Tractates of Maximus of Turin (Bruni's collection) 5.1

The Jews speak according to the letter, not according to … reason urges us … brothers, a little … against the Jews, or … with your holiness … and first I must show this, that from the beginning of the world this people is rejected by divine providence, and the people that follows is chosen and taken from the Gentiles, that is, the Christian people; and so that what we say may be more surely proved, let us begin from the first man himself, Adam. Adam begot Cain and Abel. Cain, the elder by birth, designated the people of the Jews. He is rejected for his crime, and Abel, the younger by birth, is taken up, who showed forth the Christian people; for God rejected Cain's sacrifices and accepted Abel's sacrifice. Abel himself is killed by Cain, and another son of Adam is born in his place, named Seth. Consider the mystery: Abel is interpreted 'mourning', Seth 'resurrection'. So in these two younger brothers … because it is commanded, and that he should leave his former errors and old vices and go out from there, and be made into a great nation, that is, into the faithful Christian people spread through the whole world; whence the Scripture announced, saying: "You nations shall be the head", the Christian; but the unbelieving people in the tail, that is, the Jews. Abraham begot two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael, the elder by birth, was of the slave woman Hagar; Isaac, the younger by birth, of the free woman Sarah; which our apostle Paul, who himself too had believed from among the Jews, expressed: "We are no longer children of the slave woman but of the free." … you see that the former is rejected and the latter taken up; and Jacob himself blesses the sons of Joseph, his younger son. Now you understand that in Joseph too, the younger son, he shows forth the Christian people. So Jacob blesses those two boys, and puts his left hand on the head of the elder and his right on the head of the younger, to show that the younger would be more honoured and greater. Moses too receives the tablets and because of the people's fault throws them down; a second time he receives others written and keeps them, and in the sacred volumes … "A prophet from your nation and from your brothers, like me; hear him. For every soul which does not go to that prophet shall perish from his people." He called Christ a prophet because he is the prophet of his Father and God; but he is Lord and God of every creature. Of him Moses spoke again in the book of Genesis: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth"; here naming the Son as the beginning, in whom God the Father made heaven and earth; which our apostle Paul, confirming Moses' account, expressed, saying that in Christ were created all things that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, and the rest that follows there. "In the beginning," then, "God made heaven and earth." The beginning is Christ, who said through Solomon: "The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works" … or the world was founded … to prepare the heaven … Christ the Lord, the Son of God, is himself … he said … "a firmament, and the firmament was made; let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, so that they may shine upon the earth; and he made two lights, the greater and the lesser: the greater light for the beginning of the day, and the lesser light for the beginning of the night." So God said, and God made. Hear further: God says, "Let us make man in our image and likeness; and God made man, in the image of God he made him." Perhaps the Jew says: 'God spoke to the angels.' He is refuted by what is said, 'and God made man'; for it does not say the angels made, but God, it says, made man. God said, and God made: that is, the Father commanded and the Son carried it out. And consider also what is written about Abraham, that God appeared to him at the oak of Mamre; and afterward Scripture has, at the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, that the Lord rained fire and sulphur from the Lord on those cities. So there is Father and Son: from the Father, that is, at whose command, the Son rained fire and sulphur. In the Son, then, God made heaven and earth, who was before heaven and earth: were not the angels, archangels and all spiritual virtues and powers made before? So the saying, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth," is declared to have been said in Christ, in whose person David too said: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and all their power by the breath of his mouth." This is the Son of God, of whom again David himself said in the second psalm: "The Lord said to me: You are my Son; today I have begotten you." See the second mystery: in the second psalm this is said … the second, the Son … most certainly God the Son, whom he begot, not as men do, but as befitted God to beget, impassibly, incorruptibly, from himself: one begot one, alone alone, God God, king king, unbegotten unbegotten, Father Son, author Word, creator creator, eternal eternal, Spirit Spirit, light light, splendour splendour, holy holy, good good, merciful merciful, perfect perfect. To this Son again David spoke, saying: "Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of equity is the sceptre of your kingdom. You have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you." See that, speaking to God, he said to him, "God, your God, has anointed you"; that is, your Father anointed you the Son with that ointment of eternal joy, of the eternal sacrament and heavenly mystery; or further … "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand." … this king had a Lord, to whom the Lord his God had said, "Sit at my right hand." Who is this Lord to whom God the Father had spoken, if not our Lord Christ his Son? For hear again the Father speaking of his Christ: "I have prepared a