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

torian. In the Fifth Book of his Epitome of the Times he says “we who know the weight of
those terms, and are not ignorant of the grace of faith, render thanks to the Father, who
bestowed on us His own creatures, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world and our Lord, to
whom be glory and majesty with the Holy Ghost, for ever.” 1324 The rest of the passages
may peradventure be viewed with suspicion; or may really have been altered, and the fact
of their having been tampered with will be difficult to detect because the difference consists
in a single syllable. Those however which I have quoted at length are out of the reach of
any dishonest manipulation, and can easily be verified from the actual works.
I will now adduce another piece of evidence which might perhaps seem insignificant,
but because of its antiquity must in nowise be omitted by a defendant who is indicted on a
charge of innovation. It seemed fitting to our fathers not to receive the gift of the light at
eventide in silence, but, on its appearing, immediately to give thanks. Who was the author
of these words of thanksgiving at the lighting of the lamps, we are not able to say. The
people, however, utter the ancient form, and no one has ever reckoned guilty of impiety
those who say “We praise Father, Son, and God’s Holy Spirit.” 1325 And if any one knows
the Hymn of Athenogenes, 1326 which, as he was hurrying on to his perfecting by fire, he
left as a kind of farewell gift 1327 to his friends, he knows the mind of the martyrs as to the
Spirit. On this head I shall say no more.
prietatem namque gratiæ ejus operisque descripsimus. Porro autem nihil in Trinitate majus minusve dicendum
est, quum unius Divinitatis Fons verbo ac ratione sua teneat universa, spiritu vero oris sui quæ digna sunt,
sanctificatione sanctificet, sicut in Psalmo scriptum est verbo domini cœli firmati sunt et spiritu oris ejus omnis
virtus eorum.” De Princ. I. iii. 7. On the obligations of both Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus to Origen, cf. Socrates
iv. 26.
1324 Of the chief writings of Julius Africanus (called Sextus Africanus by Suidas), who wrote at Emmaus and
Alexandria c. 220, only fragments remain. A Letter to Origen is complete. His principal work was a Chronicon
from the Creation to a.d. 221, in Five Books. Of this Dr. Salmon (D.C.B. i. 56) thinks the doxology quoted by
Basil was the conclusion.
Enumeration of the illustrious men in the Church who in their writings have…
1325 Ps. cxli. was called ὁ ἐπιλύχνιος ψαλμός (Ap. Const. viii. 35). In the Vespers of the Eastern Church an
evening hymn is sung, translated in D.C.A. i. 634, “Joyful Light of the holy glory of the immortal Father, the
heavenly, the holy, the blessed Jesus Christ, we having come to the setting of the sun and beholding the evening
light, praise God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is meet at all times that thou shouldest be hymned with aus-
picious voices, Son of God, Giver of Life: wherefore the world glorifieth thee.”
1326 Identified by some with two early hymns, Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις, and φῶς ἱλαρόν.
1327 The mss. vary between ἐξιτήριον and ἀλεξιτήριον, farewell gift and amulet or charm. In Ep. cciii. 299
Basil says that our Lord gave His disciples peace as an ἐξιτήριον δῶρον, using the word, but in conjunction with
δῶρον. Greg. Naz., Orat. xiv. 223 speaks of our Lord leaving peace “ὥσπερ ἄλλο τι ἐξιτήριον.”
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