Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadChurch Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 08: 28.01.04 St. Basil On the Spirit Pt 4
TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 08 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 28.01.04 St. Basil On the Spirit Pt 4
Other Subjects in this Topic:
33. But belief in Moses not only does not show our belief in the Spirit to be worthless. but, if we adopt our opponents' line of argument, it rather weakens our confession in the God of the universe. "The people," it is written, "believed the Lord and his servant Moses."hyperlink Moses then is joined with God, not with the Spirit; and he was a type not of the Spirit, but of Christ. For at that time in the ministry of the law, he by means of himself typified "the Mediator between God and men."hyperlink Moses, when mediating for the people in things pertaining to God, was not a minister of the Spirit; for the law was given, "ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator,"hyperlink namely Moses, in accordance with the summons of the people, "Speak thou with us, ...but let not God speak with us."hyperlink Thus faith in Moses is referred to the Lord, the Mediator between God and men, who said, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me."hyperlink Is then our faith in the Lord a trifle, because it was signified beforehand through Moses? So then, even if men were baptized unto Moses, it does not follow that the grace given of the Spirit in baptism is small. I may point out, too, that it is usual in Scripture to say Moses and the law,hyperlink as in the passage, "They have Moses and the prophets."hyperlink When therefore it is meant to speak of the baptism of the law, the words are, "They were baptized unto Moses."hyperlink Why then do these calumniators of the truth, by means of the shadow and the types, endeavour to bring contempt and ridicule on the "rejoicing" of our "hope,"hyperlink and the rich gift of our God and Saviour, who through regeneration renews our youth like the eagle's?hyperlink Surely it is altogether childish, and like a babe who must needs be fed on milk,hyperlink to be ignorant of the great mystery of our salvation; inasmuch as, in accordance with the gradual progress of our education, while being brought to perfection in our training for godliness,hyperlink we were first taught elementary and easier lessons, suited to our intelligence, while the Dispenser of our lots was ever leading us up, by gradually accustoming us, like eyes brought up in the dark, to the great light of truth. For He spares our weakness, and in the depth of the richeshyperlink of His wisdom, and the inscrutable judgments of His intelligence, used this gentle treatment, fitted for our needs, gradually accustoming us to see first the shadows of objects, and to look at the sun in water, to save us from dashing against the spectacle of pure unadulterated light, and being blinded. Just so the Law, having a shadow of things to come, and the typical teaching of the prophets, which is a dark utterance of the truth, have been devised means to train the eyes of the heart, in that hence the transition to the wisdom hidden in mysteryhyperlink will be made easy. Enough so far concerningtypes; nor indeed would it be possible to linger longer on this topic, or the incidental discussion would become many times bulkier than the main argument.
Chapter XV
Reply to the suggested objection that we are baptized "into water." Also concerning baptism.
34. What more? Verily, our opponents are well equipped with arguments. We arebaptized, they urge, into water, and of course we shall not honour the water above all creation, or give it a share of the honour of the Father and of the Son. The arguments of these men are such as might be expected from angry disputants, leaving no means untried in their attack on him who has offended them, because their reason is clouded over by their feelings. We will not, however, shrink from the discussion even of these points. If we do not teach the ignorant, at least we shall not turn away before evil doers.But let us for a moment retrace our steps.
