Homily on the Sixth Psalm (with an alternate manuscript recension)

^A by what manner we shall appease God. For it holds the true and unfailing humility of those who repent, their confession, their tears, their mourning, their turning back, their sighing, their troubled conscience, their weakness, their contrition for countless sins, their salvation obtained from the mercy of God, their night-watching before God, and the feeling, often born in bed and on their couches (for the things done throughout the day), and through this, the visitation of the true Holy Spirit through tears. And not only these are the tokens of true repentance, but also the remission obtained from them, and the perfect forgiveness, and the rebuke ^B of those who are against them, and the strength of prayer before God, and the shame brought upon the demons through this, and the salvation and renewal of the man who has grown old in sins.

Now the inscription of the psalm contains this: *A Psalm of David, for the Eighth.* The Scripture is wont to call "The Eighth" that life which shall follow the seventh of this present age, which the circumcision performed on the eighth day foreshadowed. Regarding "The Eighth," the most wise Solomon also admonishes us, saying: «Give a portion to seven, and also to eight» ^C; as if to say: Be anxious in this seventh life for that good millennium of the future and remaining life, which is eternal. But now let us see the exordium of the psalm itself.

«O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger.» The prophet, setting himself in his mind’s eye as one naked and prostrate before that terrible future tribunal, and embracing the very feet of the Lord: as one who has no confidence, but through shame lowering his countenance, and not daring to look up, and lacking every excuse by which to defend his own sins: already he asks nothing from the judge, but offers only this: «O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger.» I know, O Master, that something grave and ^D horrible awaits me, when thou shalt sit to preside over a tribunal set in the sight of angels and archangels, and shalt manifest and reveal to us all the sins we have committed. And I do not dare, nor is it seemly for me to seek from thee the perfect forgiveness of my many sins, O Master, because my sin...

^A is greater than can be forgiven: for in the presence of all men I have transgressed against thee; for beyond measure have I provoked thy holy name; for I have lived a life more prodigal than the prodigal; for I have become a debtor to thee as one who owes thee the ten thousand talents. Beyond the Publican, the enemy has ill-extorted me. Beyond the robber, the murderer has ill-slain me. Beyond the harlot, I, the lover of pleasure, have, far from God, acted the harlot. Beyond Nineveh, I have sinned unrepentantly. Beyond Manasses, my iniquities have gone over my head. Beyond the Canaanite woman, like a heavy burden they have weighed upon me, and being bent, I have been bowed down even to the end. I have provoked thy holy name; I have grieved thy holy Spirit; I have disobeyed thy commandments. I have dissipated thy wealth evilly; I have spent thy treasure evilly; the earnest, which thou gavest me, I have consumed in iniquities; I have defiled thy temple, my body; I have stained my soul, which was made in thine image; the time thou grantedst me, I have lived with thine enemies; I have not kept the utterance of thy commandment; the robe with which thou didst clothe me, I have dirtied and defiled; the lamp which thou didst prepare for me, I have, by slumbering, extinguished; my face, which thou didst brighten, I have by my sinning shamed; my eyes, which thou didst enlighten, I have again blinded evilly; my lips, which thou didst sanctify ^B, I have again defiled. And I know that thou wilt surely expose the things I have done, and for this there is no place where I shall escape, but I shall entirely be exposed; and if I am to be exposed at all, 'O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath,' and I shall gain from thee this one thing, that thou wilt not be wrathful toward me, nor rebuke me in thy fury; but if I am to be judged, let me be judged with mercy. But thou, O Lord, art philanthropic. Thou thyself knowest exactly all hidden faults, but do not rebuke me

do not make me public, do not reveal them to all, to angels and to men, to my shame and my reproach. ^A

“O Lord, do not rebuke me in thy fury.” For if no one can endure the fury of a mortal king, how much more shall the whole of creation fail to endure the fury of God? “Nor correct me in thy wrath.” For I am the cause of all correction and punishment; but, in correcting, “correct me not in thy wrath.” I remember the thief who asked for—and obtained—forgiveness from thee. I remember the sinful woman who approached from the heart and repented; I remember the Publican who groaned and was justified. But I am more wretched than they. For I am not like them. ^B For I do not have abundant tears; I do not have a true confession; I do not have a groan from the depths of the heart; I do not have a pure soul, nor sincere fasting, nor brotherly love, nor poverty of spirit, nor constant prayer, nor compassion, so that I might myself be deemed worthy of compassion; I have no compunction, that I might be forgiven; I have no purity of thoughts, no purpose pleasing to God. With what face, then, with what boldness shall I ask for forgiveness? Frequently, O Lord, have I promised that I would do penance, but I have broken the faith I gave to thee. In church I frequently fall before thee, and immediately upon leaving I fall into sins. Frequently thou hast had pity on me, and I have spurned thee. Frequently thou hast sustained me, but I have amended nothing in myself. Often thou hast raised me up, and I have collapsed again. In how many ways hast thou helped me, and I have been ungrateful to thee? How often hast thou shown kindness toward me, and I have not served thee at all? With how many things hast thou honored me, and I have dishonored thee? How often, when I was sinning, hast thou exhorted me as a father? Hast thou endured me as one good? Hast thou kissed me as a son? Hast thou addressed me as a most precious pledge? Hast thou chided me as a father? Hast thou called me as an infant? Thou hast spread out ^C thy arms, and when I had fallen thou didst seize me, and said to me, “Do not fear, arise; stand again, come again, again do not fear; I do not pursue thee, I do not turn away from thee, I do not reproach thee, I do not loathe my own creature. I do not cast away my own work, I do not harden my bowels against my own son.” For I cannot hate the man whom I myself fashioned with my own hands; for whose sake I humbled myself; for whom I shed my own blood. How should I not receive the one who turns back to me and falls down? ^D And I…

^A hindered my hearing and did not attend, nor did I turn back. Therefore, Master, as one possessing the abyss of philanthropy and the ocean of long-suffering that is innate and ungrateful, “Rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy displeasure,” but yet and yet again be long-suffering toward me. Do not hasten to cut me down like the fruitless fig tree; but as good and philanthropic, Master—with the others—spare me also this year for repentance, and do not grow weary bearing my iniquity and my sloth. Do not snatch me away while I am unprepared; do not take me with my lamp unlit; do not take me for not having a wedding garment; do not hold me up to shame, exposing my soul naked before thy judgment seat; do not take me while I have nothing to offer thee yet; but be long-suffering, but wait, but be philanthropic, but sympathize also with me, the poor, the naked, the slothful, the negligent, the miserable, the destitute, the harlot, the filthy, the prodigal, the ungrateful, the inhuman, the hardened, the submerged, the condemned, and the faceless and the unconfident, and the inexcusable, the one unworthy of all philanthropy, the one unworthy of heaven and earth, the one who deserves all punishment, and hell, and torment.

But, “O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak.” I am weak in flesh, I am weak in soul. My understanding is weak, my reason is weak. “My strength has failed,” my time has failed, “my days have failed in vanity,” and I see the end approaching. But reach out your hand to me, as I am tossed in the deep by the tempest of pleasures. Open to me, Master, who knock unworthily; and do not close the door of thy mercy against me. For if you close it, who then will open it? Unless you come, who will open it? If you do not hasten, who then will help us? No one; but you yourself, who are God by nature, give us time for life, and time for repentance. Overcome my hardness of heart, and accomplish my correction. Do you give me yet a little time, and work out for me a way of salvation. For if you do not devise the way, whatever I devise is brittle and unstable. Whatever I test is powerless and easily destroyed. Whatever I attempt is useless and incomplete. Finally, do not delay, Master, but hasten quickly to ^D save the creature

^A of yours. For you said, Master: "Without me you can do nothing." Anticipate with the conversion of my soul the time of my life. For I am tyrannized by my adversary, I am tyrannized by thought, I am tyrannized by nature, I am tyrannized by evil intent; and moreover, I am tyrannized by evil habit. Wherefore, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am infirm." For the enemy has sapped my strength; he has made me weak and crushed. But he who is weak and crushed cannot bestow mercy upon himself. Therefore, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am infirm." He who is infirm cannot work; "Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am infirm; heal me, O Lord, for my bones have been troubled." The bones of my soul have been troubled and crushed. But he whose bones are crushed cannot rise up to seek a physician; he cannot run and escape the enemy ^B. Therefore, you seek me, Master, you who came "to seek and to save that which was lost." You, in turn, approach me who fell among robbers, and anticipate me. For they have made me not only half-dead, but altogether dead. Furthermore: "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved." Heal me, O Lord, for that evil serpent has made me entirely infirm and putrid; and he who is infirm and putrid lies entirely on the ground; he is entirely rejected like a cadaver; he is entirely inert. He only cries out, and seeks one who might deliver him. He can only lift his eyes and look around to see when He will come, and when He who "binds up the brokenhearted and saves those who are in despair" will visit him. ^C "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones have been troubled, and my soul is greatly troubled." It is a trouble of both body and soul, he says, Master, that has seized me; I have fallen into psychic and carnal passions, having made both the flesh and the soul a laughingstock. "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones have been troubled," which, of course, connect the inward man of mine in a structure, and by building him up, raise him. And what are these? Faith, prudence, hope, charity, temperance, continence, justice, piety, mansuetude, humility. These bones in me have been crushed, have been troubled, and have rotted. But among your saints, O Lord, "You keep all their bones, and not one of them shall be broken," ^D even if the bodily bones of your martyrs have been crushed. "Heal me, O Lord, for my bones have been troubled, and my soul has been troubled greatly."

^A For I see already that the vigor of my soul has departed, time has failed, the end has drawn near, my old age is in its prime, my harvest has bowed and hastened toward the cutting, the reaper is hurrying toward me, showing the sickle, bearing the axe, giving the sign of excision: "And my soul has been troubled greatly." I see my own affairs uncorrected, and from day to day going from bad to worse: "And my soul has been troubled greatly." I see the thief drawing near, and hastening to snatch me from life: "And my soul has been troubled greatly." I see the departure of life toward those parts as difficult and long, and I have no provisions: "And my soul has been troubled greatly." I see the creditor drawing near, and having kneaded me. I see that the deadline has passed, and in my helplessness, he has overtaken me. I see the accountant brandishing the chirograph at me, and the bondmen gnashing their teeth. I see many accusers, and no defender: "And my soul has been troubled greatly." I am terrified and anxious; I tremble and am shaken beforehand, and I do not know what to do. Shall I ask for the span of my life? But I fear lest I add again a heap of sins, and depart unprepared, and with what face shall I look upon the Judge, when I see that my affairs are in extremes? The wicked one does not cease to trouble me; my enemies do not desist from warring; the civil war of the flesh does not spare one in its agitation; evil thoughts do not rest at all. ^B "And you, O Lord, how long?" What he meant he did not express, but out of extreme depression and circumstance, desiring to say something terrible and bold to God, he restrained himself, and dared not bring this forth, but says: "And you, O Lord, how long?" Behold, he says, O Master, you know that my affairs are all full of toils, miseries, and wretchedness. Behold, you see the straitness that is upon me, and the furnace of the flesh, and the resistance, and the war of the robbers, and the failure of time, and the weakness of my power. Therefore, O Lord, how long will you not sympathize? How long will you not avenge? How long will you overlook? How long will you be long-suffering? How long will you not chastise? How long will you not look upon me? How long will you not deliver me? For even if I am worthy of total abandonment, yet by your mercy I shall attain pardon; for your neglect becomes for us an occasion of ruin. These and such things the prophet, ^C out of depression, expressed to God.

^A Thinking to speak to God in his sorrow, he nevertheless restrained himself, lest he should appear to be fighting against him in his speech; and henceforth he transfers his reasoning from these things rather to supplication before God, and he says: "Convert, O Lord, deliver my soul: save me for your mercy's sake." Thus also in the preceding passages, the Prophet, instructing his discourse according to the proper reasons of the Lord, was saying: "Have mercy on me, O Lord; heal me." Then he subjoins to this the phrase: "Convert, convert," as a shepherd, as a guide, "deliver," as one who is powerful, "save me for your mercy's sake." Not for the sake of my works, for they are evil; not for the sake of my words, for they are vain; but "save me for your mercy's sake." If you wish to contend in judgment with me, O Master, I myself pronounce the verdict against myself, and I confess and acknowledge that I am worthy of death. I take refuge in your mercy. I have nothing to offer to you. I seek mercy from you; do not seek from me the price of this. For no one ever exposed mercy for sale, but gives it as a gift. Therefore, "save me for your mercy's sake." Remember your words which you have spoken in the Holy Scriptures. Remember, O Master, "that the mind of man is set intently upon evil things from his youth." Remember, O Master, ^B that you fashioned me out of clay, red and sanguine. Remember that man is likened to vanity. Remember that no living person shall be justified in your sight. Remember that if you should observe iniquities, no one will endure them. Remember that no one is pure from filth, even if his life be but one day. Remember that I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me. Remember that not even the heaven itself is pure before you, nor are the very hosts of the angels blameless before you, if indeed some fell from heaven because of their sin. Therefore, "save me for your mercy's sake," me, I say, who stand in need of mercy. If you bestow salvation according to desert, it holds no cause for admiration. If you have mercy on the just, it is nothing strange, for he is worthy. And if you glorify the diligent man, it is nothing great, for this is equitable. But rather, manifest your mercies in ^C me, so that your philanthropy may be glorified in me. Since even a proven physician is then praised and admired when he heals incurable and despaired-of diseases. And a good king is then glorified and praised when he distributes gifts to the unworthy ^D.

