Conflictus De Deo Trino Et Uno

THE CONFLICT OF ARNOBIUS THE CATHOLIC AND SERAPION CONCERNING THE TRIUNE AND ONE GOD; CONCERNING THE TWO SUBSTANCES IN CHRIST IN THE UNITY OF PERSON; CONCERNING THE CONCORD OF GRACE AND FREE WILL.

BOOK ONE.

I. — The Egyptians having come in, who, to show their gods, Jannes namely and Mambres, whom the Apostle mentions (1 Tim. 3:8) as disciples of the ancient masters of their province, resisted the servant of God Moses with certain tricks: so also these, resisting the truth, when they strove to lay this calumny upon us, that our faith concerning the Lord's incarnation deviated from the path of the right way; we at length obtained from them that, with the strife of words ceasing, each side arguing one by one, the rest sitting in the place of assessors should permit that there be only individual judges, to whom it might be allowed to give sentence according to the merit of the conclusions. And it was brought about that Arnobius became defender on the side of the apostolic see, and Serapion came forward as disputant on the side of the assembly of the Egyptians; the judges indeed were, on the catholic side, Decius Constantius, and on the side of the Egyptians, Ammonius.

II. — The matter was begun in this order. Serapion said: Before we come to this, "that we accuse you Homuncionites, saying that there are two natures in Christ and two substances, I wish to know who you are. — Arnobius said: I am plainly a servant of Christ, and an assertor of the catholic faith as much as of the truth. — Serapion said: Declare what your faith itself believes. — Arnobius said: I believe in God almighty, the creator of all things, one. — Serapion said: This God, whom you believe to be one, how do you know that he is almighty and the creator of all things? — Arnobius said: Because he himself deigned to manifest himself to the human race by great mighty works. — Serapion said: By what mighty works? — Arnobius said: To pass over the more ancient ones, the land of your province bears witness that, struck by ten plagues, it lost its king with his army, with almost all the elements raging, because it had stood in rebellion against God the creator of all things. But the people whom he snatched from his sword with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, he made his own through his servant Moses, that he himself is God, and there is no other besides him. If you intend to contradict, declare it. — Serapion said: Let us pass over these points, in which our faith agrees. — Constantius and Ammonius, the chosen judges, said: It is agreed that Arnobius has given satisfaction concerning the one almighty God, and that Serapion has consented to his assertion; or if it is not so, let Serapion declare it.

Serapion said: I wish to know from Arnobius whether his faith errs in other matters, lest perhaps, if there are other things besides those about which the question is raised that could rightly be refuted, and we pass over the opportunity of this occasion, we may seem to have accomplished nothing here. The examiners said: Let Arnobius say whether he permits him to inquire into other matters besides those from which the dispute appears to have arisen. Arnobius said: I do not refuse that he inquire of me concerning whatever he wishes, lest I seem to cut off from myself the opportunity of inquiring of him whatever I wish.

III. — The aforementioned judges said: Let Serapion say what the things are that he wishes to learn from him. Serapion said: This one God, the deliverer of the Hebrews, will you say is the only God, or perhaps another? Arnobius said: The God of the Hebrews is one God (Deut. 6:4). When you hear that God is one, do not seek another God at all. Serapion said: Then is the Jewish assertion to be held, by which the God of the Hebrews is proclaimed and believed to be the one and only God? Arnobius said: The Jews so proclaim God as one as to deny His Son; they deny that He is one with Him who was born of the Holy Spirit from the virgin Mary. Serapion said: He who was born of the Holy Spirit from the virgin Mary—is He Himself the one, or is He another? Arnobius said: In the Godhead He is one; but in generation He is so another that the one God does not cease to be Father and Son. For then is God truly believed to be one, and the Divinity in Him is not denied to be whole.

Serapion said: And how is the Divinity to be believed whole in him? Arnobius said: Then the Divinity is not denied to be whole in him, if God is not altogether denied to be one, the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Serapion said: Drawing me out of the synagogue assembly, you have led me into the madness of Sabellius, who confesses one God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Arnobius said: If Sabellius truly said one God, he would not deny his Son and the Holy Spirit. For he denies the true Father who does not speak of the true Son, and he denies the Holy Spirit who does not believe that God is whole in the whole Trinity. Serapion said: I read to you Sabellius pronouncing anathema on those who have dared to deny the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, to refute the Trinity. Arnobius said: But by a most impious defense he contends that he himself is the Father, he himself is the Son, he himself is the Holy Spirit. We, however, say and believe that the Father is he who begot the Son: and he is the Father of his only Son, begotten before the ages.

IV. — Serapion said: Do not lead me into deep waters; deal now with this point, that he begot before all times. Make me first get past this, because I understand you to be saying that there are three gods. — Arnobius said: Your understanding suffers from error. For you ought to remember that I said that you truly confess one whole God, when you believe the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be one God in such a way that you call the Father not merely supposedly, but truly Father, who begot a true Son. — Serapion said: Then there is one, and another, and another. — Arnobius said: There is one, and another; and yet there is one God. — Serapion said: This cannot stand, that the Father who begot is one, and the Son who was begotten is another, so that the Father is not himself the Son, and yet there is one God. — Arnobius said: I will point out to you in your own self that you have two persons with one substance. — Serapion said: Let the art of dialectic cease. — Arnobius said: The art of dialectic enters into obscure matters so that what is true may be seen to be true. But I promise that I will show in your own self that two persons have one substance: in you, I say, because you think that I am engaging in dialectic and not speaking plainly. — Serapion said: Then teach plainly that there are in me some two persons having one substance. — Arnobius said: Behold, in your one head there are two eyes, but their substance is one sight; two nostrils, but there is one smell; two ears, but there is one hearing.

But if these two things in you contain the unity of one substance, do you not wish to hold that in God the Father and the Son there are truly two persons and one substance? — Serapion said: The comparison is recognized to be incongruous, that you take bodily members as an example concerning an incorporeal being. — The judges said: You complain in vain that an example taken from bodily members was used by Arnobius. For if the bodily members of the eyes, nostrils, and ears, divided in their own forms and remaining apart from one another as if in their own chambers, obtain this unity of substance, so that they enjoy one light, one smell, one hearing, how much more does God, who must be confessed to be incorporeal, having one substance with his Son, also obtain with him the one majesty of omnipotence? — Serapion said: I indeed acquiesce in the bodily argument; but unless the examples are incorporeal, I do not allow them to be applied to an incorporeal being. — Arnobius said: I beseech you, judges, that you bear indulgently with one who rejects your opinion. For I do not shrink from one who seeks those incorporeal examples, since I confess and believe the true Father, the true Son, and the true Holy Spirit, truly three, truly one omnipotent God. Let Serapion certainly be compelled to profess silence on this question, when I have brought forward examples, from incorporeal things just as from bodily things, by which I may establish that three persons are in one substance. — The judges said: Let Serapion declare that for the proof of this matter this alone is lacking, that incorporeal examples be brought forward by Arnobius.

Serapion said: I will admit that satisfaction has indeed been given, when incorporeal examples have been expressed as clearly as corporeal ones. Arnobius said: Can we say that perfect wisdom exists in any one man in whom there is scarcely any memory, or understanding, or intellect? Serapion responded: How can wisdom be believed perfect, when one of these three could be lacking to it? Arnobius said: Therefore if it is so—indeed, because it is so—just as in one wisdom these three incorporeal persons subsist, that is, memory, understanding, and intellect, and though they are three, they do not make three, but one perfect wisdom, if all three are perfect: so one perfect Deity will be in our faith, when we believe that the perfect God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit possess one omnipotence of Deity. And just as wisdom is not complete where something of understanding, or of memory, or of intelligence is lacking, so neither is faith complete in that man who has offended in anything concerning the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, insofar as the measure of a single point can be.

For faith is the inner light of the eyes; and just as, if you prick some part of the eye with a fine needle, you throw all its light into confusion and weaken it, so too when an error has been made concerning this holy Trinity in any part—to whatever extent is granted to man, whether by a moment or a point—it turns the whole serene light of that Milian into cloud: and once the mind has been wounded, it sees nothing but darkness. The judges said: Serapion, who for this reason did not acquiesce in the corporeal examples that were assumed, because they seemed to him unable to be applied to incorporeal things, must yield to the incorporeal examples that have been brought forward, so that he may confess that one Godhead is reasonably assigned to three true persons.

V.—Serapion said: May it please you, judges, that I inquire of him concerning what follows. The judges said: Just as you are not permitted to repeat those things which have been rightly settled, so you are not forbidden to bring forward those things which have not been set forth. Serapion said: You have taught that the Father and the Son, drawing first a corporeal comparison, and second an incorporeal one, are one Godhead in these two, that is, in the Father and the Son; now I wish to know the Holy Spirit—what do you say that he is? For I perceive that you believe the Father has two sons. Arnobius said: Unless I lead you to human reasoning, you cannot attain to divine reasoning. Serapion said: Lead me wherever you wish, so long as you make me arrive at the reasoning concerning the Holy Spirit.

