Letters 1 part 8/11

They used to praise what was said by me at Antioch — both when they were laymen, and when they became readers, and when they were ordained deacons, and presbyters, and bishops;

and after the discourse was ended, they would embrace me, and kiss me, and kiss my head,

and some of them would even clasp my knees, calling our teaching apostolic;

and this same teaching they have now disavowed, this they have anathematized.

And I, whom they used to call the luminary not of the East alone, but of the whole world, have been proclaimed deposed, and I do not so much as partake of bread, so far as it depends on them;

for indeed they have anathematized those who so much as converse with me;

but him whom a little while before they had deposed, and declared to hold the views of Valentinus and Apollinarius — this man they treated as a victor of the faith, and grovelled before his feet, and sought his forgiveness, and called him a spiritual father.

What octopuses so change their own color to match the rocks, or chameleons their hue to match the leaves, as these men change their opinion to match the times? We, however, yield to them thrones, and dignities, and transient luxury;

but I urge your Holiness to guard against communion with impiety, and first to propose to them that they renounce what has been done;

and if they should be unwilling, to flee them as betrayers of the faith.

For the time being, however, I have found no fault whatsoever in your Godliness's having waited to see whether there would indeed be some change in the storm.

After the ordination of the president of the East, however, the mind of each man will assuredly become plain.

Deign, master, to pray for us.

For now especially we stand in need of this help, that we may be able to withstand what is being contrived against us.

For since we who worship the eternal Trinity belong to one body, it is surely fitting that the rest of the members should rejoice together with those members that are in health.

This too the divine Apostle says.

I rejoice, then, with you, who contend valiantly for the apostolic doctrines, and who imitate, in better things, that much-celebrated Naboth.

For he endured a most unjust slaughter for the sake of a vineyard, refusing to surrender his ancestral inheritance.

But you contend not for vineyards, but for divine doctrines, and you turn away from this new and counterfeit heresy, as one that muddies the purity of evangelical teaching, and you will not tolerate either the diminishing or the increasing of the number of the all-holy Trinity.

For those who attach the suffering to the deity of the Only-begotten diminish it;

while those who dare to introduce a second Son increase it.

But you believe in one Only-begotten, just as in one Father, and in one Holy Spirit.

And in the Only-begotten who was made flesh, you discern the nature that was assumed — which, having taken it from us, he has offered on our behalf.

For the denial of this nature renders our salvation void.

For if the deity of the Only-begotten is impassible — for the nature of the Trinity is impassible — and yet that which by nature is capable of suffering is not confessed by us, then the suffering that never took place is vainly proclaimed.

For if there is no one who suffers, how could suffering occur? For we proclaim the divine nature to be impassible.

And those men too confess this in like manner with us.

But this myth Valentinus, and Bardesanes, and Marcion, and Mani begot.

But the teaching handed down to the Churches from the beginning knows our Lord Jesus Christ as one Son even after the enanthropesis;

and confesses him to be the same: God before the ages, and man who came to be in the last of the days;

having become man by the assumption of humanity, not by the alteration of the deity.

For if the divine nature underwent alteration into human nature, it did not remain what it was;

and if it is not what it was, then those who hold this belief falsely call him God.

But we know the only-begotten Son of God to be unchangeable, as God, and Son of the truly existing God.

For we have learned from the divine Scripture that, existing in the form of God, he took the form of a servant, and took hold of the seed of Abraham — he was not changed into the seed of Abraham — and has partaken, in like manner as we, of flesh and blood, and of an immortal and unblemished soul.

Having kept these things, on behalf of sinning bodies he offered his own sinless body, and on behalf of souls, one wholly free of every stain.

For surely the race will share in the firstfruits;

for just as we shared in death with Adam, so also shall we share in life with Christ the Savior.

And this the divine Apostle has clearly taught us.

"For now," he says, "Christ has been raised from the dead, having become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."

"For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead has come also through a man."

"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive."

I write these things now not to teach, but to remind, and in hastening to abridge the letter I have, I think, exceeded its proper limit.

It was the presbyter and archimandrite Mekimas — most reverend in all things and most God-beloved — who urged me to write, having traversed so great a distance for the law of love, having taught us the zeal of Your Admirable Reverence, and having asked me to fan this zeal further into flame by letters.

I praised your Piety for having left the invidious throne —

for it was we ourselves who had made it a thing to be bought and sold.

