Chapter I.

The author distinguishes the faith from the errors of Pagans,10    Or “Gentiles.” The Christians regarded themselves as placed in the world much as the Hebrews had been planted in the midst of the “nations round about.”Jews, and Heretics, and after explaining the significance of the names “God” and “Lord,” shows clearly the difference of Persons in Unity of Essence.11    The Latin word is natura, which, at first sight, seems less abstruse and metaphysical than the Greek οὐσία, or ὑπόστασις, or the Latin essentia and substantia, though it is not really so. A man’s natura, nature, is what he is at and from the beginning; “change of nature” means not an absolute change, but a reformation, a new guidance and treatment of tendencies, passions, powers—some receiving a precedence denied them before, others being suppressed and put in subjection. So God’s “nature” is what He is from and to all eternity, in Himself, unchangingly and unchangeably. In dividing the Essence, the Arians not only bring in the doctrine of three Gods, but even overthrow the dominion of the Trinity.

6. Now this is the declaration of our Faith, that we say that God is One, neither dividing His Son from Him, as do the heathen,12    Lit. “the nations”—gentes, τὰ ἔθνη. The Romans of the Republic used to speak of foreign peoples—especially if subject to kings—as gentes exteræ, in contradistinction to the Populus Romanus. St. Ambrose of course means those who still clung to the ancient religions, who were foreigners to the commonwealth (res publica) of the Church. nor denying, with the Jews, that He was begotten of the Father before all worlds,13    The original is ante tempora—“before the ages”—“before time was.” Cf. 1 Cor. viii. 6; Phil. ii. 6–8; Col. i. 15 (πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως—“first-born of all creation,” which Justin Martyr interprets as meaning πρὸ πὰντων τῶν κτισμάτων—“before all created things.”) Hebrews i. 1–12; Rev. i. 8, 18; John i. 1–3. Justin Martyr, Apology, II. 6; Dialogue with Tryphon, 61. Tempora answers to the Greek αἰῶνες, rendered “worlds” in Heb. i. 2. and afterwards born of the Virgin; nor yet, like Sabellius,14    Sabellius was a presbyter in the Libyan Pentapolis (Barca), who came to Rome and there ventilated his heretical teaching, early in the third century, a.d. (about 210). He appears to have maintained that there was no real distinction of Persons in the Godhead. God, he said, was one individual Person: when different divine Persons were spoken of, no more was meant than different aspects of, or the assumption of different parts by, the same subject. Sabellius thus started from the ordinary usages of the term πρόσωπον as denoting (1) a mask, (2) a character or part in a drama. The Latin persona was used in the same way. Sabellianism never counted many adherents; its professors were called Patripassians, because their doctrine was tantamount to asserting that God the Father was crucified. confounding the Father with the Word, and so maintaining that Father and Son are one and the same Person; nor again, as doth Photinus,15    Photinus was a Galatian, who became Bishop of Sirmium (Mitrovitz in Slavonia) in the fourth century. He taught that Jesus Christ did not exist before His mother Mary, but was begotten of her by Joseph. The man Jesus, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting, was enlightened and guided by the influence of the Logos, or Divine Reason, whereby He became the Son of God, preeminent over all other prophets and teachers. holding that the Son first came into existence in the Virgin’s womb: nor believing, with Arius,16    Arius was a presbyter of Alexandria; the origin of his heresy, however, is, as Cardinal Newman has shown, to be sought in Syria rather than in Egypt, in the sophistic method of the Antiochene schools more than in the mysticism of the Alexandrian. It was in the year 319 that Arius began to attract attention by his heterodox teaching, which led eventually to his excommunication. He found favour, however, with men of considerable importance in the Church, such as Eusebius of Cæsarea in Palestine, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Athanasius of Anazarbus, and others. The question was finally discussed in a synod of bishops convened, on the summons of the Emperor Constantine, at Nicæa in Bithynia. The acts of that Council condemned Arianism—notwithstanding which, the heresy prevailed in the East till the reign of Theodosius the Great (379–395 a.d.); and having won the acceptance of the Goths, it was predominant in Gaul and Italy during the fifth century, and in Spain till the Council of Toledo (589 a.d.), and its influence affected Christian thought for centuries afterwards—possibly it is not even yet dead.   Arius urged the following dilemma: “Either the Son is an original Divine Essence; if so we must acknowledge two Gods. Or He was created, formed, begotten; if so, He is not God in the same sense as the Father is God.” Arius himself chose the latter alternative, which St. Ambrose regarded as a lapse into paganism, with its “gods many and lords many,” dii majores and dii minores, and divinities begotten of gods and goddesses.   Arius’s errors are summarized in the anathema appended to the original Nicene Creed. “But those who say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, or that He had no existence before He was begotten, or that He was formed of things non-existent, or who assert that the Son of God is of a different substance or essence, or is created, mutable, or variable, these men the Catholic and Apostolic Church of God holds accursed.” in a number of diverse Powers,17    Compare Eph. i. 21; Col. i. 16. Hierarchies of “Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers,” were characteristic features of the Gnostic systems of the second century. The Gnostics generally thought that the world had been created by an inferior, secondary, limitary power, identified with the God of the Old Testament, whom they distinguished from the true Supreme God. and so, like the benighted heathen, making out more than one God. For it is written: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.”18    The A.V. of 1611 runs thus: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord” (Jahveh our God is one Jahveh).