Arnobius said: I ask you to tell me: when a king has said, "Let a forum be built," or a palace, or something of that kind, this word which has gone out from the mouth of the king—I think that he himself has caused to be made what was not. Serapion answered: It is certain that this word which has gone out from the mouth of the king causes to be made what was not. Arnobius said: Therefore the Word of the Father, proceeding from His mouth, full of power, makes all visible creatures. Serapion said: You have again recalled me to the Father and the Son, when I am asking you about the Holy Spirit as proceeding from you. Arnobius said: You cannot find the Holy Spirit as being born, but as proceeding. Serapion said: Show me that very procession now. Arnobius said: Did I not tell you that you listen impatiently to the things which could lead you to the investigation of the truth? Serapion said: I will listen patiently; I will follow wherever you wish; now show me what you think concerning the Holy Spirit. Arnobius said: First it is necessary that you confess that the Father said of His Son: My heart has brought forth a good word (Ps. 44:2). Serapion said: Even if I wished to deny it, all those present who hear me would refute me. Arnobius said: The Word, when it was born from the mouth of the Father—the Word which by its power created all things visible and invisible—could never proceed without the breath of the Holy Spirit. Serapion said: Therefore there are two sons who have gone out from the mouth of the Father, namely the Word and the Spirit. Arnobius said: You are mistaken in your hearing.

For you have forgotten that I first led you to the example of a king who commanded forums to be built, or palaces, or baths; and I added: The word of his command obtained such power that things which had never existed were made. You confirmed this before men. Answer again: is it so?—Serapion said: It is so.—Arnobius said: Therefore if it is so, indeed because it is so: answer me: Is this word born from the mouth of the one commanding confirmed by right reason?—Serapion said: I agree that the word is born by right reason.—Arnobius said: Surely when the word of the one commanding was born, did it, having gone forth from his mouth, make things that were not? Surely also the breath, which proceeded from him who uttered the word, can it be shown by any reason to be born rather than proceeding? But if this cannot happen in a man who commands, how much more so in God? It cannot fall out that the Word, when God generates it from his mouth, should itself be called the Son, that breath full of the Holy Spirit. But it is the Father who brought forth the Word; and the Holy Spirit, who does not cease to proceed from the Father, having this power which the Son has. For by the Word of the Father the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power (Ps. 32:6). If you remember it is so written, declare it.—Serapion said: There is no one who does not know that it is so written in the book of Psalms. The judges said: Concerning the Holy Spirit the assertion is evident, which your assent approves, and satisfaction has been made to you: now let us come to those things which have not yet been said.

VI. Serapion said: Behold, just as in a single perfect wisdom I understand memory, understanding, and intelligence to be joined together, so also I confess that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in one Deity. But I ask you: Did the Father truly beget? Arnobius said: You will find nothing in God that has been made, except what He is. That is: the Father is truly Father, the true begetter of the Son; the true Son, the true only-begotten of the Father. — Serapion said: Before He begot the Son, was He only God, and not yet Father? — Arnobius said: You err in your question; for He was always both God and Father. — Serapion answered: Therefore He did not truly beget. — Arnobius said: He truly begot. — Serapion answered: If He truly begot, then before He begot, God was God; yet He could not be Father at the same time before He begot, who begot. — Arnobius said: You suffer this error because you apply the comparison of human frailty to divine omnipotence. For a man, before he has a son, is only a man; but after he has begun to have a son, he is both a man, which he was, and begins to be a father, which he could not be before he begot a son. Do not offer this injury to God. God is immutable and abiding, and receives nothing new into Himself; for He was always both God and Father, nor did the name of fatherhood come to Him as an addition; since everything that is accidental can depart, and what can depart can also fail. But the Divinity, which perseveres immutable, receives nothing into

he receives something by accident. For He is today what He always was. For nothing, as with you, O man, will fail Him from the past, and nothing will grow in Him from the future; nor do times so rule over Him as over you, who were first a little infant, afterwards a little boy, then a young man, afterwards an old man, and after old age the end comes upon you. If you think this comes upon God at all, you are shown to be both foolish and a detestable blasphemer. — Serapion answered: May God avert this blasphemy, which, now born of folly, convicts the blasphemer in ridicule. — Arnobius said: Therefore is God immutable, or is He changed in anything? — Serapion answered: God is immutable; but nevertheless, since you assert that He begot a Son, He is shown to be mutable. — Arnobius said: We must return to certain comparisons, through which we may show that He is begotten in such a way that between the begetter and the begotten there can be no division of times.

VII. Serapion said: I hear a new thing, that no intermediate time can be shown between the begetter and the begotten. Arnobius said: Therefore we have those who know and judges, so that we may fear to say that we will show what we cannot show. Serapion said: Take care lest you again bring me some bodily examples by which you try to fit incorporeal things to corporeal. Arnobius said: Now I fear to offend your prudence in this matter. Serapion said: Not my prudence, but that of all those who know and judge. Arnobius said: Hear, then, an incorporeal generation from a corporeal man. Serapion said: You will burst forth into a dialectical sophism. Arnobius said: A dialectical sophism admits two aspects: both that what is asserted be proved true, and that it be argued as not true from some part. But now, since what I have said will show only the truth and will incur the mark of falsehood from no part, how can what I bring forward be argued as dialectical? Surely, if I say that the voice of a man is incorporeal, do I lie? Serapion said: For who has ever at any time said that a voice is corporeal? Arnobius said: No one has said this, yet I wish to say this, that the voice of a man is incorporeal. Serapion said: You say what no one is ignorant of. Arnobius said: Is a word born from a voice, or a voice from a word? Serapion said: A word from a voice. Arnobius said: Is the word that is born from an incorporeal voice corporeal, or incorporeal? Serapion said: Incorporeal.

Arnobius said: Behold, from an incorporeal voice a word is born, and the incorporeal son of the voice. Can it be found to be later? But if you are unable to find any time between the word and the voice, how will you be able to find any intermediate time between the Father and the Son, the immutable God? Moreover, in this very inquiry, the third person of the Holy Spirit is not to be omitted. For since the word is born from the voice, the breath goes forth not by being born but by proceeding, and by it the integrity of the voice and the word is preserved; so too the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, through whom the whole and perfect Trinity is preserved in the catholic definitions, makes clear that the Father was never without the Son. The appointed judges said: Arnobius's assertion has plausibly set forth the Holy Spirit as well, clearly, together with the Father and the Son. If there are other things not yet said, let them be brought forward. Serapion said: The things that move me, if I do not bring them out, will be voided in my mind—those things that have been explained, through those things that have been brought out not at all, which could have been able to bring them to explanation. The appointed judges said: We too will seem to be worn out with vain labor in hearing, and you to labor without cause in speaking, if those things are repeated which are known to be finished. Therefore you must take care in every way and strive, lest, as if out of your mind, you recall once-expounded and settled matters to word-struggles.

VIII. — Serapion said: I cannot in any way repeat the points that have been set out which were able to reach my agreement; nevertheless, whatever arises from them, if any of them have been concluded, I must set forth. And he added: Tell me, catholic, you who do not deny that the Son was begotten from the Father, did the Father beget him by will or by necessity? — Arnobius said: Neither by will nor by necessity. — The judges said: Explain what you have said, for it is closed. — Arnobius said: Every man who wills something or does not will, if he does not first have wisdom, cannot will or not will anything just. Therefore it is prior that he have wisdom before virtue, by which he can will or not will anything; and only then does he begin to be wise and to will, when through wisdom he has learned that he can possess it. Serapion therefore asks me: If the Father begot the Son by necessity, or by will? I will answer briefly concerning one. He who suffers necessity ought neither to be called nor believed to be God at all. Since therefore the question concerning one matter is settled, the other which remains must be concluded in this order, that I ask the one who asks me: whether it is prior to be wise rationally than to will rationally?

The appointed judges said: Let Serapion answer what Arnobius asks. Serapion said: Who is there who does not know that to be wise rationally comes before to will rationally? Arnobius said: If wisdom is prior to will, the Son preceded the will, and was begotten before the begetter willed or did not will anything; because when the will began, the wisdom that you yourself have confessed was already prior. And although the reasoning given by me has already been shaped by your consent, since you said, Who is there who does not know that to be wise rationally comes before to will rationally? — this reasoning given by me I will nevertheless confirm by the authority of the apostle Paul, who says of the Son of God that he himself is the power and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24). The appointed judges said: It is agreed that Arnobius has spoken correctly, that the Father begot the Son neither by will nor by necessity, because God has no necessity; and that the will cannot be prior to wisdom, he has both taught by human reasoning and confirmed by the authority of the Apostle. If there are other things to be brought forward by Serapion, let them be disclosed.