For you know the weakness of human nature, since you formed it; you know it also because you assumed it yourself, and endowed it with salvation. ^A

Therefore, now also, "Save me for the sake of your mercy." Let not my wickedness overcome your compassion; let not my sloth overcome your ineffable philanthropy. "Enter not into judgment with your servants." For if you should wish to enter into judgment with us, every mouth will be stopped, having nothing with which to make a defense. For for how many benefits are we able to offer thanksgiving to your ineffable goodness? You made us when we were not, and having made us, you multiplied us, you covered us, you increased us, "you subjected all things under our feet." ^B Then, when we had wandered, you turned us back; when we were lost, you sought us, found us, carried us, and redeemed us with your own blood; when we were naked, you clothed us; when we were humbled, you enriched us; and you have made us sons and brothers and heirs of God and joint-heirs. And to these things we find nothing to answer. Therefore, "Enter not into judgment with your servant." Do not weigh your threat against our sins; but rather, "turn your face away from my iniquities," and do not justly set your scales; but, O philanthropic One, incline and "bend" from this side to that. ^C From our burden, weigh down the scale of your mercy; and voluntarily overlook the burden of our sins, and pass over the multitude of our iniquities. And save us for the sake of your mercy, through which all who have been saved have been saved. For even if I mention Moses, yet even he is not without sin, as the Scripture has testified; even if I consider Aaron, or David, or even that great Peter himself, the leader of the apostolic choir, not even he is without sin, nor free from blame. Therefore, by faith I seek to be saved; by faith, not by works, so that the philanthropic One may say to me also: "Your faith has saved you, go in peace." For to how many you have forgiven, O Master, by none [of them] ^D

^A have you said this: "Your works have saved you; go in peace," since all our righteousness is before you as a menstruous rag. Therefore I say again: "Save me for the sake of your mercy." ^B "And your mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Your mercy shall follow me, who have shamefully fled from you, a fugitive servant who always runs toward sin. Your mercy shall follow me and shall entangle me, and shall restrain me with a bit and bridle, ^C lest I further depart from you. "For you are the God who alone does great wonders." Therefore, also work wonders in me with your mercies, O you who save those who hope in you. You who do more than we hope or ask for.

Access was had ^B to you, O Master, once by your debtor of ten thousand talents; and when he asked only for a short extension of the appointed day, according to your kindness you forgave him the whole debt of ten thousand talents; were it not that he wickedly harbored resentment afterward against his brother. The prodigal son returned once to you, begging only to be like one of your hired servants; yet you made him both son and heir. The thief asked you only that you might remember him in your kingdom; yet you granted him the entire paradise. A harlot approached you bearing only tears, asking for nothing, ^C and she received more than she had hoped or sought. Peter once wept, asking for mercy; and you made him the key-bearer of the Church and of the kingdom. For such is your custom, in those who are utterly desperate, in those who have no hope of salvation, and those who have reached the very bottom of the pit of hell by their sin, to show forth in them the magnitude of your philanthropy. Therefore I say again, and saying ^D I shall not cease: "Save me for the sake of your mercy, O Lord."

"For in death there is no one who remembers you; and in Hades who shall confess to you?" Therefore I hasten, therefore I tremble, therefore I am anxious, knowing precisely that if the end of my life overtakes me, in Hades I shall in no way make confession to God. For there is no repentance in Hades, there is no forgiveness of death, there is no remission in the grave. Our present life is a marketplace; once it is closed, no one can trade there anymore. Once the race of the stadium is completed, no one there competes or is crowned. ^D Once night falls, thereafter neither the market nor any gain appears. Hear what the Scripture says concerning every man...

^A who has finished his life: “Death is for man a rest, whose way is hidden; for God has shut him up.” But where there is a shutting up by God, what repentance can remain thereafter? This life is for those who labor; that one is for those who are crowned. This is the life of His philanthropy; that one is the life of true and just judgment. Therefore: “Save me for the sake of your mercy, for in death there is no one who remembers you; and in Hades who will confess to you?” Who? No one. For this reason, it is worthwhile for one who has the opportunity to prepare himself for the journey thither with sufficient provisions, so that the misery of the lack of supplies that overtook the foolish virgins in that nocturnal and dark night might not seize us as well; a situation that another wise man recognizes, and he rouses us and awakens our zeal, saying: “Prepare your works for your departure, and prepare yourself for the field.” By “field,” I mean human life, because “All flesh is grass, and all glory of man as the flower of grass”—“prepare ^B your works for your departure,” because “man is as grass, his days are,” and “prepare yourself in the field,” because “as the flower of the field, so he will blossom [and cast his flower] and will decline, and will wither,” and under the voice of the bird all vegetation will rise again—that is to say, “by the voice of the archangel, at the last trumpet,” all flesh shall rise from the dead. “Prepare your works for your departure, and prepare yourself for the field.” Again, he says: “Remember your last things, and you will not sin forever.” For by always remembering these last things, and by constantly possessing the fear of that ^C terrible hour, the prophet living in constant compunction passed his nights in mourning and lamentation.

Wherefore he also adds, saying: “I have labored in my groaning; I will wash my bed every night; with my tears I will wet my couch,” knowing precisely that those who sow on earth a drop of water from their eyes will reap in exultation the vegetation of the heavens. “Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming, they shall come in exultation in the resurrection, bearing their sheaves.” For just as we are reborn through water and Spirit, so we are baptized and cleansed ^D through the water of tears and through fire and fervent compunction; and we become partakers of the Holy Spirit. For neither baptism nor true compunction of tears is ever given without [alt-version omitted]

the Holy Spirit. And do not marvel; for often in the very hour of baptism, compunction is found within us. For the grace and remission which we received as infants in baptism, we have since soiled and extinguished in later life as we grew in sins. But through tears, even until old age and our final breath, we can be baptized daily and cleansed anew, just as the Psalm says in the following verses. It says: ^A ‘My eye is troubled by reason of anger: I have grown old among all my enemies.’ That is, I have been defiled, I have grown together, I have grown old in sins. For this is what it means to say: ‘I have grown old among all my enemies.’ But see, after that long-standing inveteracy in sins, after a life spent in all manner of iniquity, the prophet did not despair of himself; he did not distrust the mercy of God. He did not give himself over to sloth, but was saved through compunction; he was cleansed through tears; he was justified through confession. All of which things we can perform even in old age and at the end of our gray hairs—I mean to weep, to groan, to confess, to pray. But hear what benefit we derive from this. For when he had said, ‘I have grown old among all my enemies,’ and immediately, through repentance and compunction, had sensed a certain divine perception, remission, boldness, and illumination, he henceforth rebukes his enemies with authority and says: ^B ‘Depart from me, all you that work iniquity.’ That is, cease; be ashamed; withdraw; because the Lord has heard the prayer which I poured out in my old age. ‘The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping; the Lord has received my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed [and troubled]; let them be turned back [and be ashamed] very speedily.’ Do you see the power of tears? Do you see the fruit of confession? Do you see the inveteracy in every kind of sin, and the regeneration from them? Do not say to me henceforth: ‘I am an old man; I am infirm; I have already grown old and have become accustomed to every sin, and I can no longer perform the commandments of God.’ Say nothing of the sort to me: ‘Make not excuses in sins.’ But if you do make excuses, I will immediately show you that even in old age itself, you can keep the commandments of God better than in youth, if only you desire it. Furthermore, answer truthfully to me when I inquire. Whom does Scripture declare blessed, when it says: ^C ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’? You will surely say, those who are lowly in mind and humble. But when is our mindset more abased and humble; in youth or in old age? For in youth, pride is innate. ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ Now tell me, which age is more suited for mourning and tears; youth or old age? Manifestly, it is old age. ^D

^A Likewise, if you consider clearly, you will find old age to be a more helpful assistant to you for the fulfilling of every divine commandment than youth. For in youth, the love of bodies is kindled in us; in youth, the furnace of avarice battles against us, as do most passions: namely, vainglory, greed, gluttony, resentment, and covetousness. And just as with two men wrestling in a training-ground, if one is weakened, the other is necessarily found to be stronger, so it happens also with the soul and the body. Indeed, when the desires and strengths of the flesh are consumed and aged by time and antiquity, the soul, provided it truly wills it, possesses the strength and capacity for the observance of divine commandments, and especially for compunction and tears. I speak, however, of tears that are according to God. For there are natural tears, such as those we shed over the dead. And there are Satanic tears, which some shed because of vainglory and Satanic love. There are also tears flowing from drunkenness and excessive luxury. And there are purgative tears, which result for us from fear of God, and from the contemplation of death and punishment; if we remain in these and labor, we arrive at spiritual tears—no longer having fear, but a longing for God through the consolation, illumination, and exultation of the holy Spirit.

^B Such tears, born of divine longing, were shed toward God by the one who said, "My soul hath cleaved after thee," and by him who says in another place, "My heart was inflamed, and my reins were changed. O God of my heart, and my portion, O God, for ever, because my soul desireth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God." Such longing and such tears the soul of the Psalmist had toward God; "As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so panteth my soul after thee, O God our God." Perhaps what is being said is unknown to many of us. But this does not matter; for we are not discussing with you a matter located in an abyss, nor one rarely found in the deserts of the barbarians, but we are speaking to you of a matter ^C given within our hearts by Christ, who said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you," that is, the holy Spirit, begetting in you compunction and tears, unto the remission, regeneration, and redemption of sins.

Great, therefore, is the power of those tears which are according to God, and great is their efficacy; and witnesses to this are, in the Old Testament, the Ninevites, Hezekiah, Nebuchadnezzar, and Manasseh. In the New Testament, however, Peter, who by the power of tears appeased God and healed his denial; the harlot, with tears...

^A drawing the Lover of mankind to herself, and receiving forgiveness for the things she had done. The depth and the incomprehensible breadth and the multitude and the ocean of the mercies of God are beyond words. Manasseh is saved through repentance; and who then, repenting with his whole soul, is not saved? What are you saying to me? "I have committed fornication, I have committed adultery, I have committed murder, I have grown old in iniquities, and I cannot be saved?" Why do you say these things? If God accepted Manasseh through repentance, I might even dare to say that He would accept the devil himself, if he were to repent with his whole soul. Who, then, has sinned as Manasseh sinned, who for fifty-two years made the whole people of Israel serve and worship idols? How many myriads, tell me, died in those fifty-two years and went to destruction, for whose condemnation King Manasseh is responsible and a debtor? Yet that great multitude of sins did not overcome the loving-kindness of God. For the ancient historians say that King Manasseh of Israel, having been taken captive by the Chaldeans into Babylon in Persia, was shut up in a bronze vessel by the King of the Persians. Being inside such a vessel, he prayed with tears the prayer of his canticle; and at the command and by the loving-kindness of God, the vessel was torn apart, and Manasseh came out and was saved by an angel of God to Jerusalem, and there he died in repentance and confession. See how the ocean of the mercies and the love of the only good and loving- ^{B C} NOTE.

(23) As for the ancient writers from whom Anastasius says he received this account, they appear to be none other than Clement of Rome in the Apostolic Constitutions, and those who received from him; for in Josephus this miraculous and prodigious mode does not occur, but a gentler one, namely, that God inclined the mind of the King of Babylon, by whom Manasseh was dismissed and restored to his kingdom. Thus Josephus, *Antiquities*, bk. x, ch. 4: "Then finally Manasseh, understanding in what great evils he was involved, and acknowledging himself the cause of them all, begged God with prayers that he might find the enemy human and merciful. And God, hearing his supplication, granted this to him; and Manasseh, being released, was saved by the King of the Babylonians back to his own realm." And the Lord heard his voice and had mercy on him; and there was around him a flame of fire, and all the irons around him were melted, and the Lord healed Manasseh from his affliction, and returned him to Jerusalem to his kingdom. And he was saved by an angel of God to Jerusalem. ^D Now Manasseh sensing then in what evils he was, and thinking himself the cause of them all, begged God to grant him a human and merciful enemy. And God, hearing his supplication, grants this to him; and Manasseh, released, is saved by the King of the Babylonians back to his own realm. And the Lord heard his voice and had mercy on him; and there was around him a flame of fire, and all the irons around him were melted, and the Lord healed Manasseh from his affliction, and returned him to Jerusalem to his kingdom. And to be saved by an angel of God to Jerusalem; one...

truly free. For tell me, what did Manasseh bring to God that was worth his judgment, and that was worth the loss of so many myriads of souls who were condemned to hell and perished? Nothing. But he fled and cast himself upon the mercies of God, and was deemed worthy of humanity from Him.

If you wish, I will also set before you historical accounts that rouse us to repentance and turning toward God. For Clement, the historian of Alexandria, writes concerning John the Theologian, that you are not ignorant of that young man—who was formerly a disciple of John, the son of Zebedee, and later lived for a long time as a brigand, and was again hunted by the holy hands of the blessed man, and [was brought] from the recesses of the brigands' dens and caves, and returned to his former virtue—but you know all these things no less accurately than I do. And having often heard you marvel at his great [mercy], and at how he first kissed the blood-stained right hand, as he cast his arms around the young man, and so brought him back to his former state. ^B The elder, having taken the young man who had been handed over to him into his home, fed him, held him close, warmed him, and finally, enlightened him. After this, he relaxed his more constant care and watchfulness, having set for him the perfect guardian: the seal of the Lord.

NOTES

^C ...and how he brought him back to his former state. But those things which were done with that youth, who was formerly a disciple of John the son of Zebedee, but later for a long time acted as a leader of brigands, and was caught again by the holy hands of the blessed man as if in a hunt and led from the brigands' den and cave back to his earlier virtue, you yourself know: for you are as knowledgeable as I. Nor have I rarely heard you wonder, at the inclination of his great kindness, and how he himself, as the first one, kissed that bloody right hand, while clinging to the young man's embrace, and by that path led him back to the lost virtue. Behold for you in brief the story which Anastasius narrates after Eusebius: perhaps with more detail than is fitting, and with the addition of some things that might perhaps make the aged John less credible; for that course—if indeed it is so called—and the riding [of the horse], of his spirit—which is more severe in judgment among some, such as our Camus—might lower the faith. The story of the repentant monk, to whose prayers the Lord granted rain, which Chrysostom places at the same chapter before that of the young man converted by John, seems to be the same one, due to the great affinity of all points, which Amphilochius reported in his Homily on Repentance. And although Chrysostom is otherwise younger than the great Amphilochius, and recounts it as a matter of recent memory, Amphilochius—if he relates it as something accepted from the ancient history of the Fathers, it is an argument, except for the style and other points indicated there, that it is by someone other than that great Amphilochius, and of a much later age. Baronius, year 89, besides Chrysostom and Antiochus, also cites Cassian for this history, Coll. xxiv, cap. 22, and also Henri Canisius from the same: but this is through total negligence, since in that chapter Cassian does not discuss this example at all, but discusses a certain Apophthegm of John, when he was caught by a certain hunter, while softly stroking a partridge in his hands: by whose example St. Thomas teaches, 2-2, quest. 168, art. 2, that playful actions are sometimes fitting even for serious men. ^D Truly this error, though gross, should not seem to be of such great moment; what is more displeasing is what he approves as if from the interpreter in favor of the sacrament of confirmation. For thus he writes: "But afterward, when he had sealed him with the seal of the Lord (namely, the sacrament of confirmation, he says, as the interpreter adds) as the perfect and safe protection of his soul, he relaxed somewhat in his care and observation of him." So indeed the interpreter writes; but being more free, and interjecting his own things not said by the author, nor by Eusebius. The words of Eusebius are: "The presbyter, however, receiving the young man handed over to him into his house, raised him..."

