57. For had He been a creature, He had not said, He begets me,' for the creatures are from without, and are works of the Maker; but the Offspring is not from without nor a work, but from the Father, and proper to His Essence. Wherefore they are creatures; this God's Word and Only-begotten Son. For instance, Moses did not say of the creation, In the beginning He begat,' nor In the beginning was,' but In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth [2581] .' Nor did David say in the Psalm, Thy hands have "begotten me,"' but made me and fashioned me [2582] ,' everywhere applying the word made' to the creatures. But to the Son contrariwise; for he has not said I made,' but I begat [2583] ,' and He begets me,' and My heart uttered a good Word [2584] .' And in the instance of the creation, In the beginning He made;' but in the instance of the Son, In the beginning was the Word [2585] .' And there is this difference, that the creatures are made upon the beginning, and have a beginning of existence connected with an interval; wherefore also what is said of them, In the beginning He made,' is as much as saying of them, From the beginning He made:'--as the Lord, knowing that which He had made, taught, when He silenced the Pharisees, with the words, He which made them from the beginning, made them male and female [2586] ;' for from some beginning, when they were not yet, were originate things brought into being and created. This too the Holy Spirit has signified in the Psalms, saying, Thou, Lord, at the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth [2587] ;' and again, O think upon Thy congregation which Thou hast purchased from the beginning [2588] ;' now it is plain that what takes place at the beginning, has a beginning of creation, and that from some beginning God purchased His congregation. And that In the beginning He made,' from his saying made,' means began to make,' Moses himself shews by saying, after the completion of all things, And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God began to make [2589] .' Therefore the creatures began to be made; but the Word of God, not having beginning of being, certainly did not begin to be, nor begin to come to be, but was ever. And the works have their beginning in their making, and their beginning precedes their coming to be; but the Word, not being of things which come to be, rather comes to be Himself the Framer of those which have a beginning. And the being of things originate is measured by their becoming [2590] , and from some beginning does God begin to make them through the Word, that it may be known that they were not before their origination; but the Word has His being, in no other beginning [2591] than the Father, whom [2592] they allow to be without beginning, so that He too exists without beginning in the Father, being His Offspring, not His creature.
58. Thus does divine Scripture recognise the difference between the Offspring and things made, and shew that the Offspring is a Son, not begun from any beginning, but eternal; but that the thing made, as an external work of the Maker, began to come into being. John therefore delivering divine doctrine [2593] about the Son, and knowing the difference of the phrases, said not, In the beginning has become' or been made,' but In the beginning was the Word;' that we might understand Offspring' by was,' and not account of Him by intervals, but believe the Son always and eternally to exist. And with these proofs, how, O Arians, misunderstanding the passage in Deuteronomy, did you venture a fresh act of irreligion [2594] against the Lord, saying that He is a work,' or creature,' or indeed offspring?' for offspring and work you take to mean the same thing; but here too you shall be shewn to be as unlearned as you are irreligious. Your first passage is this, Is not He thy Father that bought thee? did He not make thee and create thee [2595] ?' And shortly after in the same Song he says, God that begat thee thou didst desert, and forgattest God that nourished thee [2596] .' Now the meaning conveyed in these passages is very remarkable; for he says not first He begat,' lest that term should be taken as indiscriminate with He made,' and these men should have a pretence for saying, Moses tells us indeed that God said from the beginning, "Let Us make man [2597] ,"' but he soon after says himself, God that begat thee thou didst desert,' as if the terms were indifferent; for offspring and work are the same. But after the words bought' and made,' he has added last of all begat,' that the sentence might carry its own interpretation; for in the word made' he accurately denotes what belongs to men by nature, to be works and things made; but in the word begat' he shews God's lovingkindness exercised towards men after He had created them. And since they have proved ungrateful upon this, thereupon Moses reproaches them, saying first, Do ye thus requite the Lord?' and then adds, Is not He thy Father that bought thee? Did He not make thee and create thee [2598] ?' And next he says, They sacrificed unto devils, not to God, to gods whom they knew not. New gods and strange came up, whom your fathers knew not; the God that begat thee thou didst desert [2599] .'
