Four Discourses Against the Arians
Four Discourses Against the Arians
continued
Chapter XXI. Texts Explained; Sixthly, Proverbs VIII. 22, Continued.
Our Lord not said in Scripture to be `created,' or the works to be `begotten.' `In the beginning' means in the case of the works `from the beginning.' Scripture passages explained. We are made by God first, begotten next; creatures by nature, sons by grace. Christ begotten first, made or created afterwards. Sense of `First-born of the dead;' of `First-born among many brethren;' of `First-born of all creation,' contrasted with `Only-begotten.' Further interpretation of `beginning of ways,' and `for the works.' Why a creature could not redeem; why redemption was necessary at all. Texts which contrast the Word and the works. 57. For had He been a creature, He had not said, `He begets me,' for the creatures are from without, and are works of the Maker; but the Offspring is not from without nor a work, but from the Father, and proper to His Essence. Wherefore they are creatures; this God's Word and Only-begotten Son. For instance, Moses did not say of the creation, `In the beginning He begat,' nor `In the beginning was,' but `In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth .' Nor did David say in the Psalm, `Thy hands have "begotten me,"' but `made me and fashioned me ,' everywhere applying the word `made' to the creatures. But to the Son contrariwise; for he has not said `I made,' but `I begat ,' and `He begets me,' and `My heart uttered a good Word .' And in the instance of the creation, `In the beginning He made;' but in the instance of the Son, `In the beginning was the Word .' And there is this difference, that the creatures are made upon the beginning, and have a beginning of existence connected with an interval;
wherefore also what is said of them, `In the beginning He made,' is as much as saying of them, `From the beginning He made:'-as the Lord, knowing that which He had made, taught, when He silenced the Pharisees, with the words, `He which made them from the beginning, made them male and female ;' for from some beginning, when they were not yet, were originate things brought into being and created. This too the Holy Spirit has signified in the Psalms, saying, `Thou, Lord, at the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth ;' and again, `O think upon Thy congregation which Thou hast purchased from the beginning ;' now it is plain that what takes place at the beginning, has a beginning of creation, and that from some beginning God purchased His congregation. And that `In the beginning He made,' from his saying `made,' means `began to make,' Moses himself shews by saying, after the completion of all things, `And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God began to make .' Therefore the creatures began to be made; but the Word of God, not having beginning of being, certainly did not begin to be, nor begin to come to be, but was ever. And the works have their beginning in their making, and their beginning precedes their coming to be; but the Word, not being of things which come to be, rather comes to be Himself the Framer of those which have a beginning.
And the being of things originate is measured by their becoming , and from some beginning does God begin to make them through the Word, that it may be known that they were not before their origination; but the Word has His being, in no other beginning than the Father, whom they allow to be without beginning, so that He too exists without beginning? the Father, being His Offspring, not His creature. 58. Thus does divine Scripture recognise the difference between the Offspring and things made, and shew that the Offspring is a Son, not begun from any beginning, but eternal; but that the thing made, as an external work of the Maker, began to come into being. John therefore delivering divine doctrine about the Son, and knowing the difference of the phrases, said not, `In the beginning has become' or `been made,' but `In the beginning was the Word;' that we might understand `Offspring' by `was,' and not account of Him by intervals, but believe the Son always and eternally to exist. And with these proofs, how, O Arians, misunderstanding the passage in Deuteronomy, did you venture a fresh act of irreligion against the Lord, saying that `He is a work,' or `creature,' or indeed `offspring?' for offspring and work you take to mean the same thing; but here too you shall be shewn to be as unlearned as you are irreligious. Your first passage is this, `Is not He thy Father that bought thee? did He not make thee and create thee ?' And shortly after in the same Song he says, `God that begat thee thou didst desert, and forgattest God that nourished thee .' Now the meaning conveyed in these passages is very remarkable;
for he says not first `He begat,' lest that term should be taken as indiscriminate with `He made,' and these men should have a pretence for saying, `Moses tells us indeed that God said from the beginning, "Let Us make man ,"' but he soon after says himself, `God that begat thee thou didst desert,' as if the terms were indifferent; for offspring and work are the same. But after the words `bought' and `made,' he has added last of all `begat,' that the sentence might carry its own interpretation; for in the word `made' he accurately denotes what belongs to men by nature, to be works and things made; but in the word `begat' he shews God's lovingkindness exercised towards men after He had created them. And since they have proved ungrateful upon this, thereupon Moses reproaches them, saying first, `Do ye thus requite the Lord?' and then adds, `Is not He thy Father that bought thee? Did He not make thee and create thee ?' And next he says, `They sacrificed unto devils, not to God, to gods whom they knew not. New gods and strange came up, whom your fathers knew not; the God that begat thee thou didst desert .'
59. For God not only created them to be men, but called them to be sons, as having begotten them. For the term `begat' is here as elsewhere expressive of a Son, as He says by the Prophet, `I begat sons and exalted them;' and generally, when Scripture wishes to signify a son, it does so, not by the term `created,' but undoubtedly by that of `begat.' And this John seems to say, `He gave to them power to become children of God, even to them that believe on His Name; which were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God .' And here too the cautious distinction is well kept up, for first he says `become,' because they are not called sons by nature but by adoption; then he says `were begotten,' because they too had received at any rate the name of son. But the People, as says the Prophet, `despised' their Benefactor. But this is God's kindness to man, that of whom He is Maker, of them according to grace He afterwards becomes Father also; becomes, that is, when men, His creatures, receive into their hearts, as the Apostle says, `the Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father .' And these are they who, having received the Word, gained power from Him to become sons of God; for they could not become sons, being by nature creatures, otherwise than by receiving the Spirit of the natural and true Son.
Wherefore, that this might be, `The Word became flesh,' that He might make man capable of Godhead. This same meaning may be gained also from the Prophet Malachi, who says, `Hath not One God created us? Have we not all one Father ?' for first he puts `created,' next `Father,' to shew, as the other writers, that from the beginning we were creatures by nature, and God is our Creator through the Word; but afterwards we were made sons, and thenceforward God the Creator becomes our Father also. Therefore `Father' is proper to the Son; and not `creature,' but `Son' is proper to the Father. Accordingly this passage also proves, that we are not sons by nature, but the Son who is in us ; and again, that God is not our Father by nature, but of that Word in us, in whom and because of whom we `cry, Abba, Father .' And so in like manner, the Father calls them sons in whomsoever He sees His own Son, and says, `I begat;' since begetting is significant of a Son, and making is indicative of the works. And thus it is that we are not begotten first, but made; for it is written, `Let Us make man ;' but afterwards, on receiving the grace of the Spirit, we are said thenceforth to be begotten also; just as the great Moses in his Song with an apposite meaning says first `He bought,' and afterwards `He begat;' lest, hearing `He begat,' they might forget their own original nature;
but that they might know that from the beginning they are creatures, but when according to grace they are said to be begotten, as sons, still no less than before are men works according to nature. 60. And that creature and offspring are not the same, but differ from each other in nature and the signification of the words, the Lord Himself shews even in the Proverbs. For having said, `The Lord treated me a beginning of His ways;' He has added, `But before all the hills He begat me.' If then the Word were by nature and in His Essence a creature, and there were no difference between offspring and creature, He would not have added, `He begat me,' but had been satisfied with `He created,' as if that term implied `He begat;' but, as it is, after saying, `He created me a beginning of His ways for His works,' He has added, not simply `begat me,' but with the connection of the conjunction `But,' as guarding thereby the term `created,' when he says, `But before all the hills He begat me.' For `begat me' succeeding in such close connection to `created me,' makes the meaning one, and shews that `created' is said with an object , but that `begat me' is prior to `created me.' For as, if He had said the reverse, `The Lord begat me,' and went on, `But before the hills He created me,' `created' would certainly precede `begat,' so having said first `created,' and then added `But before all the hills He begat me,' He necessarily shews that `begat' preceded `created.' For in saying, `Before all lie begat me,' He intimates that He is other than all things;
it having been shewn to be true in an earlier part of this book, that no one creature was made before another, but all things originate subsisted at once together upon one and the same command . Therefore neither do the words which follow `created,' also follow `begat me;' but in the case of `created' is added `beginning of ways,' but of `begat me,' He says not, `He begat me as a beginning,' but `before all He begat me.' But He who is before all is not a beginning of all, but is other than all ; but if other than all (in which `all' the beginning of all is included), it follows that He is other than the creatures; and it becomes a clear point, that the Word, being other than all things and before all, afterwards is created `a beginning of the ways for works,' because He became man, that, as the Apostle has said, He who is the `Beginning' and `First-born from the dead, in all things might have the preeminence .'
