He did not simply say that there is one time of repayment for all—for this was not his intention—but he said this to show that also those who had done such things and suffered such things through faith might still await the payment of the things promised. Not bearing it with ill grace, they are brought with us of the later generation. Thus he showed their even greater endurance, if indeed they still await after death those who ought to contend likewise with them so that with them we may obtain the enjoyment of all the good. And therefore he speaks of witnesses, not of the things suffered but of the things testified for our faith.

Let us lay aside every weight. Weight is a sin of the enjoyment of the flesh, a form in which the sin which clings so closely is born. It clings closely to us as it surrounds us with pleasure and subdues us to its own will.

The models of godliness are set before us on all sides, he is saying, in such vast numbers as to resemble a cloud in density and testify to the power of faith. Accordingly, let us keep our eyes on them, be light on our feet and rid ourselves of the burden of unnecessary worries, in this way being able also to avoid sin that is easy to contract. Before everything else we need perseverance to succeed in the course ahead of us. He said sin clings because it is easily contracted and committed: the eye is fascinated, the ear charmed, touch titillated, tongue easily loosened and thought quickly directed to the worst.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses about the weight of our life, that is, about the fact that we have ahead of us a cloud of sad afflictions, which lead many who trust in Christ and die for him to honor, let us lay aside everything from us. . . . And let us run with perseverance the race that is set for us not only by our persecutors but by the devil himself.

He could have avoided suffering, he is saying, had he so chosen; but he put up with the suffering for the benefit of all. The Savior’s joy is the salvation of human beings; for it he endured the suffering, and after the suffering he is seated with the Father who begot him.

For the joy that was set before him can be understood also as Gregory says: although it was possible for him to remain in his own personal glory and divinity, he not only humbled himself to the very point of the form of a slave, but he also endured the cross and despised its shame.^[1]

Therefore he says that he is able to reward you for all your afflictions for his sake. For not only was he crucified, but also he sat down at the right hand of God,^[2] the right hand and the throne giving him the same honor.

As in all arts and games, we impress the art upon our mind by looking to our masters, receiving certain rules through our sight, so here also, if we wish to run and to learn to run well, let us look to Christ, even to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. What is this? He has put the faith within us. For he said to his disciples, You did not choose me, but I chose you;^[1] and Paul too says, But then shall I understand, even as I have been fully understood.^[2] He put the beginning into us; he will also put on the end.

God has entered us as contestants in a racecourse where it is our lot to be always striving. This place, then, a valley of tears, is not a condition of peace, not a state of security, but an arena of struggle and of endurance.

We preach not one coming of Christ but a second as well, far more glorious than the first. The first gave us a spectacle of his patience; the second will bring with it the crown of the kingdom of God. In general all things are twofold in our Lord Jesus Christ. His birth is twofold, one of God before the ages and one of a virgin in the consummation of the ages. His descent is twofold, one lowly, like the rain upon the fleece,^[1] and a second, his manifest coming, which is yet to be. In his first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger; in his second he will be robed in light as with a cloak.^[2] In his first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in his second he will come in glory, attended by a host of angels. We do not rest, therefore, in his first coming, but we look also for his second. Just as we said of his first coming, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,^[3] so we shall repeat the same at his second.

Our being born again by water and the Spirit is not a recompense for any merit but is freely given. And if faith has led us to the bath of regeneration, we ought not for that reason to think that we have first given something, so that our saving regeneration might be given us in return. For that one has made us believe in Christ who made for us the Christ in whom we believe. That one made in humans the beginning and the completion of their faith in Jesus who made the human Jesus the author and finisher of the faith, for this is what he is called, as you know, in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Let us look not toward human beings for the perfection of our faith. In fact, among them one is good for something, but the other is not. Rather let us look into Jesus Christ, the pioneer of faith, who was made our leader and the perfecter of our faith, because he began from the Jordan the fight against the enemy, then continued it in the desert, and finished it in Jerusalem through the cross, which was erected by the persecutors on Golgotha.

Who, he says, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. That is, it was in his power not to suffer at all, if he so willed. For he committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips;^[1] as he also says in the Gospels, the ruler of this world is coming, and he has no power over me.^[2] It lay then in his power, if so he willed, not to come to the cross. For I have power, he says, to lay down my life; and I have power to take it again.^[3] If then he who was under no necessity of being crucified was crucified for our sake, how much more is it right that we should endure all things nobly! Who for the joy that was set before him, he says, endured the cross, despising the shame. But what is despising the shame? He chose, he means, that ignominious death. For suppose that he died. Some wonder why he should die so ignominiously. For no other reason than to teach us to make no account of glory from the human sphere. Therefore, though under no obligation, he chose death, teaching us to be bold against it and to make it as nothing. Why did the apostle say not pain but shame? Because it was not with pain that he bore these things.

A fire that lies in wood hidden below the surface is often unobserved by the senses of those who see or even touch it but is manifest when it blazes up. So too, at his death (which he brought about at his will, who separated his soul from his body; who said to his own Father, Into your hands I commit my spirit;^[1] who, as he says, had power to lay it down and had power to take it again^[2]) he—who, because he is the lord of glory, despised that which is shame among men—having concealed, as it were, the flame of his life in his bodily nature, by the dispensation of his death, kindled and inflamed it once more by the power of his own Godhead, fostering into life that which had been brought to death. Having infused with the infinity of his divine power that humble firstfruits of our nature, he made it also to be that which he himself was—making the servile form to be Lord, and the human born of Mary to be Christ, and him who was crucified through weakness to be life and power, and making all that is piously conceived to be in God the Word to be also in that which the Word assumed. Thus these attributes no longer seem to be in either nature by way of division, but the perishable nature, being, by its commixture with the divine, made anew in conformity with the nature that overwhelms it, participates in the power of the Godhead, as if one were to say that mixture makes a drop of vinegar mingled in the deep to be sea, by reason that the natural quality of this liquid does not continue in the infinity of that which overwhelms it. This is our doctrine.

