Contra Judaeos. Paganos Et Arianos Sermo De Symbolo

Against the Jews, Pagans, and Arians: A Sermon on the Creed. Chapter One. — Christian vigils. Amid the pressures and distresses of the present time and the duties of our servitude, we are compelled, most beloved, not to remain silent, when it would be more fitting to weep than to say anything. Nevertheless, lest something be lacking from the increase of the Lord’s treasury, and it be said to us, “Worthless and lazy servant, you were to disburse my money, and I, coming, would demand it with interest” (Matt. 25:26-27), I ask your Charity that you deign to receive willingly what the master of the household himself has ministered to you through us. The words of the Apostle are: “Night has passed, but day has drawn near; therefore, putting aside the works of darkness, clothe yourselves with the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12). Therefore, with the darkness of night driven out and the shadows of sins put to flight, let the ray of true light shine in our hearts. For the reason of this great gathering demands that we render to you an account of the past night and demonstrate the true and everlasting salvation of this day from so great a sacrament received. For if we consider the works of the past night and are able to explain what we have done, with the Lord’s gift, we will find that in the night we have performed not the works of night, but of day.

For we have not recognized our senses lulled by the pleasure of sleep, nor our souls deceived by phantasms, nor have our bodies themselves, pressed down by the warmth of the bedding, inclined us to rest in deep slumber; but by keeping watch, praying, singing psalms, fighting against the adversary the devil, we have both felt a great light infused into our hearts and performed the works of the day in the night. For what have we done this night? We have put the devil to flight, we have brought Christ in. What have we done this night? We have taken the captor captive. What have we done this night? We have cast out diabolical darkness from your hearts, we have shown that true light is to be drawn in. What has been done this night? The coming true strength has bound the strong one and plundered the vessels of his house (Matthew 12). What has been done this night? Pride has been uprooted, humility has been brought in. What has been done this night? The prince of all vices has been driven out, the source of all goods has been received. You see, most beloved, what good things you have prepared, and from what burden, or from what loads of sins you are being relieved by Him who calls you to take up His gentle yoke and His light burden (Matthew 11:29): Therefore, laying aside the works of darkness, clothe yourselves with the arms of light. Know that what this is has been explained to you from the words of the Creed which you have just received. What is, "Lay aside the works of darkness," if not, "Renounce the devil, his pomps, and his angels"?

And what is "Clothe yourselves in the armor of light" except "Believe in God the Father Almighty"? CHAPTER II. — Who the Devil Is. First, however, beloved, let us discuss who or what the Devil is, and what his pomps are, renouncing which we lay aside the works of darkness; then at last, concerning God the Father Almighty, who is the true light, as much as He Himself has granted, we shall speak to Your Charity. What is the Devil? An angel separated from God through pride, who did not stand in truth, the author of falsehood, and deceived by himself, who desired to deceive another. This adversary, become the enemy of the human race, the inventor of death, the founder of pride, the root of malice, the head of crimes, the prince of all vices, the persuader even of base pleasures. When he looked upon that first man, namely Adam, the father of us all, and saw a man made from the clay of the earth in the image of God, adorned with modesty, composed with temperance, surrounded by charity, clothed with immortality, this rival and envious one, because he himself, while he was an angel, is known to have lost through pride what this earthly man had received, immediately this insatiable murderer envied him, and stripped our first parents of those gifts and such great goods, and moreover destroyed them. For, beloved, when the Devil had taken away from man such great goods—modesty, continence, charity.

immortality, and having stripped him bare and foul, mocking him with his own rags, bound him to his dominion, and from that bond bound all his offspring to himself. For Adam took up foul rags when, stripped of chastity by the devil, he was girded with unchastity; having lost temperance, he became intemperate; having lost charity, he was found evil; stripped of immortality, he was delivered to death. Alas! what he lost, and what he received, he bound even these foulest rags upon his descendants. CHAPTER III. — What It Means to Renounce Satan. Let us renounce this ruinous inheritance: we have been made orphans. Before the collector comes, if anyone neglects to renounce such a wicked inheritance, in which are the devil's rags, namely his pomps and his angels, when the judge comes, as the Gospel says, the debtor will be handed over to the collector, and the collector will thrust the debtor into prison. Amen, I say to you, says the Lord, you will not go out from there until you pay the last farthing (Matt. 5:26). Therefore, all the human race, as a poor man and an orphan, Holy Scripture commends to God, saying, To you the poor man is left; you will be the orphan's helper. And pointing out his adversary the devil, it immediately added, Break the arm of the sinner and the wicked (Ps. 10:14, 15, according to the Hebrews). Let some pious man, then, be present and show some mercy to this orphan and poor man.

For it is a fierce and cunning adversary that this ward endures, and in his own case he fails, because his adversary has bound him by evil deeds. Let us provide this ward with suitable defenders, and let us summon the patronage of the Apostles, as celestial legal experts, on his behalf. What is to be done before such advocates for such a client? Therefore, before you, Peter, Paul, John, and the rest of the holy counselors of the true Judge, friends of the highest authority, we set forth the case, which you know very well, of this poor man and ward—namely, the human race—who, found to be a debtor by his father's bond, is held guilty and constrained by the adversary; there is no other way for him to be helped except by your counsel. What, then, in this matter seems to your serenity, for the freedom of this wretched man, from a common deliberation, to deign to pronounce a united judgment? For this obligation would have bound you as well, had grace not come to your aid. Freed men, set free: bring forth the counsel which you received from the true Judge, so that he who is held captive may follow it, and from evil servitude, through your defense, may attain true freedom. And this is the voice of all: "Let him do what we did." What, I ask, is he to do? Let him renounce the devil, his pomps and his angels: this is that harmful inheritance which we are compelled to renounce. You see, most beloved, what sentence our defenders have pronounced.

