Our Holy Father Demetrius of Rostov, the saint and wonderworker, dogmatic teaching selected from his writings

Contents 1) About the holy faith and the Church in general A) About the holy faith a) Which faith is true? b) The sources of this faith c) The antiquity of this faith B) About the Holy Church a) Which Church is true? b) What does it mean to believe in the Church? c) The concept of the Holy Church and its relationship to us d) The infallibility and immutability of the Holy Church e) The need to belong to the Orthodox Church for salvation 2) About God and His properties A) Who is God? a) This Trinitarian God is one b) Triple in hypostases c) The doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the Old Testament d) Explanation of the sacrament of the Most Holy Trinity e) The incomprehensibility of this Sacrament f) The importance of the right faith in the Holy Trinity b) About the properties of God, such as: a) About spirituality b) About omniscience c) About kindness primarily to man d) About omnipresence e) Truth and fidelity f) About other properties 3) About the general actions of God in the world of creation and providence A) Preliminary remarks a) Confession b) Participation of all persons of the Holy Trinity in creation c) Participation of all Divine persons in providence d) The purpose of creation and providence e) The order of creation B) God the Creator and Provider of the invisible world 1. God created Angels a) First of all and with a spiritual nature b) With high and varied perfections c) for a high purpose 2) God provides for the Angels A) Good α) Giving them His Grace β) Dividing them into ranks γ) Using them to serve our salvation δ) Entrusting them with the management of human societies ε) Giving them a guardian to every believer B) Evil α) By allowing their fall β) By allowing their evil activity γ) By crushing their power C) God the Creator and Provider of the visible world a) God really created this world b) He created from nothing within six days c) He created for the sake of man d) God really provides for him D) God is the Creator and Provider of man 1) God created man 2) God provides for man 4) About God as savior of the human race A) Preliminary concepts a) God's chosen means for our salvation b) The need for this means and conformity with the goal c) God's love for man and the dignity of man, revealed in the work of redemption d) Participation in this great work of all the persons of the Most Holy Trinity e) For what reason was the Son incarnate, and not the Father, or the Holy Spirit? f) The possibility and incomprehensibility of the incarnation g) The reason for the late coming into the world of the Redeemer b) About the person of the Savior of the human race a) In Christ Jesus there is one hypostasis b) but two natures are not united, immutable and inseparable c) His Most Pure Mother α) There is truly the Mother of God β) There is an ever-virgin γ) There is the most honorable Cherub δ) And therefore worthy of our glorification C) The history of our Savior 1) The Son of God was diminished α) Out of love for us b) from birth to death on the cross c) especially before death and in death itself 2) And he entered into his glory a) He entered precisely through the cross b) And he revealed it in his descent into hell c) He revealed it in his resurrection d) In his ascension to heaven e) He uses it, sitting at the right hand Father 5) About God's economy of human salvation Preliminary concepts a) The beginning of this economy b) The essential position of the finisher of our salvation c) The order of His saving actions A) First, the Lord God prepared people for salvation in Christ Jesus 1) Through prophecies about Him a) Verbal b) Material or representative 2) Through sacred rites, namely: a) Through sacrifices, prefiguring the sacrifice of Christ b) Through all the Old Testament Divine service, which was a type of the New Testament 3) through the government that was in the Old Testament church B) After the fulfillment of times, the promised redeemer of the world actually accomplished our salvation, appearing on earth 1) As a Prophet a) Preaching himself b) And through the Holy. Apostles c) Instead of the ancient fleshly law, a new spiritual one 2) As a high priest a) Having voluntarily sacrificed himself not for himself, but for our sins b) For all the sins of the whole world c) And therefore having suffered everything that we deserved 3) As a King a) Having founded on earth his grace-filled kingdom - the New Testament Church α) On himself β) So that it guides people to salvation b) And to achieve this high goal α) Having promised to remain in it forever as an invisible head and steward β) Having given it a permanent leader - the All-Holy Spirit γ) And having established in it visible leaders for salvation - shepherds and teachers c) Which is therefore itself α) There is a visible society β) Consisting of perfect and imperfect γ) There is also one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic δ) And not will waver, will not sin forever B) Now, after his Ascension into Heaven, he assimilates to us the salvation he accomplished on earth through St. Church 1) As a Prophet A) Teaching us his teaching a) Through teachers of the church, chosen and guided by the Holy Spirit himself b) And also, by his very calling, more skilled in the faith c) Confirming it with the same Spirit of truth at the Ecumenical Councils B) And demanding from us faith a) In His teaching, which is preserved in the Orthodox Church b) Faith, which we would confess with our lips c) And show would be in action 2) As a high priest A) Acting priestly for our salvation a) Visibly through the ministers of the Church when they perform the holy Sacraments established by Him and pouring out the grace of the All-Holy Spirit on us b) And invisibly through intercession for us in heaven B) And demanding from us that we a) certainly use the holy sacraments, through which we are given grace that is absolutely necessary for our rebirth and success in spiritual life b) And they flowed to their intercessors 3) Like a King A) Guiding us on the path to salvation a) Invisibly - Himself and through the Holy Spirit b) Visibly - through the shepherds of the Church to whom He entrusted His power B) And demanding from us a) Good deeds, or obedience to His holy law, by which He directs us to salvation b) And obedience to the commandments saints of the Church, directing us to the same goal D) Finally he is and will appear as the Judge and rewarder of all people 1) Appears for each person individually a) Suddenly after his death b) At a private court c) Where he will reward everyone according to their deserts, although not definitively, determining heaven for some, hell for others d) From where the dead can sometimes appear to us living 2) Appears for all people a) after some preliminary signs b) During the time of his second glorious coming to earth c) At the end of the world d) After the resurrection of the dead e) At the universal judgment f) Where to determine the full and decisive reward for each according to his deeds α) For sinners there will be eternal torment, which will be different β) And for the righteous there will be eternal reward, which will also be different 1) About the holy faith and the Church in general There is no other annunciation, no other faith, except that preached by the Apostles, and the God-bearing Fathers at various Councils, and the Councils of the Church devoted to it. I will not change this, and keep it unmixed with all heresies even until my last breath. But hate all doctrines more than this, which are contrary to the faith, and impute them to be from God, as the Apostle said: Even if we, or an angel from heaven, bring you good news, let him be anathema (Gal. 1:8) 1. 1) Their number. From the beginning, not precisely the Scriptures of the Gospels, the Apostles, the teachings of the great Teachers, the dogmas of the Ecumenical Councils, the holy faith is not affirmed: but it is also lawfully established by their traditions. You can already see from the words of St. The Apostle Paul, to the Corinthians, saying: I praise you, brethren, because you remember everything I have, and as I gave you, keep the traditions (1 Cor. 1:2), and to Thessalonians he says: therefore, brethren, stand, and keep the traditions which you have learned either by word or by our epistle (2 Thess. 2:15). To some place St. Chrysostom writes to the verse: from here it is revealed that not everything was delivered by letter (Apostles), but much without scripture (Conversation 4), and equally this and this are reliable in essence. By the same token, the church tradition is authentically imputed, then the holy Chrysostom exclaims: there is a tradition, look for the worthless 2. 2) Division and importance of traditions. Traditions are strictly related to the dogmas of faith, such as the seven sacraments, and the pious veneration of God’s shrines: they also refer to the rites and rites (ceremonies) of the church, such as the celebration of holidays, the keeping of fasts, the memory of the dead, and other rites and statutes of the church, even if they are not written in the Holy Gospel and in The Apostolic book, below, is faith itself, like faith in the one invisible God: both of them are church traditions, and a well-known sign of the right faith of an orthodox person, for this reason I must preserve them, according to Chrysostom’s admonition: there is tradition, look for nothing greater 3. 3) The importance of ecumenical councils. All seven Ecumenical Councils were firm and in essence, as on them the utmost importance of our faith is envy. Not only before the composition of the Symbols, but also from the beginning of the world, there was faith, which began from Adam and his seed, in God, the Creator of all, and in the Son of God who would come and become incarnate, called the Messiah. The same faith was in all the forefathers, patriarchs and prophets, even before the incarnation of the Son of God. After the incarnation of the Son of God, Christ himself preached the faith, taught it to the Apostles, and then the Holy Fathers at the Ecumenical Councils spread it, interpreted it and confirmed it with the Holy Spirit 5 . a) Which Church is true? I believe that there is only one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, which was established by the blood and teaching of Christ, the Apostolic and holy Father, and the martyr: even the gates of hell cannot overcome it, to which the Orthodox Eastern confession adheres to a certain salvation, following its laws undisturbed 6. b) What does it mean to believe in the Church? When we believe in the Church, we believe in Christ, the head of the Church, in the Evangelical and Apostolic teachings of Christ, in the holy mysteries dedicated to the Church by Christ 7 . c) The concept of the Holy Church and its relationship to us 1) The Church is said to be a gathering of the faithful, not only in one place, but also throughout the universe of beings, and for this reason it is said to be the holy, catholic Apostolic Church, from end to end of the universe, in any kind and language, it is right to glorify Christ God. That Church has the foundation of Christ himself, the walls of the law of God, the tables of the Apostles, Evangelists, Teachers, the covering of the Holy Spirit 8. 2) Our true Mother is not the one who will give birth carnally in this world, but who will give birth spiritually to eternal life, who is betrothed to our Savior, honored by Angels, adorned by Prophets, glorified by the Apostles, exalted by martyrs and confessors, for whom Christ the Lord has prepared a heavenly palace, and from man that holy Mother Church is called, and her voice is like the voice of a turtledove who cares for her children, her mouth twists the myrrh of the Apostolic teachings, her hair is the essence of true faith and undoubted hope in God, her hand is the myrrh of good deeds done out of mercy and love, her two breasts are the two Testaments: the Old, taught by the Prophets, and the New, preached by the Apostles: through holy baptism she will give birth to her child into immortality. Let's get started, O sweetest child! You are the breasts of that true mother 9. d) Infallibility and immutability of the Holy Church The Lord gave to His Church certain infallibility, as the Apostle says: the church of God lives, the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15) 10 O foolish Galatians! (the Holy Father means schismatics here) Who have you deceived and resisted the truth? food has the Church changed? Is it food for the priesthood? Will not the Church endure until the day of judgment, and the gates of hell (according to the word of the Lord) will not prevail against it? Has Christ the Lord already left His Church to eat, even though He redeemed it with His honest blood? Is it a lie, river: I am with you all the days to the end of the age. Heaven and earth pass by, but the words of the Lord do not pass by 11. e) The need to belong to the Orthodox Church for salvation Apart from the Church, there is nowhere to take the shrine 12. She who is outside the Orthodox Church does good deeds, even if she is very good, but she is barren, not deserving of salvation for herself, since she is outside the Church, whose head is Christ, who says: what is not with Me is on Me, and what does not gather with Me scatters (Luke 11:23). If anyone adheres to the Church of Christ, he will adhere to Christ himself, harnessed to his Church as the head of the body, and he will take away those present. He who is alien to the Church of Christ is alien to Christ himself, the head of the Church; without Christ, everything that thinks of collecting good deeds for salvation: it does not collect, but squanders, and does not deserve salvation for itself. A member that is cut off from the body, animated and controlled by the head, can it be alive and active? Can a rod cut from a grapevine, or a branch broken off from an apple tree, bear fruit? no way. Even a Christian man, even if he lived a virtuous life, if he is separated from the union of the Orthodox Church of Christ, cannot receive salvation. Hearken, His Holiness Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, in his Symbol at the beginning says: whoever wants to be saved, first of all it becomes him to hold the Catholic faith, even if someone does not keep it whole and blameless, except for all bewilderment, he will perish forever. Likewise, at the end there is a halgolet: this is the Catholic faith, even if someone does not believe correctly and in a certain way, it will not be possible to be saved. Until here Afanasy. From which his words can clearly be seen, as no one can be saved to be outside the Orthodox Catholic Church, just as in the days of Noah, who was saved from the flood, who was found outside of Noah’s ship, but only saved, who went into the ship, but who did not enter, all perished: this means that there is, and about the holy Church of Christ (that for the ship of Noah was not a foreshadowing), for not one will receive salvation from those who are not found within it: for they are not worthy to have God for their father, (says Saint Cyprian) 13, who does not have the Church as a mother, and the Gospel says: if anyone does not listen to the Church, you will be like a pagan and a publican (Matthew 18:17). Do not look at his good deeds when he is not obedient to the Church. Many of the Hagarians are virtuous people, preserving the truth, showing mercy, offending no one, but doing love and good deeds, not only for their own people, but also for Christians, but their good deeds of salvation do not bring them salvation, since the essence of Christ and Christ’s Church is alien. Likewise, those who bear the name of Christ on themselves, who are called Christians, are alien to the Church of Christ, will perish with their (even if they have) good deeds. This is what Saint Chrysostom informs in his interpretation of Paul’s epistle to Philippisius, chapter 1, in conversation 2, saying: the most vile thing of the devil, everywhere he imposes his labors with uselessness and tears him to pieces. And not only does he not leave the heavenly rewards to be received, but also to carry out the message to those guilty. Not just preaching, but also fasting and virginity, which will not only deprive them of reward, but will also bring great evil to those who pass by, about whom he says elsewhere: “They are seared by their conscience” (1 Tim. 4:2). Until here Zlatoust. We heed how fasting, and purity, even virginity, and the preaching of heretics, and their other exploits and labors, not only do not bring them salvation, but also intercede for eternal torment. Chrysostom's untruthful mouth announced 14. 2) About God and His properties God the Holy Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Believe therefore in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the Holy and Life-Giving Trinity, in three hypostases, and glorified in one Divinity, separated by hypostases and hypostatic properties, but united by essence. Therefore, worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in three hypostases with their properties, and in one Godhead 15. a) This Trinitarian God is one 1) Not three Gods, but one God, worshiped in three hypostases 16. There is only one such God to be, He is not created by the hand of man, but He Himself has His own existence, and creates everything with His hand: He alone has to be, who is the vastness of heaven, the foundation of the earthly burden, and enlightens from above the entire universe with the rays of the sun, the radiance of the moon and the stars, and decorates the earth with various trees and flowers, and Fills me with rivers and springs of water; there is only one such God, who contains everything, arranges everything, revives everything, and provides for everyone 17. 2) There is one nature in Him, which is Divinity, one being, which is an original thing, not requiring anything else for its composition, one image: as the Father is, such is the Son, such is the Holy Spirit, that is, the Father of light or radiance and the Holy Spirit, the same light or radiance, one will 18, one glory, one kingdom, one power, one authority, the same is common To the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as they are from the Father 19. But being unique in Divinity, He. b) Triple in hypostasis 1) Three hypostases, or three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The father is not born. The Son was born from the Father before the ages, the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father before the ages: the holy, consubstantial and indivisible Trinity. The Son was born according to the Divinity from the Father before all ages, like light from light, in a spiritual way, and not in a carnal way, or even more so in an unspeakable way. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the same Father, as the Gospel and the St. Symbol teach. Vera 20. So. 2) It is the property of the Father to give birth to the Son and give up the Spirit. It is the property of the Son to be born of the Father, but one cannot beget another Son from oneself. The property of the Holy Spirit is that it comes from the one Father 21. There is no special birth for the Father, but a birth for the Son, but the procession of the Holy Spirit, and their common Divinity and Kingdom 22 . Of one God we know, the Father is not begotten, and of one begotten of our Lord Jesus Christ: light from light, true God, from true God, begotten before all ages: from a good, good Father was born a Son. But from the light it was not born, the light of the ascendant is ever-present, and from the true life, the life-giving source came forth, and from the very Father’s power, the power of the Son appeared, which is the radiance of glory and the Word is hypostatic, from time immemorial with God, and this God, who is without beginning and ever-present, in Whom all things were, visible and invisible. And the one vision of the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, God, is perfect, life-giving, sanctifying, existing in the will, omnipotent, co-essential, abiding in one’s own person 23 . 3) There is one common Father of us all in heaven, the living and everywhere God, and one great Archpastor, the heaven-passed Christ, and one Comforter of all, the Holy Spirit 24 . c) The doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the Old Testament We introduce nothing new when (besides the Father) we confess the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, for the essence was not spoken to us from ourselves, but was invented from the Divine Prophets. First of all, David the Prophet and King, foretelling the vacillation of your fathers (Judah) against our Savior, saying: in every way the nations are tottering, and the people have learned in vain, against the Lord and against His Christ (Ps. 1:2), behold, behold, the Lord and His Christ, saying, bring not one person, but two. And as Christ is the Son of God, the same Prophet proclaims, saying: The Lord speaks to Me, You are My Son, I have given birth to You today. Either way, there is a born, and another born. David also testifies about the Holy Spirit, saying: by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of his mouth was all their strength (Ps. 33:6). Here he remembers three things, the Father of the Lord and the Son. He is called, in the Word, heavenly for the sake of both passionless birth and the Holy Spirit. And in another place he says: Do not take your Holy Spirit from Me (Is. 8:13). And again: I will walk from your Spirit (Ps. 139:7), with these words the Prophet clearly shows that there is a Holy Spirit, and fulfills everything. And again he says: after Thy spirit, they will be created (Ps. 103:30): Isn’t this all said from David, but Moses, the Seer of God, in the book of Genesis introduces God saying: Let us make man in our image and likeness: with whom then did God speak, if we do not speak, as if another person were with Him, no one can say, so that God spoke to the heavenly powers. That very same words: in our image, below they allow us to think: there is not the same image and likeness of God and the Angel, for below there is one nature and power, but there is another nature of God, and another of the Angels: it is fitting for him to be different, with whom God spoke those words, in our image: and it is fitting for such to be, who would be one with the speaking God nature, image and likeness and identity: who can be like this, if not the Son, who is of one essence with the Father, one-glorified, and one-substantial with the Father, one-glorified, and one-powerful, the unchangeable image of the Father 25? d) Explanation of the sacrament of the Holy Trinity 1) The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three hypostases, but the being is one: like the sun visible in heaven, created by God in the image of the Holy Trinity, three things are in it: a circle, a bright ray, and warmth, like in the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and there is a solar circle in the likeness of God the Father: just as a circle has no end or beginning, God is also beginningless and endless: and just as from the circle of the sun comes a bright ray, and the warmth of the sun: from God the Father a Son will be born, and the Holy Spirit comes from. The ray, produced from the sun and illuminating the whole under heaven, is the likeness of God the Son, born of the Father, and revealed to the world under heaven. The warmth of the sun, which originates from the same circle together with the ray, is the likeness of God the Holy Spirit, from whom the same Father together with the Son is produced from eternity, even if it is sent temporarily to man and from the Son, just as he was sent to the Apostles in the vision of tongues of fire, and like the sun, by three things: around, by rays and by heat, created, is not divided into three suns, even if each thing has its own peculiarity: otherwise there is a circle of the sun, another of its rays, and another of warmth, both are not three suns, but one sun: the Mother and the Most Holy Trinity, even if there are three persons: the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and neither is the Divinity divided into three Gods, but there is one God 26. 2) Just as man has word and breath, so God the Father Almighty has the Word of the same nature and His All-Holy Spirit 27. 3) The cross is said to be a three-component, loving, blessed, trinitarian image of the Trinity: by its height it signifies the Father who lives in the highest, by the depth of the Son who descended even to hell, and by its breadth and length it signifies the Holy Spirit, present everywhere and fulfilling everything: for this reason and signified by the sign of the cross we say: in the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit 28. e) The incomprehensibility of this Sacrament Therefore, believe this, and do not strive to comprehend the image of the birth or procession: but we comprehend it, but in the rightness of the heart, without any testing, we accepted it, as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in everything, except non-birth, and birth, and procession 29. Our God is like the depths of the sea, of immeasurable breadth and depth: incomprehensible to the human mind and ineffable by human words 30 . God is ineffable, incomprehensible, invisible and unknown 31. The nature of God, even if you work hard, will not be able to comprehend: God is ineffable, incomprehensible, and untested by human thoughts 32. f) The importance of right faith in the Holy Trinity We know the one true unflattering path to the true light, faith, I say, right according to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one in the three persons of God 33. B) About the properties of God, somehow: 1) God is an incorporeal Spirit 34. The head of God, and the hand, and the nose are not material, carnal, but immaterial, spiritual, which is the essence of his Divine omnipotence, and power, and strength, and the beginning of everything, and omnipotence, and omnipresence. God is all the head, all the ruler of all, all the eye, all the sees everything, all the ear, all the hears everything, all the hand, all the supports, all the foot, the whole is everywhere, and fulfills everything with his presence 35. 