XXIX. THE THIRD THEOLOGICAL ORATION. 



On the Son. 



  I. This then is what might be said to cut short our opponents' readiness to 
argue and their hastiness with its consequent insecurity in all matters, but 
above all in those discussions which relate to God. But since to rebuke others 
is a matter of no difficulty whatever, but a very easy thing, which any one 
who likes can do; whereas to substitute one's own belief for theirs is the 
part of a pious and intelligent man; let us, relying on the Holy Ghost, Who 
among them is dishonoured, but among us is adored, bring forth to the light 
our own conceptions about the Godhead, whatever these may be, like some noble 
and timely birth. Not that I have at other times been silent; for on this 
subject alone I am full of youthful strength and daring; but the fact is that 
under present circumstances I am even more bold to declare the truth, that I 
may not (to use the words of Scripture) by drawing back fall into the 
condemnation of being displeasing to God.(a) And since every 
discourse is of a twofold nature, the one part establishing one's own, and the 
other overthrowing one's opponents' position; let us first of all state our 
own position, and then try to controvert that of our opponents ;--and both as 
briefly as possible, so that our arguments may be taken in at a glance (like 
those of the elementary treatises which they have devised to deceive simple or 
foolish persons), and that our thoughts may not be scattered by reason of the 
length of the discourse, like water which is not contained in a channel, but 
flows to waste over the open land. 

  II. The three most ancient opinions concerning God are Anarchia, Polyarchia, 
and Monarchia. The first two are the sport of the children of Hellas, and may 
they continue to be so. For Anarchy is a thing without order; and the Rule of 
Many is factious, and thus anarchical, and thus disorderly. For both these 
tend to the same thing, namely disorder; and this to dissolution, for disorder 
is the first step to dissolution. 

  But Monarchy is that which we hold in honour. It is, however, a Monarchy 
that is not limited to one Person, for it is possible for Unity if at variance 
with itself to come into a condition of plurality;(a) but one 
which is made of an equality of Nature and a Union of mind. and an identity of 
motion, and a convergence of its elements to unity--a thing which is 
impossible to the created nature--so that though numerically distinct there is 
no severance of Essence. Therefore Unity(b) having from all 
eternity arrived by motion at Duality, found its rest in Trinity. This is what 
we mean by Father and Son and Holy Ghost. The Father is the Begetter and the 
Emitter;(g) without passion of course, and without reference to 
time, and not in a corporeal manner. The Son is the Begotten, and the Holy 
Ghost the Emission; for I know not how this could be expressed in terms 
altogether excluding visible things. For we shall not venture to speak of "an 
overflow of goodness," as one of the Greek Philosophers dared to say, as if it 
were a bowl overflowing, and this in plain words in his Discourse on the First 
and Second Causes.(d) Let us not ever look on this Generation 
as involuntary, like some natural overflow, hard to be retained, and by no 
means befitting our conception of Deity. Therefore let us confine ourselves 
within our limits, and speak of the Unbegotten and the Begotten and That which 
proceeds from the Father, as somewhere God the Word Himself saith. 

  III. When did these come into being? They are above all "When." But, if I am 
to speak with something more of boldness,--when the Father did. And when did 
the Father come into being. There never was a time when He was not. And the 
same thing is true of the Son and the Holy Ghost. Ask me again, and again I 
will answer you, When was the Son 



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begotten? When the Father was not begotten. And when did the Holy Ghost 
proceed? When the Son was, not proceeding but, begotten--beyond the sphere of 
time, and above the grasp of reason; although we cannot set forth that which 
is above time, if we avoid as we desire any expression which conveys the idea 
of time. For such expressions as "when" and "before" and "after" and "from the 
beginning" are not timeless, however much we may force them; unless indeed we 
were to take the Aeon, that interval which is coextensive with the eternal 
things, and is not divided or measured by any motion, or by the revolution of 
the sun, as time is measured. 

  How then are They not alike unoriginate, i f They are coeternal? Because 
They are from Him, though not after Him. For that which is unoriginate is 
eternal, but that which is eternal is not necessarily unoriginate, so long as 
it may be referred to the Father as its origin. Therefore in respect of Cause 
They are not unoriginate; but it is evident that the Cause is not necessarily 
prior to its effects, for the sun is not prior to its light. And yet They are 
in some sense unoriginate, in respect of time, even though you would scare 
simple minds with your quibbles, for the Sources of Time are not subject to 
time. 

