yet nevertheless, though the nature of both the clay and the potter is one, one cannot find equal power in both

For the one moves, the other is moved; the one molds, the other is molded; the one mixes, the other is mixed; the one gives form, the other receives form; and it is reshaped just as the potter wishes

But if, where the nature is one, the power is not equal, much more where the nature is different, the power too is different;

moreover, it is not even possible to compare the incomparable

For how could that which comes from non-being be set beside that which always is? That which exists in time, beside that which is before the ages? That which is from clay, beside the Maker of heaven and earth? Do not, then, suppose that things utterly impossible for you are impossible also for God;

for to that nature all things are possible, and exceedingly easy

For he only willed, and heaven came to be;

and it was arched to whatever extent he willed

He willed, and the earth was spread out, and it hangs, having only God's decree as its foundation

He spoke, and light came to be. He commanded, and the nature of the waters was brought forth;

he ordered, and it was separated from the earth;

he nodded assent, and the earth was adorned with meadows, and groves, and crops of every kind;

he spoke, and countless kinds of living creatures were brought forth — creatures of the land, of the water, and of the air

He who made these things by a word raises up the nature of the body far more easily than these;

for it is far easier to renew what has grown old than to make out of nothing that which does not exist

But if you disbelieve, Paul, the great teacher of the world, will tell you:

'Fool, what you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare kernel — perhaps of wheat, or of some other grain;'

'but God gives it a body just as he willed'

But if you also consider his teaching to be some nonsense and myth, then accept nature as it teaches and proclaims the resurrection

For the farmer first cuts the furrows, digging them as it were like tombs; then he casts down the seeds, and, as though delivering bodies to a tomb, buries them;

and beyond this he is able to do nothing more;

but even if he has abundant water, he can only supply this much;

but God either rains from heaven, or supplies the seeds with water from springs and rivers;

delivering it in the same way, he thereafter renders the seeds useless to men for food, but exceedingly useful to the bodies begotten from them

For the seeds, receiving the moisture, and swelling, and thus in a manner decaying, generate the shoots of roots; and these take hold of the surrounding earth, then draw to themselves the moisture from it, as though through certain channels — the roots — and beget the plant that grows up above;

and by degrees it nourishes the plant according to the same principle, and sends the stalk up to its height, and puts forth the ear, holding its fruit hidden within, encircled, as it were, by certain bodyguards — the awns

Do not, then, disbelieve the resurrection of bodies, when you continually behold the images of the resurrection, and continually hear the proclamations of the resurrection

But that you may receive a firm faith concerning the resurrection, come with me again to the study of plants, and behold the cuttings of vines and of other trees, or the so-called slips, or the root-cuttings taken from the roots — which by the cutting receive, as it were, their end, but by their placement in the pit are delivered, as it were, to a tomb;

then, being covered over and decaying, thereafter, by the divine will, both generating roots below and putting forth shoots above, growing to maturity and rising to their height, and laden with fruit — the things that are born become more comely than the cuttings that were buried

And why do I speak of cuttings, and trees, and seeds? Come with me to the very workshop of your own nature

Behold the materials of your own formation — how cheap, and small, and no different from mucus

Yet nevertheless, that cheap and small thing — soulless, breathless, and utterly without sensation — when God gives his nod, becomes a human being; and though possessing but one form, it is transformed into countless kinds of tissue: some dense and resistant, others yielding and soft; some porous and full of passages, others compact and dense; some thick and smooth, others thin, gossamer-like, and membranous; some tube-shaped and cavernous, others solid and having nothing cavernous in them

And one can see, arising from that scant matter, both channels for the blood, and conduits for the breath, and watertight ligaments, and the softness of the flesh, and the firmness of the bones, and the brightness of the eyes, and the clarity of the pupil, and the smoothness of the cheek, and the fineness of the hair, and the countless other things which the human body possesses as its kind

and these too, though not being of our own fold, but of the sheep straying outside,

nevertheless, feeding on the good pasture, and moved and instructed by nature alone, hymned, as far as they were able, the shepherd and guardian and Maker of the universe.

But you, who in addition to nature also have the law as teacher, and the prophets instructing you in divine things, and the choir of the apostles teaching about things that are and proclaiming things that are to come, receive from every quarter the collected contribution of benefit.

The very nature of embryos alone, and the first formation of man, suffice to show you the resurrection of bodies that lie [in the earth].

Believe that the earth is a maternal belly, the tomb a womb, and that the seed of nature is that most minute and dust-like remnant of the body—which, though wholly invisible to all men, is beheld by God, and no one has ever escaped that eye.

For 'in his hand are the ends of the earth.' And, 'He himself measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with a span, and the whole earth with a handful.' And it is easy for him to behold the things that are in his hand;

for indeed to you too this is very easy.

even if you should wish to mix millet and lentil, and wheat and barley together, you can again distinguish them with ease, just as you wish;

it is altogether easiest of all for him to render distinct even things that have been thoroughly intermingled.

