36. Yet He tries the soul. He casts not His pearls before swine; if thou play the hypocrite, though men baptize thee now, the Holy Spirit will not baptize thee [2235] . But if thou approach with faith, though men minister in what is seen, the Holy Ghost bestows that which is unseen. Thou art coming to a great trial, to a great muster [2236] , in that one hour, which if thou throw away, thy disaster is irretrievable; but if thou be counted worthy of the grace, thy soul will be enlightened, thou wilt receive a power which thou hadst not, thou wilt receive weapons terrible to the evil spirits; and if thou cast not away thine arms, but keep the Seal upon thy soul, no evil spirit will approach thee; for he will be cowed; for verily by the Spirit of God are the evil spirits cast out.
37. If thou believe, thou shalt not only receive remission of sins, but also do things which pass man's power [2237] . And mayest thou be worthy of the gift of prophecy also! For thou shalt receive grace according to the measure of thy capacity and not of my words; for I may possibly speak of but small things, yet thou mayest receive greater; since faith is a large affair [2238] . All thy life long will thy guardian the Comforter abide with thee; He will care for thee, as for his own soldier; for thy goings out, and thy comings in, and thy plotting foes. And He will give thee gifts of grace of every kind, if thou grieve Him not by sin; for it is written, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye were sealed unto the day of redemption [2239] . What then, beloved, is it to preserve grace? Be ye ready to receive grace, and when ye have received it, cast it not away.
38. And may the very God of All, who spake by the Holy Ghost through the prophets, who sent Him forth upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost in this place, Himself send Him forth at this time also upon you; and by Him keep us also, imparting His benefit in common to us all, that we may ever render up the fruits of the Holy Ghost, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance [2240] , in Christ Jesus our Lord:--By whom and with whom, together with the Holy Ghost, be glory to the Father, both now, and ever, and for ever and ever. Amen.
[2095] tais tes humeteras agapes akoais. Compare § 30, below: sungomen aito para tes humeteras agapes. Ignat. Philadelph. c. iv. (Long recension): tharron grapho te axiotheo agape humon. "Caritas" is constantly used in the same manner.
[2096] 1 Cor. ii. 13.
[2097] Cat. vi.
[2098] Ib. vii.
[2099] Ib. viii.
[2100] Ib. ix.
[2101] Cat. x. xi.
[2102] Ib. xii. xv.
[2103] 1 Cor. xii. 11.
[2104] Compare Basil. de Sp. Sancto, c. 38: "By the Father's will the ministering spirits subsist, and by the operation of the Son they are brought into existence, and by the presence of the Holy Ghost are perfected: and the perfection of Angels is sanctification and continuance therein."
[2105] 1 Cor. xii. 8.
[2106] John xvi. 13.
[2107] Ib. v. 7.
[2108] John xiv. 26.
[2109] Ib. vv. 16, 17.
[2110] Ib. xv. 26.
[2111] John i. 32.
[2112] Rom. viii. 14.
[2113] Matt. x. 20.
[2114] Eph. iii. 14-16.
[2115] Acts v. 9.
[2116] Rom. viii. 9.
[2117] Gal. iv. 6.
[2118] 1 Pet. i. 11.
[2119] Phil. i. 19.
[2120] Rom. i. 4.
[2121] Ib. viii. 15.
[2122] Eph. i. 17.
[2123] Ib. v. 13.
[2124] Heb. x. 29.
[2125] Cat. xvi. 28; Ps. cxliii. 10.
[2126] hegemoniko, Sept. Ps. li. 12: R.V. Uphold me with a free spirit.
[2127] Is. xi. 2.
[2128] Origen, in the Catena on St. John iii. 8: "This also shews that the Spirit is a Being (ousian): for He is not, as some suppose, an energy of God, having according to them no individuality of subsistence. And the Apostle also, after enumerating the gifts of the Spirit, immediately added, But all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally as He will. Now if He willeth and worketh and divideth, He is surely an energizing Being, but not an energy" (Suicer, Thesaurus, Pneuma).
[2129] enupostaton. Cf. Cat. xi. 10; xvi. 13, note 5.
[2130] Cat. iv. 16; xvi. 4.
[2131] Luke i. 35.
[2132] John i. 3.
[2133] Luke i. 35.
[2134] Luke i. 41.
[2135] Ib. v. 43.
[2136] Ib. v. 67.
[2137] Ib. v. 76.
[2138] Luke ii. 26-35.
[2139] Cat. iii. 6.
[2140] Matt. iii. 11.
