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[Eusebeia]
{410} [Eusebeia], [asebeia],
&c., here translated piety, &c., stand for orthodoxy
and heterodoxy, &c., throughout, being taken from St. Paul's
text, [mega to tes eusebeias mysterion], 1 Tim.
iii. 16, iv. 8. "Magnum pietatis mysterium," Vulg.
E.g. [ten tes aireseos
asebeian], Decr. init. [hoson eusebous phroneseos he
Areiane hairesis esteretai]. ibid. § 2. [ti
eleipe didaskalias eis eusebeian tei katholike ekklesiai];
Syn. § 3. [he oikoumenike sunodos ton Areion exebale
ou pherousa ten asebeian]. Orat. i. § 7, et passim.
Hence Arius ends his letter to Eusebius Nic. with [alethos
Eusebie]. Theod. Hist. i. 4.
A curious instance of the force of the word as a
turning-point in controversy occurs in a Homily, (given to S. Basil by
Petavius, Fronto Ducæus, Combefis, Du Pin, Fabricius, and Oudin,
doubted of by Tillemont, and rejected by Cave and Garnier,) where it
is said that the denial of our Lady's perpetual virginity, though "lovers
of Christ do not bear to hear that God's Mother ever ceased to be
Virgin," yet "does no injury to the doctrine of religion," [meden
toi tes eusebeias paralumainetai logoi], i.e.
(according to the above explanation of the word) to the orthodox view
of the Incarnation. vid. Basil. Opp. t. 2, p.599. vid. on the
passage Petav. de Incarn. xiv. 3, § 7, and Fronto-Duc. in loc.
Pearson refers to this passage, and almost translates {411} the [logos
eusebeias] by "mystery," Apost. Creed, Art. 3. "Although it may be
thought sufficient as to the mystery of the Incarnation, that,
when our Saviour was conceived and born, His Mother was a Virgin,
though whatsoever should have followed after could have no reflective
operation upon the first-fruit of her womb, ... yet the peculiar
eminency," &c.
John of Antioch, however, furnishes us with a
definition of pietas, as meaning obedience to the word of God.
He speaks, writing to Proclus, of a letter which evidenced caution and
piety, i.e. orthodoxy: "piety, because you went along the royal way of
Divine Scripture in your remarks, rightly confessing the word
of truth, not venturing to declare anything of your own authority
without Scripture testimonies; caution, because together with
divine Scripture you propounded also statements of the Fathers,
in order to prove what you advanced." ap. Facund. i. 1. {412}
[Theandrike
energeia]
Operatio Deivirilis, "the Man-God's
action." By the word [energeia] meant in theology the action or
operation, the family of acts, which naturally belongs to and
discriminates the substance or nature of a thing from that of other
things; and not only the mere operation, but also inclusively the
faculty of such operation; as certain nutritive or medicinal qualities
adhere, and serve as definitions, to certain plants and minerals, or
as the [energeia] and the [ergon] of a seraph may be
viewed as being the adoration of the Holy Trinity.
This being laid down, it would seem to follow
that our Lord, having two natures, has two attendant [erga] and
two [energeiai], and this in fact is the Catholic doctrine;
whereas the Monothelites maintained He had but one, as if, with the
Monophysites, they held but one nature of Christ, the divine and human
energies making up one single third energy, neither divine nor
human,—for, in the Monophysite creed, God and man made one third and
compound being, who would necessarily have one compound energy, and,
as will is one kind of energy, one only will.
This one and only energy of our Lord, as
proceeding from what they considered His one composite nature, they
denoted by the orthodox phrase, "[energeia theandrike],"
diverting it from its true sense. Catholic {413} theologians, holding
two energies, one for each nature, speak of them in three ways, viz.
as a divine energy, a human, and a union or concurrence of the two;
this last they call [theandrike], but in a sense quite
distinct from the use of the word by the Monothelites. Sometimes our
Lord exerts His divine energia, as when He protects His people;
sometimes His human, as when He underwent hunger and thirst; sometimes
both at once, as in making clay and restoring sight, or in His
suffering for His people; but in this last instance, there is no
intermingling of the divine and the human, and, though it may be
spoken of as a double energy, still there are in fact two, not one.
It is this [theandrike energeia]
that is spoken of in the following passages:—
"And thus when there was need to raise Peter's
wife's mother who was sick of a fever, He stretched forth His hand
humanly, but He stopped the illness divinely. And in the case of the
man blind from the birth, human was the spittle which he gave forth
from the flesh, but divinely did He open the eyes through the clay.
And in the case of Lazarus, He gave forth a human voice, as man; but
divinely, as God, did He raise Lazarus from the dead." Orat. iii. 32.
