Anti-Arian Works 14

SERMON ONE. On the Circumcision of the Lord. The mystery of the divine Incarnation, the surpassing sacrament of our reconciliation, is for this cause celebrated and honoured by us in its yearly return: that the commemoration of so great a benefit may show what has been bestowed upon us unworthy ones, and may remind us of what we owe to so great a glory. Therefore, brethren, the more we have heard that the Lord Jesus Christ was mercifully humbled for us, the more let us acknowledge Him to be ineffably glorious. For in this the only-begotten God evidently showed His unconquerable love toward us, in that for our sake He took upon Himself the humility of true flesh and of true death, not compelled by necessity, but moved by goodness and mercy.

For what good had we done, brethren, that so great a benefit should be granted to us? What good merits of ours were there, that the only-begotten God should deign to become man, that the Most High should be humbled, that the never-failing bread of angels should be nursed at a woman's breasts, that the King of ages should be subjected to reproaches for us, that the eternal Life should most patiently deign to die? Consider therefore, O man, the condescension of so great a kindness, that you may humbly render an act of thanksgiving. But know that you render to the divine grace not honour, but insult, if you begin to doubt the greatness of so great a benefit. Nay rather, let us believe without any hesitation that all those things which we have heard concerning the humility and humanity of the Lord our Saviour are true.

And therefore let us rather give thanks, brethren, we who, when we deserved punishment, received grace: by which grace it came to pass that, while death is justly owed to the lost, life is freely given to the unworthy. For the humility of the Most High Saviour brought no loss to Himself, but conferred a great increase upon us; nor did it cast down the exalted, but raised up the fallen. For that the Son of God might accomplish the full work of our redemption, He deigned not only, as the Creator of all flesh, to be born by nature from the flesh of the Virgin according to the truth of flesh, and, being God the maker of man, to become true man from man;

nay more, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, to be laid in a most narrow manger, to be circumcised on the eighth day, and to be carried by human hands to His own temple. O most merciful kindness of God! O sublime humility of the Most High God! He was nursed as a little infant by a mother, who as the Boundless One created a mother for Himself. He, a little child, was carried by His parents to His own temple, who as the great God was entreated in that same temple by holy men. And He commanded a sacrifice to be offered for Himself, who without sin had come to be immolated for our impieties. Consider therefore, O man, what you owe to Him who was exalted and humbled for you: to your exalted Creator, to your humbled Redeemer.

Nevertheless, dearly beloved, the integrity of the Christian faith has always been accustomed to hold this: that if we read or hear anything done by Christ according to the canonical narrative of the Evangelists, we should first believe without doubt that the history is true, and then in the historical truth also seek the spiritual understanding. For when the text of the divine history is believed to be true, the Manichaean is confounded in his severity: who, while he does not believe the truth of the flesh in Christ the Son of God, strives to lay upon the holy Scriptures, both old and new, the charge of falsehood. For the wretched man execrates the deifying history of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament he denies himself the very medicine.

For he will not believe that human flesh was formed by God, nor that the circumcision of the flesh was commanded by God to our holy fathers, nor that a victim from the flesh of animals was in ancient times immolated to the living and true God, nor that the Sabbath was kept by the precept and will of God, nor that the temple was built for the Lord at God's command. And so, while in the holy Scriptures he does not distinguish the character of the times, he spurns and despises the most salutary truth of the Lord's Incarnation. Wherefore, that the Manichaean may by most evident reasoning be overcome and converted, would that, being overcome by today's Gospel reading, we may defend the truth of the Old Testament, so that from this we may most manifestly prove the God of the Old and the New to be one!

Behold, as the holy Gospel narrates, we have learned that Christ the Son of God was truly circumcised, and that for Christ the Son of God a sacrifice from the flesh was offered according to the custom of the divine institution of that time: but whether the circumcision of the flesh, or the rule of carnal sacrifices, is known to have been instituted in the Old Testament. Why then, most beloved, should you not most justly believe in the Old Testament that man was formed by the hands of God, when in the New Testament, that man might not perish forever, the only-begotten God Himself was made true man for us? Why should it not be believed that God commanded circumcision also to be performed at a fitting time to signify something, when the Son of God caused it to be observed in His own body?

