Works 1 part 3/3

It will therefore be necessary that He be either composed of members, if He has a womb; or, as I said, liable to corruption, if He generated from His own substance. Athanasius said: You would rightly charge me with having so thought, if I, by the presumption of my own rashness, without any testimony of the divine law, had affirmed that God has a womb. But since God Himself, to repel the madness of those unwilling to believe, deigned to declare this concerning Himself, that He might more evidently teach by the naming of 'womb' that He generated the Son not from without, not from elsewhere, but from Himself, that is, from His own substance, why do you fix upon me the mark of faulty credulity? when you might rather say this to God: If you have a womb, you will be composite; if you have begotten from yourself, you will be liable to corruption.

For 'womb' is so understood in God without any composition of members, just as eyes, and ears, and hands, and feet are said to be in Him without any lineaments of distinction. As therefore you must understand eyes, because He sees all things; ears, because He hears all things; hands, because He works all things; feet, because He is everywhere; so you must take 'womb' to mean that He ineffably begot from Himself. Nor ought you to suppose unfaithfully that, if He begot from Himself, He could surely be corrupted; rather it is fitting faithfully to profess that He could beget Him as omnipotent and incorruptible, and could not be corrupted by this very generation. For if He is believed to have been born wondrously of the Virgin against the nature of things incorruptibly;

how much more is He to be believed incorruptibly begotten of the Father? For if the substantial nature of the Virgin—which, being of itself of corruptible condition, could be subject to passion and corruption—with the inviolate integrity of her modesty and with the maidenly enclosures unbroken, generated a son with wondrous integrity of incorruption; why should we not rather believe, as I have said, that the incorruptible God could not be corrupted, the Son having been incorruptibly begotten of Him? O new and unspeakable, damnable madness of a monstrous opinion, to confess that the Virgin could not be corrupted by childbearing, and to dread that God should be subject to the defect of corruption, that He could not generate from His own substance!

Since, therefore, God willing it, a Virgin of corruptible nature generated a son without any loss of modesty: could He Himself, who beyond all comparison remains more incorruptible than every nature, not grant Himself this, that He might incorruptibly generate the Son from His own substance? Therefore, since both the utterances of the divine Scriptures testify, and Arius in his earlier discourse confessed, that God begot the Son from Himself, judge, O excellent and upright sir, which view better agrees with the divine Scriptures: whether mine, who for this reason confess the Son to be of one substance with the Father, namely because He is recognized to be born from Him, and not from elsewhere:

and for this reason again I profess that He begot incorruptibly, because the most excellent substance of the divine majesty could by its ineffable power in no way be subject to corruption; or that man's view, who is placed in so great a strait of wavering understanding that he knows not whither to set back the foot of his faith. For, unwilling to confess that God incorruptibly begot from His own substance, he is dragged into the necessity of this confession, that he must deny that He begot at all. But this very thing—to deny it—he will never without doubt be able to do, with prophetic and apostolic voices everywhere meeting him and crying out with clear utterance. VIII.

Probus the judge said: Whatever I have been able to recognize in this assertion of your discourses, the final sentence of our examination will retain. But now, if you think there yet remains to you anything from the divine Scriptures agreeable to your faith, deign to bring it forth, so that in the course of the disputation we may most easily track down what the principle of truth contains. Athanasius said: Since I perceive your excellency to be most earnestly and faithfully intent upon this matter, namely that we should prove from the divine volumes the Son to be born of the Father's substance—although the verdict of all my discourses is shown to be such, that, just as the human race, or that of any animals whatever, begets things like to its own substance;

so that neither does man beget an ox, nor an ox a man, but each thing procreates after its own likeness, that is, of its own substance; I ought by no means to wonder that God could generate the Son from His own substance, to whom all power is subject. But that my discourse may not wander apart without the testimony of the Scriptures, I undertake, fortified by His help, to prove from the divine oracles that the Son was ineffably born of the Father's substance; so that when by a luminous course of disputation—not one coming from the argument of philosophic art, but, as I said, from divine documents—I shall have demonstrated it, then at last let Arius fall silent, when, by my teaching, he shall have learned from the lawful utterances that the Son was begotten of the Father's substance.