"When He is said to hunger and thirst, and to
toil, and not to know, and to sleep, and to weep, and to ask, and to
flee, and to be born, and to deprecate the chalice, and in a word to
undergo all that belongs to the flesh, let it be said, as is
congruous, in each case, ‘Christ's then hungering or thirsting for
us in the flesh, and saying He did not know, and being buffeted
and {414} toiling for us in the flesh, and being exalted too,
and born and growing in the flesh, and fearing and hiding in
the flesh, and saying, If it be possible let this chalice
pass from Me, and being beaten and receiving gifts for us in the
flesh; and in a word, all such things for us in the flesh,'"
&c. Orat. iii. § 34.
"When He touched the leper, it was the man that
was seen; but something beyond man, when He cleansed him," &c.
Ambros. Epist. i. 46, n. 7. Hil. Trin. x. 23 fin. vid. Incarnation
and Two Natures, and S. Leo's extracts in his Ep. 165. Chrysol.
Serm. 34 and 35. Paul. ap Conc. Eph. t. iii. (p. 1620, Labbe.) {415}
[Theomachos,
Christomachos]
VID.
Acts v. 39. xxiii. 9. text. rec. These epithets are in very frequent
use in Athan., in speaking of the Arians; also [antimachomenoi toi
soteri]. Ep. Encycl. § 5. And in the beginning of
the controversy, Alexander ap. Socr. i. 6, p. 10, p. 11, p. 13. Theod.
Hist. i. 3, p. 729. And so [theomachos glossa]. Basil.
contr. Eunom. ii. 27 fin. [christomachon]. in his Ep.
236 init. Vid. also Cyril. Thesaur. p. 19, p. 24. [Theomachoi]
is used of other heretics, e.g. the Manichees, by Greg. Naz. Orat. 45.
§ 8.
The title contains, in Athan.'s use of it, an
allusion to the antediluvian giants; e.g. [gigantas theomachountas],
Orat. iii. § 42. vid. also Naz., of the disorderly bishops during the
Arian ascendency. Orat. 43. 26, and Socr. v. 10. Sometimes the
mythological giants are spoken of. Orat. ii. § 32. In Hist. Arian.
74, he calls Constantius a [gilas].
[logomachia] too is used with reference to
the divine [logos] and the fight against Him, as [christomachein]
and [theomachein]. Thus [logomachein meletesantes,
kai loipon pneumatomachountes, esontai met'
oligon nekroi tei alogiai]. Serap. iv. 1. {416}
[Theotes]
(vid. Trinity)
IF
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity admits of being called contrary to
reason, this must be on the ground of its being incompatible with some
eternal truth, necessary axiom, &c., or with some distinct
experience, and not merely because it is in its nature inconceivable
and unimaginable; for if to be inconceivable makes it untrue, then we
shall be obliged to deny facts of daily experience, e.g. the action of
the muscles which follows upon an act of the will.
However, clear as this is, the language by which
we logically express the doctrine will be difficult to interpret and
to use intelligently, unless we keep in mind the fundamental truths
which constitute the mystery, and use them as a key to such language.
E.g. the Father's Godhead is the Son's, or is in
the Son. Orat. i. § 52. [He patrike autou theotes].
Orat. i. § 45, 49. ii. § 18, 73. iii. § 26. [he patrike
physis autou]. i. § 40. [to patrikon phos ho huios].
iii. § 53. [he theotes kai he idiotes tou patros to
einai tou huiou esti]. iii. § 5. The Son is worshipped [kata ten
patriken idioteta]. i. § 42. He has [ten
tes homoioseos henoteta]. Syn. § 45.
He is [ho autos tei homoiosei] to the Father.
Decr. § 20. He has [ten henoteta tes physeos
kai ten tautoteta tou photos]. Decr. § 24. [tautoteta
tes physeos], Basil, Ep. 8, 3. [tes ousias],
Cyril. in Joan. iii. p. 302. He is [ex ousias {417} ousiodes].
Orat. iv. § 1. [he ousia haute tes ousias tes
patrikes esti gennema]. Syn. § 48. And we are told
of the prophet [ekboesantos ten patriken
hypostasin peri autou]. Orat. iv. § 33. vid. the present author's
Tract, [mia physis], § 6 fin.
[physis] seems sometimes in Athanasius to
be used, not for [ousia], as would be the ordinary application
of the word, but for [hypostasis] or person. Thus he says, "whereas
the nature of the Son is less divisible relatively to the
Father" than radiance is relatively to the sun, ... "wherefore should
not He be called consubstantial?" de Syn. § 52. And at least this is
an Alexandrian use of the word. It is found in Alexander ap. Theod.
Hist. i. 3, p. 740, and it gives rise to a celebrated question in the
Monophysite controversy, as used in S. Cyril's phrase, [mia physis
sesarkomene]. S. Cyril uses the word both for person
and for substance successively in the following passage: "Perhaps some
one will say, 'How is the Holy and Adorable Trinity distinguished into
three Hypostases, yet issues in one nature of Godhead?'
