4 Rey. viii. 9; 1 Tim. iv. 4. 5 Wisd. ix. 2.
6 Matt. xix. 4. (0 Krloas). 7 Deut. iv. 32.
46. That to be called creatures, then, and to be created belongs to things which have by nature a created essence, these passages are sufficient to remind us, though Scripture is full of the like; on the other hand that the single word ‘He created’ does not simply denote the essence and mode of generation, David shews in the Psalm, ‘ This shall be written for another generation, and the people that is created shall praise the Lord?;’ and again, ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God?; and Paul in Ephesians says, ‘Having abolished the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to create in Himself of two one new man3; and again, ‘Put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness4,’ For neither David spoke of any people created in essence, nor prayed to have another heart than that he had, but meant renovation according to God and renewal; nor did Paul signify two persons created in essence in the Lord, nor again did he counsel us to put on any other man; but he called the life according to virtue the ‘man after God,’ and by the ‘created’ in Christ he meant the two people who are renewed in Him. Such too is the language of the book of Jeremiah; ‘The Lord created a new salvation for a planting, in which salvation men shall walk to and fro5; and in thus speaking, he does not mean any essence of a creature, but prophesies of the renewal of salvation among men, which has taken place in Christ for us. Such then being the difference between ‘the creatures’ and the single word ‘He created,’ if you find anywhere in divine Scripture the Lord called ‘creature,’ produce it and fight; but if it is nowhere written that He is a creature, only He Himself says about Himself in the Proverbs, ‘The Lord created me,’ shame upon you, both on the ground of the distinction aforesaid and for that the diction is like that of proverbs; and accordingly let ‘He created’ be understood, not of His being a creature, but of that human nature which became His, for to this belongs creation. Indeed is it not evidently unfair in you, when David and Paul say ‘He created,’ then indeed not to understand it of the essence and the generation, but the renewal; yet, when the Lord says ‘He created’ to number His essence with the creatures? and again when Scripture says, ‘Wisdom built her an house, she set it upon seven pillars®, to understand ‘house’ 4 Eph. iv. 22; vid. Cyr. Thes. p. 156. p 5 Jer. xxxi. 22. vid. also suv. p. 85, where he notices that this is the version of the Septuagint, Aquila’s being ‘The Lord created a new thing in woman.’ Athan. has preserved Aquila's version in three other places, in Psalm xxx. ra. lix. 5. lxv. 18.
6 Prov. ix. 1 . yy allegorically, reat it stands, and to fasten on it the idea of creature? and neither His being Framer of all has had any weight with you, nor have you feared His being the sole and proper Offspring of the Father, but recklessly, as if you had enlisted against Him, do ye fight, and think less of Him than of men. Lait 47. For the very passage proves that it is only an invention of your ‘own to call the Lord creature. For the Lord, knowing His own Essence to be the Only-begotten Wisdom and Offspring of the Father, and other than things originate and natural creatures, says in love to man, ‘The Lord created me a beginning of His ways,’ as if to say, ‘My Father hath prepared for Me a body, and has created Me for men in behalf of their salvation.’ For, as when John says, ‘The Word was made flesh, we do not conceive the whole Word Himself to be flesh?, but to have put on flesh and become man, and on hearing, ‘Christ hath become a curse for us,’ and ‘He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin3,’ we do not simply conceive this, that whole Christ has become curse and sin, but that He has taken on Him the curse which lay against us (as the Apostle has said, ‘Has redeemed us from the curse,’ and ‘has carried,’ as Isaiah has said, ‘ our sins,’ and as Peter has written, ‘has borne them in the body on the wood 4); so, if it is said in the Proverbs ‘He created,’ we must not conceive that the whole Word is in nature a creature, but that He put on the created body 5 and that God created Him for our sakes, preparing for Him the created body, as it is written, for us, that in Him we might be capable of being renewed and deified. What then deceived you, O senseless, to call the Creator a creature? or whence did you purchase for you this new thought, to parade it®°P For the Proverbs say ‘He created,’ but they call not the Son creature, but Offspring; and, according to the distinction in Scripture aforesaid of ‘ He created’ and ‘creature,’ they acknowledge, what is 4 Gal. iii. 13; Is. lili. 4; 1 Pet. ii. 24.