2) God is spirit, not body 36. It is usual for the Holy Scriptures, and the teachers of the Creator to liken the created things, and ascribe the names of the created things to God, calling Him fire, sun, sea, gold, and further: not as if God truly was, but so that a reasonable person, by examining created things, as if walking in degrees, would come to the knowledge of the Creator himself, and through many of many created things of perfection, I imagined what infinite perfection there is in God the Creator. Why does David say: “I have learned in all your deeds, in all my creation I have learned your hand” (Ps. 142:5). From your creation, says, O God, you have learned to know God. If there is a beautiful sky, and in the sky there is a visible sun, moon and stars, oh! How most beautiful is he who created these beautiful things! If the land is good, and there are cheerful avenues, mountains, hills, forests, oak groves, gardens, grapevines, fields, flowers, and also expensive things: silver, gold, priceless stone, and, moreover, beautiful people, like the faces of an Angel: how is there a better, dearer and most necessary one who created all of it with his strength and wisdom! Thus, through the likeness of the Creator’s creation we learn to know 37. Just as it is not possible for adamant, a magnet, to take away the power that attracts iron to itself: it is not possible for it to be taken away from the all-seeing eye of God, if He did not see the deeds of men, as Sirach says: the eyes of the Lord are like the brightest darkness of the sun, seeing through all the ways of men, and looking in secret places: and on the earth from end to end of the universe, even in what is done in the deepest chasms of the earth, only the essence is clear to Him, just as it is done in heaven before His face 38 . God tests hearts and bellies, the message of human thoughts from afar, and His eye does not see what is done: and no night and not a single hidden and dark place can hide a sinner before His all-seeing eye 39 . c) About kindness primarily to man 1) There is no sin that overcomes God’s love for mankind 40. The Spirit of the Lord knows not to do good, as he is a treasure of good things, not only to the worthy, but also to the unworthy. The sun shines on the good and on the evil, and rains on the righteous and not on the unjust 41 (Matthew 5:45). 2) This God is good and merciful, having come to earth to save man for the sake of man, he does not want to perish or lose the eternal blessings of anyone, but just as a mother cares for her child, enduring even if he does something wrong, or annoys her, his natural love for him is overcome: below he is angry with him, if he does something inappropriately: for he does it in ignorance, understanding nothing, Patiently he waits for his age and intelligence, although the vision of her husband is perfect and is honest and glorious among people: our God, who created us, cares for us, and like our father in ignorance he endures the evil done by us, overcome by his compassion, nothing more, although we will inherit His glory, having grown into a perfect husband, to the extent of spiritual age 42. 1) The indescribable God exists, is everywhere, and fulfills everything 43. Christ is everywhere, for God is everywhere and fulfills everything. The heavens do not contain Christ our God, the heavenly regions do not embrace Him, all the ends of the earth do not define Him. Everywhere Christ God is, with His omnipotent power, reigning with the Father in heaven, tormenting demons in hell, preserving and building human life in heaven. We live and move and are about him; and in the whole universe you contain everything, and govern all your creation, visible and invisible. Even though Christ our God is everywhere, with his omnipotent and all-containing power, yet by his good will and grace he does not dwell everywhere, sometimes he is, sometimes he was not, and sometimes he departed 44. 2) God, by His Divinity, dwells everywhere, and by grace in chosen places, such as: in the churches of God, where holy relics reside and holy mysteries are performed, and especially the chosen place, the throne of God in heaven. Although God is everywhere and fulfills everything, the light of His Divinity manifests itself more gracefully in heaven, and has an intangible throne 45 . God did not lie to anyone: the Lord is faithful in all his words, and holy in all his deeds, he has not deceived anyone: the Lord is righteous and holy, the Lord will not deceive anyone: and flattery will not be found in his mouth (Ps. 144:13, 17., Isa. 53:9). What he advertised to someone in word, he certainly fulfilled in deed. He promised Abraham that he would multiply his descendants like the stars of heaven and like the sand of the sea, and he did so. He promised through the lips of his Prophets to come from heaven to earth, to be incarnate from the Most Pure Virgin, and to suffer for the sake of human salvation, and he fulfilled this in deed. He promised to be resurrected on the third day after free suffering and death, and he kept his word with his deed. He promised to send down the Holy Spirit from the Father to his disciples, and he fulfilled this deed. He promised to live with his people forever, and he keeps his words, saying: I am with you all the days until the end of the age. He promised His faithful servants an eternal life, and His tea is certain: the tea of ​​the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the next century 46. 1) Everything that shines in the world is fleeting and soon perishing: but what God has prepared for those who love Him and those who work for Him will remain forever, just as God Himself is eternal 47 . 2) My God is invisible, omnipotent, and nothing is such that it would not be possible for my God 48. God demands the sacrifice of truth and holiness, for God is righteous and holy 49 . 3) Every person of sound mind must understand that God is righteous, incomprehensible, indescribable, and inscrutable, unchangeable, and with His Divine properties exceeds all power 50. There is no lack or imperfection in Him, but He is perfect in everything 51. 4) God’s general essential properties cannot be counted. In the Symbol of Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, these general properties are shown: uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal, Almighty, God the Lord, and the book of Orthodoxy speaks at length about the same properties. confession in the first part, in the answer to question three, ten 52. 3) About the general actions of God in the world of creation and providence A) Preliminary remarks I believe that one God Almighty is the Creator of all visible and invisible creatures, the Father and Keeper, and that He created heaven with all its creations and Angels, the earth with men and animals, and everything else in His time out of nothing by an omnipotent command and will, and contains them 53 . b) Participation of all persons of the Holy Trinity in creation 1) The beginning of the existence of the world was by God's will, but it was accomplished by His Word, and was strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. Who willed, therefore, is the Father, and the Word who perfected all creation is the Son; and the One who established, is the Holy Spirit 54 . 2) God is the Creator of heaven and earth, all visible and invisible 55. Creator and Son, Creator and Holy Spirit. Moreover, there are not three Creators, but one: there is still one God in the Trinity, worshiped and confessed 56. 3) God, beginningless and invisible, and His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, was also not created, having a beginning and no end: likewise the Holy Spirit, the three-component Deity, one God, with whom He created the heavens, and the earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and also the seas, and the dry land, and the first man Adam 57. c) Participation of all Divine persons in industry 1) Most High God, all the heavenly powers stand before Him with fear, and all principles and powers tremble before your face, every creation is supported, changed and renewed by your omnipotent power! You are the Master, look down from the heights of heaven from the throne of Your glory upon me! 58 2) I have rank and dignity, and fatherland, and glory, and wealth, Christ is the Son of God, always living, and by His providence the universe stands and is governed 59. 3) The Spirit of the Lord is the one who does good to everyone, for the sake of it and is divided into seven gifts in Isaiah’s prophecy (Is. 11:2). Explain the goodness of the Holy Spirit also in church songs on the week of Pentecost: Spirit of wisdom, Spirit of reason: good, right, intelligent: possess, cleanse sins: God and idolize, fire comes from fire: speak, act, share gifts 60. d) The purpose of creation and industry 1) God, beginningless and endless, King of all ages, immortal, strong, wise, perfect in His Divine power and Dominion, possessing less than any lack, not demanding for His perfection, but satisfied with everything in myself, full, abundant, great, most praiseworthy and glorious, there is no need, below any need, to create this visible the invisible world, above and below, both heavenly and earthly, angels and men, and every creature: but He deigned to eat all that abounding in Him, the goodness, and wisdom, and power of creation, revealing His omnipotent power, incomprehensible wisdom, and inexhaustible goodness, being filled with that, like an overflowing cup, like a river flooded, the shores of its transient, and the abundance of the earth watering: here He is the most good God, from the fulfillment of His abundant abundance poured out on creation, but He Himself diminished to nothing 61 . 2) She did not create anything else for the sake of guilt, only to have someone to constantly do good, devoting others of her goodness, giving treasures from the inexhaustible and inexhaustible Divine benevolence, enriching her creation with gifts. Good is not known to be good unless it is given to others: to the extent that it is given to others, then the goodness of being is known better. We know that when the Lord created His endless goodness, mercy, benevolence, He created a rational creature, so that good deeds are given to them 62. 3) His rational creation, angelic, I say, nature and human, enjoying those ineffable blessings, may it know His Creator and its Benefactor, and may it love Him, and glorify it, and thank it, and worship it and serve Him faithfully 63. Some people think that God created Angels with light: but Saint Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and Ambrose, likewise Saint John of Damascus, imagine that at the beginning of all creation, they were created to be: it was fitting (Damascene’s verb) to be created first for an intelligent being, also a sensual one, and then from both to man 64. B) God the Creator and Provider of the invisible world a) First of all, and with spiritual nature Angels are souls without flesh, invisibility, without sin, not from themselves, but from God's grace before all creation, passing from place to place in the blink of an eye 65. b) With high and varied perfections 1) Having created the Lord in my own image (as later the human soul) and in the likeness of reason, autocratic, immortal: in the beginning, leave them imperfect in bliss, nor established in such grace, so that they would not be able to sin, but give them some time, in the tenderness, as autocratic, having full will, to the Lord or to deserve and succeed having received perfect grace, or fail and fall into the wrath of God 66. 2) Let us consider the invisible creation, I say Angels, whose intelligence only our eye can see, whose beauty is ineffable, the stars, the moon, and the sun, surpassing in various forms: for there are so many ranks of Angels in heaven, each of them surpassing each other in place, size and beauty. Red is the Angel, the most beautiful Archangel, above the most beautiful Archangels are the highest ranks, above those Cherubim, above the Cherubim the most beautiful Seraphim, whose beauty the earthly tongue can confess. Oh, how incomparably more than all the ranks of Angels is the most red Creator! O beauty, inexpressible and incomprehensible to the human mind! 67 Angels are created because they sing to God and serve him, then let them serve this man in the world, and let them be guardians of kingdoms, cities, places, people, and all creatures 68. 2) God provides for Angels α) Giving them your Grace Angels are sinless, but not through themselves, but through the grace of God, as if they did not agree with the light-bearer and resist God, and for this reason they have this grace from God, and not from their nature 69 . β) Dividing them into ranks There are nine angelic ranks according to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple of St. The Apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven, and there she saw the difference in the holy ranks of Angels, and told him as if she were her disciple. These nine ranks are divided into three Hierarchies, each containing three ranks: the highest, middle and lowest. In the first and highest, and the Most Holy Trinity of the nearest hierarchy, there are Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. In the middle hierarchy, there are also three ranks of holy Angels: Dominion, Power, Power. Likewise, in the lowest hierarchy there are three ranks: Principalities, Archangels, Angels 70. γ) Using them to serve our salvation 1) Dominions... teach you to master your feelings, to humble your unruly lusts and passions, to enslave the flesh to the spirit, to dominate the will, and to be superior to every temptation 71. 2) The Holy Powers help people who are toiling and burdened in bearing the yoke of some kind of obedience placed upon them, so that the strong may fulfill their calling and bear the infirmities of the weak. They strengthen every person in patience, so that he does not faint in sorrows, but with strong generosity and strong courage, he endures everything 72. 3) The authorities... have the domain of the devils to tame the demonic power and repel the temptations they inflict on man, but do not allow them to harm anyone as much as they themselves would like. They confirm good ascetics in spiritual struggles and labors that are greater than theirs, so that they do not lose the spiritual kingdom. Those who struggle with passions and lusts are helped on the day of their battle, helping them to drive away evil thoughts and slander from the enemy, and to defeat the devil 73. 4) Archangels... multiply holy faith in people, enlightening their minds with the light of the mind of the Holy Gospel, and revealing to them the sacraments of the pious faith 74. δ) Entrusting them with the management of human societies The angels of the universe have been entrusted with the administration and custody of all kingdoms and principalities, lands and all peoples, tribes and languages: each kingdom, and tribe, and language, has a special guardian and ruler for his entire country, a single Angel, from the heavenly rank, the verbal beginning 75. The service of this rank is to teach a person, and to give to every leader, according to the dignity of his degree, due honor. And these Angels elevate those worthy to high, honest ranks, and instruct them, not for their own sake of acquisition, self-nourishment, curiosity and vain glory, but for the sake of God’s honor, the expansion and multiplication of His holy praise and benefit for the sake of others 76. ε) Granting from them a guardian to every believer 1) Each of us does not see our holy Guardian Angel, but we believe that with each of us the Guardian Angel, given from baptism, is found 77. Angels... are assigned to guard us faithfully every time: they hold us who stand, so that we will not fall, but they lift up those who have fallen, so that we will rise, and they never leave us, even if we sin, always be ready to help us, even if we ourselves desire 78. 2) As much as the soul and as much as our body needs, they care and provide for them, they guard us in our ways, and watch over us throughout our entire life, they guide, instruct, govern, teach us virtuously and chastely in the purity of Christian life, they drive away the demonic power from us, they enlighten our minds, and bring our prayers to God 79 . The intercessors and intercessors are good, and they are the ones we bring to princes: but they are not like the Angels who intercede for us to God 80 . 3) Having arrived at the day of death, a Cherub with a multitude of Angels, to the Divine Father (venerable Macarius), presented the verb: Arise, imitator of the Lord, and go with us into eternal life, lift up your eyes around, and see how many of you are incorporeal, and the faces of the saints were sent from the Almighty to lead you to Him: see the Council of the Apostles, A host of prophets, a multitude of martyrs, a face of saints, a regiment of fasters, a multitude of saints and righteous people. Forgive me your soul, which I was commanded by God to preserve in the living body: unharnessed from carnal unions, as if I will receive great wealth and honestly, and the ever-resisting forces that have passed, I will present to the Divine Sovereign the throne, to rejoice with all the saints who have existed since the ages 81. What was the end (teacher Simeon), no one knows, except there is one God and His Angels, for they were present at the end of the poor, from people very abandoned, just as the dying Lazarus was present in the rotting place, mentioned in the Gospel: it came to pass, saying, the beggar died, and the Angels were carried into the bosom of Abraham (Lk. 16:52). There is no doubt that the same holy Angels of God appeared to this poor spirit and prophetic figure of the Venerable Simeon at the hour of his blessed death, and meekly released the righteous soul from a pure body, into the heavenly abodes at the head of joy. 1) The luminous first Angel, who was then created as an angel, was still with God, until then his nature was luminous, and was called Lucifer, Lucifer: but as if he had fallen away from God, then Lucifer was created, destroying lordship, languid, and from the Angel he was transformed into a demon 83. 2) Christ did not live in heaven with Belial, overthrowing the proud one, but on earth he would have come to live with Belial, to sit with a proud man, what kind of agreement does the humble Christ have with the proud Belial? 84 Light-Bearer, the noblest and first Angel, who is ungrateful to God for his good deeds, prefers the love of the creature that is to himself, having loved himself more than the Creator, that is God, and wanting to be like Him, and became proud, for which he was cast down with his like-minded people from heaven to hell, exposed to natural beauty, left to the angelic nature with him, and from a light-bearer was created, the dark demon and the angel of all uncleanness, and the inventor of iniquity, the enemy of God and man 85. 3) There was once a time when the sky was like a cave, like a den, and like a den of thieves, when one evil robber, whom the Gospel calls a murderer from time immemorial, hid in it: for, he said, in his mind: I ascend to heaven, in my thoughts it is hidden, secret, with abuse, villainously and banditry, so that he will steal and kill, and also with a considerable guard: his trunk rejected the third part of the stars, that is, 86 angels (Apoc. 12:4). 4) The fallen angels are invested in such bitterness, as if it would never be possible for them to come to rest. Let us know from here that when sins are taken away for the sake of the grace of God, he becomes embittered and cares less about his soul 87 . The grace of God is never at enmity, even if it sees a repentant one: but since this grace of repentance was given to one person only for the sake of Christ incarnate, it was not given to an Angel: for this reason, because of unreal grace, one cannot repent. The grace of repentance has been given to man for this sake, because man has sinned not by himself, but by suppressing the enemy: but the angel has sinned by himself, I will suppress him to no one: and the angel has greater gifts and qualities than man 88. β) By allowing their evil activities 1) The adversary of the human race is the devil, firstly, the strong, created by the hands of God, and conveniently inclined and working towards sin, our first parents, Adam and Eve, having conquered in paradise, others are more convenient than man, killing others with sins and iniquities, persecuting and overcoming others, and bringing others into captivity. He and Cain did not kill the righteous Abel: he and the whole world turned into uncleanness before the global flood: he and St. The Prophet persecuted and overcame the Patriarchs: he captivated the dead, and shut up the dungeons of hell: briefly saying: no one from man could resist him, Dondezh Christ the Lord will not be crucified on the tree of the cross, and like the meek David with his crucifixion, do not destroy him. The devil has blinded the human race so much, for not only do they bow down to idols and idols in the image of man created: I do not say about this - whether honest people, or dishonest and nasty ones, like Venus and Cupid, but also in a bestial way, like reptiles and birds, and other dumb unclean animals, I give the honor of God: even the soulless creature, the sun, moon, fire, water, stones, and trees were worshiped instead of God. Thus the devil blinded the people of man, and even though men would not know his blindness, the demon inhabited idols, and flattered the people with his answers, and spoke to them about their delusion and destruction, and led them according to his lusts 89 . 2) Evil demons... with their arrogance they cast down to the earth from heaven, where they abid in the stinking mire, deceiving tongues with dreams, and teaching them idolatry: but we Christians become jealous with envy, and do not cease to disturb all evil, so that we may not ascend to their ancient thrones, which are not heaven. Their malice is varied and many-parted: some of them rise to the top of harm, some of them seem to be the lightest, but all of them, according to the capabilities of their various strengths, fight against all sorts of virtues: for this, for the sake of many prayers and abstinence, it is necessary to eat, so that we may receive from God the gift of reasoning, so that we can understand the differences between evil spirits, and know their cunning and charms, and Let us put up one banner for every battle, the cross of the Lord 90. 1) Someone says: I would be glad to pray well myself, but I can’t: the devil is eating me, why would I rant. Do not apologize, man, because you are guilty, the devil cannot force you, even if you don’t want to: the devil is already powerless. Before the coming of Christ, he was strong, like a higher river: for no one could resist him, even if men did not have weapons against the devil: now the imams of the cross of Christ, just put the sign of the cross on yourself, and the abiye will run away from you. We hear that Saint John the Theologian says: Satan is bound for a thousand years (Rev. 20:2). What is it connected with? if not by the power of the cross. How can he harm you, if he is bound, but if he harms you, you bind him, that is, put on yourself the sign of the Cross of the Lord, and he will be bound. If the devil inflicts thoughts, and if you think evil things in your mind, put the sign of the cross on your mind, and it will run away from you. If this compels you and your eyes, make the sign of the cross and it will run away from your eyes. Whether he sits on your tongue or on your lips, so that you rant, destroy him with the cross. If vain rantings attack your ears, protect your ears with the cross of Christ 91. 2) The essence is from the interpreters of the Divine Scripture, saying that the Lord God, humbling the ascended pride of the demon, subdue him with his inaccuracy as his servant, giving them the power to step on the serpent and the scorpion, and all the power of the enemy, but also subdue him to some soulless things, just as he subdued him without the rattling of the harp of David, who was tormented by the former King Saul from demon, David took the harp, rattling his waist, and the demon retreated from Saul (1 Sam. 16:23) 92. 3) The name of Christ is so strong that wherever it is called upon, all old and magical fables are destroyed, demons tremble 93. C) God the Creator and Provider of the visible world a) God really created this world The God of all ages, with one word of his, created the heavens, and the sun, and the month and the stars, light and darkness, and called light day, and called darkness night, and the foundation of the earthly burden on nothing, and commanded the waters of mother-in-law for our service, and various trees to grow, and ordered times, and summers, and months, and created beasts and livestock on the earth, and birds in the air, and fish in the waters. 94. Hear, O God, the prayer of your servant, and grant my prayer, O Lord of hosts. For You created heaven and earth and all the wonderful things that exist under heaven, and You are the Lord of all, and there is none who can resist You; in Your mercy save me, O Lord 95. b) Created from nothing in six days 1) God always divided the world into this adornment, creating it not from things that were subject or that existed before, but brought everything from non-existence into being 96 . 2) In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The omnipotent Lord created from nothing, and from non-existence brought into being, and from those then other creatures above and below, working for six days, brought into being. And this is the first creature invisible in the abyss, like the seed and the firstfruits of creatures that have to be produced from there, just as when we think of a garden tree from the seeds as one grain, we say that in it there were roots and trees, and branches, and leaves, and flowers, and fruit, not as they already are, but as they have to be from there, always then The grain, having been planted, will vegetate and grow, the first creature or matter (substance) created by God and then being the firstfruits of other creation. Beginning, the Creator brought this first creation, invisible and unadorned, into perfection and adornment; in the first he commanded the light to shine out of darkness (2 Cor. 4). But the light that shone in the bottomless darkness, God divided the light from the darkness, and called the light day, and the darkness called night, and that became the first day, which we now call a week (i.e., Sunday), and the first month, which was then called March, and the first day of that month. After the first day, on the second day, which we now call Monday, with His omnipotent word He brought forth the heavens from the waters of the abyss, as it is said in the psalm: By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their strength (Ps. 32). On the third, called Tuesday from us, having gathered the waters into one union, he revealed dry land, which he called earth, and made seeds to vegetate, and all kinds of grass and trees to grow. On the fourth day, which we call Wednesday, create two great luminaries in the sky: the sun and the moon, and likewise the stars. On the fifth day, which is called Thursday from us, he created fish, and water creatures, and birds from water. In the sixth, like we have Heel, I created the beasts, livestock, and creeping things of the earth, according to their kinds: and after all the creatures I created Adam and Eve, and I brought them into a magnificent paradise. And on the seventh day God rested from all his works, and that day was called the Sabbath, and it is rest, for he the Creator rested, and he sanctified that day 97 . c) Created for the sake of man 1) All our heavenly and earthly things for the sake of temporary life, that they may serve us, were created and arranged by God 98 . God set Adam over all his creation as a king and ruler, and subdued everything under his nose, all the sheep and oxen, also the Polish cattle, and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea (Ps. 8), and he possesses those 99. 