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41. What, however, they call sub-numeration, and in what sense
they use this word, cannot even be imagined without difficulty. It is
well known that it was imported into our language from the "wisdom of
the world;" but a point for our present consideration will be whether
it has any immediate relation to the subject under discussion. Those
who are adepts in vain investigations tell us that, while some nouns
are common and of widely extended denotation, others are more
specific, and that the force of some is more limited than that of
others. Essence, for instance, is a common noun, predicable of all
things both animate and inanimate; while animal is more specific,
being predicated of fewer subjects than the former, though of more than
those which are considered under it, as it embraces both rational and
irrational nature. Again, human is more specific than animal, and
man than human, and than man the individual Peter, Paul or John.
Do they then mean by sub-numeration the division of the common into
its subordinate parts? But I should hesitate to believe they have
reached such a pitch of infatuation as to assert that the God of the
universe, like some common quality conceivable only by reason and
without actual existence in any hypostasis, is divided into subordinate
divisions, and that then this subdivision is called sub-numeration.
This would hardly be said even by men melancholy mad, for, besides
its impiety, they are establishing the very opposite argument to their
own contention. For the subdivisions are of the same essence as that
from which they have been divided. The very obviousness of the
absurdity makes it difficult for us to find arguments to confute their
unreasonableness; so that really their folly looks like an advantage to
them; just as soft and yielding bodies offer no resistance, and
therefore cannot be struck a stout blow. It is impossible to bring a
vigorous confutation to bear on a palpable absurdity. The only course
open to us is to pass by their abominable impiety in silence. Yet our
love for the brethren and the importunity of our opponents makes silence
impossible.
42. What is it that they maintain? Look at the terms of their
imposture. "We assert that connumeration is appropriate to subjects
of equal dignity, and sub-numeration to those which vary in the
direction of inferiority." "Why," I rejoined, "do you say
this? I fail to understand your extraordinary wisdom. Do you mean
that gold is numbered with gold, and that lead is unworthy of the
connumeration, but, because of the cheapness of the material, is
subnumerated to gold? And do you attribute so much importance to
number as that it can either exalt the value of what is cheap, or
destroy the dignity of what is valuable? Therefore, again, you will
number gold under precious stones, and such precious stones as are
smaller and without lustre under those which are larger and brighter in
colour. But what will not be said by men who spend their time in
nothing else but either 'to tell or to hear some new thing'? Let
these supporters of impiety be classed for the future with Stoics and
Epicureans. What sub-numeration is even possible of things less
valuable in relation to things very valuable? How is a brass obol to
be numbered under a golden stater? "Because," they reply, "we do
not speak of possessing two coins, but one and one." But which of
these is subnumerated to the other? Each is similarly mentioned. If
then you number each by itself, you cause an equality value by
numbering them in the same way but, if you join them, you make their
value one by numbering them one with the other. But if the
sub-numeration belongs to the one which is numbered second, then it is
in the power of the counter to begin by counting the brass coin. Let
us, however, pass over the confutation of their ignorance, and turn
our argument to the main topic.
43. Do you maintain that the Son is numbered under the Father,
and the Spirit under the Son, or do you confine your sub-numeration
to the Spirit alone? If, on the other hand, you apply this
sub-numeration also to the Son, you revive what is the same impious
doctrine, the unlikeness of the substance, the lowliness of rank, the
coming into being in later time, and once for all, by this one term,
you will plainly again set circling all the blasphemies against the
Only-begotten. To controvert these blasphemies would be a longer
task than my present purpose admits of; and I am the less bound to
undertake it because the impiety has been refuted elsewhere to the best
of my ability. If on the other hand they suppose the sub-numeration
to benefit the Spirit alone, they must be taught that the Spirit is
spoken of together with the Lord in precisely the same manner in which
the Son is spoken of with the Father. "The name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" is delivered in like manner,
and, according to the co-ordination of words delivered in baptism,
the relation of the Spirit to the Son is the same as that of the Son
to the Father. And if the Spirit is co-ordinate with the Son, and
the Son with the Father, it is obvious that the Spirit is also
co-ordinate with the Father. When then the names are ranked in one
and the same co-ordinate series, what room is there for speaking on
the one hand of connumeration, and on the other of sub-numeration?
Nay, without exception, what thing ever lost its own nature by being
numbered? Is it not the fact that things when numbered remain what
they naturally and originally were, while number is adopted among us as
a sign indicative of the plurality of subjects? For some bodies we
count, some we measure, and some we weigh; those which are by nature
continuous we apprehend by measure; to those which are divided we apply
number (with the exception of those which on account of their fineness
are measured); while heavy objects are distinguished by the
inclination of the balance. It does not however follow that, because
we have invented for our convenience symbols to help us to arrive at the
knowledge of quantity, we have therefore changed the nature of the
things signified. We do not speak of "weighing under" one another
things which are weighed, even though one be gold and the other tin;
nor yet do we "measure under" things that are measured; and so in the
same way we will not "number under" things which are numbered. And
if none of the rest of things admits of sub-numeration how can they
allege that the Spirit ought to be subnumerated? Labouring as they do
under heathen unsoundness, they imagine that things which are
inferior, either by grade of rank or subjection of substance, ought to
be subnumerated.
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