Church History X 4 part 1/2

And a certain one of those of moderate sufficiency came forward into the midst, having composed a discourse; and, in an assembly of the church with very many pastors present, who gave their hearing in quiet and good order, he delivered such a discourse as this, addressed personally to one bishop in every respect most excellent and beloved of God, by whose diligence the temple at Tyre, surpassing all others among the nation of the Phoenicians, had been magnificently built. A Panegyric on the building of the churches, addressed to Paulinus, bishop of the Tyrians.

O friends of God and priests, who are clothed with the holy long robe and the heavenly crown of glory, the divine anointing, and the priestly vesture of the Holy Spirit; and thou, O glory of God's new and holy temple, honoured by God with venerable wisdom, yet displaying the costly works and deeds of a young and flourishing virtue—to whom God Himself, who encompasses the whole universe, has granted the singular privilege of building and renewing upon earth His house for Christ His only-begotten and firstborn Word, and for His holy and godly Bride:

—whether one should call thee a new Bezalel, the architect of a divine tabernacle, or a Solomon, king of a new and far better Jerusalem, or even a new Zerubbabel, who bestowed upon the temple of God a glory far surpassing the former—

—and you also, O nurslings of the sacred flock of Christ, home of good words, school of self-control, and the grave and God-beloved auditory of godliness:

Long ago, when through the divine readings we received by hearing the marvellous tokens of God and the Lord's benefactions of wonders toward men, it was given us to send up hymns and songs to God, being taught to say: 'O God, with our ears have we heard, our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst work in their days, in the days of old.'

But now indeed we no longer receive by hearing, nor by the reports of words, the lofty arm and the heavenly right hand of our all-good and universal King and God; rather, by deeds, so to speak, and with our very own eyes, we behold that the things handed down to memory of old are faithful and true. And so we may sing a second hymn of victory, and cry aloud and say plainly: 'As we have heard, so also have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.'

And in what city? In this very one, newly built and fashioned by God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, concerning which another divine oracle thus brings good tidings, saying: 'Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.' To which city, since the all-good God has gathered us through the grace of His Only-begotten, let each of those who have been called sing, all but crying aloud and saying: 'I was glad when they said unto me, We shall go into the house of the Lord'; and, 'Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.'

And not only let each one by himself, but let us all together, with one spirit and one soul, give honour and cry praise, adding: 'Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.' For truly He is great, and great is His house, lofty and long, and fair in beauty beyond the sons of men. Great is the Lord who alone does wondrous things; great is He who does great things and unsearchable, glorious and extraordinary, of which there is no number; great is He who changes seasons and times, removing kings and setting them up, raising up the poor from the ground, and lifting the needy from the dunghill. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly from the earth; the hungry He has filled with good things, and the arms of the proud He has broken—

—who has confirmed the memory of the ancient narratives not only for the faithful but also for the unbelieving: the Worker of wonders, the Doer of great deeds, the Master of all, the Maker of the whole world, the Almighty, the All-good, the one and only God. To Him let us chant the new song, adding under our breath: 'To Him who alone does wondrous things, for His mercy endureth for ever; to Him who smote great kings and slew mighty kings, for His mercy endureth for ever; for in our low estate the Lord remembered us, and redeemed us from our enemies.'

And may we never cease to praise aloud with these words the Father of all. But Him who is to us the second cause of good things—the Introducer of the knowledge of God, the Teacher of true godliness, the Destroyer of the impious, the Slayer of tyrants, the Reformer of life, our Saviour when we were in despair, even Jesus—let us bear His name upon our lips and honour Him:

for He alone, being the all-good Son, sole offspring of an all-good Father, by the purpose of His Father's love for mankind, most readily put on the nature of us who lay below in corruption; and like some most excellent physician, who for the sake of the salvation of the sick beholds dread things, touches loathsome things, and from the misfortunes of others reaps griefs for himself, so He by Himself rescued us—not merely sick, nor merely oppressed by dread sores and already festering wounds, but even lying among the dead—out of the very recesses of death; for to no other of those in heaven was there strength so great as to minister unharmed to the salvation of so many.

