Chapter 18.Answer to objections from Scripture; sixthly, Introductory to Proverbs viii. 22 {281 | ED. BEN. ii. § 23-24.} 134. AND here it were well to ask them also this question, for a still clearer refutation of their heresy:—Wherefore, when all things are creatures, and all are brought into consistence from nothing, and the Son Himself, according to them, is creature and work, and one of those things which once were not, wherefore has God made all things through Him alone, and without Him was made not one thing? or why is it, when all things are spoken of, that no one thinks the Son is signified in the number all, but only things that come to be; whereas when Scripture speaks of the Word, it does not understand Him as being in the number of all, but ranks Him with the Father, as Him in whom providence and salvation for all are wrought and effected by the Father, though all things surely might at that very same command have come to be, at which, they say, He was brought into being by God alone? For God is not wearied by commanding, nor is His strength unequal to the making of all things, that He should alone create the only Son, and need His service and aid for the framing of the rest. For He lets nothing stand over which He wills to be done; but He has willed only, and all things subsisted, and no one hath resisted His will. Why then were not all things brought into being by God alone at the same command at which the Son came into being? Or let them tell us, why did all things through Him come to be, who was but brought into being Himself. 135. However [Note 1], they say in answer, that, on God's determining {282} to create this finite Nature, "when He saw that it could not endure the touch of His immediate hand, and its creation by means of It, He makes and creates first and alone one, and calls Him Son and Word, that, through Him as an intermediate, all things may thereupon be brought to be." This they not only have said, but they have been bold enough to put it into writing, namely, Eusebius, Arius, and Asterius the sacrificer. Yet if they shall assign the toil of making all other creatures as the reason why God made the Son only, the whole creation will cry out against them as saying unworthy things of God; and Esaias too, who has said in Scripture, the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary: there is no searching of His understanding. But if, again, God made the Son alone, as not deigning to make the rest, but committed them to the Son as an assistant, this on the other hand is unworthy of God, for in Him there is no pride. Nay, the Lord reproves the thought when He says, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father who is in heaven. And again, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them; are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? If then it be not unworthy of God to exercise His providence, even {283 | ED. BEN. ii. § 24-26.} down to things so small as a hair of the head, and a sparrow and the grass of the field, also it was not unworthy of Him in the first instance to make them. For what things are the subject of His providence, of those He is Maker, that is, by means of His own proper Word. Nay, a worse absurdity lies before the men who thus speak; for they distinguish between the creatures and their framing; and consider the latter the work of the Father, the creatures the work of the Son; but, if so, either all things must be brought to be by the Father with the Son, or at least if all that has a beginning comes into being through the Son, we must not call Him one of those created things. 136. Next, they may be exposed thus:—if even the Word be of created nature, how, whereas this nature is too feeble to sustain God's own handiwork, could He alone of all endure to be made by the Ingenerate and untempered Substance of God, as ye say? for it follows either that, if He could endure it, all could endure it, or, it being endurable by none, it was not endurable even by the Word, for you say that He is one of things which have a beginning. And again, if because created nature could not endure to be God's own handiwork, there arose need of a mediator, it clearly follows that, the Word having come to be, and being a creature, there is need of a medium in His framing also, since He too is of that same nature which does not admit of being made by God without a medium. But if some being as a medium be found for Him, then again a fresh mediator is needed for that second, and thus tracing back and following out by reasoning, we shall invent a vast crowd of accumulating mediators; and thus it will be impossible that the creation should subsist, as ever wanting an intermediate, and that medium being unable to come into being without another previous mediator; for all of them will be of that created nature which does not, as ye say, endure to be the workmanship of God alone. {284} How abundant is that folly, which obliges them to hold that what has already come into being, admits not of that coming! Or perhaps they opine that they have not even yet come to be, as still seeking their mediator; for, on the ground of their so impious and futile notion, what really is would not have subsistence, for want of the intermediate. 137. But again they allege this:—"Behold, through Moses too did He lead the people from Egypt, and through him He gave the Law, yet he was a man; so that it is possible for like to be brought into being by like." They should veil their face when they say this, to save their much shame. For Moses was not sent to frame the world, nor to call into being things which were not, nor to fashion men like himself, but only to be the minister of parlance to the people and to King Pharaoh. And this is a very different thing, for to minister belongs to things made as of servants, but to frame and to create is of God alone, and of His proper Word and His Wisdom. Wherefore, in the matter of framing, we shall find none but God's Word; for all things are made in Wisdom, and without the Word was made not one thing. But as regards ministrations there are, not one only, but many out of the whole number, whomever the Lord will send. For there are many Archangels, many Thrones, and Powers, and Dominions, thousands of thousands, and myriads of myriads, standing before Him, ministering and ready to be sent. And many Prophets, and Twelve Apostles, and Paul. And Moses himself was not alone, but Aaron with him, and next other seventy were filled with the Holy Ghost. And Moses was succeeded by Jesus the Son of Nave, and he by the Judges, and they by, not one, but by a number of Kings. If then the Son were a creature and one of things that had a beginning, there would have been many such sons, in order that God might have many {285 | ED. BEN. ii. § 26-28.} such ministers, just as there is a multitude of those others. But if this is not to be seen, for the creatures are many, but the Word is one, any one will collect from this, that the Son differs from all, and is not on a level with the creatures, but is proper to the Father. Hence many Words there are not, but one only Word of the one Father, and one Image of the one God. 138. "But behold," they say, "there is but one sun and one earth." Let them maintain, senseless as they are, that there is one water and one fire, and then they may be told that everything that is brought into being is one in its own substance, but for the ministry and service committed to it, by itself it is not adequate nor sufficient alone. For God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years. And then He says, And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night. Behold there are many lights, and not the sun only, nor the moon only, but each is one in substance, and yet the service of all is one and common; and what each lacks is supplied by the other, and the office of lighting is performed by all. Thus the sun has power to shine throughout the day and no more; and the moon through the night; and the stars together with them accomplish the seasons and years, and become for signs, each according to the need that calls for it. Thus too the earth is not for all things, but for the fruits only, and to be a ground to tread on for the living things that inhabit it. And the firmament is to divide between waters and waters, and is a place to set the stars in. So also fire and water, with other things, have been brought into being to be the constituent parts of bodies; and in {286} short no one thing is alone, but all things that are made, as if members of each other, make up as it were one body, namely, the world. If then they thus conceive of the Son, they deserve a good pelting, as considering the Word to be a part of this universe, and a part insufficient without the rest for the service committed to Him. But if this be manifestly impious, let them acknowledge that the Word is not in the number of things which have been made, but is the sole and proper Word of the Father, and of those things the Framer. 