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Sermo in illud: Hic est filius meus dilectus

46.1109 Why, having abandoned believing, do we apply technical skill to the faith, and fulfill the desire of the common enemy? For the devil, the common destroyer of humanity, having reasoned that when tranquility prevails among us, the things of piety flourish, and when faith is strong, a good life prevails, and we become friends of the Creator, so that we may not enter where he fell from, see what he has done, and how cunningly he has stitched together the war against us. The weaver of evils, and wise in deceits, and varied in plots, and rich in evil devices, prepares some under the pretext of piety to wage war against the faith, and through them he has cast an unseasonable contentiousness and a soul-destroying war upon all the pious, and has made the members of the Church campaign against one another. Let us turn, therefore, this very wisdom against his own head, and let us change his gladness 46.1112 into pain, and inconsolable grief.

Let us mourn for the peace, which he hates, Let us abandon the weighing of arguments, and the measuring of the words of the dogma. Let us cease from wanting to be teachers of the teachers. Let us hate disputing over words to the ruin of the hearers. Let us believe as our fathers have handed down. We are not wiser than the fathers; we are not more precise than the teachers. God has called us in peace, not in battle. As we were called, so let us remain at the mystical table, at which we partake of heavenly things. Let us not become at the same time table-companions and plotters against one another; not here partakers, and outside plotters.

The Lord was called firstborn from the Virgin, not because she brought forth a second of like kind, but because he is incomparably firstborn in relation to the sons of men. For neither because the Apostle said concerning the Lord's beginningless generation from the Father, "Who is the firstborn of all creation," did he thereby also write of a brother of the Lord. Nor again, when the same Apostle called him the firstborn from the dead, did he thereby also introduce a kinsman of the Lord who had similarly trodden down hades. But the Lord is firstborn from the Father and from the Virgin and from the dead, so that through all these the unique dignity of his sonship might be known. For the master's birth is incomparable; for where the mother is a virgin, how can the birth be explained?

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Sermo in illud: Hic est filius meus dilectus

46.1109 Τί τὸ πιστεύειν ἀφέντες, τεχνολογοῦμεν τὴν πίστιν, καὶ πληροῦμεν τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν τοῦ κοινοῦ δυσμενοῦς; Λογισάμενος γὰρ ὁ διάβολος, ὁ κοινὸς τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος λυμεὼν, ὅτι γαλήνης ἐν ἡμῖν πολιτευομένης, τὰ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀνθεῖ, τῆς πίστεως δὲ κρατούσης, εὐζωΐα κρατεῖ, φίλοι τε τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ γινόμεθα, ἵνα μὴ ἐπέλθωμεν, ὅθεν ἐκεῖνος ἐξέπεσεν, ὁρᾶτε τί πεποίηκε, καὶ πῶς πανούργως τὸν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐῤῥαψῴδηκε πόλεμον. Ὁ μηχανοῤῥάφος τῶν κακῶν, καὶ σοφὸς ἐν ἀπάταις, καὶ ποικίλος ἐν ἐπιβουλαῖς, καὶ πλούσιος ἐν τοῖς κακοῖς μηχανήμασι, παρασκευάζει τινὰς ἐν προσχήματι τῆς εὐσεβείας στρατεύσασθαι κατὰ τῆς πίστεως, καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς εὐσεβέσι δι' αὐτῶν ἄκαιρον φιλονεικίαν, καὶ ψυχοφθόρον ἐνέβαλε πόλεμον, καὶ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τὰ μέλη κατ' ἀλλήλων ἐστράτευσε. Στρέψωμεν τοίνυν κατὰ τῆς αὐτοῦ κεφαλῆς τοῦτο δὴ τὸ σοφὸν, καὶ τὴν εὐφροσύνην αὐτοῦ 46.1112 μεταβάλωμεν εἰς ὀδύνην, καὶ πένθος ἀπαρηγόρητον.

Πενθήσωμεν τὴν εἰρήνην, ἣν ἐκεῖνος μισεῖ, Καταλείψωμεν τὸ ζυγομαχεῖν, καὶ σταθμίζειν τὰς λέξεις τοῦ δόγματος. Παυσώμεθα τοῦ θέλειν εἶναι τῶν διδασκάλων διδάσκαλοι. Μισήσωμεν τὸ λογομαχεῖν ἐπὶ καταστροφῇ τῶν ἀκουόντων. Πιστεύσωμεν ὡς οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν παραδέδωκαν. Οὐκ ἐσμὲν τῶν πατέρων σοφώτεροι· οὐκ ἐσμὲν τῶν διδασκάλων ἀκριβέστεροι. Ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἐκάλεσεν ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεὸς, οὐκ ἐν μάχῃ. Ὡς ἐκλήθημεν, οὕτως προσμείνωμεν τῇ μυστικῇ τραπέζῃ, ἐν ᾗ τῶν οὐρανίων μεταλαμβάνομεν. Μὴ γινώμεθα κατὰ ταυτὸν ὁμοτράπεζοι, καὶ ἀλλήλων ἐπίβουλοι· μὴ ἐνταῦθα κοινωνικοὶ, καὶ ἔξω ἐπίβουλοι.

Πρωτότοκος ὁ Κύριος ἤκουσεν ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου, οὐχ ὅτι δεύτερόν τινα ὁμοιογενῆ προσεκαλέσατο, ἀλλ' ὅτι πρωτότοκος ἀσυγκρίτως ἐστὶ πρὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Οὐδὲ γὰρ διὰ τὸ εἰπεῖν ὁ Ἀπόστολος περὶ τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου ἐκ Πατρὸς ἀνάρχου γεννήσεως, Ὅς ἐστι πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, ἤδη καὶ ἀδελφὸν τοῦ Κυρίου συνεγράψατο. Οὐδ' αὖ πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς, πρωτότοκον ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν καλέσας, ἤδη καὶ ὅμαιμον τοῦ Κυρίου παρεισήγαγε παραπλησίως τὸν ᾅδην πατήσαντα. Ἀλλὰ πρωτότοκος ὁ Κύριος ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου καὶ ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, ἵνα διὰ πάντων γνωθῇ τὸ μοναδικὸν τῆς υἱότητος ἀξίωμα. Ἀσύγκριτος γὰρ ὁ δεσποτικὸς τόκος· ὅπου γὰρ ἡ μήτηρ παρθένος, πῶς τόκος ἑρμηνευόμενος;