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EX. LIBRIS
REV. C. W. SULLIVAN
BRAMPTON
y;
SELECT TREATISES
OF
ST. ATHANASIUS
VOL. I.
BIRMINGHAM :
MARTIN BILLING, SON, AND CO., PRINTERS,
LIVERY STREET.
SELECT TREATISES
OF
ST. ATHANASITJS
IN CONTROVERSY WITH THE ARIANS.
FREELY TRANSLATED,
WITH AN APPENDIX,
BY
JOHN HENRY CARDINAL NEWMAN,
Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford,
and late Fellow of Oriel.
VOL. I.
FOURTH EDITION.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
AND NEW YORK : 15, EAST 16TH STREET.
1888.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION.
I AM obliged to accompany this new edition of my transla-
tion of certain Treatises of St. Athanasius against the Arians
with some words of explanation, or even of apology.
When Dr. Pusey, with that generosity which he has on
all occasions shown towards me, made no difficulty in my
including in the uniform edition of my own publications a
work which I had written for his " Library of the Fathers,"
it was my most anxious wish and my first concern so to avail
myself of his kindness as not to interfere with the interests
of his ' ' Library/' and I thought that, without being unjust
to any purpose of my own, there were several ways in which
I could consult for him.
It is with this object in view that I have omitted in this
edition the so-called Fourth Oration, which is contained in
my Oxford volume, but which, as is shown in one of my
Theological Tracts, is not specially written against the
Arians. This Tract also, with four others, is in the Oxford
edition, and all five are omitted in the present, though
contained in my Theological Tracts. A third divergence
from the Oxford edition requires more words to explain.
VI ADVERTISEMENT.
At -the time of the translation, in 1841 1844, to be
literal in the English used in the work was a foremost duty.
Those who at that date took part in Dr. Pusey's great un-
dertaking were regarded with much suspicion, both by
Catholics and Protestants, as if they were introducing the
Fathers to the English public with a covert view of recom-
mending thereby certain religious theories of their own. It
was alleged that in truth the only high-church doctrine to
be found in the Fathers was Baptismal Regeneration ; transla-
tors, it was said, who went beyond this were to be watched,
and any departure from grammatical and literal accuracy in
their renderings was sure to be scored against them as a
controversial artifice. It may be added that in some quar-
ters an over-estimation prevailed of the early Christian
writers, as if they had an authority so special, and a position
so like that of a court of final appeal, that those who had a
title to handle their writings were bat few. It was under
these conditions and disadvantages of the times that Dr.
Pusey's translators, certainly that I myself, began our work.
Things are much altered since 1836 1845. I yield to no
one still in special devotion to those centuries of the Catholic
Church which the Holy Fathers represent ; but I see no
difficulty at this day in a writer proposing to himself a free
translation of their Treatises, if he makes an open profession
of what he is doing, and has sufficient reasons for doing it ;
and in the instance of St. Athanasius as little as of any of
them, inasmuch as that great theologian, writing, as he did,
only when he had a call to write, and sometimes while he
was driven about from place to place, is led to repeat himself,
is wanting in methodical exactness, and, with all his lucidity
and force, nay even by reason of the Greek idiom, admits or
requires explanation. Not as if a translator had any leave
ADVERTISEMENT. Vll
to introduce ideas, sentiments, or arguments which are
foreign to his original, or may dispense with a watchful
caution lest he should be taking liberties with his author ;
but that it was possible, as I thought, to make a volume
unexceptionable in itself, and sufficiently distinct from the
one published in Dr. Pusey's series, and with a useful-
ness of its own, though I did not follow Athanasius's text
sentence by sentence, allowing myself in abbreviation
where he was diffuse, and in paraphrase where he was
obscure.
This then is what I determined on, and thus I set off in
this new Edition ; and I so far acted upon this view that I
am obliged in the title-page to call my work " a free trans-
lation ;" yet I am obliged to add that the occupation of
mind, consequent upon the high and unexpected honours
and duties which came upon me soon after I had taken my
new edition in hand, broke the continuity of idea necessary
for carrying out what I had intended, and though the very
want of uniformity in my treatment of my author's text
answers the purpose of distinguishing this edition from the
former, it is a great defect in the translation considered as a
composition. One undesirable consequence is, that what
are really free renderings may in some places be taken for
grammatical mistakes.
Another alteration, far more noticeable, and unavoidable
also, and involving more trouble than can easily be imagined,
separates this edition from the first. In order to accommo-
date it to the reduced size of the page it has been necessary
not only to leave out altogether the marginal references and
notices, but, what is a much more serious matter, to change
the relation of the Annotations to the text of Athanasius. In
yiii ADVERTISEMENT.
the first edition they ran along the foot of the page, bat this
the new page would scarcely allow. Yet annotations no
longer answer to their name if separated widely from the
text out of which they spring ; nor are they commonly sub-
stantive and complete compositions, which bear to be let alone
and can stand of themselves. They are written pro re natd,
capriciously, or at least arbitrarily, with matter which the
writer happens to have at hand, or knows where to find,
and are composed in what may be called an undress, conver-
sational style ; and the excuse for these defects is that they
are mere appendages to the text, and ancillary to it. Hence
to place them bodily at the end of the work which they com-
ment on, besides its inconvenience to the reader, would be a
half measure which deprived them of their intelligible
office and drift, and of their claim on his attention.
If then the Annotations, originally illustrative of the text,
were of necessity -to form a separate volume, the only allevia-
tion of a step in itself undesirable was to throw them
together, according to their respective subjects, under various
headings in alphabetical order, with such complemental
quotations and such re-casting of matter as might be indis-
pensable and not too laborious, and might serve to form
some sort of a whole, satisfactory as far as it went, whatever
criticism it might fairly provoke for its many shortcomings.
This accordingly has been attempted.
But I feel constrained to express the feeling of disappoint-
ment with which I let this new edition pass out of my hands.
I had hoped it would have been my least imperfect work ;
but, being what it is, its publication seems to carry with it
some sort of irreverence towards the great Saint in whose
ADVERTISEMENT. IX
name and history years ago I began to write, and with whom
I end. But I have done my best, bearing in mind while
I write that I have no right to reckon on the future.
Febr. 2, 1881. J. H. N.
POSTSCRIPT.
To the Third Edition. As to the references in the foot-
notes and in the Appendix to passages translated or quoted,
such references as are made to the original Greek are
marked with , and those which belong to the translation
with n.
However, for the sake of convenience, they will sometimes
be found made, not by means of a or n, but by the paging.
It should moreover be added that the work "Against the
Arians " which occupies the greater part of the 1st volume,
is here sometimes called " Discourses " and sometimes
" Orations" according as the passage is or is not English.
I may observe that the quotations from Holy Scripture
remain, here as in the Oxford editions, in the Protestant
version, except in cases in which the context of the passages
of Athanasius, to which they severally belong, require an
alteration in them : except in such cases, a change did not
seem imperative, and would have given great trouble.
To the Fourth Edition. Also I regret that I have not
been able in this new edition to prosecute in any sufficient
way my intention of making the work answer the idea of a
X ADVERTISEMENT.
free translation. As far as I have been able to act upon it
I have been aided not a little by the pains taken with its
composition by F r - William Neville of this Congregation;
nor can I forget the trouble taken by F r - Paul Eaglesim in
the tiresome task of verifying my references.
May 2, 1887.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
i.
ENCYCLICAL OF ALEXANDER EXCOMMUNICATING
ARIUS.
PAGE
Doctrinal teaching of Arius 1
II.
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE NICENE
DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION.
CHAPTER I. Introductory 11
II. Conduct of the Arians towards the Nicene definition
of the Homoiision 14
III. The meaning of that word, as an appellation of our
Lord 18
IV. Defence of its meaning 31
.. V. Defence of its definition 35
VI. Authorities in support of it 42
VII. The Arian symbol "Ingenerate"' .... 49
APPENDIX. Eusebius's letter to his people 55
III.
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS CONCERNING THE ARIAN BI-
PARTITE COUNCIL HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA.
CHAPTER I. Occasion of the Two Councils 63
., II. Proceedings of the Arians in them .... 70
., III. Arian leaders 82
IV. Arian Creeds 91
,, V. On the Homoiision, the Catholic Symbol . . . 123
,, VI. On the Homociision, the Semi-Arian Symbol . .133
IV.
THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHAXASIUS AGAINST THE
ABIANS.
CHAPTER I. Introductory 155
II. Tenets of Arius 159
III. The Son of God imcreate and from everlasting . 162
Xll CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER IV. Answers to intellectual objections to the
doctrine : first, if the Son eternal, He existed
before His birth 167
,, V. Second : if co-eternal, then brother of the
Father 171
VI. Third : if a Son, He began a Theogonia . . 176
VII. Fourth : if He is a Son at all, then in subjection
to the laws of a human son .... 183
VIII. Fifth : if He is a Son at all, the titles Word and
Wisdom are irrelevant 188
IX. Sixth : if born at the divine will, then later than
that will 191
,, X. Seventh : if God be the One Ingenerate, the Son
is not God 204
XI. Eighth : if the Son has free will, He is liable
to change 211
,, XII. Answers to objections from Scripture : first,
from Phil. ii. 9, 10 214
XIII. Second : Ps. xliv. 7 226
XIV. Third : Heb. i. 4 234
XV. Fourth : Heb. iii. 2 250
XVI. Fifth : Acts ii. 36 264
XVII. Sixth : -\ f 272
XVIII. continued > introductory to Prov. viii. 22 281
XIX. continued ) (. 289
., XX. continued ~\ r 306
XXI. continued > Prov. viii. 22 . . ) 316
XXII. continued ) (.323
XXIII. continued: Prov. viii. 22 30 .... 343
XXIV. Seventh : John xiv. 10 357
XXV. Eighth : John xvii. 3. &c 365
XXVI. Ninth : John x. 30; xvii. 11, &c. . . . 369
XXVII. Tenth : introductory to Matth. xxviii. 18, &c., &c. 389
XXVIII. continued : Matth. xxviii. 18 ; John iii. 35 . 401
XXIX. Eleventh : Mark xiii. 32 ; Luke ii. 52 . . 408
XXX. Twelfth : Matth. xxvi. 39 : John xii. 27. &c. 422
ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF ALEXANDER,
ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA,
UPON HIS DEPOSITION AND EXCOMMUNICATION
OF ARIUS.
PREFATORY NOTICE.
THIS Epistle, which belongs to the year 321, seems to have been
written by Athanasius, acting as secretary to his Archbishop,
and forms a suitable introduction to his acknowledged works
which follow. He was, it is true, at this date not more than
twenty-five or twenty-six years old, but he seems already to
have written his Contra Gentes and De Incarnations, the two
most finished of his works, and was in familiar intercourse
with Alexander, and high in his esteem and confidence, if not
already his Archdeacon. In consequence Tillemont goes so
far as to say, " We need not doubt that St. Athanasius had a
great share in the multitude of letters which at this time
St. Alexander wrote on all sides to defend the faith."
Of course a vague probability, such as this, cannot determine
a matter of fact, but it may fairly be adduced in order to
obtain a hearing for the proper proof of it, which lies in the
PREFATORY NOTICE.
style, so like Atlianasius's, so unlike Alexander's. This
internal evidence shall be set before the reader in the Appendix
to this Volume. The text is here translated mainly from
Socr. i. 6.
ENCYCLICAL,
WHEREAS the Catholic Church is one body, and we are
bidden in Holy Scripture to preserve the bond of concord
and peace, it is fitting that we should write and signify to
each other what is happening in our own parts, so that,
whether one member suffer or rejoice, we all may suffer or
rejoice ivith it. Now in this our diocese at this time there
have gone forth rebellious men and enemies of Christ,
teaching an apostasy, which may reasonably be accounted
and called a forerunner of Antichrist. On a matter such
as this I could wish to be silent, in the hope that the evil
might spend itself in the persons of the apostates, without
spreading to other places and contaminating the ears of
the simple ; but, inasmuch as Eusebius, at this time of
Nicomedia, having escaped all punishment for his covetous
seizure of that see, to the abandonment of Berytus, has now
proceeded, as if with him lay all matters of the Church,
to place himself at the head of these apostates, and has
taken upon himself to write letters all round in their
favour, with the hope, by some means, of drawing men
aside unawares to this last and most unchristian heresy, I
have felt it a duty, knowing what is written in the Law,
no longer to hold my peace, but to give you full informa-
B 2
4 ENCYCLICAL EPISTLE
ENCYCL. tion, in order that you may all know who they are who
EPISTLE.
- have apostatised, and what their miserable tenets, and
may pay no attention to Eusebius, should he write to you.
For, with the purpose of reviving, by means of these men,
that old bad spirit, which of late had not shown itself, he
pretends to defend them, but really for the furtherance of
his own interests.
2. Those who have apostatised are Arius, Achillas,
Aithales, and Carpones, another Arius, Sarmates, some-
time presbyters ; Euzo'ius, Lucius, Julian, Menas, Hel-
ladius, and Gams, sometime deacons ; and with them Se-
cundus and Theonas, sometime of the rank of Bishops.
3. And their unscriptural novelties are these : " God
was not always a Father, but once was not a Father.
The Word of God was not always existing, but came into
being out of nothing; 1 for God who is, did make out of
nothing Him who was not. Therefore once He was not,
for the Son is a creature and work. He is neither like in
substance 2 to the Father, nor the Father's true and natural
Word ; nor is He His true Wisdom ; but He is one of
those things which were made and brought to be, 3 and only
by an abuse of words,* Word and Wisdom, having come into
existence Himself by God's own Word and God's intrinsic
Wisdom, by which God made all things, and Him in their
number. Accordingly He, the Word of God, is by nature
mutable 5 and variable, as are all rational beings ; and
foreign and alien and separated off from the substance of
God. And to the Son the Father is an ineffable God, 6 for
not properly and accurately does the Son know the Father,
nor can He perfectly see Him. For neither does the Son
know His own substance, as it really is ; for He was made
1 e OVK &VTWV. Hence the Ari- 4 /oara^^cm/ccDs. Vid. p. 19,
ans were called Exucontii. infr.
2 8/j.oios KO.T ovaiav. Vid. Ap- 5 rpeTrros. Vid. App.
pend. Ifomwusion. dpp^ros.
3 Vid. App.
OF ALEXANDER. O
for our sake, in order that by Him, as by an instrument, ED. BEN.
1 ^*
God might create us ; and He would not have subsisted, 7 -
unless God had wished to create us." Accordingly, when
they were asked whether the Word of God could change,
as the devil had changed, they were not afraid to answer,
" Yes, He can ; for having come into being by creation,
He is of a mutable nature."
4. These were the avowals of Arius and his followers, and
when they boldly persisted in them, we together with the
Bishops of Egypt and Libya, nearly a hundred in number,
in Council assembled, anathematised them and their ad-
herents. On this Eusebius and his party received them,
having it at heart to confuse together falsehood with truth,
and impiety with piety ; but in vain, for truth ever con-
quers, nor is there any communion of light with darkness,
any agreement of Christ with Belial. Who ever yet heard
such language ? and who that hears it now, but is shocked
and stops his ears, that its foulness should not enter into
them ? Who that hears John saying, In tlie beginning
was the Word, does not denounce the tenet, " Once He
was not " ? Who that hears in the gospel the Only be-
gotten Son, and "by Him all tilings were made, will not hate
men who pronounce that " the Son is one of God's
works " ? How can He be on a level with His own
creations ? how can He be Only begotten, who, as they
say, is to be numbered with all other creatures ? how can
He be out of nothing, when the Father says, My heart
has burst out with a good Word ? and Out of the womb
before the morning star have I borne Thee ? or how " un-
like the Father in substance," if He be the perfect
Image and Radiance of the Father, saying of Himself, Whoso
hath seen Me hath seen the Father ? And how, if the Son
be God's Word and Wisdom, was He " Once not " in being ?
for this is as much as to say that once God was without
6 ENCYCLICAL EPISTLE
ENCYCL. mind, without wisdom. How. too, is He mutable, or
EPISTLE.
- variable, who says by His own mouth, I am in the Father
and the Father in Me, and I and the Father are one ; and
by the mouth of His Prophet, Behold Me, for I am and
vary not. For, though these words belong also to the
Father, yet here they may be more appositely said of the
Son, that in His becoming man He was not changed, but
as the Apostle says is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday to-
day and for ever. And what has persuaded them to say,
that " for our sakes He was made," though Paul writes,
For whom are all things and by ivhom are all things ? After
so extreme a step, we need not wonder to hear their blas-
phemy that the Son has not perfect knowledge of the
Father; for having once made up their minds to war
against Christ, they put aside even His own words, As the
Father Jmoiueth Me, even so knoiv I the Father. If then the
Father knows the Son imperfectly, then indeed it is plain
that the Son too has but an imperfect knowledge of the
Father ; but if to say this is a sin, and the Father knows
the Son perfectly, then too, as the Father knows His own
Word, so, it is plain, does the Son know His own Father
whose Word He is.
5. By such arguments and explanations of divine Scrip-
ture we have oftentimes refuted them ; but still, like chame-
leons, they changed their colours, 8 as if ambitious of fixing
upon themselves the Scripture, The wicked man when
he is come into the depth of sins contemncth. 9 Certainly
many heresies have existed before them, which, venturing
where they ought not, have become foolishness ; but these
men, scheming in all they have laid down to destroy
the Word's divinity, have made those others white by
the contrast of themselves, being so much more like
Antichrist. Therefore it is that they have been proscribed
and anathematised by the Church. Grieve, however,
8 p. 24 infr. 9 Prov. xviii. 3.
OF ALEXANDER. 1
as we do, over their ruin, and especially because, after ED. BEN
their early grounding in the doctrines of the Church, they -
have now fallen away, nevertheless we are not much sur-
prised ; for a fate like this befell Hymenseus and Philetus ;
and before them Judas, who, once a follower of the Saviour,
was afterwards a traitor and apostate. Nor have we
been without lessons concerning these very persons ; for
the Lord foretold, Take heed lest any man deceive you, for
many shall come in My name, saying, I am He, and the time
draiveth wear, and they shall deceive many. Go ye not after
them. And Paul, who was taught these things by the
Saviour, has written that In the last times some shall apos-
tatise from the sound faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and
i cachings of demons who turn away from the truth.
6. Seeing then that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
dofch both by His own mouth charge us, and by the
Apostle warn us concerning such men, it was fitting that
we, the personal witnesses of their impiety, should anathe-
matise them as aforesaid, declaring them aliens from the
Catholic Church and faith ; and we have further also
made this known to your piety, our beloved and most
honoured colleagues, in order that you may be on your
guard against receiving any of them who may have the
insolence to come to you, or giving ear to Eusebius or
any other writing in their behalf. For it becomes us as
Christisns to turn away from all who by word and in
intention blaspheme Christ, as being God's foes and de-
stroyers of souls ; nor even to say God speed you to such
men, lest, as blessed John has charged us, we become
partakers of their sins. Salute the brethren who are with
you. Those with me give you greeting.
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS
IN DEFENCE OF THE NICENE DEFINITION OF
THE HOMOUSION.
PEEFATORY NOTICE.
WE have no means of determining the date of this Epistle,
and critics do but offer conjectures at variance with each
other. The Bollandists consider it to be earlier than A.D. 347,
if not soon after the Nicene Council, e.g. 330 (Vit. Athan.
c. 26). Montfaucon assigns some time between 350 and 354.
Tillemont between 342 and 361.
Other aids towards determining it are such as these : it was
written in a time of peace, after the experience and with the
anticipation of persecution ; but from 325 to 330 there was no
such experience, from 330 to 347 no peace, and from 352 to
361 severe persecution ; what interval is left for the date is
from 348 to 352, which fulfils the requisite conditions, as being
an interval of peace, with persecution before and after it.
It may be added that the rise of the Anomceans was
about A.D. 350, and about the same time Acacius became the
leader of the Eusebian or court party on the tactic in con-
troversy of confining definitions of doctrine to Scripture
language, and thereby virtually of annihilating dogmatic faith.
Now the main topic and the occasion of this Epistle, as
Athanasius shows again and again, is the revival of Arianism
10 PREFATORY NOTICE.
proper in its original outspoken vigour, the prominence of
Acacius, and the appeal to Scripture against orthodoxy by him
and other successors of Eusebius.
EX. LlBRtS
REV. C. W. SULLIVAN
RAMPTON
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS,
CHAPTER I.
1. THOU hast done well, in signifying to me the discus-
sion thon hast had with the advocates of Arianism, among
whom were certain of the party of Eusebius, as well as
very many of the brethren who hold the doctrine of the
Church. Very welcome to me was thy Christian vigilance,
which excellently confuted the impiety x of their heresy;
while I marvelled at the effrontery which led them,
after the exposures already made of their bad reasonings
in the past, and of that perverse temper to which all men
bore witness, still to be complaining like the Jews, " Why
did the bishops at Niceea use terms not in Scripture, 2 'Of
the substance' and ' Consubstantial ' ? " 3 Thou then, as a
man of learning, in spite of their pretences, didst convict
them of talking idly ; and they in those pretences were
1 Vid. Appendix to this volume, Constantine had entrusted his
eiW/3a, &c. will, Theod. Hist. ii. 3 ; and Euse-
2 The plea here used, the un- bins of Csesarea glances at it, at
scriptural character of the NicEcan the time of the Council, in the
symbol, had been suggested to letter to his Church,which Athana-
Constantius on his accession, A.D. sius subjoins to this Epistle.
337, by the Arian priest, the fa- 3 Or Homoiision.
vourite of Constantia, to whom
12 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. I. but acting in accordance with their own evil disposition.
For they are as variable and fickle in their sentiments, as
chameleons * in their colours ; and when confuted they are
confused; and when questioned they hesitate ; and then
they lose shame, and betake themselves to evasions.
Lastly, when detected in these, they do not rest till they
have invented fresh pleas which have no substance, and all
this that they may persist in being loyal to an impiety.
2. Now such tactics are nothing else than an obvious
token of their want of Divine Reason, 5 and a copying,
as I have said, of Jewish malignity. For the Jews too,
when convicted by the Truth, and unable to confront it,
made excuses, such as What miracles doest Thou, that we
may see and believe Thee ? What dost Thou work ? though
so many miracles were given, that they themselves said,
What do we ? for this man doeth many miracles? In
truth, dead men were raised, lame walked, blind saw afresh,
lepers were cleansed, and the water became wine, and five
loaves satisfied five thousand, and all of them wondered
and worshipped the Lord, confessing that in Him were
fulfilled the prophecies, and that He was God, the Son of
God ; all but the Pharisees, who, though the miracles shone
brighter than the sun, yet complained still, as ignorant men,
Why dost Thou, being a man, make Thyself God? In-
sensate, and verily blind in understanding ! they ought
contrariwise to have said, " Why hast Thou, being God,
become man ? " for His works did prove Him God, that
thereupon they might both worship the Father's goodness,
and admire the Son's descent from on high for our sakes.
However, this they did not say; no, nor would they
witness what He was doing ; or they witnessed indeed, for
this they could not avoid, but they changed their ground
of complaint and said again, " Why healest Thou the
paralytic, why makest Thou the born-blind to see, on the
* Vid. Appendix, Chameleons. 5 Vid. App. aXoyia.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 13
sabbath day ? " But this too was a mere excuse and a ED. BEN.
finding fault ; for on other days as well as the sabbath did -
the Lord heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of dis-
ease, but they complained still according to their wont, and
in calling Him Beelzebub, preferred the imputation of
Atheism, 6 to a recantation of their wickedness. And though
in sundry times and diverse manners the Saviour thus showed
His own Godhead and preached the Father to all men,
nevertheless, as kicking against the goad, they rashly
spoke against Him, as if in order that, according to the
divine proverb, they might find occasions for separating
themselves from the truth. 7
3. As then the Jews of that day, for acting thus
wickedly and denying the Lord, were with justice de-
prived of their laws and of the promise made to their
fathers, so the Arians, judaizing now, are in my judg-
ment in circumstances like those of Caiaphas and the con-
temporary Pharisees. For, perceiving that their heresy
is utterly unreasonable, they start difficulties, saying,
" Why was this defined and not that ? " Yet wonder not
though in the event they do not persevere in that sort of
warfare; for in no long time they will have recourse to
outrage, and will be throwing out threats of the ~band and
the captain. 8 Such is their inconsistency; yet how can it
be otherwise with them ? for, denying the Word of God,
Divine Reason, they have utterly forfeited. Aware then of
this, I would of myself have made no reply to their attacks ;
but, since thy friendliness has asked to know what was
done in the Council, I have not delayed to inform you,
in order to show in few words how destitute Arianism
is of a religious temper, and how its very business is to
frame evasions.
Vid. App. atfeos. 8 John xviii. 12. vid. Use of
7 A reference to Prov. xviii. 1, Force.
as in the Sept. version.
14 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAPTER II.
CHAP. ii. 4. AND do thou, beloved, consider whether it be not so. If,
the devil having sown their hearts 9 with this perverseness,
they are so confident in the truth of their reasonings, why
do they not first clear themselves of the charge of heresy
which lies against them ? and then will come the time for
them to criticise the definition 1 of the Council. For no
one, on being convicted of murder or adultery, is at liberty
after the trial to arraign the sentence of the judge, why
he spoke in this way and not in that. For this, instead of
exculpating the convict, rather increases his crime on the
score of petulance and audacity. Why did not they find
fault with the wording of the definition at the time when
it was framed ? but now when their first duty is to repeat
after the Council those anathemas in which its creed ends,
instead of this, they profess to have scruples as to the creed
itself, and they find matter for a subterfuge in the fact,
which no one denies, that the word " substance " is not in
Scripture. Surely it is just that those who are under a
charge should confine themselves to their own defence.
While their own conscience is so unclean, they are not
quite the men to quarrel with an act which in truth they
do not understand. Bather, let them investigate the
matter in a docile spirit, and, in order to learn what
hitherto they had not known, let them cleanse their ears
in the stream of truth and the doctrine of piety.
5. Now it happened to the Eusebians in the Nicene
Council in this wise : On their making a stand in behalf of
their impiety, the assembled bishops, who were more or less
three hundred in number, mildly and courteously called
9 eiriffireipavTos TOV 5ta/36Aov, chiefly with a reference to Arian-
the allusion is to Matt. xiii. 25, ism. Vid. A pp. eTria
and is very frequent in Athan. * Vid. Definition.
XK'EXB DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSIOX. 15
upon them to explain and defend themselves. Scarcely, ED. BEN.
however, did they begin to speak, when they pronounced
their own condemnation, 2 for one differed from another; then,
perceiving the serious straits in which their heresy lay, they
remained dumb, and by their silence confessed the disgrace
which came upon them. On this the Bishops, after con-
demning the formulas which they had devised, published
against them the sound and ecclesiastical faith ; and,
whereas all subscribed it, the Eusebians subscribed it
too in those very phrases, of which they are now com-
plaining, (I mean, " Of the substance," and " Consubstan-
tial,") professing that " the Son of God is neither crea-
ture nor work, nor in the number of things made from
nothing, but that the Word is an Offspring from the
substance of the Father." And, what is strange indeed,
Eusebius of Cresarea in Palestine, who had refused the day
before, yet afterwards subscribed, and sent to his church a
letter, saying that this was the Church's faith and the
tradition of the Fathers; and thereby made it clear to all
that his party were in error before, and were rashly con-
tending against the truth. For, though he was ashamed
at the moment to adopt these phrases, and excused
himself to his Church in his own way, yet he certainly
means to signify his acceptance of them, in that he does
not in his Epistle deny the " One in substance," and " Con-
substantial." And in this way he got into a difficulty; for,
in excusing himself, he thereby was attacking the Arians,
as if their stating that " the Son was not before His gene-
ration," was their denial of His existence even before His
birth in the flesh. And Acacius too knows this well, though
he also through fear may pretend otherwise because of the
times, and may deny the fact. Accordingly I have sub-
2 i. e. " convicted themselves" KarriyopoL, i.e. by their variations,
infr. p. 35, Ep. Alg. 6, eaurwj/ dec vid. Tit. iii. 11, aOro/card/cpiros.
16 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. ii. joined at the end of these remarks the letter of Eusebius,
that thou mayst know from it the scanty regard shown by
Christ's enemies 3 towards their own masters, and singularly
by Acacius himself.
6. Are they not then committing a crime, in their very
thought to gainsay the decree of so great and ecumenical
a Council ? are they not in transgression, when they dare
to confront that good definition against Arianism, acknow-
ledged, as it was, by those who had in the first instance
taught them their impiety ? And supposing, even after
subscription, Eusebius and his did change again, and return
like dogs to their own vomit of impiety, then surely the pre-
sent gainsayers do but deserve still greater detestation, for
they are sacrificing their souls' liberty to those, as the
masters of their heresy, who are, as James has said, double-
minded men, and unstable in all their ways, not having one
opinion, but changing to and fro, and now recommending
certain statements, but soon dishonouring them, and in
turn recommending what just now they were blaming. But
this, as the Shepherd* has said, is to be "the child of the
devil," and is the note of hucksters rather than of doctors.
For, what our Fathers have of old delivered, this is
really doctrine ; and this truly the token of doctors, to
confess the same thing with each other, and to vary neither
from themselves nor from their fathers ; whereas they who
have not this character are not to be called true doctors
but charlatans. Thus the Greeks, as not witnessing to the
same doctrines, but quarrelling one with another, have no
truth of teaching; 5 but the holy and veritable heralds of
the truth agree together, not differ. For though they
lived in different times, yet they one and all tend the
same way, being prophets of the one God, and preaching
the same Word harmoniously.
3 Vid. xpto-r6 ) uaxos. s yid. Private Judgment.
* Hermas, Pastor, ii. 9.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 17
7. And thus what Moses taught, that Abraham kept ; ED. BEN.
36.
and what Abraham kept, that Noe and Enoch acknow-
ledged, discriminating pure from impure, and becoming
acceptable to God. For Abel too in this way witnessed
unto death, taught in the truths which he had learned
from Adam, who himself had learned from the Lord, and
He again, when He came in the last age for the abolishment
of sin, said, I give no new commandment unto you. Where-
fore also the blessed Apostle Paul, who had learnt it from
Him, when he is determining ecclesiastical duties, forbade
that even deacons, not to say bishops, should be double-
tongued; and in his rebuke of the Gralatians, he made
a broad declaration, If any one preach any other Gospel unto
you than that ye have received, let him be anathema. As I
have said, so say I again; if even an Angel from heaven
should preach unto you any other Gospel than that ye have
received, let him be anathema.
8. Thus the Apostle. 6 If then truth lay, 7 as the Euse-
bians afterwards said, otherwise than their subscription
implied, the present men ought to anathematise them for
subscribing ; if on the other hand they subscribed to a
truth, what ground have they of complaint against the
great Council which imposed on them the subscription ?
But if they blame the Council's act, yet let off those who
took part in it, they are themselves too plainly the sport of
every wind and wave, and are influenced by opinions, not
their own, but of others, and being such, are as little trust-
worthy now as before, in what they allege. Rather let
them cease to carp at what they understand not ; lest so it
be that, not knowing to discriminate, they at hazard call evil
6 Vid. Apoxtle. stood or accidentally omitted :
7 There seems to be some error -fj /cat OVTOL roi)s irepl ~Evat{3iov
in the text here, over and above /xera/foXXo^j/ous /cat \tyovTas erepa
the (perhaps) error of the press, [/caXd] Trap a inrlypa^/av,
Trapa ra virtypa^av. It is here TTOidruaav, f), &c.
translated as if /caXa was under-
18 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. in. good and good evil, and think that bitter is sweet and
sweet bitter. Doubtless their real desire is that doctrines
which have already been judged wrong and have been re-
probated should gain the ascendancy, and they make violent
efforts to prejudice what was rightly denned. ISTor is there
reason for further explanation on our part or answer to
their excuses, nor for further resistance on theirs, instead
of acquiescence in what the leaders of their heresy sub-
scribed ; but since, from an extraordinary want of modesty,
the present men perhaps hope to be able to advocate an im-
piety, which really is from the Evil One, 8 with better success
than those who went before them, therefore, though in my
former letter written to thee, 9 I have already argued at
length against them, notwithstanding, I am ready now
also to examine each of their separate statements, as I
did those of their predecessors ; for now not less than then
their heresy shall be shown to have no soundness in it,
but to be a doctrine of demons.
CHAPTER III.
9. THEY say then what the others held and dared to
maintain before them: 1 "Not always Father, always Son;
for the Son was not before His generation, but, as others,
came out of nothing ; and in consequence God was not
always Father of the Son; but when the Son came into
8 Vid. 5ta/3oXi/c6j. that before His generation He
This letter is not extant. was not ; and that He came into
; may be convenient to set being from nothing ; or Avho
down here the anathematisms pretend that He was of another
appended to the Nicene Creed, hypostasis or substance, or that
though they occur presently in the Son of God was created or
Eusebius's Letter. They run alterable, or mutable, those men
thus : And as to those who say the Holy Catholic and Apostolical
that the bon once was not ; and Church anathematises."
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 19
beino- and was created, then was God called His Father. ED. BEN.
50.
For the Word is a creature and work, and foreign and -
unlike to the Father in substance ; and the Son is neither
by nature the Father's true Word, nor His only and true
Wisdom ; but being a creature and one of the works, He
is by an abuss of words 2 called Word and Wisdom; for by
the Word which is in God was He made, as were all
things. Wherefore the Son is not true God." 3
10. Now it may serve to bring home to them what
they are saying, to ask them first this, what a son simply
is, and of what is that name significant. In truth, Divine
Scripture acquaints us with a double sense of this word :
one which Moses sets before us in the Law, When thou
shall hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all
His commandments which I command thee this day, to do
lhat which is rigid in the eyes of the Lord thy God, ye shall
be children of the Lord your God ; as also in the Gospel,
John says, But as many as received Him, to them gave He
power to become the sons of God : and the other sense
is that in which Isaac is son of Abraham, and Jacob of
Isaac, and the Patriarchs of Jacob. Now in which of
these two senses, literal or figurative, do they understand
the Son of God in such figments as the foregoing ? for
I feel sure they will issue in the same impiety as the
Eusebians.
11. First, let us suppose the word Son to be taken in the
figurative, not the literal sense ; and this is how they
really understand it (as their predecessors did), only many
of them shrink from saying so. If this is the sense in
This word xi. 4, Epiph. Hter. 69, p. 743.
is noticed and protested against and 71, p. 831 ; Euseb. c. Marc.
by Alexander, supr. p. 4, by the p. 40, Concil Labb. t. 2, p. 67.
Seuaiarians at Ancyra. Epiph. and abusive, p. 210.
Hcer. 73, n. 5, by Basil, contr. 3 Vid. ad Ep. JEg. 12. supr.
Eunom. ii. 23, and by Cyril. Dial. p. 4. infr. Disc. ch. 5 p. 160.
ii, pp. 432,- 433. Also Cyril Cat.
c2
20 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IX DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. in. which the title "Son of God" is to be taken, then I
observe, first of all, that sonship in this sense is a grace
gained from above by those who have made progress in
goodness, and who receive power to become sons of God;
and then, if so, He would surely in nothing differ from
us, who are also born of God ; no, nor would He be Only-
begotten, as having obtained the title of Son, as others
have, from His virtue. For granting what they say, that,
whereas His qualifications were foreknown, He, on that
account, from His very first beginning, by anticipation,
received the name, and the glory of the name, still there
will be no difference between Him and those who receive
the name for their actions, so long as this is the ground
on which He as others is recognised as Son. For Adam
too, though he received grace from the first, and upon
his creation was at once placed in paradise, differed in no
respect either from Enoch, who was translated thither
after his birth on his pleasing God, or from the Apostle,
who also was caught up to paradise after his good actions ;
nay, nor from the thief, who, by virtue of his confession,
received a promise that he should be forthwith in paradise.
12. Next, when thus pressed, they will perhaps make an
answer which has brought them into difficulty many
times already : " We consider that the Son has this pre-
rogative over other beings, and therefore is called Only-
begotten, because He alone was brought into being by God
alone, and all other things were created by God through
the Son." Now I wonder who it was that suggested to
you 4 so futile and novel an idea as that the Father alone
wrought with His own hand the Son alone, and that all
* i.e. what is your authority? ditional nature of the teaching
is it not a novel, and therefore a And so St. Paul himself, 1 Cor.
wrong doctrine ? And presently xv. 3. Vid. also supr. pp. 17, 23,
jj.a.6uv tdidaffKev, implying the tra- infr. p. 65, Scrap, i. 3,
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 21
other things were brought into being by the Son as by EL>- BEN.
an under-worker. If for the toil-sake God was content -
with making the Son only, instead of making all things
at once, this is an impious thought, especially in the case
of those who know the words of Esaias, The everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, hungereth
not, neither is weary; there is no searching of His under-
standing. Rather it is He who to the hungry gives
strength, and through His word refreshes the labouring.
On the other hand it is impious to suppose that He dis-
dained, as if a humble task, Himself to form the creatures
which came into being after the Son ; for there is no pride
in that God, who goes down with Jacob into Egypt, and
for Abraham's sake corrects Abimelec in behalf of Sara,
and speaks face to face with Moses, who was but a man,
and descends upon Mount Sinai, and by His secret grace
fights for the people against Amalec. However, you are
false in your fact, for we are told, He made us, and not we
ourselves. He it is that, through His Word, made all
things small and great, and we may not divide the
creation, and say this is the Father's, and this is the Son's,
but all things are of one God, who uses His proper Word
as a Hand, 5 and in Him does all things. As God Himself
shows us, when He says, All these things hath My Hand
made ; and Paul taught us as he had been taught, that There
is One God, from whom are all things; and One Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom are all things. Thus He, always as
now, speaks to the sun and it rises, and commands the
clouds and it rains upon one place, and another, where it
does not rain, is dried up. And He bids the earth to give
its fruit, and fashions Jeremias in the womb. But if He
now does all this, assuredly at the beginning also He did
not disdain through the Word to make all things Himself;
for these are but parts of the whole.
5 Vid. Sand.
22 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. in. 13. But now, thirdly, let us suppose, as sometimes has
been said, that the other creatures could not endure to be
wrought by the direct 6 Hand of the Ingenerate, and
therefore the Son alone was brought into being by the
Father alone, and other things by the Son as an under-
worker and assistant, for this is what Asterius 7 the
sacrificer has written, and what Arius has transcribed and
bequeathed to his own friends ; and from that time they
used this formula, broken reed as it is, being ignorant,
the bewildered men, of its rottenness. For if it was im-
possible for things created to bear the hand of God, and
you hold the Son to be one of their number, how was even
He equal to this formation by God alone ? and if an inter-
mediate was necessary that things that came into being
might come, and you hold the Son to be one of such, then
must there have been some medium before Him, for His
own creation; and, that intermediate himself again being
a creature, it follows that he too needed another Mediator
for his own framing. And though we were to devise
another, we must still first devise his Mediator, so that we
shall never come to an end. And thus a Mediator being
ever in request, never would the creation be constituted,
because nothing that has come into being can, as you say,
bear the direct hand of the Ingenerate. And if, oa your
perceiving the extravagance of this, you begin to say that
the Son, though a creature, was made capable of being
made immediately by the Ingenerate, then all the other
things also, though they are mere creatures, are capable
of being framed immediately by the Ingenerate; for the
Son too is but a creature in your judgment, as every-
thing else. And consequently the generation of the Word
is superfluous, according to your impious and futile imagi-
e &KPO.TOS, simple, absolute, un- 7 Vid. Asterius.
tempered, vid. Arian arguments.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 23
nation, God being sufficient for the immediate formation
of all things, and all things that have been brought out
of nothing being capable of sustaining His direct hand.
14. These impious men then having so little mind amid
their madness, let us see, fourthly, whether this particular
sophism will not prove even more irrational than the
others. Adam was created alone by God alone (through
the Word) ; yet no one would say that Adam differed
from those who came after him in having thereby some-
thing in his nature more than all other men (granting that
he alone was made by God alone, and that we all spring
from Adam and consist by succession of our race) so long
as we consider him fashioned from the earth as others, and
that, at first not existing, he afterwards came to be. But
though we were to allow some prerogative to the Protoplast
as having been formed by the very Hand of God, still it
must be accounted to him as one of honour, not of nature.
For he came of the earth, as all other men ; and the Hand
which then fashioned Adam, now also and ever is fashion-
ing and giving entire consistence to those who come after
him. And God Himself declares this to Jeremias, as I
said before : Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew tliee ;
and so He says of all, All those things hath My hand made;
and again by Esaias, Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer,
and He that formed thee from the womb ; I am the Lord that
maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone t
that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself. And David,
knowing this, says in the Psalm, Thy Hands have made me
and fashioned me; and he who says in Esaias, Thus saith
the Lord who formed me from the womb to be His servant^
signifies the same. Therefore, in respect of nature, he
differs nothing from us though he precedes us in time, so
long as we all consist and are created by the same Hand.
If then these be your thoughts, Arians, about the Son
of God also, that thus He subsists and came to be, then in
24 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. in. your judgment He will differ nothing on the score of
nature from others, supposing He too once was not, and
then was brought into being, and the name of Son was,
on His creation, for His virtue's sake, by grace united to
Him. For, from what you say, He Himself is one of
those of whom the Spirit says in the Psalms, He spake the
u-ord, and they were made; He commanded, and they were
created. If so, who was it to whom God gave command
for the Son's creation? for a Word there must be to
whom God gave command, 8 and in whom the works are
created; but ye have no other to show than the Word
whom ye deny, unless indeed you should again devise
some new notion.
15. "Yes," they will say, "we have found another;"
(which indeed I have formerly heard from the Eusebians,)
"on this score do we consider that the Son of God has a
prerogative over others, and is called Only-begotten,
because He alone partakes the Father, and all other
things partake the Son." Thus they weary themselves
in changing and varying their statements, like so many
pigments; however, this shall not save them from an ex-
posure, as men who speak empty words out of the earth, and
wallow as if in the mire of their own devices. For if
indeed He were called God's Son, and we the Son's sons,
their fiction were plausible ; but if we too are said to be
sons of that God, of whom He is Son, then we too partake
the Father, who says, I have begotten and exalted children.
For, if we did not partake Him, He had not said, I have
begotten; but, if He Himself begat us, no other than He
is our Father. 9 And, as before, it avails not, whether the
Son has something more and was made first, whereas we
have something less and were made afterwards, as long as
we all partake, and are called sons, of the same Father.
For the more or less does not indicate a different nature; 9
8 Yid. Ministration. 9 Vid.
N1CENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 25
but attaches to each according to the practice of virtue ; ED. BEN.
and one is placed over ten cities, another over five ; and -
some sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel ; and others hear the words, Gome, ye blessed of My
Father, and, Well done, good and faithful servant. With
these ideas, however, no wonder they imagine that of
such a Son God was not always Father, and that such a
Son was not always in existence, but was brought into
being from nothing, as a creature, and was not before His
generation ; for such a one is other than the True Son
of God.
16. But to persist in thus speaking involves guilt ; for it
is the tone of thought of Sadducees, and of Samosatene 1 to
consider that the Word and Wisdom of the Father is but
His Son by grace and adoption : it remains then to say
that He is Son in the second of the senses above specified,
viz., not by an extreme figure, but in a literal sense, as Isaac
was son of Abraham as being begotten of him. In other
words, the Son is of the nature of the Father, 2 for nature
and nothing short of nature is implied in the idea of
sonship, generation, or derivation. A son is a father's
increase, not acquisition ; from within not from without.
I know the objection which will be made to this doctrine ;
it will be said that I have proposed a mere human con-
1 Paul of Samosata is called refer, was that our Lord became
Samosatene, as John of Damascus the Son by irpoKoirr), or growth in
Damascene, from the frequent holiness (vid. Luke ii. 52, trpo-
adoption of the names Paul and 6co7rre), "advancing as a man."
John. Hence, also, John Chry- Or Athan. may be comparing our
sostom, Peter Chrysologus, John Lord's predestination as held by
Philoponus. Paul was Bishop the Arians (supr. p. 20. Theod.
of Antioch in the middle of the Hist. i. 3, p. 732), with Paul's speak -
third century, and was deposed ing of Him as " God predestined
for a sort of Sabellianism. He before ages, but from Mary re-
was the friend of Lucian, from ceiving the origin of His exis-
whose school the principal Arians tence." Apoll. i. 20.
issued. His prominent tenet, a Vid. Son of God.
to which Athan. seems here to
26 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. in. ception of a sacred truth, altogether earthly and utterly
unworthy of God, but I cannot accept such an account
of it. Such an objection only argues ignorance in those
who make it ; for analogy does not involve likeness.
Spirit is not as body, God is not as man, nor man as God.
Men are created of matter, and their substance is liable
to increase and loss ; but God is immortal and incorporeal.
And if so be the same terms are used of God and of man
in divine Scripture, yet the clear-sighted, as Paul injoins,
will study its text and thereby discriminate, and dispose
of what is written there according to the nature of each
subject, and will avoid any confusion of sense, so as not
to conceive of the attributes of God in a human way,
nor again to ascribe the properties of man to God. For
this were to mix wine with water, and to place upon the
altar strange fire together with that which is divine.
17. For instance, God creates, and man too is said to
create, and God has being, and men too are said to be. Yet
does God create as man does ? or has He being as man
has being ? Perish the thought ; we understand the
terms in one sense of God, and in another of men. For
God creates in that He calls into being that which is not,
needing nothing thereunto : but men create by working
some existing material, first praying, and thereby gaining
the science to execute from that God who has framed all
things by His proper Word. And again, men, being
incapable of self -existence, are inclosed in place, and
have their consistence in the Word of God ; but God is
self-existent, inclosing all things, and inclosed by none; 3
within all according to His own goodness and power, yet
without all in His proper nature. As then men create
not as God creates, as their being is not such as God's
being, so men's generation is in one way, and the Son is
from the Father in another. For the offsprings of men
3 Vid. Omnipresence.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 27
are in some sort portions of their fathers, since the very KD. BEN.
nature of bodies is to be compounded and dissoluble,*
and to act by piecemeal ; and men lose their substance in
begetting, 5 and again they gain substance from the accession
of food. And on this account men in their time become
fathers of many children ; but God, who is individual, is
Father of the Son without being parted or affected, for
there is neither loss nor gain to the Immaterial, as there is in
the case of men, and, being simple in His nature, He gives
absolutely and utterly all that He is, and thereby is Father of
One Only Son. This is why the Son is Only-begotten,
and alone in the Father's bosom, and alone is acknow-
ledged by the Father to be from Him, as in the words, This
is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And therefore
also, He is the Father's Word, 6 a title which suggests
that the Divine Nature is beyond liability to affection and
division, in that not even a human word is begotten with
any such accidents, much less the Word of God. Where-
fore, also, He sits, as Word, at the Father's right hand ;
for where the Father is, there also is His Word ; but we,
as being His works, stand in judgment before Him ; and
He is adored, because He is Son of the adorable Father,
but we adore, confessing Him Lord and God, because we
are creatures and other than He.
18. If this be so, we come to this question : supposing
by the appellation of Son of God must be meant God's off-
spring, the fulness of His very Self, can it be a light sin,
to maintain that He was made out of nothing, and was not
before His generation ? It is of course a subject which
transcends the thoughts of men, but, I repeat, God's
nature is not bound by the conditions of ours. We
become fathers of our children in time, but God, in that
He ever is, is ever Father of His Son. 7 And the genera-
4 Vid. pei/o-ros. e Vid. \6yos.
5 Vid. airoppori. Vid.
28 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. III. tion of mankind is familiarised to us from earthly instances
that are parallel ; but since no one Imoweth the Son but the
Father, and no one hnoweth the Father but the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him, therefore
the sacred writers, to whom the Son has revealed Him,
have given us a sort of image, but nothing more, from
things visible, saying, Who is the brightness of His glory
and the impress of His Person ; and again, For with Thee
is the well of life, and in Thy light shall we see light ;
and when the Word chides Israel, He says, Thou hast
forsaken the Fountain of wisdom; and this Fountain it is
which says, They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living
waters. And mean indeed and very dim is the illus-
tration compared with what we desiderate ; but yet it
is possible from it to understand something above man's
nature, 8 instead of thinking the Son's generation to be on
a level with ours. For instance, who can even imagine
that the radiance of light " once was not," so that he should
dare to say that " the Son was nob always," or that " the
Son was not before His generation " ? or who is capable
of separating the radiance from the sun, or of conceiving
of the Fountain as ever void of life, that he should say, even
if mad, " The Son is from nothing/' (who says Himself, I
am the life), or " alien to the Father's substance," (who says,
He that hath seen He hath seen the Father ?) for the sacred
writers wishing us thus to understand, have given these
illustrations ; and it is irrelevant and most impious, when
Scripture contains such images, to form ideas concerning
our Lord from others which are neither in Scripture, nor
have any pious bearing.
19. Let us go by Scripture ; then from what teacher or
by what tradition have you derived these notions about
the Saviour ? From what passages of Scripture ? " Yes,"
they will say, " in the Proverbs we read, The Lord hath
8 Vid. Economical language.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 29
created Me a beginning of His ways unto His works? This ED. BEN.
the Eusebians used to insist upon in former years, and _1
you write me word that the present men also, though
overthrown and confuted by an abundance of proof, still
are putting about in every quarter this passage, and
saying that the Son is one of the creatures, and reckoning
Him with things which came into being out of nothing.
But I answer first, it cannot mean this, supposing we
have already proved Him to be a Son. Son and creature
are ideas incompatible with each other. If then Son,
therefore not creature : if creature, not Son : for vast is
the difference between them, and Son and creature cannot
be the same, unless His substance be considered to be at
once from God and yet external to God. This at first sight ;
but, secondly, these men seem to me to have a wrong
understanding of this passage. They ask us again and
again, like so many noisy gnats, 1 " Has the passage no
meaning ? " Yes, it has a meaning, a pious and very
orthodox meaning, but not theirs, and had they understood
it, they would not have blasphemed the Lord of glory. It is
true to say that the Son was created, but this took place when
He became man; for creation belongs to man. And any
one may find this sense duly conveyed in the divine oracles,
who, instead of accounting their perusal a secondary matter,
investigates the time and persons, and the purpose, and
thus studies and ponders what he reads. Now as to the
season spoken of, he will find for certain that, whereas
the Lord always exists, at length in fulness of the ages
He became man; and whereas He is Son of God, He
9 Eusebius of Nicomedia quotes TreplepxovTat. 7rept/3ojU/3owres, and
this text. Theod. Hist. i. 5. Disc. i. ch. 9, init. And Gregory
And Eusebius of Ccesarea Dem. Nyssen, contra Eun. viii. p. 234,
Evang. v. 1. It is the one sub- C. ws &v roi>s aireipovs rouruv
ject of Disc, chapt. 17 23, infr. rats TrXarwi't/ccus KaXXupioviais
pp. 272 356. 7repi/3o/x/3?7(mei'. Also ^'az. Orat.
1 Trept/So/x/Soucrij'. So ad Afros. 27. 2.
5, init. And Sent. D. 19
30 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. in. became Son of man also. And as to the need, he will
understand that, wishing to annul our death, He took on
Himself a body from the Virgin Mary ; in order that,
by offering this unto the Father a sacrifice for all, He
might deliver us all, who by fear of death were all our
life through subject to bondage. And as to the person, this
is indeed the Saviour's, but it is then said of Him when
He took a body and said, The Lord has created Me a
beginning of His ivays unto His u-orks. For as it properly
belongs to Him, as God's Son, to be everlasting, and to
be in the Father's bosom, so, on His becoming man, the
words befitted Him, The Lord created Me. For then they
are said of Him, and then He hungered, and thirsted, and
asked where Lazarus Jay, and suffered, and rose again.
And as, when we hear of Him as Lord and God and
true Light, we understand Him as being from the Father,
so on hearing, The Lord created, and Servant, and He
suffered, we shall justly ascribe this, not to His Godhead,
for it does not belong to It, bat we must interpret it of
that flesh which He bore for our sakes ; for to it these
things are proper, and this flesh itself was none other's
than the Word's. And if we wish to know the advantages
we attain by this, we shall find them to be as follows : that
the Word was made flesh, not only to offer up this body
for all, but that we, partaking of His Spirit, might be
made gods, a gift which we could not otherwise have
gained than by His clothing Himself in our created
body; for hence we derive our name of "men of God"
and " men in Christ." And as we, by receiving the
Spirit, do not lose our own proper substance, so the Lord,
when made man for us, and bearing a body, was no less
God ; for He was not lessened by the envelopment of
the body, but rather deified it and rendered it immortal.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSIOX. 31
CHAPTER IY.
