1. VERY many deny that the Sacred writers wrote according to the rules of art. Nor do we contend for the contrary; for they wrote not according to art, but according to grace, which is above all art; for they wrote that which the Spirit gave them to speak. And yet they who wrote on art made use of their writings from which to frame their art, and to compose its comments and rules. Sidenote: αἴτιον, ὕλη, ἀποτέλεσμα. Gen. xxii. 7. Sidenote: Ib. 8. 2. Again, in art there are principally required, a cause, a subject, and an end. When then we read that holy Isaac said to his father, _Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering_, which of these is wanting? For he who asks, doubts, he who answers the query pronounces and solves the doubt. _Behold the fire_, that is the cause, _and the wood_, that is ὕλη, which in Latin is ‘materia,’ what third thing remains but the end, which the son asked for, saying, _Where is the lamb for a burnt-offering_, and the father replied, _My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering_? Sidenote: Ps. iv. 5. 3. Let us discuss for a little while the mystery. _God shewed a ram hanging by his horns._ Now the ram is the Word, full of tranquillity, moderation, and patience; whereby is shewn that Wisdom is a good sacrifice, and that He was well skilled in the mode of meritorious propitiation. Wherefore the Prophet also says, _Offer the sacrifice of righteousness_. And so it is a sacrifice both of righteousness and of wisdom. 4. Here then is a mind fervent and glowing as fire which worketh; here is the thing to be understood, that is the subject-matter, where is the third, the understanding? Behold the colour, where is the seeing? behold the object of sense, where is the sense itself? For matter is not seen by all, and therefore God gives the gift of understanding, and feeling, and seeing. 5. The Word of God then is the end or completion; that is, the determination and completion of the discussion, which is communicated to the more prudent, and confirms things doubtful. Well do even they who believed not in the Coming of Christ refute themselves, so that they confess what they think to deny. For they say that the ram is the Word of God, and yet believe not the mystery of the Passion, whereas in that mystery is the Word of God, in Whom the Sacrifice was fulfilled. Sidenote: Exod. xvi. 15, 16. 6. Wherefore let us first kindle within us the fire of the mind, that it may work within us. Let us seek for the subject-matter, what it is that nourishes the mind, as if we were looking for it in darkness. For neither did the Fathers know what manna was: they found manna, it is said, declaring it to be the Discourse and word of God, from Whom all instruction as from a perennial fountain flows and is derived. Sidenote: Exod. xvi. 4. Sidenote: Ib. 15.