43. There are many other heresies too, which use the words only, but not in a right sense, as I have said, nor with sound faith [2486] , and in consequence the water which they administer is unprofitable, as deficient in piety, so that he who is sprinkled [2487] by them is rather polluted [2488] by irreligion than redeemed. So Gentiles also, though the name of God is on their lips, incur the charge of Atheism [2489] , because they know not the real and very God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Manichees and Phrygians [2490] , and the disciples of the Samosatene, though using the Names, nevertheless are heretics, and the Arians follow in the same course, though they read the words of Scripture, and use the Names, yet they too mock those who receive the rite from them, being more irreligious than the other heresies, and advancing beyond them, and making them seem innocent by their own recklessness of speech. For these other heresies lie against the truth in some certain respect, either erring concerning the Lord's Body, as if He did not take flesh of Mary, or as if He has not died at all, nor become man, but only appeared, and was not truly, and seemed to have a body when He had not, and seemed to have the shape of man, as visions in a dream; but the Arians are without disguise irreligious against the Father Himself. For hearing from the Scriptures that His Godhead is represented in the Son as in an image, they blaspheme, saying, that it is a creature, and everywhere concerning that Image, they carry about [2491] with them the phrase, He was not,' as mud in a wallet [2492] , and spit it forth as serpents [2493] their venom. Then, whereas their doctrine is nauseous to all men, forthwith, as a support against its fall, they prop up the heresy with human [2494] patronage, that the simple, at the sight or even by the fear may overlook the mischief of their perversity. Right indeed is it to pity their dupes; well is it to weep over them, for that they sacrifice their own interest for that immediate phantasy which pleasures furnish, and forfeit their future hope. In thinking to be baptized into the name of one who exists not, they will receive nothing; and ranking themselves with a creature, from the creation they will have no help, and believing in one unlike [2495] and foreign to the Father in essence, to the Father they will not be joined, not having His own Son by nature, who is from Him, who is in the Father, and in whom the Father is, as He Himself has said; but being led astray by them, the wretched men henceforth remain destitute and stripped of the Godhead. For this phantasy of earthly goods will not follow them upon their death; nor when they see the Lord whom they have denied, sitting on His Father's throne, and judging quick and dead, will they be able to call to their help any one of those who have now deceived them; for they shall see them also at the judgment-seat, repenting for their deeds of sin and irreligion.
[2396] §35, note 2.
[2397] Col. i. 16.
[2398] De Syn. 42, note 1.
[2399] hos dia cheiros. vid. supr. p. 155, note 6. And so in Orat. iv. 26, a. de Incarn. contr. Arian. 12. a. krataia cheir tou patros. Method. de Creat. ap. Phot. cod. 235. p. 937. Iren. Hær. iv. 20. n. 1. v. 1 fin. and. 5. n. 2. and 6. n. 1. Clement. Protrept. p. 93. (ed. Potter.) Tertull. contr. Hermog. 45. Cypr. Testim. ii. 4. Euseb. in Psalm cviii. 27. Clement. Recogn. viii. 43. Clement. Hom. xvi. 12. Cyril. Alex. frequently, e.g. in Joan. pp. 876, 7. Thesaur. p. 154. Pseudo-Basil. cheir demiourgike, contr. Eunom. v. p. 297. Job. ap. Phot. 222. p. 582. and August. in Joann. 48, 7. though he prefers another use of the word.
[2400] Gen. i. 3, 9, 26.
[2401] Ps. clxviii. 5.
[2402] Vid. de Decr. 9. contr. Gent. 46. Iren. Hær. iii. 8. n. 3. Origen contr. Cels. ii. 9. Tertull. adv. Prax. 12. fin. Patres Antioch. ap. Routh t. 2. p. 468. Prosper in Psalm. 148. (149.) Basil. de Sp. S. n. 20. Hilar. Trin. iv. 16. vid. supr. §22, note. Didym. de Sp. S. 36. August. de Trin. i. 26. On this mystery vid. Petav. Trin. vi. 4.
[2403] boule. And so boulesis presently; and zosa boule, supr. 2. and Orat. iii. 63. fin. and so Cyril Thes. p. 54, who uses it expressly (as it is always used by implication), in contrast to the kata boulesin of the Arians, though Athan. uses kata to boulema, e.g. Orat. iii. 31. where vid. note; autos tou patros thelema. Nyss. contr. Eunom. xii. p. 345. The principle to be observed in the use of such words is this; that we must ever speak of the Father's will, command, &c., and the Son's fulfilment, assent, &c., as one act. vid. notes on Orat. iii. 11 and 15. infr. [Cf. p. 87. note 2.]
