Monothelites? And truly, who were the heretics, either in the time of Athanasius or even before, who disputed so explicitly about one operation and one will in Christ, that it would devolve upon Athanasius to refute them with such an exact definition? Thus it is altogether plain and clear that the author is convicted by his own words of having written this after the rise of the Monothelite heresy.
VIII. Wherefore, it is incumbent upon me to sing a palinode, in that I said in my notes to the Roman Martyrology that this homily should be ascribed to Cyril of Alexandria rather than to Athanasius; since it can only be rightly ascribed to an author who lived after the emergence of the Monothelite heresy; so far am I from conceding that it should be attributed to Athanasius. But if there is any room for conjecture in these uncertain matters, I would say that, by reason of the similarity of the name, it is a writing of Anastasius rather than Athanasius—that Anastasius, I mean, the bishop of Antioch, most illustrious in holiness and erudition, of whose noble genius several monuments survive. These things indeed, which have been said concerning Athanasius, I do not believe I am asserting to the detriment of the Church; for she does not suffer loss from these things, she who, being the pillar and foundation of truth, is far from seeking, like the crow of Aesop, borrowed plumes, when the simple truth shines more beautifully in its own nakedness. Fare thee well, brother, and accept these letters as witnesses of my defense, and as pledges of my benevolence and esteem toward you. Rome, the Kalends of November, in the year of our Lord 1592. CÆSAR BARONIUS.
OF OUR HOLY FATHER ATHANASIUS
A Sermon on the Annunciation of our all-holy Lady, the Theotokos.
S. P. N. ATHANASII
Sermon on the Annunciation of our most holy Lady, the Mother of God.
A 1. We must not look to the weakness of the hearers; but rather to the required power, argument, and cause, which, keeping before our eyes, it is fitting to make a conjecture concerning the preaching. Wherefore, even now, as we prepare for the preaching of the divine Gospel concerning the Theotokos and Mother of God, and are about to proclaim this for the gathering of the feast, it is necessary, according to the argument and cause of the unbodied and super-deity Trinity, to set forth the incarnation of one of the Holy Trinity. For if the things concerning the Trinity are not distinguished beforehand, how shall we proceed to the things concerning the One who was incarnate? Therefore, it is necessary, having traced the discourse from that source, to pass on to the things concerning the incarnation, and thus to listen to the things concerning the annunciation. And, first, we must remind ourselves B that one of the Lord’s feasts, the first and most august, existing according to the order and arrangement of the facts in the preaching regarding Christ, is called the holy day of the divine Annunciation, which establishes the preaching concerning the descent of the Son of God from heaven. For we believe Him to have descended from heaven, just as we confess Him to have ascended. It is necessary, therefore, having taken up the divine preaching, to begin from that place from which the things being said can also be distinguished.
2. We believe, therefore, in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a Trinity of hypostases, having the distinction indissoluble, and the union unconfused. For we do not confess the distinction of the three holy, sovereign hypostases according to local separation, nor an C union that is confusing; but we confess an indissoluble distinction and an unconfused union, one name which is God, having in one unity of essence.
A We acknowledge God in the Trinity of persons, assigning that which is without beginning and without time to each of the three holy hierarchic hypostases, according to their characteristic property: in the Father, the unbegotten; in the Son, the begotten; in the Spirit, the proceeding. We glorify the Father as without beginning and without time, we proclaim the Son as without beginning and without time, and we acknowledge the Holy Spirit as without beginning and without time. We do not place the Father before the Son and the Spirit, but we worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together, according to one supersubstantial unity of existence that is devoid of beginning and time. We believe in and truly glorify one God in three properties, not as though the Father were a God existing previously, the Son a God introduced later, and the Holy Spirit a God thought of subsequently—according to the blasphemies of the heretics—but we teach B that there is one God in three hypostases, holding one substance, power, and efficacy, and whatever else is considered regarding the substance is theologically taught and celebrated.
