Just as exhortation and invitation are natural for the Logos who advises, so reproach, reproach and reproach are characteristic of the Logos who praises. He is characterized by a special art in censure. Censure is a sign of benevolence, not hatred. Both friend and foe blame; but the enemy does this with malicious laughter, and the friend - out of heartfelt benevolence. It is not out of hatred that the Lord reproaches man – He could have swept all people off the face of the earth for their sins – but He even suffered for us. The pedagogue, precisely because He is good, very skilfully offers exhortation in the form of reproach; He stirs up a lazy man with reproach as with a scourge. Sometimes He tries to influence a famous person by changing the form of admonition. On whom praise does not work, He compels him by reproach; and those who are not led by reproach to the path of salvation are like corpses that are awakened to the truth by reproach. For chastisement and the teaching of wisdom are proper for all times (Sir. 22:6-7). He who teaches a fool is the same as he who glues together cuttings, or wakes up a sleeper from a deep sleep. (Sir. 22:6-7); wherefore it is clearly added: he who awakens the sleeper from deep sleep, because the sleeper is most like the dead. The Lord Himself, taking as an example the earth, which presents different species and brings different benefits when caring for it, allegorically, but very clearly says about Himself: "I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman" (John 15:1). And then He adds: Every branch I have that does not bear fruit. He cuts off; and every one that beareth fruit He cleanses, that it may bear more fruit (John 15:2). The vine, if it is not pruned, grows into branches (going into them with all its strength): so is man. The Logos, being like a garden knife, cuts off the growths that multiply on a person, forcing him with his feelings not to go into passion, but to bear fruit. But reproaches addressed to sinners have the same salvific purpose; because the Logos in them conforms to the characteristics of each person; now he uses a whip, now a bridle. Therefore it is very clearly said by the mouth of Moses: Do not be afraid; God (to you) has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, that ye should not sin (Exodus 20:20). That is why the words of Plato are beautiful, when he says from experience thus: "All who are punished are truly shown through that great blessing. Namely, through the punishment they deserve, their souls benefit from being given the opportunity to become better." If now those who are so instructed by a truthful person receive from him a good deed in it, then this good, according to Plato, is at the same time justice. Fear itself is therefore beneficial to people and is able to improve them. For the Spirit of those who fear the Lord shall live; for their hope is in Him who saves them (Sir. 34:13). The same Logos that inflicts punishments on us. He is also our Judge. Isaiah speaks of Him: "The Lord hath laid upon Him the sins of all of us" (Isaiah 53:6), upon Him, i.e. as our Corrector and Deliverer of us from sins. For this reason, He alone can forgive sins. He, appointed by the Father to be our Teacher; He can only distinguish obedience from disobedience. But whoever threatens does not necessarily want to satiate his anger and fulfill his threat, but, leading to fear, thereby cuts off in us the inclination to sin; His love for mankind is also revealed in the fact that He tarries and shows what would follow if anyone remained in sin. Not like a stinging snake. It does not hurt immediately. God is good; and before it comes to His work. The Lord exhorts for a long time. I will gather upon them calamities, and I will exhaust My arrows upon them, - He says, - they will be exhausted by hunger, destroyed by fever and fierce pestilence; and I will send upon them the teeth of beasts, and the venom of those that creep upon the earth. The sword will destroy them from without, and terror in their houses (Deuteronomy 32:23-25). The Deity, therefore, is not so angry as some think, but in most cases He wants to restrain people, constantly exhorts them and explains to them what they should do. But this art of instilling fear in us, so that we do not sin, is a good art, because the fear of the Lord drives away sins; but he that hath not this fear cannot be justified (Sir. 1:21), says the Scriptures. God does not send punishment out of wrath, but out of justice, because we ourselves would be punished badly if punishment were inflicted on us because of us. Each of us asks for punishment himself, because he himself sins of his own free will. The culprit of punishments, therefore, is the one who brings them upon himself; God is not to blame for them. If our unrighteousness reveals the Truth of God, then what shall we say? Will not God be unjust when He expresses His wrath? - I speak according to human Reasoning. By no means (Romans 3:3-6). Threatening, He says thus: "When I sharpen My shining sword, and My hand accepts judgment, I will take vengeance on My enemies, and I will repay them that hate Me, I will swallow My arrows with blood, and My sword shall be filled with flesh, with the blood of the slain and captives" (Deuteronomy 32:41-42). Here it is clearly written that whoever is not an enemy of the truth does not harbor hatred against the Logos, and is not a hater of his own salvation, that he will be free from punishment, but from enmity (for he had none). The crown of wisdom, as it is said in the Book of Wisdom, is the fear of the Lord (Sir. 1:18) Through the prophet Amos, the Logos quite clearly depicted His method of education, saying: "I have wrought destruction among you, as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were snatched up like a brand out of the fire, and yet you have not turned to Me, saith the Lord" (Amos 4:11). Pay attention to how God in His goodness seeks an outlet in pity, and how in education His love for mankind is hidden through threats. I will hide My face from them, He said, and I will see what their end will be (Deuteronomy 32:20). Where the Lord turns with His face, there is peace and joy; and from where it turns him away, evil begins to creep in. But God does not want to see evil, because