61. Such then being the difference between `created' and `begat me,' and between `beginning of ways' and `before all,' God, being first Creator, next, as has been said, becomes Father of men, because of His Word dwelling in them. But in the case of the Word the reverse; for God, being His Father by nature, becomes afterwards both His Creator and Maker, when the Word puts on that flesh which was created and made, and becomes man. For, as men, receiving the Spirit of the Son, become children through Him, so the Word of God, when He Himself puts on the flesh of man, then is said both to be created and to have been made. If then we are by nature sons, then is He by nature creature and work; but if we become sons by adoption and grace, then has the Word also, when in grace towards us He became man, said, `The Lord created me.' And in the next place, when He put on a created nature and became like us in body, reasonably was He therefore called both our Brother and `First-born .' For though it was after us that He was made man for us, and our brother by similitude of body, still He is therefore called and is the `First-born' of us, because, all men being lost, according to the transgression of Adam, His flesh before all others was saved and liberated, as being the Word's body ; and henceforth we, becoming incorporate with It, are saved after Its pattern.
For in It the Lord becomes our guide to the Kingdom of Heaven and to His own Father, saying, `I am the way' and `the door ,' and `through Me all must enter.' Whence also is He said to be `First-born from the dead ,' not that He died before us, for we had died first; but because having undergone death for us and abolished it, He was the first to rise, as man, for our sakes raising His own Body. Henceforth He having risen, we too from Him and because of Him rise in due course from the dead. 62. But if He is also called `First-born of the creation ,' still this is not as if He were levelled to the creatures, and only first of them in point of time (for how should that be, since He is `Only-begotten?'), but it is because of the Word's condescension to the creatures, according to which He has become the `Brother' of `many.' For the term `Only-begotten' is used where there are no brethren, but `First-born ' because of brethren. Accordingly it is nowhere written in the Scriptures, `the first-born of God,' nor `the creature of God;' but `Only-begotten' and `Son' and `Word' and `Wisdom,' refer to Him as proper to the Father . Thus, `We have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father ;' and `God sent His Only-begotten Son ;' and `O Lord, Thy Word endureth for ever ;' and `In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God;' and `Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God ;' and `This is My beloved Son;' and `Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God .' But `first-born' implied the descent to the creation ; for of it has He been called first-born; and `He created' implies His grace towards the works, for for them is He created. If then He is Only-begotten, as indeed He is, `First-born' needs some explanation; but if He be really First-born, then He is not Only-begotten .
For the same cannot be both Only-begotten and First-born, except in different relations;-that is, Only-begotten, because of His generation from the Father, as has been said; and First-born, because of His condescension to the creation and His making the many His brethren. Certainly, those two terms being inconsistent with each other, one should say that the attribute of being Only-begotten has justly the preference in the instance of the Word, in that there is no other Word, or other Wisdom, but He alone is very Son of the Father. Moreover , as was before said, not in connection with any reason, but absolutely it is said of Him, `The Only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father ;' but the word `First-born' has again the creation as a reason in connection with it, which Paul proceeds to say, `for in Him all things were created .' But if all the creatures were created in Him, He is other than the creatures, and is not a creature, but the Creator of the creatures.
63. Not then because He was from the Father was He called `First-born,' but because in Him the creation came to be; and as before the creation He was the Son, through whom was the creation, so also before He was called the First-born of the whole creation, not the less was the Word Himself with God and the Word was God. But this also not understanding, these irreligious men go about saying, `If He is First-born of all creation, it is plain that He too is one of the creation.' Senseless men! if He is simply `First-born of the whole creation,' then He is other than the whole creation; for he says not, `He is First-born above the rest of the creatures,' lest He be reckoned to be as one of the creatures, but it is written, `of the whole creation,' that He may appear other than the creation . Reuben, for instance, is not said to be first-born of all the children of Jacob , but of Jacob himself and his brethren; lest he should be thought to be some other beside the children of Jacob. Nay, even concerning the Lord Himself the Apostle says not, `that He may become First-born of all,' lest He be thought to bear a body other than ours, but `among many brethren ,' because of the likeness of the flesh. If then the Word also were one of the creatures, Scripture would have said of Him also that He was First-born of other creatures;
but in fact, the saints saying that He is `First-born of the whole creation ,' the Son of God is plainly shewn to be other than the whole creation and not a creature. For if He is a creature, He will be First-born of Himself. How then is it possible, O Arians, for Him to be before and after Himself? next, if He is a creature, and the whole creation through Him came to be, and in Him consists, how can He both create the creation and be one of the things which consist in Him? Since then such a notion is in itself unseemly, it is proved against them by the truth, that He is called `First-born among many brethren' because of the relationship of the flesh, and `First-born from the dead,' because the resurrection of the dead is from Him and after Him; and `First-born of the whole creation,' because of the Father's love to man, which brought it to pass that in His Word not, only `all things consist ,' but the creation itself, of which the Apostle speaks, `waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, shall be delivered' one time `from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God .' Of this creation thus delivered, the Lord will be First-born, both of it and of all those who are made children, that by His being called first, those that come after Him may abide , as depending on the Word as a beginning .
