Letters 249–261

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium

So far as my own wishes are concerned I am grieved at living at such a distance from your reverence.  But, as regards the peace of your own life, I thank the Lord Who has kept you out of this conflagration which has specially ravaged my diocese.  For the just Judge has sent me, in accordance with my works, a messenger of Satan, who is buffeting me severely enough, and is vigorously defending the heresy.  Indeed to such a pitch has he carried the war against us, that he does not shrink even from shedding the blood of those who trust in God.  You cannot fail to have heard that a man of the name of Asclepius, because he would not consent to communion with Doeg, has died under the blows inflicted on him by them, or rather, by their blows has been translated into life.  You may suppose that the rest of their doings are of a piece with this; the persecutions of presbyters and teachers, and all that might be expected to be done by men abusing the imperial authority at their own caprice.  But, in answer to your prayers, the Lord will give us release from these things, and patience to bear the weight of our trials worthily of our hope in Him.  Pray write frequently to me of all that concerns yourself.  If you find any one who can be trusted to carry you the book that I have finished, be so kind as to send for it, that so, when I have been cheered by your approval, I may send it on to others also.  By the grace of the Holy One may you be granted to me and to the Church of the Lord in good health rejoicing in the Lord, and praying for me.

Without address. Commendatory

Letter CCXLIX.

Without address.  Commendatory.

I congratulate this my brother, in being delivered from our troubles here and in approaching your reverence.  In choosing a good life with them that fear the Lord he has chosen a good provision for the life to come.  I commend him to your excellency and by him I beseech you to pray for my wretched life, to the end that I may be delivered from these trials and begin to serve the Lord according to the Gospel.

To Patrophilus, bishop of Ægæ

Letter CCL.

To Patrophilus, bishop of Ægæ.

There has been some delay in my receiving your answer to my former letter; but it has reached me through the well-beloved Strategius, and I have given thanks to the Lord for your continuance in your love to me.  What you have now been kind enough to write on the same subject proves your good intentions, for you think as you ought, and you counsel me to my gain.  But I see that my words will be extending too far, if I am to reply to everything written to me by your excellency.  I therefore say no more than this, that, if the blessing of peace goes no further than the mere name of peace, it is ridiculous to go on picking out here one and there another, and allow them alone a share in the boon, while others beyond number are excluded from it.  But if agreement with mischievous men, under the appearance of peace, really does the harm an enemy might do to all who consent to it, then only consider who those men are who have been admitted to their companionship, who have conceived an unrighteous hatred against me; who but men of the faction not in communion with me.  There is no need now for me to mention them by name.  They have been invited by them to Sebasteia; they have assumed the charge of the Church; they have performed service at the altar:  they have given of their own bread to all the people, being proclaimed bishops by the clergy there, and escorted through all the district as saints and in communion.  If one must adopt the faction of these men, it is absurd to begin at the extremities, and not rather to hold intercourse with those that are their heads.  If then we are to count heretic and shun no one at all, why, tell me, do you separate yourself from the communion of certain persons?  But if any are to be shunned, let me be told by these people who are so logically consistent in everything, to what party those belong whom they have invited over from Galatia to join them?  If such things seem grievous to you, charge the separation on those who are responsible for it.  If you judge them to be of no importance, forgive me for declining to be of the leaven of the teachers of wrong doctrine.  Wherefore, if you will, have no more to do with those specious arguments, but with all openness confute them that do not walk aright in the truth of the Gospel.

To the people of Evæsæ

Letter CCLI.

To the people of Evæsæ.

1.  My occupations are very numerous, and my mind is full of many anxious cares, but I have never forgotten you, my dear friends, ever praying my God for your constancy in the faith, wherein ye stand and have your boasting in the hope of the glory of God.  Truly nowadays it is hard to find, and extraordinary to see, a Church pure, unharmed by the troubles of the times, and preserving the apostolic doctrine in all its integrity and completeness.  Such is your Church shewn at this present time by Him who in every generation makes manifest them that are worthy of His calling.  May the Lord grant to you the blessings of Jerusalem which is above, in return for your flinging back at the heads of the liars their slanders against me, and your refusal to allow them entry into your hearts.  I know, and am persuaded in the Lord, that “your reward is great in heaven,” even on account of this very conduct.  For you have wisely concluded among yourselves, as indeed is the truth, that the men who are “rewarding me evil for good, and hatred for my love,” are accusing me now for the very same points which they are found to have themselves confessed and subscribed.

