Rhythms on the Faith
Rhythms on the Faith
continued
Rhythm 64.
1. LORD, root out the thorns, whose sower is the evil one, p. 220, and the husbandman of tares. For they saw that we disputed, p. 217, and they rejoiced that we wrangled, and they agreed together n. g. at our separation, and they assembled at our dispersion, and they rejoiced that our assay-furnace put not their frauds to p. 122, the trial, nor our light their spots, nor our voice their n. i. disputings. Who would not weep that we have become perverse? For where it was fit that we should keep still silence, there our voice was tumultuous; and were it was p. 118,9. right that we should reprove, there we were tongue-tied by the persons of men. We have gone astray, and have turned p. 162, n. a. on our eyes away from our own hateful faults. We have warred Athan. and risen up against the High One, for we have pried into the p. 190, n. c. hidden things of God, [to see] how He exists. Yet who is able to search throughly into that party which disturbeth and p. 326, n. c. troubleth us? For if he indeed have senses, how then is R. l. §. 5. he formed, and how are his ears and eyes furnished with R. lxxv. openings? and if he hath a mouth? for behold he hath no §. 4. body; and if he hath limbs? for behold he hath no frame.
2. Who then—[to take] this apostate Satan, who teacheth n. b. R. lxxv. e. us the prying into secret things—who hath searched him p. 203, n. f. out, [so as to know] whether the whole of him is any man, p. 104. and how he is able to blend his design with our mind, and p. 299, n. e. R. his words into our words, and how too he insinuates his will lxvi. §. 1. into our heart? Here is a marvel in his hateful doings! p. 326, n. c. Who would not be ashamed that the wicked one entereth R. l. into his body and maketh a sport of the soul which dwelleth §. 5. therein; and how that it feeleth not the intimate access of Satan, who dwelleth in itself, and entereth into it; neither can it comprehend how to feel the touch of him that sojourneth in it. While searching into its Lord, let it search into its murderer!
3. Who hath explored into the earth, (which yet appears Scrut. i. to be a thing limited by measures) to see, whence the ear is §. 7—11. R. lviii. §. 1. 322 Difficulties in nature teach submission to those in Scripture.
Rhythm 65.
1. SPEAK for thy side: Nature is before thy hand, Scripture before thine eyes, and nature is hard for us, Scripture is easy for us; for it was not from nature that we learnt Christ. It is right and meet that from the same source whence we learnt His Humanity, we should also learn His Divinity. It is right that from the same source whence we learnt His Birth from Mary, we should also learn His other prior Birth. And though nature is hard to us in every thing, the Scripture is able to teach us of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, if They of a truth baptize us and give Basil us life. He is convicted by himself! for either he denies p. 721. the baptism of the heretics to be valid; or else if he is baptized xliv. §. 3. and asserts their baptism to be valid, he is like Marcion, who d. ate the goods of the Maker, and denied the Maker, and though he was conceived and born, yet vilified marriage. Tertull. A bitter fruit this which denieth its own root! For who when c. Marc. i. 29. he baptizeth denies and casts aside That into Which he R. lxii. baptizeth? He cannot then cast them aside, since he cannot R. lxii. baptize without the Names of Father and Son and Spirit. And though every form of words has a fixed shape, thou hast Though had trial of those of the heretics! every word
2. Who hath searched out the ventricles and ducts of animals, meats and their changes, natures and their vicissitudes, some whereof are solitary, and some of them productive of others. There is also reason to be greatly astonished at the trees, how it is that they put forth and bear leaves and branches and yield fruit; the investigating whereof ends in stillness, and the searching after them in silence. Who 324 Necessity of faith illustrated by the case of the blind.
Rhythm 66.
1. Who is he that hath been daring and hath forgotten himself, and hath wished to be a measure of Him that formed him, himself being but dust? Let him who feels that he is dust praise that Image who fashioned, yea, and ordered him. The seducer seduced and bewildered the sons of men. Against the invisible Sun he incited them and darkened them, not that they should see, but that they should pry. By the Trinity, whereby they were washed, they have defiled themselves, in that they have made divisions about Their Names. 2. There is wrangling in the Church, and in the presence of the Truth the heart is divided upon disputation. In the Church envy biteth men, and in the Ark there was a treaty of peace among the fanged beasts. Under the pretext of truth there were bows; a quiver have they made of wrangling, and it is full of arrows. The wicked one hath decoyed the simple, and introduced them to hopeless questions and crushed them to pieces therewith. He hath irritated men with things which are not convenient, that they might leave off from those which are allowed. Because they were intoxicated, they put on strife as a coat of mail; they have rent Truth as the garment. Yet is the Truth itself not divided, for it hath rent them that rend it, and cast them out of the Kingdom. Lo, they have put on armour, as in war, for that victory in which is concealed condemnation! They have worn the Scripture to pieces, not that they might read it, but that they might go astray and [see] how to pry and wrangle. They are clothed within with hidden poison, while they are convicted of having the Serpent hissing amongst their words. Who shall be able to allay them who, when supposed to be searching after the
Rhythm 67.
