EARLY CHURCH FATHERS ON THE SON’S IGNORANCE OF THE HOUR Pt. 2

52. For men, creatures as they are, are capable in a certain way of reaching forward and advancing in virtue. Enoch, for instance, was thus translated, and Moses increased and was perfected; and Isaac ‘by advancing became great ;’ and the Apostle said that he ‘reached forth Philippians 3:13 ‘ day by day to what was before him. For each had room for advancing, looking to the step before him. But the Son of God, who is One and Only, what room had He for reaching forward? For all things advance by looking at Him; and He, being One and Only, is in the Only Father, from whom again He does not reach forward, but in Him abides ever. To men then belongs advance; but the Son of God, since He could not advance, being perfect in the Father, humbled Himself for us, that in His humbling we on the other hand might be able to increase. And our increase is no other than the renouncing things sensible, and coming to the Word Himself; since His humbling is nothing else than His taking our flesh. It was not then the Word, considered as the Word, who advanced; who is perfect from the perfect Father, who needs nothing, nay brings forward others to an advance; but humanly is He here also said to advance, since advance belongs to man. Hence the Evangelist, speaking with cautious exactness, has mentioned stature in the advance; but being Word and God He is not measured by stature, which belongs to bodies. Of the body then is the advance; for, it advancing, in it advanced also the manifestation of the Godhead to those who saw it. And, as the Godhead was more and more revealed, by so much more did His grace as man increase before all men. For as a child He was carried to the Temple; and when He became a boy, He remained there, and questioned the priests about the Law. And by degrees His body increasing, and the Word manifesting Himself in it, He is confessed henceforth by Peter first, then also by all, ‘Truly this is the Son of God ;’ however wilfully the Jews, both the ancient and these modern , shut fast their eyes, lest they see that to advance in wisdom is not the advance of Wisdom Itself, but rather the manhood’s advance in It. For ‘Jesus advanced in wisdom and grace;’ and, if we may speak what is explanatory as well as true, He advanced in Himself; for ‘Wisdom built herself a house,’ and in herself she gave the house advancement.

53. (What moreover is this advance that is spoken of, but, as I said before, the deifying and grace imparted from Wisdom to men, sin being obliterated in them and their inward corruption, according to their likeness and relationship to the flesh of the Word?) For thus, the body increasing in stature, there developed in it the manifestation of the Godhead also, and to all was it displayed that the body was God’s Temple, and that God was in the body. And if they urge, that ‘The Word become flesh’ is called Jesus, and refer to Him the term ‘advanced,’ they must be told that neither does this impair the Father’s Light , which is the Son, but that it still shows that the Word has become man, and bore true flesh. And as we said that He suffered in the flesh, and hungered in the flesh, and was fatigued in the flesh, so also reasonably may He be said to have advanced in the flesh; for neither did the advance, such as we have described it, take place with the Word external to the flesh, for in Him was the flesh which advanced and His is it called, and that as before, that man’s advance might abide and fail not, because of the Word which is with it. Neither then was the advance the Word’s, nor was the flesh Wisdom, but the flesh became the body of Wisdom. Therefore, as we have already said, not Wisdom, as Wisdom, advanced in respect of Itself; but THE MANHOOD advanced in Wisdom, transcending by degrees human nature, and being deified, and becoming and appearing to all as the organ of Wisdom for the operation and the shining forth of the Godhead. Wherefore neither said he, ‘The Word advanced,’ but Jesus, by which Name the Lord was called when He became man; so that the advance is of the human nature in such wise as we explained above.

We shall follow the example of Abdemelech, if we believe that the Son and Holy Spirit know all things. This knowledge is attributed in Scripture to the Spirit, and also to the Son. The Son is glorified by the Spirit, as also the Spirit by the Son. Also, inasmuch as we read that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit say and reveal the same things, we must acknowledge in Them a oneness of nature and knowledge. Lastly, that the Spirit searches the deep things of God is not a mark of ignorance, since the Father and the Son are likewise said to search, and Paul, although chosen by Christ, yet was taught by the Spirit.

114. And you, too, shall be Abdemelech, that is, chosen by the Lord, if you raise the Word of God from the depth of Gentile ignorance; if you believe that the Son of God is not deceived, that nothing escapes His knowledge, that He is not ignorant of what is going to be. And the Holy Spirit also is not deceived, of Whom the Lord says: But when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He shall lead you into all truth. John 16:13 He Who says all passes by nothing, neither the day nor the hour, neither things past nor things to come.

115. And that you may know that He both knows all things, and foretells things to come, and that His knowledge is one with that of the Father and the Son, hear what the Truth of God says concerning Him: For He shall not speak from Himself, but what things He shall hear shall He speak, and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come. John 16:13

116. Therefore, that you may observe that He knows all things, when the Son said: But of that day and hour knows no one, not even the Angels of heaven, Mark 13:32 He excepted the Holy Spirit. But if the Holy Spirit is excepted from ignorance, how is the Son of God not excepted?

117. But you say that He numbered the Son of God also with the Angels. He numbered the Son indeed, but He did not number the Spirit also. Confess, then, either that the Holy Spirit is greater than the Son of God, so as to speak now not only as an Arian, but even as a Photinian, or acknowledge to what you ought to refer it that He said that the Son knew not. For AS MAN He could [in His human nature] be numbered with creatures Who were created.

118. But if you are willing to learn that the Son of God knows all things, and has foreknowledge of all, see that those very things which you think to be unknown to the Son, the Holy Spirit received from the Son. He received them, however, through Unity of Substance, as the Son received from the Father. He, says He, shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father has are Mine, therefore said I, He shall receive of Mine, and shall declare it unto you. John 16:14-15 What, then, is more clear than this Unity? What things the Father has pertain to the Son; what things the Son has the Holy Spirit also has received.

119. Yet learn that the Son knows the day of judgment. We read in Zechariah: And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Him. In that day there shall not be light, but cold and frost, and it shall be one day, and that day is known unto the Lord. This day, then, was known unto the Lord, Who shall come with His saints, to enlighten us by His second Advent.

120. But let us continue the point which we have commenced concerning the Spirit. For in the passage we have brought forward you find that the Son says of the Spirit: He shall glorify Me. So, then, the Spirit glorifies the Son, as the Father also glorifies Him, but the Son of God also glorifies the Spirit, as we said above. He, then, is not weak who is the cause of the mutual glory through the Unity of the Eternal Light, nor is He inferior to the Spirit, of Whom this is true that He is glorified by the Spirit.

122. And you too shall be chosen, if you believe that the Spirit spoke that which the Father spoke, and which the Son spoke. Paul, in fine, was therefore chosen because he so believed and so taught, since, as it is written, God has revealed to us by His Spirit that which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 And therefore is He called the Spirit of revelation, as you read: For God gives to those who thus prepare themselves the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that He may be known. Isaiah 64:4

123. There is, then, a Unity of knowledge, since, as the Father, Who gives the Spirit of revelation, reveals, so also the Son reveals, for it is written: No one knows the Son save the Father, neither does any one know the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son shall will to reveal Him. Matthew 11:27 He said more concerning the Son, not because He has more than the Father, but lest He should be supposed to have less. And not unfittingly is the Father thus revealed by the Son, for the Son knows the Father even as the Father knows the Son.

124. Learn now that the Spirit too knows God the Father, for it is written that, As no one knows the things of a man, save the spirit which is in him, so too the things of God no one knows save the Spirit of God. No one, he says, knows save the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11 Is, then, the Son of God excluded? Certainly not, since neither is the Spirit excluded, when it is said: And none knows the Father, save the Son.

