Consider pray, how this Father also maintains the same view with ourselves concerning the figure of the world and |351 as to the figure remark how he calls the kingdom of heaven God's tamieion ----the tamieion being the innermost and securest apartment of the house, and this he speaks of as the kingdom of heaven. And concerning the doctrine, remark, how he represents man, whose nature God assumed, and whom God recalled from death, and deemed worthy of the place of honour at His right hand, as being seated and established in the tamieion itself, that is, in the kingdom of heaven. How then do those lovers of strife cry out against us, as if we have gone a strange road----a road that is known to nobody? Let them desist from that voluntary madness, and no longer assail us with slanders: for it is God who justifieth, where is he that condemneth? For it is God who first confirms our opinions, then the Prophets and Apostles and the Evangelists and the renowned company of the Fathers----Fathers from among whom ye yourselves profess to accept some, while moreover there are even old pagan writers who in some points are in agreement with our opinions. But that we may not unduly prolong the discussion, we have deemed it sufficient to advance solely the testimonies already offered for the sake of the lovers of strife, and for their sake only who have the assurance to challenge our principles, or rather, I should say, the truth itself; and this we have done, in order that they may have an absolute refutation of their ill-timed madness, and from a desire to make manifest to all that the motive, by which they are actuated, is a sheer love of strife. And in order that what we have written may be supported not solely by the testimonies of these ancient authorities I will adduce the testimony, and that even in abounding measure, of a recent schismatical Father of theirs, one who is still living, and resident in Constantinople, and who whether from |352 ignorance, or from being constrained by the truth itself, agrees with what we have written.
[331] From Theodosius, Bishop of Alexandria ---- On the fortieth day of the Ascension of the Lord.
"To-day human nature is conveyed into heaven----to-day heaven is thrown open and man enters therein."
What will our opponents say to this? How has he not borne testimony to our opinions both with regard to the figure of the world and to the doctrine? Oh how wonderful the force of the truth, which attracts to it even its enemies against their will!
From the same ---- in another exposition.
"It is no great thing if God overcame the devil."
Oh how wonderful! Here also the truth reveals their ill-timed love of strife. For if he says it is no great thing for God when contending with the devil to overcome him, why then----to say the opposite is downright madness; for to God, not only the devil but the whole of creation is subordinate, and will be counted as nought. How then is it not manifest that he means, that it was man who contended with the devil and overcame him? Now this is even a great point, for he had before spoken of man, as having entered as a conqueror into heaven. And that he holds to this meaning is shown when again he exclaims: For it behoved, it behoved, I say that this nature, which had been foiled in wrestling, should be adorned with a crown ----as if he said: This nature which was overcome by the devil in Paradise, as he,says, namely man, whom he declares frequently and at great length to have been bettered by the resurrection----him, I say, he pronounced with all frankness to have been carried up into heaven. |353
From an exposition by the same given in the great Church when the Gospel was read: " Father, if it be possible, let it pass from me" etc.
"The sufferings of this flesh----and the tokens of suffering, anguish, and sweat, grief and perturbation of soul----all these are indicative of human nature."
Oh what a marvel is here! They say such things and yet they quarrel with us, making divisions in the Churches in defiance of all authority. For where is it written that He was in agony and sweated, if not in Luke where it is said: And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground----and there appeared unto him an angel from heaven strengthening him. How dare they say these words, and on the other hand condemn those who dare to [332] expound them? Is not the love of strife on the part of such men manifest? But dismissing this authority, let us pass over to one who was his predecessor in office, Timotheus the younger, who recently died, and show that he also unwillingly assents to what we have written. He writes, then, in explanation of the passage which, at the sacred period of Easter in the Church of St. Victor, was read from the Prophet Isaiah, who says: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before her shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth; and when in his exposition he referred to the passage: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, he spoke to this effect: |354
Timotheus on the passage: "Father, if it be possible," etc.
