Homilies 8.1–8.24

As Peter entered Tripolis, the more studious from Tyre and Sidon, Berytus and Byblus, and many from the neighbouring districts came in with him; and not least, crowds from the city itself came streaming together, wishing to see him. The brothers he had sent ahead to learn exactly about the city in general and Simon's doings, so as to report to him when he came, met us in the suburbs. They received him and led him to the house of Maroones.

When he had come to the very gate of the lodging, he turned to the crowds and promised to speak to them about the worship of God the day after next. When he had gone in, those sent ahead were preparing lodgings for those who had come with him; and those who received and lodged them did not fall short of the eagerness of those who asked it. Peter, knowing nothing of this, when we asked him to take food, said that he would not eat before those who had come with him had been given rest. We answered that this had already been done: out of affection for you all had been eagerly received, so that those who had no one to lodge were exceedingly grieved. When Peter heard this, he was delighted at their prompt kindness, blessed them, and went out; he bathed in the sea, came in, took food with those who had gone ahead, and, as evening came on, went to sleep.

About the second cock-crow he woke and found us awake. We were sixteen in all with him: Peter himself, I Clement, Nicetes and Aquila, and the twelve who had gone ahead. He greeted us and said: "Today, not being occupied with those outside, we are free for one another. So I will tell you what has happened since we left Tyre, and you tell me more exactly what Simon has done here." When we had exchanged our accounts in turn, one of our acquaintances came in and reported to Peter: "Simon, learning that you had arrived, set out on the road to Syria. The crowds, thinking this one night as long as a year and unable to wait for the day you appointed, are standing before the doors, talking with one another in groups and gatherings about Simon's deceit: that he raised their hopes, promised to refute you on many charges when you came, and, when he learned you had arrived, fled by night. But they themselves long to hear you. I do not know how a rumour spread that you are going to speak to them today. So, so that they may not be worn out for a long time and go away for nothing, you yourself know what you ought to do."

Peter, marvelling at the eagerness of the crowds, answered: "You see, brothers, how the words of our Lord are plainly fulfilled. For I remember that he said, 'Many will come from east and west, from north and south, and will recline in the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' But he also says, 'Many are called, but few chosen.' That they have come, being called, has been fulfilled. But since this is not their own doing but that of God who called them and made them come, for this alone they have no reward, because it is not their own doing but his who brought it about. But if, after being called, they do good deeds, which is their own doing, then for this they will have a reward.

"For neither are the Hebrews who believe Moses, but do not keep what was spoken through him, saved, unless they keep what was spoken to them. For their believing Moses did not come about by their own will, but from God, who said to Moses, 'Behold, I come to you in a pillar of cloud, so that the people may hear me speaking to you and may believe you for ever.' Since, then, both for the Hebrews and for those called from the Gentiles, believing the teachers of truth comes from God, while good deeds are left to each to do by his own judgment, the reward is justly paid to those who do well. For there would have been no need either of Moses or of the coming of Jesus if people had been willing to understand what is reasonable of themselves; nor does salvation come from believing teachers and calling them lords.

"For this reason Jesus is hidden from the Hebrews, who have taken Moses as their teacher, and Moses is hidden from those who have believed Jesus. For since there is one teaching through both, God accepts one who has believed either of them. But believing a teacher is for the sake of doing what God says. That this is so, our Lord himself says: 'I give thanks to you, Father of heaven and earth, because you hid these things from wise elders and revealed them to nursing infants.' So God himself hid the teacher from some, as already knowing what they must do, and revealed him to others, as not knowing what they ought to do.

"So the Hebrews are not condemned for not knowing Jesus, because of the one who hid him, provided that, doing what was commanded through Moses, they do not hate the one they did not know. Nor again are those from the Gentiles who did not know Moses condemned, because of the one who concealed him, provided that they too, doing what was spoken through Jesus, do not hate the one they did not know. And some will gain nothing by calling the teachers lords but not doing the work of servants. For this reason our Jesus said to someone who kept calling him Lord but did none of the things he commanded, 'Why do you call me "Lord, Lord," and do not do what I say?' For it is not saying that will profit anyone, but doing. So in every way there is need of good works. But if anyone is counted worthy to recognize both as preaching one teaching, that man is reckoned rich in God, having understood both the ancient things as new in time and the new things as old."

While Peter was saying this, the crowds came in where Peter was, as if someone had called them. Seeing the great crowd flowing gently toward him like the quiet stream of a river, he said to Maroones, "Where do you have a place here better able to hold the crowds?" Maroones led him to an open-air garden, and the crowds followed. Peter stood on the base of a statue, not very high, and, as soon as he had greeted the crowd in the manner of those who fear God, knowing that many of the crowds standing by had long been troubled by demons and many sufferings, and were groaning and wailing and falling down in supplication, he rebuked them, ordered them to keep quiet, promised healing after he had spoken, and began to speak as follows.