35. The dispensation of our God and Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall and a return from the alienation caused by disobedience to close communion with God. This is the mason for the sojourn of Christ in the flesh, the pattern life described in the Gospels, the sufferings, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection; so that the man who is being saved through imitation of Christ receives that old adoption. For perfection of life the imitation of Christ is necessary, not only in the example of gentleness,hyperlink lowliness, and long suffering set us in His life, but also of His actual death. So Paul, the imitator of Christ,hyperlink says, "being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."hyperlink How then are we made in the likeness of His death?hyperlink In that we were buriedhyperlink with Him by baptism. What then is the manner of the burial? And what is the advantage resulting from the imitation? First of all, it is necessary that the continuity of the old life be cut. And this is impossible less a man be born again, according to the Lord's word;hyperlink for the regeneration, as indeed the name shews, is a beginning of a second life. So before beginning the second, it is necessary to put an end to the first. For just as in the case of runners who turn and take the second course,hyperlink a kind of halt and pause intervenes between the movements in the opposite direction, so also inmaking a change in lives it seemed necessary for death to come as mediator between the two, ending all that goes before, and beginning all that comes after. How then do we achieve the descent into hell? By imitating, through baptism, the burial of Christ. For the bodies of the baptized are, as it were, buried in the water. Baptism then symbolically signifies the putting off of the works of the flesh; as the apostle says, ye were "circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism." And there is, as it were, a cleansing of the soul from the filthhyperlink that has grown on it from the carnal mind,hyperlink as it is written, "Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."hyperlink On this account we do not, as is the fashion of the Jews, wash ourselves at each defilement, but own the baptism of salvationhyperlink to be one.hyperlink For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one the resurrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the Lord, who is the Dispenser of our life, gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfils the image of death, and the Spirit gives us the earnest of life. Hence it follows that the answer to our question why the water was associated with the Spirithyperlink is clear: the reason is because in baptism two ends were proposed; on the one hand, the destroying of the body of sin,hyperlink that it may never bear fruit unto death;hyperlink on the other hand, our living unto the Spirit,hyperlink and having our fruit in holiness;hyperlink the water receiving the body as in a tomb figures death, while the Spirit pours in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their original life. This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the Spirit, the being made dead being effected in the water, while our life is wrought in us through the Spirit. In three immersions,hyperlink then, and with three invocations, the great mystery of baptism is performed, to the end that the type of death may be fully figured, and that by the tradition of the divine knowledge the baptized may have their souls enlightened. It follows that if there is any grace in the water, it is not of the nature of the water, but of the presence of the Spirit. For baptism is "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God."hyperlink So in training us for the life that follows on the resurrection the Lord sets out all the manner of life required by the Gospel, laying down for us the law of gentleness, of endurance of wrong, of freedom from the defilement that comes of the love of pleasure, and from covetousness, to the end that we may of set purpose win beforehand and achieve all that the life to come of its inherent nature possesses. If therefore any one in attempting a definition were to describe the gospel as a forecast of the life that follows on the resurrection, he would not seem to me to go beyond what is meet and right. Let us now return to our main topic.
36. Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all "fulness of blessing,"hyperlink both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoyment. If such is the earnest, what the perfection? If such the first fruits, what the complete fulfilment? Furthermore, from this too may be apprehended the difference between the grace that comes from the Spirit and the baptism by water: in that John indeed baptized with water, but our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. "I indeed," he says, "baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."hyperlink Here He calls the trial at the judgment the baptism of fire, as the apostle says, "The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is."hyperlink And again, "The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire."hyperlink And ere now there have been some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the death for Christ's sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact, and so have needed none of the outward signs of water for their salvation, because they were baptized in their own blood.hyperlink Thus I write not to disparage the baptism by water, but to overthrow the argumentshyperlink of those who exalt themselves against the Spirit; who confound things that are distinct from one another, and compare those which admit of no comparison.
Chapter XVI
That the Holy Spirit is in every conception separable from the Father and the Son, alike in the creation of perceptible objects, in the dispensation of human affairs, and in the judgment to came.
37. Let us then revert to the point raised from the outset, that in all things the Holy Spirit is inseparable and wholly incapable of being parted from the Father and the Son. St. Paul, in the passage about the gift of tongues, writes to the Corinthians, "If ye all prophesy and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of the heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth."hyperlink If then God is known to be in the prophets by the prophesying that is acting according to the distribution of the gifts of the Spirit, let our adversaries consider what kind of place they will attribute to the Holy Spirit. Let them say whether it is more proper to rank Him with God or to thrust Him forth to the place of the creature. Peter's words to Sapphira, "How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Ye have not lied unto men, but unto God,"hyperlink show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same; and thus you might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparable from, the Father and the Son. God works the differences of operations, and the Lord the diversities of administrations, but all the while the Holy Spirit is present too of His own will, dispensing distribution of the gifts according to each recipient's worth. For, it is said, "there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."hyperlink "But all these," it is said, "worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will."hyperlink It must not however be supposed because in this passage the apostle names in the first place the Spirit, in the second the Son, and in the third God the Father, that therefore their rank is reversed. The apostle has only started in accordance with our habits of thought; for when we receive gifts, the first that occurs to us is the distributer, next we think of the sender, and then we lift our thoughts to the fountain and cause of the boons.
