The first of all qualities that a priest or bishop ought to possess is that he must purify his soul entirely of ambition for the office. . . . The right course, I think, is to have so reverent an estimation of the office as to avoid its responsibility from the start. . . . But if anyone should cling to a position for which he is not fit, he deprives himself of all pardon and provokes God’s anger the more by adding a second and more serious offense. . . . It is indeed a terrible temptation to covet this honor. And in saying this, I do not contradict St. Paul but entirely agree with what he says. What are his words? If a man seeks the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. What is terrible is to desire the absolute authority and power of the bishop but not the work itself.

Should the entreaties of your brethren induce you to take orders, I shall rejoice that you are lifted up and fear lest you may be cast down. You will say, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. I know that; but you should add what follows: such a one must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, chaste, prudent, well-prepared, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker but patient. . . . Woe to the man who goes in to the supper without a wedding garment.

But you think that this should not have happened to you because you believe that no one should be forced to do good. See what the apostle said, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work, yet how many are forced against their will to undertake the episcopacy. Some are dragged in, locked up and kept under guard, suffering all this unwillingly until there arises in them a will to undertake this good work.

Consider these three temperaments: the contemplative, the active, the contemplative-active. A man can live the life of faith in any of these three and get to heaven. What is not indifferent is that he love truth and do what charity demands. No man must be so committed to contemplation as, in his contemplation, to give no thought to his neighbor’s needs, nor so absorbed in action as to dispense with the contemplation of God. The attraction of leisure ought not to be empty-headed inactivity but in the quest or discovery of truth, both for his own progress and for the purpose of sharing ungrudgingly with others. Nor should the man of action love worldly position or power, for all is vanity under the sun,^[1] but only what can be properly and usefully accomplished by means of such position and power . . . of contributing to the eternal salvation of those committed to one’s care. Thus, as St. Paul wrote, If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires good work. He wanted to make clear that the office of bishop, episcopatus, implies work rather than dignity.

I want to be a bishop; oh, if only I were a bishop! Would that you were! Are you seeking the name or the real thing? If it’s the real thing you’re seeking, you are setting your heart on a good work. If it’s the name you’re seeking, you can have it even with a bad work but with a worse punishment. So what shall we say? Are there bad bishops? Perish the thought, there aren’t any; yes, I have the nerve, the gall to say there are no bad bishops; because if they are bad, they aren’t bishops. You are calling me back again to the name and saying, He is a bishop, because he is seated on the bishop’s throne. And a straw scarecrow is guarding the vineyard.

The office of a bishop is a good work, dearest brethren, as the blessed apostle says, Whoever wants to be a bishop aspires to a noble task. Now when task is heard, labor is understood. Therefore whoever desires the office of bishop with this understanding wants it without the arrogance of ambition. To express this more clearly, if a man wants not so much to be in authority over the people of God as to help them, he aspires to be a bishop in the true spirit.

Blameless: every virtue is implied in this word. If anyone is conscious to himself of any sins, he does not well to desire an office for which his own actions have disqualified him. . . . For why did no one say of the apostles that they were fornicators, unclean or covetous persons, but that they were deceivers, which relates to their preaching only? Must it not be that their lives were irreproachable? This is clear.

Without reproach can scarcely mean without critics, since Paul himself had such, but blameless as to living.

When making a vessel of iron, we entrust the task not to those who know nothing about the matter but to those who are acquainted with the art of the smith. Ought we not, therefore, to entrust souls to him who is well-skilled to soften them by the fervent heat of the Holy Spirit and who by the impress of rational implements may fashion each one of you to be a chosen and useful vessel? It is thus that the inspired apostle bids us to take thought, in his epistle to Timothy, laying injunction upon all who hear, when he says that a bishop must be without reproach. Is this all that the apostle cares for, that he who is advanced to the priesthood should be irreproachable? And what is so great an advantage as that all possible qualifications should be included in one? But he knows full well that the subject is molded by the character of his superior and that the upright walk of the guide becomes that of his followers too. For what the Master is, such does he make the disciple to be.

