The creation of terrestrial animals. - NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works

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The creation of terrestrial animals.
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Homily IX.

The creation of terrestrial animals.

1. How did you like the fare of my morning’s discourse? It seemed to me that I had the good intentions of a poor giver of a feast, who, ambitious of having the credit of keeping a good table saddens his guests by the poor supply of the more expensive dishes. In vain he lavishly covers his table with his mean fare; his ambition only shows his folly. It is for you to judge if I have shared the same fate. Yet, whatever my discourse may have been, take care lest you disregard it. No one refused to sit at the table of Elisha; and yet he only gave his friends wild vegetables.¹⁶⁹⁰

¹⁶⁹⁰ 2 Kings iv. 39.
I know the laws of allegory, though less by myself than from the works of others. There are those truly, who do not admit the common sense of the Scriptures, for whom water is not water, but some other nature, who see in a plant, in a fish, what their fancy wishes, who change the nature of reptiles and of wild beasts to suit their allegories, like the interpreters of dreams who explain visions in sleep to make them serve their own ends. For me grass is grass; plant, fish, wild beast, domestic animal, I take all in the literal sense.¹⁶⁹¹

¹⁶⁹¹ Fialon thinks that this plain reference to Origen may have been evoked by some criticisms on the IIIrd Homily. (cf. p. 71) St. Basil’s literalism and bold departure from the allegorizing of Origen and from the milder mysticism of Eusebius are remarked on in the Prolegomena.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel.”¹⁶⁹²

¹⁶⁹² Rom. i. 16.
Those who have written about the nature of the universe have discussed at length the shape of the earth. If it be spherical or cylindrical, if it resemble a disc and is equally rounded in all parts, or if it has the forth of a winnowing basket and is hollow in the middle;¹⁶⁹³

¹⁶⁹³ θαλῆς καὶ οἱ Στωϊκοὶ καὶ οἱ ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν σφαιροειδῆ τὴν γῆν. ᾽Αναξίμανδρος λίθῳ κίονι τὴν γῆν προσφερῆ τῶν επιπέδων. ᾽Αναξιμένης, τραπεζοειδῆ. Λεύκιππος, τυμπανοειδῆ. Δημόκριτος, δισκοειδῆ μὲν τῷ πλάτει, κοίλην δὲ τὸ μέσον. Plut. περὶ τῶν ἀρεσκ. iii. 10. Arist. (De. Cœlo ii. 14) follows Thales. So Manilius i. 235:

“Ex quo colligitur terrarumforma rotunda.”
all these conjectures have been suggested by cosmographers, each one upsetting that of his predecessor. It will not lead me to give less importance to the creation of the universe, that the servant of God, Moses, is silent as to shapes; he has not said that the earth is a hundred and eighty thousand furlongs in circumference; he has not measured into what extent of air its shadow projects itself whilst the sun revolves around it, nor stated how this shadow, casting itself upon the moon, produces eclipses. He has passed over in silence, as useless, all that is unimportant for us. Shall I then prefer foolish wisdom to the oracles of the Holy Spirit? Shall I not rather exalt Him who, not wishing to fill our minds with these vanities, has regulated all the economy of Scripture in view of the edification and the making perfect of our souls? It is this which those seem to me not to have understood, who, giving themselves up to the distorted meaning of allegory, have undertaken to give a majesty of their own invention to Scripture. It is to believe themselves wiser than the Holy Spirit, and to bring forth their own ideas under a pretext of exegesis. Let us hear Scripture as it has been written.