2.  Their presenting you with their own signatures for an accusation against me is not the only contradiction into which they have fallen.  They were unanimously deposed by the bishops assembled at Constantinople.  They refused to accept this deposition and appealed to a synod of impious men, refusing to admit the episcopacy of their judges, in order not to accept the sentence passed upon them.

The reason alleged for their non-recognition was their being leaders of wicked heresy.  All this happened nearly seventeen years ago.  The principal men of those who deposed them were Eudoxius, Euippius, George, Acacius, and others unknown to you.

The present tyrants of the churches are their successors, some ordained to fill their places, and others actually promoted by them.

3.  Now let those who charge me with unsound doctrine tell me in what way the men whose deposition they refused to accept were heretical.  Let them tell me in what way those promoted by them, and holding the same views as their fathers, are orthodox.  If Euippius was orthodox, how can Eustathius, whom he deposed, be other than a layman?  If Euippius was a heretic, how can any one ordained by him be in communion with Eustathius now?  But all this conduct, this trying to accuse men and set them up again, is child’s play, got up against the Churches of God, for their own gain.

When Eustathius was travelling through Paphlagonia, he overthrew the altars of Basilides of Paphlagonia, and used to perform divine service on his own tables.  Now he is begging Basilides to be admitted to communion.  He refused to communicate with our reverend brother Elpidius, because of his alliance with the Amasenes; and now he comes as a suppliant to the Amasenes, petitioning for alliance with them.  Even ye yourselves know how shocking were his public utterances against Euippius:  now he glorifies the holders of Euippius’s opinions for their orthodoxy, if only they will cooperate in promoting his restitution.  And I am all the while being calumniated, not because I am doing any wrong, but because they have imagined that they will thus be recommended to the party at Antioch.  The character of those whom they sent for last year from Galatia, as being likely by their means to recover the free exercise of their episcopal powers, is only too well known to all who have lived even for a short time with them.  I pray that the Lord may never allow me leisure to recount all their proceedings.  I will only say that they have passed through the whole country, with the honour and attendance of bishops, escorted by their most honourable bodyguard and sympathizers; and have made a grand entry into the city, and held an assembly with all authority.  The people have been given over to them.  The altar has been given over to them.  How they went to Nicopolis, and could do nothing there of all that they had promised, and how they came, and what appearance they presented on their return, is known to those who were on the spot.  They are obviously taking every single step for their own gain and profit.  If they say that they have repented, let them shew their repentance in writing; let them anathematize the Creed of Constantinople; let them separate from the heretics; and let them no longer trick the simple-minded.  So much for them and theirs.

4.  I, however, brethren beloved, small and insignificant as I am, but remaining ever by God’s grace the same, have never changed with the changes of the world.  My creed has not varied at Seleucia, at Constantinople, at Zela, at Lampsacus, and at Rome.  My present creed is not different from the former; it has remained ever one and the same.  As we received from the Lord, so are we baptized; as we are baptized, so we make profession of our faith; as we make profession of our faith, so do we offer our doxology, not separating the Holy Ghost from Father and Son, nor preferring Him in honour to the Father, or asserting Him to be prior to the Son, as blasphemers’ tongues invent.  Who could be so rash as to reject the Lord’s commandment, and boldly devise an order of his own for the Names?  But I do not call the Spirit, Who is ranked with Father and Son, a creature.  I do not dare to call slavish that which is royal.  And I beseech you to remember the threat uttered by the Lord in the words, “All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”  Keep yourselves from dangerous teaching against the Spirit.  “Stand fast in the faith.”  Look over all the world, and see how small the part is which is unsound.  All the rest of the Church which has received the Gospel. from one end of the world to the other, abides in this sound and unperverted doctrine.  From their communion I pray that I may never fall, and I pray that I may have part and lot with you in the righteous day of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He shall come to give to every one according to his conduct.

To the bishops of the Pontic Diocese

Letter CCLII.

To the bishops of the Pontic Diocese.

