and confession? For I say, "Watch, for you do not know the day nor the hour" (Matt. 24:42). But from this point on, do not sin, and do not, by forsaking me, be called an adulteress. And we, too, beseech you, "Be reconciled to God," and you, O virgin, say thus: "I will wash my hands among the innocent, and will compass thine altar, O Lord" (Ps. 25:6); because you have raised up the one lying fallen, you have brought to life the one dead, you have made the defiled one splendid, you have drawn out the one drowned in sin with the hook of piety, you have led back the one who had wandered, you have redeemed the captive, you have not taken vengeance on the one who offered insult, you have recalled the fugitive, you have washed the one stained with blood, you have recovered the one captured by pleasure as if by hunting, you have made a citizen of heaven out of one worthy of Tartarus, you have delivered from Gehenna, you have redeemed from the sword, you have loosed from chains, you have deemed worthy of eternal life, you have rescued from danger, you have put the devil to shame, you have torn up the bond. O husbandman of goodly tears! What is more splendid than these miracles? Gather together, therefore, all you who have fallen into the danger of such a shipwreck; know, learn, be instructed, that the fruit of sin is death, but the fruit of the Spirit is life, peace, and sanctification. Whoever, therefore, wishes now and always to escape this death, receive all these words as an argument for salvation, and let all meditate on this always, but especially the monks and virgins, who have consecrated your bodies to the Lord; "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). For the concupiscence of the flesh has brought forth the fruit of sin, which is death; but the fruit of the Spirit is eternal life, incorruption, sanctification, and peace of soul and body. Wherefore let this be known to all of you, that no virtue is more precious than virginity for every sprout of piety; but also that nothing similar to this can be found, if that monk or virgin does not commit fornication in their mind: for the consent of the thoughts completes the whole act. For he is not a liar who said: "Everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:28). For no distinction is made between the male and the female; for we are all from the same lump, as the Gospel says, when it states that the will of man and the will of the flesh are the same thing (John 1:13). Therefore, it behooves A the virgin of Christ to keep herself entirely with an immaculate heart and incorrupt for her spouse as for Christ the Creator, and to look with the eyes of her mind upon Him who is "fairer in form than the children of men": to avert oneself from any idle word that is not for edification: not to consort freely with men, especially if they are immodest. But if business must be done concerning the utility of the soul, modest and temperate men are not to be repelled. One must not act with excessive familiarity nor linger; one must not converse with immodest women; let no oath proceed from your mouth: for it is a commandment of the Lord that it is not even permitted to swear by your head: "Everything," he says, "which is more than Yea and Nay, is from evil" (Matt. 5:37). Sordid and dishonest thoughts and all temptations of the flesh are to be driven away by the fear and love of Christ and by the sign of His cross. Behold, parents and mothers, brothers and sisters and children, and all things, I have commended to you, namely to the monks and virgins. Keep these things, and you shall not fall; but you also shall be worthy, who are declared the heirs of Christ, of all which goods, which have been prepared, may the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation make us worthy, by the grace, mercies, and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father be glory, honor, and adoration with the most holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. B
MONITUM IN SERMONEM SEQUENTEM
What Chrysostom often pursues in his writings clearly, sharply, and lucidly in his own manner against the Arians and Anomoeans, this writer, whoever he may be, treats in a confusing way; he attacks Arius and the Arians; in many places so obscurely, that we have sometimes been forced to translate them into Latin by conjecture.AGAINST THE HERETICS
A Seeing you as dancers of piety and soldiers, I now propose to your ears the sweetness of moral matters for you as dancers, and now the dogmatic severity as if a trumpet blast, a voice for soldiers. For the structure of piety is composed of both: moral matters filling out the order of the body, and the coupling of doctrines arranged in the dignity of the soul. For just as when the soul is separated from the body, the structure of the limbs is useless, even if it be praised; so too is the beauty of moral virtue dead, if it is not quickened by the power of doctrines. For what profit is there in having been taught to be temperate in conduct, when he who is temperate is ignorant of the Judge of temperance? What is the gain of almsgiving, when the Judge who is set at naught by the almsgiving is indignant? What benefit will there be to soldiers, who display a great performance of good deeds, but are enemies to the King? B It is a useless advantage of virtues to use them not, with the correctness of doctrines not being rooted [underneath]. For it is necessary that fruits come forth from a root, and that the sinews of the virtues originate from the Head. Hanging as we do from this [Head], and weaving together with it the limbs of our actions, we complete the whole body of piety, tightening our hold upon Christ, the Head of the body. For He is, he says, the Head of the body of the Church; whom the heretics have deemed unworthy to have as Head. It is, therefore, worthy of prayer that those who are called Christians should not have been crazed against Christ. But now, one must even know grace toward them for their madness, because they make us wakeful by their raging, because they incite us to a desirable battle. For I love a battle better than peace, I love a war more blessed than charity; I love to carry my opinion, which is puffed up by Christ against the Greeks, but which is also in sedition among us, because we exalt Christ. For Arius was like this: whenever he speaks to Greeks, he speaks grandly of Christ; but whenever he discourses with us, he speaks against Christ. Eunomius is like this: whenever he condemns Hellenism, he denounces deification; but whenever he speaks to us, he establishes the making of a god. For it is a species of deification to say that the God Word is a created god and a creature made to be worshipped. What are you doing, you blind heretic? You are introducing what you destroyed, constructing Christ, and you are planting what you tore up in thought—the deification of creatures, the worship of creatures, as [something even] greater. Do not harm the nobility of Christianity; do not make it a kinsman of Hellenism; for the worship of a creature, even if the thing worshipped be greater or smaller as a creature, is a brother to Greek worship. For Paul does not