[482] Gen. i. 26.
[483] Ib. xviii. 1.
[484] Ib. xxxii. 26.
[485] Ib. xix. 24.
[486] Ps. cx. 1.
[487] John x. 37.
[488] Is. xliv. 6.
[489] Eleusius is criticised by Socrates II. 40, for disliking any attempt at a repudiation of the "Dedication" creed of 341, although the "Dedication" creed was little better than a repudiation of the Nicene creed. He was, in fact, a semi-Arian. But his vigorous opposition to the extreme form of Arianism and the hopefulness with which Hilary always regarded the semi-Arians, here invest him with a reputation for the "true knowledge of God." In 381 he refused to accept the Nicene creed or take part in the Council of Constantinople.
[490] John i. 1.
[491] Matt. iv. 4.
[492] John iv. 13.
[493] Ib. xii. 23.
[494] Gen. v. 3.
[495] John v. 18.
[496] Proprietas, or sharing one's own. The word proprietas is not here used in a technical sense. In its technical sense proprietas or idiotes signifies the special property of each Person of the Godhead, and the word is used to secure the distinctions of the three Persons and exclude any Sabellian misunderstanding.
[497] John v. 19.
[498] Ib.
[499] 1 Cor. xiv. 32.
[500] Impiare seis used by Plautus, Rud. 1, 3, 8, in the sense of asebein. The sentence probably refers to the misuse of the word by Paul of Samosata.
[501] 1 Tim. ii. 5.
[502] Phil. ii. 7.
[503] John x. 30.
[504] Ib. xiv. 28.
[505] Mark xiii. 32.
[506] Methuselah'sage was a favourite problem with the early Church. See Aug. de Civ. Dei, xv. 13, and de pecc. orig. ii. 23, where it is said to be one of those points on which a Christian can afford to be ignorant. According to the Septuagint, Methuselah lived for fourteen years after the deluge, so that more than eight souls' survived, and 1 Pet. iii. 20, appeared to be incorrect. According to the Hebrew and Vulgate there is no difficulty, as Methuselah is represented as dying before the deluge.
[507] Heb. v. 12.
Introduction to the De Trinitate.
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Since the circumstances in which the De Trinitate was written, and the character and object of the work, are discussed in the general Introduction, it will suffice to give here a brief summary of its contents, adapted, in the main, from the Benedictine edition.
Book I. The treatise begins with St. Hilary's own spiritual history, the events of which are displayed, no doubt, more logically and symmetrically in the narrative than they had occurred in the writer's experience. He tells of the efforts of a pure and noble soul, impeded, so far as we hear, neither by unworthy desires nor by indifference, to find an adequate end and aim of life. He rises first to the conception of the old philosophers, and then by successive advances, as he learns more and more of the Divine revelation in Scripture, he attains the object of his search in the apprehension of God as revealed in the Catholic Faith. But this happiness is not the result of a mere intellectual knowledge, but of belief as well. In §§ 1-14 we have this advance from ignorance and fear to knowledge and peace. And here he might have rested, had he not been charged with the sacerdotal (i.e., in the language of that time, the episcopal) office, which laid upon him the duty of caring for the salvation of others. And such care was needed, for (§§ 15, 16) heresies were abroad, and chiefly two; the Sabellian which said that Father and Son were mere names or aspects of one Divine Person, and therefore there had been no true birth of the Son; and the Arian (which, however, Hilary rarely calls by the name of its advocate, preferring to style it the new heresy') asserting more or less openly that the Son is created and not born, and therefore is different in kind from the Father, and not, in the true sense, God. Hilary declares (§ 17) that his purpose is to refute these heresies and to demonstrate the true faith by the evidence of Scripture. He demands from his hearers a loyal belief in the Scriptures which he will cite; without such faith his arguments will not profit them (§ 18); and in § 19 he warns them of the limits of the argument from analogy, which he must employ, inadequate as it is in respect of the finite illustrations which he must use to express the infinite. Then in § 20 he speaks with a modest pride of his careful marshalling of the arguments which shall lead his readers to the right conclusion, and in §§ 21-36 he gives a summary of the contents of the work. He concludes the first Book (§§ 37, 38) with a prayer which expresses his certainty that what he holds is the truth, and entreats the Father and the Son that he may have the eloquence of language and the cogency of reasoning needed for the worthy presentation of the truth concerning Them.
