'In him my heart hath hoped, and I have been helped, and my flesh hath flourished again, and out of my own will I will confess to him' (Ps. XXVII, 7). And again: 'I will freely sacrifice to thee' (Ps. LIII, 8). And in Deuteronomy: 'Loving thee, I have done thy will.' And in the Apocalypse: 'Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power, because thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were, and have been created' (Apoc. IV, 11). And in the Catholic Epistles: 'Of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creature' (James I, 18). From these things assuredly which have been said above, you ought to recognize that he who says he has freely done the will of the Father cannot be inferior to him. CHAPTER IX.
When they say that God made the Lord and the Christ. If they oppose to you that which is written in the Acts of the Apostles: 'For God hath made him both Lord and Christ' (Acts II, 36). Reply. The Son is said to be made not according to the nature of his deity, but according to the form of the man he assumed. The divine words testify this concerning him, with the apostle Paul confirming it: 'which he had promised before,' he says, 'by his prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning his Son, who was made to him of the seed of David according to the flesh' (Rom. I, 2-3). Likewise he himself to the Galatians: 'But when the fulness of time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law' (Gal. IV, 4). And to the Philippians:
'Made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man' (Phil. II, 7). And in the thirtieth Psalm (verse 11): 'My strength was weakened through poverty, and my bones were troubled, and over my enemies I became a reproach.' Likewise there (verse 13): 'I was delivered to forgetfulness as one dead from the heart, and I became as a vessel that is destroyed.' And in the Psalm (LXX, 7): 'I became as a wonder to many, and thou art a strong helper.' And in the seventy-second Psalm (verse 23): 'I became as a beast before thee, and I am always with thee.' And in the eighty-sixth Psalm (verse 5): 'Mother Sion shall say, A man, and a man is made in her, and the Most High himself hath founded her.' And in the eighty-seventh (verse 7):
'I am become as a man without help, free among the dead' (Ps. LXXXVII, 5-6). And in the hundred and eighth (verse 25): 'And I became a reproach to them: they saw me, and they shook their heads.' And in the hundred and first (verse 8): 'I have watched, and become as a sparrow alone on the housetop.' And in the Gospel: 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us' (John I, 14). The Son therefore is said to be made according to the flesh; for according to the divinity he is never read to be made, but begotten. CHAPTER X. 'The things that I speak, even as the Father said to me, so I speak.' If they say to you that the Son said: 'The things that I speak, even as the Father said to me, so I speak' (John XII, 50). Reply.
For while the Father speaks, the Son speaks, and when the Son speaks, the Father speaks. That the Father speaks in him is confirmed by heavenly documents, with the apostle Paul attesting: 'God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all hath spoken to us by his Son' (Heb. I, 1-2). And that we may teach that the same Son spoke apart from any command of the Father, we bring forward a document from the volume of Isaiah the prophet. 'Thus says the Lord: In that day my people shall know that I am he that spoke in my servants the prophets; and as evangelists you shall hear by hearing—behold, here I am.' Likewise there: 'I am the Lord, who speak justice, and announce truth' (Isa. XLV, 19). Likewise there:
'I have thought and spoken, and I have brought to pass, and created, and made.' And the Apostle: 'Do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?' (2 Cor. XIII, 3). And in the hundred and eighteenth Psalm (verse 46): 'I spoke of thy testimonies in the sight of kings, and I was not confounded.' And the Lord himself in the Gospel, to the blind man whom he had enlightened, says: 'Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee' (John IX, 37). And to the Samaritan woman he says: 'I am he that speak with thee' (John IV, 26). And to the disciples: 'The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life' (John VI, 64). And to the Father: 'I come to thee: and these things I speak in this world' (John XVII, 13). And again he says to the Jews:
