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(a) " Ten thousand times ten thousand glories
uttered by the Church, and never-ending springs of the pouring forth of the
Spirit, flow towards the dust, unto Thee, Thou Bay of the Mysterious Orb, the
Everlasting, the Son of the essence of Self-existence, Who from virginity took a
garment of humanity, and hid therewith the effulgence of His Divinity!
(b) . . . . " After the similitude of His
hidden likeness had become corrupt, and the image of His mysterious self had
been defaced and defiled, and the transcript of His similitude had been utterly
ruined, and after the model of His own creation had been swallowed up in the
gaping bowels of the insatiable sheal, the good God deigned to renew and to
restore it. And when the set time for the fulfilment of this His benevolent
purpose towards the creation had arrived, the Lord spread abroad His mercy as
the sea, and His pity as the great deep, and He poured forth and enlarged the
goodness and the grace of His Divinity, by sending His consubstantial
Son,----the Son of Self-existence. In a befitting way His Will descended towards
men; He sent His Beloved, the Begotten of Himself, that is, His Express Image,
Who in consummate wisdom, took upon Him, from us, a nature and a person. In a
wonderful manner he clothed Himself with a corruptible garment, covering
therewith His excellent glory, and when the time appointed in His wisdom had
come, He mended and repaired it, and sewed together its rents. He was borne in
the womb according to the laws and peculiarities of nature, and was brought
forth by His mother."
(c) " The Begotten, the Highest, the Ancient
of days, Who has set us free, drew milk from the breast as do sucklings and
infants, was bound in swaddling clothes, and was placed in a manger like a child
of the poor and needy, although He is verily and indeed the King of kings, to
Whom the highest worship is due. Crowds of simple and untutored shepherds
surround the cave where He lay, and bow to Him in adoration. Legions of
spiritual, excellent, and adoring Powers,----the living chariots of the
wonderful cherubim,----the speaking wheels, with open eyes and replete with
wisdom and intelligence, now stationary, now lifted up,----myriads of Seraphim,
as quick as light, with outstretched wings, whose it is to sing thrice
Holy,----the glorious, admirable, and awful company of exalted thrones,----the
company of those who keep watch over the kingdom of the Lord, all the beautiful
armies, lordships, dominions, invincible powers, archangels, angels, and
messengers, surround Ephratha in nine circles, fly to and fro, ascend and
descend as eagles, dance, rejoice, clap their hands and feet like children of
freedom, sing and sound their trumpets on the day of the Nativity, and on their
lyres praise the Child Born,----sing the most exalted hallelujahs, thrice
Holies, psalms, glories, and holy songs, unto God in the highest, increase of
security and peace upon the earth, and the descent of good-will and its
continuance among men. The unbelieving Magi, the worshippers of idols, Chaldeans,
and sorcerers, and such as adore the great lights,----men well versed in
astronomy and astrology, and deeply read in these sciences,----were troubled and
perplexed, they snorted like wild beasts, and cried out and demanded one of
another, 'Who is this before whom the mountains tremble, and the images are
moved, and the idols quake, and the heathen priests are confounded, and their
altars fall to ruin, and the high places are annihilated?' They fled to the
treasuries of their volumes, opened the scrolls, searched them diligently, and
discovered therein that what had been foretold generations before by Zoroaster
the highly venerated and esteemed was now fulfilled. Then the lips of these
scribes were shut, and they were confounded; and they chose out from among them
kings of high renown and of great riches, and they delivered into their hands
gifts, tithes, and vow-offerings, and sent them away with a commission, and bade
them to be watchful. And as they went forth, behold a star of great brightness,
bearing on its surface the image of a woman with a child in her bosom, guided
and accompanied them into the land of Judea. In all haste, like men in earnest,
they accomplished their journey, and entering the cave they offered their gifts,
and bent to Him the knee. After this they returned to their own land continually
glorifying God. The spiritual essences, those who dwell in the regions of the
Spirit, were enraptured, and the earthly, such as were alive and such as were in
the grave, rejoiced, saying : 'He is One to all generations.'
