Oration XLI. On Pentecost.

 I.  Let us reason a little about the Festival, that we may keep it spiritually.  For different persons have different ways of keeping Festival but to

 II.  Wherefore we must keep the feast spiritually.  And this is the beginning of our discourse for we must speak, even if our speech do seem a little

 III.  As to the honour paid to Seven there are many testimonies, but we will be content with a few out of the many.  For instance, seven precious spir

 IV.  And if we must also look at ancient history, I perceive that Enoch, the seventh among our ancestors, was honoured by translation.  I perceive als

 V.  We are keeping the feast of Pentecost and of the Coming of the Spirit, and the appointed time of the Promise, and the fulfilment of our hope.  And

 VI.  They who reduce the Holy Spirit to the rank of a creature are blasphemers and wicked servants, and worst of the wicked.  For it is the part of wi

 VII.  If, my friends, you will not acknowledge the Holy Spirit to be uncreated, nor yet eternal clearly such a state of mind is due to the contrary s

 VIII.  Confess, my friends, the Trinity to be of One Godhead or if you will, of One Nature and we will pray the Spirit to give you this word God.  H

 IX.  The Holy Ghost, then, always existed, and exists, and always will exist.  He neither had a beginning, nor will He have an end but He was everlas

 X.  Are you labouring to bring forth objections?  Well, so am I to get on with my discourse.  Honour the Day of the Spirit restrain your tongue if yo

 XI.  He wrought first in the heavenly and angelic powers, and such as are first after God and around God.  For from no other source flows their perfec

 XII.  And therefore He came after Christ, that a Comforter should not be lacking unto us but Another Comforter, that you might acknowledge His co-equ

 XIII.  This was proclaimed by the Prophets in such passages as the following:—The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and, There shall rest upon Him Seven

 XIV.  This Spirit shares with the Son in working both the Creation and the Resurrection, as you may be shewn by this Scripture By the Word of the Lor

 XV.  They spoke with strange tongues, and not those of their native land and the wonder was great, a language spoken by those who had not learnt it. 

 XVI.  But as the old Confusion of tongues was laudable, when men who were of one language in wickedness and impiety, even as some now venture to be, w

 XVII.  Next, since it was to inhabitants of Jerusalem, most devout Jews, Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, Egyptians, and Libyans, Cretans too, and Arab

 XVIII.  These questions have been examined before by the studious, and perhaps not without occasion and whatever else any one may contribute at the p

V.  We are keeping the feast of Pentecost and of the Coming of the Spirit, and the appointed time of the Promise, and the fulfilment of our hope.  And how great, how august, is the Mystery.  The dispensations of the Body of Christ are ended; or rather, what belongs to His Bodily Advent (for I hesitate to say the Dispensation of His Body, as long as no discourse persuades me that it is better to have put off the body32    S. Gregory makes this explanation because there were certain heretics who taught that our Lord at His Ascension laid aside His Humanity.  It is said that this was held by certain Manichæans, who based their idea on Ps. xix. 4, where the LXX. and Vulgate read, “He hath set His Tabernacle in the Sun.”), and that of the Spirit is beginning.  And what were the things pertaining to the Christ?  The Virgin, the Birth, the Manger, the Swaddling, the Angels glorifying Him, the Shepherds running to Him, the course of the Star, the Magi worshipping Him and bringing Gifts, Herod’s murder of the children, the Flight of Jesus into Egypt, the Return from Egypt, the Circumcision, the Baptism, the Witness from Heaven, the Temptation, the Stoning for our sake (because He had to be given as an Example to us of enduring affliction for the Word), the Betrayal, the Nailing, the Burial, the Resurrection, the Ascension; and of these even now He suffers many dishonours at the hands of the enemies of Christ; and He bears them, for He is longsuffering.  But from those who love Him He receives all that is honourable.  And He defers, as in the former case His wrath, so in ours His kindness; in their case perhaps to give them the grace of repentance, and in ours to test our love; whether we do not faint in our tribulations33    Ephes. iii. 13. and conflicts for the true Religion, as was from of old the order of His Divine Economy, and of his unsearchable judgments, with which He orders wisely all that concerns us.  Such are the mysteries of Christ.  And what follows we shall see to be more glorious; and may we too be seen.  As to the things of the Spirit, may the Spirit be with me, and grant me speech as much as I desire; or if not that, yet as is in due proportion to the season.  Anyhow He will be with me as my Lord; not in servile guise, nor awaiting a command, as some think.34    The reference is to the Macedonians or Pneumatomachi, followers of Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had passed from extreme or Anomœan Arianism to Semi-Arianism, and was forcibly intruded on the See by order of Constantius in 343, but was afterwards deposed.  After his deposition he broached the heresy known by his name, denying the Deity of the Holy Ghost; some of its adherents, with Macedonius himself, maintaining Him to be a mere creature; others stopping short of this; and others calling Him a creature and servant of the Son.  The heresy was formally condemned in the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381.  For He bloweth where He wills and on whom He wills, and to what extent He wills.35    John iii. 8.  Thus we are inspired both to think and to speak of the Spirit.

