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Yesterday we spoke to your love sufficiently,
and in the measure granted to us by the grace of God, of faith which is the
foundation of the principle of religion. We approached the words of our
profession of faith and showed how through faith in one God all the error of the
polytheism of the Gentiles vanishes completely. We learned from the holy Books
of the prophets to shake off from us all the aberrations of pagans, whose gods
are different and numerous, and to believe that Divine nature which ought to be
called God and Lord is one, because He alone is from eternity and is the cause
of everything.
All the created beings are very remote from this
nature, as it is impossible to admit that a created being is from eternity, and
the created beings themselves will not suffer to be called rightfully Lord and
God by nature. A being who is created by another cannot by any means create
another being from nothing, or be called God with justice, but the one who
created him is God by necessity. This is the reason why we say that there is
only one God as the blessed prophets taught us; and by the grace of the Holy
Spirit they spoke and defined the kind of nature which belongs to God. Beyond
this they did not teach us anything clearly.
The doctrine concerning the Father and the Son
was kept (to be promulgated) by Christ our Lord, who taught His disciples that
which was unknown before and was not revealed to men, and ordered them to teach
it to others also in saying to them plainly: "Go ye and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
As the blessed Moses said when he promulgated his doctrine: "The Lord, Thy God
is one Lord"—a doctrine that was taught and handed down by all the prophets—so
the Christ our Lord gave His teaching in the name of the Father, of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, but did not say what we had to learn and to teach others
concerning the Lord and God, as this had been clearly done by the prophets. He
ordered His disciples to teach all the nations that which was lacking to make
the teaching of the prophets perfect, and for this He said: "Go ye and teach all
nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost," not that we should think that one of these is not God nor that
there is a God beside them, but that we should believe that they alone
constitute Divine nature, which we had formerly learnt from the prophets to be
one.
Because the Gentiles had previously taught the
doctrine of the plurality of gods, who were numerous and different in youth and
old age, in weakness and strength, so that some of them were able to do this and
some others that—Christ ordered His disciples against this to teach all the
nations to turn from all the error of paganism, and to believe in the unity of
nature in the Godhead, as was the case with the doctrine first taught to mankind,
from which the knowledge of religion was received; and also to learn that the
one who is from eternity and is the cause of everything is one Divine nature
known in the three persons of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
He would not have induced the Gentiles to turn
away from names of false gods to the knowledge of the Father if He did not know
that He (the Father) was truly Divine nature, nor would He have brought them to
the knowledge of the Son if He did not know that He (the Son) was truly of the
same Divine nature, nor would He have inculcated to them the knowledge of the
Holy Spirit if He knew that He (the Holy Spirit) was alien to that nature,
otherwise He would have caused them to turn from one falsehood to the knowledge
of another falsehood. It is known that it is from false gods, who were wrongly
called gods, that He ordered His disciples in His teaching to turn the Gentiles
to the knowledge of the true God, which consists in the faith in the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Each one of these persons is a true God, but the Divine
nature of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit which we believe to be
eternal and the cause of everything, is one.
In this way the teaching of the Old Testament is
in harmony with the teaching of the New Testament, and the words which the
prophets uttered concerning God are not foreign nor contradictory to those which
Christ our Lord delivered to the Gentiles through the Apostles, as His words are
in full harmony with the true knowledge of religion according to the teaching of
the prophets. Through the prophets we only understood God and the being to whom
an uncreated nature belongs, but the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ gave us
also with certainty the persons in whom is Divine nature. This is the reason why
our blessed Fathers placed first the doctrine of the belief in one God as it was
written in the Old Testament in order to destroy the error of polytheism, and
then imparted to us the knowledge of the persons according to the teaching of
Christ. They were in a position—and it was easy for them—to repeat the words of
our Lord "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," but
because they wrote this profession of faith against the teaching of the heretics,
they taught it as succinctly as possible with more words than those uttered by
our Lord, for the demolition of error and the construction of the doctrine of
the Church, so that by their meaning they should reprove those who contradict
the true faith. For this reason they added with justice the name of the Father
after they had said, I believe in one God.
After the words concerning God they proceeded to
the teaching of the persons, which is the true teaching of the Christian faith
and the true knowledge for those who become disciples of Christ. Because the
sentence denotes Divine nature, it refers to the three persons, but as the
teaching concerning the persons could not be considered as referring to one of
them only, they rightly spoke to us of what is due to each person separately. At
the beginning of their sentence they placed the Father from whom are the Son and
the Holy Spirit. The Father is truly the one who is a Father alone, but we hold
each one of the three persons to be God, because Christ included this true
doctrine in His teaching concerning these three persons.
