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A TEEATISE OF
DOGMATIC THEOLOGY.

A TREATISE

OF

Dogmatic Theology

BY i
THE KEV. SAMUEL BUEL, S.T.D.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OP SYSTEMATIC DIVINITY AND DOGMATIC THEOL
OGY IN THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OP THE
UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.

TLavra doiii/uaSeTS to jiaXov xaTtxers

VOLUME I.

NEW YOEK
THOMAS WHITTAKER
2 and 3 BIBLE HOUSE
1890

Copyright, 1889, by
SAMUEL BUEL.

PRESS OF
A. O. SHERWOOD & CO.
1 NEW YORK.

Cfre Bisbops, Clergp, anD Unity

WHO HAVE ENCOURAGED ME TO MAKE THIS PUBLICATION

TO THE CLASSES IN TEE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY
TO WHOM WHAT THESE VOLUMES CONTAIN WAS GIVEN IN
THE YEARS 1 871-1888, IN THE FORM
OF LECTURES,
Cfje0e Volumes are atTecrionateip SDeoicateD.

PREFACE.

The origin of these volumes is explained in the fol
lowing correspondence :
Diocesan House, 29 Lafayette Place
New York, March 22, 1889.
Rev. and Dear Dr. Buel :
Your brethren and friends who have been cognizant
of your work in the General Theological Seminary, are
desirous, if it shall be in accordance with your own wishes,
to secure the publication of such of your lectures as may
be in some sense a record of your long, able, and faithful
services in the cause of theological education.
To this end they beg to ask your co-operation, and
will be glad to know if you will consent to place at their
disposal material for such a volume, as it is their desire to
publish whenever it may be convenient to you to do so.
• And they are, dear Dr. Buel,
Faithfully and affectionately, yours,
H. C. Potter, Heman Dyer,
John Scarborough, Thomas Richey,
E. A. Hoffman, Alfred B. Beach,
Morgan Dix, William J. Seabury,
Andrew Oliver, E. Winchester Donald,
0. E. Swope, Edw. H. Jewett,
Henry Y. Satterlee, Geo. R. Yan De Water,
Randall 0. Hall, John W. Brown,
M. Yan Rensselaer, W. R. Huntington.

vi Preface.
344 West 18th Street,
New York, July 17, 188!).
Right Rev. Henry C. Potter, D.D., LL.D., Right
Rev. John Scarborough, D.D., Right Rev. Fathers,
and Others of the Clergy :
The hearty expressions of your letter to me, on the
22d of the recent month of March, have deeply moved
me, and encourage me to hope and believe that my
labors here in our General Seminary have been accept
able to those whose opinions in the Church are entitled
to the highest value. If I accede to the request con
tained in your letter, that I would publish a book which
would give good evidence of my acceptable performance
of the trust committed to me for .the last 17 years in the
General Seminary, 1 shall always value the high appre
ciation by you, Fathers and Brethren, of my labors in
the educational work entrusted to me. With your aid,
so generously given, I am now enabled to say that I
shall, D.Y., comply with the request made to me, and
shall hope that the circulation of the book, which fairly
represents the character of the work done by me in the
service of the Church, will be acceptable to her mem
bers, and I certainly shall ever appreciate the kind and
generous manner with which your request has been
made to me.
I am, dear Fathers and Brethren,
Yery truly yours in Christ and the Church,
Sam'l Buel.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE.
Introductory ....... 1
CHAPTER II.
God : His Nature, Existence, Attributes . . 17
CHAPTER III.
The Father and the Son — The Paternity and
the Sonship of God . . . . .98
CHAPTER IY.
The Holy Ghost — His Personality and Divinity 153
CHAPTER Y.
The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity . 188
CHAPTER VI.
Creation and Providence — The Knowledge of
God by the Creation . . . 221
CHAPTER VII.
Incarnation of the Son of God . 254
CHAPTER VIII.
Anthropology I. — Primeval Condition of Man 279

viii Contents.
CHAPTER IX.
Anthropology II. — The Fall of Man and Origi
nal Sin  . 299
CHAPTER X. m
Of the Justification of Man . . 354
CHAPTER XL
The Church .... 39S
CHAPTER XII.
The Sacraments ..... 418
CHAPTER XIII.
Holy Baptism . . . . . . - 4fi2

DOGMATIC THEOLOGY.

Chapter I.
INTRODUCTORY.
THE study of Dogmatic Theology falls naturally into
its place from the exegetical study of Holy Scrip
ture, and from the apologetic defences of our religion
against the assaults of unbelievers. It will be useful, there
fore, to sketch the characteristics of this study, to present
a map of the field which we are invited to explore. And
in doing this I call your attention to these several points
— -the nature and character of Christian dogma — its im
portance in a course of theological study — -and its con
nection with all other parts of Christian knowledge,
and with the practical and efficient exercise of the Chris
tian Ministry. And in answering the question, " What
is Christian dogma ? " we reply that it is the doctrine or
teaching of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Divine
and Eternal Son of God. It is therefore not a theory of
human device, but proceeds from the direct revelation of
God. It is the truth, because it is the doctrine of Him
who is the Truth. It is truth revealed to men for their
highest well-being by Him, who is to them the Way and
the Life. It is delivered and placed in sacred charge to
keep and transmit to the Church of the Living God,
which is the pillar and ground of the Truth.

2 Introductory.
The documents which contain this doctrine of Christ,
and which serve for its perpetuation and transmission,
are the Holy Scriptures, the creeds of the Universal
Church, the pillar and ground of the Truth, and the
determinations of the councils sanctioned by the uni
versal consent of the Church defining the truth against
the perversions of error and heresy. The Truth was
originally proclaimed under the Lord's commission in
the preaching which was the delivery to the Church
of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This
faith is contained in its integrity in Holy Scripture,
and is embodied in the creeds, which are the summary
of the doctrine set forth in Holy Scripture. This doc
trine is delivered in different forms in the Scriptures, in
the creeds, and in the doctrinal traditions of the Church ;
but in all these forms it is, if truly and rightly derived,
the one Truth, which comes from Him who is the Truth,
and who as the Eternal Son speaks the words which He
has received from the Eternal Father.
In the Gospels we have this doctrine, as it is set forth in
the life and declared in the words of the Great Revealer
Himself. In Him the Truth is exhibited as living truth,
to be appropriated by those who join themselves to Him
as living branches of the Living Vine, and are thus made
partakers of Him who is the Way, the Truth and the
Life. The Truth thus set forth in the Gospels is clearly
received and appropriated by the medium of a true exe
gesis of the words in which this truth is set forth. And
thus we are enabled to discern and appropriate it in its
healing, saving power. In the other portions of the New
Testament, especially in the Epistles, the same truth is
declared more in the form of doctrinal statement, which
is a true and divinely-given exposition of the words and

Introductory. 3
works of the Saviour of mankind. And then in the
creeds the same truth is stated in definite announcements
of saving fact and revealed doctrine, which present dis
tinct articles of necessary belief to all who would be
saved by Christ.
All that is declared or contained in Holy Scripture,
whether fact or doctrine appertaining to human sal
vation, must be received as teaching which comes di
rect from God the Fountain of all truth. What, is
contained in the creed is Christian dogma revealed
from Heaven and is to be received and thoroughly be
lieved as of necessity to salvation. There is a differ
ence between the Apostles' and the Constantinopolitan
Creed, consisting in the minuteness and fulness of the
definitions which they contain, but they alike contain
and deliver the faith once for all delivered to the saints
in the entireness and integrity of its revealed truth. The
belief, for example, in the only Son is amplified in the
Nicene Creed thus, " Begotten of His Father before all
worlds, God of God, Light of light, very God of very
God, Begotten, not Made, being of one substance with
the Father."
These several statements are not contained, ipsissvrms
verbis, in Holy Scripture or in the Apostles' Creed, but
they are necessarily included in any true belief concern
ing the " only Son " of the Apostles' Creed, or concern
ing the " only begotten Son " of Holy Scripture. Indeed,
the Scriptural expressions, " the brightness of the Father's
glory," the "express image of His substance," are fully
equivalent to the strong and clear declarations of the
Nicene Creed. He who truly believes " in Jesus Christ,
His only Son our Lord," necessarily believes that He is
begotten, and only begotten, and so God of God, Light

4 Introductory.
of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father. We may freely admit
that the statements of the Nicene Creed are the state
ments of men concerning doctrine revealed from Heaven,
and those who cannot accept the distinctive terms of the
creed must nevertheless accept the doctrine which those
terms indicate, if they ¦ would truly believe that our
Saviour Jesus Christ is the Divine Eternal Son of the
Everlasting Father. And the still more enlarged and
subtle statements of the Creed, or Hymn of St. Ath-
anasius do not transcend all that is included in the Scrip
tural statement that God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.
Christian dogma proceeds from the fountain of the
baptismal profession of the name of God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. It is the state
ment of their relation each to the other in the unity of
the Eternal Godhead, and of their several parts and
offices in the scheme of Divine Providence, and fn the
great scheme of human redemption. It relates purely
and simply to what has been revealed from Heaven for
our redemption, and what is not contained in this rev
elation has no claim to acceptance as dogma or doc
trine which Christians are bound to receive and believe.
Men may speculate concerning these doctrines of the
Christian faith, may strive to show their reasonableness
and their suitableness to the needs and condition of men ;
they may even endeavor to construct a full rationale
of the Christian faith ; but all mere reasonings of men
which are not necessarily contained in the doctrine that
is revealed, cannot be accepted as of the essence of the
dogma, though they may be in many instances valuable
helps for the appreciation and acceptance of the doctrine.

Introductory. 5
As the apologetic defence of the Christian religion is
not the religion, though of great service for its spread
among men, so all expositions of Christian doctrine
designed to show its reasonableness and fitness, or to set
forth the mode of its action in the lives and hearts of
men, useful as they may be for the advance and accept
ance of the doctrine, are to be expressly distinguished
from the revealed doctrine itself, which, received into
a good and honest heart, is the power of God unto
salvation. Those who truly receive the doctrine are
taught of God. If any man will do His will, said our
Lord, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of
God, or whether I speak of Myself. The expositions of
men are external to the truth which they expound.
When the truth is received unto salvation, those who so
receive it have the witness in themselves, which is the
witness of the Revealing Spirit with their spirit that
they are the children of God, who are taught by the
Lord Himself. Nor can the utmost efforts of human
reason reach all the depths of the Christian dogma, of
the truth as it is in Jesus. Its highest, most interior
doctrines, however defined in creeds, must be received
as revealed facts, whose inmost connections we cannot
explore. Thus the truth that God has an only begotten Son
involves the admission of the fact that there is a be
ing in the universe who has an origin without a be
ginning. The distinctness of the persons in the Divine
Trinity must not contravene the unity of the One
Living and True God, and so it is necessarily true, as a
divinely revealed fact, that the Divine Son is a distinct
person from the Divine Father — and yet is one and
the same substance with the Father. And so do the

6 Introductory.
doctrines or dogmas of the faith run up into mysteries
which are inexplorable by the intellect of man, but
remain nevertheless as clearly revealed doctrines, which
must be received by all who would accept as they are
offered, the grace and truth which come by Jesus Christ.
Such then is the nature, and such the characteristics of
Christian dogma, of the doctrine which comes from
Christ our Lord for our eternal salvation, and which by
His command is to be proclaimed in all the world, in all
its generations.
And what is its importance? The very fact that it is
a revelation of God for our salvation, for our supreme
and eternal welfare, invests it with an importance that is
transcendent, that is all its own. If the doctrine be of
God, it should by all means be acknowledged and re
ceived by men. Indeed, it was because the knowledge
could not be attained by men, in the methods of natural
investigation, that it was specially revealed from Heaven,
revealed to all the world that all might hear, believe,
and be saved through Christ for ever. It was under the
pressure of a deep sense of its mighty import that the
Church in all the ages has contended earnestly for the
faith once for all delivered to the saints. It was for the
preservation of truth most important to be held, believed
and obeyed, that, time and again, the sacramental host
of God's elect was summoned and arose to arms to repel
the invasions of error and heresy, and to set forth the
truth once for all delivered with clearer definition, and
with an emphasis that the perversions of heresy rendered
most needful.
Exhortations to such earnestness of contention for
truth divinely revealed are contained in Holy Scrip
ture, and an anathema is there pronounced against

Introductory. 7
those who will not believe, and against those who love
not our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, as He has been
manifested and revealed from Heaven. And if. any man
or an angel from Heaven preach any other gospel, let
him, saith a holy Apostle, be accursed. Under such
sanctions from Heaven is the doctrine of our Gospel de
livered and can there then be any safe or reasonable
doubt concerning its supreme importance, and concern
ing the necessity of holding it fast and proclaiming it
from generation to generation till the Lord shall come
again ?
Doubtless there is depreciation among men of dogma
in the things of religion. Long ago it was said, to the
utmost disparagement of truth clearly revealed, "His
faith cannot be wrong whose life is in the right." A
more false and shallow utterance could not well be made.
It would be much more true to say, His life cannot be
right whose doctrine is in the wrong. Between doctrine
and life there is, and ever must be, a most intimate con
nection. True belief leads naturally to true action, and
action which is wrong is ever seeking to justify itself by
the invention of doctrine which is wrong and untrue.
He who does not rightly receive the doctrine of Christ
cannot be a true servant of Christ. For he does not
submit himself to Christ as the true and only Teacher in
the way of salvation. He who does not believe that
Christ is the Divine Son of God withholds from the Son
that coequal honor with the Father which is His due. He
who believes that the Holy Spirit is a mere impersonal
effluence of the divinity cannot recognize the true mean
ing and force of baptism in the name of the undivided
Three, and he withholds from the Holy Ghost, the Sancti-
fier, the honor and worship which are due to Him as God,

8 Introductory.
by whom all the people of God are sanctified. He can
not truly appreciate the atonement of Christ, who does
not truly believe that Christ is the only begotten Son,
as He is set forth in Holy Scripture and in the creed of
the Universal Church. And so we might pursue the
inquiry through all the distinctive doctrines of the Chris
tian religion, and we should again and again perceive
that right belief is the mother of right action, and that
he cannot fully perform all that he owes to God and to
man, who does not receive as true the revelations which
God has made concerning Himself, concerning His
creature, man, and concerning His relations to men and
the relations of men each to the other, in Creation, in
Providence, and in Redemption.
In all the varied life of man, social, political, intellectual
and religious, perverse belief leads to perverse action, and
right and holy belief, and not indifference to truth, is the
fountain of right and holy life and action. Amid the va
rious interpretations and theories of the ancient Church of
Corinth an Apostle reminded them that Christ was not
divided, and that God was the author, not of confusion,
but of peace in all the churches of the saints. And
most earnest are the exhortations, the warnings and the
rebukes in Holy Scripture against those who perverted
the truth by heresy, who denied the Lord that bought
them, who held not fast as a sacred treasure, the truth as
it is in Jesus, the faith once and for all delivered to the
saints. We meet in our own days an abundance of such
depreciations of truth revealed. We are confronted on
every side by new theories of the truth which Christ
revealed for human salvation. The faith once for all
delivered is decried as truth which is obsolete, which has
answered its purpose, which has exhausted its strength,

Introductory. 9
which has imposed upon human nature and reason bur
dens which it can bear no longer.
The Gospel is written and preached anew and in other
statements, by these apostles of a regenerated Chris
tianity. Christ Himself is relegated to the position
of one of the many teachers who have fulfilled their
course in the world's history, and who must give place
to other teachers that will carry onward the develop
ment of light and grace to a perfection which it
has not yet seen. The doctrines of Christianity must
be restated, and divested of their incredible features,
that they may be. received by men; new and pleas-
anter views of the life beyond the grave must be
opened up, or the immortality of the individual soul
must be merged in the immortality of the undying
race. The creation itself, as stated in the revelation of
God, is pronounced a myth, and the eternity of the
world, of a development which proceeds from no creative
fiat of a personal God, is substituted for the sublime an
nouncement of the first words of the Holy Bible, " In
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth " ;
or for the announcement of the words of the Holy
Gospel, "All things were, made by Him, and without
Him was not any thing made that was made."
The connection between this world of probation and the
world of retribution is severed in the revelations of these
modern theorists. The true resurrection of the body is
denied, and most fantastic notions concerning the state
of the departed are put in the place of the solemn reve
lations of the Word of God concerning the connection
of the life of man in this world with his life beyond the
grave. And all these theories have no surer foundation
than the capricious opinions of men, or their reasonings

10 Introductory.
concerning that of which by the very nature of the case,
by the circumstances of their limited being upon this
bank and shoal of time they can have no clear or certain
knowledge. And all this illustrates the special importance of an
acquaintance with the doctrines revealed from Heaven
by Him, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and by
whom alone, in the revelations of His Gospel, life and
immortality have been brought to light. More and
more urgent and timely is the exhortation of the Di
vine Apostle, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to
write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful
for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye shall
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered
unto the saints." And that there may be this earnest
contention, a diligent study of the doctrines of the faith
revealed is needful for those whose commission it shall
be to preach to men the Gospel of our salvation. For
all the vain and false theories of men concerning the
Gospel of Christ, all the gospels of mens' own invention
are best met by a true and faithful setting forth in life
and doctrine of the Gospel as it was once for all deliv
ered, and as it has borne its testimony in all ages of the
Church. Thus much then concerning the importance of
Christian dogma, and concerning the. diligent and careful
study of it by those who are to be preachers and dis
pensers of the everlasting Gospel.
And lastly we call your attention to Christian dogma
in its relation to Christian life, and to all the connected
branches of Christian knowledge. And, in the first
place, I would emphasize the assertion that Christian
dogma is no merely abstract truth, no mere skeleton of
the knowledge of the grace and truth that come by

Introductory. 11
Jesus Christ. He Himself is the Living Truth, the em
bodied dogma of the religion which He founded and
taught. He did not merely declare the Truth, but He
presented Himself as one who was Himself the Truth.
In Him was the realization of that which is set forth in
Holy Scripture, and which is embodied and defined in
the creed of the Church. And the students of Chris
tian dogma come short of the fulness of its truth if they
do not attain and apprehend it as the truth which is in
Jesus. His incarnation, His life, His death, His resurrection,
His ascension, His mighty intercession, His perpetual
presence by His Spirit in the Church, this is the
truth to which Christian teaching or doctrine is de
signed to lead us, and not till we apprehend it as it is
realized in Him do we apprehend it as the truth, which
it is indeed. He Himself is the Teacher, and He Him
self is the Truth which He teaches. And only as He is
imparted and received is His doctrine truly learned.
Those who truly learn it, learn Christ Himself. For He
not only said, I am the Truth ; He added, I am the Way ;
by His teaching He pointed out the way, by His own
life and example He became the Way by whom we come
to God, and set before us as already realized the way to
Heaven, which He declared and opened to all who will
enter upon it by joining themselves to Him, who is the
Way. And He said, moreover, " I am the Life," for He
is the Living Son of God incarnate, for the salvation of
men, and by incorporation with Him are men made par
takers of His very life, have implanted within them, for
growth and advancement into maturity, the seeds of
that life which He now ever liveth unto God. When
the study of Christian doctrine thus leads us to Christ,

12 Introductory.
the Way, the Truth and the Life, and joins us to Him,
so that He is our Way, our Truth, our Life, only then is
it known and received in all its divine and spiritual
significance and power. So to apprehend this doctrine
that you may be fit and efficient dispensers of it to the
men for whom it is revealed, that it may be the light
and the life of all their days for time and eternity, so
only will the full and true study of Christian dogma be
accomplished. Thus apprehending and. knowing it, you
will be saved from all dry and thorny expositions of
Christian truth, from all mere external and dead presen
tation of it ; but having it in living power, in your own
devout study of it, it will come forth from you as the
living truth, which indeed it is, and bring men, to whom
it is so presented, to walk in the very light of the Lord,
in true and living union with Him who is the Way, the
Truth and the Life.
Doctrine and life, colors and light, in one
When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and awe; but speech alone
Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
And in the ear, not conscience, ring.
With regard to the connection of the study of Dog
matic Theology with other branches of theological study,
it may be said that they all proceed from one fountain,
that they treat of the same Divine subject, and that they
contribute each its portion to the harmonious whole. The
study of Christian dogma would be fruitless without the
study of exegesis of the Holy Scriptures. The results
of exegetical study are continually gathered up and
systematized in the illustration and exposition of Chris
tian doctrine. Bonus textuarius est bonus theologus was

Introductory. 13
the pithy and true utterance of the great reformer
Luther. To the law and the testimony, if they speak not
according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them, should be the perpetual motto reduced to contin
ual practice of the consummate theologian. As system
atic divinity is Scriptural it is true, and the true sense
of Scripture, as developed by sound exegesis, is Scripture.
Thus, in the very words of Divine inspiration, rightly in
terpreted, do we get the true divinely revealed doctrines
of the Christian religion. The creeds of the Church
cannot be fully understood in the depths of their utter
ances, except by the study of the Church's history, from
which we learn the origin, the development, and the
modification of the creeds to meet the various emergen
cies of Christian history, the attacks of heretical perver
sion, and to enable the Church faithfully to discharge its
office as the pillar and ground of the Truth.
From the history of Christianity we learn, moreover,
to estimate rightly the conflicts of Christ with the god
of this world in accomplishing His purpose of the subju
gation of the world to His holy dominion ; and we learn,
also — a most interesting study — to trace the progress of
the holy leaven with which from generation to genera
tion He is leavening the mass of our fallen humanity.
We trace also the fruits of Christian doctrine in the
lives of the saints, and doctors, and holy servants of
Christ, who have illustrated the power of His religion as
Christ our Lord has gone forth among the nations con
quering and to conquer, and as He is preparing the way
of His second coming to take unto Himself a glorious
Church not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,
but which shall be holy and without blemish. Then
shall it be seen how truly His Gospel was the power of

14 Introductory.
God unto salvation, and those who have kept His truth
amid the perversions of this evil world shall walk in
white before the throne of God and the Lamb. The office
of the Church in the maintenance and propagation of
His revealed truth shall then be illustriously recognized,
and in the light of the truth, which it has preserved and
taught, shall it, in all its faithful members, shine as the
stars for ever and ever. So important, so illustrious, so
sure of eternal recognition where recognition is blessed
victory, is the doctrine of Christ, which we are to study,
love, defend and propagate ; for this and all its results
shall remain when the world and the fashion thereof
passeth away.
Do you need any other words then these to incite you
to earnest Christian study of Christian truth, of the
doctrine, which He, the Truth, has revealed? A faith
ful study of this truth, under the guidance of the reveal
ing, interpreting Spirit, will make you faithful and able
ministers of the New Testament, not theologians merely
who are ready with all the logical and dry expositions of
truth, but living disciples of Christ, who have learned
from the Divine Master Himself, and who, with clear
views of His truth revealed, can set it forth with clear
ness and confidence as the Gospel which has come from
Heaven in its adaptation to the circumstances and needs
of men. Blessed are they who are faithful to the Lord's
commission, who preach and who receive the word of
apostolic truth, not as the word of men, but as it is, in
truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh in
them that believe.
One 'word concerning the connection of Philosophy
with Dogmatic Theology. The postulates from which
philosophy and theology severally proceed are different.

Introductory. 15
Philosophy is the employment of the human mind in -the
investigation of the truths and questions that belong to
the universe, as it came from the hand of its Creator.
The Creator is also the- Redeemer, and redemption is
the restitution of the creation to the perfection of its
original creation, and the realization of the great and
final end of that creation. The conclusions of philosophy
are those which are made by man in the exercise of his
own powers of reflection and investigation, and the cor
rectness of them is entirely dependent upon the justness
of his interpretation of the laws of the created universe,
spiritual and material. He may strive to support or ex
plain the truths of Divine revelation by the analogies of
nature, or by the use of a logic which is entirely within
the compass of his natural capacity. He may thus strive
to demonstrate the reasonableness or the necessity of the
great constituent facts of the revelation of God. And
there are those who may thus find a support for their
faith, by the exercise of their own intelligence, like St.
Augustine; while others, like philosophers of our day,
• may reduce the truths of revelation to the limits of their
own finite capacity. But all these constructions of
philosophy and of logic should be carefully distinguished
from the realities of the Divine revelation itself, which
rests upon the authority of the Divine Revealer alone, and
which are true and real, however man may fail to demon
strate their intrinsic reasonableness or their necessity.
The abstractions of logic, the analogies of the natural
universe, however they may illustrate revealed truth,
are not themselves the realities which they illustrate.
If the Trinity, for example, is declared to be necessary,
from the relation each to the other of the faculties of the
human mind, or necessary because so determined by the

16 Introductory.
laws or processes of human thought upon the develop
ment of the universe, such a demonstration if it be made
and accepted does not rise up to the full or clear explan
ation of the subsistence of the Living Three in one.
We should believe because God has revealed the truth,
and reverently strive to understand the import of that
revelation, but avoid substituting the conclusions of our
own finite intellects for the truths of Divine revelation,
which must be accepted as ultimate, however we may
fail to enter into all the depths of their wondrous mean
ing. I believe that I may understand, and I understand
what I believe, so far as is possible for my finite power
of comprehension, and so far as the enlightening Spirit
gives me power to understand the great and living
mysteries of the faith. There are realities of God's reve
lation into which angels desire to look ; and to know, as
we are known, we may well believe, is reserved for our
consummate state of being. Meanwhile, let us desire to
know, and strive to know, more fully what we firmly be
lieve, and so shall we be advancing to that blessed con
dition, when we shall see and know what eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart
of man, the things which God hath prepared for them.
that love Him.

Chapter II.
GOD : HIS NATURE, EXISTENCE, ATTRIBUTES.
THE knowledge of God lies at the very foundation
of religion: luHe that cometh to God must be
lieve that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him." It is the office of religion among
men to bind their life to the life of God ; to impart to
them the power of His Divine life, and so to make them
partakers of the Divine nature.2 If, then, that we may
come to God, we must believe that He is, must believe this
first of all ; then, unquestionably, the first inquiry in theo
logical doctrine must be, who and what God is. We give
Him a name, which, in the sense in which we attribute it
to Him, is all His own. He Himself said to Manoah:
3 " Why askest thou thus after My name, seeing it is se
cret, or wonderful " (,Ki?s)- That is, it is a name incapa
ble of being disclosed in all the depth and fulness of its
meaning to men, perhaps to all created beings. For saith
our Lord Himself, 4"No one (ovdei?) knoweth the Son
but the Father, neither knoweth (tis) any one the Father,
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will re
veal Him." The name by which God revealed Him
self to His ancient covenant people (niPP)) the Jews
never took upon their lips, so sacred, secret, and inscru
table did they regard it. His name was derived from
i Heb. xi. 6. 2 H. Peter i. 4.
3 Judges xiii. 18; cf. Is. ix. 6. * Matt. xi. 27.

18 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
the verb which signifies "to be," and thus was intended
to express the truth, so far as man can receive it or
advance towards the comprehension of it, that God is
essential being, that existence appertains to His very
nature. And so has God Himself, in His Word revealed
the significance of His name. When Moses inquired of
God what he should say to the children of Israel, when
they should ask him, 1 " What is the name of the God of
our fathers ? " from whom Moses professed to come,2 God
said unto him " I am, or I ever shall be (the same) that I
am," " and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the chil
dren of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you." The
name of God then, that which most truly designates
Him, is the name which signifies existence in its purity,
its perfection and its unchangeableness: To announce
the name is, in the very announcement, to declare that
God is; for necessary existence, without beginning and
without end, being which comprises in itself the possi
bilities of all being, is bound up in the very nature and
notion of God. 8" Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the
world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art
God." The fathers of the ancient Church, with one ac
cord, declared that there was no name which could truly
express God as indeed He is. Thus 4 Justin Martyr:
" There is no name imposed upon the Father of the uni
verse, forasmuch as He is unbegotten ; for whosoever he
be who is called by a name has one older than himself
i Ex. iii. 13, 14.
2 Ex. iii. 14; cf . Revel, i. 4, 8; cf . Inscription in Saitic Temple, Plu
tarch, De Iside et Osiri, c. 9, "I am that which was, and is, and shall
be "; cf. also Hosea xii. 5, 6.
3 Ps. xc. 2.
4 Apologia ad Senatum Romanum, p. 44, ed. Paris, 1636.

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 19
who imposed the name ; but Father, and God, and Creator
and Master are not names, but appellations from benefits
and works."
And says Gregory Nazianzen : x " The Divinity can
not be expressed by a name ; and this not reasonings only
make manifest, but also the wisest and oldest of the
Hebrews, so far as they have permitted us to conjecture.
For could those, who honored the Divinity with His
own proper characteristics, and could not allow anything
which was after God, and God Himself, to be written in
the same letters (since it was needful that the Divinity
even to this extent should be without participation in
our being and affairs), have ever admitted the insoluble
and peculiar nature to be set forth in free speech?"2
The Divine nature, as it cannot be adequately conceived
by finite intelligence, so it cannot be adequately set forth
in the language which is the expression of human and
finite thought and comprehension. Different explana
tions have been given of the Greek word signifying God,
@s6s. It has been derived from ai6eiv, to burn. (Cf.
Heb. xii. 29 ; Greg. Naz. Orat. xxxvi. p. 589 ; Damas.
Orthodox, fidei, lib. i. cap. xii. p. 47; Athanasius De
Definitionibus, torn. ii. p. 43.) It has been derived
again from deaadai to see. (Greg. Nyssen Homil. v. in
Canticum, torn. i. p. 539; Orat. xii. contra Eunomium,
torn. ii. page 758 ; Orat. ead. p. 855 et in tractat. Quod
non sunt tres Dei, torn. iii. pp. 19, 20 ; Damas. Or
thodox, fid. lib. i. cap. xii. p. 47.) Others derive it
from Osoopioo, to contemplate (Macrobius Saturnal. lib.
1 Orat. xxxvi.
2 Cf . Origen contra Celsum, lib. vi.; Synesius wept paaMiar p. 6;
Greg. Nyss. Horn. xii. in Canticum, p. 650 ; Orat. xii. cont. Eunom
ium, torn. ii. pp. 757-8; torn. iii. jn tract. Quod non sunt tres Dei, p., 18.

20 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
i. cap. xxii.; Athanas. De Quaestion. Misc. Quaestio II.
torn. ii. p. 436.) Others again derive the word from Oeoo,
to run.1 For God, says St. Athanasius, is everywhere
present, and is called God from Oeeiv (running) and
running intelligently, without time, through all things.2
All these explications and derivations of the name are
attempts of men to compass in thought the Nature, which
is beyond the reach of finite comprehension.3 We surely
cannot project ourselves beyond the bounds of our own
existence, and within those bounds must we gather both
the names and the notions by which we seek to repre
sent to ourselves the infinite / Am; and within the
same bounds must the revelation reach us, in which God
manifests Himself to us His creatures, so far as we are
capable of receiving a manifestation of Him whom we
call God, living, eternal and true. The impossibility
of fully knowing God as He is, and so the impossibility
for us of adequately naming Him or receiving from'
Him a name which adequately represents Him to us,
are well set forth in the words of Jehovah to His
servant Job. 4 "Where wast thou, when I laid the
foundations of the earth ? Declare, if thou hast under
standing who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou
knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or
who laid the corner-stone thereof; when the morning
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy?" 1 Dionys. Areopag. De Divin. Nominibus, cap. xii.
2 Suicer Thesaurus, torn. i. col. 1367; Quaes. Mis. Quaestio II. torn.
ii. p. 436.
3 Cremer's Lexicon, p. 27. Qc6? from 6ea in dsaaaadai," to implore."'
6e<5r," he to whom one prays.'7 The Being above the world, and man.
4 Job. xxxviii. 4-7.

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 21
These are the questions which modern scientists, in
truding upon a domain which does not belong to science,
are striving, or even presuming, to answer, without ad
mitting the existence of God who is, and who was, before
the creation, which is the legitimate subject of scientific
investigations, was called into being. l " He is before all
things, and by Him all things consist ; " and yet He is by
no means a part of, or one with the universe, which from
Him proceeds. By an impassable barrier, that which
separates the finite from the infinite, existence in time
from existence in eternity, is He removed from the
creation, which is His, and yet without communicating
to it any portion of His Divinity, which is indivisible
and incommunicable, He upholds it in the being with
which He has endowed it, and in Him even the highest
creatures, in the scale of existence, which He has made,
2 " live and move and have their being." He is as near to
His creation as the most ardent pantheism could main
tain ; in Him His creation continually abides, or it would
cease to be, and yet He is infinitely and eternally sepa
rated by the distance, incommensurable by any measures
of the creation, between the created and the uncreated,
between that which had a beginning and that which is
without beginning and without end, and which, in its
being, knows no successions of time.
Nobly have the fathers of the Church of Christ set
forth this original, essential, living, independent and in
finite being of God, and therein have showed the im
possibility of conceiving or naming Him, as He is in
deed. In the second century, Theophilus, Bishop of
Antioch, writing to Autolycus, thus discourses : 3 " God
1 Col. i. 17. s Acts xvii. 28.
3 Ad Autolycum, lib. i. p. 72, ed. 1636.

22 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
made all things from not being to being, that by His
works His greatness might be known and understood.
For, as the soul in man is not seen, being invisible to men,
but the soul is perceived by the movement of the body, so
God cannot be seen by human eyes, but by His provi
dence and works is seen and understood (voiirai):
for, as anyone beholding a ship in the sea rigged and
running, and coming to the port, it is evident that there
is in it a pilot who is guiding it ; so must we think that
God, the Pilot of the Universe, is the one who is guid
ing it, though He be not seen with fleshly eyes, on ac
count of His being unattainable ; for, if man cannot
steadily look upon the sun, which is the least element, on
account of its excessive heat and power, how shall mortal
man not rather be unable to look upon the glory of God
which is unspeakable ? for, as the pomegranate, having a
rind about it, has within many cells and repositories
separated by membranes, and has abiding in it many
seeds, so the whole creation is surrounded by the Spirit
of God, and the surrounding Spirit, with the creation, is
encompassed under the hand of God. As, therefore, the
seed of the pomegranate abiding within cannot itself
see the exterior of the rind, since it is within, so neither
can man, encompassed with all the creation under the
hand of God, behold God. Even an earthly king is be
lieved to exist, though not seen by all, but by his laws,
and ordinances, and authorities, and powers, and images
is perceived; and will you not perceive God by His
works and powers ? "
And Tatian, in the same century, says : * " God was
in the beginning, but the beginning we have understood
to be the power of the Word. For the Lord of the
1 Oratio contra Graecos, p. 145, A. ed. 1636, in opera J. Martyr.

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 23
world, being Himself the substance of the universe,
while the creation was not yet created, was alone ; but,
as He was all power, He Himself was the substance of
things visible and invisible ; with Him were all things:
for with Him by reasonable power {Xoyiurj?) the Logos
Himself also, who was in Him, subsisted, but by His
will leapt forth from His simplicity. But the Logos,
not coming forth in vain, becomes the first begotten
work of the Spirit. This we know to be the beginning
of the world. But it was formed by division, not by
abscission. For that which is cut off is separated from
the first ; but that which is divided taking its part of the
' economy, has not made that from which it was taken
deficient. For as from one torch many fires indeed are
lighted, but the light of the first torch is not lessened by
the kindling of the many torches; so also the Word
going forth from the power of the Father, has not made
Him who begat, Word-less : for I myself also speak and
you hear, but not by any means through the transmission
of the Word am I who converse with you deprived of the
Word, but sending forth my own voice I have proposed
to bring to order the disordered matter in you, and as
the Word begotten in the beginning, in turn begat our
creation, Himself for Himself creating the material, so
I, in imitation of the Word, being regenerated, and
having accomplished a reception of the Truth, put in
order the confusion of the matter, which is kindred to
me." Here the Christian doctrine of the relation of God
to His creation, of His procedure from His sole eternity
to His creation, and, at the same time, of His infinite
distinction from that creation, is clearly stated. But
though it can be so stated it is beyond the power and
i Cf. Col. i. 15.

24 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
reach of finite comprehension. God had in Himself the
possibilities and the potencies of all being subjected to
His free and sovereign disposal, to be converted into
reality, or to remain in the depths of His infinite being,
as He willed. But when the creation was an accom
plished fact, while the possibilities and potencies in God
were unchanged and unspent, that creation was as in
finitely different from God, as far removed from Him in
the mode and condition of its being, as time is different
from eternity, as the limited is different from the un
bounded, as, in one word, we can say no more on such a
subject, which finds its parallel only in itself, as the cre
ated is distant from the uncreated, as God who is, is far
removed in being, from all, which has ever begun to be.
Can we wonder that the profoundest theological
teachers of the Church could only express their sense of
the inconceivableness of the Divine existence, in words
which, to human thinking, were an assemblage of con
tradictions ? Thus does S. Hilary of Aries discourse of
the ineffable God, ineffable because He is God. * " But
these things I would rather think than speak concerning
the Father ; for it does not escape me that all speech is
weak to speak those things which are to be spoken. He
is to be thought invisible, incomprehensible, eternal.
But that very thing which He is in Himself and from
Himself, and which He Himself is by Himself ; that He
is invisible, incomprehensible and immortal, in these
indeed there is a confession of honor, and a signification
of sense, and a certain circumscription of thought ; but
speech succumbs to nature, and words do not explain the
thing as it is. For when you hear that He is in Himself,
the solution does not occur to human reason ; for He is
1 De Trinitate, liber ii. 7 ed. Ben. p. 792.

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 25
discerned to possess and to be possessed, and there will be
one thing which He is, another in which He is. If
again you hear that He is from Himself, no one is him
self both the giver and the gift. If that He is immortal,
therefore there is something not from Him, to which the
other cannot be obnoxious : nor is this the only thing
which by the enunciation of this word is vindicated
from another.
" If that He is incomprehensible, therefore that which
is, denied to be attainable will be nowhere. If that He
is invisible, whatsoever wants itself is not extant to sight.
Confession therefore fails in the naming (of Him) and
whatever kind of speeches shall be fitted to the purpose,
it will not speak forth God as He is, and how much He
is. Perfect knowledge is so to know God, that you may
know Him though not to be unknowable, yet to be in
describable (or unspeakable). He is to be believed, He is
to be understood, He is to be adored, and, by these offices
to be spoken forth." And S. Augustine more remark
ably still : 1 " But indeed I feel that I have done nothing
else than to have wished to speak. But if I have spoken
it is not what I have wished to speak. Whence do I
know this, unless because God is ineffable ; but what has
been spoken by me, if it were ineffable, would not have
been spoken ? But even by this God cannot indeed be
said to be ineffable, because even when this is said,
something is said. And there is I know not what battle
of words, since if that is ineffable which cannot be said,
that is not ineffable which can even be said to be in
effable. Which battle of words is to be avoided by
silence rather than to be pacified by speech. And
1 De Doctrina Christ, i. c. 6. torn. iii. part i. col. 5; Antwerp, ed.
Ben.

26 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
nevertheless God, when nothing can be said concerning
Him worthily, has admitted the service of human speech
and willed us to rejoice, with our words, in His praise.
For from thence it is also that He is called God.1 For
not, in reality, is He Himself known in the sounding of
those two syllables; but nevertheless it moves all ac
quainted with the Latin tongue, when that sound has
touched their ears, to think of a certain most excellent
and immortal nature."
In the soliloquies in St. Augustine's works, not his
genuine compositions, is the following beautiful passage :
2 "But how do I know Thee ? I know Thee not as Thou
art to Thyself, but I know Thee as Thou art to me, and
this not without Thee, but in Thee, because Thou art the
Light which has illuminated me. As Thou art to Thy
self, Thou art known to Thyself alone ; as Thou art to
me, according to thy grace, Thou art known also to me
. . . I have known Thee, since Thou art my Lord.
I have known Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent." This is true, sufficient and satis
fying knowledge of God ; this is His own revelation of
Himself to His creature man, though as He is in Him
self, as He is known to Himself, in the depths of His un
searchable Being, He is unknowable by all creaturely
capacity. He is known only with a knowledge adequate
to His nature, when He is known, as He knows Himself,
and because He is so unknowable by the highest reach of
creaturely thought, those who would exclude God from
His own universe would fain maintain the parodoxical
and absurd position that knowledge which is not adequate
to the immensity of the contemplation and the compre
hension, is no knowledge at all. Sounder and truer
1 Deus. 2 Tom. vi. appendix, c. 31, p. 580.

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 27
is the position of the immortal, judicious Hooker. 1 " Dan
gerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far
into the doings of the Most High; whom although to
know be life and joy to make mention of His name;
yet our soundest knowledge is, to know that we know
Him not as indeed He is, neither can know Him ; and
our safest eloquence concerning Him is our silence,
when we confess without confession that His glory is in
explicable, His greatness above our capacity and reach.
He is above, and we upon earth ; therefore it behoveth
our words tb be wary and few."
So by divesting ourselves, in thought, of all the circum
stances of time and limitation, and dependence for being
and for continuance of being upon that which is exterior
to the being that has been begun and is continued, do
we attain the utmost that is possible for our conception
to attain, concerning the nature of Him whose name is
secret, and who is the God of the universe and our God.
The God in whom we so believe is no blind unconscious
existence, struggling forth, from this state of uncon
sciousness, into the universe of extension and thought,
into the visible and invisible world of existence, till in the
consciousness of finite spirits, He attains to self -conscious
ness of His own being, and knows Himself as the living
self-conscious God. Very differently is His Divine self-
consciousness represented in Holy Scripture. 2 " For
the Spirit (even the Spirit of God) searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in
him ? even so the things of God knoweth no one but
the Spirit of God." He who 3"sware by Himself"
1 Book i. ch. ii. p. 164. 2 I. Cor. ii. 10, 11.
3 Heb. vi. 13.

28 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
" because He could swear by no greater " was surely con
scious in the depths of His unfathomable being of His
own unparalleled self-existence. Indeed the self-con
sciousness of God, His knowledge of Himself, is the
most perfect of all self-consciousness that exists in the
realms of spiritual being. For, as St. Augustine says :
1 " In the wonderful simplicity of that nature it is not one
thing to know {sapere), another thing to be : but what
knowing is that also is being." " For all His own
creatures, both spiritual and corporal, He did not therefore
know because they exist ; but they therefore exist (sunt)
because He knew them. For He was not ignorant what
things He would create. Because therefore He knew,
He created; not because He created, did He know.
Nor did He otherwise know those things created, than
He did those to be created : for not any thing was added
from them to His wisdom ; but they existing as they
ought, and when they ought, that (His wisdom) remained
as it was." " For so it is written in the Book of Eccles-
iasticus: 2 ' Before they were created, all things were
known to Him; so also after they were finished.' '/So'
he says, not otherwise both ' before they were created,
and after they were consummated, so they were known
to Him.'
" Our knowledge is therefore far unlike to this knowl
edge. But what the knowledge of God is, that itself is also
His wisdom; and what His wisdom is, that itself is His
essence or substance. Because in the simplicity of that
nature it is not one thing to be wise, another thing to be ;
but what it is to be wise, this it is also to be. . . . But
our knowledge (scientia) in very many things is on that
account both capable of being lost and received, because
1 De Trin. lib. it. c. 13, col. 697, torn. viii. 2 Ecc. xxiii. 29.

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 29
to us to be is not the same with, to know and to be wise ;
since we can be even if we are neither ignorant of nor
wise in those things which we have learned from without
(aliunde). On account of this as our knowledge is to that
knowledge of God, so also our word which is born from
our knowledge, is unlike to that word of God, which is
born from the essence of the Father. But it is as if I
should say, from the knowledge of the Father, from the
wisdom of the Father, or which is more express from
the Father, who is knowledge, from the Father, who is
wisdom." And here in the eternal generation of the
Word, the eternal Son is the self -consciousness in God of
His own nature and existence. And surely that con
sciousness in which knowledge and reality are. one and
the same is the most perfect and transcendent of all con
sciousness. God alone is the perfectly self-conscious
being. In the continued words of S. Augustine, * " Therefore
the Word of God, the only begotten Son, in all things
like and equal to the Father, God of God, Light of
light, Wisdom of wisdom, Essence of essence, is al
together what the Father is, nevertheless is not the
Father ; because the one is the Son, the other the Father.
And by this He knows all things, which the Father
knows ; but to Him to know is from the Father, just as
to be (is from the Father). For to know and to be is
there one thing. And therefore, as to be is not from
the Son, so neither to know. Therefore, the Father, as if
speaking Himself, begat the Word equal to Himself in
all things " (per omnia). " This is the most real, sublime
self-consciousness, in God, of His own nature and exist-
1 De Trin. lib. xv. c. 14, col. 697, torn. vii.

30 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
ence, as He Himself declares it, 1£ I am the Lord, and
there is none else, there is no God beside Me : I girded
thee, though thou hast not known Me : That they may
know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that
there is none beside Me. I am the Lord and there is none
else.' " God is also Spirit ; the fountain of all spiritual
existence beside. Our Lord's declaration is conclusive.
X" God is Spirit ; " and because He is Spirit " they that
worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
J* "Now," says St. Paul, "the Lord is that Spirit ; and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." From
our own spiritual existence, because we ourselves are
spiritual in essence, we are taught in the revelation of
God to own our God as He is indeed Spirit in His
essential nature, and therefore, in His relation to all the
spiritual beings of the universe who are not one in the
God Himself, He is ^ the Father of spirits." St. Paul,
while declaring " the unknown God " to the men of
Athens, dwelt upon the freedom of God, in His true and
spiritual being, from all the forms and bonds of material
existence. J[_" God that made the world, and all things
therein, this One, who is Lord of Heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; " for He
exists not in place or space, which is a mere shadow of
His incomprehensible mode of being ; " neither is wor
shipped with men's hands, as though He needed any
thing, seeing He giveth to all life and breath and all
things." He is not to be seen with the bodily eye,
since He is not embodied, but it is the privilege of men,
'Is. xlv. 5, 6, 14, 18; Deut. iv. 35, 32„39; Is. xliv. 8 and xlvi. 9.
I. Sam. ii. 2; Mark xii. 29, 32.
2 S. John iv. 24. 3 n. Cor. iii. 17.
« Heb. xii. 9. 5 Acts xvii. 24.

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 31
with their capacity of spiritual perception and appre
hension, to " feel after Him and find Him," " though He
be not far from every one of us ; " " For in Him we
live and move and have our being, " since He is " the
Father of our spirits," so that even the heathen poets
have said, " For we also are His offspring," and if we are
spiritual in essence, much more must He, the Infinite
Father of spirits, be Spirit in deed and in truth. And
in view of this His spiritual nature, of which we are the
offspring, we are taught not_2"to think that the God
head is like unto gold, or silver, or stone graven by art,
and man's device."
God reminded the Israelites, by Moses, that when He
revealed Himself in His majesty, on Mount Sinai, they
saw 2 " no manner of similitude " — for no similitude could
represent truly Him who was clothed with no corporeal
form, and who only, in His infinite condescension, when
He entered the tabernacle of our flesh in the person of
His only begotten Son, His own eternal Word, revealed
Himself in the form of His own creation, which did not
at all appertain to His own" spiritual and essential nature.
It was the very depth of heathen corruption which St.
Paul set forth, whenjjlie says of these Gentiles that
" Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God"
(which was a glory invisible to corporeal eye, intangible
by corporeal instruments) "into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts,
and creeping things." So_^" they changed the truth of
God into a lie," denied the true and pure spirituality
of His nature and existence " and worshipped and served
1 Acts xvii. 29; cf. Is. xl. 18. 2 Deut. iv. 12, 15, 16.
3 Rom. i. 22, 23. 4 Rom. v. 25.

32 God : His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for
ever. Amen." They disregarded and annihilated the
infinite distance between the creation and the uncreated
God, which God Himself only knew how to traverse,
and so they made to themselves gods which were no gods,
which were nothing in the world, and hid, from them
selves, beneath the forms of the creation, the spiritual
and living God, whom only they should worship and
serve. God is one. His unity is clearly asserted in the Scrip
tures. - It was on this very basis, this doctrine of the sole
and undivided unity of God, that a Church, in covenant
with Him, was gathered, and the proclamation was
plainly and emphatically made, x " Hear, O Israel :
Jehovah our God is one Jehovah." And these words
are the beginning of an invariable portion of the morn
ing and evening service of the Jewish synagogue. They
signify that Jehovah is the one absolute God, over all
the earth and all the created universe. It is a unity
which admits of no association with Him of others in
His divinity. The final prevalence of this unity of God
in His rightful supremacy over all the earth is proclaimed
by the prophet Zechariah2 in the same words, with the
addition of the unity of the Divine name, in which the
creed of the ancient people of God is announced in the
passage of the book of Deuteronomy. 3 " And Jehovah
shall be King over all the earth ; in that day there shall
be one Jehovah, and His name one."
, Even pantheism, while rejecting the personality of
God, and His distinction from the universe known to
the observation of sense and consciousness, admits and
1 Deut. vi. 4; cf. Is. xlii. 8; S. Mark xii. 29, 32.
2 Zech. xiv. 9. 3 Zech xiv. 9.

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 33
maintains, in identifying the universe with God, the
unity of God ; and polytheism, with its gods many and
lords many, wherever it has prevailed, and especially
among the cultivated Greeks of antiquity, has assented
to the unity of God, in worshipping, as the manifesta
tions of the all-pervading and all-present Deity, in all
the realms of nature, the gods of its Pantheon. Poly
theism, in branching from the root of pantheism and
creature worship, itself bears testimony to the unity of
God, which all must believe who make any approaches
to a thought of God as the spring and source of all being
and life in the universe.
God is not one of many, but one in the sole possession
of Godhead, which is His alone, unshared with any
other. Ruffinus in his "Exposition of the Creed of
the Church " well sets forth this incommunicable unity
of God, which is of His very nature. When we speak of
" one true God the Father Almighty and one Lord," he
says, x " This one is not to be understood as spoken of
number, but of universality. For example, if any one says
one man or one horse, here he has put one for number,
for there can be also a second and a third man or horse.
But where a second or third cannot be joined, if one be
spoken of, it is a name not of unity but of universality.
As if, for sake of example, we say the one sun ; here
one is so said that neither a second or a third can be
added, for the sun is one ; much more, therefore, God,
when He is called one, is named one, not by the word of
number, but of universality (unwersitatis), that is, who,
on that account, is said to be one because there is not
another." 1 Opp. S. Hieron. torn. v. ed. Bened. p. 130.

34 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
The unity of God is even more wonderful to contem
plate, when we consider that it is not invaded or broken
in upon by the separation from His eternity, and from
His immensity, of the ages of time and the realm of
the created universe. That universe still turns to Him,
and rests in Him — and in all the potencies which have
produced it, it is still in the depths of His infinite being.
And in His relation to it as its author and preserver His
Divine and absolute unity is still sole and undivided, and
even the created universe, which is His, is an emanation
of the essential goodness, which He Himself is.
This transcendent unity of God is of His very nature.
Because He is God, He is therefore one and absolute.
He who, in His being, is uncaused, must be without limi
tation of that being ; He who has in Himself the pos
sibilities and potencies of all being, can have no compan
ion or rival in His unchallengeable divinity. He who
is all-sufficient in the fulness of His being, cannot be
limited or supplied by any being extraneous to Himself.
He who is independent, on whom all things else depend,
can have no sharer in that Godhead, and no claimant to
equality with Himself to challenge a Godhead which,
from its very nature, even so far as man can conceive that
nature, must be all His own. And so does our own rea
son, the reason with which God, who made us after His
own likeness, endowed us, bear assenting testimony to
the declaration of God Himself, in His word of revela
tion, that " Jehovah our God is one Jehovah."
And, finally, the God whom we have' been contem
plating and trying to describe through these shadows of
time, is a God whose existence is a personal one. It
must be so. He has mirrored Himself in our reason,
which philosophers have maintained to be an impersonal,
so far as we are concerned in it, offspring of the eternal

God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes. 35
reason — in this our reason He has mirrored Himself as
our personal God. For that we ourselves are persons,
individual subsistences of rational being, our own con
sciousness assures us. We are not more certain, we ven
ture to say, we are not so certain of the actual and real
existence, independently of ourselves, of the outer world
in which we live, as we are certain, and know of a truth,
that we ourselves are personal beings. Now we are per
sons, because God has made us so, because He has de
termined us to be persons, when He assigned us our place
in the scale of His creation. Now, the Determiner of
all personalities in the bounded universe must Himself
be personal. Our own knowledge of our own personal
ity refuses to accept any other conclusion.
The Creator of personalities must Himself be personal.
And so only, in this our world, from man the lord of
this creation, made here in the likeness of God, constituted
here in rightful dominion as the true representative of
God, do we learn truly the nature of God, and that the
mode of His subsistence is not pantheistic, but personal.
Names can come only from those who are persons, who
are themselves conscious of their own separate and in
dividual existence, and who, having reason, can desig
nate such existence by names, which shall be its expres
sions and symbols. And, therefore, when God would
commend to the people of Israel His own chosen and
perfect representative, He selected the angel of the
covenant, who led them through the wilderness to the
promised land, and He warned them, giving them, in
the terms that were used, an awful sanction of His own
personality, J_" Beware of him, and obey his voice ;
1 Ex. iii. 14; vi. 3; Is. xliii. 11, 12; Rev. i. 8; Is. lxiii. 16; lxiv. 8;
Ex. xxiii. 21. Cf. Is. ix. 6; Jer. xxiii. 6; John x. 30, 38; Ps. cxviii. ;
John xvii. 6; Matt. vi. 9; John xvi. 26; Phil. ii. ; Col. iii. 17.

36 God: His Nature, Existence, Attributes.
provoke him not; for he will not pardon your trans
gressions ; for My name is in him," My name which des
ignates My transcendent Divine personality.
From the unity of God we might be prone to infer
that, if He be personal, He is one person in one only
substance. But the completed revelation of Himself
which God has made presents Him to us in a person
ality which is threefold, and in a substance which is one.
The proofs are clear and abundant in Holy Scripture
and in the testimony of the Church of all ages, that the
Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God
— that each of these persons, whose relation to each
other, whose distinct acts and offices, whose recorded
doings and sayings, all the traits in which they are set
forth, in fine, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, prove
their personality in its distinctness each from each ; the
proofs, nevertheless, are clear and abundant, that each
of these persons, so distinct each from the other, is God
Supreme, the God of Holy Scripture and of the belief
of the Catholic Church. The proof has been given that,
Scripture, reason, and Catholic consent all attesting it,
God is one in a unity which cannot be imparted or shared
with any other.
From these positions, viz. : that three persons are
revealed to us, each of which is Divine, and each of
whom is distinct from the others, and that there is but
one only God — one in substance and essential exist
ence, it follows irresistibly that the one God exists in
a personality all pecuhar to Himself; that while His
name and His substance are one, His personalities are
three. And so the God of our worship and belief is
God Triune, one and tri-personal ; for "in unity of this
Godhead there be three persons of one substance, power,

Existence of God. 37
and eternity : the Father, , the Son, and the Holy
Ghost." Such, then, is the God in whom we believe ; the eter
nally self -existent One ; the uncaused, and the Cause
of all causes, the Being comprising in Himself the pos
sibilities, the promises, and the potencies of all being
both finite and infinite — the Being who is unbounded in
His perfections — the absolute One, independent of all,
and on whom all else depends, the substance of all the
universe ; yet all-sufficient in His own boundless being,
and distinct, by an impassable and infinite distinction
in nature from the universe which He has made, and
has in him its being — distinct in His Divine personality,
which, without invading the unity of the Divine sub
stance, divides itself eternally in the three persons,
whose Godhead is one and the same, whose personalities
are as distinct each from each — from everlasting, as the
Godhead of each is one and the same, which cannot be
shared with any other.
II.— EXISTENCE OF GOD— HOW WE KNOW IT, AND
BELIEVE IT.
The question naturally meets us, how we come to be
lieve that God is, who dwelleth in His own eternity,
and whose nature, so far as man can comprehend it, we
have endeavored to describe. All our knowledge of
God is the knowledge of creatures of bounded capacity,
and whose knowledge in its extent and character is de
termined by the sphere of limited existence in which
they find themselves placed.
1. And, in the first place, the universal assent of men
in all ages and in all parts of the earth to the truth of
the Being of God is no small proof that that to which

38 Existence of God.
they so assent is a truth indeed. The exceptions to this
universal testimony of man are so insignificant, that there
is no occasion to take them into reckoning, in the esti
mation of the testimony of humanity to the truth of
God's existence.
The nations most degraded and sunk in the depths of
polytheism or fetish worship, still have an awe of a supe
rior or unseen being, who is supreme among the gods.
And pantheism itself appeals to a universal soul of the
world, or forming power of all nature as the primum
mobile of the universe. Now this testimony of all man
kind, which is a generally admitted fact, proves either that
the universal reason or sentiment of mankind recurs to
a First Cause, who is God, as the fountain of the uni
verse and the key to its mysteries — or else it proves
that there was an original revelation of Himself to men,
in the beginning of our history, which, amid all perver
sions and distortions, and dim surmisings concerning the
Deity, remains the God-given inheritance of the human
race, and therefore the declaration, by God Himself to
all mankind, of the truth and reality of His existence.
We learn from the inspired Apostle, who recognizes
this testimony from God to man concerning His own ex
istence, that x " as men did not like to retain God in their
knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to
do those things which are not convenient."
And it is a noble and true sentence of Muretus, when
he says, speaking of the light of nature, " There are two
ways in which men think that they can come to some
knowledge of God and of their own mind. For they either
strive for it, by disputation and subtle inquiry, why any
thing is so and not otherwise ; or by assenting without any
i Rom. i. 28; cf. i. 19, 21.

Existence of God. 39
doubt, to those things which the ancients, with the most
perfect consent have handed down as known partly by
natural light, partly by divine inspiration. Those who
have pursued that first way have, in all ages, fallen into
manifold errors. But this last way is marked by the
footsteps of those whom we venerate as taken up into
heaven." 2. But again God is known and revealed in His cre
ation. In that we discern the traces of His "eternal
power and Godhead." "For the invisible things of
Him (that is, His spiritual existence) from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made, even His eternal power and God
head." From that which is made we infer there is
a Maker ; we are so constituted that we must make this
inference, and this constitution of our spiritual nature is
the seal of God Himself placed upon the validity and
the truth of the documentary evidence which the crea
tion contains of the existence of its Creator.
From the extent of the creation, as it spreads beyond
the bounds of our comprehension ; from the number
and variety and wise contrivance of its manifold produc
tions and constituents, as they furnish ever fresh ex
amples for investigation, and new occasions of wonder
and admiration, we rise by an inference which we do
not find it in us to resist, to the belief in the existence of
God the Maker of the universe, who is infinite in His
Being and unbounded in His resources. And as the
universe comprises things visible and invisible, exist
ences which are material, and those which are spiritual,
we rise to the belief that God the Framer and Father of
spirits, must Himself be a Spirit who is boundless and
eternal. This line of truth the Fathers of the Church

40 Existence of God.
continually insisted upon. An example has been given
above from the Epistle of Theophilus to Autolycus.
This argument has been called the physico-theological
argument, because it proceeds from the physical creation,
from the whole realm of nature, to argue for the exist
ence of a God who is the author of the creation, and of
universal nature.
3. Another argument for the existence of God has
been called the cosmological argument.1 It argues
from the chain of effects and causes that there must be
a first cause of all ; from the changes and contingencies
of the universe which we observe, it argues that there
must be a starting point, whose existence is necessary and
without beginning, for all that is contingent, and to
whose existence beginning appertains. Even science
maintains that for all developments there must be a
germ or first principle from which they have come, and
so, even upon the principles which science suggests, we
reason back to the first Principle or beginning of the
universe. And for an effect there must be a cause ;
i. e., a producing power.
It is not the mere casual succession of one event to
another or to others which constitutes and satisfies the
idea of causation. There must be power, our minds irre
sistibly tell us this, to produce an effect, and there must
be sufficient and adequate power to produce a given or
supposed effect. Nor can we discover the seat of causa
tion anywhere in the world, except in the will and
spiritual activity of spiritual beings. And therefore,
from questioning our own minds, and from observations
of successions in the world of spirit and of matter, which
1 For cosmological argument, see John Dam. De Fide Orthodox.
i. 3; Hagenbach i. 433.

Existence of God. 41
suggest the idea of the relation of cause and effect be
tween such successions, x and from the observation of the
whole world and universe of change and contingency,
we are impelled to the conviction that there must be a
sufficient first cause of all things, to whose being we can
assign no bounds, whose being is spiritual, and who has
in Himself the possibilities, because He has in Himself
the potencies, of all being that is or can be. From the
noff/xos, from the universe of contingency and change,
we assure ourselves that God is, whose existence is neces
sary and boundless, and who, in His determinations, is
free from the exterior bonds of causation, which we see
everywhere in the contingent universe.
4. Not only in our own spiritual nature do we discern
the proof of the existence of God, who is spirit; but also
in the moral structure of our spirits we discern a clear
proof of the existence of God who is our moral Governor
and Eternal Judge.2
This argument is forcibly stated by the Apostle.
3 "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do
by nature the things contained in the law : these having
not the law, are a law unto themselves, which shew the
work (or reality) of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another : in the
day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus
Christ." The voice of conscience in man is the voice of
God, and so a testimony to the existence of Him whose
voice it is.
i Diodorus of Tarsus in Phot. Bibl. cod. 233, col. 663.
2 See for moral argument Raimund of Sabunde Theol. Nat. tit.
83, and Abelard Theol. Christ, lib. v. Martene, p. 1439; Hagenbach i.
436, 437.
3 Rom. ii. 14-16.

42 Existence of God.
A law written in the heart, the force of which men
themselves acknowledge, whose behests they are con
strained to admit that they ought to obey, bears witness
that there is a law-giver, who will enforce the sanctions
of the law which He has given. And conscience teaches
men their accountability, and presents before them their
liability to answer before their righteous Judge, whose
authority is supreme over conscience itself, whose vice
gerent conscience owns itself to be. This argument has
presented itself in a form so strong and conclusive that
such a cautious thinker as Kant, while he denied the con
clusiveness of all the other lines of argument adopted
for proving the existence of God, admitted the moral
argument and maintained its validity and binding force
as a postulate of practical reason.1
5. But though God were not traceable in the creation,
though His existence were not to be inferred from the
xoajAoi, though the general consent of mankind did not
affirm and maintain His existence, and though the con
science of man did not require us to admit a supreme moral
Governor and Judge so strongly as it does, yet, if there
be a God, the Maker of the universe, it would be unreason
able to think that He had excluded Himself from all means
of revealing His existence to those creatures of His who
are capable of receiving such a revelation. As truly as
the king of a far-distant earthly kingdom might make
himself known to the inhabitants of a nation far removed
from his own, by authenticated missives and testimonials
of his existence and his kingly authority — so surely may
the King of the universe, by a revelation duly attested as
from Him, make Himself known to the tenants of a uni
verse, or of any portion of it, which He Himself has
' Hagenbach ii. p. 477.

Existence of God. 43
called into existence, and replenished with tenants at
will capable of receiving such a revelation. And, in
fact, such a revelation of Himself has always been made
in our world, from its very inception till these later
days of its history. Not only hath l " the living God,
which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all
things that are therein," not 2 " left Himself without
witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food
and gladness," He hath also borne direct testimony to
His existence in the revelation, which has, from the first,
been the revelation of Himself to His creature man.
3 St. Athanasius starts with the idea that none but a
pure and sinless soul can see God. He compares the
heart of man to a mirror. But as it became sullied by
sin, God revealed Himself by means of His creation,
upon the testimony of which to its Creator S. Athanasius
largely expatiates, and when this proved no longer
sufficient, God revealed Himself by His Prophets, and
lastly by the Logos, as the writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews says : 4 " God who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son." And so S. Athanasius says, 5 " So indeed, therefore,
the Creator, as, has been said, constituted the race of
men, and willed it to remain (pure in heart, that they
might see God), but they, neglecting the better things
and hesitating to embrace them, sought, in preference,
the things nearer to themselves ; but their own body and
1 Acts xiv. 15. , 2 Acts xiv. 17.
3 Contra Gentes Oratio. 4 Heb. i. 1, 2.
5 Contra Gentes, p. 3, D.

44 Existence of God.
its senses were nearer ; whence they separated their
mind from things intelligible ; but contemplating them
selves, and embracing the body and other sensible things,-
and being deceived as in things peculiarly their own,
fell into self-desire, preferring their own things to con
templation of things Divine. And abiding in these
things, and wishing not to depart from those things
which were nearest, they shut up their own soul, troubled
and enflamed with manifold desires in pleasures of the
body ; and perfectly forgot the power from God, which
from the beginning, had been theirs. And this anyone
can see to be true, even from the first formed man."
And then when the creation, in its order and beauty,
had failed to convince men, when they had failed to
discern the Creator in His works, and prophetical
warning had been ineffective to recall them to the
knowledge and love of God, He tried the demonstration
of His living eternal word. x " For when the mind of
men is not conversant with bodily things, nor has any of
the love of these things mingled with it from without,
but is wholly with itself, as it was from the beginning,
then, passing through sensible things and all things
human, it is lifted up on high, and seeing the Logos,
sees in Him also the Father of the Logos, being delighted
in the contemplation of Him, and being renewed in the
desire towards Him. As therefore the Holy Scriptures
say that the first made man, who, in the Hebrew tongue,
was named Adam, had a mind of unabashed confidence
towards God, and held converse with the Saints in the
contemplation of things intelligible, which he had in
that place which also the holy Moses tropically named
Paradise ; but purity of soul also is sufficient by itself to
1 Athanasius cont. Gentes, p. 3, C.

Existence of God. 45
see God as in a mirror ; as the Lord also says, ' Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' "
And how satisfying the knowledge of God, attained
in the Revelation of the Logos, is, S. Athanasius beauti
fully describes : * " The Father, therefore, having from
Himself such a Son, good and creative, hath not con
cealed Him as One who is not manifest to things
created, but also daily reveals Him to all by the consti
tution and life of all things by Him ; but in Him and
by Him He. also manifests Himself; as the Saviour says,
2 ' I 'in the Father and the Father in Me ' ; so that from
necessity the Logos is in Him that begat, and He that
is begotten perpetually abides with the Father ; but these
thing being so, and nothing being out of Him, but also
Heaven and earth and all things depending upon Him,
men nevertheless, demented, pushing aside knowledge
and piety with respect to Him, honored the things which
were not, before those that are, and instead of Him, who
is indeed really God, deified the things that are not,
serving the creation to the neglect of the Creator ; being
obnoxious to a foolish and impious thing ; for it is like
as if one should admire the works in preference to the
artist, and being astonished at the constructions in the
city, should trample upon the creator of them ; or, as if
any one should praise the musical instrument, but should
reject him who put it together and harmonized it ; being
foolish and exceedingly blind of eye.
" For how would they have otherwise known a build
ing, or ship, or lyre, unless the ship-builder had made it,
and the architect built it, and the musical constructor had
put it together ? As, therefore, he who reasons so is mad,
yea, is beyond all madness, so they do not seem to me to
' Cont. Gentes, p. 52. 2 John xiv. 10.

46 Existence of God.
be sound in understanding who do not know God, and
do not worship His Word, the Saviour of all, onr Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the Father arranges all things
and keeps them together, and provides for the universe ;
in whom do thou, having faith and piety, oh lover of
Christ, rejoice and be of good hope ; because of faith
and piety towards Him, immortality and the kingdom of
the heavens are the fruit, only if your soul be ordered
and. adorned according to His laws."
Here is the very inmost spirit of the words of our
blessed Lord : x " No man hath seen God at any time ;
the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him;" for He is the2 "bright
ness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His
substance." He, 3"the first-born of all the creation,"
4 " without whom was not anything made that was made,"
by coming into His own creation, and identifying Him
self with its forms and substance, as the Revealer of
God to men, when they had obscured or lost the knowl
edge of Him originally given to them, hath proclaimed
anew the testimony borne to God in all the creation,
hath gathered up and adopted the continued and ever
renewed testimonies borne by the Prophets, hath irradi
ated all the revelation of God to man with His own Di
vine Presence, hath presented Himself God manifest in the
flesh, and hath thus taken from men all excuse, if they
will persist in the conviction that God is unknown and
unknowable, if they will not know and believe in, and
serve the God in whom they live and move and have
their being, and who, as His presence in our world in
i John i. 18. 2 Heb. i. 3.
3 Col. i. 15. * John i. 3.

Existence of God. 47
His incarnate life demonstrates, is x " not far from every
one of us."
Thus does Revelation add its testimony as the crown
of all, that the God living and true exists as very God.
2 " This is the true God and eternal Life ; " for in the
words of S. Athanasius, concluding his exposition of the
testimony given by the Word of God the Father, to
the Father Himself, 3 " For as to those who order their
conversation according to Him, eternal life is the
reward, so to those who travel the contrary way, and not
in the path of virtue, there is great shame, and unpar
donable danger in the day of judgment ; because, al
though knowing the way of truth, they did things con
trary to what they knew."
6. There is another argument for the existence of God,
which, from its history and the names of those who
have adopted and used it, has great celebrity. It is what
is called the ontological argument, and has been used
by S. Augustine, by Boethius, by S. Anselm, and in
more modern times, by Des Cartes in France, and by Dr.
Clarke in England. This argument takes for its basis the
necessity of being, and the legitimacy of finding for our
primitive and necessary ideas a corresponding reality and
full satisfaction in the universe of actual being. Its pos
tulate is, that the ideas of infinity, of perfection, of the
possibilities presented to human thought, must have a
corresponding reality in the existence of One in whose
being these ideas are actualities. S. Augustine thus con
trasts the limited and passing influence of created sounds
and tastes, and odors and sights, with the eternity and
beauty of truth and wisdom, and thus, from these prem
ises argues for the real and eternal existence of God.
¦ Acts xvii. 27. 2 L John v. 20.
3 C. Gentes Orat. p. 52, D.

48 Existence of God.
1 " Finally," he says, " if the sweetness of light were al
ways present to him who sees it, and of the voice to him
who hears it, what great thing would come to me, when
it would be common to me with the beasts ? But that
beauty of truth and wisdom, if only the persevering will
of enjoyment be present, neither secludes those who
come, by the crowded multitude of hearers, nor is fin
ished by time, nor changes from place to place, nor is
intercepted by night, nor shut out by shade, nor is it sub
ject to the senses of the body. From the whole world,
it is very near to all turning to it 2who love it ; everlast-
ting to all, it is in no place, it is never wanting ; without,
it admonishes ; wTithin, it teaches ; it changes all who
discern it for the better ; it is changed by none into the
worse. And from this it is manifest, that it is better
than our minds, in that from it alone individual wise
minds are formed, and you may not judge concerning it,
but by it you may judge concerning the others.
" But you had granted, if I could show anything which
was above our minds, you would confess it to be God,
if there were nothing yet superior. Taking this your
confession, I had said that it was sufficient for me to de
monstrate this. ' For if there is anything more excellent,
He is rather God ; but if there is not, then truth itself is
God. Whether therefore, that is or is not, nevertheless
you will not be able to deny that God is : which was the
question appointed by us to discuss and handle. For if
this moves you, which we have received into our faith
in the sacred discipline of Christ, that He is the Father
of wisdom ; remember, that we have also received into
1 De Lib. Arbit. lib. ii. cc. xiv. xv. torn. i. col. 446. Cf. S. Augus.
De Trinitate, liber viii. cap. iii. torn. viii. cols. 614, 615; De vera Re-
ligione, cap. xxxi. torn. i. p. 573.
1 " Conversis ad se."

Existence of God. 49
our faith, that the wisdom which is begotten from Him
self is equal to the Eternal Father. Whence now noth
ing is to be sought, but (what we have) is to be retained.
with unshaken faith. For God is, and is truly and su
premely. Which, as I think, we not only retain as a
thing without doubt in our faith, but we also touch it
with a certain, although as yet very slender, form of
knowledge." Thus from truth and its supremacy does S. Augustine
argue for the living supremacy of God, who is the Truth.
He expands this argument by many illustrations from
the senses, from the nature of numbers and their fixed
condition, independently of those who consider them;
from the essential supremacy of wisdom and truth, and
their independence in their own reality, of the subjective
apprehension of the minds which explore or admit them
in greater or less degrees ; and from all he derives the
conclusion that the absolute Truth, which is neces
sarily demanded by the human mind, is God Himself.
Boethius 2 524, gives this ontological argument in a form
somewhat variant. He combines the cosmological with
the ontological argument, and anticipates the reasonings
of Anselm. 2 " For," he says, " everything which is said
to be imperfect, that is said to be imperfect by diminu
tion of the perfect. From which it comes to pass that, if
in any genus, anything seems to be imperfect in that
(genus), there must necessarily, also, be something per
fect. For perfection being taken away, whence what is
said to be imperfect derives its existence, it (the imper
fect) cannot even be pretended. Neither has the nature
of things taken its beginning from those things which
1 De Lib. Arbitrio, lib. ii. c. iii.-xv. torn. i. cols. 435-447.
2 De Consol. Phil. v. Prosa 10; Hagenbach i. 327.

50 Existence of God.
were diminished and incomplete, but, proceeding from
those which were entire and absolute, it slips off into
these which are extreme and effete. Wherefore if . . .
there is a certain frail imperfect felicity of good, it can
not be doubted that there is some solid and perfect. . . .
That God is the good of all principal things, the common
conception of human minds proves. " For since nothing
can be thought better than God, who can doubt that that,
than which nothing is better, is good ? But reason demon
strates that God is so good, that it also convinces (us) that,
in Him, good is perfect. For, if He be not such, He
cannot be the chief of all things. Wherefore, lest reason
should proceed backwards in infinitum, God must be
confessed to be supreme, and to be most full of the su
preme and perfect good." x
Decidedly the most interesting form in which the on
tological argument has ever been presented is that in
which it is given by Anselm (a.d. 1093). In his " Mon-
ologium " the argument is stated thus : 2 " I. Since
there are innumerable goods, of which we experience
so much diversity by the bodily senses and discern by
the reason of the mind, is it to be believed that there is
some one thing, by which alone whatever things are
good are good, or are there other goods by something
else ? . . . III. Finally not only all good things are
good by the same something, and all great things are
great by the same something, but whatever is seems to be
by one something. . . . Whatsoever things, therefore,
are other than this are by something' other than them
selves, and itself is only by itself. And whatsoever is
by other than itself, is less than that by which all other
things are, and which is only by itself : wherefore that
1 Cf . also Greg. Great, Moral, xv. c. xlvi.
2 Monolog. i.-iii. ; Hagenbach i. 433.

Existence of God. 51
which is by itself, is chief of all. There is, therefore,
some one (existence) which is alone the greatest and high
est of all ; but that which is the greatest of all, and by
which whatever is good or great, is, and by which, in
one word (ononino) whatever is, is something, that neces
sarily is the supremely good, and the supremely great,
and the highest of all things, which are. Wherefore,
there is something which, whether it is called essence, or
substance, or nature, is best and greatest and supreme of
all things, which are."
In his l " Proslogium," he proceeds from the reality of
the idea. " The fool may say in his heart, there is no
God (Ps. xiv. 1), but he thereby shows himself a fool,
because he asserts something which is contradictory in
itself. He has the idea of God in him,2 but denies its
reality. But if God is given in idea, He must also exist
in reality. Otherwise the real God, whose existence is
inconceivable, would be superior to the one who exists
only in imagination, and consequently would be superior
to the highest conceivable object, which is absurd ; hence
it follows that that beyond which nothing can be conceived
to exist, really exists. The fool (imsipiens) is, therefore,
convinced (obliged to admit) that there is even in the
intellect something, than which nothing greater can be
thought ; because when he hears this, he understands (it),
and whatever is understood is in the understanding
(quicquid intelligitur, i/n intellectu est). And certainly
that than which a greater cannot be thought, cannot be
in the intellect alone. For if it is even in the intellect
1 Chapter ii.
a Aioselm here supposes that reality is included in the idea of God,
and that our possession of the idea can be accounted for only by its
coming from God, who therefore is.

52 Existence of God.
alone, it can be thought to be also in reality, which is
greater. " If, therefore, that than which a greater cannot
be thought, is in the intellect alone, that very thing than
which a greater cannot be thought is (also) that than
which a greater can be thought : but certainly this can
not be. There exists, therefore, without doubt, some
thing than which a greater is not able to be thought,.
both in the intellect and in reality."
Such is the celebrated argument of Anselm. He was op
posed by a monk in the monastery of Marmuntier, whose
name was Gaunilo, who wrote a book entitled " Liber pro
Insipiente adv. Anselmi in Proslogio Ratiocinationem." *
He agreed that the idea of a thing does not necessarily
imply its reality ; there are many false ideas. He urged
that it is very questionable whether we can have any
thought of God at all, since He is above all thought.
" If one, in speaking of an island which he asserted to be
more perfect and lovely than all known islands, should
infer its existence from this, that it could not be most
perfect if it did not exist, we should hardly know which
was the greater fool, the man who made such an argu
ment, or the one who gave his assent to it. The oppo
site method is to be adopted ; we must first prove the
existence of the island, and may then show that its excel
lence surpasses that of all others."
Anselm defended himself against Gaunilo in his treat
ise : " Liber Apologeticus contra Gaunilonem responden-
tem pro Insipiente." Anselm returns to the distinc
tion, which he had made in his Proslogium, between
thought and thought. Not every thought has a corre-

1 In Ans. Operibus, p. 32; Gerb. p. 53.
2 Opp. p. 34; Gefberon, p. 37.

Existence of God. 53
^ponding reality in the universe. We can even think
contradictions. We can think, for example, that fire
is water, that heat is cold, that the unchangeable is
the contingent. The ideas which Anselm had in view
as implying their correspondent realities, are our neces
sary ideas of the reason, which carry in themselves the
assertion of their own necessity and of the possibility of
their realization. Between such an idea and the arbitrary
and imaginary notion of a most excellent island no paral
lel could be drawn. He rejects, therefore, the illustra
tion of Gaunilo from the island as altogether inappro
priate. He observes "that if Gaunilo could really
imagine an island more perfect than could ever be con
ceived, he would make him a present of it."
1 Descartes revived the ontological argument very much
in the line Of Anselm, insisting upon the necessary and
«eternal existence of God from the fact that, in the idea
of being in the highest degree perfect, the mind per-
-ceives that necessary and eternal existence is contained,
just as, because the mind perceives that the equality of
the three angles in a triangle to two right angles is neces
sarily contained in the idea of a triangle, it concludes that
.& triangle has three angles equal to two right angles.
An argument which has had such a history, which,
;again and again, has been taken up by the most profound
thinkers in theology and philosophy, and whose validity
is owned by the highest thinkers of the world in our own
day, has claims certainly to high consideration. It seems
improbable that God should reveal Himself by the
HoffftoS, and by the visible creation, and that He should
not witness to Himself in those spiritual existences which
1 Medit. de Prima Philos. etc. Amst. 1641-4 (1654); Principia Philos.
Amst. 1650-4, lib. i. c. xiv.

54 Existence of God.
are the choicest parts of the creation, that they should
not tend to, and seek, and own to themselves the " Father
of Spirits," in whom they live and move and have their
being. These necessary ideas of infinity, and perfec
tion, and goodness, and truth are not realized, in their
fulness, within the sphere of the creation ; and whence
do they come ? why is it that we must entertain and ad
mit them ? Must they not be the witness of God to His
own existence in the spiritual nature of man, which He
has created and in which He has placed this testimony
to its Creator ? The proposition, God is, is not surely, in
and by itself, true to our cognition simply because exist
ence is of the essence of God, because existence is in
volved in the very idea of God — but when the idea of
God is connected with the necessary ideas of our own rea
son, such as infinity, perfection, truth and goodness, we
are enabled, from the dictates of our own nature, to affirm
that God is infinite, living, true and good. We can even
find no satisfactory solution of our idea of space, which
is indefinite in extent, till we resolve it into the infinity
of God, who exists without place, or of our idea of time
in an endless succession, till we resolve it in His eter
nity, without succession, without beginning, and without
end; and truth and goodness are unmeaning, unsatisfy
ing abstractions, till we find for them a resting place in
the God, who is Truth and Goodness ; and, in fine, the
crown has been placed upon this ontological argument,.
the highest possible sanction has been given to it, when
He who was God manifest in the flesh, proclaimed Him
self to men as the Truth — the Truth which men had vain
ly and painfully sought, morsels of which they had, here
and there, appropriated, till, in its fulness and perfection,
it was revealed to them in and by Him who is the living
Truth itself.

The Dwine Attributes. 55
Thus it appears that God has not left Himself without
witness, in the world which He has made. From the
consentient voice of mankind, from their recognition
and worship of beings above themselves, from the exist
ence of the noapLoi and the inferred existence of the
necessary and unchangeable being who is its Lord, from
the order and wise arrangement of the creation in its
vastness, and variety, and unity, which irresistibly impels
to belief in the Creator, from the testimony of the spirit
of man, interpreting the creation which lies outside the
domain of spiritual being, from the necessary ideas which
suggest a living eternal source from which they came,
from the revelation of God by Himself in prophecy and
miracles and exhibitions of the goodness and truth and
love which He is, and finally by His visible presentation
of Himself in the forms and substance of His own crea
tion, from all these testimonies gathering themselves into
one focus of light, we come firmly to believe in God,
. who is Light, and who is in no darkness at all, and who
dwelleth J " in the light which no man can approach
unto ; whom no man hath seen, nor can see." That God
is 2 " the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise
God," the universe and the spirit of man, and the Divine
Scriptures, having upon them the seal of God Himself,
alike and unitedly proclaim.
Ill— THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.
That He, who is original and underived being, is rich
in all the excellent and perfect characteristics of being,
is most clear and evident. These characteristics or qual
ities we call the attributes of God. Substance as we
conceive it, has attributes which belong to its very
1 1. Tim. vi. 16. 2 1. Tim. i. 17.

56 The Divine Attributes.
nature, or rather, which are the manifestations of its
nature. But the Divine substance is altogether peculiar.
As is well expressed by S. Augustine, x " For with what
understanding can man comprehend God, who does not
yet comprehend his own intellect as he wishes to com
prehend it ? " But if he now comprehends it, let him ob
serve diligently that there is nothing better than that in
his own nature, and let him look, whether he sees there
any lineaments of forms, splendors of colors, greatness of
space, distance of parts, distention of mass, any motions
through intervals of places, or anything of this kind.
We certainly find nothing of these things in that, than
which we find nothing better in our nature, that is, in
our intellect, with which we comprehend wisdom so far
as we are capable. ' What, therefore, we do not find in
our better part, we ought not to seek in that which is
far better than our better part : that so we may under
stand God, if we can, as much as we _ can, to be good
without quality, great without quantity, a creator with
out indigency, a president without situation, containing
all things without habit, everywhere whole without
place, everlasting without time, making mutable things
without any change of Himself, and suffering nothing.
Whoever so thinks God to be (Deum ita cogitat), al
though he cannot yet in every way find what He is,
nevertheless piously avoids, as much as he can, to think
any thing concerning Him which He is not. There is,
nevertheless, without doubt, substance, or, if it is better
named, essence, which the Greeks call ova lav. For, as
wisdom is named from that which is (sapere) being wise,
and from that which is knowing (scire), knowledge is
1 De Trin. liber v. cc. i. ii. torn. viii. cols. 589, 590.

The Divine Attributes. 57
named (scientia), so from that which is being (esse), es
sence (essentia) is named. And what is more than He,
who said to His servant Moses, I am that I am ; and
thou shalt say to the sons of Israel : "Who is " hath sent
me unto you'? But other tilings which are called sub
stances or essences comprehend accidents, by which is
wrought in them either a great, or howmuchsoever
change. But to God anything of this kind cannot hap
pen ; and so it is the sole unchangeable substance or es
sence who is God, to whom indeed being (esse) itself,
whence essence (essentia) is named, in the greatest de
gree, and most truly belongs. For that which is changed
does not preserve its very being ; and that which can be
changed, even if it is not changed, can not be what it had
been ; and by this alone (it appears that) that which not
only is not changed, but altogether cannot be changed
without scruple, agrees to that which most truly can be
said to be (esse)." And, therefore, to emphasise the truth
that the attributes of God were His very substance, S.
Augustine preferred to speak of the essence rather than
the substance of God.
He says, 2 " Mutable things, therefore, which are not
simple, are properly called substances. But if God sub
sists as substance, it can properly be said there is in Him,
something in Him, as in a subject, and He is not sim
ple to whom whatever He has is being (esse), what
soever other thing is said concerning Him (to belong to)
Him (quidquid aliud de illo ad ilium dicetur) as great,
omnipotent, good, and if anything of this kind is not
incongruously said concerning God; yet it is profane
(nefas) to say that God subsists, and is under His own
' Ex. iii. 14.
2De Trin. c. v. § 10, lib. vii. torn. viii. col. 610.

58 The Divine Attributes.
goodness, and that that goodness is not substance or
rather essence, nor God Himself is His own goodness,
but it is in Him as in a subject ; whence it is manifest
that God is abusively called substance. So that by a
more usual name, He may be understood to be Essence,
which is said truly and properly ; so that, perhaps, it
ought to be said that God only is Essence. For He is
truly sole, because He is unchangeable, and that name
He enunciated to His servant Moses, l ' I am who am :
and thou shalt say to them, " Who is " hath sent me' to
you.' " But nevertheless, whether He is called Essence, which
is properly said, or Substance, which is said abusively,
both are said with reference to Himself, not relatively to
something (else). Whence being to God is equivalent to
subsisting, and so if the Trinity is one essence, it is also
one substance. Perhaps, therefore, more conveniently,
three persons are spoken of, than three substances."
The attributes of God, therefore, are the essential
qualities of His nature ; or rather, they are His nature
itself as we discern it in His works of creation and prov
idence, and in the contents of His Word of Revelation.
We attribute, for example, wisdom, and power, and
goodness to God, because He is, in His own nature ; be
cause He Himself is wise, and powerful, and good.
And so are His attributes declared to be in Holy Scrip
ture. It is said, for example, that " God is Light," and
that "God is Love"; and so we might say that "light"
and "love" are to be counted among the attributes of
God ; but the full truth only is expressed in the declara
tion that He is essentially light and essentially love.
His attributes are sometimes described as being twofold
1 Ex. iii. 14.

The Divine Attributes. 59
in their character ; as being, that is, absolute and rela
tive ; those which are considered without any relation
of the Divine Being to being without itself, are called
His absolute attributes ; those which are considered with
relation to His creation, as when He is said to be the In
finite Father, Creator, Lord, are called relative. But this
classification does not define His attributes as they are
indeed, nor do they separate them, as one class is dis
tinguished from another. His power, for example, con
sidered as exerted in creation and providence, is not dif
ferent from His absolute omnipotence as contained in His
own essence, apart from any consideration of His relation
to the created universe. His power exerted and mani
fested in the creation, is His essential omnipotence,
which comprises all possible potencies of creation,
whether those potencies be or be not exerted and made
manifest to the creature.
And so with His goodness and wisdom, with all the
attributes of His divinity, whether they be or be not
manifested to the creation. God has in Himself alone
the fulness of His Divine attributes, not only in potency,
but also in actuality. For the Divine nature is ever liv
ing and active, and in the relations of the eternal Trin
ity, these attributes are in continual and uninterrupted
action. But that we may comprehend God according
to our capability of comprehension, we conceive His
attributes as they are manifested to us in their classes
and divisions ; though, in deed and in truth, they are,
each and all, the characteristics of His one Divine es
sence, and all are one in the unity of that one nature
which expresses itself fully in each and all. The attri
butes of God, as they are set forth in the article of our
Church, are, u infinite power, wisdom and goodness,"

60 The Divine Attributes.
His infinitude in each, the fulness of His being in essen
tial qualities, in all united as they are in His one Divine
nature. He is, then, a God of " infinite power."
His omnipotence comprises the actualities and the
possibilities of all power whatsoever. J " With God all
things are possible." 2 " For with God nothing shall be
impossible." And yet there are seeming contradictions
asserted, but which are only seeming, to this unlimited
extent of Divine power. It is said that 3 " It is impossi
ble for God to lie." It is said that 4 " He cannot deny
Himself." If He could deny Himself, it would be a
contradiction of His own nature, and so a destruction of
that nature of which omnipotence is asserted. If God
could lie, it would be contradictory to His essential truth,
and so would be wholly inconsistent with the idea of the
Divine omnipotence. That which constitutes a contra
diction in the nature of the Divine existence, cannot be
asserted to be a requisite of His omnipotence ; for a de
nial of the Divine nature as it is, would involve a denial
of His omnipotence, which belongs to that nature.
When we assert that God can do all things, we
mean that He can do all things which come legitimately
within the category of power, and what is not of that
category does not appertain at all to power. All
power which corresponds to the true idea of power,
is the attribute of God, and so, in the most strict and
proper sense, we maintain that He is omnipotent.
His power is that which cannot be resisted ; before it
insistence is a nonentity, and so He is the Almighty
God, the all-potent Ruler of Heaven and earth. By
His wisdom acting with His power, He hath 6 " founded.
1 Matt. xix. 26. 2 Luke i. 37.
3 Heb. vi. 18. « II. Tim. ii. 13
5 Prov. iii. 19.

The Divine Attributes. 61
the earth," " by understanding hath He established the
heavens." He is all-powerful in creation, which is the
monument of His power ; all-powerful in providence in
which He continually works ; all-powerful in redemption.
In redemption-He hath shown us l " what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according
to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought
in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set
Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places."
A power which is boundless is, of course, not spent or
exhausted in the production of the created universe, or
in the production of myriads upon myriads of such crea
tions. His power is infinitely beyond the bounds of all
that is created, and is commensurate only with the infi
nite Being of Him whose power it is.
The omnipotence of God is seen in His rule and
power, alike in the material and the spiritual universe,
which He has called into being. It cannot properly be
said to be limited by the free will and the power of self-
action, which He has bestowed upon free and spiritual
creatures. They are rather additional manifestations^
the excellence and the perfection of His all-pervading
power. The power which can produce power like itself,
and yet subject to itself, is surely the most admirable of
all power ; and so vindicates for itself most justly the
characteristic of omnipotence.
It so produces the imitations in the bounded universe,
of its own surpassing and infinite greatness. And it
reveals itself as still more wonderful and perfect in that,
without interfering with the freedom and self-activity
which itself has created, it has not taken from itself the
perfect control of the beings whom it has thus endowed
1 Eph. i. 18-20.

62 The Divine Attributes.
with freedom and the power of self-action. * " The
king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of
water, He turneth it whithersoever He will." He em
ploys men, while they are fully exercising their freedom
and following their own inclinations, and carrying out
their own purposes, in the execution of His wise and good
and beneficent designs in the course of His universal
providence. He said to Pharaoh : * " Even for this
same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show
My power in thee, and that My name might be declared
throughout all the earth ; therefore, hath He mercy on
whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hard-
eneth." We are drawing near to the insoluble mysteries of the
Divine government, which is founded on the Divine
omnipotence ; but it is true that 3 " the Lord is far from
the wicked : but He heareth the prayer of the right
eous," and it is also true 4 " that the Lord hath made
all things for Himself : yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil." We cannot penetrate the secrets of Di
vine providence ; we cannot discern the hidden motive
powers by which God, who made the world in all its
departments, both of necessity and of freedom, without
violating in one iota His own constitution of the uni
verse, retains over it the most perfect control and di
rection of it to the issues and ends which He contem
plated in the feat of creation. God is sovereign — be
cause He is omniscient and omnipotent, and, therefore,
has both the knowledge and the power to work out His
own sovereign designs, and in the consummation of all
things it will be most emphatically demonstrated that
1 Prov. xxi. 1. 2 Rom. ix. 17, 18.
3 Prov. xv. 29. * Prov. xvi. 4.

The Divine Attributes. 63
it was the God of eternal truth, who spoke, when He
said, x " And . God saw everything that He had made,"
including even spiritual and free created existence, " and
behold it was very good," infringing no more upon His
omnipotence than upon His boundless love.
We have seen how His omnipotence is linked with all
the attributes of His boundless essence, and how all unite
in the manifestations, which God has made of Himself,
to illustrate His infinite Divine perfection. He is a God
not only of power, but also of wisdom, infinite in wisdom
as well as boundless in power. " There is no searching
of His understanding," therein 3 " are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge." 4"The foolishness of God
is wiser than men ; as the weakness of God is stronger than
men." He must be the only wise God, who is the foun
tain of all wisdom that is ; and therefore, 6 " If any of
you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all
men liberally, and upbraideth not : and it shall be given
him " from that exhaustless fountain of all wisdom.
He who is all- wise and only wise, 6 " taketh the wise in
their own craftiness ; and the counsel of the f roward is
carried headlong."
The wisdom of God is in indissoluble union with His
goodness and love — with His righteousness and truth,
and it is supplied, if one may so speak concerning the
infinite God, from the exhaustless fountain of His knowl
edge. His knowledge is eternally joined to His wisdom
— without wisdom knowledge would be an imperfection
to be deprecated ; and without knowledge that is un
bounded, wisdom that is infinite could not exist. And
1 Gen. i. 31. 2 Is. xl. 28; cf. Ps. cxlvii. 5, and Rom. xi. 33.
3 Col. ii. 3; Eph. i. 8. * I. Cor. i. 25.
5 James i. 5. 6 Job v. 13.