  IV. But how can this generation be passionless? In that it is incorporeal. 
For if corporeal generation involves passion, incorporeal generation excludes 
it. And I will ask of you in turn, How is He God if He is created? For that 
which is created is not God. I refrain from reminding you that here too is 
passion if we take the creation in a bodily sense, as time, desire, 
imagination, thought, hope, pain, risk, failure, success, all of which and 
more than all find a place in the creature, as is evident to every one. Nay, I 
marvel that you do not venture so far as to conceive of marriages and times of 
pregnancy, and dangers of miscarriage, as if the Father could not have 
begotten at all if He had not begotten thus; or again, that you did not count 
up the modes of generation of birds and beasts and fishes, and bring under 
some one of them the Divine and Ineffable Generation, or even eliminate the 
Son out of your new hypothesis. And you cannot even see this, that as His 
Generation according to the flesh differs from all others (for where among men 
do you know of a Virgin Mother?), so does He differ also in His spiritual 
Generation; or rather He, Whose Existence is not the same as ours, differs 
from us also in His Generation. 

V. Who then is that Father Who had no beginning? One Whose very Existence had 
no beginning; for one whose existence had a beginning must also have begun to 
be a Father. He did not then become a Father after He began to be, for His 
being had no beginning. And He is Father in the absolute sense, for He is not 
also Son; just as the Son is Son in the absolute sense, because He is not also 
Father. These names do not belong to us in the absolute sense, because we are 
both, and not one more than the other; and we are of both, and not of one 
only; and so we are divided, and by degrees become men, and perhaps not even 
men, and such as we did not desire, leaving and being left, so that only the 
relations remain, without the underlying facts.(a) 

  But, the objector says, the very form of the expression "He begat" and "He 
was begotten," brings in the idea of a beginning of generation. But what if 
you do not use this expression, but say, "He had been begotten from the 
beginning" so as readily to evade your far-fetched and time-loving objections? 
Will you bring Scripture against us, as if we were forging something contrary 
to Scripture and to the truth? Why, every one knows that in practice we very 
often find tenses interchanged when time is spoken of; and especially is this 
the custom of Holy Scripture, not only in respect of the past tense, and of 
the present; but even of the future, as for instance "Why did the heathen 
rage?"(b) when they had not yet raged and "they shall cross 
over the river on foot,"(g) where the meaning is they did cross 
over. It would be a long task to reckon up all the expressions of this kind 
which students have noticed. 

  VI. So much for this point. What is their next objection, how full of 
contentiousness and impudence? He, they say, either voluntarily begat the Son, 
or else involuntarily. Next, as they think, they bind us on both sides with 
cords; these however are not strong, but very weak. For, they say, if it was 
involuntarily He was under the sway of some one, and who exercised this sway? 
And how is He, over whom it is exercised, God? But if voluntarily, the Son is 
a Son of Will; how then is He of the Father?--and they thus invent a new sort 
of Mother for him,--the Will,--in place of the Father. There is one good point 
which they may allege about this argument of theirs; namely, that they desert 
Passion, and take refuge in Will. For Will is not Passion. 



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  Secondly, let us look at the strength of their argument. And it were best to 
wrestle with them at first at close quarters. You yourself, who so recklessly 
assert whatever takes your fancy; were you begotten voluntarily or 
involuntarily by your father? If involuntarily, then he was under some 
tyrant's sway (O terrible violence!) and who was the tyrant? You will hardly 
say it was nature,--for nature is tolerant of chastity. If it was voluntarily, 
then by a few syllables your father is done away with, for you are shewn to be 
the son of Will, and not of your father. But I pass to the relation between 
God and the creature, and I put your own question to your own wisdom. Did God 
create all things voluntarily or under compulsion? If under compulsion, here 
also is the tyranny, and one who played the tyrant; if voluntarily, the 
creatures also are deprived of their God, and you before the rest, who invent 
such arguments and tricks of logic. For a partition is set up between the 
Creator and the creatures in the shape of Will. And yet I think that the 
Person who wills is distinct from the Act of willing; He who begets from the 
Act of begetting; the Speaker from the speech, or else we are all very stupid. 
On the one side we have the mover, and on the other that which is, so to 
speak, the motion. Thus the thing willed is not the child of will, for it does 
not always result therefrom; nor is that which is begotten the child of 
generation, nor that which is heard the child of speech, but of the Person who 
willed, or begat, or spoke. But the things of God are beyond all this, for 
with Him perhaps the Will to beget is generation, and there is no intermediate 
action (if we may accept this altogether, and not rather consider generation 
superior to will). 

