ΛΟΓΟΣ ΛΗʹ. Εἰς τὰ Θεοφάνια, εἴτουν Γενέθλια τοῦ Σωτῆρος.

 Αʹ. Χριστὸς γεννᾶται, δοξάσατε: Χριστὸς ἐξ οὐρανῶν, ἀπαντήσατε: Χριστὸς ἐπὶ γῆς, ὑψώθητε. Ἄ|σατε τῷ Κυρίῳ, πᾶσα ἡ γῆ: καὶ, ἵν' ἀμφότερα συνελὼν εἴπω,

 Βʹ. Πάλιν τὸ σκότος λύεται, πάλιν τὸ φῶς ὑφίσταται, πάλιν Αἴγυπτος σκότῳ κολάζεται, πάλιν Ἰσραὴλ στύλῳ φωτίζεται. Ὁ λαὸς, ὁ καθήμενος ἐν σκότει τῆς ἀγ

 Γʹ. Ταῦτα μὲν ὕστερον. Τὰ δὲ νῦν Θεοφάνια, ἡ πανήγυρις, εἴτουν Γενέθλια: λέγεται γὰρ ἀμφότερα, δύο κειμένων προσηγοριῶν ἑνὶ πράγματι. Ἐφάνη γὰρ Θεὸς ἀ

 Δʹ. Τοῦτό ἐστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πανήγυρις, τοῦτο ἑορτάζομεν σήμερον, ἐπιδημίαν Θεοῦ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους, ἵνα πρὸς Θεὸν ἐνδημήσωμεν, ἢ ἐπανέλθωμεν (οὕτω γὰρ εἰπεῖν ο

 Εʹ. Ἔσται δὲ τοῦτο πῶς Μὴ πρόθυρα στεφανώσωμεν, μὴ χοροὺς συστησώμεθα, μὴ κοσμήσωμεν ἀγυιὰς, μὴ ὀφθαλμὸν ἑστιάσωμεν, μὴ ἀκοὴν καταυλήσωμεν, μὴ ὄσφρησ

 #2ʹ. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν Ἕλλησι παρῶμεν, καὶ Ἑλληνικοῖς κόμποις, καὶ πανηγύρεσιν: οἳ καὶ θεοὺς ὀνομάζουσι κνίσσαις χαίροντας, καὶ ἀκολούθως τὸ θεῖον τῇ γασ

 Ζʹ. Θεὸς ἦν μὲν ἀεὶ, καὶ ἔστι, καὶ ἔσται: μᾶλλον δὲ ἔστιν ἀεί. Τὸ γὰρ ἦν, καὶ ἔσται, τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς χρόνου τμήματα, καὶ τῆς ῥευστῆς φύσεως: ὁ δὲ ὢν ἀεὶ

 Ηʹ. Διχῆ δὲ τοῦ ἀπείρου θεωρουμένου, κατά τε ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος (τὸ γὰρ ὑπὲρ ταῦτα, καὶ μὴ ἐν τούτοις, ἄπειρον), ὅταν μὲν εἰς τὸν ἄνω βυθὸν ὁ νοῦς ἀποβλέ

 Θʹ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐκ ἤρκει τῇ ἀγαθότητι τοῦτο, τὸ κινεῖσθαι μόνον τῇ ἑαυτῆς θεωρίᾳ, ἀλλ' ἔδει χεθῆναι τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ὁδεῦσαι, ὡς πλείονα εἶναι τὰ εὐεργετούμ

 Ιʹ. Οὕτω μὲν οὖν ὁ νοητὸς αὐτῷ, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα ὑπέστη κόσμος, ὡς ἐμὲ γοῦν περὶ τούτων φιλοσοφῆσαι, μικρῷ λόγῳ τὰ μεγάλα σταθμώμενον. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τὰ πρῶτα κ

 ΙΑʹ. Νοῦς μὲν οὖν ἤδη καὶ αἴσθησις, οὕτως ἀπ' ἀλλήλων διακριθέντα, τῶν ἰδίων ὅρων ἐντὸς εἱστήκεισαν, καὶ τὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ Λόγου μεγαλεῖον ἐν ἑαυτοῖς