64 The Divine Attributes.
the knowledge of God is and must be as boundless as
His nature. He, the infinite one, who knows Himself
in the depths of His being, which contains the possibili
ties of all being beside, must know all things, must be
strictly and truly omniscient. From His knowledge all
knowledge in the created universe is derived. xFrom
Him the gifts of knowledge and wisdom come to all
who, in any degree, possess them.
2 " The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and He
overthroweth the words of the transgressor." 3 " Shall any
teach God knowledge ? seeing He judgeth those that are
high." He has that attribute of knowledge which shows
it to be original and supreme. 4 " For the Lord searcheth
all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the
thoughts." God challenges this to Himself as the sure demonstra
tion of His sole divinity. B " For Thou, even Thou only,
knowest the hearts of all the children of men." 6"The
Lord's throne is in Heaven, His eyes behold, His eyelids
try the children of men." For He Himself declares,
7 " I, the Lord, search the heart ; I try the reins, even to
give every man according to his ways and according to
the fruit of his doings." 8"Such knowledge," exclaims
the Psalmist, "is too wonderful for me; it is high; I
cannot attain unto it." His knowledge comprises all
the actualities and possibilities of being. And so His
knowledge is being ; for He who dwelleth in eternity is
at once in that which is past, which is present, and is
to come. They are all comprised in the eternity of His
1 Daniel i. 17; Ps. xciv. 10. a pr0v. xxii. 12.
3 Job xxi. 22. 4 1. Chron. xxviii. 9.
s I. Kings viii. 39.
6 Ps. ii. 4; xxxiii. 13; xxxiv. 15, 16; Ixvi. 7.
' Jer. xvii. 10. « Ps. cxxxix. 6.

The Divine Attributes. 65
being. And this omniscience enters as one constituent
with it into the infinitude of the Divine wisdom ; and in
His wisdom finds its outlet and its true expression. His
eternal Sonship, therefore, in whom are hid all the treas^
ures of wisdom and knowledge, is His infinite wisdom,
which is so exhibited as a living eternal existence.
So is the wisdom of God exhibited in that wonderful
passage of the Book of the Proverbs, in which the wis
dom of God declares its own being. J " The Lord possessed
Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of
old. I was set up from everlasting or ever the earth
was. When there were no depths I was brought forth ;
when there were no fountains abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was
I brought forth : while as yet He had not made the
earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of
the world. When He prepared the heavens I was there :
when He set a compass upon the face of the depths :
when He established the clouds above : when He
strengthened the fountains of the deep : when He gave
to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass
His commandment : when He appointed the fountains
of the earth : then I was by Him, as one brought up
with Him : and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always
before Him; rejoicing in the habitable part of His
earth ; and My delights were with the sons of men." Here,
in the creation of spiritual being, which could partake
of the treasures of knowledge and wisdom which are in
God, which belong to the fulness of His being, have we
the most consummate exhibition of that knowledge and
wisdom, living and active in the creation as they are in
the boundlessness of the Divine being.
i Prov. viii. 22-31.

66 The Divine Attributes..
The omniscience and omnipotence of God involve the at
tribute of His omnipresence. Thus does God Himself set
forth His omnipresence : " Am I a God at hand, saith
the Lord, and not a God afar off ? Can any hide him
self in secret places that I shall not see him ? saith the
Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and earth? saith the Lord."
And in immediate connection with His omniscience it is
said, 2 " Whither shall I go from Thy spirit ? or whither
shall I flee from Thy presence i If I ascend up unto
Heaven, Thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, be
hold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morn
ing, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea ; even
there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall
hold me " ; and so, throughout this Psalm, is the omni
presence of God exhibited in the most glowing imagery.
His omnipresence is not one of extension through space,
though He be in all places of material existence, and in
all the realms of spiritual life, He is not anywhere in
place; He is everywhere in the entireness of His un
divided being, and yet is confined within no bounds of
space ; all space, as we conceive it, is but the shadow of
His omnipresence. He whose knowledge and whose
omnipotence are His very being, who has in Himself
the potencies of all time and all space, which yet are no
measures of His eternity and His immensity, can only
be His own place, and in the greatness of His infinite
Being, only can find the true representative of His omni
presence. He is not far from every one of us, and yet He fills
Heaven and earth, yea, His own being, with his unmeas
ured, unspaced immensity. He who is the origin of all
1 Jer. xxiii. 23, 24; cf. I. Kings viii. 27.
2 Ps. cxxxix. 7 ff.

The Divine Attributes. 67
space in its infinitude, as we conceive it, must Himself
be what space, in its indefinite extent, images to us —
and by the distance which separates the created from the
Creator, must dwell in an omnipresence which is all His
own, and which no created thought can compass. His in
finity of knowledge and of power, and therefore of being
.as well, is the pledge and assurance of the infiniteness of
His presence, as Himself unplaced, He is in all places
of the created universe, in the Divine universality of
His presence. This omnipresence of God was exhibited
in the Incarnate Son, who testified concerning Himself,
•God manifest in the flesh. "And no one hath as-
•cended up to Heaven, but He that came down from
Heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in Heaven."
Our Lord here spoke of His Divine majesty, for no being
of bounded existence, no man, who by the very law of his
nature is confined to one place at one time, can, at the same
time, as the Divine Son of God could, be in Heaven and
upon earth. The omnipotence, the omniscience, the all-
wisdom, the omnipresence of God are His essential attri
butes. His goodness is also essential and infinite, but it
brings to view what is not seen in the attributes which
iave been mentioned — His moral perfection. His good
ness may be contemplated in a twofold aspect. He is
good in that He is infinitely righteous and just, and true
.and holy ; and He is good in that He is infinitely be
nevolent, beneficent, and compassionate. Benevolence
would be weakness, if it were not in alliance with truth
And justice and righteousness.
Our own moral nature testifies to the goodness of God
of which it is the offspring and the transcript. The
justice and truth and righteousness and benevolence
1 John iii. 13.

68 The Divine Attributes.
which we approve, and the obligations of which upon us
we acknowledge, are testimonies of God Himself within
us to His own perfect goodness as an essential attribute
of His Being. lu Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father
of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning." And He who is the source of such good
and perfect gifts, must be a being of perfect goodness.
The name, which in our English tongue we apply to-
God — the name God signifies good. Says Wilkins,
2 " And His common title among the Latins was Deus
optimus Maximus. And our forefathers, in this nation,
seem to have given this very name of God from good."
And 8 Hooker tells us that "godliness" is "the chief-
est top and well-spring of all true virtues, even as God
is of all good things."
In delivering the tables of the Law to His servant Moses,
4 " The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him
there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the
Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jehovah,
Jehovah-God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and
abundant in goodness and truth." " Keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty ; visit
ing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and
upon the children's children, unto the third and to the
fourth generation." Here the goodness of God, in all its
characteristics of truth and righteousness and justice
and holiness combined with benevolence, beneficence and.
forgiving mercy, are most emphatically and movingly
1 James i. 17. " Nat. Religion, b i. c. x.
3 Book v. ch. i. p. 422, ed. Oxford, 1839.
* Ex. xxxiv. 5-7.

The Divine Attributes. 69
set forth by God Himself. So did He reveal Himself
when He would make Himself known in His inmost,
most essential characteristics, as Jehovah-God ; when He
would declare the full and inmost significance of the
name which was expressive of His being.
1 " And Moses," when such a revelation was made,
"made haste and bowed his head toward the earth,
and worshipped." For now he knew God as He was
indeed, the God who is living essential goodness itself.
If 2 " clouds and darkness are round about Him," in the
incomprehensibility of His majestic being, " righteous
ness and judgment are the habitation of His seat."
He is the righteous Judge of all the earth : 3 " The
heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see
His glory." He is the fountain and dispenser of righteous
ness to all the righteous ones upon earth. Because they
walk in the light of the Lord, in Him 4 " who is Light,
and in whom is no darkness at all." ° " Light is sown
for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in
heart," and because God is the God of righteousness —
those who are partakers of that His righteousness, who
derive righteousness from that exhaustless fountain — are
thus encouraged. 6 "Rejoice in Jehovah, ye righteous
ones, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holi
ness." It is because 7 " the righteous Lord (Jehovah) loveth
righteousness; and because "His countenance doth be
hold the upright," that 8"in the way of righteousness is
life ; and in the pathway thereof is no death," and all
1 Ex. xxxiv. 8. 2Ps. xcvii. 2.
3 Ps. xcvii. 6. * I. John i. 5.
5 Ps. xcvii. 11. 6 Ps. xcvii. 12; cf. Ps. xxx. 4.
' Ps. xi. 7. s Prov. xii. 28.

70 The Divine Attributes.
the lives of righteousness in our world, x " all the trees of
righteousness " that grow and flourish and are fruitful
here, are "the planting of Jehovah, that He might be
glorified " — that thus, in the righteousness of His true
servants, derived from His planting, His own essential
righteousness might ever be exhibited to the creatures.
whom He has made in His own image, after His own
likeness. In the righteousness, which is the attribute of
God, is included His justice and His holiness.
In setting forth His sole Godhead in contrast with the
false gods of the nations, He says : 2" Tell ye, and bring
them near ; yea, let them take counsel together : who-
hath declared this from ancient time? Have not I,
Jehovah ? and there is no God else beside Me ; a just.
God and a Saviour ; there is none beside Me." 3 " Jus
tice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne ;
mercy and truth shall go before Thy face." His jus
tice is ever in alliance with His mercy and truth. He-
is not a God of mercy without being a God of truth
and justice. In the extension of mercy, He preserves.
justice unsullied. This was exhibited in that place of
redemption in which "mercy and truth are met to
gether: and righteousness and peace have kissed each
other." Then it was that He declared His righteous
ness most illustriously, that His justice might be most
conspicuous, as it was exhibited in the beams of His.
mercy, 6 " that He might be just and the Justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus " : then was the prediction
gloriously fulfilled, 6" Truth shall spring out of the
earth ; and righteousness shall look down from Heaven-
1 Is. lxi. 3. 2 Is. xiv. 31.
3 Ps. lxxxix. 14. 4 ps. lxxxv. 10-13.
s Rom. iii. 26. « Ps. lxxxv. 11-13.

The Divine Attributes. 71
Yea, the Lord (Jehovah) shall give that which is good,"
shall impart to men His own essential goodness ; " and
our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall
go before Him ; and shall set us in the way of His
steps " — and shall thus justify, upon the deep-lying foun
dations of His truth and justice, the free extension of
His mercy and love.
He is holy — the Holy One of Israel, the norm and the
fountain of all holiness in the spiritual creation. Because
of His holiness all that appertains to Him is holy :
His people, His temple, His Holy Spirit, His Holy
Church. 1"Who is like unto Thee, Jehovah, among
the gods ? Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fear
ful in praises, doing wonders ? " Because 2 " our God is
a consuming fire of holiness." 3 " It is a fearful thing to
fall," unshielded by His mercy in union with His jus
tice, " into the hands of the Living God." 4 " Thou, O
Jehovah, My God," exclaims the prophet, " art of purer
eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon in
iquity." And, therefore, only 5 " the pure in heart shall
see God," only those whom He has 6 " redeemed from
all iniquity, and purified unto Himself a peculiar people
zealous of good works," shall be admitted to His Holy
Presence. In the justice and holiness, which are His
essential attributes, are seen the sure tokens of the per
fection of His infinite goodness — but its crown, while
these are preserved unsullied and intact, is His abound
ing love.
This is the very essence of the Divine life and nature.
It is not simply true that He is a God of love, but
'Ex. xv. 11. 2Heb. xii. 29.
3 Heb. x. 31. 4 Habakkuk, i. 12, 13.
' Matt. v. 8, 6 Titus ii. 14.

72 The Divine Attributes.
1 " God is love " is the emphatic declaration of the beloved
disciple, who, from that bosom of Divine love, derived
the love which was the inspiration of his life and his
teaching. In His only begotten, well beloved Son, 2 " the
Son of His love," He hath made living and active
the boundless love which is the characteristic of His
Being — for 3 " the Father loveth the Son, and hath given
all things into His hand." And therefore when God
gave His only begotten for our redemption, He gave
Him who was the fulness of His own love, and more
than is included in this infinite gift God Himself could
not give ; a higher testimony of the love which He
Himself is could not be furnished, for 4 " He that spared
not His own Son," who was one with Himself, " but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him
also freely give us all things ? " The creation itself is an
emanation of His Divine love ; for by the Son of His
love He made the worlds, and they all were one vast
manifestation of His boundless love. They were pro
duced not because He, who was all-sufficient in the
riches and society of His boundless nature, needed any
addition to His boundless bliss and perfection, but be
cause He was good (as even the heathen philosopher
Plato says), and because He would make that goodness
fruitful and diffusive in His creation. So far then the
creation was a requirement, if not a necessity, of the
Divine nature ; but He Avho is infinitely good and
beneficent, would act out His essential goodness, would
give it employment, " Rejoicing in the habitable part of
His earth, and having His delights with the sons of men."
His essential goodness prompted Him to the work of the
1 1. John iv. 8. 2 Col. i. 13.
3 John iii. 35. 4 p0m. viii. 32.

The Divine Attributes. 73
creation, not by way of external constraint and necessity,
but coming forth from the depths of His Divine being,
and calling into act His will, which is infinitely free, but
in its freedom always acts in accordance with the Divine
perfection, and brings forth that perfection to manifes
tation in the universe, which is the offspring of His
goodness setting in action His Divine creative will.
God is love, His creation is manifested love, His work of
redemption is love transcendent and consummate, and
therefore love, as it is the highest, most perfect expres
sion of the Divine being, is also the harmony of all the
Divine attributes. With it are indissolubly joined the
Divine justice and holiness, which constitute the right
eousness of God — and by it the omniscience, the omnipo
tence, and the wisdom of God are exerted in His creation,
and employed, as all His attributes are, in carrying out
the designs of His love.
And He in whom these designs culminate, who unites
all things in Heaven and earth, by whom we are brought
near to God and made partakers of the Divine nature,
is J " of God, made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification and redemption " : because the Father
2"loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His
hand," and hath entrusted to Him the work of bringing
to their perfection the designs of His love in the created
universe. And, therefore, in view of the exceeding
greatness of the love of God, in view of its almightiness,
for it bears along with it the omnipotence of God Him
self, we may say, so clear is the demonstration of the
love of God in Christ, 3 " who shall separate us from the
love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecu-
1 1. Cor. i. 30. 2 John iii. 35.
3 Rom. viii. 35-39.

74 The Divine Attributes.
tion, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? . . .
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord."
All the attributes of God give their potency and their
manifold characteristics to the Divine will. As a per
sonal being we must conceive Him as having will, which
is the inseparable constituent of personality — and we may
ask who is free if He be not, who is above all, and
through all, and in all the universe ? The will of God
is synonymous with His omniscience, His omnipotence,
His omnipresence, His righteousness, and His love, since
it is the organ of each, and of all in their union and har
mony. His will is all-powerful and all-present, and
ever acts in accordance with His truth and righteousness,
and holiness and love — and ever, without any failure,
accomplishes His designs, for with God to will is to
perform. His will is eternal, and, in the counsels of
Him who inhabiteth eternity, were all its decisions made.
1 " Known unto God were all His works from the begin
ning of the world," known and determined all the issues
of the creation, and its final end, which surely shall be
reached, because so He has willed. Through all the
complicated movements of history, and of nature, as well
as of grace, beneath which men often fail to discern or
believe the presence of God, His will is active and
efficient. 2 " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,"
said our Lord of the work and consequently of the will
' Acts xv. 18. » John v. 17.

The Divine Attributes. 75
of God in all the realms of creation and providence and
redemption. *He "hath determined" to all His creatures "the
times before appointed, and the bounds of their habita
tion." The darkest deed in the annals of time, for
which the men who enacted it were fully accountable,
the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory, " the Holy One and
the Just," was nevertheless in consequence of the fore
knowledge and predetermination of God. 2 " For of a
truth, against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast
anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gen
tiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel (ftovXr))
determined before to be done." The knowledge and
will of God are ever in unison, and therefore whatever
He foreknew, and He foreknew all things and all events,
He also must needs have before determined ; before, that
is, as we must view it who live in the succession of time,
but with God all things are present, since His omni
presence is in all time and all eternity, as in all the fields of
space. To His will there can be no resistance to pre
vent the execution of His determinations, to change the
infallibility of His foreknowledge and His predetermi
nation. When Nebuchadnezzar was placed under the
chastising hand of God, and was brought to see the folly
of his pride and the powerlessness of his boasted kingly
power, he 3 " blessed the Most High, and praised and hon
ored Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an ever
lasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation
to generation ; and all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing ; and He doeth according to His will
' Acts xvii. 26. 2 Acts iv. 27, 28.
3 Dan. iv. 34, 35.

76 The Divine Attributes.
in the army of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him,
What doest thou ? "
Not only in the portions of the universe which are
not endowed with free will and free action, but also in
all the realms of spiritual existence His will is supreme
and all-prevalent. J " For the Scripture saith unto Pha
raoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,
that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore
hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom
He will He hardeneth." And if men then maintain
that that relieves them from all moral accountability, if
they say, " Why doth He yet find fault ? For who hath
resisted His will ? " the answer is plain : it is an asser
tion of the sovereignty of God, and of the all-prevalence
of His Will. " Nay, but, O man, who art thou that
repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto
dishonor?" And then the Apostle proceeds to apply
this similitude to the dealings of God with the righteous
and the wicked, with the vessels of mercy " which He
had -afore prepared unto glory," and "the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction," and adduces both alike as in
stances of the execution of His sovereign will, who is
never baffled in the accomplishment of the ends which
He has willed. But the will of God acts in accordance
with the laws of the universe, which are the establishment
and the expression of the Divine will. 3 He " will have
all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of
1 Bom. ix. 17, 18. 2 Rom. ix. 20, 21. 3 I. Tim. 2-4.

The Divine Attributes. 77
the truth " ; but He will have them to be saved upon the
terms and conditions upon which salvation is proposed
to them. And all who comply with these terms and
conditions have from Him the sure promise of salvation,
and all who are so saved were foreordained and fore
known to salvation, before the foundation of the world.
This the Scriptures clearly teach. And on the other
hand, those who will not comply with the offered terms
of salvation will be eternally losl, and their eternal
banishment from God was foreseen and foreordained by
Him who x " hath made all things for Himself ; yea, even
the wicked for the day of evil." But as the righteous
through the mercy of God, shall be saved in their
righteousness ; so the wicked, by His justice, shall be
cut off from that salvation which they would not em
brace. The sovereign will of God runs side by side
with the free will of His creatures without interfering
with it or destroying it.
All who comply with His revealed will, as they may
comply with it, shall receive the promised blessing of
that compliance. His will of sign, -that is, His declared
will, is the rule of conduct for His accountable creatures,
to whom the revelation is made ; and His declared will
is that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge
of the truth — but none can do this except in the rightful
exercise of that free will with which God has endowed
them. And those who turn away and refuse compliance
with this His will of sign, His will which has been
revealed for their salvation, bring upon themselves, by
their own action, the loss frpm which the mercy of God
would have saved them ; and the eternal issues of their
lives are as truly among the subjects of God's predeter-
1 Prov. xvi. 4; cf . Job xxi. 30.

78 The Divine Attributes.
mination and foreknowledge as are the issues of eternal
life for the righteous, for those who have truly and
heartily complied with the gracious and signified will of
God for their salvation.
Read in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the
Romans the delineation there contained of the deal
ings of God with men in the far-reaching line of His
providence, and you will see how the will of God al
ways prevails, and how surely His promises are made
good to those who comply with His gracious will of
salvation revealed to them ; how, too, he makes the
failures of men to comply with His offers of grace, the
occasions of larger and wider extensions of His saving
grace ; how, in all these dealings the freedom of men,
which God has granted them, is sacredly preserved ; and,
in fine, how inscrutable are these His ways of sovereign
procedure in the dispensation of justice and mercy ; and
the conclusion of the whole matter with the Divine
Apostle is this : l " O, the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! For
who hath known the mind of the Lord ? or who hath
been His counsellor ? Or who hath first given to Him,
and it shall be recompensed to Him again? For of
Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things ; to
whom be glory for ever. Amen."
And since all things and all events are in the know
ledge and determination of God, we may be sure, since
God is infinitely good, that the permission of evil and
sin, which exists in the course of His providence, shall
be overruled to the securing of His consummate designs
of truth and righteousness and goodness. 2 " Surely the
1 Rom. xi. 33-36.
2Ps. lxxvi. 10. Cf. Ex. ix. 16, and xviii. 11; Ps. lxv. 7.

Man's Best Knowledge of God. • 79
wrath of man shall praise Thee : the remainder of wrath
shalt Thou restrain."
The highest happiness and we'll being of the universe
will doubtless be secured from the establishment of free
dom and moral accountability in the spiritual creation —
but to such freedom, deviation from right and truth and
holiness must be an incidental possibility — but without
freedom there could not be truth, or righteousness, or
holy love, and though evil be the foil of the creation's
brightness, as the creation now exists, though the ex
istence of evil be a problem which man has failed to
solve, and so has resorted to the fiction of a God of evil
and a God of goodness, like the old Manichees and
Gnostics and Marcionites, yet, in the end it will, without
doubt, appear that the permission of the possibility and
the growth of evil has been connected with the develop
ment of the universe into the most perfect likeness unto
God which it is capable of attaining ; and that in the
end, the God of goodness, God who is love, will be
justified before all His creatures capable of discerning
Him as He is ; and His universe as He has governed it,
will be seen to be a most complete manifestation and
demonstration of His essential goodness, which gathers
into itself, as into a focus of Divine light, all the tran
scendent attributes of His glorious essence.
rv.— HOW GOD IS MOST PERFECTLY KNOWN.
God was known to man when he stood upon the
morning heights of his existence. The history of our
race began with the true and clear knowledge of God.
That knowledge was not a development from nature,
worship proceeding, through polytheism, to a God un
known or a God of pure idealism. In the beautiful

80 ' Man's Best Knowledge of God.
language of Scriptural allegory, our progenitors l " heard
the voice of Jehovah-God walking in the garden in the
cool of the day " — but their purity was then lost, for
they had sinned, and they could not endure the pres
ence of God, whom they had so clearly and lovingly
known, " and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of Jehovah-God amongst the trees of the garden."
They were no longer of the number of " the pure in
heart," whose privilege alone it is to see God, to hold
communion with Him, and to know in the depths of
their being that this God is our God, living and true.
And then men sought out many inventions, and lost
the clear knowledge of God which had once been their
portion. Amid the bounded forms of nature they
sought the gods of finite capacity, of human passion and
caprice, whom they worshipped, or if they strove to en
large their views that they might discern God as He is,
they said that God's Revelation of Himself was 2 " I am
all that hath been, and is, and shall be, and my robe
hath no mortal ever uncovered " ; they said the universe
is God, and God is the universe. And so did 3 " they
seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and
find Him," though He was " not far from every one of
them." But they did not find Him as indeed He was,
because they were ever confounding Him with His own
visible and finite creation.
It was in this state of darkness and unsuccessful
searching for God that He revealed Himself, as He had
revealed Himself in the beginning of the world's his
tory ; but now more clearly and fully. Though no man
(one) hath seen 4 " God at any time," yet " the only begot-
1 Gen. iii. 8. 2 Plutarch, De Iside. 3 Acts xvii. 27.
4 John i. 18. Cf. Ex. xxxiii. 20; Deut. iv. 12; Matt. xi. 27; Luke
x. 22; John vi. 46.

Man's Best Knowledge of God. 81
ten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath
revealed Him." In the Son of God incarnate, in the
"Word made flesh," God Himself, "manifest in the
flesh," came into His own creation, a part Himself of
that creation. Then were the words of wisdom in the
ancient Scriptures fulfilled, * " then I was by Him, as
one brought up with Him ; and I was daily His delight,
rejoicing always before Him ; rejoicing in the habitable
part of the earth; and my delights were with sons of
men." And how clear this vision was to them, whose eyes
God Himself had opened to behold it, is expressed in
the words of St. John. 2 " That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled, of the Word of life ; for the life
was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness,
and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with
the Father, and was manifested unto us ; that which we
have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also
may have fellowship with us ; and truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."
These were the words of one who knew of what He
spoke, and so clear is the revelation which is made to us
of God, in Jesus Christ His Son. This manifestation of
God is made to those who seek Him with faith and
earnest desire — who are drawn to Him by the testimony,
which all are capable of receiving, which He hath de
livered concerning His Son whom He hath sent into
our world to make Himself known to those who vainly
and blindly had been seeking Him.
' Prov. viii. 30, 31. 2 1. John i. 1-3.

82 Man's Best Knowledge of God.
For when the question was asked of Jesus, * " Lord,
how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and
not unto the world ? Jesus answered, and said unto
him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words ; and
My Father will love him, and we will come unto him,
and make our abode with him." There is no need,
therefore, that men should erect altars to the unknown
God, for in Jesus Christ, the knowledge of God as He
is, and as He is in His relation to us, is clearly and unmis
takably offered. And yet the highest knowledge which
is vouchsafed here amid these scenes of time is but par
tial knowledge, in comparison with that which shall be
the portion of those who shall see Him as He is, who,
in His light, shall see light. For 2 " eye hath not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, the things, which God hath prepared for them
that love Him." That consummate beatific vision of
God, who can adequately describe or conceive ? It is
the vision of the pure in heart who shall see God, of
those who have fellowship with the Father and with the
Son Jesus Christ, who are admitted to that mysterious
and blessed unity of the Father and the Eternal Son; for
that is, the consummation for which our Lord prayed in
behalf of all who are His, 3 " that they all may be one,
as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also
may be one in us. And the glory which Thou gavest
Me, I have given them : that they may be one, even as
we are one ; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may
be made perfect in one, and that the world may know
that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou
hast loved Me."
i John xiv. 22, 23. 2 1. Cor. ii. 9; cf. Is. lxiv. 4.
3 John xvii. 21-23.

Man's Best Knowledge of God. 83
Those who shall be admitted to a participation with
the Eternal Son, in His knowledge of the Father, shall
surely have a knowledge of God which leaves nothing
to be desired ; and the way to that knowledge is to know
Him, as here we may know Him in Jesus Christ His
Son. They shall discern the spring of their life and
well being as they are in God : to how near and close a
contemplation of the Divine nature itself they shall be
admitted when God shall be " all in all," who can say ?
who can anticipate, in earthly comprehension, the de
lights and the perfection of that beatific vision of God ?
for it is when flesh and heart fail, when the obstructing
shadows of this season of probation shall have passed
away, that God will be the strength of our heart and
our portion forever. And that is the promised fulness
of our life, and the consummate end of our being.
On this vision of God, on this satisfying end of our
being, as it culminates in our life in God, in the tran
scendent unity of the adorable and ever-blessed Trinity,
let us hear, and let us conclude with, the unsurpassable
words of S. Augustine. J " Wherefore when I am asked
what the saints will do in that spiritual body, I do not
say what I now see, but I say what I believe ; as I read
in the Psalm, ' I believed, therefore I have spoken.'
I say, therefore, they will see God in their very body ;
but whether by (the body) itself, as by the body we now
see the sun, the moon, the stars, the sea and the earth,
and the things which are in it, is no small question. For
it is hard to say that the saints will then have such
bodies that they cannot close and open their eyes when
they will. But harder still, that whoever closes his eyes
' De Civitate Dei, lib. xxii. c. xxix; cf. S. Aug. Ep. xiv. torn. ii.
cols. 359 ff . De Videndo Deo.

84 Maris Best Knowledge of God.
will not there see God. For if the Prophet Elisha
though absent in body saw his servant Gehazi receiving
the gifts which Naaman the Syrian gave him, whom the
prophet mentioned had cleansed from the deformity of
his leprosy, though the wicked servant had thought to
have done it secretly without his master seeing it, how
much more will the saints see all things in that spiritual
body, not only if they close their eyes, but also when
they are absent in body ? For then will be that which
is perfect, concerning which the Apostle speaking says,
' We know in part, and we prophecy in part ; but when
that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall
be done away.'
" Afterwards that, so far as he could, he might show
by some similitude how much this life differs from that
which is to come, not only of men in general, but also of
those who are endowed here with eminent sanctity, he
says, ' When I was a child, I understood as a child, I
spoke as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became
a man I put away childish things. Now we see through
a glass darkly (in an enigma), but then face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall know as also I am
known.' " If, therefore, in this life, where the prophecy of won
derful men is to be compared to that life, as the life of
a child to that of a young man, nevertheless Elisha saw
his servant receiving gifts where he himself was not ;
can it be that, when that which is perfect has come, and
the corruptible body no longer weighs down the soul,
but the incorruptible is no hindrance to it, those saints
will need corporeal eyes for things which are to be seen,
which the absent Elisha did not need to see his servant ?
For according to the Septuagint translators, these are the

Maris Best Knowledge of God. 85
»-\
words of the Prophet to Gehazi, ' Did not my heart go
with thee (when it was with thee and I knew that) when
the man turned from his chariot to meet thee, and thou
receivedst the money ? ' etc. For as the Presbyter
Jerome has translated from the Hebrew : ' Was not my
heart present,' saith he, 'when the man returned from
his chariot to meet thee?' The Prophet said that he
saw this with his heart, assisted, indeed .wonderfully, and
none can doubt, divinely. But how much more amply,
then, shall all abound in that gift, when God shall be all
in all?
" Nevertheless, those bodily eyes also shall have their
own office, and shall be in their own place, and the spirit
shall use them by the spiritual body. For neither did
that prophet also, because he did not need them to see
one who was absent, not use them to see things present ;
which things, nevertheless, he could see with the spirit,
though he closed them, as he saw things absent when he
himself was not with them. Far be it, therefore, from
our saying that those saints in that life will not see God
with closed eyes, when with the spirit they will always
see. " But whether they shall see also with the eyes of the
body, when they shall have them open, this is the ques
tion. For if indeed the spiritual eyes themselves also
will be able only in the spiritual body to see in the same
way as the eyes can, which we now have, without doubt
God will not be able to be seen by them. They will
therefore be of a far other potency, if, by them, that
incorporeal nature shall be seen, which is not. contained
in place, but is whole everywhere. For not because we
say that God is both in Heaven and in earth (forasmuch
as He Himself says by the Prophet, ' I fill Heaven and

86 Maris Best Knowledge of God.
earth ') will we say that He has one part in Heaven and
another in earth ; but He is whole in Heaven, whole in
the earth ; not at alternate times, but both at once, which
no corporeal nature can be.
" Therefore, the exceeding great power of those eyes
will be, not that they see more sharply than some ser
pents or eagles are related to see (for with however great
sharpness of sight these same animals may be endowed,
they can see nothing else than bodies), but that they also
see things incorporeal. And perhaps that great virtue
of sight was given for an hour also in that mortal body
to the eyes of the holy man Job, when he says to God,
' I have heard Thee before in the hearing of the ear, but
now mine eye seeth Thee ; therefore I have looked down
upon myself, and have pined away, and have esteemed
myself earth and ashes.' Although here nothing hinders
our understanding the eyes of the heart, of which eyes
the Apostle says, ' Having the eyes of your heart illumi
nated.' " But that God is seen by them, when He shall be seen,
no Christian doubts who faithfully receives what God
that Master says : l ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God.' But whether He is also there seen
with the bodily eyes, we are considering this in that
question. For that which is written, 'And all flesh
shall see the salvation of God,' can be so understood
without the knot of any difficulty, as if it were said,
' And all the race of men (onnis homo) shall see the
Christ of God, who truly has been seen in the body, and
1 Cf. S. Augustine liber ad Paulinam, seu, Ep. cxlvii. torn. ii. cap.
iii. 28. cols. 367, 368; also on Modes of Seeing God; cf. S. Aug. ubi
supra, c. xv. § 37, torn. ii. col. 370; also S. Aug. Ep. xcii. cols. 172-4.
ed. Ant. torn. ii.

Maris Best Knowledge of God. 87
in the body will be seen when He shall judge the quick
and dead.'
" But that He Himself is the salvation of God, there are
many and other (alia) testimonies of the Scriptures : but
more evidently the words of that venerable old man
Simeon declare, who, when he had received the infant
Christ into his hands, ' Now,' says he, ' dismiss Thy ser
vant according to Thy word in peace ; since mine eyes
have seen Thy salvation.' That also which the above-
mentioned Job says, as it is found in the copies which
are from the Hebrew, ' And in my flesh I shall see God ' :
without doubt indeed he prophesied the resurrection of
the flesh ; he did not, nevertheless, say, ' by my flesh.'
Which indeed if he had said, God might be understood
to be Christ, who, by the flesh, will be seen in the flesh ;
. but now it can also thus be taken (accipi) : ' In my flesh
I shall see God;' as if he had said, 'I will be in my
flesh, when I shall see God.' And that which the
Apostle says, ' face to face,' does not compel us to believe
that we shall see God by this corporal face, where the
bodily eyes are, whom, in the spirit, we shall see without
intermission. For unless there were the face of the in
ward man, the same Apostle would not say, 'But we
with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are
transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as
it were, by the Spirit of the Lord'* (or ad spiritum
domini). Nor do we otherwise understand what is sung
in the Psalm, ' draw near to Him, and be illuminated,
and your faces shall not be ashamed.' Forasmuch as the
access to God is by faith, which it is evident is of the
heart, not of the body.
" But because we know not how many ways of access the
spiritual body shall have (forasmuch as we speak of a

88 Maris Best Knowledge of God.
thing beyond our experience) where, in any things which
cannot otherwise be understood, the authority of the Di
vine Scriptures does not meet and help us, that must need
take place in us which is read in the Book of Wisdom.
' Mortal thoughts are timid, and our foreseeings are un
certain.' Certainly that reasoning (ratiocinatio) of philos
ophers, if it could be made most certain to us, in which
they contend that things intelligible are so seen by the
contemplation of the mind, and sensible things by the
perception (sense) of the body, that the mind is neither
able to behold intelligible things by the body, nor bodily
things by the mind itself, then, it would indeed be cer
tain that God in no way could be seen by the eyes of
the body, though it were even spiritual. But true rea
son and prophetical authority alike deride that reason
ing. For who is so averse from the truth that he will
dare to say that God is ignorant of those bodily things ?
Has He therefore a body, by the eyes of which He can
become acquainted with them ?
" Then, does not that which we have a little before said
concerning the Prophet Elisha sufficiently indicate that
by the spirit also, not by the body, bodily things can be
discerned ? For, when that servant received the gifts, it
was certainly done corporally ; which, nevertheless the
Prophet saw, not by the body, but by the spirit. As,
therefore, it is evident that bodies are seen by the spirit,
what if the potency of the spiritual body shall be so
great that spirit also may be seen by the body ? For
God is spirit. Then, indeed, every one knows by in
terior sense, not by the eyes of the body, his own life by
which he now lives in the body, and quickens and makes
living these earthly members : but the lives of others,
since they are invisible, he sees by the body. For,

Maris Best Knowledge of God. 89
whence do we distinguish living bodies from those not
living, unless we see at the same time, bodies and lives
which we cannot see, except by the body ? But lives
without bodies we do not see with bodily eyes.
"Wherefore it can be accomplished and is very credi
ble, that we will then so see the mundane bodies of the
new heaven and the new earth, that we may see (vide-
amus) with the clearest perspicuity God everywhere
present and governing also all corporal things, by the
bodies which we shall bear, corporal things which we
shall behold wherever we turn our eyes : not as now
the invisible things of God, understood by those things
which are made, are beheld by a mirror (perspeculum)
in enigma and in part, where the faith by which we be
lieve avails more in us than the species of corporal
things, which (quam) we discern by the bodily eyes.
For as the men among whom we live, who live and ex
ercise vital motions when we behold them, we do not
believe to live but see them living ; when we cannot see
their life in these bodies, which (life) nevertheless, we
behold in them by means of the bodies (per corpora)
without any ambiguity ; so wherever we turn about those
spiritual lights of our bodies, we shall behold, even by
the bodies, the incorporeal God ruling all things. Either,
therefore, God shall so be seen by those eyes, since (ut)
they may have something in (their) so great excellence
like unto the mind, by which even incorporeal nature
may be discerned, which it is either difficult or impossi
ble to shew by any examples without the testimonies of
the Scriptures; or, which is easier to understand, God
shall be to us so known and conspicuous, that He may
be seen in the spirit of each one of us in our single
selves, may be seen by one in another, may be seen

90 Maris Best Knowledge of God.
in Himself, may be seen in the new heaven and in the
new earth, and in every creature which then shall be ;
may be seen also by bodies in every body, wherever
the eyes of the spiritual body shall be directed with
their penetrating glance. Even the thoughts of one
another shall be open to us. For then shall be fulfilled
what the Apostle (spoke) when he said, ' Be unwilling
to judge anything before the time : ' he immediately
added, ' until the Lord come and illuminate the hidden
things of the darknesses (tenebrarum) and manifest the
thoughts of the heart, and then shall every one have
praise from God.' "
Nothing grander than this passage from S. Augustine
on the vision of God has ever been written. It proceeds
upon the sure ground of true philosophy and Divine
revelation, and where Divine revelation has not disclosed,
there it stops in contemplation of what ! " eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, the things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him." It combines all the testimony that has ever-
been delivered concerning the existence and nature of
God, from the creation, from the spirit of man, and
from His revelation of Himself, and presents them in
the consummation of the heavenly vision, in which
God shall be All in all, in which pantheism shall receive
the solution of its dark surmisings in the all-presence
of the one living and true, the uncreated and spiritual
I Am. I cannot refrain from giving by way of conclu
sion of this chapter concerning God, the whole of S.
Augustine's description of the end, when God shall be
All in all, as it is contained in the last chapter of his
1 1. Cor. i. 9.

Maris Best Knowledge of God. 91
magnificent treatise on the "City of God." 1"How great
will be that felicity where no evil shall be, no good shall
be hidden, there will be leisure (vacabitur) for the
praises of God, who shall be All in all ? For what else
can be done, where there shall neither be the cessation
of sloth nor the labor of any indigence I know not. I
am admonished also by the holy song, where I read or
hear ' Blessed are they who dwell in Thy house, O Lord,
they shall praise Thee forever and ever' (in swcula
swculorum). All the members and interior portions
(viscera) of the incorruptible body, which we now see
distributed ,through the various uses of necessity, since
then necessity itself will not be, but full, certain, secure,
everlasting (sempiterna) felicity, shall be proficient in
the praises of God. Forasmuch as all those members
of corporal harmony, concerning which I have now
spoken, which are now latent, will not (then) be latent,
arranged (as they are) inwardly and outwardly, through
all portions of the body ; and with the other things,
which there will seem great and wonderful, will en
kindle rational minds with the delight of reasonable
beauty, to the praise of so great an Artificer.
"What the motions there of such bodies will be, I do
not venture rashly to define what I am not able to ex
cogitate. Nevertheless both motion and state, as the
form itself, shall be becoming (decens) whatever it
shall be, where what shall not be becoming will
not be. Certainly, where the spirit shall will, there
forthwith the body shall be : nor shall the spirit will
anything which can neither be becoming to the spirit
nor the body. The glory will there be true, where any
one shall be praised neither by the error nor the flattery
1 Lib. xxii. cap. xxx.

92 Maris Best Knowledge of God.
of him that praises. The honor shall be true, which
shall be denied to none worthy of it, shall be granted to
none that is unworthy ; but neither will any unworthy
one aspire to it where none is permitted to be except the
worthy. True peace shall be there, where there is noth
ing adverse, nor any one shall suffer from himself nor
from another. The reward of virtue will be He Him
self, who hath given virtue, and hath promised Himself
besides, than whom there can be nothing better and
greater. " For what else is it which He said by the Prophet, ' I
am their God, and they shall be My people ' ; unless
(this) I will be (the source) whence they may be satiated,
I will be whatsoever things are honestly (honeste) de
sired by men, both life, and salvation, and sustenance
(victus), and abundance, and glory, and peace, and all
good things? For so also that is rightly understood,
which the Apostle says, ' that God may be all in all.'
He will be the end of our desires, who will be seen
without end, will be loved without fastidiousness, will
be praised without fatigue. This office (munus) this
affection, this act will be, indeed, common to all, as eter
nal life itself.
" But what grades also of rewards, of honors and glo
ries, according to merits, shall be, who is fit to think, how
much more to speak ? That nevertheless they will be is
not to be doubted. And that great good also that
blessed city shall see in itself, that any inferior will envy
no superior, as now the other angels do not envy the
archangels ; and so every one will be unwilling to be
what he has not received, although he may be bound by
the most peaceful bond of concord to him who has re
ceived, as neither in the body does the eye wish to be

Maris Best Knowledge of God. 93
the finger, since the peaceful structure of the whole flesh
contains both members. So, therefore, will one have a
less gift than another, that he also has this gift not to
wish a more ample one.
" Nor will they therefore not have free will, because
sins will not be able to delight them. For the "first free
will, when man was first created upright, could'not sin,
but it could also sin ; but this last will be more potent
than that, in not being able to sin. This is also true by
the gift of God, not by the possibility of its own nature.
For it is one thing to be God, another to be partaker of
God. God by His nature cannot sin, but'the partaker
of God has received from Him not to be able to sin.
But the degrees of the Divine gift were to be preserved,
that the first free will should be given, by which man
was able not to sin ; the last, by which he should not be
able to sin ; and that that should belong to the preparing
of merit, this to the receiving the reward. But because
that nature sinned, when it could sin, it is freed by larger
grace, that it may be led through (perducatur) to that
liberty in which it may not be able to sin. For as the
first immortality was that which Adam lost by sinning,
to be able not to die, the last will be not to be able to
die : so the first free will (was) to be able not to sin, the
last, not to be able to sin.
" So the will of piety and equity will be without possi
bility of loss, as that of felicity is. For indeed by sin
ning we neither kept piety nor felicity, but neither have
we lost the will of felicity, by losing felicity. Certainly,
shall God Himself be dtenied therefore to have free will
because He cannot sin ? The free will, therefore, of that
city will be both one in all, and inseparable in each (and
singular), freed from all evil, and filled with all good,

94 Maris Best Knowledge of God.
enjoying unfailingly the pleasantness of eternal joys,
forgetful of faults, forgetful of punishments ; nor, never
theless, so forgetful of its own deliverance that it is not
grateful to its own deliverer.
" So far, therefore, as respects rational knowledge (it
will be), mindful of its past evils, but so far as relates to
the sense of experience, entirely unmindful of them. For
the most skilful physician also knows almost all diseases
of the body, as they are known by art ; but as they are
felt in the body, he is ignorant of very many which he
himself has not suffered. As, therefore, there are two
kinds of knowledge of evils ; one, by which they are not
hidden from the power (p>otentiam) of the mind ; the ,
other, by which they inhere in the senses of him that
experiences them. Forasmuch as all faults (vitia) are
in one way known by the doctrine of wisdom, in another
way by the exceeding bad life of the fool (insipientis),
so also are there two (obliviones) ways of f orgetf ulness
of evils. For in one way the instructed and learned for
gets them, in another way he who has experienced and
suffered them : this one, if he neglects his skill ; that one,
if he is without his misery.
" According to this oblivion, which I have put in the
last place, the saints will not be mindful of past evils,
for they will be without all, so that they are entirely
blotted out from their senses. By that potency of know
ledge, nevertheless, which will be great in them, not only
their own past, but also the eternal misery of the damned
will not be hidden from them. Otherwise, if they are
to be ignorant that they have been miserable, how, as
the Psalm says, shall they eternally sing the mercies of
the Lord ? Than which song to the glory of the grace
of Christ, by whose blood we have been delivered, noth-

Maris Best Knowledge of God. 95
ing will certainly be more pleasant to that city. There
shall be fulfilled, ' Be at leisure (vacate) and see that I
am God.' Which will be (there) truly the greatest Sab
bath, having no evening (vesperam), which God has
commended in the first works of the world, where it is
read, ' And God rested on the seventh day from all His
works, which He had made : and God blessed the seventh
and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His works,
which God has begun (mchoavit) to make.' For we our
selves also shall be the seventh day, when we shall be full
of His benediction and sanctification, and made anew.
There at leisure (vacantes) we shall see that He Himself
is God ; which we have wished to be, ourselves to our
selves, when we fell from Him, hearing from the seducer,
' Ye shall be as gods ' ; and receding from the true God,
by whose agency (quo faciente) we should be gods by
participation, not by desertion of Him. For what have
we done without Him, unless that we have, in His wrath,
made a failure (defecimus) ? By whom new-made, and
perfected by greater grace, we shall be at leisure (vacabi-
mus) eternally, seeing that He Himself is God, of whom
we shall be full, when He Himself shall be All in all.
" For our good works themselves also, when they are
understood to be rather His own than ours, are then
imputed to us to obtain this Sabbath. But if we attri
bute them to ourselves, they will be servile ; when con
cerning the Sabbath it is said, ' All servile work ye shall
not do in it.' On account of which also it is said by the
Prophet Ezekiel, 'And I have given My Sabbaths to them
for a sign between Me and them, that they might know
that I am the Lord who sanctify them.'
" This then we shall perfectly know, when we shaH be
perfectly at leisure (qucmdo perfecte vacabimus), and

96 Maris Best Knowledge of God.
shall perfectly see that He Himself is God. The very
number also of the ages, as of the days, if it be computed
according to those articles of time which seem to be ex
pressed in the Scriptures, that sabbatism will more evi
dently appear, since it is found (to be) the seventh : as
the first age is as it were the first day from Adam even
to the deluge, the second from thence even to Abraham,
not in equality of times, but in number of generations ;
forasmuch as they are found to have ten. Now from
hence, as Matthew the Evangelist determines, three ages
follow even to the coming of Christ, which taken each by
each (sing ulce) are unfolded in fourteen generations : from
Abraham to David one, the second from thence even to
the transmigration to Babylon, the third from thence
even to the fleshly (carnalem) nativity of Christ. There
fore altogether are five (ages).
" The sixth is now passing, to be measured by no num
ber of generations, on account of that which is said, ' It
is not yours to know the times, which the Father hath
placed in His own power.' After this, as if in the
seventh day, God shall rest, when He (God) shall make
the same seventh day, which we will be, to rest in God
Himself. Moreover, concerning those ages one by one it
would be long now diligently to pursue (disputare) a dis
cussion. Nevertheless this seventh one will be our Sab
bath, of which the end will not be even-tide, but the
Lord's day as the eternal octave (octavus), which has been
consecrated by the resurrection of Christ, prefiguring not
only the eternal rest of the spirit, but also of the body.
There we shall be at leisure and see ; we shall see and
we shall love : we shall love, and we shall praise. Be-
hdld (ecce) what shall be in the end without end. For
what other end is ours, unless to come through (per-
venire) to the kingdom, of which there is no end ? "

Maris Best Knowledge of God. 97
Such is the magnificent conclusion of S. Augustine's
" City of God," in whose consummate state, its seventh day
of the new creation, and its eighth day of the resurrec
tion of Christ, God shall be revealed to all His saints as
He is indeed ; His ways of holy providence shall be jus
tified, in which mercy and truth have met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other ; He
shall be seen to be a God who is essential love, who has
secured for His universe the highest good, upon which
the heart of love is set, who hath made and done all
things well, and who hath given the crowning demonstra
tion of the truth of the Divine satisfaction in the first
creation, when " God saw everything that He had made,
and, behold, it was very good." For in that new heavens
and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, the
offspring and transcript of the righteousness of God
Himself, it will be seen and owned that the universe has
reached the highest, most perfect good which it was pos
sible for it to attain, when in the God of perfect love,
the spiritual creation, which has in Him its conscious life,
shall be filled, even to the fulness of its capacity, with
the blessedness which is its everlasting portion.

Chapter III.
THE FATHER AND THE SON— THE PATERNITY AND THE
SONSHIP OF GOD.
IN the 5th chapter of St. John's Gospel, verses 17 and
18, is a most noted declaration of our Lord Jesus con
cerning Himself. " But Jesus answered them, My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews
sought the more to kill Him, not only because He had
broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His own
Father, making Himself equal with God." Here is the
distinct adoption by the Evangelist of the understanding
by the Jews of the sense in which Jesus spoke of God
as " His own Father." Israel, as a people, are said 2 " to
be the Son of God, even His first-born." And those
who are redeemed by Christ are declared to be the sons
and heirs of God ; and our Lord recognized this relation
ship of His disciples to God the Father, when He said,
3 " I ascend unto My Father and your Father ; and to
My God and your God," not your Father and your God
in original right ; but yours, because ye are Mine, and so
My Father is your Father, and My God is your God.
But He called God His own Father, that is, His Father
in a sense in which He was the Father of no being be
side in the universe ; and so the Jews understood Him,
and " sought the more to kill Him, not only because He
had broken the Sabbath, but said that God was His own
Father, making Himself " by this assertion, " equal with
God." 1 Ex. iv. 22; Jer. xxxi. 9. 2 John xx. 17.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 99
And this interpretation of His words the holy Evangel
ist adopts ; and this understanding of His words our Lord
proceeded immediately to vindicate and reassert and justi
fy. He the Son could do nothing of Himself, but what
He seeth the Father do — such is their perfect oneness of
nature — and whatsoever things the Father doeth, these
also doeth the Son likewise ; and so the omnipotence of
God is the attribute of the Son ; the love of the Father to
the Son is unbounded, for He l " sheweth Him all things
that Himself doeth " ; and so, the Son must be infinite in
His being to receive such communications of Divine
love; the Son having life in Himself which God su
preme only has, as the Father, " quickeneth whom He
will " with the physical and spiritual life that can come
only from God; the Son executeth all the judgment
which the Father has in His own Divine right, and so,
since God only can judge the world, is very God ; He has
the power of dispensing everlasting life, and of consign
ing to the " resurrection of damnation " ; and His 2 will
is one with the will of the Father. So did He, who said
God was His own Father, set forth the nature of the Son-
ship, by which and on account of which He was equal
with God. God then is His Father as He is the Father of
no other being in the universe ; and He is the Son of God,
as no other being in the universe is, or can be His Son.
The Father is, by and in His Divine nature, the Father;
and the Son, in and by His Divine nature, is the Son of
that Father. He is the only begotten of the Father —
begotten before all worlds, begotten, and so, the Son of
God, in His uncreated existence. As was predicted of
Him by the prophet, who foretold His birth in Bethle
hem, 3 " His goings forth have been from of old, from
» John v. 20. 2 John v. 30.
3 Micah v. 2. Cf. Ps. xc. 2; Prov. viii. 22, 23.

100 Paternity and Sonship of God.
the days of eternity." Because the Father had an only
begotten or l first-begotten one to bring into the world,
as an object of Divine worship for all the angels of
God, it was possible to devise the economy of redemp
tion, in the birth as man, of the substance of the blessed
Virgin, of Him whose generation was from the days of
eternity; it was clear that when He was brought into
the world by that Divine birth, He was Emmanuel, God
with us, the Word, who was God made flesh, taking up
His abode in the tabernacle of our humanity, which had
been designated as His ages before He made His incar
nate presence visible among men.
The Father was always Father from the days of His-
eternity, and from the days of His co-eternity the Son
was always, in His Divine nature and being, the Son.
Such is the Divine paternity and Sonship, such is the
eternal and Divine relation, each to the other, of the
Father and the Son, in the unity of the one indivisible.
Godhead. The Son Himself hath told us not only that
God is His own Father, making Himself equal with God,
but also He hath said, 2" I and My Father are one," on&
thing, or substance, or being ; and this He gives us as.
the pledge of His ability to fulfil His promises, and to
save against all opposition in the universe. 3 " His sheep
hear His voice and follow Him, and shall never be
plucked from His preserving hand, because His Father
who gave them Him is greater than all, is Lord of the
universe, and in this Divine nature, position, power, and
will, He and the Father are one." He who is so the Son
of God can Himself be no other than God. The very
nature of the Sonship of Him whose own Father was
the eternal God is the full pledge and proof of his true
1 Heb. i. 6. 2 John x. 30.
3 John x. 27, 29.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 101
divinity. At once distinct from the Father in His per
sonality, or else the Father would not be the Father, and
the Son would not be the Son ; and one in nature and
being, or else God is not His own Father, and He is not
'the Son of the one God living and true.
He is, as the Son, the brightness or full streaming
forth of the Father's glory, in that He is eternally
generated of the glory of God the Father, because in
the fulness of that divinity of the Father, He is eternally
begotten to be the Son. He is the very character, the
express image of the Divine substance of God the Father,
Taecause in the fulness of that substance communicated
from the Father from all eternity, He is the Divine
•Son of that Father, the one only God. In that the
Father is the fountain of this Deity which He fully com
municates to the Son, making Him as the very Son, very
God, consists the distinct personality of the Father ; in
the reception by the Son from the Father, by whom He
Is begotten from the days of eternity, of the fulness of
the Divine essence, is to be discerned and owned the
distinct personality of the Son.
This revelation of the relation of the eternal Father
and the eternal Son, though it always existed, though in
the very creation of the worlds, which God made by
His Son the Creator, it was impressed upon the whole
¦creation, of which the Son was the first born, since
He had in Himself all the potencies of the creation
which He brought into actual exercise in the creative
word ; yet the distinct revelation of the relation between
the Father and the Son was first made in the work of re
demption, in which the Son presented Himself in. the
world which He had made, the full, perfect and visible
i Heb. i. 3.

102 Paternity and Sonship of God.
representative in His incarnate life, of the Father from
whohi He came. l " For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son ; " and in giving Him
revealed Him as the only begotten ; " that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." So perfect is the relation of oneness between the
Father and the Son, that as the Son Himself tells us,
2 " He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father ; and how
sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" Though God
in His own essence is unseen and invisible, 3 " Ye have
neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape,"
yet the Son, when He came into the world, was " God
manifest in the flesh," so that the disciples could say with
deepest truth, 4 " We beheld His glory, the glory as of .
the only begotten of the Father." So full of the grace
and truth of God Himself — for He was God Himself —
was " the Word made flesh," who " dwelt among us,"
that in Him we might know and see the Father, who
sent Him, of whose glory He was the outstreaming, of
whose substance and being He was the full and very
representative. The Divine glory from which He came, when He de
scended to the vale and portion of our humanity, are
well set forth by the Apostle, when He says, writing
concerning Christ Jesus, B" Who being in the form of
God," did not think equality with God a thing to be
eagerly retained, but He emptied Himself (of this equal
ity with God, which He had by virtue of being in the
form of God), taking a form most different, even " the
form of a servant," and this, by being made in the like-
1 John iii. 16. 2 John xiv. 9.
3 John v. 37. * John i. 14.
s Philipp. ii. 6 ff .

Paternity and Sonship of God. 103 $
ness of men, and so taking His place among the servants
of God, when before He had been God Himself, by
having been in the form of God. x For unquestionably
none can be in the form of God but He who is very
God Himself. The form of God is neither visible nor
corporal. " Ye have neither heard His voice at any
time, nor seen His shape."
And yet He who is the source of all order and form
and shape must have a form which is all peculiar to His
own being ; a form not of matter, nor of limitation, but
one invisible, inconceivable by us, which is one with His
very essence. And when the Apostle asserts that Christ
Jesus was in the form of God to show the height from
which He descended to partake in our humanity, he as
serts that He was very God, and yet Himself conde
scended, in the person of His eternal Son, to become very
man, and so the very servant and creature of the God
that He Himself was. S. Athanasius says, 2"As the
form of God is understood to be the fulness of the di
vinity of the Logos, so also the form of a servant is con
fessed to be the rational (vospd ) nature of the composi
tion of man, with His organical constitution." And
Tertullian: 3"But it is well that elsewhere (Col. i. 15)
he calls Christ the image of the invisible God; and
does he here also place Him as in the form of God?
In the same manner Christ will not be really God,
if He was not really man, when in the form of man.
For reality must be excluded in each place, if the form
and likeness and figure are to be ascribed to a mere ap-
1 Burton, Testimonies of anti-Nicene Fathers, Oxford, 1829, pp.
117-139. 2 Apol. ii. 1, vol. i. ed. Ben. p. 940.
3 Adv. Marcionem, v. xx. ed. Paris, 1675. Cf . Hippolytus Comm.
on Gen. ii. p. 29; Fabric, in Hamb. vol. ii. fol. 1716, 1718.

104 Paternity and Sonship of God.
pearance." And Novatian says, l " And deservedly ,He
is pronounced to be in the form of God since He Him
self is over all things, and has Divine power over every
creature, and is God like His Father ; having neverthe
less obtained this very thing from His own Father, that
He should be both God and Lord of all, and God after the
form of God the Father, begotten and produced from
(God) Himself." And Dionysius of Alexandria more
expressly says, 2 " But the form of God is His Logos, and
the Son of God is wisdom, being always one person, and
one substantial person." By all the writers of the ante-
Nicene centuries, as Dr. Burton shows in his copious
work, from this passage, the true and full divinity of
the Son was thought to be clearly stated and proved, as
indeed the whole connection of words in the passage
abundantly shows. In the work of redemption then,
the full and true divinity of the Son, as involved in His
very Sonship, which was the form of God .in which He
was before He emptied Himself and took upon Him
the form of a servant, by being made in the likeness of
men, was most unequivocally revealed, as indeed His full
divinity is the very basis and support and Divine power
of the whole work of redemption in all its stages.
On Him the Redeemer, the Son of God, who only
could be the Redeemer, 3 " dwelt all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily " ; in Him that fulness lowered itself
to the dimensions of our finite nature, when He came to
raise us to a participation of the Divine .nature. In
Him, in the mystery of His incarnation, were 4"hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," since He is the
1 De Trin. c. xvii. p. 717, ad finem op. Tertull. ed. Priorei.
2 Ed. Simonis De Magistris. p. 209. See authorities in Burton,
ubi supra. 3 Col. ii. 9. 4 Col. ii. 3.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 105
only wise God our Saviour ; and so by His redeeming
presence was x " known by the Church " in the preach
ing of "the unsearchable riches of Christ" "unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places," 2 above
whom He was infinitely exalted, " the manifold wisdom
of God, according to the eternal purpose which He pur
posed in Christ Jesus our Lord." But if He was so
clearly revealed to be " the true God and eternal life,"
because He was " the only begotten Son," when He came
into the world which He had made to be its Redeemer ;
if He was the " first begotten of all the creation " which
proceeded from the Divine potencies which were in Him
the eternal Son, were there no intimations of this His
relation to God the Father as His own Son, before He
became incarnate as God manifest in the flesh ?
He had always had the relation to the created uni
verse which was made manifest when He came to
reclaim it to the perfection and allegiance from which,
in this portion of it, it had swerved. Did He not then
show Himself as its Creator, as the Divine Son of the
Father by whom God the Father had made the worlds?
The Epiphanies which are recorded in the Old Testa
ment were such a manifestation of Himself to the world
which He had made, and which, in the fulness of time,
He was to redeem. These Epiphanies were the heralds
of His coming as God manifest in the flesh, and so were
they understood to be by the consentient testimony of the
Jewish and the Christian Church. 3The fathers of all the
earlier centuries recognized Christ in the angel, whose
appearances in forms so manifold are described as the
appearances to men of Jehovah Himself. It was Christ,
» Ep. iii. 10; Ep. iii. 8. 2 Ep. i. 21.
3 Burton, 38 ff .

106 Paternity and Sonship of God.
they said, who talked with Adam.1 It was Christ who
spoke to Noah (Gen. vi. 13 ; Irenaeus iv. 10). It was
Christ who went down to confound the tongues at Babel
(Gen. xi. 5 ; Justin M. cum Tryph. c. cxxvii. p. 220,
ed. Bened.; Hag. Com. 1742 ; Tert. adv. Praxeam c. xvi.;
.Novatian c. xxv.). It was Christ who "appeared to
Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God"
(Justin, M. cum Tryph. c. cxxvii. p. 220 ; Clemens Alex.
Paed. i. vii. ed. Potter Oxonii. 1715, p. 131). It was
Christ who appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mam re
(Gen. xviii. 1), where He is called (ver. 25) the Lord and
Judge of all the earth (Justin M. cum Tryphon. c. lvi.
p. 152; Clem. Alex. Paed. i. vii. p. 131 ; Tertullian, adv.
Marc. p. 402; Origen in Gen. Horn. iv. 3). It was
Christ who rained fire upon Sodom (Gen. xix. 24). The
fathers particularly mention the expression "Jehovah
rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire
from Jehovah " (Justin M. Dial, cum Tryph. c. lvi. p,
152 ; c. cxxvii. p. 221 ; Irenaeus iii. 6 ; Tertull. adv. Prax.
xiii. 16, pp. 507, 509). It was Christ who tempted Abra
ham (Gen. xxii.; Origen in Gen. Horn. viii. 8 ; Cypr. Test.
ii. 5). It was Christ who appeared to Jacob (Gen. xxviii.
13), where the person calls himself "the Lord God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac" (Justin M. cum Tryph.
c. lviii. p. 156; Clem. Alex. Paed. i. vii. p. 131). It was
Christ who spoke to Jacob in a dream (Gen. xxxi. 11,
13), where He calls Himself "the God of Bethel" (see
Gen. xxviii. 13, 19; Justin M. cum Tryph. c. lviii. p.
155 ; Cyp. Test. ii. 5 ; Novatian, c. xxvii. p. 725). It was
Christ who wrestled with Jacob (Gen. xxxii. 24), where
it is expressly said that He was God (w. 28, 30 ; Justin
1 Gen. iii. 8, 9; Theophil. ad Autoly. ii. 22; Tert. adv. Prax.
c. xvi. ; Irenaeus iv. 10.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 107
M. cum Tryphon. c. lviii, pp. 155, 156 ; c. cxxv. p. 218 ;
Irenaeus, p. 239, ed. Benedict. Massuet, Paris, 1710;
Clem. Alex. Paed. i. vii. p. 132 ; Concil. Antiochj Reliq.
Sacrse ii. p. 470). It was Christ who appeared to Jacob
(Gen. xxxv. 1, 9 ; Justin M. cum Tryph. c. lviii. p. 155,
where he says, " He is called God, and is God, and will
be " ; Cypr. Test. ii. 6). It was Christ who appeared to
Moses in the bush (Exod. iii. 2), where the person calls
himself "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob," and at ver. 14, " I am that I am "
(Justin M. Apol. i. lxii. p. 80 ; Dial, cum Tryph. c. Ix.
p. 157 ; Irenaeus iv. 10, 12 ; Clem. Alex. Cohort, ad
Gent. p. 7; Tertullian adv. Iud. c. ix. p. 194). It was
Christ who said to Moses (Ex. xx. 2), " I am the Lord
thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of
Egypt" (Clem. Alex. Paed. i. vii. p. 131). It was
Christ who spoke to Moses (Levit. vi. 1), and con
sequently, who delivered the whole of the Law (Origen
in Levit. Horn. iv. init.). It was Christ who appeared to
Joshua near Jericho (Josh. v. 13 ; Justin M. Dial, cum
Tryph. c. lxii. p. 159, 160).
These examples of the testimonies of the fathers are
collected by .Dr. Burton, and in other portions of his
work xmany others to the same effect. He adds : " These
instances might be multiplied so as to make a volume ;
but enough, perhaps, has been said to shew that all the
fathers agreed in entertaining the same opinion," and
refers in a note to St. Paul in I. Cor. x. 9 : " Neither
let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and
were destroyed of serpents," to show that St. Paul identi
fied the angel who led the people of Israel to the
promised land with the Saviour, who, when He was
' Pages 38-40.

108 Paternity and Sonship of God.
made flesh, became our eternal and almighty Redeemer.
Certainly this angel is spoken of in the books of Moses
as no created angel would be likely to be mentioned;
1 " Behold, I send an angel before thee to keep thee in
the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have
prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice ; pro
voke Him not ; for He will not pardon your transgres
sions, for My name is in Him." Who can this be but
He, of whom by the Evangelist it was said : 2 " Now all
this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying : Behold a
virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son,
and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which, being in
terpreted, is, God with us."
Surely this was the same angel or messenger of God
who had been sent to lead the people of God through
the wilderness, in whom the very name of Jehovah,
marking His Divine essence, was, who was to that an
cient people the manifested presence of God with them,
as He is to the people of these later days, God with us.
And the Prophe't Isaiah, speaking of the same Divine
angel, says, 3 " For He said, surely they are My people,
children that will not he ; so He was their Saviour. In
all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His
presence saved them ; in His love and in His pity He
redeemed them ; and He bare them and carried them all
the days of old. But they rebelled and vexed His
Holy Spirit ; therefore, He was turned to be their
enemy, and He fought against them. Then He remem-^
bered the days of old, Moses and His people, saying
where is He that brought them up out of the sea with
i Ex. xxiii. 20, 21. 2 Matt. i. 22, 23; cf. Is. ix. 6.
3 Is. Ixiii. 8, 9, 10, 11-14.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 109
the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put His
Holy Spirit within him ? That led them by the right
hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water
before them, to make Himself an everlasting name?
That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilder
ness, that they should not stumble ? As a beast goeth
down into the valley, the spirit of the Lord caused him
to rest ; so didst Thou lead Thy people, to make Thyself
a glorious name."
In this magnificent passage of the evangelic Prophet,
there is a clear tracing of the history of the dealings of
God with His people, by the guidance of Him, the an
gel, in whom was the name of Jehovah, of whom
Moses speaks. And Isaiah calls the same angel, the an
gel of the Presence, who is Jehovah, the Saviour of His
people, and who, in the fulness of time, came forth from
the Presence, from the bosom of the Father, in which
He dwelt, to be the Redeemer of the men whom He
created, and whose nature He took at last that He
might be their Saviour.
And S. Stephen, the first martyr of Christ,1 in recount
ing the same history, and the treatment by the people of
the angel of the Divine Presence, in whom was the name
of Jehovah, refers both to the books of Moses and of
Isaiah ; to Isaiah most emphatically in the concluding
words of his discourse : 2 " Ye stiff-necked and uncircum-
cised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost-; as your fathers did, so do ye" — as Isaiah had
said, 3" They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit." And
S. Stephen tells them that they inherit and continue the
perversity of their fathers, and in rejecting Christ they
1 Acts vii. * Acts vii. 51.
»Is. lxiii. 10.

110 Paternity and Sonship of God..
rejected the same Divine being, the same angel of the
Presence, the same angel in whom was the name of Je
hovah, whom -their fathers had provoked to righteous
anger. And in prayer to this angel of the covenant, as
his God and Saviour, " he fell asleep." When they had
revolted from this Divine angel, and made the golden
calf, which represented the gods that brought them out
of Egypt, God proposed to x " blot them out of His book,"
and to make of Moses 2 " a great nation," in place of the
extinguished race of sinners.
When God at the intercession of Moses withdrew this
righteous threat, He said He would send an angel before
them, but would not Himself, by the angel in whom His
name was, 3"go up in the midst of them," for, said He,
" Thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in
the way." When the people were inconsolable, in view
of this withdrawal of the angel of the Presence, at the
intercession of Moses, He said 4 " My presence shall go
with thee, and I will give thee rest." The angel of the
Presence, then, was the presence of Jehovah — and so
there was the same God with them, who is Emmanuel,
God with us. BIn these theophanies then, recorded in
the old dispensation, there were plain intimations of that
Divine Son of God, the Mediator between God the
unseen One and His universe, who was clearly revealed
as the only begotten of the Father, incarnate for the
world's salvation, when the fulness of time for the great
revelation, was accomplished.
6 The patriarch Jacob clearly speaks of the angel who
was his protector and redeemer, as being the God of his
i Ex. xxxii. 33. 2 Ex. xxxii. 10.
' Ex. xxxiii. 3. * Ex. xxxiii. 14; cf . Gen. xl viii. 15.
5 Cf . Hengstenberg Christology, chap. iii.
6 The Godhead of the Messiah in the O. T.

Paternity and Sonship of God. Ill
fathers (Gen. xlviii. 15). He says, in blessing the children
of Joseph, " The angel which redeemed me from all
evil, bless the lads ; and let my name be named on them,
and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac ; and
let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."
The patriarch here alludes to all the visits of special
revelation and protection, which he had enjoyed from the
God of his fathers, and he speaks of that God as " the
angel, which redeemed me from all evil." He alludes to
that vision, which had been granted at Bethel, where he
saw the ladder reaching to Heaven, upon which the
angels of God were l "ascending and descending," and when
he awoke he said, 2 " Surely Jehovah is in this place, and
I knew it not " ; also to that occasion when, as he says,
" the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying,
Jacob, and I said, Here am I," and when the angel de
clared " I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst
the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto Me " ; and
to that other occasion when 3 "there wrestled a man with
him till the breaking of the day," and where he prevailed
as a prince having " power with God and with men" ;
where his name was changed from Jacob to Israel by the
angel Jehovah Himself ; where Jacob asked Him to tell
him His name, and received the significant answer,
" Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after My name ? " for
it was the angel, in whom was the name of Jehovah, who
wrestled with him, and "blessed him there" ; of whom
Manoah asked, 4 " What is Thy name? " and was answered
by the Jehovah angel, " Why askest thou thus after My
name, seeing it is secret or wonderful? " Of this transac
tion the Prophet Hosea speaks, and disclosed the Divine
i Gen. xxviii. 12. 2 Gen. xxxi. 11, 13.
3 Gen. xxxii. 24. * Judges xiii. 17.

112 Paternity and Sonship of God.
personality of the angel who wrestled with the patriarch,
and over whom the patriarch prevailed : l " Yea, he had
power over the angel, and prevailed : he wept and made
supplication unto Him : he found Him in Bethel, and
there He spake with us : even Jehovah God of hosts ;
Jehovah is His memorial."
Thus through all their generations did the children of
Israel preserve the memorial of the Jehovah angel, who
was their God, and who was so clearly revealed, under
the Gospel dispensation, as the eternal Son of the Divine
Father. Jacob called the name of the place where God
had met him, 2 "Peniel ; for I have seen God face to face,
and my life is preserved." The comment of Clemens
Alex, on this passage, in accordance with the comments
of the other fathers of the Church, is noteworthy : 3 "But
to show that it was the Logos who wrestled with Jacob,
and the instructor of mankind, it says ' he asked Him,
and said unto Him, Tell me Thy name. And He said,
Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after My name ? ' for
He kept the new name for the new people, His children."
4 As yet God the Lord was without a name, not yet having
become man. Still further " Jacob called the name of
the place " the face of God (Peniel), " for," he said, " I
have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
But the face of God is the Word, by whom God is
made manifest and known. Then also he was called
Israel, when he saw God, the Lord. This is God, the
Logos, the instructor, who said to him again afterwards,
6 " Fear not to go down to Egypt." And Origen says
1 Hosea xii. 4, 5. 2 Gen. xxxii. 30.
Paedagog. lib. i. c. vii. p. 131; ed. Potter, 1715.
* Burton, p. 152.
5 Gen. xlvi. 3 ; cf. Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. vii. c. x. p. 866.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 113
emphatically, l " Who else could it be that is called at
once man and God, who wrestled and contended with
Jacob, than He, ' who spoke at sundry times and in
divers manners unto the fathers ' (Heb. i. 1), the sacred
Logos of God, who is called Lord and God, who also
blessing Jacob named him Israel, saying besides, ' Thou
hast prevailed with God ' ? But thus men then living
beheld the Logos of God, as also the Apostles of our
Lord said, ' That which was from the beginning, which
we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled
of the word of life ' (I. John i. 1) ; which word and
life Jacob also saw, and added, saying, ' For I have seen
God face to face.' " Origen also speaking of the vision,
in which Joshua saw 2 " the captain of the host of the
Lord." Joshua therefore not only knew that He was of
God, but that He was God : for he would not have
adored unless he had known Him to be God. For who
else is " captain of the host of the Lord," except our
Lord Jesus Christ ?
And the Council of Antioch, a.d. 269, summing up
this testimony of the Old Testament to the Divine per
sonality of the Son,3 after professing their belief in one
uncreated, invisible God, proceed to say, " We confess
and preach (xr/pvffffojuev) that this begotten Son, the only
begotten Son, is 4'the image of the invisible God,' 5 be
gotten before all creation, the wisdom and word and
power of God, who was before the worlds, God, not by
foreknowledge, but in essence and hyp ostasis, Son of
God, as we have known Him in the Old and New Testa-
1 Selecta.in Gehesim vol. ii. ed. Bened. Delarue 1733-1759, p. 43.
» Joshua v. 13, 14; Origen in Iesum Nave, Horn. vi. § 3, vol. ii.
p. 410. 3 Apud Routh. Reliq. Sacrse ii. 466.
* Col. i. 15. 5 I. Cpr. i. 24.

114 Paternity and Sonship of God.
ment. But whosoever should contend that we ought not
to believe and confess the Son of God to be God before
the foundation of the world, and should say that we
declare two Gods, if the Son of God should be proclaimed
(xr/pvffGr/Tai) to be God, such an one we account an alien
from the ecclesiastical canon, and all the catholic churches
agree with us. For concerning Him it is written, * ' Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of right
eousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom ; Thou hast loved
righteousness and hated iniquity; wherefore God, Thy
God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above
Thy fellows.'
2 " And again Isaiah, ' Our God returneth judgment,
and He will return it ; He will come and save us ; then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of
the deaf shall hear, then the lamb shall leap as an hart
(s'Xatpos), and the tongue of the stammerers shall be
clear.' And again, s ' they shall make supplication unto
Thee, because God is in Thee, and there is no God beside
Thee ; for Thou art God, and we knew it not, O God of
Israel the Saviour.' And with the Apostle, * ' Of whom
is Christ according to the flesh ; who is over all, God
blessed for ever, Amen ' ; in which passages the words
'who is over all,' and 'beside Thee,' are to be under
stood ' over all created things.' And in Hosea, 5 ' Be
cause I am God, and not man, the holy one in Thee : and
I will not enter into the city ; I will go after the Lord.'
And all the God-inspired Scriptures declare the Son of
God to be God, which to expound one by one, we now
defer. We believe Him who is always with the Father,
1 Ps. xiv. 2 Cap. xxxv.
3 Is. xiv. 14. * Rom. ix. 5.
s Ch. xi. 9, 10.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 115
to have fulfilled the Father's will for the creation of the
universe. l For He spoke, and they existed ; ' He com
manded and they were created.' But He, who commands
another, commands some one whom, we are persuaded,
is no other than, the only begotten Son of God who is
God, to whom also He said, 2 ' Let us make man after our
image and likeness.'
"And in sum it is said, according to the Gospel, "All
things were made by Him, and without Him • was not
one thing made ' ; and according to the Apostle, 4 ' By
or in Him all things were made, which are in Heaven
and upon earth, whether visible or invisible ; whether
thrones, or principalities, or lordships, or authorities ; all
things have been created by Him, and for Him ' ; and so
He truly is and works, at once the Word and God ; by
whom the Father made all things, not as by an instru
ment nor as by (His own) understanding, that had no
substantial (or personal) existence : the Father truly hav
ing begotten the Son as living and personal energy
(iwnoararov) working all things in all: nor was the
Son a spectator only, or merely present, but actually
efficient for the creation of the universe, as it is written,
5 ' I was by Him, as one suitable (to Him).' He it was,
we say, who descended and 6 appeared to Abraham at
the oak of Mamre, one of three, with whom the patri
arch discoursed as (his) Lord and Judge ; forasmuch as
He had 7 received all judgment from the Father, con
cerning whom it is written, 8 ' The Lord rained upon
Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the
' Ps. cxlviii. 5. 2 Gen. i. 26.
3 John i. 3. «Col. i..l6.
6 Prov. viii. 30. s Gen. xviii. 1.
i John v. 22. 8 Gen. xix. 24.

116 Paternity and Sonship of God.
Lord out of Heaven ' ; this was He who, fulfilling His
Father's counsel, appears to the patriarchs, and con
verses with them, in. the same passages (-repiHGLwrai?)
and same chapters, sometimes being affirmed to be the
angel, but sometimes to be the Lord, and sometimes God ;
for it is impious to think that the God of the universe is
called an angel ; but the angel of the Father is the Son,
being Himself Lord and God. For it is written, x ' The
angel of great counsel.' As also in other places to
Abraham and subsequently, ' For now I know that thou
fearest God, and hast not spared thy beloved Son for My
sake ; and He called the name of the place, The Lord sees
(Jehovah-Jireh) ; so that they say to this day, In the
mountain the Lord was seen.' And to Jacou, 'And
the angel of God said to me in a dream, saith he,
Jacob ; I said, What is it ? And he said, Lift up
thine eyes,' etc. ' I am the God who appeared to thee
in the place of God (Bethel), where thou anointedst to
Me there a pillar, and vowedst to Me there a vow.'
" And after the wrestling, and that with the prefigured
man, he adds, 4'And Jacob called the name of that
place, the face (eido?) of God (Peniel) for I have seen
God face to face, and my life has been preserved.' But
we say that the prefigured man was the . Son of God,
whom the Scripture itself has signified to be God
(fie/urfWHev). But indeed we say likewise also that
the Law was given to Moses by the ministry of the Son
of God, as the Apostle teaches, when he says, 6'What
then is the Law? It was added on account of transgres
sions, until the seed should come, to whom the promise
1 Is. ix. 6. 2 Gen. xxii. 12, 14.
3 Gen. xxxi. 11, 12, 13. * Gen. xxxii. 30.
s Gal. iii. 19.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 117
was given, being ordained by angels in the hand of a
Mediator ; for we know no other Mediator of God and
men, then this one.' But we are taught also the same
things by Moses, l ' But the angel appeared to him in a
flame of fire from the bush,' etc. 'But when the Lord
saw that he was drawing near to see, the Lord called to
him from the bush ; ' and again, ' Go in and gather the
elders of the children of Israel, and thou shalt say unto
them, The Lord God of our fathers hath appeared to
me", the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob,' etc., 'if, therefore, they will not believe
me, nor hear my voice; for they will say, The Lord
God hath not appeared to thee, what shall I say to them ? ' .
"And in the benedictions, 2' According to the right
eous ordinances of Him that was seen in the bush, let
them come upon the head of Joseph ' ; and elsewhere,
3 'And the Lord said to Moses, I will sur&ly accomplish
to thee this word, which thou hast spoken ; and he said,
Shew Me Thy glory; and He said, I will pass before
thee in My glory ; and I will call in the name of
the Lord before thee, and I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy, and I will have compassion, on
whom I will have compassion ' ; which is thus ful
filled: 4'And the Lord descended in a cloud, and is
present with him there ; and he called in the name of
the Lord, and the Lord passed by before his face ; and
the Lord God called ; ' for He who above had promised
to pass by, was the Son of God the Lord. And He
called in the Name of the Lord, the Father ; this is He
who speaks truly when He says, 6 ' Not that anyone
1 Exod. iii. 2, 4, 16, and iv. 1. 2 Deut. xxxiii. 16.
3 Ex. xxxiii. 17, 18, 19. * Ex. xxxiv. 5, 6.
5 John vi. 46.

118 Paternity and Sonship of God.
hath seen the Father, except He who is from the Father ;
He hath seen the Father.' And in the same Gospel,
1 ' Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen
His shape.' And 2 ' No one hath seen God at any time ;
the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath revealed Him.'
"And the Apostle, in another place, says, 3' Now unto
the eternal immortal, invisible, the only wise God/
But the Son who was with the Father, God indeed, and
Lord of all created things ; but being sent by the Father
from Heaven, and being made flesh, became man;
wherefore, also, the body from the Virgin, containing
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, has been united
unchangeably to the Godhead, and has been deified; on
account of which, the same God and man Jesus Christ
was predicted in the Law and the Prophets, and has been
believed in the whole Church, which is under Heaven, to
be God indeed ; 4 who has emptied Himself from being
equal to God ; 5but man, also, of the seed of David ac
cording to the flesh. It was God who performed the
signs and wonders which are written in the Gospels ; but
by this same (being) partaking of flesh and blood, He
was tempted in all things like unto us, without sin.
" So also Christ before His Incarnation, is named as
One in the Divine Scriptures, that is in Jeremiah,
6 ' Christ is the spirit of our face.' ' ' But the Lord is
the Spirit,' according to the Apostle. But according to
the same Apostle, 8 ' For they drank of the spiritual rock,
but the rock was Christ.' And again, 9 ' Neither let us
1 John v. 37. 2 John i. 18.
3 I. Tim. i. 17. * Phil. ii. 7.
5 Rom. i. 3. 6 Lam. iv. 20.
' II. Cor. iii. 17. » I. Cor. x. 4.
» I. Cor. x. 9.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 119
tempt the Lord, as some tempted Him, and were de
stroyed by serpents,' and concerning Moses, J ' Esteeming
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures
of Egypt.' And Peter, 2 ' Of which salvation the Proph
ets have inquired and searched diligently who have
prophesied of the grace (that should come) unto us;
searching (into) what, or what manner of time the Spirit
of Christ in them signified.' 3But if Christ is the power
of God and the wisdom of God before the ages, so also,
as He is Christ, He is one and the same in substance, al
though He is thought of in very many notions, or ways
of thinking (inivoiaii). Having noted these few things
from very many, if you think and teach the same things
with us, will you also signify if the things written above
please you or not ? " 4
The Epistle from which this long extract has been
made was addressed to Paul of Samosata by the Council
of Antioch, a.d. 269, which, after hearing the disputation
of Paul with Malchion, who exposed his lurking-places
of evil doctrine, condemned and excommunicated him.
And they say in the opening of the Epistle, that it
seemed good to them " to put forth this faith in unity,
which we have received from the beginning, and held as
handed down to us, and kept in the Catholic and holy
Church, until this day, in succession from the blessed
Apostles who have been both eye-witnesses and minis
ters of the Word (rov Aoyov), preached from the Law
and the Prophets and the New Testament."
It is indeed a full and splendid testimony of the faith
of the Church in the true divinity of the Eternal Son,
' Heb. xi. 26. 2 Pet. i. 10.
3 I. Cor. i. 24.
• In Concil. torn. i. p. 843, ed. Labbaei et Cossart.

120 Pater mty and Sonship of God.
both God and man, till the last quarter of the third cen
tury ; it is a rich assemblage of proofs of the unity of
the teaching of the Old and New Testament ; showing
how the Divine Son was prefigured and presented, even
in the image of His incarnation, in the theophanies of
the old dispensation ; how by the writers of the New
Testament, these manifestations of Jehovah to His
ancient people were regarded as manifestations of the
Divine Son, who was revealed so clearly under the new
dispensation ; who is the Son of the Lord of Heaven and
earth, the Creator, and who is Himself the Creator of all
things, and who, in the fulness of time, came into His
own creation, to reclaim it as His own, in the form and
substance of His creature man; being Himself the one
eternal Son, both true Godand very man ; the only be
gotten of the Father, the first begotten of all the crea
tion. And in this clear and full declaration of the Council
of Antioch, asserting the truth of God against the per
versions of Paul of Samosata, we have the very cream of
the teaching of the whole Church concerning the dis
tinct personality and the one divinity of the Eternal
Father, and the Son, who was the image of the invisible
God, because He was the very Son of God ; from the
days of the apostolic fathers, Clemens Romanus, Igna
tius and Polycarp, through the fathers of the second and
third centuries, and the creeds of the Church for all
those centuries, till the days when the Arian heresy
summoned to arms the sacramental host of God's elect,
which vindicated in that memorable contest, for all ages
of the Church of God upon earth, the faith enshrined in
the creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople, and S. Athan
asius ; not inventing a new faith as innovators vainly

Paternity and Sonship of God. 121
pretend, but setting forth the faith once for all delivered
to the Saints, recorded in the Divine Scriptures, and held
lovingly, unfalteringly, even unto death, for the love of
Christ, till the memorable era of the Nicene controversy,
by which all doubt concerning our holy faith was for
ever dissipated.
The full proof of this, as it has been embodied in the
synodical letter of the Council of Antioch, will be found
in the host of Catholic fathers, which is adduced by
Bishop Bull in his defence of the Nicene faith, and in
his treatise, " The Judgment of the Catholic Church " ; as
well as most copiously, sufficiently, abundantly, and
superabundantly by Dr. Burton in his " Testimonies of
the Ante-Nicene Fathers to the Divinity of Christ."
This last work saves the necessity of adducing any more
special testimonies beyond those already presented. Let
him who doubts read, mark, and own that concerning
the Catholic faith on a matter so vital, there has never
been any wavering in the Church, to which the deposit
of holy truth was, once for all, committed. 'There is
one prophetical passage in which Jehovah Himself de
clares the relation to Himself of the incarnate Son, the
application of which to Christ is fully sanctioned by our
Lord Himself — in which, therefore, we have the united
testimony of the Old and New Testament to the only
begotten Son — and are able, without doubt, to identify
the Divine angel of the ancient covenant with the Divine
Son of the new. It is the declaration made by the
Prophet Zechariah, 2 " Awake, O sword, against My shep
herd, and against the man that is My fellow, saith the
1 Cf . also Holden's Scripture Testimonies to the Divinity of our
Lord Jesus Christ, Lond. 1820.
2 Zech. xiii. 7.

122 Paternity and Sonship of God.
Lord of Hosts : smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall
be scattered : and I will turn My hand upon the little
ones." Now the Prophet Isaiah, in a passage which is a pre
diction of Christ and His kingdom, says, '"Behold the
Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm
shall rule for Him. . . . He shall feed His flock
like a shepherd." And the Prophet Ezekiel, in a passage
which is likewise prophetic, says, 2" And I will set up
one shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even
My servant David ; He shall feed them, and He shall be
their shepherd." By these two prophets, the shepherd
of the Lord of Hosts, of whom Zechariah prophesied,
the promised heir of David's everlasting throne, is de
clared to be the Mighty God incarnate, who is both
God and man, who, in the fulness of time, appeared in
the person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
And then He Himself who so appeared, claimed the
fulfilment of the prophecy in Himself, when He said,
3 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep." " I am the good shepherd, and
know My sheep, and am known of mine," and promised
there should4 "be one fold and one shepherd." Here
then, without a peradventure, is the shepherd of the Lord
of Hosts, by whom He Himself feeds His own flock.
And He, too, as the Lord of Hosts says by the Prophet,
is " My fellow." And who is this, who can it be, but
He who said, 5" I and My Father are one," who, showing
how He was the fellow of the Lord of Hosts, said, 6 " Be-
1 Is. xl. 10, 11. Cf. Is. xl. 3 ff. ; Matt. iii. 3 ; Mark i. 3 ; Luke
iii. 4 ; John i. 23.
2 Ezek. xxxiv. 23. 3 jonn x uj 14.
* John x. 16. s John x. 30.
e John xiv. 10, 11.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 123
lievest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father
in Me ? the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of
Myself : but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth
the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the
Father in Me : or else believe Me for the very works'
sake ; " who, though x " in the form of a servant, and
made in the likeness of men" was nevertheless " in the
form of God, when He thought it not a prize to be
retained to be equal with God," for it was His native
dignity. And He Himself appropriates to Himself the
prophecy of Zechariah. 2 " Then saith Jesus unto them,
All ye shall be offended because of Me this night : for
it is written," written in the prophecy of Zechariah, " I
will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall
be scattered : " and I will turn Mine hand upon the
little ones."
This note of the prophecy, as every mark in it, is
found, in its fulfilment, in Him alone. For it was He
who illustrated and fulfilled the words, when He said,
3 " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little
ones ; for I say unto you, that in Heaven their angels do
always behold the face of My Father, which is in
Heaven" ; and " even so it is not the will of your Father
which is in Heaven, that one of these little ones should
perish." And it was He who uttered the words of com
passion and of power, 4 " Fear not, little flock ; for it
is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
He who was "the fellow of the Lord of Hosts," who
was " in the bosom of the Father " said this, and though
6 " Heaven and earth shall pass, away," His " words shall
• Phil. ii. 6, 7. 2 Matt. xxvi. 31; Mark xiv. 27.
3 Matt, xviii. 10, 14. * Luke xii. 32.
s Mark xiii. 31; Luke xxi. 33.

124 Paternity and Sonship of God.
not pass away." So then by prophet and by evangel
ist is the good shepherd of the flock of God, the incar
nate Lord, presented to us as the eternal, well-beloved
Son of the eternal Father, who was the "fellow" of
"the Lord of Hosts," who was "with God, and who was
God." And now we come to the new dispensation, when
He was clearly revealed, and men beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father — who had
been prefigured and promised through all the ages of
the old dispensation. And here we discern Him, as
He is made known to us, in His relation both to the in
visible God and to the visible creation, which came from
Him, by which the invisible things of God, His invisi
ble essence, are made manifest, as this eternal power and
Godhead were in Him before the worlds were. For
says the Apostle, who had learned it from Christ Him
self, He l " is the image of the invisible God, the first
born of all the creation." And who could be the image
of the invisible God, but one — who was 2 "the brightness
of His glory and the express image (or counterpart) of
His substance (or being) ? " In that He was " the image
of the invisible God," He was at once one with God
Himself, and distinct from Him as His image — not an
other God, but the same God in another personality.
The seeming contradiction is solved, when we recognize
Him as He is revealed to be the " only begotten of the
Father," and in that eternal generation receiving as His
own the fulness of the Divine essence. In that He is
" the first-born of all the creation," He is before all the
creation, and so Himself uncreated, because He was the
first-born, from the ages of eternity, of the Father. And
' Col. i. 15. 2 Heb. i. 3.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 125
the Apostle tells us, to show how He is the first-born of
all the creation, that l " by Him were all things created
that are in Heaven and that are in earth, visible and in
visible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or princi
palities, or powers : all things were created by Him and
for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all
things consist." And is He not then most clearly " the
first-born of all the creation " ? for it is all, both visible
and invisible, His offspring, the production of His love,
His power, His wisdom, and His almighty will. He,
as He alone could, has filled up the gap otherwise im
passable, between the uncreated Creator and the created
universe, He " the image of the invisible God," who has
all the potencies of the creation, and " the first-born of
all the creation," because so He has fixed it to Himself
by calling it into being, and retains it in Himself, be
cause by Him who was " before all things," " all things
subsist." In Him the first-born they live and move and
have their being.
It was to Him that the fathers delighted to apply the
expression, 2 " Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness." 3 " And what is more," says the epistle as
cribed to Barnabas, " the Lord endured to suffer for our
souls, though He is the Lord of the world : to whom
God said before the constitution of the world, Let us
make man." According to S. Athanasius,4 the Arians
openly professed their belief that it was Christ "to
whom the Father said, Let us make man, etc." Justin
Martyr also alleges this text as proof of the Sonship
i Col. i. 16, 17. 2 Gen. i. 26.
3Ch. v. p. 61; ed. Cotelerius, Amsterdam, 1724.
* De Synodis, vol. i. pp. 740, 743, ed. C. Coloniae, 1686, p. 898.

126 Paternity and Sonship of God.
of Christ ; likewise ' Origen, as also the Council of Anti-
och, already adduced in full. Origen explains the ap
pellation, " the first-born of every creature," as belong-
longing to God the Word. 2 He says " it is said of man
and wife, ' they are no lpnger two, but one flesh ' (Gen.
ii. 24), and that ' he that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit ' (I. Cor. vi. 17) ; but if so, who is joined to the
Lord, to the very word, and very wisdom, and very
truth, and very righteousness, more than the soul of
Jesus, or even so much ? If this be so, the soul of Jesus
and God the Word, 'the first-born of every creature'
are no longer two."
3 And still more clearly and finely the same Origen
says, " The God of the universe and Father is not the
only one who is great, according to our doctrine ; for He
hath imparted of Himself and of His greatness to the only
begotten and first-born of every creature ; that He, being
the image of the invisible God, might preserve the image
of the Father, even in greatness. We allow, then, that
God is incomprehensible ; but He is not the only one who
is incomprehensible ; but also His only begotten ; for God
the one Word is incomprehensible. It does not follow,
therefore, because God is incomprehensible, that therefore
He sent His Son a comprehensible God — but as we have
proved, the Son also being incomprehensible, as being God
the Word, by whom all things were made, hath also dwelt
among us." And again, on John xi. 50, " It is expe
dient for us that one man should die for the people,"'
Origen says, 4 " Since it was a man who died, but truth
1 Celsum, lib. ii. § 9, vol. i. p. 392, Delarue.
2 C. Celsum, lib vi. § 47, vol. i. p. 669.
' C. Celsum, lib. vi. § 69, vol. i. p. 684. Cf . C. Celsum, lib. vii.
§ 43, vol. i. p. 725, and C. Celsum, lib. viii. § 17, vol. i. p. 755; in Jer-
emiam, Horn. i. vol. iii. p. 128, and Horn. xv. vol. iii. p. 326.
4 In loan. torn, xxviii. vol. iv. p. 392.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 127
was not a man, nor was wisdom, and peace, and right
eousness, and that of which it was written, 'the Word
was God,' God. the Word, and truth, and wisdom and
righteousness did not die ; for the image of the invisible
God, the first-born of every creature, was incapable of
death." 1 And Dionysius of Rome, a.d. 260, has this noble
passage, in opposing the heretical notion that the Son
was a creature, " And why should I discuss this matter
more at length to you who are spiritual men, and clearly
understand the absurdities which arise from calling the
Son a creature ? which, as it appears to me, must have
escaped the attention of those persons who began this
doctrine, and therefore, they have altogether erred from
the truth, misunderstanding the meaning of those words
of the holy and prophetical Scripture, ' the Lord estab
lished me in the beginning of His ways ' (Prov. viii. 22).
For there is not one meaning only to the word estab
lished (i'xriaev) ; for we must understand established
in this place to mean, He placed me over the works which
were made by Him, but which were made by the Son
Himself : but established cannot be taken in this place for
made : for there is a difference between establishing and
making: 'Is not He thy Father that hath bought
thee? Hath He not made (e'-roifjffe) thee, and es
tablished (sHtias) thee' (Deut. xxxii. 6), as Moses says
in his great song in Deuteronomy ? In answer to whom
we might also say, O, rash and venturous men, is the
first-born of every creature Himself a creature? He
that was conceived of the womb before the morning,
who said in the person of wisdom (coi 2oq>ia), 2 ' Before
1 Apud Athanas. De Decretis. Syn. Nic. c. xxvi. p. 231, et ed.
Colon, p. 276; Apud Routh. Reliq. Sacra?, torn. iii. 180.
'Prov. viii. 25.