20. THIS then is quite enough in order to denounce as ED. BEN.
infamous this Arian heresy ; for, as the Lord has granted, -
out of their own words is impiety brought home to
them. But now let us on our part act on the offensive, and
call on them for an answer ; for it is fair time, when
their own ground has failed them, to question them on
ours ; perhaps it may abash the perverse, and make them
see whence they have fallen. It has been shown above
that the appellation " Son " is so far from implying
beginning of existence as actually to suggest co-existence
and co-eternity and co-divinity with God the Father.
But, besides this, I have incidentally referred to the
passages in Holy Scripture which speak of our Lord as
the Divine Word and Wisdom, and the meaning of these
titles, when carefully considered, is a confirmation that
He is truly and literally the Son. The Apostle, for
instance, says, Christ the Power of God and t/ie Wisdom of
God ; and John after saying, and the Word was made flesh,
at once adds, And we have seen His glory, the glory as of
the Only-leyotten of the Father, full of grace and truth ;
so that, the Word being the Only-begotten Son, is also
that Power and that Wisdom by which heaven and earth
and all that is therein were made. In like manner we have
learnt from Baruch that Wisdom conies from a Fountain, 2
and that that Fountain is God ; what then is Wisdom
but His Son ? Now, if they deny Scripture, they are
at once aliens from the Christian name, and may fitly be
called of all men atheists, and Christ's enemies, for they
have brought upon themselves these titles. But if they
agree with us that the sayings of Scripture are divinely
inspired, let them dare to say openly what they think in
secret, that the Word and Wisdom being the Son, the Word
32 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. iv. and Wisdom of the Father had a beginning, that is, that
God was once wordless and wisdomless ; and let them in
their madness say, " There was once when He was not,"
and " before His generation, Christ was not ; " and again
let them declare that the Fountain begat not Wisdom
from Itself, but acquired It from without, till they have
the daring to say, " The Son came of nothing ; " whence
it will follow that His origin is no longer a Fountain, but
a sort of pool, as if merely receiving water from without,
and usurping the name of Fountain.
21. How full of impiety this is, I consider none can
doubt who has ever so little understanding ; however,
they shall be answered as Arius was, and as I noticed when
I began. They whisper something about titles, Word
and Wisdom are titles of the Son, only titles ; 3 titles !
then what is His real name ? What is He really ? is He
more than those titles, or less than them ? If He is
greater than the titles, it is not lawful from the lesser to
designate the higher, but, if He be in His own nature less
than the titles, then it follows that He has earned what
is higher than His original self, and this implies in Him a
moral advance, which is an impiety equal to anything that
has gone before. For that He who is in the Father, and in
whom also the Father is, who says, I and the Father are
one, whom he that hath seen, hath seen the Father, to imply,
I say, by the titles you give Him that He has been im-
proved by anything external, is the extreme of madness.
22. However, when they are beaten hence, and like the
old Eusebians are in these great straits, then they have
this remaining plea, which Arius too in ballads, and in
his own Thalia, fabled, starting it as a new difficulty :
" Many words speaketh God ; which then of these are we
to call Son and Word, Only-begotten of the Father ? "
Insensate, and anything but Christians ! for first, in using
3 Vid. 6v6/j.aTa..
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 33
such language about God, they are not far from con- ED. BEN.
ceiving of Him as a man, who speaks and then modifies His -
first words by His second, just as if one Word from God
were not sufficient for the framing of all things at the
Father's will, and for His providential care of all. For
His speaking many words would argue a feebleness in
them all, each needing the service of the other. But
that God should act through One Word, which is the true
doctrine, both shows the power of God, and the perfection
of the Word that is from Him, and the pious understanding
of them who thus believe.
23. O that they would be led to confess the truth from these
their own admissions now ! how near they come to it, in
order to start off again in hopeless divergence ! They grant
that "many words speaketh God," and what is such utter-
ance but in some sort a bringing forth ? He is a Father
of words ; then why not in that way which is most
perfect ? why not rather the Father of One Word than of
many ? of a Word substantive and from His own fulness
rather than of mere utterances * which come and go and
have no stay ? These men are loth to say that there
is no substantial Word of God, why then do they not
go on to confess that that Word is a Son also ? Is Son a
mere title without substance ? and must not also that
Word be a reflection or image ? and, as God is One, is not
His Image substantive and one ? and who is that but the
One Son ? All these appellations look to one Object, and
each of them subserves the rest. For the Son of God, as may
be learnt from the divine oracles themselves, is Himself
the Word of God, and the Wisdom, and the Image, and
the Hand, and the Power; for God's Offspring is One, and
of the generation from the Father these titles are tokens. 5
If you say the Son, you have declared what is from the
Father by nature ; and if you imagine the Word, you are
* Vid. Economical language. 5 Vid. App. The Word, p. 337.
D
34 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. IV. thinking again of what is from Him, and what is in-
separable; and speaking of Wisdom, again you mean in
like manner, what is not from without, but from Him and
in Him; and if you name the Power and the Hand, again
you speak of what is proper to the substance ; and,
speaking of the Image, you signify the Son ; for what else
is like God but the Offspring from Him ? Doubtless the
things which came into being through the Word, these are
founded in Wisdom; and what are founded in Wisdom, these
are all made by the Hand, and came to be through the Son.
24. And we have proof of this, not from adventitious
authorities, but from the Scriptures ; for God Himself says
by Esaias the Prophet, My Hand also hath laid the founda-
tion of the earth, and My right Hand hath spanned the heavens.
And again, And I have covered them in the shadow of My
Hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations
of the earth. And David being taught this, and knowing
that the Lord's Hand was nothing else than Wisdom, says
in the Psalm, In Wisdom hast Thou made them all ; the earth
is full of Thy riches. Solomon also received the same from
God, and said, The Lord ~by Wisdom hath founded the earth;
and John knowing that the Word was the Hand and the
Wisdom, thus preaches the gospel, In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word ivas with God, and the Word was God;
the same was in the beginning with God: all things were made
by Him, and without Him ivas not anything made. And the
Apostle, understanding that the Hand and the Wisdom and
the Word was nothing else than the Son, says, God who at
sundry times and in divers manners spalte in time post unto
the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all
things, by whom also He made the ages. And again, There
is One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we
through Him. And knowing also that the Word, the
Wisdom, the Son was the Image Himself of the Father,
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 35
he says in the Epistle to the Colossians, Giving thanks to ED. BEN.
God and the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers -
of the inheritance of the saints in light, ivho hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son ; in whom we have redemption, even
the remission of sins; ivlw is the Image of the Invisible God
the First-born of every creature; for by Him were all tilings
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, ivhether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities,
or powers ; all things were created by Him and for Him :
and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
25. For as all things are created by the Word, so,
because He is the Image, 6 are they also created in Him.
And thns a man who directs his thoughts to the Lord
will be saved from stumbling upon the stone of offence,
and will go forward to that illumination which streams
from the light of truth ; for this is really the sentiment
of pieby, though these contentious men burst with spite,
neither devout towards God, nor abashed by the argu-
ments which confute them.
CHAPTER V.
26. Now the Eusebians were at that former time exa-
mined at great length, and passed sentence on themselves,
as I said before; on this they subscribed; and after this
change of mind they kept in quiet and retirement; but
since the present party, in the wantonness of impiety, and
in their wild vagaries about the truth, are full set upon
accusing the Council, let them tell us, I repeat, what
is the sort of Scriptures from which they have learned,
or who is the Saint by whom they have been taught, to
6 Vid. Iniftf/c.
D2
36 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. v. heap together their phrases, "Out of nothing," and "He
was not before His generation," and " Once He was not,"
and "Alterable," and the " Pre-existence," and "At God's
will ; " which are their fables in mockery of the Lord.
Considering then that they on their part have made
use of phrases not in Scripture, 7 and that with a view
thereby of expressing impious notions, it does not become
them to find fault with those who for a pious purpose go
beyond Scripture. Disguise it as you will by artful terms
and plausible sophisms, impiety is a sin; but represent the
truth under ever so strange a formula, while it is truth, it
at least is piety. That what these Christ-opposers advanced
was impious falsehood, I have proved both now and
formerly; that what the Council defined was pious truth
is equally clear, as will be granted by any careful inquirer
into the occasion of the definition. It was as follows :
27. The Council wishing to condemn the impious phrases
of the Arians, and to use instead the received terms of
Scripture, namely, that the Son is not from nothing, but
from God, and is the Word and Wisdom and not a creature or
work, but the proper Offspring from the Father, the party
of Eusebius, out of their inveterate heterodoxy, understood
the phrase from God as common to Him and to us, as if in
respect to it the Word of God differed nothing from us,
and this, because it is written, There is One God, from ivhom
all things ; and again, Old things are passed away, behold all
things are new, and all things are from God. But the
Fathers, perceiving their craft and the cunning of their
impiety, were forced thereupon to express more dis-
tinctly the sense of the words from God. Accordingly,
they wrote " from the substance of God," in order that
from God might not be considered common and equal in
the Son and in things which are made, but that all
others might be acknowledged as creatures, and the Word
7 Vid. Scripture.
NICENB DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 37
alone as from the Father. For though all things be said ED. BEN.
e jo ort
to be from God, 8 yet this is not in the sense in which the
Son is from Him ; for as to the creatures, "from God 7 ' is
said of them, in that they exist not at random or spon-
taneously, nor come into being by chance, according to
those philosophers who refer them to the combination
of atoms, and to elements which are homogeneous, nor as
certain heretics imagine some other Framer, nor as others
again say that the constitution of all things is from certain
Angels ; not for these reasons, but because, whereas there
is a God, it was by Him that all things were brought into
being, when as yet they were not, through His Word;
and as to the Word, since He is not a creature, He alone
is really, as well as is called, from the Father ; and this is
signified, when it is said that the Son is "from the sub-
stance of the Father," for to no creature does this attach.
In truth, when Paul says that all things are from God, he
immediately adds, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom
all things, by way of showing all men that the Son is other
than all those things which came into being from God, 9 (for
as to the things which came from God, it was through the Son
that they came) ; and he used the words which I have
quoted with reference to the world as framed by God, and
not as if all things proceeded from the Father as the Son
does. For neither are other things as the Son is, nor is the
Word one among those other, for He is Lord and Framer of
all ; and on this account did the Holy Council declare
expressly that He was of the substance of the Father, that
we might believe the Word to be other in nature than
things which have a beginning, as being alone truly
from God ; and that no subterfuge should be left open to
the impious. This then was the reason why the Council
wrote "Of the substance."
28. Again, when the Bishops said that the Word must
8 Vid. yevvr]Tov. Vid.
38 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. v. be described as the True Power and image of the Father,
as the exact Likeness 1 of the Father in all things, and as
unalterable, and as always, and as in Him without division ;
(for never was the Word not in being, but He was always
existing everlastingly with the Father, as the radiance of
light,) then the party of Eusebius endured it indeed, as not
daring to contradict, being put to shame by the arguments
which were urged against them ; but withal they were caught
whispering to each other and winking with their eyes, that
" like " and " always," and " the attribute of power," and
" in Him," were, as before, common to us and to the Son,
and that it was no difficulty to agree to these statements. As
to " like," they said that it is written of us, Man is the image
and glory of God ; " always," that it was written, For ive
which live are always; " In God," In Him we live and move
and have our being; "unalterable," that it is written.
Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ ; as to
" power," that even the caterpillar and the locust are
called power and great poiver, and that it is often said of
the people, for instance, All the power of the Lord came
out of the land of Egypt ; and others are heavenly powers,
for Scripture says, The Lord of poivers is with us, the God of
Jacob is our refuge. Indeed Asterius, by title the sophist,
had said the like in writing, having learned it from them,
and before him Arius having learned it also, as has been
said. But the Bishops, discerning in this too their simula-
tion, and whereas it is written, Deceit is in the heart of the
impious that imagine evil, were again compelled on their
part to concentrate the sense of the Scriptures, and to re-
say and re-write more distinctly still, what they had said
before, namely, that the Son is " Consubstantial " with the
Father ; by way of signifying that the Son is from the
Father, and not merely like, but is the same in likeness,
and of showing that the Son's likeness and unalterable-
1 Vid. aTrapa.\\a.KTov.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 39
ness are different from su.cn copy of the same as is ED. BEN.
20.
ascribed to us, which we acquire from virtuous living and -
the observance of the commandments.
29. For bodies which are like each other admit of
separation and of becoming far off from each other, as
are human sons relatively to their parents, (as it is
written concerning Adam and Seth who was begotten
of him, that he was like him after his own pattern ;) but
since the generation of the Son from the Father is not
according to the nature of men, and He is not only like
but also inseparable from the substance of the Father, and
He and the Father are One, as He has said Himself, and
the Word is ever in the Father and the Father in the
Word, as is the radiance relatively to the light, (for this
the very term indicates,) therefore the Council, as under-
standing this, suitably wrote " Consubstantial," 2 that they
might both defeat the perverseness of the heretics, and
show that the Word was other than created things. For,
after thus writing, they at once added, " But they who
say that the Son of God is from nothing, or created, or
alterable, or a work, or from other substance, these the
Holy Catholic Church anathematises." And in saying this,
they showed clearly that " Of the substance," and " Con-
substantial," do condemn those impious words, "created,"
and "work," and "brought into being," and "alterable,"
and " He was not before His generation." And he who holds
these contradicts the Council ; but he who does not hold
with Arius, must needs hold and enter into the decisions
of the Council, suitably regarding them to imply the
relation of the radiance to the light, and from thence
gaining an image of the sacred truth.
30. Therefore if these men, as their predecessors, make it
an excuse that the terms are strange, let them consider the
sense in which the Council so wrote, and anathematise
2 Vid. 6/j.oovaLov.
40 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. v. what the Council anathematised ; and then, if they can,
let them find fault with those very terms. For I well
know that, if they hold the sense of the Council, they will
fully accept the terms in which it is conveyed ; whereas
if it be the sense which they wish to complain of, all
must see that it is idle in them to discuss the wording,
when they are but seeking for themselves excuses for a
doctrine which is impious.
31. This then was the reason of these words ; but if they
still complain that such are not scriptural, I observe first,
that they have to blame themselves, and no one else in this
matter, for it was they who set the example, beginning their
war against God with statements not in Scripture ; and
next, as any one who cares to inquire may easily ascer-
tain, granting that the terms employed by the Council
are not absolutely in Scripture, still, as I have said before,
they contain the sense of Scripture. 3 Moreover, should they
object that to speak of the substance of God is to teach
that He is of a compound nature, (substance implying
accidents, 4 and divinity, fatherhood and the like being
therefore in the number of certain accidents by which
His substance is clad or supplemented, 5 ) I reply that the
blasphemy, for such it is, is theirs, not ours. For we
hold nothing of the kind. This would be to hold that
God is material, and that His Son is after all not from
His substance, but from a certain attribute or power
which is attached to Him. But no ; on the contrary, God
is transcendently simple, and being such, it follows that
in saying " God " and naming " Father," we name nothing
besides Him, but we signify His substance or essence Itself.
For though to comprehend what the substance of God is be
impossible, yet let us only understand of God that He is a
Being or Essence, and then, if Scripture indicates Him by
3 Vid. Scripture.
4 Vid. c-u/
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 41
means of these names, we too, with the intention of indicating ED. BEN.
Him and none else, call Him God, and Father, and Lord.
32. When then He says, I am He that is, 6 and I am the Lord
God, or when Scripture says, God, we understand nothing
else by the words but an intimation of His incompre-
hensible substance Itself, and that He Is, who is spoken
of. Therefore let no one be startled on hearing that the
Son of God is from the substance of the Father; rather
let him accept the explanation of the Bishops, who in
more explicit but equivalent language have for from God
written " Of the substance." For they considered it the
same thing to say that the Word was of God and " of
the substance of God," since the word " God," as I have
already said, signifies nothing but the substance or essence
of Him who is. If then the Word is not in such sense
from God, as to be Son, genuine and natural, from the
Father, but only as creatures are from Him, as being framed,
and as all things are from God, then neither is He from the
substance of the Father, nor again is the Son according to
substance Son, but in consequence of virtue, as we who
are called sons by grace. But if only He is from God,
as a genuine Son, as He is, then let the Son, as is reason-
able, be called from the substance of God. And the
illustration of Light and its Radiance bears the same
way. For the sacred writers have not said that the
Word was related to God as fire kindled from the heat
of the sun, which after a while goes out, for this is an
external work and a creature of its author, but they all
preach of Him as Radiance, 7 thereby to signify His being
from the Divine substance, proper and indivisible, and to ex-
press His oneness with the Father. This also will secure His
true unalterableness and immutability ; for how can these
be His, unless He be proper Offspring s of the Father's
6 Vid. 6V. s Vid.
7 Vid.
42 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP, v substance ? for this too must be taken to confirm His
identity with His own Father. And so again, if He be
the Word, the Wisdom, the Father's Image, as well as
Radiance, on these accounts He plainly must be consub-
stantial. For unless it be proved that He is not an
offspring from Grod, but an instrument 9 different both in
nature and in substance, surely the Council was happy
in its wording as well as orthodox in its sense.
33. By this Offspring the Father made all things, and by
Him, who is His Radiance, diffusing His universal Provi-
dence, He exercises His love to men ; not as if Light were a
simple property lodged in the Son (as perhaps they will say)
and only acted through Him, for it is Itself one with the
Father, no channel foreign in substance to the Light and to
its Fountain, no mere creation ; no, this is the belief of
Caiaphas and Samosatene, but the Light which is from the
Father He possesses in fulness, and of Him others receive
according to the measure of each, no intermediate existing
between the Father and Him by whom all things have been
brought into being. And in Him is the Father revealed
and known, and with Him frames the world, and does all
things, and is partaken by all things, for all things partake of
the Son, as partaking of the Holy Ghost. And these preroga-
tives of the Son show beyond cavil that He is no creature, but
a proper Offspring from the Father, as radiance is from
light.
CHAPTER VI.
34. THIS then is the intention with which the Fathers
who met together at Nicaea made use of these terms ;
and next, having shown this, I will recur to what I
said when I began. I said that at the Council, Euse-
9 Vid. opyavov.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 43
bius, after objecting to the definition passed by the ED. BEN.
Fathers assembled, acknowledged that it expressed the -
Church's faith, as it had come down to us by tradition.
I then went on to say that certainly what those who went
before us had delivered to us was the true doctrine, and of
final authority, and to be followed. However, I thought
it best, instead of simply appealing to the voice of
Antiquity or of the agreement of Bishops, to explain and
defend once more the phrases in which the Council had
thought right to convey the Christian Truth. This I
have now done ; but I will not bring my letter to an
end without giving these heretical teachers specimens of
the language of writers of an earlier date, which are in
accordance with that to which the Arians take exception.
35. Know then first, O Arians, foes of Christ, that
Theognostus, 1 a learned man, did not decline the phrase
" Of the substance," for in the second book of his Hypo-
typoses, he writes thus of the Son :
Testimony of Theognostus.
" The substance of the Son is not any addition from
without, brought into the Divine Nature by a fresh crea-
tion, but It sprang from the Father's substance, as the
radiance of light, as the vapour 2 of water ; for neither the
radiance, nor the vapour, is the water itself or the sun
itself, nor is it alien, but is an effluence of the Father's
substance, which, however, suffers no partition. For as
the sun remains the same, and is not impaired by the
rays poured forth by it, so neither does the Father's
substance suffer change, though it has the Son as an
Image of Itself."
Theognostus then, after first investigating in the way
1 Vid. Theognostus. Origen. Periarch, i. 2, n. 5, ad. 9.
2 Vid. Wisd. vii. 25, and so And Athan. Sent. Dion. 15.
44 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. VL of an exercise, 3 proceeds to lay down his own sentiments in
the foregoing words.
36. Next Dionysius, who was Bishop of Alexandria,
upon his writing against Sabellius, and expounding at
large the Saviour's economy according to the flesh, and
thence proving against the Sabellians that not the Father
but His Word was made flesh, as John has said, was
suspected of saying that the Son was a creature and
brought into being, and not consubstantial with the
Father ; on this he writes to his namesake Dionysius,
Bishop of Rome, to explain that this was a slander upon
him. And he assured him that he had not called the
Son a creature, but on the contrary, that he did confess
Him to be nothing else than consubstantial. And his
words run thus :
Testimony of Dionysius of Alexandria.
" And I have written in another letter a refutation of
the false charge they bring against me, that I deny that
Christ was consubstantial with God. For though I say
that I have not found this term anywhere in Hoty
Scripture, yet my remarks which follow, and which they
have not quoted, are not inconsistent with that belief.
For I instanced a human production as being evidently
homogeneous, and I observed that undeniably parents
differed from their children only in not being simply the
same, otherwise there could be neither parents nor chil-
dren. And my letter, as I said before, owing to present
3 tv yv/iiv curia ee'ra<7cts. And so fj.iav, economically, or with refer-
infr. 37 of Origen, ftr&v /ecu yv/jt.- ence to certain persons addressed
vafav at a time when the points or objects contemplated, de Sent,
discussed had not been defined. D. 6. and 26. In somewhat the
Constantino, too. writing to Alex- same manner St. Thomas in his
ander and Arius, speaks of alter- Summa first sets down the
cation. 0ucri/c^s TU>OS yvfJLv curias opinions he means to reject, and
evcKa. So'T. i. 7. In somewhat the reasons for them, and then
a similar way. Athanasius speaks his own.
of Dionvpiup writing /car' OLKOVO-
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 45
circumstances I am unable to produce ; or I would have
sent you the very words I used, or rather a copy of the
whole, which, if I have an opportunity, I will do still.
But my memory is clear that I adduced various parallels
of things kindred with each other ; for instance, that a
plant, grown from seed or from root, was other than that
from which it sprang, yet was altogether one in nature
with it : and that a stream flowing from a fountain,
gained a new name, for that neither the fountain was
called stream, nor the stream fountain, and both existed,
and the stream was the water from the fountain."
37. And that the Word of God is not a work or creature,
but an Offspring proper to the Father's substance and
indivisible from it, as the great Council wrote, here you
may see in the words of Dionysius, Bishop of Rome,
who, while writing against the Sabellians, thus inveighs
against those who dared to use their language :
Testimony of Dionysius of Rome.
" Next, I have reason to mention those who separate and
tear into portions and destroy that most sacred doctrine of
the Church of God, the Divine Monarchy,* resolving it
into certain three powers and divided subsistences and
godheads three. I am told that some of your catechists
and teachers of the Divine Word take the lead in this
tenet, being in diametrical opposition, so to speak, to
Sabellius's opinions ; for he blasphemously says that the
Son is the Father and the Father the Son, but they in
some sort preach three Gods, as dividing the Holy Monad
into three subsistences foreign to each other and utterly
separate. For it must needs be that with the God of the
Universe the Divine Word is united, and the Holy
Ghost must repose and habitate in God ; thus, in One as
in a summit, I mean the God of the Universe, the Omni-
* Vid.
46 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. VI. potent God, the Divine Triad 5 must of necessity be gathered
up and brought together. For it is the doctrine of the
presumptuous Marcion, to sever and divide the Divine
Monarchy 6 into three origins, a devil's teaching, not that
of Christ's true disciples and lovers of the Saviour's
lessons. For these know well that a Triad is preached by
divine Scripture, but that neither Old Testament nor New
preaches three Gods.
" Equally must we censure those who hold the Son
to be a work, and consider that the Lord has come into
being, as one of things which really came to be; whereas
the divine oracles witness to a generation suitable to Him
and becoming, but not to any fashioning or making. A
blasphemy then is it, not ordinary, but even the highest,
to say that the Lord is in any sort a handiwork. For if
He became Son, once He was not ; bat He was always, if
(that is) He be in the Father, as He says Himself, and if
the Christ be Word and Wisdom and Power, (which, as
ye know, divine Scripture says,) and these attributes be
powers of God. If then the Son came into being, once
these attributes were not ; consequently there was a
season when God was without them ; which is most
extravagant. And why treat more on these points to
you, men full of the Spirit, and well aware of the extrava-
gances which come into view from saying that the Son is a
work ?
"Not attending, as I consider, to these, the originators
of this opinion have entirely missed the truth, in under-
standing, contrary to the sense of divine and prophetic
Scripture in the passage, the words, The Lord hath created
Me a beginning of His ways unto His works. For He created,
as ye know, has various senses ; and in this place it
must be taken to mean, ' He set Me over the works made
by Him,' that is, the works ' made by the Son Himself.'
5 Vid. rpifa. 6 Or, one Origin.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 47
And He created here must not be taken for made, for creating ED. BEN.
26.
differs from making; Is not He Thy Father that hath
bought tliee ? hath He not made thee and created thee ? says
Moses in his great Song in Deuteronomy. And one may
say to them, is He a work, reckless men, who is the
First-born of every creature, who is born from the womb
before the morning star, who said, as Wisdom, Before all
the hills He begets Me ? And in many passages of the
divine oracles is the Son said to have been generated, but
not to have come into being, passages which manifestly
convict of misconception those men who presume to call His
divine and ineffable generation a making.
"Neither then may we divide into three Godheads the
wonderful and divine Monad ; nor disparage with the
name of ' creature ' the dignity and exceeding majesty of
the Lord ; but we must believe in God the Father
Almighty, and in Christ Jesus His Son, and in the Holy
Ghost, and hold that to the God of the universe the
Word is united. For J, says He, and the Father are one;
and I in the Father and the Father in Me. For thus both
the Divine Triad, and the holy preaching of the Monarchy,
will be secured."
38. And concerning the everlasting co-existence of the
Word with the Father, and that He is not of another
substance or subsistence, but proper to the Father's, as
the Bishops in the Council said, hear again from the
labour-loving Origen 7 also. For what he has written 8 as
7 Montfaucon's text runs as I keep dXXa, remove the stop from
follows: d /J.ev u>s fr)Tu>t> /cat yvjmvd- 5ex&r0w TIS to frTeiv, and for d5etDs
fav ypa\{/e, ravra /j.rj ws avrov (ppo- read d 5e u>s, thus: ravra (JLT] <1>? avrov
VOVVTOS dexfodu TIS- dXXd r&v trpbs <f>povovvTos be^irdu TIS, dXXa rCov
pi.v (j)i\oveiKovvTwv ei> rip frreiv, irpbs Spiv $i\ovet.KOiL)VTWv ev r<f
dSecDs bpifav a.Tro(paiveTai, TOVTO ^reiv d 5e cl>s bpifav apo0cuVercu
TOU (f)i\oir6vov TO (f>p6vT)/j.d eari. TOVTO TOV <pi\OTr6vov TO <pp6vrjfji.d
For dXXa he reads dXX' d. " Certe eVrt.
legendum dXX' d, idque omnino 8 Vid. also Serap. iv. 9.
exigit sensus." On the contrary
48 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. VI. if inquiring and exercising himself, that let no one take
as expressive of his own sentiments, but of parties who
are disputing in the course of investigation ; but what he
definitely pronounces, that is the sentiment of the
labour-loving man. After his disputations then against
the heretics, straightway he introduces his personal belief,
thus :
Testimony of Origen.
" If there be an Image of the Invisible God, it is an
invisible Image ; nay, I will be bold to add, that, as being
the Likeness of the Father, never was it not. For when
was that God, who, according to John, is called Light,
(for God is Light,) without the Radiance of His proper
glory, that a man should presume to assign the Son's
beginning of existence, as if He were not before ? But
when was not in existence that Image of the Father's
Ineffable and Indescribable and Unutterable subsistence,
that Impress and Word, who alone knows the Father ?
for let him understand well who dares to say, ' Once the
Son was not,' that he is saying, * Once Wisdom was not,'
and l the Word was not,' and ' Life was not.' "
And again elsewhere he says :
Another Testimony.
11 But it is not without sin or peril, if because of our
weakness of understanding we deprive God, as far as in
us lies, of the Only-begotten Word ever co-existing with
Him, being the Wisdom in which He rejoiced ; else He
must be conceived as not always possessed of blessedness."
39. See, we are proving that this view has been trans-
mitted from father to father; but ye, O modern Jews and
disciples of Caiaphas, what fathers can ye assign to your
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 49
phrases ? Not one of the understanding and wise ; for KD. BEN.
all abhor you, save the devil alone 5 none but he is your -
father in such an apostasy, who both in the beginning
scattered on your minds the seeds of this impiety, and
now persuades you to slander the Ecumenical 9 Council,
for committing to writing, not your doctrines, but that
which from the beginning those wlio were eye-witnesses and
ministers of the Word have handed down to us. For the
faith which the Council has confessed in writing, 1 that is
the faith of the Catholic Church; to vindicate this faith,
the blessed Fathers so wrote, and thereby condemned the
Arian heresy ; and this is a chief reason why these men
apply themselves to calumniate the Council. For it is
not the terms which distress them, but because those
terms proved them to be heretics, and daring beyond their
fellows.
CHAPTER VII.
40. AT Nicsea then, many years since, their heretical
phrases were exposed and anathematised ; this has led to
their looking for new arguments, and it has issued in
their borrowing from the Greeks a weapon for their
need, namely, the term " Ingenerate," 2 that, by means
of it, they may reckon among the things which were
made that Word of God, by whom those very things
came into being. However it would seem as if they
really did not know what the Greeks meant by the term,
for the Greek doctrine concerning it in fact tells pointedly
against the use to which they put it. The Greeks, let it
be observed, after deriving Mind from Good, and the
universal Soul from Mind, have no difficulty in calling
all three Ingenerate ; Mind and Soul as well as Good,
9 Viol. Ecumenical. 2 Vid. o,
1 Yid. Definition.
50 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. vii. from which Mind and Soul proceed. 3 If then these men
must have recourse to heathen writers, let them be quite
sure that the said writers make for them; but well I
know, they never would have appealed to the Greeks in
defence of their 'heresy, if they had any sanction of it in
Scripture; and, as I on my part, have been stating the
reason and the meaning with which the Council, and the
Fathers earlier than it, defined and committed to writing
"Of the substance" and " Consubstantial " agreeably to
what Scripture * says, so I think I may fairly call upon
these Arians to tell us now, if indeed they can, what has
led them to this unscriptural term, " Ingenerate," what is
the sense in which they consider it to belong to God, and
why not to His Son and Word.
41. In truth, I am told 5 that the term has various senses:
philosophers say that it means, 6 first, "what has not yet
come, but may come, into being; next, what neither has
come into being, nor can come ; and thirdly, what exists
without any birth or becoming, but is everlasting and
indestructible. The first sense is nothing to the purpose,
nor is the second ; it is the third which they endeavour
to make available to their purpose, arguing thus : that
to be ingenerate is an attribute of God, that to be in-
generate is to be without birth or becoming, but that
a Son is born into being. But who does not comprehend
the craft of these foes of God ? here is a manifest equivo-
cation. It is possible to be ingenerate, that is, from
eternity, and yet to have an origin, that is, a Father; in
other words, to have a birth and not a becoming, a deri-
3 Vid. Mopctpx'a- nor can be ; 3. what exists, but lias
* Vid. Scripture. not come to be from any cause ; 4.
5 Vid. Athana&'itis. what is not made, but is ever.
6 Four senses of ayev^rov are Only two senses are specified, infr.
enumerated, infr. Disc. ch. 10. p. ch. 6, pp. 141, 142, and in these the
205. 1. What is not as yet, but is question really lies : 1. what is.
possible; 2. what neither has been. but without a cause ; 2. uncreate.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 51
vation and yet not a beginning. Even the Greeks, as I have ED. BEN.
said, hold an eternal derivation. Our Lord is ingenerate -
as being eternally one with God, generate as being His
Son. He has a birth without a becoming.
42. However, the mania of these men is such that they
say that a son is generate, and generate means made, and
what is made comes "out of nothing;" and what has an
origin " is not before its generation," and what is not
eternal " once was not." Next, when detected in their
sophisms they begin again, after this fashion, that to be
ingenerate is to have no author of being, and an author is
a maker, and therefore the Son is made, and is one of the
creatures. Unthankful, and in truth deaf to the Scrip-
tures, who do everything, and say everything, not to
honour God, but to dishonour the Son, ignorant that he
who dishonours the Son, dishonours the Father ! If He
be viewed as Offspring of the substance of the Father,
He is of consequence with Him eternally. For this name
of Offspring does not detract from the nature of the
Word, nor does Ingenerate imply a contrast with the Son,
but with the things which come into being through the
Son ; and as those who address an architect, and call
him framer of house or city, do not under this desig-
nation include the son who is begotten from him, but on
account of the art and science which he displays in his
work, call him artificer, signifying thereby that he is not
such as the things made by him, and while they know the
nature of the builder, know also that he whom he begets
is in nature other than his works ; and in regard to his
son call him father, but in regard to his works, creator
and maker ; in like manner he who says that God is
ingenerate, invents a name for Him when compared with His
works, signifying, not only that He is not brought into being
but that He is maker of things which are so brought ; yet
is aware withal that the Word is other than the things
E2
52 EPISTLE OF ATHAXASIDS IN DEFENCE OF THE
('HAP. vi r. that are made, and alone is a proper Offspring of the Father,
through whom all things came to be and consist. 7
43. In like manner, when the Prophets spoke of God as
All-powerful, they did not so name Him, as if the Word
were included in that All ; (for they knew that the Son was
other than things made, and Sovereign over them Himself,
by virtue of His likeness to the Father ;) but because,
while Sovereign over all things which through the Son
He has made, God has given the authority of these things to
bhe Son, and having given it, still is Himself as ever, the
Lord of all things through Him. Again, when they called
God, Lord of hosts, they said not this as if the Word was
included in those hosts, but because, while He is Father of
the Son, He is Lord of the hosts or powers which through
the Son have come to be. And the Word too, as being
in the Father, is Himself Lord of them all, and Sovereign
over all ; for all things, whatsoever the Father hath, are
the Son's. This then being the force of such titles, in like
manner let a man call God ingenerate, if it so please him ;
not however as if the Word were one of things generate or
made, but because, as I said before, God not only is not
made, but through His proper Word is He the maker of
things which are made. For though the Father be specially
called Maker, still the Word is the Father's Image and con-
substantial with Him ; and being His Image, He must be
other than creatures altogether ; for of whom He is the
Image, to Him doth He belong and is like : so that he who
calls the Father ingenerate and almighty, perceives in the
Ingenerate and the Almighty, His Word and His Wisdom,
which is the Son. But these wondrous men, and prone to
impiety, hit upon the term Ingenerate, not as caring for
God's honour, but from malevolence towards the Saviour ;
for if they had regard to His honour and worship, it rather
7 Athanasius repeats this pas- Disc. eh. 10, p. 208, &c. ; also vid.
sage in his first Orat. i. infr. Basil c. Eunom. i. 16.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 53
had been right and good to acknowledge and to call Him EI>. BEX.
Father, than to give Him this name ; for in calling Him -
ingenerate, they are, as I said before, calling Him strictly
from His relation to things which came into being, and simply
as a Maker, that so they may imply even the Word to be
a work after their own desire ; but he who calls God Father,
thereby in Him signifies His Son also, and will not fail to
understand that, whereas there is a Son, through this Son
all things that came into existence were created.
44. I repeat, it will be much more accurate to denote
God from the Son, and to call Him Father, than to name
Him and call Him Ingenerate from His works merely ; for
the latter term refers to the works that have been brought
into being at the will of God through the Word, but the
name of Father betokens the proper Offspring from His
substance. And by how much the Word surpasses things
made or generate, by so much and more also doth calling
God Father surpass the calling Him Ingenerate ; for the
latter is unscriptural and suspicious, as it has various
senses ; but the former is simple and scriptural, and more
accurate, and alone implies the Son. And " Ingenerate "
is a word of the Greeks who know not the Son : but
" Father " has been acknowledged and vouchsafed to us by
our Lord ; for He, Himself, knowing whose Son He was, said,
I in the Father and the Father in Me; and, He that hath
seen Me hath seen the Father; and, I and the Father are one;
but nowhere is He found to call the Father Ingenerate.
Moreover, when He teaches us to pray, He says not,
" When ye pray, say, God Ingenerate," but rather When
ye pray, say, Our Father, ivlw art in heaven.
45. Moreover, it was His Will, that the compendium of
our faith should look the same way. For He has bid us be
baptised, not into the name of the Ingenerate and generate,
not into the name of Uncreate and creature, but into the
name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; for with such an
54 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
CHAP. vii. initiation we also are made sons verily, 8 and, while using
the name of the Father, we acknowledge from that name, the
Word in the Father. But if He wills that we should call
His own Father our Father, we must not on that account
measure ourselves with the Son according to nature, for it
is because of the Son that the Father is so called by us ;
for since the Word bore our body and in us came to be,
therefore, by reason of the Word in us, is God called our
Father. For the Spirit of the Word in us, addresses through
us His own Father as ours, which is the Apostle's meaning
when he says, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
46. So much on the term " Ingenerate," which admits
indeed of a pious use, but, in the hands of Christ's foes,
has but covered them with shame, as did their words and
deeds at the beginning. How the Council, then assem-
bled at Nica3a, met them, with what prudence and with
what fidelity to Holy Scripture and the Fathers, I have
related and explained to the best of my powers ; but I
cannot hope that those restless spirits will give up their
opposition now any more than then. They will doubtless
run about in search of other pretences, and of others again
after those. When, in the Prophet's words, will the Ethiopian
change his skin or the leopard his spots ? Thou, however,
Beloved, on receiving this, read it by thyself ; and, if thou
approvest of it, read it also to the brethren, who are with
thee, that they too, on hearing it, may respond to the
Council's zeal for the truth and for doctrinal exactness,
and may reprobate the heresy and the controversial devices
of the Arian faction ; because to God, even the Father, is
due the glory, honour, and worship, with His co-unoriginate
Son and Word, together with the All-holy and life-giving
Spirit, new and unto endless ages of ages. Amen.
8 Vid. K6pios and
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 55
APPENDIX.
LETTER OF EUSEBIUS OF C^ESAREA TO THE PEOPLE OF HIS
DIOCESE.
47. WHAT was transacted concerning the Faith of the ED. BEN.
Church at the Great Council assembled at Nicasa, you -
have probably learned, Beloved, from other quarters,
rumour being wont to precede the accurate account of
what is doing. But lest in such reports the circumstances
of the case should have been misrepresented to you, we have
thought it necessary to transmit to you, first, the formula
of faith presented by ourselves, and then, the second,
which the Fathers put forth with some additions to our
words. Our own formula then, which was read in the
presence of our most pious 9 Emperor, and declared to be
good and unexceptionable, ran thus :
48. "As we have received from the Bishops who pre-
ceded us, and in our first catechisings, and when we
received Holy Baptism, and as we have learned from the
divine Scriptures, and as we believed and taught when in
the order of presbyters, and in the Episcopate itself, so
believing also at the time present, we report to you our
faith, and it is this :
Greed of Eusebius.
"We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, the
Maker of all things visible and invisible.
*' And in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God
from God, Light from Light, Life from Life, Son Only-
begotten, first-born of every creature, before all the ages
begotten from the Father, through whom also all things
were made ; who for our salvation was made flesh, and
lived among men, and suffered and rose again the third
day, and ascended to the Father, and will come again in
glory to judge quick and dead.
9 Vid. Imperial titles.
56 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
" And we believe also in one Holy Ghost ; believing
each, of These to be and to exist, the Father truly Father,
and the Son truly Son, and the Holy Ghost truly Holy
Ghost ; as also our Lord, sending forth His disciples for the
preaching, said, Go, teaoh all the nations, baptising them in
the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Concerning whom we confidently affirm that so
we hold and so we think, and so we have held aforetime,
and that we maintain this faith unto the death, anathe-
matising every godless heresy. That this we have ever
thought from our heart and soul, from the time we recol-
lect ourselves, and now think and say in truth, before
God Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ do we bear
witness, being able by proofs to show and to convince you
that also in times past such was our belief and such our
preaching."
49. On this faith being publicly put forth by us, no
room for contradiction appeared to any one ; but our most
pious Emperor himself before any one else, testified that
it comprised most orthodox statements. He confessed
moreover, that such were his own sentiments, and he
exhorted all present to agree to it, and to subscribe its
articles and to assent to the same, with the insertion of the
single word, " Consubstantial," which moreover he inter-
preted as not in the sense of the affections of bodies, nor as
if the Son subsisted from the Father in the way of
division or any severance ; for that the immaterial, and
intellectual, and incorporeal Nature could not be the
subject of any corporeal affection, but that it became us
to conceive of such things in a divine and ineffable
manner. And such were the theological remarks of our
most wise and most religious Emperor ; on which the
Bishops, with a view to the addition of Consubstantial,
drew up the following formula :
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 57
Nicene Creed.
"We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker ED. BEN.
of all things visible and invisible :
"And in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, be-
gotten of the Father, Only-begotten, that is, from the
Substance of the Father; God from God, Light from
Light, Very God from Very God, begotten not made, con-
substantial with the Father, by whom all things were
made, both things in heaven and things in earth ; who for
us men and for our salvation came down and was made
flesh, was made man, suffered, and rose again the third day,
ascended into heaven, and cometh to judge quick and dead.
"And in the Holy Ghost.
" But those who say, ' Once He was not,' and ' Before
His generation He was not,' and ' He came into being
from nothing,' or those who pretend that the Son of God
is * Of other subsistence or substance,' or ' created,' or
'alterable,' or 'mutable,' the Catholic Church anathema-
tises."
50. On their dictating this formula, we did not let it
pass without inquiry in what sense they introduced " Of
the substance of the Father," and " consubstantial with
the Father." Accordingly questions and explanations
took place, and the meaning of the words underwent the
scrutiny of reason. And they professed, that the phrase
" Of the substance " was indicative of the Son's being
indeed from the Father, yet without being as if a part of
Him. And with this understanding we thought good to
assent to the sense of such religious doctrine, teaching, as
it did, that the Son was from the Father, not however a
part of His substance. On this account we assented to
this sense ourselves, without declining even the term " Con-
substantial," peace being the object which we set before
us, and maintenance of the orthodox view.
58 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS IN DEFENCE OF THE
APPEND. 51. In the same way we also admitted " Begotten, not
made;" since the Council alleged that "made" was an
appellative common to the other creatures which came to
be through the Son, to whom the Son had no likeness.
Therefore, it was said, He was not a work resembling the
things which through Him came to be, but was of a sub-
stance which is above the level of any work, and which
the Divine oracles teach to have been generated from the
Father, the mode of generation being inscrutable and
incomprehensible to every created nature.
52. And so too on examination there are grounds for
saying, that the Son is " consubstantial " with the Father ;
not in the way of bodies, nor like mortal beings, for He is
not con substantial by division of substance, or by sever-
ance, no nor by any affection, or changing, or alteration
of the Father's substance and attributes 1 (since from all
such the ingenerate nature of the Father is alien), but
because " consubstantial with the Father " suggests that
the Son of God bears no resemblance to the creatures which
have been made, but that He is in every way after the
pattern of His Father alone who begat Him, and that He
is not of any other subsistence and substance, but from the
Father. To which term also, thus interpreted, it appeared
well to assent; since we were aware that even among the
ancients, some learned and illustrious bishops and writers
have used the term " consubstantial " in their theological
teaching concerning the Father and Son. 2
53. So much then be said concerning the Faith which
has been published ; to which all of us assented, not with-
out inquiry, but according to the specified senses, men-
tioned in the presence of the most religious Emperor him-
self, and justified by the forementioned considerations.
of ancient Bishops about 130 years
2 Athariasius, in like manner, since," and infr., p. 80. Vid.
speaks, ad Af r. 6, of " testimony O/JLOOIXTLOV.
NICENE DEFINITION OF THE HOMOUSION. 59
And as to the anathematism published by the Fathers at ED. BEN.
6 11.
the end of the Faith, ife did not trouble us, because it for
bade to use words not in Scripture, from which almost all
the confusion and disorder of the Church has come. Since
then no divinely inspired Scripture has used the phrases,
** Out of nothing," and " Once He was not," and the rest
which follow, there appeared no ground for using or teach-
ing them; to which also we assented as a good decision,
since it had not been our custom hitherto to use these
terms.
54. Moreover to anathematise " Before His generation
He was not," did not seem preposterous, in that it is con-
fessed by all, that the Son of God was before the genera-
tion according to the flesh. Nay, our most religious
Emperor did at the time prove in a speech, that even
according to His divine generation which is before all ages,
He was in being, since even before He was generated in
act, He was in virtue 3 with the Father ingenerately, the
Father being always Father, as King always, and Saviour
always, being all things in virtue, and having all things
in the same respects and in the same way.
55. This we have been forced to transmit to you,
Beloved, as making clear to you the deliberateness of our
inquiry and assent, and how reasonably we resisted even
to the last minute as long as we were offended at statements
which differed from our own, but received without con-
tention what no longer troubled us, as soon as, on a candid
examination of the sense of the words, they appeared to
us to coincide with what we ourselves had professed in the
Faith which we had already published.
3 Socrates, who advocates the refutation, vid. infr. Orat. i. ch. 8
orthodoxy of Eusebius, oinits this fin. p. 189. For Eusebius's opin-
heterodox sentence. Hist. 1 8. ions, vid. Append. JZuscbw-s and
Bull, Defens. F. N. iii. 9, n. 3, sup- Semiarianum.
poses it an interpolation. For its
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS,
AECHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA,
ON THE COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM IN ITALY
AND AT SELEUCIA IN ISAURIA.
PREFATORY NOTICE.
THE following Epistle consists of three parts or six chapters,
of which the first two chapters alone answer to the received
title " Of the Synods of Ariminum and Seleucia." So much
as this was contemporaneous history, from information gained
with remarkable despatch, though coming short of the date of
the catastrophe at Ariminum, when to " the astonishment " of
the great mass of its members, the Council " found itself
Arian." This was in the year 359. In 361 Athanasius seems
to have added to his work several later documents. Vid. Ed.
Ben. 30, 31, and their preceding Monitum.
The place is unknown from which, he wrote. In 359 he
seems to have been in hiding; Tillemont, and Gibbon after
him, suggest in consequence of the wording of his opening
sentences, that he was present incognito at Seleucia.
The Arian party had long wished to accomplish the meet-
ing of a general Council which might supersede that of Nicgea.
They had effected one great Eastern Council in 341 at Antioch,
and another at Sirmium in 351. And now in 359 they aimed
at a gathering of both East and West. It was originally con-
voked for Nicsea, the site of that first and great Council whicli
was to be put aside, but the party of Basil the Semi-arian, not
approving of this choice, Nicomedia was substituted. The
Bishops had set out when an earthquake threw the city into
ruins. Nicoea was then substituted, this time at Basil's wish,
Soz. iv. 16, but it was considered too near the seat of the
62 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ETC.
earthquake to be safe. Then the Eusebian or Acacian influence
prevailed, and the Council was divided into two, one portion to
meet at Ariminum, the other at Seleucia ; but at first Ancyra
Basil's see, was to have been one of them (where a celebrated
Council of Semi-arians actually was sitting at the time), Hil. de
Syn. 8, but this was changed for Seleucia. A delegacy of
Bishops from each Province had been summoned to Nicomedia ;
but to Nicaea, according to Sozomen, all Bishops whatever,
whose health admitted of the journey ; Hilary, however, says
only one or two from each province of Gaul were summoned to
Ariminum, he himself being at Seleucia by compulsion of the
local magistrate, as an exile there for the faith, Sulp. ii. 57.
As to this bipartite Council, it was the concluding act of a
long series of heretical attempts to commit the Church through
her Synods to Arian doctrine, attempts which Athanasius has
here, in his chapters iii. and iv., recorded and illustrated, after
his manner, viz., by the documentary evidence of the creeds
which were successively passed through those Synods, and
of the State papers which arose out of them.
Chapters v. and vi., with which the Epistle ends, recur to
the defence of the Homoiision, which has been the subject of
the foregoing Epistle. The latter of the two chapters is
specially directed towards the removal of the difficulties which
the Semi-arians felt in accepting the Mcene definition, a party
to whom Athanasius is as gentle as he is fierce with the Arians.
It may be added, as has indeed appeared in what has gone
before, that the large Arian party was divided into three :
(1) the pure Arians or Anomoeans, who would not even allow
that the Son was like the Father ; (2) the chief object of their
attack, the Homoeiisians or Semi-arians, who maintained that
the Son was like the Father even in Substance ; (3) and the
Court party, Eusebians or Acacians, who would not go farther
than to say vaguely that our Lord was like the Father, and
wished to keep to Scripture terms.
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS,
CHAPTER I.
1. PERHAPS news lias reached even yourselves concern-
ing the Council, which is at this time the subject of
general conversation ; for letters both from the Emperor
and the Prefects x were circulated far and wide for its
convocation. However, you take such interest in the
events which have occurred, that I ain led to give you
an account of what I have seen myself or have ascertained,
which may save you from the suspense attendant on the
reports of others ; and this the more, because there are
parties who are in the practice of misrepresenting what is
going on.
2. At Nicoea then which had been fixed upon, the
Council did not meet, but a second edict was issued, con-
vening the Western Bishops at Ariminum in Italy, and
the Eastern at Seleucia the Rocky, as it is called, in
Isauria. The professed reason given out for such a meet-
ing was to treat of the faith touching our Lord Jesus
1 There were at this time four brated troops which they had
Praetorian Prefects, who divided commanded. At Ariminum one of
between them the administration them, Taurus, was present, and
of the Empire. They had been was the instrument of the Emperor
lately made civil officers, Constan- in overawing the Council,
tine having suppressed the cele-
64 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIDS, ON THE
CHAP. I. Christ ; and those who alleged it, were Ursacius and
Valens, and one Grerminius, from Pannonia ; and from
Syria, Acacius, Eudoxius, and Patrophilus of Scythopolis. 2
These men who had always been of the Arian party, and
understood neither liow they believed nor ^vhercof they affirmed, and
were silently deceiving first one and then another, and
scattering the second sowing of their heresy, persuaded
some persons of consequence, and the Emperor Constantius
among them, being a heretic, on some pretence about the
Faith, to call a Council ; under the idea that they should
be able to put into the shade the Nicene Council, and
prevail upon all to turn round, to the establishment of
impiety everywhere instead of the Truth.
3. Now here I marvel first, and consider that I shall
carry every thinking man whomsoever with me, that, whereas
a Catholic Council had been fixed, and all were looking
forward to it, it was all of a sudden divided in two, so that
one part met here, and the other there. However, this
would seem providential, in order, in each Council, to
exhibit the faith without guile or corruption of the one
party, and to expose the dishonesty and duplicity of the
other. Next, this too was on the mind of myself and my
true brethren here, and made us anxious, the impropriety
in itself of this great gathering which we saw in progress ;
for what then pressed so much, that the whole world was
to be thrown into confusion, 3 and those who at the time bore
the profession of clerks, should run about far and near, seek-
ing forsooth how best to learn to believe in our Lord Jesus
2 Vid. App. Arian leaders. ments." Hist. xxi. 16. "The
3 The heathen Ammianus spectacle proceeds to that pitch of
speaks of " the troops of Bishops indecency," says Eusebius, " that
hurrying to and fro at the public at length in the very midst of the
expense," and " the Synods, in theatres of the unbelievers the
their efforts to bring over the solemn matters of divine teaching
whole religion to their side, being were subjected to the basest
the rain of the posting establish- mockery." Vit. Const, ii. 61.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 65
Christ ? Certainly, if they were believers already, they KD. BK
would not be seeking, as though they were not. And to -
the catechumens, this was no small scandal ; but to the
heathen, it was something more than common, and even
furnished broad merriment, that Christians, as if waking
out of sleep at this time of day, should be making out how
they were to believe concerning Christ ; while their pro-
fessed clerks, though claiming deference from their flocks
as teachers, were unbelievers on their own showing, since
they were seeking what they had not. And the party of
Ursacius, who were at the bottom of all this, did not under-
stand what wrath they were storing up against themselves,
as our Lord says by the sacred writers, Woe unto them,
through wlwm My Name is blasphemed among the Gentiles;
and by His own mouth in the Gospels, Whoso shall offend
one of these little ones, it were letter for him. that a millstone
/cere hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the
depth of the sea, than, as Luke adds, that he should offend one
of these little ones.
