9. This is the Spirit that at the beginning "moved upon the face of the waters;" [1826] by whom the world moves; by whom creation consists, and all things have life; who also wrought mightily in the prophets, [1827] and descended in flight upon Christ. [1828] This is the Spirit that was given to the apostles in the form of fiery tongues. [1829] This is the Spirit that David sought when he said, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." [1830] Of this Spirit Gabriel also spoke to the Virgin, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." [1831] By this Spirit Peter spake that blessed word, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." [1832] By this Spirit the rock of the Church was stablished. [1833] This is the Spirit, the Comforter, that is sent because of thee, [1834] that He may show thee to be the Son [1835] of God.
10. Come then, be begotten again, O man, into the adoption of God. And how? says one. If thou practisest adultery no more, and committest not murder, and servest not idols; if thou art not overmastered by pleasure; if thou dost not suffer the feeling of pride to rule thee; if thou cleanest off the filthiness of impurity, and puttest off the burden of sin; if thou castest off the armour of the devil, and puttest on the breastplate of faith, even as Isaiah saith, "Wash you, and seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow. And come and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, I shall make them white as snow; and though they be like crimson, I shall make them white as wool. And if ye be willing, and hear my voice, ye shall eat the good of the land." [1836] Do you see, beloved, how the prophet spake beforetime of the purifying power of baptism? For he who comes down in faith to the laver of regeneration, and renounces the devil, and joins himself to Christ; who denies the enemy, and makes the confession that Christ is God; who puts off the bondage, and puts on the adoption,--he comes up from the baptism brilliant as the sun, [1837] flashing forth the beams of righteousness, and, which is indeed the chief thing, he returns a son of God and joint-heir with Christ. To Him be the glory and the power, together with His most holy, and good, and quickening Spirit, now and ever, and to all the ages of the ages. Amen.
------------------------
[1782] diskou.
[1783] seleniakou stoicheiou.
[1784] polupegetou ton astron mousiou.
[1785] phuseos.
[1786] stoicheia.
[1787] Ps. cxlviii. 4. [Pindar (Ariston men hudor, Olymp., i. 1), is expounded and then transcended.]
[1788] axiopistian.
[1789] Hos. vi. 3.
[1790] John iv. 14.
[1791] John vii. 38.
[1792] Matt. iii. 13.
[1793] Ps. xlvi. 4.
[1794] Economically.
[1795] Ps. lxxvii. 16.
[1796] Ps. cxiv. 5.
[1797] Phil. ii. 7.
[1798] Matt. iii. 7.
[1799] John i. 20.
[1800] ou parthenian esteirosa. So Gregory Thaumaturgus, Sancta Theophania, p. 106, edit. Vossii: "Thou, when born of the Virgin Mary,...didst not loose her virginity; but didst preserve it, and gifted her with the name of mother."
[1801] Luke i. 20.
[1802] Matt. ii. 9.
[1803] John i. 27.
[1804] Matt. iii. 11.
[1805] parapto.
[1806] It was a common opinion among the ancient theologians that the devil was ignorant of the mystery of the economy, founding on such passages as Matt. iv. 3, 1 Cor. ii. 8. (Fabricius.) [See Ignatius, vol. i. p. 57, this series.]
[1807] gumnos.
[1808] aprostateutos.
[1809] Matt. iii. 14.
[1810] akanonista dogmatizeis.
[1811] Matt. iii. 15.
[1812] Rom. x. 4.
[1813] Matt. iii. 16, 17.
[1814] Ps. xxiv. 7.
[1815] phos aulon genna phos aprositon. The Son is called "Light of Light" in the Discourse against Noetus, ch. x. [See p. 227 supra.] In phos aprositon the reference is to 1 Tim. vi. 16.
[1816] epephane ouk ephane. See Dorner's Doctrine of the Person of Christ, div. i. vol. ii. p. 97 (Clark).
[1817] Ps. xxix. 3.
[1818] Luke ix. 5. [Compare the Paradoxes, attributed to Bacon, in his Works, vol. xiv. p. 143; also the Appendix, pp. 139-142.]
[1819] rhapizomenos, referring to the slap in the process of manumitting slaves.
