For so it is said, “And they that did eat were four thousand men, excepting women and children.”3142 As though the void of understanding, and the effeminate were without number. Yet let even these eat. Let them eat: it may be the children will grow, and will be children no more; it may be the effeminate will be amended, and become chaste. Let them eat; we dispense, we deal out to them. But who these are, God inspecteth His feast, and if they do not amend themselves, He who knew how to invite them thither, knoweth also how to separate them from the rest. 4. Ye know it, dearly Beloved; call to mind the parable of the Gospel, how that the Lord came in to inspect the guests at a certain feast of His. The Master of the house who had invited them, as it is written, “found there a man which had not on a wedding garment.”3143 For to the marriage had that Bridegroom invited them who is “fair in beauty above the children of men.” That Bridegroom became deformed because of His deformed spouse, that he might make her fair. How did the Fair One become deformed? If I do not prove it, I am blasphem- ing. The testimony of his fair beauty the Prophet gives me, who saith, “Thou art fair in beauty above the children of men.”3144 The testimony of his deformity another Prophet gives me, who saith, “We saw Him, and He had no grace, nor beauty; but His countenance 407 was marred, and His whole look3145 deformed.”3146 O Prophet, who saidst, “Thou art fair in beauty above the children of men;” thou art contradicted; another Prophet cometh out against thee, and saith, “Thou speakest falsely. We have seen Him. What is this that thou sayest, ‘Thou art fair in beauty above the children of men? We have seen Him, and He had no grace nor beauty.’” Are then these two Prophets at disagreement in the Corner-stone of peace? Both spake of Christ, both spake of the Cornerstone. In the corner the walls unite. If they do not unite, it is not a building, but a ruin. No, the Prophets agree, let us not leave them in strife. Yea, rather let us understand their peace; for they know not how to strive. O Prophet, who saidst, “Thou art fair in beauty above the children of men;” where didst thou see Him? Answer me, answer where didst thou see Him? “Being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”3147 There I saw Him. Dost thou doubt that He who is “equal with God” is “fair in beauty above the children of men”? Thou hast answered; now let him answer who said, “We saw Him, and He had no grace, nor beauty.” Thou hast said so; tell us where didst thou see Him? He begins from the other’s words; where the other ended, there he begins. Where did he end? “Who being in the form of God, thought 3142 Matt. xv. 38. 3143 Matt. xxii. 11. 3144 Ps. xliv. 3 (xlv. 2, English version). 3145 Positio. 3146 Isa. liii. 2, Sept. 3147 Phil. ii. 6. 848 On the words of the Gospel, Mark viii. 5, etc., where the miracle of the…