IX. — Serapion said: You said there are three persons — the Father, begetter of the Son; the Son, begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father — and you stated that these three persons have their own Deity, and that most completely. — Arnobius said: It is so. — Serapion said: The Father, then, is not the Son, nor is the Son himself the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit himself the Father and the Son; but each one in his own person is perfect God. — Arnobius said: It is so. — Serapion said: What then do you now say to my question, when I question you? Tell me: the Father is perfect God, the Son is perfect God, the Holy Spirit is perfect God. Do you say so? — Arnobius said: I do say so. — Serapion said: And if you say so, how is it that you do not believe there are three gods? — Arnobius said: Even if forgetfulness holds sway over you, it does not hold sway over all the knowers and judges of what has been attributed. For they know that I have spoken of one sight for two eyes, one hearing for two ears, one touch for two hands, one step for two feet, and one utterance for two lips and one tongue; and that memory, understanding, and intelligence — these three — have one wisdom; and that all the bodily members have the substance of one life; and that in the five senses there is one intellect, which understands by seeing through the eyes, by hearing through the ears, by tasting through the mouth, by smelling through the nostrils.

When, therefore, our disputation had treated all these matters and had reached a conclusion concerning unity, what reason calls us back again to those things which have already been settled both by mutual agreement and by the sentence pronounced by the judges between the parties? Since I had said, as memory, natural capacity, and understanding hold one office of wisdom, so the Father with the Son and with the Holy Spirit remains one kingdom of his omnipotence. — Serapion said: Concerning the perfection of the deity of each one, I did not ask, nor did you speak of it. For I now say: the Father is perfect God, the Son is perfect God, the Holy Spirit is perfect God; they make three gods. For either the one God has a third part, so that by four ounces each the three have only one deity; or there are three gods, if each one is perfect in his own deity. — Arnobius said: You meet me, who am striving for brevity, with a patchwork disputation; but to whatever extent you wish to go on at length, to that extent I will confine you in brief. Suppose three most precious pearls, incomparable, yet of one worth, placed in a dark place or laid away in blind night. When nevertheless the light of day and the splendor of the sun have come, the greater the brightness of the light, the greater will be the splendor of these three precious stones to attentive eyes. I ask now: these three incomparable stones, before they were made manifest by the light, remained in their preciousness, and their beauty was in them, yet they did not appear to the eyes of men? — Serapion said: It is so.

Arnobius said: The light that revealed all three stones—is it one, or are there two or three lights of the day? Serapion said: Why do you deny that one light can reveal them, even if there are a thousand? Arnobius said: I indeed said three; you concede a thousand. If, therefore, a thousand precious stones display the adornment of their splendor by the light of one day, how do the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit not display the omnipotence of their one divinity by one light—their deity seen not with bodily eyes but with the eyes of the heart, if the window of the catholic faith has been opened, so that the sun of righteousness may enter through it and they be radiated by his light? So then he clearly shows the three precious stones to be of one merit, one majesty, one beauty, one diadem, and also of one kingdom—not so that you should think one good and another better, so that you magnify one in such a way as to judge the other more magnificent to the injury of the one. For each true stone is such that it has nothing lacking by which another could be esteemed truer—provided only that faith opens the windows of the minds, which God himself has never opened without our belief. For no one will be saved unless he has subjected his belief to right faith and has himself opened the windows of understanding, so that you may see these three most beautiful gems set in one kingdom, making one diadem and holding one empire of majesty.

Serapion said: These three stones, though they are of one preciousness and one beauty, are nevertheless divided from one another. Arnobius said: You have seen the division of the three, but you do not see the one kingdom of one diadem. Serapion said: I see one diadem, but in that diadem itself the gems are set by the art of the goldsmith's setting. Arnobius said: Just as the gems are set for you by the art of the setting, so here they are placed naturally in the one treasury of omnipotence, and are made manifest only to those whose belief has brought it about that an integral faith opens the door of this perpetual treasury, and discloses both this perfect unity of the Trinity and the most entire unity of that unity itself: the true Father, who has always been Father, and the true Son, whose Father he has always been. For it is not as before: if the Son had not been his Father's, the Father of his Son could not be made. For nothing is changed in him who is true God, but he is the same immutably always, and he who has always been God, who is truly one and three, cannot be believed to be God who begins to be what he was not. For from the very fact that he is what God is (if indeed it ought to be said), from the fact that he is this by which he is God (which the poverty of human speech permits to be said)—not the very reason of majesty—for from the fact that he is God, from that same fact he is also Father, from that same fact he is also his Son, from that same fact he is both God and Father. For he has not begun to have anything in himself by substance that he did not have before.

For he was always with virtue, which is the Son; always with his breath, which is the Holy Spirit. Serapion said: On all points I am at rest, and I confess that the whole Trinity has always existed. But why should I not believe the Father to be greater, since the Father is not born from the Son, but the Son is born from the Father? Arnobius said: We have already said that the word is born from the voice, and yet the voice is not greater for the reason that the word is born from it; in one and the same moment both the voice and the word arise together, and the breath as well. Amplitude and diminution cease, because no time intervenes between the voice and the word and the one born. For the Father approves that the Son is the Word, as sacred Scripture testifies: My heart has uttered a good Word (Ps. XLIV, 1). And what is so good as the Son, from whom is all goodness? But the Word uttered from the heart could not be born without the Spirit and breath of the one uttering it. For it is the breath that proceeds when the word is born. Whence also I said a little earlier: By the Word of the Lord the heavens are said by the prophets to have been established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their virtue (Ps. XXXII, 6). The appointed judges said: Enough has been said by Arnobius concerning the invisible majesty of the Trinity, which we have sufficiently learned to have been done from the repeated arguments of Serapion. If there is anything else that Serapion wishes to raise, let him disclose it.

X. — Serapion said: Let it not be incongruous that I inquire by an impulse of the mind, that you may express in this anointed Trinity who it is that holds the first place. — Arnobius answered: The Father holds the first place. — Serapion said: What do you say of the Son? — Arnobius said: He too is first. — Serapion said: What also of the Holy Spirit? — Arnobius said: He too holds the first place. — Serapion said: Therefore it is not a Trinity. — Arnobius said: It is a Trinity in such a way that we do not say first, second, third, but one, two, three. — Serapion said: The Father is first, and the Son is first, and the Holy Spirit is first: three firsts, three gods. — Arnobius said: Place three emperors in one kingdom, in one concord, on one throne, in one sweetness, in one affection of love, in one power, and ask among them who holds the first place of power. Without doubt, since all three are august, all three are first; but they will have the second place and the third of the power ordained by the august ones. — Serapion said: Therefore is he not first among these emperors, who among them began to hold empire first? — Arnobius said: Among men, indeed, he is the prior august who first began to reign alone, and afterward established these others either by begetting or by choosing; but in the divine empire you will never find one of these three reigning without the other.

Serapion said: And why have you brought forward for us the example of three emperors, in which we can speak of a first, second, and third? — Arnobius said: To show you that human frailty has such great grace in a kingdom, that when it is certainly taught that there is a first, second, and third, this order, excluded through the concord of empire, holds only the number; but it does not admit order at all. For all these three, possessing one kingdom, one empire, one summit of narrow dignity, have as second the one who was not first, just as they themselves are first. — Serapion said: Does it seem to you to be entirely proper that this temporal kingdom be adapted to the divine and heavenly majesty? — Arnobius said: Even if this temporal and mortal empire contains in itself such great concord of peace, that he who is greater in age by birth, and first in ruling—this one is lesser, who after many years and today has taken up empire; yet from that hour in which he was made august, he cannot be lesser than the one who began earlier by generation: how much more in this divine concord of the holy Trinity, in which the one never began to hold the empire of the heavenly and eternal throne; so great is the unity, that, counted as three in number, having one empire of one power, they are named one God and one Lord? For in nothing does the divine nature differ from itself.

And if equality of power excludes the order that an earlier age admitted among men, how much more does divine omnipotence, where in the Trinity none is earlier, none at all is later; so is the unity, so is the undivided majesty, that while it truly holds the number of three, it truly exists as one God, the origin of peace, quiet, and tranquility. — The appointed judges said: Either let Serapion, if he is able, bring forward something against these things, or let Arnobius briefly gather the sum of this assertion. — And when Serapion kept a long silence, Arnobius said: Our God is one; for though the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are named, yet no Christian dares either to say or to believe three gods; since (as I said) in none does the divine nature differ from itself: for the first and second or third order, which a first or second or third beginning makes among men through intervals of times, in God, whose equal beginning is before times, he does not admit to such an extent that not even a beginning can be said of that which existed before times. Therefore, since every step cannot be made out of a step, he who cannot be subordinated preserves the number of the Trinity, but assigns the order of one equality. And therefore, as I said above, because he who is first has no second, nor he who is second a third, he is not born from the first. Remove distance, and what you have believed in the Trinity you will find to be first, so that you may rejoice that it has no second or third, but one God.

