Chapter 4.
Chapter 4.
20. THIS then is quite enough in order to denounce as infamous this Arian heresy; for, as the Lord has granted, out of their own words is impiety brought home to them. But now let us on our part act on the offensive, and call on them for an answer; for it is fair time, when their own ground has failed them, to question them on ours; perhaps it may abash the perverse, and make them see whence they have fallen. It has been shown above that the appellation “Son” is so far from implying beginning of existence as actually to suggest co-existence and co-eternity and co-divinity with God the Father. But, besides this, I have incidentally referred to the passages in Holy Scripture which speak of our Lord as the Divine Word and Wisdom, and the meaning of these titles, when carefully considered, is a confirmation that He is truly and literally the Son. The Apostle, for instance, says, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God;[40] and John after saying, and the Word was made flesh, at once adds, And we have seen His glory the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth;[41] so that, the Word being the Only-begotten Son, is also that Power and that Wisdom by which heaven and earth and all that is therein were made. In like manner we have learnt from Baruch that Wisdom comes from a Fountain, and that that Fountain is God; what then is Wisdom but His Son? Now, if they deny Scripture, they are at once aliens from the Christian name, and may fitly be called of all men atheists, and Christ’s enemies, for they have brought upon themselves these titles. But if they agree with us that the sayings of Scripture are divinely inspired, let them dare to say openly what they think in secret, that the Word and Wisdom being the Son, the Word and Wisdom of the Father had a beginning, that is, that God was once wordless and wisdomless; and let them in their madness say, “There was once when He was not,” and “before His generation, Christ was not;” and again let them declare that the Fountain begat not Wisdom from Itself, but acquired It from without, till they have the daring to say, “The Son came of nothing;” whence it will follow that His origin is no longer a Fountain, but a sort of pool, as if merely receiving water from without, and usurping the name of Fountain.
21. How full of impiety this is, I consider none can doubt who has ever so little understanding; however, they shall be answered as Arius was, and as I noticed when I began. They whisper something about titles, Word and Wisdom are titles of the Son, only titles; titles! then what is His real name? What is He really? is He more than those titles, or less than them? If He is greater than the titles, it is not lawful from the lesser to designate the higher, but, if He be in His own nature less than the titles, then it follows that He has earned what is higher than His original self, and this implies in Him a moral advance, which is an impiety equal to anything that has gone before. For that He who is in the Father, and in whom also the Father is, who says, I and the Father are one,[42] whom he that hath seen, hath seen the Father,[43] to imply, I say, by the titles you give Him that He has been improved by anything external, is the extreme of madness.
22. However, when they are beaten hence, and like the old Eusebians are in these great straits, then they have this remaining plea, which Arius too in ballads, and in his own Thalia, fabled, starting it as a new difficulty: “Many words speaketh God; which then of these are we to call Son and Word, Only-begotten of the Father?” Insensate, and anything but Christians! for first, in using such language about God, they are not far from conceiving of Him as a man, who speaks and then modifies His first words by His second, just as if one Word from God were not sufficient for the framing of all things at the Father’s will, and for His providential care of all. For His speaking many words would argue a feebleness in them all, each needing the service of the other. But that God should act through One Word, which is the true doctrine, both shows the power of God, and the perfection of the Word that is from Him, and the pious understanding of them who thus believe.
23. O that they would be led to confess the truth from these their own admissions now! how near they come to it, in order to start off again in hopeless divergence! They grant that “many words speaketh God,” and what is such utterance but in some sort a bringing forth? He is a Father of words; then why not in that way which is most perfect? why not rather the Father of One Word than of many?—of a Word substantive and from His own fulness rather than of mere utterances which come and go and have no stay? These men are loth to say that there is no substantial Word of God, why then do they not go on to confess that that Word is a Son also? Is Son a mere title without substance? and must not also that Word be a reflection or image? and, as God is One, is not His Image substantive and one? and who is that but the One Son? All these appellations look to one Object, and each of them subserves the rest. For the Son of God, as may be learnt from the divine oracles themselves, is Himself the Word of God, and the Wisdom, and the Image, and the Hand, and the Power; for God’s Offspring is One, and of the generation from the Father these titles are tokens. If you say the Son, you have declared what is from the Father by nature; and if you imagine the Word, you are thinking again of what is from Him, and what is inseparable; and speaking of Wisdom, again you mean in like manner, what is not from without, but from Him and in Him; and if you name the Power and the Hand, again you speak of what is proper to the substance; and, speaking of the Image, you signify the Son; for what else is like God but the Offspring from Him? Doubtless the things which came into being through the Word, these are founded in Wisdom;[44] and what are founded in Wisdom, these are all made by the Hand, and came to be through the Son.
24. And we have proof of this, not from adventitious authorities, but from the Scriptures; for God Himself says by Esaias the Prophet, My Hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and My right Hand hath spanned the heavens. And again, And I have covered them in the shadow of My Hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth.[45] And David being taught this, and knowing that the Lord’s Hand was nothing else than Wisdom, says in the Psalm, In Wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy riches.[46] Solomon also received the same from God, and said, The Lord by Wisdom hath founded the earth;[47] and John knowing that the Word was the Hand and the Wisdom, thus preaches the gospel, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God: all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made.[48] And the Apostle, understanding that the Hand and the Wisdom and the Word was nothing else than the Son, says God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the ages.[49] And again, There is One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.[50] And knowing also that the Word, the Wisdom, the Son was the Image Himself of the Father, he says in the Epistle to the Colossians, Giving thanks to God and the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption, even the remission of sins; who is the Image of the Invisible God the First-born of every creature; for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him: and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.[51]
25. For as all things are created by the Word, so, because He is the Image, are they also created in Him. And thus a man who directs his thoughts to the Lord will be saved from stumbling upon the stone of offence, and will go forward to that illumination which streams from the light of truth; for this is really the sentiment of piety, though these contentious men burst with spite, neither devout towards God, nor abashed by the arguments which confute them.