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| Texts Explained; Secondly, Psalm xlv. 7, 8. Whether the words 'therefore,' 'anointed,' &c., imply that the Word has been rewarded. Argued against first from the word 'fellows' or 'partakers.' He is anointed with the Spirit in His manhood to sanctify human nature. Therefore the Spirit descended on Him in Jordan, when in the flesh. And He is said to sanctify Himself for us, and give us the glory He has received. The word 'wherefore' implies His divinity. 'Thou hast loved righteousness,' &c., do not imply trial or choice.
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Chapter XII.—Texts Explained;
Secondly, Psalm xlv. 7, 8.
Whether the words ‘therefore,’ ‘anointed,’
&c., imply that the Word has been rewarded. Argued against first
from the word ‘fellows’ or ‘partakers.’ He is
anointed with the Spirit in His manhood to sanctify human nature.
Therefore the Spirit descended on Him in Jordan, when in the flesh. And
He is said to sanctify Himself for us, and give us the glory He has
received. The word ‘wherefore’ implies His divinity.
‘Thou hast loved righteousness,’ &c., do not imply
trial or choice.
46. Such an explanation
of the Apostle’s words confutes the irreligious men; and what the
sacred poet says admits also the same orthodox sense, which they
misinterpret, but which in the Psalmist is manifestly religious. He
says then, ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of
righteousness is the sceptre of Thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved
righteousness, and hated iniquity, therefore God, even Thy God, hath
anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows2080
.’ Behold, O ye Arians, and acknowledge
even hence the truth. The Singer speaks of us all as
‘fellows’ or ‘partakers’ of the Lord: but were
He one of things which come out of nothing and of things originate, He
Himself had been one of those who partake. But, since he hymned Him as
the eternal God, saying, ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever,’ and has declared that all other things partake of Him,
what conclusion must we draw, but that He is distinct from originated
things, and He only the Father’s veritable Word, Radiance, and
Wisdom, which all things originate partake2081
,
being sanctified by Him in the Spirit2082
| 2082 It is
here said that all things ‘originate’ partake the Son and
are ‘sanctified’ by the Spirit. How a γέννησις or adoption through the Son is necessary for every creature
in order to its consistence, life, or preservation, has been explained,
p. 162, note 3. Sometimes the Son was considered as the special
Principle of reason, as by Origen, ap. Athan. Serap. iv. 9. vid.
himself. de Incarn. 11. These offices of the Son and the Spirit
are contrasted by S. Basil, in his de Sp. S. τὸν
προστάττοντα
κύριον, τὸν
δημιουργοῦντα
λόγον, τὸ
στερεοῦν
πνεῦμα, &c.
c. 16. n. 38. | ?
And therefore He is here ‘anointed,’ not that He may become
God, for He was so even before; nor that He may become King, for He had
the Kingdom eternally, existing as God’s Image, as the sacred
Oracle shews; but in our behalf is this written, as before. For the
Israelitish kings, upon their being anointed, then became kings, not
being so before, as David, as Hezekiah, as Josiah, and the rest; but
the Saviour on the contrary, being God, and ever ruling in the
Father’s Kingdom, and being Himself He that supplies the Holy
Ghost, nevertheless is here said to be anointed, that, as before, being
said as man to be anointed with the Spirit, He might provide for us
men, not only exaltation and resurrection, but the indwelling and
intimacy of the Spirit. And signifying this the Lord Himself hath said
by His own mouth in the Gospel according to John, ‘I have sent
them into the world, and for their sakes do I sanctify Myself, that
they may be sanctified in the truth2083
.’ In
saying this He has shown that He is not the sanctified, but the
Sanctifier; for He is not sanctified by other, but Himself sanctifies
Himself, that we may be sanctified in the truth. He who sanctifies
Himself is Lord of sanctification. How then does this take place? What
does He mean but this? ‘I, being the Father’s Word, I give
to Myself, when becoming man, the Spirit; and Myself, become man, do I
sanctify in Him, that henceforth in Me, who am Truth (for “Thy
Word is Truth”), all may be sanctified.’
