Oration XXXIX. Oration on the Holy Lights.

 I.  Again My Jesus, and again a mystery not deceitful nor disorderly, nor belonging to Greek error or drunkenness (for so I call their solemnities, a

 II.  Therefore listen to the Voice of God, which sounds so exceeding clearly to me, who am both disciple and master of these mysteries, as would to Go

 III.  Is there any such among the shadowy purifications of the Law, aiding as it did with temporary sprinklings, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling

 IV.  We are not concerned in these mysteries with birth of Zeus and thefts of the Cretan Tyrant (though the Greeks may be displeased at such a title f

 V.  And where will you place the butchery of Pelops, which feasted hungry gods, that bitter and inhuman hospitality?  Where the horrible and dark spec

 VI.  I pass over the honours they pay to reptiles, and their worship of vile things, each of which has its peculiar cultus and festival, and all share

 VII.  Well, let these things be the amusement of the children of the Greeks and of the demons to whom their folly is due, who turn aside the honour of

 VIII.  But since to us grace has been given to flee from superstitious error and to be joined to the truth and to serve the living and true God, and t

 IX.  Wherefore we must purify ourselves first, and then approach this converse with the Pure unless we would have the same experience as Israel, who

 X.  For the same Word is on the one hand terrible through its nature to those who are unworthy, and on the other through its loving kindness can be re

 XI.  And now, having purified the theatre by what has been said, let us discourse a little about the Festival, and join in celebrating this Feast with

 XII.  For to us there is but One God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and One Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things and One Holy Ghost, in Wh

 XIII.  Since then these things are so, or rather since This is so and His Adoration ought not to be rendered only by Beings above, but there ought to

 XIV.  At His birth we duly kept Festival, both I, the leader of the Feast, and you, and all that is in the world and above the world.  With the Star w

 XV.  But John baptizes, Jesus comes to Him …perhaps to sanctify the Baptist himself, but certainly to bury the whole of the old Adam in the water and

 XVI.  But further—Jesus goeth up out of the water…for with Himself He carries up the world…and sees the heaven opened which Adam had shut against hims

 XVII.  Now, since our Festival is of Baptism, and we must endure a little hardness with Him Who for our sake took form, and was baptized, and was cruc

 XVIII.  I, however, for I confess myself to be a man,—that is to say, an animal shifty and of a changeable nature,—both eagerly receive this Baptism,

 XIX.  But these sins were not after Baptism, you will say.  Where is your proof?  Either prove it—or refrain from condemning and if there be any doub

 XX.  But let us venerate to-day the Baptism of Christ and let us keep the feast well, not in pampering the belly, but rejoicing in spirit.  And how s

XI.  And now, having purified the theatre by what has been said, let us discourse a little about the Festival, and join in celebrating this Feast with festal and pious souls.  And, since the chief point of the Festival is the remembrance of God, let us call God to mind.  For I think that the sound of those who keep Festival There, where is the dwelling of all the Blissful, is nothing else than this, the hymns and praises of God, sung by all who are counted worthy of that City.  Let none be astonished if what I have to say contains some things that I have said before; for not only will I utter the same words, but I shall speak of the same subjects, trembling both in tongue and mind and thought when I speak of God for you too, that you may share this laudable and blessed feeling.  And when I speak of God you must be illumined at once by one flash of light and by three.  Three in Individualities or Hypostases, if any prefer so to call them, or persons,44    The sense of Person (here πρόσωπον), which is the usual post-Nicene equivalent of ὑπόστασις, was by no means generally attached to that word during the first Four Centuries, though here and there there are traces of such a use.  Throughout the Arian controversy a great deal of trouble and misunderstanding was caused by the want of a precise definition of the meaning of ὑπόστασις.  It seems to have been at first understood by the Eastern Church to mean Real Personal Existence—Reality being the fundamental idea.  In this fundamental sense it was used in Theology as expressing the distinct individuality and relative bearing of the Three “Persons” of the Blessed Trinity to each other (τὸ ἴδίον πὰρα τὸ κοινόν, Suidas).  But Arius gave it a heretical twist, and said that there are Three Hypostases, in the sense of Natures or Substances; and this doctrine was anathematized by the Nicene Council, which, apparently regarding the term ὑπόστασις as exactly equivalent to οὐσία (as Arius tried to make it) condemned the proposition that the Son is ἐξ ἑτέρας ὑποστάσεως ἢ οὐσίας (Symb. Nic.).  Similar is the use of the word in S. Athanasius.  As against Sabellius, however, who taught that in the Godhead there are τρία πρόσωπα (using this word in the sense of Aspects only) but would not allow τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις (i.e., Self-existent Personalities), the post-Nicene Church regarded ὑπόστασις as designating the Person, and spoke freely of τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις.  The Western Church increased the confusion by continuing to regard ὑπόστασις as equivalent to οὐσία, and translating it by Substantia or Subsistentia.  It was not till the word Essentia came into use to express οὐσία that the Western Church grasped the difference, so long accepted in the East, so as to use the words accurately.  Meantime, however, there would seem to have grown up a difference in the use of the two words supposed to represent ὑπόστασις, of the same kind as that between ὑπόστασις and οὐσία; Substantia being appropriated to the Essence of a thing, that which is the foundation of its being; while Subsistentia came rather to connote a limitation, i.e., Personality.  Thus the West also became confused, and Substantia was held to be the true equivalent of ὑπόστασις.  Hence the condemnation at Sardica (a.d. 347) by the Western Bishops of the doctrine of Three Hypostases as Arian.  The confusion lasted long, but in 362 a Council was held at Alexandria, when this difference was seen to be a mere logomachy, and it was pronounced orthodox to confess either τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις in the sense of “Persons,” or μἰαν ὑπόστασιν in that of “Substance.”  Our author in his Oration to the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople fully acknowledges this.  “What do you mean,” he says, “by ὑποστάσεις or πρόσωπα?  You mean that the Three are distinct, not in Nature, but in Personality.”  And in the Panegyric on S. Athanasius (Or. xxi. c. 35), he remarks on the orthodoxy of the phrase μία οὐσία, τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις, that the first expression refers to the Nature of the Godhead, the second to the special properties of the Persons.  With this, he says, the Italians agree, but the poverty of their language is such that it does not admit of the distinction between οὐσία and ὑπόστασις, and therefore has to call in the word πρόσωπον, which if misunderstood is liable to be charged with Sabellianism. for we will not quarrel about names so long as the syllables amount to the same meaning; but One in respect of the Substance—that is, the Godhead.  For they are divided without division, if I may so say; and they are united in division.  For the Godhead is one in three, and the three are one, in whom the Godhead is, or to speak more accurately, Who are the Godhead.  Excesses and defects we will omit, neither making the Unity a confusion, nor the division a separation.  We would keep equally far from the confusion of Sabellius and from the division of Arius, which are evils diametrically opposed, yet equal in their wickedness.  For what need is there heretically to fuse God together, or to cut Him up into inequality?