1. THE standard of truth hath been set in the Scriptures, the blear-eyed leave it; for they seek to shoot at the Lord of angels. This standard is that the Father is One, indivisible; and the Son is One, unsearchable. A visible standard is set in the light, and he who is foolish shooteth darts by night into the darkness. Let stillness be a boundary to the vain talkers, and let silence be a boundary to the disputers concerning hidden things! Let the mouth learn how it should speak, and thus let it speak, lest it repent after it hath spoken; let it learn first, and thus let it teach, lest it become as it were a passage for things not convenient. 2. The Scriptures are set as a mirror: he whose eye is clear, seeth the image of truth therein. There is the likeness of the Father set: there is the image of the Son shadowed out, and of the Holy Ghost. The Names of these Three are set one after another in the faith at baptism. Pretence entered in to make confusion, [saying,] that we ought to pry into them, in order that we may gain them. Scrutinizing entered, strife entered, struggling entered, and truth fled. The right thing was then, that they should gain the truth without disputing, and not that we by searching should let go of the whole of it. It was fit also that in simplicity we should gain life, and not by much wisdom to gain death. It is fitting too in the time of thirst to drink the water, and not in stead of drinking to measure the fountain. It is fitting for a little child to know his father by the sight of him, and not by closely examining him. It is fitting then that one should learn the
Rhythm 68.
1. THE Scriptures are agreed, men are divided, seeing that it is about the one truth, that strifes have risen from free-R. lix. will. Under the pretext of truth vile men have designed the obtaining the mastery, after having called men to their side. R. xxxviii. The congregations chose their masters, captains of thousands and of hundreds, and captains of tens: because there was abundance of peace, all the spoilers that spoiled by troops every man his neighbour, were vehement at disputing as at a contest, so that brothers cast their darts against brothers. p. 190. Mighty sorrow! The vile drew their tongues; they smote, n. c. R. lxiv.§.1. and were smitten: and without blood or danger that sword though feeble raged. The tongue as a murderer scorneth, §. 2. because it is blinded! 2. Vain-glory troubleth the disputants, as the crown causeth sighs to the wrestlers who smite and are yet overcome. They are much overcome even by that wherewith they conquered, since their excuse was rash boldness. Mighty woe! In what sense has he conquered, who in having conquered, hath yet been the more overcome, whom his own pride hath conquered? How doubly great is the loss of him also that loseth his suit, who by disputing loseth it and by envy too, with perfect loss! Whoso hath entangled his fellow by searchings, him hath haughtiness entangled as in a pit-fall. R.xliv. O great humiliation!
3. One is filled with wrath, another with strife, which [leads to] endless evils. And what hope is there for them that have lost all hope? Let us weep that they have been daring against God and against men, that they may hoodwink them by vain babbling. The headiness on earth goeth into heaven; the earth is disturbed: disputation funeth up as a smoke. The Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens are unproductive of disputation, and the caverns of earth are full of the Disputation dissuaded and prayed against. blasphemy. The Heaven distributeth over things beneath dew and rain, streams that are full of all good things. The earth hangs the things above with all sorts of questionings, with disputation that is full of all blasphemies. The things of clay have clashed, by their disputings, with their handiworks, and have fallen upon the earth and become dust! 1 R. iv. 4. Ten thousand times ten thousand Angels are still, and two are prying; the soul and the body are in disturbance. Still is Michael and Gabriel too, and dust disputeth and ashes too. O heavy wrath! Sicknesses pressed on us: their words 2 S. by ceased, as by the prospect of death have their scrutinizings means of their end and disputings also. Praise be to Thee, Lord, because that Thou hast restrained me from such scrutinizing as all the bold disputers use, that I may live before Thee.
Rhythm 69.
1. If thou priest into the Eternal, it is a distraction; where wilt thou begin, and where wilt thou end, O weak man! From the beginning to the end there is rest to him that goeth by the King's high-way. To the Eternal there is no beginning nor end, and so He perplexeth him that seeketh into Him. If in the Truth which thou hast laid hold of, thou lettest thyself be of divided mind, thou wilt pour thyself out and error will drink thee in, that thirsty land. If with His secret counsel thou let thyself become perplexed, disputing about Him will be a mighty sea and will come over thee. In the faith as in a ship go down to His Scriptures as a sailor to the port. Save by His Scriptures go not thou down into Him, for He hath made Him many havens among His billows. Praise thou His Name!
2. The High One came down in His Love and became small though greater than all, and was little unto Him who was too weak to go. Again, in His Love He hath become a Sea, that he might traffick therein who was lacking in treasures. But if in His own Nature one should familiarly use Him, neither things above nor things below can go down into Him. What created thing can search into His God-head, when there is a gulph between him and the Creator? Unto the Godship is naught of the things which are made far away; for Love is between Him and the creatures. Unto God there is not a man of the disputers that cometh nigh, though He be very nigh unto them of distinguishing mind. In that Holy One none that is impure partaketh, for that He dwelleth in His entirety in the holy. To that All-knowing One none attaineth that is subtle, for that His Love is with plain men. To that High One none that is haughty attaineth, since His Love condescendeth to the lowly. He, being God, cannot be measured of a man, though very loving unto men. He, being Maker, cannot be measured of things made, how great No faculties can find out God.
soever the thing made by Him may be. He, as Only Living, cannot be uttered by mortals, nor His Generation by the disputers. Unto that Majesty who can reach? the spirit is feeble, the soul is little, the flesh weak. Whoso hath thought that he could search out Him, of him the speech strayeth, of him the heart roameth, of him the whole rebelleth. * It seems but little to add, that the flesh cannot reach God, which assertion may yet be illustrated by reference to n. d. p. 116. It would however appear more likely, that the word 'flesh' is used (as in Scripture) for the soul considered as acting upon, and acted upon by, the body; and the sentence will then mean, that that one substance, (which we call spirit, soul, or flesh, according to the subject matter which at the time of speaking we conceive of it as acting upon) cannot by any of its faculties find out God. The oneness of the soul in all these three functions ought to have been noticed above, p. 166, n. d. and p. 295, n. d. as what St. E. makes analogous to the oneness of God in Three Persons. It will be
following the example of the Fathers again to remind the reader, that God is not one out of all things and does not come under the laws relating to all things, and that consequently any one of them selected to illustrate His Nature only illustrates It partially. Each of these three functions of the soul seems as we contemplate them to engross its whole substance, and so to correspond to the Trinity in Unity in the rude way in which alone we can contemplate His Adorable Substance. The soul's mode of existence does not, in reality, answer to God's mode of existence: but the two objects, as we contemplate them, do (Leveia, see p. 145, n. a. p. 246, n. b.) exhibit a kind of resemblance. Comp. R. lvii. n. a. b. p. 341.