47. If then for our sake He sanctifies Himself,
and does this when He is become man, it is very plain that the
Spirit’s descent on Him in Jordan was a descent upon us, because
of His bearing our body. And it did not take place for promotion to the
Word, but again for our sanctification, that we might share His
anointing, and of us it might be said, ‘Know ye not that ye are
God’s Temple, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you2084
?’ For when the Lord, as man, was
washed in Jordan, it was we who were washed in Him and by Him2085
| 2085 Pusey
on Baptism, 2nd Ed. pp. 275–293. | . And when He received the Spirit, we it was
who by Him were made recipients of It. And moreover for this reason,
not as Aaron or David or the rest,
was He anointed with oil, but in another way above all His fellows,
‘with the oil of gladness,’ which He Himself interprets to
be the Spirit, saying by the Prophet, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is
upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me2086
;’ as also the Apostle has said,
‘How God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost.2087
’ When then were these things spoken of
Him but when He came in the flesh and was baptized in Jordan, and the
Spirit descended on Him? And indeed the Lord Himself said, ‘The
Spirit shall take of Mine;’ and ‘I will send Him;’
and to His disciples, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost2088
.’ And notwithstanding, He who, as the
Word and Radiance of the Father, gives to others, now is said to be
sanctified, because now He has become man, and the Body that is
sanctified is His. From Him then we have begun to receive the unction
and the seal, John saying, ‘And ye have an unction from the Holy
One;’ and the Apostle, ‘And ye were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise2089
.’ Therefore
because of us and for us are these words. What advance then of
promotion, and reward of virtue or generally of conduct, is proved from
this in our Lord’s instance? For if He was not God, and then had
become God, if not being King He was preferred to the Kingdom, your
reasoning would have had some faint plausibility. But if He is God and
the throne of His kingdom is everlasting, in what way could God
advance? or what was there wanting to Him who was sitting on His
Father’s throne? And if, as the Lord Himself has said, the Spirit
is His, and takes of His, and He sends It, it is not the Word,
considered as the Word and Wisdom, who is anointed with the Spirit
which He Himself gives, but the flesh assumed by Him which is anointed
in Him and by Him2090
| 2090 Elsewhere Athan. says that our Lord’s Godhead was the
immediate anointing or chrism of the manhood He assumed, in
Apollin. ii. 3, Orat. iv. §36. vid. Origen.
Periarch. ii. 6. n. 4. And S. Greg. Naz. still more expressly,
and from the same text as Athan. Orat. x. fin. Again,
‘This [the Godhead] is the anointing of the manhood, not
sanctifying by an energy as the other Christs [anointed] but by a
presence of Him whole who anointed, ὅλου
τοῦ
χρίοντος; whence it came to pass that what anointed was called man and
what was anointed was made God.’ Orat. xxx. 20. Damasc.
F. O. iii. 3. Dei Filius, sicut pluvia in vellus, toto
divinitatis unguento nostram se fudit in carnem. Chrysolog.
Serm. 60. It is more common, however, to consider that the
anointing was the descent of the Spirit, as Athan. says at the
beginning of this section, according to Luke iv. 18; Acts x.
38. | ; that the
sanctification coming to the Lord as man, may come to all men from Him.
For not of Itself, saith He, doth the Spirit speak, but the Word is He
who gives It to the worthy. For this is like the passage considered
above; for as the Apostle has written, ‘Who existing in form of
God thought it not a prize to be equal with God, but emptied Himself,
and took a servant’s form,’ so David celebrates the Lord,
as the everlasting God and King, but sent to us and assuming our body
which is mortal. For this is his meaning in the Psalm, ‘All thy
garments2091
| 2091 Ps. xlv. 8. Our Lord’s
manhood is spoken of as a garment; more distinctly afterwards,
‘As Aaron was himself, and did not change on putting round him
the high priest’s garment, but remaining the same, was but
clothed,’ &c, Orat. ii. 8. On the Apollinarian abuse
of the idea, vid. note in loc. | smell of myrrh, aloes, and
cassia;’ and it is represented by Nicodemus and by Mary’s
company, when the one came bringing ‘a mixture of myrrh and
aloes, about an hundred pounds weight;’ and the others2092
‘the spices which they had
prepared’ for the burial of the Lord’s body.