128 Paternity and Sonship of God.
all the hills, He begetteth Me ' ? and in many places
of the Divine oracles one may find the Son spoken of as
begotten, but not as made : by which passages those per
sons are plainly convicted of taking up falsehoods con
cerning the generation of the Lord, who dare to speak of
His Divine and ineffable generation as a creation."
Here we have the Nicene doctrine more than sixty
years before the council of Nicaea. The twofold presen
tation of the Son of God in the passage from St. Paul,
in which, in His aspect towards God the Father, He is
called lathe image of the invisible God"; in His aspect
towards the creation, " the first-born of every creature,"
appears remarkably in the representation of the Logos^
made by the fathers of the Church, from Justin Martyr
to Athanasius. Justin Martyr taught without question
that the Logos was identical with the I Am, who made
Himself known as the self-existent one to Moses. He
contends earnestly that He who appeared to Moses in
the bush was the same I Am who had so revealed Him
self to Moses,2 against the assertion of Trypho. that the
one who talked to Moses was the self-existent God, but
the one who appeared in the bush was the angel of God ;
3 " in fact," says Bishop Bull, " that description of God
in Moses ' ' I Am ' agrees equally to God the Father and
the Son as one God, always saving the difference of per
sons." Which is excellently explained by Justin in the
passage first cited from his " Apology," 4 in this manner :
1 Col. i. 15.
2 Justin Opera, ed. Par. 1636, p. 19, and ed. Bened. Hayae.
Com. 1742, § 20, p. 21 ; Bull. Defens. Nicenae Fid., vol. v. p. 512,
Oxford,. 1846.
3 Dial. C, Trypho. p. 282, and § 59, p. 156; vide et Apol. ii. pp.
95, 96 (Apol. i. § 63, p. 81).
* Bull Defens. iii. c. ii. p. 510, vol. v. ff . ; Defens. vol. v. p. 51 4.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 129
God the Father is the existing one as always existing
from Himself ; but God the Son is the existing one, as
coexisting and begotten (wi aovoov xai ysvv cofxsvoi),
as coexisting with the Father, and being born from Him
from eternity. But the Son of God elsewhere is openly
called (6 asl) the one always existing, to wit, in the
epistle to Diognetus near the end : lu Those who were
esteemed faithful by Him have known the mysteries of
the Father ; for which reason He sent the Word, that He
might appear to the world, who being dishonored by the
people, being preached by the Apostles, was believed by
the nations, this is He who was from the beginning, who
newly appeared and . . . found, and always born in
the hearts of the saints. This is He who always exists,
to-day esteemed as the Son."
2" Of which passage," says Bishop Bull, " unless I am
mistaken, this is the genuine sense : The Son of God
has some new and, as it were, recent nativities (forasmuch
as He was first born to the world, when He went forth
from the Father to the creation of all things ; He was
'again born in a wonderful manner, having slipped down
into the womb of the most holy Virgin, and being most
closely joined to His own formation (plasmati as Ira-
naeus speaks), He was brought forth to this light by birth
from the Virgin herself ; finally, He is daily born in the
hearts of the pious, who embrace Him by faith and
charity) ; yet He Himself was never indeed new and
recent, but was the Son of the Father always and from
eternity." 3Athenagoras has the same distinction concerning the
i Page 501, D Paris, 1636 (§ 11, p. 239), Bened. ed.
2 Vol. v. 514.
3 Bull, vol. v. Def. Nicenae Fid. iii. 5.

130 Paternity and Sonship of God.
twofold aspect of the Son. He says, ' "And let not any
one think it ridiculous that God should have a Son.
For not, as the poets fable, shewing their gods to be no
better than men, do we think either concerning Him who
is God and Father, or concerning the Son ; but the Son
of God is the Word of the Father in idea and energy ; for
from Him and by Him (npoi avrov yap xai Si avrov)
all things were made, the Father and the Son being one ;
but the Son being in the Father, and the Father in the
Son, in the unity and power of the Spirit. The Son of
God is the reason (vovi) and word (Xoyo?) of the
Father." And then, to explain this more fully, he adds :
"But if you who have excellence of understanding,
would consider what is meant by 'the Son,' I will
briefly declare it. He is the first offspring of the
Father, not as one who is made ; God from the begin
ning, being eternal mind (vovS), had Himself in Him
self the Logos, being eternally Aoyixoi, i. e., having eter
nally the Logos ; but as all things were chaotic (vXixdov),
and nature was unformed, the thicker portions being
commingled with the lighter, He came forth (nposXdwv)
upon them to be idea and energy."
Upon this Bishop Bull remarks : 2 " I say that this ex
planation of Athenagoras is very far distant from the
blasphemies of Arius, and so if we regard the substance
itself of the dogma concerning the Son of God, is plainly
Catholic. The Christian philosopher indeed confesses that
the Logos of God the Father is called His first offspring
by Christians on account of a certain going forth (npokXsv-
oiv) by which He proceeded from God the Father Him
self, then when He was about to create the world,
and that, in order that the world might be created
1 Apol. p. 10, § 10, p. 286. 2 vol. v. p. 554.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 131
by Him, concerning which we shall speak hereafter
ii/n sequentibus). Nevertheless, he so explains Jthat
going forth ( npoeXsveiv ) that it seems sufficiently
elear to me that he thought nothing concerning the
Logos and Son of God, which is unworthy of His un
changeable divinity and eternal majesty." And Bishop
Bull proceeds to justify this position conclusively in
the sections which immediately follow. It is the very
doctrine of the Apostle concerning Him who was at
once the image of the Invisible God and the first
born of every creature ; the teaching of Him, who was
in the bosom of the Father, and who was sent forth
from the Father ; first to create and then to redeem the
worlds. Theophilus of Antioch has the same statement :
2 "And first, indeed, with one consent, they (the proph
ets) have taught us that He made all things of noth-
' ing (eg ovx ovxoov) ; for not anything (beside) flourished
with God; but He being His own place and needing
nothing, and being before the ages, willed to make man
by whom He might be known ; for him, therefore, He
prepared the world. For he is created and in need ; but
the uncreated One needs nothing. God, therefore, hav
ing His own Word, included (s'vdiddsrov) in His own
bowels, begat Him with His own wisdom (pouring) Him
forth (egspev £d/jevos) before the universe (was made).
This Word He had as minister (vno vpyov) of His works,
and by Him -made all things. He is called the begin
ning, because He originates and rules the things created
by Him. He, therefore, being the Spirit of God, and
the beginning, and wisdom, and power of the Highest,
¦came down to the prophets, and by them spoke concerning
1 Defens. Fidei Nicense, iii. 5, 2 ff . vol. v. pp. 554 ff.
2 Page 88 (§ 10 p. 355).

132 Paternity and Sonship of God.
¦ the creation of the world, and all other things ; for the
prophets were not when the world was made, but the
wisdom of God, which is in Him, and His Holy Word
who is always present with Him."
1 " To this," says Bishop Bull, " is to be annexed another
passage of the same Theophilus in the same book ; where
after he had said that the Word was the Son of God, lest
the Gentiles should conceive any thing absurd concern
ing the Son of God, he cautiously subjoins an explana
tion of the mystery (imitating, as it seems, Athenagoras)
in these words, 2 ' Not as the poets and writers of myths
say that the sons of the gods were begotten from carnal
mixture ; but, as the truth declares, the Word, who is
continually (dianavro?) included (ivSidderov) in the
heart of God. For before anything was made He had
this counsellor, who is His own mind and wisdom. But
when at last (Snore) God willed to make whatever things
He had determined, in His counsel (efiovXevaaro), He
begat this Logos as one brought forth (npo <popix6v) the
first-born of every creature ; not Himself being emptied
of the Word, but begetting the Word, and associating
continually (dianavros) with His Word. Whence the
Holy Scriptures teach us, and all who are inspired by
the spirit (nvevfxaroq)6poi), of whose number John (be
ing one of them) says, " In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God " ; shewing that, at first (e'v
7tp<aroiS) God was the only one (/uovo?) and in Him
the Word. Afterwards he says, " And God was the
Word ; all things were made by Him, and without Him
was not one thing made." ' "
On this passage Bishop Bull thus comments: 3"In
' Page 582. 2 page 100 (§ 22, p. 365).
3 Vol. v. p. 583, Defensio iii. 7, 2.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 133
these passages, I confess, that a certain generation is
attributed by Theophilus to the Word and Son of God,
which a little preceded the creation of the world. But
what kind of generation did he mean? Never cer
tainly of a person not before actually existent ; but, with
Athenagoras, ' the generation of Him, who has not been
made,' who was from eternity with God the Father ;
and so not a true and proper generation (such truly, that
is, by which any person or thing is made, or produced),
but one figuratively and metaphorically so called. God
the Father, he says, at some time, begot that very Logos _
whom He had had in Himself as a counsellor from eter
nity, and even now has, and will have to eternity, foras
much as He is perpetually included (insitum) in His
very heart.1 But how did He beget ? Truly by (eructa
tion) pouring Him forth (e'gepev Sdfievoi), as in the
former passage is said, or, as in the latter passage, by
bringing Him forth (npoq>epoov) in the beginning of the
creation. " What else, I ask, can this signify than that energetic
going forth (npoerevaiv) of Athenagoras, concerning
which we have spoken above ? In the same manner also
he says that God the Father (belched) poured forth
{eructasse), or brought forth His wisdom, that is, the
Holy Spirit, when He was about to make the world.
Truly the Son and the Holy Spirit is ' that copious and
unspeakable ministry' (copiosum illud et vnenarrabile
ministerium, as Irenaeus,2 the contemporary (suppar) of
Theophilus, speaks) which was always present (pra'esto)
to God the Father, who Himself needed not angels or
any ' ministry for the fabrication of those things, which
were made ' ; these, therefore, when He willed, He sent
forth, in energy, for the constitution of the universe."
i Ps. xiv. 1, sept. 2iv. 17 (ed. Ben. c. 7, 4, p. 236).

134 Paternity and Sonship of God.
Bishop Bull shews clearly that the same teaching is
contained in the works of fathers who preceded, and of
those who wrote after the Arian controversy arose ; how
deeply, that is, they comprehended the doctrine of St.
Paul concerning the Son, who is the image of the in
visible God, and the first born of every creature, and of
St. John concerning the Word who was in the beginning
with God, and who was God also made manifest in the
creation of all things, and in the Incarnation,1 when men
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth.
Bishop Bull's splendid vindication, in this portion of
his immortal work, of Tertullian as truly catholic in his
doctrine of the Trinity, though, using the wiles of a con
troversialist in an argumentum ad hominem in opposing
Hermogenes, he keeps in the background his real belief
concerning the eternal existence of the Divine Son of
God, and though his views of the mode of God's exist
ence have been grossly and strangely misinterpreted, is
well worthy of repeated study — as the chain of catholic
testimony on this great doctrine of- the eternal genera
tion of the Son, and on that of his improper and meta
phorical generation, is shewn by the learned and catholic
bishop to be unbroken even in that unique doctor of the
African Church, who was nevertheless a clear and vigor
ous thinker, and a writer in whose works obscurity is
strangely mingled with terseness and powerful argumen
tation. We now proceed to shew how the Sonship of the eter
nal Son is set forth under the new dispensation, in the
pages of the New Testment. And first let us consider
how plainly our Lord declared it, and recognized it as
1 Defens. iii. capita vii., viii., ix., x.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 135
the corner stone of His Church, fulfilling thus the words
of ancient prophecy, 1 " The stone which the builders
rejected, the same is become the head of the corner:
this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
In the 16th chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel it is re
corded that our Lord said to His disciples, Whom do men
say that I, the Son of Man, am ? and when the various
answers given to this question were recounted, " He
saith unto them (v. 15), But whom say ye that I am ?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God." Our Lord imme
diately recognized this answer as one which had been
revealed to Simon Peter from Heaven, "Blessed art
thou, Simon Barjona ; for flesh and blood hath not re
vealed it unto thee, but My Father, which is in Heaven."
And then He signalized this Heaven-revealed confession
of faith, as the corner-stone of His Church, which is the
congregation of true believers in Him, built up in Him,
on the profession that He is " the Christ, the Son of the
living God." It was not on Peter in his personal or
official capacity that the Church was built. As if to
guard against any such mistake, our Lord, in addressing
him, and signalizing the blessedness of his confession,
called him by his patronymic name, " Blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but My Father, which is in Heaven." And
he was called Peter, because of his relation to the great
confession of the Divine Sonship, upon which the
Church was built. " And I say also unto thee, that thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." There
is no assertion which has moulded so essentially as this
i Matt. xxi. 42; Ps. cxviii. 22; Is. xxviii 16.

136 Paternity and Sonship^ of God.
has, the history of the Church, as it has been adminis
tered by men, which is so utterly unsupported by any
early or uniform testimony of the ages of the Church, as
the assertion that Peter the person, or Peter the Apostle,
was the rock upon which the Church was built. As an
Apostle, he was one of the foundations, all of which
rested on the eternal Rock, and that rock was Christ.
As a personal disciple of Christ, by his adherence to the
Rock on which the Church was built (and that Rock
was Christ), by his adherence to this Rock, by his ad
herence to it in the confession of faith, for which our
Lord pronounced him blessed, by his adherence to it in
his heart and life and in the execution o| his apostolic
mission, he was a rock, deriving his firmness and sup
porting power from the living Rock, "the principal
Rock," as S. Leo Bishop of Rome calls it, which he had
professed; but in no other sense, here, a rock, than
other faithful and true-hearted disciples of Christ.
1 " For every disciple of Christ," says Origen, " is a
rock, from whom they drank who drank of the spiritual
Rock that followed them, and on every such rock every
ecclesiastical word, and the system of life (noXireia) ac
cording to it, is built ; and on every such perfect man
having the combination of precepts perfecting holiness,
the Church is inwardly built by God. But if you think
that the whole Church is only built by God upon that
one Peter, what would you say concerning John the Son
of thunder, or each one of the Apostles? Otherwise
then shall we dare to say that the gates of hell indeed
shall not prevail against Peter in particular, but shall
prevail against the rest of the Apostles, and the perfect
ones? But is it so that to Peter alone the keys of the
1 Comm. on Matt. t. xii. § 10; on Matt. xvi. 18.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 137
kingdom of Heaven are given by the Lord, and no other
one of the blessed shall receive them ? For all the imi
tators of Christ are named from the Rock, that spiritual
Rock which follows them who are saved, that from it
they should drink spiritual drink. They take their name
from the Rock, that is, Christ ; for as, because they are
members of Christ, they are called Christians from His
name, but from nerpa they are nerpoi, and to all such
the word of the Saviour might be spoken, 'Thou art
Peter, etc' "
This confession of S. Peter then, by our Lord's own
commendation of it, and sanction of it, as a direct revela
tion from God. the Father, is the fundamental article of
Christian faith ; it is the corner-stone on which the Church
of Christ is built, which gives it its Divine position and
significance in the world ; it is the article without which
there can be no true Christian faith, no acceptance of
Christianity as a scheme of religion, and of Divine salva
tion, revealed from Heaven. How much this belief affected
the life of the Church, how near it lay to her heart, how
much she felt and knew to be involved in it, was made ap
parent, when she was called to defend and assert the true
and full divinity of her Lord against the denial and per
versions of Arian and semi- Arian heretics. There is no
controversy in the whole' history of the Church, which
exceeds this, hardly any which equals it in importance,
which is more full of instruction concerning the essence
and life of Christianity. By the denial of the divinity
of her Lord the Church was aroused, as never before
had she been awakened, for the maintenance and asser
tion of the truth as it is in Jesus.
It was the mooting of a question which was, for her,
one of life or death. By the subtlest definitions, con-

138 Paternity and Sonship of God.
structed in the most pliable and delicate and well-fur
nished language of the earth, providentially prepared
for this very purpose, did she declare the true divinity
of her Lord. By a single word, nay more, by a single
letter, did she distinguish vital truth from deadly heresy
against the most subtle evasions and suppressiones veri
of heresy, and set forth the homoousian faith to be
conterminous with the existence of the Church among
the generations of mankind. And then, amid a long
series of years of opposition, subtle and persevering in
its character, did she maintain her declaration, driving
from all middle ground, as untenable, the semi-Arians,
and making the lines of distinction clear and unmistak
able, between those who accepted and those who re
jected the full and perfect divinity of our Lord and
Saviour. This was the vital point which was en
dangered, and this it was which was established as the
undoubted revelation of God concerning His own eternal
Son, in that memorable contest, with all whose course it
is well to be familiar, for from it our faith in our Divine
Lord will be settled on deep and sure and immovable
foundations. In this sketch of the object and the characteristics of
that great controversy, which lasted from the Council of
Nice to that of Constantinople, I have in a measure an
ticipated the inquiry, to which I now call your atten
tion, into the meaning and force of the confession on
which the Church is built, "Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the Living God." That there was, in it, peculiar
depth of meaning is most evident from the deep im
portance which our Lord Himself attached to it. When
S. Peter said, " Thou art the Son of the living God," he
meant, without question, to assert a sonship which could

Paternity and Sonship of God. 139
not be asserted of any man except the man Christ Jesus.
It was in answer to the question, " Whom do men say
that I, the Son of man, am ? " that he replied in the God-
revealed confession, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God."
There was here, then, a distinction of the Son of man
from the Son of God. He who was the Son of man was
also, chiefly and eminently, the Son of the living God.
His distinction as the Son of man was all pecuhar to
Himself. He was not the Son of man as other men were
the sons of men, but as distinguished from all other sons
of men He was, and so is uniformly said to be, the Son
of man. He, the Son of man, was not indeed the Son
of any man, but, though born into the world in the line
of the sons of men, was the Son of God ; and, to make
even this assertion more emphatic, the great confession
ran, " Thou art the Son of the liming God," having in
Thee, that is the implication, we fearlessly say it, because
the implication is justified by the clear declaration of the
Lord Himself on another occasion, the very life of God
Himself ; having in Him, by virtue of His Sonship, this
" life in Himself," as it was in God the Father. Now
we know that the life of Him, who is the fountain of all
life in the universe, is original, full, and unbounded.
He is life itself. And He who is the Son of the living
God, is, we do not say, the partaker of the life of God,
but He has, and He is, that very life itself. So complete
was the noble confession of the prince of the Apostles, so
full an assertion was it of the Sonship of the eternal Son,
so clear and unequivocal a declaration was it, that He,
who was the Son of the living God, was so because, in
the fulness of the Divine being and life, He was the Son
of God.

140 Paternity and Sonship of God.
Turn over this confession of the Apostle in your devout
meditations, search it with the intellect of devout con
templation, and you can make of it no less than this :
Thou art the Son of God in Thy Divine nature and
being, which has no likeness to, no comparison with,
created existence. Thou art the Son of the uncreated
one, and as His Son, and because Thou art His Son, Thou
art the full possessor, we do not say, we note again, full
partaker, but full possessor of the uncreatedness of Him,
whose Son, and whose only Son Thou art. No more
meagre confession than this will be the deep and broad
foundation on which the Church is built ; against which
the gates of hell shall not prevail ; no less than this will
answer the requirements of the creed, in which we pro
fess our belief in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord ;
no less than this confession will entitle any to be num
bered among Christian believers, whose very name is
derived from their confession of a true faith in Christ.
And with this explanation of our belief in Jesus as the
Son of God, all the expositions of the Sonship, which are
given by the Lord Himself, and by the Apostles, all the
consciousness of a Divine Sonship, which was apparent
in the earthly life of our Lord, from His first recognition
of it, when, at twelve years of age, He went up to the
temple, His Father's house, to His last prayer, x " Father,
into Thy hands I commend My spirit," all His declara
tions concerning His relations to the Father from whom
He came, entirely coincide. Take for an example and a
starting-point the declaration, 2 " God so loved the world
that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." The love of God is here commended to us by the
1 Luke xxiii. 46. 2 John iii. 16.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 141
greatness of the gift which He has provided for our
salvation. And the greatness of the gift is unmistakably
shewn in that it is the gift of His only-begotten Son.
His only-begotten Son. Magnify, if you can, penetrate,
if you can, the depth of the relation to the eternal God
which is here set forth. If He is the only-begotten, then
there is not only none in the universe like Him, or to be
compared to Him, but none can be conceived, or can
exist like Him, or be compared with Him. We could
not conceive, when the fact of a Divine generation is
announced, that that generation would be, in any degree,
short of the possibilities of the Divine substance, and the
Divine life.
Such a generation must be conterminous with the
eternity of God, or He who was so generated could not
be the only begotten Son of God. If not the Son of
God from all eternity, He must have had a beginning in
time, and then we are in the category of the Arians, and
then, certainly, He is not the only begotten, but has His
place among all the creatures whose beginning was in
time, and whose being was measured by its successions.
The substance of God, if so we must speak, in our poor
and inadequate conceptions, is one and indivisible, and
He who is begotten from that substance, so as from
that begetting to derive His being, must have in Him
self the fulness of the one and indivisible Divine
substance. Here we have the homoousia of Nicaea
derived from the very nature and reality of the
Divine generation. No generation, in so far as it is a
generation, is a creation. And the generation by God
must be, it can be no other, the generation of a Divine
substance ; that is, as that substance is one and indivisi
ble, the generation of the Divine substance in its own

142 Paternity and Sonship of God.
individual and distinct subsistence. And so is He the
Son of the Living God, the only begotten Son of God ;
and in no other way is it possible for us to conceive that
He is really and truly the only begotten Son of God.1
He must be created, and so less than the uncreated one ;
or, He is begotten of the uncreated substance, and so
(is) Himself the uncreated one. A middle ground is
wholly untenable, as was demonstrated by the progress
and result of the great Arian contest. The Deus f actus
of the Arians was vastly more reasonable, as a theory,
than the begotten, and yet the inferior God of the semi-
Arians. They believed He was begotten from the
hypostasis or the subsistence of the Father. But they
were obliged, in all reason, to abandon this hypothesis,
and go over to the camp of the Arians, or else to return
to the bosom of the Catholic Church, and own that He
who was the only begotten of the Father, was be
gotten of the substance of the Father. The little iota,
great in its defining power, and the victorious letter for
the Creed of the Catholic Church and for the true faith
of Christ, was dropped, in all reason, from their creed
by the semi-Arians, who returned at length to their
Holy Mother, the Catholic Church of Christ, and the
long warfare was crowned with victory, in their accept
ance of the immortal and glorious Creed of Nicaea and
of Constantinople.
[Let me commend, to your reading the story of this
first great battle of the sacramental host of God's elect,
in defence of the faith once for all delivered to the
saints, as it is given in the pages of Neander, the great
historian of the Church, and if you do not forever after
i Bishop Bull Defens. vol. v. pp. 314-316 (ii. 9, 11, p. 629 ; iii.
9, 11, p. 779 ; iv. 4, 8).

Paternity and Sonship of God. 143
recite with deeper meaning, with more fervent faith and
love and gratitude, " I believe in Jesus Christ, His only
Son our Lord," you will be more insensible to the truth
of God, as first revealed, and then maintained and illus
trated by God Himself in His holy Church, than I can
believe you to be.J
How magnificently do the sentences of that wonder
ful creed rise, in their meaning and power, to their cul
mination in the hoirioousia, which all the subtleties of the
most subtle heretics the earth has ever seen could not
evade, or explain away with their Lord-denying lips.
" God of God, Light of light, very God of very God, be
gotten, not made, being of one substance with the
Father ; by whom (as Himself uncreated) all things were
made." Such is the light of Divine interpretation, which
has been shed upon the truth that Jesus Christ our Lord
is the only begotten Son of God ; and so has the great
ness, a greatness which cannot be surpassed, of the gift
of God for our salvation, been demonstrated and set
forth in light which is from the fountain of light in the
universe. That the Son is of one substance with the Father,
does not the Son Himself plainly tell us? He would
give His disciples assurance of His power to protect them
against the machinations of their foes of earth and hell,
and so He unfolds to them His mission from the Father
who sent Him ; He declares that His works, done in the
name of His Father, bear witness concerning Him, that
the sheep whom His Father has given Him shall never
perish, neither shall any defeat them of the eternal life
which He gives them, or pluck them from His hand ; for
His Father, who gave them to Him, is greater than all,

144 Paternity and Sonship of God.
and no one is able to pluck them out of His Father's
hand, and then He adds, to assure them of the greatness
of the Divine power with which He would protect them,
1 " I and My Father are one," not one person, for the
word signifying " one " is not in the masculine, not the
word which it would be to signify oneness of person
ality, and in this whole passage He clearly distinguishes
His own personality from that of the Father, but I and
My Father are one (neuter), that is, one entity or sub
stance. What else does this, what else can this mean,
but oneness of substance with the Father, whose Son He
is ? The whole force of His assurance to assure the dis
ciples of His power, identical with that of the Father,
to protect and save them, would vanish and be lost, if
the crowning words of the assertion, " I and My Father
are one," did not declare that, as with the power that He
pledged, so in the substance which was His, He is one
with the Father.
The declaration of the one substance in the Nicene
Creed is not more explicit than this, and the homoousia
of the creed has here its full vindication from the lips of
the Lord Himself. And so all His delineations, in S.
John's Gospel, of His own relation to the Father, who,
as He has life in Himself, hath given to the Son also to
have life in Himself, set forth continually this close re
lation of the eternal Son to the eternal Father. All that
the Father doeth, the Son doeth likewise ; all the Father's
counsels are His, all the working of the Father in the
course of His Providence is the working of the Son ; all
the judgment, which is the attribute of the Father in
His eternal Godhead, belongs to the Son, all the honor
which is the prerogative of the Divine Father belongs
1 John x. 30.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 145
equally to the Divine Son. This closeness of relation,
this oneness of action, of counsel, and of Divine working
which the Son, in His Divine consciousness, asserts over
and over again of Himself, all this surely could belong
to none, could be exercised and possessed by none, who
was not, as he explicitly declares of Himself, one with the
Father in substance and in being.
Need I call your attention further to the ample testi
monies, beyond these, of which the Scriptures are full,
to set before you the Divine Sonship of the eternal Son,
and the only conclusion that can be derived from that
^Sonship, that the Son is the one, the very and eternal
God ? [If I do so, it is only to start your own investiga
tions, and to shew you how essential a constituent of
Christianity revealed from Heaven this great truth is.J
Take the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, where the
procedure of the Word from the God whose Word He is,
His relation to God, and His oneness with God, are so
grandly and yet so simply and unequivocally declared.
The Word was in the beginning with God, and so (for let
us pour upon this grand exposition the converging rays
of light from the pages of Divine revelation) the first
born before all the creation ; the Word was with God,
distinct from God, or else He would not be the Word of
God; and yet not separated from God, for He was with
God, and the Word, who was so before all things created,
and who was so perfectly with God, not separated from
Him in any portion of His being, was God ; the same
God, with whom eternally He was and is. That there
may be no doubt of this exposition, it is added, " All
things were made by Him, and without Him was not
any thing (not one thing, is the emphatic declaration)
made that was made." And so He was the creator of

146 Paternity and Sonship of God.
all things, and therefore Himself the uncreated one ; and
in Him was lif e, life originally, lif e eternally (with Thee,
O God, is the fountain of life), and the life was the light
of men. And light comes to men only from Him, who
is the Divine fountain of light.
Here, in this passage of St. John's Gospel, the distinct
personality of the Word, and, at the same time, His one
ness with God, His full and entire Godhead, are declared
as language could not more plainly declare them. And
the Word so set forth was, as plainly appears from this
very passage of the holy Gospel, the only-begotten Son
of God, whose Sonship is plainly said to be the full ex
pression of God, because it is His Word, His perfect per
sonal reason and utterance, and so that Word of His,
which is God.
How could any, with this Gospel in their hands, ever
dare to question the Divine and eternal Sonship of the
eternal Son? Here is an exposition of the confession,
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," on
which the Church of Christ is built, from Him who re
vealed that great confession to the prince of the Apos
tles, the primus inter pares to whom that confession
was given from the Father in Heaven, to be transmitted
through all the generations of time.
The same representations continually meet us in other
portions of the sacred Scriptures. In the Epistle to the
Hebrews we see depicted the glorious nature and attri
butes of the Son, by whom God hath spoken to us, whom
He hath made heir of all things (how clearly is the rela
tionship here set forth, " the Son and heir of God "), by
whom also He made the worlds (here His uncreated
existence is declared), and then the declaration of the
nature of the relationship to God (the Father), who,

Paternity and Sonship of God. 147
being the brightness of His glory, and the very character
or stamp of His hypostasis, and, as He has in Himself
the very being of God, upholding all things by the word
of His power, as God the creator only can, having "by
Himself," such was His infinite power and worth and
dignity, made a cleansing of our sins, sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high, above all the angels
of Heaven, as one who was capable of all Divine majesty
and glory and power, and to whom they were rightly
attributed. He whose relation to God as His uncreated
Son is thus clearly set forth; is represented, in the same
passage, as God Himself, dwelling forever in the eternity
which belongs to God alone ; and, from the height of
this Divine dignity, His Divine condescension, in His
Incarnation, is estimated and proclaimed.
And to mark one more passage from S. John, in
which the relation of the eternal Son to the eternal
Father is plainly, declared : x " And we know," says Sj
John, " that the Son of God is come, and hath given us
an understanding that we may know Him that is true "
(that is, as the Son Himself says, "No man hath seen
God at any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the
bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him"), "hath
given us an understanding that we may know. Him that
is true : and we are in Him that is true, even in His
Son Jesus Christ." That is, we are in His Son Jesus
Christ, and that is the same with being in God Himself,
who is true, for " he that hath seen Me," said our Lord,
" has seen the Father also," so perfect a presentment of
the Father is He, who is the brightness of His glory,-
and the express Image of His person (or substance).
" This one," adds S. John, " is the true (that is "the
1 1. John v. 20.

148 Paternity and Sonship of God.
very ") God and eternal life " ; for x " God hath given to
us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." The eter
nal life, which is a partaking of the life of God, is most
surely given to us, when He is given to us, who is the
Son of God, who is the true God and eternal life. So
clearly is the Son revealed to us by God, in His distinc
tion - from the Father, as His eternal Son, and in His
oneness with God, so that when He came among us, God
was manifest, among us, in the flesh.
I know not but the power of the revelation is dimin
ished by this adduction of special passages of Divine
revelation concerning the Son, clear and strong and con
clusive as they are, this apologetic adduction of detached
passages, when, with the whole contexture of the glori
ous Gospel of the blessed God, this Divine Sonship of
our Lord is so wonderfully and divinely woven ; so that,
if this be removed, the whole Gospel is a nullity and a
deception. For if God had no Son, who stands in this
wonderful relation to Him, which we have set forth
from the Scriptures of God, how could such an an
nouncement be true that 2 " God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son : that whosoever be
lieveth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting
life " ? how could there be a mediator to reconcile God
to man, if, on one part, He did not represent and pre
sent the reconciling God, and, on the other hand, truly
present man, who is to be brought back to God ? and so
ever, in immediate connection with the Divine dignity
of the Son, are His incarnation, and His efficacious work
of redemption, and the power of His atonement, and the
prevailing might of His intercession, and all that apper
tains to the administration of the Gospel of our salvation
'I. John v. 11. 2 j0hn iii. 16.

Paternity and Sonship of God. 149j
presented to us in the holy Scripture, and in the Church
the body of Christ, in which we are saved.,
When we are told that He is the brightness of the
Father's glory, and the. express image of His person, we
are told this, that His efficacious purging of our sins may
be more evident; when we are told that, the Word was,
with God, and was God, it is that the truth may be em
phasized that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among.
us; the great revelation is made to, us, that we may
know that, in having Him, we have in Him the salva
tion of God, which reaches up into the very depths of
the Divine nature itself, in all its fulness of Divine com
passion and mercy and love.
We see how this was apprehended by those to whom
He revealed Himself in the flesh. x " That, which was
from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon,,
and our hands have handled of the Word of life. (For
the life was manifested (because He was the life), and
we have seen, and bear witness, and shew unto you that
life eternal, which was with the Father (the Word was.
with God) arid manifested unto us.) What we have
seen and heard, we declare unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship with u^; and truly our fellowship is.
with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." With
the Father, because His Son Jesus Christ is the full
presence of the Godhead of the Father with us and
among us.
So are we permitted to apprehend this Divine truth,
and to have with us and in us and among us, for our
regeneration, our sanctification and our eternal salva
tion, Him who is the true God and eternal life. So is,
1 1. John i. l.

150 ' Paternity and Sonship of God.
the Divine Sonship the foundation and the pervading
power of all the Gospel of our salvation, and so with
out it\ would our Christian creed be an empty, a mean
ingless and a powerless profession.
' We have- set before' you the great revealed facts of
the eternal generation of the Son, of His Divine Son-
ship and its great reality, and of the inseparable oneness,
nevertheless, of the Father and the Son, in the unity of
the eternal Godhead.
And' here we must stop and believe and adore; the
mystery of ' that generation and its result, the eternal
subsistence of the Father in the Son, and the Son in the
Father, we cannot penetrate. Who can declare that
generation *" whose goings forth have been from of old,
from the days of eternity" ? 2 " No one hath seen God at
any time ';' the only ' begotten which is in the bosom of
the" ' Father, who is immanent in the Father, • He hath
declared Him," so far as we can receive- the declaration.
We have images in the generations of time, of this Di
vine and inscrutable generation, which is the prototype
of all. 'We know that the son of a man has one nature
with' the father, from whom he has sprung; the gene
ration assures us of this ;<¦ we know, too, that the son has
his own individual subsistence in the one nature of man,
but even this oneness in this' distinctness we cannot
fathom, we can merely designate it in the terms of a
feeble nomenclature. But infinitely beyond, this is the
distinct personal subsistence of the Divine Son in the
identity of the' one Divine substance, whose unity is
transcendent, the type and perfection of all' unity ; His
personal subsistence in His own distinctness of personal
being, in the one substance of the Godhead, which is
1 Micah. v. 2. ' 2" John i. 18.

Paternity, and Sonship of God. 151
eternally communicated ; and so is He eternally the Son,
and yet eternally one and undivided; for God is one,
and that one, whatever it be, the deepest of all realities,
that one are the Father and the Son. x" I and My Father
are one."
For this truth as for its own life, the Church of God
contended in its most glorious conflict; this truth has
been, set forth in the definiteness of its perfectly con
structed creed. This truth is the life and power of the
Gospel which we ai-e commanded to preach to all na
tions ; this truth is the consolation and support and sal
vation of believers in Christ, who, having the Son, have
in Him eternal life.
With regard to the mystery of the subsistence in the
one Divine substance, of the three Divine persons, it is
a mystery which we cannot explore, but its greatness is
felt and known by us, the more we know the power of
God unto salvation in the Gospel, which He has re
vealed by His Son. In the words of Bishop Bull, in the
conclusion of his immortal treatise : 2 " No similitude can
be excogitated in any way apt to illustrate it ; no mode
of speech is able, with sufficient worthiness, to explain
it ; forasmuch as it is a union, which is eminent above all
other unions, as we have just heard that most eminently
learned writer, who is commonly called Dionysius the
Areopagite, saying. In this darkness of circumstances
concerning this and other Divine mysteries, we think
and speak as children ; yea, we stammer rather. While
we are here we contemplate our God as in a mirror and
an enigma ; but the time will come, yea, eternity beyond
all time and age, in which we shall see Him face to face.
1 John x. 30.
2 Defensio Fidei Nicenae iv. 4, 14, p. 796, ed. Oxford, 1846, vol. v.

152 Paternity and Sonship of God.
Then the beatific vision of God will disperse all dark
nesses from our minds ; of which that the Divine mercy
may make us worthy at last, let us intently and sup-
pliantly, night and day, implore it. Meanwhile, whilst
we are pilgrims (viator es), we rather desire to know,
than clearly know (that I may use the words of the most
learned Athenagoras) J'what is the union of the Son
to the Father ; what the communion of the Father with
the Son ; what the Spirit is ; what is the union of these
so great ones; what the distinction is of these united
ones ; of the Spirit, the Son, the Father.' "
1 Legat. pro Christianis, p. 12. (§ 12, p. 289, ed. Ben. Op. J.
Mart.)

Chapter IV.
THE HOLY GHOST— HIS PERSONALITY AND DIVINITY.
THE doctrine or the idea of development of Chris
tian doctrine is a doctrine or idea which has
drawn upon itself merited suspicion, as it has been used
and perverted by the theologians of the Church of Rome.
With them development is the cover or the pretext for
the introduction of new articles into the Christian creed,
which are no part or parcel of the original deposit of
the faith once for all delivered to the Saints. So, by
them the . immaculate conception of the holy Virgin is
represented as a logical consequence or development of
the doctrine of the incarnation of the eternal Son ; and
the doctrine of the infallibility of the supreme pontiff is
claimed to be a legitimate development of the office of
the Church as a teacher and preserver of the revelation
which has been entrusted to her as the minister and rep
resentative of God. And so by the Church of Rome,
each new addition to the faith is incorporated with the
original deposit, as that which rightfully belongs to it,
and is brought forth from it, according to times and
emergencies, as from the primal fountain of Divine reve
lation. But the abuse or misuse of a doctrine or an idea
is no disproof of the legitimacy of the doctrine or the
idea itself. There may be true and false development,
or rather real development which is legitimate and true,
and that which, though claiming to be such, may be no
development at all, but an intruder seeking, admission
under a name which it has no right to appropriate.

154 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
In a very true and important sense, the whole of the
creed of the universal Church is a development of the
truth as originally revealed, of the truth as it is con
tained and stated in holy Scripture. In that inspired
book of God, truth is not revealed or stated in a sys
tematic form. The very doctrine of the Trinity is
not revealed in the definiteness in which it is. set
forth in the creed of the universal Church. All the
elements of the construction, so to speak, of the system
atic statement of this doctrine are in holy Scripture.
The doctrine, as set forth in the creed of the Church,
may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Writ ;
it is, therefore, the doctrine of holy Scripture, though
not stated in Scripture as it is stated in the creed The
homdousia is nowhere found in terms in holy Scripture,
but the homoousia, nevertheless, was the divinely fur
nished vindication and assertion of the truth that our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Divine Son of
God, that is, the Son of God in His Divine nature and
essence. This is the truth which it was needful to defend and
assert against the perversion and denial of the Arian
heresy; and the smallest letter of' the Greek alphabet
was the saving and victorious letter by which the truth,
declared in Scripture, was asserted and defined against
all possible evasions of 'heresy through all genera
tions. Arid when the victory was won, when the truth
in its' Divine majesty was asserted, when the semi-
Arians abandoned their -untenable middle ground, and
a'ssented to' the truth, as in the creed of the Church it
was set forth, the great Athanasius, l "the mighty cham-
1 Epist, .Synod. Cqncil, Alex, 362;iMansi. iij... p, 345, ss.; Gieseler
div. i.'c. ii. § 83, p. .306, vol. i. ed. Harper.

.-..- Personality and Dvbmity of tiw Holy Ghost. 155
pion, under God, in that fierce conflict j declared that he
would not insist upon the use of terms, which were need
ful in the conflict for the assertion of the truth, -by those
who acknowledged the truth, the true and full divinity
of the Lord, which the terms had been used to vindicate
and assert.
The true and victorious soldier may be permitted to
return to the armory the weapon which has won the vic
tory, when the victory is achieved and its results are ac
cepted,' as in the creed of. the Church the homoousia is
forever preserved and retained, to be the memento of
victories accomplished arid the pledge, and assurance of
new victories to- ibe; won, when the -occasions, for con
quering them shall arise. ¦• <
These remarks -apply with peculiar iforce to the doc
trine, which has been incorporated into the creed of the
Church, concerning the Holy Ghost, the Lord and life-
giver who, with the Father and the Son together, is wor
shipped and glorified.-? This doctririey always in Holy
Scripture, always the implicit faith ..of. the Church, was
not systematized and defined till by the second General
Council it was proclaimed and -set forth as among the
necessary -doctrines- of our Christian., belief. The doc
trine of the Trinity in unity could not' be stated, in its
complete and' systematic form, till the true revealed doc-
ferine i concerning- the Holy Ghost the Lord was clearly
set forth. But the doctrine, so set forth; in the Creed of
Constantinople, had- always- been in; the. -heart of the
Church, in the belief of Christians.', .m . . <
- Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian; tells us, luBut we
must tell also whence the custom of antiphonal hymns in
~the_Church>tc;ok.its rise. Ignatius of Llntioch in Syria,
>vi. 8, p. 264. ' ' ' "'¦ • "

156 Personality cund Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
the third bishop from the Apostle Peter, who also con
versed with the Apostles,, saw a vision of angels hymn
ing the holy Trinity in antiphonal hymns, and delivered
the manner of the vision to the Church in Antioch.
Whence also in all the Churches this tradition waa;
handed down." And certainly in this tradition the faith
of the Church in the Holy Ghost as the third person of
the blessed Trinity was clearly declared. The doxolo
gies, which were used in the Church from the earliest
ages, are a public testimony of belief in the one equal
divinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thus in the
epistle of the Smyrnean Church l concerning the martyr
dom of S. Polycarp, it is said that, when he was1 fastened
to the stake, he offered up a prayer, which is given in
full, and concluded with this doxology : "-Wherefore for"
this and for all things I praise Thee, I bless Thee, I
glorify Thee with the eternal and heavenly Christ, Thy
beloved Son, with whom to Thee and the Holy Spirit
be glory both now and forevermore. Amen."
Eusebius has quoted this doxology with some variation :
2 " On account of this and for all things I praise Thee, I
bless Thee, I glorify Thee through the eternal high priest
Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, through whom (6i ov)
to Thee with Him m the Holy Spirit be glory both now
and forevermore. Amen." The last of these two forms.
would have been much preferred by an Arian. Bishop
Bull observes8 that the words fied' ov and Si ov, with
whom and through whom, occur in doxologies written
before the Council of Nice. Justin Martyr, for example,
says, *" We bless the Maker of all things through His
1 § xiv. Ap. ii. p. 199. ed. Coteler.
2Ecc. Hist, iv, 15, p. 120, Oxon. 1845, p. 16ft, Cantab. 1720.
» Def . Fid. Nic. ii. 3, 6.
* Apol. i. 67, p. 83, ed. Ben. Hagaa. Comit. 1743.

Personality and Divinity oftlie Holy Ghost. 157
Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Spirit." Bishop
Bull remarks on these different forms, of doxology : ! Those
who lived before the Nicene Council understood " that
the glory of the Father was manifested through the Son,
and that all the glory of the Son redounded to the Father
as the fountain of divinity ; and yet that the Son together
with the Father ought to be adored, as consort of the
same divine nature and majesty. That I may speak more
clearly, the old Catholics, when they glorified the Father
through the Son, wished to signify the subordination of
the Son in that He was a Son, and the superiority
(eSox^v) of the Father, in that He was a Father ; but
when they adored the Son with the Father, they would
signify His sameness of substance and subsistence in the
same Divine essence and nature with the Father. But
that the ' with whom ' (fie 6' ov) altogether displeased the
Arians, and that they therefore changed that received
formula of doxology in the liturgies into 'through whom '
(Si ov), when they were in power, ecclesiastical his
tory testifies."
2 Theodoret informs us that, in the middle of the fourth
century, the clergy and people of Antioch were divided,
some using the conjunction and, when they glorified the
Son, and others applying the preposition through to the
Son, and in to the Holy Ghost. Philostorgius indeed,
the Arian historian,3 says, that Flavian, of Antioch, an
assertor of the Nicene faith, having gathered a multitude
of monks, "first of all cried out, Glory to the Father, and
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ; for of those before
Him some indeed said Glory to the Father through the
' ii. 3, 6, p. 143, vol. v.
» Socrttt. ii. 21, et sozom. viii. 8 ; Hist. Ecc. ii. 24, p. 206, Oxf.
1854, Cantab, p. 106. 3 iii. 13.

158 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
Son in the Holy Spirit, and this acclamation was the
more prevailing one r but 'some said, Glory to the Father
in the Son and Holy Ghost."
On which, Bishop Bull remarks, l " Where indeed his
assertion that Flavian first brought into the use of
of the Church the form of doxology, in which it was said
Glory to the Father and to the Son (or with the Son);
and to the Holy Ghost, when before him, through the
Son, or in the Son was only used, \A most false. For in
the ancient forms of prayer, which obtained in the Church
before the Nicene Synod, the same doxology was used,
as is clear from the Constitutions. That the same doxol
ogy also is found in the writings of some ante-Nicene
fathers, and especially in Clement of Alexandria (who
also so paraphrases that formula that no Arian could
digest it), we shall demonstrate below," as he does,
where he adduces the passage of Clement of Alexandria.
2 " Let us give thanks," says Clement, " to the only Father
and Son, Son and Father, to the Son, Teacher and
Master, together with the Holy Ghost ; to the One are
all things ; in -whom are all things ; on account of whom
all things are one ; on account of whom is eternity ; of
whom we all are members ; of whom are glory and the
angels ; to Him who is in all things good ; to Him who
is in all things fair (xaX<p) ; to Him in all things wise,
in all things just ; to whom be glory both now and for.
ever. Amen.".
Well does Bishop Bull say, 3 " He is blind in the noon
day light, who does not clearly see that, in this doxology
the full and perfect confession is contained of the con-
substantial Trinity, that is of one God, subsisting in
1 ii. 3, 6. p. 144, vol. v. a a, e, 4, p. 245, Caritab. p. 89.
3 Page 246.

Personality and Dimnity of the Holy Ghost. 159
three persons, namely Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."
Bishop Bull, speaking of the form of S. Polycarp's dox
ology as given in Eusebius, says, l " But the ancients in
their doxologies seem to me not only to have used ' with
the Holy Spirit,' or ' and to the Holy Spirit,' but some
times also ' in the Holy Spirit,' that they might signify
that the Holy Spirit, forasmuch as he proceeds from the
Father and the Son, or from the Father through the
Son, is the communion and unity of. both, and so, as it
were, the bond of the most holy Trinity, as He is also
expressly called by some ancients ; which is more clearly
expressed in that very ancient formula in which it is
said, ' Glory to the Father and the Son in the unity of
the Holy Spirit.' Hence the most ancient writer Athen
agoras, in ' Legat. pro Christianis,' 2says that the Father
and the Son are one ' in the' unity of the Spirit.' "
Synesius in his hymns elegantly expresses the mystery
in more than one place. In the third hymn he thus ad
dresses the Holy Spirit : " Thou are the bound of
natures, of that which produces and that which is pro
duced." And in the fourth hymn, after he had cele
brated the praises of God the Father and the Son, he
afterwards sings, " The middle principle, the Holy Spirit,
the centre of the generator, the centre also of the Son."
The Smyrnean epistle3 on the martyrdom of Polycarp
concludes with this doxology, "That the Lord Jesus
Christ may gather me with His elect, to whom be glory,
with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.
Amen." 4Like doxologies are found in Hippolytus,
and Dionys. Alex.
' ii. 3, 13, vol. v. p. 156. 2 Page 10 (§ 10, p. 287).
3 § 24, p. 202.
* Burton, Test, to Doctrine of Trinity, and cf. Divin. of H. Ghost,
Works,vol. ii. p. 9.

160 Personality mid Dwinity of the Holy Ghost.
St. Basil speaks of an evening hymn, which was in
general use in his day (a.d. 370) though he did not know
the author of it. j1 and the people, he says, did not think
that they were committing an impiety, when they joined
in the words, "We praise the Father, and Son, and Holy
Spirit of God." This ancient evening hymn is probably
extant : at least the Greek Church still makes use of one,
which contains the words quoted above by Basil, and
which has sometimes been ascribed erroneously to
Athenogenes (a martyr, a.d. 196). It is thus given by
Dr. Routh : 2 " O Jesus Christ, the joyous light of the
holy glory of the immortal Father, who is heavenly,
holy, blessed ; having come to the setting of the sun,
having seen the evening light, we praise (vfivov/Aev)
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit of God.
Worthy art Thou at all times to be praised by holy
voices, 0 Son of God, who givest life. Wherefore the
world glorified Thee."
Such are the clear testimonies which come to us from
the early ages of the Church of the Confession, in holy
worship, of the one God in three persons, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost. In all the forms of doxology used,
though some of them were subsequently perverted by
the Arians to an evil sense, they worshipped each of the
persons of the, Trinity as God only and supreme. As
Bishop Bull strongly and conclusively says, 3 " We assert
that the embracing of the three in the same formula and
communion of glory signifies the unity of nature and
divinity, and in that respect the equality of the persons.
For Athanasius most truly says, treating of the formula
of baptism (Orat. iii. Contra Arianos), 4<For what fel-
1 Burton 1. c. p. 11. 2 Eel. Sac. vol. iii. p. 298.
3 ii. 3, 2, p. 154.
* (Orat. ii. p. 41, vol. i. p. 508.) Vol. i. p. 411, D. ed. Colon. 1686.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 161
lowship can there be to the creature with the Creator ?
or why is that which is made numbered together with
the Maker?'
" Nobly also Gregory Nazianzen : l ' The Trinity is
truly Trinity, brethern ; but a Trinity is not an enumera
tion of unequal things ; or what hinders calling it a dec
ade, and a century, and a myriad, if it be simply com
posed of so many numbers ? (for certainly many and much
more things than these are numbered) but it is an em
bracing together of those who are equal and the same in
honor.' And truly if in the doxologies of Christians,
the Son and the Holy Spirit should be joined to God
the Father, not as themselves of the same substance, but
only as more excellent creatures, why may not other ex
cellent creatures be numbered in the same, in their own
order ? Why may we not say, Glory to the Father, and
to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and to Michael, and
the other archangels and angels ? And so, indeed, the
blasphemous formula of the, Papist will have to be es
teemed at last as legitimate, ' Praise to God and to the
Virgin the Mother of God.' But far otherwise were the
disciples of the Apostles taught."
The different forms of doxology which had been in
use in the Church are largely discussed by S. Basil in his
treatise on the Holy Spirit, where he shews that in all
of them, the Christians of the Catholic Church, till his
day, had made their confession of a Trinity of Divine
persons, equal and inseparable in the one only and su
preme Godhead. A passage from his treatise " De Spir-
itu Sancto " is so important in its testimony, that I give
it to you mostly entire. [The whole treatise is worthy
of attentive study.]
i Orat. xiii. p. 211, ed. Par. 1630 (Orat. xxiii. 10, p. 431), ed
Bened. Par. 1778. n

162 Personality and Dwinity of the Holy Ghost.
1 « For" he says, "the ancient dogmas are, in a certain
degree, venerable, forasmuch as they have that which is to
be revered by reason of their hoar (or white-hoared) antiq
uity. I will therefore enumerate to you the presidents of
the word (for, by all means, time is also measured accord
ing to its silence), for it did not take its beginning from
us. How could it ? since we are truly of yesterday, as
Job says,2 in comparison at least with so great a length
of time, which is of the same age with this custom. I
indeed myself, if I must speak of what is my own, keep
as a certain paternal inheritance this voice, having re
ceived it from a man who had lived a long time in the
service of God, by whom also I was baptized, and ad
vanced to the ministry of the Church.
" And inquiring with myself, if indeed any of those
old and blessed men use these words, which now are spo
ken against, I found many who had trustworthiness from
antiquity, and who, in accuracy of knowledge, were not
as men are now ; of whom some by the preposition (with,
or in), and some by the conjunction (and) binding to
gether the word of the doxology, were esteemed to be
doing nothing different, so far, at least, as the right in
telligence of piety was concerned.
" That Irenaeus, and Clemens of Rome, and Dionysius
of Rome, which is also wonderful to hear, in his second
epistle to his namesake concerning ' accusation and de
fence,' thus closed the discourse ; but I will write to you
the words of this man. ' Agreeably with all these things,'
he says, ' we also, who have the form and rule from the
presbyters before us, render praises -in the same words
with them. To God the Father and the Son our Lord
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, be glory and power
1 Sec. 71 ff . p. 60 ff. ed. Bened. torn. iii. s Job. viii. 9.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 163
for ever and ever. Amen.' Nor could anyone say that
these words had been changed in writing. For he would
not have so confirmed his assertion when he says that he
had received the form and rule, if he had said ' i/n the
Spirit,' for the use of this mode of speech is frequent, but
it was the other (or that) which needed defence. Who
at least also, about the middle of his letter, thus speaks
against the Sabellians : ' If they say that by there being
three hypostases, they are divided, there are three al
though they will not admit it ; or else let them entirely
take away the Divine Trinity.' And again, 'For the
Trinity is most Divine on this account, after the unity
(rtjv ftovaSa).'
" But Clement also more anciently, says ' God lives,
and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.' But
Irenaeus, who was near the Apostles, let us hear how he
mentioned the Spirit in his discourse against heresies.
' But,' says he, a ' those who are unbridled and borne along
by their own lusts, having no desire of the Divine Spirit,
the Apostle justly calls fleshly.' And in other places the
same (Irenaeus) says, ' That we may not, being without
part in the Divine Spirit, fail of the kingdom of Heaven,
the Apostle exclaims that 2 " the flesh cannot inherit the
kingdom of Heaven." ' But if Eusebius of Palestine is
worthy of belief by any one on account of his wide ex
perience, we produce also from him the same words, in
his doubts concerning the polygamy of the ancients.
For he speaks thus in the outset of his discourse : ' In
voking the Holy God of the Prophets, the author of
light, through our Saviour Jesus Christ, with the Holy
Spirit.' "
S. Basil then adverts to Origen, as one who had not,
1 1. Cor. iii. 3. 2 1. Qor. xv. 50.

164 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
in all things, altogether sound opinions concerning the
Spirit, and whose testimony upon Catholic consent in
these doctrines is, nevertheless, valuable and important.
He says, 1 " But now also we find Origen in many passages
of his discourses upon the Psalms rendering glory with
the Holy Spirit, a man not having in all respects alto
gether sound conceptions concerning the Spirit; but
nevertheless often, himself also reverencing the strength
of custom, uttered pious words concerning the Spirit;
who, at least, in the sixth book, I think, of His ' Exe-
getics on the Gospel according to John' also evidently
declared Him to be adorable, writing thus, in the very
word : ' The laver of water is the symbol of the puri
fication of the soul, which is cleansed of all the defile
ment of wickedness ; but no less also by itself, to him
who surrenders himself to the divinity of the adorable
Trinity, by the power of the invocations, it has the be
ginning and fountain of spiritual gifts.'
" And again, in his exegetical discourses on the Epistle
to the Romans, he says, ' The sacred powers are recep
tive of the only begotten, and of the divinity of the
Holy Spirit.' So I think the strength of tradition led
oftentimes men even to speak against their own dogmas.
But neither was such a form of doxology hidden from
Af ricanus ; 2 for he appears in the fifth book of his epit
ome of the times speaking in this wise : ' For we who
understand also the measure of those words, and are not
ignorant of the grace of faith, give thanks to the Father
who has furnished to us his own, the Saviour of the uni
verse and our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom be glory,
majesty with the Holy Spirit for ever.'
" Other things therefore perhaps can be doubted, or
i § 73. 2 Third century.

Personality and Diminity of the Holy Ghost. 165
when they have been changed, the fraud is hard to be
detected if there be a difference in one syllable. But
those which we have cited in long discourse are both
free from insidiousness, and have testimony which is
well shewn from the books themselves. But what
otherwise perhaps it would be of small account to pro
duce, but in behalf of that which is charged with novelty,
necessary for testimony, on account of the antiquity of
the time, this also I will add.
"It seemed good to our fathers not to receive in
silence the grace of the evening light, but immediately
when it appeared, to give thanks. And who indeed was
the father of those words of the thanksgiving of the
lights, we have no means of saying ; the people indeed
sends forth the ancient voice, and those have never, by
anyone, been thought to be impious who say, ' We praise
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God.'
But if anyone also knows the hymn of Athenogenes,
which, as some amulet, he has left to those who were
with him when he was just, going forth to the perfec
tion by fire, knows also the opinion of the martyrs, which
they had concerning the Spirit."
S. Basil then proceeds to give the testimony of Greg
ory Thaumaturgus, upon whose miracles, in the name of
Christ, he dilates ; of Firmilian, of Meletius, of the
whole East and West alike, and thus sums up the testi
mony : x " How then am I an innovator and a creator of
new words, when I produce whole nations and cities, and
custom older than all human memory, and men who
were pillars of the Church, renowned in all knowledge
and power of the Spirit, who were leaders and defenders
of this mode of speech (cpoovfji ) ? "
Ȥ75.

166 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
The divinity of God the Holy Ghost was deeply
seated in the belief and heart's love of Christians, and
Father, Son and Holy Ghost were the God of their daily
confession and worship. [Their testimonies are gathered
with the greatest fulness and clearness in the work of
Dr. Burton, x " Testimonies of the Ante-Nicene Fathers
to the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the divinity of the
Holy Ghost."]
St. Basil speaks of Origen as at once recognizing the
accepted doctrine of the Church and being unsound in
his own opinions concerning the Spirit, in some respects.
There is one passage especially of his writings,2 in which
he is thought to speak of the Spirit as a being created by
the Son. Yet in this passage he connects the Spirit so
closely with the Son, while he distinguishes Him as not
being the Son, and, in fact, so exalts Him above all the
creation that it may be doubted whether, even here,
Origen means to represent the Holy Spirit as a creature.
In a passage of the " De Principiis," as it exists in the
Latin translation of Ruffinus, Origen says, 3 " Up to the
present time I have not been able to find any expres
sions in the Scriptures by which the Holy Ghost could
be said to be made or created," though afterwards Epi-
phanius, Justinian and others blamed him for maintain
ing this opinion.4
The passages quoted from him by S. Basil are clear in
ascribing divinity to the Holy Ghost. But such specu
lations as those of Origen may have led many to adopt
low and insufficient views of the being of the Holy
i Oxford, 1831.
2 Tom. ii. in Joannem, § 6, vol. iv. p. 60, De La Rue; gf. Bur
ton p. 99 ff.
3 Lib. i. c. iii. § 3, p. 61; Burton p. 89; Bedepenning, p. 123.
1 Epiphan. lxiv. 5; Hieron. ad. Avitum, Ep. p. 94.

Personality and Dwinity of the Holy Ghost. 167
Ghost in the unity of the adorable Trinity. In fact
Gregory Nazianzen says : J " Some of the wise men
amongst us regard the Holy Spirit as an energy (ivep-
ysia), others' think that He is a creature, some again that
He is God Himself, and lastly, there are some who do
not know what opinion to adopt, from reverence, as
they say, for the sacred Scriptures, because they do not
teach anything definite on this point." We learn from
Socrates : 2 " But when Macedonius declined to take the
Holy Spirit into the theology of the Trinity, then Eus-
tathius (of Sebaste) did so likewise. ' I,' said he, ' neither
choose to call the Holy Spirit God, nor would dare to
call Him a creature. ' "
Eusebius of Caesarea3 thought that the Spirit is the
first of all rational beings, but belongs, nevertheless, to
the Trinity. Even Hilary says : * " But, concerning the
Holy Spirit, we ought neither to be silent nor is it neces
sary to speak. But we cannot be silent for the sake of
those who are ignorant. But it is not necessary to speak
Concerning Him who must be confessed as having the
Father and the Son for His originators (auctoribus).
" And indeed, I think, whether He is, is not to be de
bated. For He is ; since indeed He is given, received, ob
tained ; and He who is joined in the confession of the
Father and the Son, cannot be separated from the con
fession of the Father and Son. For the whole is imper
fect to us, if anything be wanting from the whole. Con
cerning whom if any one requires the sense of our intel
ligence, we both read in the Apostle,' ' Since ye are the
1 De Spirit. S. Orat. xxxi. p. 559.
2 ii. xiv. p. 133; Oxford, 1844 ; Cantab, p. 162.
3 De Theol. Eccles. iii. 3, 5, 6.
* De Trin. § 29, pp. 802, 803, ed. Benedict.
s Gal. iv. 6.

168 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost:
sons of God, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. ' And again, 1 ' Be un
willing to grieve the Holy Spirit, of God, in whom ye
have been sealed.' And again, 2'But we have received
not the spirit of this world; but the Spirit which is
from God, that we may know what things have been
given to us by God.' And again, 3 ' But ye are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit ; if yet the Spirit of God is in
you. But if any one has not the spirit of Christ he is
not His.' And again, 4 ' But if the Spirit of Him who
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He who
raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken also your
mortal bodies, on account of His Spirit who dwells in
you.' " Whence because He is, and is given, and is had, and
is of God ; hence, let the speech of the calumniators
cease. When they say, 'By whom He is, and on ac
count of what He is' ; or of what quality He is : if our
answer shall be displeasing when we say, ' By whom are
all things, and from whom are all things, and because He
is the Spirit of God, He is the gift of the faithful,' let
the Apostles and Prophets also displease them, who
speak this only concerning Him, what He might be
(quod esset) ; and after these things, the Father and the
Son will displease them." Hilary certainly believed in
the full divinity of the Spirit, and in His separate sub
sistence, though He did not enounce the distinct and
clear determination of the Council of Constantinople.
Cyril Jer. also endeavors to avoid all Scriptural defi
nitions as to the nature of the Holy Spirit, not con
tained in the Scriptures, though he distinctly separates
i Eph. iv. 30. 2 i. Cor. ii. 12.
3 Bom. viii. 9. * Eom. viii. 11.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 169
Him from all created beings, and regards Him as an es
sential part of the Trinity. He says, x " As one shower
waters flowers of the most different species (roses and
lilies) so one Spirit is the author of many different
graces." He is 2 "honorable, the Good (ro dyadov), the
great ally and defender from God, the great teacher
of the Church, our great champion," hence His glory
far surpasses that of all angels.3
While therefore there was a practical belief in the
Holy Ghost, which regarded the " Holy Spirit," to use the
words of Tertullian, 4 " as the third name of divinity,
and the third grade of majesty " — and though He was
ever joined with the Father and the Son, in the baptis
mal formula, in the doxologies, in the hymns of praise
to God, in all ages of the Church to the time of the sec
ond General Council ; yet the doctrine of the Church
concerning the third person of the blessed Trinity
needed the definition which was made in the Creed of
Constantinople. The germ of the doctrine had always
been in the heart of the Church ; and it was the great
Athanasius, who first gave distinct expression to the
true doctrine on this subject — to the doctrine, which
was already in the deep consciousness of the Church,
and of the Christian soul, and which, therefore, found
distinct and definite expression in the Christian creed.
Athanasius endeavored 5to refute those who declared
the Holjr Ghost to be a creature (xriana), or the first
of the ministering spirits ^(nvevfxdroov Xeirovpyixdov),
and who were called rponixoi, nvevuarofxaxovvrei.
1 Cat. xvi. 12. 2 c. xix.
3 c. xxiii. * Adv. Prax. xxx.
5 Ep. iv. ad. Serap.
« Page 185. B. ed. 1686, and 184, D. and 183 D.; page 202, vol.
i. ed. Colon. 1686.

170 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
He shewed that we completely renounce Arianism, only
when we perceive in the Trinity nothing that is foreign
to the nature of God (aXXorpiov r/ egoodev enifxiyvv-
fxevov), but one and the same being, which is in per
fect accordance, identical with itself. * " The Trinity,"
he said, " is not in name only and fantasy of speech,
but in truth and being a Trinity." He appealed both
to the declarations of Holy Writ and to the testimony
of our own Christian consciousness. 2How can that
which is not sanctified by anything else, which is it
self the source of sanctification to all creatures, possess
the same nature as those who are sanctified by it ? We
have fellowship with God, and participate in the Divine
life, by means of the Holy Spirit ; but this could not be
if the Spirit were created by God. As certain as it is
that we through him became partakers of the Divine
nature, so certain is it that He must Himself be one
with the Divine being ; 8 " but if He deifies, it is not
doubtful that His nature is the nature of God."
4 Basil the Great pursues the same course of reasoning
against the Pneumatomachi, in his assertion of the di
vinity of God the Holy Ghost, in his magnificent trea
tise on the Holy Spirit. He maintained that the name
God should be given to the Spirit, and appealed both to
Scripture in general, and to the baptismal formula in
particular, in which the Spirit is mentioned together
with the Father and the Son. He says : 6 " But the
greatest testimony of the conjunction of the Spirit with
the Father and the Son is that He is said to be so related
to God, as our spirit in us is to each man. For what
i Ep. i. xxviii. p. 677. 2 Ep. i. ad. Serap. § 24, pp. 672, 673.
3 Page 199, A. ed. 1686. « Hagenbach § 93, vol. i. pp. 260, 264.
5 De Spir. Sancto, c. xl. p. 35.

Personality and Diminity of the Holy Ghost. 171
man knows," saith he, x " the things of the man, except
the spirit which is in him ? so, also, no one knows the
things of God but the Spirit which is from God." And
this remark of S. Basil is a most conclusive one ; for
he who has in himself all the self-consciousness of God,
must be a personj and a person who is none other than
God Himself.
S. Basil, like S. Athanasius, insists upon the fact that
the 2 Spirit' is the sanctifier, as a conclusive proof that the
Spirit is the Divine fountain of holiness, which in Him is
his own boundless and original Divine attribute. In an
swer to the objection that the Spirit is the gift of God, he
says, " The Spirit is the gift of God, but the gift of
life ; ' for,' saith he, 4 ' the law of the Spirit of lif e hath
freed us.' And the gift of power, 6 ' For ye shall re
ceive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you.'
Is He then, on account of this, to be despised ? Has He
not, indeed, given His Son to men ? ' He who certainly,'
says he, 6'did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up
for us all; how shall He not, also, with Him, freely
give us all things?' And in another place, "That we
may know the things that are freely given to us by God,'
speaking concerning the mystery of the Incarnation. So
that, how do they, who say such things, not surpass
Jewish madness, taking the excess of loving kindness as
the occasion of blasphemy? for they accuse the Spirit
for giving us the freedom of calling God our own Father.
8 ' For God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts, crying, Abba, Father,' that His voice may be the
own voice of those who receive Him."
1 1. Cor. ii. 11. » c. xxii. p. 19.
3 c. lvii. p. 39. * Bom. viii. 2.
s Acts i. 8. 6 Bom. viii. 32.
' I. Cor. ii. 12. 8 Gal. iv. 6.

172 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
In this way, through his magnificent treatise, does S.
Basil meet and demolish the arguments of the Pneuma-
tomacbi, and demonstrate abundantly the Holy Spirit,
in His nature, in the representations made of Him in
Holy Scripture, in His office, in His mighty work, in
His relation to and equality with the Father and the Son,
to be very God.
His brother Gregory of Nyssa maintained the distinct
and personal Divine subsistence of the Spirit. 1('We
conceive," he says, " that this essential .power, which
manifests itself as a separate hypostasis, can neither
be separated from the Godhead in which it rests,
nor from the Divine Word which it follows. Nor does
it cease to exist ; but being self-existing (dvroHtvTjrov),
like the Deity, it is ever capable of choosing the good,
and of carrying out all its purposes."
Gregory of Nazianzum, in encountering the difficul
ties with which the doctrine was beset in his time, had
recourse to a gradual revelation ; which, as he conceived,
stood in connection with a natural development of the
Trinity : " The Old Testament sets forth the Father in
a clear, but the Son in a somewhat dimmer light : the
New Testament reveals the Son, but only intimates the
divinity of the Spirit ; but now the Spirit dwells in the
midst of us, and manifests Himself more distinctly. It
was not desirable that the divinity of the Son should be
proclaimed, as long as that of the Father was not fully
recognized ; nor to add that of the Spirit, as long as that
of the Son was not believed." Gregory numbered the
doctrine of the Holy Spirit among those things of which
Christ speaks,2 and recommended therefore prudence in
1 Hagenbach, § 93, vol. i. p. 261. ,
2 John xvi. 12.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 173
discourses on ,this dogrna~. He himself developed it
principally in his controvery with Macedonius, and
showed, in opposition to him, that " the Holy Spirit is
neither a mere power, nor a creature, and, accordingly,
that there is no alternative except that He is God Him
self."1 Thus was the doctrine of the divinity of the Holy
Ghost, and of His personal Divine subsistence in the
unity of the adorable Trinity, evolved from the depths of
Christian consciousness, and from the work of redemp
tion, as unfolded in the providence of God, and as set
forth in the revelation first delivered to the Church,
and then embodied in holy Scripture. It is incorpo
rated with the very principles and beginnings of our
life in Christ. It is delivered to us as an essential element
of our consecration to the service of the triune God, as
an inseparable constituent of our confession of the faith
of Christ. When we are joined to Christ we are bap
tized, by Christ's command, in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. So is the Holy
Ghost inseparably joined to the Father and the Son, in
our confession of faith, in our confession of obedience,
and in our acknowledgment of the object of our su
preme worship, a worship which belongs alone to Him
who is very God.
We are not, certainly, baptized in the name of two
who are persons, and of one who is only an attribute or
an energy of these persons. We are not baptized in the
name of two persons who are Divine, and of one who is
a creature, though he were admitted to be the highest of
all creatures. The baptismal formula is a divinely given
proof both of the personality and divinity of God the
Cf. Ullman, p. 378 ss.

174 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
Holy Ghost. The baptismal consecration is an act of
worship, and it is the first principle of worship incul
cated in holy Scripture, that x " Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." •
Our baptismal formula is a confession of faith, as well
as a profession of obedience and of worship. Indeed it
is fundamentally and in its first principle, a confession
of faith, upon which is founded the duty of obedience,
and the rendering of worship and adoration to God su
preme. It is the corner-stone of our Christian life, and
it incorporates with all that life the recognition and
acknowledgment, as of the Father and the Son, so of the
Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth
from the Father and the Son, who, with the Father and
the Son together, is worshipped and glorified, who spake
by the Prophets, who spake the Word of God, because it
was the Word of God the Holy Ghost.
The remarks of Bishop Bull on the creed of the bap
tismal formula are pregnant and demonstrative, for he
. says, 2 " 1. It is clear in this formula, ' I believe in God
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,' that the word
God is referred in common to all three, that is Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit ; which the Greeks more clearly
express, ' I believe in God, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit.' So soundly the ancients understood this
brief confession. Hence Tertullian against Praxeas
(cap. xiii.), expounding the common faith of Christians
concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
says, ' And the Father is God, and the Son is God, and
the Holy Spirit is God, and each one is God.'
" Cyprian, likewise, in the epistle to Jubaianus, thus
1 Matt. iv. 10.
2 Judicium Ecc. Cath. iv. 3, vol. vi. pp. 84 ff.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 175
argues against the baptism of heretics : l ' If any one
could be baptized among heretics, truly he could
also obtain remission of sins ; if he has obtained remis
sion of sins, he has also been sanctified, and made a tem
ple of God. I ask, of what God ? If of the Creator,
he could not, because he did not believe in Him ; if of
Christ, neither could he be made His temple, who denies
Christ to be God / if of the Holy Spirit, since the three
are one, how can the Holy Spirit be reconciled to him,
who is the enemy either of the Son, or of the Father ? '
Where he manifestly alludes . to the formula of confes
sion concerning the most holy Trinity, which was wont
to berequired from those who were to be baptized, in
which truly they professed that they believed in God
the Father, in God the Son, and in God the Spirit, and
that these three are one God. By the way also the at
tentive reader will observe, that S. Cyprian most openly
teaches here, that the article concerning the true di
vinity of Christ our Lord is altogether necessary to be
believed in order to salvation ; for he expressly says,
' that he cannot be made a temple of God (which is cer
tainly equivalent to saying, cannot be saved), who denies
Christ to be God.'
" But I return to the path. It well appears to me, in
these few words, ' I believe in God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit,' that that great truth that the Son and Holy
Spirit are one God with the Father is somewhat more
clearly expressed than in some more diffuse creeds,
which succeeded (this). For by those additions after
the words ' I believe in God the Father,' and the addi
tions after the mention of the Son, when the word God
is not repeated in the articles concerning the Son and
« Ep. lxxiii. p. 309, ed. Fell.; ed. Bened. 1726, p. 133.

176 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
Holy Spirit, the appellation God might seem, and to
some has seemed to belong to the Father alone ; plainly
against the mind and opinion of those who framed those
broader creeds.
" 2. In this formula the Son (as also the Holy Spirit)
is adjoined to the Father, as consort of His dominion,
and partaker of that faith, honor, worship and obedience
which he who is to be baptized professes, vows and
promises : which, whoever can think that it can belong
to a mere man or to any creature whatsoever, surely we
must altogether determine that he is entirely ignorant
what the horrible crime of idolatry is. That this may
be set in clearer light, we must first observe that in the
primitive Church immediately before baptism two
things were required from the candidates, a renunica-
tion of Satan, and an ascription or aggregation to Christ.
After the renunciation immediately followed the enlist
ment, in these words, ' I believe in God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.' x This formula, as well of renunciation as.
of enlistment, was so received in the first ages, through
all the Churches of Christ, that it is not to be doubted
but that it proceeded from the Apostles themselves. But
as by that renunciation (or mustering out) those coming
to baptism utterly abdicated the worship of the devil,
and so of idols and all false gods ; so by consecration
they entirely addicted themselves (cultui) to the service
of the only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
" Which also is not obscurely gathered from the dia
logue of Lucian, or some other one, certainly of the same
age, and of no unlike genius, the title of which is 2 ' Phil-
1 Constit. Apost. vii. 41, et Cyril Jer. Cat. Mys. i.
2 Vol. iii. p. 596, ed. Hemsterhus. The Philopatris was not com
posed probably before the reign of Julian, and was an imitation of
Lucian.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 177
opatris,' where the author coaeval with the first succession
of the Apostles, a profane one indeed, but who excel
lently knew the Christian commonwealth, mockingly
brings in a certain Triephon, sustaining the character of
a Christian teacher and catechist, and delivering to his
catechumen among other things, the mystery of the most
holy Trinity. For to the catechumen asking ' By whom
therefore shall I swear to you?,' Triephon answers, ' By
God reigning on high, great, immortal, celestial, the Son
of the Father, the Spirit proceeding from.the Father, one
of three, and three of one : think thou these to be
Jupiter, but esteem Him to be God.' Hence, I say, we
can gather, that those coming at that time from heathen
ism to the Church of Christ were altogether bound to
this, that for Jove and other vain names and divinities,
which they had worshipped in their heathenism, they
should henceforth surrender and consecrate themselves
entire to the faith, worship, and obedience of the triune
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, their only God."
1 The Trinity of persons is also presented to us, in their
relation to each other, in the unity of the eternal God
head, at the baptism of our Lord, when He was pro
claimed by the Father as His well beloved Son, and
when the Spirit descended upon Him, in a visible mani:
festation through the forms of the creation, to endow
His humanity with all the fulness of effluence from God
Himself. For to Him the Spirit was not given by meas
ure, but was given in the infinitude of power and grace.
And who could be the dispenser of such an infinite gift,
who could be that infinite gift itself, being, at the same
time, a person distinguished from the Father in Heaven
and the Son upon earth, but one, who was God Himself ?
' Cf. Def. Fid. Nic. ii. 4, 11, p. 204.
13

178 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
The relation of the Spirit to the incarnate Lord, and
to the work which He came to accomplish, was thus set
forth at the very outset of His ministry upon our earth.
The Spirit was seen in intimate association with the
Father and the Son in the accomplishment of this work,
as no angel, no created being could be joined with them.
All that our Lord says about Himself to shew his inti
mate conjunction with the Father, and His oneness with
the Father, finds its perfect correspondence in what is
said of the relation of the Spirit to both the Father and
the Son. He is sent by the Son from the Father in the
name of the Son ; He takes of the things of Christ, re
ceives of Christ, as Christ received of the Father, as the
Son did all that the Father did, knew all that the Father
knew, and performed all the works which the Father
performed. So the Spirit did not speak of Himself, not as one
would speak of himself who is removed from God by
infinite distance, which separates the creature from the
Creator, x " but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He
speak, and He will shew you things to come " ; " He
shall glorify Me," and how ? " for He shall receive of
Mine, and shall shew it unto you." And how full this
receiving is, is manifest from what immediately follows :
2 " All things that the Father hath are Mine : therefore
said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall shew it unto
you." Here the capacity of the Spirit, so to speak, to
receive and administer all the things of God, all things
which He hath, and which are communicated unto the
Son, is most explicitly declared. Who co.uld do this but
God Himself ? Who but God could thus be admitted as a
full participant in all the counsels and works of Deity ?
1 John xvi. 12. 2 j0hn xvi. 26.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 179
There is no representation of the relation to the Fa
ther, of the Son, in His works and counsels, which shews
the full divinity of the Son, which does not equally infer
the full divinity of God the Holy Ghost from His full
participation in these same works and counsels of the
Deity. He is the Spirit of God the Father, He is the
Spirit of God the Son. He is coextensive, so to speak,
with the Father and the Son in the Divine works, in all
the Divine works oi creation and of redemption ; and
surely, by Scriptural representations as strong as those
which apply to the Son, must we believe Him, like the
Son, to be very God, " of one substance, majesty and
glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God,
and with the Father and the Son together to be wor
shipped and glorified."
It was the characteristic refusal of the Pneumatomachi
to worship the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son.
They would say " Glory to the Father, by the Son, in
the Holy Ghost," but not " Glory to the Father, with
the Son and the Holy Ghost," or " by the Son with the.
Holy Ghost." They would not conjoin Him in the
same equality of worship with the Father and the Son..
S. Basil, in his treatise on the Holy Spirit, analyses these
various forms of doxology, shews how vain are the dis
tinctions which are founded upon the difference of mean
ing of the prepositions in and through and with, how they
are interchangeably applied, even those which were said
to signify an inferior kind of worship, as the preposition
m, to all the persons of the Trinity, the Father not ex
cepted, and that the glorification of the Father and the^
Son with the Holy Ghost was the ancient and accepted1
form of doxology among those who had hved in the
Church before the days of S. Basil.

180 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
And, as the Divine administration of the Spirit in the
Church shews Him to be very God ; as, without such an
administration, there would be an amazing falling off of
the Divine plan, in its execution and application, from
the divinity of its founding and establishment ; as none
but a Divine being could enter into the Divine counsels
and perform the Divine works of salvation from the
Father and the Son, so is the Holy Spirit moreover
directly called God in the holy Scriptures. Those in
whom He dwells are the temples of God, because He,
the Holy Spirit, dwells in them. Blasphemy against the
Holy Ghost is unpardonable, because it is the most griev
ous assault upon the sacredness of the Divine majesty
which man can commit ; to he to the Holy Ghost is to
lie to God and not to man ; He who is the Sanctifier is
and can be so only because He is the Divine fountain of
holiness, from which sanctification proceeds. He is es
sentially Holy, the Holy Spirit, and none can be this but
God alone, in whom originally is all perfection.
It is the office of the Spirit to sanctify those who
are sanctified in Christ. In reference to this sanctifica
tion, and in immediate connection with, the exhortation,
1 " Quench not the Spirit," the Apostle S. Paul utters
the invocation, 2 " And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly : and your whole spirit, and soul, and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ." Here seems to be the title " the God of
Peace " given expressly to God the Spirit, as, most as
suredly, He is presented in this passage as the Divine
agent, by whom sanctification is accomplished, and for
that reason we are earnestly warned not to " quench the
iSpirit," not to " despise prophesyings," which are under
i I.Thess. v. 19. 2 I. Thess. v. 23.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 181
the administration of the " prophetical Spirit," as He is
called by the writers of the second century of the
Church. The whole scope of this passage is to call at
tention to the administration of the Gospel by the Spirit,
and that the Spirit is " the God of Peace," of whom the
Apostle speaks as the Divine sanctifier, is, by far, the
most obvious interpretation of the passage.
The attributes of God are ascribed to the Spirit ; all
the omniscience of God is His, l " for the Spirit search-
eth all things, yea, the deep things of God," and knows
all things in God, because He is the very Spirit of God,
even as the spirit of man is the man himself. It is the
very comparison by which the oneness of the Spirit with
God is set forth in the Scriptures. 2 And so, omnipres
ence and participation in all the movements of Divine
Providence are attributed to the Spirit. Without such
connection with universal Providence, the Spirit could
not truly represent Christ the" Son, to whom all power in
Heaven arid earth has been committed for the furtherance
and completion of the great work of Divine salvation.
The representations which are given of the Spirit
in Scripture, in His distinction from the Father and the
Son, the actions which are attributed to Him, in the
mission which He has from the Son, who sends the
Spirit from the Father, perfectly and fully to make good
His own presence in the world, shew not only the
divinity of the Spirit, but also his distinct personality
from the Father and the Son, from whom He is alike
personally distinguished. An attribute or an energy can
not be grieved, cannot intelligently and independently
guide and direct the intelligent creatures of God, can
not fully and entirely represent a person, as the Spirit
1 1. Cor. ii. 10. 2 1. Cor. ii. 11.

182 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
represents and makes present among men, since the as
cension of the Lord, the Divine and personal Lord Him
self. Nor has an attribute or an energy a personal will,
as the Spirit undoubtedly has, who distributes the x gifts
of grace to every man severally, as He wills. The whole
language of Scripture would need reconstruction; its
representations of the mission and work of the Spirit
and of His action upon men, and the relation of men to
that action, would be delusive, if the subject of these
representations, the Divine Spirit, were not a personal
agent as really and distinctly as the Father and the Son,
from whom He comes, and as the men to whom, and for
whose sanctification and salvation, He is sent and given.
But if the Spirit be God, and if He be distinct from
the Father and the Son, He must have the same God
head with the Father and the Son ; for the Godhead is
one, and He must so have that Godhead, .that the unity
of the Divine being shall be unbroken and undisturbed.
And, therefore, it is expressly said that 2 He proceedeth
or goeth forth from the Father ; that is, He derives from
the Father, in a way inexplicable by us, His Divine hfe
and being, as really and truly as the Son derives His
Divine being from the same fountain of the Godhead
by eternal generation from the Father. Arid because
He so proceeds from the Father, He is the Lord and
the life-giver, having life in Himself, as the Son has hfe
in Himself, having this life in Himself from the Father,
as truly as the Father hath given to the Son to have
hfe in Himself. About this procession of the Spirit
from the Father there is no dispute among any who hold
the Catholic faith, as indeed it is the express assertion
of Scripture that the Spirit proceedeth from the Father.
1 1. Cor. xii. 11. 2 John xv. 26.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 183
But does He proceed from the Son also ? This is the
profession of faith which we make in the creed that we
receive in the Western Church, the profession of faith
in the Athanasian Creed, and the declaration of doctrine
which is made in the fifth article of our Church. We
believe it to be true, and that its truth can be estab
lished by most certain warrants of Holy Writ. If the
relations of the persons of the Trinity be relations
founded in the essential being of God, so that God was
always Father as always God, always Son as well as
always God, always Spirit as well as always God; if
these relations do not belong to time in which the Di
vine being does not exist, then in the communication of
the Divine essence to the Son, the Father communicates
all that belongs to that essence, His own personality
alone excepted.
Now, as the procession of the Spirit is an eternal
procession from the essence of the Godhead, in all the
fulness of that essence, this quality or attribute of that
essence, this quality of procession by which the Spirit
eternally exists, was communicated in and with the Di
vine essence to the Son ; so that if the Son has the
Divine essence in all the fulness of its essential qualities,
the personality of the Father only excepted, it must be
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from . the Son as well as
from the Father, from the Father by the Son, as the
Son Himself says, 1 " Whom I will send unto you from
the Father " ; it must be that as the Son has life in Him
self because the Father hath given to Him to have life
in Himself as an essential attribute of the Deity ; so He
hath given to the Son, in giving the Divine essence, the
essential quality of this essence, that the Spirit should
1 John xv. 26.

184 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
eternally proceed from that Divine essence, as it is com
municated from the Father to the Son.
So is the Son the Express and perfect image of the
Father's substance, and so does God the Holy Ghost
eternally proceed, in His Divine essence, from the
Father and the Son, from the Father by the Son. The
Son Himself says, speaking of the Spirit, a"He shall
glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine " (of all Mine,
My essence is certainly included in this reception), " and
shall shew it unto you." " All things that the Father
hath are Mine " (the Divine essence and all that it in
cludes) ; " therefore said I that He shall take of Mine,
and shall shew it unto you." Here certainly seems to
be as plain a declaration as could be made, that the
Spirit receives from the Son the Divine essence and ail-
that appertains to it, which the Son had from the Father
by virtue of His Sonship.
And so was it understood by the early fathers of the
Greek Church. As Epiphanius, speaking of Ananias
and Sapphira, says, 3 " Therefore the Spirit is God from
the Father and the Son, to whom they lied, who kept
back the price." And again : 4 " For the Spirit of Christ
is the Spirit proceeding from the Father, and receiving
of the Son." So that receiving of the Son can signify
nothing but proceeding from the Son by eternal ema
nation. 5"But if Christ from the Father is believed to
be God of God, and the Spirit itself is from Christ, since
He is from both who proceedeth from the Father, as
Christ says, and the same shall receive of Me " (or
Mine). The same thing is expressly asserted by Cyril
1 Heb. i. 3. 2 John xvi. 14. 15.
3 Ancorat § 9, Suicer, Thes. i. cols. 1070, 1071.
' Haeres. lxix p. 372. 5 Haeres. Ixi.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 185
Alex. : x"He calls Him the Spirit of truth, that He may
speak of Himself ; for He Himself is the Truth ; for the
Holy Spirit is not understood to be alien from the sub
stance of the only begotten, but proceeds (npoeisi)
from it naturally (q>uffixd>?)." And so S. Basil says
2 "As the Word, the artificer of things, established the
Heavens, so the Holy Spirit (is) from God, who pro
ceedeth from the Father, that is, who is from His
mouth. 3And what does this mean, unless from the
Son, who is the mouth of the Father ? "
Cyril Alex, says of the Spirit, 4" Since he is consub-
stantial with the Son, and proceeds (npoetfft) in a Divine
way from Him, having all His most perfect energy and
power over all, on account of this, He says, ' He shall
receive of Mine.' " S. Basil, teaching the same doctrine,
beautifully says, 6" As in those things made by art there
is a similitude in form, so in the Divine and uncompounded
nature there is union (or oneness) in the communion of
the Deity ; but the Holy Spirit is also one (ev), and the
the same (Spirit) is monadically set forth, joined by the
one Son to the one Father ; and by Himself completing
the highly adorable and blessed Trinity (TpidSa);
iwhose association with the Father and the Son, His not
being arranged in the multitude of the creation, but
being singularly (ftovaxdo?) pronounced, manifests."
6 " As therefore we say the Son is to be worshipped as
the image of God and the Father, so it is also with the
Spirit, as He shews in Himself the divinity of the Lord."
The earlier Greek fathers therefore unquestionably held
a reception of the Divine nature by the Spirit' from the
1 In Johan. xvi. ad v. 13, p. 394. 2 ln ps. xxxii.
3 Suicer i. 1071 a. * In John, lib. xi.
« De Spirit. Sancto c. xiv. p. 38. 6 c. Ixiv. p. 53.

186 Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
Father through the Son, which is equivalent to our be
lief in the procession of the Spirit from the Father and
the Son. ,
And we have seen how the Son Himself declares this
clearly in His assertion that the Spirit receives of Him
all that He has of the Father, all that He has which is
the Father's. Indeed when He breathed on the disciples
and said, x " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," giving the
Holy Ghost as the very breath of His own life, He
testified clearly by this symbol of the outward world,
that the Spirit, who is the very spirit or breath of life of
God Himself, proceeds from Him.
On this relation of the Spirit to the Son is founded
the mission of the Spirit by the Son ; as the mission of
the Son Himself by the Father springs from the depths
of His own eternal relation to the Father, who sends
Him. When He says, 2 " the Comforter, even the Spirit
of truth, whom I will send unto you from the Father,"
He traces and exhibits, in the order of the outward mis
sion, the order of that procession of the Spirit in His
Divine essence from the Father by the Son, upon which
the propriety of the sending of the Spirit by the Son is
founded. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, because He
is sent by Christ, and fully represents Christ, and He
does this, and is capable of doing this, because He receives
of Christ all the fulness of the Godhead which Christ the
eternal Son received from the eternal Father.
The controversy has been an unhappy one by which,
in consequence of the insertion of the Filioque in the
creed, a large portion of the Church has been alienated,
it is to be feared, from the truth that the Spirit proceeds
from, or receives of the Son in His Divine essence ; a
1 John xx. 22. 2 j0hn IV. 26.

Personality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 187
truth which the Greek Church anciently received, and
which, as we have shewn to you, is an indubitable truth
of God's revelation, as it is set forth in holy Scripture.
We cannot rightly estimate the mission of the Spirit
from the Son, in all the work of Gospel administration,
in His perfect dispensation of the grace of the Lord's
accomplished work, in the demonstration which He gives
to the preached Word of Christ, in His incorporation of
Christ with the souls of believers, in the Divine reality
proceeding from the incarnate Lord, and from all the
work of His incarnate hfe, which the Spirit gives to the
sacraments of the Gospel, in His upholding, with Divine
life and power, all the ministries of Christ in His holy
Church ; we cannot rightly estimate all this work and
office of the Spirit sent forth by Christ for its perfor
mance, without having right and true views of the rela
tion of the Spirit to the Father, from whom, and to the
Son, by whom He is sent.
Let it be our endeavor rightly to apprehend the mys
terious doctrine of the Trinity in unity, and above all,
rightly and truly to devote ourselves to the service of
God triune, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; for, if we be
Christians indeed, then the highest of all fellowship is
ours, for then our fellowship is with the Father and with
His Son Jesus Christ, by the bond of the Divine Spirit,
who from both eternally proceeds, who is the Lord, the
life-giver, who, with the Father and the Son together, is
worshipped and glorified, as with them being the God
triune, to whom alone all Divine worship and adoration
and love and obedience are due.

. Chaptbe V.
THE HOLY, BLESSED AND GLORIOUS TRINITY.
THE doctrine of the Trinity, though not formally
stated in holy Scripture as it is set forth in the
creeds of the Church, is yet clearly involved in the teach
ing of Scripture concerning the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost respectively, and concerning their connexion
with each other in the unity of the one God, to whose
service we are consecrated and to whom our worship and
adoration are due. How they are exhibited to us in the
baptismal formula, which is also the baptismal creed, has
already been clearly shewn. And in the account^ of the
baptism of our Lord the three persons of the Trinity,
who are the one God living and true in whose name we
are baptized, are clearly revealed. For in that baptism
of Ghrist, the beloved Son of God was plainly recognized
as such by the voice of the Father from Heaven, and the
Spirit was seen in visible form, " descending like a dove "
and lighting upon Him, who was so recognized from
Heaven as the Son of God.
When we admit the undoubted truth revealed in holy
Scripture, that God is one, and the other truths equally
undoubted, that the Father is God, the Son is God, and
the Holy Ghost is God, and that the Father is distinct
from the Son and from the Holy Ghost, as each of these
is distinct from the other and from the Father, we have
all the elements of the confession of the Trinity in unity —
i Matt. iii. 13-17.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 189
that God is one, and the persons of the one Godhead are
three. This doctrine is purely one of Divine revelation.
God only fathoms the depths of His own existence ; He
only knows, and therefore He only reveals so far as it is
revealed, the character of His own personality.