3. And that we may give a rule to the discourse, as well as the fullness and consummation that is taught theologically, let us hold fast. And what are these, and with what are they concerned? Let us hear in turn: that what is uncreated, incorporeal, without time and without beginning, sempiternal, unceasing, infinite, eternal, unknown, ineffable, without figure, unsearchable; that he is called the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, the omnipotent, the maker, the creator, the light, the life, the holy, the good, the immortal, the strong, the all-powerful, and whatever other things are spoken by way of excellence and etiology—these are not called substance in each instance, but are about the substance; as we have learned those things which are divided have the relation to one from two C or more, which are called the coalition and fullness of deity according to Scripture; not because they are referred to the one substance of the one, but because they are equally viewed and taught in each of the three holy persons. Wherefore the only-begotten God himself says: "All things that the Father has are mine" (John XVI, 15). And saying to the Father: "All mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them" (John XVII, 10). For in all things in which the Father is theologically glorified, in the same is the Son glorified, and the Holy Spirit. D And hence the Father is called perfect God, and the Son is called perfect God, and the Holy Spirit is called perfect God. Since nothing of the fullness regarding the deity is lacking to each one; but each has the equality of all those properties, by which the fullness of the deity is equally recognized. For from the derivation of "the equal," "Isia" (equality) is said, by a feminine ending, which is the comprehensive grasp of the equality of many. For in those for whom there is an equal substance, and differing properties, they are called "Isia," just as they are also called "Hosia" (holy) and one. And since "Isia" is used according to etymology, by the turning of the i
A i into o, and then by the addition of the letter u, "ousia" (substance) is explained, as being a certain constitutive existence of things which from many possess a single unit as their sum. And thus, looking unto man, who was made according to the image of God, we define that the constitution of the properties concerning him, according to his existence, is called *ousia* (substance), as being a comprehension and encompassing of the many, possessing their sum in one. For the fact that man is created, that he is intelligent, rational, animate, corporal, passible, fluid, temporal, mortal, begotten, corruptible, capable of growth, mutable, prone to change, B liable to sorrow, and whatever other things of this kind are perceived with equal weight and consideration in man—these are called "Isia" (equality), and by the change and addition of letters, he is termed *ousia* (substance), and from this the fullness of humanity is interpreted, which completes the sum of it, according to its unitary system.
4. In these things we note that none of these properties which coalesce in man are called *ousia* (substance) according to themselves. Nor is any of these called *hypostasis* (subsistence); but commonly, as gathered absolutely upon all, the sum of the properties concerning man is called *ousia*; but strictly, and in the case of one, it is called *hypostasis*. When, therefore, these things are viewed commonly upon many, it is named *ousia*; but when they are gathered strictly upon one, it is named *hypostasis*. And just as again, looking unto man who was made according to C the image and likeness of God, we perceive him at once as mind, word, and spirit, and none of these things is prior or posterior, but they consist together, and though one is spoken of, a trinity is understood; just as we conceive the mind as unbegotten, but the word as begotten, and this as being stained with ink, and written, and sent at a time; D so also in the God of all: the Father as mind unbegotten, and the Son as the Word begotten, and this one being sent according to the time of the good pleasure of the Father’s will—not as a word uttered according to time and season, begotten for a need, but as hypostatic, and being this in substance just as he has been begotten. For having been begotten once from the Father, he is *hypostasis*, having an indissoluble standing, by which he is also by nature. For *hypostasis* is interpreted according to etymology as *sub-existence*. For indeed, as the Father is mind, as the cause of the begotten, he has the Son as begotten within himself. Wherefore the evangelist, in place of this word, wrote "with," saying: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Therefore, it is equivalent, and returns to one and the same signification, both the "sub" and the "with," when added to the name according to the preposition.