59. For God not only created them to be men, but called them to be sons, as having begotten them. For the term begat' is here as elsewhere expressive of a Son, as He says by the Prophet, I begat sons and exalted them;' and generally, when Scripture wishes to signify a son, it does so, not by the term created,' but undoubtedly by that of begat.' And this John seems to say, He gave to them power to become children of God, even to them that believe on His Name; which were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God [2600] .' And here too the cautious distinction [2601] is well kept up, for first he says become,' because they are not called sons by nature but by adoption; then he says were begotten,' because they too had received at any rate the name of son. But the People, as says the Prophet, despised' their Benefactor. But this is God's kindness to man, that of whom He is Maker, of them according to grace He afterwards becomes Father also; becomes, that is, when men, His creatures, receive into their hearts, as the Apostle says, the Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father [2602] .' And these are they who, having received the Word, gained power from Him to become sons of God; for they could not become sons, being by nature creatures, otherwise than by receiving the Spirit of the natural and true Son. Wherefore, that this might be, The Word became flesh,' that He might make man capable of Godhead. This same meaning may be gained also from the Prophet Malachi, who says, Hath not One God created us? Have we not all one Father [2603] ?' for first he puts created,' next Father,' to shew, as the other writers, that from the beginning we were creatures by nature, and God is our Creator through the Word; but afterwards we were made sons, and thenceforward God the Creator becomes our Father also. Therefore Father' is proper to the Son; and not creature,' but Son' is proper to the Father. Accordingly this passage also proves, that we are not sons by nature, but the Son who is in us [2604] ; and again, that God is not our Father by nature, but of that Word in us, in whom and because of whom we cry, Abba, Father [2605] .' And so in like manner, the Father calls them sons in whomsoever He sees His own Son, and says, I begat;' since begetting is significant of a Son, and making is indicative of the works. And thus it is that we are not begotten first, but made; for it is written, Let Us make man [2606] ;' but afterwards, on receiving the grace of the Spirit, we are said thenceforth to be begotten also; just as the great Moses in his Song with an apposite meaning says first He bought,' and afterwards He begat;' lest, hearing He begat,' they might forget their own original nature; but that they might know that from the beginning they are creatures, but when according to grace they are said to be begotten, as sons, still no less than before are men works according to nature.
60. And that creature and offspring are not the same, but differ from each other in nature and the signification of the words, the Lord Himself shews even in the Proverbs. For having said, The Lord created me a beginning of His ways;' He has added, But before all the hills He begat me.' If then the Word were by nature and in His Essence [2607] a creature, and there were no difference between offspring and creature, He would not have added, He begat me,' but had been satisfied with He created,' as if that term implied He begat;' but, as it is, after saying, He created me a beginning of His ways for His works,' He has added, not simply begat me,' but with the connection of the conjunction But,' as guarding thereby the term created,' when he says, But before all the hills He begat me.' For begat me' succeeding in such close connection to created me,' makes the meaning one, and shews that created' is said with an object [2608] , but that begat me' is prior to created me.' For as, if He had said the reverse, The Lord begat me,' and went on, But before the hills He created me,' created' would certainly precede begat,' so having said first created,' and then added But before all the hills He begat me,' He necessarily shews that begat' preceded created.' For in saying, Before all He begat me,' He intimates that He is other than all things; it having been shewn to be true [2609] in an earlier part of this book, that no one creature was made before another, but all things originate subsisted at once together upon one and the same command [2610] . Therefore neither do the words which follow created,' also follow begat me;' but in the case of created' is added beginning of ways,' but of begat me,' He says not, He begat me as a beginning,' but before all He begat me.' But He who is before all is not a beginning of all, but is other than all [2611] ; but if other than all (in which all' the beginning of all is included), it follows that He is other than the creatures; and it becomes a clear point, that the Word, being other than all things and before all, afterwards is created a beginning of the ways for works,' because He became man, that, as the Apostle has said, He who is the Beginning' and First-born from the dead, in all things might have the preeminence [2612] .'
61. Such then being the difference between created' and begat me,' and between beginning of ways' and before all,' God, being first Creator, next, as has been said, becomes Father of men, because of His Word dwelling in them. But in the case of the Word the reverse; for God, being His Father by nature, becomes afterwards both His Creator and Maker, when the Word puts on that flesh which was created and made, and becomes man. For, as men, receiving the Spirit of the Son, become children through Him, so the Word of God, when He Himself puts on the flesh of man, then is said both to be created and to have been made. If then we are by nature sons, then is He by nature creature and work; but if we become sons by adoption and grace, then has the Word also, when in grace towards us He became man, said, The Lord created me.' And in the next place, when He put on a created nature and became like us in body, reasonably was He therefore called both our Brother and First-born [2613] .' For though it was after us [2614] that He was made man for us, and our brother by similitude of body, still He is therefore called and is the First-born' of us, because, all men being lost, according to the transgression of Adam, His flesh before all others was saved and liberated, as being the Word's body [2615] ; and henceforth we, becoming incorporate with It, are saved after Its pattern. For in It the Lord becomes our guide to the Kingdom of Heaven and to His own Father, saying, I am the way' and the door [2616] ,' and through Me all must enter.' Whence also is He said to be First-born from the dead [2617] ,' not that He died before us, for we had died first; but because having undergone death for us and abolished it, He was the first to rise, as man, for our sakes raising His own Body. Henceforth He having risen, we too from Him and because of Him rise in due course from the dead.