CATECHETICAL LECTURES OF S. CYRIL. LECTURES ADDRESSED TO CANDIDATES FOR BAPTISM DURING LENT, IN THE BASILICA OF THE HOLY CROSS. INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. Page 1. [Delivered in full Church, and therefore perhaps on a Sunday.] LECTURE I. ON THE PURPOSE OF MIND NECESSARY FOR BAPTISM. Isaiah i. 16-19. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. [Probably in the first week.] LECTURE II. ON THE POWER OF REPENTANCE FOR THE REMISSION OF SIN. Ezekiel xviii. 20-23. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him; in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? [Probably in the first week.] LECTURE III. Page 25. ON HOLY BAPTISM. Romans vi. 3, 4. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by Baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. [Probably in the first week.] LECTURE IV. Page 34. ON THE TEN POINTS OF FAITH. Colossians ii. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. [Probably in the first week.] LECTURE V. Page 52. ON FAITH. Hebrews xi. 1, 2. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good report. They shall go to confusion together that are partakers of idols; but Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an ever- For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many and lords many,) but to us there is One God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. LECTURE XI. ON THE SON OF GOD, AS ONLY-BEGOTTEN, BEFORE all ages, AND THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS. Hebrews i. 1, 2. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. [Next day to the tenth.] LECTURE XII. Page 123. ON THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD. Isaiah vii. 10—14. Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. And Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said, Hear ye now, O House of David; is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Immanuel. [Next day to the eleventh.] Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? .... He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. [Some days before the fourteenth.] LECTURE XIV. Page 165. ON THE RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, AND EXALTATION OF CHRIST. 1 Corinthians xv. 1—4. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. [On a Monday in the beginning of the month Xanthicus, (April,) shortly after the Equinox.] LECTURE XV. ON THE SECOND ADVENT, THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE PERPETUITY OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM. Daniel vii. 9-14. ... I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, &c. .. The judgment was set, and the books were opened, &c. ... I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, |