"As I begin my discourse on the worship of God to people who are entirely ignorant of everything, and whose minds have been stained by the slanders of Simon, our adversary, I have thought it necessary first to speak about why God, who made all things, must not be blamed. I begin from no other point than the very occasion that he, by his providence, has opportunely put before us, so that it may be known that the many have with good reason been held fast by many demons and seized by strange sufferings, so that in this too the justice of God may appear. And those who blame him through ignorance, now that they have learned how they ought to think, will call themselves back from their former accusation by speaking well of him and doing good, putting forward their ignorance as the cause of their evil daring, so as to obtain pardon.

"It is like this. The only good God made all things well and handed them over to man, who was made in his image. The man who came into being, breathing the divinity of the one who made him, was a true prophet and knew all things. For the honour of the Father who had given him everything, and for the salvation of the sons born of him, he kept, like a true father, his goodwill toward the children born of him, wishing them, for their own good, to love God and to be loved by him. He made known the way that leads to God's friendship, teaching by what human actions God, the only and universal Lord, is pleased; and having made known what seems good to him, he laid down for all an eternal law, which could neither be burned by enemies, nor corrupted by any impious person, nor hidden away in one place, but could be read by all. So, from their obedience to the law, they had everything in abundance: the finest of fruits, years that were perfect, free from grief and disease, given without fear, with every mildness of weather.

"But since they had not first experienced evils, they became insensible to the gift of good things, and through abundant food and luxury they turned to ingratitude, so that they even thought there was no providence, since they had not first laboured for righteousness and received good things as a reward, none of them having fallen into any suffering, disease, or other necessity that would lead them, as is natural for people afflicted through wrongdoing, to look about for God who is able to heal them. But immediately after the contempt that came from fearlessness and carefree luxury, a just punishment met them, following as if by an orderly harmony, driving away the good things as having done harm and bringing in evils instead as beneficial.

"For of the spirits who inhabit heaven, the angels who dwell in the lowest region, vexed at the ingratitude of human beings toward God, asked to come into human life, so that, becoming truly human, they might by a better way of life convict those who had been ungrateful to him and subject each of them on the spot to the punishment he deserved. When they had asked and received this, they changed themselves into every kind of nature, since they were of a more divine substance and could easily be transformed into anything. They became precious stone, and splendid pearl, and purple of the finest kind, and glorious gold, and every costly material. They fell into the hands of some and into the laps of others, and willingly let themselves be stolen by them. They also changed into four-footed beasts, reptiles, fish, and birds, and into whatever they wished. These things your poets too sing about carelessly, from want of fear of God, ascribing to one the many and different deeds of them all.

"But when, having become these things, they had convicted the greedy people who seized them, and had changed themselves into human nature, in order to live holy lives, show that such a life is possible, and bring the ungrateful to account, then, since they had become human in every respect, they also had human desire; and, overcome by it, they slipped into intercourse with women. Having joined with them, being bound fast in defilement and wholly emptied of their first power, they could not change back their limbs, which had been turned from fire, into the original purity of their own nature. For their fire had ended in flesh because of the weight of desire, and so they travelled the impious road downward. They are held fettered by the bonds of flesh and strongly bound, and for this reason they were no longer able to go back up to heaven.

"After intercourse, when they were asked for what they had been at first and could no longer supply it, because after their defilement they could not make themselves anything else, and wishing to please their beloved women, they showed them, in place of themselves, the marrow of the earth, I mean the flowers of the mines: gold, bronze, silver, iron, and the like, together with all the most precious stones. Along with these bewitched stones they also handed down the arts for dealing with each of these things. They showed them magic and taught them astronomy, the powers of roots, and whatever could never have been discovered by human thought, as well as the casting of gold and silver and the like, and the varied dyeing of garments. In short, everything that serves the adornment and delight of women is the invention of the demons who were bound in flesh.

"From their bastard union bastard human beings were born, far taller than men, whom they afterward called giants; not serpent-footed and waging war on God, as the blasphemous myths of the Greeks sing, but beastly in their ways, greater than human beings in size, since they came from angels, but less than angels, since they had been born of women. God, then, knowing that they had become savage like beasts, and that the world was not enough to satisfy them (for it was made to the measure of human beings and for human use), in order that they might not, for lack of food, turn to eating animals against nature and seem blameless, as though they had dared this out of necessity, God the almighty rained manna on them, suited to every variety of desire, and they enjoyed whatever they wished. But they, because of their bastard nature, were not pleased with the purity of that food and longed only for the taste of blood. So they were the first to taste flesh.

"The human beings who lived with them then, for the first time, eagerly did the same. So we are not born good or bad, but we become so; and once accustomed, we are hard to draw away. When the irrational animals then ran short, the bastard men tasted human flesh too; for it was no longer a long step for them to destroy flesh like their own, having tasted it before in other forms.