XI.—Serapion said: I confess that on all the points I have raised I have been reasonably satisfied; but there remain for me many chapters of questions, and especially concerning the sacraments of the Lord's incarnation, on which, if you have nothing further, command me to ask: since, just as I confess that I have been satisfied by Arnobius, so you know, chosen ones among the learned, that I have done nothing by legal authority. I see that both in the Old Testament and in the New, this God the Father, unbegotten, is set before the begotten one in such a way that the latter holds the second place after the Father. — Arnobius said: Bring forth, then, the testimonies of the divine Law by which you show the Father to be greater than the Son. — Serapion said: Consider the very Son of God testifying from the mouth of Solomon: The Lord created me at the beginning of his ways in his works, before the ages he created me (Prov. 8:12). But God the Father himself says of the Son through the prophet Isaiah: Behold, I will place in Zion a stone of offense and a rock of scandal: and everyone who believes in him shall not be confounded (Isa. 8:14). Thus David sings of him: The stone which the builders rejected, etc. (Ps. 118:22). Hence also Isaiah said: Thus says the Lord to my Christ the Lord (Isa. 45:1). Hence the Father himself commands the Son, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, etc. (Ps. 110:1). Hence also Stephen says of the Son: I see Jesus at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55): of God the Father, that is, who is (by the testimony of the apostle Paul) the head of Christ, Christ however the head of the man, and the man is the head of the woman (1 Cor. 11:3).

This is the Father who says to the Son: "Before the morning star I begot you" (Ps. 109:3). Hence also it is said to Christ: "Because he has given his angels charge concerning you" (Ps. 90:11). Therefore he who commands is greater, and he concerning whom the command is given is lesser. Hence the Lord himself says to his apostles: "If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I go to the Father: because the Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). And again: "The Father who gave me [them] is greater than I" (John 10:29). Likewise the Son of God himself says to the Father: "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one and Lord of all things, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). The Son, therefore, is the second person after the Father, because he is the Son, not taking away from the Father that by which he is one God. For if he had been unbegotten, compared to him who is unbegotten, an equal equation shown in both would make two unbegotten; and therefore it would show two gods, if the Son could be without origin as the Father is, and had existed invisible and incomprehensible as the Father. But now whatever the Son is, he is not from himself, who is not unbegotten either; but he is from the Father, and owes his origin to his Father, which he received as one born from him who has no origin. For there is one God of all things without beginning, of whom the Son, who has a beginning, says: "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). To prove this, he added: "The Son cannot do anything of himself, except what he sees the Father doing" (John 5:19). And he himself says again: "I did not come of myself, but he sent me" (John 7:28).

And again he says: "The works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me" (John 5:36). Likewise he says: "He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him, this one is true" (John 7:18). Hence it is that he himself says that nothing is done of himself (John 8:28), but that he obeys the Father's commands and precepts in all things, so that while his nativity proves him to be the Son, his dutiful submission asserts that he is subject to the Father's will. Whence he says: "I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak" (John 12:49). Behold how he himself obeys the Father and shows himself to be subject; by which it is shown that through his subjection he is a minister, while he is approved as Lord of the rest, so that rightly God the Father is God almighty, while the Son is God of all the rest, having every creature subject to himself; yet subject with all creation to the Father, who has subjected all things to him (1 Cor 15:26). For which reason he is established God over all creatures, saying: "But I am established king by him," etc. (Ps 2:6).

XII. — Arnobius said: If your zeal truly tended toward this, that you might either learn or teach, you would not be cutting out all these testimonies from the divine Scriptures as if binding them into one bundle with the most twisted knots of your interpretation and thrusting it into the sight of the examiners and judges. Wherefore my speech is addressed to you, O examiners and judges: I beg you, order that the course of the dispute already begun not be changed, and that the chapters of the Scriptures—those which I have mentioned or others which I have not yet mentioned—be set forth one by one by Serapion in your sight, and let it not be permitted to him to bring forward one thing and another at the same time into the midst, unless the one which he proposed first be explained. — The judges said: What is justly sought from Arnobius must necessarily obtain its effect. Therefore Serapion shall hasten to discharge these testimonies which he has offered gathered together in his interpretation, so that Arnobius may be able to give answer concerning each individual testimony. — Serapion said: The first obligation of my testimony is the voice which you recognize from the book of Proverbs of Solomon to be that of the Son of God: The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways (Prov. 8:22). From this it is shown that the Father who created is greater than the Son who was created by the Father. — Arnobius said: Do you then believe that the Son was truly begotten from the substance of the Father, or not so much begotten as created? — Serapion said: I do not deny that he is the Son of God. — Arnobius said: If you do not deny that he is the true Son of God begotten from the substance of the Father, to what side did you bring forward this testimony?

Serapion said: To show that the Son is less than the Father. Arnobius said: You are not trying to show that the Son is less than the Father, but you are endeavoring to demonstrate that the Son is a creature of God. Serapion said: Therefore, since the full authority of divine power supports one of two things, either establish that this testimony is not in the Scripture, or show why it was said. Arnobius said: You have only now returned to order, so that, God granting, the explanation of each testimony may be conceded to us. Serapion said: Whose voice, then, do you wish this utterance to be understood as: The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways? Arnobius said: It is the voice of the wisdom of God. Serapion said: What is his wisdom itself, if not his Son? Arnobius said: When there is need, it will be said in its own place how this wisdom is his Son. For now, meanwhile, the wisdom of God speaks through the most wise man Solomon, saying: The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways. Serapion said: What is so evident as that he said, created me? Arnobius said: Show what you are endeavoring to prove by this that he said, created me. Serapion said: In that the Son received as his lot the beginning of creation from the Father, he merited this, that he should obtain the principate over the whole of creation. Arnobius said: Surely every creature, before it was created, did not exist? Serapion said: Certainly it did not exist. Arnobius said: Then, therefore, wisdom began when it was created? Serapion answered: It began when it was created.

Arnobius said: Do you then blaspheme him as foolish, the one who created that wisdom? Serapion said: May God avert this blasphemy from me. Arnobius said: Then you blaspheme ignorantly. Serapion said: I do not blaspheme; rather I praise the creator of wisdom. Arnobius said: You are compelled to assert one of two things: either that he who created this wisdom had wisdom, or that he did not have it when he created. Serapion said: The Father was never without wisdom. Arnobius said: Then he did not create wisdom. Serapion said: Be not high-minded, but fear (Rom 11:20). Arnobius said: Who is high-minded, the one who blasphemes God, or the one who defends the blasphemy? Serapion said: Do you defend God? Arnobius said: At the time when I hear blasphemy, I rebuke the mouth of the blasphemer, just as I reprove your mouth and teach you that you are calling God the Father foolish. For when you said, "Before wisdom was created, it was not," you also show that he who fashioned that very wisdom, which you affirm to be a creature of God, did not have wisdom, and began to have it only after he created it. The judges said: This is a place of most bitter blasphemy. And why do we delay? Both our ears are being battered and your mouths are proceeding. Hence it is fitting that Arnobius, who uncovered the blasphemy, expound the testimony already brought forward by Serapion.

XIII—Arnobius said: Wisdom was always hidden within the heart of the Father, as the art of rhetoric is in the heart of the orator, and the art of grammar in the heart of the grammarian. Yet the orator is said to have created the book of the art of rhetoric, and the grammarian to have founded the book of the arts, not because rhetoric and grammar began from the time when they were handed down to men to be read. For in those who wrote them, from the time when they learned them, they were always in their heart. But for us they were then created, when our instruction took its beginning. Hence it is that I said a little while ago, aptly, that the Son of God is wisdom before it came to be. Therefore God, who made heaven and earth and all things that are in them, so created wisdom as (I said) the orator creates the book of the art of rhetoric, bringing forth from his heart what he has always had from the time he learned it. But he created it for us, so that what was in his heart, by hearing through our ears and seeing through our eyes, might also receive a beginning in our heart. So too God, who learned from no one, having wisdom without beginning, when he wished to make heaven and earth and all things that are in them, first of all cast forth the power of his wisdom, that he might first build the very house he wished to fashion. The Father first, when he made the air, before he solidified the strongest earth; that is, he first made heaven, and only then solidified the earth with soft things. But of created things we must speak in their own time; now let us speak of the Creator.

Therefore Wisdom herself says: The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways; the architect, full of wisdom—indeed, the very fountain of wisdom—brought forth Wisdom herself from himself. Nay, hear what Wisdom says: I, Wisdom, founded the earth; I prepared the heavens by prudence. Since, then, times do not arise except from days, and days from light, and light does not exist except from heaven, and heaven did not arise except from Wisdom—before heaven, time did not arise at all except from Wisdom; before heaven, time did not exist at all. It is established, therefore, that Wisdom always existed, and was created just as we said a book is created by the most wise orator. For example: Solomon composed the book of Wisdom; was Wisdom not therefore present before he composed this book? You may indeed say: It was not present before—but it was in Solomon before he received it from God; afterward, however, it always existed. If, then, in a wretched man, compared with God, and a very insignificant one, once placed within his heart it does not depart, and whatever he has usefully believed is believed to be proclaimed as wisdom, whether in writings or in skillfully wrought buildings and paintings it is itself discerned, and in all arts it is itself praised—how much more in God, who is wholly wisdom, who received it from no one?

