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First Epistle to the Corinthians 5:1Clement of RomeChapter V.-No Less Evils Have Arisen from the Same Source in the Most Recent Times. The Martyrdom of Peter and Paul.Epistle to the Romans 4:2Ignatius of AntiochI write to the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God, unless ye hinder me. I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb, and may leave nothing of my body; so that when I have fallen asleep [in death], I may be no trouble to any one. Then shall I truly be a disciple of Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body. Entreat Christ for me, that by these instruments I may be found a sacrifice [to God]. I do not, as Peter and Paul, issue commandments unto you. They were apostles; I am but a condemned man: they were free, while I am, even until now, a servant. But when I suffer, I shall be the freed-man of Jesus, and shall rise again emancipated in Him. And now, being a prisoner, I learn not to desire anything worldly or vain.Epistle to the Romans 4:3Ignatius of AntiochI write to all the Churches, and impress on them all, that I shall willingly die for God, unless ye hinder me. I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of God. Rather entice the wild beasts, that they may become my tomb, and may leave nothing of my body; so that when I have fallen asleep [in death], I may not be found troublesome to any one. Then shall I be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body. Entreat the Lord for me, that by these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God. I do not, as Peter and Paul, issue commandments unto you. They were apostles of Jesus Christ, but I am the very least [of believers]: they were free, as the servants of God; while I am, even until now, a servant. But when I suffer, I shall be the freed-man of Jesus Christ, and shall rise again emancipated in Him. And now, being in bonds for Him, I learn not to desire anything worldly or vain.Pseudo-Ignatius · Epistle to Mary at Neapolis, Near Zarbus 4:2Ignatius of AntiochNow it occurs to me to mention, that the report is true which I heard of thee whilst thou wast at Rome with the blessed father Linus, whom the deservedly-blessed Clement, a hearer of Peter and Paul, has now succeeded. And by this time thou hast added a hundred-fold to thy reputation; and may thou, O woman! still further increase it. I greatly desired to come unto you, that I might have rest with you; but "the way of man is not in himself." For the military guard [under which I am kept] hinders my purpose, and does not permit me to go further. Nor indeed, in the state I am now in, can I either do or suffer anything. Wherefore deeming the practice of writing the second resource of friends for their mutual encouragement, I salute thy sacred soul, beseeching of thee to add still further to thy vigour. For our present labour is but little, while the reward which is expected is great.Third Epistle SYRIAC 4:2Ignatius of AntiochI write to all the Churches, and declare to all men, that I willingly die for the sake of God, if so be that ye hinder me not. I entreat of you not to be [affected] towards me with a love which is unseasonable. Leave me to become [the prey of] the beasts, that by their means I may be accounted worthy of God. I am the wheat of God, and by the teeth of the beasts I shall be ground, that I may be found the pure bread of God. Provoke ye greatly the wild beasts, that they may be for me a grave, and may leave nothing of my body, in order that, when I have fallen asleep, I may not be a burden upon any one. Then shall I be in truth a disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world seeth not even my body. Entreat of our Lord in my behalf, that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God. I do not, like Peter and Paul, issue orders unto you. They are apostles, but I am one condemned; they indeed are free, but I am a slave, even until now. But if I suffer, I shall be the freed-man of Jesus Christ, and I shall rise in Him from the dead, free. And now being in bonds, I learn to desire nothing.On the ruin of the city of Jerusalem · Book 3 1:7HegesippusII. At that time Peter and Paul were in Rome, teachers of the Christians, distinguished in works, brilliant in administration, who by virtue of their works had made Nero an adversary who had been captured by the enticements of the Magian Simon who had won over his mind to himself. To whom he promised with deadly arts the aid of victory, the subjections of peoples, longevity of life, the protection of safety, [p. 184] and he believed who did not know to examine the meaning of things. Finally he held the highest place of friendship with him, seeing that he was even considered the chief of his security and the guardian of his life. But when Peter uncovered his falsities and faults, and showed appearances to deceive him of things, and not to produce anything real or true, he was consumed with grief and considered an object of and worthy of mockery. And although in other parts of the world he had experienced the power of Peter, however preceding (Peter) to Rome he dared to boast, that he had restored the dead to life. There had died at that time at Rome a young noble relative of Caesar to the sorrow of everyone. Many suggested it should be tried whether he could be restored to life. Peter was considered the most renowned in these tasks, but among the gentiles no trust was accorded to achievements of this sort. Grief demanded a remedy, recourse was had to Peter. There were even those who thought Simon should be summoned. Both were at hand. Peter says to Simon, who was boasting about his ability, he would give (him) the first chances as if he were able to revivify the dead man. If he did not revivify (him), he would not be absent when Christ should carry succor to the dead man, at which time he would be able to arise. Simon, who thought his arts would be especially strong in the city of gentiles, proposed the condition that if he himself should revivify the dead man, Peter should be killed, who had proposed great authority, for it was named thus, by calling forth insults, but if indeed Peter should have superior power, he should in like manner make a claim against Simon. Peter assented, Simon made the attempt. He approached the bier of the dead man, he began to fix a spell and to murmur fearful incantations. He who was dead was seen to shake his head. a great clamor of the gentiles because he was now living, because he was speaking with Simon. Anger and displeasure against Peter because he had dared to compare himself to such great ability. Then the blessed apostle [p. 185] demanded silence and says: 'if the dead man is alive, let him speak; if he has been revivified, let him stand up, walk, converse.' That to be an illusion, not reality that he seems to have moved his head. Finally he says "let Simon be separated from the funeral-bed,' and then indeed it will not be a pretence. Simon is led away from the bed, he who was dead remains without the appearance of any motion. Peter stood farther away and intent within himself for a short time on his words he says with a loud voice: 'Young man, stand up: the lord Jesus makes you well.' Immediately the young man rose up and spoke and walked and took food and Peter gave him to his mother. Who when he was asked that he should not depart from him said: 'let him not depart from him who made him to rise up, whose servants we are. Be untroubled, mother, about your son, do not fear, he has his protector.' And when the people rose up against Simon that he should be stoned, Peter says: 'It is enough for his punishment that he knows his arts to have no strength. Let him live and even though unwilling see the kingdom of Christ to grow.' The Magian turned away from the glory of the apostle. He collected himself and calls forth all the power of his enchantments, he assembles the people, he says himself offended by the Galilaeans and to be about to leave the city which he was wont to guard. He set a date, he promises that he will fly, where he would be borne on celestial thrones, to whom when he should wish the heavens would open. On the appointed day he ascended the Capitoline hill and throwing himself from the rock he began to fly. The people marvelled and many worshipped saying the ability was god's, it was not a man, who should fly with a body, Christ to have done nothing similar. Then Peter standing in their midst says: 'Jesus Lord, show him his arts to be empty, lest by this display this people who are about to believe should be deceived. Let him fall, lord, in such a way however, that living he will recall himself able to do nothing.' And immediately on the words of Peter with a tangling of the wings [p. 186] which he had put on he fell to the ground, nor was he killed, but with a broken and lamed leg he withdrew to Aricia and died there. This having been learned Nero grieving himself deceived and abandoned by the fate of such a great friend, a man useful and necessary to the state having been taken away from him, indignant began to seek causes for which he should kill Peter. And already the time was at hand when the blessed apostles Peter and Paul would be called. Finally the order having been given that they should be seized Peter was asked that he should take himself elsewhere. He kept resisting saying he would never do it, as if terrified by the fear of death he should yield, it was good to suffer for Christ, who in behalf of all offered himself to death, not that death but immortality to come, how unworthy that he himself should flee the suffering of his body. Who by his teachings brought many to offer themselves as sacrifices for Christ, to be owed to himself according to the voice of the lord, that he himself also should give glory and honor to Christ in his suffering. This and other things Peter hid, but the common people sought with tears, that he should not abandon himself, and that he should abandon the wavering between the commotions of the gentiles. Overcome by the lamenting Peter conceded, he promised himself to be about to leave the city. The next night with brothers taken leave of and solemn speech he began to depart alone. When it was come to the gate, he saw Christ to be coming to meet him and adoring him he said: 'lord, for what purpose do you come?' Christ says to him: 'I come again to be crucified.' Peter understood it was said about his own suffering, because in him Christ would be seen about to suffer who suffered for every one, not certainly by pain of body but by a certain fellow-suffering of sympathy and celebration of glory. And turning around he returned into the city and was captured by pursuers. Condemned to the cross he demanded that he be fixed to the cross feet uppermost, because he was unworthy that he should be fixed to the cross in the same manner, [p. 187] as the son of god had suffered. Which was obtained either because it was owed as Christ had foretold, or because his persecutor not unwilling granted the augmentation of the punishment, and he himself and Paul one on the cross and the other by the sword were killed.The Apology · Selected Notes on the Syriac Version_1891 2:7Aristides the Philosopher[Compare also the Letter of Pilate in the Acts of Peter and Paul § 42 (Tisch. Acta Apocr., Lips. 1851, p. 17): [Greek]]Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 1 23:3Irenaeus2. The soul, therefore, which is like that of Christ can despise those rulers who were the creators of the world, and, in like manner, receives power for accomplishing the same results. This idea has raised them to such a pitch of pride, that some of them declare themselves similar to Jesus; while others, still more mighty, maintain that they are superior to his disciples, such as Peter and Paul, and the rest of the apostles, whom they consider to be in no respect inferior to Jesus. For their souls, descending from the same sphere as his, and therefore despising in like manner the creators of the world, are deemed worthy of the same power, and again depart to the same place. But if any one shall have despised the things in this world more than he did, he thus proves himself superior to him.Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 3 1:6Irenaeus1. WE have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith. For it is unlawful to assert that they preached before they possessed "perfect knowledge," as some do even venture to say, boasting themselves as improvers of the apostles. For, after our Lord rose from the dead, [the apostles] were invested with power from on high when the Holy Spirit came down [upon them], were filled from all [His gifts], and had perfect knowledge: they departed to the ends of the earth, preaching the glad tidings of the good things [sent] from God to us, and proclaiming the peace of heaven to men, who indeed do all equally and individually possess the Gospel of God. Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 3 3:3Irenaeus2. Since, however, it would be very tedious, in such a volume as this, to reckon up the successions of all the Churches, we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; [we do this, I say, ] by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also [by pointing out] the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre- eminent authority, that is, the faithful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolical tradition has been preserved continuously by those [faithful men] who exist everywhere.Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 4 13:9Irenaeus2. But if, when the Saviour came to this earth, He sent His apostles into the world to proclaim with accuracy His advent, and to teach the Father's will, having nothing in common with the doctrine of the Gentiles or of the Jews, much more, while yet existing in the Pleroma, would He have appointed His own heralds to proclaim His future advent into this world, and having nothing in common with those prophecies originating from the Demiurge. But if, when within the Pleroma, He availed Himself of those prophets who were under the law, and declared His own matters through their instrumentality; much more would He, upon His arrival hither, have made use of these same teachers, and have preached the Gospel to us by their means. Therefore let them not any longer assert that Peter and Paul and the other apostles proclaimed the truth, but that it was the scribes and Pharisees, and the others, through whom the law was propounded. But if, at His advent, He sent forth His own apostles in the spirit of truth, and not in that of error, He did the very same also in the case of the prophets; for the Word of God was always the self-same: and if the Spirit from the Pleroma was, according to these men's system, the Spirit of light, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of perfection, and the Spirit of knowledge, while that from the Demiurge was the spirit of ignorance, degeneracy, and error, and the offspring of obscurity; how can it be, that in one and the same being there exists perfection and defect, knowledge and ignorance, error and truth, light and darkness? But if it was impossible that such should happen in the case of the prophets, for they preached the word of the Lord from one God, and proclaimed the advent of His Son, much more would the Lord Himself never have uttered words, on one occasion from above, but on another from degeneracy below, thus becoming the teacher at once of knowledge and of ignorance; nor would He have ever glorified as Father at one time the Founder of the world, and at another Him who is above this one, as He does Himself declare: "No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old one, nor do they put new wine into old bottles." Let these men, therefore, either have nothing whatever to do with the prophets, as with those that are ancients, and allege no longer that these men, being sent beforehand by the Demiurge, spake certain things under that new influence which pertains to the Pleroma; or, on the other hand, let them be convinced by our Lord, when He declares that new wine cannot be put into old bottles.The Five Books Against Marcion · Book 4 2:4TertullianOn the whole, then, if that is evidently more true which is earlier, if that is earlier which is from the very beginning, if that is from the beginning which has the apostles for its authors, then it will certainly be quite as evident, that that comes down from the apostles, which has been kept as a sacred deposit in the churches of the apostles. Let us see what milk the Corinthians drank from Paul; to what rule of faith the Galatians were brought for correction; what the Philippians, the Thessalonians, the Ephesians read by it ; what utterance also the Romans give, so very near (to the apostles), to whom Peter and Paul conjointly bequeathed the gospel even sealed with their own blood. We have also St. John's foster churches. For although Marcion rejects his Apocalypse, the order of the bishops (thereof), when traced up to their origin, will yet rest on John as their author. In the same manner is recognised the excellent source of the other churches. I say, therefore, that in them (and not simply such of them as were rounded by apostles, but in all those which are united with them in the fellowship of the mystery of the gospel of Christ ) that Gospel of Luke which we are defending with all our might has stood its ground from its very first publication; whereas Marcion's Gospel is not known to most people, and to none whatever is it known without being at the same time condemned. It too, of course, has its churches, but specially its own-as late as they are spurious; and should you want to know their original, you will more easily discover apostasy in it than apostolicity, with Marcion forsooth as their founder, or some one of Marcion's swarm. Even wasps make combs; so also these Marcionites make churches. The same authority of the apostolic churches will afford evidence to the other Gospels also, which we possess equally through their means, and according to their usage-I mean the Gospels of John and Matthew-whilst that which Mark published may be affirmed to be Peter's whose interpreter Mark was. For even Luke's form of the Gospel men usually ascribe to Paul. And it may well seem that the works which disciples publish belong to their masters. Well, then, Marcion ought to be called to a strict account concerning these (other Gospels) also, for having omitted them, and insisted in preference on Luke; as if they, too, had not had free course in the churches, as well as Luke's Gospel, from the beginning. Nay, it is even more credible that they existed from the very beginning; for, being the work of apostles, they were prior, and coeval in origin with the churches themselves. But how comes it to pass, if the apostles published nothing, that their disciples were more forward in such a work; for they could not have been disciples, without any instruction from their masters? If, then, it be evident that these (Gospels) also were current in the churches, why did not Marcion touch them-either to amend them if they were adulterated, or to acknowledge them if they were uncorrupt? For it is but natural that they who were perverting the gospel, should be more solicitous about the perversion of those things whose authority they knew to be more generally received. Even the false apostles (were so called) on this very account, because they imitated the apostles by means of their falsification. In as far, then, as he might have amended what there was to amend, if found corrupt, in so far did he firmly imply that all was free from corruption which he did not think required amendment. In short, he simply amended what he thought was corrupt; though, indeed, not even this justly, because it was not really corrupt. For if the (Gospels) of the apostles have come down to us in their integrity, whilst Luke's, which is received amongst us, so far accords with their rule as to be on a par with them in permanency of reception in the churches, it clearly follows that Luke's Gospel also has come down to us in like integrity until the sacrilegious treatment of Marcion. In short, when Marcion laid hands on it, it then became diverse and hostile to the Gospels of the apostles. I will therefore advise his followers, that they either change these Gospels, however late to do so, into a conformity with their own, whereby they may seem to be in agreement with the apostolic writings (for they are daily retouching their work, as daily they are convicted by us); or else that they blush for their master, who stands self-condemned either way-when once he hands on the truth of the gospel conscience smitten, or again subverts it by shameless tampering. Such are the summary arguments which we use, when we take up arms against heretics for the faith of the gospel, maintaining both that order of periods, which rules that a late date is the mark of forgers, and that authority of churches which lends support to the tradition of the apostles; because truth must needs precede the forgery, and proceed straight from those by whom it has been handed on.The Refutation of All Heresies · Book 7 21:2Hippolytus of RomeCarpocrates affirms that the world and the things in it were made by angels, far inferior to the unbegotten Father; and that Jesus was generated of Joseph, and that, having been born similar to (other) men, He was more just than the rest (of the human race). And (Carpocrates asserts) that the soul (of Jesus), inasmuch as it was made vigorous and undefiled, remembered the things seen by it in its converse with the unbegotten God. And (Carpocrates maintains) that on this account there was sent down upon (Jesus) by that (God) a power, in order that through it He might be enabled to escape the world-making (angels). And (he says) that this power, having passed through all, and having obtained liberty in all, again ascended to God (Himself). And (he alleges) that in the same condition with (the soul of Jesus are all the souls) that embrace similar objects of desire with the (power just alluded to). And they assert that the soul of Jesus, (though,) according to law, it was disciplined in Jewish customs, (in reality) despised them. And (he says) that on this account (Jesus) received powers whereby, He rendered null and void the passions incidental to men for their punishment. And (he argues), therefore, that the (soul), which, similarly with that soul of Christ, is able to despise the world-making Archons, receives in like man-her power for the performance of similar acts. Wherefore, also, (according to Carpocrates, there are persons who) have attained unto such a degree of pride as to affirm some of themselves to be equal to Jesus Himself, whereas others among them to be even still more powerful. But (they also contend) that some enjoy an excellence above the disciples of that (Redeemer), for instance Peter and Paul, and the rest of the Apostles, and that these are in no respect inferior to Jesus. And (Carpocrates asserts) that the souls of these have originated from that supernal power, and that consequently they, as equally despising the world-making (angels), have been deemed worthy of the same power, and (of the privilege) to ascend to the same (place). If, however, any one would despise earthly concerns more than did that (Saviour, Carpocrates says) that such a one would be able to become superior to (Jesus, The followers of this heretic) practise their magical arts and incantations, and spells and voluptuous feasts. And (they are in the habit of invoking the aid of) subordinate demons and dream-senders, and (of resorting to) the rest of the tricks (of sorcery), alleging that they possess power for now acquiring sway over the Archons and makers of this world, nay, even over all the works that are in it.Song Of Two Peoples 1:6CommodianWho will be able to know the one true God of heaven? Who except for the one who has been lifted from heinous error? I wandered unknowing, walking with empty hope, while the fury of youth carried me into the heights. I was lighter than a straw; As though a hundred heads Were present on my shoulders, So headlong wheresoever I was carried. Not enough of these things, finally drowned by crime, I was almost made by enchanting evil herbs. But thanks be to the Lord - nor is it enough to only offer my voice - who finally shed light on the miserable waverer! And having approached, I was given over to the code of the law, to know what I should understand there. Suddenly a lamp shone for me; then I truly knew the one and only supreme God in the heights, and therefore I encourage such ones to depart from error. What better doctor than a victorious one who has suffered wounds? Many indeed are brutes and unknown, asleep in their hearts, Who propose to themselves nothing to know; in a savage manner They seek what they may seize, or whose blood they may drink, Provided they may rejoice to live fat as swine. They groan at the tomb of the sepulcher, then the rich will applaud and the poor will change their clothes and feel disgust. It would certainly suffice for them, who eat more readily; If anyone has seemed worthy of Caesar's wealth, why does he prefer his own fragile things and not look back at anyone? Rather, let one such as have received from the highest riches and high honors, communicate goodness to everyone. For I do not blame the riches given by the Highest, but he will be deserving of blame, who is overly elevated by them. I now advise all, high and low, to read diligently either these things or the other things of the law. Behold, since life given us is short, Learn, therefore, how we may die. Wise by birth, we die as fools; what good did it do to see the light? If you don't investigate, this is to be among beasts. Indeed, the highest God placed man over the world, not wild animals or livestock. Why do we make ourselves like them? The Almighty wanted man to offer praise to Him; Therefore He Himself taught us the future divine. He not only thundered words so we may believe, but also showed strength when Pharaoh was deceived. He did not only do this: and Noah also showed, during that time, what he could because no one was seeking God. Then gradually a milder one began to come after the flood was made, so that the earth could be replenished. Almost half of six thousand years had already passed, and nobody knew the Lord, and they lived everywhere. But God, as He saw the hearts of men too closed, Speaks to Abraham. He whom Moses declares, he himself gave the law to the people, Pharaoh being slain; And he predicted who the Lord would be, by him. Not satisfied with one prophetic voice, He has used many witnesses who declare it. Therefore, when you read the praises of many prophets, You will find that he came in flesh for us. Where is the mistake now? Why do they mock that the Supreme has ordained such things? They deserve to be laughed at because of it! Sometimes I present, how I have read the prophets, and teach the ignorant where the hope of life is to be placed. What God did first and how He did each thing, Moses has already taught; but we teach about Christ. I am not a prophet nor am I ordered to be a teacher, But I sing the things foretold by wandering bards. Therefore, my like, whom the swift breeze carries away, now seek a harbor where there are no dangers. A skilled farmer knows far in advance about impending weather And, before it arrives, he gathers himself in a cave. Be prudent, see what is coming, and provide for safety before disasters arrive. Cowardice is needed for boys, not certainly for the robust: If this is allowed for the inexperienced, it is not suitable for mature age. And any part of humanity that is not moderate will become like an excessively salted ham: hardened. No one places a stone unless the fire is burning alone: Thus people soften like rocks in the late hellfire. We shout into the empty space, to be carried by storm to the deaf, and we offer light to the blind without reason. The soldier stands at the mass: one listens, and the other shakes himself off, nor does he accept the same warnings, but wanders lost. Who will commit an offense now (be judges about these!), He who is warned or he who does not wish to obey the command? I hope that he who obeys Caesar's orders is not guilty, but he who destroys his proud enemies with his own life. Sometimes I show the right way to you who still wander aimlessly, what is mine having been known first. But you choose, pleasing at your own discretion, whoever wants poison or the sweet cups of life! Good and evil have been created in this nature, so that after the fact, one may be approved as worthy of God. Begin now, whoever you are, to have knowledge of the eternal: Learn who God is and by what name He is called. God is omnipotent, one, created by himself, whom you will find below great and humble himself. He was placed in the word, noted only for himself, who is called Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But since he has decided to compose the world, he has placed fire to be feared among the very angels by signs. However, he distributed them with less power himself, so that they might rule the heavens and the earth and the subjugated land. Therefore, even the messengers themselves cannot distinguish what kind of person he is or how great he is, except that they