and the nourishment by means of milk con- temptible : 5 these things appeared to thee un- worthy of God. Again, thou didst behold a man who remained forty days and nights without tasting human food, along with ministering an- gels at whose presence thou didst shudder, when first of all thou hadst seen Him baptized as a common man, and knewest not the reason there- of. But after His [lengthened] fast thou didst again assume thy wonted audacity, and didst tempt Him when hungry, as if He had been an ordinary man, not knowing who He was. For thou saidst, "If thou be the Son of God, com- mand that these stones be made bread." ^ Now, this expression, " If thou be the Son," is an indi- cation of ignorance. For if thou hadst possessed real knowledge, thou wouldst have understood that the Creator can with equal ease both create what does not exist, and change that which al- ready has a being. And thou temptedst by means of hunger 7 Him who nourisheth all that require food. And thou temptedst the very " Lord of glory," ^ forgetting in thy malevolence that " man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." For if thou hadst known that He was the Son of God, thou wouldst also have understood that He who had kept his ^ body from feeling any want for forty days and as many nights, could have also done the same for ever. Why, then, does He suffer hunger? In order to prove that He had assumed a body subject to the same feelings as those of ordinary men. By the first fact He showed that He was God, and by the second that He was also man.