CHAP. III. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. The Arians affect Scripture language, but their doctrine new, as well as unscriptural. Statement of the Catholic doctrine, that the Son is proper to the Father's substance, and eternal. Restatement of Arianism in contrast, that He is a creature with a beginning: the controversy comes to this issue, whether one whom we are to believe in as God, can be so in name only, and is merely a creature. What pretence then for being indifferent in the controversy? The Arians rely on state patronage, and dare not avow their tenets. III. ref. 1. 1. IF then the use of certain phrases of divine Scripture CHAP. changes, in their opinion, the blasphemy of the Thalia into blessing, of course they ought also to deny Christ with the §. 8. present Jews, when they see how they study the Law and the Prophets; perhaps too they will deny the Law1 and the 'p. 130, Prophets like Manichees", because the latter read some portions of the Gospels. If such bewilderment and empty speaking be from ignorance, Scripture will teach them, that the devil, the author of heresies, because of the ill-savour which attaches to evil, borrows Scripture language, as a cloak wherewith to sow the ground with his own poison, and to seduce the simple. Thus he deceived Eve; thus he framed former heresies; thus he has persuaded Arius at this time to make a show of speaking against those former ones, that he may introduce his own without observation. And yet, after all, the man of craft hath not escaped. For being irreligious towards the Word of God, he lost his all at once, and betrayed to all men his 2 p. 2, ignorance of other heresies too"; and having not a particle of Faustus, in August. contr. Faust. ii. 1. admits the Gospels, (vid. Beausobre Manich. t. i. p. 291, &c.) but denies that they were written by the reputed authors. ibid. xxxii. 2. but nescio quibus Semi-judæis. ibid.xxxiii.3. Accordingly they thought themselves at liberty to reject or correct parts of them. They rejected many of the facts, note e. 190 Arianism involved misbelief as regards all doctrines. Disc. truth in his belief, does but pretend to it. For how can he I. speak truth concerning the Father, who denies the Son, that reveals concerning Him? or how can he be orthodox concerning the Spirit, while he speaks profanely of the Word that supplies the Spirit? and who will trust him concerning the Resurrection, denying, as he does, Christ for us the first-begotten from the dead? and how shall he not err in 'ivágnov respect to His incarnate presence', who is simply ignorant of the Son's genuine and true generation from the Father? For thus, the former Jews also, denying the Word, and saying, We have no king but Cæsar, were forthwith stripped of all they had, and forfeited the light of the Lamp, the odour of ointment, knowledge of prophecy, and the Truth itself; till now they understand nothing, but are walking as in darkness. 2 p. 12, For who was ever yet a hearer of such a doctrine?? or whence or from whom did the abettors and hirelings of the heresy σίας. note y. quite uncertain which. Thus Arians с all heresies being secretly connected, as in temper, so in certain primary principles. And, lastly, the Truth only is a real doctrine, and therefore stable; every thing false is of a transitory nature and has no stay, like reflections in a stream, one opinion continually passing into another, and creations being but the first stages of dissolution. Hence so much is said in the Fathers of orthodoxy being a narrow way. Thus S. Gregory speaks of the middle and "royal" way. Orat. 32. 6. also Damasc. contr. Jacob. t. 1. p. 398. vid. also Leon. Ep. 85. 1. p. 1051. Ep. 129. p. 1254. "levissimâ adjectione corrumpitur." also Serm. 25. 1. p. 83. also Vigil. in Eutych. i. init. Quasi inter duos latrones crucifigitur Dominus, &c. Novat. Trin. 30. vid. the promise, "Their ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." Is. 30, 21. c δωροδοκοι. and so κέρδος τῆς φιλοχρη maríus, infr. §. 53. He mentions gorrasins pihav, §. 10. And so S. Hilary speaks of the exemptions from taxes which Constantius granted the Clergy as a bribe to Arianize; "You concede taxes as Cæsar, thereby to invite Christians to a denial; you remit what is your own, that we may lose what is God's." contr. Const. 10. And again, of resisting Constantius as hostem blandientem, qui non dorsa cædit, sed ventrem palpat, non What comes not from the Father is of the predicted Apostasy.191 III. §. 9. gain it? who thus expounded to them when they were at CHAP. school1? who told them, "Abandon the worship of the crea1 p. 76, tion, and then draw near and worship a creature and a note i. work?" But if they themselves own that they have heard it de Syn. now for the first time, how can they deny that this heresy is p. 84. foreign, and not from our fathers?? But what is not from2 p. 7ẻ, our fathers, but has come to light in this day, how can it be 1 Tim. but that of which the blessed Paul has foretold, that in the 4, 1.2. latter times some shall depart from the sound faith, giving 3 ya heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, in the hy-Socrat. pocrisy of liars; cauterized in their own conscience, andi. 6. Tit. 1, turning from the truth? note o. 3 νούσηςς. 14. 2. For, behold, we take divine Scripture, and thence dis- §. 