three. And these too are gifts of God. For faith we have received from Him; “As God,” saith he, “hath distributed to every one the measure of faith.”3344 And hope we have received from Him, to whom it is said, “Wherein Thou hast caused me to hope.”3345 And charity we have received from Him, of whom it is said, “The charity of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which hath been given to us.”3346 Now these three are likewise in some measure different; but all gifts of God. For “there abide these three, faith, hope, charity; but 432 the greatest of these is charity.”3347 In those loaves it is not said that any one loaf was greater than the others; but simply that three loaves were asked for, and were given. 6. See other three things: “Who is there of you, whom if his son ask a loaf, will he give him a stone? Or who is there of you of whom if his son ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? or if he ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him!”3348 Let us then again consider these three things, if haply there be not here those three, “faith, hope, charity; but the greatest of these is charity.” Set down then these three things, a loaf, a fish, an egg; the greatest of these is a loaf. Therefore in these three things do we well understand charity by “the loaf.” On which account He has opposed a stone to a loaf; because hardness is contrary to charity. By “a fish” we understand faith. A certain holy man has said, and we are glad to say it too; “The ‘good fish’ is a godly faith.” It lives amidst the waves, and is not broken or dissolved by the waves. Amidst the temptations and tempests of this world, liveth godly faith; the world rages, yet it is uninjured. Observe only that serpent is contrary to faith. For My faith is she betrothed to whom it is said in the Song of Songs, “Come from Lebanon, My spouse, coming and passing over to Me from the beginning of faith.” 3349 Therefore betrothed too, because faith is the beginning of betrothal. For something is promised by the bridegroom, and by this plighted faith is he held bound. Now to the fish the Lord opposed the serpent, to faith the devil. Wherefore to this betrothed one does the Apostle say, “I have betrothed you to One Husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.” And, “I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds also should be corrupted from the purity which is in Christ;”3350 that is, which is in the faith of Christ. For he says, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.”3351 Therefore let not the devil corrupt our faith, let him not devour the fish. 3344 Rom. xii. 3. 3345 Ps. cxix. 49. 3346 Rom. v. 5. 3347 1 Cor. xiii. 13. 3348 Luke xi. 11–13. 3349 Cant. iv. 8, Sept. See on St. Cyprian, Ep. p. 278, note n. 3350 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3. 3351 Eph. iii. 17. 900 On the words of the Gospel, Luke xi. 5, ‘Which of you shall have a friend,…