follow the instructions. The honor is hidden from us and even from the angels themselves, What the majesty of God really is, only He alone knows. Immense shining above the heavens and without end, and all of it is like a fiery power. There life of the Gods is, only without known form, Those secrets are known to God alone of the heavens: This glory of God is unique above all angels, Here is the God of eternal light, here the spirit of age. What it is in its original state, no one can see, but transfigured, it is as it wants to show itself. He presents himself visible to the angels according to their form. And he became man for man, but God is proved by his word. Therefore, the form of such a great God cannot be known; Whatever it is, it is one in immense light; Thence it is accustomed to enclose the circle of the world in its fist. However, when he wanted to be known about himself what he was, he made himself appear capable of such a great divinity: His face or eyes or mouth or limbs are noted. Some have seen him in the fire speaking with a voice; he was taken on in the flesh, which no region could hold. Thus the almighty God, lord of his own nature, though he be invisible, made himself visible to some. He who with his own form now diffuses himself into the air, of whom it is not permitted to seek a beginning or an end, here God is always without beginning and without end. He who, before creating the sky, was carried on into eternity, and who holds the sky, sees everything everywhere from the sky and penetrates all with his eyes and ears. Therefore, it pleased him to be held in the carnal world, so that his eternal majesty alone might be exalted. Now, what was before, it is difficult to say, although it has been written down: we should not care about that. When we cannot fully grasp what we see, who can know what lies beyond the ocean's limit? And we see the sky, but what happens inside it, no one can know until the end of the age. Let it suffice to know only the promised things of the future; let us eagerly strive for them, wholly devoted in mind. As the Phoenix bird contemplates being reborn from death, It gives us an example that we can rise after funerals; God almighty urges us to believe that a time will come when the dead will live again, although now they are dust, although their naked bones lie. The person is restored, who once had been dead, and a greater grace will come to him of this age. There will be no pain or tears in our body, the flesh will not receive iron, and no sore will arise. God wills that this be done, so that greater glory may be given to Him. Here he had made the first man, so that he might be eternal, but he fell into death by neglecting those precepts. God prepared to be so many inquiries, so that he might uncover all the devil's inventions. God had given this angel the position on Earth: Who, while envying man, perishes himself, and first. Meanwhile, He sees the just subdued by Him, and He reserves for Hell the criminal Cain. In crime began to move about all human race, Nor looking back, who their creator was. What the exalted God endured indignantly; Icere proposed to destroy almost the whole creation. It is said and read that Noah was saved from the water, the others perished by the heavenly anger of the flood. From here, just as at the beginning, the earth is gradually filled. The prior crime ceased, but another disaster approached. They foolishly began to build a tower that touched the stars and thought they might be able to climb the skies with it. But God, seeing that their work proceeded because they spoke the same language, intervened and caused them to speak different languages. Then he scattered them by isolating them in the islands of the earth, so that nations speaking different tongues arose. Then, an unteachable race was leading a life of savagery; No one knew God, no one argued about life. Since that rash one had eaten through the springs of life, he corrupted bitter minds, and persuaded them to love infamous deceits, to live by pillage with the joy of bloodshed. The foolish pursue this glory in a short time, whom no pardon frees, by saying they were misled. If an adulterer persuades you, the fault is yours for pursuing such a person; he does not condemn you, but you condemn yourself of your own accord. They wandered, induced by the deceit of an old enemy, forgetting the Lord, following evil works. Because for a long time there was so much raiding by bandits, when the time was divided he finally took pity and, having removed [them], he pleased to confer with one of many, in order to win the people over to himself by passing over [to his side]. From that moment they began to be profane to the One God And to become a people according to the decrees of God. For Rebecca had separated two peoples from herself: He became the first, and the other was to succeed him. In Egypt, the foster child initially grew up into Israel. Then God cast them out, led by Moses, through whom He gave them the law on Mount Sinai, so that our posterity might know the Lord as one. Then he ordered the prophets to say themselves, what God said about man. The Lord had led them into the promised land so that they might live there under the law until he himself came. The ungrateful people did not want to bear the yoke of good precepts, but rather flourished in ancient wickedness; nor ever ceased: even today they are held as such. Having left God behind, he prefers the pleasures of the world. What the Lord most intends to avoid for his beloved; he warns that they should be altogether cut off from the world. If he spoke of children, let us linger in their holy ways; Why do we go out, adulterers following a show? The ancient seducer deceives everyone with such things: He sends in indulgences through which sons are lost, He incites agony through excessively obscene or violent spectacles, He causes the chaste to know the unchaste. If he had been pure, incest would have profited him, and pleasingly smiling, then the tempting evil pleasures. In those luxuries the primitive people used to live and always went unarmed from God's law. God often sent pupils to cleanse those who had gone astray, so that they might correct them. They never refused to accept the divine words again, But always served their own will to the inept. They would slay the just reproaching them iniquitously, while unwilling to accept the reins of heavenly discipline. They will imprison Isaiah, stone Jeremiah standing upright, decapitate John, and slaughter Zachariah at the altar. And he himself came, who had been foretold by them, and he suffers, how he wanted, in our likeness. Into whose destruction all prophecy is fulfilled. Daniel had said that he was the newest prophet. He was the one whom the prophets sang of through the trumpet, and yet his own people denied him as their own. You have always been unproductive and stubborn, while rejecting form and losing the sacraments of the law. Not righteousness, nor a humble birth, broke them, Nor such great goodness or care for the sick word. Oh pious religion, oh so venerable majesty, whose medicine so greatly profited the earth! He did not cut with iron, nor heal with a plaster, but immediately healed with his word alone Seeing these things, the Jews were troubled in mind, who were led more by envy in the zeal of rivalry, not looking to the sayings of the buried prophets, that such a man should come who would scatter them. The prophets sang until the Lord should come; after his arrival, the prophecy was silent to the Jews. After this they were exiled with a hardened heart. Nor do they recognize now, for which reason they have suffered such things. It had been predicted to them by the prophet Isaiah and similarly by Daniel, that the land would be devastated; but not before, unless the leader of the city himself were to hang on a tree, then it would be deserted. Suddenly such glory shone upon the nation, That the people became a people who had not been before! Esau, the beloved of his father, was not astonished that his younger brother would take the first-born. Thus the synagogue could not recognize the time when and where its leader would fall from power; just as it had been written, "birds know their times"; for this people did not understand that I was present among them. It was time for the ruler of heaven himself to come: According to the scriptures, he was not counted among them. The Lord was aware of this, as one who knows all things; For this reason, he foretold these things through the mouths of prophets. The neck-bearing people, always rebellious, when they claimed first place for themselves, their cause was cut off. Among whom he established the Gentiles to be; He had said this earlier: The Gentiles will hope in him. For the stone that was set in place is the very foundation of Zion, whoever believes in it will have eternal life. This holy of holies designates Daniel and after him, the royal anointing shall be exterminated. David said this: "They nailed the silent one with nails - 'They dug my hands and feet,' he said." Solomon also prophesied so openly about him, 'Let us kill the righteous man,' the Jews will say. Jeremiah depicts the cross as many: Come, let us put wood in bread! saying. But their leader Moses proclaims to them: Life killed will hang before your eyes. This father came in the son, one God everywhere: And he is not called father, unless he had become son. For He did not leave heaven, that He might be born on earth, but as He had planned, His greatness appeared on earth: Now the Word had descended, wherein the power of God acted, - What of the fact that the prophets sing, that the invisible is to be seen? - So that such great love was to be made even for us. And our people would not have leaped to a new law, if the Almighty had not ordained it before us. Here was the Almighty, in whose name all nations believe, what the prophet Isaiah said: A man shall arise in Israel from the root of Jesse, In Him shall the Gentiles hope, in whose sign they shall be protected. And another said that he was to be revealed as a witness throughout the world, as the prince of the nations himself. It is sung in the psalms: The Lord has reigned from the wood; Let the earth be joyful, let many islands be glad. Thus also Jacob the patriarch: a true blessing came upon the nations; he will be the hope of the nations, he says. Under heaven there is no other name given except that of Christ, in whose name the nations have believed everywhere. We do not urge to believe in the time that has passed, but in living for the eternal future. This hope is to be hoped for by us: to enjoy everlasting things. Not such, which quickly changes our joys. Although riches are before your eyes to be enjoyed, you are excluded from them by the frailty of substituted death; if you persevere, you yourself shrink in living, or if your health is bad, why should your life be spared? Torture is everything in which we live in this age; hence our hope must be sought in the future: God urges us to this, the law urges us to this, the passion of Christ urges us to this, that we may believe that we will rise again in the new world. Thus the law of God proclaims: when the Highest became lowly, Hell gave way, so that Adam might be lifted from Death; the Lord, having mercy on his own creation, descended into the tomb, and thus through hidden power, he nullified the power of Death. The Lord crept up, concealed from the old robber, and He allowed Himself to suffer, in order to cast him down more completely. That one, indeed, bold and always cruel like an enemy, while he hoped to rage against a man, was conquered by the Highest. By that thing through which the evil one had previously brought man down to death, he himself was overcome; from there comes forth life for us. After sampling the apple, Adam was ordered to depart and die; And from his sin, we all die likewise and the same. But again the Lord said: If he shall take of the tree of life, he shall live for ever, being honest. Death was on the tree and life was hidden in the tree, on which God hung the Lord, the discoverer of our life. The Lord had foretold that this wood of life was to be, so that whoever believes in Him may be as if he had taken from there. And he takes and tastes sweetly the highest commandments of God, and departs, because what is better rises from death. Whoever believes in Christ tastes of the tree of life, upon which the Lord was hung, as Moses predicted. Isaiah declared that this very one was humble and too rejected, almost like the figure of a servant; and we saw him, and he was not of distinguished appearance, placed in a wound as a man, knowing all how to suffer. He suffers for us and carries our sins, and God delivered him up for our wrongdoings. He, when he was being vexed, was silent like a lamb before the altar. This man was no longer, but was God in flesh for us; What was clear now was the name of God to arise, Which is now cherished among the nations. This is what the prophet Malachiel sings, who is also an angel, When he condemns Jewish sacrifices, saying: Your sacrifice will not be accepted by me, But in every place the nations offer to my name, Among whom my name is magnified greatly, Who offer to my name without bloodshed. For he himself was humble, hiding behind a great name, he who spoke through prophetic mouths saying: "I am not stubborn nor do I argue with wrongdoers, I have even offered my back for scourging and my cheeks for striking with fists, I have not turned my face away from their spitting." Folly has seized many, for God to suffer such things, So that the creator of the world may be declared crucified. Thus they pleased: No one's counsel was used,- Nor could anyone else have come in such a way - he invented death for us, when he was an envious enemy, which the Lord, suffering, drank, rising from hell. Therefore, he did not want to reveal what he was, but he said that he had been sent as a son by his father. Thus He Himself had given the testimony, that He was called the Son of God by the prophets, that God was to come in the form of a Son on earth. And he himself groans, although he was humble in flesh, And he testifies to the Father, so that he might affirm the prophetic prayers. From Israel we read that such a man rises again, and he is a man, said [the disciples], and who knows him among us? Jeremiah said, "This is our God, equal to him. After these things, he was seen on earth, conversing with humans." But Isaiah said: You are God, and we did not know it; and God is in you, and no one else is held beside you. And who would come according to the law of the prophets into the west? Sing to the Lord, his name is God, who has come! And the fourth Psalm of forty says of Him: I will be exalted among the nations, with a great name. And elsewhere we read: Today I have begotten you, my son; Ask, and I will give you, and you will have nations as your inheritance. Certainly now it appears who God is and who is in him, And in whose name we should believe everywhere: My Christ said, I hold whose right hand, that: Let the nations hear, and let him rule the nations themselves. What need is there of more, when the matter is so clearly proved, When the populace rejoices in him who is accused? But those wretched ones, who embellish empty tales And defame the magician; they would have closed the beaks of singing thralls. What shall I say of them? Before they were scattered, whom neither banishment broke nor old age itself. If a wizard was present, then why were the prophets singing? If they falsely declare about them to lose the land, what proceeds from them, so will it also be false about him. But always being despised because they were bloody, they rebel against their own Lord saying that they are magicians, and they do not want to hear what the prophets said about them, who did not understand the ultimate end. God himself described them: With closed heart, they neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hardened hearts; For the heart of this wicked people has become dull, so that they cannot discern, until they are healed by my words. God was foretold to be born in the flesh for us, so that a greater suffering would be deservedly achieved; behold God himself will give you a sign from on high: a virgin will conceive and bear a heavenly offspring; it shall be called "Immanuel," a name which in Latin means "God is with us." Listen, he himself was nourished with honey and butter, and took Samaria before he spoke his word. But this is a closed history, about which the learned revolve, that a tiny infant when nursing could seize prey without fighting; of whose passion it was thus predicted beforehand, that God would become suffering with blood shed. Isaiah says: "Like a sheep led to the slaughterhouse, he did not cry out, He endured everything patiently." The nail is pierced, as David once foretold; Whom they also gave vinegar to drink according to the scriptures. And in my clothes," he said, "they cast the lot, which thing was done, and we read in him all things accomplished. And there were made darknesses for three hours from the sixth And he hastened to bring on the night stars of the day. This had been predicted to happen by the prophet Amos, that he would conceal himself suddenly during the holy solemnities. O evil offspring! Oh treacherous brood, said God, who would deny me. "And he said: Hearken to the voice of the trumpet. We do not wish," they say. Thus speaks Ezekiel: So the nations from afar shall hear. I want to touch upon the title of the book of Deuteronomy: You will be at the top, nations, for the unbelievers look back. Certainly all the things said above are rebellious. Do you know what they are objecting, when the matter is so clearly stated? See now, you who have swum uncertainly until now, how the nations were in the Lord's scripture before. Now it is right to believe those whom books designate, not vain idols, which are uselessly worshipped for life, nor to be attached to those who are pleasure-loving and unrestrained, who love excesses more than the commands of the highest. Not one fault is enough for those who refuse to believe, but they rather make accusations: We have thrown him into a well. Therefore, the Lord, being angry, rebukes them: "Because of you my name is blasphemed among the gentiles," he says. If thrown down into the well, why is one shouted at to rise back up? You have brought up my soul from the underworld, Lord, I have slept and taken my rest; I have risen up, for the Lord has protected me, and I have not been harmed. And again he saith: Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, neither shalt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. This person says: Son of the prophets, I am ascending. That the Lord's suffering for the wretched may be told, And in the book of Psalms the Lord's death is proclaimed. They do not think that David refers to himself in that, or if they do think that, does everything he said agree? David was not whipped nor lifted up on the cross. What? Do the Jews prophesy like Saturn? Do they turn to stories, when it already declines against them? Do they not applaud the cross lifted up as if it were wickedness? They imagine such things for the unwise, uneducated, and ignorant: Who is that God whom we have nailed to the cross? They say "Blind in heart are those who are unwilling to look back at the scriptures." Behold, another prophet singing again, by whose voice nevertheless such an edict is titled: Now I will rise, says the Lord, now I will be glorified, Now I will be exalted, the humble one whom you saw before; Now you will understand, now there will be your confusion: You are thinking in vain, therefore you will have fire. Isaiah said this. Then even the same majesty, when it was in the flesh, declared who he was: No one could take away my life, but I lay it down of my own accord. And I have the power to take her again. However, loudly is it proclaimed concerning the death of the just, so that it may be clear that the Jews are more hardened: behold, the just man perishes and not one even understands; but there will be peace for the beloved in his tomb. Why do they claim that he was thrown into a well, when we read that he was handed over to burial? Shameful, cruel, blind, and proud! Those who ought to lament more about the deed, are applauding! For indeed inspired by him, Solomon prophesies and seeks to show more fully: Let us surround the just one, for he is displeasing to us, and opposes our works very much. He completely denies being bound by our law, yet he still asserts that he is the son of the Most High. He thoroughly disapproves and considers us frivolous; He abstains and goes to the other side; He says we are unclean and judges the other side as just; and He rejoices in being the Lord, the father of heaven. Therefore, if his words are true, let us test; Let us try seeing this God, what is in him Let us question him calmly with all the torment, Let us condemn him to the most shameful death and after doing this, they moved their suspended heads: Let the father save him, or else come down! So that Solomon may plainly show them to be blind, he reports as though they had done wrong: while they are thinking on such things, they are led into wicked error, and their cruelty blinds them. Behold, for they themselves are blind and they say that others are, Solomon said to them: They did not know the secrets of God. Whatever the previous witnesses said were done in Christ. Or should they say it was done in another? If they desire to do it, frustrate them in their mouth, they themselves mock, let them see the crowd in that. Who was that just one whom the prophets sang about, when no one is just on earth, except he who came from heaven? For even David, the prince, sinned, loving a girl. And also Solomon sinned, and yet they repented. Although those kings of theirs were so famous and distinguished, they were not righteous, but they themselves sang of the righteous; nor did even the prophet Isaiah say such things about himself, who was sawn asunder by King Manasseh. One was stoned, the other was sacrificed at the altars, Herod ordered the other to be beheaded in prison. All just watchmen have been killed by another death, because the Lord hung on the wood, Moses said with a voice: 'God is not hanged like a man', he declares beforehand; 'Nor does he suffer threats like the son of man', he says. Thus, when the Lord himself had come, he said this: "It is necessary for me to be criticized by the voice of Moses." But I do not pluck the whole, but only the highest peaks, so that the ignorant may more easily learn the truth. But you, wicked ones, who seek to live deceptively, persist once stained in devising vain things; they more foolishly infatuate themselves with their words. For when he was crucified, thus it behooved him, - For thus he planned it, because of primal ruin - He came not only for them, but also for us from heaven; He established a new people, firm in his name, Christ who fulfilled all things according to the prophecies. Behold, I am making new, Isaiah cries out in Him, And let no one consider former things nor follow old ones. These things are new today that have come about under our law, because we believe in Christ from the words of Moses. He had predicted that there would be two future peoples, and he said that the smaller people would excel. But these are full of depravity now in desperate fury: This is the law that has been given to us," they say, "where do you come from? If they oppose us, then it is clear to resist them with the Highest, who wanted us to be good. Nor do the proud servants with bristling hair look back; Who have always tortured the innocent, forbidden by law, They did to God what they were accustomed to, cruel, And still dare to call themselves the sons of the Highest. Now, just as He rose up again, I noted above, I spoke not from my own voice, but I said what the prophetic words said. But he had foretold all things to his disciples, How he would suffer from the people, and how Peter would deny him; And that he would rise again on the third day from the tombs, He had himself said it, and he had fulfilled all his words. But when He had risen, He came to the apostles Himself and stood among them saying: "Peace be with you." Among whom the disciples were present, but one was missing; When they reported this, he began to discredit (doubt) and added: "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my finger into the place where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Then on Sunday, He returned to them and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace be with you." And immediately he approaches that incredulous Thomas: come closer and touch the body as before. I am not a shadow, as is believed of the dead. I do not make a trace as a shadow; consider the wound. He extended his hands and began to touch and, having a hand at his side, which had been fixed with a spear, he sent forth and then threw himself down by praying. Because you have seen these things, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Forty days he made with them in order, he taught them much that would come to pass in the world. After his ascent, they performed many miracles, healing the sick with the word in the name of Christ. If he was such as these treacherous ones declare, the bravest witnesses would not be sufficient for his defense. He ascended into heaven, as it was sung according to scripture: Receive the king, princes, in the highest of heavens! What more need be said about the law? Those are sufficient for the inexperienced, to be guarded with a good heart. But if they themselves do not want to know God by reading these things, let them consider to what place they have come, where they do not want to be. They make nothing but heart, otherwise silence of life. What benefits does it bring to pursue secular things in vain on earth, and to know about the riches of kings and their wars? And a skilled lawyer to discern the crazy forum, Lest weak laws be guided by a bribe? Though one may be a defender, though one may be a divine orator, he will gain nothing by death, if while alive he has denied Christ. On the contrary, let him first inquire where his life has been led, if he has been wise; if otherwise, he is blamed. They read laws and learn amazing speeches, But they exceed the wretched ones for whom they speak, by doing. Unfortunate is he who comes into their mouth. They bring praise and he victory at the cost of losses: The wretched one stands mute in the midst, who grieves more within. They thunder with their mouth and he is silent with coins. In the meantime, the adorned voice roars during the day And often a little evil becomes a better cause by giving more. Hence the wise man seeks the prize, hence he rejoices to win, although he may behave wrongly, as long as he is victorious; he is sick, He does not consider anything for his own sake, while he seeks gain; he quickly takes up someone else's hope and sets aside his own. Many are dragged away by the forest of worldly success; while they rejoice in fleeting things, they remain from the grace of Christ; while they desire many things with their eyes, while they seek to increase, God is nothing to them but the life of the world. It strives for the belly, there is a daily struggle for it, and it despises the true struggle for eternal salvation. Everyone is like one who keeps watch with a bag, praised for being sharp; for he who follows God, is judged by the very things he possesses. Oh excessively fortunate, if someone avoids the centuries! Let him be foolish to others, as long as he is wise with the highest God. The whole of hope is to believe in God, who hung on the wood; Though it is an unpleasant thing, it is useful for the life to come. For that primeval people, deceived by that fact, who called him son, although he himself is God, (he was) the ancient one himself. Here he went before them in a column of cloud and fire, when he delivered them from Egypt. Here is the cruel command regarding his only son, so Abraham would be tested, to whom the Angel said from the sky, "Spare him!" And he is God, who made man and made himself just as powerful as He wanted, so that even the mute would speak. Balaam made his donkey speak while he was killing her; and [he made] the dog speak, so that it might say to Simon: 'You are shouted at by Peter!' While Paul was preaching, many learned that he made the Lion speak to the people with the divine voice. Then, what nature itself does not allow, she made the infant speak commonly in the fifth month. Here He was about to come with our mixed blood, So that He might appear as man, but God was hidden in the flesh. Not an elder shall come, nor an angel," said Isaiah, "but the Lord himself shall come to show himself to us. This sea feared him, this wind, this very underworld; all creatures recognized the Lord hidden. The wicked people alone raised a tumult against him: 'God forbid that the Lord should come in such a form!' Here, as on earth, he entered upon the waves of the sea, and commanded the winds, so as to restore the tranquil deep; here he tore up the law of Tartarus by his word present, and raised from the grave Lazarus, stinking on the fourth day. For he who was being carried, when he had met him, said: "Rise, young man!" And he arose from the