it anew, He placeth thee near to the Kingly Throne. He is formed in the water, he receiveth spirit instead of a soul.807 And after he is formed, He bringeth to him, not beasts, but demons, and their prince, and saith, “Tread upon serpents and scorpions.” (Luke x. 19.) He saith not, “Let Us make man in our image, and after our likeness” (Gen. i. 26.), but what? “He giveth them to become the sons of God; but of God,” he saith, “they were born.” (John i. 12, 13.) Then that thou give no ear to the serpent, straightway he teaches thee to say, “I renounce thee,” that is, “whatsoever thou sayest, I will not hear thee.” Then, that he destroy thee not by means of others, it is said,808 “and thy pomp, and thy service, and thy angels.” He hath set him no more to keep Paradise, but to have his citizenship in heaven. For straightway when he cometh up he pronounceth these words, “Our Father, Which art in Heaven,…Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so on earth.” The plain falleth not on thy sight,809 thou seest not tree, nor fountain, but straightway thou takest into thee the Lord Himself, thou art mingled with His Body, thou art intermixed with that Body that lieth above, whither the devil cannot approach. No woman is there, for him to approach, and deceive as the weaker; for it is said, “There is neither female, nor male.” (Gal. iii. 28.) If thou go not down to him, he will not have power to come up where thou art; for thou art in Heaven, and Heaven is unapproachable by the devil. It hath no tree with knowledge of good and evil, but the Tree of Life only. No more shall woman be formed from thy side, but we all are one from the side of Christ. For if they who have been anointed of men take no harm by serpents, neither wilt thou take any harm at all, so long as thou art anointed; that thou mayst be able to grasp the Serpent and choke him, “to tread upon serpents and scorpions.” (Luke x. 19.) But as the gifts are great, 288 so is the punishment great also. It is not possible for him that hath fallen from Paradise, to dwell “in front of Paradise”810 (Gen. iii. 24.), nor to reascend thither from whence we have fallen. But what after this? Hell, and the worm undying. But far be it that any of us should become amenable to this punishment! but living virtuously, let us earnestly strive to do throughout His will. Let us become well-pleasing to God, that we may be able both to escape 807 ἀντίψυχον τνεῦμα, i.e. as Adam received a soul. The Spirit becoming, as it were, the life of the new man. See on Rom. viii. 11. 808 φησὶ, the person who directs the catechumen. 809 No meaning appears in this, οὐκ ἐπ᾽ ὄψιν πίπτει τὸ παιδίον, though old Lat. also has, “The child falleth not on his face”; but we have only to read πεδίον, as in a doubtful passage of Hom. xvi. on Rom. Tr. p. 467, note. This has been done in the text, not to spoil so beautiful a passage. [There may be a fanciful notion of the person newly baptized and thereby regenerated (“formed in the water”) as a child. Upon coming up and pronouncing the Lord’s Prayer, “the child does not fall on his face.” The meaning will still be obscure, but the whole passage is highly fanciful, and there is thus at least a possible sense.—J.A.B.] 810 LXX. has κατῴκισεν αὐτὸν ἀπέναντι τοῦ παραδείσου, “He placed him opposite Paradise.” And it is gen- erally thought that Adam approached the gate of Paradise to worship. 507 Colossians 2:6,7