2. “Let the earth bring forth the living creature.”¹⁶⁹⁴

¹⁶⁹⁴ Gen. i. 24.
Behold the word of God pervading creation, beginning even then the efficacy which is seen displayed to-day, and will be displayed to the end of the world! As a ball, which one pushes, if it meet a declivity, descends, carried by its form and the nature of the ground and does not stop until it has reached a level surface; so nature, once put in motion by the Divine command, traverses creation with an equal step, through birth and death, and keeps up the succession of kinds through resemblance, to the last.¹⁶⁹⁵

¹⁶⁹⁵ cf. note on Hom. v. p. 76.
Nature always makes a horse succeed to a horse, a lion to a lion, an eagle to an eagle, and preserving each animal by these uninterrupted successions she transmits it to the end of all things. Animals do not see their peculiarities destroyed or effaced by any length of time; their nature, as though it had been just constituted, follows the course of ages, for ever young.¹⁶⁹⁶

¹⁶⁹⁶ “Sed, si quæque suo ritu procedit, et omnes

Fœdere naturæ certo discrimina servant.”

Luc. v. 921.
“Let the earth bring forth the living creature.” This command has continued and earth does not cease to obey the Creator. For, if there are creatures which are successively produced by their predecessors, there are others that even to-day we see born from the earth itself. In wet weather she brings forth grasshoppers and an immense number of insects which fly in the air and have no names because they are so small; she also produces mice and frogs. In the environs of Thebes in Egypt, after abundant rain in hot weather, the country is covered with field mice.¹⁶⁹⁷

¹⁶⁹⁷ cf. Plin. ix. 84: Verum omnibus his fidem Nili inundatio affert omnia exedente miraculo: quippe detegente eo musculi reperiuntur inchoato opere genitalis aquæ terrœque, jam parte corporis viventes, novissima effigie etiamnum terrena.” So Mela De Nilo i. 9. “Glebis etiam infundit animas, ex ipsoque humo vitalia effingit,” and Ovid, Met. i. 42:

“Sic ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros

Nilus, et antiquo sua flumina reddidit alveo,

Æthereoque recens exarsit sidere limus,

Plurima cultores versis animalia glebis

Inveniunt.”
We see mud alone produce eels; they do not proceed from an egg, nor in any other manner; it is the earth alone which gives them birth.¹⁶⁹⁸

¹⁶⁹⁸ Arist. H.A. vi. 16. Αἱ ἐγχέλυς γίγνονται εκ τῶν καλουμένων γῆς ἐντέρων ἃ αὐτόματα συνίσταται εν τῷ πηλῷ καὶ ἐν τῇ γῇ ἐνίκμῳ. Καὶ ἤδη εἰσιν ὠμμέναι αἱ μὲν ἐκδύνουσαι ἐκ τούτων, αἱ δὲ ἐν διακνιζομένοις καὶ διαιρουμένοις γίγνονται φανεραί.
Let the earth produce a living creature.”

Cattle are terrestrial and bent towards the earth. Man, a celestial growth, rises superior to them as much by the mould of his bodily conformation as by the dignity of his soul. What is the form of quadrupeds? Their head is bent towards the earth and looks towards their belly, and only pursues their belly’s good. Thy head, O man! is turned towards heaven; thy eyes look up.¹⁶⁹⁹

¹⁶⁹⁹ Arist., Part. An. iv. 10, 18. μόνον ὀρθόν ἐστι τῶν ζῴων ὁ ἄνθρωπος.
When therefore thou degradest thyself by the passions of the flesh, slave of thy belly, and thy lowest parts, thou approachest animals without reason and becomest like one of them.¹⁷⁰⁰

¹⁷⁰⁰ cf. Ps. xlix. 12.
Thou art called to more noble cares; “seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth.”¹⁷⁰¹

¹⁷⁰¹ Col. iii. 1.
Raise thy soul above the earth; draw from its natural conformation the rule of thy conduct; fix thy conversation in heaven. Thy true country is the heavenly Jerusalem;¹⁷⁰²

¹⁷⁰² cf. Phil. iii. 20.
thy fellow-citizens and thy compatriots are “the first-born which are written in heaven.”¹⁷⁰³

¹⁷⁰³ Heb. xii. 23.