Some people run down the law and marriage. To them it is as if marriage were alien to the new covenant and merely a legalism. What do they say in face of this text? Especially those who have such an aversion to sex and childbirth—what have they to say in answer? Paul himself sets it down that leadership in the church should rest with a bishop who presides successfully over his household and that marriage to one wife constitutes a household with the Lord’s blessing.

The canon^[1] absolutely excludes from the ministry those who are twice married.

Paul is not making a hard and fast rule that a bishop must have a wife, but that he must not have more than one.

For they [i.e., various interpreters] say that Paul has spoken thus, so that any man who is brought forward to be a bishop and has taken a wife will live chastely with her, being content with her alone as the recipient of his natural desires. Likewise any man who lives on after the death of his first wife may legitimately take a second wife, as long as he lives in the same way with her as with the first, and ought not be prohibited from becoming a bishop. They say that Paul has laid down a canon here. I accept this view, though I am not persuaded that he lays down a specific rule with regard to the second matter, i.e., that of the eligibility of remarried men for episcopal office.^[1]

Do not let the once-married set at nought those who have come together in marriage for the second time. For continence is a fine thing and admirable. But folk may be pardoned for contracting a second marriage, lest infirmity end in fornication.

Therefore, the apostle laid down the law saying, If any one is without reproach, the husband of one wife. Whoever, then, is without reproach, the husband of one wife, is included among those held by the law to be qualified for the priesthood, but he who entered a second marriage has not the guilt of pollution, though he is disqualified from the privilege of the priesthood.

Let your breath never smell of wine, lest the philosopher’s words be said to you, Instead of offering me a kiss, you are giving me a taste of wine. Priests given to wine are both condemned by the apostle and forbidden by the old law. . . . Whatever intoxicates and disturbs the balance of the mind, avoid as you would wine. I do not say that we are to condemn what is a creature of God.^[1] The Lord himself was called a wine-bibber, and wine in moderation was allowed to Timothy because of his weak stomach.^[2] I only require that drinkers should observe that limit which their age, their health or their constitution requires.

No striker. This too does not mean a striker with the hands. What does no striker then mean? Because there are some who unseasonably smite the consciences of their brethren, it seems to be said with reference to them.

Not striking without reasonable cause, for sometimes this is permitted, if for a good reason and not with undue fierceness.

This could range widely in meaning from not delivering blows to the point of death to not striking the consciences of the weak with a bad example.

The church leader must be one that governs well his own house. Even those who are without the church have the saying that one who is a good manager of a house will be a good statesman. For the church is, as it were, a small household. In a house there are children and wife and domestic duties, and some one person has to provide order for them all. So in the church there are women, children, employees and subordinates. As a man has in his wife a partner in power, so does one who presides over the church.

What is meant by good management, in the case of the children, is that the father is to guide them with wise counsel, such that, if they end up as nonbelievers, it is not his fault.

As a good overseer of his children, the father’s task is not to abdicate to their opinion but to teach them all the virtues, even if he must act strongly to shape their wills.

Therefore how could we avoid being ashamed as we witness reason harmed by anger and desire, when we see it driven from the authority given to it by God so that in an unholy and unjust manner trouble, discord and disorder are stirred up in us? That is why our blessed and God-given lawmaker proclaimed that anyone who has not put his own house in order is unfit to hold authority in the church of God. For the one who commands himself will command another.

The point is not that the bishop cannot be a young man but that he must not be a new convert. . . . For if youth only was an objection, why did he himself appoint Timothy, a young man? . . . But since there were many then who came over from heathen cultures to be baptized, Paul says, Do not immediately advance to a station of dignity a novice, that is, one of these new converts. For, if even before he has proved himself as a disciple he is made a teacher, he will soon be lifted up into insolence.

Indeed, nothing so estranges from the mercy of God and gives over to the fire of hell as the tyranny of pride. . . . Therefore, let us check this puffing up of the soul, and let us cut out this tumor, if we wish to be pure and be rid of the punishment prepared for the devil. Listen to Paul declaring that the proud must suffer those very penalties: Not a new convert, lest he be puffed up with pride and incur the condemnation passed on the devil.

