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Lecture VII.
The Father.
Ephesians iii. 14, 15
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,…of
whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named, &c.
1. Of God as the
sole Principle we have said enough to you yesterday960
| 960 See Lecture VI. 1, and
5. | : by “enough” I mean, not
what is worthy of the subject, (for to reach that is utterly impossible
to mortal nature), but as much as was granted to our infirmity. I
traversed also the bye-paths of the manifold error of the godless
heretics: but now let us shake off their foul and soul-poisoning
doctrine, and remembering what relates to them, not to our own hurt,
but to our greater detestation of them, let us come back to ourselves,
and receive the saving doctrines of the true Faith, connecting the
dignity of Fatherhood with that of the Unity, and believing
In One God the Father: for we must not
only believe in one God; but this also let us devoutly receive, that He
is the Father of the Only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. For thus shall we raise our thoughts
higher than the Jews961
| 961 “In Athanasius,
Quæstio i. ad Antiochum, tom. II. p. 331,
Monarchia is opposed to Polytheism: ‘If we worship One God,
it is manifest that we agree with the Jews in believing in a
Monarchia: but if we worship three gods, it is evident that we
follow the Greeks by introducing Polytheism, instead of piously
worshipping One Only God.’” (Suicer,
Thesaurus, Μοναρχία.) | , who admit indeed by
their doctrines that there is One God, (for what if they often denied
even this by their idolatries?); but that He is also the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, they admit not; being of a contrary mind to their
own Prophets, who in the Divine Scriptures affirm, The Lord said
unto me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee962
. And to this day they rage and
gather themselves together against the Lord, and against His
Anointed963
, thinking that it is
possible to be made friends of the Father apart from devotion towards
the Son, being ignorant that no man cometh unto the Father but
by964
the Son, who saith, I am the Door, and I
am the Way965
. He therefore
that refuseth the Way which leadeth to the Father, and he that denieth
the Door, how shall he be deemed worthy of entrance unto God?
They contradict also what is written in the eighty-eighth Psalm, He
shall call Me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the helper of my
salvation. And I will make him my first-born, high among the
kings of the earth966
. For if they
should insist that these things are said of David or Solomon or any of
their successors, let them shew how the throne of him, who is in
their judgment described in the prophecy, is as the days of heaven,
and as the sun before God, and as the moon established for
ever967
. And how is it
also that they are not abashed at that which is written, From the
womb before the morning-star have I begotten thee968
: also this, He shall endure with the
sun, and before the moon, from generation to generation969
. To refer these passages to a man is a
proof of utter and extreme insensibility.
3. Let the Jews, however, since they so
will, suffer their usual disorder of unbelief, both in these and the
like statements. But let us adopt the godly doctrine of our
Faith, worshipping one God the Father of the Christ, (for to deprive
Him, who grants to all the gift of generation, of the like dignity
would be impious): and let us Believe in One
God the Father, in order that, before we touch upon our teaching
concerning Christ, the faith concerning the Only-begotten may be
implanted in the soul of the hearers, without being at all interrupted
by the intervening doctrines concerning the Father.
4. For the name of the Father, with the very
utterance of the title, suggests the thought of the Son: as in
like manner one who names the Son thinks straightway of the Father
also970
| 970 Compare Athanasius
(de Sententiâ Dionyssi, § 17): “Each of
the names I have mentioned is inseparable and indivisible from that
next to it. I spoke of the Father, and before bringing in the
Son, I designated Him also in the Father. I brought in the Son,
and even if I had not previously mentioned the Father, in any wise He
would have been presupposed in the Son.” | . For if a Father, He is
certainly the Father
of a Son; and if a Son, certainly the Son of a Father. Lest
therefore from our speaking thus, In One God, the
Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of All Things Visible
and Invisible, and from our then adding this also, And in One Lord Jesus Christ, any one should irreverently
suppose that the Only-begotten is second in rank to heaven and
earth,—for this reason before naming them we named God the Father, that in thinking of the Father we might at
the same time think also of the Son: for between the Son and the
Father no being whatever comes.
5. God then is in an improper sense971
| 971 καταχρηστικῶς. A technical term in Grammar, applied to the use of a word in a
derived or metaphorical sense. See Aristotle’s description
of the various kinds of metaphor, Poet. § xxi.