4. What defect in religious teaching was there in the
Catholic Church, that they should be searching after faith
now, and should prefix this year's Consulate to the pro-
fession they make of it? Yet Ursacius, and Yalens, and
Germinius, and their friends have done, what never took
place, never yet was heard of, among Christians. After put-
ting into writing what it pleased themselves to believe,
they prefix to it the Consulate, and the month and the day
of the current year ; 4 thereby to show all thinking men that
* " Faith is made a thing of pent of them ; we repent and then
dates rather than of Gospels, while defend them ; we anathematise
it is marked off by years, and after defending ; we condemn our
is not measured by the confession own doings in the doings of others,
of baptism." Hil. ad Const, ii. or those of others in our own, and
4. '* We determine yearly and gnawing each other, we are well-
monthly creeds concerning God, nigh devoured one of another."
we determine them and then re- Ibid. 5.
66 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. I. their faith dates, not from of old, but now, from the reign
of Constantius ; for whatever they write has a view to their
own heresy. Moreover, though pretending to write about
the Lord, they nominate another sovereign for themselves,
Constantius, who has provided for them this supremacy of
impiety; and they who deny that the Son is everlasting,
have called him Eternal Emperor instead ; such foes of
Christ are they in behalf of their impiety.
5. But perhaps the dates in the holy Prophets form
their excuse for naming the Consulate ; so bold a pretence,
however, will serve but to publish more fully their igno-
rance of the subject. For the prophecies of the sacred
writers do indeed specify their times ; (for instance, Esaias
and Osee lived in the days of Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, and
Ezekias ; Jeremias, in the days of Josias ; Ezekiel and
Daniel prophesied under Cyrus and Darius ; and others in
other times ;) yet they were not laying the foundations of
divine religion; that was before their date, and was always,
for before the foundation of the world had God prepared it
for us in Christ. Nor were they signifying the respective
dates of their own faith; for they had been believers before
these dates, which did but belong to their own preaching.
And this preaching chiefly related to the Saviour's coming,
and secondarily to what was to happen to Israel and the
nations ; but our modern sages, not in historical narration,
nor in prediction of the future, but, after writing, " The
Catholic Faith was published," immediately add the Con-
sulate and the month and the date ; that, as the sacred
writers were wont to set down the dates of their histories,
and of their own ministries, so these may mark the date of
their own faith. Nay, it would be well if they had written
about "their own," (for it does date from to-day) and
had not taken in hand "the Catholic;" for they did not
write, "Thus we believe," but "the Catholic Faith was
published."
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 67
6. The boldness then of their purpose shows how little up. KEN.
35*
they understand the subject; while the originality of their -
phrase befits their heresy. For thus they show in set
words when it was that their own faith began, and from
that same time present they would have it proclaimed.
And, as according to the Evangelist Luke, there was made
a decree concerning the registration, and this decree before
was not, but began from those days in which it was made
by its framer, they also in like manner, by writing, . " The
Faith is now published," showed that the views of their
heresy are young, and did not exist before. But when
they add " of the Catholic Faith," they have fallen before
they know it into the extravagance of the Phrygians, and
say together with them, " To us first was revealed," and
"from us dates the Faith of Christians." And as those
sectaries inscribe it with the names of Maximilla and
Montanus, so do these with " Constantius, Sovereign,"
instead of Christ. If, however, as they would have it, the
faith dates from the present Consulate, what must the
Fathers do, and the blessed Martyrs ? nay, what will they
themselves do with their own catechumens, who went to
rest before this Consulate ? how will they wake their pupils
up, that they may obliterate that old teaching which they then
thought so sufficient, and may sow instead the discoveries
which they have now put into writing ? so ignorant are
they on the subject; with no knowledge but that of fra-
ming evasions, and those unbecoming and unplausible, and
carrying with them their own refutation !
7. As to the Nicene Council, it was no casual meeting,
but convened upon a pressing necessity, and for a reason-
able object. The Syrians, Cilicians, and Mesopotamians,
were out of order in celebrating the Feast, and were wont
to keep Easter with the Jews; 5 on the other hand, the
5 This seems to have been an about fifty years old, or from about
innovation in these countries of the year 276. It is remarkable,
F 2
68 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. I. Arian heresy had risen np against the Catholic Chnrch,
and found supporters in the party of Eusebius, who were
both zealous for the heresy, and conducted the attack upon
religious people. This gave occasion for an Ecumenical
Council, that the feast might be everywhere celebrated
on one day, and that the heresy which was springing
up might be anathematised. It took place then; and
the Syrians submitted, and the Fathers pronounced the
Arian heresy to be a forerunner of Antichrist, 6 and drew
up a suitable formula against it. And yet, in this defini-
tion, for all their authority of numbers, they ventured on
nothing like the acts of these three or four men. 7 With-
out prefixing Consulate, month, and day, they wrote con-
cerning the Easter, " It seemed good as follows," for it
did then seem good that there should be a general com-
pliance ; but about the faith they wrote not, " It seemed
good," but, "Thus believes the Catholic Church;" and
thereupon they confessed what was the ground of their
faith, in order to show that their own belief was not
novel, but Apostolical; and that what they wrote down
was no discovery of theirs, but is the same as was taught
by the Apostles.
8. Such was the Council of Nicaea; but the Councils
which they have set in motion, what colourable pretext
have these ? If any new heresy has risen since the Arian,
let them tell us the statements which it has invented and
who are its inventors ? and while they draw up a formula
of their own, let them at the same time anathematise the
that the Quartodeciman custom vid. Arians, oh. i. 1.
had come to an end in Procon- 6 Vid. Antichrist.
sular Asia, where it had existed 7 6X1704 TLV&, says Pope Julius
from St. John's time, before it in 342 ap. Athan. Apol. 34.
began in Syria. Tillemont refers gypa^av rives irepi Triareus, says
the change to Anatolius of Lao- Athan. in 356 ad Ep. JEg. 5.
dicea : I have before now thought Infr. pp. 70 73, supr. n. 2, p. 64,
it might be traced to the influence he mentions by name six, Aca-
of Zenobia and Paul of Sainosata; cius, fcc.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 69
heresies antecedent to this their Council, among which is En. BFN.
5 <>
the Arian, as the Nicene Fathers did, that it may be made -
appear that they too have some cogent reason for saying
what is on any view a novelty. But if no such event has
happened, and they cannot produce such, but rather they
themselves are uttering heresies, as holding that very
impiety of Arius, and are held up day after day, and
day by day shift their ground, what need is there of
Councils, when the Nicene is sufficient, as against the
Arian heresy, so against the rest, which it has condemned
one and all already by setting forth the sound faith ? For
even the notorious Aetius, who was surnamed godless, vaunts
not of the discovering of any mania of his own, but under
stress of weather has been wrecked upon bare Arianism,
himself and the persons whom he has beguiled. Vainly
then do they run about with the pretext that they have
demanded Councils for the faith's-sake, for divine Scrip-
ture is sufficient above all things ; but if a Council be
needed on the point, there are the authoritative acts of
the Nicene Fathers, for they did not do their work care-
lessly, but stated the doctrine so exactly, that persons
reading their words honestly, cannot but find their memory
refreshed in respect to the pious doctrine concerning
Christ announced in divine Scripture.
9. Having therefore no show of reason on their side,
but being in difficulty whichever way they turn, in spite
of their evasions, they have nothing left but to say :
" Forasmuch as we contradict our predecessors, and trans-
gress the traditions of the Fathers, therefore we have
thought good that a Council should meet ; but again,
whereas we fear lest, should it meet at one place, our pains
will be all thrown away, therefore we have thought good
that it be divided into two ; that so, on our putting forth
our own formula to these separate portions, we may over-
reach with more effect, with the threat of Constantius our
70 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. II. patron in this impiety, and may abrogate the acts of Niceea,
under pretence of introducing a more simple faith." If
they have not put this into words, yet this is the meaning
of their deeds and of their disturbances. Certainly many
and frequent as have been their speeches and writings in
various Councils, never yet have they made mention of the
Arian heresy as unchristian ; but, if anyone present happened
to accuse the existing heresies, they always took up the
defence of the Arian, which the Nicene Council had ana-
thematised ; nay, rather, they cordially welcomed its pro-
fessors. This then is in itself a strong argument, that the
aim of the present Councils has been not truth, but the
annulling of the acts of Nicasa ; but the proceedings of
these men and their friends in the two Councils, make ifc
equally clear that this was the case : It is necessary then
to relate everything as it occurred, as I proceed to do.
CHAPTER II.
10. WHEN all, as many as were named in the Emperor's
letters, were in expectation of one place of meeting, and to
form one Council, they were divided into two ; and, while
some went off to Seleucia called the Rocky, the others
met at Ariminum, to the number of four hundred bishops
and more, and among them Grerminius, Auxentius, Yalens,
Ursacius, Demophilus, and Caius. 8 And, while the whole
assembly was discussing the matter from the divine Scrip-
tures, these men produced a paper, and, reading the Con-
sulate, they demanded that the whole Council should give
this the precedence of anything else, and put no tests
upon the heretics beyond it, nor inquire into its meaning,
but take this confession as sufficient ; and it ran as
follows: 9
8 Vicl. Arian leaders. 9 The Creed which follows had
COUNCILS HELD AT AKIMINDM AND SELEUCIA. 71
Eighth Confession, at Sirmium (third Sirmian, vid. infr. p. 114). Kr>. BEI
11. "The Catholic Faith was published in the presence -
of our Sovereign the most religious and gloriously vic-
torious Emperor, Constantius, Augustus, the eternal and
majestic, in the Consulate of the most illustrious Flavians,
Eusebius and Hypatius, in Sirmium on the llth of the
Calends of June. 1
"We believe in one Only and True God, the Father
Almighty, Creator and Framer of all things :
"And in one Only-begotten Son of God, who, before all
ages, and before every origin, and before all conceivable
time, and before all comprehensible substance, was begotten
impassibly from God; through whom the ages were dis-
posed and all things were made ; and begotten as the
Only-begotten, as only from the Only Father, as God from
God, like to the Father who begat Him, according to the
Scriptures ; whose generation no one knoweth save the
Father alone who begat Him. We know that He, the
Only-begotten Son of God, at the Father's bidding came
from the heavens for the abolition of sin, and was born
of the Virgin Mary, and. conversed with the disciples, and
fulfilled all the economy according to the Father's will, and
was crucified, and died and descended into the parts
beneath the earth, and directed the economy of things
there, whom the gate-keepers of hell saw and shuddered ;
and that He rose from the dead the third day, and con-
versed with the disciples, and fulfilled the economy, and,
when the forty days were fall, ascended into the heavens,
been prepared at Sirmium shortly stance. But this point of history
before, and is the third, or, as is involved in much obscurity,
some think, the fourth, drawn up As it stands, it is a patchwork of
at Sirmium. It was the composi- two views. It will be observed,
tion of Mark of Arethusa, yet it that it is the Creed on which
was written in Latin ; and though Athanasius has been animadvert-
Mark was a Semi-arian, it dis- ing above, p. 65.
tinctly abandons the word sub- x May 22, 359, Whitsun Eve.
72 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. IT. and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, and will come
in the last day of the resurrection in the glory of the
Father, to render to every one according to his works.
" And in the Holy Ghost, whom the Only-begotten of
God Himself, Jesus Christ, had promised to send to the
race of men, the Paraclete, as it is written, ' I go to the
Father, and I will ask the Father, and He shall send unto
you another Paraclete, even the Spirit of Truth. He shall
take of Mine and shall teach and bring to your remem-
brance all things.'
" But whereas the term ' substance,' has been adopted
by the Fathers in simplicity, and gives offence as unin-
telligible to the people, and not contained in the Scriptures,
it has seemed good to remove it, and that it be never in
any case used of God again, because the divine Scriptures
nowhere use it of Father and Son. But we say that the
Son is like the Father in all things, as all the Holy Scrip-
tures say and teach." 2
12. When this had been read, the dishonesty of its
framers was soon apparent. For on the Bishops proposing
that the Arian heresy should be anathematised together
with the other heresies, and all assenting, Ursacius and
Valens and their friends refused, and at length were con-
demned, on the ground that their confession had been
written, not in sincerity, but for the annulling of the Acts
of Nicsea, and the introduction instead of their miserable
heresy. Marvelling then at the deceitfulness of their lan-
guage and their unprincipled intentions, the Bishops said :
* ' Not as if in need of faith have we come hither ; for we
have within us the faith, and that in soundness ; but that
we may put to shame those who gainsay the truth and
venture upon novelties. If then ye have drawn up this
formula, as if now beginning to believe, ye are not so much
as clerks, but need to start with your catechism ; but if
2 Vid. infr. Creeds vii. and ix., pp. 114116.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 73
you meet us here with the same religious sentiments with ED. BEN.
J s-io.
which we have come hither, let there be a unanimity, of -
one and all, and let us anathematise the heresies, and
preserve the teaching of the Fathers. Thus pleas for new
Councils will not longer circulate about, the Bishops at
Niccea having anticipated them once for all, and done all
that was needful for the Catholic Church." However,
even then, in spite of an unanimous agreement of the
Bishops a second time, still the above-mentioned refused.
So at length the whole assembly, condemning them as
ignorant and deceitful men, or rather as heretics, gave
their suffrages in behalf of the Nicene Council, and gave
judgment all of them that it was enough ; but as to the
forenamed Ursacius and Valens, Germinius, Auxentius,
Caius, and Demophilus, they pronounced them to be
heretics, deposed them as not really Christians, but Arians,
and wrote against them in Latin what has been translated
in its substance into Greek, thus :
13. Copy of an Epistle from the Council to Constantius,
Augustus : 3
" We believe it has been ordered by God's command,
upon the mandate * of your religiousness, that we, the
Bishops of the Western Provinces, came from all parts to
Ariminum. for the manifestation of the Faith to all
Catholic Churches and the detection of the heretics. For
upon a general discussion, in which we who are orthodox
all took part, it was our decision to adhere to that faith
3 The same version of the Letter better here to translate it from the
which follows is found in Socr. ii. text of Hilary.
39. Soz. iv. 10. Theod. Hist. ii. * Ex prrccepto. Prteceptumbe-
19. Niceph. i. 40. On compari- comes a technical word afterwards
son with the Latin original, which for a royal deed, charter, or edict ;
is preserved by Hilary, (Fragm. and it has somewhat of that
viii.) it appears to be so very freely meaning even here,
executed, that it has been thought
74 EPISTLE OP ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. II. whicli has come down to us from antiquity, and which we
hold, as we have ever held, from Prophets, Gospels, and
Apostles, from God Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
the upholder of your dominion, and the author of your
welfare. For we deemed it to be a sin to mutilate any
work of the saints, and in particular of those who in the
framing of the Nicene formulary, held session together
with Constantine of glorious memory, the father of your
religiousness. Which formulary was put abroad and
gained entrance into the minds of the Christian people,
and, as at that time drawn up against Arianism, is found
to be of such force that heresies of all kinds are over-
thrown by it ; from which, if aught were subtracted, an
opening is made to the poison of the heretics.
" Therefore it was that Ursacius and Yalens formerly
came into suspicion of the said Arian heresy, and were
suspended from communion, and had to ask pardon, as
their letters show, which they obtained from the Council
of Milan, in the presence of the legates of the Roman
Church. And since Constantine was at the Nicene
Council, when the formulary in question was drawn up
with great care, and after being baptised into the profes-
sion of it, departed to God's rest, we think it a crime to
mutilate aught in it, and in anything to detract from so
many Saints and Confessors, and Successors of Martyrs
who took part in framing it ; considering that they pre-
served all the doctrine of the Catholics who were before
them according to the Scriptures, and that they remained
with us unto these times in which your religiousness has re-
ceived the charge of ruling the world from God the Father
through our God and Lord Jesus Christ. As for these
men, they were attempting to pull up what had been
reasonably laid down. For, whereas the letters of .your
religiousness commanded us to treat of the faith, there
was proposed to us by the aforenamed troublers of the
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 75
Churches, Germinius and his associates Auxentius 5 and ED. BEU.
*".
Caius, something simply novel for our consideration, which
contained many particulars of perverse doctrine. And
next, when they became aware that what they proposed
publicly in the Council was unacceptable to the Fathers,
they determined to draw up another determined statement.
Indeed it is notorious that they have often changed these
formularies in a short time ; accordingly, lest the Churches
should have a recurrence of these disturbances, we held
to our resolve to retain decisions which were both ancient
and reasonable. For the information therefore of your
clemency, we have instructed our legates to acquaint
you with the judgment of the Council by our letter, to
whom we have given this sole direction, not to execute
their office otherwise than for the absolute stability and
permanence of the ancient decrees ; in order that your
wisdom might also know, that peace would not be accom-
plished by the removal of those decrees, as the aforesaid
Valens and Ursacius, Germinius and Caius, promised. On
the contrary, troubles have in consequence been excited
in all regions and in the Roman Church.
" On this account we ask your clemency to receive and
hear all our legates with favourable ears and a serene
countenance, and not to suffer aught to be abrogated to
the dishonour of the ancients ; so that all things may con-
tinue which we have received from our forefathers, who,
as we are sure, were prudent men, and acted not without
5 Auxentius, omitted in Hilary's Demophilns also was deposed, but
copy, has been inserted here, and in he was an Eastern Bishop, if he be
the decree which follows, from the Demophilus of Berea, vid. Con-
Greek, since Athanasius has thus stant. on Hil. Fragm. vii., p. 1342.
given his sanction to the fact of Yet he is mentioned also by
that Arian Bishop being con- Athanasius as present, supr. p. 70.
demned at Ariminum. Yet Aux- A few words are wanting in the
entius appeals to Ariminum trium- Latin in the commencement of one
phantly. Hil. contr. Aux. fin. of the sentences which follow.
Socrates, Hist. ii. 37, says, that
76 EPISTLE OF ATHAXASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. II. the Holy Spirit of God ; because by these novelties not
only are faithful populations unsettled, but infidels also are
deterred from believing. We pray also that you would
give orders that so many Bishops, who are detained at
Ariminum, among whom are numbers who are broken with
old age and poverty, may return to their own country,
lest the people of their Churches suffer, being deprived of
their Bishops. This, however, we ask again and again,
that nothing be innovated, nothing withdrawn ; but that
all remain incorrupt which has continued through the
times of the father of your sacred piety and your own
religious days ; and that your holy prudence will not per-
mit us to be harassed, and torn from oar sees ; but that
we may without distraction ever give ourselves to the
prayers which we do always offer for your personal wel-
fare and for your reign, and for peace, which may the
Divinity bestow on you, according to your merits, pro-
found and perpetual ! But oar legates will bring the sub-
scriptions and names of the Bishops and their titles, as
another letter informs your holy and religious prudence."
14. And the Decree of the Council 6 ran thus :
" As far as it was fitting, dearest brethren, the Catholic
Council has had patience, and has so often displayed the
Church's forbearance towards Ursacius and Valens, Ger-
minius, Caius, and Auxentius ; who by so often changing
what they had believed, have troubled all the Churches,
and still are endeavouring to introduce their heretical
spirit into Christian minds. For they wish to annul the
6 This Decree is also here trans- proposed, acknowledges in parti-
lated from the original in Hilary, cular both the word and the
who has besides preserved the meaning of "substance:" " sub-
" Catholic Definition " of the stantina nomen et rem, a multis
Council, in which it professes its sanctis Scripturis insinuatam men-
adherence to the Creed of Nicaea, tibus nostris, obtinere debere sui
and. in opposition to the Sirmian firrnitatem." Fragin. vii. 3.
Confession which the Arians had
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 77
formulary drawn up at Nicsea, which was framed against ED. BEN.
the Arian and the other heresies. They have presented -
to us besides a creed drawn up by themselves, which we
could not lawfully receive. Even before this have they
been pronounced heretics by us, and this has been con-
firmed by a long period, whom we have not admitted
to our communion, but by our separate voices condemned
in their own presence. Now then, give your judgment
on this matter afresh, that it may be ratified by the sub-
scription of each.
"All the Bishops answered It seems good to us that
the aforenamed heretics should be condemned, that the
Church may remain in that unshaken faith, which is truly
Catholic, and in perpetual peace."
Matters at Ariminum then had this speedy issue ; for
there was no disagreement there, but all the Fathers with
one accord both put into writing what they decided upon,
and deposed the Arians. 7
15. Meanwhile the transactions in Seleucia the Rocky
were as follows : it was in the month called by the Romans
September, by the Egyptians Thoth, and by the Mace-
7 Athanasius seems to have the news of this artifice and of
known no more of the proceedings the Council's distress in conse-
nt Ariminum, which perhaps were quence, which Athanasius had just
then in progress, when he wrote heard. This he also seems to have
this Treatise ; their termination, inserted into his work, infr. pp.
as is well known, was very un- 118122, upon the receipt of the
happy, " Ingemuit totus orbis," news of the mission of Valens to
says St. Jerome, ' ; et Arianum se Constantinople, a mission which
esse rniratus est," ad. Lucif. 19. ended in the giving way of the
A deputation of ten persons was Catholic delegacy. Upon his re-
sent from the Council to Constan- turning to Ariminum with the de-
tius, to which Valens opposed one legates and the Arian creed they
of his own. Constantius pre- had signed (vid. infr.), Valens,
tended the barbarian war, and partly by menaces and partly by
delayed an answer till the begin- sophistry, succeeded in procuring
ning of October, the Council hav- the subscriptions of the Council
ing opened in May. The Post- also to the same formula,
script to this Treatise contained
78
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. II. donians Gorpigeus, 8 and the day of the month according
to the Egyptians the 16fch, upon which all the members
of the Council assembled together. And there were
present about a hundred and sixty ; and whereas there
were many who were accused among them, and their
accusers were crying out against them, thereupon Acacius,
and Patrophilus, and Uranius of Tyre, and Eudoxius, who
usurped the Church of Antioch, and Leontius, and Theo-
dotus, and Evagrius, and Theodulus, 9 and George who
has been driven from, the whole world, pursue an un-
principled course. Fearing the proofs which their
accusers had to show against them, they employed for their
purpose the other section of the Arian party, those hire-
lings of impiety, who had been ordained by that Secundus,
whom the great Council had deposed, such men as the
Libyan Stephen, and Seras, and Pollux, who were under
accusation upon various charges, next Pancratius, and
one Ptolemy a Meletian. Accordingly, to divert the
Fathers from the consideration of the charges lying
against them, they made a pretence of discussing the
8 Gorpiams wns the first month
of the Syro-Macedonic year among
the Greeks, dating according to the
era of the Seleucidge. The Roman
date of the meeting of the Council
was the 27th of September. The
original transactions at Ariminum
had at this time been finished as
much as two months, and its
deputies were waiting for Con-
stantius at Constantinople.
9 There is little to observe of
these Acacian Bishops in addition
to what has already been said of
several of them, except that George
is the Cappadocian. the notorious
intruder into the see of S. Atha-
nasius. The charges which lay
against them were of various kinds.
Socrates says that the Acacian
party consisted in all of about 36 ;
other writers increase it by a few
more. The Eusebian or Court party
is here called Acacian, and was Ano-
mcean and Semi-arian alternately,
or more properly as it may be
called Honioean or Scriptural ; for
Arians, Semi-arians, and Anomce-
ans, all used theological terms as
well as the Catholics. The Semi-
arians numbered about 100, the
remaining dozen might be the
Egyptian Bishops who were zeal-
ous supporters of the Catholic
cause. However, there were be-
sides a few Anomceans, or Arians,
as Athan. calls them, with whom
the Acacians now coalesced.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 79
question of faith, but it was clear they were doing so ED. BEN.
from fear of their accusers ; and they took the part of -
the heresy, till at length they were left by themselves.
For, whereas the supporters of the Acacians lay under
suspicion and were very few, but the others were the
majority, therefore the Acacians, acting with the bold-
ness of desperation, altogether denied the Nicene formula,
and censured the Nicene Council, while the others, who were
the majority, accepted the whole proceedings of the great
Council, except that they complained of the word, " Con-
substantial," as obscure and open to suspicion. When
then time passed there, and the accusers pressed, and the
accused put in pleas, and thereby were led 011 further by
their impiety and blasphemed the Lord, thereupon the
majority of Bishops became indignant, and deposed
Acacius, Patrophilus, Uranius, Eudoxius, and George
the contractor, 1 and others from Asia, Leontius and Theo-
dosius, Evagrius and Theodulus, and excommunicated
Asterius, Eusebius, Augarus, Basilicus, Phoebus, Fidelius,
Eutychius, and Magnus. And this the Bishops did on
their non-appearance, when summoned to defend them-
selves on charges which numbers preferred against them.
And they decreed that so they should remain, until they
made their defence and cleared themselves of the charges
brought against them. And after despatching the sen-
tence pronounced against them to the diocese of each,
they proceeded to Constantius, that most impious Augustus,
to report to him their proceedings, as they had been
ordered. And this was the termination of the Council in
Seleucia.
16. Who then but must approve of the conscientious
conduct of the Bishops who met at Ariminum ? who
endured such fatigue of journey and perils of sea, that
by a sacred and canonical resolution they might depose
1 Pork contractor to. the troops. Hist. Arian. 75, Naz. Orat. 21, 16.
80 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. II. the Avians, and guard inviolate the definitions of the
Fathers. For eacli of them felt that, if they undid the
acts of their predecessors, they were affording a pretext
to their successors to undo what they themselves then
were enacting. And who but must condemn such sleight
of hand as exercised by the party of Eudoxius and Acacius,
who sacrifice the honour due to their own fathers to par-
tisanship and patronage of the Ario-maniacs ? for what
confidence can be placed in their own acts, if the acts of
their fathers be undone ? or how call they them Fathers
and themselves their successors, if they set about impeach-
ing their judgment ? and especially what can Acacius say
of his own master, Eusebius, 2 who not only gave his
subscription in the Nicene Council, but even in a letter
signified to his flock, that that was true faith, which the
Council had declared ? for, even if he explained himself
in that letter in his own way, yet he did not contradict
the Council's terms, but even charged it upon the Arians,
that their statement that the Son was not before His
generation was not even consistent with His being before
Mary.
17. What then will they now teach the people who have
received their past teaching from them ? that the Fathers
have made a slip ? and how are they themselves to be
trusted by those whom they now teach not to follow their
own Teachers ? and with what faces too will they look
upon the sepulchres of the Fathers whom they now name
heretics ? And why do they abuse the Yalentinians,
Phrygians, and Manichees, yet give the name of saint to
those whom they themselves think probably to have made
parallel statements ? or how can they any longer be
Bishops, if they were ordained by persons whom they now
accuse of heresy ? But if these were heterodox and their
definitions misled the world, then let their memory
a Vid. supr. pp. 15 and 55.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 81
perish altogether ; and while you are casting out their ED. BEN.
13 14.
books, go and cast out their relics too from the cemeteries, -
so that one and all may know that they are seducers, and
that you are parricides. The blessed Aposble approves
of the Corinthians because, he says, ye remember me in all
f kings and keep the traditions as I delivered them to you;
but they, as entertaining such thoughts of their prede-
cessors, will have the daring to say to their flocks just the
reverse : " We praise you, not for * remembering ' your
fathers, but rather we make much of you, when you do
not ' hold their traditions.' " And let them go on to cast a
slur on their own ignoble birth, and say, " We are sprung,
not of religious men but of heretics." For such language,
as I said before, is consistent in those who barter the good
name of their Fathers and their own salvation for Arianism,
and fear not the words of the divine proverb, There is a
generation that curseth their father t and the threat lying in
the Law against such.
18. They then, from zeal for the heresy, are of this
obstinate temper : you, however, be not troubled at it, nor
take their audacity for truth. For they dissent from each
other, and, whereas they have revolted from the Fathers,
are of no one opinion, but float about with various and
contrary changes. 3 And, as quarrelling with the Council
of Nica3a, they have in consequence themselves held many
Councils, and have published a faith in each of them, but
have stood to none, nay, they will never act otherwise,
for, seeking perversely, they will never find that Wisdom
which in truth they hate. I have accordingly subjoined
portions both of Arius's writings, and of whatever else
I could collect, of their publications in different Councils ;
whereby you will learn and wonder how it is that they
can stand out against an Ecumenical Council and their
own Fathers, without being overwhelmed by the effort.
3 Vid. Append. Avian leaders, Chameleons, &c.
G
82 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAPTER III.
CHAP. ill. 19. ARIUS and his friends thought and professed thus :
" God made the Son out of nothing, and called Him His
Son ; " " The Word of God is one of the creatures ; " and
" Once He was not ; " and " He is alterable ; capable, when
it is Hi a will, of altering." Accordingly they were ex-
pelled from the Church by Alexander of blessed memory.
However, Arius after his expulsion, when he was living
near the party of Eusebius, drew up his heresy upon paper,
and imitating, in the character of his music, as if on a
festive occasion, no grave writer, but the Egyptian Sotades,
he writes at great length, for instance as follows :
20. Blasphemies of Arius.
God Himself then, in His own nature, is ineffable by all
men.
Equal or like Himself He alone has none, nor one in
glory.
And Ingenerate we call Him, because of Him who is
generate by nature.
We praise Him as Unoriginate because of Him who has
an origin.
And adore Him as everlasting, because of Him who was
born in time.
The Unoriginate made the Son an origin of things that
were brought into being;
And advanced Him as a Son to Himself, begetting Him
to be such.
He has nothing proper to God in His proper subsistence;
For He is not equal, no, nor consubstantial with Him.
Wise is God, for He is the teacher of Wisdom.
There is full proof that God is invisible to all beings,
Both to things which are through the Son, and to the
Son is He invisible.
COUNCILS HELD AT AKIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 83
I will say it expressly, how by the Son is seen the ED. BEN.
Invisible ;
By that power by which God sees, and in His own
measure,
Doth the Son endure to see the Father, as is lawful.
Thus there is a Triad, not in equal glories.
Not intermingling with each other are their subsistences.
One more glorious than the other in their glories unto
immensity.
Foreign to the Son in substance is the Father, for He is
Unoriginate.
Understand that the Monad was ; but the Dyad was not,
before it was in existence.
It follows at once that, when the Son was not, the Father is
already God.
Hence the Son, not being, (for He existed at the will of
the Father,)
Is God Only-begotten, and each is foreign from either.
Wisdom existed as Wisdom by the will of the Wise
God.
Hence He is conceived in numberless conceptions.
Spirit, Power, Wisdom, God's glory, Truth, Image, and
Word.
Understand that He is conceived to be Radiance and
Light.
One equal to the Son, the Supreme is able to generate.
But more excellent, or superior, or greater, He is not able.
At God's will the Son is what and whatsoever He is.
And when and since He was, from that time He has
subsisted from God.
He, being a strong God, praises in His degree the
Supreme.
To speak in brief, God is ineffable to His Son.
For He is to Himself what He is, that is, unspeakable.
So that nothing which relates to comprehension
G2
84 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. in. Does the Son understand to speak about ; for it is im-
possible for Him
To investigate the Father who is bj Himself.
For the Son Himself does not know His own substance,
For, being Son, He really existed at the will of the
Father.
How can it reasonably be, that He who is from the Father
Should know His own Parent by comprehension ?
For it is plainly impossible that what hath an origin
Should conceive how the Unoriginate is,
Or should grasp the idea of Him.
21. And what they wrote by letter to Alexander of
blessed memory, the Bishop, runs as follows :
To our Blessed Pope * and Bishop, Alexander, the Presby-
ters and Deacons send health in the Lord.
Our faith from our forefathers, which also we have
learned from thee, Blessed Pope, is this : We acknowledge
one God, alone Ingenerate, alone Everlasting, alone Un-
originate, alone True, alone having Immortality, alone
Wise, alone Good, alone Sovereign ; Judge, Governor, and
Providence of all, unalterable and unchangeable, just and
good, God of Law and Prophets and New Testament ;
who generated an Only-begotten Son before eternal times,
through whom He has made both the ages and the universe ;
and generated Him, not in seeming, but in truth ; and that
He made Him subsist at His own will, unalterable and
* TrctTra. Alexander is also so 31. Augustine of Hippo, Hier.
called, Theod. Hist. i. 4, p. 749. Ep. 141 init. Lupus, Pragmatius,
Athanatius, Hieron. contr. Joan. Leontius, Theoplastus, Eutropius,
4. Heraclas, also of Alexandria, &c. of Gaul, by Sid on. Apoll. Epp.
by Dionysius apud Euseb. Hist. vii. 5, &c. Eutyches, Archiman-
vii. 7. Epiphanius of Cyprus, drite, Abraham Abbot, are called
Hieron. Ep. 57, 2. John of Jeru- by the same name, in the acts
salem, Hier. contr. Joan. 4. Cy- of Chalcedon.
prian of Carthage, Ep. ap. Cypr.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 85
unchangeable ; perfect creature of God, but not as one of KD. BEN.
15 16.
the creatures; offspring, but not as one of things brought -
into being ; nor, as Valentinus pronounced, is the offspring
of the Father an issue ; nor, as Manichaeus taught, is the
offspring a consubstantial portion of the Father;
nor is He as Sabellius said, dividing the One, a Son-
and-Father ; 5 nor as Hieracas speaks of one torch from
another, or as a lamp divided into two ; nor was He who
was before, afterwards generated or new-created into a
Son, a notion which, when advanced, thou too thyself,
Blessed Pope, in the midst of the Church and in Session
hast often condemned ; but, as we say, at the will of God,
created before times and before ages, and possessing
life and being from the Father, who gave subsistence to
His glories together with Himself. For the Father did not,
in giving to Him the inheritance of all things, deprive
Himself of what He has ingenerately in Himself ; for He
is the fountain of all things.
" Thus there are Three Subsistences. And God, being
the cause of all things, is Unoriginate and altogether
Sole ; but the Son, being generated apart from time by
the Father, and being created and established before
ages, was not before His generation, but being generated
apart from time before all things, He alone subsisted
by the act of the Father. For He is not eternal or
co- eternal or co-ingenerate with the Father, nor has He
His being together with the Father, as some speak of re-
lations, 6 introducing two ingenerate origins, but God is
before all things as being a One and an Origin of all.
Wherefore also He is before the Son ; as we have learned
5 Vid. Append. irpofiok-r], wo- therein implied without naming.
Trarwp, &c. Defens. F. N. iii. 9, 4. Hence
e The phrase TO, -rrpos TL Bull Arius, in his Letter to Eusebius,
well explains to refer to the complains that Alexander says,
Catholic truth that the Father or del 6 0e6s, del 6 wos. &/m irar-rip,
Son being named, the Other is dfj.a vl6s. Theod. Hist. i. 4.
86 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. in. also from thy preaching in the midst of the Church. So
far then as from God He has His being, and His glories,
and His life, and all things are delivered unto Him, in
such sense is God His origin, for He is above Him, as
being His God and before Him. But if the terms from
Him and from the womb, and I come forth from the Father,
and I am come, be understood by some to mean as if a
consubstantial part of Him, or as an issue, then the Father
is according to them compounded and divisible and
alterable and material, and, as far as their belief goes, has
the circumstances of a body, who is the Incorporeal God."
This is a part of what the Arians vomited from their
heretical hearts.
22. And before the Nicene Council took place, similar
statements were made by Eusebius's party, Narcissus, Pa-
trophilus, Maris, Paulinus, Theodotus, and Athanasius of
Nazarba. And Eusebius of Nicomedia wrote over and
above to Arius, to this effect, " Since your views are right,
pray that all may adopt them ; for it is plain to any one, that
what has been made was not before its generation ; but
what came to be, has an origin of being." And Eusebius of
Cassarea in Palestine, in a letter to Euphration the Bishop,
did not scruple to say plainly that Christ was not true
God. And Athanasius of Nazarba uncloaked the heresy
still further, saying that the Son of God was one of the
hundred sheep. For, writing to Alexander the Bishop, he
had the extreme audacity to say : " Why complain of the
Arian party, for saying, The Son of God is made as a
creature out of nothing, and one among obhers ? For, all
that are made being represented in parable by the hundred
sheep, the Son is one of them. If then the hundred
are not created and brought into existence, or if there
be beings beside that hundred, then may the Son be not a
creature nor one among others ; but if those hundred are
all brought into being, and there is nothing besides the
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 87
hundred save God alone, what extravagance do the ED. BEN.
Arians utter, when, as comprehending and reckoning -
Christ in the hundred, they say that He is one among
others ? " And George who now is in Laodicea, and then
was presbyter of Alexandria, and was staying at Antioch,
wrote to Alexander the Bishop, " Do not complain of the
Arians, for saying, ' Once the Son of God was not," for
Esaias came to be Son of Amos, and, whereas Amos
was before Esaias came into being, Esaias was not before,
but came into being afterwards." And he wrote to the
Arians, " Why complain of Alexander your Father, say-
ing, that the Son is from the Father ? for you too need not
fear to say that the Son was from God. For if the
Apostle wrote, All things are from God, and it is plain
that all things are made of nothing, therefore, though
the Son too is a creature and one of things made, still He
may be said to be from God in that sense in which all
things are said to be from God." From him then the
Arians learned to be hypocrites, professing indeed the
phrase from God, but not in a right sense. 7 And George
himself was deposed by Alexander for certain reasons,
and among them for manifest impiety ; for he was himself
a presbyter, as has been said before.
23. In a word, then, such were their statements, as if
they all were in dispute and rivalry with each other
which should make the heresy more impious, and display
it in a more naked form. And as for their letters, I have
them not at hand, to despatch them to you ; else I would
have sent you copies ; but, if the Lord will, this too I will
do, when I get possession of them. And one Asterius
from Cappadocia, a many-headed s Sophist, one of the
Eusebians, whom they could not advance into the Clergy,
as having sacrificed in the former persecution in the time
7 Vicl. supr. p. 36, and Euse- 8 Viz. like the hydra,
bius, ibid. 51, 52.
88 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. in. of Constantius's grandfather, writes, with the countenance
of the Eusebians, a sort of a treatise, which was on a par
with the crime of his sacrifice, but answered their pur-
pose ; for in it, after placing the locust and the caterpillar
with or rather before Christ, and saying that Wisdom in
God was other than Christ, and was the Framer as well
of Christ as of the world, he went round the Churches in
Syria and elsewhere, with introductions from the Euse-
bians, that, as he had once been at pains to deny the truth
so now he might make free with it. This audacious man
intruded himself into forbidden places, and seating
himself in the place set apart for Clerks, 9 he read publicly
this treatise of his, in spite of the general indignation.
It includes many matters at great length, but portions of it
are as follows :
Passage from the Arian Asterius.
" For the Blessed Paul said not that he preached Christ,
His, that is, God's ' own power ' or * Wisdom,' " but
without the article, a power of God and a Wisdom of God,
thus preaching that the proper power of God Himself,
which is connatural and co-existent with Him ingenerately,
is something distinct, generative indeed of Christ, creative
of the whole world, concerning which he teaches in his
Epistle to the Romans, thus, The invisible things of Him
from the creation of the ivorld are clearly seen, being under-
stood by the things which are made, even His eternal Power
and Godhead. For as no one would say that the Godhead
there mentioned was Christ, instead of the Father Himself,
9 None but the Clergy might lepariKol, to enter the Chancel and
enter the Chancel, i.e. in Service then communicate. Can. 19, vid.
time. Hence Theodosius was also 44, Cone. t. 1, p. 788, 789.
made to retire by St. Ambrose. It is doubtful what orders the
Theod. v. ]7. The Council of word iepa.Ti.Kol is intended to in-
Laodicea, said to be held A.D. 372, elude. Vid. Binghaiu Antiq.
forbids any but persons in orders, viii. 6, 7.
COUNCILS HELD AT AEIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. oy
so, as I think, His eternal power is also not the Only-be-
gotten God, but the Father who begat Him. And he tells
us of another Power and Wisdom of God, namely, that
which is manifested throngh Christ, and made known
through the works themselves of His Ministry."
And again :
Another Passage.
" Although His eternal Power and Wisdom, which the
reasonings of Truth determine to be Unoriginate and In-
generate, would appear certainly to be one and the same,
yet many are those powers which are one by one created
by Him, of which Christ is the First-born and Only-
begotten. All, however, equally depend upon their
Possessor, and all His powers are rightly called His, who
has created and uses them ; for instance, the Prophet says
that the locust, which became a divine punishment of
human sins, was called by God Himself, not only the
power of God, but the great power. And the blessed
David, too, in many of the Psalms, invites, not Angels
alone, but Powers also to praise God. And while he
invites them all to the hymn of praise, he presents before
us their multitude, and is not unwilling to call them
ministers of God, and teaches that they do His will."
24. These bold words against the Saviour did not
content him, but he went further in his blasphemies, as
follows :
Another Passage.
" The Son is one among others ; for He is first of things
made, and singular among intellectual natures ; and as in
things visible the sun is one among such as show them-
selves, and it shines upon the whole world according to the
command of its Maker, so the Son, being one among
intellectual natures, also enlightens and shines upon all
that are in the intellectual world."
90
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
And again he says, Once He was not, writing thus :
" And before the Son's generation, the Father had pre-
existing knowledge how to generate ; since a physician,
too, before he cured, had the science of curing." And
he says again : " The Son was created by God's earnest
beneficence; and the Father made Him by the super-
abundance of His Power." And again : "If the will of
God has pervaded all the works in succession, certainly
the Son too, being a work, has at His will come into
being and been made." Now though Asterius was the
only person to write all this, the Eusebians felt the like in
common with him.
25. These are the doctrines for which they are contend-
ing ; for these they assail the Ancient Council, because its
members did not propound the like, but anathematised the
Arian heresy instead, which these men were so eager to
recommend. On this account they put forward, as an
advocate of their impiety, Asterius who had sacrificed, a
sophist too, that he might not spare whether to speak
against the Lord, or by a show of reason to mislead the
simple. And they were ignorant, the shallow men, that
they were doing harm to their own cause. For the ill
savour 'of their advocate's idolatrous sacrifice, betrayed still
more plainly that the heresy is Christ's foe. And now
again, the general agitations and troubles which they are
exciting, are in consequence of their belief, that if they
commit enough murders, and hold synods enough month
after month, at length they will succeed in repealing the
sentence which has been passed against the Arian heresy.
But here, too, they seem ignorant, or to pretend ignorance,
that even before Nicaea that heresy was held in abomina-
tion, when Artemas 10 was laying its foundations, and before
10 Artemas or Artemonwas one century. Theodotus was another,
of the chiefs of a school of heresy and the more eminent. They
at liome at the end of the second founded separate sects. Their
COUNCILS HELD AT AEIMINUM AND SELEUCIA.
91
him at the time of Caiaphas's assembly and that of the ED. BEN.
1920.
Pharisees his contemporaries. And at all times is this -
workshop of Christ's foes abominable, and will not cease
to be hateful, while the Lord's Name inspires love, and the
whole creation bows the knee, and confesses tit at Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
CHAPTER IV.
26. YET so it is, they have convened successive Councils 1
against that Ecumenical One, and are not yet tired. 2 After
main tenet is what would now be
called Unitarianism, or that our
Lord was a mere man. Artemas
seems to have been more known
in the East ; at least is more fre-
quently mentioned in controversy
with the Arians, e. g. by Alex-
ander, Theod. Hist. i. 3, p. 739.
1 The enumeration of Councils
and Creeds after the Nicene,
which follows, brings before us
very clearly the point in contro-
versy between Catholics and Eu-
sebians. It was not the question
of our Lord's divinity ; this had
not required settling even at
Nicasa in 325. The assembled
Bishops at once reprobated the
heresies of Arius, but they found
that, whereas the heretics in fact
and in heart denied Him to be
more than the first of creatures,
they could hide their tenet in such
ambiguous phrases, and recom-
mend it by such pretentious con-
cessions and embellishments, and
throw it back into such implicit
forms, as to need, if it was to be
excluded from the Church, some
new, special, discriminating test
in the professions of faith
which the Church enforced.
Such, and such alone, was the
Homousion ; both parties acknow-
ledged this ; in this they joined
issue. The aim then of the Eu-
sebians in these successive Councils
was to delude the Bishops of East
or West into giving up this test,
(which the Nicene Fathers had in-
serted into the Creed,) maintain-
ing for that purpose that it was
not necessary, and nothing but the
destruction of that happy peace
which at length after the trials of
three centuries Christians had
won, and that Athanasius was the
arch-enemy of the Church's wel-
fare, and must be summarily put
down.
2 It will be observed that the
Eusebian or court party from 341
to 358, contained in it two ele-
ments, the more religious or Serni-
arian which tended to Catholicity,
and ultimately coalesced with it,
the other the proper Arian or
Anomoean, which was essentially
heretical. During the period
mentioned, it wore for the most
part the Semi-arian profession.
Athanasius as well as Hilary does
justice to the real Semi-arian s ; but
Athanasius does not seem to have
known or estimated the quarrel
between them and the Arians as
fully as Hilary. Accordingly,
while the former is bent in this
92
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. IV. the Nicene, the Eusebians had been deposed ; however, in
course of time they intruded themselves without shame
upon the Churches, and began to plot against the Bishops
who withstood them, and to place in the sees men of their
own heresy instead. Thus they thought to be able to hold
Councils at their pleasure, as having those who concurred
with them, and whom they had ordained on purpose for this
very object. Accordingly, they assemble at Jerusalem, 3
and there they write thus :
" The Holy Council assembled in Jerusalem by the grace
of God, to the Church of God which is in Alexandria, and
to all throughout Egypt, Thebais, Libya, and Pentapolis,
also to the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons throughout the
world, health in the Lord.
" To all of us who have come together into one place
from different provinces, to the great celebration, which
we have held at the consecration of the Saviour's Marty ry,*
treatise in bringing out the great
fact of the variations of the here-
tical party, Hilary, wishing to
commend the hopeful Semi-arians
to the Gallic Church, makes
excuses for them, on the ground
of the necessity of explanations of
the Nicene formulary, " necessi-
tatem hanc furor hereticus im-
ponit." Hil. de Syn. 63, vid. also
G2 and 28. At the same time,
Ath. (as will be seen infr. ch. vi.)
treats individual Semi-arians with
most considerate forbearance, and
Hilary himself bears witness quite
as strongly as Athan. to the mise-
rable variations of the heretical
party, as Nazianzen in his well-
known declaration against Coun-
cils, " Never saw I Council brought
to a useful issue, nor remedying,
but rather increasing existing
evils." Ep. 130.
3 This Council at Jerusalem
was a continuation of one held at
Tyre at which Athan. was con-
demned. It was very numerously
attended ; by Bishops (as Euse-
bius says, Vit. Const, iv. 43), from
Macedonia, Pannonia, Thrace,
Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, Egypt,
and Libya. One account speaks
of the number as being above 200.
Eus. says that an " innumerable
multitude from all provinces
accompanied them." It was the
second great Council in Constan-
tino's reign, and is compared by
Eusebius (invidiously) to the
Nicene, c. 47. At this Council
Arius was solemnly received, as
the Synodal Letter goes on to say.
* This Church, called the Mar-
tyry or Testimony, was built over
the spot made sacred by our
Lord's death, burial, and resur-
rection, in commemoration of the
discovery of the Holy Cross, and
COUNCILS HELD AT AEIMIXUM AXD SELEUCIA. 93
built in honour of God the Kingf of all, and of His Christ, ED. BEN.
21.
by the zeal of the most religious Emperor Constantine, the -
grace of Christ provided an increase of gratification, in the
conduct of that most religious Emperor himself, who, by
letters of his own, to the banishing from the Church of God
of all jealousy, and driving far away all slander, which has
caused division among the members of Christ for a long
season, urged us, what was our duty, with open and peace-
able mind to receive Arius and his friends, whom for a while
jealousy which hates virtue had contrived to expel from the
Church. And the most religious Emperor bore testimony
in their behalf by his letter to the exactness of their faith,
which, after inquiry of them, and personal communication
with them by word of mouth, he acknowledged and made
known to us, subjoining to his own letters their orthodox
teaching in writing, 5 which we all confess to be sound and
ecclesiastical. And he reasonably recommended that they
should be received and united to the Church of God, as
you will know yourselves from the transcript of the same
Epistle, which we have transmitted to your reverences.
We believe that yourselves also, as if recovering the very
has been described from Eusebius heavens and upon earth ; " after-
in the preface to the Translation wards it professes to have " re-
of S. Cyril's Catechetical Lectures, ceived the faith from the holy
p. xxiv. It was begun A.D. 326, Evangelists," and to believe "as
and dedicated at this date, A.D. all the Catholic Church and as
335, on Saturday, the 13th of the Scriptures teach." The Sy no-
September. The 14th, however, is dal Letter in the text adds " apos-
the feast of the Exaltatio S. Crucis tolical tradition and teaching."
both in East and West. Arius might safely appeal to
5 This is supposed to be the Scripture and the Church for a
Confession which is preserved by creed which did not specify the
Socr. i. 26, and Soz. ii. 27, and point in controversy. In his letter
was presented to Constantine by to Eusebius of Nicomedia before
Arius in 330. It says no more the Nicene Council, where he does
than " And in the Lord Jesus state the distinctive articles of his
Christ His Son, who was begotten heresy, he appeals to him as a
from Him before all the ages God fellow pupil in the School of
and Word, through whom all Lucian, not to tradition. Theod.
things were made, both in the Hist. i. 4.
94 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. members of your own body, will experience great joy and
gladness, in acknowledging and recovering your own
bowels, your own brethren and fathers; since not only the
Presbyters who are friends of Arms are given back to you,
but also the whole Christian people and the entire multi-
tude, which on occasion of the aforesaid men have a long
time been in dissension among you. Moreover it were
fitting, now that you know for certain what has passed,
and that the men have communicated with us and have
been received by so Holy a Council, that you should with
all readiness hail this your coalition and peace with your
own members, specially seeing that the articles of the faith
which they have published preserve indisputable the uni-
versally confessed apostolical tradition and teaching."
27. This was the first of their Councils, and in it they
were prompt in divulging their purpose, and could not
conceal it. For when, after the expulsion of Athanasius,
Bishop of Alexandria, they said they had banished all
jealousy, and went on to recommend the reception of
Arius and his friends, they showed that their measures,
whether against Athanasius himself then, or against all
the other protesting Bishops before, had for their object
to restore the Arians, and to introduce the heresy into the
Church. However, although they had sanctioned in this
Council all Arius's malignity, and had given their directions
to receive his party into communion, of which they had
set the example, yet feeling that even now they had not
done enough for their purpose, they assembled a Council at
Antioch under colour of the so-called Dedication ; 6 and,
6 i. e. the dedication of the by more than 90 Bishops accord-
Dominicum Aureum, which had ing to Ath. infr., or 97 according
been ten years in building. Vid. to Hilary de Syn. 28. The Euse-
the description of it in Euseb. bians had written to the Eoman
Vit. Const, iii. 50. This Council see against Athan.. and eventually
is one of great importance in the called on it to summon a Council,
history, though it was not attended Accordingly, Julius proposed a
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 95
since they were in general and lasting odium for their ED. BEN.
2122.
heresy, they published divers letters, some of this sort and -
some of that; and this is what they wrote in one of
them :
First Confession, at Antiocli.
" We have not been followers of Arius, how, Bishops
as we are, could we follow a Presbyter ? nor did we
receive any other faith beside that which has been handed
down from the beginning. 7 But after taking on ourselves
to examine and to verify his faith, we have admitted him
rather than follow him; as you will understand from
our present avowals.
" For we have been taught from the first, to believe in
one God, the God of the Universe, the Framer and Provi-
dence of all things both intellectual and sensible.
"And in One Son of God, Only-begotten, existing
before all ages, and being with the Father who begat
Him, by whom all things were made, both visible and
invisible, who in the last days according to the good
pleasure of the Father came down, and took flesh of the
Virgin, and fulfilled all His Father's will ; and suffered
and rose again, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of the Father, and cometh again to judge
Council at Borne ; they refused to Vid. note 2.
coine, and instead held this meet- 7 The Council might safely ap-
ing at Antioch. Twenty-five peal to antiquity, since, with
Canons are attributed to this Arius in the Confession noticed
Council, which have been received supr. note 5, they did not touch
into the Code of the Catholic on the point in dispute. The
Church, though not as from this number of their formularies, three
Council, which took at least some or four, shows that they had a
of them from more ancient sources. great difficulty in taking any view
It is remarkable that S. Hilary which would meet the wishes and
calls this Council an assembly of express the sentiments of one and
Saints, de Syn. 32, but it is his all. The one that follows, which
course throughout to look at these is their first, is as meagre as
Councils on their hopeful side. Anus's, quoted note 5.
