Methodus Sacrae Scripturae in publicis tum praelectionibus tum concionibus utiliter atque intelligenter tractandae

towards her husband, and conversely of the husband towards his wife, of children towards parents, and conversely of parents towards children, etc. Thus, when Paul descends from a thesis general proposition to a hypothesis specific case, it is ἀκολούθησις sequence.

This therefore happens either through ἀνάβασις ascent or through κατάβασις descent. It happens through ἀνάβασις ascent if we ascend from effects to causes, from the hypothesis to the thesis. It happens through κατάβασις descent when we descend and glide from causes to effects, from the thesis to the hypothesis and application. Paul uses ἀνάβασις ascent in the Epistle to the Romans, ascending from the effects to the causes of our salvation, that is, from the remission of sins and our reconciliation to a dispute concerning the election and reprobation of men. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the same man descends with a most beautiful κατάβασις descent from causes to effects, that is, from God’s predestination concerning us to explaining the benefits of God toward us through Christ. Every part of Sacred Scripture that contains history ought to be continued according to this rhetorical trope, in which Sacred History either narrates what was done first, or recalls us from those things which happened later to those things which were done first, as to a head.

Ἀντίθεσις opposition is a brief comparison of disparate things or things warring among themselves, which is also frequent in divine letters. Paul, Ephesians 4, verse 20, compares true Christians with the unfaithful; and in verses 22 and 24, comparing the old man with the new, he says: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, etc., and put on the new man, which after God is created, etc. Galatians 3, verses 11 and 12.