The honours of martyrs ought to be very eagerly coveted by all who rest their hopes on the Lord, and more especially by you who seek after virtue.  By your disposition towards the great and good among your fellow servants you are shewing your affection to our common Lord.  Moreover, a special reason for this is to be found in the tie, as it were, of blood, which binds the life of exact discipline to those who have been made perfect through endurance.  Since then Eupsychius and Damas and their company are most illustrious among martyrs, and their memory is yearly kept in our city and all the neighbourhood, the Church, calling on you by my voice, reminds you to keep up your ancient custom of paying a visit.  A great and good work lies before you among the people, who desire to be edified by you, and are anxious for the reward dependent on the honour paid to the martyrs.  Receive, therefore, my supplications, and consent of your kindness to give at the cost of small trouble to yourselves a great boon to me.

To the presbyters of Antioch

Letter CCLIII.

To the presbyters of Antioch.

The anxious care which you have for the Churches of God will to some extent be assuaged by our very dear and very reverend brother Sanctissimus the presbyter, when he has told you of the love and kindness felt for us by all the West.  But, on the other hand, it will be roused afresh and made yet keener, when he has told you in person what zeal is demanded by the present position of affairs.  All other authorities have told us, as it were, by halves, the minds of men in the West, and the condition of things there.  He is very competent to understand men’s minds, and to make exact enquiry into the condition of affairs, and he will tell you everything and will guide your good will through the whole business.  You have matter before you appropriate to the excellent will which you have always shewn in your anxiety on behalf of the Churches of God.

To Pelagius, bishop of the Syrian Laodicea

Letter CCLIV.

To Pelagius, bishop of the Syrian Laodicea.

May the Lord grant me once again in person to behold your true piety and to supply in actual intercourse all that is wanting in my letter.  I am behindhand in beginning to write and must needs make many excuses.  But we have with us the well beloved and reverend brother Sanctissimus, the presbyter.  He will tell you everything, both our news and the news of the West.  You will be cheered by what you hear; but when he tells you of the troubles in which we are involved he will perhaps add some distress and anxiety to that which already besets your kindly soul.  Yet it is not to no purpose that affliction should be felt by you, able as you are to move the Lord.  Your anxiety will turn to our gain, and I know that we shall receive succour from God as long as we have the aid of your prayers.  Pray, too, with me for release from my anxieties, and ask for some increase in my bodily strength; then the Lord will prosper me on my way to the fulfilment of my desires and to a sight of your excellency.

To Vitus, bishop of Charræ

Letter CCLV.

To Vitus, bishop of Charræ.

Would that it were possible for me to write to your reverence every day!  For ever since I have had experience of your affection I have had great desire to converse with you, or, if this be impossible, at least to communicate with you by letter, that I may tell you my own news and learn in what state you are.  Yet we have not what we wish but what the Lord gives, and this we ought to receive with gratitude.  I have therefore thanked the holy God for giving me an opportunity for writing to your reverence on the arrival of our very well beloved and reverend brother Sanctissimus, the presbyter.  He has had considerable trouble in accomplishing his journey, and will tell you with accuracy all that he has learnt in the West.  For all these things we ought to thank the Lord and to beseech Him to give us too the same peace and that we may freely receive one another.  Receive all the brethren in Christ in my name.

Letter CCLVI.

To the very well beloved and reverend brethren the presbyters Acacius, Aetius, Paulus, and Silvanus; the deacons Silvinus and Lucius, and the rest of the brethren the monks, Basil, the bishop.