When we hear the name "Father" we do not hear it
to no purpose, but we understand that God is a Father, and a true Father,
because He is Father alone; and we hold that God is Father in a way that belongs
only to Divine nature. All the created beings obtain the power of being fathers
after their creation, and there is no human being that has the attribute of
fatherhood concomitantly with his existence. Even Adam, the first man, who was
not born of another man, had not the attribute of fatherhood concomitantly with
his existence. He came first into existence by the will of God the Creator and
afterwards received the power of becoming a father, as it is said: "Adam knew
his wife, and she conceived and bore a son."
38 He became and was called a father after his intercourse with Eve, after a
long time of gestation, after pangs of travail, and after the birth of his child.
It is iniquitous to attribute any of those functions to Divine nature. He who
had no need of time to exist was in no need of time to become a Father. Because
He was from eternity, He was also a Father from eternity.
God the Father is truly a father; and He did not
receive this in time, because He did not have a Son after a time, but the latter
was with Him from eternity and was from Him as a Son also from eternity. It is
for this that when our Lord gave this wonderful teaching to His disciples He
said, "Teach in the name of the Father," and did not need to add another
sentence in order to show whom He was calling "Father." It was sufficient for
Him to say, "Teach and baptize" to show whom He was calling Father. He called
God the Father in whom they had to believe and in whose name they had to be
baptized, the God who was from eternity according to the teaching of the
prophets.
It is not possible that the one who is from
eternity should become Father after a time. The very name Father shows this
without further addition. If like us He became Father later, He would also be
identical with us in attribute and in the meaning of the word. Now since this
vocable "father" is one and the same with many men, we should rightly inquire as
to whom He called Father. Because He is a true Father, He is Father alone. As He
is eternal by nature so He is eternally a Father. Since He is alone called by
this name and in the full meaning of the word, we do not feel any necessity to
inquire who is the one who is called Father, as His very name indicates to us
the true Father. When He says: "I am that I am," this is my name for ever and
this is my memorial unto generations," we understand that God is called by this
name, because He is truly "I am that I am" while all the created beings are not
truly "I am that I am," because they were created from nothing according to the
will of their Maker. Because He is the true being, He is called I am that I am,
and He is not made by another.
As He is not like us He is not a Father like us,
because He did not receive the power of becoming a Father in time. So when we
hear the word "father" we should rightly think of that true Father who did not
acquire the power of becoming a Father in time, nor was He in need of an
intercourse. He is a Father in truth and from eternity, a complete nature, with
whom His child exists also from eternity.
The sentence: I believe in one God the Father
taught us all these things. It is rightly followed by the phrase Creator of all
things visible and invisible, so that we should understand that He is not only
the Father of the Son but also the Creator of all the creatures, and think of
the difference which exists between Father and Creator, and between Son and
creatures. He is the Father of the Son and the Creator of the creatures. The
creatures were created later while the Son was from the beginning with Him and
from Him. This is the difference between Father and Creator. He is called the
Father of the one who was born of Him, and the Creator of all the natures which
are outside Him and which were created from nothing by His will. This is the
reason why they added nothing to the doctrine concerning the Father; indeed the
very word Father sufficed to indicate the Son, as there is no father without a
son, and as wherever there is a father there is also a son. As to the Son they
were going to teach us as much as possible concerning Him later.
Because He is Creator they added, Of all things
visible and invisible in order to show in this also the difference between the
Son and the creatures: that He is the Father of the Son only, while He is the
Creator of everything visible and invisible, as everything was created from
nothing. He would not have been called Father of the Son and Creator of the
creatures if there was not a great difference between the two: the difference
that should exist between a Son and creatures. He is called and He is the Father
of the Son, because He is of the same nature as the one who is said to be His
Son, but He is the Creator of everything because everything was created from
nothing; and although the natures of the visible and invisible things differ
among themselves yet all these created things, whether visible or invisible,
came into existence by the will of their Maker. The fact that they were made
from nothing is common to all of them, as all were created from nothing by the
will of their Maker.
This is the reason why the blessed David said: "Praise
ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise ye Him all His angels. Praise ye Him all
His hosts. Praise ye Him sun and moon." And he gradually enumerated all other
creatures found in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, mortal
and immortal, rational and irrational, material and immaterial, those with life
and those without life. When he invited them to the praise of God he gave one
reason which holds good for all of them: "For He commanded, and they were
created. He hath established them for ever and ever. He hath made a decree which
shall not pass." Because everything was created by Him and is sustained by His
will, everything whether visible or not owes praise to the Creator.