3. “Let the earth bring forth the living creature.” Thus when the soul of brutes appeared it was not concealed in the earth, but it was born by the command of God. Brutes have one and the same soul of which the common characteristic is absence of reason. But each animal is distinguished by peculiar qualities. The ox is steady, the ass is lazy, the horse has strong passions, the wolf cannot be tamed, the fox is deceitful, the stag timid, the ant industrious, the dog grateful and faithful in his friendships. As each animal was created the distinctive character of his nature appeared in him in due measure; in the lion spirit, taste for solitary life, an unsociable character. True tyrant of animals, he, in his natural arrogance, admits but few to share his honours. He disdains his yesterday’s food and never returns to the remains of the prey. Nature has provided his organs of voice with such great force that often much swifter animals are caught by his roaring alone. The panther, violent and impetuous in his leaps, has a body fitted for his activity and lightness, in accord with the movements of his soul. The bear has a sluggish nature, ways of its own, a sly character, and is very secret; therefore it has an analogous body, heavy, thick, without articulations such as are necessary for a cold dweller in dens.

When we consider the natural and innate care that these creatures without reason take of their lives we shall be induced to watch over ourselves and to think of the salvation of our souls; or rather we shall be the more condemned when we are found falling short even of the imitation of brutes. The bear, which often gets severely wounded, cares for himself and cleverly fills the wounds with mullein, a plant whose nature is very astringent. You will also see the fox heal his wounds with droppings from the pine tree; the tortoise, gorged with the flesh of the viper, finds in the virtue of marjoram a specific against this venomous animal¹⁷⁰⁴

¹⁷⁰⁴ Plut. πότ. τῶν. ζ. κ.τ.λ. χελῶναι μὲν ὀρίγανον, γαλαῖ δὲ πήγανον, ὅταν ὄφεως φάγωσιν, ἐπεσθίουσαι.

cf. Pliny xx. 68: “Tragoriganum contra viperæ ictum efficacissimum.”
and the serpent heals sore eyes by eating fennel.¹⁷⁰⁵

¹⁷⁰⁵ ὁ δράκων ὁ τῷ μαράθρω τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἀμβλυώπτοντα λεπτύνων καὶ διαχαράττων. Plut. πότερα τῶν ζ. κ.τ.λ. 731.

And is not reasoning intelligence eclipsed by animals in their provision for atmospheric changes? Do we not see sheep, when winter is approaching, devouring grass with avidity as if to make provision for future scarcity? Do we not also see oxen, long confined in the winter season, recognise the return of spring by a natural sensation, and look to the end of their stables towards the doors, all turning their heads there by common consent? Studious observers have remarked that the hedgehog makes an opening at the two extremities of his hole. If the wind from the north is going to blow he shuts up the aperture which looks towards the north; if the south wind succeeds it the animal passes to the northern door.¹⁷⁰⁶

¹⁷⁰⁶ Ar., Hist. An. ix. 6. περὶ δὲ τῆς τῶν ἐχινων αἰσθήσεως συμβέβηκε πολλαχοῦ τεθεωρῆσθαι ὅτι μεταβαλλόντων βορέων καὶ νότων οἱ μὲν ἐν τῇ γῇ τὰς ὀπὰς αὑτῶν μεταμείβουσι οἱ δ᾽ ἐν ταῖς οἰκιαις τρεφόμενοι μεταβάλλουσι πρὸς τοὺς τοίχους.
What lesson do these animals teach man? They not only show us in our Creator a care which extends to all beings, but a certain presentiment of future even in brutes. Then we ought not to attach ourselves to this present life and ought to give all heed to that which is to come. Will you not be industrious for yourself, O man? And will you not lay up in the present age rest in that which is to come, after having seen the example of the ant? The ant during summer collects treasures for winter. Far from giving itself up to idleness, before this season has made it feel its severity, it hastens to work with an invincible zeal until it has abundantly filled its storehouses. Here again, how far it is from being negligent! With what wise foresight it manages so as to keep its provisions as long as possible! With its pincers it cuts the grains in half, for fear lest they should germinate and not serve for its food. If they are damp it dries them; and it does not spread them out in all weathers, but when it feels that the air will keep of a mild temperature. Be sure that you will never see rain fall from the clouds so long as the ant has left the grain out.¹⁷⁰⁷

