Three Rhythms concerning the Faith
Three Rhythms concerning the Faith
Ephrem the Syrian
c. AD 306–373
Three further rhythms on the faith: the persons of the Trinity distinct in will yet one, the different laws given in different ages, and why simple faith is better than the questions of the curious.
Rhythm 1.
1. I marvel at our boldness, to such a height hath it mounted! it is not that it hath reached it, that I marvel, but that it thought that it should reach it. For it is not because a man thinks, that he that comprehendeth aught, that he does comprehend it: it is not from his thinking that he comprehends, for to think is a very easy thing. The scrutinizers too thought that they comprehended, yet did they not comprehend, because they thought. For high above every mind is the Creator of all minds: He may not be investigated by man, nor by the Angels ascertained. Nothing made can by its knowledge describe the Maker, nor even how itself was §. 3. * These three Rhythms have been referred to in the margin and notes as contra Scrutatores; the three first of the foregoing as adversus Scrutatores, for distinction's sake. Assem. præf. p. 18. speaks of them as if directed against the Audians or Anthropomorphites: but as no sufficient internal evidence occurs to lead me to think that they were as a whole directed against them, and as Walchius (Ketzerhist. iii. p. 301.) confirms me in this opinion, they have been treated rather as a continuation of the foregoing Rhythms. The conception of God in the likeness of man is common to many heretics: heresy indeed may almost be said to consist in attempting to reduce God to what we know of the highest being with which experience makes us acquainted. Hence such passages as §. 18. may be explained as applying directly to Arianism, though with an allusion to the Audians whose heresy lay in inferring from Gen. 1, 26. that God was like man. Nor ought
even thus much to be assumed overhastily: for, though St. E. does mention the Audians, (above, p. 197, n. d.) he may allude to some heathen error, such as the Indian notion, that God in creating assumed the human form, (Purusha) a notion the Magians are likely to have borrowed in common with many others from India: and from them the Audians may have copied. For the account given of them by Theodoret, (H. E. iv. 10. and H. F. iv. 10. with which Walchius, p. 316. quarrels) as holding fire, darkness, and water, to be eternal, is perhaps only antecedently improbable from an ignorance of the Oriental systems. The notes and marginal references will shew that there is a sufficient resemblance between these and the foregoing Rhythms, to make Asseman's assertion (for he says nothing to prove it any thing more) highly questionable: in particular see p. 389. n. b. and p. 396, n. l.
The Son made all things, is not understood by any thing. 363 framed, is it adequate to describe. If it be inadequate to [understanding] its own framing, how shall it be adequate to adv. [understanding] its Maker? No mind can reach to the mighty height of its Maker: after this very height, and §. 4. below it, is there the prying of them that pry. They harass themselves to form some likeness of Him, who is like to One alone. They all go astray in the knowing of Him, when the One [Son] which He hath alone knoweth Him. 2. He is not of the family of things made, that they should adv. search Him out as if their comrade: He is not of the race Ser. R. lxi. §. 2. of things framed, that man should describe Him: nor is He S. akin to the Angels, that they should pry into Him as if their Adam kinsman: neither is He fellow of the Cherubim, who bear Him up as Lord: neither flieth He among the Seraphim, R. iii. since His Glory is at the Right Hand: with the ministering §. 13. §. spirits He is not, since He with His Father is ministered Serut. unto. All the Hosts of Heaven are entrusted unto His §. 1. and command: they cannot see the Father without the First- §. 8. born, their Commander: for neither without Him were they framed when they were made. The eye sufficeth for the p. 209, light, and with it the whole body is lightened; the ear R. xli. understandeth the voice, and by it do the limbs hear; the §. 2. mouth tasteth victuals, and so by it and with it doth the whole body. Thus by the Son who is from His Bosom do Angels see the Father: by Him also they hear His voice: by Him they receive His Gift. There is no other brother by One alone all the creatures. It is in His graciousness that He is a Pardoner, in His righteousness that He is an Avenger. By that He rewardeth, yea, by this He avengeth;
for He is the measure of His repayments. It is in His wrath that He is in-flamed, and in His mercy that He pardoneth: by His knowledge it is that He revealeth, and by His teaching that He teacheth: by Him He teacheth, by Him He maketh His creatures rich in His wisdom: and by Him He helpeth them that are in need to blessings from His treasury. By Him He will give to His wrestlers their crowns, when they are risen again. The whole of Him is mingled with the whole of Him. Who suffice to search into Him? 4. The Angels worship with silence: the Seraphim cry 'Holy' to Him: the Cherubim are laden with [His] glory: the Wheels run with [His] brightness. All of them afar off, by the Revealed One, worship the Hidden Father. If there were any other essence [to see Him by], and if it could search into the Son, its power to do so would not be from Him, since it would be unto what was from Him, that it had power to attain. Or if it knew Him, though external to Him, either it were akin to Him, or of the same family. Any other essence if it indeed by itself knew Him, either was far off as external to Him, or near as of the same family. If there were an essence that was related to Him, it is but a One that is many in names only; and should it not be related, then we are among the feeble created beings. Seraphim and Angels are not equal to it, and if there be any other nature, as being external [to Him], it is far removed. O thou creature of dust here below, to what height art thou mounting?
Who hath ever seen the hungry that are satisfied, and are filled and intoxicated with the floods of glory that flow from the Beauty of the Eternal Fairness. The Lord of every thing is a treasury of every thing: to every man according to his strength doth He give glimpses of His invisible Beauty, and of the Brightness of His Majesty. That Brilliancy giveth shine to all in its love, to the little with its glimmerings, to the perfect with its full rays. The fulness of His Glory is His Son only able to bear!...Who hath ever seen multitudes whose viands were Glory, whose clothing Light, and their faces Brilliancy, that ruminate upon and exhale the fulness of His Gift, with a fount of all wisdom in their mouth, with peace in their mind, truth in their knowledge, fear in their searching, love in their praises! O grant to my beloved, Lord! that I and they may there light upon the fragments that remain of Thy Gift. The sight of Thy Well-beloved is a fountain of delights, and whoso is worthy to regale himself therewith, slighteth food; for every one that gazeth upon Thee, is by Thy Beauty filled. Glory be to Thy Fairness!' See n. c. on p. 353.
God incomprehensible to man, who 5. It is not as the Heaven is high, that the Lord of Heaven is higher than thee: it is in measure that the Heaven is high, but its Creator is so without measure. For all that is created is greater than its fellow by measure: immeasurably high and hidden is the Creator above the creatures. [Every] creature is the brother servant of its fellow, and removed from it [but] by a little space. But the Creator is far removed from His creatures in His own Essence. There is One that is near above all unto Him, He by whom He being One made all things. The servant cometh not near unto Him, for His Son it is who is near unto Him. No fellow-servant is by His side, since His Begotten sitteth by His side. 6. There is a mighty space betwixt the Creative Essence and the creature: not that He did not shed His influence on it, since without Him it would not even exist. It is with Him, not He with it. He is mingled with it and distinct from it, as the sun is near the earth, the nature of him far from hers. The nature of the earth is not like the pure nature of light: and gold too though of her, is distinct from her, and yet mingled with her. How much more separate is the Creator from the creature though He be with it? He is too high for aught to search Him out. Whither wilt thou mount feeble man? Thou dust, that art flung upon dust, let thy conversation be in the dust! Even the dust which is beneath thee is above thee, to search into! If that beneath be too high for thee, how wilt thou attain to Him Who is above? If the small dust thy kinsman, from which thou art, is yet hidden from thee, how wilt thou search out the Majesty too high for any to search out?