News has reached me of the severe persecution carried on against you, and how directly after Easter the men who fast for strife and debate attacked your homes, and gave your labours to the flames, preparing for you indeed a house in the heavens, not made with hands, but for themselves laying up in store the fire which they had used to your hurt.  I no sooner heard of this than I groaned over what had happened; pitying not you, my brethren, (God forbid!) but the men who are so sunk in wickedness as to carry their evil deeds to such an extent.  I expected you all to hurry at once to the refuge prepared for you in my humble self; and I hoped that the Lord would give me refreshment in the midst of my continual troubles in embracing you, and in receiving on this inactive body of mine the noble sweat which you are dropping for the truth’s sake, and so having some share in the prizes laid up for you by the Judge of truth.  But this did not enter into your minds, and you did not even expect any relief at my hands.  I was therefore at least anxious to find frequent opportunities of writing to you, to the end that like those who cheer on combatants in the arena, I might myself by letter give you some encouragement in your good fight.  For two reasons, however, I have not found this easy.  In the first place, I did not know where you were residing.  And, secondly, but few of our people travel in your direction.  Now the Lord has brought us the very well beloved and reverend brother Sanctissimus, the presbyter.  By him I am able to salute you, and I beseech you to pray for me, rejoicing and exulting that your reward is great in heaven, and that you have freedom with the Lord to cease not day and night calling on Him to put an end to this storm of the Churches; to grant the shepherds to their flocks, and that the Church may return to her proper dignity.  I am persuaded that if a voice be found to move our good God, He will not make His mercy afar off, but will now “with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”  Salute all the brethren in Christ in any name.

To the monks harassed by the Arians

Letter CCLVII.

To the monks harassed by the Arians.

1.  I have thought it only right to announce to you by letter how I said to myself, when I heard of the trials brought upon you by the enemies of God, that in a time reckoned a time of peace you have won for yourselves the blessings promised to all who suffer persecution for the sake of the name of Christ.  In my judgment the war that is waged against us by our fellow countrymen is the hardest to bear, because against open and declared enemies it is easy to defend ourselves, while we are necessarily at the mercy of those who are associated with us, and are thus exposed to continual danger.  This has been your case.  Our fathers were persecuted, but by idolaters their substance was plundered, their houses were overthrown, they themselves were driven into exile, by our open enemies, for Christ’s name’s sake.  The persecutors who have lately appeared, hate us no less than they, but, to the deceiving of many, they put forward the name of Christ, that the persecuted may be robbed of all comfort from its confession, because the majority of simpler folk, while admitting that we are being wronged, are unwilling to reckon our death for the truth’s sake to be martyrdom.  I am therefore persuaded that the reward in store for you from the righteous Judge is yet greater than that bestowed on those former martyrs.  They indeed both had the public praise of men, and received the reward of God; to you, though your good deeds are not less, no honours are given by the people.  It is only fair that the requital in store for you in the world to come should be far greater.

2.  I exhort you, therefore, not to faint in your afflictions, but to be revived by God’s love, and to add daily to your zeal, knowing that in you ought to be preserved that remnant of true religion which the Lord will find when He cometh on the earth.  Even if bishops are driven from their Churches, be not dismayed.  If traitors have arisen from among the very clergy themselves, let not this undermine your confidence in God.  We are saved not by names, but by mind and purpose, and genuine love toward our Creator.  Bethink you how in the attack against our Lord, high priests and scribes and elders devised the plot, and how few of the people were found really receiving the word.  Remember that it is not the multitude who are being saved, but the elect of God.  Be not then affrighted at the great multitude of the people who are carried hither and thither by winds like the waters of the sea.  If but one be saved, like Lot at Sodom, he ought to abide in right judgment, keeping his hope in Christ unshaken, for the Lord will not forsake His holy ones.  Salute all the brethren in Christ from me.  Pray earnestly for my miserable soul.

To Epiphanius the bishop

Letter CCLVIII.

To Epiphanius the bishop.

1.  It has long been expected that, in accordance with the prediction of our Lord, because of iniquity abounding, the love of the majority would wax cold.  Now experience has confirmed this expectation.  But though this condition of things has already obtained among us here, it seems to be contradicted by the letter brought from your holiness.  For verily it is no mere ordinary proof of love, first that you should remember an unworthy and insignificant person like myself; and secondly, that you should send to visit me brethren who are fit and proper ministers of a correspondence of peace.  For now, when every man is viewing every one else with suspicion, no spectacle is rarer than that which you are presenting.  Nowhere is pity to be seen; nowhere sympathy; nowhere a brotherly tear for a brother in distress.  Not persecutions for the truth’s sake, not Churches with all their people in tears; not this great tale of troubles closing round us, are enough to stir us to anxiety for the welfare of one another.  We jump on them that are fallen; we scratch and tear at wounded places; we who are supposed to agree with one another launch the curses that are uttered by the heretics; men who are in agreement on the most important matters are wholly severed from one another on some one single point.  How, then, can I do otherwise than admire him who in such circumstances shews that his love to his neighbour is pure and guileless, and, though separated from me by so great a distance of sea and land, gives my soul all the care he can?

