13 Gal. ii. 20. 14 Num, xxviii. 2, LXX.
LETTER: VI.
EASTER, 334. vt5 as having been gloriously illumined with the light of truth, and as looking upon the Sun of Righteousness *5; to the schismatics, in not rending the coat of Christ, but in one house, even in the Catholic Church, let us eat the Passover of the Lord, Who, by ordaining His holy laws, guided us towards virtue, and counselled the abstinence of this feast. For the Passover is indeed abstinence from evil for exercise of virtue, and’a departure from death unto life. This may be learnt even from the type of old time. For then they toiled earnestly to pass from Egypt to Jerusalem, but now} we depart from death to life; they then passed from Pharaoh to.Moses, but now we rise from the devil to the Saviour. And as, at that time, the type of deliverance bore witness every year, SO now we commemorate our salvation. We fast meditating on death, that we may be able to live; and we watch, not as mourners, but as they that wait for the Lord, when He shall have returned from the wedding, so that we may vie with each other in the triumph, hastening to announce the sign of victory over death.
5. Would therefore, O my beloved, that as the word requires, we might here so govern ourselves at all times and entirely, and so live, as never to forget the noble acts of God, nor to depart from the practice of virtue! As also the Apostolic voice exhorts; ‘ Remember Jesus Christ, that He rose from the dead*®.’ Not that any limited season of remembrance was appointed, for at all times He should be in our thoughts. But because of the slothfulness of many, we delay from day to day. Let us then begin in these days. To this end a time of remembrance is permitted, that it may show forth to the saints the reward of their calling, and may exhort the careless while reproving them*7, Therefore in all the remaining days, let us persevere in virtuous conduct, repenting as is our duty, of all that we have neglected, whatever it may be; for there is no one free from defilement, though his course may have been but one hour on the earth, as Job, that man of surpassing fortitude, testifies. But, ‘stretching forth to those things that are to come *®,’ let us pray that we may not eat the Passover unworthily, lest we be exposed to dangers. For to those who keep the feast in purity, the Passover 1s heavenly food; but to those who observe it profanely and contemptuously, it is a danger and reproach, For it is written, ‘ Whosoever i7 The reasoning of Athan. is to this effect. The due obseryance of such festival will have its effect in quickening our habitual meditation on the resurrection. The same mode of reasoning might be applied to all the other Christian festivals. 38 Job xiv. 4 (LXX.); Phil. ili. 136 .
shall eat and drink unworthily, is guilty of the death of our Lord.’ Wherefore, let us not merely proceed to perform the festal rites, but let us be prepared to draw near to the divine Lamb, and to touch heavenly food. Let us cleanse our hands, let us purify the body. Let us keep our whole mind from guile; not giving up ourselves to excess, and to lusts, but occupying ourselves entirely with our Lord, and with divine doctrines; so that, being altogether pure, we may be able to partake of the Word ”°.
6. We begin the holy fast on the fourteenth of Pharmuthi (Apr. 9), on the [first] evening of theweek”; and having ceased onthe nineteenth of the same month Pharmuthi (Apr. 14), the first day of the holy week dawns upon us on the twentieth of the same month Pharmuthi (Apr. 15), to which we join the seven weeks of Pentecost; with prayers, and fellowship with our neighbour, and love towards one another, and that peaceable will which is above all. For so shall we be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom to the Father be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. All the brethren who are with me salute you. Salute one another with a holy kiss.
Here endeth the fifth Festal Letter of holy LET DE Rav Laster-day, xti Pharmuthi, vit Id. April: xvit Moon; Atra Dioclet. 50; Coss. Optatus Patricius, Anicius Paulinus; Prefect, Phtlagrius*, the Cappadocian; vit Lndict.
Now again, my beloved, has God brought us to the season of the feast, and through His loving-kindness we have reached the period of assembly for it, For that God who brought Israel out of Egypt, even He at this time calls us to the feast, saying by Moses, ‘ Observe the month of new fruits?, and keep the Passover to the Lord thy God3:’ and by the prophet, ‘Keep thy feasts, O Judah; pay to the Lord thy vows+.’ If then God Himself loves the feast, and calls us to it, it is not right, my brethren, that it should be delayed, or observed carelessly; but with alacrity and zeal we should come to it, so that having begun joyfully here, we may also receive an earnest of that heavenly feast. For if we diligently celebrate the feast here, we shall doubtless receive the perfect joy which is in heaven, as 19 x Cor. xi. 27. 20 Cf. 2 Pet. i. 4. 2t Syr. ‘sabbath. rt The index gives still Paternus for Letters 6 and 7- On Philagrius, see p. 93, note 2.
