Chapter XXX.  Argument.—In Fine, Notwithstanding the Said Heretics Have Gathered the Origin of Their Error from Consideration of What is Written:265    “There is one God.”  Although We Call Christ God, and the Father God, Still Scripture Does Not Set Forth Two Gods, Any More Than Two Lords or Two Teachers.

And now, indeed, concerning the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let it be sufficient to have briefly said thus much, and to have laid down these points concisely, without carrying them out in a lengthened argument. For they could be presented more diffusely and continued in a more expanded disputation, since the whole of the Old and New Testaments might be adduced in testimony that thus the true faith stands.  But because heretics, ever struggling against the truth, are accustomed to prolong the controversy of pure tradition and Catholic faith, being offended against Christ; because He is, moreover, asserted to be God by the Scriptures also, and this is believed to be so by us; we must rightly—that every heretical calumny may be removed from our faith—contend, concerning the fact that Christ is God also, in such a way as that it may not militate against the truth of Scripture; nor yet against our faith, how there is declared to be one God by the Scriptures, and how it is held and believed by us. For as well they who say that Jesus Christ Himself is God the Father, as moreover they who would have Him to be only man, have gathered thence266    Scil. from Scripture. the sources and reasons of their error and perversity; because when they perceived that it was written267    [Gal. iii. 20; Deut. vi. 4.] that “God is one,” they thought that they could not otherwise hold such an opinion than by supposing that it must be believed either that Christ was man only, or really God the Father. And they were accustomed in such a way to connect their sophistries as to endeavour to justify their own error. And thus they who say that Jesus Christ is the Father argue as follows:—If God is one, and Christ is God, Christ is the Father, since God is one. If Christ be not the Father, because Christ is God the Son, there appear to be two Gods introduced, contrary to the Scriptures. And they who contend that Christ is man only, conclude on the other hand thus:—If the Father is one, and the Son another, but the Father is God and Christ is God, then there is not one God, but two Gods are at once introduced, the Father and the Son; and if God is one, by consequence Christ must be a man, so that rightly the Father may be one God. Thus indeed the Lord is, as it were, crucified between two thieves,268    [“Non semper pendebit inter latrones Christus:  aliquando resurget Crucifixa Veritas.”—Sebastian Castalio.] even as He was formerly placed; and thus from either side He receives the sacrilegious reproaches of such heretics as these. But neither the Holy Scriptures nor we suggest to them the reasons of their perdition and blindness, if they either will not, or cannot, see what is evidently written in the midst of the divine documents. For we both know, and read, and believe, and maintain that God is one, who made the heaven as well as the earth, since we neither know any other, nor shall we at any time know such, seeing that there is none. “I,” says He, “am God, and there is none beside me, righteous and a Saviour.”269    Isa. xliii. 11.  And in another place: “I am the first and the last, and beside me there is no God who is as I.”270    Isa. xliv. 6, 7. And, “Who hath meted out heaven with a span, and the earth with a handful? Who has suspended the mountains in a balance, and the woods on scales?”271    Isa. xl. 12.  And Hezekiah: “That all may know that Thou art God alone.”272    Isa. xxxvii. 20.  