139. "But," they have said, "though He is a creature and has been brought into being, yet as from a master and artificer has He learned to frame things, and thus has ministered to God who taught Him." For thus the Sophist Asterius, having learned to deny the Lord, has dared to write, not observing the absurdity which follows. For if framing a universe be a thing to be taught, let them beware lest they say that it is not by nature but by skill that God Himself is a Framer, so as to admit of His losing the art. Besides, if the Wisdom of God attained to it by definite teaching, how is it still Wisdom, when it needs lessons? and what was it before it learned? For it was not Wisdom if it needed teaching; it was surely but some empty thing, and not Wisdom in substance, but from improving itself it had the name of Wisdom, and will be only so long Wisdom as it can retain what it has learned. For what has been acquired not by any nature, but from learning, admits of being at one time unlearned. But to speak thus of the Word of God is not the part of Christians, but of Greeks. For if the power of framing a world accrues to any one from teaching, these insensate men are ascribing jealousy and weakness to God; jealousy, in that He has not taught many beings how to frame, so that there may be around Him, as Archangels and Angels many, so world-framers many; and weakness, in that He could not make by {287 | ED. BEN. ii. § 28-30.} Himself, but needed a fellow-worker, or under-worker; and yet creation must begin with God alone, even according to their showing, if, as they say, the Son is a creature, and so there was no one else to make Him but God. But God is deficient in nothing: perish the thought! for He has said Himself, I am full. Nor did the Word become Framer of the universe from teaching; but being the Image and Wisdom of the Father, He works what appertains to the Father. Nor hath He made the Son for the making of things generate; for behold, though the Son exists, still the Father is seen to work, as the Lord Himself says, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. If, however, as you say, the Son came into being for the purpose of making the things which were made after Him, and yet the Father is seen to work even after the Son, you must hold even in this light the making of such a Son to be superfluous. Besides, why, when He would create us, does He seek for the intermediate at all, as if His will did not suffice to constitute whatever seemed good to Him? Yet the Scriptures say, He hath done whatsoever pleased Him, and Who hath resisted His will? And if His mere will is sufficient for the framing of all things, you make the office of a middle power superfluous; for your instance of Moses, and the sun and the moon, has been shown not to hold. 140. And here again is an argument to silence you. You say that God, willing the creation of that nature which has a beginning, and deliberating concerning it, designs and creates the Son, that through Him He may frame us; now, if so, consider how great an impiety you have dared to utter. First, because the Son thereby appears rather to have been for us brought to be, than we for Him; for we were not created for Him, but He is made for us; so that He owes thanks to us, not we to Him, as the woman to the man. For the man, says Scripture, was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Therefore as the {288} man is the image and glory of God, and the woman the glory of the man, so we are made God's image and for His glory; but the Son is our image, and exists for our glory. And we were brought into being that we might be; but God's Word was made, as you must hold, not that He might be, but as an instrument for our need, so that not we from Him, but He is constituted from our need. Are not men who even conceive such thoughts, more than insensate? For if for us the Word was made, He has not precedence of us with God; for God in that case did not take counsel about us having Him within Him, but having us in Himself, counselled as they say concerning His own Word. But if so, perchance the Father had not even a will for the Son at all; for not as having a will for Him, did He create Him, but with a will for us, He formed Him for our sake; for He designed Him after designing us; so that, according to these impious men, henceforth the Son, who was made as an instrument, is superfluous, now that they are made for whom He was created. 141. But if the Son alone was made by God alone, because He could endure it, but we, because we could not, were made by the Word, why does He not first take counsel about the Word, who could endure His making, instead of taking counsel about us? or why does He not make more of Him who was strong than of us who were weak? or why, making Him first, does He not counsel about Him first? or why, counselling about us first, does He not make us first, His will being sufficient for the constitution of all things? But He creates Him first, yet counsels first about us; and He wills us before the Mediator; and when He wills to create us, and counsels about us, He calls us creatures; but Him, whom He frames for us, He calls Son and proper Heir. But we, for whose sake He made Him, ought rather to be called sons; or certainly He, who is His Son, is rather the object of His previous {289 | ED. BEN. ii. § 30-31.} thoughts and of His will, for whom He makes us all. Such the bile, such the vomit of the heretics [Note 2]. Chapter 19.Answer to objections from Scripture; sixthly, Introduction to Proverbs viii. 22 142. But the sentiment of Truth in this matter must not be hidden, but must have high utterance. For the Word of God was not made for us, but rather we for Him, and in Him all things were created. Nor, because we were weak, was He made by the Father alone, as able to endure this, that He might frame us by means of Him as an instrument; perish the thought! it is not so. For though it had seemed good to God not to make creatures, still had the Word been no less with God, and the Father in Him. At the same time, created things could not without the Word be brought to be; hence they were made through Him—and reasonably. For since the Son is the Word proper and natural to God's substance, and is from Him, and in Him, as He {290} said Himself, the creatures could not have come to be, except through Him. For as the light enlightens all things by its radiance, and without its radiance nothing would be illuminated, so also the Father, as by a hand, in the Word wrought all things, and without Him makes nothing. For instance, God said, as Moses relates, Let there be light, and Let the waters be gathered together, and let the dry land appear, and Let us make man; as also holy David in the Psalm, He spake and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast. And He spoke, not that, as in the case of men, some under-worker might hear, and learning the will of Him who spoke might go away and do it; for this is what is proper to creatures, but it is unseemly so to think or speak of the Word. For the Word of God is Framer and executes, and He is the Father's Will. Hence it is that divine Scripture says not that some one heard and answered, what was to be the manner or nature of the things which He wished made; but God only said, Let it become, and Scripture adds, And it became; for what He thought good and counselled, that forthwith the Word began and put in execution. 143. For when God commands others, whether the Angels, or converses with Moses, or promises Abraham, then the hearer answers; and the one says, Whereby shall I know? and the other, Commission some one else; and again, If they ask me, What is His Name, what shall I say to them? and the Angel said to Zacharias, Thus saith the Lord; and he asked the Lord, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem? and waits to hear good words and comfortable. For each of these has in it the Mediator Word, and the Wisdom of God, which makes known the will of the Father. But when that Word Himself works and creates, then there is no questioning and answering, for the Father is in Him and the Word in the Father; but it suffices to will, and the work is done; so that the phrase He said is a {291 | ED. BEN. ii. § 31-32.} token of the will for our sake, and It was so denotes the work which is done through the Word and the Wisdom, in which Wisdom also is the Will of the Father. And the meaning of God said is explained to us in the Word, for, He says, Thou hast made all things in Wisdom; and By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and There is one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. 