Rhythm 70.
1. WITH what eye shall the thing made look upon the Maker, when it is a creature, and He the Creator? There is no seeing of the soul within us, gaze and look as we may, R. lvii. either with the mind or with the eyes. For if we enquire §. 2. after it with the mind one believeth in it, and the other denieth [its existence]. Oh, great stumblingblock! How R.i.§.1. should the soul that is so blind that it cannot see even itself, n. e. gaze upon the Godhead? Neither can it feel itself, yet will it with these senses dare to search into the Creator. Get thee down to the haven, feeble man! for if the sea be R.lxix. vehement, the haven close at hand is as a place of refuge. §. 1. Draw near to a searching proportioned to thy strength; and then if thy heart be amazed and lost, wait thou in silence! Stillness is not at a distance, nor is it at a dear rate that thy mouth can buy silence. Silence is easy; disputing R. li. is hard. It is not by any necessity that prying is thrown §. 5. upon the bold disputer; and even the commandment, though it seem to be altogether constraining, is not of necessity, since it is of free-will. And if the law be not of R. v. necessity, what disputing can constrain us to be searching? §. 5. R. xxviii. He gave the commandments, and refrained disputing; in His §. 2. c. Testaments there is no seeking and no prying. He gave the R.i.§.12. law instead of disputation, and instead of searching, the e.Scrut. faith, unto our feebleness. The natures which He made are R. not to be comprehended; how much less the Nature of R. lxxii. Him who is hidden in Himself, and is unspeakable! §. 1. R.lxvii. §. 3. Mat. 11, 27.
2. The Son, which is of Him, knoweth Him without controversy, as not erring as to the way of searching into Him. Every thing made erreth altogether, whensoever it prieth, for that it cannot reach unto the Maker. If then His Love magnified us, let us know what we are—that our nature R.xxix. cannot pry into His Nature. For every thing which is a §. 1. R. lxiii. §. 3. Creatures cannot comprehend the Creator. creature goeth altogether astray, if it thinks that it is capable of prying into the Creator. Let not that which is made go astray, since by scrutinizing into Him it goes to a wider distance from the Maker thereof.
Rhythm 71.
1. THERE cannot be among the creatures a vessel large enough to contain that Majesty! there cannot be among minds a womb that sufficeth for the knowledge of the Godhead! For the Maker is very wise, so that He would not be at issue with Himself, as in sport, about the manner in which He should create. For if He were to make a vessel capable of containing Him, then were the thing made greater than its Maker. Folly this, that the thing made should be the greater and more excellent, while the Maker thereof were not greater than it! 2. If then the Creator be the greater, how can the thing made, which He hath made, be commensurate with His knowledge? and if He hath made any thing commensurate with Himself, this were an amazement not to be believed. Again, since every thing which He hath made is marvellous, it is because the Creator is great that they be glorious, though created things. Great is the creature, because great is the Creator of it; and little again, since however great it is, it is worthless [compared] to Him. Nothing then is small which He made by reason of His Love, and yet it is small [compared] to Him by reason of His Glory. Yet the Creator acted not counter to Himself to create aught which should limit Himself, neither did the Maker strive against Himself to make aught which should set bounds to Him. It was not any envy between the Creator and the creatures, since He is clothed with Love toward His subjects; [but] it is not the lot of that which is created that it should be a match with its Creator in its knowledge.
3. Of what is a creature, the Scriptures cry aloud, that great as it may be, it is far less than its Creator. Let no one imagine these things, or the like of these, of the Fruit or of the Begetter of Him. The Prophets cry, the Apostles confess, yea things above, yea things below, that He is the Son of the Highest. Yea, His noble acts which are rife in Heretics deaf to God's teaching. all the creation are enough to convince even the blind; and who is there that will despise the mighty thunder of all His
Rhythm 72.
1. WITH mighty wonder set thy soul a boundary, O hearer, and gather in thy mind from distraction! By faith He draweth R. lxx. §. 1. nigh unto thee: but by prying thou removest far off from His blessings. Great disputing is not adequate to the exploring of Him, since He is hidden entirely from the disputatious. In faith wait thou for Him; and if thou hide in Him, to Him it is that thou hast come! how great refreshment hast thou found! Yet even to attain this thine own running sufficeth not, since without Him thou couldest not even know that He exists. If thou wert to search for ever and ever, it is He that giveth thee this, to be able to know of His existence only. And how much soever he that laboureth doth labour, this he knoweth, and beyond it there is none that knoweth. 2. For He is very manifest to him that seeketh Him, and very concealed from him that prieth into Him. Be still, bold disputant! He is withdrawn from thee; He is not in the height above, nor beneath. He is lost by thee: yet found to thee. Lo! in both these who can reach unto Him, seeing He is withdrawn from thee, O searcher; He is found to thee, O worshipper? He is revealed in His Goodness: concealed in His Essence. Instead of His Majesty, seek His Goodness, which may be found of thee. His treasure is open: Himself is withdrawn. Instead of thyself, seek the Deep; instead of scrutinizing Him, seek His aid. His great mercy calleth unto thee, O weak man, that thou mayest know that His treasury is full of compassion.
