FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Sectioo m f*lK RHYTHMS OF SAINT EPHREM THE SYRIAN. SELECT WORKS OF S. EPHREM THE SYRIAN, TRANSLATED OUT OF THE ORIGINAL SYRIAC. AVITH NOTES AND INDICES. BY THE REV. J. B. MORRIS, M.A, [LATE] FKLLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD. OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PARKER ; F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. MDCCCXLVir. CONTENTS. Page Thirteen Rhythms on the Nativity. (Opp. Syr. t. ii. p. 396.) 1 Rhythm against the Jews, [delivered upon Palm Sunday.] (t. iii. p. 209.) .... 6 The Pearl, or Seven Rhythms on the Faith, (t. iii. p. 150.) 84 Eighty Rhythms upon the Faith, against the Disputers. [adv. Scrut.] (t. iii. p. 1.) . . .106 Three Rhythms concerning the Faith. [cont. Scrut.] (t. iii. p. 164.) . . . .362 a 2 ADVERTISEMENT. The circumstaDces under which the present Work appears, seem to requu-e silence rather than explanation. It was commenced several years ago ; it was finished and in type before the English Church lost its translator. Immediate duties, and subsequently, long illness, prevented the present writer fi'om doing what little remained to be done, previous to its publication. A few words must be said upon two or three passages in the notes. In a part of the note in p. 236, (which from some circum- stance this writer did not see while passing through the press,) he thought one statement perplexing, if unexplained. " As Christ was Very God, and had in Him and was Himself in the Holy Spirit from the moment of His Incarnation, the Spirit, of course, did not really descend upon Christ at the Jordan ; it was, for our sakes, that He seemed so to do. He being Himself Omnipresent, and so incapable of motion to a place." The writer's objections to this passage were two: 1) in itself, in that it seemed, by its mode of statement, (although, of course, no one who knew the mind of its writer could think this,) to put aside the fact related in Holy Scriptm'e, without substituting any explanation; 2) that it blended two different grounds for denying the " reality" of the descent, one VI ADVERTiSDMENT. derived from the Person of our Lord upon Whom It de- scended, the other from the Nature of the Godhead. For this last, " that the Holy Spirit is Omnipresent and so incapable of motion to a place," would apply equally to any descent of the Holy Ghost, and would make the descent at Pentecost equally unreal. Whereas the doctrine, really intended to be stated, is, that the Holy Spirit did not, after the Baptism, dwell in our Lord in any other way than before, so as to imply that His Manhood before lacked any thing. To obviate these objections the note, p. 386, was written. It may to some not be without its use to state here the received doctrine of the Church in the language of S. Cyril ; 1st, negatively; that our Lord Himself did not then receive any Gift or Presence of the Holy Ghost which He had not before ; 2d, positively ; that our Blessed Lord, although having the Holy Spirit in Himself, did then, as Man, in a dispensation, receive It, thenceforth in act to overflow to us. One clear statement may suffice, (de recta fide, §. 34. T. 5. p. 2. p. 855. quoted in part by Petav. de Inc. xi, 9. 11.) "We who say that there is but One Emmanuel and endure not those who separate Him into two Christs, what say we, when ' the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and abode upon Him ?' Shall we imagine that the Word from God the Father needed to partake of the Holy Spirit ? How should it not be most utterly degrading so to think or speak } For The Spirit is His Own, equally as of God the Father. And so the blessed Paul, ' Ye are sons, to whom God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father !' It is impious then even to imagine that He too, the Word from God the Father, needed the communica- tion of the Spirit ; and it were exceeding foolish to bestow any pains on what is of such manifest proof. How then did the Spirit descend upon Him ? He rcceiveth It accordinf^ to His Human Nature, the dispensation with the Flesh well admitting that He should without any disparagement receive It, yea rather necessarily leading thereto. For He receiveth ADVERTISEMENT. VU It not SO much for Himself as for us; that, since He had withdrawn from those on earth, because the mind of man was dihgently set upon evil from his youth, now, descending upon Ilim, as in a new First- fruit of our race. It might abide, and again rest in us, as having now recovered sinless- ness in Christ, and having a life free from all blame. Yet although for us He receives It as Man, see how, as God, He giveth It. For ' on Whom thou seest,' He saith, * the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He Who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.' But this is a Divine inworking. For our Lord Jesus Christ infuseth into the baptized the Spirit of the Father as His Own." On another passage in the last sheet which this writer had not yet been able to read, although the sheets were with him, some observations have been added in a Note at the end, p. 417. And since the translator declined to be responsible for, or to take part in, any alteration, he has been obliged himself to remove an observation at the end of one note, which did not seem to him well-founded. In p. 402. he enlarged the note. (The insertions have been marked by brackets.) In a previous note, p. 