He alone, then, laid hold of our own grievous corruption, He alone endured our toils, He alone took upon Himself the penalties of our impieties; and when we were not half-dead, but already wholly defiled and stinking in tombs and graves, He took us up, and, both of old and now, in His love for man, beyond all hope of any of us ourselves, He saves us and imparts to us the abundance of the Father's good things—He who gives life, who leads to light, our great Physician and King and Lord, the Christ of God.

But at that time, once for all, when the whole race of men lay buried in gloomy night and deep darkness through the deceits of accursed demons and the workings of God-hating spirits, merely by His appearing, as wax is melted by the rays of His light, He loosed the many-fettered chains of our impieties.

But now, at so great a grace and benefaction, the envy that hates the good and the demon that loves evil, all but bursting with rage, marshalled all his death-dealing powers against us. At first, raging like a dog that gnashes its teeth against the stones flung at it and vents upon the lifeless missiles its fury against those who would drive it off, he hurled his beastly madness against the stones of the houses of prayer and the lifeless materials of the buildings, working—as he himself thought—the desolation of the churches; then he uttered his dreadful hissings and serpent-like cries, now through the threats of impious tyrants, now through the blasphemous decrees of ungodly rulers; and besides he belched forth his own death, and with his venomous and soul-destroying poisons drugged the souls he captured, all but slaying them by the death-dealing sacrifices to dead idols; and he stirred up against us every beast in the shape of man and every savage device.

But once more, anew from the beginning, the Angel of great counsel, the great Captain of the host of God, after the sufficient training which the greatest soldiers of His kingdom displayed by their endurance and steadfastness in all things, appearing thus suddenly, set the hostile and warlike things into invisibility and nothingness, so that they seemed never even to have been named; but the things friendly and akin to Him He advanced beyond all glory in the sight of all—not of men only, but already also of the heavenly powers, the sun and moon and stars, and the whole heaven and world—

—so that now, what had never happened before, the supreme Emperors of all, conscious of the honour they have received from Him, spit upon the faces of dead idols, trample upon the unlawful rites of demons, and laugh to scorn the old deceit handed down from their fathers; and they acknowledge the one and only God, the common Benefactor of all and of themselves, and confess Christ the Son of God to be universal King of all; and they proclaim Him as Saviour on monuments, inscribing in imperishable memory His righteous deeds and His victories over the impious, in imperial letters, in the midst of the city that is queen of the cities on earth—so that, alone of all from the beginning of the ages, Jesus Christ our Saviour is acknowledged, even by the very highest on earth, not as a common king sprung from men, but is worshipped as the genuine Son of the God of all and as Himself God; and rightly so.

For what king of all that ever were attained to such virtue as to fill the hearing and the tongue of all men upon earth with his title? What king, having ordained laws so godly and so wise, has had power to cause them to be read continually, from the ends of the earth and to the bounds of the whole inhabited world, in the hearing of all men?

What king dissolved the barbarous and savage customs of untamed nations by his gentle and most humane laws? Who, warred upon by all men for whole ages, displayed virtue beyond man, so as to flourish day by day and to remain young throughout his whole existence?

Who founded a nation never heard of from the beginning of the ages, lying hidden not in some corner of the earth, but spread throughout the whole world under the sun? Who so armed his soldiers with the weapons of godliness that their souls were shown to be harder than adamant in their contests against their adversaries?

What king holds such sway and commands armies even after death, sets up trophies against his enemies, and fills every place and country and city, Greek and barbarian, with his royal houses and with the dedications of divine temples—such as these beautiful adornments and offerings of this very temple? These too are truly grave and great, worthy of amazement and wonder, and as it were clear proofs of the kingdom of our Saviour; for even now He spoke, and they came to be; He commanded, and they were created. For what was there to withstand the nod of the universal King and Ruler and very God the Word? Yet these matters require leisure of their own discourse for their accurate contemplation and exposition.

Yet the works of the zeal of those who have laboured are not judged so great, nor of such kind, by Him who is praised as God, who beholds the living temple of us all, and surveys the house made of living and well-set stones, well and securely founded upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the chief cornerstone being Jesus Christ Himself—whom the evil builders, builders of evil, rejected, not only of that ancient building which is no more, but also of that of the many men even now; but whom the Father approved, both then and now, and set as the head of the corner of this our common church.

