The Orationes centra Arianos, four in number, were written, it is supposed, during the stay of Athanasius in Egypt. In the frst discourse he answers the objec- tions which the Arians brought against what is now commonly termed the Eternal Sonship of Christ. In the second he shows the dignity of Christ's nature, and its superiority to that of angels and to all created beings, and explains several portions of Scripture, especially Prov. viii, which he applies to Christ, pointing out what parts relate to his divine nature, and those which are to be understood of his human nature. The third may be divided into three parts. In the first he shows the essential unity and identity of the Father and Son; in the second he explains certain passages of Scripture which relate only to the human nature of Christ, and which the Arians had perverted by applying them to his a 'ivinity, in order the better to serve their own cause; in the third part he answers their objections; in the fourth discourse Athanasius shows the unity of the divine nature, and, at the same time, the distinct personality of the Father and the Son. Most of this oration refers to other heresies than Arianism. '• We do not hesitate to affirm that the four orations of Atha- nasius against the Arians contain a dialectics as sharp and penetrating, and a metaphysics as transcendental as any tiling in Aristotle or Ilegel" (Shedd, History • f /) ctrines, i, 78). Bishop Kaye gives a digest of the four orations in his Council of Nicaa | Lond. 1853, pt. ii). The Epistola ad Serapionem (four in number) were written in reply to Serapion, an Egyptian bishop, who asked Athanasius to answer certain heretics who main- tained that the Holy Spirit was a mature, and one of the ministering spirits of God, different from angels
ATHANASIUS 507 ATHANASIUS