125. Therefore the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are of one nature and of one knowledge. And the Spirit is not to be numbered with all things which were made by the Son, since He knew the Father, Whom (as it is written) who can know save the Son? But the Holy Spirit knows also. What then? When the totality of created things is spoken of, it follows that the Holy Spirit is not included.

126. Now I should like them to answer what it is in man which knows the things of a man. Certainly that must be reasonable which surpasses the other powers of the soul, and by which the highest nature of man is estimated. What, then, is the Spirit, Who knows the deep things of God, and through Whom Almighty God is revealed? Is He inferior in the fullness of the Godhead Who is proved even by this instance to be of one substance with the Father? Or is He ignorant of anything Who knows the counsels of God, and His mysteries which have been hidden from the beginning? What is there that He knows not Who knows all things that are of God? For the Spirit searches even the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10

127. But lest you should think that He searches things unknown, and so searches that He may learn that which He knows not, it is stated first that God revealed them to us through His Spirit, and at the same time in order that you may learn that the Spirit knows the things which are revealed to us through the Spirit Himself, it is said subsequently: For who among men knows the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? So, too, the things of God knows no one save the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11 If, then, the spirit of a man knows the things of a man, and knows them before it searches, can there be anything of God which the Spirit of God knows not? Of Whom the Apostle said not without a purpose, The things of God knows no one, save the Spirit of God; not that He knows by searching, but knows by nature; not that the knowledge of divine things is an accident in Him, but is His natural knowledge.

128. But if this moves you that He said searches, learn that this is also said of God, inasmuch as He is the searcher of hearts and reins. For Himself said: I am He that searches the heart and reins. Jeremiah 17:10 And of the Son of God you have also in the Epistle to the Hebrews: Who is the Searcher of the mind and thoughts. Hebrews 4:12 Whence it is clear that no inferior searches the inward things of his superior, for to know hidden things is of the divine power alone. The Holy Spirit, then, is a searcher in like manner as the Father, and the Son is a searcher in like manner, by the proper signification of which expression this is implied, that evidently there is nothing which He knows not, Whom nothing escapes.

129. Lastly, he was chosen by Christ, and taught by the Spirit. For as he himself witnesses, having obtained through the Spirit knowledge of the divine secrets, he shows both that the Holy Spirit knows God, and has revealed to us the things which are of God, as the Son also has revealed them. And he adds: But we received, not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are given to us by God, which we also speak, not in persuasive words of man’s wisdom, but in manifestation of the Spirit and in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13

But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. By saying, not the angels, He stopped their mouths, that they should not seek to learn what these angels know not; and by saying, neither the Son, forbids them not only to learn, but even to inquire. For in proof that therefore He said this, see after His resurrection, when He saw they had become over curious, how He stopped their mouths more decidedly. For now indeed He has mentioned infallible signs, many and endless; but then He says merely, It is not for you to know times or seasons. And then that they might not say, we are driven to perplexity, we are utterly scorned, we are not held worthy so much as of this, He says, which the Father has put in His own power. And this, because He was exceedingly careful to honor them, and to conceal nothing from them. Therefore He refers it to His Father, both to make the thing awful, and to exclude that of which He had spoken from their inquiry. Since if it be not this, but He is ignorant of it, when will He know it? Will it be together with us? But who would say this? And the Father He knows clearly, even as clearly as He knows the Son; and of the day is He ignorant? Moreover, the Spirit indeed searches even the deep things of God, 1 Corinthians 2:10 and does not He know so much as the time of the judgment? But how He ought to judge He knows, and of the secrets of each He has a full perception; and what is far more common than that, of this could He be ignorant? And how, if all things were made by Him, and without Him was not even one thing made, was He ignorant of the day? For He who made the worlds, it is quite plain that He made the times also; and if the times, even that day. How then is He ignorant of that which He made?

2. And ye indeed say that you know even His substance, but that the Son not even the day, the Son, who is always in the bosom of the Father; and yet His substance is much greater than the days, even infinitely greater. How then, while assigning to yourselves the greater things, do you not allow even the less to the Son, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3 But neither do you know what God is in His substance, though ten thousand times ye talk thus madly, neither is the Son ignorant of the day, but is even in full certainty thereof.

For this cause, I say, when He had told all things, both the times and the seasons, and had brought it to the very doors (for it is near, He says, even at the doors), He was silent as to the day. For if you seek after the day and hour, you shall not hear them of me, says He; but if of times and preludes, without hiding anything, I will tell you all exactly.

For that indeed I am not ignorant of it, I have shown by many things; having mentioned intervals, and all the things that are to occur, and how short from this present time until the day itself (for this did the parable of the fig tree indicate), and I lead you to the very vestibule; and if I do not open unto you the doors, this also I do for your good.

And that you may learn by another thing also, that the silence is not a mark of ignorance on His part, see, together with what we have mentioned, how He sets forth another sign also. But as in the days of Noe they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that the flood came, and took all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. And these things He spoke, showing that He should come on a sudden, and unexpectedly, and when the more part were living luxuriously. For Paul too says this, writing on this wise, When they shall speak of peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them; and to show how unexpected, He said, as travail upon a woman with child. 1 Thessalonians 5:3 How then does He say, after the tribulation of those days? For if there be luxury then, and peace, and safety, as Paul says, how does He say, after the tribulation of those days? If there be luxury, how is there tribulation? Luxury for them that are in a state of insensibility and peace. Therefore He said not, when there is peace, but when they speak of peace and safety, indicating their insensibility to be such as of those in Noah’s time, for that amid such evils they lived in luxury.

1. Enquiry has already frequently been made concerning the saying of the gospels as to our Lord Jesus Christ’s ignorance of the day and of the hour of the end; Mark 13:32 an objection constantly put forward by the Anomœans to the destruction of the glory of the Only-Begotten, in order to show Him to be unlike in essence and subordinate in dignity; inasmuch as, if He know not all things, He cannot possess the same nature nor be regarded as of one likeness with Him, who by His own prescience and faculty of forecasting the future has knowledge coextensive with the universe. This question has now been proposed to me by your intelligence as a new one. I can give in reply the answer which I heard from our fathers when I was a boy, and which on account of my love for what is good, I have received without question. I do not expect that it can undo the shamelessness of them that fight against Christ, for where is the reasoning strong enough to stand their attack? It may, however, suffice to convince all that love the Lord, and in whom the previous assurance supplied them by faith is stronger than any demonstration of reason.

Now no man seems to be a general expression, so that not even one person is excepted by it, but this is not its use in Scripture, as I have observed in the passage there is none good but one, that is, God. For even in this passage the Son does not so speak to the exclusion of Himself from the good nature. But, since the Father is the first good, we believe the words no man to have been uttered with the understood addition of first. So with the passage No man knows the Son but the Father; Matthew 11:27 even here there is no charge of ignorance against the Spirit, but only a testimony that knowledge of His own nature naturally belongs to the Father first. Thus also we understand No man knows, Matthew 24:36 to refer to the Father the first knowledge of things, both present and to be, and generally to exhibit to men the first cause. Otherwise how can this passage fall in with the rest of the evidence of Scripture, or agree with the common notions of us who believe that the Only-Begotten is the image of the invisible God, and image not of the bodily figure, but of the very Godhead and of the mighty qualities attributed to the essence of God, image of power, image of wisdom, as Christ is called the power of God and the wisdom of God? 1 Corinthians 1:24 Now of wisdom knowledge is plainly a part; and if in any part He falls short, He is not an image of the whole; and how can we understand the Father not to have shown that day and that hour — the smallest portion of the ages — to Him through Whom He made the ages? How can the Creator of the universe fall short of the knowledge of the smallest portion of the things created by Him? How can He who says, when the end is near, that such and such signs shall appear in heaven and in earth, be ignorant of the end itself? When He says, The end is not yet. Matthew 24:6 He makes a definite statement, as though with knowledge and not in doubt. Then further, it is plain to the fair enquirer that our Lord says many things to men, in the character of man; as for instance, give me to drink John 4:7 is a saying of our Lord, expressive of His bodily necessity; and yet the asker was not soulless flesh, but Godhead using flesh endued with soul. So in the present instance no one will be carried beyond the bounds of the interpretation of true religion, who understands the ignorance of him who had received all things according to the œconomy, and was advancing with God and man in favour and wisdom.