64. And I think that the irreligious men themselves will be shamed from such a thought; for if the case stands not as we have said, but they will rule it that He is `First-born of the whole creation' as in essence-a creature among creatures, let them reflect that they will be conceiving Him as brother and fellow of the things without reason and life. For of the whole creation these also are parts; and the `First-born' must be first indeed in point of time but only thus, and in kind and similitude must be the same with all. How then can they say this without exceeding all measures of irreligion? or who will endure them, if this is their language? or who can but hate them even imagining such things? For it is evident to all, that neither for Himself, as being a creature, nor as having any connection according to essence with the whole creation, has He been called `First-born' of it: but because the Word, when at the beginning He framed the creatures, condescended to things originate, that it might be possible for them to come to be. For they could not have endured His nature, which was untempered splendour, even that of the Father, unless condescending by the Father's love for man He had supported them and taken hold of them and brought them into existence ;
and next, because, by this condescension of the Word, the creation too is made a son through Him, that He might be in all respects `First-born' of it, as has been said, both in creating, and also in being brought for the sake of all into this very world. For so it is written, `When He bringeth the First-born into the world, He saith, Let all the Angels of God worship Him .' Let Christ's enemies hear and tear themselves to pieces, because His coming into the world is what makes Him called `First-born' of all; and thus the Son is the Father's `Only-begotten,' because He alone is from Him, and He is the `First-born of creations,' because of this adoption of all as sons . And as He is First-born among brethren and rose from the dead `the first fruits of them that slept ;' so, since it became Him `in all things to have the preeminence ,' therefore He is created `a beginning of ways,' that we, walking along it and entering through Him who says, `I am the Way' and `the Door,' and partaking of the knowledge of the Father, may also hear the words, `Blessed are the undefiled in the Way,' and `Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God .'
65. And thus since the truth declares that the Word is not by nature a creature, it is fitting now to say, in what sense He is `beginning of ways.' For when the first way, which was through Adam, was lost, and in place of paradise we deviated unto death, and heard the words, `Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return,' therefore the Word of God, who loves man, puts on Him created flesh at the Father's will , that whereas the first man had made it dead through the transgression, He Himself might quicken it in the blood of His own body , and might open `for us a way new and living,' as the Apostle says, `through the veil, that is to say, His flesh ;' which he signifies elsewhere thus, `Wherefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new .' But if a new creation has come to pass, some one must be first of this creation; now a man, made of earth only, such as we are become from the transgression, he could not be. For in the first creation, men had become unfaithful, and through them that first creation had been lost; and there was need of some one else to renew the first creation, and preserve the new which had come to be.
Therefore from love to man none other than the Lord, the `beginning' of the new creation, is created as `the Way,' and consistently says, `The Lord created me a beginning of ways for His works;' that man might walk no longer according to that first creation, but there being as it were a beginning of a new creation, and with the Christ `a beginning of its ways,' we might follow Him henceforth, who says to us, `I am the Way:'-as the blessed Apostle teaches in Colossians, saying, `He is the Head of the body, the Church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.' 66. For if, as has been said, because of the resurrection from the dead He is called a beginning, and then a resurrection took place when He, bearing our flesh, had given Himself to death for us, it is evident that His words, `He created me a beginning of ways,' is indicative not of His essence , but of His bodily presence. For to the body death was proper ; and in like manner to the bodily presence are the words proper, `The Lord created me a beginning of His ways.' For since the Saviour was thus created according to the flesh, and had become a beginning of things new created, and had our first fruits, viz.
that human flesh which He took to Himself, therefore after Him, as is fit, is created also the people to come, David saying, `Let this be written for another generation, and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord .' And again in the twenty-first Psalm, `The generation to come shall declare unto the Lord, and they shall declare His righteousness, unto a people that shall be born whom the Lord made .' For we shall no more hear, `In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die ,' but `Where I am, there ye' shall `be also;' so that we may say, `We are His workmanship, created unto good works .' And again, since God's work, that is, man, though created perfect, has become wanting through the transgression, and dead by sin, and it was unbecoming that the work of God should remain imperfect (wherefore all the saints were praying concerning this, for instance in the hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm, saying, `Lord, Thou shall requite for me; despise not then the works of Thine hands '); therefore the perfect Word of God puts around Him an imperfect body, and is said to be created `for the works;' that, paying the debt in our stead, He might, by Himself, perfect what was wanting to man. Now immortality was wanting to him, and the way to paradise.
This then is what the Saviour says, `I glorified Thee on the earth, I perfected the work which Thou hast given Me to do ;' and again, `The works which the Father hath given Me to perfect, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me;' but `the works ' He here says that the Father had given Him to perfect, are those for which He is created, saying in the Proverbs, `The Lord created me a beginning of His ways, for His works;' for it is all one to say, `The Father hath given me the works,' and `The Lord created me for the works.' 67. When then received He the works to perfect, O God's enemies? for from this also `He created' will be understood. If ye say, `At the beginning when He brought them into being out of what was not,' it is an untruth; for they were not yet made; whereas He appears to speak as taking what was already in being. Nor is it pious to refer to the time which preceded the Word's becoming flesh, lest His coming should thereupon seem superfluous, since for the sake of these works that coming took place. Therefore it remains for us to say that when He has become man, then He took the works. For then He perfected them, by healing our wounds and vouchsafing to us the resurrection from the dead. But if, when the Word became flesh, then were given to Him the works, plainly when He became man, then also is He created for the works. Not of His essence then is `He created' indicative, as has many times been said, but of His bodily generation. For then, because the works were become imperfect and mutilated from the transgression, He is said in respect to the body to be created; that by perfecting them and making them whole, He might present the Church unto the Father, as the Apostle says, `not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish .' Mankind then is perfected in Him and restored, as it was made at the beginning, nay, with greater grace.
For, on rising from the dead, we shall no longer fear death, but shall ever reign in Christ in the heavens. And this has been done, since the own Word of God Himself, who is from the Father, has put on the flesh, and become man. For if, being a creature, He had become man, man had remained just what he was, not joined to God; for how had a work been joined to the Creator by a work ? or what succour had come from like to like, when one as well as other needed it ? And how, were the Word a creature, had He power to undo God's sentence, and to remit sin, whereas it is written in the Prophets, that this is God's doing? For `who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by transgression ?' For whereas God has said, `Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return ,' men have become mortal; how then could things originate undo sin? but the Lord is He who has undone it, as He says Himself, `Unless the Son shall make you free ;' and the Son, who made free, has shewn in truth that He is no creature, nor one of things originate, but the proper Word and Image of the Father's Essence, who at the beginning sentenced, and alone remitteth sins.
For since it is said in the Word, `Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return,' suitably through the Word Himself and in Him the freedom and the undoing of the condemnation has come to pass. 68. `Yet,' they say, `though the Saviour were a creature, God was able to speak the word only and undo the curse.' And so another will tell them in like manner, `Without His coming among us at all, God was able just to speak and undo the curse;' but we must consider what was expedient for mankind, and not what simply is possible with God . He could have destroyed, before the ark of Noah, the then transgressors; but He did it after the ark. He could too, without Moses, have spoken the word only and have brought the people out of Egypt; but it profited to do it through Moses. And God was able without the judges to save His people; but it was profitable for the people that for a season judges should be raised up to them. The Saviour too might have come among us from the beginning, or on His coming might not have been delivered to Pilate; but He came `at the fulness of the ages ,' and when sought for said, `I am He .' For what He does, that is profitable for men, and was not fitting in any other way; and what is profitable and fitting, for that He provides . Accordingly He came, not `that He might be ministered unto, but that He might minister ,' and might work our salvation. Certainly He was able to speak the Law from heaven, but He saw that it was expedient to men for Him to speak from Sinai;
and that He has done, that it might be possible for Moses to go up, and for them hearing the word near them the rather to believe. Moreover, the good reason of what He did may be seen thus; if God had but spoken, because it was in His power, and so the curse had been undone, the power had been shewn of Him who gave the word, but man had become such as Adam was before the transgression, having received grace from without , and not having it united to the body; (for he was such when he was placed in Paradise) nay, perhaps had become worse, because he had learned to transgress. Such then being his condition, had he been seduced by the serpent, there had been fresh need for God to give command and undo the curse; and thus the need had become interminable , and men had remained under guilt not less than before, as being enslaved to sin; and, ever sinning, would have ever needed one to pardon them, and had never become free, being in themselves flesh, and ever worsted by the Law because of the infirmity of the flesh.
