or “that God’s Son is true God.” “very God.”
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
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Exposition of the Christian Faith — Historical footnotes
Chapter uncertain
Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.
English translation and editorial credits: Augustus Henry Eugene de Romestin, Eugene de Romestin (assistant), Henry Thomas Forbes Duckworth (assistant).
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1. Enough hath been said, as I think, your sacred Majesty, in the book preceding to show that the Son of God is an eternal being, not diverse from the Father, begotten, not created: we have also proved, from passages of the Scriptures, that God’s true Son is God, and is declared so to be by the evident tokens of His Majesty.
“speculum Dei”—lit. “mirror of God.”
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-8 · Original source
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3. These tokens so declare the nature of the Son, that by them you may know both that the Father is eternal, and that the Son is not diverse from Him; for the source of generation is He Who is, and as begotten of the Eternal, He is God; coming forth from the Father, He is the Son; from God, He is the Word; He is the radiance of the Father’s glory, the expression of His substance, the counterpart of God, the image of His majesty; the Bounty of Him Who is bountiful, the Wisdom of Him Who is wise, the Power of the Mighty One, the Truth of Him Who is true, the Life of the Living One. In agreement, therefore, stand the attributes of Father and Son, that none may suppose any diversity, or doubt but that they are of one Majesty. For each and all of these names would we furnish examples of their use were we not constrained by a desire to maintain our discourse within bounds.
sc. to the name and title of God.
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-14 · Original source
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7. The three that follow—to wit, the names “God,” “Life,” “Truth,” reveal His Power, whereby He hath laid the foundations of, and upheld, the created world. “For,” as Paul said, “in Him we live and move and have our being;” and therefore, in the first three the Son’s natural right, in the other three the unity of action subsisting between Father and Son is made manifest.
“The act of knowing and comprehending all things necessarily includes the expression of mind-work or wisdom, that is, the Word, and without this it cannot even be conceived of. Rightly, then, did the Fathers deduce the eternity of the Word from the eternity of the Father.”—Hurter, ad loc.
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-16 · Original source
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9. We have yet the operations of Power, Wisdom, and Justice left, wherewith, severally, to prove [the Son’s] eternity.
St. Ambrose’s rendering of this passage (Job xxxviii. 36) agrees with the LXX.—τίς δὲ ἔδωκε γυναιξὶν ὑφάσματος σοφίαν, ἤ ποικιλτικὴν ἐλιστήμην. The A.V. 1611 has: “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?” R.V. has “dark clouds” and “meteor” as marginal substitutes for “inward parts” and “heart.” Vulgate—Quis posuit in visceribus hominis sapientiam? vel quis dedit gallo intelligentiam?
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-17 · Original source
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10. This, then, is that robe, adorned with precious stones; this is the amice of the true Priest; this the bridal garment; here is the inspired weaver, who well knew how to weave that work. No common woven work is it, whereof the Lord spake by His Prophet: “Who gave to women their skill in weaving?” No common stones again, are they—stones, as we find them called, “of filling;” for all perfection depends on this
Ex. xxxv. 27. καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντες ἤνεγκαν τοὺς λίθους τῆς σμαράγδου καί τοὺς λίθους της πληρωσεως εἰς τὴν ἐπωμίδα καὶ τὸ λογεῖον.— LXX. Lapides onycninos et gemmas ad superhumerale et rationale.—Vulg. “Stones to be set.”—A.V. & R.V. The LXX. gives the closest rendering of the Hebrew.
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-18 · Original source
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10. This, then, is that robe, adorned with precious stones; this is the amice of the true Priest; this the bridal garment; here is the inspired weaver, who well knew how to weave that work. No common woven work is it, whereof the Lord spake by His Prophet: “Who gave to women their skill in weaving?” No common stones again, are they—stones, as we find them called, “of filling;” for all perfection depends on this
Proverbs xxxi. 21 (22). St. Ambrose appears to follow the LXX., whose rendering of the passage is different from the Vulgate, with which our English versions agree. With what follows in the text, cf. Ex. xxviii. 33, 34, also Ex. xxviii. 5, 6.
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11. Let none suppose me to be misguided, in that I made at first a threefold division, each part containing four, and afterwards a fourfold division, each part containing three terms. The beauty of a good thing pleases the more, if it be shown under various aspects. For those are good things, whereof the texture of the priestly robe was the token, that is to say, either the Law, or the Church, which latter hath made two garments for her spouse, as it is written—the one of action, the other of spirit, weaving together the threads of faith and works. Thus, in one place, as we read, she makes a groundwork of gold, and afterwards weaves thereon blue, and purple, with scarlet, and white. Again, [as we read] elsewhere, she first makes little flowerets of blue and other colours, and attaches gold, and there is made a single priestly robe, to the end that adornments of diverse grace and beauty, made up of the same bright colours, may gain fresh glory by diversity of arrangement.