Because, the Same in substance, necessarily following the difference
of natures, recalls the minds of believers to one nature of
Godhead." contr. Nest. iii. p. 91. In this passage "One Nature" stands
for one substance; but "three Natures" is the One Eternal Divine
Nature viewed in that respect in which He is Three. And so S. Hilary, "naturæ
ex naturâ gignente nativitas," de Syn. 17; and "essentia de essentiâ,"
August de Trin. vii. n. 3, and "de seipso genuit Deus id quod est," de
Fid. et Symb. 4: i.e. He is the Adorable [theotes]
viewed as begotten. These phrases {418} mean that the Son who is
the Divine Substance, is from the Father who is the [same]
Divine Substance. As (to speak of what is analogous, not
parallel) we might say that "man is father of man," not meaning by man
the same individual in both cases, but the same nature, so here we
speak, not of the same Person in the two cases, but the same
Individuum. All these expressions resolve themselves into the original
mystery of the Holy Trinity, that Person and Individuum are not
equivalent terms, and we understand them neither more nor less than we
understand it. In like manner as regards the Incarnation, when St.
Paul says, "God was in Christ," he does not mean absolutely the Divine
Nature, which is the proper sense of the word, but the Divine Nature
as existing in the Person of the Son. Hence too (vid. Petav. de Trin.
vi. 10, § 6) such phrases as "the Father begat the Son from His
substance." And in like manner Athan. just afterwards speaks of "the
Father's Godhead being in the Son." Orat. i. § 52.
The [monas theotetos] is [adiairetos].
Orat. iv. § 1, 2. Though in Three Persons, they are not [memerismenai],
Doin. ap. Basil. Sp. S. n. 72. Athan. Expos. F. § 2; not [aperrhegmenai],
Naz. Orat. 20. 6; not [apexenomenai kai diespasmenai],
Orat. 23. 6, &c.; but [ameristos en memerismenois he
theotes]. Orat. 31. 14.
Though the Divine Substance is both the Father
Ingenerate and also the Only-begotten Son, it is not itself [agennetos]
or [gennete]; which was the objection urged
against the Catholics by Aetius, Epiph. Hær. 76, 10. Thus Athan.
says, de Decr. § 30, "He has given the authority of all things to the
Son, and, {419} having given it, is once more, [palin],
the Lord of all things through the Word." vol. i. p. 52. Again, "the
Father having given all things to the Son, has all things once
again, [palin] ... for the Son's Godhead is the Godhead of
the Father." Orat. iii. § 36 fin. Hence [he ek tou patros
eis ton huion theotes arrheustos kai adiairetos
tunkanei]. Expos. F. 2. "Vera et æterna substantia, in se tota
permanens, totam se coæternæ veritati nativitatis indulsit."
Fulgent. Resp. 7. And S. Hilary, "Filius in Patre est et in Filio
Pater, non per transfusionem, refusionemque mutuam, sed per viventis
naturæ perfectam nativitatem." Trin. vii. 31.
[Theotokos]
Vid. Mary. {420}
[Katapetasma]
"AS
Aaron did not change," says Athanasius, Orat. ii. 8, "by putting on
his High-priest's dress, so that, had any one said, 'Lo, Aaron has
this day become High-priest,' he had not implied that he then had been
born man, ... so in the Lord's instance the words, 'He became' and 'He
was made' must not be understood of the Word, considered as the Word,"
&c. &c.
This is one of those protests by anticipation
against Nestorianism, which in consequence may be abused to the
purposes of the opposite heresy. Such expressions as [peritithemenos
ten estheta, ekalupteto, endusamenos soma],
were familiar with the Apollinarians, against whom S. Athanasius is,
if possible, even more decided. Theodoret objects, Hær. v. 11, p.
422, to the word [prokalumma], when applied to our Lord's
manhood, as implying that He had no soul; vid. also Naz. Ep. 102 fin.
(ed. 1840). In Naz. Ep. 101, p. 90, [parapetasma] is used to
denote an Apollinarian idea. Such expressions were taken to imply that
Christ was not in nature man, only in some sense human;
not a substance, but an appearance; yet S. Athan. (if Athan.) contr.
Sabell. Greg. 4, has [parapepetasmenen], and [kalumma],
ibid. init.; S. Cyril Hieros. [katapetasma], Catech. xii. 26,
xiii. 32. after Hebr. x. 20, and Athan. {421} ad Adelph. 5; Theodor. [parapetasma],
Eran. 1, p. 22, and [prokalumma], ibid. p. 23, and adv. Gent.
vi. p. 877; and [stole], Eran. 1. c. S. Leo has "caro
Christi velamen," Ep. 59, p. 979. vid. also Serm. 22, p. 70; Serm. 25,
p. 84. {422}
[Kurios,
Kurios]
THE
meaning of [kurios], when applied to language, on the
whole presents no difficulty. It answers to the Latin propriè,
and is the contrary to impropriè. Thus Athan. says, "When the
thing is a work or creature, the words 'He made' &c. are used of
it properly, [kurios]; when an offspring, then they are
no longer used [kurios]." Orat. ii. § 3.