7. That dust is in appearance one: it is little and yet great upon searching into it. The dust is one and yet not one, since in its severalty it is manifold. One mean bosom generates tastes that cannot be numbered: one little treasury sendeth forth ornaments that cannot be reckoned. Dust as parent gendereth offsprings that are external to itself: they are not like it in appearance; neither are they to one another. From the midst of this little thing is a wonder born to us; from the midst of its poverty many treasures stream forth, from that which is one every thing, for from the earth comes every thing. But the dust in its own self makes no alliance with any of our senses; in the hollow of the ear it is mischief, and in the eye it is injury; it stoppeth the gates of hearing, it troubleth the light of seeing.
8. To all uses it is foreign: of all assistant means it is a fountain. Though it be foreign to use, yet from it are all useful things. It is opposed to hunger, yet the table of hunger. Dust to the mouth is a mischief, for it is the bread of the accursed serpent. It was made bread to the serpent in wrath, and the table to all in mercies. That which the eater hath no acquaintance with, yieldeth us all manner of victuals. That which hurteth the sight, purchases for us all medicinable roots; that which troubleth the eye, opened the eyes of the blind. In itself and in its victuals is it entirely of advantage. Rise and marvel thou that seest at the treasures which the dust sendeth forth; a parched nature has become the fountain of all fat things; this dry nature sendeth forth moistening streams to us; from that which in its nature is weak, cometh iron and brass; that which is poor in appearance, poureth out gold and silver to us. It hath been appointed treasurer to the birds, and as a steward to the beasts; it is a great treasury feeding all, brutes, creeping things, and mankind.
9. There is a miracle in the fine dust, and it is common yet not looked upon. It reconciles in the earth side by side bitter and sweet: by the esculent root there is the deadly root. It giveth increase to the bitterness of the bitter and to the sweetness of the esculent. The bitter one gathers in its bitterness, and it is not shed out to the sweet one: the sweet one gathers in its sweetness, and it is not poured out on those round about it. How much can vile dust do which giveth to each of them its increase! To the fruits it giveth their tastes, and with their tastes their colours! to the flowers it gives their odours, and with their odours their ornaments! flavours it giveth to the fruits, and to the roots aromas! it gives beauty to the blossoms, the flowers it clothes with ornament! It is the seed's handicraftsman, it bringeth up the wheat in the ears! the stem is strengthened with knots as a building with bond-timbers, The mysterious changes of the dust.
that it may sustain and bear up the fruit, and hold out against the winds. God the Father partaken of through the Son. 369 the violence thy self will; those of necessity are thy Lord's, R. so that even if thou dost grow daring, thou art powerless. §. 2. R. Whether thou willest, or whether thou willest not, the curbs lxx. §. 1. of thy Lord are cast upon thee. To what purpose, then, thy running on? still thyself powerless man! The Father R. lxxiii. is complete in His Essence, and so is the First-born in His Generateness, the perfect Father of a perfect Son. Perfect is the Begotten, as is His Begetter. Complete entirely is the Root, complete is the Fruit as well as He. The savours which are in the Tree, He keepeth not back from His Fruit: the savours of that Root which cannot be adv. meted, dwell in the Offspring thereof. If roots conceal not Scrut. their treasures from their fruits, how should the blessed Root R. lxi. §. 3. conceal His excellency from His Fruit? Look at the tree, R. lxxvi. §. 1. how it concealeth its savours in its bosom from every one! R. lxxvii. the savours which it concealed from all, are poured out in §. 3. n.e. the bosom of its fruit! When its fruit hath received them, it divideth them to the eaters: by the means of the fruit is given unto us the sweetness which is in the root. If the fruit had not received it, it were not possible for any to in His Person might set an example to bold disputants. R.xxx. For if He were silent about His own Generation, who would §. 3. R. Ixxix. be bold about His Generation? and if He were silent, and §. 1. revealed not Himself, who would pry into His Birth? Then Mat. 11, did He confirm this saying, 'the Father knoweth the Son;' He 7. became Himself silent, that His Generator might tell of Him.
14. The Father, in whose Bosom the Son is, knoweth how p. 132. to declare Him. The One Father of the One First-born beginneth and maketh an end of the declaring of Him, as also the First-born began and made an end of His Will. John 5, The declaring of questions has failed, yet our rash disputing 0; 17, is not satisfied. Pride laboureth in new things, that it.§. 13. may not repeat those things which were heretofore: it ref. 3. is a small thing to the haughty man to hand on the truth, as it is written: seeking after things too deep, he strips off the truth of things revealed. Picture to thyself Simon, make a likeness of him: the fisher became a painter. He painted a model for the Churches: let every man paint it upon his own R. iii. heart. Let us all say unto the Son, Thou art the Son of the Pearl living God. This sentence is too great for things above, or v. §. 1. things below; let it be to thee a constant bread, and do thou and R. never reject it any day! Blessed he whom alone the Son of xxxiii. God called so! that blessing which our Lord gave him, made §. 2. R. him blessed. xlii. §. 1. R.li. §. 4. p. 260,
15. Bring thine eye near the light, and in it it seeth n. a. without prying into it, and to sleep also it turneth itself, and R. doth not trouble itself with investigating it. Bring thy mouth xxvii. nigh unto fruits, yet it does not approximate to an examina- §. 2, 3. tion of them. Upon the face of the earth thou walkest, and R.lxxv. how far art thou from seeking out the end thereof. Delightful R. to thee is the whole creation, without seeking or prying into §. 4. it. Thou rejectest measurable things, and seekest after the R. Almighty: with the creation thou keepest in quiet, with the xlviii. Creator in disputing; calm and still altogether art thou with all, but fretful art thou with the Lord of all. §. 2. 16. In measure dost thou get thyself nourished, and without measure dost thou pry. Small is the womb of thy mind: adv. doctrine in measure give thou unto it. According as its Scrut.R. womb is, so is its nourishment: let it not take too much, §. 1. §. 8. and die. Be thou fed with doctrine, that table which p. 213, n. a. fin.
B b 2 God's incomprehensibleness and man's vain sustaineth all! This is the Table of the Kingdom, take thou a little according as thou canst relish it! let not its pleasantness lead thee to many things which thou canst not relish! Disputation in due measure is a medicine of life: without measure a medicine of death. Oh thou that drinkest water in measure, make a measure also for thy searching! over-much water is more fitting than overmuch questioning. It is not by a little that He is greater than thee, that thou shouldst reach thyself out to His Height! By how much the Heaven is higher than thee, is He higher than the Heaven itself: and a hundred times more, in proportion, is the searching into Him too high for thee. It is not that He is hard of approach in His high places, that He cannot be tracked out; He is easy and visible to His servants, yet withdrawn and hidden from His creatures. He is within every thing: He is without every thing. As He is near to us in His graciousness, just so far above us is the investigation of Him! Thus much may the knowing know: naught beyond it may he know!