The Trinity was recognized and worshipped in the
Church from the earliest ages. S. Basil quotes the sim
ple and conclusive adjuration of Clemens Romanus.J_
After adducing the testimony to " the holy Trinity " of
Dionys. Alex., he adds, "But Clemens also more an
ciently (dpxatxoorepov) says, ' Live God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.' As Dionysius Alex.,^
in opposing the Sabellians, says, 'If they say that if
there are three hypostases, they are divided, there are
three, although they will not have it so,' and again, 'For
the Trinity also is, on account of this, after the unity
(or monad), most Divine.' "
The Trinity is celebrated and worshipped, as we have
seen, in the morning and evening hymns of the Church,
which are among its most ancient treasures of devotion.
-iTheophilus of Antioch acknowledges expressly the Trin
ity (Tpidi) as the object of Christian worship. And
Tertullian after him says strongly, __i" They pretend
therefore that two and three are preached by us, but
presume to say that they themselves are truly worship
pers of one God : as if the unity irrationally collected
did not make heresy ; and the Trinity rationally set
forth, did not constitute truth." So the Seventh Coun
cil of Carthage (a.d. 256) declares the baptism of here
tics to be a blasphemy against the Trinity.
1 De Spirit. Sanct. c. lxxii. p. 61. > S. Basil 1. c.
3 Liber ii. Cont. Autolycum cap. xv. and xxiii.
* Adv. Prax. c. iii.

190 The Holy, Blessed amd Glorious Trinity.
The Trinity was most expressly, and in very word,
acknowledged by S. Cyprian and the Church of his
country and age. St. Basil! thus quotes the doxology
of Africanus (early in the third century) : " For We,"
says Africanus, " who understand the measure of those
words, and are not ignorant of the grace of faith, give
thanks to the Father, who hath prepared for us, His
own (disciples), Him who is the Saviour of the uni
verse and our Lord Jesus Christ ; to whom be glory,
majesty, with the Holy Spirit for the ages (to come)."
_lBefore Theophilus used the word (rptds) Athen
agoras had clearly set forth the doctrine of the Trinity
as the doctrine of Christians. J^" Who then," he says,
" would not be perplexed if he should hear those called
atheists (without God) who say that the Father is God,
and the Son is God as well as the Holy Spirit, shewing
both their power in the unity, and their separation in
the order." This is a statement from a father of the
second century fit to stand in the Nicene Creed itself.
_JA.nd Dionysius of Rome (Epist. adv. Sabelli.) has this
clear and noble passage : "But next I should properly speak
against those also who divide, and cut asunder, and de
stroy the most venerable preaching of the Church of God,
the monarchy, into certain three powers and divided hy
postases, and three divinities. For I have heard that some
among you who catechise and teach the Divine Word, are
the masters of this opinion : who are diametrically, so to
speak, opposed to the opinion of Sabellius ; for he in
deed blasphemes by saying that the Son Himself is the
1 De Spirit. Sanct. c. lxiii. p. 62.
• Bouth Reliq. Sacrae vol. iii. p. 188.
3 Legat. pro Christ. §§ 10, 11, p. 11, A. ed. J. M. 1636; cf. p. 12, D.
4 a.d. 259-269, Epist. in Decret. Syn. Nicen. apud S. Athanas.
Routh, vol. iii. pp. 179, 180.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 191
Father, and vice versa y but these, in a certain way, pro
claim three gods, who divide the holy monad into three
hypostases, estranged from one another, in all respects
separated. " For it is necessary (to believe) that the Divine Word
has been united to the God of the universe, and the
Holy Spirit must needs dwell and live in God ; now also,
it is, by all means, necessary that the Divine Trinity
should be summed up and collected as in some head (I
speak of the God of the universe, the Almighty one).
For the teaching of the vainly-minded Marcion, which
cuts and divides the monarchy into three original prin
ciples (dpxds), is diabolical instruction, but not that
of those who are truly disciples of Christ, and of those
who are pleased with the teachings of the Saviour: For
these know well that the Trinity, indeed, is preached by
the Divine Scripture, but that neither the Old nor the
New Testament preaches three gods."
And, in another part of the same epistle, he says,
_i" Therefore we ought neither to divide into three divin
ities the wonderful and Divine monad ; nor to diminish
by (the word) creation, the dignity and the exceeding
greatness of the Lord: but to believe in God, the
Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ His Son, and in
the Holy Spirit ; but that the Word (Logos) is united to
the God of the universe, _!' for I,' He says, ' and the
Father are one (thing),' and_l' I am in the Father, and
the Father in Me.' 4For so both the Divine Trinity
and the holy preaching of the monarchy would be
preserved intact."
i Routh iii. pp. 182. 183. 2 J0hn x.,30.
3 John xiv. 10.
4 De Deer. Nicenae Synodi. apud. Athanas. cap. xxvi. p. 231, ed.
Ben.; Bouth iii. 183.

192 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
_*Origen not only often speaks of the Holy Spirit con
jointly with the two other persons of the adorable Trinity,
but also expressly taught the coeternity of the Spirit^
His words concerning the high and sacred character of
the doctrine of the Trinity are notable. J." But if before
ploughing and before breaking-up the fallow ground in
the reason of the bearers, any one should take the holy
seeds, — the discourse concerning the Father, that con
cerning the Son, that concerning the Holy Spirit, the
discourse which concerns the resurrection, the discourse
which has reference to punishment — and sow them, he
transgresses the commandment, which says, first, ' break
up for yourselves the fallow ground ' ; secondly, ' and
sow not upon thorns.' " ,
The council of Aries, which was held a.d. 314, and so
brought down the teaching of the Church to the very
verge of the Nicene Council, in its Epistle to Sylvester,
Bishop of Rome, thus deduces the doctrine of the Trinity
from the formula of baptism : __4_" If they see that he
(any heretic about whose baptism a question has arisen)
has been baptized in the Father and the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, let hands only be laid on him. But if when
asked for his creed, he does not answer this Trinity, let
him deservedly be baptized."
Thus do we see that witness of the Church from the
days of the Apostles to the days of the Nicene declara
tion of faith, to the same doctrine which was set forth
at Nicaea and fortified by new and accurate definitions
(though the new terms were adopted from the ancient
traditions) against the dangerous and subtle heresies by
' Routh iii. 214.
2 Euseb. lib. i. adv. Marcellum c. iv. p. 22, ed. Paris.
3 Homil. v. in Jeremiam p. 157, ed. Bened. ; Routh iii. p. 227.
* Routh iv. 89.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 193
ch the true faith was assailed. In confessions, in
ologies, in hymns, in expositions of bishops and doc-
i and councils was this doctrine set forth, as that the
ntenance of which was needful for the very life and
stence of the Church of Christ upon earth, as the very
ndation of that religion revealed from Heaven, which
Church was commissioned to hold, to teach, and to
ismit, through the generations of mankind, till the
>nd coming of the Lord.

'he heresies which in the earlier centuries of the his-
7 of the Church rejected and perverted the doctrine
;he Catholic Church, themselves illustrated that doc-
te, and in the opposition to themselves which they
ikened in the bosom of the Church, demonstrated how
sntial this doctrine of the Trinity was held by the
irch to be, how she staked her all upon the inainten-
e of it, that so her commission from the Lord might
truly accomplished. The heresies by which the doc-
ie was assailed and perverted arose from the attempts
those who espoused them to explain to themselves a
trine which is^ncapable of explanation by the finite
acity of man, which must be received, if it is received
ill, in its incomprehensibility, because it is the reve-
on which God has made concerning His own exist-
e.?he two classes of heresy which attacked this doctrine
the Church were those which assumed their . most
inite forms under the names of the Sabellian and the
an heresies. The first denied the distinctness of the
sonalities in the Godhead; the last, admitting this
inctness, denied the oneness of the Godhead in the
se persons, in whose name we are baptized. The pre-
essors of Sabellius in the general scheme of doctrine

194 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
which takes its name from him, wereJPraxeas,_2Noetus,
and Beryllus,3 who were all Patripassians ; ^Sabelhus
renewed their doctrine in a form still more developed,
and from him this whole scheme of doctrine, which
maintains the monarchy without distinctness of person
alities, derives its name.
Jjj He maintained that our Lord and Saviour did not ex
ist in His own circumscription of substance before His
sojourn with men ; nor, indeed, had divinity which was
His own, but only that of the Father abiding in Him.
They thus persuaded themselves that they taught purely
the unity of God, when they admitted in the Godhead
but one hypostasis. But, in thus seeking to compass the
mysterious doctrine by human reason, they utterly de
stroyed the doctrine of the Trinity in unity. Praxeas
was confuted by Tertullian, Noetus was excommuni
cated at Smyrna ; Origen induced Beryllus to recant his
error ; Sabellius and his doctrine were condemned and
rejected by the universal Church.
The attack of the Arian heresy was on a different por
tion of the doctrine of the Trinity. Arius did not ex
pressly deny the doctrine of the Trinity, J^ but he so
explained' it, that it ceased to be a Trinity of the God
head, a Trinity which, in all and each of its persons, was
truly Divine. _^He maintained that when God was
i About a.d. 192. 2 a.d. 230. 3 244 a.d. * 250-260.
5 Euseb. vi. 33; Origen fragm. ex libro in Epist. ad Titus, Giese-
ler Div. iii. chap. ii. §60, p. 200, vol. i.; Theodoret Haer. fab. comp.
iii. 3. 6 Epist. ad Euseb. Nicene ap. Epiph. Haer. lxix. §6; Theodoret
Hist. Ecc. i. v. 1. ; Epist. Alexand. ap. Athan. De Synodis Arim. et
Seleac c. xvi. and Epiph. Haer. lxix. §7.
7 Athanas. C. Arianos Orat. ii. (iii.) §24, ed. Cologne, p. 395, ed.
Bened. p. 492.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 195
about to produce the creation, as it could not proceed
from Himself directly, He first created and made Him
self alone, one only, and called Him the Son and Logos,
that He being the only intermediate one, all things
might be made by Him. The Son is not unproduced,
nor in any way a part of Him who was unproduced, nor
was He from any substance (pre-existing), but He ex
isted full God by the will and counsel of the unbegot-
ten God, before the times and ages, the only begotten,
the unchangeable one, and before He was begotten, that
is, created or determined, or constituted, He was not ;
for He was not unbegotten.
Consequently the Son has a beginning, but God is
without beginning, and because we say this, J^Arius de
clares we are persecuted ; and also because we said, that
He is from those things which were not ; but we said so,
because He is neither a part (or portion) of God, nor
from any substance (vnoxeifievov)?^ He did not, he
says, dogmatize, like Valentinus, by saying the generation
was an offshoot of the Father ; nor like the Manichee,
did He introduce the offspring as a corisubstantial part
of the Father; nor like Sabellius, did He divide the
monad, calling the Son a Son-Father (viondrepa);
nor as Hieracas, Light from light, nor as a candle di
vided into two ; nor as one who before existed, and after
wards generated, or created into the Son; but, as we
say, by the will of God created before times and ages,
and having taken life and being from the Father, the
Father having called into existence, for Him, His glo
ries ; for neither did the Father, when He gave to Him
> Theodoret Ecc. Hist. i. v. p. 32, ed. Ox. 1854.
2 Athanas. De Synodis Arimin. et Seleaciae c. xvi. ed. Cologne,
p. 885, ed. Bened. p. 7'29.

196 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
the inheritance of all things, deprive Himself of those
things which He had in Himself as the unbegotten one ;
for He is the fountain of all things.
So that the hypostases are three, and God being truly
the cause (or author) of all, is most solely without begin
ning. But the Son timelessly begotten by the Father, and
created and founded before the ages, was not (did not ex
ist) before He was begotten ; for He is not eternal, or
co-eternal, or co-unbegotten with the Father ; but if that.
expression from Him, and that from His entrails, and
that going forth from the Father and that I come (from
Him) is understood by any as a consubstantial part of
Him, and as an offshoot, the Father, will be composite-
and divisible, and changeable ; and the bodiless God
will be a body according to them and, so far as they are
concerned, will suffer the consequences of bodily exist
ence. J The Father, according to Arius, was not always.
Father, nor the Son always Son, for He was not before He
was begotten ; He is not from the Father, but He exists.
from things which were not ; He is the own one of the^
substance of the Father, for He is a creation, and a,
work. And Christ is not the true God, but He was
made God by participation. The Son does not accu
rately know the Father, nor does the Logos see the.
Father perfectly, and the Logos does not understand or
know accurately the Father.
He is not the very true and only Logos of the Father,
but in name only He is called Logos and wisdom, and
by grace (favor) He is called Son and power. He is not
unchangeable like the Father, but is by nature change-
1 Thaleia of Athan. contra Arianos Orat. ii. c. ix. ed. Cologne torn..
i. p. 314, ed. Bened. ; Orat. i. torn. i. part i. p. 413.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 197
able, like the creatures, and He fails, in the power of
conception, of knowing perfectly the Father. Arius
further explains 1 that the Son, like all others, is by na
ture changeable, but He has it in His own power, when
He wills, to abide fair (xaXoi); but when He wills
He can be changed, as we can, since He is of a nature
which is changeable. Wherefore, he says, God fore
knowing that He will be fair and good (xaXov), by an
ticipation gave Him the glory, which afterwards He had
also from His own virtue (and desert).
Such is Arianism from the expositions of Arius him
self ; such were the results of his poor attempts to solve
and explain the mystery of the adorable Trinity. It was
no longer a Trinity of pure and perfect Godhead. Un
able to see how the infinite God could communicate the
fulness of His essence to another Divine person (as what
finite capacity can see?) without depriving Himself of
that essence; how He could spend the unsearchable
riches of His Divine being without impoverishing Him
self of His Deity, Arius devised the unheard of mon
strosity of a created God, a God who was produced from
nothing, by the will and counsel of the God who was
unbegotten, and who, after all, was no God, because
He had a beginning of existence ; though it was artfully
yet nonsensically said that that beginning was ¦ before
times and ages. Thus was a Trinity of Divine existence
devised beyond the sphere of the Divine being, and per
sons were adjoined to God, as persons of the Godhead,
who were as truly no gods as the objects of Divine
worship in the realms of polytheism.
The semi- Arians were more wary than the Arians had
1 Orat. ii. c. v. ed. Cologne, torn. i. p. 311 ; ed. Bened. Orat. i.
p. 409.

198 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
been in their definitions and statements, but they really
stood upon no more stable ground than their predeces
sors the Arians, as themselves were constrained at last
to own, when they abandoned what they had maintained
as tenable middle ground, and joined themselves, in the
last quarter of the fourth, the Nicene century, to the
Catholic Church, in the profession of the Nicene faith.
_^They had maintained that the Son, though not con-
substantial with the Father, was like unto the Father in
substance ; that He was not created ; that the Father
was not older in time than the Son, nor the Son younger
in time than the Father ; but they did not admit, never
theless, that, though the Father in energy and substance
was the Father of the Son, that the Son was of the same
or identical substance (ouoovawv de ij ravrovaiov)
with the Father. By this subtle distinction they could not
really and truly assert for the Son a place in the Trinity
of the one only Godhead ; and this they themselves saw
and owned at last, and throwing down their arms, ac
knowledged that the Son was of the Father's very sub
stance. Both Sabellianism and Arianism, the two great phases
of opposition to the true doctrine of the Trinity, admitted
by their efforts to solve the mystery, to explain the rela
tions of the three persons to the unity of the Godhead,
that the persons were Divine, that the Trinity to be
believed was the Trinity of the Godhead. The Arians
conjured into existence from nothing, a God who was.
created ; the Sabellians, jealous for the preservation of
the monarchy, would not allow the generation and the
procedure from the Godhead, of such veritable person-
1 Gieseler Div. i. Second Period, chap. ii. § 83, pp. 302 ff . vol. i. ;
Epiph. Haer. lxxii. §§ 2-11.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 199
alities as the Son and Holy Spirit must be, to be truly
the Son of the eternal Father, and the Spirit in the ful
ness of the Godhead from that Father eternally proceed
ing. But in recognizing the problem, which they vainly
attempted to solve by the power of human reason, they
bore illustrious testimony to the truth, that what all
Christians believed was a Trinity of the Godhead, and
that that Godhead, though, in one sense, three, was, in
essence and being, transcendently and indivisibly one.
In fact all the heretics of the early days of Christi
anity, with exceptions not worthy of notice, from the
Gnostics, who really were not heretics that went out from
the Church, to Paul of Samosata and Arius, Macedonius,
Nestorius and Eutyches, built their heresies upon the
foundation that was undisputed, that the Son of the
eternal God was in some true and real sense Divine.
They were heresies, not which maintained the mere
humanity of Christ the Son of God, but those which
strove to explain how He was Divine, though distinct
from God the Father, which troubled the Church, and
led to the definition of her true faith, derived from
God's revelation, in her immortal and impregnable
creeds, which embodied the truth that had come from
the lips of Christ our Lord and His holy Apostles.
The problem which heresy could not solve, because it
attempted by reason the solution of revelations which
were above reason, was solved by the Church, in setting
forth the truth concerning God which was revealed,
without striving to explain that which man's reason can
not explain, or to present to human comprehension that
which, by men, not to say angels and archangels and all
finite intelligence, is incomprehensible. The great facts,
as they are stated in God's revelation concerning Him-

200 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
self, could be recorded and confessed, but how these
things can be, how God can so exist as He does exist,
because He has told us so, this could not be ascertained
or made into propositions for human belief and accept
ance. The Church could define that the Son is of one sub
stance with the Father, but how this could be, how He
could be of one substance and of the same identical sub
stance, and yet not be the Father Himself, it was out of
her power to say. That the Son is not the Father, even
because He is the true Son of the Father, she could and
must define; but how, not being the Father, His sub
stance could be the identical substance of God the Father
—this how in the things of God, in the things especially
which pertain to the Divine existence, it would be a
mark of impiety, as one of the ancient fathers says, to
inquire. Indeed, when the great battle with Sabellianism and
Arianism was fought and won, the very terms, which
had been the dividing lines between heresy and Catholic
truth, were not strenuously required to be used by the
heretics who had renounced their errors and subscribed
to the creed of the Catholic Church. The former semi-
Arians were permitte4 to explain the homoousian, which
they had accepted in a way which commended itself to
them in the confession of the truth which all acknow
ledged. They were permitted to say, J_" The name, ¦
which seems strange to some, that of the homoousian,"
signifies, " that the Son was begotten from the substance
of the Father, and that He is like in substance to the
Father." Those sent by Macedonius to Liberius say,
1 Syn. Antioch ann. 363, ap. Socrat. iii. 25; Gieseler, p. 307, vol.
i. ; Sozom. vi. 10.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 201
"they receive the name homoousian as signifying the
same with like in substance," that is, they had consented
to sink the difference, upon which they had insisted in
their days of heresy, and to accept the homoousian, as
contained in the creed of the Church.
And the judgment of the great Athanasius is memor
able, through all ages, for its combination (how desira
ble, yet how rare) of truth unyielding, and charity unre
served. _JJ' But we ought not," he says, " to be disposed,
as towards enemies, towards those who receive indeed all
other things which were decreed at Nicaea, but hesitate
concerning the homoousian alone ; for we ourselves also
do not resist them, as Arian madmen, or as those who
are in conflict with the fathers, but as brethren we dis
course with brethren, who have indeed the same under
standing with ourselves, but doubt only concerning the
name." He was not solicitous about the name, when
the sense which the name indicated was fully admitted.
And so with love and joy were the returning semi- Ari
ans received into the bosom of their mother, the Holy
Church.  —

There was, even among those who received alike the
Nicene. faith, a difference concerning the terms which
they used in designating the persons of the Trinity.
2 The Meletians at Antioch spoke of the persons as the
three hypostases ; the old Nicenes, headed by Paulinus,
who was consecrated by Lucifer, Bishop of Calaris, as
bishop of the Eustathians at Antioch, chose to designate
the three persons, as the three prosopa. Paulinus was
acknowledged by the West and by Egypt ; Meletius, by
1 De Synodis §41.
2 Epiph. Haer. lxiii. cc. xxviii. xxxiv.; Socrat. . 44, 25. Sozom.
iv. 26. Theodoret ii. 27. Geiseler, p. 306, vol. i.

202 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
the Eastern Nicenians, as Bishop of Antioch. This dif
ference of names indicated different aspects of the same
doctrine : even those same aspects of the Catholic doc
trine which had occasioned the heresies of Sabellius and
of Arius, in their attempts to explain one or the other
of these sides of the truth revealed.
Those who called the persons prosopa, were jealous of
maintaining the unity of substance, while they admitted
the distinctness of persons. Those, on the other hand,
who called the persons by the name of hypostases, were
desirous to assert clearly the divinity of the distinct
persons, inasmuch as, by the name they used, they signi
fied that the persons had, each and all, by virtue of
their personality, the fulness of the one substance (for
hypostasis signifies substance) of the Godhead. Those
who objected to the name hypostases intimated that
those who used it, verged towards such a separation of
the persons as might suggest three coequal Gods.
Those, on the other hand, who preferred the name hy
postasis to that of prosopon, declared that they would
avoid seeming to speak of personifications instead of
veritable persons, and so give countenance to the old
error of Sabellius. It was the love of truth which ani
mated both divisions, and their difference was as to the
best manner of stating the truth which both firmly held.
And it illustrated again how in endeavoring to explain
aspects of truth, which they should simply have re
ceived on the authority of Divine revelation, both Sa
bellius and Arius had exaggerated and distorted the
truth in different directions, and so fallen into the here
sies which were an utter denial of it. _^ Athanasius at
the Council of Alexandria (a.d. 362) endeavored to
1 Gieseler, vol. i. p. 306.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 203
settle this dispute, in the same spirit in which he had
sought to reconcile to the Church the semi- Arians. The
synodical letter of the Council thus exhorts to peace :
J_" Invite therefore among yourselves all who wish to be
at peace with us, especially those who are gathered in
the old (city, Church) (the Meletians), and those who
come from the Arians, and receive them as fathers do
their sons, and show yourselves to be teachers and
guardians, and joining yourselves to our beloved who
adhere to Paulinus, demand nothing further from them,
than to anathematize indeed the Arian heresy, but to
confess the faith confessed by the holy fathers them
selves in Nicaea." The Council then explains the dis
pute concerning the hypostases, by saying that the one
party teaches that there are three hypostases, that they
may profess their belief " in the holy Trinity as not only
in name a Trinity, but as one which truly is and subsists,
the Father truly being and subsisting, and the Son being
and subsisting truly in substance, and the Holy Spirit
subsisting and being"; the others, on the contrary,
taught that there was one hypostasis, " thinking that it
is the same thing to say hypostasis and substance"
(vnoaraaiv xal ovffiav), and the Council concludes
" that the faith confessed by the fathers in Nicaea was
better and more accurate, and that hereafter they should
be rather satisfied with and use the words of this (faith)."
In the Western Church, which adopted the word
persona to express the personalities of the Godhead,
this difference of conception could not arise, which
came from the different significations of vnoGraGi? and
npoGa>nov. S. Gregor. Naz^well expresses this when
he says, "The Italians and we alike speak and think
1 Mansi iii. p. 345 ss. 2 Or. xxi.

204 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
piously of the one substance (ovGtas) and the three
hypostases (vnoGraGeoov), but they not being able, on
account of the narrowness of their language, and its
poverty of words, to distinguish substance from hy
postasis, and for this reason substituting the npo-
Goana, that three substances may not be admitted;
what does all this amount to that it should be either
ridiculous or pitiable? The frivolous talk concerning
the sound has given the appearance of a difference of
faith." But the Greek language enabled the fathers of
the Greek Church to express more clearly in what the
distinction of the persons consisted ; and Basil the Great
with the two Gregories rightly adopted the word hy
postasis to express the distinction of persons in the God
head. S. Basil says .^substance and hypostasis (or subsistence)
have the difference from each other which the common
has from the particular (the species for example from
the individual). Sabellius taught one hypostasis and
three prosopa, and S. Basil declaredj^that it was needful
to confess that the hypostases were three. And the
Eastern imputed to the Western Church, because they
preferred prosopa as the representative of the Latin
personae, a leaning to the doctrine of Marcellus.
Basil and the Gregories were right, without a doubt,
in their selection of hypostasis to express the Divine
personalities. For the persons of the Godhead are Di-
, vine persons, and as such have in them, each and all,
the fulness of the Divine substance. They are more
properly therefore contemplated as three subsistences
of the one Divine substance, rather than as three
manifestations, or personifications (which prosopa might
i Ep. 236. 2 Ep. 258, ad Epiphanium.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 205
signify), of that one ovGia or vnoGtaaii. The per
sonality of each Divine person, in fact, consists in the
distinct manner in which each person has and possesses
the Divine substance, the Father originally, the Son by
eternal generation, the Spirit by eternal procession. The
Son and the Spirit each is essence of essence, and so each
is a distinct subsistence or hypostasis of the Divine sub
stance. S. Augustine finally, in the West, made the clear and
true statement concerning the Divine persons, which was
the true result of the Nicene doctrine, and thus estab
lished in the West a true conception of the doctrine, and,
in so doing, justified the statements of the three great
fathers in the East, Basil and the Gregories, who had put
the crowning stone upon the edifice of the Faith, in
which all the Church, in all the world, dwelt, as in one
house of God triune.
S. Augustine thus clearly expresses the distinction :
2_" And when three men are said to be one nature, or
three men of the same nature, three men can also be said
to be from or out of (ex) the same nature, because from
(ex) the same nature also three different (alii) men can
exist : but in that essence of the Trinity, in no way can
any other (alia) person whatsoever exist from (ex) the
same essence, by separation that is. Then in these things
one man is not so much as three men together, and two
men are something more than one man : and in equal
statues, three together are more gold than each taken
singly, and one is less gold than two. But in God it is
not so ; for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together are
not a greater essence than the Father alone, or the Son
alone ; but the three substances or persons together, if so-
1 De Trin. lib. vii. ii. pp. 611, 612.

206 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
they must be spoken of, are equal to each of them singly ;
which the animal man does not perceive. For he cannot
think of aught but masses and spaces, either minute or
great, phantasms, images, as it were, of bodies flying
about in his mind."
Here is ajuststatement of the incomprehensible re
vealed fact, without attempt to explore and explain a
mystery of Divine existence which is inexplorable. The
mystery is a subject of wonder and adoration and belief,
but its inexhaustible treasures of being are not to be
opened by the key of speculation or human reasoning.
Revolve the sentences of the Athanasian Creed, survey
the mystery, as it is there stated, on its every side, in its
every aspect, and the contemplation will be exalting in
its devotional power, but, in the end, the revealed fact
must be accepted in all its impenetrable mysteriousness :
the attempt to pierce into those depths of the Divine
being of the Trinity in unity will be most dangerous and
futile. But yet the doctrine of the Trinity is one of eminent
practieaLDOwer and importance. Like the massive foun
dations of some vast and imposing edifice, erected for
beauty and convenient use, which lie deeply imbedded
in the earth, away from the eyes of men, sustaining the
whole edifice, which they use and enjoy ; the doctrine of
the Trinity is the foundation both'of the vast schemes of
creation and redemption, andM all the relations in which
men, the accountable creatures, stand towards their Crea
tor, Preserver, and Redeemer. And so is it revealed to
us in the Word and in the Church of God.
fs/ In the dawn of creation God issued his fiat of creation,
by His living creative Word, who was in the beginning
with God, and who was God. And the Spirit of God

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 207
then moved upon the waters of ancient chaos, and called
light out of darkness and order out of confusion. For
_J_" by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made ; and
all the host of them by the breath (or Spirit) of His
mouth." ^ " By His Spirit He hath garnished the heav
ens." So was the Trinity divinely revealed at the very
instant of the ereation. By His Spirit He pervades
universal providence. _^" Whither shall I go from Thy
Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?"
_i" Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being
- His counsellor hath taught Him ? "
(¦*.) In the address of the Son proclaiming Himself as the
messenger of God, by the prophet Isaiah, He says, B " and
now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me," a plain
allusion to the sending of the Son and the Spirit, who
were active in the creation, for the greater work of
redemption. The Spirit spake by the Prophets, and
hence the familiar name of the Spirit in the ancient
Church was the prophetical Spirit, for Jj" no prophecy of
the Scripture is of any private interpretation ; for the
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man : but
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost." And the Spirit by which the Prophets spake
was the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God 'the Son as
well as the Spirit of God the Father.
Of the salvation of Christ, J_u the Prophets inquired
and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you. Searching what or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did sig-
1 Ps. xxxiii. 6; Heb. xi. 3; II. Peter iii. 5. 2 J0b xxvi. 13.
3 Ps. cxxxix. 7. * Is. Ix. 13.
s Is. xlviii. 16. « II. Pet. i. 20, 21.
11. Pet. i. 10, 11; I. Pet. iii. 19; II. Pet. i. 21.

208 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
nify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ
and the glory that should follow." Prophecy, therefore,
as well as creation and universal providence, is pervaded
by the action of all the persons of the adorable Trinity,
and is, therefore, especially as fulfilled and opened in
the Gospel revelation, a declaration of ^hat great doc
trine which is the foundation of our Christian faith and
hope. But rather by intimation and promise and continual
preparatory action were the persons of the Trinity made
known in the ancient dispensation, than by clear and
distinct revelation. The period of those dispensations
was the period in which God the Father was plainly
manifested, acting and speaking indeed, by His Son, the
angel of His presence, and by His Holy Spirit. _j^_" But
when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
His Son (and so clearly revealed Him), made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that'we might receive the adoption of sons," by
being united with Him who was the true, the only be
gotten Son.
In His incarnation the Trinity was cleary revealed,
for to the holy Virgin the angel said, _*_!' The Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the High
est (surely the Holy Ghost was God supreme) shall over
shadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall
be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." From
His incarnation, through all the days in which He was
among us, " the Word made flesh," " Emmanuel," " God
manifest in the flesh," till His resurrection, j^'by which
1 Gal. iv. 4, 5.
2 Luke i. 35; Matt. xiv. 33; Matt. xxvi. ,63, 64; Mark, i. 1; John
i. 34, and xx. 31; Acts viii. 37. 3 Rom. i. 4.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 209
He was declared to be the Son of God with power," and
His ascension to the right hand of the Father, from
whom He came forth — there was a full, special and clear
revelation made to man of God the eternal Son.
And when He left the world, He sent from Heaven
in accordance with His promise and the promise of the
Father, the Spirit who was His other self, who JJl pro
ceedeth from the Father " (and so has the Father's ful
ness of Divine essence), who is sent to men by the Son
from the Father (who, therefore, proceedeth from the
Father by the Son), who J." taketh or receiveth " saith
the Son Himself, " of Mine " (and " all things that the
Father hath are Mine," saith the Son) "and shews it unto
you." The sending of the Spirit, therefore, is the sending of
Him in whom are " all things that the Father hath " —
His essence, of course, included, and this He receives of
the Son from the Father according to the declaration of
the Son Himself. The Spirit, therefore, in this dispen
sation under which we live, till the time of the second
coming of our Lord, is revealed to us as very God, pres
ent among us, the third person of the adorable Trinity ;
for the Lord Jehovah is the Spirit, and where this Spirit
of the Lord is, there, to those who receive Him, is the
freedom of the sons of God.
In the three dispensations then, the patriarchal and
Mosaic, in which the Father was clearly revealed ; the
dispensation of God manifest in the flesh present among
men, in which God the Son was clearly revealed ; and the
dispensation beginning on the day of Pentecost, in which
God the Holy Ghost was revealed to the sons of men as
their regenerator, sanctifier and perf ecter, the doctrine of
1 John xv. 26; cf . John xvi. 28. 2 John xvi. 15.
14

210 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
the Trinity is plainly revealed as a doctrine full of practical
comfort and saving power, and the God of our Christian
belief, in the Trinity of Divine persons, is presented to
us for our knowledge and worship, and loving and obe
dient service.
So can we comprehend the doctrine for all the pur
poses of our salvation, for all the purposes for which it
has been revealed ; though we cannot apprehend, except
for belief and adoration, the mysteries of the triune Di
vine existence. But as it is so revealed, it appeals to the
deepest convictions and to the heart of hearts of the sim
plest disciples of Christ. They are baptized in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
and they are instructed that, in their baptismal creed
they are taught to believe, each one is instructed to say
that, " First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who
hath made me, and all the world. Secondly, in God the
Son, who hath redeemed me, and all mankind. Thirdly,
in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the
people of God."
How purely, how truly, how simply, and yet how fully
is this doctrine of the Trinity thus set forth in the cate
chism of the Church. The Nicene and the Athanasian
Creeds, though they state it more elaborately, do not
express it more fully. And it is here so' expressed that
the humblest Christian can accept it, and discern it to be
the very doctrine suited to his needs and condition ; and
so receiving it, he has a hold upon it, and it has a hold
upon him, in its Divine power, which all the subtilties
of heresy cannot take from him. He learns to believe
in one God, and in no God but one ; for he learns here
what is formally stated in the Athanasian Creed, that
the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God,
and yet that there are not three Gods, but God is one.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 211
He learns further that the person of the Father is one,
the person of the Son is another, the person of the
Holy Spirit another still, but yet that of Father, Son
and Holy Spirit the divinity is one, the glory equal, the
majesty coeternal ; and so, all the other statements of
the creed are involved in the. simple declaration which,
in the catechism, the Church deems sufficient for her
children to learn. These three are one, and that one is
three — three in one sense true and real — one in another
sense as real and true — and that is the doctrine of the
Trinity, so far as it is revealed, and so far as we are cap
able of comprehending it, and so far as Christians are
required to receive it, always provided, that is, that thgy
recognize these three as the one only God, to whom
their supreme service and adoration are due.
But is all speculation upon this doctrine that we may
discern some glimpses at least of the mode of the
Triune existence, unallowable ? Such speculation, with
out question, is most dangerous, as the history of all
heresies upon this subject most abundantly shews. Such
speculations have resulted in leading those who have
boldly pursued them into the theory of the Sabellians,
who admit but one Divine hypostasis ; of the Ariani,
who imagine to themselves Divine hypostases that are
not partakers of the one only Divine substance ; of the
Tritheists, who conceived the three Divine persons as
three individual subsistences, separate one from the other,
of the same Divine nature ; into the theory even of Tet-
ratheism,]_which maintained that the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, each, is one different from the other two,
1 John Ascunages and John Philiponus. Hagenbach, Second Pe
riod, § 96,' p. 268, vol. i. ; vide John Damas. De Haeresibus c. lxxxiii.
p. 101, ss.; Photius Biblioth. cod. lxxv. p. 164.

212 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
but no one is God as such, but each is God only as He
inseparably partakes of the common Divine nature.i_
And yet those who have reverently received the Cath
olic faith have sought to find in the created universe
images and reflexes, faint though they might be, of the
Divine Trinity, from whom the whole proceeded. St.
Augustine thus endeavors to find traces of the Trinity of
God's existence in the constitution of our own minds :J^
" For whether as we see most certain trinities, either those
which are made without, of corporal things, or when
those things, which are outwardly perceived, are thought,
or when those things, which have their origin in the
mind, nor belong to the bodily senses, as faith, as the
virtues, which are the arts of directing the life, are seen
by manifest reason, and are possessed by knowledge, or
when we truly say that the mind itself, by which we
know that we know anything, is known to itself, or
thinks itself, or when it beholds anything eternal and
unchangeable, which itself is not ; whether, therefore,
as in all these things we see most certain trinities ; be
cause they are done in us, or are in us, when we remem
ber, behold, will them, shall we say, that we so see God
the Trinity, because there also by intelligence (intelli-
gendo) we behold Him, as it were, speaking, and His
Word, that is, the Father and the Son, and the love (cari-
tatem) thence proceeding, common to both, that is, the
Holy Spirit?
" Do we see rather than believe those trinities per
taining to our senses or to our mind ? But do we be
lieve rather than see God the Trinity? Wherefore
if it be so, then indeed either we behold no invisible
1 Damian. Cf . Niceph. xiii. 49 ; Schroekle xviii. p. 624i
2 De Trin. lib. xv. cap. vi. 10, col. 689.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 213
things of His, because they are understood by those
which have been made ; or if we do behold any, we do
not in them behold the Trinity, and there is there what
we behold, there is that, which not beheld we ought to
believe. But that we behold the unchangeable good,
which we are not, the eighth book shews, and the four
teenth has reminded us, when we were speaking (loque-
remur) concerning the wisdom which comes to man
from God. Why therefore do we not there acknowl
edge the Trinity? Does not this Wisdom which is
called God understand itself, does it not love itself?
Who will say this? or who is there who does not see
that where there is no knowledge, in no measure is there
wisdom ? or indeed is it to be thought, that the Wisdom
which God is, knows other things and does not know it
self, or loves other things, but does not love itself?
Which if it is foolish and impious to be believed, be
hold then the Trinity (ecce ergo Trinitas), that is, Wis
dom, and the knowledge of itself and the love of itself.
" For so we find the trinity in man, that is, the mind,
and the knowledge, by which it knows itself, and the
love, by which it loves itself. ^But these three are so in
man, that they are not themselves the man. For man is
a rational mortal animal, as the ancients have defined
him. Those things therefore are excellent in man, they
are not themselves the man. And one person, that is,
every single man, has those three in his mind (mente).
Wherefore if we also so define man by saying man is
rational substance consisting of soul and body ; it is not
doubtful that man has a soul which is not the body, has
a body which is not the soul. And hence these three are
not the man but belong to the man, or are in the man.
igll.

214 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
Leaving out of view the body also, if the soul (anima)
only is thought of, somewhat of it is the mind (mens), as
it were its head, or eye, or face ; but these are not to be
thought of as bodies. Not therefore the soul, but what
excels in the soul is called the mind. But can we say
that the Trinity is so in God, as something pertaining to
God, nor is itself God ? Wherefore every individual
man who is called the image of God not in reference to
all things which belong to his nature, but in reference
to his mind alone, is one person, and is the image of the
Trinity in his mind. But that Trinity, of which he is
the image, is nothing else in its totality (tota) than God,
is nothing else in its totality than the Trinity. Nor does
anything pertain to the nature of God, which does not
pertain to that Trinity ; and the three persons are of one
essence, not as every single man is one person."
S. Augustine pursues this train of thought in the fol
lowing sections, discerning in the memory, intelligence
and will of man, an image, but an image faint and in
adequate of the adorable Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. Such speculations so reverently pursued in the
interest of faith, which accepts the Trinity as a revealed
truth concerning God's existence — and thankfully gathers
up all traces and intimations of it which are to be found
in the universe of God, are by no means to be discour
aged or reprehended. They may be supports and con
firmations of truth, which we believe to be revealed.
The schoolmen from Scotus Erigena down indulged in
such speculations. The mystics, like Richard St. Victor,
sought to evolve the Trinity to their conceptions, from
love. We could not be satisfied with an unethical abso
lute substance (such as the cold intellect devised), and He
melted it into the highest good, that is love. But love

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 215
would be unordered (inordinata esset caritas), would not
be the highest love (summa caritas) without a very
worthy person (condigna persona) whom the supreme
Love could love.
God alone, therefore, he concludes, is to be supremely
loved. And so he has a duality of hypostases. He
derives the third from the reflection that by Him, whom
you supremely love, and by whom you are supremely
loved (as the Father loves the Son of His love, whose
love to the Father is unbounded), you wish another to be
equally loved. Hence the desire for a fellow partaker of
mutual love (condilectus), and hence the Spirit, the bond
of the ever blessed Trinity, in its indivisible unity. The
modern German speculators have taken the Trinity out
of the sphere of pure and absolute Divine existence, and
have assigned it an existence which is relative, relative
either to the universe, which is the Non Ego, the not
ourselves, or to the ideas which have no real existence in
that universe of things in _ themselves, which are apart
from the thought of him who contemplates them. Such
speculations as these deprive the Trinity of all its Divine
life and reality ; in seeking to compass it by finite con
ception, like the heretics of old, they pervert and de
stroy the great facts of the Divine revelation.
It would be profitless to detail these various theories,
which certainly shed no light upon the mystery, which,
at the utmost, furnish only the faint images, of which S.
Augustine speaks, of a Divine reality which is beyond
our comprehension, and the certainty of which rests, and
rests only, upon the revelation that we have from God
Himself. • One of the latest of these speculations, which,
at the same time, is one of the most successful, and one
of the most reverent, because it seeks to preserve the

216 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
Christian dogma, in trying to explain it, is that of
Liebner.1^ His development of the doctrine is like that
of Richard St. Victor : it proceeds from the principle of
love, which requires another self (a Selb ander), and which
thus recognizes itself in its highest personality. And
then a third is required, " otherwise the self-positing
would be endless unrest," the endless and aimless striving
of mutual action. The Divine consciousness is a triune
consciousness ; " it is the Spirit, by virtue of whom the
first two persons take back themselves in themselves,
know themselves separated in unity, as He (the Spirit)
on His side also knows Himself in them, and knows
Himself from them and through them for Himself."
This view of the Spirit in the holy Trinity seems to
accord with that of S. Augustine, where he says, 2"But
whether the Holy Spirit of the good Father and of the
good Son, because He is common to both, can be called
the goodness of both, I do not dare to venture a rash
opinion ; but nevertheless I will more easily dare to call
Him the sanctity (or holiness) of both, not as a quality
of both, but Himself also substance, and the third person
in the Trinity. For the greater probability inclines me
to this, because since the Father is Spirit, and the Son is
Spirit, and the Father holy, and the Son holy, He never
theless is properly called the Holy Spirit, forasmuch as
He is substantial, and consubstantial with both." The
Spirit, then, according to S. Augustine, combines in His
substantial personal existence the spiritual nature and the
holiness of God.
But to proceed with Liebner to his speculation con-
1 Christian Dogmatics from the Christological principle. Herzog
Real. Encyclopaedia, vol. xvi. pp. 458, 459.
2 De Civ. Dei. xi. 24.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 217
cerning the persons of the Trinity. " God," he says, "is
Person in three persons. Every hypostasis is a person
only through the other and in the other (nepixooprjGi?)
(immanentia, intima et perfecta inhabitatio unius per-
sonae in alia). The absolute personal is only as the tri-
personal " (person-character). Here seems to be a flight
beyond the range of clear discernment for our finite
faculties, an effort to combine and justify ancient her
esy and catholic belief. As it was said of Hippolytus
that in him Athanasius and Arius slumber, and of Ter-
tullian that in him Athanasius and Sabellius might be
hidden, so of Liebner's statement of the Divine person
ality it might be said that, in it are contained Marcellus,
Athanasius and Augustine, and perhaps also a broad
ground work of Deity, in which the distinct personali
ties lose themselves in a personality which is common
to aLV_
We must admit the futility of attempts to penetrate
and formulate that impenetrable and incomprehensible
nepixGoprjGiS, by which the Father is in the Son and the
Son in the Father, and the Spirit is the bond of union
for both. The great fact is indisputable that these three
distinct persons are one — but when we go beyond the
one substance of Nicaea for a definition arid a statement,
we involve ourselves in a maze from which human specu
lation cannot set us free. But we are safe in receiving
1 Martensen, p. 110, states the doctrine seemingly in the nearest
approach which the mind of man can make to an intelligible state
ment of the mystery. " There are therefore three eternal acts of
consciousness, and the entire Divine ego is in each of these three acts.
Each hypostasis has being solely through the other two. Here there
is no temporal first or last. The entire Trinity stands in one present
Now, three eternal flames in the one light." Therefore I add, there
are three perfect Divine persons one in the Divine ego.

218 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
with unhesitating faith the great revealed doctrine in the
simplicity and yet the incomprehensibility of its revealed
facts. And as it is revealed and stated in the creed of
the Catholic Church we can embrace it with our heart's
love, and ever hold it fast, as the support and guide of
our lives and the pledge of our eternal well-being in the
presence of God triune.
In all the parts and constituents of the great work of
our redemption, the persons of the Divine Trinity reveal
themselves to us for our guidance through this world of
darkness, of temptation, of sin and danger, to the land of
everlasting life. We have the promise of our Lord, x " If
a man love Me, he will keep My words : and My Father
will love Him, and we will come unto him, and make
our abode with him," and where the Father and the Son
make their abode, we may be sure that the Spirit of the
Father and the Son will not be absent.
Fellowship with the Divine and ever blessed Trinity
is the very characteristic and privilege of the Christian
life, and shall we not know more and more perfectly
those who make their abode with us, and take us into
their own holy and Divine fellowship ? It was the in
vitation of the beloved disciple of Christ, when he said,
2" That which we have seen and heard declare we unto
you, that ye also may have fellowship with us : and truly
our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son
Jesus Christ," a fellowship to which we are introduced,
and in which we are kept and advanced by the Spirit of
the Father and the Son. So does our baptismal conse
cration in the name of the holy Trinity expand in its
blessed and heavenly power, through all our lives, till
the consummation, when3 " we shall see Him as He is."
> John xiv. 23 ; Rev. iii. 20.
2 I. John i. 3; I. Cor. i. 9; I. John ii. 24. 3 1. John iii. 2.

The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity. 219
Do not men know and love more and more perfectly
those who are the friends of their heart's love ? What
then shall be the knowledge of God triune, the knowl
edge which comes in greater and greater clearness as we
advance in purity of heart and life (for J_" the pure in
heart shall see God "), of those who, in the bond of the
Spirit, are admitted to the fellowship of the Father and
of His Son Jesus Christ ? But what is the knowledge of
the blessed Trinity, to what union in the Father, Son
and Holy Ghost are they,2." who are led by the Spirit of
God " advancing ? To be received in our consummate
life, into the very unity of the blessed Trinity itself, that
is the consummation for which our Lord prayed, and to
which He taught His disciples to look forward, _f. " That
they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I
in Thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world
may believe that Thou hast sent Me."
If the disciples of Christ believed indeed in the Holy
Trinity, in which they profess to believe, if they knew
God triune as they might and would know Him, by ad
vancing from degree to degree, in the fellowship of the
Father and of His Son Jesus Christ, and,4 "in the com
munion of the Holy Ghost," would not the time be
drawing near apace of that unity among His disciples
for which the Saviour prayed ? The beatific vision of
God triune, who shall conceive or describe ? for J " Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love Him " ; " but God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit," and that " Spirit in our
hearts " is the J|_" earnest " of the beatific vision which
1 Matt. v. 8. 2 Rom. viii. 14.
3 John xvii. 21. 4 II. Cor. xiii. 14.
s I. Cor. ii. 9, 10. 6 II. Cor i. 22.

220 The Holy, Blessed and Glorious Trinity.
we are taught to expect. In that vision, when those
.who are admitted to it shall be one, as the Father and
the Son are one, when they shall discern their own life
to be deeply rooted in the life of God triune, what
knowledge shall then be vouchsafed them of the imma
nence of the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father,
and of the Spirit in both, who shall now venture to say ?
It may be that the growing knowledge of the eternal
ages shall be an ever-deepening knowledge of God as He
is in His triune existence, in which the potencies and the
actualities of all being are contained. But while we are
here, speculation concerning the mode of that transcen
dent nepixooprjGi? is fruitless and vain. Again, as once
before, in the language of Bishop Bull when he was
concluding his defence of our holy faith in the triune
God, we say, " Meanwhile, whilst we are travellers, we
rather desire to know' than clearly know (that I may use
the words of the most learned Athenagoras), x what is
the union of the Son to the Father ; what is "the com
munion of the Father with the Son ; what the Spirit is ;
what is the union of these so great ones ; what the dis
tinction (discretio) of these who are united, the Spirit,
the Son, the Father."
1 Legat. pro Christianis, p. 12 (§ 12, p. 289).

, Chaptee VI.
CEEATION AND PROVIDENCE— THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
BY THE CREATION.
THE distance between created and uncreated exist
ence is an infinite one, and it is only by an
exercise of faith that we can hold that distance ever to
have been traversed. The mighty fact is announced in
the sublime language of the first words of the Holy
Bible, x " In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth " ; that is, the very material of which the heaven
and the earth are composed. This is undoubtedly the
announcement which is meant to be made in that simple
and sublime opening of the holy Scriptures of God. We
learn this most clearly from the interpretation of the
Apostle in the New Testament. 2 " Through faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by the word of
God, so that things which are seen were not made of
things which do appear." The force of this declaration
is that from the invisible, invisible because not existing,
the visible, visible because brought into existence, was
produced. And the invisible was not phenomenal, not
appearing, not capable of being seen, because there was
no substance which could make itself visible by its phe
nomena. The simple word of Divine power, that is, the 3 " verbum
intelUgibile et sempiternum, non sonabile et temporale,"
the fiat of the Creator, was the occasion and the cause of
i Gen. i. 1. 2 Heb. xi. 3.
3 S. Augustine De Civitate Dei. xi. 8.

222 Creation and Providence.
the existence of the creation. And the creation was the
calling into being substance which, before the word of
creative power, had no existence, and not simply and
merely the reduction to form and order, of substance that
before existed. This is the great fact of creation, which
is propounded for the acceptance of our faith, by the
word and revelation of the Creator Himself. This was
the tradition of the old Jewish Church, as it is clearly
expressed in the book of Maccabees, x " I beseech thee,
riiy son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that
is therein, and consider that God made them of things
that were not ; and so was mankind made likewise."
The same tradition has, as we have seen, the sanction
of the inspired writers of the New Testament, for, to add
another passage, says St. Paul, 2 " For the invisible things
of Him are seen from the creation (or foundation) of the
world, being perceived by the things that are made, even
His eternal power and Godhead." It is a revelation of
His power and Godhead, this mighty act of creation,
than which we can conceive none more great and won
derful. It was the only way in which God could be
known out of the sphere of His own existence ; in which
He could be known by any but Himself.
It is so stupendous an act to human thinking, so neces
sary too, in order that God may be revealed, that some
of the fathers of the Church, following the lead of Plato,
thought it needful to attribute to God, for the mainten
ance of His perfection as God, the act of perpetual crea
tion. They could not conceive of God as being ever
quiescent, but thought that He must be, from all eternity,
active in the workings and manifestations of His God
head. Both Clement of Alexandria and Origen3 could
i II. Mace. vii. 28. 2 Horn. i. 20. 3 Strom, vi. 16, pp. 812, 813.

Creation and Providence. 223
not conceive that the God who is good could ever have
stopped doing good ; for then, says Clement, x He will
cease to be God. And he moreover asserted matter
without time (vXr/v dxpovov). But in other passages he
distinctly owns that the world is a work of God ; 2 " for,"
he says, " God alone created, since He alone is truly
God ; He creates by simply willing, and the production
follows His simple will."
And Origen, though he denied eternity to matter,
which he held to be the root of all evil, nevertheless
assumed the eternal creation of innumerable ideal worlds,
solely because he, as little as Clement, could not conceive
of God as unoccupied, for 3" to say that the nature of
God is otiose and without mobility is at once impious
and absurd." "But we," he adds, "will consequently
reply, observing the rule of piety and saying : since not
then first, when God made that visible world, did He
begin to operate, but as after the corruption of this there
will be another world, so also before this was we believe
others to have been." The more practical father Irenaeus
discouraged such speculations concerning the procedures
of God, before these heavens and this earth came into
being, of which we have an account in the Bible, and
which, for us, are the theatre of creation, of providence,
and of redemption. 4 " But put the case," says he, " that
any one asks, Before God made the world, what was He
doing ? We say that that answer God only can give. But
that this world was made complete by God, receiving a
beginning in tim«, the Scriptures teach us ; but what
God wrought before this no Scripture makes known.
' Photius Bibl. Cod. c. ix. pp. 285, 286.
2 Coh. pp. 54, 55.
3 De Princ. iii. 5, opp. torn. i. p. 149 (Redep. 309).
« ii. 28, p. 157 (ii. 47, p. 175, ed. Grabe). '

224 Creation and Providence.
This answer therefore is laid up with God ; and there
should be no wish to invent such foolish and unlearnedly
(sine disciplina) blasphemous productions " (like the
Gnostics, against whom Irenaeus wrote), " and because
you think that you have found out a development (pro-
lationem) of matter, reject (reprobare) God Himself
who made all things." A much wiser solution of the
mystery, we think, than that of the more speculative
Origen or .Clement.
And S. Augustine in reference to such a question
says, x " Behold I answer one who says, What was God
doing before He made heaven and earth? I do not
make that answer which some one, eluding jocosely the
pressure of the question, is said to have made ; ' He was
preparing,' he said, ' deep things (or depths) for those
who were exploring the gehennas.' It is one thing to
see, another to turn into ridicule. I do not answer in
this way. For I more willingly answer, I do not know
what I do not know, than give an answer which makes
him ridiculous who has asked deep questions, and which
causes him to be praised who has made false answers.
But I say that Thou, our God, art the Creator of every
creature. And if every creature is understood under
the name of heaven and earth, I boldly say, before God
made heaven and earth He did not make any thing ; for
if He did, what but a creature did He make ? And I -
hope that I may know as well whatever thing useful I
desire to know, as I know that no creature was made be
fore any creature could be made." »
It was the attempt to solve, to the plain perception of
men, the insoluble problem of a creation which was at
such an infinite distance from the Creator, so removed
1 Confess, xi. u. xii. torn. i. p. 150.

Creation and Providence. 225
from Him in substance, in many of its constituents, and
in all portions of it in its bounded existence, which led
to the theories of the eternity of matter, and of its
independent existence ; and to the theories also of in
ferior creators who were emanations from God (or the
Pleroma), by which the distance between the supreme
God and the creation could be more readily traversed
and comprehended. Such were the theories of the
Gnostics and of Hermogenes.
The latter, Hermogenes, maintained that God must
have created the world either out of Himself, or out of
nothing, or out of something.1 But He did not create
it out of Himself, for He is indivisible ; nor out of noth
ing, for then, as He is Good, the world would have been
perfectly good ; and so He created the world from exist
ing eternal matter. This resisted the creating principle
and power, and this is the origin of evil in the world.
In proof of the eternity of matter, he alleges that God
was Lord from eternity, and must therefore from eter
nity have an object for the exercise of His lordship.
To this Tertullian replies, 2God is certainly God from
eternity, but not Lord ; the one is the name of His es
sence, the other of pow.er, of the relation which He
bears to what is subject to Him. Only the essence is
to be viewed as eternal.
Such attempts to explain the origin of the creation
are pointedly rebuked as futile in holy Scripture. These
are the words of Elihu to Job : 3 " Hearken unto this, O
Job : stand still, and consider the wondrous works of
God. Dost thou know when God disposed them, and
caused the light of His cloud to shine ? Dost thou
1 Hagenbach, First Period, § 47, vol. i. p. 135.
2 Adv. Hermogenes 3. 3 Job. xxxvii. 14, 15, 16.
15

226 Creation and Providence.
know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works
of Him which is perfect in knowledge ? " The most that
man can attain by his own powers of investigation is,
the knowledge and classification of phenomena, of the
outside appearances of the works of God ; but into the
secret laboratory of the Most High he has not been ad
mitted. For God Himself says, in the same book of
Job, lu Where wast thou, when I laid the foundations of
the earth? declare if thou hast undestanding. Who
hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest ? or who
hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the
foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner
stone thereof ; when the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy ? "
In opposition to these vain attempts to penetrate the
impenetrable, to know by human insight what is beyond
the bounds of that insight, the early fathers of the
Church adhered faithfully to the account which God
Himself gives of His working, in His word of revela
tion. The early Christians unhesitatingly received the
Mosaic account of the creation as a historical revelation.
They believed and taught, to use the words of Hermas,2
in Him who created and put in-order the universe and
made all things from non-existence into existence. 3 They
distinctly asserted this teaching as the faith of Chris
tians, in opposition to the theories of emanation from
the Deity, and of the dualism of eternal good and eternal
evil, by which so many sought to explain, to themselves
and others, the creation and the phenomena of the world
1 Job. xxxviii. 4-7. s L;t>. ii. Mand. i.
3 Theop. ad Autolycum ii. 4. Cf . iii. 19 sq. ; Irenaeus Frag. Ser-
monis ad Demet. p. 348 (p. 467, ed. Grabe); Tertull. adv. Hermo-
genem.

Creation and Providence. 227
and of providence. There were, undoubtedly, allegori
cal explanations of the Mosaic narrative, especially in
the Alexandrian school.1 But the historical reality of
the creation, as the basis of the whole spiritual history
. of man, continued to be the accepted doctrine of the
Church. How largely the history of the fall became the basis
of the Augustinian theology, which was the prevailing
theology of the Western Church, is so notorious that a
mere allusion to it is all-sufficient. Augustine himself
endeavored to remove the idea of time from the notion
of God, and to save the doctrine that the creation began
in time by representing God as the author of time. But
he strove to spiritualize the literal as much as possible,
and to blend it with the allegorical. Thus, he says,
2 "Which days (of creation) of what sort they are, is
either very difficult for us, or even impossible, to think,
how much more to say."
Concerning the seventh day his views were nearly
those of Origen : 8 " The rest of God," he says, " sig
nifies the rest of those who rest in God, and whom He
makes to rest ; as the joy of a house signifies the joy of
those who rejoice in the house, though not the house it
self, but something else makes them joyful. How much
more, if the same house makes its inhabitants joyful by
its own beauty, so that it may not only be said to be joy
ful by that mode of speech by which we signify the
thing contained by that which contains it, — as the theatres
applaud, the meadows low, when men in those applaud,
in these oxen low, — but also by that mode of speech by
1 Origen De Princ. iv. 16. Opp. i. pp. 174, 175; Contra Gels. iv.
xl. 534.. 2 De Civit. Dei. xi. vi. 3 Dbid. u. viii.

228 Creation and Providence.
which the effect is signified by the efficient (cause) ; as
an epistle is called joyful, signifying the joy of those
whom, when they read it, it makes glad. Very suitably,
therefore, when prophetical authority relates that God
rested, the rest of those is signified who rest in Him, and
whom He makes to rest."
He opposes the Egyptian chronologies,1 and adheres
to the Scriptural (6000). Augustine thus clearly antici
pated more modern theories concerning the six days of
creation ; and on this subject be it said that, whether
the days of the Mosaic narrative are thought to be
long periods of time, or whether a series of periods
and ages is interposed between the first creative fiat and
the work of the six days which followed that fiat, the
great fact of the creation as stated in the Word of God
and propounded to our faith remains unchanged; and
whether we regard the days as literal days, or as long
periods of time, we can alike believe and 2 " through faith
understand that the worlds were framed by the Word
of God, so that things which are seen were not made
of things which do appear."
Even the vaunted theory of the development of the
universe from some primeval germ or germs, by which
scientific men flatter themselves that they will be able to
unlock the great secret of the creation, has been antici
pated by the fathers of the Church, and shewn to be by
no means inconsistent with the great article of our faith
concerning a living personal Creator, without whom the
creation could not have been. S. Augustine, speaking
of the miracles wrought by the Egyptian magicians, who
were aided by the angels that transgressed, says :
1 De Civ. Dei. xii. c. x.
2 Heb. xi. 3.

Creation and Providence. 229
1 " Nor, therefore, should it be thought that this ma
terial of things visible serves the angels that transgressed,
according to their nod (nutum), but it serves God rather,
by whom this power is given just as, in His sublime and
spiritual seat, He sees fit. For water and fire and earth
serve also those malefactors who are in the mines, so
that they can do with them what they will, but so far as
they are permitted. Nor truly can those evil angels be
called creators, because by them the magicians resisting
the servant of God produced frogs and serpents, for they
did not themselves create them. Forasmuch as of all
things which are produced (nascuntur) corporally and
visibly, certain hidden seeds are latent in those corporeal
elements of this world.
" For these things which are seen by our eyes of fruits
and animals are of one kind (alia), but of another kind
(alia) are those hidden seeds of seeds from which (unde),
by the command of the Creator, the water produced the
first swimming and flying things, but the earth the first
germs of their own kind (sui generis) and the first ani
mals of their own kind. For neither then in the progeny
of this character, were they so produced that in the pro
ductions that force was consumed ; but very often the
fitting occasions of temperaments are wanting, by which
they may burst forth, and continue (peragant) their own
species. For behold the shortest sprout is a seed, for
suitably committed to the earth, it produces a tree. But
the more subtle seed of this sprout is some grain of the
same kind, and so far visible to us.
" But now the seed also of this grain, although we
cannot see it with our eyes, we can yet conjecture it with
our reason : because unless there were some such force in
1 De Trin. cap. viii. lib. iii. col. 566, torn. viii.

230 Creation and Providence.
those elements, not very often would things arise from
the earth which were not sown there ; and this is true
of the germs both of animal and vegetable life. Nor
would there be so many animals, if there were no prece
dent commingling of males and females, whether in the
earth or in the water, which nevertheless grow and pro
duce others by coition, if those things must arise from
parents who have come together. And certainly bees
conceive the seeds of their children not by coition, but
they collect them by their mouth, scattered as it were
through the earth.
" For the Creator of the invisible seeds is Himself the
Creator of all things [hear ye this, O ye Huxleys, and
Darwins, and Biichners, et id omne genus], since whatso
ever things escape our eyes in their birth, receive the
first beginnings of their development (progrediendi) from
hidden seeds, and take the increments of their due mag
nitude and distinction of forms from their originals as
the regulating principles (regulis)." So that if our scien
tists actually succeed in producing life like the philos
opher's stone, by their manipulations, these original
principles endowed with force by the Creator are the
germs from which the wonderful production proceeds.
" As therefore," continues S. Augustine, " we neither
call parents the creators of men, nor husbandmen the
creators of fruits, although when their motions are ap
plied, the power (virtus) of God inwardly works out
those things which are to be created : so it is not right
to think, I do not say bad angels only, but not even
good angels to be creators, if, in accordance with the fine
ness of their sense and body, they know the seeds of
those things which to us are more occult, and scatter
them latently through the fitting temperings of the ele-

Creation and Providence. 231
ments, and so furnish the occasions of producing things,
and of accelerating their increments. But neither do
the good do these things, unless so far as God commands,
nor the bad do these things unjustly, unless so far as He
Himself justly permits. For the malice of the wicked
has its own unjust will, but it has no power, unless it
justly receives it, whether for its own punishment or for
that of others, either for the punishment of the bad, or
for the praise of the good."
So far can our scientists deal with the secret powers
of the Creator, which He has ever in His own just and
holy keeping, and those with whom in the sphere of the
creation they are fellow workers, are well and admirably
set forth by S. Augustine, in his defence of the inex
pugnable faith that God alone is the Creator of Heaven
and earth, and of all things therein contained. In an
other passage S. Augustine sets forth grandly the great
truth of the creation by God and God alone.
1"For," he says, "it is one thing to build and admin
ister the creature (creaturam) from the inmost and last
hinge of causes, and He who does this, is God the only
Creator; but another thing to apply (admovere) out
wardly some operation according to forces and faculties
distributed from that (first cause), so that then, or there,
that which is created may so or so go forth. Forasmuch
as these things have now all been created originally and
primordially in a certain texture of the elements ; but
they go forth when the opportunities are received by
them. For as mothers are ^ pregnant with their fetuses,
so the world itself is pregnant with the causes of the
things which are born ; which are not created in it,
unless by that highest essence, in which any thing neither
arises, nor dies, nor begins to be, nor ceases (desinit).
i De Trin. lib. iii. c. ix. col. 568.

232 Creation and Providence.
" But not only bad angels but alse bad men can apply
(adhibere) externally the acceding causes, which although
they are not natural, are yet applied according to nature,
so that those things which are contained, hidden in the
secret bosom of nature, may break forth and be out
wardly created, in a certain way, by unfolding (expli
cando) their own measures and members and weights
(masses), which they have received occultly (in occulto)
from Him, who has disposed all things in measure and
number and weight (mass), as I have shown above by
the example of agriculture."
S. Augustine then proceeds to apply this reasoning
to the production of living things by even bad men and
bad angels, and then continues : " But he is not the crea
tor unless he is one who forms those things principally.
Nor can any one do this except he in whose power are
primarily (primitus) the measures, members and weights
of all things; and He is the one Creator, God, from
whose ineffable power it is also brought about, that what
these angels could do, if they were permitted, they
therefore cannot do, because they are not permitted."
(Ye cannot produce life, O ye vaunting scientists, or, if
ye could, it would be the creation of God the one Crea
tor). " For neither does any other reason occur, why
they could not make the most minute flies who made
frogs and serpents, unless because the great domination
was present of God prohibiting by the Holy Spirit,
which also the magicians themselves confessed, saying
1 ' This is the finger of God.'
" But what they can do by nature, and yet cannot do
by reason of the prohibition, and what they are not per
mitted to do by the condition of their own nature itself
3 Ex. viii. 19.

Creation and Providence. 233
(per ipsius naturae suae conditionem), it is difficult for
men to explore, rather indeed, impossible, unless by that
gift of God which the Apostle commemorates, when he
says, l ' to another discerning of spirits.' For we know
that man can walk, and yet that he cannot do this if he
is not permitted ; but he cannot fly, though he were per
mitted. So, also, those angels can do some things, if
they are permitted by angels who are more powerful, ac
cording to the command (ex imperio) of God : but some
things they cannot do, not even if they are permitted by
them : because He does not permit, from whom they have
such a bound of nature, who, also, does not permit very
often those things to be done by His angels which He
has granted them the possibility of doing.
"Those things, therefore, excepted which are done
corporally in the most usual course of the seasons (trahs-
cursu temporum) in the order of the nature of things,
such as are the rising and setting of the stars, the genera
tions and deaths of animals, the innumerable diversities
of seeds and germs, the nebulae and the clouds, the snow
and the rain, lightning and thunder, thunderbolts and
hail, winds and fires, cold and heat, and all such things ;
excepting also those things which are rare in their order,
eclipses of the heavenly lights, and the unusual appear
ances of the stars, and monsters, and earthquakes, and
the like ; excepting also all those things of which indeed
the first and highest cause is nothing else but the will of
God; whence also, in the Psalm, 2'Fire and hail; snow
and vapours ; stormy winds,' — lest any one should believe
that these are done either fortuitously or by causes only
corporal, or even spiritual, yet existing beyond the will
of God, he immediately adds, ' which fulfil His word.'
1 1. Cor. xii. 10. » Ps. cxlviii. 8.

234 Creation and Providence.
" But these things excepted, as I had begun to say,
there are those other things, which, although of the same
corporal matter, are nevertheless brought to our senses,
to announce something divinely, which are properly
called miracles and signs, nor in all things, which are
announced to us by the Lord God, is the person of God
Himself brought into presence." He then says that, in
these miraculous manifestations, God appears in various
ways, by an angel, by angelic operation, by changes of
bodily existences, which may be evanescent or permanent
— but in all the latent power of God is the unapproach
able creative force.
Thus has the Church, in her faith, anticipated the
proud speculations of scientific hypothesis, and shewn
how unavailable it is to bring within its own domain the
primum mobile, the first creative, moving, life and form
giving force of the universe. Their universe, as the
scientists conceive it, is built upon an airy nothing. At
the most, they deal with phenomena which veil from
their view the force which they cannot discern, which
to them is a mere name. S. Augustine allows them all
the matter and force, all the germs of development, even
to the original proteine, which they could desire or ask,
and then He shews them that they have not solved the
riddle of the universe, without the living personal Crea
tor that faith, founded on His own revelation, furnishes
to them.
Like Archimedes of old, who boasted that if he had a
nov gtgo, he could move the world, they are finding,
and they will ever find, that this nov Grtib is only the
living God, from whose spiritual omnipotent force all
proceeds, all is set in action, and all is continued, so
long, and so long only, as He permits it to continue-

Creation and Providence. 235
The article of the faith that the one God is the maker
of heaven and eartli stands unshaken by all interpreta
tions of the specialties of the nari'ative in the book of
Genesis, which admit the historical truth and reality of
the account there contained ; the only authentic account,
I add, coming from God Himself, which we have of a
work all His own, and of which He only could bear tes
timony, as He has graciously condescended to do, to the
creatures whom He created in His own image, after His
own likeness.
This production of the universe from nothing was the
great stumbling-block of the ancient heathen philoso
phers, with whom ex nihilo nihil fit was an indisput
able axiom. But it is really a proposition of which the
nothingness and the vanity are at once evinced, when we
take into account the illimitable and essential power of
God, to whom things impossible with men or created
beings are the plainest possibilities. God is, in Himself,
pure and unbounded being, and therefore has within
Himself the possibilities of all being that ever has been
or ever will be.
Even Christian philosophers, like Malebranche and
Berkley, have deemed it sufficient to maintain the being
of God as the sum and reality of all being, and have
accounted the realities of the created universe as mani
festations and phenomena of the infinite being, which
did not require ths assumption of any substances besides
and beyond the infinite substance ; though how the ac
countability of accountable created beings could then
and so be established, it is impossible to see.
But the declaration of the creation, by God, of all
existence beside Himself, whether it be material or spir
itual existence, is clear and unequivocal, and on the un-

236 Creation and Providence.
doubted authority of God, this truth must be received
and believed, as even Father Malebranche admitted,
however inconsistent with this admission of his faith
were the speculations of his philosophy. x " By Him "
(the great Creator) is the declaration of the revealed
Word, " and for Him," " were all things created, that
are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisi
ble," 2<'and He is before all things, and by Him (or in
Him) all things consist " ; that is, He is the Creator of
all spirits and of all material existence, of all substances
in the created universe, and of all their phenomena.
This truth, however inconceivable to us, is an article
of faith.
It is indeed beyond our conception, this wondrous
power of creation, how a spirit could be called into being
from non-existence, not to speak of the myriads of cre
ated spirits, how the material universe could be pro
duced from nothing, by the fiat of the spiritual Creator.
When we would grasp this truth with our power of ap
prehension, it is stranger, more inconceivable even, than
the wondrous generation, incomprehensible to us, of the
eternal Son from the substance of the eternal Father.
But of the existence of this creation we are assured, and
it is a continual, ever-present testimony, to us, of the in
comprehensible power of the almighty Creator. The
act of the creation is stupendous and impenetrable, while
the vastness of the creation opens before us impressively
the illimitable creative energy of our God.
We may go, upon the wings of imagination, from
world to world, from system to system, striving to reach
the bounds of the created universe, but could we reach
those bounds, we have not attained the possibilities of
i Col. i. 16. 2 Col. i. 17.

Creation and Providence.. 237
creative power, which there are in the infinite Creator.
Through the vastness of the material universe, through
the ranks and hierarchies of spiritual existence, through
the crowded life of the microscopic world, through the
new wonders of creation, which the telescope unfolds to
our view, we may proceed, till we are wearied and ex
hausted in the pursuit ; but who shall say that beyond
our powers of vision, or penetration, or conception, the
great and mighty Worker is not still calling into exist
ence new habitations for new-born children of Him the
Father of all spirits that are. l " Hast thou not known ?
hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord,
the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither
is weary ? there is no searching of His understanding."
In the multiplicity and variety of the works of God in
His created universe, in the adaptations of all orders of
creatures, each to the other, in the harmoniously ordered
universe, in the provision of their appropriate spheres of
hfe and of enjoyment for the various species and indi
viduals of living creatures, in the fitting to each other of
the material and the spiritual creations, in the arrange
ment of the world in which we live, for the occupancy,
the use, and the enjoyment of man ; in all the manifold
adaptations of means to ends, and the innumerable de
vices of wisdom suited to the creatures of God, in the
spheres in which He has placed them, and for the ends
and purposes of their creation, as these manifold works
of God are unfolded, more and more fully, to our obser
vation and investigation, we discern continually, in our
world and in the universe, the footsteps and the hand
of a wise Creator, and abundant proofs of a transcendent
wisdom directed by an overflowing goodness.
i Is. xl. 28.

238 Creation and Providence.
And this brings me to inquire what was the moving
cause or occasion of the exercise of this creative power
on the part of God. That He was free, in the act of
creation, we should not doubt. He was impelled to it
by no necessity, it was no emanation of creative energy
from the great and glorious God, which He could not re
strain; nor was it needful for the boundless satisfaction
of the Divine being, which certainly could not be found
in a limited creation. In the fellowship of the adorable
Trinity, He had a Divine fulness of bliss and perfection,
and the whole created universe was only a faint reflec
tion of the fulness of life and being in the infinite God.
In Himself, for Himself, He is all-sufficient, and to that
sufficiency the creation of universe upon universe could
not add. And the widest universe that God should call
into being would be as nothing, when compared with the
possibilities of creative power in God yet unexercised.
What then prompted Him to the work of creation?
Without question, the goodness of God, His love of cre
ating being capable of happiness and enjoyment, as the
fathers of the Church with one voice have taught.
1"The angels therefore," says S. Augustine, "liberally
(liberaliter) serve God, nor does this profit God, but
themselves. For God does not need the good of an
other, since He is from Himself. But what is begotten
by that is His very self, because it is not made, but be
gotten. But those things which have been made need
His good, the supreme God namely, that is the supreme
essence." And it was especially for the happiness and
well being' of His intelligent creatures, angels and men,
that the universe was called into being. For God is
love, essential love, and love is diffusive and imparting
1 De Vera Religione, cap. xiv. 28, torn. i. col. 564.

Creation and Providence. 239
in its very nature. Says Nemesius, quoted by Hagen-
bach, x " The sun arose and the moon lighted the night
for thee, and the varied choir of the stars shone ; the
winds blew for thee, the rivers ran ; seeds germinated
for thee, and the lights were given y and the course of
nature preserved its own order, and the day appeared,
and the night passed away, and all these things were made
for thy sake." Though, indeed, it is more humano that
we assign motives of action to God.
The remark of S. Augustine is a pithy one : 2 " He
who asks wherefore God willed to make the world, asks
the cause of the will of God. , But every cause is effi
cient. But every efficient is greater than that which is
effected. But nothing is greater than the will of G/>d.
The cause of it therefore, is not to be inquired for."
Origen c. Celsum says, 3"Let Celsus then say that it
was not for man, as neither for a lion, or other creatures
that he names. But we will say, not for the lion, or
eagle, or dolphin did the Creator make these things, but
all things for the reasonable living creature."
These declarations of the fathers are fully sustained by
holy Scripture. Read the eighth Psalm : " When I con
sider Thy heavens the work of Thy fingers, the moon
and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man,
that Thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man, that
Thou visitest him ? For Thou hast made him a little
lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory
and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over
the works of Thy hands, Thou hast put all things under
1 Hagenbach i. 335.
2 De Divers. Quaest. 83, torn. vi. col. 6, Quaes. 28.
3 See Cont. Cels. iv. lxxiv. pp. 558, 559, and xcix. p. 576; Hagen
bach i. 137.

240 Creation and Providence.
, his feet. . . . O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is
Thy name in all the earth." Read the first chapter of
Genesis, and see how the creation, in our world, wanted
its crown and masterpiece, till man was placed in it, in
the image and likeness of God, to have dominion, to
possess, to use and to enjoy, to be in his true develop
ment, according to the laws of his being, a continual
testimony of the love of God in this His fair creation.
And our world is a type of all the worlds in the universe
of God, which are replenished doubtless with spiritual
life from the overflowing fountain of all life and being,
which are one grand exposition of the truth that#God is
love. It is an article of the Christian faith, that God created
all things by Jesus Christ His Son, " by whom," says the
Nicene Creed, " all things were made." x " All things
were made by Him," says S. John, " and without Him
was not anything made that was made"; 2"by whom
also He made the worlds," says S. Paul. It was the
prerogative of the Son, by virtue of His relation to
the Father, to be the Creator. For He 3 " is the image
of the invisible God," by whom God is manifested alike
in creation and redemption, by whom alone God is seen
in the creation and in the incarnation, the new creation.
He is 4 " the first-born of every creature," of the whole
creation, and, as God is, but for the uncreated first-born
the creation would not have been.
The relation of the Father and the Son, in the depths
of the Divine being, is set forth in their relation to each
other in the great work of the creation. 6 " To us there
is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things," as
i John i. 3. 2 Heb. i. 2. 3 Coi: i. 15. * Col. i. 15.
5 1. Cor. viii. 6.

Creation and Providence. 241
of Him and from Him is the Son ; " and one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things," as He is by the Father,
" and we by Him," united by Him to the Father, both
in the work of creation and in the mightier work of re
demption. For surely inconceivable in its mysterious
wonder as is the creation; the incarnation, by which
God became man, the Infinite finite, still remaining the
Infinite, is transcendent in its depth of mysterious great
ness. The creation of the universe by the Son is set before
us, in Scripture, as the living and undeniable proof of
the full and true divinity of the Son, who x " is the true
God, and eternal life." For creation is uniformly repre
sented to us in the holy Scriptures as the incommunica-
able prerogative of the living and true God. 2 " By His
Spirit" also "He hath garnished the heavens," and
breathed the breath of life into all things living, and
3 " moved upon the face of the waters," to bring forth light
and order from darkness and chaos. And so, in the
creed of Constantinople, we avow our belief in the Holy
Ghost, the Lord and the life-giver. 4 " The creation," says
Gregory Nazianzen, " was a thought fulfilled by the Lo
gos, and perfected by the Spirit " ; and " following Au
gustine, the Western divines regarded creation as an act
of the triune God."
With creation the providence of God is intimately
connected. A God of love, whose created universe
was one grand expression of His love, would not surely
abandon to itself the work of His hands. As from
His fiat only the creation came, so, by His Word, must •
' I. John v. 20. 2 Job xxvi. 13. 3 Gen. i. 2.
4 Orat. xxxviii. 9, p. 668 ; Hagenbach, i. 334.
5 Fulgentius of Ruspe, De Trin. u. viii., and others.
16

242 Creation and Providence.
it be kept in being, and the laws and conditions of
its existence be upheld. By Him, by whom all things
were made, we are told in Scripture, all things consist.
Preservation is, in fact, continued creation. We cannot
believe that the upholding, preserving presence of the
Creator is ever withdrawn from His creation while it
subsists ; if that presence were withdrawn, the universe
would vanish into the abyss of nihilism, from which it
came. With regard to the spirits whom He has made, He is
the Father of spirits, and He whose tender mercies are
over all His works, by whom l " the very hairs of our
head are all numbered," without whose cognizance and
permission 2not a sparrow falls on the ground, or is for
gotten before God, whose creative goodness is seen in
the provision made for the most insignificant of His
creatures, He surely does not leave nor forsake those,
who, in their creation, were dignified by likeness to
Him, in their spiritual nature. 3 " He is not far," we are
assured in Scripture, " from every one of us, for in Him
we live, and move, and have our being " ; 4 ">and hath
iriade of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face of the earth, and hath determined the times be
fore appointed, and the bounds of their habitation," and
all this He has ordered for the good of men, that they
might attain the true end of their creation, the true per
fection of their being. Such is the teaching of God's
revelation concerning the watchful, wise, and merciful
providence of God.
All prophecy is a declaration of the providence of
1 Luke xii. 7 ; Mat. x. 30 ; Luke xxi. 18.
2 Matt. x. 29 ; Luke xii. 9. 3 Acts. xvii. 27, 28.
4 Acts xvii. 26.

Creation and Providence. 243
•God, of its reality and its purposes ; and the fulfilments
•of prophecy demonstrate that the orderings of His prov
idence are no vain and idle thing. So does God Him-
¦self declare His providential action and power. "'lam
God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is
none like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning,
-and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
¦ saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My
pleasure." The actions of men in their individual and
. social and national life, though, to themselves, they may
i seem purely the exercise of their own wills for their own
-ends and purposes, are, nevertheless, without interference
with that freedom with which God has endowed them,
shaped by Him, in the all-wise procedures of His provi
dence, for the advancement of His designs in the world,
which He has made.
So did He use the Egyptian Pharaoh for the further-
-ance of His designs towards and in behalf of His chosen
people. So did He say of the proud, God-defying king
of Assyria, who was, in his ambitious procedures, the
. rod of God's anger against guilty people and nations, and
who thought only that, in his own will and wisdom and
power, he was advancing his own designs : 2 " Shall the
axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith ? or
shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it ?
. as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it
up, or, as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were
no wood." Beneath the wills and actions of men, be
neath the events designed, or which men call accidental,
¦ of daily life, and of the world's history, the providence
• of God is working — 3 " My Father worketh hitherto, and
I work," said our Lord — and bringing forth those results,
1 Isaiah xlvi. 9, 10. 'Isaiah x. 15. 3 John v. 17.

244 Creation and Providence.
which are true and eternal, of the whole course of the
world's history from the beginning to the end of time.
How continually is this truth represented to us in
the pages of holy Scripture. How impressively, for ex
ample, does S. Paul set forth the highest .action of the
providence of God in the lives of men, and in the his
tory of the world, till he is overcome with the wonder
of the contemplation, and breaks forth into the excla
mation : l " O the depth of the riches both of the wis
dom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are His
judgments, and His ways past finding out ! For who
hath known the mind of the Lord ? or who hath been
His counsellor ? or who hath first given to Him, and it
shall be recompensed unto him? For of Him and
through Him are all things : to whom be glory for ever.
Amen." Unhappy the man who, by denying the living
providence of God, wanders onward in a world which,
in his view, is left to itself, forsaken by the God of all
love and power, who created it ; for the providence of
God still lives and acts. " My Father worketh hitherto
and I work " — and those who will not place themselves
under the guidance of a Father from Heaven, which is
offered them, shall surely stand unshielded before a
righteous Judge, where from the throne, from which
the final results of God's government of the world shall
be declared, their eternal place in the allotments of Di
vine Providence shall be assigned.
Both irreverent and absurd is the position which those
take who maintain that, since the first act of creation,
God has withdrawn His immediate presence and action
from His universe, and left it to proceed under the suf
ficient self-action of laws which He impressed upon it,
' Rom. xi. 33-38.

Creation and Providence. 245
and incorporated with it. As if law were a living
thing, apart from an administrator to keep it in action ;
as if there were any force or potency in material nature,
apart from spiritual existence ; as if the blind instincts
of inferior animals were aught else but outward indica
tions of a wise and good Creator ; as if the history of man
had not abundantly demonstrated that, without the
gracious presence and guidance of God, who made him,
the desirable purposes of his creation will never by him
be realized. This substitution of blind necessary law
for the living active providence of God is an unbeliev
ing extrusion of God from His own creation, the legiti
mate and the actual consequence of which, as the final
step, is either openly to deny that there is a living
personal God ; or else to maintain that, if there be such
a God, He is unknowable by us. For such are the theo
ries and the dicta, clothed in the garb of philosophy, of
our own day.
God has Himself revealed to us the forces and agents
by which He conducts His providential administration.
When the foundations of the earth were laid, we are
told, in the Book of Job, that 1"the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." The
sons of God, in the Book of Job, 2 are the angels who
surround His throne ; and the morning stars designate
the first-born created sons of God. Isaiah says of the
king of Babylon, who aspired to angelic dignity, 3 " to
ascend into Heaven, to exalt his throne above the stars of
God " : " How art thou fallen from Heaven, 0 Lucifer,
son of the morning ! "
> Job xxxviii. 7. 2 j0D i. 6.
3 Is. xiv. 12, 13.

246 Creation and Providence.
In the book of Daniel the angels of God, under
Michael, their prince, are represented as the agents of
God's providential dealings among the nations of the
earth. We know how angelic visions were vouchsafed.
to the patriarchs to assure them of the protection and
guidance of the lord of angels, and he was the Jehovah
angel, the angel of the Divine presence, by whom th&
people of Israel were governed and defended, and led
through the wilderness, to the promised land, and this-
typified the angelic guidance which should be granted
to the people of the new dispensation under Christ the
Lord. x " The angel of the Lord," it is said, " encamp-
eth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth
them." 2 The angel of the Lord protected Daniel in the
lion's den from the fury of those beasts of prey. 8 " Are
they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for
them, who shall be heirs of salvation ? " They ministered
to our Lord from His incarnation to His ascension ; they
ministered to His Apostles, as they went forth, and
struggled and suffered and preached in His nanie. The
ministering spirits of God was the name by which they
were known in the ancient Church of God. And when
the Lord cometh again, 4"He cometh with ten thou
sands of His saints," B " He shall come in His glory, and
all the holy angels with Him," who have been His at
tendants and His servants, in creation, in providence,
and in redemption.
Nothing is more familiar in Scripture than this minis
tration of the angels of God, in all the realms of His
i Ps. xxxiv. 7. 2 Dan. vi. 22. 3 Heb. i. 14.
*Judel4. '
5 Matt. xxv. 31; Deut. xxxiii. 2; Dan. vii. 10; Zech. xiv. 5; IL
Thes. i. 7; Rev. i. 7.

Creation and Providence. 247
providential government, from the creation to the judg
ment. And in universal nature, in the upholding of its
laws, and in its manifold powers and operations, the
angels are the ministers of God, who execute His be
hests, and who supply from Him those living forces,
which science strives so fruitlessly to investigate and lay
bare to the efficacy of its poor material instruments of
analysis. For x"He covereth Himself with light as
with a garment," and He has His angels of light ; " He
stretcheth out the heavens, like a curtain," and that cur
tain is woven by His ministering spirits ; ' He layeth the
beams of His chambers in the waters, He maketh the
clouds His chariot : He walketh upon the wings of the
wind," for "He rideth upon a cherub," "and doth fly"
amid the moving powers of the material creation, which
are the hiding place of His power ; " He maketh His
angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire."
2 Nothing is more certain than that the forces of God's
kingdom of nature are living forces, and there is no force,
as even the heathen philosopher ^lato_taught, but that
which belongs to spiritual existence. Creation, providence,
redemption are all animated by living force, even as pan
theism itself owned that there was a soul of the world,
and in revelation we are taught that this force is that
which proceeds from the living God Himself, and that
its ministers and dispensers are the ministering spirits,
who take their command and receive their appoint
ments, as the representatives of God in His universe,
immediately from the throne upon which, in supreme
majesty, He is seated.
1 Ps. civ. 2-4.
2Ps. xviii. 10; II. Kings ii. 11; II. Kings vi. 17, Elisha; II. Sam.
xxiv. 16, 17, the angel of pestilence.

248 Creation and Providence.
1 " And is there care in Heaven ? And is there love
In heavenly spirits to these creatures bace,
That may compassion of their evils move ?
There is : — else much more wretched were the cace
Of men than beasts : But 0 1 th' exceeding grace
Of highest God that loves His creatures so, .
And all His workes with mercy doth embrace,
That blessed angels he sends to and fro,
To serve to wicked man, to serve His wicked foe !
' ' How oft do they their silver bowers leave
To come to succour us that succour want !
How oft do they with golden pineons cleave
The flitting skyes, like flying pursuivant,
Against f owle f eendes to ayd us militant 1
They for us fight, they watch and dewly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant;
And all for love and nothing for reward :
0, why should heavenly God to men have such regard 1 "
And thus does the Church call us on the Feast of Saint
Michael and All Angels to recognize these ministering
spirits, as the messengers of God in the course of His uni
versal providence. " O everlasting Gpd, who hast or
dained and constituted the services of angels and men in
a wonderful order ; mercifully grant, that as Thy holy
angels always do Thee service in Heaven, so, by Thy ap
pointment, they may succour and defend us on earth ;
through Jesus Christ our Lord."
The reality of the ^providence of God, as well as its
mercy and goodness, were abundantly taught and recog
nized by the fathers of the ancient Church. The only
peculiar and noticeable views, differing, in any respect,
from the more orthodox and true teaching of the Church,
were the views put forth by Jerome, in which he was
'Spenser, The Faere Queen, book ii. canto viii. p. 305, British
Poets, London, 1831.

Creation and Providende. 249
partially followed or supported by one or two others.
1 " As in men," he says, " the providence of God runs
even through individuals (singulos), so in the other
living things (animaUbus) we can understand certainly,
a general disposition and order and course of things ; for
example, how the multitude of fishes is born and lives
in the waters, how reptiles and quadrupeds arise in the
earth, and with what food they are nourished. But it is
absurd to bring down the majesty of God to this, that
He knows each single moment how many gnats are born,
and how many die (cf. contra Matt. x. 29, 30, 'Are
not two sparrows sold,' etc.), what is the multitude of
bugs, and fleas, and flies, in the earth, how many fishes
swim in the sea, and which of the lesser ones are bound
to be a prey to the greater. [S. Jerome might have ac
cepted the Darwinian theory of a struggle for existence.]
We are .not such silly flatterers of God, that whilst we
draw down His power even to the lowest things, we be
come injurious to ourselves, saying that there is the
same providence over rational and irrational creatures."
Set in contrast with this passage of the splenetic S.
Jerome, that noble passage of Hooker, in which he con
cludes His dissertation on law, as administered, in His
providence, by the all-wise and powerful and merciful
God : 2 " Of law there can be no less acknowledged, than
that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the har
mony of the world : all things in Heaven and earth do
her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the
greatest as not exempted from her power : both angels
and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though
i Comment in Abacuc. c. i. Opp. t. vi. p. 148.
2 Cf . Arnobius adv. Gentes ii. 47. iv. 10, and Junilius, De Parti-
bus Legis Divinae 1. ii. c. 3 ss. (Bibl. Max. P. P. t. x. p. 345).

250 Creation and Providence.
each in different sort and manner, yet all, with uniform
consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and
joy."1 God's purposes will surely be accomplished. He has
not placed His universe beyond His own control. 2"He
doeth according to His will in the army of Heaven,.
and among the inhabitants of the earth : and none can
stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou ? "
The creation of God in our world was with a definite
plan and purpose, of which, in the course of His provi
dence, He has never lost sight. Our world was created
as a theatre for the_prqbation of man, and for his devel
opment into the highest state of being and well-being
of which he is capable. Had he never fallen from his
primeval condition, he would have advanced in the true
fine of his being, and would have attained, without the
intervention of the fall and of redemption, that supreme
good, for which, by creation, he was intended. This
good could not be reached except by the exercise of that
freedom, which was the endowment of his being. But
this freedom involved, of course, the possibility of de
parture from the true law of his existence, and of final
failure to reach the supreme end of that existence, his
admission to the presence of God Himself, and all the
perfection of life which that presence imparts.
By this fall of man sin was introduced into our world,
and evil, the essence and the attendant of sin ; with all
the disordering effects that spread through the world,
even through the whole framework of the natural world,
and through all orders of beings that the world contained.
So that this evil, which marred the creation of God, was
no work of the Creator, was not imbedded in matter as
1 Book i. ad finem. 2 Dan. iv. 85.

Creation and Providence. , 251
the Gnostics dreamed, but was an incident of that free
dom of man that constituted his likeness to God, and
the perfection of his being. But God did not then for
sake His own creation. The work of redemption closely
corresponded to that of creation, and therefore is prop
erly a new creation, whether we regard it in its effects
upon individual men, upon the whole company of the
redeemed, or upon all the creation, of which man was
the crown. It will not reach its destined end, till the
creation that has been darkened and ruined by sin, shall
be restored to its original beauty and perfection.
For x"if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed away ; behold, all things are be
come new." 2"For the creature was made subject to van
ity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected
the same in hope : because the creature itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glori
ous liberty of the children of God." Then, in the whole
host of the redeemed, the freedom of man shall be res
cued and set forth in its highest, noblest manifestation,
in its alliance with truth and holiness, in its unison with
the holy freedom of God Himself, in its realization of
the transcendent end of being, for which man was cre
ated free, its realization, that is, of the original type of
man's creation, when 3 God made him in His own image,
after His own likeness. So shall the perfect creation
of God be vindicated and justified, as it was declared to
be, when God 4 " saw every thing that He had made,
and, behold, it was very good."
Even the evil, which has been introduced into the uni
verse of God by fallen angels and fallen men, shall be over-
i II. Cor. v. 17. 2 Rom. viii. 20, 21.
3 Gen. i. 26, 27. * Gen. i. 31.

252 , Creation and Providence.
ruled and repressed by the wonder-working providence of
God, shall be confined, without the possibility of release,
to its own place, where it shall forever remain, as a foil,
to illustrate and set forth the perfection and glory of the
great Creator, in the universe which is a perfect expres
sion of the goodness which He Himself is. So shall re
demption be the continuation and the perfection of the
creative work of God. The goodness of the first crea
tion shall be exalted into the glory of the new creation,
of which the hew man, the incarnate Lord shall be the
everlasting crown and head. So that while the creation
shall ever remain to awaken and nourish faith in God
our Creator, to assure us of the power in Heaven and
earth which is pledged for the protection and guidance
of His redeemed ones ; while it shall ever remain for
the cultivation of gratitude and love, for the calling
forth of praise and adoration, which are due from the
created to the Creator, for the inculcation of obedience
to the law of their God, of free and accountable beings ;
as all orders of the creation follow, under His guid
ing providence, the laws impressed upon them by His
creating hand in the cosmos, which He has ordained,
while all these lessons of duty and of love are suggested,
in and by the creation, the whole creation itself shall be
advancing, under the wise and sure and merciful order
ing of the Lord of creation and providence, to its own
consummation in the new creation, in which light shall
be called out of darkness, order out of confusion, till by
the fiat of the Creator Himself, from these l dissolving
heavens, and these elements melting with fervent heat
which shall be purged from all evil and imperfection by
the last fires of time, shall arise that 2 new heavens and
i II. Pet. iii. 12. 2 n. pet. iii. 13.

Creation and Providence. 253
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And over
this highest manifestation of the power and goodness of
the new creating Redeemer, with more jubilant songs
and more celestial joy than over the first creation, l " the
morning stars shall sing together, and all the sons of God
shall shout for joy."
1 Job xxxviii. 7.

