[514-7.] After we had held the love of God that is in you much to blame for sending the religious bishops Epiphanius and Symbatius , who are under your authority by right of the metropolitan dignity, without a letter, the well-tried Basil arrived, bringing us a letter written by you, and, after gladly seeing this, we believed it to be a defence to the same charge, since we perceived that by means of it the reason for which the bishops came to the city of Antiochus is made clear. And the contents of the letter were concerned with other matters: for among these there was a query concerning a certain scriptural problem; and it seemed to me difficult and evidence of great ignorance for us to return an answer to the question while I am distressed in my soul on account of the division in the faith which has prevailed among you because of our sins. For we remember one of those wise in divine things who says, «Instruments of music at a time of mourning are a tale out of season» . However, since by the other letter we were released so to speak from the mourning of sorrow, I considered it right on account of the great honour maintained towards your excellence to write a few words in answer to that query, such as have come into my mind, and words which are drawn from the Scriptures composed by the Spirit and the fathers who with the help of the Spirit expounded these, little as we have understood. Since you have set. down in your letter (therein acting rightly) the points raised by every kind of understanding or by impulsive eloquence, I have determined not to extend this letter to a great length; for I myself also have believed that the enjoyment of the good things that are promised us in the kingdom of heaven is not sensual, nor yet does it consist in eating and drinking. Since the man who propounds the contrary argument is vehement, and everywhere introduces the restoration to the primitive state and the enjoyment in Paradise, I pass over the theory which raises the enjoyment and the trees and the ends of the branches to an allegory , and come to a matter which is free from dispute, and simple, and one which draws its defence from the truth only. That Christ by means of his Incarnation raised or raises us to these primitive conditions is certain. But this must be understood as far as concerns in corruption arid the abolition of death, to which the bitter taste enjoyed by disobedience gave birth. That Emmanuel invites us to prizes and crowns that surpass the primitive state, making our right actions means of support for further assistance, and that he does not raise us to Paradise again, but introduces us in a new fashion into the kingdom of heaven, is manifest and is never a matter of doubt, not even to those who are very perverse. And, in order that we may not be thought to be rousing the hearer to maintain the contrary argument by using our own inventions, we will as a superfluity cite the laws of the God-clad guides to the mysteries of the church, which suffice to bring before our eyes the meaning of the divine words. Gregory the Theologian in the homily on the divine Epiphany in speaking about the Incarnation wrote thus: «This is more godlike than the former. This to those who have intelligence is higher» . But, if there is more likeness to God, and it is higher than a new creation, it is manifest that it leads those who are formed anew to a higher and more divine condition. And John the holy bishop of Constantinople in the homily entitled 'Why that tree was called the tree of good and evil', and 'What is the meaning of the words «To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise» ', laying down clear teaching on this matter, said these words: «The robber entered Paradise. And what is this? Are these the good things which God promises us? Do you not hear Paul saying, ' These good things eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and they have not gone up into man's heart'. But Paradise both eye has seen, that of Adam, and ear has heard, and man's heart has received, for indeed we have been speaking about it for so many days. How then did that robber receive them? For God does not promise to bring us into Paradise, but into heaven itself; and he did not proclaim a kingdom of Paradise but a kingdom of heaven. For 'he began to proclaim and to say, «Repent, for the kingdom of heaven hath drawn near»". Since these things therefore have been thus stated by the holy doctors, it is good to add Paul's words as a head and confirmation to what has been stated; for he said, «The kingdom of heaven is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit» . For the saying, «Blessed are the lowly, for they shall inherit the earth», must on no account lead us to the notion that after release from this world and the future life we shall enjoy sensual things. For even the holy John also whom I mentioned a short time ago stated how Christ, following the custom of the Old Testamen, which promises a land of promise flowing with milk and honey, himself also similarly promised to the lowly after this model abundance of days in this world, and a share in the good things of the earth, writing thus in the commentary on the Gospel of Matthew: «For he does not incite from future good things only, but also from present ones, and that on account of the more dense among the hearers, who seek these things before those that are future»; and a little farther on: «And in another way also, because in the Old Testament the prophet says, 'For the lowly shall inherit the earth', he therefore weaves the sentence together out of words that had grown up with them, in order that they may not everywhere hear strange things» . And the saintly Gregory bishop of Nyssa in the work entitled 'About the Beatitudes' said thus: «But, if we soar in language and stand above the arch of heaven, we shall find there the supracelestial earth also, which is kept as an inheritance for those who have lived in virtue, so that the order of sequence of the blessings may not seem to be at fault, in that heaven was first set before us by God and afterwards a promise of earth» . But, if any man, having regard to his belly and occupying himself with foods that please the throat, turn against these things also, saying, «Why therefore shall we make use of the earth?», then we must say to him; If we look for a new heaven and a new earth according to his promise, as the divine Scripture said , how is it anything but inconceivable that we should introduce the old custom into the renovation of the elements? When the earth is new, the life also as well: will assuredly be new, a life that on every point lies outside this one and differs from it; for we may hear the Psalmist saying, , «The voice of praise and salvation is in the tent of the righteous» . And this a man will say is the food of those who are about to live the expected life, continual songs of praise and the sublime contemplation on which the angels also feed, and joy and inexplicable exaltation, in life that does not end. For those whose throat gapes for sensual