Book II. He begins with the command to baptize all nations (St. Matt. xxviii. 19) as a summary of the faith; this by itself would suffice were not explanations rendered necessary by heretical misrepresentations of its meaning. For (§§ 3, 4) heresy is the result of Scripture misunderstood; and here we must notice that Scripture is regarded as ground common to both sides. All accept it as literally true, and combine its texts as will best serve their own purposes. Hilary, regarding all heresies as one combined opposition to the truth, makes the two objections that their arguments are mutually destructive, and that they are modern. Then in § 5 he expresses the awe with which he approaches the subject. The language which he must use is utterly inadequate, and yet he is compelled to use it. In §§ 6, 7 he begins with the notion of God as Father; in §§ 8-11 he proceeds to that of God the Son. He states the faith as it must be believed; it is not enough (§§ 12, 13) to accept the truth of Christ's miracles. The mystery, as it is revealed in St. John i. 1-4, must be the object of faith. In §§ 14-21 he expounds this passage in the face of current objections, and then triumphantly asserts that all the efforts of heresy are vain (§ 22). He advances proof-texts in § 23 against each objector, and then points out in §§ 24, 25 our indebtedness to the infinite Divine condescension thus revealed. For, in all the humiliation to which Christ stooped the Divine Majesty was still inseparably His, and was manifested both in the circumstances of His birth and in His life on earth (§§ 26-28). The book concludes (§§ 29-35) with a statement of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, as perfect as in the undeveloped state of that doctrine was possible.
Book III. In §§ 1-4, the words, I in the Father and the Father in Me, are taken as typical. Man cannot comprehend, but only apprehend them. So far as they are explicable Hilary explains them. But God's self revelation is always mysterious. The miracles of Christ are inexplicable (§§ 5-8); this is God's way, and meant to check presumption. Human wisdom is limited, and when it passes its bounds, and invades the realm of faith, it becomes folly. Next, in §§ 9-17, the passage, St. John xvii. 1 ff., is explained as proving that in the One God there are the Persons of Father and of Son, and as revealing God in the aspect of the Father. Then, in §§ 18-21, the wonderful deeds of Christ are put forth as an evidence of His wonderful birth. We must not ask how He can be coeternal with the Father, for it is in vain that we should ask how He could pass through the closed door. Either question is mere presumption. The revelation which Christ makes (§§ 22, 23) is that of God as His Father; Unum sunt, non Unus. And finally, in §§ 25, 26, he returns to the futility of reasoning. True wisdom is to believe where we cannot comprehend; we must trust to faith, not to proof.
Book IV. This book is in a sense the beginning of the treatise, and is sometimes cited later on as the first. Its three predecessors, he says in § 1, had been written some time before. They had contained a statement of the truth concerning the Divinity of Christ, and a summary refutation of the various heresies. He now commences his main attack upon Arianism. First (§ 2) he repeats what his difficulty is; that human language and thought cannot cope with the Infinite. Then (§ 3) he tells how the Arians explain away the eternal Sonship of Christ. As a defence against this tampering with the truth, the Church has adopted the term Homoousion (§§ 4-7); Hilary explains and defends its use. In § 8 he shews, by a collection of the passages of Scripture which they wrest to their own purposes, that such a definition is necessary, and in §§ 9, 10 that their use of these passages is dishonest. In § 11 he tells us exactly what the Arian teaching is, and sets it forth in one of their own formularies, the Epistola Arii ad Alexandrum (§§ 12, 13). In § 14 this doctrine is denounced; it does not explain, but explains away. The proclamation made through Moses, Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One, upon which the Arians take their stand, reveals only one aspect of the truth (§ 15). It does not exhaust the truth; for God is represented as not one solitary Person in the history of creation (§§ 16-22), in the life of Abraham (§§ 23-31), and in that of Moses (§§ 32-34). And this again is the teaching of the Prophets, as is shewn by passages selected from Isaiah, Hosea, and Jeremiah (§§ 35-42). All the evidence thus collected shews that in the Godhead there is both Father and Son, and that the Son is God.
