It is not an abscission or division: for the impassible has begot, and the begotten is the image of the invisible God," and attests The Father is in me, and I am in the Father. It is not an usurpation: for he is the true Son of God; and he exclaims Whosoever seeth me, he seeth also the Father. But he appears not to be like all other things. For the only begotten is from one and hath in himself life, as he who begot hath in himself life, for he saith: As the Father hath life in himself, and so he gave to the Son to have life in himself. But it is not a part of the Father that is in the Son for the Son testifies :All things that are the Father's, are mine. And the Apostle declares In him dwelleth all the plenitude of the divinity corporally.

Lib. 8, de Trinitate. The corporeal divinity of God the Father is in Christ, not in part, but in whole; nor is it a portion, but the fullness; he remaining corporally so that they are one; they are one, so that God differs not from God, that the perfect nativity subsists, that the fullness of the divinity corporally dwells in God born of God."

HIERONYMUS, A. D. 390.

Lib. 6 Comment in Ezechielem, Cap. 8 "Christ saith: What the Father hath given to me is greater than all; and none can snatch from my Father's hand. Hence it is manifest that the power of the Father and of the Son is one; the greatness and the substance one for if nobody can snatch from the Son's hand the things which the Father hath given, and some things are in the Father's hand which cannot be snatched from him; it remains clearly proved that all things are common to the Father and the Son, and that the Father holds what are in the Son's hand, and the Son holds what are in the Father's hand.

Ad Cap. 1, ad Galatas; Notum vobis facio. From this is shattered the thesis of Ebion and Photin, that Christ is God and not man only; for if Paul received or learned the gospel, not

according to man, nor of man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, certainly Jesus Christ who revealed the gospel to St. Paul, is not a man. But if he is not a man, he is consequently God, not that we deny that he assumed man, but that we deny him to be man only.

Ad Cap. 4, ad Ephesios. If, as the Arians imagine, God the Father is sole God, by the same argument Christ Jesus will be sole Lord the Father will not be lord, nor the Son God.But may God forbid that the deity be not in the lordship, or the lordship in the deity. There is one God and one Lord, because the Lordship of the Father, and of the Son is one divinity. For which reason the faith is also called one, because we believe alike in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost.

AUGUSTINUS, A. D. 400.

In Evangelium Joannis Tractatu 36. "You know that the Father is Father, and the Son is Son. This you know well; but do not say The Father is greater, the Son is smaller; do not say the Father is gold, the Son is silver. The substance is one, the divinity is one, the co-eternity is one; perfect equality, no dissimilarity. For if you believe Christ to be another, not him who is the Father, and if you think him to be different in some respects according to nature, you have escaped Charybdis; but you are wrecked upon the rocks of Scylla. Navigate the middle course, shun the dangerous sides. The Father is the Father, the Son is the Son. You have fortunately escaped the absorbing gulf. Why then would you turn to the other side and say: The Father is one thing, the Son is another thing? By saying: he is another person, you say what is true; by saying he is another thing, you say what is wrong; for the Son is another, because he is not the person of the Father; and the Father is another, because he is not the person of the Son. But he is not however another thing; for the

Father and the Son is the very same. What is that very same? It is one God. You have heard: I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me. Hear how you are to believe the Father and the Son; hear it from the Son himself: I and the Father are one. He said not I am the Father, or I and the Father are one thing. But he saith: I and the Father are one. Hear both expressions—one thing, and we are; and you will be saved from Charybdis and Scylla By saying one, he delivers you from Arius, and by saying we are, he secures you from Sabellius. If one, then it is not different: if it be we are, then the Father and the Son: for he would not say we are of one person, and he would not say one thing of different persons."

Sermone 64, de verbis Domini, Cap. 4. "The Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son: but the Father is the Father of the Son, and the Son is the Son of the Father.However, the Son is born of the Father, not the Father of the Son; and the Son was always therefore born. Who could comprehend this always born? Some man may imagine, when he hear born, that there was a time when the person that was born did not exist. What then do we say? There had not been a time before the Son: because all things were made by him; the times also were made by him. How could the times have been previous to the Son by whom they were made? The Son was before all times with the Father. If the Son be always with the Father, the Son notwithstanding was always born. If he was always born, he that was always born, had been always with the Father.

De Symbolo ad Catechumenos, lib. 1, Cap. 3. "Do not imagine in this nativity a beginning of time, do not contemplate any space of eternity: when the Father was, and the Son was not. The Father is from eternity, the Son from eternity. Therefore, the Father is always without a beginning, the Son always without a beginning. And you may say, how is he born, if he has not a beginning? Of the eternal Father the co-eternal Son. Never was that time when the Father was, and the Son

upon

was not, and, notwithstanding, the Son is born of the Father. Where is found any sort of comparison? We are among earthly things, we are amidst visible creatures. The earth may give me a similitude: it gives it not. The ocean may give me some comparison: it cannot give it some animal may give me a likeness it cannot. The animal, it is true, generates; and there is what generates and what is generated: but the parent is prior, and the child is born after. Let us find a co-eval, and let us believe a co-eternal. If we could find a father co-eval with his son, and a son co-eval with his father: Let us believe God the Father to be co-eval with the Son, and God the Son to be co-eval with his Father. On the earth, we can find some person co-eval, we cannot find any person co-eternal: let us look the co-eval and let us believe the co-eternal. Some one may call our attention and say: When can be found a father co-eval with his son, or a son co-eval with his father? Let us suppose the fire as a parent, and the light as a child; behold we find two co-eval. As soon as the fire begins, it immediately gives light; neither is the fire prior to the splendor, nor the splendor subsequent to the fire. And if we enquire which generates the other, the fire the splendor, or the splendor the fire, from your natural reason and innate prudence, you will all exclaim the fire generates the light, not the light the fire. Behold the Father beginning, behold the Son is at once beginning, not prior, not subsequent. Since I have shown you the Father beginning and the Son at once beginning: believe the Father not beginning, and along with him the Son not beginning, the one eternal, the other co-eternal.

Lib. 2, Cap. 3. "If you give a beginning to the Son, give a beginning also to the Father. For the Father is called Father from the Son. And if the Father had been always, the Son had been always also and if the Father is God, the Son also is God; for none but God could proceed from God; so that if the Father is God, the Son also is God: and if the Father is

eternal, the Son also is eternal; whom he precedes not by age or dignity, him he lessens not from equality. Hear what the Apostle saith of God, the Son: When he was in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He robbed not, because he had naturally the dignity. Therefore, the omnipotence of the Father is in the Son, the omnipotence of the Son is in the Father: because neither was the Father at any time without the Son, nor the Son at any time without the Father."

RUFFINUS, A. D. 400.

In expositione Symboli. "We must believe that God is the Father of his only Son, but this is a subject not to be discussed. For it is not divinely allowed to the servant to dispute about the divinity of the Lord. The Father has testified from heaven saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him. The Father saith that he is his Son, and commands that he be heard. The Son saith: He that seeth me, seeth the Father. And: I and the Father are one. And I went out from the Father and came into the world,

Who is the man

that will come and dispute these sayings of the Father and of the Son, and divide the deity, separate the affection, and break up the substance, cut through the spirit, and deny that to be true which the truth saith? Wherefore, God the Father is true, the Father of the truth, not externally creating, but generating from his own nature, the Son: that is, because he is wise, wisdom; because he is just, justice; because he is eternal, an eternal Son; because he is immortal, an immortal; because he is invisible, an invisible; because he is light, he begets splendor; because he is a mind, he generates the Word. As light is from light, and truth from truth, so is the Almighty God born of the Almighty God."