16. Be of good courage, O Jerusalem; the Lord will take away all thine iniquities [632] . The Lord will wash away the filth of His sons and of His daughters by the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning [633] . He will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be cleansed from all your sin [634] . Angels shall dance around you, and say, Who is this that cometh up in white array, leaning upon her beloved [635] ? For the soul that was formerly a slave has now adopted her Master Himself as her kinsman: and He accepting the unfeigned purpose will answer: Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair: thy teeth are like flocks of sheep new shorn, (because of the confession of a good conscience: and further) which have all of them twins [636] ; because of the twofold grace, I mean that which is perfected of water and of the Spirit [637] , or that which is announced by the Old and by the New Testament. And God grant that all of you when you have finished the course of the fast, may remember what I say, and bringing forth fruit in good works, may stand blameless beside the Spiritual Bridegroom, and obtain the remission of your sins from God; to whom with the Son and Holy Spirit be the glory for ever. Amen.
[566] Ps. xcvi. 11.
[567] The invisible or spiritual (noetos) hyssop is the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost in Baptism. Compare Ps. li. 7.
[568] S. Cyril here, and still more emphatically in xiii. 39, distinguishes the hyssop (John xix. 29) from the reed (Matt. xxvii. 48), implying that the sponge filled with vinegar was bound round with hyssop, and then fixed on a reed. Another opinion is that the reed itself was that of hyssop. See Dictionary of the Bible, "Hyssop."
[569] Is. xl. 3.
[570] somaton.
[571] So in § 15, the soul is regarded as a vessel for receiving grace.
[572] Matt. xxii. 12.
[573] Matt. xxv. 21.
[574] Cant. i. 4.
[575] Is. lxi. 10. Compare Cant. iii. 11: Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon, with the crown wherewith his mother hath crowned him in the day of his espousals. In the passage of Isaiah the bridegroom's crown is likened to the priestly mitre.
[576] Eph. v. 27.
[577] See Index, "Seal."
[578] Index, "White."
[579] bomois used of heathen altars only, in Septuagint and N.T.
[580] Both here and in xix. 7, Cyril speaks of things offered to idols just as S. Paul in 1 Cor. x. 20. The Benediction of the water of Baptism is found in the Apostolic Constitutions, vii. 43: "Look down from heaven, and sanctify this water, and give it grace and power, that so he that is to be baptized according to the command of Thy Christ, may be crucified with Him, and may die with Him, and be buried with Him, and may rise with him to the adoption which is in him, that he may be dead to sin and live to righteousness."
[581] Heb. x. 22.
[582] See the note on "the twofold grace perfected by water and the Spirit," at the end of this Lecture.
[583] John iii. 3.
[584] stele, Sept. A pillar of stone, bearing an inscription, was a common form of memorial among the Israelites and other ancient nations. See Dictionary of the Bible, "Pillar."
[585] Acts x. 48.
[586] S. Cyril considers that Cornelius and his friends were regenerated, as the Apostles were, apart from Baptism; as August. Serm. 269, n. 2, and Chrysost. in Act. Apost. Hom. 25, seem to do. R.W.C.
[587] Compare ix. 5.
[588] Gen. i. 2.
[589] Ephes. v. 26.
[590] Heb. ix. 19.
[591] Matt. xi. 13.
[592] Mark i. 1, 4.
[593] Matt. xi. 11.
[594] From the Clementine Recognitions, I. 54 and 60, we learn that there were some who asserted that John was the Christ, and not Jesus, inasmuch as Jesus Himself declared that John was greater than all men, and all Prophets. The answer is there given, that John was greater than all who are born of women, yet not greater than the Son of Man.
[595] The locust being winged suggest the idea of growing wings for the soul. Is. xl. 31: pterophuesousin hos aetoi.
[596] Jer. i. 5.
[597] Luke i. 44.
[598] Matt. iii. 5.
[599] Matt. iii. 6.
[600] Ib. iii. 7.
[601] The Greek word (hupostasis) is used by Polybius (xxxiv. 9) for the deposit of silver from crushed ore, and by Hippocrates for any sediment or deposit. Here it means, as the context clearly shews, the old skin cast by a snake. Compare ii. 5.
[602] Matt. vii. 13, 14.
[603] Col. iii. 9.
[604] Cant. v. 3. In the Song, this saying is an excuse for not rising from bed. S. Cyril applies it in a different way.
[605] Matt. iii. 10.
[606] Luke iii. 11.
[607] Matt. xxi. 31.
[608] 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.
[609] Matt. iii. 11.
[610] Acts ii. 2.
[611] Mark x. 38.
[612] 1 Cor. iv. 9.
[613] Heb. ii. 14.
[614] Job xl. 23.
[615] Ps. lxxiv. 14.
[616] Luke x. 19.
[617] Job xl. 26, in the Sept. in place of xli. 7: Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears? (A.V. and R.V.)
[618] Job xli. 13, Sept. but in R.V. xli. 22: And terror danceth before him.
[619] 1 Cor. xv. 55.
[620] Compare III. 3, and see Index, "Baptism."
[621] Rom. vi. 5.
[622] Rom. vi. 4. Instead of "might rise again" (Roe, Casaub. Mon.), the older Editions have "might raise thee up," which is less appropriate in this part of the sentence.
[623] 2 Cor. vi. 7.
[624] Matt. iv. 17.
[625] Luke iii. 22.
[626] John i. 33.
[627] Ib. i. 1.
[628] Rom. viii. 17.
[629] Acts ii. 37.
