Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, &c.
1. Vice mimics virtue, and the tares strive to be thought wheat, growing like the wheat in appearance, but being detected by good judges from the taste. The devil also transfigures himself into an angel of lighthyperlink ; not that he may reascend to where he was, for having made his heart hard as an anvilhyperlink , he has henceforth a will that cannot repent; but in order that he may envelope those who are living an Angelic life in a mist of blindness, and a pestilent condition of unbelief. Many wolves are going about in sheeps' clothinghyperlink , their clothing being that of sheep, not so their claws and teeth: but clad in their soft skin, and deceiving the innocent by their appearance, they shed upon them from their fangs the destructive poison of ungodliness. We have need therefore of divine grace, and of a sober mind, and of eyes that see, lest from eating tares as wheat we suffer harm from ignorance, and lest from taking the wolf to be a sheep we become his prey, and from supposing the destroying Devil to be a beneficent Angel we be devoured: for, as the Scripture saith, he goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devourhyperlink . This is the cause of the Church's admonitions, the cause of the present instructions, and of the lessons which are read.
2. For the method of godliness consists of these two things, pious doctrines, and virtuous practice: and neither are the doctrines acceptable to God apart from good works, nor does God accept the works which are not perfected with pious doctrines. For what profit is it, to know well the doctrines concerning God, and yet to be a vile fornicator? And again, what profit is it, to be nobly temperate, and an impious blasphemer? A most precious possession therefore is the knowledge of doctrines: also there is need of a wakeful soul, since there are many that make spoil through philosophy and vain deceithyperlink . The Greeks on the one hand draw men away by their smooth tongue, for honey droppeth from a harlot's lipshyperlink : whereas they of the Circumcision deceive those who come to them by means of the Divine Scriptures, which they miserably misinterpret though studying them from childhood to old agehyperlink , and growing old in ignorance. But the children of heretics, by their good words and smooth tongue, deceive the hearts of the innocenthyperlink , disguising with the name of Christ as it were with honey the poisoned arrowshyperlink of their impious doctrines: concerning all of whom together the Lord saith, Take heed lest any man mislead youhyperlink . This is the reason for the teaching of the Creed and for expositions upon it.
3. But before delivering you over to the Creedhyperlink , I think it is well to make use at present of a short summary of necessary doctrines; that the multitude of things to be spoken, and the long interval of the days of all this holy Lent, may not cause forgetfulness in the mind of the more simple among you; but that, having strewn some seeds now in a summary way, we may not forget the same when afterwards more widely tilled. But let those here present whose habit of mind is mature, and who have their senses already exercised to discern good and evilhyperlink , endure patiently to listen to things fitted rather for children, and to an introductory course, as it were, of milk: that at the same time both those who have need of the instruction may be benefited, and those who have the knowledge may rekindle the remembrance of things which they already know.
I. Of God.
4. First then let there be laid as a foundation in your soul the doctrine concerning God that God is One, alone unbegotten, without beginning, change, or variationhyperlink ; neither begotten of another, nor having another to succeed Him in His life; who neither began to live in time, nor endeth ever: and that He is both good and just; that if ever thou hear a heretic say, that there is one God who is just, and another who is goodhyperlink , thou mayest immediately remember, and discern the poisoned arrow of heresy. For some have impiously dared to divide the One God in their teaching: and some have said that one is the Creator and Lord of the soul, and another of the bodyhyperlink ; a doctrine at once absurd and impious. For how can a man become the one servant of two masters, when our Lord says in the Gospels, No man can serve two mastershyperlink ? There is then One Only God, the Maker both of souls and bodies: One the Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker of Angels and Archangels: of many the Creator, but of One only the Father before all ages,-of One only, His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom He made all things visible and invisiblehyperlink .
5. This Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not circumscribed in any placehyperlink , nor is He less than the heaven; but the heavens are the works of His fingershyperlink , and the whole earth is held in His grasphyperlink : He is in all things and around all. Think not that the sun is brighter than Hehyperlink , or equal to Him: for He who at first formed the sun must needs be incomparably greater and brighter. He foreknoweth the things that shall be, and is mightier than all, knowing all things and doing as He will; not being subject to any necessary sequence of events, nor to nativity, nor chance, nor fate; in all things perfect, and equally possessing everyabsolute formhyperlink of virtue, neither diminishing nor increasing, but in mode and conditions ever the same; who hath prepared punishment for sinners, and a crown for the righteous.
