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But as for this which disturbed you about the devil, that "he is a liar
and his father," as if it seemed that he and his father were pronounced
by the Lord to be liars, it is sufficiently ridiculous to imagine this even
cursorily. For as we said a little while ago spirit does not beget spirit
just as soul cannot procreate soul, though we do not doubt that the
compacting of flesh is formed from man's seed, as the Apostle clearly
distinguishes in the case of both substances; viz., flesh and spirit, what
should be ascribed to whom as its author, and says: "Moreover we have had
fathers of our flesh for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not
much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? " What
could show more clearly than this distinction, that he laid down that men
were the fathers of our flesh, but always taught that God alone was the
Father of souls. Although even in the actual compacting of this body a
ministerial office alone must be attributed to men, but the chief part of
its formation to God the Creator of all, as David says: "Thy hands have
made me and fashioned me:" And the blessed Job: "Hast thou not milked me
as milk, and curdled me as cheese? Thou hast put me together with bones and
sinews;" and the Lord to Jeremiah: "Before I formed thee in the womb, I
knew thee." But Ecclesiastes very clearly and accurately gathers the
nature of either substance, and its beginning, by an examination of the
rise and commencement, from which each originated, and by a consideration
of the end to which each is tending, and decides also of the division of
this body and soul, and discourses as follows: "Before the dust returns to
the earth as it was, and the spirit returns unto God who gave it." But
what could be said with greater plainness than that he declares that the
matter of the flesh which he styled dust, because it springs from the seed
of man, and seems to be sown by his ministration, mush as it was taken from
the earth, again return to the earth, while he points out that the spirit
which is not begotten by intercourse between the sexes, but belongs to God
alone in a special way, returns to its creator? And this also is clearly
implied in that breathing by God, through which Adam in the first instance
received his life. And so from these passages we clearly infer that no one
can be called the Father of spirits but God alone, who makes them out of
nothing whenever He pleases, while men can only be termed the fathers of
our flesh. So then the devil also in as much as he was created a spirit or
an angel and good, had no one as his Father but God his Maker. But when he
had become puffed up by pride and had said in his heart: "I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High," he
became a liar, and "abode not in the truth;" but brought forth a lie
from his own storehouse of wickedness and so became not only a liar, but
also the father of the actual lie, by which when he promised Divinity to
man and said "Ye shall be as gods," he abode not in the truth, but from
the beginning became a murderer, both by bringing Adam into a state of
mortality, and by slaying Abel by the hand of his brother at his
suggestion. But already the approach of dawn is bringing to a close our
discussion, which has occupied nearly two whole nights, and our brief and
simple words have drawn our bark of this Conference from the deep sea of
questions to a safe harbour of silence, in which deep indeed, as the breath
of the Divine Spirit drives us further in, so is there ever opened out a
wider and boundless space reaching beyond the sight of our eye, and, as
Solomon says, "It will become much further from us than it was, and a great
depth; who shall find it out?" Wherefore let us pray the Lord that both
His fear and His love, which cannot fail, may continue steadfast in us, and
make us wise in all things, and ever shield us unharmed, from the darts of
the devil. For with these guards it is impossible for anyone to fall into
the snares of death. But there is this difference between the perfect and
imperfect, that in the case of the former love is steadfast, and so to
speak riper and lasts more abidingly and so makes them persevere in
holiness more steadfastly and more easily, while in the case of the latter
its position is weaker and it more easily grows cold, and so quickly and
more frequently allows them to be entangled in the snares of sin. And when
we heard this, the words of this Conference so fired us that when we went
away from the old man's cell we longed with a keener ardour of soul than
when we first came, for the fulfilment of his teaching.
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