5 Here he says that, though our Lord’s flesh is created or He is created as to the flesh, it is not right to call Himacreature. This is very much what S. Thomas says, as referred to in § 45, 1ote x, in the words of the Schools, that A.thiops, albus secundum dentes, non est albus. But why may not our Lord be so called upon the principle of the communicatio Idiomatunz (infr. note on iii. 31.) as He is said to be born of a Virgin, to have suffered, &c.? The reason is this:—birth, passion, &c., confessedly belong to His human nature, without adding ‘according to the flesh;’ but ‘creature’ not implying humanity, might appear a simple attribute of His Person, it used without limitation. Thus, as S. Thomas adds, though we may not absolutely say A®thiops est albus, we may say ‘crispus est,’ or in like manner, ‘calvus est.’ Since crispus, or calvus, can but refer to the hair. Still more does this remark apply in the case of ‘Sonship,’ which is a personal attribute altogether; as is proved, says Petay. de Jucarn. vii. 6 fin. by the instance of Adam, who was in all respects a man like Seth, yet not ason. Accordingly, we may not call our Lord, even according to the manhood, an adopted Son. 6 mounedvere, infr. 82.
but to take ‘He created’ ey nature proper to the Son, that He is the Only-begotten Wisdom and Framer of the creatures, and when they say ‘ He created,’ they say it not in respect of His Essence, but signify that He was becoming a beginning of many ways; so that ‘He created’ is in contrast to ‘Offspring,’ and His being called the ‘Beginning of ways7’ to His being the Only-begotten Word.
48. For if He is Offspring, how call ye Him creature? for no one says that He begets what He creates, nor calls His proper offspring creatures; and again, if He is Onlybegotten. how becomes He ‘ beginning of the ways?’ for of necessity, if He was created a beginning of all things, He is no longer alone, as having those who came into being after Him. For Reuben, when he became a beginning of the children?, was not only-begotten, but in time indeed first, but in nature and relationship one among those who came after him. Therefore if the Word also is ‘a beginning of the ways,’ He must be such as the ways are, and the ways must be such as the Word, though in point of time He be created first of them. For the beginning or initiative of a city is such as the other parts of the city are, and the members too being joined to it, make the city whole and one, as the many members of one body; nor does one part of it make, and another come to be, and is subject to the former, but all the city equally has its government and constitution from its maker. If then the Lord is in such sense created as a ‘beginning’ of all things, it would follow that He and all other things together make up the unity of the creation, and He neither differs from all others, though He become the ‘beginning’ of all, nor is He Lord of them, though older in point of time; but He has the same manner of framing and the same Lord as the rest. Nay, if He be a creature, as you hold, how can He be created sole and first at all, so as to be beginning of all? when it is plain from what has been said, that among the creatures not any is of a constant? nature and of prior formation, but each has its origination with all the rest, however it may excel others in glory. For as to the separate stars ‘or the great lights, not this appeared first, and that second, but in one day and by the same command, they were all called into being. And such was the original formation of the quadrupeds, and of birds, and fishes, and cattle, and plants; thus too has the race 7 apxnv Od@v* and soin Justin’s Tryh. 61. The Bened. Ed. 7 loc. refers to a similar application of the word to our Lord in Tatian contr. Gent. 5. Athenag. AZ. 10. Iren. Her. iv. 20. n. 3. Origen. 7 Joan. tom. t. 39. Tertull. adv. Prax. 6. and Ambros, de Fid. iii. 7. t apxn Téxvwv, Gen. xlix. 3.
DISCOU made after God’s Image come to be, namely men; for though Adam only was formed out of earth, yet in him was involved the succes- | sion of the whole race.