This, then, the living temple of the living God, built up out of yourselves—I mean the greatest and, in the true sense, the truly God-befitting sanctuary, whose inmost shrines are unseen by the many and are truly holy and a holy of holies—who, having beheld it, would dare to describe it? And who is able even to peer within the sacred enclosures, save only the great High Priest of all, to whom alone it is lawful to search out the secret things of every rational soul?

But perhaps it is granted to one other also, second after Him alone of his peers, to this man who presides as leader of this host, whom the first and great High Priest Himself, having honoured with the second place among the priests here, has appointed shepherd of your divine flock—your people having fallen to his lot by the allotment and judgment of the Father—as His own attendant and interpreter: the new Aaron or Melchizedek, made like to the Son of God, abiding and kept by Him in perpetuity by the common prayers of you all.

To him alone, then, after the first and greatest High Priest, let it be granted—if not the first place, yet at least the second—to behold and oversee the inmost contemplation of your souls; for he has accurately examined each one by experience and by length of time, and by his own diligence and care has set you all in order, in word and life according to godliness; and being more able than all to render in words a match for the works of those things which he himself has accomplished with the divine power.

Now our first and great High Priest says: 'Whatsoever He sees the Father doing, these the Son also does in like manner.' And this man too, looking with the pure eyes of his mind to the First as to a teacher, whatever he sees Him doing, using these as archetypal patterns, has wrought the images of them, fashioning them, as far as is possible, into the closest likeness, in nothing falling short of that Bezalel, whom God Himself, filling with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding and the rest of skilful and scientific knowledge, called to be the craftsman of the construction of the temple, that figured forth the heavenly patterns through symbols.

In this same way, then, this man also, bearing in his own soul Christ entire—the Word, the Wisdom, the Light—it is impossible to tell with what greatness of mind, with what rich and insatiable hand of thought, and with what zeal on the part of you all (you contending in noble rivalry by the magnanimity of your contributions, so as in no way to be left behind in the same purpose), has set up this magnificent temple of God the Most High, in its nature resembling the pattern of the better, as the visible the invisible. First of all this site—for it is worth telling first of all—not overlooking it though it had been given over by the plots of the enemy to all manner of unclean material, nor yielding to the wickedness of those responsible, when he might have come to another place (countless others being available to the city) and found relief from his toil and rid himself of trouble.

But having first roused himself to the work, and then strengthened the whole people with eagerness and gathered from them all one great hand, he engaged in his first contest, thinking that this very church, besieged above all by the enemies, this church which had toiled before us, and which had endured the same persecutions as we and before us, and which, like a mother, had been bereft of her children, ought to share in the great bounty of the all-good God.

For when the great Shepherd, having driven off the wild beasts and the wolves and every cruel and savage kind, and having broken the jaws of the lions, as the divine oracles say, deemed it right that His children should again come together to the same place, most justly did he also raise up the fold of the flock, to put to shame the enemy and avenger, and that he might bring forth a refutation of the God-fighting audacities of the impious.

And now those haters of God are no more, since they never truly were; for, having troubled and been troubled for a little while, then having paid the penalty—no light one—to justice, they made themselves and their friends and their houses utterly desolate, so that the predictions inscribed of old upon the sacred monuments are confessed to be faithful by deeds. Through them the divine word proves true in other things, and declares also this concerning them:

'The sinners have drawn the sword, they have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those upright in heart; let their sword enter into their own heart, and their bows be broken.' And again: 'Their memorial has perished with a crash, and their name Thou hast blotted out for ever, and unto ages of ages'; for when they were in evil case they cried out, and there was none to save, even unto the Lord, and He heard them not. 'But they were fettered and fell, while we rose up and were set upright.' And that which therein cries aloud beforehand: 'O Lord, in Thy city Thou shalt bring their image to nothing'—has been shown to be true before the eyes of all.

But they, having set up like the giants a war against God, have met with such an overthrow of their life; while of her who was desolate and despaired of among men, such has been the end of patient endurance according to God as is now beheld, so that the prophecy of Isaiah cries aloud over her these words:

'Rejoice, O thirsty desert; let the wilderness exult and blossom as the lily; and the desert places shall blossom and exult. Be strong, ye relaxed hands and feeble knees; take comfort, ye faint-hearted in mind; be strong, fear not. Behold, our God renders judgment, and will render it; He Himself shall come and save us'; for, it says, water has burst forth in the desert, and a ravine in a thirsty land, and the waterless place shall become marshes, and in the thirsty land shall be a spring of water.

