he said, “Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death.”1454 For if, when this was the case, they accounted them to be gods, and prepared to do sacrifice unto them, saying, “The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men;”1455 had such infirmities not existed, to what extent of impiety might not men have proceeded, when they beheld their miracles? As then in this case, because of the greatness of these signs, He suffered their nature to remain in a state of infirmity, and permitted those repeated trials, in order that they might not be thought to be gods, thus likewise He did with respect to the creation, a thing nearly parallel to this. For He fashioned it beautiful and vast; but on the other hand corruptible. 8. And both of these points the Scriptures teach, for one in treating of the beauty of the heavens thus speaks; “The heavens declare the glory of God.”1456 And again, “Who hath placed the sky as a vault,1457 and spread it out as a tent over the earth.”1458 And again, “Who holdeth the circle of heaven.”1459 But another writer, shewing that although the world be great and fair, it is yet corruptible, thus speaks; “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the 410 foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall perish, but Thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.”1460 And again, David saith of the sun, that “he is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course.”1461 Seest thou how he places before thee the beauty of this star, and its greatness? For even as a bridegroom when he appears from some stately chamber,1462 so the sun sends forth his rays under the East; and adorning the heaven as it were with a saffron-coloured veil, and making the clouds like roses, and running unimpeded all the day; he meets no obstacle to interrupt his course. Beholdest thou, then, his beauty? Beholdest thou his great- ness? Look also at the proof of his weakness! For a certain wise man, to make this plain, said, “What is brighter than the sun, yet the light thereof suffers eclipse.”1463 Nor is it only from this circumstance that his infirmity is to be perceived, but also in the concourse of the 1454 Phil. ii. 25. 1455 Acts xiv. 11. 1456 Ps. xix. 1. 1457 The Hebrew means something small or thin, the Vulgate has nihilum. No ancient version has curtain. Perhaps the word is an emphatic allusion to the exquisitely minute consistence of the blue ether. The Hebrews say that by this word is signified the finest dust. In the revised version “gauze” is suggested in the margin. 1458 Isa. xl. 22. 1459 This seems a slip of memory for earth in the same verse; but see Ecclus. xliii. 12. 1460 Ps. cii. 25, 26. 1461 Ps. xix. 6. 1462 παστ€δος. 1463 Ecclus. xvii. 31. 591 Homily X