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but at his second coming he presents the truth clear and manifest. For then he will show who is worthy of what. Therefore the Lord will forgive us sinners the sevenfold retribution owed, if here he should be propitiated by us through repentance and confession. 58aSo, knowing that fearful day, in which is stored up for those who have sinned here the recompense and requital according to the worth of their sins, let us, taking the initiative through repentance, undo our sins in this life, so that there we may be able to escape the multiplication of the laborious and painful retribution. Let us therefore consider this seventh day a prefiguration of that eighth day of the consummation of the age. And God rested from his works. For no longer are there works of the world on that day, no longer marriages, no longer transactions, commerces, no longer farmings, but all creation stands terrified and trembling, and an uncontrollable sweat from all, and all are likewise in agony, even our own righteous, as to what verdict will ever be brought against them. The Lord from the heavens, and the heavens are rent, power is revealed, 59aall creation is in trembling and awe. And the angels themselves stand by, perhaps, in great fear, not because they are afraid for their own sins, but because the glorious and greatly powerful epiphany of Christ casts its own fear equally upon all created beings. Do you not hear Isaiah saying: 'If you open the heaven, trembling from you will seize the mountains'; alluding to that day, in which the sea is frozen, in which creation is at leisure, nature is deadened, every method through words is useless in the face of the advent of God from heaven? Then the righteous are snatched up on high towards heaven; for their chariots are the clouds and their escorts the spiritual beings; <but the> sinners will fall down below, shackled by the weight of their own transgressions and self-condemned by their evil conscience. This seventh day, then, prefigures that eighth day; For, it says, 'God rested from all his works'. No longer the things of this life on that day, nor the things that here accompany carnal and irrational desires; youthful desires have fallen asleep, thoughts of marriage, hopes of childbearing, 60ano care for affairs or possessions. The avaricious man has forgotten his purse, the greedy man to seize and to use violence. The empty and despicable glory has been extinguished for those whose mind is lifted up by any of these worldly advantages. Anger does not trouble one to take vengeance on the one who caused pain. All those things have then departed from the mind. But the soul is with that which causes fear, with the expectation of the dreadful things hanging over it. And if anyone could install this fear of God unfailingly in his own soul even here, he will sin either not at all or perhaps little. And God formed man, taking dust from the earth. This account concerning the creation of man should not be considered a repetition, even if it seems so to some, but rather an uninterrupted continuation of the previous undertaking concerning this, and a completion of the narrative, joined, as it were, to the beginning. For having said that 'God made man' and the things that follow concerning him, and having shown that in the making of man God completed all the works of the world, he again takes up the same narrative concerning man, working it out connectedly and immediately, as it were, and detailing the manner of his making. For first he said simply: 'God made man'; but now he adds also how he made him: 'Taking dust from the earth'. When therefore you hear 'dust', be instructed 61a]62a, for you both have come into being and exist properly from the lifeless and unfeeling earth. So what was said against you is not an insult, but rather an honor. Again, when some carnal desire overpowers your mind and persuades you to contemplate the result of your appetite, look quickly to the earth. remember that just as from

