Raise your eyes to heaven, therefore, like him who said, To you who lives in heaven, I lift my eyes.^[1] Look upon the sun of righteousness and, as you are directed by the commandments of the Lord, which resemble the most radiant of stars, have vigilant eyes. Do not allow the eyes [of the soul] to slumber or the eyelids to rest,^[2] that the commandments might lead you perpetually. For, your law is a lamp to my feet, he says, and a light to my path.^[3] Indeed, if you never fall asleep at the helm while steering through life, given the obviously unstable state of worldly affairs, you will obtain the cooperation of the Spirit, who will lead you beyond and transport you with gentle breezes and in peaceful security until you arrive unharmed at that tranquil and serene gate by the will of God, to whom be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

It is not mere human wisdom that is claimed for himself by Solomon, who says, God has taught me wisdom, and who, where he says, all my words are spoken from God,^[1] refers to God all that is spoken by himself.

Surely, you say, you will be kind enough to tell me whether Solomon truly said, ‘God has no son.’ This is quickly answered: not only did he not say, God has no son, but he did say that God has a Son. Wisdom speaking through him says, Before all the hills, he begot me,^[1] and what is Christ but the wisdom of God?^[2] Again, in a certain passage in Proverbs, he says, God has taught me wisdom, and I have known the science of the saints. Who has ascended up into heaven and descends? Who has held the wind in his bosom? Who has changed the water as a garment? Who has held all the borders of the earth? What is his name? and what is the name of his son? ^[3] Indeed, that Will

for whom everything is easy

constrains these abundant

fountains of paradise,

confining them with land,

like water channels;

he summoned them to issue forth

in our direction,

just as he bound up the waters

in the bosom of his clouds,

ready to be sent forth into the atmosphere

at the bidding of his Will. HYMNS ^[1]

Do you believe that God provides for His creatures, and is able to do all things? Let suitable labor, therefore, follow on your faith, and then He will hear you. Think not to grasp the winds in your fist, that is, faith without works.

You shall hate all hypocrisy; and whatever is pleasing to the Lord, that shall you do. By no means forsake the commands of the Lord. But you shall observe what things you have received from him, neither adding to them nor taking away from them. For you shall not add unto his words, lest he convict you and you become a liar. You shall confess your sins unto the Lord your God; and you shall not add unto them, that it may be well with you from the Lord your God, who wills not the death of a sinner but his repentance.

The poor man and the rich man should therefore take heed, because there are temptations for the man of poverty as well as for the man of wealth. And so the wise man says, Give me neither beggary nor riches. He tells you how this can be obtained. Man has enough when he has a sufficiency, because a wealthy man tends to distend his mind with cares and anxieties, just as he gorges his stomach with rich food. For that reason the wise man prays that he may have what is necessary and adequate. . . .

Shun and avoid, therefore, the temptations of the world, so that the poor may not despair and the rich may not grow proud.

Solomon says, Give me neither beggary nor riches; give me only what is necessary and sufficient, lest being filled I should deny and say, Who sees me? Or being poor, I should steal and forswear the name of my God; thus representing riches as satiety, poverty as a complete lack of the necessities of life, and sufficiency as a state both free from want and without superfluity. Sufficiency varies, however, according to physical condition and present need. . . . In every case, care must be taken for a good table, yet without overstepping the limits of the actual need.

Surely you see that this sufficiency is not to be coveted for its own sake but to provide for health of body and for clothing which accords with one’s personal dignity and which makes it possible for him to live with others honorably and respectably.

Who can hide from himself what is thus enigmatically expressed? The horseleech had three daughters, dearly loved, but they satisfied her not, and a fourth is not satisfied when you say Enough: the grave, and woman’s love, and the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire that does not say Enough. The horseleech is the devil, the daughters of the devil are dearly loved, and they cannot be satisfied with the blood of the slain: the grave, and woman’s love, and the earth dry and scorched with heat. It is not the harlot or the adulteress who is spoken of, but woman’s love in general is accused of ever being insatiable. Put it out, it bursts into flame; give it plenty, it is again in need. It enervates a man’s mind and engrosses all thought except for the passion which it feeds.

The horseleech had three dearly loved daughters. Its daughters lead to sin: the daughters of fornication, murder and idolatry. These three did not satisfy her, for she is not to be satisfied. In destroying man by these actions, sin never varies but only grows continually. For the fourth, [Solomon] continues, is never content to say enough, meaning that it is universal lust. . . . For as the body is one and yet has many members, so also sin, being one, contains within it many various lusts by which it lays its snares for men.