3 Deut. xvi. 1.
the Lord says; ‘ With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, that I will not eat it, until it is fulfilled with you in the kingdom of Gods.’ Now we eat it if, understanding the reason of the feast, and acknowledging the Deliverer, we conduct ourselves in accordance with His grace, as Paul saith; ‘So that we may keep the Feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 6’ For the Lord died in those days, that we should no longer do the deeds of death. He gave His life, that we might preserve our own from the snares of the devil. And, what is most wonderful, the Word became flesh, that we should no longer live in the flesh, but in spirit should worship God, who is Spirit. He who is not so disposed, abuses the days, and does not keep the feast, but like an unthankful person finds fault with the grace, and honours the days overmuch, while he does not supplicate the Lord who in those days redeemed him. Let him by all means hear, though fancying that he keeps the feast, the Apostolic voice reproving him; ‘ Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years: I fear lest I have laboured among you in vain’.’
2. For the feast is not on account of the days; but for the Lord’s sake, who then suffered for us, we celebrate it, for ‘our Passover, Christ, is sacrificed ®.’ Even as Moses, when teaching Israel not to consider the feast as pertaining to the days, but to the Lord, said, ‘It is the Lord’s Passover9.’ To the Jews, when they thought they were keeping the Passover, because they persecuted the Lord, the feast was useless; since it no longer bore the name of the Lord, even according to their own testimony. It was not the Passover of the Lord, but that of the Jewst®. The Passover was named after the Jews, my brethren, because they denied the Lord of the Passover. On this account, the Lord, turning away His face from such a doctrine of theirs, saith, ‘Your new moons and your sabbaths My soul hateth ™.’
3. So now, those who keep the Passover in like manner, the Lord again reproves, as He did those lepers who were cleansed, when He loved the one as thankfu, but was angry with the others as ungrateful, because they did not acknowledge their Deliverer, but thought more of the cure of the leprosy than of Him who healed them. ‘But one of them when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and 7 Gal. iv. 10, 11. Sar Core Vaize 9 Exod. xii. 11.
10 Cf. John vi. 4. ‘And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. Cf. Origenis Comaent. in Ioannem, tom. x. § 11.
with a loud voice glorified God, and fell on his face at the feet of Jesus giving Him thanks; and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but those nine—whence are there none found who returned to give glory to God, but this stranger"??’ And there was more given to him than to the rest; for being cleansed from his leprosy, he heard from the Lord, ‘Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath saved thee’.’ For he who gives thanks, and he who glorifies, have kindred feelings, in that they bless their Helper for the benefits they have received. So the Apostle exhorts all men to this, saying, ‘Glorify God with your body;’ and the prophet commands, saying, ‘Give glory to God.’ Although testimony was borne by Caiaphas *4 against our Redeemer, and He was set at nought by the Jews, and was condemned by Pilate in those days, yet exalted exceedingly and most mighty was the voice of the Father which came to Him; ‘I have glorified, and will glorify again’s.’ For those things which He suffered for our sake have passed away; but those which belong to Him as the Saviour remain for ever.
4. But in our commemoration of these things, my brethren, let us not be occupied with meats, but let us glorify the Lord, let us become fools for Him who died for us, even as Paul said; ‘For if we are foolish, itis to God; or if we are sober-minded, it is to you; since because one died for all men, therefore all were dead to Him; and He died for all, that we who live should not henceforth live to ourselves, but to Him who died for us, and rose again*®.’ No longer then ought we to live to ourselves, but, as servants to the Lord. And not in vain should we receive the grace, as the time is especially an acceptable one?7, and the day of salvation hath dawned, even the death of our Redeemer*®. For even for our sakes the Word came down, and being incorruptible, put on a corruptible body for the salvation of all of us. Of which Paul was confident, saying, ‘This corruptible must put on incorruption”.’ The Lord too was sacrificed, that by His blood He might abolish death. Full well did He once, in a certain place, blame those who participated vainly in the shedding of His blood, while they did not delight themselves in the flesh of the Word, saying, ‘ What profit is there in my blood, that I go down to corruption?°?’ This does not mean that the descent of the Lord was without profit, for it gained the whole world; but rather that 12 Luke xvii. 15, &c. Is, xlii. 12; Matt, xxvi. 65. E7UD enV wes 18 Cf. S. Cyril. Hom. Pasch. xxiv. sub init.