Chapter VII.
INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD.
-" HPHE Son, which is the Word of the Father, begot-
_|_ ten from everlasting of the Father, the very and
¦eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took
man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her
.substance : so that two whole and perfect natures, that is
to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together
intone person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ,
very God, and very man." This is the statement, the
very, correct and explicit statement of the doctrine of
the incarnation, which is made in the second article of
our Church.
It is a statement entirely sustained by the exposition
of the first chapter of S. John's Gospel. There the Di
vine being and glory and power of the Word, are, in the
first place, set forth ; then the relation of this Divine
Word to mankind, as their life and light, is declared ;
then the mission of the Word, the true light to men for
their salvation, that from Him they might receive power
to become the sons of God, by the birth which is from
God. And then, that which is the foundation and foun
tain of this gift of God to men is very plainly declared :
1 " And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, or
tabernacled in us, in His tabernacle of flesh (and we be
held His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father), full of grace and truth." And this must needs
be, when in Him, so dwelling among us and in us,
^"dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."
i John i. 14. 2 Col. ii. 9.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 255
The Word was made flesh, remaining the Divine and
uncreated Word, the only begotten of the Father, which
He was before all worlds. 1"For we do not say that
the nature of the Word being changed became flesh, and
neither do we say that He was transmuted into the en
tire man, consisting of soul and body ; but this rather
we say, that the Word uniting flesh which was ensouled
(eipvxao/xevtjv) by a rational soul (ipvxq), became ineffa
bly as well as incomprehensibly man, and was called the
Son of man, not in the way of will only or good pleas
ure, and neither as by the assumption of a personifi-
¦cation only (npoGwnov jaovov) ; and that the natures
which were brought together to a true unity were differ
ent indeed, but there was one Christ and Son of both ;
not that the difference of the natures is taken away on
account of the unity, but rather the Deity and the hu
manity as well completing for us the one Lord Jesus
Christ and Son„ by the unspeakable and mystical con
currence to unity."
2 " And so it is said, although having His being before
the ages, and begotten of the Father, He was born also,
•according to the flesh, of a woman, not as if the Divine
nature received a beginning of existence in the holy
Virgin, or had any need, on its own account, of a second
generation after that from the Father ; for it would be
rash and unlearned to say that He who is before all age,
.and coeternal with the Father needs a second origination
¦(dpxr/=) into existence ; but since for us and for our sal
vation, uniting to Himself personally (xad' vnoGraGiv)
humanity (to dvdpoonivov), He came forth from a
1 Cyril ad Nest. cap. iii. ; Harduin Concil. torn. i. p. 1275 ; Cyril
.Alex. Op. ed. Paris, torn. v. ep. iv. p. 23.
2 Cap. iv.

256 Incarnation of the- Son of God.
woman, in this respect indeed He is said to have been
born after the flesh (Gapuixcoi); for He was not first
born a common man from the holy Virgin, and then so
the Word (Xoyos) came down upon Him, but being
united from the very womb, He is said to have under
gone a fleshly birth, as appropriating to Himself the
birth of His own flesh."
So that the humanity, the human body and human
soul, which were taken in the womb of the Virgin, was
the humanity of the Divine and eternal Son of God, as
really joined to His Divine person, from the very in- ¦
stant of its creation, as His Divine substance, from all
eternity, was *the substance of that Divine person, the
only begotten Son of God. The Son of God was the
true God and eternal life, and, therefore, when He as
sumed to Himself, as His own, a human body and a
human soul, not the body or the soul of any man that
naturally was engendered of Adam, that humanity, which
was His, and His alone, was the humanity of the very and
eternal God ; because it was the humanity of the Word,
who was in the beginning with God, and who was God.
In that incarnation then God became man ; God came
among us manifest in the flesh. It was by the ordi
nance and appointment of God Himself that this wonder
ful result was brought about ; the result by which God,
who is infinitely removed from all His creation, in the
height and the immensity of His being, became Emman
uel, God with us, by making our humanity His taber
nacle, by adjoining it to Himself, in the person of His
eternal Son, to be His own eternal place of abode.
And yet, though the humanity so taken by the Son of
God was His own humanity, though, by His taking it,
God became man and subjected Himself to the essential

Incarnation of the Son of God. 257
conditions and circumstances of the humanity which was
His, it was not, nevertheless, a humanity other than that
of which we all are partakers who are descended from
Adam. It was, in fact, taken from the line of Adam in
the womb of the Virgin. The genealogies from Abra
ham and from Adam, which are given in the Gospels,
are given to shew us this. x When the fulness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law, conformed to the circum
stances, condition, and nature of those whom He came
to save, that He might redeem those that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
That He should come in our nature was an essential
requisite of the work of the redemption of man, and this
necessity of the incarnation is constantly mentioned by
the great writers of the Church, who were called to set
forth the true doctrine of the incarnation against the
manifold perversions of heresy. How it was the same
nature which had sinned, which the Word took that He
might redeem us, is most excellently shewn by S.
Athanasius. 2 " These things," he says, speaking of the
Manichaean position that sin was natural to man, "you so
consider as to become accusers of the author of nature :
when God originally made Adam, did He give him sin
implanted in him? what need was there then of the
commandment? and how could He condemn him who
sinned ? and how also, before the transgression, did Adam
not know good and evil? Whom God created for in-
corruption and for the image of His own eternity, He
made also sinless in nature, and self -authoritative in will,
i Gal. iv. 4.
2 De Incarnat. D. N. J. 0. contra Apollinarium, ed. Ben. torn. i.
pt. ii. p. 934, c. xv. 17

258 Incarnation of the Son of God.
but by the envy of the devil, x death entered into the
world, since he had invented the device of transgression
{napa /3aGeco?); and so from disobedience of the command
of God man was made recipient of the seed sown by the
enemy, and sin worked henceforward in the nature of man
unto every lust (or desire), the devil not having created
the nature, which was in him, God forbid ; for the devil
could not be the author of nature, according to the im
piety of the Manichees, but, out of transgression, he
wrought a perversion (napa rponr/v) of nature, and so
death reigned over all men.
" On account of this, therefore," he says, 2 " the Son of
God came that He might destroy the works of the devil,
because the nature, which God made sinless, the devil
perverted to transgression of the commandment of God
¦ and to the invention (evpeGiv) of sin unto death ; this
(nature) God the Word raised up for Himself (or in
Himself) unreceptive of the perversion of the devil and
of the invention of sin. . . . 3 The Lord therefore
having become man, by nature, and not by fictitious
ordinance (ov deaei), neither in nature nor in act
(npaS,iv) can we refer sin to the Creator ; for in our
nature indeed is the battle yet waged, of (occasioned by)
the invention (of sin), and (there too) is the increase of
the seed sown (by the devil) on account of our weakness ;
but the incarnation of the Word having been according
to the nature of God, has become unreceptive of the
deeds yet dominant in us, from the oldness (i. e., from
our old, unregenerated humanity), and, for this reason,
we are taught to put off the old man, and to put on the
new man ; and in this was the wonderful thing, that the
Lord also became man and without sin ; that He be-
1 Sap. ii. 24. 2 1. j0hn iii. 8. 3 c. xvii. p. 936.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 259
came all newness, that He might manifest His power ;
and whatsoever things indeed He Himself, of His own
will, ordained in nature, He received into Himself;
whatsoever things He willed, birth of a woman, growth
and age, the numbering of years, labor, and hunger and
thirst, and sleep, and death, and resurrection.
" For this reason also, where -.the body of man was
corrupted, there Jesus sends forth His own body ; and
where the human soul was held in the power of death,
there Christ shews the human soul, which was His own,
that He might be present as man who was uncontrolled
in death, and might, loose the hold of death, as God ;
that where corruption was sown, there incorruption
might spring up, and where death reigned in the form
of the human soul, the immortal one being present,
might exhibit immortality, and so make us partakers of
His own incorruption, and immortality, in hope of the
resurrection from the dead, that this corruptible also
may put on incorruption, and this mortal may put on
immortality, as it is written ; x that as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so also by one
man Jesus Christ, grace might reign through righteous
ness unto eternal hfe, as it is written.
" How say ye then, that the Nous from Heaven is in
Christ, instead of the inner man, which is in us ? is it
because dividing, in two, that which is without, and that
which is within, He is shewn both in the sepulchre and
in Hades ? but it was not possible that one should give a
ransom for another (of a different kind), but He gave
body for body, and soul for soul, and a perfect sub
sistence for the entire man ; that is the exchange of
Christ, which the enemies of the life, the Jews, re-
i Rom. xii. 21.

260 Incarnation of the Son of God.
proached upon the cross, going by and moving their
heads ; for neither could Hades have borne the coming
to it of unveiled Deity ; this also prophets and apostles
testify." The sameness of the nature with ours, which the Word
of God took in His incarnation, is also clearly and admi
rably set forth in the* letter of Leo to Flavianus, which
received synodical sanction in the Council of Chalcedon :
1 " The propriety of both natures therefore being pre
served, and coming together in one person, humility
was taken up by majesty, infirmity by strength, mortal
ity by eternity, and to pay the debt of our condition, an
inviolable nature was united to a passible one ; so that,
which were the remedies that we required, 2 ' one and
the same mediator of God and men, the man Christ
Jesus,' might be able to die in one nature, and not be
able to die in the other (ex uno et ex altero). In the en
tire and perfect nature therefore of very man, very God
was born : whole in His own, whole in ours (nostris).
But we say ours (nostra), (namely) those things which
the Creator formed in us from the beginning, and which
He took into Himself that they might be repaired ; for
those things which the deceiver brought in, and deceived
man admitted, had no vestige in the Saviour.
" Nor because He endured (subiit) the communion of
human infirmities, was He therefore partaker of our
faults. He assumed the form of a servant without the
pollution of sin, increasing things human (humana), not
diminishing things Divine (divind): because that ex-
inanition, by which the invisible one rendered Himself
1 S. Leonis op. ed. Quesnel, Paris, 1675; Act. Concil. Chalced. p.
ii. Act. ii. ; L. et Coss. p. 294, § 3; Vindex Cathol. i. p. 211.
2 I. Tim. ii. 5.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 261
visible, and the Creator and Lord of all things willed to
to be- one of mortal men, was an inclination of compas
sion, not a defect of power. Therefore He who, re
maining in the form of God, made man ; the same in
the form of a servant, was made man. For each nature
holds without defect its own propriety. And as the
form of God did not take away the form of a servant, so
the form of a servant did not diminish the form of God.
" For because the devil was boasting (gloriabatur)
that man, deceived by his own fraud, was deprived of
(caruisse) the Divine gifts ; and, stripped of the dowry
of immortality, had encountered (subiisse) the hard sen
tence of death, and that he himself had found a kind
of solace in his own evils from the companionship of
a prevaricator ; God also, the reason of justice exacting
it, changed His own sentence with regard to man, whom
He had formed in so great honor : there was need of the
dispensation of a secret counsel, that the unchangeable
God, whose will could not be foiled in its benignity,
might fulfil the first disposition of His piety towards us,
by a more occult sacrament ; and man, driven by the
cunning of diabolical iniquity into fault, might not per
ish against the purpose of God.
".The Son of God therefore enters into these weak
things of the world, descending from a heavenly seat, and
not receding from His Father's glory ; generated in a
new order, a new nativity. In a new order, because He
who is invisible in His own (suis) was made visible in
ours (nostris) : He who is incomprehensible willed to be
comprehended : He who abideth before times, began to
be from time : the Lord of the universe took a servile
form, the immensity of His majesty being overshad
owed: the impassible God did not disdain to be pas-

262 Incarnation of the Son of God.
sible man : and the immortal to be subject to the laws of
death. But He was generated by a new nativity, be
cause unviolated virginity knew not concupiscence, fur
nished the substance of the flesh. The nature of the Lord
therefore, not its fault, was assumed from the mother :
nor in the Lord Jesus Christ, born from the womb of
the Virgin, because the nativity is wonderful, is the na
ture therefore unlike. For He who is true God, the
same is true man.
"And there is no deception in this unity, whilst, in
turn, there are both the humility of man, and the height
(altitude) of Deity. For as God is not changed by pity,
so man is not consumed by the dignity. For each form
does with the communion of the other, what is its own ;
the Word, that is, operating what belongs to the Word,
and the flesh executing what belongs to the flesh. One
of these dazzles by miracles, the other succumbs to in
juries. And as the Word did not recede from the equal
ity of the Father's glory, so the flesh did not leave the
nature of our race. For one and the same (which should
often be said) is truly the Son of God, and truly the Son
of man, — God, because (per id quod) x ' in the begin
ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
God was the Word ' ; man, because (per id quod) ' the
Word was made flesh and dwelt in us.' God, because
' all things were made by Him, and without Him was
nothing made ' ; man, because 2 ' he was made of a
woman, was made under the law.' The nativity of the
flesh is the manifestation of human nature : the birth
of the Virgin is the indication of the Divine virtue :
the infancy of the child is shewn by the humility of the
cradle : the greatness of the highest is declared by the
1 John i. . 2 Qal. iv. 4.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 263
voices of angels. He is like the rudiments of men,
whom the impious Herod strives to kill : but He is Lord
of all, whom the rejoicing magi come suppliantly to
adore. " Now, when He came to the baptism of His own prae-
cursor John, lest He should be hidden, because the di
vinity was covered with the veil of flesh, the voice of the
Father thundering from Heaven said : x ' This is My be
loved Son in whom I am well pleased.' Whom, there
fore, as man, diabolical cunning (astutia) tempts, to the
same, as God, angelic offices minister. To be hungry,
to thirst, to be weary, and to sleep, is evidently hu
man : but to satisfy five thousand men with five loaves
of bread, and to bestow on the Samaritan woman living
water, the drinking of which gives the drinker no fur
ther thrist ; to -walk upon the surface of the sea with feet
not sinking, and to lay the upliftings of the waves by
chiding the tempest, without ambiguity, is Divine.
" As, therefore (that I may pass by many things) it does
not belong to the same nature, to wee,p for a dead friend
with an affection of pity, and to arouse the same (friend)
to hfe at the word of command, when the mound of a
four days' burial had been removed ; or to hang on the
wood (of the cross), and turning day into night to make
all the elements tremble ; or to be transfixed with nails,
and to open the gates of Paradise to the faith of the
robber ; so it is not of the same nature, to say 2 ' I and
the Father are one ' ; and to say 3 ' The Father is greater
than I.' For although in the Lord Jesus Christ there
is one person of God and of man ; yet there is one (na
ture) (aliud) for which (unde) there is in both contumely
which is common, another (aliud) in which there is a
» Matt. iii. 17. 2 John x. 30. 3 John xiv. 28.

264 Incarnation of the Son of God.
common glory. From ours (nostro) is His humanity less
than the Father ; from the Father, is His divinity equal
with the Father." So clearly do the fathers of the an
cient Church set forth and define the doctrine of the in
carnation, as it is in itself, and in its relation to the other
great truths of our Christian creed.
It is indeed infinite and inconceivable condescension,
on the part of the eternal Son, thus to humble Himself
to the condition of our humanity, thus for our sakes, to
bring together natures, which it would seem impossible
to have brought together in one subsistence ; to join to
gether, most really and truly, in the unity of one person,
the infinite and the finite, the uncreated and the cre
ated, the eternal and the temporal, the immortal and the
mortal, — to traverse the immense distance which is abso
lutely incommensurable, that which extends from Deity
to the created universe, and so to bring forth that won
derful, that predicted offspring, Emmanuel, God with
us and in us. We do not realize the full wonder of the
incarnation, till we realize and own that the Divine Son
of God took into indissoluble union with His Divine
person the fulness and the perfection of our human
consciousness, that God most literally and truly became
man. So did He empty Himself of His Divine glory,
when most actually, in deed and in truth, He was found
in fashion as man having all the essential characteristics
of humanity, and capable of all the circumstances of
this our mortal life.
In our Lord Jesus Christ there is, therefore, a Divine
and a human personality, and yet a person which is
only one, that which He was from all eternity. It was
because they were unable to see how He could be truly
man as well as truly God, unless as man He was a dis-

Incarnation of tJie Son of God. 265
tinct person from Him who was the Son of God, that
the Nestorian heretics assigned to the incarnate Son two
personalities in two distinct persons ; and so they repre
sented the incarnation as the association of two persons,
the man Christ Jesus, and the Son of God, for the accom
plishment of our redemption ; but this would evidently ,
nullify the true import and meaning of the incarnation.
It would not then be true that the Word was made flesh,
and that the Son of God was made of a woman ; it
would not be true that that which was born of the holy
Virgin was the Son of God, or that He, 1who thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, was found in fashion
as a man, or that He became obedient to death, even the
death of the cross, in consequence of which He has been
highly exalted even in His human nature, and has re
ceived a name, which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
The Father would not so be glorified in His Son for
all His work of redemption accomplished, through the
instrumentality of our nature, which He took for that
purpose, if that, which was taken in the incarnation,
was not the very human nature of the only begotten Son
of God ; and if the human life and the death of the incar
nate Lord were not the life and death of Him, who came
from the bosom of the Father, and who was made flesh,
which He was not before He came, that He might lead
this life, and die this death, and be exalted forever by
that name of Jesus above every other name in the
created universe, into the very glory of the eternal Son
• Phil. ii.

266 Incarnation of the Son of God.
at the right hand of the Father. All this work of re
demption, and all this glory forever due to Him, the
Nestorian heresy alienates from Him, in denying that the
man Christ Jesus was, in His personality, the very and
eternal Son of God.
Nor, in avoiding this heresy, which takes all Divine
power and reality from the Gospel of our salvation,
should we fall into the other extreme, which, in its con
ception of the incarnation, divests the incarnate Lord
of a nature, in which it would be possible for Him to
achieve the work of our salvation, as we believe Him to
have achieved it. Those who, like the Eutychians or
the Monophysites, believe that the natures are so con
fused and commingled by the incarnation, that the dis
tinctness of the human nature is lost in the glory of the
Divine, or that the Divine partakes in the infirmities or
sufferings of the human, either do deep dishonor to the
unchangeable and impassible nature of the divinity, or
else they so deny the existence of the human in the in
carnate Lord, as to render impossible the performance
of those works of redemption, which, that He might
perform, He took that nature upon Him.
All the exaltation which that nature could receive,
without losing its identity, it doubtless did receive,
when it was conjoined with the Divine nature in the
person of the incarnate Son, and when He condescend
ingly and wonderfully granted, to it, His own personality,
that He might make that our nature perfectly His own.
But it is at once to destroy the reality of the incarnation
to say that human nature ceased to be the human nature,
which it was, when it became His. Then it would not
be true that the man Christ Jesus shall judge the world,
or that He suffered in the flesh, which He took, thaf He

Incarnation of the Son of God.. 267
might suffer in it, or that His human soul went to Hades,
or His human body was laid in the sepulchre, or that His
soul and body were rejoined in the resurrection, or that
this same Jesus which died and rose again, and ascended,
in the sight of the disciples, very man as well as very
God, shall so come, in like manner, in the same fulness
and perfection of His humanity, in which He was seen
to go into Heaven.
The perfection of the two natures, each in its own
mode of being, and of the human nature in the limi
tations which belong to its created existence, however
largely admitted to the counsels, and participant in the
works of Deity ; the union of the two natures, in that
they are the natures of the same Divine person ; their
union in distinctness, and their distinctness in their union ;
all these features appertain to the true apprehension of
the incarnation, and, without so receiving it, we cannot
admit it in its reality, we cannot rightly estimate the
deep condescension to our estate, of our Lord and Saviour,
or explain the facts of His life and history, or duly
esteem the Divine power and efficacy which permeate all
the parts of that great salvation, which, for us, in His
wondrous humility, in His Divine working He has
wrought. Because He is our one Lord and Saviour, we can in
differently attribute to Him the works and attributes of
the two natures, or rather His works and attributes, in
His two natures, of which the record is given to us. To
quote again S. Leo ad Flavianum : x " On account of this
unity of person, to be understood in both natures, the
Son of man also is said to have descended from Heaven,
when the Son of God assumed the flesh from that Virgin
• c. v. p. 295, Vindex Cath. 213.

268 Incarnation of the Son of God. ,
from whom He was born. And again, the Son of God
is said to be crucified and buried, when He suffered these
things not in the divinity, by which the only begotten
is co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father, but in
the infirmity of human nature. Whence Ave all also con
fess in the creed that the only begotten Son of God
was crucified and buried, according to that saying of the
Apostle : x ' For if they had known, they would never
have crucified the Lord of majesty.'
" But when our Lord and Saviour Himself would in
struct the faith of the disciples by His questions: 2 'Whom,'
saith He, ' do men say, that the Son of man is ? ' and when
they had recounted different opinions of others ; ' But
ye,' saith He, ' Whom do you say that I am ? ' I, that is,
who am the Son of man, and whom you behold in the
form of a servant, and in the verity of the flesh, whom do
you say that I am % When the blessed Peter, divinely
inspired and about to profit all nations by his confession,
says : ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
Nor undeservedly was he pronounced blessed by the Lord,
and drew, from the principal rock, the solidity both of
his virtue and of his name, who, by the revelation of the
Father, confessed that the same was both the Son of God
and the Christ ; because one of these received, without
the other, would not have profited unto salvation ; but
it was of equal peril to believe the Lord Jesus Christ
either God only without man, or man only without God.
" But after the resurrection of the Lord, which was
certainly that of the true" body, because no other one was
resuscitated, than He who had been crucified and dead,
what else was done in the sojourn of the forty days 3 than
that the integrity of our faith should be purified from all
1 1. Cor. ii. 8. 2 Matt. xvi. 13. 3 Act. i. 3.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 269
darkness ? For conversing with His disciples, and dwell
ing and eating with them, and suffering Himself to be
handled l with diligent and curious contact by those whom
doubt was taking captive (perstringebat) ; so also, when
the doors were closed He entered in among the disciples,
and by His breath gave the Holy Spirit, and having
given the light of intelligence, opened the secrets of the
holy Scriptures ; and again shewed the wound of His
side, the fastenings (fixuras) of the nails, and all the
signs of His most recent passion, saying : 2 ' See My
hands and feet, that it is I : handle and see, because a
Spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have ' ; that
the individual propriety of the Divine and human nature
in Him might be owned to be permanent (permanere) ;
and so we might know that the Word was not the same
as the flesh ; 3 and might confess the one Son of God to
be both Word and flesh, of which sacrament of faith that
Eutyches is to be esteemed too empty, who has acknow
ledged our nature in the only begotten of God, neither
by the humility of mortality, nor by the glory of the
resurrection ; nor has feared the sentence of the blessed
Apostle and Evangelist John, saying : 4 ' Every Spirit,
which confesseth that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is of God : and every Spirit, which dissolves (solvit)
Jesus is not of God : and this is antichrist.'
" But what is it to dissolve Jesus (solvere Jesum), un
less it be to separate from Him the human nature, and to
evacuate the sacrament of faith, by which alone we are
saved, by the most impudent figments ? But he who
is dark concerning the nature of the body of Christ,
must needs be in the same blindness of folly also con-
i John xx. 27. 2 Luke xxiv. 39.
3 I. John iv. 2. < John xx. 31.

270 Incarnation of the Son of God.
cerning His passion. For if he does not think the cross
of the Lord to be false, and- does not doubt that the
punishment undertaken for the salvation of the world
was true : then, of Him whose death he believes, let
him acknowledge also the flesh. Nor let him deny that
He was a man with our body whom he knows to have
been passible : since the negation of the true flesh is the
negation also of the corporal passion. If therefore he
receives the Christian faith, and does not avert his hear
ing from the preaching of the Gospel ; let him see what
nature, transfixed with spikes, hung upon the wood of
the cross ; and when the side of the crucified one was
opened by the lance of the soldier, let him understand
whence the blood and water flowed that the Church of
God might be moistered by the laver (lavacro) and the
cup. " Let him hear also the blessed Peter the Apostle
preaching, x that the sanctification of the Spirit is made
by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Nor let him
cursorily read the words of the same Apostle, saying :
' Knowing, that not with corruptible things, silver and
gold, have ye been redeemed from your vain conversa
tion of paternal tradition ; but with the precious blood
of Jesus Christ, as of a lamb incontaminate and immacu
late.' Let him not resist also the testimony of the
blessed John the Apostle, saying : 2 ' And the blood of
Jesus the Son of God cleanseth us from all sins ' : and
again : 3 ' This is the victory, which overcometh the
world, our faith. And who is he that overcometh the
world, unless he who believeth, that Jesus is the Son of
God? This is He who cometh by water and blood,
Jesus Christ : not in water only, but in water and blood.
i I. Pet. i. 2. 2 1. John i. 7. 3 I . John v. 4.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 271
And it is the Spirit, who testifies, that (quoniam) Christ
is the Truth : because there are three, who give testi
mony, the spirit, the water, and the blood : and these
three are one (unum) ' : the Spirit, truly, of salification,
and the blood of redemption, and the water of baptism :
which three are one, and remain individual (individua),
and not one (nihil) of them is separated (sejungitur)
from the connexion of itself (sui) : because the Catholic
Church lives and profits (proficit) by this faith, that in
Christ Jesus neither the humanity may be believed with-'
out the true divinity, nor the divinity without the true
humanity." This twofold nature, with this one Divine personal
ity, of our incarnate Lord, of Jesus Christ our Saviour,
pervades all the scheme of the glorious Gospel of the
blessed God, and gives to it all its reality in the several
works of our redemption, which our incarnate Lord did
and could only do as man, who for us became man ; and
all its Divine power and value and efficacy is seen in that,
which He also accomplished, as He wrought out our salva
tion. And, because He is one with us in the nature, which
He took to redeem it, we have a strong bond and means
of connexion with our God and Father in Heaven, by
which we may be brought back to Him, and reinstated
in that position, before Him, from which sin has cast us
forth. He became one with us, that we may be made
partakers of His Divine nature. His humanity is the
vine of Heaven, upon which, being engrafted, in the
ways of His appointment, to which, being united, by the
power of His Spirit, we may derive from Him that puri
fying and sanctifying grace, which may assimilate us,
more and more, to His sinless humanity ; sinless, because
of its conjunction with Deity, and, in that conjunction, a

272' Incarnation of the Son of God.
promise, a pledge, and a presentment of the complete
redemption, which awaits His true disciples, and which,
for them, is realized as in a fountain of perennial ex
haustless supply of Divine help and grace, in the human
ity, which, in the person of our incarnate Lord, is at the
right hand of God, the first fruits of the harvest of re
deemed humanity, which, through Him, shall be gath
ered into the heavenly garner.
He tells us, unmistakably, how, through His humanity,
we are to be brought back to God, and to be forever, if
we will, united to God, when He tells us, so plainly and
emphatically, l " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." and
" whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath
eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For
My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwell
eth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath
sent Me, and I live by the Father : so he that eateth Me,
even he shall live by Me." These wonderful words of
our Lord can mean no less than, that through participa
tion of His humanity, through the saving, sanctifying,
and God-assimilating grace that flows from it, and
through this His incarnation only, and participation and
appropriation of the grace, of which it is full, can we
ever attain to that life in God, which is like His life in
the Father, and which is the perfection of the life, for
which we were created. But then the very nature of
the incarnation itself teaches us, even if the words of
our Lord, in explanation of His own discourse, did not
teach us, that, it is in no gross and carnal way, or sense,
that we are to eat His flesh and drink His blood, and so
' John vi. 53, 54, 55, 56, 57.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 273
become partakers of His Divine humanity, and through
that, partakers of the Divine nature ; become the sons
of God, by virtue of His Sonship, both as the Son of
God, and the Son of man.
As His incarnation involves the truth and perfection
of His nature as man, so must we believe that His
human nature is subject to all the limitations, to all the
bounds and measures that appertain to human nature, as
saith Theodoret, l " and as man indeed, until the passion
He was passible and mortal ; for after His resurrection
He has also as man impassibility, and immortality, and in
corruption, and He emits Divine (deonpeneii) flashes
of light (darpandi) not being changed into the nature
of divinity according to the flesh, but preserving the
characters of the humanity : nor having a body without
circumscription : for this is the peculiarity of the Di
vine nature only : but remaining in the former circum
scription. For teaching this, even after the resurrection
He said to the disciples : 2 ' See My hands (flXenere) and
My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and behold
(i'dere) that spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see
(decopeiTe) Me having.' So being seen (opwuevoi), He
ascended into the heavens ; so He promised that He will
come again ; so also those who believe shall see (otpovrai)
Him, and they who crucified Him ; 3 ' for,' saith He,
' they shall look upon Him, whom they pierced.' "
There is then, and there can be, according to His
own true word and promise, according to our belief in
His ascension, and in His coming again at the last day,
no local bodily or human presence of Christ our Lord
1 Gallandii Bibl. Vit. Patr. ix. 412 ; Theodoreti Cyri. Epis. liber
sextus adversus varias propositiones.
2 Luke xxiv. 39. 3 John xix. 37.

274 Incarnation of the Son of God.
upon this earth, during the dispensation of His Spirit.
He is present, according to His promise, in the power of
His divinity, and in the grace of His Holy Spirit, with
all His true disciples ; and where He is present, there, in
intimate personal union with His Divine person, is the
humanity which He took for our redemption : and He
dispenses the grace, which comes to His faithful ones
from His humanity, and from all the works and suffer
ings of that humanity in working out our redemption ;
and by receiving the grace, which He so dispenses, in
faith and love, by receiving, in appropriating faith, the
flesh, which, as flesh grossly and literally considered, or
thought to be grossly and literally taken, 1profiteth noth
ing ; by receiving this flesh, to which the Spirit gives its
quickening power, in the acceptance of a living faith,
we are brought, more and more, into the recesses of that
life in Him, which cometh from eating His flesh, and
drinking His blood.
It is not for us to penetrate this Divine mystery, but
we may confidently say, even because we believe the
truth of the incarnation, and the ascension, and the com
ing again of the Son of man, that, nowhere upon this
earth, in Christ-ordained sacrament or elsewhere, is there
the local and literal presence of the body of Christ, to be
received by His believing people. We are not required,
we might say, are not permitted, when we are required
to believe the incarnation, to believe aught, which is in
consistent with the truth and reality of the flesh and
blood, which Christ our Lord took in the incarnation ;
or aught which invests that flesh and blood with proper
ties beyond the nature of fleshly existence.
Nor, with regard to the worship that is due to Christ,
1 John vi. 63.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 275
is any worship that is Divine due or to be given to aught
in Christ that is created, and that, as such, is surely not,
in its own nature and being, Divine. We are most
certainly to render all Divine worship to Christ our Lord,
who is both God and man, and in the worship which
the Son of God rightly receives, His human nature, His
human soul and body, as intimately joined to His Divine
person, must needs be associated ; but to them, so far as
they are human and created, Divine worship is not to
be paid. The truth on this subject is most plainly stated
by S. Athanasius in his treatise on the incarnation of
Jesus Christ.1
"But ye say again," he. is speaking of those who
believed the body of Christ to be uncreated, " that ye do
not worship a creature; O ye foolish ones (avorjroi),
why do ye not reason, that also the body of the Lord
being created does not duly receive a created worship
(ov xriGTtjv anocpeperat rrfv npoGxvvtjGiv)t for
it was the body of the uncreated Word : for to Him,
whose body it was, bring also the worship (that is due) :
so then is He both duly worshipped and divinely
worshipped as God (deixdo?). For He is God the Word,
whose own body it is : since also when the women drew
near to the Lord, restraining them, He said, 2 Touch Me
not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father, signifying
that there was need of ascension, and that the ascension
will be one. Nevertheless, coming to Him, they held His
feet, and worshipped : the feet having the feeling of bones
and flesh, but being those of God, they worshipped God.
" And elsewhere indeed the Lord said, 3 ' Handle Me,
and know that Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye
i Ed. Ben. torn. i. § 6. pt. ii. pp. 926, 927.
2 John xx. 17. 3 Luke xxiv. 39.

276 Incarnation of the Son of God.
behold Me having7; although He is Spirit ; 1£for God is
Spirit.' And saying that He had (exeiv) and making a
demonstration, how did He say that ' Spirit hath not
flesh and bones,' as saith He, ' ye behold Me,' not being,
but ' having ' ? teaching nothing else than this, that the
nature of the Spirit is unspeakable ; but this handling is of
a body such as we have, which He appropriated to Him
self from the Virgin, not in the way of energy, but by
physical generation : that the body also might be according
to nature, and again might be inseparable (aSidiperov)
from the divinity of the Word. For so His death came
to pass ; the body receiving it according to nature, but.
the Word enduring by His will (xard BeXrjGiv) and
delivering authoritatively His own body to death ; that
He might both suffer physically for us, and might rise
again divinely for us ; and the whole transaction
(npaypiareia) might be seen to be (decopf/rai) for the
seeking of us, and for our recovery."
Here seems to be the true rationale of the worship
that is to be paid to the incarnate Lord, as well as of the
relation of His body to His divinity. It is He, our
Divine Lord, who is the true, the sole object of our
worship. If we contemplate Him, in His incarnation,
in His human body and soul, in these He is seated at
God's right hand, and, as we contemplate Him there,
He is surely the object of our devout worship ; if we
draw near to Him in holy sacrament, though He be not
there in local bodily presence, as. He is at God's right
hand, yet surely as we draw into closer and closer com
munion with Him, and are made more fully partakers of
His incarnation, in its living spiritual grace, the attrac
tions of the most devout worship will draw us forth to-
1 John iv. 24.

Incarnation of the Son of God. 277
the worship of our Divine Lord in Heaven His dwelhng
place. But localizing our worship towards any spot or
sacrament of this earth, as if the Lord were there locally
presented in body, soul and divinity for the acceptance
of our worship, is without warrant from any words of
His, from the articles of our Christian creed, or from
any true views of His incarnation.
Indeed, in the sacrament of His body and blood, what
is presented for the acceptance of our faith, for appro
priation in our hearts and lives, is not the living Christ,
but the body and blood, in their separation by death, as
pledges of His death and assurances of the grace that
flows from it in the sacramental signs, which represent
His body and blood, and are the pledges to faithful ones
of their reception of His body and blood in their inmost
being, of the body and blood which are the food and
drink, the spiritual food and drink, we are warranted by
our Lord's words in saying, by which we are nourished
unto life eternal. It will be seen at once that nought is
presented to us in the sacrament which may challenge or
should have that Divine adoration which we owe to
Christ, and which belongs to our living Lord alone.
As, in fact, sacramental adoration of Christ, enshrined
in the sacramental elements, was a late invention in any
portion of the Church of Christ, and was never intro
duced till false views of what is presented in the sacra
ment supplanted those which had been received from
Christ and the Apostles, and had prevailed in the Church,
without question, for the first thousand years of its exist
ence. So important, in manifold aspects, is the doctrine of
the incarnation, and of a right apprehension and use of
it. It was sacredly held, and defended, and set forth by

278 Incarnation of the Son of God.
those who lived before us in the Church. The metes
and bounds have been fixed, by which it has been
guarded against dangerous perversions of heresy on the
right and on the left ; and its power in the development
of our life in Christ to the completion of our eternal life
in God, is clearly explained in the great writings on this
subject, which have come to us from the ancient days of
the Church.
Be it ours to receive it and hold it fast, as we have
received it; to derive from it the life which it brings
to our humanity that was enstranged from God, and to do
our part in transmitting this uncorrupted fountain of
the waters of life eternal through all generations of the
Church of the incarnate Lord.

Chapter VIII.
ANTHROPOLOGY. I.— PRIMEVAL CONDITION OF MAN.
IN order properly to estimate the condition to which the
race of man was reduced by the fall recorded in the
book of Genesis, we should clearly understand," so far as
it is revealed to us, what was the primeval condition of
man. And so we turn to the account which the holy
Scriptures give us of His creation. When the first crea
tive act was exerted, the effect which it produced was
the calling into existence that which before had not been
at all. This is the sublime fact announced in the words,
1 " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
When that beginning was we are not informed, nor do
we know the length of those days which preceded the
work of the fourth day, when God said, 2"Let there be
lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day
from the night ; and let them be for signs, and for sea
sons, and for days and years." Day after day had the
creation been emerging, first into light from the dark
ness which was upon the chaotic deep, next into the due
distribution of sea and land beneath the over-arching
canopy of heaven, then to the clothing with vegetable
hfe and beauty and fertility the new born earth, then
to a clear apparition of the heavenly bodies, which were
the sources of the light that it enjoyed, then to the re
ception of the living tribes, which were to replenish the
waters and the earth, — and then there was a solemn
i Gen. i. 1. !Qen. i. 14.

280 Primeval Condition of Man.
pause and deliberation between the persons of the God
head, before the production of creation's lord and master
piece. This pre-eminence of man in this creation, as it was
held in all the ancient Church of Christ, is strikingly
set forth in these words of Theophilus : lu But so far as
the creation of man is conceived, His creation as man
is ineffable ; although the Divine Scripture declares it
briefly. For when God said, 2 ' Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness,' He declares the dignity of
man to be the first, for God having made all things by
the Word, and thinking them all incidental (nepiepya)
He esteems the creation of man the only work worthy
of His own hands ; yet God is also found to say, as if
needing assistance, ' Let us make man after our image
and likeness.' But He said, ' Let us make ' to no other
than to His own Word and to His own wisdom."
And again, 3" And God formed man, dust from the
earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life and
man became living soul. Whence also the soul by very
many has been named immortal." This is, in fact, the
meaning of the Hebrew word ntttW) which is used in
Genesis when it is said, God 4" breathed into his nostrils
the breath of lives." In Proverbs xx. 27, " The spirit of
man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward
parts of the belly " — the words translated " spirit of
man " are in the original " neshamah Adam " 6 — the
very word used to describe the infusion of the spirit into
man from the breath of the Lord, in the day of His crea-
1 Ad. Aut. ii. pp. 96 ff . 2 Gen. i. 26. 3 p. 97.
4 ii. 7; Job xxxii. 8, " But there is a spirit (ruach) in man and
the inspiration (nesh&mah) of the Almighty giveth them understand
ing." > Cf. Deut. xx. 16; Josh. x. 40.

Primeval Condition of Man. 281
tion. In Job x " the breath (neshamah) which is in me,
is represented as synonymous with the spirit (|TH) 2 of
God, which is in my nostrils."
It is the clear teaching of Scripture, then, that man
was endowed with a spirit or spiritual nature from the
immediate infusion of God Himself — by which his dig
nity in the creation was marked, and by which God
Himself became the Father of his spirit. The same
view is given by Irenaeus,3 which is set forth by The
ophilus, and this, in fact was the accepted view of man's
creation in the ancient Church of God. 4 Tertullian says
that man was created in the image of God, by being
made after the image of the Son of God, who was Him
self the very image of the Father. The doctrine of the
Church on this subject is well and lucidly set forth by S.
Athanasius.6 " For God," he says " is good, but rather the fountain
of goodness ; but one who is good could envy no exist
ence ; whence envying nothing its being, of non-exist
ence He made all things by His own Word, Jesus
Christ our Lord ; among which having merciful con
sideration before all who were upon the earth of the
race of men ; and seeing that it was not able (ixavov)
according to the condition of its own generation to
abide always, giving to them of His more abundant
grace, He did not simply create them, as He did all the
irrational animals which were upon the earth ; but He
made them according to His own image, imparting to
them also of the power of His own Logos ; that having,
1 xxvii. 3. 2 See above, Job xxxii. 8.
3 Massuet iv. u. xiv. , Grabe, 315, 316; cf . Lact. De Opificio.
* C. Prax. 12.
5 De Incarnatione Verbi Dei, pp. 56 ff. ed. Colon. 1686.

282 Primeval Condition of Man.
as it were, certain shadows of the Logos, and made ra
tional (Xoyixoi) they might be able to remain in blessed
ness, living the true and real life of the saints in Paradise ;
but knowing, again, the free will (npoaipeGiv) of men
which was able to incline to either side ; by anticipation
He secured by law and place, the grace which had been
given to them ; for leading them into His own Paradise,
He gave a law to them: that if they would keep the
grace, and should remain good (xaXoi), they might have
a griefless, and painless, and undisturbed life in Paradise,
in addition to their having the promise of incorruption
in the heavens ; but if they should transgress, and being
perverted should become bad, they might know that they
would undergo natural corruption in death, and no .
longer live in Paradise ; but afterwards dying outside of
it, would abide in death and in destruction ; and this
also the Divine Scripture presignified, saying in the
person of God, x ' Of every tree which is in Paradise thou
mayest freely eat ; but of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil, ye shall not eat of it, but in the day in which
ye do (eat of it) ye shall surely die ' ; but this ' ye shall
die the death,' what else can it be than, not only to die,
but to abide in the destruction of death ?
" Perhaps you wonder why, indeed, when we proposed
to speak of the incarnation of the Word, we are now dis
coursing of the beginning of men ; but this also is not
foreign from the scope of the exposition ; for it is neces
sary that when we speak concerning the appearance of
the Saviour to men, that we should also speak concern
ing the beginning of men ; that you may know that our
fault was the occasion of His descent ; and our trans
gression called forth the philanthropy of the Word, so
i Gen. ii. 16, 17.

Primeval Condition of Man. 283
that the Lord came even to us, and appeared among
men ; for we were the occasion of His embodiment ; and,
for our salvation, He was so philauthropical, as to be
made and to appear in a human body; thus indeed
therefore God made man, and willed him to remain in
incorruption ; but men neglecting and turning away
from the consideration of God ; and reasoning and
thinking out for themselves, wickedness (xaxiav), as
was said above, had the condemnation of death, which
had been before threatened ; and hereafter they no
longer remained, as they had been created ; but as they
had reasoned (or used their reason) they were destroyed
(8te<pdeipovro)." And a little below S. Athanasius adds, " For man in
deed is mortal by nature, forasmuch as he is created
from non-existence, but on account of his likeness to ex
istence (*. e., God) (ra ovra), which he would have kept
by consideration with respect to Him (i. e., God), he
would have taken off the edge of natural corruption,
and, have remained incorruptible, as Wisdom says, ' the
keeping of the laws, is the confirmation of immortality ' ;
but being incorruptible, he would hereafter have lived
as God, as somewhere also the Divine Scripture signifies
this, when it says, x ' I have said, ye are gods, and all sons
of the most High, but ye die as men, and fall as one of
the princes ' ; for God has not only made us from non
existence, but also has graciously granted to us the life
which is according to God, by the grace of the Logos ;
but men having turned away from eternal things, and
having by the counsel of the devil turned to the things
of corruption, have become to themselves the authors of
the corruption, which is in death ; being indeed by nature,
> Ps. bcxxii. 6, 7.

284 Primeval Condition of Man.
as I said before, corruptible, but having escaped that
which was natural, by the grace of participation of the
Word, if they had remained good (xaXoi). For on ac
count of the Word, which was with them, natural cor
ruption also did not draw near to them ; as also Wisdom
says, ' God created man for incorruption and the image
of His own eternity,' but by the envy of the devil, death
entered into the world."
In this passage from S. Athanasius the primeval con
dition of man is clearly set forth, as it was held in the
Church and derived from holy Scripture. The image
of God in which man was made consisted in his reason,
in his freedom of will, in his capacity to assimilate him
self to God, by obeying the law of his being, the law
which God gave to him, and by the communion with
God of which he was capable and which was freely of
fered him. S. Athanasius makes a clear distinction be
tween the image of God, which man was in his spiritual
nature and the likeness to God, in the right use and di
rection of that nature, to which, as the end of his being,
he would attain by the grace of God, which was given
him, working with his own true spiritual endeavors. He
represents him as intended for a supernatural end of
being, to which he would be translated if he was faith
ful and obedient, during the sojourn of his state of pro
bation in Paradise.
And this was the uniform teaching of the fathers of
the Church, as Bishop Bull abundantly shews in his
treatise on the state of man before the fall.1 We find in
the fathers a distinction made between the image of God,
and the likeness of God in their exposition of the text,
2 " Let us make men in our image, after our likeness,"
1 Works, Oxford, 1846, vol. ii. pp. 52 ff. 2 Gen. i. 26.

Primeval Condition of Man. 285
This distinction is clearly expressed by Irenaeus. x " For,"
he says, " if any one takes away the substance of the
flesh, that is, of the formation (plasmatis), and under
stands himself nakedly to be spirit alone, now, as such,
he is ' not a spiritual man, but the spirit of man, or
the Spirit of God. But when this spirit commingled
with the soul (animae) is united to the formation
(plasmati), on account of the effusion of the Spirit
man is made spiritual and perfect ; and this is he who
is made according to the image and likeness of God.
But if the spirit is wanting to the soul, he is truly
animal, who is such, and being left carnal, he will be
imperfect : having indeed the image in the formation
(plasmate), but not assuming the likeness by the Spirit.
" But as he is imperfect ; so again, if any one takes
away the image, and despises the formation (plasma) he
cannot now understand man, but either some part of man,
as we have said before, or something else besides man. For
neither is the formation (plasmatio) of the flesh (by itself)
perfect man ; but the body of man, and a part of man.
For neither is the soul (anima) itself, by itself (secundum
se) man ; but the soul of man, and a part of man. Neither
is the spirit of man ; for it is called the Spirit, and not
man. But the commingling and uniting of all these,
makes out the perfect man. And, on account of this,
the Apostle expounding himself, has explained the per
fect and spiritual man of salvation in the first epistle to
the Thessalonians, saying thus : 2 ' But the God of peace
sanctify you who are perfect, and your whole spirit and
soul and body, be preserved, without complaint, unto the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.'
1 Massuet lib. v. 6, 1, Grabe, pp. 406, 407; cf. lib. v. 16, 2, Mass.
Grabe, p. 424; cf. also, Origenes De Princ. iii. 6, 1, Opp. t. i. p. 152,
ed. De La Rue. 2 t. Thess. v. 23.

286 Primeval Condition of Man.
" And what cause truly had he to pray for these three,
that is, soul and body and spirit, entire and perfect per
severance until the coming of the Lord, unless he knew
that the renewal (redintegrationem) and uniting of the
three, was both one and the same salvation of their very
selves (ipsorum) ? On account of which he says also
that they are perfect, who exhibit the three to the Lord
without complaint (sine querela). They are perfect
therefore, who both have the Spirit of God persevering
in themselves, and preserve their souls and bodies with
out blame ; of God, that is, preserving that faith which
is towards God, and observing (custodientes) that justice
which is towards our neighbor (ad proximum)."
Here is an admirable description of the threefold
structure of man, in body, soul, and spirit ; agreeing
most exactly with that of S. Athanasius. Man was
made with a rational and spiritual nature, by virtue of
which He was, in body and in soul, in the image of
God ; but He was placed upon probation for a higher
state of being ; was placed in covenant with God, as he
had not been created to seek and attain the end and con
summation of his being apart from God ; and so the
Spirit of God was given to dwell in His spirit, and to
guide and raise him, if, in his free will, he would accept
and use the guidance to the heavenly and Divine heights
of his being. And walking, in the Spirit, to the Heaven
of his true and perfect existence, he who was made in
the image of God, would have realized that similitude of
God after which he was made, and for which, in its full
perfection, he was intended, in the dignity which was
stamped upon him by his Creator. Or rather he would
have realized, in its fulness of completion, what was de
signed, when the Creator said, " Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness."

Primeval Condition of Man. 287
This condition of man first created, is well expressed
by TertuUian. J " That also is pertinent to faith, that
Plato divides the soul into two parts, the rational and
irrational, which definition we indeed also applaud, but
not that both should be imputed to nature. For that,
which is rational, must be believed to be natural, which
was inborn in the soul from the beginning, that is, from
a rational author. For what is not rational, which God
also by His command has produced, not to mention that
which He has sent forth from His own afflatus ? But
the irrational must be understood to be later (posterius),
that what happened from the instigation (instinctu) of
the serpent, that very thing was admitted by transgres
sion (ipsum illud transgressionis admissum), and from
thence grew into and grew up with the soul, so that now
it is a kind of naturality (naturalitatis) because it takes
place in the origin (primordio) of nature."
Here is a clear statement of the manner in which sin
struck its roots into a nature, which had been created up
right, and made it a nature infected by sin. For 2 " God
hath made man upright ; but they have sought out many
inventions." Man was made capable of winning estab
lishment in holiness and endless life in God ; which was
to be attained, by his own exertions — aided and upheld
by the Spirit of God — that was given Him for His
birthright, as the Son of God, the Father of spirits.
" But subjection to God," nobly says Irenaeus, 8 " is
incorruption; but perseverance, steadfastness in incor
ruption is unbegotten glory. But this . . . order
and these dispositions (pv&pwv) and this conduct of life,
man, who is generated and formed (nenXaGfxevoz), is
» De Anima 16. 2 Ecc. vii. 29.
3 Liber, iv. c. 38, 3. Mass. Grabe p. 379.

288 Primeval Condition of Man.
made according to the image and likeness of the unbegot-
ten (infecte) God ; the Father indeed approving (evdo-
xovvros) and commanding, but the Son performing and
creating, and the Spirit nourishing and increasing, but
man quietly advancing, and coming up to be perfect,
that is, becoming the neighbor of the unbegotten one.
" For the unbegotten one is perfect, but this one is God.
But it was necessary that man should first be made, and
having been made to increase, and increasing to reach
manhood, and having reached manhood (dvdpoodevra)
to be multiplied, and having been multiplied, to be
strong, and having been strengthened, to be glorified,
and having been glorified to see his*own Lord. } For it
is God who is to be seen ; but the vision of God is to be
in possession of incorruption ; but incorruption makes
nearness to God."
2 " So also," says Irenaeus a little above, " in the begin
ning, God was indeed able to give perfection to man, but
he having been but just created, was unable to receive it,
or although he received it, to contain it, or even if he
contained it, to hold it fast ; and, for this reason, the Son
of God made Himself a partaker of infancy with man,
being perfect, not for His own sake, but on account of
the infancy of man, being made so comprehensible as
man was enabled to comprehend Him. The impossibility
and indigence was not indeed with respect to God, but
with respect to the newly made man, because he was not
unbegotten." By partaking of the Word of God, and by being so
joined to God man was to reach the perfection intended
for him in his creation, and, when through the perverted
use of his reason and his freedom, casting aside the
1 Sap. vi. 19, 29. 2 Lib. iv. c. 38, 2, Grabe 379.

Primeval Condition of Man. 289
guidance of the Spirit of God, he failed to reach this
perfection designed for him ; then the Son of God,
1 " taking flesh and blood by which He redeemed us,"
" recapitulated to Himself the old formation of Adam,"
that He might renew it, and advance it to its designed
perfection, and make us who are joined to Him, partakers
of that renewal and perfection. Thus the new creation
in our incarnate Lord is the illustration, the exemplifi
cation, the realization of the design of God in the
original creation, when He said 2 " Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness," and thus stamp upon the
creation a reason of its existence, a justification of the
lavish bounty with which God has distributed, through
out its realm, His wondrous gifts.
The excellence and majesty of the king, whom God
had placed in the midst of this creation, were to be the
exposition and the vindication of the exceeding richness
and magnificence of the kingdom. And it concerns us
deeply to weigh and well to understand that high
position, in which man was placed as the very law of
his being, to contemplate the manner and the kind of
that kingly authority with which he was entrusted ; as
also the true nature of that royal birth, at the time of
his creation, which impressed upon him the image and
the likeness of his Creator.
In what did that image consist? We can hardly
seek it in man's bodily conformation, although this is
the masterpiece of Divine workmanship in the material
creation. But this is rather the outward expression of
the Divine image, than that image itself. In the human
face divine we discern the lineaments of the god-like
imperial soul of man. Before the eye of man, in which
1 Irenaeus v.i. 2, Grabe 394. 2 Gen. i. 26.
19

290 Primeval Condition of Man.
this soul looks forth in its spiritual supremacy, the
monarch of beasts has been made to quail and fly. Nor
is it in all the faculties of his soul, by themselves apart,
that man is made in the image of God. There are
appetites and passions, which he possesses in common
with the lower orders of the living creation. With
them too he has in common, though in greater compass
and extent, that power of understanding, by which he
reasons and contrives and plans within the boundaries
of this sensible material world.
The contrivances of ants and bees, with which
naturalists make us acquainted, our own observation of
the habits of domestic animals, which subserve our
convenience, are sufficient to shew us that besides the
gift of blind instinct, which works necessarily and
unconsciously, the inferior animals have sagacity and
understanding, which enable them to vary their plans
and efforts to suit varying emergencies. The bee not
only builds its cell with mathematical exactness, but
changes its plans to remedy defects, or to overcome
difficulties, as they occur in the process of construction.
Not then in the understanding, which employs itself
most largely in the schemes and contrivances of the ma
terial world, and which, in the field of abstract thought
and spiritual contemplation, is the mere logician to ar
range and construct the materials which are furnished
by the spirit and by its intuitions, is to be discerned
that image of God, by which man is elevated above all
this creation beside, as a being endowed with a higher,
a godlike nature.
But man possesses what the inferior orders of the
creation do not, a spiritual nature. And it is in his
spirit, and in the rightful connexion with and subjection

Primeval Condition of Man. 291
to the spirit, of his appetites, affections, passions, and
understanding, that he is in the image of Him, who is
the Father of spirits. His spiritual nature embraces
the ideas of right and moral obligation ; it opens to him
a view of holiness and truth as most substantial posses
sions ; it spreads before him the vista of eternity, the
boundless expanse of immensity as the field of his action
and enjoyment; and never-ending progression as the
law of his life, and an indispensable condition of his
happiness. It teaches and prompts him to look above
the world, with which the senses are conversant, for his
satisfying and everlasting home. It awakens within
him desires for a communion, which the highest friend
ship and intimacy with creatures like himself or above
himself cannot furnish; a communion, of which the
best, most endearing friendship would be merely the
offspring, and derive from it its light and warmth and
life. By man as he was at first created in the image of
God, this communion with the Creator, this continual
refreshment • from the uncreated fountain of love and
holiness and bliss unbounded, was enjoyed, and gave its
own zest to all other communion, imparted its own holi
ness to. the lawful indulgence of every appetite, to every
emotion and affection and every exercise of the under
standing. Man, before he fell from the original glory and right
eousness of his creation, not only had a spiritual nature,
whose ideas and desires pointed to a good not ma
terial, not perishing, not bounded in its immensity ; but
this good, which corresponded to his spiritual nature, he
actually possessed, and into larger and fuller posses
sion of it he was continually entering. And thus grow-

292 Primeval Condition of Man.
ing in all his faculties of mind and heart, in the exercise
of understanding which was cloudless and unprejudiced,
of affection whose depths were fathomless, of reason
which, in the empyreal heights of his being ever dis
cerned the holiness and truth and eternity and spirit
ual bliss which were the heaven of his existence ; thus
expanding in the very light, whose fountain was the
throne of God, was he not in the image, after the like
ness of God Himself ? How must this essential spirit
ual likeness to God have impressed itself upon his bodily
frame. With what dignity and majesty and heavenly
light and beauty of countenance must he have walked
forth among the works of God, the conscious, the holy,
the beneficent, the recognized lord of the world, which
was his habitation, a fit representative therein of the
majesty of Him, who was Lord of all.
Now this condition of man iii Paradise, this holy, ma
jestic, spiritual image of his Creator, in which he was
formed, which was the very expression of creation's won
drous harmony in this world of ours, the final end, the
finishing stroke of its perfection, without which it had
been a maze without a plan, without a reason, should be
to us not a subject of mere idle contemplation, or curi
ous speculation.
It is the solution of the mysteries of our fallen con
dition. It is the declaration to us of what we are, what
we have been, what we may be. It would be an im
peachment of the perfect Creator Himself to say that
that nature of man has been destroyed by those who
have marred and defaced His holy workmanship ; to say
that the nature, which we possess, is not the same nature
of man which God at first created. If it be not, then
are we not men, and the history of the race of Adam,

Primeval Condition of Man. 293
of the human race, as we term it, has nought to do with
the shaping of our destiny. True it is that man is very
far gone, as far as it is possible for' man to go, remain
ing man, from original righteousness. True it is that a
fault, a corruption, a depravation has befallen the whole
nature of man, and therefore the nature of every man.
But the fault of nature, the breaking it off from the
pursuit of its true ends, from the fountain of its, true
enjoyment, is not the destruction of nature, or the sub
stitution, for that which is corrupted, of another nature.
It is the same nature, now fallen, which once existed in
an unfallen state.
You may trace in the ravine, which lays open the
hidden contents of the earth, a vein of pure and
precious gold, and for a long course, you may pursue
its undeviating line, but you reach at length the marks
of some violent convulsion. The strata, which once
were joined, .have been forcibly separated. The line of
precious metal, which you have been tracing, is broken,
and at a higher elevation, or at a remote point in your
onward progress, you again recover your thread of
pursuit. But the vein of gold, though broken, though
displaced and scattered, though torn from its original
connections, is still gold, which tempts pursuit, and
yields its beautiful forms and its precious qualities to
the hand of the cunning workman. All the derange
ments of the- fall have not destroyed the pure gold of
that nature which God, when He made it, pronounced
good, and, under His reforming hand, it is still moulded
into vessels of honor, which shall be- recognized as holy
in the sanctuary, which is the presence chamber of the
King of kings.
All the power of sin and Satan have not, blessed be

294 Primeval Condition of Man.
God, destroyed, though they have sadly defaced and
misused that image of God in which man was created.
God is still our Creator, as He was the maker of the first
Adam ; and now as then does He make us in His own
image. Look abroad among the race of man, and
wherever you find one who is man, you look upon one
who was made in the image of God. Even that slave of
sensuality, that victim of the vilest and lowest propen
sities, who has enveloped his spiritual nature in the
loathsomeness of his vices, so that we see it not, "so that
his body is the very lazar-house of his spirit, so that
brutality is written on his features ; he is nevertheless
made in the image of God, and the regenerating grace
of God, who made him, shall develop in him a spiritual
nature which we could scarcely believe to exist in him,
and endow it with the gift of holiness, and subject the
flesh to the Spirit, and make him an heir of glory, and
even kindle, in his once brutal countenance, the light of
an indwelling, living spirit. The man, whose god is
gold, whose days of service and nights of vigil are spent
before the altar of Mammon, does he not plainly betray
in the insatiable thirst which is consuming him, his
possession of a spirit which seeks a good that is bound
less? Sin is the perversion of our immortal spiritual faculties
in the pursuits of time and sense, and therefore sin itself
bears witness to the image of God, which it has darkened
and defaced. We are, still, even in our fallen condition,
not a mere heap of ruins, with here a broken column,
and there a scarcely supported arch, and all beside an
undistinguishable mass of confusion overrun with a vile
growth of weeds that mock the vastness and order that
once existed and charmed. We are rather a desecrated

Primeval Condition of Man. 295
temple, whose walls are standing, whose symmetrical
proportions may be seen, whose altar even is not over
thrown. But from the temple the Spirit of God hath
departed in righteous displeasure, the priestly, order hath
been dethroned, and, in their places, the vilest of the
people (even unbridled passion and appetite, and arch-
priests from hell), have been self-appointed to minister ;
and, upon that altar, with strange, unholy fires do they
offer uncommanded sacrifices to other gods than the true
God of the temple ; and even dare to swell, in the praise
of idols, the harmonies, the desires and aspirations of our
spiritual natures, which can only find a fitting response
in the ascriptions, whose melodious bursts outwell before
the throne of God.
And thus, too, has Christ our Saviour represented the
fall of man. He is J " the strong man armed," who hath
come to cleanse the desecrated temple, to drive from it
the unholy traffickers 2 and the ribald priests, and to rein
state its true and holy worship, to anoint and consecrate
anew its appointed priesthood.
After ages of darkness and pollution, during which sin
and Satan had executed the wildest havoc upon the im-:
age of God, in which man was made, that image reap
peared in all its pristine holiness and glory, the offspring
of Adam's line, in the person of our incarnate Lord.
Here was a demonstration that depravity has not de
stroyed the nature of . man, the image of God ; a demon
stration that, in spite of all the degradation and pollution
of sin, in spite of the cunning of Satan, instigated by his
malice, the image of God in man is yet capable of .shi
ning forth in all the light, of its spiritual beauty, in all the
i Luke xi. 21.
2 John ii.. 15; .Matt. xxi. 12; Mark xj, 15; Luke xix..45.

296 Primeval Condition of Man.
power and blessedness of communion with the Father of
spirits. To effect this glorious restoration, to vindi
cate the work of God against the power and malice of
depravity and Satan, to make good, in the fulness of its
meaning, the truth that man is made after the likeness
of God, to renew us in knowledge after the image of
Him that created us ; x for this purpose^ has the second
Adam come as a model of what we are by creation, and
what we may be by grace ; and a living, 2 " quickening
spirit," to be in the nature of every man who will receive
Him, the very element and producing power of the per
fection of which He is a model.
Thus then man in Paradise is the type of our race, the
representation to us, of our nature, our position, and our
destiny, according to the intention of our Creator. Our
own observation and experience teach us that the gracious
intentions of our Creator have been crossed and inter
fered with and defeated, since man forsook the covenant
of his God, by the perversion of sin and Satan ; and the
knowledge that we are created in the image of God, that
we are formed for communion with God ; the recurrence
to the perfect and happy condition of our forefather
Adam, while he continued in his true connexion with
God the Father of spirits, explains to us why a life of
sin is one of struggle and contradiction. It is so, becanse
it is against our spiritual nature ; and the clashing be
tween the flesh and the spirit, the unnatural subjection
of the imperial, godlike spirit to the passions and affec
tions which it has a right to control; this solves the
enigma of our being, in our fallen condition ; this ex
plains the endless contradictions by which the sinner is
enslaved, by which he is tormented. The spirit has
1 Col. iii. 10; Eph. iv. 23. 2 I. Cor. xv. 45.

Primeval Condition of Man. 297
not its appropriate place and nourishment. It needs
freedom, it needs holiness, it needs communion with
God, union with His Spirit, who is the Father of our
spirits. And, indeed, without this, like an unfriended
child, deprived of its natural, loving guardians, it must
exist forever, in misery, the mockery of fiends and of
the untamed passions which were born to be its subjects.
Now, to redeem us from this wretched subjection, to
satisfy our spiritual nature, to unite our spirits to the
Holy Spirit of our God, to reahze within us an image of
• God which not only is capable of likeness with Him,
but which has this likeness, does the incarnate Son of
God offer Himself to all who will receive Him, as their
spiritual progenitor. As the first Adam before he fell,
is the exemplar to us of what we are by nature and by
creation; as he stands aloft upon the heights of our
being, from which we have descended into the vale of
our weary worldly life of sin, a model of our nature in
its unf alien condition ; as, in his fall, he is a representa
tive of the sad degradation to which sin has reduced that
noble nature, that image of God ; so the second Adam is
the beacon to us of hope ; the assurance that that nature,
which was at first created, still exists ; that in itself it is
good, though perverted by sin, else He had not assumed
it ; and-that it is capable of restitution, because in Him
it is restored to the high purposes of its creation.
From the first Adam we learn what we have been ;
in the second Adam we see what, notwithstanding all
the sadness of our history, we may yet be ; by Him
are we enabled to reassert and regain the primitive per
fection and glory of the first Adam, and its everlast
ing results in the presence of God. May we then so
estimate, and teach those to whom we are sent to esti-

298 Primeval Condition of Man.
mate, our position, our nature, our privileges, and the pros
pects and capacities of our being ; may we so recur to the
fountains of remembrance and of hope, which God has
opened in our spiritual history, that, renewed, day by
day, by the quickening spirit of the second Adam, we
may attain the end of our creation ; for no higher end
can we attain, or need we desire, even the end which our
Creator designated, when, in the counsels of the eternal
Trinity, He said, l " Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness."
» Gen. i. 26.

Chapter IX.
ANTHROPOLOGY. II.— THE FALL OF MAN AND ORIGINAL
SIN.
AND when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked ;
and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves
aprons." l
This is the account of the fall from original righteous
ness, into which the first parents of our race were pre
cipitated, through the instigation of Satan, as it is given
in the book of Genesis. It is the record, without
question, of a great change that was effected in the
spiritual condition of man, and in his spiritual relation
to God — that has affected all our generations, and has
called into action those agencies of God's holy prov
idence which have culminated in the redemption effected
by the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven. Upon the
reality of this ; occurrence, by which man fell from his
primeval condition, and. lost the opportunity of winning
admission to the presence of God .by his right use of the
grace that was given to him in his unf alien state — the
teaching of the Scriptures is most explicit; and upon
this reality is- based the account which the Scriptures
i.Gen. iii. 6, 7.

300 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
give of the method of our redemption. As indeed the
very object of the redemption was to retrieve the loss
which the introduction of sin had brought upon our race,
and to restore to us the opportunity of regaining that
inheritance with God and in the presence of God, which
we had cast away in that primeval fall.
We may not be able indeed to answer all the ques
tions, which may be asked concerning the paradisiacal
circumstances in which our progenitors were placed —
but the broad fact of an original condition of freedom
from sin and of inestimable spiritual privilege, from
which, by transgressing the commandment of God,
we fell, is the fact which the Scriptures indisputably
teach, or else their account of the condition and history
of the human race in its first establishment upon this
earth would be wholly senseless and unmeaning. We
may not be able to say with certainty what the tree of
life was, or what was the tree of knowledge of good
and evil; or how the eating of the one would have
secured immortality, and the eating of the other was
attended with the certain introduction, into the world,
of death and all our wo. That these effects followed or
would follow these respective actions is undeniable, ex
cept by denying the authority of the sacred Scriptures,
and declaring the whole scheme of redemption' predicted
at the very time of the fall, and unfolded from the fall,
to restore the fallen, an illusion and a nullity.
Most happy was the condition of man, in the garden
of Eden, before the sad catastrophe which resulted from
eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. He was sound
and perfect in all the faculties of his body, soul, and
spirit. The harmoriy of the outward creation was a
true reflection of the harmony and due subordination

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 301
which existed in the world of man's nature. The bodily
powers, the appetites and the passions were in rightful
and holy subjection to the spirit of man ; and that spirit
was duly subject to the Spirit of God, in full union, so
far as it could be upon earth, and communion with the
Creator. Man was not a little world of holiness and
beautiful order disconnected from the fountain of his
being. His perfect condition could only be found in
living union with his Maker. Thus only could his na
ture realize its satisfying end, when his spirit was invig
orated and sustained in holiness, and furnished with
exhaustless happiness from the well-springs of the infi
nite Spirit, the Father of spirits.
As he looked forth upon the beautiful earth, and its
various harmonious ranks of living creatures, it was
overspread with a higher spiritual charm, which ema
nated from the intercourse which man was permitted to
hold with his Maker. All nature spoke of Him, and
led to Him. Man had an intuitive perception of the
works of God. xHe understood their nature, and was
able to affix, without hesitation, the name which was
significant of its nature. 2 The garden, in which he was
placed, was stored with every production that could
bring pleasure to the senses unpolluted by sin, and
food to the frame unacquainted with disease or decay.
Among the trees of the garden are signalized " the tree
of life in the midst of the garden" "and the tree of
knowledge of good and evil." These trees were sacra
ments of man's spiritual relation to God — the sacra
ments of his covenant with his God, in which he was
placed, the sacraments which represented the true par
ticipation and the equally true abstinence, by which, in
i Gen. ii. 19, 20. 2 Gen. ii. 9.

302 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
the exercise of his freedom, his consummate well-being
was to be achieved.
In the writings of S. John of Damascus we have well
represented the accepted and orthodox doctrine of the
ancient Church, especially the Greek Church, till the
eighth century. And his representation of the paradi
siacal state of man is thus set forth : s " But the tree of
life was either a tree having in it an energy productive of
life, or which was eatable by those only who were
worthy of life, and not subject to death. Some indeed
therefore have fancied (e'cpavr ddr/o 'av) that Paradise was
a sensible one; but others, that it was spiritual (vor/rov) ;
but to me at least it seems, that as man was created both en
dowed with senses, and rational, so also that most sacred
enclosure of his was both sensible and spiritual, and
having a double significance (eptcpaGiv). For he had his
habitation, as we have said, in the body, in that most
Divine and exceedingly beautiful region ; but in his
soul, he dwelt in a higher and surpassingly beautiful
place, having God his indweller as his house, and hav
ing Him for an illustrious vestment, and being clothed
all around with His grace, and luxuriating in the con
templation of Him which only is most sweet, like any
other angel, and nourished by this contemplation ; which
truly indeed has worthily been named the tree of life.
" For the sweetness of Divine participation imparts, to
those who partake, life which is not cut off by death.
But that also, which God called every tree, saying, 2 ' Of
every tree, which is in the garden, ye may freely eat.'
For He is the whole (every tree) in whom and by whom
the whole subsists. But the tree of knowledge of good
1 De Fide Orthodox, lib. ii. cap. xi. pp. 175 ff. ed. Le Quien,
1712. 2 Gen. ii. 16.

The Fall of Man and. Original Sin. 303
and evil is the discernment of multiform speculation ;
but this is the knowledge of nature properly so called,
which indeed, is fair to the perfect, and to those who
have advanced in Divine contemplation, proclaiming
from itself the mighty operation of the Creator, to those
who have no occasion to fear a fall, on account of their
having proceeded, from a long time, to a certain habi
tude of such contemplation ; but not good (xaXrf) for
those who are yet young, and whose appetites are strong ;
whom, on account of the unsteadiness of their abode in
that which is the better, and their not yet being settled
firmly in the contemplation of the only good (xaXov),
the solicitude for their own body is naturally inclined to
draw back to itself and to distract."
How illustrative is this view of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil of that phase of the fall of man which
is exhibited in the proud pretension of that spirit of
scientific investigation, which can discern in nature no
living creator of nature, distinct from the nature which
He has called into being, and all whose life and spirit
ual existence are from His word of creative power. But
continues S. John Damascene : x " So I think that the
Divine Paradise is twofold, and the God-inspired fathers
have so delivered it to be ; some teaching in this way
and some in that. But it is possible to think that ' every
tree ' is the knowledge that is derived from the creatures
of the Divine power, as the Divine Apostle says, 2 ' For
the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the
world, are clearly seen, being (perceived) (understood)
by the things that are made.' But of all these thoughts
and contemplations, that which has respect to us is the
highest, that, I say, of our own composition (or struc-
i p. 176. a Rom. i. 20.

304 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
ture), as the Divine David says : x ' The knowledge of
Thee has been made wonderful from me,' 2 that is, from
my structure. But this was hazardous for Adam who
was newly formed, for the reasons which we have given.
"Moreover, the tree of life may be understood to
be, the more Divine perception which comes from all
sensible things, and the ascent by them to the parent
and creating cause of all ; which also He named ' every
tree,' that is, the full and undivided, and that which
bears only the participation of the good ; but the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, sensual and delectable food,
sweet indeed in appearance, but in reality plunging
him who partakes into the participation of evils. For
God says, 3 ' Of every tree which is in the garden, thou
mayest freely eat,' saying, I think, by all the creatures
ascend to Me the Maker, and gather one fruit from all,
Me, who am life indeed ; let all things bring forth to
thee life as their fruit, and make the participation of
Me the composition of your own being, for so you will
be immortal. 4 ' But of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil, ye shall not eat of it ; for in the day that ye
shall eat of it, ye shall die the death ; ' for, naturally, sen
sible food is the supply of that which has flowed away,
and it goes into the draught and corruption ; and he can
not desire to remain incorruptible who has partaken of
that sensual food."
Here we have truly represented the sacramental char
acter of man's position in Paradise and the significance
of the tree of life, of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil, and of all the trees of the garden in their bearing
1 Ps. cxxxix. 6.
2 Sic. Basilius, Theologus, Anastasius ii., Antiochenus et alii, Geis-
eler, vol. i, p. 544. 3 Gen. ii. 16. 4 Gen. ii. 17.

The Fall of Mem and Original Sin. 305
npon the spiritual condition of man, and upon his spirit
ual and mortal and immortal destiny. The tree of life,
which was set in Paradise as the Sacrament of God, ap
pears again, on the last page of Divine revelation, where
the consummation of the Divine dispensations is por
trayed, and where the consummate office of the tree of
life, the gracious design of which was frustrated in
Paradise by the fall of man, is set forth as fully accom
plished—accomplished in the second Adam, who brought
life and immortality to light in His holy Gospel. The
promise of the first Paradise was to be realized in the
Paradise of the eternal consummation.
1 " And He shewed me a pure river of water of life,
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on
either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which
bore twelve ma/nner of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations. And there shall be no more
curse :' but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be
in it ; and His servants shall serve Him. And they shall
see His face ; and His name shall be in their foreheads..
And there shall be no night there ; and they need no.
candle, neither light of the sun ; for the Lord God giv-
eth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever."1
Here is an interpretation from the Lord Himself of
the account contained in Genesis of the primeval condi
tion of man, and of his sad fall from that condition ; a
view, too, of his accomplished restoration, arid of the
fulfilment of the gracious and munificent designs of God
towards him, when He placed him under that first pro
bation, and proposed to him immortal existence, in God's
1 Bev. xxii. 1-5.

306 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
own presence, as the great end of his being. The end
shall be attained at last, though through the voluntary de
parture of man from God who is the life, it shall now be
attained through that incarnation, that presentation to
men of the second Adam, who has won for them that
life and that consummation of happy and perfect being
which man threw away, when the opportunity of reach
ing it was afforded to him by the grace of his Creator
in the Paradise of his first probation.
From the position from which man fell we must es
timate the nature, the extent and the depth of his fall, as
well as the consequences that it entailed upon " every
man that naturally is, engendered of the offspring of
Adam." The circumstances of probation, under which
he was placed, are well described by J. Damascene, fol
lowing the representations of the fathers of the Greek
Church. x " God, therefore, made man innocent, up
right, virtuous, without grief, without trouble, decorated
with every virtue, flourishing in all good things, as some
(second small world in the great one, another angel His
-worshipper, of a mixed nature, a spectator of the visible
¦creation, initiated into that which is intelligible, earthly
and heavenly, temporal and immortal, visible and intel
ligible, between greatness and humility, the same being,
flesh and spirit, spirit on account of grace, flesh on ac
count of pride ; this, indeed, that he might abide, and
glorify his benefactor ; but that, that he might suffer,
and suffering might be admonished and chastised, when
he should be ambitious of greatness ; a living creature
directed by good administration, and migrating else
where, that is, in the future world ; and, as the end of
the mystery, deified by inclination towards God, but
' p. 178.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 307.
deified by participation of the Divine illumination, not
by being transformed into the Divine substance. But
He made him, by nature, without sin, and in will self-
authoritative ; but without sin, I say, not as not capable
of sin ; for only the divinity is unreceptive of sin ; but
not as having in his nature the perpetration of sin, but
rather in his choice ; that is, having power to abide and
to advance in the good, working together with Divine
grace, likewise also to turn from the good, and, God
permitting of it, by reason of the power of self-deter
mination, to be formed in the bad. For that is not vir
tue, which comes to pass by force."
The sentence pronounced upon transgression of the
•commandment of God was the sentence of death. l " In
the day that thou eatest thereof," the sentence ran,
" thou shalt surely die," or as it is in the margin of our
English Bible, " dying thou shalt die." Of course, since
such was the sentence, man was created mortal, that is,
capable of death. Man is, says J. Damas.,2 " immor
tal not by nature, but by grace, for everything which
has a beginning has also an end by nature; but God
alone is always existing, but rather also above the ever
lasting ; for the maker of the times is not under time,
but above time." And S. Athanasius says, 3 " for to be
troubled is a peculiarity of the flesh, but to have power
(e£ ovGiav) of laying down and taking life when he wills,
this is no longer a property of men, but it is from the
power of the Logos ; for man does not die of his own
authority, but by necessity of nature, and when he does
not will; but the Lord Himself being immortal, but
1 Gen. ii. 17.
2 J. Damas. De Fide Orthodox, lib. ii. cap. iii. p. 156.
3 Orat. iii. contra Arianos, § 57, p. 606.

308 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
having mortal flesh, He had authority as God to be sep
arated from the body and again to take it, when He
wills." And again, he says,1 "But again, since the
work, that is, man created perfect, became defective
through transgressions, and became dead in sin, but it
was unbecoming that the work of God should remain.
imperfect, on this account the perfect Logos of God is
clothed with an imperfect body, and is said to be created
for the works, that paying the debt for us, he might per
fect by Himself the things that were wanting in man,
but immortality and the way to Paradise were wanting
to him."
Such was the universal teaching of the fathers of the
Church concerning the mortality and the immortality of
man. He was made capable of death, as well as capable
of immortality, and what should be the result of this his
position between life and death was to be determined by
his own free choice and action in his course of probation.
God is the fountain of life, and in Him His living crea
tures live and move and have their being ; the continu
ance of hfe depends upon His sustaining power ; and the
questions of death or immortal life are questions deter
mined by His sovereign will. And immortality for
man, by the appointment of God, was to be the recom
pense of unswerving obedience, or failing that, of re
deeming grace.
But what was the death, which was the threatened
penalty of sin ? It was the death involved in the very
nature and act of sin. Sin is violation with consent of
the will, of the law of God, which is the rule of right
and well being for all His accountable creatures. It is,
therefore, a separation of the life of the sinning soul
1 Orat. ii. contra Arianos, § 66, P.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 309
from the life of God, who is the true life of the soul.
And as death is the negation of life,, the separation of
the soul from the life of God, which is the essence of
sin, is essential death. In the very act of sin man be
came, by that act, dead in sin. An Apostle tells us that
1 " the wages of sin is death," and that by 2 " one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin," as its insepa
rable attendant.
" Sin," says Clemens Alex.,3 " is called the death of
the soul ; as long as women bring forth, that is, as long
as desires shall operate," and then quotes Bom. v. 12, 14:
" And so as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned : "
. . . " Nevertheless " (that is, before the giving of the
law) "death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over
them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's
transgression " ; over those, that is, who had not sinned
in the exercise of their own free will ; but death, the in
separable attendant of sin, reigned through all those ages,
over men of all periods of human life, and so incontest-
ably proved that all were suffering under the infliction
of sin. Death obtained its dominion over our race by
the entrance of sin into the rational and spiritual nature
of man, and so the death, which is the penalty of sin, is
primarily the death of the soul to its true life in God.
As S. Athanasius says,4 " But " man, " disobeying the
commandment of God, fell under sinful thoughts, God
not being the creator of the captivating reasonings, but
the devil sowing them by deceit in the rational nature
of man, which had become constituted in transgression,
and thrust away from God, so that the devil also consti-
> Bom. vi. 23. 2 Horn. v. 12. 3 Strom, iii. p. 540, ed. Potter.
* Contra Apollinarium, lib. ii. § 6, p. 944.

310 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
tuted the law of sin in the nature of man, and death
reigning by the work of sin. On account of this there
fore the Son of God came, that He might dissolve the
works of the devil." Such was the uniform teaching of
the fathers of the Church, before the days of the Pela
gian heresy, concerning the entrance of sin into the
world, and of death by sin — for sin itself was death, in
that it was the separation of the soul from God the
fountain of its life. The death, which is apparent to-
men, the separation of the soul from the body, the de
struction of the visible manifested life upon this earth,
was but the image and outward evidence of that death',
the opposite of the life in God, and of all the well-being
which belongs to that life, which is the true penalty of
the law of God upon the commission of sin.
Such then was the fall of man from original right
eousness, and such the change of his condition towards
God and of all the prospects of his well-being, till, by
some mightier aid God should come to his relief, which
it produced. Man, as J. Damas. says,1 was taken in a
snare by this assault of the demon who was the origina
tor of evil, and had not kept the command of the Cre
ator, and had beeen stripped of grace, and had put off
his confidence towards God, and was covered with the
roughness of this troublesome life, for this the leaves of
the fig tree signify, and was clothed with mortality, that
is, deadness and thickness of the flesh, for this the
clothing of skins signifies, and was banished from Para
dise by the righteous judgment of God, and was con
demned to death, and made subject to corruption.
All the outward marks of death and degradation and
corruption were fearful visible testimonies of the death
1 De Fide Orthodox, lib. iii. cap. i. p. 202.

The Fall of Man' and Original Sin. 31.1
of sin, which was mining all within the soul, and which
called forth the infinite compassion of the Lord from
Heaven incarnate for our healing and restoration. And
the consequences of this fall from God were transmitted,
in the nature of man, through all his generations. The
connexion of our forefather Adam with all his descend
ants was revealed to our progenitor himself. He was
the representative of the race, which from him de
scended by the process of natural generation, and all
their spiritual history was affected by his departure from
the law of God his Creator.
1 Bishop Bull, speaking of the knowledge which Adam
had that the woman, whom God presented to him, was
" taken out of man," says,1 " Now whence could Adam
have this knowledge ? He might, indeed from the con
formity of the parts of that goodly creature presented to
his eye, and her nearest likeness to himself, guess that
God had now provided him with the' meet help which
before he wanted ; but it is scarce imaginable how he
could so punctually describe her original, and the man
ner of her formation, otherwise than by a secret inspira
tion and internal suggestion of the Divine Spirit. Be
sides the words following ver. 24, ' Therefore shall a
man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto
his wife, and they shall be one flesh,' are manifestly
enough the continuation of Adam's discourse, transfer
ring the former hypothesis into a thesis : as if he had
said, As God hath joined me with my woman into
one flesh, so from henceforth every husband snail obey
this order established by Heaven, and leaving his dear
est parents, cleave unto his wife as his own flesh. Our
Saviour, Matthew xix. 5, attributes these words to God,
because Adam uttered them by a spirit of prophecy."
1 State of Man before the Fall, p. 127, vol. ii.

312 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
And this interpretation we meet with in the ancient
fragments of Polycarp,1 cited by Victor, Bishop of Cap
ua, above one thousand two hundred years ago. The
sum is this, "Both Adam uttered this prophecy, and
God the Father also is rightly said to have uttered the
same, because He inspired him." Hence Origen and
others of the fathers reckon Adam among the divinely
inspired persons, and expressly term him a prophet.
And the deep sleep, which Adam was cast into before
God formed Eve ' out of him, the ancient Christian
writers generally understood to have been designed by
God, not only as an expedient for the performance of
the wonderful operation in him, without sense of pain,
but also as an (e'xGraGis), to prepare him for the receiv
ing of that Divine oracle, which presently upon his
awaking he uttered. Like that deep sleep which God
sent upon Abraham, when by the spirit of prophecy He
would acquaint him with those events which were to
happen to his posterity some ages after (Gen. xv. 12, etc.
See Acts x. 10, and xxii. 17).
Thus TertuUian,2 speaking of the sleep that fell upon
Adam, and the words that he afterwards uttered, " There
fell an ecstasy upon him, even the power of the Holy
Ghost, causing him to prophesy." And we find the
same notion expressly delivered by many others of the
ancients. See especially St. Austin, lib. ix. De Genes.
ad. Lit. cap. ult., and Bernard, Serm. ii. Septuages. Let
me add hereto, that Philo also, the most ancient and
learned writer among the Jews, acknowledgeth this sleep
on Adam to have been an ecstasy, interpreting the ecsta
sy to have been a kind of recess of the soul from the
1 Printed by Feuardentius in cap. ii. lib. iii. Iren. p. 241 ; liber
iii. c. iii. § 4, Mass. and Grabe, Grabe p. 204, Mass. 177.
2 De Anima, cap. xi. p. 183, ed. Leopold; see also cap. 21, p. 147.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 313
body and bodily sense, in order to the more calm and
serene contemplation of Divine things. For his words,
speaking of the place of Moses (lib. Quis Kerum Divin.
Haeres. p. 517), are these : " God sent," said he, " an
ecstasy upon Adam, and laid him into a deep sleep ;
understanding by an ecstasy the quiet arid tranquillity of
the mind. For the sleep of the mind is the waking of
the senses, as also the waking of the mind is the leisure
of the senses."
Surely, he to whom, after the fall, the prophetic prom
ise was made, x " I will put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed : it shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," had had
before the fall a revelation of the consequences which
his sin would entail upon the generations of his poster
ity, had been made to understand fully the responsibility
under which he was placed, as the representative of all
his nature and all his race, in his probation, for death or
for immortal life, in Paradise. That his sin has entailed
its consequence of inherent death upon all his posterity is
the clear declaration of holy Scripture. 2 " For as in
Adam .all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
For since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead."
And, throughout the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the
Bomans, the derivation of sin and death from Adam to
all mankind, and the abounding of grace for justification
and the restoration of lost righteousness to men through
Christ, for all men of all generations, whose nature He
took, are clearly, repeatedly and emphatically stated.
We know clearly upon the authority of Divine revela
tion, whence the corruption of our nature by sin, and its
1 Gen. iii. 15. * I. Cor. xv. 22, 21.

314 The Fall of Man and . Original Sin.
consequent subjection to death, the penalty and. wages of
sin, have proceeded. We know the origin of sin in the
human family, and the reason of its universal extension
and prevalence among all whose nature is human. We
know that sin in our nature is not any true or original
portion of that nature as it came from the hands of God,
but that it is an infection and a derangement of nature,
as God created it, wrought through the malice and envy
of Satan, l " that old serpent called the devil and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world " (as we learn from the
book of Bevelation that Divine interpreter of the book of
Genesis and of the whole history of man till its consum
mation) and admitted into the sacred enclosure of our
nature and our race, by the free consent of man himself
to the suggestions of the tempter.
It was under a fair appearance, and with specious pre
texts, without doubt, that he accomplished his deception.
There would be a new opening to them of light and
knowledge arid elevation in the scale of existence, if they
disobeyed the command of the Creator. They them
selves would be 2 " as gods knowing good and evil." The
forbidden tree was good for food, and pleasant to the
eyes, and 3 " a tree to be desired to make one wise." All
the nature of man was taken captive, his senses, his emo
tional nature, his rational powers, his desire of a dignity
in the scale of being more suitable to him than the one
he occupied. A true and noble exercise of his freedom,
which would demonstrate him to be truly independent,
and so truly free, was urged upon him. And so he
broke the commandment of his God, which was the law
of his well being and endless hfe, and subjected his free
1 Rev. xii. 9; xx. 2; cf. John viii. 44.
2 Gen. iii. 5. 3 Gen. iii. 6.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 315
will to the captivity of sin and Satan, and gave to sin
and death free course through all generations of his de
scendants, till the mighty wave of sin and death should
be" encountered and set back by the Divine power of the
second Adafn.
But what were the consequences which were thus en
tailed upon the nature of man, and which therefore took
effect upon every one who ever became a partaker of that
nature ? In the words of our Lord the condition in which
men are now born into the world is clearly described.
He declares the' absolute necessity of a new birth, in
order to entrance into the kingdom of God, because our
first birth into the world is one into a condition of sin, of
sin which has established itself in our nature. For He
tells us, lu That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and "
only " that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." As
we are born into the world then we are in a fleshly state, a
state in which we are destitute of the indwelling Spirit of
God. By natural descent from Adam, we inherit this
fleshly condition ; " that which is born of the flesh, is
flesh," ' is of the same nature and character with that
from which it is born.
In the fifty-first Psalm the same truth is declared in
other words : " Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me " — and, in that Psalm,
all the voluntary admitted sins of the subsequent life are
represented as proceeding from that birth-sin. And Job,
speaking of the miserable troubled and dying condition
of man, thus traces it to its hereditary source : 3"Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? Not one."
4 " The wicked are estranged from the womb ; they go
astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." That
' John iii. 6. » Ps. Ii. 5. 3 Job. xiv. 4. * Ps. lviii. 3.

816 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
this infection is an infection of our nature is clearly
stated by S. Paul : ! " Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, ful
filling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others." The
various elements and the pervading power of this native
sin are here unmistakably set forth.
The prevalence of this original sin is declared to be
universal ; it is said to consist in a derangement of all
parts of our nature, in the prevalence of ill-directed wills
(for BeXrfixara is the word used, translated in our English
version, " desires "), in the subjection of our wills to the
flesh, to our own lower nature, and to the thoughts
(Siavoicov) of our own self-willed and misguided under
standing ; and so are we, by nature, since nature has
been so perverted, and its ruling authorities have been
dethroned, and withdrawn from their allegiance to God,
and from the guidance of His Spirit ; so are we now, by
nature, the children of wrath, are under condemnation,
under an impossibility, that is, in such a condition, of
attaining the true end of our everlasting well-being.
Till we become " the children of Divine grace," till
we are transferred from that old birth in sin, to the new
birth into righteousness and holiness, as the accepted
children of God, that banishment from God, that con
demnation of sin in our nature, into which we are born,
can never be removed. Those who are in this condition
are said to be 2 " dead in trespasses and sin," and so has
the sentence of death, pronounced in Paradise, been
fulfilled in our race. From that death there is no
3 quickening except into the life which is in Christ and
from Christ. When men are transplanted into Christ
1 Eph. ii. 3. 2Ep. ii. 1, 5. 3Ep. ii. 4, 5.

The Fall of Mam, amd Original Sim,. 317
their life, " they put off the old man ," the infected,
Spirit-forsaken nature which we have derived from our
sinful progenitor, * " which is corrupt according to the
deceitful lusts," and " are renewed in the spirit of their
mind " by the return thither of the regenerating Spirit
of God ; and so " they put on the new man " which is
conformity in their regenerated nature to the incarnate
Lord, " the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness."
This is Christian regeneration — it is 2 " deliverance from
the power of darkness," which, through the deceit of
Satan, has oppressed our nature, and " translation into
the kingdom of the Son of God's love, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgivness of
sins." And if that infection of our nature, which we
call original sin, did not exist, by virtue of our descent
from a fallen progenitor, then the new birth or regen
eration of the second Adam would be needless and
wholly unmeaning. The existence of original or inborn
sin is most fully and explicity asserted in the fifth chapter
of the Epistle to the Bomans. Death, reigning from
Adam to Moses even over those not responsible for their
own actions, even over those not chargeable with the com
mission of actual voluntary sin, is declared to be the
proof that all have sinned ; that is, as is explained in
v. 19 — " as by one man's disobedience, the many were
made, constituted, in their infected nature, to be sinners ;
so by the obedience of one the many shall be made, con
stituted by grace, to be righteous."
The justification by Christ is here contrasted with the
condemnation that came by Adam. As this justification
was not the personal righteousness, proceeding from their
> Ep. iv. 22, 24. s Col. i. 13.

318 The Fall of Man and, Original Sim.
own righteous will, of the justified, but the justification
of free forgiveness without merit of their own ; so
the being put in the condition of sin and condemnation,
which is opposed to it, is not the personal sin of those
who have put themselves in this condition, but an im
pression of the perversity and deceiving power of sin
into their nature, for which they are not personally
responsible, and for the introduction of which there is
no evil desert, which attaches to them. But they are
nevertheless born into a state and condition of sin and
misery and penal death, both temporal and spiritual—
what is in their nature, " in every person born into this
world, deserveth God's wrath and damnation." And it
is impossible that, without the regeneration of the Divine
Spirit, any such can enter into the kingdom of God, and
obtain from Him the gift of eternal life.
Such then is the fact patent to observation, and most
clearly revealed as an incident of the spiritual history of
man, of original sin in his nature, the fountain and spring
of all the sins that, in the exercise of his free will, under
the dominion of sinful desire and thought, he commits.
The fact is, without doubt, full of mystery, but none the
less a fact, which is undeniable. Never was it more
fully disclosed than when the Son of God, in taking our
nature upon Him, was born, by the overshadowing power
of the Holy Ghost, of a pure Virgin, and so took our
nature, that He might redeem us, free from all stain of
sin. His immaculate conception is the demonstration of
the birth-sin of all who " are naturally engendered of the
offspring of Adam." He could not have been the second
Adam, our Redeemer, without that immaculate con
ception. But so, nevertheless, He demonstrated that sin
was not a part or constituent of our nature ; but an

The Fall of Man and Original Sim. 319
infection, an unhappy accident, which had befallen that
nature, from the outward invasion of sin and Satan. '
The fruits and effects of this original corruption are most
apparent in all the spiritual history of man. It is that
which has inaugurated and continued the strife between
the flesh and the spirit, which discloses at once what our
nature originally was, and for what it was intended, and
what and how real, on the other hand, is this sinful in
fection of nature, which has been the occasion of that
ever-continued conflict in the individuals and the socie
ties of this fallen earth. How graphically is this con
flict described by S. Paul in the seventh chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans. The complete subjection of.
man to sin, in his natural condition apart from Divine
grace could not be more fully set forth.
1 " For we know that the law is spiritual ; but I am
carnal" (without the Spirit, in my natural condition),
" sold under sin," its veriest slave. " For that which I
do, I allow not : " it is against my better, my spiritual
nature; "for what I would (or will, o OeXoj) that I do
not," so oppressed, enfeebled, has my will become by
the power of this sinful infection — and so far does this
go, "that what I hate, that I do." But "if I do that
which I will not, I consent to the law (in my spiritual
nature) that it is good. Now then it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me," that entered into
my nature at my very birth ; it all proceeds from sin,
" that it might appear sin," that its true nature as sin
may be made manifest — even from the sin that was born
with me, to which I have surrendered my own free will
as a slave — and this sin so 2 "worketh that death in me "
which was ordained as its penalty, which, indeed, is its
» vv. 14-18. 2 Ver. 13.

