{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/103/1030294.htm","path":"chr/ecf/103/1030294.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/103/1030294.htm","text":"Chapter 44.\u2014In Speaking of Sin, the Singular Number is Often Put for the Plural, and the Plural for the Singular.\nBut even these latter are frequently said to die to sin, though undoubtedly they die not to one sin, but to all the numerous actual sins they have committed in thought, word, or deed: for the singular number is often put for the plural, as when the poet says, \u201cThey fill its belly with the armed soldier,\u201d 1161 though in the case here referred to there were many soldiers concerned. And we read in our own Scriptures: \u201cPray to the Lord, that He take away the serpent from us.\u201d 1162 He does not say serpents though the people were suffering from many; and so in other cases. When, on the other hand, the original sin is expressed in the plural number, as when we say that infants are baptized for the remission of sins, instead of saying for the remission of sin, this is the converse figure of speech, by which the plural number is put in place of the singular; as in the Gospel it is said of the death of Herod, \u201cfor they are dead which sought the young child\u2019s life,\u201d 1163 instead of saying, \u201che is dead.\u201d And in Exodus: \u201cThey have made them,\u201d Moses says, \u201cgods of gold,\u201d 1164 though they had made only one calf, of which they said: \u201cThese be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,\u201d 1165 \u2014here, too, putting the plural in place of the singular.\n\u201cUterumque armato milite complent.\u201d.\u2014Virgil, \u00c6n. ii. 20.\n252:1162\nNum. 21.7Num. xxi. 7 (\u201cserpents,\u201d A. and R.V.).\n252:1163 252:1164 252:1165","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III: Doctrinal Treat...","type":"page"}