48. What advancement then was it to the Immortal
to have assumed the mortal? or what promotion is it to the Everlasting
to have put on the temporal? what reward can be great to the
Everlasting God and King in the bosom of the Father? See ye not, that
this too was done and written because of us and for us, that us who are
mortal and temporal, the Lord, become man, might make immortal, and
bring into the everlasting kingdom of heaven? Blush ye not, speaking
lies against the divine oracles? For when our Lord Jesus Christ had
been among us, we indeed were promoted, as rescued from sin; but He is
the same2093
; nor did He alter, when He became man
(to repeat what I have said), but, as has been written, ‘The Word
of God abideth for ever2094
.’ Surely as,
before His becoming man, He, the Word, dispensed to the saints the
Spirit as His own2095
, so also when made
man, He sanctifies all by the Spirit and says to His Disciples,
‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’ And He gave to Moses and the
other seventy; and through Him David prayed to the Father, saying,
‘Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me2096
.’ On the other hand, when made man, He
said, ‘I will send to you the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth2097
;’ and He sent Him, He, the Word of
God, as being faithful. Therefore ‘Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever2098
,’
remaining unalterable, and at once gives and receives, giving as
God’s Word, receiving as man. It is not the Word then, viewed as
the Word, that is promoted; for He had all things and has them always;
but men, who have in Him and through Him their origin2099
| 2099 The
word origin, ἀρχὴ,
implies the doctrine, more fully brought out in other passages of the
Fathers, that our Lord has deigned to become an instrumental cause, as
it may be called, of the life of each individual Christian. For at
first sight it may be objected to the whole course of Athan.’s
argument thus;—What connection is there between the
sanctification of Christ’s manhood and ours? how does it prove
that human nature is sanctified because a particular specimen of it was
sanctified in Him? S. Chrysostom explains, Hom. in Matt. lxxxii.
5. And just before, ‘It sufficed not for Him to be made man, to
be scourged, to be sacrificed; but He assimilates us to Him
(ἀναφύρει
ἑαυτὸν
ἡμῖν), nor merely by
faith, but really, has He made us His body.’ Again, ‘That
we are commingled (ἀνακερασθῶμεν) into that flesh, not merely through love, but really, is
brought about by means of that food which He has bestowed upon
us.’ Hom. in Joann. 46. 3. And so S. Cyril writes against
Nestorius: ‘Since we have proved that Christ is the Vine, and we
branches as adhering to a communion with Him, not spiritual merely but
bodily, why clamours he against us thus bootlessly, saying that, since
we adhere to Him, not in a bodily way, but rather by faith and the
affection of love according to the Law, therefore He has called, not
His own flesh the vine, but rather the Godhead?’ in Joann.
lib. 10. Cap. 2. pp. 863, 4. And Nyssen, Orat. Catech. 37.
Decoctâ quasi per ollam carnis nostræ cruditate,
sanctificavit in æternum nobis cibum carnem suam. Paulin.
Ep. 23. Of course in such statements nothing material is
implied; Hooker says, ‘The mixture of His bodily substance with
ours is a thing which the ancient Fathers disclaim. Yet the mixture of
His flesh with ours they speak of, to signify what our very bodies
through mystical conjunction receive from that vital efficacy which we
know to be in His, and from bodily mixtures they borrow divers
similitudes rather to declare the truth than the manner of coherence
between His sacred and the sanctified bodies of saints.’ Eccl.