EHELER Vi.
fter He had thus suffered, sinners would prefer to suffer loss than to profit by it. For He regarded our salvation as a delight and a peculiar gain; while on the contrary He looked upon our destruction as loss.
_ 5. Also in the Gospel, He praises those who tncreased the grace twofold, both him who made ten talents of five, and him who made four talents of two, as those who had profited, and turned them to good account; but him who hid the talent He cast out as wanting, saying to him, ‘Thou wicked servant! oughtest thou not to have put My money to the exchangers? then at My coming I should have received Mine own with interest. Take, therefore, from him the talent, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth?".’ For it is not His will that the grace we have received should be unprofitable; but He requires us to take pains to render Him His own fruits, as the blessed Paul saith; ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace*.’ Having therefore this right resolution, and owing no man anything, but rather giving everything to every man, he was a teacher of the like rightness of principle, saying, ‘ Render to all their dues?.’ He was like those sent by the householder to receive the fruits of the vineyard from the husbandmen3; for he exhorted all men to render a return. But Israel despised and would not render, for their will was not nght, nay moreover they killed those that were sent, and not even before the Lord of the vineyard were they ashamed, but even He was slain by them. Verily, when He came and found no fruit in them, He cursed them through the fig-tree, saying, ‘ Let there be henceforth no fruit from thee;’ and the fig-tree was dead and fruitless, so that even the disciples wondered when it withered away.
6. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet; ‘I will take away from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the scent of myrrh, and the light of a lamp, and the whole land shall be destroyeds.’ For the whole service of the law has been abolished from them, and henceforth and for ever they remain without a feast. And they observe not the Passover; for how can they? They have no abiding place, but they wander everywhere. And they eat unleavened bread contrary to the law, since they are unable first to sacrifice the lamb, as they were commanded to do when eating unleavened bread. But in every place they transgress the law, and as the judgments of God require, they keep days of grief instead of gladness. Now the cause of this to them was the slaying of the Lord, and that they did not reverence the Only-Begotten. At this time the altogether wicked heretics and ignorant schismatics are in the same case; the one in that they slay the Word, the other in that they rend the coat. They too remain expelled from the feast, because they live without godliness and knowledge, and emulate the conduct shewn in the matter of Bar-Abbas the robber, whom the Jews desired instead of the Saviour. Therefore the Lord cursed them under the figure of the fig-tree. Yet even thus He spared them in His loving-kindness, not destroying them root and all. For He did not curse the root, but [said], that no man should eat fruit of it thenceforth, When He did this, He abolished the shadow, causing it to wither; but preserved the root, so that we might [not]® be grafted upon it; ‘ they too, if they abide not in unbelief, may attain to be grafted into their own olive tree7.’. Now when the Lord had cursed them because of their negligence, He removed from them the new moons, the true lamb, and that which is truly the Passover.
7. But to us it came: there came too the solemn day, in which we ought to call to the feast with a trumpet ®, and separate ourselves to the Lord with thanksgiving, considering it as our own festival. For we are bound to celebrate it, not to ourselves but to the Lord; and to rejoice, not in ourselves but in the Lord, who bore our griefs and said, ‘My soul is sorrowful unto death,’ For the heathen, and all those who are strangers to our faith, keep feasts according to their own wills, and have no peace, since they commit evil against God. But the saints, as they live to the Lord also keep the feast to Him, saying, ‘I will rejoice in Thy salvation,’ and, ‘my soul shall be joyful in the Lord.’ The commandment is common to them, ‘ Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord ™"’—so that they also may be gathered together, to sing that common and festal Psalm, ‘ Come, let us rejoice 7,’ not in ourselves, but, ‘in the Lord.’
6 The negative (which is here placed within brackets) is found in the Syriac text; but there is little doubt that it is an error. 8 Cf, Letter i. S. Cyril, Hom. i. de Festis Pasch. vol. v. E 9 The Passover is no longer to be a feast of the Jews: it is to be celebrated by Christians as a festival of the Lord. Vid. § 2. 10 Matt. xxvi. 38. 1 Ps, ix, 14, xxxv. 93 Ib.
XXXI111. I.
XXXI111. I.
8. For thus the patriarch Abraham rejoiced not to see his own day, but that of the Lord; and thus looking forward ‘he saw it, and was glad %3,’ And when he was tried, by faith he offered up Isaac, and sacrificed his only-begotten son—he who had received the promises. And, in offering his son, he worshipped the Son of God. And, being restrained from sacrificing Isaac, he saw the Messiah in the ram", which was offered up instead as a sacrifice to God. The patriarch was tried, through Isaac, not however that he was sacrificed, but He who was pointed out in Isaiah; ‘He shall be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers he shall be speechless *5;’ but He took away the sin of the world. And on this account [Abraham] was restrained from laying his hand on the lad, lest the Jews, taking occasion from the sacrifice of Isaac, should reject the prophetic declarations concerning our Saviour, even all of them, but more especially those uttered by the Psalmist; ‘Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not; a body Thou hast prepared Me*;’ and should refer all such things as these to the son of Abraham, g. For the sacrifice was not properly the setting to rights’? of Isaac, but of Abraham who also offered, and by that was tried. Thus God accepted the will of the offerer, but prevented that which was offered from being sacrificed. For the death of Isaac did not procure freedom to the world, but that of our Saviour alone, by whose stripes we all are healed?8, For He raised up the falling, healed the sick, satisfied those who were hungry, and filled the poor, and, what is more wonderful, raised us all from the dead; having abolished death, He has brought us from affliction and sighing to the rest and gladness of this feast, a joy which reacheth even to heaven, For not we alone are affected by this, but because of it, even the heavens rejoice with us, and the whole church of the firstborn, written in heaven 79, is made glad together, as the prophet proclaims, saying, ‘ Rejoice, ye heavens, for the Lord hath had mercy upon Israel. Shout, ye foundations of the earth. Cry out with joy, ye mountains, ye high places, and all the trees which are in them, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and Israel hath been glorified 7°.’ And again; ‘Rejoice, and be glad, ye heavens; let the hills melt into gladness, 13 John viii. 56; Heb. xi. 17.
™4 Gen. xxii. 15. The Syriac, here rendered by ‘ram,’ is the usual word for sheep, common gender. It is the same word that is used directly after, in the quotation from Isaiah, and rendered 17 The phrase ‘setting to rights’ is used for want of one that would better express the meaning, The Syriac noun is that used to render Sidp@wous in Heb, ix. 10, from a verb ‘to make straight, set upright, or right.’ 18 Is. lili. 5.
for the Lord hath had mercy on His people, and comforted the oppressed of the people *.’
10. The whole creation keeps a feast, my brethren, and everything that hath breath praises the Lord, as the Psalmist [says], on account of the destruction of the enemies, and our salvation. And justly indeed; for if there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth3, what should there not be over the abolition of sin, and the resurrection of the dead? Oh what a feast and how great the gladness in heaven! how must all its hosts joy and exult, as they rejoice and watch in our assemblies, those that are held continually, and especially those at Easter? For they look on sinners while they repent; on those who have turned away their faces, when they become converted; on those who formerly persisted in lusts and excess, but who now humble themselves by fastings and temperance; and, finally, on the enemy who lies weakened, lifeless, bound hand and foot, so that we may mock at him; ‘Where is thy victory, O Death? where is thy sting, O Grave +?’ Let us then sing unto the Lord a song of victory.
11. Who then will lead us to such a company of angels as this? Who, coming with a desire for the heavenly feast, and the angelic holiday, will say like the prophet, ‘I will pass to the place of the wondrous tabernacle, unto the house of God; with the voice of joy and praise, with the shouting of those who keep festival 5?’ To this course the saints also encourage us, saying, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob®.’ But not for the impure is this feast, nor is the ascent thereto for sinners; but it is for the virtuous and diligent; and for those who live according to the aim of the saints; for, ‘ Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place, but he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not devoted his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. For he,’ as the Psalmist adds, when he goes up, ‘shall receive a blessing from the Lord7.’ Now this clearly also refers to what the Lord gives to them at the right hand, saying, ‘Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you®.’ But the deceitful, and he that is not pure of heart, and possesses nothing that is pure (as the Proverb saith, ‘To a deceitful man there is nothing good 9’), shall assuredly, being a stranger, and of a different race from the saints, be accounted unworthy to eat the Passover, for ‘a foreigner shall not ESTs exlixearay aePsnclios xv. 55. Cf. Incarn. 27. 7 PS. XXIV, 3.