 ΙΒʹ. Τοῦτον ἔθετο μὲν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ, ὅστις ποτὲ ἦν ὁ παράδεισος οὗτος, τῷ αὐτεξουσίῳ τιμήσας, ἵν' ᾖ τοῦ ἑλομένου τὸ ἀγαθὸν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ τοῦ παρασχόντ

 ΙΓʹ. Πολλοῖς δὲ παιδευθεὶς πρότερον, ἀντὶ πολλῶν τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων, ὧν ἡ τῆς κακίας ῥίζα ἐβλάστησε κατὰ διαφόρους αἰτίας καὶ χρόνους, λόγῳ, νόμῳ, προφήτ

 ΙΔʹ. Πρὸς ταῦτα τί φασιν ἡμῖν οἱ συκοφάνται, οἱ πικροὶ τῆς θεότητος λογισταὶ, οἱ κατήγοροι τῶν ἐπαινουμένων, οἱ σκοτεινοὶ περὶ τὸ φῶς, οἱ περὶ τὴν σοφ

 ΙΕʹ. Ἀπεστάλη μὲν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἄνθρωπος: διπλοῦς γὰρ ἦν: ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐκοπίασε, καὶ ἐπείνησε, καὶ ἐδίψησε, καὶ ἠγωνίασε, καὶ ἐδάκρυσε νόμῳ σώματος: εἰ δὲ καὶ

 Ι#2ʹ. Μικρὸν μὲν οὖν ὕστερον ὄψει καὶ καθαιρόμενον Ἰησοῦν ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ τὴν ἐμὴν κάθαρσιν: μᾶλλον δὲ ἁγνίζοντα τῇ καθάρσει τὰ ὕδατα (οὐ γὰρ δὴ αὐτὸς ἐ

 ΙΖʹ. Νυνὶ δέ μοι δέξαι τὴν κύησιν, καὶ προσκίρτησον: εἰ καὶ μὴ ὡς Ἰωάννης ἀπὸ γαστρὸς, ἀλλ' ὡς Δαβὶδ ἐπὶ τῇ καταπαύσει τῆς κιβωτοῦ. Καὶ τὴν ἀπογραφὴν

 ΙΗʹ. Ἓν μίσησον τῶν περὶ τὴν Χριστοῦ γένναν, τὴν Ἡρώδου παιδοκτονίαν: μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ταύτην αἰδέσθητι, τὴν ἡλικιῶτιν Χριστοῦ θυσίαν, τοῦ καινοῦ σφαγίου