ΙΑʹ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀνεκαθήραμεν τῷ λόγῳ τὸ θέατρον, φέρε τι περὶ τῆς ἑορτῆς ἤδη φιλοσοφήσωμεν, καὶ συνεορτάσωμεν ταῖς φιλεόρτοις καὶ φιλοθέοις ψυχαῖς. Ἐπεὶ δὲ κεφάλαιον ἑορτῆς μνήμη Θεοῦ, Θεοῦ μνημονεύσωμεν. Καὶ γὰρ τὸν ἐκεῖθεν τῶν ἑορταζόντων ἦχον, ἔνθα εὐφραινομένων πάντων ἡ κατοικία, οὐκ ἄλλο τι ἢ τοῦτο εἶναι νομίζω, Θεὸν ὑμνούμενόν τε καὶ δοξαζόμενον τοῖς τῆς ἐκεῖσε πολιτείας ἠξιωμένοις. Εἰ δέ τι τῶν ἤδη προειρημένων ὁ νῦν ἕξει λόγος, θαυμαζέτω μηδείς. Οὐ γὰρ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ φθέγξομαι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν, φρίττων καὶ γλῶσσαν, καὶ νοῦν, καὶ διάνοιαν, ὅταν περὶ Θεοῦ φθέγγωμαι καὶ ὑμῖν ταυτὸ τοῦτο συνευχόμενος τὸ ἐπαινετὸν πάθος καὶ μακάριον. Θεοῦ δὲ ὅταν εἴπω, ἑνὶ φωτὶ περιαστράφθητε καὶ τρισί: τρισὶ μὲν, κατὰ τὰς ἰδιότητας, εἴτουν ὑποστάσεις, εἴ τινι φίλον καλεῖν, εἴτε πρόσωπα (οὐδὲν γὰρ περὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων ζυγομαχήσομεν, ἕως ἂν πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν ἔννοιαν αἱ συλλαβαὶ φέρωσιν): ἑνὶ δὲ, κατὰ τὸν τῆς οὐσίας λόγον, εἴτουν θεότητος. Διαιρεῖται γὰρ ἀδιαιρέτως, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, καὶ συνάπτεται διῃρημένως. Ἓν γὰρ ἐν τρισὶν ἡ θεότης, καὶ τὰ τρία ἕν. τὰ ἐν οἷς ἡ θεότης, ἢ, τό γε ἀκριβέστερον εἰπεῖν, ἂ ἡ θεότης. Τὰς δὲ ὑπερβολὰς καὶ ἐλλείψεις ἐλλείψωμεν: οὔτε τὴν ἕνωσιν σύγχυσιν ἐργαζόμενοι, οὔτε τὴν διαίρεσιν, ἀλλοτρίωσιν: Ἀπέστω γὰρ ἡμῶν ἐξ ἴσου, καὶ ἡ Σαβελλίου συναίρεσις, καὶ ἡ Ἀρείου διαίρεσις, τὰ ἐκ διαμέτρου κακὰ, καὶ ὁμότιμα τὴν ἀσέβειαν: τί γὰρ δεῖ Θεὸν, ἢ συναλείφειν κακῶς, ἢ κατατέμνειν εἰς ἀνισότητα;