Give careful heed, too, to the words of the Lord,
and note how, whenever He instructs us about His Father, He is in the
habit of using terms of personal authority, saying, “I will; be
thou clean;” Matt. viii. 3. and “Peace, be
still;” Mark iv. 39. and “But I say
unto you;” Matt. v. 22, etc. and “Thou dumb
and deaf spirit, I charge thee;” Mark ix. 25. and
all other expressions of the same kind, in order that by these we may
recognise our Master and Maker, and by the former may be taught the
Father of our Master and Creator. There is a
difficulty in following the argument in the foregoing
quotations. F. Combefis, the French Dominican editor of Basil,
would boldly interpose a “not,” and read ‘whenever
he does not instruct us concerning the Father.’
But there is no ms. authority for this
violent remedy. The Benedictine Editors say all is plain if we
render “postquam nos de patre
erudivit.” But the Greek will not admit of
this.
Thus on all sides is demonstrated
the true doctrine that the fact that the Father creates through the Son
neither constitutes the creation of the Father imperfect nor exhibits
the active energy of the Son as feeble, but indicates the unity of the
will; so the expression “through whom” contains a
confession of an antecedent Cause, and is not adopted in objection to
the efficient Cause.