Moreover, the Lord Himself: “Why askest thou me concerning that which is good? God alone is good.”273    Matt. xix. 17. Moreover, the Apostle Paul says: “Who only hath immortality, and dwelleth in the light that no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see.”274    1 Tim. vi. 16. And in another place: “But a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.”275    Gal. iii. 20. But even as we hold, and read, and believe this, thus we ought to pass over no portion of the heavenly Scriptures, since indeed also we ought by no means to reject those marks of Christ’s divinity which are laid down in the Scriptures, that we may not, by corrupting the authority of the Scriptures, be held to have corrupted the integrity of our holy faith. And let us therefore believe this, since it is most faithful that Jesus Christ the Son of God is our Lord and God; because “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God.”276    John i. 1, 2. And, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us.”277    John i. 14. And, “My Lord and my God.”278    John xx. 28. And, “Whose are the fathers, and of whom according to the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for evermore.”279    Rom. ix. 5. What, then, shall we say?  Does Scripture set before us two Gods? How, then, does it say that “God is one?” Or is not Christ God also?  How, then, is it said to Christ, “My Lord and my God?” Unless, therefore, we hold all this with fitting veneration and lawful argument, we shall reasonably be thought to have furnished a scandal to the heretics, not assuredly by the fault of the heavenly Scriptures, which never deceive; but by the presumption of human error, whereby they have chosen to be heretics. And in the first place, we must turn the attack against them who undertake to make against us the charge of saying that there are two Gods. It is written, and they cannot deny it, that “there is one Lord.”280    Deut. vi. 4. What, then, do they think of Christ?—that He is Lord, or that He is not Lord at all? But they do not doubt absolutely that He is Lord; therefore, if their reasoning be true, here are already two Lords. How, then, is it true according to the Scriptures, there is one Lord? And Christ is called the “one Master.”281    Matt. xxiii. 8–10.  Nevertheless we read that the Apostle Paul also is a master.282    διδάσκαλος. Then, according to this, our Master is not one, for from these things we conclude that there are two masters. How, then, according to the Scriptures, is “one our Master, even Christ?” In the Scriptures there is one “called good, even God;” but in the same Scriptures Christ is also asserted to be good. There is not, then, if they rightly conclude, one good, but even two good. How, then, according to the scriptural faith, is there said to be only one good? But if they do not think that it can by any means interfere with the truth that there is one Lord, that Christ also is Lord, nor with the truth that one is our Master, that Paul also is our master, or with the truth that one is good, that Christ also is called good; on the same reasoning, let them understand that, from the fact that God is one, no obstruction arises to the truth that Christ also is declared to be God.

CAPUT XXX. Denique quantum dicti haeretici erroris sui originem inde rapuerint, quod animadverterent scriptum: unus Deus: etsi Christum Deum et Patrem Deum dicamus, non magis tamen duos Deos Scripturam proponere, quam duos Dominos aut duos Magistros.

Et haec quidem de Patre et de Filio et de Spiritu sancto breviter sint nobis dicta, et strictim posita, et non longa disputatione porrecta. Latius enim potuerunt porrigi, et propensiore disputatione produci; 0946B quandoquidem ad testimonium, quod ita se habeat fides vera, totum et Vetus et Novum Testamentum possit adduci. Sed quia obluctantes adversus veritatem semper haeretici, sincerae traditionis et Catholicae fidei controversiam solent trahere, scandalizati in Christum quod etiam Deus et per Scripturas asseratur, et a nobis hoc esse credatur; merito a nobis (ut omnis a fide nostra auferri possit haeretica calumnia) de eo quod et Deus sit Christus sic est disputandum, ut non impediat Scripturae veritatem; sed nec nostram fidem, qua unus Deus et per Scripturas promitur, et a nobis tenetur et creditur. Tam enim illi qui Jesum Christum ipsum Deum Patrem dicunt, quam etiam illi qui hominem illum tantummodo esse voluerunt, erroris sui et perversitatis origines et causas 0946C inde rapuerunt: quia cum animadverterent scriptum esse quod unus sit Deus, non aliter putaverunt istam tenere se posse sententiam, nisi aut hominem tantum Christum, aut certe Deum Patrem putarent esse credendum. Sic enim calumnias suas colligere consueverunt, ut errorem proprium approbare nitantur. Et quidem illi qui Jesum Christum Patrem dicunt, ista praetendunt: Si unus