Why do I trifle in saying these things to people who do not even choose to disregard riches but hold fast to them as though they were immortal, and, if they give a little out of much, think they have done all? This is not almsgiving, for almsgiving is that of the widow, who emptied out her whole living.^[1] But if you do not go on to contribute so much as the widow, at least contribute the whole of your superfluity. Keep what is sufficient, not what is superfluous. But there are none who contribute even their superabundance. For so long as you have many servants and garments of silk, these things are all superfluities. Nothing is indispensable or necessary, without which we are able to live. These things are superfluous and are simply superadded. Let us then see, if you please, what we cannot live without. If we have only two servants, we can live. For, whereas some live without servants, what excuse have we, if we are not content with two? We can also have a house built of brick of three rooms, and this is sufficient for us. For are there not some with children and wife who have but one room? Let there be also, if you will, two serving boys. And how is it not a shame, you say, that a gentlewoman should walk out with only two servants? It is no shame that a gentlewoman should walk along with two servants, but it is a shame that she should go forth with many. Perhaps you laugh when you hear this. Believe me, it is a shame. Do you think it a great matter to go out with many servants, like dealers in sheep or dealers in slaves? This is pride and vainglory; the other is love of wisdom and respectability. For a gentlewoman ought not to be known from the multitude of her attendants. For what virtue is it to have many servants? This belongs not to the soul, and whatever is not of the soul does not show gentility. When she is content with a few things, then is she a gentlewoman indeed; but when she needs many, she is a servant and inferior to slaves. Tell me, do not the angels go to and fro about the world alone and need not anyone to follow them? Are they then on this account inferior to us? Are they who need no attendants inferior to us, who need them? If, then, not needing an attendant at all is angelic, who comes nearer to the angelic life—she who needs many, or she who needs few? Is not this a shame? For a shame it is to do anything out of place. ^[1]

Tell me, who attracts the attention of those who are in the public places, she who brings many in her train or she who brings but few? And is not she who is alone less conspicuous even than she who is attended by few? Do you see that this is a shame? Who attracts the attention of those in the public places, she who wears beautiful garments or she who is dressed simply and artlessly? Again, who attracts those in the public places, she who is borne on mules and with trappings ornamented with gold, or she who walks out simply and, as it may be, with propriety? Perhaps we do not even look at this latter, if we even see her; but the multitudes not only force their way to see the other but ask, Who is she, and where from? And I do not say what great envy is hereby produced. Tell me, then, is it disgraceful to be looked at or not to be looked at? When is the shame greater, when all stare at her, or when no one does? When they inform themselves about her, or when they do not even care? Do you see that we do everything, not for modesty’s sake, but for vainglory?

However, since it is impossible to draw you away from that, I am content for the present that you should learn that this is no disgrace. Sin alone is a disgrace, which no one thinks to be a disgrace, but everything rather than this. . . .

But my discourse is not addressed to women only but also to men. For the rest of the things that we have are all superfluous; only the poor possess no superfluities, and perhaps they from necessity, since, if it had been in their power, even they would not have abstained from them. Nevertheless, whether in pretense or in truth,^[1] so far they have no superfluities.

Consider him who, for our love, showed such patience toward sinners, not toward those with whom he was in hostility but toward those who, because of their disbelief, appeared to be in tension within their own souls. Do not regret your afflictions, and do not lose your confidence amid the hour of your temptation.

There are two kinds of consolation, apparently opposed to one another but yet contributing great strength each to the other, both of which the apostle has here put forward. The one is when we say that persons have suffered much. For the soul is refreshed when it has many witnesses of its own sufferings, and this he introduced above, saying, Recall the former days, when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.^[1]

The other is when we say, You have suffered no great thing. The former, when the soul has been exhausted, refreshes it and makes it recover breath; the latter, when it has become indolent and supine, turns it again and pulls down pride. Thus, so that no pride may spring up in them from that testimony, see what he does. In your struggle against sin, he says, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. . . . This he says also in writing to the Corinthians, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man,^[2] that is, small. For this is enough to arouse and set right the soul, when it considers that it has not risen to the whole trial and encourages itself from what has already befallen it.

For short periods and at prescribed times, power has been given to the demons to incite people whom they control to exercise a tyrannical hostility to the City of God. Thus, they are able not only to receive sacrifice from those who offer it and to seek it from those who are well disposed but also to extort it violently from the unwilling by means of persecutions. However, this power is not a menace to the church but rather an advantage, since it helps to fill up the number of its martyrs.^[1] And these the City of God esteems as its most illustrious and honored citizens, just because they have resisted the impious so valiantly, even to the shedding of blood, striving against sin.

Do not think you have attained to virtue until first you have fought to the shedding of blood. One must resist sin even to death—manfully and irreproachably, as the divine apostle tells us.

In truth, tribulations are, for those well prepared, like certain foods and exercises for athletes which lead the contestant on to the hereditary glory, if, when reviled, we bless; if when maligned, we entreat; if ill-treated, we give thanks; if afflicted, we glory in our afflictions.^[1] It is indeed shameful for us to bless on propitious occasions but be silent on dark and difficult ones. On the contrary, we must bless even more at that time, knowing that the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

I will punish with the rod your saints; I will visit with a whip their sins.^[1] Why? So that I may not take my mercy from them.^[2] For when he leaves someone, he no longer punishes or whips them, since he does not whip everyone, but every son the Lord receives.

The Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. You cannot say that any righteous person is without affliction; even if that one appears to be so, we do not know that person’s other afflictions. Of necessity every righteous person must pass through affliction. For it is a declaration of Christ that the wide and broad way leads to destruction but the straight and narrow one to life.^[1] If then it is possible to enter into life by that means and no other, then all have entered in by the narrow way, as many as have departed unto life.

Therefore, if this jealous God asks for you and wishes your soul to cleave to him, if he keeps you from sin, if he corrects and chastises you, if he is indignant, if he is angry and uses a kind of jealousy against you, know that this is your hope of salvation. . . . See the compassion and loyalty of the good God. When he wishes to have mercy, he says he is indignant and angry.

Not in the amount of money, not in the pride of power, not in the height of glory is victory gained, but the Lord freely gives his help to those who seek him through excessive affliction. Such was Paul,^[1] who made his afflictions his boast. Therefore he was able to say, When I am weak, then I am strong.^[2] Give us therefore, O Lord, help from trouble, since suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint.^[3] Do you see where affliction leads you? To hope that does not disappoint. Are you ill? Be of good cheer, because the Lord disciplines him whom he loves.

At this point we might consider and commit more actively to memory how almighty God allows God’s chosen ones and beloved servants—those God has predestined to life and the eternal kingdom—to be so stricken in this life by the persecution of the wicked and to be wasted by so many kinds and such fierce punishments and deaths. This is so that when we have viewed the sufferings of the maturely faithful, we may grieve less over the adversities that perhaps have happened to us and learn instead to esteem it complete joy when we fall into various kinds of struggles,^[1] keeping in mind that the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

The anger of the Lord is spoken of in two senses. First, when the Lord punishes in order to save, as in the following verse: For he scourges every son whom he accepts. Second, when he sends to eternal fire about which another psalm speaks: O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor reproach me in your wrath.^[1] An improper meaning is surely drawn from the realm of human experiences. For when we punish some guilt, we go astray by getting upset at the deeds. But God executes judgment while in a state of tranquility, for he is unacquainted with the confusing experiences of emotion.

Fathers are in the habit of disciplining their true children, and if they see them caned by the teachers, they do not worry; they see the fruit coming from the discipline. But they despise illegitimate children and do not accord them equal attention. So if you also avoid discipline, you are of the number of the illegitimate.

You endure discipline, he says, not for punishment or for vengeance or suffering. See, it is from these sufferings from which they supposed they had been deserted, he says, that they may be confident that they have not been deserted. It is as if he had said, Because you have suffered so many evils, do you suppose that God has left you and hates you? If you did not suffer, then it would be right to suppose this. For if he chastises every son whom he receives, then he who is not chastised perhaps is not a son. What then, you say, do not bad men suffer distress? They suffer indeed. How then? He did not say, Every one who is chastised is a son but every son is chastised.

Here discipline is spoken of in reference to those evils that anyone suffers for his sins in order that he may be corrected.

For human fathers do not always prevail to discipline us so that they can render us perfect, but God always disciplines us and makes us perfect. For the process of discipline stops when the father dies or the child comes of age.

He reasons from their own experiences, from what they themselves suffered. For, as he says above, Recall the former days,^[1] he says here also, God is treating you as sons, and you could not say, We cannot bear it. Yes, as sons tenderly beloved. For if they reverence their fathers of the flesh, how shall you not reverence your heavenly Father? However, the difference arises not from this alone, nor from the persons, but also from the cause itself, and from the fact. For it is not on the same grounds that he and they impose discipline. They did it with a view to what seemed good to them, that is, fulfilling their own pleasure oftentimes and not always looking to what was expedient. But here that cannot be said, for the Lord does this not for any interest of the Lord’s own but for you and for your benefit alone. They did it that you might be useful to themselves, often without reason; but here there is nothing of this kind. Do you see that this also brings consolation? For we are most closely attached to those when we see that they either command or advise us not for any interests of their own, when their earnestness is, wholly and solely, on our account. For this is genuine love, and love in reality, when we are beloved though we be of no use to the one who loves us—not so that one may receive but so that one may impart. God chastens, God does everything, God uses all diligence, that we may become capable of receiving God’s benefits.

Do you wish to nourish the body? Take away what is superfluous, and give what is sufficient, as much as can be digested. Do not load it, lest you overwhelm it. A sufficiency is both nourishment and pleasure. For nothing is so productive of pleasure as food well digested, nothing so productive of health, nothing so productive of acuteness of the faculties, nothing tends so much to keep away disease. For a sufficiency is nourishment, pleasure and health, but excess is injury, unpleasantness and disease. For what famine does, satiety does also—or rather more grievous evils. For the former indeed within a few days carries a person off and sets that one free; but the other, eating into and putrefying the body, gives it over to long disease and then to a most painful death. But we, while we account famine a thing greatly to be dreaded, yet run after satisfaction, which may be more distressing than famine. What is this disease? What this madness? I do not say that we should waste ourselves away but that we should eat as much food as also gives us pleasure that is really pleasure and can nourish the body and furnish it to us well ordered and adapted for the energies of the soul, well joined and fitted together. But when it comes to be waterlogged by luxury, it cannot in the flood wave keep fast the bolts themselves, one might say, and the joints which hold the frame together. For when the flood wave comes in, the whole breaks up and scatters.

