Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)
FAITH AND THE CREED 355 form of all. He is one, who has given to everything not only its beauty but also its power to be beautiful. Most correctly, therefore, do we believe that God has made all things of nothing; for if the world was made out of matter, matter itself was made of nothing, to be, by God's gift and appointment, the primal "formable" substance from which all that has form should be formed. We have said this in order that no one should suppose that Scripture contradicts itself when it says, in one place, that God made all things of nothing, and in another, that the world was made of formless matter.
3. Accordingly, believing in God the Father Almighty we ought to believe that there is no creature which has not been created by his omnipotence. Moreover, because he created all things through his Word which is also called the Power and Wisdom of God, and is hinted at by many other titles which commend the Lord Jesus Christ to our faith as the Son of God, our Saviour and ruler; and because none could generate the Word by whom all things are made save he who made all things through him; iii. we also believe in Jesus Christ our Lord the Only Son of God, Only-begotten of the Father. We must not think that the Word is like our words which proceed from our mouths and are passed on by vibrations in the air and abide no longer than the sound of them remains. That Word abides unchangeable. For of him
Scripture says, speaking of wisdom: "Remaining in herself she reneweth all things" (Wisdom 7:27). He is called the Word also because through him the Father is made known. For as by our words, when we speak truly, our mind lets him who hears them know something, and by signs of that kind brings to the knowledge of another what we hold secretly in our heart, so wisdom whom God the Father begat is most appropriately called his Word, because through him the Father who dwells in utmost secrecy becomes known to worthy minds.
4. But there is a vast difference between our minds and the words with which we try to show what is in our minds. We do not beget verbal sounds but make them; and in making them we make use of the body as material. Now there is a great difference between mind and body. When God begat the Word, the Begetter was "he who is." He did not make the Word out of nothing nor out of any ready-made material but from his eternal nature. This is what we, too, try to do when we speak the truth, though not when we lie, if we closely consider the purpose we have in mind in speaking. What else arc we trying to do but to bring our mind, as far as it can be done, into contact with the mind of him who Hstens to us, so that he may know and understand it? We remain in ourselves and take no step outside ourselves, but we produce a token whereby there may be knowledge of us in another; so that, if opportunity is afforded, one mind, as it were, produces another mind to indicate its meaning. We do this with words and sounds and looks and bodily gestures—so many devices that serve our purpose to make known what is within our minds. But we cannot produce anything exactly like our minds, and so the mind of the speaker cannot make itself known with complete inwardness. Hence also there is room for lying. But God the Father had the will and the power to make himself most truly known to those who were destined to know him, and to make himself known he begat one who is like himxself, and who is called the Power and Wisdom of God because God operated through him and arranged all things. Wherefore it is written of wisdom that she "reacheth from one end of the world to the other with full strength, and ordereth all things graciously" (Wisdom 8:1). iv, 5. Wherefore the only-begotten Son of God was not made by the Father, because, as the Evangelist says, "All things were made through him" (John 1 13). Nor was he born of time for the eternally wise God has his Wisdom with him eternally. Nor is he unlike the Father, i.e., less in any way, for the apostle says: "Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God" (Phil. 2:6). Hence the Catholic Faith excludes those who say that the Son is the same as the Father [i.e., Sabellians], because the Word could not be with God unless it were with God the Father, and he who is alone is equal to none. Likewise those are excluded who say that the Son is a creature, though not as the other creatures [i.e. the Arians]. Any creature however great, if it be a creature, is fashioned and made. To fashion is the same as to create, although in the usage of the Latin language "to create" is sometimes used as a synonym for "to beget." The Greeks, however, observe the distinction. What we call a "creature" they call a /crtcj/xa or a Kricjig. If we wish to speak without ambiguity we must say not creare but condere. Therefore if the Son is a creature, however great he may be, he is made. We believe in him by whom all things were made, not in him by whom other things were made; and we cannot accept any other sense of the word "all" except as including whatever has been made.
6. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John
1:14). The Wisdom who was begotten of God deigned to be