Book on the Faith

That God is one, having a substantial Word equal to Himself in all things, and likewise a substantial Wisdom equal to Himself in all things. One substance of the Father and the Only-begotten and the Holy Spirit, one power, one Lord, without beginning, without end, simple and uncompounded, incorporeal, without figure, without circumscription, not increasing, not failing, not needy, undivided, infinite, invisible, incomprehensible, unconvertible, without decay, immutable. This which He is He always was and always will be, the founder of all things, having power, a benign provider, a just judge of the living and the dead. And that the one God the Word was born in the last of times of the Holy Spirit and Mary ever-virgin, and that He was crucified and died for us, and that on the third day He rose again, and ascended into the heavens, and sits at the right hand of His Father, and that He is to judge the living and the dead, and that each one shall receive his recompense according to his deeds, in the same flesh.

God is simple and uncompounded, because divinity is not a body: for composition is proper to bodies. He is simple and uncompounded, because the Word and Wisdom are not accidents to Him: for composition is known to consist of substance together with accidents at once. He is simple and uncompounded, for the substance of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is not diverse, but is shown to be wholly and entirely one and the same.

And that the substance and power of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one and the same, our Lord Jesus Christ is witness, teaching concerning Himself and concerning the Holy Spirit. Of Himself indeed He says, I and the Father are one, and again: He who has seen me has seen the Father also. By these sayings, He plainly showed that the substance is one, and the power the same. For when He had said to Philip, So long a time have I been with you, and you have not known me; he who has seen me has seen the Father also, He wished to teach that we perceive Him and the Father to be one and the same in power together with substance, from the wonders which He did. For those whose will is one, their works also are the same, and their substance also is the same.

And therefore He said to the Jews: If I do not the works of my Father, do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in him. Wonderfully also He taught this, that divinity must be known in no other way than from works. For since it is by nature invisible, and is seen in no other way than from its own works and deeds, as Wisdom also testifies, saying: For from the greatness and beauty of created things the maker of them is correspondingly perceived (Wisdom 13:5). Likewise also the blessed Apostle Paul says, For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity.

Again the holy Apostle John teaches that our Lord Jesus Christ openly proclaimed Himself to the Jews as the Son of God according to substance, in that He says, Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was his own Father, making himself equal to God. And the Jews then understood this, that Jesus manifested Himself to be the Son according to substance, when He said to them, My Father works until now, and I work.

But these things indeed our Lord Jesus Christ taught concerning Himself. He also taught concerning the Holy Spirit, that He is of the substance of God, and that the things which God the Father does, the Spirit likewise also does, when He says the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father. Moreover, when He was casting out the adverse powers, which He calls, according to the custom of men, demons, He said, But if I by the finger of God cast out demons. But that He names the finger of God the Holy Spirit, the other Evangelists have stated this place more openly. Matthew indeed says thus: But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons. But Mark says, Whoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit shall never be forgiven, but shall be guilty of an eternal sin, because they said, He has an unclean spirit.

When the Lord had said this, He openly taught that one and the same substance of the Father and the Holy Spirit is to be believed, since indeed the finger, whosesoever finger it is, is held to be of the same substance also. Moreover, when He said to His disciples, Receive the Holy Spirit; whosesoever sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, He likewise showed that one and the same substance of the Father and the Spirit must be believed. The blessed Paul also says, teaching, Know you not that you are the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwells in you? If any man violate the temple of God, God shall destroy him. When he had said this, he openly taught that the substance and power of God and the Spirit are one and the same: since indeed it is known to be the temple of God from no other thing than also from the indwelling spirit of God.

The blessed Paul also writes concerning the Holy Spirit, saying thus: But when it shall have turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. When he had said this, he showed the substance to be the same, from the fact that the Spirit is the Lord, and the Spirit of the Lord bestows and grants liberty.

The Son is in the Father, not as in a place, for His substance is not circumscribed by bounds: but as word is in mind, as simple in simple, as infinite in infinite, and unbegotten in unbegotten, as without beginning in Him who is without beginning, and Lord in Lord, and God in God, and of the same substance together with the same power. Likewise also the Father is in the Son, as sense is not to be separated from word. I call the Father sense, taking an example from ourselves, that we may understand how the Father is in the Son and the Son is contained in the Father, although even in saying this I have taken the causes and seeds from divine Scripture. For since those taught by God, the Prophets and Apostles, called the Son Word, they taught us without doubt to understand the Father as sense. For since word cannot otherwise be understood except as born from sense, or mind.

But I do not call it sense such as ours is, since neither is the Word of God such as ours, nor is His Wisdom such as ours. Likewise also we say the Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Son of the same substance or power, as wisdom is in sense together with word: moreover the Father and the Son are in the Spirit of the same substance together with the same power, and as sense and word which are not separated from wisdom.

And that the Spirit is in God as it were of His substance, and as it were both are the same, and so to speak, whole in whole, and one who knows His deep and profound things, the blessed Paul also teaches, saying thus, But God has revealed them to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. Whence, having taken an example from us, that is, from our wisdom, which penetrates the whole of our sense more deeply, and knows all things that are in it, he then says: For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? So also the things of God no one knows, but the Spirit of God. And therefore the blessed Paul took an example from us, wishing to show how the Spirit of God knows His own deep things, because he knew man to be the image of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

For man is the image of God, since he is rational, and has sense, and word, and wisdom, as Moses also teaches, when he says, And God said, Let us make man according to image, not mine alone, but according to our image and likeness.

And that as the Holy Spirit is of the Father, so also He is likewise held to be of the Son, the blessed Paul again teaches, saying thus: But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwells in you, that is, of God the Father, and then he says: But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. He says also in another place, And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And the Holy Spirit is the same of the Father and the Son, for He is neither the Father, nor the Son; but, to speak again by an example taken from ourselves, He is not as sense begetting word, nor as word which is begotten from sense, but as wisdom which is in no way separated from sense and word.

And that the substance of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one and the same power, Moses also the servant of the Lord teaches, when he says thus, And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness. For whereas he ought to have said in the singular, I will make, he said in the plural, Let us make, and he said not according to my image, but according to our image. And again he says, and God made man, not, they made. He does this in order to show that the three persons, that is, of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are one and the same nature, and an undivided divinity. Likewise also the prophet David teaches one and the same power of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, when he says thus, By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth.

Moreover, the holy Apostle John, in order to teach that the substance of the Son together with the Father is one and the same, says thus, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him. When he had said, In the beginning was the Word, and not from the beginning, nor again with the beginning was the Word, or under the beginning, he plainly teaches that the Word is without beginning, as if it were above every beginning, and were itself the cause of the beginning. For if all things were made through him, and with all things a beginning also is had, then of the beginning itself, and of the whole space thereafter following the beginning, the Word itself is the head and cause, in which space times or ages are contained.

Again, when he had said, The Word was with God, he showed the Word to be substantial, because he did not say, The Word was in God, but the Word was with God. Moreover, then saying, and the Word was God, he teaches the substance and power of the Father and the Son to be one and the same. For there is no difference between God and God, since each lacks a beginning, but the substance of both is one, and the power likewise the same. Moreover, when he says, This was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, he plainly teaches us that we must not believe in two separated substances, nor powers and virtues, since God is one, who through His substantial Word makes and creates all things. And therefore we are taught not to say three separated substances, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, nor powers and virtues separated one from another. For since God is one, who is known to create all things by Word and Wisdom.

That God does all things in wisdom and with wisdom, that is, with the Holy Spirit, the holy prophet David is witness, when, proclaiming God, and recounting the greatness of his power, and marveling at the riches of his wisdom, he cries out saying these words, How magnified are your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom. This same wisdom the blessed Paul also proclaims with the utmost admiration, when he says thus, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! And that the wisdom of God, by which God made and makes all things, the prophet David calls the Spirit of God, agreeing by a like reasoning with the blessed Paul, he plainly teaches in what follows, when he says, The earth is filled with your creation: this great and wide sea, there are creeping things without number, small animals with great, there ships pass through; that dragon which you formed to play in it, all things wait upon you, that you may give them food in due season.