Pol. v. 56. §10. But without some explanation of this nature,
language such as S. Athanasius’s in the text seems a mere matter
of words. vid. infr. §50 fin. | of receiving them. For, when He is now said to be anointed in a
human respect, we it is who in Him are anointed; since also when He is
baptized, we it is who in Him are baptized. But on all these things the
Saviour throws much light, when He says to the Father, ‘And the
glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given to them, that they may be one,
even as We are one2100
.’ Because of
us then He asked for glory, and the words occur, ‘took’ and
‘gave’ and ‘highly exalted,’ that we might
take, and to us might be given, and we might be exalted in Him; as also
for us He sanctifies Himself, that we might be sanctified in Him2101
| 2101 Cyril, Thesaur. 20. p. 197. | .
49. But if they take advantage of the word
‘wherefore,’ as connected with the passage in the Psalm,
‘Wherefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee,’ for
their own purposes, let these novices in Scripture and masters in
irreligion know, that, as before, the word ‘wherefore’ does
not imply reward of virtue or conduct in the Word, but the reason why
He came down to us, and of the Spirit’s anointing which took
place in Him for our sakes. For He says not, ‘Wherefore He
anointed Thee in order to Thy being God or King or Son or Word;’
for so He was before and is for ever, as has been shewn; but rather,
‘Since Thou art God and King, therefore Thou wast anointed, since
none but Thou couldest unite man to the Holy Ghost, Thou the Image of
the Father, in which2102
we were made in the
beginning; for Thine is even the Spirit.’ For the nature of
things originate could give no warranty for this, Angels having
transgressed, and men disobeyed2103
| 2103 ἀγγέλων μὲν
παραβαντων,
ἀνθρώπων δὲ
παρακουσαντων. vid. infr. §51. init. Cf. ad Afr. 7. vid.
de Decr. 19, note 3. infr. Orat. ii. iii. Cyril. in
Joann. lib. v. 2. On the subject of the sins of Angels, vid.
Huet. Origen. ii. 5. §16. Petav. Dogm. t. 3. p. 87.
Dissert. Bened. in Cyril. Hier. iii. 5. Natal. Alex. Hist.
Æt. i. Diss. 7. | . Wherefore
there was need of God and the Word is God; that those who had become
under a curse, He Himself might set free. If then He was of nothing, He
would not have been the Christ or Anointed, being one among others and
having fellowship as the rest2104
| 2104 De
Decr. 10, note 4. | . But, whereas He is
God, as being Son of God, and is everlasting King, and exists as
Radiance and Expression2105
of the Father,
therefore fitly is He the expected Christ, whom the Father announces to
mankind, by revelation to His holy Prophets; that as through Him we
have come to be, so also in Him all men might be redeemed from their
sins, and by Him all things might be ruled2106
| 2106 The
word wherefore is here declared to denote the fitness why
the Son of God should become the Son of man. His Throne, as God, is for
ever; He has loved righteousness; therefore He is equal
to the anointing of the Spirit, as man. And so S. Cyril on the same
text, as in l. c. in the foregoing note. Cf. Leon Ep. 64. 2.
vid. de Incarn. 7 fin. 10. In illud Omn. 2. Cyril. in
Gen. i. p. 13. | .
And this is the cause of the anointing which took place in Him, and of
the incarnate presence of the Word2107
| 2107 ἔνσαρκος
παρουσία. This phrase which has occurred above, §8. is very frequent
with Athan. vid. also Cyril. Catech. iii. 11. xii. 15. xiv. 27,
30, Epiph. Hær. 77. 17. The Eutychians avail themselves of
it at the Council of Constantinople, vid. Hard. Conc. t. 2. pp.
164, 236. | , which the
Psalmist foreseeing, celebrates, first His Godhead and kingdom, which
is the Father’s, in these tones, ‘Thy throne, O God, is for
ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy
Kingdom2108
;’ then announces His descent to
us thus, ‘Wherefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with
the oil of gladness above Thy fellows2109
.’
50. What is there to wonder at, what to
disbelieve, if the Lord who gives the Spirit, is here said Himself to
be anointed with the Spirit, at a time when, necessity requiring it, He
did not refuse in respect of His manhood to call Himself inferior to
the Spirit? For the Jews saying that He cast out devils in Beelzebub,
He answered and said to them, for the exposure of their blasphemy,
‘But if I through the Spirit of God cast out demons2110
.’ Behold, the Giver of the Spirit here
says that He cast out demons in the Spirit; but this is not said,
except because of His flesh. For since man’s nature is not equal
of itself to casting out demons, but only in power of the Spirit,
therefore as man He said, ‘But if I through the Spirit of God
cast out demons.’ Of course too He signified that the blasphemy
offered to the Holy Ghost is greater than that against His humanity,
when He said, ‘Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of
man, it shall be forgiven him;’ such as were those who said,
‘Is not this the
carpenter’s son2111
?’ but they
who blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, and ascribe the deeds of the Word
to the devil, shall have inevitable punishment2112
| 2112 [Cf.
Prolegg. ch. iii. §1 (22).]. | .
This is what the Lord spoke to the Jews, as man; but to the disciples
shewing His Godhead and His majesty, and intimating that He was not
inferior but equal to the Spirit, He gave the Spirit and said,
‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ and ‘I send Him,’
and ‘He shall glorify Me,’ and ‘Whatsoever He
heareth, that He shall speak2113
.’ As then in
this place the Lord Himself, the Giver of the Spirit, does not refuse
to say that through the Spirit He casts out demons, as man; in like
manner He the same, the Giver of the Spirit, refused not to say,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me2114
,’ in respect of His having become
flesh, as John hath said; that it might be shewn in both these
particulars, that we are they who need the Spirit’s grace in our
sanctification, and again who are unable to cast out demons without the
Spirit’s power. Through whom then and from whom behoved it that
the Spirit should be given but through the Son, whose also the Spirit
is? and when were we enabled to receive It, except when the Word became
man? and, as the passage of the Apostle shews, that we had not been
redeemed and highly exalted, had not He who exists in form of God taken
a servant’s form, so David also shews, that no otherwise should
we have partaken the Spirit and been sanctified, but that the Giver of
the Spirit, the Word Himself, hast spoken of Himself as anointed with
the Spirit for us. And therefore have we securely received it, He being
said to be anointed in the flesh; for the flesh being first sanctified
in Him2115
, and He being said, as man, to have
received for its sake, we have the sequel of the Spirit grace,
receiving ‘out of His fulness2116
.’
51. Nor do the words, ‘Thou hast loved
righteousness and hated iniquity,’ which are added in the Psalm,
show, as again you suppose, that the Nature of the Word is alterable,
but rather by their very force signify His unalterableness. For since
of things originate the nature is alterable, and the one portion had
transgressed and the other disobeyed, as has been said, and it is not
certain how they will act, but it often happens that he who is now good
afterwards alters and becomes different, so that one who was but now
righteous, soon is found unrighteous, wherefore there was here also
need of one unalterable, that men might have the immutability of the
righteousness of the Word as an image and type for virtue2117
| 2117 Vid.
de Incarn. 13. 14. vid. also Gent. 41 fin. and Nic.
Def. 17, note 5. Cum justitia nulla esset in terra doctorem misit,
quasi vivam legem. Lactant. Instit. iv. 25. ‘The
Only-begotten was made man like us,…as if lending us His own
stedfastness.’ Cyril. in Joann. lib. v. 2. p. 473;
vid. also Thesaur. 20. p. 198. August. de Corr. et Grat.
10–12. Damasc. F. O. iv. 4. But the words of Athan.
embrace too many subjects to illustrate distinctly in a
note. | . And this thought commends itself strongly
to the right-minded. For since the first man Adam altered, and through
sin death came into the world, therefore it became the second Adam to
be unalterable; that, should the Serpent again assault, even the
Serpent’s deceit might be baffled, and, the Lord being
unalterable and unchangeable, the Serpent might become powerless in his
assault against all. For as when Adam had transgressed, his sin reached
unto all men, so, when the Lord had become man and had overthrown the
Serpent, that so great strength of His is to extend through all men, so
that each of us may say, ‘For we are not ignorant of his
devices.2118
’ Good reason then that the Lord,
who ever is in nature unalterable, loving righteousness and hating
iniquity, should be anointed and Himself sent, that, He, being and
remaining the same2119
, by taking this
alterable flesh, ‘might condemn sin in it2120
,’ and might secure its freedom, and
its ability2121
| 2121 Cf.
de Incarn. 7, Orat. ii. 68. | henceforth ‘to fulfil the
righteousness of the law’ in itself, so as to be able to say,
‘But we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in us2122
.’