2. It would be worthy of your diligence to set the phrases of the Gospel side by side, and compare together those of Matthew and those of Mark, for these two alone are found in concurrence in this passage. The wording of Matthew is of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. That of Mark runs, But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Mark 13:32 What is noticeable in these passages is this; that Matthew says nothing about the ignorance of the Son, and seems to agree with Mark as to sense in saying but my Father only. Now I understand the word only to have been used in contradistinction to the angels, but that the Son is not included with His own servants in ignorance.

He could not say what is false Who said All things that the Father has are Mine, John 16:15 but one of the things which the Father has is knowledge of that day and of that hour. In the passage in Matthew, then, the Lord made no mention of His own Person, as a matter beyond controversy, and said that the angels knew not and that His Father alone knew, tacitly asserting the knowledge of His Father to be His own knowledge too, because of what He had said elsewhere, as the Father knows me even so know I the Father, John 10:15 and if the Father has complete knowledge of the Son, nothing excepted, so that He knows all knowledge to dwell in Him, He will clearly be known as fully by the Son with all His inherent wisdom and all His knowledge of things to come. This modification, I think, may be given to the words of Matthew, but my Father only. Now as to the words of Mark, who appears distinctly to exclude the Son from the knowledge, my opinion is this. No man knows, neither the angels of God; nor yet the Son would have known unless the Father had known: that is, the cause of the Son’s knowing comes from the Father. To a fair hearer there is no violence in this interpretation, because the word only is not added as it is in Matthew. Mark’s sense, then, is as follows: of that day and of that hour knows no man, nor the angels of God; but even the Son would not have known if the Father had not known, for the knowledge naturally His was given by the Father. This is very decorous and becoming the divine nature to say of the Son, because He has, His knowledge and His being, beheld in all the wisdom and glory which become His Godhead, from Him with Whom He is consubstantial.

3. As to Jeconias, whom the prophet Jeremiah declares in these words to have been rejected from the land of Judah, Jeconias was dishonoured like a vessel for which there is no more use; and because he was cast out he and his seed; and none shall rise from his seed sitting upon the throne of David and ruling in Judah, the matter is plain and clear. On the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom had been destroyed, and there was no longer an hereditary succession of reigns as before. Nevertheless, at that time, the deposed descendants of David were living in captivity. On the return of Salathiel and Zerubbabel the supreme government rested to a greater degree with the people, and the sovereignty was afterwards transferred to the priesthood, on account of the intermingling of the priestly and royal tribes; whence the Lord, in things pertaining to God, is both King and High Priest. Moreover, the royal tribe did not fail until the coming of the Christ; nevertheless, the seed of Jeconias sat no longer upon the throne of David. Plainly it is the royal dignity which is described by the term throne. You remember the history, how all Judæa, Idumæa, Moab, both the neighbouring regions of Syria and the further countries up to Mesopotamia, and the country on the other side as far as the river of Egypt, were all tributary to David. If then none of his descendants appeared with a sovereignty so wide, how is not the word of the prophet true that no one of the seed of Jeconias should any longer sit upon the throne of David, for none of his descendants appears to have attained this dignity. Nevertheless, the tribe of Judah did not fail, until He for whom it was destined came. But even He did not sit upon the material throne. The kingdom of Judæa was transferred to Herod, the son of Antipater the Ascalonite, and his sons who divided Judæa into four principalities, when Pilate was Procurator and Tiberius was Master of the Roman Empire. It is the indestructible kingdom which he calls the throne of David on which the Lord sat. He is the expectation of the Gentiles Genesis 49:10 and not of the smallest division of the world, for it is written, In that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek. I have called you…for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles; and thus then God remained a priest although He did not receive the sceptre of Judah, and King of all the earth; so the blessing of Jacob was fulfilled, and in Him Genesis 22:18 shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, and all the nations shall call the Christ blessed.

4. And as to the tremendous question put by the facetious Encratites, why we do not eat everything? Let this answer be given, that we turn with disgust from our excrements. As far as dignity goes, to us flesh is grass; but as to distinction between what is and what is not serviceable, just as in vegetables, we separate the unwholesome from the wholesome, so in flesh we distinguish between that which is good and that which is bad for food. Hemlock is a vegetable, just as vulture’s flesh is flesh; yet no one in his senses would eat henbane nor dog’s flesh unless he were in very great straits. If he did, however, he would not sin.

5. Next as to those who maintain that human affairs are governed by fate, do not ask information from me, but stab them with their own shafts of rhetoric. The question is too long for my present infirmity. With regard to emerging in baptism— I do not know how it came into your mind to ask such a question, if indeed you understood immersion to fulfil the figure of the three days. It is impossible for any one to be immersed three times, without emerging three times. We write the word φάγος paroxytone.

6. The distinction between οὐσία and ὑπόστασις is the same as that between the general and the particular; as, for instance, between the animal and the particular man. Wherefore, in the case of the Godhead, we confess one essence or substance so as not to give a variant definition of existence, but we confess a particular hypostasis, in order that our conception of Father, Son and Holy Spirit may be without confusion and clear. If we have no distinct perception of the separate characteristics, namely, fatherhood, sonship, and sanctification, but form our conception of God from the general idea of existence, we cannot possibly give a sound account of our faith. We must, therefore, confess the faith by adding the particular to the common. The Godhead is common; the fatherhood particular. We must therefore combine the two and say, I believe in God the Father. The like course must be pursued in the confession of the Son; we must combine the particular with the common and say I believe in God the Son, so in the case of the Holy Ghost we must make our utterance conform to the appellation and say in God the Holy Ghost. Hence it results that there is a satisfactory preservation of the unity by the confession of the one Godhead, while in the distinction of the individual properties regarded in each there is the confession of the peculiar properties of the Persons. On the other hand those who identify essence or substance and hypostasis are compelled to confess only three Persons, and, in their hesitation to speak of three hypostases, are convicted of failure to avoid the error of Sabellius, for even Sabellius himself, who in many places confuses the conception, yet, by asserting that the same hypostasis changed its form to meet the needs of the moment, does endeavour to distinguish persons.

7. Lastly as to your enquiry in what manner things neutral and indifferent are ordained for us, whether by some chance working by its own accord, or by the righteous providence of God, my answer is this: Health and sickness, riches and poverty, credit and discredit, inasmuch as they do not render their possessors good, are not in the category of things naturally good, but, in so far as in any way they make life’s current flow more easily, in each case the former is to be preferred to its contrary, and has a certain kind of value. To some men these things are given by God for stewardship’s sake, as for instance to Abraham, to Job and such like. To inferior characters they are a challenge to improvement. For the man who persists in unrighteousness, after so goodly a token of love from God, subjects himself to condemnation without defense. The good man, however, neither turns his heart to wealth when he has it, nor seeks after it if he has it not. He treats what is given him as given him not for his selfish enjoyment, but for wise administration. No one in his senses runs after the trouble of distributing other people’s property, unless he is trying to get the praise of the world, which admires and envies anybody in authority.