(d) . . . . " From these things, then, let us
rest assured that the Messiah is One in two Natures, and two Persons subsisting
in one Parsopa of Filiation, since the Natures did not commingle; and in like
manner we believe of the Persons. The Son of the Father clothed Himself with Him
of Mary, and was conceived in the womb. But let no man filch a word from this,
and wilfully pervert it by specious philosophy, so as to conclude that there are
two Sons. For there is one Son only, not a Son and a Son making two ; but One
Son, we repeat, as it is most proper to maintain, even as a man by clothing
himself with a garment is not called two men. The Will of the Creator descended
and united Itself to the will of the creature : the Divine Nature clothed itself
with the human nature, which thus became co-equal in everything, in reverence,
in worship, and in praise, for they have but one Parsopa ; in essence, however,
not so, for this were impossible.....Now, in what we have laid down, there is no
doubt, double-meaning, or equivocation whatever; neither in what we have
declared is there any folly or ignorance; but as it is written, all has been
arranged in a 'goodly and pleasant way,' and after a suitable order;----all, we
say, has been set forth worthily, rightly, truly, firmly, and on a solid
foundation.....
(e) "Behold Him, Who is clothed with light,
wrapped in swaddling bands ; what a mystery is here! No less wonderful is it
that He Who is seated on the throne of heaven should have been laid in a manger!
The Ancient of times became a Son of Mary in the latter time, and appeared as
the Father, Lord, and Master, of the sons of Adam, loosing from off their nature
the bands of the curse and of sin, and causing a light to shine forth through
the shadows of death. The sun of His love chose an orb from the firmament of
humanity, and made the rays of His moon to be the rational confidence of man ;
so that henceforth the grossness of the dark earth cannot hide the one from the
other, He having destroyed it by the splendour of His brightness. He brought
down the Spiritual, and guided it to the nature of the dust, wherefrom He chose
Him out an abode to manifest forth the mystery of perfect and great salvation,
and to exhibit true liberty to the children of flesh, who had become the slaves
of falsehood and error.....
(f) "A daughter of man, the chaste Virgin,
became as a haven of safety to the rational vessel, tossed about in the
tempestuous sea, so that henceforth the winds of error are powerless to drive it
hither and thither, nor can the tumultuous waves, raised by Satan, cause trouble
to its rowers, now that the true Jewel has been brought up by the power of the
Almighty arm of God, enclosed in the shell of the chaste Virgin, and elect
bosom, which shall, having indeed the companionship of a human body, but without
any [conjugal] intercourse, open upon the shore of the cave of Bethlehem, the
rivulet of which is small. Towards this Jewel we bow the neck and shoulders, and
for it we barter our souls; because it sheds forth light in darkness, and is a
Pearl which all the merchants extol. Not all the wealth of the world can
purchase it, therefore let us cast away all our silver and gold, and all that we
possess, and hasten and gaze on its pure and varied beauty, so that perchance
its reflection may be impi'essed upon our minds, and it may become to us a
treasure of life in earthen vessels.....
(g) " Behold Adam, the begetter of nations, is
begotten again, and the Creator of men has become a little child! He [the first
Adam] who would have arrogated to himself the sovereignty unreasonably, took it
[in Christ] when He was born an infant. Hail to thee, O daughter, whose Son
caused fatherhood to exist! Hail to Thee, O Infant, Who filledst the womb of Thy
mother with grace! Hail, Mary, who honouredest in thy bosom a united Man filled
with purity, the reasonable temple of the Divinity! The Holy Spirit was the
Master Who wove in thee the tabernacle of the Humanity, and the words of the
Angel messenger were as His threads thereto. Hail to the Begotten, the
Unspeakable, the Wonder working! Hail to the Begotten, the equal with His Father
in dominion and sovereignty, Who became the origin of reconciliation and peace!
(h) " The Sceptre has sprung out of the root of
Jesse, according to the prophecies, and the branch has arisen out of his stock,
as had been declared, and the Star of Jacob has appeared from the Virgin, the
second heaven full of purity.
(i) " Let us rejoice and sing praises, let us be
merry and joyfull, because the King is born at Ephratha, and has received the
adoration of sovereigns through their gifts. Let the priests who surround the
altar clap their hands, and let the Church dance for joy, since He is born Who
will instantly destroy all those that hate her. Let the heavens rejoice, and let
the earth be glad, because the Lord has been sent to create peace above and
below, and to make all one. Henceforth the Leader of the weak, Who has been
exalted, shall abolish death; and the Strength of the fallen, Who has been
raised up, shall drive the oppressor far off. On this day the Law of despised
nature puts to silence the scribes, and the Barrier of tradition, Which has been
broken through, shall from this time forth annul their scriptures. The time has
come for the Holy Church to adorn her neck with glory, because the body of her
truth which was wounded is now suddenly healed, and the shoulders of her
children are freed from the yoke of death.
