Section 846
III. To the third century, The heresies which sprung up in this age respecting the Person, Sonship, and Deity of Christ
Were those of Berullus, who revived that of Artemon, and of the Noetians or Sabellians, sometimes called Patripassians, and of the Samosatenians.
1. Beryllus, bishop of Bostra in Arctia, who for some time behaved well in his office, as Jerom says,[4437] but at length fell into this notion, that Christ was not before his incarnation; or as Eusebius[4438] expresses it, that our Lord and Savior did not subsist in his own substance before he sojourned among men, and had no deity of his own residing in him, but his Father's; but through disputations he had with several bishops and particularly with Origen, he was recovered from his error and restored to the truth.
2. The Noetians, so called from Noctus, and afterwards Sabellians, from Sabellius, a disciple of the former; those held that Father, Son, and Spirit, are one person under these different names. The foundation of their heresy was laid by Simon Magus, as before observed. They were sometimes called Praxeans and Hermogeniaus, from Praxeus and Hermogenes, the first authors of it, who embraced the same notions in this period, and sometimes Patripassians, because, in consequence of this principle, they held that the Father might be said to suffer as the Son.[4439]
3. The Samosatenians, so called from Paul of Samosate, bishop of Antioch, who revived the heresy of Artemo, that Christ was a mere man. He held that Christ was no other than a common man; he refused to own that he was the Son of God, come from heaven; he denied that the only begotten Son and Word was God of God: he agreed with the Noetians and Sabellians, that there was lint one person in the Godhead;[4440] of these notions he was convicted, and for them condemned by the synod at Antioch. [4441]
The writers of this age are but few, whose writings have been continued and transmitted to us; but those we have, strongly opposed the errors now mentioned; the chief are Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian, besides in some fragments of others.
1. Tertullian, He wrote against Praxeus, who held the same notion that Noctus and Sabellius did, in which work he not only expresses his firm belief of the Trinity in Unity, saying;[4442] "nevertheless the economy is preserved, which disposes Unity into Trinity, three, not in state or nature, essence) but in degree (or person) not in substance but in form, not in power but in species, of one substance, of one state, and of one power, because but one God, from whom these degrees, forms and species are deputed, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," And that he means three distinct persons, is clear from what he afterwards says: "whatsoever therefore was the substance of the Word, that I call a person, and to him I give the name of Son; and whilst I acknowledge a Son, I defend a second from the Father." The distinction of the Father and Son from each other, and the eternal generation of the one from the other, are fully expressed by him "this rule as professed by me, is every where held; by which I testify, the Father, Son, and Spirit are inseparable from each other—for Lo, I say, another is the Father, and another is the Son, and another is the holy Spirit—not that the Son is another from the Father, by diversity, but by distribution; not another by division, but by distinction—another is he that generates, and another he that is generated—a "Father must needs have Son that he may be a Father, and the Son a Father that he may be a Son." And again, he explains the words in Proverbs 8:22. (The Lord possessed me) of the generation of the Son; and on the clause, when he prepared the heavens, I was with him, he remarks, "thereby making himself equal to him, by proceeding from whom he became the Son and first born, as being begotten before all things; and the only be gotten, as being alone begotten of God." On these words, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, he observes[4443] to Praxeas, "If you would have me believe that he is both Father and Son, shew me such a passage elsewhere, The Lord said unto himself, I am my Son, this day have I begotten my self." And in another work[4444] of his, he has these words, speaking of the Word, "this we learn is brought forth from God, and by being brought forth generated, and therefore called the Son of God, and God, from the unity of substance—so that what comes from God, is God, and the Son of God, and both one:" that is, one God.