Believe, then, that the tomb is a womb, and the deposited remnant a seed, and the Fashioner still the Fashioner, and the birth-pangs the last day of life, together with the fearful voice of the archangel.

'For the trumpet shall sound,' it says, 'and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.' Then we shall be called to account for the things we have lived;

then we shall render account of the things we have done well or ill;

then the hidden counsels of our mind shall become manifest to all;

then we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive the things done through the body, according to what he has practiced, whether good or evil.

Fearing these things, O men, lay aside your hostility against Providence;

flee this wicked enmity;

cease from blasphemy that admits of no defense.

Make a treaty of friendship with the Maker, that he may pilot us as friends, and not cast us as enemies out of the vessel.

Hymn the rudders of Providence, that being piloted by them you may escape the waves of the present life, and enjoy those windless harbors, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs all glory unto the ages.

That from of old God continued to care not only for the Jews, but for all men;

and concerning the incarnation of the Savior.

I know full well and clearly that the sea of divine wisdom and Providence is unnavigable.

And I do recall the most divine prophet crying out:

'Your judgments are a vast abyss.' And I recall also the great herald of truth, the divinely inspired Paul, again bursting forth with such a cry:

'O the depth of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and untraceable his ways!' Let us not, then, foolishly presume upon things unattainable, but let us marvel at things divine to the extent of our power, and hymn them so far as we are able to comprehend.

For we also know that those who contend to gaze upon the sun more than they should neither enjoy what they desire, but ruin their sight, and not only draw no light from it, but even draw darkness upon themselves.

And it is possible to observe the human mind undergoing this very same thing.

For often, contending out of folly to search out what it is that overarches the earth, and again what its foundation is, and in turn upon what that too rests, or what lies above the heavens, and what is outside the whole cosmos, [the mind] not only finds none of the things it seeks, but returns filled with much gloom and perplexity.

Knowing this weakness of the mind, the blessed Paul admonishes us, saying: 'But if anyone thinks he knows anything, he does not yet know as he ought to know.' And again:

'We know in part, and we prophesy in part;'

'but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away.' And elsewhere:

'Now I see as in a mirror, in a riddle, but then face to face;'

'now I know in part, but then I shall know fully, even as I have also been fully known.' And again:

'When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child;'

'but when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.' All these things that divine man sets forth, wishing to persuade everyone, and to bridle the insatiable appetite of the mind, so that it may not presume upon things impossible, but await the exact understanding of these matters that is to come in the life hereafter.

And comparing this [future knowledge] with the teaching of the law, he calls it perfect;

but comparing it with the impassible and immortal life, he calls it childish.

This too is a proof of divine Providence.

For he who wisely governs all things, knowing the swelling pride of our arrogance, has not granted even to the saints an exact knowledge of things divine.

For 'knowledge puffs up,' as seems true to the blessed Paul, and indeed to the truth itself.

having contended [in the struggle], and having entirely stripped off the passions, and having put on a body freed from corruption and passions—then let us receive perfect knowledge;

receiving thenceforth no more harm from it, inasmuch as we shall have been freed from the passions and shall stand outside the contests.

Do we see men who are workers of virtue living in good repute, honor, and attendance? Let us worship the lawgiver and judge of the contest of virtue, who proclaims her [victors] rightly and justly.

Do we behold others who have chosen the same manner of life, yet do not enjoy the same things among men? Let us not be vexed, dear friend, but let us believe that they are contending nobly in the contest of endurance, and are being proclaimed victors through it for the life that is expected, as we have discussed in the preceding discourse;

and let us not hurl blasphemous words against Providence.

For it is absurd, and full of great folly—or rather, of utter madness—that those very men who sail through towering waves, and are struck by tempests, and journey through life with much hardship, should hymn the pilot;

while those who are out of range of the missiles, as the saying goes, sitting [at ease] and having become spectators rather than contestants, pelt the judge of the contest with blasphemous words, since they cannot do so with deeds—this is absurd, and full of great folly, or rather utmost madness.

The great patriarch Abraham, he who had received those promises from God, was pressed by famine, yet bore the assault of the famine nobly.

Look, then, at Peter and John, the towers of piety, the pillars of truth, who uphold the very structure of the Church, being scourged by the Jews, yet rejoicing and exulting 'because they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Christ.' For he who wrote this account, having said that they were maltreated with rods, did not say that they bore the scourging with patience and nobility, but that they went forth rejoicing and exulting.

For a man often bears the assault of painful things, but while grieving and being distressed;

whereas he who rejoices proclaims the gladness of his soul.

Thus also the blessed Paul, that greatest trumpet of the proclamation, cried out:

'I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions and distresses, for the sake of Christ.' And he did not say, 'I bear,' or 'I endure,' but 'I take pleasure,' which signifies a great intensity of delight.