17. The mind laboureth to explore Him, and that He exists is all it feeleth! the reason toileth to attain unto Him, when it thinketh that it is near, it is far off! the senses and with them the thoughts have hastened, yet have they not compre- * See on adv. Serut. R. ii. §. 3. R. viii. §. 4. R. ix. §. 4. Vol. iii. p. 620, a. "The colour of wool may be changed; but the substance of it cannot be changed: neither doth it from putting on all colours, from its colour lose its nature; it is one, yet not one, and manifold in its colours, single in what is its substance. Though the truth also hath but one subsistence, (.) it is uttered in all words, while one in its substance. For the substance which is without division is divided by the heretic's mouth; they force it to be against itself, they compel one half to be against its other half. The substance in the faithful (p. 260, n. a. p. 347, ref. 8.) is at peace, clear, still, healthful; it is troubled by the knowing men; it is by strifes in the mouths of disputers that the truth wrestles with itself. But in the healthful hearer healthful words agree with their neighbours; a prudent disputant is like a builder that maketh sound and bindeth, that buildeth and tieth. The spiritual architect of scriptural words buildeth and finisheth the language like a tower,
that it may be a place of refuge for the ear to flee to away from errors. He is a purveyor of peace to the passages of Scripture, thought by fools to be at variance. He reconciles them by intellect as not at wrath, he makes them agree by wisdom as not divided. The audience too that were at wrath he reconciles; at wrath they were and set at wrath. When the books that had not been at wrath have reconciled the hearers, then are the texts reconciled one with another." Part of the last sentence, which the editor prudently abridges in translating, is obscured by a misprint of for. The whole passage, however, plainly conceives the office of a theologian to be chiefly in exercising itself in measure, i. e. within certain limits, in reference to a certain standard, unalterable in reality though entirely changed outwardly, which exists implicitly in the hearts of the faithful, though it requires an architect's mind to state it scientifically. See p. 165, n. a.
efforts to understand His Nature and attributes. 373 hended aught of Him: when they thought they had made speed and comprehended Him, they came to a stand in the abyss, and in doubtfulness. This the hearing only heard, that it heard not aught of Him. Waves upon waves dash p. 87, it down, the while it hears the Holy Scriptures. While it examineth at hearing 'He was weary,' it heareth that He wearieth not. One ear heareth that He sleepeth, and another adv. that He slumbereth not. It hears that He was little and was Serut. limited, again it hears that He filleth the Heavens. While R. xxxi. seeking to be small in its presence, He proves greater than all the creatures. 18. It heard that He had members, and went forth to feel them, and they were not; whilst musing on His frame, He proved to it to have no frame; while hearing that He was in one place, it heard that He was in all places; while to seek about calling Him Good, He gat Him a name as being Just. The eye looked upon His justice, His goodness seized upon it; the mind looked upon His graciousness, His severe rod hastened unto it; the report of pardon rejoiced it, the report of vengeance affrighted it. Betwixt His goodness and His justice, amazed and astonied is the mind; betwixt election and apostacy, the sight is troubled. When it seeth the wicked that deal violently, it seeth the good that are scourged. His trial seeketh out the true ones: His rod repressed the bold-doers. They are mingled together to Him, but not confounded: one with another, though not indiscriminate. It is owing to its weakness that the mind is amazed at this, in that it sufficeth not for it.
19. While he who seeth the death of an old man, has seen the death of children also; in one case he seeth what seems right, in another its opposite: for one who is just is overcome, and his companion, another, is delivered. He seeth good men that are oppressed, he seeth some of them that are at peace. These same perversions doth he see also among the wicked. There is one whom in a single murder men seize; another who murders a multitude, yet escapes. As among the waves slight ships are lost, so between goodness and justice are feeble minds lost. Because the conceptions S. genealogies Man's need of God's preventive and sustaining of them are confused, they cause the weak to go astray. If they are not wholly understood, as much as is fitting is understood. This is enough for us to know, that He who Gen. 18, 25. judgeth all cannot deal perversely; sufficient this for us to know, that He may not be reproved by us. For it is a 1 Rom. 9, 21. R. 11. blasphemy for the vessel to turn and teach its maker. By xxix. 21. R. what discriminating skill shall we blame Him who gave §. 3. R. discrimination? Who shall discriminate without Him who xxxvii. 11. Himself made him discriminating? What knowledge is there §. 4. capable of judging Him that knoweth all? Oh, thou that receivest thy knowledge from Him, at least be a man of knowledge in what is thine own! for if it is from Him that thou receivest, with what is His draw nigh to Him! It is the 2 p. 375. 2 p. 375. Gift of the Giver that brought thee nigh to the Giver; it is ref. 3. by knowledge that He gave to thee that thou hast found how p. 14, to know thyself and thy God. Somewhat it was that came n. m. from Him that drew thee to Him peaceably; for thine own R. xxv. from Him that drew thee to Him peaceably; for thine own §. 3. powers were inadequate to make thee reach unto Him.
20. He gave thee discourse, and made thee great 3 p. 225, thereby; do not make little the Giver of it thereby! And ref. 2. if thou hast trafficked and made gain, it was having 4 p. 125, such a capital that made thy traffick thrive. Thy known. n. ledge is from Him; thine is the likeness, His the perfection. 5 S. the If it is by knowledge from His inspiration, that rectitude is capital beheld by thee, how much more would He see it who is the thereof fountain of that knowledge itself? The rectitude which is beheld by thee do thou search it out aright, and thou wilt see The belief that knowledge in seeing as well as grace in doing God's will, is a gift of God, is often found in the Fathers. Thus in vol. i. p. 267, e. St. E. speaks as if it was the same in kind, though different in degree, with inspiration properly so called: "The gold and silver and brass and iron and tin and lead, and every thing that goeth through the fire, shall be purified. (Numb. 31. 22.) As for the vessels that are plunged in this fire, they have a typical meaning, as the gold means spiritually the Apostles: by the silver the mind understands the prophets: by the vessels of brass, iron, silver, and lead, is mystically meant the teachers of the Church, seeing
that they also are plunged in the Spirit not as the Apostles and Prophets, but next to them: but in the vessels that are plunged in water is to be understood a type of the middling and lower classes of those that are [plunged,] baptized, and made disciples." This passage will shew how St. E.'s account of a theologian in n. may be made to tally more exactly with the more recent one: as he holds the doctors of the Church to be in their degree inspired, of course we might anticipate there would be the same kind of difficulties to be reconciled by those who systematize the statements of the Fathers, as are there chiefly spoken of as existing in Scriptures. that it is shortcoming in the understanding of other things. Where then is thy knowledge, since it is not with understanding? For it is a blasphemy to say that the thing made is wiser than its Maker. Let him that hath this knowledge tell thee whence he received it. If it was not from His Lord that he obtained it, then is he neither a servant nor the fellow-servant. R. lxxviii. He cannot then be concealed, seeing there is a furnace that §. 3. detects him: the need of the Maker convicts him of being a thing made. And if it was his Lord who gave him [the power] to know, how should He be rebuked by him? for he cannot go beyond the gift which he received from Him. However great the gift is in him, he still standeth in need of the Giver: for that He did not perfect the defective creature was ib. §. 2. not because the Maker thereof was weak; but He made him subject to need, that he might feel who sustained him. Every thing that the creature hath, did it receive from One in loving-kindness.