2.  I have been specially struck with admiration at your having been distressed even by the dispute of the monks on the Mount of Olives, and at your expressing a wish that some means might be found of reconciling them to one another.  I have further been glad to hear that you have not been unaware of the unfortunate steps, taken by certain persons, which have caused disturbance among the brethren, and that you have keenly interested yourself even in these matters.  But I have deemed it hardly worthy of your wisdom that you should entrust the rectification of matters of such importance to me:  for I am not guided by the grace of God, because of my living in sin; I have no power of eloquence, because I have cheerfully withdrawn from vain studies; and I am not yet sufficiently versed in the doctrines of the truth.  I have therefore already written to my beloved brethren at the Mount of Olives, our own Palladius, and Innocent the Italian, in answer to their letters to me, that it is impossible for me to make even the slightest addition to the Nicene Creed, except the ascription of Glory to the Holy Ghost, because our Fathers treated this point cursorily, no question having at that time arisen concerning the Spirit.  As to the additions it is proposed to make to that Creed, concerning the incarnation of our Lord, I have neither tested nor accepted them, as being beyond my comprehension.  I know well that, if once we begin to interfere with the simplicity of the Creed, we shall embark on interminable discussion, contradiction ever leading us on and on, and shall but disturb the souls of simpler folk by the introduction of new phrases.

3.  As to the Church at Antioch (I mean that which is in agreement in the same doctrine), may the Lord grant that one day we may see it united.  It is in peril of being specially open to the attacks of the enemy, who is angry with it because there the name of Christian first obtained.  There heresy is divided against orthodoxy, and orthodoxy is divided against herself.  My position, however, is this.  The right reverend bishop Meletius was the first to speak boldly for the truth, and fought that good fight in the days of Constantine.  Therefore my Church has felt strong affection towards him, for the sake of that brave and firm stand, and has held communion with him.  I, therefore, by God’s grace, have held him to be in communion up to this time; and, if God will, I shall continue to do so.  Moreover the very blessed Pope Athanasius came from Alexandria, and was most anxious that communion should be established between Meletius and himself; but by the malice of counsellors their conjunction was put off to another season.  Would that this had not been so!  I have never accepted communion with any one of those who have since been introduced into the see, not because I count them unworthy, but because I see no ground for the condemnation of Meletius.  Nevertheless I have heard many things about the brethren, without giving heed to them, because the accused were not brought face to face with their accusers, according to that which is written, “Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?”  I cannot therefore at present write to them, right honourable brother, and I ought not to be forced to do so.  It will be becoming to your peaceful disposition not to cause union in one direction and disunion in another, but to restore the severed member to the original union.  First, then, pray; next, to the utmost of your ability, exhort, that ambition may be driven from their hearts, and that reconciliation may be effected between them both to restore strength to the Church, and to destroy the rage of our foes.  It has given great comfort to my soul that, in addition to your other right and accurate statements in theology, you should acknowledge the necessity of stating that the hypostases are three.  Let the brethren at Antioch be instructed by you after this manner.  Indeed I am confident that they have been so instructed; for I am sure you would never have accepted communion with them unless you had carefully made sure of this point in them.

4.  The Magusæans, as you were good enough to point out to me in your other letter, are here in considerable numbers, scattered all over the country, settlers having long ago been introduced into these parts from Babylon.  Their manners are peculiar, as they do not mix with other men.  It is quite impossible to converse with them, inasmuch as they have been made the prey of the devil to do his will.  They have no books; no instructors in doctrine.  They are brought up in senseless institutions, piety being handed down from father to son.  In addition to the characteristics which are open to general observation, they object to the slaying of animals as defilement, and they cause the animals they want for their own use to be slaughtered by other people.  They are wild after illicit marriages; they consider fire divine, and so on.  No one hitherto has told me any fables about the descent of the Magi from Abraham:  they name a certain Zarnuas as the founder of their race.  I have nothing more to write to your excellency about them.

To the monks Palladius and Innocent

Letter CCLIX.

To the monks Palladius and Innocent.