LXX.
3 Luke xv. 7. SPSy xia. 8 Matt. xxv. 34.
LETTERS VIL eat of it'’ Thus Judas, when he thought he kept the Passover, because he plotted deceit against the Saviour, was estranged from the city which is above, and from the apostolic company. For the law commanded the Passover to be eaten with due observance; but he, while eating it, was sifted of the devil ™, who had entered his soul.
12. Wherefore let us not celebrate the feast after an earthly manner, but as keeping festival in heaven with the angels. Let us glorify the Lord, by chastity, by righteousness, and other virtues. And let us rejoice, not in ourselves, but in the Lord, that we may be inheritors with the saints. Let us keep the feast then,as Moses. Let us watch like David, who rose seven times, and in the middle of the night gave thanks for the righteous judgments of God. Let us be early, as he said, ‘In the morning I will stand before Thee, and Thou wilt look upon me: in the morning Thou wilt hear my voice*.’ Let us fast like Daniel; let us pray without ceasing, as Paul commanded; all of us recognising the season of prayer, but especially those who are honourably married; so that having borne witness to these things, and thus having kept the feast, we may be able to enter into the joy of Christ in the kingdom of heaven's. But as Israel, when going up to Jerusalem, was first purified in the wilderness, being trained to forget the customs of Egypt, the Word by this typifying to us the holy fast of forty days, let us first be purified and freed from defilement", so that when we depart hence, having been careful of fasting, we may be able to ascend to the upper chamber *5 with the Lord, to sup with Him; and may be partakers of the joy which is in heaven. In no other manner is it possible to go up to Jerusalem, and to eat the Passover, except by observing the fast of forty days.
13. We begin the fast of forty days on the first day of the month Phamenoth (Feb. 25); and having prolonged it till the fifth of Pharmuthi (Mar. 31), suspending it upon the Sundays and the Saturdays ** preceding them, we then begin again on the holy days of Easter, on the sixth of Pharmuthi (Apr. 1), and cease |y on the eleventh of the same month (Apr. 6), late in the evening 77 of the Saturday, whence dawns on us the holy Sunday, on the twelfth io Exod. xii. 43. mr Cf. Luke xxii. 31. BOGS Mh ep 13 A line or two is preserved here in the original Greek in Cosmas Yogog. Christ. p. 316.; 14 Gregory Nazianzen speaks of the Lenten fast as Kafapors mpoedprtos, vol. i. p. 715. § 30. ed. Ben. fol. Par. 1778.
x5 Cf. Luke xiv. 15.
16 The Saturdays and Sundays during Lent were not observed as fasts, with the exception of the day before Easter-day. S.Amprose says, Quadragesima totis preter Sabbatum et Dominicam jejunatur diebus. vol. i. p. 545, § 34. ed Par. 1686-90, 17 Cf. Dionys Alex. ad Basilid. in Routh Rell. Sac. iti. 226.
of Pharmuthi (Apr. 7), which extends its beams, with unobscured grace, to all the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost. Resting on that day, let us ever keep Easter joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, through Whom, to the Father, be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. All the brethren who are with me salute you. Salute one another with a holy kiss.
Here endeth the sixth Festal Letter of the holy and God-clad Athanasius.
LETTER VII.
Laster-day iv Pharmuthi, iti Kal. April; xx Moon; tr. Diocet. 51; Coss. Julius Constantius, the brother of Augustus, Rufinus Albinus; Prefect, the same Philagrius; viti Indice.
Tue blessed Paul* wrote to the Corinthians? that he always bore in his body the dying of Jesus, not as though he alone should make that boast, but also they and we too, and in this let us be followers of him, my brethren. And let this be the customary boast of all of us at all times. In this David participated, saying in the Psalms, ‘ For thy sake we die all the day; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter3.’ Now this is becoming in us, especially in the days of the feast, when a commemoration of the death of our Saviour is held. For he who is made like Him in His death, is also diligent in virtuous practices, having mortified his members which are upon the earth 4, and crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts, he lives in the Spirit, and is conformed to the Spirits, He is always mindful of God, and forgets Him not, and never does the deeds of death. Now, in order that we may bear in our body the dying of Jesus, he immediately adds the way of such fellowship, saying, ‘we having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak ®.’ He adds also, speaking of the grace that arises from knowledge; ‘For He that raised up Jesus, will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us before Him with 2. When by such faith and knowledge the saints have embraced this true life, they receive, doubtless, the joy which is in heaven; for which the wicked not caring, are deservedly 4“ 1 The twentieth Letter, as far as it is extant, bears a great resemblance with this. In both, the comparison between natural and spiritual food is enlarged upon, and several of the same quotations are adduced in them, to illustrate the character of sinners and their food, as contrasted with righteous, and the nourishment they derive from God, % 2 2 Cor. iv. 10.