2) Not only in heaven, but also in heaven in all God’s creations, there is nothing more honest than the soul, for for this sake the heavens were created, says St. Chrysostom: man, with his soul, is the dearest of the whole world, for for his sake the heavens, the earth, the sea, the sun, and the stars of creation are 100. d) God really does provide for him God rest from work, so as not to produce new creations more than those already created, for you did not need to multiply, but created enough, and every creature above and below was completed. He neither rests nor rests, he rests below, supporting and governing all creation: for this reason Christ the Lord says in the Gospel: My Father works hitherto, and I work (John 5). God does this, moving the heavenly currents, and arranging the necessary changes of times, and establishing the motionless earth, which is not based on anything, and producing from it rivers and springs of sweet water, for the watering of all living creatures. God works for everyone, not just verbal, but also dumb animals, providing, preserving, feeding and multiplying. And if the Lord God had taken away His all-powerful hand from us and from all creation, they would have perished, and all creation would have been destroyed. But the Lord does all this without toil, just as someone (Augustine) from the Theologians says about Him: he rests, and he rests while he does 101. D) God the Creator and Provider of man a) From soul and body, husband and wife After the arrangement and decoration of all visible creatures above and below, God the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in His Divine Council said: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26), so that he may have the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts, and the cattle, and all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth: and God created man. But God created man, took away dust from the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). And having created a wife for him to help him, Adam arose from his sleep and said: Behold, bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh (Gen. 2) 102. b) Created perfect and innocent, although he knew that he would sin 1) God brought to Adam all the cattle, and the bird, and the meek and submissive beast: for even then the wolf was like the lamb, and the hawk was like the kokosh in temperament, not harming one another, and Adam called them all names such as it was proper and characteristic of every animal, and he agreed on each animal’s name with the true one. nature, and then had to be disposition. For Adam was greatly wised by God, having an angelic mind 103. 2) Besta Adam and his wife in paradise are both naked, and not ashamed (just as little babies are not ashamed now), because I still do not feel carnal lust in myself, even though shame is the firstfruits, below is the fact that the leader then, and their very passionlessness and innocence was like a beautiful robe for them: what clothes could be more beautiful for them, especially their purest virgin immaculates flesh, fertilized with heavenly bliss, nourished with heavenly food, and overshadowed by the grace of God? 104 3) Before transgressing the commandments of God, man is innocent, gentle, sinless, in the grace of God, like a son in the love and mercy of the Father, having no evil will of evil desire in himself, not knowing what evil is, not desiring what sin, not knowing what sin is. There was no pride in him, nor did he demand greater honors than those given to him from God, nor did he seek glory, nor would he envy the most honest angelic nature. There would be no delicacies in it, no wealth to be collected, no gold, no silver, no valuable stones, or anything of the kind that people now collect with an insatiable desire. There was no rage in him, no anger, no malice, no envy, he was righteous and holy, neither knew carnal voluptuousness, nor desired the flesh, was not accustomed to gluttony, nor thought about the professed fruit, even if he wanted to eat it: he would not have transgressed the commandment of God by himself, if he had not been deceived by the enemy 105. It is not fitting that the goodness of God overcome the crime of Adam, or the wickedness of the devil, and overcome it: below, let the opinion follow, that God, fearing the sin of Adam, which is contrary to himself, and the wickedness of the devil, do not create Adam and the devil: for this reason, being God, and although doing good, for his goodness, create for his goodness both the devil and man in a good state, as if he did not want hate iniquity: the devil and man create sin through their autocratic desires 106. c) Created in his own image and likeness, which are different from each other 1) The image of God in man is expressed by the invisible, rational, living, immortal, and autocratic soul, ruling over the whole earth, and three spiritual powers: mind, word and spirit. Just as the soul is an invisible force, and an invisible being, and nature, so is the invisible God. And just as the soul is rational, so is the Lord of intelligences (Rom. 11:34). And who understands the mind of the Lord? or who will be His adviser? Oh, the depth of the wealth and wisdom and mind of God! And just as the soul is living and immortal, so God is alive before and forever, and gives life to all things: and just as God is sovereign by will, and possesses all creatures, so He created man, and has sovereignty, and possesses the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and all the earth: and as God has three persons, so the human soul has three powers - mind, word, and spirit: and as the word is from the mind, and as the spirit is from the mind, so the Son and the Holy Spirit are from the Father: as the mind cannot be without the word and spirit, so the Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit never was, and cannot be: and as the mind, the word, and the spirit, there are three powers of the soul, different, but one soul, not three souls: so the Father, the Son, and the Holy. The Spirit, three faces of God, and not three Gods, but one God: and just as the soul fits into the whole body, and not a single soul of the body is without a soul, so God fills heaven and earth and the whole world with His Divinity, and not a single place can exist or exist without God: God is not like a soul in a body, but cannot fit into the whole world, and even if he created a thousand thousand worlds, he would not fit in them 107 . 2) The soul is the image of God, because it has threefold power, but one nature. The powers of the human soul are these: memory, reason, will; in memory it is like God the Father, in mind it is like God the Son, in will it is like God the Holy Spirit. And just as in the Holy Trinity, even if there are three persons, there are not three Gods, but one God: in the human soul, even if there are three (as they say) spiritual powers, then there are not three souls, but one soul. The Holy Fathers posit a difference between the image and likeness of God in the human soul: Basil the Great in his Six Day Diary, in conversation 10, Chrysostom on Genesis in conversation 9, Jerome in his interpretation of Ezekiel’s prophecy, chapter 28, but the difference is clear: the image of God is received by the soul during its creation from God, but the likeness of God is accomplished in it in baptism, the image is in the mind, likeness in will, likeness in autocracy, likeness in virtues, as Christ says in the Gospel: Be like your Father who is in heaven: be like me in meekness, goodness, gentleness, and so on. Sitsa Basil the Great thinks: let us create man (says God) in our image and likeness: the imams are the building of God, but we correct it at our will. In the first dispensation we eat in the image of God's being, but we are corrected by will, in the likeness of God's being. And again: (God) left me to be in the likeness of God, in the image of the imam, to be verbal, and to be a Christian in the likeness. Be (Christ’s speech) perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Do you see where the Lord gives us a hedgehog in the likeness? There, where we will be like him, whose sun shines on the evil and on the good, and rains on the righteous and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). If you hate wickedness, if you do not remember to be angry, if you do not remember yesterday’s enmity, if you are brotherly loving and compassionate, you are like God, if you forsake the enemy from your heart, you are like God, if you are like God for the sinner, so are you for the brother who sinned against you, with compassion you are like God, also in the image (of God) imash, from the hedgehog being verbal: in the likeness you are, from the hedgehog deeds of goodness. Until here is Saint Basil the Great. Yes, we know that the image of God exists in the soul of an unfaithful person, but the likeness is only in a virtuous Christian, and when a Christian sins mortally, then the likeness is only deprived of God, and not the image: and even if he is condemned to eternal torment, the image of God is the same in him forever, but the likeness can no longer exist 108 . 1) We are more pleased to be taken away from the body and brought to God (2 Cor. 5:8), to God who lives in heaven: for this is why we are creatures, that we pass from earth to heaven, and fill that idle place, from where the evil angels fell: for this reason also heaven is opened, that we may enter into 109. God did many good deeds to Adam, creating him in his image and likeness, and giving him the sweetness of life in paradise, and subjugating everything under his nose to him, but he also wanted to do him a greater good deed, to transfer him from paradise to heaven without any inconvenience. But Adam is still ungrateful for the appearance of God’s first blessings: for he cut off his good deed, and cut him off from heaven, and commanded him to return to earth, and let him go to heaven, oh, if he was inconvenient, let him eat! 110 2) God created heaven and earth, not for His own sake, so that He may dwell and rest in them, for our sake, may He be praised and honored by us 111. The mortal nature of mankind, which is then multiplied, is poured out by the Angel through the incarnation of the Word, and the message of its Creator, and believes in Him, and cleaves to Him with all love, and is grateful for His ineffable mercies, so that He may please Him all the days of this life, having the hope of receiving from His goodness eternal bliss, and the fellowship of that Divine glory in His kingdom with the holy angels 112. 3) O beloved! Your father, who gave birth to you according to the flesh, is not a true father: he only gave birth to flesh that is corruptible, which will soon die. The Almighty God, your Father, is true: having already created your immortal soul, influencing your flesh, which was conceived by His command: one is your visible father, and another is invisible. The visible father is mortal, temporary, subject to troubles and suffering, and powerful in nothing: the invisible father is immortal, eternal, subject to no suffering, omnipotent and in control of everything: to that speech, and you were created in your mother’s womb: to that commanded, and came forth from your mother’s womb: and if you should honor the carnal parent of a child, then Moreover, he who created us in his image and likeness, and gave us meaning and reason, and made us lord over the works of His hand, and included us as His servants as sons and brethren and others by His grace. Therefore, our true Father, who has given us good things, we must know, love, honor and always bow to him 113. 2) God provides for man a) He began to trade from the very creation of it α) Having given him all the blessings of heaven and the commandment 1) The Lord God gave drink to man, whom he created, and brought him into a beautiful paradise, filled with indescribable blessings and sweets, watered by four rivers of the purest waters, in the middle of which was the tree of life, from which he who eats the fruit will never die: there was another tree there, the word for reason, or the knowledge of good and evil. This was a tree, the tree of death: for God commanded Adam to eat the fruit of every tree, a commandment not to eat from the tree, meaning good and evil: on that day if you bear it (speech), you will die (Gen. 2) 114. 2) God put a man in paradise, giving him a commandment that teaches him obedience, so that he may be satisfied with all the good things in paradise, except that he may not touch the tree, having given him a feat of calico: so that even if no one slanders an angel, but the devil is all against him, he will not transgress the commandments of God, and he will put to shame the enemy who envies him great for the sake of his honor, he who will remain immortal will remain incorruptible; otherwise, he will no longer be allowed to live in paradise, but will be cast out and die while alive 115. β) allowing his fall 1) Seeing their blessed stay in paradise, the devil deceived me in the form of a serpent, so that they might taste the fruit of the commanded tree: and Eve tasted first, so did Adam, and both sinners also transgressed the commandment of God, and abiy exposed himself to the grace of God, angering God his Creator, and knew his nakedness, and The charm of the enemy is understandable, as it is a river to them: you will be like gods (Genesis 3), a lie, this is the father of lies: not only is it not half-pure of the Divine, but it also has a destructive, destructive, deprivation of the unspeakable gifts of God 116. That God allowed both the devil and man to sin and did not forbid it: this happened because God does not inflict violence on autocracy. Moreover, let him not sin, warn that the Lord God has taught autocracy, and does not inflict violence according to justice, about which the psalmist testified: Thou art righteous, Lord, and rule thy judgments (Ps. 119:137) 117. 2). We don’t think of any of these things as being in the first place, only madness and lack of consideration of all things. The first commandment for Adam in paradise was to do and keep, that is, to do with reason, to understand what is good, and to keep the commandment, not to transgress; but if you do not do it with your mind, for this reason do not keep the commandment. Because of the lack of action in the first age of Adam, there was unbelief in Adam, in which he did not believe in God, like the words and commandments. Therefore, from unbelief comes disobedience and crime, and from crime the falling away of the Lord’s grace, and alienation from His Divine love. If Adam had understood the benefactor and had foreseen the commandment for himself, he would not have disbelieved the commandment. If only I had believed, I would not have disobeyed, I would not have eaten the forbidden tree, I would not have been expelled from paradise, I would not have fallen into death and corruption, God would not have worked miracles for us until now, bringing us to the ancient mind and knowledge of all things 118. γ) And subjecting him to deserved punishment 1) I cried out to God with my voice, and presented it to my face, and experienced it in sin, issuing his righteous judgment on her: to be taken out of paradise by him, and to be nourished by the labor of his hands and the sweat of his brow, for Eve to give birth to a child in her illness, for Adam to cultivate the earth, thorns and thistles: but both, after a long life of sowing evil, will die, and be turned to earth body and soul, take away the prisons of hell. And God expelled Adam and Eve from paradise, and set him straight to make paradise on the earth, from which it was taken, and appointed Cherubim with a flaming weapon to guard paradise, so that no man, or any beast, or the devil would enter into him 119. 2) At that time, our ancestors realized that paradise is a good thing, and that it was possible to stay in it, when it was unworthy of it, it was created, and was expelled from there. Truly, goodness is not only known to be good when a person has it in his possession, but at that time when he destroys it: he knows and evil, which he did not know before. For I have known nakedness, famine, winter, labor, illness, passion, weakness, death, and hell: all this has known, when the commandment of God is transgressed 120. b) Continues to trade in all subsequent times 1) God contains the life of every person, faithful and unfaithful, righteous and sinful: for in Him we all (as the Apostle says) live, and move, and are (Acts 17) 121. What will we bring, what will we give, or what kind of thanks will we offer to our Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, as if we do not require good things of ours, but from our one goodness, not only this visible world created us for the sake of creating, but also in it enriches and preserves us, gives us life and dwellings and nourishes us? 122 May you not say: I am an orphan, guarding God in battle and caring for you: He is your father and mother, teacher and mentor, patron and guide to salvation 123. 2) If God provides for those who do not place their trust, nor for those who trust, pouring out His grace on everyone, like the sun’s rays, shining on good and evil, how much more does He provide for those who trust in Nan, and who have placed themselves entirely in Him. Let us think about what God's providence was for the people of Israel in the wilderness, for those who are ungrateful for His good deeds, who show great disbelief in Him (even great miracles in vain) and who worship idolaters: anyway, God has not forsaken even such, but His entire providence is for them: should not the Lord provide for those who work for Him? diligently, with faith and love, placing all your hope and hope? 124 β) Allowing the spread of original sin 1) Eve, the mother of all living, began to give birth to a child in illness, to death rather than to life: before I was born, I died, having brought death, spiritual and physical, through my sin to the entire human race. And those who are born do not first begin to live, rather than die in soul, for they were dead, but in body they flow towards death, which comes from the mother’s womb into this life together with dead decay 125. When Adam was deceived, and the Creator was angered by the transgression of His commandments, and was deprived of his former grace: then, having known evil, he became extremely comfortable with it. And every sinful desire enters human nature: pride, delicacy, rage, anger, envy, carnal lust 126. 2) To human nature, corrupted by ancestral sin and deprived of the first good, and creeping into evil, evil is most natural: for in this man is conceived and will be born: in iniquity (speech) I was conceived, and in sins did my mother give birth to me (Ps. 8). And in what he is born, he desires it from childhood, and thinks about it, just as Scripture informs us with the verb: a man’s mind is set on evil from his youth (Gen. 2). For this reason, we are not comfortable with virtue, we are less obedient to good admonitions, but we are extremely quick to do evil 127. On the other hand, man is a rational creature, created in the image of God, in the will of his salvation, just as before he was autocratic, he is now autocratic, and will continue to be autocratic 128. γ) By assisting us in our activities Having created us, the Almighty Almighty, who has created us, assists our nature in all deeds, both in good and in evil, assisting in good, but in evil without taking away from us our life, breath and movement, held by His hand, and preserved by His mercy: and there is no act in our life that would have been accomplished without God’s content, and without promoting our nature. Without Him, we cannot breathe a single breath, we can not move a single finger. And if God had not contained human life and movement even for a single moment of time, for a single blink of an eye, he had taken away his content from it: if a person would be dead: whenever a person commits a sin, God supports his nature, not taking away from him his omnipotent power, holding the life and movement of a sinner, nor allowing him to suddenly die in that very sinful act, and stolen from the invisible enemy, and brought down to hell. In this way he helps the sinner and does not covet it, just as he does not want the death of a sinner, and does not want to take away the free will and power of man, which he has given him in his own image. Moreover, he himself is an accomplice of the sinner’s sin, and is guilty of his evil deed: it is not God who assists or helps the sinner in the evil will of sin, but only in the natural animal forces that are moved by him, our God Almighty. And like a lame man who walks and worships, his soul does not worship with him, even if he is not soulless. I do not deign to do this to God, but I preserve the belly of sinners, even though the sin of the sinner is abominable to the Lord. And God’s long-suffering is truly marvelous, how it tolerates a person who sins, and does not destroy him through his iniquity at the very hour of his vile sin! Glory to His long-suffering mercy! 129 δ) And directing everything for our good Truly, He cares and provides for all His servants, those who seek the kingdom of God, who care about salvation, who diligently and faithfully serve their Lord, and who are entrusted with the providence, He arranges their life usefully, and generously supplies them with the necessities of life. And if any misfortunes and misfortunes happen to his servant, He does not leave them in them, but takes them away from their troubles, and brings misfortunes to a good end for them, just as He made the beautiful Joseph hated by his brethren, thrown into a ditch, sold into work, brought into a foreign land, shepherded by a wife, imprisoned in prison: what about all of them? - create that king and ruler in Egypt, glorious 130. 4) About God as the savior of the human race A) Preliminary concepts a) God’s chosen means for our salvation God brought everything into existence, when he created man, and in the sight of him, bowing to all evil, did not despise the work of his hands that perish: but deign that His Son, being with Him inseparably (there is God everywhere), the limit will come down to ours 131. The Son of God came to take flesh from the Most Holy and Most Pure Virgin Mary, having become like a man, willingly endured the cross, so that the sin of Adam’s disobedience with the wood of the cross would be corrected, and he would grant remission to the condemned man, having himself repaid the debt for us with his free suffering: for having been nailed to the cross, the handwriting of the hedgehog was torn to pieces on us, resolving the sin, and by his death trampled down death, and hell of captivity, and put to shame all the power and strength of the devil, and created power. When all the demonic hordes have been driven away, and the copper gates have been crushed, and the iron ropes have been erased, the dead will rise on the third day, and the human race will be given the gift of being resurrected to all, and to live for all future endless centuries 132. b) The need for this means and consistency with the goal 1) Sin is such an evil, as a person by himself, without the assisting mercy of God, can never completely satisfy his work, even if he lived for a thousand years, but spent the whole summer in repentance, labor, fasting, in prayers and tears. Adam’s one sin, committed in paradise, was so heavy, like the many tears of all the holy forefathers, the holy Prophet’s shed blood could not be measured in advance: but you demanded that the Son of God himself, descending from heaven, be incarnate and suffer, and with his blood for human sin he would repay the debt of God’s justice 133 . God forgave Adam and Eve for their sin, since that sin was greater than their own, and not greater than that of the entire human race. Delivered from the guilt of sin, and not from execution: for the executing justice of God demands satisfaction from the guilty. And since Adam and Eve themselves were not able to satisfy God for the sin brought upon the entire human race, for this reason they were not brought into paradise, even the Savior of the human race, the Son of God, will come and satisfy God the Father with his free suffering for universal sin, and will open paradise with the cross 134. 2) Why would God need to be born in the flesh of humanity? Is there any other way to save the human race? It is impossible for God to have anything, but it is fitting for the devil to be defeated by the one who was defeated by him. Man was quickly defeated by him, but man was not born according to the custom of nature, not from the mixture, I say, of man, but from the earth created, from the earth such as were like a pure and grown-up virgin: yet then he was not cursed from God: the calf and calf-born man, when the evil devil conquered all, befittingly, and himself from such a man will be overcome: such is our Lord Jesus Christ, not born according to custom and the law of nature, but like Adam from the incorruptible earth, so He is from a pure virgin and holy womb 135. He righteously judged the feat equal to us, accepting the Word of our Lord God, and showing us victory over the enemy, having become like us in everything except sin, humble yourself, accept the form of a servant, born of the Virgin, indispensable to the Divinity, and become like a sheep, that he may abolish the wolf. If only I had struck down the opponent with my heavenly Divine power (I can do it, as I am omnipotent), I would have given him a blessed guilt to answer to the great one, for I have conquered man, but I am conquered by God, and thus I would have been able to comfortably proclaim for myself: everything is possible to God. For this reason, our Lord Savior of all, when His servant fell in battle with the devil, defeated and erased, He himself exhausted himself with ineffable advice, descended into the Most Pure and Immaculate Virgin, and took on the image of a slave, and the whole body of our infirmities, except for sin: and came out of the shame of this life, with free and wise humility hid the all-evil devil, and defeat him like a simple man, and crush all the power of the enemy with saving passion, even on the cross, teaching us, looking at His feat, to fraternize with the devil in the same way, and overthrow his power 136. 