This one, I say, whom he always had, he then created, when he took care to bring her forth from his own heart through the fashioning of heaven and earth, so that heaven might come to be, and together with it all things that are in it, which were not, not so that he himself might begin to be wise, which he had always been. But he created the earth and all things that are in it, which were not, not so that he himself might begin to be wise, which he had not been wise before. But you, Serapion, who did not bring forward the whole chapter of the passage, hear the whole chapter of this passage, so that you may believe that it agrees with my explanation. The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways in his works; before the mirror he founded me, before he made the earth, before he set the deeps, before he brought forth the fountains of waters, before he established the mountains: before the hills he begot me. God, therefore, foreknowing that this which had been said, "he created me," could come to the danger of blasphemy, added: Before all the hills he begot me. By this word which he said, "me," Wisdom herself interpreted that which she had said, "he created me." Hence also it follows: When he was preparing the heaven, I was with him; and when he was separating his seat, when he was making the clouds on high above the strong winds, and when he was setting the sure fountains under heaven; and when he was making the strong foundations of the earth, I was with him, arranging all things, and I was rejoicing in his presence, when he delighted in the perfect world.

And he added: Let the judges now say to the author of this opinion, which he brought forward for the purpose of teaching that the Son of God is not a Son, but a creature of his; let him say whether I have run through the text of the whole opinion in the order in which I followed it, and whether that very Wisdom which had said, The Lord created me, herself added, begot me; and let him either grant that Wisdom was always in the Father, or show that God was without Wisdom before he established her. — Serapion said: I confess that he followed it up wholly as it is written by Solomon, and that for this reason he usefully added, Before all the hills he begot me, so that what he said, He created me, he might show clearly by, He begot me. — Arnobius said: Surely you will recall that in the earlier conflict you said why I brought forward incorporeal examples; why now, when the beginning of the ways of God is being taught through mountains and hills and visible fabrications, are you content, unless seeing the mystical sense of the divine Scripture as mere history, and seeking the beginning of the ways, you did not seek the ways themselves; but let us teach that God is the creator not only by the judgment of the letter, but also by the impulse of our own natural consideration.

These are the ways of the Lord: first, faith; second, hope; third, charity; fourth, perseverance; fifth, goodness; sixth, fear of the Lord; seventh, constancy; eighth, patience; ninth, gentleness; tenth, rest; eleventh, peace; twelfth, obedience; thirteenth, long-suffering; fourteenth, holy solitude; fifteenth, contempt of the belly; sixteenth, zeal of the mind; seventeenth, chastity; eighteenth, kindness; nineteenth, mercy; twentieth, justice; twenty-first, liberality; twenty-second, zeal for the knowledge of the law of God; twenty-third, love of the best things; twenty-fourth, contempt of temporal glory; twenty-fifth, affection for eternal glory. All these are the ways of God, in which the Father himself walked daily, as he says through the prophet: As I live, says the Lord, I will walk in them, and I will be their Father, and they shall be to me sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty. In all these ways, therefore, Wisdom was created first in the Lord, so that whoever begins to possess the Wisdom of God first will not be able to enter upon even one of these ways. These ways, then, are twenty-four, assigning the number of the twenty-four elders, who assign their single bowls, and the whole of the New and Old Testament, into one bowl of the twelve apostles, so that these three bowls may be offered through three kinds of people to the author of the Trinity, that is, of virginity, of widowhood, and of marriage.

But all these three books, walking most perfectly in their ways, subsist consecrated by one faith, one hope, one charity, one baptism; and they will not be able to walk wholly in their ways unless at the very beginning the Lord has created wisdom in their minds for the ways. Hence the Psalmist, when he said: Make known to me thy ways, O Lord (Ps. 24:4), because he knew that they could not walk in these ways unless the Lord had created wisdom in his heart, prays to God, saying: Create a clean heart in me, O God (Ps. 50:12): because wisdom does not enter into a filthy soul, nor can it dwell in a body subject to sins. — The judges said: Arnobius has answered more than rightly concerning the testimony of wisdom, both that it was always in God and that it is created by God in the minds of those who desire to walk in the ways of the virtues. If there is anything that Serapion asks, let us hear it.

XIV. — Serapion said: If God first cleanses the heart and does not create wisdom, they have no guilt if they have not walked in the ways of God. — Arnobius said: Let the state of our disputation be preserved: for we began to treat of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the testimony was taken up for this purpose, that you might show the Son of God to be a creature. Up to this point we have shown that wisdom was always in God, and it is just that our attention should run upon the deity and Trinity; nevertheless here too we give an answer by the way. God, as he is altogether no respecter of persons (Rom. 2; Acts 10).

Thus he considers the minds, the zeal, and the thoughts of the sons of Adam, and knows best what he ought to bring forth from his treasury, and to give as his equity demands. And therefore, as the Apostle says, "There is no respect of persons with God," so he himself says: "Are all apostles? Are all prophets?" Therefore, just as you hold it certain that he is no respecter of persons, so hold it certain that he is not an unjust distributor either: whatever he has done concerning the human race can by no reasoning at all be found reprehensible. Indeed, David sought with tears and groans that a clean heart be created in him. Imitate David in repenting, and, made a partaker in receiving a clean heart, you will rejoice that God the creator has created wisdom in you. But now let us return to the testimonies you have put forward. — Serapion said: I have remembered the stone which the builders rejected, because it has become the head of the corner; this was done by the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes. — Arnobius said: Three things are to be sought in this passage: who are the builders, who are the ones building, and who are those rejecting the stone. For the Jews, building upon the foundation of the prophets, not only rejected our Lord Jesus Christ from the number of this building, but even crucified him. He, rejected by the unbelievers (Acts

IV, 11), but by God he was made into the head of the corner, so that he might gather two into himself (Eph. 2:15); and that from the law and the prophets, which had begun with Moses, the perfect fabric might be made in Christ, of whom the letters of the New Testament, having their own wall, with this corner-stone he might dedicate one Church from both letters—he who said to Peter: "Upon this rock I will build my Church with me, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18).— Serapion said: Tell us what the gates of hell are?— Arnobius said: The exposition concerning the rock must still be given, and when it has been finished, then we shall answer concerning the gates of hell.— Serapion said: That you may speak briefly concerning the gates of hell, the completeness of the statement just made demands it.— Arnobius said: We call those the gates of hell which the princes of this world, by riches and passions, by impieties and crimes, have set at the entrance of perpetual death: through which idolaters enter the temples of demons, not fearing the true God, but fearing the most vain figments. They have also other gates, through which they enter the synagogue's council, denying Christ the Lord God. They have also other gates, through which they enter into the teaching of heretics and the sects of schismatics. They have also other gates, through which the defilers, adulterers, fornicators, kidnappers, thieves, blasphemers, and those guilty of every crime enter. To these princes at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ it was cried out by the Holy Spirit: "Lift up the gates," etc. (Ps.

(XXIII, 7, 9). For those are not truly temporal in which immortality so reigns that the gates of hell do not prevail against it; for through them the King of glory has entered with all his own.

If you ask who this King of glory is, you will hear the Holy Spirit himself saying: The Lord is strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. For there are gates of righteousness placed in the ears of men, to which the word of the catholic faith cries out, saying: Open to me the gates of righteousness, and entering through them I will confess to the Lord (Ps. 118:19). But that same word, after it has entered through the ears into the city of the soul, shows it the gate of eternal life; and it says, This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter through it. Indeed, it is shown that we have a narrow entrance in this world from our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is asserted that the one who walks through it arrives at the broadest entrance of eternal life by way of his narrowest and straitest path. For it is affirmed by the mouth of the Lord himself, exhorting and saying: Enter through the narrow gate. For narrow is the gate that leads to life, few are those who enter through it. For wide and spacious is the way that leads to death, and many are those who enter through it (Matt. 7:13). — The judges said: Arnobius, questioned about the gates of hell, opens both hell and heaven to us; if other things have been prepared by Serapion, let them be brought forward.

