[2329] 21, note 2.
[2330] Ps. xix. 1.
[2331] 1 Esdr. iv. 36.
[2332] John xiv. 6.
[2333] Prov. viii. 30, LXX.
[2334] John v. 17.
[2335] Orat. iii. 11. note.
[2336] poietikon aition, also, infr. 27. and Orat. iii. 14. and contr. Gent. 9 init. No creature can create, vid. e.g. about Angels, August. de Civ. Dei xii. 24. de Trin. iii. 13-18. Damasc. F. O. ii. 3. Cyril in Julian, ii. p. 62. Our reason rejects the idea that the Creator should be a creature, for creation is by the Creator.' Hil. Trin. xii. 5. pos dunatai to ktizomenon ktizein; e pos ho ktizon ktizetai; Athan. ad Afros. 4 fin. Vid. also Serap. i. 24, 6. iii. 4, e. The Gnostics who attributed creation to Angels are alluded to infr. Orat. iii. 12. Epiph. Hær. 52. 53, 163, &c. Theodor. Hær. i. 1 and 3.
[2337] De Decr. 11.
[2338] prostattomenos kai hupourgon. It is not quite clear that Athan. accepts these words in his own person, as has been assumed de Decr. 9. note 2, de Syn. 27 (3). Vid. de Decr. 7. and infr. 24. and 31, which, as far as they go, are against the use of the word. Also S. Basil objects to hupourgos contr. Eunom. ii. 21. and S. Cyril in Joan. p. 48. though S. Basil speaks of ton prostattonta kurion. i. 46, note 3. and S. Cyril of the Son's hupotage, Thesaur. p. 255. Vid. ministering, huperetounta, to the Father of all.' Just. Tryph. p. 72. The Word become minister, huperetes, of the Creator,' Origen Hom. in Joan. p. 61. also Constit. Ap. viii. 12. but Pseudo-Athan. objects to hupereton, de Comm. Essent. 30. and Athan. apparently, infr. 28. Again, Whom did He order, præcepit?' Iren. Hær. iii. 8. n. 3. The Father bids, entelletai (allusion to Ps. xxxiii. 9. vid. infr. 31), the Word accomplishes....He who commands, keleuon, is the Father, He who obeys, hupakouon, the Son....The Father willed, ethelesen, the Son did it.' Hippol. contr. Noet. 14. on which Fabricius's note. S. Hilary speaks of the Son as subditus per obedientiæ obsequelam.' de Syn. 51. Vid. below, on §31. In note 8 there the principle is laid down for the use of these expressions. [Supr. p. 87, note 2.]
[2339] Cf. Ep. Æg. 14. vid. also supr. p. 155. and Orat. iii. 2. 64. Aug. in Joan. Tract. i. 11. Vid. a parallel argument with reference to the Holy Spirit. Serap. i. 25. b.
[2340] Vid. John xiv. 9, 10.
[2341] ten kata panta homoioteta: vid. parallel instances, de Syn. 26 (5) note 1, which add, homoios kata panta, Orat. i. 40. kata panta kai en pasi, Ep. Æg. 17, c. tou patros homoios, Orat. ii. 17. Orat. iii. 20, a. not homoios, as the Church preaches, but hos autoi thelousi' (vid. p. 289, note 4), also de Syn. 53, note 9.
[2342] As Sonship is implied in Image' (supr. §2, note 2), so it is implied in Word' and Wisdom.' Orat. iv. 15. Orat. iii. 29 init. de Decr. 17. And still more pointedly, Orat. iv. 24 fin. vid. also supr. i. 28, note 5. And so Image is implied in Sonship: being Son of God He must be like Him,' supr. 17. And so Image' is implied in Word;' en te idi& 139; eikoni, hetis estin ho logos autou, infr. 82, d. also 34, c. On the contrary, the very root of heretical error was the denial that these titles implied each other, vid. supr. 27, de Decr. 17, 24, notes.
[2343] Vid. Ex. xxxiii. 20.
[2344] Matt. xi. 27.
[2345] John vi. 46, not to the letter.
[2346] Vid. supr. 1. and Exc. B.
[2347] Greek text dislocated.
[2348] Ps. ii. 7; Matt. iii. 17.
[2349] De Decr. 10.
[2350] Vid. Orat. iii. 12.
[2351] Acts x. 26.
[2352] Rev. xxii. 9.
[2353] [A note, to the effect that worship' is an ambiguous term, is omitted here.]
[2354] Vid. Judg. xiii. 16.
[2355] Heb. i. 6.
[2356] Is. xlv. 14.
[2357] John xiii. 13; xx. 28.
[2358] diar& 191;egnuosin heautous; also ad Adelph. 8. and vid. supr. note on de Decr. 17. vid. also diar& 191;egnuontai, de Syn. 54, kai diar& 191;agoien, Marcell. ap. Euseb. Eccl. Theol. p. 116. also p. 40 trizosi tous odontos, de Fug. 26. init. trizetosan, ad Adelph. 8. Hist. Ar. 68. fin. and literally 72. a. koptousin heautous. In illud Omnia 5.
[2359] John xvi. 15.
Chapter XVII.--Introduction to Proverbs viii. 22 continued. Absurdity of supposing a Son or Word created in order to the creation of other creatures; as to the creation being unable to bear God's immediate hand, God condescends to the lowest. Moreover, if the Son a creature, He too could not bear God's hand, and an infinite series of media will be necessary. Objected, that, as Moses who led out the Israelites was a man, so our Lord; but Moses was not the Agent in creation:--again, that unity is found in created ministrations, but all such ministrations are defective and dependent:--again, that He learned to create, yet could God's Wisdom need teaching? and why should He learn, if the Father worketh hitherto? If the Son was created to create us, He is for our sake, not we for His.
