Father on this account, that the one is the saying, '"'It is the brightness of-that light,"
CuHap. XX.] ON THE TRINITY. 83 how does He say to Philip, by whom He was certainly seen as by all the rest, and even by those by whom He was crucified in the flesh, also called His wisdom. What wonder, therefore, if He is sent, not because He is unequal with the Father, but because He is '"a pure emanation (manatio) issuing from the glory of the Almighty God?'' For there, that which issues, and that from which it issues, is of one and the same _ substance. For it does not issue as water issues from an aperture of earth or of stone, but as light issues from light. For the words, '' For she is the brightness of the everlasting light," what else are they than, she is light of everlasting light? For what is the brightness of light, except light itself? and so co-eternal, with the light, from which the light is. But it is preferable to say, ''the brightness of light,'' rather than" the light of light;"' lest that which issues should be thought to be darker than that from which it issues. For when one hears of the brightness of light as being light itself, it is more easy to believe that the former shines by means of the latter, than that the latter shines less. But because there was no need of warning men not to think that light to be less, which begat the other (for no heretic ever dared say this, neither is it to be believed that any one will dare to do so), Scripture meets that other thought, whereby that light which issues might seem darker than that from which it issues; and it has removed this surmise by saying, '"'It is the brightness of-that light," namely, of eternal light, and so shows it to be equal. For if it were less, then it would be its darkness, not its brightness; but if it were greater, then it could not issue from it, for it could not surpass that from which it is educed. Therefore, because it issues from it, it is not greater than it is; and because it is not its darkness, but its brightness, it is not less than it is: therefore it is equal. Nor ought this to trouble us, that it is called a pure emanation issuing from the glory of the Almighty God, as if itself were not omnipotent, but an emanation from the Omnipotent; for soon after it is said of it, '' And being but one, she can do all things.''3 But who is omnipotent, unless He who can do all things? It is sent,therefore, by Him from whom itissues; for so sheis sought after by him who loved and desired her. ''Send her,'' he says, ''out of Thy holy heavens, and from the throne of Thy glory, that, being present, she may labor with me;"'4 that is, may teach me to labor [heartily] in order that I may not labor [irksomely]. For her labors are virtues. But she is sent in one way that she may be with man; she has been sent in another way that she herself may be man. For,
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also;"' unless because He was both seen and yet not seen? He was seen, as He had been made in being sent; He was not seen, as by Him all things were made. Or how does He say this too, '* He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him,''* at a time when He was manifest before the eyes of men; unless because He was offering that flesh, which the
Word was made inthe fullness of time, to be accepted by our faith; but was keeping back the Word itself, by whom all things were made, to be contemplated in eternity by the mind when cleansed by faith?
CHAP. 20.——-THE SENDER AND THE SENT EQUAL.
WHY THE SON IS SAID TO BE SENT BY THE FATHER. OF THE MISSION OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT. HOW AND BY WHOM HE WAS SENT. THE FATHER THE BEGINNING OF THE WHOLE GODHEAD.
27. But if the Son is said to be sent by the Father on this account, that the one is the Father, and the other the Son, this does not in any manner hinder us from believing the Son to be equal, and consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father, and yet to have been sent as Son by the Father. Not because the one is greater, the other less; but because the one is Father, the other Son; the one begetter, the other begotten; the one, He from whom He is who is sent; the other, He who is from Him who sends. For the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son, And according to this manner we can now understand that the Son is not only said to have been sent because ''the Word was made flesh,''? but therefore sent that the Word might be made flesh, and that He might perform through His bodily presence those things which were written; that is, that not only is He understood to have been sent as man, which the Word was made but the Word, too, was sent that it might be made man; because He was not sent in respect to any inequality of power, or substance, or anything that in Him was not equal to the Father; but in respect to this, that the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son; for \the Son is the Word of the Father, which is
3 Wisd, vii, 25-27, 4 Wisd. ix. 10.
' t John xiv. g, 21. 2 John i, 3, 18, 14.