229, 30, whose bearing did not seem clear to the Editor of the Library, he substituted a statement which he imagined to express the writer's meaning, at the same time that he himself wished it to appear that a subject connected with controversy had not been introduced altogether gratuitously. Slight as the change is, he substituted, on this subject, a reference to earlier volumes of the Library for one to Petavius, lest, by connecting the statements of St. Ephrem with a controversial work, he should seem to recognise the ex- isting practice maintained in the chapters referred to. But, in regard to facts, the Editors pledged themselves from the first to withhold none ; and the present writer, believing, as he fully does, the truth and Divine mission of the English Church, has here, as elsewhere, acted on the principle that no knowledge of facts as to the Ancient Church, to whom she Vlll ADVERTISEMENT. appeals, can any way injure her. He would have been giad, under other circumstances, to have said sometliing as to the differences between the traces of invocation of Saints in the Ancient Church, and modern practice ; the circumstances of the present volume, render any thing approaching to con- troversy, altogether unseemly. It remains only to pray that, amid all these sorrows, the reverence and humble awe of St. Ephrem may, by God's mercy, deepen the same spirit in us which He has so mercifully reawakened. DOMINE, MISERERE. E. B. p. Christ Church, Lent, 1847. PREFACE. As the publication of this Volume has been already deferred so long, it has been thought desirable to avoid entering upon any such investigations now, as would necessarily give rise to farther delay. Now to sift and compare and adjust the divergent, if not conflicting, accounts of St. Ephrem's life and actions, to discover by comparison with contemporaneous history what part of those accounts was trustworthy, probable, or altogether to be rejected, to examine what amount of light might be thrown upon them by his own writings, whether as occasionally recording events, or as stating opinions which served in any way as a test of the truth or falsehood of the actions ascribed to him, — to do all this with any thing like the thought and investigation requisite for an honest and thorough execution of it, would have given rise of course to a much farther delay in the publication of the present Volume. Its defects are already too numerous to make the Translator otherwise than highly dissatisfied with it, and that the more so from his consciousness, that few combine the knowledge of Syriac and Theology in such way as to give hira hopes of having his errors exposed as they may deserve. This fear is, however, most materially dimi- nished by the kind superintendence of the notes, which has been exercised by Dr. Pusey. The knowledge of criticism, which would have been necessary for the task of thus discriminating between true X l^llEFACE. and false in the accounts of St. Ephrem's life, is not possessed by the Translator: it cannot be obtained without a habit of working amongst Manuscripts % and of dealing with historical subjects. This avowal is absolutely neces- sary, both from the fact, of which most who lead a life of study are aware, that knowledge far greater than they really possess is commonly attributed by others to them, and also from the obligation which the present writer feels himself under, to speak with suspicion of some of the Greek Works attributed to St. Ephrem. His suspicion may eventually prove unfounded ; yet as it has been in a good degree the reason why so little use has been made in this Volume of the Greek Works, he is bound to endeavour to shew how it has operated in this way. He hopes this endeavour will shew that no very great value is to be attached to that suspicion at present. The Works of this Father were translated into Greek, Latin, Arabic, Coptic, Armenian, and Sclavonic, which attests the esteem in which they were held, and also makes it credible that works not his would be put about as his. Things written by Ephraim of Antioch at a much later period, were in fact apparently' ascribed to him. And if to this probability upon the part of the forgers we add the astounding credulity upon the part of the ancient public, learned as well as unlearned, the probability of such forgeries is materially increased. When the pompous writings (pro- bably) of a Monophysite heretic were believed to be the pro- duction of St. Dcnys the Areopagite% we need have no scruple in making allowances for the existence of such credulity. The frauds of the Apollinarians are well known from the » See HonoratusaS. Maria Animadv. c This was done J>>. Jj^^.'-^^^^^J!