enjoyment, being involved in the same empty-mindedness as those men, make use of senseless fatuities and say, «For what purpose then shall we make use of teeth, or the other members by which the perception of the things that please is received?» To these it is obvious to answer that, since the soul receives the body in perfection at the time of the resurrection, those who rise not being devoid of genital members, and this though the book of the gospel cries, «In the resurrection they marry not, nor are given in marriage, but they are as the angels that are in heaven», after the same fashion they will have also teeth and all the members of the body, that, as they have together with the soul practised habits of virtue, they may also partake of the glory; for it is not in order that they may make use of these according to the ancient custom. If we crave for and need sensual food in the future painless life, it is then time to desire also clothes made of wool, and the other things which this life shows to be necessary, in the summer and in the winter which comes round in the succession of the other seasons. But it is very certain that the expected life is free from all these things, since the seven days' circle which makes up the existing time ceases, and there is one day the eighth , one which has none to succeed it and is without evening. If then there is a new heaven and a new earth and a new course of time expressed in one endless day and not divided into days and nights, how is it anything but reasonable to expect that the new life which is unknown to us and is not even comprehended by the mind is severed from sensual foods, just as the life of the angels is far removed in comparison with the present life of men? But I for my part say this also, that, since Christ became a beginning for us in all things, it is manifest that the conditions of our resurrection also bear a resemblance to the same beginning. If then Christ after the Resurrection from the place of the dead is made known in flesh as it is written , having, as he had, that body and no other, but no longer susceptible of hunger, or of any similar thing, nor yet one sustained by foods, it is assuredly necessary that our bodies also should not want anything; for Paul said, «As we were clad in the image of the earthy, so shall we also be clad m the image of him that is from heaven» . For the fact that he ate and drank with the disciples as it is written and received food should be ascribed to dispensation; because he did this same thing in order to confirm the nature of the body that had risen and cast out the supposition of phantasy. But, even though in conflict with the beginning of the argument, I say this also, guiding my opinions by the labour of the God-clad guides to the mysteries, that, even if we expect the kingdom of heaven, and an end that is greater than the life of Paradise, we are not debarred from expecting a fresh return of the primitive state; for Basil the great said in the homily entitled ' God is not the cause of evils' that, if Adam had kept the commandment and not transgressed, suprasensual prizes and crowns and such as raise to an equality of honour with the angels were prepared for him; for he wrote as follows: «It was not fitting that he should have clothes either from nature or from craftsmanship, but there were others prepared for the man, if he displayed virtues, clothes such as by God's grace glistened and were to flash, shining garments, as those of the angels also are, surpassing the varied hues of the flowers, and excelling the light of the stars. For this reason therefore the garments were not immediately forthcoming, because they were prizes of virtue reserved for the man, to which by Satan's fraud he did not receive permission to attain» . For us to adduce the food of the angels who were entertained by Abraham is very much beside the point; for how can those who appeared as in a vision and a symbol be patterns for the things that are expected by us in reality? Shall we say that these three, who appeared to the, patriarch in the likeness of men, and signified the Holy Trinity (for the sacred Scripture said that God himself was manifested to Abraham ), ate of that unleavened bread and partook of that calf in such a way that these things actually passed into the digestion and the material exits, and not rather that they were invisibly consumed in a manner which God understands, who brought about these things? But how is it anything but foolish and an act of great madness for us here to think of the phantasy of Eutyches? Eutyches by comparing our Saviour's dispensation in the flesh, by means of which the word of God shared our nature, to earlier utterances and revelations of God both to prophets and to patriarchs, which were described in symbols and adumbrations as being of God, missed the right principle. But we, who follow the apostolic teachings, who know that a vision shown in a symbol is one thing, and the truth of the fact another, pronounce that the coming of the Word in the flesh is quite distinct from the earlier manifestations which were made as in a dream and an adumbration. For we also hear of revelations coming from God which say to Aaron and Miriam, «If there shall be among you a prophet to the Lord, I will be made known to him in a vision and will speak to him in a dream» , and cry in Hosea the prophet, «I for my part multiplied visions, and by means of prophets was I likened» . But he who multiplied visions and was variously likened by means of prophets became man for our sake truly and without variation, and in a new way. As therefore the shadowy and primitive symbols in no way impair by comparison the fact that our Lord and God Jesus Christ became in truth man invariably, so we do not on account of his true Incarnation refuse to hold the earlier symbols and obscure revelations given as in a dream and visions to be adumbrations, since the Holy Scriptures cry this out with loud voice. Since then these things are so, we must shun the false opinion of those who think that the enjoyment promised in the kingdom of heaven consists in some sensual foods, an opinion into which Irenaeus bishop of Lyons in Gaul fell, who through the books of Papias departed from the truth, as Eusebius, who composed the Ecclesiastical Histories for us, wrote . Those who so hold, and expect a kind of recurrence of a cycle, are of a folly which even madmen do not possess; into which the witless Apollinaris also fell. This is as much as we are able to write on the present question, according to our small capacity. But it is the duty of your saintliness after the reading of these things to acquaint us by letter what was the frame of mind of those who disputed about this; for we shall think this a reward for our labours, to know clearly if after what has been written the supporters of the contrary opinion were helped. The other thing also do not forget, that, if after reading these things they retain any contrary opinion in their mind, we shall perhaps not be wanting in the needed medicines for this also.