^A and fostered him with human kindness; at the end, he baptized him; and, as if having provided for the safety of his soul by the Lord's seal, he relaxed that much of his care and observation over him." Indeed, Eusebius himself says: "the Lord's seal" and "illumination," or "baptism," which is also called by Gregory, Orat. 40, "a seal because it is a preservation, and a signification of sovereignty": that is, as a certain character of divine lordship over us, out of the grace of adoption which it creates. Thus, after a few things: "Say, relying on the seal, I myself am also the image of God." Thus Amphilochius, Orat. in Peccat., for the "seal by which we are first brought into the flock of God as ^B sheep," when he says concerning the first conversion of Zacchaeus: "As a sheep he snatched him from the mouth of a wolf, and mixed him with the fold, and deemed him worthy of the seal." Just as from the mouth of a wolf he snatched, and added to the flock, and imparted the seal. Badly, therefore, does the interpreter of Eusebius—often with a long paraphrase, distorting the author, obscuring, and changing the sense—send an unwary reader, and one unskilled in the Greek idiom, into error and exposes him to ridicule: while they think they are bringing forward some great thing from Eusebius for establishing dogmas, when in reality he does nothing for them, as happened here to Baronius, indicating that Eusebius is making for the sacrament of confirmation as distinct from baptism, when he wishes for nothing of the sort. The more solid reason for proving this sacrament is from the laying on of the hands of the apostles, and the gift of the Holy Spirit ^C through it, which the Church, by continuous tradition as a mystery, and as a sign of a state of grace, instituted by Christ, and by His ordination through the apostles and successor bishops, is to be dispensed, has received by constant tradition, and holds to this day. The Royal edition clearly, in the place of Anastasius, for that which Eusebius has, openly having synonyms, ^D the Royal edition itself at the very beginning seems to have had a slip of memory of Anastasius: since he cites from one of the books which they call "from diverse contexts": since it does not exist in the books of the "Stromata" which Eusebius reports, eight in number, which exist to this day, and he cites it from another book, which he also reports separately in the Catalogue: but it seems to us to have dropped out: under that title, "Who is the rich man that shall be saved?" COMBEFIS.

ORATIO IN PSALMUM VI. ^A The bishop, having heard this, heaved a great sigh from the depths, then wept and said to John: "He is dead," he says. And John said to him: "How, he says, or by what death?" And the bishop: "He has died the death of the soul; for he has become wicked and most abandoned, and in the end, he has turned into a ruthless brigand." And to this John said to the bishop: "It is a fine guardian of the boy's soul, O bishop, that I have entrusted to you; it is a fine shepherd of Christ's sheep that I have made of you. But is there now a horse at your disposal, and some guides for the road, to lead me to the boy?" John then, having straightway mounted a horse from the church, rode violently, seeking to call back the wandering sheep. And having reached the mountains where the ^B brigands' lair was, he was seized by the guard; he spoke no word of contradiction, nor was he distressed, but cried out: "For this I have come; take me to your leader." He was standing there armed, and as soon as he saw John coming toward him, he grew ashamed and turned to flee. But John, as if forgetting his old age, pursued the boy at a breathless run, saying: "Why are you fleeing, my son, from your father? Why do you cause me such labor? Have pity on me, a stranger, naked, old, weak, and poor. Stop your step, do not fear; there still remains for you a hope of salvation. I will plead for you; I will lay down my soul for you, as the Lord did for us. Do not fear, my son, stop; believe me, Christ has sent me to bring you ^C the forgiveness of your sins. I am ready to undergo death for you. Let the blood that you shed be upon me; let the burden of your sins be upon me, and upon my own neck." Then the boy stopped; he threw down his weapons, trembling and weeping bitterly. And having approached John, he embraced him; with the groans of his tears he was unable to utter a word in his own defense, but held only his right hand, which was still stained with blood. John held that right hand of the brigand to his own mouth and kissed it, as though it had already been washed by his tears; nor did he leave until he had brought the boy with him into the Church, giving an example of sincere repentance to all, and a visible trophy of resurrection. ^D

NOTES. (25) *Cum permisti lacrymis gemitus, etc.* The translator, by his punctuation, joins what follows to the preceding, and renders it with an incongruous meaning: *He greeted him with a groan of his tears*; as if, indeed, we embraced or greeted someone with tears and sobs. Eusebius: *Excuse-making and doing so with groans, as best he could*, the same things preventing him from speaking and making excuses in words, as the paraphrase of Anastasius well expresses, which is set down here by us, and which the other edition of the Royal codex expresses more clearly: *With trembling and strong weeping, so that he could not even speak for tears, with the sob that grief and sorrow caused, interrupting his voice*: an affection which we experience in any more serious sorrow. COMBEFIS.

(26) *Subjectaeque oculis ac corporum resurrectionis.* How well Anastasius glosses this in the Royal codex, substituting for *visible* the term *hoped for*, and *the future resurrection of bodies, by which we shall be entirely changed into an immortal state*; and how badly the translator of Eusebius usually does, while he renders it thus: *A final, illustrious trophy of resurrection from sins, through exterior signs of repentance, etc.*, as if the resurrection itself from sins through repentance were called the trophy of someone else, and as if that resurrection were subject to the eyes and conspicuous, rather than being knowable only by the intellect and the mind; such as the soul itself is, whose resurrection...

^A that the things I have already said are indeed worthy of faith is attested both by the robber on the cross, who attained salvation through a faithful word, and by many other wicked men who have been saved through repentance. Among these, in our own age, under Maurice the emperor of the Christians, there was a certain arch-robber in the regions of Thrace, cruel and inhuman, and such a man was he that he made those roads impassable. When many soldiers and thief-catchers had tried in vain with every device to capture him, and failed, the most divine emperor Maurice, having heard of this, sent his own ^B commands to the arch-robber by a certain young servant. The man, as if struck by some divine virtue, reverenced the emperor's word, cast off his robber-like character, and with gentleness, like a sheep, came down to the feet of the emperor and fell before him with a confession of his crimes.

After not many days had passed, the robber, seized by a fever, lay in the infirmary which they call the Sampson; there, having engaged in wine-drinking, he fell into a phrenetic delirium. But when he had returned to his senses and was restored, and when night had finally overtaken him, seeing himself already burdened, he turned himself to the supplication of the all-merciful ^C God, repenting with tears and begging for forgiveness for his sins, saying: "I seek nothing new from You, most benevolent Master. For as You did marvelously display Your mercy to one of the robbers before me, so too show it to me, the robber, and accept this tearful lament of one near to death, as I lie here upon my bed. By that same reason by which You welcomed those who came after the eleventh hour and had done nothing worthy, so also receive these small tears of mine; cleanse me and wash me with them; grant to me, as a baptism, ^D a full indulgence for my death, so that You may require nothing further of me; for the hour does not permit it, since those who exact my soul for the coming judgment are already close at hand. But do not oppose me; do not harden against me the good. They have already anticipated me...

at evening, for my debts are beyond number. ^A But as you accepted the most bitter weeping of your apostle Peter, so accept also mine, O Lover of mankind, pouring these tears over the parchment of my sins, and with the sponge of your tender mercy wiping away my unspeakable transgressions.

^B These and such things the robber confessed for many hours, and wiping his tears with his own handkerchief, he gave up his soul, as those who were lying near him recounted. A certain distinguished physician, who was accustomed to visit that hospital, while sleeping in his own house saw in a dream, at the very hour the robber died, many Ethiopians coming to the robber’s bed with many papers containing the sceleras of the robber himself; then he also saw two radiant men. Therefore they brought a balance, and as the Ethiopians threw in all the robber’s documents, one scale was pressed down; the other was raised high into the air. Then the angels of light said, “Do we have nothing here?” The one answered the other, “What indeed could we have? It is not yet ten days since he left behind his murders and his robber dens; what good can we look for from him?” As they said these things, they pretended to grope about his bed, to see if they too might find something good. Finding the handkerchief where the robber wiped away his tears, he said to his companion, “Truly, this was the handkerchief of his tears. Come, let us put this into the other scale, adding to it the kindness and mercy of God; and perhaps something will happen.” ^C And as soon as they put that one thing into the raised scale, it was pressed down, and the documents that were in the other scale were all scattered. The angels therefore cried out with one voice, saying, “The kindness and mercy of the Lord have overcome.” And taking the soul of the robber, they led it away with them. But the Ethiopians fled in shame. When the physician saw these things, waking up immediately, he put on his clothes and ran swiftly to the hospital; and coming to the robber’s bed, he found his body still warm, but his soul already departed to the Lord, and the handkerchief full of tears placed over his eyes. ^D Having learned from those who lay near by of the confession which the robber had made to God, he took the handkerchief and went in to the most pious emperor, showing him and telling him whatever he had seen in his dream, and what he had heard from those lying in the vicinity, addressing him in these words: “We give thanks to God, most pious lord. We have heard that the robber obtained salvation through confession, while in the meantime the King...

which he heard from those who had fallen asleep, saying to the emperor: "We give thanks to God, most pious master. We have heard of a thief saved by confession on the cross of our heavenly King, and we have seen a thief saved by confession during thy reign." ^B

Although we believe these things that we hear to be true, nevertheless we think it good to anticipate the terrible hour of death and to prepare ourselves betimes through repentance. For how many, think you, are suddenly snatched away, able neither to speak, nor to weep, nor to make a will? And who, moreover, will be your guarantor that you will find at that hour enough tears to offer to God, such as that thief offered? Therefore let us not wait, nor delay to confess our sins to God until the hour of death; but rather let us come before his face in confession. For I have not written these things to make your souls softer and more remiss, but rather to rouse you; not to make you more negligent, but more eager: so that after we have contended excellently in the course of the fasts, having become victors, we may be deemed worthy of the remission of sins and of the kingdom of heaven, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the holy and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

BY THE SAME: HOMILY ON THE SIXTH PSALM

HOMILY SPOKEN ON THE SIXTH PSALM. EDITED FROM ANOTHER CODEX.

The teaching on sincere repentance is quite fittingly contained in the sixth Psalm. Therefore it was written by the Holy Spirit, so that those who approach God in their sins may know how it behooves them to do this, confessing from the heart, and asking for forgiveness for the things in which they have sinned. For in this psalm we are taught both of these things, in that it embraces the humility of those who repent, and the true conversion ^D

the tears, the groaning from the depths, the agitation of the conscience, the weakness, the communion with God by night, the perception ^A in one’s bed of the things done during the day, and the inspection that comes through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Nor will one find only these things encompassed here, but also the remission of sins that results from such repentance, the shame of the demons, and the reformation of the man grown old in sins.

But this is the goal of the psalm. And its inscription is worded as follows: "A Psalm of David for the eighth." It is customary in Scripture to call "the eighth" that which follows the seventh; that is, the life and conduct of the present age, of which the eighth-day circumcision was a type. The wise Solomon also, in admonishing us to "give a portion to seven, and also to eight," ^B hints at the restitution in the age to come, and the life of the present age. But let us now also see the beginning of the psalm.

"O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger." Looking ahead with the eyes of the mind to that terrible judgment seat, the prophet, as though stripped of all confidence and having no defense to offer for the things in which he has sinned, nor being able to be saved by works, asks nothing else of the Judge but this, saying: "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger." I know, Master, that a terrible judgment awaits me; when, sitting upon a throne of unbearable ^C majesty, before angels and all creation, you will reveal the things done in secret to all men, and will make manifest things heretofore hidden. Whence I do not even dare to ask for forgiveness of my own sins: because they are greater than to seem worthy of being forgiven me; because I have sinned against you more than any man; because I have sinned more than the prodigal; because I have become a debtor to you more than he who owed the ten thousand talents. For I know myself to have been taxed more heavily by the enemy than the Publican; to have lived more like a brigand ^D than the thief; and to have offended you more than the Harlot. I know that by sinning I have surpassed even Manasseh. Whence, "my iniquities have gone over my head; as a heavy burden they have weighed heavily upon me," and being wretched, "I have been bowed down until the end." I have provoked your holy name, I have grieved your Spirit, I have disobeyed your commandments, I have squandered your wealth wickedly, and what you gave me as a pledge I have consumed in riotous living; I have defiled the temple of the body, I have outraged the dignity according to your image, I have dirtied the tunic you clothed me with, I have disfigured the face you adorned for me in regeneration, I have blinded again the eyes you enlightened, I have polluted again the lips you sanctified. Demanding from me the penalties for all of these, I know that you will set me naked before your tribunal, and you will examine all the things that I have done, and

nothing shall exist that will make me escape. But when you make your examination of me, O Lord, ^A “do not reprove me in your wrath.” This is what I shall gain from you, the only one who is merciful to mankind. You yourself know all my hidden things, for which also I pray that they not be made public, nor that they be revealed before angels and men to my eternal shame and disgrace. ^B “O Lord, do not reprove me in your wrath.” If no one can endure the wrath of a mortal king, much less will any creature be able to sustain the wrath of God. “Neither rebuke me in your anger.” I do not refuse to be rebuked, for I am worthy of every chastisement and punishment; but when you rebuke, “do not rebuke me in your anger.” I know the thief who offered only prayers and at once received the entry into paradise. I know the harlot who approached with tears and did not fail to receive forgiveness. I know the Publican who groaned from the depths and was justified. I am more wretched than these. For I am not as they are: for I do not possess flowing tears, I do not have a true confession; I do not possess a groan from the heart, I do not have sincere fasting, I do not have spiritual poverty, I do not have constant prayer; I did not keep love for my neighbor, I have no compassion so that I might be deemed worthy of compassion; I have no compunction so that I might be forgiven, I have neither sobriety nor purity of thoughts. With what face, then, or with what boldness shall I ask for forgiveness? Often, O Lord, I have pledged to you that I would do penance, and I have become a breaker of the promise given to you. Often I fall down before you in church, and stepping out, I immediately ^C fall into wickedness. Often you have had mercy on me, and I have disregarded you. Often you have been patient towards me, awaiting my repentance, but I have not repented. Often you have raised me up, and again I, through sloth, have fallen. How many times have you heard me, but I have not listened to you? How many times have you forgiven me, but I have never served you? How many times, when I was sinning, have you not turned away from me, but as a father have spread out your arms? “Turn back,” you say, “do not fear. You have fallen? Rise up. In fleeing, you have gone far away? Come again. I do not turn away, I do not reproach, I do not loathe my own creature, I do not close my bowels to my own son; for I cannot hate him whom I fashioned with my own hands; for whom I humbled myself; for whom I poured out my blood.” But I, hardening my hearing, have not paid attention, nor have I turned back. As one therefore having the abyss of mercy and the sea of long-suffering as innate, “do not reprove me in your ^D wrath, neither rebuke me in your anger.” But still be long-suffering towards me. Do not hasten to reap me from life before the time; do not hasten to cut me down before my confession, accusing me for being barren; but as one good and merciful, grant me this year also for repentance. Do not snatch me away, still unprepared, and having not yet received the lamp of virtues, nor having readied the oil, the nourishment of the light.

