{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/208/2080033.htm","path":"chr/ecf/208/2080033.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/208/2080033.htm","text":"The systematic discussion of syllables is derived from heathen philosophy.\n5. They have, however, been led into this error by their close study of heathen writers, who have respectively applied the terms \u201cof whom\u201d and \u201cthrough whom\u201d to things which are by nature distinct. These writers suppose that by the term \u201cof whom\u201d or \u201cof which\u201d the matter is indicated, while the term \u201cthrough whom\u201d or \u201cthrough which\u201d 719 represents the instrument, or, generally speaking, subordinate agency. 720 Or rather\u2014for there seems no reason why we should not take up their whole argument, and briefly expose at once its incompatibility with the truth and its inconsistency with their own teaching\u2014the students of vain philosophy, while expounding the manifold nature of cause and distinguishing its peculiar significations, define some causes as principal, 721 some as cooperative or con-causal, while others are of the character of \u201csine qua non,\u201d or indispensable. 722\nFor every one of these they have a distinct and peculiar use of terms, so that the maker is indicated in a different way from the instrument. For the maker they think the proper expression is \u201cby whom,\u201d maintaining that the bench is produced \u201cby\u201d the carpenter; and for the instrument \u201cthrough which,\u201d in that it is produced \u201cthrough\u201d or by means of adze and gimlet and the rest. Similarly they appropriate \u201cof which\u201d to the material, in that the thing made is \u201cof\u201d wood, while \u201caccording to which\u201d shews the design, or pattern put before the craftsman. For he either first makes a mental sketch, and so brings his fancy to bear upon what he is about, or else he looks at a pattern previously put before him, and arranges his work accordingly. The phrase \u201con account of which\u201d they wish to be confined to the end or purpose, the bench, as they say, being produced for, or on account of, the use of man. \u201cIn which\u201d is supposed to indicate time and place. When was it produced? In this time. And where? In this place. And though place and time contribute nothing to what is being produced, yet without these the production of anything is impossible, for efficient agents must have both place and time. It is these careful distinctions, derived from unpractical philosophy and vain delusion, 723 which our opponents have first studied and admired, and then transferred to the simple and unsophisticated doctrine of the Spirit, to the belittling of God the Word, and the setting at naught of the Divine Spirit. Even the phrase set apart by non-Christian writers for the case of lifeless instruments 724 or of manual p. 5 service of the meanest kind, I mean the expression \u201cthrough or by means of which,\u201d they do not shrink from transferring to the Lord of all, and Christians feel no shame in applying to the Creator of the universe language belonging to a hammer or a saw.\nThe ambiguity of gender in \u1f10\u03be \u03bf\u1f57 and \u03b4\u03b9\u1fbd \u03bf\u1f57 can only be expressed by giving the alternatives in English.\n4:720\nThere are four causes or varieties of cause:\n1. The essence or quiddity (Form): \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c4\u03af \u1f26\u03bd \u03b5\u1f36\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9.\n2. The necessitating conditions (Matter): \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c4\u03af\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd \u1f44\u03bd\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd \u1f00\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03ba\u03b7 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c4\u1fbd \u03b5\u1f36\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9.\n3. The proximate mover or stimulator of change (Efficient): \u1f21 \u03c4\u03af \u03c0\u03c1\u1ff6\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba\u03af\u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03b5.\n4. That for the sake of which (Final Cause or End): \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c4\u03af\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f15\u03bd\u03b5\u03ba\u03b1. Grote\u2019s Aristotle, I. 354.\nThe four Aristotelian causes are thus: 1. Formal. 2. Material. 3. Efficient. 4. Final. cf. Arist. Analyt. Post. II. xi., Metaph. I. iii., and Phys. II. iii. The six causes of Basil may be referred to the four of Aristotle as follows:\n3. \u1f21 \u1f00\u03c1\u03c7\u1f74 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f21 \u03c0\u03c1\u03ce\u03c4\u03b7\n1. \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u1fbd \u1f45: i.e., the form or idea according to which a thing is made.\n2. \u1f10\u03be \u03bf\u1f57: i.e., the matter out of which it is made.\n3. \u1f51\u03c6\u1fbd \u03bf\u1f57: i.e., the agent, using means.\n\u03b5\u03bd \u1fa7, or sine qu\u00e2 non, applying to all.\n4:721\n\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03c1\u03ba\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03ae. cf. Plut. 2, 1056. B.D. \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03c1\u03ba\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u1f74 \u03b1\u1f30\u03c4\u03af\u03b1 \u1f21 \u03b5\u1f31\u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03b7.\n4:722\ncf. Clem. Alex. Strom. viii. 9. \u201cOf causes some are principal, some preservative, some co\u00f6perative, some indispensable; e.g. of education the principal cause is the father; the preservative, the schoolmaster; the co\u00f6perative, the disposition of the pupil; the indispensable, time.\u201d\n4:723\n\u1f10\u03ba \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03ba\u03b5\u03bd\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2.\ncf. \u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 \u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c4\u03ae\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, \u201cvanity of vanities,\u201d Ecc. i. 2, lxx. In Arist. Eth. i. 2, a desire is said to be \u03ba\u03b5\u03bd\u1f74 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03af\u03b1, which goes into infinity,\u2014everything being desired for the sake of something else,\u2014i.e., \u03ba\u03b5\u03bd\u03b7, void, like a desire for the moon, and \u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03af\u03b1, unpractical, like a desire for the empire of China. In the text \u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 seems to mean heathen philosophy, a vain delusion as distinguished from Christian philosophy.\n4:724\n\u1f04\u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03b1 \u1f44\u03c1\u03b3\u03b1\u03bd\u03b1. A slave, according to Aristotle, Eth. Nich. viii. 7, 6, is \u1f14\u03bc\u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03bf\u03bd \u1f44\u03c1\u03b3\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03bd.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VIII: De Sp...","type":"page"}