96
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. IV. quick and dead, and remaineth King and God unto all
" ages.
"And we believe also in the Holy Ghost; and if it be
necessary to add, we believe the doctrine of the resurrection
of the flesh, and the life everlasting."
28. Here follows what they published next at the same
Dedication in another Epistle, being dissatisfied with the
first, and devising something newer and fuller :
Second Confession, 8 at Antioch.
" We believe, conformably to the evangelical and apos-
tolical tradition, in One God, the Father Almighty, the
Framer, and Maker, and Providence of the Universe, from
whom are all things.
"And in One Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, the Only-be-
gotten God, through whom are all things, who was begotten
before all ages from the Father, God from God, whole
from whole, 9 sole from sole, perfect from perfect, King
8 This formulary is that known
as the Formulary of the Dedica-
tion. It is quoted as such by
Socr. ii. 39, 40. Soz. iv. 15, and
inf r. 29. Sozomen says that the
Eusebians attributed it to Lucian,
alleging that they had found a
copy written by his own hand ;
but he decides neither for or
against it himself. Hist, iii 5.
And the Auctor de Trinitate (in
Theodoret's works, t. 5), allows
that it is Lucian's, but interpo-
lated. Dial. iii. init. vid. Eouth,
Reliq. Sacr. vol. iii. p. 294-6,
who is in favour of its genuine-
ness ; as are Bull, Cave, and S.
Basnage. Tillemont and Con-
stant take the contrary side ; the
latter observing (ad Hilar. de
Synod. 28) that Athanasius,
speaks of parts of it as
Acacius's, and that Acacius attri-
butes its language to Asterius.
The Creed is of a much higher
cast of doctrine than the two
former, containing some of the
phrases which in the fourth
century became badges of Semi-
arianism.
9 These strong words and those
which folloAv. whether Lucian's or
not, mark the great difference be-
tween this confession and the fore-
going. It would seem as if the
Eusebians had at first tried the
assembled Bishops Avith a nega-
tive confession, and finding that
they would not accept it, had been
forced upon one of a more ortho-
dox character. It is observable
too that even the Council of Jeru-
salem but indirectly received the
Confession on which they re-ad-
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 97
from King, Lord from Lord, Living Word, Living Wis- ED. HEN.
dom, true Light, Way, Truth, Resurrection, Shepherd,
Door, both unalterable and unchangeable, unvarying 1
Image of the Godhead, Substance, Will, Power, and Glory
of the Father ; the First-born of every creature, who was
in the beginning with God, God the Word, as it is written
in the Gospel, And the Word was God; by whom all things
were made, and in whom all things consist ; who in the
last days descended from above, and was born of a Virgin
according to the Scriptures, and was made Man, Mediator
between God and man, and Apostle of our faith, and
Prince of life, as He says, I came down from heaven, not to
do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me; who
suffered for us and rose again on the third day, and
ascended into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of
the Father, and is coming again with glory and power, to
judge quick and dead.
"And in the Holy Ghost, who is given to those who
believe, for comfort, and sanctification, and perfection, as
also our Lord Jesus Christ enjoined His disciples, saying,
Go ye, teach all nations, baptising them in the Name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; of Father as
being truly Father, and of Son as being truly Son, and of
the Holy Ghost as being truly Holy Ghost, the names not
being given without meaning or effect, but denoting
accurately the peculiar subsistence, rank, and glory of
each that is named, so that they are three in subsistence,
and in agreement one. 2
mitted Arms, though they gave 2 This phrase, which is of a
it a real sanction. The words more Arian character than any
" unalterable and unchangeable " other part of the Confession, is
are formal Anti-arian symbols, as justified by S. Hilary on the
the rpe-n-Tov or alterable was one ground, that when the Spirit is
of the most characteristic parts mentioned, agreement is the best
of Arius's creed. symbol of unity, de Syn. 32. It
1 Vid. a7rapd\\a.KTos. is protested against in the Sardi-
can Confession. Theod. Hist. ii.
H
98
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
" Holding then this faith, and holding it in the presence
of God and Christ, from beginning to end, we anathema-
tise every heretical heterodoxy. 3 And if any teaches,
beside the sound and right faith of the Scriptures, that
time, or season, or age,* either is or has taken place before
the generation of the Son, be he anathema. Or if any one
says, that the Son is a creature, as one of the creatures, or
an offspring as one of the offsprings, or a work as one of
the works, and does not hold the aforesaid articles one
after another, as the divine Scriptures have delivered, 5
or if he teaches or preaches beside what we have re-
ceived, be he anathema. For all that has been delivered
in the divine Scriptures, whether by Prophets or Apos-
tles, do we truly and conscientiously both believe and
follow."
29. And one Theophronius, G Bishop of Tyana, put forth
in their presence the following statement of his personal
faith. And they subscribed it, accepting the faith of this
man :
0, p. 846. A similar passage
occurs in Origen, contr. Gels. viii.
12, with which Huet. Origen, ii. 2,
n. 3, compares Novatian, de Trin.
22. The Arians insisted on the
" oneness in agreement " as a ful-
filment of such texts as " I and
My Father are one ; " but this
subject will come before us, infr.
11. 54. and in Disc. ch. 26.
3 The whole of these anathemas
are an Eusebian addition. The
Council anathematises " every
heretical heterodoxy ; " not, as
Athanasius observes, supr. Arim.
9. the Arian.
* The introduction of these
words, " time," " age," &c., allows
them still to hold the Arian for-
mula " once He was not ; " for our
Lord was, as they held, before
time, but still created. Vid. also
infr. note 3, p. 103.
5 This emphatic mention of
Scripture is also virtually an
Arian evasion ; to hold certain
truths, " as Scripture has de-
livered," might either mean be-
cause and as in fart, or so far as,
or in the sense of Scripture, and
admitted of a silent reference
to themselves, as interpreters of
Scripture.
8 Nothing is known of Theo-
phronius ; his confession is in
great measure a relapse into
Arianism proper ; that is, as fnr
as the absence of characteristic
symbols is a proof of a wish to
introduce the heresy. For the
phrase "perfect God"vid. Append.
rAeios.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 99
Third Confession, at Antioch.
" God knows, whom I call as a witness upon my soul, ED. BEN.
that so I believe : in God the Father Almighty, the -
Creator and Maker of the Universe, from whom are all
things :
" And in His Son, the Only-begotten God, Word,
Power, and Wisdom, our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom are all things ; who was begotten from the Father
before the ages, perfect God from perfect God, who was
with God in subsistence, and in the last days descended,
and was born of the Virgin according to the Scriptures,
and was made man, and suffered, and rose again from the
dead, and ascended into the heavens, and sat down on the
right hand of His Father, and cometh again with glory and
power to judge quick and dead, and remaineth for ever :
"And in the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the Spirit of
Truth, which also God promised by his Prophet to pour
out upon His Servants, and the Lord promised to send to
His disciples : which also He sent, as the Acts of the
Apostles witness.
" But if any one teaches, or holds in his mind, aught
beside this faith, be he anathema ; or holds with Marcellus of
Ancyra, or Sabellius, or Paul of Samosata, be he anathema,
both himself and those who communicate with him."
30. Ninety Bishops met at the Dedication under the
Consulate of Marcellinus and Probinus, in the 14th of
the Indiction, 7 Constantius the most irreligious being
present. Having thus conducted matters at Antioch at
the Dedication, thinking that their composition was
7 The commencement and the of 15 years, and began with the
origin of this mode of dating are month of September. St. Atha-
unknown. It seems to have been nasius is the first ecclesiastical
introduced between A.D. 313 and author who adopts it.
315. The Indiction was a cycle
H2
100
EPISTLE OF ATHAXASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. deficient still, and not altogether clear as to their own
view of the doctrine, again they draw up afresh another
formulary, after a few months, professedly concerning the
faith, and despatch Narcissus, Marls, Theodorus, and Mark
into Gaul 8 And they, as being sent from the Council,
deliver the following document to Constans Augustus 9 of
blessed memory, and to all who were there :
Fourth Confession^ at Antiocli.
" We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator
8 This deputation had it in pur-
pose to gain the Emperor Con-
stans to the Eusebian party. They
composed a new Confession with
this object. Theodore of Hera-
clea (who made commentaries on
Scripture and is said to have been
an elegant writer), Maris and Nar-
cissus, were all Eusebians ; but
Mark was a Semi-arian. As yet
the Eusebian party were making
use of the Semi-arians, but their
professed Creed had already much
degenerated from Lucian's at the
Dedication.
9 Constans had lately become
master of two-thirds of the Em-
pire by the death of his elder
brother Constantine, who had
made war upon him and fallen in
an engagement. He was at this
time only 22 years of age. His
enemies represent his character
in no favourable light, but, for
whatever reason, he sided with
the Catholics ; and S. Athanasius,
who had been honourably treated
by him in Gaul, speaks of him in
the language of gratitude. In his
Apology to Constantius, he says,
" thy brother of blessed memory
filled the churches with offerings."
and he speaks of the " grace given
him through baptism," 7. Con-
stans was murdered by Magnen-
tius in A.D. 350, and one of the
calumnies against A than, was
that he had sent letters to the
murderer.
1 The 4th, 5th, and 6th Con-
fessions are the same, and with
these agrees the (Arian) Creed of
Philippopolis (A.D. 347, or 344
according to Mansi). These ex-
tend over a period of nine years
A.D. 342351 (or 15 or 16 ac-
cording to Baronius and Mansi r
who place the 6th Confession, i.e.
the 1st Sirmian, at 357, 358
respectively), and form the sta-
tionary period of Arianism. The
two parties of which the heretical
body was composed were kept
together, not only by the court,
but by the rise of the Sabellian-
ism of Marcellus (A.D. 335) and
Photinus (about 342). This too
would increase their strength in
the Church, and is the excuse,
which Hilary himself urges, for
their frequent Councils. Still they
do not seem to be able to escape
from the argument of Athana-
sius, that, whereas new Councils
are for new heresies, if only one
new heresy had risen, only one
new Council was necessary. If
these four Confessions say the same
thing, three of them must be super-
fluous, vid. infr. n. 37, p. 122.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 101
and Maker of all things ; from whom all fatherhood in En. HEN.
2o
heaven and on earth is named.
" And in His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who before all ages was begotten from the Father, God
from God, Light from Light, through whom all things
were made in the heavens and on the earth, visible and
invisible, being Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and Life,
and True Light ; who in the last days was made man for
us, and was born of the Holy Virgin ; who was crucified,
and dead, and buried, and who rose again from the dead
the third day, and was taken up into heaven, and sat down
on the right hand of the Father ; and is coming at the
end of the world, to judge quick and dead, and to render
to every one according to his works ; whose Kingdom
endures indissolubly into infinite ages ; for He shall be
seated on the right hand of the Father, not only in this
world but in that which is to come.
" And in the Holy Ghost, that is, the Paraclete ; whom,
having promised to the Apostles, He sent forth after His
ascension into heaven, to teach them and to remind them of
all things ; through whom also shall be sanctified the souls
of those who sincerely believe in Him.
" But those who say, that the Son was from nothing, or
from other subsistence and not from God, and, there was
time when He was not, -the Catholic Church regards as
aliens." 2
However, in spite of the identity which it evades is our Lord's
of their Creed, the difference in eternal existence, substituting for
their Anathemas is very great, " once He was not," " there was
as we shall see. time when He was not," and
2 S. Hilary, vid. Theol. Tracts, leaving out " before His gene-
p. 81, by implication calls this the ration He was not," " created,"
Nicene Anathema; and so it is in "alterable," and "mutable." It
the respects in which he speaks seems to have been considered
of it ; but it omits many of the sufficient for Gaul, as worded here ;
Nicene clauses, and with them the for Italy, as in the 5th Confession
condemnation of many of the or 'Macrostich ; and for Africa, as
Arian articles. The especial point in the Creed of Philippopolis.
102 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. 31. As if dissatisfied with this, they hold their meeting
again after three years, and despatch Eudoxius, Martyrius,
and Macedonius of Cilicia, and some others with them, to
the parts of Italy, to carry with them a faith written at
great length, with numerous additions over and above
those which had gone before. They went abroad with
these, as if they had discovered something new.
Fifth Confession or Macrostich.
" We believe in one God the Father Almio-htv, the
O *f *
Creator and Maker of all things, from whom all father-
hood in heaven and on earth is named.
" And in His Only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ,
who before all ages was begotten from the Father, God
from God, Light from Light, by whom all things were
made, in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible,
being Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and Life, and True
Light, who in the last days was made man for us, and was
born of the Holy Virgin, crucified and dead and buried,
and who rose again from the dead the third day, and was
taken up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of
the Father, and is coming at the end of the world to judge
quick and dead, and to render to every one according to
his works, whose Kingdom endures unceasingly unto in-
finite ages; for He sitteth on the right hand of the Father
not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
" And we believe in the Holy Ghost, that is, the Para-
clete, whom, having promised to the Apostles, He sent
forth after the ascension into heaven, to teach them and to
remind them of all things : through whom also shall be
sanctified the souls of those who sincerely believe in Him.
" But those who say, (1) that the Son was from nothing,
or from other subsistence and not from God ; (2) and that
there was a time or age when He was not, the Catholic
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCiA. 103
and Holy Church regards as aliens. Likewise those who ED. BF.\.
say, (3) that there are three Gods; (4) or that Christ is not -
God; (5) or that before the ages He was neither Christ
nor Son of God ; (6) or that Father and Son, or Holy
Ghost, are the same ; (7) or that the Son is Ingenerate ;
(8) or that the Father generated the Son, not by choice
or will ; the Holy and Catholic Church anathematises.
" (1.) For it is not safe to say either that the Son is
from nothing, (since this is nowhere spoken of Him in
divinely inspired Scripture,) or again of any other subsist-
ence before existing beside the Father, but from God alone
do we define Him genuinely to be generated. For the
divine Word teaches that the Ingenerate and Unoriginate,
the Father of Christ, is One. 3
" (2.) ]STor may we, adopting the hazardous position,
' There was once when He was not/ from unscriptural
sources, imagine any interval of time prior to Him, but
only that God generated Him apart from time ; for
through Him both times and ages came into being. Yet
we must not consider the Son to be co-unorio-inate and
O
co-ingenerate with the Father ; for no one can be properly
called father or son of one who is co-unoriginate and
co-ingenerate with him. 4 ' But we acknowledge that the
Father, who alone is Unoriginate and Ingenerate, hath
generated inconceivably and incomprehensibly ; and that
the Son hath been generated before ages, and in no wise
3 It is observable that here and thing must be from God. Vid.
in the next paragraph the only Append. Eusebius.
reasons they give against using 4 They argue, after the usual
the only two Arian formulas which Arian manner, that the term
they condemn is that they are not " Son " essentially implies begin-
found in Scripture, which leaves ning, and excludes the title " co-
the question of their truth un- Unoriginate ; " whereas the Catho-
tpuched. Here, in their explana- lies contended (supr. p. 85, note a),
tion of the e OVK '6vTuv, or from that the word Father implied
nothing, they do but deny it with a continuity of nature, that is,
Eusebius's evasion ; that nothing a co-eternal existence with the
can be from nothing, and every Father.
104 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. is ingenerate Himself like the Fatter, but had as His
origin the Father who generated Him ; for the Head of
Christ is God.
" (3.) Nor again, in confessing three 5 realities and three
Persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost
according to the Scriptures, do we therefore make Gods
three ; since we acknowledge the Self-complete and In-
generate and Unoriginate and Invisible God to be one
only, the God and Father of the Only-begotten, which
Father alone hath being from Himself, and alone vouch-
safes this to all others bountifully.
" (4.) Nor again in saying that the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ is one only God, the only Ingenerate ; do we
therefore deny that Christ also is God before ages : as the
disciples of Paul of Samosata, who say that after the incar-
nation He was by advance 6 made God, from being by
nature a mere man. For we acknowledge, that though He
be subordinate to His Father and God, yet, being before
ages begotten of God, He is God according to nature
perfect and true, and not first man and then God, but first
God and then becoming man for us, yet never having
ceased to be God. 7
" (5.) We abhor besides and anathematise those who
make a pretence of saying that He is but the mere Word
of God and non-existent, having His being in another,
now as if pronounced, as some speak, now as mental, 8 hold-
5 7rpa.yfj.aTo. KO.I Trpbauira. birth in the flesh, was bestowed
6 e.K irpoKoirris, supr. p. 25, note i. on Him after it. Thus " perfect
7 These strong words 6ebv Kara according to nature " and " true,"
0iW reXeiov Kal aX-rjOri are of a will not be directly connected
different character from any which with "God" so much as opposed
have occurred in the Arian Con- to, " by advance," by "adoption,"
fessions. They can only be ex- &c. And it may be explained that
plained away by considering them the gift of grace is a new and
used in contrast to the Samosa- divine nature.
tene doctrine ; Paul saying that 8 Vid. eV5td0eros,
that dignity which the Arians Append,
ascribed to our Lord before His
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 105
ing- that He was not Christ or Son of God or Mediator or ED. BEN.
26.
Image of God before ages ; but that He first became Christ
and Son of God when He took our flesh from the Virgin,
not four hundred years since. For they will have it that
then Christ began His Kingdom, and that it will have an
end after the consummation of all and the judgment. 9
Such are the disciples of Marcellus and Scotinus x of Gala-
tian Ancyra, who, equally with Jews, negative Christ's
existence before ages, and His Godhead, and unending
Kingdom, upon pretence of supporting the divine Monarchy.
We, on the contrary, regard Him not as simply God's
pronounced or mental word, but as Living God and Word,
existing in Himself, and Son of God and Christ ; being
and abiding with His Father before ages, and that not in
foreknowledge only, and ministering to Him for the
entire framing whether of things visible or invisible. For
He it is to whom the Father said, Let Us make man in
Our image, after Our likeness, who also was seen in His
own Person 2 by the patriarchs, gave the law, spoke by the
9 This passage seems taken from Ixi. 1, ap. Leon. Op. t. 3, p. 443.
Eusebius, and partly from Mar- \igilantius dormitantius, Jerom.
cellus's own words, vid. Append. contr. Vigil, init. Aerius aepioi/
S. Cyril speaks of his doctrine in irvevfj-a Zcrxev. Epiph. Hasr. 75,
like terms. Catech. xv. 27. 6 fin. Of Arius,"Apes, apeie, vid.
1 i.e. Photinus of Sirmium, the Append. Ariiis. Gregory, 6 vv<r-
pupil of Marcellus, is meant, who rdfav, Anast. Hod. 10, p. 186.
published his heresy about 343. 2 airroTrpoo-wTrws and so Cyril.
A similar play upon words is Hier. Catech. xv. 14 and 17. He
found in the case of other names ; means, ''not in personation ; " and
though Lucifer seems to think Philo too contrasting divine ap-
that his name was really Scotinus pearances with those of Angels :
and that his friends changed it, Leg. Alleg. iii. 62. On the other
de non pare. pp. 203, 220. 226. hand, Theophilus on the text, " The
Thus Koetus is called avo^ros. voice of the Lord God walking in
Epiph. Hasr. 57, 2 fin. and 8, and the garden," speaks of the Word,
Eudoxius, ddo^Los. Lucifer, pro "assuming the person, Trpbauirov,
Athan. i. p. 65. Moriend. p. 258. of the Father," and ' in the person
Eunomians among the Latins (by of God," ad Autol. ii. 22, the word
a confusion with Anomcean), hardly having then its theologi-
&VOJJ.OL, or sine lege, Cod. Can. cal sense.
106 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. IV. Prophets, and at last, became man, and manifested His
own Father to all men, and reigns to never-ending ages.
For Christ has taken no recent dignity, but we have
believed Him to be perfect from the first, and like in all
things to the Father. 3
" (6.) And those who say that the Father and Son and
Holy Ghost are the same, and impiously understand the
Three Names of one and the same Reality and Person, we
justly forbid the Church, because they suppose the illimit-
able and impassible Father to be limitable withal and
passible through His becoming man : for such are they
whom the Latins call the Patropassians, and we Sabellians.
For we acknowledge that the Father who sent, remained
in His own state of unchangeable Godhead, and that
Christ who was sent fulfilled the economy of the Incar-
nation.
" (7.) And at the same time those who irreverently say
that the Son was generated, not by choice or will, thus
encompassing God with a necessity which excludes choice
and purpose, so that He begat the Son unwillingly, we
account as most impious and alien to the Church ; in that
they have dared to define such things concerning God,
against the commonly received notions concerning Him,
nay, beside the purport of divinely inspired Scripture.
For we, knowing that God is absolute and sovereign over
Himself, have a religious understanding that He gene-
rated the Son voluntarily and freely; yet, as we have a
reverent belief in the Son's words concerning Himself,
The Lord hath created Me a beginning of His ways for His
works, we do not understand Him to be generated, like
the creatures or works which through Him came into
3 8/j.oiov Kara -jravra. Here again of what may be called the new
we have a strong Semi-arian or Semi-arian school. Of course it
almost Catholic formula introduced admitted of evasion, but in its
by-the-bye, marking the presence fulness it included " substance."
COUNCILS HELD AT AEIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 107
being. For it is impious and alien to the ecclesiastical ED. BEN.
faith to compare the Creator with handiworks created by -
Him, and to think that He has the same manner of birth
with the rest. For divine Scripture teaches us really and
truly that the Only-begotten Son was generated sole and
solely. *
" (8.) Yet, 5 in saying that the Son is in Himself, and both
lives and exists, like the Father, we do not on that account
separate Him from the Father, imagining place and interval
between their union in the way of bodies. For we believe
that they are united with each other without any inter-
mediate or interval, and that they exist inseparably ; all
the Father embosoming the Son, and all the Son adhering
and clinging to the Father, and alone resting on the Father's
breast continually. Believing then in the all-perfect Triad,
the most Holy, that is, in the Father, and in the Son, and
in the Holy Ghost, and calling the Father God, and the
Son God, yet we confess in them, not two Gods, but one
dignity of Godhead, and one exact harmony of dominion,
the only Father being Head over the whole universe
wholly and over the Son Himself ; and the Son subordi-
nated to the Father, but, excepting Him, ruling over all
things after Him which through Himself have come to be,
4 The Confession does not here The doctrine of the
comment on the clause against has already partially come before
our Lord's being Ingenerate, hav- us, supr. pp. 20 22. M6vws, not
ing already noticed it under para- as the creatures,
graph (2). It will be remarked 8 This last paragraph is the
that it still insists upon the un- most curious of the instances of
scriptural ness of the Catholic posi- the presence of this new and
tions. The main subject of this nameless influence, which seems
paragraph, the 0eX?7<m yevv^d^, at this time to have been spring-
which forms great part of the ing up among the Eusebians, and
Arian question and controversy, showed itself by acts before it has
is reserved for Orat. iii. 59, &c. a place in history. It is in its
(infr. pp. 191 204), in which Atha- very form an interpolation, and,
nasius formally treats of it. He adding the TreptxwpT/o-ts, was vir-
treats of the text Prov. viii. 22, in tually an admission of the
Orat. i. and ii. (infr. pp. 220343). ciov.
108
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. and bestowing the grace of the Holy Ghost bountifully
to the holy at the Father's will. For that such is the
account of the Divine Monarchy relatively towards Christ,
the sacred oracles have delivered to us.
" Thus much, in addition to the faith before published
in epitome, we have been compelled to draw forth at
greater length, not in any officious display, but to clear
away all hostile suspicion concerning our opinions, among
those who are ignorant of what we really hold : and that
all in the West may know, both the audacity of the slan-
ders of the heterodox, and as to the Orientals, their
Christian and ecclesiastical spirit, to which the divinely
inspired Scriptures readily bear witness, when readers are
not perverse."
32. However, they did not stand even to this ; for again
at Sirmium 6 they met together 7 against Photinus, s and
6 Sirmium was a city of lower
Pannonia, not far from the
Danube, and it was the great
bulwark of the Illyrian provinces
of the Empire. There Vetranio
assumed the purple ; and there
Constantius was born. The fron-
tier war caused it to be from time
to time the Imperial residence.
We hear of Constantius at Sir-
mium in the summer of 357.
Ammian. xvi. 10. He also passed
there the ensuing winter, ibid,
xvii. 12. In October, 358, after
the Sarmatian war, he entered
Sirmium in triumph, and passed
the winter there, xvii. 13 fin., and
with a short absence in the spring,
remained there till the end of
May, 359.
7 For the chronology, &c., of the
various Confessions of Sirmium,
Petavius must be consulted, who
has thrown more light on the
subject than any one else. In
351, the Semi-arian party was
still stronger than in 345. The
leading person in this Council
was Basil of Ancyra, who is gene-
rally considered their head. Basil
held a disputation with Photinus.
Silvanus too of Tarsus now ap-
pears for the first time ; while,
according to Socrates, Mark of
Arethusa, who was more con-
nected with the Eusebians than
any other of his party, drew up
the Anathemas ; the Confession
used was the same as that sent to
Constans, that of the Council of
Philippopolis, and the Macrostich.
8 There had been no important
Oriental Council held since that
of the Dedication ten years before,
till this of Sirmium (unless indeed
that of Philippopolis requires to
be mentioned, which was a se-
cession from the Council of
COUNCILS HELD AT ABIMINUM AND SELEUCIA.
109
there composed a Faith, again, not drawn out into such ED. BEN.
2627.
length, nor so diffuse ; but, subtracting the greater part and -
adding something else, as if they listened to the sugges-
tions of others, they wrote as follows :
Sixth Confession at Sirmium, (first Sirmian).
" We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, the
Creator and Maker of all things, from whom the whole father-
hood in heaven and earth is named.
" And in His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus the
Christ, who before all the ages was begotten from the
Father, God from God, Light from Light, by whom all
things were made, in heaven and on the earth, visible and
invisible, being Word and Wisdom, and True Light and
Life, who in the last days was made man for us, and was
Sardica) : S.Hilary treats its creed
as a Catholic composition, de Syn.
39_63. Philastrius and Vigi-
lius call the Council a meeting
of " holy bishops " and a " Catho-
lic Council," de Hoar. 65, and in
Eutych. v. init. What gave a
character and weight to this
Council, which belonged to no
other Eusebian meeting, was. that
it met to set right a real evil, and
was not a mere pretence with
Arian objects. Photinus had now
been eight or nine years in the
open avowal of his heresy, yet in
possession of his see. As to the
Bishops present at this Sirmian
Council, we have them described
in Sulpitius : " Part of the Bishops
followed Arius, and welcomed the
desired condemnation of Athana-
sius ; part, brought together by
fear and faction, yielded to a party
spirit ; a few, to whom faith was
dear and truth precious, rejected
the unjust judgment." Hist. ii.
52 ; he instances Paulinus of
Treves, whose resistance, however,
took place at Milan some years
later. Sozomen gives us a similar
account, speaking of a date a few
years before the Sirmian Council.
" The East," he says, "in spite of
its being in faction after the
Antiochene Council " of the De-
dication, " and thenceforth openly
dissenting from the Nicene faith,
in reality, I think, concurred in
the sentiment of the majority, and
with them confessed the Son to
be of the Father's substance ; but
from contentiousness certain of
them fought against the term
' Consubstantial : ' some, as I
conjecture, having originally ob-
jected to the word others "from
habit others, aware that the
resistance was unsuitable, leaned
to this side or that to gratify
parties ; and many thought it-
weak to waste themselves in such
strife of words, and peaceably held
to the Nicene decision." Hist,
iii. 13.
110 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. IV. born of tlie Holy Virgin, and crucified and dead and
buried, and rose again from tlie dead the third day, and
was taken up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand
of the Father, and is coming at the end of the world, to
judge quick and dead, and to render to every one accord-
ing to his works ; whose Kingdom ceases not, but endures
unto the infinite ages ; for He shall sit on the right hand
of the Father, not only in this age, but also in that which
is to come.
" And in the Holy Ghost, that is, the Paraclete ; whom
having promised to the Apostles to send forth after His
ascension into heaven, to teach and to remind them of all
things, He did send ; through whom also are sanctified the
souls of those who sincerely believe in Him.
" (1.) But those who say that the Son was from nothing,
or from other subsistence and not from God, arid that there
was time or age when He was not, the Holy and Catholic
Church regards as aliens.
" (2.) Again we say, Whosoever says that the Father
and the Son are two Gods, be he anathema. 9
" (3.) And whosoever, saying that Christ is God,
before ages Son of God, does not confess that He sub-
served the Father for the framing of the universe, be he
anathema. 1
9 This Anathema, which has Lord a second and another God,
occurred in substance in the vid. Append. Etasebius. It will
Macrostich, and again infr. be observed that this Anathema
Anath. 18 and 23, is a disclaimer contradicts the one which imrae-
on the part of the Eusebian party diately follows, and the llth, in
of the charge with reason brought which Christ is called God ;
against them by the Catho- except on the one hand, the
lies, of their in fact holding a Father and Son are one God,
supreme and a secondary God. which was the Catholic doctrine,
In the Macrostich it is dis- or, on the other, the Son is God
claimed upon a simple Arian in name only, which was the
basis. The Semi-arians were pure Arian or Anomoean.
more open to this imputation ; l Vid. Ministration.
Eusebius, distinctly calling our
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. Ill
" (4.) Whosoever presumes to say that the Ingenerate, or ED. BEN.
a part of Him, was born of Mary, be he anathema.
" (5.) Whosoever says that according to foreknowledge
the Son is before Mary, and not that, generated from, the
Father before ages, He was with God, and that through
Him all things were brought into being, be he anathema.
" (6.) Whosoever shall pretend that the substance of God
was enlarged or contracted, be he anathema.
" (7.) Whosoever shall say that the substance of God
being enlarged made the Son, or shall name the enlarge-
ment of His substance the Son, be he anathema.
" (8.) Whosoever calls the Son of God the mental or
pronounced Word, 2 be he anathema.
" (9.) Whosoever says that the Son from Mary is man
only, be he anathema.
" (10.) Whosoever, speaking of Him who is from Mary
God and man, thereby means God the Ingenerate, 3 be he
anathema.
" (11.) Whosoever shall understand judaically as a
denial of the Only-begotten, before ages God, the words I
am the First and I am the Last, and besides me there is no
God, which are said for the denial of idols and of gods
that are not, be he anathema.*
" (12.) Whosoever, because it is said The Word luas made
flesh, shall consider that the Word was changed into flesh,
or shall say that He underwent an alteration in taking
flesh, be he anathema. 4
2 Vid. evdidderos. against Apollinaris, " Idle then
3 Vid. dyewrjTov. is the fiction of the Arians,
* The 12th and 13th Anathemas who suppose that the Saviour
are intended to meet the charge took flesh only, impiously
which is referred to infr. p. 116, imputing the notion of suffering
note 2, rid. Append. Sabellhtf;, to the impassible godhead."
that Arianism involved the Contr. Appollin. i. 15, vid. also
doctrine that our Lord's divine Ambros. de Fide, iii. 31. Salig
nature suffered. Athanasius in his de Eutychianismo ante
brings this accusation against Eutychen takes notice of none of
them distinctly in his work the passages in the text.
112 EPISTLE OF ATHAXASIUS, ON THE
CnAP - IY - " (13.) Whosoever, as hearing the Only-begotten Son of
God was crucified, shall say that His Godhead underwent
corruption, or passion, or alteration, or diminution, or
destruction, be he anathema.
" (14.) Whosoever shall say that Let Us make man was
not said by the Father to the Son, but by God to Himself,
be he anathema. 5
" (15.) Whosoever shall say that Abraham saw, not the
Son, but the Ingenerate God or part of Him, be he
anathema.
"(16.) Whosoever shall say that with Jacob, not the Son
as man, but the Inge aerate God or part of Him, did
wrestle, be he anathema.
" (17.) Whosoever shall explain, The Lord rained fire from
the Lord, not of the Father and the Son, and says that He
rained from Himself, be he anathema. For the Son who
is Lord rained from the Father who is Lord.
' : (18.) Whosoever hearing that the Father is Lord and
the Son Lord and the Father and Son Lord, for there is
Lord from Lord, says there are two Gods, be he anathema.
For we do not rank the Son with the Father, but we consider
Him as subordinate to the Father ; for He did not descend
upon Sodom without the Father's will, nor did He rain
from Himself, but from the Lord, that is, the Father
authorising it. Nor is He of Himself set down on the
right hand, but He hears the Father saying, Sit Thou on
My right hand.
" (19.) Whosoever says that the Father and the Son and
the Holy Ghost are One Person, be he anathema.
5 This anathema is directed mighty God spoke to the Angels,
against the Sabellians, especially Basil. Hexaem. fin. Others that
Marcellus, who held the very the plural was used as authorities
opinion which it denounces, that on earth use it in way of dignity,
the Almighty God spake with Theod. in Gen. 19. Vid. App.
Himself. Buseb. Eccles. Theol. Ministration.
ii. 15. The Jews said that Al-
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 113
" (20.) Whosoever, speaking of the Holy Ghost as ED. BEN.
Paraclete, shall speak of the Ingenerate God, be he
anathema.
" (21.) Whosoever shall deny, what the Lord taught us,
that the Paraclete is other than the Son, for He hath said,
And another Paraclete shall tJte FntJinr send to you ivlwm I
will ask, be he anathema.
" (22.) Whosoever shall say that the Holy Ghost is part
of the Father or of the Son, be he anathema.
" (23.) Whosoever shall say that the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost be three Gods, be he anathema.
" (24.) Whosoever shall say that the Son of God at the
will of God came into being, as one of the things made, be he
anathema.
" (25.) Whosoever shall say that the Son was generated,
the Father not willing 6 it, be he anathema. For not by
compulsion, forced by physical necessity, did the Father,
as unwilling, generate the Son, but He both willed,
and, after generating Him from Himself apart from time
and any affection, manifested Him.
" (26.) Whosoever shall say that the Son is ingenerate
and unoriginate, as if speaking of two unoriginate and
two ingenerate, and making two Gods, be he anathema.
For the Son is the Head, that is, the origin of all : and
God is the Head, that is, the origin of Christ ; for thus to
one unoriginate origin of the universe do we religiously
refer all things through the Son.
" (27.) And in accurate delineation of the idea of Chris-
tianity we say this again : Whosoever shall not confess
that Christ is God, Son of God, and before ages, and
that He subserved the Father in the framing of the
Universe, but shall say that from the time that He was
born of Mary, from thence He was called Christ and
Son, and took an origin of being God, be he anathema."
6 Vid. infr. Disc. ch. 9. p. 193. &c.
I
114 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. 33. Casting aside the whole of this, as if they had
discovered something better, they propound another Faith,
and write at Sirmium in Latin what is here translated
into Greek. 7
Seventh Confession, at Sirmium, (second Sirmian).
"Whereas it has seemed good that there should be
some consideration concerning faith, all points have been
carefully investigated and discussed at Sirmium in the
presence of Valens, and Ursacius, and Germinius, and
the rest.
" It is held for certain that there is one God, the
Father Almighty, as also is preached in all the world.
" And His one Only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus
Christ, generated from Him before the ages ; and that we
may not speak of two Gods, since the Lord Himself has
said, J go to My Father and your Father, and My God and
your God. On this account He is God of all, as also the
Apostle has taught : Is He God of the Jews only, is He
not also of the Gentiles ? yes of the Gentiles also : since there
is one God who shall justify the circumcision from faith, and
the uncircumcision through faith; and everything else
agrees and has no ambiguity.
" But since many persons are disturbed by questions
concerning what is called in Latin ' Substantia,' but
in Greek * Usia,' that is, to make it understood more
exactly, as to ' Consubstantial,' or what is called, ' Like
7 The Creed which follows was date, calls this a " blasphemia,"
not put forth by a Council, but and upon it followed the Semi-
at a meeting of a few Arian arian Council by way of protest
Bishops, and the author was at Ancyra. St. Hilary tells us
Potamius, Bishop of Lisbon. It that it was the Confession which
is important as marking the open Hosius was imprisoned and tor-
separation of the Eusebians or tured into signing. There is no
Acacians from the Semi-arians, proof that it is the one which Pope
and their adoption of Anomoean Liberius signed ; but according
tenets. Hilary, who defends the to Athanasius, he signed an Arian
Eusebian Councils up to this Confession about this time.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 115
in substance,' 8 there ought to be no mention of any of ED. BEN.
these at all, nor exposition of them in the Church, for -
this reason and for this consideration, that in divine
Scripture nothing is written about them, and that they
are above men's knowledge and above men's understand-
ing ; and because no one can declare the Son's generation,
as it is written, Who shall declare His generation ? for it is
plain that the Father only knows how He generated the
Son, and again the Son how He has been generated by
the Father. And to none can it be a question that the
Father is greater : for no one can doubt that the Father
is greater in honour and dignity and Godhead, and in
the very name of the Father, the Son Himself testifying,
The Father that sent Me is greater than I. And no one is
ignorant that it is a Catholic doctrine, that there are two
Persons 9 of Father and Son, and that the Father is greater,
and the Son subordinated to the Father together with all
things which the Father subordinated to the Son, and that
the Father has no origin, and is invisible, and immortal,
and impassible ; but that the Son has been generated from
the Father, God from God, Light from Light, and that
His generation, as aforesaid, no one knows, but the Father
only. And that the Son Himself and our Lord and God,
took flesh, that is, a body, that is, from Mary the Yirgin,
as the Angel heralded beforehand ; and as all the Scrip-
tures teach, and especially the Apostle himself, the doctor
of the Gentiles, Christ took manhood 1 of Mary the Virgin,
through which He suffered. And the whole faith is
summed up, and secured in this, that a Triad should ever
be preserved, as we read in the Gospel, Go ye and baptise
all the nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost. And entire and perfect is the number of
the Triad ; but the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, sent forth
8 6/j,oov<noj> and o
9
i2
116
EPISTLE OP ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. through the Son came according to the promise, that He
might teach and sanctify the Apostles and all believers." 2
34. After drawing up this, and then becoming dissatis-
fied, they composed the faith which to their shame they
paraded with " the Consulate." And, as is their wont,
condemning this also, they caused Martinian the notary to
seize it from the parties who had the copies of it. 3 And
having got the Emperor Constantius to put forth an edict
against it, they form another dogma afresh, and with the
addition of certain expressions, after their way, they
write thus in Isauria.
Ninth Confession, at Seleucia (vid. supr. p. 71).
We refuse not to publish the authentic Faith published
2 It will be observed that this
Confession; 1. by denying "two
Gods," and declaring that the One
God is the God of Christ, implies
that our Lord is not God. 2. It
says that the word " substance,"
and its compounds, ought not to
be used, as being unscriptural,
mysterious, and leading to dis-
turbance ; 3. it holds that the
Father is greater than the Son
" in honour, dignity, and God-
head ; " 4. that the Son is sub-
ordinate to the Father, together
with all other things ; 5. that it is
the Father's characteristic to be in-
visible and impassible. On the
last head, vid. supr. p. 111. note 4,
and Sabellius. They also say that
our Lord, hominem suscepisse per
quern coinpassus est, a word which
Phoebadius condemns in his re-
marks in this Confession. It may
be observed also that Phoebadius
at the same time uses the word
" spiritus " in the sense of Hilary
and the Ante-Nicene Fathers, in
a connection which at once ex-
plains the obscure words of the
supposititious Sardican Confession,
and turns them into another evi-
dence of this additional heresy
involved in Arianism. ' Impassi-
bilis Deus," says Phoebadius,
" quia Deus Spiritus . . . non
ergo passibilis Dei Spiritus, licet
in homine suo passus." That is,
the nature of a soul is passibilis,
and therefore the Divine Word,
which is impassibilis, cannot take
the place of a soul in the Person
of Emmanuel. Now the Sardican
Confession is thought ignorant, as
well as unauthoritative (e.g. by
Natalis. Alex. Sasc. 4, Diss. 29),
because it imputes to Valens and
Ursacius the following belief,
which he supposes to be Patripas-
sianism, but which exactly answers
to this aspect and representation
of Arianism : on 6 \6yos /cat OTL TO
7rvev/j.a /cat eaTavpudrj /cat ea^dyrj
/cat airedavev /cat ave^ry. Theod.
Hist. ii. 6, p. 844.
3 Some critics suppose that the
transaction really belongs to the
second instead of the third Con-
fession of Sirrnium. Socrates con-
nects it with the second. Hist. ii.
30. Vid, supr., pp. 70, 71.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 117
at the Dedication at Antioch ; * though certainly our En. BEN.
Fathers at the time met together for a particular subject -
under investigation. But since One-in-substance, and
Like-in- substance, have troubled many persons in times
past and up to this day, and since moreover some are
said recently to have devised the Son's Unlikeness to the
Father, on their account we reject " One-in-substance "
and " Like-in-substance," as alien to the Scriptures, but
" Unlike " we anathematise, and account all who profess
it as aliens from the Church. But the " Likeness " of the
Son to the Father, we distinctly confess according to the
Apostle, who says of the Son, Who is the Image of the
Invisible God.
And we confess and believe in one God, the Father
Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, of all things
visible and invisible.
And we believe also in our Lord Jesus Christ, His Son,
generated from Him impassibly before all the ages, God the
Word, God from God, Only-begotten, Light, Life, Truth,
Wisdom, Power, through whom all things were made, in
the heavens and on the earth, whether visible or invisible.
He, as we believe, at the end of the world, for the abo-
lition of sin, took flesh of the Holy Virgin, and was made
man, and suffered for our sins, and rose again, and was
taken up into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of
the Father, and is coming again in glory, to judge quick
and dead.
* The Semi-arian majority in the end of the present they pro-
the Council had just before been fess that the two are substantially
confirming the Creed of the Dedi- the same. They seem to mean
cation ; hence this beginning, that they are both Homcean or
vid. supr. p. 77, note 7. They Scriptural Creeds ; they differ in
had first of all offered to the that the latter, as if to propitiate
Council the third Sirmian, or the Semi-arian majority, adds an
"Confession with a Date," supr. anathema upon Anomcean as well
p. 71, whichtheircoadjutorsoffered as on the Hornousion and Hoinoeu-
at Arirninum, Soz. iv. 22, and at sion.
118
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. We believe also in the Holy Ghost, which our Saviour
and Lord named Paraclete, having promised to send Him
to the disciples after His own departure, as He did send ;
through whom He sanctifieth all in the Church who
believe and are baptised in the name of Father and Sou
and Holy Ghost.
But those who preach aught besides this Faith the
Catholic Church regards as aliens. And that this faith
is the equivalent of that which was published lately at
Sirmium, under sanction of his religiousness the Emperor,
is plain to all who read it.
35. Having written thus in Isauria, they went up to
Constantinople, 5 and there, as if dissatisfied, they changed
it, as is their wont, and, with certain additions against
5 These two sections seem to
have been inserted by Athan.
after his letter was finished, and
contain later occurrences in the
history of Ariminum than were
contemplated when he wrote
supr. ch. ii. 15, 16, vid. note 7,
p. 77. In this place Athan. dis-
tinctly says, that the following
Confession, which the Acacians
from Seleucia adopted at Con-
stantinople, was transmitted to
Ariminum, and there forced upon
the assembled Fathers. This is
not inconsistent with what seems
to be the fact, that the Confession
was drawn up at a Council held
at Nice in Thrace near Adrianople
in Oct., 359, whither the deputies
from Ariminum had been sum-
moned by Constantius, vid. Hilar.
JFragin. viii. 5. There the depu-
ties signed it, and thence they
took it back to Ariminum. In
the beginning of the following
year 360 it was confirmed by a
Council at Constantinople, after
the termination of that of Arimi-
num, and to this confirmation
Athanasius refers. Socrates says,
Hist. ii. 37 fin., that they chose
Nice in order to deceive the igno-
rant with the notion that it was
Nica2a, and their creed the Nicene
faith, and the place is actually
called Nicaea, in the Acts of Arimi-
num preserved by Hilary, p. 1316.
Such a measure, whether or not
adopted in matter of fact, might
easily have had success, consider-
ing the existing state of the West.
St. Hilary de Syn. 91, and ad
Const, ii. 7. had not heard the
Nicene Creed till he came into
Asia Minor, A.D. 356, and he says
of his Gallic and British brethren,
" blessed ye in the Lord and
glorious, who hold the perfect and
apostolic faith in the profession
of your conscience, and up to this
time know not creeds in writing/'
de Syri. 63. It should be added
that at this Council Ulphilas the
Apostle of the Goths, who had
hitherto followed the Council of
Nictca, conformed, and thus
COUNCILS HELD AT AKIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 119
even " Subsistence " of Father, Son, and Holy ED. BEN.
... J 29-30.
Ghost, they transmitted it to the Council at Anminum, -
and compelled even the Bishops in those parts to
subscribe it, and those who contradicted them they got
banished by Constantius. And it runs thus :
Tenth Confession at Nice and Constantinople.
" We believe in One God the Father Almighty, from
whom are all things ;
" And in the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten from
God before all ages, and before all origin, through whom
all things were made, visible and invisible, and begotten
as Only-begotten, only from the Father only, 6 God from
God, like to the Father that begat Him according to the
Scriptures ; whose generation no one knows, except the
Father alone who begat Him. He, as we acknowledge,
the Only-begotten Son of God, the Father sending Him,
came hither from the heavens, as it is written, for the un-
doing of sin and death, and was born from the Holy
Ghost, of Mary the Virgin according to the flesh, as it is
written, and lived with His disciples, and having fulfilled
the whole economy according to the Father's will, was
became the means of spreading created by the Father alone ; all
through his countrymen the Creed other things being created by the
of Ariminum. Father, not alone, but through
6 /JLOVOS CK IAOVOV. Though this Him whom alone He had .first
is an Honioean or Acacian, not an created, vid. Cyril. Thesaur! 25,
Anomoean Creed, this phrase may p. 239. St. Basil observes that,
be considered a symptom of if this be a true sense of /J.OVQ-
Anomcean influence ; /j.6vos irapa, yevrjs, then no man is such, e.g.
or virb, fj.6vov being one special Isaac, as being born of two,
formula adopted by Eunomius, contr. Eunom. ii. 21. Acacius
explanatory of /j-ovoyev-^s, in ac- has recourse to Gnosticism, and
cordance with the original Arian illustrates the Arian sense by the
theory, mentioned de Deer. n. 12, contrast of the 7rpo/3o\7? of the
supra, p. 20, that the Son was JEons, which was e/c TTO\\UI>, ap.
the one instrument of creation. Epiph. Ha3r. 72, 7, p. 839.
Eunomius said that He alone was
120 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. iv. crucified and dead and buried and descended to the parts
below the earth ; at whom hell itself shuddered : who also
rose from the dead on the third day, and remained with
the disciples, and, forty days being fulfilled, was taken up
into the heavens, and sitteth on the right hand of the
Father, to come in the last day of the resurrection in the
Father's glory, that He may render to every man according
to his works.
" And in the Holy Ghost, whom the Only-begotten Son
of God Himself, Christ, our Lord and God, promised to
send to the race of man, as Paraclete, as it is written, the
Spirit of Truth, which He sent unto them when He had
ascended into the heavens.
" But the name of ' Substance,' which was set down by
the Fathers in simplicity, and being unknown by the
people, caused offence, because the Scriptures contain it
not, it has seemed good to take away, and for the future to
make no mention of it at all ; since the divine Scriptures
have made no mention of the Substance of Father and
Son. For neither ought Subsistence to be named con-
cerning Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But we say that
the Son is Like-the-Father, as the divine Scriptures say
and teach; and all the heresies, both those which have
been afore condemned already, and whatever are of
modern date, being contrary to this published statement,
be they anathema." 7
7 Here as before, instead of proscribed symbols, vid. also ad
speaking of Arianism, the Con- Afros. 4. The object of suppres-
fession anathematises all heresies, sing Mffraffis, seems to have
vid. supr. p. 98, note 3. It will been that, since the Creed, which
be observed that for "Like in was written in Latin, was to go
all things," which was contained to Ariminum, the West might be
in the Confession (third Sirmian) forced to deny the Latin version
lirst submitted to the Arirninian or equivalent of 6/j.oovaiov , unius
Fathers, is substituted simply substantial, or hypostasis, as well
" Like." Moreover, they include as the Greek original. This cir-
hypostasis or subsistence, though cumstance might be added to
a Scripture term, in the list of those in the Translator's " Tracts
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA.
121
36. However, they did not stand even to this ; for En. BEN.
3031.
coming down from Constantinople to Antioch, they were -
dissatisfied that they had written at all that the Son was
" Like-the-Father, as the Scriptures say ; " and putting
their ideas upon paper, they sst about reverting to their
first doctrines, and said that the Son is altogether
Unlike-the-Father, and that the Son is in no manner
Like-the-Father, and so much did they change, as to
admit those who spoke the Arian doctrine nakedly, and
to make over to them the Churches, with licence to bring
forward the words of blasphemy with impunity. 8 Because
then of the extreme shamelessness of their blasphemy
they were called Anomoeans by all, having also the name
of Exucontian, 9 and the heretical Constantius for the
patron of their impiety, who persisting up to the end in
impiety, and on the point of death, 1 thought good to be
Theol." pp. 78, &c., to show that in
the Nicene formulary substance
and. subsistence are synonymous.
8 Acacius, Eudoxius, and the
rest, after ratifying at Constan-
tinople the Creed framed at Nice
and subscribed at Ariminum,
appear next at Antioch a year
and a half later, when they throw
off the mask, and avowing the
Anomoean Creed, "revert," as
St. Athanasius says, " to their
first doctrines," i.e. those with
which Arius started. The Ano-
moean doctrine, it may be ob-
served, is directly opposed rather
to the Homoeusian than to the
Homousion, as indeed the very
symbols ^how ; " unlike in sub-
stance" being the contrary to
" like in substance." It doubtless
frightened the Semi-arians, and
hastened their return to the
Catholic doctrine.
9 From e OVK &VTUV, " out of
nothing," one of the original
Arian positions concerning the
^on, supr. Enc. p. 4, note i. Theo-
doret says, that they were also
called Exacionitge, from the
name of their place of meeting,
Hasr. iv. 3, and Du Cange con-
firms it so far as to show that
there was a place or quarter of
Constantinople called Exocionium
or Exacioniuui.
1 Nothing is more instructive
in the whole of this eventful
history than the complication of
hopefulness and deterioration in
the Oriental party, and the ap-
parent decline yet advance of the
truth. Principles, good and bad,
were developing on both sides
with energy. The fall of Hosius
and Liberius, and the disastrous
event of Ariminum, are close
before the ruin of the Eusebian
power. At this critical moment
Constantius died, when the cause
122
EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP, iv. baptised ; not however by religious men, but by Euzoius,
who for his Arianism had been deposed, not once, but often,
both when he was a deacon, and when he was in the see of
Antioch.
37. The forementioned parties then had proceeded thus
far, when they were stopped and deposed. But well I
know, not even under these circumstances will they stop,
as many have already played the hypocrite, 2 but they will
always be making parties against the truth, until 3 they
return to themselves and say, " Let us rise and go to our
fathers, and say unto them, We anathematise the Arian
heresy, and we acknowledge the Nicene Council; " for
against this is their quarrel. Who then, with ever so
little understanding, will bear them any longer ? who on
witnessing in every Council some things taken away and
others added, does not comprehend the deep and festering
treachery of their hearts in regard of Christ ? who on
seeing them stretching out to so great a length both their
of truth was only not in the
lowest state of degradation,
because a party was in authority
and vigour who could reduce it
to a lower still ; the Latins com-
mitted to an Anti-Catholic Creed,
the Pope deluded, Hosius fallen
and dead ; Athanasius wander-
ing in the deserts, Arians in the
sees of Christendom, and their
doctrine growing in blasphemy,
and their profession of it in
boldness, every day. The Em-
peror had come to the throne
almost when a boy, and at this
time was but 44 years old.
In the ordinary course of things
he might have reigned till,
humanly speaking, orthodoxy was
extinct. This passage shows
that Athanasius did not insert
these sections till two years after
the composition of the work
itself ; for Constantius died A.D.
361.