A 5. Hypostasis, therefore, is the Son, having existence as if under the Father, and not being without the Father, but always existing towards the Father; and having no other will apart from the Father, nor indeed any other power, nor any other operation, as he has no other substance, but the Son himself also possesses all things, whatever the Father has; he is consubstantial with the Father and the Spirit. This one, according to the ancient and true counsel of the Father, as the Angel of the great counsel, the wonderful Counselor, who formerly, as the Word of the Father, spoke in many ways and in various manners to the fathers in the prophets, in these last days spoke to us, having become incarnate and made man; who, as it says, also made the ages: not that he entrusted his providence to some monstrous gods, as the heathens say, but the Son himself, by the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, received the entire providence of things. Since, demonstrating the communion of one and the same providence and operation, he says: "My Father works until now, and I work" (John 5:17). For the Father and the Son do not work according to one providence and another, but according to one and the same substantial operation of the divinity. "Who being" (as that herald also says) "the splendor of his glory and the stamp of his substance" (and it is clear, also of the Father's), and "upholding all things by the word of his power, having made purification of our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3). B Returning, however, the discourse again falls into the same thought, considering, that is, the splendor, as a ray risen from the whole sun, as if it were to rise from a disk containing the whole sun, having an indistinguishable brightness; and the figure, as being the manifestation of that substance through which it is figured.
8. For just as the character impressed by a signet ring has the same express image, which is also called a seal, and which in its substance is not lacking in anything; so also the Son bears the same character as the Father. For the character being impressed does not vary, but remains invariable, according to the figure that is in the ring, whether it be expressed in wax or in gold, by reason of the royal denarius; and thus the divine figure of the Son is the invariable seal of the substance of the Father; and bearing all things by the word of his power, according to that same proper character of his, he took unto himself flesh as if it were wax, C and sealed it in himself (a thing which is certainly neither impossible nor incredible); so that at the time of the paternal will, as character (since he is indeed character), he might express the Incarnation in himself, having used that as if it were wax or gold, since the whole mystery of that ineffable and inexplicable Incarnation shines forth. For that also remains even now ineffable and unutterable, by reason of the growth, since we hand down doctrines by certain steps, and not at one moment
A total impression. For as regards a seal, the image can be transferred at once both before long and in many waxes; but in the divine Incarnation, it is not at once, but by growth that the perfect [reality] is taught. This matter may be understood, if one is endowed with subtlety of mind, and can penetrate deeply to the animal body newly sown, and there contemplate the ineffable and inexplicable thing, namely, how the fecund seed having fallen therein, it immediately coalesces into a certain particle, and little by little and by accretion receives its growth. For neither can this even be described among us, but by imagining, something is perceived, yet ineffably and unutterably. And so the divine Incarnation of the Word occurs with a certain increment, not that the divine character is increased or grows together, but that the animate flesh grows according to the whole fullness, by which a human being is proper to its nature and is carried in the womb. For this reason, by the law of human gestation, He is carried for the space of nine months, and hence the Incarnation of Christ is taught to have the hypostasis of God, and in no wise that of a man: since the human form received its standing according to the divine character, according to a union [analagous] as it were to that of spirit to soul. For in this way Christ is two and not one, and is one and not two; and is two and not one according to the two natures, and one and not two according to the one hypostasis. Wherefore we speak of two wills, and not two willing subjects, and two operations, and not two agents. But one willer according to the one hypostasis, yet two wills and two operations, according to the distinction of the natures. C
7. In these things, therefore, declaring the mystery of the Incarnation and becoming-man, we cast away the blasphemies of the heretics, whom we leave immersed in their own errors, and we proceed to the history recorded by the Evangelist concerning the Annunciation of the Theotokos and Mother of God; and we shall hear more explicitly how the order of events stands. We note, therefore, that at the time of the good pleasure of the paternal will, at the completion of the seventy weeks of Daniel the prophet, after the rebuilding of Jerusalem, at the return of Judah from the Babylonian captivity, through Salathiel and Jesus the son of Josedec, then priests, at the completion of four hundred and ninety years, according to the succession of his priesthood, Zacharias entered into the temple of God to offer incense; and an angel of the Lord appeared to him on the right side of the altar, and announced to him concerning John his son, how his wife Elizabeth would conceive, and would bring forth the Baptist and forerunner of Christ. And indeed, the conception having taken place, in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, the archangel Gabriel is sent by God to the city of Nazareth in Galilee to the Virgin Mary. And the angel having entered to her, saluted her, saying: D "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." Even here we observe that the voice of the angel, according to the utterance of his spirit, has a meaning, yet it is not itself
the hypostasis of the Son, nor did it itself become flesh; but at the time of that voice, another and distinct reality according to hypostasis, namely the Word and God, came down simultaneously into the womb of the Virgin. And they blaspheme who say that A this voice of the archangel was the hypostasis of God the Word. Therefore, we have marked this passage, rejecting the condemnation of such blasphemy.
