Subject 8. (Being Subject 4. continued.)§. 25. Heretical illustration from 1 Cor. xii. 4. refuted. {543} 1. IF then Arius raves in saying that the Son is from nothing, and that once He was not, Sabellius raves [Note 1] also in saying that the Father is Son, and again, the Son Father [Note 2], in subsistence [Note 3] One, in name Two; and he raves also [Note A] in using as an example the grace of the Spirit. For he says, "As there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit [1 Cor. xii. 4.], so also the Father is the same, but is dilated into Son and Spirit." Now this is utterly extravagant; for if as with the Spirit, so it is with God, the Father will be Word and Holy Spirit, to one becoming Father, to another Son, to another Spirit, accommodating himself to the need of each, and in name indeed Son and Spirit, but in reality Father only; having a beginning [Note 4] in that He becomes a Son, and then ceasing to be called Father, and made man in name, but in truth not even coming among us; and untrue [Note 5] in saying I and the Father, but in reality being himself the Father, and the other extravagances which result in the instance of Sabellius. And the name of the Son and the Spirit will necessarily cease, when the need has been supplied; and what happens will altogether be but make-belief, because they have been displayed, not in truth, but in name. And the Name of Son ceasing, as they {544} hold, then the grace of Baptism will cease too; for it was given in the Son [Note 6]. Nay, what will follow but the annihilation of the creation? for if the Word came forth that we might be created [Note 7], and when He was come forth, we were, it is plain that when He retires into the Father, as they say, we shall be no longer. For He will be as He was; so also we shall not be, as then we were not; for when He is no more gone forth, there will no more be a creation. §. 26. Extravagant then is this. FootnoteA. Neander, Church Hist. vol. 2. p. 277.
understands this [mainetai de kai chromenos] of
Sabellius. But the repetition of [mainetai] is somewhat against
the supposition, and the [hosa alla epi Sabelliou] which
presently follows. So too is the [kat' autous] which occurs
lower down the section. And the [proelthen ho logos] and
the annihilation of creation at its close, which have above been
ascribed to Marcellus. p. 507. (8.) And the [platunetai eis huion
kai pneuma] which follows at once, and is the very phrase of
Marcellus. supr. p. 506. Athanasius then does but say that the
illustration from the gifts of the Spirit is a running into
Sabellianism. As to the want of a nominative to shew whom he is
speaking of, it may be urged rather in proof of the abrupt and
defective character of the composition of the Oration. Margin Notes1. [he Sabelliou mania], Sent. Dion.
26, c. 2.
p. 529, note D. 3.
[hypostasei], p. 494, note T. 4.
[archen], p. 501. 5.
[pseudomenos]. 6.
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