CHAPTER IV. — Relapse after Baptism. Therefore let each one be on guard, lest, not fully renouncing after his profession, the devil should recognize his own rags in him; and let him who Christ wished to free by his grace begin to be held always as a debtor. Nor should those who, after receiving grace, refuse to be corrected and return again to their former pleasures, flatter themselves. For the day of judgment is awaited; that most just judge will be present, who will accept the person of no powerful man, whose palace no one will corrupt with gold or silver. All souls will stand forth, so that each one may give account according to what it has done through the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). For the adversary, the devil, will also be present; the words of our profession will be recited. And if anyone is found to be such that he departs from this life as a debtor, that adversary will exult in the presence of the most severe judge, proclaiming himself superior, pleading such a case before such a judge: "Most just judge of justice, judge: 'Justice and judgment are the preparation of your throne' (Ps. 88:15). Judge that he is mine, who refused to be yours: he is mine, he is to be condemned with me. After renunciation, why did he invade my rags? Why was unchastity with him, to which he himself had renounced? Why intemperance, why avarice, why anger, why pride, why the rest of my things?

Finally, most just one: the one fleeing from me, taking refuge with you, I later seized when, with his own people whom he had renounced, he invaded my domain; in a certain way, he was caught by me on my own property. For what was he doing in the circus, and there the furies, quarrels, insane shouts, and empty victories, which he had already alienated from himself, was he dividing among his own? What was the renouncer of shameful pleasures doing in the theater? What was he doing in the amphitheater, beholding cruelties with his own eyes? He was storing up wrath for himself on the day of judgment (Rom. 2:5). All these things of mine he invaded after his renunciation; he wished to be mine, and he coveted my possessions. Judge, most just one: since he whom you deigned to free at such a price, afterwards wished to bind himself to me. Can it be, dearest ones, that the door is open to one who after his profession is found to be such that he is justly assigned to the devil? See what you do, my sons, my brothers; see what you do, how you keep this profession of yours. We warn you by the judge himself and all the heavenly powers, who both hear us admonishing and receive you professing, lest you receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. 6:1), but with a whole heart, with all your strength, with perfect faith renounce and spurn such a ruinous diabolical inheritance, lest you remain orphans or paupers.

CHAPTER V. — The Unity of the Trinity. Believe in God the Father Almighty. If you change the Father, you change the inheritance. Who is this Almighty Father? We acknowledge that the Father, whom we believe in, is our God and the God of the whole world through grace; but we also seek His own Son by substance: because even before the world was formed by Him, He was Father. If He was Father, whose Father was He? He certainly had a Son from Himself, with Himself, the same as Himself, but not Himself; since He is the Father, this is the Son: because the Almighty Father begot the Almighty Son from Himself, equal to Himself, so that He remained entirely in Himself, and He was the Father of the Son, and the Son of the Father, God from God, day from day, light from light: yet not two gods, or two days, or two lights; but one God, one day, one light. You do not grasp it by seeing; understand it by believing: cleanse the eyes of your heart; rather, let the light itself which you desire to see cleanse your heart, so that it may be cleansed from the darkness of sins: For the pure of heart will see God (Matthew 5:8). Behold, extend the gaze of the eye of your heart, and see; apply the ear of your heart and hear. For Father and Son sound as two, but when the Son Himself says, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me" (John 14:10), the Son is the Word of the Father; but the Father was never without the Word, because "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1).

CHAPTER VI. — The Trinity Incomprehensible. Light from light seems to signify two lights: but let us beware, lest the error of the Manichaeans seize us, who think that this sun is Christ; but we believe the Sun of Righteousness to be the Word of the Father, inseparable, equal, remaining with the Father, and ordering all things with him: the Father doing all things through the Son, building the fabric of the world through his Word, the Son coming to us, yet not leaving the Father, always with him, never without him, giving light.

ousness, which is the true light, shines from itself and from that other light, radiating, gleaming: not two lights, but one light. For He says, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). Of the only-begotten Word Himself, the prophet David says: "God spoke once, and I heard these two things" (Psalm 61:12). How did God speak once, and yet a second time, unless because the intransgressible Word proceeding from the Father's heart took on flesh, so that He might be man, from the womb of His mother? He came and remained: He came to us, and did not depart from the Father. Behold, by this that God spoke once, our entire structure arose; by this that He sounded a second time, our peace was made, so that enmities might be reconciled in the flesh (Ephesians 2:14). This Word, this light, the Arian, not looking at it, dares to call the Son lesser, whom we confess as equal: insane contumacy wishes to dispute about the Word remaining in the Father's heart, when it cannot even understand itself. Insane heretic, first return to yourself, consider yourself entirely, if you can comprehend yourself: and then dispute about Him who made both me and you. See how different was the one who, not wise in any other way, but in simplicity of heart sought to know God—that humble one who with one stone struck down the proud forehead of Goliath (1 Samuel 17).