49. And from the visible creation, we clearly discern that His invisible things also, ‘ being perceived by the things that are made3,’ are not independent of each other; for it was not first one and then another, but all at once were constituted after their kind. For the Apostle did not number individually, so as to say ‘whether Angel, or Throne, or Dominion, or Authority,’ but he mentions together all according to their kind, ‘whether Angels, or Archangels, or Principalities+:’ for in this way is the origination of the creatures. If RSE IL A RSE IL A 50. Your famous assertion then, that the Son is a creature, is not true, but is your fantasy only; nay Solomon convicts you of having many times slandered him. For he has not called Him creature, but God’s Offspring and Wisdom, saying, ‘God in Wisdom established the earth,’ and ‘Wisdom built her an house? And the very passage in question proves your irreligious spirit; for it is written, ‘The Lord created me a beginning of His ways for His works.’ Therefore if He is before all things, yet says ‘He created me’ (not ‘that I might make the works,’ but) ‘for the works,’ unless ‘He created’ relates to something later than Himself, -He will seem later than the works, finding then, as I have said, the Word were creature, He must have been brought into being, not first of them, but with all the other Powers, though in glory He excel the rest ever so much. For so we find it to be in their case, that at once they came to be, with neither first nor second, and they differ from each other in glory, some on the right of the throne, some all around, and some on the left, but one and all praising and standing in service before the Lords, Therefore if the Word be creature, He would not be first or beginning of the rest; yet if He be before all, as indeed He is, and is Himself alone First and Son, it does not follow that He is beginning of all things as to His Essence®, for what is the beginning of all is in the number of all. And if He is not such a beginning, then neither is He a creature, but it is very plain that He differs in essence and nature from the creatures, and is other than they, and is Likeness and Image of the sole and true God, being Himself sole also. Hence He is not classed with creatures in Scripture, but David rebukes those who dare even to think of Him as such, saying, ‘Who among the gods is like unto the Lord7?’ and them on His creation already in existence before Him, for the sake of which He is also brought into being. And if so, how is He ‘before all things notwithstanding? and how were all things made through Him and consist in Him? for behold, you say that the works consisted before Him, for which He is created and sent. But it is not so; perish the thought! false is the supposition of the heretics. For the Word of God is not creature but Creator; and says in the manner of proverbs, ‘He created me’ when He put on created flesh. And something besides may be understood from the passage itself; for, being Son and having God for His Father, for He is His proper Offspring, yet here He names the Father Lord; not that He was servant, but because He took the servant’s form. For it became Him, on the one hand being the Word from the Father, to call God Father: for this is proper to son towards father; on the other, having come to finish the work, and taken a servant’s form, to name the Father Lord. And this difference He Himself has taught by an apt distinction, saying in the Gospels, ‘I thank Thee, O Father,’ and then, ‘Lord of heaven and earth?.’ For He calls ‘ Who is like unto the Lord among the sons of God?’ and Baruch, ‘This is our God, and another shall not be reckoned with Him®*.’ For the One creates, and the rest are created; and the One is the own Word and Wisdom of the Father’s Essence, and through this Word things which came to be, which before existed not, were made.
6 He says that, though none could be ‘a beginning’ of creation, who was a creature, yet still that such a title belongs not to His essence. It is the name of an office which the Eternal Word alone can fill. His Divine Sonship is both superior and necessary to that office of a ‘Beginning.’ Hence it is both true (as he says) that ‘ if the Word is a creature, He is not a beginning;’ and yet that that ‘beginning’ is ‘in the number of the creatures. Though He becomes the ‘beginning,’ He is not ‘a beginning as _to His essence,’ vid. supr. i. $2 and infr. § 60. where he says, ‘He who i ail, cannot be a ] a aes that the beginning of all is not other than all. vid. § 8, note 4, on the Priesthood, and § 16, n. 7. 7 Ps. Ixxxix. 6. 8 Bar. iii. 35.
beginning of ail, but is other than all,’ | ———————_—__— God His Father, but of the creatures He names Him Lord; as shewing clearly from these words, that, when He put on the creature3, then it was He called the Father Lord. For in the prayer of David the Holy Spirit marks the same distinction, saying in the Psalms, ‘Give Thy strength unto Thy Child, -_|and help the Son of Thine handmaid‘’ For the natural and true child of God is one, and the sons of the handmaid, that is, of the nature of things originate, are other. Where fore the One, as Son, has the Father’s might; ‘but the rest are in need of salvation.
51. (But if, because He was called child, =z Matt. xi. ag.
t Vid. Prov. iii. 19; ix. 1.. i 4 Ps. lxxxvi. 16.
they idly talk, let them know that both Isaac was named Abraham’s child, and the son of the Shunamite was called young child.) Reasonably then, we being servants, when He became as we, He too calls the Father Lord, as we do; and this He has so done from love to man, that we too, being servants by nature, and receiving the Spirit of the Son, might have confidence to call Him by grace Father, who is by nature our Lord. But as we, in calling the Lord Father, do not deny our servitude by nature (for we are His works, and it is ‘ He that hath made us, and not we ourselves*’), so when the Son, on taking the servant’s form, says, ‘The Lord created me a beginning of His ways, let them not deny the eternity of His Godhead, and that ‘in the beginning was the Word,’ and ‘all things were made by Him,’ and ‘in Him all things were created?.’
CHAPTER TX: Texts ExPLaInep; SIXTHLY, PROVERBS Vill. 22 CONTINUED.