¹⁷⁰⁷ ὑετοῦ ποιεῖται σημεῖον ὁ ῎Αρατος

῾ἢ κοίλης μύρμηκες ὀχῆς ἐξ ὤεα πάντα

θᾶσσον ἀνηνέγκαντο.᾽

καίτινες οὐκ ὠ& 129· γράφουσιν, ἀλλὰ ἵνα τοὺς ἀποκειμένους καρποὺς ὅταν εὐρῶτα συνάγοντας αἴσθωνται καὶ φοβηθῶσι φθορὰν καὶ σῆψιν ἀναφερόντων, ὑπερβάλλει δὲ πᾶσαν ἐπινοιαν συνέσεως ἡ τοῦ πυροῦ τῆς βλαστήσεως προκατάληψις. Plut. ποτ. τῶν. ζ. κ.τ.λ. 725.

What language can attain to the marvels of the Creator? What ear could understand them? And what time would be sufficient to relate them? Let us say, then, with the prophet, “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all.”¹⁷⁰⁸

¹⁷⁰⁸ Ps. civ. 24.
We shall not be able to say in self-justification, that we have learnt useful knowledge in books, since the untaught law of nature makes us choose that which is advantageous to us. Do you know what good you ought to do your neighbour? The good that you expect from him yourself. Do you know what is evil? That which you would not wish another to do to you. Neither botanical researches nor the experience of simples have made animals discover those which are useful to them; but each knows naturally what is salutary and marvellously appropriates what suits its nature.

4. Virtues exist in us also by nature, and the soul has affinity with them not by education, but by nature herself. We do not need lessons to hate illness, but by ourselves we repel what afflicts us, the soul has no need of a master to teach us to avoid vice. Now all vice is a sickness of the soul as virtue is its health. Thus those have defined health well who have called it a regularity in the discharge of natural functions; a definition that can be applied without fear to the good condition of the soul. Thus, without having need of lessons, the soul can attain by herself to what is fit and conformable to nature.¹⁷⁰⁹

¹⁷⁰⁹ This is the Stoic doctrine. “Stoicorum quidem facilis conclusio est; qui cum finem bonorum esse senserint, congruere naturæ, cumque ea convenienter vivere.” cf. Cic., De Fin. iii. 7, 26, and De Nat. D. i. 14, and Hor., Ep., i. x. 12. “Vivere naturæ si convenienter oportet.” So the Stoics’ main rule of life is ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῆν. But with Basil this apparent disregard of the doctrine of original sin and the need of grace for redemption must be understood in the light of the catholic doctrine that sin is the corruption of human nature (cf. Art. ix. of Original or Birth Sin), which nature, though corrupt and prone to evil, retains capacities for good. But these capacities do need grace and training. cf. Basil’s Homily on Ps. xlv. 166. “What is said about the Saviour had a double sense on account of the nature of the Godhead and the Economy of the incarnation. So, looking to the humanity of God, it is said ‘thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity,’ instead of saying ‘the rest of men by toil and discipline and careful attention mostly attain a disposition towards good and an aversion from vice. But thou hast a kind of natural relationship to good and alienation from iniquity.’ And so to us, if we will, it is not hard to acquire a love of righteousness and a hatred of iniquity.” i.e. In Christ, redeemed humanity loves good, and all men ‘naturally’ do need toil and discipline. The heredity of sin is recognised by Basil. (e.g. in Hom. in Famen. 7.) Man fell from grace given, and must return to it. (Serm. Ascet. in init.) It must always be remembered that questions of original sin, the will, and grace never had the same importance in the Greek as they had in the Latin church. cf. Dr. Travers Smith on St. Basil (c. ix. p. 108) and Böhringer (Das Vierte Jahrhundert. Basil, p. 102) who remarks: Wenn er auch noch von einer “Wieder herstellung des freien Willens, den wir zu brauchbaren Gefässen für den Herrn und zu jedem guten Werke fähig Werden” (De spir. sanct. 18) spricht, so hat er dies doch nirgends begründet, obschon er bei der Besprechung der Folgen des Falls zuweilen sich äussert, es sei der Mensch der von dem Schöpfer erhaltenen Freiheit beraubt worden. Im Allgemeinen setzt er den freien Willen auch nach dem Fall im Menschen so gut wieder Voraus, wie vor dem Fall, so dass jene Aeusserungen kaum mehr als den Werth einer Redensart haben. Im Ganzen eriunert seine Darstellung wieder an diejenige des Athanasius, dessen Einfluss Man nicht verkennen kann.
Hence it comes that temperance everywhere is praised, justice is in honour, courage admired, and prudence the object of all aims; virtues which concern the soul more than health concerns the body. Children love¹⁷¹⁰