69. Again, if the Son were a creature, man had remained mortal as before, not being joined to God; for a creature had not joined creatures to God, as seeking itself one to join it ; nor would a portion of the creation have been the creation's salvation, as needing salvation itself. To provide against this also, He sends His own Son, and He becomes Son of Man, by taking created flesh; that, since all were under sentence of death, He, being other than them all, might Himself for all offer to death His own body; and that henceforth, as if all land died through Him, the word of that sentence might be accomplished (for `all died ' in Christ), and all through Him might thereupon become free from sin and from the curse which came upon it, and might truly abide for ever, risen from the dead and clothed in immortality and incorruption. For the Word being clothed in the flesh, as has many times been explained, every bite of the serpent began to be utterly staunched from out it;
and whatever evil sprung from the motions of the flesh, to be cut away, and with these death also was abolished, the companion of sin, as the Lord Himself says , `The prince of this world cometh, and findeth nothing in Me;' and `For this end was He manifested,' as John has written, `that He might destroy the works of the devil .' And these being destroyed from the flesh, we all were thus liberated by the kinship of the flesh, and for the future were joined, even we, to the Word. And being joined to God, no longer do we abide upon earth; but, as He Himself has said, where He is, there shall we be also; and henceforward we shall fear no longer the serpent, for he was brought to nought when he was assailed by the Saviour in the flesh, and heard Him say, `Get thee behind Me, Satan ,' and thus he is cast out of paradise into the eternal fire. Nor shall we have to watch against woman beguiling us, for `in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the Angels ;' and in Christ Jesus it shall be `a new creation,' and `neither male nor female, but all and in all Christ ;' and where Christ is, what fear, what danger can still happen?
70. But this would not have come to pass, had the Word been a creature; for with a creature, the devil, himself a creature, would have ever continued the battle, and man, being between the two, had been ever in peril of death, having none in whom and through whom he might be joined to God and delivered from all fear. Whence the truth shews us that the Word is not of things originate, but rather Himself their Framer. For therefore did He assume the body originate and human, that having renewed it as its Framer, He might deify it in Himself, and thus might introduce us all into the kingdom of heaven after His likeness. For man had not been deified if joined to a creature, or unless the Son were very God; nor had man been brought into the Father's presence, unless He had been His natural and true Word who had put on the body. And as we had not been delivered from sin and the curse, unless it had been by nature human flesh, which the Word put on (for we should have had nothing common with what was foreign), so also the man had not been deified, unless the Word who became flesh had been by nature from the Father and true and proper to Him. For therefore the union was of this kind, that He might unite what is man by nature to Him who is in the nature of the Godhead, and his salvation and deification might be sure.
Therefore let those who deny that the Son is from the Father by nature and proper to His Essence, deny also that He took true human flesh of Mary Ever-Virgin ; for in neither case had it been of profit to us men, whether the Word were not true and naturally Son of God, or the flesh not true which He assumed. But surely He took true flesh, though Valentinus rave; yea the Word was by nature Very God, though Ariomaniacs rave ; and in that flesh has come to pass the beginning of our new creation, He being created man for our sake, and having made for us that new way, as has been said. 71. The Word then is neither creature nor work; for creature, thing made, work, are all one; and were He creature and thing made, He would also be work. Accordingly He has not said, `He created Me a work,' nor `He made Me with the works,' lest He should appear to be in nature and essence a creature; nor, `He created Me to make works,' lest, on the other hand, according to the perverseness of the irreligious, He should seem as an instrument made for our sake. Nor again has He declared, `He created Me before the works,' lest, as He really is before all, as an Offspring, so, if created also before the works, He should give `Offspring' and `He created' the same meaning. But He has said with exact discrimination , `for the works;' as much as to say, `The Father has made Me, into flesh, that I might be man,' which again shews that He is not a work but an offspring. For as he who comes into a house, is not part of the house, but is other than the house, so He who is created for the works, must be by nature other than the works. But if otherwise, as you hold, O Arians, the Word of God be a work, by what Hand and Wisdom did He Himself come into being?
for all things that came to be, came by the Hand and Wisdom of God, who Himself says, `My hand hath made all these things ;' and David says in the Psalm, `And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands ;' and again, in the hundred and forty-second Psalm, `I do remember the time past, I muse upon all Thy works, yea I exercise myself in the works of Thy hands .' Therefore if by the Hand of God the works are wrought, and it is written that `all things were made through the Word,' and `without Him was not made one thing ,' and again, `One Lord Jesus, through whom are all things ,' and `in Him all things consist ,' it is very plain that the Son cannot be a work, but He is the Hand of God and the Wisdom. This knowing, the martyrs in Babylon, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, arraign the Arian irreligion. For when they say, `O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord,' they recount things in heaven, things on earth, and the whole creation, as works; but the Son they name not. For they say not, `Bless, O Word, and praise, O Wisdom;' to shew that all other things are both praising and are works;
but the Word is not a work nor of those that praise, but is praised with the Father and worshipped and confessed as God , being His Word and Wisdom, and of the works the Framer. This too the Spirit has declared in the Psalms with a most apposite distinction, `the Word of the Lord is true, and all His works are faithful ;' as in another Psalm too He says, `O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in Wisdom hast Thou made them all .' 72. But if the Word were a work, then certainly He as others had been made in Wisdom; nor would Scripture distinguish Him from the works, nor while it named them works, preach Him as Word and own Wisdom of God. But, as it is, distinguishing Him from the works, He shews that Wisdom is Framer of the works, and not a work. This distinction Paul also observes, writing to the Hebrews, `The Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, neither is there any creature hidden before Him, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom is our account .' For behold he calls things originate `creature;' but the Son he recognises as the Word of God, as if He were other than the creatures. And again saying, `All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom is our account,' he signifies that He is other than all of them. For hence it is that He judges, but each of all things originate is bound to give account to Him. And so also, when the whole creation is groaning together with us in order to be set free from the bondage of corruption, the Son is thereby shewn to be other than the creatures.
For if He were creature, He too would be one of those who groan, and would need one who should bring adoption and deliverance to Himself as well as others. But if the whole creation groans together, for the sake of freedom from the bondage of corruption, whereas the Son is not of those that groan nor of those who need freedom, but He it is who gives sonship and freedom to all, saying to the Jews of His time , `The servant remains not in the house for ever, but the Son remaineth for ever; if then the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed ;' it is clearer than the light from these considerations also, that the Word of God is not a creature but true Son, and by nature genuine, of the Father. Concerning then `The Lord hath created me a beginning of the ways,' this is sufficient, as I think, though in few words, to afford matter to the learned to frame more ample refutations of the Arian heresy.
