Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 9.djvu/192

170 up the burden of our sins. Now the angel who appeared to Balaam was the Word Himself; and in His hand He held a sword, to indicate the power which He had from above.

"God is not as a man." He thus shows that all men are indeed guilty of falsehood, inasmuch as they change from one thing to another ; but such is not the case with God, for He always continues true, perfecting whatever He wishes.

"To inflict vengeance from the Lord on Midian." For this man (Balaam), when he speaks no longer in the Spirit of God, but contrary to God's law, by setting up a different law with regard to fornication, is certainly not then to be counted as a prophet, but as a soothsayer. For he who did not keep to the commandment of God, received the just recompense of his own evil devices.

Know thou that every man is either empty or full. For if he has not the Holy Spirit, he has no knowledge of the Creator; he has not received Jesus Christ the Life; he knows not the Father who is in heaven; if he does not live after the dictates of reason, after the heavenly law, he is not a sober-minded person, nor does he act uprightly: such an one is empty. If, on the other hand, he receives God, who says, "I will dwell with them, and walk in them, and I will be their God," such an one is not empty, but full.