3. His mighty Power alloweth thee not to gaze after thine
Rhythm 73.
1. Lo, there is a similitude between the sun and the Father, S. are the radiance and the Son, the heat and the Holy Ghost; of parables and though it be one, a trinity is beheld in it! That incomprehensible who can explain? One is many, a one that is three and a three one. Mighty wonder, marvel visible! The sun is distinct from its ray; they are distinct, yet alike, since his ray is itself also the sun; yet of two suns no one speaketh, though his ray is also the sun over things below. We call Comp. Chem not two Gods, though our Lord be also God over the creatures. Who can search out how and where His Ray is bounden, bounden and yet free His Heat? Though not divided, R.i. §. 5. 2. Types of the Trinity and the Incarnation drawn and when it is shut up in sleep, the ray putteth it off again, as the dead [body] that is to be raised up again.
3. And how the light pierceth into the eye no man comprehendeth, as [neither how] our Redeemer dwelt in the belly. The light from within the eye putteth on a fair appearance, and goeth forth visiting the whole world, as our Redeemer clothed Himself with this vile body and went forth and sanctified the whole world. But when that ray passed to the fountain thereof (for it doth not separate from its generator) it leaveth its heat here; as the Holy Ghost, whom our Lord left with His disciples, without changing from His own place. 4. Look at the likenesses among the creatures, and do not thou be divided about the Trinity, lest thou perish; since thine own life is too hard for thee, being one that is three, a trinity which is one.
Rhythm 74.
1. Who shall make me able to gaze and look upon thee, thou great light! wherein are crowded together types of thy Lord? Who can search out the heat thereof, which though separate is not cut off, as the Holy Ghost? The might of his heat dwelleth over every thing: the whole of Him is with every thing, and also with each one. It is not cut off from the ray which is blended in it, neither from the sun as being mingled with it; and when it is spread over the creatures, each one Comp. Basil de Sp. S. §. 22. fin. In this sentence may be contained an allusion to the doctrine, that the Holy Spirit sanctifies the elect by the application of His Very Substance to their souls, each one of which taketh up that divinely infused Heat according to his ability. Yet it may be observed, in confirmation of the view taken in n. b. and c. to R. lxxiii. that St. E. here speaks of the heat as spread over the creatures, as he did of the ray in that passage. For as it would be heretical to make the Holy Spirit, (who never took into union with His Person a nature capable of change as the Son did) to be in any way subject to change; it seems that this passage would shew in what sense the other is intended to be taken. For the mission of the Holy Spirit (of which §. 2. speaks clearly) is His Procession, viewed as influencing those 'who take up the might of His Heat,' i. e. the elect. (see Petav. de Trin. viii. 1. §. 10.) So far then the passage might be taken to allude not to what is eternal only, but also to what is temporal, i. e. to man's part in the matter, inasmuch as it would be difficult to some to distinguish in words between the Unction of Christ's Human Nature with His Divine, and (what of course in reality is a very different thing) the Unction of the elect with the Holy Spirit. (See however Petav. viii. 7. §. 10. &c.) Yet even the Incarnation of the Son, in spite of the new relations to man to which it gives rise, (p. 234, n. f.) is in such way the result of His eternal Procession from the Father, that neither of the Other Persons could have been incarnate with-
out a confusion of the order of the Trinity. (Petav. de Inc. ii. 15. Thomassin ibid. ii. 1. and 2.) Nor is it else than remarkable, that those who favoured the Nestorian view of Christ's Mission were also opposed to the Latin view of the Holy Spirit's Mission. (vide Le Quien. Diss. D. i. §. 13. Petr. Strozza de Dogm. Chald. p. 17. ed. 1617. Assem. B. O. iii. 2. p. 233.) If then in a passage of disputed meaning what makes for A.'s explanation is not concealed; it is hoped that what is done for fairness' sake will not be taken to be done from hesitation as to the explanation here given. For it seems, that had St. E. had before him here only the substantial application of the Spirit to the elect, he would have spoken of His being 'mingled' with them or 'dwelling' in them; and that the clause really alludes to the two constituents of the notion implied by the word 'mission,' the eternal Procession of the Omnipresent Spirit being alluded to by the phrase 'spread over the creatures,' and His union with the elect by the remainder of the sentence. See on c. Scrut. ii. §. 8. Calcas (in Petavius) illustrates the Mission of the Spirit much as St. E. does that of the Son in the last R. as follows; 'Although we take the Mission in a sense implying time, referring our own affection to God, yet may we not make it subject to time. For if a blind man were just to recover his sight and enjoy the sun's ray, one should not say that the ray or light then for the first time proceeded from the sun. For it is plain that before the man recovered his sight, &c.' St. E. himself gives such The operation of heat and the Spirit compared. 343
taketh up the might of its heat according to its ability. By it the naked getteth him warmth, while putting it on, after the likeness of Adam who was unclothed; this it is which is See on c. Serut. grateful to all that are naked, while it sendeth them forth, as i. §. 34. men invigorated, for all labours. 2. The Spirit also clothed the Apostles and sent them forth to the four quarters of the world upon labours. By heat all things are ripened, as by the Spirit all things are hallowed! O visible type! By that is the cold that is in the body overcome, as uncleanness by the Holy Spirit. By p. 73, that things which the frost hath bound are loosened; as n. d. souls which the wicked one hath bound are by the Holy Spirit. By it the calves of Nisan dance; as the disciples p. 27. [rejoiced] by the Holy Ghost which dwelt in them. By the heat also are the bridles of winter broken loose, wherewithal it holds back the fruits and the shoots; by the Holy Spirit again are the bridles of the wicked one broken off, wherewithal he hindered all graces. The warmth awakeneth the bowels of the still earth; as the Holy Ghost doth holy Church. How much then is it that he will go astray, and how much that he, a feeble man, will be searching the mighty boundless treasury? and how can he go astray so far as to measure with Him, unto whom whatsoever is in the four corners of the world is small? §. 1. p. 235, ref. 1.