When you give, they gather; when you open your hand, all things will be filled with goodness; but when you turn away your face, they will be troubled; you will take away their spirit and they will fail, and will return to their dust. You will send forth your spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth. In that the Prophet says, You have made all things in wisdom, and, You will send forth your spirit and they will be created, he plainly taught that there is one person of both the Wisdom of God and the Holy Spirit. Likewise also Solomon names the Holy Spirit of God Wisdom, when he says thus to God, Who has known your counsel, unless you have given wisdom?

And that he may show what wisdom he means, he next says, You have sent forth your Holy Spirit from on high, and thus the paths of those who are on earth have been made straight, and they have learned what is pleasing to you, O Lord, and by wisdom they have been saved. That is, taught by your Holy Spirit, your counsel, they have been saved. As also the blessed Paul says, For God has revealed it to us through the Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Since therefore we have such witnesses, we ought not to doubt that it must be said that the substantive Wisdom of God is the Holy Spirit, through whom all things which were created are known to have been made by God. Thus some, less understanding, have said that the wisdom of God and the only-begotten God the Word are one and the same person, wishing to take cause and seeds from the blessed Paul in that he says, But we preach Christ, and him crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, but to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. But in what the blessed Paul said, he does not signify by power and wisdom the only-begotten God the Word, but the ordering of the cross; for immediately in what follows he said, Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Now no one of sound understanding dares to say that God the Word is the foolishness and weakness of God, but, as I said before, he signifies the ordering of the cross, in that what seems to unbelievers to be foolish—that is, to believe that Christ crucified is God—this has the greatest wisdom: and what seems to be the weakness of Christ, on account of which he died for us, this has the greatest power; concerning which wisdom and power it is not now the time to speak.

Through many witnesses, then, we are taught by God that he has one substantive only-begotten God the Word, one substantive wisdom the Holy Spirit, through which spirit, and through which word, all wisdom, speech, knowledge, and other gifts are bestowed upon believers by God, as also the blessed Paul teaches, when he says thus: I have therefore glory in Christ Jesus toward God. For I do not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ does not work through me for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Not only did the blessed Apostle Paul have Christ and the Holy Spirit speaking in him, but also all the other Prophets, and Apostles, and Evangelists, as also our Lord Jesus Christ teaches when he says, Therefore behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; likewise also concerning the Spirit of God he says: Therefore also the wisdom of God says, I send to them prophets and apostles.

That the Holy Spirit is Lord and God, and that as our Lord he himself also bestows and grants gifts to believers, the same blessed Paul again teaches, when he says, Now there are divisions of graces, but the same Spirit, and there are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord, and there are divisions of workings, but the same God: he plainly teaches that the Holy Spirit is Lord and God. He shows this yet more clearly in what follows. For having enumerated the gifts and works and ministries, he added immediately, saying: But all these things the one and same Spirit works, dividing to each as he wills. Again the blessed Paul, wishing to teach us more plainly that there is one substance of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, says, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God the Father of all. Now he names as Father the Father of those who have been born through baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And the blessed Apostle, not unaware that there is a baptism of water and a baptism of spirit, said one baptism. But he rightly said so, knowing that there is one baptism in this, that all are baptized and believe in the name of one Lord. The same blessed Apostle is also accustomed to call the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as one Lord and one God, so also one Spirit, when he says, For as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ: for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, and we have all been made to drink of one Spirit.

Let no one, when he hears the blessed Apostle saying that we were all baptized in one Spirit, and made to drink of one Spirit, believe that he spoke of the Spirit alone, or of the Father alone. Indeed, whoever so believes takes away baptism. For those who have been baptized in one Spirit have not been baptized in the Father alone, nor in the Son alone, nor in the Holy Spirit alone, but in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, which indeed is a common name, not by confusion of persons, but by unity of nature: one Lord, one God, one Spirit. For the Father is always Father, not ceasing to be Father; and the Son is always Son, continuing forever to be Son; and the Holy Spirit is always so, who never becomes Father or Son.

What then will they answer us to these things, who follow the wicked dogmas of Arius and Eunomius, and contend that the Son and the Holy Spirit are separated from the substance of the Father? Who, while saying this, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, do not themselves deny that they baptize theirs, and believe that through baptism there is remission of sins, likewise that they are to be deemed worthy of sanctification by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; yet they do not cease blaspheming against the Son and the Holy Spirit, when they ought, at length freed from blindness, to look and understand that liberty cannot otherwise be granted to servants except by their own Lord.

But if they say that those who are baptized receive liberty or forgiveness of sins from the Father alone, and merit sanctification from the Father alone, let them know that no one of those who are baptized can be made worthy of these gifts unless he also receives gifts or graces from the Son and the Holy Spirit. Witness is the blessed Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, when he says, Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, and so forth, and he added, And such indeed you were, but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. By all these testimonies, then, which have been set forth, the one and the same substance of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is sufficiently and abundantly shown.

In creating, God does not create by nature, as the raving fable of the Gentiles supposes, but rather by will. For the divinity is free, and not subject to a necessity of nature, as they judge to be the manner of fires, which do not by will, but by a burning and blazing nature, are known to consume neighboring bodies. But God is not accustomed to act thus. For above every intellect and sensible nature is his ineffable and incomprehensible substance. Since indeed he is held visible by none, as the blessed Paul testifies, saying, Now to the King of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory; and again he says: Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see (f. The same also the blessed John teaches, when he says, No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. Therefore since God is above every sense, he creates by will, not by nature.

For if God created by nature and not by will, infinite worlds would be found to have been created, and innumerable ones would be created each single day. But let us, setting aside the raving fable of the Gentiles, obey the divine Scripture, which plainly teaches that God creates the things he creates by will or command, as also the servant of God Moses taught, when he said, And God said, Let there be light: and he added, And there was light: and again, And God said, Let there be a firmament, and the command was fulfilled by his order: and again, And God said, Let there be lights: and things that before were not, soon came to be. Likewise also the prophet David says, He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created; and again, Whatsoever the Lord willed he has done in heaven and in earth, in the sea and in all the depths.

If therefore God does and creates as much as he wills, Origen has impiously and wickedly declared, who said thus, God has not made all things that he willed, but only those things which he was able to contain and comprehend. He who said this took away from the Lord the power over all things, as though the power of making were given him only in part. For if he does not have, as Origen judges, the ability to contain and to subject to himself what he makes, neither indeed will he have the power of creating. For whoever has the ability to create will likewise have the ability to subject to himself what has been created.

Let us, then, obey the blessed Job, who says thus to God, I know that you can do all things, and nothing is impossible to you, and let us believe piously and religiously, together with those men who were taught by God, that because God can do all things, in creating he creates by will, not by nature, and that he creates when he wills, and what he wills, and as much as he wills, and of what kind he wills, and nothing is impossible to his will. But we say that the will of God is without beginning; for without beginning the Lord knows what he is going to create, and when he is going to make it, and how much and of what kind he intends to create.

And indeed we say that the rational substances which are held to be celestial were created first, and that they are very many and diverse both in substance and in power, as the blessed David, setting them before all others, says, Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the highest. Praise him all his angels, praise him all his powers. For when he made mention of the heavens and of angels, and called them powers and heights, he taught that their substances were diverse, and likewise their dignities and merits varied. Again he also teaches that the nature of all is not the same, when he says, Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire. Having said "fire" and "spirit" through the Prophet, he used various and diverse elements, so that he might teach us more openly, and indeed from a sensible example.

That they also have diverse substances the blessed Paul likewise says, setting celestial powers before earthly ones: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things celestial, and terrestrial, and infernal. For when he had said "infernal," he named souls released from bodies. Furthermore he teaches that their dignities are various and their kinds diverse, when he says, Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, because in him all things were created, both celestial and terrestrial, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. When therefore he had set celestial things before earthly ones, he soon added also the men who were created in Christ, saying: And he is the head of the body of the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might hold the primacy.

Similarly also our Lord Jesus Christ teaches the diversity of substance of those spirits who withdrew from God, whom the divine Scripture is accustomed to call demons, and principalities and powers, when he says, This kind is not cast out except by prayer and fasting. But in that the Lord says "this kind," he shows that among them there are various kinds of substances, and diverse species. Now I have said all these things in order to show the riches of his power. For if the divinity is omnipotent, it must also be held to be most rich.