XV. Scrapion said: You are drawing me toward the exposition I promised; let us return to the place from which we strayed. — Arnobius said: The examples of the Lord's incarnation are laid open—when a stone, when a mountain, when a rod, when an angel, when a man, when a priest, when even a testimony; but there are also many other figures which the catholic sense, walking through bright paths and radiant with the splendor of the Holy Spirit, may find by praying rather than by disputing. For the rock through which the people of God, placed in danger of thirst, was freed in the desert, the blessed apostle Paul asserted to be Christ, saying: Our fathers drank the same spiritual drink, and they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). And in the Song of Moses it is said: Honey flowed for them from the rock, and oil from the solid rock (Deut 32:13). And in the eightieth psalm: He fed them with honey from the rock (Ps 80:17). Likewise in the seventy-seventh psalm: He brought water out of the rock, and led down waters like rivers (Ps 77:16). Likewise in the twenty-sixth psalm, the Church says of Christ: You exalted me upon a rock (Ps 26:6); and in the thirty-ninth he himself says: He set my feet upon a rock (Ps 39:5); and in the sixtieth psalm: You exalted me upon a rock (Ps 60:3); and in the one hundred and thirteenth psalm: He turned the solid rock into pools of waters, and the crag into fountains of waters (Ps

and in the hundred and fourth psalm: He struck the rock, and waters flowed out. And in the Song of Solomon the Holy Spirit, inviting the Church to himself, says: Come to me, my neighbor, my bride, my beautiful one, in the covering of the twofold rock by the wall. And in Isaiah the voice of the Son of God: I have set, he says, my face as a most firm rock. Likewise in the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says: Upon the adamant and the rock I have made your face firm. And in the Gospel, the Lord calls the wise man who builds his house upon the rock. But what rock, unless that of which the Apostle says: For no one can lay any other foundation besides that which has been laid, Jesus Christ? There are also many other things which it would be long to recount, which teach that the rock stands for the immutability and the most constant will of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he exercised in his flesh—tempted by the devil, handed over by a disciple, fastened to the cross, fed with gall, given vinegar to drink, pierced by a lance, humbled even to death, death on a cross. And since a perfect man endured all these things, yet he showed nothing of the impatience of a man provoked, but that God through man has given victory to men, as the Apostle asserts in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, saying: But thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Serapion said: Your explanation makes me anxious, since you strive to interpret the incarnation of our Lord in such a way that you seem to mention a man and not God. Hence, since you have resolved by clear testimonies of the divine volumes one of these eight figures pertaining to the trope of the Lord—this one which you had mentioned concerning the rock—when the remaining seven examples have been completed, there will remain for me one explanation of the Lord's incarnation. For it is on account of this alone that I think this conflict was entered upon. Hence I do not think that you have become mindful of what I said at the beginning: that it was right for me to deal with you as with one of the Arians, or Eunomians, or Sabellians, or Macedonians, and, with my faith safe, to favor their assertions. Therefore, as I said, I entered into conflict with you so that, if I found that you had fallen into some error, I would not deal with you by that definition concerning which you and I disagree. Nothing now remains for me except that you set forth these eight similitudes which you mentioned in Christ so neatly and irreprehensibly that you set forth the whole divinity in Christ, revealing it—lest you also bring this to me: that you do not show the whole of what existed as divine.

Show me, then, why you mentioned only eight, when there are many other figures in Christ that could have been mentioned, as you yourself said. Arnobius said: I considered that many kinds of mysteries are contained in this number. First, how in the Old Testament, since it is the first day on which he said, Let there be light (Gen. 1:3), so also in the New it deserved through the resurrection of Christ both to be made first and to be called the eighth. For just as on that day the heavens were opened so that manna might be poured down (Exod. 16:14-16), so too David is the eighth son, who by defending the sheep from wild beasts was made a slayer (1 Kings 17:34), and by defending the people, a slayer of the giant (1 Kings 17:50). First, while he was still a little child, he was made Christ by almighty God. But also in the Gospel, from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ, eight beatitudes are recorded (Matt. 5), when indeed there were also many other virtues that could have had the merit of beatitude. Therefore by this example it seemed good to me, while preserving the multitude of similarities, to bring forward only these eight tropologies, certain that from those which have been brought forward, the others which have not been brought forward can be inquired into, and, when found, understood, and usefully explained with the reasoning of the mouth.

XVI. — Serapion said: First, by the occasion of my objections, you expounded the stone; then, when I had brought forward the Gospel chapters in which the Lord says, "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28), you produced other passages from there. Therefore, lest you seem to have adduced those examples for the purpose of evading those testimonies, once what you have brought forward has been expounded, you will give me an answer concerning them; and only then will we come to our special dispute. — Arnobius said: We ought to have dealt with this one sense alone, about which you truly disagree, that is, concerning this which you do not wish to believe usefully for the catholic faith: that in Christ our God there are two true and perfect substances; and that just as He is the true Son of God, so He is confessed as the true man, the Son of Man. But how is it that you foresee that you will be reasonably overcome by right and by laws, lest you grieve that you alone are conquered, you who have taken upon yourself the persons of very many heretics in yourself, so that when your fellow citizens reproach you as conquered, you may say that you were overcome by our victory—or rather, not ours, but Christ's—by such a one as was first able to open, through the wondrous and most powerful gate of the catholic faith, the sharp arguments of very many heretics in you. — Serapion said: The wise man then conquers perfidy when he drives it from his own entrails; and he who conquers is twice a victor, because he receives the crown of faith from his own assertion, and obtains the palm from the gain of men.

Arnobius said: All this must be ascribed to the mercy of God; for we can do nothing by our own efforts, but whatever we seek we find wholly by the grace and mercy of God. I shall now take up the remaining seven forms of similitudes that I set forth; then, with the Lord himself granting it, I shall expound the two questions that you brought forward from the Gospels. Do you, however, recalling those same figures with keen memory, begin to call them back one by one into the midst, so that I may teach you individually that I have brought these examples from the sacred volumes. — Serapion said: It is agreed well enough that you first explained the stone; second, show what you promised to show, that the Lord is foretold as the mountain from the Scriptures. — Arnobius said: We read in Exodus: But the Lord said to Moses: Let this be a sign to you, that I will send you to cast out my people from Egypt, and you shall serve me on this mountain (Exod. 3:12). — Serapion said: This was said of Mount Sinai. — Arnobius said: If you seek the bare history, enter the synagogue; but we receive the history for this reason, that we may explain spiritually the things that lie within the history, following the apostle Paul, the teacher of the Church of the Gentiles, assigned by the Lord, who (as I said) so stirred our senses and hearts that he plainly asserted that the rock which is the rock par excellence, from which water was brought forth, is Christ, saying: But the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10).

Thus also the mountain on which the glory of God appeared, on which the fire shone and did not burn, on which God spoke with man face to face (Exod. 33:11), on which Majesty itself wrote the will of its law in ten commandments with its own finger on two tablets of stone; on which the book of Deuteronomy, that is, of the second or repeated law, was written; the mountain where God made known to man that in the beginning God had made heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1), and all things that are in them, and many other tokens of holiness which it would be long to tell; of which the Psalmist says: The mountain of God, a rich mountain, a mountain in which it is well pleasing to God to dwell. For the Lord will dwell there even to the end (Ps. 67:17), so that he might show of whom he spoke, in the fourteenth psalm he says: Who shall rest on thy holy mountain? and he added: He that walketh without blemish, etc. (Ps. 14:2). And who else is without blemish but the Lord Jesus Christ alone, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth (1 Pet. 2:22)? For in the twenty-third psalm: Who, he says, shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? And he answered: He that is innocent in hands, etc. (Ps. 23:4). And likewise David sings: Great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised, etc.; and he adds: Mount Sion, on the sides of the north, etc. (Ps. 47:3). Whence also Isaiah says: In the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and all nations shall come to it (Isa. 2:2).

David also says in another place: "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion," etc. (Ps. 124:1). Whence also in another psalm: "Mount Zion, in which he was pleased to dwell" (Ps. 67:17). He also says concerning this same mountain: "This mountain which his right hand acquired" (Ps. 77:54). His right hand acquired the perfect man; the right hand of the Lord who has wrought power (Ps. 117:16); for the right hand of the Father is so called and proved from its operation. For the invisible Son himself wrought this power through his omnipotence, so that through the assumption of a man he became visible in such a way that he could say: "Whoever sees me sees also the Father, because I am in the Father and the Father is in me" (John 14:9-10). — Serapion said: Therefore the Jews who saw him saw also the Father. — Arnobius replied: The Jews saw him in this way: as the Holy Spirit says to Isaiah: "Go, say to this people: Seeing you shall not see, and hearing you shall not understand" (Isa. 6:9; Acts 28:26). Whence also the Lord himself says to them: "Neither do you know me, nor my Father" (John 8:19). But to his own disciples: "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, and hear what you hear" (Matt. 13:16). Wherefore, if it seems that the answer has been given concerning the mountain, recall the example I mentioned in the third place.

