Chapter II.

The Emperor is exhorted to display zeal in the Faith. Christ’s perfect Godhead is shown from the unity of will and working which He has with the Father. The attributes of Divinity are shown to be proper to Christ, Whose various titles prove His essential unity, with distinction of Person. In no other way can the unity of God be maintained.

12. “Not every one that saith unto Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,”29    S. Matt. vii. 21. saith the Scripture. Faith, therefore, august Sovereign, must not be a mere matter of performance, for it is written, “The zeal of thine house hath devoured me.”30    Ps. lxix. 9. Cf. S. John ii. 17. Let us then with faithful spirit and devout mind call upon Jesus our Lord, let us believe that He is God, to the end that whatever we ask of the Father, we may obtain in His name.31    S. John xv. 16; S. Luke xi. 9, 10. For the Father’s will is, that He be entreated through the Son, the Son’s that the Father be entreated.32    S. John xvi. 23, 24, and xiv. 13; S. Matt. vii. 7, 8; S. Mark xi. 24.

13. The grace of His submission makes for agreement [with our teaching], and the acts of His power are not at variance therewith. For whatsoever things the Father doeth, the same also doeth the Son, in like manner.33    S. John v. 19, 30. The Son both doeth the same things, and doeth them in like manner, but it is the Father’s will that He be entreated in the matter of what He Himself proposeth to do, that you may understand, not that He cannot do it otherwise, but that there is one power displayed. Truly, then, is the Son of God to be adored and worshipped, Who by the power of His Godhead hath laid the foundations of the world, and by His submission informed our affections.34    S. John i. 3; Heb. v. 7–10.

14. Therefore we ought to believe that God is good, eternal, perfect, almighty, and true, such as we find Him in the Law and the Prophets, and the rest of the holy Scriptures,35    Vide, e.g., Ps. xxv. 8; Jer. x. 10; James i. 17, 18; Dan. ix. 9, 10; S. Luke i. 37. for otherwise there is no God. For He Who is God cannot but be good, seeing that fulness of goodness is of the nature of God:36    Dan. ix. 7; Ex. xxxiv. 6. nor can God, Who made time, be in time; nor, again, can God be imperfect, for a lesser being is plainly imperfect, seeing that it lacks somewhat whereby it could be made equal to a greater. This, then, is the teaching of our faith—that God is not evil, that with God nothing is impossible, that God exists not in time, that God is beneath no being. If I am in error, let my adversaries prove it.37    See James i. 13; S. Luke xviii. 27; Ps. xc. 2–4; lxxxix. 6.

15. Seeing, then, that Christ is God, He is, by consequence, good and almighty and eternal and perfect and true; for these attributes belong to the essential nature of the Godhead. Let our adversaries, therefore, deny the Divine Nature in Christ,—otherwise they cannot refuse to God what is proper to the Divine Nature.

16. Further, that none may fall into error, let a man attend to those signs vouchsafed us by holy Scripture, whereby we may know the Son. He is called the Word, the Son, the Power of God, the Wisdom of God.38    S. John i. 1, 14; xx. 31; Rom. i. 4; S. Matt. xxviii. 18; 1 Cor. i. 24; Col. ii. 3.The Word, because He is without blemish; the Power, because He is perfect; the Son, because He is begotten of the Father; the Wisdom, because He is one with the Father, one in eternity, one in Divinity. Not that the Father is one Person with the Son; between Father and Son is the plain distinction that comes of generation;39    Begetter and begotten must be personally distinct. so that Christ is God of God, Everlasting of Everlasting, Fulness of Fulness.40    Col. i. 19; ii. 9.

17. Now these are not mere names, but signs of power manifesting itself in works, for while there is fulness of Godhead in the Father, there is also fulness of Godhead in the Son, not diverse, but one. The Godhead is nothing confused, for it is an unity: nothing manifold, for in it there is no difference.

18. Moreover, if in all them that believed there was, as it is written, one soul and one heart:41    Acts iv. 32. if every one that cleaveth to the Lord is one spirit,42    1 Cor. vi. 17. as the Apostle hath said: if a man and his wife are one flesh:43    Gen. ii. 24; S. Matt. x. 8. if all we mortal men are, so far as regards our general nature, of one substance: if this is what the Scripture saith of created men, that, being many, they are one,44    Acts xvii. 26; Gal. iii. 28. who can in no way be compared to Divine Persons, how much more are the Father and the Son one in Divinity, with Whom there is no difference either of substance or of will!

19. For how else shall we say that God is One? Divinity maketh plurality, but unity of power debarreth quantity of number, seeing that unity is not number, but itself is the principle of all numbers.

CAPUT II.

Imperatorem ad fidei zelum exhortatus, ab ea quae Christo cum Patre inest, voluntatis atque operationis unitate ipsum Deum esse ostendit. Quapropter expositis divinis attributis, eadem Christo etiam convenire affirmat: cujus praeterea varias appellationes prosecutus, iis substantialem unitatem personalemque distinctionem probari docet: tum exemplis aliquot ad explicandam unitatem illam adductis, negat aliter Dei unitatem defendi posse.

12. Non quicumque, inquit, mihi dicit: Domine, Domine, intrabit in regnum coelorum (Matth. VII, 21). 0532A Non ergo perfunctoria fides debet esse, imperator Auguste; scriptum est enim: Zelus domus tuae comedit me (Psal. LXVIII, 10). Itaque fideli spiritu et mente devota Jesum Dominum invocemus, Deum esse credamus; ut in nomine ejus quidquid a Patre petimus, impetremus; Pater enim se per Filium vult rogari, Filius vult rogari Patrem.

13. Concordat pietatis gratia, nec virtutis facta discordant. Quaecumque enim Pater facit, eadem et Filius facit similiter. Et similiter facit, et eadem facit Filius: sed vult rogari Patrem in eo, quod ipse facturus est; uti non impossibilitatis indicium, sed unitatem potestatis agnoscas. Jure igitur adorandus atque venerandus est Dei Filius, qui mundum divinitate sua condidit, et nostrum pietate sua informavit 0532B affectum.

14. Et ideo bonum Deum, sempiternum, perfectum, omnipotentem, verum debemus 447 credere, ut in Lege accepimus et prophetis, Scripturisque divinis caeteris, quia sine his Deus non est. Non potest enim bonus non esse, qui Deus est, cum in natura Dei plenitudo bonitatis sit: neque ex tempore Deus potest esse, qui fecit tempora: neque potest imperfectus Deus esse; qui enim minor est, imperfectus utique est, cui desit aliquid, quo majori possit aequari. Haec igitur fidei praedicatio: Deus malus non est, Deo impossibile nihil est: Deus temporalis non est, Deus minor non est. Si fallor, redarguant.

15. Quia igitur Deus Christus: et bonus utique, et 0532C omnipotens, et sempiternus, et perfectus, et verus est; haec enim in natura divinitatis sunt. Aut igitur negent naturam divinitatis in Christo, aut quae divinae naturae sunt, Deo negare non possunt.

16. Certe ne quis possit errare, sequatur ea quibus Scriptura sancta, ut intelligere possimus Filium, significavit. Verbum dicitur, Filius dicitur, Dei virtus dicitur, dicitur Dei sapientia. Verbum, quia immaculatus: virtus, quia perfectus; Filius, quia genitus ex Patre: sapientia, quia unum cum Patre, unum aeternitate, unum divinitate. Non enim Pater ipse, qui Filius: sed inter Patrem et Filium generationis expressa distinctio est; ut ex Deo Deus, ex manente manens, plenus e pleno sit.

17. Non sunt igitur haec nuda nomina, sed operatricis 0533A virtutis indicia; est enim plenitudo divinitatis in Patre, est plenitudo divinitatis in Filio, non discrepans, sed una divinitas. Nec confusum, quod unum est: nec multiplex, quod indifferens.

18. Etenim si omnium credentium, sicut scriptum est (Act. IV, 32), erat anima una et cor unum: si omnis qui adhaeret Domino, unus spiritus est, ut Apostolus dixit (I Cor. VI, 27): si vir et uxor in carne una sunt: si omnes homines, quantum ad naturam pertinet, unius substantiae sumus: si hoc de humanis Scriptura dicit, quia multi unum sunt, quorum nulla potest esse cum divinis comparatio; quanto magis Pater et Filius divinitate unum sunt, ubi nec substantiae nec voluntatis ulla est differentia?

19. Namque aliter quomodo unum Deum dicemus? 0533B Diversitas plures facit, unitas potestatis excludit numeri quantitatem; quia unitas numerus non est, sed haec omnium ipsa principium est.