^^ in Eegulas et usun. Critices, vol. i. 1. ^-e^^^-- ^V^^^Z b'See Mai Coll. Nov. vol. vii. p. 18. the subject are mentioned in Lumper. Spicil. vol. X. vol.1, p. 43. PREFACE. xi work of Leon tins upon the subject, and the labours of the Benedictines have made it evident that several works once quoted as authorities are the forgeries of heretics. Words, of course, can easily have a Catholic meaning forced upon them : and therefore our faith in the Church is not to be the less because of these distasteful facts, even if it were not true that that would be no longer faith, which had demonstration to support if^. With this general probability before him, the exceeding dissimilarity of thought which appeared to him to exist in some few of the Greek writings he has consulted, induced the translator to confine his attention to the Syriac Works first, upon these grounds : A suspicion created is a kind of internal evidence against the book which creates it ; it ought to be overcome either by external evidence, where this may be had, or by internal evidence, which alone might in many cases be enough to countervail the suspicion. But the external evidence is such as requires considerable reading to master in this case, is such therefore as would have led to considerable delay. It is moreover likely to be unsatisfactory after all, as it could hardly come to more than this, that the Greeks, who were wholly unable, from their having no acquaintance with the Syriac, to judge of the question, believed such and such works to be St. Ephrem's. If it could be shewn that they believed this in the fifth century, it could be shewn that, at the same period, St. Cyril of Alexandria believed an Apollinarian forgeiy to be the work of his own prede- cessor St. Athanasius^ W^hatever disparity exists between the cases, it is plain that such facts materially weaken the external evidence, even were it as early as it has been here assumed for argument's sake to be. Recourse must there- ^ St. Clement. Strom, ii. §. 9. fin. aJ-^y^iy^gy*;. Ov-Ati TiffTti yiynrnt 5/* arohi^iuf *^ V ide Le Qiiien as nbn\ f. xii PREFACE. fore be had to the internal evidence, if we mean to satisfy the doubts which liave been raised. Nor ought it to be forgotten, that a knowledge of the several other languages into whicli St. Ephrem's works have been translated would be requisite towards a just estimate of the evidence in the matter, whether external or intenial. For one's estimate of the latter might be materially altered by the perusal of his Commentaries upon St. Paul's Epistles, which sunive only in an Armenian version. The internal evidence, however, is of course principally to be estimated from his Syriac writings. Had these been studied along with the Greek, it would have been impossible to have gained a clear impression as to what was or was not likely antecedently to be St. Ephrem's. This antecedent likelihood could only be estimated by studying the Syriac works separately, which alone occupy three volumes folio. That the translator's notions of the possibility of many things being St. Ephrem's, after he had read the whole of these volumes, were materially different from what they had been before, is very true ; yet he thinks he sees a personal identity, amidst the greatest variety of style, displayed in a simplicity, depth, devotional character, and originality of thought in the Syriac, whicli he cannot yet perceive in some (not all) of the few of the Greek writings he has read. Two things must be added to qualify this statement : the first is, that he is very sensible that the greatest external improbability may be often overcome by a very small amount of external testimony ; the other is, that he does not see any objection to supposing tliat the Greek was a translation from some Syriac author or other ; whereas he has the greatest possible difficulty in persuading himself that Archelaus of Caschara (for instance) wrote his book against Manes originally in Syriac, or that St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews was originally composed in the Jews' language. This last con- PREFACE. xiii victioii is so strong, that he thinks it would require an overwhelming weight of external evidence to disprove it ; the very opposite of this is what he feels in regard to the Greek here under consideration. Thus much then may suffice as an apology for the apparently gratuitous neglect of the Greek wTitings ascribed to St. Ephrem, which occupy the three remaining volumes of his works in the Roman edition. The present volume has already taken up more time than was originally anticipated ; far more time would be required to discuss the points which have here been alluded to in a cursory way. And of course it is necessary to know what his writings are, before we can judge what light they throw upon his life. One material point may be mentioned here, in which the Syriac waitings do throw light upon his life. The common story that he was only a Deacon seems to be contradicted by his manner of speaking upon several occasions, but upon one occasion by his plainly stating that God had given to him the talent of the Priesthood, (JZ-qjoud,) and that he had hidden it in the earth through his idleness ^ The period at which he lived is not known with great exactness, though there can be no doubt that he was born pretty early in the fourth century, and died somewhere about the year 370. His mode of life, upon the whole, may perhaps be fairly represented by his own remarks upon a portion of Elijah's history, which shall be added here. " Elijah, O Lord, dost Thou command to flee, and to seek the cave, and hide himself in a valley that no one knew ! Lo ! when Thou wast minded to protect Jeremiah from his enemies no man injured him, notwithstanding the army of the Chaldeans was round about Jerusalem, and Zedekiah within it was persecuting the prophet. Why then hast Thou forced him to drink the scanty waters of the brook, and f Vol. hi. p. 467, e. XIV PREFACE. withhold from liim the streams of Jordan ; and bid him in the time of famine to look for his nourishment from the ravens ? yet it is Thou that preparest nourishment for the young ravens. This was