7. For God and Lord is a name of majesty, a name of power, even as God Himself saith: “The Lord is My name,”19    Ex. iii. 15. and as in another place the prophet declareth: “The Lord Almighty is His name.”20    “Ego Dominus; hoe est nomen meum.”—Vulg., Is. xlii. 8. “I am the Lord, that is My name.”—A.V. 1611, ibid. God is He, therefore, and Lord, either because His rule is over all, or because He beholdeth all things, and is feared by all, without difference.21    The word Θεός, “God,” is derived by most authorities from θεᾶσθαι, which means “to look upon.” Here we have another derivation suggested, viz., from δέος, “fear,” on this ground that God inspires fear.—H. Neither derivation is correct. The best perhaps is given by Herodotus (II. 52), viz., from the verb τίθημι, to place, set, array, the idea being that God is the principal of all order and law.

8. If, then, God is One, one is the name, one is the power, of the Trinity. Christ Himself, indeed, saith: “Go ye, baptize the nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”22    S. Matt. xxviii. 19. In the name, mark you, not in the names.”23    A similar argument in Gal. iii. 16.

9. Moreover, Christ Himself saith: “I and the Father are One.”24    S. John x. 30. “One,” said He, that there be no separation of power and nature; but again, “We are,” that you may recognize Father and Son, forasmuch as the perfect Father is believed to have begotten the perfect Son,25    Cf. S. Matt. v. 48. and the Father and the Son are One, not by confusion of Person, but by unity of nature.26    Athanasian Creed, clause 4.

10. We say, then, that there is one God, not two or three Gods, this being the error into which the impious heresy of the Arians doth run with its blasphemies. For it says that there are three Gods, in that it divides the Godhead of the Trinity; whereas the Lord, in saying, “Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” hath shown that the Trinity is of one power. We confess Father, Son, and Spirit, understanding in a perfect Trinity both fulness of Divinity and unity of power.27    Or “perfect fulness of Divinity, and perfect unity of power.”

11. “Every kingdom divided against itself shall quickly be overthrown,” saith the Lord. Now the kingdom of the Trinity is not divided. If, therefore, it is not divided, it is one; for that which is not one is divided. The Arians, however, would have the kingdom of the Trinity to be such as may easily be overthrown, by division against itself. But truly, seeing that it cannot be overthrown, it is plainly undivided. For no unity is divided or rent asunder, and therefore neither age nor corruption has any power over it.28    S. Matt. xii. 25; Ps. cii. 25–27; Dan. iv. 3.

445 CAPUT PRIMUM.

Catholicam fidem a gentilium, Judaeorum, ac haereticorum erroribus distinguit: expositoque vocum Dei et Domini significatu, personarum discrimen, et naturae unitatem demonstrat: quam dum separant Ariani, non tres Deos tantum inducunt, sed etiam Trinitatis regnum destruunt.

6. Assertio autem nostrae fidei haec est, ut unum Deum esse dicamus: neque, ut gentes, Filium separemus: neque ut Judaei, natum ex Patre ante tempora, et ex Virgine postea editum denegemus: neque ut Sabellius, Patrem confundamus et Verbum; ut eumdem Patrem asseramus et Filium: neque ut 0530B Photinus, initium Filii ex Virgine disputemus: neque ut Arius, plures credendo et dissimiles potestates, plures deos gentili errore faciamus, quia scriptum est: Audi, Israel, Dominus Deus tuus, Deus unus est (Deut. VI, 4).

7. Deus enim et Dominus nomen magnificentiae, nomen est potestatis, sicut ipse dicit: Dominus nomen est mihi. Et sicut alibi Propheta asserit: Dominus 0531Aomnipotens nomen est ei (Esai. XLII, 8). Dominus ergo et Deus vel quod dominetur omnibus, vel quod spectet omnia, et timeatur a cunctis.

8. Si ergo unus Deus, unum nomen, potestas una est Trinitatis. Denique ipse dicit: Ite, baptizate gentes in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti (Matth. XXVIII, 19). In nomine utique, non in nominibus.

9. Ipse etiam dicit: Ego et Pater unum sumus (Joan. X, 30). Unum dixit, ne fiat discretio potestatis et naturae: sumus addidit, ut Patrem Filiumque cognoscas; quod perfectus Pater perfectum Filium genuisse credatur: et Pater et Filius unum sint, non confusione personae, sed unitate naturae.

10. [Alias cap. II.] Unum ergo Deum, non duos aut tres deos dicimus; ut impia Arianorum haeresis dum 0531B criminatur, incurrit. Tres enim deos dicit, qui divinitatem separat Trinitatis; cum Dominus dicendo: Ite, baptizate gentes in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti, unius esse Trinitatem potestatis ostenderit. Nos Patrem 446 et Filium et Spiritum sanctum confitemur; ita ut in Trinitate perfecta et plenitudo sit divinitatis, et unitas potestatis.

11. Omne regnum in se divisum facile destruetur, Dominus hoc dicit (Matth. XII, 25). Non ergo divisum est regnum Trinitatis. Si ergo divisum non est, unum est; quod enim unum non est, divisum est. Tale ergo regnum esse cupiunt Trinitatis, quod divisione sui facile destruatur. Immo quia non potest destrui, constat non esse divisum. Non enim dividitur unitas, nec scinditur; et ideo nec corruptelae 0531C subditur, nec aetati.