9. course with freedom of the religious Faith, and set it up as a light upon its candlestick, saying:-Very Son of the Father, natural and genuine, proper to His substance, Wisdom Onlybegotten, and Very and Only Word of God is He; not a creature or work, but an offspring proper to the Father's substance. Wherefore He is very God, existing one in substance11úwith the very Father; while other beings, to whom He said, I said ye are Gods, had this grace from the Father, only by proscribit ad vitam, sed ditat in mortem, non caput gladio desecat, sed animam auro occidit. ibid. 5. vid. Coustant. in loc. Liberius says the same, Theod. Hist. ii. 13. And S. Gregory Naz. speaks of φιλοχρύσους μᾶλλον ἢ φιλοχρίGrous. Orat. 21.21. On the other hand, Ep. Æg. 22. Athan. contrasts the Arians with the Meletiaus, as not influenced by secular views. But it is obvious that there were, as was natural, two classes of men in the heretical party;-the fanatical class who began the heresy and were its real life, such as Arius, and afterwards the Anomoans, in whom misbelief was a "mania;" and the Eusebians, who cared little for a theory of doctrine or consistency of profession, compared with their own aggrandizement. With these must be counted numbers, who conformed to Arianism lest they should suffer temporal loss. d vid. p. 3, note f. fin. This consideration, as might be expected, is insisted on by the Fathers, vid. Cyril. Dial. iv. p. 511, &c. v. p. 566. Greg. Naz. 40. 42. Hil. Trin. viii. 28. Ambros. de fid. i. n. 69 and 104. • This passage is commonly taken by the Fathers to refer to the Oriental 4 σιος. 1 de I. Decr. Disc. participation' of the Word, through the Spirit.. For He is the expression of the Father's Person, and Light from Light, and Power, and 'very Image of the Father's substance. For §. 14 fin. this too the Lord has said, He that hath seen Me, hath seen de Syn. the Father. And He ever was and is, and never was not. For the Father being everlasting, His Word and His Wisdom p. 25, must be everlasting 2. §. 51. 2 note c. 3. On the other hand, what have these persons to shew us from the infamous Thalia? Or, first of all, let them study it themselves, and copy the tone of the writer; at least the mockery which they will encounter from others may instruct them how low they have fallen; and then let them proceed to explain themselves. For what can they say from it, but that "God was not always a Father, but became so afterwards; the Son was not always, for He was not before His generation; He is not from the Father, but He, as others, has come into subsistence out of nothing; He is not proper to the Father's substance, for He is a creature and work?” And "Christ is not very God, but He, as others, was made God by participation; the Son has not exact knowledge of the Father, nor does the Word see the Father perfectly; and neither exactly understands nor knows the Father. He is not the very and only Word of the Father, but is in name only called Word and Wisdom, and is called by grace Son and Power. He is not unalterable, as the Father is, but alterable in nature, as the creatures, and He comes short of perfect knowledge of the Father for comprehension." Wonderful this heresy, not plausible even, but making speculations against Him that is, that He be not, and every where putting forward blasphemy for blessing! Were any one, after inquiring into both sides, to be asked, whether of the two he would follow in faith, or whether of the two spoke fitly of God,—or rather let them say themselves, these abetters of irreligion, what, if a man be asked concerning God, (for the Word was God,) it were fit to answer. For from this one question the whole case on both sides may be determined, what is fitting to say,-He was, or He was not; always, or before His birth; f That is, "Let them tell us, is it right to predicate this or to predicate that of God, (of One who is God,) for such is the Word, viz. that He was from eternity or was created," &c. &c. The Arians dared not avow their tenets. III. 1 κατ' vid. Orat. ii. 193 eternal, or from this and from then; true, or by adoption, and CHAP. from participation and in idea1; to call Him one of things generated, or to unite Him to the Father; to consider Him rívolav, unlike the Father in substance, or like and proper to Him; a creature, or Him through whom the creatures were gene- §. 38. rated; that He is the Father's Word, or that there is another Word beside Him, and that by this other He was generated, and by another Wisdom; and that He is only named Wisdom and Word, and is become a partaker of this Wisdom, and second to it? 5. 18. note u. 4. Which of the two theologies sets forth our Lord Jesus §. 10. Christ as God and Son of the Father, this with which ye have burst forth, or that which we have spoken and maintain from the Scriptures? If the Saviour be not God, nor Word, nor Son, you shall have leave to say what you will, and so shall the Gentiles, and the present Jews. But if He be Word of the Father and true Son, and God from God, and over all blessed Rom. 9, for ever, is it not becoming to obliterate and blot out those other phrases and that Arian Thalia, as but a pattern of evil, a store of all irreligion, into which, whoso falls, knoweth not Prov. 9, that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell. This they know themselves, and in their craft they conceal it, not having the courage to speak out, but uttering something else. For should they speak, a con-2 p. 10, demnation would follow; and should they be suspected, p. 127, proofs from Scripture will be cast3 at them from every side. note g Wherefore, in their craft, as children of this world, after note f. feeding their so-called lamp from the wild olive, and fearing lest it should soon be quenched, (for it is said, the light of Job 18, the wicked shall be put out,) they hide it under the bushel* of 4Ep.Æg. their hypocrisy, and make a different profession, and boast of 18. patronage of friends and authority of Constantius5, that what 5 p. 5, with their hypocrisy and their boasts, those who come to p. 190, them may be kept from seeing how foul their heresy is. note c. Is it not detestable even in this, that it dares not speak out, but is kept hid by its own friends, and fostered as serpents are? for from what sources have they got together theseo runqówords? or from whom have they received what they venture infra, to say? Not any one man can they specify who has supplied §. p. 12, it. For who is there in all mankind, Greek or Barbarian, note y 3 p. 53, 5. note h. ζησαν, 22. |