But concerning the invisible substances enough has been said. Now indeed I must set forth concerning the Sun and Moon together, and the other lights. For certain persons, deceived by an error of mind, have said that these are rational living beings. Their madness the wicked Origen also followed, who, wishing to take an example from the divine Scripture, dared himself, wrongly and as he pleased, to twist those things which were there most excellently said concerning the luminaries. It must be known, therefore, that the divine Scripture nowhere made mention of them as of living beings, but said that the luminaries were made, and were created for this purpose alone, that they might shine upon the earth, and be to men for signs of times, of months, and of years.

But if those who favor errors of this kind should say to us: Why are not the luminaries living and rational beings, since it is written of them thus, The stars are not clean in his sight, that is, in the sight of God—let them hear from us that he who said this was not worthy of authority. For indeed the Lord said to him that he had spoken nothing true concerning my servant Job. Yet even if this had been said by the blessed Job, not even so would it seem a firm proof. For it does not follow that because they are not clean in the sight of God they are therefore called living beings; otherwise even the menstrual flows of women would by this reasoning be called living beings, and the leprous house, since according to the law of Moses not even these are clean before God. For we read that many things which are without soul are, for some reason, often called unclean.

Origen also adduces that which was said by the Prophet David, The sun knew his going down, and also that which God said to the prophet Isaiah, I have given commandment to all the stars. This he does, wishing to confirm his impious heresy, that they were created together with heaven and earth. But if anyone should say that they were created before heaven and earth, τῷ τῆς εὐσεβείας οὐ λυμαίνεται λόγῳ, he does not, he says, injure the word of piety.

For he says that the luminaries were formerly intellects and senses, and because they behaved negligently, deprived afterward of their own power, they were condemned to these fiery bodies, that they might shine upon the earth.

Likewise, wishing to approve the error of the pagans, he says thus, that he placed the luminaries in the firmament for signs, so that motions of this kind might signify to us our fates. Let those, therefore, who follow the wicked heresy of Origen learn not so to receive the divine Scripture, nor to overturn its meaning, so as to use history for allegory according to their own will. For when we hear Jeremiah the Prophet addressing the earth, Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord, write this man childless, we ought not on that account to say that the Prophet gives command as it were to a rational living earth. David the Prophet also is accustomed to command bodies of this kind, when he says, Praise the Lord from the earth, dragons, and all deeps. Fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy wind, which fulfill his word, mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars. He does not thereby teach us to believe all these things to be rational. But let Origen and his associates now be dismissed.

For we have also learned this from the divine Scripture, that God gave to all the celestial rational powers to have free will, just as he also granted to men on earth. For no one at all who has reason or sense can serve God unwillingly or without will, but all obey him of their own accord. Otherwise, if this were not so, neither praise nor blame nor guilt would follow them, as happens also in the case of the other irrational animals. All, therefore, are held capable of contraries, both the good, I say, and the wicked—good indeed, when they do what God wills; wicked, however, when they by no means keep the commandments of the Lord. And that the Angels and celestial powers, when they by no means disregard the precepts of God, obtain great praise, the blessed David is witness, saying thus, Bless the Lord, all his angels, mighty in strength, doing his word, to hearken to the voice of his commands. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will.

From this praise, therefore, that is, from the keeping of the Lord's precepts, they enjoy a blessed and perpetual life. But just as all who do the will of God obtain everlasting blessedness, and receive eternal praises from God, so also, on the other hand, all who disregard the divine precepts are condemned to eternal blame.

Whence he whom the divine Scripture is accustomed to call the Devil, and likewise those who are called his angels, when they envied the first men, I mean Adam and Eve, alienated themselves from the blessed life which they had first possessed. And they persuaded man, indeed, by the deception which they themselves devised, causing him to sin so that he immediately departed from the commandment of God; but they subjected themselves likewise to eternal punishment, just as our Lord Jesus Christ teaches, when he says to those who denied mercy to their neighbor: Go into the eternal fire, which was prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat, and so forth. That the devil, or those who are called his angels, are among the celestial creatures and rational powers, the blessed Peter is witness, when he says thus, For if God spared not the angels who sinned. Likewise also the blessed Paul teaches, saying: Know you not that we shall judge angels?

Let no one, therefore, taken by error, suppose that these sinned before they envied men, and only after that sin came to deceive men, as the wicked Origen taught: but, as I said above, it was from the moment when the devil, transformed into a serpent, deceived Eve. That from that time the devil, having wholly forsaken the truth, transferred himself immediately to falsehood, from which, as I said, he slew Eve with the death of sin, our Lord is witness when he says to the unbelieving Jews, You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because truth is not in him; when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar, and the father thereof.

Therefore, when the Lord had said that he was a murderer from the beginning, and that he stood not in the truth, he plainly taught that the devil fell from the truth from that moment when he first, by the deceit of a lie, killed Eve, deceived by error, with the death of transgression. Again, it is also said for this reason, that when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, because he himself was the first to bring forth falsehood by feigned deceit. Whence also the others, who together with him envied man, were named angels of that same devil, as though he himself were the first cause and head of this warfare. But concerning these also enough has been said.

When the Lord created the world—I mean heaven and earth, and all things that are in them—he made man alone according to his own image and likeness, as Moses teaches, saying thus, And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness. And when Moses had said this from the person of God, he himself immediately added, saying, And God made man, according to the image of God he made him. Moses, understanding both as one, that is, both image and likeness, having named "image," passed over "likeness" in silence altogether. Otherwise, if it were not so, the Apostle James would never afterward have said in his Epistle, when teaching that the tongue ought not to be used for the ministry of evil, thus, With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made according to the likeness of God.

God, therefore, set man over all things which he himself created, to have dominion, both on the earth and in the sea, because man is his image, as also the blessed Paul teaches, saying thus, For the man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. For which reason man is preferred before all irrational animals, over which he has dominion, and by this very thing he was also made lord of all. For irrational animals indeed, as Moses taught, were created out of earth and water, and from these they have both soul and body: but man, though he appears to have a body in common with the rest, has a soul far more excellent, as Moses again says thus, And God formed man from the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Man, therefore, is superior to all things for this reason, because he is recognized to have a sensible and rational soul, and one of free will. Let us therefore, as prudent men, hear Moses telling how God created man. For thus Moses and the other prophets narrate to us concerning God, as we are able to understand. For God is not a man, made of soul and body, that he should form and fashion man with hands, or draw breath from the air, that he should breathe into his face, and thus give him life. For he does and did all things by his will, through his only Word and Holy Spirit. But the prophets are accustomed to call not only man, but also heaven and earth, and the things that are in them, created at God's command, the works of the hands of the Lord. Witness is David the prophet, saying to God, And I shall behold the heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have founded.

And again, In the beginning you, Lord, founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. Likewise also Isaiah the prophet says thus from the person of God, Hear me, Jacob and Israel, whom I call. I am he, I am the first, and I am the last, my hand has founded the earth, and my right hand has established the heaven. And again, Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet. What house will you build for me, and what is the place of my rest? For all these things my hand has made.

Man therefore, as the divine Scripture has taught us, has indeed a body from the earth, but a soul created for him out of nothing, and this soul, as it is sensible and rational, so also immortal, as both Testaments teach us, both the New, I say, and the Old. For our Lord Jesus Christ also says, Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. He called the fiery punishment "destruction." For how can it be that what utterly perishes, and can nowhere at all continue to exist, should be able to suffer eternal vengeance, since the Lord again says: And these shall go into eternal punishment, but the just into eternal life?

Nor is it to be said that the soul is a part of God, as the speech of the imprudent and unlearned holds. For if this were so, God would never subject his own part to perpetual punishment, but neither could that part have sinned at all, being as it were a part of God, since God is always unchangeable, both in nature and in will alike. And again, if our soul were a part of God, it would in no way at all be mastered by any bodily vice. For divinity is always unconquered, and is never subject to any bodily vice.