Do not take me as one who has no wedding garment, nor as one who has no fruits to offer you; but be moved to philanthropy, but show the riches of your kindness, but be patient with me still ^A, the careless, the sinful, the prodigal, the ungrateful, the uncompassionate, the wretched, the one unworthy of philanthropy and deserving of every punishment. «Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam infirmus sum.» My mind is weak; my reason is weak. My life has failed; «My days have failed in vanity,» and the end is near. But stretch out your hand to me, who am storm-tossed in the deep of sins. Open to me, Master, the door of your mercy. Open to me, who knock unworthily, and do not close it against me. For if you close it, who will open it? If you do not hasten, who then will help? You, as being by nature a philanthropist, give time for repentance, give a mind for conversion. Whatever I might do remains powerless and easily dissolved. Whatever I might undertake becomes ineffective and incomplete. Do not delay, Master, your hearing, but in saving your creature, be beforehand. You said that, «Without me you can do nothing.» ^B Take hold, through the conversion of my soul, of the time of my passing life. I am tyrannized by nature, forced by evil choice, constrained by wicked habit; therefore, «Miserere mei, quoniam infirmus sum.» For my enemy has unnerved me, has made me weak and humbled. He who is weak cannot heal himself; he who is broken cannot help himself with power; he who has fallen cannot raise himself up. «Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam infirmus sum.» He who is weak cannot work; he who is sick is barred from all activity. «Sana me, Domine, quoniam turbata sunt ossa mea.» The bones of my soul have been disturbed and broken; and he who has broken bones cannot, upon rising, seek for a physician; he cannot run and escape from his enemies. What remains ^C is for «You, Master, to seek me, who have come to seek and save that which was lost.» You, again, come to me who have fallen among thieves, and who have been made not half-dead, but altogether dead. «Sana me, Domine, et sanabor.» Heal me, Lord, because that wicked serpent has made me infirm. The weak person is completely cast down like a corpse, is altogether inactive, only with his voice does he call the physician, only does he cry out and seek the one who delivers. This one thing he has left, to lift up his eyes and look around for when He will come and visit, who «binds up the broken, and raises up the crushed and saves them,» for whom there was no hope of salvation.

«Sana me, Domine, quoniam conturbata sunt ossa mea; et anima mea turbata est valde.» ^D A disturbance of both body and soul has seized me, Master, for I have fallen into carnal and psychic passions.

^A And what are these bones? They are faith, prudence, charity, temperance, continence, justice, piety, gentleness, humility. These bones have been broken within me, but not so with the saints. For what does this same Prophet say regarding them? «The Lord guards all their bones; not one of them shall be broken.» ^B «Heal me, Lord, for my bones have been troubled, and my soul has been troubled.» Why? For I see that the time of my life is already failing, the end approaching, and old age announcing the cutting down; I see the reaper hastening, showing his sickle; I see him carrying the axe, signaling the cutting down of the soul that bears no fruit. «My soul has been troubled exceedingly.» I see that my affairs are uncorrected, and that I am sliding daily into what is worse. «And my soul has been troubled exceedingly.» I see the thief drawing near, hastening to snatch me from this life. «And my soul has been troubled exceedingly.» I see the departure of life at hand, and myself devoid of traveling provisions. I see the accountant showing me the written record, and the tormentors looking on with a savage gaze. I see many accusers, and no defender. «And my soul has been troubled exceedingly.» Therefore I shudder and am anxious, and I do not know what I shall do. ^C For if I ask for time to live, I fear that I shall only make it an addition to my sins. If I depart unprepared, I do not know with what eyes I shall behold the Judge as He comes. For I have advanced to the very summit of wickedness; the evil one does not cease to cause trouble; the enemies do not cease to wage war; the internal war of the flesh rages more vehemently; wicked thoughts do not rest; and there is nowhere any repentance.

But Thou, O Lord, how long?

^A on me, O Lord; heal me, O Lord,» he subjoins to these the words: «Turn, turn, as a shepherd—as a guide of the way, deliver; as a powerful one, save me for the sake of Thy mercy.» Not for the sake of my works, for they are evil; not for the sake of my words, for they are vain; not for the sake of my thoughts, for they are unclean. But, «Save me for the sake of Thy mercy.» If Thou wishest to enter into judgment with me, I anticipate Thy judgment and deliver the verdict against myself, and I confess that I am worthy of death. Therefore, «Save me for the sake of Thy mercy.» I take refuge in Thy mercy, having nothing to offer Thee. I ask for mercy from Thee; do not seek from me the price of it. For no one ever sells mercy, but provides it as a gift. ^B Therefore, «Save me for the sake of Thy mercy.» Remember the words which Thou hast spoken in Thy holy Scriptures: that «the intent of man’s heart is diligently bent upon evil from his youth.» Remember that man is likened to vanity, and that no one living shall be justified before Thee. «If Thou shouldst mark iniquities, who shall stand?» Remember that no one is pure from filth, not even if his life be but one day long; and that «I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me.» Remember that not even heaven itself is pure before Thee, nor are the angels themselves faultless before Thee, if indeed some even fell from heaven because of their pride. «For the sake of Thy mercy, save me,» ^C me who am in need of mercy. For if Thou savest the worthy, if Thou showest mercy to the just, there is nothing marvelous in this; but if Thou shouldst deem me, the unworthy one, worthy of Thy mercy, this is indeed strange and this is great. For indeed, a physician is then admired when he heals incurable diseases and restores those who are badly afflicted to health. And a king is then celebrated with praises when he is munificent toward the undeserving. Thou knowest the weakness of our nature, since Thou didst create it and didst not disdain to be clothed in it. Therefore, «Save me for the sake of Thy mercy.» May my sloth not overcome Thy immeasurable love for mankind: «Enter not into judgment with Thy servants.» For if Thou desirest to ^D contend in judgment with us, every mouth shall be stopped, having nothing to plead in defense. For what shall we say? That Thou didst create us when we were not, didst turn us back when we had wandered, didst seek us when we were lost, didst redeem us with Thy precious blood, and didst establish us as sons of God and heirs. Therefore, «Remember not our iniquities,» nor weigh Thy threat against our sins; but rather, «incline» that just balance of Thine «from this to that,» from our burden into Thy great mercy. Save me for the sake of Thy goodness, by which Thou hast saved the perishing world; and all the just from the ages, through it, have been deemed worthy of the promised goods. For even if one mentions Moses, or Aaron, or David, or Peter the

^A first of the apostles, or even Paul who was caught up to the third heaven, he will not be able to call any of these free from sin. Therefore, I also seek to be saved by faith alone—by faith, not by works—that the Lover of mankind may say to me as well: "Your faith has saved you; go in peace." To as many of men as you have granted pardon for those things wherein they sinned, Master, you have not said to any of them: "Your works have saved you," because "All our righteousness, before you, is as a filthy rag." Therefore, I say again: "Save me for the sake of your mercy; and your mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life."

^B It shall pursue me who flee badly from you, who always hasten toward sin. For you, "being God, who alone does wonders, make your mercy wonderful even upon me." For you save those who hope in you, and you do more than we ask or understand. There once came to you, Master, a debtor of ten thousand talents, and when he asked to receive some small kindness, you, in your clemency, granted him the forgiveness of the whole debt. The prodigal, returning at last, begged to become one of your hirelings; but you, instead of a hireling, made him a son and heir. The thief asked that you would remember him in your kingdom; but you bestowed the whole paradise upon him. A harlot also drew near, dissolved in tears, and she received greater things than she had hoped for and sought. Peter wept but once, and you made him the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven. Such is your custom, Master, in the case of those who are in despair—in those in whom no hope of salvation seems to remain—to show in them the greatness of your love for mankind. For this reason I say, and I will not cease to say: "Save me for the sake of your mercy."

"For in death there is no one who remembers you; and in Hades who shall confess to you?" For this reason I make haste; for this reason I am anxious, knowing precisely that when I reach the end of my life, I shall by no means confess to God in Hades. For there is no repentance there; it is not possible there to receive the forgiveness of sins; it is not possible in the grave to carry away the remission of offenses. The present life is a marketplace; when, therefore, the market is closed, no one can conduct business. When the course of the stadium is finished, no soldier can compete. When night has overtaken [us], no profit appears. Hear what the Scripture says: "Death is rest for a man, whose way is hidden; for God has shut it up [for him]." Where there is the shutting up of God, there is no repentance for sins. This ^C is the life of struggles; that one, of righteous judgment. Therefore, "Save me for the sake of your mercy."

In Hell, however, who will confess to you?" ^A See what he says: "Who will confess to you?" That is to say, no one. For this reason, beloved, it is best that we prepare ourselves for the journey thither, so that the unexpected and needy night may not overtake us, just as it did the foolish virgins. Another wise man, signifying this same thing, and rousing the more slothful, says: "Prepare your works for your departure, and make ready, you who remain in the field." He calls human life a field, because "all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." "Prepare your works for your departure," because "man, his days are as grass; as the flower of the field, so he will blossom," and will fade, "and will decline, and will wither." "And at the voice of the sparrow ^B every herb shall rise." This means: "At the voice of the archangel, and in the last trumpet," all flesh shall rise from the dead. Consistent with these, the same person says again: "Remember your last end, and you will never sin." Mindful of these last things, the Prophet also mourned in constant and continual compunction, and passed his nights in sorrow and weeping.

Wherefore he also adds: "I have labored in my groaning; I will wash my bed every night; with my tears I will water my couch." For he knew precisely that "they who sow in tears shall reap in joy," and that they who "go forth with weeping, carrying their seeds," will come in the resurrection with joy, bearing their sheaves. ^C Well did he say, "I will wash." For just as we are reborn through the water in baptism, so we are purified, being rebaptized, through tears and compunction. Yet neither baptism nor the compunction of tears is given without the Holy Spirit. And do not marvel; for the grace which we receive as infants when baptized in water, we lose through sloth and neglect of doing good works, and we recover it through repentance and the fountain of tears.

"My eye is troubled by anger; I have grown old among all my enemies." That is, I have increased, I have grown old in all my sins. That is what he signifies by saying: "I have grown old among all my enemies." ^D Therefore I have grown old, living among enemies, who always provoke me to do those things which occasion the death of the soul, and signify that aging which is wont to be produced by a wicked life; from which whoever does not strive diligently to be cleansed, can by no means put on the new man, who, as the Apostle says, "is being renewed in the spirit of his mind." But see how, after a long aging in sins, after a life spent in all iniquity, the Prophet did not for a moment despair of his soul, nor mistrust the mercy of God, nor give himself over to sloth.

^A but was saved through compunction, cleansed through tears, and justified through confession. These are the things he did in the time of his repentance, which we too are all able to do in old age itself. What are these things? To pray, to groan, to weep, to confess. And if you wish to learn what will come to us from these things, hear what follows. Having said, "I have grown old among all my enemies," then, as repentance takes place, sensing within himself a divine illumination, he henceforth rebukes his enemies with authority and says: ^B "Depart from me, all you who work iniquity." That is: Withdraw, cease, be ashamed; "for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping; the Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord has received my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and troubled; let them be turned back and ashamed very quickly." Do you see the power of tears? Do you see the fruit of confession? Do you see the aging in every kind of sin, and the regeneration from them? Therefore, do not say to me: I am an old man; I am infirm; I have grown old; I have become accustomed to every sin; henceforth I can no longer perform the commandments of God. Do not say anything of the kind, nor bring forward any other pretext for the sake of delaying. For I shall show you immediately that if you only will it, you can keep the commandments in old age itself better than in youth. For tell me, whom does the Scripture call blessed, when it says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit?" You will certainly say, those who are lowly and humble in mind. When, then, is our mind more lowly and humble; in youth, or in old age? Is it not clear that it is in old age? For pride is congenital to youth. "Blessed are those who mourn." Tell me, I pray: which do you think is more ready for mourning and compunction: old age, or youth? It is clear that it is old age. "Blessed are the meek." ^C Is it not confessed by all that youth is more hasty and easily prone to falling than old age? It is clear that this is so; if you consider everything, you will find that old age, compared to youth, assists you in salvation and makes you more capable of keeping the commandments. And how, hear this. In youth, the desire for bodies molests one more fiercely; and craving is kindled more cruelly in youth; and avarice, and vainglory, and gluttony, and all the remaining vices, then in turn make their assault and wage war. And just as when two wrestle, if one grows weak, the other is found to be altogether the stronger: so it is with the soul and the body. When the cravings and the powers of the flesh do not have equal strength—in old age and in youth—if only the soul is willing to rouse itself to the practice of the commandments, it is then more powerful. It is then easier for it to attain compunction ^D and tears. And I speak of tears which are in accordance with God. For there are also natural tears, such as those we shed over the dead; and there are also Satanic tears, which some pour out, whether for vainglory or for an erotic passion of the devil. Just as indeed even from ...

drunkenness there are other tears, besides those already mentioned; so truly also from repentance there come to us tears of compunction, and from the fear of God, and the thought of death, and the remembrance of punishment; in which, if we persevere, we shall progress even to spiritual tears, which have not fear, but a longing for God—born henceforth from the illumination of the Holy Spirit in us.

With such tears was he bathed who says to God: ^A “My soul has followed close behind you.” And again: “My heart was inflamed, and my reins were changed.” And: “O God of my heart, and my portion, O God, forever.” And elsewhere: “My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh have exulted in the living God.” And again: “As the deer longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs for you, O God.” Such a longing for God did the soul of the Psalmist have. ^B Perhaps what is being said escapes many of you. I know and am certain of it; but such neglect shall by no means turn out for your good. Why so? Because we are not discussing something situated in the depths of the sea, nor a kind of thing that can be found only in the farthest corners of the earth; but we are speaking of a thing planted within your hearts by Christ, who said: “The kingdom of heaven is within you,” that is, the Holy Spirit, the parent of tears and compunction.