They gain a profit from it: their reward is justice. Paul said this in order to prove that even though they gain a profit through discipline, their reward and grace is constituted by justice.

They who drink bitter medicines first submit to some unpleasantness and afterwards feel the benefit. For such is virtue, such is vice. In the latter, there is first the pleasure, then the despondency; in the former, first the despondency, and then the pleasure. But there is no equality; for it is not the same to be first grieved and afterwards pleased and to be first pleased and afterwards grieved. How so? Because, in the latter case, the expectation of coming despondency makes the present pleasure less, but, in the former, the expectation of coming pleasure cuts away the violence of present despondency. The result is that, in the one instance, we never have pleasure; in the latter, we never have grief. . . .

From this Paul then undertakes to console them and again takes up the common judgment of people, which no one is able to stand against or to contend with the common decision, when one says what is acknowledged by all.

You are suffering, he says. For such is chastisement; such is its beginning. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. He said well, seems. Discipline, he means, is not grievous but seems so. All discipline . . . means both human and spiritual. Do you see that he argues from our common notions? Seems painful, he says, so that it is not really so. For what sort of pain brings forth joy? So neither does pleasure bring forth despondency.

Nevertheless, later it yields the peaceful fruits of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.^[1] Not fruit but fruits, a great abundance.

To those, he says, who have been trained by it. That is, to those who have endured for a long while and been patient. And he uses an auspicious expression; so then, discipline is exercise, making the athlete strong and invincible in combats, irresistible in conflicts.

Do not wonder if discipline, being itself hard, has sweet fruits; since in trees also the bark is almost destitute of all quality and rough, but the fruits are sweet. . . . Why, after you have endured the painful, are you despondent as to the good? The distasteful things that you had to endure you endured. Do not then become despondent when you are rewarded. He speaks as to runners and boxers and warriors. Do you see how he arms them, how he encourages them? Walk straight, he says. Here he speaks with reference to their thoughts; that is to say, not doubting. For if the discipline be of love, if it begin from loving care, if it end with a good result (and this he proves both by facts and by words, and by all considerations), why are you dispirited? For such are they who despair, who are not strengthened by the hope of the future. Walk straight, he says, that your lameness may not be increased but brought back to its former condition. For he that runs when he is lame galls the sore place. Do you see that it is in our power to be thoroughly healed?

Where are those who say that the apostle in this epistle precludes repentance by saying, It is impossible to renew again thereafter to repentance those once enlightened?^[1] How then do they understand these words: Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees? What sort of healing of the lame does this apostle, who allegedly does not believe in a repentance for those who have sinned, wish to take place? It is clear he writes these things to believers in that he says to them: Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings.^[2]

Nevertheless, since Jesus recites the law to you and reveals to your hearts its spiritual meaning, do not remain proselytes, that is, catechumens, any longer, but hurry to receive fully the grace of God. . . . And you children, do not be children in your thinking; be babes in evil, but in thinking be mature.^[1] As the apostle says to the Hebrews, Let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity.^[2] But you, too, who under the title women are weak, cast down and tired, you are exhorted to lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, that is, make straight paths for your feet throughout the afflictions caused by your persecutors, so that they may not slip. [Do this] so that what is lame, that is, those who transgressed through the denial of faith, may not be put out of joint and increase the power of sin but rather be healed, so that, through his healing, sin may be affected by sickness.

Earlier he had spoken of not neglecting to meet together,^[1] and here he hints at it again. For nothing so especially makes persons easily vanquished and subdued in temptations as isolation. For scatter a phalanx in war, and the enemy will have no trouble but will take them prisoners, coming on them separately and thus the more helpless.

Many careful precepts have been given us, such as those concerning mutual forgiveness and the encouraging of that peace which is the very condition of our seeing God. One has only to recall the fearsome command given to the servant to pay the debt of ten thousand talents, from which he had been released, because he had not released his fellow servant from the debt that he owed of one hundred pence. When the Lord had proposed this parable, he added the words, So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.^[1]

It is better, then, that we affirm that concerning which we have no doubt—that God shall be seen by the inward person which alone is able, in our present state, to see that love in commendation of which the apostle says, God is love.^[1] This inward person alone is able to see peace and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord. For no fleshly eye now sees love, peace and holiness, and such things. Yet all of them are seen, so far as they can be seen, by the eye of the mind, and the purer [the mind] is, the more clearly it sees. Therefore we may, without hesitation, believe that we shall see God.

The disciple of Christ must do more for the attainment of spiritual glory than the philosopher of the world, than the venal slave of flying rumors and the people’s whims. It is not enough for you to despise wealth unless you follow Christ as well. And only the one who follows Christ forsakes his sins and walks hand in hand with virtue. We know that Christ is wisdom. He is the treasure which in the Scriptures a man finds in his field.^[1] He is the peerless gem which is bought by selling many pearls.^[2] But if you love a captive woman, that is, worldly wisdom, and if no beauty but hers attracts you, make her bald and cut off her alluring hair, that is to say, her adornments and pare away her dead nails.^[3] Wash her with the soap of which the prophet speaks,^[4] and then take your ease with her and say, Her left hand is under my head, and her right hand embraces me.^[5] Then shall the captive bring to you many children; from a Moabitess she shall become an Israelite woman. Christ is that sanctification without which no one shall see the face of God. Christ is our redemption, for he is at once our redeemer and our ransom.^[6] Christ is everything, so that the one who has left everything for Christ may find one in place of everything and may be able to proclaim freely, the Lord is my portion.^[7]

