Section 848
V. In the fifth century Arianism continued and prospered, having many abettors, as well as many who opposed it
Other heresies also arose, and some in opposition to the Sonship of Christ.
1st. Felicianus, the Arian, argued against it thus, "If Christ was born of a virgin, how can he be said to be co-eternal with God the Father?" To whom Austin replied, "The Son of God entered into the womb of the virgin, that he might be again born, who had been already begotten before, he received the whole man (or whole humanity) who had had already perfect deity from the Father, not unlike was he to the begetter, when being everlasting he was begotten from eternity, nor unlike to men when born of his mother."
2dly, Faustus, the Manichee, asserted, that according to the evangelists, Christ was not the Son of God, only the Son of David, until he was thirty years of age, and was baptized: to which Austin replied, "The catholic and apostolic faith is, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is the Son of God according to Deity, and the Son of David, according to the flesh: which we so prove from the evangelic and apostolic writings, as that no man can contradict our proofs, unless he contradicts limit express words."[4500]
3dly, The Priscillianists asserted that Christ is called the only begotten Son of God, because he only was born of a virgin; to which Leo Magnus makes answer, "Let them take which they will, their tenets tend to great impiety, whether they mean, that the Lord Christ had his beginning from his mother, or deny him to be the only begotten of God the Father; since he was born of his mother, who was God the Word, and none is begotten of the Father but the Word."[4501]
The writers in this century are many, who have plainly and strongly asserted the eternal generation and Sonship of Christ: as Augustine, Chrysostom, Proclus archbishop of Constantinople, Leo Magnus, Theodoret, Cyril of Alexandria,[4502] Paulinus, Victor, Maximus Taurinensis, etc. it may be abundantly sufficient only to mention the following formulas, or confessions of faith.
1. Of Augustine, bishop of Hippo, or of Sennadius, presbyter of Marseilles in France, to whom it is sometimes ascribed: "We believe there is one God, the Father, Son, and holy Spirit; the Father because he has a Son, the Son because he has a Father; the holy Spirit because he is from the Father and the Son (proceeding and co-eternal with the Father and the Son,)—the eternal Father, because he has an eternal Son, of whom he is the eternal Father; the eternal Son, because he is co-eternal with the Father and the holy Spirit; the eternal holy Spirit, because he is co-eternal with the Father and the Son."[4503]
2. Of Flavianus, bishop of Constantinople, which he delivered in conc. Constantinop. A. D. 448 approved of by the synod at Chalcedon, A. D. 451. "Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and body; begotten indeed of the Father, without beginning and before the world, according to deity, but in the end, in the last days, the same was born of the virgin Mary for our salvation, according to humanity; consubstantial with the Father, according to deity, consubstantial with his mother according to "humanity; for of two natures we confess that Christ is after the incarnation in one subsistence, in one person. we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord."[4504]
3. Of the council at Chalcedon, consisting of six hundred and thirty Fathers; "Following the holy fathers, say they, we all harmoniously teach and confess our Lord Jesus Christ: that he is perfect in deity and perfect in humanity, truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; co-essential with the Father according to the deity, and co-essential with us according to the humanity, in all things like unto us, excepting sin, but begotten of the Father before the world, according to the deity: and in the last days, for us and our salvation, was of the virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, according to the humanity, etc."[4505]