His rank should not arouse feelings of pride in the superior, lest he himself lose the blessing promised to humility^[1] or lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the judgment of the devil.

What does Paul mean by saying or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil? It doesn’t mean he is to be judged by the devil but that he is to be condemned with the devil. The devil, after all, won’t be our judge. He himself fell through pride. Like him, one who has become godless on account of pride will be condemned to everlasting fire. We are to consider carefully, Paul is saying, to whom a position of eminence is given in the church, lest the person being lifted up should through pride fall into the very judgment into which the devil fell.

Realize how evil pride is from the very fact that there is no excuse for it. Other vices harm only those who commit them. Pride inflicts far more injury on everyone. I am saying all this lest you consider pride a trifling sin. What, in fact, does the apostle say? Lest he incur the condemnation passed on the devil. The man who is puffed up with his own importance falls into the judgment of the devil.

Therefore let us see by what order the high priest is appointed. It says, Moses called together the congregation and said to them, ‘This is the Word that the Lord commanded.’^[1] Although the Lord had given them commands about appointing the high priest and had made his choice, the congregation was still called together. For in ordaining a priest, the presence of the people is also required that all may know and be certain that from all the people one is chosen for the priesthood who is more excellent, who is more wise, who is more holy, who is more eminent in every virtue, lest afterwards, when he stands before the people, any hesitation or any doubt should remain. This is also what the apostle taught when he spoke about the ordination of a priest: It is necessary to have a good witness from those who are outside.

For when St. Paul said, Moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without, he does not do away with careful and exact scrutiny, nor does he set up this testimony as a chief sign of assurance about such men. But having listed many requirements already, he added this one afterwards, to show that we must not be content with it alone for this kind of election but only take it into account along with other considerations. For it often happens that popular report is false.

This is not the praise given a man by a few wise and just people but popular report. Indeed, popular report bestows greatness and renown on a man, which is not desirable for its own sake but is essential to the success of good men in their endeavors to benefit their fellow men. So the apostle says that it is proper to have a good report of those that are without. For though they are not infallible, the luster of their praise and the odor of their good opinion are a great help to the efforts of those who seek to benefit them. This popular renown is not obtained by those who are highest in the church, unless they expose themselves to the toils and hazards of an active life.

The wishes of the congregation and the testimony of the populace should certainly be waited for. The opinions of the nobles and the choice of the clerics should be asked for. These are the procedures ordinarily observed in the consecrating of bishops by those who know the decrees of the Fathers. That would be to preserve in every way the requirement made by apostolic authority which demands that a bishop who is to be in charge of a church must be supported not only by the testimony of his congregation but by a good reputation among outsiders as well. No opportunity for such a scandal should be left. One who is going to be the teacher of peace is himself consecrated in peace and in harmony pleasing to God, through the common efforts of all.

This reason is foremost, and in no way weaker than the ones already mentioned, that it is not prudent to entrust the care of others to such a one and to offer such great power so quickly. Why? Because he has not yet given proof of his life and manners, and it is not yet certain as to whether anything is left of his former life, since the devil has many devices to use against him. These are such that he may fall back into old sins. Indeed, because it seems that he has moved away from his former and worse state, he cannot be corrected in the direction of better things, for he is now seen to have had the nurture of others entrusted to him instead.

Since, then, I have had the privilege of seeing you, through Damas your most worthy bishop, and through your worthy presbyters Bassus and Apollonius, and through my fellow-servant the deacon Sotio, whose friendship may I ever enjoy, because he is subject to the bishop as to the grace of God, and to the presbytery as to the law of Jesus Christ.

Since therefore I have, in the persons before mentioned, beheld the whole multitude of you in faith and love, I exhort you to try to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place of God, and your presbyters in the place of the assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons, who are most dear to me, and are entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. Do all then, imitating the same divine conduct, respect one another, and let no one look upon his neighbor after the flesh, but continually love each other in Jesus Christ. Let nothing exist among you that may divide you; but be united with your bishop, and those that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality.