The eye that mocks at his father, and dishonors the old age of his mother. That is to say, one who blasphemes God . . . ravens from the caves may pluck from him the eye of gladness.

As a serpent cannot mark its track upon a rock, so the devil could not find sin in the body of Christ. For the Lord says, Behold, the prince of the world comes and will find nothing in me.^[1] For as a ship, sailing in the sea, leaves no traces of its way behind it, so neither does the church, which is situated in the world as in a sea, leave her hope upon the earth, because she has her life reserved in heaven; and as it holds her way here only for a short time, it is not possible to trace out her course. . . . There are three things which I cannot understand, and the fourth I know not: the tracks of an eagle flying, that is, Christ’s ascension; and the ways of a serpent upon a rock, that is, that the devil did not find a trace of sin in the body of Christ; and the ways of a ship crossing the sea, that is, the ways of the church, which is in this life as in a sea and which is directed by its hope in Christ through the cross; and the ways of a man in youth—the ways of him, namely, who is born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin.

Neither against the rock on which Christ builds the church nor against the church will the gates of hades prevail; just as the way of a serpent upon a rock, according to what is written in the Proverbs, cannot be found. Now, if the gates of hades prevail against any one, such cannot be a rock upon which Christ builds the church.

An eagle and a ship and a serpent are not of one family and nature but of a distinguishable and different substance, and yet they are three. On the testimony of Scripture, therefore, [the Arians] learn that their arguments are against themselves.

Therefore, in saying that the substance of the Father and of the Son is diverse and their Godhead distinguishable, [the Arians] themselves assert there are two gods. But we, when we confess the Father and the Son, in declaring them still to be of one Godhead, say that there are not two gods but one God. And this we establish by the Word of the Lord.

With regard to history, it is as written thus. But because this speaks in parables, the way of the eagle in the heavens is discovered only with difficulty, referring as it does to the subtlety of the enemy whereby great effort is required to detect his flight around the hearts of heavenly people. The same is true for the way of the serpent upon the earth, that is, the cunning of the venomous enemy with which he does not cease to plot against those whom he perceives to be founded upon the rock of faith. Likewise for the way of the ship in the middle of the sea, that is, the way of iniquity whereby he moves with such subtlety through the bitter waves of this world, agitated by the winds of unclean spirits, that his journey can be hardly detected or not at all. For the prophet testifies that the eagle signifies this malignant adversary, saying, Our persecutors were faster than the eagles of heaven,^[1] that is, the people who pursued us were so fierce that they appeared to be even more vicious than demons themselves. That a serpent often represents the devil was proven both in the sin of the first man and when a wise man said, Flee from sin as though from the face of a serpent.^[2] And the prophet showed that a ship designates the inconstancy of those who are blown about by every wind of doctrine^[3] when he referred to the Chaldeans glorying in their ships,^[4] that is, the unclean of spirit exalting in the fragility and instability of the human mind and in their own destruction, as though they were rejoicing victors. Just as they are too clever to be found, therefore, so does the young person who has abandoned the way of truth have such difficulty in thinking that he continually every hour descends further into aimless, senseless considerations.

Such is the way of an adulterous woman, who, when she has done the deed of sin, wipes herself and will say that no wickedness has been done. Such is the conduct of the church that believes on Christ, when, after committing fornication with idols, she renounces these and the devil and is cleansed of her sins, and receives forgiveness, and then asserts that she has done no wickedness.

I will describe two persons who have sinned the same abominable sin of fornication, yet between these two who have fornicated, the one is not aggrieved nor feels pain nor is vexed but experiences what was said in Proverbs concerning the adulterous woman who having washed herself, if she does something, says she has done nothing wrong. See with me the other who after the mistake is unable to contain himself but punishes the conscience, tortures the heart, is unable to eat and drink, who fasts not because of a judgment but because of grief of repentance. I will describe him as the kind of person who appears sad all day long^[1] and who wears himself down with suffering and who goes wailing from the groaning of his heart,^[2] who sees his sin reproved before himself on account of all which happened before. And see that this sort of person punishes himself not only for one day nor one night but for a long time. Who do you say has hope before God? Is it that first person who has fornicated and does not care but is callous and also has hardened himself just as one who has given himself up to licentiousness?^[3] Or is it this latter person who after one sin goes into mourning, lamenting it?