144. It is plain from this that not with us are the Arians fighting about their heresy; but while they put us forward, their real fight is against the Godhead. For if the voice were ours which says, This is My Son, small were our complaint of them; but if it is the Father's voice, and the disciples heard it, and the Son too says of Himself, Before all the mountains He begat Me, are they not fighting against God, as the giants in story, having their tongue, as the Psalmist says, a sharp sword for impiety? For they neither have feared the voice of the Father, nor reverenced the Saviour's words, nor trusted the sacred writers, one of whom writes, Who being the Brightness of His glory and the expression of His subsistence, and Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God; and another says in the Psalm, With Thee is the well of life, and in Thy Light shall we see Light, and Thou hast made all things in Wisdom; and the Prophets say, And the Word of the Lord came to me; and John, In the beginning was the Word; and Luke, As they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word; and as David again says, He sent His Word and healed them. All these passages proscribe on every side the Arian heresy, and signify the eternity of the Word, and that He is not foreign but proper to the Father's Substance. For when saw any one light without radiance? or who dares to say that the impress can be different from the subsistence? or has not a man lost his mind himself who even entertains the thought that God was ever Word-less and Wisdom-less? {292} 145. For such illustrations and such images has Scripture proposed, that considering the inability of human nature to comprehend God, we might be able to form ideas even from these, however poorly and dimly, as far as is attainable. And as the creation is all-sufficient for the knowledge of the being of a God and a Providence (for by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionally the Maker of them is seen), and we learn from them without asking for voices, but hearing the Scriptures we believe, and surveying the very order and the harmony of all things, we acknowledge that He is Maker and Lord and God of all, and apprehend His marvellous providence and governance over all things; so in like manner about the Son's Godhead, what has been above said suffices, and it becomes superfluous, or rather it is very mad to doubt about it, or to ask in an heretical way, How can the Son be from eternity? or how can He be from the Father's Substance, yet not a part? since what is said to be of another, is a part of him; and what is divided, is not whole. We have already shown the shallowness of such questions, but the exact consideration of these passages themselves and the force of these illustrations will serve still further to expose them. 146. For we see that a man's reason continues, and is from him and belongs to his substance whose reason it is, and does not admit a before and an after. So again we see that the radiance from the sun is proper to it, and the sun's substance is not divided or impaired; but its substance is whole, and its radiance perfect and whole, yet without impairing the substance of light, but as a true offspring from it. We understand in like manner that the Son is not from without, but begotten from the Father, and while the Father remains whole, the Impress of His Subsistence is everlasting, and preserves the Father's likeness and unvarying Image, so that he who sees Him, sees in Him the Subsistence too of which He is the Impress. And from {293 | ED. BEN. ii. § 32-34.} the action of the Impress we understand the true Godhead of the Subsistence, as the Saviour Himself teaches when He says, The Father who dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works which I do; and I and the Father are one, and I in the Father and the Father in Me. Therefore let this Christ-opposing heresy attempt first to mutilate the examples found in things created, and say, "Once the sun was without his radiance," or, "Radiance is not proper to the substance of light," or, "It is indeed proper, but it is a part of light by mutilation;" and then let it mutilate Reason, and pronounce that it is foreign to Mind, or that once it was not, or that it is not proper to its substance, or that it is by mutilation a part of mind. And so of His Impress and the Light and the Power, let it mutilate these as in the case of Reason and Radiance; and instead let it imagine what it will. But if such extravagance be impossible even for them, are they not greatly beside themselves, presumptuously intruding into what is higher than created things and their own nature, and essaying impossibilities? 147. For if, in the case of these created and bodily things, offsprings are found which are not parts of the substances from which they are, and subsist without injury to them, or impairing the substances of their originals, are they not mad again in seeking and conjecturing parts and passions in the instance of the immaterial and true God, and predicating mutilation of Him who is beyond passion and change, thereby to perplex the ears of the simple and to pervert them from the Truth? for who hears of a son but conceives of that which belongs to the father's substance? who heard, in his first catechising, that God has a Son and has made all things by His proper Word, but understood it in that sense in which we now mean it? who, on the rise of this odious heresy of the Arians, was not at once startled at what he heard, as strange, and a second sowing {294} beside that Word which has been sown from the beginning? For what is sown in every soul from the beginning is that God has a Son, the Word, the Wisdom, the Power, that is, His Image and Radiance; from which it at once follows that He is always; that He is from the Father; that He is like Him; that He is the eternal offspring of His substance; and there is no idea involved in these of creature or work. But when the man who is an enemy, while men were sleeping, made a second sowing, of "He is a creature," and "There was once when He was not," and "How can it be?" thenceforth the wicked heresy of Christ's enemies rose as tares, and forthwith, as bereft of every orthodox thought, as robbers, they are going about [Note 3] and venture to say, "How can the Son always exist with the Father?" for men come of men and are sons, after a time; and the father is thirty years old when the son begins to be, being begotten; and in short of every son of man it is true that he was not before his "generation." And again they whisper, "How can the Son be Word, or the Word be God's Image? for the word of men is composed of syllables, and only signifies the speaker's will, and then is over and is lost." 148. They then afresh, as if forgetting the proofs which have been already urged against them, thus argue. But the word of truth confutes them as follows:—If they were disputing concerning any man, then let them exercise reason in this human way, both concerning his word and his son; but if concerning God who created man, no longer let them entertain human thoughts, but others which are {295 | ED. BEN. ii. § 34-35.} above human nature. For such as is the parent, such of necessity is the offspring; and such as is the Word's Father, such must be also His Word. Now man, begotten in time, in time also himself begets the child; and whereas from nothing he came into existence, therefore his word also is over and continues not. But God is not as man, as Scripture has said; but is existing and is ever; therefore also His Word is existing and is everlastingly with the Father, as radiance from light. And man's word is composed of syllables, and neither lives nor operates any thing, but is only significant of the speaker's intention, and does but go forth and go by, no more to appear, since it was not at all before it was spoken; wherefore, I say, the word of man neither lives nor operates anything, nor in short is man. And this happens to it, as I said before, because man who begets it has his nature out of nothing. But God's Word is not merely pronounced [Note 4], as one may say, nor a sound of accents, nor by His Son is meant His command; but as radiance from light, so is He perfect Offspring from perfect. Hence He is God also, as being God's Image; for the Word was God, says Scripture. And man's words avail not for operation; hence man works not by means of words but of hands, for they have existence, and man's words have no stay. But the Word of God, as the Apostle says, is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He is then Framer of all, and without Him was made not one thing, nor can anything be made without Him. 149. Nor must we ask why the Word of God is not such {296} as our word, considering God is not such as we, as has been before said; nor again is it right to seek how the Word is from God, or how He is God's Radiance, or how God begets, and what is the manner of His begetting. For a man must be beside himself to venture on such points; since a thing ineffable and proper to God's nature, and known to Him alone and to the Son, this he demands to have explained in words. It is all one as if they sought where God is, and how God is, and of what nature the Father is. But as to ask such questions is impious, and argues an