3) To such an honorable creature, the race, I say, human, who fell into sinful and mortal corruption, from whom could healing and renewal come, if not from the Creator himself? Didn’t David foretell: send my Word and heal me? (Ps. 6:20). For the Word of the Father, the Son, came and healed human nature. How could the Word of the Father have the power to heal a person, if it had not been like a plaster applied to the person by uniting him with incarnation? Does any doctor, even though he might heal an ulcerous person, apply a plaster to a tree, or to a stone, and not to a sick person? For God, the Word of the Only Begotten, is not visible to a tree, even though it is not visible between the trees of a burning bush, nor to a stone, even on the stone mountains - Sinai and Horeb by Moses and Elijah; Saint, in a pure virgin, and not just a woman’s womb, and be incarnate and born from her 137. No one else can heal us from ulcers and deliver us from death without taking away the harm first. Not without the perfect physician, Dondezh He himself is the highest seated on the Cherubim, the perfect physician and Creator of souls and bodies, His mouth, He eats His Son (as the Holy Spirit in Scripture is called the Father’s finger: O finger, speech, God’s cast out demons (Luke 11:20): here God the Son is called the Father’s with their lips, according to what is written: By the Spirit of His mouth is all their strength) (Ps. 32:6) His mouth, I say, the Lord God, His beloved Son, out of love for the human race, put to the wound of our nature: God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son to eat. (John 3:16). Which mouth, I say, God the Son, united with our wounded nature, drew out the poison of that sin? Take away the sins of the world, bear our sins, and heal us, laying down your health for us. Sit us with your kiss, sit as the embodiment of grace on your belly 138. c) God's love for man and the dignity of man, revealed in the work of redemption 1) God the Father wounds us with the arrow of His Divine love: for God loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son. Who will be found in heaven to be such as he would give his only begotten son to die for? No one: but God the Father gave his Son to die for us. It is not marvelous that Abraham did not spare his son and offered him up as a sacrifice: do this for God’s sake: it is marvelous that for our sake God did not spare his Son. Who are we? clay and pus worm. God had mercy on Isaac, holding back the hand of Abraham, and not slaying him: but he did not spare his own Son, not holding back the murderous hands of those who crucified him: but let him be slain for us. About Divine love! Because, grateful to the world, as God loves you, so God loves the world, so love you! God the Son stings us with the arrow of his Divine love, having loved us with his utmost love, as it is written in the Gospel: I have loved my beings in the world, I will love you to the end. (John 13:1). To the end: just like someone drinking a cup for the health of a dear friend, he drank it to the end, to the last drop: the Son of God loved us to the end, and when he drank the cup of his sufferings for us, he drained it to the ground, to the end: for there was no love left in Him, if He had not shown it to us: there was not a drop of blood left in Him, if He had not poured it out for us. Only he loved us, as if he had exhausted everything for himself: love us not just more than all creatures, visible and invisible, more than Angels, more than Archangels, more than Cherubim, more than Seraphim, and more than all the powers of heaven, and the entire heavenly kingdom: but also more than your most holy soul, love us, for you laid down your soul for us on the cross. It is written that no one has greater love than this: if anyone lays down his life for his friends (John 15:13). And would it not be so wonderful if the Son of God laid down his life for his friends, I say, for the righteous, for the saints, to them he says: you are my friends, not to whom I say you are servants, but friends (v. 14–15); It’s amazing that not for others, but for his enemies, I say, for us sinners he laid down his soul to eat: then His extreme love for us unworthy, as the Apostle says: God creates His love in us, because we are sinners, for us Christ died (Rom. 5:8) 139. 2) The weight of the soul is as great as the blood of the Son of God, says the Apostle: “You were not redeemed with corruptible silver and gold, but with the venerable blood of the Lamb, the spotless and most pure of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). All the blood of the Son of God - you will weigh the honesty of your soul, appreciate the incarnation of the Son of God, appreciate the most pure milk of the most pure virgin Mother of God in Persia, which nourished the Divine Child, appreciate His many miracles performed by Divine power, appreciate all His suffering, appreciate all His blood shed for our spiritual salvation, appreciate His cross and death. Can you evaluate this? Then you will be able to appreciate the value of your soul. Consider, everyone, since the Son of God himself placed the human soul at a great price, above all heavens, above all the Angels, above the throne of his Divine and the entire heavenly kingdom: for for her sake, leave it all, come down to earth, for her sake, do not spare yourself, lay down your soul for her on the cross. Look here for the price of the human soul 140. d) Participation in this great work of all persons of the Holy Trinity 1) The Word of God, born from God the Father before the ages, the priceless treasure of the Father’s heart, which the Father gave birth to from the womb before the star, that Word of God, the most beloved Son of God the Father, deigned, by the good will of the Father, and with the assistance of the Most Holy Spirit, salvation for our sake, to accept human nature, and in it to arrange our salvation 141. 2) The incarnation of God the Word was the favor of God the Father, the overshadowing and action of the Holy Spirit, and the will of the Word itself. The Resurrection of Christ from the dead, the same of God the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, was the good will and action, and the will of Christ himself was 142. e) Why did the Son become incarnate, and not the Father, or the Holy Spirit? As if to preserve the property of his hypostasis, as if he were to be a Son in heaven and a Son on earth 143. f) Possibility and incomprehensibility of incarnation 1) What is a woman’s womb like to contain the terrible majesty of the Divine? Sitsa, like Abraham’s abode, contained God under the oak of Mamre, when he came down to eat with him. How can the fire of the Divine not burn a woman’s body? Just as fire did not burn the bush in Sinai, so do not harm the virgin’s womb, give birth to a Virgin, and remain a Virgin. These are the fools who say that things cannot exist, so that God could be contained in the womb of human nature, who was contained in the bush of Moses. They say: is the bush food, a soulless and insensible creature, more honest than the sensual and rational creatures, revered by a God-like soul? God was contained in a storm, in a cloud, in smoke and in fire, when He appeared to Job, Moses and Elijah: and what is marvelous, how He was contained in the most honest animate creature, although He appeared on earth, and lived with people and healed them from the mortal ulcers inflicted on the human race by Adam’s sin? 144 2) They accepted this untested, without any image, and asked: how could the Son of God and man come from virgin blood, without seed and without aphids, or in what way could the two natures be united in a single composition? By faith we have learned to contain this, which was given to us from the Divine Scriptures: but we cannot understand and speak the image 145. g) The reason for the late coming of the Redeemer into the world Who can be surprised, as after Adam’s crime, the Word of God did not soon come to earth to become incarnate and save the inferior human race, even until half a thousand years old. Not a single virgin on earth was found who was pure, not just in body, but also in spirit. That one was found, the first and the last such, even for the sake of its own purity - bodily, I say, and spiritual, being made worthy of being the church, and the temple of the Holy Spirit 146. B) About the face of the Savior of the human race a) There is one hypostasis in Christ Jesus 1) I confess one hypostasis of God the Word, who is the one Son of God and the Son of the Virgin, but Christ does not have a human hypostasis, for there are not two Sons and not two Christs: but one Christ, the Son of God and the Son of the Virgin 147. 2) The being of God was united with the being of man in the womb of the Virgin into one person of Christ, and from that very moment Christ was incarnated, perfect God, perfect man, and perfect man, perfect being God, in separate beings of separate natures, in one inseparable person 148. God does not become man in such a way that he ceases to be God, nor does man become God in such a way that he ceases to be man, but both are so united with each other, as in this sacrament, about which the Apostle: both will become one flesh (Eph. 5:31), but here in one person, as Damascene so eloquently says: we are not divided into two in person, but we are incongruously known into two by nature 149. 3) We do not separate Christ from the Son of God, nor do we place Him on a special throne near the Holy Trinity, and we do not make a quaternity out of the Trinity, but we believe and confess the one and identical being of the Son of God and Christ, who says the Son of God and the Son of Man. The Son of God according to the nature of Divinity, the Son of man according to the nature of humanity, both not two Sons, but one Son, like the Church according to the Octoeche, in tone 6 at Vespers, dogmatically sings, saying: not divided into two persons, but unconfusedly known into two natures. Our faith is not new, but old: we firmly adhere to this holy faith, and accept no news or heresies. We confess this, we kiss this, and through this we will undoubtedly be saved by tea with the grace and help of God 150. b) but two natures connected to each other are not united, immutable and inseparable 1) I believe that the true Son of God is consubstantial and equal to the Father, so that he may save the human race, condemned by the fall of Adamlim into hell into the realm of Satan, from heaven, and receive human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary from her virgin blood made by the Holy Spirit, verbal and animated, and not without a soul, or dreamy, but a perfect God and a perfect man - from the soul consisting of verbal and human flesh, one Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and not two Sons: one Son of God, abiding in two natures: according to Divinity from God the Father before all ages, according to humanity from the Virgin Theotokos in due time born 151. In Christ the Son of God who became man for our sake I confess two natures, one Divinity and one humanity: the Divine nature is the Divinity itself: and the human nature is body and soul. I confess two beings: one consubstantial with the Father in Divinity, and the second consubstantial with the Mother in humanity. I confess two wills: Divinity and humanity. I confess two actions: Divine and human 152. 2) From all the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and from the holy Teachers and Councils, we learn to know that we have the power to will and make the incarnate Christ Jesus our Lord and God God and humanity; nothing lacks Him from those in the image of God, or from those in the image of man, except sin. If he is perfect in both ways, and is deprived of nothing, then truly the sacrament of that one creates adultery about Him, since the very being does not confess His existence with the properties befitting Him according to both natures 153 . 3) The Son of God, for the sake of the salvation of the human race perished by sin, came down from heaven to earth, not by the use of space and not by separation from the Father, but with Him was the same God on the throne and in the womb of Mary - and was conceived by the invasion of the Holy Spirit, and received true, and not ghostly, humanity, and did not take it from heaven, but from the blood of the Most Pure Virgin. Man was perfect with all his parts and with his verbal soul, and was united with the Divine, and in one person was the true God and the true man. Below the Divinity was changed into humanity, below it was instead of the soul, below humanity into the Divinity, but both natures remained perfect in one person with all properties except sin. Let us know that the Divinity, according to the perception of humanity, was never separated from it, neither during passion or death on the cross, nor after death: although the soul was separated from the body, the Divinity was never separated from the flesh or the soul. For this reason, even at the time of death, the hypostasis of Christ was one and the same 154. Therefore α) There is truly the Mother of God 1) We confess the true Most Pure Virgin to be the Mother of God, and not only the Mother of Christ, but, in essence, who gave birth to God the Word incarnated in her, in two beings and natures, in God and in man, unmixed, in the one inseparable person of Christ 155. We believe and confess that the Most Pure Virgin is the true Mother of God, who gave birth to the true God of the Word, as the Holy Fathers taught us to believe, at the Third Ecumenical Council, in Ephesus, gathered against the evil Nestorius. And Saint John of Damascus in book 4 on faith, in chapter 15, writes: the Mother of God is sovereign and truly, and is called. And again: the Son of God was born from Her incarnate, not a God-bearing man, but God incarnate. The true Son of God was incarnated with His Divine being in the womb of the Most Holy Theotokos, and no other ambassador of Christ was incarnate: and the true one is the Mother of God, the Most Pure Virgin Mary, who incarnated and gave birth to the ineffably true God 156. 2) Whoever does not confess our Lady, all-sung, most holy and most immaculate, and of all intelligent natures, the most honest, truly and natural Mother of God, who created heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them, be anathema from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit of the co-natural and supernatural Trinity and from all the powers of heaven, and from the face of the holy Apostles and Prophets and an infinite number of martyrs and from every righteous spirit who has passed away in the Faith, now and always and unto the ages of ages! 157 1) Without seeing, below we comprehend with our minds the incarnation and birth of Christ, how in the Virgin’s womb God the Word became flesh, and how he was born incorruptible, preserving His most pure Mother before the Nativity of the Virgin, at the Nativity of the Virgin and after the Nativity of the Virgin, we believe that such an undoubted existence was 158. The novelty is that a Virgo gives birth out of wedlock, and at Christmas it is again a Virgo. Newness is the first and last in the world, such is the Maiden, who is the Mother of God, and the Virgin gives birth and acts again 159. 2) On the icon of the Mother of God three stars are written: on the forehead and on both shoulders, so that the Mother of God before the Nativity (of Christ), at the Nativity and at the Nativity is the Virgin 160. γ) There is a most honest Cherub 1) Who is greatest in heaven according to Christ? Mother of God. Why is the Mother of God above all Saints and Angels? For there is the Mother of the Savior of the world 161. When the Archangel Gabriel announced to her the conception of the Son of God, he answered with humility: behold the handmaid of the Lord: be unto me according to thy word. And the great deal of God’s grace was filled with joy! Who can expressly: she has more grace in herself than all the Prophets, all the Apostles, all the saints, more than all the martyrs, more than all the saints, not only all the saints, but more than all England and Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim. For the sake of the sea of ​​graces, Saint Herman, the Patriarch of Constantinople, calls it a sea of ​​graces: like who can measure the depth of the ocean? Who can speak the grace of God in the Most Pure Mother of God? The Church also speaks kindly to her: Rejoice, O depth inconceivable and in the eyes of the Angels! 162 2) Exalted is the Mother of God of merits by multiplication: for by these all spiritual and flat creation has risen in such a way, as neither the Angel, nor the Authorities, nor the Powers, nor the Dominions, nor the Thrones, nor the Cherubim and Seraphim below the Prophet, nor the Apostle, nor the Martyr, below all other creation, can powerfully be equal with her merits and virtues, for she alone surpassed all, according to this tributary saying: having acquired many daughters of wealth, she created many strong ones: but you were exalted above all in success (chap. 31:30). The Most Blessed Virgin was exalted above all the saints and above all the powers of heaven. She is the Queen in heaven, the Lady on earth, the Lady of heavenly powers, the praise of virgins, the crown of martyrs, the teacher of the Apostles. She is the mirror of confessors, the prophecy of Prophets, the expectation of Patriarchs, she is a treasure of all virtues. For what could she lose, even if Mati is the culprit? 163 δ) And therefore worthy of our glorification 1) The Virgin Mary is the true Mother of God, and before the Nativity, in the Nativity, and after the Nativity, she remained and is the most pure, incorruptible Virgin, whom everyone, as having been worthy to serve such a sacrament, should glorify. Why did the Church praise her from the words of Archangel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth, and it is necessary to think and affirm that this praise is from God himself 164. 2) If anyone does not honor and confess and worship the Most Pure Mother of God, he will be cursed in the present age and in the future! 165 C) The story of our Savior The Lord God (if I dare say) allegedly forgets about his abundant love for us. For having exhausted himself, and supposedly left for himself, all his mind, all his understanding, with which he created the eyelids, he introduced all his wisdom into us, into our salvation. You have laid down your steadfast love for us, O Lord. This is steadfast love, for which the Son of God, bowing heaven, descended to earth, from God there is man, from the rich to the poor, from the master to the servant: He did not come, saying, let them serve me, but let me serve them (Matthew 20:8); God love the world! This is steadfast love, for which our God, our Creator, is not ashamed to call us brethren: you are naturally my friends (John 15:14), says. This is steadfast love, for which the immortal came to die: as strong as the death of love, steadfast is the love for which he came to lay down his soul for us. No one has greater love than this, but when someone lays down his life for his friends: if for his friends, it would not be wondrous: otherwise, not for his friends, but for his enemies, for his main enemies, as the Apostle says: God makes his love in us, because Christ died for us as sinners for us (Rom. 5:8). Yes, we know that he loved us firmly: God loved the world! 166 b) from birth to death on the cross 1) Describing the Nativity of Christ from the Virgin, the Apostle says: equal to God, you made yourself lesser (Phil. 11:6-7). Jerome's translation reads: exhaust yourself. He became poor, he squandered, God loved us so much that he became poor, squandering for us all the possessions of his heavenly wealth, and, supposedly no longer having anything to give, he gave us the remainder to himself: exhaust yourself. And he exhausted it like this: being an unapproachable light, he was clothed in darkness. The Word of the Father, the eternal being, spoken by the Prophets, became mute. Being strong and strong, he deigned to have little power in his infant body. The source of life itself thirsts. The Angel's bread, being, is hungry. Sit everywhere and do everything, there is no place to bow your head 167. I bow to your secret condescension, and the action of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin incarnation, the birth and the bestial manger, for the sake of our salvation, Lord who loves mankind! 168 2) Our Lord showed greater humility in circumcision than in his Nativity. At Christmas I received upon myself the image of a man, exactly as I say to the Apostle: I became in the likeness of mankind, and was found in the likeness of man (Phil. 11:7), but at the circumcision I received upon myself the image of a sinner, as a sinner, having endured the plague inflicted for sin. And I was not guilty of anything, but for that reason I suffered, as if I were guilty, as if they said with David: Even if I did not admire, then I will reward (68:5). Whose sin I am not involved in, for that I raise the disease of circumcision. Deign to accept circumcision, beginning to suffer for us, and eating that cup, and drink it to the end, saying on the cross: it is finished. It pours out drops of blood from the foreskin, the Dondezhe from the whole body will become streams of the mother-in-law. In infancy, he begins to endure and learns to suffer, and when his husband is matured in age, he will easily endure the fiercest passions, since it is appropriate to become proficient in courageous feats from youth. Human life, fulfilled by labor, is like a day, which has its morning - birth, and its end - evening. From the morning, from the swaddling clothes, the deified man Christ goes forth to his work, to his labors, in labors from his youth, and to his work until the evening of that, when the sun darkens, and there is darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour 169. 3) I worship and glorify your fleshly circumcision, your humble baptism from a slave... All your labors on earth for our sake were raised, in them you were from youth, fasting and laboring, walking and toiling, teaching and preaching, healing and resurrecting. I worship your secret supper, Son of God, at which you gave yourself as food for the faithful, and the body and blood of those who partook of you gave you eternal life. I also magnify your deep humility, revealed by the disciple in washing your feet 170. c) especially before death and in death itself 1) I bow to your kneeling in Vertograd, where you poured out your blood sweat while praying, so that the cup of passions may pass by from you 171. Two passions fought in Christ the Savior and squeezed the bloody sweat out of Him: fear and love. Fear pierces the heart with anxiety, tension and forces Him to ask the Father to remove the cup, which the Angel who appeared to Him shows: Father, let this cup pass by from Me (Matthew 26:39). Love in the heart produces a desire, commands the hand to immediately stretch out to the cup, to fulfill the father’s will. If it is your will, let me drink. So these two passions, warring in Him, drenched Him in blood, and He sweated blood (Matthew 26:42). The second is Adam, who by the sweat of his brow ate bread. My tears were my bread day and night (Genesis 3:19, Psalm 41:4) 172. 2) I bow to you, Lord my God, remembering your free suffering, the flattering kiss from Judas, the innocent from the lawless, the binding and countless insults, blows, spitting, strangulation, annoyance, beating, torment, humiliation, and all yours, for the sake of the accursed and ungrateful, endured torment, and merciless blood outpouring 173. But such a wound and strangulation does not offend the Lord as much as Peter’s word: I do not know the man (Matthew 26:72). Saint Peter! How have you forgotten your benefactor, whom you looked at intently for comfort, whose face on Tabor you saw as clear as the sun? How can you say: I don’t know a man whom I confessed to be God not long ago? (Matthew 16:16) 174. 3) Our Lord, dishonored, ridiculed, spat upon, tortured, barely alive, as soon as the day came, was carried out with a great rumor of the people, dragged from yard to yard, from street to street, through markets, through hotels, to great disgrace, ridicule and abuse, not remembering the admonition of Sirakhov: do not swear at a man in the sorrow of his soul. For the eye that curses its father, let it be plucked out by ravens and wild beasts, and let the chicks of eagles eat it (Sir. 7:11, Prov. 30:17). Then, at the command of Pilate and the request of the Jews, I send him out to the praetor, where I can inflict my tormenting ferocity on Him. The body of the one who dresses the sky is exposed by the clouds. So they will tie him naked to the pillar, who spoke to the people in the pillar of cloud, standing by the pillar, teaching Israel with the pillar of fire and cloud. - Blood flows in streams from the source of life, the body falls off in pieces from His holy bones, splashes of His holy blood fly all over the praetor, falls to the ground under the pillar, unable to stand from the wounds, the Apostles left, the Angels retreated, God the Father gave him up to death. - The inhumans were not satisfied with this shedding of His blood, they were not satisfied with His severe torment: they further extend their malice, inflict the most severe torment on Him, for because of His fierce beating, they invent another torment. A sharp crown of thorns is driven into the head. Thou shalt place a crown of thorns upon His head, 175. 4) The person condemned to death is pinned down with a cross and taken out of the city. He came out bearing his cross (John 19:17). Under the cross he falls on the road, strong in battle, having created a power with his arm. – Crucified Him (Luke 24:20). Naked enters the cross, as nature brings us naked into the world: he says with Job: naked I came forth from my womb, naked I also depart (Job 1:21). In that bloody work, exhausted, Christ the Lord says: I thirst! (John 19:28). And you taste the bile, the sweetness of the church! So that we drink a stream of sweetness in the kingdom of heaven. He exchanges that bitter drink with his most loving Matter, standing under the cross, when he fills it with the cup of the bitter passions of his sorrows. And bow your head, give up your spirit (John 19:30). God the Father gave everything in the hands of the Son, now the Son gives his spirit into the hands of the Father. And with Him the sky closes its bright eyes: the sun was transformed into darkness, the moon was transformed into blood (Acts 2:20). When the Sun of Truth sets, the day becomes completely dark. The whole world wanted to collapse, seeing the injustice committed against its Creator. The whole world mourns when the Lord of the whole world dies. The bride of Christ is crying - the Church. Clothes for tearing: the church veil was torn into two 176. a) Down through the cross Our Lord took on human nature, and although he milked his glory in the flesh, having never had peace with the Father before (John 17:5), he passed through the ranks of all the saints, and nowhere did he receive the glory of it, except in the rank of martyrdom, in which he began to enter, he cried out, saying: now is the Son of man glorified (John 13:31). Having suffered on the cross, he said, after the resurrection, appearing to Luca and Cleopas: Isn’t this fitting for Christ and the thread to suffer for his glory? (Luke 24:26). Christ, pierced by a copy on the cross, through his martyrdom is like a copy reaching his lofty primeval glory with his Father 177. b) And revealed it in his descent into hell 1) Christ descended into hell to resolve the realm of Satan and deliver the souls of the captive Adam and others, to reveal the power of his Godhead. 