320 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
very essence. And so complete is the mastery which it
has attained, " that in me (that is, in my flesh, my sin-per
verted nature) dwelleth no good thing." Sin has estab
lished its own law over the life of man — u'a law that
when I would do good, evil is present with me" — ""a
law in my members warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin,
which is in my members." And so he exclaims, in con
templation of the misery of man, 3"0 wretched man
that I am ; who shall deliver me from the body of this
death ? "
Who shall say, on reading such a delineation from the
pen of Divine inspiration, that sin, inborn, indwelling
sin, which obtains the mastery over the life is not a
great and sad reality of our fallen existence ? It is not
mere infirmity of will and purpose and action, as some
have insufficiently represented original sin to be, but
sin properly speaking, in its very nature, which shews
that sinful nature in the actions and the life, and the
contest with the spiritual nature of man, which it pro
duces. So is it plainly declared to be by S. Paul, and
because it is sin, condemnation is its attendant and con
sequence, 4"for the wages of sin is death." It acts
largely, to obtain and retain its evil dominion, through
the lusts of the flesh — through the desires and the pas
sions, which should be in subjection, and not assume to
be the ruling powers of the microcosm which man was
created to be.
5 " From whence come wars and fightings among you ?
Come they not hence, even of your lusts that, war in
your members ? " 6" Ye ask and receive not, because ye
1 Ver. 21. 2 Ver. 23. 3Ver. 24.
1 Rom. vi. 23. 6 James iv. 1. 6 James iv. 5.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 321
ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
The lusts which strive for unlawful indulgence, are
here certainly described as evil in their nature, and the
chosen pabulum of sin. The word used in these verses
for lusts is r)Sovr), but its meaning is the same with the
more usual eniBv)xia, as appears from the expression
in the same passage, speaking of the same sinful lusts,
"Ye lust (enidvp.eire) and have not." And S. Paul
certainly identifies the lust or desire, which is con
demned in Scripture, with sin when he says, 1"Wliat
shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God forbid. Nay,
I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not
known lust (enidv/niav) except the law had said, Thou
shalt not covet (or lust, e'nidvfu^Gei?) — but sin taking
occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all man
ner of concupiscence (ndaav enidvptiav)." Concupis
cence then, the offspring of sin, is of the very nature of
sin itself. But it is unlawful desire, without doubt, that
is to be understood by this concupiscence ; the indul
gence of desires, even in themselves lawful, against the
law of God.
2 TertuUian states the case concerning concupiscence
clearly and well. " Therefore," he says, " indignation
and concupiscence are not always to be thought to belong
to our irrational part — for we are certain that they oc
curred rationally in the Lord. God will be rationally
angry, with those, that is, with whom He ought, and
God will rationally desire those things which are
worthy of Himself. For He will both be angry with
the bad man, and will desire salvation for the good one.
3 ' If any desires a bishopric, he desires a good work.'
1 Rom. vii. 7, 8. 2 De Anima xvi. p. 188, ed. Leopold.
3 1. Tim. iii. 1.

322 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
But when he says a good work, he shews concupiscence,
which is rational. 1 ' I would they were even cut off,'
he says, 'who subvert you.' Indignation is rational
which is from the affection of discipline. But when
he says, 2'We were formerly by nature, children of
wrath,' he blames an irrational indignation, because it
is not from that nature which is from God, but from
that which the devil brought in. He (the devil) is also
called the lord of his own order, 3 ' Ye cannot serve two
masters ' ; he is also named father, 4 ' Ye are of your
father the devil.' Do not fear also to ascribe to him
the proprietorship of another later and adulterous nature,
whom you read of as the 6 sower upon oats that have been
sown, and the noctural interpolator of the crop of corn."
The lusts which sin uses are the desires of our nature,
which it has subdued to its own purposes, the lusts,
which war in our members against the true law of our
mind. Without question, therefore, the declaration of
the article of our Church (Art. IX.) is a true one " that
the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust
hath of itself the" nature of sin." And without doubt
too, the declaration of the Council of Trent on this sub
ject, setting aside, as it does, the acknowledged state
ment of the Divine Apostle, is alike false and presump
tuous, not to say, palpably absurd : 6 " This concupis
cence, which the Apostle sometimes calls sin, the holy
Synod declares that the Catholic Church has never un
derstood to be called sin because it is truly and properly
sin in the regenerate, but because it is of sin, and in
clines to sin. But if any thinks contrary, let him be
anathema." [I fear not both to think and to say con-
1 Gal. v. 12. 2 Ep. ii. 3. 3 Matt. vi. 24. * John viii. 44.
5 Matt. xiii. 25. 6 De Peccat. Originali, § 5, Sess. v.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 323
trary, choosing rather to follow the teaching of the holy
Apostle than to regard the anathema of Trent.]
By St. James lust, or an unlawful desire, is repre
sented to be the mother of sin, and not its offspring, as
the Council of Trent declares it to be. St. James thus
gives the genesis of sin : 1 " But eyery man is tempted,
when he is drawn away of his own lust (emdvfuai) and
enticed ; then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin ; and sin, when it is finished (when its offspring
is born), bringeth forth death." When the Spirit of
God is forsaken and retires, then the lawless desires
usurp a dominion which does not rightly belong to them,
and then and so was sin enthroned in the nature of
fallen man.
The prevalence of sin, in its manifold forms and de
grees, among the nations and generations of mankind,
the fearful instances of youthful depravity, which con
tinually occur, the extinguishment of love by selfishness
and self-seeking, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye,
and the pride of life, by which men are dominated, 2 the
carnal mind, which is enmity against God, which is so
widely and abundantly manifest in 3 " the course of this
world," among men having not the Spirit, " who fulfil
the desires of the flesh and of the mind," are all proofs,
of which the world is full, of the overflowings of sin
from its evil fountain in the nature of unregenerate man.
The heathen themselves have fully acknowledged this
defection of our nature from original righteousness, and
have striven in various ways to account for it, and the
contest between the flesh and the spirit which is so
graphically described by S. Paul, is also described with
almost equal vividness by the writers, the poets and the
» James i. 14, 15. 2 Rom. viii. 6, 7. 3 Eph. ii. 2, 3.

324 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
philosophers of heathen antiquity. And the fact of the
universal prevalence of sin, and of its tendency to secure
for itself a seat in the high places of the earth, of earthly
emolument and power, is too patent to escape observa
tion. The fact then must be admitted, account for it as we
may. But how great is its significance ! What is this
inborn sin in itself considered ? What is the extent of
the dominion which it has acquired over the nature of
man? Though it has fearfully perverted and poisoned
that nature, though it has turned it away from the true
end of its well-being, though it has made it a thing im
possible for any man, by his unaided efforts, to achieve
for himself the true consummation of his being, it has
not destroyed the nature in which it has entrenched
itself. It has not turned the nature of man into the
nature of devils. He is still man who was created in
the image and similitude of God, though fallen from
his primeval state and circumstances, and from tbte pos
sibility of reaching the perfection of his being in the
way in which he might originally have attained it.
Sin has inflamed his desires and made them evil and
lawless ; it has corrupted his affections and made them '
selfish and loveless; it has brought the darkness of
spiritual ignorance over his understanding, by alienating
it from the life of God ; it has oppressed the heart with
blindness so that it will not see even in the light of the
Lord ; it has secured the assent of the will to its own
evil purposes, and disabled it for the free election of the
good and the true as the law of our being, without the
aid of supernatural grace ; it has clouded the reason so
that it often utterly fails to recognize the existence of
God, who is its Author, and to whom it should bear-
witness.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 325
Now all these effects might be produced by the with
drawal of the Spirit of God from man, when man re
jected His presence and His counsel. He was then, as
J. Damas. says, stripped naked of grace, and thus, left
to his own self-chosen resources, worked out the develop
ments of sin. The fact was universally admitted by the
fathers of the Church, before the days of the Pelagian
controversy, that sin and death had come into the world by
the fall of Adam ; that by sin, men were estranged from
God, and more susceptible than before of the temptations
of the devil and his angels. They nevertheless held that
human freedom was not lost by the fall, that every one who
sinned, did so upon his own responsibility and through
his. own fault ; that even" the onsets of the devil were
not invincible, and that only on the supposition of this
freedom could the accountability of men be defended,
and the rewards of virtue and the punishments of vice
be real ; that man had lost, by the fall, his likeness to
God, but not the image of God, in which he was created.
TertuUian, it is said, 1 first makes the supposition of a
hereditary sinfulness transmitted from Adam to his de
scendants. TertuUian says : 2 " The evil of the soul, there
fore, in that, besides being superinduced from the coming
upon the soul of the wicked spirit, it precedes from the
original, sin (ex originis vitio), is in some manner natural.
For, as we have said, the corruption of nature is another
nature, having its own god and father, the very author,
that is, of corruption ; so that nevertheless there is also
in (the soul) that principal good, that Divine and
germane thing, and which is properly natural. For
what is from God is not so much extinguished, as over-
1 Gieseler Dogmen geschichte, p. 181.
2 De Anima c. xii. p. 225 ; cf . c. iii. p. 173, and c. xvi. p. 188.

326 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
shadowed. For it can be overshadowed, because it is
not God. It cannot be extinguished because it is from
God." This is noble and true ; for if the spiritual
nature, which God has given us, which is our capacity
for likeness with God and finding in Him our bliss and
perfection, could be extinguished, then vain would be the
hope of any help for man ; then, we hope we are not
irreverent in saying it, the incarnation of the Son of God
Himself could. not save him.
The views of Origen, as might be expected, while they
bear witness to the general doctrine of the Church, are
tinged with the peculiarities of his own system. Refer
ring to Job xiv. 4, 5, he frequently says that even the
new-born are not without sin, that all men are, by nature,
inclined to sin. But according to his system souls had
sinned in a former state of being, and for their sins, had
been thrust down into earthly bodies, and so he traces
sinful inclination to the connection of the soul with these
material bodies, he grants also that 1 death came into the
world as the consequence of the fall of Adam, but this death
he views 2 rather as a relief than a punishment. In itself
it was a thing indifferent, neither good nor bad, but as
it was made so by the moral action of men themselves.
He also, in defining different senses in which death may
be predicated, says, 3"that the separation of the soul
from God, which comes by sin, is called death." 4 This
spiritual death is found partly here, and partly after the
death of the body.
There was from early ages a marked difference in the
1 Rom. v. 12.
2 In Matth. torn. xiii. § 8. p. 582 ; torn. iii. De La Rue; in Joann.
xvii. § 37 ; in John viii. 44.
8 Lib. viii. c. Celsum ; lib. v. in Epist. ad Rom. note B. p. 582;
cf . Opp. ed. De La Rue. * Lib. vi. § 6 in Ep. ad Boman.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 327
statement of the doctrine concerning sin between the
fathers of the Greek and those of the Latin Church, though
in both portions of the Church, the reality of the fall and
of its effect upon the race of mankind was fully admitted.
S. Athanasius, without doubt, is as good a representative
as could be selected of the views entertained by the
Greek Church on original sin. He says that l " the devil
also established the law of sin in the nature of man, and
death reigning by the work of §in " ; that " the devil
wrought out sin by sowing it in the rational and intel
lectual nature of man" ; that the Saviour 2 "put on the
flesh which had been made the slave of sin" ; that
3 " the battle of the recovery (evpeGew?) is yet joined in
our nature, and there is an increase of the seed sown (the
seed of sin) on account of our infirmity," and he asks,
" How then does Christ not save the world, since He
has become man, since it is thus manifest that in the
nature, in which sin was committed, in the same nature
there was created the abundance of grace ? " He says
expressly that 4 " it was impossible for the nature, which
was rational and which had willingly sinned, to recall
itself to freedom, as the Apostle says " ; though he asserts
that 6 " many saints have been free from all sin, and that
Jeremiah was also sanctified from the womb, and John,
yet in the womb, leapt with joy at the voice of Mary the
Theotokos, that 6 nevertheless death reigned from Adam
to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression, and so men no
less remained mortal and corruptible, receptive of the
proper affections of nature."
1 Contra Apoll. liber ii. p. 944. 2 Orat. i. c. Arianos, p. 447.
3 Contra Apollin. liber i. p. 936 ; c. Apollin. liber ii. § 7. p. 945.
* C. Apollin. liber ii. § 6. p. 944.
s Orat iii. c. Arianos § 33. pp. 582, 583. 6 Rom. v. 14.

328 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
Here we have all the essentials of the doctrine of
original sin transmitted, in our nature, from our fallen
progenitor, and if any among mankind were kept free
from actual sin, it was only through the sanctifying
grace, even from the womb, by which any could ever be
delivered . from this bondage of sin. 1 " All the fathers
of the Church before Augustine, maintained most ex
pressly the full freedom of the human will to yield to or
to withstand the enticements of sin. Not only those of
the East, but those also of the West, recur in their
writings frequently to this subject, and express them
selves very emphatically upon it, because they rightly
held human freedom (ro avregovGiov, ro avddipe-
rov, liber um arbitrium) to be the foundation of all
morality." 2 " Even Augustine himself, at an earlier period of his
life, defended human freedom in opposition to the
Manichaeans." He says : 3 " We say that no sins but its
own injure any nature ; we say that no evil is natural,
but that all natures are good." He says further, 4 " But
what cause at last can there be of will before the will ?
For either it is the will itself, and we cannot recede
from that root of the will ; or it is not will, and then it
has no sin. Either therefore the will itself is the first
cause of sinning, or no sin is the first cause of sinning.
Neither can sin be rightly imputed to any but the
sinner, it cannot therefore be imputed rightly to any
except him who wills. . . . Whatsoever that cause
of will is, let it not be yielded to, and there will
1 Gieseler Dogmen geschichte p. 340.
2 Hagenbach § 109, vol. i. p. 293.
3 De Gen. Contra Manich. ii. 43 (c. 29).
* De Lib. Arbitrio cap. xvii. 49, 50, col. 468, torn. i.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 329
be no sin. Does it perchance deceive one who is in
cautious ? Let care therefore be taken against deceit.
Or is the fallacy so great, that it cannot altogether be
guarded against ? If it be so, there are no sins ; for who
sins in that which, in no way, can ITe avoided ? But sin
is committed. Therefore it can be avoided."
St. Augustine, after the Pelagian controversy arose,
thus explained these assertions, which he had made
against the Manichees. J " But when I said, ' Sins, except
they be its own can hurt no nature,' I said it in this
sense (ideo), since he who injures one who is just, does
not truly injure him, when indeed he even increases his
reward in the heavens ; but by sinning he truly injures
himself ; because on account of the very will of injuring,
he will receive that injury, which he has inflicted. The
Pelagians indeed may possibly draw this sentence to the
support of their own dogma, and so say, that the sins of
others have not injured infants, because I said that sins,
except their own, can injure no nature ; not perceiving
thus that infants, who certainly belong to human nature,
draw (to themselves) original sin, because human nature
sinned in the first men, and, by this way, no sins but its
own have injured human nature. Forasmuch as by one
man, in whom all have sinned, sin entered into 'the
world ; for I did not say that sins except its or his own
injure no man, but no nature. Also in what I said a
little afterwards, ' There is no natural evil,' they might
seek a similar lurking place, unless this saying be
referred to nature such as was originally created without
fault : for this is truly and properly called the nature of
man. But we use the word in a transferred sense, so
that we call it nature, such as man is born into, according
1 Lib. i. Betract. Caput x. § 3, vide torn. i. p. 477.

330 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
to which mode of speech the Apostle said, l ' For we
also were sometime by nature the children of wrath even
as others.' "
St. Augustine strongly maintained that in infants, who
were bound with tne chain of sin that was in human
nature, there was no personal accountability for sin in
their own life. He says strongly, 2 " But indeed is this
question asked, and are we to dispute and spend time on
this, to prove and teach how, by their own will without
which there can be no sin of their own life, infants can
commit nothing evil, who for this reason, are called by
all innocents ? Does not their so great infirmity of mind
and body, so great ignorance of things, so entirely no
capacity of a precept, no sense or notion of natural or
written law, no use of reason on either side, proclaim and
indicate this by a more witnessing silence than our speech ?
Let the evidence itself avail somewhat to persuading
itself: for nowhere do I so not find what to say, as
where the thing concerning which we speak, is more
manifest than every thing which is said."
As men born into the world are not accountable for
the nature into which they are born, so they cannot be
accountable for the condition of sickness or of health, of
perfection or of imperfection, in which that nature may
be, when they are brought by no agency of their own,
into connexion with it, and membership of it. But that
nature as it is, when they receive it, they receive. And
so, " the fault and corruption of human nature " is and
must be " the fault and corruption of the nature of every
man that naturally is engendered of the offspring of
Adam." He who has sin in his nature, has that there
which God did not create, and which must be under the
1 Ep. ii. 3. 2 De Pecc. Mer. et Rem. lib. i. § 65.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 331
condemnation of the righteous Creator. And l " by the
offence of one" is the declaration of holy Scripture,
2 " judgment came upon all men to condemnation," just
as much, just as really as " by the righteousness of one
the 3 free gift came upon all men unto justification of
life." What the eternal issues shall be God only knows;
what will be the eternal condition of those, who being
here under the condemnation, which came from the of
fence of one, and who went hence before they had
assumed, by their own voluntary action, any responsibil
ity, or incurred any personal accountability for sin, it
would be vain for us to inquire, and presumptuous in us
to determine. It is among the secret things of the Lord
our God — and we may rest in the assurance that He is
both just and merciful, and that in the issues of His
dealing with all mankind, and with every man, justice
and mercy will be held together in the indissoluble bond
of Divine love.
The most express definitions on the doctrine of the
fall and man's fallen condition were called forth, more
especially in the Western Church, where this battle was
mainly fought, by the Pelagian heresy, in opposing which,
Augustine was the great champion of orthodoxy in the
Church. 4Pelagius and Caelestius, two monks esteemed
for their morals, during their abode at Rome (till 409)
had distinguished themselves by giving peculiar promi
nence to the doctrine of personal will for the promotion
of personal virtue. They repaired to 6 Africa, and from
thence Pelagius passed over into Palestine. Caelestius
1 Rom. v. 18. 2 Cf. ver. 16. 3 Ver. 18 ; cf. ver. 16.
* Gieseler Dogmen geschichte pp. 341 ff., and Gieseler Church
Hist. § 87, vol. i. pp. 330 ff. 5 a.d. 411.

332 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
was excluded from Church communion by a synod at
Carthage (412) for denying that death came by sin, and
for asserting that the sin of Adam did not affect his pos
terity, that man could be without sin, and easily keep
the commandments of God, that infants could attain
eternal life even without baptism, that the law as well
as the Gospel would bring men to the kingdom of
Heaven. They both rejected the doctrine of inherited
sin, and maintained the excellent moral condition of
men, and their unconditional freedom.
^elagius was constrained at the Council of Diospolis
in Palestine (Lydda, 415) to deny that death was the
natural appointment of God for man without respect
to sin, as well as to repudiate the propositions for which
Caelestius was condemned at Carthage. But S. Augus
tine shows that his repudiation of these tenets was a
feigned and artful denial, which was not a real and true
rejection of them. It was the doctrine of all the Pela
gians, that Adam was created mortal, and that he would
have died, if he had never sinned. This teaching was
contrary to what had been the universal doctrine of the
Church till that time.
The Pelagians denied utterly the doctrine of inherited
sinfulness of nature, denied that there was any fault or
corruption in the nature of man, and asserted. that the
sin of every man, all the sin in his nature, was as pure a
product of his own free will, as the sin of Adam had
been of his. Adam had injured his descendants only
by his evil example, this example was the inheritance of
his descendants, and so there had arisen among men a
custom of sinning, which was the chief hindrance of vir-
1 Augustine Op. Imp. 0. Juli. c. 67, torn. x. col. 682, and De
Gestis Pelagii c. xi. 24, col. 138.

b..

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 333
tue. Augustine was the chief opponent of the Pela
gians, and in this controversy, developed his doctrine
concerning the consequences of the fall to the descend
ants of Adam.
Adam, according to his teaching, was created perfectly
free, so that he could or could not sin. His lapse into
sin, in the exercise of his freedom, corrupted the nature
of man physically and morally. The consequences of
the fall were bodily death, evil concupiscence, and the
1 rebellion of the members of the body under an organized
law of sin against the spirit ; 2 the sweat of the brow in
hard toil, thorns and thistles upon the earth, and the
pains of parturition ; in a word, all physical and moral
evil. Especially had evil desire lost for man the capa
city of choosing, from love to God, the good which was
the only true good of his existence, and consequently
the power of determining his will, by its own capacity
of self-determination, to the choice and pursuit of the
good for which God had intended him.
This sinfulness of nature is transmitted by generation,
from Adam to all his descendants, so that new-born chil
dren are infected with it. This is original sin (peccatum
originis, or originate vitium haereditarium). It was
this sin which manifested itself in the sinful actions and
habits of the outward life. The will of man was cir
cumscribed within the circle of sinful motives, and its
true freedom, which consists in the union with God
obtained through obedience to Him, was lost, as, by his
fall, in fact, it had never been attained. 3 The nature of
man as God made it, was good ; evil was introduced into
it by the evil exercise of the free will of man himself.
i Rom. vii. 2 Gen. iii. 16, 18, 19.
3 De Civ. Dei, lib. xiv. c. xi.

334 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
" Therefore," says S. Augustine, " the determination of
the will is then truly free, when it does not serve vices
and sins. Such it was, as given by God : which being
lost through its own fault, it cannot be restored except by
Him by whom it was given. Whence the Truth says,
1 ' If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be
free indeed.' But this is, as if He should say, ' If the
Son shall save you (salvos fecerit) then ye shall be truly
saved (salvi).'' Forasmuch as where the deliverer (libera
tor) is, there is the Saviour (inde quippe liberator, unde
salvator)." Certainly, this is the true end of the freedom with
which God has endowed us, this is freedom indeed, and
when man lost this by his sin, he lost his true freedom.
Original sin, as it poisons all the actions of men, brings
with it also guilt upon the descendants of Adam. All
humanity has lost the grace of God in Adam, and be
come subject to the power of the devil and to eternal
damnation (according to the teaching of S. Augustine) ;
it has become a mass of perdition (perditionis massa) so
that even new-born children are in a state of condemna
tion. Augustine founded his doctrine of original sin
prominently on Bom. v. 12 : " As by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin : and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned," and using the
Latin translation, S. Augustine rendered the latter clause
" in whom all have sinned " (in quo omnes peccaverant).
All men were in Adam as a germ, they sinned in him,
and have' part therefore in his sin and its guilt ; 2 just as
Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec, so far as he was yet in
the loins of his father Abraham, when he offered the
tithes. > John viii. 36. s Heb. vii. 9.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 335
1 He appealed, for support of his doctrine, to infant
baptism, and the exorcism connected with it. Where
fore, he asks, is the evil spirit driven out of children, if
they were not under his dominion ? Why are children
baptized for the remission of sins, if they were not
stained with original sin, although they have as yet com
mitted no sins of their own ? To meet this difficulty,
the Pelagians devised a distinction between eternal life,
which every man could obtain, and a higher happiness,
the kingdom of Heaven, which could only be imparted to
the baptized, so that even for children baptism was the
necessary condition of this higher happiness.
But herein the Pelagians contravened the doctrine
of the universal Church, which in its creed professes
" one baptism for the remission of sins," as indeed
that is the clear teaching , of holy Scripture,2 and of
the Pentecostal Church. The Pelagians further said,
if baptism purifies from original sin, then those who
came from two baptized parents, must be free from it.
To this Augustine replied,3 that by baptism, only the
guilt or the imputation of original sin was removed,
but that it still remained as concupiscence, and was in
herited by children. He illustrated this by the example
of the cultivated olive tree, from whose seed, neverthe
less, wild olive trees were again produced.
The Church of Rome has its own way of explaining
the effect of baptism, a way not known in the Catholic
Church till this device of the schools was sanctioned by
i Opus Imp. C. Julian, i. 48, iv. 104. 2 Acts ii. 38.
3 De Nuptiis et Concupiscentia, lib. i. cap. xxxii. 37, torn. x. col.
199; idem lib. ii. cap. xxxiv. § 58, col. 222, B.; " Cujus rei mirab-
ilis, mirabile Creator in oliva et oleastro produxit exemplum, ubi non
solum, ex oleastri; verum etiam ex olivae semine, non nisi oleaster
exoritur . "

336 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
the Council of Trent. This council declares, l " If any
one denies that the guilt of original sin is remitted by
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred
in baptism ; or also asserts that that is not wholly taken
away, which has the true and proper character (ratio-
nem) of sin ; but says that it is only grazed (radi) or not
imputed ; let him be anathema." And then, to match this
decree, they assert that concupiscence, which they ac
knowledge remains even in the baptized, is not, though
the Apostle sometimes calls it sin, truly and properly sin
in the regenerate. Our own Church, in her ninth Ar
ticle, states truly the doctrine of the Catholic Church,
that "although there is no condemnation for them that
believe and are baptized ; yet the Apostle doth confess,
that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of
sin." The Pelagians had departed from the doctrine of the
earlier Church, by denying nearly all evil consequences
of the fall for the descendants of Adam ; and for the
most part, they denied that the mortality of men was
such a consequence ; and they in general assumed that
leading a good life and performing good works was as
easy to men as they had been to Adam before the fall.
For the older Church fathers agree not only that death
is a consequence of the first sin, but also that the
desires in man had, by that sin, obtained a far wider
power, and that man was much more exposed, since that
lapse into sjn, to the temptation of the evil spirits. Au
gustine was led in the Pelagian controversy, to make a
clearer and sharper distinction than had ever before
been made, between the self-determining power of the
will, in which its freedom had been placed, and its free-
1 Sess. v. Decret. De Pecc. Orig. § 5.

The Fall of Man and Original Sim. 337
dom, as it was attained and established, by its answering
attachment to the good and the true.
The doctrine of Augustine was declared by the de
crees of several African synods, at last by the general
synod of Carthage (418) and by the approval of the
Roman bishops Innocent I. and Zosimus (who, at first,
had declared Pelagius and Caelestius orthodox, but after
wards in his Epistola tractoria condemned Pelagianism),
declared to be the doctrine of the Church not only in
the West, but it appeared also soon after to find accept
ance in the East. The synod of Diospolis (Lydda, 415)
had, indeed, after a very evasive declaration from Pela
gius, declared him free from the blame which had been
attached to him in the West ; and Theodore of Mopsu-
estia, whose mode of thinking was very rationalistic,
had taken occasion from the writings of Jerome against
the Pelagians to put forth a writing of his own, against
those who maintained that men did not sin through
their own will, but by nature.
Thereupon the Pelagian bishops, who had been ex
cluded in the West, betook themselves to Constantinople,
where they looked for protection, the more especially as
they -pretended to have the writings of S. Chrysostom
wholly on their side. So they came to Nestorius, since
428 Bishop of Constantinople. Their evil report from
the West followed them ; therefore Nestorius made four
discourses against the Pelagians, in which he insisted
that, by the sin of Adam, death and manifold other evils
had come upon his descendants. The Pelagians, how
ever, so worked upon Nestorius, by representing the
doctrine of Augustine as extravagant and destructive of
moral responsibility, that he accordingly wrote to the
Roman bishop Caelestine, inquiring into the grounds

338 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
of the deposition of those bishops. This led to the con
nection, in the estimation of the Church, of Nestorius
with the Pelagians in doctrine. This representation
was so far successful that, at the general Council of
Ephesus (431) the followers of Caelestius and Pelagius
were condemned together with the Nestorians, without
a particular conciliar examination of their doctrine.
In the West the monks especially set themselves against
the doctrine of Augustine. They pretended not only to
fulfil the commandments of God, but also to do yet more
(the distinction between commandments and counsels, in
its monkish sense, here appears) ; and the doctrine of
Augustine presented itself to them as one which taught
that man, of his own power, could do nothing which was
thoroughly good. This opposition appeared first in the
monastery of Adrumetum, but in a more lasting and de
veloped form at Marseilles, where the representative of
the opposition was John Cassian, a scholar of Chrysostom.
Cassian taught that physical evils, death, birth, pains, the
sweat of labor, were certainly a consequence of the fall
of man. Adam had not lost by the fall, the higher in
sight and wisdom, especially the perfect knowledge of
nature, but had transmitted them to the descendants of
Seth, and when the Sethites had contracted marriages
with the Cainites, they were perverted to all kinds of
superstition, and lost that ancient knowledge, so that
afterwards the proclamation of a written law became
requisite. The moral advantages, namely, a full freedom of the'
will and the non-existence of the strife between the
spirit and the flesh, in which the image of God consists,
were, through that lapse into sin, very much weakened
indeed, but yet not fully annihilated. Cassian does not

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 339
deny inherited sin, but does not conceive it, like Augus
tine, as a full corruption, but only as a weakening of the
moral nature of man, and maintains that this enf eeble-
ment is not only to be derived from the lapse of Adam
into sin, but that it has increased since the descendants
of Seth had contracted marriages with the daughters of
the Cainites.
So, according to Cassian, the freedom of the will is
yet always present in man ; man can, of his own motion,
begin a good life, although Divine grace is necessary to
him for its continuance. These doctrines found much
favor in France, especially at Marseilles. Augustine, in
his last years, attacked this new party, to which he gives
the name Massilienses, but who by the later scholastics
have been named semi-Pelagians. The contest was con
tinued against them by Prosper of Aquitaine, but semi-
Pelagianism became in Gaul the ruling system, includ
ing among its supporters, Vincentius of Lerins, Faustus
of Rhegium (Reii), the author of the book " Praed^ t
estinatus," and Gennadius. Lucidus, a presbyter, who
had avowed Augustine's scheme of praedestination,
which had been taken up in his controversy with the
Pelagians, though not necessarily connected with it, was
accused by Faustus at a synod of Aries (475) and com
pelled to recant. But Gallican semi-Pelagianism was
not allowed to take undisturbed possession of the West
ern Church. Fulgentius of Ruspe was aroused by the
Scythian monks (520). He wrote a work in defence of
the doctrines of Augustine on predestination and the
grace of God.1 In the end, at the Council of Orange
(529), the semi-Pelagian system was rejected, and that of
Augustine on grace established ; and with modifications
' Libri iii. De Veritat. Predest. et Gratia Dei.

340 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
here and there, and often in milder statements than those
made by S. Augustine himself, it has been the doctrine
of the Western Church, not denied or opposed by the
Church of the East.
The decrees of the Council of Orange may be taken
as the result, which was everywhere accepted in the
Western Church, of the Pelagian and semi-Pelagian con
troversies ; and, without question, both these heresies are
plainly and fully rejected in these decrees. They de
clare, on the subject of original sin, that the sin of Adam
has changed for the worse the whole man, body and soul ;
that his prevarication affected all his posterity, bringing
upon them not bodily death only, but sin also, which is
the death of the soul ; that the grace of God is not con
ferred by human invocation, but that it is the cause of
that invocation ; that it is not our will which God waits
for, that we may be purged from sin, but the will to be
purged is brought to pass in us by the infusion arid
operation of the Holy Spirit ; that the beginning of
faith, and the very affection of belief (credulitatis) and
not only its increase, by which we believe in Him that
justifies the ungodly (impium), and come to the regene
ration of baptism, is not naturally in us, but is by the
gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit correcting our will from unbelief (infidelitate) to
faith, from impiety to piety ; that not without the grace
of God is mercy divinely conferred upon those who be
lieve, will, desire, strive, labor, watch, study, suffer, seek,
knock ; but that, by the infusion and inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, it is accomplished in us that we believe, will,
or are able to do all these things as we ought ; that " If
any one maintains that, by the vigor of nature, he can
think any good thing, which appertains to the salvation

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 341
of eternal life, as it is expedient that he should, or
choose such good, or consent to salutary (saving), that is,
evangelical preaching, without the illumination and in
spiration of the Holy Spirit, who gives sweetness to all
in consenting to and believing the truth, he is deceived
by a heretical spirit, not understanding the voice of God,
saying in the Gospel, J ' Without Me ye can do nothing ' ;
and that of the Apostle, 2 ' Not that we are sufficient to
think any thing from ourselves, as out of ourselves, but
our sufficiency is of God.' "
And in the next canon they say, "If any one contends
that some, by mercy, but others, by free determination
(which, it is evident, is vitiated in all who are born
from the prevarication of the first man), can come to
the grace of baptism, he is proved to be alien from
the right faith. For he does not assert that the free
determination (arbitrium) of all is weakened (infirma-
turri) by the sin of the first man, or certainly he thinks
that it is so injured that some, nevertheless, are able,
without the revelation of God, to acquire by them
selves the mystery of eternal salvation. Which, how
contrary it is, the Lord Himself proves ; who testifies,
not that some, but that no one can come to Him, un
less whom the Father may draw. As He also says to
Peter : 3 ' Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona ; because
flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but My
Father who is in the Heavens.' And the Apostle: 4'No
one can say that Jesus Christ is Lord, except in the Holy
Spirit.' "
These propositions set forth most distinctly the true
doctrine concerning the fall of man and its effects, as,
i John xv. 5. a II. Cor. iii. 5.
» Matt. xvi. 17. " I. Cor. xii. 3.

342 The Fall of Man and Original Sim.
in all its essentials, it has ever been held in the Church,
as it is most distinctly embodied and stated in the
articles of our own Church.1 The power of inherited
sin, the inability of man from its presence to turn to
God, and to pursue and seek eternal life of his own mo
tion, or in his own strength, the necessity of Divine
grace both prevenient and ever continuing and co-oper
ating, our entire indebtedness to this grace for salvation,
if we are saved, are all clearly and strongly maintained
in these canons, and, in every instance, sustained by
conclusive proofs from holy Scripture. But while they
asserted and preserved all that was true and Scriptural
and catholic in the doctrine of S. Augustine, as devel
oped in the controversy with the Pelagians and semi-
Pelagians — they did not admit, or stamp with any such
recognition, those tenets concerning Divine predestina
tion and reprobation which became new tenets with S.
Augustine himself in the course of the Pelagian contro
versy, and which were not at all required to defend the
true doctrine of Divine revelation concerning grace
and the nature of man in its fallen and unfallen condi
tion. The Council of Orange says expressly, 2 " But that any
are predestinated to evil by the Divine power, we not
only do not believe, but also, if there are those who will
believe so great an evil, we say, with all detestation,
Anathema to them." That man himself can fulfil all
good works, by the grace of God assisting him, the
Council clearly asserts. 3 " This also we salubriously
profess and believe, that, in every good work, we do not
begin, and afterwards are assisted by the mercy of God :
'Articles ix.-xi., xii., xiii., xiv.
2 (2) s. finem. 3 (3) s. finem.

The Fall of Man and Original Sim. 343
but He Himself first inspires in us both faith and love of
Himself, no good merits (of ours) preceding ; so that
we may (ask) require faithfully (for) the sacraments of
baptism, and after baptism may be able to fulfil, with
His assistance, those, things which are pleasing to Him.
Whence most manifestly it must be believed, that that
so admirable faith both of that robber, whpm. the Lord
recalled to the country of Paradise, and of Cornelius the
centurion, to whom the angel of the Lord was sent, and
of Zacchaeus, who merited to receive the Lord Himself,
was not from nature, but was the gift of the Divine
bounty (largitatis)."
The great fact of inherited sin and of its effects and
evil consequences, is the fact accepted by the Church,
as it is clearly taught in Scripture, attested by human
experience and history, the history of individuals, of
society, and of the world ; but various questions con
cerning it cannot be solved by any means of solution
which have been furnished to man.
We cannot define that common nature, in which all
the individuals of any one species are united, as alike
possessing it ; we cannot say how it is that every man has
the same nature with every other man, and yet that each
individual of the human family is distinct from every
other. But the fact of the existence of a common nature
we do not deny, though we cannot explain it ; and we
can see perhaps that what is in any nature, whether
originally or accidentally, must be in every individual,
so far as his nature is concerned, for his nature is the
one nature of man in its entireness. And we are certain
that sin is in the nature of man, when it is revealed to us
that without the taking of a nature, which was not His
own, by the Son of God, but the nature which is ours, we

344 The Fall of Mam and Original Sin.
could not be redeemed from the guilt and the power of
sin. The battle of the redemption was fought in our na
ture, and therefore that was assuredly the field in which
the enemy was entrenched, from which the " strong man
armed " came from Heaven, to dislodge him.
But how is sin transmitted in our nature, from gen
eration to generation? Can we answer that question?
Can we say whether it is transmitted in the generations
of bodies or of souls, or whether it is rather in the
generations of the whole man, in body and in soul, as
the nature of man is multiplied, in the individuals who
become partakers of it? This question of the trans
mission of the soul by generation has been one that has
been mooted since the days of TertuUian; but the
solution has not been reached, as we see not how it can
be in our present state of being. The question is,
whether the soul is transmitted by a natural law of gen
eration, or whether, in each individual instance of birth,
a new soul has been created by God. Between this trans
mission and this creationism, the fathers of the Church
have been divided. The first view was, in the fourth
century, the prevailing one in the West, as S. Jerome
asserts ; in the East it was adopted by Apollinarius and
Gregory of Nyssa. Hilary of Pictavium and Jerome were
creationists. The question acquired new interest in the
Pelagian controversy ; Pelagius maintained that every
soul came fresh from the hand of its Creator, and inferred
from this its natural innocence ; and so thought and
reasoned the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians.
St. Augustine rather leaned to the theory of Tradu-
cianism, because by this the transmission of inherited
sin appeared to be most satisfactorily explained ; but he
did not expressly declare himself in its favor, because,

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 345
by it, the incorporeality and immortality of the soul
seemed to be imperiled. Therefore he declared repeat
edly that he knew nothing certain upon the origin of the
soul ; Jerome also afterwards took this position of un
certainty, and thus in times following, differences of un
derstanding on this subject remained. Gregory the
Great declared that he 'could give no certain information
on this point. But even the admission of Traducianism
would not help us to explain the transmission of sin in
our nature. It cannot be explained, till we discern those
living forces — and those wise counsels, by which the
laws of nature, as we call them, are established and kept
in action.
The attempt to account for the state of condemnation,
into which every man is born who comes into the world
in the possession of a sinful nature, has been equally
futile. The fact of such condemnation is too plain to
be denied. It is not only clearly revealed, but the death
and manifold misery and degradation of the race of man,
as well as of the creation amid which he lives, is a visible
proof and instance of the mysterious condemnation with
which his life', in its native condition, is burdened. The
theory of Origen, that souls are suffering here the
punishment of sins, which they have committed in a
pre-existent state, though it had some followers in the
fourth century, 1such as Nemesius and Prudentius, was
rejected even by Gregory of Nyssa, himself an admirer
of Origen. Indeed this doctrine of pre-existence was
condemned by a council at Constantinople a.d. 540. It
has been revived, in our own time, by a distinguished
German writer (Muller) to explain the doctrine of orig-
1 Gieseler Dogmen geschichte, p. 335 ; Hagenbach § 106, vol. i.
p. 286 ; Mansi ix. p. 396.

346 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
inal sin, which, else, he declares to be an insoluble mys
tery. But it must remain insoluble, if this is the only
possible explanation of it. How we can be justly held
accountable for sins committed by us in a state of exist
ence, which is to us a perfect blank, a mere nonentity,
it is impossible to see. But when this pre-existence is a
mere unsupported supposition, it certainly is no firm
basis for the explanation of a great doctrine, which is
at the foundation of the whole scheme of Divine re
demption wrought out for man.
Nor is the theory, broached by Lactantius, and adopted,
in its essential features, by philosophers of our own day,
that evil was a necessity contemplated, in the plan of
the Creator, for the development of the good, any more
a satisfactory explanation of the origin of evil in our
world, and in the universe of God. It is akin to the
theory of the Manichees and the Gnostics, with the
more objectionable addition of making God Himself the
author of sin, and limiting the omnipotence of His
goodness. 1 " God," Lactantius says, in a passage which
is not in all the manuscripts of his " Institutes," " made
before all things, two fountains of things opposed to
each other, and conflicting together, to wit : these two
spirits, one upright, the other depraved, one of which
is, as it were, God's right hand, the other, as it were,
His left, that these contrarieties might be in their power,
by the mixture and tempering of which, the world, and
all things which are in it, might consist. Also when He
was about to make man, to whom He proposed virtue for
his life, by which he might attain immortality, He made
good and evil, so that virtue might exist, which, unless
it is agitated by evils, will either lose its own power, or
1 Liber ii. cap. viii. vol. i. pp. 217, 218, E. Bunemann.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 347
will not be at all ; for as the bitterness of need makes
opulence seem a good ; and obscurity commends the
beauty of light ; the pleasure of health and soundness is
known from disease and pain ; so good cannot be with
out evil in this life. And both, although they are con
trary, nevertheless so cohere that, if you take away one,
you remove both ; for neither can the good be compre
hended and perceived without the declination and flight
from evil ; neither can evil be avoided and conquered
without the assistance of the good comprehended and
perceived. It therefore had become necessary that the
bad also should be made, that the good might be wrought
out." He goes on to say that since evil could not proceed
from God, He instituted an inventor of evil, to whom
He gave the disposition and astuteness to excogitate evils,
so that in him depraved will and perfect wickedness
might be, and the contraries of His own virtues He willed
to proceed from him, and He would contend with this
inventor of evil Himself, whether He Himself would
give more good, or the other more of evils. This surely
explains the origin of evil, but explains it in a way which
effectually impeaches the goodness, integrity, and ca
pacity of the great Creator, and makes Him subject to a
law of necessity, of which evil is the ruling principle.
The speculators of modern Germany, Schelling, Blasche,
Hegel, Strauss,1 have identified sin " with the finite char
acter of human nature and human consciousness," and
have treated it as " a mere matter of natural necessity :
so that the idea of sin and responsibility was destroyed,
and a doctrine introduced which would prove fatal to
1 Hagenbach, Third Division, § 298, vol. ii. p. 485, and note 5,
p. 487.

348 The Fall of Man and Original Sim.
the ethical standpoint, which rationalism had maintained
from regard to practical morality."
All these various efforts to account for the sinful con
dition of man, and for the introduction of sin into his
nature, have proved futile and unsatisfactory. But they
all, nevertheless, recognize the fact, which is too plain to
be denied, which presses upon man in all the turns of
his life, in all the circumstances of his earthly existence.
It is a fact of revelation, of observation, and of human
history. But the mystery of the universality of sin
is a problem that may be regarded as an insoluble one.
It would be a mere piece of folly to deny the patent
fact. As is suggested by Coleridge, it would be as
if a physician, summoned to the bedside of a person af
flicted with a dangerous disease, the origin of which
the physician was utterly unable to discover or explain,
should gravely undertake to persuade his patient that
he was entirely mistaken in supposing that he was af
flicted with any disease, that he was the victim of his
own deluding imagination, and though he thought him
self to be suffering under a grievous and painful disease,
there really was no such affliction upon him, for he had
no ailment of which the physician could understand or
explain the cause.
But this disease of sin, with which our nature is af
flicted, has been taken in hand by the Physician who
knows that nature, and knows, too, how the disease has
infected the nature, as well as the only availing remedy.
The remedy was indicated and promised to the race of
mankind contemporaneously with the entrance of the
disease. The Prot-Evangelium, the Promise of the seed
of the woman to bruise the serpent's head, was concur
rent with the fall of man. And all the ages subsequent,

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 349
till the coming of the Great Healer of humanity, were
devoted to the development of the promise into its
blessed and efficacious fulfilment.
The doctrine of the corruption of our nature by sin
meets us, and receives a sanction of its truth and reality,
in «the incarnation of the Son of God, who, for us, was
born of a pure virgin, and took our nature as God made
it, without any stain of sin ; it meets us in the sacra
ment of our regeneration, instituted that that which
was born of the flesh may be born of the Spirit ; in the
word of life and restoration of the holy Gospel ; in all
the means of purification from sin which, in that Gospel,
are divinely provided for all who will receive and use
them. So are the ways of God with man justified ; so is
it shewn that God designed for us the highest good, which
was the true good of our nature ; that, when we de
clined to take it, and failed to reach it, He Himself
brought it to us again from Heaven, and bestowed it
freely of His rich grace and mercy on all who would,
in the strength of His Spirit, regain it.
Let this great truth, then, of the condition to which we
were brought by sin, which called from Heaven the glori
ous Gospel of the blessed God, for our relief and restora
tion, be truly received and heartily believed. And let the
deep impression of the effect which the fall has wrought
upon our sin-stricken race, in all its ages of life, in all its
outward circumstances and conditions, and all its genera
tions, reveal to us the wonders and the might of that re
demption by which God would raise us to the condition
and the eternal prospects from which by transgression we
fell. How clearly does S. Irenaeus depict that incarna
tion, which was the mighty lever of Divine power and
grace, by which, and by which only, our restoration can
be effected.

350 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
Answering those, who said that Christ appeared only
putatively in the flesh, Irenaeus' says, 1 " But every one
whosoever will confess that we are a body taken from
earth, and soul taking spirit from God. This therefore
the Word of God was made, recapitulating His own
formation (plasma) to Himself ; and on account of this,
He confesses Himself the Son of Man,2 and pronounces
the meek blessed, for they shall inherit the earth. But
the Apostle Paul also, in his Epistle to the Galatians,
manifestly says : 3 ' God sent forth His Son made of a
woman.' And again, in his Epistle to the Bomans:
' But concerning His Son,' he says, ' who was made of
the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predes
tinated the Son of God in power (virtute), according to
the Spirit of sanctification, from (ex) the resurrection
from the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord.' Otherwise
His descent to Mary would have been superfluous.
" For, why did He descend to her, if He was to take
nothing from her ? And yet, if He had taken nothing
from Mary, He would not have admitted the food which
had been taken from the earth, by which the body taken
from the earth is nourished ; neither having fasted for
forty days, like Moses and Elias, would He have been
hungered because His body sought its proper nourish
ment ; neither would John His disciple, writing con
cerning Him, have said, 6'But Jesus, wearied in His
journey, was sitting ' ; nor would David have spoken
before concerning Him, 6 ' And upon the pain of my
wounds they made addition ' ; nor would He have wept
over Lazarus ; nor would He have 7 sweat great drops of
i Lib. iii. c. xxii. 1, 2, ed. Mass. p. 219, Grabe, p. 260.
2 Matt. v. 5. 3 Gal. iv. 4. " Rom. i. 3, 4.
9 John iv. 6. 6 Ps. lxix. 27. * Luke xxii. 44.

The Fall of Mam and Original Sin. 351
blood ; nor would He have said, l ' My soul is exceeding
sorrowful ' ; nor when His side was pierced would there
have come out blood and water. For all these are sym
bols of the flesh, which had been taken from the earth
when He was saving His own formation (plasma)."
To these words of Irenaeus let me add the following
exquisitely beautiful and true passage from S. Ambrose.2
Speaking of the history of David and Bathsheba, and
interpreting it allegprically, he says : " Finally that you
may know it to be a mystery, interpret the words. For
you take David for a type of Christ, Bathsheba is said
to be the daughter of the Sabbath, or the full daughter,
or the well of the oath. What is therefore more express
than that the daughter of the Sabbath is the flesh of
Christ ; because God sent His own Son made of a
woman, made under the law ? The same is full, because
in His passion is the fulness of the law, or because it is
full of the grace of the Holy Spirit. For Jesus went up
from Jordan full of the Holy Spirit. The same also is
the well of the oath, that is, of religion and faith. And
rightly is it a well, because rivers of living waters shall
flow from His belly.
" This therefore God the Word assuming to Himself,
made the junction (copulam) to be legitimate: which
mystery those nuptials designated which are in the Song
of songs, in which the Church is married to Christ, and
the flesh to the Spirit. And so the Word of God was
running about and seeking everywhere, because wounded,
because naked, because adulterous in all, although im
maculate in Christ, the miserable flesh was seeking her
' Matt. xxvi. 38.
2 Apol.- David Altera, vol. i. part i. §§ 51, 52, Migne, col. 908 (Ben.
726).

352 The Fall of Man and Original Sin.
redeemer. Her Christ joined to Himself, that He might
render her immaculate ; her He associated (with Him
self), that He might take away the adultery. And be
cause she was under the law, He must die, that she might
be freed from the law, that by that death a certain mar
riage, as it were (velut), of the law and the flesh might
be dissolved (solveretur). '
" The flesh therefore died in Christ, that we, being
made dead to the law by the body of Christ, as the
Apostle has said,1 might be for another who rose from
the dead ; and the passions and desires (cupiditates) of
the flesh, and the thoughts of sins which were by the law
in our members, might die in that death : but we, freed
from the law of death, as (quasi) the new junction
(copula) with Christ (Christi copula), might rise again in
newness of spirit (nos autem soluti a lege mortis, quasi
nova Christi copula, in novitate spiritus resurgeremus)."
And S. Augustine vigorously sums up and states the
whole question of the lapse of man into sin, and his de
liverance from that condition of bondage into the liberty
of the sons of God. And he indicates clearly its prac
tical importance in the scheme of Divine salvation.
2 " But in the cause of two men, by one of whom we
have been sold under sin, by the other are redeemed
from sins ; by one have been precipitated into death, by
the other are freed unto life ; the one of whom has
ruined us in himself, by doing his own will, not that of
Him, by whom He was made ; the other has saved us in
Himself, by not doing His own will, but that of Him,
by whom He was sent ; therefore in the cause of these
1 Rom. viii. 4.
2 De Peccato Originali Cont. Pelag. et Caelest. liber, ii. 28, col.
177, torn. x. ed. Ben. Antwerp.

The Fall of Man and Original Sin. 353
two men Christian faith properly consists. For there
is one God, and one Mediator of God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. 2 Since there is no other name under
heaven given to men, by which we can be saved ; 3 and
God has enjoined faith in Him to all, by raising Him
from the dead.
" Therefore without that faith, that is, without faith
in the one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ
Jesus; without faith, I say, which God has ordained
(definivit) for all in His resurrection, which certainly,
without His incarnation and death, cannot be truly
(veraciter) believed ; without faith therefore in the in--
carnation and death and resurrection of Christ, neither
could those just ones of old have been cleansed from sins,
that they might be just, and justified by the grace of
God, Christian truth does not doubt ; whether they be
those just ones whom the Holy Scripture commemorates,
or those just ones whom indeed it does not commemo
rate, but are nevertheless to be believed to have been,
either before the deluge, or from thence even to the giv
ing of the law, or in the time of the law itself, not only
among the children of Israel, as were the Prophets, but
also beyond the same people, as was Job. For their
hearts were cleansed also by the same faith of the Media
tor, 4and charity was diffused in them by the Holy
Spirit, 5who breathes where He' will; not following
merits, but also producing merits themselves. For the
grace of God will not be in any way, unless it should be
gratuitous in every way."
1 I. Tim. ii. 5. " Acts iv. 12. 3 Acts xvii. 81.
* Bom. v. 5. 5 John iii. 8.

Chapter X.
OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN.
THE circumstances of the Church, in the middle
ages of Christianity, brought about the great dis
cussions of the subject of justification and its kindred
and connected subjects which characterized the six
teenth century, and which resulted in the separation of
the reformed bodies from the communion of the See of
Rome. The theology of the schoolmen, magnifying as
it did the native power of fallen man, and asserting the
reality of human merit as a ground of acceptance with
God, had taken possession of the Western Church ;
and in the corrupt practice of that Church, external ob
servances, such as mere attendance upon the worship and
sacraments of the Church, and pilgrimages, and pay
ments for indulgences, and a resort to relics and super
stitious charms, were relied upon as the grounds of justi
fication, as the means of working out salvation. Earnest
men in the Church gave themselves to the examination,
from the foundation, of this whole structure of corrupted
Christianity ; and as the result of the examination, they
pronounced the very foundation unsound. They ac
knowledged that there had been a strange forgetfulness
of the true nature and grounds and mode of our justifi
cation by Christ, and they revived what seemed to them
the true Scriptural and primitive doctrine of justifica
tion.

Of the Justification of Man. 355
Such was the course pursued by men who lived and
died in the communion of the Romish Church, and in
high places of honor in that Church. At the head of
this class of men was the celebrated Gasper Contarini, of
whom Cardinal Pole said " that nothing was unknown
to him, which the human mind had discovered by its
own powers of investigation, or which God's grace had
imparted to it." He wrote a tract on justification, in
which he advocated that doctrine of justification which
Luther, at that time, was bringing forward as the very
basis of his great movement. Of this tract of Contarini's
Pole says, writing to Contarini, " Thou hast brought to
light that jewel which the Church kept half buried."
"These convictions," says Prof. Ranke, "spread, just
like a literary opinion or tendency, over a great part of
Italy." With the maintenance of this doctrine in the Romish
Church was connected an attempt, urged forward with
zeal by Contarini, to effect a reformation of theiabuses of
the Papacy. This remarkable man was, at one time, pos
sessed with the belief, suggested by ardent hope, that de
sired reform would take place, and that the Romish Church
would settle itself formally and positively upon the old
foundations of the Christian faith. The nearest approach
which was made to a union between the Romish Church
and the Protestants was at the conference of Ratisbon, in
the year 1541. The most moderate as well as intelligent
theologians, Gropper, Julius Pflug, Bucer, Melancthon,
were selected, on both sides, to manage this discussion,
and Contarini was appointed the papal legate for the1 oc
casion. They came to an agreement in this conference
on the four points of human nature, original sin, redemp
tion and justification. This result, by good men in the

356 Of the Justification of Man.
Church, was hailed with expressions of the deepest de
light. But, alas ! other influences -were at work to dis
turb and rend asunder this promised, almost realized,
unity. Political jealousy in France, in Germany, and at
Bome, prevented the acceptance of the, theological con
cord, which had been effected at Batisbon, and Contarini
returned to Italy to mourn over the rejection of his pro
ject, and the blasting of his most dearly cherished hopes
for the welfare and unity of the Church.
The two great parties which then divided Western
Christendom never afterwards came together. The
Protestants on the one hand, and the Bomish Church on
the other, developed separately their respective systems,
and unfortunately that development was one which
fastened upon the Romish Church a rejection of the old
ground of the primitive Catholic Church, and of the
Scriptural and primitive doctrine of justification.
In the discussions of the Council of Trent, there was
no opportunity for a fair hearing of that view of justi
fication, in which Contarini and Melancthon had been
willing to concur. These discussions were conducted
while the Emperor, in concert with the Pope, was subdu
ing the Protestants of Germany by force of arms ; and
opinions approximating to those of the Protestants could
hardly have been expected to receive, as they actually
did not receive, candid consideration or respectful atten
tion in the Romish Council, whose policy was the same
with that which led to the reduction of the Protestants
by the sword. The advocates of views like those of the
Protestants in the Council of Trent found that, in en
treating the Council " not to reject an opinion for no
other reason than because it was maintained by Luther,"
they were speaking to the wind ; and Pole and the

Of the Justification of Man. 357
Archbishop of Siena, in despair of a candid hearing for
what they deemed the truth, left the Council. Men-
doza, the Spanish ambassador, wrote to the Emperor,
"The English cardinal has done himself hurt by his
language respecting justification." It is not strange if a
doctrine, thus suppressed and overborne, should attract
the sympathy of the lovers of truth and fair discussion ;
and judging from the external history of the contro
versy, one would be very much prepossessed by the pre
sumption that the truth lay with Melancthon and Conta
rini and Pole, and not with Caraffa and the Jesuits, who
were clearly in close alliance with the prevailing political
powers of the time.
But laying aside mere presumptions, and leaving the
above sketch of the history of the discussion to speak
for itself, we proceed to consider what were the results
on this great subject of justification, which were reached
by the Council of Trent on the one hand, and what, on
the other hand, was the teaching opposed to that of
Trent, as it was embodied especially in the definitions of
the English Church that were drawn up after the de
crees of the Council of Trent upon justification.
The Council of Trent followed, in its doctrinal decrees,
the outlines of the theological teachings of the school
men, though it certainly modified some of the extreme
views which the schoolmen had been accustomed to ad
vocate. Justification, according to the teaching of the
Council,1 is " a translation from that state in which man
is born the son of the first Adam, into the state of grace,
and adoption of sons of God, by the second Adam, Jesus
Christ our Saviour." It declares the necessity of preve-
nient (preventing) grace in adults, to prepare and move
1 Sess. vi. cap. iv.

358 Of the Justification of Man.
them to justification before God. From this prevenient
grace, if men receive it and act upon its impulses, proceed
belief that 1 " those things are true which have been di
vinely revealed and promised " ; elevation from " fear of
Divine justice " to " hope " of Divine mercy ; the begin
ning of love to God as the source of all righteousness ;
" hatred and detestation " of sin " through that repent
ance which must be exercised before baptism " ; and last
of all, " resolution to undertake baptism, to begin a new
life, and to keep the Divine commandments."
2 "This disposition or preparation is followed by justi
fication itself," and this is " not only remission of sins,
but also sanctification and renewing of the inner man by
the voluntary reception of grace and of gifts, whence a
just man is made of an unjust, and a friend of an enemy,
that he may be an heir according to the hope of eternal
life. Of this justification the causes are : the final cause,
the glory of God and of Christ, and eternal life ; the
efficient cause, the merciful God who gratuitously washes
and sanctifies, signing and anointing with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the pledge of our inherit
ance ; the meritorious cause, His most beloved, only be
gotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, when we were ene
mies, on account of His abounding love, with which He
loved us, by His own most holy passion on the wood of
the cross, merited justification for us, and satisfied for
us, to God the Father;3 finally, the only formal cause is
the righteousness of God, not that by which He Himself
is just, but that by which He makes us just, with which be-
1 Cap. vi. 2 Cap. vii.
3 The instrumental cause, the Sacrament of Baptism, which is
the Sacrament of faith without which justification never happened
to any one.

Of the Justification of Man. 359
ing presented by Him, we are renewed im the spirit of
our mind, and are not only accounted, but are truly
named and are just, receiving righteousness in ourselves,
each one according to his measure, which the Holy Spirit
distributes to each as He will, and according to each
maris disposition and co-operation."
Here, in this definition of the formal cause of justifi
cation, is the grand peculiarity of the Trentine doctrine
of justification. The Council anathematizes1 those who
say " that men are formally justified by the righteousness
of Christ." It declares justification the act of making
just by a quality infused, and not accounting just for
the righteousness of Christ. Moehler, no unfair inter
preter of the Council of Trent certainly, says, in ex
plaining the doctrine of the Council:2 " In other words,
justification is considered to be sanctification and for
giveness of sins, as the latter is involved in the former,
and the former in the latter : it is considered an infusion
of the love of God into our hearts, through the Holy
Spirit ; and the interior state of the justified man is re
garded as holy feeling, — as a sanctified inclination of
the will, — as habitual pleasure and joy in the Divine law,
— as a decided and active disposition to fulfil the same
in all the occurrences of life, — in short, as a way of
feeling which is in itself acceptable and well-pleasing to
God. When God declares man to be just and well-
pleasing to Him, he really is so."
Again, 3 " As little can it be disputed that the words,
'justify,' ' rechtf ertigen,' ' dixaiovv,' ' justificare,' sig
nify also to acquit. This signification is used when we
speak of just or innocent men, who have been acquitted
by their judges of the charges brought against them ;
1 Sess. vi. can. x. 2p. 188. 3 p. 189.

360 Of the Justification of Man.
who,: after inquiry instituted, had been pronounced to
be what they are- — guiltless. This sense, in the matter
under consideration, is inadmissible, because the ques
tion is not about just and innocent irien, who have been
wickedly brought before the judicial tribunal, but about
men really and truly guilty, and unrighteous. Here we
see the real signification of the Greek word above ad
duced, and of the corresponding Hebrew and Latin
words, namely, ' to make just.' " And so he says ex
pressly, J " This confidence is itself only one phase in the
history of love. Accordingly, our . sins are not, in the first
place, forgiven us ; so that, in consequence of this con
sciousness, we love, but because we confidingly love, and
lovingly confide, they are forgiven. In our interior life,
forgiveness of sins and sanctification are simultaneous;
or, as St. Thomas Aquinas excellently expresses it, 2'the
infusion of grace, and the remission of sin, like the illu
mination of any space, and the dispersion of darkness,
are one and the same thing.' "
" Faith," in the Romish system, 3 " is the beginning of
human salvation, the foundation and root of all justifica
tion, without which it is impossible to please God and
attain to the fellowship of His sons." And, since justi
fication is an inherent quality of the soul, which is, in
itself, acceptable to God; since, in other words, its
essence is the true righteousness of the soul itself, and
not that of Christ our Lord, the Council of Trent main
tains 4 the progressive character of justification, declaring
that the justified, "by observance of the commands of
God and the Church, increase in that righteousness
which is accepted through the grace of Christ, faith
1 p. 220. 2 Princ. sec. 9, q. cxiii. art. vi.
3 Sess. vi. cap. viii. 4 Cap. x.

Of the< Justification of Man. 361
co-operating with good works, and are- more justified."
The Council also teaches l most distinctly the true merit
of the good works of the justified, and: that of these good
works Heaven is the meritorious reward.
Connected with the Romish doctrine of justification is
the teaching of Trent concerning the manner in which
the grace of justification, when lost, is again acquired by
the sacrament of penance. In this sacrament,2 the eter
nal punishment of sin, together with the fault, is remit
ted; but there yet remains a load of temporal- punish
ment, by the endurance of which, or by indulgences
from which, men make satisfaction for sins ; and to make
these satisfactions becomes the great object of the jus
tified man, in working out his salvation under the guid
ance of the Church.
Such are the great features of the Romish doctrine of
justification. In representing the doctrine which was
opposed to this, in the days of Trent, by those who then
separated from the Romish communion, as .well as by
men of distinction in that communion, Romish contro
versialists are strangely unfair, or incapable of seeing
the doctrine which they oppose, as it really is. We
know not where to find a more complete caricature of
the truth than is to be found, for example, in the repre
sentation which Moehler. gives, in 3the third chapter of
his work, of the Lutheran doctrine of justification.
He argues against this doctrine in a way which shows
that he either apprehends not, or chooses not to recog
nize, its fundamental principles. The sense in which the
1 Cap. xvi. et can. xxxii.
a Sess. xiv. can. xiii. et xv. et cap. viii. ; etiam Sess. vi. cap.
xiv.; cf. etiam Sess. xxv. Decret. de Indulgentiis.
3 Book i. part i.

362 Of the Justification of Man.
Lutheran teachers rejected good works, meaning sim
ply to reject their merit before God, he leaves out of
view, and argues as if they did not maintain the neces
sity of holiness in the soul of the justified, or the ne
cessity of good works as the fruits of the faith by which
man is justified. He argues l also against the Lutheran
notion of justification by faith, as if the peculiarity of it
consisted in representing faith as in itself a quality so
acceptable to God, that by its inherent supereminenfe
excellence we are justified; when such a notion is one
which the Lutherans utterly repudiated, and simply
represented faith as the means of connexion with that
righteousness of Christ which is the true and only ground
of our justification.
We have merely adverted, in passing, to this fallacious
mode of argumentation employed by Moehler, it not
being our object to expose in detail his misstatements of
Lutheran teaching. We desire rather to oppose to the
teaching of Rome, on the subject of justification, that of
the Anglican Church. This teaching is, that our justifi
cation is the act of God, in which He accounts the sin-
ners whom He justifies, righteous " only for the merit
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith." The
merit of Christ is the merit of our justification ; the es
sence of our justification is such application of this merit
to those who are justified that, for the sake of it, they
are accounted righteous — that is, their sins are remitted,
and they are admitted to the favor of God, to be chil
dren and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
By faith, they trust in the merit of Christ for forgive
ness and acceptance, and the justification which is ac
corded to this faith is sealed and conveyed through the
i p. 215.

Of the Justification of Man. 363
" one baptism for the remission of sins." [Compare, in
addition to Nicene Creed, " Homily on Salvation " :
" Infants being baptized and dying in their infancy, are,
by this sacrifice, washed from their sins, brought to
God's favor, and made His children, and inheritors of His
kingdom of Heaven." Same homily, part iii.: " after that
we are baptized or justified^ Same homily, part ii. :
" to obtain thereby God's grace and remission, as well of
our original sin in baptism, as of all actual sin committed
by us after our baptism, if we truly repent," etc. Com
pare also with each other, arts. 13 and 16 and their titles.]
The faith by which we are justified is a lively faith ;
it is a real devotion of ourselves to the Saviour of man
kind ; and •" good works " are " the fruits of faith,"
which " spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith ;
insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently
known as a tree discerned by the fruit." Justification
is conferred upon none, but such as are united with
Christ by a faith appropriating His grace, and by the
power of His Spirit, so that they are in Him, and thus
in the energy of His holy life, walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. The Spirit, which conveys to in
dividuals the grace of justification, is also the Spirit of
sanctification, who prepares the justified, in the pro
gressive work of holiness, for the inheritance to which,
" only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ," they receive a title in the great act of their
justification ; and as the privilege of those who, by justi
fication, have become the children of God, the sanctify
ing influences of the Holy Spirit of Christ, who is the
fountain and sole ground of our justification, are con
ferred upon them.
The expression "by faith only," as applied to our

364 Of the Justification of Man.
justification, is meant, according to the clear explana
tion of the " Homily on Salvation," to exclude any n^erits
of our own works or religious dispositions — any merits
but those of Christ, as the procuring cause of our justifi
cation, and is not meant, as the same homily declares, to
exclude the presence of all right religious dispositions
with faith in the soul of the justified. On the other
hand, the necessity of these religious dispositions to
continuance in a state of grace, is expressly and fully
declared in the articles and homilies of the Church.
The differences between Bomish and Anglican teach
ing on the subject of justification, which are most worthy
of note, are the following : They differ in the causes of
justification, which they respectively assign. The Coun
cil of Trent l expressly anathematizes the assertion that
" men are formally just by the righteousness of Christ,"
and asserts2 our own inherent righteousness to be the
formal cause of justification. Now the English Church
makes that very assertion which the Council of Trent
anathematizes, and declares the righteousness of Christ
to be the formal cause of our justification, since it is that
for which those are " accounted righteous," who otherwise
would be treated as sinners. Moehler, in commenting
upon this peculiarity of the Protestant doctrine of justifi
cation, is betrayed into one of those mere verbal reduc-
tiones in absurdum of his opponents' views, into which
his hair-splitting subtilty often leads him. He says,
" Chemnitius desires the obedience of Christ should be
also the causa formalis, that is to say, should become
our own, without ourselves being obliged to be obedient ;
it is to become subjective without becoming subjec
tive"!! 1 Sess. vi. can. 10. 2 Sess. vi. cap. vii. 3 p. 227, note.

Of the Justification of Man. 365
The answer to this sophism of Moehler is plainly and sim
ply this : The righteousness of Christ is the formal cause
of our justification, not because it is in us-, but because it is
in that act of justification by which God justifies us, as its
essential, moving, actuating, forming principle. That act
terminates upon the justified man as its object, and of it
he derives the fruit and advantage, and he is put in pos
session of it by the Spirit of God taking up its residence
in him, and shedding abroad through his whole nature,
as through a holy temple, its sanctifying influence. This
statement causes to disappear at once that absurdity
which Moehler attributes to the Protestant view of justi
fication, as if by declaring the righteousness of Christ to
be the formal cause of justification, it asserted that to
be our own which it also says is not our own, that to be
come subjective which at the same time does not become
subjective. Another point of difference between the Bomish and
Anglican standards, on the subject of justification, is in
the views which are given of the value of good works.
No writings can be more express and full than the
standards of the English and American Churches in as
serting the necessity of good works in the justified man,
to continuance in his state of justification, and to the
attainment of the rewards of Heaven ; but they deny
that works, which are performed by the powerful energy
and assistance of Divine grace, are truly deserving of
Heaven, so that by them we merit our own salvation.
In opposition to this the Council of Trent expressly
teaches, x " We must not believe that anything is want
ing to those who are justified, but that they may be
counted to have fully satisfied the Divine law, according
. vi. cap. xvi.

366 Of the Justification of Man.
to the state of this life, by those works which have been
wrought in God, and to have truly merited eternal life to
be obtained in its own season, if so be that they depart
this life in grace."
There is a difference, too, in the place which they re
spectively assign to faith in the great work of justifica
tion. The English Church represents faith as the means
or principle within us, by which we accept the grace of
justification, and attach ourselves to Christ the justifier,
and rely upon His merits for justification. The Council
of Trent x says that " we are said to be justified by faith,
because faith is the beginning of human salvation ; the
foundation and root of all justification, without which
it is impossible to please God and attain to the fellow
ship of His sons." That is, since inward religious dis
positions which " satisfy the Divine law " (cap. xvi.)
are the essence or the " formal cause " of our justifica
tion, faith, which is the root from which these disposi
tions spring, may be said to be the principle of our justi
fication ; a principle, however, which is in itself mer
itorious, and not one which simply, according to the
teaching of the Anglican Church, connects us with the
meritoriousness of Christ.
Another great difference between the two classes of
doctrine which we are contrasting, is in the statements
which they respectively make of the efficacy of repent
ance. The Bomish Church has most unwarrantably im
posed upon its members, in the name of Christ, the
sacrament of penance, though this piece of her presump
tion it does not fall in with our immediate object par
ticularly to consider. She teaches, however, that absolu
tion of sins after baptism is only partial, covering only
1 Sess. vi. cap. viii.

Of the Justification of Man. 367
the eternal penalty and the guilt of sin, and leaving
satisfactions for sin to be made by the sinner thus ab
solved, under the name of temporal penalties of trans
gression. This invention of man the English Church
utterly repudiates ; and she maintains that when God
forgives the sinner, He entirely forgives him for the
sake of Christ ; that the satisfaction of Christ is fully
adequate and fully applied to all the purposes for which
remission is needed, or for which it has been provided in
the Gospel.
The points of difference which have been noticed are
the principal ones which distinguish Anglican from
Romish teaching on the subject of justification, and we
proceed to investigate these systems, as they are tested
by Scripture and Catholic antiquity, and also as they
develop themselves in their respective fruits and conse
quences. The controversies of days which succeeded
the Apostolic, till the sixteenth century, did not lead to
such precise definitions of the doctrine of justification as
those which were made in that century ; and it was a
noticeable ordinance of the providence of God that, when
the occasion called for a true and accurate definition of
this great Christian doctrine, such a definition, accom
panied by a full and clear exposition, had been already
prepared and laid up for the emergencies of the Church
in the writings of St. Paul. The controversies which
led to his exposition were similar in their principles to
those which arose in the sixteenth century, and all that
the lovers of truth had to do was to fall back upon his
statements, and to adduce and enforce them as most suit
able to the exigency which then existed.
In his Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians,
St. Paul discusses this subject, and declares the truth

368 Of the Justification of Man.
concerning it. In the opening chapter of the Epistle to
the Romans he sets forth the condition of the Gentile
and the Jewish world, that he may show all men to be-
violators of the law of God, and consequently sinners
before Him, and justly abiding under His condemna
tion. He shews that justification for sinners is impos
sible by a system of law, since all men have transgressed
the law which has been delivered to them, and cannot,
of course, obtain that justification which comes from a
strict observance of the requisitions of law. He does not
oppose justification by Christ simply to that justification
which the Jews sought by observance of the ceremonial
law, but chiefly to that legal justification which it was
impossible for Jews and Gentiles to obtain from the
moral law, because they had broken it, and thus failed
to furnish the ground of justification which the law de
manded. Under these circumstances, legal justification was out
of the question for all men, x " for all have sinned," and
an entirely different ground of justification must be laid,
' and that has been furnished " freely by His grace, through
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ." Him 2 " God
hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in His
blood," and this is " His righteousness " (or justification)
which He hath " declared " " for the remission of sins
that are past," 3 " that He might be just, and the Justi-
fier of him which believeth in Jesus." The propitiation
of Christ is thus clearly represented by the Apostle as
the ground on which God extends to the believer in
Christ the free grace of justification ; and " faith in His
blood " the means by which we appropriate the justi
fication which is offered to us. And the conclusion is
1 Rom. iii. 23. 2 Rom. iii. 25. 3 Rom. iii. 26.

Of the Justification of Man. 369
couched in the words of the Apostle himself : l " There
fore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of law."
Now if we are justified by our own inherent righteous
ness, no matter whence derived, this conclusion would not
be true ; for such inherent righteousness, though it were
produced in us by the operation of the Spirit of God,
would nevertheless be a performance of the requirements
of law, and if such righteousness were our justification,
we should be justified by the deeds of law, and the con
clusion of the Apostle would not stand. A righteous
ness which justifies men, which would procure for them
the rewards of Heaven, under a dispensation of law,
would nevertheless be the offspring of the grace of God.
Such was the righteousness of our first parents before
the fall. If then the Gospel restores to us this right
eousness which has been lost, to be the ground of evan
gelical justification, there would not be that difference
between legal and evangelical justification which appears
from the statements of St. Paul.
The representations of the Apostle then are clearly in
accordance with the teaching of the Anglican, and not
in agreement with that of the Romish Church, so far as
the ground of our justification is concerned. And faith
is also represented by the Apostle as the pririciple by
which we connect ourselves with that righteousness of
Christ which is the ground of our justification, and not
as the root or beginning of an inherent righteousness
which is our justification. He says our justification
2 " is of faith, that it might be by grace." He says still
more expressly -that 3 " faith is counted for righteousness
to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justi-
' Rom. iii. 28. s Rom. iv. 16. 3 Rom. iv. 5.
34

370 Of the Justification of Man.
fieth the ungodly." Here the Apostle unequivocally
opposes justification by faith to justification by works,
and explicitly declares the office of faith to be, to attach
us to Him who justifieth the ungodly, or, in other words,
to rely upon and accept the free grace of Divine justi
fication ; an office very different from that — utterly in
consistent with that — of being the root and fountain of
a righteousness within us which is our justification.
Such a righteousness would be a justification by works ;
and to this, the Apostle declares justification by faith is
opposed. Here again, the accordance of Scripture with
Anglican doctrine, and its disagreement with the teach
ing of Trent, are mostly plainly seen.
The assertion of St. James that we are justified by
works, is only in apparent discrepancy with the teaching
of St. Paul. Both Apostles speak of the same justifica
tion, even that which Abraham, the father of the faith
ful, received. Both refer to his case. St. James, how
ever, is not setting forth that righteousness which is the
ground and procuring cause of our justification, but the
nature of that faith which accepts this justifying right
eousness. Of this, he says that faith without works is
dead ; that such a faith cannot be accepted of God ;
that to such a faith He will not apply the righteousness
of Christ for the justification of the sinner. Since, then,
a lively faith — a faith which is fruitful in good works —
is required for justification, it may be truly said that we
are justified by works, because we are justified by a faith
which is fruitful in good works ; but yet the ground of
that justification is the meritorious work of Christ, as St.
Paul tells us ; and the statements of St. James are not
inconsistent with those of St. Paul ; for St. Paul charges
those who believe in God, that they be careful to main-

Of the Justification of Man. 371
tain good works, and sets forth the faith by which we are
justified as a faith which works by love.
Neither he or St. James, however, declare the good works
of faith to be the ground or the essence of our justifi
cation. St. Paul most fully declares that thpse who are
justified by faith in Christ, are in Christ, united to Him
by the power of that Spirit, who has sealed and conveyed
to us the free grace of justification ; and of that union,
of the indwelling of that Spirit, a holy life is the direct
result ; and the faith by which we are justified gladly
follows and obeys the suggestions of this indwelling,
sanctifying Spirit of Him who justifies us. Thus a life
and works of holiness are the direct offspring of that
free justification which is offered through the redemp
tion of Christ and appropriated by a living faith ; and
sanctification becomes the evidence of justification, just
as a stream bears witness to the fountain from which it
flows, according to the statement of St. Paul.
1 " There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit." How there is no condemnation
the Apostle has previously shown, in setting forth the
great work of Christ as the ground and cause of that
justification which is our deliverance from condemna
tion, and then he shows that those who are thus justi
fied, being in Christ and having His Spirit, and, by faith,
yielding to the guidance of that Spirit, " walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Justification and sanctification are thus exhibited by
the Apostle in their distinctness, and, at the same time,
in their relation to each other ; and with these represen
tations, that confusion of justification with sanctification
1 Bom. viiiv 1.

372 Of the Justification of Man.
which is made in the decrees of Trent, is utterly incon
sistent. And we remark, by the way, that such an ob
jection as was raised by perverse men to the justification
taught by St. Paul, "'What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? " could
never have been thought of against the Trentine scheme
of justification ; for that is not a reiriission of sin to the
ungodly, but an " extirpation " of sin in the very act of
justification, to use a favorite word and mode of repre
sentation of Moehler, the zealous advocate of the Tren
tine system.
We have shown above that the Council of Trent as
serts the true deserving of the good works of the justi
fied, while the Enghsh Church sets forth eternal life as
a reward of free grace to those who are justified and
sanctified by the Spirit, which takes possession of them
at the time of their justification. We need only to ap
peal to the representations of St. Paul already referred to,
to decide which of these views is in accordance with
Scripture. And we simply adduce, in addition, that
verse of the Epistle to the Bomans, in which the Apos
tle utterly repudiates all idea of amalgamation between
human merit and the grace of God. 2 " And if by grace,"
he says, " then it is no more of works ; otherwise grace
is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more
grace ; otherwise work is no more work." We know not
how any expressions could be more pointedly aimed at
that incongruous mixture of Divine grace and human
merit which is seen in the Trentine scheme of justifica
tion. And equally does this opposition, which St. Paul sets
forth, between grace and works disprove that strange
1 Rom. vi. 1. 2 Rom. xi. 6.

Of the Justification of Man. 373
combination of the satisfaction of the temporal penalties
of sin by man with his deliverance from its eternal pen
alty and its guilt by the satisfaction of Christ, which
the Council of Trent imposes upon the belief of the
conscience-stricken sinner who seeks that deliverance
through Christ which the Scriptures reveal as a complete
deliverance effected by that one only "'name under
Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved " ;
also declaring, "Neither is there salvation in any other."
How irreconcilable this teaching of Trent is with the
Scriptural doctrine of the fulness and sufficiency of
Christ we have no need to make apparent.
St. Paul clearly explains the nature of that justifica
tion which he teaches. It is the opposite of condemna
tion and of accusation (Rom. viii. 33, 34; v. 16, 18). It
is synonymous with reconciliation with God (Rom. v. 9,
10). It is reconciliation to God by the non-imputation
of sin (II. Cor. v. 19). It is remission of sins, and
that through the redemption of Christ (Rom. hi., 24, 25,
26 ; cf . Acts x. 43 ; ii. 38 ; iii. 19 ; xxii. 16 ; Luke xxiv.
47). It is in addition to remission, and besides remission,
and we may add, as a consequence of remission, admis
sion to be heirs of God, the bestowal of a title to life
eternal (Titus iii. 7). In Rom. v. 18, it is expressly
called "justification of life." This remission of sin and
bestowal of a title to life, which is justification, as repre
sented by*St. Paul, is .also declared to be complete, when
it is conferred, and not progressive (Rom. v. 1). " Be
ing justified" (dixaioodevrei) "by faith," v. 9, "be
ing now justified by His blood." So Titus iii. 7 ; I. Cor.
vi. 11.
This justification, the Apostle declares, we receive
i Acts. iv. 12.

374 Of the Justification of Man.
from grace, because by sin we " have come short of the
glory, of God " ; and by obedience to the law, therefore,
we cannot secure eternal life. This grace places those
whom it embraces, according to the reasoning and state
ments of the Apostle, in a state of justification, that is,
a state of remission, of reconciliation with God, of heir
ship of Heaven. From this grace proceed the good
works of the Christian life, and they surely are not our
justification, or the ground of our justification, when
they are the fruits of the grace which has justified us,
when they are the actions of the man, whom the
Apostle, in the expressions above quoted, speaks of as
" being " already or " now justified by His blood."
It is not the righteous but the ungodly, who is justified"
(" that justifieth the ungodly," Rom. iv. 5), and the grace
of his justification is the fountain of his godly living
after his justification. Such godly living, therefore,
flowing from justification and coming after justification,
is not itself justification. 1 " For by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves : it is the gift
of God : not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto
good works, which God hath before ordained, that we
should walk in them." Here, then, is the clear asser
tion that we cannot boast even of our Christian good
works, because they are the offspring of the workman
ship of Divine grace in our justification ; of that in
dwelling Spirit which is the gift of God at the time of
our justification.
There are three passages of St. Paul's epistles in which
he appears to indicate, most directly, the ground of human
justification. The first is Phil. iii. 9 : " And be found
1 Ephes. ii. 8-10.

Of the Justification qf Man. 375
in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith." And this
was the interpretation of St. Basil. l " For this is perfect
and entire glorying in God, when any one is not inflated
on account of his own righteousness, but himself to be
destitute indeed of true righteousness, and that he has
been justified by faith only in Christ ; and Paul boasts
of despising his own righteousness, and seeking that
which is through Christ, to know Him and the power
of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death, if, by any means, he
might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Here
fell all the exaltation of pride."
The next passage is Rom. iv. 6 : " Even as David
also describeth the Dlessedness' of the man, unto whom
God iriiputeth righteousness without works." The pas
sage of David which the Apostle quotes to substantiate
this assertion is this : " Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin." The non-imputation of sin,
or the forgiveness, or the covering of it (for all these
expressions are used by David), is the same thing with
the imputation of righteousness, because it is the account
ing as righteous, and treating as righteous, the sinners
who are forgiven. Here is the very justification of the
Anglican article, and of that passage of Philippians in
which the Apostle says he has another righteousness
than his own, even that which is from God through
Christ. The last passage is II. Cor. v. 21: " For He hath made
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him," that is, ac-
i Horn, de Humil. 3, torn. H. p. 158.

376 Of the Justification of Man.
cording to St. Augustine's explanation, x " Being justi
fied, therefore, by faith, we have peace towards God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, but justified freely by
His grace, lest faith itself should be proud." And St.
Chrysostom clearly and strongly says, 2 " For He did not
say ' made Him a sinner,' but ' sin,' Him who not only
had not sinned, but who had not known sin, that we
might be made, he did not say, just, but ' the righteous
ness,' and ' the righteousness of God ' ; for it is of God,
when it is not of works, when it is necessary also that
no stain be found, but we should be justified by grace,
where sin has been made. to vanish; but this does not
permit us to be exalted (puffed up), forasmuch as God
freely has given the whole, and teaches the greatness of
that which He has given." " For that which was before
(r/ nporepa) was the righteousness of law and works, but
this is the righteousness of God."
These passages of St. Paul mutually support each
other, and, in different modes of expression, bring out
the same idea ; the very idea which is brought out ar-
gumentatively in the third chapter of Romans, where
the Apostle sets forth the propitiation of Christ as the
ground of our justification, and concludes that we are
" justified by faith without the deeds of law." And
truly, if our own righteousness, produced by the grace
of God, were the ground of our justification, we cannot
see why the propitiation of Christ was needful ; and
if, on the other hand, it were needful, then must it be
the all-sufficing ground of our reconciliation, or forgive
ness, or acceptance to the favor of God, in one word,
of our justification. St. Augustine quotes the passage,
1 Alypii et August, ad Paulinum Ep. sec. 9.
2 In n. Cor. Horn. xi. vol. x. p. 518.

Of the Justification of Man. 377
" Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the
man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without
works," and adds, by way of comriientafy, 1('But what
righteousness? That of faith, which good works have
not preceded, but which good works follow " ; and since
this righteousness is that of our justification, we are not
justified by the good works by which it is followed.
As we have already remarked, the circumstances of
the ancient Church, since the apostolic day, did not call
forth, or render necessary, such precise and guarded
definitions of the doctrine of justification as the circum
stances . of the Church, at the time of the Reformation,
required and produced. The doctrine of justification by
grace, through faith, was always held, till the practices
of the middle ages, and the scholastic theology of those
ages, corrupted the purity of Christian teaching on this
subject. One of the most illustrious supports, however,
in all Christian antiquity, of the teaching of the Angli
can Church on justification, is to be found in that most
admirable letter of Clement to the Corinthians — a writ
ing which follows close in order of time upon those of
Scripture. We know not how the Anglican doctrine
could be more explicitly stated than it is by Clement.
Speaking of the fathers of the Abrahamic covenant, he
says, "All therefore were glorified and magnified not
by themselves or their own works, or their righteous
dealing, which they had wrought, by His will." a " And
we also, being called by His will, in Christ Jesus, are
not justified by ourselves, nor by our wisdom, or know
ledge, or piety, or works, which we have wrought
in holiness of heart; but by the faith, by which the
Almighty God has justified all from the first, to whom
'In Ps. xxxi. Enarr. ii. sec. 7. 2Ep. ad Corinth. 32.

378 Of the Justification of Man.
be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Are we reading
a writing of an apostolical father of the first century
of our religion, or an English homily of the sixteenth,
we are ready to ask, at this plain denial of the office
of justification, even to that " piety " and " those works
which we have wrought in holiness of heart," which
are the fruits and evidences of justifying faith ?
Explicit also is the teaching of the Epistle to Diogne-
tus, a writing of the second century, published in the
works of J. Martyr,1 and which has been attributed to
him. " He gave His own Son a ransom for us, the holy
for the lawless, the innocent for the guilty, the just for
the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the im
mortal for the mortal,ybr what else was able to cover our
sins but His righteousness f by whom was it possible
that we lawless and impious could be justified, but by
the Son of God alone ? O the sweet ransom ! O the
unsearchable workriianship ! O the unexpected bless
ings! that the lawlessness of many should be hidden
in the one righteous one, and the' righteousness of one
should justify many lawless ones; accusing, therefore,
the inability of our nature to attain life, in the former
time, but now exhibiting the Saviour as able to save
what before could not be saved, for both these reasons
He wished us to believe in His goodness, to esteem Him
our nourisher, parent, teacher, counsellor, physician,
mind, light, honor, glory, strength, life ; not to be
anxious concerning clothing and nourishment." Can
there be any doubt concerning the righteousness here
proposed as " the formal cause " of justification ? Is this
teaching that of Trent, or that of the Homilies of the
English Church? And, so, Cyril of Jerusalem says,
1 Ep. ad Diognetum, cap. 9.

Of the Justification of Man. 379
v'For if you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that
God hath raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved
and translated to Paradise, by Him who introduced the
robber into Paradise. And doubt not whether this is
possible ; for He that saved, in this holy Golgotha, the
robber who believed for one hour, the same being will
also save thee, if thou believest."
We might, if it were needful, multiply quotations to
show how simply and unhesitatingly this doctrine of
justification by faith was held by the fathers of the
early centuries; by the fathers of the Church, indeed,
from S. Clement of Rome to S. Bernard in the twelfth
century. 2 St. Basil gives the key-note of all this teach
ing in words already quoted. As St. Chrysostom says,
speaking of Abraham, before the law : 3 " For in what
was he injured, by not being under the law ? in nothing,
but faith was sufficient to him for justification " ; as St.
Jerome says, 4 " So great was the faith of Abraham, that
both -his former sins were forgiven him, and it (faith)
was taught to be received for all righteousness " ; and
again, 6 " Abraham believed God, and it was accounted
to him for righteousness " ; so also to you faith alone
suffices for righteousness. " But since no one is justified
by the law," because no one keeps it, therefore it is said
that " believers were* to be justified by faith alone."
[Cf . St. Chrysostom Opp. torn. ix. hom. vii. pp. 488, 497 ;
torn. xi. p. 285 ; in Phihpp. torn. xi. p. 336, E. ; torn. v.
in Ps. iv. (iii.) p. 11. B ; torn. i. (ad Stelichum) p. 148, B.
(4). S. Basil in Ps. cxiv. torn. i. p. 202, E. ed. Ben.
' Cat. v. 10.
1 See Beveridge on Articles; Passages from the Fathers on Art. XI.
3 Tom. x. in Gal, 3. p. 698, A.
* Jerome, Opp. vol. xi. in Rom. iv.
In Gal. 3, p. 811, ed. Migne.

380 Of the Justification of Man.
1721. S. Ambrose Opp. torn. ii. part i. p. 48, in Rom.
4 ; torn. i. p. 1233, Serm. xx. (42). Origen in Rom. iii.
27, 28, Opp. torn. iv. pp. 516, 517; in Rom. xiv. vol. iv.
p. 522. Macarius ^Egypt. horn. 15 (31), p. 214, ed. Paris,
1559 ; p. 206, ed Frankfurt, 1594. Jerome, torn. ii. p.
750, ed. Bened. (543, Migne). Polycarp ad Philipp. (1)
sub finem. J
S. Bernard sums up and sets forth the spirit of all
this teaching of the Church, which cherished in her
heart this revelation of the justification of man by the
free grace of God in Christy in such words as. these :
1 " For neither are the merits of men such that on
account of them, eternal life would, of right, be due, or
that God would do any injury, unless He should give it.
For not to say that all merits are the gifts of God, and
so man is rather, on account of them, a debtor to God,
than God is to man, what are all merits to so great
glory ? " As St. Augustine says, 2 " Sins are yours, merits
are God's ; punishment is due to you, and when reward
comes, He will crown His own gifts, not your merits."
In nothing is this great teacher of the Church more
frequent and more earnest than in repudiating that
notion of human merit, upon which the Council of Trent
so pertinaciously insists. " Si vis esse alienus a gratia,
jacta merita tua," is his expressive warning, even con
cerning the righteousness of which faith is the root.
Great pains does he take to shew, in his " Liber de Gratia
et Libero Arbitrio," that eternal hfe, if it be a reward, is
a reward of grace and not of human merit ; and an
1 Tom. i. 978(2), Serm. i. ed. Massillon; cf. S. August, ad Sixtum
Roman. Presb. Ep. 194, 19, om. ii. col. 548.
2 In Ps. lxx. Enarrat. Sermo ii. (5), torn. iv. p. 551.
3 In Ps. xxxi. Enarr. Sermo ii. sec. 7.

Of the Justification of Man. 381
attentive . perusal of his Enarratio ii. in Ps. xxxi. will
be sufficient to show that he held and taught justification
by faith, as expounded by the English Church, and not
the modern invention of the Council of Trent. In that
treatise, he plainly cautions Christians against glorying
in the good works which proceed from faith, instead of
in the grace which relieved us in our state of sin and
helplessness, as the ground of our justification. 1 " What,
therefore, is done? God does not inflict upon thee
merited punishment, but gives thee unmerited grace.
You begin, therefore, to be in faith by His indulgence ;
then that faith, taking to it hope and love, begins to
perform good works ; but do not then boast and extol
thyself ; remember by whom thou wast placed in the way
[i. e., justified, as appears from the treatise, passim] ;
remember that, although thy feet were sound and swift,
thou wast, nevertheless, wandering; remember that,
although thou wert languishing and lying half dead in
the way, thou wast lifted up on the beast and carried to
the inn. 2 But to him," says he, " who works, the reward
is not imputed according to grace, but as debt. If you
wish to be an ahen from grace, boast your own merits."
How strikingly like these words of St. Augustine are
those of the " Homily on Salvation " (part ii.) : " But
this saying, that we be justified by faith only, freely,
and without works, is spoken for to take away clearly
all merit of our works, . as being unable to deserve our
justification at God's hands, and thereby most plainly to
express the weakness of man and the goodness of God ;
the great infirmity of ourselves, and the might and
power of God ; the imperfection of our works, and the
most abundant grace of our Saviour Christ ; and, there-
'In Ps. xxxi. Enarr. Serm. ii. sec. 7. 2 Bom. iv. 4.

382 Of the Justification of Man.
fore, wholly to: ascribe the merit and deserving' of our
justification unto Christ only, and His most precious
bloodshedding." How unlike these words of St. Augus
tine, on the other hand, is that decree of Trent above
quoted concerning the true deserving of the works of the
justified. Fearlessly may the Anglican Church appeal to
Scripture and Catholic antiquity ; and surely will such
an appeal show that Rome, in her decrees, has made a
sad and fatal mistake on this subject, which she would
not have made, if, forgetting her dreams of ambition
and political power, she had heeded the voices of her
wisest and holiest sons in days gone by, her Contarinis
and her Poles ; and had not so rudely thrust forth from
her communion those men of undoubted attainment in
Scriptural and patristic lore, her Luthers and her Mel-
ancthons. And now, let it be asked, what \A the practical influ
ence of the Romish doctrine of justification, on the one
hand, and of the Anglican on the other ? The Romish
doctrine of justification is intimately connected with the
whole system of that Church, and may even be called
the npcorov ipevSoi of its teaching on the great matter
of human salvation, affecting its whole scheme of sacra
ments, and appliances of devotion, and methods of dis-
-cipline. The crying sin of the Romish Church, in the
administration of the work of salvation, as she claims to
-administer it, and as she has committed herself to her
false system, by the decrees of Trent, is the separation
of herself from Christ, and the making of herself His
substitute, instead of His humble, docile representative
and minister. Advocates of Rome, like Moehler, fear
fully exalt her authority to the disparagement of the

Of the Justification of Mam. 383
Church's living Head, for, says Moehler, "' Christ Him
self is only so far an authority, as the Church is am
authority." Now to this independent exaltation of the authority of
the Church in the name and place of Christ, the Romish
doctrine of justification directly tends. The Council of
Trent assigns, it is true, as "the meritorious cause" of
justification, "His most beloved and only begotten Son
our Lord Jesus Christ," but it also anathematizes the
assertion that men " are formally justified by the right
eousness of Christ," and declares that, notwithstanding
"the merits of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ
¦communicated to us," we must have a true and Christian
righteousness of our own as the essence of our justifica
tion. This essence of justification, which is distinct, be
it remembered, from the satisfaction of Christ, is com
municated to us instantaneously, and makes us perfectly
free from sin," in the act of our justification.
Moehler says, 2" The act of justification, indeed, fills
np only one portion of time ; for the communication of
a vital principle cannot be considered other than as con
summated in a single moment," and then quotes Duns
Scotus as saying that "justification is momentary."
This momentary justification he describes as the extirpa
tion of sin: 3"The abiding and acquitting word — the
word which forgives sin — is a power truly emancipating,
dissolving the bonds of evil, and extirpating sin ; so that,
in the room of darkness, light is admitted ; death gives
way before life, and despair yields to hope." And
again, 4" As the Catholic Church deduces original sin,
and with it all evil in the world, in the last degree, from
the abuse of free will, it cannot find any further traces
' p. 340. 3 p. 190. * p. 190. < p. 192.