'I speak to you, and you hear not; but if another shall come, him you will hear' (John V, 43). And again: 'These things Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple, and no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come' (John VIII, 20). Behold, in all these things which have been said above, you do not teach that the Son spoke by the command of the Father, but rather that he exercised authority in speaking. CHAPTER XI. How the Son did the things that were made by the command of the Father. If they say to you that the Son made by the command of the Father the things that were made. Reply. Not, as you assert, that the Son made by the command of the Father the things that were made; but he created all things by his own authority and will, which by his providence he foresaw should be created;
as Isaiah the prophet says: 'Thus says the Lord: I made the earth by my word, and man upon it; I established the heaven with my hand, I commanded all the stars, that they should shine in heaven' (Isa. XLV, 12). Likewise there: 'All my counsel shall stand, and all whatsoever I have devised, I have done' (Isa. XLVI, 10). Likewise there: 'Thus says the Lord, who established the heaven and the earth, and made it, he himself appointed it' (Isa. XLV, 18). Likewise there: 'I am the first, and I am unto eternity; my hand founded the earth, and my right hand established the heaven' (Isa. XLVIII, 13). Likewise there: 'I made the earth in my great strength and in my exalted arm.' And in Jeremiah:
'The Lord who made the earth by his great power, and raised up the world in wisdom, and by his prudence stretched out the heavens, and set the sound of waters in heaven' (Jer. LI, 15-16). Likewise there: 'O Lord, who hast made heaven and earth by thy great power and thy exalted arm, who renderest the sins of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them' (Jer. XXXII, 17-18). And in Solomon: 'For thy hand was not powerless, which created the world out of unseen matter' (Wisd. XI, 18). And in the hundred and thirty-fourth Psalm (verse 6): 'Whatsoever the Lord pleased he hath done, in heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in all the deeps.' And in the hundred and thirteenth (verse 11): 'But our God is in heaven.' And again:
'In heaven and on earth, whatsoever he pleased he hath done' (Ps. CXIII, 11). And in the sixty-fourth (verse 7): 'Preparing the mountains in his strength, being girded with power.' He, then, who is described as having made all these things not by the command of the Father, but by his own power, how is he judged by you to be inferior to the Father? CHAPTER XII. That the Son is the Beginning. But if they say: There was a time before the Son was born of the Father, on the ground that he said to the Jews, 'The Beginning, who also speak unto you' (John VIII, 25). Reply. Recognize that the Son was born not from time, nor after the ages, but before all ages was ineffably generated from the paternal womb, as God the Father himself says through the prophet in the hundred and ninth Psalm (verse 3):
'In the splendours of the saints, from the womb before the day-star I begot thee' (Ps. CIX, 3). Which sentence Isaiah the prophet also clearly expressed to the doubting and unbelieving, while he showed the Son to be no otherwise ineffably born than the Father: 'In his humiliation,' he says, 'his judgment was taken away; but his generation, who shall declare?' (Isa. LIII, 8). And in the book of Job: 'Whence shall you find the wisdom of God the Father? For it is hidden from the eyes of men, and concealed from the birds of the air' (Job XXVIII, 20-21). Rouse yourself a little, and if you have any light of knowledge in yourself at all, attend and you will find that he whose nativity could not be declared by the prophet in time—as you yourself try to assert—could not be generated in time.
'In the beginning,' says John the evangelist, 'was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was made nothing' (John I, 1-3). And again: 'It was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world' (John I, 9). In that word, therefore, which is said, 'was,' if you wish to seek a time, you will not find it; since from when the Father is, from thence is the Son also; and what the Father is, the Son also is, as Solomon says: 'I came out of the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before all creatures; I made that in heaven there should arise a light that faileth not, and as a cloud I covered all the earth; I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne is in a pillar of cloud' (Ecclus. XXIV, 5-7).
