Lecture XI
LECTURE XI.
ON THE SON OF GOD, AS ONLY-BEGOTTEN, BEFORE ALL AGES,
AND THE CREATOR OF ALL THENGS.
Hesrews i. 1, 2.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times pust unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these lust days spoken unto us by His Son.
Lecr.
1. THat we hope in Jesus Christ, we have shewn suffi_XI._ ciently, according to our ability, in what we delivered to you yesterday.
But we must not simply believe in Jesus Christ, nor receive Him, as if one of the many, improperly called xeeré, Christs.
For they were figurative Christs, but He is the anolpted. true Christ, not raised by advancement from among men to lsegese-the Priesthood, but having this dignity eternally from the ae on 'Father.
And for this cause the Faith guarding us before14. hand, lest we should suppose Him to be one of the ordinary
Christs, adds to the profession of the Faith, that we believe "in Qne Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God."
2. And again, when thou hearest of the Son, think Him not an adopted Son, but a Son naturally, a Son Only-begotten, having no other for His brother ; for therefore is He called
Only-begotten, because in the dignity of the Godhead, and in His generation of the Father, He has no brother. But we call
Him the Son of God, not of ourselves, but because the Father Himself named Christ His Son; and that name is true which is given to children by their fathers.
8. Our Lord Jesus Christ then became man; but by the many He was not known.
Wishing, therefore, to teach that which was not known, He assembled His disciples, and asked
Christ is the one true, eternal Son of God.
Wht them, Whom say men, that I, the Son of Man, am?
Not Mat.i, from vain-glory, but wishing to shew them the truth, lest as dwelling with God, the Only-begotten of God, they should think lightly of Him as if He were a mere man.
And when they answered, that some said He was Elias, and some Jeremias, He said to them, " They who know not are excusable, but ye, the Apostles, who have in My name cleansed lepers, and cast out devils, and raised the dead, ought not to be ignorant of Him, for whom ye do these wondrous works."
And when all were silent, (for it was beyond man's reach to learn,) Peter, the leader of the Apostles, and chief herald of «geesthe Church, uttering no refinement of his own, nor persuaded cess, by man's reasoning, but having his mind enlightened from the ¢ehes.
Father, says to Him; Thou art the Christ; nor only so, but Mba the Son of the living God. And a blessing follows the speech, #- 19.
(for in truth it was above man,) and what he had said received this seal, that the Father had revealed it to him.
For the Saviour says, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which tsin heaven.
He therefore who acknowledges our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, partakes of this blessedness ; but he who denies the Son of God, is a poor miserable man.
4. Again, I say, when thou hearest of the Son, hear of Him as a Son, not merely in an improper sense, but in a true sense, as a Son by nature, unoriginate*; not as having come from 4m_xer. bondage into the higher state of adoption, but as a Son
«ee eternally begotten, by an inscrutable and incomprehensible sesias. generation.
And in like manner, when thou hearest of the First-born, think not that this is according to men; for the first- *e#réreborn among men have other brothers also.
And it is some- — where written, Israel is My Son, even My first-born ; but Exed.4,
Israel is, as Reuben was, the rejected first-born ; for Reuben i ® On the application of the word dsweunoriginate."
Athanasius also denies #3, unotigmate, to the Son and Spirit the tmoriginate.
Alexander of ere waa variety of opinion in the Alexandria a middle course primitive Church. Clement. Alex. calls ascribesto Christ an unoriginate generaour Lord degde dvagyer the unoriginate sion. The two Gregories explain that the wgin; but, whereas the Marcionites difference of usage among Catholics and Manichees expressed theirtritheism arose only from the difference of opinion under the word, and the Sabellians bow best to avoid seeming in words to imputed that doctrine to the Church, countenance heresies which they one the Apostolic Canons condemn those and all abhorred. vid. Petav. de Trin. who baptize '' in the name ofthe Three v. 5.
112 The Soninaspiritual senso, unoriginate,incomprehensible.
Lect. went up to his father's couch, and Israel cast the Son of his x! Father out of the vineyard, and crucified Him.
To others Deut. also the Scripture says, Ye are the children of the Lord your ae ia 6. God; and elsewhere, I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High.
I have said, not, "I have begotten."