2 Vid. Hypocrisy.
3 He is here anticipating the
return into the Church of those
whom he thus censures. In this
sense, though with far more
severity in its language, the
writer of a Tract, imputed to
Athan. against the Catholicising
Semi-arians of 363, entitles it
" On the hypocrisy of Meletius
and Eusebius of Samosata." It
is remarkable that? what Athan.
here predicts was fulfilled to the
letter, even of the worst of these
"hypocrites." For Acacius him-
self, who in 361 signed the
Anomoean Confession above re-
corded, was one of those very men
who accepted the Homou'sion with
an explanation in 363.
COUNCILS HELD AT AEIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 123
professions of faith, and their own exculpation, but sees ED. BEN.
that they are giving sentence against themselves, 4 and -
studiously making professions of faith, which by an
officious display and an abundance of words are likely to
seduce the simple, and hide what they really are in point of
heresy ? But as the heathen, as the Lord said, using vain
words in their prayers, are nothing profited, so they too,
after all their words were spent, have failed to annul the
general condemnation of the Arian heresy, but were con-
victed and deposed instead, and rightly; for which of
their formularies is to be accepted by the hearer ? or with
what confidence shall they undertake to be catechists to
those who have recourse to them ? for if all these creeds
have one and the same meaning, what is the need of many ?
But if need has arisen of so many, it follows that each by
itself is deficient, not complete ; and they establish this
point against themselves with more effect than we can, by
their innovating on all their own documents and re-making
them. 5 And the number of their Councils, and the dis-
cordance of their statements, is a proof that those who were
present at them had much hostility to the Nicene Council,
but little strength against Nicene Truth.
CHAPTER V. 6
38. BUT since they are thus minded both towards each
* Vid. supr. note 2, p. 15. the Anomoeans, and his unhesi-
5 Considering that Athanasius tatingly classing them with the
had now been for several years Arians, his foresight would seem
among the monasteries of the in a great measure to arise from
deserts, in close concealment (un- intimate comprehension of the
less we suppose he really had doctrine itself in dispute, and of
issued thence and was present at its bearings. There had been
Seleucia), this is a remarkable at that time no parallel of a
instance of accurate knowledge of great aberration and its issue,
the state of feeling in the heretical 6 The subject of chapters v.
party, and of foresight. From his and vi. naturally rises out of what
apparent want of knowledge of has gone before. Athan. has
124 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. v. other and towards their predecessors, let us ask them at
once and ascertain what extravagance they have seen, or
what phrases they complain of, that they should thus dis-
obey their fathers, and contend against an Ecumenical Coun-
cil? They will answer, "The phrases 'Of the substance'
and * Consubstantial ' do not please us, for they are a
scandal to some and a trouble to many." 7 This is what
they have said in writing; and the reply is obvious. If
really there was aught in these phrases of a nature to
scandalise or trouble, not merely some would be scandalised
and many troubled, but all men, we and every one else,
would feel the effect of them. But there has been nothing
of the kind; on the contrary, I can affirm that these
phrases content all men ; no common men were the origi-
nal authors of them ; Bishops gathered together from all
parts of the world adopted them, and just now above
400 at Ariminum are furnishing an additional testimony to
their excellence. Does not this plainly prove against them
that not the Nicene Fathers are in fault, but the perverseness
of those who misinterpret them ? How many there are
traced out the course of Arianism tendom. What remains of his
to what seemed to be its result, work then is chiefly devoted to the
the resolution of it into a better consideration of the " Consubstan-
element or a worse, the precipi- tial " or " one-in-substance " (as
tation of what was really unbe- contrasted with " Like-in-sub-
lieving in it into its Anoimean stance ") which had confessedly
form, and the gradual purification great difficulties in it.
of that Semi-arianism which pre- 7 This is only stating what the
vailed in the Eastern Sees, vid. above Confessions have said again
supr. p. 91, note 2. The Anonnvan and again. The objections made
creed was hopeless ; but with the to it were : 1. that it was not in
Semi-arians all that remained was Scripture ; 2. that it had been
the adjustment of phrases. They disowned by the Antiochene
had to reconcile their minds to Council against Paul of Samo-
terms which the Church had sata ; 3. that it was of a material
taken from philosophy and nature, and belonged to the
adopted as her own. Accord- Manichees ; 4. that it was of a
jngly, Athan. goes on to propose Sabellian tendency ; 5. that it
such explanations as might clear implied that the divine substance
the way for a re-union of Chris- was distinct from God.
COUNCILS HELD AT AEIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 125
who misunderstand Scripture, and in consequence quarrel ED. BEN.
with its holy authors ! as the Jews of old, who rejected -
our Lord, or the Manichees now, who blaspheme the Law,
yet without Scripture being in fault, but its evil-minded
critics. 8 If then you can point out what is wrong in these
phrases, do so by all means; let us see your proof; but
drop the pretence of offence created by them, lest you come
into the condition of the Pharisees of old, to whom, on
their pretending offence at the Lord's teaching, He an-
swered, Every plant, which Ny Heavenly Father liatli not
planted, shall be rooted up. By which He showed that, not
the words of the Father as planted by Him were really an
offence to them, but that they misinterpreted good words
and were their own stumbling block. And in like manner
they who at that time blamed the Epistles of the Apostle,
impeached not Paul, but their own deficient learning and
distorted minds.
39. For answer me, what is much to the purpose, Who
are they whom you pretend to be scandalised and troubled
at these terms ? those who are religious towards Christ ?
not one ; they on the contrary make much of these terms
and maintain them. But if they are Arians who thus feel,
what wonder they should be distressed at words which
destroy their heresy ? for it is not the terms which are a
scandal to them, but the placarding of their impiety which
is their trouble. Therefore let us have no more murmurino-
O
against the Fathers, nor any pretence of this kind ; or
you will be making complaints next of the Lord's Cross,
that it is to Jews an offence and to Gentiles foolishness, as said
the Apostle. But as the Cross is not faulty, for to us who
believe it is Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God,
though Jews rave, so neither are the terms of the Fathers
faulty, but profitable to those who rightly read, and sub-
versive of all impiety, though the Arians so often burst
8 Vid. infr. Disc. ch. 3, init.
126 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. V. with rage as being by them condemned. The plea of
scandal then will not stand: especially since you yourselves
have distinctly written, "From the Father is generated
the Son r " I ask then of you, when you speak of " the
Father," as being " God," do you mean the divine Substance,
"Essence," "Being," " Qui est " ? or do you view Him
apart from, short of, not to say inferior to Him, I mean, to
His substance ? If the latter, which I do not like to suppose,
you should not have pronounced the Son to be from the
Father, but from what invests the Father or belongs to
Him, and then you would have avoided saying that God
is in any true sense a Father by making Him composite
and material, 1 that is, by starting a new blasphemy with
a view of a " Son," who is not a substance, but only a name,
(for such He will be to you,) and by thus substituting for
things which are, imaginations which are not.
40. Nor is this all. If God, when viewed as Father,
be not identical with the Divine Being or Substance, then
I am led to ask, whether He be such when viewed as
Creator ? Do you not open the door to Greek atheism,
to a creation by chance or by atoms ? What is the
Divine Substance but that One Being who both generates
and creates ? Hence in Scripture we read, " God is
I am," "God creates," "God is one," "God is a Father,"
" God is almighty," without discriminating between
Father and Creator. Both are predicated of One and the
Same ; both imply acts of Him, acts of that simple and
blessed and incomprehensible Reality or Substance which
is He ; and, if you have gone only just so far as to confess
that the Son is " from God," you have really, with the
1 Vid. supr. pp. 40, 41, and App. the idea of Him resolves itself
). If God the Supreme into what modern astronomy
Being is not identical with the would call a nebula.
Divine Essence or Substance, then
COUNCILS HELD AT AEIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 127
Nicene Fathers, confessed that He is from God's sub-
stance. Perhaps you will ask us, " If this be so plain, if
it be all the same to speak of the Divine Being or Substance
as to speak absolutely of God, why are you not satisfied
with ' from God ' ? why do you insist on ' from the
Substance ' " ? For this reason : because " from God "
bears two senses. Thus, when we speak of God as a
Creator, we say that all things are "from Him ; " and so
again, the Son is "from Him," but not as a creation ;
for as a Creator, God brings all things out of nothing,
but, as a Father, He has brought the Son out of Himself,
and He gives His whole Being to His Word, or Son,
without ceasing to be what He is.
41. The Council, then, comprehending this, and aware
of the different senses of the phrase, that none should
suppose that the Son was said to be from God as the
creation is, wrote with greater explicitness that the Son was
" from the substance." 2 For this determines the genuine
relation of the Son towards the Father ; whereas, in its
being said simply " from God," only the will of the Creator
concerning the framing of all things is signified. If then
these critics meant distinctly "offspring," when they wrote
that the Word was " from the Father," they had nothing to
complain of in the Council's decision ; but if, on uhe con-
trary, by " from God " they meant, in the instance of the
Word, what it means as used of the creation, then they
should not call the Word " Son," or they will be mingling
what is blasphemous with what is pious with a manifest
inconsistency. For if He is a Son, He is not a creature ;
but if a creature, then not a Son. Since these are their
notions, perhaps they will be denying Holy Baptism,
because it is administered into Father and Son ; and not
into Creator and creature, as they account Him.
8 Supr. pp. 37 41.
128 EPISTLE OF ATHANAS1US, ON THE
CHAP. V. 42. "But," they say, "this is not written, and we
reject these words as unscriptural." But this, again,
in their mouths, is an audacious argument. For if they
think everything must be rejected which is not written,
wherefore, when the Arian party invent such a heap of
phrases, not from Scripture, such as " Out of nothing,"
and " the Son was not before His generation," and " Once
He was not," and " He is alterable," and " the Father is
ineffable and invisible to the Son," and " the Son knows
not even His own Substance," and all that Arius has
vomited in his absurd and impious Thalia, why do not
they speak against these, but rather battle for them ; and
on that account are at war with their own Fathers ? And,
in what place of Scripture did they on their part find " In-
generate," and the very name of " substance," and " there
are three subsistences," and " Christ is not very God," and
" He is one of the hundred sheep," and " God's Wisdom is in-
generate and unoriginate, but the created powers are many,
of which Christ is one " ? Or how, when at the so-called
Dedication, the party of Acacius and Eusebius used ex-
pressions not in Scripture, and said that " the First-born
of the creation " was " the exact Image " of the divine
substance, and power, and will of God, how can they complain
of the Fathers, for introducing unscriptural expressions, and
especially " substance " P For they ought either to
complain of themselves, or to find no fault with the
Fathers.
43. Now, if certain others made the Council's phrases
their excuse, it might perhaps have been set down either
to ignorance or to reverence. There is no question, for
instance, about George of Cappadocia, 3 who was expelled
from Alexandria, a man, without character in years past,
nor a Christian in any respect ; but only pretending to
3 Yid. Arian leaders.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 129
the name to suit the times, and thinking religion is a trade. ED. BKN.
3355.
And therefore reason is there none for complaining of his -
making mistakes about the faith, considering he knows
neither ivliat he says, nor wliererf lie affirms ; but, according
to the text, as a bird maketh haste to the snare. But when
Acacius and Eudoxius, and Patrophilus say this, do not
they deserve extreme reprobation ? for while they use
words which are not in Scripture themselves, and have
accepted many times the term " substance " as suitable,
especially on the ground of the letter of Eusebius, they
now blame their predecessors for using terms of the same
kind. Nay, though they say themselves, that the Son is
"God from God," and "Living Word," "exact Image of
the Father's substance," they accuse the Nicene Bishops
of saying, that He who was begotten is " of the substance
of Him who begat Him," and " consubstantial " with Him.
But what marvel is this conflict with their predecessors and
own Fathers, when they are inconsistent with themselves,
and fall foul of each other ? For after publishing, at the
Dedication so-called at Antioch, that the Son is " exact
Image " of the Father's substance, and swearing that so
they held, and anathematising those who held otherwise,
nay, in Isauria, writing down, " We do not decline the
authentic faith published at the Dedication at Antioch,"
where the term " substance " was introduced, still, shortly
after, in the same Isauria, as if forgetting all this, they put
into writing the very contrary, saying, " We reject the
words ' Consubstantial ' and ' Like-in-substance,' as alien
to the Scriptures, and put away from us ' substance,' as not
contained therein."
44. What sort of faith then have they who stand neither
to their word nor writing, but alter and change everything
according to the season ? For if, Acacius and Eudoxius,
you " do not decline the faith published at the Dedication,"
130 EPISTLE OP ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. v. and in it is written that the Son is " exact * Image of sub-
stance," why is it ye write in Isauria, " We reject * the
Like-in-substance ' " ? for if the Son is not like the Father
in respect of substance, how is He " exact Image of the sub-
stance " ? But if you are dissatisfied at having written
" exact Image of the substance," how is it that ye
" anathematise those who say that the Son is Unlike" ?
for if He be not according to substance like, He is alto-
gether unlike : and the Unlike cannot be an Image.
And if so, then it does not hold that he that hath seen the
Son, hath seen the Father, there being then the greatest
difference possible between Them, or rather the One being
wholly Unlike the Other. And Unlike cannot possibly
be called Like. 5 By what artifice then do ye call Un-
like like, and consider Like to be unlike, and thus are
hypocrites enough to say that the Son is the Father's
Image ? for if the Son be not like the Father in substance,
something is wanting to the Image, and it is not a
complete Image, nor a perfect Radiance. How then read
ye, In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ?
and, from His fulness have all we received ? How is it that
ye expel the Arian Aetius 6 as a heretic, though ye say
the same with him ? for thy companion is he, O Acacius,
and he became Eudoxius's master to the extreme of
such impiety ; which was the reason why Leontius the
Bishop made him deacon, that using the name of the
diaconate as a sheep's clothing, he might be able with
impunity to vomit forth the words of blasphemy. What
then has persuaded you to contradict each other, and to
earn for yourselves so great a disgrace ? You cannot
give any good account of it ; this supposition only
4 Vid. aTrapdXXa/cros. orthodox Homoiisians, but to the
5 Hence the Anomosans (whose Homceans and Homoeusians, the
symbol was the Unlike) were Acacians and Semi-arians.
directly opposed, not to the e Vid. Arian leaders.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 131
remains, that all you do is but outward profession and pre- ED. BEN,
33~55
tence, in order to secure the countenance of Constaiitius -
and the gain from thence accruing. And ye make nothing
of accusing the Fathers, and ye complain outright of their
language as being unscriptural ; and, as it is written,
have prostituted yourselves to everyone that passed ~bij ; so as
to change as often as they wish, in whose pay and keep
you are.
45. Yet, though a man use terms not in Scripture, this
is no serious matter, provided that his meaning is right. 7
But, on the other hand, the heretic, even though he use
scriptural terms, yet as being not the less an object of
suspicion and unsound within, shall be asked by the
Spirit, Why dost tJwu preach My laws, and takest My
covenant in thy mouth ? Thus, whereas the devil, though
speaking from the Scriptures, was silenced by the Saviour,
the blessed Paul, though he speaks even from profane
writers, The Cretans are always liars, and, For we are His
offspring, and, Evil communications corrupt good manners,
yet, having a religious meaning, as being himself holy, he is
doctor of the nations, in faith and verity, as having the mind
of Christ, and what he speaks comes to us with a religious
sound. But what is there to approve in the Arian terms, in
which the caterpillar and the locust are put before the
Saviour, and He is reviled with " Once Thou wast not,"
and " Thou wast created," and " Thou art foreign to God in
7 Vid. supr. p. 36. And so S. should I seem to you absurd ?
Gregory in a well-known passage : how so, if I did but give your
" Why art thou such a slave to meaning ? for words belong as
the letter, and takest up with much to I dm who demands them
Jewish wisdom, and pursuest as to him who utters." Orat. 31,24.
syllables to the loss of things ? Vid. also Hil. contr. Constant.
For if thou wert to say 'twice 16 August. Ep. 238, n. 4 6.
five,' or ' twice seven,' and I con- Cyril. Dial. i. p. 301. Petavius
eluded 'ten' or 'fourteen' from refers to other passages, de Trin.
your words, or from ' a reasonable iv. 5, 6.
mortal animal' I concluded ' man,'
K2
132 EPISTLE OP ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. v. substance," and, in a word, no insult is spared against Him ?
On the other hand, what good word have the Fathers of
the Council omitted ? yea rather, have they not a lofty
view and a Christ-loving piety ? And yet these Acacians
have written down, " We reject their words ; " at the same
time that they endure the insults of the Arians towards
the Lord, and make it clear to all men that for no other
cause do they resist that Great Council than because it
condemned the Arian heresy. For it is on this account
again that they misinterpret and are hostile to the term
Consubstantial. If their faith was orthodox, and they con-
fessed the Father as truly Father, and believed the Son to
be genuine Son, and by nature true Word and Wisdom of
the Father, and if, in saying that the Son is from God, they
applied those words to Him, not in the sense in which they
use them of themselves, but understood Him to be the
proper Offspring of the Father's substance, as the radiance
is from light, they would not any one of them have
found fault with the Nicene Fathers, but would have been
confident that the Council wrote suitably ; and that this is
the orthodox faith concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.
46. " But," say they, " the sense of such expressions
is obscure to us; " for this is another of their pretences.
" We reject them," say they, " because we cannot
master their meaning." But if they were true in this
profession, instead of saying, " We reject them," they
should ask instruction from those who know ; else ought
they to reject whatever they cannot understand in divine
Scripture, and to find fault with the writers. But this would
be the crime of heretics rather than of us Christians;
for what we do not understand in the sacred oracles, in-
stead of rejecting, we inquire about from persons to whom
the Lord has revealed it, and from them we ask for
instruction. However, if they would make this pretence
of obscurity avail, let them at least confess what is annexed
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 133
to the Creed, and anathematise those who hold that " the
Son is from nothing," and " He was not before His
generation ; " also that " the Word of God is a creature
and work," and "He is alterable by nature," and "from
another subsistence ; " and in a word let them anathematise
the Arian heresy, which has originated such impiety.
Nor let them say any more, " We reject the terms," but
that " we do not yet understand them ; " if they must find
some reason for declining them. But well know I, and
am sure, and they know it too, that if they could disavow
these propositions and anathematise the Arian heresy,
they would have no difficulty about those terms of the
Council. For on this account it was that the Fathers,
after declaring that the Son was begotten from the
Father's substance, and consubstantial with Him, there-
upon added, " But those who say * The Son is from nothing/
&c., &c., and so on, we anathematise ; " on this account, I
mean, in order to show that the statements are parallel to
each other, and that the terms in the Creed imply the dis-
claimers subjoined, and that all who confess the terms,
will certainly understand the disclaimers. But those who
both dissent from the anathemas and impugn the definition,
such men are proved on every side to be foes of Christ.
CHAPTER VI.
47. THOSE who deny the Council altogether, are suffi-
ciently exposed by these brief remarks ; but there are men
to whom the above does not quite apply, I mean men
who would not shrink from the anathema, though
they have difficulties about the definition. To speak
frankly then, those who accept everything else that
134 EPISTLE OF ATHAXASIUS, ON THE
CHAP, vi. was settled at Nicsea, and quarrel only about the " Con-
substantial," must not be regarded as enemies ; nor do we
here attack them as Ario-maniacs, nor as opponents of the
Synodal Fathers, but we discuss the matter with them as
brothers with brothers, who mean what we mean, and
dispute only about the word. For, confessing that the
Son is from the substance of the Father, and not from other
subsistence, and that He is not a creature nor work, but
His genuine and natural offspring, and that He is
eternally with the Father, as being His Word and Wisdom,
they are not very far from accepting even the phrase
" One in substance ; " of whom is Basil 8 of Ancyra, in what
he has written concerning the faith. For only to say
" Like-according-to-substance," does not quite express
" Of the substance," by which phrase rather, as they
have themselves allowed, the genuine relation of the Son to
the Father is signified. Thus tin is only " like " to silver, an
elm to a beech, and gilt brass to the true metal ; but tin is
not " from " silver, nor could an elm be accounted the
seedling of a beech. 9 But since they say that He is " Of-
the-substance " and " Like-in- substance," what do they
signify by these but " One-in-substance " ? J For, while
to say only " Like-in-substance " does not necessarily
convey " Of-the-substance," on the contrary, to say " One-
in-substance," or " Consubstantial," is to signify the
meaning of both terms, " Like-in-substance," and " Of-the-
substance." And accordingly they themselves in contro-
versy with those who maintain that the Word is not a
8 Vid. Arian leaders. 1 Socr. iii. 25, Una substantia
9 Vid. Hypoc. Mel. and Hilar. religiose prsedicabitur, quse ex
de Syn. 89. The principle in- nativitatis proprietate, et ex
volved is this, Things that are naturas similitudine, ita indif-
like, are not the same, and therefore f erens sit, ut una dicatur. Hil. de
6[j,o(.oti<nov is not 6/j.oovaiov. Vid. Syn. 67.
Semi-arianism.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 135
real Son, but a creature, have 2 before now taken their ED. BEN.
3355.
proofs against them from, human illustrations of son and -
father, with this exception, that God is not as man, nor the
generation of the Son as an offspring of man, but as an act
which may befittingly be ascribed to God, and which it
becomes us to imagine. Thus they have called the
Father the Fount of Wisdom and Life, and the Son the
Eadiance of the Eternal Light, and the Offspring from
the Fountain, as He says, I am the Life, and I Wisdom
dwell with Prudence. But the Radiance from the
Light, and Offspring from the Fountain, and Son from
Father, how can these be so suitably expressed as by
" Consubstantial " ?
48. I say, they themselves have dwelt upon the force of
the word " Son " as applied to the Lord, as contained in
its earthly sense : and yet these very men are afraid, 011
account of its earthly sense, of the word " consubstantial."
But is there in truth any cause of fear, lest, because the
offspring from men are consubstantial, the Son, by being
called One-in-substance, should be Himself considered as
a human offspring too ? perish the thought ! not so ; but
the explanation is easy. For the Son is the Father's
Word and Wisdom ; whence we are reminded of the
impassibility and indivisibility of such a generation from
the Father. For not even man's word is part of him,
nor proceeds from him according to passion ; much less
God's Word, whom the Father has also declared to be His
own Son, only lest, on the other hand, if we merely heard of
the "Word," we should suppose Him, such as is the word
2 Here at last Athan. alludes as tenderly as S. Hilary, sparing
to the Ancyrene Synodal Letter, their personal delinquencies, till
vid. Epiph. Hasr. 37, 5 and 7, he can speak kindly of them,
about which he has kept a pointed The Ancyrene Council of 358
silence above, when tracing the was a protest against the "bias-
course of the Arian confessions. phemia," or second Sirmian Con-
That is, he treats the Semi-arians fession, which Hosius signed.
136 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. vi. of man, non-subsistent ; but that, hearing that He is Son,
we may acknowledge Him to be a living Word and a
substantive Wisdom. Accordingly, as in saying " off-
spring," we have no human thoughts, and, though we
know God to be a Father, we entertain no material ideas
concerning Him, but while we listen to these illustrations
and terms, we think suitably of God, for He is not as man,
so in like manner, when we hear of " Consubstantial," we
ought to transcend all sense, and, according to the
Proverb, understand by the understanding what is set
before us ; so as to know that not by mere will, but in truth,
is He genuine from the Father, as Life from Fountain, and
Radiance from Light. Else, why should we understand
"Offspring" and "Son" in a sense not corporeal, while
we conceive of "Consubstantial" as after the manner of
bodies ? especially since these terms are not here used
respectively about different subjects, but both of them,
" Offspring " and " Consubstantial," about one and the same.
And it is but consistent to attach the same sense to both
expressions, when they are applied to the Saviour, and not
to interpret " Offspring " as it should be, and " Consub-
stantial " as it should not ; nay, if you are minded thus
to act, then, in speaking of the Son as Word and Wisdom of
the Father, you ought to take an opposite view of these
two terms also, and understand in the one sense Word and
in the other sense Wisdom. But as this would be extrava-
gant, (for the Son is the Father's Word and Wisdom, and the
Offspring from the Father is one and proper to His sub-
stance,) so the sense of " offspring " and " Consubstantial "
is one, and whoso considers the Son an offspring, rightly
considers Him also as " Consubstantial."
49. This is sufficient to show that the term " Consub-
stantial " is not foreign nor far from the meaning of these
much-loved persons. But their difficulty seems to them to
have weight for another reason. They allege, (for I have
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 137
not myself the Epistle in question,) that the Bishops who ED. BEN.
33 55.
condemned Samosatene 3 at Antioch have laid down in -
writing that the Son is not consubstantial with the Father ;
accordingly, from reverence and honour due to those
Bishops at Antioch, they have not the best of dispositions
towards the Nicene term. I think it well respectfully to
offer some remarks on this important point. Certainly it is
unbecoming to make the one assembly conflict with the
other ; for all of them are Fathers of the Church ; nor is it
religious to settle, that these have spoken well, and those
ill ; for all of them have gone to sleep in Christ. Nor is
it right to be disputatious, and to compare the respective
numbers of those who met in the Councils, lest the three
hundred at Nicsea may seem to throw the lesser into the
shade ; nor on the other hand to compare the dates, lest
those who preceded seem to eclipse those that came
after. For all, I repeat, are Fathers ; and, anyhow, the
three hundred laid down as doctrine nothing new, nor
was it in any self-confidence that they became champions
of words not in Scripture, but they started from their
Fathers, as the others did, and they used their Fathers'
words. For there were two Bishops of the name of
Dionysius, much older than the seventy who deposed
Samosatene, of whom one was of Rome, and the other of
Alexandria ; and a charge had been laid by some persons
against the Bishop of Alexandria, before the Bishop of
Rome, as if he had said that the Son was made, and not
consubstantial with the Father. This had given great pain
to the members of the Roman Council ; and the Bishop of
Rome expressed their united sentiments in a letter to his
3 There were three Councils spoken of in the text, which,
held against Paul of Samosata, of contrary to the opinion of Pagi,
the dates of 264, 269, and an S. Basnage, and Tillemont, Pear-
intermediate year. The third is son fixes at 265 or 266.
138 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. VI. namesake. This led to the latter's writing an explanation
which he calls the Book of Refutation and Apology ; and
his words run thus :
The Bishop of Alexandria to the Bishop of Home.
50. " And I have written in another Letter, a refutation of
the false charge which they bring against me that I deny
that Christ is consubstantial with God. For though I say that
I have not found or read this term anywhere in holy Scripture,
yet my remarks which follow, and which they have passed
over, are not inconsistent with my holding it. For I instanced
a human issue, which is evidently homogeneous, and I
observed that undeniably fathers differed from their children
only in not being identical as individuals ; otherwise there
could be neither parents nor children. And my Letter, as I
said before, owing to present circumstances, I am unable to
produce, or I would have sent you the very words I used,
or rather a copy of it all ; which, if I have an opportunity, I
will do still. But I am sure from recollection, that I adduced
many parallels of things kindred with each other, for instance,
that a plant grown from seed or from root, was other than that
from which it sprang, and yet altogether one in nature with
it ; and that a stream flowing from a fountain, changed its
appearance and its name, for that neither the fountain was
called stream, nor the stream fountain, yet both existed, and
that the fountain was as it were father, and the stream was
what was generated from the fountain."
51. Thus the Bishop. If then any one finds fault with
the Fathers at ISTiceea, as if they contradicted the decisions
of their predecessors, he may reasonably find fault also
with the seventy, because they did not keep to the state-
ments of their own predecessors ; for such were the two
Dionysii and the Bishops assembled on that occasion at
Rome. But neither these nor those is it religious to
blame ; for all were ambassadors of the things of Christ,
and all used diligence against the heretics, and while the
one party condemned Samosatene, the other condemned
the Arian heresy. And rightly did both these and those
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 139
define, and suitably to the matter in hand. And as the ED. BEN.
33 55.
blessed Apostle, writing to the Romans, said, Tlie Law
is spiritual, the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and
just and good ; yet soon after, What the Law could not do,
in that it was weak, and wrote to the Hebrews, The Law
made no one perfect ; and to the Galatians, By the Laiv no
one is justified ; yet to Timothy, The Law is good if a man
use it laiufully ; and no one would accuse the Saint of
inconsistency and variation in writing, but rather would
admire how suitably he wrote to each, in order to warn the
Romans and the others to turn from the letter to the
spirit, but to instruct the Hebrews and Galatians to place
their hopes not in the Law, but in the Lord who gave the
Law ; so, if the Fathers of the two Councils made
different mention of the Cousubstantial, we ought not in
any respect to differ from them, but to investigate their
meaning, and this will fully show us the concordant
sentiment of both the Councils. For they who deposed
Samosatene took Consubstantial in a bodily sense because
Paul had attempted sophistry and said, " Unless Christ
has of man become God, it follows that He is consub-
stantial with the Father ; and if so, of necessity there are
three substances, one the previous substance, and the other
two from it ; " and therefore guarding against this they
said with good reason, that Christ was not consubstantial, 4
for the Son is not related to the Father as Paul imagined.
But the Bishops who anathematised the Arian heresy,
4 This is in fact the objection Yet, while S. Basil agrees with
which Arms urges against the Athan. in his account of the
One-in-substance, supr. p. 85, reason of the Council's rejection
when he calls it the doctrine of of the word, St. Hilary on the
Manichteus and Hieracas ; vid. contrary reports that Paul himself
Append. Hieracas. The same accepted it, i.e., in a Sabellian
objection is protested against sense, and therefore the Council
by St. Basil, contr. Eunom. rejected it. But vid. Append.
i. 19, Hilar. de Trin. iv. 4. Homoilsion.
140 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. VI. understanding Paul's craft, and reflecting that the word
" Consubstantial " has not this meaning when used of
things immaterial, and especially of God, and acknow-
ledging that the Word was not a creature, but an offspring
from the substance, and that the Father's substance was
the origin, and root, and fountain of the Son, and that He
was of very truth His Father's Likeness, and not of
different nature, as we are, and separate from the Father,
but that as being from Him, He exists as Son indivisible,
as Radiance is with respect of Light, and knowing too the
illustration used in Dionysius's case, the " fountain," and
the defence thereby of the word " Consubstantial," and
before this the Saviour's saying, indicative of unity, I and
the Father are one, and He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father, on these grounds they reasonably asserted on their
part, that the Son was Consubstantial. And as, according
to a former remark, no one would blame the Apostle, if he
wrote to the Romans about the Law in one way, and to the
Hebrews in another ; in like manner, neither would the
present Bishops find fault with the former, in regard to
their interpretation of the term, nor would the former
blame those who came after them, on the score of their
opposite interpretation and the call there was thus to speak
of the Lord,
52. Yes surely, each Council had a sufficient reason for
its own language ; for since Samosatene held that the Son
was not before Mary, but received from her the origin of
His being, therefore the Fathers at Antioch deposed him
and pronounced him heretic ; but concerning the Son's
Godhead, writing in simplicity, they were not perfectly
accurate in their treatment of the term Consubstantial,
but, as they understood it, so spoke they about it. For
they directed all their thoughts to destroy the device of
Samosatene, and to show that the Son was before all things,
and that, instead of becoming God after having been a
COUNCILS HELD AT AKIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 141
man, God had put on a servant's form, and the Word had ED. BEN.
Jr R **Q t\F
become flesh, as John says. This is how they dealt with the -
blasphemies of Paul ; but when the party of Eusebius and
Arius began to teach that, though the Son was before time,
yet was He made and one of the creatures, and as to the
phrase " from God," they did not believe it in the sense
of His being genuine Son from Father, but maintained it
as it is said of creatures and a Creator, and as to the one-
ness of likeness between Son and Father, they did not
confess that the Son is like the Father according to sub-
stance, or according to nature, but because of His agreement
with Him in doctrines and in teaching; nay, when they
drew a line and made the Son's substance absolutely foreign
from the Father, and degrading Him to the creatures, on
this account the Bishops assembled at Nicsea, with a view
to the craft of the parties so holding, and as bringing to-
gether the sense from the Scriptures, cleared up the point,
by affirming the " Consubstantial ; " that both the true
genuineness of the Son might thereby be known, and that
things which were made might have nothing ascribed to
them in common with Him. For the preciseness of this
phrase detects their pretence, whenever they would use
"from God," and gets rid of all the subtleties with which
they seduce the simple. For whereas they contrive to
put a sophistical construction on all other words at their
will, this phrase only, as detecting their heresy, do they
dread, which the Fathers did set down as a bulwark
against their impious speculations one and all.
53. And here the parallel case of the term " Ingenerate,"
as a title of the Supreme Being, supplies us with an
illustration in point. This, too, is a word not found in
Scripture, but taken from the philosophical schools, and,
like " Consubstantial," has various senses. I understand
that it is sometimes used for what exists without origin.
O
or cause ; sometimes for uncreate. Now in the first of
142 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. vi. these senses a man might rightly say that the Word is not
ingenerate, only the Father, plainly because He is a Son ;
but in the second he might rightly say that He was
ingenerate, because He was not a creature. And in
consequence holy writers of times past seem to contradict
each other by using it in these two senses respectively.
For instance, Ignatius, who was appointed Bishop in
Antioch after the Apostles, and became a martyr of Christ,
writes concerning the Lord thus : " There is one physician,
fleshly and spiritual, generate and ingenerate, God in man,
true life in death, both from Mary and from God ; " here
he says that the Lord is ingenerate, meaning that He is
uncreate ; but some teachers who follow Ignatius, write in
their turn, 5 " One is the Ingenerate, the Father, and one
the genuine Son from Him, true Offspring, Word and
Wisdom of the Father," implying that the Son is not
ingenerate, that is, because, in their sense, to be ingene-
rate is to be without Father as well as without Creator.
If, therefore, we are unfavourably disposed towards these
writers, then have we right to quarrel with the Councils ;
but if, knowing their faith in Christ, we are persuaded
that the blessed Ignatius was orthodox in writing that
Christ was generate on account of the flesh, (for He was
made flesh,) yet ingenerate, because He is not in the
number of things made and generated, but Son from
Father, and are aware too that the parties who have said
that the Ingenerate is One, meaning the Father, had no
intention of pronouncing that the Word was generated
5 The writer is not known. The TravTOKparup debs, fr 5 KO! rb
President of Magdalen, Dr. Eouth, Trpoyewrjdev 81 08 TO. Trdvra eytvero,
has pointed out to the Translator /cat %O>/HS ai/rou ey&ero ovd '&.
the following similar passage in St. Strom, vi. 7, p. 769.
Clement : ev JJLCV TO a.y&vt)Tov, b
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 143
and made, but that the Father has no cause, but rather ED. BEN.
^^ o3 55.
is Himself Father of Wisdom, and in Wisdom hath made -
all things that have been brought into being, why do we
not combine in one religious belief all our Fathers, those
who deposed Samosatene as well as those who proscribed
the Arian heresy, instead of making distinctions between
them and refusing to entertain a right opinion of them ?
I repeat, that these, looking towards the sophistical
explanation of Samosatene, wrote, " He is not consub-
stantial," and those, with an excellent meaning, said that
He was. For myself, my respectful feeling towards those
good Fathers at Antioch has led me in their behalf thus
to write, however briefly; but could I come by the letter
which they are alleged to have written, I consider we should
find some farther grounds for the aforesaid proceeding
of those sainted men. For it is right and meet thus to
feel, and to maintain a good understanding with our
Fathers, if we be not spurious children, but have re-
ceived our tradition from them, and our lessons of
religion at their hands. Such then being, as we believe
and maintain, the sense of the Fathers at Antioch, let us
proceed, as with them before us, to inquire once again,
calmly and with a good intent, whether the Bishops
congregated at Nicasa did not also really exercise an
excellent judgment upon it.
54. For consider ; it was their duty to protect the
cardinal truth that our Lord was really the Son of
God, which a deadly heresy had denied. How were they
to exclude the evasions to which the Arians had re-
course ? They proceeded thus : a son, they said, is an
offspring, but, in order to be such, he must spring
from that of which he is the offspring ; nor does he so
spring, unless he is from what that original is, that is,
in other words, from its substance, as the derivation of
144 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. vi. the word " substance " shows.f Thus, to be the Son
of God, if He is God's offspring or true Son, is to be
"of" or "one with" God's substance, that is, to be
" consubstantial " with Him. Such was the conclusion
of the Fathers at Nicsea ; they determined that con-
substantiality was bound up with the idea of Sonship,
that nothing short of this word adequately expressed
their doctrine of the Son's relation to the Father, and
that it was a denial of any true Sonship to deny the
consubstantiality. Such is the force of I and the
Father are One, and He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father. What can they mean, but the Son is One with
the One God ? As to oneness of teaching, oneness of
sentiment and affection, or participation of the Divine
fulness, both saints and, still more, angels and arch-
angels, have such unity with God. If this were
enough, each of them might say, " I and the Father
are One." But, if such a thought be monstrous, as it
truly is, nothing is left but to conceive Son's and
Father's Oneness in the way of substance. He says,
All things that the Father hath are Mine, and All Mine
are Thine, and Thine are Mine. Thus, as being the
exact Image of the Father, as some of you confess, He
has all divine attributes, (except indeed as being Father,)
and is His Father's equal.
55. This is a thought to enlarge upon. There are
those, I say, who allow that the Son is the Image
of the Father, yet will not allow that He is One with
the Father. See how plainly Scripture speaks about
that likeness, for it will lead us to an important con-
clusion. For instance, the name God ; for the Word was
God; Almighty, Thus saith He that is, and that was,
and that is to come, the Almighty; the being Light,
f ovffia, o$<ra,
COUNCILS HELD AT AKIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 145
I am, He says, the Light; the Creative Cause, All ED. BEN.
33 55.
things were made ~by Him, and, Whatsoever I see the Father -
do, I do also ; His Eternity, His eternal Power and
Godhead, and, In the beginning was the Word, and, He
was the true Light, ivhich lighteth every man that cometh
into the world ; His being Lord, for, The Lord rained
fire and brimstone from the Lord, and while the Father
says, I am the Lord, and, Thus saith the Lord, the Almighty
God, of the Son Paul speaks thus, One Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom all things. And to the Father Angels
minister, and again too the Son is worshipped by them,
And let all the Angels of God ivorship Him; and He is said
to be Lord of the Angels, for, the Angels ministered unto
Htm, and the Son of Man shall send His Angels. The
being honoured as the Father, for that they may honour
the Son, He says, as they honour the Father; being equal
to God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God;
the being Truth from the True, and Life from the Living,
as being truly from the Fountain of the Father ; the
quickening and raising the dead as the Father, for so we
read in the Gospel. And of the Father it is written, The
Lord thy God is One Lord, and, the God of gods, the Lord,
hath spoken, and hath called the earth; and of the Son,
The Lord God hath shined upon us, and, The God of gods
shall be seen in Sion. And again of God, Esaias says,
Who is a God like unto Thee, taking away iniquities and
passing over unrighteousness ? and thus the Son said to whom
He would, Thy sins be forgiven thee ; for instance, when
on the Jews murmuring, He manifested that remission by
His act, saying to the paralytic, Eise, take up thy bed and
go unto thy house. And of God Paul says, To the King
eternal; and again of the Son, David in the Psalm, Lift
n.p your heads, ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. And Daniel
heard it said, His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and
L
146 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. vi. His Kingdom shall not be destroyed. And in a word, all
that you find said of the Father, so much will you find
said of the Son, all but His being Father, as has been
said.
56. Can, then, a man in his senses fancy that this
equality in attributes comes from any origin but the
Father Himself ? Surely it is but a reasonable inference
that no substance other than the Father's admits of such
attributes, and that all that is the Father's is the Son's,
because the Son, as being such, is the very Reflection of
the Father, His Image and Figure. How can He have
the Father's attributes without having that substance to
which those attributes belong ? Let us take reverential
heed, lest, transferring what is proper to the Father to
some being unlike Him in substance, we introduce another
substance foreign to Him, yet capable of the properties
of Him, the first substance, though He Himself silences
the thought in His own words, My glory I will not give to
another. The Father and Son, therefore, are One in
substance, and the term " consubstantiality " is the safe-
guard and token of this unity. We shall be professing
two Gods, unless we hold that, by the divine generation,
the substance of the Father is made over to the Son.
The Son is equal to the Father, simply because He is one
with Him.
57. Here we see the contrast between the " One-in-
substance " of Father and Son and the mere participa-
tion * in the Divine Fulness which, in various measures, is
given to His creatures. The Son is the Father's Word
and Wisdom, and thereby His illuminating and deifying
power, not alien, but one in substance with Him, for
by partaking of Him we partake of the Father to whom
He belongs. Wherefore, if He, too, Himself were from
participation and not from the Father, His substantial
1 Vid. App,
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINDM AND SELEUCIA. 147
Godhead and Image, He could not deify, as needing deifi-
cation Himself. For, as to one who possesses only from
participation, even what he has is not his own, but the
giver's, and what he has received is barely the grace
sufficient for himself.
58. You tell me of an objection urged by some against
the " One-in-substance," to the effect that to speak of one
substance implies three, one pre-existing, and then those
are not Father and Son, but two brothers. But this is a
Greek explication, and what Greeks say have no claim
upon us ; or rather let me say that these matters are
above the human intellect. God gave birth from His
own substance to His Son ; but He also created all things
out of nothing. Is creation comprehensible ? We must
not measure divine actions by earthly experience. Even
what is earthly we do not understand, much less do we
understand heavenly. We must beware of giving a
corporeal sense to the Divine substance and to its com-
munication to the Son, when we ought to recede from
things generate, and, casting away human images, nay, all
things sensible, to ascend to the Father, lest, in our
ignorance we rob Him of the Son, and rank the Son
among His own creatures.
59. If, then, not two substances, nor three, are implied
in our holding a Father and a Son ; if we maintain that
the Father in generating a Son from Himself is simply
beyond our intellect, as when He creates out of nothing,
there is no fear of our holding, with Marcion or Valentinus,
two Gods and two Origins, independent, alien, and unlike
each other. But, if we acknowledge that the Father's
Godhead is one and sole, and that of Him the Son is the
Word and Wisdom, and that thereby the likeness between
Them consists, not as the heretics say in the likeness
merely of Their teaching, but in truth of substance, as the
Light is one and the Radiance one, yet they are not two,
L2
148 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. vi. how do we not follow the holy Prophets who say, The
Word of the Lord came to me, yet still, as recognising
the Father who was beheld and revealed in Him were
bold to say, " The God of our Fathers hath appeared to
me." This being so, if He be the illuminating and
creative Power, specially proper to the Father, without
whom He neither frames nor is known, why should we
decline the phrase expressing it ? Why do we not pro-
nounce the Son, Homoiision, One-in- substance with
the Father?
60. When we urge this, we are met by the persons I
have in view with the word " Homooesion," or " Like-
in-substance," as if preferable to " One-in-substance."
But do not they see that the mention of " Like " implies
the existence of at least two substances ? And, if the
two are like, they are equal ; and this implies in the case
before us two Gods. " Like-in-substance " is then not
an advisable word, when we would be exact. Nor is this
all ; strictly speaking, we cannot use the word " like " of
substances, but only of the fashion or the quality of a
thing. Thus two men compared together are not of like
nature but of the same nature ; whereas when we speak
of their being like each other, we mean in character, or
attributes, or circumstances. On the other hand we should
not say that a man is unlike a dog, but other than a dog.
And as qualities are participated in more or less by
different subjects, likeness is a matter of degree, but
there are no degrees of sameness and of identity. Thus
whereas God is all perfect, but we imperfect, in conse-
quence St. John says, " When He shall be made manifest,
we shall be like Him." It is not enough then, if the
Word is God, to say with you that He is " Like-in-sub-
stance " to the Father, for that is only to be more or less
divine, but He is One-in-substance or Consubstantial.
I repeat, in speaking of Like-iii-substauce, we mean like
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 149
by participation ; and this is proper to creatures, for they, Kr>. BEN.
by partaking, are made like to God. When He shall -
appear, ive shall be like Him; that is, we shall be like the
Son in our degree ; not in substance but in sonship, which
we shall partake from Him. If then you speak of the Son
Himself as being merely by participation, then indeed
call Him Like-in-substance ; but thus spoken of, He is
not " Truth," nor " Light " at all, nor in nature God.
But He is, not merely by participation, but in nature and
truth, Son, Light, Wisdom, God ; and being all this by
nature, not by sharing, therefore He is properly called,
not Like-in-substance, but One-in-substance. This justifies
the Nicene Fathers in having laid down, what it was
becoming to express, that the Son, begotten from the
Father's substance, is One-in-substance or Consubstantial
with Him. And if we have been taught as those
Bishops were, let us not fight with shadows, especially as
knowing that they who have so defined have made
this confession of faith, not to misrepresent the truth,
but as vindicating it and piety towards Christ, and
further as destroying the blasphemies against Him of the
Ario-maniacs. For this must be considered and noted
carefully, that, in using Unlike-in-substance, and Other-
in-substance, we signify not the true Son, but some one of
the creatures, and a supposititious and adopted Son, which
pleases the heretics ; but when we speak uncontroversially
of the One-in-substance, we signify a genuine Son born of
the Father ; though at this Christ's enemies often burst
with rage.
61. What then I have learned myself, and have heard
men of judgment say in their discussions, I have written
in few words ; but ye, remaining on the foundation of the
Apostles, and holding fast the traditions of the Fathers,
pray that now at length all strife and rivalry may cease,
and the futile questions of the heretics may be condemned,
150 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ON THE
CHAP. VI. and all logomachy ; and the guilty and murderous heresy
of the Arians may disappear, and the Truth may shine
again in the hearts of all, so that all everywhere may say
the same thing, and think the same thing ; and that no
Arian contumelies remaining, there may be said and con-
fessed in every Church, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, in
Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom to the Father be the
glory and the strength, unto ages of ages. Amen.
POSTSCRIPT.
After I had written my account of the Councils, I had
information that that most impious Constantius had sent
Letters to the Bishops staying in Ariminum ; and I took
pains to get copies of them from true brethren, and to send
them to you, and also what the Bishops answered ; that
you may know the impious unscrupulousness of the
Emperor, and the Bishops' firm and unswerving hold of
the Truth.
Translation of Jiis Letter. 6
" Constantius, conquering and triumphant, Augustus,
to all Bishops who are assembled at Ariminum.
" That the divine and adorable Law is our chief care, your
Excellencies are not the men to be ignorant ; but as yet
we have been unable to receive the twenty Bishops seat
6 These two Letters are in Socr. Hist. ii. 15, in a different version
ii. 37. And the latter in Theod. from the Latin.
COUNCILS HELD AT ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA. 151
by your wisdom, and charged with the legation from you,
as being pressed by a necessary expedition against the
barbarians ; and, as you know, it beseems to have the soul
clear from every care, when one handles the matters of the
Divine Law. Therefore we have ordered the Bishops to
await at Adrianople our return, that, when all public
affairs are well arranged, then at length we may hear and
weigh their suggestions. Let it not then be grievous to
your patience to await their return, that, when they come
back with our answer to you, you may be able to bring
matters to a close which so deeply affect the well-being of
the Catholic Church."
This was what the Bishops received at the hands of
three messengers.
Copy of the Bishops' Reply.
" The Letter of your humanity we have received, most
religious Lord Emperor, stating that, on account of stress
of public affairs, as yet you have been unable to see our
legates, and bidding us to await their return, until your
piety shall be advised by them of what we have denned
conformably to our ancestors. However, we now profess
and aver at once by these presents, that we shall not
recede from our purpose, as we also instructed our legates.
We claim then that you will with serene countenance
command these letters of our mediocrity to be read before
you; as well as that you will favourably receive those
with which we charged our legates. This, however, in
your graciousness you comprehend as well as we, that
great grief and sadness at present prevails, from the cir-
cumstance that, in these your most happy days, so many
Churches are without their Bishops. And next, we
request of your humanity, most religious Lord Emperor,
152 EPISTLE OF ATHANASIUS, ETC.
CHAP. VI. that, if it please your piety, yon would bid us, before the
severe winter weather sets in, to return to our Churches,
that so we may be able to offer with our people to the
Omnipotent God and to our Lord and Saviour Christ, His
Only-begotten Son, the full measure of our wonted prayers,
in behalf of your imperial sway, as indeed we have ever
made them, and as we make them at this present."
THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
AGAINST ARIANISM.
PREFATORY NOTICE.
THE following Three Discourses against Arianism, the greatest
work of their Author, are written on a definite plan, though
not without some want of method and order in the execution.
They consist mainly of a doctrinal comment, both controver-
sial and didactic, upon cardinal passages of Scripture, which the
Arians urged as inconsistent with the Catholic dogma of our
Lord's proper divinity. Twelve texts, or groups of texts, are
examined in this aspect and their real meaning determined,
nine of them giving occasion for enlarging on His Divine
Nature and His Economical Office, and three on the circum-
stances and results of His Incarnation.
To this extended comment, which is the rich staple of the
work, is prefixed a series of answers to certain elementary
formulse and a priori assumptions of Arianism, such as have
been more or less already dealt with in the two preceding
Epistles, and which moreover, from their close connexion with
each other and the heresy itself, naturally present themselves
once more in various places of the exposition of Scripture
passages, as in the three chapters introductory of the comment on
Prov. viii. 22. Such imperfection in logical arrangement was,
in so large a subject and in the instance of a writer with so little
leisure, unavoidable : a more noticeable blemish is the dislo-
cation of the chapter answering the Arian question, whether
the gennesis was an act of the Divine Will ; which, instead of
154 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS.
forming one of the subjects of the introductory argumentation,
prior to the comments on texts of Scripture, has been thrown
to the end of the work, as if a Postscript or Appendix, very
much as the chapter on the " Ingenerate " occurs in the de
Decretis, supr. p. 49. I have ventured in this Translation to
transpose this chapter to what seems its more natural place.
Vid. infr. pp. 191204.
In cutting off the so-called fourth Oration or Discourse
from the Three which precede it in Montfaucon's Edition, as if
not belonging to Athanasius's work against Arianism, I am
exercising the same liberty as the learned Benedictine himself
takes as regards these Discourses, in reducing Photius's Five, or
Pentabiblus, to Four by cutting off the first of them. My
reasons are given in " Theological Tracts," Dissert, i.
As I have mentioned Photius's name, it may be well to
cite here the judgment of that great literary authority on
St. Athanasius's Pentabiblus, of which these Three Discourses
form the substance.
" In his writings Athanasius is ever perspicuous, never
wordy, never involved. He is keen, deep, nervous in his
mode of arguing, and marvellously fertile. His argumentation
has nothing poor or puerile in it (as happens in the case of
the young or half -educated), but is philosophical and magni-
ficent, full of thought and with broad views, fortified by
testimonies of Scripture and weighty proofs. Especially such
is he in his treatises * against the Greeks,' and ' on the
Incarnation ; ' and in his Pentabiblus against Arius, which is a
triumphant defeat of every heresy, and eminently of Arianism.
And if we were to say that Gregory Theologus and the divine
Basil, as if drawing from a well, derived from this Treatise
their beautiful and luminous arguments against the heresy, I
consider we should not be far from the mark."
THREE DISCOURSES OF
ATHAKASIUS,
CHAPTER I.
1. ALL heresies have in them an element of mad impiety, ED. BEN.
Orat i 1
which, when at length they have gone out from us, is
recognised by all, as it was of old time. Indeed, the very
fact of that departure is in itself an evidence, as blessed
John has written, that, whatever be their doctrine, it does
not breathe nor has breathed a Christian spirit. Hence
our Saviour says, that they who gather not with us, scatter
with the Evil One, and then, while men are slumbering,
watch their opportunity for sowing the field of the Church
with poisonous seed, that in death they may have com-
panions. One heresy, however, there is, the latest that
has gone from us, the Arian, as it is called, which, in its
craft and unscrupulousness, is a very forerunner of Anti-
christ. This heresy, in order to avoid the proscription
which is the sure destiny of the whole family of error,
affects, like its father in our Lord's Temptation, to array
itself in the words of Scripture. 1 By this contrivance it is
forcing its way into paradise, and has seduced certain
souls to think bitter sweet, and to take and eat, with Eve
in the beginning. And this is why I find it necessary, as
1 Vid. Append. Scripture.
156 THREE DISCOUESES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. I. you exhort me, now to undertake its refutation, 2 that they
who are far from its influence, may continue firm in
shunning it, and that those whom it has deceived may
repent, abjuring their good opinion of it, and understand-
ing that to call its adhereants Christians, argues little
knowledge whether of Scripture, or of Christianity and its
faith.