See how he did not think highly of himself: for he considered what was happening within himself; he considered his own soul, inspected his own structure, examined within himself what he was, and from what part he governed such a beautiful mass, and what mistress soul dwelt in that earthen vessel, filled with such treasures of wisdom, knowledge, prudence: where in that place such great, so precious, so vast things would be: what places the soul occupied, in which there is no place: and from one source how each virtue proceeded without diminution of either the one going out or the one pouring forth. He saw these things, he considered these things. He wished but was unable to comprehend, and cried out to God, saying: "Your knowledge has become wonderful to me; it has grown strong, and I cannot attain to it" (Psalm 138:6). This was to say, When can I comprehend you, who are so great, when I cannot even explain myself, who am the least and the smallest? See also another humble one, measuring the limit of his own weakness, and not exceeding it, but bending toward lowly things: "The sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of the age—who has counted them? The height of the sky, and the breadth of the earth, and the depth of the abyss—who has measured them? The wisdom of God, which precedes all things—who has investigated it?" (Sirach 1:2-3). Behold, the prophet says—indeed, the Lord Himself who spoke through the prophet—that no one has investigated the wisdom of God. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

No one has been able to investigate the wisdom of God according to the divinity: for as regards that which the Son was born from the Father without a mother, who will recount his nativity (cf. Isa. 53:8)? Chapter VII. — Against the Arians. Tell me, heretic, who dare to say that the Wisdom of God is lesser: tell me, how great is the height of the sky, the breadth of the earth, the depth of the abyss? Count, if you can, the drops of rain, the grains of sand of the sea, and the days of the age: also the number of your own hairs, since all the hairs of your head are numbered (Matt. 10:30), show me, and explain these small, inferior things, and then I will believe that you can investigate higher things. But you cannot, you are not able. The Spirit of God convicts you, who foresaw you heretics beforehand. For those who wrote down and understood those things which we have mentioned above were moved by the spirit of truth, not of error. But you, heretic, since you cannot explain these things, dare to dispute about the Wisdom of God itself, which cannot be investigated: and you appear great because you dispute with no one contradicting you, with no judge presiding. And while the time favors your error, you think you are something, when you are nothing: and you seduce many whom you desire to seduce; some by money, some by power: you gather such people to yourself, whom you destroy along with yourself in great numbers.

Here it is not a useful labor for salvation, but rather for destruction. For by teaching such things—indeed, not teaching, but rather blaspheming—you show yourself to be doing injuries not to any ordinary person, but to God the Father Himself in His Son. The Father is greater, the Son is lesser; the Father is better, the Son is inferior. No wise man whatsoever would willingly accept such insults, who contends that his son is better than himself, or equal. Whence also is that prophetic saying: “The father rejoiced in a wise son; in his lifetime he saw, and at his death he was not grieved. For the father died, and it was as if he did not die: for he left a son like himself behind” (Ecclus. 30:5, 4). Behold, the prophet says that a wise son of a man is like his father; and you, heretic, dare to say that Wisdom itself, that is, the Son of God, is unlike the Father? The prophet says that a dead human father, in that he left a son like himself, lives in his son; and you dare to separate the eternal Life itself, which is the Son of God, from that Father who never dies?

CHAPTER VIII. — The Equality of the Persons. "And what," you say, "am I to do? He himself said, 'The Father is greater than I' (John 14:28)." Because you do not understand, that which he said well sounds ill to you. For he himself said it; indeed, he even confirmed it. Absolutely, he himself said it. "The Father is greater than I": the Son himself said it. But see when he said this: he said it while placed in the assumption of human nature. He said, "The Father is greater than I," at the time when he said, "My soul is sorrowful unto death" (Matthew 26:38). He said, "The Father is greater than I," when he wept, when he was weary, when he hungered, when he thirsted. He said, "The Father is greater than I," at the time when Scripture says of him that he was diminished, a little less than the angels (Psalm 8:6). For does your insane pride, even here, proceed with such irreverence, O heretic, that you dare to say that the Word of God, abiding with the Father, is in that very divinity less than the angels? If you do not dare to say this, heretic, preserve these degrees, and your error will perish: the Son, with the Father and equal to the Father, since he is everlasting with the everlasting, always abiding with the always abiding; equal when sent and when coming; lesser in the assumption of humanity, not only than the Father but also than the angels; equal in the form of God, lesser in the form of a servant; equal with the Father in creating angels, lesser than the Father in making men into angels; equal with the Father in building a new world, lesser than the Father in restoring a lost world; equal with the Father in bestowing eternal life, lesser than the Father in undergoing our death.

CHAPTER IX. — The Nativity of Christ. We therefore believe that this Son, in the assumption of humanity, is less than the Father, but in divinity equal to the Father, made, as the Apostle says, from the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. 1:3). For from the seed of David came the Virgin Mary, who, conceiving by the Holy Spirit, and in whose womb the Word took on flesh, became for us the mediator, whole man and God (1 Tim. 2:5), Word, soul, and flesh, one Christ. Indeed, the order of this sacrament declares this to us as well: that after we believe in God the Father Almighty, we also believe in His Son Jesus Christ, born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary. And this nativity confounds all human thought, because divine power has wrought it. For when does our reason of generation admit that a virgin conceiving, a virgin remaining after childbirth, a Son is seen, and integrity inviolate is preserved? This any born man cannot fulfill; but He could, because He was not only man, but God and man; who therefore wished to be born man, because every man had perished. The first great and singular miracle of this Mediator, therefore, was that He was born in such a way: that He who came to teach many to work miracles, which He Himself performed through Himself and through them, would nevertheless have something of His own, who had usurped nothing belonging to another.

For only he was born of a virgin, because only he was conceived by the Holy Spirit without the embrace of man and woman; only he filled his mother’s womb without corruption, because only he ascended above the heavens for us, to sit at the right hand of the Father. The disciples received from him the power to work many and great miracles, and they did so; yet no one is proclaimed or believed to have been born of a virgin, or conceived by the Holy Spirit, except that one who, the creator of times, was himself also created, found in time, taking up the whole human nature which he had formed, so that through it, in a certain way, our Redeemer might repair our ruin. And he is both Son of God and son of man: Son of God in the heart of the Father, son of man in the womb of his mother; the same one Christ, who came forth from the virginal womb as a bridegroom from his chamber (Psalm 18, 6). In that womb spiritual nuptials were celebrated, and God was joined to flesh, and flesh cohered to God, so that there might be one Christ, God and man.