Just as, then, those who believe thus are shown to believe impiously: so also those who say that souls were made before bodies are found to be very far from piety. Whence the impious Origen, caught by the error of the Gentiles, and unwilling to depart from it entirely, striving also to be the author of new sects, taught, having transposed their conjectures in another manner, matters concerning which I do not think it necessary to dispute at present, lest we cast too many words into the forest. Since, therefore, the aforesaid Origen, in order to confirm his wicked heresy, tries to take examples from the divine Scripture, let us refute him, showing that he was utterly ignorant of the divine Scripture, and taught it without understanding.

For when he himself said that, at the beginning of creation, heaven together with earth was created not as a solid body, such as this which is seen, but that all this was a sensible and rational substance, and that of one and the same nature, comprehending among these rational and sensible substances also the souls of men, and afterward, making mention of the animals, which were created on the sixth day, finding that in this same nature man too was created, he could no longer maintain his own fabrication, nor strengthen his own deceit: but as though he had utterly forgotten what he had before taught, he confesses unwillingly that souls were created, and again that they are incorporeal.

Let those, then, who venerate and cherish the abominable heresy of Origen, and strive to exalt his expositions of the divine Scripture to the heavens with the highest praises, answer us how souls can be understood without bodies, since Moses teaches us, saying, And God made man, in the image of God he made him, male and female he made them. For this is clear to all, that souls cannot be capable of either sex, but only bodies, which are known to be more material. How again will they be able to hear that saying addressed to souls alone without bodies, Increase and multiply? Since, even according to Origen himself, the nature of incorporeal beings can neither be multiplied nor increased. Or how could souls created without bodies dwell in the heavens, since God, blessing those whom he had made male and female, said thus, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth? But let Origen and his associates again be dismissed.

Since, therefore, there are some who, seized by madness, say that from the one soul of the first man Adam the soul of Eve the woman was taken, and some also that from Adam alone, by the casting of seed, souls were transmitted into all who were born of him, and others that souls were rather transmitted from Eve alone, and thus were carried down from parents to their children, it must be answered to these in this manner: Why then did Adam, who was first created from the earth, prophesying in the Spirit of God concerning the flesh, of the rib which had been taken from him, say, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her husband, and yet nowhere make mention of a soul? For if soul also came from soul, according to their vain opinions, Adam would certainly never have omitted this.

For just as he said, bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, so also he could have said, soul of my soul. But he said only that which he knew had been taken from him. Moreover, in agreement with Moses, the prophet Zechariah also speaks thus, Stretching out the heaven, and founding the earth, and forming the spirit of man within him. For if the flesh of man were not created from pre-existing matter, as also that of Adam and Eve, and so afterward the soul in him were not created from pre-existing matter, just as with Adam and Eve alike, the prophet Zechariah would never have said thus, And creating the spirit of man within him. But more clearly Solomon in Ecclesiastes teaches that souls are bestowed by God upon all bodies which are created by him from pre-existing matter, describing the dissolution of the human composition, when he says, And the dust shall return to its earth, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.

When Solomon said this, he clearly taught that God bestowed a spirit upon the dust, which he had taken from the earth to create man, which dust did not previously have it. And he says that only the spirit returns to God, though the Lord is the creator of both, both of flesh and of spirit, because he does not create the spirit from pre-existing matter, as he does the body: and again, because man is seen to cooperate with God toward the procreation of the birth of the body, but God alone procreates the spirit, since indeed it belongs to men to manage the materials, but to God to create the man. That it is God who forms those things which are cast as seeds into the womb, just as he also gives life to the various other things which are sown by farmers into the ground, blessed Job is witness, when he says to God, Your hands have made me, and formed me. The prophet David also says the same.

Again, God also speaks thus to the prophet Jeremiah, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Likewise also the prophet Isaiah, concerning the people who were called by the name of Jacob, says among other things thus: The Lord who redeemed you, and who formed you from the womb. But more plainly still blessed Paul, writing to the Hebrews, teaches that spirits, that is, our souls, do not descend by succession as bodies do, when he says: We have had indeed the instructors of our flesh as fathers, and we reverenced them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? Since God, when he blessed the first human beings, that is, Adam and Eve, said, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth: for this reason the Apostle called parents the fathers of the flesh, and because we do not have souls created by God from pre-existing matter, therefore he called God the Father of spirits.

All things, therefore, just as they were first created, so also are they procreated day by day, some indeed from pre-existing matter, as the souls of irrational animals, others not from pre-existing matter, as the souls of men. But enough has been said by us concerning the soul.

Those first human beings, then, I mean Adam and Eve, though created immortal as to the soul, it would rather justly be said. Not from sins, nor from transgression is it multiplied, as their writings teach, but from the blessing of God, as the Prophet testified. For if the human race is multiplied by transgression and by the abandonment of righteousness, it would rightly be called not a blessing but rather a curse. This same argument was also that of Theophilus of Alexandria, in the Catena on Genesis, Royal Codex. That it was not on account of sin, as Origen supposed, that the souls, having been cast down, were entangled with bodies, we have learned from the words of Moses, saying to the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers add to this number many thousands, and bless you, as he has spoken to you; for according to Origen the production of bodies is not a blessing, but a curse to wandering souls.

That not on account of sin, as it seemed to Origen, were the cast-down souls entangled with bodies, we have learned from the words of Moses, speaking to the sons of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers add to you this day a thousandfold as many as you are, and bless you as he has spoken to you. For neither, according to Origen, is the production of bodies a blessing, but a curse to the wandering souls. Would say, mortal indeed as to the body, yet they would never have tasted death, if only they had been willing to keep God's commandment, as blessed Enoch deserved. For he, although mortal, was nevertheless translated, so that he should not see death at all.

But that Adam and Eve were created mortal as to the body, as I have said, Moses is witness when he says, And God planted a paradise in Eden toward the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed, and caused to grow yet further out of the earth every tree beautiful to behold, and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the tree of knowing good and evil. For God would never have planted the tree of life in paradise, if indeed Adam had been created immortal as to the flesh. Again, if Adam and Eve had been created immortal as to the flesh, they would never have heard from God, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth. For those who were commanded to eat, and drink, and unite, increase, and fill the earth, could not possibly be immortal at all, just as our Lord Jesus Christ also taught, saying to the Sadducees, The children of this age marry and are given in marriage.

But those who shall be accounted worthy of that age, and of the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor take wives. For neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels.

It has been sufficiently proved, as I think, that man was created mortal according to the flesh, the Lord clearly teaching that those who rejoice in such intercourse and marriages are mortal. Whence Enoch, who pleased God, after he had begotten children by different wives, was translated, so that he did not see death at all, just as blessed Paul also, writing to the Hebrews, says: By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; for before his translation he is testified to have pleased God. So likewise we may say also of Adam and Eve, that if they had kept the precept and command of God, even after the procreation of children, having tasted of the tree of life, they would have remained continually immortal, needing no longer in the future sustenance, growth, or marriage.

But if certain persons, caught in ignorance, persist in the same error, saying that Adam and Eve, once having received permission to eat of every tree that was in paradise, except only the one which had been forbidden by God, when among all the rest they had eaten also of the tree of life, would have obtained immortality—let them learn that he who has been made immortal has no need of food at all. Therefore Adam and Eve, if indeed they had been immortal by nature, would never have tasted of the tree which had been forbidden by God, since the immortal have no desire of food, just as blessed Paul also testifies in this manner: The kingdom of God is not meat and drink.

But the kingdom of God is not of mortals, but of the immortal, just as our Lord Jesus Christ also taught, saying: But they who shall be accounted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels. Adam therefore and Eve, if indeed they had kept the command of God, would certainly never have tasted death. But the command not having been kept, they were not made mortal out of immortals, but being already mortal, they estranged themselves from the immortality promised to them by God. Whence Adam heard from God, Thou art earth, and unto earth thou shalt go, that is, thou art corruptible, and unto corruption thou shalt go, since he was now unworthy to eat of the tree of life and to live forever.

But to say again that Adam and Eve, if they had persevered in keeping the command of God, would not have had the discernment to eat of the tree of life, up until that time, namely, when God was going to reveal it to them: for which cause it also had been set apart from the other trees, being placed in the middle of paradise, where also that tree which had the knowledge of good and evil had been established, so that, fearing to touch the forbidden tree, they might also be wary of eating of what was permitted. For this also God plainly taught, saying: Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now lest perhaps he stretch forth his hand, and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.

