7.

But I, says the Manichean, neither accept Moses nor the Prophets. What do you say about the Apostle Paul, who wrote at the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh ¹. Although we responded to others, we did not remain silent: but even now, keeping his order, let us see what arrows he throws. Let no one's [P. 1108] powerful person terrify: All flesh is grass ². You see grass growing daily, you see it blooming, what are you afraid of? Such fruits does the deserted earth bring forth. I do not accuse farmers, but I seek. Where are you now, O good farmers? What are you doing? Why are you idle? You see how full this earth is of evils: here thorns, there thistles, here grass grows. Burn the thorns, uproot the thistles, cut the grass, sow good seeds, do not be afraid of winter: and if iniquity abounds, let your charity still burn. Sow in winter, that you may reap in summer. But to whom do I speak? Where are the fountains of tears? To which farmers do I speak? Some are dead, others are driven away: the earth is delivered into the hands of the wicked ³, tribulation and necessity have found us. Lord, give us help from tribulation, that the salvation of man may not be vain, but true ⁴. What do you say, Arian? I ask you to answer the question. I do not want you to despise the little one, the great form does not help you, the great arms do not protect you, the blow of a single stone penetrates the helmeted forehead ⁵. So tell me what I ask you: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty? I believe, he says. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord? I believe, he says. Do you believe that Jesus Christ, God and man, was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary? I believe, he says. You do well. I still ask: As the Father is God, so is the Son God? Yes. Is the Father one, the Son another? And especially. Is the Son equal to the Father? Equal, he says. What remains? Behold, he has answered everything I asked. In that he says he believes in God the Father and God the Son, he is contrary to the Pagan with me. In that he believes Christ is God and man born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, he is with me against the Jew and the Manichean. In that he believes the Father is one, the Son another, he is with me against the Sabellian. Come, if you are with me in all things, why do we argue? If we have one inheritance, let us possess it together; we are brothers: Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ⁶! Why is there a new building before the wall? Let us watch together for the protection of our inheritance. Our inheritance is glorious to us ⁷. We have the envious, we have enemies: and they want to possess it, not with us, but against us. Let no one usurp anything for himself: this inheritance has been left to us so that it may be possessed undivided, not dissipated in parts. Let us gather the fruit together, lest we lose it by dividing. Poverty makes me anxious; I beg you, do not gather outside without me, lest you begin to scatter. He who does not gather with me, scatters ⁸. I almost forgot with whom I was dealing; but I have not forgotten, I question the Arian, whom I desire to be catholic. Someone says: He has answered everything you wanted, nothing adverse is found in his answers: what more do you seek? Wait, brother, do not judge easily, I still have something to ask: do not quickly commit yourself to him, the answer is clear, the poison is hidden. What did you say, brother? Is the Son equal to the Father? Equal, you say. Now be vigilant, now what was hidden will be revealed. How do you say the Son is equal to the Father? In operation, or in origin? In power, or in eternity? Or perhaps in both? By no means, you say. He is equal in operation and power, not in eternity: for how can the begotten be equal to the unbegotten? Behold, he who was walking with me as if a co-heir, the deceit that was hidden has appeared. He was thought to possess with me, he wants to divide: but I do not allow it; I absolutely resist. The laws require that the testator's will be obeyed in all things: if anyone wishes to act against the testator's will, let him be deprived of the inheritance. But do the laws fall silent among arms ⁹? Not at all: we labor, we fight, so that the laws may be served. I bring forth the testament, I recite the words of the testator: if there is something to be divided, I find it there: if there is nothing to be divided, I resist you with the testament itself. Hear what the testament has: Peace I leave with you, [P. 1109] my peace I give unto you ¹⁰. This is the inheritance. And who is the testator himself? Read the Testament, and you will find. When the prophet was speaking of the Lord, he said; He shall be magnified unto the ends of the earth, and this man shall be the peace (Micah V, 4, 5). Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men ¹¹; not to those who divide the holy unity, but to men of good will. He is the inheritance, he is the testator, you seek to divide him. Why do you divide one? If you divide one, you will have nothing whole. O Arian heresy, cruel and impious harlot, blush with Solomon judging. The harlot, lest she lose her living son, conceived from wherever, already born, did not allow her son to be divided; and do you divide your Lord God? She, though a harlot, was pious because she was a mother; you are both a harlot and impious because you are not a mother, you strangle what you bear, you gather what you do not bear. How do you nurse another's child, who kill your own? Your bowels have hardened, hers trembled. What did she say? Give her the child, and do not divide him ¹²: He is my son; but I would rather rejoice that he is whole and alive with her, than mourn him divided and dead. He is my son, she says; but what good will I do as a mother to the child if I take away the life I do not give? I want to repel the cruel woman from the child, but I am more compelled to fear the judge's sword. Give her my son: he is my born; but let him go to her whole, let affection remain with me. Give her the whole child, let not the life of the members be taken away: let not the integrity be divided, let not my piety be taken away. What did she say, Give her the child and do not divide him? Behold, I also say, possess the whole, and do not divide God. No, he says; but if you want to have peace without prejudice, divide the inheritance. And how do I divide it? The Father is greater, the Son is lesser? O parts! O justice! O equality! One part is greater, the other lesser. I do not consent, I do not make a part; because I do not divide peace. For if peace is broken, it will no longer be peace. But how can peace remain inviolate with you, with whom faith is not whole? Therefore, because you do not want to possess with me, and you want to divide peace, you cannot obtain the inheritance. Finally, if you are inclined to your custom, not to peace, but to perfidy, go, appeal to the judge, let us see what he will say to you. You have an ordinary judge, I do not want you to bring me other and other powers from different parts. I do not need an armed man, but a lawgiver. And where, you ask, do I find him? Where do you not find him? Hear the prophet saying: The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver. Do not think the judge is to be despised; hear what follows: The Lord is our king, the Lord himself will save us ¹³. Behold, you have a judge. If it is not enough, our king is also before you. He is in heaven, so as not to forsake the earth. Heaven, he says, and earth I fill ¹⁴. I am with you all days until the end of the world ¹⁵. And he is with us, and with the Father: because he did not leave the Father when he descended to us; nor did he forsake us when he ascended to the Father. Appeal to him, say to him: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Hear the divine response, hear the just judge; hear peace, fleeing strife: what does he say? Friend, who made me a judge or a divider over you ¹⁶? You want to divide peace, and you seek to have a judge of peace? I do not want to be your judge; I am peace, I do not know how to litigate; I sit with those who agree, I flee from those who litigate. If when you were an enemy to my Father, I reconciled you through me, how then will you separate me from my Father? When you were far away, I came to bring you back: when you wandered among mountains and forests, I sought you: among stones and woods I found you: you stumbled on stones, you clung to them, because you worshipped wood and stones. And lest you be torn by the greedy mouth of wolves and wild beasts, I gathered you, I carried you on my shoulders, I returned you to my father, I labored, I sweated, I placed my head under thorns, I exposed my hands to nails, a spear opened my side: I was lacerated by so many not to say injuries, but also asperities: I shed my blood, I laid down my life, [P. 1110] to join you to me, and you divide me? Hear what is answered to the disciple who knew the Son and sought the Father. Philip said to the Lord: Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Did he not also separate the Son from the Father? Now you, he says, we know, but we do not know your Father. And what do you want? Show us the Father, and it suffices us. And the Lord to him. If you want, Arian, to hear, you erred with the Apostle, return with the Apostle: let his rebuke also be your cure. What does the Lord say? Have I been so long with you, and you have not known me? Philip, I came to attach you to my Father, do not separate me: why do you seek as if another besides me? He who has seen me has seen the Father. There is such unity in us, such likeness, such love, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. I sense, Sabellian, what you mutter, or you hasten to enclose me in the Arian, or to call me away from the Arian. But in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; not of three, but of one God; when I respond to him, I do not pass over you. What did the Lord say? He who has seen me has seen the Father. Did he say, He who has seen me, has seen the Father; or, I am the Son and the Father at the same time? But he said, I in the Father, and the Father in me; and He who has seen