3. Heat looseneth the evil bridle, yea, the chilly silence of comp. the frost upon the lips, and penetrateth the mouth, yea, and R. lxxii. the tongue, as did the tongues of the Spirit which settled on the Acts 2, Disciples. The Holy Spirit by His Heat applied by the. tongues chased silence away from the Disciples, the evil, yea, an abundance of illustrations that it requires some apology for introducing thus much from Calecas. But to use the words of Petav. viii. 5. §. 8. "rapit nos ad sese ac sine satietate delectat tantæ rei ac tam suavis jucundæque recordatio." The operation of heat and the Spirit compared. God's condescension and man's inadequacy dissuade prying.345 in the firmament, three senses fail, if thy whole body were senses they would not reach to the Godhead that is hidden from all. The three senses that failed at the types of the Threefold, that are the in sun, they cry aloud, that they are ignorant how to scrutinize the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
2. Again, place water before the sun, and behold there a semblance of the Birth of that Holy One. For without separation and without flowing it generateth a fire, a generate which is chaste as the generator thereof: this is not by separation from the sun, nor by severance from the water. Mighty symbol! For while the water and sun are unimpaired, a generation takes place, wherein a man seeth the Generation of the Son. He hath shadowed out difficult things by simple ones for our feebleness, that we might know clearly that He is the Son. By every similitude the Gracious One came near to our weakly estate, that He might heal it. 3. And if that Great One who is God, without semblances approacheth not unto mankind, let man who is feeble not seek to bring his own weakness near that Majesty without a medium. Linger not, O mind, construct spiritual bridges, and pass on to thy Creator. O son of a servant! serve thyself of the wings of the Holy Scriptures, that thou mayest reach to the Son of thy Lord. And let this soul too avail itself of every medium, that it may reach to the Holy Spirit; and thou body be not slothful, fly as an eagle unto that Body which quickeneth all.
4. And since those senses of man's are too feeble to scrutinize the Godhead, deal not extravagantly. For lo, the senses of the Angels on high, subtle though they are, yea spiritual, yet suffice not! Stay then the coarse senses of the gross bodies which carry off excretions! from searching these things are relinquished as too pure; tell us concerning the unclean things of unclean devils! Let the senses of thy body tell us of the spiritual senses of the foul-smelling devils, with what nostrils doth Legion snort? and with what feet runneth the wicked one through the whole world!? sages may be added here. Canon liii. fin. "Oh, High Priest, who didst offer Thyself for us a Sacrifice to Thy Father, receive from us, O Lord, our offerings in Thy mercy, and clothe with glory those that have waited for Thee and kept and done Thy commandments." xxiii. §. 3. "Lo! the pillar that did lead Israel, causeth His Light to rise to thee in darkness, for there is hidden in thy limbs His Body that rouseth all, and in the blood of thy spirit is there mingled the Cup of Salvation which leaveth not thy body in destruction." liv. §. 3. "Take Baptism and the Body and Blood of Christ with thee as a passport." lxxxi. "As provision for a journey Thee have I taken unto me, Thou Son of God, and when an hungred Thee have I eaten, O Redeemer of the world! Far be the fire from my limbs, and when the smell of Thy Body and Thy Blood striketh from me, may Baptism be to me a ship that foundereth not!" Paræn. v. 1. p. 414, c. "O fatted Calf that wert killed to be a Sacrifice for sinners, blot not out me wretched man, O Lord, from the number of them redeemed by Thy Blood! Thy Body have I eaten, and Thy Blood have I drunken, and by Thy Death believed that I should live." p. 429. "Because
Thou hast given me Thy Body to eat and Thy living Blood to drink, by Thy Body may I be pardoned, and by Thy Blood have my sins forgiven, and rise to praise Thee among the assemblies of Thy Saints." p. 432. "That sea of fire disturbs me and terrificeth me, and I am in fear by reason of the iniquity I have done. May Thy Cross, O Son of the Living God, be to me a bridge, and from Thy Body and Thy Blood may Gehenna go away ashamed, and I by Thy mercies be redeemed." p. 452, f. "Leave me not in the enemies' hands, nor give him ground against me; for Thy Body and Thy Blood hast Thou mingled in me, and Thy Rood betwixt mine eyes is stamped." p. 480, c. and f. "From hateful lust deliver me by Thy living Body that I have eaten, and I will lay me down and sleep in peace, and guardian be Thy Blood to me, and to the soul that is Thine image." p. 482, c. p. 488, e. p. 490, f. p. 493, f. p. 494, e. p. 519, d. p. 535, c. p. 545, c. ('Thy Body and Thy Blood as an earnest of life is hidden in their members,') p. 551, d.
Rhythm 76.
1. By the names of trees, lo, their fruits also are named, R. lx. §. 3. R. lxii. §. 4. whether they be sweet or bitter! The names of the trees then and their fruits are the same; they are distinct, yet equal. A great type! Distinct is the fruit from its tree, and yet the same with it, since one appellation is given to S. surthem both. If the root be sweet, then the fruit is sweet; the same name men call them both, it and its fruit. Distinguish p. 317. the names of the stem and the fruit, and yet make them the same also, and call the fruit by the name of its tree. For if it be sweet, they call the fruit also sweet, and the root how-R. lxxvii. §. 3. c. §. 12. §. 31. & p. 383, n. x. ever stringent. Distinguish the Names of the Father and the Son, and also make them equal, since the Father is God and the Son is God. For God is the Name of the Father and God also is the Name of the Son, as it is written. For He is distinct in Name, in that He is the Son; and equal in the Name, in that He is God also. Glory to His Name!