ignorance of God, so it is not permitted to venture such questions concerning the generation of the Son of God, nor to measure God and His Wisdom by our own nature and infirmity. Nor is a person at liberty on that account to swerve in his thoughts from the truth, nor, if any one is perplexed in such inquiries, ought he to disbelieve what is written. For it is better in perplexity to be silent and believe, than to disbelieve on account of the perplexity: for he who is perplexed may in some way obtain mercy, because, though he has questioned, he has yet kept quiet; but when a man is led by his perplexity into forming for himself doctrines which beseem not, and utters what is unworthy of God, such daring incurs a sentence without mercy. For in such perplexities divine Scripture is able to afford him some relief, so as to take rightly what is written, and to dwell upon a human word as an illustration: that, as it is proper to us and is from us, and not a work external to us, so also God's Word belongs to Him and is from Him, and is not a thing made; and yet is not like the word of man, or else we must suppose God to be man. 150. For observe, many and various are men's words which pass away day by day; because those that come first continue not, but vanish. Now this happens because their authors are men, and have their fit seasons which {297 | ED. BEN. ii. § 36-37.} pass away, and motive thoughts which are successive; and what strikes them first and second, that they utter; so that they have many words, and yet after them all nothing at all remaining; for the speaker ceases, and his word forthwith perishes. But God's Word is one and the same, and, as it is written, The Word of God endureth for ever, not changed, not antecedent or posterior to Itself, but existing the same always. For it was fitting, whereas God is One, that His Image should be One also, and His Word One, and One His Wisdom. Wherefore I am in wonder how, whereas God is One, these men introduce, after their private notions, many images and wisdoms and words, and say that the Father's proper and natural Word is other than the Son, by whom He even made the Son, and that He who is really Son is but notionally called Word, as vine, and way, and door, and tree of life; and that He is called Wisdom also only in name, the proper and true Wisdom of the Father, which co-exists ingenerately with Him, being other than the Son, by which He even made the Son, and named Him Wisdom as partaking of it. 151. To this they have not only given speech, but Arius has put it into form in his Thalia, and the Sophist Asterius has written, what we have stated above, as follows: "Blessed Paul said not that he preached Christ, the Power of God or the Wisdom of God, but without the addition of the article, God's Power and God's Wisdom, thus preaching that the proper power of God Himself which is natural to Him, and co-existent in Him ingenerately, is something else generative indeed of Christ, and creative of the whole world, concerning which he teaches in his Epistle to the Romans thus,—The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal Power and Godhead. For as no one would say that the Godhead there mentioned was Christ and not the Father Himself, so, as I think, His {298} eternal Power and Godhead also is not the Only Begotten Son, but the Father who begat Him." And he teaches that there is another power and wisdom of God, manifested through Christ. And shortly after, the same Asterius says, "However, His eternal power and wisdom, which Truth argues to be unoriginate and ingenerate, this certainly must be one and the same. For there are many wisdoms which are one by one created by Him, of whom Christ is the first-born and only-begotten; all however equally depend on their possessor. And all the powers are rightly called His who created and uses them: as the Prophet says that the locust, which came to be a divinely inflicted punishment of human sins, was called by God Himself not only a power, but a great power; and blessed David in very many of the Psalms invites, not the Angels alone, but the Powers to praise God." 152. Now are they not worthy of all hatred for merely uttering this? for if, as they hold, His Sonship does not mean that He is begotten of the Father and belongs to His Substance, then as they call Him Word only because of things rational, and Wisdom because of things gifted with wisdom, and Power because of things gifted with power, surely in like manner He must be named Son as one of a company, because of those who are made sons; and perhaps because there are things existing, He has the gift of existence, that is in our notions only [Note 5]. And then after all what is He really? for He is none of these Himself, if they are but His names: and He has but a semblance of being, and is decorated with these names [Note 6] for our sakes. But rather this is some devil's recklessness, or worse, to be willing enough that they should truly subsist themselves, yet to think that God's Word is but in {299 | ED. BEN. ii. § 37-39.} name. Is not this portentous, to say that Wisdom co-exists with the Father, yet to deny that this is the Christ, but to hold that, whereas there are many created powers and wisdoms, one of them is the Lord, whom they go on to compare to the caterpillar and locust? and are they not unscrupulous, who, when they hear us say that the Word of God co-exists with the Father, forthwith mutter, "Are you not speaking of two Ingenerates?" although in speaking themselves of "His Ingenerate Wisdom," they do not see that they have already incurred themselves the charge which they so rashly urge against us. Moreover, what folly is there in that thought of theirs, that the Ingenerate Wisdom co-existing with God is God Himself! for what co-exists does not co-exist with itself, but with some one else, as the Evangelists say of the Lord, that He was "in company with" His disciples; for He was not together with Himself, but with His disciples;—unless indeed they would say that God is of a compound nature, having wisdom a constituent or complement of His Substance, ingenerate as well as Himself, which moreover they pretend to be the framer of the world, that so they may deprive the Son of the framing of it. For there is nothing they would not maintain, sooner than hold true doctrine concerning the Lord. 153. For where at all have they found in divine Scripture, or from whom have they heard, that there is another Word and another Wisdom besides this Son, that they should frame to themselves such a doctrine? True, indeed it is written, Are not My words like fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? and in the Proverbs, I will make known My words unto you; but these are precepts and commands, which God has spoken to the sacred writers through His proper and only true Word, concerning which the Psalmist said, I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy words. Such words {300} accordingly the Saviour signifies to be distinct from Himself, when He says in His own person, The words which I have spoken unto you. For certainly such words as these are not offsprings, nor was it such words as these that framed the world, nor were they so many images of the One God, nor so many who have become men for us, nor as if from many such there were one who has become flesh, as John says; but it is on the ground of there being one only Word of God that those good tidings are heralded by John, The Word was made flesh, and all things were made by Him. 154. Wherefore of Him alone, our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His oneness with the Father, are written and set forth the testimonies, both of the Father signifying that the Son is One, and of the sacred writers, who have received this doctrine and declare that the Word is One, and that He is Only-Begotten. And His works also are set before us; for all things, visible and invisible, have been brought into being through Him, and without Him was made not one thing. But concerning some one or any one else they have not a thought, not framing to themselves words or wisdoms, as to which neither name nor deed are signified by Scripture, but are spoken of by these men only. For it is simply their invention and Christ-opposing surmise, and they wrest the true sense of the name of the Word and the Wisdom, and framing to themselves others, they deny the true Word of God, and the real and only Wisdom of the Father, and thereby rival the Manichees. For they too, when they behold the works of God, deny Him who is the only and true God, and frame to themselves another, whom they can show neither by his work, nor in any testimony drawn from the divine oracles. If then neither in the divine oracles is found another wisdom, supposing this Son is put aside, nor from the fathers have we heard of any such, yet they have confessed and written of the Wisdom co-existing with the Father ingenerately, proper to {301 | ED. BEN. ii. § 39-40.