This latter [has some grounds for hope]. The more such a one is burnt by the fire of grief, the more he is shown mercy, and there is for him such sufficient time for punishment, as there is a time of punishment given to that person who fornicated and was grieved.^[4]

Such is the way of a prostitute: when she has washed herself she says that she has done something wrong. Clearly this is said of her who, after having washed herself at the source, does not remember the vices of her sins, assumes the virtue of preaching, and, wiping away her stains with living water, has no more awareness of her sin but is urged on by the ardor of faith. For in a certain way she says that she has done nothing wicked now that she has become a messenger of the truth, and by forgetfulness she renounces her impurity now that she preaches chastity in her devotion. For this is the power of Christ the Lord, that even a sinner who washes himself in his water returns afresh to virginity and forgets what he had done before. And in his new birth he manifests the innocence of infancy, he does not know the sins of youth, and although he had been an adulterer because of the corruption of sin, he becomes a virgin because of faith in Christ.

By three things the earth is moved, namely, by the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. And the fourth it cannot bear, namely, the last appearing of the Savior. . . .

The shaking [of the earth] signifies the change of things upon earth. Sin, then, which in its own nature is a slave, has reigned in the mortal body of people. Once, indeed, at the time of the flood; and again in the time of the Sodomites, who, not satisfied with what the land yielded, offered violence to strangers; and a third time in the case of hateful Egypt, which, though it obtained in Joseph a man who distributed food to all, that they might not perish of famine, yet did not take well with his prosperity but persecuted the children of Israel. The handmaid casting out her mistress, that is, the church of the Gentiles, which, though itself a slave and a stranger to the promises, cast out the freeborn and lordly synagogue and became the wife and bride of Christ. By Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the whole earth is moved. The fourth it cannot bear: for he came first by lawgivers, and second by prophets, and third by the gospel, manifesting himself openly; and in the fourth instance he shall come as the judge of the living and the dead, whose glory the whole creation will not be able to endure.

There are four things which are least upon the earth, and these are wiser than the wise: The ants have no strength, yet they prepare their meat in the summer. And in like manner, the Gentiles by faith in Christ prepare for themselves eternal life through good works. And the conies [badgers], a feeble folk, have made their houses in the rocks. The Gentiles, that is to say, are built upon Christ, the spiritual rock, who is become the head of the corner. The spider [lizard], that supports itself upon its hands, and is easily caught, dwells in the strongholds of kings. That is, the thief with his hands extended [on the cross], rests on the cross of Christ and dwells in paradise, the stronghold of the three kings—Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The locust has no king and yet marches out in array as by one command. The Gentiles had no king, for they were ruled by sin; but now, believing God, they engage in the heavenly warfare.

[Solomon] indicates here those people who have no strength but nonetheless store up treasures for eternal life on account of their good works. . . . The rock, in fact, is the refuge of badgers in which they live. You too, he says, even though you are weak, run to the rock of true faith, and with it restore life. The one who is supported by deeds enters the kingdom. Therefore, he says, do not despair of the kingdom of heaven because of the weakness of your faith; but believing in the promises, hasten to those works which are commanded. Christ is the lion: indeed all rational things are cattle in comparison with him. Moses, in fact, said, I am a child. Because of its natural alacrity, the lion is said to walk unhindered.

I do not quote these words, however, as taking them in their literal signification, but, agreeably to the title of the book (for it is entitled Proverbs), I investigate them as containing a secret meaning. For it is the custom of these writers [of Scripture] to distribute into many classes those writings which express one sense when taken literally but which convey a different signification as their hidden meaning; and one of these kinds of writing is Proverbs. . . . It is not, then, the visible ants which are wiser even than the wise, but they who are indicated as such under the proverbial style of expression. And such must be our conclusion regarding the rest of the animal creation.

Be prudent, and provide for yourself against the future in heaven. Be therefore prudent, copy the ant, as Scripture says, Store in summer, lest you be hungry in winter. The winter is the last day, the day of tribulation; the winter is the day of offenses and bitterness. Gather what may be there for you in the future. If you do not, you will perish, being both imprudent and unwise.

Although the locusts do not have a king, as Scripture says, He marches the well-ordered army in one line, but people, although they have been made rational by God, have been able neither to rule themselves orderly nor to endure patiently the control of God as king.

Although the locust has no king, as Scripture says, he leads his army all in array; but people who have been created rational neither know how to govern themselves nor how to endure with patience the guidance of their king and God.

There are three things that go well, and the fourth which is comely in going; that is, the angels in heaven, the saints upon earth, and the souls of the righteous under the earth. And the fourth, that is, God, the Word incarnate, passed in honor through the Virgin’s womb; and creating our Adam anew, he passed through the gates of heaven and became the firstfruits of the resurrection and of the ascension for all.

Squeeze out the milk, and it will be butter. Squeeze out faithfully the two Testaments of Christ, and you will find the commandments to be as milk. Once you have been nourished with them, you may be transformed into perfect and faithful bread.