21. For if he be great by what is lent unto him, how much greater is the Lord of the creatures. His goodness constrained Him exceedingly to make His gift to thee exceeding abundant; He made Himself poor that He might make thee rich: be not thou poor in His riches; for it were not well-pleasing unto Him, that thou shouldest stay in thy poverty. His poverty enriched thee; do not thou impoverish it by thy prying. He that enriched all is not impoverished; he that prieth it is that is impoverished. Far better than thee is the dumb, that speaketh not daring things against His Creator! better far than thee the deaf, that prieth not into his Maker. Thy speaking mouth is venturesome; the silent one is better than thee. The Lord hath exalted thee through these things, and thou requitest Him perversely. 22. The First-born made thy littleness great, do not thou make His greatness little, for He that giveth increase to all, decreaseth not. Thee doth the scrutinizing of Him make little: to no purpose will His goodnesses have befallen thee, if thou art distorted. By the Enricher of all do not thou make thee poor, by the Increaser of all do not thou get brought low; by the Gatherer in of all be not thou led astray, and by the Finder of all be not thou lost. For if thou priest thou wilt go astray in Him; and if thou measurest out Him thou measures the Creator by conceptions drawn from them. 377
nay, the disputer it is that is poor. His Will is His treasureon house, for from nothing was every thing. If the waters were wrapped together and turned unto their place, it is in handicraftsmanship only that the Creator is greater than man. In Will is the Maker mighty, for that His Will is His working. He is not subject to handicraftsman's art to get instructed S. that how He should make: it is not possible for it to teach its Creator how He should create; handicraftsman's art commanded not that Will that createth all. For an handicraftsman is as a slave beneath the yoke of handicraftsman's art; not working after his free-will, he is subject to the art. He stands amid doubts, seeing he worketh not according as he willeth. In one case his will has its course, in another his will is ineffective. From the handicraftsman's art doth a pattern come to him as to one needing it. As for the Creator, it is not upon His art that He is stayed; He Himself created the art that it might stay the children of men. By it the workman is stayed, and of somewhat maketh somewhat. If this belong to God, then is He also on a level with man, and however great in His handicraftsmanship, He is very little in His Godship. If God be God, His Will hath power to do every thing. Man maketh out of something, and God out of nothing.
25. As our create nature is in no respect like unto the Eternal Nature, thus is it in no respect like Him in its working. This solid Heaven, narrate to us in what way it exists, whether it be substantial or subtle, humid or dry? Mightier than this fire below is the sun above, and yet it burneth not up the firmament, because the commandment p. 271, alloweth it not: that commandment refraineth it, that refrained the fire of the furnace. And who would set about recounting the things created that cannot be comprehended; for lo, amid the investigation of them things visible become as the things invisible; and if the things visible are invisible, how much more are the invisible things invisible! and if the invisible things are invisible, how much more invisible is the Invisible One in His invisibleness! Thy timidity is much greater than thy knowledge in thy prying; thou fleest from the flame, thou art swift to pry into the Lord of it; thou art not so afraid of the fire, as it is afraid of its Lord. If thou fearest the The lust of prying perversely leaves the natural use
Is. 33, fire, be afraid of Him that dwelleth in fire. The fire that 14. ministereth is shining, how much more shining He that is 1 §. 23. ministered unto! From that which ministereth thou fleeth; into Him who is ministered unto thou priest! 26. With brightness, glorious though borrowed, did the Angels enter into Sodom. They saw the brightness that was Gen. 19, fairer than all, and they were frantic, old men and young. 4. There descended the fire of the Most High to aid the sons p. 255, of the Most High, not that it might deliver the holy, but that n. e. f. it might burn up the proud doers. The high ones changed their appearance, wherefore those below were bold. If the spiritual ones had lightened, the carnal ones had been prostrated. As of their own nature did they regard the Angels, a spiritual nature; contrary to nature therefore did they lust, though they changed not from their nature. The use which was not accord-
Rom. 1, ing to nature it lusted after with those of its race; it would not 26. have lusted after the high ones, who were foreign to its nature. The nature which is not of our place was foreign to our use; it is by its will that it can adapt itself entirely, if it be sent. Lust lusted after the high ones, because they had put on the countenance of those below; against nature, and yet in nature, was it, since lust did lust for that which is its own. 27. the opposite of faith. Examining goes searching and searching on, and if a man is a searcher, then is he no believer; and if p. 143, he be searching until now, his finding is far from him. Faith n. c. that goeth not wandering is that which hath found the truth revealed. She hath been found of, and hath found the verity that hath come to her. By those without have they of the household been reproved for bold disputers: by them in error too R. hath the knowing one been put to shame, that knew and yet xxxv. §. 1. and iii. §. 16. was bold.
28. The worshippers of the sun pry not into him, who is but a creature; though his servitude be very obvious, yet call they him by the name of his Lord; neither doth the heathen pry into the graven image that superstition hath graven, for if he were to pry into it, then could he not worship it: he could not pray unto it, if he pried into it, which is a dumb [idol]. Experience would teach him that it seeth not nor heareth. Wherefore superstition doth not allow those in error to be prying, but it has brought prying into §. 29. the house of the true [worshippers] that they may die. Prying hindereth that it may blind, and again it giveth that p. 124, it may hoodwink. For as if thou priest into an idol, it is n. m. R. lxv. edification to thee; so if thou priest into God, it is a mischief. §. 3. It gave faith, then, where prying were useful; but prying Comp. came in where faith was required. For if prying cometh in, Bel and Dragon. then faith cometh to a stop, and by both of them did man fall in p. 396, his feebleness; for prying he comprehended not, and faith he possessed not. Pry into the dumb that thou mayest understand, since he is bereft of hearing; but pry not into Him that heareth all, how and by whom He heareth; for it is not by any ear that he heareth, since He is wholly hearing throughout; neither is it by eyes that He seeth, since the whole fulness of Him is seeing. It is His Nature that He hears n. l.
Disputation vain, revelation sufficient. throughout, it is His Nature that He sees throughout. In faith take refuge, for He is high above prying; it is faith that is able to give life to our feebleness. The Persons distinct, the Will one in the Trinity. 381 not in His Bosom. And if also He were not distinct from Him, He would not sit at His Right Hand. He is mingled with Him, because He is in His Bosom; He is distinct from Him, because He is on His Right Hand. One They are in one Will; They are Two by Their two Names. the tree a stock by the name of a fruit that it bare not; as then the tree exists in name, and likewise in subsistency, Vol. iii. p. 352, b. in a doxology at the end of a funeral dirge, which might possibly have been a subsequent addition, though in other respects like St. E.'s style. (See also on R. ii. §. 3.) ' Praise let us offer to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Three Persons and Names, One God, the Raiser up of Adam's sons.' (Yet compare a very similar case in Athanasius' use of the term hypostasis, in O. T. p. 70. Ibid. p. 433. Christ addresses a sinner—'the who by the Blood of Myself, i. e. Mine own Blood, art redeemed.' Ibid. p. 422, c. ' I have not been watchful the solidity of a single hour,' i. e. even for one single hour. [De la socia] words not without some difficulty, which the elusion of them in the translation would shew. These are the only passages (besides the one in p. 381. bottom) that occur to me to add to those already referred to: the latter, if correctly rendered, answers to the use of it in the text. St. E. again and again speaks of the Names, but does not use the word [de la] alone (though even the metre would not interfere with his doing so) for Persons. To express this he contends that the Names have a reality to answer to them:
this again he illustrates by certain rude similitudes in nature, and in the thing used as a simile he does apply the term [de la] to the substance which the name indicates, but seems to avoid so applying it to the thing signified by that simile. Now this is just what he does with the word [de la] (nature) in p. 232, n. b. for a parallel to which in Greek, see Le Quien Diss. Damasc. ii. §. 17. and on Dam. Dialect. p. 36, n. 4. This indefiniteness of meaning served to help the cause both of Nestorians and of Monophysites at a subsequent period. See Assem. B. O. iii. pt. 2. p. cxx. &c. Diss de Monoph. §. 5. and P. Strozza de Dogm. Chald. cap xv. ii. That which St. E. seems to employ the word thus indefinite to express, would answer more nearly to our word 'reality,' (which he uses, p. 384. as equivalent to it) than to 'person;' as [de la] in Greek would mean unreal, so the Syriac word would be used of the contrary (comp. p. 372, n. n.)—and St. E. would mean, that apart from the farther question in what the Unity of the Godhead lies,
Each Divine Person has a Substantial Reality answering to it. This was one step to make against the Arians: to shew a Oneness of Substance was another step, which may be done by proving a oneness of operation and of will: to determine precisely what properties must be added to our idea of that Substance, when we would contemplate it as existing in Any One of the Three Persons was a farther step resulting indeed from subsequent reflection upon the former two, but upon which St. E. does not seem to enter. So far then the distinct sense of 'person' is not definitely attached by St. E. to [de la]. Yet surely the frequent use of the word for 'self,' (as noticed in p. 210. is an approximation to such use of it. This latter use may be illustrated by another word commonly used in Syriac for 'self' viz. the word 'soul.' If it may not be considered as a ruled point, that the soul alone does not constitute a man's person, St. E. (de Parad. viii. certainly holds this to be constituted of soul and body. Yet the soul is the source of man's personality, is that which, in our ideas, though not in fact, is prior to the body when we conceive of a definite person in our minds. See Petav. de Inc. iii. 12. §. 2. and 15. §. 4. de Trin. iv. 8. §. 4. And as the soul is to our body, so is the Godhead to Christ's Manhood:
His Personality is compounded of these two Natures—only in Him the Godhead had a priority in fact to the Manhood—He was a Person without the latter, though He is not now. When then the Sacrifice of Himself, or 'the Blood of Himself' is spoken of, the word [de la] used for 'self' in that case makes a close approximation, though it is only an approximation to the subsequent use of it for 'Person.' As I am not aware of any thing like a scientific treatment of this word, it seemed desirable to put together what was known to me in connection with it. Of course it is quite one thing to acknowledge that the word admitted of being confused with other words, and another to excuse heretics for confounding the things signified. Orthodoxy does not lie in 'the noise of words,' (see p. 260, n. a. though it is symptomatic of heresy to refuse to attach to words that meaning which the Church chooses to attach to them. St. E. is here writing antecedently to the time when the definite 384 The Names of Father and of Son imply real Persons appellations, and in the place of forms are names. The or voice riseth instead of the light, and instead of the eye is the features hearing. The ear is near unto the names, and distinguisheth them as if images!
33. Yet neither do similitudes serve even to shadow forth R. xlii. the reality. For that fruit of the tree cannot preach of the §. 5. First-born, seeing the fruit is suspended upon its tree, and if ref. 6. they cut it off, it changeth; it cannot be on its tree when it is with him that taketh it. But the First-born is in the Father; He remaineth with Him and cometh unto us; He is with Him and with us also: He cometh and goeth while He R. is in every thing. The Creation is filled with Him wholly, lxxiii. while the end of Him is in the Father; neither is there any p. 25, mouth that can tell His going or His coming. Before He came n. y. He was here, and when He came here He was there. Ere He ref. 2. & went to His Father, He was there entirely with Him. He went ref. 4. thither, when He was there. He came hither, when He was here. His going and coming was true: He came and went
Father.' But let them hear one thing, that if the Divine Subsistencies had not been manifested by an appellation corresponding to each, what symbol would there be for any one to use, (without mentioning the Father's title) in order to indicate both the Father, and the fact that He has a Son? or again, to speak of the Son and the Spirit, withal, without naming the title of the Son and the Spirit? &c." Didymus is there alluding to Eunomius, who argues (as Mingarelli notices) Apol. §. 18. that diverse names imply diverse essences. The answer is, that names are all we have to distinguish the Subsistencies, even though They be One Essence, and that it is manifestly perverse to argue, that the rules which we apply to things in general are to be so absolutely universal as to include the Trinity, as if in this case also separate names implied three separate essences.
34. he knew that God existed that he was condemned, but because he dared to scrutinize Him. If thou believest that there is an Eternal, to pry into Him is distraction: if then thou knowest that He exists, into the mode of that existence search not. For on which side of Him wilt thou look upon Him that is without end? If thou wishest to pry into that Essence, go, begin with it from the bound thereof. And when thou hast bounded that which is unbounded, from what quarter wilt thou go in to measure Him? If thou wert to dwell in the midst [of it], then thou wert far off from the end of It; and if in every place thou art feeble, turn thee to the commandment. Look upon Adam, for if he had continued instant in the commandment, then had he reigned; because he daringly transgressed the commandment, he was not honoured with that for which he wished.
35. For when God made him, God made him a thing made, in that He gave him freewill that he might deal after his own will. Adam, however, foolishly wished to lust after that which he already had. But since he was daring as if by necessity, even that which he now had he lost his hold of. To thee then hath God given commandments as schoolmasters, and lo! they teach thee, that if thou keepest them, thou wilt be a brother of the Christ. Instead then of seeking to go in, lo! thou seekest how thou mayest come forth. Enter in to the searching of the commandments, and they will be to thee like a mirror! See therein thy labour and thy work; seek therein the reward and the promise! 36. Let the just be also to thee an image of love, and fashion thyself by them! look, therefore, and grow bright in Enoch! be like Noah, the second head [of the race]!
This again is a passage which may glance at the Audians, though assuredly it may also be aimed at the Anomeans. Greg. Naz. Or. 34. p. 542, d. in writing against the latter, says, "Is God nowhere, or somewhere? If nowhere, some of the very enquiring minds may ask, how at that rate He is to exist? for if what does not exist, is nowhere, what is nowhere haply does not exist; and if He exists somewhere, then, as He does, He must be either in the universe, or beyond it; but, if in it, either in some part or else everywhere. And if in any part, He will be circumscribed by this part which is less than Him: but if He be everywhere, He will be circumscribed by another thing, and that much greater.... but if He be beyond the universe, is there then nothing to separate Him from the universe? And where will He be beyond this, or how is one to conceive that which transcends and that which is transcended, without some limit existing to transect and separate them? &c." See R. xlv. and G. Nyss. ii. p. 319. who points out how Eunomius makes God local.
c c 2 Abraham's faith a lesson against prying. If then thou thinkest that thou surpassest them, how wilt thou surpass Abraham? However great thy excellencies are, his bosom is the haven to which thou wilt come at last. Our Lord hath taught thee in His Gospel, that it is in him that thy course is to end. Seek thou then, as one discriminating, what his conversation was: if then it was by his believing only that his degree was above all, how comest thou to be minded by prying to rise above his degree? Two things are taught by him, faith, and not prying. Because he believed, he received the promise; because he pried not, he gained the kingdom. Whoso believeth, prieth not; if then a man pry, he believeth not. 37. Consider how Abraham might have pried into the words that he heard! for it was not by a commandment that he learnt that there was a God in Heaven, but he judged of his own self that He was Lord of the creation. He then who saw his thoughts revealed Himself unto him, that he might be confirmed [therein]. When Abram perceived that He existed, he sought not to find the mode of His existence. Even after He had revealed it to him, he asked Him not, in what mode dost Thou exist? And the Messiah too he knew, and yet the mode of His existing did he not enquire into. He saw then, and was transported with joy; he wrought the type, and kept silence. How then wilt thou be daring in the investigating of the Only-begotten? Flee away, and hide thee with the commandments! Seek what thou shouldest do, and how thou mayest have life, and which of the commandments may be a key unto life for thee!