I am much distressed that the canons of the Fathers have fallen through and that the exact discipline of the church has been banished from among you. I am apprehensive lest, as this indifference grows, the affairs of the church should, little by little, fall into confusion. According to the ancient custom observed in the churches of God, ministers in the church were received after careful examination. The whole of their life was investigated; an enquiry was made as to their being neither partiers nor drunkards, not quick to quarrel, keeping their youth in subjection, so as to be able to maintain the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. This examination was made by presbyters and deacons living with them. Then they brought them to the chorepiscopi; and the chorepiscopi, after receiving the suffrages of the witnesses as to the truth and giving information to the bishop, so admitted the minister to the sacerdotal order. Now, however, you have quite passed me over; you have not even had the grace to refer to me and have transferred the whole authority to yourselves. Furthermore, with complete indifference, you have allowed presbyters and deacons to introduce unworthy persons into the church, just any one they choose, without any previous examination of life and character, by mere favoritism, on the score of relationship or some other tie. The consequence is that in every village there are many who are considered ministers but not one single person worthy of the service of the altars. Of this you yourselves supply proof from your difficulty in finding suitable candidates for election.

It is written, Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God. For in quarrels the very light of the soul, the light of good intent, is blocked. This is why the psalmist says, My eye is troubled because of anger.^[1] And what good works remain in us if we lose peace from the heart without which we cannot see the Lord? Therefore, act in such a way that you garner your reward even from those who through strife might have caused it to perish. May almighty God guard your love with heavenly grace and grant you to bear much fruit from those who are committed to you so that your measure may overflow with eternal joys.

There are many things characteristic of Christianity, but more than all and better than all, love towards one another, and peace. Therefore Christ says, My peace I give to you,^[1] and again, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.^[2] Therefore Paul too says, Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness, that is, purity, without which no one will see the Lord.

By holiness he referred to self-control. It is possible even for those in wedlock to achieve it.

As if they were traveling together on some long journey, in a large company, he says, Take heed that no one be left behind: I do not seek this only, that you should arrive yourselves, but also that you should look diligently after the others. That no one, he says, fails to obtain the grace of God. He means the good things to come, the faith of the gospel, the best course of life, for they all are of the grace of God. Do not tell me, It is only one that perishes. Even for one Christ died. Have you no care for him for whom Christ died?^[1]

He says, strive after holiness, that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau, that is, gluttonous, without self-control, worldly, selling away things spiritual. Who sold his birthright for a single meal, who through his own slothfulness sold this honor which he had from God and, for a little pleasure, lost the greatest honor and glory. This was suitable to them, the conduct of an abominable, of an unclean person. So not only is the fornicator unclean, but also the glutton, the slave of his belly, for he also is a slave of a different pleasure. He is forced to be overreaching, to be rapacious, to behave himself unseemly in ten thousand ways, being the slave of that passion, and oftentimes he blasphemes. So he accounted his birthright to be worth nothing. That is, while providing for temporary refreshment, he even sacrificed his birthright.

Scripture thus shows that Esau did not sell his birthright because of hunger, since it says that after he ate, Esau rose and went away and despised his birthright.^[1] He did not sell it because of hunger, therefore, but because he indeed considered it to be worthless and sold it for nothing.

Even if the door is closed before him, it is not closed in the same manner before us. Know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent. Moreover, Esau’s repentance and his tears did not mean that he wanted to be blessed more than his brother but that he wanted to gain control over his brother. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, it was not conceded to him. He did not demand blessing, as I said, but the right of the firstborn. In fact, if he had demanded to be superior to his brother in the kingdom of heaven, this would have not been denied to him. But, since he neglected what was useful to his soul and asked for an estate more fertile than that of his brother, he did not receive the blessing that he begged and was deprived of those things that Jacob, by prevailing on him, received through his faith.

Esau wept but did not repent; instead he envied his brother’s prosperity. . . . The divine apostle also suggested this in what he said: for he found no chance to repent, that is, he did not take the way to repentance, nor did he lament his evil intentions; instead, he grieved not for his sin but for Jacob’s success. . . . It was not without purpose that the divine apostle cited the story of Esau: it was to emphasize that, although the firstborn, he was stripped of the blessing for gluttony and depravity. Jews too, by honoring the firstborn and being enslaved to the obsolete requirements of the law through gluttony, lost their claim to salvation, whereas the Gentiles, the new people, of whom Jacob was a type, gained the privileges of the firstborn. So he urges the believers from Jews not to imitate the lawlessness of the firstborn but to participate in the blessing of the newer people.

Through these words he does not wish to preclude the chance of repentance, but to teach that it is not possible for those who do not receive correction at the present time to receive it later. . . . For he has not been eager to say contradictory things, especially in so close proximity. And anyone could figure this out from the example that he uses. For first he made mention of Esau, who partly was disheartened when he did not obtain the blessing, but partly abided the decision even after this event owing to the malice of his character. Then when he repented of his assent to sin, he did not obtain the blessing.^[1] For he was not asking for repentance, but for the blessing that had been given to his brother in accordance with the worthiness of his character. It was impossible that the blessing would again be taken away and given to him again. Also, however, it is possible to discover that his tears were not altogether unprofitable.^[2] His father seems to have grieved thereafter for his careless son and seems to have given him some blessings. So he does not wish to preclude repentance through these words.

Some interpret and yet seeking the blessing with tears as a time during which he did not find an opportunity for repentance.