7–16. The opposite to καταχρηστικῶς
is κυρίως, as used in a
parallel passage by Athanasius, Oratio i. contra Arianos,
§ 21 fin. “It belongs to the Godhead alone, that the
Father is properly (κυρίως) Father, and the Son
properly Son.” | the Father of many, but by nature and in
truth of One only, the Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; not
having attained in course of time to being a Father, but being ever the
Father of the Only-begotten972
| 972 “And in
Them, and Them only, does it hold, that the Father is ever Father, and
the Son ever Son.” (Athan., as above.) | . Not that being
without a Son before, He has since by change of purpose become a
Father: but before every substance and every intelligence, before
times and all ages, God hath the dignity of Father, magnifying Himself
in this more than in His other dignities; and having become a Father,
not by passion973
| 973 Compare vi. 6:
ὁ γεννηθεὶς
ἀπαθῶς. The importance
attached to the assertion of a “passionless generation”
arose from the objections offered by Eusebius of Nicomedia and others
to the word ὁμοούσιος
when proposed by Constantine at Nicæa. We learn from
Eusebius of Cæsarea (Epist ad suæ parœciæ
homines, § 4) that the Emperor himself explained that the word
was used “not in the sense of the affections (πάθη) of bodies,” because
“the immaterial, and intellectual, and incorporeal nature could
not be the subject of any corporeal affection.” Again, in
§ 7, Eusebius admits that “there are grounds for saying that
the Son is ‘one in essence’ with the Father, not in the way
of bodies, nor like mortal beings, for He is not such by division of
essence, or by severance, no, nor by any affection, or alteration, or
changing of the Father’s essence and power.” (See the
next note.) | , or union, not in
ignorance, not by effluence974
| 974 Athanasius (Expos.
Fidei, § 1): “Word not pronounced nor mental, nor
an effluence of the Perfect, nor a dividing of the passionless
nature.” Also (de Decretis, § 11):
“God being without parts is Father of the Son without partition
or passion; for there is neither effluence of the Immaterial, nor
influx from without, as among men.” | , not by diminution,
not by alteration, for every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no
variation, neither shadow of turning975
. Perfect Father, He begat a perfect
Son, and delivered all things to Him who is begotten: (for all
things, He saith, are delivered unto Me of My
Father976
:) and is
honoured by the Only-begotten: for, I honour My
Father977
, saith the Son; and
again, Even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide
in His love978
. Therefore we
also say like the Apostle, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all
consolation979
: and, We bow
our knees unto the Father from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on
earth is named980
: glorifying Him
with the Only-begotten: for he that denieth the Father,
denieth the Son also981
: and again,
He that confesseth the Son, hath the Father also982
| 982 v.
23, bracketed in the A.V. as
spurious, but rightly restored in R.V. | ; knowing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
glory of God the Father983
.
6. We worship, therefore, as the Father of
Christ, the Maker of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob984
; to whose honour the
former temple also, over against us here, was built. For we shall
not tolerate the heretics who sever the Old Testament from the
New985
| 985 Compare Lect. iv.
33. | , but shall believe Christ, who says
concerning the temple, Wist ye not that I must be in My
Father’s house986
? and again, Take
these things hence, and make not my Father’s house a house of
merchandise987
, whereby He most
clearly confessed that the former temple in Jerusalem was His own
Father’s house. But if any one from unbelief wishes to
receive yet more proofs as to the Father of Christ being the same as
the Maker of the world, let him hear Him say again, Are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing, and not one of them shall fall on the
ground without My Father which is in heaven988
; this
also, Behold the fowls of the heaven that they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth
them989
; and this, My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work990
.
7. But lest any one from simplicity or
perverse ingenuity should suppose that Christ is but equal in honour to
righteous men, from His saying, I ascend to My Father, and
your991
| 991 John xx. 17. On this text, quoted again
in Cat. xi. 19, see the three Sermons of Bishop Andrewes On the
Resurrection. | Father, it is
well to make this distinction beforehand, that the name of the Father
is one, but the power of His operation992
| 992 ἐνεργεία, meaning here,
the operation of God, by nature in begetting His Son, by adoption in
making many sons. |
manifold. And Christ Himself knowing this has spoken unerringly,
I go to My Father, and your Father: not saying ‘to
our Father,’ but distinguishing, and saying first what was proper
to Himself, to My Father, which was by nature; then adding,
and your Father, which was by adoption. For however high
the privilege we have received of saying in our prayers, Our
Father, which art in
heaven, yet the gift is of loving-kindness. For we call Him
Father, not as having been by nature begotten of Our Father which is in
heaven; but having been transferred from servitude to sonship by the
grace of the Father, through the Son and Holy Spirit, we are permitted
so to speak by ineffable loving-kindness.