24 (continued). And here it were well to ask them also this question [2360] , for a still clearer refutation of their heresy;--Wherefore, when all things are creatures, and all are brought into consistence from nothing, and the Son Himself, according to you, is creature and work, and once was not, wherefore has He made all things through Him' alone, and without Him was made not one thing [2361] ?' or why is it, when all things' are spoken of, that no one thinks the Son is signified in the number, but only things originate; whereas when Scripture speaks of the Word, it does not understand Him as being in the number of all,' but places Him with the Father, as Him in whom Providence and salvation for all' are wrought and effected by the Father, though all things surely might at the same command have come to be, at which He was brought into being by God alone? For God is not wearied by commanding [2362] , nor is His strength unequal to the making of all things, that He should alone create the only Son [2363] , and need His ministry and aid for the framing of the rest. For He lets nothing stand over, which He wills to be done; but He willed only [2364] , and all things subsisted, and no one hath resisted His will [2365] .' Why then were not all things brought into being by God alone at that same command, at which the Son came into being? Or let them tell us, why did all things through Him come to be, who was Himself but originate? How void of reason! however, they say concerning Him, that God willing to create originate nature, when He saw that it could not endure the untempered hand of the Father, and to be created by Him, makes and creates first and alone one only, and calls Him Son and Word, that, through Him as a medium, all things might thereupon be brought to be [2366] .' This they not only have said, but they have dared to put it into writing, namely, Eusebius, Arius, and Asterius who sacrificed [2367] .
25. Is not this a full proof of that irreligion, with which they have drugged themselves with much madness, till they blush not to be intoxicate against the truth? For if they shall assign the toil of making all things as the reason why God made the Son only, the whole creation will cry out against them as saying unworthy things of God; and Isaiah too who has said in Scripture, The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary: there is no searching of His understanding [2368] .' And if God made the Son alone, as not deigning to make the rest, but committed them to the Son as an assistant, this on the other hand is unworthy of God, for in Him there is no pride. Nay the Lord reproves the thought, when He says, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?' and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father which is in heaven.' And again, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them; are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith [2369] ?' If then it be not unworthy of God to exercise His Providence, even down to things so small, a hair of the head, and a sparrow, and the grass of the field, also it was not unworthy of Him to make them. For what things are the subjects of His Providence, of those He is Maker through His proper Word. Nay a worse absurdity lies before the men who thus speak; for they distinguish [2370] between the creatures and the framing; and consider the latter the work of the Father, the creatures the work of the Son; whereas either all things must be brought to be by the Father with the Son, or if all that is originate comes to be through the Son, we must not call Him one of the originated things.
26. Next, their folly may be exposed thus:--if even the Word be of originated nature, how, whereas this nature is too feeble to be God's own handywork, could He alone of all endure to be made by the unoriginate and unmitigated Essence of God, as ye say? for it follows either that, if He could endure it, all could endure it, or, it being endurable by none, it was not endurable by the Word, for you say that He is one of originate things. And again, if because originate nature could not endure to be God's own handywork, there arose need of a mediator [2371] , it must follow, that, the Word being originate and a creature, there is need of medium in His framing also, since He too is of that originate nature which endures not to be made of God, but needs a medium. But if some being as a medium be found for Him, then again a fresh mediator is needed for that second, and thus tracing back and following out, we shall invent a vast crowd of accumulating mediators; and thus it will be impossible that the creation should subsist, as ever wanting a mediator, and that medium not coming into being without another mediator; for all of them will be of that originate nature which endures not to be made of God alone, as ye say. How abundant is that folly, which obliges them to hold that what has already come into being, admits not of coming! Or perhaps they opine that they have not even come to be, as still seeking their mediator; for, on the ground of their so irreligious and futile notion [2372] , what is would not have subsistence, for want of the medium.
27. But again they allege this:--Behold, through Moses too did He lead the people from Egypt, and through him He gave the Law, yet he was a man; so that it is possible for like to be brought into being by like.' They should veil their face when they say this, to save their much shame. For Moses was not sent to frame the world, nor to call into being things which were not, or to fashion men like himself, but only to be the minister of words to the people, and to King Pharaoh. And this is a very different thing, for to minister is of things originate as of servants, but to frame and to create is of God alone, and of His proper Word and His Wisdom. Wherefore, in the matter of framing, we shall find none but God's Word; for all things are made in Wisdom,' and without the Word was made not one thing.' But as regards ministrations there are, not one only, but man out of their whole number, whomever the Lord will send. For there are many Archangels, many Thrones, and Authorities, and Dominions, thousands of thousands, and myriads of myriads, standing before Him [2373] , ministering and ready to be sent. And many Prophets, and twelve Apostles, and Paul. And Moses himself was not alone, but Aaron with him, and next other seventy were filled with the Holy Ghost. And Moses was succeeded by Joshua the son of Nun, and he by the Judges, and they not by one, but by a number of Kings. If then the Son were a creature and one of things originate, there must have been many such sons, that God might have many such ministers, just as there is a multitude of those others. But if this is not to be seen, but while the creatures are many, the Word is one, any one will collect from this, that the Son differs from all, and is not on a level with the creatures, but proper to the Father. Hence there are not many Words, but one only Word of the one Father, and one Image of the one God [2374] . But behold,' they say, there is one sun only [2375] , and one earth.' Let them maintain, senseless as they are, that there is one water and one fire, and then they may be told that everything that is brought to be, is one in its own essence; but for the ministry and service committed to it, by itself it is not adequate nor sufficient alone. For God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the earth and to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.' And then he says, And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night [2376] .'