Chapter 22

From Hosea.

About the Word of God and about the Father, as about a Lord.

[Passage quoted, Hos. xi. 9.]

IN these words God the Word says when He has become man to those who confess Him to be a holy man, but not God: “I am God and not a holy man among you.” And, then, having called Himself God, He shews the Almighty Lord and God, His Father, adding: “I will go behind the Lord.” And the words: “I will not enter into the city,” are of one who refuses to take part in the common and vulgar life of men, from which also He dissuades his own disciples: “Go not on a road of the Gentiles, and enter not into a city of the Samaritans.”