Second Homily on Eutropius (After His Captivity)

^16. Understand what is said, lest ye lose it: I am labouring to enable you to perceive it. The dowry of the bride then was divided into two portions consisting of things present and things to come; things seen and things heard, things given and things taken on trust, things experienced, and things to be enjoyed hereafter; things belonging to present life, and things to come after the resurrection. The former things you see, the latter you hear. Observe then what He says to her that you may not suppose that she received the former things only, though they be great and ineffable, and surpassing all understanding. “Hearken O daughter and behold;” hear the latter things and behold the former that you may not say “am I again to depend on hope, again on faith, again on the future?” See now: I give some things, and I promise others: the latter indeed depend on hope, but do thou receive the others as pledges, as an earnest, as a proof of the remainder. I promise you a kingdom: and let present things be the ground of your trust, your trust in me. Do you promise me a kingdom? Yea. I have given you the greater part, even the Lord of the kingdom, for “he who spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Do you give me the resurrection of the body? Yea; I have given you the greater part. What is the nature of it? Release from sins. How is that the greater part? Because sin brought forth death. I have destroyed the parent, and shall I not destroy the offspring? I have dried up the root, and shall I not destroy the produce. “Hearken O daughter and behold.” What am I to behold? Dead men raised to life, lepers cleansed, the sea restrained, the paralytic braced up into vigour, paradise opened, loaves poured forth in abundance, sins remitted, the lame man leaping, the robber made a citizen of paradise, the publican turned into an evangelist, the harlot become more modest than the maid. Hear and behold. Hear of the former things and behold these. Accept from present things a proof of the others; concerning those I have given you pledges, things which are better than they are. “What is the meaning of this your saying?” These things are mine. “Hearken O daughter and behold.” These things are my dower to you. And what does the bride contribute? Let us see. What I pray you do you bring that you may not be portionless? What can I, she answers, bring to you from heathen altars, and the steam of sacrifices and from devils? What have I to contribute? What? Do you say? Your will and your faith. “Hearken O daughter and behold.” And what will you have me do? “Forget your own people.” What kind of people? The devils, the idols, the sacrificial smoke, and steam, and blood. “Forget your own people, and your father's house.” Leave your father and come after me. I left my Father, and came to you, and will you not leave your father? But when the word leave is used in reference to the Son do not understand by it an actual leaving. What He means is “I condescended, I accommodated myself to you, I assumed human flesh.” This is the duty of the bridegroom, and of the bride, that you should abandon your parents, and that we should be wedded to one another. “Hearken O daughter and behold, and forget your own people, and your father's house.” And what do you give me if I do forget them? “and the king shall desire your beauty.” You have the Lord for your lover. If you have Him for your lover, you have also the things which are his. I trust ye may be able to understand what is said: for the thought is a subtle one, and I wish to stop the mouth of the Jews.

Now exert your minds I pray: for whether one hears, or forbears to hear I shall dig and till the soil. “Hearken O daughter, and behold, forget also your own people, and your father's house, and the king shall desire your beauty.” By beauty in this passage the Jew understands sensible beauty; not spiritual but corporeal.