2) Behold, the Orthodox saints of the old faith confessed about Christ’s descent into hell, that Christ our Lord lay in the flesh in the tomb, and with His most holy soul, with the power of His Divinity, descended into hell, from there to raise up the saints, the forefather of the soul. And Saint John of Damascus speaks about this: the deified soul (of Christ) descends into hell, just as the sun has risen for those who are on the earth of righteousness: so also under the earth in darkness and in the canopy the light will shine for those who sit 178 . 3) Because of Adam’s crime, paradise was closed to the human race, and no one could open it even up to five thousand or more than five hundred. All the saints and saints of God, at the end of this temporary life, go not to heaven, but to hell. Who will then open the door of heaven? Christ, the new Adam. Which key? By the cross: for that is the key of the castle of paradise, to St. Chrysostom, who praises Saint Chrysostom: the cross is the key of paradise, the cross of Christ has opened paradise 179. c) Revealed in his resurrection I believe that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, with the same flesh, was received in the womb of the Virgin Mother of God, and suffered and died by her, from the almighty power of the Divine, and was resurrected on the third day, just like the prophecies of the pre-Sazov 180. During the free suffering of the Lord, the sight of Christ the Savior was ignominious, dishonorable, and Isaiah said about him: I saw him, and not in the name of vision, nor kindness, but his vision was unnumbered, lower than the sons of men (Is. 53:2). After His resurrection, we see with Saint John the Theologian His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). At that time, our Lord Jesus Christ was crowned to reproach with thorns, but now he receives flowers and faces of unfading praise onto his most pure head in glory. At that time He was imputed with the lawless, and now God, in the midst of His people, redeemed by His honest blood, and freed from hell, the Lord appeared in the host of His saints, saying: I am with you. At that time, many passing ones cursed Him, but now every tribe of heaven, and earth, and hell bows to His most holy name. At that time, he was struck by a splash, hit on the cheek, and was quickly killed: he was hanged on a tree and killed. And now He has killed death and the devil: where are you, death’s sting now? Where is the victory? At that time our Life-Giver was dead, but now the Lord lives, and blessed be God. At that time, at midday, the sun grew darker, but now the red sun of truth has risen for us from the tomb, and we see Jesus with the Apostle, crowned with glory and honor for accepting death 181. d) Ascension to heaven 1) I believe that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of his Divinity, after his fourty-day stay with his disciples, ascended into heaven with his flesh 182, ascending not as Divinity, but as humanity, since after the resurrection he was deified, glorified and radiant, shining with God-like light 183. I see my Lord bright, joyful, coming to the Father in joy, and all the heavenly Powers rejoicing inexpressibly, and I also hear the Church stirring up all the inhabitants of the earth to joy and saying: all the nations have clasped their hands, as if Christ has come forth, where He was first 184 . 2) Until then, our mental Sun - Christ, as in the West, remained on the earth in the absence of manifestation as a man, and having been darkened by free self-suffering, until then there was darkness of ignorance of God throughout the whole earth, and as if from the West of the grave He ascended into the sky, Abiy lightning illuminated His universe, Abiy from the East of the sun to the West, His name was gloriously created, Abiy by knowledge God's universe enlightened 185. e) Uses it, sitting at the right hand of the Father 1) Why sit at the right hand of the Father? For spontaneous humility, for suffering and death, one is not only accepted to sit at the right hand of the Father, but also the Judge is alive and dead 186. 2) We do not see our Savior, glorified in heaven, seated on the Divine throne in unapproachable glory, reigning over His Father and the Holy Spirit, but we believe without a doubt that He exists 187. By the saying of God the Father to the Son: sit at my right hand, the Psalmist expresses the equal honor and consubstantiality of the Son according to the Divinity of the Father and the Holy Spirit, while the symbol confesses according to humanity having received greater honor from God than any creature 188. 5) About God's economy of human salvation a) The beginning of this economy Although God, as omniscient, knew that Adam would sin, he created him for this reason, because he did not want human sin to overcome His goodness and love for mankind and would be an obstacle to his will. And besides, before the sun was born, God the Father determined to send his Son into the world, so that with his blood he would cleanse that sin and reconcile it to himself 189 . The saving name - Jesus, before all ages, in the Trinity Council, was prepared, written and even hitherto (until the incarnation of God the Word) kept for our deliverance, but now, like priceless beads for the redemption of the human race from heavenly treasures, it was brought, and Joseph gave it to everyone as a revelation, but the unknown and secret wisdom of God was revealed in that name 190. b) The essential office of the finisher of our salvation Jesus means the Savior, and Christ means the Anointed One. For in the Old Testament the Priests, Kings and Prophets were anointed for priesthood, kingdom and prophecy, and for this reason they were called Christs. Christ, upon His incarnation, had three positions: for he was a Priest, a King, and a Prophet. Why in the Holy Scriptures is due to Him something else like a Priest, another like a King, and another like a Prophet 191. c) The order of His saving actions From the beginning of the world, the Lord our God sowed his word in the hearts of men: A) first by the forefathers and prophets, who preached the word of God; B) having also incarnated himself from the most pure Virgin Mary, and having appeared on earth, and having lived with men, passing through cities and villages, teaching and preaching the kingdom of God, the same Apostles sent their ambassadors into the universe to sow the seeds of God’s word; C) according to the Apostles, church teachers created this, and even to this day that position has reached the bishops and priests, who are the spiritual seeds to sow God’s word in our hearts...; D) the long-suffering Lord leaves the tares to grow until the harvest, but during the harvest he will command the reaper, saying: gather the tares first and bind them into sheaves, as I burned them: and so he will burn the tares with unquenchable fire 192 . A) First the Lord God prepared people for salvation in Christ Jesus 1) Through prophecies about Him 1) In this only (God) I consoled (our forefathers) in great measure, as I then revealed to them the redemption of their human race through the incarnation of Christ at the end of the age of existence. The Lord spoke about the woman to the serpent, as if her seed would erase his head, proclaim to Adam and Eve that from their seed the Most Pure Virgin, the bearer of their oaths, would be born, and from the Virgin would be born Christ, who with my blood would redeem me, and would free the entire human race from the work of the enemy and from the bonds of hell, to make paradise and heavenly villages worthy, trample on the devil and erase the chapter at the end 193. After the completion of six hundred years from the creation of the world, when the forefather Adam, with the most acute repentance, pleased God, it was God’s will for him (according to the testimony of George Kedrin), from the Archangel Uriel, who is the Prince and guardian of repentant people, and the intercessor for them to God, the most famous revelation about the incarnation of God from the Most Pure, unmarried, ever-virgin Maidens. As for the incarnation, for the other mysteries of our salvation were revealed to him, this is about the free suffering and death of Christ, about the descent into hell and the liberation from hell of the righteous, and about His three-day rise from the grave, and about some of God’s mysteries, and about many things that later came to be, like the corruption of the sons of God of Seth tribe, and about the flood, and about the future judgment, and about the general resurrection of all. And Adam was filled with the great gift of prophecy, and prophesied the future, leading sinners to repentance, and delighting the righteous with the hope of salvation 194. 2) For he was born of a Virgin (the Son of God), prophesied by the Divine Prophet Isaiah, saying: Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and call his name Emmanuel: that name signifies the coming of God to man, and in the Greek translation Emmanuel says: God is with us, for God was born of the Virgin to that Prophet before a long time. foretell... But because God has to live with men, hear Baruch prophesying about this: This is our God, do not be imputed to him. You will invent every way of cunning, and give it to Jacob his servant, and to his beloved Israel: therefore he appeared on earth and lived with men. And because I was tempted by the devil, prophesied Zechariah: and the Lord showed me Jesus the great Priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and the devil standing at His right hand, who resisted Him: and the Lord spoke to the devil: May the Lord rebuke you, the devil! ( Zechariah 3:1–2 ). About His eating it was prophesied in the book of Solomon: reproach those who plot wrong in themselves: let us catch (by flattery) the righteous, for it is indecent for us to eat and is opposed to our deeds (Wis. 2: 1,12). And since he was sold to be from his disciple, proclaim the Psalm: O poisonous bread of mine, magnify my stumbling (Ps. 40:10). And about the witnesses of unrighteousness there is a prescript: I have raised up witnesses of unrighteousness against Me (Ps. 26:12). About the crucifixion, His speech: I have dug up My hands and My nose: I have cut off all My bones (Ps. 21:17-19). The same Prophet also spoke about the division of Christ’s garments with the preverb: I divided My garments for myself, and cast lots for My garments (Ps. 68:22). The same one prophesied about drinking milk and gall: “Give me gall for my food, and give me drink for my thirst” (Ps. 87:7). And again proclaim His burial: having laid Me in the pit of the grave. And Jacob the forefather, also foreseeing in spirit, said: You lay down and fell asleep like a lion, and like a lion, and like a horse 195. b) Real or preformations 1) Abel was innocently killed by the envy of his brother, a prototype of the suffering of Christ our Lord, who was innocently killed by the Jews due to their envy. This is also testified from the Holy Fathers, that Saint Abel, before knowing marriage, died in immaculate virginity. And Augustine says about him: the first after Adam’s crime of our Savior bore the image of Abel, who was a virgin and a priest and a martyr. A virgin: before marriage he died, a priest, as if he had made a sacrifice pleasing to God, but a martyr, as if he were killed for the sake of true worship of God 196. 2) Blessed Isaac carried wood with his shoulder straps, and was offered up as a sacrifice, being a prototype of Christ our Savior, who had to bear his cross, on which he wanted to be a sacrifice to God the Father for the sins of the whole world. And this is what the Lord said to the Jews in the Gospel: Your father Abraham would have rejoiced to have seen My day, and to have seen and rejoiced (John 8) - to have seen the day of Christ’s suffering in that hour, in which a sheep was slain in place of Isaac as a sacrifice 197. 3) The Sons of Israel, brought out of Egypt by Moses, signified our departure from the work of ancestral sin, which was not soon to be, which was accomplished by Christ our Lord. The Red Sea prefigured holy baptism. Manna is the image of the body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. By the water that was drawn from the stone, the blood of Christ was signified, and the stone was the formation of Christ himself, as the Apostle says: For I eat from the spiritual stone that follows, and the stone is Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). 2) Through sacred rites, namely: a) Through sacrifices, which prefigured the sacrifice of Christ 1) Not despairing of the mercy of God, our forefathers Adam and Eve, but trusting in that humane compassion, began in their repentance to invent forms of service to God, bowing to the east, where paradise was planted, and praying to their Creator, and offering to God, from their flocks: this is the vision of God, in the image of the Son God, who was slain to be like a lamb, for the deliverance of the human race: but from the village dwellers, as a sign of this in the new grace of the sacrament, as the Son of God, in the form of bread, was offered as an acceptable sacrifice to God the Father, for the remission of human sins. This is what he does, his children share in the veneration of God, and sacrifices, and weepingly told stories about the good things of heaven and aroused them to the desire for the salvation promised by God to them, and instructing them in a God-pleasing life 198. 2) Abraham's sacrifice (from a ram, a young woman, a goat, a turtledove and a dove) by spiritual interpretation of the formation of Christ our Lord himself, who was about the sins of the whole world as sacrifice and reconciliation to God the Father. Aries formed the lamb into kindness in Christ, the goat formed into the flesh of Christ, a sinner like the Apostle, as the Apostle says: God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. The youth is the formation of the suffering of Christ, the turtledove is the image of purity, and the dove is the meekness of Christ, images of Bysh 199. 3) It’s a wondrous ceremony (the sacrifice of a young woman for human sins), but since all the Old Testament was filled with shade and the foreshadowing of the new grace, I am looking for what signified this young man, and the cedar, and the water, and the ashes? The Holy Apostle Paul says that this was a sign of Christ himself, our Savior, who was a sacrifice to God and the Father for the cleansing of the sins of the whole world, having been slain and pouring out blood and water for us. The Apostle says: If the blood of a goat and a calf, and the ashes of a young adult, sanctifies the purity of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse our conscience from dead works (Heb. 9:13-14). Therefore, a clear interpretation itself is shown: the youth is Christ, the cedar wood is the cross, outside the hordes of calves being burned - outside Jerusalem Christ suffered, I say to the Apostle: also Jesus, may he sanctify people with his blood, without the gates of his will to suffer. Having been slain with nails and a spear, blood and water flowed from his most pure ribs: with that blood and water people are cleansed and sanctified. What did the ashes transform? The death and resurrection of Christ and ours. Christ was laid in the tomb, as if dead, imputed to the dust of the earth: but He, like a phoenix bird from the ashes, rose to life from the tomb. Sitsa and we, who turn to the dust of the earth, after death will again live from that dust and rise again. b) Through all the Old Testament worship, which was an image of the New Testament 1) Similar to the Old Law rites and ceremonies in the church of the meeting, and similar to the administrations of the flesh, they are not only not obligated to keep, but are also quite exempt from them. All the same as the Old Law carnal celebrations, siestas, celebrations, ceremonies, and the symbol of the foreshadowing and shadow of Christ's carnal coming and His priesthood, and sacrifice, and the church sacraments that now exist in the new grace. I came to Christ, and all the foreshadowed and canopy itself completed the work, the foreshadowing and the foreshadowing were abolished: for the fruit that sprouts, the color falls away, and the sun that rises, the stars twinkle, and the new grace that has come, the lawful end. If even now the same Old Law rites and ceremonies would have existed, then they would have been false, even the foreshadowing and foreshadowing about Christ, for they would also have signified the one who came in the flesh of Christ, even though he came, for this reason she was greatly cut off from us, and we are free from those created 200. 2) Even if in the Old Law churches God lives by His grace, in them only the seed and formation and prescription of the New-Grade byahu: how much more does He live in the New-Grade churches, in them the body and blood of Christ is sacramental, all the Christian sacraments are performed, the Holy Spirit descends on the mysteries being performed 201. 3) The Lord God commanded the first Bishop Aaron in the Old Testament to arrange a holy robe, commanded that there should be golden bells on the robe, so that when he serves, his voice is heard, he enters into the sacred place before the Lord, and goes out, so as not to die... We know, as the Old Law bellowed by the foreshadowing of the New Grace, and the priesthood This is the image of our priesthood: the bell ringers, according to the legend of St. Gregory the Two-Speaker, signify the voice of the saint’s teaching, as it befits a Bishop (as well as a priest) not to be, and no longer bell ringers, but to speak with their lips and tongues, more often and admonishing the people of God 202. 3) through the administration that existed in the Old Testament church 1) In the Old Testament, the people of Israel were called grapes, brought out of Egypt, about whom the Psalmist says: you brought grapes from Egypt (Ps. 79:9), and Isaiah says: the grapes of the Lord of Hosts are the house of Israel (Is. 5:7). The stronghold of that grape is the law of the God of Moses given on Sinai, the winepress is the altar of the sacrifices of the Old Law, sharpening the blood of animals, the pillar is the Church of Solomon, the workers are the teachers of the law, the scribes and princes, the arch-synagogists, the slaves of the beating - the Prophets, the heir who was carried out and killed, the Messiah Christ 203. 2) The rank of bishop in the Divine Scripture is likened to the heavenly bodies, as Sirach says about the Old Law Bishop Simon: like the morning star in the midst of a cloud, like the moon is full in its days, and like the sun shining on the church... (Sir.8:6-7). The heavenly light shines like the eyes of heaven, looking at everyone, shining equally on the good and the evil: and the Bishops are like the eye of the church, cheerfully and vigilantly looking at the flock entrusted to them, and seeing all the needs and weaknesses, and caring about everyone’s salvation equally, as well as about the good, the face and the evil 204. In the Prophetic Scripture, which says: keep the mouth of the priest with understanding, and seek the law of God from his mouth (Mal. 2:7), and this is written: for the Angel of the Lord Almighty is: let the rivers of teachings flow from the mouth of the priest, for that Angel is God 205. B) After the fulfillment of times, the promised redeemer of the world actually accomplished our salvation by appearing on earth 1) Be (our Lord Jesus Christ) Prophet, predicting the future about the destruction of Jerusalem, about the days of the Last Judgment. He was an Apostle, sent from God the Father, going about preaching everywhere. Be the Teacher, and all listen to him for the sweetness of 206. 2) Christ our Savior, when he spoke to the bookish people, to the wise teachers of the Jews, he extended to them the words of Divine wisdom, filled with words, bringing evidence from the books of the Prophets. When he extended his word to the common people, in simple parables he explained to them his sermon about the kingdom of heaven, saying: for like the kingdom of heaven is to a man who is a homemaker, and to a man who sowed good seed in his village, and to a merchant man, and to the pea grain and kvass, which the wife took and hid in three flour sacks, the entire Dondezh was leavened 207 (Matthew 13). 3) The verbs express all the words of the preaching and teachings of Christ, even with His most pure lips to those who follow Him and listen to His words, and even now through the Gospel reading they are preached to us for our spiritual benefit... These verbs and words of Christ, from His Divine wisdom for teaching to the people and spoken by His disciples, are not all spoken to everyone The essence is intelligible, because I have different minds: I have a clear essence, I have a hidden essence, I have parables and similes, I have commandments, I have advice, I have promises and consolations, I have reproofs and rebuke, I have prophecies, and many other things about various things of His most holy word 208. 1) I hear some saying: Christ the Lord gathered the unbooked Apostles, simple, unlearned, not from books, calling them to himself, but from a fisherman’s net, and with them he enlightened and taught the whole world. To this I answer: I sent out unlearned gatherings, but bookish ambassadors, simple and ignorant people, but wise theologians to the ends of the earth, opening their minds to understand the scriptures (Luke 24:45), gathering as a teacher of the disciples, and for three years he led them with him, teaching and admonishing them, and did not let them go. from myself to preach as much as I could, and gave them the Scripture to know it, and then enlightened their minds to understand the Scripture, and filled them with the Holy Spirit, and taught them to speak in strange tongues: then I sent into the world to preach the word of God 209. 2) After the Ascension of the Lord, the holy Apostles, returning from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, ascended to the upper room, and endured the calico with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren (Acts 1:13-14), in which upper room the Holy Spirit descended on the holy Apostles in the fiery heathen ( Acts 2), - and through the single preaching of the holy Apostle Peter, three thousand souls believed in Christ and were baptized, and endured in the teaching of the Apostle, and in the fellowship of breaking bread (understand the body of Christ) and in prayers... (Acts 11:41-42). Therefore, the holy Apostles dispersed throughout the world, everywhere, where they enlightened the city and country with the holy faith, I built churches of God, and installed bishops, and the faithful gathered to pray in God’s churches Velyakha 210. c) Instead of the ancient carnal law, a new spiritual one 1) Abraham had two sons: one from a slave, and the other from a free woman (Gal. 4:22), then, according to the written legend, this is not the case: allegorically, it is allegorical, signifies God, who has two sons, two peoples, and two covenants given from Him: the Jewish, from the family of Abraham, and the Christian, from the tongues, the Jewish one in the work of the law of Moses, the Christian there is in the freedom of the grace of Christ. The Jewish law is carnal, the Christian law is spiritual 211. 2) And even Christ the Lord said in words: He did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, then it is interpreted in this way: Christ fulfilled the law of the rites of the Old Testament: having been circumcised, He was brought into the Church of the Lord according to the law, the Passover of the law, and having performed the other Jewish rites, I left aside, as the shadow of those who had been in the new grace, leaving behind the Old Law, the one of new grace directed: and thus pass away the canopy of the law, the grace that has come 212. 3) Jacob, in the struggle with the Angel from the suppression of the vein, limping as a sign of the suppression of the old law: for new grace has come, even if the law given to Moses by God on Sinai is kept, which Christ also commanded to keep, to a certain young man saying: if you want to be taken into the belly, keep the commandments (Matthew 19), both other all the old law statutes, ceremonies, actions, customs were cut off from the new grace, and the old law was created as a church 213. a) Voluntarily sacrificing yourself not for yourself, but for our sins 1) I believe that our Savior Lord Jesus Christ truly suffered spontaneous passion, torment and crucifixion, out of unspeakable love for his creation - man, and not dreamily, below the Divinity, but only by humanity he was crucified and buried 214. 2) Christ the Son of God for our iniquity, with which we upset and dishonored the infinite and extremely good God, according to his will, he suffered truly on the cross, not in Divinity, but in the flesh, and as he died, he poured out his blood for everyone, truly, without any sin... The death of Christ was different from others because of the severity of our sins, and for the sake of fulfilling the priesthood on the cross, as on the altar, through offering oneself to God To the Father for our race as a sacrifice, and for the fulfillment of intercession and reconciliation between God and man 215. 3) The bed of our evils placed Him on the painful bed of the cross. We turned His entire bed into His illness, we conceived the illness, giving birth to lawlessness. Our stinking sinful wounds made painful wounds to Christ our Savior. Says St. Ambrose: You suffer, Lord, and you suffer not from your wounds, but from mine, you suffer not from your death, but from my weakness. In the person of every sinner, David complained: the diseases of hell have come upon me, having preceded me to the snares of death (Ps. 14:3). Taking away the hellish sickness and snares of mortals, Christ the Savior, delivering us, himself fell into sickness and snares 216. Job said: I have seen them shouting in anger, but I have sowed in sorrow (Job.4:8). How can You, Lord, reap sorrows when you have not screamed with anger? Meek, gentle!.. And why is this saying true, that one sows and one reaps? (John 4:37). We have sowed sin, and you are reaping disease 217. A slave who knows the will of his master, and does not do it, will be beaten much, but one who does not know and does worthy wounds, the punishment will be few (Luke 12:47-48), You, Christ the Savior, said. You did His will in everything, you were obedient to Him in everything: you humbled yourself, being obedient even to death (Phil. 3:8). You did not create worthy wounds; however, you endure unbearable and innumerable wounds. What is this? You endure wounds, so that our sinful wounds may be healed, so that our sinful wounds may be healed, you bear all this for our sins, you bear the wounds for our sins. We, Christ, are worthy of those countless wounds that you are now patiently enduring! We have sinned, and You bear the punishment for our sins! O thy love, O lover of mankind! 218 4) Christ the Savior on the cross took the bitter cup, drank it with gall, and drank death himself. Whose health is it for? For the health of my enemies, I say, sinners: Because we are sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). How much did you drink? Patiently, I told Saint Peter: He who was reproached did not reproach, he suffered without forbearing: and not only did he not reproach against, but also prayed for those who killed Him: Father, let them go (1 Peter 2:23). O the gentleness of the gentle Lamb of God! 219 b) For all the sins of the whole world The Creator was once sick at heart, looking at the evils of man: and God saw how the evil of men had multiplied on the earth, and everyone diligently thought in his heart about evil all the days, and God pondered what man had created on the earth (Gen. 6:5-6). God was embarrassed by heart disease inside. If only looking at our evils, he was embarrassed by heart disease: what kind of illness does he feel in himself now when he does not look only at the evils, but took them upon himself - all the sins, all the iniquities, all the evils of the whole world, he took upon himself, taking away the sins of the world (John 1:29) 220. The Bishop carries his throne, so that from it with outstretched hands he can bless all parts of the world. Esau goes out into the field, taking a bow and arrows to catch his Father's catch (Gen. 49:3). Christ the Savior comes out, taking up the cross like a bow, to catch the fish, so that he can draw us all to himself. When I am lifted up, I will draw everyone to myself (John 12:32) 221. c) And therefore, having suffered everything that we deserved He complains to the Psalmist: my stomach has disappeared in illness (Ps. 30:11). It is sick with all the ways: with the head because our iniquities have surpassed our head, with the eyes because we have cast our eyes to the ground, with the lips and tongue because our lips have multiplied malice, and our tongue weaves flattery, with the hands because our hands dared to pluck the commanded apple, with the heart because from our hearts. evil thoughts come out, the womb is sick because the oath is in our womb, like water, our feet are sick because our feet have gone astray from the right path, we are all sick because each of us is held by countless passions and is cast down on a bed of evils 222. a) Founded on earth your blessed kingdom - the New Testament Church 1) The King of Heaven created for his people a great city in the universe, the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, so that everyone from the cursed demon of the slander in that city fled, and were freed from his torment... The Lord who established the universe, even though it does not move, established in it the city of the Church, and to him is the gates of hell, which is all the power of the demon, and his army, the trash and heretics cannot prevail. For the wisest of the heavenly circles, the Architect is not based on a weak arctic fox, but a water current can wash it away, and a windy storm can destroy the buildings on it, but on a solid stone, on the true confession of Peter: you are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16), which confession Christ himself the Lord calls the stone, saying: you sow Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (v. 18). The stone is that confession, as about the solid stones spoken of Christ the Lord Himself, who is the stone, according to the testimony of the Holy Apostle Paul, saying: “The stone is Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4), for the foundation of the city of the Church is solid 223 2) Who founded the church and established it, and on whom did it establish it? Christ established the Church on himself, and established it, and acquired it with his blood 224. β) So that she guides people to salvation 1). 2) The Church, like the canopy of testimony: flowing into it with holy baptism, true repentance and other Divine mysteries, one receives salvation from the guilt of sin, and from the debt of eternal death for every crime 226. b) And to achieve this high goal α) Promising himself to remain in it forever as an invisible head and ruler 1) If the grace of God is withdrawn from the Holy Church, then where is the untrue words of Christ our God, spoken by His most pure lips: I am with you all the days until the end of the age?.. Are the words of Christ false, or not? Truly not false. The Lord is faithful in all his words (Ps. 54:13). Heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of the Lord will not pass by (Matthew 26:35), they will not lie. For the grace of the Lord will not be taken away from the Church, for Christ is present to her until the end of the age: where Christ is, there is His grace 227. 2) We do not see Christ the Lord bodily, but by faith we undoubtedly see Him everywhere, seated in heaven with the Father, and dwelling on earth in His holy Church, according to David: The Lord is in His Holy Church (Ps. 10:10), and dwells in the midst of all His faithful servants: God is in the midst of His people, and is present to each one: I foresaw, I said, I will bring out the Lord before me, as I am at my right hand (Ps. 15:8) 228. 3) The Lord is in his holy Church, in the holy, apostolic, orthodox Church, from the end to the end of the universe, even if it is embittered and oppressed, tormented, yet not overcome, even the gates of hell cannot prevail - the Lord is in it, and there is no salvation for those who move away from it 229. β) Granting her a permanent leader - the All-Holy Spirit 1) God once placed Cherubim near Paradise with a flaming weapon to guard the path of the tree of life. Our mother Church is also called paradise: we read in the book of Genesis: for God has planted paradise in the east (Gen. 1:8). Thus, the true holy Church is Eastern, so that the Holy Spirit may be guarded, just as the Psalmist says: He who guards Israel will not slumber, nor will he sleep (Ps. 120:4). 2) From Him are all gifts that shine in the Church, or in the Prophets, or in the Apostles, or in the martyrs, or in others - or in those we find. He is the Spirit of wisdom in Solomon, the Spirit of knowledge in Bezaleel, the Spirit of counsel in Moses and in the judges of the seventies, the Spirit of strength in Joshua, in Gideon and Sampson, the Spirit of piety in Tobiah, the Spirit of understanding in Daniel, the Spirit of the fear of God in the righteous and God-fearing Simeon: from Him all the gifts of grace come. Cheso glad is the good Spirit, the right Spirit, the Spirit who rules, we call it... From the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Church, our mother, flourished like a tree into different leaves, that is, into different faces of the righteous, into virgins, teachers, martyrs, confessors, saints and hermits, about which Hosea prophesied long ago: they will flourish like a flower, and its roots will spread out like an oak grove, and it will be fruitful like an olive tree (Hos. 5:6–7) 230. γ) And having established in it visible leaders for salvation - shepherds and teachers 1) In the new grace, the grapes are the Church of Christ, carried from Israel into the nations: the bulwark is the same law of God, the number is the word of God, the pillar is steadfast faith, the workers are shepherds, bishops, priests, the servants who bear obedience, the sheep of words, pious people, the heir and head of the Church is Christ 231. 2) Christ was born, and became a sacrifice for us to God the Father, having suffered on the cross and being created as the Chief, and the Leader, and the Head of the Church of his saints, he redeemed us to eat with his honest blood, and ordered him to eat a bloodless sacrifice, in the form of bread - his most pure body, in the form of wine - his most pure blood, commanding that this be done with a sacred action, the river: do this in my remembrance ( 1 Cor. 2:24), and after Him there were leaders of the Church of Saints - the Holy Apostles, according to the Apostles, teachers, saints, priests, one after another, and the same hierarchical and priestly rank will come to us, and for us until the end of the age it will be 232. The Conciliar Orthodox Apostolic Church (I am not talking about walls and buildings, but about the multitude of the faithful) not only in the Russian state, but also in the countries of Greece, and Arabia, and Syria, and Egypt, and in Serbia, and in Bulgaria, and in Dalmatia, and in Moldova, and simply say - throughout the universe... (this) Conciliar Orthodox Apostolic Church with its It is not hidden by shepherds and teachers, it does not shine in secret, but it shines openly, as if on the candlestick of the entire universe 233. β) Consisting of perfect and imperfect 1) Just as among the wheat, until it has been reaped in the field, it is impossible not to find tares among it: in both cases, the wheat remains wheat, left below to eat from its master for the sake of the few tares found among it, but is waiting for the harvest, then the master will command the reaper to gather the wheat into his barn, and burn the tares into the fire. Likewise, in the Holy Church, even though it lies still, like wheat in a field, it remains in a deplorable place, it is impossible among the good not to be found evil. Moreover, for the sake of those, Christ does not leave his Church, and even until the end of the age he will not leave, as he promised to eat, saying: I am with you all the days until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20) 234. 2) The Holy Church is like a field that grows wheat, and in the midst of the wheat it has tares, and has both until the harvest. In the Church, the saints, I say, are good and evil, they are righteous and sinners, they are sheep and goats: The Church is like a mother, not only her good children, but also nourishes and warms the bad, loving the good, and tolerating the unkind and being merciful for them 235 . γ) There is also one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic 1) One: because there is one God, one faith, one baptism, one mysteries and commandments, and one teaching of Christ, the Gospel and the Apostles. 2) Holy: because he believes in the Holy of Holies, and the most holy saints have secrets handed down from Christ God, and there is nowhere to take holy things except the Church. 3) Conciliar: because it was gathered from the entire universe of peoples, and not from a single people, as before it was from the Jews. 4) Apostolic: because the Apostle was betrayed from the saints, and has Apostolic power, that is, the priesthood, 236. δ) And he will not be shaken, he will not sin forever 1) If the Church is now filled with heresies, then where are the words of Christ to Saint Peter, who confessed Christ the Son of the living God, saying: On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it? (Matthew 16:18) 237 ... The church is like a high stone, standing in the middle of the sea, and is taken out from the waves of the sea day and night, beaten day and night, and is not damaged: but blasphemers, like waves breaking against a stone, are without a trace: she will be glorified, and they will be ashamed, she will reign with her head - Christ, and she will reign with her leader the devil into the abyss they will rush into hell, she will triumph in heaven forever, and they will weep and weep forever in the underground rivets of hell 238. 2) We can bring Noah’s Ark into our spiritual teaching, allegorically (allegorically) in a more favorable way. Noah is the image of Christ, the ark is the image of the Church of Christ, the flood is the persecution of the Church. The flood of Noah's ark will not submerge it, nor will persecution prevail against the Church of Christ: the gates of hell will not prevail against it. In the cathedral of Noah's children, the wordless animal beahu is abundant; in the Church of Christ, good Christians and evil ones, righteous ones, I say, and sinners are found in abundance. And just as in Noah’s ship for the sake of man and the dumb animal were preserved from the flood, so in the Holy Church the righteous and sinners are preserved and saved by God’s mercy. Corvids are heretics, flying away from the church ship, moving away and not returning, but the dove is the image of the Holy Spirit, the olive branch in the mouth is the grace and mercy of the Lord, the end of the flood is the last day of this century 239. C) Now, after his Ascension into Heaven, he assimilates to us the salvation he accomplished on earth through St. Church A) Teaching us his teaching a) Through the teachers of the church, chosen and led by the Holy Spirit himself 1) A teaching that is not false is that which comes from the lips of a teacher who is not false, but true. An unfalse teacher is one who does not of himself aspire to the dignity of teaching, but is appointed by the Church of God by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and is sent to preach, just as in the days of the Apostles teachers were sent from the Church by the Holy Spirit, as you can see from the Acts of the Apostles, from chapter 13... According to the Holy Apostles, they accept a teaching position bishops, and priests, and others, are the essence of the consecrated church rank. They receive it according to the will of the Holy Spirit, since they receive it according to correct election and sanctification. Such teachers are true, not false, and the teaching of such teachers is true, not false, as spoken by the Holy Spirit 240. 2) Christ’s mouth, Paul’s mouth, Paul’s mouth, Chrysostom’s mouth, Chrysostom’s mouth and the others with him, the father, are truly the mouth of Christ. Can any kind of lie be found in such honest and holy lips? 241 b) And also, by vocation itself, more skilled than others in the faith 1) The mouth of Jerome shall preserve understanding, and I will require the law at his mouth (Mal.2:7). Like a certain rich treasure in the mouths of the shepherds, the gift of teaching wisdom and sense must be guarded, so that he will be wise in teaching, in instruction, in exhortation, in rebuking the disobedient, just as the Apostle says about the bishop, who is also about every priest, saying: may he be able to console in sound teaching, and to reprove those who resist ( Titus 1:9), but one who does not have the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and who does not treasure up wisdom in his mouth, is not worthy of the pastoral office. God says to Sitsa in Hosea’s prophecy: you have rejected your skill, and I will also reject you, who should not be a priest for me (Hos. 4:6). I do not want, I say, to have you in the rank of priesthood, since you have not sought reason, wisdom, teaching. Similarly, in Chrysostom’s epistles of Paul’s conversations it is written: one who is ignorant of the Scriptures and who is not able to fight as a heretics will continue to be of the episcopal rank, unworthy to be in the rank of sacred servants of God and guardians of human souls, unworthy of the rank of pastor, who is unskilled in the Divine Scripture, rejecting skill 242. 2) Unfalse teaching is that which comes from the lips of teachers skilled in the Divine Scripture, and full of teaching prudence, who teach the Holy Scripture with power, and are able to interpret it rightfully. It is fitting for a teacher not only to be sanctified, to be appointed to the teaching rank by the Church by the Holy Spirit, but also to be wise and contented with understanding, according to the word of God himself in prophecy, saying: with the mouth of the priest you keep understanding, and I will require the law at his mouth (Mal. 2:7)... It is convenient for someone who trusts in his bookless, simple-minded mind to follow, but who despises true teachers. From there, heresies grew, and discord, and schisms, because the ignorant dared to test and teach the faith... Is it better to teach an unlearned and self-proclaimed teacher, rather than a learned one, and not a self-appointed teacher, but appointed by the grace of the Holy Spirit? 243 c) Having confirmed it by the same Spirit of truth at the Ecumenical Councils He (the Holy Spirit) is the inventor of the Holy Old and New Scriptures, and acted in the Holy Fathers at the Ecumenical Councils 244. a) In His teaching, which is preserved in the Orthodox Church 1) Learn from the Holy Apostle Paul, in the letter to the Hebrews, in chapter 2, in verse 1, who says: there is faith in the things that are hoped for, the revelation of things unseen, which Apostolic Words Saint John of Damascus reads in the words: there is faith in the things that are hoped for, the revelation of things unseen. And Saint Chrysostom says to his mother: faith is the gaze of the unknown, and also brings invisible information to the visible... Faith is that which your fleshly eyes do not see, nor do your hands touch, but your heart, your mind undoubtedly affirms in itself, as it is, and not otherwise: that is faith 245. 2) God is known by faith according to the Apostle: by faith we mean to be fulfilled forever by the word of God: to which Saint Chrysostom, writing, says: the work of faith is knowledge. Faith, he says, constitutes the knowledge of God, that by his omnipotent power the eyelids were formed... The true way is faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God and be saved. Whoever has faith and is baptized will be saved. By faith a person is justified (James 2:24) 246. 3) We, within the existing Church, who are filled with the Sacraments by the Holy Spirit, who partake of the body and blood of Christ, who adhere to the holy Church as members of the body, the head of which is Christ, who is quickened by Christ, who hold on to it, hope without a doubt to have the holy faith that justifies us and saves us. There is no faith in those who do not believe in Christ God, such as the Turks, Tatars, Jews and idolaters, and such as the heretics, unrighteous Christians, who are called only by the name of Christ, who are alien to Christ himself, whoever is alien to the Church of Christ is alien to Christ 247. Our mother, the holy Eastern Orthodox Church, feeds us with her breasts - with pious laws and statutes received from the ancient fathers, but we, having left the breast of our mother, who gave birth to us by water and spirit, are looking for the breasts of Egypt, foreign, heretical, contrary to Orthodoxy, from those we learn to feed on sweetness: having left the manna, we think of the Egyptian for evil, sweetness Having despised holy abstinence, we turn towards pig faces. Oh great shame! children put their husbands to shame, infants put elders to shame 248. (But) everyone who opposes the holy Church resists Christ, persecutes the Church of Christ, persecutes Christ, blasphemes the Orthodox dogmas of the faith and tradition of the Church, blasphemes Christ and is like the Antichrist 249. 4) The old faith of the Church is contained in two ways: 1) in the dogmas of the Orthodox, established by the holy Apostles and Ecumenical Councils, and 2) in the traditions of the ancient churches, even the holy Apostles, and the holy ancient fathers, who were given to believers to be Orthodox 250. 5) We are Orthodox Christians, taught by the grace of Christ our God, we know what faith is, and we hold not the new, but the old pious faith, the same that Christ the Lord gave as a holy disciple and apostle, the same that the holy Apostles preached according to command, the same that the great church teachers taught, the same that Vladimir established the Ecumenical Councils The Greeks brought saints to Russia, in which great church lamps and luminaries of the world, the holy fathers and wonderworkers of Russia shone 251 b) Faith, which we would confess with our lips From the Holy Apostle Paul, how is faith recognized in a person? Therefore: if he believes with his heart, he also confesses with his lips: with his heart he believes in the truth (says the Apostle), but with his lips he confesses for salvation (Rom. 10:10), and where there is no verbal confession of faith, there is no faith known in the heart. Don’t you (the Holy Father speaks to the schismatics) hear in us the confession of the Orthodox faith? Are you really deaf if you do not hear in us, in all cities and towns, in all holy churches, the Holy Trinity confessed and piously glorified - the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one God? 252 c) And they would show it in business 1) We know that every one of us says: I know Christ my Lord, and I believe in Him. But I boldly say that we do not all know Him, even if we all believe in Him: by faith we know, but not by love, but by faith even demons know Him, according to the Apostolic saying: and demons believe and tremble: but because they do not have love for Him, for they are demons, less able to know Him truly, they are alien to His love. He truly knows his Shepherd - Christ, who truly loves Him, who delights in Divine love in his hearts, who has all his desire and care for nothing other than to have within himself his beloved Lord 253. 2) Love is truly the right way (of knowing God): love never disappears, says the Apostle. Faith knows God, that there is a God in heaven, and the whole earth is filled with Him: He is everywhere and fulfills everything. So the demons believe, they know God above them, who executes them forever. And love not only knows God, what God is, but also knows what is good, what God is 254. A) Acting sacredly for our salvation a) Apparently through the ministers of the Church when they perform the holy Sacraments established by Him, and pour out the grace of the All-Holy Spirit on us α) General concept of the Sacraments 1) There are seven sacraments designed for our salvation: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, priesthood, repentance, marriage, blessing of oil. These mysteries were arranged or established by Christ the Lord through the outpouring of His blood. 2) Mystery is a service that, under some visible guise, brings into the soul the faithful, invisible grace of God. Christ established the mysteries: 1) let there be a sign of the true sons of God, that is, to the Orthodox Church; 2) may this be an unblemished sign of our faith in God; 3) as a medicine for our salvation. 3) In any mystery, three proper things are necessary: ​​1) that there be a legitimate, that is, correctly ordained minister of the mystery; 2) a thing or matter suitable for every secret; 3) the image or form in which every mystery operates and is accomplished, that is, the invocation of the Holy Spirit, and the form of words in which the priest accomplishes the mystery by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the thought expressed to sanctify the mystery 255. 1) Baptism is the washing away of original sin, and in age, voluntary sin. Matter sows secrets - water is pure, simple and unfeigned. The form is these words: the servant of God, or the servant of God, is baptized in the name of the Father, amen, and the Son, amen, and the Holy Spirit, amen, and the recipient says amen. You must keep this secret, so that the priest will also be the recipient of the Orthodox Catholic faith. This mystery can never be repeated: this character can never be erased from the soul. 2) In baptism we receive the cleansing of our ancestral crime, and the remission of other sins committed before baptism: after baptism, a person becomes a son of God and an heir of grace. 1) Confirmation is the secret pouring out of the grace of the Holy Spirit on the newly baptized. The matter of the mystery of sowing is consecrated myrrh from the Orthodox Bishop. The form is these words: the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, amen. You must keep this secret so that the myrrh is not damaged in its fragrance, which the myrrh cannot be consecrated by a simple priest, except the Bishop: every priest must have it. 2) What grace of God do we receive? We are sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that we may be firm and constant in faith and in all Christian virtues. Secondly, this secret is given only by the Tsar, and those who have strayed from the Orthodox faith into the unbaptized faith. δ) About the Most Holy Eucharist 1) The Eucharist is the mystery of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The matter of mystery is sowing wheat bread, leavened, and natural grape wine, simple, and not feigned. The form is words spoken to God the Father: And make this bread the honorable body of your Christ, and the honorable blood of your Christ in the cup. And then the essence of bread and wine is transformed into the essence of the body and blood of Christ our God, through the action of the Holy Spirit and the prayer of the priest. 2) It is necessary to keep three things in this secret: 1) that the priest be properly ordained; 2) let there be an altar, that is, a consecrated throne from the Bishop, or an antimension; 3) let the priest have all undoubted faith that the essence of bread and wine is transformed into the essence of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit. 3) What is the effect in us of bread being transubstantiated into the body of Christ, and wine being transubstantiated into the blood of Christ? We are united with God like fire with iron, and become one in body and one blood of Christ, according to the verb of Christ in the Gospel: he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (John 6:56), and according to the Apostle: you eat the body of Christ and die from part (1 Cor. 12:27) 4) The Divine sacrifice performed by the sacred rite does not bring murder, and the very death of the immortal Christ our God, in heaven glorified in the flesh with the Father reigning forever, but a remembrance of His former murder and death. And when a portion of the prosphora is eaten on the paten, taken away from the prosphora in the image of the body of Christ, called a lamb, it is eaten in remembrance of the Lamb of God himself - Christ, who was sacrificed for us on the cross. And when the part spoken by the lamb is slain with a spear on the paten, it is slain in remembrance of the Lamb of God himself - Christ, who was pierced in the ribs for us by a spear 256 on the cross. 5) The most pure and life-giving mysteries of Christ, which are the body of Christ in the form of bread, infused with the form of wine, which is the blood of Christ, kept throughout the year for the sake of the sick, may they be observed in due Divine honor above all shrines, like the truest Christ, born of the most pure Virgin, suffering for us, and resurrected and into heaven ascended... When the priest enters the altar, let him worship the holy mysteries of Christ on the throne with a great worship that reaches the earth, like the true God himself: in the same way, let everyone who enters the altar do 257. 1) The priesthood is a mystery, in which, through the laying on of a hierarch, the power is given from God to the priest to perform sacred service and act in the mysteries established in the Church of God. The matter of the mystery is sowed - a person is correctly made into a priest. The form is the ordination of a bishop and a prayer from the bishop: Divine grace, and so on. 2) What is the difference between a bishop and a priest? The bishop himself performs the mysteries, and teaches others the power to construct these mysteries, but a simple priest, that is, a priest, only acts them according to the given authority of the bishop, but does not allow them to act to others, and the priest cannot consecrate the world of sanctification and the antimension, only the bishop. 1) Repentance is a mystery through which we are given remission of sins committed through holy baptism, through the permission of the bishop and priest. The matter of this mystery is sins committed in word, deed, and thought, especially a person who repents of his sins committed after baptism. The form is permission from the priest in those words: Our Lord Jesus Christ by the grace and generosity of his love for mankind, and so on. 2) This mystery of the forgiveness of sins from Christ our Savior has power. This mystery is accomplished through the priestly farewell prayer. 1) Marriage is the mystery of the unfeigned consent of husband and wife, and the preservation of faith and marital love. The matter of the mystery is sowed - the person of the male and female sex, who want to naturally and legally combine, and who announce this before the priest. The form is priestly prayer. 2) What kind of grace of God is taught in this mystery? The honest birth of children, as long as love for your wife is not an obstacle to the love of God. 1) The Blessing of Oil is a mystery in which, through anointing with consecrated oil and through priestly prayer, the grace of the All-Holy Spirit is given to the sick, and healing from illness and remission of sins. The material of the mystery is sowed oil, consecrated for this purpose, pure, without any admixture. The form is this prayer: Holy Father, physician of souls and bodies, etc. 2) What kind of grace of God is taught through this mystery? Forgotten sins are the remission and fulfillment of unfulfilled satisfaction, due to illness, from those who confessed, and healing, or alleviation of bodily illness. b) And invisibly through intercession for us in heaven 1) Is Christ now praying for us in heaven? Christ the Lord does not pray in divinity, but as our deliverer in humanity, praying to his Father on earth, and especially on the cross, and was heard, now in heaven in the action of heard prayers on earth, and the flesh that suffered and ascended, and in a bloodless sacrifice was offered as an ever-present intercessor to God the Father 258. 2) Our Lord ascended from us into heaven, and may intercede for us to God the Father. Sitsa says the Theologian: if anyone sins, the imams intercede with God the Father of Jesus Christ the righteous, and there is cleansing for him for our sins (1 John 2:1). And the Apostle Saint Paul to the Hebrews: Christ did not enter into a holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself, now let him appear to the face of God for us (Heb. 9:24), and to the Romans: Christ Jesus died, much more and was risen, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us (Rom. 8:34). Let us not be afraid, sinful people, let us not despair of salvation, but let us be trustworthy, the good Intercessor to God the Father, Imam - Christ our Savior, who also intercedes for us, showing Him our wounds for having raised, so we will not be lazy, and with Him we will send our warm prayers to the Father, so that Christ the Lord may intercede to God the Father, showing Him our wounds, and thus as with lips of prayer, propitiating Him 259. β) So also his Most Pure Mother, Angels and all his saints 1) Do we have other intercessors besides Christ? We do not have such intercessors as Christ, and we do not have so many intercessors for us, like Christ, but to appease God, who is angry about our sins, according to Christ and for Christ we have a fair number of intercessors - the Mother of God and all the saints 260 . With our carnal eyes we do not see the Most Holy Lady of the Mother of God, reigning in heaven for her Son and God, and interceding for us sinful servants, but we believe that Christ reigns and intercedes for us: that is faith. We do not see the holy saints of God, woe in the triumphant Church, standing before the throne of God, and praying for us to God, but we believe that they stand and pray: that is faith 261. 2) The most solid wall for us is the Most Blessed Queen of heaven and earth, like not an earthly, but a heavenly King, who alone, but begs for us, and with this powerful intercession offers execution to mercy, and instead of death gives life... She covers us with the wings of her mercy from the execution of God, like her chicks from the eagle’s taunts. It hides from the Lord’s fierce rebuke, like a mother’s child under a robe from some kind of fear. Covers from the righteous judgment of God and from revenge with the omophorion of intercession 262. The Holy Spirit likens the Most Pure Virgin to the Pillar of David, for she, being the daughter of David, mediates as between the head and the body, between Christ, the head of the Church, and between the faithful, who are the body of His Church, superior to the Church, as she is truly superior to all, and attainable to Christ, as she gave Him flesh. Also for this sake, I liken the Holy Spirit to a pillar, or an armory, so that it will show me to be a chosen commander, armed with all weapons: behold, our protection from enemies... All the weapons of the mighty express that all the grace of God and the power that all the saints have, in which the Prophets, the Apostles, the hierarchs, the martyrs, the venerable and righteous, and all the other saints, they have: the Most Holy Virgin alone has all this, and she alone can help so much. we can, as all the saints are: and for this reason it is said about it, as if we have all the weapons of the strong 263. 3) If you know (the Mother of God) to be Jacob’s ladder, knowing both this and that, because for this sake the Angels have no rest, ascending and descending, as the Most Holy Theotokos commands them, so that upwardly they bring to God human prayers, and all their needs, sorrows and sorrows, and descendingly let people bring God’s mercy from God, help and gifts, through the ladder, the Mother of God, who has a kindred providence for us. Every time the ladder, in addition to the angelic howls, also brings forth the regiments of saints about the mountainous ascent to the valley descent, to the human Christian race, to help the Church warring on the earth. He destroys the regiments of saints: for the warring Church cries out to her in the words of Damascus: “receive the praying faces of the Archangel, and the multitude of the high armies of my creator, the Apostle and Prophet of the councils and martyrs, and the saints and holy martyrs, and make a pure prayer for us to God” 264. B) And demanding from us that we a) certainly made use of the holy sacraments, through which we are given grace, which is absolutely necessary for our rebirth and advancement in spiritual life 1) Just as the life of the body is the soul, the belly of the soul is the grace of God, and just as the body, the soul that departs from it, is dead, the soul, which is taken from it by the grace of God through sin, is dead 265. Without His (the Holy Spirit) Divine instruction, our human spirit does not know how to walk the right way, and to lead us into the earth in the right way, because the human spirit is vain, fickle, erring and weak, and many times we do not know whose spirit we are... The blue and the like having dirty tricks in our path, from the evil demon are many, under the guise goodness, seducing us into evil, to that end, we ourselves are weak, the imams demand in every possible way: that the good Spirit may guide us and help us, according to what the Apostle said: the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses 266 . The grace of the Holy Spirit is to us like a fire that shines, and like a cloud it cools. With his grace, which precedes him, he leads on the path of good things, with his accompanying grace he leads, with his subsequent grace he leads, with the gift of patience he introduces, and with perfect grace he crowns those introduced. No one enters the land with the right, except for the help of the chiefdom of the Most Holy Spirit: for just as a ship at sea, even if it has everything it needs for sailing, is deprived of only one useful wind, it cannot safely navigate the depths of the sea: so for us, sailing through the sea of this world to eternity, it is useful to have the wind of the Most Holy Spirit, without which all our care, preparation is vain and idle 267. 2) He (the Holy Spirit), our merciful helper, promotes various images. Firstly, he helps us in our weakness, he always creates, so that we gratefully accept all spiritual and physical sorrows from God’s hand, and praise our God about them. Paki will help us, driving away ignorance from our minds, and teaching us what is worthy of creating and what is worthy of running. Who strengthens our will, in the form of good, constant and eternal love, while neglecting the corruptible, real, even feelings that force and seduce, but the souls are never satisfied with pleasure. It also serves as a service to memory, so that we may contain with it all the blessings of God with thanksgiving, and let us remember His commandments, which we must not transgress, but our sins, which our hearts must be broken over. Let us not forget the righteous and terrible judgment of God, inflicting good retribution on the righteous and inflicting a worthy punishment on the wicked. Finally, he gives a helping hand to the spirit against carnal lusts, gives strength to begin Divine works, and affirmation works in us, so that we may remain in the service of God, in zeal and grace. The Holy Spirit helps us in every state of existence, whether in grace or in sin. In grace, let us not suffer a fall from it: from sin it gives affirmation to those who are new, so that we do not fall away, and leads from strength to the strength of virtues, until we see the God of gods in Zion. In sins he gives help to those who remain in rebellion, and if we were to escape from them, lest we perish, according to the verb of the Psalmist: if the Lord had not helped, my soul would have entered hell in a little way (Ps. 93:17) 268. 3) In what way will our salvation take place? In the heart and in God. In the heart that wills, the beginning, turning to God, but in God the helping, promoting, and producing a good end... It is not a place to sanctify and save a person, but the grace of God, promoting human will, and human will, promoting the Grace of God 269. 4) Yes, we accept spiritual gifts especially with fear: they will soon be taken away. The gifts of God are like the morning dew; when the heat of midday comes, the dew dries up. Will the heat of sin be possible in a person, will God's spiritual gifts be taken away from him 270. The sinner dishonors and angers God the Holy Spirit, driving Him away from himself with nasty deeds, because the Holy Spirit cannot live there, where a nasty sin is committed. Saint Chrysostom likens the Holy Spirit to a bee, which loves to dwell in clean and fragrant bee-houses, but flies away from evil-smelling places 271. b) And they flocked to their intercessors 1) You, Lord, give me help, without your all-powerful help and grace I can’t continue my evil deeds and sinful customs, and do not a single good deed, without you I can’t do anything. I have the will to repent, if you, God, help me, you can cleanse me. Lord help me, and I will be saved. I believe, Lord, in your goodness, help my unbelief, I believe that you are near to all who call on you in truth 272. 2) Everyone who desires to be an omophorion of intercession for the Mother of God is covered to be, let him then run under the shelter of her wing, for just as the kokosh covers the wings with her eggs, let her hatch chicks from them, and let her spread the wing of benevolence over us, let her transform our atrocity into humanity, and give birth to us as children of God and herself, and so We will be heirs of God in His kingdom, heirs of Christ 273. 3) Holy Archangel Michael, and with the entire Council of Angels! Autumn over our head on the day of our battle, visible and invisible, cover us with the shelter of your wing, and drive away from us every enemy and adversary 274. 4) About the Holy Martyr, the mountain in the midst of the nine faces of rejoicing angels! Do not forget us in our time of need, glorious heavenly citizens of our longtime strangers, who are in exile in this life, mercifully remember us, from the heights of the beloved village of the Lord look mercifully upon us, and bear witness to our zeal for you, hear our prayers to you, bow to our humble prayer, and visit us, and heal our illnesses, heal mental and physical ailments, comfort the sorrowing, help the suffering, deliver prayer books from your troubles, and pray for us to God, one in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit 275. β) Moreover, paying due honor to the Holy Cross, the Holy Gospel of our Savior, and the Holy. depicting both the Lord and all His saints 1) We also honor the honorable cross of the Lord, or rather, the likeness of that cross, on which Christ was crucified. This very cross, on which Christ was crucified, was not found, was fragmented and carried away from the faithful for blessing and healing throughout the universe. Nowadays, a likeness of that cross is only made or written, otherwise we venerate it as the truest cross, but we do not idolize it, because below this very cross of Christ God was, but a tree and the execution of evildoers... We venerate the cross not for the sake of the cross, but for the sake of Christ crucified on the cross, and we place the hope of our salvation not in the material cross, but in Christ crucified on the cross... We bow down to the image of the cross not substantial, siesta, not the substance, venerating, but the image of the cross, as a symbol of Christ's crucifixion 276. 2) From the beginning of the faith in Russia, the church tradition has been to read the book of the Holy Gospel, carried out on Sunday mornings, after reading the Sunday Gospel, from the altar to the people, so that people bow and kiss it... When we bow to the Holy Gospel, we do not bow to substance, not to boards covered in silver or gold, not to charters, not to ink, but to the word God, written in the Gospel 277. 3) We venerate holy icons, we kiss, we worship them, but we do not idolize, we do not say, as an icon is God, but an image of the likeness of Christ, or the Mother of God, or some saint. It is clearer with St. John of Damascus’s speech, as an icon is a story about Christ the Lord and about His saints, expressed through pictorial art, just as it is narrated in words... Whenever we bow to an icon of saints, we bow not to the board, nor to vapams, nor to translations, nor to dilapidation, nor to news, because we are not looking for the substance in the icon, nor the substance in the icon, but we look at the shrine, we honor the shrine, and we bow to the image of what is inscribed. Our worship, according to St. Basil the Great, goes back to the prototype, to that which is in heaven 278. Holy churches will not prevail against the gates of hell. The Church is the pillar and affirmation of the truth, with which we are her children with all the holy fathers, the Ecumenical luminaries, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Athanasius and Cyril and countless others, with the entire Holy Ecumenical Council gathered for the iconoclasts, all unanimously speaking, and ready to subscribe with our blood, “We worship your most pure image, good one.” We curse you vile heretics, the putrid Kopronymchiks, with the same Holy Seventh Ecumenical Council: “Anathema, anathema, anathema!” 279 γ) And also the holy remains and relics of the saints of God 1) It is fitting to venerate the relics of the saints, since God himself is honored to have them, protecting me with my angels, and shining with my grace, and thereby giving healing power... It is fitting to venerate the relics of the saints, as honest friends of God, about whom David speaks to God: I was much more honest than your friends, O God! (Ps. 139:17). 2). honor us, and for this they intercede for us to Christ our Master 280. A) Guiding us on the path to salvation a) Invisibly – Himself and through the Holy Spirit 1) Our Lord ascended from us into heaven, and from on high he looks down on you, like a father over his children, like a shepherd over his sheep, like an eagle over his chicks, like a commander over his wars, and let him see everyone, and let him consider every need and requirement, and let him give help to everyone. It’s like a certain Tsar, having gathered many of his troops into an army, and although he can see all his regiments, he ascends to a high place - to a mountain, or to some building, and looks from a height, and arranges for me, and if he sees those who are overcome, he rejoices over them, and if he sees those who are overcome, he sends them an ambulance. Our Lord, the King of the King, gathers the Church fighting on earth, in it there are many ranks, only regiments, he ascends to the mountain, and from above looks at the feat of each. Let him weave crowns with goodness to those who struggle, let him extend a quick helping hand to those who are weary, and let him uplift the fallen, and let me create the strongest as adversaries, and let him create an obstacle to those who persecute us 281 . 2) From him (the Holy Spirit) the Church is guided and instructed, not just by answering in the Apostles and Martyrs, according to this Lord's promise: when you are brought to the councils, and the authorities and dominions, do not worry about how or what you answer, or what you say: the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what should be said ( Luke 12:11), but also good for every deed, according to this untrue saying: But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything. For this reason he is sent, so that he may guide us on the path of eternity, teach us with his justification, and lead us into the first wealth 282. b) Apparently - through the shepherds of the Church, to whom He entrusted his power 1) Our Lord Jesus Christ, apparently remaining on earth with men, until He Himself alone was called the Shepherd of the sheep, saying: I am the good shepherd. And having completed the work of shepherding, with the desire to go to his Father, he left behind him the heirs of the shepherd - his holy Apostles, and likewise the Bishops, let them shepherd His flock, to each of them also saying, even to Saint Peter: feed my sheep. Every Bishop is a shepherd of Christ’s flock, but the shepherd of existence must be a good one, so that in him, as in the image of Christ, the words of Christ are fulfilled: I am a good shepherd 283. In the present time, by the grace of Christ, there are chiefs and leaders, well, instructing the path of salvation, bishops and priests, and other persons of spiritual rank 284. 2) To the newly blessed Bishops, the Lord himself says in the Gospel: you are the light of the world (like a heavenly light illuminating the world), so may your light be enlightened before men (Matthew 5:14–15). Heaven is Christ's Church on earth, just as God lives in heaven, surrounded by angels, who lives on earth in his Church, and is glorified among men, saying to David: The Lord is in his holy church, God is in the midst of his people (Ps. 10:3), His praise is in the church of the saints (Ps. 149:1), and as the sky is adorned and shines with its luminaries, so is the Church with its luminaries, - their shepherds and teachers, from whom some are like stars, some like the moon, and others like the sun, each according to the order of honor and title, and according to the measure of their virtuous life and spiritual wisdom of perfection. The heavenly luminaries, placed at an immeasurable height by God’s dispensation, are far from the earth, and the Bishops in the church sky are not a lowly place, but a most exalted one, being the image of the Son of God, and they differ greatly from their superiors in power and holiness. Those who are under the Bishop's rule are sheep, and the Bishop is a shepherd, you are children, and he is a father, you are disciples, and he is a teacher, you are people, and he is an Angel with a pure and holy life 285. a) Good works, or obedience to His holy law, by which He directs us to salvation 1) My sheep listen to my voice, and they follow me. That is the sheep of Christ, who listens to Christ, their Shepherd, and follows Him: do not listen to Him, nor follow Him: do not listen to Him, nor follow Him, how can they be called His sheep and be?... Our good shepherd - Christ the Lord calls us, saying: come for me, walk in the way of my commandments, that you may enter the kingdom of heaven: We walk in which way and in which way, let us each examine our conscience... Even though they are His true sheep, no one snatches them from His hand, no sinful charm can tear them away from His grace: just as the Egyptian harlot did not reject the beautiful Joseph, nor the righteous Lot who corrupted the temptations of Sodom, nor the chaste Susanna the two lawless judges of Israel bowed down to God's wrath 286. 2) Oh, our damned times, or, more importantly, our damned morals! Oh, how far we are from the sheep of Christ, from the sheep of those who were before us, and also the All-Russian shepherds - Peter, Alexy and Jonah the shepherd! And already they, looking at us, barely recognize us as Christians, unless they see the Christian name on us. And what is to blame for our corruption? We are guilty because we do not listen to the pastoral voice, we do not heed the teachings that are beneficial to the soul, we do not listen to God, who tells us through his servants and holy books, as it is written: The Lord tells the story in the books of men. Disobedience to the voice of the pastor, to eat the word of God, is guilty of all evil 287. 3) It is not sufficient for a person to be saved only by believing in Christ God, and demons believe, as the holy Apostle James says, and they tremble (James 2:19), both being demons. What good is it for a Christian to only believe in Christ, but not have Christian deeds? What is the use of just praying to Christ and breaking His commandments? What good is it to bow to Christ God, but to grieve Him with lawless deeds, like those who, during His free suffering, bowed their knees, bowed to Him, and lifted a cane to the head of That Biyahu? You bow down, O man, to Christ, and beat Christ, embittering and tormenting your neighbor, raping him and robbing him, and taking him away unrighteously, praying to Christ, and spitting in His face, emitting foul language from your lips, reproaching and condemning your neighbor, believing in Christ, and sweeping aside His ungodly deeds yours 288 . 4) Deeds that are good, pleasing to God, are written in the Divine Scripture: they are in the commandments of God, they are in the councils of the Gospel and the Apostles, they are in the teaching and fasting books, and there are countless images of pleasing God in the lives of the saints, which, according to our strength, we must imitate, and we can see them in living virtuous men 289. Good deeds that do not bear the fruit of salvation are those that are done either not out of love for God, but out of self-love, or that are done outside the Orthodox Catholic Church 290. b) And obedience to the commandments of the Holy Church, directing us to the same goal The foundation and head of this faithful assembly of God (the Church) is Christ himself, and every Orthodox Christian, like a true son, must obey the holy Church in everything and fulfill her commandments, of which there are nine 291. 1) Pray to God with contrition on Sundays and holidays, and listen to church singing. 2) Store fasts, also Wednesdays and heels. Fasting is a commandment of God himself: it is written in the prophecy of Saint Joel the Prophet, in chapter 2: and now, says the Lord your God: turn to Me with all your heart, with hunger in fasting, weeping and mourning... Christ the Savior Himself fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, leaving us an image, let us follow His steps (2 Pet. 2:21), and according to our strength, let us keep the fast on Holy Pentecost... The holy Apostles also fasted, just as it is written in Acts 31: To those who serve the Lord and to those who fast, the Holy Spirit said: Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I called them; then having fasted and prayed, put your hands on them, and sent them... For every faithful one must eat. A Christian keeps a holy fast, as God’s commandments and church traditions command 292. 3) Priests, and especially spiritual fathers, to be revered. 4) Confess four times every year, and partake of the Holy Eucharist, and the workers at least once. 5) Do not read heretical books, and do not listen to their teachings to those untrained in the Holy Scriptures. 6) Prays for the authorities, for the souls of the dead, and for the conversion of heretics... A sinful person can be freed from hell before judgment not by himself, but by alms received from the righteous estate and prayers, and even more so by a bloodless Sacrifice 293. For the repose of the souls of the blessed memory of the departed servants of God, our prayers, imams, fulfill the undoubted hope, as if the sacrifice made for their souls, the shed blood and water from the side of Christ, performed in the holy chalice, sprinkles and cleanses their souls, it is offered for them, and it meanders for them. And even though the blood and water of Christ, poured out once upon a time on the cross, washed away the sins of the whole world: now this way, and not another, should we not cleanse our sins? If then the blood of Christ redeemed many countless souls from the work of the enemy: now this way, and not another, should we not redeem these remembered souls? If then the suffering of Christ is justified in so many ways: then the suffering of Christ, the Divine sacrifice remembered by the fulfillment, should I not justify the things we commemorate? We believe without a doubt in the power of the blood of Christ with the water flowing from His side, as it cleanses, redeems and justifies His servants, for them in the kingdom of heaven, and in the Holy Church on earth, in the pious people be eternal memory 294. 7) He also keeps those fasts and prayers that, for the sake of certain needs, are prescribed by the Bishop. 8) Do not take church property by force from the worldly, but provide for the spiritual for decoration and all needs. 9) Marriages should not be celebrated during Lent, and Christians should not go to forbidden games. D) Finally he is and will appear as the Judge and rewarder of all people 1) Is for each person individually 1) Death is the separation of the soul from the body, the resolution of the natural union of the elements in which human nature takes place, the destruction of human organs, the inaction of the senses, the cessation of life, the resolution of human creation. Man is made up of soul and body, but if he dies, he is no longer a man: even if the visible body exists, even if the soul remains immortal, yet they are separate from themselves, since neither the soul is a man, but only the soul, nor the body is a man, but a corpse. And for this reason, the nature of the living is afraid of death, since death takes away the existence of that which cannot be what it is. 2) There is a characteristic characteristic of death - it is unknown to pass to a person, even if everyone knows it itself. What is more famous in our life than death? At the end of the day (according to the Apostolic word) man lies alone to die. And what is more unknown than the coming, or the hour of death, as the Lord himself says in the Gospel: you do not know the day or the hour, in which the Son of man (to possess life and death, to nourish the soul) will come... Death is known, before the justice of God for ancestral sin is like the execution of the entire human race: the hour of death is unknown, before the time of human life God does not lay down definitions in reality, but they are hidden in their unknown destinies. We know that we will die, but we do not know when we will die, whether this morning, early or late, in the day or at night. 3) The effects of death are this: it takes away from a person everything that a person has in this world: wealth, honor, glory, beauty, the enjoyment of all blessings. When a person dies, won’t he leave everything behind? Below his glory will fall from him. It separates from each other, parents from children, masters from slaves, and every human love, and every temporary hope, it suppresses and destroys. It opens the door of eternity to a person and begins to see how it will be, whether good or evil 295. 1) For us Orthodox Christians, every day and every night we have to look forward to the unknown hour of the end of our lives, and to be ready for the end, then we have our own terrible judgment, each before the terrible judgment common to all 296. There are two types of judgment: special and general. Every person who dies has a special judgment, for then he will see all his deeds 297. 2) We drink every day and every night and every hour of the Lord’s coming to us, but not yet that terrible coming in which he will come to judge the living and the dead and reward each according to his deeds, not yet for every hour of the hour of tea, in which (according to the words of Peter the Apostle) the heavens pass by with a noise, the elements that are being burned will flare up, and the earth and the works on it will burn ( 2 Pet. 3:10), but we expect every hour of our death, when the judgment of God will come to take away the soul from the body, at which time each person has his own special torture for his deeds, we look forward to that hour at every hour, as the Lord himself, protecting us, teaches in the Gospel: be prepared, for at that hour do not forget, the Son of Man will come (Luke 12:40) 298. When the terrible hour of separation of my soul from my body comes: then, my Redeemer, accept me in your hand, and save me from all calamities, and may my soul not see the dark gaze of wicked demons, but may all ordeals be saved. O our Savior! We hope to receive this faithfully from your philanthropy and mercy 299. c) Where he will reward everyone according to their deserts, although not completely, defining heaven for some and hell for others 1) Before the day of judgment, there is no perfect reward for a perfect person, that is, with soul and body, as below is torment in hell for those condemned, but the reward is private. Day by day the judgment will be complete recompense in body and soul 300. 2) The souls of the righteous are in heaven, and the sinners are in Gehenna - and both the righteous and the sinners did not accept the torment at all according to their deeds, but will receive it by copulating with the body in judgment 301. 3) Is there private torment? Eat. Some? Despair, the feeling of an angry God, deprivation of eternal blessings, a dark and terrible place, the ever-present vision of the devil and cohabitation with him, and from him the torment of the soul, an unquenchable fire, an undying worm of conscience (A). Do the souls of saints see God in heaven? Now they see the face of the Heavenly Father, and at the sight of him they rejoice. Is this their bliss and reward? In the way the Psalmist testifies: I will be satisfied until your glory appears 302. d) From where the dead can sometimes appear to us living 1) During the Lent of the Apostle Philip (St. Demetrius talks about himself), having ended in one night with a letter the suffering of the holy martyr Orestes, whose memory is revered on the 10th of November, as an honor or less, before matins he lay down to rest without undressing, and in a sleepy vision he saw the holy martyr Orestes, with a cheerful face speaking to me with these words: I have endured more torment for Christ than you wrote. This river, opened your chest to me, and showed me a great wound in the left side, passing through into the inside, saying: this is burned through me with iron, then opening: my right hand... and so on. And that I, unworthy and sinful, truly saw this vision, and saw it exactly as I wrote it, and not otherwise, I confess this under my sacred monastic oath: for as then, so now I remember 303. 2) Open our tomb immediately, (said St. Gamaliel, appearing in a dream to Presbyter Lucian), where our relics (the Holy First Martyr Stephen, Nicodemus, Gamaliel and Abij) lie neglected, drenched in rain, and those of infidels trampled under foot by man: and I care not only about me, but about those who are lying with sacred to me, a treasure of great honor. Open these, may God open the doors of his mercy to the world, which is engulfed in many troubles 304. a) after some preliminary signs 1) No one knows about the time of judgment, when it will happen, but these are the signs: 1) the Gospel is preached in all nations; 2) there will be great armies, deaths, famines, signs in heaven 305. 2) The Holy Apostle Paul, writing to Thessalonians, says: Let no one deceive you in any way: for unless the falling away comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, the adversary, and exalt yourself above all that is spoken of God, or honor, as if he should sit in the Church of God as if he were a god, showing himself that there is a God (2 Thess. 2:3-4 ). About whom this holy Apostle speaks, the unfalse witness, the interpreter of Paul’s epistles, Saint John Chrysostom, informs us, saying: He talks about the Antichrist here and reveals great secrets. What is retreat? He denounces the same Antichrist as apostasy, as if he had to destroy many and forsake them, so as to tempt even the elect even powerfully (Matthew 24:24), and he denounces the man of sin, and because countless things will do evil and prepare others to do evil, but he says the son of destruction, and for that reason he too will perish. Who is this? Is Satan bad? Not at all, but there is a certain person, accept his every action. Until here is Chrysostom, interpreter Pavlov. Likewise, Saint Ephraim in his word about the Antichrist says: Satan himself was not born, but in his image the most vile one, like a thief, will come 306. Saint Hippolytus says about the deeds of the Antichrist that he can do wondrous deeds: with the permission of God, and with the help of demons, he can do great miracles to deceive people, even miracles will not be true, but dreamy, imagined 307. The whole Church suffered persecution at the beginning in the Apostolic days and even then until the Enlightenment of Constantine, for about three hundred years, throughout the entire universe the Church of Christ was persecuted, oppressed, embittered and stained with the blood of many martyrdoms, in the East and West, in the North and South. The same persecution is the same, and the whole Church will have to suffer at the end of the world, in the days of Antichrist, at all ends of the earth from the Antichrist fans of true Christians will be persecuted and killed, and the churches of God will be devastated 308. b) During his second glorious coming to earth 1) I believe that our Savior is the ultimate Judge of the living and the dead, the righteous and the sinners, and of the same flesh, received from the Virgin Mary, and suffered, and was buried, and ascended, to come to earth with all the angels, with much glory. to reward each according to his deeds, and his Kingdom, which the righteous women will receive as reward, will have no end 309. 2) The first came like a gentle and gentle lamb; the second came like a threatening and vengeful lion. The first will come to take away the sins of the whole world and grant forgiveness to everyone; the second will come to judge the sins of the whole world and reward each according to his deeds. First he came to save sinners; second he came to judge and destroy sinners. First, I came not by accident, but fulfilling prophecies, and on the birthday of the Most Pure Virgin, but I came quietly, without noise and rumor, as wisdom says: I keep everyone in silence, and the night of its flow is halfway, your almighty word, O Lord, coming from heaven, I have come from the throne of the Kings (Wisdom 18:14). The second (the Lord) will come unexpectedly, with a terrible noise, the earth trembling, the mountains shaking, the dead rising from their graves, every work of human hands being burned, the seas agitated in an unusual way, the skies changing, the stars falling, all the elements in confusion. In His first coming, the human eye saw His baby midwifed, lying in a manger, carried in his mother’s arms, nourished by his breasts: in His second coming we will see Him no longer a baby, but a husband, seated on the throne with much glory, angry at the lawless, shaking heaven and earth, ultimately destroying the whole universe 310 . 1) The sky with its beautiful luminaries stands until time, there will be a time when the stars will fall like a leaf from a tree, and the sky will be rolled up into a scroll 311. 2) The execution by flood is terrible and cruel, but the most terrible and cruel is the execution by fire. The flood water will only cover the earth, and the fire will not only cover the earth, and everything that is done on it, but will also burn the heavens, as the holy Apostle Peter informs, saying: the heavens will be destroyed and the scorching elements will melt (2 Pet. 3). At that time, what fear and trembling will the sinner have, when the coming terrible Judge, fire comes before him, and the river of fire and terrible before His judgment begins to attract everyone! 312 d) After the resurrection of the dead 1) In His second coming to earth, it is glorious for Christ our God to come, firstly, those who go before Him will hear the voice of the Archangel’s trumpet, sounding throughout the entire universe, calling everyone to judgment, and raising the dead from the graves: for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:52). Here, firstly, there will be a great fear of sinners, when the voice of the trumpet led each soul into his own body to be taken into the body - into a body that was turned into dust and a finger, and completely destroyed, and then, by the command of God, he will return to his primitive composition and take his members. Just like a seed sown in the ground, even if it decays, it vegetates in its own time, and the first grass grows, the same seed, and bears fruit, according to the word of the Lord: unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground, it abides alone; both that which has decayed and that which has become dust, in one hour from the sound of the trumpet, will receive the power of its growth, and will return to its original existence, and will be quickened by its soul 313 . 2) I believe that we are of the same flesh, of the soul, and creatures of God, and living in the world, at the voice of the Son of God in the last time we will all rise again, and we will receive according to our deeds - either eternal life, or eternal torment 314. 3) On the last day, when the Archangel's trumpets sound the voice of all who have been dead for centuries from the sleep of death, then the righteous bodies, having come to life, will come out into the resurrection of life, the sinful bodies will come out into the resurrection of judgment, the righteous bodies will be illuminated like the sun in the kingdom of heaven, and the bodies of sinners will be blackened like black coal, and soot, and tar, and the Ethiopian of hell. 315. 1) The Second Coming of the Lord is usually called a terrible judgment, and in truth, for the living and the dead will be judged there. The judgment is terrible, for it will terrify every creature, above and below, invisible and visible. It will be terrible on high, for the powers of heaven will move. He is terrible to those below, for the earth will shake from its foundations. He is afraid of the Angel, for the holy Apostle Paul cries: we want to be judged by the Angel (1 Cor. 6:3). He is afraid of the saints and the righteous, for then even the righteous will barely be saved, but he will be especially afraid of the sinner: where will the wicked and sinner appear? (1Pe4:18) 316 . 2) I will rise up from the grave for the sinner, all his sins will be exposed, and all his stingy deeds will appear before the whole universe, which he did in secret, in a hidden place, in the darkness of the night, to no one knowing. Sitsa to the one who sinned in secret by adultery Dvid the verb God: you have done this in secret: and I will do this verb before all Israel, and before this sun (2 Samuel 12:12) 317. 3) From the face (of Christ) of an angry, terrible voice that we expect to hear our sins, nothing less than this cruel voice, more terrible than all thunder and lightning: Depart from me, cursed into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel (Matthew 25:41). Oh, if that voice will frighten all sinners! How will all the unrighteous, lawless, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, robbers, predators, robbers, tormentors and others who are now angering God tremble! We would truly desire to be erased by mountains and stones before we could hear such a furious voice of God. They will come after all of them and abduct sinners in the unmerciful hands of dark-shaped demons, whose very vision is more terrible than any torment. They will approach and drag you into the abyss of hell, into eternal fire, and into tartarus, and into the never-ending worm, eternal and sleepless torment, whose fearful tongue can utter, or what mind can comprehend? 318 f) Where to determine complete and decisive retribution to each according to his deeds? α) Sinners will suffer eternal torment, which will be different 1) The Lord will send them (sinners) to hell to be tormented forever, and there they will have different kinds of torment for different sins. There they will endure and the unquenchable fire, for Christ our Savior said: their fire will not be quenched (Mark 9:44). In this fire will burn men of wickedness, fornicators, and adulterers, and wrathful men, for this reason, for they were inflamed with lust, and inflamed with anger. There will be a fierce winter there, and because of this coldness, not tolerating sin, they will grind their teeth. About this Christ our Savior said: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28). This fierce winter will be endured by these people who are unmerciful to the wretched, and do not accept strangers into their homes, and those lying unprotected in rotting places, and those who endure snow and fierce filth; such people themselves will have fellowship with the devil and his angels, for to such Christ our God says: Depart from Me, cursed into the fire. eternal, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Proud people who now despise the wretched, abhor them, and pass them by in their brushes will also have this partnership with the devil. There will be unceasing and worms of doubt, which there will unceasingly torment and eat sinners, and they will never die, for it is said: their worm will not die (Matthew 9:44). These worms will eat and torment those people who here take away something from anyone by covetousness. There will also be an unbearable stench from the angry fire, for it is written: fire and a bogeyman, and a stormy spirit are part of their cup (Ps. 10:6). This stench will be endured by such people who drink all kinds of fragrant mastic perfumes for sweetness, and through diligence acquire all kinds of fragrant potions. There will also be a great melancholy, such a fierce one, that if it were possible to die, then they would embrace it with care for its sweetness, but they would never die. For it is written: men will seek death, and will not find it: they will desire to die, and death will flee from them (Rev. 9:2). There will also be total darkness there, for it is written: having tied his hand and nose, throw him into total darkness (Matthew 22:13), and in that darkness those cast out will sit forever, and will never see the face of God. This darkness will be perceived by those who do not allow the poor to see their faces. There will also be a famine there, for Christ himself said: Woe to you when you are filled, for you will hunger (Luke 6:25); this famine will be endured by these people, who for seven centuries have not fed the poor and wretched. There will also be a thirst for greatness, for Christ himself said: “You will thirst.” Such thirst will be endured by those who will not give drink to the thirsty here to the strange and wretched 319 . 2) Even if the fiery execution here, when a person is condemned to burning, is terrible, then the execution that will be in fiery hell is incomparably more terrible. Because the fire there, the power of the ong here, which we use, surpasses the ceiling, as if there were this fire, like on an icon tablet written against the fire of it. The demons are not afraid of the fire here (just as we are not afraid of the fire written on the tablet), but they tremble in the fire of Gehenna: this one only burns bodily substance, but it also burns and torments the disembodied spirit. This fire, lacking the substance supplied to it, dies out, and it will never go out, according to the unfaithful lips of our Lord himself, who says in the Holy Gospel: Be good enough to give heed to the lame or the poor, since both hands will be cast into the unquenchable fire, even though their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. (Matthew 18, Mark 9). The local fire of grief shines, but the flames of this fire only burn burningly, but do not enlighten the pitch darkness... The local fire temporarily torments, enveloping the person plunged into it, even kills him, and burns him to ashes in one hour. This fire of Gehenna burns, but does not kill, for those thrown into it will not die, but are burned and tormented forever. And if for one hour there is great and unbearable torment for someone to be, let us imagine how great the torment will be burning and unburnable for endless centuries! But ole us sinners! We do not want to be mindful of the torment that awaits us, nor are we afraid of it, but moreover, day by day and hour by hour, we fall into the greatest sins, we kindle great fires of Gehenna for ourselves, and add fire to fire, and if the torment the demon has prepared for us, we turn it on ourselves. For that fire of Gehenna was not prepared by man from God, but by a demon, just as the righteous Judge in the Gospel says: Depart from Me, cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25) 320. β) And for the righteous there is an eternal reward, which will also be different 1) That honor, with which God will honor and glorify his friends in heaven, will not pass away to endless centuries. Even though God, even if we honor and glorify him, is eternal, and those who can be honored and glorified by Him will be immortal, and the glory of heaven is endless. What language of confession, or what human mind can comprehend this eternal honor of God's friends? The Holy Apostle Paul was delighted, being there, and hearing unspeakable verbs, he said: “A man is not old enough to speak” (2 Cor. 12), why? The human mind cannot comprehend, even if the Apostle had said, even seeing and hearing, unless someone in the image of the earth can partially comprehend the heavenly, having thought that there is a greater part on earth than the royal honor, for in heaven, to whomever the ruble and the saint of the Lord, as a friend of God, will be given the royal honor, saying to God himself: inherit what is prepared for you kingdom (Matthew 25). The royal throne will be given, as the heavenly king has promised: to the one who overcomes I will give to sit with me on my throne (Rev. 3). A royal crown will also be given, according to the words of the Apostle: put aside the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will reward me on that day, not only to me, but also to all those who loved his appearing. And every friend of God will be glorified as a King in the kingdom of heaven, and what is more honest than this - a saint of God? It is well said: To work for God is to reign 321. If the red stone houses here console you, how much more can the beauty of those houses on high comfort you, where the meals sparkle with pure gold, where the palaces of honest stones, decorated with margaritas, shine with glory, where the ever-blooming flowers of the helicopters are ever-blooming, where the green fields boiling with sweet streams, where the air is always well-dissolved, the winds of life are filled with indescribable incense, fragrant feelings, where the day is unflickering and the light is unending and endless joy, and there is no sighing, no crying, no sorrow, lower than any kind of beauty and vision of vile filth, lower than the smell of any stench, no terrible a sad and crying and terrible voice, but all red is seen, all fragrant is heard, all cheerful is heard. There people sing incessantly to the Angels and Archangels, glorifying the immortal King 322. In any man there is righteousness and piety, in that lies the hope of the joy of Israel, which is the future life of the saints in the saturation of the sight of God, for all the joy, all the joy and joy will be for the new Israel, the Church, I say, triumphant in heaven, in the same way that they will see God openly face to face 323. 2) The Lord has ascended from us into heaven, so that he may prepare a place for everyone in heaven, for the people of God who love a place among the Seraphim, for the God-wise among the Cherubim, for the God-bearing among the God-bearing Thrones, for good gentlemen among the Dominions, for good and brave warriors, for those who strive for the fatherland, among the Powers, for various authorities among the Authorities, for all the leaders who govern their ranks according to God, therefore a place between the Beginnings, and those who in troubles and misfortunes console their friends and the poor, help them, for those there is a place in the Archangels, Angels living on earth in the flesh, a place in heaven with the Angels, and for us sinners, Lord, where have you prepared a place? Will there be even a small place in heaven? 324 3) I thank you, my Lord, the most generous benefactor, as a small thing for the sake of some good pleasure, you promised to give us eternal life, the kingdom of heaven, you yourself created, you yourself created me and gave everything to please, you grant eternal life, not for a little time, not for a short time, not for a hundred years, or for a thousand, or for thousands a thousand, but forever and ever, without end. Glory to Your inscrutable mercy, Lord! Glory to Your wonderful dispensation, Most Holy King! Glory to your ineffable and incomprehensible goodness and wisdom, O Lord who loves mankind! For all glory, honor and power is due to you, with the Father, and with Your Most Holy, Good and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages, Amen 325. Part 1, page 50 and Thu – Min. for November p. 40 under the 19th. Thu – Min. for December page 36 Thu – Min. for November p. 40 Thu – Min. for January sheet 33–34 under the 2nd date. Thu – Min. for May p. 155. Thu – Min. for June on the 15th. Thu – Min. for November p. 40. Thu – Min. for May p. 153. Thu – Min. for September p. 40. Thu – Min. for July p. 119. Thu – Min. for September sheet 113 per reverse. There and for December l. 95 per rev. Thu – Min. for December 133. Thu – Min. for July p. 72. Thu – Min. for May p. 9. Thu – Min. for December l. 184. Thu – Min. for March L. 111 at 10 o'clock Thu – Min. for September under 20. tsp. 41. Thu – Min. for July l. 33. Thu – Min. for September l. 18 to 19 o'clock Thu – Min. for November 8. l. 65–66. Thu – Min. for January l. 65 at 19 o'clock Thu – Min. for July p. 103. Thu – Min. for January page 16 at 17:00 Thu – Min. for April l. 42 under 210. Thu – Min. for April l. 98. Thu – Min. for December 184. Thu – Min. for September, l. 123 under 2h. Thu – Min. for January, under 2 hours sheet. 35. Thu – Min. for May, under 7 hours sheet. 112. Letop. department 1, page 179. Thu – Min. for January, under 2 hours sheet. 36–37. Thu – Min. for December, 13 hours each. sheet 185. Thu – Min. for May, part 1, sheet 160. Thu – Min. for December, under 25 hours sheet 140. Thu – Min. for December, part 2, sheet 56 and for May, part 1, sheet 160. Thu – Min. for November, at 19 hours sheet. 40. Thu – Min. for January, under 21 hours sheet. 111. Volume 5, pp. 5–6, ed. in Moscow in 1840 Thu – Min. for January, under 21 hours sheet. 108. Thu – Min. for April, at 2 p.m. sheet. 103. Thu. – Min. for January under 1 hour, sheet 2. Ibid 51–52, 54, 56, 58. Part 1, p. 58 and Search. 63. For January, Part 1, sheet 35–36. In general, about all the sacraments, see Part 1, 71–80. About the Eucharist as a sacrifice, see Search. 510, 518–525. See his life, ed. in Moscow 1832 pp. 10–11. Thu-Min. for August at 2nd l. 12–13. Thu – Min. for December at 18 o'clock, l. 24.