38. Consider also which commandment ministered unto its time, and was ministered unto; but be not deceived, when thou shalt hear words like, and yet distinct. There is a voice that requireth sacrifices, and there is a voice that rejecteth burnt-offerings. There is a voice that maketh clean meats, and there is a voice that confuseth them and eateth. There is a voice that maketh feast-days; there is a voice that pro-faneth feast-days: there is a voice that halloweth the day; there is a voice that rejecteth sabbaths. There is a voice that is for circumcising males; there is a voice that rejecteth circumcision. All these, when thou hast heard, stand between them both and question them. Be not thou then in error with the rest, whom scrutinizing choked, but hear the voice which speaketh with one mouth in all generations. In one generation there was one voice; the generation passed, and the commandment passed: a generation [more] came in, the voice added yet to command another law. The voices were gathered together and multiplied, since all these generations were in one generation. Fools came in to distinguish between voice and voice, that from voices that were not like they might establish different Gods, seeing they saw not, that the generations also were unlike one to another; for the dispensations of the generations were distinct one from its comrade.
39. But if the law of one generation extended unto all, wherefore did the flood carry away those who approached not unto the tree? For if the voice spoken to Adam had passed on unto Noah, what recompense was there, where the action Ps. 50, 13. Is. 1, 12. Amos 5, 22. Pearl vi. §. 2. Deut. 10, 16. Jer. 4, 4. p. 14. 18 which had no place? It was necessary, then, in all generations was a that according as they are, so should the commandments be; stranger for the edification of those of the generation were the voices to the spoken in the generations. By this economy, then, the action. voices were added to and increased; the voices that were added caused to err the teachers of error that have erred from One. From the voices that have spoken upon earth §. 38. have they made Gods in heaven. For many were the voices of the Prophets, that they might persuade the weakly; they R. liii. set forth all manner of medicines for the sickliness of the §. 3. infirm. There were some of the commandments that ceased, because the former malady was no more; there were some of them that were standing ones, because the maladies were standing ones. Both Apostles and Prophets were physicians of souls: according to the suffering of mankind so did they apply their remedies; according to the sicknesses which were in their generations, thus did they set forth their medicines. They administered their medicines to the last and to the first. There are maladies of particular generations, and there are maladies which are in all generations. For the new maladies which came athwart them they gave new medicines: for the maladies constant in all generations they gave constant remedies.
40. They gave the commandment 'thou shalt not steal:' constant is the malady, and constant the remedy thereof. They gave a commandment for circumcision: the malady is gone, and gone is the remedy of it. They stablished an instrument different positive laws, each unsuited to the other. 391 for the circumcised, for maladies that were recently [come]. The instruments then that were stablished were by reason of the former maladies. Since that malady is no more at this day, that instrument hath also ceased, for as the mischief had ceased, the instrument was also supererogatory. At this day the commandments of the sabbath, of circumcision, and purification, have ceased. They are supererogatory to those of latter days, and those of middle times they were fitting. To those of former days they were not fitting, since they were sound in knowledge: neither to those of latter times were they fitting, because they were sound in the faith. To the middle times alone did they minister, because they had to struggle with Paganism. Whoso now-a-days frames his life
So in §. 44. Leave the sabbath and circumcision; and in §. 42. the medicines of sacrifices and sabbaths and tithings are put together as things that have passed away with the maladies. It is remarkable that Eunemius argued from the institution of the Sabbath, that the Son had a 'beginning and end of being begotten,' as if it was a commemoration of His being produced, and not of His having Himself made all things. See G. Nyss. ii. p. 653, b. It is just possible that the Syrian Anomeans may have made a similar endeavour to shew that their system was a key to the types of the Old Testament. The Fathers speak commonly as in the text, as if the whole principle of observing one day more than another was Jewish and blameable. (See Justin Martyr, quoted p. 10, n. b. Const. Apost. vi. 23. Barnab. Ep. §. 15. Ignat. ad Magnes. ix. Clem. Strom. iii. §. 99. vii. §. 35. Origen in Jos. viii. 2. c. Cels. p. 61. p. 270. p. 393. Archel. c. Man. xliii. Tertull. c. Jud. 4. Austin in Ps. xxxii. §. 6. xxxvii. §. 2. §. 12. Cons. Evang. ii. §. 151. c. Faust. vi. §. 4. xvi. §. 28. xviii. §. 5. xix. §. 9 and 18. Jerom. in Esai. p. 197, a. p. 206, d. p. 220, b. Erasm. Epiphan. i. p. 13, d. p. 123. p. 124, a. p. 158, d. Nyssen i. p. 177, c. Cyril de Ador. p. 227, d. p. 346, c. p. 558, d. p. 600, b. p. 619, e. p. 629, 30. Greg. Mor. xviii. §. 68. Aretas Caten. in Apoc. p. 337. Corder. Cat. in Pss. ii. p. 896. &c.) Yet of course such a disparagement of the principle of keeping one day holy (modified as it is in some of these passages by the context) may be intended to exclude
the truly Jewish notion, that things unallowable on the Sabbath were allowable at any other time, as if a sabbath from sin was not always obligatory; and not to exclude the Christian principle of having a fixed time for religious exercises, whether that time be or be not divinely sanctioned. The practice of directly appealing to the Fourth Commandment (now, it is believed, universally so appealed to) as a divine sanction for this principle belongs, perhaps, to ages with the theology of which the writer is not acquainted; it certainly is not common in antiquity as far as he is acquainted with it; the Fathers rather speak of their practice of observing the Lord's day than of God's command. E. g. Athan. de Sabb. et Circ. §. 4. As He commanded them formerly to keep the day of the Sabbath a memorial of the finishing of the former things; thus do we honour the Lord's day which is a memorial of the beginning of the second re-creation." Conc. Laod. can. 29. "Christians ought not to Judaize and be at ease on the Sabbath, but to work on that day, and, giving the chief honour to the Lord's day, that is to say if able, to be at ease as Christians should be." [see Note A, p. 417. Ed.]
This is the reason given by St. James of N. as above, §. 6. §. 7. §. 42. Other instances may be found in Spenser de Legg. i. §. 2. This of course is only one aspect of the Jewish ritual; no one who has seen his mode of treating parts of it in these notes, can doubt that St. E. held the law also to be a type of things to come. Sacrifices and ordinances suited to the Jew, having after the commandments, as after instruments, is akin to the murderer who cutteth off healthy limbs. fulfilled their object, are not binding on Christians. 393 that which He loosed, thou keepest. Inquire a little, foolish one, concerning the observances of the Law! what can circumcision do for that sin which dwelleth within? sin Hch. 9, dwelleth within thy heart, and thou circumcisest thy foreskin. 9. Well wouldest thou speak on this wise: circumcision was fitting in its time: the Shepherd of all made it a seal for the Gen. 17, foolish fold which He had obtained; He that knoweth all Rom. 4, things made it a sign for the flock which killeth its shepherds. 11. A fold it was that mingled continually among the folds of the heathen! With a visible seal did He seal it, that they might 1 p. 391, be distinguished, though they wished not; that the visible Ex. 20, sign which He set upon them, might repress the violence of 32. their madness. He was bent on keeping the fold, because of Somewhat that was in the midst of it. The Somewhat which was hidden in the midst of it came forth, and became a Shepherd to mankind. In a contemptible flock was He hidden, that Prince of shepherds: He left the foolish fold, for the nations had become His pasture.