Εʹ. Πεντηκοστὴν ἑορτάζομεν, καὶ Πνεύματος ἐπιδημίαν, καὶ προθεσμίαν ἐπαγγελίας, καὶ ἐλπίδος συμπλήρωσιν. Καὶ τὸ μυστήριον ὅσον! ὡς μέγα τε καὶ σεβάσμιον! Τὰ μὲν δὴ σωματικὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πέρας ἔχει, μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ τῆς σωματικῆς ἐνδημίας: ὀκνῶ γὰρ εἰπεῖν τὰ τοῦ σώματος, ἕως ἂν μηδεὶς πείθῃ με λόγος, ὅτι κάλλιον ἀπεσκευάσθαι τοῦ σώματος. Τὰ δὲ τοῦ Πνεύματος ἄρχεται. Τίνα δὲ ἦν τὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ; Παρθένος, γέννησις, φάτνη, σπαργάνωσις, ἄγγελοι δοξάζοντες, ποιμένες προστρέχοντες, ἀστέρος δρόμος, μάγων προσκύνησις καὶ δωροφορία, Ἡρώδου παιδοφονία, φεύγων Ἰησοῦς εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ἐπανιὼν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, περιτεμνόμενος, βαπτιζόμενος, μαρτυρούμενος ἄνωθεν, πειραζόμενος, λιθαζόμενος δι' ἡμᾶς, οἷς τύπον ἔδει δοθῆναι τῆς ὑπὲρ τοῦ λόγου κακοπαθείας, προδιδόμενος, προσηλούμενος, θαπτόμενος, ἀνιστάμενος, ἀνερχόμενος, ὧν καὶ νῦν πάσχει πολλά: παρὰ μὲν τῶν μισοχρίστων, τὰ τῆς ἀτιμίας καὶ φέρει (μακρόθυμος γάρ): παρὰ δὲ τῶν φιλοχρίστων, τὰ τῆς ἐπιτιμίας. Καὶ ἀναβάλλεται, ὥσπερ ἐκείνοις τὴν ὀργὴν, οὕτως ἡμῖν τὴν χρηστότητα: τοῖς μὲν ἴσως μετανοίας διδοὺς καιρὸν, ἡμῶν δὲ δοκιμάζων τὸν πόθον, εἰ μὴ ἐκκακοῦμεν ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσι καὶ τοῖς ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας ἀγῶσιν: ὥσπερ ἄνωθεν θείας οἰκονομίας λόγος, καὶ τῶν ἀνεφίκτων αὐτοῦ κριμάτων, οἷς εὐθύνει σοφῶς τὰ ἡμέτερα. Τὰ μὲν δὴ Χριστοῦ τοιαῦτα: καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς ὀψόμεθα ἐνδοξότερα, καὶ ὀφθείημεν. Τὰ δὲ τοῦ Πνεύματος, παρέστω μοι τὸ Πνεῦμα, καὶ διδότω λόγον, ὅσον καὶ βούλομαι: εἰ δὲ μὴ τοσοῦτον, ἀλλ' ὅσος γε τῷ καιρῷ σύμμετρος. Πάντως δὲ παρέσται δεσποτικῶς, ἀλλ' οὐ δουλικῶς, οὐδὲ ἀναμένον ἐπίταγμα, ὥς τινες οἴονται. Πνεῖ γὰρ ὅπου θέλει, καὶ ἐφ' οὓς βούλεται, καὶ ἡνίκα, καὶ ὅσον. Οὕτως ἡμεῖς καὶ νοεῖν καὶ λέγειν ἐμπνεόμεθα περὶ τοῦ Πνεύματος.