  VII. Will you then let me play a little upon this word Father, for your 
example encourages me to be so bold? The Father is God either willingly or 
unwillingly; and how will you escape from your own excessive acuteness? If 
willingly, when did He begin to will? It could not have been before He began 
to be, for there was nothing prior to Him. Or is one part of Him Will and 
another the object of Will? If so, He is divisible. So the question arises, as 
the result of your argument, whether He Himself is not the Child of Will. And 
if unwillingly, what compelled Him to exist, and how is He God if He was 
compelled--and that to nothing less than to be God? How then was He begotten, 
says my opponent. How was He created, if as you say, He was created? For this 
is a part of the same difficulty. Perhaps you would say, By Will and Word. You 
have not yet solved the whole difficulty; for it yet remains for you to shew 
how Will and Word gained the power of action. For man was not created in this 
way. 

  VIII. How then was He begotten? This Generation would have been no great 
thing, if you could have comprehended it who have no real knowledge even of 
your own generation, or at least who comprehend very little of it, and of that 
little you are ashamed to speak; and then do you think you know the whole? You 
will have to undergo much labour before you discover the laws of composition, 
formation, manifestation, and the bond whereby soul is united to body,--mind 
to soul, and reason to mind; and movement, increase, assimilation of food, 
sense, memory, recollection, and all the rest of the parts of which you are 
compounded; and which of them belongs to the soul and body together, and which 
to each independently of the other, and which is received from each other. For 
those parts whose maturity comes later, yet received their laws at the time of 
conception. Tell me what these laws are? And do not even then venture to 
speculate on the Generation of God; for that would be unsafe. For even if you 
knew all about your own, yet you do not by any means know about God's. And if 
you do not understand your own, how can you know about God's? For in 
proportion as God is harder to trace out than man, so is the heavenly 
Generation harder to comprehend than your own. But if you assert that because 
you cannot comprehend it, therefore He cannot have been begotten, it will be 
time for you to strike out many existing things which you cannot comprehend; 
and first of all God Himself. For you cannot say what He is, even if you are 
very reckless, and excessively proud of your intelligence. First, cast away 
your notions of flow and divisions and sections, and your conceptions of 
immaterial as if it were material birth, and then you may perhaps worthily 
conceive of the Divine Generation. How was He begotten?--I repeat the question 
in indignation. The Begetting of God must be honoured by silence. It is a 
great thing for you to learn that He was begotten. But the manner of His 
generation we will not admit that even Angels can conceive, much less you. 
Shall I tell you how it was? It was in a manner known to the Father Who begat, 
and to the Son Who was begotten. Anything more than this is hidden by a cloud, 
and escapes your dim sight. 

  IX. Well, but the Father begat a Son who 



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either was or was not in existence.(a) What utter nonsense! 
This is a question which applies to you or me, who on the one hand were in 
existence, as for instance Levi in the loins of Abraham;(b) and 
on the other hand came into existence; and so in some sense we are partly of 
what existed, and partly of what was nonexistent; whereas the contrary is the 
case with the original matter, which was certainly created out of what was 
non-existent, notwithstanding that some pretend that it is unbegotten. But in 
this case "to be begotten," even from the beginning, is concurrent with "to 
be." On what then will you base this captious question? For what is older than 
that which is from the beginning, if we may place there the previous existence 
or non-existence of the Son? In either case we destroy its claim to be the 
Beginning. Or perhaps you will say, if we were to ask you whether the Father 
was of existent or non-existent substance, that he is twofold, partly 
pre-existing, partly existing; or that His case is the same with that of the 
Son; that is, that He was created out of non-existing matter, because of your 
ridiculous questions and your houses of sand, which cannot stand against the 
merest ripple. 