CHAPTER X. — The Cruelty of Herod. Hence, proceeding like a bridegroom from his bridal chamber, at whose nuptials the whole of creation seemed stirred to exultation. For the chorus of angels from these nuptials designates peace to men of good will: because he who was the Son of God also became the Son of Man; he took up what he was not, without losing what he was. For these nuptials, the heavens produce a new star, a new and splendid light, with that same bridegroom working within them, so that the true light might announce the birth to those sitting in the shadow of death, and, as if with their own tongue, praise this bridegroom proceeding forth, whom they knew had taken on mortal humanity in order to make it immortal. To this bridegroom, the Magi come from the ends of the earth; prompted, they seek; called, they offer gifts; not yet even seeing the infant born, but desiring to adore the king indicated by the star. From these nuptials, the born king Herod is disturbed, and the Jews are disturbed, not understanding the king of all creation; Herod seeks the infant king he has heard is born, to destroy him, lest, as the child grows, he might lose his kingdom; the Jews, unwilling to have the Son of God as king, betray to Herod where Christ is born, and the will of both is bound up in the death of one infant. After Herod learned from the Jews’ account where Christ could be found to be killed, summoning the Magi to him, he inquired of them the time of the star, and sending them to Bethlehem, he said: “Go, diligently inquire about the boy, so that I too may come and adore him” (Matthew 2:8).

Why do you speak evil with a deceitful tongue in your heart and in your heart? For your tongue says one thing, your conscience cries out another. You deceive yourself by thinking such things; you err, you mislead, and you are deceived. Falsity watches in vain for evil: truth is not sought from you as it ought. Behold, the Magi hear you, speaking one thing outwardly, but they do not know that you think another inwardly, and they proceed so that they do not return to you again. For He who mocked your folly was admonishing them, and He commanded the Magi to do what the true king had ordered, not what the false king had treacherously persuaded. By another way, says the Evangelist, they returned to their own region (Ibid., 12). But when you sensed that you had been deceived by the Magi, Herod, you wished to destroy all the infants of that land, so that you might be able to kill the one whom you sought. But our bridegroom, who proceeded from his bridal chamber, so that from the mouths of infants and sucklings he might perfect praise, allowed you to fulfill your will, so that an age which could not confess Christ with its own tongue would confess Him by the testimony of its own death, and your monstrous cruelty would be shown, and the throng of infants would be gathered for the nuptials of the heavenly bridegroom. Tell me, Herod, if Christ offended you because you heard of his kingdom from the announcing Magi, what offense did those princes of the Jews give you, who felt with you against Christ, whose sons you killed, afflicting them more with the most atrocious punishment in their own sons? For you could not find Christ at all.

But why should I argue further with you? I will confront the Jews themselves, who, while they wished to acknowledge the infant Christ, were compelled to lose their own children along with him. Indeed, your friend Herod killed them and gave them over to death; but Christ, whom you even now call your enemy, granted them mortality and eternal life. CHAPTER XI — Against the Jews, from Isaiah and Jeremiah. I address you, O Jew, who even to this day deny the Son of God. Is not that your voice, when you saw him performing miracles, and, testing him, you said, "How long will you keep our souls in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." But he referred you to the consideration of his miracles, saying, "The works that I do, they themselves bear witness concerning me" (John 10:24, 25): so that deeds, not words, would bear witness to Christ. But you, not recognizing the Savior who was working salvation in the midst of your land (Psalm 74:12), added in your wickedness, "You bear witness about yourself; your testimony is not true." But to this, what he replied to you, you refused to heed. "Is it not written," he said, "in your Law, that the testimony of two men is true" (John 8:13, 17)? O transgressors of the Law, pay attention to the Law. You seek testimony about Christ: in your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true (Deuteronomy 19:15).

XVII, 6; xix, 15): let witnesses from your Law come forth, not only two, but even more witnesses for Christ, and let them convince the hearers of the Law, not its rejecters. Speak, Isaiah, your testimony for Christ. Behold, he says, a virgin will conceive in the womb and will bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us (Isaiah 7:14). Let another witness approach: speak also, Jeremiah, your testimony for Christ. This one, he says, is our God, and no other will be esteemed besides him, who found the one way of knowledge and gave it to his servant Jacob and his beloved Israel. After this he was seen on earth and conversed with men (Baruch 3:5b, 58). Behold, two suitable witnesses from your Law, by whose testimony your hearts have not been stung. CHAPTER XII. — From Daniel. But let other and yet other witnesses from the Law of Christ be brought forward, so that the hardest foreheads of the enemies may be crushed. Let that holy Daniel come, young indeed in age, but old in knowledge and gentleness, let him convict all false witnesses: just as the shameless elders were convicted (Daniel 13:47), so by his testimony let him crush the enemies of Christ. Speak, holy Daniel, speak about Christ what you know. When, he says, the Holy of Holies comes, anointing will cease (Daniel 9:24). Why, in his presence, to whom you were insultingly saying, "You give testimony about yourself, your testimony is not true" (John 8:13), did your anointing cease, except because he himself is the one who had come, the Holy of Holies?

If, as you say, he has not yet come, but the Holy of Holies is awaited to come, demonstrate the anointing; but if, as is true, your anointing has ceased, acknowledge that the Holy of Holies has come. For he himself is that stone cut from the mountain without the hands of those who cut it, that is, Christ born of a virgin without the hands of those who embrace him; who grew so much that he became a great mountain and filled the whole face of the earth (Dan. 2:34, 35). Concerning which mountain the prophet says, "Come, let us ascend the mountain of the Lord" (Isa. 2:3). And concerning which David says, "The mountain of God, a fertile mountain: why do you suspect mountains of cheese, a mountain in which it pleased God to dwell?" (Ps. 67:16, 17). For when the Lord Christ himself asked his disciples what men said he, the Son of Man, was, they answered: "Some say Elijah, others Jeremiah, others John the Baptist, or one of the prophets" (Matt. 16:14). And he said: "Why do you suspect mountains of cheese, a mountain in which it pleased God to dwell?" Peter recognized this, saying, "You are Christ, the Son of the living God" (ibid., 17). He recognized the mountain and ascended the mountain: he bore witness to the Truth and was loved by the Truth. Peter was founded upon the rock, so that he would undergo death by loving the one whom he had denied through fear.