for three causes. First, that he also might taste of that cup that he had mingled, and suffer for some days the famine and the drought, seeing he was not unwilling that the people should be harassed with them for some years : and that by this example he might learn merci- fulness, and shew mercy upon mankind, who were afflicted with famine and drought. For by this same suffering was it meet that Elijah should be induced to glorify the grace that arose to the assistance of them in need, and to obey his Lord when He commanded him to go and shew himself to Ahab, in order to give rain upon the earth. The second cause was, that he might learn for the ordering of his own life, how he was to keep and distinguish the times of prayer and labour, and how after the turmoil of his ambassador's office he needed the silence of contemplation in the wilderness. The third was, that he was to offer, along with zeal, entreaty also: for the matter that he had in hand was not to be effected by labour only, and by energy towards men : rather he was to work out the glory of God and the salvation of man, by prayers and supplications to the One Mighty in strength, who turneth the flintstone into a pool of waters, and the hard rock into a fountain of waters, yea, and promised to give to them that seek Him a heart wherewith to know Him/' This passage brings before one, as in a type, a man of mixed life, at one time vigorously contending among other men for Christian doctrine and practice, and at another de- voted to contemplation, while before them both he exercised that self-chastisement which he recommended with so much gentleness of speech to others. If he held out to others the Cup of Salvation, i. e. (as antiquity often takes it,) the Cup of suffering self-inflicted, he drank it first himself. * He PREFACE. XV that suffereth long witli all, by our suflering suffereth lonj^ with us,' was his concise statement of the duty of penance «. The traces of his active and of his contemplative life abound in his writings. It is the prerogative'' of Chris- tianity to blend and intermingle these two kinds of life, and no where do they seem more thoroughly blended than in the mind of St. Ephrem, so far as his writings exhibit it. His style seems an anticipation of that of St. Bernard, as indeed does his whole way of viewing things. The Eastern way of stating things gradually leavened the West through the influence of Scriptures, which St. Ephrem seems to have had access to in the original and in the translations, both Chaldee and Syriac, which were open to him from his early youth. Left to itself, the Eastern way of putting things runs into exaggeration : guided by the truth, (as in the larger part of the Old Testament, if it may be reverently said,) it is more vivid, and puts facts more before one's eyes than the style, which the West would have naturally engendered. Hence a mind like St. Ephrem's, " replete with the law of orthodoxy, which like Moses upon the mount he received from God, and imparted to all of us'," would be likely to anticipate the style of devotional contemplation, which in the West belongs to a later period, [see e. g. p. 28. and 40.] Such a style could not well become common, until questions discussed in the Nestorian controversy were settled, and all might speak with certainty upon such points connected with the Conception, Birth, and Childhood of our Lord and Saviour, as the humble-minded might have felt and yet shrunk from expressing in words antecedently to that period. His character as a Commentator is suflSciently shewn by « Vol. ii. p. 440, b. W:^ [vTih^.V Ephrem. It is plain to me from the \ j v^ ^ ^ ^ work, that St. G. had a considerable ^r~J ^.'^^ .'-.-, , knowledge of the genuine works of h See G. Naz. Or. in Jul. p. 102, d. St E • St. Greg. Nyss. ia the life of St. xvi PREFACE. the passages quoted in these notes, and tlie reflections occasionally made upon them. It is only necessary to add here, that if any person argued from the minuteness of the explanation in some cases, that ' nothing escaped him' in commenting upon Scripture, and that he followed every word of the text till all was explained, he would have a most entirely false view of his Commentaries — nay, he could not have looked into them at all, as he commences them by stating that they were an abridgment of things be had said in other works. They often give one most valuable hints as to the typical meaning of the whole chapter, but seldom or never leave the reader nothing to do in the way of meditation and deduction. Although a large portion of this volume is occupied with a work directed in its main drift against a comparatively obscure faction of the Arians, it is confidently hoped that the character here given of St. Ephrem's style of thought and writing will be found sufficiently true to remove any a prion objection to putting such a subject before the English reader. While this portion of the volume may help towards the understanding of some great points of Christian doctrine, it may also have its use in reminding us of this day, that we do not really understand the visible creation, any more than the Anomeans understood it. We have traced, for instance, some of the intervening links between the change of ' dust' and ' water' into vegetables, but as to the real principle of organization we are greatly in the dark. We then may use the instances urged by St. Ephrem to shew those heretics, from