6. Seeing then that many have gone astray in divers ways from the One God, some having deified the sun, that when the sun sets they may abide in the night season without God; others the moon, to have no God by dayhyperlink ; others the other parts of the worldhyperlink ; others the artshyperlink ; others their various kinds of foodhyperlink ; others their pleasures ; while some, mad after women, have set up on high an image of a naked woman, and called it Aphroditehyperlink , and worshipped their own lust in a visible form; and others dazzled by the brightness of gold have deified ithyperlink and the other kinds of matter;-whereas if one lay as a first foundation in his heart the doctrine of the unityhyperlink of God, and trust to Him, he roots out at once the whole crophyperlink of the evils of idolatry, and of the error of the heretics: lay thou, therefore, this first doctrine of religion as a foundation in thy soul by faith.
Of Christ.
7. Believe also in the Son of God, One and Only, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was begotten God of God, begotten Life of Life, begotten Light of Lighthyperlink , Who is in all things likehyperlink to Him that begat, Who received not His being in time, but was before all ages eternally and incomprehensibly begotten of the Father: The Wisdom and the Power of God, and His Righteousness personally subsistinghyperlink : Who sitteth on the right hand of the Father before all ages.
For the throne at God's right hand He received not, as some have thought, because of His patient endurance, being crowned as it were by God after His Passion; but throughout His being,-a being by eternal generationhyperlink ,-He holds His royal dignity, and shares the Father's seat, being God and Wisdom and Power, as hath been said; reigning together with the Father, and creating all things for the Father, yet lacking nothing in the dignity of Godhead, and knowing Him that hath begotten Him, even as He is known of Him that hath begotten; and to speak briefly, remember thou what is written in the Gospels, that none knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any the Father save the Sonhyperlink .
8. Further, do thou neither separatehyperlink the Son from the Father, nor by making a confusion believe in a Son-Fatherhoodhyperlink ; but believe that of One God there is One Only-begotten Son, who is before all ages God the Word; not the utteredhyperlink word diffused into the air, nor to be likened to impersonal wordshyperlink ; but the Word the Son, Maker of all who partake of reason, the Word who heareth the Father, and Himself speaketh. And on these points, should God permit, we will speak more at large in due season; for we do not forget our present purpose to give a summary introduction to the Faith.
Concerning His Birth of the Virgin.
9. Believe then that this Only-begotten Son of God for our sins came down from heaven upon earth, and took upon Him this human nature of like passionshyperlink with us, and was begotten of the Holy Virgin and of the Holy Ghost, and was made Man, not in seeming and mere showhyperlink , but in truth; nor yet by passing through the Virgin as through a channelhyperlink ; but was of her made truly flesh, [and truly nourished with milkhyperlink ], and did truly eat as we do, and truly drink as we do. For if the Incarnation was a phantom, salvation is a phantom also. The Christ was of two natures, Man in what was seen, but God in what was not seen; as Man truly eating like us, for He had the like feeling of the flesh with us; but as God feeding the five thousand from five loaves; as Man truly dying, but as God raising him that had been dead four days; truly sleeping in the ship as Man, and walking upon the waters as God.
Of the Cross.
10. He was truly crucified for our sins. For if thou wouldest deny it, the place refutes thee visibly, this blessed Golgothahyperlink , in which we are now assembled for the sake of Him who was here crucified; and the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood of the Crosshyperlink . But He was crucified not for sins of His own, but that we might be delivered from our sins. And though as Man He was at that time despised of men, and was buffeted, yet He was acknowledged by the Creation as God: for when the sun saw his Lord dis-honoured, he grew dim and trembled, not enduring the sight.
Of His Burial.
