Chapter 2 (33): 1. On The Perfidy And Punishment Of Arius.—Ambrose, In On The
Distinction XI | 45 what is not a creature is God. But if the Son is not of the same substance as the Father, then he is a substance that was made; and if he is a substance that was made, all things were not made through him. But al/ things were made through him.' And so he is not a substance that was made, but he is one not-made substance with the Father.—Also, in the same place: "But if the Father made the Son, whom the Son himself did not make, all things were not made through the Son. But all things were made through* the Son; and so he himself was not made, so that with the Father he might make all things that were made."
3. The same in the book of 84 Questions: "A creature is anything which God the Father made through the Son; the latter cannot himself be called a creature because through him all things were made."°—Ambrose, in On the Trinity, book 1, says: "Let us prove that the Son of God is not a creature. For we have heard in the Gospel that the Lord commanded his disciples: Preach the Gospel to every creature.' In saying every creature, he is not excepting any. And where does that leave those who call Christ a creature? For if he were a creature, he would be commanding that the Gospel be preached to himself" ;* and he would be subject to vanity because, as the Apostle attests, every creature is subject to vanity.' "And so Christ is not a creature, but the Creator, who commands the disciples to teach the creature."!"
Chapter 2 (33)
1. ON THE PERFIDY AND PUNISHMENT OF ARIUS.—AMBROSE, IN ON THE
TRINITY, BOOK 1. We read that the perfidy of Arius consisted in the profession that Christ is a creature. And so "the bowels of Arius gushed out and he burst in the middle, falling on his face, polluting those foul lips with which he had denied Christ."!
2. IN WHAT SENSE CHRIST IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN MADE. From these and several other testimonies, we are instructed not to simply confess that 'Christ was made or is a creature'; but this may rightly be said with the addition of a determination, as if we were to say that he was made according to the flesh or according to his humanity, so that having been made is attributed to his humanity, not to God.—For as Ambrose says in On the Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 1 c6 n9.
Ben Mad bee 'Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 1 c6 n12.
°Augustine, De diversis quaestionibus 83, q67 nn1-2.
™k. 16, 15.
'Ambrose, De fide, bk 1 c14 n86.
*Rom. 8, 20.
' Ambrose, De fide, bk 1 c14 n86.
'Ambrose, De fide, bk 1 c19 nn123, 124.
46 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
Trinity, book 1, "He was not made God, but God was born Son of God; but afterwards, he was made man from Mary according to the flesh. For God sent his Son, made from a woman, made under the Law.' He says his
Son, namely not one out of many. In saying his, he designated the property of eternal generation. He asserted afterwards that he was made from a woman so that his being made might be ascribed not to his divinity, but to his putting on of a body. And so he says made from a woman for the taking on of flesh; made under the Law for the observance of the Law.""
"Generation causes no prejudice to generation, nor flesh to the divinity."
"For the eternal God took up the sacrament of the incarnation not as divided, but as one, and as one in both, namely in divinity and a body. For he was not one thing from the Father and another from the Virgin, but was the same in one way from the Father and in another from the Virgin."°
And he was made "according to the putting on of our nature, not according to the substance of eternal life."° Of him, "we read first-born and onlybegotten: first-born, because there was none before him; only-begotten, because after him there was no one."'—From these words, it is clearly handed down in what sense it is to be taken when we say that Christ was made, whether simply or with a qualification, namely so that the being made or being a creature be referred not to the God who takes on, but to the humanity which is taken on.
3. For in God there cannot be a creature, as Ambrose says in On the Trinity, book 1: "Was Christ made by a word? Was Christ created by a command? But how can there be a creature in God? For God is of a simple nature, not of a conjoined or composite one; nothing can be added to him, and he has in his nature only that which is divine.'"'*
4. And so, although Christ is called a creature according to his humanity, yet Christ is not simply to be called a creature. Nor does it follow that, because Christ is said to be a creature according to his humanity, one may proceed to argue as follows: If Christ is a creature according to his humanity, then either he is a rational one or not, or a creature which is God or not. This argument strives to prove that Christ is something not divine, because he is that which he is according to his humanity. And so, if, according to his humanity, he is some substance which is not divine, then he is certainly something which is not divine.—But there is no right way for an argument to proceed from figurative speech; and the expression is inGal. 4, 4.
*Ambrose, De fide, bk 1 c14 nn93, 94.
"Ambrose, De incarnationis dominicae sacramento, c5 n36.
*Tbid., c5 n35.
*Ibid., c5 n37.
7Ambrose, De fide, bk 1 c14 n89.
*Ibid., bk 1 c16 nn105-106.