If you keep your sins continually in remembrance, you will never bear in mind the wrongs of your neighbor. I do not say, if you are persuaded that you are yourself a sinner; this does not avail so to humble the soul, as sins themselves, taken by themselves and examined specifically. You will have no remembrance of wrongs done you, if you have these things continually in remembrance; you will feel no anger, you will not revile, you will have no high thoughts, you will not fall again into the same sins, you will be more earnest toward good things. Do you see how many excellent effects are produced from the remembrance of our sins? Let us then write them in our minds. I know that the soul does not endure a recollection that is so bitter, but let us constrain and force it.

Wonderful indeed were the things in the temple, the Holy of Holies; awful were those things that occurred at Mount Sinai, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest. For, it says, God appeared in Sinai,^[1] and long ago were these things celebrated. The new covenant, however, was not given with any of these things but has been given in simple discourse by God. See then how he makes the comparison in these points, putting them afterward with good reason. For when he had persuaded them by innumerable arguments, when he had also shown the difference between each covenant, then afterwards, the one having been already condemned, he easily begins on these points. And what says he? For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest. . . . These things, he means, are terrible, and so terrible that they could not even bear to hear them, that not even a beast dared to go up. But things that come hereafter are not such, for what is Sinai to heaven? And what is the blazing fire to God who cannot be touched? For God is a consuming fire. For it is said, You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.^[2] And so fearful was that which was commanded, ‘Though even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned,’^[3] Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’^[4] What wonder as respects the people? He himself who entered into the darkness where God was^[5] says, I tremble with fear.

Fearful were those things, but these are far more admirable and glorious. For here there is not darkness or gloom or tempest. It seems to me that by these words he hints at the obscurity of the Old Testament and the overshadowed and veiled character of the law. And, besides, the giver of the law appears in fire terrible and apt to punish those who transgress.

But what are the sounds of the trumpet? Probably it is as though some king were coming. This at all events will also be at the second coming. At the last trumpet^[1] all must be raised, but it is the trumpet of his voice which effects this. At that time then all things were objects of sense and sights and sounds. Now all are objects of the understanding and invisible.

While he brought out the fearsome things, he did not reveal the fruit springing from them. He did not say he appeared, because what they saw was not the God of all in person but some impression of the divine coming.

Instead of Moses, Jesus. Instead of the people, innumerable angels. Of what firstborn does he speak? Of the faithful. And to the spirits of just men made perfect.

Zion and Jerusalem that have the good news told them^[1] the apostle knew to be heavenly, when he said, But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother,^[2] and, You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels. Zion might also mean the church established by Christ in every part of the world, and Jerusalem the holy constitution that, once established of old time among the ancient Jews alone, was driven into the wilderness by their impiety and then again was restored far better than before through the coming of our Savior. Therefore the prophecy says, Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.^[3]

Nor would you be wrong in calling Zion the soul of every holy and godly person, so far as it is lifted above this life, having its city in heaven, seeing the things beyond the world. For it means a watchtower. And insofar as such a person remains calm and free from passion, you could call that one Jerusalem—for Jerusalem means vision of peace.

From the first, therefore, the Israelites were themselves the cause of God’s being manifested through the flesh. Let Moses speak with us, and Let not God speak with us.^[1] They who make comparisons elevate the one side more that they may show the other to be far greater. In this respect also our privileges are more gentle and more admirable. For they are great in a twofold respect, because, while they are glorious and greater, they are more accessible. This he says also in the epistle to the Corinthians, with unveiled face,^[2] and not as Moses put a veil over his face.^[3] They, he means, were not counted worthy as we are. For of what were they thought worthy? They saw darkness, gloom; they heard a voice. But you also have heard a voice, not through darkness but through flesh. You have not been disturbed, neither troubled, but you have stood and held discourse with the Mediator.

And in another way, by the darkness he shows the invisibleness. And darkness, it says, was under his feet.^[4] Then even Moses feared, but now no one. . . . The Son is near to God, but not as Moses. There was a wilderness, here a city.

And to innumerable angels. Here he shows the joy, the delight, in place of the darkness and gloom and tempest. And to the assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all. They did not draw near but stood afar off, even Moses, but you have come near. Here he makes them stand in awe by saying, And to a judge who is God of all, not of the Jews alone and the faithful, but even of the whole world. And to the spirits of just men made perfect. He means the souls of those who are approved.

The Lord says, Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.^[1] Mount Zion is there, and so is the city of peace, Jerusalem, built not of earthly stones but of living stones, with ten thousand angels and the church of the firstborn and the spirits of those made perfect and the God of the just, who spoke better with his blood than Abel. For one cried out for vengeance,^[2] but the other for pardon. The one was a reproach to his brother’s sin. The other forgave the world’s sin; the one was the revelation of a crime, the other covered a crime according to what was written, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.^[3]

But because we ought always to be anxious, always attentive, and because the Word of God leaps forth like the gazelle or the young stag,^[1] let the soul who searches after the Christ and longs to possess Christ always be on watch and maintain its senses. Upon my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves,^[2] as if Christ had stolen in upon her. Let one who seeks carefully seek while in his bed; let him seek at night. Let there be neither nights nor holiday, let no time be free from service, and if one does not find Christ at first, let him persevere in searching after Christ. And so the soul says, I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares.^[3] And perhaps [the soul] still does not find Christ, because it sought in the public places, where there are court cases, in the streets, where there are markets with goods for sale; for Christ cannot be obtained for any amount of money. . . . That soul searches for Christ who seeks after Christ with tranquility and peace. It searches at night because Christ spoke through parables^[4]—he made darkness his covering around him,^[5] and night to night declares knowledge^[6]—and also because the things we say in our heart we ought also to be sorry for on our beds.^[7] But [the soul] does not find Christ in this way, and so it says, I am a strong city, a city besieged.^[8] The city is besieged through Christ; the city is that heavenly Jerusalem, in which there are interpreters of God’s law and people skilled in doctrine in great abundance; through them one seeks the Word of God.