their ignorance of the creature, that they could not understand the Creator, for an end substantially the same, viz. to increase our humility. If we are wiser than the Saint in the mysteries of nature, we may find ourselves new food for humility in his superiority to us in that truer wisdom which relates to the mysteries of grace. PREFACE. xvii Now then it only ronuims that this Uibouv be laid down : it is done ; God be praised ! There is one to whom it has given many new and sweeten- ing thoughts, who deserves not to have such thoughts at all, and still less to be the person to publish them to others. If any find that St. Ephrem's native sweetness is not poisoned to themselves by having passed through his mind, he would beg of them, in the words of one who once studied in the same College, to remember him and his in their prayers. Laboris mei pretium (says Bp. Bull) hoc unum abs te peto, hoc vero vehementer expeto, ut in precibus tuis mei pecca- toris meorumque interdum memor sis. Vale in Christo Servatore Domino Deoque nostro. Amen. Exeter College, Tuesday before Christmas, A.D. 1845. . THE RHYTHMS '» OF SAINT EPHREM THE SYRIAN ON THE NATIVITY. RHYTHM THE FIRST. This is the day that gladdened them, the Prophets, Kings, and Priests, for in it were their words fulfilled, and thus were the whole of them indeed performed ! For the Virgin did to- day bring forth Immanuel in Bethlehem. The voice that erst Isaiah spake, to-day reality became. He was born Ps.87 6. there who in writing should the Gentiles' number tell ! The Is. lo, Psalm that David once did sing, by its fulfilment came to- ^^' day ! The word that Micah once did speak, to-day was Mic. 6 actually done! For there came from Ephrata a Shepherd, 2- and His staff swayed over souls. Lo ! from Jacob shone 24, 17. the Star, and from Israel rose the Head. The prophecy that?^"''- ^' Balaam spake had its interpreting to-day ! Down also came the hidden Light, and from the Body rose His beauty ! The Light that ^ spake in Zachary, to-day did gleam in Bethlehem ! * The word here used in the Syriac exactly metrical character of them ap- is frequently employed by the Rabbins pears to justify the adoption of the title (not without great countenance from ' rhythm,' especially as the term has al- the use of the root in Holy Writ) to ready been used in other parts of the express ' a mystical commentary' on the Church for devotional compositions of a Text of Scripture. There is much similar cast. analogous to this in these discourses of ^' St. E. may probably here have St. Ephrem ; while the more or less intended to imply, that the phrase B 2 The Xatiiily qf Christ J'uljih the types Risen is the Light of the kingdom, in Ephrata the city of the King. Tlie blessing wherewith Jacob blessed, to its fulfilment came to-day ! That tree likewise, [the tree] of life, Prov. 3, bringeth hope to mortal men ! Solomon his hidden proverb had to-day its explanation ! To-day was born the Child, and Isa. 9, His name was Wonder called ! For a wonder 'tis that God as Ps.22 6. ^ Babe should shew Himself. By the word Worm ^ did the Spirit Him in parable foreshew, because His generation was without marriage. The type the Holy Ghost did figure, to- day its meaning was [explained.] He came up as a root before Is.53,2. Him, as a root of parched ground. Aught that covertly was infr. R. said, openly to-day was done ! The King that was in Judah hidden, Thamar stole Him from his thigh ; to-day arose His con- ^^yr. quering beauty, which in hidden estate she loved'. Ruth at arosethe l^ooz Side fell dowii, bccausc the Medicine of Life hidden in victory j^jj^^ g]jg perceived. To-day fulfilled was her vow, since beauty, froiii her seed arose the Quickener of all. Travail Adam on ci-iu!d"" ^^^^ woman brought, that from him had come forth. She to-day ness of her travail ransomed, who to her a Saviour bare ! To Eve &c^ ' our mother birth a niaii gave, who had had no birth himself. How much more should Eve's daughter be believed to have borne a Child without a man ! The virgin earth, she bare that Adam that was head over the earth ! The Virgin bare to- day the Adam that was Head over the Heavens. The staff of Aaron, it budded, and the dry wood yielded fruit ! Its- mystery is cleared up to-day, for virgin womb a Child hath borne "^ ! OnmniN^Dn, the Angel that spate union with God in Christ which the in me, was the Angel of the covenant, ^^^^^^ enjoy. For to God time is as the Light of Light; and it seems that a nothing, and those who through grace created being would not so readily be ^^^ o"© with Him, begin to view things conceived of as speaking in a person. ^^ "-^ views them. See Zech. 19. ^ So the hymn in the Salisbury Brev. It maybe well also to notice here, for the feast of the Name of Jesus, Aug. how St. Ephrem (in common with St. ''• ^^s among the list of His Names, Leo, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, ' Vermis.' S. Austin, in Joan. Tr. i. 13. and others) speaks of the celebration of »-nd on Ps. 21,7. may be also referred to. the day as if it was the day itself, partly ^ It was common anciently to inter- as exhibiting their intense realization P''et the rod out of the stem of Jesse throu-h faith of the mvstery and the of the Bl. Virgin, and the Branch from re-pre"sentation of it, to use the word in ^^'s roots of the INIcssiah. Thus Jerome its ancient sense; partlv as evincing, on the place: " Jews interpret rod a«rf perhaps, a