¹⁷¹⁰ In Eph. vi. the word is “obey.”
your parents, and you, “parents provoke not your children to wrath.”¹⁷¹¹

¹⁷¹¹ cf. Eph. vi. 4.
Does not nature say the same? Paul teaches us nothing new; he only tightens the links of nature. If the lioness loves her cubs, if the she wolf fights to defend her little ones, what shall man say who is unfaithful to the precept and violates nature herself; or the son who insults the old age of his father; or the father whose second marriage has made him forget his first children?

With animals invincible affection unites parents with children. It is the Creator, God Himself, who substitutes the strength of feeling for reason in them. From whence it comes that a lamb as it bounds from the fold, in the midst of a thousand sheep recognises the colour and the voice of its mother, runs to her, and seeks its own sources of milk. If its mother’s udders are dry, it is content, and, without stopping, passes by more abundant ones. And how does the mother recognise it among the many lambs? All have the same voice, the same colour, the same smell, as far at least as regards our sense of smell. Yet there is in these animals a more subtle sense than our perception which makes them recognise their own.¹⁷¹²

¹⁷¹² Fialon quotes Luc. ii. 367–370:

“Præterea teneri tremulis cum vocibus hædi

Cornigeras norunt matres, agnique petulci

Balantum pecudes: ita, quod natura reposcit,

Ad sua quisque fere decurrunt ubera lactis.”
The little dog has as yet no teeth, nevertheless he defends himself with his mouth against any one who teases him. The calf has as yet no horns, nevertheless he already knows where his weapons will grow.¹⁷¹³

¹⁷¹³ cf. Ovid (Halieut. ad init.):

“Accepit mundus legem; dedit arma per omnes,

Admonuitque sui. Vitulus sic namque minatur,

Qui nondum gerit in tenera jam cornua fronte.”
Here we have evident proof that the instinct of animals is innate, and that in all beings there is nothing disorderly, nothing unforeseen. All bear the marks of the wisdom of the Creator, and show that they have come to life with the means of assuring their preservation.

The dog is not gifted with a share of reason; but with him instinct has the power of reason. The dog has learnt by nature the secret of elaborate inferences, which sages of the world, after long years of study, have hardly been able to disentangle. When the dog is on the track of game, if he sees it divide in different directions, he examines these different paths, and speech alone fails him to announce his reasoning. The creature, he says, is gone here or there or in another direction. It is neither here nor there; it is therefore in the third direction. And thus, neglecting the false tracks, he discovers the true one. What more is done by those who, gravely occupied in demonstrating theories, trace lines upon the dust and reject two propositions to show that the third is the true one?¹⁷¹⁴

¹⁷¹⁴ cf. Plutarch (ποτ. των ζ.φρ. κ.τ.λ 726). οἱ δὲ διαλεκτικοί φασι τὸν κύνα τῷ διὰ πλειόνων διεζευγμένῳ χρώμενον ἐν τοῖς πολυσχιδέσιν ἀτραποῖς συλλογίζεσθαι πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἤτοι τήνδε τὸ θηρίον ὥρμηκεν ἢ τήνδε ἢ τήνδε· ἀλλὰ μὴν οὔτε τήνδε οὔτε τήνδε, τήνδε λοιπὸν ἄρα. But the dog is said to smell the first, the second, and the third. If he started off on the third without smelling, he would reason. As it is, there is no “syllogism.”