And why should our God not have commanded the people of the Jews in past time to offer typical victims of flesh, when God the Only-begotten Himself, born in time from the Jews, deigned to be immolated for our sins according to the flesh? Let the Manichaean therefore attend to the most manifest and most concordant truth of both Testaments, and, being converted, let him cast away his vanity. Let him see in the Old Testament the signification of things to come, in the New the revelation of things past; and Christ the God of both Testaments—in the Old Testament promising what He was about to exhibit, in the New exhibiting what He had promised: neither a liar in the promise, nor deceitful in the bestowal;

but everywhere good, everywhere just, everywhere holy, everywhere powerful, everywhere merciful: in the Old Testament the most powerful Creator of flesh and soul, in the New the most merciful Assumer of that same flesh and soul; and thus first the Saviour of flesh and soul. Let the Manichaean hear these things, compare them, acknowledge them, and believe; and believing, let him return to the catholic Church, in which he may find the benefit of true salvation. Now by these things which the Lord did while established in the body, He deigned not only to demonstrate the concord of both Testaments, but also willed salubriously to form the morals of Christians: so that what we behold to have been done bodily in Him for our salvation, we too might imitate spiritually.

For therefore Christ was born a little child on earth, that the Christian might learn humility. For this cause also He was subject to the parents of His flesh, that every Christian might always show honour to father and mother. And therefore Christ was wrapped in mean swaddling clothes, that the Christian might not delight in costly garments. For this reason Christ willed to appear poor on earth, that rich Christians might learn not to love earthly riches; but, by distributing alms to the poor, they might be able to keep their riches in heaven. For this cause Christ was placed in a narrow manger, He who in the breadth of His whole mind is not confined:

that those believing in Him might have spiritual food, and that Christians might learn not to gape after the houses or possessions of others. For what Christian, however small his house or his own means may be, would not have enough, when the narrowness of a small manger sufficed for Christ the Son of God? By the circumcision, indeed, which the Son of God received in the flesh, He foreshowed to us the circumcision of our heart in the spirit. Which circumcision the word of the law enjoins upon us, Moses saying: 'Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be circumcised to your God' (Deut. 10:16). With which precept the blessed Apostle agrees, saying: 'For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;'

'but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God' (Rom. 2:28-29). Accordingly, Christ had circumcision in the body, that the Christian might have it spiritually in the heart. For this cause He, who could have no sin at all, laid aside the foreskin of the flesh, that we might cast off the desires of wickedness. Christ therefore was carried by hands to the temple, that the Christian by good works might ascend into heaven. Christ willed a sacrifice to be offered for Himself, that the Christian might offer himself at the altar of the Lord. And let him above all hasten to offer himself by living well.

But if he delights to present a pure sacrifice to the divine eyes, in the very kind of that sacrifice we recognize that a certain spiritual sacrifice is signified to us: 'A pair,' it says, 'of turtledoves, and two young pigeons' (Luke 2:24). In this kind of birds, most beloved brethren, a great sacrament of the catholic faith is commended to you. For in the dove charity is recognized, in the turtledove chastity is found. For the turtledove keeps inviolate faith to one mate; but the dove does not forsake the unity of others dwelling together.

The catholic Christian, therefore, is then truly made a spiritual turtledove, if he preserves the true faith of the Trinity with firm belief, and repudiates the sense of heretical depravity as the defilements of fornication. And he will then be a dove, if he perseveres with long-suffering even unto the end in the catholic society, and persists with immovable firmness against temptations and scandals: so that neither may heretical fornication corrupt in the heart the chastity of faith, nor bitter dissension forsake the unity of ecclesiastical chastity. For this is the lawful Church, which keeps faith to the one God as to a lawful husband, and multiplies the congregation of her children in charity.

In this turtledove and dove, most beloved brethren, remain solicitously; guard her with all your prayers, that neither the Arian may violate her, nor the Donatist trample her, nor the Manichaean defile her. For they, like evil hawks, desire to scatter the unity of the dove, and long to violate the chastity of the turtledove. For the Manichaean does not believe the true flesh in Christ, the Arian diminishes the true divinity in Him, and the Donatist scatters the unity of the catholic body. The Manichaean does not see the sacrament of the Redeemer, the Arian does not consider the greatness of the Saviour, and the Donatist, like a ravening wolf, has not hesitated to scatter the flock of the good Shepherd.

If therefore these men, as I have said, like evil hawks, desiring to slay the wretched and those greedy of vanity, or ignorant of the truth, persecute the charity of the dove, execrate the chastity of the turtledove, and, whomever they can, either devour with the mouth or tear with their talons. You therefore, most holy brethren, guard in faith the catholic truth, keep in charity the catholic peace. He offers a sacrifice pleasing to God who, with fraternal charity, preserves the true sacrament of the catholic faith. Where one God, one Trinity is worshipped; where the Father is not preached as greater than the Son, nor the Son as less than the Father according to divinity;

nor is the substance of the Holy Spirit distinguished from them, who together with the Father and the Son is by nature one God. For the power of the holy Trinity is one, because in three persons one natural substance remains; the power is one, because the majesty is one; the eternity is one, because the divinity is one; the dominion over creatures is one, because the condition of the creature is one. For whatever the Father created, He fashioned through the Son, and established in the Holy Spirit. But the Son is born of Him who begets, the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him who abides. Yet neither did the Son divide the Father by being born, nor did the Spirit diminish God by proceeding, since neither does He increase Him by adhering. Therefore neither is the Son lessened by being born, nor the Spirit separated by proceeding.