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δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς δευτέρας αὐτοῦ παρουσίας ἐναργῆ καὶ τετρανωμένην παριστᾷ τὴν ἀλήθειαν. δείξει γὰρ τηνικαῦτα τίς τίνων ἐστὶν ἄξιος. ἑπταπλάσιον ἡμῖν τοίνυν τὴν ἀντίδοσιν χρεωστουμένην τοῖς ἁμαρ τωλοῖς συγχωρήσει ὁ κύριος, ἐνταῦθα εἰ διὰ μετανοίας καὶ ἐξομολο 58aγήσεως ἐξιλεωθείη παρ' ἡμῶν. ὥστε εἰδότες τὴν φοβερὰν ἐκείνην ἡμέραν, ἐν ᾗ τεταμίευται τοῖς ἐνταῦθα ἡμαρτηκόσιν ἡ πρὸς ἀξίαν τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἀντιμέτρησις καὶ ἀντισήκωσις, προλαβόντες διὰ τῆς μετανοίας ἐν ζωῇ ἀναλύσωμεν τὰ ἁμαρτήματα, ἵν' ἐκεῖ τὸν πολυπλασιασμὸν τῆς ἐπιπόνου καὶ ὀδυνηρᾶς ἀντιδόσεως ἐκφυγεῖν δυνηθείημεν. Ἑβδόμην τοίνυν ταύτην ἡμέραν λογισώμεθα ἐκείνης τῆς ὀγδόης τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος ἀντίτυπον. Καὶ κατέπαυσεν ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ. οὐκέτι γὰρ ἔργα τοῦ κόσμου ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, οὐκέτι γάμοι, οὐκέτι συναλλάγματα, ἐμπορίαι, γεωργίαι οὐκέτι, ἀλλὰ πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις ἐπτοημένη καὶ ἔντρομος ἕστηκε καὶ ἱδρὼς ἀπὸ πάντων ἀκατάσχετος καὶ πάντες ὁμοίως ἐναγώνιοι καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ παρ' ἡμῖν δίκαιοι, τίς ποτε ἄρα περὶ αὐτῶν ἡ ψῆφος ἐξενεχθήσεται. κύριος ἐξ οὐρανῶν καὶ οἱ οὐρανοὶ ῥήγνυνται, δύναμις ἀποκαλύπτεται, 59aπᾶσα ἡ κτίσις ἐν τρόμῳ καὶ συστολῇ. καὶ αὐτοὶ δὲ οἱ ἄγγελοι περι δεεῖς τάχα παρίστανται, οὐχ ὅτι περὶ ἁμαρτημάτων οἰκείων δεδίασιν, ἀλλ' ὅτι ἡ ἔνδοξος καὶ μεγαλοδύναμος τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐπιφάνεια πᾶσιν ὁμοίως τοῖς γεννητοῖς τὸν ἐξ ἑαυτῆς ἐμβάλλει φόβον. οὐκ ἀκούεις τοῦ Ἡσαΐου λέγοντος· Ἐὰν ἀνοίξῃς τὸν οὐρανόν, τρόμος λήψεται ἀπὸ σοῦ ὄρη· περὶ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης αἰνιττομένου, ἐν ᾗ θάλασσα πέπηγεν, ἐν ᾗ ἡ κτίσις σχολάζει, ἡ φύσις νενέκρωται, πᾶσα μέθοδος διὰ λόγων ἀργὴ πρὸς τὴν ἐξ οὐρανῶν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπιδημίαν; τότε ἁρπάζονται μὲν οἱ δίκαιοι ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω πρὸς οὐρανόν· ὀχήματα γὰρ αὐτοῖς αἱ νεφέλαι καὶ προπομποὶ τὰ νοερὰ πνεύματα· <οἱ> ἁμαρτωλοὶ δὲ κάτω πεσοῦνται τῷ βάρει τῶν ἰδίων πλημμελημάτων πεπεδημένοι καὶ αὐτοκατάκριτοι ὑπὸ τῆς πονηρᾶς συνειδήσεως. Ἐκείνην γοῦν τὴν ὀγδόην ἡμέραν αὕτη ἡ ἑβδόμη διασχηματίζει· Κατέπαυσε, γάρ φησιν, ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ. οὐκέτι τὰ τοῦ βίου τούτου ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ οὐδὲ τὰ παρακολου θοῦντα ἐνταῦθα ταῖς σαρκικαῖς καὶ ἀλόγοις ὀρέξεσιν· ἐκοιμήθησαν ἐπιθυμίαι νεωτερικαί, γάμων μελέται, παιδοποιΐας ἐλπίδες, 60aπραγμάτων ἢ κτημάτων φροντὶς οὐδεμία. ἐπελάθετο τοῦ βαλαντίου ὁ φιλάργυρος, τοῦ ἁρπάζειν καὶ βιάζεσθαι ὁ πλεονέκτης. ἀπέσβη τοῖς ἐπηρμένοις ὁθενδήποτε τῶν κοσμικῶν τούτων προτερημάτων τὴν διάνοιαν ἡ κενὴ καὶ κατάπτυστος δόξα. οὐκ ἐνοχλεῖ θυμὸς πρὸς ἄμυναν τοῦ λυπήσαντος. πάντα ἐκεῖνα ἐκλέλοιπε τηνικαῦτα τοῦ λογισμοῦ. ἡ ψυχὴ δὲ πρὸς τῷ φοβοῦντί ἐστι, πρὸς τῇ προσδοκίᾳ τῶν ἐπηρτημένων δεινῶν. ὅντινα δὴ φόβον θεοῦ εἰ καὶ ἐνταῦθα δυνηθείη τις εἰσοικίσαι τῇ ἰδίᾳ ψυχῇ ἀνέκλειπτον, ἢ οὐδὲν ἢ βραχέα τυχὸν ἁμαρτήσεται. Καὶ ἔπλασεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον χοῦν λαβὼν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. οὐκ ἐπανάληψιν τοῦτον τὸν περὶ τῆς κατασκευῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου λόγον ἡγητέον, εἰ καί τισι φαίνεται, ἀλλ' ἀκολουθίαν μᾶλλον ἀδιάκοπον τῆς προτέρας περὶ τούτου ἐπιχειρήσεως καὶ συνημμένην οἱονεὶ τῇ προκατάρξει [τὴν] συμπλήρωσιν τῆς διηγήσεως. εἰπὼν γὰρ ὅτι Ἐποίη σεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς περὶ τούτου αὐτοῦ, καὶ δηλώσας ὅτι ἐν τῇ ποιήσει τοῦ ἀνθρώπου συνετέλεσεν ὁ θεὸς πάντα τὰ τοῦ κόσμου ἔργα, τῆς αὐτῆς καὶ πάλιν ἔχεται περὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου διηγή σεως συνημμένως καὶ ἀμεσολαβήτως ἐπεργαζόμενος οἱονεὶ καὶ λεπτολογῶν τὸν τρόπον τῆς τούτου ποιήσεως. πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ εἶπεν ἁπλῶς· Ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον· νυνὶ δὲ προστίθησι καὶ πῶς ἐποίησε· Χοῦν λαβὼν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. ὅταν οὖν ἀκούσῃς χοῦν, παιδεύου 61a]62aτυγχάνων, σὺ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀψύχου γῆς καὶ ἀναισθήτου κυρίως καὶ γεγένησαι καὶ ὑπάρχεις. ὥστε οὐχ ὕβρις τὸ λεχθὲν κατὰ σοῦ, ἀλλὰ πλέον τιμή. πάλιν ὅταν ἐπιθυμία τις σαρκικὴ κατακρατήσῃ σου τῆς διανοίας καὶ πείθῃ μελετᾶν τὸ τῆς ὀρέξεως ἀποτέλεσμα, ὅρα ταχέως ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν. μνήσθητι ὅτι ὥσπερ ἐκ