CHAPTER XIII. — Further Testimonies from the Law and the Prophets. Speak also, Moses, lawgiver, leader of the people of Israel, testimony for Christ. "God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers. Every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be cut off from its people" (Deut. XVIII, 15, 19). Now "prophet" is said of Christ. Hear Christ himself in the Gospel: "A prophet," he says, "is not without honor, except in his own country" (Matt. XIII, 57). Let holy David also approach, a faithful witness, from whose seed came the one to whom the Law and the Prophets bear testimony; let him also speak concerning Christ. "All the kings of the earth," he says, "shall worship him; all nations shall serve him" (Ps. LXXI, 11). Whom shall they serve? Tell me, whom shall they serve? Do you wish to hear whom? "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" (Ps. CIX, 1). And more explicitly and by name: "Why," he says, "have the nations been in tumult, and the peoples meditated on vain things? The kings of the earth have stood, and the princes have gathered together, against the Lord and against his Christ" (Ps. II, 1). Let another witness approach; speak also you, Habakkuk the prophet, testimony for Christ. "Lord," he says, "I have heard your hearing, and I was afraid; I have considered your works, O God, and I was terrified" (Hab. III, 2). What works of God did this man marvel at and fear? Was it the structure of the world that he marveled at and feared? Far from it; but hear what he feared. "In the midst," he says, "of two animals you will be known. Your works, O God.

The Word was made flesh (John 1:14). In the midst of two animals you are recognized. Who, how far have you descended? You have made me tremble: because the Word through which all things were made lay in a manger. The ox recognized its owner, and the ass the manger of its lord (Isaiah 1:3). In the midst of two animals you are recognized. What is, "In the midst of two animals you are recognized," if not either in the midst of the two Testaments, or in the midst of the two thieves, or in the midst of Moses and Elijah conversing with him on the mountain? "The Word walked," it says, "and went out into the fields" (Habakkuk 3:3). The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. This also Jeremiah says: "After me he was seen on earth, and he conversed with men" (Baruch 3:38). Behold how the witnesses of truth agree with one another: behold how they convict the sons of falsehood. Are these enough for you, O Jew, or shall we still, to your confusion, bring forward other witnesses from the Law and from your own race, so that they may bear witness to him whom you, with lost mind, insultingly called, "You bear witness concerning yourself; your testimony is not true"? For if I wished to collect from the Law and from the Prophets all that has been said about Christ, time would more easily fail me than the abundance of material.

CHAPTER 14. — The Testimony of Simeon and Zacharias. Nevertheless, I shall bring forward that old man born of your race but not left in your error, holy Simeon, who deserved to be kept decrepit in this light until he should see the true light. Indeed, his age was already compelling him to go, but he was waiting to receive the one he knew was coming. When this old man had been admonished by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he saw Christ the Lord, and recognizing that he was born, he went to the temple. There, when he saw him carried in his mother's hands, and pious old age recognized the divine infancy, he took the infant in his own hands. He indeed was carrying the infant Christ, but Christ was guiding the old man. The one who was being carried was guiding, so that the other would not be released from his body before the promise. But pay attention, enemies not of Christ but of yourselves, to what he said, what he confessed. The old man, speaking of God, cried out and said: "Now you dismiss your servant, Lord, according to your word in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2:29-32). Also, the parents of John, Zacharias and Elizabeth, sterile in youth, fertile in old age, let them also bear witness to Christ. Let them say what they think about Christ, and I shall nurture a suitable witness for Christ. For they say to their newborn son: "You, boy, will be a prophet of the Most High; you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways" (Luke 1:17). And to the mother and virgin herself, Elizabeth says: "How is this for me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

Behold, for as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy (Ibid., 43, 44). For John, understanding that the mother of his Lord had come to his own mother, while still placed within the confines of the womb, saluted by a movement what he could not by voice. What of John himself afterwards, the forerunner and friend, humble and most faithful servant, rendered a suitable witness, so much greater among those born of women as he was believed to be what he was not? For the Jews believed him to be Christ: but he cried out that he was not, saying: "Whom you suspect me to be, I am not; but behold, he comes after me, at whose sandal-strap I am not worthy to untie the thong" (Mark 1:7; Luke 3:46; Acts 13:23). Faithful witness, and friend of the true bridegroom, how you would have humbled yourself if you had said you were worthy to untie the thong of his sandal? But by saying you are not worthy of this, you contradict the false witnesses, the Jews. And these things were said by you before you saw Christ: who, when he himself came to you, the exalted one humbled by the grace of his dispensation to be fulfilled, so that you might baptize him who had no sin at all, what you answered, whom you recognized, what testimony you brought forth, let the enemies who refuse to hear hear: "Behold," he said, "the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29, 36). And he added: "You come to me to be baptized; I ought to be baptized by you" (Matthew 3:14).

