8. Thus too Paul, while he conducted himself after the example of the Lord, exhorted us, saying, Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ [4245] .' In this way he prevailed against all the divisions of the devil, writing, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ [4246] .' For the enemy draws near to us in afflictions, and trials, and labours, using every endeavour to ruin us. But the man who is in Christ, combating those things that are contrary, and opposing wrath by long-suffering, contumely by meekness, and vice by virtue, obtains the victory, and exclaims, I can do all things through Christ Who strengtheneth me;' and, In all these things we are conquerors through Christ Who loved us [4247] .' This is the grace of the Lord, and these are the Lord's means of restoration for the children of men. For He suffered to prepare freedom from suffering for those who suffer in Him, He descended that He might raise us up, He took on Him the trial of being born, that we might love Him Who is unbegotten, He went down to corruption, that corruption might put on immortality, He became weak for us, that we might rise with power, He descended to death, that He might bestow on us immortality, and give life to the dead. Finally, He became man, that we who die as men might live again, and that death should no more reign over us; for the Apostolic word proclaims, Death shall not have the dominion over us [4248] .'
9. Now because they did not thus consider these matters, the Ario-maniacs [4249] , being opponents of Christ, and heretics, smite Him who is their Helper with their tongue, and blaspheme Him who set [them] free, and hold all manner of different opinions against the Saviour. Because of His coming down, which was on behalf of man, they have denied His essential Godhead; and seeing that He came forth from the Virgin, they doubt His being truly the Son of God, and considering Him as become incarnate in time, they deny His eternity; and, looking upon Him as having suffered for us, they do not believe in Him as the incorruptible Son from the incorruptible Father. And finally, because He endured for our sakes, they deny the things which concern His essential eternity; allowing the deed of the unthankful, these despise the Saviour, and offer Him insult instead of acknowledging His grace. To them may these words justly be addressed: Oh! unthankful opponent of Christ, altogether wicked, and the slayer of his Lord, mentally blind, and a Jew in his mind, hadst thou understood the Scriptures, and listened to the saints, who said, Cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved;' or again, Send out Thy light and Thy truth [4250] ;'--then wouldest thou have known that the Lord did not descend for His own sake, but for ours; and for this reason, thou wouldest the more have admired His loving kindness. And hadst thou considered what the Father is, and what the Son, thou wouldest not have blasphemed the Son, as of a mutable nature [4251] . And hadst thou understood His work of loving-kindness towards us, thou wouldest not have alienated the Son from the Father, nor have looked upon Him as a stranger [4252] , Who reconciled us to His Father. I know these [words] are grievous, not only to those who dispute with Christ [4253] , but also to the schismatics; for they are united together, as men of kindred feelings. For they have learned to rend the seamless coat [4254] of God: they think it not strange to divide the indivisible Son from the Father [4255] .
10. I know indeed, that when these things are spoken, they will gnash their teeth upon us, with the devil who stirs them up, since they are troubled by the declaration of the true glory concerning the Redeemer. But the Lord, Who always has scoffed at the devil, does the same even now, saying, I am in the Father, and the Father in Me [4256] .' This is the Lord, Who is manifested in the Father, and in Whom also the Father is manifested; Who, being truly the Son of the Father, at last became incarnate for our sakes, that He might offer Himself to the Father in our stead, and redeem us through His oblation and sacrifice. This is He Who once brought the people of old time out of Egypt; but Who afterwards redeemed all of us, or rather the whole race of men, from death, and brought them up from the grave. This is He Who in old time was sacrificed as a lamb, He being signified in the lamb; but Who afterwards was slain for us, for Christ our Passover is sacrificed [4257] .' This is He Who delivered us from the snare of the hunters, from the opponents of Christ, I say, and from the schismatics, and again rescued us His Church. And because we were then victims of deceit, He has now delivered us by His own self.