me has seen the Father ¹⁷. The insertion of one syllable, which is called And, distinguishes both the Father and the Son; and shows you that you have neither the Father nor the Son. Tell me, Arian: Do you say the Father is God? And especially. What about the Son? I also confess him to be God. How do you recognize this? Because when he was foretold to come in the flesh, the prophet said of him, Say to the faint-hearted, Be strong: fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you ¹⁸. Recognize, in what you say you recognize, if you do not oppose the Prophets. What then do you say about the Father? He is God. What about the Son? He is God. Is the Son coeternal with the Father? No. Therefore there was a time when the Son was not, according to you. If there was a time when the Son was not, then there was a time that the Son did not make. If there was a time that the Son did not make, not all things were made by him: for there was already time when the Son was not. If there was a time when the Son was not, the evangelist John should not have said, In the beginning was the Word; but, In the beginning was time. John says, All things were made by him ¹⁹: but the Arian contradicts. Tell me, Arian: how do you know there was a time when the Son was not? Or perhaps you will say, And how does John know that in the beginning was the Word? Because he reclined on the Lord's breast, and from there he drew what he drank at the feast of Christ, because in the beginning was the Word. Yet tell me, when in the beginning was the Word ²⁰, or when John reclined on the Lord's breast ²¹, and learned from the Word of the Lord that the Word was in the beginning, and the Word was God: where was Arius? I do not know if you dare to say he was there. It is known and read at what time he was born, and why he was condemned. It is also known how he lived, how he died: and therefore you do not dare to say of Arius, as of the Word, And he was, and he is: because neither was Arius then, nor is he now. But to exclude the Arian in all things, hear what is said through Solomon: The Lord made regions and uninhabitable places under heaven. When he prepared the heavens, I was there with him. And after a few words: I was with him arranging all things: I was there when he made the strong foundations of the earth: I was the one he rejoiced in ²². But you say, It is about time; whether the Son was before there was time. Hear him saying through the prophet: From the time, he says. What is, From the time? Is it not from when time began to be? Not so, impious Arian; not so: but, From the time, before it was made, I was there ²³. Behold, before time was made, he was there. Now seek when he was not, who was before times. In the beginning was the Word. The Greeks say it better, Λόγος. Λόγος indeed signifies both word and reason. You see, therefore, that he always was, of whom you dare to say, He was not. Or if you say that God was ever without word, or without reason, you will not only be an adversary to the Son, but also to the Father [P. 1111]. I, he says, came forth from the mouth of the Most High ²⁴. Who says this? The Word. And what is this Word? Let John say: The Word was God. And therefore the Word, and whose Word it was, are not two, but one. No, you say: because the word is later than he whose word it is, whence it appears that the Son is lesser than the Father. You deny, therefore, that the Son of God is God. I do not deny, you say: and I call the Father God, and the Son God; but the Father greater, the Son lesser. How long is the Father greater, the Son lesser? Tell me, because I see you want to calculate eternity: by how many years does God the Father precede his Son? Where have you read the day of the birth of the Son of God? I say the Son of God, I do not say the Son of God and man. Where then have you read the day of his birth? With which mathematician did you seek and discuss the constellation of the Creator of the stars? What times, what hours, what moments, what numbers, what small moments of his birth, who created all things, have you collected? Let your heretical, not religion, but superstition rest, I beg: calculation fails concerning the beginning of Christ. Because when eternity is heard without beginning, no age is sought there. If the Father is God, and the Son is God, the Father greater, the Son lesser: now not one God, but two gods. If there are two gods, what then does the Lord say through the prophet, Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none ²⁵? What do you say, Arian? To whom do you attribute these words? If they are the Father's, by saying, Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none: either the Father himself will not be, or the Son will not be God. For if he only said, Before me there was no God formed; and did not add, and after me there shall be none: it was free for you to apply these words only to the Father. But when he follows and says, after me there shall be none: according to you, as I said, he denies both himself as Father and the Son as God. Again, if these words are the Son's, he denies his Father and God and