“If, say they, the Saviour is a vine, and we
are branches, but the Father is husbandman; and if the branches are of
one nature with the vine, and the vine is not of one nature with the
husbandman; then the Son is of one nature with us, and we are a part of
Him, but the Son is not of one nature with, but in all respects of a
nature foreign to, the Father, I shall reply to them that He called us
branches not of His Godhead, but of His flesh, as the Apostle says, we
are ‘the body of Christ, and members in
particular,’ 1 Cor. xii. 27. and again,
‘know ye not that your bodies are the members of
Christ?’ 1 Cor. vi. 15. and in other places,
‘as is the
earthy, such are they that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of
the earthy, let us all bear the image of the
heavenly.’ 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49: in the last clause Basil reads
φορέσωμεν,
instead of the φορέσομεν
of A.V., with א, A, C, D, E, F, G, K,
L, P. If the head
of the ‘man is Christ, and the head of Christ is
God,’ 1 Cor. xi. 3. and man is not of
one substance with Christ, Who is God (for man is not God), but
Christ is of one substance with God (for He is God) therefore God is
not the head of Christ in the same sense as Christ is the head of
man. The natures of the creature and the creative Godhead do
not exactly coincide. God is head of Christ, as Father; Christ
is head of us, as Maker. If the will of the Father is that we
should believe in His Son (for this is the will of Him that sent me,
that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have
everlasting life), John vi. 40. the Son is not a
Son of will. That we should believe in Him is (an injunction)
found with Him, or before Him.”i.e.simultaneous with, or even
anterior to, His advent. Maran hesitates as to the meaning of
the phrase, and writes: “Suspicor tamen intelligi sic
posse. Quanquam voluntas patris est ut in Filium credamus, non
tamen propterea sequitur, Filium ex voluntate esse. Nam
credere nos oportet in Filium, ut primum in hunc mundum venit, imo
antequam etiam naturam humanam assumeret, cum patriarchæ et
Judæi prisci ad salutem consequendam in Christum venturum
credere necesse habuerint. Itaque cum debeamus necessario
credere in Filium omni ætate et tempore; hinc efficitur, Filium
esse natura, non voluntate, neque adoptione. Si voluntas
est Patris ut nos in ejus Filium credamus, non est ex voluntate
Filius, quippe nostra in ipsum fides aut cum ipso aut ante ipsum
invenitur. Subtilis hæc ratiocinatio illustratur ex
alia simili, quæ reperitur (i.e. at the beginning of
Book IV.). Si fides in Filium nostra opus est Dei, ipse Dei
opus esse non potest. Nam fides in ipsum et ipse non
idem.”