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Cain, and then his sacrifices were rejected. For upon Cain, it says, and upon his sacrifices He had no regard. Noah offered sacrifices to God of sheep and calves and birds; and the Scripture says, that the Lord smelled a fragrant aroma; that is, He accepted what was offered. For indeed God does not have nostrils, but the divine is incorporeal. And yet the things offered up from there were the savor and smoke of burning bodies; and nothing is more foul-smelling than such a savor; but so that you may learn that God, by paying attention to the choice of those offering, both accepts and rejects sacrifices, He calls the savor and the smoke a fragrant aroma, but the incense an abomination, since the choice of those who offered it was full of much foul odor. Do you wish to learn that along with the sacrifices, and the instruments, and the feasts, and the incense, He also rejects the temple on account of those who enter there? Most of all He showed it by deeds, at one time handing it over to barbarian hands, and later demolishing it completely; yet even before the destruction He cries out through the prophet and says, Do not trust in lying words, because they will not profit you, 48.854 saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord it is. The temple does not sanctify, he says, those who gather, but those who gather make the temple holy. And if the temple did not profit then, when there were the Cherubim, when there was the ark, how much more so when all those things have been taken away, when the turning away of God has become complete, when the cause for enmity is greater. Of what folly, then, and of what madness would it be, to make partners in feasts those who are dishonored, those betrayed by God, those who provoked the Master? If someone killed your son, tell me, would you endure to see him? would you endure to hear his address? but would you not flee him as a wicked demon, as the devil himself? They killed the Son of your Master, and you dare to gather in the same place with them? And He who was killed so honored you as to make you His brother and co-heir; but you so dishonor him as to honor and serve his murderers and crucifiers by communion in feasts, and to go to their profane places, and to tread upon unclean thresholds, and to partake of a table of demons; for so I am persuaded to call the fast of the Jews after the deicide. And how do they not serve demons, who practice things contrary to God? But do you seek healing from demons? When Christ permitted them to enter into swine, they were at once drowned in the sea; and will they spare human bodies? Would that they did not kill, would that they did not plot. They cast [man] out of paradise, they deprived [him] of honor from above, and they will heal the body? These things are a laugh and fables. Demons know