{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/210/2100236.htm","path":"chr/ecf/210/2100236.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/210/2100236.htm","text":"The Son is of one substance with the Father.\n108. And now, your Majesty, with regard to the question of the substance, why need I tell you that the Son is of one substance p. 258 with the Father, when we have read that the Son is the image of the Father\u2019s substance, that you may understand that there is nothing wherein, so far as Godhead is regarded, the Son differs from the Father.\n109. In virtue of this likeness Christ said: \u201cAll things that the Father hath are Mine.\u201d 2286 We cannot, then, deny substance to God, for indeed He is not unsubstantial, Who hath given to others the ground of their being, though this be different in God from what it is in the creature. The Son of God, by Whose agency all things endure, 2287 could not be unsubstantial.\n110. And therefore, the Psalmist saith: \u201cMy bones are not hidden, which Thou didst make in secret, and my substance in the underworld.\u201d 2288 For to His power and Godhead, the things that before the foundation of the world were done, though their magnificence was [as yet] invisible, could not be hidden. Here, then, we find mention of \u201csubstance.\u201d\n111. But it may be objected that the mention of His substance is the consequence of His Incarnation. I have shown that the word \u201csubstance\u201d is used more than once, and that not in the sense of inherited possessions, as you would construe it. Now, if it please you, let us grant that, in accordance with the mystic prophecy, the substance of Christ was present in the underworld\u2014for truly He did exert His power in the lower world to set free, in the soul which animated His own body, the souls of the dead, to loose the bands of death, to remit sins. 2289\n112. And, indeed, what hinders you from understanding, by that substance, His divine substance, seeing that God is everywhere, so that it hath been said to Him: \u201cIf I go up into heaven, Thou art there; if I go down into hell, Thou art present.\u201d 2290\n113. Furthermore, the Psalmist hath in the words following made it plain that we must understand the divine substance to be mentioned when he saith: \u201cThine eyes did see My being, [as] not the effect of working;\u201d 2291 inasmuch as the Son is not made, nor one of God\u2019s works, but the begotten Word of eternal power. He called Him \u201c\u1f00\u03c7\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u03b3\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd,\u201d meaning that the Word neither made nor created, is begotten of the Father without the witnessing presence of any created being. Howbeit, we have abundance of testimony besides this. Let us grant that the substance here spoken of is the bodily substance, provided you also yourself say not that the Son of God is something effected by working, but confess His uncreated Godhead.\n114. Now I know that some assert that the mystic incarnate form was uncreated, forasmuch as nothing was done therein through intercourse with a man, because our Lord was the offspring of a virgin. If, then, many have, on the strength of this passage, asserted that neither that which was brought forth of Mary was produced by creative operation, dare you, disciple of Arius, think that the Word of God is something so produced?\n115. But is this the only place where we read of \u201csubstance\u201d? Hath it not also been said in another passage: \u201cThe gates of the cities are broken down, the mountains are fallen, and His substance is revealed\u201d? 2292 What, does the word mean something created here also? Some, I know, are accustomed to say that the substance is substance in money. Then, if you give this meaning to the word, the mountains fell, in order that some one\u2019s possessions of money might be seen.\n116. But let us remember what mountains fell, those, namely, of which it hath been said: \u201cIf ye shall have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say to this mountain: Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea!\u201d 2293 By mountains, then, are meant high things that exalt themselves. 2294\n117. Moreover, in the Greek, the rendering is this: \u201cThe palaces are fallen.\u201d What palaces, save the palace of Satan, of whom the Lord said: \u201cHow shall His kingdom stand?\u201d 2295 We are reading, therefore, of the things which are the devil\u2019s palaces as being very mountains, and therefore in the fall of those palaces from the hearts of the faithful, the truth stands revealed, that Christ, the p. 259 Son of God, is of the Father\u2019s eternal substance. What, again, are those mountains of bronze, from the midst of which four chariots come forth? 2296\n118. We behold that height, lifting up itself against the knowledge of God, cast down by the word of the Lord, when the Son of God said: \u201cHold thy peace, and come forth, thou foul spirit.\u201d 2297 Concerning whom the prophet also said: \u201cBehold, I am come to thee, thou mount of corruption!\u201d 2298\n119. Those mountains, then, are fallen, 2299 and it is revealed that in Christ was the substance of God, in the words of those who had seen Him: \u201cTruly Thou art the Son of God,\u201d 2300 for it was in virtue of divine, not human power, that He commanded devils. Jeremiah also saith: \u201cMake mourning upon the mountains, and beat your breasts upon the desert tracks, for they have failed; forasmuch as there are no men, they have not heard the word of substance: from flying fowl to beasts of burden, they trembled, they have failed.