lamp for my Christ; I will clothe his enemies with confusion." "I have prepared a lamp for my Christ," that is, the Church, shining and burning with his light, the number of the faithful, which, having received in the heart the light of truth and belief, leaves behind the darkness of unbelief and ignorance. "I have prepared a lamp for my Christ": again we understand it to be said of holy John, a lamp enlightening the people about this Lord Saviour and about his coming in the flesh that was to be. And most holy Isaiah said: "Be strong," he says, "you slack hands and weak knees"; and a little after he says: "Our God will render judgment; he himself will come and save you: then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear," and the rest. And Baruch said of Christ: "This is our God; no other shall be reckoned beside him. He found out every way of prudence and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved; after this he was seen on earth and lived among men": so that it was not God the Father who was seen and lived among men, but the Son of God, of whose coming in the incarnation Isaiah again announced, saying: "God has revealed his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the nations will see upon the earth the salvation that is from God." And further he repeats again and says: "Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us." God with us, that is, God in man, the Word in flesh, majesty in a body. He came down like rain upon the fleece; not with pomp, not with noise; but the heavenly king entered the world humble. About to give triumphs of immortality and peace to all, he took a human body, so that meanwhile he might overshadow his brightness by the veil of the body, and God might speak to man through man as interpreter. In that temple of the body was God, so that he might make mortal man immortal. But the Jew does not believe, nor does the pagan; they do not believe that a virgin bore without union with a man. Let them hear and believe about the Saviour's birth from a virgin, that the holy angel sent by God the Father said to the most holy Virgin Mary herself: "The Holy Spirit," he says, "will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy one who will be born of you will be called the Son of God." That immaculate Spirit, that is, the Son of God, pure, holy, secure in himself, took human flesh from holy Mary and made flesh for himself by his own power and ability. For if he granted to some birds that they conceive from the wind or from dust without males, and … how much more could he himself, as has been said, fashion a body for himself; and if again birds bring forth living chicks from eggs by the overshadowing of their wings, and the earth without intercourse produces some living things, such as worms and the rest, how much more could God build in wonderful ways among men the temple of his body; who, if he had wished, could have made himself a body from stone or wood or water or earth, inasmuch as he had also formed the first man Adam from that clay of the earth; he took human flesh to show that he had come for men. For that is why he willed to be born in our likeness and to die and rise again, so that he might show in himself that we too die and rise again, and might show us the hope of future resurrection. But the Jew says: 'So God had to be born of a woman.' The flesh of Christ was given from a woman, whom God made, and the majesty of Christ cannot be polluted in the flesh; for if the shining sun is not defiled by any touch, much more could the Lord of the sun not be defiled, even if the pure touched the pure. Him we have as guide of the journey, because he is the way to the Father; as prince of light, because he is the truth, who has poured the light of truth into us; as author of salvation, because what was made in him is life, who with the Father gives life to all things: through him we always give thanks to God the Father, brothers. But still the unbelieving Jews sometimes dare to wish to disparage the Christian faith and to insult God's faithful people; hence we must again go over the divine volumes, which may confound them with open truth, so that they may understand that they are plainly without hope and without faith. These are the Jews whom holy Stephen rebuked with a clear voice, saying: "Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced the coming of this Just One, and you have become his betrayers and murderers." Holy Stephen said these things, of whom the blessed apostle Paul too says: "Always learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. For as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these too resist the truth, men corrupt in mind, reprobate in understanding." For they say: 'We have circumcision, and we are sons of Abraham'; to whom the Lord rightly said: "If you were sons of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham." 'We have circumcision,' they say; to whom we say: would that you had the fragrance of Abraham's faith and not of your faithlessness! You are rather sons of vipers, carrying poisons in yourselves, who bring death on your parents, and by the very act by which you kill others prepare destruction for yourselves. Of you, O Jews, the prophet David says: "They have gone astray from the womb, they have spoken falsehoods. Their anger is after the likeness of a serpent." And our apostle Paul says: "Whose god is their belly, and their glory in their shame, who mind earthly things." "They have gone astray," then, "from the womb, they have spoken falsehoods; their anger is after the likeness of a serpent": you who, shedding the inward parts and blood of your parents with viperous bites, and slipping down by the slipperiness of your crime, were rolling in the wounds of others; and who, by despising the precepts of the law through various guilty crimes, as through many precipices, have fallen by different