8. Since, therefore, the hypostasis of the Word and Son of God was distinct from the voice of the archangel, once the ears of the Virgin had been opened by the archangelic voice, the divine hypostasis of the Son at once entered into her. By what manner, however, not even the Virgin herself perceived; but He who entered knows the manner in which He entered. Wherefore, as one ignorant of the outcome of the mystery, she was at once troubled at the speech of the angel who said: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee," and she considered what manner of salutation this might be. Whence the archangel, taking up the word, said to her: "Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." B To these words likewise the Virgin stood hesitating, inasmuch as she was looking to nature and reflecting upon Joseph, to whom she was betrothed, and she replies to the angel, saying: "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" "Since," she says, "O angel, I know not a man, and thou, by that demonstrative adverb 'behold,' sayest, 'Behold, thou shalt conceive,' as if the time were present, I do not know how it shall be. But tell me, O angel, and interpret, how shall this be?" And the angel, answering, said to her: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." "This," he says, "is the manner of the conception: thus shalt thou conceive in the womb, the Holy Spirit coming upon thee and the power of the Highest overshadowing thee. Therefore," he says, "that which is born, being holy, shall be called the Son of the Highest." But she, still hesitating, yet desiring it for herself, says: "Be it unto me according to thy word." And the angel departed from her. For the evangelist indicates C that the angel departed from her, so that he might leave no occasion for those who would wish to say that the angel himself dwelt in the Virgin and became incarnate, or that the word of his voice, according to the utterance of sound, effected the Incarnation; but rather that, the angel having departed, the Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin and the power of the Highest overshadowed her; and thus, finally, was the holy birth accomplished. Concerning which it is again necessary to insist and to examine in what manner it was said to the Virgin: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." Does this mean in the same way D as Christ said to the apostles, "But stay you in the city of Jerusalem, until
you be endued with power from on high," and "the Holy Spirit coming upon you"? For the promise is consistent, and it can be received in the same way, since here too it is said that the power of the Highest shall come upon the apostles, and there shall be the presence of the Holy Spirit. What then? Is the Spirit and the power of the Highest promised to the Virgin just as it was to the apostles?
9. But if, as in the apostles, the power of the Highest and the coming of the Spirit took place, and yet in the apostles no incarnation followed, it is clear that B neither in the Virgin was the power incarnate, nor did the Spirit become man, even if the Son himself is called the power of the Highest according to the common usage of theology. But just as the power came upon the apostles so that they might have strength against every hostile power, and the coming of the Spirit was according to all things that are substantially in Him, working in all signs and wonders and powers for the confirmation and assurance of Christ's promise; so too in the Virgin the coming of the Spirit took place, bestowing grace according to all that is substantially present in Him according to His sovereign divinity, so that she might rejoice in all things. For indeed it was for this reason that she was called "full of grace," because she was filled with all the graces that come through the Spirit; and that the power of the Highest overshadowed her, and that she had it at every time during her conception, and I believe, even after the conception. For I do not think that this came to pass in the Virgin for a time only, but at every time—both then, and now, and forever does the Virgin have the power of the Highest overshadowing her, and the coming of the Holy Spirit descending upon her, so that she may remain "full of grace." For this is how we think about this matter: all things were full of grace in her through the Spirit and the power of the Highest; and not, as the heretics say, that some operation was performed by the Spirit in the Virgin for the sake of completing the incarnation. For even if it was without seed, we do not say that flesh was formed around the proper hypostasis of the Son of God by the division of the gifts of the Spirit, who distributes them individually as He wills—far be it! For such an opinion is that of Paul of Samosata and the rest of the heretics; but we speak thus according to the purity of the orthodox dogmas: that the Virgin was filled with C power and the Holy Spirit, yet this was for the sanctification of her flesh, and so that she might be able to bear the saving fetus. In this way, therefore, the divine hypostasis of the Word, dwelling in the Virgin, was incarnate and assumed humanity: not by power and operation, but by hypostasis, according to the whole fullness of the Divinity, the very hypostasis of the Son of God—who is God from the beginning and before the beginning—was incarnate and assumed humanity. For it was proven above that just as substance, authority, and kingdom, and all other things which are added to these in theology, are all said not to be a hypostasis, but are interpreted as pertaining particularly to the hypostasis according to substance; so also operation and power are referred substantially to the hypostasis, and in common, indeed, to each of the three holy divine hypostases, but properly also to the one hypostasis of the Son of God, who was incarnate and made man.