"Through the great outpouring of blood, the pure air was defiled by an unclean vapour and became diseased, and it made those who breathed it sickly, so that from then on human beings died before their time. The earth, greatly defiled by these things, then for the first time cast up venomous and destructive creatures. So, since everything had gone from bad to worse because of the beastly demons, God resolved to remove them like bad leaven, so that each generation, descending from its seed and becoming like the one before it and equally impious, might not empty the coming age of saved men. For this reason, having told one righteous man beforehand that he would be preserved in an ark, together with his three sons and their wives and the rest, he sent water in a flood, so that when all had been consumed, the world, thoroughly cleansed, might be handed back pure to the one preserved in the ark for a second beginning of life. And so it happened.

"Since the souls of the dead giants were greater than human souls, as they had also surpassed them in body, they were called by a new name, as a new race. To them, as survivors in the world, a law was laid down by God, through an angel, on how they must live. For being bastards by birth, from the fire of angels and the blood of women, and therefore likely to desire something of their own peculiar kind, they were forestalled by a just law. For an angel was sent to them by God, making known his will and saying:

"'This is the decision of God who oversees all: that you shall rule over no human being and trouble no one, unless someone willingly makes himself your slave by worshipping you, sacrificing and pouring libations to you, sharing your table, or doing anything else that ought not to be done, or shedding blood, or tasting flesh, or filling himself with the remains of a beast, or with what has died or been strangled, or with anything else unclean. Those who take refuge in my law you shall not only not touch, but you shall also pay them honour and flee from their presence. For whatever seems good to them, since they are righteous, against you, that you will have to suffer. But if any of those devoted to me sin, by committing adultery, practising magic, living impurely, or doing anything else that does not please me, then by my command they will have to suffer something at your hands or at the hands of others. And when they repent, I will judge their repentance, whether it deserves pardon or not, and give my verdict.' You ought, then, to remember these things, knowing well that not even your thoughts can escape him."

"Having given them such commands, the angel departed. But you are still ignorant of this law: that anyone who worships demons, or sacrifices to them, or shares their table, becomes their slave, as if under evil masters, and will share in every punishment that comes from them. And through this ignorance, having wasted away at their altars and filled yourselves with them, you have come under their power, and you do not know that you are being outraged in your bodies in every way. You must know that the demons have power over no one unless he has first shared their way of life. For not even their ruler can do anything against the law that God has set in motion against them, and so he has no power over anyone who has not worshipped him; nor can anyone receive from them anything he wants, nor be harmed in anything, as you may learn.

"For the temporary king once came to the king of our religion, not using force, since that was not permitted, but urging and persuading, because being persuaded lies within each person's own power. So, coming as king of present things to the king of things to come, he said: 'All the kingdoms of the present world are subject to me; the gold and the silver and all the luxury of this world are under my authority. So fall down and worship me, and I will give you all these things.' He said this knowing that, once he had been worshipped, he would have power over him too, and so would rob him of the coming glory and kingdom. But he, knowing everything, not only did not worship him but did not wish to take any of the things under his control; for he bound himself and those who are his by a pledge, namely, that from then on it is not lawful even to touch the things handed over to the devil. So he answered: 'It is written, You shall fear the Lord your God, and serve him only.'

"The king of the impious, having tried in many ways to lead the king of the pious to his will and being unable, stopped, though he still attempted to hunt him in the rest of his life. But you, being ignorant of the law laid down beforehand, have come under his power through your evil deeds. So you have been defiled in body and soul. In the present you are outraged by sufferings and demons, and in the future you will have your souls punished. You are not the only ones who have suffered this through ignorance: so have some of our own nation, who, having been taken beforehand by the leader of wickedness through evil deeds, were then called, as to a dinner, by a father celebrating his son's wedding, and did not obey. In place of those who disobeyed because they had been taken beforehand, the father who is celebrating the wedding for his son has commanded us, through the Prophet of truth, to go to the crossroads, that is, to you, and to clothe you with the clean wedding garment, which is baptism, which is for the forgiveness of the evil deeds you have done. And he brings the good into God's dinner through their change of mind, even if at first they were left out of the feast.

"If, then, you wish to become a garment of the divine Spirit, hasten first to strip off your filthy prejudice, which is an unclean spirit and a foul covering. You cannot put this off in any other way unless you are first baptized, with good deeds; and so, having become pure in body and soul, you will enjoy the eternal kingdom that is to come. So do not trust idols or share their foul table; do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not hate those whom it is not just to hate, do not steal, and do not set your hand to any evil deeds at all. Otherwise, deprived of the hope of the good things to come, in the present you will be crushed by evil demons and grievous sufferings, and in the age to come you will be punished with eternal fire. What has been said to you today is enough. For the rest, those of you troubled by sufferings, stay for healing; and of the others, those who wish may go in peace."

When he had said this, everyone stayed, some to be healed, others to see those who received healing. Peter only laid his hands on them and prayed, and healed them, so that those healed at once were overjoyed, and those who watched were greatly amazed, praised God, and believed with firm hope. Then they went home with those who had been healed, having been told to gather earlier the next day. When they had gone, Peter stayed there with his close companions, took food, and rested in sleep.