coffin. Having begged the daughter of the chief of the synagogue from her father, [Jesus] raises her up lifeless while mourners lamented. He made the mute speak and the deaf hear, especially the one born blind, so that he could see into the sky. After thirty-eight years, he ordered the paralyzed man to rise, who was admired carrying his mat on his neck. Whose clothing was touched, and she was healed of her flow of blood; He broke five loaves among five thousand men, and fed them, and four thousand men again from seven. More fully to show that the Lord was present, he had been invited to a wedding with his mother herself; He was asked to help when the wine was lacking, Then he ordered water to be quickly filled into the jars, What he had tasted before and he commanded to be served thus. And so they were not able to recognize the Lord by their deeds but went mad, as if to destroy worthless death. What he himself allows, since he has decided to suffer thus; however, if they believe, then they will finally have forgiveness. This is the firstborn son foretold by the prophets, so that he might be called the offspring of the Most High on earth. Happy are those who place their hope in that (God), for fools avoid it like a curse. Eternity is prepared for him, who believes in Christ, so that a man may be a companion of God after death while still alive. The law and the prophets teach, they who are worthy of God and to whom the hidden golden ages are revealed. Throughout the prophets, the son of God is called by many names, and the first-called sons of God closed their eyes; having committed a crime, they did not recall the law by reading it, but they persisted, saying, "Behold, we are the chosen ones!" Even now they are foolish to go to the baths, because they think that by cleaning their bodies they can please the highest God themselves. Water washes away dirt, not unjust things in the depths of the heart, Nor can sacred things cleanse those that have been made impure by sacrilege. The Lord did not command to carry holy things to the wicked; And the place to be held again, clean from idols: No one should make an image of a demon for himself, he says; For he said to them: Do not serve idols. If God has instructed us to avoid idols, why do the people deceive themselves by being cleansed? Indeed, when they receive such [men], they ought to teach [them] to serve no others but only to please the highest [being]. While they seek to overshadow the death of Christ with a crime, they open gates everywhere, so that one may enter among them. Therefore from this, those who think they can become pure from water die, being conscience struck like the thief. Now he cultivates anything in vain, now he seeks holy things, ignorant of where he may first encounter them, and he serves idols, again he looks for the thirtieth (day); now he follows (the use of) unleavened bread, he who formerly sat chaste. God was not pleased that they were participants of devils, who established the law, by which the passage there would be made. There are two paths set before you: choose whichever you want. For you will not be able to travel both at once. However, you ought to seek out the one that is more opportune for you. And be careful not to fall into the jaws of robbers. Seek one God, who seeks no sacrifice, so that you may rise anew in a renewed world. Why do you look at the wicked and judge the holy as unjust, when they show you no proof from the law? It is about the power of God, which he exerted in them, for they do not want to speak of their own wicked deeds; always murderers with hands forever bloody, whom the Lord could never subdue by advising. It would suffice for them to have done so through cowardice and to say: "It was written thus, now it is right to believe". But the Lord himself has obscured their senses, He hardened them like Pharaoh in their midst; Nor did he say he wanted to hear their prayers, And with anger he rejected them from his land. Since he had certainly already spoken of his sons before, he had wanted to live with his children with a good heart; When a father rejoices, when his son is good; And if he is evil, he curses his son with hatred. No one can bear having a son as their opposite, All love for the offspring is excluded as cruel, Nor does he make him the heir of his possessions, which if he could consume first, he rejoices in consuming. The father, disturbed by his impious and savage offspring, does not allow himself to be opposed by the tyrant of his own affairs. What do these people presume, since they have been exhorted, saying: We are the dearest to the Highest of all people? Can a father-killer who is always proud of it be dear to him or be called an heir by right? How much more the Lord, exceeds those who must be chosen as his sons! The gentle, humble, and obedient students share the goods, not with the impious nor the tyrants. They had clearly been adopted as sons by the Jews, but in the will they obtained the name of the ungodly. Let them consider for themselves: After committing a bloody crime, could they still be considered good people? What is hissing at us, what are the heirs emulating us? And they had done good, and were in part ambassadors. They do not remain silent today nor do they want to believe in Christ, who had been predicted to them as a saving law; of whom you have already heard how the prophets sang: "The Lord will come to the earth, whom the nations will worship." Surely they remind us to know the highest God himself, who renews man and forgives past sins. For he himself also threatens the worshippers of the gods, sacrificing to idols he will perish in the second death. Therefore, everyone who worships gods made of gold, silver, stone, wood or bronze is thrown into the fire with them, and although this ends up being a bitter torture, death does not come. There are men like cattle in this nature, who wander unwilling to receive the reins of the highest God; while they themselves cannot endure such things from slaves, in whose harsh blood they often descend. They say furthermore: 'There is nothing after our funerals; while we live, this is it.' And they indulge in the manner of pigs: 'Let there be no luxury, which may carry us away in time; while there is time of life, let us enjoy all the things of the age.' Undisciplined people reject the mercy of God, while those who are diligent follow it as if it were their only life. Thus return those to God, who promise to live forever: Against the good, they fight, since fighting against the unfair. We have all strayed knowingly, in our own age, but by the grace of the Lord we are encouraged to believe in the law. Therefore, he came and made trophies secretly, and he was a man God, so that he might have us in the future. But the majority perish, who think to please both idols and God, when pleasing neither two. One God is in heaven of heaven, earth and the sea, Whom Moses taught hanging on a tree for us. Lazy people who suffer such things wander from where they are not sufficiently focused on the mystery of God's secret. Envy of the devil entered into the world, which God secretly destroyed by being born of a maiden. Blinded Jews start at birth, Infatuated fools commit bloodshed. No one can say any excuse after, as long as the opportunity to believe has been given to us. God did not come in vain upon the earth and from heaven, but He came to make a people known by His name. Whoever will not have confessed in this nature, perishes, and what he has lived, he condemns himself late in punishment, or at least, while he hopes by waiting to grow old, he is excluded for longer from eternal life, having died. Therefore, we must now remember him more quickly, who promises us life after death. Moreover, it adds this, that they will be immortal and will enjoy what the eye had not seen before by seeing. These will spring forth after six thousand years filled, by which time I hope we ourselves will already be in port on the shore. Then the man, brought back to the contest, will rise with the sun and rejoice in God, recalling what came before. Hearing, now incorruptible though once in frail flesh, he recognizes the promises of old. Admiring the glory which came to man, he said: As I have heard before, so I see each particular. All of them lifted up from the underworld shout together like this: "Just as we heard before, here we see!" All pain will pass from the body, and the wound will pass too, and there will be no anxiety but only joy forever. Everyone believes and feels there is one present in three, he will be reborn forever in eternal ages. But some people say this: When do we think these things will come? Take (these words) in few, to be followed by those (things) (already) done. Indeed, many signs of such a great plague will occur, And there will be the beginning of our seventh persecution: Behold, now the door is knocking and forced to be, Which will soon cross the river for the Goths to break in. King Apollyon will be with them, a dire name, who will scatter the persecution of the saints with weapons. He proceeds to Rome with many thousands of people, and by the decree of God he captures those subdued on one side. Many of the captive senators will then weep and, conquered by the barbarians, blaspheme the God of heaven. Yet the pagans everywhere feed the Christians, who seek them more as joyful brothers. For they pursue the extravagant and those who worship vain idols, for they subjugate even the senate. They perceive these evils, who have persecuted the beloved: For five months they are slaughtered under that enemy. In the meantime, Syrus arises at that very moment, Who may terrify the enemies and deliver the senate from there. From below he returns, who was entrusted with the kingdom and, having been long preserved, is recognized with his former body. We say, however, that Nero is ancient, who first punished Peter and Paul in the city: He himself returns again at the very end of the age from apocryphal places, who was reserved in these things. They themselves wonder that this man is hated by the senate; But when he appears, they will think he is a god. But before he comes, Elijah will prophesy, at a time divided, in the middle of the week. The infamous one succeeds upon the completion of the appointed time, whom both the Jews and Romans worshiped together at that time. Although there will be another whom they await from the east, nonetheless they will rage against us with King Nero in our slaughter. Therefore when Elijah prophesies in the land of Judah, and marks his own people in the name of Christ; Of these, how many because they do not want to believe, He supplicates God in anger not to rain down; from then on, the sky will be closed, nor will it be moistened by dew: And even the rivers, in anger, will turn into blood. The land becomes sterile and water does not flow from springs, so that famine will come upon the world: and then there will be a plague in the world. Because of this, indeed, the tormented Jews contrive many false accusations against him and they first kindle the senate to rise up in anger and they say that Elijah is an enemy to the Romans. Then the senate was quickly moved by them, and they beseeched Nero with unjust prayers and gifts, "Remove the enemies of the people from human affairs, through whom even our gods are trampled upon and not worshipped." But, fueled by anger and the prayers of the senate, he seizes the prophets on a public carriage from the east. He who is satisfied to do this for them or at least for the Jews, first sacrifices these and then leaves for the churches. Under the martyrdom of whom, a tenth part of the city fell, and there seven thousand full men perished. But the Lord takes them on the fourth day into the air, who had been forbidden to be buried lying down, and having been made immortal from death, He raises them up from the ground, which their enemies watch them enter into the heavens. They are not afraid, but rather rage within the people of Christ, hating with total hatred. For the Almighty hardened wicked hearts, just as he had previously hardened the ears of Pharaoh. Therefore, the harsh and unjust king Nero, having been driven away, orders the Christian people themselves to be driven out of the city, however, he adds two Caesars as his partners, with whom he may persecute this people with dire fury. They send edicts also to all judges everywhere, that they might make this kind of men without the name of Christ. They also command that incense be placed before the images and that all crowned persons proceed, so that none are concealed. If one refuses to go faithfully in this story, he exits luckily; But if on the other hand, he becomes one of the crowd. There will be no day of peace nor an offering for Christ, but blood flows everywhere, which I am overcome trying to describe; tears prevail, hands fail, hearts tremble, though it be fitting for martyrs to bear so many deaths; through the sea, through lands, through islands and retreats they search for a long time, and lead the cursed victims. Nero will do these things then, in the entire span of three years, and in a year and a half he will complete the appointed time. Because of this outrage, deadly punishment will come so that the city and that people will be handed over with him, so that the unjustly filled empire that for a long time had tortured everyone through bad tributes will be removed. Again this will rise up in the defeat of Nero, a king from the east with four nations from there. And he will invite as many nations as he can to the city, who may bring aid, although he himself is strongest. And he will fill the sea with ships and many thousands, and if anyone opposes him, he will be killed with the sword. And first he will capture conquered Tyre and Sidon, for neighboring nations are weakened by fear from there. From here comes disease, from here comes war, from here comes famine, from here comes harsh tidings, and together they cause disturbance of the mind. Meanwhile, the trumpet gives a sudden sound from the sky, the sound of which disturbs the hearts of everyone in the place. And then, the chariot will be seen glowing with fire among the stars, and the torch, running ahead, will send word of the coming of the flame to far-off peoples. The river Euphrates dries up completely, so that a way may be made for the king with those nations. The Persians, Medes, and Chaldeans, Babylonians will come, fierce and swift, who know not any pain. So when he (the sun) begins to rise from there, Nero and the Senate are disturbed by the close sight. And those three Caesars will go to resist; Whom he, having slaughtered, invites as food for birds. An army whose necessity is to adore the conqueror. And when returning to the city with their minds changed, they plunder the temples and whatever is inside the city. They tear apart and slaughter men with great bloodshed. Finally, they burn the city made naked, so that no trace of it appears anymore. Of whose downfall the hearts of the powerful waste away, and they cannot find themselves, at what time they fell. She did indeed rejoice, but the whole earth was groaning; And yet she barely found a worthy reward. She mourns forever, who boasted she was eternal, whose tyrants are already judged by the Almighty. The time is ripe for Rome to be smoking towards its end, And the reward will come divided according to the merits of the places. Nevertheless, he proceeds victorious in the land of Judaea, whom the Jews themselves had hoped would conquer Rome. He performs many signs so that they may believe in him, to deceive them because he was sent wicked; Whom however from heaven the voice of the Highest rebukes. Persida says that he is an immortal being. Nero became the Antichrist for us, the Jews; Those two are always prophets in the final end. The ruin of the city is Nero's, as it is of the whole earth; Of whom, however, I suggest a few things which I have read secretly. Meanwhile, it displeases both the Jews themselves, and they whisper at the same time that they have been deceived by fraud. They cry out together with weeping voices to heaven, then Almighty God, may He bring to an end all that which I have said, will bring forth a people hidden for a long time. But the Jews across the River Persia were closed off, whom God desired to stay there until the end. Captivity forced them to stay there; Of the twelve tribes, half of them live there. There is no lie there, nor is there any hatred; Therefore neither does his son die before his parents; Nor do they mourn or lament for their dead, as is our custom, For they await the coming resurrection, And do not feed their soul with added food, But only with vegetables that are without the shedding of blood. Justice lives with a body unspoiled, In these neither does wicked power exercise its strength. No fevers approach them, nor fierce colds, since they obediently follow all the righteous laws; which we ourselves will also follow, living purely; only death and toil are inevitable, for the rest is mute. Here was a people, who now are passed away. With the dried river he will return to the land of Judaea; with them God will come to fulfill his promises; he who exults throughout the entire journey with God present. All things grow before them, everything rejoices, the created thing itself is delighted to receive the saints: In every place fountains are ready to spring up, wherever the people of the Most High go with heavenly awe. They make a shade with clouds, so that they are not vexed with the sun, and the mountains themselves are laid down that they may not be wearied; for before them shall go an Angel of the Most High, who by his winged spirit, for their protection, will direct them on their way. They walk lightly without work, and like lions, they destroy everything in their path. Indeed, no legion will be able to resist, if it wages war, since God himself is with them. Nations are conquered, cities also surrender, by God's permission they empty all colonies, and become rich by looting gold or silver, and thus they sing hymns of honor to God along the way. But soon they hasten to the holy city of their fathers, for that terrible tyrant trembles and flees to the Northern kings with great noise. From where he seizes the people, as if standing against a fighting, But when the rebel armies of God hasten, They are thrown to the ground everywhere, having fought with the angels. But the unfair king and false prophet are sent, both captured, living in the punishment of hell, whose major leaders, governors or envoys, are immediately reduced to the place of servants, the wicked ones. Meanwhile, the saints enter the holy colony, taking God's promises with endless happiness. They pray to God for the dead to arise, which he promised long ago concerning the first resurrection. Then God will begin to be angry with the enemies, and the day appointed arriving for the unrighteous. But when he begins to judge the world by fire, and devours the pious and the impious fall under fire. Few remain who will report such deeds, and those who are reserved to serve the just, survive. After the persecution of the saints and such great funerals, a detestable, burning day is imminent. Behold she sings hoarsely in the sky, but echoing everywhere, which makes the whole world tremble at its falling ruin. The sun escapes unknowingly, suddenly becomes the image of night, and God exclaims: How long did you think I could carry on this way? With its sign having been given, a plague rushes down from the entire ether, with the roar of thunder the attack of fire descends. Then one thunderbolt after another is hurled from the stars, the fiery tempest kept back for so many years rushes forth, the deadly calamity roars, the aroused earth trembles, and every human race is unable to foresee in what direction it should turn. Stars fall from the sky, the stars are judged with us: The inhabitants of heaven are disturbed, while the ruin of the world is taking its course. There will be no relief then and empty crying out; No ship will take a person, no hiding place; Nor will those help, whom they worshiped as great ones before: Each strives for himself, but nothing profits him; Only those who have been marked for Christ will benefit; There will be dew for them, for the rest a deadly punishment. A part of the unbelievers is kept gently burned, so that their race may again bewail itself at the end. Wherever men turn, fiery force rages; The very air of the world, which was pleasing before, is burned. What noise shall I say comes with the thunderstorm, as all the anger accumulated through so many years is poured out? From here (comes) fire, from here thunder, from here so many evils of whirlwinds boil and (the) sky will be snatched beneath the shadow of sudden death. Partly the trembling earth loosens funeral barriers, partly the thunder breaks through the lowest walls and the foundations of the world, just as dust rising into the air. Rocks fly from shattered cliffs and the roofs of houses are laid waste, the entire city of our fathers is laid low, so that scarcely, where once it flourished, does a tiny trace endure. Who could bear so many crackling sounds, such great crashes and such ruins or see such great shipwrecks? What will a wretched mother do then with her sweet little one? But if a father pities his son, what does it profit him? Alas, you flee from the Lord! Prophets disunited without Christ, whose happy fate is judged, now weeping for themselves they lament with groans and prostrate themselves on the ground, while a joyful heavenly hall shines for their brothers. Then the light of eternal life will purify the man from heaven, who was once humble and now appears coming: with him descend the angels of eternal brightness, the tombs will be broken and bodies will rise from the mud, which the decay stains, and they will be carried to the savage guardians of hell. Here will be living Jews: He will raise them up, that they may see His glory, whom they crucified. But He arises again from the depths, to be for those miserable ones a witness, killed by them. How many coins do you hang, who, with foolish and deceitful forethought, promised profits to silent guards? We sing about you, Envy; we will conquer you, Judea, when the righteous rejoice and the damned burn in hell; to them God will say: Depart from there! And if they do not believe, they will go into the shadow of death; as those who were able to desire more, and only chose mortal things, they will go down headlong. The rest, who were in the adversity of Christ. About the saints, there will always be one people. Here is the final goal; for it shall not be changed, he himself swore.De Principiis · Book 1 9:4Origen of AlexandriaPaul and Peter are undoubtedly proved to have been men of a spiritual nature. When, therefore, Paul is found to have acted contrary to religion, in having persecuted the Church of God, and Peter to have committed so grave a sin as, when questioned by the maid-servant, to have asserted with an oath that he did not know who Christ was, how is it possible that these-who, according to those persons of whom we speak, were spiritual beings-should fall into sins of such a nature, especially as they are frequently in the habit of saying that a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits? And if a good tree cannot produce evil fruit, and as, according to them, Peter and Paul were sprung from the root of a good tree, how should they be deemed to have brought forth fruits so wicked? And if they should return the answer which is generally invented, that it was not Paul who persecuted, but some other person, I know not whom, who was in Paul; and that it was not Peter who uttered the denial, but some other individual in him; how should Paul say, if he had not sinned, that "I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God? " Or why did Peter weep most bitterly, if it were another than he who sinned? From which all their silly assertions will be proved to be baseless.Letters · Epistle 74 1:9Cyprian6. But that they who are at Rome do not observe those things in all cases which are handed down from the beginning, and vainly pretend the authority of the apostles; any one may know also from the fact, that concerning the celebration of Easter, and concerning many other sacraments of divine matters, he may see that there are some diversities among them, and that all things are not observed among them alike, which are observed at Jerusalem, just as in very many other provinces also many things are varied because of the difference of the places and names. And yet on this account there is no departure at all from the peace and unity of the Catholic Church, such as Stephen has now dared to make; breaking the peace against you, which his predecessors have always kept with you in mutual love and honour, even herein defaming Peter and Paul the blessed apostles, as if the very men delivered this who in their epistles execrated heretics, and warned us to avoid them. Whence it appears that this tradition is of men which maintains heretics, and asserts that they have baptism, which belongs to the Church alone.The Canonical Epistle 2:15Peter of AlexandriaZonaras. Those who have recently arisen from sleep, especially if they were oppressed with a heavy sleep, have no steady reason, but one inconstant and perturbed. To men of this sort this holy martyr likens those who rush upon the contest, that is, those who, not in due course, but rashly and inconsiderately, intrude themselves upon it. It is, as it were, in travail, and delayed and protracted, inasmuch as it has not yet burst forth openly, but meditates and delays, and hesitates to bring forth the combatants, who bring temptation upon themselves, that is, draw it towards themselves, or rather, for the rest of the faithful, kindle the coals of the sinners, the torments, namely, which are by the tyrants inflicted. But although he finds fault with those who act in this way, he nevertheless decrees that the faithful must communicate with them, because in the name of Christ they come forward to this, trusting, that is, in Christ, or in His name demanding this trial for themselves, even though, perhaps, they are not obeying His precepts; for He taught them to pray that they might not be tempted; and they are ignoring the fact too that the Lord retired from those who were laying snares for Him, and was wont sometimes to walk not openly; neither did He give up Himself to His passion, but was given up by others; and He commanded His disciples, when their enemies persecuted them, to fly from city to city, and not of their own accord to give themselves up to the tormentors, lest they should be the cause of bringing the guilt of much blood upon their heads, irritating them as it were to inflict punishment upon godly men. And he brings forward the example of the apostles, of Stephen, of James, and the chiefs of the order, Peter and Paul.The Divine Institutes Book 4 22:2Lucius Caecilius Firmianus LactantiusBut when He had made arrangements with His disciples for the preaching of the Gospel and His name, a cloud suddenly surrounded Him, and carried Him up into heaven, on the fortieth day after His passion, as Daniel bad shown that it would be, saying: "And, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days." But the disciples, being dispersed through the provinces, everywhere laid the foundations of the Church, themselves also in the name of their divine Master doing many and almost incredible miracles; for at His departure He had endowed them with power and strength, by which the system of their new announcement might be founded and confirmed. But He also opened to them all things which were about to happen, which Peter and Paul preached at Rome; and this preaching being written for the sake of remembrance, became permanent, in which they both declared other wonderful things, and also said that it was about to come to pass, that after a short time God would send against them a king who would subdue the Jews, and level their cities to the ground, and besiege the people themselves, worn out with hunger and thirst. Then it should come to pass that they should feed on the bodies of their own children, and consume one another. Lastly, that they should be taken captive, and come into the hands of their enemies, and should see their wives most cruelly harassed before their eyes, their virgins ravished and polluted, their sons torn in pieces, their little ones dashed to the ground; and lastly, everything laid waste with fire and sword, the captives banished for ever from their own lands, because they had exulted over the well-beloved and most approved Son of God. And so, after their decease, when Nero had put them to death, Vespasian destroyed the name and nation of the Jews, and did all things which they had foretold as about to come to pass.Against Hierocles · English Translation 1:6Eusebius of CaesareaI NEED not say with what admiring approval he attributes his thaumaturgic feats not to the tricks of wizardry, but to a divine and mysterious wisdom; and he believes they were truly what he supposes them to have been, though he advances no proof of this contention. Listen then to his very words: " In their anxiety to exalt Jesus, they run up and down prating of how he made the blind to see and worked certain other miracles of the kind." Then after an interval he adds as follows: "Let us note however how much better and more sensible is the view which we take of such matters, and explain the conception which we entertain of men gifted with remarkable powers." And thereupon after passing heedlessly by Aristeas of Proconnesus and Pythagoras as somewhat too old, he continues thus: "But in the time of our own ancestors, during the reign of Nero, there flourished Apollonius of Tyana, who from mere boyhood when he became the priest in Aegae of Cilicia of Asclepius, the lover of mankind, worked any number of miracles, of which I will omit the greater number, and only mention a few." Then he begins at the beginning and enumerates the" wonders worked by Apollonius, after which he continues in the following words: " What then is my reason for mentioning these facts? It was in order that you may be able to contrast our own accurate and well-established judgment on each point, with the easy credulity of the Christians. For whereas we reckon him who wrought such feats not a god, but only a man pleasing to the gods, they on the strength of a few miracles proclaim their Jesus a god." To this he adds after a little more the following remark: " And this point is also worth noticing, that whereas the tales of Jesus have been vamped up by Peter and Paul and a few others of the kind,--men who were liars and devoid of education and wizards, --the history of Apollonius was written by Maximus of Aegae, and by Damis the philosopher who lived constantly with him. and by Philostratus of Athens, men of the highest education, who out of respect for the truth and their love of mankind determined to give the publicity they deserved to the actions of a man at once noble and a friend of the gods." These are the very words used by Hierocles in his treatise against us which he has entitled " Lover of Truth."THE CHURCH HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS · Book 2 26:6Eusebius of Caesarea5 Thus publicly announcing himself as the first among God's chief enemies, he was led on to the slaughter of the apostles. It is, therefore, recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and that Peter likewise was crucified under Nero. This account of Peter and Paul is substantiated by the fact that their names are preserved in the cemeteries of that place even to the present day.THE CHURCH HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS · Book 4 2:2Eusebius of Caesarea1 About the twelfth year of the reign of Trajan the above-mentioned bishop of the parish of Alexandria died, and Primus, the fourth in succession from the apostles, was chosen to the office. 