into an evangelist, the harlot become more modest than the maid. Hear and behold. Hear
of the former things and behold these. Accept from present things a proof of the others;
concerning those I have given thee pledges, things which are better than they are. “What is
the meaning of this thy saying?” These things are mine. “Hearken O daughter and behold.”
These things are my dower to thee. And what doth the bride contribute? Let us see. What
I pray thee dost thou bring that thou mayest not be portionless? What can I, she answers,
bring to thee from heathen altars, and the steam of sacrifices and from devils? What have I
to contribute? what? sayest thou? Thy will and thy faith. “Hearken O daughter and behold.”
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And what wilt thou have me do? “Forget thy own people.” What kind of people? the devils,
the idols, the sacrificial smoke, and steam, and blood. “Forget thy own people, and thy
father’s house.” Leave thy father and come after me. I left my Father, and came to thee, and
wilt thou not leave thy father? But when the word leave is used in reference to the Son do
not understand by it an actual leaving. What He means is “I condescended, I accommodated
myself to thee, I assumed human flesh.” This is the duty of the bridegroom, and of the bride,
that thou shouldest abandon thy parents, and that we should be wedded to one another.
“Hearken O daughter and behold, and forget thy own people, and thy father’s house.” And
what dost thou give me if I do forget them? “and the king shall desire thy beauty.” Thou
hast the Lord for thy lover. If thou hast Him for thy lover, thou hast also the things which
are his. I trust ye may be able to understand what is said: for the thought is a subtle one, and
I wish to stop the mouth of the Jews.
Now exert your minds I pray: for whether one hears, or forbears to hear I shall dig and
till the soil. “Hearken O daughter, and behold, forget also thy own people, and thy father’s
house, and the king shall desire thy beauty.” By beauty in this passage the Jew understands
sensible beauty; not spiritual but corporeal.
17. Attend, and let us learn what corporeal, and what spiritual beauty are. There is soul
and body: they are two substances: there is a beauty of body, and there is a beauty of soul.
What is beauty of body? an extended eyebrow, a merry glance, a blushing cheek, ruddy lips,
a straight neck, long wavy hair, tapering fingers, upright stature, a fair blooming complexion.
Does this bodily beauty come from nature, or from choice? Confessedly it comes from
nature. Attend that thou mayest learn the conception of philosophers. This beauty whether
of the countenance, of the eye, of the hair, of the brow, does it come from nature, or from
choice? It is obvious that it comes from nature. For the ungraceful woman, even if she cul-
tivate beauty in countless ways, cannot become graceful in body: for natural conditions are
fixed, and confined by limits which they cannot pass over. Therefore the beautiful woman
is always beautiful, even if she has no taste for beauty: and the ungraceful cannot make
herself graceful, nor the graceful ungraceful. Wherefore? because these things come from
nature. Well! thou hast seen corporeal beauty. Now let us turn inwards to the soul: let the
handmaid approach the mistress! let us turn I say to the soul. Look upon that beauty, or
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Homily II. After Eutropius having been found outside the Church had been…