\u201d 2301\n120. Nor has it escaped us, that in another place also, setting forth the frailties of man\u2019s estate, in order to show that He had taken upon Himself the infirmity of the flesh, and the affections of our minds, the Lord said, by the mouth of His prophet: \u201cRemember, O Lord, what My substance is,\u201d 2302 because it was the Son of God speaking in the nature of human frailty. 2303\n121. Of Him the Scripture saith, in the passage cited, 2304 in order to discover the mysteries of the Incarnation: \u201cBut Thou hast rejected, O Lord, and counted for nought\u2014Thou hast cast out Thy Christ. 2305 Thou hast overthrown the covenant made with Thy Servant, and trampled His holiness in the earth.\u201d 2306 What was it, in regard whereof the Scripture called Him \u201cServant,\u201d but His flesh?\u2014seeing that \u201cHe did not hold equality with God as a prey, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made into the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man.\u201d 2307 So, then, in that He took upon Himself My nature, He was a servant, but by virtue of His own power He is the Lord.\n122. Furthermore, what meaneth it that thou readest: \u201cWho hath stood in the truth (substantia) of the Lord?\u201d and again: \u201cNow if they had stood in My truth, and had given ear to My words, and had taught My people, I would have turned them from their follies and transgressions\u201d? 2308\nS. John xvi. 15.\n258:2287\nLatin, \u201csubsistunt\u201d subsist, persist, last through changes. Even the ephemeris thus persists, subsists, or endures, for its few hours of life.\n258:2288\n\u201cNon est occultatum os meum quod fecisti in abscondito, et substantia mea in inferioribus terr\u00e6.\u201d The Prayer-book version runs: \u201cMy bones are not hid from Thee, though I be made secretly, and fashioned beneath in the earth.\u201d\u2014Ps. cxxxix. 14. \u201cMy bones were not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, [when] I was curiously wrought [as] in the lower parts of the earth.\u201d\u2014Perowne.\n258:2289 258:2290\nPs. cxxxix. 7. See R.V. \u201cHell\u201d is \u201cSheol,\u201d a word also rendered \u201cgrave.\u201d It means the \u201cplace of darkness,\u201d the gloomy underworld, where the spirits of the departed were believed to abide. It is the place from which Samuel\u2019s spirit was called up by the witch of Endor.\u20141 Sam. xxviii.\n258:2291 258:2292\nNahum ii. 6.\u2014The LXX. shows\u2014\u201c\u03c0\u03cd\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b5\u03c9\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b7\u03bd\u03bf\u03af\u03c7\u03b8\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd, \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u03b4\u03b9\u03ad\u03c0\u03b5\u03c3\u03b5. \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f21 \u1f51\u03c0\u03cc\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f00\u03c0\u03b5\u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03cd\u03c6\u03b8\u03b7.\u201d The Vulg.\u2014\u201cPort\u00e6 fluviorum apert\u00e6 sunt, et templum ad solum dirutum. Et miles captivus adductus est.\u201d R.V.\u2014\u201cThe gates of the rivers are opened and the palace is dissolved, and Huzzab is uncovered, and it is decreed; she is uncovered, she is carried away,\u201d etc.\n258:2293\nS. Matt. xvii. 19.\n258:2294 258:2295\nRegnumis used in Latin to denote a domain as well as in the general sense of \u201ckingdom.\u201d Virg., Ecl. I. 70; S. Matt. xii. 26.\n259:2296 259:2297\nS. Mark i. 25.\n259:2298\nJer. li. 25. The \u201cmount of corruption\u201d is Babylon.\n259:2299\ni.e. those cities and nations and persons who have exalted themselves, lifted themselves up as high mountains, challenging, as it were, the majesty of heaven. Cf. Ps. lxviii. 16, R.V.\n259:2300\nS. Luke iv. 41.\n259:2301\nJer. ix. 10. St. Ambrose follows the text of the LXX. with one or two variations in the punctuation. What St. Ambrose renders as \u201cvox substanti\u00e6\u201d (\u201cword of substance\u201d or \u201cvoice of substance\u201d) appears in the LXX. as \u201c\u03c6\u03c9\u03bd\u1f74 \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c1\u03be\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2\u201d (which vox substanti\u00e6 represents verbatim), and in Vulg. as \u201cvox possidentis\u201d (\u201cthe voice of the possessor\u201d\u2014i.e. landowner); in the A.V. and R.V. as \u201cthe voice of the cattle.\u201d\u2014\u1f50\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03be\u03b9\u03c2 and substantia should be taken in the concrete sense (as they clearly represent a concrete term), like our \u201csubstance,\u201d or \u201cpossessions.\u201d Now in primitive society\u2014like, e.g., that of the nomad Tartars\u2014possessions consist mainly in horses and cattle. Cf. the evolution of the term pecunia=money.\n259:2302 259:2303\nThe text will then be prophetic of the Agony in the Garden and upon the Cross.\n259:2304 259:2305\nOr, \u201cthine Anointed.\u201d Cf. Ps. 22:1, Matt. 27:46.\n259:2306 259:2307 259:2308\nSt. Ambrose\u2019s \u201csubstantia\u201d is, in the LXX., \u1f51\u03c0\u03cc\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1\u2014\u201cstanding-ground.\u201d R.V. \u201ccouncil.\u201d\u2014Jer. xxiii. 18-22.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. X: Dogmatic...","type":"page"}