Great, therefore, is the efficacy and power of the tears that come from piety. ^C And witnesses to this are, in the Old Testament, the Ninevites, Manasses, Ezechias; and in the New, Peter, who indeed by the power of tears appeased God and healed what he had sinned through denial. The harlot, too, who drew the mercy of God with her tears, and received the remission of those things she had committed. Thus, the sea of God's mercies cannot be explained in words. If Manasses is saved through repentance, who thereafter, who repents with his whole soul, doubts ^D concerning salvation? What are you saying to me: “I have fornicated, I have committed adultery, I have murdered, I have grown old in wickedness, and I am unable to be saved”? If God accepted Manasses when he repented, whom of those who repent with their whole soul will He not accept? Perhaps I would dare to say that He would have accepted even the devil himself, had he shown repentance. Who, then, has sinned in such a way, as Manasses did, who for fifty-two years caused the people of Israel to bow down and worship idols? How many thousands of men, I ask, died during those years, whose death Manasses, although he was held liable for their ruin, was nevertheless released; and the multitude of his wickedness did not overcome the philanthropy of God? But, having been taken as a captive by the Chaldeans to Babylon, and having been condemned to pay the penalty due for what he had outraged against God, he prayed only with tears in the Chal-

brazen machine in which he was kept confined ^A; and by the command of God, who accepted his repentance, that brazen machine was broken, and he went out completely unscathed. And having been brought back safely to Jerusalem, there he finally ended his days, having spent his whole life in the sobriety of repentance. Hezekiah also received an addition of fifteen years, for having prayed to God with weeping while turned toward the wall. Do you see what great things repentance has wrought, and to whom it has granted favors, those who sought God with weeping?

If you wish, therefore, I shall also relate another truly miraculous story which the writer Clement (that Alexandrian) transmits concerning John; concerning John, I say, who thundered the divine truths to us like thunder, and who loved virginity from a child; and because of his surpassing love for the Master, was loved more than all, so that he even reclined upon the Lord’s breast, and received the Virgin and Mother of God as a trust. ^B Therefore, the aforementioned wise writer of history relates something of this kind concerning him in one of his books, which he wished to have called *Stromata*, being woven in various ways: that when he had come to a certain place in Asia during his travels—for he happened to be traveling through Asia to visit and strengthen the faithful—he found a certain young man, adorned with beauty of body and strength, but not yet instructed in the faith, nor taught the way of salvation; and he persuaded him with exhortations to become a believer. ^C And having brought him to the bishop of that city to be instructed, he addressed him thus: "This young man, O bishop, I commit to you as a trust, with God as my witness, and the whole Church." Having said this, the apostle left and went on to other cities, sowing the proclamation of the faith. But the bishop, having taken the youth, instructed and taught him according to the rule prevailing in the Churches, and perfected him with the saving baptism. And this having been done, he no longer used his former admonitions toward him; clearly presuming that there was no fear of his turning aside, since he had already been accounted worthy of much exhortation and teaching. But the youth having received freedom, and since youth is ready to turn aside—especially if it happens to be consorting with certain corrupters, ^D who themselves are the most depraved of men—he is invited to an extravagant feast; and then to thefts and robberies.

^A Being thus entirely corrupted by such practices, and seduced by them, he was at last led up into the mountains by his companions, and by common, consent was appointed captain of a band of robbers, since he excelled in physical stature and strength. They committed irreparable crimes, making that same mountain their base of operations and their refuge.

Now, a considerable amount of time having passed in the interval, the Apostle returned and said: "Come, Bishop, bring forth the deposit which I entrusted to you in the presence of God and the Church." ^B Stupefied at this utterance, the Bishop was at a loss as to what he should say, for he thought that John was asking for some money which had been deposited with him. But John, seeing him in such confusion, said to him again: "Come, Bishop, bring the young man whom I entrusted to you as a bishop." Upon hearing the mention of the young man, the Bishop groaned deeply and bitterly, and then, bursting into tears, replied to John: "He is dead." And John immediately asked: "How, or in what manner, tell me." The Bishop answered: "He died the most detestable death of the soul. For he turned out to be wicked, and utterly lost, and a most violent robber."

Then the Apostle said: "A fine guardian of a boy's soul have I appointed you, O Bishop!" Having said this, and having requested a horse and guides, he set out on the path leading to the robbers' den. ^C And he rode as he was, eager to call back the lost sheep. Having arrived at the mountain, he was seized by the robbers' guard. He offered no resistance and said nothing else, but only: "Lead me to your captain." When the captain saw John approaching, he fled, despite the fact that he was fully prepared and armed, along with his companions, with the very insignia of his brigandage. But John, forgetting his age and all the physical exhaustion of the journey, pursued the fugitive, crying out in a loud voice and saying: "Stop, child, do not be afraid. Why are you fleeing from your father? Why do you cause me such labor? Have pity on me, an old man! ^D You still have hope of salvation. I will lay down my soul for you, just as the Lord did for us. Only stop, child, believing that Christ has sent me, providing for your salvation through me. Lay the burden of your sins on me; on me be the blood of those who were unjustly killed by your hand."

Hearing these words, the runaway youth stopped, threw down his arms, and approached John, trembling and weeping profusely, so that he was unable even to speak for his tears, especially as his voice was choked by the sobbing of his grief. John, bidding him take heart and expect good things, and encouraging him with a firm assurance that he should not despair of his own salvation, took his right hand, which was still bloodstained, as though it were already cleansed by his tears; and instructing him, and raising him up from his fallen state, he did not depart until he had devised the means for the repentance and reformation of the defector, finally bringing him back into the Church, having exhibited to all those who came after the example of a sincere repentance in the case of that young man.

and in him, having clearly delineated the mystery of the resurrection placed in hope. ^A

The robber on the Lord’s cross also lends credence to my account regarding repentance, having obtained paradise by a single word as a reward worthy of his gratitude toward the Master. Another robber will also bear witness, who lived during the times of Maurice, the pious emperor, and who committed such myriad murders that he had almost rendered the roads of Thrace impassable. For having chosen for himself a dwelling in one of the mountains of Thrace, he used to plunder those passing by. Therefore, when one of the emperor’s intimates had been sent for this very purpose, he was persuaded to cast aside his brigand’s weapons and to come to him; and when he came into the sight of the emperor, he obtained humanity and a favorable reception from him. ^B A period of a few days was measured out for him, enjoying certain royal gifts; and indeed, having fallen into a grievous illness, he was laid in the infirmary of Samson. Then, as he saw himself being strained by the illness that held him, with its intensity threatening death and an exit from the present life, he immediately turned to repentance; and having begun to confess with fervent tears, he sought forgiveness for the things he had done, beseeching God in these words or nearly so, and saying: “I seek nothing, Master, foreign to what You are accustomed to grant. By that same method by which you saved the former robber through repentance, deign to save me also, through your mercy, accepting the mourning I offer at this very exit. Just as you forgave those who around the eleventh hour had done nothing worthy, ^C so too forgive me, who have offended you much and beyond measure; having nothing for any consolation of your innate philanthropy ^D except these few and bitter tears that are being poured out for me. For those who demand my soul do not permit me to offer anything else. Do not, therefore, refuse the grace, nor delay your goodness, which you have always shown to those who have sinned similarly to me. Already toward evening, I have been overtaken by my many iniquities. Do not therefore turn away from me, who repent from the heart, but as you received Peter weeping bitterly for you, so too receive me, with the same intent as he had, supplicating you, the merciful God; applying that sponge of your compassion to wipe away entirely my many sins.”

^A This and more the thief confessed at the hour of his passing, wiping away with the linen cloth from his head the tears with which he was bathing himself to appease God, and then he gave up his spirit; as was later precisely ascertained by those who lay nearby in the same place.

The merciful God and Savior of our race, caring for those who have fallen into the depths of evil and have despaired of their own salvation, so that by hearing of the death of the thief they might derive some benefit and not despair of conversion, ordained that a certain pious physician should see in his dreams, on that very night in which the thief died, Ethiopians coming to him, displaying on written documents all the sins he had committed. And it was given to him who was observing this dream to see two radiant men, to whom those Ethiopians were also showing the documents they carried, wishing to take the thief with them. Those radiant men, however, being at a loss as to what else to do, sought about the bed where he lay, to see if they could find something and themselves, for the repelling of the Ethiopians; and having found the thief’s head covering still full of the tears which he had shed while repenting as he was about to die, they placed this—along with the mercy of God—into one pan of the scales; and either because there was nothing to counterbalance it and it was weighed down by what was placed therein, it was lifted up on high and grew light. For indeed, the other pan, which the Ethiopians had filled with the documents, was pulled down to the ground. ^B “God’s mercy prevails!” they cried out with a loud voice. And at once the Ethiopians departed in confusion, while the angels of light took the thief's soul and brought it up with them into the heavens.

When the aforementioned physician had seen these things in his dream, he rose immediately and came as quickly as he could to the hospital. Approaching the thief’s bed, he found that he had already breathed his last. But he saw the head covering lying by the bed, completely soaked through with tears. And having learned from the sick men lying nearby the manner of his death, his repentance, and the very words he had spoken while confessing to God, he went off to the pious and most faithful emperor, ^C carrying in his hands that head-cloth soaked with the tears of repentance. Showing it to him and narrating what he had seen in his dreams and what he had been able to learn, he said, “Let us give thanks to God, most pious emperor, that having heard of the thief who was saved through confession on the cross by the heavenly King, we now see, in your time as an earthly emperor, another thief saved through an equal confession and repentance.”

Let us not merely hear these things, beloved, but let us also believe them to be true; nay, let us not only hear them, but let us also prepare ourselves before the end arrives, anticipating the face of the Lord through conversion and true repentance; through ^D

^A a confession proceeding from a contrite heart; through groans sent forth from the depths; through tears incessantly flowing from the eyes; through alms given liberally with piety to the poor; through a life adorned with virtues, and a religious and disciplined conversation. For it is worth the effort to prepare ourselves, and to secure the provisions necessary for that journey; and let us not say that we will do penance then, when we are about to depart from this life. For it is uncertain whether we shall even be able to utter our last words to our family, being snatched away quickly by him who compels the soul to depart from the body. How many, do you think, have been taken suddenly, and were able neither to shed tears, nor to settle their own affairs by a will? Indeed, who has guaranteed or assured you that you will then be able to obtain forgiveness by repenting? Or that you will show a repentance like that of the thief, or possess as many tears as he offered? Wherefore let us not wait for such forced repentance ^B as exists at death; for it is uncertain whether we shall be its masters. But as long as life remains, as long as the stadium lies before us, as long as it is still permitted to live, as long as the severance has not yet arrived, let us make haste to appease the Judge, in whom there is no respect of persons: so that in this life we may draw His aid upon us, and in the life to come we may find Him looking upon us gently, and granting us the promised kingdom with all the saints; for to Him glory is due, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the endless ages of ages. Amen.

OF ANASTASIUS, PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH, FROM THE DISCOURSE: ACCORDING TO THE IMAGE, A FRAGMENT.

^D Man possesses not only one image and likeness [of God] within himself, but also a second, and a third, and a fourth, and even a fifth: representing within himself, as if in a mirror or a painting—not indeed typically, but naturally—the mystery of the tri-hypostatic Divinity; and not only that, but also clearly outlining the incarnation of the one of the same holy and Trinity, the Word of God; and perhaps according to the image

the soul is taken separately as an image of mere Divinity, but it is entirely a composite, coalescing from our soul and body, after the similitude of the incarnation of the divine Word. But let us rather return to the principle of our discourse, inquiring there, as if from a certain fountain, why God did not create the primary persons of our ancestors—I mean Adam, Eve, and the son who proceeded from them—according to the likeness of the rest of the intellectual beings, that is, the angels, or conversely in equality with living creatures, but instead established Adam without cause and unbegotten; and his second human being, the son, as begotten; and Eve, neither begotten nor yet without cause, but deriving her existence by processive mode, having issued ineffably from the substance of the causeless Adam. And are not these ^B three heads of our ancestors, consubstantial persons of all humanity, become typically an image of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, as it also seems to Methodius? For Adam, as unbegotten, bears the type and image of the causeless and all-causing almighty God and Father; and his begotten son prefigures the image of the begotten Son and Word of God; and the proceeding Eve signifies the proceeding person of the holy Spirit. Hence God did not breathe the breath of life into her, so that she might be a type of the breath and life of the holy Spirit, and because she was destined to receive through the holy Spirit God, who is truly the soul and life of all things. Whence it is possible to see and marvel that the unbegotten Adam had no other unbegotten or causeless likeness among men, just as the proceeding Eve did not; because they were true types of the unbegotten Father and of the holy Spirit; ^C but the begotten Son had all men, being begotten sons, as brothers likewise, because he existed as a typical image and likeness of Christ the begotten Son, who became man, the firstborn without seed among many brothers. But if it were not so, and not in this sense were the first parents made according to the image of God, why have there not been four, or two, or more persons, having distinct hypostatic properties—I mean the unbegotten, the begotten, and the proceeding—instead of only three, existing as a typical Trinity in unity, in three persons?