But the word has an inconvenient latitude (vid.
art. Father Almighty, fin.) Sometimes it is used in the sense
of archetypal or transcendent, as when Athan. says, "The Father is [kurios]
Father, and the Son [kurios] Son," Orat. i. § 21; and
in consequence in Their instance alone is the Father always Father and
the Son always Son, ibid. Sometimes the word is used of us as sons,
and opposed to figuratively, [ek metaphoras], as in
Basil c. Eunom. ii. 23; while Hilary seems to deny that we are sons propriè.
Justin says, [ho monos legomenos kurios huios], Apol.
ii. 6, but here [kurios] seems to be used in reference
to the word [kurios], Lord, which he has just been using, [kuriologein]
being sometimes used by him as by others in the sense of "naming as
Lord," like [theologein]. vid. Tryph. 56. There is a passage in
Justin's ad Græc. 21, where he (or the anon. writer), when speaking
of [ego eimi ho on], uses the word in the same
ambiguous sense; [ouden gar onoma epi theou kuriologeisthai dunaton];
as if [kurios], {423} the Lord, by which "I am" is translated,
were a sort of symbol of that proper name of God which cannot be
given.
On [kuriologia], vid. Lumper, Hist. Theol.
t. 2, p. 478.
[Logos,
endiathetos kai prophorikos]
Vid. art. Word. {424}
[Metousia]
To all creatures in different ways or degrees is
it given to participate in the Divine attributes. In these it is that
they are able or wise or great or good; in these they have life,
health, strength, well-being, as the case may be. And the
All-abounding Son is He through whom this exuberance of blessing comes
to them, severally.
They are partakers, in their measure, of what He
possesses in fulness. From the Father's [ousia], which is His
too, they have through Him a [metousia]. Here lies the cardinal
difference of doctrine between the Catholic and Arian: Arians maintain
that the Son has only that [metousia] of God, which we too
have. Catholics hold Him to be God, and the Source of all divine
gifts. The antagonism between Athanasius and Eusebius is the more
pointed, by the very strength of the language of the latter. He
considers the Son [ex autes tes patrikes]
[not [ousias], but] [metousias, hosper apo peges,
ep'] [vid.
supr. Eusebius] [auton procheomenes, pleroumenon].
Eccl. Theol. i. 2. But Athanasius, [oude kata metousian autou, all'
holon idion autou gennema]. Orat. iii. § 4.
Athanasius considers this attribute of
communication to be one of the prerogatives of the Second Person in
the Divine Trinity. He enlarges on this {425} doctrine in many places:
e.g. "if, as we have said before, the Son is not such by
participation, but, while all things generated have, by participation,
the grace of God, He is the Father's Wisdom and Word, of which all
things partake, if so, it follows that He, as the deifying and
enlightening power of the Father, in which all things are deified and
quickened, is not alien in substance from the Father, but one in
substance. For by partaking of Him, we partake of the Father; inasmuch
as the Word is proper to the Father. Whence, if He was Himself too
from participation, and not the substantial Godhead and Image of the
Father, He would not deify, being deified Himself. For it is not
possible that he who but possesses from participation, should impart
of that portion to others, since what he has is not his own, but the
Giver's; as what he has received is barely the grace sufficient for
himself." Syn. § 51.
"As the Father has life in Himself, so has He
also given to the Son to have life in Himself," not by
participation, but in Himself. What the Father gives to the Son is
a communication of Himself; what He gives to His creatures is a
participation. Vid. supr. Orat. i. § 16. "To say that God is wholly
partaken is equivalent to saying that He begets." {426}
[Mia
physis]
(of our Lord's Godhead and of His Manhood).
TWO
natures are united in One Christ, but it does not follow that their
union is like any other union of which we have cognisance, such, for
instance, as the union of body and soul. Beyond the general fact, that
both the Incarnation and other unions are of substances not
homogeneous, there is no likeness between it and them. The
characteristics and circumstances of the Incarnation are determined by
its history. The One Self-existing Personal God created, moulded,
assumed, a manhood truly such. He, being from eternity, was in
possession and in the fulness of His Godhead before mankind had being.
Much more was He already in existence, and in all His attributes, when
He became man, and He lost nothing by becoming. All that He ever had
continued to be His; what He took on Himself was only an addition.
There was no change; in His Incarnation, He did but put on a garment.