  I do not admit either solution, and I declare that your question contains an 
absurdity, and not a difficulty to answer. If however you think, in accordance 
with your dialectic assumptions, that one or other of these alternatives must 
necessarily be true in every case, let me ask you one little question: Is time 
in time, or is it not in time? If it is contained in time, then in what time, 
and what is it but that time, and how does it contain it? But if it is not 
contained in time, what is that surpassing wisdom which can conceive of a time 
which is timeless? Now, in regard to this expression, "I am now telling a 
lie," admit one of these alternatives, either that it is true, or that it is a 
falsehood, without qualification (for we cannot admit that it is both). But 
this cannot be. For necessarily he either is lying, and so is telling the 
truth, or else he is telling the truth, and so is lying. What wonder is it 
then that, as in this case contraries are true, so in that case they should 
both be untrue, and so your clever puzzle prove mere foolishness? Solve me one 
more riddle. Were you present at your own generation, and are you now present 
to yourself, or is neither the case? If you were and are present, who were 
you, and with whom are you present? And how did your single self become thus 
both subject and object? But if neither of the above is the case, how did you 
get separated from yourself, and what is the cause of this disjoining? But, 
you will say, it is stupid to make a fuss about the question whether or no a 
single individual is present to himself; for the expression is not used of 
oneself but of others. Well, you may be certain that it is even more stupid to 
discuss the question whether That which was begotten from the beginning 
existed before its generation or not. For such a question arises only as to 
matter divisible by time. 

  X. But they say, The Unbegotten and the Begotten are not the same; and if 
this is so, neither is the Son the same as the Father. It is clear, without 
saying so, that this line of argument manifestly excludes either the Son or 
the Father from the Godhead. For if to be Unbegotten is the Essence of God, to 
be begotten is not that Essence; if the opposite is the case, the Unbegotten 
is excluded. What argument can contradict this? Choose then whichever 
blasphemy you prefer, my good inventor of a new theology, if indeed you are 
anxious at all costs to embrace a blasphemy. In the next place, in what sense 
do you assert that the Unbegotten and the Begotten are not the same? If you 
mean that the Uncreated and the created are not the same, I agree with you; 
for certainly the Unoriginate and the created are not of the same nature. But 
if you say that He That begat and That which is begotten are not the same, the 
statement is inaccurate. For it is in fact a necessary truth that they are the 
same. For the nature of the relation of Father to Child is this, that the 
offspring is of the same nature with the parent. Or we may argue thus again. 
What do you mean by Unbegotten and Begotten, for if you mean the simple fact 
of being unbegotten or begotten, these are not the same; but if you mean Those 
to Whom these terms apply, how are They not the same? For example, Wisdom and 
Unwisdom are not the same in themselves, but yet both are attributes of man, 
who is the same; and they mark not a difference of essence, but one external 
to the essence.  Are immortality and innocence and immutability also the 
essence of God? If so God has many essences and not one; or Deity is a 
compound of these. For He cannot be all these without composition, if they be 
essences. 

  XI. They do not however assert this, for these qualities are common also to 
other beings. 



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But God's Essence is that which belongs to God alone, and is proper to Him. 
But they, who consider matter and form to be unbegotten, would not allow that 
to be unbegotten is the property of God alone (for we must cast away even 
further the darkness of the Manichaeans.(a) But suppose that it 
is the property of God alone. What of Adam? Was he not alone the direct 
creature of God? Yes, you will say. Was he then the only human being? By no 
means. And why, but because humanity does not consist in direct creation? For 
that which is begotten is also human. Just so neither is He Who is Unbegotten 
alone God, though He alone is Father. But grant that He Who is Begotten is 
God; for He is of God, as you must allow, even though you cling to your 
Unbegotten. Then how do you describe the Essence of God? Not by declaring what 
it is, but by rejecting what it is not. For your word signifies that He is not 
begotten; it does not present to you what is the real nature or condition of 
that which has no generation. What then is the Essence of God? It is for your 
infatuation to define this, since you are so anxious about His Generation too; 
but to us it will be a very great thing, if ever, even in the future, we learn 
this, when this darkness and dulness is done away for us, as He has promised 
Who cannot lie. This then may be the thought and hope of those who are 
purifying themselves with a view to this. Thus much we for our part will be 
bold to say, that if it is a great thing for the Father to be Unoriginate, it 
is no less a thing for the Son to have been Begotten of such a Father. For not 
only would He share the glory of the Unoriginate, since he is of the 
Unoriginate, but he has the added glory of His Generation, a thing so great 
and august in the eyes of all those who are not altogether grovelling and 
material in mind. 