It remains for you to learn also the unity in the Trinity: and that you may clearly understand how this is to be rightly discerned, listen to one of the wise ones exhorting you, saying: If you wish to know God, first learn to know yourself; from your own, he says, constitution, from your own composition, from your interiors; descend into yourself; fix your eyes upon your soul as in a certain ^D mirror; discern its constitution, and you shall see yourself existing according to the image and likeness of God. For your soul’s substance is nameless and unknown, and intellectual, and immortal, established after the typical image and likeness of the nameless and unknown and immortal God; for in this age, man living does not know either the nature of God or of the spiritual soul; which

[...continuation from previous page] ...that quickens, gathers, and preserves a body consisting of four elements, is the soul, which is in the image of God who provides for every creature below and above. Wherefore we do not know where God dwells, but only believe that He is in all things; nor likewise do we know where the soul dwells in the body, but we know only that it is in it and acts within it. ^A

In another way, too, your soul is in the image of God, inasmuch as it is of a different nature from every creature; but what is most wondrous is that, just as the human mind cannot overthrow the proofs of God’s existence, so too it cannot overthrow the proofs of our soul’s existence, in whatever way it may have come to be. But come, let us now arrive at the supreme mode of the image and likeness, to demonstrate in the soul, as we promised, the unity of the Divinity in the Trinity. It is manifest that there are three things: the soul, that is to say, its spiritual word, and the mind—which the Apostle calls spirit, when he admonishes us to be holy in soul, body, and spirit. For our soul is unbegotten, after the pattern of the unbegotten God and Father; but its spiritual word is not unbegotten, but is begotten from it ineffably, invisibly, inenarrably, and without labor, after the pattern of the begotten Son. ^B The mind, however, is neither unbegotten nor begotten, but proceeding, traversing all things, searching all things, and invisibly considering them, in the image and likeness of the most holy and proceeding Spirit, of whom it is said that the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. The soul is not proceeding so long as it is in the body; for if it were proceeding, we would die in a moment. Our word is not unbegotten, otherwise we would be stupid and brute beasts. But what is most marvelous of all is this: we have a simple soul, and likewise a mind that is one and inconcrete, but a word that is double, having a double generation, yet remaining one and indivisible. For the word is generated in the heart ^C in an incomprehensible and incorporeal generation, and it remains within, invisible. Then again it is generated corporally through the lips, and becomes manifest to all; yet it does not depart from the soul that generates it, so that through the double generation of our word, we might learn, as in an image and likeness, the two generations of the divine Word, who was begotten invisibly and ineffably from the Father before the ages, and remains hidden in the Father, as in a soul, until He was born according to the flesh from the holy Virgin, as from a heart, incorruptibly and without pain, and appeared to us corporally through a second generation.

It is seen also in man, ^D as in an image and pattern, a twofold power regarding the image and pattern of Christ. For just as His divinity acted theandrically, [continuation to next page]

of His body, as being uncircumscribed and not circumscribed within the body; so also the soul, which exists according to the image and likeness of the invisible God the Word, acts psychandrically—that is, body-and-souly—in the pattern of the Theandric Christ. It acts also psychically alone in many things, without the cooperation of its own body, in the pattern of the invisible God the Word, who has done and does many things invisibly in heaven and on earth, by reason of His uncircumscribed and universal divine energy. Therefore, love toward God is fulfilled by a psychic energy alone, not needing in this the cooperation of the body; similarly, faith is a demonstration of the soul’s energy alone, and likewise hope and humility are fulfilled by a psychic energy alone; even as ^B temperance is also worked and exists through the energy of the soul. And to speak comprehensively, all the necessary and spiritual virtues, of which the root and foundation is the purity of the heart, are fulfilled according to the intellectual and sole energy of our rational soul, not needing the body for their completion. Whence even the maimed and the weak, and those who are motionless in the flesh, can, through such virtues, please God by the energy of the soul. And in sleep, especially, does our twofold power manifest itself; for while the body has its senses, as it were, dead and almost inactive, the intellectual and rational energy of the soul, wakeful and never silent, roams through all things. Since, how else could the rational soul, when separated from the body in death, subsist, if not through its own intellectual, and vital, and ever-living energy? All divinely inspired Scripture, and the teachings of the Gospels and Apostles, say that God, who fills all things, is in the heavens; wherefore we have learned that the God the Word has descended thence, and we believe He has ascended again to the heavens with His body. If, then, the divine light, our Father who is in the heavens, is above, and the God the Word, light from light, is above, and the Holy Spirit in the highest is above, perhaps according to the image of this most high and holy Trinity ^C we have all the light of our body in the higher parts, and the word and the spirit of the nostrils gathered together in the head, whence, as if from a certain high heaven, this triad-like fullness rules and illumines the world of the body.

NOTICE ON THE FOLLOWING SERMON.

Accedunt Anastasii presbyteri Sinaitae, qui saeculo vixit vii, sermo in quo declarat, quare duos sermones in illud dictum, Ad imaginem, conscripserit; ostenditque qua de causa, atque unde initium duxerit de operationibus atque voluntatibus in Christo disputatio: deinde vero proponit, quinam recte vel secus haec in Christo docuerint. Eruditae antiquitatis studiosos latere minime arbitramur Anastasium Si-

The Sinaite, among other things, wrote ^A *On Man Created in the Image of God*. The first two Sermons of this short work appeared in Greek and Latin under his name at the end of the *Philocalia of Origen*, edited by Joannes Tarinus, Paris, 1618, 4to. The same treatise had also been printed among the works of Gregory of Nyssa with the version of Fronto Ducaeus, with which it had seen the light at Ingolstadt in the year 1596. Certainly, hardly anything could persuade one that the author was younger than Nyssen. See Tillemont, who thinks this writing is a fragment of a larger work in which the author illustrated the more difficult passages of Holy Scripture, which seems by no means probable to the most illustrious Jo. Albertus Fabricius in *Bibliotheca Graeca*, vol. IX, page 531. It is certain that such a work is ascribed to Anastasius in our ancient codex, and indeed divided into three Sermons, the first of which is: *Anastasius, Presbyter of Mount Sinai, On the creation of man by God, in His image and likeness*. The second: *By the same, on the same: In the image, where it is demonstrated that God composed man of mortal and immortal nature for no other reason than that he might be a figure and image of Christ clothed in flesh*. This second ^B in the cited *Philocalia of Origen* is about two pages longer; for after the words, other things follow. It seems, however, to be so joined with the former, which is inscribed as a Book in the same place, that it constitutes a second part of it. Then follows sermon 3, the title of which is: *By the same, sermon 3, following*. In this sermon, the interpreter declares the reason why he wrote two sermons on that saying, *In the image*. He also shows the reason whence the dispute concerning the faculties and wills (in Christ) took its beginning. Then he teaches who have taught these things in Christ piously, or less correctly. Furthermore, this homily, which has hitherto lain hidden in the Medicean Library, seemed truly worthy to be brought to public light for the sake of those who study ecclesiastical erudition. The burden of translating this into Latin had been imposed by us upon a certain Greekling who had frequently requested it; but when, after an interval of six months, he had scarcely touched it, terrified by the difficulty of the matter, the most illustrious ornament of the Dominican family, Fr. Dominicus Stratico, was available to us, and in 12 days he happily completed the version which we have placed below.

ANASTASIUS PRESBYTER SINAITA SERMON III

In this sermon, the interpreter declares the reason why he wrote two sermons on that saying, *In the image*. He also shows equally for what reason, and whence the dispute concerning the operations and wills in Christ took its beginning: then he proposes who have taught these things in Christ correctly, or otherwise.

^C Wise physicians, excellently versed in the instructions for the cure of diseases, are not accustomed to apply prepared remedies against them before they have first known, through intent meditation, the dregs, causes, and roots of the ailments. In exactly the same manner, those who wish to easily and fully prevent the pestiferous diseases of heresies and the causes of corruptions, and to eradicate them from the root, ^D ὧν οιονεὶ προθεμελίους καταβολὰς ἀνορύττοντες, καὶ γυμνοῦντες, καὶ προκατασείοντ…

καὶ προκατασείοντες, τηνικαῦτα εὐμαρῶς, ὡς ἄριστα διαγνόντες, ἄριστα καὶ ἰατρεύειν δυνήσονται. Οὐκ εἰσὶ τοίνυν λαλιαὶ, οὐδὲ λόγοι, οὐχὶ ἀκούονται αἱ φωναὶ αὐτῶν· ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν, καὶ εἰς τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν. Ἐκείνων, λέγω, τῶν πολεμικῶν, Περσικῶν τε καὶ Ῥωμαϊκῶν παρατάξεων, ἡνίκα τὸν νικητικὸν τρόπαιον τοῦ Σταυροῦ συνεργείᾳ Θεοῦ ἐπανῆλθε μεθ' Ἡρακλείου τοῦ βασιλέως ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ.

Οὗτος δὴ ὁ τῆς Ῥωμαϊκῆς κατ' ἐκείνου καιροῦ σκηπτοῦχος βασιλείας Ἡράκλειος ^B ἐπὶ τὰ Χαλδαιά τε καὶ Περσικὰ μέλεθρα τὰς πορείας ποιούμενος κατὰ τὴν ᾿Αντιοχέων πόλιν, περιτυγχάνει τινὶ ᾿Αθανασίῳ πατριάρχῃ λεγομένῳ τῆς τῶν Ἰακωβιτῶν μισιεραρχίας, δεινῷ τινι ὄντι περὶ λόγους, καὶ κακούργῳ τῇ τῶν Σύρων ἐμφύτῳ πανουργίᾳ. Καὶ γινήσας πρὸς αὐτὸν τοὺς περὶ πίστεως τῶν δύο Χριστοῦ φύσεων λόγους, ὁ βασιλεὺς ὑπισχνεῖτο, ὡς εἰ πεισθείὴ αὐτῷ, καὶ δέξηται τὴν ἁγίαν σύνοδον Χαλκηδόνος, πατριάρχην αὐτὸν καθιστῶν τῆς αὐτόθι ἁγίας καθολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας. Εἴτε οὖν ἐν ὑποκρίσει, εἴτε καὶ καθ' ἕτερον τρόπον ὅμως ἐδέξατο τὴν σύνοδον ὁ ᾿Αθανάσιος, ὁμολογήσας τὰς δύο ἐν Χριστῷ ἡνωμένας φύσεις. Καὶ τούτων στοιχηθέντων ἠρώτησε τὸν βασιλεία περὶ τῆς ἐνεργείας, καὶ τῶν θελημάτων τὸ πῶς δεῖ ταῦτα λέγειν ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ, διπλᾶ, ἢ μοναδικά; Ὁ γοῦν βασιλεὺς ξενοφωνηθεὶς ἐπὶ τῇ ἐρωτήσει, ἅτε δὴ οὔπω κατὰ τοὺς ἡμετέρους καιροὺς κινηθείσῃ, γράφει πρὸς Μαρτῖνον τὸν πάπαν Ῥώμης περὶ τούτου· ὁμοίως καὶ πρὸς Σέργιον τὸν ἐπίσκοπον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως. Καὶ ὁ μὲν πάπας ἐσήμανεν αὐτῷ κατὰ τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἁγίων Πατέρων, λέγων, ὅτι ἔνθα δύο φύσεις γνωρίζονται, κτιστή ὁμοῦ τε καὶ ἄκτιστος, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα ἔχειν αὐτὰς καὶ τὰς δύο αὐτῶν φυσικὰς ἰδιότητας, λέγω δὴ τὰ θελήματα, καὶ τὰς ἐνεργείας· ὧν γὰρ ἡ θέλησις καὶ ἡ ἐνέργεια μία, τούτων πάντως καὶ ἡ φύσις μία, καὶ οὐ δύο τυγχάνουσι. Ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα Μαρτίνου τὰ γράμματα.

Ὁ δὲ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Σέργιος, ἅτε δὴ Σύρος γένους ὑπάρχων, ὡς δὴ λόγος, καὶ γονέων Ἰακωβιτῶν ἔγγονος, ^C τὰ ἐναντία Μαρτίνου ἐπέστελλε πρὸς Ἡράκλειον, μίαν τε φυσικὴν θέλησιν, καὶ ἐνέργειαν ἐν Χριστῷ ὁμολογήσας. Δεξάμενος οὖν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων τὰ γράμματα ἐστοίχησε μᾶλλον τοῖς ὑπὸ Σεργίου γραφεῖσιν· ἅπερ καὶ ᾿Αθανάσιος ὑπτίαις χερσὶν ἀσμένως ἐδέξατο, ὡς κακοῦργος γινώσκων, ὅτι ἔνθα μία ἐνέργεια εἴρηται, ἐκεῖ πάντως καὶ μία φύσις γνωρίζεται. Εἶτα ἀποστέλλεται ὁ πάπας Κῦρος ἐν ᾿Αλεξανδρείᾳ, ποιεῖ καὐτὸς ὁμοίως κἀκεῖ τὴν ὑδροβαφῆ ἐκείνην διὰ Θεοδώρου τοῦ Φαρανίτου ἕνωσιν, μᾶλλον δὲ κένωσιν μίαν, καὐτοὶ αὐτόθι γράψαντες ἐν Χριστῷ φυσικὴν τὴν ἐνέργειαν. Τούτων δὴ λοιπὸν οὕτω κατὰ τῶν ᾿Αντιοχέων καὶ ᾿Αλεξανδρέων παρακολουθησάντων, εἰς μέγα ὄνειδος ἡ σύν

