Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

the sub-numeration to benefit the Spirit alone, they must be taught that the Spirit is spoken
of together with the Lord in precisely the same manner in which the Son is spoken of with
the Father. “The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” 1082 is delivered
in like manner, and, according to the co-ordination of words delivered in baptism, the relation
of the Spirit to the Son is the same as that of the Son to the Father. And if the Spirit is coordinate
with the Son, and the Son with the Father, it is obvious that the Spirit is also coordinate
with the Father. When then the names are ranked in one and the same co-ordinate
series, 1083 what room is there for speaking on the one hand of connumeration, and on the
other of sub-numeration? Nay, without exception, what thing ever lost its own nature by
being numbered? Is it not the fact that things when numbered remain what they naturally
and originally were, while number is adopted among us as a sign indicative of the plurality
of subjects? For some bodies we count, some we measure, and some we weigh; 1084 those
which are by nature continuous we apprehend by measure; to those which are divided we
apply number (with the exception of those which on account of their fineness are measured);
while heavy objects are distinguished by the inclination of the balance. It does not however
follow that, because we have invented for our convenience symbols to help us to arrive at
the knowledge of quantity, we have therefore changed the nature of the things signified.
We do not speak of “weighing under” one another things which are weighed, even though
one be gold and the other tin; nor yet do we “measure under” things that are measured; and
so in the same way we will not “number under” things which are numbered. And if none
of the rest of things admits of sub-numeration how can they allege that the Spirit ought to
be subnumerated? Labouring as they do under heathen unsoundness, they imagine that
things which are inferior, either by grade of rank or subjection of substance, ought to be
subnumerated.
1082 Matt. xxviii. 19.
Against those who say that the Holy Ghost is not to be numbered with, but…
1083 ουστοιχία, a series of similar things, as in Arist. An. Pr. ii. 21, 2. In the Pythagorean philosophy, a co-
ordinate or parallel series. Arist. Met. i. 5, 6, and Eth. Nic. i. 6, 7.
1084 cf. Wis. xi. 20. “Thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight.”
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