In this, that God said, Behold he has become one knowing good and evil: and, now lest perhaps he stretch forth his hand, he showed that before he had experienced the knowledge of evil, he could not of himself, understanding, take what had been received from the tree of life. And it is no wonder, since Adam also said, when prophesying concerning his wife in this manner: This shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her husband, and for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.

Not only this, but also, although Adam and Eve had heard God saying to them, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth; before their disobedience they were altogether ignorant of what the desire of begetting children was. For Moses says: And they were both naked, both Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed. Moses did not say this as though they, deceived by the blindness of incontinence, despised the shame of nakedness; but he shows that they, like infants, did not yet have the desire of intercourse. Whence, after the transgression, when their nakedness was perceived—I do not mean the whole body, but that part which Ham also had seen while Noah slept—then at last, having obtained the desire of begetting children, and perceiving their nakedness, they covered their shameful parts with fig leaves.

God therefore, taking counsel for men, since he knew them to be prone to wickedness, and lovers of pleasures and of the desires of the flesh, and wishing rather to call them back to honorable virtue, allows them, up to a certain time, to be subjected to the dominion of death. Since indeed he knew nothing else that could so easily restrain men as death; for by fear of death many are for the most part known to abstain entirely from wickedness. Whence worldly laws cannot cut off most of the vices of men otherwise than by the threat of death and punishment. For all, held fast by the love of this common life, are wary of providing occasions for sins, lest by transgressing they be thought to lose that life by their own will. We do not therefore say that death was given to men in requital for evils, as the unlearned reason, but for the destruction of the depravity of death. For if men were to live forever, their wickedness would certainly never come to an end.

And again, why should I believe that death was given as a requital for evils, when, if someone should kill nearly a hundred men or more, no vengeance would be able to equal so many and so great murders?

Death, therefore, is said to be good not only for wicked men, for the destruction of their depravity, but is also useful for the just. For just as the wicked man ceases to sin when deprived of this light, so also the just man, sleeping, is freed from the constant assaults, afflictions, and miseries of the soul. For his own body being dissolved, the soul of the just man will thereafter be pressed by no distresses, will not lie subject to miseries of soul, will not see necessities, will not endure persecutions, will no longer suffer the vices of the flesh rising against him, will no longer be pressed day by day by the host of evil suggestions, will not be stripped bare for the wrestling match.

Carrying nothing of worldly cares with him, he is not worn down by abstinence of the flesh for the sake of contests, he contends no more, he does not strive in the race or with the boxing-glove, he no longer wrestles with principalities and powers, and the spirits of wickedness, but the stadium is released for him, the contest has ceased, and having gained the victory he hastens straightway to receive the crown of righteousness, to attain the blessed and eternal goal in the heavens, when he shall have received again his immortal flesh. And blessed Paul too, perceiving such wars as are waged by invisible enemies against just men, fearing lest the cunning or malice of some might change them, or deceit beguile a sound mind, for the sake of provoking virtue, urged that all should despise this temporal life, speaking thus: Being always confident therefore, and knowing that while we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

Whence, wishing to be absent from the body, and hastening to put an end to his contest, and desiring to be present with God, he cries out, saying: For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will render to me on that day; and not to me only, but to all who love his coming. Blessed Job also is accustomed often to call death the release from all evils, when he says: But death is rest: for God has hedged him in against himself.

But if some should wish to say, How can it be that death is rest to man, since blessed David said, The death of sinners is worst? Let them learn that it is not therefore said, the death of sinners is worst, as though an end and limit were thereby set to sins, but because after death they themselves undergo the gravest punishments on account of their own transgressions. Similarly blessed Job was accustomed to call death sleep, as well as rest, when he says: Why did I suck the breasts? For now indeed, sleeping, I should be at rest, and should enjoy the security of sleep with kings and counsellors of the earth, who gloried in their swords, or with princes, who had much gold.

Furthermore, the Prophet Isaiah, when bidden by the Lord to lament the dead king of Babylon, called this common and temporal death sleep, saying: The whole earth cries out with joy, and the trees of Lebanon rejoiced over thee, and the cedars of Lebanon shall say, Since thou hast slept, none has come up to cut us down. Hell from beneath is stirred with bitterness to meet thee. Likewise also the Prophet Daniel says: And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to reproach and everlasting confusion. The same also blessed Paul teaches when he says: But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that sleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with him those who have slept through Jesus.

Being taught, therefore, by many witnesses, that this common death is not evil, let us now say that those who call death evil are far from the truth.

We say, moreover, that God bestowed for good upon the first man Adam sweats and labors likewise, which he was to suffer from the earth, since we cannot otherwise overcome, by venerable faith, the invisible enemies against whom we have continual struggle, unless wearied by the labors of the body. For by these we are taught, through the divine Scripture, to free ourselves from the deceit of enemies, and either to keep virtue safe, or, if lost, likewise to renew it. For thus blessed David, hastening to recover the virtue he had lost, teaches, saying: A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God will not despise. And again: I have labored in my groaning, I will wash my bed every night, I will water my couch with my tears. And again: My knees are weakened through fasting, and my flesh is changed because of oil. Teaching also how we ought to preserve virtue, he says: But as for me, when they troubled me, I clothed myself in sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting.

Likewise our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples that virtue could neither be kept safe, as I said, nor, if lost, be recalled, except through labors and pains of the body. For thus he says: Enter in through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who enter in by it: for narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it. Therefore blessed Paul too, when he asked the Lord that he might altogether depart from him, who was trying to fix the thorn in the flesh, did not obtain it, but rather heard from the Lord: My grace is sufficient for thee, for virtue is made perfect in weakness. Whence he afterward said with joy: Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Wherefore I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then am I strong. And teaching thus, he says: For which cause we do not lose heart. But though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation works for us, above measure, in sublimity, an eternal weight of glory, we not looking at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. So then we say that the first humans, Adam and Eve, were saved from their sin through the labors and pains of the body, which the Lord bestowed upon them, for the benefit, namely, of their souls. Whence afterward divine Scripture nowhere makes mention of them as though they had sinned.

But that God forgave them their sin, just as He also indulged Cain who had sinned first, when He said to him, "You have sinned, be still: its conversion, that is, of sin, is toward you, and you shall be master over it", Moses shows openly through the kindness or mercy which God afterward willingly granted to them. For what does Moses say? "And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife tunics of skin, and clothed them". For if the Lord had not forgiven them their sin, He would surely never have clothed them with His own hand in tunics which He Himself had made for them. Let no one therefore suppose that those same tunics of skin which they had were the human body, as the impious Origen expounded. For before those tunics of skin which I have mentioned, Adam himself taught that he had flesh, saying, "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh".

We say, therefore, that tunics of skin were given by God on account of the harshness of life, or because, as to those exercising themselves toward virtue, He gave what seemed fitting, that they might learn that they could not overcome invisible enemies otherwise than by bodily labors. And that after the transgression which he had committed in paradise, he persisted thereafter, even to the end of his life, obeying God, Solomon is a witness, when speaking of the wisdom which kept him in the fear of God, he said in this manner, "She preserved the first-formed father of the world, when he alone had been created, and delivered him from his fault, and gave him strength to have dominion over all things". Likewise also concerning the salvation of Eve, blessed Paul, teaching, speaks thus: "For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. But she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith, and love, and holiness, with sobriety".

What he said, "through the bearing of children," he meant by "the bearing of children" the children themselves. For divine Scripture is accustomed frequently to change prepositions. The Patriarch Joseph is a witness of this, when speaking to the eunuch about the dream he says, "Is not the interpretation of it through God", that is, from God. Likewise also blessed Paul, when writing to the Hebrews, says, "Through whom also He made the worlds", meaning that which is, "with whom also He made the worlds." For we do not say that the Son is a mere assistant of the Father because of this saying, "through whom also He made the worlds," but rather a co-worker. Eve therefore shall not be saved on account of her children, nor shall her offspring be condemned on account of their mother, or of their father Adam, as the opinion of the imprudent supposes. For every man, since he has free will, will be considered, according to the quality of his own deeds, either greatly to be praised, or to be blamed.