  XII. But, they say, if the Son is the Same as the Father in respect of 
Essence, then if the Father is unbegotten, the Son must be so likewise. Quite 
so--if the Essence of God consists in being unbegotten; and so He would be a 
strange mixture, begottenly unbegotten. If, however, the difference is outside 
the Essence, how can you be so certain in speaking of this? Are you also your 
father's father, so as in no respect to fall short of your father, since you 
are the same with him in essence? Is it not evident that our enquiry into the 
Nature of the Essence of God, if we make it, will leave Personality absolutely 
unaffected? But that Unbegotten is not a synonym of God is proved thus. If it 
were so, it would be necessary that since God is a relative term, Unbegotten 
should be so likewise; or that since Unbegotten is an absolute term, so must 
God be. ... God of no one. For words which are absolutely identical are 
similarly applied. But the word Unbegotten is not used relatively. For to what 
is it relative? And of what things is God the God? Why, of all things. How 
then can God and Unbegotten be identical terms? And again, since Begotten and 
Unbegotten are contradictories, like possession and deprivation, it would 
follow that contradictory essences would co-exist, which is 
impossible.(a) Or again, since possessions are prior to 
deprivations, and the latter are destructive of the former, not only must the 
Essence of the Son be prior to that of the Father, but it must be destroyed by 
the Father, on your hypothesis. 

  XIII. What now remains of their invincible arguments? Perhaps the last they 
will take refuge in is this. If God has never ceased to beget, the Generation 
is imperfect; and when will He cease? But if He has ceased, then He must have 
begun. Thus again these carnal minds bring forward carnal arguments. Whether 
He is eternally begotten or not, I do not yet say, until I have looked into 
the statement, "Before all the hills He begetteth Me,"(b) more 
accurately. But I cannot see the necessity of their conclusion. For if, as 
they say, everything that is to come to an end had also a beginning, then 
surely that which has no end had no beginning. What then will they decide 
concerning the soul, or the Angelic nature? If it had a beginning, it will 
also have an end; and if it has no end, it is evident that according to them 
it had no beginning. But the truth is that it had a beginning, and will never 
have an end. Their assertion, then, that which will have an end had also a 
beginning, is untrue. Our position, however, is, that as in the case of a 
horse, or an ox, or a man, the same definition applies to all the individuals 
of the same species, and whatever shares the definition has also a right to 
the Name; so In the very same way there is One Essence of God, and One Nature, 
and One Name; although in accordance with a distinction in our thoughts we use 
distinct Names and that whatever is properly called by this Name really is 
God; and what He is in Nature, That He is truly called--if at 



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least we are to hold that Truth is a matter not of names but of realities. But 
our opponents, as if they were afraid of leaving any stone unturned to subvert 
the Truth, acknowledge indeed that the Son is God when they are compelled to 
do so by arguments(a) and evidences; but they only mean that He 
is God in an ambiguous sense, and that He only shares the Name. 

  XIV. And when we advance this objection against them, "What do you mean to 
say then? That the Son is not properly God, just as a picture of an animal is 
not properly an animal? And if not properly God, in what sense is He God at 
all?" They reply, Why should not these terms be ambiguous, and in both cases 
be used in a proper sense? And they will give us such instances as the 
land-dog and the dogfish; where the word Dog is ambiguous, and yet in both 
cases is properly used, for there is such a species among the ambiguously 
named, or any other case in which the same appellative is used for two things 
of different nature, But, my good friend, in this case, when you include two 
natures under the same name, you do not assert that either is better than the 
other, or that the one is prior and the other posterior, or that one is in a 
greater degree and the other in a lesser that which is predicated of them 
both, for there is no connecting link which forces this necessity upon them. 
One is not a dog more than the other, and one less so; either the dogfish more 
than the land-dog, or the land-dog than the dogfish. Why should they be, or on 
what principle? But the community of name is here between things of equal 
value, though of different nature. But in the case of which we are speaking, 
you couple the Name of God with adorable Majesty, and make It surpass every 
essence and nature (an attribute of God alone), and then you ascribe this Name 
to the Father, while you deprive the Son of it, and make Him subject to the 
Father, and give Him only a secondary honour and worship; and even if in words 
you bestow on Him one which is Equal, yet in practice you cut off His Deity, 
and pass malignantly from a use of the same Name implying an exact equality, 
to one which connects things which are not equal. And so the pictured and the 
living man are in your mouth an apter illustration of the relations of Deity 
than the dogs which I instanced. Or else you must concede to both an equal 
dignity of nature as well as a common name--even though you introduced these 
natures into your argument as different; and thus you destroy the analogy of 
your dogs, which you invented as an instance of inequality. For what is the 
force of your instance of ambiguity, if those whom you distinguish are not 
equal in honour? For it was not to prove an equality but an inequality that 
you took refuge in your dogs. How could anybody be more clearly convicted of 
fighting both against his own arguments, and against the Deity? 