Our Lord is said to be created ‘for the works,’ ie. with a particular purpose, which no mere creatures are ever said to be. Parallel of Isai. xlix. 5, &c. When His manhood is spoken of, a reason for it is added; not so when His Divine Nature; Texts in proof.
51 (continued). For the passage in the Proverbs, as I have said before, signifies, not the Essence, but the manhood of the Word; for if He says that He was created ‘ for the works,’ He shews His intention of signifying, not His Essence, but the Economy which took place ‘for His works,’ which comes second to being, For things which are in formation and creation are made specially that they may be and exist 3, and next they have to do whatever the Word bids them, as may be seen in the case of all things. For Adam was created, not that He might work, but that first he might be man; for it was after this that he received the command to work. And Noah was created, not because of the ark, but that first he might exist and be aman; for after this he received commandment to prepare the ark. And the like will be found in every case on inquiring into it;—thus the gteat Moses first was made a man, and next was entrusted with the government of the people. Therefore here too we must suppose the like; for thou seest, that the Word is not created Into existence, but, ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ and He is afterwards sent ‘for the works’ and the Economy towards them. For 3 He says in effect, erat ct, ‘Before the generation of the works, they were not; but Christ on the contrary’ (not, ‘was before His generation,’ as Bull’s hypothesis, saf7. but) ‘is from everlasting,’ vid. § 57, note.
FOUR DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS: before the works were made, the Son was ever, nor was there yet need that He should be created; but when the works were created and need arose afterwards of the Economy for their restoration, then it was that the Word took upon Himself this condescension and assimilation to the works; which He has shewn us by the word ‘He created.’ And through the Prophet Isaiah willing to signify the like, He says again: ‘ And now thus saith the Lord, who formed me frorn the womb to be His servant, to gather together Jacob unto Him and Israel, I shall be brought together and be glorified before the Lord 4,’ 52. See here too, He is formed, not into existence, but in order to gather together the tribes, which were in existence before He was formed. For as in the former passage stands ‘ He created,’ so in this ‘ He formed;’ and as there ‘for the works,’ so here ‘ to gather together;’ so that in every point of view it appears that ‘He created’ and ‘ He formed’ are said after ‘the Word was.’ For as before His forming the tribes existed, for whose sake He was formed, so does it appear that the works exist, for which He was created. And when ‘in the beginning was the Word,’ not yet were the works, as I have said before; but when the works were made and the need required, then ‘He created’ was said; and as if some son, when the servants were lost, and in the hands of the enemy by their own carelessness, and need was urgent, were sent by his father to succour and recover them, and on setting out were to put over him the like dress? with them, and should fashion himself as they, lest the capturers, recognising him? as the master, should take to flight and prevent his descending to those who were hidden under the earth by them; and then were any one to inquire of him, why he did so, were to make answer, ‘My Father thus formed and prepared me for his works,’ while in thus speaking, he neither implies that he is a servant nor one of the works, nor speaks of the beginning of His origination, but of the subsequent charge given him over the works,—in the same way the Lord also, having put over Him our flesh, and ‘ being found in fashion as a man,’ if He were questioned by those who saw Him thus and marvelled, would say, ‘The Lord created Me the beginning of His ways for His works,’ and ‘ He formed Me to gather together Israel.’ This again the Spirit 3 foretells in the Psalms, saying, ‘Thou didst set Him over the works of Thine hands 4;’ which elsewhere the Lord signified of Himself, ‘I am set as King by Him upon His 4 Tsai. xlix. 5. LOX. I 2 Vid. the well-known passage in S. Ignatius, ad Eph. 19 [and DISCOURSERIT holy hill of Sion 5.’ And as, when He shone & in the body upon Sion, He had not His beginning of existence or of reign, but being God’s Word and everlasting King, He vouchsafed that His kingdom should shine in a human way in Sion, that redeeming them and us from the sin which reigned in them, He might bring them under His Father’s Kingdom, so, on being set ‘for the works,’ He is not set for things which did not yet exist, but for such as already were and needed restoration.
