Son is true God, like the Father. "Neither," he says, "the Lord (the Father) nor the Holy Ghost would have absolutely called him God, if he was not true God." And again (5), he says, "the Father is the measure, and he is infinite, and the Son containing him must be infinite likewise." They object that St. Iræneus has said that the day of judgment is known to the Father alone, and that the Father is greater than the Son; but this has been already answered (vide n. 10); and again, in another place, where the Saint says, Christ, with the Father, is the God of the living" (6).

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28. Athenagoras, a Christian philosopher of Athens, in his Apology for the Christians, writes to the Emperors Antoninus and Commodus, that the reason why we say that all things were made by the Son is this: "Whereas," he says, "the Father and the Son are one and the same, and the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son, by the unity and power of the Spirit, the Mind and Word is the Son of God." In these words: "Whereas the Father and the Son are one," he explains the unity of nature of the Son with the Father; and in the other," the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son," that peculiarity of the Trinity called by theologians Circuminsession, by which one Person is in the others. He immediately adds: "We assert that the Son the Word is God, as is also the Holy Ghost united in power."

29. Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, says (7): "We ought to know that our Lord Christ is true God and true man-God from God the Father-man from Mary, his human Mother." Clement of Alexandria (8) writes: "Now the Word himself has appeared to man, who alone is both at the same time God and man." And again he says (9): "God hates nothing, nor neither does the Word, for both are one, to wit, God, for he has said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Origen (10) wrote against Celsus, who objected to the Christians, that they adored Jesus Christ as God, though he was dead, and he thus expresses himself: "Be it known to our accusers that we believe this Jesus to be God and the Son of God." And again he says (11), that although Christ suffered as man, the Word who was God did not suffer. "We distinguish," he says, "between the nature of the Divine Word, which is God, and the soul of Jesus." I do not quote the passage which follows, as it is on that theologians found their doubts of the faith of Origen, as the reader may see by consulting Nat. Alexander (12), but there can be no doubt, from the passage already quoted, that Origen confessed that Jesus was God and the Son of God.

(5) St. Iræn. ad Hær. l. 4, c. 8. in Evang. (8) Clem. Alex. in (10) Origen, l. 3, cont. Celsum. sec. 3, Diss. 16, art. 2.

(6) Idem, l. 3, c. 11.
Admon. ad Græcos.
(11) Idem, l. 4, cont.

(7) Theoph. l. 5; Allegor. (9) Idem, l. 1; Pædagog. c. 8. Celsum. (12) Nat. Alex.

30. Dionysius Alexandrinus, towards the end of the third century, was accused (13) of denying the consubstantiality of the Word with the Father, but he says: "I have shown that they falsely charge me with saying that Christ is not consubstantial with God." St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, one of Origen's scholars, Bishop of Pontus, and one of the accusers of Paul of Samosata in the Synod of Antioch, says, in his Confession of Faith (14): "There is one God, the Father of the living Word, the perfect Father of the perfect, the Father of the only-begotten Son (solus ex solo), God of God. And there is one Holy Ghost from God having existence." St. Methodius, as St. Jerome informs us (15), Bishop of Tyre, who suffered martyrdom under Diocletian, thus speaks of the Word in his book entitled De Martyribus, quoted by Theodoret (16): “ The Lord and the Son of God, who thought it no robbery to be equal to God."

31. We now come to the Latin Fathers of the Western Church. St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (17), proves the Divinity of the Word with the very texts we have already quoted. "The Lord says: I and the Father are one." And again, it is written of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, "and these three are one." In another place he says (18), "God is mingled with man; this is our God-this is Christ." I omit the authority of St. Dionisius Romanus, of St. Athanasius, of Arnobius, of Lactantius, of Minutius Felix, of Zeno, and of other eminent writers, who forcibly defend the Divinity of the Word. I will merely here quote a few passages from Tertullian, whose authority the Socinians abuse. In one part he says, speaking of the Word (19), "Him have we learned as produced from God (prolatum), and so generated, and therefore he is said to be God, and the Son of God, from the unity of substance....He is, therefore, Spirit from Spirit, God from God, and light from light." Again he says (20): "I and the Father are one, in the unity of substance, and not in the singularity of number." From these passages it clearly appears that Tertullian held that the Word was God, like the Father, and consubstantial with the Father. Our adversaries adduce some obscure passages from the most obscure part of his works, which they imagine favour their opinion; but our authors have demolished all their quibbles, and can consult them (21).

