and the other what was diverse compared with us. But just as I was saying, on this account the barren ones went before, in order that the Virgin’s child-birth might be believed, that she786 might be led by the hand to faith in that promise and undertaking which she heard from the angel, saying, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the miraculous power787 of the Most High shall overshadow thee”—thus, he says, thou art able to bear. Look not to the earth; it is from the heavens that the operation will come. That which takes place is a grace of the Spirit; pray inquire not about nature and laws of marriage. But since those words were too high for her, he wills to afford also another demonstration. But do thou, pray, ob- serve how the barren one leads her on the way to the belief in this. For since that demonstra- tion was too high for the Virgin’s intelligence, hear how he brought down what he said to lower things also, leading her by the hand by sensible facts. For “behold,” he says, “Elizabeth thy kinswoman—she also has conceived a son in her old age; and this month is the sixth to her who was called barren.” Seest thou that the barren one was for the sake of the Virgin? since with what object did he adduce to her the child-bearing of her kinswoman? with what object did he say, “in her old age?” with what object did he add, “who was called barren?” It was by way of inducing her by all these things, manifestly, to the believing the glad annun- ciation. For this cause he spoke of both the age and the disabling effect of nature; for this cause he awaited the time also which had elapsed from the conception; for he did not tell to her the glad tidings immediately from the beginning,788 but awaited for a six-months period to have passed to the barren one, in order that the puerperal swelling might, for the rest, be a pledge of the pregnancy, and an indisputable demonstration might arise of the conception. And pray again look at the intelligence of Gabriel. For he neither reminded her789 of Sarah, nor of Rebecca, nor of Rachel; and yet they also were barren, and they had grown old, and that which took place was a marvel; but the stories were ancient. Now things new and recent and occurring in our generation are wont to induce us into the belief of marvels more than those which are old. On this account having let those women alone, that she should understand from her kinswoman Elizabeth herself what was coming upon her, he brought it forward; so as from her to lead her to her own—that most awful and august childbirth. For the child-birth of the barren one lay between ours and that of the Master 786 'Αυτὴ. The use of ‡υτὸς in the nominative in this sense; ille, not ipse, seems to have been introduced in the Alexandrian period of Greek literature. “'Αυτόι γὰρ ὀυκ ἐισι θεοὶ,” LXX. 787 The constant signification of δύναμις in the Gospels. 788 Προοιμίων, lit. the prelude, overture. Οἴμας Μοῦσ ἐδίδαξε φίλησε δš φῦλον ‡οιδῶν, Hom. Od. 481. 789 'Αυτῆς, lege δš αῦτήν. 330 Against Publishing the Errors of the Brethren.