chariot of fire? Fire is wont to burn, not to carry aloft. How lives he so long a time? In what place is he? Why was this done? Whither was Enoch translated? Lives he on like food with us? and what is it hinders him from being here? Nay, but does he not eat? And wherefore was he translated? Behold how God schooleth us by little and little. He translated Enoch; no very great thing that. This instructed us for the taking up of Elias. He shut in Noe into the ark (Gen. vii. 7.); nor is this either any very great thing. This instructed us for the shutting up of the prophet within the whale. Thus even the things of old stood in need of forerunners and types. For as in a ladder the first step sends on to the second, and from the first it is not possible to step to the fourth, and this sends one on to that, that that may be the way to the next; and as it is not possible either to get to the second before the first; so also is it here. And observe the signs of signs, and thou wilt discern this in the ladder which Jacob saw. “Above,” it is said, “the Lord stood fast, and underneath Angels were ascending and descend- ing.” (Gen. xxviii. 13.) It was prophesied that the Father hath a Son; it was necessary this should be believed. Whence wouldest thou that I show thee the signs of this? From above, downward? From beneath, upward? Because He begetteth without passion,784 for this reason did she that was barren first bear. Let us rather go higher. It was necessary to be be- lieved, that He begat of Himself. What then? The thing happens obscurely indeed, as in type and shadow, but still it doth happen, and as it goes on it becomes somehow clearer. A woman is formed out of man alone, and he remains whole and entire. Again, it was necessary there should be some sure sign of the Conception of a Virgin. So the barren beareth, not once only, but a second time and a third, and many times. Of His birth then of a Virgin, the barren is a type, and she sends the mind forward to faith. Again, this was a type of God being able to beget alone. For if man is the chief agent,785 and birth takes place without him, in a more excellent way, much rather, is One begotten of the Chiefest Agent. There is still another generation, which is a type of the Truth. I mean, ours by the Spirit. Of this again the barren a type, the fact that it is not of blood (John i. 13.); this pertains to the generation above. The one—as also the types—shows that the generation is to be without passion; the other, that it could proceed from one above. Christ is above, ruling over all things: it was necessary this should be believed. The same takes place in the earth with respect to man. “Let Us make man after Our image and likeness” (Gen. i. 26.), for dominion of all the brutes. Thus He instructed us, not by words, but by actions. Paradise showed the separateness of his nature, and that man was the best thing of all. Christ was to rise again; see now how many sure signs there were; Enoch, Elias, Jonas, the fiery furnace, the case of Noah, baptism, the seeds, the plants, our own generation, that 784 ἀπαθῶς, i.e. without being changed. This refers to the Eternal Generation, as the sequel shows. Compare St. Athanasius against Arianism, Disc. l. c. 8. 785 κυριώτερον ἄνθρωπος. One would have expected ἀνὴρ, but ἄνθρωπος has just been opposed to γυνή. 499 Colossians 1:26-28