For that blessed Trinity itself remains, because there the substantial unity remains: and since nothing in the divinity of the Trinity is created, therefore there is surely nothing separated. These things, most beloved brethren, hold faithfully, in these continually remain. Let this be the thought in the heart, and the confession of the mouth. Hold the faith which you received in the name of the Trinity. Keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and of the turtledove, and of the dove: that you may be able always to be spiritual ones in the house of God. Which may He Himself deign to grant, who with the Father and the Son lives and reigns, God. SERMON II (as it is found in the manuscript, though with a doubtful title). On the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If subtly by the faithful of this day...

let this festival be weighed, so that they may undertake to celebrate it with the same devotion of affection with which they have kept the solemnities of the Lord's Nativity, of the Circumcision, and of the Manifestation. For this solemnity belongs to the same One to whom those belong; nor is this one lesser than those. And this indeed we shall show in this sermon by plain proofs. For the solemnity of this day, just as it is unknown to some Christians, so by many it is held more honored than the other solemnities of the year. But especially in that place where the Catholic Church has obtained her primacy in the Shepherd, it is held by them in such great reverence that on that day the whole multitude of the city, gathered together into one and glittering with the boundless lights of tapers, celebrate together the solemnities of the Mass;

and no one enters the doorway of the public assembly who does not hold a light in his hand: as though indeed they were about to offer the Lord in the temple, or rather even to receive Him; that the light of faith by which they shine inwardly, they may show outwardly by the reverence of their offering. For today, according to the Law and the Gospel, when forty days had passed from the Nativity of Christ, that same Lord was presented in the temple by His parents. Today He was received by holy Simeon, and offered to the Father together with sacred gifts. Today He was publicly proclaimed by that same Simeon and by Anna to those awaiting the redemption of Israel. O what a holy spectacle, in which none but the holy are proved to take delight! Here stands the Virgin and Mother, not of anyone, but of God;

here is received the little son of the Virgin, whose divinity the world cannot contain. From this side and that the prophets hasten forth, and concerning the Child both sexes prophesy. An offering is presented for the Child, yet not one that cleanses sins, but one that consecrates the sacraments. And because I desire to lift up the proclamation of this day, it pleases me to run through in discourse that very Gospel reading in which I recognize these things to be related: so that to the things I say that reading may respond; nay rather, to the things which it relates, let the voice of my exhortation respond.

In short, Luke the Evangelist, setting forth the history of the truth concerning Christ's incarnation more fully and more orderly than the other Evangelists—after the annunciation made to Him by the angel, after the nativity declared by the voices of the angels, after the circumcision of the eighth day in the house of His parents—follows on in order, saying: 'After the days of the purification of His mother were fulfilled, according to the Law of Moses, they carried Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord: as it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord' (Luke 2:22-23).

It is clear to all the faithful that the Redeemer's mother by no means contracted any stain from His nativity, such that she should be purified by abstaining for those days from the sacred edifices. For she gave birth as a virgin without human concupiscence, without any corruption of the flesh, and she remained a virgin without end; and by this the male born of her did not open her womb. But the Evangelist, weaving his narrative even with such matters, closes off from the impious the sacrament of the divine incarnation, and introduces the mother as one observing the Law. Yet it is no wonder if the mother should observe the Law which her Son had come not to abolish, but to fulfill. For she knew in what manner she had conceived, and who He was whom she had brought forth.

But observing the common Law, she awaited the day of purification, she concealed the majesty of her Son. Hence it is that, finding Him in the temple at twelve years of age, she calls Him the son of Joseph, saying: 'Son, why hast Thou dealt thus with us? Behold, Thy father and I sought Thee sorrowing' (Luke 2:48). Him whom without doubt she knew she had conceived without intercourse with Joseph, and had brought forth without loss of her virginity. But why did she hide the sacrament of His conception and nativity, whom she knew to be the boundless God? Does she perhaps grudge it to others—she who, carrying Him to the temple, delivered Him into the hands of the holy old man? Far be it. Rather, being filled even with the spirit of prophecy, she would not open the redemption of the world to the impious.