[2404] Gen. xv. 8.
[2405] Ex. iv. 13.
[2406] Ib. iii. 13.
[2407] Zech. i. 3, 12.
[2408] §16, note 7.
[2409] Ps. civ. 24; xxxiii. 6; 1 Cor. viii. 6
[2410] Vid. Matt. xvii. 5.
[2411] Prov. viii. 25, LXX.
[2412] tous mutheuomenous gigantas, vid. supr. de Decr. fin. Also hos tous gigantas Orat.iii. 42. In Hist. Arian. 74. he calls Constantius a gigas. The same idea is implied in the word theomachos so frequently applied to Arianism, as in this sentence.
[2413] Ps. lvii. 4.
[2414] Heb. i. 3; 1 Cor. i. 24.
[2415] Ps. xxxvi. 9; civ. 24.
[2416] Jer. ii. 1.
[2417] John i. 1; Luke i. 2.
[2418] Ps. cvii. 20.
[2419] Vid. p. 150, n. 6, also Gent. 40 fin. where what is here, as commonly, applied to the Arians, is, before the rise of Arianism, applied to unbelievers.
[2420] Vid. de Decr. 12, 16, notes i. 26, n. 2, ii. 36, n. 1. de Syn. 41, n. 1. In illud Omnia 3 fin. vid. also 6. Aug. Confess. xiii. 11. And again, Trin. xv. 39. And S. Basil contr. Eunom. ii. 17.
[2421] Wisd. xiii. 5.
[2422] The Second Person in the Holy Trinity is not a quality of attribute or relation, but the One Eternal Substance; not a part of the First Person, but whole or entire God; nor does the generation impair the Father's Substance, which is, antecedently to it, whole and entire God. Thus there are two Persons, in Each Other ineffably, Each being wholly one and the same Divine Substance, yet not being merely separate aspects of the Same, Each being God as absolutely as if there were no other Divine Person but Himself. Such a statement indeed is not only a contradiction in the terms used, but in our ideas, yet not therefore a contradiction in fact; unless indeed any one will say that human words can express in one formula, or human thought embrace in one idea, the unknown and infinite God. Basil. contr. Eun. i. 10. vid. infr. §38, n. 3.
[2423] John xiv. 10.
[2424] John x. 30.
[2425] dielein, vid. §25, note 3.
[2426] Hist. Ar. 52, n. 4.
[2427] In illud. Omn. 6. init.
[2428] Cf. p. 69, notes 7 and 8.
[2429] De Decr. 7, n. 2; De Syn. 3, n. 2; Or. i. 8.
[2430] He here makes the test of the truth of explicit doctrinal statements to lie in their not shocking, or their answering to the religious sense of the Christian.
[2431] Vid. supr. de Decr. 2. n. 6. Tertullian de Carn. Christ. 17. S. Leo, as Athan. makes seed' in the parable apply peculiarly to faith in distinction to obedience. Serm. 69. 5 init.
[2432] periergazontai. This can scarcely be, as Newman suggests, an error of the press for perierchontai. The Latin translates circumire coeperunt.
[2433] Orat. iv. 1.
[2434] pepautai, Orat. iv. 2.
[2435] Vid. 1 Tim. vi. 10.
[2436] ho tes aletheias logos elenchei. This and the like are usual forms of speech with Athan. and others. In some instances the words aletheia, logos, &c., are almost synonymous with the Regula Fidei; vid. para ten aletheian, infr. 36. and Origen de Princ. Præf. 1. and 2.
[2437] Orat. i. 21.
[2438] For this contrast between the Divine Word and the human which is Its shadow, vid. also Orat. iv. 1. circ. fin. Iren. Hær. ii. 13. n. 8. Origen. in Joan. i. p. 25. e. Euseb. Demonstr. v. 5. p. 230. Cyril, Cat. xi. 10. Basil, Hom. xvi. 3. Nyssen contr. Eunom. xii. p. 350. Orat. Cat. i. p. 478. Damasc. F. O. i. 6. August. in Psalm xliv. 5.