The servant recognized the Lord: he who was bound by the chains of original sin recognized the one free from every bond of sin: the herald recognized the judge, the creature recognized the Creator, the groomsman recognized the bridegroom. For this too is the voice of John: He who has a bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom stands and listens to him, and rejoices with joy at the voice of the bridegroom (John 3:29). CHAPTER XV. — From the books of the Gentiles. Are these things enough for you, O Jews? Are such witnesses, such testimonies from your Law, from your own people, enough for you? Or will you still dare to say with shameless mind that men of another race or nation ought to bear testimony to Christ? But if you say this, He indeed answers you: I was not sent except to the sheep of the house of Israel that have gone astray (Matthew 15:24). But as Paul rebukes you in the Acts of the Apostles, It was necessary that the word of God be announced first to you, but because you rejected it, and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, he says, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46): let us also demonstrate that testimony to Christ was borne by the Gentiles; since the truth did not keep silent, crying out even through the tongues of its enemies. Was not that most eloquent poet, when among his verses he said, Now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven (Virgil, Eclogues 4, line 7), bearing testimony to Christ? Let this come into doubt, unless I bring forward other suitable witnesses from the Gentiles, who say more, into the midst.

That king who tamed your pride by taking you captive, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, I shall not pass over. Tell, Nebuchadnezzar, what you saw in the furnace into which you unjustly cast the three righteous men; tell, tell what was revealed to you. Did you not say, "We cast three bound men into the furnace"? And they say to him: "Truly, you did." "Behold," he says, "I see four men, unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and no corruption is in them; the appearance of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Dan. 3:91). Foreigner, whence this to you? Who announced the Son of God to you? What law, what prophet? He is not yet born into the world, and the likeness of the one to be born is recognized by you. Whence this to you? Who announced this to you, unless it was that the divine fire illuminated you within, so that while the hostile Jews were held captive there with you, you would thus bear witness to the Son of God? CHAPTER XVI. — From the Sibylline prophecies. The prophecy of the Sibyl. But because every word stands on the testimony of two or three witnesses, just as the Lord Himself, refuting your obstinacy, said, "In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true" (Deut. 17:6; John 8:17): let a third witness also be brought forward from the Gentiles, so that the testimony of truth may be strengthened on every side. Let us bring forth what the Sibyl also proclaimed in her prophecies concerning Christ, so that with one stone the foreheads of both may be struck, that is, of the Jews and the Pagans, and with their own sword, like Goliath (1 Sam.

Listen, all enemies of Christ, to what he said: "A sign of judgment: the earth will grow wet with sweat. From the sky a King will come, who will be for all ages. He will be present in the flesh to judge the world. Whence they will see God, the doubter and the faithful alike, the Most High with the saints, at the very end of time. Thus souls will be present with the flesh, which he himself judges. When the world lies uncultivated, thick with briars. Men will reject their idols, and also all their treasure. Fire will burn the lands, the sea, and the sky, seeking out the gates of hell and breaking them open. But for the saints, all light will be given to the flesh; it will be granted, and the guilty will be burned by eternal fire. Revealing hidden deeds, then each will speak secrets, and God will unlock hearts to the light. Then there will be mourning; all will gnash their teeth. The sun's light will be snatched away, and the chorus of stars will perish. The sky will be rolled up, the moon's splendor will pass away. It will cast down hills, raise valleys from the depths. There will be nothing in human affairs that is high or lofty; mountains and the blue sea will be leveled with the plains. All things will cease; the earth, contracted, will perish. Thus springs and rivers will be parched by fire. But then the trumpet will send forth a mournful sound from on high, the world groaning at its wretched crime and various labors, and the earth, gaping open, will reveal Tartarean chaos. And before the Lord here, kings will be brought to judgment one by one. Fire and a river of sulfur will fall from the heavens.

These things about the nativity, passion, and resurrection of Christ, and about his second coming, have been spoken in such a way that if anyone wishes to discern the initial letters of the verses in Greek, he will find I: that is, Jesus Christ Son of God Savior. This also appears in the same verses translated into Latin, except that the property of the Greek letters could not be so well preserved. Hear other Sibylline verses more clearly demonstrating the passion of Christ, with the utmost attention: Afterwards he will come into the unjust hands of the faithless. They will give slaps to God with unchaste hands. And with an impure mouth they will spit out venomous spittle. He will give his holy back simply to the blows. And receiving buffets, he will be silent, lest anyone recognize what word, or whence it comes, so that he may speak to the underworld. And he will be crowned with a crown of thorns. For food they gave gall, and for drink vinegar. They will show the table of inhospitality. Indeed, you foolish one, you did not understand your God, playing with the minds of mortals, but you crowned him with thorns and mixed horrid gall. But the veil of the temple will be rent, and at midday there will be a very dark night for three hours. And he will die a death, and after three days having received sleep, then, having returned from the dead, he will come to the light. He will show himself, recalled as the first beginning of the resurrection.

CHAPTER 17. — Testimonies from the sky, from the sea, from the earth, from the underworld. I believe that you, O enemies the Jews, are now so overwhelmed and refuted by such great witnesses that you ought to seek nothing further: you who, with excessive foolishness or rather madness, although you knew all that had been said and written about Christ, used to say with shameless brow, "You bear witness concerning yourself, your testimony is not true" (John 8:45). Nevertheless, so that the truth of divine majesty may shine forth, beyond the illustrious voices of so many witnesses, let the whole of creation proclaim that it has borne witness to its own Creator. Did not the sky bear witness, when a new star in the new generation of a man, like a tongue and finger, as it could, showed the God-man born to the nations? Did not the sea bear witness, when, in a way forgetting its own nature, the liquid fluid, having taken on solidity, carried the imprinted footprints of its own Lord: so that what was said might be fulfilled, "Your way is in the sea and your paths in many waters" (Psalm 76:20)? That element, a servant of Christ, would have swallowed up Peter, who wished to walk upon it, to show how great the difference is between creature and Creator, with its unstable wave, had not the Lord of all things reached out his hand to the sinking Peter (Matthew 14:31). Did not the earth bear witness, when, sprinkled with his spittle, anointing from it the eyes of a man born blind, it restored light to one who did not see (John 9:6-7)?

