25. This is why the heathen rage and the peoples imagine vain things why tree
94. I know also that not even bodily blemishes in either priests or victims
73. But this speed, in its untrustworthiness and excessive haste, is in danger of being like the seeds which fell upon the rock,221 S. Luke viii. 6. and, because they had no depth of earth,222 S. Matt. xiii. 5. sprang up at once, but could not bear even the first heat of the sun; or like the foundation laid upon the sand,223 Ib. vii. 26. which could not even make a slight resistance to the rain and the winds. Woe to thee, O city, whose king is a child,224 Eccles. x. 16. says Solomon. Be not hasty of speech,225 Prov. xxix. 20. says Solomon again, asserting that hastiness of speech is less serious than heated action. And who, in spite of all this, demands haste rather than security and utility? Who can mould, as clay-figures are modelled in a single day, the defender of the truth, who is to take his stand with Angels, and give glory with Archangels, and cause the sacrifice to ascend to the altar on high, and share the priesthood of Christ, and renew the creature, and set forth the image, and create inhabitants for the world above, aye and, greatest of all, be God, and make others to be God?
ΟΓʹ. Τὸ δὲ ταχὺ τοῦτο καὶ σφαλερὸν, καὶ λίαν κατεσπουδασμένον, μὴ τῶν σπερμάτων ἐκείνοις ἐοικὸς ᾖ, ἃ κατὰ τῶν πετρῶν πεσόντα, καὶ διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βάθος γῆς, εὐθὺς ἀνακύψαντα, οὐδὲ τὴν πρώτην ἤνεγκε τοῦ ἡλίου θερμότητα: ἢ τῷ κατὰ τῆς ψάμμου τεθέντι θεμελίῳ, μηδὲ ὀλίγον ἀντισχόντι πρὸς τὴν βροχὴν καὶ τὰ πνεύματα. Οὐαί σοι, πόλις, ἧς ὁ βασιλεύς σου νεώτερός ἐστι, φησὶ Σολομῶν: καὶ, Μὴ ἴσθι ταχὺς ἐν λόγοις, τοῦ αὐτοῦ Σολομῶντος φωνὴ, πρᾶγμά τι ἔλαττον, λέγοντος, τὸ περὶ λόγον τάχος τῆς περὶ πρᾶξιν θερμότητος. Καὶ τίς ἐστι παρὰ ταῦτα ὁ τὸ τάχος ἀπαιτῶν πρὸ τῆς ἀσφαλείας καὶ τοῦ συμφέροντος; Τίς ὁ πλάττων, καθάπερ αὐθήμερον τοὺς πηλίνους, τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας προστάτην, τὸν μετὰ ἀγγέλων στησόμενον, καὶ μετὰ ἀρχαγγέλων δοξάσοντα, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ ἄνω θυσιαστήριον ἀναπέμψοντα τὰς θυσίας, καὶ Χριστῷ συνιερεύσοντα, τὸν ἀναπλάσοντα τὸ πλάσμα, καὶ παραστήσοντα τὴν εἰκόνα, καὶ τῷ ἄνω κόσμῳ δημιουργήσοντα, καὶ τὸ μεῖζον εἰπεῖν, Θεὸν ἐσόμενον, καὶ θεοποιήσοντα;