blame the Greeks because they worshipped in a small way, but because they worshipped the creature at all, rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25). For to worship a creature, both in small and in great, is of equal power; or rather, the heretic is more grievous to the divine nature than the Greeks. For he who calls the creature God is not as much an insulter toward the divine as he who names God a creature. For the one, deifying the creature, seems to clothe a slave in kingly purple; but the other, introducing God as a creature, forces the divine to [act as a] private person. The Greek indeed suspects the divine, but worships it in every way; Arius, however, does not revere it, nor does he bear the good fame of God. He does not deny that we should revere and worship Christ, but he is pained when He is honored with the highest honors. If someone says "uncreated," they were straightway angered; if "masterless," they were distressed; if "sharer of the ancestral dignity," they were provoked as if by a greater blow; if "autonomous giver of gifts," even at this they gnash their teeth; having the appellation of Christians, but the intent of Christ-haters. Consider, Arius, what sovereignty you are setting at naught; hear Him ordering matters with kingly power to others: I will give you, He says, the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matth. 16:19); and, Today you will be with me in paradise (Luc. 23:43). You, having left the tax office, follow Me; You, do not fear, but speak, because I am with you; I say to you, leper, be cleansed (Matth. 9:9 and 8:3); You, having run, wash yourself in Siloam, and receive sight (Joan. 9:7); You, paralytic, your sins are forgiven (Matth. 9:2 and 4:19); You, sea, be silent, be muzzled; You, come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men; You, loosen this temple, and in three days I will raise it (Joan. 2:19); You, make disciples of all nations, and lo, I am with you always even unto the consummation of the age (Matth. 28:19, 20). He said nothing of these: "The Father will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; the Father will lead you into paradise; you, leper, by the will of the Father be cleansed; you, from the Father, command the sea: Be silent, be muzzled; you, come after Me, and the Father will make you fishers of men"; but the statements are from an authoritative power. But if anywhere the words of the authority are more modest, C as in the "I thank You, Father, that You have heard Me," He adds the cause of the natural [relationship]; "For the sake of the crowd," He says, "that stands around I said it, that they might believe that You sent Me" (Joan. 11:41, 42); but those who gaped at Him crowned every high word toward Him. A centurion approached concerning his boy, raising Him up in praises with as much power as he had; for, "Lord," he says, "I am not sufficient that You should enter under my roof, but say the word only, and my boy will be healed"; and He, being applauded, received the gift. For "Amen," He says, "I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. But go, and as you believed, so be it done to you" (Matth. 8:8, 10, 13). Again, a certain woman with a flow of blood, bringing honor of doxology to the Lord's garment—to say nothing of the Divinity itself—was receiving the gift with praises. And the thief was honored in paradise, because he had called the one being crucified King. Greater faith than this is owed by us to the Master Christ, by as much as we have partaken of greater knowledge. Let it be, however, Arius, let there be at least similar words. Do you not wish me to think anything higher of Christ than what was said before? The opinion is evil, but stop at this. Why do you dictate even lower words to those who call upon Him? I have the words of those then as characters for prayer. I do not say to Christ, "Lord, remember me in Your ministry," but I say the voice through which the thief was heard: "Lord, remember me in Your kingdom" (Luc. 23:42). I do not say to the God Word, "Lord, assistant of the gifts of the Father"; for the centurion does not allow me, crying out that, "Lord, say the word only, and my boy will be healed." I do not say to Him, "Lord, if You ask of the Father, I will be saved"; for, Arius, I do not offer to the Divinity a faith smaller than a woman's. Thus I call the Son, as He rejoices to be called; I approach with such words as those with which they approached Him and returned having obtained [their requests]. But if the thief and the woman and the faithful soldier are unacceptable for the teaching of faith, be ashamed at least of the chorus of the apostles, where it was necessary to invoke Christ for gifts beyond nature. By saying what does Peter raise the paralytic? "Aeneas," he says, "Jesus Christ heals you" (Act. 9:34); and again, working another healing, "There is no," he says, "salvation in any other name" (Act. 4:15). By saying what did Ananias heal Paul? "Saul, brother, the Lord Jesus sent me, who appeared to you in the way, so that you might receive sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit" (Act. 9:17). Whose power did Paul pray for himself? "Most gladly," he says, "will I boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9). For what did James and John entreat *against* the punishment of the Samaritans? "Lord," he says, "do You will that we tell fire to descend from heaven, and consume them?" (Luc. 9:54). And the chorus of angels, what did it deliver to men concerning Him? "He himself," it says, "will save His people from their sins" (Matth. 1:21). And these things are less than the worth. For there is no hymn, not one lifting up the Son, not one equalizing, but as much as you might advance with praises, as much glory as you might contrive with words, you will shout, being defeated, with David: "What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me?" But if, Arius, the voice of honor surpassing the Son were to be "uncreated," D [it shall be...
to the Lord, crying out as David does: "What shall I return to the Lord for all that he has returned to me?" A But if, O Arius, that word "uncreated" exalts the Son more than is right, it will be permitted to you, with a change, to cry out with the voice of David: "Lord, if I have called you uncreated, what will you return to me, who bestow upon you honor greater than is your due?" But against them John will shout: B "Foolish and blind, we are not worthy to loosen the thong of his shoe." From every side, therefore, let us be stirred to exalt the divine nature in words: let us meditate on great thoughts concerning God in our hymns: let us exalt with all our might him whom we honor: let us put away an impoverished mind at the time when we speak of God: let us honor the Father with the sublime praises of the Son, let us glorify the Begetter and the likeness of the nature of the Begotten with equal honor to him: let us confess the truth of the generation: C let us possess the love of the Father through the worship of him who is from him: for "He who loves me," he says, "my Father will love him" (John 14:21): to whom be glory and imperium for ages of ages. Amen.