XV.  He was sent, but as man, for He was of a twofold Nature; for He was wearied, and hungered, and was thirsty, and was in an agony, and shed tears, according to the nature of a corporeal being.  And if the expression be also used of Him as God, the meaning is that the Father’s good pleasure is to be considered a Mission, for to this He refers all that concerns Himself; both that He may honour the Eternal Principle, and because He will not be taken to be an antagonistic God.  And whereas it is written both that He was betrayed, and also that He gave Himself up40    Cf. ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ ἐν ᾗ παρεδίδοτο, μᾶλλον δε ἑαυτὸν παρεδίδου.  Canon of Liturgy of S. Mark (Swainson p. 517).  Ea nocte qua tradidit seipsum.  Lit. Copt. S. Basil (Ib.).  Cum statuisset se tradere.  Coptic S. Basil (Hammond, p. 209) Rot. Vatic. and Cod. Ross. of S. Mark, has only τ. ν. ᾗ ἑαυτ, παρεδ.  (Swainson, 50); so too S. Basil (Ib., 81) in Cod. B. M., 22749 and Barberini of S. Chrys. (Ib., 91); but the whole expression is in Chrys. (cent. xi., ib., 129) and Greek S. James (78. 272–3), but Syriac S. James has “in qua nocte tradendus erat.”  (Canon Univ., Æthiop. Hammond, 258).  Pridie quam patereturis the form in the Canon of the Roman, Ambrosian, and Sarum Missals; but the Mozarabic, which is largely of an Eastern character, has in qua nocte tradebatur.  (Hammond, 333). and that He was raised up by the Father, and taken up into heaven; and on the other hand, that He raised Himself and went up; the former statement of each pair refers to the good pleasure of the Father, the latter to His own Power.  Are you then to be allowed to dwell upon all that humiliates Him, while passing over all that exalts Him, and to count on your side the fact that He suffered, but to leave out of the account the fact that it was of His own will?  See what even now the Word has to suffer.  By one set He is honoured as God, but is confused with the Father,41    The Sabellian heresy may be briefly described as the doctrine of One God exercising three offices, as opposed to the Catholic Faith of One God in three Persons.  Sabellius himself was a Priest of the Libyan Pentapolis, who at Rome in the time of Pope Zephyrinus embraced the heresy of Notus, which maintained that God the Father suffered for us on the cross in the form of Christ.  His followers, who openly declared themselves first about a.d. 357, thought that God, to Whom as the Source of all things the name of Father is given, is called the Son when He united Himself to the humanity of Jesus for the work of our redemption; and in like manner He is the Holy Spirit when manifested for the work of sanctification.  Sabellius was condemned by a Council held at Rome, probably in 258; again at Nicæa, and again at Constantinople, where Sabellian Baptism was pronounced invalid. by another He is dishonoured as mere flesh42    Arianism was the result of a strong opposition to Sabellianism, coupled with a misunderstanding of the argument against it.  There was, no doubt, a danger of falling into the opposite error of Tritheism, to avoid which Arianism “divided the Substance” and virtually—and in the end explicity—denied the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Arius was a Priest of Alexandria, and it was there that he began to publish his opinions, in the early years of the Fourth Century (318); but Newman traces the origin of the heresy to Antioch and its Judaizing tendency.  At a meeting of the clergy in Alexandria the Bishop, S. Alexander, gave an address on the coeternity, and coequality of the Father and the Son, and used the expression τὴν αὐτὴν οὐσίαν ἔχειν, that They had the same Substance.  Arius protested against this as a Sabellian statement, and used the words κτίσμα (creature) and ποίημα (a thing made) of the Son, adding the sentence which became so famous, ἦν ὅτε οὐκ ἦν,—there was a time when the Son did not exist.  Having ineffectually tried private remonstrance, S. Alexander brought the matter in 321 before his Provincial Synod, in which were present about 100 Egyptian and Pentapolitan Bishops, who after giving the matter a patient hearing, excommunicated Arius and his principal adherents.  But it was too late to undo the mischief.  The heresy spread widely, and the whole Eastern Church was stirred by the controversy.  At last a great Council of the whole Church met at Nicæa in 325, summoned by the Emperor; and there the heresy was unequivocally condemned, and the great Creed propounded with its watchword, the Homoousion.  The false teaching had however struck its roots deep and wide; and though now banned by the anathema of the Church, it was long in dying; and indeed at one time, it seemed as if—humanly speaking—it must swamp the whole Catholic Church.  Under various forms the Semi-Arians who claimed to differ from the faith of Nicæa only by a single letter, the Aetians and Eunomians, who went to the furthest extreme of the Falsehood (Anomœans), and many others, the heresy spread far and wide:  and when S. Gregory came to Constantinople there was not one Catholic Church or Priest to be found in the place, and only a few scattered folk who still held to the Faith of the Consubstantial.  Gregory’s wonderful discourses however came to their aid, and partly under his presidency was held the Second Œcumenical Synod, which condemned the heresy of Macedonius, a still further development of Arianism, which denied also the Deity of the Holy Ghost.  Arianism survived for another two centuries among the Goths and Vandals, the Burgundians and Lombards; but it never rose again as a power in the Church. and severed from the Godhead.  With which of them will He be most angry, or rather, which shall He forgive, those who injuriously confound Him or those who divide Him?  For the former ought to have distinguished, and the latter to have united Him; the one in number, the other in Godhead.  Stumblest Thou at His flesh?  So did the Jews.  Or dost thou call Him a Samaritan, and…I will not say the rest.  Dost thou disbelieve in His Godhead?  This did not even the demons, O thou who art less believing than demons and more stupid than Jews.  Those did perceive that the name of Son implies equality of rank; these did know that He who drove them out was God, for they were convinced of it by their own experience.  But you will admit neither the equality nor the Godhead.  It would have been better for you to have been either a Jew or a demoniac (if I may utter an absurdity), than in uncircumcision and in sound health to be so wicked and ungodly in your attitude of mind.