Ps. xii. (xi. Vulg.) 6, 7. Cf. Prov. xxx. 5.
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-20 · Original source
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12. Moreover (to complete our interpretation of these types), it is certain that by refined gold and silver are designated the oracles of the Lord, whereby our faith stands firm. “The oracles of the Lord are pure oracles, silver tried in the fire, refined of dross, purified seven times.” Now blue is like the air we breathe and draw in; purple, again, represents the appearance of water; scarlet signifies fire; and white linen, earth, for its origin is in the earth. Of these four elements, again, the human body is composed.
These colours entered into the fashioning of the High Priest’s Ephod (Ex. xxviii. 5, 6) and the Vail of the Tabernacle. Probably a little symbolism was attached to the ornaments of Ahasuerus’ palace of Susa, “where were white, green, and blue” (or violet) “hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble.” White and green might represent the earth, blue the air, purple the sea and water generally, in the curtains: whilst in the variegated marble pavement, red would naturally symbolize fire, blue the air, white water (as colourless when pure), black earth (the soil). Notice “the air we breathe,” etc.—“Aëris quem spiramus et cujus carpimus flatum.” Compare Virgil, Æn. I. 387, 388.
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-21 · Original source
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12. Moreover (to complete our interpretation of these types), it is certain that by refined gold and silver are designated the oracles of the Lord, whereby our faith stands firm. “The oracles of the Lord are pure oracles, silver tried in the fire, refined of dross, purified seven times.” Now blue is like the air we breathe and draw in; purple, again, represents the appearance of water; scarlet signifies fire; and white linen, earth, for its origin is in the earth. Of these four elements, again, the human body is composed.
This was supposed by some of the Ionic philosophers to be the explanation of perception. We perceived earth, they supposed, by reason of the earthly constituent of our organism.
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-22 · Original source
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12. Moreover (to complete our interpretation of these types), it is certain that by refined gold and silver are designated the oracles of the Lord, whereby our faith stands firm. “The oracles of the Lord are pure oracles, silver tried in the fire, refined of dross, purified seven times.” Now blue is like the air we breathe and draw in; purple, again, represents the appearance of water; scarlet signifies fire; and white linen, earth, for its origin is in the earth. Of these four elements, again, the human body is composed.
i.e. if it is possible for Him to ascend to a higher plane of existence.
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-24 · Original source
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14. Faith is profitable, therefore, when her brow is bright with a fair crown of good works. This faith—that I may set the matter forth shortly—is contained in the following principles, which cannot be overthrown. If the Son had His origin in nothing, He is not Son; if He is a creature, He is not the Creator; if He was made, He did not make all things; if He needs to learn, He hath no foreknowledge; if He is a receiver, He is not perfect; if He progress, He is not God. If He is unlike (the Father) He is not the (Father’s) image; if He is Son by grace, He is not such by nature; if He have no part in the Godhead, He hath it in Him to sin. “There is none good, but Godhead.”
i.e. He is a son “by adoption,” as one of ourselves.
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-25 · Original source
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14. Faith is profitable, therefore, when her brow is bright with a fair crown of good works. This faith—that I may set the matter forth shortly—is contained in the following principles, which cannot be overthrown. If the Son had His origin in nothing, He is not Son; if He is a creature, He is not the Creator; if He was made, He did not make all things; if He needs to learn, He hath no foreknowledge; if He is a receiver, He is not perfect; if He progress, He is not God. If He is unlike (the Father) He is not the (Father’s) image; if He is Son by grace, He is not such by nature; if He have no part in the Godhead, He hath it in Him to sin. “There is none good, but Godhead.”
i.e.He may not have as yet actually sinned, but it is within the range of possibility for Him—He is, as Hurter expresses it in his note, “auctor malitiæ si non actu, saltem potentia.”
Editorial footnote · Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter uncertain, editorial note cite_note-26 · Original source
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14. Faith is profitable, therefore, when her brow is bright with a fair crown of good works. This faith—that I may set the matter forth shortly—is contained in the following principles, which cannot be overthrown. If the Son had His origin in nothing, He is not Son; if He is a creature, He is not the Creator; if He was made, He did not make all things; if He needs to learn, He hath no foreknowledge; if He is a receiver, He is not perfect; if He progress, He is not God. If He is unlike (the Father) He is not the (Father’s) image; if He is Son by grace, He is not such by nature; if He have no part in the Godhead, He hath it in Him to sin. “There is none good, but Godhead.”