In like manner also on the day of judgment, he will either be justified, or subjected to punishment, as blessed Paul also teaches, saying thus: "For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things proper to the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil".

But that children are not punished for their parents, nor parents for their children, God again openly taught, when He said to Moses the prophet, "The fathers shall not die for the children, nor the children for the parents: each one shall die in his own sin". Moreover, God, reproving the imprudence of the children of Israel, at that time when they were captives among the Chaldeans according to their own crimes, and were blaming, not themselves at all, but their parents, as though those had been the cause of their whole abominable wickedness, unjustly accused God concerning their captivity, saying, "The way of the Lord is not right, for our fathers ate the sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge," says to them through the prophet Ezekiel, "As I live, says the Lord, if this parable shall ever again be spoken in Israel, for all souls are mine: as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son are mine: the soul that sins, it shall die".

And again, "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son". And again, "I will judge every one of you according to his own way, O house of Israel, says the Lord". When God said, "As I live, if this parable shall ever again be spoken in Israel", He openly taught that they should not remain in the same imprudence.

After these testimonies of God, then, they are mad who, on account of one man Adam, condemn the whole world to iniquity and wickedness. For those who say this either pronounce God unjust, or indeed reckon the devil stronger than God, in that the nature which God created good, the devil, through the transgression of Adam and Eve, was able to make evil—if indeed, through the transgression of the first man Adam and his wife Eve, all men are subject to sin, they ought surely to recognize that they themselves are desirous of sins, seeing that they themselves are lovers of pleasures and of the flesh; they ought not to attach the causes of these things to others, of which they themselves are seen to be the authors.

Or indeed let those who think themselves prudent, and yet can neither understand what they say, nor are known to perceive the matters they dispute about, tell us why Adam and Eve, when they had fallen once, did not proceed to fall a second time, if their nature, made sinful by the transgression, could not entirely abstain from evils. For divine Scripture nowhere records that they sinned a second time, just as it did not delay to relate of Cain that he sinned a second time. Indeed, it also openly taught concerning Abel that he was free from sins. But what will they say also concerning Enoch and Elijah, that, since they had well pleased God, they were translated so that they might not see death at all—not prevented by Adam's transgression from remaining immortal—since through them the Only-begotten God, before His own coming in the flesh, clearly taught the very hope of resurrection? What also will they say concerning Noah, whom God testifies to be just?

And also, with all his family, he here merited the same salvation which we too obtain through baptism, as blessed Peter teaches in his epistle, when he says, "In which also He went and preached to the spirits that were in prison, which had been disobedient formerly, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water, which also now in a like manner saves you, that is, baptism".

But if, as they themselves assert, infants die on account of the sin of Adam, let them tell us why those who have just been baptized are permitted to taste death? Since indeed all who have been baptized, and on this account made children of God, cannot have sin. And if indeed infants who are born of Christian parents are baptized on account of the sin of Adam, they ought by no means to be baptized, and should rather be considered as holy already, because they are begotten of faithful parents, as blessed Paul teaches in this manner, saying, "Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy". Likewise also blessed John says concerning the begetting of children, that as soon as they are born they receive the illumination of sanctification from the Only-begotten Word, when he says, "That was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world".

Infants, therefore, do not receive baptism on account of sins, but that, having a spiritual begetting, they may be, as it were, created in Christ through baptism, and become partakers of His heavenly kingdom, as blessed Paul teaches thus: "If any man be in Christ, a new creature". And again, "But if children, then heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ". Wherefore Cornelius, who was resting on the testimony of God's justice, having indeed received, as had the apostles, the baptism of the Spirit, and being a partaker of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling in him he could not at all have sin, was nevertheless necessarily also deemed worthy of that baptism which is given through water, so that, according to blessed Paul, having been planted together in the likeness of Christ's death, he might also become a joint heir of His resurrection.

Since, therefore, certain persons, through ignorance of the divine Scriptures, dare to break forth into a wicked and unjust utterance concerning Christ, asserting that He assigns children who have not been baptized to the punishment of eternal fire, which in the Scriptures is usually called Gehenna: let them learn from the divine Scriptures that the punishment of eternal fire has not been prepared for the innocent, and for those entirely ignorant of sin, but for those who are known to have transgressed the law of God, as blessed Paul teaches in this manner: "We know that whatsoever things the law speaks, it speaks to them who are in the law". And again, "For by the law is the knowledge of sin". And again, "For where there is no law, there is no transgression". And again, "But sin is not imputed, when there is no law". And again, "For without the law sin was dead; but I lived without the law at one time".

Likewise also God, establishing a law for Moses concerning the young, says, "As I live, and my name lives, and the glory of the Lord has filled all the earth, because all the men who see my glory, and the signs which I did in Egypt and in this wilderness, and have tempted me ten times, and have not heeded my voice, they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, save their children who are here with me today, whosoever know neither good nor evil, every youth still lacking understanding, to them will I give the land". Likewise also our Lord Jesus Christ teaches concerning little children, that they are free from all sin, when He says, "Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven". And again He says to His disciples, "Suffer the little children to come to me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.

Amen I say to you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter into it." Likewise also blessed Paul said, "Brethren, be not children in sense, but in malice be children". And again, concerning Esau and Jacob he teaches thus, saying, "For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil". Children, therefore, as divine Scripture itself has fully taught, being entirely innocent, and having in no way experienced malice, and being ignorant even of the distinction between good and evil, are by no means subjected to the punishment of eternal fire, since indeed the eternal punishment of fire is prepared for the impious and for sinners. But these too, indeed, are to be dismissed along with their inexperience.

Again, it is taught that in the last of days the Only-begotten God the Word, by the will of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, was pleased to become man. And that He was made by the will of the Father, blessed Paul openly teaches, saying thus: "But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons". And that the Son also became man willingly, blessed Paul likewise teaches, saying, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant". And that He became man likewise by the will of the Holy Spirit, the Angel is a witness, who brought the good news to the Virgin Mary, saying thus, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you.

Therefore also that which shall be born holy shall be called the Son of God". And again in a dream the same Angel says to Joseph, "For that which shall be born of her is of the Holy Spirit". Likewise also blessed Matthew says, "She was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit".

The only-begotten God the Word, therefore, having been made man, receiving indeed a body from Mary ever virgin, creating for himself a rational soul of that same substance as ours, is born a man from that same ever-Virgin, just as Isaiah said in prophesying, Behold a Virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son. He said “ever-Virgin” of holy Mary, because just as she conceived a virgin, so also she remained a virgin in bearing. For how would the sign that was given by God to Achaz be true? If, then, she did not remain a virgin after childbirth, that which she conceived as a virgin is by no means to be believed. For what does the Evangelist say of Joseph? And he knew her not until she brought forth her son, that is, he did not know for certain that she was the Virgin who was foretold to bring forth Christ, except after the bringing forth of the birth by proofs of power, but all things most gentle and most light in the future.

But truly in Augustine, who was later than our opinion, these things cannot fall away from one who has recognized that her virginity remained intact. And also from the consequent and foretold signs of Christ—the Angels, the star, Simeon, Anna, or the Magi—and likewise from the admonition of the Angel, who spoke to him in this manner, Arise, take the child and his mother. He did not say “your wife,” so that he might know that he had been given as a servant to the Virgin Mary for Christ’s sake. Whence the Lord, wishing to confirm the sign of virginity, after the resurrection from the dead, entered to the Apostles with the doors shut, showing that he had bones and flesh.

For this reason Christ advanced in age and wisdom, that it might be proved that he had truly been made man, as Luke the Evangelist teaches when he says, And the child grew and was strengthened, full of wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. And again, And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age. If, then, Jesus Christ had not had a soul, as the wicked Arians reckon, or again had had a soul, yet not a rational one, as Apollinaris madly defined, he could never truly have advanced in wisdom. For flesh without a soul cannot advance in wisdom. But neither does the only-begotten Son of God need increase of wisdom, since he himself is the distributor of all our wisdom.

