Works 5 part 5/10

But may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, and our Father, who has loved us (2 Thess. II, 16). And in the Apocalypse: 'And I saw, and behold, the Lamb stood upon mount Sion, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father' (Rev. XIV, 1). And in the Epistle of John: 'He who denies the Son, neither has the Father. He who confesses the Son, has both the Son and the Father' (1 John II, 23). Likewise there: 'But if you abide in the word, you also shall abide in the Son and in the Father' (Ibid., 24). Likewise the Apostle: 'But know this, understanding that no fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous man, which is the service of idols, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God' (Eph. V, 5).

Behold, we have shown the Son named in the first place from the Father. Hear also the Holy Spirit set in the first place before the Father and the Son. The same to the Ephesians: 'One body, and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all' (Eph. IV, 4). Surely, because the apostles said: 'We are witnesses, and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who believe in him' (Acts V, 32), are the apostles for that reason to be called prior to the Holy Spirit?

Or because the Lord in the Gospel named water first before the Holy Spirit, when he intimated to Nicodemus the ruler of the Jews the mystery of the sacrament of baptism, is water for this reason recognized to be preferred to the Holy Spirit? 'Unless one,' he says, 'be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God' (John III, 5). And surely there is no one among human things who could make water surpass the Holy Spirit, or judge it equal to the Spirit, since we most certainly know that the Holy Spirit is not purified by water, but water is purified by the Holy Spirit. CHAPTER L. Where they say: No one comes to the Father except through me. If they shall say that the Lord in the Gospel said: 'No one comes to the Father except through me' (John XIV, 6). Response.

In the grace of faith there is one calling for the Father and the Son, since just as through the Son we are led to the Father, so through the Father we are drawn into the knowledge of the Son, the Lord himself testifying in the Gospel: 'Murmur not among yourselves: no one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draw him to me' (John VI, 44). And Paul to the Thessalonians: 'But we,' he says, 'ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of God, because God has chosen us from the beginning of the world unto salvation, in sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth, whereunto he called us by our Gospel, unto the adoption of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thess. II, 13). Likewise there:

We always pray for you, that our God may direct you by his calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith in power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him (2 Thess. I, 11). And again: 'That you may walk worthily of God, who has called you into his kingdom and glory' (1 Thess. II, 12). And to Timothy: 'For this is good and acceptable before God our Saviour, who wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth' (1 Tim. II, 3). Likewise there: 'But God is faithful, who has called us into this grace in which we stand, and we glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God' (Rom. V, 2). Likewise there:

Strengthened according to the might of his glory, in all patience and longsuffering, with joy giving thanks to God and the Father, who has called us into the fellowship of the lot of the saints (Col. I, 11). If through the Father we are called in the grace of his Son and in the adoption of sons, that we may truly be able to be sons, and we come to the Father through the Son, what distance can be proved among them? since those whom the Father calls, the Son will receive, and those whom the Son calls, that the Father can in like manner receive, no one but an unbeliever denies or refutes. CHAPTER LI. Where they say that sacrifice is offered to the Father alone. But if they shall say, in this the Father is held to be greater than the Son, because to him alone is sacrifice offered. Response.

That a fitting and suitable answer may be given by us to your vain proposition, without any subtlety or composition of words: just as to the Father, so also to the Son, not only in Christian times, but even by the priests of former time, in many and various ways, we prove that sacrifice has been offered, the prophet Daniel saying: 'There is no place,' say the three children, 'to sacrifice to your name, and to find mercy; but in a contrite soul and a humble spirit may we be received; as in the holocaust of rams and bulls, and the multitude of fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be in your sight this day, that it may please you' (Dan. III, 38).

