18. Moreover, to shew that she possesses a nature that was born and not created, Wisdom has added that she was begotten, that by declaring that she was created and also begotten, she might completely explain her birth. By speaking of creation she implies that the nature of the Father is changeless, and she also shews that the substance of her nature begotten of God the Father is genuine and real. And so her words about creation and generation have explained the perfection of her birth: the former that the Father is changeless, the latter the reality of her own nature. The two things combined become one, and that one is both in perfection: for the Son being born of God without any change in God, is so born of the Father as to be created; and the Father, who is changeless in Himself and the Son’s Father by nature, so forms the Son as to beget Him. Therefore the heresy which has dared to aver that the Son of God is a creature is condemned because while the first statement shews the impossible perfection of the divinity, the second, which asserts His natural generation, crushes the impious opinion that He was created out of nothing.

VI. “And if any one grant the Son only a likeness of activity, but rob Him of the likeness of essence which is the corner-stone of our faith, in spite of the fact that the Son Himself reveals His essential likeness with the Father in the words, For as the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself12    John v. 26., as well as His likeness in activity by teaching us that What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise13    Ib. v. 19., such a man robs himself of the knowledge of eternal life which is in the Father and the Son, and let him be anathema.”

18. Creatam se simul et genitam dicens originis suae naturam quam apte explicet. Solam virtutis similitudinem Filio tribuentes damnantur.---At vero ut ostenderet, non creationis in se, sed nativitatis esse naturam; subjecit et genitam, ut cum creatam se et genitam confitetur, absolutam nativitatis suae intelligentiam praestaret: dum et indemutabilem Patris naturam in creatione significat, et legitimam ac propriam ex Deo patre genitae naturae suae ostendit esse substantiam. Atque ita perfectae nativitatis intelligentiam, creationis et generationis attulit sermo: cum alterum sine demutatione, alterum in proprietate naturae est. Fitque utrumque unum, et unum utrumque 0494C perfectum: dum et Filius, ex Deo ac sine demutatione Dei natus, sic ex Patre nascitur, ut creetur; et indemutabilis ex se ac naturalis Filio Pater sic Filium condit, ut generet. Haeresis ergo 0495A creaturam esse Dei filium profiteri ausa, damnatur: quia impiam creaturae ex nihilo opinionem, impassibili per eam divinitatis perfectione monstrata, consequens professio naturalis generationis exstinguat.

VI. «Et si quis in Filio, Patris similitudinem secundum essentiam quidem ipso Filio revelante per haec quae dicit: Sicut enim Pater habet vitam in semetipso, sic et Filio dedit habere vitam in semetipso (Joan. V, 26); juxta efficaciam autem per ea quae docet: Quae enim Pater facit, eadem et Filius similiter facit (Ibid., 19), solam secundum efficaciam similitudinem concedens, juxta essentiam vero, quod est principalissimum fidei nostrae, Filium fraudet: quasi semetipsum fraudans cognitione vitae perpetuae, 0495B quae est in Patre et Filio: anathema sit.»