11. He was truly laid as Man in a tomb of rock; but rocks were rent asunder by terror because of Him. He went down into the regions beneath the earth, that thence also He might redeem the righteoushyperlink . For, tell me, couldst thou wish the living only to enjoy His grace, and that, though most of them are unholy; and not wish those who from Adam had for a long while been imprisoned to have now gained their liberty? Esaias the Prophet proclaimed with loud voice so many things concerning Him; wouldst thou not wish that the King should go down and redeem His herald? David was there, and Samuel, and all the Prophetshyperlink , John himself also, who by his messengers said, Art thou He that should come, or look we for anotherhyperlink ? Wouldst thou not wish that He should descend and redeem such as these?
Of the Resurrection.
12. But He who descended into the regions beneath the earth came up again; and Jesus, who was buried, truly rose again the third day. And if the Jews ever worry thee, meet them at once by asking thus: Did Jonah come forth from the whale on the third day, and hath not Christ then risen from the earth on the third day? Is a dead man raised to life on touching the bones of Elisha, and is it not much easier for the Maker of mankind to be raised by the power of the Father? Well then, He truly rose, and after He had risen was seen again of the disciples: and twelve disciples were witnesses of His Resurrection, who bare witness not in pleasing words, but contended even unto torture and death for the truth of the Resurrection. What then, shall every word be established at the mouth of two of three witnesseshyperlink , according to the Scripture, and, though twelve bear witness to the Resurrection of Christ, art thou still incredulous in regard to His Resurrection?
Concerning the Ascension.
13. But when Jesus had finished His course of patient endurance, and had redeemed mankind from their sins, He ascended again into the heavens, a cloud receiving Him up: and as He went up Angels were beside Him, and Apostles were beholding. But if any man disbelieves the words which I speak, let him believe the actual power of the things now seen. All kings when they die have their power extinguished with their life: but Christ crucified is worshipped by the whole world. We proclaim The Crucified, and the devils tremble now. Many have been crucified at various times; but of what other who was crucified did the invocation ever drive the devils away?
14. Let us, therefore, not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ; but though another hide it, do thou openly seal it upon thy forehead, that the devils may behold the royal sign and flee trembling far awayhyperlink . Make then this sign at eating and drinking, at sitting, at lying down, at rising up, at speaking, at walking: in a word, at every acthyperlink . For He who was here crucified is in heaven above. If after being crucified and buried He had remained in the tomb, we should have had cause to be ashamed; but, in fact, He who was crucified on Golgotha here, has ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives on the East. For after having gone down hence into Hades, and come up again to us, He ascended again from us into heaven, His Father addressing Him, and saying, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstoolhyperlink .
Of Judgment to Come.
Footnotes
1 The number "ten" is confirmed by Theodoret, who quotes the article on Christ's "Birth of the Virgin" as form Cyril's fourth Cathechetical Lecture "On the ten Doctrines." The Mss. vary between "ten" and "eleven," and differ also in the special titles and numeration of the separate Articles.
2 2 Cor. xi. 14.
3 Job xli. 24, Sept.; xli. 15: h 9 kardi/a au'tou= . . e!sthken w!sper a!kmwn a'nh/latoj. These statements concerning the Devil seem to be directed against Origen's opinion (De Principiis I. 2), that the Angels "who have been removed from their primal state of blessedness have not been removed irrecoverably." The question is discussed, and the opinions of several Fathers quoted, by Huet, Origeniana, II. c. 25.
4 Matt. vii. 15. The same text is applied to Heretics by Ignatius, Philadelph. ii. and by Irenaeus, L. I. c. i. § 2.
5 1 Pet. v. 8.
6 Col. ii. 8.
7 Prov. v. 3.
8 Is. xlvi. 3. Sept. paideuo/menoi e 9k paidi 9ou e!wj lh/rwj.
9 Rom. xvi. 17. Cyril has eu'glwtti/aj in place of eu'logi/aj.
10 Compare Ignatius, Trall. vi.
11 Matt. xxiv. 4.
12 Compare Rom. vi. 17: "that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered." The instruction of Catechumens in the Articles of the Faith was commonly called the "Traditio Symboli," or "Delivery of the Creed."
