Adam at first was without clothing, faring daintily in Paradise: and after he had received the commandment, but failed to keep it, and wickedly stretched forth his hand (not because the hand wished this, but because his will stretched forth his hand to that which was forbidden), because of his disobedience he lost also the good things he had received. Thus the members are not the cause of sin to those who use them, but the wicked mind, as the Lord says, For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, fornications, adulteries, envyings, and such like. In what things thou choosest, therein thy limbs serve thee; they are excellently made for the service of the soul: they are provided as servants to thy reason. Guide them well by the motion of piety; bridle them by the fear of God; bring them into subjection to the desire of temperance and abstinence, and they will never rise up against thee to tyrannise over thee; but rather they will guard thee, and help thee more mightily in thy victory over the devil, while expecting also the incorruptible and everlasting crown of the victory. Who openeth the chambers of the womb? Who, &c."
At the end of the same section, after the words "Wise Creator," this is found: "Glorify Him in His unsearchable works, and concerning Him whom thou art not capable of knowing, inquire not curiously what His essence is. It is better for thee to keep silence, and in faith adore, according to the divine Word, than daringly to search after things which neither thou canst reach, nor Holy Scripture hath delivered to thee. These points my discourse has now treated at large, that thou mayest abhor those who blaspheme the wise and good Artificer, and rather mayest thyself also say, How wonderful are Thy works O Lord; in wisdom hast Thou made them all. To Thee be the glory, and power, and worship, with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and throughout all ages. Amen."
[1058] The Septuagint, from which Cyril quotes the text, differs much from the Hebrew, and from the English Versions: Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man: for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me.
[1059] John i. 18.
[1060] Ezekiel i. 28.
[1061] Exod. xxxiii. 20.
[1062] Is. lxiv. 1, Septuagint. R.V. Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down.
[1063] Dan. x. 9, 16, 18.
[1064] Wisdom xiii. 5. Compare Theophilus of Antioch To Autolycus, I. 5, 6: "God cannot indeed be seen by human eyes, but is beheld and perceived through His providence and works....He is not visible to eyes of flesh, since He is incomprehensible."
[1065] Song of the Three Children, 32.
[1066] In Ezekiel i. 6-11, the four living creatures have each four wings, as also in x. 21 according to the Hebrew. But in the latter passage, according to the Vatican text of the Septuagint, each has eight wings, as Codd. R. and Casaub. read here. Cyril seems to have confused the number in Ezekiel with that in Is. vi. 2: each one had six wings. By "a wheel of four sides" Cyril explains Ez. i. 16: a wheel in the midst of a wheel, as meaning two circles set at right angles to each other, like the equator and meridian on a globe.
[1067] Compare Cat. iv. 4. Irenæus (I. x. 1): "The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, yet received from the Apostles and their disciples the Faith in One God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea and all that therein is." Tertullian (de Præscriptione Hæret. cap. xiii.) "The rule of faith is that whereby we believe that there is One God only, and none other than the Creator of the world, who brought forth all things out of nothing through His own Word first of all sent forth."
[1068] Compare Cat. vi. 13, 27.
[1069] Gen. i. 6.
[1070] Ps. xix. 5.
[1071] The common reading hina me tou psuchous pleion genetai ho chronos, all' hina hai nuktes, k.t.l. gives a meaning contrary to the facts. The translation follows the mss. Roe, Casaubon, which omit me and for alla read kai. Compare Whewell's Astromony, p. 22: "The length of the year is so determined as to be adapted to the constitution of most vegetables: or the construction of vegetables is so adjusted as to be suited to the length which the year really has, and unsuited to a duration longer or shorter by any considerable portion. The vegetable clock-work is so set as to go for a year." Ibid. p. 34: "The terrestrial day, and consequently the length of the cycle of light and darkness, being what it is, we find various parts of the constitution both of animals and vegetables, which have a periodical character in their functions, corresponding to the diurnal succession of external conditions, and we find that the length of the period, as it exists in their constitution, coincides with the length of the natural day."