Two things render it obligatory for us to praise
God: because He is God and because He is Creator. We must, however, understand
the difference between the two. It is not because He is Father that He is also
Creator, and it is not because He is Creator that He is also Father. Indeed He
is not the Creator of the One whose Father He is, nor is He the Father of those
whose Creator He is. He is only the Father of the true and only Son who is in
His Father's bosom, because He was born of Him and is with Him from eternity,
but He is the Creator of all the things which are created and made, which are
very remote from His essence and which were created by His will when He pleased.
He is called and He is the Father of the Son because the latter is from Him and
consubstantial with Him, and He is the Maker and the Creator of the creatures
because He brought them to existence from nothing.
If He is called Father of men, He is not called
their Father because He created them, but because of their proximity to Him and
relation with Him. This is the reason why He is not called Father of all men but
only of those who have relation with Him, such as "I have nourished and brought
up children." To these He granted by special favour to be called in this way. As
such also is the sentence: "Israel is my son, even my first-born," because the
others were not sons.
Since we know the difference in our calling God:
the Father of the Only Begotten Son who alone is the true Son because
consubstantial with Him, and the Creator of everything which was created and
came into being from nothing—we should retain this meaning in our faith. When,
therefore, we say "Father," "Maker" we ought not to conceive of God that which
we conceive of men when we call them fathers and makers, but we ought to
understand the difference between Father and Maker from the way they may be
applied to us. Indeed, as with God so with us, a father is one thing and a maker
another thing. We are called the fathers of those who are from us and are born
of our nature, but the makers of those things which are not of our nature but
which were made and came into existence outside us. A house, a ship and similar
things are not of our nature, and are made by us.
Such being the case with us, we ought to think
with a clear mind of the differences in God between the two terms of Father and
Creator, and to understand that He is the Father of the Only Begotten Son who
was born of His nature, and the Creator of all the creatures, which were created
and came into existence from nothing. For this He did not need any matter but He
created the natures through which they are seen and exist.
Since we were created in the image of God, we
picture to ourselves the higher things that are said of God through an image
taken from things that belong to us. In this way it is possible also to picture
to ourselves what and how great is the difference in the belief in God as Father
and as Creator from things belonging to us, although it is clear that there is a
great difference between us and God; and this difference we ought not to
overlook when thinking of Divine nature and the works done by it. Indeed when we
speak of Divine nature we must remove completely from our mind all things that
happen to us through weakness. When we do a work we are in need of labour,
matter and time; but God is above all these, because the moment He wished it,
His works were completed out of nothing. From the fact also that we are born in
labour and through human agency, when we become fathers we need the nature of a
female as matter, and a long period of time. Without these we cannot become
fathers. As to God He is a Father without all these, because He did not
experience labour nor did He make use of any material agency nor did He need
intercourse, nor did He wait for any lapse of time, but He was at once Father
from eternity.
We should, therefore, rightly remove from God
all unbecoming thoughts of things which happen to us through weakness whether in
the domain of offspring or of work. We do everything in labour, and our nature
itself emanates and suffers from it. As to God, He is above all these. Even when
we reign, when we become governors, when we judge, when we work, when we speak,
when we look, and do any other thing, we do all with labour; and when fatigue is
protracted, it is followed by sweat; and because our nature is mortal and
corruptible, it will perish through labour. As to God He does all things
ascribed to Him, such as governing, providing, judging, reigning and the like
without fatigue, without material agency and without injury.
It is such an idea that we must have of God, and
it is such a faith that we ought to possess concerning God the Father. When we
call Him Father, we mean Father of the Son; and He is truly a Father by nature,
as we are. It is impossible to understand how He is truly a Father if He were
not a Father by nature. He is eternally a Father because His nature, in which He
is a Father, is eternal. When we call Him Creator we mean that He created
everything in wisdom as it is said: "In wisdom Thou hast made them all," as we
also do things in the wisdom of the skill that we possess. God is creator in the
sense that when He wished, the creatures came fully into existence, and He was
in no need of time or any other intervening thing between His wish and the
coming into existence of His creatures. Immediately after He wishes to create a
thing, it comes into existence from nothing.
It is in this kind of profession of faith and
with this meaning that our blessed Fathers gave us the belief in one God, Father
and Creator, whom we have tried to explain to your love in a long teaching,
which you should keep without modification, so that you should flee from the
iniquitous opinions of the heretics, while your faith is sound, by the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ to whom, in conjunction with His Father and the Holy
Spirit, be glory and honour for ever and ever. Amen.
Here ends the second chapter. |
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