"For it is natural for the soul to love to dwell always in the body, and to be vexed at taking leave of life." And again in the Church of Sarapammon he exclaimed: "And greater things than those will be given unto Me by the Father----resurrection from the dead, renovation of nature, and vivification, instead of corruption."
From a discourse of the same at the festival of the Holy Nativity
----on the birth of Christ, on the 30th of Choiac in the 10th Indiction.
"The Virgin brought forth a son who was perfect and sinless"----and a little subsequently he says: "Let us be circumcised with Christ, that we may also be purified along with Him."
And again in the Church of St. Theodorus on the 8th of Tybi in the 10th Indiction.
"For through that which was apparent he showed the power of that which was concealed." |355
From an exposition by the same in the Church of Quirinus on the Lord's Day on the 22nd of Pachôn in the 5th Indiction, when the passage in the Gospel of John had been read. " Now Jesus being wearied with his journey was sitting."
"Since therefore He is at once both God and man He is proved to be both by His works, and this cannot escape the notice of the spectators. For, that He is by nature God, is shown both by His works and His signs, cleansing the lepers, giving sight to the blind, strength to the paralytic, and life to the dead----and what is greatest of all (for the Prophets also equally succeeded in doing these things) He expressly and unreservedly said: I and my Father are one. But, by the things mentioned, the might of His divinity is fully proved----and that He is also truly man, this He does not wish to go unobserved; thus in anticipation refuting those who erroneously think He assumed a body in appearance only, for He showed [333] clearly that He submitted to sufferings----and to what kind of sufferings? to those, forsooth, which are assigned to flesh by reason of its infirmity and not by reason of sin----I mean, for instance, hunger and thirst and the need of sleep, and fatigue. For as these things happen to us by nature and not by our choice, they do not affect with sin those who have to endure them. By these sufferings then which were not incurred by sin the Lord declared that His flesh obeyed, showing clearly that He had become man in nature and in truth, and not in seeming."
From a discourse of the same in the sanctuary at the Pachôn Festival.
"It belongs to God to work miracles, to command the |356 elements, and to make predictions of future events, but to man when civilized and leading a social life, it belongs to honour parents, to maintain kindly intercourse with brothers, and to converse with disciples and acquaintances. Accordingly our Lord Jesus Christ being both God of God, and having become man for our sake, exhibits both the power of His divinity, and observes also the laws of our humanity, proving what He was and is by His miracles, and showing by His actions what He deigned to become."
From a discourse by the same on the fortieth day from the Ascension of the Lord, on the 25th Pachôn in the 9th Indiction ---- the text, taken from the Gospel of John, being: " It is expedient for you that I go away."
"But let us consider the words now spoken by Him to His illustrious disciples----namely: It is expedient for you that I go away. For your salvation have I come down to the earth, for your benefit it is well that I go up into heaven. For your sakes did I, hitherto bodiless, come down----it is expedient for Me to be there with the body; your race did I resolve to draw up to heaven; it behoves Me in the flesh to take My seat on the right hand of the Father. It behoves Me to open up a way that before was strange, as a new way, and to show that heaven is accessible to man. I take my way first through the air, in order that you also afterwards may be caught up into the air in clouds to meet Me." And I fancied I heard him, as he was reading, expressly proclaim how that this man shrinks from departure from life, and "how that He through suffering and the resurrection received incorruption and renovation of His nature and vivification----how that through prevailing infirmity He was formerly subject to sufferings and fatigue----how that |357 moreover He was drawn to heaven and deemed worthy of the seat on the right hand, and was the first to traverse the strange way, and the first to make heaven accessible [334] to men."
O harmony of those not in harmony with us! Oh! the involuntary agreement of the schismatics with us! Oh! the unwilling laudation, the assent, that is, of our revilers to our opinions! How have we not all round shown ourselves to be the children of the Church? They say, forsooth, we have not trodden the beaten way. How are they not to be utterly condemned who disbelieve all these things or argue against them? How is our work not in all things attested to be the true offspring of the tradition of the Church? God is our witness, then the Apostles, Prophets, the glorious company of the holy Fathers.
[Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]