A 10. The Holy Spirit came upon the B Virgin and sanctified her, as the Spirit says in the Psalms: "The Most High hath sanctified his tabernacle" [Ps. XLV, 5], and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, strengthening her and bringing about the manifestation of a divine shadow, so that from this [shadow], being formed, she might be able to see—insofar as she was able to see—God, who is without form, being gestated within her. For one must not suppose that the Virgin was able to see God dwelling within her according to any simple property of nature (since not even the incarnate soul itself, rational and intellectual, could see that); but [she saw him] according to her capacity, as the power of the Most High overshadowed her and, as it were, provided a shadow for the seeing of the indwelling God. And just as we ourselves, having a soul dwelling within our flesh, cannot see the soul as it is in itself, but rather see as it were certain shadows and figures [derived] from its powers and operations, such also the Virgin, and the rational and intellectual soul itself, was able to see, and even now is able, through the faculties and powers given to it.
And according to this reason, rather, the matter should be treated: that God made man, and in the image of God he made him. For God made man according to the image and likeness of this very kind of incarnation and assumed humanity, C so that, bearing within himself that image and likeness, he might not doubt concerning this kind of incarnation and assumed humanity; for we proclaim the incarnation and the assumed humanity—for we call it by this one double expression—and we preach not only the incarnation, but also the assumed humanity, lest it appear to the impious heretics that we preach an incarnation devoid of mind and reason; but by saying "incarnation" and "assumed humanity," we signify that we believe in both the flesh and in the rational and intelligent soul. Therefore, we do not fully accept those who say "one nature of God the Word incarnate," without adding "ensouled, rational, and intelligent," unless they explain and add the interpretation of the phrase to their dogmas. For that which was formerly said simply by some was subsequently led into a depraved meaning, as the heretics corrupted that expression.
11. The Virgin, having been sanctified by the advent of the Holy Spirit and strengthened by the power of the Most High, is pregnant and carries him who, according to his own hypostasis, is the Son of God, according to the one nature of his deity; and she brings him forth incarnate and made man according to the property of the two natures: D who is preached as [being] from two and in two, without confusion, without change, without division; not a God-bearing man, but a flesh-bearing God. For not—to say it again—as the heretics understand these things, but as has been said, according to the efficacy of the Spirit and the power of the Most High, the gestating of the womb that occurred in the Virgin [was] that of the God-bearing man, the one from the
A Virgin, and they taught that the man-bearing-God from the Virgin was gestated as the virtue and efficacy of God, which worked before Pharaoh and all the sons of Israel. Wherefore they also seize upon the words of the Prince of the Apostles preaching in the Acts concerning Christ, who indeed spoke rightly; but they interpret tortuously and maliciously, though he said: "Jesus the Nazarene, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit," they say of him that God formed a man in the womb of the Virgin without seed, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, and anointed him with the power of the Most High, as it is written, with the oil of gladness above his companions. And the Scripture called this one the Son of the Most High, by the same reasoning as it is said in the Psalms, with God addressing many: "I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High."
These and such things, as we refute the mind of the heretical dogmas, and desire to correct [it] through this present preaching, we say that Christ is not a God-bearing man, but God carrying flesh; for since he was God, he carried a man according to the B fullness of human nature—perfect God and perfect man, being one according to one hypostasis, and from two and in two natures. For this man, whom we say that [the Word] carried, him God and the Father by his own will, and by the operation of the Holy Spirit, the Son also working together in one operation, anointed with the Holy Spirit, granting to him all efficacy, and girded him with the power of the Most High, so that he might be able to withstand the onset of every opposing power, and work every healing among the people. Since he also deigned to be tempted by Satan, and endured every humiliation and poverty in his own flesh, just as that great and holy herald cries out, saying: "For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his C own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Therefore the Son of God, who descended into flesh, is himself called "made man," just as he says in another place: "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law."