52. Vainly then, here again, O Arians, have ye
made this conjecture, and vainly alleged the words of Scripture; for
God’s Word is unalterable, and is ever in one state, not as it
may happen2123
| 2123 ἁπλῶς, οὐκ
ἁπλῶς
ὡρίσθη, ἀλλ᾽
ἀκριβῶς
ἐξητάσθη. Socr. i. 9. p. 31. | , but as the Father is; since how is He
like the Father, unless He be thus? or how is all that is the
Father’s the Son’s also, if He has not the unalterableness
and unchangeableness of the Father2124
? Not as being
subject to laws2125
| 2125 Eunomius said that our Lord was utterly separate from the Father,
‘by natural law,’ νόμῳ
φύσεως; S. Basil
observes, ‘as if the God of all had not power over
Himself, ἑαυτοῦ
κύριος, but were
in bondage under the decrees of necessity.’ contr.
Eunom. ii. 30. | , and biassed to one
side, does He love the one and hate the other, lest, if from fear of
falling away He chooses the one, we admit that He is alterable
otherwise also; but, as being God and the Father’s Word, He is a
just judge and lover of virtue, or rather its dispenser. Therefore
being just and holy by nature, on this account He is said to love
righteousness and to hate iniquity; as much as to say, that He loves
and chooses the virtuous, and rejects and hates the unrighteous. And
divine Scripture says the same of
the Father; ‘The Righteous Lord loveth righteousness; Thou hatest
all them that work iniquity2126
,’ and
‘The Lord loveth the gates of Sion, more than all the dwellings
of Jacob2127
;’ and, ‘Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated2128
;’ and in
Isaiah there is the voice of God again saying, ‘I the Lord love
righteousness, and hate robbery of unrighteousness2129
.’ Let them then expound those former
words as these latter; for the former also are written of the Image of
God: else, misinterpreting these as those, they will conceive that the
Father too is alterable. But since the very hearing others say this is
not without peril, we do well to think that God is said to love
righteousness and to hate robbery of unrighteousness, not as if biassed
to one side, and capable of the contrary, so as to select the latter
and not choose the former, for this belongs to things originated, but
that, as a judge, He loves and takes to Him the righteous and withdraws
from the bad. It follows then to think the same concerning the Image of
God also, that He loves and hates no otherwise than thus. For such must
be the nature of the Image as is Its Father, though the Arians in their
blindness fail to see either that image or any other truth of the
divine oracles. For being forced from the conceptions or rather
misconceptions2130
| 2130 ἐννοιῶν
μᾶλλον δὲ
παρανοιῶν, vid. §40, note 1. | of their own
hearts, they fall back upon passages of divine Scripture, and here too
from want of understanding, according to their wont, they discern not
their meaning; but laying down their own irreligion as a sort of canon
of interpretation2131
| 2131 Instead of professing to examine Scripture or to acquiesce in what
they had been taught, the Arians were remarkable for insisting on
certain abstract positions or inferences on which they make the whole
controversy turn. Vid. Socrates’ account of Arius’s
commencement, ‘If God has a Son, he must have a beginning of
existence,’ &c. &c., and so the word ἀγενητόν. | , they wrest the
whole of the divine oracles into accordance with it. And so on the bare
mention of such doctrine, they deserve nothing but the reply, ‘Ye
do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God2132
;’ and if they persist in it, they must
be put to silence, by the words, ‘Render to’ man ‘the
things that are’ man’s, ‘and to God the things that
are’ God’s2133
.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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