32. It is, however, certain, on the authority of the Fathers of the first three centuries, that the Faith of the Church in the Divinity and consubstantiality of the Word with the Father has been un

(13) Dionys. Alex. apud St. Athan. t. 1, p. 561. (14) St. Greg. Thaum. p. 1, Oper. apud Greg. Nyssen. in Vita Greg. Thaum. (15) St. Hier. de Scrip. Eccles. c. 34. (16) Theodoret, Dial. 1, p. 37. (17) St. Cyprian, de lib. Unit. Eccles. (18) Idem, 7. de Idol. vanit. (19) Tertull. Apol. c. 21. (20) Idem, lib. con. Praxeam, c. 25. (21) Vide Juvenin. t. 3, q. 2, c. 1, a. 1, sec. 2; Tournelly, t. 2, q. 4, art. 3, sec. 2; Antoin. Theol. Trac. de Trin. c. 1, art. 3.

changeable, and even Socinus himself is obliged to confess this (22). Guided by this tradition, the three hundred and eighteen Fathers of the General Council of Nice, held in the year 325, thus defined the Faith: "We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten Son from the Father, that is, from the substance of the Father; God of God, light of lights, true God of true God, consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made." This self-same profession of Faith has been from that always preserved in the subsequent General Councils, and in the whole Church.

SEC. III. OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

33. Before commencing, it would be well to remember, as St. Ambrose (1) remarks, that the texts of Scripture adduced by our adversaries are not always to be taken in the same sense, as some of them refer to Christ as God, and more as man; but the heretics confuse one with the other, applying those which refer to him as man, as if they referred to him as God. "The pious mind," the Saint says, "will distinguish between those which apply to him, according to the flesh, and according to the Divinity; but the sacrilegious mind will confound them, and distort, as injurious to the Divinity, whatever is written according to the humility of the flesh." Now, this is exactly how the Arians proceed, in impugning the Divinity of the Word; they always fasten on those texts, in which Christ is said to be less than the Father. To upset most of their arguments, therefore, it will always be sufficient to explain, that Jesus, as man, is less than the Father, but as God, by the Word, to which his humanity is united, he is equal to the Father. When we speak, therefore, of Jesus Christ, as man, we can lawfully say that he is created, that he was made, that he obeys the Father, is subject to the Father, and soforth.

34. We shall now review the captious objections of our opponents: First. They object to us that text of St. John (iv. 28): "The Father is greater than I am." But, before quoting this pas sage, they ought to reflect that Christ, before speaking thus, said: "If you loved me, you would, indeed, be glad, because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I." Here, then, Jesus calls the Father greater than himself, inasmuch as he, as man, was going to the Father in heaven; but mark how, afterwards, speaking of himself, according to the Divine nature, he says, "The Father and I are one;" and all the other texts already quoted (Sec. I.), are of the same tenor, and clearly prove the Divinity of the Word, and of Christ. Second.-They object that Christ says:

"I came

(22) Socinus, Epist. ad Radoc. in t. 1, suor. Oper. (1) St. Ambrose, l. 5, de Fide, e. 8, n. 115.

down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me" (John, vi. 38); and also that passage of St. Paul: "And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then the Son also himself shall be subject unto him, that put all things under him" (1 Corinth. xv. 28). The Son, therefore, obeys, and is subject to the Father, and, therefore, is not God. In regard to the first text, we answer that Jesus Christ then explained the two wills, according to the two natures he had-to wit, the human will, by which he was to obey the Father, and the Divine will, which was common both to him and the Father. As far as the second text goes, St. Paul only says, that the Son, as man, will be always subject to the Father; and that we do not deny. How, then, can it interfere with our belief in his Divinity? Third. They object that passage of the Acts of the Apostles (iii. 13): "The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom you, indeed, delivered up," &c. See here, they say, how a distinction is made between the Son and between the Father, who is called God. We answer, that this refers to Christ as man, and not as God; for the words, "he glorified his Son," are to be understood, as referring to Christ in his human nature. St. Ambrose, besides, gives another answer, when he says, "that if the Father is understood by the name of God alone, it is because from him is all authority."