how to plot and to harm, not to heal. They do not spare the soul, and will they spare bodies, tell me? They attempt to cast out from the kingdom, and they will choose to deliver from sicknesses? Have you not heard the prophet saying, or rather God through the prophet, that they can neither do good nor do evil? But even if they were able to heal, and wished to, which is impossible, still you must not exchange an incorruptible and eternal loss for a small and perishable gain. You will heal a body, in order to destroy a soul? Your commerce is not good; you provoke God the maker of the body, and you call upon your own plotter for healing? And how will some superstitious man, for the sake of the science of medicine itself, not easily draw you to worship the gods of the Greeks? For they too many times drove away many sicknesses through their own art, and restored the weary to health. What then, must one have fellowship with impiety on account of this? May it not be so. Listen to what Moses says to the Jews; If a prophet arises among you, dreaming a dream, and gives a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder of which he spoke comes to pass, and he says to you, saying; Let us go and worship other gods whom our fathers have not known; you shall not listen to the voice of the prophet, or of the

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Κάϊν, καὶ τότε τὰς θυσίας αὐτοῦ ἀπεστράφη. Ἐπὶ γὰρ Κάϊν, φησὶ, καὶ ἐπὶ ταῖς θυσίαις αὐτοῦ οὐ προσέσχεν. Ὁ Νῶε θυσίας ἀνήνεγκε τῷ Θεῷ προβάτων καὶ μόσχων καὶ ὀρνίθων· καί φησιν ἡ Γραφὴ, ὅτι Ὠσφράνθη Κύριος ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας· τουτέστιν, ἐδέξατο τὰ προσενεχθέντα. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ ῥῖνές εἰσι περὶ Θεὸν, ἀλλὰ ἀσώματον τὸ θεῖον. Καίτοι τὰ ἀναφερόμενα ἐκεῖθεν κνίσσα καὶ καπνὸς σωμάτων καιομένων· τῆς δὲ τοιαύτης κνίσσης οὐδὲν δυσωδέστερον· ἀλλ' ἵνα μάθῃς, ὅτι τῇ προαιρέσει τῶν προσφερόντων προσέχων ὁ Θεὸς καὶ δέχεται καὶ ἀποστρέφεται τὰς θυσίας, τὴν μὲν κνίσσαν καὶ τὸν καπνὸν ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας καλεῖ, τὸ δὲ θυμίαμα βδέλυγμα, ἐπειδὴ πολλῆς δυσωδίας ἡ τῶν προσαγαγόντων προαίρεσις ἔγεμεν. Βούλει μαθεῖν ὅτι μετὰ τῶν θυσιῶν, καὶ τῶν ὀργάνων, καὶ τῶν ἑορτῶν, καὶ τῶν θυμιαμάτων, καὶ τὸν ναὸν ἀποστρέφεται διὰ τοὺς εἰσιόντας ἐκεῖ; Μάλιστα μὲν ἔδειξε διὰ τῶν ἔργων, τότε μὲν βαρβαρικαῖς χερσὶ παραδοὺς, ὕστερον δὲ εἰς τέλος καθελών· ὅμως δὲ καὶ πρὸ τῆς καταστροφῆς διὰ τοῦ προφήτου βοᾷ καὶ λέγει, Μὴ πεποίθατε ἐπὶ λόγοις ψευδέσιν, ὅτι οὐκ ὠφελήσουσιν ὑμᾶς, 48.854 λέγοντες, ναὸς Κυρίου, ναὸς Κυρίου ἐστίν. Οὐχ ὁ ναὸς ἁγιάζει, φησὶ, τοὺς συνιόντας, ἀλλ' οἱ συνιόντες τὸν ναὸν ἅγιον ποιοῦσιν. Εἰ δὲ τότε οὐκ ὠφέλει ὁ ναὸς, ὅτε τὰ Χερουβὶμ, ὅτε ἡ κιβωτὸς, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὅτε πάντα ἐκεῖνα ἀνῄρηται, ὅτε τελεία ἡ ἀποστροφὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ γέγονεν, ὅτε πλείων τῆς ἔχθρας ἡ ὑπόθεσις. Πόσης οὖν ἀνοίας ἂν εἴη καὶ πόσης παραφροσύνης, τοὺς ἠτιμωμένους, τοὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ προδεδομένους, τοὺς τὸν ∆εσπότην παροξύναντας, τούτους κοινωνοὺς ποιεῖσθαι ἐν ἑορταῖς; Εἴ τις τὸν υἱὸν ἀνεῖλε τὸν σὸν, εἰπέ μοι, ἆρα ἂν αὐτὸν ἰδεῖν ὑπέμεινας; ἆρα ἂν ἀκοῦσαι τῆς προσηγορίας; ἀλλ' οὐχ ὡς δαίμονα πονηρὸν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὡς αὐτὸν τὸν διάβολον ἔφυγες ἄν; Τοῦ ∆εσπότου σου τὸν Υἱὸν ἀνεῖλον, καὶ τολμᾷς αὐτοῖς εἰς ταυτὸν συνιέναι; Καὶ ὁ μὲν ἀναιρεθεὶς οὕτω σε ἐτίμησεν, ὡς ἀδελφόν σε ποιῆσαι καὶ συγκληρονόμον αὑτοῦ· σὺ δὲ αὐτὸν οὕτως ἀτιμάζεις, ὡς τοὺς ἐκείνου φονέας καὶ σταυρώσαντας αὐτὸν τιμᾷν καὶ θεραπεύειν τῇ τῶν ἑορτῶν κοινωνίᾳ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς βεβήλους αὐτῶν τόπους ἀπαντᾷν, καὶ τῶν ἀκαθάρτων ἐπιβαίνειν προθύρων, καὶ κοινωνεῖν τραπέζης δαιμονίων· οὕτω γὰρ ἐγὼ πείθομαι καλεῖν μετὰ τὴν θεοκτονίαν τὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων νηστείαν. Καὶ πῶς γὰρ οὐχὶ δαίμονας θεραπεύουσιν οἱ Θεοῦ ἐναντία διαπραττόμενοι; Ἀλλὰ θεραπείαν ἐκ δαιμόνων ἐπιζητεῖς; Ὅτε εἰς χοίρους εἰσελθεῖν αὐτοὺς συνεχώρει ὁ Χριστὸς, τότε εἰς πέλαγος εὐθέως κατεπόντισαν· ἀνθρωπείων δὲ φείσονται σωμάτων; Εἴθε μὲν οὖν μὴ ἀπεκτίννυον, εἴθε μὴ ἐπεβούλευον. Τοῦ παραδείσου ἐξέβαλον, τῆς τιμῆς ἀπεστέρησαν τῆς ἄνωθεν, καὶ τὸ σῶμα θεραπεύσουσι; Γέλως ταῦτα καὶ μῦθοι. Ἐπιβουλεύειν καὶ καταβλάπτειν, οὐ θεραπεύειν ἴσασιν οἱ δαίμονες. Τῆς ψυχῆς οὐ φείδονται, καὶ τῶν σωμάτων, εἰπέ μοι, φείσονται; τῆς βασιλείας ἐπιχειροῦσιν ἐκβαλεῖν, καὶ νοσημάτων ἀπαλλάττειν αἱρήσονται; Οὐκ ἤκουσας τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος, μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ διὰ τοῦ προφήτου, ὅτι οὐδὲ ἀγαθοποιῆσαι, οὐδὲ κακοποιῆσαι δύνανται; Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἠδύναντο θεραπεύειν, καὶ ἐβούλοντο, ὅπερ ἀδύνατον, ἀλλὰ δεῖ σε μὴ κέρδους μικροῦ καὶ φθειρομένου ζημίαν ἄφθαρτον καὶ αἰώνιον ἀνταλλάξασθαι. Σῶμα θεραπεύσεις, ἵνα ψυχὴν ἀπολέσῃς; Οὐ καλή σου ἡ ἐμπορία· τὸν ποιητὴν τοῦ σώματος παροργίζεις Θεὸν, καὶ τὸν σὸν ἐπίβουλον εἰς θεραπείαν ἐπικαλῇ; Καὶ πῶς σέ τις τῆς ἰατρικῆς ἐπιστήμης αὐτῆς ἕνεκα δεισιδαίμων ἄνθρωπος Ἑλλήνων θεοῖς οὐχ ἑλκύσει προσκυνῆσαι ῥᾳδίως; Καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι πολλὰ πολλάκις διὰ τῆς αὐτῶν τέχνης νοσήματα ἀπήλασαν, καὶ πρὸς ὑγίειαν τοὺς κάμνοντας ἐπανήγαγον. Τί οὖν, κοινωνῆσαι δεῖ τῆς ἀσεβείας διὰ τοῦτο; Μὴ γένοιτο. Ἄκουσον τί φησιν Ἰουδαίοις ὁ Μωϋσῆς· Ἐὰν ἀναστῇ προφήτης ἐν ὑμῖν, ἐνυπνιαζόμενος ἐνύπνιον καὶ δῷ σημεῖον ἢ τέρας, καὶ ἔλθῃ τὸ σημεῖον ἢ τὸ τέρας ὃ ἐλάλησε, καὶ εἴπῃ πρὸς σὲ, λέγων· Πορευθῶμεν καὶ λατρεύσωμεν θεοῖς ἑτέροις οἷς οὐκ ᾔδεισαν οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν· οὐκ ἀκούσεσθε τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ προφήτου, ἢ τοῦ