[2439] Vid. Serap. i. 28, a.
[2440] §31, n. 7.
[2441] De Syn. 24, n. 9; infr. 36. note.
[2442] John i. 1.
[2443] Heb. iv. 12, 13.
[2444] John i. 3.
[2445] Eusebius has some forcible remarks on this subject. As, he says, we do not know how God can create out of nothing, so we are utterly ignorant of the Divine Generation. It is written, He who believes, not he who knows, has eternal life. The sun's radiance itself is but an earthly image, and gives us no true idea of that which is above all images. Eccl. Theol. i. 12. So has S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 29. 8. vid. also Hippol. in Noet. 16. Cyril, Cat. xi. 11. and 19. and Origen, according to Mosheim, Ante Const. p 619. And instances in Petav. de Trin. v. 6. §2. and 3.
[2446] Cf. August. Ep. 43. init. vid. also de Bapt. contr. Don. iv. 23.
[2447] Vid. Ps. cxix. 89
[2448] Vid. supr. 35. Orat. iv. 1. also presently, He is likeness and image of the sole and true God, being Himself also,' 49. monos en mono, Orat. iii. 21. holos holou eikon. Serap. i. 16, a. The Offspring of the Ingenerate,' says S. Hilary, is One from One, True from True, Living from Living, Perfect from Perfect, Power of Power, Wisdom of Wisdom, Glory of Glory.' de Trin. ii. 8. teleios teleion gegenneken, pneuma pneuma. Epiph. Hær. p. 495. As Light from Light, and Life from Life, and Good from Good; so from Eternal Eternal. Nyss. contr. Eunom. i. p. 164. App.
[2449] polloi logoi, vid. de Decr. 16, n. 4. infr. 39 init. and oud' ek pollon heis, Sent. D. 25. a. also Ep. Æg. 14. c. Origen in Joan. tom. ii. 3. Euseb. Demonstr. v. 5. p. 229 fin. contr. Marc. p. 4 fin. contr. Sabell. init. August. in Joan. Tract. i. 8. also vid. Philo's use of logoi for Angels as commented on by Burton, Bampt. Lect. p. 556. The heathens called Mercury by the name of logos. vid. Benedictine note f. in Justin, Ap. i. 21.
[2450] This was the point in which Arians and [Marcellus] agreed, vid infr. Orat. iv. init. also §§22, 40, and de Decr. 24, n. 9, also Sent D. 25. Ep. Æg. 14 fin. Epiph. Hær. 72. p. 835. b.
[2451] That is, they allowed Him to be really Son,' and argued that He was but notionally Word.' vid. §19, n. 3.
[2452] agennetos, vid. Euseb. Eccl. Theol. p. 106. d.
[2453] 1 Cor. i. 24.
[2454] Rom. i. 20.
[2455] Or. i. 11, n. 7.
[2456] logika, vid. Ep. Æg. 13 fin.
[2457] Of course this line of thought consistently followed, leads to a kind of Pantheism; for what is the Supreme Being, according to it, but an ideal standard of perfection, the sum total of all that we see excellent in the world in the highest degree, a creation of our minds, without real objective existence? The true view of our Lord's titles, on the other hand, is that He is That properly and in perfection, of which in measure and degree the creatures partake from and in Him. Vid. supr. de Decr. 17, n. 5.
[2458] kat' epinoian, in idea or notion. This is a phrase of very frequent occurrence, both in Athan. and other writers. We have found it already just above, and de Syn. 15. Or. i. 9, also Orat. iv. 2, 3. de Sent. D. 2, Ep. Æg 12, 13, 14. It denotes our idea or conception of a thing in contrast to the thing itself. Thus, the sun is to a savage a bright circle in the sky; a man is a rational animal,' according to a certain process of abstraction; a herb may be medicine upon one division, food in another; virtue may be called a mean; and faith is to one man an argumentative conclusion, to another a moral peculiarity, good or bad. In like manner, the Almighty is in reality most simple and uncompounded, without parts, passions, attributes, or properties; yet we speak of Him as good or holy, or as angry or pleased, denoting some particular aspect in which our infirmity views, in which also it can view, what is infinite and incomprehensible. That is, He is kat' epinoian holy or merciful, being in reality a Unity which is all mercifulness and also all holiness, not in the way of qualities but as one indivisible perfection; which is too great for us to conceive as It is.