of nature (i. 422). On Phil. ii. 6 seq. he argues that, unless Christ was equal to the Father, the illustration is irrelevant; if He was equal, then it is pertinent. (iv. 22). The passage is interesting as shewing that he, like St. Chrysostom, while interpreting οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν—Θεῷ of the condescension, understood St. Paul to mean, "Christ could afford to waive the display of His co-equality, just because He did not regard it as a thing to which He had no right.") He explains Rom. iii. 25: when no other cure for a man's ills was possible, "God brought in the Only-begotten Son as a ransom; one Victim, surpassing all in worth, was offered up for all" (iv. 100). He contends that the divinity of the Holy Spirit—denied by Macedonians—is involved in the divinity of the Son (i. 20). Against the denial of the latter doctrine he cites a number of texts and explains the "humble language" used by Jesus as the result of the "economy" of the Incarnation, whereas the "lofty language" also used by Him would be inexplicable if He were a mere man (iv. 166). "Baptism," he writes to a count, "does not only wash away the uncleanness derived through Adam's transgression, for that much were nothing, but conveys a divine regeneration surpassing all words—redemption, sanctification, adoption, etc.; and the baptized person, through the reception of the sacred mysteries [of the Eucharist: cf. i. 228], becomes of one body with the Only-begotten, and is united to Him as the body to its head" (iii. 195). He censures such abstinence as proceeds from "Manichean or Marcionite principles" (i. 52); notices the omissions in the Marcionite gospel (i. 371); accuses Novatianists of self-righteous assurance (i. 100), but is credulous as to the scandalous imputations against the Montanists, much resembling the libels which had been circulated against the early Christians (i. 242). His letters illustrate the activity of Jewish opposition to the Gospel. They tell us of a few who cavilled at the substitution of bread for bloody sacrifices in the Christian oblation (i. 401); of one who criticized the "hyperbole" in John xxi. 25 (ii. 99); of another who argued from Haggai ii. 9 that the temple would yet be restored (iv. 17). Although Paganism, as a system and organized power, was defunct (i. 270), yet its adherents were still voluble; they called Christianity "a new-fangled scheme of life" (ii. 46), contemned its principle of faith (v. 101), disparaged Scripture on account of its "barbaric diction" and its defects of style (iv. 28), sneered at the "dead Jesus," the Cross, the Sepulchre, and the "ignorance of the apostles" (iv. 27), and Isidore heard one of them, a clever rhetorician, bursting into "a broad laugh" at the Passion, and presently put him to silence (iv. 31). He wrote a "little treatise" (λογίδιον) to prove that there was "no such thing as fate" (iii. 253), and a book "against the Gentiles" to prove that divination was "nonsensical" (ii. 137, 228), thus using in behalf of religion the "weapons and syllogisms of its opponents, to their confusion" (iii. 87). Both are now lost. His familiarity with heathen writers—among whom he criticizes Galen (iv. 125)—gave him great advantages in discussion with unbelievers; and he takes occasion from a question as to Origen's theory about the lapse of souls to cite a variety of opinions still current, apparently among those who still rejected the Gospel. "Some think that the soul is extinguished with the body . . . some have imagined that all is governed by chance; some have entrusted their lives to fate, necessity, and fortune . . . some have said that heaven is ruled by providence, but the earth is not" (iv. 163). He speaks of the harm done to the Christians' argument by Christians' misconduct: "If we overcome heretics, pagans, and Jews by our correct doctrine, we are bound also to overcome them by our conduct, lest, when worsted on the former ground, they should think to overcome on the latter, and, after rejecting our faith, should adduce against it our own lives" (iv. 226).
Very many of his letters are answers to questions as to texts of Scripture. Like Athanasius, he sometimes gives a choice of explanations (e.g. i. 114); although a follower of Chrysostom, he shews an Alexandrian tendency to far-fetched and fantastic interpretation, as when he explains the live coal and the tongs in Isa. vi. 7 to represent the divine essence and the flesh of Christ (i. 42), or the carcase and the eagles to mean humanity ruined by tasting the forbidden fruit and lifted up by ascetic mortification (i. 282), or when "he that is on the house-top" is made to denote a man who despises the present life (i. 210). He reproves a presbyter for criticizing mystical interpreters (ii. 81), but says also that those who attempt to make the whole of O.T. refer to Christ give an opening to pagans and heretics, "for while they strain the passages which do not refer to Him, they awaken suspicion as to those which without any straining do refer to Him" (ii. 195). With similar good sense he remarks that St. Paul's concessions to Jewish observance were not a turning back to the law, but an "economy" for the sake of others who had not outgrown it (i. 407). Again, he observes that church history should relieve despondency as to existing evils, and that even the present state of the church should remove mistrust as to the future (ii. 5). Difficulties about the resurrection of the body are met by considering that the future body will not be like the present, but "ethereal and spiritual" (ii. 43). He admits that ambition is a natural motive and can be turned to good (iii. 34). Ascetic as he was, he dissuades from immoderate fasting, lest an "immoderate reaction" ensue (ii. 45). Obedience to the government, when it does not interfere with religion, is inculcated, because our Lord "was registered and paid tribute to Caesar" (i. 48). But he exhorts Theodosius II. (probably soon after his accession) to "combine mildness with authority" (i. 35), intimating that his ears were too open to malicious representations (i. 275); and he speaks to a "corrector" in the manly tones so seldom heard in those days, except from the lips of typical Christians: "He who has been invested with rule ought himself to be ruled by the laws; if he himself sets them aside, how can he be a lawful ruler?" (v. 383). He considers that the genealogy traced through Joseph proves that Mary also sprang from