[1820] Heb. i. 3.
[1821] Matt. xxvi. 67. [From which proceeds His Church.]
[1822] That is, the sin introduced by Eve, who was formed by God out of Adam's side. (Fabricius.)
[1823] estai kai Theos, referring probably to 2 Pet. i. 4, hina dia touton genesthe theias koinonoi phuseos, "that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature." [See vol. iii. p. 317, note 11. Tertullian anticipates the language of the "Athanasian Confession,"--"taking the manhood into God;" applicable, through Christ, to our redeemed humanity. Eph. ii. 6; Rev. iii. 21.]
[1824] kolumbethras.
[1825] Rom. viii. 17.
[1826] Gen. i. 2.
[1827] Acts xxviii. 25.
[1828] Matt. iii. 16.
[1829] Acts ii. 3.
[1830] Ps. li. 10.
[1831] Luke i. 35.
[1832] Matt. xvi. 16.
[1833] Matt. xvi. 18.
[1834] John xvi. 26.
[1835] teknon.
[1836] Isa. i. 16-19.
[1837] This seems to refer to what the poets sing as to the sun rising out of the waves of ocean. (Fabricius.) [Note, this is not said of such as Simon Magus, but of one who puts off the bondage, i.e., of corruption. Our author's perorations are habitually sublime.]
Fragments of Discourses or Homilies.
I. [1838]
From the Discourse of Hippolytus, Bishop of Rome, on the Resurrection and Incorruption.
Men, he says, "in the resurrection will be like the angels of God," [1839] to wit, in incorruption, and immortality, and incapacity of loss. [1840] For the incorruptible nature is not the subject of generation; [1841] it grows not, sleeps not, hungers not, thirsts not, is not wearied, suffers not, dies not, is not pierced by nails and spear, sweats not, drops not with blood. Of such kind are the natures of the angels and of souls released from the body. For both these are of another kind, and different from these creatures of our world, which are visible and perishing.
[1838] From a Discourse on the Resurrection, in Anastasius Sinaita, Hodegus, p. 350. This treatise is mentioned in the list of his works given on the statue, and also by Jerome, Sophronius, Nicephorus, Honorius, etc.
[1839] Matt. xxii. 30.
[1840] areusia.
[1841] gennatai.
II. [1842]
From the Discourse of St. Hippolytus, Bishop and Martyr, on the Divine Nature. [1843]
God is capable of willing, but not of not willing [1844] for that pertains only to one that changes and makes choice; [1845] for things that are being made follow the eternal will of God, by which also things that are made abide sustained.
[1842] From the Discourse on the Theology or the Doctrine of Christ's Divine Nature, extant in the Acts of the Lateran Council, under Martinus 1., ann. 649, secret. v. p. 287, vol. vii. edit. Veneto-Labb.
[1843] peri theologias.
[1844] ou to me thelein.
[1845] treptou kai proairetou.
III. [1846]
St. Hippolytus, Bishop and Martyr, in his Homily on the Paschal Supper.
He was altogether [1847] in all, and everywhere; and though He filleth the universe up to all the principalities of the air, He stripped Himself again. And for a brief space He cries that the cup might pass from Him, with a view to show truly that He was also man. [1848] But remembering, too, the purpose for which He was sent, He fulfils the dispensation (economy) for which He was sent, and exclaims, "Father, not my will," [1849] and, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." [1850]
[1846] From a Homily on the Lord's Paschal Supper, ibid., p. 293.
[1847] holos.
[1848] kai anthropos, also man. See Grabe, Bull's Defens. Fid. Nic., p. 103.
[1849] Luke xxii. 42.
[1850] Matt. xxvi. 41.
IV. [1851]
1. Take me, O Samuel, the heifer brought to Bethlehem, in order to show the king begotten of David, and him who is anointed to be king and priest by the Father.
2. Tell me, O blessed Mary, what that was that was conceived by thee in the womb, and what that was that was born by thee in thy virgin matrix. For it was the first-born Word of God that descended to thee from heaven, and was formed as a first-born man in the womb, in order that the first-born Word of God might be shown to be united with a first-born man.