Chapter XXII. Texts Explained; Sixthly, the Context of Proverbs VIII. 22 Vz. 22-30.
It is right to interpret this passage by the Regula Fidei. `Founded' is used in contrast to superstructure; and it implies, as in the case of stones in building, previous existence. `Before the world' signifies the divine intention and purpose. Recurrence to Prov. viii. 22, and application of it to created Wisdom as seen in the works. The Son reveals the Father, first by the works, then by the Incarnation. But since the heretics, reading the next verse, take a perverse view of that also, because it is written, `He founded me before the world ,' namely, that this is said of the Godhead of the Word and not of His incarnate Presence , it is necessary, explaining this verse also, to shew their error. 73. It is written, `The Lord in Wisdom rounded the earth ;' if then by Wisdom the earth is founded, how can He who founds be founded? nay, this too is said after the manner of proverbs , and we must in like manner investigate its sense; that we may know that, while by Wisdom the Father frames and founds the earth to be firm and steadfast , Wisdom Itself is founded for us, that It may become beginning and foundation of our new creation and renewal. Accordingly here as before, He says not, `Before the world He hath made me Word or Son,' lest there should be as it were a beginning of His making. For this we must seek before all things, whether He is Son , `and on this point specially search the Scriptures ;' for this it was, when the Apostles were questioned, that Peter answered, saying, `Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God .' This also the father of the Arian heresy asked as one of his first questions; `If Thou be the Son of God ;' for he knew that this is the truth and the sovereign principle of our faith; and that, if He were Himself the Son, the tyranny of the devil would have its end; but if He were a creature, He too was one of those descended from that Adam whom he deceived, and he had no cause for anxiety.
For the same reason the Jews of the day were angered, because the Lord said that He was Son of God, and that God was His proper Father. For had He called Himself one of the creatures, or said, `I am a work,' they had not been startled at the intelligence, nor thought such words blasphemy, knowing, as they did, that even Angels had come among their fathers; but since He called Himself Son, they perceived that such was not the note of a creature, but of Godhead and of the Father's nature . The Arians then ought, even in imitation of their own father the devil, to take some special pains on this point; and if He has said, `He founded me to be Word or Son,' then to think as they do; but if He has not so spoken, not to invent for themselves what is not. 74. For He says not, `Before the world He founded me as Word or Son,' but simply, `He founded me,' to shew again, as I have said, that not for His own sake but for those who are built upon Him does He here also speak, after the way of proverbs. For this knowing, the Apostle also writes, `Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ; but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon .' And it must be that the foundation should be such as the things built on it, that they may admit of being well compacted together. Being then the Word, He has not, as Word , any such as Himself, who may be compacted with Him; for He is Only-begotten; but having become man, He has the like of Him, those namely the likeness of whose flesh He has put on. Therefore according to His manhood He is rounded, that we, as precious stones, may admit of building upon Him, and may become a temple of the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in us. And as He is a foundation, and we stones built upon Him, so again He is a Vine and we knit to Him as branches,-not according to the Essence of the Godhead; for this surely is impossible; but according to His manhood, for the branches must be like the vine, since we are like Him according to the flesh.
Moreover, since the heretics have such human notions, we may suitably confute them with human resemblances contained in the very matter they urge. Thus He saith not, `He made me a foundation,' lest He might seem to be made and to have a beginning of being, and they might thence find a shameless occasion of irreligion; but, `He founded me.' Now what is founded is founded for the sake of the stones which are raised upon it; it is not a random process, but a stone is first transported from the mountain and set down in the depth of the earth. And while a stone is in the mountain, it is not yet founded; but when need demands, and it is transported, and laid in the depth of the earth, then forthwith if the stone could speak, it would say, `He now founded me, who brought me hither from the mountain.' Therefore the Lord also did not when rounded take a beginning of existence; for He was the Word before that; but when He put on our body, which He severed and took from Mary, then He says `He hath founded me;' as much as to say, `Me, being the Word, He hath enveloped in a body of earth.' For so He is founded for our sakes, taking on Him what is ours , that we, as incorporated and compacted and bound together in Him through the likeness of the flesh, may attain unto a perfect man, and abide immortal and incorruptible.
75. Nor let the words `before the world' and `before He made the earth' and `before the mountains were settled' disturb any one; for they very well accord with `founded' and `created;' for here again allusion is made to the Economy according to the flesh. For though the grace which came to us from the Saviour appeared, as the Apostle says, just now, and has come when He sojourned among us; yet this grace had been prepared even before we came into being, nay, before the foundation of the world, and the reason why is kindly and wonderful. It beseemed not that God should counsel concerning us afterwards, lest He should appear ignorant of our fate. The God of all then,-creating us by His own Word, and knowing our destinies better than we, and foreseeing that, being made `good ,' we should in the event be transgressors of the commandment, and be thrust out of paradise for disobedience,-being loving and kind, prepared beforehand in His own Word, by whom also. He created us , the Economy of our salvation;
that though by the serpent's deceit we fell from Him, we might not remain quite dead, but having in the Word the redemption and salvation which was afore prepared for us, we might rise again and abide immortal, what time He should have been created for us `a beginning of the ways,' and He who was the `First-born of creation' should become `first-born' of the `brethren,' and again should rise `first-fruits of the dead.' This Paul the blessed Apostle teaches in his writings; for, as interpreting the words of the Proverbs `before the world' and `before the earth was,' he thus speaks to Timothy ; `Be partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God, who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and brought to light life .' And to the Ephesians; `Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself .'
76. How then has He chosen us, before we came into existence, but that, as he says himself, in Him we were represented beforehand? and how at all, before men were created, did He predestinate us unto adoption, but that the Son Himself was `founded before the world,' taking on Him that economy which was for our sake? or how, as the Apostle goes on to say, have we `an inheritance being predestinated,' but that the Lord Himself was founded `before the world,' inasmuch as He had a purpose, for our sakes, to take on Him through the flesh all that inheritance of judgment which lay against us, and we henceforth were made sons in Him? and how did we receive it `before the world was,' when we were not yet in being, but afterwards in time, but that in Christ was stored the grace which has reached us? Wherefore also in the Judgment, when every one shall receive according to his conduct, He says, `Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world .' How then, or in whom, was it prepared before we came to be, save in the Lord who `before the world' was founded for this purpose; that we, as built upon Him, might partake, as well-compacted stones, the life and grace which is from Him?
And this took place, as naturally suggests itself to the religious mind, that, as I said, we, rising after our brief death, may be capable of an eternal life, of which we had not been capable , men as we are, formed of earth, but that `before the world' there had been prepared for us in Christ the hope of life and salvation. Therefore reason is there that the Word, on coming into our flesh, and being created in it as `a beginning of ways for His works,' is laid as a foundation according as the Father's will was in Him before the world, as has been said, and before land was, and before the mountains were settled, and before the fountains burst forth; that, though the earth and the mountains and the shapes of visible nature pass away in the fulness of the present age, we on the contrary may not grow old after their pattern, but may be able to live after them, having the spiritual life and blessing which before these things have been prepared for us in the Word Himself according to election. For thus we shall be capable of a life not temporary, but ever afterwards abide and live in Christ; since even before this our life had been founded and prepared in Christ Jesus.