And that you may recognize it was the Son to whom these three children confessed they offered sacrifice; learn from the confession of that very king and tyrant, who had commanded them to be cast into the furnace of fire, who declared that he had seen a fourth joined with the three in the very burning blaze of the furnace: 'Did we not,' he says, 'cast three men bound into the furnace?' And they said to him: 'Truly, O king.' And he said: 'Behold, I see four men loosed and walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no corruption in them, and the appearance of the fourth is like the Son of God' (Ibid., 91, 92). Likewise the Son of God speaks through the prophet, saying:

From the rising of the sun even to its setting, sacrifice is offered to my name, and a pure oblation, for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord (Mal. I, 11). And David in the Psalms says: 'In your temple, O Jerusalem, kings shall offer you gifts' (Ps. LXVII, 30). And that he might teach that he said these things concerning the Son of God, he speaks in another psalm, saying: 'The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer gifts, the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring presents, and all the kings of the earth shall adore him, all nations shall serve him' (Ps. LXXI, 10). And that we may teach all these things designated above to have been offered to the Son of God by the Father, we prove them to have been fulfilled in the nativity of the same Son of God which took place according to the flesh, the Gospel confirming it:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the East came to Jerusalem, saying: 'Where is he who is born king of the Jews?' (Matt. II, 1). And below: 'And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him, and opening their treasures they offered him gifts' (Matt. II, 11). The sacrifice therefore which is brought by Christians to the sacred altars is offered with common devotion not only to God the Father, but also to the Son, since it can neither be offered to the Father without the Son, nor be sanctified by the Son without the Father. CHAPTER LII. Where they say that the Son had no work in common with the Father. If they shall say that the Son had no work of communion with the Father. Response.

But that the Father and the Son have a common work, we are taught in this way: The forming of the first man after the image of God is reported to have been made by the power of a common operation, the Scripture saying: 'Let us make man after our image and likeness' (Gen. I, 26). Likewise there: 'Let us make him a helper like himself' (Gen. II, 18). Likewise there: 'Let us go down and confound their tongues' (Gen. XI, 7). And, 'The Lord rained from heaven fire and brimstone upon Sodom' (Gen. XIX, 24). And in the Gospel: 'My Father works until now, and I work' (John V, 17). Likewise there: 'The Father abiding in me does these works.' And, 'Whatsoever things the Father does, the same the Son does likewise' (Ibid., 19), and so forth.

The things which I do are not mine, but his who sent me, the Father (John VIII, 28). And, 'I and the Father will come to him, and make our abode with him' (John XIV, 23). All which things present, not a separate power of the Father and the Son, but announce one operation of the deity: and he who carries out the Father's work is not believed to be a stranger to the Father's works. CHAPTER LIII. Where they say that the Father alone is called the Most High. For if they oppose that prophetic testimony concerning the Father alone, by which it was said: 'Let the nations know that your name is the Lord, you alone are the Most High over all the earth' (Ps. LXXXII, 19). Response.

But if from the Gospel you would recognize the Son of God called the Most High, you would never, disparaging the Son, put forward this testimony as said of the Father alone, since it is written: 'You, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High' (Luke I, 76). But that the Son may be believed to have dwelt with the Father indistinguishably in the highest places, it is proved by the testimony of Solomon: 'I, wisdom,' he says, 'dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in the pillar of cloud' (Sir. XXIV, 7). And in the ninety-first psalm (verse 9): 'But you, O Most High, are for ever, Lord, for behold, your enemies shall perish.' For when the devil wished to set his throne in the highest places against the throne of his Creator, lifted up with pride, he was seen to utter these things with impious mouth:

I will set my seat toward the north, he says, I will ascend above the stars of heaven, I will sit upon the high mountains, and I will be like the Most High (Isa. XIV, 13). Likewise there in Solomon: 'Do not say, I have sinned, and what sad thing has befallen me? for the Most High is a patient requiter' (Sir. V, 4). If you will not lend the hearing of your heart to the divine Scriptures, which teach that the Son is called the Most High, at least believe the devil, who wished to set a seat for himself against the throne of his Maker. CHAPTER LIV. Where they say that the Son called himself the beginning. But if they shall say that the Son had a beginning from the Father, in that, when the Jews questioned him, 'Who are you?' he answered, 'The beginning, which I also speak to you' (John VIII, 25). Response.