(j) " That which good and righteous men, who
declared the set seasons, waited for, has at length appeared and come to pass,
and has dazzled the minds of men; the Essence, in Itself simple, has, by a
wonderful operation, made Itself compound through the different 'kinds of flesh'
[1 Corint. xv. 39,] and the accidents of colour, and thereby manifested the
hidden mysteries of Itself.
(k) " The hope of the good, and the parables of
the just, are now brought to light, and the sayings of the prophets are
fulfilled in the birth of the Highest. The Fire and the Spirit, whose
mysteriousness Moses the Prophet worshipped on the mount, have manifested their
excellence in vile flesh. The stone cut out without hands, as prophesied of by
Daniel, appears in the Child born without conjugal intercourse or connexion.
Though the seals of virginity are unbroken, behold a child is found wrapped in
swaddling bands, even as Isaiah had declared, that a Virgin should bring forth
Emmanuel. A Branch from the root of Jesse sprouts out where there is no water;
and the daughter of David inwardly magnifies and praises the Lord's Son. The
emblem of Aaron's rod that budded speaks from afar that the tree of virginity
bears fruit without having been watered. The prophets figured forth the hidden
mystery of Him in divers manners, and in various wavs the righteous declared His
beauteous signs, and those who searched diligently prefigured Him in proverbs;
but the perfect accomplishment of the whole has appeared to us in a wonderful
mystery, and in an astounding way. He covered and hid His dazzling brightness
with a corporeal, corruptible and vile garment, for had He appeared to the
children of the dust in His glory, who could have looked upon His Divine
splendour, who would have been so rash as to gaze upon His exalted Image, or who
could dare to conceive of Him Who is beyond all conception? Did He not say to
the son of Amram : 'Turn back, for no man can look upon Me and live?' Great is
He Who is Born, Who strikes all creatures with awe!
(l) " Hitherto the law of nature was in force,
but in the appearance of the Saviour from a virgin, the law of birth from
[conjugal] union was abrogated; and the mind that would comprehend how this was
must lose itself in the inquiry.
(m) " On the exalted throne of that glorious
Temple whose two gates are built in wisdom on the confines of the two worlds,
[reference here is made to the Divinity and Humanity of Christ,] there the Lord
of all creation sat as Supreme Ruler. Like kings who take a survey of all their
dominions in order to manifest the greatness of their affection towards the
nations under their sway, and to cause peace and safety to dwell among
them;----for a similar end the Messiah, the King, took upon Him a human body,
that the two worlds, the visible and invisible, might be comprehended in Him,
and that by a gate within a gate [the Divine Nature hidden under the Human] He
might bring both together, and join them in One. This is the mystery contained
in the words spoken by the Spirit, that from a daughter of David and of Abraham
the Messiah should be born. David says of Him, that ' His throne shall stand as
the sun, and shall endure as the moon to order and to establish all things,'
that is, by His manifested Divinity, and by the life and wisdom of His Humanity;
for in the motions of Himself He comprehends all the angels in the highest, and,
in the members of His Body, He comprehends man who is on the earth, thereby
fulfilling, as in a rational way, that the two worlds are, by the power of His
Spirit, but One body, and He is that very One Who through these sees the things
which we cannot sec. He is the very One Who makes all visible creatures to
subsist, Who tries and judges them. Before the Union these offices belonged to
the Person of the Divinity; afterwards it was given to the Person of the
Humanity. And since all these things are fulfilled in this Begotten One, He is
therefore Man and Lord most truly, certainly, and beyond all doubt. Let our
abject race, therefore, rejoice, exult, and leap for joy, since the King of the
highest and of the deep came down in order to raise it from its fall, and
through Him the pure in heart see God. Let not heretics, with perverse minds,
dispute this truth; but henceforward let angels and men rejoice together,
because they shall abide one Church for ever ....