[2141] Luke xii. 49.
[2142] John i. 33.
[2143] Matt. iii. 16.
[2144] tas aparchas kai ta proteia. The order is inverted in the translation. Cf. Hermas, Sim. viii. 7 echontes zelon tina en allelois peri proteion.
[2145] The Benedictine Editor adds the two last words tupon paradeloun from mss. Roe. Casaub. as necessary to the construction, and adds the following note. "The text thus emended is capable of two senses. The first, that the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, a pure and harmless bird, to shew that He is Himself as it were a mystic dove in His simplicity and love of children, for whose new birth and remission of sins at Baptism He unites His prayers with Christ's, as Cyril teaches in Cat. xvi. 20: and that Christ was for the like cause mystically foreshown in Canticles as having eyes like a dove's. The other sense is, that the Spirit descended in the form of a dove on Christ's Humanity in order to shew this to be as it were a dove in innocence, holiness, love of children, and concurrence with the Holy Spirit in their regeneration....Either sense is admissible, and maintained by many of the Fathers: but I prefer the former." This interpretation is confirmed by Tertullian (de Baptismo, c. viii.), who says that the Holy Spirit glided down on the Lord "in the shape of a dove" in order that the nature of the Holy Spirit might be declared by means of a creature of simplicity and innocence."
[2146] Cant. v. 12. epi pleromata hudaton (Sept.). The usual meaning of ophthalmophanos is "manifestly to the eyes," Esther viii. 13.
[2147] Tertullian, ibid. "Just as after the waters of the deluge, by which the old iniquity was purged--after the baptism, so to say, of the world--a dove was the herald which announced to the earth the assuagement of celestial wrath,....so to our flesh, as it emerges from the font after its old sins, flies the dove of the Holy Spirit, bringing us the peace of God, sent out from heaven where the Church is, the typified ark." Compare also Hippolytus, The Holy Theophany, §§ 8, 9, a treatise with which Cyril has much in common.
[2148] John iii. 5.
[2149] Luke xi. 13.
[2150] John iv. 23.
[2151] Matt. xii. 28.
[2152] Ib. v. 31.
[2153] John xiv. 16.
[2154] Ib. v. 25.
[2155] Ib. xv. 26.
[2156] Ib. xvi. 7.
[2157] Ib. v. 8.
[2158] Ib. v. 12-15.
[2159] John xx. 22.
[2160] Gen. ii. 7: and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Compare Cat. xiv. 10.
[2161] Nahum ii. 1. The Septuagint, followed by Cyril, differs widely from the Hebrew: (R.V.) He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face.
[2162] Luke xxiv. 39.
[2163] John xiv. 16.
[2164] Cat. iii. 7; xvi. 5. Bp. Pearson (Lectiones in Acta Apost. I. § 18): "Rightly said Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, All prerogatives are with us.' And the Emperor Justin called her Mother of the Christian name.' Jerome also (Ep. 17, 3), said: The whole mystery of our Faith is native of that province and city."
[2165] Acts i. 5.
[2166] Acts ii. 2.
[2167] Ib. v. 4.
[2168] Acts ii. 8.
[2169] John iii. 8: (R.V.) The wind bloweth: (Marg.) Or, The Spirit breatheth. It is impossible to preserve the double meaning in English.
[2170] Acts ii. 13.
[2171] Ib. v. 15.
[2172] Ps. xxxvi. 8.
[2173] John xv. 5.
[2174] Acts ii. 25, and 15.
[2175] Joel ii. 28.
[2176] John iii. 34, 35.
[2177] Joel ii. 29.
[2178] Is. xl. 9.
[2179] Acts ii. 42.
[2180] Ib. iii. 1.
[2181] Is. xxxv. 6.
[2182] Acts iv. 13.
[2183] Ib. v. 8.
[2184] Ib. v. 32.
[2185] Acts v. 12.
[2186] Ib. vv. 13-16.
[2187] Ib. v. 32.
[2188] Acts v. 42.
[2189] Ib. vi. 3.
[2190] Ib. v. 8. Stephanos, "a crown."
[2191] Ib. v. 10.
[2192] Ib. v. 15.
[2193] Ib. vii. 51.
[2194] Ib. v. 55.
[2195] Ib. viii. 5.
[2196] Ps. lxviii. 31.
[2197] Acts ix. 17.
[2198] Rom. xv. 19.
[2199] kleidouchos. Cf. Matt. xvi. 19; Cat. ii. 19; xi. 3.
[2200] Acts x. 11-16.