38. Moreover, from the things created at the beginning may be learnt the fellowship of the Spirit with the Father and the Son. The pure, intelligent, and supermundane powers are and are styled holy, because they have their holiness of the grace given by the Holy Spirit. Accordingly the mode of the creation of the heavenly powers is passed over in Silence, for the historian of the cosmogony has revealed to us only the creation of things perceptible by sense. But do thou, who hast power from the things that are seen to form an analogy of the unseen, glorify the Maker by whom all things were made, visible and invisible, principalities and powers, authorities, thrones, and dominions, and all other reasonable natures whom we cannot name.hyperlink And in the creation bethink thee first, I pray thee, of the original cause of all things that are made, the Father; of the creative cause, the Son; of the perfecting cause, the Spirit; so that the ministering spirits subsist by the will of the Father, are brought into being by the operation of the Son, and perfected by the presence of the Spirit. Moreover, the perfection of angels is sanctification and continuance in it. And let no one imagine me either to affirm that there are three original hypostaseshyperlink or to allege the operation of the Son to be imperfect. For the first principle of existing things is One, creating through the Son and perfecting through the Spirit.hyperlink The operation of the Father who worketh all in all is not imperfect, neither is the creating work of the Son incomplete if not perfected by the Spirit. The Father, who creates by His sole will, could not stand in any need of the Son, but nevertheless He wills through the Son; nor could the Son, who works according to the likeness of the Father, need co-operation, but the Son too wills to make perfect through the Spirit. "For by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath [the Spirit] of His mouth."hyperlink The Word then is not a mere significant impression on the air, borne by the organs of speech; nor is the Spirit of His mouth a vapour, emitted by the organs of respiration; but the Word is He who "was with God in the beginning" and "was God,"hyperlink and the Spirit of the mouth of God is "the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father."hyperlink You are therefore to perceive three, the Lord who gives the order, the Word who creates,and the Spirit who confirms.hyperlink And what other thing could confirmation be than the perfecting according to holiness? This perfectingexpresses the confirmation's firmness,unchangeableness,and fixity in good. But there is no sanctification without the Spirit. The powers of the heavens are not holy by nature; were it so there would in this respect be no difference between them and the Holy Spirit. It is in proportion to their relative excellence that they have their meed of holiness from the Spirit. The branding-iron is conceived of together with the fire; and yet the material and the fire are distinct. Thus too in the case of the heavenly powers; their substance is, peradventure, an aerial spirit, or an immaterial fire, as it is written, "Who maketh his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire;"hyperlink wherefore they exist in space and become visible, and appear in their proper bodily form to them that are worthy. But their sanctification, being external to their substance, superinduces their perfection through the communion of the Spirit. They keep their rank by their abiding in the good and true, and while they retain their freedom of will, never fall away from their patient attendance on Him who is truly good. It results that, if by your argument you do away with the Spirit, the hosts of the angels are disbanded, the dominions of archangels are destroyed, all is thrown into confusion, and their life loses law, order, and distinctness. For how are angels to cry "Glory to God in the highest"hyperlink without being empowered by the Spirit? For "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost, and no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed;"hyperlink as might be said by wicked and hostile spirits, whose fall establishes our statement of the freedom of the will of the invisible powers; being, as they are, in a condition of equipoise between virtue and vice, and on this account needing the succour of the Spirit. I indeed maintain that even Gabrielhyperlink in no other way foretells events to come than by the foreknowledge of the Spirit, by reason of the fact that one of the boons distributed by the Spirit is prophecy. And whence did he who was ordained to announce the mysteries of the vision to the Man of Desireshyperlink derive