In it there are the firstborn, that is, the first ones and the most excellent, and the spirits of just men, that is, of your ancient fathers who accomplished perfection.

Some give the definition that a city is an established community, administered according to law. And the definition that has been handed down of the city is in harmony with the celestial city, Jerusalem above. For there it is a community of the firstborn who have been enrolled in heaven, and this is established because of the unchanging manner of the life of the saints, and it is administered according to the heavenly law. Therefore, it is not the privilege of human nature to learn the arrangement of that city and all its adornment. Those are the things no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,^[1] but there are myriads of angels there, an assembly of saints and a church of the firstborn that are enrolled in heaven. Concerning that, David said, Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.^[2] To that city through Isaiah God has promised, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age. Devastation and destruction shall no more be within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation.^[3] Therefore, having raised the eyes of your soul, seek, in a manner worthy of things above, what pertains to the city of God. What could anyone consider as deserving of the happiness in that city which the river of God makes joyful and of which God is the craftsman and creator?

The Lord Jesus came to raise up Adam; Abel also was raised up, for his offerings were pleasing to God. The Lord Jesus offered his own self, that is, the firstlings of his own body,^[1] in the sprinkling of blood that speaks better than the blood of Abel spoke upon the earth.

The prophet Nahum proclaimed the good news of what was to come, Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace.^[1] Then he went on to tell them, Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows. For they shall no more go to that which is old; it is finished; it is taken away. He is gone up who breathed upon the face and delivered you from affliction.^[2]

Now who is he who went up? Notice, by the way, that the one who went up went to the Jews, so there is no way they can ignore the end of those practices that foreshadowed his coming. And the prophet did say, It is finished. But as I asked, who was he? It would be absurd to say that he was Moses, because when he was with Israel they had not even entered the land in which these sacrificial rites were to be carried out. Or suppose that he was Samuel or some other one of the prophets. That would not do either, because, while they were around, the sacrifices were being made and Jerusalem was still standing. Thus it was none of these men who went up.

But if you want to know the truth . . . look to our Savior, who went up and who breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’^[3] As soon as these things were done, all the old things came to an end. The altar was broken; the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. And although the city was not yet sacked and destroyed, its time was coming. As the prophecy foretold,^[4] the abomination of desolation was soon to rest upon the temple and the city. The consummation of the ancient ceremonies was at hand.

Thankfully, then, we have come far beyond these shadows of reality, having turned to the Lord himself. And we know that the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.^[5] Therefore, as the ears of our hearts hear the call of the priestly trumpet, we do not look with our physical eyes and see an animal lamb slain, but we see the true Lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ. For as Isaiah said, he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb.^[6]

We are purified by his precious blood, which cleanses us from sin. His blood does not cry out for vengeance as did the blood of Abel.

The work of mercy is, as it were, a most excellent art and a protector of those who labor at it. For it is dear to God and ever stands near God, readily asking favor for whomsoever it will, if only it be not wronged by us. . . . So, if it is pure, it gives great confidence to those who offer it up. It intercedes even for those who have offended, so great is its power, even for those who have sinned. It breaks the chains, disperses the darkness, quenches the fire, kills the worm, drives away the gnashing of teeth. The gates of heaven open to it with great security. And as, when a queen is entering, none of the guards stationed at the doors dares to inquire who she is, but all straightway receive her, so also indeed with mercifulness. For she is truly a queen indeed, making humans like God, for, he says, Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.^[1] She is winged and buoyant, having golden pinions, with a flight which greatly delights the angels. There, it is said, are the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with green gold.^[2] As some dove, golden and living, she flies, with gentle look and mild eye. Nothing is better than that eye. The peacock is beautiful, but, in comparison with her, is a jackdaw. So beautiful and worthy of admiration is this bird. She continually looks upwards; she is surrounded abundantly with God’s glory. She is a virgin with golden wings, decked out, with a fair and mild countenance. She is winged and buoyant, standing by the royal throne. When we are judged, she suddenly flies in and shows herself and rescues us from punishment, sheltering us with her own wings. God would rather have her than sacrifices. Much does God discourse concerning her, God loves her so. He upholds, it is said, the widow and the fatherless^[3] and the poor. God wishes to be called by her. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,^[4] and true. The mercy of God is over all the earth. She has saved the race of humankind,^[5] for, unless she had pitied us, all things would have perished. While we were enemies,^[6] she reconciled us, she wrought innumerable blessings; she persuaded the Son of God to become a slave and to empty himself of his glory.^[7]

Let us earnestly emulate her by whom we have been saved; let us love her, let us prize her before wealth and apart from wealth; let us have a merciful soul. Nothing is so characteristic of a Christian as mercy. There is nothing that both unbelievers and all people so admire as when we are merciful. For often we are ourselves also in need of this mercy and say to God, Have mercy upon us, according to your steadfast love.^[8] Let us begin first ourselves, or rather it is not we that begin first, for God has already shown his mercy toward us. At least let us follow second. For if people have mercy on a merciful person, even if that person has done innumerable wrongs, so much more does God.