And these things, foretold of old in words, were laid down in the sacred books; but the deeds have now been handed over to us not by hearing, but by deeds. This desert, this waterless place, this widow bereft and unprotected, whose gates they hewed down together as in a thicket of trees with axes, breaking her with hatchet and chisel; whose books too they destroyed, and burned with fire the sanctuary of God, and to the ground they profaned the tabernacle of His name; whom all that passed along the way plucked, having first torn down her hedges; whom the boar out of the wood ravaged, and the solitary wild beast devoured—she has now, by the marvellous power of Christ, when He Himself wills it, become as the lily. For then too by His nod, as by a Father who beforehand cares, she was being chastened; 'for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.'

Having therefore been turned back in due measure as was fitting, she is again commanded anew from the beginning to exult, and she blossoms as the lily, and breathes forth the divine fragrance toward all men; for, it says, water has burst forth in the desert—the stream of the divine regeneration of the saving washing; and now she who was a little before a desert has become marshes, and in the thirsty land has gushed forth a spring of living water; and truly the hands that before were relaxed have become strong, and these great and clear proofs are the works of the strength of the hands; moreover, the knees that of old were enfeebled and slackened, having received their proper footing, walk straight along the road of the knowledge of God, hastening to the proper flock of the all-good Shepherd.

And if some grew numb in their souls at the threats of the tyrants, even these the saving word does not overlook as past healing; but, healing them right well, it urges them on to the divine comfort, saying:

'Take comfort, ye faint-hearted in mind; be strong, fear not.' Hearing with the keen hearing of his mind that the desert made desolate for God's sake must enjoy these things—the word proclaiming it beforehand—this new and noble Zerubbabel of ours, after that bitter captivity and the abomination of desolation, not overlooking the carcass that lay dead, first of all by exhortations and supplications, together with the common like-mindedness of you all, made the Father gracious, and taking as ally and fellow-worker the only One who gives life to the dead, raised up her that had fallen, first cleansing and treating her of her ills; and he put upon her not the old robe of ancient days, but such as he was again instructed in by the divine oracles, which clearly say thus: 'And the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former.'

Therefore, having enclosed a far larger space all around, he fortified the outer enclosure with the surrounding wall of the whole, that it might be a most secure fence for the entire precinct.

And spreading out a great gateway, raised to a height toward the very rays of the rising sun, he provided even to those standing far outside the sacred enclosures an abundant view of the things within, all but turning toward the first entrances even the eyes of those alien to the faith, so that none might pass by without first being pierced in soul by the memory both of the former desolation and of the now marvellous wonder-working—by which he hoped that such a one, pricked in heart, might perhaps even be drawn on, and by the very sight be urged forward to the entrance.

And when one had passed inside the gates, he did not permit him straightway to set foot upon the holy things within with unclean and unwashed feet; rather, leaving a very great space between the temple and the first entrances, he adorned it round about with four transverse porticoes, fencing the place into a sort of square figure, with columns rising on every side, the spaces between which he enclosed with wooden lattice-screens coming to a fitting length; and the middle he left as an open court, exposed to the view of the sky, providing a bright air loosed to the rays of light.

And here he set up symbols of sacred purifications, building fountains right opposite, facing the temple, which by the abundant flow of their stream provided cleansing to those advancing inward within the sacred enclosures. And this is the first resting-place for those entering, furnishing at once order and splendour to the whole, and offering a fitting abode for those still in need of the first introductions.

But passing beyond the sight of these things, he made the passages to the temple lie open through still more inner gateways, again setting under the sun's rays three gates on one side, of which he granted the middle one to exceed greatly those on either side in size and breadth; and adorning it with bronze fittings bound with iron and with relief embroideries, he made it shine forth especially, as though yoking the spear-bearers under this queen.

And in the same manner, having arranged the number of gateways for the porticoes on either side of the whole temple, he devised above these, by yet more abundant light, various entrances to the house, adorning the surrounding ornamentation with fine workmanship in wood. But the royal house itself he now fortified with richer and more lavish materials, employing an ungrudging munificence of expenditure.