} Him, and the Framer of the world, this Framing Wisdom must be the Son, who therefore, even according to them, will be eternally co-existent with the Father. For He is Framer of all, as it is written, In Wisdom hast Thou made them all. 155. Nay, Asterius himself [Note 7], as if forgetting what he wrote before, afterwards, in Caiaphas's fashion, involuntarily, when urging the Greeks, instead of naming many wisdoms, or the caterpillar, confesses but one, in these words: "God the Word is one, but many are the things rational; and one is the substance and nature of Wisdom, but many are the things wise and beautiful." And soon afterwards he says again: "Who are they whom they honour with the title of God's children? for they will not say that they too are words, nor maintain that there are many wisdoms. For it is not possible, whereas the Word is one, and Wisdom has been set forth as one, to distribute to the multitude of children the Substance of the Word, and to bestow on them the appellation of Wisdom." It is not then at all wonderful that the Arians should battle with the truth, when they have collisions with their own principles and conflict with each other, at one time saying that there are many wisdoms, at another maintaining one; at one time classing Wisdom with the caterpillar, at another saying that it co-exists with the Father and is proper to Him; now that the Father alone is ingenerate, and then again that His Wisdom and His Power are ingenerate also. And they battle with us for saying that the Word of God is ever, yet forget their own doctrines, and say themselves that Wisdom co-exists with God ingenerately. Thus they deny the true Wisdom, and invent one which exists not, as the Manichees, who make to themselves another God, after denying Him that is. 156. But let the other heresies and the Manichees also {302} know that the Father of the Christ is One, and is Lord and Maker of the creation through His proper Word. And let the Ariomaniacs know in particular, that the Word of God is One, being the only Son proper and genuine from His Substance, and having with His Father the oneness of Godhead indivisible, as we have said many times, being taught it by the Saviour Himself. Since, were it not so, wherefore through Him does the Father create, and in Him reveal Himself to whom He will, and illuminate them? or why too in the baptismal consecration is the Son named together with the Father? For if they say that the Father is not all-sufficient, then their answer is impious; but if He be, for this alone is lawful to say, what is the need of the Son whether for framing the worlds, or for the Holy Bath? And what fellowship is there between creature and Creator? or why is a thing, that is made, classed with the Maker in the consecration of all of us? or why, as you hold, is faith in one Creator and in one creature delivered to us? for if it was that we might be joined to the Godhead, what need of the creature? but if that we might be united to the Son, Himself a creature, superfluous, according to you, is this naming of the Son in Baptism, for God who made Him a Son is able to make us sons also. Besides, if the Son be a creature, the nature of rational creatures being one, no help will come to creatures from a creature, since all need that grace which comes from God. 157. We said a few words just now on the fitness that all things should have been made by Him; but since the course of the discussion has led us also to mention Holy Baptism, it is necessary to state, as I think and believe, that the Son is named with the Father, not as if the Father were not all-sufficient, nor as if without meaning, and by accident; but, since He is God's Word and proper Wisdom, and, being His Radiance, is ever with the Father, {303 | ED. BEN. ii. § 41-42.} therefore it is impossible, if the Father bestows grace, that He should not give it in the Son, for the Son is in the Father as the radiance in the light. For, not as if in need, but as a Father, God in His own Wisdom hath founded the earth, and made all things in the Word which is from Him, and in the Son confirms the Holy Bath. For where the Father is, there is the Son, and where the light, there the radiance; and as, what the Father worketh, He worketh through the Son, and the Lord Himself says, "What I see the Father do, that I do also," so also when baptism is given, whom the Father baptises, him the Son baptises; and whom the Son baptises, he is consecrated in the Holy Ghost. And again as when the sun shines, one might say that the radiance illuminates, for the light is one and indivisible, nor can it be separated off, so where the Father is or is named, there plainly is the Son also; and is the Father named in Baptism? then must the Son be named with Him. Therefore, when He made His promise to the sacred writers, He thus spoke: I and the Father will come and make Our abode in him; and again, that, as I and Thou are One so they may be one in Us. And the grace given is one, given from the Father in the Son, as Paul writes in every Epistle, Grace unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. For the light must be with the ray, and the radiance must be contemplated together with its own light. 158. Whence the Jews, in that they deny the Son as well as these men, have not the Father either; for they first left the Fountain of Wisdom, as Baruch reproaches them, and then put from them the Wisdom springing from it, our Lord Jesus Christ, (for Christ, says the Apostle, is God's Power and God's Wisdom,) when they said, We have no king but Cæsar. The Jews then have the penal award of their denial; for their city as well as their reasoning came to nought. And these two hazard the fulness of the mystery, {304} I mean Baptism; for if the consecration is given to us into the Name of Father and Son, and they do not confess a true Father, because they deny what is from Him and is like [Note 8] His Substance, and deny also the true Son, and name for themselves another of their own framing as created out of nothing, is not the rite administered by them altogether empty and unprofitable, making a show, but in reality being no help towards piety? For the Arians do not baptise into Father and Son, but into Creator and creature, and into Maker and work. And as a creature is other than the Son, so the Baptism, which is supposed to be given by them, is other than the truth, though they pretend to name the Name of the Father and the Son, because of the words of Scripture. For not he who simply says, "O Lord," gives Baptism; but he who with the Name has also the right faith. On this account therefore our Saviour also did not simply command to baptise; but first says, Teach; and then "Baptise into the Name of Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost;" that the right faith might follow upon learning, and together with faith might come the consecration of Baptism. 159. There are many other heresies too, which use the words only, but without orthodoxy (as I have said,) and the faith which saves, and in consequence the water which they administer is unprofitable, as deficient in a pious meaning; so that he who is sprinkled by them is rather polluted by impiety than redeemed [Note 9]. So Gentiles also, though the name of God is on their lips, incur the charge of Atheism, because they know not the real and very God, the Father {305 | ED. BEN. ii. § 42-43.} of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Manichees and Phrygians, and the disciples of the Samosatene, though using the Names, nevertheless are heretics, and the Arians follow in the same course, though they read the words of Scripture, and use the Names, yet they too mock those who receive the rite from them, being more impious than the other heresies, and advancing beyond them, and making them seem innocent by their own recklessness of speech. For these other heresies lie against the truth in some certain respect, either erring concerning the Lord's Body, as if He did not take flesh of Mary, or as if He simply did not die, or become man, but only appeared, and was not truly, and seemed to have a body when He had not, and seemed to have the shape of man, as visions in a dream; but the Arians are openly impious against the Father Himself. For hearing from the Scriptures that His Godhead is represented in the Son as in an image, they blaspheme, saying that it is a creature, and everywhere concerning that Image they carry about with them the mocking word, "He was not," as mud in a wallet [Note 10], and spit it forth as serpents their venom [Note 11]. Then, whereas their doctrine is nauseous to all men, forthwith, as a support against its fall, they prop up the heresy with human patronage [Note 12], that the simple, at the sight or even by the fear of this, may overlook the mischief of their perversity. 