2. For what resemblance to our holy faith have they
discovered in it, to make them so wantonly maintain that
its supporters propound nothing evil ? This in truth is to
call even Caiaphas a Christian, and to reckon the traitor
Judas still among the Apostles, and to say that they who
asked for Barabbas instead of the Saviour did no evil, and
to maintain Hymenaeus and Alexander as right-minded, and
that the Apostle slandered them. But neither would a
Christian bear to hear this, nor would he consider the man
who dared to say it of sane mind. For with them in place
of Christ is Arius, as with the Manichees Manichaeus ;
and for Moses and the other saints they have made the
discovery of one Sotades, a man whom even Gentiles laugh
at, and of the daughter of Herodias. For of the one has
Arius imitated the dissolute and effeminate tone, in the
Thalias which he has written ; and the other he has rivalled
in her dance, reeling and frolicking in his blasphemies
against the Saviour ; till the victims of his heresy lose
their wits and go foolish, and change the Name of the
Lord of Glory into the likeness of the image of corruptible
man, and for Christians come to be called Arians, bearing
this badge of their impiety.
3. Let them not attempt to retort that on this score they
are on a par with us, because, as we call them Arians, so
a In these Orations he scarcely the controversy itself, and the
makes mention of the Homousion, sophistries of the heretics. Vid.
his object apparently being simply Append,
to show the momentous issue of
AGAINST ARIANISM. 157
they in turn may name us from our teachers. 3 No, never at ED. BEN.
J J i. 12.
any time did Christian people take their title from the Bishops -
among them, but from the Lord, on whom we rest our
faith. Thus, though the blessed Apostles have become our
teachers, and have ministered the Saviour's Gospel, yet
not from them have we our title, but from Christ we are
and are named Christians. But for those who derive the
faith which they profess from private persons, good reason
is it such men should bear the name of those whose property
they have become. Yes surely ; while all of us are and are
called Christians after Christ, Marcion broached a heresy time
since and was cast out ; and those who continued with the
Bishop who ejected him remained Christians ; but those
who followed Marcion were called Christians no more,
but henceforth Marcionites. Thus Yalentinus also, and
Basilides, and Manicheeus, and Simon Magus, have im-
parted their own name to their followers ; and are accosted
as Valentinians, or as Basilidians, or as Manichees, or as
Simonians ; and others, Cataphrygians from Phrygia, and
from Novatus Novatians. So too Meletius, when ejected
by Peter the Bishop and Martyr, called his party no longer
Christians but Meletians ; * and so in consequence when
Alexander of blessed memory had cast out Arius, those
who remained with Alexander remained Christians ; but
those who went out with Arius left the Saviour's name to
us who were with Alexander, and as to them they were
henceforward denominated Arians.
4. Behold then, after Alexander's death too, those who
communicate with his successor Athanasius, and those
with whom the said Athanasius communicates, are
instances of the same rule ; none of them bear his
3 On the attempt, continual but Essay on Dcv. Doctr. p. 254, and
fruitless, to affix some name short A pp. Catholic.
of "Catholic " or " Christian " on * Vid. Meletius.
the children of the Church, vid.
158 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. T - name, nor is lie named from them, but all in like
manner, and as is usual, are called Christians. For
though we have a succession of teachers and become
their disciples, still, because we are taught by them the
things of Christ, we both are, and are called, Christians
all the same. But those who follow the heretics, though
they have innumerable successors in their heresy, yet for
certain bear the name of him who devised it. Thus,
though Arius be dead, and many of his party have suc-
ceeded him, yet those who think with him, as being known
from Arius, are called Arians. And, it is a remarkable
evidence of this, that those of the Greeks who even at this
time come into the Church, on giving up the superstition
of idols, take the name, not of their catechists, but of the
Saviour, and are henceforth for Greeks called Christians ;
while those of them who go off to the heretics, and, again,
all who from the Church change to this heresy, abandon
Christ's name, and at once are called Arians, as no longer
holding Christ's faith, but having become heirs of the
mania of Arius.
5. How then can they be Christians, who for Christians
are Ario-maniacs ? or how are they of the Catholic Church,
who have shaken off the Apostolical faith, and become
authors of what is new and evil ? who, after abandoning
the oracles of divine Scripture, call Arius's Thalias a new
wisdom ? and with reason too, for a novelty that wisdom
is. And hence a man may marvel that, whereas many have
written many treatises and abundant homilies upon the
Old Testament and the New, yet in none of them is a
Thalia found ; nay nor among the more respectable of the
Greeks, but among those only who sing such strains over
their cups, amid cheers and jokes, when men are merry, that
the rest may laugh ; till this marvellous Arius, who, taking
no grave pattern, and ignorant even of what is respectable,
while he stole largely from other heresies, would in the
AGAINST ARIANISM. 159
ludicrous go nothing short of Sotades. 5 For what be- ED. BEN.
i. 3 5.
seemed him more, when he would dance forth against -
the Saviour, than to throw his impious words into dissolute
and abandoned metres ? that, while a man, as Wisdom
says, is known from the utterance of Ms word, so from those
numbers should be seen the writer's effeminate soul and
corruption of thought. So much for his style of writing ;
now let us inquire into the matter of which it is the
expression.
CHAPTER II.
6. THUS he starts :
"According to faith of God's elect, God's prudent ones,
Holy children, rightly dividing, God's Holy Spirit
receiving,
Have I learned this from the partakers of wisdom,
Accomplished, divinely taught, and wise in all things.
Along their track have I been walking, with like
opinions,
I the very famous, the much suffering for God's glory ;
And taught of God, I have acquired wisdom and
knowledge."
Then follow his blasphemies : " God was not always a
Father;" but "once God was alone and not yet a Father,
but afterwards He became a Father." " The Son was not
always ; " for, whereas all things were made out of no-
thing, and all things are creatures and works, so the
Word of God Himself "was made out of nothing," and
" once was not," and " was not before His generation,"
but as others "had an origin of creation." "For God,"
he says, "was alone, and the Word as yet was not, nor
the Wisdom. Then, wishing to frame us, thereupon He
5 Vid. Append. Arms.
160 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. II. made a certain being, and named Him Word and Wisdom
and Son, that He might form us by means of Him."
Accordingly he says that there are two Wisdoms, first, the
attribute co- existent with God, and next, that by this
Wisdom the Son was generated, and was only named
Wisdom and Word as partaking of it. " For Wisdom,"
saith he, " at the will of the wise God, had its existence
by Wisdom." In like manner, he says, that there is
another Word in God besides the Son, and that the Son
again, as partaking of it, is named Word and Son according
to grace. And this too is an idea proper to their heresy,
as shown in other works of theirs, that there are many
powers, one of which is God's own by nature and eternal ;
but that Christ, again, is not the true power of God : but,
as others, one of the so-called powers ; one of which,
namely, the locust and the caterpillar, is called in Scrip-
ture, not merely the power, but the great power. The
others are many and are like the Son, and of them David
speaks in the Psalms, when he says, the Lord of Hosts or
powers. And by nature, as all beings, so the Word Him-
self is alterable, and remains good by His own free will,
while He chooseth ; when, however, He wills, He can
alter as we can, as being of an alterable nature. For
" therefore," saith he, " as foreknowing that He would be
good, did God by anticipation bestow on Him this glory,
which afterwards, as man, He attained from virtue. Thus
in consequence of His works foreknown, did God bring
it to pass that He, being such, should come into being."
7. Moreover he has dared to say, that " the Word is
not the true God ; " that " though He is called God, He is
not very God," but " by participation of grace, He, as
all the others, is God only in name." And, whereas all
beings are unlike and foreign to God in substance, so
too is " the Word unlike and alien in all things to the
Father's substance and essence," and belongs to things
AGAINST ARIANISM. 161
created, and is one of these. Afterwards, he says that ED. HEN.
J i. 57.
" even to the Son the Father is invisible," and " the -
Word cannot perfectly and exactly either see or know His
own Father; " but even what He knows and what He
sees, He knows and sees " in proportion to His own
measure," as we also know according to our own capacity.
For the Son, too, he says, not only knows not the Father
exactly, for He fails in comprehension, but " He knows
not even His own substance ; " and that " the substances
of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Grhost, are
separate in nature, and apart, and disconnected, and
alien, and without participation of each other ; " and, in
his own words, " utterly unlike to each other in sub-
stance and glory, infinitely so. Thus as to " likeness of
glory and substance," he says that the Word is entirely
foreign to both the Father and the Holy Ghost. In such
words hath the impious spoken ; declaring that the Son is
distinct by Himself, and in no respect partaker of the
Father.
8. Who can hear all this without losing self-com-
mand ? The heaven, as the Prophet says, was astonished, and
the earth shuddered at the transgression of the Law. But
the sun, with greater horror once, impatient of the
bodily contumelies which the common Lord of us all
voluntarily encountered for us, turned away, and, with-
drawing his rays, made that day sunless. And shall not
all human kind at Arius's blasphemies be struck speech-
less, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, to escape
hearing them or seeing their author ? Rather, will not
the Lord Himself have reason to denounce the unthank-
fulness, as well as the impiety, of such men, in the words
which He hath already uttered by the prophet Hosea ?
Woe unto them, for they have fled from Me ; destruction upon
them, because they have transgressed against Me; though I
have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.
M
162 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. II r. And soon after, They imagine mischief against Me; they
turn aiuay to a nothing. For to turn away from the Word
of God, which is, and to fashion to themselves one that is
not, is to fall to what is nothing. For this was why the
Ecumenical Council, when Arius thus spoke, cast him
from the Church, and anathematised him, as impatient of
such impiety. 6 And ever since has Arius's error been
reckoned for a heresy more than ordinary, he being known
as Christ's foe, and forerunner of Antichrist. Though
then so great a condemnation of this impious teaching be
sufficient in a special way to make all men flee from it,
as I said above, yet since certain persons called Chris-
tian, either in ignorance or in pretence, think it an
indifferent matter in relation to the Truth, and call its
professors Christians, proceed we to put some questions to
them, according to our powers, thereby to expose its
unscrupulous character. Perhaps, when thus encountered,
they will be silenced, and flee from it, as from the sight of
a serpent. 7
CHAPTER III.
The Son of God uncreate and from everlasting.
9. If then they consider that the use of certain phrases
of divine Scripture changes the blasphemy of the Thalia into
praise and blessing, then of course they ought simply to
disown Christ with the present Jews, when they see how
those Jews study the Law and the Prophets ; perhaps too
they will deny the Law and the Prophets like Manichees,
considering the latter read some portions of the Gospels.
But what is the use of appealing to the Scriptures, if it is an
6 Vid. Append. Arius. hceretici sunt pronunciati, ortho-
7 " Etiamsi in errosis eoruni doxorum securitati sufficeret."
destructionem nulli conderen- Vig. contr. Eutych. i. p. 494.
tur libri, hoc ipsuni solum, quod
AGAINST ARIANISM. 163
imperfect appeal ? To believe in one doctrine avails not, ED. BEN.
i. 8.
if you deny the rest. Arms then has lost his all of faith, -
and betrays his ignorance of our whole creed, and does
but play the hypocrite, when he denounces other heresies.
For how can he speak truth concerning the Father, who
denies the Son that reveals Him to us ? or how can he be
orthodox concerning the Spirit, while he speaks profanely
of the Word from whom is Its supply ? and who will trust
his teaching concerning the Resurrection, denying, as he
does, Christ, for our sakes the First-begotten from the dead ?
and how shall he not err in respect to His incarnate
presence also, who is simply ignorant of the Son's genuine
and true generation from the Father ? For thus, the old
Jews also, denying the Word, and saying. We have no king
but Ccesar, were forthwith stripped of all they had, and
forfeited the light of the Lamp, the fragrance of ointment, the
knowledge of prophecy, and the Truth itself ; till now they
understand nothing, but are walking as in darkness.
10. A great darkness surely this heresy ! for who was
ever yet a hearer of such a doctrine ? or whence or from
whom did its abettors and hirelings 9 gain it ? who
thus expounded to them when they were at school ? who
told them, " Abandon creature- worship and then draw
near and worship a creature and a work " ? x But if they
themselves own that now for the first time they have heard
it, let them not deny that this heresy is foreign to
Christians, and not from our fathers ? But what is not
from our fathers, but has been lighted on in this day,
how can it be but that of which the blessed Paul has fore-
told, that in the latter times some shall depart from the sound
faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,
in the hypocrisy of liars, cauterized in their own conscience,
and turning away from the truth ? 2
9 Vid. Append. Avians. 2 Vid. supr. p. 7, Enc. n. 5, and
1 Vid. Semi-arians. App. Alexander.
M2
164 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. III. 11. For, beliold, we take Divine Scripture, and out of it
discourse with freedom concerning the holy Faith, and set
it up as a light upon its candlestick, and say : " He is
true Son of the Father, natural and genuine, and proper
to His substance, Wisdom Only-begotten, True and only
Word of God, not a creature nor a work, but an Offspring
proper to the Father's substance. And therefore it is
that He is True God, because from the True Father He
exists consubstantially. As to other beings, to whom He
has said, I said ye are gods, only by participation of the
Word through the Spirit have they this grace ; but He
is the Impress of the Father's Person, 3 and Light from Light,
and Power, and true Image of the Father's substance.
For this too the Lord has said, He that hath seen Me, hath
seen the Father. And He ever was and is, and never was
not. For the Father being everlasting, His Word and
His Wisdom must be everlasting also;" such is our holy
faith, but those champions of Arms, what have they to
show us from the infamous Thalia ? What but this ? that
" God was not always a Father, but became so afterwards ;
the Son was not always, for He was not before His
generation ; He is not from the Father, but He, as others,
has come into subsistence out of nothing ; He is not proper
to the Father's substance, for He is a creature and work " ?
And " Christ is not true God, but He, as others, was made
God by participation ; the Son has not exact knowledge
of the Father, nor does the Word see the Father perfectly ;
and neither exactly understands nor knows the Father.
He is not the true and only Word of the Father, but is in
name only called Word and Wisdom, and is called by
grace Son and Power. He is not unalterable, as the
Father is, but alterable in nature, as the creatures, and He
comes short of perfect knowledge of the Father reaching
to comprehension."
AGAINST ARIANISM. 165
12. Wonderful this heresy, not plausible even, but
making speculations against Him that is, that He be not,
and everywhere putting forward blasphemy for blessing !
Were any one, after inquiring into both sides, to be asked,
whether of the two he would follow in faith, or whether
of the two spoke fitly of God, nay, if these fosterers of
impiety themselves be asked, what ought they to answer ?
For this is the cardinal question, Was He, or was He not ?
ever, or not before His generation ? without beginning, or
from this and from then ? true Son, or by adoption and from
participation and as a conception ? Is it right to call
Him one of God's works, or to unite Him to the Father ;
to consider Him unlike the Father in substance, or like and
proper to Him ; a creature, or Him through whom the
creatures came to be ? shall we say that He is the Father's
Word, or that there is another Word beside Him, and that
by this other He was made, and by another Wisdom ; and
that He is only named Wisdom and Word, and is a partaker
of this Wisdom, and second to it ?
13. Which of these theologies, I say, in its language con-
cerning the Lord Jesus, is consonant with Scripture ? *
and, if there is only one answer to be made, why do you
not make it ? For there is no middle path, and they
know this well; but in their craft, I say, they conceal it, not
having the courage to speak out, but uttering something
else. For should they speak, a condemnation would
follow ; and should they be suspected, proofs from
Scripture will be cast at them from every side. Where-
fore, in their craft, as children of this world, after feeding
their so-called lamp from the wild olive, and fearing lest
* Athan., it may be said, Scripture to illustrate and explain
always assumes the traditional or it. Which explanation, he ask?,
ecclesiastical truth (which the ours or the Arian, best accords
Arians granted) " Christ is God," with Scripture ?
and then he goes at once to
166 THKEE DISCOUKSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. in. it should soon be quenched (for it is said, the light of the
wicked shall ~be put out), they hide it under the bushel of
their hypocrisy, and make a different profession, and boast
of patronage of friends and authority of Constantius, that
what with their hypocrisy and their boasts, those who
come to them may be kept from seeing how foul their
heresy is.
14. Is it not detestable, again, on this very score, that it
dares not speak out, but is kept hid by its own friends, and
fostered as serpents are ? for from what sources have they
got together these words of theirs ? or from whom have
they received what they venture to say ? Not any one
man can they specify who has supplied it. For who is
there in all mankind, Greek or Barbarian, who ventures
to rank among creatures Him whom he confesses the while
to be God, and says, that He was not till He was made ?
or who is there, who to the God in whom he has put faith
refuses to give credit, when He says, This is My Beloved
Son, on the pretence that He is not a Son, but a creature ?
rather, such madness would rouse a universal indignation.
Nor, again, does Scripture afford them any pretext ; for it
has been often shown, and it shall be shown now, that
what they teach is alien to the divine oracles. Therefore,
since all that remains is to say that from the devil came
their mania, (for of such opinions he alone is sower,)
proceed we to resist him ; for with him is our real
conflict, and they are but instruments ; that, the Lord
aiding us, and the enemy, as he is wont, being overcome
with arguments, they may be put to shame, when they see
him without resource who sowed this heresy in them, and
may learn, though late, that, as being Arians, they are not
Christians.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 167
CHAPTER IV.
Answer to intellectual objections to the doctrine.
15. AT his suggestion then ye have maintained, and ye
think, that " there was once when the Son was not ; "
this is the first cloak of your theory of doctrine which has
to be stripped off. Say then what was once when the Son
was not, O slanderous and impious men ! 5 If ye say the
Father, your blasphemy is but greater ; for it is impious to
say that He was at one time, or to signify Him in the word
" once." For He is ever, and is now, and as the Son is,
so is He, and is Himself He that is, and Father of the
Son. But if ye say that the Son was once, when He
Himself was not, the answer is unmeaning. For how
could He both be and not be ? In this difficulty, you can
but answer, that there was a time when the Word was
not ; for your very adverb " once " naturally signifies
this. And your other, " The Son was not before His genera-
tion," is equivalent to saying, " There was once when He
was not," for both the one and the other signify that
there is a time before the Word.
16. Whence then this your discovery ? for no passage of
Holy Scripture has used such language of the Saviour, but
rather " always " and " eternal " and " co-existent always
with the Father." For, In the beginning was the Word,
5 Athan. observes that this true, if "before" was taken, not
formula of the Arians is a mere to imply time, but origination
evasion to escape using the word or beginning. And in this sense
" time." vid. also Cyril. Thesaur. the first verse of St. John's Gos-
iv. pp. 19, 20. Else let them pel may be interpreted, "In the
explain, "There was," what Beginning," or Origin, i.e., in the
"when the Son was not?" or Father, "was the Word." Thus
what was before the Son ? since Athan. himself understands that
He Himself was before all times text, Orat. iv. 1. Vid. also Orat.
and ages, which He created. iii. 9. Nyssen. contr. Eunom.
Did they mean, however, that iii. p. 106. Cyril. Thesaur. p.
it was the Father who " was " 312.
before the Son? This was
168 THREE DISCOUESES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. iv. and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And in the Apocalypse he says, Who is and wlio was and
who is to come. Now who can rob " who is " and " who
was " of eternity ? This too in confutation of the Jews
hath Paul written in his Epistle to the Romans, Of whom
as concerning the flp.sU is Christ, who is over all, God blessed for
ever; and to shame the Greeks, he has said, The invisible
things of Him from the creation of the ivorld are clearly seen,
being understood by the tilings that are made, even His eternal
Poiver and Godhead; but who the Power of God is, he
teaches us elsewhere himself, saying, Christ God's Power
and God's Wisdom. Surely in these words it is not the
Father whom he designates, as ye often have whispered
one to another, affirming that the Father is His eternal
power. This is not so ; for he says not, " God Himself is
the power," but " His is the power." Very plain is it to
all that " His " is not " He ; " yet not something alien
but rather something proper to Him.
17. Study too the context, and turn to the Lord; to that
Lord whom the Apostle elsewhere calls the Spirit, to that
Son, whom here he calls the Power of God. Then you
will see that it is the Son of whom he speaks. For after
making mention of the creation, he fitly speaks of the
Framer's Power as seen in it, which Power, I say, is the
Word of God, by whom all things came to be. Creation
is not sufficient of itself to make God known. You may
as well say it was sufficient to come into being of itself.
As it was through the Son that it was made, so through
the Son it speaks of God. 6 As in Him all things consist, so
Athan. seems here to give harmony, sweetness, and joyous-
expression to a feeling not un- ness, which we may, if we choose,
common now ; that when we call an anima nwndi, but which
contemplate this beautiful visible to an 6p6u>s dewp&v is the Primo-
world, e.g., as its hidden life bursts genitum Verbum Dei witnessing
forth in spring, we recognise in to His Eternal Father. Vid. infr.
it a unity, power, intelligence, p. 355.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 169
of necessity, a rightly ordered mind sees the framing KD. BEN.
Word in it, and through Him begins to apprehend the -
Father. And if, as the Saviour also says, No one knoweth
the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal
Him, and if on Philip's asking, SJioiv us the Father, He said
not, "Behold the creation," but, He that hath seen Me,
hath seen the Father, reasonably doth Paul, while accusing
the Greeks of contemplating the harmony and order of the
creation without reflecting on the Framing Word within
it, (for the creatures witness to their own Framer,) and as
desirous that through the creatures they might apprehend
the true God, and abandon creature-worship, reasonably,
I say, doth He speak of His eternal Power and Godhead, in
order thereby to signify that through the Son alone can
they interpret creation aright.
18. And when the sacred writers say Who exists before
the ages, and By wlwm He made the ages, they thereby as
clearly preach the eternal and everlasting being of the
Son, even while they are designating God Himself. Thus,
if Esaias says, The Everlasting God ivlio lias furnished the
ends of the earth ; and Susanna, Everlasting God ; and
Baruch wrote, I will cry unto the Everlasting in my days,
and shortly after, My hope is in the Everlasting, that He
will save you, and joy is come unto me from the Holy One;
yet forasmuch as the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews,
says, Who Icing the Reflection of His glory and the Impress
of His Person ; and David, too, in the eighty-ninth Psalm,
And the Brightness of the Lord be upon us, and, In Thy
Light shall v:e see Light, who has so little sense as to doubt
of the eternity of the Son ? for when did man see light
without the reflection of its radiance, that he may say of
the Son, " There was once when He was not," or
" Before His generation He was not."
19. And the words addressed to the Son in the hundred
and forty-fourth Psalm, Thy Icinrjdom is a kingdom of all
170 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. IV. ages, forbid any one to imagine any interval at all in which
the Word did not exist. For if every interval is measured
in the ages, and of all the ages the Word is King and
Maker, therefore, whereas no interval at all exists prior to
Him, it were madness to say, " There was once when the
Everlasting was not," and " From nothing is the Son."
20. And whereas the Lord Himself says, I am the Truth,
not " I became the Truth ; " but always, I am, I am the
Shepherd, I am the Light, and again, Call ye Me not, the
Lord and the Master ? and ye call Me well, for so I am, who,
hearing such language from God, from the Wisdom and
Word of the Father, speaking of Himself, will any longer
hesitate about its truth, and not forthwith believe that in
the phrase I am, is signified that the Son is eternal and
unoriginate ?
21. It is plain then from the above that the Scriptures
declare the Son's eternity ; it is equally plain from what
follows that the Arian phrases " He was not," and
" before " and " when," are in the same Scriptures pre-
dicated of creatures. Moses, for instance, in his account
of the generation of our system, says, And every plant of
the field, before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field
before it grew ; for the Lord God had not caused it to rain
upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
And in Deuteronomy, When the Most High divided to the
nations. And the Lord said in His own Person, If ye
loved Me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father,
for my Father is greater than L And now I have told you
before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might
believe. And concerning the creation He says by Solomon,
Or ever the earth was, when there ivcre no depths, I ivas
brought forth ; when there ^uere no fountains abounding with
water. Before the mountains ivere settled, before the hills,
was I brought forth. And Before Abraham was, I am.
And concerning Jeremias He says, Before I formed thee in
AGAINST ARIANISM. 171
the womb, I hneiv tliee. And David in the Psalm says, ED. BEN.
Before the mountains w-ere brought forth, or ever the earth
and the world were made, Thou art God from everlasting and
world without end. And in Daniel, Susanna cried out ivith
a loud voice and said, everlasting God, that hnowest the
secrets, and hnowest all things lief ore they come to be.
22. Thus it appears that the phrases " once was not,"
and " before it came to be," and " when," and the like,
are fitly used of creatures, which come out of nothing,
but are alien to the Word. But if such terms are used in
Scripture of things created, but, " ever " of the Word,
it follows, that the Son did not come out of nothing, nor
is in the number of such things at all, but is the Father's
Image and Word eternal, never having not been, but
being ever, as the eternal Reflection of a Light which is
eternal. Why imagine then times before the Son ? or
wherefore blaspheme the Word as if He began later than
time began, He by whom even the ages were made ? for
how did time or age subsist, when the Word, as you say,
had not yet appeared, through whom all things were made,
and without whom was made not one thing ? Or why, when
you do really mean time, do you not plainly say, " a time
was when the Word was not ? " but you hide the word
" time " to deceive the simple, but you do not at all con-
ceal your own spirit, nor, even if you did, could you escape
discovery. For you still simply mean times, when you
say, " There was when He was not," and " He was not
before His generation."
CHAPTER V.
Answer to intellectual objections.
23. THE Son then, according to Scripture, is eternal,
uucreate, and the creating principle of all things. When
172 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. v. we thus speak, they make answer, " If so, if He eternally
co-exists with the Father, call Him no more the Father's
son, but His brother." insensate and contentious !
For if we said only that He was eternally with the
Father, and not His Son, their pretended scruple would
have some plausibility ; but if, while we say that He is
eternal, we also confess Him to be the Son from the Father,
how can He that is begotten be considered brother of
Him who begets ? And if our faith contemplates a
Father and a Son, what brotherhood is there between
them ? and how can the Word be called brother of Him
whose Word He is ? This is not an objection of men
really ignorant, for they comprehend how the truth lies ;
but it is a Jewish pretence, and that of men who, in
Solomon's words, through desire separate themselves from the
truth. For the Father and the Son were not generated
from some pre-existing origin, that we may account Them
brothers, but the Father is the origin of the Son and
begat Him ; and the Father is Father, and not the Son of
any : and the Son is Son, and not brother.
24. Nor can any fault be found, as they would wish, in
speaking of an eternal offspring. So far from His not
being eternal because He is the Son, I will say that He
could not be the Son unless He were eternal. For
consider ; was the substance of the Father ever imperfect,
so that what belonged to it and was a complement neces-
sary for its perfection was added afterwards ? Man is an
imperfect being, and soon grows into the maturity of his
powers ; but God's offspring is eternal, because God's
nature is ever perfect. If then the Word be not a real
Son of God, but a divine work brought out of nothing
and merely called a son, if they can prove this, by all
means let them cry out, " Once He was not ; " but, if He
is in truth Son, as the Father says and the Scriptures
proclaim, and a son is nothing else than what is generated
AGAINST ARIANISM. 173
from the father : so that in short the Son of God is to be ED. BEN.
i. 1314.
identified with His Word, and Wisdom, and Radiance ; -
what can we say but that, in maintaining " Once the Son
was not," they rob God of His Word, like plunderers, and
openly predicate of Him that He was once without His
proper Word and Wisdom, 7 and that the Light was once
without Radiance, and the Fountain was once barren and
dry ? 8 For though they pretend to shrink from the name
of time, because of those who reproach them with it, and
say that He was before times, yet whereas they assign
certain intervals, in which they imagine He was not, they
are most impious still, as equally suggesting times, and
imputing to God's nature an absence of His Word.
25. This reasoning they cannot meet, if they really hold
Him to be the Son of God ; but in truth they do not hold
Him to be such. In name indeed they do, in order to
evade the condemnation which they would otherwise
incur, but they use the word " Son " figuratively, and
think that we cannot use it in a literal and real, without
using it in a material sense. But is it not a grievous
error in them, to have material thoughts about what is
immaterial, and because of the weakness of their own
nature to deny what is natural and proper to the Father ?
It comes to this, that they ought to deny the Father also,
because they understand not how God is, or what the
Father is, if, in their folly, they measure by themselves
the Offspring of the Father. And men in such
a state of mind as to consider that there cannot be a
Son of God, demand our pity ; however, they must be in-
terrogated and confuted, for the chance of even thus
bringing them to their senses.
26. Moreover, if, as you say, " the Son is from nothing,"
and " was not before His generation," He, of course, as well
as others, must be called Son and God, and Wisdom, not
7 Vid. App. 76/1/7/0-1?. 8 Vicl. App.
174 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. v. in the full meaning of the words, but only as a shadow and
similitude of the True, that is, He is Son by participa-
tion ; for thus all other creatures consist, and by sanctifi-
cation are glorified. You have to tell us, then, of what
He is partaker. All other things partake the Spirit, but
He, according to you, of what is He partaker ? of the
Spirit ? Nay, rather the Spirit Himself takes from the
Son, as He Himself says ; and it is not reasonable to say
that the latter is sanctified by the former. Therefore it is
the Father that the Son partakes ; for this only remains to
say. Now this, which is participated, what is it or whence ?
If it be something external, provided by the Father, He
will not then be partaker of the Father, but of what is
external to Him ; and no longer will He be even second
after the Father, since He has before Him this other; nor
can He be called Son of the Father, but of that, as
partaking which, He has been called Son and God. And
if this be extravagant and impious, when the Father says,
This is My Beloved Son, and when the Son says that God
is His own Father, it follows that what is partaken is
not external, but from the substance of the Father. And
as to this again, if it be other than the substance of the
Son, an equal extravagance will meet us ; there
being in that case something between this that is from
the Father and the substance of the Son, whatever
that be. 9
27. Therefore it is irrelevant and beside the Truth to
say that the Son's participation of the Father consists in
anything external to the Father ; and if so, it must be of
the substance of the Father that He partakes ; and if of
the substance, it must be a whole participation, for
portions and separations are foreign to the idea of things
spiritual, and it is all one to say that God is wholly
participated and that He begets ; and what does begetting
9 Vid. App. The Son.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 175
signify bat a real Son ? And thus the Son is He of whom ED. BEN.
all things partake, according to that grace of the Spirit -
which comes from Him ; and this shows that the Son Him-
self partakes of nothing, but what is partaken of by us from
the Father is the Son ; for, as partaking of the Son Him-
self, we are said to partake of God ; and this is what
Peter said, that ye may be partakers in a divine nature ; as
says too the Apostle, 1 Know ye not, that ye are the temple of
God ? and, We are the temple of the Living God. And be-
holding the Son, we see the Father ; for our conception
and comprehension of the Son is knowledge concerning
the Father, because He is the proper Offspring from His
substance. And there is nothing to hinder our belief in a
true and literal Son of God ; for God is a Spirit, and in
consequence, as He can be partaken of by all beings in
their measure, without any separation or injury to His sub-
stance, as you would yourselves allow, so it is not difficult
to conceive that full and entire participation of His sub-
stance by our Lord, which is generation, and constitutes
Him the genuine, the true, the Only-begotten Son of God.
28. Coming back then to the eternity of the Son, it
appears that His Sonship is no difficulty in the way of be-
lieving that eternity, and He is identified with the Father's
Word and Wisdom, in and through whom He creates and
makes all things ; and His Radiance too, in whom He
enlightens all things, and is revealed to whom He will ;
and His Impress and Image also, in whom He is contem-
plated and known, whereby He and His Father are one,
and whoso looketh on Him, looketh on the Father ; and
the Christ, in whom all things are redeemed, and the new
creation wrought afresh. And on the other hand, the
Son being such Offspring, it is not fitting, rather it is full
of peril, to say that He is a work out of nothing, or that
1 Vid. Apostle.
176 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. vi. He was not before His generation. Nor is this all :
For lie who thus speaks of that which belongs to the
Father's substance, already blasphemes the Father
Himself ; since necessarily wrong thoughts of Him are
involved in false imaginations about His Son.
CHAPTER VI.
Answer to intellectual objections.
29. Though this is enough in refutation of the heresy,
its heterodoxy will appear from reasons such as the follow-
ing : if God be Maker of all things by means of His Son,
to deprive the Son of this necessary prerogative is, in fact,
to deprive the Eternal Father of His creative power. Again,
if the Son once was not, then the Triad is not from
eternity, but was a Monad first, and afterwards a Triad, and
so the true knowledge which we have of God grew, it
seems, and took shape. 2 Then again, if the Son has come
out of nothing, I suppose the whole Triad came out of
nothing too, or, what is more serious still, being Divine,
it included in its unity a created thing, which has worship
and glory together with Him-who-is ever, and is made up
of strange and alien natures and substances. Is this a,
teaching endurable as regards so august a Truth ? Is this
an intelligible worship, which is so inconsistent with itself,
as being at one time yes, and at another no ? For what we
know, it will receive, as time goes on, some fresh accession,
and so on without limit ; since by way of accessions at fir^t
2 As the name of the Holy into the Church, it is a virtual
Trinity has been used from the proof of our Lord's divinity prior
first and by our Lord's institution to and more authoritative than
as the name of initiation in the the Scripture texts concerning it
instance of every one admitted and catechetical tradition.
AGAINST AEIANISM. 177
and at starting it received its consistence. And so doubtless ED. BEN.
it may decrease on the contrary, for addition plainly admits -
of subtraction. But this is not so ; perish the thought I
the Triad is not thus brought into being. It is not generate ;
but there is an eternal and one Godhead in a Triad ;
and of that Holy Triad there is one glory ; and ye
presume to divide it into different natures. The Father
is eternal, and yet ye say of the Word which is enthroned with
Him, " Once He was not ; " and whereas the Son is enthroned
with the Father, yet ye think to place Him far from Him.
The Triad is Creator and Framer, and yet ye fear not to
degrade It to things which are from nothing ; ye scruple not to
make slaves equal to the Majesty of the Three, and to rank
the King, the Lord of Sabaoth, with His subjects.
30. Cease then to confuse together ideas which are in-
compatible, or rather, confuse not what is-not, with Him-
that-is. Such statements do not glorify and honour
the Lord of all, but the reverse ; for he who dishonours
the Son, dishonours also the Father. For if theological
truth has its perfection in a Triad now, and this is
the true and only divine worship, and this is the good
and the truth, it must always have been so, unless
the good and the true be something that came after,
and the truth of God's nature is completed by additions.
I say, it must have been eternally so ; but if not eternally,
not so ab present either, but at present only so as you
suppose it was from the first ; so as not to be a Triad
now. But such heretics no Christian would bear; for
it belongs to Greeks to introduce a Triad which is
generate, and to level It with things which came into
being ; for these do admit of deficiencies and additions ; but
the faith of Christians acknowledges the blessed Trinity
as unalterable and perfect and ever what It was ; neither
adding to It what is more, nor imputing to It any loss, for
both ideas are impious. And therefore that faith dissociates
It from all things which came to be. and canards nnrl
178 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. VI. worships the unity of the Godhead as indivisible, and
shuns the Arian blasphemies, and confesses and acknow-
ledges that the Son was ever ; for He is eternal, as is the
Father, of whom He is the Eternal Word ; and now for
further proof of this.
31. I say then the eternity of the Son and His unity
of substance with the Father are manifested in those titles,
which I have already incidentally insisted on, of Stream
from the Fountain, Word, Wisdom, and Image. For
instance, if God be, and be called, the Fountain of
Wisdom and Life, as He says by Jeremiah, Tliey have for-
saken Me the Fountain of living ivaters ; and again, A
glorious high throne from the beginning, is the place of our
sanctuary ; Lord, the Hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee
shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Thee shall be
written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the
Fountain of living waters ; and in the book of Baruch it is
written, Thou hast forsaken the Fountain of Wisdom, this
implies that Life and Wisdom are not foreign to the Sub-
stance of the Fountain, but belong to It, nor were at
any time without existence, but were always. Now the
Son is all this, who says, I am the Life, and, I Wisdom
dwell with prudence. Is it not then impious to say,
" Once the Son was not " ? for it is all one with saying,
" Once the Fountain was dry, destitute of Life and Wis-
dom." But a fountain it would then cease to be ; for what
begetteth not from itself cannot be called a fountain.
What a freight of extravagance is here ! for God promises
that those who do His will shall be as a fountain which
the water fails not, saying by Isaiah the prophet, And the
Lord shall satisfij thy soul in drought, and make thy bones fat ;
and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of
water, whose waters fail not. And yet these men, whereas.
God is called and is a Fountain of Wisdom, dare to insult
Him as barren and void once of His proper Wisdom.
AGAINST ARTANISM. 179
But their doctrine is false : truth witnessing that God is ED. BEN.
' i- 19.
the eternal Fountain of His proper Wisdom ; and, if the -
Fountain be eternal, the Wisdom also must needs be
eternal. For in It were all things made, as David says
in the Psalm, In Wisdom hast Thou made them all; and
Solomon says, The Lord by Wisdom hath formed the earth,
by understanding hath He established the heavens.
32. And this Wisdom is the Word, for by Him, as John
says, all things were made, and without Him was 'made not
one thing. 3 And this Word is Christ; for there is One
God the father, from whom are all things, and we for Him ;
and One Lord Jesus Christ, through ivhom are all things,
and we through Him. And if all things are through Him,
He Himself is not to be reckoned within that " all." For
he who dares to call Christ, through whom are all things,
one of that " all," is bound also to include in that
" all " God Himself, from whom are all. But if he
shrinks from this as extravagant, and excludes God from
that all, it is but consistent that he should also exclude
from that all the Only-begotten Son, as being proper to
the Father's substance. And, if He be not one of that
all, it is a sin to say concerning Him, " He was not,"
and " He was not before His generation." Such words
may be used of the creatures ; but as to the Son, He is
such as the Father is, of whose substance He is proper
Offspring, Word, and Wisdom. For a relation like this
belongs to the Son, as regards the Father, and to the
Father as regards the Son ; so that we may neither say
that God was ever without His Rational Word,* nor that
the Son was non-existing. For what is meant by a Son, if
He be not from Him ? or by Word and Wisdom, except
what is over proper to Him ? When then was God without
Him who belongs to Him ? or how can a man consider that
which belongs, as foreign and alien in substance ? for other
3 Vid. Scripture. * Vid. App. &\oyos.
N2
180 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANAS1US
CHAP. VI. things, according to their nature as being creatures,
are without likeness in substance to the Maker, but
are external to Him, made by the Word at His grace and
will, and thus admitting of sometimes ceasing to be, if it
so pleases Him who made them ; (for such is the nature
of things that are made ; ) but as to what belongs to
the Father's substance, (for this we have already found to
be the Son,) what daring is it and impiety to say that
" This comes from nothing," and that *' It was not before
its generation," but was adventitious, and can at some
time again cease to be ?
33. Let a man only dwell upon this thought, and he
will discern how the perfection and the plenitude of the
Father's substance is impaired by this heresy ; still more
clearly, however, he will see its extravagance if he con-
siders that the Son is also the Image and Radiance of the
Father, and Impress, and Truth. For if, when Light
exists, there be withal its Image, viz., Radiance, and if, a
Subsistence existing, there be of it the entire Impress,
and a Father existing, there be His Truth ; let them con-
sider what depths of impiety they fall into, who make
time the measure of the Image and Countenance 5 of
the Godhead. For if " the Son was not before His
generation," Truth was not always in God, which it were
a sin to say ; for since the Father was, there was ever in
Him the Truth, which is the Son, who says, I am the
Truth. And the Subsistence existing, of course there was
forthwith its Impress and Image ; for God's Image is not
delineated from without, but God Himself hath begotten
it ; in which seeing Himself, He has delight, as the Son
Himself says, I was His delight. When then did the
Father not see Himself in His own Image ? or when had
He not delight, that a man should dare to say, " The
Image is out of nothing," and " The Father had not
8 Yid. App.
AGAINST AEIANISM. 181
delight before the Image was generated " ? and how ED. HEX.
should the Maker and Creator see Himself in a created
and generated substance ; for such as is the Father, such
must be His Image. Only consider then the attributes of
the Father, and then, if the Son be His Image, you will
understand what He must be. The Father is eternal,
immortal, powerful, Light, King, Sovereign, God, Lord,
Creator, and Maker. These attributes must be in the
Image, to make it true that he that hath seen the Son hath
seen the Father. If the Son be not all this, but, as the
Arians consider, a thing made, and not eternal, this is not
a true Image of the Father, unless indeed they give up
shame, and go on to say, that the title of Image, given to
the Son, is not a token of a similar substance, 6 but is His
name only. But this, on the other hand, ye Christ's
enemies, is not an Image, nor is it an Impress. For what
is the likeness of a being brought out of nothing to Him
who brought what was nothing into being ? or how can
that which is-not, be like Him that-is, being short of
Him in once not-being, and in its having its place among
things that have come to be ?
34. However, such the Arians wishing Him to be, have
contrived arguments of this kind : " If the Son is the
Father's Offspring and Image, and is like in all things to
the Father, then it necessarily holds that as He is begotten,
so He begets, and He too becomes father of a son. And
again, he who is begotten from Him, begets in his turn,
and so on without limit ; for nothing short of this it is to
make the Begotten like Him that begat Him." Authors
of blasphemy, verily, are these foes of God ! who, sooner
than confess that the Son is the Father's Image, conceive
material and earthly ideas concerning the Father Him-
self, ascribing to Him severings and effluences and in-
fluences. If then God be as man, let Him become also a
8 Here Athan. recognises the Homoeitsion of the Semi-arians.
182 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. vi. parent as man, so that His Son should be father of
another, and so in succession one from another, till the
series they imagine grows into a multitude of gods. But
if God be not as man, as He is not, we must not impute
to Him the attributes of man. For brutes and men, after
a Framer has set them off, are begotten by succession ;
and the son, having been begotten of a father who was a
son, becomes accordingly in his turn to a son a father, as
having in himself from his father that gift by which he
himself has come to be. Hence in such instances there is
not, properly speaking, either father or son, nor does the
idea of father or the idea of son stay in their case, for the
same man becomes both son and father, son of his father,
and father of his son. But it is not so in the Godhead ;
for not as man is God ; for neither is the Father from Father ;
(and therefore it is that He doth not beget one who shall
beget ;) nor is the Son from effluence of the Father, nor
is He begotten from a father that was begotten ; therefore
neither is He so begotten that He should beget. Thus it
belongs to the Godhead alone, that the Father is eminently
Father, and the Son eminently Son, and in Them, and Them
only, does it hold that the Father is ever Father and the
Son ever Son.
35. Therefore he who asks why the Son has not a son,
must inquire why the Father had not a father. But both
suppositions are out of place and impious exceedingly.
For as the Father is ever Father, and never could be Son,
so the Son is ever Son, and never could be Father. For
in this rather is He shown to be the Father's Impress and
Image, remaining what He is and not changing, but thus
receiving from the Father to be one and the same. 7 If
then the Father change, let the Image change ; for such
is the relation of the Image and Radiance towards Him
who begat It. But if the Father is immutable, and what
AGAINST ARIANISM. 183
He is that He continues to be, necessarily does the Image ED. BEN.
i S 21 22
also continue what He is, and will not alter. Now He is Son -
from the Father ; therefore He will not become other than
is proper to the Father's substance. Idly then have the
foolish ones devised this objection also, wishing to separate
the Image from the Father, that they might level the Son
with things generated.
CHAPTER VII.
Answer to intellectual objections.
36. RANKING Him among these, according to the teach-
ing of Eusebius, and accounting Him to be such as are the
things which come into being through Him, the Arians
revolted from the truth, and at the beginning, when they
were commencing this heresy, were used to go about with
phrases of craft which they had got together ; nay, up to
this time some of them, when they fall in with boys in
the market-place, 8 question them, not out of divine Scrip-
ture at all, but thus, as if bursting out with the abundance
of their heart : He-that-is, did He, from Him-that-is,
make Him who was-not, or Him-who-was ? therefore did
He make the Son, whereas He- was, or whereas He-was-
not ? And again, " Is the ingenerate one or two ? " and
" Has He free-will, and yet at His own choice does not
alter, as being of an alterable nature ? for He is not as a
stone to remain by Himself without movement." Next
they turn to women, and address them in turn in this
womanish language, *' Hadst thou a son before bearing ?
now, as thou hadst not, so neither was the Son of God in
being before His generation." With such words do the
disgraceful men sport and revel, and liken God to men,
8 Vid. Append. Arians.
184 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. vii. pretending to be Christians, but changing God's glory into
an image made like to corruptible man.
37. Objections so shallow deserve no answer at all ; how-
ever, lest their heresy appear to have any foundation, it
may be right, though we go out of the way for it, to
refute them even here, especially on account of the women
who are so easily deceived by them. When they thus
speak, they should inquire of an architect, whether he can
build without materials ; and if he cannot, whether it
follows that God could not make the universe without
materials. Or they should ask whether any one of the whole
race of men can be without his place ; and if he cannot,
whether it follows that God is in place ; that so they may
be brought to shame even by their audience. Or why is
it that, on hearing that God has a Son, they deny Him by
the parallel of themselves ; whereas, if they hear that He
creates and makes, no longer do they object their human
parallels ? they ought, when they discuss the subject of
creation, to introduce their human ideas into it, and to
supply God with materials, and so deny Him to be Creator,
till they end in herding with Manichees. But if the
idea of God transcends such thoughts, and, on very first
hearing of Him, one believes and knows that He exists,
not as we exist, and yet that He does exist as God, and
creates not as men create, but still creates as God, it is
plain that He begets also not as men beget, but begets as
God. For God does not make man His pattern ; but
rather we men, because God is eminently, and alone truly,
Father of His Son, are also called fathers of our own
children ; for of Him is every fatherhood in heaven and earth
named. Thus their positions, while unscrutinised, have a
show of sense ; but if any one scrutinise them by reason,
they will be found to merit much derision and mockery.
38. For first of all, as to their first question, which is
such as this, how vague it is ! they do not explain who it
AGAINST ARIANISM. 185
is they ask about, so as to allow of an answer, but they ED. BEN.
i.22 24.
say abstractedly, " He-who-is," "Him who-is-not." 9 They -
profess to have thrown their question into such a shape as
to compel an answer of decisive force against the eternity
of the Word ; but only apply it to actual instances, and
you will find that it will not hold. Who then "is," and
what things " are not," O Arians ? or who " is," and
who " is not " ? what things are said "to be," what
" not to be " ? for He-that-is, can make things which are
not, and things which are, and things which were already.
For instance, carpenter, and goldsmith, and potter, each,
according to his own art, works upon materials pre-
viously existing, making what vessels he pleases ; and
" He that is," namely, the God of all, having taken the
dust of the earth, existing and already brought into being,
fashions man ; and that very earth, again, whereas once
it was not, He has in its time brought into being by His
own Word. If then this is the meaning of their question,
the creature on the one hand before its creation plainly
was not before it came to be, and men, on the other, work
the existing material, " that which was ; " and thus their
reasoning is inconsequent, since both " what is " comes to
be, and " what is not " comes to be, as these instances
show. So much as regards works, which are external to
God's substance ; but it is otherwise with what is internal
to It. If they speak concerning God and His Word, let
- 9 This objection is found supr. another shape ; being but this,
Encycl. p. 4, 6 &v 0e6s TOV /j.r] that the very fact of His being
OVTO. K TOV fj.7] OVTOS. Again, begotten, that is, a Son, implies a
OVTCL yeyfrvrjKe ^ OUK OVTO.. Greg. beginning, that is, a time when
Orat. 29, 9, who answers it. He was not ; it being by the very
Pseudo- Basil, contr. Eunom. iv. force of the words absurd to say
p. 281, 2. Basil calls the ques- that "God begat Him that 7m,?,"
tion Tro\vdpijX\TjTov, contr. Eunom. or to deny that " God begat Him
ii. 14. It will be seen to be but that was not." For the symbol,
the Arian formula of " He was OUK ty irplv yevvydy, vid. Dissert,
not before His generation "in 3 in the author's Theol. Tracts.
186 THEEE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. vn. them complete their question and then ask, Was the God
" who-is " ever without rational Word ? and, whereas He
is Light, was He rayless ? or was He always Father of
the Word ? Or again in this manner, Has the Father
" who-is " made the Word " who-is-not," or, as He has
been ever, so has He ever had with Him His Word, as the
proper Offspring of His substance ? But such idle sophistry
scarcely requires an answer, in the face of the many
Scripture testimonies which I have adduced above, John
saying, In the beginning was the Word, and Paul, Who
being the Brightness of His glory, and Who is over all, God
blessed for ever, Amen.
39. However, if I must answer them, I am forced to use
words after their own pattern of irreverence. After many
prayers * then that God would be gracious to ns, thus we
might ask them in turn : God who-is, has He too so become,
whereas He was-not ? or is He also before He came to be ?
whereas then He-is, did He make Himself, or is He of
nothing, and being nothing before, did He suddenly appear ?
Out of place is such a question, and very blasphemous
too, yet parallel with theirs ; for whichever answer they
give, it abounds in impiety. But if it be blasphemous
and utterly impious thus to inquire about God, it will be
blasphemous too to make the like inquiries about His
Word. I am obliged thus to speak in order to expose
their shallow interrogation, for whereas God is, He was
eternally ; since then the Father is ever, His Radiance
ever is, which is His Word. And again, God who is,
hath from Himself His Word who also is ; and neither
hath the Word been added, whereas He was not before, nor
was the Father once without a Word. For this assault
upon the Son makes the blasphemy recoil upon the
Father; as if He devised for Himself a Wisdom, and
Word, and Son from without ; for whichever of these
10 Vid. Append. Atkanasius.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 187
titles we use, we denote the Offspring from the Father, as KD. BEN.
has been said. As then if a person saw the sun, and then
inquired concerning its radiance, and said, " Did that
which-is make that which-was, or that which-was-not," he
would be held not to reason sensibly, but to have lost his
senses, because he fancied that what comes altogether from
the light was external to it, and was raising questions, how
and where and when it were made ; in like manner, thus
to speculate concerning the Son and the Father, and thus
to inquire, is far greater madness, for it is to speak of the
Word of the Father as external to Him, and to image
His natural Offspring as a work, with the avowal " He was
not before His generation." This is the direct answer to
their question ; however, if they want another, let them
recollect that, when the Word was made flesh, the Father,
who- was, " made " the Son who- was, made Him man.
Whereas He was Son of God, He made Him in consum-
mation of the ages also Son of Man ; this they must grant,
unless forsooth, after Samosatene, they affirm that He did
not even exist at all, till He became man.
40. This is sufficient from us in answer to their first
question ; and now on your part, O Arians, remembering
your own words, tell us whether for the framing of the
universe, He who-was had need of Him who-was-not, or of
Him who-was ? You said that He made for Himself His
Son out of nothing, as an instrument whereby to make
the universe. Which, then, is superior, that which needs
or that which supplies the need ? or does not each supply
the deficiency of the other ? You rather prove the weak-
ness of the Maker, 1 if He had not power of Himself to
make the universe, but provided for Himself an instrument 2
from without, as carpenter might do, or shipwright, unable
to work anything without axe and saw ? Can anything
1 Vid. supr. 12, p. 20. a Vid. App. 8pyavoi>.
188 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CnAp.vur. be more impious ! yefc why should one dwell on its heinous-
ness, when enough has gone before to show that their
doctrine is a mere fantasy ?
CHAPTER VIII.
Answer to intellectual objections.
41. As to the question which they put to women, " Hadst
thou a son before he was born ? " no answer need be given
by us but that which has been given already, namely, that
it is not right to measure a divine act by the parallel of the
nature of man. However, not to insist upon this, but to
take their own ground, this at least they must grant, that
a son, though necessarily younger than his father, is still
his father's offspring, from his substance, and proper to
him, not from without, and his image. If then we are to
argue from human instances, why do they so insist on the
relation of son to father as involving in the son a begin-
ning of being, and are silent about its involving a sameness
of nature ?
42. This at first sight, but I will go further : the Son of
God has no beginning because of that sameness. In the idea
of a divine generation, sameness of nature actually pre-
cludes a beginning of being. Why that sameness between
a human father and son, except that a son has ever been
in the father even before his separate existence ? Levi
was in the loins of his ancestor Abraham from the
first. But time is necessary for the operation of man's
nature. As soon then as the restraints upon his nature
are removed, he becomes father of a child, who hitherto
existed within him. So it must be, for man does but grow
into his perfection ; but who is to introduce restraints and
growth into our idea of God ? Who is to deny that what
AGAINST AEIANISM. 189
He is now, that He has been, and all that is His has been, ED. BEN.