(Isaiah 9:7): And the structure which lacked something, He repaired from the clay of the earth by art, He who previously formed the whole man from the earth (Genesis 2:8). Did not the underworld bear witness to Christ, when, having lost their right, they kept Lazarus whole for four days, whom they had received to be dissolved, so that they might return him unharmed when they heard the voice of their Lord commanding (John 11:45)? What of His passion itself? Shall I not cite against your shamelessness and fierce madness that public light itself, in a certain way, as a witness? As you thought, Christ was being killed by you as merely a man: which, even if it were only that, you ought to have spared yourselves, to keep your hands from the blood of an innocent. What blindness has been poured into your hearts, that not even such great things deterred you—the darkness of the sun at midday, and the light cut off among its clear rays? Night hidden in the day; rather, night usurped the day, and nature did not preserve the course of its order; but the sky grew dark, the earth mourned, the veil of the temple was torn, rocks were split, the underworld was opened (Matthew 27:45, 52), almost every creature was terrified at the death of Christ. Yet even amid these great signs, the eyes of your heart were not opened. Jews, the demons who possessed your hearts said, "We know who you are; why have you come before the time to destroy us?" (Mark 1:24); and you, "You bear witness about yourself; your testimony is not true" (John 8:13).

CHAPTER XVIII.—From the event. But not understanding your own actions, you furthered our cause. Finally, your malice served our salvation: for He who had come to die for us did not, as a man, shrink from the mad cries of those shouting, "Crucify, crucify" (Luke 23:21), because as God He had foreseen it beforehand. How much you labored to corrupt the disciple Judas with money (Matthew 26:15), and through a wicked seller, wicked buyers sought to purchase Christ, not to possess Him, driving a base trade for your souls, when you were pouring out the price of our salvation? How much you labored to overwhelm the judge who washed his hands of your crime, with slanders, setting the name of Caesar against him, so that he would carry out what you wanted done (John 27:24)? How much you labored that Christ should be killed, and the robber released (Ibid., 20-26)? How much you labored that Christ should suffer insults, be crowned with thorns (Mark 15:17), be suspended on the cross, be pierced with a lance (John 19:34)? How much you shouted, how much you sweated, how much you labored? But all that labor of yours is our fruit. Finally, Christ is killed by you, but rises for us; by you He is suspended on the wood and held fast with nails fixed to the cross, and is found by our leaders, His disciples, in their midst with the doors closed (John 20:19). You wished to suppress Christ's resurrection by corrupting the soldiers with money (Matthew

CHAPTER XVIII.—From the event. But not understanding your own actions, you furthered our cause. Finally, your malice served our salvation: for He who had come to die for us did not, as a man, shrink from the mad cries of the Jews. (Psalm 28:12-13) And behold, His resurrection is now celebrated throughout the whole world, and what you gave, you have entirely lost. You could not accomplish what you wished: now hear what you do not wish to hear. Say for the third time, rising from the dead, taken up into heaven, He sits at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51): He has scattered you throughout all lands, so that you might carry everywhere the prophecies concerning His birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension—whatever has been said—and, like wooden candlesticks lacking sap, you might minister the lamp of the Law to the Gentiles. Know that this has happened so that the Gentiles might not say that all these things which are done, while they are being preached, were fabricated by us. That this very dispersion of yours was foretold, the prophet David declares, saying: "Do not kill them, lest they forget your law, but scatter them in your might" (Psalm 58:12). Therefore, this dispersion of yours bears witness to Christ, to whom you said, "You bear witness to yourself; your testimony is not true" (John 8:15): so that from your testimony as enemies, other enemies might be confounded—those who claim that Christ performed whatever miracles He did by magic arts. For they also contend that because He is worshipped after death, this is to be attributed to magical power. Bring forth the prophetic books, O Jews, enemies of Christ, so that from them other Pagan enemies may be convicted.

He sent prophets long before he was born, who foretold all the things we have mentioned above. From this, judge now, you who think rightly: was he a magician by means of magical arts, so that he was worshipped even after death? Was he a magician before he was born? Be confounded, be ashamed, you who either sow, or believe, or speak such things about Christ. And be confounded, you Jews, who, holding the lamp of the Law in your hands, provide light to others, and do not care to look into it yourselves, but you also wait for him who is to come. And he will come; but not as you wish he will come: that exalted one whom you killed, guilty of no crime, will come; he will come as a manifest God, and you will see him judging, whom you despised, working miracles. What will your conscience be like then, when he will no longer show you any patience, because he finds you dead in soul, he who is to judge the living and the dead?

CHAPTER XIX.—Against the Arians. We believe in the Holy Spirit, whom we believe to be God, equal to the Father and the Son, abiding in the Father and the Son, inseparable from the Father and the Son, reigning with the Father and the Son. A Trinity one, and the third person in the unity is the Holy Spirit, who works all things in all. This Spirit the Arians also blaspheme, wishing Him to be lesser than the Father and the Son. The evangelical fear recalls their error, saying, "If anyone speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but if anyone speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the future" (Matthew 12:32). What is this, Arian? Do you perceive how far your savagery has progressed? You speak a word against the Son of man, because you assert that the Son of God is lesser according to His divinity. You speak a word against the Holy Spirit, asserting that He is lesser even than the Son in that same undivided unity. By speaking such a word against the Word, such a word against the Holy Spirit, your sins are not forgiven either here or in the future age, and do you, by rebaptizing, promise to forgive the sins of others? We acknowledge that the remission of all sins is the gift of the Holy Spirit, with the Truth itself supporting us, which after its resurrection said to its disciples, "Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven him" (John 20:22).