From your affection for me you ought to be able to conjecture my affection for you.  I have always desired to be a herald of peace, and, when I fail in my object, I am grieved.  How could it be otherwise?  I cannot feel angry with any one for this reason, because I know that the blessing of peace has long ago been withdrawn from us.  If the responsibility for division lies with others, may the Lord grant that those who cause dissension may cease to do so.  I cannot even ask that your visits to me may be frequent.  You have therefore no reason to excuse yourselves on this score.  I am well aware that men who have embraced the life of labour, and always provide with their own hands the necessities of life, cannot be long away from home; but, wherever you are, remember me, and pray for me that no cause of disturbance may dwell in my heart, and that I may be at peace with myself and with God.

To Optimus the bishop

Letter CCLX.

To Optimus the bishop.

1.  Under any circumstances I should have gladly seen the good lads, on account of both a steadiness of character beyond their years, and their near relationship to your excellency, which might have led me to expect something remarkable in them.  And, when I saw them approaching me with your letter, my affection towards them was doubled.  But now that I have read the letter, now that I have seen all the anxious care for the Church that there is in it, and the evidence it affords of your zeal in reading the divine Scriptures, I thank the Lord.  And I invoke blessings on those who brought me such a letter, and, even before them, on the writer himself.

2.  You have asked for a solution of that famous passage which is everywhere interpreted in different senses, “Whosoever slayeth Cain will exact vengeance for seven sins.”  Your question shews that you have yourself carefully observed the charge of Paul to Timothy, for you are obviously attentive to your reading.  You have moreover roused me, old man that I am, dull alike from age and bodily infirmity, and from the many afflictions which have been stirred up round about me and have weighed down my life.  Fervent in spirit as you are yourself, you are rousing me, now benumbed like a beast in his den, to some little wakefulness and vital energy.  The passage in question may be interpreted simply and may also receive an elaborate explanation.  The simpler, and one that may occur to any one off hand, is this:  that Cain ought to suffer sevenfold punishment for his sins.

For it is not the part of a righteous judge to define requital on the principle of like for like, but the originator of evil must pay his debt with addition, if he is to be made better by punishment and render other men wiser by his example.  Therefore, since it is ordained that Cain pay the penalty of his sin sevenfold, he who kills him, it is said, will discharge the sentence pronounced against him by the divine judgment.  This is the sense that suggests itself to us on our first reading the passage.

3.  But readers, gifted with greater curiosity, are naturally inclined to probe into the question further.  How, they ask, can justice be satisfied seven times?  And what are the vengeances?  Are they for seven sins committed?  Or is the sin committed once and are there seven punishments for the one sin?  Scripture continually assigns seven as the number of the remission of sins.  “How often,” it is asked, “shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?”  (It is Peter who is speaking to the Lord.)  “Till seven times?”  Then comes the Lord’s answer, “I say not unto thee, until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.”  Our Lord did not vary the number, but multiplied the seven, and so fixed the limit of the forgiveness.  After seven years the Hebrew used to be freed from slavery.  Seven weeks of years used in old times to make the famous jubilee, in which the land rested, debts were remitted, slaves were set free, and, as it were, a new life began over again, the old life from age to age being in a sense completed at the number seven.  These things are types of this present life, which revolves in seven days and passes by, wherein punishments of slighter sins are inflicted, according to the loving care of our good Lord, to save us from being delivered to punishment in the age that has no end.  The expression seven times is therefore introduced because of its connexion with this present world for men who love this world ought specially to be punished in the things for the sake of which they have chosen to live wicked lives.  If you understand the vengeances to be for the sins committed by Cain, you will find those sins to be seven.  Or if you understand them to mean the sentence passed on him by the Judge, you will not go far wrong.  To take the crimes of Cain:  the first sin is envy at the preference of Abel; the second is guile, whereby he said to his brother, “Let us go into the field:”  the third is murder, a further wickedness:  the fourth, fratricide, a still greater iniquity:  the fifth that he committed the first murder, and set a bad example to mankind:  the sixth wrong in that he grieved his parents:  the seventh, his lie to God; for when he was asked, “Where is Abel thy brother?” he replied, “I know not.”  Seven sins were therefore avenged in the destruction of Cain.  For when the Lord said, “Cursed is the earth which has opened to receive the blood of thy brother,” and “groaning and trembling shall there be on the earth,” Cain said, “If thou castest me out to-day from the earth, then from thy face shall I be hid, and groaning and trembling shall I lie upon the earth, and every one that findeth me shall slay me.”  It is in answer to this that the Lord says, “Whosoever slayeth Cain will discharge seven vengeances.”  Cain supposed that he would be an easy prey to every one, because of there being no safety for him in the earth (for the earth was cursed for his sake), and of his being deprived of the succour of God, Who was angry with him for the murder, and so of there being no help for him either from earth or from heaven.  Therefore he said, “It shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”  Scripture proves his error in the words, “Not so;” i.e. thou shalt not be slain.  For to men suffering punishment, death is a gain, because it brings relief from their pain.  But thy life shall be prolonged, that thy punishment may be made commensurate with thy sins.  Since then the word ἐκδικούμενον may be understood in two senses; both the sin for which vengeance was taken, and the manner of the punishment, let us now examine whether the criminal suffered a sevenfold torment.

