I. Disc. soon is found unrighteous, wherefore there was here also need of one unalterable, that men might have the immutability of the righteousness of the Word as an image and type for virtue'. And this thought commends itself strongly to the right-minded. For since the first man Adam altered, and through sin death came into the world, therefore it became the second Adam to be unalterable; that, should the Serpent again assault, even the Serpent's deceit might be baffled, and, the Lord being unalterable and unchangeable, the Serpent might become powerless in his assaults against all. For as when Adam had transgressed, his sin reached unto all men, so, when the Lord had become man and had overthrown the Serpent, that so great strength of His is to extend through all 2 Cor. men, so that each of us may say, For we are not ignorant of his devices. Good reason then that the Lord, who ever is in nature unalterable, loving righteousness and hating iniquity, should be anointed and Himself sent on mission, that, He, 1 p. 249, being and remaining the same1, by taking this alterable Rom. 8, flesh, might condemn sin in it, and might secure its freedom, and its ability henceforth to fulfil the righteousness of the law in itself, so as to be able to say, But we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us. 2, 11. ref. 2. 3. v. 4. v. 9. §. 52. k 9. Vainly then, here again, O Arians, have ye made this conjecture, and vainly alleged the words of Scripture; for God's Word is unalterable, and is ever in one state, not as it may happen', but as the Father is; since how is He like i Vid. Athan. de Incarn. 13. 14. k" Without His sojourning here at been again seduced by the serpent, a second need had arisen of God's commanding and undoing the curse; and this had gone on without limit, and men had remained under guilt just as before, being in slavery to sin; and ever sinning, they had ever needed pardon, and never been made free, being in themselves carnal, and ever defeated by the Law by reason of the infirmity of the flesh." Orat. ii. 68. And so in Incarn. 7. he says that repentance might have been pertinent, had man merely offended, without corruption following; but that that corruption involved the necessity of the Word's vicarious sufferings and intercessory office. 1 ἁπλῶς. οὐκ ἁπλῶς ὡρίσθη, ἀλλ' angißes inrácen. Socr. i. 9. p. 31. Loving right and hating wrong implies not choice or trial. 255 1 XII. ref. 1. 5, 5. 2.3. the Father, unless He be thus ? or how is all that is the CHAP. Father's, the Son's also, if He has not the unalterableness vid.John and unchangeableness of the Father? Not as being subject 17, 10. to laws", and as influenced this way and that, does He love this 1 p. 231, and hate that, lest, if from fear of forfeiture He chooses the opposite, we admit in another way that He is alterable; but, as being God and the Father's Word, He is a just judge and lover of virtue, or rather its dispenser. Therefore being just and holy by nature, on this account He is said to love righteousness and to hate iniquity; as much as to say, that He loves and takes to Him the virtuous, and rejects and hates the unrighteous. And divine Scripture says the same of the Father; The Righteous Lord loveth righteousness: Ps.11,8. Thou hatest all them that work iniquity; and, The Lord loveth 87, 1. the gates of Sion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob; and, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated; and in Esaias, Mal. 1, there is the voice of God again saying, I the Lord love Is. 61,8. righteousness, and hate robbery of unrighteousness. Let them then expound those former words as these latter; for the former also are written of the Image of God: else, misinterpreting these as those, they will conceive that the Father too as alterable. But, since the very hearing others say this is not without peril, we do well to think that God is said to love righteousness and to hate robbery of unrighteousness, not as if influenced this way and that, and capable of the contrary, selecting one thing and not choosing another, for this belongs to things generated, but that, as a judge, He loves and takes to Him the righteous and withdraws from the bad. It follows then to think the same concerning the Image of God also, that He loves and hates no otherwise than thus. For such must be the nature of the Image as is Its Father, though the Arians in their blindness fail to see either that Image or any other truth of the divine oracles. For being forced from the conceptions or rather misconceptions" of their own hearts, they fall back upon passages of divine Scripture, and here too from want of understanding, according to their m Eunomius said that our Lord was utterly separate from the Father, "by natural law," véμg Qursws; S. Basil observes, as if the God of all had not power over Himself, ἑαυτοῦ κύριος, 66 but were in bondage under the decrees η ἐννοιῶν μᾶλλον δὲ παρανοιῶν. vid. p. I. 256 The Arians rested, not on Scripture, but on à priori notions. Disc. wont, they discern not their meaning; but laying down their own irreligion as a sort of canon of interpretation", they wrest the whole of the divine oracles into accordance with it. And so on the bare mention of such doctrine, they deserve nothing Mat. 22, but the reply, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God; and if they persist in it, they must be put to v. 21. silence, by the words, Render to man the things that are man's, and to God the things that are God's. 29. • día. vid. p. 233, note a. p. 257. ref. 4. idiwr xaxovo, Orat. ii. §. 