the wisdom whereby he was enabled to teach hidden things, if not from the Holy Spirit? The revelation of mysteries is indeed the peculiar function of the Spirit, as it is written, "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit."hyperlink And how could "thrones, dominions, principalities and powers"hyperlink live their blessed life, did they not "behold the face of the Father which is in heaven"?hyperlink But to behold it is impossible without the Spirit! Just as at night, if you withdraw the light from the house, the eyes fall blind and their faculties become inactive, and the worth of objects cannot be discerned, and gold is trodden on in ignorance as though it were iron, so in the order of the intellectual world it is impossible for the high life of Law to abide without the Spirit. For it so to abide were as likely as that an army should maintain its discipline in the absence of its commander, or a chorus its harmony without the guidance of the coryphaeus. How could the Seraphim cry"Holy, Holy, Holy,"hyperlink were they not taught by the Spirit how often true religion requires them to lift their voice in this ascription of glory? Do "all His angels" and "all His hosts"hyperlink praise God? It is through the co-operation of the Spirit. Do "thousand thousand" of angels stand before Him, and"ten thousand times ten thouSand" ministering spirits?hyperlink They are blamelessly doing their proper work by the power of the Spirit. All the glorious and unspeakable harmonyhyperlink of the highest heavens both in the service of God, and in the mutual concord of the celestial powers, can therefore only be preserved by the direction of the Spirit. Thus with those beings who are not gradually perfected by increase and advance,hyperlink butare perfect from the moment of the creation, there is in creation the presence of the Holy Spirit, who confers on them the grace that flows from Him for the completion and perfection of their essence.hyperlink
39. But when we speak of the dispensations made for man by our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,hyperlink who will gainsay their having been accomplished through the grace of the Spirit? Whether you wish to examine ancient evidence;-the blessings of the partriarchs, the succour given through the legislation, the types, the prophecies, the valorous feats in war, the signs wrought through just men;-or on the other hand the things done in the dispensation of the coming of our Lord in the flesh;-all is through the Spirit. In the first place He was made an unction, and being inseparably present was with the very flesh of the Lord, according to that which is written, "Upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same is"hyperlink "my beloved Son;"hyperlink and "Jesus of Nazareth" whom "God anointed with the Holy Ghost."hyperlink After this every operation was wrought with the co-operation of the Spirit. He was present when the Lord was being tempted by the devil; for, it is said, "Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted."hyperlink He was inseparably with Him while working His wonderful works;hyperlink for, it is said, "If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils."hyperlink And He did not leave Him when He had risen from the dead; for when renewing man, and, by breathing on the face of the disciples,hyperlink restoring the grace, that came of the inbreathing of God, which man had lost, what did the Lord say.? "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever ye retain, they are retained."hyperlink And is it not plain and incontestable that the ordering of the Church is effected through the Spirit? For He gave, it is said, "in the church, first Apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues,"hyperlink for this order is ordained in accordance with the division of the girls that are of the Spirit.hyperlink
40. Moreover by any one who carefully uses his reason it will be found that even at the moment of the expected appearance of the Lord from heaven the Holy Spirit will not, as some suppose, have no functions to discharge: on the contrary, even in the day of His revelation, in which the blessed and only potentatehyperlink will judge the world in righteousness,hyperlink the Holy Spirit will be present with Him. For who is so ignorant of the good things prepared by God for them that are worthy. as not to know that the crown of the righteous is the grace of the Spirit, bestowed in more abundant and perfect measure in that day, when spiritual glory shall be distributed to each in proportion as he shall have nobly played the man? For among the glories of the saints are "many mansions" in the Father's house,hyperlink that is differences of dignities: for as "star differeth from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead."hyperlink They, then, that were sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption,hyperlink and preserve pure anti undiminished the first fruits which they received of the Spirit, are they that shall hear the words"well done thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things."hyperlink In like manner they which have grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of their ways, or have not wrought for Him that gave to them, shall be deprived of what they have received, their grace being transferred to others; or, according to one of the evangelists, they shall even be wholly cut asunder,hyperlink -the cutting asunder meaning complete separation from the Spirit. The body is not divided, part being delivered to chastisement, and part let off; for when a whole has sinned it were like the old fables, and unworthy of a righteous judge, for only the half to suffer chastisement. Nor is the soul cut in two,-that soul the whole of which possesses the sinful affection throughout, and works the wickedness in co-operation with the body. The cutting asunder, as I have observed, is the separation for aye of the soul from the Spirit. For now, although the Spirit does not suffer admixture with the unworthy, He nevertheless does seem in a manner to be present with them that have once been sealed, awaiting the salvation which follows on their conversion; but then He will be wholly cut off from the soul that has defiled His grace. For this reason "In Hell there is none that maketh confession; in death none that remembereth God,"hyperlink because the succour of the Spirit is no longer present. How then is it possible to conceive that the judgment is accomplished without the Holy Spirit, wherein the word points out that He is Himself the prizehyperlink of the righteous, when instead of the earnesthyperlink is given that which is perfect, and the first condemnation of sinners, when they are deprived of that which they seem to have? But the greatest proof of the conjunction of the Spirit with the Father and the Son is that He is said to have the same relation to God which the spirit in us has to each of us. "For what man" it is said, "knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God."hyperlink
On this point I have said enough.
Chapter XVII
Against those who say that the Holy Ghost isnot to be numbered with, but numbered under, the Father and the Son. Wherein moreover there is a summary notice of the faith concerning right sub-numeration.
41. What, however, they call sub-numeration,hyperlink and in what sense they use this word, cannot even be imagined without difficulty. It is well known that it was imported into our language from the"wisdom of the world;"hyperlink but a point for our present consideration will be whether it has any immediate relation to the subject under discussion. Those who are adepts in vain investigations tell us that, while some nouns are common and of widely extended denotation, others are more specific, and that the force of some is more limited than that of others. Essence, for instance, is a common noun, predicable of all things both animate and inanimate; while animal is more specific, being predicated of fewer subjects than the former, though of more than those which are considered under it, as it embraces both rational and irrational nature. Again, human is more specific than animal, and man than human, and than man the individual Peter, Paul or John.hyperlink Do they then mean by sub-numerationthe division of the common into its subordinate parts? But I should hesitate to believe they have reached such a pitch of infatuation as to assert that the God of the universe, like some common quality conceivable only by reason and without actual existence in any hypostasis, is divided into subordinate divisions, and that then this subdivision is called sub-numeration. This would hardly be said even by men melancholy mad, for, besides its impiety, they are establishing the very opposite argument to their own contention. For the subdivisions are of the same essence as that from which they have been divided. The very obviousness of the absurdity makes it difficult for us to find arguments to confute their unreasonableness; so that really their folly looks like an advantage to them; just as soft and yielding bodies offer no resistance, and therefore cannot be struck a stout blow. It is impossible to bring a vigorous confutation to bear on a palpable absurdity. The only course open to us is topass by their abominable impiety in silence. Yet our love for the brethren and the importunity of our opponents makes silence impossible.