They, in that God said, received the sonship, which they had not; He was not begotten to be other than
He was before, but was begotten from the beginning, the Son of the Father, being above all beginning and all ages; the ee" Son of the Father, in all things like to Him who begat Him, eternal of an eternal Father, Life of Life begotten, and Light of Light, and Truth of Truth, and Wisdom of Wisdom, and a King of a King, and God of God, and Power of Power.
5. If then thou hear the Gospel saying, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, understand it to mean " according to the flesh;" for He ye ®, is the Son of David in the end of the world, but the Son of God before all worlds unoriginate.
The one He received, not having it before; the other, which He hath, He hath eternally, in that He is begotten of the Father.
He has two fathers: one, David, according to the flesh; one, God the fines.
Father, after a divine manner according to His Godhead.
As the Son of David, He is both subject to time, and is handled, and His descent is traced; but according to His Godhead,
He is subject neither to time nor place, nor has He descent; en ney 'for who shall declare His generation? God ts a Spirit; He
24. who is Spirit hath spiritually begotten, as being immaterial, an inscrutable and incomprehensible generation.
The Son Ps.2, 7. Himself says of the Father, The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee, This to-day is not recent, ae o,)3, but eternal; a to-day without time, before all ages. From the Sept. womb, before the morning star, I begat Thee.
6. Believe then on Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and that Son, Only-begotten ; according to the Gospel, which Ie 3, says, or Godso loved the world,that He gave His Only-begotten
AE 3, Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but 18. have everlasting life.
And again, He that believeth on Him John >, is not condemned, but is passed from death unto life.
But John 3, he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath 36. of God abideth on him; because he hath not believed on the
The Son begotten of the Father apart from time.
Only-begotten Son of God.
Concerning whom John testifyJohn 3, ing says, And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-*® begotten of the Father; he is full of grace and truth; ge a4 whom the devils trembled, and said, Let us alone; what have Loke 4, we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High Mick 5
God. yam ve 7. He is then the Son of God by nature, and not by adop- + eu. tion, begotten of the Father.
And he that loveth Him that John begat, loveth Him also that is begotter of Him; but he who }despises Him who is begotten, proceeds to insult Him who begat.
But when thou hear of God's begetting, fall not (3.) upon bodily things: think not of a corruptible generation, lest thou be profane. God is a Spirit; spiritual is His geneJohn 4, ration: for bodies beget bodies, and need that time should 2* intervene; but time intervenes not in the generation of the Son from the Father.
And in the one case what is begotten, is begotten imperfect; but the Son of God was begotten via. perfect; for what He is now, that is He from the beginning, (P", being begotten without beginning.
And we are begotten, soa. as to pass from infantine ignorance to a state of reason; thy generation, O man, is imperfect, for thy increase is progressive. tx wgeBut think not that it is thus with Him, nor impute defect in ™**power to Him who begat: for if that which He begat was imperfect, and in time received perfection, thou imputest defect in power to Him who begat; since that which time afterwards bestowed, this, according to thee, the Father from the beginning did not bestow.
8. Think not, therefore, that this generation is human, as Abraham begat Isaac.
For when Abraham begat Isaac, he begat, not whom he would, but whom another bestowed on him.
But in God the Father's begetting, there is no ignorance nor intermediate deliberation.
For to say that He knew not what was begotten is the greatest impiety; and it is as great to say that after deliberation held in time, He afterwards became a Father.
For God was not before without a Son, and afterwards in time became a Father; but He hath the Son eternally, haviug begotten Him, not as men beget men, but as Himself only knoweth, who begat Him before all ages, Very God.
9. For the Father being Very God, begat the Son like to I
The Son ts the Personal Word of God.
Lecr. Himself, Very God.
Not as teachers beget disciples, as XL Paul says to some, In Christ Jesus I have begotten you lavey. through the Gospel.
For iu this case he who was not a son ; aay nature, became a son by discipleship; but in the case
'before us, He is a son naturally, ason truly. Not as you, the illuminated, now become the sons of God; for ye also become
John 1, sons, but it is by adoption of grace, as it is written, But as ES many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to such as 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 we indeed are begotten of water and of the Spirit; but Christ was not thus begotten of the Father; for at the time of His baptism addressing Him with the words, " This is My Son," He said not, " This is
Mat. 8, now become My Son," but, " This is My Son:" that He might make manifest, that even before the operation of baptism, He was a Son. ying 10. The Father begat the Son, not as among men mind
Koi begets thought.