384 Of the Justification of Man.
of sin in man, so soon as his spirit has been averted from
the creature, and hath turned to God ; so soon as his will
hath been again healed, and his inmost feelings been
sanctified." In order to guard this doctrine of the instantaneous
"extirpation" of sin from obvious objections drawn
from plain facts of spiritual history, the Council of
Trent makes the following declaration : l " But this holy
synod confesses and considers that concupiscence, or
lust, remains in the baptized ; which, since it is left for
conflict, does not avail to injure those who do not con
sent to it, and who manfully resist it through the grace
of Jesus Christ ; yea truly, he who lawfully strives shall
be crowned. The holy synod declares that this concu
piscence, which sometimes the. Apostle calls sin, the
Catholic Church has never understood to be called sin
because it is truly and properly sin in the regenerate, but
because it is of sin, and inclines to sin. But if any one
think otherwise, let him be anathema." Compare with
this statement of Trent that of. the ninth Anglican arti
cle : " And. this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in
them that are regenerated ; whereby the lust of the flesh,
called in Greek phronema sarkos (which some do
expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affec
tion, some the desire of the flesh), is not subject to the
law of God. And although there is no condemnation
for them that believe and are baptized ; yet, the Apostle
doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the
nature of sin." Which of these determinations rever
ences the statements of the Apostle, to which they both
refer, and which sets aside the Word of God for its own
tradition ? We speak as to wise men : judge ye what we
say. ' Sess. v.

Of the Justification of Man. 385
But to return to the line of our argument. This denial
of the sinful nature of concupiscence was necessary to
the maintenance of the view that justification is a com
plete extirpation of sin ; for that concupiscence remains
in the justified, even the Trentine fathers could not
deny; and they must therefore set aside the apostolic
declaration, and explain away its meaning to suit their
own theory. Even they could not help seeing that justi
fication is complete, whenever it takes place ; and if, as
the Apostle says, " Concupiscence hath the nature of
sin," that complete justification cannot be our own in
herent righteousness ; if, as the Council of Trent is forced
to admit, concupiscence remains in the justified. This
admission of the completeness of justification, then, is
fatal to the Romish theory of justification, if the Apostle
means what he says, when he attributes to concupiscence
the nature of sin.
The Romish theory of concupiscence, evidently un
known in the days of St. Augustine (compare, for ex
ample, his lib. ii. De Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione,
§§ 45, 46), has clearly been defined by the Council of
Trent to prepare the ground for their structure of justi
fication. And what marvellous things do they promise
to the sinner, who receives their words as the words of
God. They do not merely hold out the hope of absolu
tion, of remission of sins that are past, and of the gratui
tous offer of Heaven, but they tell him that, coming with
faith and the beginning of love to God, and that repent
ance which should be exercised before baptism, by bap
tism, "which is the sacrament of faith, without which no
one ever attained to justification" his sin is instantane
ously, not forgiven for the sake of Christ, not checked, not
opposed by the indwelling Spirit then making the soul

386 Of the Justification of Man.
its habitation, but " extirpated," so that " the Catholic
Church cannot find any further traces of sin in him " ;
and when the sinner points to his concupiscence still re
maining, of which he feels the danger, and against
which he feels the necesssity of struggling in the power
of the spirit that he has received, he is told that this is
not sin, though called so by the Apostle, and that its
existence is consequently no disproof of the "extirpa
tion " of sin, which has taken place within him. Let,
him exult, therefore, in his complete freedom from sin,
not simply in forgiveness and in the power of quelling
sin, which he has from the indwelling Spirit, but in his
absolute exemption from the bonds of his destroyer, and
from all traces of its presence. This is his justification,
a justification which he has received from the ministry
of the Church, and of the completeness of which he is
assured by the care of the Church obviating the plain
objections of his own consciousness and of Holy Scrip
ture. Must not the man who believes all this have the feel
ings of one who is in the hands of some potent mesmer-
izer or enchanter ? A mighty change has been wrought,
and the contradictory moral phenomena, open to his own
consciousness, which disprove the reality of this extirpa
tion of sin, are not to affect his belief of that reality.
He is, notwithstanding, a perfectly just, a perfectly holy
man. "The meritorious cause" of his justification is far
in the background, like a mote in the beams of that daz
zling brightness which is within him, and which invests
him on every side, amid which he discerns even the
darknesses of sin to be apparitions of light ; and, although
" they are of sin and incline to sin," not having the nature
of that from which they emanate.

Of the Justification of Man. 387
How easily and contentedly does the man give him
self up to the possessor of such necromancy as this,
nothing doubting that she has charms which provide for
every emergency and obviate every objection, and carry
him on, in a sweet delirium, to the heaven which he
wishes to attain ! The dreams of the Antinomian, the
raptures of the Familist, are naught to this. Here is
something real and tangible, which instantaneously ef
fects the object most of all desirable, deliverance from
sin; which, in its disregard of the righteousness of
Christ, separates men from Him to secure them more
fully under its own influence ; and which, in its disre
gard of the testimony of consciousness, proclaims itself
more wonderful than all magical or mesmerical in
fluence, for that imposes upon the senses and the con
sciousness, but this induces man's belief in spite of the
testimony of his senses and his consciousness to the con
trary of his belief.
The result of yielding to such a system, in ordinary
cases, would be a submission of the work of salvation to
the Church, and a feeling that, in such submission, we
are relieved from individual exertions in the work of
salvation. And this feeling is encouraged by the whole
teaching of the Romish Church, with reference to the
Christian life that follows upon the first act of justifica
tion. Does the justified Christian fall into mortal sin ?
It is not needful that he should repent of it with true
contrition, for the Council of Trent1 declares that "im
perfect contrition, which is called attrition, since it is
commonly conceived either from a consideration of the
turpitude of sin, or from a fear of hell and punishments,
if it excludes the will of sinning, and has hope of par-
s. xiv. c. iv.

388 Of the Justification of Mam.
don, not only does not make a man a hypocrite and a
greater sinner, but is also a gift of God and an impulse
of the Holy Spirit, not as yet, indeed, indwelling, but
only moving, by which the penitent being assisted, pre
pares the way for himself to righteousness. And, al
though without the sacrament of penance it cannot, by
itself, bring a sinner through to justification, yet it dis
poses him (i. e., is a suitable disposition), to obtain the
grace of God in the sacrament of penance."
The sinner, therefore, who has been so marvellously
justified in the first instance need have no fear. The
Church will not desert him. He has but to fear hell,
and consider the vileness of sin, and hope for pardon,
and come and confess his mortal sins, and then, in the
absolution of the sacrament of penance, the deficiencies
of his repentance will be made up, and he will be re
stored to a justified state. The eternal penalties of his
sins and their guilt will be remitted, and if he neglects
to make due satisfaction for the temporal penalties, or
"does not get them cancelled by indulgences, the worst
that can happen to him, if he die in such a justified state,
will be a limited duration of purgatorial fire ; and even
frond this he may obtain a speedy release by the inter
cession of the Church and payments for her masses;
from the pains of gehenna the Church has secured his
exemption. Is this teaching, which gives such manifest encourage
ment to the careless sinner, so he remain under the do
minion of the Church ; O is it, holy and gracious Sav
iour of mankind, the teaching of men who bear Thy
commission to proclaim the glorious Gospel of the
blessed God ? How, then, in such hands, has that, com
mission been prostituted, and what encouragement to

Of the Justification of Man. 389
the licentiousness of sin, even under the name of Chris
tian justification, is given by men who have been sent
forth to prepare the way of the holy Lord !
And lest the justified sinner should be in doubt or
anxiety, in his dying moments, whether the Church, who
has justified him at first, and afterwards by her rites,
when he has fallen into sin, made up the deficiencies of
his repentance and restored to him his justification, will
dftsert him in his most trying hour, she stands ready to
assure him with her x " Sacrament of Extreme Unction as
a most firm defence." " The substance of this sacra
ment is the grace of the Holy Spirit, whose anointing
wipes away offences, if any are yet to be expiated ; "
" and this," says Moehler, 2 " especially in the approach
ing dissolution of the bond between body and soul, never
fails of its effect."
So completely does the Church of Rome relieve her
members of the responsibility of their salvation, and
take it upon herself, assuring them that they shall infal
libly receive it, if they submit to her ordinances, and re
sist not the opus operatum of her manifold sacraments.
The wildest Solifidian could not more effectually cast
away the requirements of a holy life ; and he does not,
in fact, encourage men in such dangerous delusion, be
cause the imposing claims and sacraments of Rome are
real opiates to the conscience of the careless sinner, who
dreams of JJeaven, and doubts not that he shall receive
it ; so he confesses and is absolved, and dies at last with
" that most firm defence of extreme unction." And this
whole system of delusion springs from the severance of
justification from the righteousness of Christ and from
the maintenance of it as a change which, on account of
1 Sess. xiv. cap. ii. De Extrema Unctione. a p. 289.

390 Of the Justification of Man.
its contradiction of the laws and facts of our moral
being, must be regarded, by those who believe it, as
magical, and not moral and spiritual. It is the use,
upon earth, of an " open sesame," to which the doors of
the heavenly kingdom will be found, by man}' deluded
mortals, impregnable.
That the practical influence of the teaching of Rome
upon the masses of her people is such as we have de
scribed, can be doubted by no true observer in our own
land, and by no one who is acquainted with the state of
public morals in lands where the Romish Church has
unrestrained and dominant influence. To those who are
thus informed there can be no doubt that the Church
of Rome sacrifices the characters and souls of men to a
supremacy by which she has superseded that of Christ
the Lord.
And where her doctrine of justification lays hold of
earnest and devout minds, what labyrinths does it lead
them to mistake for the recesses of holiness. Their
attention, of course, will be mainly directed to that sat
isfaction which they must make to that a" revenge and
punishment for past sins " which they must endure, not
withstanding their release from the eternal penalties of
sin and from its guilt, by the satisfaction of Christ.
Their whole life thus becomes a scene of purgatorial en
durance ; and their attainments in holiness, which are
held forth for admiration in the lives of their most es
teemed saints, are those self-inflicted mortifications and
sufferings, in which the Fakirs of India excel them.
Such is the sanctity which, in lives of eminent saints
published in our own day, is commended to the pious
aspirations of the faithful of Rome. The sanctity of
1 Cone. Trident. Sess. xiv. cap. viii.

Of the Justification of Man. 391
hair-shirts, and galling iron chains, and cruel scourgings,
and eating of unwholesome and putrefied food, and all
the strangest devices of self-torture which can be con
ceived, this was the sanctity, as set forth by Romanists
themselves, of Alphonsus Liguori, and Francis de Girol-
amo, and Joseph of the Cross, and Pacificus of San
Severino, and Veronica Giulani, and the saints whose
lives are contained in the breviary, all of whom Rome
loves to honor, and for such sanctity canonizes.
And who shall say that such sanctity is not the native
result of the Romish teachings on justification and satis
faction ? We pity from our souls the saints of Rome
who were thus deluded, but we honor in our hearts their
earnest, consistent use of the system which they be
lieved; the mistaken course which they pursued was
that of the system which they adopted. But such teach
ings are a strange exhibition of that liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free, a most sad forgetfulness of His
consoling grace, and a most lamentable caricature of that
holiness to which He hath called us. And yet such
achievements as those above alluded to are the very
masterpieces of the Romish system. What well in
structed Catholic. Christian shall say that they do not
stamp with falsehood the npcSrov tpevdoi, the Romish
doctrine of justification, from which they spring ?
As the genuine result of the influence of the Romish
system in encouraging the carelessness of its masses, and
stimulating the " bodily exercise " of its chosen saints,
intelligent, thinking, observing men, who live where the
Romish Church is dominant, and notice as well its gen
eral influence as its own vaunted attainments of perfec
tion, come to the conclusion that, if this be Christianity,
then in such a Christianity they care not to believe. The

392 Of the Justification of Man.
prevalence of infidehty among the bishops and priests of
Rome in the eighteenth century is too notorious to be
denied, and is recorded by her own historian,1 and it was
rampant also in the Roman court during the pontificate
of Leo the Tenth. Travellers in Romish countries find
everywhere within the precincts of the Church 2 " num
bers of infidels not only amongst the laity, but the clergy
of the Roman communion in those countries."
Indeed, this tendency to unbelief among the more in
telligent classes of the Romish communion, in countries
where the Romish Church has full sway, is a most evi
dent and noticeable fact. Precisely those effects then
which would be deduced theoretically from the Romish
doctrine of justification and its ramifications and connex
ions, are seen in practice ; in immorality, irreligion, and
neglect of holy living among the masses of her people,
where her system is most thoroughly carried out ; in a
substitution of a bondage worse than Jewish for true
Christian holiness among her saints ; in the subjection to
superstition and to fear of those for whom Christ has
provided the freedom of love and filial confidence, and
in infidelity among those who observe the real tendencies
and effects of such a system of doctrine and practice.
Such is the development in its fruits of the justification
of Trent.
And what, let it be asked, is the genuine result of that
teaching which the Anglican Church opposes to the doc
trine of Trent? This does not detach men from Christ,
but sends them to Him as the Lord our Righteousness.
As His minister in His appointed sacrament, the Church
conveys to believing and repentent sinners His grace
1 Palmer on the Church, pt. i. ; ch. xi. appendix ii. vol. i. pp. 319-
323. 2 Pahner, p. 321.

Of the Justification of Man, 393
of forgiveness and His Spirit of adoption, by which they
become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. And
under the impulses of this Spirit, and with the animat
ing, inspiring remembrance of the justification which they
have freely received, are they continually moved to walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. They know that
the sanctifying power of the Spirit is the evidence to
them, of their state of reconciliation with God. They
have every encouragement to perfect holiness in the fear
of God, because they have received His grace of justi
fication and His indwelling Spirit.
His grace is the assurance to them of final success, if
they strive in its strength and 'make due use of it ; and
as they thus value and use the grace of God, they obtain
in the pledges of its continuance and increase which He
has appointed, new assurances of His presence and favor,
and supplies of grace suited to every new emergency.
Thankfulness and hope are the cheering principles which
urge them onward in the Christian race ; while a fear of
misusing or neglecting, and thus losing, the grace of God,
and falling from their state of justification, exercises upon
them not a slavish, but a salutary, quickening influence,
leading them to be watchful and earnest and obedient,
lest they forfeit the privileges which are such strong en
couragements in the work of holy living. They are not
oppressed by the thought that they have by their own
merits, to secure salvation ; but are animated by the con
sideration that they are the sons of God, having a title
to a heavenly inheritance, and that their great care
should be to yield themselves to the guidance of that
Holy Spirit of their Father in Heaven who will thus
surely and infallibly conduct them to their destined
heritage. Thus is the free grace of Divine justification

394 Of the Justification of Mam.
a most potent principle of strength, and hope, and sanc
tification. And the right maintenance of the doctrine in
its purity is of vast importance in securing its due practi
cal influence. To believe, for example, that our justifi
cation rests upon the ground of that righteousness which
we accomplish through the grace of God assisting us,
having its deficiencies supplied by the righteousness of
Christ, would be to dishonor Christ our Lord ; to detract
from the fulness of His propitiation ; it would be to
withdraw our attention, in a great measure, from that
fruitful fountain of free grace which first justifies us,
and then acts as an ever-flowing source of supply of that
holiness which is suitable to our state of justification ;
which is the quickening principle of that holiness, and
also its principle of growth. To believe that any right
eousness of our own is the ground of our justification,
exposes us to the danger of relying upon our own merit
as the cause of our . salvation, and thus inflates us with
self-conceit ; or drives us to despair, if we have an ex
alted idea of the merit which is required ; or else leads
us to do dishonor to the truth and holiness of God, and
to content ourselves with carelessness of living, by main
taining that an imperfect obedience, provided it be sin
cere, is all that He requires, though the declarations of
His law are so strict and holy.
Against these dangers — that of trusting to human
merit, that of despair, and that of an allowed slack
ness in the work of perfecting holiness in the fear of
God — our best and only preservative is a deep sense
of our entire indebtedness to the grace of God for justi
fication, and a high, loving, reverent valuation of that
grace, that we may use it to the fullest extent, in becom
ing meet for the inheritance which could only be the

Of the Justification of Man. 395
gift of surpassing grace to the sinner. And we think
that, as clearer or dimmer views have prevailed at dif
ferent times since the Reformation, in the Chruch of
England, of the doctrine of justification, as set forth in
articles and hornilies of the Church, a corresponding in
fluence can be traced in the activity or coldness of reli
gious life among the people.
And fearlessly would we contrast the masses of the
people of the English Church with those, for example,
of Italy or of Spain, where the Romish Church is predomi
nant, as evidence of the different influence, in the for
mation of moral and religious character, of thes£ two
systems of religion which separate from each other in
this fundamental point of justification. And without hesi
tation, too, would we set, on the one side, the Latimers,
the Cranmers, the Ridleys, the Jewells, the Hookers,
the Taylors, the Kens, the Herberts, the Leightons, the
Hebers, of the Church of England, against the Dominies,
the Francises, the Liguoris, the Girolamos, the Yeronicas,
the chosen saints of Rome. If sanctity be the test of
doctrinal truth, we doubt not that the sanctity of the
English Church has a truer Christian style than that
which is commended to us in the published lives of the
self-torturing ascetics of Rome.
The whole history of the Church shows that this great
question of our justification before God is a most vital
one, and one most important to the welfare of human
society ; for it involves the determination of the regener
ating principle of fallen humanity, and of the manner in
which that principle is to become influential for the pur
poses for which it has been revealed ; and when Rome is
by no means alone in offering to the acceptance of men
her own devices for human regeneration ; when associa-

396 Of the Justification of Man.
tions having no connexion with the Church of God, are
starting up on every side, and seeking to occupy the
place which God intended for His Church as His repre
sentative and the minister of His scheme of regenera
tion and salvation, it becomes of supreme consequence
to exhibit the truth in its purity and power, flowing
from the clear fountains of Divine revelation.
That truth of the justification of man, whose exposi
tion is so plainly and carefully set forth in the pages of
Holy Writ ; which Apostles so earnestly insisted upon ;
which, in days of accumulated and cherished error,
spoke, from the mouths of learned and holy men, and
produced an awakening like that of the introduction of
Christianity ; which Rome rejected, to the grief and
despair of some of her noblest sons, who died in her bo
som; that truth which has had such signal revenges
since the day of that rejection, in the woful history of
her who rejected it ; truth, illustrated as this has been,
though crushed to earth, ever rising in newness of might,
cannot be otherwise than vital and important; and
those who possess it should cherish it in their heart of
hearts, and defend it as, after the leading of inspired
Apostles, it may be defended ; and for the best welfare
of human society, should be careful to exhibit, as indeed
it is, the truth which contains the only principle of hu
man regeneration.
We conclude, then, in the noble words of the Angli
can "Homily of Salvation": "This faith the Holy
Scripture teacheth us ; this is the strong rock and foun
dation of Christian religion ; this doctrine all old arid
ancient authors of Christ's Church do approve ; this doc
trine advanceth and setteth forth the true glory of
Christ, and beateth down the vainglory of man ; this

Of the Justification of Man. 397
whosoever denieth, is not to be accounted for a Chris
tian man, nor for a setter-forth of Christ's glory; but
for an adversary to Christ and His Gospel, and for a
setter-forth of men's vainglory. And although this doc
trine be never so true (as it is most true indeed) that we
be justified freely, without all merit of our own good
works (as St. Paul doth express it), and freely, by this
lively and perfect faith in Christ only (as the ancient
authors used to speak it), yet this true doctrine must be
also truly understood, and most plainly declared, lest
carnal men should take unjustly occasion thereby to live
carnally, after the appetite and will of the world, the
flesh, and the devil."

Chapter XL
THE CHURCH.
EYER since man was created, God has had a Church
in the world, in which man, whether fallen or
unf alien, has been in covenant with Him. There was a
Church in Paradise, before man fell from original
righteousness. He had then the benefit of God's super
natural grace ; which, if he had used aright, he would
have reached life and immortality in the presence of
God. And the tree of life in the midst of the garden, as
well as the tree of knowledge of good and evil, were the
sacraments of that Church which existed in Paradise.
The promise of the seed of the woman, who should
bruise the serpent's head, was the continuance of God's
Church among men in their fallen condition; the ark
in which the elect of God were saved from the waters
of the deluge was the connexion of the antediluvian
Church with the Church of after ages, was the type and
herald of that Church which should be gathered from
among men by the baptism which admitted them to the
discipleship of Christ.
The patriarchal Church was a further development of
the Church of God upon earth. The covenant with
Abraham was founded upon the promise of the Re
deemer, the seed of Abraham in whom all the families of
the earth should be blessed. In that covenant Abraham
was constituted the father of the faithful in all times

The Church. 399
succeeding. , Abraham "'believed in the Lord," be
lieved in the truth of God's promises concerning His
seed " and He counted it to him for righteousness." His
faith was the model and the pattern of that faith by
which men are justified by the grace of God in Christ
and so is it presented to us alike by St. Paul and St.
James, in their descriptions of that righteousness of God
by which we are justified in His sight. The seal of
circumcision, which was the seal of the Abrahamic
covenant, was the herald of that circumcision of the
Spirit which is given in the baptism of Christ.
The Jewish Church founded upon the Mosaic cov
enant was a still further opening of the design of God
to establish a Church in which the promise of the
Saviour to come, which was developed through all the
successive preparatory dispensations, should be realized
in the incarnation of the Son of God, in the presence
among men of Emmanuel, God with us, and in all His
work of redemption accomplished.. thrpugh the whole
course of His life upon earth, His death — and His
resurrection. The Church of the incarnate Lord, which
He Himself founded and with which He promised to be
¦" even unto the end. of the world," is the Church in
which we profess our belief in the Creed. It is the
Church of God in its completed form upon this earth,
the Church by which the Son of God carries on to its
designed consummation, the salvation which He came
to effect in and for the race of fallen, sinful men.
Our Lord declared His intention to found a Church
in the world, which should be His Church, in the words
which He addressed to S. Peter, when the Apostle had
uttered the 'great confession, 2 " Thou art the Christ, the
i Genes, xv. 6. s Matt. xvi. 16, 17, 18.

400 Ecclesiology.
Son of the living God." Immediately our Lord " Jesus,"
the Saviour, answered and said unto him, " Blessed art
thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in Heaven.
And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build My Church ; and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it." It was the confession of
St. Peter, thus recognized and signalized by the Lord
Himself, which was the rock upon which the Church
was to be built. It was to set forth this great truth that
God Himself, in the person of His Divine and eternal
Son, had come among us in our flesh ; to set forth this
truth in all the depth of its significance, of its saving
grace and power, that the Church of Christ was to be
established ariiong men.
This was the object of its establishment clearly de
scribed in these words of our Lord to S. Peter. And
then, when He was risen from the dead, when His work
upon earth was accomplished, when by His life and death
and resurrection, all the significance of His name Jesus
had been demonstrated and secured, He gave to the
Apostles the commission, by which the Church was to
be gathered, .and continued through all generations of
men. It was a commission of plenary power. "All
power," He said, " is given unto Me in Heaven and in
earth." As the representatives of this power and
authority, " Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you :
and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world. Amen."
1 Matth. xxviii. 18-20.

The Church. 401
The baptism by which men of all nations were to be
enrolled among the disciples of Christ stamped upon the
Church its feature of visibility ; the name, into which
they were baptized, was the profession of faith, by
which the Church was to be made to appear among men
as the representative of Christ. As soon as the Spirit,
in accordance with the promise of Christ, was given on
the day of Pentecost, the exercise of the apostolic com
mission in the preaching of the Gospel began— and
1 " then they that gladly received (the) word were baptized ;
and the same day there were added unto them about
three thousand souls." And from that day onward
2 " the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be
saved," and shortly afterwards we have the record that
3 " the number of the men was about five thousand," that
4 " believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes ,
both of men and women," 6 " so mightily," it is said,
" grew the word of God, and prevailed."
All this growth, this gathering of multitudes to the
Lord in His Church, was the result of the Spirit's demon
stration of the preached word to the hearts and con
sciences of those to whom it was preached. And hence
in this carrying out of the commission of the risen Lord
was seen both the inwardness and the outwardness of the
Church ; both its spirituality and its visibility. And
such is the representation which is made of the Church
in the epistles of S. Paul. 6 " For as the body is one,
and hath many members, and all the members of that
one body, being many, are one body ; so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or
1 Acts ii. 41. 2 Acts ii. 47. 3 Acts iv. 4.
< Acts v. 14. 6 Acts xiv. 20. « I. Cor. xii. 12, 13.

402 Ecclesiology.
free ; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."
1 " Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in
particular." 2 " For we being many are one bread, and
one body ; for we are all partakers of that one bread."
For " there is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are
called in one hope of your calling."
In these representations the Church of Christ is set
forth in its most true and real relation to Christ Him
self. It is 3 His body, " the fulness of Him that filleth
all in all." It is the body of Christ Himself, in which
He dwells by His Spirit, which is its life, and all the
members of that body, therefore, are members of Christ
Himself, the Head of the body, and it is their privilege
in that living body of Christ, to be partakers of His very
life, which is imparted by His Spirit, the life of His
body, the Church. In that the Church is the body of
Christ, in which the members are related to each other
and to Him, in an organism as true and real as the
human body, to which it is compared ; in which the out
ward ministries are set, which derive their authority to
minister in His name from Christ Himself ; in which
His outward and visible sacraments are dispensed, even
that baptism by which men are admitted to the body ;
and that bread of life, in outward and visible forms,
which is a participation of the bread that cometh down
from Heaven, and giveth life unto the world ; in which
too, the word of salvation through Christ is proclaimed,
by direct commission from Christ Himself — in all these
outward characteristics of the kingdom of Christ upon
earth its visibility is plainly seen and declared.
And in the power given to these ministrations, to this
preached word and these outward sacraments, in this
i Ver. 27. 2 1. Cor. x. 17 ; Eph. iv. 4. 3 Ep. i. 23.

The Church. 403
recognition of the appointments of Christ in the Church,
.as the instrumentalities which the Spirit uses in His tak
ing of the things of Christ and shewing them Unto men,
the inwardness of the Church, which makes it the invisi
ble saving presence of Christ Himself among men, is
plainly exhibited. The Church, which is His body,
which is the dwelling-place of His Spirit upon earth, is
the fulfilment of the Saviour's promise to His disciples
that He would not x " leave them comfortless," but that
" He would come to them." And this coming of the
Spirit to represent Christ would be, He told the disci
ples, a fuller, more satisfying manifestation of Himself
to them than had ever been made while He was present
among men so that He could be seen with the eye of the
flesh. The Church, then, founded by Christ Himself, is
His own visible presentment of Himself to men through
.all the generations of time, and it is also what it out
wardly represents itself to be, what it presents in all its
ministrations among men, the very power of God Him
self unto salvation, because through its ministrations the
Spirit acts, to whom the Gospel, in its power and grace
of Divine salvation, has been committed.
The Church, therefore, is manifestly an essential con
stituent of the Gospel of Christ, not a mere external
appendage of the Gospel, but a Divine institution, in
which is embodied, in its living power, the Gospel, by
which we are saved. It is therefore a question of no
slight importance to assure ourselves upon: what and
where is the Church of Christ in the world ? What are the
marks by which the true Church, the Church of Christ's
.appointment, to which, in the days of the Apostles,
those who were to be saved were added, and so joined
1 John xiv. 18.

404 Ecclesiology.
to the Lord their Saviour, is to be discerned ? If there
be more than one organization claiming to be the true
Church of Christ, by what notes may we distinguish
that which is His Church indeed from those which are
not what they may claim or seem to be ?
One thing is sure, there is and ever has been but one
Church in the world, which is the very Church of Christ
the Lord. Though churches in different places, in dif
ferent cities and countries, are spoken of in the holy
Scriptures, yet they all belong to one organization,
which is the one only Church of Christ in the world.
The Lord did not say, " On this rock " I will build the
many societies, which shall be My churches, but "on
this rock, I will build My Church," evidently recogniz
ing His Church as that which was to be but one — and
to this Church, which was called " the Church," were
the multitudes gathered, who became the disciples of
Christ in the days of the Apostles. And we are ex
pressly told by the Apostle that x " there is one body,"
just as truly as there is but " one Spirit," " one Lord,"
" one faith," " one baptism," " one God and Father of
all." Unity is the indelible characteristic of the true Church
of Christ, unity which is a true representation of the " one
Lord " whose Church it is ; of the " one Spirit " who is
its life ; and of the " one God and Father of all " who is
" above all, and through all, and in you all," that are
members of that Church ; who is the head and bond of
the adorable Trinity, and the uniting centre, too, of that
fellowship of the Christian brotherhood which is fellow
ship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, in
the bond of the ever-blessed Spirit. This unity of the
1 Eph. iv. 4.

The Church. 405
Church was to be an all-pervading unity — it was there
fore to be visible, and not only spiritual — for there is
one body, and not merely one Spirit. How was this
unity set forth in the words of the Lord Himself?
1 " That they all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in Me,
and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us ; that
the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." Here
was a unity having its deep foundations, it is true, in
the mysterious unity of the Father and the Son, but
made manifest in the visible unity of the Church, of
which the world might take knowledge, and so believe
that the incarnate Son was sent by the Father, from
whom He came.
Some essential features of this unity will be exhibited
by attending to another mark of the true Church of
Christ, its apostolicity. As the Church was gathered
under and by virtue of the apostolic commission, as no
commission but that has ever been issued for the found
ing of a Church of Christ in the world, as Christ has
promised to be with none but those who are acting under
this commission, it is clear that no organization which
cannot trace itself to that commission, which cannot con
nect itself with that, has any title to belong to, or to be a
part of the true Church of Christ in our world. Unity,
then, of apostolic origin is an essential characteristic of
the true visible unity of the Church. It was recorded of the
Christians who were added to the Church in the apostolic
day, that 2 " they continued steadfastly in the Apostles'
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in
prayers." The faith, then, which the Apostles preached,
and which they delivered to those whom they received
into the Church, is of the very essence of the Church's
i John xvii. 21. a Acts ii. 42.

406 Ecclesiology.
existence. If there be not the " one faith," there cannot
be the one Church, and that faith can only be the faith
once for all delivered, the faith which was the " Apostles'
doctrine," in which we are told the disciples of their day
steadfastly continued.
There was, of course, a recognition of the Apostles'
office, and of its derivation from Christ Himself, by those
who continued in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship.
They owned the Apostles as the true representatives of
Christ, who commissioned and sent them, and therefore,
to their authority they submitted themselves, to their
doctrine they adhered, in their communion they con
tinued. Now, the Apostles' commission was one given
for all the generations of time, and therefore, in every
age, the true Church of Christ must be known as that
which retains this commission, which adheres, as did
the Christians in the days of the Apostles who had seen
the Lord, to the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship.
The Church of Christ now is the identical Church
which was planted by apostolic hands, and in which
Christ's ministry was continued in the way of His
appointment ; and that organization which wants, which
cannot shew this mark of apostolical descent and author
ity,, cannot rightfully claim to be a portion of the one
Church of Christ, founded upon the rock of the great
apostolic confession.
This one apostolic Church has also holiness as one of
its marks and characteristics. And, in fact,1 the profes
sion of belief in the Church in the most ancient creeds,
was a profession of belief in the holy^Church. It is
holy in its calling, as all who are joined to it are called
to be saints, or the holy ones of God ; it is holy because
1 See Pearson on the Creed, art. The Holy Catholic Church.

The Church. 407
it is the abiding place, upon earth, of the Holy Spirit of
Christ, and the scene of the exercise of the Spirit's re
generating, sanctifying and redeeming grace ; it is holy
because it is called forth from this evil world, to be the
representative and minister, among men, of the Holy
Lord ; it is holy in its sacraments of Divine appointment ;
in the Scriptures given by inspiration of God, of which
the Church is the witness and keeper ; it is holy in its
members who are actual partakers of the Holy Spirit,
that is the life of the Church, who, so, truly comply with
its inmost design, and become joined to the life in God
of the Lord Himself.
The Church of Christ is moreover Catholic. This is
one of its most clearly revealed features, by which it is
broadly distinguished from the narrow and restricted
dispensations that went before this consummate form of
the kingdom of God upon earth. Its catholicity, as de
signed to embrace all nations, and all generations of man
kind, was set forth in the apostolic commission to make
disciples of all nations, in the command of the Lord to
preach the Gospel to every creature. In the opening the
door of faith to the Gentiles, in the breaking down the
old distinction between Jews and Gentiles, in the wide
extension of the Church over the world by the labors of
the Apostles and those whom they sent forth, this feature
of catholicity was fully developed and exhibited. And
this was in accordance with the declaration of the Lord
Himself, His own delineation of His own kingdom —
1 " The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this moun
tain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father " — the
Church was not to be confined to time or place, but to
be conterminous with the world, and with the generations
of mankind. i John iv. 21.

408 Ecclesiology.
How strongly this catholicity was held, from the very
first, to be an essential element of the Church of Christ,
appears from the history of S. Ignatius — -from his epis
tles to the churches written on his journey from Antioch
to Rome, from the communion which he had with all
the churches, in that wide extent of the world, and
from his own express words regarding the Catholic
Church of Jesus Christ. He says in his epistle to the
Smyrnaeans, l " But avoid divisions as the beginning of
evils. Let all of you follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ
the Father ; and the college of presbyters, as the Apos
tles ; but reverence the deacons, as the commandment
of God. Let no one do any thing of those matters, which
appertain to the Church, without the bishop. Let that
Eucharist be esteemed valid (fie(3aia) which is under the
bishop, or celebrated by him to whom he shall commit
it. Wherever the bishop appears, there let the multi
tude be ; as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic
Church." Surely to one who so wrote, the Catholic
Church was a most real and living thing. It was the
true representative and minister of Christ in all the
world. And so in all ages succeeding was the Church re
garded by the disciples of Christ. In the Church they
were united to God the Father, through Jesus Christ His
incarnate Son, and so did they seek to realize the unity
which was their reception into the unity of the Father
and the Son, for which the Saviour, in behalf of His
disciples in all generations, prayed. It is well stated by
S. Cyprian : 2 " Whoever being separated from the Church
is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises
of the Church. Nor does he come to the rewards of
1 c. viii. 2 De Unit. Ecclesiae, p. 78, ed. Fell.

The Church. 409
Christ who leaves the Church of Christ. He is alien, he
is profane, he is an enemy, he cannot now have God for
his Father, who has not the Church for his mother. If
any one could escape, who was outside the ark of Noah,
then he also, who is outside of the Church, will escape.
The Lord admonishes and says, 'He who is not with
Me, is against Me, and he who gathereth not with Me,
scattereth.' He who breaks the peace and concord
of Christ acts against Christ. xHe who gathereth else
where beside the Church, scatters the Church of Christ.
The Lord says, ¦* ' I and the Father are one.' And again
concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
it is written, 3 ' And these three are one,' and does any
one beheve that this unity, coming from the Divine firm
ness cohering by heavenly sacraments, can be cut apart
in the Church, and be separated by the divorce of collid
ing wills ? He who does not hold fast this unity, does
not hold the law of God, and does not hold the truth
unto salvation."
" Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
This is the pregnant sentence of S. Ignatius the martyr
of Christ. It was the accepted doctrine of the Church
as it came fresh from the hands of the Apostles. It
shews the indissoluble union of Christ with the Church,
which is His holy bride here in this world, being pre
pared by His Spirit for the marriage supper of the
Lamb. It shews that the Church is co-extensive in its
existence with the incarnation of the Lord Himself — it
is in all the world, the exhibition to men of the incarnate
Lord, and His own appointed instrumentality for making
all who believe in Him partakers of the life and sancti
fying and perfecting fruits of His incarnation ; and so,
1 Matt. xii. 30. 2 J0hn x. 30. 3 I. John v. 7.

410 Ecclesiology.
most truly, where Jesus Christ is, where He is pro
claimed, imparted, and received as " the Way, the
Truth, and the Life," there is the Catholic Church, in
its inwardness and its visibility, in the one body and the
one spirit, which, in all the world, is its essence and its
manifestation of Christ, who, as God manifest in the
flesh, is conterminous with our fallen humanity in all
its nations, all its generations, and all its individuals.
Such is the catholicity of the Church of Christ — and
in it there is a manif oldness of meaning. Not only be
cause it is confined to no bounds of time or place, for
in the living Head of the body it is infinite, is it the
Catholic Church. It is Catholic also, because it is pro
vided for all the needs and emergencies of our fallen
humanity; because in it Christ heals the spiritual dis
eases of our sin-afflicted -race ; because it holds and pro
claims all the truth revealed for our salvation ; because
in it, and by it, all the light of grace and truth is dis
pensed which is requisite to dispel all the darkness of
spiritual error and of sin, and to bring men forth into
that light of holiness and truth which is the very light
of the Lord.
" But," says Isidore Hispalensis,1 " the Church is,
therefore, called Catholic, because it is established
through all the world ; or Catholic because the doctrine
in it is universal ; or because it draws to itself, to the
subjection of piety, all the race of men, as well of princes
as of those subject to their dominion, of orators and un
learned persons, or because it generally cures the sins of
men, which are performed by the body and the soul."
And so the appellation Catholic came to be applied to
each particular church, under its own bishop, as being
1 Isidore Hisp. De Officiis Ecclesiast. lib. i. c. i.

The Church. 411
an integrating part of the whole Catholic Church of
Christ, as in its own sphere being a representative and
type of the whole Church, and doing for its own flock
the work which, as thus accomplished by each particu
lar church, was summed up in the one holy work of
the one Catholic Church in all the world. The Church
was Catholic, as distinguished from bodies claiming to
be churches which were in heresy, or in schism, which
did not hold the one faith once for all delivered, or which
had rent by unholy division the seamless robe of Christ
the Lord.
Such then was the Church of Christ, as founded by
Him, and established and extended through the world
under His apostolic commission. It was one, it was apos
tolic in descent, in faith, and in organization ; it was holy
in office and in work, and in its holy members ; and it
was Catholic, a true and real representative of the incar
nate Lord Himself in all the world. It was a Divine in
stitution of healing and of salvation in our fallen world.
It is visible in its outward organization as the organized
body of Christ ; it is spiritual, as being the habitation
upon earth of the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ to administer
His Gospel of salvation among fallen men. Can there
be any doubt, therefore, that the ministry and the gov
ernment, to which the administration of the word and
sacraments of Christ, and of the discipline of the
Church, is entrusted, are of the very essence of the
Church, are of the same Divine appointment with that
which established the Church itself ? Certainly Christ
Himself is the head of His own organized body, the
Church, and He, no longer visible on this earth, and the
Spirit, whom He hath sent forth fully to represent Him,
belong to the invisibility of the Church which is its
very life and power.

412 Ecclesiology.
The Head of the Church is in the Heaven of heavens,
whither He ascended from His work of redemption ac
complished upon earth, and there He will be, till xHe
shall come again, as He was seen " to go into heaven "
by those who were privileged to witness His ascent ; till
He shall visibly come to receive to Himself his redeemed
Church in its pure and perfect condition, when its ideal
shall be fully realized, when its work in the world shall
have been fully done, when He shall have sanctified and
cleansed it 2 " with the washing of water, by the word,
that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church,
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that
it should be holy and without blemish."
But the Church has a visible ministry and government
upon earth, authorized by, proceeding from, its living
Head in Heaven. For 3 He hath set in the Church, apos
tles, prophets, teachers, and all the various ministries
which are rightfully exercised in it, " for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edify
ing of the body of Christ," " till we all come in the
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, into a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature
of the fulness of Christ." And no ministries but those
authorized by .Him can be rightfully exercised by men
in the Church of Christ. His apostolic commission is in
force till the end of time, and He is with those who act
under it, according to His own most true promise, to
give it efficacy in the ministration of His word and sac
raments, and in the discipline and government of His
Church. " The episcopate," as says S. Cyprian, 4 " is one, of
i Acts i. 11. 2 Eph. v. 26, 27.
3 I. Cor. xii. 23 ; Eph. iv. 11-13. * De Unit. Eccles. p. 78.

The Church. 413
which an undivided part is held by every bishop ; " and
every bishop, as St. Jerome says, x " whether at Borne,
or Eugubium, or Constantinople, or Bhegium, or Alex
andria, or Tanis, is of the same merit and priesthood ;
the power of riches and the humility of poverty does
not make a bishop either higher or lower. But (cet-
erum) all are successors of the Apostles." This is the
highest office of earthly authority in the Church, and
the fountain from which all valid visible ministries
in the name of Christ must be derived. But that the
unity of the undivided episcopate might be clearly set
forth, S. Cyprian tells us 2 that our Lord said to S. Peter,
" I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And
what thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in
Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall
be loosed also in Heaven." And again to the same,
after the resurrection, He says, " Feed My sheep."
He builds His Church upon one, and although to all
the Apostles He assigns and asserts equal power, 3 "As My
Father hath sent Me I also send you ; receive ye the
Holy Spirit : whosesoever sins ye remit, they are re
mitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they
are retained " ; nevertheless, that He might manifest the
unity, He disposed the origin of the same unity, begin
ning from one by His own authority. The other Apos
tles were also certainly that which Peter was, endowed
with equal participation (consortio) both of honor and
power, but the beginning has its departure from the
unity, that the Church may be shewn to be one ; which
one Church also the Holy Spirit from the person of the
1 Epistola ad Evagr. 2 p. 77.
3 John xx. 23.

414 Ecclesiology.
Lord, designates and says in the Song of songs : x " My
dove is one, my perfect one, is one to her mother, the
elect one of her who brought her forth." And so, in
the book of Revelation, 2 " The wall of the city " (the
holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God)
" had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the
twelve Apostles of the Lamb."
This was the highes^t source upon earth of authority
from Christ in His Holy Church — the undivided aposto-
late or episcopate — of which each holder of the office was
a full and equal possessor. So against the advancing
claims and usurpations of the Roman bishops, in the
fifth century, as in the earlier days of Cyprian, was the
equality and the supremacy, under Christ, of the episco
pal office maintained by the bishops of Africa, of Gaul,
and of the East. The unity is absolute in Christ, the
Divine and living Head, and in the bond of His Spirit ;
the unity is representative, ministerial and visible in the
successors of the Apostles under the apostolic commission,
the ministries of the Church thus proceeding from Christ,
thus held before men, in His right hand, under His open
commission ; 3 the seven stars in His right hand are the
angels of the seven churches, the ministries of His
Catholic, apostolic Church in all the world, and the
seven candlesticks of the apocalyptic vision are that
Church itself irradiated with and dispensing the light of
the Lord Himself.
I have sketched to you the Church as it is in the de
sign and appointment of the Lord, as it is in its ideal
and divinely-fixed character. But the Church, in its
members, is composed of sinful, fallible men, who are
admitted to that membership that they may be justified
' Cant. vi. 9. 2 Eev. xxj. 14, 3 gev. i. 20.

The Church. 415
and purged from sin, and made meet for the inheritance
of the saints in light. They are called to holiness in the
holy Church, and it will be their constant endeavor, if
they comply with the gracious design of the Lord in
establishing His Church among men, to perfect holiness
in the fear of God. The fortunes of the Church are
varying, and chequered with success and apparent fail
ure, as it makes its ways through this evil world, through
the hosts of sin and death, to the land of everlasting life.
The institutions of God are one thing, and the use which
men make of them another. Even the grace of God
may be received in vain, and His truth may be perverted
by human error and sin.
We are expressly told by our Lord that His kingdom
shall contain within it the holy and the unholy ; that the
Gospel net cast abroad upon the waters of the world,
shall take up both good fishes and bad ; that an enemy
will sow tares among the wheat, and that both shall grow
together until the harvest. The guest without the wed
ding garment, the foolish virgins who took no oil in their
vessels for their lamps, represent those who are admit
ted, to membership of the Church in this world, and it
is only at the final scrutiny that J " the angels shall be
sent forth, who shall gather out of His kingdom all
things that offend, and them which do iniquity ; and
shall cast them unto a furnace of fire ; there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
The Church will not realize here that holiness and per
fection which are represented in its Divine constitution
and its heavenly destination. In it here the evil are ever
mingled with the good ; and the good themselves are
i Matt. xiii. 41-43.

416 Ecclesiology.
rather striving for perfection than actually attaining it.
And here, too, are divisions in the Church, and divisions
from its holy body — like the Donatist and the Novatian
schisms in the Church's ancient day. And then, too,
there may be the interruption of communion between
different portions of the Catholic Church itself. There
may be, and there are, unwarranted additions to the
faith, by those who have not denied and renounced the
faith itself. Where the faith is denied by heretical per
version, the body which does not hold the one faith can
not be of the one Church. Where there is separation
from the line of Christ's appointed ministry, there is
separation from the Apostles' fellowship, which was the
characteristic of the Church when it was first established
among men, and which, as appears from the apostolic
commission, was the designed Divine characteristic of
the Church, till the end of the world.
But where the unity of the Church is unbroken in its
apostolic faith and apostolic succession ; where the word
of Christ- is duly dispensed, according to His appoint
ment, and His sacraments duly administered, and where
the bond of charity is maintained in its reality and in
tegrity, there is a true representative of the Catholic
Church of Christ, and a living proof that, amid all the
collisions and disasters through which the Church has
passed, the word of Christ remains sure : that against
the Church founded upon the rock of the great confes
sion the gates of hell have not prevailed.
The period of the Church's earthly existence is its
period of conflict, of gathering, and of purification for
her final and perfect condition. All her members who
comply with the Divine intention in the establishment
of the Church, who yield themselves to the guidance of

The Church. 417
the Holy Spirit, who advance, from day to day, in the
attainment of that holiness without which no man shall
see the Lord, shall be members of the Church in its per
fect and heavenly state, when its ideal shall be realized,
when it shall be all holy and spiritual, and, in the com
pleted company of the redeemed, shall present to the
Lord the result of its mission among the generations of
mankind. That consummation was set forth in ancient prophecy,
1 " Thy people also shall be all righteous : they shall in
herit the land forever, the branch of My planting, the
work of My hands, that I may be glorified." A descrip
tion of this redeemed and perfected Church of God,
which unites in itself the Church of the Jewish and
that of the Gospel day ; 2 of which the Lord God Al
mighty and the Lamb are the temple; and the light,
in which the nations of the saved walk, is given in the
closing chapters of the Book of Divine Revelation.
Then all its features, designed in its original establish
ment, shall be clearly discerned in it. It shall be seen
to be the one holy apostolic Catholic Church of God,
in deed and in truth ; 3 " And they shall bring the glory
and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in
no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie; but
they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."
Then shall Paradise be regained in the presence of God ;
and those here are blessed who, in the holy Church of
God, 4"Do His commandments, that they may have
right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the
gates into the city."
'Is. Ix. 21. sRev. xxi. 22.
3 Rev. xxi. 26, 27. 4 Rev. xxii. 14.

Chapter XII.
THE SACRAMENTS.,
THE word sacrament applied to a religious rite is a
term of ecclesiastical origin. The Latin word sac-
ramentum, from sacrare — dedicare, consecrare, initiare,
signified among the Romans the oath of allegiance taken
by soldiers, also the sum of money put in pledge and
deposited with the Pontifex Maximus, by contestants
in courts of law, which, in case the Cause went against
him who had deposited the pledge, was devoted to the
gods. It is also the translation in the old Latin versions,
and in the Yulgate, of the Greek word nvGrr^piov, as
that word is used in the New Testament in relation to
the revelation and the Church of the Gospel.
The word was used by the ancient fathers of the
Church in a wide variety of application. Thus Ter
tuUian1 designates the Christian religion by the word,
and Cyprian applies it to the Trinity, and even calls the
Lord's Prayer a sacrament. S. Augustine 2" reckoned
not only matrimony (De Nupt. et Concupiscent, i. 11)
and holy orders (De Baptism, ad Donatist, i. 2, and con
tra Parmen. ii. 30), but also occasionally other sacred
ceremonies among the sacraments (the word taken in
a more comprehensive sense), so far as he understood
by sacramentum, omne mysticum sacrumque signum.
Thus he applies (De Pecat. Orig. c. 40) the term sacra-
1 Hagenbach, § 136, 2, vol. i. p. 356.
2 Advers. Marc. v. 18.

The Sacraments. 419
ment to exorcism, the casting out and the renunciation
of the devil at baptism; and even to the rites of the
Old Testament : l circumcisio carnis, sabbatum, temporale
neomeniae sacrificia atque omnes hujusmodi imnumerae
¦observationes ' " (ad Galat. c. iii. 19).1
But though the word was used in a wide and compre
hensive sense, it was applied to baptism and the Lord's
Supper in a high and distinctive meaning. Both S.
•Chrysostom and S. Augustine saw,2 in the blood and
water which flowed from the wounded side of the Lord,
the foreshadowing of the two great sacraments of His
Church. And the same regard for the two sacraments
ordained by Christ continued till the days of Bede
(Horn, x.), of Batramu (De Corpore et Sang. Dei, cap.
xlvi.), and of Ratherius of Yerona (Serm. de Quad-
rages, § 3, and Serm. ii. de Ascens Dom.),3 all of whom
enumerate alone as sacraments baptism and the Lord's
Supper. And with this the dogmatic view of the Greek
•Church also agrees. The same view is that which is
found in the division of Isidore of Seville (Etym. vi. 19,
¦§ 30), which sets forth baptism and chrism, the body
and blood of Christ, as the sacraments of the New Tes
tament. For as the body and blood of Christ belong
together as the constituents of one sacrament ; so bap
tism and chrism, as they appear already in Cyprian, are
the constituents of the other.
The first aim at the enlargement of the number of
sacraments appears in the Greek Church. Pseudo-
Dionysius (sixth century, De Hierarch. Eccles. cc. ii.-vii.
1 Opp. iii. pt. ii. col. 692.
2 S. Chrysost. in Johan. Horn. 84, t. viii. 545 ; S. August. Sermo
ad Catechum c. vi. torn. vi. col. 412.
3 Herzog, Real. Encyclopaedie, vol. xiii. p. 238.

420 Ecclesiology.
ed. Corderius, Par. 1644, fols. 212-373), numbers six
mysteries, namely, " baptism, the Lord's Supper, confir
mation, ordination, monastic consecration, the rites over
those who have holily slept " ; whilst J. Damascene,1 in
the eighth century, had been content with the two an
cient mysteries ; Theodore Studita, in the ninth century,
had perfectly adopted the sacraments of the pseudo-
Dionysius (Leo Allat. de Eccles. orient, et occid. per-
petua consens. lib. iii. cap. 16, § 10). The monk Jobius,
about 1270, first produced in the Greek Church the
number of seven sacraments ; but by identifying ex
treme unction with penance, and making monasticism
the last, he showed the new and arbitrary character of
the classification.
In the West, after different classifications had been
made, Peter Lombard (fll64), by combining two clas
sifications of five sacraments, made by Hugo S. Yictor
and by Robert Pulleyn (fll53), furnished the number
seven, which was sanctioned by Pope Eugenius IY., at
the Council of Florence, and fully stamped with au
thority in the Romish Church by the Council of Trent.
In that Council, says Father Paul,' 2 " To establish the
propriety, or as the scholastics express themselves, the
sufficiency of this number seven, they made a wearisome
detail of the agreements of this number, drawn from the
seven natural things by which life is acquired and pre
served, of the seven virtues, of the seven capital crimes,
of the seven sins derived from original sin, of the six
days of the creation of the world, which with that of
the Sabbath made seven, of the seven plagues of Egypt,
of the seven planets, of the dignity of the number seven,
» De Orthodox. Fide iv. 13.
* Histoire Du Concile De Trente, livre ii. i. p. 429.

The Sacraments. 421
and of many other like agreements employed by the
principal scholastics to authorize the number of seven
sacraments. They adduced, at the same time, many
reasons to shew why they ought not to regard as sacra
ments, the consecrations of churches, of sacred vessels,
of bishops, of abbots, of abbesses, and the religious
women, no more than holy water, the ceremony of feet-
washing, of which S. Bernard speaks, martyrdom, the
creation of cardinals, and the crowning of popes."
The remark of Father Couvayer x is a clear and de
cisive one. " The matter of the sacraments," he says,
" is that upon which the Council has the most multiplied
the number of articles of faith. Before the age of the
Master of Sentences, they had extended or restricted this
number according to the notion more or less vague,
which they had given to the name of sacrament. The
authority of this theologian and of some others caused
the adoption of his opinion in the schools, and Pope
Eugenius in his instruction to the Armenians gave it
for a Catholic doctrine. This was the most decisive
authority, which determined the Council of Trent to
make it an article of faith. But it must be acknowl
edged that it is dating an apostolical tradition a little
late, to find the origin of it only in the commencement
of the twelfth century. Before this time, it is true, we
can well see that different authors had given the name
of sacrament to rites which the Roman Church has
honored by this name. But as they have given it, at
the same time, to many others, this age is to be regarded
as the first epoch when this number has been fixed.
To know how that which was then only an opinion can,
in consequence, have become an article of faith, is what
I leave to those more able, to determine." 2
1 i. 426. s Vide Herzog, vol. xiii. p. 241 and pp. 239 ff.

422 Fcclesiology.
But amid the growing tendency to designate many
Church observances by the name of sacraments, the
old Church doctrine concerning the , two sacraments
ordained by Christ retained strongly its hold upon the
heart of the Church. x"Batherius, Bishop of Yerona
(f974), Falbert, Bishop of Chartres (fl028), Bruno,
Bishop of Wurzberg (fl045), Bupert, Abbot of Deutz
(fll35), knew only two sacraments, baptism and the
Lord's Supper ; others, as Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans
(f821), Agobard, Bishop of Lyons (f840), Lanfranc,
Bishop of Canterbury (fl089), Hildebert, Bishop of
Tours (fll34), Hugo of St. Yictor (fll41), name them
at least ' the two chief sacraments of the holy Church.'
Theodulf of Orleans explains this expression used by
him (De Ordin. Baptism, c. v.) thus (c. xviii.) : ' because
we cannot pass into the body of Christ, unless we are
imbued with these sacraments.' . . . But the expres
sion 'chief sacraments' intimates that they had already
begun to adjoin others to these two. In fact Agobard of
Lyons says (Lib. de privileg. et jure, sacerdot. c. xv.),
'Divine sacraments, to wit, baptism, and the consecra
tion (confectio) of the body and blood of the Lord and
the other things, in which the salvation and life of the
faithful consists.'
" In the year 1025, the Synod of Arras (Atrebatum ;
see D'Achery Spicil i. 607 sq.) declared, Christ has
appointed very many (plurima) sacraments, namely
baptism with anointing and laying on of hands, the
Eucharist, the consecrated oil, which the Apostle had
already used for healing the sick, and for sealing of
neophytes, lastly, the anointing of bishops and presbyters.
Cardinal Humbert (f about 1060) mentions besides bap-
1 Herzog. p. 241.

The Sacraments. 423
tism, the Eucharist, ordination, also the investiture with
the ring and staff, and the consecration of churches
(adv. Simonaic. iii. 41, 15)." And so did the enumer
ation variously proceed ; the addition to the original sac
raments of Christ's own ordination, till the mystical
number seven was settled by the Master of Sentences,
by Pope Eugenius IY., and by the Council of Trent.
The doctrine of the Church of England concerning the
number and significance of the sacraments is well arid
clearly stated in the homily " Of Common Prayer and
Sacraments," thus : " Now with like, or rather more
brevity, you shall hear how many sacraments there be
that were instituted by our Saviour Christ, and are to be
continued and received of every Christian in due time
and order, and for such purpose as our Saviour Christ
willed them to be received. And as for the number of
them, if they should be considered according to the
exact signification of a sacrament, namely, for the visi
ble signs expressly commanded in the New Testament,
whereunto is annexed the promise of free forgiveness of
our sins, and of our holiness and joining in Christ, there
be but two, namely, baptism and the Supper of the Lord.
" For although absolution hath the promise of free
forgiveness of sin, yet by the express word of the New
Testament it hath not this promise annexed and tied to
the visible sign, which is imposition of hands. For
this visible sign (I mean laying on of hands) is not ex
pressly commanded in the New Testament to be used in
absolution, as the visible signs in baptism and the Lord's
Supper are ; and therefore absolution is no such sacrament
as baptism and the communion are. And though the
ordering of ministers hath this visible sign and promise,
yet it lacks the promise of remission of sin, as all other

424 Ecclesiology.
sacraments besides the two above named do. Therefore
neither it, nor any other sacrament else, be such sacra
ments as baptism and the communion are. But in a gen
eral acception, the name of a sacrament may be attrib
uted to anything whereby an holy thing is signified.
" In which understanding of the word, the ancient
writers have given this name, not only to the other five,
commonly of late years taken and used for supplying the
number of the seven sacraments ; but also to divers and
sundry other ceremonies, xas to oil, washing of feet, and
such like ; not meaning thereby to repute them as sacra
ments, in the same signification as the two forenamed
sacraments are. And therefore St. Augustine, weighing
the true signification and the exact meaning of the word,
writing to Januarius, and also in the third Book of
Christian Doctrine, affirmeth that the sacraments of the
Christians, as they are most excellent in signification, so
are they most few in number ; and in both places maketh
mention expressly of two, the Sacrament of Baptism,
and the Supper of the Lord.
" And although there are retained by the order of the
Church of England, besides these two, certain other rites
and ceremonies about the institutions of ministers in the
Church, matrimony, confirmation of the children, by
examining them of their knowledge in the articles of the
faith, and joining thereto the prayers of the Church for
them, and likewise for the visitation of the sick ; yet no
man ought to take these for sacraments, in such signi
fication and meaning as the sacraments of baptism and
the Lord's Supper are : but either for godly states of
life, necessary in Christ's Church, and therefore worthy
to be set forth by public action and solemnity, by the
1 Dionysius Bernard, De Coena Domini et Ablut. Pedum.

The Sacraments. 425
ministry of the Church, or else judged to be such
ordinances as may make for the instruction, comfort,
and edification of Christ's Church."
The definition of a sacrament given by S. Augustine
is that upon which the view of them, which has been
generally held in the Church, has been founded. He
says : x " These things, brethren, are for that reason
called sacraments, because in them one thing is seen, an
other is understood. What is seen has a corporal spe
cies, what is understood has spiritual fruit." This
spiritual fruit, the inward part of the sacrament, came
from the union of the word with the element. On
John xv. 3, " Now ye are clean on account of the word
which I have spoken unto you," St. Augustine remarks,
2 " Wherefore does He not say, ye are clean on account
of the baptism with which ye are washed, but says ' on
account of the word, which I have spoken unto you,'
unless, because even in the water the word cleanses ?
Take away the word, and what is water except water ?
The word is added to the element, and the sacrament is
made, it is even itself, as it were (tamquam) a visible
word. For this he had indeed said, when He washed
the disciples' feet : 3 ' He who is washed needeth not
except to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.'
" Whence that so great virtue of water, that it touches
the body and washes the heart, unless the word accom
plishes it, not because it is spoken, but because it is be- -
heved ? For in the word itself also, the passing sound
is one thing, the abiding virtue another. 4 ' This is the
word of faith .which we preach,' says the Apostle, ' that
' Sermo 272, torn. v. 770.
2 Tract. 80 in Johann. Evang. 3, torn. iii. pt. ii. col. 512.
3 John xiii. 10. * Bom. x. 8.

426 Ecclesiology.
if thou confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
believest in thy heart that God hath raised Him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man
believeth unto righteousness ; and with the mouth confes
sion is made unto salvation.' Whence, in the Acts of
the Apostles we read, x ' purifying their hearts by faith..'
And the blessed Peter, in his epistle, says, 2 ' Thus also
baptism saves you, not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh, but the interrogation of a good conscience.'
This is the word of faith which we preach ; with which,
without doubt that it may cleanse, baptism also is conse
crated. " Forasmuch as Christ, with us, the Yine, with the
Father, the husbandman, 3 ' loved the Church, and gave
Himself for it, that He might sanctify it' saith he,
' cleansing it with the laver (lavacro) of water in the
word.' This word of faith avails so much in the Church
of God, that by him who believes, offers, blesses, moist
ens even a little the infant, it cleanses ; although he be
not able to believe with the heart unto righteousness,
and with the mouth to confess unto salvation. All this
is done by the word, concerning which the Lord says,
' Now ye are clean, on account of the word which I have
spoken unto you.' "
This is clear. It asserts the efficacy of the sacraments
ordained by Christ, but does not attribute that efficacy
to the visible elements which represent and exhibit the
inward grace, but to the word of Christ added to the
elements, nor to that word, simply as it is spoken, but as
it is believed and received.
Sacraments, S. Augustine says, 4 " are visible signs in-
i Acts xv. 9. 2 1. peter iii. 21. 3 Eph. v. 25, 26.
* De Catech. Bud. 50, torn. vi. p. 213.

The Sacraments. 427
deed of Divine things, but the invisible things them
selves are honored in them ; nor is that species sanctified
by benediction to be so esteemed as it is esteemed in any
use of it whatsoever ; for it must be declared what also
that word signifies which he has heard, what seasoning
is in it, of which word that thing bears the likeness."
Nor did S. Augustine consider the grace of the sacra
ments so tied to the signs that it could not be given sep
arately from the sacraments, or that it must always be
received, when the outward sign was received. xHe
asks how Moses and the Lord both sanctify, and answers,
" For Moses was not in the place of the Lord, but Moses
(sanctified) by visible sacraments by his ministry ; but
the Lord, by invisible grace by the Holy Spirit, where
is all the fruit even of the visible sacraments." " For
without that sanctification of invisible grace, of what
avail are visible sacraments ? "
He then asks whether that invisible grace, in like
manner, profits nothing without visible sacraments, by
which man is visibly sanctified, which, he says, is to state
an absurdity. It would be more tolerable, he adds, to
say that that invisible grace cannot be without them,
than to say it does not profit, if it be, since in it is all
their utility. But then he proceeds to consider whether
the invisible grace can be without the visible signs. He
adduces the case of Simon Magus, who received the sign
without the grace, and that of those in Samaria, a who
received baptism from Philip after they had received
the invisible grace. Moses, he says, who visibly sancti
fied the priests, nowhere appears himself to have been
sanctified, by sacrifices or by oil ; but who will dare to
1 Quaest. in Levit. lib. iii. Quaest. 84, torn. iii. pt. i. col. 391.
2 Acts viii. 13.

428 Ecclesiology.
deny that he was invisibly sanctified, whose so great
grace was pre-eminent ? John the , Baptist, he adds, was
a baptizer, before he was himself baptized. The robber
on the cross was not baptized, to whom the Lord said :
" To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." Nor
without sanctification was he endowed with so great
felicity. And thus S. Augustine concludes : " Therefore we
gather that invisible sanctification was present to some
and profited them without visible sacraments, which are
changed according to the diversity of times, so that some
were then, and others are now ; but the visible sanctifi
cation which was made by visible sacraments, can be
present without that invisible sanctification, (but) cannot
profit. Nor is the visible sacrament therefore to be de
spised ; for its despiser can in no way be invisibly sanc
tified. Thence it is that Cornelius and those who were
with him, when they appeared already to have been
sanctified by the infused Holy Spirit, were nevertheless
baptized ; nor was the visible sanctification judged su
perfluous which the invisible had already preceded."
The doctrine of the ancient Church on the sacraments
is here set in the clearest light. The visible sacrament
and the invisible grace are not one and the same thing.
They are not inseparable ; either may be received with
out the other ; but the visible sacraments are the ap
pointed means of exhibiting and conveying the inward
grace, by virtue of the living word of Christ annexed to
them, and not because His grace is inherent in the out
ward element, and a contemner of the visible sacra
ment must be without the grace, of which the outward
sacrament is the means and pledge.
On the foundation of St. Augustine's doctrine the

The Sacraments. 429
schoolmen, in the middle ages, built a superstructure
which vastly overtopped the foundation from which it
started. They thus improved upon S.Augustine's defi
nition : x " A sacrament is a corporal or material ele
ment outwardly, sensibly proposed, representing from
similitude, and signifying from institution, and from
sanctification containing some invisible and spiritual
grace." The definition of the Master of the Sentences
is, 2 " A sacrament is properly named, because it is so a
sign of the grace of God, and a form of invisible grace,
that it both bears the image of that grace and is the
cause of it." The later scholasticism gave a more
guarded definition : " A sacrament is a significant and
efficacious sign of grace," a definition which does not es
sentially differ from the expression of our own article
that the sacraments " be certain sure witnesses and ef
fectual signs of grace " ; it is in the manner of explain
ing the efficacy that the doctrine of our Church separates
from that of the schools and of Trent. There were
among the schoolmen themselves differing ways of ex
plaining the efficacy of the sacraments. The view ad
vocated by Bonaventura and Duns Scotus was that " Sac
raments are not the cause of grace by making any effect,
but because God, using the sacraments, operates in the
soul ; they do not cause grace except by a certain con
comitance." They illustrated this by the case of a man
who gives to the king a leaden token, and on his com
mand receives in return a hundred pounds, not as if the
token of lead were the sufficient cause for such a reward,
but purely the will of the king. So Bonaventura says,
" In no way must it be said that grace is contained in
1 Hugo de S. Victor De Sacram. lib. i. pt. ix. c. ii.
2 Lib. iv. dist. 1. B.

430 Ecclesiology.
the sacraments themselves essentially, as water in a ves
sel, or medicine in a box — -yea, to understand in this
way is erroneous ; but they are said to contain grace be
cause they signify it, and because, unless there is defect
on the part of the recipient, x grace is always confessed
in them, understanding it thus, that grace is in the soul,
not in the visible signs."
Grace is received in the sacraments in consequence of
the appointment of God and of the Divine covenant with
the Church. S. Thomas Aquinas assigns to the sacra
ments a certain instrumental power ; he attributes to the
material element itself a certain inherent fitness for the
purpose, for which it is used by God in the sacraments ;
the sacrament has, he says, a twofold virtue, one an
instrumental one, by which it acts as the vehicle of the
virtue of the principal agent, the other its own, as an
axe cuts by reason of its sharpness, but makes a couch,
in so far as it is an instrument of art ; " But it does not
perform the instrumental action unless by exercising its
own action, but by cutting it makes the couch. And in
like manner, corporal sacraments by their proper work
ing, which they exercise on the body which they touch,
effect an instrumental operation from the Divine virtue,
with respect to the soul,2 as the water of baptism, by
washing the body in accordance with its own virtue,
washes the soul, inasmuch as it is the instrument of the
Divine virtue."
There was here a materializing view of the sacraments,
which was pursued to a large extent in the Church of
Rome. Bellarmine finds in the sacrament only the
operation of grace : 3 " What," he says, " the sharpness
1 Lib. iv. dist. i. pt. i. art. i. qu. 3.
8 Qu. 62, art. i. ad ii. m. 3 De Saer. lib. ii. c. xi.

The Sacraments. 431
and the power of the agent impressed upon it is in the axe,
that wholly in the sacraments is the sole motion of God."
And the Roman catechism says, * " For it ought to be
established that no sensible thing of its own nature is
endowed with that force that it can penetrate to the
soul. But by the light of faith we know sufficiently that
the virtue of the omnipotent God is in the sacraments,
by which they effect that which by their own force
natural things themselves cannot accomplish."
These discussions were held between the Dominicans
and the Franciscans in the Council of Trent concerning
the mode of efficacy which characterized Divine sacra
ments. 2 For the Dominicans maintained that, although
grace was a spiritual quality created immediately by
God, there was nevertheless in the sacraments an in
strumental and effective virtue, which produces in the
soul a disposition to receive it ; and that it is in this
sense that they said that they contain grace, not that it is
in them as in a vessel, but as the effect is in its cause ;
which they explained in a manner sufficiently singular
by the example of a chisel which not only has the
property of cutting the stone, but also the virtue of
forming a statue.
The Franciscans said, on the contrary, that they could
not conceive how God, who is a spiritual cause, should
make use of a material instrument to produce grace,
which is a spiritual effect ; and they denied absolutely
that there is in the sacraments any effective or dispositive
virtue. But they said that all their efficacy came from
nothing else than from the promise of God, that always
and whenever the sacrament should be conferred He
1 Pt. ii. c. i. qu. 21.
2 Sarpi Hist, du Concile de Trente, livre ii. 86, vol. i. p. 434.

432 Ecclesiology.
would accord grace ; and that it was in this sense that
one ought to say that they contained it, not by any
virtue which was in them, but because they were an
efficacious sign of it, and God had promised to join in
fallibly His assistance to this ministry, which, by that,
became the cause of grace, because the effect of it
followed infallibly, not by a virtue which was in it, but
by the promise which was annexed to it ; in the same
manner that they said that merit is the cause of the
recompense, although there is not in it any activity.
These theologians proved their sentiment not only by
the authority of Scotus and Bonaventura, who were of
their order, but also by that of S. Bernard, who says
that grace is received by the sacraments, as a canon
receives the investiture of his dignity by a book, and the
bishop by a*ring.
On one and the other part each one set forth his
reasons at great length, and in a manner yet more eager
than extended, and they mutually censured each other.
The Dominicans said that the sentiment of the Francis
cans approached Lutheranism ; and the others reproached
them, in their turn, that they gave occasion to heretics
to calumniate the Church, in maintaining an impossible
opinion. It was in vain that some good prelates wished
to reconcile them, by saying that agreeing in the con
clusion, which is that the sacraments contain grace and
produce it, it was of small import to know how this was
done, and that it would have been better to hold them
selves to the general proposition, without descending to
the particular manner. For they answered, that it was
not a question of words, but the establishment or annihi
lation of the sacraments ; and they would never have
ended the contest, if the Cardinal of St. Croix had not

The Sacraments. 433
ordained that they should pass to other articles, saying
that at the end they would return to this point, and
that they would examine if it were apropos to decide
or to omit it.
They did finally decide that the sacraments contain
the grace which they signify, and left the Dominicans
and the Franciscans to settle their disputes as best they
could, but extending the shield of the Council's decree
over the most materializing views of the sacraments that
had ever been taken. The notes of Father Couvayer on
this passage of the Council's history are noteworthy.
" It is," he says, x " a happiness that the Franciscans did
not find themselves in agreement, on this point, with
the Dominicans. This has spared us a new article of
faith, and a system sufficiently ridiculous to defend. For
to maintain that grace is contained in the sacraments as
in a physical cause, and to* regard them otherwise than
as an occasion and a means which God offers us, to
communicate it to us, is to retail a chimera which is sup
ported neither by authority nor by reason ; and if it
were necessary, in order to be a Catholic, to subscribe to
such imaginations, the first sacrifice which it would be
needful to make, to have rehgion, would be that of good
sense." And of the explanation of the Franciscans Couvayer
says, "It is the only reasonable manner of explaining
the virtue of the sacraments, since there being no nat
ural relation between a material cause and a spiritual
effect, the virtue of the sacrament cannot come but from
the Promise, and the sign cannot be regarded but as the
instrument and the occasional cause of the reception of
grace. To beheve that this grace is in the sacrament in
i p. 434.

434 Ecclesiology.
an inherent manner is an absurd system, and one which
does not deserve to be refuted."
The doctrine that the sacraments contain the grace,
which they signify, in the sense in which it was held
by the Dominicans, naturally connected itself with the
doctrine of the opus operatum of the sacraments in its
most extreme form. Albertus Magnus is said to have
been the first who used the phrase. The whole sub-.
stantial effect of the sacrament is, he says, in opere
operate A distinction was made between opus operans,
the working work, and opus operatum, the work worked
or accomplished. The schoolmen said the sacraments of'
the old law were efficacious from faith, which was opus
operans, the work of the faithful man himself. The
sacraments of the New Testament, on the other hand,
are efficacious, or confer grace ex opere operato, because
"'there is not required there a good interior motion
which merits grace, but it suffices that the recipient do
not oppose an obstacle."
The sacraments, like those of the old law, confer
grace ex opere operants 2 " in the way of merit, because
the sacrament outwardly exhibited does not suffice to
the conferring of grace, but beyond this is required a
good motion, or interior devotion in the recipient, accord*
ing to whose intention grace is conferred, as of merit
condign or congruous, and not greater on account of the
exhibition of the sacrament." The opus operatum has
been maintained to the extent of perfect passivity in
the recipient of the grace of the sacrament. 3"In the
sacraments of the new law," it has been said, "it is not
1 Duns Scotus, lib. iv. dist. i. qu. 6, in resol.
2 Gabriel Biel in lib. iv. dist. i. qu. 3.
3 Peter de Palude in lib. iv. d. i. qu. 1, and fl. 1314-1342.

The Sacraments. 435
jper se required that man should dispose himself, there
fore he is disposed by the sacrament itself, and so it is
probable, in every sacrament of the new law, that it jus
tifies ex opere operato." Bellarmine softens apparently
this extreme scholastic view, without abandoning the
essence of the opus operatum doctrine. He says, ' " Faith
can be called our hand, not because it apprehends the
^promise and itself only, in this way, justifies, but because
it removes obstacles and disposes the soul, where such
disposition is necessary."
The controversy on the sense in which the opus ope
ratum is to be understood has been continued since the
Council of Trent, which, by declaring that the grace of
the sacraments was ex opere operato, without further
definition, left the door open for these contests. The
Jansenists by the opus operans understood the action
and the worthiness of the officiating priest, and con
sequently understood by the opus operatum in the sacra
ment that it did not depend for its efficacy upon the
worthiness of the celebrant ; but they also maintained
that the efficacy of the sacrament to the recipient had
for its supposition the pious disposition of that re
cipient. Antony Arnauld warns against frequent com
munion on the ground that a man does not always find
himself in a suitable disposition. The Jesuits, on the
other hand, urged the greatest possible frequency, be
cause the sacrament, even without regard to the per
sonal disposition of the recipient, accomplishes some
what by means of its Divine power.
We are now prepared to compare the leading views
and doctrines on the subject of the sacraments now es
tablished and prevalent in the Christian world, to bring
1 De Sacram. ii. 11.

436 Ecclesiology.
them to the test of Scripture and Catholic antiquity, and
to note the tendencies and genuine results of these vary
ing views. We shall notice three great classes of doc
trine about the sacraments, which we shall designate as
the Romish, the Anglican or Catholic, and the Zwing-
lian or Rationalistic. We shall first state these views in
their order, as concisely as we may.
The definition which the Council of Trent gives of a
sacrament, x " that it is a symbol of a sacred thing, and
a visible forni of invisible grace," is not essentially dif
ferent from that given by the English Church in her
catechism, but this definition is very far from including
all the teaching of that Council upon the nature of a sac
rament. Indeed, the teaching of the Council far exceeds
the bounds of its own definition. It is not content with
asserting the reality of the fact that the sacraments are
means whereby we receive grace, but must curiously ex
plain how they do this. The Council asserts, 2 under
anathema, that " the sacraments of the new law contain
the grace which they signify." In the canons on the
Eucharist, that all ambiguity concerning the sense in
which the Council holds that the sacraments contain
grace may be removed, it expressly anathematizes those
who say that the body of Christ is only in the sacra
ment, 3 " in sign, or figure, or potency," and in the same
canon anathematizes " whoever denies that the body and
blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord
Jesus Christ, are contained truly, really, and substan
tially in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist."
And Moehler places beyond doubt his understanding
of the doctrine of the Church of Rome, when he says, 4
1 Sess. xiii. cap. iii. 2 Canon vi. Sess. vii.
3 Sess. xiii. canon i. * p. 281.

The Sacraments. 437
" The religious energies of the human soul are set in new
motion by the sacrament, since its divine matter impreg
nates the soul of man, vivifies it anew, establishes it "in
the most intimate communion with God, arid continues
to work within all men who do not shew themselves in
capable of its graces, or, as the Council expresses it, do
not place an obstacle in the way." He even says that
the idea which is the fundamental on6 of the exposition
of the Trent catechism concerning the sacraments, x " is
far more ingenious and profound than it may at first
sight appear ; the idea, namely, that the sacraments con
tribute the more to cherish Christian piety, as they are
well calculated to humble arrogance by the reflection
that, as man had ignominiously delivered himself over
to the dominion of the lower world, so he needs its me
diation to enable him to rise above it."
The Church of Rome then does, according to the ex
positions of her own catechism and advocates, teach not
only that sacraments are visible forms of invisible grace,
not only that they are means and pledges of grace, but
also that their very matter is imbued with the grace of
which they are signs, and that through 2 its mediation is
that grace, conveyed ex opere operato to the souls of recip
ients. There is, according to her, no immediate action
of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of man, of which
the sacraments are symbols and pledges to faithful re
cipients. She anathematizes those who say that 3" Christ
exhibited in the Eucharist is only spiritually eaten, and
not also sacramentally and really." With her there is
no sacramental eating which is not real, as distinguished
from spiritual, that is, which is not material. Most
1 p. 280. * Sess. vii. viii. De Sacram.
3 Sess. xiii. can. viii.

438 Ecclesiology.
fully, therefore, does the Council of Trent justify the
representations of Moehler, that " the Divine matter "
of the sacraments impregnates the soul of man, and that
the sacraments by the -mediation of the lower world en
able man to rise above it.
We think that the above remarks will sufficiently ex
plain the Romish teaching upon the nature of a sacra
ment, as that teaching is distinguished from the Catho
lic doctrine on the subject which is maintained by the
English and American Churches. The formal definition
of a sacrament which is given by these Churches does
not differ essentially, as has already been remarked, from
the definition which is given in one place by the Coun
cil of Trent. The English and American Churches,
however, do not, like the Romish Church, add in their
explanations what is not logically contained in their
own definition. They do not curiously and beyond what
is revealed, set forth the mode in which the sacraments
are means of grace. They declare them to be outward
and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace; but not
signs which have in their own material elements the
grace which they signify. On the other hand they are
declared x " to be certain sure witnesses and effectual
signs of grace and God's good will towards us, by the
which He doth work invisibly in us." They are the
symbols of the Spirit's presence and power, they are
pledges and occasions of the exertion of that power in
those who rightly receive them.
The connection between the inward grace of the sac
raments and the outward signs by which that grace is
signified and conveyed to those who rightly receive the
outward sign*, is entirely analogous to all the connec-
1 Art. XXV.

The Sacraments. 439
•tions between spiritual substances and their action and
qualities, on the one hand, and the outward and mate
rial agencies by which spiritual substance manifests itself
-and exerts its appropriate action. Divine sacraments
are a Divine adaptation and use of the connection be
tween matter and spirit which God Himself has or
dained. From the analogies of the natural world, there
fore, we can learn all that it is possible for us to know
of the connection between the signs and the things signi
fied of the holy sacraments of God. By such analogies
in fact have, in the Church of God, the relations of the
sacraments to the res sacramenti been exhibited and
illustrated. Thus Paschasius Radbertus, in setting forth how the
sacrament of the Eucharist is a figure of a Divine reality,
mentions the analogy of the letters of a written book in
exhibiting and conveying the sense of the writer, which
is purely an intellectual and spiritual thing, and the pro
duct of existence which is purely spiritual ; spiritual in
the proper sense of the term, not body existing after the
manner of a spirit.
So does the Spirit of God make His revelations, com
municate Himself to men in His written Word, and by
the media of seeing and hearing ; as in the sacraments
by the medium of touch and taste and the organs of in
ward digestion. But surely the Spirit of God in no real
and proper sense is contained in the written or printed
letters of the Book, though He be in them sacrament
ally and instrumen tally. How the letters are the true
media of conveying to us spiritual things and spiritual
influence and grace, no science has been able to solve,
and in its efforts to solve this enigma, science is to-day
exhibiting its own impotence as it beats itself, like an

440 Ecclesiology.
imprisoned bird, against the bars of the cage which for
bid its egress from the appointed bounds of its being
and powers of investigation. And this was the Quomodo
of the Divine dispensation in the sacraments which the
great fathers of the Church spoke of as not to be solved ;
the attempt to solve which they declared to be a plain
mark of folly and impiety. What then must be the at
tempt to solve it by reducing it to a manifest contradic
tion that the mind of man must reject, and that God,
the Author of our nature, has never revealed or sanc
tioned, which is made by the controversialists of Rome,
and by those, 0 tempora, 0 mores, in our own Church
who are following in their wake ?
The connection between matter and spirit is an unde
niable fact, but as insoluble as it is undeniable. It is
among : " the secret things, which belong to the Lord
our God " ; but not, believe it all who reverently re
ceive His Word, among "those things which are re
vealed " and which belong " unto us and to our children
forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
The watch which I consult to ascertain the time, I
call a time-keeper, and I say that it informs me of the
time ; but does it ? That exact and curious adjustment
of wheels and levers and springs and pointers and dial-
plate, is it a production of matter or of mind ? though
the instrument, constructed and used, is undoubtedly
material ; but he who constructed it, and he who uses
it, is spiritual, and all the action by which, from the
instrument, time is ascertained, and intellectual and
spiritual work is duly regulated, is action purely intel
lectual and spiritual. We may say : that action is in the
time-piece sacramentally, significantly, and effectively;
1 Deut. xxix. 29.

The Sacraments. 441
but the time-piece is a mere material and senseless in
strumentality, used by God, the Author of time and
intellect, and by His intellectual and spiritual agents to
produce the intellectual and spiritual effect, which is
produced. The Quomodo, here, as in all connexions
between matter and spirit, between soul and body, be
tween thought and brain, is inscrutable by man or created
being. To say that grace, that the Divine Spirit of grace, or
any of His spiritual gifts is contained in the sacraments
as in a physical cause, and no other cause than physical
can they be, since they themselves are purely and entirely
physical, is to involve ourselves in a confusion, which
confounds what God has made, in nature and eternally,
distinct. It is to do what St. Basil rejects when he says,
" so that if there is any grace in the water, it is not
from the nature of the water, but from the presence of
the Spirit," and when he condemns the idea that grace
is contained in the sacraments, by saying that such a
statement 2 " mingles things that are incapable of being
mixed, and compares things which are not to be compared
together." It is in fact siding with those infidel scientists who,
unable to penetrate the impenetrable connection of mind
and matter, end in Heaven-defying despair and pre
sumption, by saying (I use their own words), " the
nerves, behold (in them) all the man." " The brain is
ordained for thinking, as the stomach for digestion, and
the liver for secretion of the bile from the blood. Im
pressions, treading upon the brain, set it into activity ; as
the means of nourishment, entering into the stomach,
i De Spirit. Sanct. § 35, torn. iii. p. 29 (379) v.c.
2 §36, p. 30 (381) v.c.

442 Ecclesiology.
set into activity the organ. The proper arrangement of
the one is in order to produce, out of every distinct im
pression, an image, to place together and to compare
with one another these images, to form determinations
and conceptions ; as the construction of the other is to
work upon the means of nourishment introduced, to dis
solve them, and to change them into blood." x And then
these scientists add, with perfect logical correctness,
" As man is, so is his God." 2 " With matter," they say,
"vanishes thought." 3" Without phosphorus there can
be no thought."
Can those who are called to teach a religion " which is
spirit, and which is life," accept these conclusions of the
infidel scientists ? You must accept them, if you under
take to explain the connexion between the sacrament
and the thing signified of the sacrament, and to say that
the spiritual gift of the sacrament is contained in the
physical sacrament itself, as in a divinely ordained
cause ; for the two classes of conclusions, that of the
godless scientists, and that of the Christians who talk so
about the sacraments, belong to the same logical cate
gory ; proceed upon the same confusion of things God
has made eternally distinct ; and lead, in their last results,
to the same contradiction of the primal laws of thought,
which God has made a constitutent part of our spiritual
nature. By maintaining, on the other hand (in the words of
our Art. XXY.), that "the sacraments are certain sure
witnesses and effectual signs of grace and God's good will
towards us, by the which He doth work invisibly in us " ;
by this true and Catholic view, the reality and objective
1 Buchner Vorlesungen, p. 387.
2 Buchner Kraft und Stoff, p. 154. 3 Buchner, p. 143.

The Sacraments. 443
character of the grace of God in the sacraments is main
tained ; that " false spiritualism " of which Moehler
speaks,1 is effectually opposed, while the unjustifiable ex
treme is avoided of making any material and outward
forms the physical media of the Holy Spirit's action
upon the soul of man. In the different positions attrib
uted to the outward signs, as certain sure witnesses and
pledges of grace ; or else as material vehicles directly
conveying to the soul spiritual grace, is to be found the
great difference between Anglican and Romish teaching
on the subject of the sacraments.
In addition to these two views of the sacraments, there
is a third one requiring notice, which we have designated
as the Zwinglian or Rationalistic. This view regards the
sacraments as mere outward signs and mementoes of
spiritual grace and truth, which affect the mind and
heart of the believer by the power of lively association,
but which in no* other way are the means of grace to his
soul. They are, according to this view, means by which
men awaken and deepen within themselves a lively sense
of the religious truths which are represented to them in
the sacraments, just as a picture or a gift of a friend
brings him to our remembrance; a sort of self-action,
therefore, of the soul upon itself, or a quickening of
contemplation by the aid of sensible objects ; but by no
means signs ordained of God as the pledges and occasions
of conveying special gifts of His grace annexed or tied
to the outward signs. Zwingli says expressly, 2"I
believe, yea, I know that all sacraments are so far from
conferring grace, that they do not even bring or dispense
it." "Baptism does not therefore bring grace, but
testifies to the Church that grace has been accomplished
1 p. 280. 2 Fidei Ratio ad Carolum v.

444 Ecclesiology.
for him to whom it (baptism) is given. I believe there
fore that a sacrament is the sign of a sacred thing, that
is, of grace accomplished (factae gratiae) ; that it is the
visible figure or form of invisible grace, which has been
made and given by the gift of God ; that is, a visible
example which nevertheless usually bears before it a
certain analogy of the thing done by the Spirit; I
believe that it is a public testimony " of this.
Such are the three most prominent views of the sacra
ments which claim the attention of the Christian world.
The test of their truth or falsity must be the holy Scrip
tures, and as an assistance to their right interpretation,
the teaching upon the subject of the first ages of the
Christian Church.
In vain. shall we search the Scriptures for such expla
nations of the nature of a sacrament as those which are
contained in the decrees of the Council of Trent. Cer
tainly the definitions of Trent are not warranted by the
words of institution of the holy Eucharist, though the
advocates of Rome are wont to appeal to these words as
conclusive of the doctrine which the Church of Rome
has set forth. The words " this is My body," " this is
My blood of the New Testament," receive a good and
full meaning in the assertion that the elements of the
Eucharist represent and symbolize the body and blood
of Christ, and are the pledges and occasions upon which
the Spirit of God makes faithful recipients partakers
spiritually of the body and blood, of which the outward
elements are the signs.
To those who thus receive these elements ordained of
God for this sacred use, they are most truly the body
and blood of Christ, and the assertion that they them
selves are changed into this Divine substance is utterly

The Sacraments. 445
needless to justify or make true our Saviour's words.
The doctrine of the English Church, therefore, comes
up to the fulness of the truth which our Saviour de
clared ; while that of the Romish Church puts into His
words a meaning which is not in the slightest degree
necessary to make out the truth which they announce.
Without words of Holy Writ admitting of no other ex
planation, we cannot accept a doctrine which shocks
our fundamental ideas of the nature of material and
spiritual substances, and of the mode in which they in
fluence each other.
The interpretation above given of the words of institu
tion is one that is justified by the usage of language in
both the Old and New Testaments, as has often been
shown by those who have written critical treatises upon
this passage of Holy Scripture. Our Saviour Himself,
in the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, expressly tells
us that His words spoken of eating His flesh and drink
ing His blood were spirit and hfe, and that when His
body was removed from the sight and touch of men by
His ascension, they would understand that it was a spirit
ual participation of His flesh and blood of which He
spoke. St. Paul's declaration, J" The bread, which we break,
is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? the cup
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of
the blood of Christ ? " like the words of our Lord, as
serts that the consecrated elements are the means of our
participation of the body and blood of Christ, but not
that, they themselves contain that body and blood, or
that they are " Divine matter impregnating the soul of
man." They are the body and blood of Christ, because
> I. Cor. x. 16.

446 Ecclesiology.
they are the communion of His body and blood; sacra
ments, as St. Augustine says, being called by the names
of the things which they signify, because they have a
certain likeness or representation of those things of
which they are sacraments, or else they would not be
sacraments at alL
In these passages of Scripture, which have reference
to one great sacrament of religion, that about which the
most earnest discussions have been held, we cannot dis
cover, we confess, any ground for the curious exposi
tions which the Church of Rome has given of the nature
of a sacrament. These passages declare, according to
well known usages of speech, that the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper is a symbol of the body and blood of
Christ, that it is a communion of His body and blood,
that it is a spiritual eating the flesh and drinking the
blood of the Son of man. This is all that the passages
declare ; and this is all that the Anglican Church de
clares, while the Church of Rome makes additional state
ments, for the occurrence and justification of which we
search in vain in these passages of Holy Writ. If all
that these passages contain covers only all the points of
Anglican teaching upon the nature of the sacraments,
they do not, of course, include the points which the Ro
mish Church has added to this teaching.
And it is most clear that the Holy Scriptures go far
beyond the statements of what we have termed the Ra
tionalistic scheme in their teaching concerning the sac
raments. If the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is the
communion or participation of the body and blood of
Christ ; if the elements are, in a most true and real sense,
His body and blood ; if eating His flesh and drinking
His blood are necessary to the attainment of everlast-

The Sacraments. 447
ing life; if those who have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ ; if their sins, in holy baptism, have
been washed away ; if they have been baptized for the
remission of sins ; if a birth of water and of the Spirit
_ has secured and was necessary to secure an entrance into
the kingdom of God ; if the new birth of the Gospel
is a birth of water and the Spirit ; if all this be true (and
we have been but reciting the words of Holy Writ),
then, beyond a peradventure, sacraments are more than
mere signs or representations of spiritual truth and
grace ; they are the appointed means and instruments of
receiving the grace which they represent.
Thus do the Scriptures teach us to avoid the philoso
phy alike of Romanism and rationalism, that philosophy
which professes to explain and that which explains away
revealed mysteries, and to receive the facts as they
are revealed, without presuming to inquire into the
mode of the Spirit's action in the sacraments, which is
unrevealed. '
And in this course, which the Anglican Church pur
sues between these extremes, she is sustained by the
primitive Church of Christ, and her teaching may there
fore well be termed, as distinguished from Romish and
rationalistic teachings on the sacraments, Catholic teach
ing. Highly as the fathers of the ancient Church esteemed
the sacraments and spoke of them, they never fell into
the mistake of confounding the sign with the thing sig
nified. Justin Martyr, for example, says, "'We do not
receive these elements as common bread or common
drink " ; and then adds by way of explanation, " as Jesus
Christ our Saviour being made flesh by the Word of God,
» Apol. i. § 66.

448 Ecclesiology.
had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so we have
been taught that the food blessed by the prayer of the
Word which is from Him, by which our flesh and blood
are nourished in the way of change, are the flesh and
blood of that Jesus who was made flesh." Here Justin
Martyr expressly asserts that the elements convey bodily
nourishment to us, while, by virtue of their consecration,
they are to us spiritually the body and blood of Christ.
Equally plain is Irenaeus: laFor as earthly bread re
ceiving the invocation of God, is no longer common
bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two things, the
earthly and the heavenly ; so also our bodies partaking
of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the
hope of the eternal resurrection." He asserts expressly
2 " that the mixed cup and the bread, which is made, re
ceive upon them the word of God, and become the Eu
charist, the body of Christ, but from these elements the
substance of our flesh subsists and increases." Here the
spiritual potency of the sacrament and the unchanged
nature of the elements are alike asserted.
Clemens Alexandrinus says3 in direct words that "the
flesh is an allegory to us of the Holy Spirit, and that the
blood symbolizes to us the Word." He says, moreover,4
that " the blood of the Lord is twofold, it is fleshly (that
is the material wine), by which we are saved from de
struction, and it is spiritual, that is it, by which we are
anointed, and to drink the blood of Jesus is to partake
of the Lord's incorruption." His teaching is the same
with that of Irenaeus, that the material elements remain
in their natural power and effect, while they are means
1 Adv. Haeres. lib. iv. c. xxxiv. ed. Grabe ; lib. iv. c. xviii. ed.
Massuet, 2 Lib. v. c. ii. Grabe et Mass.
i. c. vi. * Paedagog. lib. ii. c. ii.