He is good. But if He hides His face from anywhere, it is because of people's unbelief, and there evil develops. "Therefore you see," says Paul, "the grace and severity of God: severity to those who have fallen away, and kindness to you, if you continue in the goodness of God (Romans 11:22), that is, in faith in Christ. Good by its very nature is characterized by hatred of evil. Therefore, perhaps, it can still be admitted that God punishes unbelievers - punishment serves, after all, for the good and benefit of the punished; it is a corrective means against the stubborn; - but it must not be assumed that God is vindictive. Vengeance is the retribution of evil that occurs in the interest of the one who avenges himself. But Whoever teaches us to pray for our enemies (Matt. 5:44), of course, does not thirst for revenge. However, that God is good, this is acknowledged by all, and that the same God is just, there will be no need to reason more about this, if I quote the Gospel of the Lord's food"" The Lord calls God one: that they may all be one: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so may they also be one in Us, — that the world may believe, that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given unto them: that they may be one, even as We are one. I am in them, and you are in me; that they may be made perfect in one" (John 17:21-23). God is one and more than one, something higher even than unity itself. The word "You" here has an indicative meaning; it is pointed to God, Who alone exists in the proper sense, Who art and was, and is to come (Rev. 11:17). These three dimensions of time embrace one concept, namely, the concept of being. And that this one God really possesses both attributes, unity and justice, the Lord testifies to this in the same Gospel: "Father, whom Thou hast given Me, I desire that where I am, they also be with Me, that they may see My glory, which Thou hast given Me, because Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father! and the world did not know Thee, but I knew Thee, and these knew that Thou didst send Me. And I have made Thy name known unto them, and I will reveal it (John 17:24-26). This is the One Who punishes children for the guilt of their fathers, even to the third and fourth generations, who hate Him, and who shows mercy to a thousand generations to those who love Him (Exodus 20:5). Since by placing some on the right and others on the left, of course, the good Father, He is called good by His main attribute; and since the Son, who is His Logos, dwells in the Father, the Father is given the epithet of justice in the relation of both (i.e., the Father and the Son). The concept of omnipotence here is measured by the equality of love. He judges a man, it is said, according to his grandfathers (Sir. 16:13). God shows us the prototype of justice in the same balances, in the person of the Lord Jesus, who, as it were, is a pagan of these scales. He gives us to know God. Divine wisdom also speaks clearly of Him: both mercy and wrath are in His power; He is able to have mercy and pour out wrath. As great is His mercy, so great is His rebuke (Sir. 16:12-13). Regret is the motive of blame, and the salvation of the one to whom the blame refers is the goal of blame. Yet that God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, is good, the Logos Himself can tell us. He says of his Father: "He is good to the ungrateful and the wicked" (Luke 6:33). And further: be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). He even says directly: "No one is good but God alone (Matt. 19:17) in heaven (5:12). Moreover, on another occasion He says: "My Father commandeth his sun to rise on the evil and the good" (Matt. 5:45). Here it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the Logos at the same time calls his Father, who is good, the Demiurge (the creator and adorner of the world), and that the Demiurge is just, this is not denied. And further: My Father sends rain on the just and the unjust (Matt. V, 45). Since He sends rain, it means that He is the Demiurge for the kingdom of waters and clouds, and since He sends it to all, it means that He divides it on the basis of perfect equality and justice; and because He is good, He sends rain evenly on the just and the unjust. Consequently, we quite correctly conclude that the one God in number and essence is spoken of in the following expressions of Scripture: "When I look upon Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers" (Psalm 8:4) and in this: "He who dwelleth in heaven" (Psalm 2:4). His throne is in heaven (Psalm 10:4; 102:19), the Holy Spirit sings about Him. And the Lord Himself says in prayer: Our Father who art in heaven (Matt. 6:9) Heaven is the property of Him Who founded the world. Now, therefore, it is irrefutable that the Lord is the Son of the Creator of the world (the Demiurge). If, however, it is now recognized that the Creator of the world is primarily just according to God, and that the Lord is His (the Demiurge's) Son, then it follows that the Lord is the Son of a just God. That is why Paul also says: "Today, apart from the law, righteousness has been revealed" (Rom. 3:11). And again, in order to put this matter even more in relation to God: the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ in all and on all believers, for there is no difference (Romans 3:22). And as a witness to the truth, He further adds: "In the time of God's longsuffering, to the testimony of His righteousness at the present time, that He may appear righteous, and justifying him that believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). And that the Apostle knows the identity of the concepts of "good" and "just" is revealed from his words: "Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good" (Rom. 7:12): he characterizes one and the same subject by both predicates. But no one is good but God alone (Matt. 19:17). To His Father, namely, "one," many predicates are ascribed. And this He understands in the words: "Who the Father is, no one knows, except the Son" (Luke 10:22; John 17:25), so that it becomes truly clear that the God of the universe is one, that He is good and just, that He is the creator (the Demiurge), the Son in the Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

