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Hymns on Faith

St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Morris, 1847; selections

43. Rhythm the Forty-third

By the little egg¹ set the bold disputers at nought, since the form is hidden in a threefold way in the liquid; ask then its head and its feet and its wings, how they are three, that they may instruct thee. If then he be stifled in an egg by his scrutinizing thereof, how much more will he be whelmed that dareth to feel into the mighty Sea²! Blessed be He who with weak things hath astounded our mind! Lo, the wheat when stript yet hath its garment in it; we buried it unclad therewith; we saw it again glorified! That silent body which hath crept into its dust, it is a wonder that it therein hath gotten itself a covering, and its dishonour cannot be understood, now that it is swallowed up in glory, and the whole of it hath become a bride in bridal ornaments. For as in the stalk the wheat is secreted, thereby it amazeth the investigator and causeth wonder in the beholders, since they know not how to feel after it and investigate it. It is manifest and visible³, yet it is not; it puts the searcher to shame, and lo, it crieth aloud in its silence, ‘Be ye ashamed with things visible, ye rude dealers with hidden things!’

Yea, there is a hidden treasure in that visible plant⁴, three are hidden there, and cannot be searched out there; three that are one, and though one they are three⁵. Who hath penetrated into the midst of a plant and [found] how the root, and the fruit, a second, and the leaf, a third, are blended one with another? Therefore, that His true Church⁶ should not be the abode of strifes, and a sect of divided people⁷, He shadoweth forth and shewed Himself how He is. For He Himself alone sufficeth to teach us concerning Himself, seeing that it is open to Himself alone to search into the mode of His own Existence, and He hath given foretastes thereof by His words for His true ones. He then who prieth into Him entangleth himself in Him, seeking out so as not to know Him, searching so as not to find Him: for he loseth that which is in Him and findeth that which is not in Him. A man may find Him so as to know Him, provided he seek not in order to know Him as He is. For if thou hast believed Him, then hast thou comprehended⁸ Him.

Choose thyself one of two things, of which enquiry shall be made of thee: that if He is true, rely and enquire not; but if He cause thee to go astray, who shall gather thee in? It is fit that thou shouldest rely upon Him in these two things. For if He hath made thee to err, it were evil for thee to reproach⁹ Him with it. How much more should He be believed in that it is the Truth which He hath written and given unto thee! But if He led us astray He would be envious¹⁰. Yet who is able to be sure that He hath deceived us? who to reveal to us aught that He hath hidden? His way then is even in all these things, His path is before children¹¹, but is crooked to the disputers, His Truth gathereth us in, and error drowneth us.¹² Children look about and are perplexed to have three ways to search into. Since the upper way is toilsome and the lower hard, choose thee the middle one¹³, and walk therein in simple-mindedness, and preach the Father and the Son inscrutable; and since two ways wrestle with questionings, go thou forth evenly in thy way without strife. Do not thou ever search¹⁴ into the Father and the Son and the glorious Spirit, or dare to bring down unto these feeble similitudes the Nature which never at any time was comprehended as to how and what He is. Flee from Him in silence; for whoso searcheth into Him confuseth himself with questionings.

Notes

R. xviii. §. 1.
p. 144, n. g.
R. xlii. §. 2.
or stem.
R. xlii. §. 3.
R. i. n. b.
S. divisions. R. xxxix. §. 1. R. lx. §. 6.
Is. 65, 1.
Rom. 9, 20.
p. 121, n. f. R. lx. §. 1.
R. xi. §. 4.
Ps. 18, 27.
Orthodoxy was commonly represented as a narrow path intersecting opposite heresies. Vide Petav. de Inc. ii. 2. §. 1. or as equally removed from Judaism and Heathenism. Vide ibid. de Trin. ii. proëm 4. and N. on Athanas. p. 190, n. b. St. Cyril, Dial. i. p. 397, b. “We are not to set a heartless and jaded mind to work upon the Holy Scriptures, as if we were at some game or other among things so to be revered, and thus turned, one cannot say how, out of the straight course and falling aside and letting ourselves be tossed down into the path that lies on either side. Now what I think the duty of going by the royal way to be, is so to say, nothing else than not turning either much to the right, nor yet to the left. For see with what unconsciousness they are carried to what they opine, &c.” Greg. Nys. c. Ar. et Sab. init. ap. Mai O. N. vol. viii. “Both opinions are set as if two traps by the aforesaid men, (i.e. Arius and Sabellius,) and between them there goeth a certain strait and narrow way which leadeth unto life, according to the Gospel: out of this the generality of men go astray and become the prey of one or the other.” cf. R. xi. §. 3. and R. xliv. §. 5.
R. xli. §. 2. R. xlii. §. 5.