'Alone I encompassed the circuit of heaven, and I penetrated into the depth of the abyss, and I stood in all the earth, and among every nation and people I held the chief place' (Sir. 24:5-9). Likewise there: 'When he prepared the heavens, I was present: and when with a certain law and compass he enclosed the depths, when above he established the clouds in the height: and when he poised the fountains of waters beneath the sky: when he set the strong foundations of the earth, I was with him forming all things: and I was she in whom he delighted, when he rejoiced over the world made perfect' (Prov. 8:27-31). And in the hundred and first Psalm (v. 26): 'Thou, O Lord, in the beginning didst found the earth: and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest: and they shall all grow old as a garment, and as a vesture thou shalt change them:'
'and they shall be changed. But thou art the selfsame.' For there was not, as you assert, any moment of time before the Son was born of the Father; since he who by his own power established all times could not be born from time or after times. CHAPTER XIII. That the Father gave judgment to the Son. But if they say that the Father gave to the Son the power of executing judgment. Reply. That the Son of God by his own power will execute judgment, let the prudent acknowledge from these testimonies; and pronouncing a just judgment in this matter, let them show with whose opinion they more reasonably agree, and whose true faith they impugn, the prophet Isaiah saying:
'Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor, or who hath consulted and instructed him, who hath shown him judgment?' (Isa. 40:13). Likewise there: 'Thus saith the Lord: Woe to the mighty in Israel, for my wrath hath not ceased against them; I will execute judgment upon my enemies, and I will burn them with fire unto purity' (Isa. 1:24). Likewise there: 'The Lord shall set his people in judgment, and the Lord himself shall come into judgment with the elders of the people and their princes' (Isa. 3:13). Likewise there: 'He put on righteousness and glory: he placed the helmet of salvation upon his head, and he covered himself with the garment of vengeance, that he might render retribution to his adversaries' (Isa. 59:17). Likewise there:
'For behold, the Lord shall come as a fire, and his chariots as a tempest, to render vengeance in wrath, and his rebuke in a flame of fire' (Isa. 66:15). And in the ninth Psalm (v. 8): 'He hath prepared his throne for judgment, and he shall judge the world in equity.' And in the hundred and second (v. 19): 'The Lord hath prepared his throne in heaven, and his kingdom shall rule over all.' And in the ninety-third (v. 1): 'The Lord is the God of vengeance; the God of vengeance hath acted freely.' And in the epistle of Jude the apostle: 'Behold, the Lord cometh with thousands to execute judgment, and to destroy all the ungodly, and to convict all flesh of all the works of their impiety' (Jude 14-15). And in the Gospel:
'When the Son of Man shall come in his majesty, and all his angels with him, then shall all nations be gathered before him, 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 the left' (Matt. 25:31). Therefore, as regards that which the Son is as God, we read that he received nothing from the Father, for we believe that abiding inseparably in the heart of the Father he possessed all things. But he received the power of executing judgment who, emptying himself, deigned to take the form of a servant. CHAPTER XIV. When they say that the Son had not the power to grant to two disciples a sitting on the right hand or on the left.
But if they say to you that the Son said to two disciples: 'You shall indeed drink of my cup, but to sit on my right hand or on my left is not mine to give to you' (Matt. 20:23). Reply. That the Son is of his own power we have already taught in the preceding discussion, and now, with his help, we shall teach, the Gospel testifying: 'Having called his twelve disciples, he gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity among the people' (Matt. 10:1). And again:
'Amen I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit with him upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel' (Matt. 19:28). And again: 'Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, and if you drink any poison, it shall not harm you' (Luke 10:19). And again: 'But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, to those who believe in his name' (John 1:12). And in the Apocalypse: 'To him that overcometh, I will grant to sit with me in my throne, as I also have overcome, and have sat with the Father in his throne' (Rev. 3:21). Likewise there:
'To him that overcometh, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God' (Rev. 2:7). He who gave to all his disciples the power of judging the twelve tribes, and permitted them to sit with him—did he not have the authority to grant to only two disciples that they should sit on his right hand or on his left? CHAPTER XV. Concerning that which is said: 'The Son cannot do anything of himself.' But if they object to you that the Son said: 'The Son cannot do anything of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing' (John 5:19). Reply. If you held the right faith, and did not by the perversity of false doctrine impugn the catholic faith, you would recognize that the Son did by his own power those things which we read the Father accomplished only through the Son.
Was it the Father who turned the element of water into wine? Was it the Father who went aboard the ship, or who commanded the winds and the waves to be still? Was it the Father who in the desert fed five thousand men from five loaves and two fishes? Was it the Father who walked upon the sea with his feet? Was it the Father who opened the eyes of the man born blind? Was it the Father who, before the princes of the Jews, restored the paralytic to his former health? Was it the Father who, in the presence of all who stood by in the temple, healed the man having a withered hand? Was it the Father who, while the crowds were unaware, healed by the power of his deity the woman suffering from an issue of blood? And many things more wondrous than these, which we believe our Lord Jesus to have done;
and by believing we come to know and confess that he who carries out the Father's work is not believed to be alien from the Father's works. CHAPTER XVI. Where they say that the Father and the Son are not one God. If they say: 'There is not one God; for by saying we are one, you show two, not one' (John 10:30). Reply. Apart from the incarnation of the Son, which was assumed by him for our redemption, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are called one God, and not divided into three—as you with sacrilegious mind strive to affirm—but in three persons and names there is proved one substance of deity, the prophet Zechariah saying: 'The Lord shall be king over all the earth, and in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one' (Zech.