Study, therefore, to be established in the doctrines of the Lord and the apostles, so that all things, whatever you do, may prosper in the flesh and spirit; in faith and love; in the Son, and in the Father, and in the Spirit; in the beginning and in the end; with your most admirable bishop, and the well-compacted spiritual crown of your presbytery, and the deacons who are according to God. Be subject to the bishop, and to one another, as Jesus Christ to the Father, according to the flesh, and the apostles to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit; that so there may be a union both fleshly and spiritual.

For, since you are subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, you appear to me to live not after the manner of men, but according to Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that by believing in his death you may escape from death. It is therefore necessary that, as you indeed do, without the bishop you should do nothing, but should also be subject to the presbytery, as to the apostle of Jesus Christ, who is our hope, in whom, if we live, we shall [at last] be found. It is fitting also that the deacons, as [the ministers] of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, should in every respect be pleasing to all. For they are not ministers of meat and drink, but servants of the Church of God. They are bound, therefore, to avoid all grounds of accusation [against them], as they would do fire.

In like manner, let all reverence the deacons as an appointment of Jesus Christ, and the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the Father, and the presbyters as the sanhedrin of God, and assembly of the apostles. Apart from these, there is no Church. Concerning all this, I am persuaded that you are of the same opinion. For I have received the manifestation of your love, and still have it with me, in your bishop, whose very appearance is highly instructive, and his meekness in itself a power; whom I imagine even the ungodly must reverence, seeing they are also pleased that I do not spare myself. But shall I, when permitted to write on this point, reach such a height of self-esteem, that though being a condemned man, I should issue commands to you as if I were an apostle?

He that is within the altar is pure, but he that is without is not pure; that is, he who does anything apart from the bishop, and presbytery, and deacons, such a man is not pure in his conscience.

Innumerable commands such as these are written in the holy Bible pertaining to chosen persons, some to presbyters, some to bishops, some to deacons, others to widows, of whom we shall have another opportunity of speaking. Many things spoken in enigmas, many in parables, may benefit those who fall in with them. But it is not my province, says the instructor, to teach these any longer. But we need a teacher of the exposition of those sacred words, to whom we must direct our steps.

[T]he grades here in the Church, of bishops, presbyters, deacons, are imitations of the angelic glory, and of the economy that, the Scriptures say, awaits those who, following the footsteps of the apostles, have lived in perfection of righteousness according to the gospel.

Bishops, presbyters, and deacons may not leave their own places for the sake of commerce, nor are they to be traveling about the provinces, frequenting the markets for their own profit. Certainly for the procuring of their own necessities they can send a freedman or a hireling or a friend or whomever: but if they wish to engage in business, let them do so within the province.

For though some would have deceived me according to the flesh, yet the Spirit, as being from God, is not deceived. For it knows both from where it comes and where it goes [Jn 3:8], and detects the secrets [of the heart]. For, when I was among you, I cried, I spoke with a loud voice: Give heed to the bishop, and to the presbytery and deacons. Now, some suspected me of having spoken thus, as knowing beforehand the division caused among you by some. But he is my witness, for whose sake I am in bonds, that I got no intelligence from any man. But the Spirit proclaimed these words: Do nothing without the bishop; keep your bodies as the temples of God; love unity; avoid divisions; be the followers of Jesus Christ, even as he is of his Father.

I, Patrick, the sinner, unlearned as everybody knows, avow that I have been established a bishop in Ireland. Most assuredly I believe that I have received from God what I am. And so I dwell in the midst of barbarous heaths, a stranger and an exile for the love of God.

Not fornication only, but even marriages make us unfit for ecclesiastical honors; for neither a bishop, nor a presbyter, nor a deacon, nor a widow is able to be twice married.

Likewise the deacons should be blameless before the Lord’s righteousness, as servants of God and Christ and not of men; not slanderers, or double-tongued, not lovers of money, temperate in all matters, compassionate, careful, living according to the truth of the Lord, who became a servant of all;^[1] to whom, if we are pleasing in the present age, we shall also obtain the age to come, inasmuch as he promised to raise us from the dead.