But the Logos, as the Saviour, out of concern for the salvation of some, is not alien to addressing them with reproach; because this is one of the salvific means of God's love for mankind; from it comes the red color of shame and the fear of sin. If it is possible to blame, then it is appropriate to blaspheme. There are times when wounds must be inflicted on a soul that has reached the point of insensitivity to sorrow, but not mortal wounds, but healing ones, since a little sorrow protects against eternal death. Great is the wisdom of the Pedagogue in education, and His method in relation to the goal is diverse. The Teacher testifies to virtuous people; He calls those who are called to the best; those who want to commit falsehood, from the very beginning He turns away from it and invites them to turn to a better life. For none of these points remains untestified, while the other is attested; From all testimonies proceeds the highest grace. And the affect of anger - if only God's warning can be called anger - has its starting point in love for mankind, because God descends to a passionate state because of man; for his sake the Divine Logos also became man.

9. That it is the business of one and the same power to do good and to punish justly, and also (continuation) about the educational method of the Logos.

Quite authoritatively, therefore, using all the methods of his wise art. The educator of humanity, our Divine Logos, cares about the salvation of His children. He inspires, reproaches, reproaches, rebukes, threatens, heals, promises, gives. With many bits, as it were, He curbs the foolish aspirations of people. In short: the Lord treats us exactly as we do with our children. Do you have any sons? Teach them, speak wisdom, and bend their necks from their youth. Do you have any daughters? Take care of their body, and do not delight in the beauty of their countenance (Sir. 7:25-26). And yet we love our children: sons and daughters more than anything else. And since people who like to constantly give pleasure to others do not like that which can grieve a person, they are not distinguished by true love; on the contrary, those who practice beneficent severity, although they cause grief temporarily, render good deeds in the future: then the Lord does not have in mind temporary pleasure, but eternal joy. Therefore, according to the prophetic evidence, let us consider the educational method of this Lover of mankind.

Suggestion is a reproach arising from solicitude and mediated by an accurate understanding of the matter. Such a Teacher is Forgery, saying in the Gospel: "How many times did I want to gather your children, as a bird gathers its chicks under its wings, and you did not want to! (Matt. 23:37). And again the same suggestion is contained in the words of the Scriptures: "They committed adultery with wood and stone" (Jeremiah 3:9), they burned incense to Baal (Jeremiah 7:9; 11:13; 32:29). The most majestic proof of God's love for man is that, seeing the shamelessness of the people kicking and biting the bit, God nevertheless calls them to conversion and through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel says: "Son of man, you will dwell among scorpions; do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of their face. And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or not. (Ezekiel 2:6-7). But He said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the people go." I know, however, that he will not declare to let him go (Exodus 3:18-19). Here He reveals two sides: the Divine, foreseeing the future, and the philanthropic, vouchsafed an invitation to the soul endowed with free will to be converted. And in Isaiah, "caring for the people" ("El." I, 36), He addresses him with suggestion, saying: "This people draweth nigh unto Me with their lips, and honour Me with their tongue, but their heart is far from Me" (Isaiah 29:13). And here is pure reproach: "But in vain do they worship Me, teaching doctrines, the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:9; Mk. 7:7; Is. 29:13). Care here will be manifested in the fact that, exposing sin. Through contrast to him, the teacher also points out healing means.

Reproach is a reproach expressed about someone's shameful behavior; the purpose of such a censure is to arouse a moral feeling. A similar thing is found in Jeremiah: These are fattened horses; each of them laughs at the wife of the other. Will I not punish you for this? saith the Lord, and shall not My soul take vengeance on such a people as this (Jeremiah 3:8-9)? To all things He adds fear, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. Sol. I, 7). Again in Hosea: "Shall I not punish them, since they have come together with fornicators, and have offered sacrifices with those of the temples: and the people, who had hitherto been prudent, embraced the fornicator" (Hosea 4:14)? Here He exposes the sin of the people more clearly and admits at the same time that they were prudent, and, consequently, fell into sin quite freely. The intellect is the eye of the soul; therefore the word "Israel" means "he who sees God," i.e., comprehends Him with his reason.