160. Right indeed is it to pity their dupes; well is it to weep over them, for that they sacrifice their true interest for the present prospect of ease and pleasure, and thereby {306} forfeit their future hope. In thinking to be baptised into the name of one who exists not, they will receive nothing; and ranking themselves with a creature, from the creation they will have no help, and believing in one unlike and foreign to the Father in substance, to the Father they will not be united, not possessing His proper Son by nature, who is from Him, who is in the Father, and in whom the Father is, as He Himself has said; but being led astray by them, the wretched men henceforth remain destitute and stripped of the Godhead. For this phantasy of earthly goods will not follow them upon their death; nor when they see the Lord whom they have denied, sitting on His Father's throne, and judging quick and dead, will they be able to call to their help any one of those who have now deceived them; for they shall see them as well as themselves before the judgment-seat, repenting of their deeds of sin and impiety. Chapter 20.Answer to objections from Scripture; sixthly, Proverbs viii. 22 161. WE have gone through thus much before the passage in the Proverbs, resisting the falsehoods to which the hearts of these men have given birth, in order that they may know that the Son of God ought not to be called a creature, and may learn rightly to read what admits in truth of a sound explanation [Note 13]. For it is written, The Lord created Me a beginning of His ways, for His works [Note 14]; since, however, these are proverbs, and are expressed in the way of proverbs, we must not expound them nakedly in their first sense, {307 | ED. BEN. ii. § 43-44.} but we must inquire into the person spoken of, and thus religiously put its true sense upon it. For what is said in proverbs is not said plainly, but is conveyed latently, as the Lord Himself has taught us in the Gospel according to John, saying, These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but openly. Therefore it is necessary to unfold the sense of what is said, and to seek it as something hidden, and not nakedly to expound as if the meaning were spoken plainly, lest by a false interpretation we wander from the truth. 162. If then what is written be about an Angel, or any other of things created, as concerning one of us who are mere works, let created me be said. But if it be the Wisdom of God, that speaks concerning itself, in whom all things which have a being have been framed, what ought we to understand but that He created means nothing contrary to "He begat"? Nor, as forgetting that it is Creator and Framer, or ignorant of the difference between the Creator and the creatures, does It number Itself among the creatures; but it signifies a certain sense, as in proverbs, not plainly but latent, which It inspired the sacred writers to use in prophecy, while soon after It doth Itself give the meaning of He created in other but parallel expressions, saying, Wisdom hath made Herself a house. Now it is plain that our body is Wisdom's house, which It took on Itself to become man; hence the words are parallel to John's, The Word was made flesh; and by Solomon Wisdom says of {308} Itself with cautious exactness, not "I am a creature," but only The Lord hath created Me a beginning of His ways for His works, yet not "created Me that I might have being," nor again "because I have a creature's beginning and generation." 163. For in this passage, not as signifying the Substance of His Godhead, nor His own everlasting and genuine generation from the Father, has the Word spoken by Solomon, but on the other hand signifying His manhood and economy towards us. And, I repeat, He has not said "I am a creature," or "I became a creature," but only He created. For the creatures, having a created substance, are brought into being and are said to be created, and in short the creature is created; but this mere term He created does not necessarily signify the substance or the generation, but indicates something else as attaching to Him of whom it speaks, and not simply that He who is said to be created is at once in His Nature and Substance a creature. And this difference divine Scripture recognises, saying concerning the creatures, The earth is full of Thy creation, and the creation itself groaneth together and travaileth together; and in the Apocalypse he says, And the third part of the creatures in the sea died which had life; as also Paul says, Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving; and in the book of Wisdom it is written, Having furnished man through Thy wisdom, that he should have dominion over the creatures which Thou hast made. And these, being creatures, are also said to be created, as we may further hear from our Lord, who says, He who created them, made them male and female; and from Moses in his Song, who writes, Ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one side of heaven unto the other. And Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, Who is the Image of the invisible God, the {309 | ED. BEN. ii. § 45-46.} First-born of every creature, for in Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things were created through Him, and for Him, and He is before all. 164. That to be called creatures, then, and to be created belongs to things which have by nature a created substance, these passages are sufficient to remind us, though Scripture is full of the like; on the other hand, that the single word He created does not simply denote the substance and mode of generation, David shows in the Psalm, This shall be written for another generation, and the people that is created shall praise the Lord; and again, Create in me a clean heart, O God; and Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians says, Having abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to create in Himself of two one new man; and again, Put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. For neither David spoke of any people being created in substance, nor prayed to have another heart than that he had, but meant renovation according to God and renewal; nor did Paul signify certain two beings created according to substance in the Lord, nor again did He counsel us to put on any other man; but he called the life according to virtue the man after God, and by the created in Christ he meant the two people who are renewed in Him. Such too is the language in Jeremias: The Lord hath created a new salvation for a plantation, in which salvation men shall walk to and fro [Note 15]; and in thus speaking, he does not mean any substance of a creature, but prophesies of the renewal of salvation among men, which has taken place in Christ for us. 165. Such then being the difference between "the creatures" {310} and the mere word He created, if you find anywhere in divine Scripture the Lord called "creature," produce it and make the most of it; but if it is nowhere written that He is a creature, only He Himself says about Himself in the Proverbs, The Lord hath created Me, shame upon you both on the ground of the broad distinction aforesaid, and again for that the diction is manifestly that of proverbs; and accordingly let He created be understood, not of His being a creature, but of that human nature which is attached to Him, for to this belongs creation. Indeed, is it not evidently unfair in you, when David and Paul say He created, then indeed to understand not the substance and the generation, but the renewal; yet, when the Lord says He created, to number His substance among the creatures? and again, when Scripture says, Wisdom hath built her an house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars, to understand house allegorically, but yet to take He created as it stands, and to fasten on it the idea of creature? and neither His being Framer of all has had any weight with you, nor have you feared His being the sole and proper Offspring of the Father, but recklessly, as if you had enlisted against Him, do ye fight, and think less of Him than of men [Note 16]. 166. For the very passage proves that it is only an invention of your own to call the Lord a creature. For the Lord, knowing His own Substance to be the Only-begotten Wisdom and Offspring of the Father, and other than things made who are by nature creatures, says in love to man, The Lord hath created Me a beginning of His ways, as if to say, "My Father hath prepared for Me a body, and has created Me for men in behalf of their salvation." For, as when John says, The Word was made flesh, we do not {311 | ED. BEN. ii. § 46-47.