63. In relation to the
originate, ἐν
τοῦς
γενητοῖς, as
in the Bodleian ms. The Benedictine
text adopts the common reading γεννητοις,
with the note, “Sed discrimen illud parvi
momenti.” If St. Basil wrote γεννητοῖς,
he used it in the looser sense of mortal: in its strict
sense of “begotten” it would be singularly out of
place here, as the antithesis of the reference to the Son, who is
γεννητός,
would be spoilt. In the terminology of theology, so far
from being “parvi momenti,” the distinction is
vital. In the earlier Greek philosophy ἀγένητος and
ἀγέννητος
are both used as nearly synonymous to express unoriginate
eternal. cf. Plat., Phæd. 245 D.,
ἀρχὴ δὲ
ἀγένητόν,
with Plat., Tim. 52 A., Τουτων δὲ
οὕτως
ἐχόντων
ὁμολογητέον
ἓν μὲν εἶναι
τὸ κατὰ
ταὐτὰ εἶδος
ἔχον
ἀγέννητον
καὶ
ἀνώλεθρον.
And the earliest patristic use similarly meant by γεννητός
and ἀγέννητος
created and uncreated, as in Ign., Ad Eph. vii., where our
Lord is called γεννητὸς
καὶ
ἀγέννητος,
ἐν ἀνθρ ?πω
Θεὸς, ἐν
θανάτῳ ζωὴ
ἀληθινή.
cf. Bp. Lightfoot’s note. But “such
language is not in accordance with later theological definitions,
which carefully distinguished between γενητός
and γεννητός,
between ἀγένητος
and ἀγέννητος;
so that γενητός,
ἀγένητος,
respectively denied and affirmed the eternal existence, being
equivalent to κτιστός,
ἄκτιστος, while
γεννητός,
ἀγέννητος
described certain ontological relations, whether in time or in
eternity. In the later theological language, therefore, the
Son was γεννητός
even in His Godhead. See esp. Joann. Damasc., De Fid.
Orth. i. 8 (I. p. 135, Lequin), χρὴ γὰρ
εἰδέναι ὅτι
τὸ ἀγένητον,
διὰ τοῦ
ἑνὸς ν
γραφόμενον,
τὸ ἄκτιστον
ἢ τὸ μὴ
γενόμενον
σημαίνει, τὸ
δὲ
ἀγέννητον,
διὰ τῶν δύο
νν
γραφόμενον,
δηλοῖ τὸ μὴ
γεννηθέν; whence
he draws the conclusion that μόνος ὁ
πατὴρ
ἀγέννητος
and μόνος
ὁ υἱ& 232·ς
γεννητός.”
Bp. Lightfoot, Ap. Fathers, Pt. II. Vol. II. p. 90, where
the history of the worlds is exhaustively discussed. At the
time of the Arian controversy the Catholic disputants were chary
of employing these terms, because of the base uses to which their
opponents put them; so St. Basil, Contra Eunom. iv.
protests against the Arian argument εἰ
ἀγέννητος ὁ
πατὴρ
γεννητὸς δὲ
ὁ υἱ& 232·ς, οὐ
τῆς αὐτῆς
οὐσιας.
cf. Ath., De Syn. in this
series, p. 475, and De Decretis, on Newman’s confusion of
the terms, p. 149 and 169. then, the Spirit
is said to be in them “in divers portions and in divers
manners,”
Heb. i. 1. while in
relation to the Father and the Son it is more consistent with true
religion to assert Him not to be in but to be
with. For the grace flowing from Him when He dwells in
those that are worthy, and carries out His own operations, is well
described as existing in those that are able to receive Him.
On the other hand His essential existence before the ages, and His
ceaseless abiding with Son and Father, cannot be contemplated
without requiring titles expressive of eternal conjunction.
For absolute and real co-existence is predicated in the case of
things which are mutually inseparable. We say, for instance,
that heat exists in the hot iron, but in the case of the actual fire
it co-exists; and, similarly, that health exists in the body, but
that life co-exists with the soul. It follows that wherever
the fellowship is intimate, congenital, συμφυής.
and inseparable, the word with is more expressive,
suggesting, as it does, the idea of inseparable fellowship.
Where on the other hand the grace flowing from the Spirit naturally
comes and goes, it is properly and truly said to exist in,
even if on account of the firmness of the recipients’
disposition to good the grace abides with them continually.
Thus whenever we have in mind the Spirit’s proper rank, we
contemplate Him as being with the Father and the Son, but
when we think of the grace that flows from Him operating on those who
participate in it, we say that the Spirit is in us. And
the doxology which we offer “in the Spirit” is not an
acknowledgment of His rank; it is rather a confession of our own
weakness, while we shew that we are not sufficient to glorify Him of
ourselves, but our sufficiency cf.
2 Cor. iii.
5. is in the
Holy Spirit. Enabled in, [or by,] Him we render thanks to our
God for the benefits we have received, according to the measure of
our purification from evil, as we receive one a larger and another a
smaller share of the aid of the Spirit, that we may offer “the
sacrifice of praise to God.”
Heb. xiii.
15. According to one use, then, it is
thus that we offer our thanksgiving, as the true religion requires,
in the Spirit; although it is not quite unobjectionable that any one
should testify of himself “the Spirit of God is in me, and I
offer glory after being made wise through the grace that flows from
Him.” For to a Paul it is becoming to say “I think
also that I have the Spirit of God,”
1 Cor. vii.
40.
and again, “that good thing which was committed to thee keep
by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.”
2 Tim. i. 14. And of Daniel it is fitting to say
that “the Holy Spirit of God is in him,”
Dan. iv. 8, lxx. and similarly of men who are like these
in virtue.