There you find dread, he is saying, here on the contrary festival and assembly. The former happens on earth, the latter in heaven; there thousands of people, here tens of thousands of angels. There unbelievers and lawbreakers, here church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven and spirits of the just who have been made perfect; there an old covenant, here a new one; there a slave as mediator, here a Son; there blood of brute beasts, here blood of a rational lamb. The phrase speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel means communicating through deeds and betraying its own activity: while the blood of Abel is celebrated, this blood is responsible for the salvation of human beings.

The one who warned them on earth can be understood to mean the one promising them earthly things that will pass away: the land flowing with milk and honey, the conquest of enemies, goodly offspring and long life. But from heaven speaks the one who promises heaven itself as an inheritance, who graciously bestows the enjoyment of that unspeakable and eternal glory. Or warned them on earth can be said to mean that bodily purifications pervaded nearly everything of the law given through Moses. But the giving of the law that took place through Christ is a cleansing and illumination of the soul for us. Then on earth are the things proclaimed, because they are lowly and applied to the body made of dirt; and the things of the New Testament are from heaven because they are divine and exalted and cleanse the soul in a truly divine manner and bear it up into heaven.

Quite rightly on the basis of the prophetic verse^[1] does he establish the instability of the present order and the steadfastness of the things which shall be later. For the shaking shows that he is proclaiming the alteration of the present order exactly as it will be. And by adding the word once he shows that what will be afterwards cannot be changed.

There have been two remarkable transformations of the human way of life in the course of the world’s history. These two are called two covenants and, so famous was the business involved, two shakings of the earth. The first was the transition from idols to the law;^[1] the second, from law to gospel.^[2] The gospel also tells of the third shaking, the change from this present state of things to what lies unmoved, unshaken, beyond. An identical feature occurs in both covenants. The feature? There was nothing sudden involved in the first movement to take their transformations in hand. We need to know why. It was so that we should be persuaded, not forced. The unspontaneous is the impermanent—as when force is used to keep stems or plants in check. The spontaneous both lasts longer and is more secure. It belongs to despotic power to use force; it is a mark of God’s reasonableness that the issue should be ours.

Based on the voice of the prophet he proves both the change from the things that now exist and the establishment of the things that follow. For the promise to shake^[1] makes clear that they will change altogether in the future. By the addition of the word once and for all he shows clearly that thereafter they will be unchangeable.

The phrase yet once more^[1] makes clear that another one time would be added after the second. For the world was shaken for the first time when the law was given on Sinai: For the earth shook,^[2] David said. Again the earth was shaken during the sojourn in the flesh: For all Jerusalem was shaken^[3] and the idols of Egypt built by human hands.^[4] And he calls an earthquake that which was heard of the proclamation, through which people were shaken from their old condition in error and brought into a new condition. So says Cyril.^[5] He speaks of yet one more occasion, namely, at his second coming with glory, when he will alter and change creation. For then creation will especially be shaken with a real shaking and crash—a more drastic change than of people who were corrupt at the time turning from evil to good.

That is why Paul says elsewhere, For the form of this world is passing away.^[1] So that the temporary may pass away and the eternal may come.

Either he wishes to scare them not to be ungrateful and not to grumble about their tribulations, lest somehow, he says, you chance upon God in his wrath and vengeance; or he wishes to encourage them, as if he had said, We will give thanks for our afflictions, for we have a Lord able to destroy those opposed to him.

In sacred language God is called a fire, as when Scripture says, Our God is a consuming fire. Concerning the substance of the angels, it also speaks as follows: Who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a burning fire.^[1] And in another place, The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush.^[2] In addition, we have received a command to be fervent in spirit^[3] by which expression undoubtedly the word of God is shown to be hot and fiery. The prophet Jeremiah also hears from him who gave him oracles, Behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire.^[4] As God, then, is a fire and the angels are flames of fire and all the saints are fervent in spirit, so, on the contrary, those who have fallen away from the love of God are undoubtedly said to have cooled in their affection for God and to have become cold.

The apostle did not think it possible to describe God’s judgment sufficiently in any other way than through an analogy from our experience, and for this reason he did not hesitate to call God fire.

Many have produced lengthy discussions of God and God’s essence. Some have even said that God has a bodily nature that is composed of fine particles and is like ether. Others have said that God is incorporeal and is of a different essence that transcends bodies in dignity and power. For this reason it is worthwhile for us to see if we have resources from the divine Scriptures to say something about God’s essence. In John 4:24 it is stated as if God’s essence were spirit, for it says, God is spirit. But in the law, it is instead as if God’s essence were fire, for it is written, Our God is a consuming fire.^[1] In John, however, it is stated as if God were light, for John says, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.^[2] If, then, we should listen to these words literally, making no inquiry beyond the letter, we would have to say that God is a body. . . . But because we do not see the consequences if we attribute a body to God when we say, even on the basis of Scripture, that God is some such body as spirit, or consuming fire, or light, unless we accept the conclusions that necessarily follow these assertions, we will disgrace ourselves as foolish and contradicting the obvious. For every fire is subject to extinction because it needs fuel; and every spirit, even if we take the spirit to be simple, because it is a body, admits of change to what is coarser in its own nature. In these matters, then, we must either accept so many absurd and blasphemous things about God in preserving the literal meanings, or, as we also do in many other cases, examine and inquire what can be meant when it is said that God is spirit or fire or light. First we must say that just as when we find it written that God has eyes, eyelids, ears, hands, arms, feet, and even wings, we change what is written into an allegory, despising those who bestow on God a form resembling humans; and we do this with good reason. So also must we act consistently with our practice in the case of the names mentioned above.