4.  The seven sins of Cain have been enumerated in what has been already said.  Now I ask if the punishments inflicted on him were seven, and I state as follows.  The Lord enquired ‘Where is Abel thy brother?’ not because he wished for information, but in order to give Cain an opportunity for repentance, as is proved by the words themselves, for on his denial the Lord immediately convicts him saying, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me.”  So the enquiry, “Where is Abel thy brother?” was not made with a view to God’s information, but to give Cain an opportunity of perceiving his sin.  But for God’s having visited him he might have pleaded that he was left alone and had no opportunity given him for repentance.  Now the physician appeared that the patient might flee to him for help.  Cain, however, not only fails to hide his sore, but makes another one in adding the lie to the murder.  “I know not.  Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Now from this point begin to reckon the punishments.  “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” one punishment.  “Thou shalt till the ground.”  This is the second punishment.  Some secret necessity was imposed upon him forcing him to the tillage of the earth, so that it should never be permitted him to take rest when he might wish, but ever to suffer pain with the earth, his enemy, which, by polluting it with his brother’s blood, he had made accursed.  “Thou shalt till the ground.”  Terrible punishment, to live with those that hate one, to have for a companion an enemy, an implacable foe.  “Thou shalt till the earth,” that is, Thou shalt toil at the labours of the field, never resting, never released from thy work, day or night, bound down by secret necessity which is harder than any savage master, and continually urged on to labour.  “And it shall not yield unto thee her strength.”  Although the ceaseless toil had some fruit, the labour itself were no little torture to one forced never to relax it.  But the toil is ceaseless, and the labours at the earth are fruitless (for “she did not yield her strength”) and this fruitlessness of labour is the third punishment.  “Groaning and trembling shalt thou be on the earth.”  Here two more are added to the three; continual groaning, and tremblings of the body, the limbs being deprived of the steadiness that comes of strength.  Cain had made a bad use of the strength of his body, and so its vigour was destroyed, and it tottered and shook, and it was hard for him to lift meat and drink to his mouth, for after his impious conduct, his wicked hand was no longer allowed to minister to his body’s needs.  Another punishment is that which Cain disclosed when he said, “Thou hast driven me out from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid.”  What is the meaning of this driving out from the face of the earth?  It means deprivation of the benefits which are derived from the earth.  He was not transferred to another place, but he was made a stranger to all the good things of earth.  “And from thy face shall I be hid.”  The heaviest punishment for men of good heart is alienation from God.  “And it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”  He infers this from what has gone before.  If I am cast out of the earth, and hidden from thy face, it remains for me to be slain of every one.  What says the Lord?  Not so.  But he put a mark upon him.  This is the seventh punishment, that the punishment should not be hid, but that by a plain sign proclamation should be made to all, that this is the first doer of unholy deeds.  To all who reason rightly the heaviest of punishments is shame.  We have learned this also in the case of the judgments, when “some” shall rise “to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