That garment was not He, or, as Athan. speaks, [autos],
or, as the next century worded it, "His Person." That [autos]
was, as it had ever been, one and the same with His Divinity, [ousia],
or [physis]; it was this [physis], as one with His
Person, which took to Itself a manhood. He had no other Person than He
had had from the beginning; His manhood had no Personality of its own;
{427} it was a second [physis], but not a second Person; it
never existed till it was His; for its integrity and completeness it
depended on Him, the Divine Word. It was one with Him, and, through
and in Him, the Divine Word, it was one with the Divine Nature; it was
but indirectly united to It, for the medium of union was the Person of
the Word. And thus being without personality of its own, His human
nature was relatively to Himself really what the Arians falsely said
that His divinity was relatively to the Father, a [peri auton],
a [peribole], a [sumbebekos], a "something
else besides His substance," Orat. ii. § 45, e.g. an [organon].
Such was His human nature; it might be called an additional attribute;
the Word was "made man," not was made a man.
Thus Athanasius almost confines the word [ousia]
to denote the Word, and seldom speaks of His manhood as a nature; and
Cyril, to denote the dependence of the manhood upon His Divine Nature,
has even used of the Incarnate Lord the celebrated dictum, [mia
physis tou theou logou sesarkomene]. This was
Cyril's s strong form of protesting against Nestorianism, which
maintained that our Lord's humanity had a person as well as the Divine
Word, who assumed it.
Athan.'s language is remarkable: he says, Orat.
ii. § 45, that our Lord is not a creature, though God, in Prov. viii.
22, is said to have created Him, because to be a creature, He ought to
have taken a created substance, which He did not. Does not this imply
that he did not consider His manhood an [ousia] or [physis]?
He says that He who is said to be created, is not at once in His {428}
Nature and Substance a creature: [he lexis ti
heteron deloi peri ekeinon, kai ou to legomenon ktizesthai ede
tei physei kai tei ousiai ktisma]. As the complement
of this peculiarity, vid. his constant use of the [ousia tou logou],
when we should use the word "Person." Does not this corroborate St.
Cyril in his statement that the saying, "[mia physis sesarkomene]"
belongs to Athanasius? for whether we say one [physis] or one [ousia]
does not seem to matter. Observe, too, he speaks of something taking
place in Him, [peri ekeinon], i.e. some adjunct or accident, (vid.
art. [peribole] and [sumbebekos],) or, as
he says, Orat. ii. § 8, envelopment or dress. In like manner he
presently, ii. § 46, speaks of the creation of the Word as like the
new-creation of the soul, which is a creation not in substance but in
qualities, &c. And ibid. § 51, he contrasts the [ousia]
and the [he anthropinon] of the Word; as in Orat.
i. 41, [ousia] and [he anthropotes];
and [physis] with [sarx], iii. 34, init.; and [logos]
with [sarx], 38, init. And he speaks of the Son "taking on Him
the economy," ii. § 76, and of the [hypostasis tou logou]
being one with [ho anthropos], iv. 35; why does he not,
instead of [anthropinon], use the word [physis]?
It is plain that this line of teaching might be
wrested to the purposes of the Apollinarian and Eutychian heresies;
but, considering Athan.'s most emphatic protests against those errors
in his later works, as well as his strong statements in Orat. iii.,
there is no hazard in this admission. We thus understand how Eutyches
came to deny the "two natures." He said that such a doctrine was a new
one; this is not true, for, not to mention other Fathers, Athan. Orat.
iv. fin, speaks {429} of our Lord's "invisible nature and visible,"
(vid. also contr. Apoll. ii. 11, Orat. ii. 70, iii. 43,) and his
ordinary use of [anthropos] for the manhood might quite
as plausibly be perverted on the other hand into a defence of
Nestorianism; but still the above peculiarities in his style may be
taken to account for the heresy, though they do not excuse the
heretic. Vid. also the Ed. Ben. on S. Hilary (præf. p. xliii.), who
uses natura absolutely for our Lord's Divinity, as contrasted
to the dispensatio, and divides His titles into naturalia
and assumpta.
St. Leo secured at Chalcedon this definition of
the "Two Natures" of Christ, instead of the Alexandrian "One Nature
Incarnate." In this he did but follow the precedent of the Nicene
Fathers, who recalled the dogmatic authority of the [homoousion],
which in the preceding century had been superseded at Antioch.
[Monarchia]
Vid. Father Almighty. {430}
[Monogenes]
THE
Arians had a difficulty as to the meaning, in their theology, of the
word [monogenes]. Eunomius decided that it meant, not [monos
gennetheis], but [gennetheis para monou]. And
of the first Arians also Athan. apparently reports that they
considered the Son Only-begotten because He [monos] was brought
into being by God [monos]. Decr. § 7. The Macrostich
Confession in like manner interprets [monogenes] by [monos]
and [monos], Syn. § 26, (supr. vol. i. p. 107,) i.e.
the only one of the creatures who was named "Son," and the Son of one
Father (with Eunomius above), in opposition to the [probole]
of the Gnostics. (vid. Acacius in Epiph. Hær. p. 839.) Naz., however,
explains [monos] by [ouch hos ta somata].