12. And hence it should be noted that first the Son is sent by the Father, and then he is made of a woman; he is not first made, and then sent; but first he is sent, and then he is made of a woman. And with these apostolic sayings agree the prophets, who say that he himself, the Son, was sent. And first in Isaiah, hear the words of him who was sent: "I am the first, and I am to the ages, and my hand hath founded the earth, and my right hand hath established the heaven"; and after he runs through the D operations brought forth at various times, he adds: "And now the Lord hath sent me, and
his Spirit." A And by Zechariah he says: "Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Sion, for I am coming and will dwell in the midst of thee, and many nations shall flee unto the Lord in that day; and thou shalt know that the Lord hath sent me unto thee." From this, he himself, having been incarnate and become man, confesses it, saying: "I have been sent by the Father," and "The Father has sent me," testifying to the same things in many phrases. Therefore he was not sent as a man, but as God and Lord, the Son from the Lord the Father, just as that which says: "The Lord rained from the Lord," where "from the Lord" is placed; and also that which says: "The Lord said to my Lord." B Yet in these words he receives the throne of David, who is declared to be his father according to the flesh: "And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
13. You should understand the discourse and the doctrine established in this account: for heretics unsettle and scrutinize everything, and ask with hypocrisy: Whether that followed the incarnation of Christ, namely, that he received the throne of David his father, and reigned over the house of Jacob for ever. To whom we respond, that it must be considered with a certain observation, that when the angel said, "And the Lord shall give him the throne of David," he by no means added C words to confirm or corroborate; but said absolutely, "and he shall give." And from this, it is necessary to resolve the difficulty from those things which were fulfilled in reality and deed. For that word "shall give" was spoken in such a way that he transferred that kingdom, as Christ himself, speaking to the Jews, interpreted: "Therefore the kingdom shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." Therefore, having received the kingdom of David, Christ transferred it and gave it to the holy kings of the Christians, to turn them toward the house of Jacob, and to deliver it unto reproach and plunder. He reigns D over the Christians for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. For it shall not be left to another people according to the visions of Daniel the prophet; but they proclaim him, Christ, to be king, remaining until his second advent: at which time, when he has come, he shall remain king for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. For if, having been born of the Virgin, and having fulfilled all those things which pertain to the economy of death and the cross, after the resurrection he said: "All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth," he already reigned from that time on, and is proclaimed the King of Christians; just as at the beginning of prayers, summoning one another, they are accustomed to cry out, saying: "Come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King." And coming in his great and illustrious second advent, he himself shall remain king for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Inasmuch as he—
who was born of the Virgin is himself King, and he is the Lord God. Because of him, she who bore him is properly and truly proclaimed Queen, and Lady, and Theotokos. B
14. Hence it is fitting that we, looking towards her and towards the Son who was born of her, who is the Word made flesh, should say: "Now 'at your right hand stands the queen in clothing of gold, arrayed, variegated.'" For even as she was constituted a woman, Queen, and Lady, and Mother of God, according to her feminine form, so now as Queen standing at the right hand of her all-sovereign Son, she is celebrated in sacred words as being in the clothing of gold of incorruption and immortality, arrayed and variegated. She does not stand there according to a spiritual simplicity that is, as it were, without flesh and body; rather, she is arrayed according to her most holy flesh with incorruption and immortality, and variegated according to her most holy bones which support her flesh. For indeed it is from her flesh and from her bones, as if from the ancient Adam, that the new Adam modeled for himself the Incarnation as a rib, and bears it forever. And hence the new Eve, named Mother of Life, remains arrayed and variegated, as the first-fruits of the immortal life of all the living. Let us say, therefore, again and again, and always and for all time, looking towards this same King, Lord, and God, and towards the Queen herself, Lady and Theotokos, with the stirring of that spiritual contemplation of our intuitive eye: "The Queen has stood at your right hand in clothing of gold, arrayed, variegated." C
And now hear, daughter of David and Abraham, and incline your ear to our supplication, and do not forget your people, nor us who are your father's house. For we are your fathers by relation, and you are our daughter through your generation from us; and it is fitting for you, having become Mother of God, Queen, and Lady, and Mistress, by reason of the King, Lord, God, and Master born of you, to remember us, standing before him—to us terrible, but to you delightful—who bestows upon you all graces; whence you are called full of grace, as being full of all joy, on account of the advent of the Holy Spirit upon you. Therefore, we, the rich of the people, enriched with such good and spiritual contemplations, pray to your countenance and cry out to you: Remember us, most holy Virgin, who after birth remained a virgin, and grant us, in return for these small words, great gifts from the wealth of your graces, O full of grace: for which, as if for true and celebratory praises, a hymn is offered to you for an encomium, if there is any virtue, if there is any praise, by us and by all creation, to the full of grace, to the Lady, to the Mother of God and ark of sanctification. D
with a particular claim to praise, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, through us and the hymn of the whole creation, it is brought to you, O full of grace, O Lady 52, O Mother of God, and ark of the sanctification.