42. What is it that they maintain? Look at the terms of their imposture. "We assert that connumeration is appropriate to subjects of equal dignity, and sub-numeration to those which vary in the direction of inferiority." "Why," I rejoined, "do you say this? I fail to understand your extraordinary wisdom. Do you mean that gold is numbered with gold, and that lead is unworthy of the connumeration, but, because of the cheapness of the material, is subnumerated to gold? And do you attribute so much importance to number as that it can either exalt the value of what is cheap, or destroy the dignity of what is valuable? Therefore, again, you will number gold under precious stones, and such precious stones as are smaller and without lustre under those which are larger and brighter in colour. But what will not be said by men who spend their time in nothing else but either'to tell or to hear some new thing'?hyperlink Let these supporters of impiety be classed for the future with Stoics and Epicureans. What sub-numeration is even possible of things less valuable in relation to things very valuable? How is a brass obol to be numbered under a golden stater? "Because," they reply, "we do not speak of possessing two coins, but one and one." But which of these is subnumerated to the other? Each is similarly mentioned. If then you number each by itself, you cause an equality value by numbering them in the same way but, if you join them, you make their value one by numbering them one with the other. But if the sub-numeration belongs to the one which is numbered second, then it is in the power of the counter to begin by counting the brass coin. Let us, however, pass over the confutation of their ignorance, and turn our argument to the main topic.
43. Do you maintain that the Son is numbered under the Father, and the Spirit under the Son, or do you confine your sub-numeration to the Spirit alone? If, on the other hand, you apply this sub-numeration also to the Son, you revive what is the same impious doctrine, the unlikeness of the substance, the lowliness of rank, the coming into being in later time, and once for all, by this one term, you will plainly again set circling all the blasphemies against the Only-begotten. To controvert these blasphemies would be a longer task than my present purpose admitsof; and I am the less bound to undertake it because the impiety has been refuted elsewhere to the best of my ability.hyperlink If on the other hand they suppose the sub-numeration to benefit the Spirit alone, they must be taught that the Spirit is spoken of together with the Lord in precisely the same manner in which the Son is spoken of with the Father. "The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost"hyperlink is delivered in like manner, and, according to the co-ordination of words delivered in baptism, the relation of the Spirit to the Son is the same as that of the Son to the Father. And if the Spirit is co-ordinate with the Son, and the Son with the Father, it is obvious that the Spirit is also co-ordinate with the Father. When then the names are rankedin one and the same co-ordinate series,hyperlink what room is there for speaking on the one hand of connumeration, and on the other of sub-numeration? Nay, without exception, what thing ever lost its own nature by being numbered? Is it not the fact that things when numbered remain what they naturally and originally were, while number is adopted among us as a sign indicative of the plurality of subjects? For some bodies we count, some we measure, and some we weigh;hyperlink those which are by nature continuous we apprehend by measure; to those which are divided we apply number (with the exception of those which on account of their fineness are measured); while heavy objects are distinguished by the inclination of the balance. It does not however follow that, because we have invented for our convenience symbols to help us to arrive at the knowledge of quantity, we have therefore changed the nature of the things signified. We do not speak of "weighing under" one another things which are weighed, even though one be gold and the other tin; nor yet do we "measure under" things that are measured; and so in the same way we will not "number under" things which are numbered. And if none of the rest of things admits of sub-numeration how can they allege that the Spirit ought to be subnumerated? Labouring as they do under heathen unsoundness, they imagine that things which are inferior, either by grade of rank or subjection of substance, ought to be subnumerated.
Footnotes
298 1 Cor. ii. 7.
299 a'opghsi/a in Arist. Eth. iv. 5, 5, is the defect where meekness (prao/thj) is the mean. In Plutarch, who wrote a short treatise on it, it is a virtue. In Mark iii. 5, Jesus looked round on them "with anger," met0 o'rgm=j, but in Matt. xi. 29, He calls Himself pra=oj.
300 cf. 1 Cor. xi. 1.
301 Phil. iii. 10, 11.
302 Rom. vi. 4, 5.
303 A.V., "are buried." Gr,. and R.V., "were buried."
304 John iii. 3.
305 In the double course (di/auloj) the runner turned (ka/mptw) the post at the end of the stadium. So "ka/myai diau/lon qa/teron kw=lon pa/lin" in Aesch. Ag. 335, for retracing one's steps another way.
306 Col. ii. 11, 12.
307 cf. 1 Pet. iii. 21.
308 to/ sarkiko\n foo/nhma. cf. the fro/nhma th=j sapko/j of Rom. viii. 6. cf. Articleix.