Father. For if he did not say, Before me there was no God formed; but only said, after me there shall be none: it might perhaps be said that the Son spoke it. Now, however, when he says, Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none: he says his Father is neither God nor Father. Again, if these words are the Father's; who says, to whom does he say, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee ²⁶? Or perhaps, God forbid, is God to be accused of lying? But if these words are the Son's, who says, of whom does he say, My Father worketh hitherto ²⁷? Or perhaps he is to be judged injurious to the Father and ungrateful? But would it be said to the ungrateful, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession ²⁸? Or perhaps the Prophet either did not know what he was saying, or wished to deceive; or to say something milder about the Prophet, is he to be believed to have invented two conversing, that is, the Father and the Son; and the Father saying, Before me there was no God formed, the Son added, And after me there shall be none? Are we acting out mimes and jests, or divine things? O crime! Alas! Spare, spare, heretical impiety. When you do not understand God, you also provoke us to blasphemy. The holy Church does not teach this. The Father is the Father; the Son is the Son: and he never was not the Father, and he never was not the Son: both eternal, neither began to be, nor cease. What the Father speaks, the Son speaks, because he is the Word of the Father: and what the Son speaks, the Father speaks, because the Father is the Word. The Word itself says, The words that I speak, I speak not of myself ²⁹. Grant, I pray, to the Creator what he himself granted to the creature, and in the creature, if you can, understand the Creator. Behold, fire and splendor are two, one is from the other, nor is one without the other: fire is the father, splendor is the son. He, if he could, would say, What I shine, I do not shine of myself; but he who sent me, he gave me to shine. For fire sends forth splendor. And as the Son of God the Father says, The Father is with me ³⁰; so splendor could say, Fire is with me. Extinguish the fire, the splendor will appear nowhere. If therefore fire and splendor, father and son, one father without a consort, the other son without a mother; nor can one be divided from the other; and while one is from the other, yet the beginning of one cannot be without the other; this being possible, granted by the Creator to the creature: what can the Creator himself do? Let the Pagan come, let the Sabellian come, let the Arian come: let them contemplate the lamp, see in it what they cannot see in God. I do not do injury, if in some part desiring to show the power of such a great Creator, I bring a small likeness from fire or a lamp. For it is written, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, O Lord, and a light unto my path ³¹. And it is said of God, A consuming fire ³². Come, therefore, and diligently consider the lamp, and remove your foolish darkness. Let the Pagan look, and there learn that there is a Father without a consort and a Son, and how the Son was born: and if you are not blind, see there; seek the middle between fire and splendor. If there is no middle, there is no consort. Do not wish to search for the middle, lest you suffer a great burning. Let the Sabellian come, see two in one, fire and splendor. Can splendor not rightly say, I in the fire, and the fire in me; just as the Son says, I in the Father, and the Father in me ³³? Let the Arian also come, see also one from the other, yet one cannot be born without the other: neither is one prior, nor one posterior; the father and son, splendor and fire, are coeval: neither fire without splendor, nor splendor without fire can exist. Or certainly, if it pleases, put forth your hand, divide one from the other: show me fire without splendor, or splendor without fire. God forbid, God forbid: you will only be able to burn, you will not be able to separate one from the other. For as fire and splendor are one from the other, yet one cannot be without the other: so God the Father and God the Son are one from the other, yet one cannot be without the other. They do not have a beginning that is not, but one eternity and substance. Fire and splendor are temporal: but God the Father and God the Son are eternal. I say they are, because Father and Son; I say God, because they are one. Duality in offspring, unity in deity. The birth makes them two, but the divinity shows them to be one. When I say, Son, he is another: when I say, God, he is one. He is another, because he is the Son: he is not another thing, because he is God. Blush, Arians. The tunic of the man already judged on the cross by Pilate's executioners was not dared to be torn ³⁴: and do you attempt to divide the love of God sitting in heaven, indeed the love itself, God? But try; as much as you can, try, you have already fallen into hell: for you will never tear that tunic. Again, the Lord says through the prophet, There is no God beside me: a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me ³⁵.