43. Afflict not thyself then with that circumcision, the time whereof hath passed away. Afflict thyself with circumcision: circumcise the hateful things that are within thee. Thy will is free: it can circumcise thee from iniquity 2; 2 p. 122, external force 3 cannot enter into thy mind and circumcise it. 2 p. 122, ii. §. 4. See that He who circumcised their bodies, called upon them, 3 p. 193, [saying,] 'circumcise your hearts.' Wherefore did He seek Deut. 30, another circumcision, for behold, their bodies were circum- 6. cised? and if He seeketh another circumcision, be not thou bound by the visible one! 1 The respect to this 'Somewhat' is made by St. E. above, p. 3. p. 39. p. 49. that which justified Thamar and Ruth in what else would have been unseemly. Vol. i. p. 90, a. "I plead that it was for that Something which is hidden in the Hebrews that I was athirst. Whether this be pleasing or not unto Thee I wist not! Grant unto me to be seen by him, that he may not kill me as having had the word of whoredom found in my mouth. It is enough for me to know that it pleaseth Thee, that the Treasure hidden in those circumcised men should flow down even by means of a daughter of the uncircumcised, &c." In p. 407, e. he mentions
the same thing of the other of our Lord's female ancestors, mentioned in Matt. i. "From the fact that the king was inflamed at the sight of her, the interpreters have found ground for thinking, that the woman displayed her person to the king, since she did not conceal herself from him, yea, she knew he saw her, and did not go into her inner chamber as a modest woman ought to have done. This, however, as they say, was not from folly, but that she might gain from Him the Treasure that was hidden in him—for every body knew that the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah, &c." The obstinate perversity of the Jews ought to hath no prophets to kill openly as it lusteth. It was scattered amongst kings, that they might tame it by force; so it saw that the heathens mused over the prophets in the stead of R. iii. demons. It clad itself with those Prophets, which it then had killed. It clothed itself with them, and it stripped them off, that it might kill with them while disputing. It killed the bodies of the Prophets, and clothed itself with the voices of the Prophets, that instead of the Prophets it might kill those that read in the Prophets.
46. Flee from it, thou that art feeble; a light thing is thy death and thy blood to it; it took [upon it] the Blood of Acts 20, God, will it be scared away from thine? It feareth not while leading thee astray, since it feared not while letting itself be led astray. Beneath the pillar of the cloud it made a calf, and was not ashamed; and it placed an image of four fears in the sanctuary, and did not feel afraid. It hung God upon the Cross, and all created shook to see Him. The Spirit rent the veil of the temple in twain, that the unbelieving people might rend their hearts. Rocks and sepulchres were rent, but the heart of stone felt not. When the [Spirit] saw that they were not scared thereby, He fled away from the mad ones. 47. Then broke forth the curse on them that looked at the p. 70. Presence of the Glorious God; the Prophet was too abashed to relate the wantonness of them as it was; abashedly did Ezech. Ezechiel speak of their wanton doings. In that they were delivered by a bashful man, they were spoken abashedly.
Perhaps this remarkable expression is of some weight as indirect evidence that St. E. had the reading, the 'Church of God,' in Acts xx. 28. as it seems hardly likely (notwithstanding the expression, 'it hung God, &c.' which is more like 1 Cor. ii. 8.) that St. E. would have employed such an expression without direct sanction from Scripture. Father Thomas of Jesus in his book de Procur. Gentium Salute, p. 355. mentions the fact that the Nestorians read 'Church of Christ,' but Adler. de Vers. Syr. p. 17. p. 36. notices that the Syrian Codices do not all give this reading, as neither do the Greek. A Syriac Ms. of about 1000 years old, belonging to Mr. Palmer of Magdalen College, has 'Church of Christ.' Though the proper business of this note is to mention any thing bearing on the Syriac text known to me, yet the expressions, 'by the might of God the Father, by the Blood of God the Son and the dew of the Holy Spirit,' (Clem. Quis D. salv. §. 34.) and 'God and the Father, although it be not written that He purchased us with His own Blood,' (Didym. de Trin. p. 236.) are worth noticing, both as parallel to the text and as seeming to imply the same reading as it does: and as a kind of evidence for readings which have been much neglected. At any rate St. E.'s own statement is not one which a Nestorian would have made.
Satan's devices the proper arena for subtlety, See Tit. 1,14.15. As what was sacred passed through their mouth, and had dishonour done it, thus also did hateful things pass through the mouth of the bashful, and were handled bashfully. They slaughtered Prophets as simple lambs; the physicians came unto them; they became to them butchers. Flee and rescue thyself from their madness; run and find a port in Christ: that thou mayest not go as one that prieth, draw near as one that worshippeth. If the unbelieving became a crucifier, and the worshipper a disputer, sorely do the discerning weep [to think] that one blasphemed, the other disputeth. 48. He went to the seed of Abraham; the heirs had become murderers: He went to the Gentiles that were simple; the plain men became disputers. Be thou a plain man unto thy Lord; and crafty to thine adversary. Pry, and search, and learn his snares, and how and where he hideth them. Mind well, and look about, and see his hidden and subtle net! incline thine ear, and look about, and feel where he prepares his pitfalls! make thee a spy, and learn when he layeth an ambush for thee! But instead of prying into thy deceiver, thou hast come to grope after thy God. Know that God is God, and cannot be comprehended by thee: know too that the wicked one is a deceiver; let thy business be with him. Approach them each according as he is, with distinguishing spirit, Satan in hostility, and God as a plain man! Fight with one in the struggle: and believe the other that He is! Be not thou bold to plunge into His great hidden flood, lest the depth should wax great p. 87, before thee, and thy reason be put in jeopardy!
Rhythm 2.
1. I WOULD fain approach, and yet I fear, lest I should be far off, since the bold man that approacheth prying, removeth himself very far off. But he that approacheth in measure, him doth not Equity reject. Let us not approach, lest we be far off, neither let us stay far off, lest we perish! Let us temper with moderation our approach to the Essence that cannot be measured! since long speaking is not becoming, let us speak briefly! 2. How can vile dust tell of its Framer? Goodness framed the dust to be an image of its Maker; let then Justice also terrify it from being bold against its Creator. The Creator gave knowledge to the vessel, in order that it might know itself. The thing framed striveth about Him that framed it; by prying it driveth away Goodness. Let us give hearing in [due] weight to him that learneth in measure! Let us put a balance in the midst, and weigh and take and give; let us take therewith from the teachers, and give it therewith unto the learners!
3. Thou hast heard that God is God, know thyself that thou art man: thou hast heard that God is the Maker. How being clay dost thou pry into Him? Thou hast heard of God, that He is Father; by His Fatherhood, know His Begotten. For if the Father begetteth, the Son that is from Him did He beget from Himself. That One Offspring which is the Only-begotten Son, let not thy questionings sunder! thou hast heard of the Brightness of the Son; do not thou insult Him by thy questioning! Thou hast heard of the Spirit, that He is the Holy Spirit; surname Him by the Name that they have called Him. Thou hast heard His Name; praise [Him] by His Name: to pry into His Nature is not allowed. Thou hast heard of the Father and the Son and the Spirit; by the Names hold the Realities. These Names are not blended together: the Three are in truth p. 210, rel. 4. blended together.