falls. See now, if you can, how foul and base is he who stains himself with the blood of others. For we read … that contains no understanding of my light … the Lord said to them: "You are born of your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father." For the devil too, changed into a serpent, with deceitful tongues deceived by scheming malice the dutiful and untaught innocence of the new humans in paradise; following his madness these too, a serpent's brood, still try to deny Christ the Son of God. Against them, with the help of the Lord Christ himself, we have undertaken this disputation; to them we must further say: why do you claim to call Abraham your father and assert that you have received his circumcision? Abraham was justified by faith, not by circumcision. For so Scripture says: "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as justice, and he was called the friend of God." So Abraham was justified not by circumcision but by faith. For he believed the word of God and was justified, and obtained a blessing from God, both he and the seed of his faith. For consider, lest you think circumcision is the sign of the faithful: before Abraham all the saints were uncircumcised and pleased the Lord by purity of mind, and showed forth in themselves rather the Christian people. Run through the order set out in the most holy Letters, and you will find all to be as we say. First Adam himself, who was formed by the hands of God, remained uncircumcised; then Abel the just, Enos and Enoch, Noah and Melchizedek, priest of the most high God: all just, and neither circumcised according to the flesh, as we say, nor did they keep distinctions of foods. For as to Abraham's being said to have received circumcision, that circumcision does not have the reward of salvation, but had been given as a sign of the race … Israel, secondly … had already first circumcised … but it must be understood spiritually, because through the law, that is, through the precepts of the law, one must be circumcised from the worship of idols, and secondly be circumcised through the Gospel. The Jews say further: 'We are sons of Abraham'; to whom we say: you are sons of Abraham, but of the slave woman, of whom it is written: "Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman"; we are sons of the free woman in the glory of God. Your father is Ishmael, from whom you draw your race; our father is Isaac, from whom we draw our race. "In Isaac," it says, "shall your seed be called"; that most holy Isaac, whom to his longing parents … of whom it is said: "For in your seed all nations will be blessed"; he did not say 'in your seeds', but 'in your seed', which is Christ. This is that most holy Isaac, the chief offspring of a most merciful father, who was led patient to be a victim; who, as we said, bearing the image of Christ, neither contradicted his father's command nor refused to accept being a victim. So he is proved to be our father; your Jerusalem, the earthly city, is your mother; our Jerusalem, the heavenly city, is our mother; yours is that which perished, ours that which remains for ever; you are the former, we the latter; because Ishmael was first, then Isaac; because "the first will be last, and the last first." It is written: "You nations shall be the head, but the unbelieving people the tail." For Isaac himself too begot two sons, Esau and Jacob, of whom it had been said to Rebecca, Isaac's wife, by divine answer: "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be divided from your womb; and people will overcome people, and the elder will serve the younger"; because "Jacob," I say, "I loved, but Esau I hated." But this has already been mentioned above; for Jacob himself too is described as having had two wives, one Leah, the elder by birth, weak in the eyes; the other Rachel, the younger, beautiful. That Leah bore the figure of the synagogue, weak, as was said, in the eyes. Why weak in the eyes? Because the sight of the synagogue was languishing, and it often wept over itself in unbelieving sons. But this Rachel bore the figure of the Church, of which it is written: "Your eyes are beautiful like a dove's"; and again our apostle Paul says of her: "not having spot or wrinkle" or anything of the kind: her sight had been clear and spiritual. And understand how what the Apostle says in a mystery fits the Christian people: "The first man is from the earth, earthly; but the second man from heaven, heavenly. As is the earthly, so are the earthly; and as is the heavenly, so are the heavenly"; and "the law which is taken according to the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." For Moses, as we have mentioned, receiving the first tablets, threw them down broken, so as to show that your heart of stone is broken and rejected, but the heart of Christians fit for the divine laws and to be kept. Hence Scripture says of the Christian people: "Who show the work of the law written in their hearts." Knowing all these things, both from the law and from the prophets, and considering still greater things, the holy apostle Paul separated himself from you and would not bear a yoke with unbelievers, because there is no fellowship of light with darkness, nor part of the believer with the unbeliever; he turned to Christ above all, because he had been admonished by him to … depart … the Christian people … But the Jews say … the sign of salvation with us … in the sign of the Lord all, men and women alike, are signed; with the sign of the Lord we are signed on the forehead, as on the two doorposts, with the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, of whom it had already then been written in the law; which is known to have been fulfilled in the holy Gospel when you cried out, saying: "His blood be on us and on our children." But it befits us to say this savingly: his blood be on us and on our children; for you to condemnation, but