2. And if [the names of] trees as well as of their fruits be true, how much more true are [those of] the Father and the Son. He shadowed forth things hidden upon things which are visible, that He might shew the things which are not seen by the things which are seen: He imprinted His mysteries upon trees, that He might explain the things which are not comprehended by the things which are comprehended. For He also interpreted difficult things to us by the things which are easy, that we might easily gain a knowledge of Him, and things difficult by things which are clear, He made clear unto us, that we might know clearly that He is the Son. That He is our Lord then, yea, and our God, the just feel: p. 372, n. n. scriptures cry aloud, that the Father is God and the Son is God. Without God is the [Jewish] people who gainsay Him.
Rhythm 77.
Mark 13, 32. §. 3. R. liii. §. 5. R. lxxviii. §. 1. 2. R.lxxix. §. 1. 1. 'THAT Hour knoweth no man;' this the childish have balanced with the Son, and it as it were preponderates. For if the First-born does know the Father, who is there that is greater than the Father Himself, whom yet He doth not know? That hour, forsooth, no man knoweth, not even the First-born, for it is the Father only who knoweth it. And if as they think, it is because He is a creature that [the Son] does not know it; behold fools are making Him a creature by their pryings. 2. Come, wonder ye how our Lord, because He is a creature knoweth not that hour, while they which are created by His own Hand have dared to pry, not into that hour, but into the Lord of hours. Would that they would abide by their own word, that every thing which is a creature might keep silence before its Creator!
3. By that knowledge wherewith He knoweth His Father, is that hour also pondered upon in His knowledge: for if He gave Him to know His glory, and concealed from Him an hour of time, then is it greater than Himself. Set the hour which He knoweth not, along side of the Father whom He knoweth, and weigh and see whether is more excellent. 1 §. 1. For the Son by the mere fact of His knowing the Father knoweth Him entirely: He is not less than Him; for that He lacketh naught. And since the Root is real, in a real way doth the Fruit which He brought forth know Him 2. And what fruit is 2 R there that knoweth less than the root thereof, in that the whole of it is blended 3 with the whole. For if in its knowledge it fell short of its tree, then in name also hath it ceased, for it were not its fruit. If then that fruit agreeth with its root in its name, it agreeth also therewith in knowledge. The sweetness which is in both of them is one: one is the knowledge 4, which is in both of them, being they are commingled. 4 R. xlv. §. 3.
4. The fruit is mingled into its tree, and so is its root into the fruit: who can sever them? They are not divided in the sweetness; they are not divided either, in the knowledge of perfect truth. The love of the fruit is amid the root, and amid the fruit that of the tree: who can divide them? The Names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, equal are they, and at unity in the illapse at Baptism. The Names are united, the movement is the concordant 5 one of S. equal one Will 6. They bear as it were one yoke, and come; and as 6c. Scrut. They are equal in the illapse at Baptism 7, so are They also in Their unanimity. 7 p. 166, n. d. 5. But the Fruit came down and clothed Himself with a Body 8, and clothed Himself along with it with the feeble 8 or Flesh
b It might seem from the Latin, (completitur et representat) though very loose, that it was intended to be printed 4 was comprised in His own knowledge; which certainly would make the passage run on more easily. Christ's seeming ignorance names of His kindred, that as He even put on our human nature, He might also put on our knowledge for our sakes. 4 This squares with the passages noticed above, p. 190, n. g. p. 305, n. e. The words 'for our sakes,' which tally with 'for our profit,' in Athan. p. 461, n. f. are explained by the next sentence, in which the asking of questions evidently refers not to the real state of our Lord's knowledge as Man, but to what He said and did with a view to carrying out the economy, asking questions when He Himself knew what He would do, as though He did not know. Having put on our nature, He demeaned Himself, so to speak, as though He had all its accidents, some of which He suspended at will, see p. 202, n. c. p. 199, a. So in a Sermon on Lazarus, vol. ii. p. 391, c. he says, 'When the third day of the death had come to the dead, (Lazarus) and upon the fourth the worm had begun to gnaw his features, the Quickener with His disciples came to the city of the deceased, and asked his buriers that were assembled, Where have ye laid him?' The question about this was owing to the perverse [Jews]; for it is clearer than the sun that Himself had no need to ask it: it was to attest his burial that He asked....He did not say, Where is his sepulchre? but, Where have ye laid him?
He knew the haughtiness with which they gainsayed His noble acts, and so by the question tied them down to the place in which they had laid the buried man. He did not ask, Where is Lazarus laid? or, Where is he buried? but, Where have ye laid him? do you shew Me, ye gainsayers! Even of the Father is there a question which is like to this, and what is uttered by many that do I through reverence abstain from, without going into perverse disputings. Truth standeth by itself; it is not a marshalling of words that grapples with faith; simplicity with cheerful look it is which beholdeth truth as it is, and without wordiness and strife it standeth on the side of verity that is without strife and disputing. Whether of the two is greater to know, where the sepulchre is, or to raise him after he stank? That He was a knower of hidden things He proved before He came, by His revealing to His Apostles that 'our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep;' but the gainsaying buriers did He ask, 'Where have ye laid him?' that He might take a pledge of his burial from them, and then call
him. He wittingly bound them down to their having laid the buried man there, that when He had called him and raised him up, they might be witnesses of his resurrection. He asked, Where have ye laid him? they say unto Him, Come and see. They were tied by the question, that they might not gain fresh haughtiness. The Son is not inferior to the Father, through His asking concerning the sepulchre, or from His weeping over Lazarus. His Incarnation did He attest; both in His weeping and in His sweating the tears and the sweat were His own, yet do they not minish the Son, seeing He is a Raiser of the dead as His Father. He wept to attest the reality of His Body; He called the dead to shew His power; He put questions to tie down the gainsayers; He prayed to shew His perfectness. Neither doth His prayer over the grave make Him less than His Father, and indeed from His own language thou learnest, that it was not from any need to do so that He prayed, for what I say, He says, is for the sake of the people of the Jews, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. The mind of the people did He heal, seeing their hearing was weak, and they manifestly doubted if He was the Son of the Most High.