The blessed Apostle, writing to the Hebrews concerning the Son, says: Since He is, he says, the image of the invisible God, and bearing the figure of His substance (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15). Jeremiah also, the most prudent of the prophets, discourses concerning the person of God the Father and says: If they had stood in My substance, and had heard My word, they would have turned them from their most wicked pursuits (Jer. 23:22). And that he might prove he had spoken concerning the Son, the same prophet adds and says: Who has stood in My substance and seen My word (Jer. 23:18)? For that the Son is the Word, the prophet David testifies, speaking of the person of the Father, saying: My heart has uttered forth a good word (Ps. 45:1).

John also the evangelist, knowing the Word, that is the Son, to be with the Father from the beginning, and that the Word was never separated from the Father, set it down in the beginning of the Gospel, that is, of his proclamation, saying: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). And again in another place the Scripture has handed down, saying: The beginning of the work is the word (Ecclus. 37:20). Not that in the creation of the Word, that is, from the creation of the Son, He began to make the other creatures; but because through the Word of God, that is through the Son, all things are known to have been created. Whence the prophet David sets down and says: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established (Ps. 33:6). And to show the Holy Spirit a partner in this work, he says:

And by the spirit of His mouth all their power. For many are the testimonies which the divine Scriptures furnish concerning the Son; whereby He is shown to be begotten of the substance of the Father, that is, of that which He Himself is: of which substance the Son is proved not only like, but coequal to the Father. This is the faith which Christ handed down to the apostles, and which from the apostles has reached even to us. Nor can we change it in any respect, which it is established that we ought from the beginning to preserve faithfully, as it was given. IX. Arius said: From my earlier discourse I have thus begun, that the treachery of his blindness casts Athanasius headlong into the deep.

For while he wishes to display the eloquence of his speech, unaware he is caught in a crime against the divine Scripture, by saying that in the substance of God the Son is made coequal to His begetter, when the Son Himself protests concerning Himself and says: The Father is greater than I (John 14:28); and: He who sent Me, He gave Me a commandment (John 12:49); and: I came not, but He sent Me (John 8:42); and: I came not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me (John 6:38); and: As the Father has told Me, so I speak (John 12:50); and: What He gave Me, I have kept (John 17:12); and: All that He gave Me, no one takes from Me (John 6:39); and: I will ask Him, and He will furnish Me more than twelve legions of angels (Matt. 26:53);

and: If this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, Thy will be done (Matt. 26:42); and: Let this cup pass from Me. Not as I will, but as Thou (Matt. 26:39); and: The things that are pleasing to Him I do always (John 8:29); and: To sit at My right hand or at My left is not Mine to give to you (Matt. 20:23); and: He gave Him a name which is above every name, and exalted His servant (Phil. 2:9); and: Therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee (Ps. 45:7); and: He raised Him from the dead, and made Him sit at His right hand (Eph. 1:20), and many things like these, which for the sake of brevity I omit.

If therefore He has one greater than Himself, if He was sent, if He came not by His own spontaneous will, if He did not do His own will, if He speaks what is told to Him, if He keeps for Himself the things given, if He asks, if He prays concerning the cup, if He received a name from another, if He is exalted by another, if He did not by His own power grant the seats to the disciples who asked for them, if He does the things pleasing to the Father, and is raised from the dead by Him—does it seem just that He who says such and so great things concerning His own subjection should be made equal to the Father? Probus the judge said: If against so abundant testimonies of divine authority, which have been brought forth by Arius concerning the subjection of the Son, anything seems available to Athanasius, let him not delay to declare it;

so that, the superstructure of words being removed, from the divine volumes the Son may rather be shown to be either like, or unlike, or coequal to the Father; that, the truth being recognized, the things which agree with sound faith and reason may be confirmed. X. Athanasius said: Let the craftiness of Arius run on as far as it will in the loftiness of speech, and let it applaud itself for the testimonies it has brought forth from the authority of the divine law; whereby, namely, it strives to sever the Son from the equality of the Father. All the things which are known to have been at length inserted by him are, by those same testimonies, frustrated by us without any difficulty. Christ therefore, the Son of God, is said to be subject to the Father in the form of a servant, which He took from the Virgin, the apostle Paul thus affirming:

When, he says, the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal. 4:4). He therefore is said to be subject who is known to have been generated under the law of a woman, and in that form, which He voluntarily took from the Virgin, He shows the Father greater than Himself. In the form of God the Father, an angelic choir is shown to have rendered Him ministry. For so it is written in the Gospel: And the devil departed from Him, and the angels came and ministered to Him (Matt. 4:11). He objects that He did the will of the Father, and not His own. In this rather the saying of this word ought to be recognized as praiseworthy: because He who calmly did the Father's will showed equality, the Apostle confirming it.

This is, he says, the will of God in Christ Jesus (1 Thess. 5:18). For since He added: As the Father has told Me, so I speak (John 12:50); why should the human race, understanding what is right, be troubled at hearing this word? For if Christ spoke otherwise than God the Father, then He would rather be called unequal to, or unlike, the Father. But if the things which the Father speaks, those the Son speaks, He is never found unequal to or unlike the Father. What He gave Me, he says, I have kept; and, All that He gave Me, no one takes from Me. For the divine gifts are in this manner to be understood as attributed to the Son.

For the Father gave to the omnipotent Son power, bestowed majesty upon majesty, gave virtue to virtue, prudence to the prudent, foreknowledge to the foreknowing, eternity to eternity, divinity to divinity, equality to the coequal, immortality to the immortal, invisibility to the invisible, a kingdom to the King, life to life: and He gave no other than that which He Himself has; and as much as He has, so much He gave, and whatever other things the Father is shown to have indivisibly and inseparably conferred upon the Son. But all these things He is proved to have given rather to one possessing them than to one lacking them, to whom it is said by the Son: All Mine are Thine, and all Thine are Mine (John 17:10). XI.

If thus all the things which the Father is reported to have conferred upon the Son seem to be one set of things in Him, and another in the Son, we without doubt make the Son a liar, who says that those things are His which are the Father's. But if in these things which He said the Son is found a liar, then likewise the evangelist who says: Making Himself equal to God (John 5:18), will be deceived in all power: and so it will come about that neither is the Father shown to have conferred anything wholly or truly upon the Son, nor is the Son known to be true God. But if those things are true (as indeed they are) which the Father conferred upon the Son inseparably and indistinctly, let the tongues of demented men fall silent, who attempt to separate the Son from the substance of the Father. The Son asks the Father, that He may show Himself to bear a true man.

For that He might make known the power of His deity, He commanded the sea and the winds, and from five loaves He filled five thousand men. As man, He sadly received the cup of the passion; but as God, He gave to believers a fountain of living water springing up unto eternal life. He received a name, that in this name things heavenly and earthly and infernal should adore. He was exalted from the depths to the heights, that is, ascending from the flesh of human frailty to God, He sits at the right hand of majesty, so that human weakness should not doubt to follow where it has seen its Head glorified. He was anointed, that by the anointing of His chrism we might be purged from the stain of the first man's sin.

He was raised from the dead, that we, by the example of His resurrection, might be freed from the sting of death. He testifies that He cannot give the seats to the disciples who ask, lest a division should arise among them. For He who says, It is not Mine to give to you (Matt. 20:23), said, I will that where I am, these also may be with Me (John 17:24). The things pleasing to the Father He did, because He knows not to do contrary things. For He who says, I came, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me (John 6:38), said, I will to do Thy will: O My God, I have willed it (Ps. 40:8); and, Voluntarily will I sacrifice to Thee (Ps. 54:6). He who says, The Father is greater than I (John 14:28), said, I and the Father are one (John 10:30);

and: That they may be one in us, as I and Thou are one (John 17:22); and: All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine (John 17:10); and: Do you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:10); and: My Father works, and I work (John 5:17); and: As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so the Son also gives life to whom He wills (John 5:21); and: He who sees Me, sees the Father also (John 14:9); and: He who hates Me, hates My Father also (John 15:23); and: Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee (John 17:1); and: I have glorified Thee upon the earth (ibid. 4); and: I have manifested Thy name to men (ibid. 6).