Orat. 25. 16. vid. the Eusebian distinction between [homoousios]
and [homoiousios], Soz. iii. 18, in art. [homoousios]
infr. It seems, however, that Basil and Gregory Nyssen, (if I
understand Petav. rightly, Trin. vii. 11, § 3,) consider [monogenes]
to include [hypo monou], as if in contrast to the Holy Spirit,
whose procession is not from the Father only, or again not a gennesis.
If it be asked, what the distinctive words are
which are incommunicably the Son's, since so many of His names are
given also to the creature, it is obvious to answer, and [idios
huios] and [monogenes], which are in Scripture, and
the symbols "of the substance," and {431} "one in substance," used by
the Council; and this is the value of the Council's phrases, that,
while they guard the Son's divinity, they allow full scope, without
risk of trenching on it, to the Catholic doctrine of the fulness of
the Christian privileges. vid. art. Son. For [Agapetos],
vid. Matt. iii. in Scripture Passages. {432}
The
[Homoion]
GOD
is both One and Three: neither as One nor as Three can we speak of
likeness in connection with Him; for likeness, as Athan. says, relates
not to things but to their qualities, and to speak of likeness between
Father, Son, and Spirit, is to imply that instead of being One and the
Same, They are three distinct beings. Again, so far as They are three,
They do but differ from each other, and are not merely unlike; They
are [ali]ke
in nothing, viewed as Persons; They have not so much likeness as to
admit (in the ordinary sense) of numbering. Those things, strictly
speaking, alone are like or equal which are not the same: the Three
Divine Persons are not like Each Other, whether viewed as Three or
One.
However, in the difficulty of finding terms,
which will serve as a common measure of theological thought for the
expression of ideas as to which there is no experimental knowledge or
power of conception, and in the necessary use of economical language,
both these terms, likeness and equality, have been received in
orthodox teaching concerning the Supreme Being. The Athanasian Creed
declares that the Three Persons in the Godhead have "æqualis gloria,"
and are "co-æquales," and S. Athanasius himself in various places
uses the word "like," though he condemns its {433} adoption in the
mouth of Arians, as being insufficient to exclude error.
That is, he accepts it as a word of orthodoxy as
far as it goes, while he rejects it as sufficient to serve as a symbol
and test. Sufficient it is not, even with the strong additions, which
the Semi-Arians made, of [homoios kata panta, homoios kat'
ousian] or [homoiousios], and [aparallaktos eikon],
because what is like, is, by the very force of the term, not
equivalent to the same. Thus he says, Syn. § 41 and 53, "Only to say
'Like according to substance,' is very far from signifying 'Of
the substance' (vid. art. Eusebius); thus tin is only like
silver, and gilt brass like gold ... No one disputes that like
is not predicated of substances, but of habits and of qualities.
Therefore in speaking of Like in substance, we mean Like by
participation, [kata metousian], and this belongs to creatures,
for they, by partaking, are made like to God ... not in substance, but
in sonship, which we shall partake from Him ... If then ye speak of
the Son as being such by participation, then indeed call Him like God
in substance and not in nature God, ... but if this be extravagant, He
must be, not by participation, but in nature and truth, Son, Light,
Wisdom, God; and being so by nature and not by sharing, therefore He
is properly called, not Like in substance with the Father, but One in
substance,"—that is, not [homoiousios], but [homoousios],
Consubstantial.
Yet clear and decided as is his language here,
nevertheless, for some reason (probably from a feeling of charity, as
judging it best to inculcate first the revealed truth itself as a mode
of introducing to the faithful {434} and defending the orthodox
symbol, and showing its meaning and its necessity,) he uses the
phrases [homoios kata panta], and [homoiousios] more
commonly than [homoousios]: this I have noted elsewhere.
E.g. [homoios kata panta]. "He who is in
the Father, and like the Father in all things." Orat. i. 40. "Being
the Son of God, He must be like Him." Orat. ii. § 17. "The Word is
unlike us, and like the Father." Orat. iii. § 20; also i. § 21, 40;
ii. § 18, 22. Ep. Ægypt. 17.
And [homoios kat' ousian]. " ... Unless indeed they give up shame, and say that
'Image' is not a token of similar substance, but His name only." Orat.
i. § 21. Vid. also Orat. i. 20 init. 26; iii. § 11, 26, 67. Syn. §
38. Alex. Enc. § 2.
Also Athan. says that the Holy Trias is [homoia
heautei], instead of using the word [homoousia].
Serap. i. 17, 20, 38; also Cyril. Catech. vi. 7.
In some of the Arian Creeds we have this almost
Catholic formula, [homoion kata panta], introduced by the bye,
marking the presence of what may be called the new Semi-Arian school.
Of course it might admit of evasion, but in its fulness it included "substance."