This was why He referred all His actions to the Father, to shew that it was not from 'robbery' that He was Lord and Quickener of the dead. In lowliness were the things done by Him, done, that the understanding might behold His love. It is beside our purpose to speak of these things here. Clearly shineth truth in its generations, and without our words it gleameth! Perfect is the Generate, as is His Generator! Wonderful the Firstborn, as He that sent Him! a Raiser of the dead is He, as is His Father also! For He that wept raised also. Upon this point it is possible for us, if ye asked us, to speak many things, if we see that the seed of our word hath budded in your ears. Even if ye reject it, I shall not cease to sow! Be not a rock unto my word, nor the high-way, nor a place of thorns, &c. &c.' In this passage we see that St. E. used the account of Lazarus' resurrection to establish any thing but a true ignorance of what our Lord asked about, which the Adoptionists afterwards used it for: see on Athan. p. 466, g. What St. E. argues He that knew all things became unknowing, He asked and listened, as a man, for man's sake!
6. If feeble men then have pried into the Essence [to see], how He is the Son and yet cannot contain that [Essence], either let them be still, if He knows it not, or if they pry, let §. 2. them confess that the Son knoweth all things. If then they pry when not permitted, this is audacity; or if it be permitted, p. 128, it is as a gift [of grace]. He then who gave dust [the liberty] to search, how should He hinder His Son from knowing an hour of time? Grant that He knew not that hour: the cause of His not knowing was the Body where for Flesh withal He was clothed. from it is, that our Lord's disclosures of His knowledge were made with reference to those whom He was addressing, and also to prove the reality of the Flesh, i. e. to shew that He had a certain Nature, not to describe the state in which that Nature existed in Him. See Eulogius in Phot. p. 284. ed. Bekker. who has many topics in common with St. E. here quoted, and in R. lxx.
Rhythm 78.
1. SHOULDEST thou at any time be minded to say that the Son knoweth not that hour which He does know well, since that hour is from His reckonings, He knoweth it, for by Him were all numbers framed. If it be [an hour] of the year, He R.1.§.1. knoweth it well, for by Him the months of the year were framed as its limbs; if it be of the months, He is acquainted with it, since by Him were framed the days of the months as arteries; and if it be of the days, it escapeth Him not, since Mark 2, by Him were divided the hours and the sabbaths and the weeks; and if it be of the sun, He is acquainted therewith, since it is He that hath trodden out for it the paths of winter and the steps of the summer; and if it be of the moon, again He knoweth it, for it is He that made the full moons, with the beginnings of the months. If it be in the height or the See Is. depth, it is in His fists: by His finger are all creatures suspended! 40, 15.
2. Compare the hour that He knoweth not with the Holy Ghost whom He doth know, [and see] whether is greater! and set forth clearly unto us the reason how and wherefore He concealed from Him the hour of His triumph? If the reason why He concealed it from Him, was that He might be less than Himself, lest He should make Himself like Him by stealth, that conceit is very weak, and see how soon it is solved with a single word. For when that hour shall be revealed, and the trumpet hath sounded, and the triumph is going on, it shall be solved. Now then compare the two together, and the inequality will have become equality upon their assumption. One of two things must be: if it be in the fact of His not knowing that He is inferior, then by knowing He will become equal, when He doth perceive it; or else if He be not advantaged when He doth perceive it, then of what advantage is it? for see though He does know it, He is still inferior, inasmuch as even Satan may know that hour, for when revealed, he will be ruined thereby. A mighty thing then is St. Mark xiii. 32. discussed.
that hour to conceal from His Well-beloved, when even Satan may know it! 3. Come then and hear the ground of His glory who is Lord of all, who is greater than all, whom all things depend upon! For the ground of the glory of God which has respect to us is His loving-kindness, which endureth for ever; and the ground of His glory in respect of His Son is His Paternity, which also is from eternity to all eternity. Oh, holy grounds, which neither towards creatures nor towards the First-born shall ever cease to act! Time is the ground of the hour of time, and it is for a time, and with time itself its time passeth away. Mighty is the ground of His Makership, so that nothing made can ever be as great as its Maker! Mighty is the ground of His Paternity, so that His Begotten can never at any time become the Begetter!
4. Of that hour there is yet another question for us to proceed to examine, since that former one hath been explained. And he that hath been induced by this gave thanks, and declared that our Redeemer also knew that hour! He as it were whispered to us as in secret, that it was strife that framed it, and spoke it, that it might prevail therewith. Strife hath pleaded guilty, and truth prevailed! questioning hath ceased, and the crown hath come to the Conqueror! St E. here is evidently speaking of some one with whom he had had a controversy, and whom he had won back to the faith. Who it was, I am not able to discover. The two questions which he examines here are, (1) Whether Christ's apparent ignorance of the day of judgment is inconsistent with His glory viewed as relative to man, or (2) whether that ignorance is inconsistent with the same viewed as relative to God. The latter (if I mistake not) he means to dispatch by saying, that, as He is the Maker of all things, and of time among them, and so cannot be a creature, He must be taken to be teaching in the text in
question, that He derived His knowledge from the Father, and so is a distinct Person from the Father. The former he reserves for the next Rhythm, merely stating here that he had gotten his adversary to allow that our Redeemer also knew that hour. The words 'our Redeemer' are remarkable, as shewing that they had discussed, whether Christ (see R. lxxix. §. 1.) as such, i. e. considered as Man as well as God, knew that hour, and that St. E. had opposed the view held afterwards by the Agnoeter; at least it is very unlikely that he should use such an expression of the Son, considered as God. Comp. R lxxix. §. 6. A a 2
Rhythm 79.