belief in the unabidingness branch of the Lord Himself, because for- of our conceptions of time— a belief re- ^ooth the power of a ruler is indicated by suiting, it may be, from the mystical the rod, by the flower (so he renders and explains ihem. 3 Shamed is tliat folk that holdeth the })rophets as true ; Ibr unless our Saviour did come, lUlsilied their words have been ! Blessed be the True One who came from the Father of the Truth and fulfilled the true seers' words, which were accom- plished in their truth. From Thy treasure-house put forth, Lord, from the coffers of Thy Scriptures, names of righteous men of old, who did look to sec Thy coming ! Scth who was in Abel's stead shadowed out the Son as killed, by Whose death dulled was the envy Cain had brought into the world ! Noah saw the sons of God, saints that sudden waxed wanton, and the Holy Son he expected, by whom were hallowed whoremongers \ The brothers twain, that covered Noah, saw the only Son of God who should come to hide the nakedness of Adam, who was drunk with pride. Shem and Japhet, being gracious, did the gracious Son expect, Who should come and set free Canaan from the servitude of sin. Melchizedek expected Him, — as His vicegerent, was looking, that he might see the Priesthood's Lord, whose hys-Lev. 14, sop whiteneth the world. Lot beheld the Sodomites how they perverted nature's* course: for nature's Lord he looked'S.right who gave a holiness not natural. Him Aaron looked for, for he saw that if his rod ate serpents up, His cross would eat Exod. 7, the Serpent up that had eaten Adam and Eve. Moses saw the hanging seipent that the biles of asps had cured, and he looked to see Him who would heal the ancient Serpent's wound. Moses saw that he himself alone retained the gleam from God, and he looked for Him who came and multiplied gods by His teaching ^ Caleb the spy bore the cluster on the staff, and came and longed to see the Cluster, Whose wine should comfort the world. Him did Jesus son of Nun long for, that he might conceive - the force of his own surname : for if by His name - S. he waxed so mighty, how much more would He by His Heb.^4 8. 'ya'i) *^^ beauty. But let us understand like the Pharisees were acting a religion the rod of the root of Jesse, of the Holy without feeling it. See also 1 Cor. 6, Virgin Mary &c." St. E. on the place ^^' ^ ^ • (after the Ch. Paraph,) interprets the ^ S*- E. refers here to St. John x. 34. roots of the kin of Joseph and Mary. ^hexe the Word Himself teacheth us « St. E. here alludes apparently that it was hy His coming to them that to the fact, that under our Lord's Saints of old were called Gods. See on rule impure persons were more likely ^<^^'' Scrut. xxix. and Athan, c. Ar. to come to baptism, than those ■•ho 1-39. Aust. in Nat. xi. 3. and ix. 1. B 2 h 4 The yJatirily of Christ ful/i Is the types Birth ? This Jesus that gathered and carried, and brought with him of the fruit, was longing for the Tree of Life to taste the Fruit that quickeneth all. Rahab too for Him was looking ; for when the scarlet thread in type redeemed her from wratli, in type she tasted of the Truth. 'Twas for Him Elijah thrilled, and when Him on earth he saw not, he through faith most throughly cleansed, mounted up in heaven to see Him. Moses saw Him and Elijah, the meek man from the depth ascended, the zealous from on high descended, and in the midst beheld the Son^. They figured the mystery of His Advent: Moses was a type of the dead, and Elijah a type JThess. of the living, that fly to meet Him at His coming. For the ' ' death the dead have tasted, them He maketh to be first: and the rest that are not buried are at last caught up to meet Him. Who is there that can count me up the just that looked for the Son, whose number cannot be determined by the mouth of us weak creatures ? Pray ye for me, O beloved, that another time with strength endued, I in another legend may their foretaste so set forth, as I am able. Who is adequate to praising of the Son of the Truth ^ that hath risen to us ? For 'twas for Him the righteous thrilled, that in their generation they might see Him. Adam, he was looking for Him, for He is the Cherub's Lord, and could minister an entrance and a residence hard by the branches of the Tree of life. Abel after Him did thrill, that in his days He might come, that instead of that lamb that he offered, the Lamb of God he might behold. Eve for Him was also looking, for woman's nakedness was sore, e Elijah and Moses are spoken of And with this the next words seem to as ascending and descending, as types fall in. of the faithful quick and dead ; but what h St. E. before spoke of the Father is recorded of their earthly ends had of the Truth, i. e. of Christ; here also an analogy with their character, he speaks of the Father as the Truth. Elijah's ascension with his fiery zeal. It is important to notice this, because Moses' burial in the heart of the earth the Fathers have been sometimes with his meekness, which was at the accused of denying to the Father cer- Lord's Coming to be exalted. Perhaps tain attributes, and not allowing these St. E. also wishes to blend together the to exist except as having a personality eventsoftheTransfiguration with those of in the Son; as though the Father were the timesof Moses and Elijah, whose pre- not as perfectly God as if there were sence there always had a typical mean- neither Son nor Holy Ghost, and They ing