before all worlds. '*' Begotten before.'' Be- beginning. If I have shown you a father be-
ON THE CREED. agar truly, believe it: '' Whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also the Son doeth likewise,'' and ye have believed in the Son that He is Almighty. Which word although ye said not in the Creed, yet this is it that ye expressed when ye believed in the Only Son, Himself God. Hath the Father aught that the Son hath not? This Arian heretic blasphemers say, not I. But what say I? If the Father hath aught that the Son hath not, the Son lieth in saying, '' All things that the Father hath, are Mine."* Many and innumerable are the testimonies by which it is proved that the Son is Very Son of God the Father, and the Father God hath His Verybegotten Son God, and Father and Son is One God.
God Almighty, His Only Son our Lord; of that am I first speaking. Do not imagine in this Nativity a beginning of time; do not imagine any space of eternity in which the Father was and the Son was not. Since when the Father was, since then the Son. And what is that '' since,'' where is no beginning ? Therefore ever Father without beginning, ever Son without beginning. And _ how, thou wilt say, was He begotten, if He have no beginning? Of eternal, coeternal. At no time was the Father, and the Son not, and yet Son of Father was begotten. Whence is any manner of similitude to be had? We are among things of earth, we are in the visible creature. Let the earth give measimilitude: it gives none. Let the element of the waters give me some similitude: it hath not whereof to give. Some animal give me a similitude: neither can this do it. An animal indeed engenders, both what engenders and what is engendered: but first is the father, and then is born the son. Let us find the coeval and imagine it coeternal. If we shall be able to find a father coeval with his son, and son coeval with his father, let us believe God the Father coeval with His Son, and God the Son coeternal with His Father, On earth we can find some coeval, we cannot find any coeternal. Let us stretch 3 the coeval and imagine it coeternal. Some one, it may be, will put you on the stretch,' by saying, "'When is it possible for a father to be found coeval with his son, or son coeval with his father? 'That the father may beget he goes before inage; that the son may be begotten, he comes after in age: but this father coeval with son, or son with father, how can it be?" Imagine to yourselves fire as father, its shining as son; see, we have found the coevals. From the instant that the fire begins to be, that instant it begets the shining: neither fire before shining, nor shining after fire. And if we ask, which begets which? the fire the shining, or the shining the fire? Immediately ye conceive by natural sense, by the innate wit of your minds ye all cry out, The fire the shining, not the shining the fire. Lo, here you have a father beginning; lo, a son at the same time, neither going before nor coming after. Lo, here then is a father beginning, lo, ason at the same time beginning. If I have shown you a father beginning, and a son at the same time beginning, believe the Father not beginning, and with Him the Son not beginning either; the one eternal, the other coeternal. If ye get on with your learning, ye understand: take
6. But this Only Son of God, the Father Almighty, let us see what He did for us, what He suffered for us. ''Born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary."' He, so great God, equal with the Father, born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin
Mary, born lowly, that thereby He might heal the proud. Man exalted himself and fell; God humbled Himself and raised him up. Christ's lowliness, what is it? God hath stretched out an hand to man laid low. We fell, He descended: we lay low, He stooped. Let us lay hold and rise, that we fall not into punishment. Sothen His stooping to us is this, '' Born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary."' His very Nativity too as man, it is lowly, and itis lofty. Whence lowly? That as man He was born of men. Whence lofty? That He was born of a virgin. A virgin conceived, a virgin bore, and after the birth was a virgin still.
7. What next? '' Suffered under Pontius Pilate.'' He was in office as governor and was the judge, this same Pontius Pilate, what time as Christ suffered. In the name of the judge there is a mark of the times, when He suffered under Pontius Pilate: when He suffered, "' was crucified, dead, and buried.'' Who? what? for whom? Who? God's Only Son, our Lord. What? Crucified, dead, and buried. For whom? for ungodly and sinners. Great condescension, great grace! '' What shall I render unto the Lord for all that He hath bestowed on me?''?
8. He was begotten before all times, before all worlds. '*' Begotten before.'' Before what, He in Whom is no before? Do not in the least imagine any time before that Nativity of Christ whereby He was begotten of the Father; of that Nativity I am speaking by which He is Son of t John xvi. 15. 2 Ps. cxvi. 12.
3 Intendamus, 4 Intentos.