But I was amazed to learn that you ran to those who had driven you out,

and that, though entreated to hold fast to the rudder, you fled the governance, as though your fellow-voyagers had become enemies.

Or do you not know, most God-beloved, what our Savior taught us to proclaim through the holy apostles, and what the heirs of the apostolic doctrines have now legislated us to hold as our religion? For which of the ancient teachers, from the time the preaching was first proclaimed down to the darkness of this present moonless night, has ever heard anyone preach one nature of flesh and divinity, or has ever dared to call the divinity of the Only-begotten passible? These things are now openly dared to be said by some, while by others, though said, they are overlooked, and by their silence they come to share in the abomination —

one must either go forth to meet them and refute the spuriousness of their doctrines, or flee the communion of those who are manifestly impious.

The patriarch Abraham excelled even after old age;

and Moses, that great man, already grown old, stretching out his hands in prayer, struck down Amalek;

and the divinely-inspired Samuel, even with his hair grown grey, routed the Philistines.

Your venerable old age emulates these men: it shows manly courage in the wars fought for piety, it fights on behalf of the evangelical doctrines, and by the eagerness of its resolve it puts the young to shame.

And I, hearing these things, rejoice and am glad, and I long to embrace your most venerable grey hairs.

But since I am denied this — for old age keeps Your Piety at home, while an imperial law confines me here — I contrive by letters what I desire, and I offer to Your Love-of-God the greeting most delightful to me, and I entreat you to aid with your prayers the Churches that are filled with storm, and indeed to procure divine assistance for me as well, warred against as I am on behalf of the apostolic doctrines and in need of aid from on high.

It seems, then, that old age has overcome the eagerness of your God-beloved soul, and you no longer hold your hands outstretched as is your custom;

for this very reason Amalek is eager to prevail.

Let there, then, be some to help your weakness, just as of old Hur and Aaron once supported the hands of the lawgiver, so that you may both strike down Amalek and preserve Israel.

For now especially there is need of more earnest prayers, since the Greeks and the Jews, and every heresy, are at peace, while the Church alone is storm-tossed and has fallen into a most grievous surge.

And we especially need the help of your prayers, since even those who were reckoned our fellow-combatants are now fighting against us.

Those who sail by night are cheered by the beacons of the harbors;

but those who face danger on behalf of the apostolic faith, by the zeal of their fellow-believers.

We have, then, sufficient consolation in hearing of the struggles of Your Love-of-God on behalf of the divine doctrines.

For the Bountiful Giver has granted you this resolve, and for the sake of guarding these doctrines you undergo every labor.

And I, cheered by your eagerness, offer a small return, exhorting you to hold fast to the divine contests, and to despise your adversaries as easily overcome — for what is weaker than those deprived of the truth? — and to trust in him who said:

"I will never fail you, nor will I ever forsake you"; and:

"Behold, I am with you all the days, even to the end of the age."

And do you also aid me with your prayers, so that I may confidently add:

"The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me."

Not in vain, then, does the Pilot of all things permit contrary winds to stir up the waves of impiety;

but rather that he may test the resolve of those who sail, and lay bare the courage of some, and expose the cowardice of others;

and that he may strip bare of their masks those who wear the outward form of piety, and proclaim as champions of the truth those who deserve it.

This we have now seen come to pass.

For when the storm arose, some laid bare the impiety they had hidden, while others betrayed the truth they held and joined the ranks of the adversaries, and along with them now shoot at those whom they used to call champions.

And those who see these things hate the enemies, but lament the deserters, and are afraid to come to the aid of those warred against on behalf of the apostolic doctrines.

And if those who have betrayed the faith should press upon them yet more violently, perhaps even these onlookers will themselves become among the archers, and will not spare their fellow-believers, but will drive their arrows against them together with those already accused by the betrayers —

and this though they have been taught by the divine Scripture that to wrong one's neighbor incurs liability to punishment, while to be wronged is the source of great and lasting recompense.

But this storm has revealed both the zeal of Your Piety on behalf of the faith and your goodwill toward us.

For you wrote to us twice, disregarding those who tried to intimidate you, and you made known your brotherly affection through your letters, and you disclosed the struggles you are undergoing on behalf of the apostolic doctrines.

For you charged us to write what must be both believed and preached concerning the saving Passion.