} conceive the whole Word Himself to be flesh, but to have put on flesh and become man, and on hearing, Christ hath become a curse for us, and He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin, we do not simply conceive this, that whole Christ has become curse and sin, but that He has taken on Him the curse which lay against us, (as the Apostle has said, Has redeemed us from the curse, and has carried, as Esaias has said, our sins, and as Peter has written, has borne them in the body on the wood;) so, if it is said in the Proverbs He created, we must not conceive that the whole Word is in nature a creature, but that He put on the created body and that God created Him for our sakes, preparing for Him the created body, as it is written, for our sakes, that in Him we might be capable of being renewed and made gods. 167. What then has deceived you, O senseless, to call the Creator a creature? or whence did you purchase for you this new thought, to make a brag of? For the Proverbs say He created, but they call not the Son creature, but Offspring; and, according to the distinction in Scripture aforesaid of He created and "creature," they acknowledge, what is by nature proper to the Son, that He is the Only-begotten Wisdom and Framer of the creatures; and when they say He created, they say it not in respect of His Substance, but signify that He was becoming a beginning of many ways; so that He created is in contrast with Offspring, and His being the Beginning of ways [Note 17] in contrast with His being the Only-begotten Word. For if He is Offspring, how call ye Him creature? for no one says that he begets what he creates, nor calls his proper offspring creatures; and again, if He is Only-begotten, how becomes He beginning of the ways? for of necessity, if He was created a {312} beginning of all things, He is no longer alone, as having those who were made after Him. 168. For Reuben, when he became a beginning of children, was not only-begotten, but though in time indeed first, still in nature and relationship one among those who came after him. Therefore, if the Word also is a beginning of the ways, He must be such as the ways are, and the ways must be such as the Word, though in point of time He be created first of them. For the beginning too of a body politic is such as are the other constituent parts of the body, and the other parts too being joined to it, make the polity whole and one, as the many members of one body; nor does one part of it make, and another come to be made and is subject to the former, but the whole state equally has its government and constitution from its maker. If then the Lord is in such sense created as a beginning of all things, it would follow that He and all other things together make up the unity of the creation, and He neither differs from others, though He became the beginning of all, nor is He Lord of them, though older in point of time, for He has one and the same constitution and ruler as the rest. 169. If then the Word be a mere creature, as you hold, how can He be created sole and first at all, so as to be beginning of all? when it is plain from what has been said that among the creatures nothing is of a constant nature and of prior formation, but each has its generation with all the rest, however it may excel others in glory. For as to the separate stars or the great lights, not this appeared first and that second, but in one day and by the same command, they were all called into being. And such was the generation of the quadrupeds, and of birds, and fishes, and cattle, and plants; such too was that of the human race after God's Image; for though Adam only was formed out of the earth, yet in him were the conditions of the {313 | ED. BEN. ii. § 48-49.} succession of the whole race. And from the visible creation of the world, we clearly discern that His invisible things also, being understood by the things that are made, do not stand each by itself; for it was not first one and then another, but all at once were constituted after their kind. For the Apostle did not number individually, and say "whether Angel, or Throne, or Dominion, or Authority," but he mentions together all according to their rank, whether Angels, or Archangels, or Principalities: for in this way is the generation of the creatures. If then, as I have said, the Word were creature, He must have been brought into being, not first of them, but together with all the other Powers, though in glory He excel the rest ever so much. For so we find it to be in their case, that at once they came to be, with neither first nor second, and they differ from each other in glory, some on the right of the throne, some all round, and some on the left, but one and all praising and standing in service before the Lord. 170. Therefore, if the Word is a creature, He would not be what I hold Him to be, the First and the Son; this, however, He can be, because, though He is the First, it is not in point of substance that He is first; otherwise, then, certainly, as being the Beginning of all, He is simply in the number of all. But if He is not such a beginning, then neither is He a creature; and indeed it is very plain that the Word of God could not have been a beginning at all towards us, unless He had been more than a beginning in Himself [Note 18]. As I have said of Him, He differs in substance {314} and nature from the creatures, and is other than they; whereas of the only and True God, He is the Likeness and Image, and the only one such. Hence He is not classed with creatures in Scripture, but David rebukes those who dare even to think of Him as such, saying, Who among the gods is like unto the Lord? and Who is like unto the Lord among the sons of God? and Baruch, This is our God, and another shall not be reckoned with Him. For the One creates, and the rest are created; and the One is the proper Word and Wisdom of the Father's Substance, and through this Word things which came to be, which before existed not, were made. Your famous assertion then, that the Son is a creature, is not true, but is your phantasy only; nay, Solomon convicts you of having these many times misinterpreted him. For he has not called Him creature, but God's Offspring and Wisdom, saying God in Wisdom hath established the earth, and Wisdom hath built her an house. 171. And the very passage in question proves your impiety: for it is written, The Lord created Me for the works: where, observe, He does not say, "in order that I might make the works," but speaks of them as already made. It follows, unless His "creation" is an event later than His original existence, that the works are older than He is, and He found them in existence on His coming into being, and that He was also brought into being for their sake. And if so, how is He before all things notwithstanding? and how were all things made through Him and consist in Him? for behold, you say that the works consisted before Him, for which He is created and sent. But it is not so; perish the thought! false is the supposition of the heretics. For the Word of God is not creature, but Creator; and says in the manner of proverbs, He created Me only when He put on created flesh. 172. And something besides may be understood from the passage itself; for, though He be Son and have God for His {315 | ED. BEN. ii. § 50-51.} Father, (for He is His proper Offspring,) yet here He names the Father Lord; not that He was servant, but because He took a servant's form. For it became Him, on the one hand being the Word from the Father, to call God Father; for this is proper to son towards father; on the other, having come to finish the work, and taken a servant's form, it became Him to name the Father Lord. And this difference He Himself has taught by an apt distinction, saying in the Gospels, I thank Thee, O Father, and then, Lord of heaven and earth. For He calls God His Father, but of the creatures He names Him Lord; as showing clearly from these words, that, when He put on the creature, then it was He called the Father Lord. And in the prayer of David the Holy Spirit marks the same distinction, saying in the Psalms, Give Thy strength unto Thy Child, and help the Son of Thine handmaid, and, though the word child sometimes means "servant" as well, it must be recollected that Isaac is in one place called Abraham's child, and the son of the Shunamite young child. Child then and Son of Thy handmaid are placed in contrast; the natural and true child of God with created nature. The one, as Son, has the Father's might, but the rest are in need of salvation. Reasonably then, we being servants, when He became as we, He too calls the Father Lord, as we do; and this He did from love to man, that we too, being servants by nature, and receiving the Spirit of the Son, might have confidence to call Him by grace Father, who is by nature our Lord. But as we, in calling the Lord Father, do not deny that servitude which is by nature, (for we are His works, and it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves,) so when the Son, on taking the servant's form, says, The Lord hath created Me a beginning of His ways, let them not deny the eternity of His Godhead, and that in the beginning was the Word, and all things were made by Him, and in Him all things were created. Notes1. Vid. supr. p. 22; vid. also
a similar argument in Epiphanius Hær. 76, p. 951, but the arguments
of Ath. in these Orations are so generally adopted by the succeeding
Fathers, that it is impossible and needless to enumerate the instances
of agreement. 2.
