Oration XXXVIII. On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ.

 I.  Christ is born, glorify ye Him.  Christ from heaven, go ye out to meet Him.  Christ on earth be ye exalted.  Sing unto the Lord all the whole ear

 II.  Again the darkness is past again Light is made again Egypt is punished with darkness again Israel is enlightened by a pillar.   The people tha

 III.  Of these on a future occasion for the present the Festival is the Theophany or Birth-day, for it is called both, two titles being given to the

 IV.  This is our present Festival it is this which we are celebrating to-day, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this i

 V.  And how shall this be?  Let us not adorn our porches, nor arrange dances, nor decorate the streets let us not feast the eye, nor enchant the ear

 VI.  Let us leave all these to the Greeks and to the pomps and festivals of the Greeks, who call by the name of gods beings who rejoice in the reek of

 VII.  God always was, and always is, and always will be.  Or rather, God always Is.  For Was and Will be are fragments of our time, and of changeable

 VIII.  And when Infinity is considered from two points of view, beginning and end (for that which is beyond these and not limited by them is Infinity)

 IX.  But since this movement of self-contemplation alone could not satisfy Goodness, but Good must be poured out and go forth beyond Itself to multipl

 X.  Thus, then, and for these reasons, He gave being to the world of thought, as far as I can reason upon these matters, and estimate great things in

 XI.  Mind, then, and sense, thus distinguished from each other, had remained within their own boundaries, and bore in themselves the magnificence of t

 XII.  This being He placed in Paradise, whatever the Paradise may have been, having honoured him with the gift of Free Will (in order that God might b

 XIII.  And having been first chastened by many means (because his sins were many, whose root of evil sprang up through divers causes and at sundry tim

 XIV.  To this what have those cavillers to say, those bitter reasoners about Godhead, those detractors of all that is praiseworthy, those darkeners of

 XV.  He was sent, but as man, for He was of a twofold Nature for He was wearied, and hungered, and was thirsty, and was in an agony, and shed tears,

 XVI.  A little later on you will see Jesus submitting to be purified in the River Jordan for my Purification, or rather, sanctifying the waters by His

 XVII.  Now then I pray you accept His Conception, and leap before Him if not like John from the womb, yet like David, because of the resting of the A

 XVIII.  One thing connected with the Birth of Christ I would have you hate…the murder of the infants by Herod.   Or rather you must venerate this too,

IX.  But since this movement of self-contemplation alone could not satisfy Goodness, but Good must be poured out and go forth beyond Itself to multiply the objects of Its beneficence, for this was essential to the highest Goodness, He first conceived the Heavenly and Angelic Powers.  And this conception was a work fulfilled by His Word, and perfected by His Spirit.  And so the secondary Splendours came into being, as the Ministers of the Primary Splendour; whether we are to conceive of them as intelligent Spirits, or as Fire of an immaterial and incorruptible kind, or as some other nature approaching this as near as may be.  I should like to say that they were incapable of movement in the direction of evil, and susceptible only of the movement of good, as being about God, and illumined with the first rays from God—for earthly beings have but the second illumination; but I am obliged to stop short of saying that, and to conceive and speak of them only as difficult to move because of him,22    S. Thomas Aquinas (Summa I., qu. 63, art. 7) gives reasons for thinking that Satan was originally the highest of all the angelic hosts.  This, however, is an opinion in which many high authorities differ from him.  At any rate, Satan as Lucifer must have held a very high place. who for his splendour was called Lucifer, but became and is called Darkness through his pride; and the apostate hosts who are subject to him, creators of evil23    Evil, says Nicetas here, has no positive existence, but is the negation of good.  “The faculties of mind and body which are used in a sinful action are indeed things, and are the creatures of God; but the sin itself is not a thing, and consequently not a creature.  God is indeed the Author of all that is, of every substance; but sin is not a substance, and is not.  It is a declination from substance and from being, and not a part of it.”  (Mozley, Treatise on the Augustinian doctrine of predestination.) by their revolt against good and our inciters.

Θʹ. Ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐκ ἤρκει τῇ ἀγαθότητι τοῦτο, τὸ κινεῖσθαι μόνον τῇ ἑαυτῆς θεωρίᾳ, ἀλλ' ἔδει χεθῆναι τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ὁδεῦσαι, ὡς πλείονα εἶναι τὰ εὐεργετούμενα (τοῦτο γὰρ τῆς ἄκρας ἦν ἀγαθότητος), πρῶτον μὲν ἐννοεῖ τὰς ἀγγελικὰς δυνάμεις καὶ οὐρανίους: καὶ τὸ ἐννόημα ἔργον ἦν, Λόγῳ συμπληρούμενον, καὶ Πνεύματι τελειούμενον. Καὶ οὕτως ὑπέστησαν λαμπρότητες δεύτεραι, λειτουργοὶ τῆς πρώτης λαμπρότητος: εἴτε νοερὰ πνεύματα, εἴτε πῦρ οἷον ἄϋλον καὶ ἀσώματον, εἴτε τινὰ φύσιν ἄλλην, ὅτι ἐγγυτάτω τῶν εἰρημένων, ταύτας ὑποληπτέον. Βούλομαι μὲν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι ἀκινήτους πρὸς τὸ κακὸν, καὶ μόνην ἐχούσας τὴν τοῦ καλοῦ κίνησιν, ἅτε περὶ Θεὸν οὔσας, καὶ τὰ πρῶτα ἐκ Θεοῦ λαμπομένας: τὰ γὰρ ἐνταῦθα, δευτέρας ἐλλάμψεως Πείθει δέ με, μὴ ἀκινήτους, ἀλλὰ δυσκινήτους, καὶ ὑπολαμβάνειν ταύτας, καὶ λέγειν, ὁ διὰ τὴν λαμπρότητα Ἑωσφόρος, σκότος διὰ τὴν ἔπαρσιν καὶ γενόμενος, καὶ λεγόμενος, αἵ τε ὑπ' αὐτὸν ἀποστατικαὶ δυνάμεις, δημιουργοὶ τῆς κακίας, τῇ τοῦ καλοῦ φυγῇ, καὶ ἡμῖν πρόξενοι.