2. Origen. Notwithstanding his many errors, he is very express for the doctrine of the Trinity, and the distinction of the Father and Son in it, and of the eternal generation of the Son: he observes[4445] of the Seraphim, in Isaiah 6:3 that by saying, " Holy, holy, holy, they preserve the mystery of the Trinity; that it was not enough for them to cry holy once nor twice, but they take up the perfect number of the Trinity, that they might manifest the multitude of the holiness of God, which is the repeated community of the trine holiness, the holiness of the Father, the holiness of the only begotten Son, and of the holy Spirit." And elsewhere,[4446] allegorizing the show-bread, and the two tenth deals in one cake, he asks, how two tenths become one lump? because, says he, "we do not separate the Son from the Father, nor the Father from the Son (John 10:30, therefore each loaf is of two tenths, and set in two positions, that is in two rows, for if there was one position, it would be confused, and the Word would be mixed of the Father and the Son, but now indeed it is but one bread for them is one will and one substance; but there are two positions; that is, two proprieties of persons (or proper persons for we call him, the Father who is not the Son: and him the Son who is not the Father:" Of the generation of the Son of God he thus speaks,[4447] "Jesus Christ himself, who is come, was begotten of the Father before every creature was." And again,[4448] "it is abominable and unlawful to equal God the Father in the generation of his only begotten Son, and in his substance, to any one, men or other kind of animals: but there must needs be some exception, and something worthy of God, to which there can be, no comparison, not in things only, but indeed not in thought: nor can it be found by sense, nor can the human thought apprehend, how the unbegotten God is the Father of the only begotten Son: for generation is eternal, as brightness is generated from light, for he is not a Son by adoption of the Spirit extrinsically, but he is a Son by nature. "
3. Cyprian. Little is to be met with in his writings on this subject. The following is the most remarkable and particular;[4449] "the voice of the Father was heard from heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased hear ye him—that this voice came from thy paternity, there is none that doubts; there is none who dares to arrogate this word to himself; there is none among the heavenly troops who dare call the Lord Jesus his Son. Certainly to thee only the Trinity is known, the Father only knows the Son, and the Son knows the Father, neither is he known by any unless he reveals him; in, the school of "divine teaching, the Father is he that teaches and, instructs, "the Son who reveals and opens the secrets of God unto us, and the holy Spirit who fits and furnishes us; from the Father we receive power, from the Son wisdom, and from the holy Spirit innocence. The Father chooses, the Son loves, the Holy Spirit joins and unites; from the Father is given us eternity, from the Son conformity to him his image, and from the holy spirit integrity and liberty; in the Father we are, in the Son we live, in the holy Spirit we are moved, and become proficients; eternal deity and temporal humanity meet together, and by the tenor of both natures is made an unity, that it is impossible that what is joined should be separated from one another." As for the Exposition of the Creed, which stands among Cyprian's works, and is sometimes attributed to him, it was done by Ruffinus, and the testimonies from thence will be produced in the proper place.
4. Gregory of Neocaesarea, sometimes called Thaumaturgus, the wonder-worker, lived in this century, to whom is ascribed[4450] the following confession of faith; "One God, the Father of the living Word, of subsisting wisdom and power, and of the eternal character, perfect begetter of the perfect One, Father of the only begotten Son: and God the Son, who is through all. The perfect Trinity, which in glory eternity and kingdom, cannot be divided * nor alienated. Not therefore anything created or servile is in the Trinity, nor any thing super-induced, nor first and last; nor did the Son ever want a Father, nor the Son a Spirit: but the Trinity is always the same, immutable and invariable." And among his twelve articles of faith, with an anathema annexed to them, this is one: "If any one says, another is the Son who was before the world, and another who was an the last times, and does not confess, that he who was before the world, and he who was in the last times, is the same, as it is written, let him be anathema." The interpolation follows; how can it be said, another is the Son of God before the world was, and another in the last days, when the Lord says, before Abraham was, I am; and because I came forth from the Father, and am come; and again, I go to my Father ?"
5. Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, was a disciple of Origen: he wrote against the Sabellians,[4451] but none, of his writings are extant, only some fragments preserved in other authors. And whereas Arius made use of some passages of his, and improved them in favor of his own notions, Athanasius from him shows the contrary, as where in one of his volumes he expressly says,[4452] that "there never was a time in which God was not a Father; and in the following acknowledges, that Christ the Word, Wisdom and Power, always was; that he is the eternal Son of the eternal Father; for if there is a Father, there must be a Son; and if there was no Son, how could he be the Father of any? but there are both, and always were. The Son alone always co-existed with the Father. God the Father always was; and the Father being eternal, the Son also is eternal, and co-existed with him as brightness with light." And in answer to another objection, made against him, that when he mentioned the Father, he said nothing of the Son; and when he named the Son, said nothing of, the Father; it is observed,[4453] that in another volume of his; he says, that each of these names spoken of by me; are inseparable and indivisible from one another; when I speak of the Father, and before I introduce the Son, I signify him in the Father; when I introduce the Son; though I have not before spoken of the Father, he is always to be understood in the Son."
6. The errors of Paulus Samosate were condemned by the synod at Antioch, towards the latter end of this century, by whom[4454] a formula or confession of faith was agreed to, in which are these words. "We profess that our Lord Jesus Christ was begotten of the Father before ages, according to the Spirit, and in the last days, born of a virgin, according to the flesh." The word omousiov, consubstantial, is used in their creed. Towards the close of this century, and at the beginning of the next, lived Lactantius, (for he lived under Dioclesian, and to the times of Constantine) who asserts,[4455] that God, the maker of all things, begat "a Spirit holy, incorruptible, and irreprehensible, whom he called the Son." He asks,[4456] "how hath he procreated? The divine works can neither be known nor declared by any; nevertheless the scriptures teach, that the Son of God is the Word of God." Nothing more is to be observed in this century. I pass on,