48. Such then, as we confess and believe, being the sense of the Fathers, proceed we even in their company to examine once more the matter, calmly and with a kindly sympathy, with reference to what has been said before, viz. whether the Bishops collected at Nicæa do not really prove to have thought aright. For if the Word be a work and foreign to the Father's essence, so that He is separated from the Father by the difference of nature, He cannot be one in essence with Him, but rather He is homogeneous by nature with the works, though He surpass them in grace [3646] . On the other hand, if we confess that He is not a work but the genuine offspring of the Father's essence, it would follow that He is inseparable from the Father, being connatural, because He is begotten from Him. And being such, good reason He should be called Coessential. Next, if the Son be not such from participation, but is in His essence the Father's Word and Wisdom, and this essence is the offspring of the Father's essence [3647] , and its likeness as the radiance is of the light, and the Son says, I and the Father are One,' and, he that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father' (John x. 30; xiv. 9), how must we understand these words? or how shall we so explain them as to preserve the oneness of the Father and the Son? Now as to its consisting in agreement [3648] of doctrines, and in the Son's not disagreeing with the Father, as the Arians say, such an interpretation is a sorry one; for both the Saints, and still more Angels and Archangels, have such an agreement with God, and there is no disagreement among them. For he who disagreed, the devil, was beheld to fall from the heavens, as the Lord said. Therefore if by reason of agreement the Father and the Son are one, there would be things originated which had this agreement with God, and each of these might say, I and the Father are One.' But if this be absurd, and so it truly is, it follows of necessity that we must conceive of Son's and Father's oneness in the way of essence. For things originate, though they have an agreement with their Maker, yet possess it only by influence [3649] , and by participation, and through the mind; the transgression of which forfeits heaven. But the Son, being an offspring from the essence, is one by essence, Himself and the Father that begat Him.
49. This is why He has equality with the Father by titles expressive of unity [3650] , and what is said of the Father, is said in Scripture of the Son also, all but His being called Father [3651] . For the Son Himself said, All things that the Father hath are Mine' (John xvi. 15); and He says to the Father, All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine' (John xvii. 10),--as for instance [3652] , the name God; for the Word was God;'--Almighty, Thus saith He that is, and that was, and that is to come, the Almighty' (John i. 1; Apoc. i. 8):--the being Light, I am,' He says, the Light' (John viii. 12):--the Operative Cause, All things were made by Him,' and, whatsoever I see the Father do, I do also' (John i. 3; v. 19):--the being Everlasting, His eternal power and godhead,' and, In the beginning was the Word,' and, He was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world;'--the being Lord, for, The Lord rained fire and brimstone from the Lord,' and the Father says, I am the Lord,' and, Thus saith the Lord, the Almighty God;' and of the Son Paul speaks thus, One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things' (Rom. i. 20; John i. 1, 9; Gen. xix. 24; Isa. xlv. 5; Am. v. 16; 1 Cor. viii. 6). And on the Father Angels wait, and again the Son too is worshipped by them, And let all the Angels of God worship Him;' and He is said to be Lord of Angels, for the Angels ministered unto Him,' and the Son of Man shall send His Angels.' The being honoured as the Father, for that they may honour the Son,' He says, as they honour the Father;'--being equal to God, He counted it not a prize to be equal with God' (Heb. i. 6; Matt. iv. 11; xxiv. 31; John v. 23; Phil. ii. 6):-- the being Truth from the True, and Life from the Living, as being truly from the Fountain, even the Father;--the quickening and raising the dead as the Father, for so it is written in the Gospel. And of the Father it is written, The Lord thy God is One Lord,' and, The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken, and hath called the earth;' and of the Son, The Lord God hath shined upon us,' and, The God of gods shall be seen in Sion.' And again of God, Isaiah says, Who is a God like unto Thee, taking away iniquities and passing over unrighteousness?' (Deut. vi. 4; Ps. l. 1; cxviii. 27; lxxxiv. 7, LXX.; Mic. vii. 18). But the Son said to whom He would, Thy sins are forgiven thee;' for instance, when, on the Jews murmuring, He manifested the remission by His act, saying to the paralytic, Rise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house.' And of God Paul says, To the King eternal;' and again of the Son, David in the Psalm, Lift up your gates, O ye rulers, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.' And Daniel heard it said, His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and His Kingdom shall not be destroyed' (Matt. ix. 5; Mark ii. 11; 1 Tim. i. 17; Ps. xxiv. 7; Dan. iv. 3; vii. 14). And in a word, all that you find said of the Father, so much will you find said of the Son, all but His being Father, as has been said.
50. If then any think of other beginning, and other Father, considering the equality of these attributes, it is a mad thought. But if, since the Son is from the Father, all that is the Father's is the Son's as in an image and Expression, let it be considered dispassionately, whether an essence foreign from the Father's essence admit of such attributes; and whether such a one be other in nature and alien in essence, and not coessential with the Father. For we must take reverent heed, lest transferring what is proper to the Father to what is unlike Him in essence, and expressing the Father's godhead by what is unlike in kind and alien in essence, we introduce another essence foreign to Him, yet capable of the properties of the first essence [3653] , and lest we be silenced by God Himself, saying, My glory I will not give to another,' and be discovered worshipping this alien God, and be accounted such as were the Jews of that day, who said, Wherefore dost Thou, being a man, make Thyself God?' referring, the while, to another source the things of the Spirit, and blasphemously saying, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub' (Isa. xlii. 8; John x. 33; Luke xi. 15). But if this is shocking, plainly the Son is not unlike in essence, but coessential with the Father; for if what the Father has is by nature the Son's, and the Son Himself is from the Father, and because of this oneness of godhead and of nature He and the Father are one, and He that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father, reasonably is He called by the Fathers Coessential;' for to what is other in essence, it belongs not to possess such prerogatives.