Good men take sickness as athletes take their contest, waiting for the crowns that are to reward their endurance. To ascribe the dispensation of these things to any one else is as inconsistent with true religion as it is with common sense.

1. The advice, Brethren, which ye have just heard Scripture give, when it tells us to watch for the last day, every one should think of as concerning his own last day; lest haply when ye judge or think the last day of the world to be far distant, ye slumber with respect to your own last day. Ye have heard what Jesus said concerning the last day of this world, “That neither the Angels of heaven, nor the Son knew it, but the Father.” ³¹⁷⁶ Where indeed there is a great difficulty, lest understanding this in a carnal way, we think that the Father knoweth anything which the Son knoweth not. For indeed when He said, “the Father knoweth it;” He said this because in the Father the Son also knoweth it. For what is there in a day which was not made by the Word, by whom the day was made? Let no one then search out for the last Day, when it is to be; but let us watch all by our good lives, lest the last day of any one of us find us unprepared, and such as any one shall depart hence on his last day, such he be found in the last day of the world. Nothing will then assist thee which thou shalt not have done here. His own works will succour, or his own works will overwhelm every one.

2. And how have we in the Psalm sung unto the Lord, “Lord, have mercy on me, for man hath trodden me down”?³¹⁷⁷ He is called a man who lives after the manner of men. For it is said to them who live after God, “Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most High.”³¹⁷⁸ But to the reprobate, who were called to be the sons of God, and who wished rather to be men, that is, to live after the manner of men, he says, “But ye shall die like men, and fall as one of ⁴¹²the princes.”³¹⁷⁹ For that man is mortal, ought to avail for his instruction, not for boasting. Whereupon does a worm that is to die on the morrow boast himself? I speak to your love, Brethren; proud mortals ought to be made blush by the devil. For he, though proud, is yet immortal; he is a spirit, though a malignant one. The last day is kept in store for him at the end as his punishment; nevertheless he is not subject to the death to which we are subject. But man heard the sentence, “Thou shalt surely die.”³¹⁸⁰ Let him make a good use of his punishment. What is that I have said, “Let him make a good use of his punishment”? Let him not by that from which he received his punishment fall into pride; let him acknowledge that he is mortal, and let it break down his elation. Let him hear it said to him, “Why is earth and ashes proud?”³¹⁸¹ Even if the devil is proud, he is not “earth and ashes.” Therefore was it said, “But ye shall die like men, and shall fall as one of the princes.”³¹⁸² Ye do not consider that ye are mortals, and ye are proud as the devil. Let man then make a good use of his punishment, Brethren; let him make a good use of his evil, that he may make advancement to his good. Who does not know, that the necessity of our dying is a punishment; and the more grievous, that we know not when? The punishment is certain, the hour uncertain; and of that punishment alone are we certain in the ordinary course of human affairs.

3. All else of ours, both good and evil, is uncertain; death alone is certain. What is this that I say? A child is conceived, perhaps it will be born, perhaps it will be an untimely birth. So it is uncertain: Perhaps he will grow up, perhaps he will not grow up; perhaps he will grow old, perhaps he will not grow old; perhaps he will be rich, perhaps poor; perhaps he will be distinguished, perhaps abased; perhaps he will have children, perhaps he will not; perhaps he will marry, perhaps not; and so on, whatever else among good things you may name. Now look too at the evils of life: Perhaps he will have sickness, perhaps he will have not; perhaps he will be stung by a serpent, perhaps not; perhaps he will be devoured by a wild beast, perhaps he will not. And so look at all evils; everywhere is there a “perhaps it will be,” and “perhaps it will not.” But canst thou say, “Perhaps he will die,” and “perhaps he will not die”? ³¹⁸³ As when medical men examine an illness, and ascertain that it is fatal, they make this announcement; “He will die, he will not get over this.” So from the moment of a man’s birth, it may be said, “He will not get over this.” When he is born he begins to be ailing. When he dies, he ends indeed this ailment: but he knows not whether he does not fall into a worse. The rich man in the Gospel had ended his voluptuous ailment, he came to a tormenting one. But the poor man ended his ailment, and arrived at perfect health.³¹⁸⁴ But he made choice in this life of what he was to have hereafter; and what he reaped there, he sowed here. Therefore while we live we ought to watch, and to make choice of that which we may possess in the world to come.

4. Let us not love the world. It overwhelms its lovers, it conducts them to no good. We must rather labour in it that it seduce us not, than fear lest it should fall. Lo, the world falleth; the Christian standeth firm; because Christ doth not fall. For wherefore saith the Lord, “Rejoice, for that I have overcome the world”?³¹⁸⁵ We might answer Him if we pleased, “‘Rejoice,’ yes do Thou rejoice. If Thou ‘hast overcome,’ do thou rejoice. Why should we?” Why doth He say to us, “Rejoice;” but because it is for us that He hath overcome, for us hath fought? For wherein fought He? In that He took man’s nature upon Him. Take away His birth of a virgin, take away that He emptied Himself, “taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man;” ³¹⁸⁶ take away this, and where is the combat, where the contest? where the trial? where the victory, which no battle has preceded? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made.”³¹⁸⁷ Could the Jews have crucified this Word? Could those impious men have mocked this Word? Could this Word have been buffeted? Could this Word have been crowned with thorns? But that He might suffer all this, “the Word was made flesh;”³¹⁸⁸ and after He had suffered all this, by rising again He “overcame.” So then He hath “overcome” for us, to whom He hath shown the assurance of His resurrection. Thou sayest then to God, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for man hath trodden me down.”³¹⁸⁹ Do not “tread down” thyself, and man will not overcome thee. For, lo, some powerful man alarms thee. By what does he alarm thee? “I will spoil thee, will condemn, will torture, will kill thee.” And thou criest, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for man hath trodden me down.” If thou say the truth, and mark thyself well, one dead “treads thee down,” because thou art afraid of the threats of a man; and man “treads thee down,” because thou wouldest not be afraid, unless thou wert a man. What is the remedy then? O man, cleave to God, by whom thou ⁴¹³wast made a man; cleave fast to Him, put thy affiance in Him, call upon Him, let Him be thy strength. Say to Him, “In Thee, O Lord, is my strength.” And then thou shalt sing at the threatenings of men; and what thou shalt sing hereafter, the Lord Himself telleth thee, “I will hope in God, I will not fear what man can do unto me.”³¹⁹⁰

I.  Since I have by the power of the Spirit sufficiently overthrown the subtleties and intricacies of the arguments, and already solved in the mass the objections and oppositions drawn from Holy Scripture, with which these sacrilegious robbers of the Bible and thieves of the sense of its contents draw over the multitude to their side, and confuse the way of truth; and that not without clearness, as I believe all candid persons will say; attributing to the Deity the higher and diviner expressions, and the lower and more human to Him Who for us men was the Second Adam, and was God made capable of suffering to strive against sin; ³¹⁰yet we have not yet gone through the passages in detail, because of the haste of our argument.  But since you demand of us a brief explanation of each of them, that you may not be carried away by the plausibilities of their arguments, we will therefore state the explanations summarily, dividing them into numbers for the sake of carrying them more easily in mind.