309 Ps. li. 9.
310 cf. 1 Pet. iii. 21.
311 cf. Eph. iv. 5.
312 cf. John iii. 5.
313 cf. Rom. vi. 6.
314 cf. Rom. vii. 5.
315 cf. Gal v. 25.
316 cf. Rom. vi. 22.
317 Trine immersion was the universal rule of the Catholic Church. cf. Greg. Nyss. The Great Catechism, p. 502 of this edition. So Tertull. de Cor. Mil. c iii., Aquam adituri, ibidem, sed et aliquanto prius in ecclesia, sub antistitis manu contestamur, nos renuntiare diabolo et pompae et angelis ejus. Dohinc ter megitamur. Sozomen (vi. 26) says that Eunomias was alleged to be the first to maintain that baptism ought to be performed in one immersion and to corrupt in this manner the tradition of the apostles, and Theodoret (Haeret. fab. iv. 3) describes Eunomius as abandoning the trine immersion, and also the invocation of the Trinity as baptizing into the death of Christ. Jeremy Taylor (Ductor dubitantium, iii. r, Sect. 13) says, "In England we have a custom of sprinkling, and that but once. . . . As to the number, though the Church of England hath made no law, and therefore the custom of doing it once is the more indifferent and at liberty, yet if the trine immersion be agreeable to the analogy of the mystery, and the other be not, the custom ought not to prevail, and is not to be complied with, if the case be evident or declared."
318 1 Pet. iii. 21.
319 Rom. xv. 29.
320 Matt. iii. 11.
321 1 Cor. iii. 13.
322 id.
323 On the martyrs' baptism of blood, cf. Eus. vi. 4, on the martyrdom of the Catechumen Herais. So St. Cyril, of Jerusalem (Cat. Lect. iii. 10), "If a man receive not baptism, he has not salvation; excepting only the martyrs, even who without the water receive the kingdom. For when the Saviour was ransoming the world through the cross, and was pierced in the side, He gave forth blood and water, that some in times of peace should be baptized in water; others in time of persecution, in their own blood." So Tertullian (In Valentin. ii.) of the Holy Innocents, "baptized in blood for Jesus' sake" (Keble), "testimonium Christi sanguine litavere."
324 Tou\j logismou=j kaqairw=n. cf. 2 Cor. x. 4.
325 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25.
326 Acts v. 9 and 4. "Thou hast not lied," said to Ananias, interpolated into the rebuke of Sapphira.
327 1 Cor. xii. 4, 5, 6.
328 1 Cor. xii. 11.
329 cf. Col. I. 16.
330 u 9posta/seij, apparently used here as the equivalent of ou'si/ai, unless the negation only extends to a'rcika/j. cf. note on p. 5.
331 Contrast the neuter to\ o!n of Pagan philosophy with the o 9 w!n or e'yw/ eimi of Christian revelation.
332 Ps. xxxiii. 6.
333 John I. 1.
334 John xv. 26.
335 to\n stereou=nta to\ pneu=ma. It is to be noticed here that St. Basil uses the masculine and more personal form in apposition with the neuter pneu=ma, and not the neuter as in the creed of Constantinople, to\ ku/rion kai\ to\ Zwopoio\n to\ e'k tou= patro\j e'kporeuo/menon, etc. There is scriptural authority for the masculine in the "o!tan de= e!lqh e'kei=noj, to\ pneu=ma th=j a'lhqei/aj" of John xvi. 13. cf. p. 15-17.
336 Ps. xiv. 4.
337 Luke ii. 14.
338 1 Cor. xii. 3.
339 Luke I. 11.
340 "Man greatly beloved." A.V. and R.V. Dan. x. 11.
341 1 Cor. ii. 10.
342 Col. I. 16.
343 Matt. xviii. 10.
344 Is. vi. 3.
345 Ps. cxlviii. 2.
346 Dan. vii. 10.
347 cf. Job xxxviii. 7, though for first clause the lxx. reads o!te e'genh/qh a!stpa. On the Pythagorean theory of the harmony of the spheres vide Arist. De Coel. ii. 9. 1.
