Homilies on Acts

For lest, when he says, “Being the offspring of God”, they should again say, You bring certain strange things to our ears, he produces the poet. He does not say, “You ought not to think the Godhead like to gold or silver,” ye accursed and execrable: but in more lowly sort he says, “We ought not.” For what (says he)? God is above this? No, he does not say this either: but for the present this— “We ought not to think the Godhead like such,” for nothing is so opposite to men. “But we do not affirm the Godhead to be like this, for who would say that?” Mark how he has introduced the incorporeal (nature of God) when he said, “In Him,” etc., for the mind, when it surmises body, at the same time implies the notion of distance. (Speaking) to the many he says, “We ought not to think the Godhead like gold, or silver, or stone, the shaping of art,” for if we are not like to those as regards the soul, much more God (is not like to such). So far, he withdraws them from the notion. But neither is the Godhead, he would say, subjected to any other human conception. For if that which art or thought has found— this is why he says it thus, “of art or imagination of man”— if that, then, which human art or thought has found, is God, then even in the stone (is) God's essence.— How comes it then, if “in Him we live,” that we do not find Him? The charge is twofold, both that they did not find Him, and that they found such as these. The (human) understanding in itself is not at all to be relied upon.— But when he has agitated their soul by showing them to be without excuse, see what he says: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.” What then? Are none of these men to be punished? None of them that are willing to repent. He says it of these men, not of the departed, but of them whom He commands to repent. He does not call you to account, he would say. He does not say, Took no notice (παρεἵδεν); does not say, Permitted: but, You were ignorant. “Overlooked,” i.e. does not demand punishment as of men that deserve punishment. You were ignorant. And he does not say, You wilfully did evil; but this he showed by what he said above. — “All men everywhere to repent:” again he hints at the whole world. Observe how he takes them off from the parcel deities! “Because He has appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He has ordained, whereof He has given assurance to all men, in that He raised Him from the dead.” Observe how he again declares the Passion. Observe the terror again: for, that the judgment is true, is clear from the raising Him up: for it is alleged in proof of that. That all he has been saying is true, is clear from the fact that He rose again. For He did give this “assurance to all men,” His rising from the dead: this (i.e. judgment), also is henceforth certain.