Does not the gratitude of the dog shame all who are ungrateful to their benefactors? Many are said to have fallen dead by their murdered masters in lonely places.¹⁷¹⁵

¹⁷¹⁵ Also taken from Plutarch (πότερα τῶν ζ 726), who tells stories of a dog found by King Pyrrhus on a journey, and of Hesiod’s dog.
Others, when a crime has just been committed, have led those who were searching for the murderers, and have caused the criminals to be brought to justice. What will those say who, not content with not loving the Master who has created them and nourished them, have for their friends men whose mouth attacks the Lord, sitting at the same table with them, and, whilst partaking of their food, blaspheme Him who has given it to them?

5. But let us return to the spectacle of creation. The easiest animals to catch are the most productive. It is on account of this that hares and wild goats produce many little ones, and that wild sheep have twins, for fear lest these species should disappear, consumed by carnivorous animals. Beasts of prey, on the contrary, produce only a few and a lioness with difficulty gives birth to one lion;¹⁷¹⁶

¹⁷¹⁶ cf. Herod. iii. 108. Aristotle (Hist. An. vi. 31) refutes this.
because, if they say truly, the cub issues from its mother by tearing her with its claws; and vipers are only born by gnawing through the womb, inflicting a proper punishment on their mother.¹⁷¹⁷

¹⁷¹⁷ cf. Pliny (x. 72): “Tertia die intra uterum catulos excludit, deinde singulos singulis diebus parit, viginti fere numero. Itaque ceteræ, tarditatis impatientes, perrumpunt latera, occisa parente. cf. Herod. iii. 109.

So Prudentius (Hamartigenia 583):

“Sic vipera, ut aiunt,

Dentibus emoritur fusæ per viscera prolis.”

See Sir T. Browne’s Vulgur Errors, iii. 16.
Thus in nature all has been foreseen, all is the object of continual care. If you examine the members even of animals, you will find that the Creator has given them nothing superfluous, that He has omitted nothing that is necessary. To carnivorous animals He has given pointed teeth which their nature requires for their support. Those that are only half furnished with teeth have received several distinct receptacles for their food. As it is not broken up enough in the first, they are gifted with the power of returning it after it has been swallowed, and it does not assimilate until it has been crushed by rumination. The first, second, third, and fourth stomachs of ruminating animals do not remain idle; each one of them fulfils a necessary function.¹⁷¹⁸

¹⁷¹⁸ Pliny (xi. 78) says ruminantibus geminus, but this is supposed to be a misreading for quadrigeminus, or a mistaken interpretation of Aristotle (H.A. ii. 19), whom Basil is no doubt following.
The neck of the camel is long so that it may lower it to its feet and reach the grass on which it feeds. Bears, lions, tigers, all animals of this sort, have short necks buried in their shoulders; it is because they do not live upon grass and have no need to bend down to the earth; they are carnivorous and eat the animals upon whom they prey.

Why has the elephant a trunk? This enormous creature, the greatest of terrestrial animals, created for the terror of those who meet it, is naturally huge and fleshy. If its neck was large and in proportion to its feet it would be difficult to direct, and would be of such an excessive weight that it would make it lean towards the earth. As it is, its head is attached to the spine of the back by short vertebrae and it has its trunk to take the place of a neck, and with it it picks up its food and draws up its drink. Its feet, without joints,¹⁷¹⁹

¹⁷¹⁹ See Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, iii. 1.
like united columns, support the weight of its body. If it were supported on lax and flexible legs, its joints would constantly give way, equally incapable of supporting its weight, should it wish either to kneel or rise. But it has under the foot a little ankle joint which takes the place of the leg and knee joints whose mobility would never have resisted this enormous and swaying mass. Thus it had need of this nose which nearly touches its feet. Have you seen them in war marching at the head of the phalanx, like living towers, or breaking the enemies’ battalions like mountains of flesh with their irresistible charge? If their lower parts were not in accordance with their size they would never have been able to hold their own. Now we are told that the elephant lives three hundred years and more,¹⁷²⁰