[2201] Ib. v. 19.
[2202] Ib. v. 44.
[2203] Ib. xi. 24.
[2204] Ib. v. 26. Cf. Is. lxv. 15.
[2205] Acts xi. 28.
[2206] Ib. xiii. 2-4.
[2207] Heb. x. 1.
[2208] Acts xv. 28, 29. epistole means a message or injunction whether verbal or written.
[2209] See note 1 on § 1, above.
[2210] Acts xix. 1-6.
[2211] Ib. v. 12.
[2212] Ib. v. 19.
[2213] Ib. xx. 9-12.
[2214] Ib. v. 23.
[2215] Ib. xxvi. 28. Cyril evidently understood en oligo to mean "almost" (A.V.): but the more correct rendering is, "In brief thou wouldest persuade me to become a Christian."
[2216] Ib. xxviii. 25.
[2217] 1 Cor. ii. 4.
[2218] 2 Cor. i. 22.
[2219] Rom. viii. 11.
[2220] 2 Tim. i. 14: (R.V.) by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.
[2221] 1 Tim. iv. 1.
[2222] Eph. iii. 5.
[2223] Heb. iii. 7.
[2224] Ib. x. 15.
[2225] Eph. vi. 17.
[2226] Ib. v. 18, 19.
[2227] 2 Cor. xiii. 14.
[2228] John iv. 24.
[2229] Lam. iv. 20. The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord: referring to the captive king.
[2230] John xiv. 25.
[2231] The distinct mention in the Creed of three Persons excludes the error of Sabellius in confusing them. Cf. Cat. iv. 8; xvi. 14.
[2232] Rom. xi. 20.
[2233] Cf. Bingham, Antiquities, II. xx. 9. "When Cyril directs his Catechumens how they should behave themselves at the time of Baptism, when they came either before a bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, in city or village,--this may be presumed a fair intimation that then deacons were ordinarily allowed to minister Baptism in country places." See further Of the power granted anciently to deacons to baptize,' Bingham, Lay Baptism, I. i. 5.
[2234] Eph. i. 13. Cf. Cat. i. 2, 3.
[2235] Cf. Procat. § 4: "The water will receive, but the Spirit will not accept thee."
[2236] stratologia. Cf. Cat. iii. 3, mellete stratologeisthai.
[2237] The same twofold grace is ascribed to Baptism in Cat. xiii. 23: "Thou receivest now remission of thy sins, and the gifts of the King's spiritual bounty."
[2238] pragmateia. Cf. 2 Tim. ii. 4; and Luke xix. 13: Trade (pragmateueothe) till I come.
[2239] Eph. iv. 30.
[2240] Gal. v. 22, 23.
Lecture XVIII.
On the Words, And in One Holy Catholic Church, and in the Resurrection of the Flesh, and the Life Everlasting.
Ezekiel xxxvii. 1
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.
1. The root of all good works is the hope of the Resurrection; for the expectation of the recompense nerves the soul to good works. For every labourer is ready to endure the toils, if he sees their reward in prospect; but when men weary themselves for nought, their heart soon sinks as well as their body. A soldier who expects a prize is ready for war, but no one is forward to die for a king who is indifferent about those who serve under him, and bestows no honours on their toils. In like manner every soul believing in a Resurrection is naturally careful of itself; but, disbelieving it, abandons itself to perdition. He who believes that his body shall remain to rise again, is careful of his robe, and defiles it not with fornication; but he who disbelieves the Resurrection, gives himself to fornication, and misuses his own body, as though it were not his own. Faith therefore in the Resurrection of the dead, is a great commandment and doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church; great and most necessary, though gainsaid by many, yet surely warranted by the truth. Greeks contradict it [2241] , Samaritans [2242] disbelieve it, heretics [2243] mutilate it; the contradiction is manifold, but the truth is uniform.
2. Now Greeks and Samaritans together argue against us thus. The dead man has fallen, and mouldered away, and is all turned into worms; and the worms have died also; such is the decay and destruction which has overtaken the body; how then is it to be raised? The shipwrecked have been devoured by fishes, which are themselves devoured. Of them who fight with wild beasts the very bones are ground to powder, and consumed by bears and lions. Vultures and ravens feed on the flesh of the unburied dead, and then fly away over all the world; whence then is the body to be collected? For of the fowls who have devoured it some may chance to die in India, some in Persia, some in the land of the Goths. Other men again are consumed by fire, and their very ashes scattered by rain or wind; whence is the body to be brought together again [2244] ?