for us to salvation; because you say it with one purpose, we with another understanding; you raging, we praying; you insulting, we humbly asking; you out of hatred, we out of love; you as the sorrowful, but we as always rejoicing. You chose a robber, because every animal turns to its like; we have chosen to serve the Lord. "We, then," says the Apostle, "are the Lord's"; you have followed the robber who reviled the Lord, we have followed the robber who on the cross adored and confessed the Lord: "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." To whom the Lord said: "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." O blessed that robber, who suddenly earned such holiness and passed over at the very moment of death to the light! And those two robbers showed, one your image, the other ours. You killed the Lord, and you rejoice: you killed him indeed, and yet you did not kill him; you killed him in will, but you did not kill him in truth, because Christ abides for ever. His body lay in the tomb, but Christ was reigning in heaven. For he could not enclose … is not enclosed in the tomb with the body, much more could the divinity not be enclosed. So Christ lives for ever; as the holy angel Gabriel too said to glorious Mary: "He will reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end"; and in the seventy-first psalm it is said of him: "In his days justice will arise, and abundance of peace." When he said: "Whoever strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever wishes to go to law with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well." What is more just, what more useful, than to overcome the impatient by patience, and rather to be pressed by losses than to sin by gaining! For these are the precepts of the justice of the Lord Saviour set down in the holy Gospel. And not to make it long by saying everything, after some things it follows: "and abundance of peace, until the moon is taken away." Abundance of peace, because he himself is the most pure spring of peace, in whom there are no turbulent quarrels, no bitterness of malice, but all fullness of sweetness and all tranquillity of goodness. Of him the prophet David himself said in another place: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet. Blessed is the man who hopes in him"; for the Lord said: "My peace I give you, my peace I leave you. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." And again he said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "And abundance," it says … but afterward it is raised and lifted up, when by the Lord's help it is brought to the heavenly kingdoms. It follows in the psalm: "And he will rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth"; that is, through all nations and through the whole world, wherever the circuit of the Ocean, spread far and wide, extends and encloses the ends of all lands. It follows: "Before him the Ethiopians will fall down, and his enemies will lick the earth." The Ethiopians are those spirits of darkness which in the sight of the Lord, that is, at his coming, troubled … but they are said to lick the earth, as these too … lick the earth? That is, they love the earthly letter and fleshly cunning, but do not seek spiritual grace? It follows in the psalm: "The kings of the earth and the islands offer gifts; the kings of the Arabs and of Sheba bring gifts." East and West, then; which was again made manifest in the holy Gospel when the magi came bringing gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh: gold, offering precious faith as to a king; sweet frankincense, a sacrifice of praise as to God; myrrh as a sign and service of burial. Again, gold for the king, frankincense for the priest, myrrh for the sacrifice: because Christ the Lord is king and priest and sacrifice. That he is king, he himself says: "But I have been set up as king by him"; that he is priest: "You," the Father says to him, "are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek." That he is a sacrifice the apostle Paul says: he "offered himself as an offering and victim to God for a fragrance of sweet odour." Gold, frankincense and myrrh. The king seeks gold, that is, chosen hearts; God seeks frankincense, chaste and good prayers for a fragrance of good scent; myrrh for the burial of his saints. So peoples from everywhere brought gifts to Christ. It follows in the psalm: "And all the kings of the earth will adore him; all nations will serve him"; which we see fulfilled, because everywhere the name of the Lord Christ is adored by all kings, at least Christian ones, and by all nations. But if there are some kings or some nations that will not adore, like you Jews, the eternal prison awaits, the judgment of God awaits: "God," says the prophet, "our God will come manifest and will not delay"; he who came hidden in humility will come manifest in power. Then all flesh, that is, every man, will see him, because we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what belongs to his body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil. For in the same psalm, at its beginning, it says: "O God, give your judgment to the king, and your justice to the king's son"; because the Lord Christ himself is both king and the king's son; and at the conclusion of the psalm it says: "The whole earth will be filled with his glory: so be it, so be it." And we, agreeing with the holy prophet, say with the Lord's voice: Amen, amen, that is, truly, faithfully. This repetition of the word contains in itself the confirmation of the truth. Thanks be to God. So the Jews are clearly refuted. With God's help let us speak against them thus, not with a desire to harm, so as to destroy them when conquered, far be that from us: a spiritual battle is waged for the salvation of men; let our weapons not be fleshly but mighty from God. So we desire to save them and to turn them under our king Christ. Let