[emetoi kai nautiai]; [nautiai] seasickness; as to [emetoi],
(for which vid. supra. p. 86; also Disc. p. 214, n. 66, &c.) the
word, according to Cressol de Theatr. Rhet. iii. 11, has a technical
meaning, when used of disputation or oratory, and denotes extempore
delivery as contrasted with compositions on which pains have been
bestowed. And this agrees with what Athan. frequently observes about
the Arians, as saying what came uppermost to serve their purpose, with
no care of consistency. Thus St. Greg. Nyss. says of Eunomius, "All
such things were poured forth, [epemesthe], by
this writer without reflection ([dianoias])," in Eunom. ix. p.
250, d. And in a parallel case Synesius, "He does not cherish the word
within who is forced to pour forth daily, [emein]." Dion. p.
66, ed. 1612. And Epictetus, in a somewhat similar sense, "There is
great danger of pouring forth straightway, what one has not digested."
Enchirid. 46; vid. also Dissert. iii. 21. A different allusion of
course is contained in the word [exerama], which Athan.
sometimes uses, and which is taken from 2 Pet. ii. 22. 3.
[periergazontai], Edd. Col. Ben. and Patav. This seems
an error of the press for [perierchontai]. The Latin
translates, "circumire cœperunt." Vid. supr. Nic. p. 29, note, also [perierchontai],
infr. Disc. n. 192, init. p. 329, (Orat. ii. § 62,) [ano
kai kato periiontes], chap. 30 init. [ano kai kato
periiontes thrulousi], Apol. contr. Ar. § 11. init. [peritrechousi],
de Fug. § 2, [peripherousi], infr. § 43, [peritrochazein],
Theod. Hist. i. 3, p. 730. Vid. also [peripetei] i. Petr. v. 8. For [periergia],
&c., vid. infr. Disc. ch. 24 and ch. 29. 4.
Vid. App. [prophorikos]. 5.
Vid. Append. [epinoia]. 6.
Vid. [onomata]. 7.
Vid. Append. Asterius. 8.
Vid. supr. note on p. 181. 9.
The primâ facie sense of n. 158, 159 is certainly unfavourable
to the validity of heretical baptism; vid. the subject considered at
length in Note G. on Tertullian, O. Tr. vol. i. p. 280, also Coust.
Pont. Rom. Ep. p. 227. Voss. de Bapt. Disp. 19 and 20. Forbes,
Instruct. Theol. x. 2, 3, and 12. Hooker's Eccl. Pol. v. 62, § 5-11.
On Arian Baptism in particular vid. Jablonski's Diss. Opusc. t. iv. p.
113. Vid. for a Catholic explanation, Nat. Alex. sæc. 3. I. H.
Sbalarea Bapt. Hær. 10.
Instead of bread, a proverb. 11.
[hos ophis ton ion], also Ep. Æg. 19, Hist. Ar. 66. And
so Arians are dogs (with allusion to 2 Pet. ii. 22), Hist. Ar. 29,
lions, Hist. Ar. 11, wolves, Ap. c. Arian. 49, &c., &c. In
many of these instances the allusion is to Scripture. On names given
to heretics in general, vid. the Alphabetum bestialitatis hæreticæ
ex Patrum Symbolis in the Calvinimsus bestiarum religio attributed to
Raynaudus, and printed in the Apopompæus of his works. Vid. infr.
foot note p. 379. 12.
Vid. Use of Force. 13.
Vid. App. [orthos]. 14.
Athanasius follows the Sept. in translating the Hebrew [knt] by
[ektise], created, as it is also translated in Gen. xiv.
19, 22. Such too is the sense given in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic
versions, and by the great majority of primitive writers. On the other
hand, Aquila translates [ektesato], and so read Basil,
contr. Eunom. ii. 20, fin. Nyssen contr. Eunom. i. p. 34. Jerome in
Isa. xxvi. 13, and the Vulgate translates possedit. [knt] is
translated "gotten," Gen. iv. 1, after the Sept. and Vulg. in the
sense of generation, vid. also Deut. xxxii. 6. The
Hebrew sense is appealed to by Eusebius, Eccl. Theol. iii. 2,
3. Epiphanius, Hær. lxix. 25, and Jerome in Isa. xxvi. 13. Vid. Petav.
Trin. ii. 1. Huet. Origen, ii. 21, 23. C. B. Michael. in loc. Prov. 15.
Vid. also Expos. F. § 3, where he notices that this is the version of
the Septuagint, Aquila's being "The Lord hath created a new thing in
the woman." The authorised version is "a new thing in the earth, a
woman shall compass a man," with the Hebrew, as is the Vulgate. Athan.
has preserved Aquila's version in three other places, in Psalm xxx.
12, lix. 5, lxv. 18. 16.
Thus with us the Queen is said to "create" peers; and at Rome
Cardinals of the Pope's making are called his "creaturæ." "Creatores,"
says Ducange, are those "qui ad publica munera alios nominant." 17.
[archen hodon], and so in Justin's Tryph.
61. The Bened. Ed. in loc. refers to a similar application of the word
to our Lord in Tatian contr. Gent. 5, Athenag. Ap. 10, Iren. Hær. iv.
20. n. 3, Origen in Joan. tom. i. 39, Tertull. adv. Prax. 6, and
Ambros. de Fid. iii. 7. 18.
He says that no one is really "a beginning" of creatures who is
not a creature; yet such a title can and does belong to the Word. It
is the name of an office which the Eternal Word alone can fill,
His Divine Sonship is both superior and necessary to the office of a "Beginning."
It includes a start as well as a commencement. Hence it is both true
(as he says) that "if the Word is a creature, He is not a beginning;"
and yet that that "beginning," which by a condescension He began, is "in
the number of the creatures." Though He becomes the "beginning," He is
not "a beginning as to His substance." Newman Reader — Works of John Henry Newman |