For the mind in us is something subsisting ; thought, but our thought, when uttered, is scattered abroad in the air eh and comes to an end'.
But we know Christ to be begotten, evaver NOt as a word sent forth, but a Word subsisting and living ; ssf" not spoken by the lips, and dispersed, but eternally and ls dee. ineffably begotten of the Father and in a Person.
For én the se beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 1.' the Word was God, sitting at God's right-hand ;—the Word, understanding the Father's will, and creating all things at His némars. will; the Word, which came down and went up; (for a word verteesof utterance merely, when spoken, goes neither down nor up;)
**: the Word speaking and saying, " I speak that which I have seen with My Father ;" the Word, possessed of power, and reigning over all things; for the Father hath committed all things unto the Son.
(4.) 11. The Father then begat Him, not as any of men can understand, but as Himself only knoweth. For how He begat
Him, we profess not to tell; only we insist upon its not being in this manner or that.
Nor are we only ignorant of the * This was the doctrine held conheresy; the S : cerning the Son by many schools of Photinians, scaiaae Senet,
No one but the Holy Ghost knows the Divine generation.
generation of the Son from the Father, but so is every created nature.
Speak to the earth, if it can tell thee; and though Job 13, thou inquire of all things that are upon the earth, they shall ® SePt not be able to tell thee; for the earth cannot speak of the substance of Him who is its potter and fashioner.
Nor is the Is.6¢,8, earth only ignorant, but the sun also; for the sun was created on the fourth day, not knowing what had been in the three former days; but he, since he knows not any thing of the three days which were before him, cannot tell forth the Creator
Himself.
The heaven shall not declare this ; for at the will néseq. of the Father was the heaven like smoke established, by Christ. 1».51,6.
Nor shall the heaven of heavens declare it, nor the waters that 5¢Ptare above the heavens. Why then art thou cast down, O man, because ignorant of what not even the heavens know?
Nor are the heavens only ignorant of this generation, but also every angelic nature.
For should a man ascend (were it possible) to the first heaven, and perceiving the ranks of Angels there, approach them and ask, how God begat His own Son; they would perhaps say, " We have others beyond us, greater and higher than we; ask them." Ascend to the second heaven and the third; attain,if thou canst, to Thrones, and Dominions, and Principalities, and Powers; and even though one should attain unto them, which is impossible, yet would they also decline to answer; for neither do they know it.
12. For me, I have ever wondered at the curiosity of buld men, who through their seeming reverence fall into impiety.
~ For knowing nothing of Thrones, and Dominions, and Principalities, and Powers, the workmanship of Christ, they attempt to be inquisitive about the Creator Himself.
Tell me first, O most daring man, how a Throne differs from a Dominion, and then busily inquire into the things of Christ.
Tell me, what is a Principality and what a Power, and what a Virtue, and what an Angel; and then inquire concerning their Maker; for all things were made by Him.
But thou wouldest not ask Thrones or Dominions, or rather thou canst not; what other is there that knoweth the deep things of God, 1 Cor.2, save only the Holy Ghost, who spake the Diviue Scriptures? '°
But not even the Holy Ghost Himself has spoken in the Scriptures concerning the generation of the Son from the Father; why then art thou curious about things which not
The Son in all respects like the Father.
Lect. even the Holy Ghost has written in the Scriptures?
Thou, Xl. who knowest not what is written, why art thou inquisitive about what is not written?
There are many subjects of inquiry in the Divine Scriptures ; we comprehend not what is written; why do we busy ourselves about what is not written? Enough is it for us to know, that God hath begotten
One Only Son.
18. Be not ashamed to confess thine ignorance, seeing that thou art ignorant with Angels.
He who begat alone knows Him who was begotten; and He who was begotten of Him, knows Him who begat.
He who begat knows what He begat ; and the Holy Spirit of God testifies in the Scriptures,
1 Cor.2, that He who was begotten without beginning, is God.
For 11. what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man, which isin him? even 80, the things of God knoweth no John 5, man, but the Spirit of God.
For as the Father hath life in 26.
Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself; 1b.6,93, and, that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father ; and as the Father quickeneth whom He will,
1b.5,21.even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.
Neither He who begat suffered any loss, nor lacks there any thing to Him who was begotten*.
(I know that I have said these things many times, but they are said so often for your safety.)
Neither has He who begat, a father, nor He who is begotten, a brother; neither was He who begat changed into the Son, nor did He who was begotten become the Father".
Of One Only Father, is One Only-begotten Son; neither two Unbegotten, nor two Only-begotten; but there is One Father,
Unbegotten ; (for He is unbegotten who has no father;) and One Son, eternally begotten of the Father; begotten not in we aiétime, but before the worlds; not increased by advancement, ieee but having been begotten that which He is now. nevis. , 14. We believe then in the Only-begotten Son of God,
(5-)' begotten of the Father, Very God.
For the True God, begets not a false God, as has been already said.
Nor did He first resolve, and afterwards beget Him; but He begat Him eternally, and far more quickly than our words or thoughts ;
© The Arians charged this upon the ¢ This tenet Catholics as legitimately following from fomtermeie! ; vid. Bail, Ep pone ¢ their doctrine. han. Orat, iv. 9. Apoat, Can. xli.
Testimonies to Christ's Godhead.
for we speaking in time, take up time; but in the case of the Divine Power, the generation is apart from time.
And, as I Aygerer. have said many times, He did not bring the Son from nothing into being', nor take him who was not into sonship; but the Father, being Eternal, eternally and ineffably begat One Only apa °
Son, who hasno brother.
Nor are there two first principles ;& ning but the Father is the head of the Son; One is the beginning. ciple.
For the Father begat His Son, Very God, called Emmanuel; yee and Emmanuel, being interpreted is, God with us.
Mat 1, a3 15. And wouldest thou know that He who was begotten of the Father, and afterwards made man, is God? listen fo the Prophet's words, This is our God, and there shall none Be. 3, other be accounted of in comparison of Him. He hath found mah out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob
His servant, and to Israel His beloved.
Afterwards He did shew Himself upon earth, and conversed with men.
Seest thou God taking man's nature after the giving of Moses' law?
Hear too a second testimony to Christ's Godhead, that which was just now read, Thy throne, O God, ts for ever and ever: Bo 1, for lest, from His presence here in the flesh, He should be ® thought to have been advanced after this to the Godhead, the ex» als Looe Scripture says plainly, Therefore God, even Thy God, hath Heb. 1, anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.
° Seest thou Christ, as God, anointed by God the Father'?
16. Wouldest thou receive yet a third testimony to Christ's Godhead?
Listen to Esaias, saying, Egypt hath laboured, \s i and the havens of Ethiopia; and after a little, and in Thee sept. shall they make their prayer, because God ts in Thee, and there ts no God save Thee; Thou art God, and we knew itt not, God of Israel the Saviour; almost saying the very same thing which He said in the Gospel, The Father is in Me, dome ta: and I amin the Father.
He said not, I am the Father, but, ! the Father is in Me, and Iam in the Father.
And again, He said not, I and the Father am one, but, I and the Father are one; that we should neither separate them, nor 80 CONol/ewaesfound them, as to make the Son the Father.
One they are, m. in respect of the attributes which belong to Godhead, since anne
8. e As Arius maintained. human nature. vid. Petav. de Incarn. f Several Fathers consider that our xi. 8. §. 9.
Lord is called Christ apart from His
The Son not the Father nor a Creature.
Lecr. God hath begotten God.
One, from consideration of their =o kingdom ; for the Father reigns vot over these, and the Son over those, (like Absalom, lifting himself up against his father;) but that kingdom which the Father has, the same has the Son likewise.
One they are, because there is no disagreement or division between them ; for the will of the Father is not one, and that of the Son another.
One, because the works of Christ are not one, and the Father's other; for the creation of all things is one, the Father having created
He Beas them through the Son: He spake, and they were made; He at P: commanded, and they were created, saith the Psalmist; for He who speaks, speaks to One who hears; and he who bids, beiaasbids as One who is present with Him.
"6.) 13. The Son then is Very God, having the Father in "Himself, not changed into the Father; for the Father was not made man, but the Son.
For let the truth be freely spoken'.
The Father suffered not for us; bunt the Father sent Him who should suffer for us.