At Sirmium Constantius inserted the above (Epiph. Hær. 73, 22) in the
Confession which occurs supr. vol. i. p. 72. On this occasion Basil
subscribed in this form: "I, Basil, Bishop of Ancyra, believe and
assent to what is aforewritten, confessing that the Son is like the
Father in all things; and by 'in all things,' not only that He is like
in will, but in subsistence, and existence, and being; as divine
Scripture teaches, {435} spirit from spirit, life from life, light
from light, God from God, true Son from true, Wisdom from the Wise God
and Father; and once for all, like the Father in all things, as a son
is to a father. And if any one says that He is like in a certain
respect, [kata ti], as is written afore, he is alien from the
Catholic Church, as not confessing the likeness according to divine
Scripture." Epiph. Hær. 73, 22. S. Cyril of Jerusalem uses the [kata
panta] or [en pasin homoion], Catech. iv. 7; xi. 4 and 18;
and Damasc. F. O. i. 8, p. 135.
S. Athanasius, in saying that like is not used of
substance, implies that the common Arian senses of [homoion]
are more natural, and therefore the more probable, and therefore also
the less admissible by Catholics, if the word came into use. These
were, 1. likeness in will and action, as [symphonia],
of which vid. Orat. iii. 11. 2. likeness to the idea in God's
mind in which the Son was created. Cyril. Thesaur. p. 134. 3. likeness
to the divine act or energy by which He was created.
Basil. contr. Eun. iv. p. 282. Cyril. in Joan. c. 5. iii. p. 304. 4.
like according to the Scriptures, which of course was but an evasion.
5. like [kata panta], which was, as they understood it, an
evasion also.
According to Athanasius, supr. p. 371, the phrase
"unvarying image" was, in truth, self-contradictory, for every image
varies from the original because it is an image. Still he himself
frequently uses it, as other Fathers, and Orat. i. § 26, uses [homoios
tes ousia].
As "of the substance" declared that our Lord was uncreate,
so "one in substance" declared that He was equal with the
Father; no term derived from {436} "likeness," even "like in
substance," answering for this purpose, for such phrases might all be
understood of resemblance or representation. vid. Decr.
§ 23, Hyp. Mel. and Hil. Syn. 89. Things that are like cannot be the
same; whereas Athan. contends for the [tauton tei homoiosei],
the same in likeness, Decr. § 20. "Una substantia religiose prædicabitur,
quæ ex nativitatis proprietate et ex naturæ similitudine ita
indifferens sit, ut una dicatur." Hil. Syn. § 67.
By "the Son being equal to the Father," is
but meant that He is His "unvarying image;" it does not imply any
distinction of substance. "Perfectæ æqualitatis significantiam habet
similitudo." Hil. de Syn. 73. But though He is in all things the
Father's Image, this implies some exception, for else He would not be
an Image, merely like or equal, as I said just now, but the same. "Non
est æqualitas in dissimilibus, nec similitudo est intra unum." ibid.
72. Hence He is the Father's image in all things except in being the
Father, [eikon physike kai aparallaktos kata panta
homoia toi patri, plen tes agennesias kai
tes patrotetos]. Damasc. de Imag. iii. 18, p. 354.
vid. also Basil contr. Eun. ii. 28. Theod. Inconfus. p. 91. Basil. Ep.
38, 7 fin. For the Son is the Image of the Father, not as Father, but
as God. The Arians on the other hand, objecting to the phrase "unvarying
image," asked why the Son was not in consequence a Father, and the
beginning of a [theogonia]. vid. Athan. Orat. i. § 14, 21.
Eunom. in Cyril. Thes. pp. 22, 23.
The characteristic of Arianism in all its shapes
was the absolute separation of Father from Son. It {437} considered
Them as two [ousiai], like perhaps, but not really one; this
was their version of the phrase [teleios ek teleiou].
Semi-Arians here agreed with Arians. When the Semi-Arians came nearest
to orthodoxy in words, it was the [perichoresis]
that was the test whether they fell short in words alone, or in their
theological view. {438}
[Homoousios]
THE
term [homoousios], one in substance or consubstantial,
was accepted as a symbol, for securing the doctrine of our Lord's
divinity, first by the infallible authority of the Nicene Council, and
next by the experimental assent and consent of Christendom, wrought
out in its behalf by the events of the prolonged Arian controversy.
It had had the mischance in the previous century
of being used by heretics in their own sense, and of incurring more or
less of suspicion and dislike from the Fathers in the great Council of
Antioch, A.D.
264-272, though it had been already in use in the Alexandrian Church;
but, when the momentous point in dispute, the divinity of the Son, was
once thoroughly discussed and understood, it was forced upon the mind
of theologians that the reception or rejection of this term was the
difference between Catholic truth and Arianism.