'Now I rejoice,' he says, 'in my sufferings for Christ.' And again:

'The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us.' And again:

'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?' And after a little:

'For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' But the day would fail me were I to go on collecting such words of the great trainer of the athletes of piety.

If, then, those who have obtained every kind of virtue, and have laid hold of its very summit, not only do not chafe at the storm of life's sea, but even when the surf seethes, and winds and squalls break upon them, and whirlwinds churn up the deep, they continued rejoicing as though borne along by fair winds, and it was their business not to meddle inquisitively into what was happening, but to hymn the pilot—

why then do you, who are outside the waves, being landsmen rather than seafarers, mock at what happens, praising the contestants but accusing the judge of the contest? And yet it is fitting that those who admire the virtue of the athletes should also accept their verdict;

and those men received as the greatest benefaction the hardship they endured for the sake of the proclamation—the slaughters, the stonings, the burnings, the maltreatments, the reviling, the imprisonments, the dangers on land, the dangers at sea, the dangers in the cities, the dangers in the country, the dangers from kinsmen, the dangers from strangers.

But since we have come out into these considerations, come, let us also briefly go through the incarnation of our Savior, which is the greatest chapter of God's care for mankind.

For not even heaven, and earth, and sea, and air, and sun, and moon, and stars, and all creation both visible and invisible—brought into being by word alone, or rather, appearing the very instant he willed it, through the word—display his immeasurable goodness in the way that this does: that the Only-begotten Son of God himself—he who exists in the form of God, the radiance of his glory, the exact representation of his substance, he who was in the beginning, and was with God, and was God, through whom all things came into being—took the form of a servant, came to be in the likeness of man, and was found in the fashion of a man, as a man, and was seen upon the earth, and lived among men, and took our weaknesses upon himself, and bore our diseases.

And the blessed Paul, too, recognizes this as the greatest proof of God's love toward mankind, and cries out, saying:

'But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' And again:

'He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all—how shall he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?' And the divinely inspired John also confirms that these things are so:

'For God so loved the world,' he says, 'that he gave his only-begotten Son for it, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' He, then, does not merely care for mankind, but cares for them out of love.

So great, indeed, is the excess of his love, that he made the Only-begotten Son, the consubstantial one, begotten from the womb before the morning star, whom he employed as fellow-worker in creating the world, to appear to us as physician and Savior, and through him graciously bestowed on us the gift of adoption.

for us, who had fallen from our nobility to the very last extremity, he wisely and justly works out our salvation.

For he did not wish to grant us freedom by sheer authority alone, nor to arm mere mercy against him who had enslaved the nature of man, lest that one should call the mercy unjust; but he contrives a means both full of loving-kindness and adorned with justice.

For having united to himself that very nature which had been defeated, he leads it into the contests, and prepares it to retrieve its defeat, and to overcome in battle the one who had wickedly conquered it of old, and to overthrow the tyranny of the one who had bitterly enslaved it, and to recover its former freedom.

But whenever you hear "Christ," understand the only-begotten Son, the Word, begotten of the Father before the ages, clothed about with human nature, and do not suppose that the proclaimed dispensation is a debasement of God;

for nothing can defile that undefiled nature.

And that these things are so, let us understand thus:

We both say and believe that his nature is unbounded and uncircumscribed.

"Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the Lord. And:

"Heaven is my throne, and earth the footstool of my feet." And:

"In his hand are the ends of the earth." And the divinely inspired Paul says:

"For in him we live and move and have our being." If, then, in him we live and move and have our being, according to the Apostle's word, there is no part of creation deprived of God.

But in creation some things are holy, and some profane; and some are full of fragrance, and others of foul stench;

and among men, some are adorned with piety, while others wallow in impious deeds;

yet he who fills all things takes delight in those who fear him, but hates all who work iniquity, and will destroy all who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man, and the wicked shall not dwell with him. Nothing, therefore, does injury to the undefiled one.

For if those who practice the art of medicine do not themselves partake of wounds in healing wounds, but rather procure health for the sick without incurring any harm from it, how much more did God, the master craftsman—whose nature is impassible, superior to change, and admitting no alteration—draw absolutely no defilement from his healing of us.

Let us marvel, then, at him who did not entrust our healing to angels, but himself undertook the healing of mankind.

And since nature had returned to itself, and clearly recognized that it wore the divine image, then at that point the nourishment passed over to the rational table.

He also received circumcision, and offered sacrifices;

for it was necessary that nature restore the victory by keeping the law.

And he flees, in a human manner, into Egypt—he who as God is present everywhere and stands by all, as the divine Scripture says.

He comes also to John the Baptist, and though he had received no stain of sin, he submits to baptism, that he might fulfill all righteousness.