  XV. And if, when we admit that in respect of being the Cause the Father is 
greater than the Son, they should assume the premiss that He is the Cause by 
Nature, and then deduce the conclusion that He is greater by Nature also, it 
is difficult to say whether they mislead most themselves or those with whom 
they are arguing. For it does not absolutely follow that all that is 
predicated of a class can also be predicated of all the individuals composing 
it; for the different particulars may belong to different individuals. For 
what hinders me, if I assume the same premiss, namely, that the Father is 
greater by Nature, and then add this other, Yet not by nature in every respect 
greater nor yet Father--from concluding, Therefore the Greater is not in every 
respect greater, nor the Father in every respect Father? Or, if you prefer it, 
let us put it in this way: God is an Essence: But an Essence is not in every 
case God; and draw the conclusion for yourself--Therefore God is not in every 
case God. I think the fallacy here is the arguing from a conditioned to an 
unconditioned use of a term,(a) to use the technical expression 
of the logicians. For while we assign this word Greater to His Nature viewed 
as a Cause, they infer it of His Nature viewed in itself. It is just as if 
when we said that such a one was a dead man they were to infer simply that he 
was a Man. 

  XVI. How shall we pass over the following point, which is no less amazing 
than the rest? Father, they say, is a name either of an essence or of an 
Action, thinking to bind us down on both sides. If we say that it is a name of 
an essence, they will say that we agree with them that the Son is of another 
Essence, since there is but one Essence of God, and this, according to them, 
is preoccupied by the Father. On the other hand, if we say that it is the name 
of an Action, we shall be 



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supposed to acknowledge plainly that the Son is created and not begotten. For 
where there is an Agent there must also be an Effect. And they will say they 
wonder how that which is made can be identical with That which made it. I 
should myself have been frightened with your distinction, if it had been 
necessary to accept one or other of the alternatives, and not rather put both 
aside, and state a third and truer one, namely, that Father is not a name 
either of an essence or of an action, most clever sirs. But it is the name of 
the Relation in which the Father stands to the Son, and the Son to the Father. 
For as with us these names make known a genuine and intimate relation, so, in 
the case before us too, they denote an identity of nature between Him That is 
begotten and Him That begets. But let us concede to you that Father is a name 
of essence, it will still bring in the idea of Son, and will not make it of a 
different nature, according to common ideas and the force of these names. Let 
it be, if it so please you, the name of an action; you will not defeat us in 
this way either. The Homoousion would be indeed the result of this action, or 
otherwise the conception of an action in this matter would be absurd. You see 
then how, even though you try to fight unfairly, we avoid your sophistries. 
But now, since we have ascertained how invincible you are in your arguments 
and sophistries, let us look at your strength in the Oracles of God, if 
perchance you may choose to persuade us out of them. 