For even then, being full of grace, breathed upon by the Spirit of divinity, she knew that if the princes of this world had known Him, they would never have crucified Him for our salvation. Offer therefore, most blessed Virgin, as one observing the Law, in the temple Him whom thou hast brought forth, that not to all, but to few it may be revealed who He is whom thou hast begotten. Let there appear meanwhile the lowly stone cut from the mountain without hands, that He may be rejected by the builders, until, striking the statue upon its feet, He grows into a great mountain and fills the whole circle of the lands. O how small, O how great is He whom thou hast brought forth! Small in humanity, great in divinity; small in the kingdom of the Jews, great in the kingdom of the Gentiles.

Yet He is not esteemed small by all in the kingdom of the Jews. For even thou thyself who didst bring Him forth, from that very people of Israel didst grow up as a rod. For thou hast risen as a rod from the root of Jesse, and hast flowered. Thou hast put forth leaves as the rod of Aaron, and hast borne the nut; and because above all thou didst acknowledge His immensity, whom nevertheless thou didst see born from thee as the very least; without doubt Him whom thou didst beget as an infant, thou didst trembling adore as almighty God, and adoring didst tremble: whom nevertheless, because according to His humanity thou didst recognize Him as thy son, thou didst nurse, cherish, and nourish. Who, thinkest thou, could disclose to us, amid services of this kind, the sense of thy soul, O most blessed Virgin? seeing that on the one hand thou didst discern so tiny an infant born from thee, and on the other didst gaze upon the boundless God;

on the one hand the created, on the other the Creator; on the one hand the weak, on the other the most mighty; on the one hand one to be nourished, on the other the One who nourishes; on the one hand one not speaking, on the other one teaching the angels. Who, I say, could unlock for us the secrets of thy breast, by what ways thou didst bend thy thought to both, when, holding in thy hands one and the same Son of God and of man, on the one hand thou didst adore Him as Lord, on the other didst kiss Him as a little child? Who does not stand amazed at so ineffable a miracle? Who does not become almost speechless? A maiden brings forth her own Creator and the Creator of all, nurses her own Nourisher and the Nourisher of all, carries to the temple her own Ruler and the Ruler of all. O wondrous spectacle, at which not only human but even angelic nature stands amazed!

To this, most dear brethren, lift up your eyes; to this come together with the affection of piety. There receive Christ humbled for you in the flesh, but adore Him as the exalted God in His divinity. Embrace the little child, but ponder the Immense One. Love the humbled One, and fear the exalted One. But now, most beloved, if it be asked what was mystically signified in this—that our Redeemer willed to be carried by His mother and parents from His own city to Jerusalem, to the temple of the Lord—we find that His glorious mother and virgin, and her kinsfolk, bore the figure of that Church which believed from among the Jews in the apostles. For when was the Church not a virgin? whose members the Apostle addresses, saying:

'I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ' (2 Cor. 11:2). When was she not a mother? For because it is said through the Psalmist: 'Mother Sion shall say, A man' (Ps. 87:5); and the Lord in the Gospel: 'Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother' (Matt. 12:50). When were the elect not kinsfolk, who are called brothers and sisters? Therefore the mother and kinsfolk of our Redeemer bring Him from Nazareth to Jerusalem, to the temple of the Lord: because that primitive Church in the first disciples, rejected by the Jews, carried the dispensation of that same redemption to the knowledge of the Gentiles.

For that same Church, not only from the Gentiles but also from the Jews, is rightly called Jerusalem, that is, Vision of Peace: of which it is said through the Psalmist: 'Jerusalem, which is built as a city, whose partaking of it is together in one' (Ps. 122:3). She is also the temple, as is said to the faithful through Paul: 'The temple of the Lord is holy, which you are' (1 Cor. 3:17). And by this, when the apostles and Judea, announcing Christ, come to the Gentiles, without doubt Jerusalem meets Jerusalem, and temple runs to temple: since all these are one city Jerusalem, and one temple. In this city, therefore, and in this temple, Christ, offered by the apostles, is received.

Whence that same Church speaks with the Psalmist's voice, saying: 'We have received, O God, Thy mercy in the midst of Thy temple' (Ps. 48:9). Understand: in the midst of the Church, which is Thy temple. Now whether according to the history, or according to the mystical understanding, why Christ is led by His parents to the holy city and the temple, the reason is made manifest when it is added: 'That they should give a victim, according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons' (Luke 2:24).