"We were aware," says Eusebius to his people, "that,
even among the ancients, some learned and illustrious Bishops and
writers have used the term 'one in substance,' in their theological
teaching concerning the Father and Son." And Athanasius in like
manner, ad Afros 6, speaks of "testimony of ancient Bishops about 130
years since;" and in de Syn. § 43, of "long before" the Council of
Antioch. Tertullian, {439} Prax. 13 fin., has the translation "unius
substantiæ," as he also has "de substantia Patris," in Prax. 4; and
Origen perhaps used the word, vid. Pamph. Apol. 5, and Theognostus and
the two Dionysius's, Decr. § 25, 26. And before them Clement had
spoken of the [henosis tes monadikes ousia],
"the union of the single substance," vid. Le Quien in Damasc. Fid.
Orth. i. 8. Novatian too has "per substantiæ communionem," de Trin.
31. Vid. Athan. ad Afros 5, 6; ad Serap. ii. 5. S. Ambrose tells us,
that a Letter written by Eusebius of Nicomedia, in which he said, "If
we call Him true Son of the Father and uncreate, then are we granting
that He is one in substance, [homoousion]," determined the
Council on the adoption of the term. de Fid. iii. n. 125. He had
disclaimed "of the substance," in his Letter to Paulinus. Theod. Hist.
i. 4. Arius, however, had disclaimed [homoousion] already,
Epiph. Hær. 69, 7, and again in the Thalia. Gibbon's untenable
assertion has been already observed upon (vid. Nicene Tests)
supr., viz., that the Council was at a loss for a test, and that on
Eusebius's "ingenuously confessing that his [homoousios] was
incompatible with the principles of [his] theological system, the
fortunate opportunity was eagerly embraced by the Bishops," as if they
were bent at all hazards, and without reference to the real and
substantial agreement or disagreement of themselves and the Arians, to
find some word which might accidentally serve to exclude the latter
from communion.
When the Semi-Arians objected that the Council of
Antioch, 264-272, determined that the Son is not {440} consubstantial
with the Father, de Syn. supr. 49-52, Athan. answered in explanation
that Paul of Samosata took the word in a material sense, as indeed
Arius did, calling it the doctrine of Manes and Hieracas. S. Basil,
contr. Eunom. i. 19, agrees with Athan., but S. Hilary on the contrary
reports that Paul himself accepted it, i.e. in a Sabellian sense, and
therefore the Council rejected it. "Male homoüsion Samosatenus
confessus est, sed numquid melius Arii negaverunt?" de Syn. 86.
Doubtless, however, both reasons told in causing its rejection. But
Montfaucon and Bull consider it a difficulty. Hence, it would seem,
the former, in his Nova Collectio, t. ii. p. 19, renders [oukoun]
by ergo non; he had not inserted non in his addition of
Athanasius.
The objections made to the word [homoousion]
were, 1. that it was not in Scripture; 2. that it had been disowned by
the Antiochene Council against Paul of Samosata; 3. that it was of a
material nature, and belonged to the Manichees; 4. or else that it was
of a Sabellian tendency; 5. that it implied that the divine substance
was distinct from God.
The Eusebians tried to establish a distinction
between [homoousion] and [homoiousion] "one in substance"
and "like in substance," of this sort: that the former belonged to
things material, and the latter to immaterial, Soz. iii. 18, a remark
which in itself was quite sufficient to justify the Catholics in
insisting on the former term. For the heretical party, starting with
the notion in which their heresy in all its shades consisted, that the
Son was a distinct being from the Father, {441} and appealing to a
doctrine which might be plausibly maintained, that spirits are
incommensurable with one another, or that each is at most not more
than sui similis, concluded that "like in substance" was
the only term which would express the relation of the Son to the
Father. Here then the word "one in substance" did just enable the
Catholics to join issue with them, as exactly expressing what
Catholics wished to express, viz. that there was no such distinction
between Them as made the term "like" necessary, or even possible, but
that Their relation to Each Other was analogous to that of a
material offspring to a material parent, or that, as material parent
and offspring are individuals under one existing correlation, so the
Eternal Father and Son are Persons under one common individual
substance.
"The East," says Sozomen, "in spite of its being
in dissension after the Antiochene Council" of the Dedication, "and
thenceforth openly dissenting from the Nicene faith, in reality, I
think, concurred in the sentiment of the majority, and with them
confessed the Son to be of the Father's substance; but from
contentiousness certain of them fought against the term 'One in
substance;' some, as I conjecture, having originally objected to the
word ... others from habit ... others, aware that the resistance was
unsuitable, leaned to this side or that to gratify parties; and many
thought it weak to waste themselves in such strife of words, and
peaceably held to the Nicene decision." Hist. iii. 13. {442}
Athan. is very reserved in his use of the word [homoousion]
in these three Orations. Indeed I do not recollect his using it but
once, Orat. i. § 9, and that in what is almost a confession of faith.
Instead he uses [homoios kata panta, homoios kat'
ousian, homophyes], &c.
[Contributed by Dan Meardon, Cary, NC, USA]
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