XVII. — Serapion said: First a stone, second a mountain, third a tower, you have mentioned in similitude. — Arnobius said: You do well to recall them, if you also do well to receive the truth. For he himself is the one of whom it is sung in the sixtieth psalm that he is a tower of strength from the face of the enemy (Ps. 60:4). This is the tower of which the Holy Spirit says through Isaiah: I built a tower in the midst of the vineyard which I planted (Isa. 5). The Holy Spirit himself interprets this vineyard, saying: For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel (Ibidem). But the tower, which he says he built in the midst, as the Scripture thus says, is the Son of Man, whom he confirmed for himself. Of whom Solomon says: Wisdom has built herself a house (Prov. 9:1). For he who is the wisdom of the Father built for himself in the womb of the Virgin the perfect man Jesus, who was predestined to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of sanctification (Rom. 1:4), not according to the union of pollution. — Serapion said: Do not speak of the pollution of marriage, for marriage has no pollution, but fornication is what must be called pollution. — Arnobius said: Marriage has pollution, and does not have guilt; but fornication is proved to have both pollution and guilt. But permit me to prove the token of the tower. For the Lord himself says in the Gospel: A householder planted a vineyard, and hedged it about, and built a tower in it, and let it out to husbandmen (Matt.

XXI. ...who did not fear to afflict with blows the servants sent to them by the father of the household; and finally they killed the son sent by the father of the household himself. With this said, they are asked by the Lord: When the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? And the Jews answering said: He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and will lease his vineyard to other farmers. And the Lord said to them: Amen I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a nation producing its fruits (Ibid. 40-43).

XVIII. — Serapion said: Now in the fourth place the discourse must be sought concerning the Lord, showing him prefigured through the rod, so that your promise may be unfolded in its order. — Arnobius said: The Lord speaks to Moses in Exodus: I will stand on the top of the hill, and this rod which is in your hand, with it I will do all things worthy of powers. And David says in the spirit: The rod of equity, the rod of your kingdom; your rod and your staff, etc. (Ps. XLIV, 1; XXII, 4). And David entreats the Lord, saying: Remember your congregation, etc. You have redeemed the rod of your inheritance (Ps. LXXIII, 2). Likewise he says: The rod of your strength, etc. (Ps. CIX, 2). More plainly, however, it is said concerning the Lord: There shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, etc. (Isa. XI, 1). All these things were fulfilled in him who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. I, 3). — Serapion said: Keep the discussion of the flesh, concerning which we shall have a true and open conflict; now strive to explain the examples that have been set forth by you.

For in the fourth place you have already said why you set down the rod; now in the fifth place, explain for what reason you called him Angel.

— Arnobius said: Hear the Lord speaking to Moses: Behold, I send my angel before you, to keep you in all your way: observe him, and obey him: for my name is in him (Exod. 23:20). And Malachi says: The lips of the priest shall be in him, because he is the angel of the Lord (Mal. 2:7). Whence also concerning the people of all the saints, who in this world are proved to have been afflicted and are said to have suffered for the sake of the holy name: This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, that is, the holy people, and out of all his troubles he will deliver him. The Lord sent his angel round about those who fear him, that is, those who fear the Lord, and he will deliver them, the same people of the righteous (Ps. 33:7-8). Likewise Daniel recalls that an angel was sent from heaven into the midst of the flames, to free the three boys from the fire, when Nebuchadnezzar had said of him: The fourth, whom I see, is like the Son of God (Dan. 3:92): his testimony is not a lie. David also in his own psalm says thus of God: He sent his angel, and took me from the sheep of my father, and anointed me with the anointing of his mercy (Ps. 77:70). — Serapion said: Hurry to the sixth, concerning the Son of God seen beforehand in the likeness of a man: for what has been said concerning the fifth is sufficient.

Arnobius said: We read in the book of Joshua son of Nun that at that time, when Jericho was entering into continuous battle, he saw a man standing opposite him with a sword in his hand; and when he had come near to him, he said to him: Are you ours, or of the adversaries? He answered and said: I am the commander of the host of God (Joshua 5:13-14). Likewise the prophet Isaiah says: The people will cry out to their God in their distresses, and the Lord will send them a man who will deliver them (Isaiah 19:20). Likewise Daniel says: I saw in the clouds of heaven one coming like the Son of Man to the Ancient of Days, and the power of a kingdom was given to him (Daniel 7:13). Likewise Daniel himself says: He stood against me like the vision of a man, and he called Gabriel the archangel, and told him to teach me the vision which I was seeing (Daniel 8:16). Likewise Daniel himself: I lifted up, he says, my eyes, and I saw, and behold a man who was clothed in fine linen, and his loins were girded with gold (Daniel 10:5). Likewise Ezekiel says: I saw upon the throne, as it were, the figure of a man (Ezekiel 1:26). Likewise he himself: I saw one ascending above the cherubim calling to himself the man who was clothed in a robe, who was girded about his breasts with a golden belt (Revelation 1:13). Serapion said: Testimonies concerning that which has come into doubt must be given in abundance; but now, striving for brevity, proceed to the seventh likeness of the priesthood that you have mentioned.

Arnobius said: In the book of Kings, in the first book, God speaks to Samuel, saying: I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do all things according to my heart (1 Kings 2:35). And David says: The Lord has sworn to David, and he will not repent, etc. (Ps. 109:4). Serapion said: Those two testimonies you have brought forward concerning the seventh similitude are evident; now explain the eighth, namely how the testament of God can be understood as the Son of God. Arnobius said: The book of Genesis says that the Lord spoke to Noah and to his sons: Behold, I establish my testament with you, and with your seed after you, and with every living soul that is with you (Gen. 9). Likewise, after other things, God says to Noah and to his sons: I will remember my testament which is between me and you, and every living soul (Gen. 9:16). Likewise the voice of God says to Noah and to his sons: I will set my bow in the clouds of heaven, and I will remember my testament which is between me and you (ibid. 13). Likewise through Isaiah the Lord says: My testament will be with life and peace; law and truth will be in his mouth, and iniquity will not be found on his lips. Dwelling in peace, he will abide with you, and will convert many from their iniquity (rather Malachi 2:5). Likewise through Isaiah the Lord says: I the Lord have called you, and I have given you as a testament to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind (Isa. 42:6-7).

Likewise the Lord says through Isaiah: Come to me, and you shall eat good things; walk in his ways, and your soul shall be saved, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant (Isa. 50:3). Likewise the Lord says through Isaiah: I will make with you a covenant of peace, with faith, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant (Isa. 61:8): all of which prefigure the one Son of God. There are also many other kinds of figures which, if reason demands that they be brought forward, I will assign by the authority of the holy Scriptures. The judges said: By manifestation as reasonable as it is by legal authority, the things defended by Arnobius have been confirmed, so that Serapion, who is on the opposing side, while we were silent, has testified with his own mouth that all things are as they were defended by him. And since, as the day grew bright, evening time found the dispute begun, the silence of the night's rest having passed, with the day healthfully restored to us by God, the confession permitted to each side will arise.

Serapion said: I ask that a limit be set to our discourse today on this matter, so that Arnobius may make known to me for what reason he wished to bring these prefigurations of our Lord into the discussion. Arnobius said: How is it that there are certain things among these prefigurations—even the very Son of God himself, for whom they were figuratively represented—that they consider should be reckoned, since in all those things he is the image of the truth, while in this man whom the Virgin bore is the truth itself; and just as the true Son of God is God, so the true son of man is man, not so mixed that a change of either nature has taken place, but remaining in the truth of his divinity and in his omnipotence, the invisible Son of God having fellowship with man, and it is to be believed that the true God, the Son of God, delivered himself for our liberation. For otherwise God could not be seen by fleshly eyes. Whoever therefore denies that God is in Christ, that is, in the man, is Antichrist (1 John 2 and 23). But whoever denies something concerning these similitudes can be found either blameworthy or perhaps not blameworthy. For he denies the rock, denies the rod, denies the mountain, and whatever else can be said to befit Christ. But whoever denies the perfect man and perfect God cannot be freed from eternal damnation. Likewise, whoever has dared to think or believe that there are two sons of God—one who before the ages was begotten of the Father without a mother, and another who was born of the Holy Spirit from Mary the Virgin—will be struck with eternal anathema.

But the confession of faith of our see, that is, of the apostolic see of blessed Peter, which began from the Apostle himself, is this: believing in one Son of God from two perfect and wholly complete substances, from the visible and the invisible, from the corporeal and the incorporeal, from the comprehensible and the incomprehensible, from the passible and the impassible, from the mortal and the immortal, from true God and true man, let us confess, saying and believing that God is in Christ, and that Christ Jesus in the glory of the Father so has one Godhead, as in two eyes there is one sight, in two ears one hearing, in twin nostrils one sense of smell: so also in these two substances of God and man there is one Son of God. Indeed, just as I have reminded you, a careful and attentive hearer, that I spoke of one substance of the Father and the Son, of one sight in two eyes, of one hearing in two ears, and of one sense of smell in twin nostrils: now let it not seem incongruous to you that we should believe not one substance, but one person in two substances. For I have endeavored to show this, that just as we believe there is one substance in three persons, so we should believe there is one person of the Son of God in two substances, of God and man.