13 Heb. v. 14.
14 Compare Hermas, Mandat. I. Athan. Epist. de Decretis Nic. Syn. xxii.: ou@tw kai\ to\ a!trepton kai\ u'nalloi/wton au'to\n ei\nai swqhsetai. So Aristotle (Metaphys. XI. c. iv. 13) describes the First Cause as a'paqe\j kai\ a'nalloi/wton.
15 Iranaeus, i. c. xxviii. says that Cerdo taught that the God of the Law and the Prophets was not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: for that He is known, but the other unknown, and the one is just, but the other good. Also III. c. 25, § 3: "Marcion himself, therefore, by dividing God into two, and calling the one good, and the other judicial, on both sides puts an end to Deity." Compare Tertullian, c. Marcion. i. 2 and 6,; Origen, c. Cels. iv. 54.
16 This tenet was held by the Manichaeans and other heretics, and is traced back to the Apostolic age by Bishop Person (Exposition of the Creed, Art. i. p. 79, note c). Compare Athanasius c. Apollinarium, I. 21; II. 8; c. Gentes, § 6; de Incarnatione, § 2, in this series, and Augustine (c. Faustum, xx. 15, 21, and xxi. 4).
17 Matt. vi. 24; Luke xvi. 13.
18 John i. 3; Col. i. 16.
19 S. Aug. in Ps. lxxv. 6: Si in aliquo loco esset, non esset Deus. Sermo 342: Deus habitando continet non continetur. Origen, c. Cels. vii. 34: "God is of too excellent a nature for any place: He holds all things in His power, and is Himself not confined by anything whatever." Compare the quotation from Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, in the note on Cat. vi. 8.
20 Ps. viii. 3.
21 Is. xl. 12.
22 See Cat. xv. 3, and note there.
23 i'de/an. Cyril uses the word in the Platonic sense, as in the next sentence he adopts the formula, which Plato commonly uses in describing the "idea:" a'ei\ kata\ ta\ au'ta\ kai\ w 9sau/twj e!xein. Phaed. 78 c.
24 Job xxxi. 26, 27. The worship of Sun and Moon under various names was almost universal.
25 Gaea or Tellus, the earth; Zeus or Jupiter, the sky; rivers, fountains, & c.
26 Music, Medicine, Hunting, War, Agriculture, Metallurgy, &c., represented by Apollo, Aesculapius, Diana, Mars, Ceres, Vulcan.
27 Herodotus, Book II., describes the Egyptian worship of various birds, fishes, and quadrupeds. Leeks and onions also were held sacred: Porrum et caepe nefas vilare, Juv. Sat. xv. 9. Compare Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. c. ii. § 39, Klotz.
28 Eros, Dionysus.
29 Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. c. iv. § 53, Klotz) states that the courtesan Phryne was taken as a model for Aphrodite. "Praxiteles when fashioning the statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus made it like the form of Cratine his paramour." Ibid.
30 Plutus.
31 th=j monarxi/aj tou= qeou=. See note on the title of Cat. VI. Praxeas made use of the term "Monarchy" to exclude the Son (and the Spirit) from the Godhead. Tertullian in his treatise against Praxeas maintains the true doctrine that the Son is no obstacle to the "Monarchy," because He is of the substance of the Father, does nothing without the Father's will, and has received all power from the Father, to Whom He will in the end deliver up the kingdom. In this sense Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, speaks of the Divine Monarchy as "that most sacred doctrine of the Church of God." Compare Athanas. de Decritis, Nic. Syn. c. vi. § 3 and Dr. Newman's note. In Orat. iv. c. Arian. p 606 (617), Athanasius derives the term from a'rxh/, in the sense of "beginning:" ou!twj mi/a a'rxh\ qeo/thtoj kai\ ou' du/o a'rxai/, o$qen kuri/wj kai\ monarxi/a e'sti/n. See the full discussion of Monarchianism in Athanasius, p. xxiii. ff. in this series, and Newman's Introduction to Athan. Or. iv.
32 For fora/n (Bened.) many Mss. read fqora/n, "corruption."
33 Compare xi. 4, 9, 18.
34 Ton o/moion kata\ pa/nta tw= gennh/santi. On the meaning and history of this phrase, proposed by the Semi-Arians at the Council of Ariminum as a substitute for o 9moou/sion, see Athan. de Syn. § 8, sqq.