attributed to it: and hence introduces again each as perfectly God as if there INIoses as coming from the earth in was no Father. See St. Athan. Orat. which he died, and was buried; (see iv. 9. St. Aust. de Trin. vii. 2.5. xv. 7. St. Jude 9.) and Elijah from the Hea- 8. Greg. Nyss. ii. p. 320. b. yen to which without death he ascended. and px pi (tins them. 5 and He capable to clotlic them, not with leaves, but with that same glory that they had exchanged away. The tower that the many builded symbolically looked for One, who coming dowii would build on earth a tower that lifts up to Heaven. Yea the ark of living creatures for our Lord looked in a type; for He should build the Holy Church, wherein souls find a refuge. In Phaleg's days earth was divided into tongues threescore and ten'. He looked for Him who by the tongues, to His Apostles earth divided. Earth which the flood had swallowed up, in silence cried to her Lord. He came down and opened^ Baptism, and men were drawn by it to Heaven. Seth and Enos, Cainan too, were surnamed sons of God; for the Son of God they looked, that they His brethren by grace might be^ But little lacking of a thousand years did Methusalah live : He looked for the Son that maketh heirs of life that never ends! Grace itself with mystic instinct', was beseeching in ' in hid- their stead that their Lord might come in their age and fill up tery?^^" their fallings short. For the Holy Spirit in them, in their Rom. 8, stead, besought with musing: He stirred them up, and in ^ p^^ ^ Him did they look on that Redeemer, after whom they thrilled ii. [with longing.] The soul of just men in the Son a Medicine of life perceived, and so it felt desires that He might come in its own days, and then His sweetness would it taste. Enoch, he was thrilling for Him, and since on earth the Son he saw not, he was jus- tified by great faith, and mounted up in Heaven to see Him. Who is there that will spurn at grace, when the Gift^ that ^p. 14. they of old gained not by much labour, freely cometh to men now^? For Him Lamech also looked who might come and^tolat- lovingly give Him quiet from his labour, and the toiling of his ^^^ ™^"* hands, and from the earth the Just One had cursed. Lamech Gen. 6, then his son beheld, Noah, — him, in whom were figured types ' This in round numbers is the re- ^ If in Ps. 82, 6. the title ' sons of ceived account of the number of Ian- the Most High' seems applied to those guages at the dispersion. See St, before Christ, it must be only by anti- E. in Deut. 33. p. 286. E. and Pot- cipation of the grace to come, and not ter upon St. Clement, Strom, i. §. 142. as though they were (pictt vto), an ex- cap. 16. p. 404. Upon the next words pression which was applied of old to compare St. Austin S. 3. in Pentec, 269. Christians. See on Athanas. note k, ^ Alluding probably to Gen. 7, 11. p. 56, And on Tertullian, Apol. p. the windows of Heaven were opened' 54. 13. (> The vigils of worldlings relating to the Son. In the stead of Lord afar off, type at hand afforded quiet. Yea Noah also thrilled to see Him, the taste of whose assisting graces he had tasted. For if the type of Him preserved living things, Himself how sure to bestow life upon souls ! Noah longed for Him, by trial knowing Him, for through Him had the ark been stablished. For if the type of Him thus saved life, sure much more would He in person. John 8, Abraham perceived in spirit that the Son's Birth was far off; stead of Him in person even His day he saw with gladness. To see Him Isaac thrilled with longing, as having tasted the Heb.iijifiste of His redemption; for if the sign of Him so gave life, much more would He by the reality. Dan. 4, Joyous were to-day the watchers, that the Wakeful came to wake us ! Who would pass this night in slumber, in which all the world was watching'" } Since Adam brought into the world the sleep of death by sins, the Wakeful came down that He might awake us from the drenching sleep of sin. Watch not we as usurers, who, on money put to interest thinking, watch at night so oft, to reckon up their capital, and interest. Waking, full of cool devices, is the thief, who in the earth hath buried and concealed his sleep". His wakefulness all ends in this, that He may cause much wake- fuhiess to them that be asleep. Wakeful likewise is the glut- ton, who hath eaten much and is restless ; His watching is to him his torment, because of stint he was impatient. Wake- ful likewise is the merchant, of a night he works his fingers telling o'er what pounds are coming, and if his wealth doubles or trebles. AVakeful likewise is the rich man, whose sleep his riches chase away : his dogs are sleeping, he doth >" St. E. probably here views the its own will." And presently he adds, whole world or creation Cas the word " this hunger indicates that hunger more literally means) as waiting for the sore than it, wherewith our race before manifestation of the Son of God, whoso the advent of the Lord was vexed, when further manifestation in them whom He it was in want of the heavenly Bread ; is not ashamed to call His brethren it which was quenched and passed away yet waits for. Rom. 8, 19. Hence on by the preaching of the Gospel." It was Joel 1 , 18 — 20. he says, " the groaning usual formerly to usher in all the greater of the herds is a type of the groaning of feasts with a vigil, which St. E. here the creation, indicating how it groan- makes the occasion of the practical eth and waiteth for the manifestation remarks following, of the sons of God. Hence the divine " This is to us a verj- strong figure : Paul saith, that the creature (i. e. ere- Shakspeare'sexpression, 'Macbeth hath ation) was subjected to vanity not by murdered sleep,' is not unlike it. and of Christians conlrasted. 