2At that time also Alexander, the fifth in the line of succession from Peter and Paul, received the episcopate at Rome, after Evarestus had held the office eight years.THE CHURCH HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS · Book 5 9:3Eusebius of Caesarea2 "Matthew published his Gospel among the Hebrews in their own language, while Peter and Paul were preaching and founding the churchin Rome.THE CHURCH HISTORY OF EUSEBIUS · Book 7 12:24Eusebius of Caesarea22 have inquired of our affairs and desire us to tell you how we are situated, you have heard fully that when we - that is, myself and Gaius and Faustus and Peter and Paul - were led away as prisoners by a centurion and magistrates, with their soldiers and servants, certain persons from Mareotis came and dragged us away by force, as we were unwilling to follow them. ButThe History of the Martyrs in Palestine 8:6Eusebius of Caesareal. 31.--Eusebius gives the account of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul at Rome in his Eccl. Hist. book ii. ch. 25.Theophania · Book 5 4:7Eusebius of Caesarea20. This is, by no means, a supposititious case. "Celsus," says Mr Bingham, (Antiq. Vol. i. Book i. c. ii. sect. 5.) "and others pretended that our Saviour studied magic in Egypt; and St Austin says, it was generally believed among the heathen, that he wrote some books about magic too, which be delivered to Peter and Paul for the use of his disciples. Hence it was that Suetonius, speaking in the language of his party, calls the Christians, Genus homimem superstitionis maleficae, the men of magical superstition. As Asclepiades, the judge in Prudentius, styles St Romanus the martyr, the Arch-magician. And St Ambrose observes in the Passion of St Agnes, how the people cried out against her, "away with the sorceress! away with the enchanter !" See also the note to Book iv. sect. 31, above. Origen contra Cels. Lib. i. pp. 22, 30. Lib. ii. p. 89, &c.Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 8 4:2Apostolic ConstitutionsXXXIII. I Peter and Paul do make the following constitutions. Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath-day and the Lord's day let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety. We have said that the Sabbath is on account of the creation, and the Lord's day of the resurrection. Let slaves rest from their work all the great week, and that which follows it-for the one in memory of the passion, and the other of the resurrection; and there is need they should be instructed who it is that suffered and rose again, and who it is permitted Him to suffer, and raised Him again. Let them have rest from their work on the Ascension, because it was the conclusion of the dispensation by Christ. Let them rest at Pentecost, because of the coming of the Holy Spirit, which was given to those that believed in Christ. Let them rest on the festival of His birth, because on it the unexpected favour was granted to men, that Jesus Christ, the Logos of God, should be born of the Virgin Mary, for the salvation of the world. Let them rest on the festival of Epiphany, because on it a manifestation took place of the divinity of Christ, for the Father bore testimony to Him at the baptism; and the Paraclete, in the form of a dove, pointed out to the bystanders Him to whom testimony was borne. Let them rest on the days of the apostles: for they were appointed your teachers to bring you to Christ, and made you worthy of the Spirit. Let them rest on the day of the first martyr Stephen, and of the other holy martyrs who preferred Christ to their own life.CATECHETICAL LECTURES · Lecture 6 1:19Cyril of Jerusalem15. As the delusion was extending, Peter and Paul, a noble pair, chief rulers of the Church, arrived and set the error right ; and when the supposed god Simon wished to shew himself off, they straightway shewed him as a corpse. For Simon promised to rise aloft to heaven, and came riding in a daemons' chariot on the air; but the servants of God fell on their knees, and having shewn that agreement of which Jesus spake, that If two of you shall agree concerning anything that they shall ask, it shall be done unto them , they launched the weapon of their concord in prayer against Magus, and struck him down to the earth. And marvellous though it was, yet no marvel. For Peter was there, who carrieth the keys of heaven : and nothing wonderful, for Paul was there , who was caught up to the third heaven , and into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful far a man to utter . These brought the supposed God down from the sky to earth, thence to be taken down to the regions below the earth. In this man first the serpent of wickedness appeared; but when one head had been cut off, the root of wickedness was found again with many heads.Orations · Oration 18 2:2Gregory of Nazianzus24. But what was most excellent and most characteristic, though least generally recognized, was his simplicity, and freedom from guile and resentment. For among men of ancient and modern days, each is supposed to have had some special success, as to have received from God some particular virtue: Job unconquered patience in misfortune, Moses and David meekness, Samuel prophecy, seeing into the future, Phineas zeal, for which he has a name, Peter and Paul eagerness in preaching, the sons of Zebedee magniloquence, whence also they were entitled Sons of thunder. But why should I enumerate them all, speaking as I do among those who know this? Now the specially distinguishing mark of Stephen and of my father was the absence of malice. For not even when in peril did Stephen hate his assailants, but was stoned while praying for those who were stoning him as a disciple of Christ, on Whose behalf he was allowed to suffer, and so, in his long-suffering, bearing for God a nobler fruit than his death: my father, in allowing no interval between assault and forgiveness, so that he was almost robbed of pain itself by the speed of pardon.Against the Donatists · Book 3 18:2Optatus of Milevis154. qui unitatem cum toto orbe terrarum et cum Memoriis Apostolorum, quae Deo placita est, habere noluistis. Optatus once more urges union with (1) the rest of Catholic Christendom, and (2) with the Apostolic See of Rome, where rest the bodies of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (cf. ii, 4).Fifty Spiritual Homilies 54:14Macarius of EgyptAnswer. To God all things are easy; and He has so promised, though to human frailty and thought it appears impossible. For as God took of the dust and the earth, and constituted the body as a different kind of thing, not at all resembling the earth, and made many sorts of elements in it, such as hair, and skin, and bones, and sinews; or as a needle thrown into the fire changes its colour and is converted into fire, although the nature of iron is not taken away, but still subsists; so in the resurrection all the members, are raised up, and not a hair perishes, as it is written, and all become light-like, all are plunged in light and fire, and changed, and yet are not, as some say, resolved and turned into fire, with nothing of their natural substance left. Peter is Peter, and Paul is Paul, and Philip is Philip. Each one remains in his own nature and personality, though filled with the Spirit. If you say that the nature is resolved, then Peter and Paul are no more, and God is everywhere and in all directions, and neither those who go away into hell are conscious of their punishment, nor are those who go into the kingdom conscious of the benefit, II. Suppose there were a garden, planted with all sorts of fruit-trees, and there were in it pear, or apple, and vine, with fruit and leaves; and suppose the garden and all the trees and their leaves were changed and altered into another nature, and the former ones became light-like; so men are altered at the resurrection, and their members become holy and light-like.The Canons 1:3Council of Constantinople of 394On September the twenty-ninth of the year 394, a magnificent church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, built by the munificence of Rufinus the Praetoreal prefect, and situated at a place called "the Oaks," a suburb of Chalcedon, was consecrated. Most scholars have adopted Tillemont's suggestion that this was the occasion which brought the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch to Constantinople, and that occasion was taken advantage of to hold a synod with regard to the dispute as to the see of Bostra. At this council, in accordance with the canon of the Second Ecumenical Council, adopted only a dozen years before, Constantinople took the first place and its bishop presided, but so strong was the hold of Alexandria that three centuries afterwards the Quinisext Synod speaks of this council as held "under Nectarius and Theophilus." In passing it may not be amiss to remark that St. Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Flavian were present at this council! Well may Tillemont exclaim, "It is remarkable to see Theophilus there with Flavian, although they were not in communion with each other."Against Eunomius · Book 6 1:3Gregory of NyssaBut I perceive that while the necessities of the subject compelled me to follow this line of thought, I have lingered too long over this passage . I must now resume the train of his complaints, that we may pass by none of the charges brought against us without an answer. And first I propose that we should examine this point, that he charges us with asserting that an ordinary man has wrought the salvation of the world. For although this point has been to some extent already cleared up by the investigations we have made, we shall yet briefly deal with it once more, that the mind of those who are acting as our judges on this slanderous accusation may be entirely freed from misapprehension. So far are we from referring to an ordinary man the cause of this great and unspeakable grace, that even if any should refer so great a boon to Peter and Paul, or to an angel from heaven, we should say with Paul, "let him be anathema ." For Paul was not crucified for us, nor were we baptized into a human name . Surely the doctrine which our adversaries oppose to the truth is not thereby strengthened when we confess that the saving power of Christ is more potent than human nature :-yet it may seem to be so, for their aim is to maintain at all points the difference of the essence of the Son from that of the Father, and they strive to show the dissimilarity of essence not only by the contrast of the Generated with the Ungenerate, but also by the opposition of the passible to the impassible. And while this is more openly maintained in the last part of their argument, it is also clearly shown in their present discourse . For if he finds fault with those who refer the Passion to the Human Nature, his intention is certainly to subject to the Passion the Godhead Itself. For our conception being twofold, and admitting of two developments, accordingly as the Divinity or the Humanity is held to have been in a condition of suffering, an attack on one of these views is clearly a maintaining of the other. Accordingly, if they find fault with those who look upon the Passion as concerning the Man, they will clearly approve those who say that the Godhead of the Son was subject to passion, and the position which these last maintain becomes an argument in favour of their own absurd doctrine. For if, according to their statement, the Godhead of the Son suffers, while that of the Father is preserved in absolute impassibility, then the impassible Nature is essentially different from that which admits passion. Seeing, therefore, that the dictum before us, though, so far as it is limited by number of words, it is a short one, yet affords principles and hypotheses for every kind ofdoctrinal pravity, it would seem right that ourreaders should require in our reply not so much brevity as soundness. We, then, neither attribute our own salvation to a man, nor admit that the incorruptible and Divine Nature is capable of suffering and mortality: but since we must assuredly believe the Divine utterances which declare to us that the Word that was in the beginning was God , and that afterward the Word made flesh was seen upon the earth and conversed with men , we admit in our creed those conceptions which are consonant with the Divine utterance. For when we hear that He is Light, and Power, and Righteousness, and Life, and Truth, and that by Him all things were made, we account all these and such-like statements as things to be believed, referring them to God the Word: but when we hear of pain, of slumber, of need, of trouble, of bonds, of nails, of the spear, of blood, of wounds, of burial, of the sepulchre, and all else of this kind, even if they are somewhat opposed to what has previously been stated, we none the less admit them to be things to be believed, and true, having regard to the flesh; which we receive by faith as conjoined with the Word. For as it is not possible to contemplate the peculiar attributes of the flesh as existing in the Word that was in the beginning, so also on the other hand we may not conceive those which are proper to the Godhead as existing in the nature of the flesh. As, therefore, the teaching of the Gospel concerning our Lord is mingled, partly of lofty and Divine ideas, partly of those which are lowly and human, we assign every particular phrase accordingly to one or other of these Natures which we conceive in the mystery, that which is human to the Humanity, that which is lofty to the Godhead, and say that, as God, the Son is certainly impassible and incapable of corruption: and whatever suffering is asserted concerning Him in the Gospel, He assuredly wrought by means of His Human Nature which admitted of such suffering. For verily the Godhead works the salvation of the world by means of that body which encompassed It, in such wise that the suffering was of the body, but the operation was of God; and even if some wrest to the support of the opposite doctrine the words of the Apostle, "God spared not His own Sons, ," and, "God sent His own Son ," and other similar phrases which seem to refer, in the matter of the Passion, to the Divine Nature, and not to the Humanity, we shall none the less refuse to abandon sound doctrine, seeing that Paul himself declares to us more clearly the mystery of this subject. For he everywhere attributes to the Human element in Christ the dispensation of the Passion, when he says, "for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead ," and, "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh " (for he says, "in the flesh ," not "in the Godhead"); and "He was crucified through weakness" (where by "weakness" he means "the flesh"), "yet liveth by power " (while he indicates by "power" the Divine Nature); and, "He died unto sin" (that is, with regard to the body), "but liveth unto God " (that is, with regard to the Godhead, so that by these words it is established that, while the Man tasted death, the immortal Nature did not admit the suffering of death); and again; "He made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin ," giving once more the name of "sin" to the flesh.Against Eunomius · Book 7 1:6Gregory of Nyssa"Yet what sane man would agree with the statement that of those things of which the names are different the essences must needs be divergent also? For the appellations of Peter and Paul, and, generally speaking, of men, are different, while the essence of all is one: wherefore, in most respects we are mutually identical, and differ one from another only in those special properties which are observed in individuals: and hence also appellations are not indicative of essence, but of the properties which mark the particular individual. Thus, when we hear of Peter, we do not by the name understand the essence (and by `essence' I here mean the material substratum), but we are impressed with the conception of the properties which we contemplate in him." These are the great man's words. And what skill he who disputes this statement displays against us, we learn,-any one, that is, who has leisure for wasting time on unprofitable matters,-from the actual composition of Eunomius.Against Eunomius · Book 7 1:14Gregory of NyssaHow then is the Son "in the Father" without being destroyed, and how does the Father, coming to be "in the Son," remain continually unconsumed, if, as Eunomius says, the special attribute of fire, as compared with water, is maintained in the relation of the Generate to the Ungenerate? Nor does their definition regard communion as existing between earth and air, for the former is stable, solid, resistent, of downward tendency and heavy, while air has a nature made up of the contrary attributes. So white and black are found in opposition among colours, and men are agreed that the circle is not the same with the triangle, for each, according to the definition of its figure, is precisely that which the other is not. But I am unable to discover where he sees the opposition in the case of God the Father and God the Only-begotten Son. One goodness, wisdom, justice, providence, power, incorruptibility,-all other attributes of exalted significance are similarly predicated of each, and the one has in a certain sense His strength in the other; for on the one hand the Father makes all things through the Son, and on the other hand the Only-begotten works all in Himself, being the Power of the Father. Of what avail, then, are fire and water to show essential diversity in the Father and the Son? He calls us, moreover, "rash" for instancing the unity of nature and difference of persons of Peter and Paul, and says we are guilty of gross recklessness, if we apply our argument to the contemplation of the objects of pure reason by the aid of material examples. Fitly, fitly indeed, does the corrector of our errors reprove us for rashness in interpreting the Divine Nature by material illustrations! Why then, deliberate and circumspect sir, do you talk about the elements? Is earth immaterial, fire an object of pure reason, water incorporeal, air beyond the perception of the senses? Is your mind so well directed to its aim, are you so keen-sighted in all directions in your promulgation of this argument, that your adversaries cannot lay hold of, that you do not see in yourself the faults you blame in those you are accusing? Or are we to make concessions to you when you are establishing the diversity of essence by material aid, and to be ourselves rejected when we point out the kindred character of the Nature by means of examples within our compass?Against Eunomius · Book 7 1:16Gregory of NyssaBut Peter and Paul, he says, were named by men, and hence it comes that it is possible in their case to change the appellations. Why, what existing thing has not been named by men? I call you to testify on behalf of my argument. For if you make change of names a sign of things having been named by men, you will thereby surely allow that every name has been imposed upon things by us, since the same appellations of objects have not obtained universally. For as in the case of Paul who was once Saul, and of Peter who was formerly Simon, so earth and sky and air and sea and all the parts of the creation have not been named alike by all, but are named in one way by the Hebrews, and in another way by us, and are denoted by every nation by different names. If then Eunomius' argument is valid when he maintains that it was for this reason, to wit, that their names had been imposed by men, that Peter and Paul were named afresh, our teaching will surely be valid also, starting as it does from like premises, which says that all things are named by us, on the ground that their appellations vary according to the distinctions of nations. Now if all things are so, surely the Generate and the Ungenerate are not exceptions, for even they are among the things that change their name. For when we gather, as it were, into the form of a name the conception of any subject that arises in us, we declare our concept by words that vary at different times, not making, but signifying, the thing by the name we give it. For the things remain in themselves as they naturally are, while the mind, touching on existing things, reveals its thought by such words as are available. And just as the essence of Peter was not changed with the change of his name, so neither is any other of the things we contemplate changed in the process of mutation of names. And for this reason we say that the term "Ungenerate" was applied by us to the true and first Father Who is the Cause of all, and that no harm would result as regards the signifying of the Subject, if we were to acknowledge the same concept under another name. For it is allowable instead of speaking of Him as "Ungenerate," to call Him the "First Cause" or "Father of the Only-begotten," or to speak of Him as "existing without cause," and many such appellations which lead to the same thought; so that Eunomius confirms our doctrines by the very arguments in which he makes complaint against us, because we know no name significant of the Divine Nature. We are taught the fact of Its existence, while we assert that an appellation of such force as to include the unspeakable and infinite Nature, either does not exist at all, or at any rate is unknown to us. Let him then leave his accustomed language of fable, and show us the names which signify the essences, and then proceed further to divide the subject by the divergence of their names. But so long as the saying of the Scripture is true that Abraham and Moses were not capable of the knowledge of the Name, and that "no man hath seen God at any time ," and that "no man hath seen Him, nor can see ," and that the light around Him is unapproachable , and "there is no end of His greatness ";-so long as we say and believe these things, how like is an argument that promises any comprehension and expression of the infinite Nature, by means of the significance of names; to one who thinks that he can enclose the whole sea in his own hand! for as the hollow of one's hand is to the whole deep, so is all the power of language in comparison with that Nature which is unspeakable and incomprehensible.Commentary on Luke 57:3Ambrose of Milan84. Therefore, the response is consistent everywhere; for the one who said, 'I do not know the man,' it was fair that when questioned whether he was a disciple of the man, he would say, 'I am not.' Therefore, he denied being a disciple, not of Christ, but of the man. Therefore, both Peter and Paul denied the man whom they confessed to be the Son of God. What Peter felt, and Paul expressed; from this, that one made progress. Peter's mistake is the teaching of the righteous: and Peter's stumble is the rock of all. Finally, he wavers upon the waves, but extends his right hand to Christ: he falls on the mountain, but is lifted up by Christ. Indeed, Peter wavered on the sea, but he walked (Matt. XIV, 30). Peter's wavering is stronger than our steadfastness. There he falls, where no one ascends: there he wavers, where no one walks. And yet, even though he wavers among the waves, he does not fall: he wavers, but does not fall: he floats, but does not plunge. And if he falls, he falls on the mountain: but he fell more favorably than others stood: he fell more favorably, whom Christ lifted up.Commentary on the Song of Songs 2:37Ambrose of MilanTherefore it leaps frequently in the heart of each individual, it crosses over and goes out and returns: if you follow, if you ask, if you demand to be revived by the Word of God that has gone out and passed by, with the pleasing discussion of faithful and learned men. Just as she who sought and found, who said: My brother has passed by, my soul went out in his word (Song of Songs 5:6). Therefore, even if it leaps over the mountains, follow; even if it leaps over the hills, follow. For there are found in the mountains and in the hills the hunters of the Lord, who seek out those captured for life; for thus God spoke through Jeremiah: Behold, I will send many fishermen and many hunters, and they will hunt them over every mountain and over every hill (Jeremiah 16:16). Therefore, let the people of God be sought and found in the teachings, grace, and discipline of Peter and Paul; so that they are not in the valley of tears, but on the mountains from which Christ enlightens each one. And when we read Peter, Christ enlightens; and when we read Paul, Christ enlightens. Paul cared, Christ illuminated; because by invoking the name of the Lord Jesus, he rose, through the gift of his healing. Peter revived the dead, Christ illuminated; and therefore it is said: You wonderfully enlighten from the eternal mountains (Psalm 75:5).Exposition On Psalm 118 9:4Ambrose of Milan10. Therefore, even if he jumps over the mountains, follow him; and if he jumps over the hills, follow. For in the mountains and hills are found the hunters of the Lord, who seek those who are captured for life. For thus said God through Jeremiah: Behold, I will send many fishermen, . . . and many hunters, and they will hunt them over every mountain and over every hill (Jeremiah 16:16). Therefore, let the people of God be sought and found in the doctrine, grace, and discipline of Peter and Paul; so that they may not be in the valley, where there is weeping: but in the mountains, from which Christ enlightens each one. And when we read Peter, Christ enlightens. And when we read Paul, Christ enlightens. Paul healed, Christ enlightened; for by invoking the name of the Lord Jesus, he arose, by whose gift he was healed. Peter raised a dead woman, Christ enlightened; and therefore it is said: You wonderfully enlighten from the eternal mountains (Psalm 75:5).Letters · Letters 1-10 2:7Ambrose of Milan2. Yet although it is tossed on the sea, it rides upon the floods; and perhaps chiefly on those floods of which it is said, The floods have lift up their voice. For there are rivers, which shall flow out of his belly, who has received to drink from Christ, and partaken of the Spirit of God. These rivers then, when they overflow with spiritual grace, lift up their voice. There is a river too, which runs down upon His saints like a torrent. And there are the rivers of the |6 flood, which make glad the peaceful and tranquil soul. He that receives, as did John the Evangelist, as did Peter and Paul, the fulness of this stream, lifts up his voice; and like as the Apostles loudly heralded forth to the farthest limits of the globe the Evangelic message, so he also begins to preach the Lord Jesus. Receive to drink therefore of Christ, that your sound may also go forth.ON THE DUTIES OF THE CLERGY · Book 1 33:3Ambrose of Milan165. It is therefore a good thing for us to be bedewed