The apostle Paul, writing that the Son of God can have neither beginning of days nor end of life, in the Epistle which is entitled with the name of the Hebrews, sets it forth in this way, saying: 'This Melchizedek, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to whom Abraham divided tithes of all: first indeed being interpreted king of righteousness, then also king of Salem, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life: but made like the Son of God' (Heb. VII, 1). And in Isaiah: 'In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, for his life shall be taken from the earth; but who shall declare his generation?' (Isa. LIII, 8). And in the Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John I, 1). In this, therefore, consider what is said, 'was': it shows the Son ever abiding in the Father, of whom no mortal can investigate either beginning or end. CHAPTER LV. Where it is said: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? If they shall say to you, For this reason the Son is lesser, because he, hanging on the cross, said: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Matt. XXVII, 46). Response. That you may recognize that the Son was not utterly forsaken by the Father, as you vainly suspect, he set down this testimony concerning himself in the Gospel: 'My Father,' he says, 'is with me; he will not leave me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him' (John VIII, 29).

And again: 'I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me' (Ibid., 16). And again: 'Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?' (John XIV, 10). And the Apostle: 'God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself' (2 Cor. V, 19). And in the Acts of the Apostles: 'He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him' (Acts X, 38). And Habakkuk: 'You went forth, O Lord God, for the salvation of your people, with your Christ' (Hab. III, 13). And the prophet: 'He who begot me rested in my tabernacle' (Sir. XXIV, 12). From this, O unhappy ones, recognize that he who, while yet remaining in our mortal flesh, never departed from the Father, certainly cannot be called lesser than the Father.

CHAPTER LVI. Where they say that the Apostle testifies that he did not know Christ according to the flesh. If they object to you that the Apostle says concerning Christ: 'If we knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no more' (2 Cor. V, 16). Response. You do not perceive, O wretched ones, that in proposing such things you follow utterly the error of the Manichaeans, since, like them, so also you strive to empty the sacrament of the flesh he assumed, so that after the resurrection from the dead you may believe no token of humanity to have remained in him: not considering him, after that venerable passion, rebuking the disciples with this voice: 'Why are you troubled, and thoughts arise in your hearts?'

Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me to have (Luke XXIV, 39). And again: 'When therefore it was late that same first day of the week, and the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and said to them: Peace be to you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side: the disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord' (John XX, 19). And again: 'After eight days the disciples were within, and Thomas with them; Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst of them, and said to them: Peace be to you. Then he says to Thomas:'

Put your finger here, and see my hands, and reach hither your hand and put it into my side, and be not unbelieving, but believing (Ibid., 26). And again: 'Now this being done, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not recognize that it was Jesus: Jesus therefore said to them: Children, have you any meat? But they offered him part of a broiled fish and a honeycomb. And when he had eaten before them, taking the remainder he gave it to them' (John XXI, 4). And in the Apocalypse: 'And every eye shall see him, even they who crucified him, and they shall bewail themselves over him' (Rev. I, 7). And in the Acts of the Apostles: 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?'

This Jesus who was taken up from you, shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven (Acts I, 11). Likewise there: 'He gave him to be made manifest to us witnesses, who were foreordained by God, who ate and drank with him and conversed for forty days after he rose from the dead' (Acts X, 40). Do you observe that he who for forty days, going in and going out with the disciples, conversed with them, ate, and taking the remainder handed it to them with a blessing, and showing the scars and wounds in his true body, delivered his disciple from the vice of unbelief: that he truly rose again in the flesh, none but the Manichaean and your sect refuses to accept. CHAPTER LVII.

Where they say that the Son will descend from heaven at the command and voice of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God. If they object to you that which the Apostle said: 'For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven at the command of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God' (1 Thess. IV, 16). Response. Does it seem fair to you that he, to whom, while yet placed in the flesh before his passion, the angels rendered service, should, coming from heaven to judgment, be compelled by the command of angels? Far be it, for he will come by his own power, that he may grant to the just their reward, and to the unjust, with the devil whom they followed, eternal punishment, he himself testifying in the Gospel:

When the Son of man shall come in his majesty, then he shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals, and those who work iniquity, and he shall send them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. XIII, 41). And again: 'Then they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with great power and glory, then he shall send his angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from the highest of the earth even to the highest of heaven' (Matt. XXIV, 30). And again: 'When the Son of man shall come, and all the',

angels with him, then he shall sit upon the seat of his majesty, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the lambs from the kids, and he shall set the lambs on his right hand, but the kids on his left (Matt. XXV, 31). And the Apostle: 'For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed' (1 Cor. XV, 52). And Isaiah: 'Behold, the Lord himself shall come to judgment with his elders and princes, to render vengeance in wrath, in a flame of fire' (Isa. III, 14). From these things at last you ought to recognize that he who directs the angels against the nations to be gathered to judgment, surely cannot come at the command of archangels. CHAPTER LVIII. Where they say that the Father alone is adored by the faithful.

But if they shall say: In this the Son is not made equal to the Father, because the Father alone is adored by the faithful. Reply. If, amid the raging of unbelief, you had not lost the eyes of your mind, you would without doubt acknowledge that just as the Son is adored in the Father, so the Father is adored in the Son, as the prophet Isaiah declares: 'Thus saith the Lord God of Sabaoth: Egypt hath laboured, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall pass over to thee, and shall be thine; they shall follow after thee bound in fetters, and they shall adore thee, and shall make supplication to thee' (Isaiah XLV, 14). And in the Apocalypse: 'And the four and twenty elders, falling down before the throne, adored him that liveth for ever and ever' (Apoc. IV, 14). Likewise there:

'And I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the eternal Gospel, to preach unto them that sit upon the earth, saying with a loud voice: Fear God, and give him honour, because the hour of his judgment is come; adore him that made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of waters' (Apoc. XIV, 6). And in the seventy-first psalm (verse 11): 'And all the ends of the earth shall adore him; all the nations shall serve him.' And in the sixty-fifth (verse 4): 'Let all the earth adore thee, and sing to thee.' And in the Gospel: 'They found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him' (Matthew II, 11). And Esdras:

'Thou, O Lord, art God alone; thou hast made heaven, and the heaven of heavens, and all their host, the earth and all things that are in it, the sea and all that is therein, and thou givest life to all things, and the hosts of heaven adore thee' (II Esdras II, 6). For he who is adored as the Father, and is laden with divine honour—who can say that he cannot be made equal to the Father? CHAPTER LIX. Where they say that the Son gave thanks to the Father. But if they shall say to you: For this reason the Son is lesser, because he himself is recorded to have given thanks to the Father, through whom the disciples returned thanks. Reply. Just as the Son, in the form of the man he assumed, gave thanks for us, so the Father caused the fragrance of his Son and of the knowledge of him to be made known in every place through the apostles, as Paul says:

'Thanks be to God, who always maketh us to triumph in Christ, and manifesteth the odour of his knowledge by us in every place; for we are the good odour of Christ unto God, in them that are saved and in them that perish' (II Cor. II, 14). For that the grace of the Father and of the Son is one and the same, by which the same Apostle teaches that we have been set free, he intimates in this manner, saying: 'For all have sinned, and do need the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus' (Rom. III, 23). And again: 'For if by the offence of one many died, much more the grace of God, and the gift, by the grace of one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many' (Rom. V, 15). And again:

'The wages of sin is death; but the grace of God is life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Rom. VI, 23). And again: 'Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom. VII, 24, 25). For also to the Father, save for the name of the Son, the disciples often returned thanks. If you are willing to consider the discussion which we set forth above on this matter, you will acknowledge it without any ambiguity. CHAPTER LX. Where they say that the Son was appointed king by the Father on Mount Zion. If they shall object to you that through the prophet the Son said: 'But I am appointed king by him over Zion his holy mountain' (Psalm II, 6). Reply.

The Son, in that he is the Word of the Father, and is God abiding in God, by nature holds dominion of the kingdom together with the Father. But in that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, we also read that he was appointed king, and made a little less than the angels, as the Psalmist says: 'What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little less than the angels; thou hast crowned him with glory and honour, and hast set him over the works of thy hands' (Psalm VIII, 5, 7). For if with a right sense of understanding you search the Gospel Scriptures, you will find that the Son was not appointed king by the Father, but born, as the Evangelist says:

'When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Judah, in the city of David, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying: Where is he that is born king of the Jews?' (Matthew II, 1, 2). And when Pilate said to him: 'Art thou the king of the Jews?' he answered him: 'For this was I born'; and, 'My kingdom, if it were of this world, my servants would surely strive for me, that I should not be delivered to the Jews' (John XVIII, 36, 37). For, as you yourselves grant, the Son then in death obtained the power of the kingdom: therefore before the Son was appointed king by the Father, he had no dignity of fellowship in the kingdom in the bosom of the Father.

If it be so, how is it that the prophet signifies that he was king before the ages, whom he proclaims by prophetic foreknowledge to be at least about to work salvation in the flesh in the midst of the earth: 'But God our king,' he says, 'hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth' (Psalm LXXIII, 12)? For here he was appointed king by God the Father, who, being God, deigned to be born of a Virgin as man for us: for he who together with the Father stands established everywhere, in what regions of the earth could he be appointed king, who is known by nature to rule over heaven, earth, and the depths? CHAPTER LXI. Where they say that the Son is inferior to the Father both in power and in nature. But if they shall say of the Son that, just as he is inferior in nature, so he is also inferior in power. Reply.

The Son is not inferior in nature to the Father, because he was born God of God, perfect of perfect, and whole of whole; he did not proceed begotten unequal from the begetter, but came forth utterly co-equal, born of the paternal womb, so that he both possesses the fullness of the Father's equality and nonetheless obtains omnipotence from the Omnipotent, as the Apostle Paul testifies: 'Who, being established in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant' (Philippians II, 6). For that he is omnipotent as the Father is, we prove not by words of human wisdom, but by divine documents, the prophet Zechariah saying: 'Thus saith the Lord Almighty:'

After the glory he hath sent me to the nations that have plundered you; for he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye: for behold, I lift up my hand upon them that have plundered you, and they shall be a prey to those that served them; and you shall know that the Lord God Almighty hath sent me' (Zech. II, 8). Behold, the Almighty is sent by the Almighty. What inequality is proved between the sender and the one sent? But if these things still seem of little weight to your folly, learn the omnipotence of him who is sent from what follows, which you now seem to me to be ignorant of, the Apocalypse saying: 'I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty' (Apoc. I, 8). And David in the Psalms:

'I have laid help upon one that is mighty' (Psalm LXXXVIII, 20). And again: 'Thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee' (ibid., 9). And so now it is fitting that, like a perverse teacher, you should show what distance there can be in the omnipotence of the Father and of the Son. CHAPTER LXII. Where they say: The power of him who commands and of him who acts cannot be one. But if with your accustomed vanity they shall say to you that the Father and the Son cannot be one, because the power of him who commands and of him who acts cannot be one. Reply. Never indeed do we read in any place of divine Scripture that the Father said to the Son: 'Do what I command or enjoin thee,' so as to show the authority of one commanding; or that the Son replied:

'I do it,' so as nonetheless to confirm the role of one obeying or acting. But since by proposing these things too often we perceive less shame, those things which we remember to have already said above, and not a few, concerning the common working of the Father and the Son, we are now again compelled to instil into your dull minds—things which, as to a wise man, we had believed it enough to have said once. Listen therefore, and you will acknowledge that the work of the Father is the Son's, since we read that neither the Father wrought anything without the Son, nor the Son without the Father; as he himself testifies in the Gospel: 'My Father worketh until now, and I work' (John V, 17). And, 'The Father, abiding in me, doth the works' (John XIV, 10).

And, 'If you will not believe me, yet believe the works, that you may know that I am in the Father, and the Father in me' (John X, 38). And, 'I and the Father will come to him, and will make our abode with him' (John XIV, 23). And, 'Let us make man to our own image and likeness' (Gen. I, 26). And, 'Let us go down, and there confound their tongues' (Gen. XI, 7). Since from this you are not ignorant that the work of the Father and the Son is one, why do you contrive that the Father commands the Son, and show the Son acting or obeying? CHAPTER LXIII. Where they say that the Son is not co-eternal with the Father. If they shall say to you that the Son is not called eternal, as the Father is called eternal. Reply.