What Moses taught, Abraham observed. What Abraham observed, Noah and Enoch acknowledged, discriminating pure from impure and becoming acceptable to God. For Abel too in this way witnessed, knowing what he had learned from Adam. This one himself had learned from that Lord, who said, when he came at the end of the ages for the abolishment of sin, I give no new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you have heard from the beginning.^[1] In the same way also the blessed apostle Paul, who had learned it from the Lord, when describing ecclesiastical functions, forbade that deacons, not to say bishops, should be double-tongued. In his rebuke of the Galatians, he made a broad declaration: If anyone preach any other gospel unto you than that which you have received, let him be anathema, as I have said, so say I again.

Not hollow, or deceitful. For nothing so debases a man as deceit, nothing is so pernicious in the church as insincerity.

Not double-tongued means that the deacon is not to be a person who says one thing to one person and something else to another.

Since the ministry of deacons is at least as much toward the women in the community as the men, their integrity is all the more important. They are to be honorable and sincere in performing the duties assigned to them by the presbyters.

The mystery of faith referred to by the apostle here is the teaching about Christ, which he is about to expound in what follows.

The mystery of faith is the passion of Christ, out of which comes the redeeming process by which our salvation is won. The clear conscience refers to the fact that the person who knows this mystery purely is not confounded by the spectacle of Christ’s humiliation, or, it means that this mystery should be preached straightforwardly, piety not requiring anything beyond the statement itself.

Would it not be absurd that when a new servant is not entrusted with anything in a house till he has by long trial given proofs of his character, yet that one should enter into the church of God from a state of heathenism and be at once placed in a station of preeminence?

Orders, then, should be risen to in an orderly way; for he courts a fall who seeks to rise to the topmost heights of a place by steep ascents, disregarding the steps that lead to it.

None could rightly be ordained a minister in the church if the apostle had said, If any is without sin, where he says, If any is without crime;^[1] or if he had said, Having no sin, where he says, Having no crime. Because many baptized believers are without crime, but I should say that no one in this life is without sin—however much the Pelagians are inflated, and burst asunder in madness against me because I say this: not because there remains anything of sin which is not remitted in baptism; but because by us who remain in the weakness of this life such sins do not cease daily to be committed, as are daily remitted to those who pray in faith and work in mercy.

Some have thought that this is said of women generally, but it is not so, for why should he introduce anything about women to interfere with his subject? He is speaking of those who hold the rank of deaconesses.

Paul does not refer here to women deacons, since these are not allowed in the church. It is heretics who have such persons. The reference here is to women in general.

Observe how he requires the same virtue from the deacons as from the bishops, for though they were not of equal rank, they must be equally blameless, equally pure.

They that use the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, that is, heavenly advancement, and much boldness in the faith of Jesus Christ; as if he would say, that those who have been found vigilant in the lower degree will soon ascend to the higher.

A good reward refers to a future, heavenly good, since earthly promotion would have required the idea of better reward.

Woe to him who, when he has received a talent, has bound it in a napkin; and while others make profits, only preserves what he has received. His angry Lord shall rebuke him in a moment. You wicked servant, he will say. Why then did you not put my money into the bank, and at my coming I could have collected it with interest?^[1] That is to say you should have laid before the altar what you were not able to bear. For while you, a slothful trader, keep a penny in your hands, you occupy the place of another who might double the money. Thus as one who ministers well purchases to himself a good degree, so one who approaches the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

The keeper of the wine cellar for the community shall be chosen out of the community, discreet, mature in his behavior and sober. If a brother chance to demand anything unreasonable of him, he is not to be contemptuous in his refusal but to refuse reasonably and humbly. He is to be careful of his own soul and remember that St. Paul says: He that has done his duty well, gains for himself a good degree. He is to show a particular concern for the sick, children, strangers and the poor, as being accountable for them at the day of judgment.