53. ‘Hecreated’ then and ‘ He formed’ and ‘He set,’ having the same meaning, do not denote the beginning of His being, or of His essence as created, but His beneficent renovation which came to pass for us. Accordingly, though He thus speaks, yet He taught also that He Himself existed before this, when He said, ‘Before Abraham came to be, I am?;’ and ‘when He prepared the heavens, I was present with Him;’ and ‘I was with Him disposing things?.”, And as He Himself was before Abraham came to be, and Israel had come into being after Abraham, and plainly He exists first and is formed afterwards, and His forming signifies not His beginning of being but His taking manhood, wherein also He collects together the tribes of Israel; so, as ‘ being always with the Father,’ He Himself is Framer of the creation, and His works are evidently later than Himself, and ‘He created’ signifies, not His beginning of being, but the Economy which took place for the works, which He effected in the flesh, For it became Him, being other than the works, nay rather their Framer, to take upon Himself their renovation 3, that, whereas He is created for us, all things may be now created in Him. For when He said ‘ He created,’ He forthwith added the reason, naming ‘the works,’ that His creation for the works might signify His becoming man for their renovation. And this is usual with divine Scripture +; for when it signifies the fleshly origination of the Son, it adds also the cause 5 for which He became man; but when he speaks or His servants declare anything of His Godhead, all is said in simple diction, and with an absolute sense, and without reason being added. For He is the Fathers Radiance; and as the Father is, but not for any reason, neither must we seek the reason of that Radiance. Thus it is written, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God°;’ and the wherefore it assigns not7; but when ‘the SP Sardis On dames 6 érédapwe, vid. of the Holy Spirit, Servap. 1. 20, C. I John vii. 58. 2 Prov. vili. 27, 30, LXX. 3 p. 335, note r. 4 0s éort 7H Oeia ypapy’ and so Orat. ii. 18, b. And ris yaagiis 00s éxovons, ibid. 30, d. 5 Vid. Naz. Ovat. 30. 2. John i. 1. 7 Naz. ibid.
Ge Word was made flesh 8,’ then it adds the reason why, saying, ‘And dwelt among us.’ And again the Apostle saying, ‘ Who being in the form of God,’ has not introduced the reason, till ‘He took on Him the form of a servant;’ for then he continues, ‘He humbled Himself unto death, even the death of the cross9;’ for it was for this that He both became flesh and took the form of a servant.
54. And the Lord Himself has spoken many things in proverbs; but when giving us notices about Himself, He has spoken absolutely"; ‘I in the Father and the Father in Me,’ and ‘I and the Father are one,’ and ‘He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father,’ and ‘ I am the Light of the world,’ and, ‘I am the Truth?;’ not setting down in every case the reason, nor the wherefore, lest He should seem second to those things for which He was made. For that reason would needs take precedence of Him, without which not even He Himself had come into being. Paul, for instance, ‘separated an Apostle for the Gospel, which the Lord had promised afore by the Prophets 3,’ was thereby made subordinate to the Gospel, of which he was made minister, and John, being chosen to prepare the Lord’s way, was made subordinate to the Lord; but the Lord, not being made subordinate to any reason why He should be Word, save only that He is the Father’s Offspring and Only-begotten Wisdom, when He becomes man, then assigns the reason why He is about to take flesh. For the need of man preceded His becoming man, apart from which He had not put on flesh 4. And what the need was for which He became man, He Himself thus signifies, ‘I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the will of Him which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of My Father, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last days.’ And again; ‘I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me, should not abide in darkness®’ And again he says; ‘To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth 7.’ And John has written: ‘ For this was manifested the Son of God, that He might destroy the works of the devil 8.’
4 It is the general teaching of the Fathers that our Lord would not have been incarnate had not man sinned. [But see Prolegg. ch. iv. § 3, c.] Cf. de Jncarn. 4. vid. Thomassin. at great length de Incarn. ii. 5—11. also Petay. de [ncarn. ii. 17, 7—12. Vasquez. in 3 Thom. Disp. x. 4 and 5. 5 John vi. 38—40._ 5s. To give a witness then, and for our sakes to undergo death, to raise manup and destroy the works of the devil*, the Saviour came, and this is the reason of His incarnate presence. For otherwise a resurrection had not been, unless there had been death; and how had death been, unless He had had a mortal body? This the Apostle, learning from Him, thus sets forth, ‘Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.’ And, ‘Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead3.’ And again, ‘For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirits” And John says, ‘For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the werld through Him might be saved5.’ And again, the Saviour has spoken in His own person, ‘for judgment am I come into this world, that they who see not might see, and that they which see might become blind ©’ Not for Himself then, but for our salvation, and to abolish death, and to condemn sin, and to give sight to the blind, and to raise up all from the dead, has He come; but if not for Himself, but for us, by consequence not for Himself but for us is He created. But if not for Himself is He created, but for us, then He is not Himself a creature, but, as having put on our flesh, He uses such language. And that this is the sense of the Scriptures, we may learn from the Apostle, who says in Ephesians, ‘Having broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, to create in Himself of twain one new