[1072] Ps. xix. 2. Compare a beautiful passage of Theophilus of Antioch (To Autolycus, vi.).
[1073] Lucretius, V. 1182: "They saw the skies in constant order run, The varied seasons and the circling sun, Apparent rule, with unapparent cause, And thus they sought in gods the source of laws.
[1074] See note 3 on Cat. iii. 33.
[1075] Is. xlv. 7. Compare the Homily of Chrysostom on this text.
[1076] Whewell, Astromomy. p. 38: "Animals also have a period in their functions and habits; as in the habits of waking, sleeping, eating, &c., and their well-being appears to depend on the coincidence of this period with the length of the natural day."
[1077] Chrysostom, VI. p. 171: "As the day brings man out to his work, so the night succeeding releases him from his countless toils and thoughts, and lulling his weary eyes to sleep, and closing their lids, prepares him to welcome the sunbeam again with his force in full vigour."
[1078] Clement of Alexandria (Stromat. IV. 22, E. Tr.): "And in this way they seem to have called the night Euphrone, since then the soul released from the perceptions of sense turns in on itself, and has a truer hold of intelligence (phronesis)."
[1079] Chrysostom (Tom. II. p. 793): "We usually take the reckoning of our money early in the morning, but of our actions, of all that we have said and done by day, let us demand of ourselves the account after supper, and even after nightfall, as we lie upon our bed, with none to trouble, none to disturb us. And if we see anything done amiss, let us chastise our conscience, let us rebuke our mind, let us so vehemently impugn our account, that we may no more dare to rise up and bring ourselves to the same pit of sin, being mindful of the scourging at night."
[1080] Clem. Alex. (Stromat. VI. 11): "The same is true also of Astronomy, for being engaged in the investigation of the heavenly bodies, as to the form of the universe, and the revolution of the heaven, and the motion of the stars, it brings the soul nearer to the Creative Power, and teaches it to be quick in perceiving the seasons of the year, the changes of the atmosphere, and the risings of the stars; since navigation also and husbandry are full of benefit from this science." Compare Lactantius (De Irâ Dei, cap. xiii.).
[1081] Gen. i. 14.
[1082] Job xxxviii. 28.
[1083] Whewell, Astronomy, p. 88: "Clouds are produced by aqueous vapour when it returns to the state of water." p. 89: "Clouds produce rain. In the formation of a cloud the precipitation of moisture probably forms a fine watery powder, which remains suspended in the air in consequence of the minuteness of its particles: but if from any cause the precipitation is collected in larger portions, and becomes drops, these descend by their weight and produce a shower." Compare Aristotle, Meterologica, I. ix. 3; Ansted, Physical Geography, p. 210.
[1084] Job xxxvii. 22: "Out of the north cometh golden splendour" (R.V.).
[1085] Job xxxviii. 37.
[1086] Job xxxvii. 16: "Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds?" In the Septuagint diakrisin nephon may mean "the separate path of the clouds" (Vulg. "semitas nubium,") or "the dissolving," as in Aristotle (Meteorol. I. vii. 10: diakrinesthai kai dialuesthai to diatmizon hugron hupo tou plethous tes thermes anathumiaseos, hoste me sunistasthai rhadios eis hudor. "The moist vapour is separated and dissolved by the great heat of the evaporation, so that it does not easily condense into water." Cf. Plato, Sophistes 243 B: diakriseis kai sunkriseis.
[1087] Job xxxviii. 37 (according to the Septuagint): "And who is he that numbereth the clouds by wisdom, and bent down the heaven to the earth?" A.V., R.V. "Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven?"
[1088] Job xxvi. 8: "He bindeth up the waters in His thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them."
[1089] Ps. cxxxv. 7.
[1090] Job xxxviii. 28.