II.  In their eyes the following is only too ready to hand “The Lord created me at the beginning of His ways with a view to His works.”³⁵⁹⁵  How shall we meet this?  Shall we bring an accusation against Solomon, or reject his former words because of his fall in after-life?  Shall we say that the words are those of Wisdom herself, as it were of Knowledge and the Creator-word, in accordance with which all things were made?  For Scripture often personifies many even lifeless objects; as for instance, “The Sea said”³⁵⁹⁶ so and so; and, “The Depth saith, It is not in me;”³⁵⁹⁷ and “The Heavens declare the glory of God;”³⁵⁹⁸ and again a command is given to the Sword;³⁵⁹⁹ and the Mountains and Hills are asked the reason of their skipping.³⁶⁰⁰  We do not allege any of these, though some of our predecessors used them as powerful arguments.  But let us grant that the expression is used of our Saviour Himself, the true Wisdom.  Let us consider one small point together.  What among all things that exist is unoriginate?  The Godhead.  For no one can tell the origin of God, that otherwise would be older than God.  But what is the cause of the Manhood, which for our sake God assumed?  It was surely our Salvation.  What else could it be?  Since then we find here clearly both the Created and the Begetteth Me, the argument is simple.  Whatever we find joined with a cause we are to refer to the Manhood, but all that is absolute and unoriginate we are to reckon to the account of His Godhead.  Well, then, is not this “Created” said in connection with a cause?  He created Me, it so says, as the beginning of His ways, with a view to his works.  Now, the Works of His Hands are verity and judgment;³⁶⁰¹ for whose sake He was anointed with Godhead;³⁶⁰² for this anointing is of the Manhood; but the “He begetteth Me” is not connected with a cause; or it is for you to shew the adjunct.  What argument then will disprove that Wisdom is called a creature, in connection with the lower generation, but Begotten in respect of the first and more incomprehensible?

III.  Next is the fact of His being called Servant³⁶⁰³ and serving many well, and that it is a great thing for Him to be called the Child of God.  For in truth He was in servitude to flesh and to birth and to the conditions of our life with a view to our liberation, and to that of all those whom He has saved, who were in bondage under sin.  What greater destiny can befall man’s humility than that he should be intermingled with God, and by this intermingling should be deified,³⁶⁰⁴ and that we should be so visited by the Dayspring from on high,³⁶⁰⁵ that even that Holy Thing that should be born should be called the Son of the Highest,³⁶⁰⁶ and that there should be bestowed upon Him a Name which is above every name?  And what else can this be than God?—and that every knee should bow to Him That was made of no reputation for us, and That mingled the Form of God with the form of a servant, and that all the House of Israel should know that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ?³⁶⁰⁷  For all this was done by the action of the Begotten, and by the good pleasure of Him That begat Him.

IV.  Well, what is the second of their great irresistible passages?  “He must reign,”³⁶⁰⁸ till such and such a time…and “be received by heaven until the time of restitution,”³⁶⁰⁹ and “have the seat at the Right Hand until the overthrow of His enemies.”³⁶¹⁰  But after this?  Must He cease to be King, or be removed from Heaven?  Why, who shall make Him cease, or for what cause?  What a bold and very anarchical interpreter you are; and yet you have heard that Of His Kingdom there shall be no end.³⁶¹¹  Your mistake arises from not understanding that Until is not always exclusive of that which comes after, but asserts up to that time, without denying what comes ³¹¹after it.  To take a single instance—how else would you understand, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world?”³⁶¹²  Does it mean that He will no longer be so afterwards.  And for what reason?  But this is not the only cause of your error; you also fail to distinguish between the things that are signified.  He is said to reign in one sense as the Almighty King, both of the willing and the unwilling; but in another as producing in us submission, and placing us under His Kingship as willingly acknowledging His Sovereignty.  Of His Kingdom, considered in the former sense, there shall be no end.  But in the second sense, what end will there be?  His taking us as His servants, on our entrance into a state of salvation.  For what need is there to Work Submission in us when we have already submitted?  After which He arises to judge the earth, and to separate the saved from the lost.  After that He is to stand as God in the midst of gods,³⁶¹³ that is, of the saved, distinguishing and deciding of what honour and of what mansion each is worthy.

V.  Take, in the next place, the subjection by which you subject the Son to the Father.  What, you say, is He not now subject, or must He, if He is God, be subject to God?³⁶¹⁴  You are fashioning your argument as if it concerned some robber, or some hostile deity.  But look at it in this manner:  that as for my sake He was called a curse,³⁶¹⁵ Who destroyed my curse; and sin,³⁶¹⁶ who taketh away the sin of the world; and became a new Adam³⁶¹⁷ to take the place of the old, just so He makes my disobedience His own as Head of the whole body.  As long then as I am disobedient and rebellious, both by denial of God and by my passions, so long Christ also is called disobedient on my account.  But when all things shall be subdued unto Him on the one hand by acknowledgment of Him, and on the other by a reformation, then He Himself also will have fulfilled His submission, bringing me whom He has saved to God.  For this, according to my view, is the subjection of Christ; namely, the fulfilling of the Father’s Will.  But as the Son subjects all to the Father, so does the Father to the Son; the One by His Work, the Other by His good pleasure, as we have already said.  And thus He Who subjects presents to God that which he has subjected, making our condition His own.  Of the same kind, it appears to me, is the expression, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”³⁶¹⁸  It was not He who was forsaken either by the Father, or by His own Godhead, as some have thought, as if It were afraid of the Passion, and therefore withdrew Itself from Him in His Sufferings (for who compelled Him either to be born on earth at all, or to be lifted up on the Cross?)  But as I said, He was in His own Person representing us.  For we were the forsaken and despised before, but now by the Sufferings of Him Who could not suffer, we were taken up and saved.  Similarly, He makes His own our folly and our transgressions; and says what follows in the Psalm, for it is very evident that the Twenty-first³⁶¹⁹ Psalm refers to Christ.

VI.  The same consideration applies to another passage, “He learnt obedience by the things which He suffered,”³⁶²⁰ and to His “strong crying and tears,” and His “Entreaties,” and His “being heard,” and His” Reverence,” all of which He wonderfully wrought out, like a drama whose plot was devised on our behalf.  For in His character of the Word He was neither obedient nor disobedient.  For such expressions belong to servants, and inferiors, and the one applies to the better sort of them, while the other belongs to those who deserve punishment.  But, in the character of the Form of a Servant, He condescends to His fellow servants, nay, to His servants, and takes upon Him a strange form, bearing all me and mine in Himself, that in Himself He may exhaust the bad, as fire does wax, or as the sun does the mists of earth; and that I may partake of His nature by the blending.  Thus He honours obedience by His action, and proves it experimentally by His Passion.  For to possess the disposition is not enough, just as it would not be enough for us, unless we also proved it by our acts; for action is the proof of disposition.

And perhaps it would not be wrong to assume this also, that by the art³⁶²¹ of His love for man He gauges our obedience, and measures all by comparison with His own Sufferings, so that He may know our condition by His own, and how much is demanded of us, and how much we yield, taking into the account, along with our environment, our weakness also.  For if the Light shining through the veil³⁶²² upon the darkness, that is upon this life, was persecuted by the other darkness (I mean, the Evil ³¹²One and the Tempter), how much more will the darkness be persecuted, as being weaker than it?  And what marvel is it, that though He entirely escaped, we have been, at any rate in part, overtaken?  For it is a more wonderful thing that He should have been chased than that we should have been captured;—at least to the minds of all who reason aright on the subject.  I will add yet another passage to those I have mentioned, because I think that it clearly tends to the same sense.  I mean “In that He hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.”³⁶²³  But God will be all in all in the time of restitution; not in the sense that the Father alone will Be; and the Son be wholly resolved into Him, like a torch into a great pyre, from which it was reft away for a little space, and then put back (for I would not have even the Sabellians injured³⁶²⁴ by such an expression); but the entire Godhead…when we shall be no longer divided (as we now are by movements and passions), and containing nothing at all of God, or very little, but shall be entirely like.