348 prokoph/. cf. proe/kopte of the boy Jesus in Luke ii. 52.
349 u/po/stasij, apparently again used in its earlier identification with ou'si/a.
350 Titus ii. 13, R.V. The A.V. favours the view, opposed to that of the Greek Fathers, that "the great God" means the Father. cf. Theodoret in this edition, pp. 319 and 321 and notes.
351 John i. 33.
352 Matt. iii. 17.
353 Acts x. 38.
354 Matt. iv. 1.
355 duna/meij, rendered "wonderful works" in Matt. vii. 22; "mighty works" in Matt. xi. 20, Mark vi. 14 and Luke x. 13; and "miracles" in Acts ii. 22, xix. 11, and Gal. iii. 5.
356 Matt. xii. 28.
357 Gen. ii. 7, lxx. is e'nefu/shsen ei'j to\ pro/swpon au'tou=. "ei'j to\ poo/swpon " is thence imported into John xx. 22. Mr. C.F. H. Johnston notes, "This addition. . . is found in the Prayer at the Little Entrance in the Liturgy of St. Mark. Didymus, in his treatise on the Holy Spirit, which we have only in St. Jerome's Latin Version, twice used 'insuffians in faciem corum," §§6, 33. The text is quoted in this form by Epiphanius Adv. Haer. lxxiv. 13, and by St. Aug. De Trin. iv. 20." To these instances may be added Athan. Ep. i. § 8, and the versions of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Thebaic, known as the Sahidic, and the Memphitic, or Coptic, both ascribed to the 3rd century.
358 John xx. 22, 23.
359 1 Cor. xii. 28.
360 cf. 1 Cor. xii. 11.
361 1 Tim. vi. 15.
362 Acts xvii. 31.
363 para tw= patpi/, (=chez le Père,) with little or no change of meaning, for e'n th= oi/ki/a tou= patro/j mou. John xiv. 2.
364 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42.
365 cf. Eph. iv. 30.
366 Matt. xxv. 21.
367 Matt. xxiv. 51.
368 Ps. vii. 5, lxx. o!tl ou'k e!stln e'n tw= qana/tw o 9 mnhmoneu/wn sou, e'/ de\ tw= a!dh ti/j e'comoloognh/setai soi; Vulg. "In inferno autem quis confitebitur tibi?"
369 Phil. iii. 14.
370 2 Cor. I. 22, v. 5.
371 1 Cor. ii. 11.
372 "The word was used as a quasi philosophical term to express the doctrine quoted by St. Basil, in § 13: it does not occur in the confession of Eunomius, which was prepared after this book, a.d. 382; but it was used by him in his Liber Apologetics (before a.d. 365) against which St. Basil wrote." Rev. C.F.H. Johnston. For "u 9pari/qmhsij" the only authorities given by the lexicons are "ecclesiastical." But the importation from the "wisdom of the world" implies use in heathen philosophy.
373 cf. 1 Cor. i. 20.
374 "This portion of the theory of general language is the subject of what is termed the doctrine of the Predicables; a set of distinctions handed down from Aristotle, and his follower Porphyry, many of which have taken a firm root in scientific, and some of them even in popular, phraseology. The predicables are a five-fold division of General Names, not grounded as usual on a difference in their meaning, that is, in the attribute which they connote, but on a difference in the kind of class which they denote. We may predicate of a thing five different varieties of class-name:
A genus of the thing (ge/noj).
A species (ei\dooj).
A differentia (diafora/).
A proprium (idio/n).
An accidens (sumbebhko/j).
It is to be remarked of these distinctions, that they express, not what the predicate is in its own meaning, but what relation it bears to the subject of which it happens on the particular occasion to be predicated." F. S. Mill, System of Logic, i. 133.
375 Acts xvii. 21.
376 i.e. in the second book of his work against Eunomius.
377 Matt. xxviii. 19.