11. What then is our duty, my brethren, for the sake of these things, but to praise and give thanks to God, the King of all? And let us first exclaim in the words of the Psalms, Blessed be the Lord, Who hath not given us over as a prey to their teeth [4258] .' Let us keep the feast in that way which He hath dedicated for us unto salvation--the holy day Easter--so that we may celebrate the feast which is in heaven with the angels. Thus anciently, the people of the Jews, when they came out of affliction into a state of ease, kept the feast, staging a song of praise for their victory. So also the people in the time of Esther, because they were delivered from the edict of death, kept a feast to the Lord [4259] , reckoning it a feast, returning thanks to the Lord, and praising Him for having changed their condition. Therefore let us, performing our vows to the Lord, and confessing our sins, keep the feast to the Lord, in conversation, moral conduct, and manner of life; praising our Lord, Who hath chastened us a little, but hath not utterly failed nor forsaken us, nor altogether kept silence from us. For if, having brought us out of the deceitful and famous Egypt of the opponents of Christ, He hath caused us to pass through many trials and afflictions, as it were in the wilderness, to His holy Church, so that from hence, according to custom, we can send to you, as well as receive letters from you; on this account especially I both give thanks to God myself, and exhort you to thank Him with me and on my behalf, this being the Apostolic custom, which these opponents of Christ, and the schismatics, wished to put an end to, and to break off. The Lord did not permit it, but both renewed and preserved that which was ordained by Him through the Apostle, so that we may keep the feast together, and together keep holy-day, according to the tradition and commandment of the fathers.
12. We begin the fast of forty days on the nineteenth of the month Mechir (Feb. 13); and the holy Easter-fast on the twenty-fourth of the month Phamenoth (Mar. 20). We cease from the fast on the twenty-ninth of the month Phamenoth (Mar. 25), late in the evening of the seventh day. And we thus keep the feast on the first day of the week which dawns on the thirtieth of the month Phamenoth (Mar. 26); from which, to Pentecost, we keep holy-day, through seven weeks, one after the other. For when we have first meditated properly on these things, we shall attain to be counted worthy of those which are eternal, through Christ Jesus our Lord, through Whom to the Father be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Greet one another with a holy kiss, remembering us in your holy prayers. All the brethren who are with me salute you, at all times remembering you. And I pray that ye may have health in the Lord, my beloved brethren, whom we love above all.
Here endeth the tenth Letter of holy Athanasius.
[4203] The text is difficult; possibly the Syriac translator is responsible for the difficulty. But we know from Ath. (supr. p. 273) that the reappointment of Philagrius was in the express interest of the Arians: it is, therefore, probable that Theodorus was not unfavourable to Athanasius. See Prolegg. ch. ii. §6 (1), and Sievers, pp. 101, 102.
[4204] In the Chron. Pasch. tom. ii. p. 202, Easter-day is wrongly given as falling on viii. Kal. Ap.
[4205] See Prolegg. ch. v. §3 b. The letter may have been finished (see §§3, 11) after Ath. had returned home, but the language of §1 seems to be applicable only to his residence at Treveri, and §11 may be reconciled to this supposition. In this case (§1 sub. fin.) it was probably begun as early as the Easter of 337; cf. Letters 17 and 18.
[4206] See above, p. 500.
[4207] Rom. viii. 35.
[4208] Rom. xiii. 7; cf. Ep. iii. init.
[4209] Cf. 1 Cor. v. 7
[4210] Cf. Orat. i. 50; ii. 18; Luke xi. 13.
[4211] Cf. Eph. iv. 3
[4212] Matt. xviii. 20.
[4213] Cf. Apol. Const. 16.
[4214] Thus far Athan. has been referring to the circumstances attending his exile for the last two years. The principal subject of the remaining part consists of the duty incumbent on us to praise and thank God for deliverance from affliction, and to exercise forgiveness towards our enemies. He several times (e.g. §§3, 10) speaks of his restoration to the Church of Alexandria.
[4215] The Syriac translator must have found in the Greek copy the reading of the Codex Alex. Kurie--the rendering of Jehovah,' not that of the Vatican text. Thee
[4216] Is. xxxviii. 20.
[4217] Song of Three Children,' 25-28.
[4218] Eph. ii. 4, 5.
[4219] Wisd. vii. 27; cf. Ep. i.
[4220] 1 Cor. iii. 2.
[4221] Rom. xiv. 2. The sense in the last few lines, and in those that follow, is clear, though the construction appears somewhat obscure. Milks, herbs, and meat are severally mentioned in connection with the different advances made in the Christian course. The translation of Larsow is less satisfactory.
[4222] Heb. v. 14.
[4223] Matt. xiii. 8. In the Syriac text, as published by Mr. Cureton, as well as in the German translation by Larsow, there is a hiatus, here, the next two or three pages, as far as the words He wept,' (§5 init.) being wanting. Two more leaves were afterwards discovered among the fragments in the British Museum by the learned Editor. One of them belongs to this part; the other to the eleventh Letter.
[4224] Vid. note 9, supr.
[4225] Syr. virtue,' a letter (rish) having been inserted by mistake.
[4226] John xiv. 2.
[4227] Matt. iv. 10.
[4228] Matt. vii. 13; xxv. 34.