14:9). This day which the prophet designates, there is no one who is ignorant that it is the day of the future judgment. Therefore I require of you that you yourself expound what this saying of the prophet means in itself. Who then shall be that king, who the one Lord, or who shall obtain the name of deity out of the three? If it is the Father, he alone is called one God. Therefore by that very title of deity are the Son and the Holy Spirit proved—God forbid—to have been alien from us, because it is written: 'In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one'? But if, as is indeed the case, the name of the Trinity is one, why do you persuade me to believe what I do not see the prophets and apostles to have preached?
For Malachi too intimated the Son alone, whom by prophetic announcement he designated as the one God, the creator of the human race, himself saying: 'Hath not one God created you? Is there not one Father of you all?' (Mal. 2:10). And in Deuteronomy: 'Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God is one God' (Deut. 6:4). And the Apostle: 'There is no God but one' (1 Cor. 8:4). And again: 'One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God' (Eph. 4:5). Or now consider that the one God is not divided. In three persons and names he is called one God, the Apostle testifying: 'Now there are diversities of gifts of graces,' he says, '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 worketh all in all' (1 Cor. 12:4-6). What then is it that you have in no way hesitated to take away from the Son? So that in that which he said, 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30), you nonetheless strive to introduce two gods different from one another in nature and in deity, and you do not fear to affirm it? being ignorant that when he says 'we are,' he distinguished the persons; he did not separate the substance of the deity, so that he might both destroy Sabellius who follows the doctrine of a single person, and in every way refute you Arians, who deny one God in the Trinity. CHAPTER XVII. The saying is explained: 'Father, glorify thy Son.'
But if they say that for this reason the Son is lesser, because the Father glorified him, on account of that which is written: 'Father, glorify thy Son' (John 17:1). Reply. Just as the Father is taught to have glorified his Son, so also the Son is described beforehand as having glorified the Father, the evangelist saying: 'Jesus answered and said: I have not a demon, but I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me' (John 8:49). And the Son himself to the Father: 'Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee' (John 17:1). And again: 'I have glorified thee upon the earth' (ibid., 4). And to the disciples: 'If you shall ask anything in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son' (John 14:13). And again:
'Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him' (John 13:31). And Isaiah: 'The Lord of Sabaoth shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy Lord shall be glorified in him' (Isa. 5:16). Acknowledge at last, O faithless one, that where there is one glorification of power, there intervenes no distinction of power. CHAPTER XVIII. Where they say that the Son properly did not see the Father. But if they say that the Son cannot properly see the Father, because it is written: 'No one hath ever seen God' (John 1:18). Reply.
Now therefore let us return to the very origin of the fountain, from which we may teach by clearer testimonies from the writings of the Old and New Testament that the Son could always see the Father, and can do so, Solomon saying: 'And with thee is wisdom, which knoweth thy works, which was present with thee when thou madest the world, and she knoweth what is pleasing to thine eyes' (Wisd. 9:9). And the Lord 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 likewise: 'No one hath ever seen God, except the only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him' (John 1:18). And again he says to the Jews: 'You know him not, but I know him:'
'but if I should say that I know him not, I should be like to you, a liar' (John 8:55). Likewise there: 'He that is of God knoweth him' (ibid., 47). And again: 'I know him, because I am from him.' Behold, we have taught that the Son always saw the Father. How do you maintain that he cannot see the Father? CHAPTER XIX. What it means that the Father bears witness to the Son. For if they say that the Son is lesser than the Father, because the Father bears witness. Reply. If with a clear mind you review the divine Scriptures, you will find not only the Father bearing witness to the Son, but the whole inseparable Trinity together, the Lord himself testifying: 'I am he who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me' (John
8:18). And again: 'If I bear witness of myself, my witness is true, for I know whence I come and whither I go' (John 8:14). And concerning the Holy Spirit: 'When that holy Paraclete shall come, the Spirit of truth, he shall bear witness of me' (John 15:26). Attend, I pray, attend, for in whom one power of testifying is shown, no one is judged either more powerful or inferior than another. CHAPTER XX. What it means that the Father is invisible, but the Son is visible. If they say to you concerning this, that the Father is greater, because he himself is called invisible, but the Son is proclaimed visible. Reply.