with the exhortations of the divine Scriptures, and that the word of God should come down upon us like the dew. When, therefore, thou sittest at the table of that great man, understand who that great man is. Set in the paradise of delight and placed at the feast of wisdom, think of what is put before thee! The divine Scriptures are the feast of wisdom, and the single books the various dishes. Know, first, what dishes the banquet offers, then stretch forth thy hand, that those things which thou readest, or which thou receivest from the Lord thy God, thou mayest carry out in action, and so by thy duties mayest show forth the grace that was granted thee. Such was the case with Peter and Paul, who in preaching the Gospel made some return to Him Who freely gave them all things. So that each of them might say: "By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace in me was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all."Apocriticus · English Translation 71:4Macarius MagnesDuring their work both Peter and Paul were many times protected by their Lord from the plots of the Jews, but when the seeds of their faith had taken root, He granted them the final glory of martyrdom. In thus treating His soldiers, God acted as a wise general, for many were hostile, and might have ascribed their works to magic had they died an ordinary death, or vanished from before tribunals. To conquer torments by enduring to the end was their best answer to these.Apocriticus · English Translation 71:5Macarius MagnesSome paltry critics are prepared to find fault with the saints in either case. If they are protected from death, these would assert that they would never have endured to the end. If they face it to the end, they would say that it proved they were not really righteous men. And so God, in His love for His saints, sometimes rescues them from death, as in the case of Daniel and the three children, and sometimes lets them witness by their death that they are neither cowards nor hypocrites, as in the case of Peter and Paul.]Apocriticus · Footnotes 8:11Macarius Magnes184. This was a favourite subject of attack, and it will be remembered that the theory of a permanent cleavage between Peter and Paul has been built upon it.Eulogy Saint Ignatius 1:8John Chrysostom4. And I will speak of a fourth crown, arising for us out of this episcopate. What then is this? The fact that he was entrusted with our own native city. For it is a laborious thing indeed to have the oversight of a hundred men, and of fifty alone. But to have on one's hands so great a city, and a population extending to two hundred thousand, of how great virtue and wisdom dost thou think there is a proof? For as in the care of armies, the wiser of the generals have on their hands the more leading and more numerous regiments, so, accordingly, in the care of cities. The more able of the rulers are entrusted with the larger and more populous. And at any rate this city was of much account to God, as indeed He manifested by the very deeds which He did. At all events the master of the whole world, Peter, to whose hands He committed the keys of heaven, whom He commanded to do and to bear all, He bade tarry here for a long period. Thus in His sight our city was equivalent to the whole world. But since I have mentioned Peter, I have perceived a fifth crown woven from him, and this is that this man succeeded to the office after him. For just as any one taking a great stone from a foundation hastens by all means to introduce an equivalent to it, lest he should shake the whole building, and make it more unsound, so, accordingly, when Peter was about to depart from here, the grace of the Spirit introduced another teacher equivalent to Peter, so that the building already completed should not be made more unsound by the insignificance of the successor. We have reckoned up then five crowns, from the importance of the office, from the dignity of those who ordained to it, from the difficulty of the time, from the size of the city, from the virtue of him who transmitted the episcopate to him. Having woven all these, it was lawful to speak of a sixth, and seventh, and more than these; but in order that we may not, by spending the whole time on the consideration of the episcopate, miss the details about the martyr, come from this point, let us pass to that conflict. At one time a grievous warfare was rekindled against the Church, and as though a most grievous tyranny overspread the earth, all were carried off from the midst of the market-place. Not indeed charged with anything monstrous, but because being freed from error, they hastened to piety; because they abstained from the service of demons, because they recognized the true God, and worshipped his only begotten Son, and for things for which they ought to have been crowned, and admired and honoured, for these they were punished and encountered countless tortures, all who embraced the faith, and much more they who had the oversight of the churches. For the devil, being crafty, and apt to contrive plots of this kind, expected that if he took away the shepherds, he would easily be able to scatter the flocks. But He who takes the wise in their craftiness, wishing to show him that men do not govern His church, but that it is He himself who everywhere tends those who believe on Him, agreed that this should be, that he might see, when they were taken away, that the cause of piety was not defeated, nor the word of preaching quenched, but rather increased; that by these very works he might learn both himself, and all those who minister to him, that our affairs are not of men, but that the subject of our teaching has its root on high, from the heavens; and that it is God who everywhere leads the Church, and that it is not possible for him who fights against God, ever to win the day. But the Devil did not only work this evil, but another also not less than this. For not only in the cities over which they presided, did he suffer the Bishops to be slaughtered; but he took them into foreign territory and slew them; and he did this, in anxiety at once to take them when destitute of friends, and hoping to render them weaker with the toil of their journey, which accordingly he did with this saint. For he called him away from our city to Rome, making the course twice as long, expecting to depress his mind both by the length of the way and the number of the days, and not knowing that having Jesus with him, as a fellow traveller, and fellow exile on so long a journey, he rather became the stronger, and afforded more proof of the power that was with him, and to a greater degree knit the Churches together. For the cities which were on the road running together from all sides, encouraged the athlete, and sped him on his way with many supplies, sharing in his conflict by their prayers, and intercessions. And they derived no little comfort when they saw the martyr hastening to death with so much readiness, as is consistent in one called to the realms which are in the heaven, and by means of the works themselves, by the readiness and by the joyousness of that noble man, that it was not death to which he was hastening, but a kind of long journey and migration from this world, and ascension to heaven; and he departed teaching these things in every city, both by his words, and by his deeds, and as happened in the case of the Jews, when they bound Paul, and sent him to Rome, and thought that they were sending him to death, they were sending a teacher to the Jews who dwelt there. This indeed accordingly happened in the case of Ignatius in larger measure. For not to those alone who dwell in Rome, but to all the cities lying in the intervening space, he went forth as a wonderful teacher, persuading them to despise the present life, and to think naught of the things which are seen, and to love those which are to come, to look towards heaven, and to pay no regard to any of the terrors of this present life. For on this and on more than this, by means of his works, he went on his way instructing them, as a sun rising from the east, and hastening to the west. But rather more brilliant than this, for this is wont to run on high, bringing material light, but Ignatius shone below, imparting to men's souls the intellectual light of doctrine. And that light on departing into the regions of the west, is hidden and straightway causes the night to come on. But this on departing to the regions of the west, shone there more brilliantly, conferring the greatest benefits to all along the road. And when he arrived at the city, even that he instructed in Christian wisdom. For on this account God permitted him there to end his life, so that this man's death might be instructive to all who dwell in Rome. For we by the grace of God need henceforward no evidence, being rooted in the faith. But they who dwelt in Rome, inasmuch as these was great impiety there, required more help. On this account both Peter and Paul, and this man after them, were all slain there, partly, indeed, in order that they might purify with their own blood, the city which had been defiled with blood of idols, and partly in order that they might by their works afford a proof of the resurrection of the crucified Christ, persuading those who dwell in Rome, that they would not with so much pleasure disdain this present life, did they not firmly persuade themselves that they were about to ascend to the crucified Jesus, and to see him in the heavens. For in reality it is the greatest proof of the resurrection that the slain Christ should show forth so great power after death, as to persuade living men to despise both country and home and friends, and acquaintance and life itself, for the sake of confessing him, and to choose in place of present pleasures, both stripes and dangers and death. For these are not the achievements of any dead man, nor of one remaining in the tomb but of one risen and living,. Since how couldest thou account, when he was alive, for all the Apostles who companied with him becoming weaker through fear to betray their teachers and to flee and depart; but when he died, for not only Peter and Paul, but even Ignatius, who had not even seen him, nor enjoyed his companionship, showing such earnestness as to lay down life itself for his sake?On 1 Corinthians · Homily 3 2:2John Chrysostom[8.] But prove to me that Peter and Paul were eloquent. Thou canst not: for they were "unlearned and ignorant men!" As therefore Christ, when He was sending out His disciples into the world, having shewn unto them His power in Palestine first, and said, (St. Luke chapter 22, verse 35 ( upodhmatoj , rec. text upodhmatwn .) "When I sent you forth without purse and wallet and shoe, lacked ye any thing?" permitted them from that time forward to possess both a wallet and a purse; so also He hath done here: for the point was the manifestation of Christ's power, not the rejection of persons from the Faith on account of their Gentile wisdom, if they were drawing nigh. When the Greeks then charge the disciples with being uneducated, let us be even more forward in the charge than they. Nor let anyone say, "Paul was wise;" but while we exalt those among them who were great in wisdom and admired for their excellency of speech, let us allow that all on our side were uneducated; for it will be no slight overthrow which they will sustain from us in that respect also: and so the victory will be brilliant indeed.On 1 Corinthians · Homily 3 2:6John ChrysostomLet us win them therefore by our life. Many, even among the untaught, have in that way astounded the minds of philosophers, as having exhibited in themselves also that philosophy which lies in deeds, and uttered a voice clearer than a trumpet by their mode of life and self-denial. For this is stronger than the tongue. But when I say, "one ought not to bear malice," and then do all manner of evils to the Greek, how shall I be able by words to win him, while by my deeds I am frightening him away? Let us catch them then by our mode of life; and by these souls let us build up the Church, and of these let us amass our wealth. There is nothing to weigh against a soul, not even the whole world. So that although thou give countless treasure unto the poor, thou wilt do no such work as he who converteth one soul (Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 19) "For he that taketh forth the precious from the vile shall be as my mouth:" so He speaks. A great good it is, I grant, to have pity on the poor; but it is nothing equal to the withdrawing them from error. For he that doth this resembles Paul and Peter: we being permitted to take up their Gospel, not with perils such as theirs;-with endurance of famines and pestilences, and all other evils, (for the present is a season of peace;)-but so as to display that diligence which cometh of zeal. For even while we sit at home we may practice this kind of fishery. Who hath a friend or relation or inmate of his house, these things let him say, these do; and he shall be like Peter and Paul. And why do I say Peter and Paul? He shall be the mouth of Christ. For He saith, "He that taketh forth the precious from the vile shall be as My mouth." And though thou persuade not to-day, to-morrow thou shalt persuade. And though thou never persuade, thou shalt have thine own reward in full. And though thou persuade not all, a few out of many persuade all men; but still they discoursed with all, and for all they have their reward. For not according to the result of the things that are well done, but according to the intention of the doers, is God wont to assign the crowns; though thou pay down but two farthings, He receiveth them; and what He did in the case of the widow, the same will He do also in the case of those who teach. Do not thou then, because thou canst not save the world, despise the few; nor through longing after great things, withdraw thyself from the lesser. If thou canst not an hundred, take thou charge of ten; if thou canst not ten, despise not even five; if thou canst not five, do not overlook one; and if thou canst not one, neither so despair, nor keep back what may be done by thee. Seest thou not how, in matters of trade, they who are so employed make their profit not only of gold but of silver also? For if we do not flight the little things, we shall keep hold also of the great. But if we despise the small, neither shall we easily lay hand upon the other. Thus individuals become rich, gathering both small things and great. And so let us act; that in all things enriched, we may obtain the kingdom of heaven; through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom and with Whom unto the Father together with the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor, now and henceforth and for evermore. Amen.On John · Homily 56 1:21John ChrysostomIf now in order to have here well-lighted and airy houses, we expend immense sums, building and toiling, consider how we ought to spend our very bodies themselves, that glorious houses may be built for us in the heavens where is that Light ineffable. Here there are strifes and contentions about boundaries and walls, but there will be nothing of the kind there, no envy, no malice, no one will dispute with us about settling boundaries. This dwelling too we assuredly needs must leave, but that abideth with us forever; this must decay by time, and be exposed to innumerable injuries, but that must remain without growing old perpetually; this a poor man cannot build, but that other one may build with two mites, as did the widow. Wherefore I choke with grief, that when so many blessings are laid before us, we are slothful, and despise them; we use every exertion to have splendid houses here, but how to gain in heaven so much as a little resting-place, we care not, we think not. For tell me, where wouldest thou have thy dwelling here? In the wilderness, or in one of the smaller cities? I think not; but in some of the most royal and grand cities, where the traffic is more, where the splendor is greater. But I will lead thee into such a City, whose Builder and Maker is God; there I exhort thee to found and build, at less cost [with less labor ]. That house the hands of the poor build, and it is most truly "building," just as the structures made here are the work of extreme folly. For if a man were to bring you into the land of Persia, to behold what is there and to return, and were then to bid you build houses there, would you not condemn him for excessive folly, as bidding you spend unseasonably? How then dost thou this very same thing upon the earth which thou shall shortly leave? "But I shall leave it to my children," saith some one. Yet they too shall leave it soon after thee; nay, often even before thee; and their successors the same. And even here it is a subject of melancholy to thee that thou seest not thine heirs retain their possessions, but there thou needest apprehend nothing of the sort; the possession remaineth immovable, to thee, to thy children, and to their descendants, if they imitate the same goodness. That building Christ taketh in hand, he who buildeth that needs not to appoint care-takers, nor be thoughtful, nor anxious; for when God hath undertaken the work, what need of thought? He bringeth all things together, and raiseth the house. Nor is this the only thing wonderful, but also that He so buildeth it as is pleasing to thee, or rather even beyond what is pleasing, beyond what thou desirest; for He is the most excellent Artist, and careth greatly for thy advantage. If thou art poor, and desirest to build this house, it brings thee no envy, produces against thee no malice, for none of those who know how to envy behold it, but the Angels who know how to rejoice at thy blessings; none will be able to encroach upon it, for none dwell near it of those who are diseased with such passions. For neighbors thou hast there the saints, Peter and Paul with their company, all the Prophets, the Martyrs, the multitude of Angels, of Archangels. For the sake then of all these things, let us empty our substance upon the poor, that we may obtain those tabernacles; which may we all obtain through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom to the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory, now and ever and world without end. Amen.On Matthew · Homily 13 2:20John ChrysostomSo then thou, who art evil, art so kind and loving towards thy servant; and will the Infinite Goodness, that is, God, the Unspeakable Love to man, the kindness so vast: will He overlook and leave uncrowned His own servants, Peter and Paul, and James, and John, those who every day for His sake suffered hunger, were bound, were scourged, were drowned in the sea, were given up to wild beasts, were dying, were suffering so great things as we cannot o much a reckon up? And whereas the Olympic judge proclaims and crowns the victor, and the master rewards the servant, and the king the soldier, and each in general him that hath done him service, with what good things he can; shall God alone, after those so great toils and labors, repay them with no good thing great or small? shall those just and pious men, who have walked in every virtue, lie in the same state with adulterers, and parricides, and manslayers, and violators of tombs? And in what way can this be reasonable? Since, if there be nothing after our departure hence, and our interests reach no further than things present, those are in the same the same. For what though hereafter, as thou sayest, they fare alike? yet here, the whole of their time, the wicked have been at ease, the righteous in chastisement. And this what sort of tyrant, what savage and relentless man did ever so devise, touching his own servants and subjects?The Apology of Rufinus · Book 1 5:8Tyrannius Rufinus36. I will address the Master in one of his own phrases. Why, after nearly four hundred years, do you give such teachings as these to the Latin people with their peaceable and simple minds! Why do you inflict on unaccustomed ears new-sounding words, which no one finds in the writings of the Apostles? I beseech you, spare the ears of the Romans, spare that faith which the Apostle praised. Why do you bring out in public what Peter and Paul were unwilling to publish? Did not the Christian world exist without any of these things until-not as you say I made my translations, but up to the time when you wrote what I have quoted, that is till some fifteen years ago? For what is this teaching of yours, that in the world to come there will still be risings and fallings,-that some will go forward and some go back? If that be true, then what you say, that in this world life is either acquired or lost, is not true; unless it has some occult meaning. I do not find that you repent of any of these doctrines which these commentaries contain. Again, you teach that the Church is to be understood as being one body made up not of men only but of angels and all the powers of heaven. You say in commenting on the passage of the same book, in which the words occur "And gave him to be head over all the Church," a little way down: "The Church may be understood as consisting not of men alone, but also of angels, and of all the powers, and reasonable creatures." Again, you say that souls, because in that former life they knew God, now know him not as one previously unknown, but as though after having forgotten him they came to recognize him again. These are the words used in a passage of the same book:The Apology of Rufinus · Book 1 6:9Tyrannius Rufinus43. These things which you have said are read by all who know Latin, and you yourself request them to read them: such sayings, I mean as these: that all rational creatures, as can be imagined by taking a single rational animal as an example, are to be formed anew into one body, just as if the members of a single man after being torn apart should be formed anew by the art of Aesculapius into the same solid body as before: that there will be among them as amongst the members of the body various offices, which you specify, but that the body will be one, that is, of one nature: this one body made up of all things you call the original church, and to this you give the name of the body of Christ; and further you say that one member of this church will be the apostate angel, that is, of course, the devil, who is to be formed anew into that which he was first created: that man in the same way, who is another of the members, will be recalled to the culture of the garden of Eden as its original husbandman. All those things you say one after the other, without bringing in the person of that `other' whom you usually introduce when you speak of such matters cautiously, and like one treading warily, so as to make men think that you had some hesitation in deciding matters so secret and abstruse. Origen indeed, the man whose disciple you do not deny that you are, and whose betrayer you confess yourself to be, always did this, as we see, in dealing with such matters. But you, as if you were the angel speaking by the mouth of Daniel or Christ by that of Paul, give a curt and distinct opinion on each point, and declare to the ears of mortals all the secrets of the ages to come. Then you speak thus to us: "O multitude of the faithful, place no faith in any of the ancients. If Origen had some thoughts about the more secret facts of the divine purposes, let none of you admit them. And similarly if one of the Clements said any such things, whether he who was a disciple of the apostle or he of the church of Alexandria who was the master of Origen himself; yes even if they were said by the great Gregory of Pontus, a man of apostolic virtues, or by the other Gregory, of Nazianzus, and Didymus the seeing prophet, both of them my teachers, than whom the world has possessed none more deeply taught in the faith of Christ. All these have erred as Origen has erred; but let them be forgiven, for I too have erred at times, and I am now behaving myself as a penitent, and ought to be forgiven. But Origen, since he said the same things which I have said, shall receive no forgiveness though he has done penance; nay, for saying the things which we all have said, he alone shall be condemned. He it is who has done all the mischief; he who betrayed to us the secret of all that we say or write, of all which makes us seem to speak learnedly, of all that was good in Greek but which we have made bad in Latin. Of all these let no man listen to a single one. Accept those things alone which you find in my Commentaries, and especially in those on the Epistle to the Ephesians, in which I have most painfully confuted the doctrines of Origen. My researches have reached this result, that you must believe and hold the resurrection of the flesh in this sense that men's bodies will be turned into spirits and their wives into men; and that before the foundation of the world souls existed in heaven, and thence, for reasons known to God alone, were brought down into this valley of tears, and were inserted into this body of death; that, in the end of the ages the whole of nature, being reasonable, will be fashioned again into one body as it was in the beginning, that man will be recalled into Paradise, and the apostate angel will be exalted above Peter and Paul, since they, being but men, must be placed in the lower position of paradise, while he will be restored to be that which he was originally created; and that all shall together make up the Church of the first born in heaven, and, while placed each in his separate office, shall be equally members of Christ: but all of them taken together will be the perfect body of Christ. Hold then to these things, my faithful and discreet disciples, and guard them as my unhesitating definitions of truth; but for the same doctrines pronounce your condemnation upon Origen; so you will do well. Fare ye well."The Apology of Rufinus · Book 2 5:16Tyrannius Rufinus35. What wonder is there then that he should tear me to pieces, being as I am of no account; or that he should wound Ambrose, or find fault with Hilary, Lactantius and Didymus? I must not greatly grieve over any injury of my own in the fact that he has attempted to do my work of translating over again, when he is only treating me with the same contempt with which he has treated the Seventy translators. But this emendation of the Seventy, what are we to think of it? Is it not evident, how greatly the grounds for the heathens' unbelief have been increased by this proceeding? For they take notice of what is going on amongst us. They know that our law has been amended, or at least changed; and do you suppose they do not say among themselves, "These people are wandering at random, they have no fixed truth among them, for you see how they make amendments and corrections in their laws whenever they please," and indeed it is evident that there must have been previous error where amendment has supervened, and that things which undergo change at the hand of man cannot possibly be divine. This has been the present which you have made us with your excess of wisdom, that we are all judged even by the heathen as lacking in wisdom. I reject the wisdom which Peter and Paul did not teach. I will have nothing to do with a truth which the Apostles have not approved. These are your own words: "The ears of simple men among the Latins ought not after four hundred years to be molested by the sound of new doctrines." Now you are yourself saying: "Every one has been under a mistake who thought that Susanna had afforded an example of chastity to both the married and the unmarried. It is not true. And every one who thought that the boy Daniel was filled with the Holy Spirit and convicted the adulterous old men, was under a mistake. That also was not true. And every congregation throughout the universe, whether of those who are in the body or of those who have departed to be with the Lord, even though they were holy martyrs or confessors, all who have sung the Hymn of the three children have been in error, and have sung what is false. Now therefore after four hundred years the truth of the law comes forth for us, it has been bought with money from the Synagogue. When the world has grown old and all things are hastening to their end, let us change the inscriptions upon the tombs of the ancients, so that it may be known by those who had read the story otherwise, that it was not a gourd but an ivy plant under whose shade Jonah rested; and that, when our legislator pleases, it will no longer be the shade of ivy but of some other plant.Against Vigilantius 1:12Jerome8. Does the bishop of Rome do wrong when he offers sacrifices to the Lord over the venerable bones of the dead men Peter and Paul, as we should say, but according to you, over a worthless bit of dust, and judges their tombs worthy to be Christ's altars? And not only is the bishop of one city in error, but the bishops of the whole world, who, despite the tavern-keeper Vigilantius, enter the basilicas of the dead, in which "a worthless bit of dust and ashes lies wrapped up in a cloth," defiled and defiling all else. Thus, according to you, the sacred buildings are like the sepulchres of the Pharisees, whitened without, while within they have filthy remains, and are full of foul smells and uncleanliness. And then he dares to expectorate his filth upon the subject and to say: "Is it the case that the souls of the