And that all the striving of human cavilling may be at rest, I will bring forward as witness John the Evangelist, whose testimony I have used above, who says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). If these things, so befitting the Godhead, by which we have taught that the Father and the Son are one, do not suffice for the treacherous, we shall add others (if it seems good). XII. Probus the judge said:

If Arius shall have striven to gainsay this so valid and so certain a discourse, it is certain that he does not follow reason, but roves the more unbridledly through the fields of irrational words, who until now has been unable to demonstrate his assertion of the reason of three substances, as he confessed above (just as Athanasius has shown abundant proof of one substance), circling about through I know not what nebulous fog. Arius said: Is it that, because from the divine oracles Athanasius, by I know not what nice points, has by rash daring seemed to affirm the Son to be of one substance and coequal to the Father, the Spirit also, who is the minister of the Father and the Son, ought to be granted to those same by an equal confession? when the Son Himself says:

He will glorify Me, because He will receive of Mine (John 16:14); and: I will send you the Spirit of truth (John 15:26); and: The Spirit will proceed from Me (John 16:15); and: Whom the Father will send in My name (John 14:26); and: The Father says to the bones of the dead: I will give My Spirit into you, and you shall live (Ezek. 37:5). Surely He who is sent by the Father, or proceeds, ought not to be equated with Him from whom He proceeds—as the prophet testifies concerning Him, and says: Behold the Lord forming the thunder and creating the Spirit (Amos 4:13). Assuredly it will never seem to me that a creature is equated to its Creator, or can possess one and the same power together with Him. Athanasius said:

If the judge's clemency grants and bestows permission, I will briefly demonstrate from the divine authorities that the Holy Spirit also is not a creature, but God and Creator together with the Father and the Son. Probus the judge said: As your profession contains, prove briefly the proof which reason demands. Not from the argument of speech, but from the testimonies of the divine Scriptures, show that the Holy Spirit is coequal to the Father and the Son, or, as you yourself confessed, that He is God or Creator of the common work. So that, when you have proved these things by truthful testimonies, Arius, convicted by the profession of the true faith, may withdraw from his purpose. XIII. Athanasius said:

Before I fully teach that the Holy Spirit is God, I will prove by the words of the law that the same is Creator of all things. For it is written: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of His mouth all their power (Ps. 33:6). And in Solomon: And He, he says, created her by His Spirit (Ecclus. 1:9). And in the psalm: Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth (Ps. 104:30). And in the book of Job: The divine Spirit, he says, who made me (Job 33:4). And in Judith: To Thee, she says, every creature of Thine serves, for Thou hast spoken, and they were made; Thou didst send forth Thy Spirit, and it built (Judith 16:17).

For the Holy Spirit is shown to be of such great power, or creative might, that, by His cooperation, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which has been given to us in the sacrament of faith, was formed in the womb of the Virgin, the evangelist saying: Fear not to take Mary thy wife: for that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20). And likewise: Before, he says, they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit (ibid. 18)—not that the Holy Spirit is to be called the Father of our Savior, so that two Fathers should be believed; but because, together with the Father and the Son, the same Holy Spirit is found cooperator, and partner of one power with those same, the Lord affirming:

Go, He says to the disciples, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Therefore, if He is a minister (as your sacrilegious profession contains), how is it that without Him nothing is conferred upon believers in the Sacrament of faith? For just as the Lord destined the apostles to preach, in like manner the Holy Spirit also is declared to act. For so we find written in the Acts of the Apostles: But while Peter was thinking on the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him: Behold, three men seek thee: arise and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them to thee (Acts 10:19, 20). And again: Separate to Me Barnabas and Paul for the work to which I have taken them (Acts 13:2). And again:

Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you bishops (Acts 20:28). If He sent the apostles, and appointed bishops, and created all things together with the Father and the Son, as was shown above, in what way—since you yourself do not fear it—does so great a majesty bear the person of a lesser one or of a minister? XIV. But that He is also God, as I remember I promised, I will prove by these testimonies, the prophet David saying: I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me (Ps. 85:8). To none, therefore, is it doubtful that all the prophets announce or speak only through the Holy Spirit; as it is written in the Gospel:

When, He says, that Holy Spirit shall come, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you, and shall announce to you things to come (John 14:26; 16:13). And likewise the Lord says through the prophet: They would not hear My words, which I commanded in My Spirit through the mouth of the former prophets, says the Lord (Zech. 7:12). But lest, while running through the testimonies in the flowery meadows of the divine law, we be carried too far from our proposition, let us return to that which we promised. To the Hebrews also Paul, the preacher of the nations, writing, says: But the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; and this is the testament which I will dispose toward them after those days, says the Lord (Heb. 8:10).

In the Acts of the Apostles we remember that Peter said to Ananias: Why has Satan filled thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3)? And showing the same to be God, he says in what follows: Thou hast not lied to men, but to God (ibid. 4); and Paul to the Corinthians: Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who works all in all (1 Cor. 12:4, 5, 6). Behold, the Holy Spirit, the Apostle preaching, is declared the same God, the same Lord. In the Gospel, as has already been said, the Lord Himself says: God is a Spirit (John 4:24). Likewise Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says:

Now the Lord is a Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). And to the Ephesians: Grieve not, he says, the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you are sealed (Eph. 4:30). Likewise to the Corinthians: Know you not, he says, that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God? And showing Him to be God, he adds and says: Glorify and bear God in your body (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). For that the Holy Spirit may be most manifestly shown to be God and Lord, the angel says to Mary: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: therefore also that which shall be born of thee, holy, shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). XV.

Behold, by how great proofs of divine testimonies we have taught that the Holy Spirit is God, and of one power or fellowship with the Father and the Son. What of an answer yet remains to the treacherous, I know not. The apostle Paul most plainly demonstrated that the Holy Spirit has one fellowship with the Father and the Son, saying: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor. 13:13). Probus the judge said: If, after innumerable testimonies promulgated by heavenly teaching, anything seems to Arius to have remained, let him not be reluctant to propose it. Although (as I reckon) no answer has remained to him whereby he might be able to drive Athanasius from the principle of one substance;

that is, from the reason of the homoousion. But lest he afterward complain of some oppression, no place for answering is taken away from him by us. Arius said: To none is it doubtful that Athanasius does not cease by magic arts to pervert the senses of the judge, so that he may not be able to keep the path of right faith toward those who religiously follow and reverence it. And therefore that which I cannot unfold in the examination of your eminence, I will reserve to the judgment of the prince; where the search for truth prevails, and where it must be believed that magic arts cannot prevail against the observance of true faith. Athanasius said:

Those who cannot be present to their own assertions do not cease to invent for themselves an excuse by whatever fallacious arguments or cavils—as your greatness now more fully perceives Arius to do. But to me, vindicating the true faith, let it suffice to have answered all the things which were proposed by him in the presence of your eminence. XVI. Probus the judge said: It is the mark of the unskilled, and of those presuming too little upon their own knowledge or learning, to give zeal rather to depravity than to lend patience to the truth: whereas it befits the asserters of faith rather to follow the truth than to be hindered by the fetter of error or falsehood.

Such, therefore, is the custom of those who, when they have seen the cause of their own treachery coming to its very end, fearing lest their treachery should become known to all men, betake themselves to the presence of one more powerful; not knowing that there too victory is granted to the truth, where the sentence of a generous power is promulgated. In vain, therefore, does Arius seem to appeal from our judgment to the person of the prince, since in the conflict of the contest he has perceived nothing of depravity against himself—he whom it is established that Athanasius could not at all tear away from the defense of the homoousion (which is, of one substance).

But (since his excessive zeal has so determined) I shall by no means restrain him from doing so, lest, unable to bear the part of one defeated, he boast over the span of time taken from him. It shall be my care, however, to bring home to the mind of our glorious prince all that has been brought forward by both parties in our hearing; so that, once these lying evasions are set far aside, Athanasius, the champion of the pure faith, may be able to attain the palm of victory.