35 e'nupo/statoj. Cf. xi 10; Athan. c. Apollinar. I. 20, 21.
36 The Mss. vary much, but I have followed the Benedictine text.
37 Matt. xi. 27; John x. 15; xvii. 25.
38 This was a point earnestly maintained by the orthodox Bishops at Nicaea, that the Son begotten of the substance of the Father is ever inseparably in the Father. Athan. de Decretis Syn. c. 20 ; Tertullian c. Marc. IV. c. 6. Cf. Ignat. ad Trall. vi. (Long Recension); to\n me\n ga\r xristo\n a'llotrionsi tou\ Patro/j.
39 ui 9opatori/a. A term of derision applied to the doctrine of Sabellius. Compare Atlantis. Expositio Fidei, c. 2: "neither do we imagine a Son-Father, as the Sabellians." See Index, Uiopa/twr.
40 Do/goj proforiko/j, the term used by Paul of Samosata, implied that the Word was impersonal, being conceived as a particular activity of God. See Dorner, Person of Christ, Div. I. vol. ii. p. 436 (English Tr.): and compare Athanasius, Expositio Fideic. I; uio\n e'k tou\ Patro\j a'na/rxwj kai a'i!dia/qeton. Cardinal Newman (Athan. c. Arianos, I. 7, note) observes that some Christian writers of the 2nd Century "seem to speak of the Divine generation as taking place immediately before the creation of the world, that is as if not eternal, though at the same time they teach that our Lord existed before that generation. In other words they seem to teach that He was the Word from eternity, and became the Son at the beginning of all things; some of them expressly considering Him, first as the lo/goj e'ndia/qetoj, or Reason, in the Father, or (as may be speciously represented) a mere attribute; next, as the lo/goj proforiko/j, or Word."
The terms lo/goj e'ndia/qetoj, or 'word conceived in the mind,' and lo/goj proforiko/j, or 'word expressed' (emissum, or prolalivum), were in use among the Gnostics (Iren. II. c. 12, § 5). As applied to the Son both terms, though sometimes used in a right sense, were condemned as inadequate. Compare xi. 10.
41 a/nuposta/toij lo/noij. Athan. c. Arianos Orat. iv. c. 8: pa/lin oi 9 le/gontej mo/non o!noma ei\nai ui 9ou\, a'nou/sion de\ kai\ a'nupo/staton ei\nai to\n ui 9o\n tou\ Qeou/, K.T.L.
42 o 9moiopaqh=. Compare Acts xiv. 15; Jas. v. 17.
43 On the origin of the Docetic heresy, see vi. 14.
44 Valentinus the Gnostic taught that God produced a Son of an animal nature who "passed through Mary just as water through a tube, and that on him the Saviour descended at his Baptism." Irenaeus, I. vii. 2.
45 The words which the Benedictine Editor introduces in the brackets are found in Theodoret, and adopted by recent Editors, with Codd. M. A.
46 Eusebius, Life of Constantine, iii. 28.
47 The discovery of the "True Cross" is related with many marvellous particulars by Socrates, Eccles. Hist. I. 17; and Sozomen, E. H. ii. I. A portion was said to have been left by Helena at Jerusalem, enclosed in a silver case; and another portion sent to Constantinople, where Constantine privately enclosed it in his own statue, to be a safeguard to the city. Eusebius, Life of Constantine, iii. 25-30 , gives a long account of the discovery of the Holy Sepulcare, but makes no mention of the Cross. Cyril seems to have been the first to record it, 25 years after. Cf. Greg. Nyss. Bapt. Christi (p. 519).
48 Compare xiv. 18, 19, on the Descent into Hades.
49 The same Old Testament saints are named in xiv. 19, as redeemed by Christ in Hades.
50 Matt. xi. 3.
51 Deut. xix. 15.
52 Justin M. Dialogue with Trypho, 247 C: We call Him Helper and Redeemer, the power of whose Name even demons do fear; and at this day, when exorcised in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judaea, they are overcome.
53 Tertullian, de Coroná, 3: At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the Sign. If for these, and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer.