4. If thou confessest Their Names, and confessest not Their Subsistencies, thou art in name a worshipper, in deed an unbeliever. Where there is nothing in subsistency, the name which intervenes is an empty one; whatsoever hath no subsistency, of that the appellation also is void: the word subsistency teacheth us that it is some reality. That then it has this, we know, in what way it has it, we comprehend not. Because thou knowest that it exists, thou dost not therefore comprehend in what mode it exists: neither again do thou deny that it exists, because thou canst not define it. For both are a blasphemy, either for thee to recede [from Him], or for thee to scrutinize. That mighty sea, if thou shouldest R. i. pry into it, the weight of the waves thereof would bewilder §. 48. p. 87, n.i. thee. A single wave might weigh thee down, and might dash thee against a rock. It sufficeth for thee, O feeble man,
The word [icon] is used here and in §. 4. and §. 6. in a sense approximating to 'Person,' as was noticed above, p. 280, n. u. yet as it is known that obria was used for that to which briernes was afterwards applied. (see Coteler. P. A. ii. p. 58. n. 50) it cannot be argued from this that [icon] had the definite sense of 'Person.' Indeed it appears from passages already given, to be used for substance in some cases, not to say that he uses 'Nature' of the Spirit in nearly the same way just above. This is confirmed by what he says in §. 4. where he evidently regards [icon], there rendered 'subsistency,' as the reality which every name implies, and not as that reality viewed in a definite sense, as modified by those properties which constitute its personality. (Comp. §. 7. and i. §. 31. where [icon], though in the singular, obviously takes the place of [icon] here.) For what he there says would apply as well to three different substances. A passage from vol. ii. p. 556, a. bearing upon this subject ought not to be omitted here: speaking of the Æons of the Gnostics he says: "It is clear without controversy that the nature of the Essence (or Æons) is one, and the name of the same is one also; for the
name of every essence defineth its substance (Knumo). The body of men is one, because the name of men is one; allow, without controversy, that the nature of Angels is one, because the name of Angels is one; the nature of souls is one, because the name of souls is one. A genus is proclaimed and explained by the name which belongs to it. If there be other distinctive names which do not answer to the substances, that comes of the Creator's Will; He called His servants by the name of Gods and Lords; by the Son's name did He surname the sons of grace; by the name of the Spirit the family of spiritual beings. Their natures are distinct, and their names the same, that we might confess His grace and adore His Lordship." Here Knumo is plainly used in a loose way for substance, much as 'body' is used in the next clause. A little before, p. 564, c. he had said, "If the names be like, then the natures are like." Thus he deprecates investigating into the mode in which the reality or substance is modified in order to make a person, much as St. Greg. Nazianzen and others deprecated discussing the difference between Generation and Procession, which difference was not discussed till afterwards.
400 Man ought to rebuke the tempest of unbelief within. wilt believe upon the Name, thou shalt live. Let the Name of the Father be a boundary to thee; pass not over to pry into His Na- ture! Let the Name of the Son be a wall unto thee; pass not over to pry into His Generation! Let the Name of the Spirit be a hedge to thee; go not within it to pry into Him! Let the Names be boundaries to thee; with the Names bridle questionings! 7. Since thou hast heard of the Names and the Reality, then turn thee to the commandment; since thou hast heard the law and the commandments, turn then to the conversation therein; since thou art perfect in the commandments, then turn thee to the promises. Do not thou make of none effect that which is commanded, and let thyself run wild in what is not written. Thou hast heard the truth in what is revealed; go not astray upon what is concealed. Simon spake things revealed; the Truth he gave, and a blessing he received. See how with one word Simon spake; do not thou go astray in many [words]! The Truth is written in concise expressions; do not thou make long investigations! That there is a Father, every man knoweth; in what mode He is so, no man knoweth. That there is a Son, we all confess; the manner and degree He is so, we cannot define. That there is a Holy Ghost, every man confesseth; for prying into Him, no man sufficeth. That there is a Father then, confess; that He can be defined, do not thou confess! Again, believe that there is a Son; that He can be scrutinized, by no means believe! That there is a Holy Ghost, assert; that He may be pried into, assert not! That They are One, believe and assert; and that They are Three, be not doubtful!
8. That the Father is the First, believe; that the Son is the Second, assert; that the Holy Ghost also is the Third, doubt not! The First-born never at any time commanded the Father, for He it is who commandeth. Never at any time did the Spirit send the Son, for that the Son is the Sender thereof. The Son that sitteth on the Right 1 p. 370, Hand snatcheth not at the place of the Father, neither doth n. m. the Spirit, which is sent from Him, snatch at the order of the 2 Son. The Son rejoiceth that the Begetter of Him is mighty, p. 301, and the Holy Ghost that His Well-beloved is mighty. Joy is n. b. 3 p. 210, there there and concord, and intermingling along with order. ref. 4. The Father knoweth the Generation of the Son; the Son 4 S. nod knoweth the design of the Father; the Father designeth, and the Son knoweth, and the works are done by the Spirit. There 5 S. in the is no division intervening, because there is but One Will to middle intervene. There is no confusion in the intermingling, since p. 381, there is a perfect order there. For suppose not, because They n. u. 6 R. xl. are blended, that there is any confusion; neither, because They §. 1. R. are distinct, fancy to thyself that there is any division. They ixxiii. are blended, though not confounded; and distinct, though § 1. not divided. Their reciprocity is not confounded, and Their distinctness is not divided. What blendeth Their distinctness? what distinguisheth Their blended estate? They alone themselves know! Flee unto silence, feeble [man]!
the strong negative statement in the text, which plainly speaks of the Trinity irrespectively of the Incarnation. [It may be observed, that even when the Equality of the Divine Persons is argued from Is. 48, 14. (in that elsewhere God the Son is said to send the Holy Spirit, here to be sent by Him) it does not follow that the text is taken of any other than His Human Nature. For St. Augustine who in the de Civ. Dei (xx. 30.) explicitly states that our Lord says this 'in the form of a servant,' elsewhere alleges it against Arian disparagement of the Holy Spirit, (c. Maximin. Arian. ii. 20. §. 4.) The two passages are; de Civ. D. "It is the Same Who was just speaking as the Lord God, nor would it be understood to be Jesus Christ, unless He had added, 'And now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me.' For this He said, after 'the form of a Servant,' using of the future a verb of past time, as in the same Prophet, 'He was led, as a lamb, to the slaughter.'" c. Maxim. "Nor let us think that the Son was so sent by the Father, that He was not sent by the Holy Spirit, since it is His own Voice by the Prophet, 'And now the Lord and His Spirit hath sent ME.' For that the Son said this, appears from what had been said before, Is. 48, 12—16. What is plainer than this? Nor was He so sent by the Father and the Spirit, that He did not
send Himself, as He is shewed to have been delivered by the Father, (Rom. 8, 32.) yet in another place it is said of the Son Himself, 'Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.'" And in like way the author of a homily attributed to S. Chrysostome by Photius, though not his, (Hom. de Sp. S. §. 12. T. iii. p. 809. ed. Ben.) says distinctly, He begat according to the Godhead, He sent according to the Flesh. The Maker of Heaven saith, The Lord and His Spirit hath sent Me Yet the heretic takes the Mission of the Spirit as implying inferiority." And so St. Ambrose blends this passage with Is. 61, 1. which can but relate to our Blessed Lord's Human Nature, and asks, "Who is He Who saith, The Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me, but He Who came from the Father to save sinners? Whom, as thou hearest, 'and the Spirit sent,' lest when thou readest that the Son sendeth the Spirit, thou think the Spirit inferior in power." (de Sp. 3, 1.) For although our Lord spoke this "in the form of a Servant," (S. Aug.) yet since He was Very God, He Whom the Spirit sent, was God; which is all which S. Ambrose's argument requires. The argument holds, if, in a typical sense, it be understood of Cyrus or the Prophet, so that in the deeper sense, it belong to our Lord; since in Him the Creator and He Who was sent are the Same.