51. And again, if, as we have said before, the Son is not such by participation, but, while all things originated have by participation the grace of God, He is the Father's Wisdom and Word of which all things partake [3654] , it follows that He, being the deifying and enlightening power of the Father, in which all things are deified and quickened, is not alien in essence from the Father, but coessential. For by partaking of Him, we partake of the Father; because that the Word is the Father's own. Whence, if He was Himself too from participation, and not from the Father His essential Godhead and Image, He would not deify [3655] , being deified Himself. For it is not possible that He, who merely possesses from participation, should impart of that partaking to others, since what He has is not His own, but the Giver's; and what He has received, is barely the grace sufficient for Himself. However, let us fairly examine the reason why some, as is said, decline the Coessential,' whether it does not rather shew that the Son is coessential with the Father. They say then, as you have written, that it is not right to say that the Son is coessential with the Father, because he who speaks of coessential' speaks of three, one essence pre-existing, and that those who are generated from it are coessential: and they add, If then the Son be coessential with the Father, then an essence must be previously supposed, from which they have been generated; and that the One is not Father and the Other Son, but they are brothers together. [3656] ' As to all this, though it be a Greek interpretation, and what comes from them does not bind us [3657] , still let us see whether those things which are called coessential and are collateral, as derived from one essence presupposed, are coessential with each other, or with the essence from which they are generated. For if only with each other, then are they other in essence and unlike, when referred to that essence which generated them; for other in essence is opposed to coessential; but if each be coessential with the essence which generated them, it is thereby confessed that what is generated from any thing, is coessential with that which generated it; and there is no need of seeking for three essences, but merely to seek whether it be true that this is from that [3658] . For should it happen that there were not two brothers, but that only one had come of that essence, he that was generated would not be called alien in essence, merely because there was no other from the essence than he; but though alone, he must be coessential with him that begat him. For what shall we say about Jephtha's daughter; because she was only-begotten, and he had not,' says Scripture, other child' (Jud. xi. 34); and again, concerning the widow's son, whom the Lord raised from the dead, because he too had no brother, but was only-begotten, was on that account neither of these coessential with him that begat? Surely they were, for they were children, and this is a property of children with reference to their parents. And in like manner also, when the Fathers said that the Son of God was from His essence, reasonably have they spoken of Him as coessential. For the like property has the radiance compared with the light. Else it follows that not even the creation came out of nothing. For whereas men beget with passion [3659] , so again they work upon an existing subject matter, and otherwise cannot make. But if we do not understand creation in a human way [3660] , when we attribute it to God, much less seemly is it to understand generation in a human way, or to give a corporeal sense to Coessential; instead of receding from things originate, casting away human images, nay, all things sensible, and ascending [3661] to the Father [3662] , lest we rob the Father of the Son in ignorance, and rank Him among His own creatures.
52. Further, if, in confessing Father and Son, we spoke of two beginnings or two Gods as Marcion and Valentinus [3663] , or said that the Son had any other mode of godhead, and was not the Image and Expression of the Father, as being by nature born from Him, then He might be considered unlike; for such essences are altogether unlike each other. But if we acknowledge that the Father's godhead is one and sole, and that of Him the Son is the Word and Wisdom; and, as thus believing, are far from speaking of two Gods, but understand the oneness of the Son with the Father to be, not in likeness of their teaching, but according to essence and in truth, and hence speak not of two Gods but of one God; there being but one Form [3664] of Godhead, as the Light is one and the Radiance; (for this was seen by the Patriarch Jacob, as Scripture says, The sun rose upon him when the Form of God passed by,' Gen. xxxii. 31, LXX.); and beholding this, and understanding of whom He was Son and Image, the holy Prophets say, The Word of the Lord came to me;' and recognising the Father, who was beheld and revealed in Him, they made bold to say, The God of our fathers hath appeared unto me, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob' (Exod. iii. 16); this being so, wherefore scruple we to call Him coessential who is one with the Father, and appears as doth the Father, according to likeness and oneness of godhead? For if, as has been many times said, He has it not to be proper to the Father's essence, nor to resemble, as a Son, we may well scruple: but if this be the illuminating and creative Power, specially proper to the Father, without Whom He neither frames nor is known (for all things consist through Him and in Him); wherefore, perceiving the fact, do we decline to use the phrase conveying it? For what is it to be thus connatural with the Father, but to be one in essence with Him? for God attached not to Him the Son from without [3665] , as needing a servant; nor are the works on a level with the Creator, and honoured as He is, or to be thought one with the Father. Or let a man venture to make the distinction, that the sun and the radiance are two lights, or different essences; or to say that the radiance accrued to it over and above, and is not a simple and pure offspring from the sun; such, that sun and radiance are two, but the light one, because the radiance is an offspring from the Sun. But, whereas not more divisible, nay less divisible is the nature [3666] of the Son towards the Father, and the godhead not accruing to the Son, but the Father's godhead being in the Son, so that he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father in Him; wherefore should not such a one be called Coessential?