1. WHICH, my son, is the most glorious in the comparison, and which, again, is heaviest in the balance, that the Son knoweth not that hour or that He knoweth it? The Father who is great beyond comparison, He did declare; yet said that He knew not, and declared that He intended not to pry into, the hour, that by the hour He might hinder, yea, that the hour might rebuke thee, bold man, from prying into the Lord of all hours. To Thee be glory, Thou Son Christ, who knowest all things! 2. By thine own self know that He knoweth, since He has prevented and tied up thy knowledge: for thy free-will is a defiled handmaid, which, being in wine, spoileth exceedingly her Master's treasures. Chains He prepared for her, gyves also He made for her, hedges too, and they surrounded her, and walls, and they encompassed her; and if these preserved her not, from all this her madness is made known. He knew that the families and tongues, and that the Greeks, that are eager after hidden things, were to come to His discipline. For it was the net which collected those of every Man's chief good is God's rule in all He gives him. 357
sort. His leaven bridled and brought the wild asses to His doctrine, and in order that they might not be confused in their race, by one yoke of truth He taught them one race of concord. He gave not a place to the light-footed, that by himself he might run apart from others. He gave not him that pryeth a place, that he might be loosened from the yoke of the faith; [upon] clerks and unlearned men, the subtle and the simple, upon all of them the one yoke of equality was extended, even the yoke of His chariot, whereby the divided gain concord. 3. That we eat, and drink, and sleep, and rise, is of the free power of our will; the senses too possess free-will, in that they have power to do as they wish, yet not to do as much as they wish. Thus beneath the yoke of love which is put on them, [and] of truth wherewith they are encompassed, is it, that they neither go astray, nor lead astray, seeing they obey the will of their guide. If where free-will does not exist, it yet does exist, to wit, in the family of brutes, how much rather will it be found in its own abode, in man, who hath the motions of himself within his power, that is bounden by the truth, yet free in his actions, and by perversion can transgress against the things that are good; but if he slip from off the verge of truth, to error is he degraded.
4. One watcheth and [after] sleepeth, and when he sleepeth yet the reward of his watching is reserved for him; again, one fasteth and eateth in his season, yet his fast is not by any means lost to him by his eating. For food and fasting are both of them clean and fitting. Truth is single, yet error is the neighbour thereof; and if thou strayest ever so little R. xi. §. 3. 4. 358 Christ, who made all things, and all time among them, could possibly be concealed from His Finger which shaped all things? If then this was impossible, it escaped not His Foreknowledge, and He prepared a place for it that it might be established therein, and a time when from being secret it should become visible. When it was not found, yet was it p. 353, found by its Master, seeing it was kept in the treasury of ref. 3. His knowledge. And if it be hidden in the Root, it is not hidden in the Fruit which is in His Bosom.
Rhythm 80.
1. INQUIRE and hearken discriminatingly that faith is a second soul; and as the body standeth by the soul, the life of the soul also hangeth on faith, and if it deny it or be divided, it becometh a corpse. That mortal body then dependeth upon the soul, and the soul is dependent upon faith, and faith also itself dependeth upon the Godhead; for from the Father Himself by the Son the Truth descendeth which quickeneth all of them in the Spirit. For by this Truth it is that man can link his soul with those above: by the soul he liveth, and by means of the body he seeth and heareth: by Faith and Love and Wisdom he is blended also with the Godhead, and hath His Image formed in him. Let us not then loosen this wondrous fabric, nor let the faith become void in our souls, lest we should become dead invisibly, whereof the Living One said, 'Let the dead bury their dead!' This air is a soul which without living breath quickeneth the body, and whoso ventureth to cut himself off from it, his life floweth away, and he is visibly a dead man; and whoso cutteth off himself from the Word of Truth, his soul is invisibly a corpse.
2. Ezech. 18, 23. 2. I have no pleasure at all in the death of him that dieth, witnessed the Living One who quickeneth all. As the Sea, is that True One which cannot be deceived, a Fountain of Life! He hath made known His Will and hath certified His Love, which thirsteth mightily to kill our death. The Scripture hath sealed unto us that the just in faith findeth life. He hath made the Truth as a glorious root, and works as fruits Comp. hath He hung upon faith, and suspendeth them on the branch R. xvi. of truth. By a visible type, lo! hidden things shew them-R. xiii. selves to thee as it were to the eyes; for the body longeth R. over the gains as a merchant, and let the mind too gather lxxvi. together its treasures as a sailor, into faith the ship of Life! R. xlix.
3. And as the body standeth by the life of the soul, the §. 3 R. soul too though full of life yet without works is not even §. 2. alive; for by the deeds of faith it is able to live, and the James2, Scriptures are witnesses. Lazarus the faithful answered and 26. came forth! and sweet was his savour through the voice of Him p.350,n. that called him: and after the type of Lazarus, the Gentiles were quickened with the hidden life; and as a type of the Jews did the thief die that hung himself, and left his ruin as an heritage to the Scribes that hired him.