. i. 2628.
from all eternity ? That the Son is eternal is involved in -
the very idea of sonship, for sonship belongs to the Divine
Nature. And the force of this reasoning is confirmed by
what we are told about the Son, as the Radiance of the
Father, and about the Father as the Fountain of the Son.
For when was a fountain without its stream, when was a
light without its radiance ? Shall these works of God be
more perfect than their Maker ? Shall His Son which is so
one with Him be with an interval before existence, whereas
these creatures of His hands have none ? Thus the
question of heretics to parents exposes their perverseness ;
they confess the point of nature, and now are put to shame
on the point of time.
43. Nor is this all. Further to intimate, as regards the
Son, both the use and the abuse of this argument from
earthly similitudes, Divine Scripture supplies us with other
parallels to direct our faith by, when it calls the Son of God
His Word and His Wisdom. For the Word of God is His
Son, and the Son is Word and Wisdom of the Father ; and
Word and Wisdom is neither creature nor part of Him
whose Word He is, nor the offspring of a passion. Uniting
then the two titles, 3 Scripture speaks of "Son" in order
to preach the natural and true Offspring of His substance ;
and, on the other hand, that none may think of the Off-
spring humanly, therefore while signifying His substance
it also calls Him Word, Wisdom, and Radiance ; to teach
us that the generation was without passion, and eternal,
and worthy of God. What affection then or what part
of the Father is the Word and the Wisdom and the
Radiance ? So much may be impressed even on thjese
men of folly ; for, as they ask women concerning God's
Son, so let them inquire of men concerning the Word,
and they will find that the word which issues from them
3 Vid. supr. p. 27, and Append. Economical language.
190 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP.VIII. is neither an affection of them nor a part of their mind.
But if such be the nature of men, who are passible
and partitive, why speculate they about passions and
portions in the instance of the immaterial and indivisible
God, that under pretence of reverence they may deny the
true and natural generation of the Son ? What is said of
the Word may be said of the Wisdom too. Men are
capable and are partakers of Wisdom ; God partakes of
nothing. He is His own Wisdom and is Father thereof ;
and that His Wisdom is not occasional, mutable, alterable,
but an Offspring proper to His substance. Wherefore, if
He is now Father, He has ever been Father, for to be
Father implies fuller perfection, and He is all perfect.
44. But, observe, say they, God was always a Maker,
nor is the power of framing adventitious to Him ; does it
follow then, that, because He is the Framer of all, there-
fore His works also are eternal, and is it wicked to say of
them, too, that they were not before generation ? What
a shallow answer ! for what likeness is there between Son
and work, that they should parallel a father's with a
maker's function ? How is it that, with that difference
between offspring and work, which has been pointed out
already, they remain so ill-instructed ? I repeat, then,
that a work is external to the maker, but a son is the
proper offspring of the substance ; it follows that a work
need not have been always, for the workman frames it
when he will ; but an offspring is not subject to will, but
belongs to the substance. And a man may be and may
be called workman, though the works are not as yet ; but
father he cannot be called, nor can he be, unless a son exist.
And if they curiously inquire why God, though always with
the power to make, does not always make, (though who
liatli known the mind of the Lord, or ivlw hath leen His
Counsellor ? or how shall the thing formed say to the potter,
Why hast thou made me thus ? however, not to leave even a
AGAINST ARIAXISM. 191
weak argument unnoticed,) they must be told, that al- ED. BEN.
i. 2829.
though God from eternity had the power to make, yet -
creatures had not the capacity for being made from eternity.
For they are out of nothing, and therefore were not
before they came into being, and therefore could not co-
exist with the ever-existing God ? Wherefore God, look-
ing to what was good for them, then made them all when
He saw that, upon their coming into being, they would be
able to abide. And as, though He was able, even from
the beginning, in the time of Adam, or Noe, or Moses,
to send His own Word, yet He sent Him not until the
consummation of the ages, for this He saw to be good for
the whole creation; so also, as to His works, He made
them when He would, and as was good for them. But
the Son, not being a work, but proper to the Father's sub-
stance, always is ; for, whereas the Father always is, so
that which belongs to His substance must always be ; and
this is His Word and His Wisdom. And that creatures
should not be in existence, does not disparage the Maker;
for He hath the power of framing them when He wills ;
but for the Offspring not to be ever with the Father, is a
disparagement of the perfection of His substance. Where-
fore His works were framed, when He would, through His
Word ; but the Son not when He would, for He is ever
the proper Offspring of the Father's substance.
CHAPTER IX. *
Answer to intellectual objections.
45. BUT as it seems, a heretic is a wicked thing in truth,
and in every respect his heart is depraved and goes after
* This chapter is transferred there a sort of Postscript, and
here from the end of the third properly belonging to the series of
Oration (iii. 5867) as being intellectual objections and their
192 THKEE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. ix. impiety. For behold, though, convicted on all points, and
shown to be utterly bereft of understanding, they feel no
shame ; but as the hydra of Gentile fable, when its former
serpents were destroyed, gave birth to fresh ones, contend-
ing against the slayer of the old by the production of new,
so also they, hostile and hateful to God, as hydras, losing
their life in the objections which they advance, invent for
themselves other questions, Judaic and foolish, and new
expedients, as if Truth were their enemy, thereby to
show the rather that they are Christ's opponents in all
things. After so many proofs against them, they begin
again, sometimes in whispers, sometimes with the per-
sistent iteration of gnats : " Be it so," say they ; " in-
terpret these places thus, and gain the victory in reason-
ing and in proof ; still you must say that the Son has
been begotten by the Father at His will and pleasure ; "
and thus it is that they deceive many, putting forward
the will and the pleasure of God. Now if any orthodox
believer were to say this in simplicity, there would be no
cause to be suspicious of the expression, the orthodox in-
tention prevailing over that somewhat simple use of words.
But, since the phrase is from the heretics, and the words
of heretics are suspicious, and, as it is written, The wicked
are deceitful, and The words of the wicked are deceit, even
though they but make signs, for their heart is depraved,
come, let us examine this phrase also, lest, though con-
victed on all sides, still, as hydras, they invent a fresh
word, and, by such clever language and specious evasion,
they contrive a fresh sowing of that impiety of theirs in
another way. For he who says, " The Son came to be at
the Divine Will," has the same meaning as another who
says, " Once He was not," and " The Son came into being
answers, with which the work its subject and its language,
opens, and that both in respect to
AGAINST ARIANISM. 193
out of nothing," and " He is a creature." But since they KD. BEN.
are now ashamed of those phrases, the crafty ones have -
endeavoured to convey their meaning in another way,
using the word " will," as cuttlefish put forth their black-
ness, thereby to confuse the innocent, and to make sure of
their peculiar heresy.
46. For whence do they derive " by will and pleasure " ?
or from what Scripture ? let these men say, who are so sus-
picious in their language and so inventive of impieties. For
the Father, when revealing from heaven His own Word,
declared, This is My beloved Son ; and by David He said,
My heart has burst with a good Word; and John He bade
say, In the beginning was the Word ; and David says in
the. Psalm, With Thee is the well of Life, and in Thy light
sJifdl we see light ; and the Apostle writes, Who being the
Radiance of His Glory, and again, Who being in the form of
God, and, Who is the Image of the invisible God. All the
sacred writers everywhere tell us of the being of the Word,
but none of His being made " by will," nor of His making
at all ; but as to these men, where, I ask, did they find " will
or good pleasure antecedent " to the Word of God, unless for-
sooth, leaving the Scriptures, they simulate the perverseness
of Valentinus ? For Ptolemy the Yalentinian said that the
Ingenerate had a pair of attributes, Thought and Will,
and first He thought and then He willed ; and what He
thought, He could not put forth, unless when the power
of the will was added. Thence the Arians taking a lesson,
wish will and good-pleasure to precede the Word. As to them,
then, let them rival the doctrine of Valentinus ; but we,
on reading the divine discourses, have only found He was
applied to the Son, and of Him only did we hear as being in
the Father and the Father's Image ; while in the case of
things made, since by nature these things once were not,
but afterwards came to be, in them only did we recognise an
antecedent will and pleasure, David saying in the hundred
o
194 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. IX. and thirteenth. Psalm, As for our God He is in heaven, Ho
hath done whatsoever pleased Him ; and in the hundred and
tenth, The works of the Lord are great, sought out unto all
His good pleasure; and again, in the hundred and thirty-
fourth, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven,
and in earth, and in the sea, and in all deep places.
47. If then the Son be work and thing made, and one
among others, let Him, as others, be said " by will " to have
come to be, for Scripture shows that these are thus brought
into being. And Asterius, the counsel for the heresy,
acquiesces, when he thus writes, " For if it be unworthy
of the Framer of all to make at pleasure, let His being
pleased to act be removed equally in the case of all, that His
Majesty be preserved unimpaired. Or if it be befitting
God to will, then let this better way obtain in the case of
the first Offspring. For it is not possible that it should be
fitting for one and the same God to will in creating and
also not to will." In spite of the sophist having intro-
duced abundant impiety into these words, namely, that the
Offspring and the thing made are the same, and that the
Son is one offspring out of all the existing offsprings, he
ends with the conclusion that the works may be fittingly
said to be by will and pleasure. Therefore if the Son be
other than all things, as has been above shown, or rather
through Him the works came to be, let not "by will" be
applied to Him ; otherwise, He so came into being, just
as those works consist which came to be through Him.
Paul, for instance, whereas he was not before, became after-
wards an Apostle ~by the will of God; and our own calling,
whereas it once was not but took place afterwards, is
preceded by will ; and, as Paul himself says again, was
determined according to the good pleasure of His will.
and what Moses relates, Let there be light, and Let the earth
appear, and Let Us make man, is, I think, according to
what has been said before, significant of the will of the
AGAINST AEIANISM. 195
Agent. For things which once were not, but exist after-
wards from external causes, these the Framer, after coun-
selling, makes ; but His proper Word begotten from Him by-
nature, concerning Him He did not counsel beforehand ;
for it is in Him that the Father makes, in Him that He
frames, those other things whatever He counsels ; as also
James the Apostle teaches, saying, Of His own will begat He
us with the Word of truth. Therefore the Will of God
concerning all things, whether they be begotten again, or are
brought into being once only, is in His Word, in whom He
both makes and begets again what seems right to Him ; as
the Apostle also signifies, writing to the Thessalonians : for
this is the pleasure of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
48. But consider ; if in the Word Himself, through whom
He makes, is in truth also His Will, and if in Christ is the
pleasure of the Father, how can He, as others, come into
being by will and pleasure ? For if He too came, as you
maintain, by will, it follows that the will concerning Him
consists in some other Word, through whom He in tarn
comes to be ; (for it has been shown that God's Will is not in
the things which He brings into being, but in Him through
whom and in whom all things made are brought to be,) that
is, in other words, to say that the Son became such by will
is all one with saying that, " Once He was not ; " therefore
let them make up their minds to say, " Once He was not,"
that, whereas an interval of time is signified by the latter
formula, they may with shame perceive that also to say
" by will " is to place an interval before the Son ; for coun-
selling goes before things which once were not, as in the
case of all creatures. But if the Word is the Framer of
the creatures, and He co-exists with the Father, how can
the Father's act of counsel precede the Everlasting Son as
if He were not ? for if counsel precedes, how through
Him are all things ? E/ather in that case, He too, as one
among others, is by will begotten to be a Son, as we also
2
196 THKEE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. ix. were made sons by the Word of Truth ; and it remains
for us, as was said, to seek another Word, through whom
He too was brought to be, and was begotten together with
all things, which were according to God's pleasure.
49. If then there is another Word of God, then be the
Son brought into being by that Word ; but if there be not,
as is the truth, but all things by Him were brought to be,
which the Father has willed, does not this expose the
many-headed 5 craftiness of these men ? I mean that feeling
ashamed to say " work," and " creature," and " God's
Word was not before His generation," yet in another way
they still maintain that He is a creature, putting forward
" will," and saying, " Unless He has by will come to be,
therefore God had a Son by necessity and against His
good pleasure." And who is it then who imposes neces-
sity on Him, men most wicked, who draw everything
to the purpose of your heresy ? for what is contrary to
will they see ; but what is greater and transcends it, has
escaped their perception. For as what is beside purpose
is contrary to will, so what is according to nature tran-
scends and precedes counselling. A man by counsel builds
a house, but by nature he begets a son ; and what, after
being first willed is then built, had a beginning of being,
and is external to the maker ; but the son is proper off-
spring of the father's substance, and is not external to
him; wherefore neither does he counsel concerning his
making, lest he appear to counsel about himself. As far
then as the Son transcends the creature, by so much does
what is by nature transcend the will ; and these men, on
hearing of Him, ought not to measure by will what is by
nature. Forgetting however that they are hearing about
5 The allusion, as before, is to n. 52, and with a special allusion
the hydra, with its ever-springing to Asterius, who, supr. p. 87, is
heads, as explained at the begin- called
ning of this chapter, and infr.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 197
God's Son, they dare to apply human contrarieties in the ED. REN.
J . lii. 62-G6.
instance of God, namely, " necessity " and " beside pur- -
pose," to be able thereby to deny that there is a true Son
of God.
50. For let them tell us themselves, that God is good
and merciful, does this attach to Him by will or not ? if
by will, we must consider that He began to be good, and
that His not being good is possible ; for to counsel and
choose implies an inclination two ways, and is the property
of a rational nature. But if it be too extravagant that He
should be considered good and merciful at His mere will,
then what they have said themselves must be retorted on
them, " therefore by necessity and not with His good-
will He is good ; " and, " who is it that imposes this necessity
on Him ? " But if to speak of necessity in the case of God
is an extravagance, and therefore it is by nature that He
is good, much more is He, and more truly, Father of the
Son by nature and not by will. Moreover let them answer
us this : (for against their profaneness I wish to urge a
further question, bold indeed, but with a pious intent ;
be propitious, O Lord!) 6 the Father Himself, does He
exist, first having taken counsel with Himself, then being
pleased, or else before counselling ? For since they are as
bold in the instance of the Word, they must receive the like
answer, that they may know that this their presumption
reaches even to the Father Himself. If then they say
that even the Father is from will, what was He before He
counselled, or what gained He, as ye consider, after coun-
selling ? But if such a question be extravagant and self-
destructive, and shocking even to ask, (for it is enough only
to hear God's Name for us to know and understand that
He is He-That-Is ? ) how is it not also against reason to have
parallel thoughts concerning the Word of God, and to make
8 Vid. App. Athanaslus.
198 THEEE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. ix. pretences of "will" and "pleasure"? for it is enough in
like manner only to hear the Name of the Word, in order
to know and understand, that He who not by will is God,
has not by will but by nature His proper Word. And
does it not surpass all conceivable madness, to entertain
the bare thought, that God Himself counsels and considers
and chooses and resolves to have a good pleasure, in order
that He be not without Word and without Wisdom, but
may have both ? for it is like raising a question about
one's own existence, to take measures for gaining what
belongs to one's very nature.
51. There being then much blasphemy in such thoughts,
it will be pious to say that things that are made have
come to be " by favour and will," but the Son is not a
work of will, nor has come second, as the creation, but is
by God's nature the proper Offspring of God's Substance.
For His being the proper Word of the Father hinders us
from speculating on any act of will as previous to Himself,
since He is Himself the Father's Living Will, 7 and Power,
and is Framer of the things which seemed good to the
Father. And this is what He says of Himself in the
Proverbs : Will is Mine and security, Mine is understanding,
and Mine strength. For as, although Himself the Wis-
dom, in which God prepared the heavens, and Himself
Strength and Power, (for Christ is God's Power and God's
Wisdom,) He here has altered the terms and said Mine is
discretion, is understanding, and Mine strength, so while
He says, Mine is Will, He must Himself be the Living
Will of the Father; as we have learned from the Prophet
also, that He is become the Angel of great Purpose, and is
called the good pleasure of the Father; for thus we must
refute them using human illustrations concerning God.
Therefore if the works subsist " by will and favour," and
the whole creature is made " at God's good pleasure," and
' Vid. ov\-n.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 199
Paul was called to be an Apostle by the Will of God, and ED. BEN.
our calling has come about by His good pleasure and will,
and all things have been brought into being through the
Word, He is external to the things which have come to
be by will, but rather is Himself the Living Purpose of
the Father, by whom all these things were brought to be ;
by whom holy David also gives thanks in the seventy-
second Psalm, Thou hast holden me by my right hand ;
Thou shalt guide me with Thy Purpose.
52. How then can the Word, being the Purpose and
Good Pleasure of the Father, come into being Himself
" by good pleasure and will " as every one else ? unless, as
I said before, in their madness they repeat that He was
brought into being by Himself or by some other. Who
then is it by whom He came to be ? let them fashion
another Word ; and let them name another Christ, rival-
ling the doctrine of Yaleutinus ; for Scripture it is not.
And though they fashion another, yet assuredly he too
comes into being through some one ; and so while we are
thus reckoning up and investigating the succession of
causes, this many-headed heresy of the Atheists is dis-
covered to issue in polytheism and madness unlimited ;
by which, wishing the Son to be a creature and from
nothing, they imply the same thing in other words by
putting forth " will " and " pleasure," which rightly
belong to things brought into being and creatures.
Is it not impious then to impute the characteristics of
things that come to be to the Framer of all ? and is it not
blasphemous to say that Will was in the Father before the
Word ? for if Will precedes in the Father, the Son's words
are not true, I in the Father; or even if He is in the
Father, yet He will have but a second place, and it became
Him not to say I in the Father, since Will was before
Him, by which all things were brought into being and He
Himself subsisted, as you hold. For though He excel in
200 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. ix. glory, He is not the less one of the things which by Will
come into being. And, as we have said before, if it be so,
how is He Lord and they servants ? but He is Lord of
all because He is one with the Father's Lordship ; and
the creation is all in servitude, since it is external to the
oneness of the Father, and whereas it once was not, was
brought to be.
53. Moreover, if they say that the Son is by God's Will,
they should say also that He came to be by God's judg-
ment ; for I consider judgment and will to be the same.
For what a man counsels, about that also he has judg-
ment ; and what he has in judgment, that also he coun-
sels. Certainly the Saviour Himself has made them
correspond as being cognate, when He says, Counsel is
Mine and security ; Mine is judgment, and Mine strength.
For as strength and security are the same, (for they mean
one attribute ; ) so we may say that Judgment and Will
are the same, which is the Lord. But these impious men
are unwilling that the Son should be Word and Living
Will ; but they fable that there is with God, as if a
habit coming and going, 8 after the manner of men, judg-
ment, counsel, wisdom ; and they leave nothing undone,
even to putting forward the " Thought " and "Will" of
Valentinus, so that they may but separate the Son from
the Father, and may call Him a creature, and not the
proper Word of the Father. To them then must be said
what was said to Simon Magus : the impiety of Yalentinus
perish with you; and let everyone rather trust to Solomon,
who says, that the Word is Wisdom and Judgment. For
he says, The Lord l>y Wisdom hath founded the earth, ~by
Judgment hath He established the heavens. And as here by
Judgment, so in the Psalms, By the Word of the Lord were
the heavens made. And as by the Word the heavens, so
He hath made ivhatsoever pleased Him. And as the
8 Vid. erv
AGAINST ARIANTSM. 201
Apostle writes to the Thessalonians, the will of God is in ED. BEN.
iii. 64 66.
Christ Jesus.
54. The Son of God then. He is the Word and the Wis-
dom, He the Judgment and the Living Will ; and in Him
is the Good pleasure of the Father ; He is Truth and Light
and Po'wer of the Father. But if the Will of God is Wis-
dom and Judgment, and the Son is Wisdom, he who says
that the Son is " by will," says virtually that Wisdom has
come into being in Wisdom, and the Son is made in the
Son, and the Word created through the Word ; which is
incompatible with our idea of God and is opposed to His
Scriptures. For the Apostle proclaims the Son to be the
proper Radiance and Impress, not of the Father's will, but
of His Substance Itself, saying, Who being the Radiance of
His Glory and the Impress of His Subsistence. But if,
as we have said before, the Father's Substance and Sub-
sistence be not from will, neither, as is very plain, is what
belongs to the Father's Subsistence from will ; for such
as, and so as, that Blessed Subsistence, must also be the
proper Offspring from It. And accordingly the Father
Himself said not, " This is The Son, brought into being at
My will," nor " the Son whom I have by My favour,"
but simply My Son, or rather, in whom I am well pleased;
meaning by this, " This is the Son by nature ; " and
** in Him is lodged My will about those things which
please Me."
55. Now we come to the alternative in the interrogation
which they put to us. " Since then the Son is by nature
and not by will, is He without the good-pleasure of the
Father and not with the Father's will P " No, verily ; but
the Son is with the pleasure of the Father, and, as He
says Himself, The Father loveth the Son, and shoiveth Him
all things. For as not " from will " did the Father begin
to be good, nor yet is good without will and pleasure, (for
what He is, that also is His pleasure,) so also that the Son
202 THKEE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. ix. should exist, though it came not " from will," yet it is not
without His pleasure or against His purpose. For as His
own Subsistence is with His pleasure, so also the Son,
as belonging to His Substance, is not without His pleasure.
Be then the Son the object of the Father's pleasure and
love ; and thus let every one piously account of the good-
pleasure and the not unwillingness of God. For by that
same good-pleasure wherewith the Son is the object of
the Father's pleasure, is the Father the object of the Son's
love, pleasure, and honour ; and one is the good-pleasure
which is from the Father into the Son, so that here too we
may contemplate the Son in the Father and the Father in
the Son.
56. Let no one then, with Valentinus, introduce a prece-
dent will ; nor let any one, by this pretence of " counsel "
intrude between the Only Father and the Only Word ; for
it were madness to place will and deliberation between
them. For it is one thing to say, " Of will He came to
be," and another, that the Father has love and good-
pleasure towards His Son who belongs to Him by nature.
For to say, " Of will He came to be," in the first place
implies that "once He was not;" and next it implies an
inclination two ways, as has been said, so that one might
be at liberty to entertain the thought, that the Father had
the powers even of not willing the Son. But to say of the
Son, " He might not have been," is an impious presump-
tion, reaching even to the Substance of the Father, as if
what belongs to Him might not have been. For it is
the same as saying, " The Father might not have been
good." And as the Father is good always and by nature,
so He is always generative by nature ; and to say, " The
Father wills the Son," and " The Word wills the Father,"
implies, not a precedent will, but genuineness of nature,
and propriety and likeness of Substance. For as in the
case of the radiance and light one might say, that there is
AGAINST AEIANISM. 203
no will preceding radiance in the light, but it is its En. BEN.
natural offspring, at the pleasure of the light which begat -
it, not by will and consideration, but in nature and truth,
so also in the instance of the Father and the Son, it would
be orthodox to say, that the Father loves and wills the
Son, and the Son loves and wills the Father.
57, To conclude then, call not the Son a work of good
pleasure, nor bring in the doctrine of Valentinus into the
Church ; but let Him be the Living Will, and Offspring in
truth and nature, as the Radiance from the Light. For
thus has the Father spoken, Ny heart has burst with a good
Word; and the Son conformably, I in the Father and the
Father in Me. But if the Word be in the Father's heart,
where is will ? and if the Son in the Father, where is good-
pleasure ? and if He be Will Himself, how is Will in Will ?
it is extravagant ; else the Word comes into being in a
word, and the Son in a Son, and Wisdom in a wisdom, as
has been repeatedly said. For the Son is the Father's
All ; and nothing was in the Father before the Word ;
but in the Word is Will also, and through Him the sub-
jects of will are carried out into effect, as holy Scriptures
have shown. And I could wish that the impious men, who
have so far wandered from reason as to be inquiring about
will, as they used to ask their child-bearing women,
" Hadst thou a son before conceiving him ? " would
instead ask the fathers, " Do ye become fathers by
an arbitrary act of will, or because to will is natural to
you ? " and " Are your children like your nature and sub-
stance ? " For they will reply to them, " What we beget,
is like, not our good pleasure, but like ourselves ; nor be-
come we parents simply by first willing it, but to beget is
proper to our nature ; since we too are images of our
fathers." Either then let them condemn themselves, and
cease asking women about the Son of God, or let them,
learn from them, that the Son is begotten not by will, but
204 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. ix. in nature and truth. Becoming and suitable to them is a
refutation from human instances, since the perverse-minded
men themselves dispute in a human way concerning the
Godhead.
58. Truth is loving unto men, and cries continually, " If
because of My bodily clothing ye believe Me not, yet
believe the works, that ye may know that I am in the
Father and the Father in Me, and I and the Father are one,
and he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. But the
Lord according to His wont is loving to man, and would
fain help them that are fallen, as the Psalms of David speak ;
but the impious men, unwilling to hear the Lord's voice,
nor bearing to see Him acknowledged by all as God and
God's Son, go about in swarms, miserable as they are, seek-
ing with their father the devil pretexts for their impiety.
What pretexts then, and whence, will they be able to find
next ? unless they borrow blasphemies from Jews and
Caiaphas, and take Atheism from Gentiles ? for the divine
Scriptures are closed to them, and from every part of them
they are convicted of being insensate and Christ's enemies.
CHAPTER X.
Anstver to intellectual objections.
59. THESE considerations encourage the faithful, and
annoy the heretical, perceiving, as they do, that their
heresy is suffering defeat thereby. Moreover, their
further question " whether the Ingenerate be one or two,"
shows how heterodox are their thoughts, how treacherous
and full of guile. Not for the Father's honour ask they
this, but for the dishonour of the Word. Accordingly,
should any one, not aware of their craft, answer, " the
AGAINST ARIANISM. 205
Ingenerate is one," forthwith they spirt out their own ED. BEN.
venom, saying, " Therefore the Son is among things
created, and well have we said, He was not before His
generation." Thus they are ready to make all kinds of
disturbance and confusion, provided they can but separate
the Son from the Father, and reckon the Framer of all
among His own works. Now first they may be convicted
on this score, that, while blaming the Nicene Bishops for
their use of phrases not in Scripture, though these were not
injurious, but for the subversion of their impiety, they
went over to that very tactic themselves, that is, using
words not in Scripture, and, that in contumely of the
Lord, knowing neither ivhat they say nor whereof they
affirm. For instance, let them ask the Greeks on the
subject, who have been their instructors, (for Ingenerate is
a word of Greek invention, not of Scripture,) and when they
have been instructed in its various significations, then
they will discover that they cannot even argue pro-
perly on the subject which they have undertaken. For
they have led me to ascertain four senses of the word : 9
first, that by " ingenerate " is meant what has not yet come
to be, but is possible to be, as wood which has not yet
become, but is capable of becoming, a vessel. Secondly, the
term signifies what neither has nor ever can come to be,
as a triangle that is quadrangular, and an even number
9 The two first senses here occur, how Athan. used his former
given answer to the two first writings and worked over again
mentioned, supr. p. 50, and, as his former ground, and simplified
he there says, are plainly irrele- or cleared what he had said. In
vant. The third there given, Deer. Nic. supr. p. 50 (A.D. 350)
which, as he there observes, is we have three senses of dyfrv-rjTov,
ambiguous and used for a sophis- two irrelevant and the third
tical purpose, is here divided into ambiguous ; here (A.D. 358) he
third and fourth, answering to divides the third into two ; in
the two senses which alone are Arim. (A.D. 359) he rejects and
assigned in supr. p. 53, and omits the two first, leaving the
on them the question turns. This two last, which are the critical
is an instance, of which many senses.
206 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASITJS
that is odd. Thirdly, by " ingenerate " is meant, what
exists, but not generated from any, nor having a father
at all. Lastly, Asterius, that unprincipled sophist, the
patron too of this heresy, has added in his own treatise,
that what is not made, but is ever, is " ingenerate."
They ought then, when they ask the question, to add
in what sense they take the word " ingenerate," and then
the parties questioned would be able to answer to the
point.
60. But if still they think it fair merely to ask, " Is the
Ingenerate one or two ? " they must be told first of all, as
ill-educated men, that many are such and nothing is such ;
very many things which admit of an origin, and nothing
not admitting, as has been said. But if they ask, according
to Asterius's meaning of the term, " that which is not a
work, but was from eternity," they must be told again
and again, that the Son as well as the Father is in this
sense ingenerate. For He is neither in the number of
things made, nor a work, but has ever been with the
Father, as has already been shown, in spite of their much
shuffling for the sole sake of insulting the Lord with,
" He is of nothing," and " He was not before His genera-
tion." When then, after failing at every turn, they
betake themselves to asking the question in the other
sense of " existing, but not generated of any, nor having a
father," then we shall tell them that the Ingenerate in this
sense is only one, namely, the Father ; and they will gain
nothing by their question. For to say that God is in this
sense Ingenerate, does not show that the Son is a thing
made, it being evident from the above proofs that the
Word is such as He is who begat Him. Therefore if Grod
be ingenerate, His Image is not made, but an Offspring,
namely, His Word and His Wisdom. For what likeness
has the made to the Ingenerate ? (one must not weary to
use repetition) ; for if they will have it that the one is like
AGAINST AEIAXISM. 207
the other, so that he who sees the one beholds the other, ED. BEN.
i. 30-32.
they are not far from, saying that the Ingenerate is the .
image of creatures ; the end of which is a confusion of the
whole subject, an equalling of things made with the
Ingenerate, and a denial of the Ingenerate by measuring
Him with the works ; and all in order to reduce the Son
into their number.
61. However, I suppose even they will be unwilling to
proceed to such lengths, that is, if they follow Asterius the
sophist. For he, earnest as he is in his advocacy of the
Arian heresy, and maintaining that the Ingenerate is one,
runs counter to them in saying also, that the Wisdom of
God is iugenerate and unoriginate ; the following is a
passage out of his work : " The Blessed Paul said not that
he preached Christ the power of God or the wisdom of
God, but, without the article, a power of God and a wisdom
of God; thus preaching that the proper power of God
Himself, which is natural to Him and co-existent with
Him ingenerately, is something besides." And, again
soon after : " However, His eternal power and wisdom,
which truth argues to be unoriginate and ingenerate, this
must surely be one." For though misunderstanding the
Apostle's words, he considered that there were two
wisdoms ; yet, by speaking still of an ingenerate wisdom
co-existent with Him, he declares that the Ingenerate is
not simply one, but that there is another ingenerate with
Him. For what is co-existent co-exists not with itself,
but with another. If then they agree with Asterius, let
them never ask again, " Is the Ingenerate one or two," or
they will have to contest the point with him ; if, on the
other hand, they differ even from him, let them not rest
their defence upon his treatise, lest, biting one another,
they be consumed one of another.
62. So much on the point of their ignorance ; but who
can say enough on their wicked purpose ? who but would
208 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. x. justly hate them while possessed by such a madness ? for
when they were no longer free to say, " out of nothing,"
and " He was not before His generation," they hit upon
this word " Ingenerate," that by saying among the simple
that the Son was generate, that is, came to be, they
might imply the very same phrases " out of nothing," and
" He once was not ; " for in such phrases things made
and creatures are implied. If they have confidence in
their own positions, they should stand to them, and not
change about so variously ; but this they will not do, from
an idea that success is altogether easy, if they do but
shelter their heresy under colour of the word " ingenerate."
Yet after all, this term is not used in contrast with the
Son, clamour as they may, but with things made ; and the
like may be found in the words " Almighty " and " Lord
of the Powers." x For if we say that the Father has power
and lordship over all things by the Word, and the Son
rules the Father's kingdom, and has the power of all, as
His Word, and as the Image of the Father, it is quite
plain that neither in this respect is the Son reckoned
among that all, nor is God called Almighty and Lord with
* reference te Him, but to those things which through the
Son come to be, and over which He exercises power and
lordship through the Word. And therefore the Ingene-
rate is understood, not by contrast with the Son, but with the
things which through the Son come to be. And excel-
lently : since God is not such as things that come to be, but
1 The passage which follows is the care with which he made his
written with his de Deer, before doctrinal statements, though they
him. At first he but uses the seem at first sight written off.
same topics, but presently he in- It also accounts for the diff useness
corporates into this Discourse an and repetition which might be
actual portion of his former work, imputed to his composition, what
with only such alterations as an seems superfluous being often
author commonly makes in tran- only the insertion of an extract
scribing. This, which is not un- from a former work,
frequent with Athan., shows us
AGAINST ARIANISM. 209
is their Creator and Framer through the Son. And as ED. BEN.
the word " In generate " signifies a relation to things - -
created, so the word " Father " is indicative of the Son.
And he who names God Maker and Framer and Ingenerate,
regards and apprehends things that are created and come
to be ; and he who calls God Father, thereby conceives
and contemplates the Son. And hence one might marvel
at the obstinacy which is added to their impiety, that,
whereas the term " Ingenerate " has the aforesaid good
meaning, and admits of being piously used, they, in their
private heresy, bring it forth for the dishonour of the
Son, not having read that he who honoureth the Son
honoureth the Father, and he dishonoureth the Father
who dishonoureth the Son. If they had any concern at all
for reverent speaking and for the honour due to the
Father, it became them rather, and this were better and
higher, to acknowledge and call God Father, than to give
Him this name. For, in calling God ingenerate, they are,
as I said before, naming Him from His works, and as
Maker only and Framer, supposing that hence they may
imply that the Word is a work to their own private satis-
faction. But he who calls God Father, names Him from
the Son, being well aware that since there is a Son, of
necessity through that Son all things that have come
into being were created. And they, when they call Him
Ingenerate, name Him only from His works, and know
not the Son any more than the Greeks. But he who
calls God Father, names Him from the Word ; and
knowing the Word, he acknowledges Him to be Framer
of all, and understands that through Him all things were
made.
63, Therefore it is more pious and more accurate to
denote God from the Son and call Him Father, than to
name Him from His works only and call Him Ingenerate.
For the latter title, as I have said, does nothing more than
p
210 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. x. refer to all the works, individually and collectively, which
have come into being at the will of God through the Word ;
but the title Father, has its significance and its bearing
only from the Son. And, whereas the Word surpasses
things that have a beginning, by so much and more doth
calling God Father surpass the calling Him Ingenerate.
For the latter is unscriptural, and suspicious, as having
various senses ; so that when a man is asked concerning
it, his mind is carried about to many ideas ; but the word
Father is simple and scriptural, and more accurate, and
distinctly implies the Son. And " Ingenerate " is a word
of the Greeks, who know not the Son; but "Father" has
been acknowledged and vouchsafed by our Lord. For He,
knowing Himself whose Son He was, said, I am in the
Father, and the Father is in Me; and, He that hath seen Me,
hath seen the Father, and I and the Father are One ; but
nowhere is He found to call the Father Ingenerate.
Moreover, when He teaches us to pray, He says not,
" When ye pray, say, O God Ingenerate," but rather,
When ye pray, say, Our Father, ivho art in heaven. And
it was His will that the summary of our faith should
have the same force in bidding us be baptised, not
into the name of Ingenerate and generate, nor into the
name of Creator and creature, but into the Name of
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. For with such an
initiation we, too, being of the works, are henceforth
made sons, and using the name of the Father, acknowledge
also from that Name the Word in the Father Himself.
A vain thing then is their argument about the term
" Ingenerate," as is now proved, and nothing more than a
fantasy.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 211
CHAPTER XI.
Answer to intellectual objections.
64. As to their question whether the Word is mutable, 2
it is superfluous to examine it ; it is enough simply to
write down what they say, in order to show its daring
impiety. How they trifle, appears from the following
questions : " Has He free will, or has He not ? is He good
from purpose according to free will, and can He, if He
will, alter, being of an alterable nature ? or, as wood or
stone, has He no purpose of His own, free to be moved
hither and thither ? " It is but agreeable to their heresy
thus to speak and think ; for when once they have framed
to themselves a God out of nothing and a created Son, of
course they also adopt such terms as are suitable to the
idea of a creature. However, when in their controversies
with authorities of the Church they hear from them of the
real and only Word of the Father, and yet venture thus
to speak of Him, does not their doctrine then become the
most loathsome that can be found ? Is it not enough to
shock a man on mere hearing, though unable to reply,
and to, make him stop his ears, from astonishment at the
novelty of what he hears them say, which even to utter is
to blaspheme ? For if the Word be mutable and alterable,
where will He stay, and what will be the issue of His
progress ? how shall the mutable possibly be like the
Immutable ? How should he who has seen the mutable,
be considered to .have seen the Immutable ? in which of
His states shall we be able to behold in Him the Father ?
for it is plain that not at all times shall we see the Father
2 Tpeirrbs, not, changeable, but asked whether the Word of God
of a moral nature capable of irn- is capable of altering as the devil
provement or the reverse. Arius altered, they scrupled not to say,
maintained this in the strongest " Yea, He is capable." Alex. ap.
terms at starting. " On being Socr. i. 6, p. 11.
212 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xr. in the Son, because the Son is ever altering, and is of a
changing nature. For the Father is unalterable and un-
changeable, and is always in the same state and always the
same ; but if, as they hold, the Son is alterable, and not
always the same, but ever of a changing nature, how can such
a one be the Father's Image, not having the likeness of
His nnalterableness ? how can He be in the Father at all,
if His moral choice is indeterminate ? Nay, perhaps, as
being alterable, and advancing daily, He is not perfect
yet. But away with such madness of the Ariaus, and let
the Truth shine out, and show that they are beside them-
selves. For must not He be perfect who is equal to God ?
and must not He be unalterable, who is one with the
Father, and is His Son proper to His substance ? and the
Father's substance being unalterable, unalterable must be
also the proper Offspring from it. And if nevertheless they
blasphemously impute alteration to the Word, let them
learn how much their own reason is in peril ; for from the
fruit is the tree known. For this is why he who hath seen
the Son, hath seen the Father, and why the knowledge of
the Son is knowledge of the Father.
65. Therefore the image of the immutable God must be
unalterable ; for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever. And David in the Psalm says of
Him, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation
of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thine hands.
They shall perish, but Thou remainest ; and they all shall
wax old as doth a garment. And as a vesture shall Thou
fold them up, and they shall be changed, but Thou art the
same, and Thy years shall not fail. And the Lord Himself
says of Himself through the Prophet, See now that I, even
I, am He, and I vary not. For, though it may be said that
the Father is signified in these passages, yet it suits the
Son also to speak them, 3 specially because, after becoming
3 Vid. supr. p. 6.
AGAINST AEIANISM. 213
man, He manifests His own identity and unalterableness ED. BEN.
to any who think that by reason of the flesh He has been -
changed and become other than He was. More trust-
worthy are the sacred writers, or rather the Lord, than
the perversity of the impious. For Scripture, as in the
above-cited reading of the Psalter, signifying nnder the
name of heaven and earth, that the nature of all things
that come to be, and the whole creation, is alterable, and
changeable, yet by excepting the Son from these, shows
us thereby that He is in nowise one who had a be-
ginning ; nay teaches that He changes everything else,
and is Himself not changed, in saying, Thou art the same,
and Thy years shall not fail.
66. And with reason ; for things made, being from
nothing, and not existing before their making, have a
nature which is changeable ; but the Son, being from the
Father, and proper to His substance, is unchangeable and
unalterable as the Father Himself. For it were sin to say
that from that substance which is unalterable was begotten
an alterable word and a changeable wisdom. For how is
He longer the Word, if He be alterable ? or can that be
Wisdom which is changeable ? unless forsooth, as accident
is in substance,* so these would be in God ; viz., as in any par-
ticular substance a certain grace and habit of virtue exists
accidentally, which is called Word and Son and Wisdom,
and admits of being taken from that substance or added
to it. For they have often expressed this sentiment, but
it is not the faith of Christians ; as not declaring that
there is truly a Word and Son of Grod, or that the wisdom
spoken of is the true Wisdom. For what alters and
changes, and has no stay in one and the same condition,
how can that be true ? whereas the Lord says, I am the
Truth. If then the Lord Himself speaks thus concerning
Himself, and declares His unalterableness, and the sacred
* Vid. supr. p. 200. Also App.
214- THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. XII. writers have learned and testify this, nay, and our notion
of God approve of it as pious, whence did these men of
impiety draw this novelty ? from their heart, as from a
seat of corruption, did they vomit it forth.
CHAPTER XII.
Answer to objections from Scripture ; first, Phil. ii. 9, 10.
67. So much on objections to the sacred truth, arising
out of the doctrine itself ; now I go on to speak of the
Scripture announcements about it, that is, viewing them
not according to the perverseness of Arian heresy, but in
that true sense which the Church has ever maintained. 5
They say then, that the Apostle writes,
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given
Him a Name which is above every name; that at the Name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things
in earth and things under the earth: and David,
Wherefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee ivith
the oil of gladness above Thy felloivs.
Then they urge, as something acute : *' If He was exalted
and received grace, on a wherefore, and on a wherefore
was anointed, He received the reward of His good choice ;
but having acted from choice, He is altogether of a mutable
nature." This is what Eusebius and Arius have dared
to say, nay, to write ; while their partisans do not shrink
from conversing about it in full market, not seeing
how mad an argument they use. For if He received what
He had as a reward of His good choice, and would not
have had it, unless He had needed it and had His work to
5 K8tKT)<rat. It is observable and carried with it its own in-
that Athan. does not deny that terpretation), but only says it
Scripture can be read wrongly admits of an orthodox sense. Vid.
(as if it always spoke for itself, opdos, &c.
AGAINST AEIANISM. 215
show for it, then having gained it from virtue and growth ED. BEN.
in good, certainly it was possible for such a being "there-
fore " to be Son and God, without being a real Son. For
what is from another by nature, is a real offspring, as Isaac
was to Abraham, and Joseph to Jacob, and the radiance to
the sun ; but the so-called sons from virtue and grace, have
in place of nature only a grace by acquisition, and are
something else besides the gift itself ; as the men who
have received the Spirit by participation, concerning whom
Scripture saith, I have begotten and exalted children, and
they have rebelled against Me. And of course since they
were not sons by nature, therefore, when they changed,
the Spirit was taken away from them and they were dis-
inherited ; and again on their repentance that God who
thus at the beginning gave them grace, will receive them
and give light, and call them sons again. This is how
they speak, and it is all very clear and plain when said of
those whose sonship is not natural but adoptive : but do
t-hey o so far as to maintain that such is the sense in which
our Lord Jesus is the Son of God ? If so, then doubtless
He is neither very God nor very Son, nor like the Father,
nor in anywise has He God as Father of His being accord-
ing to substance, but as Father of the mere grace given to
Him, and as Creator of His being, according to substance,
after the similitude of all others. And being such, if this
is their view, it will be manifest further that He had not
the name " Son " from the first, but it was the prize of
works done and of an advancement in virtue, at the time
when He became man and took the form of servant; and
after becoming obedient unto death, He was highly exalted,
and received that Name as a grace, at which every knee
should bow.
68. This line of thought is very clear, but perhaps it will
be found to go somewhat further than these men would wish.
For, let me ask them, supposing He was then exalted and
216 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xii. then began to be worshipped, and then was first called
Son, what was He before His incarnation ? Have they
made up their minds on this point ? I repeat, what was He
before this ? One must urge the question on them again,
to make it understood what their impiety results in. For
if the Lord be God, Son, Word, yet was not all these be-
fore He became man, then either He was something else
besides these, and afterwards became partaker of these for
His virtue's, sake, as we have said, or they must of neces-
sity adopt the alternative (may it fall upon their heads !)
that He did not exist before that time, but is wholly man
by nature, and nothing more. Are they content with such
an issue of their reasoning ? Why, it is the very senti-
ment of Samosatene and of the present Jews ; it is no teach-
ing of the Church. If this be their mind, wherefore, as
being Jews, are they not circumcised with them too, in-
stead of pretending Christianity, while they are its foes ?
For if He did not pre-exist, or did indeed, but afterwards
was advanced, how were all things made by Him, or how,
if He were not perfect, did the Father delight in Him ?
And He, on the other hand, if now advanced in good, how
did He before that rejoice in the presence of the Father?
And, if it was after His death that He received His worship,
how is Abraham seen to worship Him in the tent, and
Moses in the bush ? and how, as Daniel saw, were myriads
of myriads, and thousands of thousands, ministering unto
Him ? 6 And if, as they say, He had His advancement only
now, how did the Son Himself make mention of that His
glory before and above the world, when He said, Glorify
Thou Me, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was. If, as they say, it was now that He
was exalted, how did He before that ~bow the heavens and
come down ; and again, the Highest gave His voice ? There-
6 All this implies a traditional of the books of the Old Testa-
and authoritative interpretation inent.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 217
fore, if, even before the world was made, the Son had that ED. BEN.
glory, and was Lord of glory and the Highest, and de- '.
scended from heaven, and is ever to be worshipped, it
follows that He had no advance in greatness in consequence
of His descent, but rather by that descent Himself bettered
the things which needed bettering ; and if He descended in
order to their bettering, therefore He did not receive in
reward the name of Son and God, but rather He Himself
has made us sons of the Father, and made men gods, by
Himself becoming man.
69. Before going on, then, to explain the passages of
Scripture objected to us, I think so far is clear, that at least
the Arian sense is quite incompatible with what the Lord has
told us of Himself, as God and Son of God, of His descent
from heaven, and the reason of it. He was not first man
and then became God, but He was God and then became
man, and that in order to make us gods. Otherwise, if
only when He became man, He was called Son and God,
yet before He became man, God called the ancient people
sons, and made Moses a god to Pharaoh (and Scripture says
of an assembly, God standeth in the congregation of gods), it is
plain that He is called Son and God later than they. How
then are all things through Him, and He before all ? or
how is He first-lorn of the ichole creation, if He has others
before Him who are called sons and gods ? And how is it
that those first partakers of the gift do not partake of the
Word ? This opinion is not true ; it is a discovery of our
Judaisers. For how in that case can any at all know God
as their Father ? for adoption there cannot be apart from
the real Son, who says, No one Jcnotveth the Father, save the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son ivill reveal Him. And
how can there be deifying apart from the Word and before
Him ? yet, saith He to the brethren of these men, the Jews,
If He called them gods, unto whom the Word of God came.
And if all that are called sons and gods, whether in earth
218 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xii. or in heaven, were adopted and deified through the Word,
and the Son Himself is the Word, it is plain that through
Him are they all, and He himself before all, or rather He
Himself only is very Son, and He alone is very God from the
very God, not receiving these prerogatives as a reward for
His virtue, nor being something else beside them, but being
all these by nature and according to substance. For He
is Offspring of the Father's substance, so that one cannot
doubt that after the resemblance of the unalterable Father,
the Word also is unalterable.
70. Hitherto we have met their irrational conceits with
the true conceptions implied in the word " Son," as
the Lord Himself has enabled us, and confining ourselves
to them. But it will be well next to expound the inspired
passages in question, that the unalterableness of the Son
and His unchangeable nature, which is the Father's, as
well as their perverseness, may be still more fully proved.
The Apostle then, writing to the Philippians, says, Let
this mind be in you, luhich was also in Christ Jesus; who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
with God ; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon
Him the form of a servant, and ivas made in the likeness of
men. And, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled
Himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given
Him a Name ivhich is above every name ; that at the Name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. Can , anything be plainer and more express
than this ? He was not from a lower state advanced ;
but rather, existing as God, He took the form of a servant,
and in taking it did not advance Himself in dignity but
humbled Himself. Where then is there here any reward
of virtue, or what advancement and promotion in humilia-
AGAINST ARIANISM. 219
tion ? For if, being God, He became man, and, after ED. BEN.
descending from on high, is said to be exalted, where is
He exalted, being God ? this withal being plain, that
since God is highest of all, His Word must necessarily be
highest also. Whither then could He be exalted higher,
who is in the Father and is like the Father in all things ?
71. Therefore He is beyond the need of any addition ;
and not such as the Arians think Him. For though the
Word did descend in order to be exalted, and so it is
written, yet what need was there that He should humble
Himself at all, as if to seek that which He had already ?
And what grace did He receive who is the Giver of grace ?
or how did he receive that Name for worship, who is
always worshipped by His Name ? Nay, certainly before
He became man, the sacred writers invoke Him, Save me,
God, for Thy Name's sake; and again, Some put their
trust in chariots, and some in horses, ~but we will remember the
Name of the Lord our God. And while He was worshipped
by the Patriarchs, concerning the Angels it is written, Let
all the Angels of God worship Him. And if, as David says
in the 71st Psalm, His Name remaineth before the sun, and
before the moon from one generation to another, how did He
receive what He had always, even before He now received
it ? or how is He exalted, being, even before His exalta-
tion, the Most High ? or how did He receive the right of
being worshipped, who was ever worshipped before He
became man ?
72. This doctrine is not a human riddle, but a divine
mystery. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God ; but for our sakes afterwards
the Word was made flesh. And the term in question, highly
exalted, does not signify that the substance of the Word
was exalted, for He was ever and is equal to God, but the
exaltation is of the manhood. Accordingly, this is not
said before the Word became flesh ; that it might be plain
220 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xii. that humbled and exalted are spoken of His humanity ; for
where there is humble estate, there too may be exaltation ;
and if because of His taking flesh " humbled " is written, it is
clear that " highly exalted " is also said because of that incar-
nation. For of this was man's nature in want, because of
the degradation of the flesh and of death. Since then
the Word, being the Image of the Father and immortal,
took the form of a servant, and as man underwent for us death
in His own flesh, that thereby He might offer Himself for
us through death to the Father ; therefore, also, as man,
He is said because of us and for us to be highly exalted,
that as by His death we all died in Christ, so again in the
Christ Himself we might be highly exalted, being raised
from the dead, and ascending into heaven, whither the Fore-
runner is for us entered, not into the figures of the true, but
into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
But if now for us the Christ is entered into heaven itself,
though He was even before and always Lord and Framer
of the heavens, for us therefore is that present exaltation
also written. And as He Himself, while sanctifying all,
says also that He sanctifies Himself to the Father for our
sakes, not that the Word may become holy, but that He
Himself may in Himself sanctify all of us, in like manner
we must take the present phrase, He highly exalted Him,
not that He Himself should be exalted, for He is the
highest, but that He may become righteousness for us, and
that we may be exalted in Him, and that we may enter
the gates of heaven, which He has also opened for us, they
saying who run before, Lift up your heads, ye gates, and
be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall
come in. For here, also, not on Him were shut the gates,
who is Lord and Maker of all, but because of us it is
written, to whom the door of paradise was shut. And
therefore in a human relation, because of the flesh which
He bore, it is said of Him, Lift up, ye gates, and shall
AGAINST AEIANISM. 221
come in, as if a man were entering ; but in a divine rela- ED. BEN.
tion on the other hand it is said of Him, since the Word
was God, that He is the Lord and the King of glory. Such
an exaltation, as fulfilled in us, the Spirit fore-announced in
the eighty-eighth Psalm, saying, And in Thy righteousness
shall they be exalted, for Thou art the glory of their strength.
And if the Son be Righteousness, then He is not exalted
as being Himself in need, but it is we who are exalted in
that Righteousness, which is He.
73. And so too the words gave Him are not written for
the "Word Himself ; for even before He became man, He
was worshipped, as we have said, by the Angels and by the
whole creation, as having the prerogative of the Father ;
but because of us and for us this too is written of Him.
For as Christ died and was exalted as man, so, as man,
is He said to take what, as God, He ever had, that even
this so high a grant of grace might reach to us. For the
Word was not impaired in receiving a body, that He should
seek to receive a grace, but rather He deified that which
He put on, nay, gave it graciously to the race of man. For
as He was ever worshipped as being the Word and existing
in the form of God, so, being what He ever was, though
become man and called Jesus, He still has, as before, the
whole creation under foot, and bending their knees to Him
in this Name, and confessing that the Word's becoming flesh,
and undergoing death in flesh, hath not happened against
the glory of His Godhead, but to the 'glory of God the Father.
For it is the Father's glory that man, made and then lost,
should be found again ; and when done to death, that
He should be made alive, and should become God's temple.
For whereas the powers in heaven, both Angels and Arch-
angels, were ever worshipping the Lord, as they are now
worshipping Him in the Name of Jesus, this is our grace
and high exaltation, that even when He became man, the
Son of God is worshipped, and the heavenly powers are
222 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xii. not startled at seeing all of us, who are of one body with
Him, introduced into their realms. And this had not
been, unless He who existed in the form of God had taken
on Him a servant's form, and had humbled Himself,
yielding His body even unto death.
