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

Chapter XX.
Against those who maintain that the Spirit is in the rank neither of a servant nor of a
master, but in that of the free.
51. He is not a slave, it is said; not a master, but free. Oh the terrible insensibility, the
pitiable audacity, of them that maintain this! Shall I rather lament in them their ignorance
or their blasphemy? They try to insult the doctrines that concern the divine nature 1150 by
comparing them with the human, and endeavour to apply to the ineffable nature of God
that common custom of human life whereby the difference of degrees is variable, not perceiving
that among men no one is a slave by nature. For men are either brought under a
yoke of slavery by conquest, as when prisoners are taken in war; or they are enslaved on
account of poverty, as the Egyptians were oppressed by Pharaoh; or, by a wise and mysterious
dispensation, the worst children are by their fathers’ order condemned to serve the wiser
and the better; 1151 and this any righteous enquirer into the circumstances would declare to
be not a sentence of condemnation but a benefit. For it is more profitable that the man
who, through lack of intelligence, has no natural principle of rule within himself, should
become the chattel of another, to the end that, being guided by the reason of his master, he
may be like a chariot with a charioteer, or a boat with a steersman seated at the tiller. For
this reason Jacob by his father’s blessing became lord of Esau, 1152 in order that the foolish
son, who had not intelligence, his proper guardian, might, even though he wished it not, be
benefited by his prudent brother. So Canaan shall be “a servant unto his brethren” 1153 because,
since his father Ham was unwise, he was uninstructed in virtue. In this world, then,
it is thus that men are made slaves, but they who have escaped poverty or war, or do not
require the tutelage of others, are free. It follows that even though one man be called master
and another servant, nevertheless, both in view of our mutual equality of rank and as chattels
of our Creator, we are all fellow slaves. But in that other world what can you bring out of
bondage? For no sooner were they created than bondage was commenced. The heavenly
bodies exercise no rule over one another, for they are unmoved by ambition, but all bow
down to God, and render to Him alike the awe which is due to Him as Master and the glory
which falls to Him as Creator. For “a son honoureth his father and a servant his master,” 1154
and from all God asks one of these two things; for “if I then be a Father where is my honour?
and if I be a Master where is my fear?” 1155 Otherwise the life of all men, if it were not under
1150 τὰ τῆς θεολογίας δόγματα. cf. note on § 66.
1151 cf. Gen. ix. 25.
1152 Gen. xxvii. 29.
1153 Gen. ix. 25.
1154 Mal. i. 6.
1155 Mal. i. 6.
Against those who maintain that the Spirit is in the rank neither of a servant…
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