[630] Ib. iii. 15.
[631] Ib. ii. 58.
[632] Zeph. iii. 14, 15.
[633] Is. iv. 4.
[634] Ezek. xxxvi. 25.
[635] Cant. viii. 4, Gr. adelphidon, "brother," "kinsman."
[636] Ib. iv. 1, 2.
[637] The Fathers sometimes speak as if Baptism was primarily the Sacrament of remission of sins, and upon that came the gift of the Spirit, which notwithstanding was but begun in Baptism and completed in Confirmation. Vid. Tertullian. de Bapt. 7, 8, supr. i. 5 fin. Hence, as in the text, Baptism may be said to be made up of two gifts, Water, which is Christ's blood, and the Spirit. There is no real difference between this and the ordinary way of speaking on the subject;--Water, which conveys both gifts, is considered as a type of one especially,--conveys both remission of sins through Christ's blood and the grace of the Spirit, but is the type of one, viz. the blood of Christ, as the Oil in Confirmation is of the other. And again, remission of sins is a complete gift given at once, sanctification an increasing one. (R.W.C.) See Index, "Baptism."
Lecture IV.
On the Ten [638] Points of Doctrine.
Colossians ii. 8.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, &c.
1. Vice mimics virtue, and the tares strive to be thought wheat, growing like the wheat in appearance, but being detected by good judges from the taste. The devil also transfigures himself into an angel of light [639] ; not that he may reascend to where he was, for having made his heart hard as an anvil [640] , he has henceforth a will that cannot repent; but in order that he may envelope those who are living an Angelic life in a mist of blindness, and a pestilent condition of unbelief. Many wolves are going about in sheeps' clothing [641] , their clothing being that of sheep, not so their claws and teeth: but clad in their soft skin, and deceiving the innocent by their appearance, they shed upon them from their fangs the destructive poison of ungodliness. We have need therefore of divine grace, and of a sober mind, and of eyes that see, lest from eating tares as wheat we suffer harm from ignorance, and lest from taking the wolf to be a sheep we become his prey, and from supposing the destroying Devil to be a beneficent Angel we be devoured: for, as the Scripture saith, he goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour [642] . This is the cause of the Church's admonitions, the cause of the present instructions, and of the lessons which are read.
2. For the method of godliness consists of these two things, pious doctrines, and virtuous practice: and neither are the doctrines acceptable to God apart from good works, nor does God accept the works which are not perfected with pious doctrines. For what profit is it, to know well the doctrines concerning God, and yet to be a vile fornicator? And again, what profit is it, to be nobly temperate, and an impious blasphemer? A most precious possession therefore is the knowledge of doctrines: also there is need of a wakeful soul, since there are many that make spoil through philosophy and vain deceit [643] . The Greeks on the one hand draw men away by their smooth tongue, for honey droppeth from a harlot's lips [644] : whereas they of the Circumcision deceive those who come to them by means of the Divine Scriptures, which they miserably misinterpret though studying them from childhood to old age [645] , and growing old in ignorance. But the children of heretics, by their good words and smooth tongue, deceive the hearts of the innocent [646] , disguising with the name of Christ as it were with honey the poisoned arrows [647] of their impious doctrines: concerning all of whom together the Lord saith, Take heed lest any man mislead you [648] . This is the reason for the teaching of the Creed and for expositions upon it.
3. But before delivering you over to the Creed [649] , I think it is well to make use at present of a short summary of necessary doctrines; that the multitude of things to be spoken, and the long interval of the days of all this holy Lent, may not cause forgetfulness in the mind of the more simple among you; but that, having strewn some seeds now in a summary way, we may not forget the same when afterwards more widely tilled. But let those here present whose habit of mind is mature, and who have their senses already exercised to discern good and evil [650] , endure patiently to listen to things fitted rather for children, and to an introductory course, as it were, of milk: that at the same time both those who have need of the instruction may be benefited, and those who have the knowledge may rekindle the remembrance of things which they already know.
I. Of God.
4. First then let there be laid as a foundation in your soul the doctrine concerning God; that God is One, alone unbegotten, without beginning, change, or variation [651] ; neither begotten of another, nor having another to succeed Him in His life; who neither began to live in time, nor endeth ever: and that He is both good and just; that if ever thou hear a heretic say, that there is one God who is just, and another who is good [652] , thou mayest immediately remember, and discern the poisoned arrow of heresy. For some have impiously dared to divide the One God in their teaching: and some have said that one is the Creator and Lord of the soul, and another of the body [653] ; a doctrine at once absurd and impious. For how can a man become the one servant of two masters, when our Lord says in the Gospels, No man can serve two masters [654] ? There is then One Only God, the Maker both of souls and bodies: One the Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker of Angels and Archangels: of many the Creator, but of One only the Father before all ages,--of One only, His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom He made all things visible and invisible [655] .
5. This Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not circumscribed in any place [656] , nor is He less than the heaven; but the heavens are the works of His fingers [657] , and the whole earth is held in His grasp [658] : He is in all things and around all. Think not that the sun is brighter than He [659] , or equal to Him: for He who at first formed the sun must needs be incomparably greater and brighter. He foreknoweth the things that shall be, and is mightier than all, knowing all things and doing as He will; not being subject to any necessary sequence of events, nor to nativity, nor chance, nor fate; in all things perfect, and equally possessing every absolute form [660] of virtue, neither diminishing nor increasing, but in mode and conditions ever the same; who hath prepared punishment for sinners, and a crown for the righteous.