VII.  As your third point you count the Word Greater;³⁶²⁵ and as your fourth, To My God and your God.³⁶²⁶  And indeed, if He had been called greater, and the word equal had not occurred, this might perhaps have been a point in their favour.  But if we find both words clearly used what will these gentlemen have to say?  How will it strengthen their argument?  How will they reconcile the irreconcilable?  For that the same thing should be at once greater than and equal to the same thing is an impossibility; and the evident solution is that the Greater refers to origination, while the Equal belongs to the Nature; and this we acknowledge with much good will.  But perhaps some one else will back up our attack on your argument, and assert, that That which is from such a Cause is not inferior to that which has no Cause; for it would share the glory of the Unoriginate, because it is from the Unoriginate.  And there is, besides, the Generation, which is to all men a matter so marvellous and of such Majesty.  For to say that he is greater than the Son considered as man, is true indeed, but is no great thing.  For what marvel is it if God is greater than man?  Surely that is enough to say in answer to their talk about Greater.

VIII.  As to the other passages, My God would be used in respect, not of the Word, but of the Visible Word.  For how could there be a God of Him Who is properly God?  In the same way He is Father, not of the Visible, but of the Word; for our Lord was of two Natures; so that one expression is used properly, the other improperly in each of the two cases; but exactly the opposite way to their use in respect of us.  For with respect to us God is properly our God, but not properly our Father.  And this is the cause of the error of the Heretics, namely the joining of these two Names, which are interchanged because of the Union of the Natures.  And an indication of this is found in the fact that wherever the Natures are distinguished in our thoughts from one another, the Names are also distinguished; as you hear in Paul’s words, “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory.”³⁶²⁷  The God of Christ, but the Father of glory.  For although these two terms express but one Person, yet this is not by a Unity of Nature, but by a Union of the two.  What could be clearer?

IX.  Fifthly, let it be alleged that it is said of Him that He receives life,³⁶²⁸ judgment,³⁶²⁹ inheritance of the Gentiles,³⁶³⁰ or power over all flesh,³⁶³¹ or glory,³⁶³² or disciples, or whatever else is mentioned.  This also belongs to the Manhood; and yet if you were to ascribe it to the Godhead, it would be no absurdity.  For you would not so ascribe it as if it were newly acquired, but as belonging to Him from the beginning by reason of nature, and not as an act of favour.

X.  Sixthly, let it be asserted that it is written, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.³⁶³³  The solution of this is as follows:—Can and Cannot are not words with only one meaning, but have many meanings.  On the one hand they are used sometimes in respect of deficiency of strength, sometimes in respect of time, and sometimes relatively to a certain object; as for instance, A Child cannot be an Athlete, or, A Puppy cannot see, or fight with so and so.  Perhaps some day the child will be an athlete, the puppy will see, will fight with that other, though it may still be unable to fight with Any other.  Or again, they may be used of that which is Generally true.  For instance,—A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid;³⁶³⁴ while yet it might possibly be hidden by another higher hill being in a line with it.  Or in another sense they are used of a thing which is not reasonable; as, Can the Children of the Bridechamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them;³⁶³⁵ whether He be considered as visible in bodily form (for the time of His sojourning among us was not one of mourning, but of gladness), or, as the Word.  For why should they keep a bodily fast who are cleansed by the Word?³⁶³⁶  Or, again, they are used of that which is contrary to the will; as in, He could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief,³⁶³⁷—i.e. of those who should receive them.  For since in order to receive healing there is need of both faith in the patient and power in the Healer,³⁶³⁸ when one of the two failed the other was impossible.  But probably this sense also is to be referred to the head of the unreasonable.  For healing is not reasonable in the case of those who would afterwards be injured by unbelief.  The sentence The world cannot hate you,³⁶³⁹ comes under the same head, as does also How can ye, being evil, speak good things?³⁶⁴⁰  For in what sense is either impossible, except that it is contrary to the will?  There is a somewhat similar meaning in the expressions which imply that a thing impossible by nature is possible to God if He so wills;³⁶⁴¹ as that a man cannot be born a second time,³⁶⁴² or that a needle will not let a camel through it.³⁶⁴³  For what could prevent either of these things happening, if God so willed?

XI.  And besides all this, there is the absolutely impossible and inadmissible, as that which we are now examining.  For as we assert that it is impossible for God to be evil, or not to exist—for this would be indicative of weakness in God rather than of strength—or for the non-existent to exist, or for two and two to make both four and ten,³⁶⁴⁴ so it is impossible and inconceivable that the Son should do anything that the Father doeth not.³⁶⁴⁵  For all things that the Father hath are the Son’s;³⁶⁴⁶ and on the other hand, all that belongs to the Son is the Father’s.  Nothing then is peculiar, because all things are in common.  For Their Being itself is common and equal, even though the Son receive it from the Father.  It is in respect of this that it is said I live by the Father;³⁶⁴⁷ not as though His Life and Being were kept together by the Father, but because He has His Being from Him beyond all time, and beyond all cause.  But how does He see the Father doing, and do likewise?  Is it like those who copy pictures and letters, because they cannot attain the truth unless by looking at the original, and being led by the hand by it?  But how shall Wisdom stand in need of a teacher, or be incapable of acting unless taught?  And in what sense does the Father “Do” in the present or in the past?  Did He make another world before this one, or is He going to make a world to come?  And did the Son look at that and make this?  Or will He look at the other, and make one like it?  According to this argument there must be Four worlds, two made by the Father, and two by the Son.  What an absurdity!  He cleanses lepers, and delivers men from evil spirits, and diseases, and quickens the dead, and walks upon the sea, and does all His other works; but in what case, or when did the Father do these acts before Him?  Is it not clear that the Father impressed the ideas of these same actions, and the Word brings them to pass, yet not in slavish or unskilful fashion, but with full knowledge and in a masterly way, or, to speak more properly, like the Father?  For in this sense I understand the words that whatsoever is done by the Father, these things doeth the Son likewise; not, that is, because of the likeness of the things done, but in respect of the Authority.  This might well also be the meaning of the passage which says that the Father worketh hitherto and the Son also;³⁶⁴⁸ and not only so but it refers also to the government and preservation of the things which He has made; as is shewn by the passage which says that He maketh His Angels Spirits,³⁶⁴⁹ and that the earth is founded upon its steadfastness (though once for all these things were fixed and made) and that the thunder is made firm and the wind created.³⁶⁵⁰  Of all these things the Word was given once, but the Action is continuous even now.

XII.  Let them quote in the seventh place that The Son came down from Heaven, not to do His own Will, but the Will of Him That sent Him.³⁶⁵¹  Well, if this had not been said by Himself Who came down, we should say that the phrase was modelled as issuing from the Human Nature, not from Him who is conceived of in His character as the Saviour, for His Human Will cannot be opposed to God, seeing it is altogether taken into God; but conceived of simply as in our nature, inasmuch as the human will does not completely follow the Divine, but for the most part struggles against and resists it.  For we understand in the same way the words, Father, if ³¹⁴ it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; Nevertheless let not what I will but Thy Will prevail.³⁶⁵²  For it is not likely that He did not know whether it was possible or not, or that He would oppose will to will.  But since, as this is the language of Him Who assumed our Nature (for He it was Who came down), and not of the Nature which He assumed, we must meet the objection in this way, that the passage does not mean that the Son has a special will of His own, besides that of the Father, but that He has not; so that the meaning would be, “not to do Mine own Will, for there is none of Mine apart from, but that which is common to, Me and Thee; for as We have one Godhead, so We have one Will.”³⁶⁵³  For many such expressions are used in relation to this Community, and are expressed not positively but negatively; as, e.g., God giveth not the Spirit by measure,³⁶⁵⁴ for as a matter of fact He does not give the Spirit to the Son, nor does He measure It, for God is not measured by God; or again, Not my transgression nor my sin.³⁶⁵⁵  The words are not used because He has these things, but because He has them not.  And again, Not for our righteousness which we have done,³⁶⁵⁶ for we have not done any.  And this meaning is evident also in the clauses which follow.  For what, says He, is the Will of My Father?  That everyone that believeth on the Son should be saved,³⁶⁵⁷ and obtain the final Resurrection.³⁶⁵⁸  Now is this the Will of the Father, but not of the Son?  Or does He preach the Gospel, and receive men’s faith against His will?  Who could believe that?  Moreover, that passage, too, which says that the Word which is heard is not the Son’s³⁶⁵⁹ but the Father’s has the same force.  For I cannot see how that which is common to two can be said to belong to one alone, however much I consider it, and I do not think any one else can.  If then you hold this opinion concerning the Will, you will be right and reverent in your opinion, as I think, and as every right-minded person thinks.