  XVII. For we have learnt to believe in and to teach the Deity of the Son 
from their great and lofty utterances. And what utterances are these? These: 
God--The Word--He That Was In The Beginning and With The Beginning, and The 
Beginning. "In the Beginning was The Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was God,"(a) and "With Thee is the 
Beginning,"(b) and "He who calleth her The Beginning from 
generations."(g) Then the Son is Only-begotten: The only 
"begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, it says, He hath declared 
Him."(d) The Way, the Truth, the Life, the Light. "I am the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life;" and "I am the Light of the 
World."(e) Wisdom and Power, "Christ, the Wisdom of God, and 
the Power of God."(z) The Effulgence, the Impress, the Image, 
the Seal; "Who being the Effulgence of His glory and the Impress of His 
Essence,"(a) and "the Image of His Goodness,"(b) 
and "Him hath God the Father sealed."(g) Lord, King, He That 
Is, The Almighty. "The Lord rained down fire from the Lord; 
"(d) and "A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy 
Kingdom;"(e) and "Which is and was and is to come, the 
Almighty"(z)--all which are clearly spoken of the Son, with all 
the other passages of the same force, none of which is an afterthought, or 
added later to the Son or the Spirit, any more than to the Father Himself. For 
Their Perfection is not affected by additions. There never was a time when He 
was without the Word, or when He was not the Father, or when He was not true, 
or not wise, or not powerful, or devoid of life, or of splendour, or of 
goodness. 

  But in opposition to all these, do you reckon up for me the expressions 
which make for your ignorant arrogance, such as "My God and your 
God,"(h) or greater, or created, or made, or 
sanctified;(q) Add, if you like, Servant(k) and 
Obedient(l) and Gave(m) and 
Learnt,(n) and was commanded,(x) was 
sent,(o) can do nothing of Himself, either say, or judge, or 
give, or will.(p) And further these,--His 
ignorance,(r) subjection,(s) 
prayer,(t) asking,(u) 
increase,(F) being made perfect.(c) And if you 
like even more humble than these; such as speak of His 
sleeping,(y) hungering,(w) being in an 
agony,(aa) and fearing;(bb) or perhaps you would 
make even His Cross and Death a matter of reproach to Him. His Resurrection 
and Ascension I fancy you will leave to me, for in these is found something to 
support our position. A good many other things too you might pick up, if you 
desire to put together that equivocal and intruded god of yours, Who to us is 
True God, and equal to the Father. For every one of these points, taken 
separately, may very easily, if we go through them one by one, be explained to 
you in the most reverent sense, and the stumbling-block of the letter be 
cleaned away--that is, if your stumbling at it be honest, and not wilfully 
malicious. To give you the explanation in one sentence. What is lofty you are 
to apply to the Godhead, and to that Nature in Him which is superior to 
sufferings and incorporeal; but all that is lowly to the composite 
condition(gg) of Him who for your 



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sakes made Himself of no reputation and was Incarnate-yes, for it is no worse 
thing to say, was made Man, and afterwards was also exalted. The result will 
be that you will abandon these carnal and grovelling doctrines, and learn to 
be more sublime, and to ascend with His Godhead, and you will not remain 
permanently among the things of sight, but will rise up with Him into the 
world of thought, and come to know which passages refer to His Nature, and 
which to His assumption of Human Nature.(a) 

  XIX. For He Whom you now treat with contempt was once above you. He Who is 
now Man was once the Uncompounded. What He was He continued to be; what He was 
not He took to Himself.(b) In the beginning He was, uncaused; 
for what is the Cause of God? But afterwards for a cause He was born. And that 
came was that you might be saved, who insult Him and despise His Godhead, 
because of this, that He took upon Him your denser nature, having converse 
with Flesh by means of Mind.(g) While His inferior Nature, the 
Humanity, became God, because it was united to God, and became One 
Person(d) because the Higher Nature prevailed in order that I 
too might be made Goal so far as He is made Man.(e) He was 
born--but He had been begotten: He was born of a woman--but she was a Virgin. 
The first is human the second Divine. In His Human nature He had no Father, 
but also in His Divine Nature no Mother.(a) Both 
these(b) belong to Godhead. He dwelt in the womb--but He was 
recognized by the Prophet,(g) himself still in the womb, 
leaping before the Word, for Whose sake He came into being. He was wrapped in 
swaddling clothes(d)--but He took off the swathing bands of the 
grave by His rising again. He was laid in a manger--but He was glorified by 
Angels, and proclaimed by a star, and worshipped by the Magi. Why are you 
offended by that which is presented to your sight, because you will not look 
at that which is presented to your mind? He was driven into exile into 
Egypt--but He drove away the Egyptian idols.(e) He had no form 
nor comeliness in the eyes of the Jews(z)--but to David He is 
fairer than the children of men.(p) And on the Mountain He was 
bright as the lightning, and became more luminous than the 
sun,(q) initiating us into the mystery of the future. 