And I received the request gladly, and I will readily declare what I was taught by the divine Scripture and by the Fathers who have interpreted it — not in order to teach, but in order to remind the head so dear to God.

Know, then, most God-beloved, that before all else one must know the difference of the names, and in addition to this, the cause of the divine incarnation.

For once these things have been clearly distinguished, no ambiguity will remain concerning the Passion.

We will therefore first ask those who attempt to contradict us which of the names of the only-begotten Son of God are older than the incarnation, and which, again, are more recent, or rather, joined together with the work of the dispensation.

They will certainly say that "God," "Word," and "only-begotten Son," and "Almighty," and "Lord of all creation," are the older names;

while "Jesus Christ" is proper to the incarnation.

For when God the Word, the only-begotten Son of God, became man, he was named Jesus Christ;

"For behold," he says, "today is born to you Christ the Lord."

And again, to the all-glorious Virgin, Gabriel said:

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins."

But before the incarnation, he was called neither Christ nor Jesus.

For indeed the divine prophets, foretelling what was to come, made use of these very names, just as they also foretold what concerned his birth, and the cross, and the Passion, even though these events had not yet come to pass.

For he did not become man by being changed, but, remaining what he was, he took what we are.

For being in the form of God, according to the divine Apostle, he took the form of a servant.

For this reason, even after the incarnation, he is also called by the names that were his before the incarnation, since he possesses a nature unchanging and immutable.

The divine Scripture, however, in narrating the Passion, has nowhere applied the name "God," since this is a name of the simple nature.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," and whatever else resembles these sayings — would one say that the flesh existed before the ages, or that it is of one substance with the God of all, or that it became the creator of creation?

No — rather he knows that these things are proper to the divinity;

for the nature that was assumed is descended from those forebears.

Just, then, as these things are clear and undisputed even to the most extreme heretics, and we know the one nature to be pre-eternal and the other recent, so must we know both the passibility of the flesh and the impassibility of the divinity — not dividing the union, nor splitting the Only-begotten into two persons, but contemplating in the one Son the properties proper to each nature.

For if, in the case of soul and body — natures coeval and naturally united — we are accustomed to do this, calling the soul simple, and rational, and immortal, and invisible, while naming the body composite, and passible, and mortal, and yet do not divide the union, nor cut the one man in two;

for even though we now know the flesh to be immortal and incorruptible, yet before the resurrection it was receptive both of death and of suffering —

for the union makes the names common, but the commonality of the names does not confound these natures.

For he suffered according to the human, but remained impassible as God.

But if, according to the argument of the impious, he suffered in respect of his divinity, then surely the assumption of the flesh was superfluous.

For he would have had no need of passible humanity, if the divine nature were able to receive the suffering.

But if, according to their own argument too, the divinity is impassible, and yet the suffering is real, let them not deny what it was that suffered, lest they deny also the reality of the suffering;

for the suffering is false if there is no subject that suffers.

That the divine Scripture too plainly proclaims the suffering of the body is easy for anyone willing to unroll the fourfold set of the sacred Gospels to learn from it, how Joseph of Arimathea came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus;

and how Pilate ordered the body of Jesus to be given up, and how Joseph took down the body of Jesus from the wood, and wrapped the body of Jesus in the linen cloth, and laid it in the new tomb.

But if they bring forward what was said by the angel to the women with Mary:

And even to the present day, when we enter the shrines of the glorious martyrs, we are accustomed to ask who is named in the reliquary;

and those who know the truth answer, perhaps 'Julian the martyr,' or 'Romanus,' or 'Timothy';

yet all the same we call the body too by that common name.

So too the angel of the Lord called the body 'Lord,' since it was the body of the Lord of all.

And the Lord himself promised to give, not the invisible nature, but the body, for the life of the world;

for he says, 'The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.'

And in the delivery of the divine mysteries, taking the symbol, he said:

'This is my body, which is given,' or 'broken,' for you, according to the Apostle.

And nowhere, when speaking of the suffering, did he make mention of the impassible divinity.

Before all else, those who attempt to contradict this must be asked whether they agree that a complete human nature was assumed by God the Word, and whether they affirm that the union has come to be without confusion.

For if this is agreed, the rest will follow in order, and the suffering will be fitted to the passible nature.

These things I have now dictated in summary, and I have exceeded the proper measure of a letter.

But I have also sent the letter I wrote earlier, at the urging of the most God-beloved and most holy man of God, my lord,

a concise teaching, sufficient in itself too to teach the truth of the apostolic doctrines.

But if I should find a calligrapher, I will also send to your Holiness what I have composed in dialogue form, that is, by question and answer, having both expanded the discourse and fortified our positions with the teachings of the Fathers.

And I have now also sent a few testimonies of the ancient teachers, sufficient to show the purport of their teaching.

In return, then, most God-beloved, deign to give us the aid of your prayers, that we may pass through the harsh storm and attain the Savior's fair havens.

Your piety has shown both zeal for true religion and love for your neighbor.

For both have been joined together on the present occasion.

For we are being warred against on account of the apostolic doctrines, since we do not give up our paternal inheritance, but choose to suffer anything whatsoever rather than to look on while a single stroke of a letter is stripped away from the evangelical faith.

You have therefore shared with us in our sufferings, both by comforting us through letters, and by sending to us the most honorable and most reverend deacons Matthew and Isaac;

and, I know well, you shall hear from the righteous Judge:

'I was in prison, and you came to me.'

'Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these little ones who believe in me, you did it to me.'

Since, then, you excel in right doctrines, and shine forth in a life worthy of praise, and thereby possess great confidence before God, come to my aid with your prayers, that I may be able to withstand, in the words of the Apostle, the wiles of error, and escape the snares of the destroyer, and stand before the righteous Judge on the day of his appearing with at least a little confidence.

For from the first men who ever were, down to the present time, it is possible to find that those who were earnest to worship the God of all have been wronged by the men who lived alongside them, and have fallen into very many grievous troubles.

And I would have gone through the whole catalogue of these, had I been writing to a man not accurately versed in the divine Scripture.

But since you, most God-beloved, have been nurtured from childhood in the divine oracles, I think it superfluous to do this.

I ask only that you look to those examples, and that, of the most humane priests, you lament those who have done wrong, and pity those who look on and do nothing, and that you mourn indeed over the storm besetting the Church;

but that, because we have had a share in the sufferings endured for true religion, you rejoice and exult, and continually praise him who has made us partakers of this portion.

Let us yield to those who have slain us both honor, and luxury, and precedence, and their wretched glory.

Only let us hold fast to the evangelical doctrines, and along with them, if need be, endure any suffering whatsoever, and prefer poverty worth possessing to riches full of care.

I write these things, not offering exhortation — for I have come to know the boldness of your Holiness amid sufferings — but making my own opinion clear to your love of God, and showing, my lord, that you have fellow-combatants who gladly risk danger beforehand for the truth.

Having long wished to write this, I could not find anyone to carry the letter.

But now, having met with the most honorable and most reverend presbyter Hozeus, a man who both champions true religion and is devoted to your piety, I both write and embrace your Holiness, and I entreat you to support us with your prayers, and to strengthen us with your letters.

That you do not forget, my lord, our friendship, I both knew before and know clearly now.

Nevertheless I wished and prayed that your piety would take thought for precision of doctrine, and flee the communion of those who have betrayed true religion, and commit to the Guardian of all the care both for us and for you.

For indeed, while we kept silence and remained quiet, he dissolved the bitterest and most cruel punishments, and in place of the harsh storm granted this bright calm.

We consider it necessary indeed to persuade those who have been led astray by the calumnies raised against us, and to show the truth of the evangelical doctrines, and to refute the falsehood that has been marshaled against them;

but our purpose is to flee the administration of public affairs, and to return to the quiet so thrice-longed-for by us.

But concerning the enemies of the truth, we cry out with the Prophet:

'Their memorial has perished with a roar, but the Lord abides forever.'

But concerning ourselves we sing that verse:

'He sent from on high and took me;'

'he took me from many waters, and delivered me from my mighty enemies.'

I write these things now, having received two letters from your Piety:

the one by Anastasius, presbyter of Beroea, the other by Theodotus the standard-bearer.

For no one has delivered to us the other letter, about which you indicated in your most recent letters.

But concerning a journey to that place, I am unable to write anything until I learn what the most pious Emperor has decreed concerning us.

For the one bringing this document has not yet arrived.

Someone asked the Savior, Lawgiver, and Lord, which commandment is first.

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind;'

'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

'On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.'

and whoever transgresses one, in turn is convicted as a transgressor of the whole Law.

Let us then consider, with conscience judging rightly and justly, whether we have fulfilled the divine commandments.

He fulfills the first who guards the God-given faith undefiled, and who abhors those who war against it as enemies of the truth, and who hates with all his heart those who hate the Beloved;

and the second, who values highly the service of his neighbor, and preserves the bounds of friendship not only in times of prosperity but also in what seem to be times of misfortune.

But those who, taking thought for their own security, as they suppose, neglect the laws of friendship for its sake, and look away while their friends are under attack, belong to the portion of the base, even in the judgment of outsiders.

For he says, 'Love your enemies.'

'For if you love those who love you, what more are you doing? Behold, even sinners and tax collectors do this.'

But we have not even enjoyed the love shown by tax collectors.

And why do I say 'of tax collectors'? We have not even enjoyed the comfort which murderers and sorcerers obtain in prisons.

But if all had emulated this cruelty, nothing else would have remained, but that the living should be consumed by want, and the dead not even given over to burial, but become food for dogs and wild beasts.

But those who despise this present life, and await the enjoyment of the eternal goods, sufficed for us — they who deemed us worthy of every kind of consolation.

But the loving Lord cast down judgment from heaven,

and the earth feared, and was still, when God arose to judgment.

But His enemies, at the very moment of being glorified and exalted, vanishing, vanished like smoke.

And the falsehood of the new heresy has been publicly branded, while the truth of the divine Gospels is openly proclaimed.

Blessed is God, who alone does great wonders, and blessed is the name of His glory, and all the earth shall be filled with His glory.

— having reckoned upon the clemency of the kings of Israel, to assume the guise of a suppliant, and not to fail of my petition;

Remember also, Sovereign, the divine wrath.

For Ahab, who exercised mercy, He delivered to utter destruction, and pronounced the sentence through the prophet.

"For," He says, "your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people."

But by these things we are commanded to temper mercy with judgment, since not every mercy is pleasing to the Lord of all.

For we are contending concerning divine doctrines, in which we have the hope of salvation.

Yet even in these matters one may see much diversity among men.

For some are truly sick with the common impiety, while others indifferently put forward both these things and their opposites.

Others, though they know the truth, hide it away in the storehouses of the soul, while proclaiming the impious doctrines along with the rest.

Still others, having yielded to the passion of envy, have made their own private enmity an occasion for war against the truth, and bring every malice against the heralds of the truth.

And there are those who embrace the truth of the apostolic doctrines, but who, fearing the power of those in authority, have shuddered to make it public;

and they groan and lament the onrush of these evils, yet nonetheless keep company with those who stir up the towering waves.

We judge Your Piety to belong to this company.

For we believe that it is sound in the divine doctrines, and we think it preserves its love for us, but that solely through timidity it conforms itself to the times.

For this reason, though we write to none of the others, we both write to Your Godliness and receive letters from it, knowing its true intent, and thus in some measure granting pardon to its timidity.

But the loving Lord has now utterly cut off the occasions for timidity, having exposed the newly-devised impiety, and having displayed the naked truth of the Gospels.

But we, even if we were given mouths as numerous as our hairs, could not worthily hymn the loving Lord, because He has compelled even our fiercest opponents openly to proclaim the very things we proclaim.

For we have heard that even the fellow-dweller of Your Godliness, upon learning of the anathemas pronounced in the great cities, ceased imitating the crooked gait of crabs, and walked the straight path, discoursing on the doctrines at a certain festal assembly.

But one ought not to adapt one's words to the times, but always to preserve unbending the rule of truth.

I grieved exceedingly on learning of the despondency that had befallen you.

For how could I fail to feel this, since I make your affairs my own, and remember the apostolic precept, which enjoins us not only to rejoice with those who rejoice, but also to weep with those who weep? And indeed the affliction itself is enough to draw even the most hostile of men to sympathy.

For what is so grievous as to be bereft of a yoke-fellow, who lawfully bore the yoke of marriage, made life pleasant for her husband, shared the cares of the household, kept watch over the affairs within doors, and jointly steered all the rest?

— who proposed what was going to be beneficial, and yielded to her husband's counsels? And to give over to the tomb, along with her, the son born of her, carefully reared, trained in letters, and hoped to become the support of one's old age, in the very springtime of his life, while the first down was only just now creeping upon his cheeks — what excess of grief does this leave to imagine? If, then, we look only to the very nature of the affliction itself, it admits of no consolation.