Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIII/Ephraim the Syrian and Aphrahat/Hymns For the Feast of the Epiphany/Hymn IV

(.&#8212;Blessed be He that blots out in water misdeeds that are without measure!)

1.&#160; Descend my sealed brethren, put ye on our Lord,&#8212;and be rejoined to His lineage, for He is son of a great lineage,&#8212;as He has said in His Word.

2.&#160; From on high is His Nature, and from beneath His Vesture.&#8212;Each that puts off his vesture, commingled is that vesture, with His Vesture forever.

3.&#160; Ye too in the water, receive from him the vesture,&#8212;that wastes not or is lost for it is the vesture that vests&#8212;them that are vested in it forever.

4.&#160; But the blessed Priest, is daysman between two:&#8212;the covenant shall be made before Him, He is daysman of his Lord,&#8212;and surety on our part.

5.&#160; The Godhead in the water, lo! has mingled His leaven;&#8212;for the creatures of dust, that leaven raises up,&#8212;and the Godhead joins them.

6.&#160; For it is the leaven of the Lord, that can glide into the bondman,&#8212;and raise him to freedom; it has joined the bondman to the lineage,&#8212;of Him the Lord of all.

7.&#160; For the bondman who has put on Him, Who makes all free in the waters,&#8212;though bondman he be on earth, is son of the free on high,&#8212;for freedom he has put on.

8.&#160; The freeman who has put on, that Angel in the waters,&#8212;is as the fellow of servants, that he may be made like to the Lord,&#8212;Who became bondman unto bondmen.

9.&#160; He Who enriches all came down, and put on poverty,&#8212;that He might divide to the poor, the stores that were hidden,&#8212;out of the treasure-house of the water.

10.&#160; The lowly one again that has put on, the Giver of all greatness, in the water,&#8212;even though he be base in the sight of fools, yet is great in the sight of the Watchers,&#8212;for that he is clad in greatness.

11.&#160; For like as He Who is great, Who became lowly in His love,&#8212;by the unbelievers was persecuted, and by the Watchers was worshipped,&#8212;was made lowly and makes the lowly great.

12.&#160; Thus let him be lowly who is great, that in him the lowly may be great:&#8212;Let us be like to Him Who is greater than all, Who became less than all:&#8212;He was made lowly, and makes all men great.

13.&#160; The meek man who has put on Him Who is great, in the water,&#8212;though humble be his countenance, very great is his discernment,&#8212;for He Who is exalted above all dwells in him.

14.&#160; For who could be found to despise the bush of thorn,&#8212;the despised and humble, wherein the Majesty in fire,&#8212;made its dwelling within?

15.&#160; Who again could be found, to despise Moses,&#8212;the meek and slow of speech,&#8212;when that excelling glory&#8212;dwelt upon his meekness?

16.&#160; They that despised him despised his Lord; the wicked that despised him&#8212;the earth swallowed up in anger; the Levites who scorned Him,&#8212;the fire devoured in fury.

17.&#160; Of Him Christ commanded, &#8220;Thou shalt not call him Raca,&#8221; who is baptized and has put Him on; for whoso despises the despised, despises with him the Mighty.

18.&#160; In Eden and in the world, are parables of our Lord;&#8212;and what tongue can gather, the similitudes of His mysteries?&#8212;for He is figured all of Him in all things.

19.&#160; In the Scriptures He is written of; on Nature He is impressed;&#8212;His crown is figured in kings, in prophets His truth, His atonement in priests.

20.&#160; In the rod was He of Moses, and in the hyssops of Aaron,&#8212;and in the crown of David:&#160; to the prophets pertains His similitude, to the Apostles His Gospel.

21.&#160; Revelations beheld Thee, proverbs looked for Thee,&#8212;mysteries expected Thee, similitudes saluted Thee, parables showed types of Thee.

22.&#160; The Covenant of Moses looked forward to the Gospel:&#8212;all things of old time, flew on and alighted thereon, in the new Covenant.

23.&#160; Lo! the prophets have poured out on Him, their glorious mysteries;&#8212;the priests and kings have poured out upon Him, their wonderful types:&#8212;they all have poured them out on all of Him.

24.&#160; Christ overcame and surpassed, by His teachings the mysteries,&#8212;by His interpretations the parables; as the sea into its midst&#8212;receives all streams.

25.&#160; For Christ is the sea, and He can receive&#8212;the fountains and brooks, the rivers and streams, that flow from the midst of the Scriptures.