That our Lord Jesus Christ had a soul, just as he had a body, the Evangelists plainly teach us, when the Angel said to Joseph, while he was in Egypt, Arise and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead who sought the child’s soul. And again, when our Lord Jesus Christ said, Now is my soul troubled, and again, My soul is sorrowful even unto death, and again, As the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my soul for the sheep, and again, Therefore does the Father love me, because I lay down my soul, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me. But I lay it down of my own accord; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

Likewise blessed Peter also, referring the testimony of the prophet David to Christ, speaks thus in the person of Christ himself, Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption.

Through many testimonies, then, divine Scripture teaches that the only-begotten Son of God was made man. And first indeed, that he might teach humility to the heavenly powers, and that earthly man should never labor under the vice of pride, as the devil and his angels did, so that henceforth, seeing the Son of man having the form of a servant, they might never come into the sense of pride, as blessed Paul teaches when he says, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. And of what sort is this form? He does not speak of the heavenly powers, but of earthly man, which is held to be lower than all rational substances, as being created from a rational soul and an earthly body.

Whence he adds, saying, Being made in the likeness of men, and found in condition as a man, he humbled himself, being made obedient unto death. And of what sort again was that death? One which among men is worse than all others. For he adds, saying, even the death of the cross.

Lest anyone, hearing blessed Paul say that he humbled himself even unto death, should attach the suffering of the cross to God, as the wicked Arians do. For the only-begotten God is without suffering, and can in no way be subject to suffering. Whatever humble words, therefore, are said of Christ, all these are to be attached to the form of a servant.

Afterward, moreover, that he might show how great a love he had toward his own works, though he was Lord, he chose rather, having taken the form of a servant, to become as one of us. And again, that being made man he deigned to suffer death for the impious and sinners, as blessed Paul teaches when he says, For why did Christ, when we were yet weak according to the time, die for the ungodly? For scarcely would anyone die for a righteous man. For perhaps for a good man someone might even dare to die. But God commends his love toward us, because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Likewise also, that to those who believe in him he grants and bestows spiritual adoption as sons, and makes them heirs of his heavenly kingdom, as our Lord Jesus Christ himself teaches, saying, Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Whence infants also, because they are in sins, deserve the grace of baptism, that being created in Christ by a new generation, they too may be made co-heirs of his kingdom, according to blessed Paul, If any man be in Christ, a new creature.

For this reason, too, the heavenly powers themselves are created anew in Christ through faith alone, because he also renewed all these in himself, and for this reason those who believe in Christ are called a new creature, because they venerate and worship the only-begotten God the Word, together with the form of a servant which he bears. That the heavenly powers were created anew in Christ, blessed Paul is witness, saying, To restore all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in him. Again, just as he is called the head of the Church, so also he is shown to be the head of all the heavenly powers. For what does blessed Paul say? For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power.

And again, he was made man for this reason, that, sin having been condemned in the flesh, he might leave us an example how each one, having overcome the vices of the flesh, ought no longer to be deceived by the deceits of the devil. And again, that through the form of a servant, being mediator between himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit and worthy ones, he might thus keep them forever in the bond of peace, as blessed Paul teaches in this manner, Because it pleased the Father that in him all fullness should dwell, and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, to reconcile all things unto himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

As, then, he himself was the cause of so many good things to all who believe, so also he becomes a just repayer to those who do not believe. For this reason, through many testimonies, the divine Scriptures teach us that God does not desire the death of the impious and the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live. As long, then, as we are in this life, we can do penance, and merit that future blessed and everlasting life. For no place is left for penance after the dissolution of the body, since the prophet David teaches thus, saying to God, For in death there is none that is mindful of thee, and in hell who shall confess to thee? And again, The dead shall not praise thee, nor any that go down into hell.

That Christ will judge the living and the dead, blessed Paul plainly teaches, saying thus, For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things proper to the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil. For this reason Christ is said to sit at the right hand of his Father as judge both of the living and of the dead, and that the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ has plainly taught.

Again, we are also taught that the dead will rise in the same flesh in which they were formed in the womb of their mother, alike in body and in shape, as blessed Paul writes to the Corinthians, saying, But someone will say, How do the dead rise? And with what body do they come? Foolish man, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die, and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he willed. When the Apostle had said this, that God gives it a body, not as he wills, but as he willed, he showed that just as man was created from the beginning, so also he will rise in the resurrection, neither in condition nor in body changed, just as our Lord Jesus Christ, after he rose from the dead, changed neither his body nor his shape at all.

For just as a grain of wheat, having lost its own body, is sown bare and dies, and so again rises with the same body which it had lost, so also man in the resurrection of the dead, even if he died having been deprived of some part of his body, yet just as he was first created in the womb of his mother, so he will rise in that same body and shape, as blessed Paul again teaches in this manner, For we that are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened, in that we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. And again, For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

In that the Apostle says that we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, he shows that even now each one of us has, clothed in body and flesh and shape, life and glory and incorruption, so that, just as glowing iron, though clothed with the glory of fire, in no way changes its own nature; so also the saints, clothed with heavenly glory, do not put off the body and shape which they have in this life: just as our Lord Jesus Christ also, putting on glory on the mountain, in no way changed what he was as man. But let these things suffice, said sufficiently to us for the proving of the faith by the testimonies of divine Scripture.

Since, then, those who follow the accursed heresies and dogmas of Arius or Eunomius sharpen their tongues day by day to blaspheme the only-begotten Son of God, being ever taught to adulterate the simplicity of divine Scripture, and likewise to contaminate the truth with certain perverse words, which they are accustomed to derive from common senses, so that by means of syllogistic sophisms they may seem to confirm their accursed heresy, they set before us sophistical questions about God, attempting to alienate the only-begotten Son from the substance of the Father—I consider it necessary to destroy their accursed heresy from those same common senses of theirs, so that from the very things by which they think they have proof, they may themselves be refuted by those same things.

And before I begin to enumerate their questions against us concerning the Son, which they reckon huge and arduous, I wish to say to them, that whatever you may wish to say concerning the Nativity of the Son of God from the Father, using temporal words, you will in no way be able to prove his Nativity as it is in itself, since the Nativity of the only-begotten God the Word, being natural and without beginning, cannot be comprehended as it is in itself. For if all words spoken signify time, either present, or past, or future, and the only-begotten God is the creator of these, certainly his Nativity cannot be proved by temporal words, and therefore of necessity, following the faith of the divine Scriptures, we ought to take from it examples of proof.

When, therefore, they have asked us whether God begot the Son or not, and have received from us the answer, He begot Him, they immediately add a question of this kind, which the Greeks call a dilemma: unwilling, or of His own accord? And they do this so that, if we say, unwilling, they may straightway add, But if He begot the Son unwillingly, how is it not impious to say this of God, that He is subjected to the necessity of generation? But if, on the other hand, we say of His own accord, they again add what pleases themselves, Therefore if He begot Him of His own accord, the Son having been begotten as it were by will, then between Him and all other things which were likewise created by the will of God, no distinction whatever can be maintained. But we must not answer what they themselves desire to hear, but rather we shall say in this manner, Neither did He beget Him of His own accord, nor unwillingly.

When, therefore, having received this answer, they are henceforth utterly shut out from their wicked conclusion, and ask of us in what manner He begot Him, then it shall be answered them thus, Naturally, which is above all will and necessity. And if indeed, having understood our answer, they are satisfied, well and excellently. But if they say that the answer is not clear, we too shall in turn question them in like manner of questioning as theirs, Whether God is good of His own will, or unwillingly: they too will answer us, fearing an unlawful answer on either side, Neither of His own will, nor unwillingly, but by that nature, namely, which is above will and necessity. By these same answers, then, which they themselves use in asserting of God that He is good, we too establish that God begot the Son. For as God is good neither by will nor by necessity, but by nature itself, so that He is never found deprived of goodness: so also He has a Son by nature.

For God can never be deprived of His Only-begotten God the Son. And these things indeed, said in proof of the Only-begotten God, would abundantly suffice, if the discourse were with prudent men, because He has His nativity from the Father naturally.