XIII.  The eighth passage is, That they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent;³⁶⁶⁰ and There is none good save one, that is, God.³⁶⁶¹  The solution of this appears to me very easy.  For if you attribute this only to the Father, where will you place the Very Truth?  For if you conceive in this manner of the meaning of To the only wise God,³⁶⁶² or Who only hath Immortality, Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto,³⁶⁶³ or of to the king of the Ages, immortal, invisible, and only wise God,³⁶⁶⁴ then the Son has vanished under sentence of death, or of darkness, or at any rate condemned to be neither wise nor king, nor invisible, nor God at all, which sums up all these points.  And how will you prevent His Goodness, which especially belongs to God alone, from perishing with the rest?  I, however, think that the passage That they may know Thee the only true God, was said to overthrow those gods which are falsely so called, for He would not have added and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent, if The Only True God were contrasted with Him, and the sentence did not proceed upon the basis of a common Godhead.  The “None is Good” meets the tempting Lawyer, who was testifying to His Goodness viewed as Man.  For perfect goodness, He says, is God’s alone, even if a man is called perfectly good.  As for instance, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things.³⁶⁶⁵  And, I will give the kingdom to one who is good above Thee.³⁶⁶⁶…Words of God, speaking to Saul about David.  Or again, Do good, O Lord, unto the good³⁶⁶⁷…and all other like expressions concerning those of us who are praised, upon whom it is a kind of effluence from the Supreme Good, and has come to them in a secondary degree.  It will be best of all if we can persuade you of this.  But if not, what will you say to the suggestion on the other side, that on your hypothesis the Son has been called the only God.  In what passage?  Why, in this:—This is your God; no other shall be accounted of in comparison with Him, and a little further on, after this did He shew Himself upon earth, and conversed with men.³⁶⁶⁸  This addition proves clearly that the words are not used of the Father, but of the Son; for it was He Who in bodily form companied with us, and was in this lower world.  Now, if we should determine to take these words as said in contrast with the Father, and not with the imaginary gods, we lose the Father by the very terms which we were pressing against the Son.  And what could be more disastrous than such a victory?

XIV.  Ninthly, they allege, seeing He ever ³¹⁵liveth to make intercession for us.³⁶⁶⁹  O, how beautiful and mystical and kind.  For to intercede does not imply to seek for vengeance, as is most men’s way (for in that there would be something of humiliation), but it is to plead for us by reason of His Mediatorship, just as the Spirit also is said to make intercession for us.³⁶⁷⁰  For there is One God, and One Mediator between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus.³⁶⁷¹  For He still pleads even now as Man for my salvation; for He continues to wear the Body which He assumed, until He make me God by the power of His Incarnation; although He is no longer known after the flesh³⁶⁷²—I mean, the passions of the flesh, the same, except sin, as ours.  Thus too, we have an Advocate,³⁶⁷³ Jesus Christ, not indeed prostrating Himself for us before the Father, and falling down before Him in slavish fashion… Away with a suspicion so truly slavish and unworthy of the Spirit!  For neither is it seemly for the Father to require this, nor for the Son to submit to it; nor is it just to think it of God.  But by what He suffered as Man, He as the Word and the Counsellor persuades Him to be patient.  I think this is the meaning of His Advocacy.

XV.  Their tenth objection is the ignorance, and the statement that Of the last day and hour knoweth no man, not even the Son Himself, but the Father.³⁶⁷⁴  And yet how can Wisdom be ignorant of anything—that is, Wisdom Who made the worlds, Who perfects them, Who remodels them, Who is the Limit of all things that were made, Who knoweth the things of God as the spirit of a man knows the things that are in him?³⁶⁷⁵  For what can be more perfect than this knowledge?  How then can you say that all things before that hour He knows accurately, and all things that are to happen about the time of the end, but of the hour itself He is ignorant?  For such a thing would be like a riddle; as if one were to say that he knew accurately all that was in front of the wall, but did not know the wall itself; or that, knowing the end of the day, he did not know the beginning of the night—where knowledge of the one necessarily brings in the other.  Thus everyone must see that He knows as God, and knows not AS MAN;—if one may separate the visible from that which is discerned by thought alone.  For the absolute and unconditioned use of the Name “The Son” in this passage, without the addition of whose Son, gives us this thought, that we are to understand the ignorance in the most reverent sense, by attributing it TO THE MANHOOD, and not to the Godhead.

XVI.  If then this argument is sufficient, let us stop here, and not enquire further.  But if not, our second argument is as follows:—Just as we do in all other instances, so let us refer His knowledge of the greatest events, in honour of the Father, to The Cause.  And I think that anyone, even if he did not read it in the way that one of our own Students³⁶⁷⁶ did, would soon perceive that not even the Son knows the day or hour otherwise than as the Father does.  For what do we conclude from this?  That since the Father knows, therefore also does the Son, as it is evident that this cannot be known or comprehended by any but the First Nature.  There remains for us to interpret the passage about His receiving commandment,³⁶⁷⁷ and having kept His Commandments, and done always those things that please Him; and further concerning His being made perfect,³⁶⁷⁸ and His exaltation,³⁶⁷⁹ and His learning obedience by the things which He suffered; and also His High Priesthood, and His Oblation, and His Betrayal, and His prayer to Him That was able to save Him from death, and His Agony and Bloody Sweat and Prayer,³⁶⁸⁰ and such like things; if it were not evident to every one that such words are concerned, not with That Nature Which is unchangeable and above all capacity of suffering, BUT WITH THE PASSIBLE HUMANITY.  This, then, is the argument concerning these objections, so far as to be a sort of foundation and memorandum for the use of those who are better able to conduct the enquiry to a more complete working out.  It may, however, be worth while, and will be consistent with what has been already said, instead of passing over without remark the actual Titles of the Son (there are many of them, and they are concerned with many of His Attributes), to set before you the meaning of each of them, and to point out the mystical meaning of the names.

XVII.  We will begin thus.  The Deity cannot be expressed in words.  And this is proved to us, not only by argument, but by the wisest and most ancient of the Hebrews, so far as they have given us reason for conjecture.  For they appropriated certain characters to the honour of the Deity, and would not even allow the name of anything inferior to God to be written with the same letters as that of ³¹⁶God, because to their minds it was improper that the Deity should even to that extent admit any of His creatures to a share with Himself.  How then could they have admitted that the invisible and separate Nature can be explained by divisible words?  For neither has any one yet breathed the whole air, nor has any mind entirely comprehended, or speech exhaustively contained the Being of God.  But we sketch Him by His Attributes, and so obtain a certain faint and feeble and partial idea concerning Him, and our best Theologian is he who has, not indeed discovered the whole, for our present chain does not allow of our seeing the whole, but conceived of Him to a greater extent than another, and gathered in himself more of the Likeness or adumbration of the Truth, or whatever we may call it.