5.  Your next question is of a kindred character, concerning the words of Lamech to his wives; “I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt:  if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”  Some suppose that Cain was slain by Lamech, and that he survived to this generation that he might suffer a longer punishment.  But this is not the case.  Lamech evidently committed two murders, from what he says himself, “I have slain a man and a young man,” the man to his wounding, and the young man to his hurt.  There is a difference between wounding and hurt.  And there is a difference between a man and a young man.  “If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.”  It is right that I should undergo four hundred and ninety punishments, if God’s judgment on Cain was just, that his punishments should be seven.  Cain had not learned to murder from another, and had never seen a murderer undergoing punishment.  But I, who had before my eyes Cain groaning and trembling, and the mightiness of the wrath of God, was not made wiser by the example before me.  Wherefore I deserve to suffer four hundred and ninety punishments.  There are, however, some who have gone so far as the following explanation, which does not jar with the doctrine of the Church; from Cain to the flood, they say, seven generations passed by, and the punishment was brought on the whole earth, because sin was everywhere spread abroad.  But the sin of Lamech requires for its cure not a Flood, but Him Who Himself takes away the sin of the world.  Count the generations from Adam to the coming of Christ, and you will find, according to the genealogy of Luke, that the Lord was born in the seventy-seventh.

Thus I have investigated this point to the best of my ability, though I have passed by matters therein that might be investigated, for fear of prolonging my observations beyond the limits of my letter.  But for your intelligence little seeds are enough.  “Give instruction,” it is said, “to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser.” “If a skilful man hear a wise word he will commend it, and add unto it.”

6.  About the words of Simeon to Mary, there is no obscurity or variety of interpretation.  “And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary His mother, Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”  Here I am astonished that, after passing by the previous words as requiring no explanation, you should enquire about the expression, “Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also.”  To me the question, how the same child can be for the fall and rising again, and what is the sign that shall be spoken against, does not seem less perplexing than the question how a sword shall pierce through Mary’s heart.

7.  My view is, that the Lord is for falling and rising again, not because some fall and others rise again, but because in us the worst falls and the better is set up.  The advent of the Lord is destructive of our bodily affections and it rouses the proper qualities of the soul.  As when Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” the same man is weak and is strong, but he is weak in the flesh and strong in the spirit.  Thus the Lord does not give to some occasions of falling and to others occasions of rising.  Those who fall, fall from the station in which they once were, but it is plain that the faithless man never stands, but is always dragged along the ground with the serpent whom he follows.  He has then nowhere to fall from, because he has already been cast down by his unbelief.  Wherefore the first boon is, that he who stands in his sin should fall and die, and then should live in righteousness and rise, both of which graces our faith in Christ confers on us.  Let the worse fall that the better may have opportunity to rise.  If fornication fall not, chastity does not rise.  Unless our unreason be crushed our reason will not come to perfection.  In this sense he is for the fall and rising again of many.

8.  For a sign that shall be spoken against.  By a sign, we properly understand in Scripture a cross.  Moses, it is said, set the serpent “upon a pole.”  That is upon a cross.  Or else a sign is indicative of something strange and obscure seen by the simple but understood by the intelligent.  There is no cessation of controversy about the Incarnation of the Lord; some asserting that he assumed a body, and others that his sojourn was bodiless; some that he had a passible body, and others that he fulfilled the bodily œconomy by a kind of appearance.  Some say that his body was earthly, some that it was heavenly; some that He pre-existed before the ages; some that He took His beginning from Mary.  It is on this account that He is a sign that shall be spoken against.

9.  By a sword is meant the word which tries and judges our thoughts, which pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of our thoughts.  Now every soul in the hour of the Passion was subjected, as it were, to a kind of searching.  According to the word of the Lord it is said, “All ye shall be offended because of me.”  Simeon therefore prophesies about Mary herself, that when standing by the cross, and beholding what is being done, and hearing the voices, after the witness of Gabriel, after her secret knowledge of the divine conception, after the great exhibition of miracles, she shall feel about her soul a mighty tempest.  The Lord was bound to taste of death for every man—to become a propitiation for the world and to justify all men by His own blood.  Even thou thyself, who hast been taught from on high the things concerning the Lord, shalt be reached by some doubt.  This is the sword.  “That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”  He indicates that after the offence at the Cross of Christ a certain swift healing shall come from the Lord to the disciples and to Mary herself, confirming their heart in faith in Him.  In the same way we saw Peter, after he had been offended, holding more firmly to his faith in Christ.  What was human in him was proved unsound, that the power of the Lord might be shewn.