[4229] Ps. c. 4.
[4230] Gen. iv. 16; Exod. xix. 9.
[4231] Ps. xliii. 4.
[4232] Job ii. 7. In the ms. Jesus is written by mistake for Job.
[4233] Ps. ci. 6; Rom. xiv. 1.
[4234] Cf. Letter xi. sub. init.
[4235] The Syriac is was persecuted'--which supplies no good sense.
[4236] Ps. ii. 1; Deut. xxviii. 66.
[4237] Ps. xviii. 45; Is. i. 2.
[4238] Ezek. xvi. 48, cf. Lam. iv. 6.
[4239] The reference is to 2 Kings vi. 13-17, though the wilderness' agrees better with the history of Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 4-8.
[4240] Luke xvi. 19.
[4241] John vi. 51.
[4242] i.e. Arians. See Index to this vol. s.v.
[4243] 1 Pet. ii. 23; Isa. l. 6.
[4244] Cf. Pseudo-Ath. de Pass. et Cruc. 19.
[4245] 1 Cor. xi. 1.
[4246] Rom. viii. 38, 39.
[4247] Phil. iv. 13; Rom. viii. 37.
[4248] Rom. vi. 9, 14, cf. de Pass. et Cruc. 11.
[4249] The Syriac mistranslates Arius and Manetes.
[4250] Ps. xliii. 3, lxxx. 7.
[4251] Cf. Orat. i. 35; ii. 6, and notes there.
[4252] Cf. supr. p. 70.
[4253] i.e. the Arians.
[4254] Syr. chiton. The words translated rend' and seamless' are cognate in the Syriac, and answer to schizein and its derivatives.
[4255] The Arians were thence called Diatomitai. Vid. Damascen. de hæresib. apud Cotel. eccles. Gr. monum. p. 298.
[4256] John xiv. 11.
[4257] 1 Cor. v. 7.
[4258] Ps. cxxiv. 6.
[4259] Cf. Esth. iii. 9; ix. 21; Letter iv. p. 32.
Letter XI.--For 339. Coss. Constantius Augustus II, Constans I; Præfect, Philagrius the Cappadocian, for the second time; Indict. xii; Easter-day xvii Kal. Mai, xx Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 55.
The blessed Paul, being girt about with every virtue [4260] , and called faithful of the Lord--for he was conscious of nothing in himself but what was a virtue and a praise [4261] , or what was in harmony with love and godliness--clave to these things more and more, and was carried up even to heavenly places, and was borne to Paradise [4262] ; to the end that, as he surpassed the conversation of men, he should be exalted above men. And when he descended, he preached to every man; We know in part, and we prophesy in part; here I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known [4263] .' For, in truth, he was known to those saints who are in heaven, as their fellow-citizen [4264] . And in relation to all that is future and perfect, the things known by him here were in part; but with respect to those things which were committed and entrusted to him by the Lord, he was perfect; as he said, We who are perfect, should be thus minded [4265] .' For as the Gospel of Christ is the fulfilment and accomplishment of the ministration which was supplied by the law of Israel, so future things will be the accomplishment of such as now exist, the Gospel being then fulfilled, and the faithful receiving those things which, not seeing now, they yet hope for, as Paul saith; For what a man seeth, why doth he also hope for? But if we hope for those things we see [not], we then by patience wait for them [4266] .' Since then that blessed man was of such a character, and apostolic grace was committed to him, he wrote, wishing that all men should be as he was [4267] .' For virtue is philanthropic [4268] , and great is the company of the kingdom of heaven, for thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads there serve the Lord. And though a man enters it through a strait and narrow way, yet having entered, he beholds immeasurable space, and a place greater than any other, as they declare, who were eye-witnesses and heirs of these things. Thou didst place afflictions before us.' But afterwards, having related their afflictions, they say, Thou broughtest us forth into a wide place;' and again, In affliction Thou hast enlarged us [4269] .' For truly, my brethren, the course of the saints here is straitened; since they either toil painfully through longing for those things which are to come, as he who said, Woe is me that my pilgrimage is prolonged [4270] ;' or they are distressed and spent for the salvation of other men, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, saying, Lest, when I come to you, God should humble me, and I should bewail many of those who have sinned already, and not repented for the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed [4271] .' As Samuel bewailed the destruction of Saul, and Jeremiah wept for the captivity of the people. But after this affliction, and sorrow, and sighing, when they depart from this world, a certain divine gladness, and pleasure, and exultation receives them, from which misery and sorrow, and sighing, flee away.