3. And in the second (form),--to wit, by the prophets, as by Samuel, calling back and delivering the people from the slavery of the aliens. And in the third (form), that in which He was incarnate, taking to Himself humanity from the Virgin, in which character also He saw the city, and wept over it.
[1851] From a Discourse on Elkanah and Hannah. In Theodoret, Dial. I., bearing the title "Unchangeable" (atreptos); Works, vol. iv. p. 36.
V. [1852]
And for this reason three seasons of the year prefigured the Saviour Himself, so that He should fulfil the mysteries prophesied of Him. In the Passover season, so as to exhibit Himself as one destined to be sacrificed like a sheep, and to prove Himself the true Paschal-lamb, even as the apostle says, "Even Christ," who is God, "our passover was sacrificed for us." [1853] And at Pentecost so as to presignify the kingdom of heaven as He Himself first ascended to heaven and brought man as a gift to God. [1854]
[1852] From the same Discourse. From Theodoret's Second Dialogue, bearing the title "Unmixed," asunchutos; Works, vol. iv. p. 88.
[1853] 1 Cor. v. 7.
[1854] [Man's nature was never before in heaven. John iii. 13; Acts ii. 34.]
VI. [1855]
And an ark of imperishable wood was the Saviour Himself. For by this was signified the imperishable and incorruptible tabernacle (of His body), which engendered no corruption of sin. For the man who has sinned also has this confession to make: "My wounds stank, and were corrupt, because of my foolishness." [1856] But the Lord was without sin, being of imperishable wood in respect of His humanity,--that is to say, being of the Virgin and the Holy Spirit, covered, as it were, within and without with the purest gold of the Word of God.
[1855] From an Oration on "The Lord is my Shepherd." In Theodoret, Dial. I. p. 36.
[1856] Ps. xxxviii. 5.
VII. [1857]
1. He who rescued from the lowest hell the first-formed man of earth when he was lost and bound with the chains of death; He who came down from above, and raised the earthy on high; [1858] He who became the evangelist of the dead, and the redeemer of the souls, and the resurrection of the buried,--He was constituted the helper of vanquished man, being made like him Himself, (so that) the first-born Word acquainted Himself with the first-formed Adam in the Virgin; He who is spiritual sought out the earthy in the womb; He who is the ever-living One sought out him who, through disobedience, is subject to death; He who is heavenly called the terrene to the things that are above; He who is the nobly-born sought, by means of His own subjection, to declare the slave free; He transformed the man into adamant who was dissolved into dust and made the food of the serpent, and declared Him who hung on the tree to be Lord over the conqueror, and thus through the tree He is found victor.
2. For they who know not now the Son of God incarnate, shall know in Him who comes as Judge in glory, Him who is now despised in the body of His humiliation.
3. And the apostles, when they came to the sepulchre on the third day, did not find the body of Jesus; just as the children of Israel went up the mount and sought for the tomb of Moses, but did not find it.
[1857] From a Discourse on the "Great Song" [i.e., Ps. xc. See Bunsen, i. p. 285. Some suppose it Ps. cxix.] In Theodoret, Dial. II. pp. 88, 89.
[1858] ton kato eis ta ano. [See p. 238, note 17, supra.]
VIII. [1859]
Under the figure of Egypt he described the world; and under things made with hands, idolatry; and under the earthquake, the subversion, and dissolution of the earth itself. And he represented the Lord the Word as a light cloud, the purest tabernacle, enthroned on which our Lord Jesus Christ entered into this life in order to subvert error.
[1859] From a Discourse on the beginning of Isaiah. In Theodoret, Dial. I. p. 36.
IX. [1860]
Now Hippolytus, the martyr and bishop of [the Province of] Rome, in his second discourse on Daniel, speaks thus:--
Then indeed Azarias, standing along with the others, made their acknowledgments to God with song and prayer in the midst of the furnace. Beginning thus with His holy and glorious and honourable name, they came to the works of the Lord themselves, and named first of all those of heaven, and glorified Him, saying, "Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord." Then they passed to the sons of men, and taking up their hymn in order, they then named the spirits [that people Tartarus [1861] beneath the earth,] and the souls of the righteous, in order that they might praise God together with them.