We have already said these things rather often, that according to the form of man the Son is called visible, but according to the substance of his deity he is proclaimed invisible. The apostle Paul preaching: 'O the depth,' he says, 'of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!' (Rom. 11:33). And in Isaiah: 'To whom have you likened the Lord, or to whom have you likened him, since he himself is invisible?' (Isa. 40:18). The Apostle says: 'But to me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to evangelize among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to enlighten all men, what is the dispensation of the mystery hidden from the ages in Christ, who created all things' (Eph. 3:8-9). Likewise he himself:
'Who is,' he says, 'the image of the invisible God.' And to the Colossians: 'I, Paul, a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings, and fill up those things that are wanting of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the Church, of which I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, the mystery of Christ, which was hidden from the ages and generations' (Col. 1:15, 24-26). Likewise there: 'That their hearts may be comforted in charity, unto all the riches of the fullness of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col. 2:2-3). And in the seventy-sixth Psalm (v. 20):
'Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths in many waters, and thy footsteps shall not be known.' And in Solomon: 'Who hath searched out the wisdom of God that goeth before all things?' (Sir. 1:5). Likewise there: 'The root of wisdom, to whom hath it been revealed, and who hath known her subtleties?' (ibid., 6). Likewise there: 'The discipline of wisdom, to whom hath it been made manifest, and who hath understood the manifoldness of her entrance?' (ibid., 7). Likewise there: 'For wondrous are the works of the Lord alone, both glorious and hidden, and his works are unseen by all' (Sir. 11:4). Behold, just as the Father is invisible, so also is the Son found to be. How is he, by you, in that which for our sake he deigned to be seen in the flesh, judged to be inferior to the Father? CHAPTER XXI.
How the saying is explained: 'I always do the things that are pleasing to him.' If they object to you that the Son said concerning the Father: 'I always do the things that are pleasing to him' (John 8:29). Reply. If you wish to reduce this to the subservience of the Son, so that you may say that he is subject to the Father, you nonetheless pronounce the like judgment concerning the Father, who in the holy Scriptures is taught to have rendered obedience to the Son even in this manner, the prophet Isaiah saying: 'Thus saith the Lord to my Christ, my Lord, whose right hand I have held, and I will make all nations obey before him' (Isa. 45:1). Likewise there: 'I will go before him, and I will make the mountains level, and I will open before him the gates, and the cities shall not be shut' (ibid., 2). Likewise there:
'I have called and brought him, and I have made his way prosperous' (Isa. 48:15, 17). And in the hundred and thirty-first Psalm: 'I have prepared a lamp for my Christ; his enemies I will clothe with confusion.' And in the Gospel: 'Behold, I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee' (Mark 1:2). And in Habakkuk: 'The Lord went forth for the salvation of his people, with his Christ' (Hab. 3:13). In all these, then, does not the Father seem to you to have rendered obedience to the Son? On account of which it is even wicked to say that the Father can be subject to the Son: because the paternal divinity, neither by giving to the Son what is his own ever diminished itself, nor by receiving what is the Father's did the Son ever change his nature into something better than it had been, or higher.
Therefore the Son does those things which are pleasing to the Father for this reason, because he knows not how to do the contrary. CHAPTER XXII. That the Father alone is affirmed immortal by the Apostle. If they say to you: In this the Son cannot be made equal to the Father, because the Apostle asserts the Father alone to be immortal. Reply. That the Son according to his divinity always was, or is, immortal, the divine oracles everywhere attest. Solomon affirming this more clearly: 'Immortality is in the thought of wisdom, and the delight of her friendship is good' (Wisd. 8:17). Likewise there: 'In the works of the hands of wisdom is honor without failing, and in the contest of her discourses is immortality, and eternal life; in the communication of her words is perpetual clearness' (ibid., 18). And the Apostle: