379

was in the flesh; but now the construction of the absurdity is somehow double because of the addition. 3.10.33 For it either accuses the Son of evil or the Father of weakness. For if fellowship with the flesh is evil, it attributes evil to the only-begotten God; but if love for humanity is good, it shows the Father to be powerless for good, saying that he would not have been able to work such grace through the flesh. And yet who of all does not know that the life-giving power proceeds alike from Father and Son into activity? 3.10.34 "For just as," he says, "the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will," meaning, of course, us who are dead, having fallen away from the true life. If therefore, just as the Father gives life, so also and not otherwise the Son works the same grace, how does the God-fighter move his blasphemous tongue against both, insulting the Father with weakness toward the good, and the Son with affinity for evil? 3.10.35 "But," he says, "the light is not equal to the light, because the one is called true, and the other unapproachable." Is the "true" therefore judged to be in a lesser state? Why? And yet it is their argument that for this reason the Godhead of the Father is considered greater and higher than that of the Son, because the one is called "true God" in the Gospel, but the other without the addition of "true." How then does the same argument signify an increase in the case of the Godhead, but a decrease in what is understood in the case of the light? For if he says the Father is greater than the Son for this reason, that he is "true God," by the same reasoning the Son would be confessed as greater than the Father, 3.10.36 because the one is named "true light," but the other is not so named. 20But this one20, he says, 20the light worked the acts of loving-kindness, while that one remained inactive toward such grace20. A new way of showing preference: they judge the one inactive in loving-kindness to be superior to the one who acted. But there neither is nor ever will be such a thought among Christians, by which it is constructed that not every good thing that exists has its cause from the Father. And among the good things for us, the chief is believed by the right-minded to be the return to life; and this has been accomplished through the economy of the Lord with respect to man, not with the Father being inactive and inoperative, having withdrawn himself at the time of the economy, as the heresy wishes. 3.10.37 For this is not what he shows who said, "He who sent me is with me," and "The Father who dwells in me does these works." How then does the heresy, by attributing the grace on our behalf to the Son alone, make the Father have no share in the thanksgiving for the things accomplished? For by nature, the return of thanksgiving is owed to benefactors alone, and he who is powerless for benefaction is entirely outside of being thanked. Do you see how in every way their aim of blasphemy against the Only-begotten is turned to the opposite, as it consequently passes over to the Father? 3.10.38 And it seems to me that such a thing happens by necessity. For if "he who honors the Son honors the Father," according to the divine declaration, it is clear that also the effort to the contrary against the Son has its reference to the Father. But I say that for those who receive more simply the proclamation concerning the cross and the resurrection, the same grace should be a cause of equal thanksgiving to both the Son and the Father, and, with the Son having perfected the Father's will (and this is that all men be saved, as the Apostle says), to honor alike for this grace both the Father and the Son, since our salvation would not have come about, unless the good will of the Father had proceeded to us into activity through his own power. And we have learned from the Scriptures that the Son is the power of the Father. 3.10.39 But let us consider again what was said. 20If on the one hand he can show20, he says, 20the God over all, who is unapproachable light, as having been in the flesh or being able to be, let him say the light is equal to the light20. For the purpose of what was said is very clear through the very construction of the words, that he does not think the Son, in relation to the almighty Godhead, is also for such a thing

379

ἐν σαρκὶ ἐγένετο· νυνὶ δὲ διπλῆ τίς ἐστι διὰ τῆς προσθήκης ἡ τοῦ ἀτόπου κατασκευή. ἢ γὰρ τοῦ 3.10.33 υἱοῦ κατηγορεῖ κακίαν ἢ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀδυναμίαν. εἰ μὲν γὰρ κακὸν ἡ τῆς σαρκὸς κοινωνία, τῷ μονογενεῖ θεῷ προσ μαρτυρεῖ τὴν κακίαν· εἰ δὲ ἀγαθὸν ἡ φιλανθρωπία, ἀδύ νατον εἰς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἀποδείκνυσι τὸν πατέρα, λέγων μὴ ἂν αὐτὸν δυνηθῆναι τὴν τοιαύτην χάριν διὰ σαρκὸς ἐνεργῆσαι. καίτοι τίς οὐκ οἶδε τῶν πάντων, ὅτι ἡ ζωοποιὸς δύναμις ὁμοίως ἐκ πατρός τε καὶ υἱοῦ πρόεισιν εἰς ἐνέργειαν; Ὥσπερ γάρ, φησίν, ὁ πατὴρ ἐγείρει τοὺς νεκροὺς καὶ ζωο ποιεῖ, οὕτως καὶ ὁ υἱὸς οὓς θέλει ζωοποεῖ, ἡμᾶς δηλαδὴ 3.10.34 νεκροὺς λέγων τοὺς τῆς ἀληθινῆς ἀποπεσόντας ζωῆς. εἰ οὖν ὥσπερ ὁ πατὴρ ζωοποιεῖ, οὕτω καὶ οὐκ ἄλλως ὁ υἱὸς τὴν αὐτὴν ἐνεργεῖ χάριν, πῶς ὁ θεομάχος κατ' ἀμφοτέρων κινεῖ τὴν βλάσφημον γλῶσσαν, τὸν μὲν πατέρα τῇ πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἀδυναμίᾳ, τὸν δὲ υἱὸν τῇ πρὸς τὸ κακὸν οἰκειότητι καθυβρίζων; 3.10.35 Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἔστι, φησί, τῷ φωτὶ τὸ φῶς ἴσον, διότι τὸ μὲν ἀληθινόν, τὸ δὲ ἀπρόσιτον λέγεται. τὸ οὖν ἀληθινὸν ἐν ἐλαττώσει κρίνεται; διὰ τί; καὶ μὴν ἐκείνων ἐστὶ λόγος, ὅτι διὰ τοῦτο μείζων καὶ ὑψηλοτέρα τοῦ πατρὸς ἡ θεότης παρὰ τὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ νοεῖται, διότι ὁ μὲν ἀληθινὸς θεὸς ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ προσείρηται, ὁ δὲ χωρὶς τῆς τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ προσθήκης. πῶς οὖν ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος ἐπὶ μὲν τῆς θεότητος αὔξησιν, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ φωτὸς ἐλάττωσιν τοῦ νοουμένου ση μαίνει; εἰ γὰρ διὰ τοῦτο μείζονα τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸν πατέρα φησίν, ὅτι ἀληθινὸς θεός ἐστι, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον μείζων ἂν ὁμολογηθείη τοῦ πατρὸς ὁ υἱός, ὅτι ὁ μὲν ἀλη 3.10.36 θινὸν φῶς, ὁ δὲ οὐχ οὕτως κατονομάζεται. 20ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μέν20, φησί, 20τὸ φῶς τὰ τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ἐνήρ γησεν, ἐκεῖνο δὲ πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην χάριν ἀν ενέργητον ἔμεινε20. καινὸς προτιμήσεως τρόπος· τὸ ἄπρακτον εἰς φιλανθρωπίαν τοῦ ἐνεργήσαντος ὑπέρτερον κρίνουσιν. ἀλλ' οὔτε ἔστιν οὔτε γενήσεται τοιοῦτον ἐν Χρι στιανοῖς ποτε νόημα, δι' οὗ κατασκευάζεται μὴ πᾶν ἀγα θόν, ὅτιπερ ἐν τοῖς οὖσίν ἐστιν, ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς τὴν αἰτίαν ἔχειν. τῶν δὲ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀγαθῶν τὸ κεφάλαιον ἡ πρὸς τὴν ζωὴν ἐπάνοδος παρὰ τοῖς εὖ φρονοῦσι πεπίστευται· αὕτη δὲ διὰ τῆς κατὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον οἰκονομίας τοῦ κυρίου κατώρθωται, οὐκ ἀπράκτου καὶ ἀνενεργήτου, καθὼς ἡ αἵρεσις βούλεται, τοῦ πατρὸς ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς οἰκονομίας ἀπιδιάσαντος. οὐ γὰρ τοῦτο ἐνδείκνυται ὁ εἰπὼν ὅτι Ὁ πέμψας με μετ' ἐμοῦ ἐστι, καὶ Ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοὶ μένων 3.10.37 ποιεῖ τὰ ἔργα ταῦτα. πῶς οὖν ἡ αἵρεσις μόνῳ τῷ υἱῷ τὴν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν χάριν προσμαρτυροῦσα ἀπόμοιρον ποιεῖ τὸν πατέρα τῆς ἐπὶ τοῖς κατορθωθεῖσιν εὐχαριστίας; μόνοις γὰρ κατὰ φύσιν ὀφείλεται τοῖς εὐεργέταις ἡ τῆς εὐχαρι στίας ἀντίδοσις, ὁ δὲ πρὸς εὐεργεσίαν ἀδύνατος ἔξω τοῦ εὐχαριστεῖσθαι πάντως ἐστίν. ὁρᾷς ὡς διὰ πάντων αὐτοῖς πρὸς τοὐναντίον ὁ σκοπὸς περιτρέπεται τῆς κατὰ τοῦ μονο γενοῦς βλασφημίας, κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον ἐπὶ τὸν πατέρα μεταβαινούσης. καί μοι δοκεῖ κατ' ἀνάγκην τὸ τοιοῦτον συμβαίνειν. εἰ γὰρ ὁ τιμῶν τὸν υἱὸν τιμᾷ τὸν πατέρα, κατὰ τὴν θείαν ἀπόφασιν, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ ἡ πρὸς τὸ ἐναν τίον κατὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ σπουδὴ ἐπὶ τὸν πατέρα τὴν ἀναφορὰν 3.10.38 ἔχει. ἐγὼ δέ φημι δεῖν τοῖς ἁπλούστερον δεχομένοις τὸ περὶ τὸν σταυρὸν καὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν κήρυγμα ἴσης εὐχαρι στίας πρός τε τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν πατέρα τὴν αὐτὴν χάριν ὑπόθεσιν γίνεσθαι, καὶ τὸ πατρικὸν θέλημα τοῦ υἱοῦ τε λειώσαντος (τοῦτο δέ ἐστι τὸ πάντας ἀνθρώπους σωθῆναι, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος) ὁμοίως ἐπὶ τῇ χάριτι ταύτῃ τιμᾶν τὸν πατέρα τε καὶ τὸν υἱόν, ὡς οὐκ ἂν γενομένης ἡμῖν τῆς σωτηρίας, εἰ μὴ τὸ ἀγαθὸν θέλημα τοῦ πατρὸς διὰ τῆς ἰδίας δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ προῆλθεν ἡμῖν εἰς ἐνέργειαν. δύναμιν δὲ τοῦ πατρὸς τὸν υἱὸν εἶναι παρὰ τῶν γραφῶν μεμαθήκαμεν. 3.10.39 Πάλιν δὲ τὰ εἰρημένα κατανοήσωμεν. 20εἰ μὲν ἔχει δεικνύναι20, φησί, 20τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων θεόν, ὅσπερ ἐστὶν ἀπρόσιτον φῶς, ἐν σαρκὶ γενόμενον ἢ γενέσθαι δυνάμενον, ἴσον λεγέτω τῷ φωτὶ τὸ φῶς20. πρόδηλος γὰρ ὁ τῶν εἰρημένων σκοπὸς δι' αὐτῆς τῆς τῶν ῥημάτων κατασκευῆς, ὅτι οὐκ οἴεται τῇ παντο δυνάμῳ θεότητι τὸν υἱὸν καὶ πρὸς τὸ τοιοῦτον