XVIII.  As far then as we can reach, He Who Is, and God, are the special names of His Essence; and of these especially He Who Is, not only because when He spake to Moses in the mount, and Moses asked what His Name was, this was what He called Himself, bidding him say to the people “I Am hath sent me,”³⁶⁸¹ but also because we find that this Name is the more strictly appropriate.  For the Name Θεός (God), even if, as those who are skilful in these matters say, it were derived from Θέειν³⁶⁸² (to run) or from Αἴθειν (to blaze), from continual motion, and because He consumes evil conditions of things (from which fact He is also called A Consuming Fire),³⁶⁸³ would still be one of the Relative Names, and not an Absolute one; as again is the case with Lord,³⁶⁸⁴ which also is called a name of God.  I am the Lord Thy God, He says, that is My name;³⁶⁸⁵ and, The Lord is His name.³⁶⁸⁶  But we are enquiring into a Nature Whose Being is absolute and not into Being bound up with something else.  But Being is in its proper sense peculiar to God, and belongs to Him entirely, and is not limited or cut short by any Before or After, for indeed in him there is no past or future.

XIX.  Of the other titles, some are evidently names of His Authority, others of His Government of the world, and of this viewed under a twofold aspect, the one before the other in the Incarnation.  For instance the Almighty, the King of Glory, or of The Ages, or of The Powers, or of The Beloved, or of Kings.  Or again the Lord of Sabaoth, that is of Hosts, or of Powers, or of Lords; these are clearly titles belonging to His Authority.  But the God either of Salvation or of Vengeance, or of Peace, or of Righteousness; or of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all the spiritual Israel that seeth God,—these belong to His Government.  For since we are governed by these three things, the fear of punishment, the hope of salvation and of glory besides, and the practice of the virtues by which these are attained, the Name of the God of Vengeance governs fear, and that of the God of Salvation our hope, and that of the God of Virtues our practice; that whoever attains to any of these may, as carrying God in himself, press on yet more unto perfection, and to that affinity which arises out of virtues.  Now these are Names common to the Godhead, but the Proper Name of the Unoriginate is Father, and that of the unoriginately Begotten is Son, and that of the unbegottenly Proceeding or going forth is The Holy Ghost.  Let us proceed then to the Names of the Son, which were our starting point in this part of our argument.

XX.  In my opinion He is called Son because He is identical with the Father in Essence; and not only for this reason, but also because He is Of Him.  And He is called Only-Begotten, not because He is the only Son and of the Father alone, and only a Son; but also because the manner of His Sonship is peculiar to Himself and not shared by bodies.  And He is called the Word, because He is related to the Father as Word to Mind; not only on account of His passionless Generation, but also because of the Union, and of His declaratory function.  Perhaps too this relation might be compared to that between the Definition and the Thing defined³⁶⁸⁷ since this also is called Λόγος.³⁶⁸⁸  For, it says, he that hath mental perception of the Son (for this is the meaning of Hath Seen) hath also perceived the Father;³⁶⁸⁹ and the Son is a concise demonstration and easy setting forth of the Father’s Nature.  For every thing that is begotten is a silent word of him that begat it.  And if any one should say that this Name was given Him because ³¹⁷He exists in all things that are, he would not be wrong.  For what is there that consists but by the word?  He is also called Wisdom, as the Knowledge of things divine and human.  For how is it possible that He Who made all things should be ignorant of the reasons of what He has made?  And Power, as the Sustainer of all created things, and the Furnisher to them of power to keep themselves together.  And Truth, as being in nature One and not many (for truth is one and falsehood is manifold), and as the pure Seal of the Father and His most unerring Impress.  And the Image as of one substance with Him, and because He is of the Father, and not the Father of Him.  For this is of the Nature of an Image, to be the reproduction of its Archetype, and of that whose name it bears; only that there is more here.  For in ordinary language an image is a motionless representation of that which has motion; but in this case it is the living reproduction of the Living One, and is more exactly like than was Seth to Adam,³⁶⁹⁰ or any son to his father.  For such is the nature of simple Existences, that it is not correct to say of them that they are Like in one particular and Unlike in another; but they are a complete resemblance, and should rather be called Identical than Like.  Moreover he is called Light as being the Brightness of souls cleansed by word and life.  For if ignorance and sin be darkness, knowledge and a godly life will be Light.…And He is called Life, because He is Light, and is the constituting and creating Power of every reasonable soul.  For in Him we live and move and have our being,³⁶⁹¹ according to the double power of that Breathing into us; for we were all inspired by Him with breath,³⁶⁹² and as many of us as were capable of it, and in so far as we open the mouth of our mind, with God the Holy Ghost.  He is Righteousness, because He distributes according to that which we deserve, and is a righteous Arbiter both for those who are under the Law and for those who are under Grace, for soul and body, so that the former should rule, and the latter obey, and the higher have supremacy over the lower; that the worse may not rise in rebellion against the better.  He is Sanctification, as being Purity, that the Pure may be contained by Purity.  And Redemption, because He sets us free, who were held captive under sin, giving Himself a Ransom for us, the Sacrifice to make expiation for the world.  And Resurrection, because He raises up from hence, and brings to life again us, who were slain by sin.

XXI.  These names however are still common to Him Who is above us, and to Him Who came for our sake.  But others are peculiarly our own, and belong to that nature which He assumed.  So He is called Man, not only that through His Body He may be apprehended by embodied creatures, whereas otherwise this would be impossible because of His incomprehensible nature; but also that by Himself He may sanctify humanity, and be as it were a leaven to the whole lump; and by uniting to Himself that which was condemned may release it from all condemnation, becoming for all men all things that we are, except sin;—body, soul, mind and all through which death reaches—and thus He became Man, who is the combination of all these; God in visible form, because He retained that which is perceived by mind alone.  He is Son of Man, both on account of Adam, and of the Virgin from Whom He came; from the one as a forefather, from the other as His Mother, both in accordance with the law of generation, and apart from it.  He is Christ, because of His Godhead.  For this is the Anointing of His Manhood, and does not, as is the case with all other Anointed Ones, sanctify by its action, but by the Presence in His Fulness of the Anointing One; the effect of which is that That which anoints is called Man, and makes that which is anointed God.  He is The Way, because He leads us through Himself; The Door, as letting us in; the Shepherd, as making us dwell in a place of green pastures,³⁶⁹³ and bringing us up by waters of rest, and leading us there, and protecting us from wild beasts, converting the erring, bringing back that which was lost, binding up that which was broken, guarding the strong, and bringing them together in the Fold beyond, with words of pastoral knowledge.  The Sheep, as the Victim:  The Lamb, as being perfect:  the Highpriest, as the Offerer; Melchisedec, as without Mother in that Nature which is above us, and without Father in ours; and without genealogy above (for who, it says, shall declare His generation?) and moreover, as King of Salem, which means Peace, and King of Righteousness, and as receiving tithes from Patriarchs, when they prevail over powers of evil.  They are the titles of the Son.  Walk through them, those that are lofty in a godlike manner; those that belong to the body in a manner suitable to them; or rather, altogether in a godlike manner, that thou mayest become a god, ascending from ³¹⁸below, for His sake Who came down from on high for ours.  In all and above all keep to this, and thou shalt never err, either in the loftier or the lowlier names; Jesus Christ is the Same yesterday and to-day in the Incarnation, and in the Spirit for ever and ever.  Amen.