35. The following objections are just of the same character as the preceding. They object, fourthly, that text of the Proverbs: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning" (Prov. viii. 22). This is the text, according to the Vulgate, and the Hebrew original is just the same; but in the Greek Septuagint it is thus read: "The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways." Therefore, the Arians say, the Divine Wisdom which is here spoken of was created, and they strengthen their argument, by quoting from Ecclesiasticus (xxiv. 14): “ From the beginning, and before all ages, I was created." We answer, first of all, the true reading is that of the Vulgate, and that alone, according to the Decree of the Council of Trent, we are bound to obey; but though we even take the Greek, it is of no consequence, as the word created (here used in the text of Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus), as St. Jerome and St. Augustin (2) teach us, does not exactly mean creation, for the Greeks promiscuously used the words created and begotten, to signify sometimes creation, sometimes generation, as appears from Deuteronomy (xxxii. 16): "Thou hast forsaken the God that begot thee, and hast forgotten the Lord that created thee." Hence generation is taken for creation. There is a passage also in the Book of Proverbs, which, if we consider the text, can only be understood of the

(2) St. Hieron. in Cap. 4; Ep. ad Eph. St. August. lib. de Fil. & Simb.

generation of the Divine Wisdom: "I was set up from eternity, and of old, before the earth was made....... Before the hills I was brought forth" (Proverbs, viii. 23). We should remark here the expression, "I was set up from eternity." That shows how we ought to understand the word created is to be understood in the former quotation. We might also answer, with St. Hilary, that the word created refers to the human nature the Word assumed, and the words, brought forth, to the eternal generation of the Word (3). Wisdom here is spoken of as created, and, immediately after, as begotten; but creation is to be referred, not to the immutable nature of God, but to the human generation. "Sapientia itaque quæ se dixit creatam, eadem in consequenti se dixit genitam: creationem referens ad Parentis inde mutabilem naturam, quæ extra humani partus speciem, et consuetudinem, sine imminutione aliqua, ac diminutione sui creavit ex seipsa quod genuit." In the text of Ecclesiasticus, cited immediately after, it is clear that the Incarnate Wisdom is spoken of: "He that made me rested in my tabernacle;" for this by the Incarnation was verified. God, who "created" Jesus Christ according to his humanity, "rested in his tabernacle" that is, reposed in that created humanity. The following passage is eyen, if possible, clearer: "Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect." All this surely refers to the Incarnate Wisdom, who came from the stock of Israel and Jacob, and was then the root of all the elect. Read on this subject St. Augustin, St. Fulgentius, and, above all, St. Athanasius (4).

36. They object, fifthly, that St. Paul says of Christ, in his Epistle to the Colossians (i. 15): "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature." Hence, they infer that Christ is the most excellent of creatures, but still only a creature. We may here reply, that the Apostle speaks of Christ in this text, according to his human nature, as St. Cyril explains it (5). But it is generally interpreted of the Divine Nature, and he is called the first-born of all creatures, because by him all creatures were made, as St. Basil explains it (6): "Since in him were made all things in heaven and on earth." In the same manner, he is called, in the Apocalypse, "the first-born of the dead" (Apoc. i. 5); because, as St. Basil again explains it, he was the cause of the resurrection of the dead. Or he may be called the first-born, because he was generated before all things, as Tertullian (7) explains it: "The first-born, because he was born before all things; the only-begotten, as the only begotten of God." St. Ambrose (8) says the same thing. We read the first-born-we read the only-begotten; the

(3) St. Hilar. lib. de Synod. c. 5. (4) St. Aug. l. 5, de Trin. c. 12; St. Fulgent. lib. contra serm. fastid. Arian. St. Athanas. Orat. contra Arian. (5) St. Cyril, l. 25; Thesaur. (6) St. Basil, l. 4, con. Eunom. (7) Tertul. con. Prax. c. 7. (8) St. Ambrose, l. 1, de Fide.