77. Nor in any other way was it fitting that our life should be founded, but in the Lord who is before the ages, and through whom the ages were brought to be; that, since it was in Him, we too might be able to inherit that everlasting life. For God is good; and being good always, He willed this, as knowing that our weak nature needed the succour and salvation which is from Him. And as a wise architect, proposing to build a house, consults also about repairing it, should it at any time become dilapidated after building, and, as counselling about this, makes preparation and gives to the workmen materials for a repair; and thus the means of the repair are provided before the house; in the same way prior to us is the repair of our salvation founded in Christ, that in Him we might even be new-created. And the will and the purpose were made ready `before the world,' but have taken effect when the need required, and the Saviour came among us. For the Lord Himself will stand us in place of all things in the heavens, when He receives us into everlasting life. This then suffices to prove that the Word of God is not a creature, but that the sense of the passage is right . But since that passage, when scrutinized, has a right sense in every point of view, it may be well to state what it is; perhaps many words may bring these senseless men to shame.
Now here I must recur to what has been said before, for what I have to say relates to the same proverb and the same Wisdom. The Word has not called Himself a creature by nature, but has said in proverbs, `The Lord created me;' and He plainly indicates a sense not spoken `plainly' but latent , such as we shall be able to find by taking away the veil from the proverb. For who, on hearing from the Framing Wisdom, `The Lord created me a beginning of His ways,' does not at once question the meaning, reflecting how that creative Wisdom can be created? who on hearing the Only-begotten Son of God say, that He was created `a beginning of ways,' does not investigate the sense, wondering how the Only-begotten Son can become a Beginning of many others? for it is a dark saying ; but `a man of understanding,' says he, `shall understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings .'
78. Now the Only-begotten and very Wisdom of God is Creator and Framer of all things; for `in Wisdom hast Thou made them all ,' he says, and `the earth is full of Thy creation.' But that what came into being might not only be, but be good , it pleased God that His own Wisdom should condescend to the creatures, so as to introduce an impress and semblance of Its Image on all in common and on each, that what was made might be manifestly wise works and worthy of God . For as of the Son of God, considered as the Word, our word is an image, so of the same Son considered as Wisdom is the wisdom which is implanted in us an image; in which wisdom we, having the power of knowledge and thought, become recipients of the All-framing Wisdom; and through It we are able to know Its Father. `For he who hath the Son,' saith He, `hath the Father also;' and `he that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent Me .' Such an impress then of Wisdom being created in us, and being in all the works, with reason does the true and framing Wisdom take to Itself what belongs to its own impress, and say, `The Lord created me for His works;' for what the wisdom in us says, that the Lord Himself speaks as if it were His own;
and, whereas He is not Himself created, being Creator, yet because of the image of Him created in the works , He says this as if of Himself. And as the Lord Himself has said, `He that receiveth you, receiveth Me ,'because His impress is in us, so, though He be not among the creatures, yet because His image and impress is created in the works, He says, as if in His own person, `The Lord created me a beginning of His ways for His works.' And therefore has this impress of Wisdom in the works been brought into being, that, as I said before, the world might recognise in it its own Creator the Word, and through Him the Father. And this is what Paul said, `Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shewed it unto them: for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made .' But if so, the Word is not a creature in essence ; but the wisdom which is in us and so called, is spoken of in this passage in the Proverbs.
79. But if this too fails to persuade them, let them tell us themselves, whether there is any wisdom in the creatures or not ? If not how is it that the Apostle complains, `For after that in the Wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God ?' or how is it if there is no wisdom, that a `multitude of wise men ' are found in Scripture? for `a wise man feareth and departeth from evil ;' and `through wisdom is a house builded ;' and the Preacher says, `A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine;' and he blames those who are headstrong thus, `Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire in wisdom concerning this .' But if, as the Son of Sirach says, `He poured her out upon all His works; she is with all flesh according to His gift, and He hath given her to them that love Him ,' and this outpouring is a note, not of the Essence of the Very Wisdom and Only-begotten, but of that wisdom which is imaged in the world, how is it incredible that the All-framing and true Wisdom Itself, whose impress is the wisdom and knowledge poured out in the world, should say, as I have already explained, as if of Itself, `The Lord created me for His works?' For the wisdom in the world is not creative, but is that which is created in the works, according to which `the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handywork .' This if men have within them , they will acknowledge the true Wisdom of God; and will know that they are made really after God's Image.
And, as some son of a king, when the father wished to build a city , might cause his own name to be printed upon each of the works that were rising, both to give security to them of the works remaining, by reason of the show of his name on everything, and also to make them remember him and his father from the name, and having finished the city might be asked concerning it, how it was made, and then would answer, `It is made securely, for according to the will of my father, I am imaged in each work, for my name was made in the works;' but saying this, he does not signify that his own essence is created, but the impress of himself by means of his name; in the same manner, to apply the illustration, to those who admire the wisdom in the creatures, the true Wisdom makes answer, `The Lord created me for the works,' for my impress is in them; and I have thus condescended for the framing of all things.
80. Moreover, that the Son should be speaking of the impress that is within us as if it were Himself, should not startle any one, considering (for we must not shrink from repetition ) that, when Saul was persecuting the Church, in which was His impress and image, He said, as if He were Himself under persecution, `Saul, why persecutest thou Me ?' Therefore (as has been said), as, supposing the impress itself of Wisdom which is in the works had said, `The Lord created me for the works,' no one would have been startled, so, if He, the True and Framing Wisdom, the Only-begotten Word of God, should use what belongs to His image as about Himself, namely, `The Lord created me for the works,' let no one, overlooking the wisdom created in the world and in the works, think that `He created' is said of the Substance of the Very Wisdom, lest, diluting the wine with water , he be judged a defrauder of the truth. For It is Creative and Framer; but Its impress is created in the works, as the copy of the image. And He says, `Beginning of ways,' since such wisdom becomes a sort of beginning. and, as it were, rudiments of the knowledge of God;
for a man entering, as it were, upon this way first, and keeping it in the fear of God (as Solomon says , `The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom'), then advancing upwards in his thoughts and perceiving the Framing Wisdom which is in the creation, will perceive in It also Its Father , as the Lord Himself has said, `He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father,' and as John writes, `He who acknowledgeth the Son, hath the Father also .' And He says, `Before the world He founded me ,' since in Its impress the works remain settled and eternal. Then, lest any, hearing concerning the wisdom thus created in the works, should think the true Wisdom, God's Son, to be by nature a creature, He has found it necessary to add, `Before the mountains, and before the earth, and before the waters, and before all hills He begets me,' that in saying, `before every creature' (for He includes all the creation under these heads), He may shew that He is not created together with the works according to Essence. For if He was created `for the works,' yet is before them, it follows that He is in being before He was created. He is not then a creature by nature and essence, but as He Himself has added, an Offspring. But in what differs a creature from an offspring, and how it is distinct by nature, has been shewn in what has gone before.