18. Instead of professing to examine Scripture or to acquiesce in what they had been taught, the Arians were remarkable for insisting on certain abstract positions or inferences on which they make the whole controversy turn. Vid. Socrates's account of Arius's commencement, "If God has a Son, he must have a beginning of existence," &c. &c. and so the word yunTÓI. tr CHAP. XIII. TEXTS EXPLAINED; THIRDLY, HEBREWS i. 4. Additional texts brought as objections; e. g. Hebr. i. 4. vii. 22. Whether the word "better" implies likeness to the Angels; and "made" or “become” implies creation. Necessary to consider the circumstances under which Scripture speaks. Difference between "better" and greater;" texts in proof. "Made" or "become" a general word. Contrast in Heb. i. 4 between the Son and the Works in point of nature. The difference of the punishments under the two Covenants shews the difference of the natures of the Son and the Angels. "Become" relates not to the nature of the Word, but to His manhood and office and relation towards us. Parallel passages in which the term is applied to the Eternal Father. XIII. §. 53. 1 vid. 72. 4. 2 vid. 1. BUT it is written, say they, in the Proverbs, The Lord CHAP. created Me the beginning of His ways, for His works1; and in the Epistle to the Hebrews the Apostle says, Prov. 8, Being made so much better than the Angels, as He hath by 22. inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they. Orat. ii. §. And soon after, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the 19heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of Heb. 1, our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him that Heb appointed Him. And in the Acts, Therefore let all the1. house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that Orat. ii. same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ3.§.2—11. These passages they brought forward at every turn, mistaking Orat. ii. their sense, under the idea that they proved that the Word of 11God was a creature and work and one of things generate; Acts 2, and thus they deceive the thoughtless, making the language of Scripture their pretence, but instead of the true sense sowing upon it the poison of their own heresy. For had p. 5, they known, they would not have been irreligious against the 5 an Lord of glory, nor have wrested the good words of Scripture. 1 Cor. 2, If then henceforward openly adopting Caiaphas's way, they S 3 vid. 18. 36. note k. 8. 1 vid. 8, 27. Zech. 2, 3, 37. DISC. have determined on judaizing, and are ignorant of the text, I. that verily God shall dwell upon the earth, let them not 1 Kings inquire into the Apostolical sayings; for they were out of place with Jews. Or, if mixing themselves up with the godless 10. Bar. Manichees", they deny that the Word was made flesh, and His incarnate presence1, then let them not bring forward the p. 252, note g. Proverbs, for this is out of place with the Manichees. But if 2 p. 190, for preferment-sake, and the lucre of avarice which follows', note c. and the desire for good repute, they venture not on denying the text, The Word was made flesh, since so it is written, either let them rightly interpret the words of Scripture, of the 3iváμa-embodied3 presence of the Saviour, or, if they deny their sense, let them deny too that the Lord became man. For it is unseemly, while confessing that the Word became flesh, yet to be ashamed at what is written of Him, and on that account to corrupt the sense. TOY §. 54. 2. Thus, it is written, So much better than the Angels; let us then first examine this. Now it is right and necessary, as in all divine Scripture, so here, faithfully to expound the time p. 22, of which the Apostle wrote, and the person*, and the point; lest note z. the reader, from ignorance missing either these or any similar 4 34. Matt. 24, 3. particular, may be wide of the true sense. This understood that inquiring eunuch, when he thus besought Philip, I pray thee, Acts 8, of whom doth the Prophet speak this? of himself, or of some other man? for he feared lest, expounding the lesson unsuitably to the person, he should wander from the right sense. And the disciples, wishing to learn the time of what was foretold, besought the Lord, Tell us, said they, when shall these things be? and what is the sign of Thy coming? And again, hearing from the Saviour the events of the end, they desired to learn the time of it, that they might be kept from error themselves, and might be able to teach others; as, for instance, when they have learned, they set right the Thessalonians, who were going wrong. When then one knows properly these points, his understanding of the faith is right and healthy; but if he mistakes any such points, forthwith he falls into heresy. Thus the party of Hymenæus and Alexander were beside the time, when they said that the resurrection had vid. 1 Thes. 4, 13. 2 Thes. 2, 1. &c. 2 Tim. 2, 17. 1 Tim. 1, 20. a Vid. the same contrast, de Syn. §. 33. p. 130. supr. §. 8. p. 189. Orat. iv. §. 23. |