For it had been a precept of the Law that whoever perchance lacked a lamb, and had found one of these two, that is, either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, should offer it to God in the offering of his son; nor should one be prejudiced by the other who had offered whichever one of these. Finally, in this offering of birds, there was prefigured that offering which was offered for the salvation of the world in the evening of the day—namely, the passion of the Lord, through which we have been reconciled to God. For concerning this victim it is said through Paul to the faithful: 'Walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and gave Himself for us an offering and a victim to God, for an odor of sweetness' (Eph. 5:2); and again: 'Who loved me,' he says, 'and delivered Himself for me' (Gal.

2:20). Now because all the elect are members of Christ—in the turtledove, that is, the turtledoves, and in the dove the doves—this offering of birds also designates the mortification of the elect, to whom it is said through the same apostle: 'I beseech you by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living victim, holy, pleasing to God' (Rom. 12:1). But no offering of mortification can be acceptable to God in those in whom there is not the chastity of true faith, the concord of true chastity. Therefore, not without cause is the sacrifice—which is presented as mystically offered for the Lord—related to have been of turtledoves and doves. For in the turtledove chastity is found, and in the dove unity is commended.

For the turtledove keeps its undefiled faith to one mate, while the dove does not abandon the unity of the others that dwell together. The Catholic Christian, therefore, then truly becomes a spiritual turtledove, if he keeps the true faith of the Trinity with firm belief, and rejects the mind of heretical depravity as the defilements of fornication. Then truly will he be a dove, if with longsuffering he remains to the end in the Catholic society, and stands firm against the scandals of temptation with unmovable steadfastness: so that neither heretical fornication may corrupt in the heart the chastity of faith, nor bitter dissension may scatter the unity of ecclesiastical chastity.

For this is the Catholic Church, which keeps the faith to one Lord as to a lawful husband, and multiplies the congregation of many in the faith. There follows: 'And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was just and God-fearing, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was in him: and he had received an answer from the Holy Spirit that he should not see death unless he saw the Christ of the Lord. And he came in the Spirit into the temple' (Luke 2:25-27). Nothing less than holiness is specially ascribed to this man, who both dwells in Jerusalem, that is, in the vision of peace, and is just by the working of faith, and God-fearing by reverence, and astonished at the consolation of Israel (perhaps: intent upon the consolation).

And he is declared to have been filled with the Holy Spirit, and strengthened by His answer concerning the appointment (perhaps: the sending) of the incarnate Word. O with what burning desire this man awaited, according to the promise of the Holy Spirit, to see the Redeemer in the flesh! What, do we think, was the earnestness of his prayer, which by a divine answer deserved to be assured concerning the things he asked? What were the continual words of his groanings in holy proclamation? For he did not cease in asking, until he should receive an answer concerning the things he petitioned. In former times, indeed, there were many kindled with a like desire, the Lord attesting to His disciples, who said: 'Many kings and prophets desired to see the things which you see, and did not see them;'

'and to hear the things which you hear, and did not hear them' (Luke 10:24). But of those, this alone was granted to him who appeared last of these in the fullness of time. Yet if with watchful zeal we attend to the desire of the saints who came after, to whom 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain' (Phil. 1:21), we find that they wished to behold the divinity of that same Savior with no lesser ardor of soul than that with which he longed to behold Him in the flesh. Hence Paul says: 'I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ; but that is far better' (Phil. 1:23). Hence the Psalmist says in his own person: 'My soul hath thirsted after the living God. When shall I come and appear before the face of God?' (Ps. 42:2).

Who then may see even from this in the one Simeon many, and by one may see all the elect signified, who now are both just by faith and working, and God-fearing by future expectation, and astonished by the consolation to come? In whom also the Holy Spirit is known to dwell, since it is said through the Apostle: 'The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us' (Rom. 5:5); and again it is said to the faithful: 'Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God' (1 Cor. 6:19). Who also receive an answer from the Holy Spirit that they shall not see death unless they first see the Christ of the Lord:

because in this yet corruptible life, by the grace of that same Holy Spirit revealing it, with the eyes of faith opened, they behold Him who promised to remain with them even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20)—no longer a little child in the flesh, but immense in divinity. Who also say with the Apostle: 'And if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer' (2 Cor. 5:16). These also dwell in Jerusalem, and come in the Spirit into the temple into which Christ is brought. For they themselves are the Jerusalem who dwell in Jerusalem: they too are the temple who come into the temple, in whom and by whom Christ is received.

Briefly, brethren, we have run through these things, lest, while we have striven to set forth what are the sacraments of this day, and what holy and pure proclamation it holds, we should become tiresome to anyone. There follows: 'And when His parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law, he also took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace' (Luke 2:27-29). Who liveth, etc.