46. And
it is not from this source alone that our proofs of the natural
communion are derived, but from the fact that He is moreover said to be
“of God;”
2 Cor. i. 12. not indeed in the
sense in which “all things are of God,”
1 Cor. xi.
12. George
of Laodicea applied this passage to the Son, and wrote to the
Arians: “Why complain of Pope Alexander (i.e.
of Alexandria) for saying that the Son is from the
Father.…For if the apostle wrote All things are from
God…He may be said to be from God in that sense in which
all things are from God.” Athan., De
Syn. 17. but in the sense of proceeding out of God,
not by generation, like the Son, but as Breath of His mouth. But
in no way is the “mouth” a member, nor the Spirit breath
that is dissolved; but the word “mouth” is used so far as
it can be appropriate to God, and the Spirit is a Substance having
life, gifted with supreme power of sanctification. Thus the close
relation is made plain, while the mode of the ineffable existence is
safeguarded. He is moreover styled ‘Spirit of
Christ,’ as being by nature closely related to Him.
Wherefore “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of His.”
Rom. viii. 9. Hence He
alone worthily glorifies the Lord, for, it is said, “He shall
glorify me,”
John xvi. 14. not as the
creature, but as “Spirit of truth,”
John xiv. 17. clearly shewing forth the truth in
Himself, and, as Spirit of wisdom, in His own greatness revealing
“Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of
God.”
1 Cor. i. 24. And as
Paraclete παράκλητος
occurs five times in the N.T., and is rendered in A.V. in
John xiv. 16 and 26, xv. 26 and xvi.
7,
Comforter; in 1 John ii. 1 Advocate, as applied
to the Son. In the text the Son, the Paraclete, is
described as sending the Spirit, the Paraclete; in the second
clause of the sentence it can hardly be positively determined
whether the words τοῦ ὁθεν
προῆλθεν refer to
the Father or to the Son. The former view is adopted by Mr.
C.F.H. Johnson, the latter by the editor of Keble’s
Studia Sacra, p. 176. The sequence of the sentence
in John xv.
26 might lead one to
regard ὁθεν
προῆλθεν as
equivalent to παρὰ̀ τοῦ Πατρὸς
ἐκπορεύεται.
On the other hand. St. Basil’s avoidance of direct citation
of the verb ἐκπορεύεται,
his close connexion of τοῦ
ἀποστείλαντος
with ὅθεν
προῆλθεν, and the
close of the verse in St. John’s gospel ἐκεῖνος
μαρτυρήσει
περὶ ἐμοῦ,
suggest that the μεγαλωσύνη
in St. Basil’s mind may be the μεγαλωσύνη
of the Son. At the same time, while the Western
Church was in the main unanimous as to the double procession,
this passage from St. Basil is not quoted as an exception to the
general current of the teaching of the Greek Fathers, who, as Bp.
Pearson expresses it, “stuck more closely to the phrase and
language of the Scriptures, saying that the spirit proceedeth
from the Father.” (Pearson On the Creed, Art.
viii. where videquotations) Vide
also Thomasius, Christ. Dogm., i. 270,
Namentlich auf letzere Bestimmung legten die
griechischen Väter groszes Gewicht. Im Gegensatz gegen den
macedonischen Irrtum, der den Geist für ein Geschüpf
des Sohnes ansah, führte man die Subsistenz desselben ebenso
auf den Vater zuruck wie die des Sohnes. Man
lehrte, , also, der heilige
Geist geht vom Vater aus, der Vater ist die
ἀρχή wie des
Sohnes so auch des Geistes; aber mit der dem herkömmlichen
Zuge des Dogma entsprechenden Näherbestimmung:
nicht ἀμέσως, sondern ἐμμέσως,
interventu filii geht der Geist vom Vater
aus, also “durch den
Sohn vom Vater.” So die bedeutendsten Kirchenlehrer,
während andere einfach bei der Formel stehen blieben; er
gehe vom Vater aus. He expresses in
Himself the goodness of the Paraclete who sent Him, and in His own
dignity manifests the majesty of Him from whom He proceeded.
There is then on the one hand a natural glory, as light is the glory
of the sun; and on the other a glory bestowed judicially and of free
will ‘ab extra’ on them that are worthy.
The latter is twofold. “A son,” it is said,
“honoureth his father, and a servant his
master.”
Mal. i. 6. Of these
two the one, the servile, is given by the creature; the other, which
may be called the intimate, is fulfilled by the Spirit. For,
as our Lord said of Himself, “I have glorified Thee on the
earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to
do;”
John xvii. 4. so of the
Paraclete He says “He shall glorify me: for He shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”
John xvi. 14. And as the Son is glorified of the
Father when He says “I have both glorified it and will
glorify it Four
mss. of the De S.S. read
ἐδόξασά
σε, a variation not appearing in
mss. of the Gospel.again,”
John xii. 28.
so is the Spirit glorified through His communion with both Father
and Son, and through the testimony of the Only-begotten when He says
“All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be
forgiven unto men.”
Matt. xii.
31.