[1091] Ps. cxlvii. 16: "He scattereth the hoar frost like ashes." The Hebrew dvphk is rendered by pachne, "hoar frost," in Job xxxviii. 29, but here by omichle, "mist."
[1092] Job xxxvii. 10: "the breadth of the waters is straitened" (Marg. R.V. "congealed"). The word oiakizei in the Septuagint means to "steer," Lat. "gubernare" to "turn as by a helm."
[1093] Ps. civ. 15.
[1094] There is a similar passage on the various effects of water in Cat. xvi. 12. Chrysostom (de Statuis, Hom. xii. 2), Epiphanius (Ancoratus, p. 69), and other Fathers, appear to reproduce both the thoughts and words of Cyril.
[1095] For kausin, "burning," Morel and Milles, with Cod. Coisl., read kaustin, a rare word explained by Hesychius as the "growth" or "foliage" of the vine: but this is fully expressed in what follows, and the reading kausin is confirmed by Virgil (Georg. ii. 408): "Primus devecta cremato sarmenta" (Reischl).
[1096] For the construction of hina with the Indicative hiptantai, see Bernhardy, Syntax, p. 401. Winer (Gram. N. T. III. sect. xli. c).
[1097] Ps. civ. 25.
[1098] Gr. hupostasin, literally "substance."
[1099] Job xxxviii. 11.
[1100] Ib. xxxix. 26.
[1101] Gen. i. 24.
[1102] Instead of phones (Milles), or peges (Bened. Roe, Casaub.) the recent Editors have restored tes ges with the Jerusalem and Munich mss., and Basil.
[1103] Gr. kineseis "movements," "impulses." Aristotle (Historia Animalium. IX. vii. 1) remarks that many imitations of man's mode of life may be observed in the habits of other animals.
[1104] Jer. v. 8.
[1105] Prov. vi. 6. Instead of the epithet "laborious" (georgotatos ) some mss. have "agile" or "restless" (gorgotatos).
[1106] After the description of the ant, Prov. vi. 6-8, there follows in the Septuagint a similar reference to the bee: "Or go to the bee, and learn how industrious she is, and how comely she makes her work, and the produce of her labours kings and commons adopt for health, and she is desired and esteemed by all, and though feeble in strength has been exalted by her regard for wisdom." The interpolation is supposed to be of Greek origin, as containing "idiomatic Greek expressions which would not occur to a translator from the Hebrew" (Delitzsch).
[1107] Ps. cxix. 103.
[1108] Compare Bacon (Natural Hist. 965): "I would have trial made of two other kinds of bracelets, for comforting the heart and spirits: one of the trochisch of vipers, made into little pieces of beads; for since they do great good inwards (especially for pestilent agues), it is like they will be effectual outwards, where they may be applied in greater quantity. There would be trochisch likewise made of snakes; whose flesh dried is thought to have a very good opening and cordial virtue." Ib. 969: "The writers of natural magic commend the wearing of the spoil of a snake, for preserving of health." Thomas Jackson (On the Creed, VIII. 8, § 4): "The poisonous bitings of the scorpion are usually cured by the oil of scorpions."
[1109] Shakespeare (Richard III. Act. i. Sc. ii.). Glo. "Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine." Anne. "Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead." Compare Bacon (De Augmentis, VII. cap. ii): "The fable goes of the basilisk, that if he see you first, you die for it, but if you see him first, he dies." Bacon refers to Pliny (Nat. Hist. viii. 33).
[1110] Job x. 11.
[1111] Xenophon (Memor. Socratis. I. cap. iv): "And moreover does not this also seem to thee like a work of providence, that, whereas the sight is weak, the Creator furnished it with eyelids for doors, which are opened whenever there is need to use the sight, but are closed in sleep."
[1112] Wisdom xiii. 5.
[1113] Ps. civ. 24.
Lecture X.
On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the Corinthians
For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth [1114] ; yet to us there is One God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.