Neither let us ever say, There was a time, when the Son was not'; nor let us admit that the Son is the Father.
But let us walk in the king's highway; let us turn aside neither to the right-hand nor to the left.
Neither let us, thinking to honour the Son, call Him the Father; nor, supposing to honour the Father, imagine the Son to be some one of the creatures.
But let the One Father through the One Son be worshipped, and let not their worship be separated; let the One Son be proclaimed, who before the ages sitteth at the right hand of the is «eens Father ; partaking in His throne eternally, not by advance- "* ment in time, after His passion. soe 18. He who hath seen the Son, hath seen the Father ; for Zan, the Son is in all things like to Him who begat Him, Life of Ww waen Life begotten, Light of Light, Power of Power, God of God.
The characteristics of Godhead are not distinct in the Son; aaa and he who is counted worthy to behold the Son's Godhead, attains to the fruition of the Father.
This is not my word, John1¢, but that of the Only-begotten Son; Have I been so long time & The Catholics were accused by the on this charge.
Cyril seems from this Arians of Sabellianising.
Evustathius p not to have free from a like and Marcellus were both deposed from Preju ioe against their companions. their sees, (the latter with rns) by " & des obs dy, one of the Arian the Arian Councils, A. D. 830—34). formule.
The Son not called a son, as the creatures are called sons. 119 with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip?
He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.
And to be brief, let us neither make a separation nor confusion between the Father and the Son; and neither say thou ever, that the Son is foreign to the Father, nor give way to them who say, that the Father is at one time the Father, at another, the Son; for these things are strange and impious, and not the doctrines of the Church.
But the Father, having begotten the Son, remains the Father, and is not changed.
He begat Wisdom, yet retained Wisdom Himself; and begat Power, yet became not weak; He begat God, He lost not His Godhead; and neither has He Himself lost aught, by diminution or change, nor has He who was begotten any thing wanting.
Perfect is He who begat, perfect is That which was begotten ; He who begat, is God, He who was begotten, is God,— Himself God of all things, yet styling the Father, His own God'; for He is not ashamed to say, I ascend unio My Father and your John 90,
Father, and to My God and your God. eee 19. But lest thou shouldest think that He is the Father of Cat Mi. the Son and of the creatures in a Jike sense, He has in what" follows signified a difference.
For He said not, " I ascend to our Father," lest the creatures should be made fellows of the Only-begotten: but He said, " My Father, and your Father;" in one way Mine, by nature,—in another yours, by adoption.
And again, " to My God, and your God;" in one way Mine, as His True and Only-begotten Son; in another yours, as being
His workmanship.
The Son of God then is Very God, ineffably begotten before all ages; (for I say the same thing often to you, that it may be graved upon your mind.)
Believe (7.) also that God has a Son; but how He has, inquire not; for though thou seek, thou shalt not find.
Exalt not thyself, lest thou fall; think only upon those things which have been "a commanded thee.
Tell me first who He is who begat, and'
~ then learn what He begat; but if thou canst not understand His nature who begat, search not into the manner of That which was begotten.
20. It is enough for godliness for thee to know, as we have i " The Father is His God," says to be God," ex eo natus in Deum est.
Hilary, as quoted by the Benedictine De Trin. iv. 53.
Editor, '' because of Him He is born
The Son a Son before He was born at Bethlehem. said, that God hath One Only Son, One, naturally begotten ; who began not to be when He was born in Bethlehem, but is before all worlds.
For listen to Micah the prophet, saying, And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me, that ts to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting.
Think not then of Him who is now come out of Bethlehem; but worship Him who is eternally begotten of the Father.
Allow not any who say, that the beginning of the Son is in time; but acknowledge the Father, as that Beginning apart from time; for the Father is the Beginning of the Son, timeless, incomprehensible,
LEcT.
XI.
Micah 5, 2. without beginning; the Father is the fountain of the river of righteousness, even of the Only-begotten; who begat Him as Himself only knoweth.
And wouldest thou know, that our Lord Jesus Christ is likewise King Eternal? listen again to Him when he says, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad.
Then, when the Jews received this hardly, He says again to them something yet harder; Before Abraham was,I[am.
And again, He says to the Father, And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was; for He has plainly said, " before the world was,
I had glory with Thee."