8. But if any one wishes to learn how we
call God “Father,” let him hear Moses, the excellent
schoolmaster, saying, Did not this thy Father Himself buy thee, and
make thee, and create thee993
? Also Esaias
the Prophet, And now, O Lord. Thou art our Father: and
we all are clay, the works of Thine hands994
. For most clearly has the prophetic
gift declared that not according to nature, but according to
God’s grace, and by adoption, we call Him Father.
9. And that thou mayest learn more exactly
that in the Divine Scriptures it is not by any means the natural father
only that is called father, hear what Paul says:—For though ye
should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many
fathers: for in Christ Jesus I begat you through the
Gospel995
. For Paul was
father of the Corinthians, not by having begotten them after the flesh,
but by having taught and begotten them again after the Spirit.
Hear Job also saying, I was a father of the needy996
: for he called himself a father, not as
having begotten them all, but as caring for them. And God’s
Only-begotten Son Himself, when nailed in His flesh to the tree at the
time of crucifixion, on seeing Mary, His own Mother according to the
flesh, and John, the most beloved of His disciples, said to him,
Behold! thy mother, and to her, Behold! thy Son997
: teaching her the parental affection
due to him998
| 998 φιλοστοργία
might be applied to the mutual affection of mother and son, but the
context shews that it refers here to parental love only; see Polybius,
V. § 74, 5; Xenoph. Cyrop. I. § 3, 2. | , and indirectly
explaining that which is said in Luke, and His father and His mother
marvelled at Him999
: words which
the tribe of heretics snatch up, saying that He was begotten of a man
and a woman. For like as Mary was called the mother of John,
because of her parental affection, not from having given him birth, so
Joseph also was called the father of Christ, not from having begotten
Him (for he knew her not, as the Gospel says, until she had
brought forth her first-born Son1000
), but because
of the care bestowed on His nurture.
10. Thus much then at present, in the way of
a digression, to put you in remembrance. Let me, however, add yet
another testimony in proof that God is called the Father of men in an
improper sense. For when in Esaias God is addressed thus, For
Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us1001
, and Sarah travailed not with
us1002
, need we inquire
further on this point? And if the Psalmist says, Let them be
troubled from His countenance, the Father of the fatherless, and Judge
of the widows1003
| 1003 Ps. lxviii. 5. Cyril quotes as usual from the
Septuagint (Ps. lxvii. 6), where the clause ταραχθήσονται
ἀπὸ προσώπου
αὐτοῦ, answering to nothing in the
Hebrew, is evidently an interpolation, and may have crept in from a
marginal quotation of Is.
lxiv. 2. | , is it not manifest
to all, that when God is called the Father of orphans who have lately
lost their own fathers, He is so named not as begetting them of
Himself, but as caring for them and shielding them. But whereas
God, as we have said, is in an improper sense the Father of men, of
Christ alone He is the Father by nature, not by adoption: and the
Father of men in time, but of Christ before all time, as He saith,
And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was1004
.
11. We believe then In One
God the Father the Unsearchable and Ineffable, Whom no man
hath seen1005
, but the
Only-begotten alone hath declared Him1006
. For He which is of God, He hath
seen God1007
: whose face
the Angels do alway behold in heaven1008
, behold,
however, each according to the measure of his own rank. But the
undimmed vision of the Father is reserved in its purity for the Son
with the Holy Ghost.
12. Having reached this point of my
discourse, and being reminded of the passages just before mentioned, in
which God was addressed as the Father of men, I am greatly amazed at
men’s insensibility. For God with unspeakable
loving-kindness deigned to be called the Father of men,—He in
heaven, they on earth,—and He the Maker of Eternity, they made in
time,—He who holdeth the earth in the hollow of His hand,
they upon the earth as grasshoppers1009
. Yet man
forsook his heavenly Father, and said to the stock, Thou art my
father, and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me1010
. And for this reason, methinks, the
Psalmist says to mankind, Forget also thine own people, and thy
father’s house1011
, whom thou hast
chosen for a father, whom thou hast drawn upon thyself to thy
destruction.