Reproach is a reproach to the frivolous and negligent. This form of pedagogical reproach is used by the Lord when He says in Isaiah: "Hear, O heavens, and hearken, O earth, for the Lord says, I have brought up and exalted sons, and they have rebelled against Me." The waters know their ruler, and the ass of their master's manger, but Israel does not know (Me) (Isaiah 1:2). Is it not terrible if the leader of God forgets Him? The ox and the donkey are lazy, unreasonable animals, they know their feeders, and Israel turned out to be more foolish than they. And in Jeremiah, after a severe rebuke addressed to the people, He adds: "They have forsaken Me, saith the Lord" (Jer. I, 16). Rebuke is a reproachful reprimand or reproach with the addition of reproachful words. The Pedagogue uses this educational means in Isaiah, saying: "Woe to the disobedient sons, saith the Lord, who hold counsel, but without Me; and they make alliances, not according to my spirit (Isaiah 30:1). As if a kind of sharp etching liquid, in some individual cases he uses intimidation, clamping the mouths of the people and turning them to the path of salvation. In the same way, when dyeing it, the coat is usually etched so that it takes color for a longer time.

Shame is a public reproach for sin. As a necessary means of education, God uses it if faith disappears among the people. Thus He says in Isaiah: "They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 1:4). And in Jeremiah: Marvel at this, O heavens, and tremble, and be terrified, saith the Lord. For my people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water (Jeremiah 3:12, 13). And again he said: Jerusalem has sinned grievously, and therefore it has become abominable; all who glorified him look upon him with contempt, because they have seen his nakedness (Lamentations. I, 8). But He softens the severity and shame of shame through Solomon, silently educating His love for children with the words: "The chastisement of the Lord, my son, do not despise, and do not be burdened by His chastisement, for whom the Lord loves, He chastens and is pleased with him as a father to his son (Proverbs 3:11-12; Heb. 12:6; Rev. 3:19), because only a sinful man evades reproof (Sir. 32:19). 19). Therefore the Scripture says quite consistently: Let the righteous chastise me: this is mercy; let him rebuke me: this is the best oil, which shall not hurt my head (Psalm 140:5).

Admonition, instruction on the right path, is a reproach that acts on the intellect. And God did not leave this pedagogical moment unused; He says in Jeremiah: To whom shall I speak, and whom shall I exhort, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised (Jeremiah 6:10). Oh, blessed long-suffering! And again in the same prophet: all these nations are not circumcised; but all the house of Israel with an uncircumcised heart (Jeremiah 9:26).

A visit is a powerful reproach. This form of education is used by the Lord in the Gospel: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which smote the prophets, and stoneth those who are sent unto thee" (Matt. 23:37). The power of reproach is expressed by double appeal. For who knows God, how he can persecute God's servants? Therefore, says He, your debt is left empty. For I say unto you, From henceforth ye shall not see me, until ye exclaim, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, v. 38-39. You did not want to accept His love, you will get acquainted with His omnipotence.

Reproach is an extremely angry treatment. The Lord uses reproach, as if a kind of salvific means, in Isaiah in the words: "Alas, a sinful people, a people laden with iniquity, a generation of evildoers, sons of perdition" (Isaiah 1:4). And in the Gospel, through the mouth of John, He says: "Serpents, the offspring of vipers" (Matt. 23:33; 3:7; Lux. 3, 7).

Accusation is the reproach of those who do wrong. This means of education is used by David: the people, whom I did not know, serve me, by the mere rumor of me they obey me; foreigners caress me before me. The foreigners turn pale and tremble in their fortifications (Psalm 17:44-46). And in Jeremiah: "I gave him a bill of divorce, and the treacherous Judas was left without fruit" (Jeremiah 3:8). And again, For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt with me very treacherously, saith the Lord. They lied against the Lord (Jeremiah 3:11-12).

A complaint (against fate) is a skillfully concealed censure, implicitly intended to be directed to the path of salvation. God uses it in Jeremiah: How lonely sits the city, once populous! he became like a widow; great among the nations, the prince over the provinces became a tributary. He weeps bitterly at night (Lamentations of Jer. I, 1, 2).

Mockery is a mocking censure. And this aid is used by the Divine Pedagogue, who says in Jeremiah: "Thou hadst the forehead of a harlot, thou hast cast away shame." Will you not now cry out to me, 'My Father! You were the guide of my youth!" (Jeremiah 3:3-4). And: for many fornications of a lecher of pleasant appearance, skilled in sorcery (Nahum 3:4). Very wisely here He inspires the virgin with decency, calling her a lecher.