Here it seems to me superfluous to set down in writing the lengths and breadths of the structure, these bright beauties, and the magnitudes beyond words, and the gleaming aspect of the works as my discourse recounts them, and the heaven-reaching heights, and the costly cedars of Lebanon overlying them—of which not even the divine oracle kept silent the mention, saying: 'The trees of the Lord shall rejoice, and the cedars of Lebanon which He has planted.'

What need is there now for me to give an exact account of the all-wise and architectonic arrangement, and the surpassing beauty of each part, when the testimony of sight shuts out instruction through the ears? But having thus completed the temple, and having adorned it with thrones set on high for the honour of the presiding officers, and besides with benches arranged in order suitably throughout, and having placed in the midst over all the holy of holies, the altar; and again fencing these things round, that they might be inaccessible to the many, with wooden lattices wrought to the height of skilful workmanship, so as to present a marvellous sight to the beholders.

Nor indeed did the pavement lie neglected by him; this too he made bright with marble stone in every fair order. And then at last he passed on also to the parts outside the temple, skilfully building the largest exedras and houses on either side, joined at the sides to the royal house and united with the entrances to the central house; which things our most peaceful Solomon, the builder of the temple of God, fashioned for those still in need of cleansing and of the lustral sprinklings by water and the Holy Spirit—so that the prophecy spoken above was no longer word, but deed.

For it has now come to pass, as it truly is: 'The glory of this latter house is greater than the former.' For it was fitting and consequent that, since her Shepherd and Master had once accepted death on her behalf, and after the suffering had changed the defiled body which He had put on for her sake into the bright and glorious, and had led the very flesh that was dissolved from corruption into incorruption—she too should likewise enjoy the dispensations of the Saviour; since, having received from Him a promise far better than these things, she longs to receive the far greater glory of regeneration, in the resurrection of an incorruptible body, with a chorus of angels of light, in the kingdom of God beyond the heavens, together with Christ Jesus Himself, the all-benefactor and Saviour, continually unto the ages to come.

But for the present, meanwhile, in these things she who was of old widowed and desolate, having been clothed by the grace of God with these flowers, has truly become as the lily, as the prophecy says; and having taken up the bridal robe and put on the crown of comeliness, she is taught, as it were, to dance through Isaiah, giving thanks to God the King with auspicious voices. Let us hearken as she says:

'Let my soul exult in the Lord; for He has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness; He has put upon me a headdress as a bridegroom, and as a bride He has adorned me with ornament; and as the earth that makes its flower to grow, and as a garden makes its seeds to spring up, so the Lord, the Lord, has made righteousness and exultation to spring up before all the nations.'

With these words, then, she dances; and with what words the heavenly Bridegroom, the Word, Jesus Christ Himself, answers her, hear the Lord saying: 'Fear not because thou wast put to shame, neither be confounded because thou wast reproached; for thou shalt forget everlasting shame, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt remember no more. Not as a woman forsaken and faint-hearted has the Lord called thee, nor as a woman hated from her youth, has thy God said. For a little while I forsook thee, but with great mercy will I have mercy on thee; in a little wrath I turned my face from thee, but with everlasting mercy will I have mercy on thee, said the Lord that delivered thee.'

'Awake, awake, thou that hast drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath; for the cup of falling, the bowl of My wrath, thou hast drunk and drained. And there was none to comfort thee of all the children thou didst bear, and there was none to take hold of thy hand. Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of falling, the bowl of My wrath, and thou shalt no more drink it again; and I will give it into the hands of those who wronged thee and humbled thee.'

'Awake, awake, put on thy strength, put on thy glory. Shake off the dust and arise; sit down, loose the bond of thy neck. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold thy children gathered together; behold, they are gathered and have come to thee. As I live, says the Lord, thou shalt clothe thyself with them all as with an ornament, and gird them on as the ornament of a bride; for thy desolate and ruined and fallen places shall now be too narrow by reason of those that dwell in thee, and they that swallow thee up shall be far removed from thee.'

'For thy sons whom thou hadst lost shall say in thine ears: The place is too narrow for me; make room for me that I may dwell. And thou shalt say in thy heart: Who has begotten me these? for I was childless and a widow; and who has reared me these? I was left alone; and these, where were they for me?'