15. Behold, from the present time and from the beginning of day, as the first fruits of an encomium, the archangel has woven together for you, crying out: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you 59." All generations call you blessed. And first, all the celestial hierarchies of angels, and those that are above the earth, lifting up A their hierarchal hands, bless you who are blessed in the heavens and proclaimed blessed upon the earth. "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb 59." In such blessings, the first hierarchy of thrones, cherubim, and seraphim—who are called "the inflamed," and are said to be the fullness of the knowledge of God and the King—celebrates, saying: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is your womb, which bore God, and the breasts which he himself, as an infant, suckled." The second hierarchy of dominions, powers, and authorities, looking toward you, cries out, as having learned from the higher and previously initiated hierarchy: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is your womb, which contained God, and the breasts which nurtured God, having become an infant." Likewise, also the third hierarchy of principalities, angels, and archangels, B commanded and entrusted by God who sent them, as through one archangel, Gabriel, to celebrate the most manifest and all-encompassing hymn, is always crying out: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." Taught by these, we who are of the earthly hierarchy, bearing in our throat the exaltations of God, or having borrowed these same voices, exalt you, singing with a great and piercing voice: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." Intercede for us, O Lady and Mistress, Queen and Mother of God, because you are sprung from us, and He who was born of you, our God, bears flesh; to whom belongs glory and magnificence, and all honor, adoration, and thanksgiving, with his Father who is without beginning, and the holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ADMONITION ON THE SERMON CONCERNING THE CENSUS, OR THE DESCRIPTION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD
Lucas Holstenius thought this was by Athanasius; he suspects that that most inept dialogue between Joseph and the blessed Virgin, which is read in number 6, was added through the audacity of some interpolator; to whose opinion Lipomanus and Surius might perhaps seem to subscribe, who published this treatise in the *Lives of the Saints*, omitting the dialogue. But since that dialogue appears in all the manuscripts which it has been possible to inspect, some of which are about eight hundred years old, we judge that it was excised by Surius and Lipomanus themselves, as being ridiculous. Furthermore, even if this dialogue were intrusive, many other signs of spuriousness would remain. For, first of all, this little work greatly shrinks from that dignity of Athanasius and C the vigor of his style. Second, in proportion to the shortness of the leaflet, many unusual words appear here, such as that... [omitted Greek terms]. Item, number 7, after it has been said that the stable of Bethlehem bears the type of the Church, these words are read with a few things interposed: "The Virgin is the throne, the breasts are the mixing-bowls, the Incarnation is the veil, the cherubim are the fans, the Holy Spirit is the disk, the Father is the disk-cover." That these things are trifling, no one will deny; for who could endure that the Spirit be compared to a disk, and the Father to the cover of a disk, where angels function in the office of priests, and shepherds in the office of deacons, as is said in the same place? For these reasons, we judge that this homily ought to be adjudged away from Athanasius. We therefore subjoin the preface of Holstenius.