¹⁷²⁰ Arist. H.A. viii. 12 and ix. 72. Pliny vii. 10.
another reason for him to have solid and unjointed feet. But, as we have said, his trunk, which has the form and the flexibility of a serpent, takes its food from the earth and raises it up. Thus we are right in saying that it is impossible to find anything superfluous or wanting in creation. Well! God has subdued this monstrous animal to us to such a point that he understands the lessons and endures the blows we give him; a manifest proof that the Creator has submitted all to our rule, because we have been made in His image. It is not in great animals only that we see unapproachable wisdom; no less wonders are seen in the smallest. The high tops of the mountains which, near to the clouds and continually beaten by the winds, keep up a perpetual winter, do not arouse more admiration in me than the hollow valleys, which escape the storms of lofty peaks and preserve a constant mild temperature. In the same way in the constitution of animals I am not more astonished at the size of the elephant, than at the mouse, who is feared by the elephant, or at the scorpion’s delicate sting, which has been hollowed like a pipe by the supreme artificer to throw venom into the wounds it makes. And let nobody accuse the Creator of having produced venomous animals, destroyers and enemies of our life. Else let them consider it a crime in the schoolmaster when he disciplines the restlessness of youth by the use of the rod and whip to maintain order.¹⁷²¹

¹⁷²¹ cf. Hom. v. 4.

6. Beasts bear witness to the faith. Hast thou confidence in the Lord? “Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk and thou shalt trample under feet the lion and the dragon.”¹⁷²²

¹⁷²² cf. Ps. xci. 13.
With faith thou hast the power to walk upon serpents and scorpions. Do you not see that the viper which attached itself to the hand of Paul, whilst he gathered sticks, did not injure him, because it found the saint full of faith? If you have not faith, do not fear beasts so much as your faithlessness, which renders you susceptible of all corruption. But I see that for a long time you have been asking me for an account of the creation of man, and I think I can hear you all cry in your hearts, We are being taught the nature of our belongings, but we are ignorant of ourselves. Let me then speak of it, since it is necessary, and let me put an end to my hesitation. In truth the most difficult of sciences is to know one’s self. Not only our eye, from which nothing outside us escapes, cannot see itself; but our mind, so piercing to discover the sins of others, is slow to recognise its own faults.¹⁷²³

¹⁷²³ cf. St. Matt. vii. 3.
Thus my speech, after eagerly investigating what is external to myself, is slow and hesitating in exploring my own nature. Yet the beholding of heaven and earth does not make us know God better than the attentive study of our being does; I am, says the Prophet, fearfully and wonderfully made;¹⁷²⁴

¹⁷²⁴ cf. Ps. cxxxix. 14.
that is to say, in observing myself I have known Thy infinite wisdom.¹⁷²⁵

¹⁷²⁵ “E cœlo descendit γνῶθι σεαυτόν” (Juv. xi. 27). Socrates, Chilo, Thales, Cleobulus, Bias, Pythagoras, have all been credited with the saying. “On reconnaît ici le précepte fécond de l’école socratique. L’église chrétienne s’en empara comme de tout ce qu’elle trouvait de grand et de bon dans l’ancienne Grèce. Fialon.

St. Basil has a Homily on the text πρόσεχε σεαυτῷ (Deut. xv. 9, lxx.)
And God said “Let us make man.”¹⁷²⁶