(n) " By His birth He has opened the gates of
the highest which were shut, and by His nativity He found again the lost sheep
of the Father, as was figured in the shepherds who crowded round the manger,
praising Him Who is the Good Shepherd. These did not indeed comprehend the
meaning of the occurrence ; but nevertheless they took up and repeated the song
of the angels. For in those days men were like beasts in every thing, living
like brutes in sensual lusts, and they stumbled in their goings over the
stumbling-block of sin through the obliquity of their souls : they were,
moreover, vain-glorious, and walked after the law of their nature without any
discernment. And whilst in this condition, led about forcibly by this law of
their nature, they took medicine for their souls from the manger of His Body,
and thus prefigured to us the mystery of His sacraments, their actions loudly
proclaiming and foreshadowing His Body as our meat, and His Blood as our drink,
which fulfil in us the mystery of life. Whilst these were thus engaged round
about the manger, the angels in heaven were singing praises unto Him ; and let
us, in the renewal of that life which was decayed, join in their exultations.
(o) " The Invisible Will came down, took a
parsopa, and appeared openly, and thereby renewed that which was broken up. And
the rain of the wicked one descended furiously upon Him, because without water
He made the rod of the wonderful Virgin Child to bud, and without germinating
heat He made it to blossom anew, and thereby consummated all by restoring our
nature.
(p) " The form which had been marred [human
nature] was again glorified; the piece of silver which had been lost was found;
the sheep that had wandered was brought home safe; the hungry prodigal ate, and
left of that which was placed before him; the leaven leavened the three measures
of meal; the stranger in Jerusalem, who had fallen among thieves that robbed him
in the descent to Jericho, and who was found plundered, wounded, and stricken,
despised, and cast out, has been healed, since the Heavenly Physician has been
sent to the earth to dispense medicine to the afflicted, to heal the sick, and
to give sight to the blind; and not to this end only, but also to break the
gates of steel, and to raise the dead, because His power is great, and His
medicine healing, and whatever pleaseth Him that He doeth. Therefore, O Christ,
Thy birth is worthy of all worship and praise.
(q) "The wicked one foresaw the shadow of
salvation in Moses, and hence it was that he stirred up the deceitful Pharaoh
not to suffer a Hebrew child to live, thereby hoping to destroy Moses among the
children. And when Satan could not compass this his wicked end, he made use of
Herod as a cloak, whom he incited to slay all the children of Bethlehem, the
fool thinking in this way to destroy Him Who gives life to all. (Consider these
ways of the Creator, thou discriminating one, and observe how His providence is
ordered by rule, and preserves the middle of the road. Who can deny His wisdom
but the unbelieving; and who can refuse coming to Him to be sanctified but the
impure?) When the vile fox discovered that he could not approach the place of
the Lion, he was confounded and put to shame, both he and his mean instrument
with him. Then the Father brought His Son out of Egypt, even as the prophet
David, that lyre of the Spirit, had declared when he said : ' Out of Egypt have
I called My Son.' (Attend now, thou prudent one, and perceive how he reminds us
of the things relating to Moses in Egypt, who was saved from the water in an ark
of bulrushes, even as Pharaoh was afterwards drowned by water.) The birth of the
Saviour at Bethlehem, which spot had been purchased by a good and accepted man
for seven sheep, and called by him Ephratha on account of its spring, typifies,
declares, and makes known to us that He destroys the power of the seven carnal
lusts which matter generates, and, moreover, that from Him shall flow forth
rivers of the knowledge of the fear of God, which shall destroy the wicked one
as by a flood. The material water drowned in its depths the material man
[Pharaoh], and the immaterial water drowns the immaterial one [i.e. Satan].
Behold a great mystery! Hail, then, to the economy which surpasses all
comprehension! Hail to that Providence, the story of which strikes even the pure
in heart with awe! Behold, on this day, drink is set down in the place appointed
for meat, from the manger issues the spring of life, which is meat and drink,
spirit and power, unto all such as believe on Him, but a drowning flood to all
those who resist Him. Such is the property of water, that it quenches the thirst
of the thirsty, and destroys the rash and froward. Here, then, in the cave of a
flinty rock, is set up the beautiful stone, the very building of the Born One,
the Temple of the Lord, figuring to us that faith in Him cannot be moved for
ever and ever, because it is founded on a truth which frees the world from all
doubt and uncertainty.
(r) " The life-giving Spirit was the agent in
His pure conception, and gave a body and members to the Infant by the power of
God, and joined it to Him in one immutable parsopal dignity, not to be changed
for ever and ever.....