13. And not only stocks and stones, but even
Satan himself, the destroyer of souls, have some ere now chosen for a
father; to whom the Lord said as a rebuke, Ye do the deeds of your
father1012
, that is of the
devil, he being the father of men not by nature, but by
fraud. For like
as Paul by his godly teaching came to be called the father of the
Corinthians, so the devil is called the father of those who of their
own will consent unto him1013
.
For we shall not tolerate those who give a wrong
meaning to that saying, Hereby know we the children of God, and the
children of the devil1014
, as if there were
by nature some men to be saved, and some to be lost. Whereas we
come into such holy sonship not of necessity but by choice: nor
was the traitor Judas by nature a son of the devil and of perdition;
for certainly he would never have cast out devils at all in the name of
Christ: for Satan casteth not out Satan1015
. Nor on the other hand would Paul have
turned from persecuting to preaching. But the adoption is in our
own power, as John saith, But as many as received Him, to them gave
He power to become the children of God, even to them that believe in
His name1016
. For not
before their believing, but from their believing they were counted
worthy to become of their own choice the children of God.
14. Knowing this, therefore, let us walk
spiritually, that we may be counted worthy of God’s
adoption. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God1017
. For it
profiteth us nothing to have gained the title of Christians, unless the
works also follow; lest to us also it be said, If ye were
Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham1018
. For if we call on Him as Father,
who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s
work, let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear1019
, loving not the world, neither the things
that are in the world: for if any man love the world, the love of
the Father is not in him1020
. Wherefore,
my beloved children, let us by our works offer glory to our Father
which is in heaven, that they may see our good works, and glorify our
Father which is in heaven1021
. Let us
cast all our care upon Him, for our Father knoweth what things we have
need of1022
.
15. But while honouring our heavenly Father
let us honour also the fathers of our flesh1023
: since the Lord Himself hath evidently
so appointed in the Law and the Prophets, saying, Honour thy father
and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thy days shall be
long in the land1024
. And let this
commandment be especially observed by those here present who have
fathers and mothers. Children, obey your parents in all
things: for this is well pleasing to the Lord1025
. For the Lord said not, He that
loveth father or mother is not worthy of Me, lest thou from
ignorance shouldest perversely mistake what was rightly written, but He
added, more than Me1026
. For when our
fathers on earth are of a contrary mind to our Father in heaven, then
we must obey Christ’s word. But when they put no obstacle
to godliness in our way, if we are ever carried away by ingratitude,
and, forgetting their benefits to us, hold them in contempt, then the
oracle will have place which says, He that curseth father or mother,
let him die the death1027
| 1027 Ex. xxi. 17; Lev. xx. 9; Matt. xv.
4. | .
16. The first virtue of godliness in
Christians is to honour their parents, to requite the troubles of those
who begat them1028
| 1028 Compare for the
thought Euripides, Medea, 1029–1035. | , and with all their
might to confer on them what tends to their comfort (for if we should
repay them ever so much, yet we shall never be able to return their
gift of life1029
| 1029 ἀντιγεννῆσαι.
Jeremy Taylor (Ductor Dubitantium, Book III. cap. ii. §17)
mentions several stories in which a parent is nourished from a
daughter’s breast, who thus ‘saves the life she cannot
give.’ | ), that they also
may enjoy the comfort provided by us, and may confirm us in those
blessings which Jacob the supplanter shrewdly seized; and that our
Father in heaven may accept1030
| 1030 On the change of
Moods, see Jelf, Greek Grammar, § 809. The second
verb (καταξίωσειεν)
expresses a wish and a consequence which might follow, if the first
(στηρίξωσιν)
wish be realized, as it probably may be. Cf. Herod. ix. 51. | our good purpose,
and judge us worthy to shine amid righteous as the sun in the
kingdom of our Father1031
: To whom be
the glory, with the Only-begotten our Saviour Jesus Christ, and with
the Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, to all eternity.
Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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