6 2 Cor. iv. 13- 7 Ib. 14, reading with R.V. marg. and ' Vulg. against Text. Rec, and Pesh.
A re eR NE = Re ee deprived of the blessedness aiising from it. For, ‘let the wicked be taken away, so that he shall not see the glory of the Lord®.” For although, when they shall hear the universal proclamation of the promise, ‘ Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead 9,’ they shall rise and shall come even to heaven, knocking and saying, ‘ Open to us*°;’ nevertheless the Lord will reprove them, as those who put the knowledge of Himself far from them, saying, ‘I know you not.’ But the holy Spirit cries against them, ‘ The wicked shall be turned into hell, even all the nations that forget God*™.’ Now we say that the wicked are dead, but not in an ascetic life opposed to sin; nor do they, like the saints, bear about dying in their bodies. But it is the soul which they bury in sins and follies, drawing near to the dead, and satisfying it with dead nourishment; like young eagles which, from high places, fly upon the carcases of the dead, and which the law prohibited, commanding figuratively, ‘Thou shalt not eat the eagle, nor any other bird that feedeth on a dead carcase *;’ and it pronounced unclean whatsoever eateth the dead. But these kill the soul with lusts, and say nothing but, “let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die 73.’ And the kind of fruit those have who thus love pleasures, he immediately describes, adding, ‘ And these things are revealed in the ears of the Lord of Hosts, that this sin shall not be forgiven you until ye die *4.’ Yea, even while they live they shall be ashamed, because they consider their belly their lord; and when dead, they shall be tormented, because they have made a boast of such a death. To this effect also Paul bears witness, saying, ‘ Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both it and them'*s.’ And the divine word declared before concerning them; ‘The death of sinners is evil, and those who hate the righteous commit sin®®.’ For bitter is the worm, and grievous the darkness, which wicked men inherit.
3. But the saints, and they who truly practise virtue, ‘mortify their members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passions, evil concupiscence 7;’ and, as the result of this, are pure and without spot, confiding in the promise of our Saviour, who said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"8’ These, having become dead to the world, and renounced the merchandise of the world, gain an honourable death; for, ‘precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints *9.’ They are also able, preserv- 8 Is, xxvi. ro (LXX.). 4t Luke xiii. 25; Ps, ix. 17. hee ist 18 Matt. v. 8.
16 Ps, xxxiv. 21. 17 Col, ing the Apostolic likeness, to say, ‘I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me*.’ For that is the true life, which a man lives in Christ; for although they are dead to the world, yet they dwell as it were in heaven, minding those things which are above, as he who was a lover of such a habitation said, ‘ While we walk on earth, our dwelling is in heaven 2.’ Now those who thus live, and are partakers in such virtue, are alone able to give glory to God, and this it is which essentially constitutes a feast and a holiday’. For the feast does not consist in pleasant intercourse at meals, nor splendour? of clothing, nor days of leisure, but in the acknowledgment of God, and the offering of thanksgiving and of praise to Him3. Now this belongs to the saints alone, who live in Christ; for it is written, ‘The dead shall not praise Thee, O Lord, neither all those who go down into silence; but we who live will bless the Lord, from henceforth even for ever‘. So was it with Hezekiah, who was delivered from death, and therefore praised God, saying, ‘ Those who are in hades cannot praise Thee; the dead cannot bless Thee; but the living shall bless Thee, as I also dos.’ For to praise and bless God belongs to those only who live in Christ, and by means of this they go up to the feast; for the Passover is not of the Gentiles, nor of those who are yet Jews in the flesh; but of those who acknowledge the truth in Christ °, as he declares who was sent to proclaim such a feast; ‘Our Passover, Christ, is sacrificed 7.’