ΙΕʹ. Ἀπεστάλη μὲν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἄνθρωπος: διπλοῦς γὰρ ἦν: ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐκοπίασε, καὶ ἐπείνησε, καὶ ἐδίψησε, καὶ ἠγωνίασε, καὶ ἐδάκρυσε νόμῳ σώματος: εἰ δὲ καὶ ὡς Θεὸς, τί τοῦτο; Τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ Πατρὸς, ἀποστολὴν εἶναι νόμισον, ἐφ' ὃν ἀναφέρει τὰ ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ ὡς ἀρχὴν τιμῶν ἄχρονον, καὶ τοῦ μὴ δοκεῖν εἶναι ἀντίθεος. Ἐπεὶ καὶ παραδεδόσθαι λέγεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑαυτὸν παραδεδωκέναι γέγραπται: καὶ ἐγηγέρθαι παρὰ τοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ ἀνειλῆφθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑαυτὸν ἀνεστακέναι, καὶ ἀνεληλυθέναι πάλιν. ἐκεῖνα τῆς εὐδοκίας, ταῦτα τῆς ἐξουσίας. Σὺ δὲ τὰ μὲν ἐλαττοῦντα λέγεις, τὰ ὑψοῦντα δὲ παρατρέχεις: καὶ ὅτι μὲν ἔπαθε, λογίζῃ: ὅτι δὲ ἑκὼν, οὐ προστίθης. Οἷα πάσχει καὶ νῦν ὁ Λόγος! Ὑπὸ μὲν τῶν, ὡς Θεὸς, τιμᾶται καὶ συναλείφεται: ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν, ὡς σὰρξ, ἀτιμάζεται καὶ χωρίζεται. Τίσιν ὀργισθῇ πλέον; Μᾶλλον δὲ τίσιν ἀφῇ; Τοῖς συναιροῦσι κακῶς, ἢ τοῖς τέμνουσι; Καὶ γὰρ κἀκείνους διαιρεῖν ἔδει, καὶ τούτους συνάπτειν: τοὺς μὲν τῷ ἀριθμῷ, τοὺς δὲ τῇ θεότητι. Προσκόπτεις τῇ σαρκί; Τοῦτο καὶ Ἰουδαῖοι. Ἢ καὶ Σαμαρείτην ἀποκαλεῖς; καὶ τὸ ἑξῆς σιωπήσομαι. Ἀπιστεῖς τῇ θεότητι; Τοῦτο οὐδὲ οἱ δαίμονες. Ὦ δαιμόνων ἀπιστότερε, καὶ Ἰουδαίων ἀγνωμονέστερε! Ἐκεῖνοι τὴν τοῦ Υἱοῦ προσηγορίαν, ὁμοτιμίας φωνὴν ἐνόμισαν: οὗτοι τὸν ἐλαύνοντα Θεὸν ᾔδεσαν. Ἐπείθοντο γὰρ ἐξ ὧν ἔπασχον. Σὺ δὲ, οὐδὲ τὴν ἰσότητα δέχῃ, οὐδὲ ὁμολογεῖς τὴν θεότητα. Κρεῖττον ἦν σοι περιτετμῆσθαι καὶ δαιμονᾷν, ἵν' εἴπω τι καὶ γελοίως, ἢ ἐν ἀκροβυστίᾳ καὶ ὑγιείᾳ διακεῖσθαι πονηρῶς καὶ ἀθέως.