But you, with sacrilegious audacity—you for whom Christ, through the gift of the Holy Spirit in Baptism, has already absolved all sins, both original and personal—you, in those already baptized, spit out Christ, reject the Holy Spirit; and you strive not to wash away the stain, but to defile; not to set free, but to bind; not to give life, but to kill. Nor is it any wonder that you daily fabricate these ruins, since you have refused to have the whole rock of Christ as your foundation. The Truth separates her own sons from your error, whom she so cherishes as to nourish, not as you, by flattering, deceive in order to kill. CHAPTER XX.—Resurrection. Know, most beloved, that in the Catholic Church alone is true faith, genuine peace, and perpetual salvation. For it is not in a corner, but is spread everywhere. If anyone departs from it and delivers himself to the error of heretics, he will be judged as a runaway slave, not as an adopted son: nor will he rise to eternal life, but rather to damnation. For resurrection is promised to both the good and the bad: "We shall all rise," says the Apostle, "but not all shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:51). And what good is it, my brethren, to rise and not be changed? For whoever has not been changed in this life will be found damned by the just judge. Moreover, he who refuses to receive the victorious palm from the adversary, the devil, does not attain eternal life.

What, I ask, does it profit, most beloved, that the devil does not hold them in those bonds of idol worship, and that he possesses them, caught and held fast, by the snare of heretics? Whoever wishes to attain eternal life must keep a constant and vigorous watch against all the snares of the devil. For this life is not such that the next will be entered into in the same way. CHAPTER 21. —The Difference between Temporal and Eternal Life. How great, moreover, is the distance between this life and that, your Charity must understand. Here falsehood, there truth: here disturbance, there secure possession: here the bitterest bitterness, there everlasting sweetness: here dangerous elation, there secure exultation: here one fears that he who was a friend may suddenly become an enemy; there a friend always remains, because no enemy is admitted there: here whatever good there is, is feared lost; there whatever you have received will be preserved by Him who ensures that you yourself do not perish, and that you do not lose what you have received: here death, there life: here mourning, there joy: here all things which God has created, there He Himself for all and in all, and things which are worthily spoken, if indeed anything can be spoken. For the human tongue is not sufficient to praise what the mortal mind is unable to comprehend. Come there, my brothers; and there we shall see what the eye here has not seen, there we shall hear what the ear here has not heard, there we shall understand what the human mind has not been able to comprehend (1 Cor. 2:9), seeing and enjoying, we shall exult with ineffable joy (1 Pet. 1:8). And what kind of joy will it be, where there will be no fear?

What joy will it be, O Christian, when you see yourself at peace, a companion of the angels, a sharer in the heavenly kingdom, reigning with the King, possessing all things by coveting nothing, rich without avarice, administering without money, judging without a successor, reigning without the madness of the barbarians, living without death in eternal life? CHAPTER XXI. — On the way to the fatherland. But that we may come to these things, let us not abandon the safest road that leads there. What is this road? Christ wholly, from his whole self, from his head and from his body. From the head: the equal Son, remaining in the one who remains; from the body: the lesser, passing through this road swiftly as a giant (Psalm 18:6). Head and body: Christ and the Church. Let us not separate ourselves from him by believing something else about him, as heretics do; nor from her by turning aside through our depraved morals. This is the true mother, a pious mother and chaste, adorned inwardly with the dignity of her husband, not outwardly colored shamefully by a deceiving falsehood. Let no fabricated name seduce you away from this mother, let no alien semblance of the Church deceive you. The spouse of Christ is not she who does not know her husband: she is shameful who strives to darken the beauty of so great a husband with her own words; she falsely imposes upon herself the name of Church. I see you indeed, O treacherous cave, deceiving because you are deceived: I see indeed that you fit your form under an alien appearance. Why do you compose yourself? Why do you adorn yourself so much? Why do you spread out your fringes? Why do you strive to equal yourself to the true spouse?

The bridegroom does not receive you, because you are not a bride. But you say you are beautiful, and you boast of gold and many ornaments. The bridegroom answers you, the one beautiful in form beyond the sons of men answers you (Ps. 44:5, 4): "A harlot's beauty has been made for you, you have become shameless in all things." If you should say, "Why?" He answers, "Because under the appearance of a bride you adorn yourself, and you lie that your bridegroom is yours. A harlot's beauty has been made for you, you have become shameless in all things. You have not called me Father: for I and the Father are one (John 10:30). You have not called me Father, and the prince of your virginity (Jer. 3:4)." These are the words of Christ through the prophet. For if I were the prince of your virginity, I would preserve your integrity, as I preserved my mother's integrity. Therefore, because you have neither the prince of your virginity, nor do you acknowledge me equal to the Father, neither do I acknowledge you as a virgin. Do not boast any longer that you are what you are not: acknowledge your shame: Arius has taken away your integrity. You are not, therefore, a bride, because you are not whole. For you call in vain that bridegroom who is not yours: for Christ does not accept a shameful widow. Return, return, repudiated one, return, confounded one, return, violated by serpentine deceits; return, now not composed in heavenly divinity, but circumvented by human assertions, return: you can deceive yourself, you cannot deceive the bridegroom. For he knows whom he seeks, he recognizes whom he calls.

The mother always lives: stepmother, why do you thrust yourself forward? You cannot exclude the beautiful mistress, since you yourself are a foul handmaid. The appearance of a harlot has been made yours. For you have not kept faith with one husband, since you do not hold to Catholic unity. For that bridegroom seeks the true mother, who nourishes her own children; not the foul one, who fraudulently kills others. See what this true mother is, who still tolerates you, as you strangle her own sons and inflict injuries upon her husband. She tolerates, because she displays the patience of her spouse, and awaits the breezes of freedom, so that her humility may be avenged by him, since she obtains the love of her husband. For it is he who lives and reigns with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.