6.
And this is what is said, ‘Who being in the form of God 1,’ and ‘the Father in Me.’ Nor is this Form 2 of the Godhead partial merely, but the fulness of the Father’s Godhead is the Being of the Son, and the Son is whole God. Therefore also, being equal to God, He ‘thought it not a prize to be equal to God;’ and again since the Godhead and the Form of the Son is none other’s than the Father’s 3, this is what He says, ‘I in the Father.’ Thus ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself 4;’ for the propriety of the Father’s Essence is that Son, in whom the creation was then reconciled with God. Thus what things the Son then wrought are the Father’s works, for the Son is the Form of that Godhead of the Father, which wrought the works. And thus he who looks at the Son, sees the Father; for in the Father’s Godhead is and is contemplated the Son; and the Father’s Form which is in Him shews in Him the Father; and thus the Father is in the Son. And that propriety and Godhead which is from the Father in the Son, shews the Son in the Father, and His inseparability from Him; and whoso hears and beholds that what is said of the Father is also said of the Son, not as accruing to His Essence by grace or participation, but because the very Being of the Son is the proper Offspring of the Father’s Essence, will fitly understand the words, as I said before, ‘I in the Father, and the Father in Me;’ and ‘I and the Father are One 5.’ For the Son is such as the Father is, because He has all that is the Father’s. Wherefore also is He implied together with the Father. For, a son not being, one cannot say father; whereas when we call God a Maker, we do not of necessity intimate the things which have come to be; for a maker is before his works 6. P. 397 But when we call God Father, at once with the Father we signify the Son’s existence. Therefore also he who believes in the Son, believes also in the Father: for he believes in what is proper to the Father’s Essence; and thus the faith is one in one God. And he who worships and honours the Son, in the Son worships and honours the Father; for one is the Godhead; and therefore one 7 the honour and one the worship which is paid to the Father in and through the Son. And he who thus worships, worships one God; for there is one God and none other than He. Accordingly when the Father is called the only God, and we read that there is one God 8, and ‘I am,’ and ‘beside Me there is no God,’ and ‘I the first and I the last 9,’ this has a fit meaning. For God is One and Only and First; but this is not said to the denial of the Son 10, perish the thought; for He is in that One, and First and Only, as being of that One and Only and First the Only Word and Wisdom and Radiance. And He too is the First, as the Fulness of the Godhead of the First and Only, being whole and full God 11. This then is not said on His account, but to deny that there is other such as the Father and His Word.
Phil. ii. 6 . ↩
εἶδος , vid.infr.16, note. ↩
Here first the Son’s εἶδος is the εἶδος of the Father, then the Son is the εἶδος of the Father’s Godhead, and then in the Son is the εἶδος of the Father. These expressions are equivalent, if Father and Son are, each separately, ὅλος θεός . vid.infr.§16, note. S. Greg. Naz. uses the word ὀπίσθια ( Exod. xxxiii. 23 ), which forms a contrast to εἶδος , for the Divine Works.Orat.28, 3. ↩
2 Cor. v. 19 . ↩
John xiv. 10 ; x. 30. ↩
Vid.supr. de Decr.30;Or.i. 33. This is in opposition to the Arians, who said that the title Father implied priority of existence. Athan. says that the title ‘Maker’ does, but that the title ‘father’ does not. vid.supr.p. 76, n. 3;Or.i. 29, n. 10: ii. 41, n. 11. ↩
Athan.de Incarn. c. Ar.19, c. vid. Ambros.de fid.iii. cap. 12, 13. Naz.Orat.23, 8. Basil.de Sp. S.n. 64. ↩
Mark xii. 29 . ↩
Ex. iii. 14 ; Deut. xxxii. 39 , LXX.; Is. xliv. 6 ↩
De Decr.19, n. 6. ↩
Vid.supr.1, note 10; ii. 41 fin. alsoinfr.iv. 1. Pseudo-Ath.c. Sab. Greg.5–12. Naz.Orat.40, 41. Synes.Hymn.iii. pp. 328, 9. Ambros.de Fid.i. n. 18. August.Ep.170, 5. vid.Or.ii. 38, n. 6. andinfr.note on 36 fin. ↩