But since these men, like dogs seized with rabies who rage even against their masters, being roused through ignorance by the passion of madness, strive to blaspheme against the Son of God—if ever they have heard anything of reverence concerning Him, and have been shut out from their customary blasphemy against Him—yet they by no means give up the persistence of their malice, which they always exercise against the Son, but again strive to contrive other contradictions, endeavoring to destroy the nativity of the Only-begotten Word from God, which is without beginning and is held to be natural, as though ever desiring to fight against Him; I think it necessary to answer also their other vain questions, lest we seem to flee from the force of the questions proposed. They ask us, then, again, Whether everything that has an end also had a beginning.

If we answer that everything that has an end had also a beginning, they straightway add, But the Son ceased to be born; therefore He necessarily began; and if He began, there was a time when He was not; and if there was a time when He was not, there is no room for Him to have His Nativity from the substance of God, since indeed the substance of God, as being without beginning, and ever and alike the same, admits neither increase nor diminution. But we must not answer them thus, that everything which has ceased also began: since not everything which ceases already has had a beginning. Nor only this, but also not everything which has a beginning already also ceases, since God, willing to make the heavenly powers, has no beginning; but once these have been made, He ceases to will to make them; and for this reason, therefore, not everything which ceases has a beginning.

And again, the heavenly powers, once made, though they have a beginning of substance, yet never cease to be; and thus not everything which began shall also cease. Since, therefore, it has been proved that not everything which ceases also began, therefore, though the Only-begotten God the Son ceases to be born, yet He does not have a beginning of Nativity. For the Nativity of the Son from the Father is without beginning, since indeed it is held to be natural.

Again they ask us, whether, being alone, God begot the Son; so that if we answer that being alone He begot Him, they straightway add this, Therefore if being alone He begot Him, there was a time when the Son was not. Likewise, if we answer that He was not alone, they straightway add, And how can it be that that which was always together with Him should properly be called begotten? Since, as they say, the very fact of being born gives rise to the suspicion that He at some time did not exist at all, on account of this very fact that He is called born. But they say this, not knowing how great a difference there is in daring to pronounce anything of God according to corporeal and temporal senses. For indeed He of whom we speak, as one who is without beginning, cannot be subject to the necessities of times.

Let us, therefore, also in turn consult them, using in a manner their own kind of question, so that thus their fabrication, which the Greeks call sophism, may be made open and plain to them. Tell us, you, Being alone, did God beget mercies, or not? Since blessed Paul calls God the father of mercies, saying thus, Blessed be God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies. And if they have dared to say that being alone He begot them, we too shall answer them thus, why is it not impious and wicked to say that God was at some time without mercies, since indeed God is held to be the fountain of mercies, and is never believed to have been the father of wickedness, so that, whereas He was not at first the father of mercies, He afterward began to become their father?

But if, avoiding this open blasphemy against God, they say, He was never alone without mercies, we shall answer them also in this manner, As therefore He was never alone without mercy, and yet afterward became the father of mercies: so also, though not before, He afterward becomes the Father of the Only-begotten Son. For God is always the Father of His Only-begotten God the Word.

But if again, persisting in their vanity, they say that that which is born signifies the substance of the deity, but God the Father is unborn, and the Son is born, and therefore the substance of the Father and of the Son cannot be one and the same: let them learn that "unborn" by no means signifies substance. For if the unborn seems to be contrary to the born, and nothing is contrary to substance, surely the unborn cannot be substance. And otherwise, if substance is asserted in that which it is, but the unborn in that which it is not, because it is unborn, surely the unborn is not substance. And again, if substance is known to consist through itself, but the unborn does not consist through itself, but is predicated of the substance which is unborn, surely the unborn is not substance.

Again also if they say, If the Father is unborn according to substance, but the Son is born, of the born and the unborn there cannot be one substance: let them learn further, that a difference in the manner of substances does not necessarily make different substances. For it is not because God the Father is said to be unborn, and is also said likewise to be immortal, and incorruptible, that He will therefore have different substances, since indeed the unborn and the immortal or the incorruptible, and other things like these, are not one and the same thing. As therefore these things, when said of God, by no means signify different substances, so neither will "born" and "unborn" ever make different substances. For it is not because Adam indeed was unborn, and Seth was born, that therefore their substance is different.

But if they persist, saying that whatever is without beginning is also unborn, and since the Son is born, He cannot be without beginning: let them learn that if not everything which is without beginning is in every way also unborn, so neither is everything which has a beginning in every way also born, since the mercies of God, though held without beginning, are not on that account also unbegotten, since indeed they have God as their father. Likewise heaven and earth, though they have a beginning, are not born, but created. For it is not the case that whatever is created is in every way also born. For if the created and the born were the same, the Evangelist John taught superfluously, saying thus, But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, since indeed those who were once created have this, that they also become sons of God.

As therefore the created and the born are not the same, so also the uncreated and the unborn cannot be the same, since the mercies of God, though they exist, are nevertheless not unbegotten.

When again they ask us how God, being one, simple, and uncompounded, can be at the same time Father and Son and Holy Spirit: let them learn that God does not on that account cease to be simple and uncompounded, because He has one Only-begotten substantive Word, equal to Himself in all things, and likewise a substantive Wisdom equal to Himself in all things. But if indeed, as they suppose, He is therefore composite because He has a will, and this will not equal to His substance, since substance and will are not the same thing: we nevertheless do not follow their opinion. But we say piously and religiously, that even though God has a will, and this will not equal to His substance, yet He is a stranger to all composition.

Since, then, they still seem wise in their own eyes, though they have been proved utterly foolish in all things, they ask us this also: How can it be that one God, one substance, is named Father and Son, since those who say this are accustomed to pronounce the one and only God, Son and Father at once, by a single part of speech, as if it were said in Greek υἱοπάτωρ (Son-Father)? Let them learn that they ought not to persist long in the same folly. For it is not because God the Father is one, and His Son, and likewise one and the same substance of the Father and of the Son, that God must therefore be called υἱοπάτωρ, since indeed we do not speak of one in number of persons, but by a common term of substance.

For Adam, together with his son Abel, though one was one and the other another, were one man, and likewise one and the same substance, on account of the communion of nature, yet they were never called υἱοπάτωρ, nor indeed could they be called by this name. But that two men, distinct in number, are called one man by communion, as I have said, and fellowship of nature, is witnessed by the servant of God Moses, saying thus, And God made man, according to the image of God He made him, male and female He made them. Likewise also our Lord Jesus Christ calls Himself and the Father one, on account of the equality and unity of substance, saying thus, I and the Father are one. One God, therefore, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, on account of the unity and equality of substance.

For just as our sense cannot become speech, since he himself is held to be the father of our speech, nor conversely will speech ever become sense, so neither is our wisdom sense and speech. But rather, sense begets speech, and it is not itself begotten; likewise speech is only begotten, it does not beget; by the same reasoning wisdom neither begets nor is begotten. Now our sense, since it is wise and possesses wisdom, as it were rational, begets only speech. Wisdom again does not beget speech, but exists together truly both with sense and with speech. So God the Father can never become the Son, nor conversely can the Son become the Father, nor can the Holy Spirit be the Son or the Father. Again, God the Father indeed begot the Only-begotten God the Word, but he himself was not born; the Son indeed was born, but did not also beget. But the Holy Spirit neither was born nor begot.

But to speak more plainly: just as the mercies of God the Father, since they are born of an unborn father, have the generation utterly conjoined to the unbegottenness of the father, so also the substantial Only-begotten Son of God has the nativity utterly conjoined to the ingeneracy of the Father, inasmuch as he is the brightness of glory, and the form of the substance of God. For thus also the blessed Paul, writing to the Hebrews, says: “Who is the brightness of his glory, and the figure of his substance”. Since therefore the Apostle Paul called the Son the brightness of the Father, he clearly proved that the Son is of the substance of the Father, and that the Son is held to be inseparable and undivided from the Father, and that he is always one together with the Father. Again, in mentioning the figure of the substance of God, he teaches that the Son has a substance equal to that of the Father.

And again, just as the immortality of God the Father, being one with God the Father, is not said to be born, nor does it likewise beget: so also the substantial Spirit of God neither was born nor begot. And by this, therefore, confessing three persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we believe there to be one power on account of the unity of the substance of the Trinity. And likewise, on account of the indivision of nature, we believe the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be one Lord, one God Almighty, Creator, Provider, always holding himself the same and in like manner: to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.