The Sacraments. 449
or occasions of spiritual participation of Christ. Won
derfully in agreement with Clemens Alexandrinus, are
the words of Ignatius: l"I am not pleased with the
food of corruption, or the pleasures of this life. I wish
the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life,
which is the flesh of Jesus Christ the Son of God, who
was made in the last time of the seed of David and
Abraham, and I wish the drink of God, His blood, which
is incorruptible love and eternal life."
TertuUian says2 that our Lord, when He told the
disciples "this is My body/' the same as told them "this
is a figure of My body," and that He sufficiently de
clared what He wished the bread to signify, when He
called the bread His body. And TertuUian argues
against Marcian that Christ must have had a real body,
from the fact that He appointed the consecrated bread
to be a figure or sign of His body, a sign or figure neces
sarily implying a reality of which it is a sign. Tertul-
lian, however, did not beheve, or even know of such a
belief, that the sign or figure was the reality.
Origen,3 in like manner, describes the sacred elements
as the means of sanctification, to those who receive them
with a right disposition ; he declares that the eating His
flesh and drinking His blood, of which our Saviour
speaks, i6 to be understood, not literally, but spiritually ;
and he moreover unequivocally declares, that the conse
crated food becomes to us bodily nourishment, like any
bodily food ; that its spiritual profit to those who do
not unworthily eat the bread, arises from the word
spoken over it; and in fine, that the elements are the
typical and symbolical body.
1 Ep. ad Rom. 7. s Adv. Marc. iv. 40. '
3 Contra Cels. 8, sec. 33; Homil. 7, sec. 5; Commentary in Matt.
xy. 2.. 26

450 Ecclesiology.
Eusebius,1 in exact accordance with this statement of
Origen, calls the elements " symbols of the Divine econ
omy," and the bread the image and the symbol of His
proper body.
Athanasius says2 that our Lord, in the sixth chapter
of St. John's Gospel, spoke of spiritual participation of
Himself, and reminded those to whom He spoke, of His
ascent into the heavens, that He might draw them away
from understanding His words of a bodily eating.
And so Cyril of Jerusalem,3 " that with all assurance
we partake of the body and blood of Christ, for the
body is given to thee in the symbol of bread, and the
blood is given to thee in the symbol of wine, that you,
partaking of the body and blood of Christ, may become
of one body and one blood with Him." Here the typi
cal character of the elements and the spiritual design of
the sacraments are clearly set forth. Cyril, like Ath
anasius, explains our Lord's discourse in John vi., of
spiritual participation. He explains4 also the nature of
the change which is made in the elements, by comparing
to this change that of the oil which was set apart for
sacred uses. The change in both cases was a change
from a common to a holy use, and the elements in both
cases, by the change, became typical of holy things.
Epiphanius most plainly says5 that the signs of both
baptism and the Eucharist are endowed with efficacy in
Christ, but adds that this power is not the bread itself,
but a power which is in it ; that the bread itself is food,
but the power in it is life-giving. He is evidently
' Dem. Evan. 8.
2 Illud Evangelii quicumque dixerit, etc. Ep. ad Serap. iv.
3 Catech. Mystagog, iv. 3. * Catech. Mystagbg,. Hi.
5 Anacephalaeosis Haere torn. ii. lib. iii. § 8, ed. Petavius ii. 154.

The Sacraments. 451
speaking of that spiritual efficacy attending the sacra
ment, to which Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement, Ori
gen, Athanasius and Cyril advert.
The treatise ^formerly ascribed to S. Ambrose, " De
Sacramentis," c. iv., says lathat the elements remain
what they were, and yet are changed into another
thing," and that this arises from their being similitudes
or representations of the body and blood of Christ,
precisely the explanation which we have found in the
fathers already quoted. S. Ambrose says in his book
"De Mysteriis," "That was the true flesh of Christ
which was crucified, which was buried ; truly, therefore,
is this the sacrament of that flesh. The Lord Jesus
Himself proclaims : ' This is My body.' " In accordance
with this we read, in the fourth book on the sacra
ments, " The sacrament is the figure of the body and
blood of the Lord ; thou dost drink the similitude of
the precious blood," and S. Ambrose adds, in his book
¦" De Mysteriis," 2 " Christ is in that sacrament, because
it is the body of Christ ; it is not therefore bodily but
spiritual food." In this book, moreover, Ambrose di
rectly says that the sacraments of Christ are efficacious,
because He is present to bless and sanctify those who
receive them, an explanation coincident with the teach
ing of the English Church, but not with the philosoph
ical theories and refinements of the Romish.
In harmony with the teachings of antiquity already
adduced, are those of Augustine. "For," says he,3
" The Lord did not hesitate to say, ' This is My body,'
when He gave the sign of His body," and he explains
1 S. Ambrose Opera torn. ii. col. 369.
2 Op. torn. ii. p. 340, ed. Bened. 1690.
3 Contra Adainantium c. xii. § 3.

452 • Ecclesiology.
himself clearly in his epistle to Boniface, in the words,
1 " If the sacraments had not a certain likeness to those
things of which they are sacraments, they would not in
any sense be sacraments. But from this likeness they
very often receive also the names of the things them
selves. As therefore, in a certain manner, the sacrament
of the body of Christ is the body of Christ, the sacra
ment of the blood of Christ is the blood of Christ, so the
sacrament of faith is faith." He also directly explains
our Lord's discourse in John vi., of spiritual manduca-
tion (in Ps. xcviii.) : " Understand spiritually what I have
spoken : this body which you see is not the one which
you are to eat, neither are you to drink that blood which
those who will crucify me will shed. I have com
mended to you a sacrament which, spiritually under
stood, will quicken you." He says, in accordance with
the passage above quoted from Epiphanius, 2"the sacra
ment is one thing, the virtue of the sacrament another."
In opposing the Eutychian heresy, the fathers of the
Church, as, for example, Theodoret and Gelasius, ar
gued the distinctness of the two natures in the Lord,
from the distinctness of the earthly elements and the
spiritual efficacy of the sacrament, which was symbolical
of our Lord. Theodoret says expressly that the ele
ments do not depart from their own nature or substance,
but that grace is added to nature; and Gelasius says
that the substance or nature of the bread and wine does
not cease to be ; and the same assertion is made by
Chrysostom in his epistle to Caesarius, the genuineness
of which there is no good reason to doubt.
Such is a rapid survey of the teaching of Christian an
tiquity concerning the sacraments, as that teaching is
1 § 9. 2 Tract, in Johann. xxvi. sec. 11.

The Sacraments. ? 453
brought out by the references of ancient writers mainly
to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. They, however,
so refer to baptism as to show that they thought of no
difference in the mode of action of the two sacraments,
that they applied their idea of a sacrament equally to
the one and the other of the two.
And it must be perceived that, in every great feature
of their doctrine, the definitions of the English Church
are at agreement with them. They hold the sacraments
to be signs and types of heavenly things ; they deny to
the matter of the sacraments the heavenly potency of
the sacraments; they declare their efficacy to be one,
which is spiritual, and they set them forth as means of
holiness, because the Spirit uses them as His occasions
of acting upon the souls of faithful recipients.
This doctrine of the sacraments, together with its
proofs from Scripture and its illustrations from an
tiquity, are admirably brought out in the treatise of Ra-
tramu on the body and blood of the Lord ; a treatise
masterly in itself, and having an important historical
value. It has this value, in the first place, as showing
that, in the ninth century, the notions which Rome has
since put forth under anathema were by no means the
received doctrine of the Church, but opposed by learned
men in the Church as unchristian error; and in the
next place, this treatise of Ratramu is historically in
teresting as being the instrument of recalling the Re
formers of the Anglican Church to the Scriptural and
primitive doctrine ; and upon this treatise also is based
the homily of ^Elf ric, which represents the true teaching
of the English Church in the tenth century.
We come now to speak of the three classes of doctrine
which we have noticed, as they are tested by their ten-

454 Ecclesiology.
dencies and results. And we remark upon, this head,
that the Romish doctrine has the tendency and effect of
calhng away those who receive it from spiritual to sen
suous views of religion, from Heaven to earth, from the
invisible Head of the Church, to the' Church which is vis
ible. The teaching that- the sacraments contain the
grace which they symbolize, that their Divine matter is
efficacious, is certainly calculated to fix the attention of
men upon the outward signs, as in and by themselves
potent in heavenly virtue. It is not Christ in Heaven
who is worshipped by those who are thus taught, so much
as Christ upon the earthly altar, and carried x about in
solemn processions by the hands of men. It is not the
sacrifice upon the cross which is contemplated and relied
upon so much as the propitiatory2 sacrifice of the mass,
which is really made more, prominent than that which
was offered, once for all, upon Mount Calvary.
It is amazing to see the language which such an advo
cate as Moehler dares to use upon this subject. " Christ
on the cross," he says, 3"is still an object strange to
us : Christ in the Christian worship is our property, our
victim." And again, 4 " The Church from the begin
ning hath, at His command (Luke xxii. 20), substituted
the Christ mysteriously present, and visible only to the
spiritual eye of faith, for the historical Christ, now inac
cessible to the corporeal senses. The former is taken for
the latter, because the latter is likewise the former — <
both are considered as one and the same ; and the eu-
charistic Saviour, therefore, as the victim also for the
sins of the world." And again, 6"The will of Christ, to
manifest His gracious condescension to us in the Eucha-
1 Sess. xiii. can. vi. 2 Sess. xxii. can. iii.
a p. 314. «p. 313. sp. 313.

The Sacraments. 455
rist, forms no less an integral part of His great work
than all besides, and in a way so necessary indeed that,
whilst .we here find the whole scheme of redemption re
flected, without it the other parts would not have sufficed
for our complete atonement."
How,, without completely setting aside the sacrifice
upon the cross, could it be more effectually put in a
secondary position than, it is, according to these state
ments, by the sacrifice which, in Moehler's own lan
guage, is substituted for it ? And he has, in this ex
pression, well and truly exhibited the sacramental system
of Rome. It is a system which makes the sign synony
mous with the thing signified, and which causes the
whole of its religious service to revolve about these ter
restrial signs, instead of making them the index-fingers
to point upwards whither He, the true life and centre of
our faith, and hope, hath ascended.
The system of Rome strives to captivate the senses of
men ; it fills the life of man with sacraments that Christ
never ordained as sacraments of His Gospel ; it places
the efficacy of these sacraments in the power of the
human minister, by making their validity dependent
upon his intention. Thus, by this malign invention,
calling the minds of men s*dl further from Him who
is the living, effective Minister of His own sacraments,
and in this way subjecting men to the dominion of out
ward things, and teaching them to seek in these their
eternal hopes — is it strange if she stifles within them
that true spirituality which is the result of free com
munion between the Spirit of God and the spirit of man ?
She makes them, under the forms of religion, the slaves
of the world. She subjects them to the old bondage of
rites from which Christ came to free us. She places

456 Ecclesiology.
herself between Christ and His baptized disciples, shut
ting out the clear shining of the Sun of Righteousness,
and teaching men to look to her, rather than to Him, for
salvation. And this system she adopts, as we are told by Moehler,
that she may teach men to avoid a false spiritualism, and
that they may be brought to revere and seek the objective
realities of religion. It were devoutly to be wished, if
this were her object, that she had presented to them not
the opaque surfaces of mere earthly materials, but sacred
mirrors which give back faithfully and to the life the
image of our incarnate Lord. It surely is not neces
sary, in order that we may hold converse with Him as
truly and objectively present, that He should be im
prisoned, before our eyes, in the very matter of His own
creation. Such views are derogatory to His glory, and
bind to earth the thoughts and affections of those who
cherish them.
The effect of such teaching must be to impair the
spirituality of man, to make him the slave of supersti
tion ; to lead him, if he be earnest and sincere, to seek
peace and satisfaction in sources which do not contain
them ; to make his whole life, therefore, a series of
mortifying, oppressive bondage, or else to drive him in
very madness and disgust into the dark abysses of infi
delity. And the actual prevalence of the most degrad
ing superstition among the masses of Rome, and of con
temptuous unbelief among the higher orders of people
nominally subject to her, is a conclusive proof of the
justness of the sketch which we have given of the natu
ral and logical tendencies of her doctrine.
Moehler justly says that the Romish system of sacra
ments is a direct result of the Romish doctrine of justi-

The Sacraments. 457
fication. Without sacraments like hers, embodying,
materializing, and presenting to the senses of men that
marvellous quality of justification, not moral, or spirit
ual, but magical, as we have described it in a former
chapter, she could not bind them to the imposing belief
of the reality of her representations. The senses must
be bribed to lull the mind to sleep, or to amuse it by
gorgeous shews, before it will yield to the power of the
enchanter. A justification which is quasi-material must
be commended and conveyed to men, and preserved in
them by material appliances, which they are taught to
believe are impregnated with Divine virtue.
By such a system, if the free-agency and responsibility
of man to God are tampered with, he is nevertheless de
livered over more completely into the power of the
Church, who has taken to her the place of God, and
taught him that he need practically look no higher than
herself for the fulness of Divine grace. We shudder to
think that a Church bearing the Lord's commission
should have so forgotten and perverted that commission
in her lust of power, and should have subscribed her
hand to a scheme of such presumption and blasphemy ;
but we leave it to candid consideration, whether the
system contained in the decrees of Trent and urged by
the advocacy of Moehler, does not warrant our state
ments and deductions. God knows that we would not
set down aught in slander or in malice ; but that we de
pict, in sorrow of heart, the genuine tendencies, aye, and
the actual results, of a sacramental system towards which,
strange to tell, wistful and admiring looks have been cast
from a Scriptural and Catholic branch of the Church.
We proceed to notice, briefly, the tendency and effect
of the Zwinglian or Rationalistic view of the sacra-

458 Ecelesiology.
ments. This view, by treating the sacraments as mere
signs of things absent, as sinxple , outward mementoes,
divests -them of their spiritual life. The very spirit
which, in framing such a theory, can fail to discern
and feel the depth of meaning which there is in the ex,
pressions of Holy Scripture about the sacraments, is a
spirit of cold speculation, and one which will not stop
the freedom of its speculations at the sacraments, but
will venture as fearlessly into the regions of doctrine, to
open its mysteries.
We should always fear that tortuous mode of inter
pretation which can reduce the declarations of Scripture
concerning baptism and the Eucharist . into statements
of them as simple outward signs, however beautiful and
affecting as signs they may be. Such a spirit, in its in
tellectual pride, will soon learn to disregard the signs as
needless for itself at least, and to deal with all religious
truth by the test of its own thoughts and feelings. It
will receive Christianity as itself views and wishes it to
be. And its last result is a sceptical unbelief ; as the re
sult of the Romish system with intelligent minds is an un
belief which has been goaded into madness or disgust by
the degrading bondage of superstition. The history of
the Zwinglian churches, their condition to-day, is a
proof that our sketches of the tendency of doctrine like
this are not the creations of fancy.
Turn we lastly to the influence of the Anglican or
Catholic doctrine of the sacraments. This does not
interfere with the free intercourse between the Holy
Spirit of God and the spirit of man, but by teaching
that in the sacraments one thing is seen and handled,
and another signified to faith, it directs the attention of
the recipients to Him above, who gives the sacraments

The Sacraments. 459
all their spiritual efficacy. It does not degrade and sen
sualize bur ideas of spiritual existence and communion,
by teaching that the spirit acts upon the soul through
the interposition of material species and substances ; but
it calls our minds to rise from these terrene elements, to
fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus
Christ, by the bond of the Spirit. At the same time, it
teaches us that the consecrated earthly symbols are the
pledges and the occasions, the appointed times and sea
sons of that spiritual communion and those heavenly
gifts which are symbolized to our faith. Everything is
here elevating in its influence, calling our minds and
affections from the things of earth to those of Heaven,
from things material to things spiritual, from the sym
bols to Him who, by them, is exhibited.
The sacraments, moreover, represent to us the great
mysterious truths of our religion, while they are means
of our participation of its grace. They are instructive
to the mind, and sanctifying to the soul. They impress
upon us knowledge, while they attach us in love to Him
whom we seek and adore. They are full of Him, and
therefore full of grace and truth. Their influence in
teaching impressively the most ignorant, as well as in
ministering to them the consolations of the Spirit, we
have often had occasion to notice, so that we have
thought that one sacrament received by such a devout
soul with humble faith in the Lord of the sacrament,
conveyed more knowledge of the great scheme of salva
tion, and more impressed it, in the power of the Spirit,
on the soul, than a thousand discourses of men could
have done.
The sacraments, therefore, regarded as symbols and
representations of holy thirigs and holy truths, and also

460 Eoelesiology.
as links of our spiritual union with the incarnate Son of
God, are conservative monuments of true Christianity
in the world, and appointed means of its growth and
continuance in the formation of human character for
Heaven. It is not surprising, therefore, that those who.
have begun by regarding the sacraments as empty signs,
should have ended by denying the divinity of Him
whom they symbolized ; and when they return to the
true view of the connection between the sign and the
thing signified, then they will'see Him shining, in the sa
cred mirrors which he has devised, in the radiance of
His divinity.
So long, too, as the Church of Rome holds on to the
sacraments of religion, as the trickeries and sorceries of
priestcraft to bind men to herself by the chains of super
stition, so long will she be given over to believe that sys
tem of delusive doctrine, in intimate connexion with her
sacramental system, which she puts forth as the Chris
tianity that came from Heaven.
And equally true is it that that Church, which holds
forth the sacraments as the ancient Church exhibited
them, has also a system of doctrine, of which the sacra
ments are the monuments and the witnesses, which can
abide, as no other can, the test of Scripture and Catholic
antiquity. As we would maintain true Christianity, therefore, in
its public profession and its genuine practical influence ;
as we honor the spiritual nature of man ; as we would
not deliver men over to the power of superstition, and
scepticism, and infidelity ; as we value communion with
the incarnate Saviour of men, it behooves us to exhibit
the pledges and appointed means of that communion, as
we have received from Him and from His ancient

The Sacraments. 461
Church His holy sacraments. It behooves us to offer
these to men, as by the providence of God we have
them, in their Scriptural and Catholic truth and purity —
disenthralled from the unholy grasp of priestcraft on
the one hand, and uncontaminated and not deprived of
their inward life by sceptical speculation, on the other.
Those who by faith behold in these heaven-bright mir
rors the image of Him, the great object of faith and
hope, and beholding, experience His life-giving, sancti
fying power, shall thus be changed into the same image,
from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord, till at
last, without a sacrament, without an image, they shall
be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is.

Chapter XIII.
HOLY BAPTISM.
BAPTISM is, without question, the fundamental
sacrament of the religion of Christ. It is the
sacrament that is constitutive of the Church of Christ'
upon earth. It proceeded immediately from the com
mission and appointment of the Lord. When our Lord
had arisen from the dead in the might of His accom
plished work of redemption, He gave the command to
the Apostles, x " Go ye therefore and make disciples or
Christians of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
The word used in this passage, p.a6r}revGare, trans
lated in the text of the English version, teach,' is more
correctly rendered in the margin, "make disciples, or
Christians of," and so is the word rendered in the Syriac,
the Arabic and the Ethiopic versions in all the passages
of the New Testament in which it occurs. 2
Our Lord, then, in the apostolic commission, directed
the Apostles to bring all nations to His discipleship by
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost. And He promised to be
with them, in the execution of this commission, even
unto the end of the world. This baptism of John the
Baptist had prepared the way for the baptism of Christ ;
1 Matt, xxviii. 19.
2 Matt. xiii. 52 ; Matt, xxvii. 57 ; Acts xiv. 21 ; Bp. Bev-
eridge on Art. XXVII. vol. ii. p. 285, note y.

Holy Baptism. 463
the baptism of repentance was the herald of' the1 baptism,
for the remission of sinsv This baptism of Christ was
expressly predicted \>y John. x " I indeed," he said,
" baptize you with water unto repentance : but He that
¦cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am
not worthy to bear. He shall < baptize you with the
Holy Ghost, and with fire." So did John set forth the
baptism of Christ as that only effective baptism, •deter
mining the everlasting condition of men, of which his
baptism of repentance was the herald and for which it
was the preparation.
The rite of baptism with water was one not unknown
to the Jews. 2 Proselytes to the Jewish faith, with their
families, were uniformly baptized upon their reception
into the Jewish Church. The fitness of baptism as the
introduction to a new dispensation, was clearly acknowl
edged by the Jews in the time of our Lord and of John
the Baptist. The Pharisees who were sent from Jeru
salem to inquire of John concerning the character and
object of his mission, asked him 3 " Why baptizest thou
then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that
prophet?" plainly implying and admitting that, if he
were either of these, if he were the introducer of a new
religious dispensation, baptism would be the appropriate
means of introduction to that dispensation.
1 Matt. iii. 11.
2 It is doubtful whether the baptism of proselytes as an initia
tory rite was used among the Jews till after the destruction of the
temple. Baptism in connection with circumcision and sacrifice- may
have been used as an accessory rite, preparing for .circumcision and
sacrifice before the baptism of John. (Herzog Beal. Encyclopaedic,
vol. xii. p. 247. Cf . Deyling Obs. Sacrae, part iii. obs. xxvi. ; also
Ethiopic vers, in Matt, xxiii. 15, " ut baptizetis," and Arrian diss.
Epict. ii. 9 ; vide Herzog, vol. xii. p. 246.)
3 John i. 26.

464 Ecclesiology.
But the baptism of John gradually merged its light in
the superior brightness and power of the baptism that
was performed under the commission of Christ. One in
stance of the connection of the heralding baptism with
that which was its fulfilment is recorded.1 It is the case
of the twelve men, whom Paul found at Ephesus, who
had been baptized only with John's baptism, and had
not so much as heard that the Holy Ghost had been
given in the baptism of Christ ; they received instruc
tions concerning Christ Jesus, and were baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus ; that is, they received the bap
tism, which Christ had commanded, in the name of the
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost ; 2 " and
when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy
Ghost came on them, and they spake with tongues, and
prophesied." Thus was the baptism of Christ — of which
John had spoken as baptism with the Holy Ghost—
recognized by the Holy Ghost Himself as His own work,
and the necessity and importance of receiving this sac
rament, in order to saving connection with Christ, are
apparent from the whole record of this transaction at
Ephesus. Our Lord declared, in the plainest terms, the necessity
of baptism in order to entrance into the kingdom of
God, which He came to establish upon earth. He first
solemnly declared to Nicodemus : 3 " Yerily, verily I say
unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God." 4 Old things must pass away, all
things must become new, before men can be introduced
into the new creation in Christ Jesus. When the Jewish
ruler expressed to Jesus his astonishment at this require-
1 Acts xix. 1-7. 2 Ver. 6.
3 John iii. 3. * II. Cor. v. 17.

Holy Baptism. 465
ment of a new birth, our Lord reiterated the necessity
of it more emphatically, and disclosed the way and
means by which that new birth was to be effected.
1 " Jesus answered, Verily ^ verily I say unto thee, Except
a man be born," or rather except any one (whatsoever)
be born, " of water and the Spirit," or rather of water
and spirit, " he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Here the initiatory sacrament of Christianity is plainly
designated, and its necessity plainly declared. The
regenerating power is the Spirit ; the application of
water, according' to Christ's command and appointment,
is the means and occasion upon which the Spirit acts in
His regenerating grace ; and therefore Christian regen
eration is a birth of water and spirit.
How deep and radical the change is, which is sym
bolized and realized in this sacrament, is set forth in the
discourse of our Lord Himself immediately after He had
announced the necessity of this birth of water and
spirit. 2" That which is born of the flesh," He said, "is
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Now 3 " they that are in the flesh cannot please God " ;
for 4 " the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
It is only B " they that are after the Spirit " who mind
" the things of the Spirit " ; and they only who are born
of the Spirit are after the Spirit ; they only are led by
the Spirit of God, and so are the sons of God. As
surely as that which is born of the flesh, is fleshly in its
nature, so truly those only are spiritual, in life and char
acter, who are born of the Spirit. And to be born of the
Spirit according to our Lord's own exposition is to be
born of water and the Spirit.
i John iii. 5. s John iii. 6. 3 Bom. viii. 8.
* Bom. viii. 7. -30 " Rom. viii. 5.

466 Ecclesiology.
The sacrament of baptism ordained by Christ is the
sacrament of our regeneration to be the sons of God in
Christ. The words of our Lord concerning birth of
water and the Spirit have been uniformly understood in
all ages of the Church of the baptism which Christ or
dained. " Of all the ancients," says Hooker,1 " there is
not one to be named that ever did otherwise either ex
pound or allege the place, than as implying external
baptism." " All the ancient Christians " (says Dr.
Wall in his " History of Infant Baptism " 2 ) " (without
the exception of one man) do understand that rule of
our Saviour, John iii. 5, ' Verily, verily I say unto thee,
Except a man ' (it is in the original e'av p.rj rii, ex
cept a person, or except one) ' be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom' of God,' of
baptism." " I had occasion," he adds, " in the First Part to bring
a great many instances of their sayings : where all that
mention that text, from Justin Martyr down to St. Aus
tin, do so apply it : and many more might be brought.
Neither did I ever see it otherwise applied in any an
cient writer. I believe Calvin 3 was the first that ever
denied this place to mean baptism. He gives another
interpretation, which he confesses to be new. This man
did indeed write many things in defence of infant bap
tism. But he has done ten times more prejudice to that
cause by withdrawing (as far as in him lay) the strength
of this text of Scripture (which the ancient Christians
used as a chief ground of it), by that forced interpreta
tion of his, than he has done good to it by all his new
1 Book v. ch. lix.
2 Part ii. chap. vi. § 1, vol. ii. p. 18Q, Oxford,, 1835.
3 Institute lib. iv. cap. xvi. § 25.

Holy Baptism. 467
hypotheses" and arguments. What place of Scripture is
more fit to produce for the satisfaction of some plain and
ordinary man (who perhaps is not capable of apprehend
ing the force of the consequences by which it is proved
from other places), that he ought to have his child bap
tized, than this (especially if it were translated in Eng
lish as it should be), where our Saviour says that no
person shall come to Heaven without it ? meaning at
least in God's ordinary way."
This declaration of our Lord to Nicodemus then is a
decisive one shewing the place, the importance and the
ordinary necessity of the sacrament of baptism in His
plan of salvation for our fallen race. " Predestination,"
says Hooker,1 " bringeth not to life without the grace of
external vocation, wherein our baptism is implied. For
as we are not naturally men without birth, so neither are
we Christian men in the eye of the Church of God but
by new birth ; nor according to the manifest ordinary
course of Divine dispensation new-born, but by that bap
tism which both declareth and maketh us Christians. In
which respect, we justly hold it to be the door of our
actual entrance into God's house, the first apparent be
ginning of life, a seal perhaps to the grace of election
before received ; but to our sanctification here, a step
that hath not any before it."
The words of our Lord to Nicodemus, in the sense, in
which they have been received by the Church from the
earliest ages to its modern day, establish the truth that
baptism is the sacrament of our Christian regeneration.
That is, it is the sacrament, the outward sign and occasion
appointed in the kingdom of Christ, in connexion with
which, to those who rightly receive the sacrament, the
i Book v. chap. Ix. p. 624, vol. i.

468 Ecclesiology.
Spirit of Christ gives the power to become the sons of
God. And such are the representations of holy bap
tism which uniformly, occur in holy Scripture. The
statement of St. Paul is clear. x " But after that the
kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man ap
peared, not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy
Ghost which He shed on us abundantly, through Jesus
Christ our Saviour : that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eter
nal life." The laver of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, in this statement, is a clear recognition
of baptism as the appointed means by which the Holy
Spirit is given to the disciples of Christ for their justifi
cation and heirship of eternal life.
The same Apostle teaches us that 2 " Christ loved the
Church, and gave Himself for it : that He might sanc
tify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
word." Here the sanctifying and cleansing grace of
the word of Christ, as that word is administered by His
Spirit, is represented as given and communicated by
means of the washing of water in the holy baptism of
Christ. When Saul was arrested on his journey to
Damascus and brought to the acknowledgment of Christ
as His Lord and His God — a special messenger was sent to
him to convey to him the gift of forgiveness from Christ
in His holy baptism. 3 " And now why tarriest thou ? "
was the message from Christ ; " arise and be baptized
and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the
Lord." And the direction given to the multitudes on
the day of Pentecost, who inquired the way of salvation,
' Tit. iii. 4-7. a Ephesians v. 25. 3 Acts xxii. 16.

Holy Baptism. 469
was x "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." And so did
the Church learn to believe, and to insert the article in
her creed, in " one baptism for the remission of sins."
In the sacrament of baptism, those who rightly re
ceive it are joined to Christ for all the purposes and
effects for which He is their Saviour, for forgiveness
of sin, for reception- of the sanctifying Spirit, for life in
Christ the Life here, and for eternal life in and through
Him, if they 2 " hold the beginning of their confidence
steadfast unto the end." 8"For ye are all," says the
Apostle, " the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus ; "
and of this he immediately adds the reason and the Di
vine assurance, " For as many of you as have been bap
tized into Christ, have put on Christ." Your faith in
Christ, that is, has brought you to Christ's holy baptism,
and as many of you as have received this, have put on
Christ Himself, and 4"if any man (one) be in Christ," is
the declaration of the same Apostle, " he is a new creat
ure : old things are passed away, behold, all things are
become new."
The connexion with Christ, established, according to
- His appointment, in His sacrament of baptism, is a most
real and vital connexion. For 5 " Know ye not, that so
many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were
baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with
Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father ;
even so we also should walk in newness of life." Those
who have been baptized into Christ should walk in
» Acts ii. 38. 2 Heb. iii. 14. 3 Gal. iii. 26, 27.
* II. Cor. v. 17. 5 Bom. vi. 3, 4.

470 Ecclesiology.
newness of life, because, by their union with Christ, in
the covenant and sacrament of baptism, they have re
ceived the power to become the sons of God, and so,
being led by the Spirit of God, to walk in that newness
of life which becomes the children of God. They have
1"been planted together with Him in the likeness of
His death," have been thus vitally connected with
Christ the Life, and hence the pledge is given that
they "shall be also" planted together with Him "in the
likeness of His resurrection."
As is well expressed in the baptismal service of the
Church, "Baptism doth represent unto us our profes
sion; which is to follow the example of our Saviour
Christ, and to be made like unto Him ; that, as He died,
and rose again for us, so should we, who are baptized,
die from sin, and rise again unto righteousness ; con
tinually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections,
and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of liv
ing." And the encouragement and power thus to mor
tify all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily to pro
ceed in all virtue and godliness of living, come from the
conjunction with Christ, the being planted together
with Him, in His death unto sin, and His life unto
righteousness and unto God, which is the essence of our
Christian regeneration, the great gift of the sacrament
of our new birth.
A true Christian life is a conformity to the life repre-
us sented in the sacrament, and a right and due use of the
grace pledged and given in the sacrament is needful to
enable us to realize and live that life. Free forgiveness of
all sin original and actual, the gift of the Spirit recogniz
ing and adopting us as the sons of God, in Christ the well-
1 Bom. vi. 5.

Holy Baptism. 471
beloved Son, and abiding with us to guide and sanctify
us and advance us to the completeness of our being, in
our renovated bodies and souls in the resurrection of the
just, bringing us into organic connexion with Christ in
His body the Church (for by one Spirit are we all bap
tized into one body), that all these effects of our regen
eration may therein and through its instrumentalities be
realized ; these are the features and characteristics of the
regeneration which is sealed and given by the Spirit in
holy baptism, the features of that new birth of water
and of the Spirit, without which, our Lord said, no one
could enter into the kingdom of God.
Regeneration in Christ is a clear and' definite gift of
G6d, the gift of His free grace and mercy. It does not
however necessarily follow that all who are simply bap
tized with water in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost are therefore, by the mere
virtue of that sacramental washing, the children of God
by faith in Jesus Christ. We know that Simon Magus,
even after he had " believed " and had been " baptized,"
had 3 "neither part nor lot in the matter" of salvation
through Christ ; so far from being a regenerate man, and
one who had received remission of all his sins, and true
union with Christ, he was4 "in the gall of bitterness,
and in the bond of iniquity." St. Paul testified that
many 6 " walked " as Christians, had made a Christian
profession in holy baptism, who were nevertheless " ene
mies of the cross of Christ."
The same St. John, who records our Lord's decisive
words concerning the new birth of water and the Spirit,
also tells us what is the only sufficient proof that we are
1 I. Cor. xii. 13. 2 Acts viii. 11. 3 Verse 21.
• Verse 23. 5 Phil. iii. 18.

472 Ecclesiology.
born of God. x " Beloved, let us love one another ; for love
is of God : and every one that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God," and the inference is clear, that
whosoever loveth not, though he may have had the
sacramental washing of Christ, is not born of God.
For the declaration is clear and comprehensive, 2" Who
soever is born of God, doth not commit sin ; for his seed
remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born
of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and
the children of the devil : whosoever doeth not righteous
ness, is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother." Here the evidence of regeneration is clearly given.
It is the avoidance of sin and the doing of righteousness;
whosoever doeth this is born of God ; but 3" whosoever
sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him." , In
other words, he who appropriates in his life by his own
voluntary and conscious action, the gift of regeneration
by the Spirit of God, which has been given to him in
his baptism, he is born of God, he is truly regenerate.
But he that slights this gift and neglects to improve it,
who will not be led by the Spirit of God, which is the
regenerating Spirit, he cannot be a son of God. It is
by walking in the Spirit that the reality of life in the
Spirit is evinced.
That the grace of God conveyed through holy sacra
ments is not always active and apparent in the lives of
those who have sacramentally received it from God does
not disprove the reality of the sacramental grace and gift.
We are besought 4 " that we receive not the grace of
God in vain." The grace of God is ever offered through
1 I. John iv. 7. 2 t. John iii. 9, 10. 3 I. John iii. 6.
« II. Cor. vi. 1.

Holy Baptism,. 473
Divine sacraments, and so the sacraments are ever ef
fectual signs of Divine grace, by the which God doth
work, invisibly in us ; the sacrament of baptism in par
ticular, is " a sign of regeneration or new birth, where
by, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism
rightly are grafted into the Church ; the promises of the
forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of
God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed ;
faith is confirmed (for baptism is the sacrament of faith
on the part of the recipient, and it is confirmed by the
sacramental seal of Divine grace) and grace increased
by virtue of prayer unto God."
The grace which has led to baptism is increased into
the grace of regeneration, which is the special grace
represented and conveyed in the sacrament. Now,
because this grace is not appropriated by many who re
ceive the sacrament, sacramental grace is none the less
real ; and its reality is demonstrated and seen in the
lives of those who follow the guidance of the regenerat
ing and sanctifying Spirit, and so are seen, in their
lives, to be what, in their baptism, they were visibly
taken to be, x " the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus." That the regeneration pledged and offered by the
Spirit in the sacrament may be, truly and indeed, the
regenerating power of the life of the baptized, it must
be received by a repentance which forsakes sin, and by
faith which steadfastly believes the promises of God
made to the baptized in that sacrament. Baptism is a
covenant between our merciful God and the sinner who
comes in that sacrament to obtain remission of sins and
incorporation with Christ unto life eternal. And with-
> Gal. iii. 26.

474 Ecclesiology.
out the fulfilment on the part of the recipient, of the
stipulations which he makes in the covenant, he cannot
hope to receive, for his actual forgiveness and incorpora
tion with Christ, the blessings of the sacrament tendered
and pledged on the part of God. But his baptism,
nevertheless, is an introduction of" him into a new crea
tion in Christ Jesus, all the privileges and blessings of
which may and will be his, if he complies with the terms
and propositions of the baptismal covenant. And the
grace to enable him to make such compliance is freely
given to him in the reception of the sacrament.
Whether it be received to purposes of salvation, or
whether it be received in vain, depends upon his appro
priation of it by repentance and faith, or his neglect or
refusal so to appropriate it.
So is the sacrament plainly represented to us in holy
Scripture. On the part of God, in the design of- His
grace and mercy, and in the bestowing of all the grace
needful to secure this design and make it blessed effect,
the sacrament is new birth of water and the Spirit, the
washing of regeneration, the putting on of Christ, as
our clothing of forgiveness, of justification, of sanctifica
tion and of life eternal in the presence of God. But the
realization of this effect must be made by the voluntary
acceptance and use of the grace that is so exhibited,
offered and given in the sacrament. The ark was the
divinely appointed means for the deliverance of the
chosen ones of God from the destruction of the flood,
in which all were involved who were without the ark.
1 " The like figure whereunto," says St. Peter, " even
baptism doth also now save us."
Baptism then is a saving ordinance, a sacrament of
' I. Peter iii. 21.

Holy Baptism. 475
Divine salvation ; but, adds S. Peter, " not the putting
away the filth of the flesh," not the mere outward ap
plication of water in the name of Christ, " but the an
swer of a good conscience towards God " ; that is, the
conformity, on the part of the recipient of the sacra
mental washing, to his stipulation made in the baptismal
covenant. As those who were saved in the ark from
the waters of the flood, must needs have entered the
ark, and been enclosed in it, in order to obtain that sal
vation, so those who would have indeed the salvation
which is presented in the visible sacrament, must make
in their hearts and lives the answer of a good conscience
towards God, and then, by the instrumentality of the
sacrament, they will be really born of God ; to them the
sacrament will be, in the highest and fullest sense, the
new birth of water and of the Spirit, — not only an out
ward, but also- an inward thing taking full possession, in
its saving power, of all their lives.
The same sacramental truth is declared by our Lord
Himself in the words recorded by St. Mark. x " He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Baptism is
here surely declared to be an ordinance of salvation.
But yet, it will not avail to the salvation of the unbe
lieving, for he neglects an indispensable condition of the
salvation which comes to us by the baptism which saves
us. For " he that believeth not shall be damned."
because he has, for himself, rejected the saving grace of
the sacrament. The same truth was declared by St.
Peter on the day of Pentecost, 2 " Bepent," that is the
prerequisite of obtaining the grace of the sacrament, and
the grace to fulfil the requisition is given with the requi
sition itself,," Repent, and " then " be baptized every one
i S. Mark xvi. 16. s Acts ii. 38.

476 Ecclesiology.
of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
No opus operatum resulting from the mere reception of
the sacrament, is taught in holy Scripture, but the grace
of the sacrament is surely promised to those who, by
repentance and faith, receive and appropriate it as in
the sacrament it is offered and exhibited.
The sacrament of baptism is both retrospective and
prospective in its blessings. It is the remission of all
sins that are past, for which true repentance is pre
sented ; it is the pledge of sustaining, sanctifying and
perfecting grace for all the life to come. It is conform
ity to the death of Christ ; those who are baptized into
Jesus Christ are baptized into His death, x are buried
with Him by baptism into death. And His death was a
death unto sin, once for all, and those who are buried
with Him in that death, die unto sin, their past sins are
remitted, and grace to deliver them from its deadly
power is pledged and given to them. They are also
those who have been planted together with Him, in the
likeness of this His death unto sin ; have therein the
pledge that they shall be planted together with Him
2 " in the likeness of His resurrection." Now 3in that He
liveth, He liveth unto God. And 4 " if we be dead "
unto sin " with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
with Him," for His death was the precursor and the
pledge of His resurrection and His life unto God. For
6 " Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more ;
death hath no more dominion over Him." 6 " For in
that He died, He died unto sin, once for all ; but in that
He liveth, He liveth unto God." And so, if we truly
1 Bom. vi. 3, 4. 2 Eom. vi. 5. 3 E*om. vi. 10.
* Bom. vi. 8. 5 Eom. vi. 9. « Bom. vi. 10.

Holy Baptism. 477
comply with the meaning and power of our baptism, we
may x " likewise reckon ourselves," in virtue of the grace
pledged and received in our baptism, " to be dead indeed
unto sin ; but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our
#Lord." Our baptism assures us of all the potency of His
death unto sin, and of His life unto God, into which He
arose and ascended from His death unto sin once for all.
And so baptism rightly received and used 2 " saves us,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ," inasmuch as it at
taches us to Him in saving power, in the power of His
resurrection, that "knowing Him, and the power of
His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being made conformable unto His death," that by this
divinely instituted means we may 4" attain unto the
resurrection of the dead." Baptism then is the sacra
ment of a most needful and holy death, a death unto
sin, that from thence we may rise in a most blessed
resurrection, which is a participation of the very resur
rection of Christ Himself, and of the life which He now
ever liveth unto God.
This view of the sacrament of baptism, drawn from
most sure warrants of Holy Writ, is that which has
been unfalteringly maintained in all ages of the Church
of Christ. The testimonies of the ancient Church conr
cerning the necessity and importance of the sacrament
of baptism reach to the apostolic age itself. The ne:
cessity of the deliverance from the tainted birth of
the flesh, by the birth of water and the Spirit which
our Saviour instituted, is clearly set forth by Clemens
Romanus. 6 " Again, of Job it is thus written : Job was
1 Bom. vi. 11. »1. S. Peter iii; 21. 3 Phil. iii. 10.
* Phil. iii. 11: 5 Epist. i. ad Corinth, xvii.

478 Ecclesiology.
just and blameless, true, God-fearing, abstaining from
all evil. But he, accusing himself, says, x ' There is none
free from pollution ; no, not though his life be but of
the length of one day.' " And again, 2 " Let us consider
therefore, brethren, of what matter we were made ; who#
and what kind of persons we came into this world, as
from the sepulchre and darkness. He that made and
formed us, brought us into His world ; having prepared
for us His benefits, before we were born."
3"Hermas Paster, having described an emblem or
vision, shewed him by a woman who represented the
Church, concerning a certain tower built on the water,
by which the building of Christ's Church was signified,
has these words : ' I asked her, ' Wherefore, lady, is the
tower built upon the waters ? " "I said to thee also before,
that you were wise to- inquire diligently concerning
the structure, therefore you shall find the truth. Hear
therefore why the tower is built on the water, because
your life is saved, and shall be saved, by water." ' "
In another passage, 4 " He is relating a vision of the
same import as the other, the building of the Church
represented by the building of a tower, wherein all
things are shewed and explained to him by an angel.,
He sees some stones put into this building that were
drawn up from the deep ; and others that were taken
from the surface of the earth ;5 the first denoting persons
already dead ; the other, persons yet alive. Of those
drawn up from the deep, he saw first ten stones, which
filled one range of building next the foundation, then
twenty-five more, then thirty-five more, then forty more.
'Job xiv. 4. 2 §38.
3 Lib. i. Visio iii. c. iii. ; Wall, part i. c. i. vol. i. p. 48.
* Lib. iii. Similitud. 9, cc. xv. xvi. s Wail, p. 49.

Holy Baptism. 479
And afterward in the explication of the vision, he asks
the angel, ' But these stones, sir, which are fitted from
the deep, in the structure what are they ? ' ' The ten,' he
says, ' which are placed in the foundations are the first
age ; the following twenty-five are the second age of
just men. But these thirty-five are the prophets and
ministers of the Lord. But the forty are the prophets
and teachers of the preaching of the Son of God.'
" 'Why,' said I, ' did these stones ascend from the deep,
and were placed in the structure of this tower, when long
before they bore just spirits ? ' 'It was necessary,' he said,
' that they should ascend through water, that they may
rest ; for they could not otherwise enter into the king
dom of God, than by laying aside the mortality of their
former life ; they therefore, when dead, v»rere sealed with
the seal of the Son of God, and entered into the kingdom
of God. For before man receives the name of the Son
of God, he is destined to death ; but when he receives
that seal, he is freed from death aud delivered over to
life. But that seal is water, into which men bound to
death descend, but ascend assigned to life. And there
fore that seal was preached to them, and they used it,
that they might enter into the kingdom of God.'
"And I said, 'Why therefore, sir, did those forty
stones ascend with them from the deep, since they al
ready had that seal ? ' and he said, ' Because these Apos
tles and teachers, who preached the name of the Son of
God, since they died having His faith and power,
preached to those who had died before ; and they gave
them that sign. They descended therefore into the
water with them, and again ascended. But these de
scended when alive ; but those who had died before, de
scended indeed dead, but ascended living. By these

480 Ecclesiology.
therefore they received life, and knew the Son of God ;
and so they ascended with them, and came together in
the structure of the tower. Nor were they built hewn,
but whole and entire, since they had died full of equity
with the greatest chastity ; but only this seal had been
wanting to them.' "
Here, in this writing of the second century, we have
an illustrious testimony to the estimate which, from the
first, was put upon the sacrament of baptism ; a noble
commentary on the words of the Apostle,1 " Christ also
loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word ; 2 that He might present it to Himself a
glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing ; but that it should be holy, and without blemish."
. The testimony of Justin Martyr is equally explicit.
He says, 3 giving an account of the manner in which we
are renewed by Christ : "As many as are persuaded and
believe that the things taught and spoken by us are true,
and promise that they can so live, are taught to pray and
ask fasting from God, the remission of the sins they
have before committed, we praying and fasting with
them. Then they are led by us where there is water,
and are regenerated, in the manner of regeneration in
which we ourselves also have been regenerated. For
they are washed with water, in the name of God the
Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour
Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ also
said, Unless ye are regenerated ye cannot enter into the
kingdom of Heaven, but that it is also impossible that
those who have been once born, to enter into the wombs
of those that bare them, is evident to all."
1 Eph. v. 25, 26. 2 Verse 27. 3 a.d. 140, Apol. i. s. 61.

Holy Baptism. 481
He then goes on to assert the necessity of this new
birth from bad customs and evil conversations, that we
may not remain the children of necessity or of igno
rance, but may attain, in the water, choice and under
standing, and remission of the sins which before we have
sinned ; for this reason, he says, the name of the Father
and Lord of all is named over him who has chosen to be
new-born, and has repented of his sins. " But this wash
ing is called illumination." Here all the elements of
the sacrament are clearly described : the regeneration
which is given by its instrumentality, the faith and the
repentance which are required to make that regeneration
the true and effective possession of him who receives the
washing of this Divine illumination.
Theophilus, x in his account of the creation, speaking
of the animals brought forth by the waters, says, " The
creatures which were produced from the waters were
blessed by God, that this might also be for an example
of men's being to receive repentance and remission of
sins by water and the laver of regeneration, all, that is,
who come to the truth and are regenerated and receive
the blessing from God." Here the gift of God in bap
tism and the reception of this gift by men, in the exer
cise of repentance and assent to the truth, are most
plainly and unequivocally set forth.
Irenaeus, speaking of the gift of the Spirit, says,
2 " And again giving to the disciples the power of re
generating unto God, He said to them, ' Go, teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.' " Speaking of the
Valentinian heretics who imitated the baptism of the
1 Ad Autoly. lib. ii. c. xvi.
2 Lib. iii. c. xix. 1, Grabe, xvii. 1, Massuet.
31

482 Ecclesiology.
Church, he says, x " This form of heretics has been sent
out by Satan for the denial of the baptism of the regen
eration unto God and for the putting away of all the
faith." They called their mock-baptism by the names
of regeneration and redemption, and " they say that
it is necessary for all who have received the perfect
gnosis, that they may be regenerated unto the power
which is above all." Thus heresy itself, by aping a
Christian sacrament, bore witness to the fact that bap
tism among Christians was held to be the Divine sacra
ment of regeneration unto God.
Clemens of Alexandria 2 is very explicit in using re
generation promiscuously for baptism — and in thus
closely connecting Christian regeneration with baptism.
There is a very noticeable passage, commented upon by
Dr. Wall, in which Clement says,3 recommending the
device for a Christian seal, " And if any one be by trade
a fisherman, he will do well to think of an apostle, and
of the children drawn from the water." Dr. Wall well
argues that 4 " An apostle's taking,, drawing, or lifting a
child out of the water cannot refer to anything that I
can think of, but the baptizing of it. And imfantem de
fonte levare is a phrase used by the ancients, denoting
the baptizing of it, almost as commonly as the word bap
tizing itself. And as the emblem of an anchor, or of a
ship under sail, used for the impress of a seal ring, does
suppose those things to be commonly seen, known, and
used ; so St. Clement's advising the emblem of an apos
tle baptizing an infant to be used by the Christians in
his time (which was but about ninety years after the
1 Lib. i. xviii. 1, Grabe, xxi. 1, Mass.
2 Paedagog. lib. i. c. vi. ; Wall, part i. ch. iii. vol. i. p. 83.
3 Paedagog. lib. iii. c. xi. * p. 85.

Holy Baptism. 483
Apostles) for the sculpture of their seals, does suppose
it commonly known by them that the Apostles did per
form that office."
TertuUian, however singular his views may have been
concerning infant baptism, is very unequivocal in assert
ing the general necessity of baptism to salvation. He
says x " So there is for the most part no nativity clean,
that is, of the heathen. For hence also the Apostle says,
that of either parent sanctified those who are born are
holy ; both by the prerogative of the seed and by the
discipline of institution ; else, he says, they would be born
unclean. As if wishing to be understood that the chil
dren of the faithful are designated for holiness, and so
for salvation. Otherwise he had remembered the Lord's
determination, ' Unless any one shall be born of water
and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of
God,' that is, he will not be holy. Thus every soul is
reckoned thus far in Adam, until he is anew enrolled in
Christ; so long unclean, until it be so enrolled; but
sinful because unclean."
The testimony of Origin 2 is abundantly clear, as for
example, " Hear David saying ' I was conceived in in
iquities and in sins did my mother bring me forth ' :
shewing that whatsoever soul is born in the flesh, is pol
luted with the filth of iniquity and sin ; and therefore
that was said, which we have already above mentioned,
' that no one is clean from pollution, not if his life is
only for one day.' That can be added to these, that we
ask, what is the cause, since the baptism of the Church
is given for the remission of sins, that according to the ob
servance of the Church, baptism is also given to infants,
when truly if there were nothing in infants that needed
i De Anima, §§ 39, 40. s Horn. 8, in Lev. c. iv.

484 « Ecclesiology.
forgiveness and indulgence, the grace of baptism would
seem superfluous." 1
Cyprian, in various passages of his writings, arguing
against heretical baptism, shews 2 clearly and incidentally
the high spiritual estimate of baptism that universally
prevailed in the Church. Thus he says, 3 " That also is
absurd, that when there is a second spiritual birth, by
which we are born in Christ by the washing of regenera
tion, they should say that any can be spiritually born
among heretics, where they deny the Spirit to be. For
water alone cannot cleanse sins and sanctify man, unless
it has also the Holy Spirit. Wherefore either they must
necessarily grant that the Holy Spirit is there, when
they say that baptism is, or that there is no baptism,
where the Holy Spirit is not, because baptism cannot be
without the Holy Spirit. For that baptism is that in
which the old man dies, and the new man is born, the
blessed Apostle manifests and proves when he says, ' He
has saved us by the washing of regeneration.' But if
regeneration is in the washing, that is, in baptism, how
can heresy which is not the spouse of Christ generate
sons to God by Christ?" The spiritual regeneration
which comes by baptism could not be more clearly set
forth than it is in these words of S. Cyprian, to which
there are many more like words in his writings.
Cyril of Jerusalem, in enumerating the blessings of
baptism says, 4 " This proffered baptism is a great thing ;
it is a ransom for the captives ; the remission of sins ;
the death of sin ; the regeneration of the soul ; a clothing
of light ; a holy indissoluble seal ; a carriage to Heaven ;
1 Cf. Horn, in Lucam 14. 2 in Epist. ad Boman. lib. v. c. ix.
3 Ep. lxxiv. ad Pompeium ed. Fell.
* Praef at. Cateches. ; cf . Catechet. Mystagog ii. §§ v. vi. vii.

Holy Baptism. 485
the delight of paradise ; the pledge of a kingdom ; the
grace of adoption." Gregory Nazianzen, in his Orat. 40,
" De Baptisme," sets forth at large its necessity and
spiritual grace. He says x " We call it the gift, grace,
baptism, anointing, illumination, the clothing of in
corruption, the laver of regeneration, the seal, every
thing whatsoever that is honorable." " God," he says
" has not left His creature without a remedy ; but as He
first made us, so He renews us by this Divine formation ;
which is a seal to those indeed who are entering into
life, but to those riper in age also a grace, and a restora
tion of the image which they had lost by sin." " This,"
he says, " is the grace and power of baptism ; not bring
ing a deluge upon the world, as of old, but purifying
every one from his sins, and entirely removing the
obstructions or spots which are caused by wickedness.
To speak in few words, we are to consider the power of
baptism as a contract with God for a second life, and a
more pure conversation, there being no second regen
eration." St. Basil's view of baptism is in entire accordance with
that of St. Gregory Nazianz. He sets forth the funda
mental character of this sacrament in the Christian life,
the stamp which it affixes ori the whole life, and the
supreme importance of holding fast our baptismal pro
fession of faith and the grace of the sacrament, till it
expands and ripens into the fulness of our eternal life.
2 "Whence," he says, "are we Christians? By faith,
every one would say. But we are saved — in what way,?
Because, manifestly, we have been regenerated by the
grace which is in baptism. For from what other source
> p. 638.
2 De Spirit. Sanct. § 26, ed. Bened. torn. iii. pp. 21, 22.

486 Ecclesiology.
can it be ? Then, since we have known this salvation,
confirmed by the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, shall we cast away the type of doctrine which we
have received ? Truly it would be worthy of great
lamentations, if now we are found further estranged
from our salvation than when we believed, if we now
deny what then we received. The loss is equal, that any
one should either depart not having received baptism, or
should have one thing deficient of those things which
have been delivered.
" And he that keeps not for all time the confession
which we deposited upon our first entrance, when being
delivered from idols we came to the living God, and
who does not preserve it through all his life as a secure
phylactery, makes himself a stranger from the promises of
God, fighting with his own signature which he made in
his confession of faith. For if baptism is to me the
beginning of life, and the day of regeneration is the first
of days, it is evident that the most precious voice of all
is that which was uttered in the grace of adoption. The
tradition which freely granted me the knowledge of
God, by which I was declared a child of God, who
hitherto had been an enemy on account of sin, shall I
surrender this, turned aside by the persuasive discourses
of these men (the Pneumatomachi) ? But I pray for
myself that I may depart to the Lord with this con
fession, and I exhort them to preserve the faith inviolate
to the day of Christ, and to guard the Spirit inseparable
from the Father and the Son, keeping the doctrine of
baptism, both in the confession of the faith and in the
consummation of glory."
Here the grace of baptism pervading and ruling the
life, and the appropriation and retention of that grace in

Holy Baptism. 487
a living, unwavering faith are nobly set forth. St. Basil
clearly distinguishes the grace of the sacrament from the
water which is its sacramental expression, when he says,
1 " so that if there is any grace in the water, it is not
from the nature of the water, but from the presence of
the Spirit ; 2 for baptism is not the putting away of the
filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of a good con
science towards God." " The baptized," he says, " are
enlightened in their souls by the tradition of the knowl
edge of God." This is a worthy conception of a Divine
sacrament, and a true setting forth of its spiritual grace,
as well as a true representation of the covenant character
of the sacrament, which requires the assent of a living
faith to the offers of grace which God makes in the
sacrament. The Council of Nicaea, in the history of Gelas. Cyzice-
nus, sets forth strongly the doctrine of baptismal grace.
' 3 " Baptism is not to be considered with sensual eyes, but
with those of the understanding. Thou seest water,
consider the power of God which is hidden in the
waters ; for the sacred oracles teach that we are baptized
with the Holy Spirit and fire ; for, consider the waters,
in the faith of the baptizer and the baptized, by the
sacred invocation to be full of the sanctification of the
Spirit and of Divine fire. For He saith He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." "He who is
baptized, descends indeed liable to sins, and detained by the
corruption of slavery ; but ascends free from that slavery
and from sins, made a son and heir of God, but made a
co-heir of Christ by His grace, clothed with Christ Him-
i§35, p. 29. 2 1. pet. iii. 21.
3 Apud Gelas. Cyzicen. lib. iii. c. xxxi. p. 173 ; Beveridge on Ar
ticles, vol. ii. p. 230 ; Harduin torn. i. 427.

488 Ecclesiology.
self, as it is written ' Whoever of you are baptized into
Christ, have put on Christ.' "
1 St. Athanasius, asserting that there is but one baptism
for renovation, and there is no second baptismal reno
vation, to shew the difference between repentance which
follows baptism, and the plenary renovation of baptism,
says, " ' There is one faith, one baptism,' for he did not
say, it is impossible to repent ; but it is not possible by
occasion of repentance, to renew any one (by baptism),
but there is much difference ; for he that repents, ceases
indeed from sinning, but he has the scars of the wounds ;
but he that is baptized puts off indeed the old man, but
is renewed as one born from above by the grace of the
Spirit." St. John Damascene, who represents the settled teach
ing of the Eastern Church, is clear and strong in his
doctrine of the sacraments. 2It was needful, he says,
that not only the first fruits of our nature, that is, Christ,
but also every man that wills, should be born with a
second birth, and nourished with new food. Wherefore
Christ, by His nativity, baptism, passion and resurrection,
freed our nature from the sin of the forefather, from
death and corruption, and became the first fruits of the
resurrection, and made Himself the way and type and
exemplar that we following His footsteps might become
by adoption what He is by nature, sons and heirs of
God and joint heirs with Him ; He gave us therefore
a second birth, that, as being born in Adam, we were
likened unto him, inheriting the curse and corruption ;
so being born from Him (Christ) we might be likened
to Him, and inherit His incorruption and blessing and
1 Ep. iv. ad Serapionem § 13, torn. i. p. 705.
2 De Fide Orthodox, lib iv. c. xiii.

Holy Baptism. 489
glory. But since this Adam was spiritual, it was need
ful that the birth and food should be spiritual ; but
since we were twofold and composite, it was needful
that the birth should be twofold, and likewise the food
composite. " Our birth therefore is given by water and
the Spirit, that is, I say, by holy baptism ; but the food
is the very bread of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, who
came down from Heaven."
1 " And as in baptism, since it was the custom for men
to be washed with water, and anointed with oil, He
hath joined to oil and water the grace of the Spirit, and
made it the laver of regeneration ; so, since it was the
custom for men to eat bread, and to drink water and
wine, He hath joined to them His divinity, and hath
made them His body and blood, that by things accus
tomed, and natural, we might become supernatural."
The supernatural grace of both the sacraments, and the
regenerating grace of baptism could not be more plainly
declared than they are in these words of S. John Damas
cene. It would be easy to multiply indefinitely these testi
monies from the ancient Church to the excellence and
Divine spirituality of the sacrament of baptism. The
testimony is uniform, reaching from the days of the
Apostles' to the present age of the Church. Even here
tics, in arrogating Divine privileges for their own imi
tations of the sacraments of Christ, bore testimony to
the estimation in which these sacraments were held by
the Church. Even the Pelagian heretics, who denied
the necessity of baptism to infants, for the remission of
sin, maintained that it was necessary for their admission
into the kingdom of God.
» Tom. i. p. 269.

490 Ecclesiology.
If the uniform teaching, in the Church, on a point so
cardinal and fundamental as a sacrament, which is con
stitutive of the Christian Church and the Christian life,
which is a representation and a pledge of grace for our
Christian profession, till its final acceptance before the
throne of our Saviour Judge, has failed to deliver the
truth, once for all given to the saints, and recorded in
Holy Scripture even more plainly than in the traditional
teaching of the Church; then has Christianity itself
been a failure, and there is no clearness or certainty for
our access, in order to salvation, to Him who is the
Way, the Truth and the Life for fallen men.
The teaching of the Church, though plain and un
equivocal in asserting the grace of the Holy Spirit to be
connected with the administration of the outward sacra
ments, does not, nevertheless, maintain that grace is al
ways and invariably given and received by the simple
administration and reception of the outward sacraments.
The sacraments are effectual signs of grace presented
to the contemplation and reception of faith, and, if faith
be wanting, the grace exhibited and offered in the sacra
ment is not received for the purposes for which it is ex
hibited, by the faithless recipient of the effectual sign.
The sign or sacrament is received by such only to their
greater condemnation.
We have heard S. Basil saying, x " If there be any
grace in the water, it is not from the nature of the water,
but from the presence of the Spirit." Cyprian 2 says
" Christ came to the baptism of John, not needing the
washing, as in Him there was no sin, but that perpetual
authority might be given to the sacrament, and no re-
» De Spirit. Sanct. § 35, torn. iii. p. 29.
2 De Baptism. Christi ad calc. Op. Cypr. p. 66, ed. Fell.

Holy Baptism. 491
spect of persons might commend the virtue of so great
a work, since remission of sins, whether it be given by
baptism or by other sacraments, is properly from the
Holy Spirit, and to Him alone remains the privilege of
this efficiency. The solemnity of the words, and the
invocation of the sacred name, and the signs attributed
to the ministries of the priests by the apostolical institu
tions, celebrate the visible sacrament ; but the thing it
self the Holy Spirit forms and effects, and the author of
all goodness adds His hand invisibly to the visible con
secrations, and the fatness of the Divine unction infuses
' the fulness of grace into the official sanctifi cations, and
consummates and perfects the reality of the sacrament."
For in the Gospel according to John (we r.ead) :
1 " Except anyone be reborn of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God ; for that which is
born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the
Spirit, is spirit." In the first epistle to the Corinthians :
2 " Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all,
but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain j
and they indeed, that they may receive a corruptible
crown, but we an incorruptible." In the Gospel accord
ing to Matthew : 3 " Every tree that bringeth not forth
good fruit, shall be hewn down, and cast into the fire."
Also there : 4 " Many will say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy
name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many won
derful works ? And then I will say unto them, I never
knew you : depart from Me, ye that work iniquity."
Also there : B " Let your light shine before men, that
1 Testimoniorum lib. iii. xxv. xxvi. xxvii. ; John iii. 5.
2 I. Cor. ix. 24. 3 Matt. iii. 10. 4 Matt. vii. 22.
s Matt. v. 16.

492 Ecclesiology.
they may see your good works, and glorify your Father,
who is in Heaven." Also Paul to the Philippians :
1 " Shine as lights in the world."
All these testimonies are collected by Cyprian in re
gard to those who had received the sacraments, but had
not appropriated and used the grace of the Holy Spirit
presented in the sacraments. And the following testi
monies he collects with regard to those who do not re
tain the grace which they received, and so received it in
vain and to their own greater condemnation : " In the
Gospel according to John : 2 ' Lo thou are whole, now be
unwilling to sin, lest a worse thing befall thee.' Also in
the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians : 3 ' Know ye
not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of
God dwelleth in you ? If any one violate the temple of
God, him God will destroy.' Concerning this same thing
in the Chronicles : 4 ' The Lord is with you while ye be
with Him, if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you.' "
Certainly the Church, in the age of Cyprian, did not
believe in the scholastic opus operatum of the sacraments
of grace, and yet they believed the sacraments to be ex
uberant fountains of Divine grace to those who rightly
received and used them. Cyril of Jerusalem says, 6 " And
the water indeed cleanses the body, but the Spirit seals
the soul." And he adds, " When thou art therefore de
scending into the water, do not attend to the bare water,
but lay hold of salvation by the energy of the Holy
Spirit." The necessity of an appropriating faith to secure
the blessed effect of the sacrament is here plainly de
clared. Gregory Nyssen says, 6 "But this benefit the
1 Phil. ii. 15. 2 John v. 14. 3 I. Cor. iii. 16.
4 II. Chronicles xv. 2. 5 Catechet. 3 (2).
« De Baptism. Christi Orat. (vol. iii. p. 369).

Holy Baptism. 493
water does not afford us, for it is a work above all the
creation ; but the command of God, and the coming down
of the Holy Ghost, mystically coming for our salvation."
St. Augustine says,1 "Wherefore did the Lord not
baptize many ? But what does He say ? But the Spirit
was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Because therefore they had baptism, and had not yet
received the Spirit, whom the Lord sent from Heaven
on the day of Pentecost; that the Spirit might be given,
the glorification of the Lord was waited for. And be
fore He was glorified, and before He sent Him, He
invited, nevertheless, men to prepare themselves to
receive water, concerning which He says, 'He that
believeth on Me, rivers of living water shall flow from
his belly.' What is ' rivers of living water ' f What is
that water ? Let no one ask me ; ask the Gospel. ' But
he spoke this,' it says, ' concerning the Spirit, which
they, who would believe on Him, should receive.' The
water of the sacrament therefore is one thing ; the water
which signifies the Spirit of God is another. The water
of the sacrament is visible ; the water of the Spirit is
invisible. That washes the. body, and signifies what is
done in the soul : by that Spirit the soul itself is cleansed
and fattened."
And all who received the sacramental washing did
not, in S. Augustine's view, receive the Spirit ; for he
adds, " He is the very Spirit of God, whom heretics
cannot have, and whoever cut themselves off from the
Church. And whoever do not openly cut themselves
off, but are cut off by iniquity, and are tossed about
within as chaff, and are not grain, have not that Spirit."
2 " So that it is not to the water itself, but to the Spirit in-
1 In epist. Johan. Tract. 6 (11) torn. iii. part ii. col. 633.
2 Bp. Beveridge on Art. XXVH. vol. ii. p. 233.

494 Ecclesiology.
the water we are to ascribe these glorious effects ; and
therefore it is here said, that in baptism ' faith is con
firmed, and grace increased by prayer to God.' We
must pray for God's presence in the sacrament, for
without that we can receive no blessing from it; but
with that there is no blessing but we may have in it."
" The baptism of young children," our article truly
asserts, " is in any wise to be retained in the Church, as
most agreeable with the institution of Christ." The
sacraments of the Gospel have succeeded and superseded
the sacraments of the old law and of all the ancient dis
pensations. Under the ancient law circumcision was the
initiatory rite, which admitted those on whom it was
performed to the ancient covenant with God. That
covenanl^was typical of the covenant of grace estab
lished in Jesus Christ. Children were, by God's com
mand, admitted to the privileges and the promises of
that ancient covenant. And certainly when the cove
nant of promise was succeeded by the covenant of
Divine fulfilment, those who had received the ancient
promises were not, in God's intention, deprived of the
benefit of fulfilment.
The children of proselytes, under the preparatory dis
pensation, were admitted to the covenant by circumcision
and baptism. And when the Gospel was proclaimed, in
the power of the Spirit, and the time of fulfilment was
fully come, children are expressly mentioned as among
those who were admitted to the blessings of that fulfil
ment. It was the preaching of the day of Pentecost.
1 " Then Peter said unto them," on the day of Pentecost,
the day of the inauguration of the Church and of the
first administration of Christian baptism, " Repent and
1 Acts ii. 38, 39.

Holy Baptism. 495
be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto
you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call."
The offer was as large as the fallen race of man in all
its generations and all its individuals. Wherever sin was
to be pardoned and extinguished by the regenerating,
sanctifying grace of God, there the sacrament of Chris
tian regeneration was to be applied. There could not
be a clearer and higher Divine sanction than this for the
baptism of young children. The same need of re
generating grace for them is declared in the words of
our Lord concerning His own holy baptism. The new
birth was needful, for entrance into the kingdom of
God, for all that were born of the flesh. And the
declaration is as extensive as the race of man. x " Ex
cept any one," any one that is of the fallen race of man,
any one born of the flesh, " be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Whole families are, in various places of Scripture,
represented as being baptized when the heads and rep
resentatives of the family became Christians. Our
Lord did not repel, but invited young children to be
brought to Him. He said, when His disciples would
repel the children, 2 " Suffer the little children to come
unto Me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the king
dom of God." In the touching words of the exhortation
and commentary of our baptismal service, " Ye hear in
this Gospel the words of our Saviour Christ, that He
commanded the children to be brought unto Him ; how
He blamed those who would have kept them from Him ;
1 John iii. 5. 2 Mark x. 14.

496 Ecclesiology.
how He exhorteth all men to follow their innocency. To
perceive how, by His outward gesture and deed, He
declared His good will toward them ; for He embraced
them in His arms, He laid His hands upon them, and
blessed them. Doubt ye not therefore, but earnestly
believe," in the case of every infant presented to Him in
His holy baptism, " that He will likewise favorably
receive that present infant ; that He will embrace him
with the arms of His mercy ; that He will give unto him
the blessing of eternal life, and make him partaker of
His everlasting kingdom."
There is one passage in the writings of St. Paul,1 of
which the interpertation has been various, but, amid all
this variety, the proof of infant baptism which it gives,
remains. " For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by
the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by
the husband ; else were your children unclean, but now
are they holy." It is very clear that the sanctification and
holiness spoken of, in this text of St. Paul, is Christian
holiness and sanctification- And the assertion that if
one of the parents be a believer, the children are holy, is
at least equivalent to the assertion that the children are
capable of Christian holiness, of the holiness which per
tains to the consecration to God in the sacraments of the
Church. The inference certainly is a valid one that
children may be put in the way of salvation through
Christ ; and therefore that they are fit subjects of that
baptism by which they are saved.
The explanation of Tertullian is that the Apostle says
the children are holy, that is, designated to sanctity, and
so also to salvation. Theodoret in loco says, " For the
Apostle says this, for the unbelieving husband has been
1 I. Cor. vii. 14.

Holy Baptism. 497
sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife has been
sanctified by the husband, that is, has the hope of
salvation ; but if he or she remain in the disease (of sin)
his seed shall partake of salvation. St. Augustine * ex
plains the expression thus : " For there were then
Christian infants, who were sanctified (i. e., made holy,
i. e., who were baptized) either by the authority of
one of the parents, or by the consent of both ; which
would not be, if, so soon as one believed, the marriage
were dissolved and the infidelity of the husband or wife
were not borne with, till there were an opportunity of
believing." .
This passage of St. Paul may fairly be claimed both
as a warrant for the baptism of young children, and an
evidence of the practice in the days of the Apostles.
The testimonies in favor of the practice are abundant
and clear from the earliest ages of the Church. Justin
Martyr says, 2 " Many, both men and women, of sixty or
seventy years old, who were made disciples unto Christ
from childhood, continue uncorrupted." Irenaeus says,
speaking of Christ,3 " For He came to save all by Him
self ; all, I say, who are reborn by Him to God, infants,
and little ones, and boys, and young men, and old men.
So He went through every age, and being made an in
fant for infants, sanctifying infants ; a little one in little
ones, sanctifying those of this age, at the same time being
made an example to them, both of justice and of sub
jection ; in young men, a young man, becoming an ex
ample to young men, and sanctifying them to the Lord."
1 De Serm. Dom. in Monte, lib. i. c. xvi. § 45, torn. iii. part ii.
col. 133. 2 Apol. i. c. xv.
3 Cap. xxxix. Grabe, lib. ii. ; lib. ii. c. xxii. § 4, Mass.

498 Ecclesiology.
By regeneration we have seen that Irenaeus1 under
stands baptism.
TertuUian2 advises that the baptism of children should
be deferred till they are grown to years of understand
ing and responsibility. " Let them be made Christians,"
he says, " when they can know Christ." Yet he insists
upon the necessity of birth of water and the Spirit, in
order to entrance into the kingdom of God and to deliv
erance from sin, and sanctification in Christ. This ad
vice itself is a witness to the practice of infant baptism
by the Church of his day. There would have been no
occcasion of such advice, had, not the practice been a
prevalent one. Origen also bears testimony to infant bap
tism. 3 "Besides all this, it may be asked, what is the reason
that, whereas the baptism of the Church is given for the
remission of sins, baptism is given also to infants by the
usage of the Church ; when, if there were nothing in
infants that needed forgiveness and mercy, the grace of
baptism would, seem to be superfluous?" And in an
other place,4 where he speaks of original sin, he says,
" For this also the Church has derived from the Apos
tles a tradition to give baptism to infants. For they to
whom the Divine mysteries were committed, knew that
there is in all persons the natural pollution of sin, which
must be washed away by water and the Spirit ; by reason
of which the body itself is also called the body of sin."
S. Cyprian and sixty-six bishops at Carthage returned
answer to the question of Fidus, an African bishop,
" Whether a child might be baptized before it was eight
1 Lib. i. cap. xviii. Grabe, xxi. Mass., and cap. xix. lib. iii.
Grabe, lib. iii; cap. xvii. 2 Massuet.
2 De Baptism, c. xviii. ; De Anima c. xxxix. 40.
3 In Lev. Horn. viii. c. iii. 4 In Ep. ad Bom. lib. v. c. ix.

Holy Baptism. 499
days old ? " that there was no justification of such de
lay, "but on the contrary all of us judged that the
mercy and grace of God is to be denied to no person
that is born." If the greatest offenders and those who
had most grievously sinned against God had remission,
and were not debarred from baptism and grace when
they came to believe, " how much more," these bishops
argued, " ought not an infant to be forbidden, who be
ing but newly born hath yet in no way sinned, except
that, being born after Adam, in the flesh, he hath con
tracted the contagion of the old death from his very
birth, who is on this very account more easily admitted
to receive remission of sin, that not his own but an
other's sins are remitted to him."1 The question thus
decided was not concerning the necessity of baptizing
infants, which all admitted, but simply concerning de
ferring baptism till the eighth day after birth, in ac
cordance with the custom of administering the old rite
of circumcision.
S. Gregory Naz. says, 2 " Hast thou an infant child ?
let not wickedness have the advantage of time. Let him
be sanctified from infancy, let him be dedicated from
his cradle to (or by) the Spirit. Thou as a faint-hearted
mother and of little faith, fearest the seal on account of
the weakness of nature. Hannah, before Samuel was
born, devoted him to God, and as soon as he was born,
consecrated him, and brought him up from the first in a
priestly garment, not fearing for human infirmity, but
trusting in God. Thou hast no need of amulets or
eharms ; together with which the devil slides into the
minds of shallow persons, drawing to himself the venera-
» Ep. lix. ad Fidum §§ 2, 4, 64, ed. Fell.
2 Orat. xl. De Baptism. § 17.

500 Ecclesiology.
tion that is due to God. Give to him the Trinity, that
great and excellent preservative." Infants were to be
baptized instantaneously, he urges, in imminent danger,
" for it is better that they be sanctified without their
own sense of it, than that they should depart unsealed
and uninitiated."
But for others, he says, x " I give my opinion that they
should stay three years, or a little within it, or beyond
it, when it is possible for them to hear and answer some
thing mystical ; if although they do not understand them
perfectly, they can yet form the words, and that you so
sanctify them in souls and bodies with the great mystery
of initiation." This was simply the private opinion of
S. Gregory, in cases where immediate danger did not re
quire instant baptism, but his testimony is clear and ex
plicit to the importance and necessity of the baptism of
infants. Bishop Beveridge, after quoting the decrees of the sec
ond council at Milenum 2 (a.d. 416) and the council at
Gerundia (a.d. 517), the one council anathematizing
those who denied baptism to infants newly born; the
other enjoining it, in case of apparent necessity ; adds
the 84th canon of the Sixth General Council : 3 " We
following the canonical constitutions of the fathers, de
termine also concerning infants, that as often as there
are not found sufficient witnesses, who will say that they
were undoubtedly baptized, and they themselves by rea
son of their infancy cannot aptly answer for the myste
ries being delivered to them, without any scandal such
ought to be baptized." And Bishop Beveridge adds, 4
" So that it is not only the opinion of private persons, or
1 § 28. 2 Ooncil. Hard. vol. i. p. 1217; Concil. Milen.
3 Concil. Hard. vol. ii. p. 1044. * Harduin vol. iii. p. 1692.

Holy Baptism. 501
particular synods, but of a general council itself, that
' the baptism of infants ought in any wise to be retained
in the Church.' " The prevalence of infant baptism, as
the universal practice of the Church, is shewn exhaus
tively by Dr. Wall, in his learned and thorough " His
tory of Infant Baptism " ; and it was only in the twelfth
century (1126) that, by the sect of the Petro Brusians,
the originators of which were Peter and Henry Bruis,
the baptism of infants was denied and repudiated.
It may be asked, why, if repentance and faith are the
conditions of the baptismal covenant, infants who are in
capable of exercising faith and repentance are fit sub
jects for the reception of the sacrament. Undoubtedly
1 " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." It
was the Pentecostal direction, 2 " Repent and be baptized
every one of you for the remission of sin." And if 3 " as
many as have been baptized with Christ have put on
Christ," it is because all such are, according to the Apos
tle, 4" the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
How then can an infant incapable of exercising faith be
counted among the faithful ?
This question was propounded to S. Augustine and his
answer was as follows : B In the first place he asserts,
on the authority of the words of our Lord, that infants
are capable of Divine regeneration. He says, " But that
he can be regenerated by the office of another's will,
when he is offered for consecration, this the one Spirit
does, by whom the offered one is regenerated. For it is
not written, unless any one be reborn of the will of the
parents, or from the faith of those who present or those
> Mark xvi. 16. s Acts. ii. 38. 3 Gal. iii. 27.
* Gal. iii. 26. 5 Epist. ad Bonifac. ep. xcviii. § 2.

502 Ecclesiology.
who minister, but x ' Unless any one be regenerated of
water and the Holy Spirit.'
" Water, therefore, outwardly exhibiting the sacrament
of grace, and the Spirit operating inwardly the benefit
of grace, loosing the bond of guilt, reconciling the good
of nature, regenerate the man in the one Christ,
who was generated from the one Adam. The regenerat
ing Spirit therefore is common in the elder ones who
present (the infant) and in the infant who is presented
and regenerated ; .and so by this society of one and the
same Spirit the will of the presenters profits the infant
that is presented. . . . And in this way can the in
fant, once generated from the flesh of the parents, be
regenerated by the Spirit of God, so that the obligation
contracted from them may be dissolved. But he who
has been once regenerated by the Spirit of God, cannot
be regenerated from the flesh of the parents, that the
obligation, which has been dissolved, may again be con
tracted. " And so the infant does not lose the grace of Christ
once received, unless by his own impiety, if in the ad
vance of age he turns out to be bad. For then also he
will begin to have his own sins, which cannot be taken
away by regeneration, but may be healed by another
cure." 2 " Nor let this move you that some do not bring
infants to receive baptism in the faith that they may be
regenerated by spiritual grace to eternal life, but because
they think that they retain or recover temporal health
by this remedy. For they are not therefore not regen
erated because they are not offered by such with this in
tention. For the necessary ministries are celebrated by
them, and the words of the sacraments, without which
i John iii. 5. 2 § 3.

Holy Baptism. 503
the infant cannot be consecrated. But that Holy Spirit,
who dwells in the saints of whom that silver-winged
dove of charity is produced (confiatur) by fire, does
what it does by the service, sometimes, not only of the
simply ignorant, but also of the damnably unworthy.
" Forasmuch as infants are offered to receive spiritual
grace, not so much by those in whose hands they are
borne (although also by them, if they are good faithful
ones) as by the whole society of the holy and faithful.
For they are rightly understood to be offered by all,
whom it pleases that they are offered, and by whose
holy and individual charity they are assisted to the com
munication of the Holy Spirit. The entire mother
Church therefore, which is in the saints, does this : be
cause the whole Church brings forth all, brings forth
each one. For if the sacrament of Christian baptism,
since it is one and the same, is availing even among
heretics, and suffices to consecration, although it does not
suffice to the partaking of eternal life ; which consecra
tion indeed makes the heretic guilty who has the Lord's
character or stamp (dominicum characterem) outside of
the Lord's flock, nevertheless sound doctrine admonishes
that he is to be corrected, not again, in like manner, con
secrated ; how much rather is corn carried to be cleansed
by the ministry of straw, in the Catholic Church, that
it may be brought to the society of the mass by the me
diation of the threshing floor ? "
And with regard to the questions, how the sponsors
can promise for the future of the child, how they can
say he believes, and answer each one of the demands in
his behalf, St. Augustine thus replies : x " Truly we often
so speak that we say, on the approach of the Passover,
>§9.

504 Ecclesiology.
to-morrow or the next day after is the passion of the
Lord; when _ He suffered so many years ago, nor did
that passipn ever occur but once. On the Lord's day
we say, to-day the Lord rose ; when so many years have
passed since He rose. Why is no one so foolish that he
accuses us, who thus speak, of lying, unless because we
name those days according to the likeness of those on
which these things were done, so that is said to be the
very day, which is not so indeed, but like it in the revo
lution of time ; and that is said to be done on that day,
on account of the celebration of its sacrament, which
was not done on that day, but long ago? Was not
Christ once immolated in Himself, and nevertheless He
is immolated in the sacrament not only through all the
solemnities of the Pasch, but every day, by the people,
nor certainly does he speak falsely, who, being asked,
answers that He is immolated ?
" For if sacraments had not a certain likeness to those
things of which they are sacraments, they would not be
, sacraments at all. But from this likeness they often
also take the names of the things themselves. As
therefore, in a certain way, the saqrament of the body
of Christ is the body of Christ, the sacrament of the
blood of Christ is the blood of Christ, so the sacrament
of faith is faith. For to believe is nothing else than to
have faith. And so when the infant is answered for
that he believes, who has not yet the affection of faith,
he is answered for that he has faith on account of the
sacrament of faith, and that he turns to God on account,
or by reason of, the sacrament of conversion, because
the answer itself also belongs to the celebration of the
sacrament. As concerning baptism itself, the Apostle
says, x ' We have been buried together with Christ by
1 Bom. vi. 4.

Holy Baptism. 505
baptism into death.' He does not say, We have signi
fied the burial ; but he says absolutely, We have been
buried together. x Therefore although not yet that faith
which consists in the will of believers, nevertheless the
sacrament of faith itself makes the infant a faithful
one. For as he is answered for to believe, so he is also
called faithful, not by assenting to the thing in his own
mind, but by receiving the sacrament of the thing itself.
" But when the man begins to know (sapere), he will
not repeat that sacrament, but he will understand it, and
will be fitted to it also by a will consonant to its
truth. As long as this cannot be, the sacrament will
avail for his protection against contrary powers ; and it
will avail so much, that if he emigrates from this life
before the use of reason, the charity of the Church com
mending him by the sacrament itself, he will be freed
by Christian assistance from that condemnation which
entered by one man into the world. He who does not
believe this, and thinks # that it cannot be done, is truly
an infidel, although he may have the sacrament of faith ;
and the infant is far better than he (him) who, although
he has not yet faith in his thought, does not neverthe
less oppose to it the obstacle of a contrary thought,
whence he savingly (salubriter) receives its sacrament."
Again thus Augustine presents the case of infants
who are baptized : 2 " This is the tradition which the
universal Church holds, when little infants are baptized,
who certainly cannot yet believe with the heart unto
righteousness, and confess with the mouth unto salva
tion, which the thief on the cross could do ; moreover
1 § 10.
2 De Baptis. Contra Donatist. lib. iv. cc. xxiii. xxiv. xxv. §§
30-33, torn. ix. col. 94.

506 Ecclesiology.
by weeping and wailing, when the mystery is celebrated
in them, they are obstreperous against the mystical
words themselves ; and yet no Christian says that they
are vainly baptized. And if any one seeks Divine au
thority in this matter, what the universal Church holds,
and which has not been instituted by councils, but has
always been retained, is most rightly believed to have
been delivered by no other authority than apostolical ;
yet we can conjecture of what avail the sacrament of
baptism is in infants, from the circumcision of the
flesh which the former people received, and before he
had received which, Abraham was justified. As Cor
nelius1 also was endowed with the gift of the Holy
Spirit before he was baptized.
"Nevertheless the Apostle says concerning Abraham
himself, 2 ' he received the sign of circumcision ; a seal of
the righteousness of f aitli ; who had already believed
with the heart, and it was accounted to him for righteous
ness.' Why therefore was it commanded to him that he
should afterwards circumcise every male infant on the
eighth day, unless the sacrament itself, by itself, was
much availing? Which was manifested in the son of
Moses by the angel, 3 who when he was borne (ferretur)
by his mother, uncircumcised, by present and evident
danger it was required that he should be circumcised ;
and when it was done the destruction was driven away.
" As therefore in Abraham the righteousness of faith
preceded, and circumcision was added a seal of the
righteousness of faith ; so in Cornelius spiritual sancti
fication in the gift of the Holy Spirit preceded, and the
sacrament of regeneration in the laver of baptism was
added. And as in Isaac who was circumcised on the
i Acts x. 44. 2 Eom. iv. 11. 3 Ex. iv. 24,

Holy Baptism. 507
eighth day from his nativity, the seal of the righteousness
of faith preceded ; and since he imitated the faith of his
father, righteousness itself followed, as he grew up, the
seal of which had preceded in his infancy ; so, in
baptized infants, the seal of regeneration precedes ; and
if they keep Christian piety, conversion in heart will
also follow, the mystery of which had preceded in the
body. And as in that robber what had been wanting in
the sacrament of baptism, the benignity of the omnipo
tent One completed, because it had been wanting, not
from pride or contempt, but from necessity ; so in
infants who, having been baptized, die, the same grace
of the Omnipotent must be believed to complete (what is
wanting), because not from an impious will, but from
the lack of age, they cannot either believe with the heart
unto righteousness, nor confess with the mouth unto
salvation. " Therefore when others answer for them, that the
celebration of the sacrament may be fulfilled towards
them, it avails, certainly, to their consecration, because
they themselves cannot answer. But if another answers
for him who can answer, it is not alike availing. From
which rule that word is spoken in the Gospel, which
affects all naturally when it is read, x ' He is of age, he
can speak for himself.' By all which things it is shewn
that the sacrament of baptism is one thing, the conversion
of the heart another, but that the salvation of man is com
pleted by both ; nor if one of them be wanting, ought
we therefore to think that it follows that the other also
may be dispensed with ; because that can be without
this in the infant, and this could be without that in the
robber, God- completing whether in that or in this, what
i John ix. 12.

508 Ecclesiology.
had not been voluntarily wanting ; but when either of
them is voluntarily wanting, man is involved in account
ability. " And baptism indeed can be where conversion of
heart is wanting ; but conversion of heart can be indeed
where baptism has not been received, but cannot be
where it has been despised. For neither can con
version of heart to God be said in any way to be,
when the sacrament of God is despised. We therefore
justly reprehend, anathematize, detest, abominate the
perversity of heart of the heretics ; nevertheless, they do
not therefore not have the evangelical sacrament, be
cause they do not have it to any useful effect. Wherefore
when they come to faith and the truth, and doing peni
tence, ask that their sins be remitted to them, we do not
deceive or delude them when, corrected and reformed by
us in that in which they are depraved and perverse, we
thus instruct them by heavenly discipline unto the king
dom of Heaven, so that we in no wa}r violate what in
them is sound ; nor on account of the fault of man, if
there be in man anything of God, do we say that it is
either null or vicious."
The all-pervading power and grace of baptism in the
Christian life, its retrospective and prospective character,
its application to men of all ages and conditions are
truly and nobly set forth by S. Augustine. He says,
1 " For thus are we to understand what the Apostle says :
' Christ loved the Church and gave Hiriiself for it, that
He might sanctify it, cleansing it with the washing of
water in the word, that He might present it to Himself
a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any
such thing.' So, I say, this is to be understood, that by
1 De Nupt. et Concupis. lib. i. c. xxxiii. § 38, torn. x. col. 199.

Holy Baptism. 509
the same laver of regeneration and word of sanctifica
tion, all the ills of regenerate men may be entirely
cleansed and healed, not only sins, all of which are now
remitted in baptism, but also those which afterwards are
contracted by human ignorance or infirmity; not that
baptism as often as sin is committed should, sp often, be
repeated ; but because by it, which is once given, it is
effected, that pardon of any sins whatsoever, not only
before, but also afterwards may be obtained by the faith
ful. " For of what profit would even penitence before bap
tism be, unless baptism should follow, or afterwards un
less baptism should precede ? In the Lord's prayer also,
which is our daily cleansing, with what fruit, with what
effect would it be said, Forgive us our debts, unless it
were said by those who have been baptized ? And also the
largess of alms, and any beneficence how great soever,
whom would it profit to remit his sins, if he were not
baptized ? Finally the very felicity of the kingdom of
Heaven, where the Church shall not have spot or wrin
kle or any such thing, where there shall be no repre- ,
hension, no simulation, where there shall not be not only
guilt but neither any concupiscence of sin, whose shall
it be except of the baptized ?
" And so not only all sins, but altogether all ills of men
are taken away by the sanctity of the Christian laver,
with which Christ cleanses His Church, that He may
present it to Himself, not in this world, but in the future,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. For
they who now say that she is such, and nevertheless are
in her; since they themselves confess that they have
sins, if they speak the truth, then indeed since they are
not clean from sins, the Church has, in them, a spot ;

510 v Ecclesiology.
but if they speak falsely, because they speak with a
double heart, the Church has, in them, a wrinkle. But
if they say that they themselves have these, not the
Church herself ; then they confess that they are not her
members, and that they do not belong to her body, so
that, even by their own confession, they are condemned."
Our baptism is spoken of by St. Paul as x " the wash
ing of regeneration and of the renewing of the Holy
Ghost which God our Saviour shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Our renovation pro
ceeding from the fountain of grace opened in baptism,
continues through the whole course of life, in which
that grace is rightly appropriated and used, till it cul
minates in our final acceptance, in the justification of
life, in the resurrection of the just. This is well set
forth by S. Augustine.2 " Truly that renovation," he
says, " is not in the one moment of conversion itself, as
in one moment that renovation in baptism is accom
plished by the remission of all sins ; for not even one
sin, how little soever, remains which is not remitted.
But as it is one thing to be without fever, another
to convalesce from the weakness which has been pro
duced by fever ; and also it is one thing to take from
the body a weapon which has been planted in it, an
other, to heal the wound which has been made by it,
in a second cure ; so the first curing is to remove the
cause of languor, which is done by the forgiveness of
all sins ; the second is to heal the languor itself, which
is done by gradually advancing in the renovation of this
image : which two things are demonstrated in the
Psalm, 3 ' Who is propitious to all thine iniquities ' ;
1 Titus iii. 5, 6.
2 De Trinitate lib. xiv. cap. xvii. § 23, torn. viii. col. 682.
3 Ps. cii. 3.

Holy Baptism. 511
which is done in baptism : then follows, ' who healeth
all thy weaknesses ' ; which is done by daily accessions,
when this image (of God) is renewed.
" Concerning which thing the Apostle has most
openly spoken, when he says, x ' but though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.'
But it is renewed in the knowledge of God, that is, in
righteousness and holiness of truth; as the apostolical
testimonies have it, which I have a little before recited.
He therefore who is renewed, by advancing, from day
to day, in the knowledge and righteousness of God, and
the holiness of truth, transfers his love from things
temporal to things eternal, from things carnal to things
spiritual ; and continues diligently to bridle (frenare)
and diminish his desire from these, and to bind himself,
by charity, to those. For he does as much as he is
divinely assisted to do. Forasmuch as it is the sentence
of God, 'Without Me ye can do nothing.'
" When the last day of this life shall find any one
holding the faith of the Mediator in this proficiency and
addition, he will be led to God whom He has served
and worshipped, and will be received by the holy
angels to be perfected by Him, to receive an incor
ruptible body in the end of the world, not for punish
ment, but for glory. Forasmuch as in this image the
bareness of God will then be perfect, when there shall
be the perfect vision of God. Concerning which the
Apostle Paul says, 2 ' For now we see through a glass,
darkly, but then face to face.' Also he says, 3 ' But we
all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of
the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory
' II. Cor. iv. 16. ! I. Cor. xiii. 12.
3 II. Cor. iii. 18.

512 Ecclesiology.
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord ' : this it is,
which is accomplished by those who advance well from
day to day."
Such then is the sacrament of Christian baptism. It
is the beginning of the Christian life containing the
pledge of Divine grace, and the form, in the baptismal
profession of that life, for the whole of our Christian
course, till the day of final acceptance and justification.
It is the sacrament of remission of sins, of regeneration
in Christ ; for herein " we are made members of Christ,
children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of
Heaven." And all the supplies of confirming, sustain
ing, and renewing grace, which are received in the word
and ordinances of religion, in the different needs and
emergencies of the Christian life, come from that re
generating and sanctifying Spirit who is given, in holy
baptism, to be the guide and counsellor and perf ecter of
the children of God, till they are completed, in their
glorified bodies and souls, in His own presence.
To make right and due use of baptismal grace, to be
true to the promises and vows of the baptismal covenant,
to lead all our lives according to that beginning in the
sacrament of our Christian regeneration, is the very
characteristic of a life which is truly Christian. To keep
the seal of the Spirit unbroken, to derive from the re
generating Spirit all that He has to impart for the
advancement of the Christian life to its consummation,
should be the aim of each and all who have been
baptized into Christ, and so have put on Christ. Bap
tism is the title to a heavenly inheritance. To hold that
title fast, to make it clearer and brighter in the earnest
of the Spirit, which is the stamp of the Spirit Himself

Holy Baptism. 513
upon a life in true accordance with baptismal grace and
baptismal vows, is the sure and only way to have the
title given at the beginning of the Christian life con
firmed and forever established, at last, in the justification
of life eternal.

END OF VOLUME I.

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