us not seek strife, then, because we seek the truth; we serve under a peaceful king and follow the camp of peace. And so, as I said, we wish to bring them from the stormy waves of error to the harbour of salvation, and through the court of truth to lead them into the royal house of our Lord, so that from enemies they may become friends, and from antichrists Christians. Let them see the spiritual pasture; let them see, if they deserve it, the heavenly banquet; let them see the Lord's table, and sing with us, with David the most holy prophet, saying: "The Lord feeds me, and I shall lack nothing; in a place of pasture there he has set me"; and again: "How lovely are your tabernacles, Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord." But against this persuasion the impious Jews contend, and prefer to die rather than be overcome, saying: 'We worship one God, as it is written in the books of Moses: "You shall have no other gods besides me," and "You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone"; and "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord." This precept,' they cry, 'was given to our fathers, and it is right and fitting for us to keep it.' To them we say: tell us, then, why your fathers, abandoning this one God, turned to idols? "And they made a calf in Horeb and worshipped a graven image, and changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eats grass"; and they served the host of heaven? They add: 'Let them see to that; we do not know.' To them we say: hear, then, and learn: this admonition was given by God for this reason, to turn them to himself … From there they presumed groves for themselves, from there unlawful sacrifices, from there many gods, from there false figments and empty idols. Therefore the Lord, wishing, as we said, to turn them from such great errors to the worship of his majesty, often thundered in sacred speech, saying: "You shall have no other gods besides me," and "You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him alone"; and: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord." For, so that you may know for certain what the Christian faith is, we believe in, worship and venerate this one Lord, invisible, incorporeal, immortal, without beginning and without end … that you may deserve, we take pains to preach the truth; and therefore after what we have said we take further divine testimonies, to prove that Christ is God and the Son of God, as we have already set out in some things. God the almighty Father says to Moses in Deuteronomy concerning Christ his Son: "I will raise up for them a prophet from their brothers like you; and I will put my word in his mouth, and he will speak to them whatever I tell him. And if anyone does not hear that prophet, I will avenge it." And again in Kingdoms we read: "I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to all that is in my heart"; and in the Gospel the Father himself says: "This is my most beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him." … he says; and him … he says, hear him … his word and fitting to them, he is proved to be, and the prophet, who is Christ the Lord, the Son of God. He is called the Father's prophet; but he is the Lord of the Father's prophets; prophet by merit, as preacher of his author, but himself bestowing the grace of prophecy on the rest. For as he is called prophet and angel by the Father, so it is written: "Behold, I send my angel before your face, who will prepare your way; observe him and obey him, and do not be disobedient to him; for he will not fail you; for my name is in him"; hence the Lord Christ himself said in the holy Gospel: "I have come in my Father's name, and you have not received me; when another comes in his own name, you will receive him"; and David said: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." But it is said … and the writings of the other prophets, and from there let us seek out the rule of truth and repeat what we have already brought forward. Blessed Moses, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, said in the book of Genesis: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." Notice this at once, that he began from the beginning and named the beginning, by which we understand Christ called the beginning, in whom God the Father made heaven and earth; he made heavenly and earthly things alike in Christ, that is, in his power, who ministered to the command of the one who ordered; in him he made, and he carried out whatever was commanded; for of the Father it is written: "He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and all things were created." So "in the beginning," that is … "God made heaven and earth"; "he created me the beginning of his ways for his works. Before the ages he founded me"; and again in the person of wisdom Christ himself says of himself through the prophet: "I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before every creature." So in this Son and through him, as has often been said, God the almighty Father made all things, as he said again in the psalm: "At the head of the book it is written of me." But, says the Jew, he who said is the same who made. To him we say: and what need was there for him to speak? If there was no other to hear and make, was he saying 'let it be' to himself? But again the Jew says: 'He spoke to the angels'; to whom we say: but the angels did not make; the text has, 'and God made' … the Jew; and he says: how … God to have a son … the Jew invisible, and … to whom again … we answer as the Lord did: "Is it not said in your law: I said, you are gods, and sons of the Most High? If he called them gods and sons of the Most High to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be broken, are you angry with me," says the Lord, "because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even if you will not believe me, believe the works." Then we say: what do the Jews make of what David says, without doubt in the person of Christ: "The Lord said to me: You are my Son; today I have begotten you"? And again in the person of the Father the most holy prophet David himself says to the Son: "With you is the beginning in the day of your power, in the splendours of the saints; from the womb before the morning star I have begotten you." Whom he begot … he says; so you believe that … we answer, so the Prophet … and we so believe … he begot … but as … of the holy divine generation … as befits God to beget, the Lord begot the Lord, light light, splendour splendour, the mighty the mighty, king king, one one, alone alone, eternal eternal, power power, creator creator. These things we have already said and say, as we are able. But that is inexplicable and unspeakable, how there is Father and Son; the Son of the Father, the Word of the Father, the power and wisdom of the Father, in whom and through whom the Father made all things. Understand this Word as the Son of God, whom he sent for the salvation of the world, as the prophet said: "He sent his Word and healed them." So he is called the Son of God who is the Word of the Father, not as you, with a fleshly and faulty sense, understand us to say that God begot in a fleshly way. For hear Isaiah the holy prophet saying of Christ: "But who will declare his generation?" Can it be said or explained how the Father begot the Son, how God brought forth the Word? … I wish to understand how you believe these things of Christ; to whom we say: hear: it is written, the Father saying: "With you is the beginning in the day of your power, in the splendours of the saints; from the womb before the morning star I have begotten you." He who says 'you' shows that there is another, that is, his Son, second from himself, to whom he says 'you'; he who says 'you' declares that there are two persons, the one speaking and the one to whom he speaks. "From the womb," he says, "before the morning star I have begotten you." By 'womb' here I understand the sense of majesty, the unspeakable fullness and deep mystery, the incomprehensible wisdom of God: "before the morning star I have begotten you"; either before the adornment of heaven, or before the beginning of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit himself is called the morning star, who pours the light of truth and good faith into human minds, and who through the prophets very often announced, like the morning star, the coming of Christ the eternal sun. For this Lord Christ, the Son of God, is known to have been seen by many saints before and to have appeared earlier: to Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, and the children of Israel in the pillar of fire and cloud, of whom God the Father had said: "Behold, I send my angel before your face, who will prepare your way before you"; and he was seen by the son of Nun, who also said: "I am the prince of the host of the power of the Lord"; he is certainly the Son of the Father; and he is called his angel, that is, messenger, and prophet, and priest, and servant, and advocate, and power, and wisdom, and the rest. For that he was seen by Abraham, hear the Scripture saying: "The angel of the Lord called Abraham from heaven and said: Abraham, Abraham, do not stretch out your hand against the boy" … whence in what follows you will find written that the Lord rained fire and sulphur from the Lord on the two cities Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you hear that the Lord rained from the Lord? Which Lord? From which Lord, if not the Son from the Father? For he appeared to Jacob too and wrestled with him; whence Jacob himself says: "I have seen the Lord face to face, and my soul has been saved"; certainly he had seen Christ, with whom he wrestled, in the figure of the body which he was afterward to take up. For of the Father it is written: "Whom no man has seen nor can see"; and again: "No man," says God the Father himself, "can see my face and live." The angel of the Lord himself, who is Christ, appeared to Moses in the bush, in fire; and he himself said: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and of Jacob"; he who is called first the angel of the Lord appearing in fire; he himself … is then said to have said: "I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob" … to have appeared to the son of Nun standing on the river bank at Jericho … the Lord Christ himself holding a sword in his hand; and when Jesus said to him, "Are you ours or our adversaries'?", the Lord said to him: "I am the prince of the host of the power of the Lord"; this is the prince seeking a principality, and himself king appointed by the Father, as he himself testifies, saying: "But I have been set up as king by him." For in a certain psalm too, Christ himself speaking in his own person, David said: "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of distress, and I will rescue you, and you will glorify me." In these verses he admonishes that sacrifice must be offered to God the Father and that he himself must be called on, so that he may help those who entreat him; as if he said: render to the Father the service of praise, and I will give you the help of a protector; honour the begetter, and you will find me a helper. Hence he himself too said in the holy Gospel: "I honour my Father, and you have dishonoured me." We Christians, then, believe in and confess one God the Father, and one our Lord Jesus Christ his Son, of whom both the law and the prophets have spoken, and through him we pray to God the Father and give thanks to him, because the Saviour himself so commanded us, saying, and to all who are willing to believe: "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Knowing, then, the precepts of our Saviour Christ, let us always praise the one God the Father through him, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.