Deus; Christus autem 0947A Deus: Pater est Christus, quia unus Deus; si non Pater sit Christus, dum et Deus Filius Christus, duo Dii contra Scripturas introducti esse videantur. Qui autem hominem tantummodo Christum esse contendunt, ex diverso sic colligunt: Si alter Pater, alter est Filius: Pater autem Deus, et Christus Deus: non ergo unus Deus, sed duo dii introducuntur pariter, Pater et Filius; ac si unus Deus, consequenter homo Christus, ut merito Pater sit Deus unus. Re vera quasi inter duos latrones crucifigitur Dominus, quomodo fixus aliquando est: et ita excipit haereticorum istorum ex utroque latere sacrilega convicia. Sed neque Scripturae sanctae, neque nos causas illis perditionis et caecitatis afferimus, si qua in medio Divinarum Litterarum evidenter posita aut videre nolunt, 0947B aut videre non possunt. Nos enim et scimus et legimus et credimus et tenemus unum esse Deum, qui fecit coelum pariter ac terram, quoniam nec alterum novimus, aut nosse (cum nullus sit) aliquando poterimus. Ego sum, inquit, Deus: et non est praeter me justus et salvans (Isa. XLIII, 11). Et alio in loco: Ego primus et novissimus, et praeter me non est Deus. Quis sicut ego (Ibid. XLIV, 6, 7)? Et: Quis mensus est palmo coelum, et terram pugillo? quis suspendit montes in pondere, et nemora in statera (Ibid. XL, 12)? Et Ezechias: Ut sciant omnes quia tu es Deus solus (Isa. XXXVII, 20). Ipse praeterea Dominus: Quid me interrogas de bono? unus Deus bonus (Matth. XIX, 17). Apostolus quoque Paulus: Qui solus, inquit, habet immortalitatem, et lucem habitat inaccessibilem: quem vidit hominum 0947C nemo, nec videre potest (I Tim. VI 16). Et alio in loco: Mediator autem unius non est; Deus autem unus est (Gal. III, 20). Sed quomodo hoc tenemus et legimus et credimus, sic Scripturarum coelestium nullam partem praeterire debemus: quippe cum etiam illa quae in Scripturis sunt posita Christi divinitatis insignia, nullo modo debemus recusare, ne Scripturarum auctoritatem corrumpendo, integritatem fidei sanctae corrupisse teneamur. Et hoc ergo credamus, siquidem fidelissimum, Dei Filium Jesum Christum 0948A Dominum et Deum nostrum: quoniam, in principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Hoc erat in principio apud Deum (Joan. I, 1, 2). Et: Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis (Ibid. 14). Et: Dominus meus et Deus meus (Joan. XX, 28). Et: Quorum Patres, et ex quibus Christus secundum carnem, qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula (Rom. IX, 5). Quid ergo dicemus? Numquid duos Deos Scriptura proponit? Quomodo ergo dicit, quia Deus unus est? Aut numquid non et Christus Deus est? Quomodo ergo, Dominus meus et Deus meus, Christo dictum est? Totum igitur hoc nisi cum propria veneratione et legitima disputatione teneamus, merito scandalum haereticis praebuisse credemur; non utique ex Sripturarum coelestium vitio 0948B quae numquam fallunt, sed humani erroris praesumptione, qua haeretici esse voluerunt . Et in primis illud retorquendum in istos qui duorum nobis Deorum controversiam facere praesumunt. Scriptum est quod negare non possunt, quoniam unus est Dominus (Deut. VI, 4; Ephes. IV, 5). De Christo ergo quid sentiunt? Dominum esse, aut illum omnino non esse ? Sed Dominum illum omnino non dubitant: ergo si vera est illorum ratiocinatio, jam duo sunt Domini. Quomodo igitur jam secundum Scripturas, unus est Dominus ? Et Magister unus (Matth. XXIII, 8, 10) Christus est dictus, at tamen legimus, quod Magister sit etiam apostolus Paulus (II Tim. I, 11). Non ergo jam unus Magister: duos enim Magistros secundum ista colligimus. Quomodo igitur secundum Scripturas 0948C unus Magister Christus? Unus in Scripturis bonus dictus est Deus (Matth. XIX, 17; Marc. X, 18; Luc. XVIII, 19); sed iisdem in Scripturis bonus etiam Christus positus est. Non igitur, si recte colligunt, unus bonus, sed etiam duo boni. Quomodo igitur secundum Scripturarum fidem, unus bonus esse refertur? At si non putant aliqua ratione offici posse ei quod unus Dominus est, per id quod est Dominus et Christus; neque ei quod unus est Magister, per illud quod est Magister et Paulus; aut illi quod unus 0949A est bonus, per illud quod bonus sit nuncupatus et Christus: eadem ratione intelligant offici non posse ab illo quod unus est Deus, ei quod Deus pronuntiatus est et Christus.