martyrs love their ashes, and hover round them, and are always present, lest haply if any one come to pray and they were absent, they could not hear?" Oh, monster, who ought to be banished to the ends of the earth! do you laugh at the relics of the martyrs, and in company with Eunomius, the father of this heresy, slander the Churches of Christ? Are you not afraid of being in such company, and of speaking against us the same things which he utters against the Church? For all his followers refuse to enter the basilicas of Apostles and martyrs, so that, forsooth, they may worship the dead Eunomius, whose books they consider are of more authority than the Gospels; and they believe that the light of truth was in him just as other heretics maintain that the Paraclete came into Montanus, and say that Manichaeus himself was the Paraclete. You cannot find an occasion of boasting even in supposing that you are the inventor of a new kind of wickedness, for your heresy long ago broke out against the Church. It found, however, an opponent in Tertullian, a very learned man, who wrote a famous treatise which he called most correctly Scorpiacum , because, as the scorpion bends itself like a bow to inflict its wound. so what was formerly called the heresy of Cain pours poison into the body of the Church; it has slept or rather been buried for a long time, but has been now awakened by Dormitantius. I am surprised you do not tell us that there must upon no account be martyrdoms, inasmuch as God, who does not ask for the blood of goats and bulls, much less requires the blood of men. This is what you say, or rather, even if you do not say it, you are taken as meaning to assert it. For in maintaining that the relics of the martyrs are to be trodden under foot, you forbid the shedding of their blood as being worthy of no honour.Chronicle · Pages 188-332 70:21Jeromec 1 1st persecution, by Nero c Over all his other crimes, Nero also is the first to carry out a persecution against the Christians, in which Peter and Paul gloriously died at Rome.Commentary on Galatians 3:7Jerome(Verse 11 onwards) But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. When I saw that they were not walking straight, according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in the presence of all, 'If you, who are a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?' We are Jews by nature, and not Gentile sinners, but we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, when the apostle Paul saw that the grace of Christ was in danger, he employed a new battle tactic of the old warrior, to correct the dispensation of Peter, by which he desired the salvation of the Jews, with a new dispensation of contradiction, and to resist him to his face. Not arguing against his intention, but rather publicly contradicting him, so that by Paul's argument and resistance, those who had believed from the Gentiles would be saved. Now if anyone thinks that Paul truly resisted the apostle Peter and boldly did wrong to his predecessor for the sake of the truth of the Gospel, that person's argument will not stand. For even Paul became a Jew to the Jews in order to gain the Jews, and he will be held guilty of the same hypocrisy when he shaved his head in Cenchreae and offered a sacrifice in Jerusalem (Acts 18), and when he circumcised Timothy (Ibid., 16), and practiced foot-washing, which are clearly ceremonial practices of the Jews. Therefore, if the one who was sent to preach to the Gentiles did not think it necessary to say: 'Be without offense to the Jews and to the Church of God' (1 Corinthians 10:32); how can I please everyone in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, so that they may be saved? And he did certain things that were contrary to the freedom of the Gospel, so as not to scandalize the Jews. With what authority, with what audacity does he dare to reprehend this in Peter, who was an apostle of the circumcision, when he himself, the apostle of the Gentiles, is accused of committing the same? But as we have already said, he yielded to the public opinion, to Peter and the rest, so that the hypocrisy of observing the Law, which was harming those who had believed from the Gentiles, would be corrected by the hypocrisy of correction, and both peoples would be saved, both those who praise circumcision follow Peter; and those who do not want to be circumcised, preach Paul's freedom. But what he said was blameworthy, therefore he moderated the fasting; so that we understand that he was not so blameworthy to Paul, as he separated himself from those brothers with whom he had eaten before. But a useful simulation, and one to be adopted in time, let us teach an example of King Jehu of Israel, who could not kill the priests of Baal unless he pretended to want to worship the idol, saying: 'Gather (or 'gather together') for me all the priests of Baal: for if Ahab served Baal in few things, I will serve him in many.' (4 Kings 10:18). And David, when he changed his appearance before Abimelech, and who dismissed him and went away. (1 Kings 21) And it is not surprising, even though righteous men, nevertheless, pretend for a time, for their own and others’ salvation, when our Lord Himself, not having sin nor the flesh of sin, assumed the pretense of sinful flesh, so that, condemning sin in the flesh, He would make us the righteousness of God in Himself. Certainly, Paul had read in the Gospel the Lord commanding: But if your brother sins against you, go and correct him between you and him alone. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. (Luke 17:3) And in what way, when he even commanded this to be done to the least of the brothers, did he dare to rebuke the greatest of the apostles so boldly and steadfastly in public; unless it had pleased Peter to be rebuked in this way, and Paul had not done him any harm, about whom he had said before: I went to Jerusalem to see Peter, and I stayed with him for fifteen days: but I saw none of the other apostles. And again: For he who worked in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision. And below: Peter and James and John, who seemed to be pillars, and the others whom he praises in his praises. Many times, when I was a young man in Rome, I would engage in debates on fictitious lawsuits and exercise myself in true competitions. I would run to the courts of the judges, and I would see the most eloquent orators contending with each other with such bitterness that they would often neglect their duties and turn to personal insults, biting each other with jokes. If they do this, so that they may not incur any suspicion of prevarication, and deceive the surrounding people, what do we think the great pillars of the Church, Peter and Paul, and the vessels of wisdom, ought to have done among the dissenting Jews and Gentiles? Unless it was for the purpose of making their pretended contention the peace of the believers, and the faith of the Church might be established by a holy dispute among them. There are some who think that Cephas, whom Paul writes that he confronted to his face, is not the apostle Peter, but another one of the seventy disciples called by that name. They say that Peter could not have avoided the company of the Gentiles, as he had also baptized the centurion Cornelius. And when he went up to Jerusalem, those who were of the circumcision argued against him, saying: Why did you go to men uncircumcised and eat with them? After recounting the vision, he concluded his response with these words: Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder God? When they heard this, they fell silent and glorified God, saying, 'So then, even to the Gentiles God has granted repentance unto life.' Especially since the writer of the history, Luke, makes no mention of this disagreement; nor does he ever say that Peter was in Antioch with Paul, and that Porphyry was blaspheming; but if it is believed that Peter erred or that Paul insolently refuted the chief of the apostles, first it must be answered that we do not know the name of some other Cephas, unless it is the one who is called both Cephas and Peter in the Gospel, in Paul's other Epistles, and also in this very passage. Not that Peter signifies one thing and Cephas another, but that as we call the rock in Latin and Greek, so the Hebrews and Syrians, because of the similarity of their languages, name it Cephas. Moreover, the entire argument of the epistle, which is indirectly mentioned concerning Peter, James, and John, contradicts this interpretation. It is not surprising that Luke has remained silent on this matter, considering that he has omitted many other things that Paul claims to have endured, by the liberty of a historian, and it is not necessarily contradictory if one deemed worthy of recounting what another left out among other things for a different reason. Lastly, we have learned that Peter was the first bishop of the Church of Antioch, and then transferred to Rome, which Luke completely omitted. Finally, if we are to create another person called Cephas because of Porphyry's blasphemy, so that Peter is not thought to have erred, countless divine Scriptures will have to be erased, which he condemns because he does not understand. But also against Porphyry, we will fight in another way if Christ commands it: now let us continue with the rest.Commentary on Habakkuk 3:12Jerome(Verse 10) You will split the rivers of the earth. LXX: The earth will be split by rivers. Because the Lord has stirred up his bow, in order to fulfill the oaths he spoke to the tribes, it is subsequently said, you will split the rivers of the earth, which means that the kings of the earth who fight against your people, you will divide and scatter. According to the Septuagint, which says, The earth will be split by rivers, let us first consider this example, so that we can proceed to higher things as if in steps. We read in those who have written volumes about wonders, and who have brought the Olympic Games of Greece down to our own memory, explaining what new things happened in each year in the world, namely that among other things rivers have burst forth from the movement of the earth, which were not there before, and on the other hand other rivers have been swallowed up and have disappeared: namely, that all the veins of the earth, just as blood does in the human body, contain hidden waters which are broken open by the shaking of the earth, and they remain as rivers. If we understand this, let us see that the human soul naturally contains waters and rivers, and our compassion, which are hidden and do not flow. But when it is shaken by the preaching of God's word and moved from its previous state, then what was hidden bursts forth and flows for the refreshment of those who drink. I believe that this is what is also signified in Genesis by the wells dug by Isaac's servants, which were buried in the land by the Philistines (Genesis 26). As long as Abraham is alive, his wells are not closed; but when he dies and the wells are closed, if the servants dig, the Philistines object, and there is a dispute. But if Isaac himself comes and digs a well and finds water, the Philistines cannot object. Look at Peter and Paul, and you will not doubt about the wells and rivers of Christ. Observe all the apostles, and you will understand that not four rivers, but twelve rivers flow out of the paradise of the Scriptures. These rivers were hidden before the earth was moved, and when they were in the veins of the earth, they did not provide cups for the thirsty. But after the coming of Christ, the world and all the earth were shaken, they suddenly burst forth, and then it was fulfilled: He turned rivers into a desert, and the exits of water into thirst, fruitful land into salt marsh, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it (Psalm 33). He turned a desert into pools of water, and a waterless land into fountains of water, and there he made the hungry to dwell, and they built a city to inhabit. For when the Lord came into the world, and that which he said in the Gospel was fulfilled: 'I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind' (John 9:39): then the land of Israel, from which rivers used to flow forth and water the entire Jewish people, became dry and its springs were blocked up. But the entire world, which was once deserted and sterile and did not have the waters of the Lord's preaching, turned into marshes of water, and as many teachers as it sent forth, so many springs it had. It was not enough for them to irrigate the peoples of the world with fountains and rivers; but in each province, gathering together those who were hungry and suffering from the hunger for the word of God, they built the Church, which is called the city to dwell in, and which is made joyful by the rushing of the river.Commentary on Isaiah 48:3Jerome(Verse 12.) Therefore I will divide him among the many, and he will share the spoils of the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. LXX: Therefore he shall receive many as his portion, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because his soul was poured out to death and he was numbered with the wicked. He himself bore the sins of many and was delivered up for their iniquities. Christ endured many sufferings so that he might attain great rewards. For, he said, he suffered and accomplished all that the previous word described, and he himself bore the iniquities of many: therefore I will divide to him many, so that for the part of the Lord Jacob, and his inheritance rope of Israel, they may believe in him coming from the East and West, and may recline in the kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Matth. VIII): when that which is written is fulfilled: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession (Ps. II, 8). Concerning which and in this same Prophet it is read: There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise up to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope (Isaiah 11:10). But these many previously were held captive by the strong; and under the appearance of an ass and a colt, they had many masters, to whom the Apostles said: The Lord has need of them (Matthew 21:3). Those who were strong before Christ assumed a human body, and strong overcame him, would plunder his house. Therefore, he delivered and distributed the spoils of the strong Apostles to his own, so that Peter, James, and John became the leaders of the circumcised people, and Paul and Barnabas were sent to the Gentiles, not separated in spirit but in different places, and stood on different fronts under one Lord, so that they might raise a triumph to the victorious army on both sides, for the Savior. From this, those who truly say that there was a disagreement and contention between Peter and Paul regarding the dispensation (Acts 15), in order to satisfy the blasphemous Porphyry: and they assert that the ceremonies of the old Law must be observed in the Church of Christ, by the believing offspring of Israel, and that they should expect Jerusalem to be golden for a thousand years, in order to sacrifice victims and to be circumcised, to sit on the Sabbath, to sleep, to be satiated, to be intoxicated, and to rise to play, a play that offends God. We said this because of what is now being prophesied: And he shall divide the spoils of the strong (Is. LIII, 12). According to what is written in another place: When he divided the heavenly kings in it. And again: The beloved king of hosts, and of beauty, shall divide the spoils (Ps. LXVII, 13). Finally, regarding the Apostle Paul, who was from the tribe of Benjamin, according to the Hebrew it is said: Benjamin, a ravenous wolf: in the morning he shall devour, and in the evening he shall divide the spoils (Gen. XLIX, 27). Of which we have already spoken: They shall rejoice in your presence, as those who rejoice in the harvest, and as those who divide the spoils (Isaiah IX, 3), dividing the churches of Christ for themselves in the whole world. Therefore, he will receive many nations, who came to preach remission to the captives and led captive captivity before, from the devil and demons, and gave it as a gift to men and believers, because he delivered his soul to death, and was reckoned with the wicked or unjust (I Cor. IX). For if the Apostle became as one without law to those who were without law (although he was not without law toward God, but was within the law of Christ), why then was Christ considered to be with the unjust, so that he might redeem the unjust from sin, and become all things to all people, so as to save everyone? For he carried our sins in his body (1 Peter 2), affixing them to the wood of the cross, in order to erase the handwriting that we had made for the devil and his angels, written by the deeds of our soul, that is, by our actions. About which Paul the apostle speaks: And you, when you were dead in sins, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, forgiving you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it (Eph. I, 2; Coloss. II, 14, 15). But the lawless men with whom he is counted, Mark the Evangelist understands to be the robbers, writing: And they crucified with him two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled which says: 'And he was reckoned among the transgressors' (Mark 15:27). This can also be understood at a deeper level, as the Lord himself says: 'I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man who has no strength, forsaken among the dead' (Psalm 88:4). Indeed, he was reckoned among sinners and transgressors, in order to descend to hell; and in many places in the scriptures, hell is referred to as a pit, and he would free the prisoners from the prison. He was handed over for our sins and was raised for our justification (Rom. IV). Such was His great mercy that He prayed for His transgressors, and even for His persecutors, on the cross, saying: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke XXIII, 34).Commentary on Isaiah 48:24Jerome(Verse 16, 17.) Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, and brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the destroyer to destroy. Every weapon formed against you shall not prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. LXX: Behold, I have created you not as a blacksmith blowing the coals in the fire and bringing forth an instrument for work. But I have created you not to destroy: every vessel that is made against you will not prosper: and every voice that rises against you in judgment, you will overcome and they will be subject to you. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and you will be righteous to me, says the Lord. Let us first say in Hebrew: If you want to not be afraid, and to be far from fear, do what the previous word has narrated; for I am the one through whom you will have proselytes. I am the one who created the blacksmith blowing on the embers in the fire, that is, the devil, the artisan of all evil, not by necessity of nature, but by the decision of the mind. I who kindled fires, and will bring forth vessels against you: such as Simon and Elymas were, resisting Peter and Paul (Acts 13). I created the destroyer of those who will become unbelievers. Not that I am the cause of their perdition, but that the created adversary may engage in battle, and for the defeated, there may be destruction, and for the victors, the cause may be rewards. And all those who have been fashioned against you by the blowing of a blacksmith's bellows will not be directed, but they will feel both present and future punishments. And what was previously hidden will be said more clearly in the consequences: And you will judge every language resisting you in judgment, destroying the wisdom of the wise, and rejecting the prudence of the prudent. And you will condemn all the leaders of heretics and the teachers of the Jews and the philosophers of the world, whom that blacksmith had fashioned, by your judgment. How Queen Sheba and the Ninevites condemned the unbelievers, and on the other hand, Sodom will be justified by the comparison with Jerusalem's worse state (Matthew 12). After this, it is explained what the rewards of the future are, so that they do not think that their struggle is in vain and that it ends with death. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, that is, the kingdom of heaven, eternal life, and the retribution of their labor, which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man, that which God has prepared for those who love him (2 Corinthians 2). But if you love, therefore also serve those who have no other Lord except God. And this is the justice of those who are before God, says the Lord, that present tribulation may be compensated with future joy. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, this seems to me to be the meaning: I, your Creator, did not make you like the devil, the worst craftsman who molds vessels of iniquity with an unclean spirit and brings them to destruction, and who should know that such vessels do not have a successful journey, but are broken in the middle of the course. He explains what the vessels are in the following discourse; And every voice that rises against you in judgment, you shall overcome them all. The vessels of iniquity have a voice, which voice rises against the Church, when heretics put their mouth high, and their tongue passes through the earth. And what follows: And they shall be subject to you, we have marked with a note that it seems to have been added not so much by the LXX as by evil writers. But when the Church has overcome every voice rising against it, then to those who serve the Lord and obey, there will be an inheritance, an eternal possession. And in Jeremiah it is said in other words: There is a reward for your works (Jeremiah 31:36). And the inhabitants of the Church will be righteous before the Lord. For everyone who practices righteousness is born of God. To whom the Lord speaks: Be holy, for I am holy (Leviticus 20:26).Commentary on Isaiah 57:19Jerome(Verse 10.) Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Delight in her with joy, all you who mourn over her, so that you may nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breast, and drink deeply and enjoy the abundance of her glory. LXX: Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and gather together all you who love her. Delight in her with joy, all you who mourn over her, so that you may nurse and be filled from her comforting breast, and after you have nursed, be delighted by the entrance of her glory. The apostles are commanded, and the apostolic men, who love both Jerusalems, and the one that has fallen they mourn and lament, and the one that will rise again they eagerly await with all desire, so that they may rejoice with her and in her, the one that is built with living stones, which roll upon the earth, and in the likeness of the wheels of the Cherubim, they follow the preceding spirit: not in those who have been dissolved into eternal ashes. About which the Lord spoke: Amen, amen I say to you, not one stone will remain upon another, until all these things are accomplished (Matthew 24:2). Rejoice, He says, with joy, all you who mourn for her. As we have taught about Peter and Paul, the apostles, and all who were awaiting the redemption of Israel, in order to suckle and be filled with the breasts of her consolation. For it could not be that she who gave birth to a male and was a mother, lacked an abundance of milk for the raising of her people and infants, who were born together, so that she would offer them two breasts, not at all like before in Egypt, broken and lying down, but whole and standing in virgin beauty, of the old and new Instrument, to offer rational milk. About whom the bridegroom speaks to her: Your breasts are better than wine (Song of Solomon 1:1). These were the ones about whom it was specifically said: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:5). And it should be noted that those who are little children are in need of milk for consolation, and they are still in a mortal place. But those who have progressed from the milk of consolation to solid food will have abundant delights of truth and knowledge of all glory, which is called Ziz in Hebrew. For this reason, where in our and the Greek codices it is read μόνιος ἄγριος, that is, singular wild, in Hebrew it is written Ziz Sadai, which Aquila translated as παντόδαπον χώρας, that is, various kinds of regions, to signify that Israel was devastated not only by the Romans, but by all nations. However, the glorious entrance of the Church is to be understood, about which the apostle John writes: 'And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, and the streets of the city were pure gold, as transparent glass' (Rev. 21:21). These pearls are forbidden by the Lord to be thrown before swine (Matt. 7), which the good merchant, when he found them in the Prophets and the Apostles, goes to one most precious pearl, not rejecting the others, but seeking through them something more precious (Matt. 13).Commentary on Joel 2:23Jerome(Verse 32) Because on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be salvation: as the Lord has said: and in the remnant whom the Lord has called. LXX: Because on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be the one who has been saved: as the Lord has said: and the announcer whom the Lord has called. In that place, where we have set ourselves, salvation, or the one who has been saved, and in Hebrew it is written Phaleta (), Symmachus translated, the one who has fled. And again where we have said, in the remnant, and the Septuagint translated, announcer, in Hebrew it is read Saridim (( Al. Saradim)) (), which the Jews believe is the name of the place. Therefore, when the great and dreadful day of the Lord came, and whoever called upon his name after the resurrection of the Lord, everyone who was on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem was saved. For the law came forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2), of which it is written: A prophet does not perish outside Jerusalem (Luke 13:33). So the beginning of their salvation was in Zion and Jerusalem, in the watchtower and in the vision of peace, and in those who remained, whom the Lord called. We must understand those remnants who believed from the Jewish people, of whom Isaiah speaks: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:9). The Lord called and evangelized these remnants, whom He called, for so the LXX interpreted. This passage is very difficult, and receiving multiple explanations: so that under tropology we may refer everything that has been said to those times, to which Peter and Paul the apostles related, that is, when the Lord suffered and rose again." } For it is not possible that we understand the previous events during the time of suffering, and the events that follow on the day of judgment, especially when it is said: 'For behold, in those days, and in that time.' And this verse, connecting the subsequent events with the preceding ones, declares that everything was accomplished at once.Commentary on Zephaniah 2:23JeromeVerse 19, 20: Behold, I will kill all those who have afflicted you at that time; and I will save the lame, and gather her who was cast out; and I will make them a praise and a name in all the earth's confusion. In the time when I bring you; and in the time when I gather you: for I will give you a name and a praise to all the peoples of the earth, when I turn your captivity before your eyes, says the Lord. LXX: Behold, I will do in you, for you, at that time, and I will save the oppressed, and I will receive the rejected, and I will place them in glory, and those who are named in all the earth. And they will be confounded at that time, when I have done well to you: and at the time when I have received you, for I will give you a name, and glory among all the peoples of the earth; when I turn your captivity before you, says the Lord. And this is the synagogue that does not limp, but is cut off on both feet, promising itself in the coming of its Christ, whom it hopes to come: and it thinks that all the nations that have afflicted Israel will be destroyed by the Lord, and the synagogue will be saved, and the one who had received the bill of divorce will be gathered, and they will be placed in praise, and in the name in all the land of their captivity, where they were previously confused. And this happened during the time when the captivity of Jerusalem had been reduced, and the temple had been rebuilt, and the remaining order of ceremonies had been observed. She promises this to herself, and therefore does not repent, and while she hopes for uncertain things, she loses certain salvation. I am not surprised that the synagogue says these things, which, because it does not receive Christ, it hurts its eyes, and when it winks, it is not loved by Jacob, and when Rachel succeeds, it is neglected (Gen. XXIX). I marvel at the Christians, or rather semi-Jews, who claim to be of the Church and profess those things which, if true, we believe in vain in Christ, and all our sacraments are taken away, and we are more miserable than all men, believing in him who did not come. But since our hope is certain and the vows of the Jews are empty, according to the earlier understanding, let us now weave the present and final chapter and let us