¹⁷²⁶ Gen. i. 26.
Does not the light of theology shine, in these words, as through windows; and does not the second Person show Himself in a mystical way, without yet manifesting Himself until the great day? Where is the Jew who resisted the truth and pretended that God was speaking to Himself? It is He who spoke, it is said, and it is He who made. “Let there be light and there was light.” But then their words contain a manifest absurdity. Where is the smith, the carpenter, the shoemaker, who, without help and alone before the instruments of his trade, would say to himself; let us make the sword, let us put together the plough, let us make the boot? Does he not perform the work of his craft in silence? Strange folly, to say that any one has seated himself to command himself, to watch over himself, to constrain himself, to hurry himself, with the tones of a master! But the unhappy creatures are not afraid to calumniate the Lord Himself. What will they not say with a tongue so well practised in lying? Here, however, words stop their mouth; “And God said let us make man.” Tell me; is there then only one Person? It is not written “Let man be made,” but, “Let us make man.” The preaching of theology remains enveloped in shadow before the appearance of him who was to be instructed, but, now, the creation of man is expected, that faith unveils herself and the dogma of truth appears in all its light. “Let us make man.” O enemy of Christ, hear God speaking to His Co-operator, to Him by Whom also He made the worlds, Who upholds all things by the word of His power.¹⁷²⁷

¹⁷²⁷ cf. Heb. i. 2, 3.
But He does not leave the voice of true religion without answer. Thus the Jews, race hostile to truth, when they find themselves pressed, act like beasts enraged against man, who roar at the bars of their cage and show the cruelty and the ferocity of their nature, without being able to assuage their fury. God, they say, addresses Himself to several persons; it is to the angels before Him that He says, “Let us make man.” Jewish fiction! a fable whose frivolity shows whence it has come. To reject one person, they admit many. To reject the Son, they raise servants to the dignity of counsellors; they make of our fellow slaves the agents in our creation. The perfect man attains the dignity of an angel; but what creature can be like the Creator? Listen to the continuation. “In our image.” What have you to reply? Is there one image of God and the angels? Father and Son have by absolute necessity the same form, but the form is here understood as becomes the divine, not in bodily shape, but in the proper qualities of Godhead. Hear also, you who belong to the new concision¹⁷²⁸

¹⁷²⁸ Phil. iii. 2.
and who, under the appearance of Christianity, strengthen the error of the Jews.¹⁷²⁹

¹⁷²⁹ The Arians.
To Whom does He say, “in our image,” to whom if it is not to Him who is “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,”¹⁷³⁰

¹⁷³⁰ Heb. i. 3.
“the image of the invisible God”?¹⁷³¹

¹⁷³¹ Col. i. 15.
It is then to His living image, to Him Who has said “I and my Father are one,”¹⁷³²

¹⁷³² John x. 30.
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,”¹⁷³³

¹⁷³³ John xiv. 9.
that God says “Let us make man in our image.” Where is the unlikeness¹⁷³⁴

¹⁷³⁴ τὸ ἀνόμοιον. Arius had taught that the Persons are ἀνόμοιοι πάμπαν ἀλλήλων.
in these Beings who have only one image? “So God created man.”¹⁷³⁵

¹⁷³⁵ Gen. i. 27.
It is not “They made.” Here Scripture avoids the plurality of the Persons. After having enlightened the Jew, it dissipates the error of the Gentiles in putting itself under the shelter of unity, to make you understand that the Son is with the Father, and guarding you from the danger of polytheism. He created him in the image of God. God still shows us His co-operator, because He does not say, in His image, but in the image of God.

If God permits, we will say later in what way man was created in the image of God, and how he shares this resemblance. Today we say but only one word. If there is one image, from whence comes the intolerable blasphemy of pretending that the Son is unlike the Father? What ingratitude! You have yourself received this likeness and you refuse it to your Benefactor! You pretend to keep personally that which is in you a gift of grace, and you do not wish that the Son should keep His natural likeness to Him who begat Him.

But evening, which long ago sent the sun to the west, imposes silence upon me. Here, then, let me be content with what I have said, and put my discourse to bed. I have told you enough up to this point to excite your zeal; with the help of the Holy Spirit I will make for you a deeper investigation into the truths which follow. Retire, then, I beg you, with joy, O Christ-loving congregation, and, instead of sumptuous dishes of various delicacies, adorn and sanctify your tables with the remembrance of my words. May the Anomœan be confounded, the Jew covered with shame, the faithful exultant in the dogmas of truth, and the Lord glorified, the Lord to Whom be glory and power, world without end. Amen.
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