And again, when He says, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world, He evidently declares, " I have eternal glory with Thee."
John 8, 56.
John 8, 58.
John 17, 5. ver. 24.
(8.) 21. We believe then in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Onlybegotten Son of God; begotten of His Father, Very God before all worlds; by whom all things were made.
Whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were made by Him, and there is none of things created, which is exempted from His authority.
Be every heresy silent, which brings in different creators and framers of the world; be silent the tongue which blasphemes Christ the Son of God; let them be silent, who say that the Sun 'is Christ, for Col. 1, 16.
He is the sun's Creator, not the sun which we see.
Let them be silent, who say that the world is the workmanship of Angels', who wish to wrest His dignity from the Only-begotten ;
" The Manichees said that the Sun the world wad Crist, and the Gopetica held ithaca,
Spanien wl outa Gt mmaeaed
The Father originates as willing, the Son has sway as creating. 12) for whether they be things visible, or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or any thing that is named, all things were made by Christ.
He reigns over the things which have been created by Himself, not having captured as His prey what belongs to another, but ruling over His own workmanship; as the Evangelist John has said, All things John}, were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing* made; all things were made by Him, the Father working by the Son.
22. Now I wish to give an illustration of what I have been saying.
I know that it is but feeble; for what of things visible, can be an exact emblem of Divine and Invisible
Power? yet feeble as it is, be it spoken by the feeble to the feeble.
For.suppose a certain king, whose son was a king, wishing to form a city, should impart to his son, his partner in the kingdom, the form of the city; and he receiving the pattern, should bring his design to an accomplishment: in like manner when the Father proposed to form all things, the Son at the will of the Father, created all things, that the act »4«~. of willing' might secure origination to the Father, and the Son in turn might be sovereign over His own workmanship,— the Father not separated from lordship over His own works, and the Son reigning over things created not by others, but by Himself.
For, as I have said, neither did Angels create the world, but the Only-begotten Son, who was begotten, as I have said, before all ages; by whom all things were made, nothing being excepted from His creation. And now I finished what I had to say thus far, by the grace of Christ.
23. Let us now go back to our profession of the faith, and (9.) so finish for the present.
Christ made all things, whether thou speak of Angels or Archangels, Dominions or Thrones.
Not that the Father availed not to create the works Himself; but He willed the Son to reign over His own workmanship,
Himself giving to Him the design of the things to be made: for the Only-begotten honouring His own Father, says, i eseks 5, Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father ® do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son
1 spa, resolve, i. e. the Almight made to the Son, asa nod is the bodily Father's primary expression of His expression of the will.
The Son created all things at the Father's will.
Lyor. likewise.
And again, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work; there being no incongruity in the things wrought, fe 5, ' for all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, saith the Lord
Sta 7,in the Gospels.
And this may we most certainly know from ea 1, the Old and New Testaments.
For when He said, Let Us 26. make man in Our image, after Our likeness, it is manifest that He addressed some one present.
But most decisive of = 148, all are the Psalmist's words, He spake, and they were made ;
BAES He commanded, and they were created; as if the Father népac:, bade and spoke, and the Son created all things at His will.
Job9,8. And this has Job mystically said: He which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; signifying to those who understand, that He who by His presence walks upon the sea, is also He who before this made
Job 38, the heavens.
And again the Lord says, Or hast thou taken "earth and clay, and fashioned a living creature, and set it with the power of speech upon the earth? then afterwards, bali Have the gates of death opened to thee with fear; and have the porters of hell been scared when they saw thee? thus signifying, that He who through His loving-kindness descended into hell, at the first created also man out of clay.
24. Christ then is the Only-begotten Son of God, and the ree Maker of the world; for He eas in the world, and the world
""" was made by Him, and He came unto His own, as the Gospel teaches us.
Not only of the things which appear, but also of nduers. the things which appear not, is Christ the Maker, at the will
Colos.1, of the Father.
For by Him, saith the Apostle, were all things ' created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or princtpalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist, Though thou shouldest mention the worlds, yet is néuact. Jesus Christ the Maker of these also, at the behest of the ae 1, Father; for in these last days God hath spoken unto us by mI His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds:—To whom be glory, and honour, and might, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, now and always, and world without end.
Amen.