Book V. Hilary now points out (§ 1) the controversial strength of the Arian position. If he is silent in face of their assertion, they will claim that he agrees with them that the Son is God only in some inferior sense. On the other hand, if he opposes them, he will seem to be contradicting the Mosaic revelation of the Divine unity. In § 2 he recapitulates the argument of Book IV., that the witness of Scripture proves that God is not a solitary Person; that, as he says, there is God and God. But the Arians had a further loophole; their creed asserted (§ 3) one true God. They might argue that Christ is indeed God, but of a nature different from that of the Father. In refutation of this Hilary goes once more through the history of creation (§§ 4-10), proving that the narrative reveals not only the Son's share in that work, but also His equality and oneness of nature with the Father; in other words, that He is not only God but true God. The same truth is demonstrated from the life of Abraham (§§ 11-16). Moreover, these self-revelations of the Son (as the Angel, on various occasions) are anticipations of the Incarnation. He was first seen in flesh, afterwards born in flesh. The Arians concentrate their attention on the humble conditions of Christ's human life, and so, from want of a comprehensive view, fail to discern His true Godhead. But Hilary will not anticipate the evidence of the Gospels (§§ 17, 18). He returns to the Old Testament, and proves his point from Jacob's visions (§§ 19, 20), and by the revelations made to Moses (§§ 21-23). After a summary and an enforcement of the preceding arguments (§§ 24, 25), he proceeds to prove from certain passages of Isaiah that the Prophet recognised the Son as true God (§§ 26-31), and that St. Paul understood him in that sense (§§ 32, 33). Then, in §§ 34, 35, the result which has been attained is dwelt upon. Hilary shews that it is the Arians who fail to recognise the one true God; for Christ is true God, yet not a second God. Finally, in §§ 36-39, Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah are adduced as testifying that Christ is God from God, and God in God.
Book VI. Hilary begins by lamenting the wide extension of Arianism; his love for souls leads him to combat the heresy, whose insidiousness makes it the more dangerous (§§ 1-4). He repeats in §§ 5, 6 the same Arian creed which he had given in Book IV. The heretics here gain the appearance of orthodoxy by condemning errors inconsistent with their own; and this condemnation is designed to cast upon the Catholic faith the suspicion of complicity in such errors. Hence he must postpone his appeal to the New Testament till he has examined them (§§ 7, 8). Accordingly in §§ 9-12 he explains successively the doctrines of Valentinus, Manichæus, Sabellius and Hieracas, and shews that the Church rejects them all, as she does (§ 13) the doctrine which the Arians in their creed have falsely assigned to her. Their object is to deny that the Son is coeternal with the Father and of one substance with Him (§§ 14, 15); but this denial is clean contrary to Scripture, which it is blasphemy to oppose (§§ 16, 17). The Arians would make a creature of Christ (§ 18), to Whom, in §§ 19-21, Hilary turns with an impassioned declaration of certainty that He is very God. He then resumes the argument, and proves that Christ is Son by birth, not by adoption, from the words both of Father and of Son as recorded in the Gospel (§§ 22-25). This is confirmed (§§ 26, 27) by the Gospel account of His acts, which are otherwise inexplicable. The argument is clenched by a discussion of St. John vii. 28, 29, and viii. 42 (§§ 28-31). The true Sonship of Christ is further proved by the faith of the Apostles, whose certainty increased with their knowledge (§§ 31-35), and especially by that of St. Peter (§§ 36-38), of St. John (§§ 39-43), and of St. Paul (§§ 44, 45). To reject such a weight of testimony is to prefer Antichrist to Christ (§ 46). And, moreover, we have the witness of those for whom He wrought miracles, of devils, of the Jews, the Apostles in peril on the sea, of the centurion by the Cross, that Christ is truly the Son of God (§§ 47-52).