σύν οδος Χαλκηδόνος καὶ ἡ καθολικὴ περιέπεσεν Ἐκκλησία. Κατεκαυχῶντο γὰρ οἱ τὰ Ἰακώβου ἐν Συρίᾳ φρονοῦντες, καὶ οἱ τὰ Θεοδοσίου ἐν ᾿Αλεξανδρείᾳ φάσκοντες, ὅτι οὐχ ἡμεῖς τῇ Χαλκηδόνι, ἀλλ' ἡ Χαλκηδὼν μᾶλλον ἡμῖν ἐκοινώνησε, διὰ τῆς μιᾶς ἐνεργείας μίαν ὁμολογήσασα φύσιν Χριστοῦ. ^A Εἶτα ἀκούσας ταῦτα Ἡράκλειος ᾐσχύνθη, καὶ καταλῦσαι μὲν τὰ οἰκεῖα οὐκ ἤθελε, καὶ πάλιν τὸν ὀνειδισμὸν οὐχ ὑπέφερε. Τότε δὴ ὡς μέγα τι νομίζων ποιεῖν, ἐκτίθεται τὸ λεγόμενον ἴδικτον τὸ περιέχον, μήτε μίαν, μήτε δύο ἐνεργείας ὁμολογεῖν ἐν Χριστῷ· ὅπερ δὴ ἀναγνόντες οἱ τὰ Σεβήρου φρονοῦντες, ἐπὶ καπηλείων καὶ βαλανείων διέσυρον τὴν καθολικὴν Ἐκκλησίαν, λέγοντες· Πρώην μὲν τὰ Νεστορίου φρονοῦντες οἱ Χαλκηδονῖται ἀνένηψαν ἐπιστρέψαντες εἰς τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ἑνωθέντες ἡμῖν διὰ τῆς μιᾶς ἐνεργείας εἰς τὴν μίαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ φύσιν· νῦν δὲ καταγνόντες τοῦ καλῶς ἔχοντος ἀπώλεσαν ἀμφότερα, μήτε μίαν, μήτε δύο ἐν Χριστῷ ὁμολογοῦντες. ^B Ταῦτα δὴ ἀκούσας, καὶ θεωρῶν ὁ τῆς Ῥωμαίων πρόεδρος Μαρτίνος, καὶ μὴ φέρων οὕτως αἰσχρῶς ὁρᾷν ὀνειδιζομένην τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν, ποιεῖ ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ σύνοδον πλειόνων ὁσίων ἐπισκόπων, κηρύξας ἐκ Πατερικῶν μαρτυριῶν δύο ἀδιαιρέτους Χριστοῦ τὰς ἰδιότητας, τουτέστι τὴν θείαν καὶ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην θέλησιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐνέργειαν. Εἶτα τελευτᾷ Ἡράκλειος· ἐξορίζεται Μαρτίνος ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐγγόνου Ἡρακλείου· καὶ θᾶττον ἀνέστη ὁ ἐρημικὸς Ἀμαλὴκ τύπτων ἡμᾶς τὸν λαὸν τοῦ Χριστοῦ. ^C Ἐκείνη ἦν ἡ πρώτη καὶ φοβερὰ καὶ ἀνίατος τοῦ Ῥωμαϊκοῦ στρατοῦ πτῶσις· ἡ κατὰ τὴν Γαβιβᾶν λέγω, καὶ Ἱερμουχᾶν, καὶ τὴν Δαθεμῶν αἱμοχυσία, μεθ' ἣν αἱ Παλαιστινῶν, καὶ Καισαρέων, καὶ Ἱεροσολύμων ἁλώσεις καὶ ἐμπρήσεις. Εἶτα ὁ Αἰγύπτιος ὄλεθρος, καὶ καθεξῆς αἱ τῶν μεσογείων, καὶ νήσων, καὶ Ῥωμανίας πάσης αἰχμαλωσίαι καὶ ἀνίατοι ἐρημώσεις. Ἀλλ' οὐδ' οὕτως εἰς συναίσθησιν ἦλθον οἱ Ῥωμαίων ἄρχοντες καὶ κυριεύοντες· ἀλλὰ δὴ μεταστειλάμενοι τοὺς ἐν τῇ Ῥωμαίων συνόδῳ διαλάμψαντας, γλωσσοτομίαις καὶ χειροκοπίαις εἰς αὐτοὺς ἐχρήσαντο. ^D Τί δέ; καὶ ἡ τούτων ἡμῖν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀντίδοσις· ἐκείνη ἡ ἐν τῇ Φοινίκῃ μικροῦ δεῖν παντελὴς τοῦ Ῥωμαϊκοῦ στρατοῦ, καὶ τοῦ στόλου ἀπώλεια, καὶ ἡ κατὰ πρόσβασιν πάλιν πάντων τῶν Χριστιανικῶν λαῶν, καὶ τόπων ἐρήμωσις· ἥτις οὐκ ἐπαύσατο, ἄχρις ἂν ὁ Μαρτίνου διώκτης ἐν Σικελίᾳ ὑπὸ μαχαίρας ἀπέθανεν. Ὁ δὲ τούτου υἱὸς Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ εὐσεβὴς δι' οἰκουμενικῆς συνόδου τὰς ἁγίας Ἐκκλησίας ἥνωσε, θείαν τε ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀνθρωπίνην ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν κατὰ τοὺς ἁγίους Πατέρας ὁμολογήσας θέλησίν τε καὶ ἐνέργειαν. Ἡ δὲ ὁσία σύνοδος, ὥσπερ θυσία εὐπρόσδεκτος, καὶ ὡς ἐκεῖνο τὸ τοῦ Ἀαρὼν θυμίαμα προσδεχθεῖσα παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ ἐπὶ εἴκοσι χρόνους.

χρόνους ^A a[n interval of] twenty years, brought completely to an end the ruin of our people, and turned the swords of the enemy against one another; it brought rest to the cities, made the sea navigable, prevented captivities, and provided for all Romania rest and consolation and peace beyond belief. But those fools did not know these things, nor did they understand; they walk in darkness, and in taverns, and baths, and among the crowds of shameless women, and in brothels they slander us, saying that those who affirm there are two wills in Christ, necessarily posit one as altogether good and the other as wicked, the one divine and the other diabolical. For how, they say, is it possible at all to speak of a human will in Christ, when the Apostle says that "the will of the flesh is not subject to the law of God," and "the will of the flesh is enmity against God," and "we also once were disobedient to God, doing the wills of the flesh; for the will of the flesh is death"? ^B

These things and the like do the enemies of the truth bark against us, like dogs, and horses, and mules, which have no understanding, slandering us as if we were preaching two persons and two subsistences in Christ, and two divisions, and two contrary powers, and as if we denied the term Theotokos, and were declaring everything in Him double and divided, and were proclaiming two energies in Him, one good and one evil. By such babblings and slanders they have harmed the people, rent the Churches, disturbed the regions, insulted the faith, cast out priests, led the monks astray, defiled the rulers, threw everything into confusion, in every city, in every village, in every province, stirring up persecutions, injuries, inquisitions, sentences, exiles, and condemnations, such as not even the Arians ever stirred up against the Church, pursuing us with such hatred as they had not conceived in their minds even against Jews, or Samaritans, or Manichaeans, or Greeks, or deserters and apostates; choosing ^C rather to associate and live with those who worship idols than with us who profess the two properties of Christ indivisibly; and preferring to join in prayer with Jews rather than with us, who confess in Christ a divine and human will and energy, undivided; since they will not, and indeed cannot, distinguish what is the divine and uncreated will, and what is the God-created and God-given will of our rational soul, by which will the good and pleasing will of God is brought about; and what, on the other hand, is the carnal, that is to say, the diabolical and material will, which the divine Apostle and all the Scriptures denounce and reject. For that Paul frequently calls sin "flesh," hear him saying: ^D "Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God," and "those who are in the flesh cannot please God," and "he who sows to the flesh, from the…

flesh shall reap corruption"; and "If you walk according to the flesh, you shall die," ^A calling sin "flesh," but not the nature of our flesh. For he would be found insulting Christ, who says: "Handle me, and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have." So that the holy Church Fathers define carnal will—and the carnal, passion-filled operation of sin—as something alien and foreign to Christ, and not the natural, God-created, blameless, and irreproachable natural will and operation that exists in us according to the image and likeness of God.

But those who are truly and indeed driven by the operation of the devil, and remain subject to the incitements and burning desires of the flesh, and are weighed down by the carnal will, and are defiled and wallowing in these things, being unable to discern what is the superinduced and evil will and the operation contrary to nature, and what is the God-planted and God-given essential rational and desiring will of the soul, and what again is its vital and constitutive operation of the body—like the skilled disciples of Manes, they discredit the will of the nature of the God-created man, and like the Manichaeans they condemn our own God-created flesh, and they insult the life-giving, God-given operation within us, and they blame our intellectual, God-given faculty of desire, through which, aspiring to divine things, we attain salvation; by this whole dogma of theirs they attack the Creator himself. ^B

If, however, this innate will of the soul were evil, how does David say: "For with my will I will confess to the Lord"? For how could the soul possibly will any divine thing at all, if it did not possess a rational will? Or how could it set its mind upon those things which are best and intellectual, or strive toward them, unless it had a rational faculty? By these two properties, it is clearly expressed in it that which is according to the image and likeness of God. For this reason, and for this cause alone, the aforementioned discourses were written by us on the passage "according to the image," in order to show that in man, as in a figure and a certain image, there is an adumbration not only of the two essences of Christ, but also of his two inseparable operations and wills—as if in a faint figure. ^C For to honor father and mother, and to love brothers and kin, is undoubtedly the natural, essential will of human nature, a will implanted in the essence and inseparable from the soul; but to leave and deny father, mother, and brothers for the sake of God is a truly divine and praiseworthy will, surpassing the condition of nature. Behold, therefore, two inseparable wills: one of human nature, and the other above nature itself, and divine. ^D

^A Furthermore, when you see Jesus being subject and serving, as Luke says, to Joseph and to his mother, and running to her and embracing her, as a child, in the holy bosom of her arms, do not hesitate to say that he is doing this by the will and affection of our nature, and that he is demonstrating these things, and showing himself in every way to be perfect, and consubstantial with us according to his humanity, as Paul says, apart from sin alone. But when he says again to his mother, “What is this to me and to you, woman?” ^B and, “Who is my father or my mother, if not he who does the will of him who sent me?”—there he teaches us the divine will, which is above nature. For he was doing and performing all things for our sake, being himself perfect in all things, and pre-perfect, and always existing in fullness; and I consider as more accurate the other interpretation which says that through the logical, deliberative, and intellectual will of the rational soul that he assumed in the form of a servant, Christ fulfilled the obedience, and the will of the Father, and the commandment, and the precept, and the law. And again, through that vital and life-giving power given to it by God—I mean that power of the intellectual soul—God the Word ruled, vivified, and increased his own body according to the measure and law which he gave to the rational soul to vivify, sustain, increase, and move the nature of bodies. For this reason, the soul (ψυχή) is called such for no other cause than that it cools (ψύχειν)—that is, it vivifies—the body. From this, dying is also called "cooling off" (ἀποψύχειν), just as, on the other hand, living is called "breathing again" (ἀναψύχειν).

^C Just as we demonstrated the images of the double nature and likewise of the double will of Christ in the man who was fashioned by him according to his own image and likeness, so too, in a certain image and type, I say, is there seen in man a double power of operation, serving as an emphasis—that is, an image and type—of Christ. For just as his divinity operated theandrically, and also operated divinely in heaven before the assumption of the body, as uncircumscribed and not circumscribed within the body; so too the soul, existing according to the image and likeness of the invisible God the Word, operates psychandrically—that is, in a soul-body manner—as a type of the theandrically operating Christ. But it also operates spiritually alone, with the proper body in no way co-operating in very many things, as a type of the invisible God the Word, who has operated and operates many things invisibly in heaven and on earth through his uncircumscribed, universal, and transcendent divine operation.

Love, therefore, which is directed toward God is perfected according to the spiritual and sole operation, not needing therein the co-operation of the body. Faith, likewise, is a vigor of this one spiritual power alone; and hope, in the same way, is accomplished according to the spiritual and sole ^D

^A activity of our rational soul, requiring no assistance from the body for its fulfillment. Wherefore, even those who are weakened in the flesh, or infirm, or immobile, can through such virtues please God by the activity of their soul. And in sleep, especially, this double nature of our activity is elegantly demonstrated; for although the body has its senses as though dead and almost entirely incapable of action, the intellectual and rational activity of the soul, patient of neither rest nor silence, governs all things. ^B

For how, when separated from the body by death, does the rational soul subsist, except through its own intellectual, vital, and ever-living activity? And how, especially, do the souls of the just now praise God? By what activity do they receive light and radiance from Him? How do they intercede for the world? For everything naturally looks toward that which is akin to it, and tends toward it. For the body, being formed from sluggish, dead, immobile, and insensible earth, becomes dead, lifeless, insensate, immobile, and wholly incapable of any action at death, according to the divine sentence pronounced against the body in Adam: ^C «For dust you are, and to dust you shall return,» as earth from which you were also fashioned. But the soul was not made from earth, nor from air, nor from water, nor from fire, nor from light, nor from the sun, nor from clouds, nor from any other created, visible substance, or nature, or conceivable essence; rather, our soul had its creation, subsistence, and origin—resembling God, given by God, akin to God, created by God—from the very immaculate, eternal, incomprehensible, ineffable, invisible, formless, immortal, incorruptible, and intangible nature of God, which suffers no flux, and through that divine breath. ^D As life and the life-giving principle proceeding from a certain fountain of life, and as a radiance created from a treasury of light, and as a breath of fragrance born from a certain abyss of eternal aromatic scent breathed forth through the divine mouth, it was placed as an inhabitant in Adam. And, to speak boldly, the rational soul was delivered to us by the Word of God, the creator of all, breathed into us from His immaculate mouth, placed from the divine heart into our heart, from God

^A in us, having been animated for us, and having been made rational for us by God. Whence, as having proceeded from God Himself, the Unmoved, through the mouth AND the divine breath, and having been generated, it remains ever-moving; and it alone, beyond all creation, exists and is named according to the image and likeness of God, as having within itself by grace the properties of the divine nature typically; I say, namely, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the bodiless, the formless, the pure, the immortal, the eternal, the incorruptible, the self-ruling, the sinless, the life-giving, the wise, the spiritual, the creative.

For just as God formed man from the earth, so too man, by grace, generates man from a woman; and just as in that first formation man obtained a body from the earth, but a soul originating from God Himself, so now, likewise, the body consists of the feminine earth and blood, but the soul is transmitted ineffably from man through the seed, as if by a certain breath from man. For regarding the making of the angels and of the Cherubim and Seraphim, it is said that He, that is to say God, ^B "spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created" (Ps. xxxii, 9); but this is not so regarding man, who was set forth according to the image and likeness of God. Instead, God formed his body with His own divine hands, but He produced the soul, as an invisible thing, from His own most invisible spirit through the inspiration, and, as seems to Gregory, He made it from Himself, and the Lord did not bestow upon us that which had been formed from any of those things that were outside of Himself.

Therefore, if the soul ^C proceeded from the mouth and breath of God, did not all the essential properties of the soul proceed and come forth along with it—namely, the rational, the intellectual, the volitional, the operative, the life-giving? Upon the removal of which, a rational soul neither exists nor is recognized. For just as the elements are the constituent and completing parts of the body, so the soul is also constituted and recognized by its own proper states and properties, and is distinguished from the irrational as being rational. For man differs from the irrational animals solely according to the intellectual, the rational—that is, the deliberative—and the volitional; in almost all other respects, ^D and especially in those things that pertain to the body, he is seen to be equal, similar, and consubstantial with the irrational animals themselves. For they are from the same earth from which our own body is also composed, and they have anger, and they have movement, and they have an irrational and irrational-soul, and they have life, and voice, and have breath, and flesh, and blood, and humor, and bones, and they have all the things that are perceived in our bodies, and they have memory, as God says to Job, and they have appetite, and hunger, and thirst, and toil, and sweat, and

NOTE. For we find in Scripture both a heart, and a soul, and a mind, and a mouth, and an ear of God.

^A they possess all our bodily qualities; but they do not possess that only rational, and intellectual, and deliberative faculty of our immortal soul, which proceeds from God.