7 guard his treasures from the thieves. Wakeful also is the careful, by his care his sleep is swallowed: though his end standeth by his pillow, yet he wakes with cares for years to come. Satan teacheth, O my brethren, in one watching's stead another, that to good deeds we be sleepy, and to ill awake and watchful. Even Judas Iscariot, for the whole night through was wakeful, and he sold the righteous Blood, that did purchase the whole world. The son of the dark one put on darkness, having stripped the Light from off him : and the Creator of silver, for silver did the thief sell. Yea Pharisees, the dark one's sons, all the night through kept awake : the dark ones watched that they might veil the Light which is unlimited. Ye then watch as [heaven's] lights in this night of starry light. For though so dark its colour is, yet in virtue it is clear". For whoe'er is like this clear One, wakeful and at prayer in darkness, in this darkness visible him a light unseen enve- lopes ! The bad man that in daylight standeth, yet as a son of darkness dealeth, though with light clad outwardly, inly is with darkness girt. Be we not deceived, beloved, by the fact that we are watching ! For whoso doth not rightly watch, his watch is an unrighteous watch. Whoso watcheth not cheerfully, his watching but a sleeping is: whoso also watcheth not innocently, even his waking is his foe. This is the waking of the envious one ! a solid mass, compact with harm. That watch is but a trafficking, with scorn and mockery compact. The wrathful man if he doth wake, fretful with wrath his wake will be, and his watching proves to him full of rage and of cursings. If the babbler be waking, then his mouth becomes a passage which for sins is expeditious, but for prayers disrelish shews. The wise man if so be he that watches, one of two things chooseth him, either takes sweet", moderate, sleep, or a holy " i. e. This night, though dark out- hear the earth, &c.) an intercommu- wardly, is efficacious in brightening nion between heaven and earth and its the inward man from what happened joys is promised in Christian times. See on it. That Christian festivals are sea- St. Cyril on the place, p. 65. The sons when grace is more fully poured English word wake, originally meant a out, will be obvious if we reflect that vigil before the feast of a dedication of blessings are promised to joint prayer, a Church. See Johnson. It is here and that Angels were of old thought used sometimes for a vigil. to join in them. In Hosea 2, 23. (I ° There is some difficulty in this will hear the heavens, and they shall passage: the Syriac word means origi- 8 Mercifulness recommended to us Ps.45, vigil keeps. That night is fair, wherein the Fair One rose Cant. 1 ^® come and make us fair. Let not aught that may disturb ]^' , it enter into our watch ! Fair be kept the ear's approach', • S. path ^ * ' . chaste the seeing of the eye ! hallowed the musing oi 2S. fil- the heart! speaking of the mouth be cleared^. Mary ^^"^^ ' hid in us to-day leaven come from Abraham. Let us then so ])ity beggars as did Abraham the needy. To-day the rennet*' fell on us from the gentle David's house. Let a 1 Sam. man shew mercy to his persecutors, as did Jesse's son 2 Kings to Saul. The prophets' sweet salt is to-day among the Gen- 2;- 20. tiles scattered. Let us gain a new savour by that, by the 13. 'which the ancient people lost their savour. Let us speak the speech of wisdom; speak we not of things beside it, lest we be ourselves beside it ! In this night of reconcilement let no man be wroth or gloomy ! in this night that stilleth al], none that threateneth or disturbs 1 This night belongeth to the sweet One ; bitter none, nor harsh be in it ! In this night that is the meek One's, high or haughty none be in it! In this day of pardoning 5. not let us not be unforgiving ^ ! In this day of gladnesses let us not spread sadnesses! In this day so sweet, let not parses, us be harsh ! In this day of peaceful rest, let us not be iially sweetly, then temperately. Bened. of these two modes of keeping the vigil. renders it somnum suavem, noxiis ae Vigils might be made an occasion of tristibus vacuum curis, sib' statuit. Per- falling: hence St. Hilary says on the haps he was inlluenced in this by the Psalm just quoted, " The nightly words of the hymn in daily use at Com- vigils may not be made into a danger- pline, Procul recedant somnia, Et ons leisure wherewith to unnerve the noctium phautasmata &c. Comp. Ps. soul: but it is by prayers and suppli- 119, 56. I have thought upon Thy cations, and confessions of sin, that its Name, O Lord, in the nightseason, and attention must be arrested ; so that at have kept Thy law: this I had, be- the very time, when to the vices of the cause I kept thy commandments, — body an occasion is administered, then where being nble to have God before especially may those very %-ices by the us in the night season, is spoken of as a calling to mind of the Law of God be reward for keeping His commandments, crushed." Seetoo Aristot. Ethic. Nicom.i.& v.fin. P St. E. here alludes to the early "Better are the dreams (