Works 5 part 3/10

'The word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword' (Heb. 4:12). And in the Acts of the Apostles: 'We announce to you, that you turn from these vain things to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that are in them' (Acts 14:14). And in Deuteronomy: 'I live, saith the Lord, for I lift up my hand to heaven, I will swear by my right hand, and I will say: I live forever; for I sharpen my sword like lightning, and my hand shall take hold of judgment, and I will render it to those who hate me' (Deut. 32:40-41). But he who is intimated by the divine letters to be eternal and immortal, is judged to be of a lesser substance than the Father only by the perfidy of the Arians. CHAPTER XXIII. A passage of the Psalmist is explained:

'The Lord ruleth me, and I shall want nothing.' If they say to you that the prophet said in the person of Christ: 'The Lord shall rule me' (Ps. 22:1), and therefore he is lesser than the Father. Reply. That the Son is ruled by himself, and not by another, hear the prophet Micah, through whom God the Father deigned to proclaim the power of his Only-begotten with such a sentence: 'And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Judah,' he says, 'art by no means least among the thousands of Judah: for out of thee shall come forth a King who shall rule my people Israel' (Mic. 5:2). And in the Apocalypse: 'The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall rule them, and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life' (Rev. 7:17). And in the book of Maccabees: 'He himself is our Father, he himself is our King, he himself shall rule us forever.'

'For he scourged us on account of our iniquities, but again he will have mercy on us' (2 Macc. 7:32-33). And in the forty-seventh Psalm (v. 15): 'This is our God forever and ever, and he shall rule us forever.' And in the twenty-seventh (v. 9): 'Rule them, and exalt them forever.' For if the Son, as you yourselves suspect, is not ruled by himself, in vain is he called King, or named the Son of the King: since the name of King and of dignity is proved only from ruling others. CHAPTER XXIV. How the Arians say that the Father is greater than the Son, from the fact that Christ alone was tempted by the devil in the desert. If they say to you:

For this reason the Son is not equal to the Father, because he alone was tempted by the devil in the desert. Reply. For the divinity of the Son was not subject to the diabolical temptation, but he was tempted in the flesh alone, which he graciously assumed from the womb of the Virgin, the Apostle testifying: 'In that he himself suffered, having been made obedient, he was tempted: for he is powerful to help those who are tempted' (Heb. 2:18). For when the tempter, the devil, said to him: 'Cast thyself down,' he thus restrained him once and again with the scourge of his answer, saying: 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God'; and, 'Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve' (Matt. 4:7, 10). Hence I do not doubt that James also the Apostle said: 'But God is no tempter of evils' (James 1:13).

And in the Gospel: 'Then the Pharisees came to Jesus with the Herodians, saying: Master, we know that thou art truthful, and teachest the way of God in truth: thou regardest not the person of any man, nor carest thou for anyone: is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not? But this they said, tempting him, that they might accuse him' (Mark 12:14), etc. Do you not see, O unbeliever, that he was subject to temptation, in that he did not refuse to be scourged by the Jews? CHAPTER XXV. The Arians deny that the Son named himself God in the proper sense. But if they say: Where did the Son of God name himself God in the proper sense? Reply. How foolish this proposition of yours is, and how far it strays from the reason of truth, even men of duller wit understand and refute:

namely, those who confess the Son of God to be true God and true man: for not because he put on flesh did he cease to be God, but in true man true God appeared, the apostle John testifying: 'This is the true God and life eternal' (1 John 5:20). But if you desire to know where the Son named himself God in the proper sense, learn from the word of the Gospel: 'And the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him,' it says, 'that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying: Go into thy house, and tell how much God hath done for thee. And he departed through the whole city, preaching how much Jesus had done for him' (Luke 8:38-39). And again:

'The devil led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth in a moment of time, and said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them, for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will I give them: if thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be thine. Jesus answered and said to him: It is written, Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve' (Matt. 4:8-10; Luke 4:5-8). And again concerning the cleansed lepers he says: 'But one of them, when he saw that he was cleansed, returned with a loud voice glorifying God, and fell down at his feet, giving thanks; and this man was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said: Were not ten cleansed? where are the nine?

'There is none found to return and give glory to God, but this stranger' (Luke 17:15-18)? Behold where the Son of God named himself God, to which God he who was cleansed, returning, gave thanks. And again: 'There was a certain man in a certain city, who feared not God, nor regarded man... There was a certain widow in that city, who came daily to him, saying: Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for a long time: but afterward he said within himself: Although I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow is very troublesome to me, I will avenge her, lest at the last she come and weary me. And the Lord said: Hear what the unjust judge saith.'

'And shall not God avenge his servants who cry to him day and night, and will he have patience in their regard? Amen I say to you, that he will avenge them quickly' (Luke 18:2-8). Therefore we have set down the whole text of this parable, that we might be able to teach where the Son named himself God in the proper sense: for this saying cannot be fitting to the Father, since the Son is to come into judgment to avenge the injuries of his servants. Again the Evangelist says: 'And when he had reclined again, he said to his disciples: Know you what I have done to you? You call me Master and Lord, and you say well: for so I am' (John 13:12-13). And in Mark, Jesus answering said:

'Moses wrote you that precept on account of the hardness of your heart; but from the beginning of creation God made them male and female' (Mark 10:5-6). And again the Jews answered and said: 'We do not stone thee for a good work, but for blasphemy; because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God' (John 10:33). Since therefore he calls himself God and Lord, why do you maintain him to be lesser, and after a sacrilegious manner deny his deity? CHAPTER XXVI. Where they say that the Father revealed the Son. If they say to you: For this reason the Son is lesser, because the Father revealed him to men. Reply. In the mystery of this revelation the Father and the Son are one:

because, just as the Father reveals the Son, so the Son is taught to have revealed the Father, by equal divinity of nature mutually, to the world and to men, the Lord himself testifying in the Gospel: 'No one knoweth the Son but the Father; neither doth any one know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him' (Luke 10:22). And again: 'I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known' (John 17:26). And that he might teach that he revealed himself to men, he testified this through Isaiah, saying: 'I appeared openly to those who sought me not; I was found by those who asked not for me' (Isa. 65:1). And in the Apocalypse: 'If anyone shall open the door to me, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and will manifest myself to him' (Rev. 3:20). And again:

'This was now the third time that Jesus manifested himself to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias, after he was risen from the dead' (John 21:14). For he who revealed the Father, and testified that he manifested himself in many ways, cannot be called lesser. CHAPTER XXVII. How it is to be understood that the Father delivered up the Son. If they say to you that the Father delivered up the Son. Reply. The Son, voluntarily fulfilling the dispensation of the flesh he had assumed, deigned to teach his faithful through the Apostle, with a clear voice of attestation, that he delivered up himself for us, the Apostle himself testifying: 'Grace to you,' he says, 'and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins' (Gal. 1:3-4). And again:

'But in that I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me' (Gal. 2:20). And to the Ephesians: 'Be therefore imitators of God, as most dear children; and walk in charity, as Christ also loved us, and delivered himself for us' (Eph. 5:1-2). Likewise there: 'Love your wives, as Christ loved his Church, and delivered himself up for it' (ibid., 25). And to Timothy: 'For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a redemption for many' (1 Tim. 2:5-6). And to the Hebrews:

'For if the blood of goats and the ashes of a heifer being sprinkled sanctify unto the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Holy Spirit offered himself unspotted to God?' (Heb. 9:13-14). Likewise there: 'Having therefore, brethren, confidence in the entering into the holies by the blood of Jesus, who hath dedicated for us a new way and a way through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, offering himself for us' (Heb. 10:19-20). And in the Epistle of John: 'In this we have known the charity of him, because he laid down his life for us' (1 John 3:16). And in Isaiah: 'Sanctify him who delivered up his soul for us' (Isa. 53:12). Likewise there: 'He was offered because he himself willed it' (ibid., 7). And in Jeremiah:

'I have given up my beloved soul into the hands of his enemies' (Jer. 12:7). Likewise the Apostle: 'For this he did once, offering himself' (Heb. 7:27). And again: 'We know that the Son of God came, and put on flesh, and suffered.' And Peter the apostle: 'Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his footsteps' (1 Pet. 2:21). And in Solomon: 'I will penetrate the lower parts of the earth, and I will look upon all those who sleep, and I will enlighten those who hope in him' (Sir. 24:45). And the Lord himself in the Gospel: 'I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it again: no one taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself' (John

10:18). He therefore who delivered up himself, and laid down his soul by his own power and took it up again, cannot be called lesser. CHAPTER XXVIII. Concerning that which the Son says to the Father: 'Let this cup pass from me: yet not as I will, but as thou wilt.' If they object to you that the Son said to the Father: 'Let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as thou wilt.' Reply. But that the Son may be taught to have drunk voluntarily the cup of his passion, learn from these testimonies, if it does not weary you, he himself singing in the Psalms: 'What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that he hath rendered to me? I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord' (Ps. 115:12-13).

For this saying cannot be made to fit a prophet, or any other person, who in the following verse called himself a servant, and named himself the son of a handmaid: 'O Lord,' he says, 'I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid' (Ps. 115:16). And in the Gospel he says to his disciples: 'With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you' (Luke 22:15). Likewise to the two sons of Zebedee, John and James, he said: 'Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized?' (Mark 10:38). Attend diligently: he said 'that I am about to drink,' precisely so that it might not be said that he did this by another's command and not of his own will. And to the apostle Peter he says: 'Thou savorest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men' (Matt. 16:23).

'The cup which my Father hath given me, dost thou not wish that I should drink it?' (John 18:11). Therefore this cup, had the Lord not drunk it willingly, he would surely not have desired it so as to come to it; but because he drank that same cup willingly, for that reason he neither trembled nor refused. CHAPTER XXIX. Where the Son is said to have entreated the Father. If they say to you: For this reason the Son is lesser, because he is said to have entreated the Father. Response. If he who entreats is lesser than him whom he entreats, then God, who through the prophet is recorded to have entreated his own people, is proved inferior to that people. As the prophet Micah says: 'O my people, what have I done to thee, or in what have I been troublesome to thee? Answer me.' (Mic. 6:3).

'Because I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee out of the house of bondage, and sent before thy face Moses, Aaron, and Miriam at thy setting forth. O my people, remember, I pray, what Balak king of the Moabites devised against thee, and what Balaam the prophet, son of Beor, answered him, from Shittim' (Mic. 6:4-5). But that the Lord might make plain on whose behalf he had more often pleaded with the Father, he attests in the Gospel, saying: 'Holy Father, I pray not for these only,' that is, for the disciples, 'but for those also who through their word shall believe in me' (John 17:20). And again: 'Holy Father, keep them in thy name' (John 17:11). For when that leper had said to him:

'Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,' the Son did not wait to entreat the Father that the sick man might be healed, but bestowing his own medicine of his own will, he cured him by a mere touch, in whom he found only such faith as that he might be cured, saying to him: 'I will: be thou made clean' (Matt. 8:3). Likewise, when the blind men pleaded with him on account of the darkness of their sight, that they might receive vision, he did not defer the cure to the authority of a greater Father, but according to the merit of their faith he led the extinguished eyes, long covered by ruinous darkness, by his own spontaneous will into the light of his own knowledge, saying to them: 'According to your faith be it unto you' (Matt. 9:29).

Even the demon, whose name was Legion because of the multitude associated with it, he cast out without entreating the Father, but put to flight by commanding with his own power; and being entreated by them, he permitted them to go into the swine (Mark 5:9). Likewise, announcing with imperial voice to the deaf and dumb spirit, the moment it heard, it departed; and he does not say, 'I entreat the Father that thou come out,' but, 'I command thee that thou depart': 'Thou deaf and dumb spirit,' he says, 'I command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him' (Mark 9:25). Hear further the one who said, 'I pray,' how he speaks, commanding as it were to the Father, in another place in the Gospel: 'Father, I will that where I am, these also may be with me' (John 17:24).

The Son, then, who as a man appointed on behalf of those who believe in him, as was already said before, entreated the Father. But would he ever entreat the Father on his own behalf? By no means did he have cause to, since there was in him no weak or infirm person who might deserve to receive healing through supplication; for if the Son were lesser than the Father, as you contend, he would surely not say such things, since he who says 'I will' to a greater cannot be inferior. CHAPTER XXX. The Father is said to have exalted the Son, and to have given him a name above every name. But if they say that the Father exalted his Son, and gave him a name which is above every name. Response.

For he who, according to the sequence of Holy Scripture, is taught to have exalted himself, is in nothing judged inferior to the Father, as we have so often said. The prophet sings in the one hundred and ninth psalm (v. 7): 'He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up his head.' And in the ninth psalm (v. 33) the Church says of the same one: 'Arise, O Lord, let thy hand be exalted.' And in the forty-fifth psalm (v. 11), through the prophet the same Lord proclaims and says: 'I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.' Isaiah too, testifying to like things, speaks, saying: 'And the lofty eyes shall be humbled, and shall fall, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day' (Isa. 2:11).

The Son, therefore, in the nature of his deity, is not read to have been exalted by the Father; rather, he who, having taken flesh from the Virgin's womb, appeared born as God and man, was exalted and received the name above every name. CHAPTER XXXI. When they say that the Son was raised from the dead by the Father. But if they add that the Father raised his Son from the dead. Response. Just as in the preceding argument we taught that the Son was exalted by himself, so now also we shall teach that he was raised from the dead by himself, as David confirms in the third psalm (v. 6): 'I laid me down and slept, for the Lord sustained me.' Attend diligently, because he said 'I arose,' and did not say, 'I slept and appeared, raised up by another.'

And in Jeremiah: 'I will fill the hungering soul, and the hungering soul I will satisfy: for this I arose, and my sleep was made sweet to me' (Jer. 31:25-26). And in the Acts of the Apostles: 'In the day on which the apostle chose, through the Holy Spirit, to preach the Gospel, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, appearing to them in many proofs and teaching concerning the kingdom of God' (Acts 1:2-3). And the prophet Amos says: 'He who establisheth his ascension above the heavens, and hath confirmed his promise upon the earth' (Amos 9:6). And the Apostle: 'Christ rising from the dead now dieth no more; death shall no more have dominion over him' (Rom. 6:9). Likewise he himself:

'For I delivered unto you first of all that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures' (1 Cor. 15:3). And to Timothy: 'Be mindful that Christ Jesus rose again from the dead, of the seed of David' (2 Tim. 2:8); and in psalm 138 (v. 18): 'I arose, and am still with thee.' And in the Gospel: 'The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to them' (Luke 24:34). And the angels to the women: 'He is not here, for he is risen, as he said' (Matt. 28:6). And the Lord himself: 'Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of sinful men; and they shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and crucified, and the third day he shall rise again' (Matt. 20:18-19). And again: 'I am the resurrection and the life' (John 11:25).

He who raised man up from the dead, and thoroughly taught that he himself is the resurrection of life, lacks not the power of deity. CHAPTER XXXII. Where they say that the Son went forth not 'from' (de) God but 'out of' (ex) God. If they say to you: that the Son is therefore lesser, because he proved himself to be not 'from' God but 'out of' God. Response. For whether the Son is said to have gone forth 'out of' God or 'from' God, no detriment can come to his ineffable deity, since he himself attests in the Gospel: 'I came forth from God the Father, and am come' (John 16:27). And in the Epistle of John the apostle: 'Whosoever is born of God,' he says, 'sinneth not' (1 John 3:9). And in the Gospel the Pharisees, questioning, said: 'Rabbi, we know that thou art come from God a teacher:'

'No one can do these signs that thou doest, unless God be with him' (John 3:2). Acknowledge, then, that he who confesses himself to have gone forth 'from' God—and not 'out of' God, as you slanderously allege—is neither judged inferior, nor separated from the equality of the paternal power. CHAPTER XXXIII. That none is good save God alone. If they object against you that the Son himself said: 'Why callest thou me good? None is good, save one God' (Mark 10:18). Response. Who would judge him evil, who pronounces himself the good shepherd? Or who would affirm that he is unequal to the Father, who demonstrates that he is one with the Father? 'I am,' he says, 'the good shepherd' (John 10:11). And David, in the person of the Father intimating the Son, in the forty-fourth psalm says: 'My heart hath uttered a good word' (Ps. 45:1).

And Jeremiah: 'The Lord is good to them that wait for him, and in the day of tribulation he shall acknowledge those who fear him' (Lam. 3:25). And the Lord himself: 'Is thine eye evil, because I am good?' (Matt. 20:15). And in the one hundred and eighteenth psalm (v. 68): 'Thou art good, O Lord, and in thy goodness teach me thy justifications.' And the Apostle: 'For we are a good odor of Christ, among those who are saved, and among those who perish' (2 Cor. 2:15). You see, then, that he lacks not goodness, who contains in himself all the fullness of divinity. CHAPTER XXXIV. This is explained which is said in the Apostle: 'That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' If they say that which the same Son said:

'That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent' (John 17:3). Response. That the Son is true, even as the Father is, we prove by prophetic and evangelical utterances. Isaiah says: 'But to those who serve me a new name shall be given, which shall be blessed upon the earth, and they shall bless the true God, and those who swear upon the earth shall swear by the true God' (Isa. 65:15-16). And in Solomon: 'Those whom they thought to be gods, by whom they shall be destroyed, seeing him whom they once denied, they acknowledged to be the true God' (Wis. 12:27). And in the psalm: 'Truth is sprung out of the earth, and justice hath looked down from heaven' (Ps. 85:12). And the Lord in the Gospel: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' (John 14:6). And there to the Father:

'Thy word is truth' (John 17:17). And in the Epistle of John the apostle: 'We know,' he says, 'that the Son of God is come, and hath given us understanding, that we may know him that is true, and may be in his true Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and life eternal' (1 John 5:20). From this, therefore, you ought to acknowledge the unity of the Father and the Son, since just as the Father, so also the Son, divine Scripture does not cease to proclaim true God. CHAPTER XXXV. Where it is said: 'Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance.' If they object against you what is said in the psalm: 'Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and thy possession the ends of the earth' (Ps. 2:8). Response.

Since all things visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, came forth from the Son before they existed, show what inheritance you say the Son received by asking the Father for it, when he himself says in the Gospel: 'All mine are thine, and thine are mine' (John 17:10). In the book also in which the history of Esther is contained, we find it thus written: 'I have heard,' she says, 'in my books, O Lord, that thou didst take to thyself Israel out of all the nations for an everlasting inheritance' (Esther 14:5). Is it not said in the eighty-eighth psalm (v. 12): 'Thine are the heavens, and thine is the earth; the world and the fullness thereof thou hast founded'?

Is it not said of him in the thirty-second psalm (v. 12): 'The people whom the Lord hath chosen for his inheritance'? Did he not himself say in the forty-ninth psalm (v. 10): 'Mine are all the beasts of the forest, the cattle on the mountains and the oxen; I know all the fowls of the air, and the beauty of the field is with me: if I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the whole world is mine, and the fullness thereof' (Ps. 50:10-12). Is it not said of him in the seventy-first psalm (v. 8): 'He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth' (Ps. 72:8)? Therefore, since the Son has marked by prophetic announcement that all these things are his own, do you now show what other inheritance the Son could have received by asking the Father. CHAPTER XXXVI.

Where it is said that the Father sanctified the Son. If they object to you that in the Gospel the Son said of himself: 'Whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into this world' (John 10:36). Response. In the sanctification of the deity, the Father and the Son are one, which is also proved by the testimony of the Apostle: 'For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified,' he says, 'are all of one' (Heb. 2:11). That we may teach the Son to have been sanctified by himself, let us bring forward his own testimony from the Gospel; he says: 'I have sent them into this world, and for them I sanctify myself' (John 17:18-19). And again, in the forty-fifth psalm (v. 5), concerning the sanctification of the temple of his body, it sings and says: 'The Most High hath sanctified his own tabernacle;'

'God is in the midst of it, it shall not be moved' (Ps. 46:5). And that I may thoroughly teach this sanctification to be a common work of the Trinity, I bring forward in this defense the sentence of the Apostle: 'And such indeed some of you were,' he says, 'but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor. 6:11). Look back at last, you who maintain these things, since he who sanctified himself had no need of another's sanctification. CHAPTER XXXVII. Where it is said: 'The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.' But if they object to you that which is said: 'The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand' (Ps. 110:1); or that of the Apostle: 'Setting him at his own right hand' (Eph. 1:20).

Response. Acknowledge the truth, that the Son sat at the right hand of the Father not by another's command, but by his own power, from these testimonies founded upon divine authority, as the apostle Paul proclaims: 'Bearing also all things by the word of his power, having made by himself a purgation of sins, he sat at the right hand of the majesty on high' (Heb. 1:3). And again: 'For Jesus is not entered into the holy places made with hands'—which is an allegory of words—'but into heaven itself, that he may appear at the right hand of God' (Heb. 9:24). And again: 'Let us run to the prize of the contest set before us, looking unto the prince of faith, its perfecter, the Lord, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame of the cross, and sitteth at the right hand of the throne' (Heb. 12:1-2).