^B Behold, therefore, the blindness and error of the heretics, who confess without omission that all things in Christ are common to us with the brute animals—that is to say: body, matter, corruption, humors, blood, tears, spittle, bones, excrement, nature, hunger, thirst, toil, sweat, death, dissolution—things which by their own nature are truly alien to and unworthy of God, as being proper to cattle, and wild beasts, and reptiles. But these impious men do not endure to confess in Christ, as if they were evil things, the properties of the intellectual and immortal soul—those which exist according to the image and likeness of God, and which have proceeded from His immaculate mouth, and, I might almost say, possess a certain kinship and likeness to God by grace, through which our entire nature, or the nature of mankind, is brought to life and saved. For if the vital and vivifying activity of our soul is taken away, the human being is straightway consigned to death, the body being separated from the psychic energy that holds it together and makes it live. And if, again, our rational soul is deprived of this, and its volitional and appetitive power is destroyed, it differs in no way from the irrational and thoughtless soul of a horse.

For how could it be pleasing to God, if not through this volitional and active motion and power? Or how could it fulfill the will of God, if not through its own inborn and essential will? Which will we find frequently designated in the Sacred Scriptures by various names—that is to say: good will, desire, affection, love. And if it is necessary to insert a few testimonies, it is not to be shunned. It is said, then: “The Lord will perform the will of them that fear Him;” ^C and: “His will is in the law of the Lord;” and: “As the deer panteth after the fountains of water, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God;” and: “My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord;” and: “I have longed for Thy salvation, O Lord.” And regarding love, it is said: “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength;” and: “I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer;” and: “How I have loved Thy law, O Lord;” and: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.” ^D How then shall the soul be able to love God, if it does not possess within itself, essentially, the natural and good power of willing, loving, desiring, longing, and cleaving? By which power, preeminent, Ignatius said: “My love has been crucified.” Which love of God, and affection for God, and longing, and de-

desire for God, and appetite of will towards Him, those who do not possess, but rather possess the diabolical will and fulfill the desires of their own flesh, refuse ^B to confess as something good in Christ this divine gift, created by God and similar to the divine, the faculty of our intellectual soul formed by God, and they even take away its vivifying and constituent faculty, breathed into it by God: if our intellectual soul, which is given by God and is a particle of His own divine nature, were destitute of this, it would be unable to will or to strive toward any of the divine commandments. But if our intellectual soul is a stranger to good and God-imitating will and operation, how does God say to men: “If you are willing, and if you listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the earth”? How shall the soul perform the divine will if it does not have the power of will and operation? And how was Adam permitted, immediately after he was created, to work and keep the Master’s command?

But, the heretics will say to us, man deviated from nature, and so did everything that pertained to man; and for this reason it is alien and unworthy that it should be said there is a human will or human energy in Christ. ^C Not so; for Adam did not turn away or change entirely in his nature from incorruption to corruption; but the body, as having been fashioned and created from the earth and a mutable nature, endured this conversion from the incorruptibility and immortality in which it used to rejoice, becoming corruptible and mortal through transgression. For such is the man who fell among thieves and became, as the Gospel says, half-dead from their blows, but not yet dead. For the soul, since it was created from the immortal and immutable divine essence through the in-breathing—even if it fell together with the assault of the tree—nevertheless remained in its own proper incorruptibility and immortality, according to the image and likeness of God, not needing an essential reformation, like the body, but only a certain rational correction and confession; it did not suffer the removal of its will, lest it become irrational, nor the deletion of its energy, lest it become dead and inoperative, as are inanimate things.

The Word of God, therefore, having come to renew ^D Adam, created for Himself such a soul as He had from the beginning imparted to Adam through the in-breathing from Himself, or rather, He breathed it in, existing according to the image of the Word of God Himself and according to His likeness, as the Scripture says, existing wholly according to His image, having its existence according to His likeness, its will according to His image, and its energy tracing out His image, pure, immaculate, ineffable, sinless, not needing an essential reformation like the body, and not needing the change and reconstruction of the body's proper parts and members, not having a will in need of annihilation, not having an energy in need of destruction. For what is—

^A needy of a substantial reconstruction, if it is that which proceeded from God and exists in the image and likeness of God, and especially the soul of the most immaculate Word of God?

For the soul of Adam indeed received its existence from God through the in-breathing; but the soul of Emmanuel received its existence as God-infused, and composite, and God-like—from Him, and through Him, and with Him, and in Him, subsisting by hypostasis in a combined way within the all-immaculate and God-receiving womb. Therefore, if it is not bold to say it, I would say that just as of old the Word of God ineffably brought forth from Himself and created the essence of a rational soul, so also from the virginal loins He made it dwell within Himself. And what remaining stain ^B can an essence have, which in the beginning proceeded from God in creation, and now possesses its dwelling in God Himself, subsisting with God, having attained a far more honorable will and operation? For whereas at that time it had its powers and faculties separated from God, now they are joined to God Himself by the hypostatic union, and are in a way God-like, and subsist with God Himself. Since these things are so, it is again, I say, the broad mockery of the folly of the heretics, that they confess in Christ the passions common to the brute nature of the flesh, which are subject to changes, but refuse to speak of the properties of the soul that is according to His image, which are immutably [fixed] as to their essence.

And that they may not think these things have been said by our own notions and fables, and argued against them, come, with the aid of God, let us offer the evidence ^C from Scripture itself.

The divine forerunner John, having been bound in prison, and foreseeing with the eyes of his mind that he was about to be put to death by Herod and proceed to the underworld, sending two of his disciples, questioned Christ, saying: "Are you the one who is to come"—that is, the one who is to descend into the underworld—"or do we look for another?" Just as Peter also says in his Catholic Epistle regarding Christ, that "having gone, He preached to the spirits in prison, who were sometimes disobedient," which descent the Lord Himself foretells in Job, saying: "Have you come to the sources of the sea, and walked in the footprints of the abyss? Do the gates of death open to you in fear, and did the gatekeepers of the underworld see you and shudder?" ^D How, then, did this descent of Christ into the underworld, and His presence, and His preaching take place? "No one has ever seen God," nor can he see Him; furthermore, the most holy body of Christ after death lay above on the earth in the tomb. How then was the underworld despoiled? By what manner did the guards of the underworld see Him and shudder? Who from the ages visited the souls of sleeping men bound in chains? It is evident, however, that the most immaculate soul of the Lord God Jesus Christ deigned to visit the souls of the rational spirits that are consubstantial with it: it was this that descended to them in a composite way; it was this that despoiled the prison; it was this that bound the tyrant, and

proclaimed to those lying in the chains, "Go forth," as one sustaining the place of a perfect man consisting of soul and body, rationally, as a rational being, voluntarily, and actively preaching in Hades and bringing help, and bringing trouble upon [the enemy], the intellectual looking upon intellectual [beings], soul upon souls, the rational upon the rational, the vital upon the vital, the immortal upon the immortal, the active upon the active, the willing upon those endowed with the faculty of will. For how, had it not been through their own intellectual and rational will, would they have received the preaching of the holy soul? For they did not believe and were not saved by necessity and against their will, nor without volition, but voluntarily and by a decision of the will, and by the operation of consent. ^B My statements are confirmed by Gregory, the standard-bearer of theology, who expresses himself thus regarding Christ’s descent into Hades in his Sermon on Holy Pascha: "If Christ ascends the cross, ascend with him; if he descends into Hades, descend with him. Learn the mysteries there, the double descent; does he save everyone without exception by his advent, or only those who believed there?" Behold, Gregory does not say that all the souls in Hades were saved, but only those who had believed in Christ of their own free choice and will. For how could they have believed without rational will and operation? For when Christ visited men living here above on earth in flesh and soul, he did so through flesh and soul, purging "like by like," as Gregory says, speaking to visible beings through a visible nature, and dwelling among them; but those souls already departed from their bodies he visited through his immaculate soul, which was departed from a body. ^C If the immaculate soul of the Lord lacks a will, it is manifest that it was necessarily subjected to God the Word like an irrational creature, just as Apollinaris foolishly imagines; if it were without a will, it is evident that it descended into Hades after the manner of some star or unreasoning and mindless cloud, and under the Divinity, like an inanimate and mute instrument, it spoke and preached, possessing neither the indwelling word in accordance with the essence of souls, nor intelligence, nor thought, nor circumscribed or outgoing operation, nor local movement. ^D And then by what operation was it separated from the body, leaving it dead, and inanimate, and motionless, and inactive, possessing the movements of the members and active deeds? By what operation did it depart from the prison of Hades and return to its own body? For the divine operation, being as it is uncircumscribed and filling all things, does not go from place to place, nor shift from territory to territory, nor does it depart and then again return locally. If the Lord’s soul was without will and without operation in Hades, then certainly it also possessed unreason and ignorance, and the soul of Samuel, having ascended from Hades for the sake of some dispensation, would be found more honored than it,

and having spoken to Saul, and having predicted to him tomorrow’s death, both his and his children’s; which a demon would neither have known, nor been able to predict, even if some people might think so.

Now, as the occasion calls for bringing forth that testimony of the blessed Athanasius regarding the immaculate soul of the Lord, which speaks as follows: “But neither are the thoughts of the divine Word even now inactive and idle, nor does the rational soul united to Him in hypostasis threaten non-existence to itself by not willing or not wishing.” Do you hear, you who are truly irrational and inactive, that not to will and not to wish for the intellectual soul of the Lord signifies the non-existence of its essence? ^B

Therefore, when you hear the same holy Father, or some other of the Fathers, saying that Christ hid the carnal will, and brought to an end human volition, and that He existed without human reasonings and carnal desires, and that He rejected carnal operation, know precisely that He did not hide, or erase, or bring to an end the will and operation in His image and likeness of the intellectual soul that proceeded from His immaculate and incorporeal mouth; since He would be found destroying, and rendering invisible, and overturning the things made by Him and proceeding from Him as if they were evil, and discordant, and hostile to Him; and henceforth the blame and the reproach would recoil upon Him, as having created a ^C wicked will and operation along with the soul: which God forbid that it should ever be said! Therefore, it was the diabolical will and Satanic operation that Christ rejected and brought to an end, which the divine Scripture, and the holy Apostle, and the blessed Fathers often call “carnal,” and declare to have been derived into man from the mouth of the serpent, and to have dwelt in him; but not the operation and will in the image and likeness of God, which was breathed into us from the mouth of God; for this alone is the God-given will and operation in us, and is the cause and worker of all our salvation. For by the voluntary will of the soul we have believed in God; by a voluntary will we observe virginity; by a voluntary will we practice asceticism, and sleeping on the ground, and love; by the will we love our neighbor; and, to express it briefly, all spiritual and divine visions, and illuminations, and revelations, and advancements are operated and perfected by God ^D and come to us within our intellectual will and operation of the soul.

And although this has been mentioned by us briefly in the preceding pages, now again we shall speak more fully. There are, then, two commandments, according to the opinion of the Lord and the Apostle, in which all the commandments are contained and bound together,

^A namely: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." And these two commandments are said to be, and are put into action, according to the soul. For love, as Dionysius says, is a unifying and joining disposition of the soul toward the desired object. Likewise, the beatitudes of the Lord are brought to completion according to the intellectual will and energy of the soul; for what is said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," pertains to a virtue of the soul; similarly also, "Blessed are those who mourn," is put into action from the soul’s sympathy and will; just as also, "Blessed are the meek," and "Blessed are the pure in heart," and "Blessed are the peacemakers." ^B And not only these things, but also faith, hope, and love are virtues of the soul, and are undoubtedly judged to be not bodily. Indeed, of this same kind are also those which the Apostle of the Gentiles himself enumerates, saying that "the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness," and the rest. By the intellectual will and operation, they are present to the soul.

And since those who deny the essential properties of our nature in the Lord are like senseless horses and mules—I mean, those who hear of the essential will and energy of the soul—we shall speak more clearly, interpreting and weighing the power and faculty of these things. For the will of the rational soul is, as the great Dionysius also briefly defined it, a rational faculty, ^C by which we are moved with desire to be joined to God, essentially given to the soul by God, through which the first man worked and kept the divine commandments, proceeding from the will of the soul into the operation of the commandments of God. But these things are said concerning Adam. But it shall be said concerning Christ the Son of God, that He willingly took on the form of a servant, that is, the substance of a servant. Therefore, what was the form and substance of the servant in Christ? By what does one hear of the "form of a servant," according to what slavery, and ministry, and subjection? Is it according to the Lordly will and energy and form of the Word of God, that we might depart from the madness of Arius? ^D

But since we humans were made sinners through the disobedience of the first man, Adam having disobeyed the commandments of God, for this reason Christ, through His own obedience, restored us to righteousness, having fulfilled in the form of a servant the commandments of the Master, which the servant had not kept from the beginning. For just as the Master endured death—to which the servant had become subject—through the mortal form of the servant, becoming obedient even unto the death of the cross; so too the transgression of the Law and of the will of God, which the servant had perpetrated, He Himself in

the servant owed, in the form of a servant ^A fulfilled, and completed by the Lord; for which reason he also said: "Because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father, and to fulfill his work, and to keep his commandments." This keeping, then, of the commandments of God, and this will of the Father who sent him—according to what will, or rather by what will, did Christ accomplish this, if he did not possess at all the will of an intellectual soul in the form of a servant? For according to the divinity, the will of the Father and of the Son is one, governing and commanding. What, therefore, is the will of Christ that fulfilled the divine will? For it is manifest that the commanding will is one thing, and the subordinate and obedient will is another. If, therefore, he performs the ministry according to the divine will, it would by all means follow that he is a servant and a minister also according to the divine nature ^B, according to the fictions of the Arians; and this I shall attempt to make manifest immediately.... (the rest is missing).

EXCERPTS

FROM THE UNCLEAN AND IMPIOUS SENTIMENTS OF ARIUS

Which deny the consubstantial deity of the Son of God, and call the Creator of all things a creature.

(Ang. Mai, Script. Vet. t. VII, p. 202.)

—

From the discourse on the Trinity by Arius, the unclean leader of the Arian impiety. ^C

Thus, therefore, are those evangelical words to be understood which say: "I do not seek my own will," and because "I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me," as if the will of the Son were not perfectly agreeing and concurring with the paternal counsels. Whence he fittingly prefers the will of his Father to his own, saying: "Not my will, Father, be done, but thine."

From the same Arius, in the interpretation which he published against the symbol of the Nicene Fathers.

"For we ourselves also were once," he says, "incredulous, ^D doing the wills of the flesh." Which also in another place...