The Selfsame Son Is True Man; Consubstantial with Us: And Therefore True God and Man, Abiding in: Two Unconfounded Natures, and in One Undivided Person. The Sixth Sermon
THE things themselves and their order do require, that after I have spoken generally of God, of his unity, and of his trinity, I further entreat particularly of the persons of the reverend Trinity; and first of all, of our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man; then of the Holy Ghost: wherewith if our minds be endued, all things whatsoever we speak and hear shall tend to the glory of God’s name, and to the salvation of our souls, Let us therefore pray, &eis The everlasting Father, the original and author of all things, begot the Son by an everlasting and unspeakable begetting. For the whole scripture with one agreement doth call God a Father, yea truly, an eternal or everlasting Father. But none is a father of his own self, but a father
ro VL] OF CHRIST TRUE AND VERY GOD. 239 of his son: and for because he is the everlasting Father, he must therefore necessarily have an everlasting Son, equal unto himself in all respects, co-eternal, and consubstantial with him. St Paul undoubtedly for the confirmation of this catholic verity allegeth out of the old Testament two testimonies. “Unto which,” saith he, “of his angels said God at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” and again, “I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son:” all which words he applieth unto Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Of whom also Micheas beareth witness, saying: “And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, art little to be among the thousands of Judah; yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that shall be the ruler in Israel: whose goings forth” (or spreadings abroad)! “have been from the beginning and from everlasting.” Whereupon the Son of God himself, in the Gospel after John, saith: “Verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” And John saith: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.” But he doth understand by The Word,” not the word which is spoken and so vanisheth, not the counsel of God, but the person of the Son. For by and by he addeth, “And the Word became” (or was made) “flesh.” And we do know that the Son of God, not the determination or purpose of God (as heretics do vainly imagine), was incarnate. But he which in time was incarnate was with the Father from everlasting and before all beginnings, and therefore also true God with the true God. For, “The Word,” saith he, “was with God, and God was the Word:” because in the beginning, namely, from everlasting, he was with God. These simple and plain testimonies, delivered unto us out of the scriptures, and therefore most true, concerning the everlasting begetting of, the Son by the Father, are sufficient, I think, for them that are not curious. For the seripture doth not here fulfil> the vain desires of curious men, neither yet reasoneth of these points subtilly; but rather delivereth and setteth down but a few things, in which it is our parts to believe. But that which the scripture either doth not set down, or else in few words shadoweth out, either we are ignorant of to our health, or else, sticking
[[! emanationes, Lat.] [2 cogitationem, Lat.] [3 non explet, Lat.]]
to that that is set down, we seek not further for more. The holy father Cyril, expounding that saying of the evangelist John, “In the beginning was the Word,” saith: “Let us not, seeking things infinite and which cannot be contained within bounds, busy our brains about a consideration that cannot be expressed, and never can have an end. For neither will we grant a beginning of beginning, neither yet will we yield that the Son was begotten of the Father in time: but we will confess that he is with the Father from everlasting. For if he was in the beginning, what mind may be able at any time to climb beyond that was? Or when shall we so comprehend in our mind that was, that it go not before or outreach our thoughts? Upon good reasons therefore and worthily the prophet Esay, being astonished, as crieth out, And who shall declare his generation?> For he, passing all capacity of minds, and being far above and beyond all reason of man, is unspeakable.” And anon after he saith: “Because the Son is before all worlds, he cannot be begotten in time: but he is evermore in the Father as in a fountain; as he saith of himself, ‘I went out and came from the Father. Yor we do understand the Father as a fountain, in whom the Word is his wisdom, his power, the engraven form of his person, his brightness, and his image. Wherefore, if there never were any time wherein the Father was without his wisdom, his power, the engraven form of his person, his brightness, and finally his image; we must of necessity and force confess, that the Son also is co-eternal and everlasting with him, since he is the wisdom, power, &e. of the Father everlasting. For how is he the engraven form of his Father’s person, or how is he the most perfect image of his Father, unless he have perfectly obtained and possess the beauty of him, whose image he is? And it is not absurd that we said, the Son is to be understood in the Father as in a fountain. For the name of fountain doth signify nothing else than as from whom: and the Son is in the Father and from the Father; not flowing abroad, but either as brightness from the sun, or as heat from the fire wherewith it is endued. For in these examples we see one from one to be brought forth, and both to be so co-everlasting, that the one can neither be without the other, nor yet keep and retain the quality of their nature. For how shall it be the