  XX. He was baptized as Man--but He remitted sins as 
God(i)--not because He needed purificatory rites Himself, but 
that He might sanctify the element of water. He was tempted as Man, but He 
conquered as God; yea, He bids us be of good cheer, for He has overcome the 
world.(k) He hungered--but He fed thousands;(l) 
yea, He is the Bread that giveth life, and That is of heaven. He thirsted--but 
He cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.(m) 
Yea, He promised that foun- 



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tains should flow from them that believe. He was wearied, but He is the Rest 
of them that are weary and heavy laden.(a) He was heavy with 
sleep, but He walked lightly over the sea.(b) He rebuked the 
winds, He made Peter light as he began to sink.(g) He pays 
tribute, but it is out of a fish; (d) yea, He is the King of 
those who demanded it.(e) He is called a Samaritan and a 
demoniac;(z)--but He saves him that came down from Jerusalem 
and fell among thieves;(h) the demons acknowledge Him, and He 
drives out demons and sinks in the sea legions of foul 
spirits,(q) and sees the Prince of the demons falling like 
lightning.(i) He is stoned, but is not taken. He prays, but He 
hears prayer. He weeps, but He causes tears to cease. He asks where Lazarus 
was laid, for He was Man; but He raises Lazarus, for He was 
God.(k) He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only for thirty 
pieces of silver;(l) but He redeems the world, and that at a 
great price, for the Price was His own blood.(m) As a sheep He 
is led to the slaughter,(n) but He is the Shepherd of Israel, 
and now of the whole world also. As a Lamb He is silent, yet He is the Word, 
and is proclaimed by the Voice of one crying in the 
wilderness.(x) He is bruised and wounded, but He healeth every 
disease and every infirmity.(o) He is lifted up and nailed to 
the Tree, but by the Tree of Life He restoreth us; yea, He saveth even the 
Robber crucified with Him;(p) yea, He wrapped the visible world 
in darkness. He is given vinegar to drink mingled with gall. Who? He who 
turned the water into wine? who is the destroyer of the bitter taste, who is 
Sweetness and altogether desire.(r) He lays down His life, but 
He has power to take it again;(s) and the veil is rent, for the 
mysterious doors of Heaven are opened; the rocks are cleft, the dead 
arise.(t) He dies, but He gives life, and by His death destroys 
death. He is buried, but He rises again; He goes down into Hell, but He brings 
up the souls; He ascends to Heaven, and shall come again to judge the quick 
and the dead, and to put to the test such words as yours. If the one give you 
a starting point for your error, let the others put an end to it. 

  XXI. This, then, is our reply to those who would puzzle us; not given 
willingly indeed (for light talk and contradictions of words are not agreeable 
to the faith fill, and one Adversary is enough for us), but of necessity, for 
the sake of our assailants (for medicines exist because of diseases), that 
they may be led to see that they are not all-wise nor invincible in those 
superfluous arguments which make void the Gospel. For when we leave off 
believing, and protect ourselves by mere strength of argument, and destroy the 
claim which the Spirit has upon our faith by questionings, and then our 
argument is not strong enough for the importance of the subject (and this must 
necessarily be the case, since it is put in motion by an organ of so little 
power as is our mind), what is the result? The weakness of the argument 
appears to belong to the mystery, and thus elegance of language makes void the 
Cross, as Paul also thought.(a) For faith is that which 
completes our argument. But may He who proclaimeth unions and looseth those 
that are bound, and who putteth into our minds to solve the knots of their 
unnatural dogmas, if it may be, change these men and make them faithful 
instead of rhetoricians, Christians instead of that which they now are called. 
This indeed we entreat and beg for Christ's sake. Be ye reconciled to 
God,(b) and quench not the Spirit;(g) or rather, 
may Christ be reconciled to you, and may the Spirit enlighten you, though so 
late. But if you are too fond of your quarrel, we at any rate will hold fast 
to the Trinity, and by the Trinity may we be saved, remaining pure and without 
offence, until the more perfect shewing forth of that which we desire, in Him, 
Christ our Lord, to Whom be the glory for ever. Amen.