74. Behold then the foolishness of God, as men consider
it because of the Cross, has become of all things most
honoured. For our resurrection is stored up in it ; and no
longer Israel alone, but henceforth all the nations, as the
Prophet foretold, are leaving their idols and acknowledging
the true God, the Father of the Christ. And the delusion
of demons is come to nought, and He only who is really
God is worshipped in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For that the Lord, incarnate and with the Name of
Jesus, is worshipped as God's Son, and the Father known
through Him, is a plain proof, as has been said, that not
the Word, considered as the Word, received this so great
grace, but that it was we. For, because of our relationship to
His Body, we too have become God's temple, and in conse-
quence are made God's sons, so that even in us the Lord
is now worshipped, and beholders report, as the Apostle
says, that God is in them of a truth. As also John saith in
the Gospel, As many as received Him, to them gave He power
to become children of God ; and in his Epistle he writes,
By this we ~know that He abideth in us, by His Spirit which He
hath given vis. And this too is an evidence of His good-
ness towards us, that, while we were exalted because the
Highest Lord is in us, and for our sake grace was given
to Him, (because the Lord from whom it comes had be-
come a man like us,) He on the other hand, the Saviour,
humbled Himself in taking our body of humiliation, and
took a servant's form, putting on that flesh which was
enslaved to sin. And He indeed gained nothing from us
for His own advancement : for the Word of God is without
want and full ; but rather it was we who were advanced
AGAINST ARIANISM. 223
from Him ; for He is the Light, wliicli lighteneth every man ED HEN.
that cometli into the ivorld.
75. In vain then do the Arians lay stress upon the
conjunction ivherefore, in consequence of Paul having said,
Wherefore hath God highly exalted Him. For in saying this
he did not imply His resurrection was any prize of virtue,
or advancement for the better, but he assigned the cause
why the exaltation was bestowed upon us. And what is
this but that He who existed in form of God, the Son of a
divine Father, humbled Himself and became a servant
instead of us and in our behalf ? For if the Lord had not
become man, we had not been redeemed from sins, nor
raised from the dead, but had remained dead under the
earth ; not exalted into heaven, but lying in Hades.
Because of us then and in our behalf are the words, highly
exalted and given.
76. This then I consider the meaning of this passage,
and that especially in harmony with the sentiment of the
Church. However, there is another way of handling it,
not divergent but parallel ; viz., that, though it does not
speak of the exaltation of the Word Himself, considered as
Word (for He is, as was just now said, most high and like
His Father), yet by reason of His incarnation, the passage
speaks of His resurrection from the dead. For after saying,
He hath humbled Himself even unto death, the passage imme-
diately adds, Wherefore He hath highly exalted Him ; wishing
to show, that, although as man it is recorded of Him that
He died, yet, as being Life, He was exalted in the
resurrection ; for He who descended, is the same also who
rose again. This then is the second sense of "wherefore," in
the passage ; the Lord's exaltation was, I have said, in order
to ours ; but further, it was the necessary result of the
divinity which, even as regards the body, death could not
detain. He descended in a body, and He rose again because
it was God who was in that body. And this I say is the
224 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. XII. reason, according to this interpretation, why He brought in
the conjunction Wherefore; not to signify a reward of
virtue nor an advancement, but the direct cause why the
resurrection took place ; and why, while all other men
from Adam down to this time have died and remained
dead, He only in integrity of being rose from the
dead. The cause is this, which He Himself has already
taught us, that He was God, who afterwards became man.
For all other men, being merely born of Adam, died, and
death reigned over them ; but He, the Second Man, is from
heaven, for the Word was made flesli, and such a Man is
said to be from heaven and heavenly, because the Word
descended from heaven ; wherefore He was not held under
death. For though He humbled Himself, allowing His
own Body even to die, in that it was capable of death, yet it
was without delay exalted from earth, because He was also
God's Son in a body. Accordingly what is here said, Where-
fore God also hath highly exalted Him, answers to St. Peter's
words in the Acts, Whom God raised up, having loosed the
bonds of death, because it was not possible that He should be
holden of it. For while Paul has written, " Whereas being
in form of God He became man, and humbled Himself unto
death, therefore God also hath highly exalted Him," so
also Peter says, " Whereas, being God, He became man,
and by signs and wonders was proved to eye-witnesses to
be God, therefore it was not possible that He should be
holden of death." To man it had not been possible to succeed
in such a matter ; for death is proper to man ; wherefore,
the Word, being God, became flesh, that, being put to death
in the flesh, He might quicken all men by His own power.
77. Here I must add one word in explanation. Since the
Word is said to be exalted and to receive gifts from God,
heretics think this must necessarily affect or impair the
substance of the Word, but this is not so. He is said to be
exalted from the lower parts of the earth, because deatli
AGAINST AEIANISM. 225
also is ascribed to Him. Both events are reckoned His, ED. BEN.
since it was His Body, and none other's, that was exalted -
from the dead and taken up into heaven. And again, the
body being His, and the Word not being external to it, it
is natural that when the Body was exalted, He, as man,
should, because of the body, be spoken of as exalted. If
then He did not become man, let this not be said of Him ;
but if the Word became flesh, of necessity the resurrection
and exaltation, as when a man is spoken of, must be
ascribed to Him, in order that the death which is ascribed
to Him may be a redemption of the sins of men and an
abolition of death, and that the resurrection and exaltation
may for His sake remain secure for us. And both
phrases run, God hath Idglily exalted Him, and God hath
given to Him, in order to show that it is not the Father
that hath become flesh, but it is His Word, who has
become man and after the manner of men has received
gifts from the Father, and is exalted by Him, as has been
said. And it is plain, nor would any one dispute it, that
what the Father gives, He gives through the Son. And
it is marvellous and overwhelming verily, that the grace
which the Son gives from the Father, that the Son Himself
is said to receive ; and that the exaltation, which the Son
effects from the Father, with that the Son is Himself
exalted. For He who is the Son of God, He Himself
became the Son of Man ; and, as Word, He gives what
comes from the Father, for all things which the Father
does and gives, He does and supplies through Him ; and as
being the Son of Man, He Himself is said, after the manner
of men, to receive what proceeds from Himself, because His
Body is none other than His, and is a natural recipient of
grace, as has been said. For He received it as far as man's
nature was exalted ; which exaltation was its being deified.
But such an exaltation the Word Himself always had accord-
ing to the Father's Godhead and perfection, which was His.
Q
226 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAPTER XIII.
Answer to objections from Scripture; secondly, Psalm xliv. 7.
CHAP. xii r. 78. SUCH an explanation of the Apostle's words confutes
the impious men ; and what the Psalmist says admits also
the same orthodox sense, which they misinterpret, but which
in the Psalmist is manifestly according to piety. He says
then, Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of
righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved
righteousness, and hated iniquity, wherefore God, even Thy
God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy
fellows. Behold, O ye Arians, and acknowledge even
hence the truth. The Psalmist speaks of us all as fellows
or partakers of the Lord ; but were He one of things which
come out of nothing and of things made partakers, He
Himself had been one of those who partake. But, since
he sang of Him as the eternal God, saying, Thy throne,
God, is for ever and ever, and has declared that all other
things partake of Him, what conclusion must we draw,
but that He is distinct from created things, and He only
the Father's veritable Word, Radiance, and Wisdom,
which all things made partake, being sanctified by Him in
the Spirit? And therefore He is here "anointed," not
that He may become God, for He was so even before; nor
that He may become King, for He had the Kingdom
eternally, existing as God's Image, as the sacred Oracle
shows; but, as before, in our behalf is this written. For
the Israelitish kings, upon their being anointed, then
became kings, not being so before, as David, as Ezekias,
as Josias, and the rest ; but the Saviour on the contrary,
being God, and ever ruling over the Father's Kingdom,
and being Himself the Dispenser of the Holy Ghost,
nevertheless is here said to be anointed, that, as before,
being said as man to be anointed with the Spirit, He
might provide for us men, not only exaltation and resur-
rection, but the indwelling and intimacy of the Spirit.
AGAINST ARIANISM. 227
And, signifying this, the Lord Himself hath said by His ED. BEN.
own mouth, in the Gospel according to John, I have sent
them into the world, and for their sakes do I sanctify Myself,
that they may be sanctified in truth. In saying this He has
shown that He is not the sanctified, but the Sanctifier;
for He is not sanctified by other, but He Himself sanctifies
Himself, that we may be sanctified in the Truth. He who
sanctifies Himself is Lord of sanctification. How then does
this take place? What does He mean but this? viz., "I,
being the Father's Word, I give to Myself, when become
man, the Spirit ; and in the same Spirit do I sanctify
Myself when become man, that henceforth in Me, who
am Truth, (for Thy Word is Truth,) all men may be
sanctified."
79. If then for our sake He sanctifies Himself, and does
this when He has become man, it is also very plain that
the Spirit's descent on Him in Jordan, was a descent upon
us, because of His bearing our body. And it did not take
place for any advancement of the Word, but again for
our sanctification, that we might share His anointing, and
that of us it might be said, Knoiv ye not that ye are God's
Temple, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? For when
the Lord, as man, was washed in Jordan, it was we who
were washed in Him and by Him. And when He received
the Spirit, we it was who by Him are made capable of re-
ceiving It. And moreover for this reason, it was not as Aaron
or David or the rest, that He was anointed with oil, but
in another way above all His fellows, with the oil of glad-
ness; which He Himself interprets to be the Spirit, saying
by the Prophet, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because
the Lord hath anointed Me ; as also the Apostle has said,
TLow God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost. When then
were these prophecies fulfilled in Him but when on His
coming in the flesh He was baptized in Jordan, and the
Spirit descended on Him ? And indeed the Lord Himself
Q2
228 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xnr. says to His disciples, the Spirit shall take of Mine; and I
will send Him; and Receive ye the Holy Ghost; but not-
withstanding, He who, as the Word and Radiance of the
Father, gives to others, elsewhere is said to be sanctified,
because now He has become man, and the Body that is
sanctified is His. From Him then we have begun to
receive the unction and the seal, John saying, And ye
have an unction from the Holy One ; and the Apostle, And
ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Therefore
because of us and for us are these words.
80. What advance then in goodness, and reward of
virtue or generally of conduct, is proved from this in our
Lord's instance ? For if He was not God, and then had
become God, if not being King He was promoted to
royalty, your reasoning would have had some faint plausi-
bility. But if He is God and the throne of His kingdom
is everlasting, in what way could God advance ? or what
was there wanting to Him who was sitting on His Father's
throne ? And if, as the Lord Himself has said, the Spirit
is His, and takes of His, and is sent by Him, it is not the
Word, considered as the Word and Wisdom, who is
anointed with that Spirit which He Himself gives, but the
flesh assumed by Him which is anointed in Him and by
Him ; that the sanctification coming to the Lord as man,
may come to all men from Him. For not of Itself, saith
He, doth the Spirit speak, but the Word is He who gives
It to the worthy. For this is like the passage considered
above; for as the Apostle has written, Who existing in
form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but humbled Himself, and took a servant's form, so David
celebrates the Lord, as everlasting God and King, but
sent to us and assuming our body which is mortal. For
this is his meaning in the Psalm, All Thy garments smell
of myrrh, aloes, and cassia; and it is represented by Nico-
demus and by Mark's company, when he came bringing a
AGAINST AEIANISM. 229
mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight, ED. BEN.
and they the spices wliicli then had prepared for the burial of
the Lord's body.
81. What promotion then was it to the Immortal to
have assumed the mortal ? or what gain is it to the
Everlasting to have put 011 the temporal ? what reward
can be great to the Everlasting God and King, being as
He is in the bosom of the Father ? Perceive ye not, that
this too was done and written because of us and for us,
that us who are mortal and temporal, the Lord by be-
coming man might make immortal, and bring into the
everlasting kingdom of heaven ? Blush ye not, speaking
lies against the divine oracles ? For, when our Lord
Jesus Christ had been among us, we indeed were profited
as being rescued from sin ; but He is the same : nor did
He alter, by becoming man, (to repeat what I have already
said,) but, as has been written, The Word of God abideth
for ever. Surely as, before His becoming man, He, as
being the Word, dispensed to the saints the Spirit as His
own, so also after He was made man, He sanctifies all by
the Spirit, and says to His Disciples, Receive ye the Holy
Ghost. And He gave It to Moses and to the other seventy ;
and through Him David prayed to the Father, saying,
Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. On the other hand,
when made man, He said, I will send to you the Paraclete,
the Spirit of truth; and He sent Him, He the Word of
God, as being faithful to His promise.
82. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day,
and for ever, remaining unalterable, and at once gives and
receives, giving as God's Word, receiving as man. As
He Himself says, The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have
given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.
Because of us then He asked for glory, and the words
took and gave and highly exalted occur that we might take,
and to us might be given, and we might be exalted in
230 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xi II. Him; as also for us He sanctifies Himself that we might
be sanctified in Him. For He says not, "Wherefore He
anointed Thee in order to Thy being God or King or Son
or Word ; " for so He was before and is for ever, as has
been shown ; but rather, " Since Thou art God and King,
therefore Thou wast anointed, since none but Thou
couldst unite man to the Holy Ghost, Thou, the Image
of the Father, in which we were made in the beginning ;
for Thine is also the Spirit." For the nature of creatures
could give no warranty for this, Angels having trans-
gressed, and men disobeyed. Wherefore there was need of
God, and such is the Word, that those who had come under
a curse He Himself might set free. If then He was from
nothing, He would not have been the Christ or Anointed
One, being one among others, and merely partaking gifts
with the rest. But, whereas He is God, as being Son of
God, and is everlasting King, and exists as Radiance and
Impress of the Father, therefore fitly is He the expected
Christ, whom the Father announces to mankind by reve-
lation to His holy Prophets ; that as through Him we
have come into being, so also in Him all men might be
redeemed from their sins, and by Him all things might be
ruled.
83. It is very plain then why, when the Lord came on
earth, there was a necessity that He should not refuse
to be called inferior to the Spirit, in respect of His man-
hood, as He really was. Thus, when the Jews said that
He cast out devils in Beelzebub, He answered and said
to them, for the exposure of their blasphemy, But if I
ihrough the Spirit of God cast out devils, &c. Behold, the
Giver of the Spirit here says that He cast out devils in
the Spirit ; but this is not said, except because of His
flesh. For since man's nature is not equal of itself to
casting out devils, but only in power of the Spirit, there-
fore as man He said, But if I through the Spirit of God
AGAINST ARIANISM. 231
cast out devils. Of course too when He said, Whosoever ED. BEN.
shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven _
him, He signified that the blasphemy offered to the Holy
Ghost was greater than this against His humanity. Such
blasphemy was theirs who said, Is not this the carpenter's
son ? but they who blaspheme against the Holy Ghost,
and ascribe the deeds of the Word to the devil, shall
have inevitable punishment. This is what the Lord
spoke to the Jews, as man ; but to the disciples, show-
ing His Godhead and His majesty, and intimating that
He was not inferior but equal to the Spirit, He gave
the Spirit and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, and I
send Him, and He shall glorify Me, and Whatsoever He
heareth, that He shall speak. As then in this place the
Lord Himself, the Giver of the Spirit, does not refuse to
say that through the Spirit He casts out devils, as man ;
in like manner He the same, the Giver of the Spirit,
refused not to say, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
because He hath anointed Me, in respect of His having
become Jlesh, as John hath said ; that it might be shown
in both these particulars, that it is we who need the
Spirit's grace in our sanctification, and again it is we who
are unable to cast out devils without the Spirit's power.
Through whom then and from whom behoved it that the
Spirit should be given but through the Son, whose also
is the Spirit ? and when were we enabled to receive It,
except when the Word became man ? and, as the passage of
the Aposble shows that we should not have been redeemed
and highly exalted, had not He who exists in form of God
taken a servant's form, so David also shows, that not
otherwise should we have partaken of the Spirit and been
sanctified, save that the Giver of the Spirit, the Word
Himself, had spoken of Himself as anointed with the
Spirit for us. And therefore did we securely receive It,
because He was declared to be anointed in the flesh ; for the
232 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xiii. flesh being first sanctified in Him, and He being said, as
man, to have received the gift in behalf of the flesh, we
have after Him the Spirit's grace, receiving out of His
fulness.
84. Nor do the words, Thou hast loved righteousness and
hated iniquity, which are added in the Psalm, show, as again
you suppose, that the nature of the Word is mutable,
but rather by their very force signify His immutability.
For since of things made the nature is alterable, and the
one portion of creation had transgressed and the other
disobeyed, as has been said, and it is not certain how they
will act, but it often happens that he who is now good
afterwards alters and becomes different, and one who was but
now righteous, soon is found unrighteous, therefore there was
here also need of One who was unalterable, that men might
have the immutability of the righteousness of the Word as
an image and type for virtue. And this thought commends
itself strongly to the right-minded. For since the first man
Adam changed, and through sin death came into the world,
therefore it became the second Adam to be unchangeable ;
that should the Serpent again assault, even the Serpent's
deceit might be baffled, and, the Lord being unalterable
and unchangeable, the Serpent might become powerless in
his assaults against all. For as, when Adam had trans-
gressed, his sin reached unto all men, so, when the Lord
had become man and had overthrown the Serpent, that
exceeding strength of His should extend to all men, so that
each of us may say, For we are not ignorant of his devices.
Good reason then that the Lord, who is everlasting and in
nature immutable, loving righteousness and hating ini-
quity, should be anointed and Himself sent on mission,
that, being and remaining the same, He might, by taking
this alterable flesh, condemn sin in it, and might secure
its freedom, and its ability henceforth to fulfil the righteous-
ness of the law in itself, so as to be able to say, But ive are
AGAINST ARIANISM. 233
not in the flesli but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of ED. BEN.
God divelleth in us.
85. Vainly then, here again, Arians, have ye made this
supposition, and vainly alleged the words of Scripture; for
the Word of God is unalterable, and is ever in one state,
and that no other than the Father's; since how is He like
the Father, unless He be thus ? or how is all that is the
Father's, the Son's also, if He has not the unalterableness
and unchangeableness of the Father ? Not as being subject
to laws, and as being impelled this way and that, does He
love this and hate that (for to say that from fear of disad-
vantage He chose the opposite, would only be to admit in
another way that He is alterable) ; but, as being God and
the Father's Word, He is a just judge and lover of virtue,
or rather its source. Therefore being just and holy by
nature, on this account He is said to love righteousness
and to hate iniquity; as much as to say, that He loves and
takes to Him the virtuous, and rejects and hates the un-
righteous. This is only what divine Scripture says of the
Father too : The Righteous Lord loveth righteousness : Thou
hatest all them that work iniquity; and, The Lord loveth the
gates of Sion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob ; and, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated; and in Esaias, there is
the voice of God again saying, I the Lord love righteous-
ness, and I hate grasping ways. They ought then to ex-
pound those former words which relate to the Son, as
these latter which relate to the Father; it is but reason-
able, for the Son is the Father's Image. Else, if the former
imply that the Son is alterable, the latter will imply change
in the Father too. But since to hear this even sup-
posed in controversy may have a bad effect on the mind,
let us rule it at once that, when it is said that God loves
righteousness and hates unrighteous grasping, this does not
mean that He looks towards both the one and the other, and
is capable of either, selecting the one and passing by the
234 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xiii. other, as it may be, for this is characteristic of the creature,
but that, as a judge, He loves and takes to Him the
righteous and withdraws from the bad. It follows then to
think the same concerning the Image of God also, that He
loves and hates no otherwise than thus. For such must
be the nature of the Image as is Its Father, though the
Arians in their blindness fail to see either that Image or
any other truth of the divine oracles. For when forced
from the conceptions, or rather misconceptions, of their
own hearts, they fall back upon passages of divine
Scripture, here too, from dulness of intellect, according to
their wont, they discern not their meaning ; and laying down
their own impiety as a sort of canon of interpretation, they
wrest the whole of the divine oracles into accordance with
it. And so, as soon as they give utterance to such doctrine,
they deserve nothing more than to be told, Ye do err, not
'knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God; and if they
persist in it, they must be put to silence, by the words,
Render to man the things that are man's, and to God the
things that are God's.
CHAPTER XIV.
Answer to objections from Scripture ; thirdly, Hebrews i. 4.
88. BUT it is written, say they, in the Proverbs, The Lord
created Me the beginning of His ways, for His works ; and in
the Epistle to the Hebrews the Apostle says, Being made
so much better than the Angels, as He hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent Name than they. And soon after,
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ
Jesus, who was faithful to Him that appointed Him. And in
the Acts, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,
AGAINST ARIANISM. 235
that God hath made that same Jesus u'Jtom lie, have crucified ED. BEN.
i. 5254.
both Lord and Christ. These passages they have brought -
forward at every turn, mistaking their sense, and fancying
they proved that the Word of God was a creature and
work, and one of things that were brought into being; and
thus they deceive the thoughtless, putting forth the words of
Scripture as their pretence, but instead of the true sense of
it, sowing upon it the poison of their own heresy. For had
they known, they would not have been impious against
the Lord of glory, nor have wrested the good words of Scrip-
ture into a wrong direction. This is what comes of their
appeal to Scripture ; but after all it were well, did we know
where precisely to find them, or if they knew for certain
themselves where they stand. Do they, for instance, as
they sometimes seem to do, hold to Caiaphas and his Jews,
who look for some temporal greatness from " God dwelling
upon earth ? " If so, why do they quote the words of the
Apostles, which are out of place with Jews ? Or again, deny-
ing that the Word was made flesh, what right have they as if
Manichees to appeal to the Proverbs, an Old Testament book,
in their favour ? Or if, for secular reasons, from ambition,
lucre, or from regard of public opinion, they are forced to
say in words contrary both to Jews and Manichees, that the
Word was made flesh, why do they make their confession of
faith by halves, instead of speaking out, and interpreting
St. John's words of the incarnate presence of the Saviour,
since we are to consider that they do not otherwise in-
terpret it ? For it is not seemly, while confessing that the
Word became flesh, yet to be ashamed at what is written of
Him, and on that account to pervert the sense.
87. Thus, it is written, Having become so much better than
the Angels; let us then first examine this. Now it is right
and necessary, as in all divine Scripture, so here, faithfully
to expound the occasion concerning which the Apostle
wrote, and the person, and the thing, lest the reader, from
236 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP.XIV. ignorance missing either these or any similar particular,
should be wide of the true sense. This principle understood
that earnestly inquiring eunuch, when he thus besought Philip,
I pray thee, of wlwm doth the Prophet speak this ? of himself,
or of some other man ? for he feared lest, expounding the
lesson of the wrong person, he should wander from the
right drift. And the disciples, wishing to learn the time
of what was foretold, besought the Lord, Tell us, said they,
tvhen shall these things be ? and what is the sign of Thy
coming ? And again, hearing from the Saviour the events
of the end, they desired to learn the time of it, not only
that they might be kept from error themselves, but that
they might be able to teach others ; as, for instance, when
they had learned, they set right the Thessalonians, who
were going wrong. When then a man knows properly these
points, his understanding of the faith is right and healthy;
but if he mistakes any such, forthwith he falls into heresy.
Thus the party of HymenaDus and Alexander were beside
the time, when they said that the resurrection had already
been ; and the Galatians were after the time, in making much
of circumcision now. And to miss the person was the lot
of the Jews and is still, who think that of one of them-
selves it is said, Beltold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a
Son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which is, being
interpreted, God ivitli us; and that, A Prophet shall the Lord
your God raise up to you, is spoken of one of the Prophets ;
and who, as to the words, He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, instead of learning from Philip, conjecture them
to be spoken of Esaias or some other of the Prophets which
had been. 7
7 The more common evasion on Jeremiah, vid. Justin. Tryph. 72,
the part of the Jews was to inter- et al. Iren. Hser. iv. 33. Tertull.
pret the prophecy of their own in Jud. 9. Cyprian. Testim. in
sufferings in captivity. It was Jud. ii. 13. Euseb. Dem. iii. 2,
an idea of Grotius that the pro- c.
phecy received a first fulfilment in
AGAINST ARIANISM. 237
88. Such has been the state of mind under which Christ's ED. BEN.
i. 5455.
enemies have fallen into their foul heresy. For had they -
known the person, and the thing, and the occasion to
which the Apostle's words relate, they would not have
expounded of Christ's divinity what belongs to His man-
hood, nor in their folly have committed so great an im-
piety. 8 Now this will be readily seen, if one expounds
properly the beginning of this passage. For the Apostle
says, God who at sundry times and diverse manners spake in
times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by His Son ; then again shortly after
he says, when He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, having be-
come so much better than the Angels, as He hath l)ij inheri-
tance obtained a more excellent Name than they. Here, first,
who is spoken of ? 9 the Son of God ; He is the person.
And the time ? later than the prophets, and when He took
flesh. And what was the thing done ? the purging of our
sins. Proceeding then with his account of that economy in
which we are concerned, and speaking of the last times,
the Apostle is naturally led to observe that not even in the
former times was God silent with men, but spoke to them
by the Prophets. And, whereas the Prophets ministered,
and the Law was spoken by Angels, therefore when the Son
too visited the earth, and that in order to minister, he was
forced to add, Having become so much better than the Angels,
wishing to show that, as much as the Son excels a ser-
vant, so much also the ministry of the Son is better than
the ministry of servants. Contrasting, then, the old
ministry and the new, the Apostle speaks out to the Jews,
writing and saying, Become so much better than the Angels.
8 This implies, as above, that by coming to Scripture after a /
the truths of Scripture are not to definite instruction,
be picked out and ascertained from 9 Vid. p. 29, inf r. p. 257, Sent,
the sacred text by induction, but Dion, 4.
can no otherwise be learned than
238 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP.XIV. This is the occasion and the drift of the passage, but here
these men find two difficulties ; first, they object, that the
Apostle says that our Lord has " become," but to become is to
come to be, that is, to have a beginning. Again, secondly,
he calls Him " better than the Angels ; " that is, the Son
Himself is an Angel, though better than the rest. This
is what they urge against the orthodox doctrine.
89. x Now, if they insist on the Apostle's language as
being the language of comparison, and on comparison as
denoting a oneness of kind, so that the Son is of the nature
of Angels, they will in the first place incur the disgrace of
rivalling and repeating what Valentinus held, and Carpo-
crates, and those other heretics, of whom the former said
that the Angels were one in kind with the Christ, and
the latter that Angels are the framers of the world. Per-
chance it is under the instruction of these masters that
they compare the Word of God with the Angels ; yet
what likeness is there between the one and the other ?
Surely amid such speculations, they will be moved by the
Psalmist, saying, Who is he among the gods that shall be like
unto the Lord ? and, Among the gods there is none like unto
Thee, Lord. It is true, as they say, that comparison does
belong to subjects one in kind, not to those which differ.
No one, for instance, would compare God with man, or
again, man with brutes, nor wood with stone, because their
natures are unlike ; but God is beyond comparison, and
man is compared to man, and wood to wood, and stone to
stone. This is true, but in such cases we speak not of better,
but of " rather " and of " more ; " thus Joseph was comely
rather than his brethren, and Rachel than Leah ; star is
not better than star, but rather excels in glory ; whereas
1 There is apparently much con- passage from a former work into
fusion in the arrangement of the his text ; vid. supr. p. 208, note,
paragraphs that follow ; though Attempts have been made here to
the appearance may perhaps arise make the order more simple,
from Athan.'s incorporating some
AGAINST ARIANISM. 239
in bringing together things which differ in kind, then ED. BEN.
better is used to mark the difference. Observe then, had
the Apostle said, "by so much has the Son precedence of
the Angels," or " by so much greater," or more honour-
able, you would have had a plea, as if the Son were com-
pared with the Angels ; but, he does not say so, he says,
better, and in saying that He is better, and differs as far as
Son differs from servants, the Apostle shows that He is other
than the Angels in nature.
90. And of this we have proof from (Jivine Scripture :
David, for instance, saying in the Psalm, One day in Thy
courts is better than a thousand; and Solomon crying out,
Receive my instruction and not silver, and knowledge beyond
choice gold. For ivisdom is better than rubies ; and all
the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
Are not wisdom and stones of the earth different in sub-
stance and separate in nature ? Are heavenly courts at
all akin to earthly houses ? Or is there any similarity
between things eternal and spiritual, and things temporal
and mortal ? And this is what Esaias says, Tims saith the
Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My sabbaths, and choose
the things that please Me, and take hold of My Covenant;
even unto them will I give in Mine house, and ivithin My
ivalls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters :
I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
Therefore in like manner there is nought of kin between
the Son and the Angels : so that the word better is not
used to compare but to contrast, because of the difference
of His nature from them. And therefore the Apostle
also himself, when he interprets the word better, places
its force in nothing short of the Son's excellence over
things created, calling the one Son, the other servants ;
the one, as a Son with the Father, sitting on His right ;
and the others as servants, standing before Him, and
being sent, and fulfilling offices. Scripture, in speaking
240 THKEE DISCOUKSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP.XIV. thus, implies, O Arians, not that the Son is brought into
being, but rather that He is other than such beings as
have a beginning, and belongs to the Father, being in His
bosom.
91. If indeed He be in substance other than and distinct
from created things, what comparison of His substance
can there be, or what likeness to them ? And this Paul
makes plain in this very passage, For unto which of the
Angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have
I begotten Thee ? And of the Angels He salth, Who maJceth
His Angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. Ob-
serve here the word made belongs to things that come
into being, and he calls them works ; but to the Son he
speaks not of a making, nor of a becoming, but of eternity
and kingship, and a Framer's office, exclaiming, Thy
Throne, God, is for ever and ever; and, Thou, Lord, in
the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the
heavens are the works of Thine hands; they shall perish, but
Thou remainest. From which words even they, were they
but willing, might perceive that the Framer is other than
the things framed, the former being God, the latter being
creatures which have been made out of nothing. Not that,
They shall perish, means as if the creation were destined for
destruction, but the words indicate the nature of things
created by the issue to which they tend. For things which
admit of perishing, though, through the grace of their
Maker, they perish not, yet have come out of nothing, and
themselves witness that they once were not. And on this
account, since their nature is such, it is said of the Son,
Thou remainest, to show His eternity ; for not having the
capacity of perishing, as things have which began to be, but
having eternal duration, it is foreign to Him to have it said,
" He was not before His generation," but it belongs to Him
to be always, and to endure together with the Father. And
though the Apostle had not thus written in his Epistle to
AGAINST ARIANISM. 241
the Hebrews, still his other Epistles, and the whole of ED. BEN.
. . i. 5562.
Scripture, would certainly forbid their entertaining such. -
notions concerning the Word. But since he has here
expressly written it, and, as has been above shown, the
Son is Offspring of the Father's substance, and He is
Framer, and other things are framed by Him, and He
is the Radiance and Word and Image and Wisdom of the
Father, and things are made to stand and serve in their place
below the Trinity, therefore the Son is different in kind
and different in substance from things created, and on
the contrary belongs to the Father's substance and is one in
nature with it. And hence it is that the Son too says not,
My Father is letter than I, lest we should conceive Him to
be foreign to His Father's Nature, but greater, not indeed in
fulness of powers, nor in length of time, but because of His
generation from the Father Himself; nay, in saying greater
He again shows that He is proper to His substance.
92. At the same time, though the Apostle's words so
clearly discriminate the substance of the Word from the
nature of creatures, what he directly had in view, when he
contrasted the one with the other, and called Him better
than them, was the Lord's visitation in the flesh and the
economy which He then sustained, and which showed that
He was not like those former messengers ; so that, as
much as He excelled in nature those who were sent before
by Him, by so much also the grace which came from and
through Him was better than the ministry through
Angels. For it is the function of servants to demand
the fruits and no more; but of the Son and Master to
forgive the debts and to transfer the vineyard.
93. And this is what the Apostle proceeds to show :
Therefore, he says, we ought to give the more earnest heed to
the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip. For if the word spoken ~by Angels was steadfast,
and every transgression and disobedience received a just recom-
242 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP.XIV. pense of reward; hoiu shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord,
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Sim. But if
the Son were in the number of things created, He was not
better than they, nor did disobedience involve increase of
punishment because of Him; any more than in the Minis-
try of Angels there would be, according to each Angel,
greater or less guilt in the transgressors, but the law was
one, and one was its vengeance on transgressors. But,
whereas the Word is not in the number of created things,
but is Son of the Father, therefore, as He Himself is
better and His acts better and transcendent, so also the
punishment is worse. Let them contemplate then the
grace which is through the Son, and let them acknowledge
the witness which He gives even from His works, that He
is other than things created, and alone the very Son in the
Father and the Father in Him. And the Law was spoken
by Angels, and perfected no one, needing the visitation of
the Word, as Paul hath said; but that visitation in the
flesh has perfected the work of the Father. And then,
from Adam unto Moses death reigned ; but the presence
of the Word abolished death. And no longer in Adam
are we all dying ; but in Christ we are all reviving. And
then from Dan to Bersabe was the Law proclaimed, and
in Judea only was God known ; but now, unto all the
earth has gone forth their voice, and all the earth has
been filled with the knowledge of God, and the disciples
have made disciples of all the nations, and now is fulfilled
what is written, They shall be all taught of God. And then
what was revealed, was but a type; but now the truth has
been manifested. 2 And this again the Apostle himself
2 Parts of this chapter are the natural consequence of his
much more finished in style warming with his subject, but
than the general course of his this eloquent passage looks very
Orations. It may be indeed only much like an insertion, Some
AGAINST AKIANISM. 243
describes afterwards more clearly, saying, By so much did ED. BEN.
Jesus become surety of a better testament; and again, But -
now liatli He obtained a more excellent ministry, by hoio
much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was
established upon better promises. And, For the Law made
nothing perfect, but was the bringing in of a better hope.
And again he says, It was therefore necessary that the pat-
terns of things in the heavens should be purified with these;
but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than
these. Both in the verse before us then, and throughout,
does he ascribe the word better to the Lord, who is better
and other than created things. For better is the sacrifice
through Him, better the hope in Him ; and also the
promises through Him, not merely as great compared with
small, but the one differing from the other in nature,
because He who conducts this economy is better than all
creatures.
94. "Better" then, as has been said, could not have
been brought to pass in any other than the Son, who sits
on the right hand of the Father. And what does this
denote but that the Son is really Son, and that the God-
head of the Father is the same as the Son's ? For, because
the Son reigns in His Father's kingdom, hence is He seated
upon the same throne as the Father, and because contem-
plated in the Father's Godhead, therefore is the Word God,
and whoso beholds the Son, beholds the Father; and thus
there is but one God. Sitting then on the right, yet hath
He not His Father on the left; but, whatever is right and
precious in the Father, that also the Son has, and He says,
All things that the Father hath are Mine. Wherefore also the
Son, though sitting on the right, also sees the Father on the
right, though it be as having become man, that He says,
words of it are found in Sent. in other places, as S. Leo, e.g.,
D. 11, written a few years sooner. repeats himself in another con-
He certainly transcribed himself troversy.
R2
244 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS.
CHAP.XIV. I saw the Lord always before My face, for He is on My
rigid hand, therefore I shall not fall. This shows moreover,
that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son;
for the Father being on the right, the Son is on the right ; 3
and while the Son sits on the right of the Father, the
Father is in the Son. And the Angels indeed minister
ascending and descending; but concerning the Son He
saith, And let all the Angels of God worship Him. And
when Angels minister, they say, " I am sent unto thee,"
and " the Lord has commanded ; " but the Son, though He
say in human fashion, "I am sent," and comes to finish
the work and to minister, nevertheless says, as being
Word and Image, I am in the Father, and the Father in
Me; and He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and
The Father that abideth in Me, He doeth the works; for
whatever we behold in that Image is the Father's handi-
work.
95. And now coming, secondly, to the expres-
sion become, which here occurs, neither does this show
that the Son is created, as you suppose. If indeed it
were simply become and no more, a case might stand for
the Arians; but whereas they are forestalled with the word
Son throughout the passage, showing that He is other
than things created, so again not even the word become
occurs absolutely, but better is immediately subjoined to
it. For the writer thought the expression immaterial,
knowing that in the case of one who was confessedly a
genuine Son, to say become is the same with saying that
He had only in some sense been made, and that He is in a
3 Nee ideo tamen quasi hu- putandum est, ne in illud incida-
mana forma circumscriptum esse mus sacrilegiuui, &c. August, de
Deum Patrem arbitrandum est, Fid. et Symb. 14. Does this pas-
ut de illo cogitantibus dextrum sage of Athan.'s show that the
aut siriistrum latus animo occur- Anthropomorphites were stirring
rat ; aut id ipsum quod sedens in Egypt already ?
Pater dicitur, flexis poplitibus fieri
AGAINST AEIANISM.
245
certain relation better. For it matters not, should we speak
of what is really generate, as " become " or * made ; " but
on the contrary, things made, God's handiwork as they are,
cannot be called generate, except so far as after their making
they partake of the Son who is the true Generate, and are
therefore said themselves to have been generated also, not at
all because of their own nature, but because of their par-
ticipation of the Son in the Spirit. And this again divine
Scripture recognises ; for it not only says in the case of
things really made, All things came to be through Him, and
without Him there ivas not anything made, and, Li Wisdom
hast Thou made them all; but in the case of sons also who
are really generate, To Job there came seven sons and three
daughters, and Abraham was an hundred years old when
there became to him Isaac his son ; and Moses said, If to
any one there come sons. Therefore, since the Son is other
than things created, and is alone the proper Offspring of
the Father's substance, this plea of the Arians from the
word become is worth nothing.
96. The quarrel then between us and them turns on the
previous question, whether the Son is a real Son, or in
name only, not in fact. If He is already known to be the
genuine Offspring of the Father, then " become " will do
His divine greatness no harm; but certainly, if Sonship
has still to be proved as His own, then this expression, as
far as it goes, may be used as an argument against His
possessing it. But, if it is to prevail, let them not in mere
consistency separate Him and the other inhabitants of
heaven. If He is to be accounted an Angel, and has come
to be such as the rest; have, let Him share their nature ; if
they are sons, let Him be creature ; if He stands before
the Throne, let them all, as well as Him, be on the Right
Hand. This must be, if Arius can bring Scripture on his
side; but if, on the other hand, Paul, as I have already
quoted him, distinguishes the Son from things made, say-
246 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xiv. ing, To wliicli of the Angels said He at any time, Thou
art My Son ? and the One frames heaven and earth, but
they come into being by Him, and He sitteth with the
Father, but they stand-by ministering, who does not see
that he has not used the word become of the substance of
the Word, but of that special ministration to which He
condescended ? For as, being the Word, He became flesh,
so when become man, He became by so much better in
His ministry than the ministry which came by the Angels,
as Son excels servants and Framer things framed. Let
them cease therefore to take the word become to relate to
the substance of the Son, for He is not one of things that
have come to be ; and let them acknowledge that it is
indicative of His ministry, and of the economy of which
His coming was a condition.
97. Moreover, that He is said to have become our surety, in
the passage which I just now quoted, explains in what sense
the word become is to be taken. He became our surety by
taking flesh ; then it was therefore that He became better
than the Angels, viz., when He visited the earth and was
born of Mary. Paul then does not speak of the Son, Wis-
dom, Radiance, Image of the Father, coming to be, but of
His coming to be the minister of the covenant, in which
death, which once ruled, is abolished ; for here also the
ministry which is through Him has become better, in that
what the Law could not do in that it ivas iveak through
the flesh, God sending His Own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh,
ridding it of the trespass, in which, being continu-
ally held captive, it admitted not the Divine Mind.
And having rendered the flesh capable of the Word, He
made us walk, no longer according to the flesh, but accord-
ing to the Spirit, and say again and again, " But we are
not in the flesh but in the Spirit," and, "For the Son of
God came into the world, not to judge the world, but
AGAINST ARIANISM. 247
to redeem all men and that the world might be saved KD. REN.
i. 55 62.
through Him." Formerly the world, as guilty, was under -
judgment from the Law ; but now the Word has taken on
Himself the judgment, and having suffered in the body
for all, has bestowed salvation upon all. With a view to
this, hath John exclaimed, The law was given ~by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Better is grace
than the Law, and truth than the shadow.
98. To conclude : If they still carry on the contest, it will
be natural to meet them with the force of those similar ex-
pressions which are used concerning the Father Himself.
This may serve to prevail with them to refrain their tongue
from evil, or may teach them the depth of their folly.
Now it is written, Become my strong rock and house of defence,
that Thou mayest save me. And again, The Lord became
a defence for the poor, and like passages, which are found
in divine Scripture. If then they apply these passages
to the Son, which perhaps is nearest the truth, then let
them acknowledge that the sacred writers ask Him, as
not being a creature, to become to them a strong rock
and house of defence ; and for the future let them under-
stand become, and He made, and He created, of His incarnate
presence. For then did He become a strong rock and house
of defence, when He bore our sins in His own body upon
the tree, and said, Come unto Me all ye that labour and are
heavi/ laden, and I will give you rest.
99. However, if they are unwilling thus to interpret,
and therefore refer these passages to the Father, will they,
when it is here also written, " Become " and " He became,"
venture so far as to affirm that God has come into being ?
Yea, they will dare, as they thus argue concerning His
Word ; for the course of their argument carries them on
to conjecture the same things concerning the Father, as
they devise concerning His Word. But far be such a no-
tion ever from the thoughts of all the faithful ! for neither
248 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP.XIV. is the Son in the number of things made, nor do the words
of Scripture in question, Become, and He became, denote
beginning of being, but that succour in Him which comes
to the needy. For God is always, and one and the same ;
but men came into being afterwards through the Word,
when the Father Himself willed it ; and God is invisible
and inaccessible to created things, and especially to men
upon earth. When then men in infirmity invoke Him,
when in persecution they ask help, when under injuries
they pray, then the Invisible, being a lover of man, shines
forth upon them with His beneficence, which He exercises
through and in His proper Word. And forthwith the divine
manifestation is made to every one according to his need,
and He becomes to the weak in health, and to the perse-
cuted, a refuge and house of defence ; and to the injured He
says, While Tlwu spealcest I will say here I am. Moreover the
usage of men recognises this, and every one will confess its
propriety. Often succour comes from man to man ; one has
undertaken toil for the injured, as Abraham for Lot ; and
another has opened his home to the persecuted, as Abdias
to the sons of the prophets ; and another has entertained
a stranger, as Lot the Angels ; and another has supplied
the needy, as Job those who begged of him. As then,
should one and the other of these benefited persons say,
" Such a one became an assistance to me," and another
" and to me a refuge," and "to another a supply," yet in so
saying would not be speaking of the origination or of
the substance of their benefactors, but of the beneficence
coming to themselves from them, so also when the sacred
writers say concerning God, He became, and become Thou,
they do not denote any original becoming, for God is un-
originate and ingenerate, but the salvation which comes
to pass in the case of men from Him.
100. This being so understood, it is parallel also respect-
ing the Sou, that whatever, and however often, a phrase
AGAINST ARIANISM. 249
occurs, sucli as became and become, it should ever be taken ED. BEN.
i. 63 61.
in the same sense : for when the Word became flesh and -
dwelt among us, and came to minister and to bestow sal-
vation on all, then He became to us salvation, and
became life, and became propitiation ; then His economy
in our behalf became better than the Angels, and He
became the Way and became the Resurrection. And as
the words Become my strong rock do not denote that the
substance of God Himself became, but His loving-kindness,
as has been said, so also here the having become better than
the Angels, and He became, and by so 'much is Jesus be-
come a better surety, do not signify that the substance of
the Word is created (perish the thought !), but the benefi-
cence which towards us came through His incarnation ;
unthankful though the heretics be, and obstinate in behalf
of their impiety.
250 THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
DISCOURSE II.
CHAPTER XV.
Answer to objections from Scripture ; Fourthly, Hebrews iii. 2.
CHAP, x^s . 101. I DID indeed think that enough had been said
already against the hollow professors of Arius's madness,
whether for their refutation or in the truth's behalf. They,
however, do not succumb ; but even invent new modes for
their impiety. Thus they misunderstand the passage in the
Proverbs, The Lord hath created Me a beginning of His
ways for His Works, and the words of the Apostle, Who
was faithful to Him that made Him, and argue outright,
that the Son of Grod is a work and a creature. But
although they might have learned from what is said above,
had they not utterly lost their power of apprehension,
the Truth witnessing it, that the Son is not from nothing
nor in the number of things created at all, (for being
God, He cannot be a work, and it is a sin to call Him a
creature, and it is of creatures and works that we say, " it was
out of nothing," and " it was not before its generation,")
yet since, as if dreading to desert their own fiction, they
are accustomed to allege the aforesaid passages of divine
Scripture, which have a good meaning, but are by them
practised on, let us proceed afresh to take up the question
of the sense of these, in order to remind the faithful, and as
to the Arians to show from each of these passages that they
have no knowledge at all of Christianity. Were it other-
AGAINST ARIANISM. 251
wise, they would not have shut themselves up in the unbe- ED. BEN.
lief of the present Jews, but would have inquired and
learned that, whereas In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word ivas luith God, and the Word was God, therefore
it was on the Word's becoming man at the good pleasure
of the Father, that it was suitably said of Him, as by
John, The Word became flesh, so by Peter, He hath made
Htm Lord and Christ; and, as by means of Solomon in the
Person of the Lord Himself, The Lord created Me a
beginning of His ways for His works, so by Paul, become
so much better than the Angels; and again, He emptied
Himself and took upon Him the form of a servant; and,
again, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profes-
sion, Jesus, ^vho was faithful to Him that made Him. For
all these texts have the same force and meaning, a religious
one, declarative of the divinity of the Word, even those
of them which speak humanly concerning Him, as having
become Son of man.
102. But, though this distinction is sufficient in itself for
their refutation, still, since from a misconception of the
Apostle's words, (to mention them first,) they consider the
Word of God to be one of the works, because of its being
written, Who was faithful to Him that made Him, I have
thought it needful to silence this reiterated argument of
theirs, taking in hand, as before, their own statement.
103. If then, He be not a Son, let Him be called a work,
and let all that is said of works be said of Him, nor let
Him and Him alone be designated Son, and Word, and
Wisdom; neither let it belong to God Himself to be
called Father, but only Framer and Creator of the things
which by Him are brought into being; and let the
creature be Image and Impress of His framing will, and
let Him, as they would have it, be without generative
nature, so that there is neither Word, nor Wisdom, no,
252
THREE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP, xv. nor Image, of His proper substance. For if He be not
Son, neither is He Image. But again, if there be not a Son,
how then say you that God is a Creator ? since all things
that come to be are through the Word and in Wisdom,
and without This nothing can be, whereas you say He
hath not That, in and through which He makes all things.
For if the Divine Substance be not fruitful Itself, but
barren, as they hold, as a light that lightens not, and a
dry fountain, are they not ashamed to speak of His pos-
sessing framing energy ? and whereas they deny That
which is by nature, do they not blush to put before It that
which is by will? But if He frames things that are
external to Him and were not before, by willing them to
be, and becomes their Maker, much more will He first be
Father of an Offspring from His proper Substance. For if
they attribute to God the willing with respect to things which
are not, why do they not recognise that in God which lies
above the will ? now it is a something that surpasses will,
that He should have a nature, and should be Father of
His proper Word. If then that which comes first, which
is according to nature, does not exist, as they would have
it in their folly, how can that which is second come to
be, which is according to will ? for the Word is first, and
then the creation.
104. On the contrary, the Word exists, whatever they
dare to say, those impious ones ; for through Him did
creation come to be, and God, as being Maker, plainly
hath also His framing Word, not external, but belonging
to Him; for this must be repeated. If He has the power
of will, and His will is effective, and suffices for the
consistence of the things that come into being, and if
again His Word is effective and a Framer, that Word
must surely be the Living Will of the Father, and His
energy in substance, and His real Word, in whom all
things both consist and are excellently governed. No one
AGAINST AEIANISM. 253
can even doubt, that He who disposes is prior to the ED. BEN.
ii. 23.
disposition and the things disposed. And thus, as I said,
God's creating is second to His begetting ; for Son implies
something proper to Him and truly from that blessed and
everlasting Substance ; but what is only from His will
comes into consistence from without, and is framed through
His proper Offspring who is from that Substance.
105. In the judgment of reason then they are guilty of
great extravagance who say that the Lord is not Son of
God, but a work, and it follows that we all of necessity
confess that He is Son. And if He be Son, as indeed He
is, and a son is confessedly, not external to his father, but
from him, let them not question about the terms, as I said
before, which the sacred writers use concerning the Word
Himself, (for instance, not "Him that begat Him" but
Him that made Him), for as long as it is confessed what
His nature is, the particular words used of Him in such
instances need raise no question. For terms do not
disparage His nature ; rather that Nature draws to Itself
those terms and changes their sense. For terms are not
prior to substances, but substances are first, and terms
second. 1 Wherefore also when the substance is a work or
creature, then the words He made, and He became, and He
created, are used of it properly, and designate the work.
But when the Substance is an Offspring and Son, then He
made, and He became, and He created, no longer properly
belong to it, nor designate a work; but we use He
made without question for " He begat."
106. Yet, in spite of what is so plain, they insist upon
Wlio made as some great support of their heresy. But this
stay of theirs is but a broken reed ; for if they were aware
of the style of Scripture, they must at once give sentence
1 Here again, as was noted siastical tradition, and the as-
above, Athan. shows how per- sumption of a dogma,
sistently he starts with an eccle-
254 THEEE DISCOURSES OF ATHANASIUS
CHAP. xv. against themselves. For I repeat, although parents speak of
the sons whom they beget as " being made " and " being
created," for all this they do not deny their nature. Thus
Ezechias, as is written in Esaias, said in his prayer,
From this day I will make children, who shall declare Thy
righteousness, God of my salvation. He then said, I will
make; but the Prophet in that very book and the Fourth
of Kings, thus speaks, And the sons who shall come forth
of thee. He uses then make for " beget," and he calls
those who were to spring from him, made, and no one
questions whether the term has reference to a natural off-
spring. Again, Eve, on bearing Cain, said, I have gotten a
man from the Lord ; thus she too used gotten for " brought
forth." For, though she had herself borne the child, she
said, I have gotten. Nor would any one consider, because
of I have gotten, that Cain was purchased from without,
instead of being born of her. Again, the Patriarch Jacob
said to Joseph, And noiv thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasses,
which became thine in Egypt, before I came unto thee into
Egypt, are mine. And Scripture says about Job, And there
cam>e to him seven sons and three daughters. As Moses too
has said in the Law, If sons become to any one, and, If he
make a son. Here again they have spoken of those who
were begotten, as become and made, knowing that, so long
as they are acknowledged to be sons, we need not make a
question of they "became, or I have gotten, or I made. For
nature and the truth of the case draw the meaning to them-
selves.
107. This being so, when men ask whether the Lord is a
creature or work, it is proper to ask of them this first,
whether He is or is not Son and Word and Wisdom.
For if this is shown, the surmise about work and creation
falls to the ground at once and is ended. For what is a
work could never be a Son and Word; nor could the Son
be a work. And the Lord being proved to be the
AGAINST AEIANISM. 255
Father's Son naturally and genuinely, and Word, and ED. BEN.
ii, 3-~5.
Wisdom, though He made be used concerning Him, or He -
became, this is not said of Him as if a work, but the sacred
writers use the words indiscriminately as in the case of
Solomon, and Ezechias's children. For though the fathers
had begotten them from themselves, still it is written, I
have made, and I have gotten, and He became. Therefore
God's enemies, in spite of their repeated allegation of such
trifling words, ought now, however late in the day, after
what has been said, to put away their impious thoughts,
and think of the Lord as of a true Son, Word, and Wis-
dom of the Father, not a work, not a creature. For if the
Son be a creature, by what word and by what wisdom
was He made ? for all the works were made through the
Word and the Wisdom, as it is written, In Wisdom hast
Thou made them all, and All things were made by Him, and
without Him was not anything made. But if it be He who
is the Word and the Wisdom, by which all things come
to be, it follows that He is not in the number of works, nor
in short of any things that are made, but the Offspring of
the Father.
108. And as made is used for begat, so, as I have said,
is servant used for Son. Fathers call the sons born of them
their servants, yet without denying the genuineness of their
nature ; and often they affectionately call their own servants
children, yet without putting out of sight their purchase of
them originally ; for they use the one appe 
