Слово 34. К пришедшим из Египта

1. I will say greetings to those who came from Egypt (which will be fair, because they gathered willingly, overcoming envy with jealousy), who came from that Egypt, which enriches, it is true, the river (I will express myself, imitating somewhat generous expressions of this kind), the river that rains from the earth, like the sea flooding the surroundings, but more enriches my Christ, who previously fled to Egypt, and now supplies from Egypt; then fleeing from Herod's infanticide, and now providing for the fathers' love for children - Christ, new food for the beautifully hungry, wheat distributed more generously than ever according to the known and reliable stories of History, bread descending from heaven and giving life to the world, undying and endless (John 6:33). About him (as now, it seems, I hear) the Father says: out of Egypt I called My Son (Hos. 11:1). 2. The word has rushed from you (1 Thess. 1:8) to all people, soundly confessed and preached; You are the best fruit-makers of all, especially now the right of believers, as far as I know, not only a lover, but also a distributor of such food, and a distributor not only in your own fatherland, but already beyond it. Just as you physically nourish the peoples and cities to which your love for humanity extends, so spiritually you nourish not just one people and not this or that city that occupies a small space, although it is considered very famous, but almost the entire universe; you do not satisfy the hunger of bread, nor the thirst of water, for which it is not important to endure hunger and it is not convenient to endure, but the hunger of hearing the word of the Lord (Mic. 8:11), which is both very distressing to endure and difficult to satisfy at the present time; for lawlessness has increased, and I find few people who actually heal it. 3. Such is Joseph - yours, and one might say, ours, who, out of abundance of wisdom, knew how to foresee famine and help in famine with house-building orders, by means of beautiful and fat cows, healing ugly and skinny ones. And by the name Joseph, understand whoever you want: either the lover of immortality and the creator of immortality 262, or the successor to his throne, teaching and gray hair, our new Peter - Peter as much in virtue as in name. They cut and crushed the very middle, although it still produces small and weak tremors of life, like the tail of a cut serpent. One of them, having retired from life in a good old age after many struggles and exploits, from the heavenly world (of this I am completely sure) now looks at our deeds and extends a helping hand to those who strive for good, all the more conveniently because he is free from bonds. Another hastens to the same resolution, or liberation, and after the same feats, although he is already close to those above, he has not yet renounced the flesh to such an extent that he can provide the last help to the word and gather the most abundant guidance for embarking on the path. 4. You are the pets and offspring of these great ones and mentors, and ascetics of truth, and conquerors, of whom neither time, nor a ruler, nor a word, nor envy, nor fear, nor an accuser, nor a slanderer, nor an open enemy, nor a secret slanderer, nor one who seems to be ours, nor a stranger, nor gold - this invisibly acting tormentor, by whom much is now scattered and rearranged, neither caresses, nor threats, nor exiles, both long and repeated (they could not be subjected to deprivation of property alone because of their great wealth - non-covetousness), and finally, not everything else, both absent, present, and expected, inspired or convinced them to become worse, to change the Trinity in any way and to damage the doctrine of the Divinity. On the contrary, they were strengthened by dangers and became more and more zealous for piety. This is what it means to suffer for Christ - it strengthens love and for men of high spirit it serves as a guarantee of subsequent exploits! 5. Such are your stories and wonders now, O Egypt! But you praised to me the goats of Mendis and Apis of Memphis - some well-fed and tall calf, and the mysteries of Isis, and the torn apart of Osiris, and your venerable Serapis - a tree to which, according to fable, from antiquity and from the madness of those who worshiped, they bowed as an unknown and heavenly substance, but still as a substance, although a lie was taken to help. You also praised (which is even more shameful) the many different images of sea monsters and reptiles. But Christ triumphed over all this, Christ’s preachers triumphed, like others who shone in other times and each in his own right, and so did the now-mentioned fathers, through whom you, an amazing country, have now become more famous than all other countries, glorified by all both ancient and new stories. 6. Therefore, I embrace and greet you, the best of the nations, the most Christ-loving people, ardent with piety, worthy of their leaders! I can say nothing more and have nothing else to offer you as a treat. And although I offer little with my lips, I keep a lot for you in my heart. My people! For I call mine a people of one mind and the same faith, who learned from the same fathers, who worship the same Trinity. My people! For I am truly mine, although envious people don’t like it; and let those suffering from this illness suffer even more! So I give the right hand of communication in front of so many witnesses, visible and invisible, and I reflect the ancient slander with new favor. My people! For indeed, although I appropriate to myself a very great people, I am the least man: for such is the grace of the Spirit—it makes those of like mind equal in honor! My people! For truly mine, although distant from me; because we are connected divinely, differently than brute beings. Bodies are united by place, and souls are united by spirit. My people, whose philosophy formerly consisted in suffering for Christ, and now, if you listen to me, should consist in not acting, but considering the power to act as a sufficient acquisition and recognizing the service of Christ, as in former times - patience, so in the present - righteousness! A people whom the Lord commanded to do good, as to embitter those who oppose them (Zechariah 8:14–15)! The people whom the Lord chose for himself from among all those whom He called (Ps. 134:4)! The people written in the hands of the Lord (Isaiah 49:16), to whom the Lord says: You are my will (Isaiah 62:4), your gates are your praise (Isaiah 60:18), and what else is said to those who are being saved! People! Do not be surprised at my immoderation if I address you many times; I delight in the incessant repetition of your name, like others who indulge without measure in looking or listening. 7. But God’s people are ours too! Although your recent celebration that you performed at sea was wonderful, and I don’t know if a sight could be more pleasant than when I saw the sea covered with trees and a man-made cloud, I saw the beauty and speed of the ships, as if equipped for a celebration, and the light wind that, blowing in the sterns, as if deliberately accompanies and sends this floating city to the capital; however, what is visible now is both more beautiful and majestic! You did not intervene in the crowd of people, you did not measure piety by numbers, you did not agree to be more like a rebellious mob than like God’s people, purified by the word; on the contrary, having rendered as much as was due to Caesar, they wrote down God's tribute to the Gods (Matthew 22:21), tribute to Caesar, and fear to God; and, having fed the people with their abundance, they themselves came to eat from us. For we also distribute wheat, and our distribution is perhaps no worse than yours. Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine that I have dissolved for you, together with wisdom I invite you to my table (Prov. 9:5). I praise your sincerity and greet you with zeal; because, having come to this, you ascended, as it were, to your own pier, honored the affinity of faith and recognized it as indecent for those who scoff at things above are of the same mind and agree among themselves and think that their individual shortcomings can be corrected by the agreement of the whole, just as thin ropes become strong by being woven together - you recognized, I say, it is indecent for yourself not to know this and not to enter into an alliance with those of like mind, which is much more appropriate for you; because we confess unity in the Divinity. And so that you know that you did not come to us in vain, that you did not enter among strangers and foreigners, but among your own, and that the Spirit guided you beautifully, let us briefly discuss God with you. Find out that we are yours, just as we recognize our own by the marks of our weapons. 8. I find two main differences in creatures: domination and slavery; not that domination and slavery, which in our country were either separated by violence, or poverty separated, but which are distinguished by nature (if anyone wants to call it that, for the First is higher than nature). And one is something creative, commanding and immovable, and the other is something created, subordinate and destroyed, and to put it even more briefly: one is above time, the other is under time. Dominion is called God, although it consists of the Three Highest: the Author, the Creator and the Perfecter, that is, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These Three are not so separated from each other that they are divided by nature, and not so compressed that they are included in one Person (the former is taught by Arian violence, and the latter by Sabelli’s atheism); on the contrary, They are both more singular than those who are completely separated, and more plural than those who are completely individual. And slavery with us is called a creature, although one creature is superior to another in proportion to its proximity to God. 9. But if so, then let everyone whose heart is turned to the Lord unite with us and worship the one Divinity in the Trinity, not assigning to the unapproachable Glory any humiliating name, but always having in the throat the praise (Ps. 149:6) of the one God in the Trinity. For how can we attribute anything humiliating to such a Nature, the greatness of which, due to its boundlessness and infinity, cannot be expressed by its own name? And whoever is alienated from God and therefore dissects the one Essence, Which is above all things, into inequality of natures, in his reasoning it is surprising if he is not cut by the sword and part of him is not placed with the infidels (Luke 12:46); It will be surprising if they do not reap the evil fruit of evil wisdom, both now and hereafter. 10. But is it necessary to say anything about the Father, Whom everyone who is guided by the natural sense does not touch by common consent; although He suffered reproach for the first time, when He was divided by the old innovators into the Good and the Creator? And about the Son and the Holy Spirit, look how simply and briefly we will discuss. If anyone were to say that in the Son and in the Spirit there is something transformable, or changeable, or measured in relation to time, place, strength and action, or not good by nature, or not self-satisfied, or unfree, or service-oriented, or hymnal, or fearful, or liberated, or innumerable 263 , then let him prove this, and we will be content, glorying in the honor of our fellow servants, although we suffer damage, having lost God 264. If to the Son belongs everything that the Father has, except guilt; and everything that belongs to the Son belongs to the Spirit, except sonship and what is said about the Son bodily, for the sake of my man and my salvation (for He accepted mine in order to give me His through this new dissolution), then stop, even if it’s too late, being crazy, you inventors of vain sayings that disintegrate by themselves! And you die everywhere, the house of Israel (Ezek. 18:31)! I will mourn you with the words of Scripture. 11. And as much as I am in awe of the numerous, so lofty and great names of the Word, of which even the demons were ashamed, I am also in awe of the equality of the Spirit, but I am afraid of the threat determined by those who blaspheme Him. And blasphemy is not theology, but alienation from the Divine; and it should be noted that the Lord was blasphemed, but vengeance was declared for the Holy Spirit, obviously as for the Lord. 12. I do not want to be unenlightened by enlightenment, perverting the concept of One of the Three in Which I was baptized, and actually be buried in water, baptized not for rebirth, but for mortification. I dare to say something, O Trinity! (Forgive my madness, because my soul is in danger!) I myself am an image of the heavenly glory of God, although I am placed below, therefore I do not believe that it is possible to be saved through someone of equal honor to me. If the Holy Spirit is not God, then let Himself first become God and then deify me, who is equal in honor to Him. And now what a deception in grace, or, better said, in those who give grace - to believe in God and go godless! Confess one thing, learn another! What tangles of words, what seductions, by asking about one thing and confessing one thing leading to another! Oh, my pitiful enlightenment, if after washing I become blacker, if I see that the unpurified are brighter than me, if I am a plaything of the evil faith of the baptized, if I am looking for a better spirit and do not find it! Give me another font and then speak ill of the first one. Why do you envy me in my perfect rebirth? Why do you make me, who has become the church of the Spirit as God, the abode of creation? Why do you honor some things from me and dishonor others, speaking wickedly about God, in order to cut off my gift, or, better said, to cut me off from the gift? Either honor everything, new theologian, or dishonor everything, so that you may be ungodly, but agree with yourself and not talk differently about incorporeal nature. 13. But I will say the main thing: glory with the Cherubim, who unite the three Holiness into a single Dominion and reveal as much of the First Essence as the hardworking can see from under their wings. Enlighten yourself with David, who says to the Light: in Your light we will see light (Ps. 35:10), that is, as if in the Spirit of the Son, Whom can anything be more luminous? Raise your voice with John, the son of thunder, proclaiming about God not something low and earthly, but something high and lofty; Recognizing the One who exists in the beginning, the One who exists with God and God the Word as God, and the true God, from the true Father, and not a good fellow servant, who is honored only by the name of the Son, and another Comforter, undoubtedly recognized as another from the Speaker, Who is God’s Word. And when you read: I and the Father are one (John 10:30), concentrate your thought on the unity of the Essence. And when you read: we will come to Him and make our abode with Him (John 14:23), then imagine the separateness of the Hypostases. When you find the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), imagine three personal properties. 14. Be filled with the Spirit with Luke by carefully reading the Acts of the Apostles. Why do you put yourself along with Ananias and Sapphira - these new covetous people (if the theft of your property is truly something new), and you put yourself along with not appropriating silver and other things of little value and unimportance, for example: a vessel of gold, or a robe, or a didrachm, like the once selfish warrior (Josh. 7:21), but you are robbing the Divinity itself and lying not to man, but to God, as I heard (Acts 5:4). Why do you not respect the authority of the Spirit, Who breathes, on whom, when and as much as He pleases (John 3:8)? He descends on the household of Cornelius before baptism, and on others after baptism through the apostles, so that in both cases, both by what descends masterfully and not slavishly, and by what is sought for completion, the Divinity of the Spirit is evidenced. 15. Theologize with Paul, exalted to the third heaven. Sometimes he lists all three Hypostases, and in different ways, not observing the same order, but naming the same Hypostasis first at the beginning, then in the middle, then at the end (and for what? - to show the equality of nature); and sometimes he mentions three, then two, then one Hypostasis, as if others were implied in those mentioned; sometimes he attributes the actions of God to the Spirit, as if there were no difference in this; sometimes instead of the Spirit he puts Christ and, when he distinguishes the Hypostases, he says: there is one God, of Whom are all things, and we are with Him: and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by Him are all things, and we by Him (1 Cor. 8:6); and when he brings them together into one Divinity, he says: for from Him, and by Him, and in Him are all things (Rom. 11:36), - by Him, that is, by the Holy Spirit, as can be seen from many places of Scripture. To him be glory forever. Amen. Those. God the Son or God the Spirit, when it is proven that any of Them is not God equal to God the Father.