“O God, you who have created all and put it in order by your Word; Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom you sent to minister to your will and to make clear to us your desires, give the Holy Spirit of grace and earnestness and diligence to this your servant, whom you have chosen to serve your Church and to offer in your holy places the gifts which are offered to you offered by your chosen high priests, so that he may serve with a pure heart and without blame, and that, ever giving praise to you, he may be accounted by your good will as worthy of this high office: through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom be glory and honor to you, the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit, both now and through the ages. Amen”.

It has come to the knowledge of the holy and great synod that, in some districts and cities, the deacons administer the Eucharist to the presbyters, though neither canon nor custom permits that they who have no right to offer should give the body of Christ to them that do offer. And this has also been made known, that certain deacons now touch the Eucharist even before the bishops. Let all such practices be utterly done away with, and let the deacons remain within their own bounds, knowing that they are the ministers of the bishop and the inferiors of the presbyters. Let them receive the Eucharist according to their order, after the presbyters, and let either the bishop or the presbyter administer to them.

I, Patrick, the sinner, am the most rustic and the least of all the faithful . . . had for my father Calpornius, a deacon, a son of Potitus, a priest, who belonged to the village of Bannavem Taberniae. . . . At that time I was barely sixteen years of age . . . and I was led into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of persons, in accordance with our desserts, for we turned away from God, and kept not his commandments, and were not obedient to our priests, who were wont to admonish us for our salvation.

Appoint, [O bishop], a deaconess, faithful and holy, for the ministering of women. For sometimes it is not possible to send a deacon into certain houses of women, because of unbelievers. Send a deaconess, because of the thoughts of the petty. A deaconess is of use to us also in many other situations. First of all, in the baptizing of women, a deacon will touch only their forehead with the holy oil, and afterwards the female deacon herself anoints them.

The spiritual interpretation, however, is not so difficult and hard to come by.^[1] For the bride of the Word, the soul who abides in his royal house—that is, in the church—is taught by the Word of God, who is her Bridegroom, whatever things are stored and hidden within the royal court and in the king’s chamber. In this house, which is the church of the living God, she becomes acquainted also with the cellar of that wine which is extracted from the holy wine presses, the wine that is not only new, but also old and sweet—that is, the teaching of the Law and the Prophets.

Therefore, beloved, with assured mind and steadfast heart, let us continue to live under so lofty a Head in so glorious a body, in which we are mutually members. Thus, even if my absence were as far as the most distant lands, we should be together in him, and we should never withdraw from the unity of his body. If we lived in one house, we should certainly be said to be together; how much more are we together when we are together in one body!

Such, then, are the first principles of the gospel. There is one God, the Maker of this universe; he who was also announced by the prophets and who by Moses set forth the dispensation of the law—principles which proclaim the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and ignore any other God or Father except him. So firm is the ground upon which these Gospels rest that the very heretics themselves bear witness to them, and, starting from these documents, each one of them endeavors to establish his own peculiar doctrine. . . . It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the church is scattered throughout all the world, and the pillar and ground of the church is the gospel and the spirit of life. Therefore, it is fitting that it should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side and vivifying all humanity afresh.

Every one of us, indeed, who is instructed in the Holy Scripture is the administrator of some one of those gifts which, according to the gospel, have been apportioned to us. In this great household of the church not only are there vessels of every kind—gold, silver, wooden and earthen^[1]—but also a great variety of vocational pursuits. The house of God, which is the church of the living God, has hunters, travelers, architects, builders, farmers, shepherds, athletes, soldiers. HOMILY ON THE WORDS:

For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations.^[1] It is of this holy Catholic church that Paul writes to Timothy. . . . He calls the church the pillar and mainstay of the truth.

Accordingly, as Scripture says, Jacob became rich by such means and reared a very good flock for Christ.^[1] He improved it with the title of faith and a diversity of virtues, the marks of a glorious name. And so he did not consider himself poor, for he was rich with the wealth of faith. . . . And it is no wonder that Jacob possessed peace, for he had set up a pillar and anointed it to God,^[2] and that pillar is the church. Paul calls that pillar the bulwark of the truth. That man anoints it who pours the ointment of faith upon Christ and of compassion upon the poor.