(s) "Abraham, Moses, and David, were truly the
beauty, excellency, and dignity of the Old Testament, and in their wonderful
actions and lives figured forth the mystery of the Son. Abraham through the
lamb, Moses through the fire, and the illustrious David, in all his actions,
ministered to the mystery of Him. Saul persecuted with all his might the injured
David; even so did the wicked and deceitful Herod [persecute the Saviour]. On
David's account the priests were slain by the sword of the proud, just as the
innocent children were slaughtered on Christ's account. From among the priests
Abiathar was the only one saved; so John the son of the barren ones was the only
child preserved. David fled and dwelt among the Gentiles; and the Son of David
fled into Egypt from the hand of the infidel. The high-priesthood was cut off
from the house of Eli in Abiathar; and in John prophecy ceased in the house of
Jacob. And whereas He twisted the Old and New Covenants into one, we believe
that He is Lord of both. At the annunciation He was called Jesus, that is, a
Saviour, because he was destined to redeem men from the power of the Hater. He
was also called Christ, a name of union and of dignity, because in Him a new
life was joined to the mortality of dust. The legal shadow has now passed away,
and the light has broken forth in the renewing of the Spirit, not in the oldness
of the letter. The grace of the Father has appeared in the Wonderful Begotten
One, teaching us, as it is written, to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. On
this day the bark of prophecy has reached the shore; in This Begotten One all
the types are fulfilled. Water and clay have become like the subtler elements of
air and fire, since Jesus took from them a body. Whereto, then, serve the
orders, multitudes, classes, and appointments, of the heavenly hosts who magnify
the Lord within the veil? Whereto the circuits of the spheres, the sun, and the
moon? Whereto the sea and the dry land, the mountains and plains? Wherefore dost
thou thus ask, O inquirer? Wouldest thou say that their creation was
superfluous, or that humanity could have done without them, or that they cannot
hide that radiance? If thereby thou meanest what the apostle did when he said, '
that God may be all in all,' thou dost rightly interpret the mystery of the
perfect man [Saint Paul], for this is its true signification. For the Parsopa of
the Word, as on this day, appeared in the body, and has centred in His own
beauty the sight and contemplation of all minds. Henceforth men will not be
deluded into the worship of bulls and calves, nor be attracted after the bright
shining of any of the planets. But, thou, keep this charge of mine and be
watchful.
(t) " The Church exults in Thy adorable birth,
Thou Saviour of the world, since thereby the nations and the nations [Jews and
Gentiles] are made one, and the shepherds of earth and the angels in the heavens
above unitedly sing and praise Thee.
(u) " Let the Church rejoice in this first-born
of festivals, and on this chief of her solemn assemblies, in the contemplation
of this glorious and wonderful providence, and let her with watchful mind keep
guard over its mysteries, and let her show herself beauteous and perfect by
being ready to do good deeds, and in nothing coming short of perfection. Let her
bring up her children in every good work little by little, and at all times
cause the idea of the Saviour's Image to be conceived in the bowels of their
spiritual thoughts, in order that Christ may be truly formed in their hearts, as
saith the Apostle Paul in his Epistle. For such is the profit to be derived from
all the festivals observed by the Church; and unless this is the result, all our
labour will be in vain, and in vain all the round whereby we commemorate the
life and actions of the Saviour. O God, make us to be blameless, that we may
live in purity, in faith, and in a right spirit, and that we may apprehend
salvation by the eye of our minds, close our sight against every earthly lust,
and lift up our eyes towards the high and heavenly kingdom, and there behold
Him, Who is clothed in a bodily garment hiding therewith His dazzling Form,
seated on the right hand of the Almighty, invisible to mortal ken. And as we
have honoured this festival of the Nativity with the voice of the [Church]
services, so may we sing to the Begotten in the mystical Sion. And now with an
equal praise we magnify the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, because He has saved
His people in a wonderful way, and redeemed us with a mighty arm.
(w) "We praise the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
one Essence, because He has saved those of earth by the birth of Jesus Christ ;
to Him be glory. And may this illustrious festival of the Nativity be blessed,
and Satan driven far off from the baptized, and may the grace of the Adorable
Spirit descend upon us. To the erring author [of this hymn] stretch forth Thy
hand, O Lord."----From the Khamees, and appointed in the Gezza to be read on the
Feast of the Holy Nativity. |
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