bring forth the testimony of Jesus son of Sirach: He who casts a stone high, casts it upon his own head (Eccl. XXIII). For indeed, because Zion and Jerusalem are situated on high, whoever detracts from Zion and Jerusalem and hurls stones of contempt at them, casts them upon his own head; and their reproach will return upon his own head. And his pain and wickedness will descend upon his own head. How many today reproach the souls that seek God's mysteries, that desire to see His peace, and say: He is insane and drunk, and full of wine; he avoids the company of men; he spurns pleasure; he considers gold as mud; he loves only poverty. But those who are unbelievers even reproach the cross of Christ to Him, even though when they see Him in distress and temptation, they say: Where are Your mercies and the justice that You have wrought? What shall I say concerning unbelievers, when certain leaders of the Churches reproach such men and consider their lives folly, and do not praise their present conduct, but reproach their old sins? Nor do they hear that it is commanded: Do not reproach a man who turns away from his sins (Eccl. VIII). Woe therefore to him who brought reproach and took it upon himself, and surrendered himself to such a duty, to slander Zion and the city of God. For by this injury, the Lord is the avenger of his own city, and he will say to Zion: Behold, I will do in you for your sake, that is, I will do your vengeance, and I will save the afflicted, or as it is said in Greek, the oppressed; so that the meaning may be: I will save her, who at present is like a grape and an olive, so pressed and afflicted by trials and troubles, as if she were crushed and pressed by a winepress and a beam, in order to make wine and oil, and Jesus would drink of the wine in the kingdom of his Father; but he would be anointed with the oil by his fellow partakers. I think that because of the expression of such wine and oil, Job suffered many things; but after he had made wine and oil, he heard from the Lord, 'Do you think that I have responded to you in any other way, except that you may appear just?' (Job 40:70). As if he were speaking to a grape and an olive; Do you think that I have pressed and afflicted and crushed you in any other way, except that I may extract wine and oil from you? It follows: And I will receive her who was rejected. It seems that God repels us when he allows temptation. Hence Job says, 'The visitation of the Lord has looked upon me' (Job 10:12). And not only do the just speak, saying, 'But now you have repelled and confounded us,' as it is written in the forty-third psalm, but the Lord and Savior himself, speaking in the person of the man he had assumed, says, 'But you have repelled and despised: you have delayed your Christ; you have overthrown the testament of your servant.' But the identity of the righteous person is confirmed in the 43rd psalm, which says: Now you have rejected and humiliated us, but all these things have come upon us, and we have not forgotten you, nor have we acted unjustly in your covenant; our heart has not turned back. Therefore, the Lord will receive her who appeared cast down in temptations, and he will place them in glory and make them renowned throughout the earth, namely, the children of the Church, who have been manifested and rejected. But who else can we understand as children of the Church, if not the apostles? Look at Peter and Paul and Matthew and John; and consider this that was promised to Abraham: I will magnify your name, accomplished in them by their works. Every day their names are mentioned in the Church, every day their names are magnified: not because it benefits them to be mentioned by us in the Church, but because by magnifying their names and reading what they wrote, we obtain salvation. In that time, he says, when the repulsed attack had been undertaken, and his sons had been placed in glory (for the Lord glorifies in his athletes, when he sees them crowned, just as he gloried against the devil concerning Job), so the Apostle, rejoicing in the progress of his disciples, says: Even through your glory, those who were your adversaries will be confounded, and they who had hurled reproach against you will see those whom they had considered miserable to be happy, and those whom they had regarded as poor and lowly to become powerful and glorious. Then they will see their captivity, by which they had been subjected to a harsh rule in this world, being brought back to heavenly Jerusalem; and they themselves rising to eternal shame and confusion. Grant us, Jesus Christ, who are expressed and afflicted and rejected in this world, that you may receive us and place us in glory: may confusion prevail in the time of his remaining, may his idle words cease, may his poisons become dull, and may his confusion lead to salvation. This according to the Septuagint. However, the Hebrew text does not require much explanation because, apart from the beginning that we mentioned at the end of the previous chapter, it does not differ significantly from their translation.Homilies on Psalms · homily_018 1:9JeromeThis much we have said so far according to the historical sense, and you see how from the history itself we gradually ascend to the mystical sacraments. Jesus the leader, who had led the people out of Egypt: Jesus, who is interpreted as Savior, after Moses had died and been buried in the land of Moab, in the land of Arabia, that is, after the Law was dead, desires to lead his people into the gospel, and sends two spies to Jericho: two spies, one to the circumcision, another to the nations, Peter and Paul. Jericho seeks to kill them; that harlot receives them, the Church gathered from the nations. She believes in Jesus, and those whom Jericho wished to kill, she herself saves on her housetop. And she places them on the housetop, in her lofty faith, and hides them in the flax of the reed. Though she is a harlot, yet she places them in flax. Flax comes to whiteness through much toil and diligence. You yourselves know that flax is born from the earth, and when it has been born in the earth, it is black, has no beauty, no use. First then it is taken from the earth, it is broken, then it is twisted, afterward it is washed, then it is beaten, then it is combed, and with much care and toil it scarcely comes to whiteness. Therefore this is said, that this harlot indeed received the spies in her flax, so that those spies might turn her flax into whiteness. What then? She gives them counsel, and says: 'Wait here three days.' It was not one day, not two, but three days. See what she says, Wait three days. She does not name three nights, but three days, because she had an enlightened heart. And then she says, and after three days: and what does she say? 'Do not,' she says, 'go through the plains, but climb up into the mountains.' For the faith of the Church is not established in the valleys, but in the mountains. Jericho then is afterward overturned by Jesus, and this harlot alone is preserved unharmed. Therefore this is said. I will be mindful of Rahab: that is, of her who received my spies, and I on the day of judgment will be mindful of her.Homilies on Psalms · homily_026 1:8JeromeAnd adore the footstool of his feet, for it is holy. What is this footstool of the feet of Jesus, which is holy? We read in another place: 'Heaven is my throne, but the earth is the footstool of my feet.' And now it is said, Adore the footstool of his feet. If the earth is the footstool of the feet of Jesus, and it is said, Adore the footstool of his feet: is the earth therefore to be adored? How is it that we read in the Apostle that, except for the Creator, we ought not to adore the creature? To adore is said in Scripture in two ways: for there is said an adoration as toward God, and there is said to adore as it were to honor. When we say to adore toward God, adoration is properly set toward God. But when it is said of a man—for example, Sarah adored Abraham, and Elijah adored Ahab, that most impious king—it is not said that Elijah so adored Ahab as God, but here adoration is set as a greeting. Now, therefore, let us see this that he says, And adore the footstool of his feet, in which sense he says it. Do we adore the footstool of the feet of God as God, or do we adore and greet it as a man? We read in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, we read also in another prophet: 'How the Lord,' he says, 'has sanctified the footstool of his feet.' And there the footstool of his feet is called Jerusalem, or the temple: this, then, according to the history. We read also in another place, And adore the footstool of his feet. If the feet do not stand except on the footstool, then this which is said 'And adore where his feet have stood' is said also of the footstool. Therefore according to the letter we can say, for example, where he was born, where he was crucified, where he rose again. This we say for beginners. But otherwise the footstool of the feet of Jesus is the soul of the believer. Happy is he in whose breast the feet of Jesus are daily placed. Would that his feet were placed in my breast too, would that his footprints might ever cling in my heart, would that I too might say with the bride: 'I will hold him, and I will not let him go.' The bridegroom is quickly offended, he ever loves cleanness: wherever he sees filth, he quickly withdraws. And adore the footstool of his feet, for it is holy. Not every footstool of his feet, but whatever is holy: as many as persevere in holiness. For example, Adore the footstool of his feet: adore Peter and Paul and the rest of the apostles—that is, honor them. For it is holy. Adore those who persevere in holiness; but those who were a footstool and are not holy, do not adore them. For example, Judas the traitor was a footstool of God: but since he is not holy, do not adore him. I have read in a certain man's book: 'The assumption,' he says, 'of the human body—that is, the man whom God deigned to take up from Mary—this,' he says, 'he calls the footstool of his feet.' Although indeed the man was taken up, and in comparison with God every creature is the footstool of his feet, yet this very footstool has been joined to God and to him who sits upon it. See what a thing I dare to say. I adore the footstool that once was, just as I adore the throne. 'For even if we had known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer.' He had, perhaps, a footstool before his death, before his resurrection, when he ate, when he drank, when he suffered our affections. But after he rose again and ascended victorious to the heavens, I do not understand one who sits and another that is the footstool, but the whole in Christ is a throne. You ask and say: Why, or on what account? How it is, I do not know, and yet I believe that it is so. Do you wonder if I am ignorant of the mystery of the divinity, when I do not know myself? Do you ask me how both the divinity and the incarnation are one, when I do not know how I live? To have understood God is to have believed; to know God is to honor him. It suffices me to know what is written, it suffices me to know what I believe: more than that I neither will nor desire. For if I should wish to know more, I begin to lose even this which I believe. We are called faithful, not rational. Finally, it is said even by the Lord: 'Do you believe that I can do this?' And it is said to the woman: 'Your faith has made you whole'—not reason, not inquiry, not why or on what account it was done. She believed that it might be done, and it was done because she believed.Homilies on Psalms · homily_073 1:14Jerome"The Lord guards the souls of his saints." A most beautiful order: he who loves good and hates evil, what does he deserve from the Lord, except that he be guarded by him? "He will free them from the hand of the sinner." Here a question arises: If the Lord guards the souls of his saints, and frees them from the hand of the sinner, how are the martyrs crushed in persecution? how did the impious Nero, with sentence given, condemn Peter and Paul to death on one day, if the Lord guards the souls of his saints? Attend diligently to what he says. "The Lord guards the souls of his saints": he said "souls," not "bodies." "Do not fear those," he says, "who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear him who can kill both body and soul in Gehenna." How, then, does the Lord guard the souls of his saints? In martyrdom. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." In martyrdom, therefore, blood is poured out, so that the soul may be freed from temptations: so that it may leave the brief life, and migrate to the eternal: so that it may leave persecution, and go to the One who crowns us, our Lord Jesus Christ. To whom is honor and glory unto ages of ages. Amen.Letters · letter_046 1:13Jerome8. The land is accursed, you say, because it has drunk in the blood of the Lord. On what grounds, then, do men regard as blessed those spots where Peter and Paul, the leaders of the Christian host, have shed their blood for Christ? If the confession of men and servants is glorious, must there not be glory likewise in the confession of their Lord and God? Everywhere we venerate the tombs of the martyrs; we apply their holy ashes to our eyes; we even touch them, if we may, with our lips. And yet some think that we should neglect the tomb in which the Lord Himself is buried. If we refuse to believe human testimony, let us at least credit the devil and his angels. [Matt. 25:41] For when in front of the Holy Sepulchre they are driven out of those bodies which they have possessed, they moan and tremble as if they stood before Christ's judgment-seat, and grieve, too late that they have crucified Him in whose presence they now cower. If-as a wicked theory maintains-this holy place has, since the Lord's passion, become an abomination, why was Paul in such haste to reach Jerusalem to keep Pentecost in it? [Acts 20:16] Yet to those who held him back he said: "What mean ye to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus." [Acts 21:13] Need I speak of those other holy and illustrious men who, after the preaching of Christ, brought their votive gifts and offerings to the brethren who were at Jerusalem?Letters · letter_068 1:3Jerome1. My reverend son Heraclius the deacon has reported to me that in your eagerness to see me you came as far as Cissa, and that, though a Pannonian and consequently a land animal, you did not quail before the surges of the Adriatic and the dangers of the Aegean and Ionian seas. He tells me that you would have actually accomplished your purpose, had not our brethren with affectionate care held you back. I thank you all the same and regard it as a kindness shewn. For in the case of friends one must accept the will for the deed. Enemies often give us the latter, but only sincere attachment can bring us the former. And now that I am writing to you I beseech you do not regard the bodily affliction which has befallen you as due to sin. When the Apostles speculated concerning the man that was born blind from the womb and asked our Lord and Saviour: "Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" they were told "Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." [Joh. 9:2, Joh. 9:3] Do we not see numbers of heathens, Jews, heretics and men of various opinions rolling in the mire of lust, bathed in blood, surpassing wolves in ferocity and kites in rapacity, and for all this the plague does not come nigh their dwellings? [Ps. 91:10] They are not smitten as other men, and accordingly they wax insolent against God and lift up their faces even to heaven. We know on the other hand that holy men are afflicted with sicknesses, miseries, and want, and perhaps they are tempted to say "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency." Yet immediately they go on to reprove themselves, "If I say, I will speak thus; behold I should offend against the generation of thy children." [Ps. 73:13, Ps. 73:15] If you suppose that your blindness is caused by sin, and that a disease which physicians are often able to cure is an evidence of God's anger, you will think Isaac a sinner because he was so wholly sightless that he was deceived into blessing one whom he did not mean to bless. [Gen. 27] You will charge Jacob with sin, whose vision became so dim that he could not see Ephraim and Manasseh, [Gen. 48:10] although with the inner eye and the prophetic spirit he could foresee the distant future and the Christ that was to come of his royal line. [Gen. 49:10] Were any of the kings holier than Josiah? Yet he was slain by the sword of the Egyptians. [2 K. 23:29] Were there ever loftier saints than Peter and Paul? Yet their blood stained the blade of Nero. And to say no more of men, did not the Son of God endure the shame of the cross? And yet you fancy those blessed who enjoy in this world happiness and pleasure? God's hottest anger against sinners is when he shews no anger. Wherefore in Ezekiel he says to Jerusalem: "My jealousy will depart from thee and i will be quiet and will be no more angry." [Ezek. 16:42] For "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." [Heb. 12:6] The father does not instruct his son unless he loves him. The master does not correct his disciple unless he sees in him signs of promise. When once the doctor gives over caring for the patient, it is a sign that he despairs. You should answer thus: "as Lazarus in his lifetime [Luke 16:25] received evil things so will I now gladly suffer torments that future glory may be laid up for me." For "affliction shall not rise up the second time." [Nahum 1:9] If Job, a man holy and spotless and righteous in his generation, suffered terrible afflictions, his own book explains the reason why.Letters · letter_084 1:13JeromeLet us not imitate the faults of one whose virtues we cannot equal. Other men have erred concerning the faith, both Greeks and Latins, but I must not mention their names lest I should be supposed to defend Origen not by his own merits but by the errors of others. This, you will say, is to accuse them and not to excuse him. You would be right, if I had declared him not to have erred, or if I had professed a belief that the apostle Paul or an angel from heaven [Cf. Gal. 1:8] ought to be listened to in a depravation of the faith. But as it is seeing I frankly admit him to be wrong, I may read him on the same terms as I read others, because if he is wrong so also are they. But you may say, If error is common to many, why do you assail him alone? I answer, because he alone is praised by you as an apostle. Take away your exaggerated love for him, and I am ready to take away the greatness of my dislike. While you gather other men's faulty statements out of their books merely to defend Origen in his error, you extol this latter to the sky and will not allow that he has erred at all. Whosoever you are who are thus preaching new doctrines, I beseech you, spare the ears of the Romans, spare the faith of a church which an apostle has praised. [Rom. 1:8] Why after four hundred years do you try to teach us Romans doctrines of which until now we have known nothing? Why do you publicly proclaim opinions which Peter and Paul refused to profess? Until now no such teaching has been heard of, and yet the world has become christian. For my part I will hold fast in my old age the faith wherein I was born again in my boyhood. They speak of us as claytowners, made out of dirt, brutish and carnal, because, say they, we refuse to receive the things of the spirit; but of course they themselves are citizens of Jerusalem and their mother is in heaven. [Gal. 4:26] I do not despise the flesh in which Christ was born and rose again, or scorn the mud which, baked into a clean vessel, reigns in heaven. And yet I wonder why they who detract from the flesh live after the flesh, and cherish and delicately nurture that which is their enemy. Perhaps indeed they wish to fulfil the words of scripture: "love your enemies and bless them that persecute you." [Matt 5:44 from memory] I love the flesh, but I love it only when it is chaste, when it is virginal, when it is mortified by fasting: I love not its works but itself, that flesh which knows that it must be judged, and therefore dies as a martyr for Christ, which is scourged and torn asunder and burned with fire.Letters · letter_112 1:17Jerome11. We have learned, therefore, that through fear of the Jews both Peter and Paul alike pretended that they observed the precepts of the law. How could Paul have the assurance and effrontery to reprove in another what he had done himself? I at least, or, I should rather say, others before me, have given such explanation of the matter as they deemed best, not defending the use of falsehood in the interest of religion, as you charge them with doing, but teaching the honourable exercise of a wise discretion; seeking both to show the wisdom of the apostles, and to restrain the shameless blasphemies of Porphyry, who says that Peter and Paul quarrelled with each other in childish rivalry, and affirms that Paul had been inflamed with envy on account of the excellences of Peter, and had written boastfully of things which he either had not done, or, if he did them, had done with inexcusable presumption, reproving in another that which he himself had done. They, in answering him, gave the best interpretation of the passage which they could find; what interpretation have you to propound? Surely you must intend to say something better than they have said, since you have rejected the opinion of the ancient commentators.Letters · letter_112 1:23Jerome17. Peter therefore pretended to keep the law; but this censor of Peter boldly observed the things prescribed by the law. The next words of your letter are these: "For if Paul observed these sacraments in order, by pretending to be a Jew, to gain the Jews, why did he not also take part with the Gentiles in heathen sacrifices, when to them that were without law he became as without law, that he might gain them also? The explanation is found in this, that he took part in the Jewish rites as being himself a Jew; and that when he said all this which I have quoted, he meant not that he pretended to be what he was not, but that he felt with true compassion that he must bring such help to them as would be needful for himself if he were involved in their error. Herein he exercised not the subtlety of a deceiver, but the sympathy of a compassionate deliverer." A triumphant vindication of Paul! You prove that he did not pretend to share the error of the Jews, but was actually involved in it; and that he refused to imitate Peter in a course of deception, dissembling through fear of the Jews what he really was, but without reserve freely avowed himself to be a Jew. Oh, unheard of compassion of the apostle! In seeking to make the Jews Christians, he himself became a Jew! For he could not have persuaded the luxurious to become temperate if he had not himself become luxurious like them; and could not have brought help, in his compassion, as you say, to the wretched, otherwise than by experiencing in his own person their wretchedness! Truly wretched, and worthy of most compassionate lamentation, are those who, carried away by vehemence of disputation, and by love for the law which has been abolished, have made Christ's apostle to be a Jew. Nor is there, after all, a great difference between my opinion and yours: for I say that both Peter and Paul, through fear of the believing Jews, practised, or rather pretended to practise, the precepts of the Jewish law; whereas you maintain that they did this out of pity, "not with the subtlety of a deceiver, but with the sympathy of a compassionate deliverer." But by both this is equally admitted, that (whether from fear or from pity) they pretended to be what they were not. As to your argument against our view, that he ought to have become to the Gentiles a Gentile, if to the Jews he became a Jew, this favours our opinion rather than yours: for as he did not actually become a Jew, so he did not actually become a heathen; and as he did not actually become a heathen, so he did not actually become a Jew. His conformity to the Gentiles consisted in this, that he received as Christians the uncircumcised who believed in Christ, and left them free to use without scruple meats which the Jewish law prohibited; but not, as you suppose, in taking part in their worship of idols. For "in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but the keeping of the commandments of God."Letters · letter_116 1:2JeromeA long letter in which Augustine for the third time (see Letters 56, 67) restates his opinion about Jerome's theory of the dispute between Peter and Paul at Antioch. In doing so, however, he disclaims all desire to hurt Jerome's feelings, apologizes for the tone of his previous letters, and again explains that it is not his fault that they have failed so long to reach Jerome. Written shortly after the preceding. Sometimes numbered as Augustine letter 82.Letters · letter_116 1:17Jerome13. You say, however, that in this discussion we must beware of affirming, with the philosophers, that some of the actions of men lie in a region between right and wrong, and are to be reckoned, accordingly, neither among good actions nor among the opposite; and it is urged in your argument that the observance of legal ceremonies cannot be a thing indifferent, but either good or bad; so that if I affirm it to be good, I acknowledge that we also are bound to observe these ceremonies; but if I affirm it to be bad, I am bound to believe that the apostles observed them not sincerely, but in a way of dissimulation. I, for my part, would not be so much afraid of defending the apostles by the authority of philosophers, since these teach some measure of truth in their dissertations, as of pleading on their behalf the practice of advocates at the bar, in sometimes serving their clients' interests at the expense of truth. If, as is stated in your exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians, this practice of barristers may be in your opinion with propriety quoted as resembling and justifying dissimulation on the part of Peter and Paul, why should I fear to allege to you the authority of philosophers whose teaching we account worthless, not because everything which they say is false, but because they are in most things mistaken, and wherein they are found affirming truth, are notwithstanding strangers to the grace of Christ, who is the Truth?Lives of Illustrious Men 12:2JeromeLucius Annaeus Seneca of Cordova disciple of the Stoic Sotion and uncle of Lucan the Poet, was a man of most continent life, whom I should not place in the category of saints were it not that those Epistles of Paul to Seneca and Seneca to Paul, which are read by many, provoke me. In these, written when he was tutor of Nero and the most powerful man of that time, he says that he would like to hold such a place among his countrymen as Paul held among Christians. He was put to death by Nero two years before Peter and Paul were crowned with martyrdom.The Sacred History · Book 2 29:2Sulpicius SeverusLuke made known the doings of the apostles up to the time when Paul was brought to Rome under the emperor Nero. As to Nero, I shall not say that he was the worst of kings, but that he was worthily held the basest of all men, and even of wild beasts. It was he who first began a persecution; and I am not sure but hew will be the last also to carry it on, if, indeed, we admit, as many are inclined to believe, that he will yet appear immediately before the coming of Antichrist. Our subject would induce me to set forth his vices at some length, if it were not inconsistent with the purpose of this work to enter upon so vast a topic. I content myself with the remark, that he showed himself in every way most abominable and cruel, and at length even went so far as to be the murderer of his own mother. After this, he also married a certain Pythagoras in the style of solemn alliances, the bridal veil being put upon the emperor, while the usual dowry, and the marriage couch, and wedding torches, and, in short, all the other observances were forthcoming-things which even in the ease of women, are not looked upon without some feeling of modesty. But as to his other actions, I doubt whether the description of them would excite greater shame or sorrow.He first attempted to abolish the name of Christian, in accordance with the fact that vices are always inimical to virtues, and that all good men are ever regarded by the wicked as casting reproach upon them. For, at that time, our divine religion had obtained a wide prevalence in the city. Peter was there executing the office of bishop, and Paul, too, after he had been brought to Rome, on appealing to Caesar from the unjust judgment of the governor. Multitudes then came together to hear Paul, and these, influenced by the truth which they were given to know, and by the miracles of the apostles, which they then so frequently performed, turned to the worship of God. For then took place the well-known and celebrated encounter of Peter and Paul with Simon. He, after he had flown up into the air by his magical arts, and supported by two demons (with the view of proving that he was a god), the demons being put to flight by the prayers of the apostles, fell to the earth in the sight of all the