Honor the holy church as your mother. Love her, proclaim her the Jerusalem which is above, the holy city of God. She it is who, in this faith which you have heard, bears fruit and grows in the whole world, the church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth. She tolerates the wicked in the communion of the sacraments, knowing that they are due to be separated from her at the end and withdrawing from them meanwhile in the dissimilarity of their morals.

We know through the grace of God that the holy church is called a virgin, as the apostle says, I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,^[1] but in that one virgin herself, virgins in the plural are also named. For we read, Virgins will be brought to the king after her.^[2] Nor is there any doubt that there is one church which is spread throughout the whole world which is called by the apostle the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth. Still this is one church in such a way that in it many are called churches.

Here he speaks of the economy of salvation given to us. Tell me not of the bells, nor of the holy of holies, nor of the high priest. The church is the pillar of the world. Consider this mystery, and you may be struck with awe. For it is indeed a great mystery, and a mystery of godliness, and that is without controversy or question, for it is beyond all doubt.

The mystery is the scriptural teaching concerning Christ.

The mystery is the sacred object of reverence, namely, that what was foreordained from the beginning and afterward became manifest.

No, indeed, it is not that God has just recently come up with a plan for attending to human affairs, nor that it has taken him this long to show compassion. Rather, he laid down from the very foundation of the world^[1] one and the same cause of salvation^[2] for all. For, the grace of God—by which the entire assembly of saints has always been justified—was not initiated at the time that Christ was born but augmented. This mystery of great compassion, with which the whole world has now been filled, was so powerful even in its prefigurations that those who believed it when promised attained to it no less than those who received it when actually given.

We hold it necessary to honor, even as the Father is honored, the God who was manifested by the cross. They [the Eunomians] find the passion a hindrance to glorifying the Only-Begotten God equally with the Father that begat him. . . . Eunomius makes the suffering of the cross to be a sign of divergence in essence, in the sense of inferiority, considering, I know not how, the surpassing act of power, by which he was able to perform this, to be an evidence of weakness. He fails to perceive the fact that, while nothing which moves according to its own nature is looked upon as surprisingly wonderful, all things that overpass the limitations of their own nature become especially the objects of admiration. Indeed, to them every ear is turned, every mind is attentive, in wonder at the marvel. And hence it is that all who preach the word point out the wonderful character of the mystery in this respect—that God was manifested in the flesh, that the light shined in the darkness,^[1] the Life tasted death—and all such declarations which the heralds of the faith are prone to make. By these is increased the marvelous character of him who manifested the superabundance of his power by means external to his own nature.

But when the fullness of time came, Wisdom was sent in the flesh, not to fill angels^[1] nor to be an angel, except insofar as she announced the Father’s plan which was also her own. She was sent not to be with men and in men, for this too had been done before, both in the Fathers and in the prophets, but that the Word itself might become flesh, that is, that it might become a man. This future mystery, when revealed, would likewise be the salvation of those wise and saintly men, who had been born of women before he himself was born of a virgin, and ever since it has been accomplished and preached, it is the salvation of all who believe, hope and love.

Behold the Savior’s greatness. It extends to all the world. . . . Go up to the heavens. See how he fills the celestial regions, He appeared to the angels. Go down in your mind to the nether world. See that he went down there, too. . . . Ponder the Lord’s power, how it has filled the world—that is, the heavens, the earth and the nether regions.

If you knew my essence and dignity, you would also know that of the Father. And henceforth you will know him, and you have seen him (the former in future, the latter at present), that is, through me.^[1] Moreover by sight he meant knowledge by means of the understanding. For we can both see and fail to know persons whom we actually see, but we cannot both know and fail to know at the same time persons whom we know. That is why he declared, And you have seen him, just as Scripture says, as he has been seen by angels also. Even though his very essence was not, of course, seen, it said that he has been seen, clearly meaning seen in such a way as it was possible for the angels to see.