81. But since He proceeds to say, `When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him ,' we ought to know that He says not this as if without Wisdom the Father prepared the heaven or the clouds above (for there is no room to doubt that all things are created in Wisdom, and without It was made not even one thing); but this is what He says, `All things took place in Me and through Me, and when there was need that Wisdom should be,created in the works, in My Essence indeed I was with the Father, but by a condescension to things originate, I was disposing over the works My own impress, so that the whole world as being in one body, might not be at variance but in concord with itself.' All those then who with an upright understanding, according to the wisdom given unto them, come to contemplate the creatures, are able to say for themselves, `By Thy appointment all things continue ;' but they who make light of this must be told, `Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools;' for `that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has revealed it unto them; for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived by the things that are made, even His eternal Power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, but served the creature more than the Creator of all, who is blessed for ever. Amen .' And they will surely be shamed at hearing, `For, after that in the wisdom of God (in the mode we have explained above), the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe .' For no longer, as in the former times, God has willed to be known by an image and shadow of wisdom, that namely which is in the creatures, but He has made the true Wisdom Itself to take flesh, and to become man, and to undergo the death of the cross; that by the faith in Him, henceforth all that believe may obtain salvation. However, it is the same Wisdom of God, which through Its own Image in the creatures (whence also It is said to be created), first manifested Itself, and through Itself Its own Father; and afterwards, being Itself the Word, has `become flesh ,' as John says, and after abolishing death and saving our race, still more revealed Himself and through Him His own Father, saying, `Grant unto them that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent .'
82. Hence the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of Him; for the knowledge of Father through Son and of Son from Father is one and the same, and the Father delights in Him, and in the same joy the Son rejoices in the Father, saying, `I was by Him, daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him .' And this again proves that the Son is not foreign, but proper to the Father's Essence. For behold, not because of us has He come to be, as the irreligious men say, nor is He out of nothing (for not from without did God procure for Himself a cause of rejoicing), but the words denote what is His own and like. When then was it, when the Father rejoiced not? but if He ever rejoiced, He was ever, in whom He rejoiced. And in whom does the Father rejoice, except as seeing Himself in His own Image, which is His Word? And though in sons of men also He had delight, on finishing the world, as it is written in these same Proverbs , yet this too has a consistent sense. For even thus He had delight, not because joy was added to Him, but again on seeing the works made after His own Image; so that even this rejoicing of God is on account of His Image. And how too has the Son delight, except as seeing Himself in the Father?
for this is the same as saying, `He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father,' and `I am in the Father and the Father in Me .' Vain then is your vaunt as is on all sides shewn, O Christ's enemies, and vainly did ye parade and circulate everywhere your text, `The Lord created me a beginning of His ways,' perverting its sense, and publishing, not Solomon's meaning, but your own comment . For behold your sense is proved to be but a fantasy; but the passage in the Proverbs, as well as all that is above said, proves that the Son is not a creature in nature and essence, but the proper Offspring of the Father, true Wisdom and Word, by whom `all things were made,' and `without Him was made not one thing '
Chapter XXIII. Texts Explained; Seventhly, John XIV. 10.
Introduction. The doctrine of the coinherence. The Father and the Son Each whole and perfect God. They are in Each Other, because their Essence is One and the Same. They are Each Perfect and have One Essence, because the Second Person is the Son of the First. Asterius's evasive explanation of the text under review; refuted. Since the Son has all that the Father has, He is His Image; and the Father is the One God, because the Son is in the Father. 1. The Ario-maniacs, as it appears, having once made up their minds to transgress and revolt from the Truth, are strenuous in appropriating the words of Scripture, `When the impious cometh into a depth of evils, he despiseth ;' for refutation does not stop them, nor perplexity abash them; but, as having `a whore's forehead,' they `refuse to be ashamed ' before all men in their irreligion.
For whereas the passages which they alleged, `The Lord created me ,' and `Made better than the Angels ,' and `First-born ,' and `Faithful to Him that made Him ' have a right sense , and inculcate religiousness towards Christ, so it is that these men still, as if bedewed with the serpent's poison, not seeing what they ought to see, nor understanding what they read, as if in vomit from the depth of their irreligious heart, have next proceeded to disparage our Lord's words, `I in the Father and the Father in Me ;' saying, `How can the One be contained in the Other and the Other in the One?' or `How at all can the Father who is the greater be contained in the Son who is the less?' or `What wonder, if the Son is in the Father,' considering it is written even of us, `In Him we live and move and have our being ?' And this state of mind is consistent with their perverseness, who think God to be material, and understand not what is `True Father' and `True Son,' nor `Light Invisible' and `Eternal,' and Its `Radiance Invisible,' nor `Invisible Subsistence,' and `Immaterial Expression' and `Immaterial Image.' For did they know, they would not dishonour and ridicule the Lord of glory, nor interpreting things immaterial after a material manner, pervert good words. It were sufficient indeed, on hearing only words which are the Lord's, at once to believe, since the faith of simplicity is better than an elaborate process of persuasion;
but since they have endeavoured to profane even this passage to their own heresy, it becomes necessary to expose their perverseness and to shew the mind of the truth, at least for the security of the faithful. For when it is said, `I in the Father and the Father in Me,' They are not therefore, as these suppose, discharged into Each Other, filling the One the Other, as in the case of empty vessels, so that the Son fills the emptiness of the Father and the Father that of the Son , and Each of Them by Himself is not complete and perfect (for this is proper to bodies, and therefore the mere assertion of it is full of irreligion), for the Father is full and perfect, and the Son is the Fulness of Godhead. Nor again, as God, by coming into the Saints, strengthens them, thus is He also in the Son. For He is Himself the Father's Power and Wisdom, and by partaking of Him things originate are sanctified in the Spirit; but the Son Himself is not Son by participation, but is the Father's own Offspring . Nor again is the Son in the Father, in the sense of the passage, `In Him we live and move and have our being;' for, He as being from the Fount of the Father is the Life, in which all things are both quickened and consist; for the Life does not live in life , else it would not be Life, but rather He gives life to all things.
2. But now let us see what Asterius the Sophist says, the retained pleader for the heresy. In imitation then of the Jews so far, he writes as follows; `It is very plain that He has said, that He is in the Father and the Father again in Him, for this reason, that neither the word on which He was discoursing is, as He says, His own, but the Father's, nor the works belong to Him, but to the Father who gave Him the power.' Now this, if uttered at random by a little child, had been excused from his age; but when one who bears the title of Sophist, and professes universal knowledge , is the writer, what a serious condemnation does he deserve! And does he not shew himself a stranger to the Apostle , as being puffed up with persuasive words of wisdom, and thinking thereby to succeed in deceiving, not understanding himself what he says nor whereof he affirms ? For what the Son has said as proper and suitable to a Son only, who is Word and Wisdom and Image of the Father's Essence, that he levels to all the creatures, and makes common to the Son and to them; and he says, lawless man, that the Power of the Father receives power, that from this his irreligion it may follow to say that in a son the Son was made a son, and the Word received a word's authority;
and, far from granting that He spoke this as a Son, He ranks Him with all things made as having learned it as they have. For if the Son said, `I am in the Father and the Father in Me,' because His discourses were not His own words but the Father's, and so of His works, then,-since David says, `I will hear what the Lord God shall say in me ,' and again Solomon , `My words are spoken by God,' and since Moses was minister of words which were from God, and each of the Prophets spoke not what was his own but what was from God, `Thus saith the Lord,' and since the works of the Saints, as they professed, were not their own but God's who gave the power, Elijah for instance and Elisha invoking God that He Himself would raise the dead, and Elisha saying to Naaman, on cleansing him from the leprosy, `that thou mayest know that there is a God in Israel ,' and Samuel too in the days of the harvest praying to God to grant rain, and the Apostles saying that not in their own power they did miracles but in the Lord's grace-it is plain that, according to Asterius such a statement must be common to all, so that each of them is able to say, `I in the Father and the Father in me;' and as a consequence that He is no longer one Son of God and Word and Wisdom, but, as others, is only one out of many.