people, and was dashed to pieces.Letters 85:11Augustine of Hippo11. We have learned, therefore, that through fear of the Jews both Peter and Paul alike pretended that they observed the precepts of the law. How could Paul have the assurance and effrontery to reprove in another what he had done himself? I at least, or, I should rather say, others before me, have given such explanation of the matter as they deemed best, not defending the use of falsehood in the interest of religion, as you charge them with doing, but teaching the honourable exercise of a wise discretion; seeking both to show the wisdom of the apostles, and to restrain the shameless blasphemies of Porphyry, who says that Peter and Paul quarrelled with each other in childish rivalry, and affirms that Paul had been inflamed with envy on account of the excellences of Peter, and had written boastfully of things which he either had not done, or, if he did them, had done with inexcusable presumption, reproving in another that which he himself had done. They, in answering him, gave the best interpretation of the passage which they could find; what interpretation have you to propound? Surely you must intend to say something better than they have said, since you have rejected the opinion of the ancient commentators.Letters 86:7Augustine of Hippo17. Peter therefore pretended to keep the law; but this censor of Peter boldly observed the things prescribed by the law. The next words of your letter are these: "For if Paul observed these sacraments in order, by pretending to be a Jew, to gain the Jews, why did he not also take part with the Gentiles in heathen sacrifices, when to them that were without law he became as without law, that he might gain them also? The explanation is found in this, that he took part in the Jewish rites as being himself a Jew; and that when he said all this which I have quoted, he meant not that he pretended to be what he was not, but that he felt with true compassion that he must bring such help to them as would be needful for himself if he were involved in their error. Herein he exercised not the subtlety of a deceiver, but the sympathy of a compassionate deliverer." A triumphant vindication of Paul! You prove that he did not pretend to share the error of the Jews, but was actually involved in it; and that he refused to imitate Peter in a course of deception, dissembling through fear of the Jews what he really was, but without reserve freely avowed himself to be a Jew. Oh, unheard of! compassion of the apostle! In seeking to make the Jews Christians, he himself became a Jew! For he could not have persuaded the luxurious to become temperate if he had not himself become luxurious like them; and could not have brought help, in his compassion, as you say, to the wretched, otherwise than by experiencing in his own person their wretchedness! Truly wretched, and worthy of most compassionate lamentation, are those who, carried away by vehemence of disputation, and by love for the law which has been abolished, have made Christ'sapostle to be a Jew. Nor is there, after all, a great difference between my opinion and yours: for I say that both Peter and Paul, through fear of the believing Jews, practised, or rather pretended to practise, the precepts of the Jewish law; whereas you maintain that they did this out of pity, "not with the subtlety of a deceiver, but with the sympathy of a compassionate deliverer." But by both this is equally admitted, that (whether from fear or from pity) they pretended to be what they were not. As to your argument against our view, that he ought to have become to the Gentiles a Gentile, if to the Jews he became a Jew, this favours our opinion rather than yours: for as he did not actually become a Jew, so he did not actually become a heathen; and as he did not actually become a heathen, so he did not actually become a Jew. His conformity to the Gentiles consisted in this, that he received as Christians the uncircumcised who believed in Christ, and left them free to use without scruple meats which the Jewish law prohibited; but not, as you suppose, in taking part in their worship of idols. For "in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but the keeping of the commandments of God."Letters 90:11Augustine of Hippo73. You say, however, that in this discussion we must beware of affirming, with the philosophers, that some of the actions of men lie in a region between right and wrong, and are to be reckoned, accordingly, neither among good actions nor among the opposite; and it is urged in your argument that the observance of legal ceremonies cannot be a thing indifferent, but either good or bad; so that if I affirm it to be good, I acknowledge that we also are bound to observe these ceremonies; but if I affirm it to be bad, I am bound to believe that the apostles observed them not sincerely, but in a way of dissimulation. I, for my part, would not be so much afraid of defending the apostles by the authority of philosophers, since these teach some measure of truth in their dissertations, as of pleading on their behalf the practice of advocates at the bar, in sometimes serving their clients' interests at the expense of truth. If, as is stated in your exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians, this practice of barristers may be in your opinion with propriety quoted as resembling and justifying dissimulation on the part of Peter and Paul, why should I fear to allege to you the authority of philosophers whose teaching we account worthless, not because everything which they say is false, but because they are in most things mistaken, and wherein they are found affirming truth, are notwithstanding strangers to the grace of Christ, who is the Truth?Letters 108:6Augustine of Hippo31. By all means remember to pray earnestly for me. I would not have you yield such deference to the office fraught with perils which I bear, as to refrain from giving the assistance which I know myself to need. Prayer was made by the household of Christ for Peter and for Paul. I rejoice that you are in His household; and I need, incomparably more than Peter and Paul did, the help of the prayers of the brethren. Emulate each other in prayer with a holy rivalry, with one heart, for you wrestle not against each other, but against the devil, who is the common enemy of all the saints. "By fasting, by vigils, and all mortification of the body, prayer is greatly helped." 2 Let each one do what she can; what one cannot herself do, she does by another who can do it, if she loves in another that which personal inability alone hinders her from doing; wherefore let her who can do less not keep back the one who can do more, and let her who can do more not urge unduly her who can do less. For your conscience is responsible to God; to each other owe nothing but mutual love. May the Lord, who is able to do above what we ask or think, give ear to your prayers.3ON THE PSALMS · Psalm 104 1:8Augustine of Hippo7. "From Thy rebuke they shall fly" (ver. 7). And this was done, brethren; from God's rebuke the waters did fly; that is, they went back from pressing on the mountains. Now the mountains themselves stand forth, Peter and Paul: how do they tower! They who before were pressed down by persecutors, now are venerated by emperors. For the waters are fled from the rebuke of God; because "the heart of kings is in the hand of God, He hath bent it whither He would;" He commanded peace to be given by them to the Christians; the authority of the Apostles sprang up and towered high. ...The waters fled from the rebuke of God. "From the voice of Thy thunder they shall be afraid." Now who is there that would not be afraid, from the voice of God through the Apostles, the voice of God through the Scriptures, through His clouds? The sea is quieted, the waters have been made afraid, the mountains have been laid bare, the emperor hath given the order. But who would have given the order, unless God had thundered? Because God willed, they commanded, and it was done. Therefore let no one of men arrogate anything to himself.Sermons · Sermon 279 2:4Augustine of HippoWe renew the Christian day in memory of your Charity; although it cannot happen that it be erased from your hearts by forgetfulness. But we commend this, because both the pagan and the impious due to some other reasons gradually become obsolete in their own causes, thus it seems the pagans also celebrate the same day. Badly, wickedly, unhappily: but how many are freed from this, it is before your eyes. These things will grow old; but do not help them, distinguish yourselves from them, seek divine things. We are about to celebrate the day of Saint John, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord, the friend of the bridegroom, with all chastity, with all sobriety. When they admire you for being different from their joys, so they gradually follow: and all those things will grow old, and they will perish. Listen to the prophet, and see it fulfilled, see it done as predicted: Listen to me, you who know judgment. The prophet Isaiah, God through him. Listen to me, you who know judgment; my people, in whose heart my law is. Do not fear the reproach of men, and do not be overcome by their detraction; nor should you esteem it as great that they despise you. For just as a garment is consumed over time, and like wool is eaten by the moth. But my righteousness endures forever. Therefore, be secure, brothers, be completely secure. They grow old, diminish: they will end, either by believing, or by dying. No matter how much they clamor, no matter how much they indulge in carnal pleasure, no matter how much they babble wickedly and dance against the divine songs of Christ, they are fewer today than yesterday. Therefore, brothers, tomorrow we will celebrate, as I said, in the name of the Lord, Saint John the Baptist. After seven days, that is on the Sabbath day, we will also celebrate the natal day of the holy martyrs Peter and Paul.Sermons · Sermon 295 1:2Augustine of HippoOn the Natal Day of the Apostles Peter and PaulSermons · Sermon 295 1:4Augustine of HippoThis day has been consecrated for us by the passion of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul. We do not speak of some obscure martyrs. Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. These martyrs saw what they preached, following righteousness, confessing the truth, and dying for the truth. Blessed Peter, the first of the Apostles, a fervent lover of Christ, who deserved to hear: And I say to you, that you are Peter. For he had said: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ to him: And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Upon this rock I will build the faith which you confess. Upon this which you said: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my Church. For you are Peter. From the rock Peter, not from Peter the rock. Thus from the rock Peter, just as from Christ Christian. Do you want to know from what rock Peter is called? Hear Paul: For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers; the Apostle of Christ says: I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ. Behold whence Peter.Sermons · Sermon 295 1:13Augustine of HippoListen, my brothers: "Feed," He said, "my lambs, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep:" did He say: Yours? "Feed, good servant, the Lord's sheep, having the Lord's mark. For has Paul been crucified for you? or have you been baptized in the name of Peter and Paul? Therefore feed His sheep, washed by His Baptism, marked by His name, redeemed by His blood: "Feed," He said, "my sheep." For heretical wicked and runaway servants, dividing among themselves what they did not purchase, and making from stolen goods their own wealth, seem to themselves to be feeding their own sheep. For what else is it, I ask you, except: If I baptize you, you will be unclean? If you do not have my Baptism, you will not be cleansed? Have you not heard: Cursed is everyone who puts his hope in man? Therefore, beloved, those whom Peter baptized are Christ’s sheep, and those whom Judas baptized are Christ’s sheep. For see what the bridegroom says to his beloved in the Song of Songs, when the bride said to him: "Tell me, whom my soul loves, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon; lest I become like one who is veiled, over the flocks of your companions." Tell me, he said, where you pasture, where you lie down at noon, in the brightness of truth, in the fervor of charity. Why are you afraid, O beloved? What are you afraid of? "Lest I become," he said, "like one who is veiled," that is, like one who is obscure, like one who is not the Church; because the Church is not veiled: For the city set on a hill cannot be hidden. And wandering I may fall, not among your flock, but among the flocks of your companions. Even heretics are called companions. They went out from us: they approached the one table with us, before they went out. Therefore, what is answered to her? Unless you know yourself: the bridegroom says, answering her who asks: Unless you know yourself, O beautiful among women. O true among the heresies, unless you know yourself: because so much has been predicted about you: In your seed all nations will be blessed: God of gods, the Lord has spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting: Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession: their voice went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world: these testimonies have been predicted about you. Unless therefore you know yourself, go out. For I do not cast you out, that those who remain may say of you: They went out from us. Go out in the tracks of the flocks: not of the flock, of which it was said: There will be one flock and one shepherd. Go out in the tracks of the flocks, and feed your kids: not as Peter, my sheep. For these sheep entrusted to him, Peter deserved to be crowned with martyrdom, which by today’s solemnity he deserved to be celebrated throughout the world.Sermons · Sermon 296 1:2Augustine of HippoOn the Birthday of the Holy Apostles Peter and PaulSermons · Sermon 297 1:2Augustine of HippoON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE APOSTLES PETER AND PAULSermons · Sermon 298 1:2Augustine of HippoTREATISE ON THE FEAST OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAULSermons · Sermon 298 1:3Augustine of HippoThe birthdays of Peter and Paul are to be celebrated with greater frequency.Sermons · Sermon 298 1:4Augustine of HippoWe indeed ought to celebrate the day of such great martyrs, that is, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, with greater attendance. For if we very often celebrate the birthdays of lambs, how much more should we celebrate those of rams? For about the faithful, whom the Apostles gained through their preaching, it is written: Bring to the Lord the sons of rams. Through the straits of sufferings, through the way full of thorns, through the tribulations of persecutions, so that the faithful may pass after them, they had the Apostles as leaders. Blessed Peter, the first of the Apostles, and blessed Paul, the last of the Apostles, who duly worshipped Him who said: I am the first, and I am the last, met on one day of passion: the first and the last. Peter was the ordainer of Saint Stephen. When Stephen the martyr was ordained as a deacon, among other Apostles, the Apostle Peter ordained him. Peter, his ordainer; Paul, his persecutor. But let us not seek the former things of Paul; let us rejoice in the latter things of the last one. For if we seek the former things, even those of Peter himself will not please us enough. We have said that Paul was the persecutor of Stephen. Let us look at Peter, the denier of the Lord. Peter washed his denial of the Lord with tears; Paul expiated the persecution of Stephen with blindness. Peter wept before the lash; Paul also endured the lash. Both good, both holy, both most devoted: their letters are read daily to the peoples. And to which peoples? and to how many peoples? Consider the Psalm: Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. And we give proof: for those words have come to us too, and have awakened us from sleep, and turned us from the madness of unbelief to the health of faith.Sermons · Sermon 298 1:5Augustine of HippoFirst and foremost, Peter and Paul, the wound of love.Sermons · Sermon 298 1:6Augustine of HippoI say these things, beloved, rejoicing indeed on this day because of such a great feast, but somewhat saddened, because I do not see as great a crowd gathered as ought to have been gathered on the birthday of the Apostles' passion. If it were hidden from us, it would not be attributed to us; but since it is not hidden from anyone, what is this great laziness? Do you not love Peter and Paul? I speak to those in you who are not here. For I give thanks to you, for at least you have come. And is it possible for the spirit of any Christian not to love Peter and Paul? If he is still cold, let him read and love; if he still does not love, let him take the arrow of the word into his heart. For it is said about the apostles themselves: "Your arrows are sharp, powerful." By these arrows, what follows happened: "The peoples will fall under you." Such wounds are good. The wound of love is healing. The bride of Christ sings in the Song of Songs: "I am wounded by love." When is this wound healed? When our desire is satisfied with good things. It is called a wound as long as we desire and have not yet attained. For thus is love, thus there is also pain. When we have arrived, when we have attained, then the pain passes, the love does not diminish.Sermons · Sermon 299 1:2Augustine of HippoON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE APOSTLES PETER AND PAULSermons · Sermon 299 1:5Augustine of HippoTo preaching to preachers, and such great preachers, of whom we have heard and sung, that their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world, without a doubt, no words of ours suffice. We owe devotion, we do not fulfill your expectation. For you expect of us today to preach the apostles Peter and Paul, whose solemn day this is. I acknowledge what you expect; and where I acknowledge, I succumb. For I see what is expected, and from whom. But because their God deigns to be praised by all of us, let not his servants disdain to be preached in some measure by those who serve you.Sermons · Sermon 299A 1:2Augustine of HippoTREATISE ON THE NATAL DAY OF THE APOSTLES PETER AND PAULSermons · Sermon 299A 1:3Augustine of HippoA genuine birth that differs from the birth of martyrs. Peter and Paul suffered on the same day, not in the same year. Why Peter was questioned three times by Christ.Sermons · Sermon 299A 1:4Augustine of HippoThe birth of the most blessed apostles Peter and Paul has enlightened us today; not a birth that entangled them in the world, but one that delivered them from the world. Indeed, a man is born into travail through human weakness; martyrs are born to a crown through Christian love. And this day has been set before us as a celebration of their merit and an imitation of their sanctity; so that remembering the glory of the martyrs, we may love in them what those who killed them hated, and loving virtue, we may honor suffering. In virtue, merit was obtained, in suffering, the reward was restored. One day of two martyrs and two apostles: as we have received by the tradition of the Church, they did not suffer on one day, and yet they did suffer on one day. Today Peter suffered first, today Paul suffered later: passion equaled the merit, love anticipated the day; this was caused in them by Him who was in them, who suffered in them, who suffered with them, who helped those struggling, who crowned the victors. Let us therefore hear from the Gospel the merit of Peter; let us hear from the apostolic letter the merit of Paul. The Gospel has just been recited, we have just heard: The Lord said to Peter: Simon Peter, do you love me? And he said: I love you, Lord; and again the Lord: Feed my sheep. He asked the third time for the same reason he had asked twice. It pertained to Him to ask a third time, Peter was already weary of responding a third time. Peter, it is said in the Gospel, was saddened because the Lord asked him the third time, and he said: Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. And the Lord: Feed my sheep. He who asks what he knows wishes to teach something. What therefore did the Lord wish to teach by asking Peter three times what he already knew? What do we think, brothers, if not that love should take away weakness, and that Peter should know he must confess love three times, who had denied three times through fear? The merit of Peter, which is that he fed the sheep of God; let us hear again the merit of Paul: He said to his disciple, foretelling his future suffering and removing his fear by his own example: I charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his manifestation and his kingdom. He bound him by this charge and added: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season.Sermons · Sermon 299A augm 1:3Augustine of Hippoon the birthday of the holy apostles Peter and PaulSermons · Sermon 299A augm 1:5Augustine of HippoThe feast day of the holy day that gathers us today, very well known to your ears, minds, and actions, we joyfully commemorate as participants with you in the same celebration. The birth of the apostles Peter and Paul has dawned, a birth not which entangled them in the world, but which liberated them from the world. For through human frailty, a man is born to trouble, but through Christian charity, martyrs are born to a crown. And this day, on account of their merit, is offered to us as a festal day to celebrate with solemnity and to imitate their sanctity, so that, remembering the glory of the martyrs, we may love in them what those who killed them hated, and loving virtue, we may honor their passion. In virtue, merit is gained, in suffering, the reward is restored [in coronation]. One day for two martyrs and two apostles: as we have received by Church tradition, not on one day both suffered, and on one day both suffered. Today, Peter suffered first, today Paul suffered afterwards: merit equaled the suffering, love rushed to the day. This was accomplished in them by Him who was in them, who suffered in them, who suffered with them, who helped those contending, who crowned those who conquered. But because we have mentioned that the day was set before us for a solemnity, not vainly nor for celebrating carnal joy, but for imitating spiritual crowns – and all wish to be crowned, few wish to contend – according to the order of sufferings, not according to the order of readings, let us hear from the Gospel the merit of Peter, let us hear from the apostolic letter the merit of Paul.Sermons · Sermon 299B 1:2Augustine of HippoA Treatise on the Birth of the Holy Apostles Peter and PaulSermons · Sermon 299C 1:2Augustine of HippoTREATISE ON THE BIRTHDAY OF THE HOLY APOSTLES PETER AND PAULSermons · Sermon 299C 1:4Augustine of HippoThe blessed apostles Peter and Paul were called at different times, and crowned on the same day. The Lord called Peter before everyone else, Paul after everyone else. Peter was first among the apostles, Paul was last: He brought them to one day, the first and the last. The most beautiful integrity is preserved when the last harmonize with the first. The apostle Peter wavered on the sea: Peter alone wavered, but he alone walked on the sea. He alone denied the Lord out of fear, but he alone followed the Lord out of love unto danger. The blessed John was there too, but he relied upon the friendship of the high priest; for John was a friend of the high priest, to whose house the Lord was taken. Peter followed out of love: weakness quivered, but love wept, and the weakness received pardon. Paul, however, first Saul, was even an enemy of Christ; he persecuted Christians very vehemently. When the first martyr Stephen the saint suffered, he was there; when he was being stoned, he guarded the garments of all those stoning him. It seemed too little to him if he were to stone with his own hands only; he was in the hands of all whose garments he kept. After this, when the most blessed Stephen was killed and first crowned – for his name in Greek indicates a crown – this very vehement enemy received letters from the chief priests to lead anyone he found following this path in chains to punishment. Therefore, he went to Damascus, raging, gasping for slaughter, thirsting for blood. He who dwelled in the heavens, according to the psalm, laughed at him, and the Lord mocked him. Why do you rage violently, about to soon endure suffering yourself? How little to the Lord Christ was it to save an enemy, to cast down a persecutor with a single voice from above, to raise up a preacher! Saul, he said, Saul, still Saul, why do you persecute me?Sermons · Sermon 381 1:2Augustine of HippoOn the Birthdays of the Apostles Peter and PaulSermons · Sermon 381 1:4Augustine of HippoThe day of the apostles Peter and Paul, on which they deserved the triumphal crown after defeating the devil, as the Roman faith testifies, is today. For them, a solemn festival is celebrated, and a solemn sermon should also be given. Let them hear praises from us, let them pour out prayers for us. According to the tradition of the fathers, it is remembered that they were not martyred on the same day during the passage of time. Therefore, Paul suffered on Peter's birthday, not the day he was born from his mother's womb into the number of men, but the day he was born from the bond of flesh into the light of Angels; and thus single days were given to both, so that now one is celebrated for both. This seems to me to be a great sign of harmony: the last called to the same day as his co-apostle, crowned on the same day he was called. He was chosen before the Lord's passion, the other after His ascension. Unequal in the order of time, equal in the eternity of happiness: one from a fisherman, the other from a persecutor. In the former, the weak things of the world were chosen to confound the strong; in the latter, sin abounded so that grace might abound. In both, the great grace and glory of God have manifested, who made their merits, not found them. For what else did He aim to demonstrate, who first wished to call fishermen to the kingdom and was later to call emperors, except that he who glories may glory in the Lord? For indeed, He did not despise the salvation of the noble, learned, and powerful, but placed the lowly, unlearned, and weak above them. But unless the lowliness of the weak had first been chosen, the pride of the lofty would not be healed. If the rich had first been called by Christ, they would think and say that nothing but wealth, eloquent doctrine, the splendor of knowledge, nobility, and royal power was chosen. And thus, swollen with temporal and secular felicities, they would think they were first contributing these things to Christ, so that He would seem to return to them what they would become by God's grace, neither understanding nor holding it tightly. How much better, how much more orderly is it then that He first raises the poor from the earth and lifts the needy from the dungheap to set them with the powerful of His people; so that the gift of understanding and doctrine is not only from God but also appears to be from God? How great then is the joy and glory of God when we see the scorn of the wealth of an emperor by the soul of a fisherman? The prayers of the emperor are poured out at the memory of the fisherman? so that the former is not cast down by what he did not have, nor the latter puffed up by what he had? And what Christ worked in Paul, making him from a persecutor into a preacher, how much this may contribute to human salvation, let the Apostle himself speak that no one conscious of great sins may despair of God's mercy. Human speech, he says, is worthy of full acceptance, because Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, among whom I am the first. But for this reason, I received mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show all long-suffering, as a pattern for those who are going to believe in Him for eternal life. Who, then, being inspired by such a great example, could despair of salvation under the hand of the Almighty Physician, considering that he who once ravaged the faith he now preaches, not only escaped the punishment of the persecutor but also deserved the crown of the teacher, and whose blood he sought in his members to shed in his rage, he poured out his own blood in faith for His name? Therefore, Rome has the head of the nations, two lights of the nations kindled by Him who illuminates every man coming into this world: one, in which God elevated humble weakness; the other, in which He healed condemnable sin. In the one, let us learn not to boast; in the other, not to despair. How briefly the great examples set before us teach, how beneficial they are; which we should always remember, and in their praise magnify the true light. Therefore, let no one exalt himself in the lofty status of this world: Peter was a fisherman. Let no one flee from God's mercy by thinking of their own sinfulness: Paul was a persecutor. The former says: The Lord became a refuge for the poor; the latter says: I will teach the wicked Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.