18. He who hath seen the Son, hath seen the Father [1309] : for in all things the Son is like to Him who begat Him [1310] ; begotten Life of Life and Light of Light, Power of Power, God of God; and the characteristics of the Godhead are unchangeable [1311] in the Son; and he who is counted worthy to behold Godhead in the Son, attains to the fruition of the Father. This is not my word, but that of the Only-begotten: Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father [1312] . And to be brief, let us neither separate them, nor make a confusion [1313] : neither say thou ever that the Son is foreign to the Father, nor admit those who say that the Father is at one time Father, and at another Son: for these are strange and impious statements, and not the doctrines of the Church. But the Father having begotten the Son, remained the Father and is not changed. He begat Wisdom, yet lost not wisdom Himself; and begat Power, yet became not weak: He begat God, but lost not His own Godhead: and neither did He lose anything Himself by diminution or change; nor has He who was begotten any thing wanting. Perfect is He who begat, Perfect that which was begotten: God was He who begat, God He who was begotten; God of all Himself, yet entitling the Father His own God. For He is not ashamed to say, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God [1314] .
19. But lest thou shouldest think that He is in a like sense Father of the Son and of the creatures, Christ drew a distinction in what follows. For He said not, "I ascend to our Father," lest the creatures should be made fellows of the Only-begotten; but He said, My Father and your Father; in one way Mine, by nature; in another yours, by adoption. And again, to my God and your God, in one way Mine, as His true and Only-begotten Son, and in another way yours, as His workmanship [1315] . The Son of God then is Very God, ineffably begotten before all ages (for I say the same things often to you, that it may be graven upon your mind). This also believe, that God has a Son: but about the manner be not curious, for by searching thou wilt not find. Exalt not thyself, lest thou fall: think upon those things only which have been commanded thee [1316] . Tell me first what He is who begat, and then learn that which He begat; but if thou canst not conceive the nature of Him who hath begotten, search not curiously into the manner of that which is begotten.
20. For godliness it sufficeth thee to know, as we have said, that God hath One Only Son, One naturally begotten; who began not His being when He was born in Bethlehem, but Before All Ages. For hear the Prophet Micah saying, And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephrata, art little to be among the thousands of Judah. Out of thee shall come forth unto Me a Ruler, who shall feed My people Israel: and His goings forth are from the beginning, from days of eternity [1317] . Think not then of Him who is now come forth out of Bethlehem [1318] , but worship Him who was eternally begotten of the Father. Suffer none to speak of a beginning of the Son in time, but as a timeless Beginning acknowledge the Father. For the Father is the Beginning of the Son, timeless, incomprehensible, without beginning [1319] . The fountain of the river of righteousness, even of the Only-begotten, is the Father, who begat Him as Himself only knoweth. And wouldest thou know that our Lord Jesus Christ is King Eternal? Hear Him again saying, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad [1320] . And then, when the Jews received this hardly, He says what to them was still harder, Before Abraham was, I am [1321] . And again He saith to the Father, And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was [1322] . He says plainly, "before the world was, I had the glory which is with Thee." And again when He says, For Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world [1323] , He plainly declares, "The glory which I have with thee is from eternity."
21. We believe then In One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Begotten of His Father Very God Before All Worlds, by Whom All Things Were Made. For whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were made through Him [1324] , and of things created none is exempted from His authority. Silenced be every heresy which brings in different creators and makers of the world; silenced the tongue which blasphemes the Christ the Son of God; let them be silenced who say that the sun is the Christ, for He is the sun's Creator, not the sun which we see [1325] . Silenced be they who say that the world is the workmanship of Angels [1326] , who wish to steal away the dignity of the Only-begotten. For whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or anything that is named, all things were made by Christ. He reigns over the things which have been made by Him, not having seized another's spoils, but reigning over His own workmanship, even as the Evangelist John has said, All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made [1327] . All things were made by Him, the Father working by the Son.
22. I wish to give also a certain illustration of what I am saying, but I know that it is feeble; for of things visible what can be an exact illustration of the Divine Power? But nevertheless as feeble be it spoken by the feeble to the feeble. For just as any king, whose son was a king, if he wished to form a city, might suggest to his son, his partner in the kingdom, the form of the city, and he having received the pattern, brings the design to completion; so, when the Father wished to form all things, the Son created all things at the Father's bidding, that the act of bidding might secure to the Father His absolute authority [1328] , and yet the Son in turn might have authority over His own workmanship, and neither the Father be separated from the lordship over His own works, nor the Son rule over things created by others, but by Himself. For, as I have said, Angels did not create the world, but the Only-begotten Son, begotten, as I have said, before all ages, By Whom All Things Were Made, nothing having been excepted from His creation. And let this suffice to have been spoken by us so far, by the grace of Christ.
23. But let us now recur to our profession of the Faith, and so for the present finish our discourse. Christ made all things, whether thou speak of Angels, or Archangels, of Dominions, or Thrones. Not that the Father wanted strength to create the works Himself, but because He willed that the Son should reign over His own workmanship, God Himself giving Him the design of the things to be made. For honouring His own Father the Only-begotten saith, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise [1329] . And again, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work [1330] , there being no opposition in those who work. For all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, saith the Lord in the Gospels [1331] . And this we may certainly know from the Old and New Testaments. For He who said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness [1332] , was certainly speaking to some one present. But clearest of all are the Psalmist's words, He spake and they were made; He commanded, and they were created [1333] , as if the Father commanded and spake, and the Son made all things at the Father's bidding. And this Job said mystically, Which alone spread out the heaven, and walketh upon the sea as on firm ground [1334] ; signifying to those who understand that He who when present here walked upon the sea is also He who aforetime made the heavens. And again the Lord saith, Or didst Thou take earth, and fashion clay into a living being [1335] ? then afterwards, Are the gates of death opened to Thee through fear, and did the door-keepers of hell shudder at sight of Thee [1336] ? thus signifying that He who through loving-kindness descended into hell, also in the beginning made man out of clay.
24. Christ then is the Only-begotten Son of God, and Maker of the world. For He was in the world, and the world was made by Him; and He came unto His own, as the Gospel teaches us [1337] . And not only of the things which are seen, but also of the things which are not seen, is Christ the Maker at the Father's bidding. For in Him, according to the Apostle, were all things created that are in the heavens, and that are upon the earth, things visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things have been created by Him and for Him; and He is before all, and in Him all things consist [1338] . Even if thou speak of the worlds, of these also Jesus Christ is the Maker by the Father's bidding. For in these last days God spake unto us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds [1339] . To whom be the glory, honour, might, now and ever, and world without end. Amen.
[1232] Compare x. 11, 15; xvi. 13: xxi. 1.
[1233] ek prokopes. See x. 5. note 8.
[1234] Compare x. 14, note 9.
[1235] theton. Athanasius (de Sententiâ Dionysii, § 23), represents Arius as saying that the Word "is not by nature (kata phusin) and in truth Son of God, but is called Son, He too, by adoption (kata thesin), as a creature." Again (c. Arian. Orat. iii. 19), he says, "This is the true God and the Life eternal, and we are made sons through Him by adoption and grace (thesei kai chariti)." Cf. vii. 10, and § 4, below.
[1236] The mss. all read auton Christon which might mean "Christ and no other." But Christon is probably a gloss introduced from the margin.
[1237] Compare the passages in which Cyril quotes Ps. ii. 7, as Cat. vii. 2; x. 2; xi. 5; xii. 18.
[1238] "It was one of the especial rights of a father to choose the names for his children, and to alter them if he pleased" (Dict. Greek and Roman Antiq. "Nomen. 1 Greek.") The right to the name given by the father is the subject of one of the Private Orations of Demosthenes (Pros Boioton peri tou onomatos).
[1239] Matt. xiii. 16.
[1240] Compare iv. 7: "God of God begotten;" xiii. 3 and 13: "God the Son of God." Here however, the mss. vary, and the reading of Cod. Coisl. Huio Theou monogenei is approved by the Benedictine Editor, though not adopted. The confusion of Huio and Theo is like that in John i. 18.
[1241] ho protostates ton 'Apostolon kai tes 'Ekklesias koruphaios kerux. Cf. ii. 19.
[1242] Matt. xvi. 17.
[1243] Athanasius (de Synodis, § 15) quotes a passage from the Thalia of Arius, in which he says: "We praise Him as without beginning, because of Him who has a beginning: and adore Him as eternal, because of Him who in time has come to be. He who is without beginning made the Son a beginning of things created." It is important, therefore, to notice the sense in which Cyril here calls the Son anarchos. The word has two meanings, which should be clearly distinguished, (i) unoriginate, (ii) without beginning in time. The former referring to origin, or cause, can properly be applied to the One true God, or to God the Father only, as it is used by Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. cap. v. § 65: ton panton poieten...agnoountes, ton anarchon Theon. [Strom. IV. cap. xxv. § 164: ho Theos de anarchos arche ton holon panteles arches poietikos]. [Stromat. V. cap. xiv. § 142: ex arches anarchou]. Methodius (ob. 312 a.d. circ.) in a fragment (On things created, § 8, English Trans. Clark's Ante-Nic. Libr.) comments thus on John i. 1-3: "And so after the peculiar unbeginning beginning, who is the Father, He (the Word) is the beginning of other things, by whom all things are made.'" In this sense Cyril has said (iv. 4) that God alone is "unbegotten, unoriginate:" and in xi. 20 he explains this more fully,--"Suffer none to speak of a beginning of the Son in time (chrhoniken archen), but as a timeless beginning acknowledge the Father. For the Father is the beginning of the Son, timeless, incomprehensible, without beginning." From a confusion of the two meanings the word came to be improperly applied in the sense of "unoriginate" to the Son, and to the Spirit; and this improper usage is condemned in the 49th Apostolic Canon, which Hefele regards as amongst the most ancient Canons, and taken from the Apostolic Constitutions, vi. 11: "If any Bishop or Presbyter shall baptize not according to our Lord's ordinance into the Father, and Son, and Spirit, but into three Unoriginates, or three Sons, or three Paracletes let him be deposed." (ii.) Athanasius frequently calls the Son anarchos in the sense of timeless,' as being the co-eternal brightness (apaugasma) of the Eternal Light: see de Sent. Dionys. §§ 15, 16, 22; "God is the Eternal Light, which never either began or shall cease: accordingly the Brightness is ever before Him, and co-exists with Him, without beginning and ever-begotten (anarchon kai aeigenes)."