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

the helm and made shipwreck of the faith. 1344 And then the disturbances wrought by the
princes of the world 1345 have caused the downfall of the people with a violence unmatched
by that of hurricane or whirlwind. The luminaries of the world, which God set to give light
to the souls of the people, have been driven from their homes, and a darkness verily gloomy
and disheartening has settled on the Churches. 1346 The terror of universal ruin is already
imminent, and yet their mutual rivalry is so unbounded as to blunt all sense of danger. Individual
hatred is of more importance than the general and common warfare, for men by
whom the immediate gratification of ambition is esteemed more highly than the rewards
that await us in a time to come, prefer the glory of getting the better of their opponents to
securing the common welfare of mankind. So all men alike, each as best he can, lift the
hand of murder against one another. Harsh rises the cry of the combatants encountering
one another in dispute; already all the Church is almost full of the inarticulate screams, the
unintelligible noises, rising from the ceaseless agitations that divert the right rule of the
doctrine of true religion, now in the direction of excess, now in that of defect. On the one
hand are they who confound the Persons and are carried away into Judaism; 1347 on the
other hand are they that, through the opposition of the natures, pass into heathenism. 1348
Between these opposite parties inspired Scripture is powerless to mediate; the traditions of
the apostles cannot suggest terms of arbitration. Plain speaking is fatal to friendship, and
disagreement in opinion all the ground that is wanted for a quarrel. No oaths of confederacy
are so efficacious in keeping men true to sedition as their likeness in error. Every one is a
theologue though he have his soul branded with more spots than can be counted. The result
the saving efficacy of Baptism to the presence of the Spirit, and here applies the word to Him.” In § 35, we have
τὸ σωτήριον βάπτισυα.
1344 1 Tim. i. 19.
1345 1 Cor. ii. 6.
1346 Among the bishops exiled during the persecution of Valens were Meletius of Antioch, Eusebius of
Samosata, Pelagius of Laodicea, and Barses of Edessa. cf. Theodoret, Hist. Ecc. iv. 12 sq. cf. Ep. 195.
1347 The identification of an unsound Monarchianism with Judaism is illustrated in the 1st Apology of Justin
Martyr, e.g. in § lxxxiii. (Reeves’ Trans.). “The Jews, therefore, for maintaining that it was the Father of the
Universe who had the conference with Moses, when it was the very Son of God who had it, and who is styled
both Angel and Apostle, are justly accused by the prophetic spirit and Christ Himself, for knowing neither the
Father nor the Son; for they who affirm the Son to be the Father are guilty of not knowing the Father, and likewise
of being ignorant that the Father of the Universe has a Son, who, being the Logos and First-begotten of God, is
God.”
1348 i.e. the Arians, whose various ramifications all originated in a probably well-meant attempt to reconcile
the principles of Christianity with what was best in the old philosophy, and a failure to see that the ditheism of
Arianism was of a piece with polytheism.
Exposition of the present state of the Churches.
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