3. But if the Lord said this, His words would not rightly have been, `I in the Father and the Father in Me,' but rather, `I too am in the Father, and the Father is in Me too,' that He may have nothing of His own and by prerogative , relatively to the Father, as a Son, but the same grace in common with all. But it is not so, as they think; for not understanding that He is genuine Son from the Father, they belie Him who is such, whom alone it befits to say, `I in the Father and the Father in Me.' For the Son is in the Father, as it is allowed us to know, because the whole Being of the Son is proper to the Father's essence , as radiance from light, and stream from fountain; so that whoso sees the Son, sees what is proper to the Father, and knows that the Son's Being, because from the Father, is therefore in the Father. For the Father is in the Son, since the Son is what is from the Father and proper to Him, as in the radiance the sun, and in the word the thought, and in the stream the fountain: for whoso thus contemplates the Son, contemplates what is proper to the Father's Essence, and knows that the Father is in the Son. For whereas the Form and Godhead of the Father is the Being of the Son, it follows that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son .
4. On this account and reasonably, having said before, `I and the Father are One,' He added, `I in the Father and the Father in Me, ' by way of shewing the identity of Godhead and the unity of Essence. For they are one, not as one thing divided into two parts, and these nothing but one, nor as one thing twice named, so that the Same becomes at one time Father, at another His own Son, for this Sabellius holding was judged an heretic. But They are two, because the Father is Father and is not also Son, and the Son is Son and not also Father ; but the nature is one; (for the offspring is not unlike its parent, for it is his image), and all that is the Father's, is the Son's . Wherefore neither is the Son another God, for He was not procured from without, else were there many, if a godhead be procured foreign from the Father's ; for if the Son be other, as an Offspring, still He is the Same as God; and He and the Father are one in propriety and peculiarity of nature, and in the identity of the one Godhead, as has been said. For the radiance also is light, not second to the sun, nor a different light, nor from participation of it, but a whole and proper offspring of it. And such an offspring is necessarily one light;
and no one would say that they are two lights , but sun and radiance two, yet one the light from the sun enlightening in its radiance all things. So also the Godhead of the Son is the Father's; whence also it is indivisible; and thus there is one God and none other but He. And so, since they are one, and the Godhead itself one, the same things are said of the Son, which are said of the Father, except His being said to be Father :-for instance , that He is God, `And the Word was God ;' Almighty, `Thus saith He which was and is and is to come, the Almighty ;' Lord, `One Lord Jesus Christ ;' that He is Light, `I am the Light ;' that He wipes out sins, `that ye may know,' He says, `that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins ;' and so with other attributes. For `all things,' says the Son Himself, `whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine ;' and again, `And Mine are Thine.'
5. And on hearing the attributes of the Father spoken of a Son, we shall thereby see the Father in the Son; and we shall contemplate the Son in the Father, when what is said of the Son is said of the Father also. And why are the attributes of the Father ascribed to the Son, except that the Son is an Offspring from Him? and why are the Son's attributes proper to the Father, except again because the Son is the proper Offspring of His Essence? And the Son, being the proper Offspring of the Father's Essence, reasonably says that the Father's attributes are His own also; whence suitably and consistently with saying, `I and the Father are One,' He adds, `that ye may know that I am in the Father and the Father in Me .' Moreover, He has added this again, `He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father ;' and there is one and the same sense in these three passages. For he who in this sense understands that the Son and the Father are one, knows that He is in the Father and the Father in the Son; for the Godhead of the Son is the Father's, and it is in the Son; and whoso enters into this, is convinced that `He that hath seen the Son, hath seen the Father;' for in the Son is contemplated the Father's Godhead. And we may perceive this at once from the illustration of the Emperor's image.
For in the image is the shape and form of the Emperor, and in the Emperor is that shape which is in the image. For the likeness of the Emperor in the image is exact ; so that a person who looks at the image, sees in it the Emperor; and he again who sees the Emperor, recognises that it is he who is in the image . And from the likeness not differing, to one who after the image wished to view the Emperor, the image might say, `I and the Emperor are one; for I am in him, and he in me; and what thou seest in me, that thou beholdest in him, and what thou hast seen in him, that thou holdest in me .' Accordingly he who worships the image, in it worships the Emperor also; for the image is his form and appearance. Since then the Son too is the Father's Image, it must necessarily be understood that the Godhead and propriety of the Father is the Being of the Son.
6. And this is what is said, `Who being in the form of God ,' and `the Father in Me.' Nor is this Form of the Godhead partial merely, but the fulness of the Father's Godhead is the Being of the Son, and the Son is whole God. Therefore also, being equal to God, He `thought it not a prize to be equal to God;' and again since the Godhead and the Form of the Son is none other's than the Father's , this is what He says, `I in the Father.' Thus `God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself ;' for the propriety of the Father's Essence is that Son, in whom the creation was then reconciled with God. Thus what things the Son then wrought are the Father's works, for the Son is the Form of that Godhead of the Father, which wrought the works. And thus he who looks at the Son, sees the Father; for in the Father's Godhead is and is contemplated the Son; and the Father's Form which is in Him shews in Him the Father; and thus the Father is in the Son. And that propriety and Godhead which is from the Father in the Son, shews the Son in the Father, and His inseparability from Him;
and whoso hears and beholds that what is said of the Father is also said of the Son, not as accruing to His Essence by grace or participation, but because the very Being of the Son is the proper Offspring of the Father's Essence, will fitly understand the words, as I said before, `I in the Father, and the Father in Me;' and `I and the Father are One .' For the Son is such as the Father is, because He has all that is the Father's. Wherefore also is He implied together with the Father. For, a son not being, one cannot say father; whereas when we call God a Maker, we do not of necessity intimate the things which have come to be; for a maker is before his works . But when we call God Father, at once with the Father we signify the Son's existence. Therefore also he who believes in the Son, believes also in the Father: for he believes in what is proper to the Father's Essence; and thus the faith is one in one God. And he who worships and honours the Son, in the Son worships and honours the Father; for one is the Godhead; and therefore one the honour and one the worship which is paid to the Father in and through the Son. And he who thus worships, worships one God; for there is one God and none other than He.
Accordingly when the Father is called the only God, and we read that there is one God , and `I am,' and `beside Me there is no God,' and `I the first and I the last ,' this has a fit meaning. For God is One and Only and First; but this is not said to the denial of the Son , perish the thought; for He is in that One, and First and Only, as being of that One and Only and First the Only Word and Wisdom and Radiance. And He too is the First, as the Fulness of the Godhead of the First and Only, being whole and full God . This then is not said on His account, but to deny that there is other such as the Father and His Word.