BOOK TWO.

I. — On the following day, at the beginning of the day, when their assembly had been convened, with Constantius and Ammonius presiding, Arnobius said: If Serapion has anything left over from yesterday's debate, if he is willing, let him make it known. Serapion said: One Gospel question is known to remain, namely that one which Arius seems to hold as his chief weapon, when he says: Why do they blame me for saying, The Father is greater than I (John 14:28), when the Son himself testifies concerning himself, saying: The Father who sent me is greater than I? — Arnobius said: In that respect in which the Son is of the Father without a mother, he and the Father are one; but in that respect in which the Son is of a mother without the Father, he is less than the Father. For he assumed a servile nature, in which he would be not only less than God the Father, but also less than his mother by as much as the age of the Virgin mother might have been — Serapion said: You have given me a new answer today, in which you say that the mother of the Lord, Mary, is a mother who bore him without his Father, as the gentiles rave. Tell me, whose Father was God the begetter without a mother? — Arnobius said: So then, was this not thrashed out yesterday with the full winnowing of our words and speeches, so that I taught that the Father, the begetter of his Son, is not greater than the Son? — Serapion said: To be sure, you taught it by human argument, which cannot stand by Gospel authority.

Arnobius said: Nevertheless it has been established by human reasoning that nothing greater is found in the Father, nothing less in the Son, nothing that is not equal in the Holy Spirit. Serapion said: And if I should deny this, both the judges and all these who stand by will be able to prove it.

II — Arnobius said: What then remains? — Serapion said: This: that the most sacred assertion of Christ attacks the exposition of your reasoning, in that it says, The Father is greater than I (John 14:28). — Arnobius said: Whatever the apostle Paul says about Christ, do you think he speaks the truth, or lies? — Serapion said: If Paul lies, who speaks the truth? — Arnobius said: Do you remember that he said of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, when he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God (Philippians 2:6). Did Paul say this, or not? — Serapion answered: He said it indeed, but you did not bring forward the complete sentence. — Arnobius said: Then you know that the apostle's discourse is written in the epistle. — Serapion said: I know. — Arnobius said: Tell me the very clause of the complete sentence that I spoke. — Serapion said: You said: Who, when he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. — Arnobius said: And of whom did he say this? — Serapion said: Of the Son. — Arnobius said: And of whom does he say this, to be equal? — Serapion answered: Of the Father. — Arnobius said: Gather together the form of God, if you can.

Serapion answered: The form of God is this, that he is immeasurable, and fills the heavens and the earth, and his measure transcends the heavens above, and the earth, and the seas, and the abysses below (Isa. 40:12). For so indeed it is read in the prophets, that his palm is the measure of the whole heaven, and that he comprehends all the earth in his fist, and all the waters are the measure of his hands. Arnobius said: I embrace the testimony of your mouth concerning God as true, and I proclaim it, and I confess that it is so. Therefore if it is so—indeed, because it is so—you have explained in your discourse that this is the form of God, that he is immeasurable, and incomprehensible, inestimable, invisible. Is it so, or not? Serapion answered: It is so. Arnobius said: Now unfold the complete meaning of the Apostle concerning the Son of God. He who, when he was in the form of God (Phil. 2:6), that is, invisible, incomprehensible, inestimable, and was equal, not lesser, but in that form and in that equality in which the Father is, emptied himself. Serapion said: How did he empty himself? Was it that he ceased to be God? Arnobius said: Lest perhaps the crime of this blasphemy should creep into our estimation, he interpreted this saying, declaring in what way he emptied himself, that is, because when he was Lord, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, etc.

This one, therefore, who is the Son of the Father, born without beginning from that Father who has no beginning of his fatherhood, this one says, I and the Father are one (John 10:30). But this one, born of a mother without a carnal father, says, The Father is greater than I (John 14:28). — Serapion said: Therefore there are two sons of God, and one is from the Father without a mother, the other from the mother without a father? — Arnobius said: I think you are not unmindful that I showed that there are indeed two eyes, but one sight; two ears, but one hearing; two nostrils, but one sense of smell. — Serapion said: How do you wish these two to be one? So that, just as the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one substance, so also the substance of God with the son of man may be one substance? — Arnobius said: It is not so. For man, through God who assumed him, has been made God; not God, through man whom he assumed, has been made man.

III. — Serapion said: But by this there are two sons of God, since you say, God is God; and man is man; the true God and the true man are two. — Arnobius said: There are two substances in one Son of God. For this is the one Son of the Father, who made the first man from the slime of the earth of the virgin. You ought both to question and to listen with fear of God. — Serapion said: Why do you say this? — Arnobius said: Because you consider that you have been, as it were, plausible, when you say that there are two sons of God, one from the Father without a mother, and the other from the mother without a father.

When I said to you that God through his omnipotence assumed the form of a servant in the womb of the Virgin, and with it assumed a temporal origin. He does not have this Son of God, who does not have a temporal origin at all. — Serapion said: You have spoken of another son of the Virgin besides Christ. — Arnobius said: I did not speak of another son of the Virgin besides Christ, but I said: This one who from the clay of the earth made the first man, he himself in the womb of the holy Virgin fashioned by his incomprehensible omnipotence the man in whom he himself would dwell, according to what we read: Wisdom has built herself a house (Prov. 9:1). — Serapion said: Who is it who fashioned for himself a man in the womb of the Virgin? — Arnobius said: The Son of the invisible Father fashioned for himself a man, in whom, remaining as in an incomparable house, he himself might become visible to the saints. — Serapion said: Therefore he was made visible? — Arnobius said: I did not say he was made visible to all; but I said, he was made visible to the saints, that is, to believers, so that he might be seen through faith, not through sight (1 Cor. 13:12), according to what we read: We saw him, and he had no form (Isa. 53:2). For the appearance of the flesh was so open to unbelievers that, stripped of his garments, he was seen entirely, limb by limb of his body, by those who stripped him, and mocked him, and scourged him, and placed him on the gibbet of the cross (Matt. 27; John

XIX); but because they did not have the eyes of faith, they were able to see a mere man, not him who was in that man.

IV. — Serapion said: Like a slippery serpent, the more you are squeezed, the more you escape from the gripping fists. Do you wish the Son of God to be a man, or God? — Arnobius said: True God and true man. — Serapion said: Therefore, as I said, there are two sons of God, one carnal and the other spiritual. — Arnobius said: Speak with the fear of God; for it is blasphemous to say there are two sons of God. — Serapion said: Then you are the one who blasphemes, since you say there are two sons of God. — Arnobius said: You too blaspheme, and you fasten on me the false charge of blasphemy. For I say that the one Son of God is like fire in a mass of glowing gold. You see nothing in it but fire while it is glowing, and at the same time you would think it pure gold; the very hand is set ablaze by touching it. So too, while you lay the hand of your unbelief on this man, so as to judge him a mere man, you are consumed by eternal fire. Likewise, if you deny the gold, you will have denied the fire which came into it so as to be visible, though it is invisible. Now I ask you, answer me: why do you not put your hand to the glowing mass of gold? — Serapion said: Because the hand that touches it is burned.

V. — Arnobius said: Is this fire visible or invisible? — Serapion said: Visible. — Arnobius said: How do you prove that fire is visible? By itself, or through another material? — Serapion answered: Through another. — Arnobius said: Therefore fire is not visible. — Serapion answered: How is fire not visible, when it is seen and touched? — Arnobius said: It is not seen, nor touched, nor will it give heat or burn by its own substance, unless it has been mixed with some other thing. — Serapion said: Therefore fire by itself is nothing. — Arnobius said: I do not merely say it is not nothing; rather I say it is a great power and a most strong substance; but nevertheless, unless it has been mixed with another substance, it remains invisible and incorporeal. — Serapion said: Therefore fire is God. — Arnobius said: This I have said to you because you are mistaken. Is it the case that everything which is invisible and incorporeal to us is for that reason also invisible and incorporeal to God? — Serapion said: Therefore fire is visible and corporeal to God. — Arnobius said: All things whatsoever that are invisible and incorporeal are, to God alone, according to this, visible and corporeal—those things which have been created by him. — Serapion said: Therefore souls, and spirits, and angels are corporeal. — Arnobius said: Do not drag me away from God through your windings, and draw me to angels, and to souls, and to spirits. Nevertheless, lest you think I am fleeing your question, hear.

Whatever has measure is a body, open not to human but to divine eyes; but God alone is immense and incorporeal (John 4). For all the angels made by God have a beginning; and those that have a beginning also have an end, serving not our eyes, like the sun, the moon, and the stars, but lying open to the divine eyes alone. — Serapion said: Therefore the soul of man is also corporeal. — Arnobius said: Whatever touches and is touched, and is contained in some place, is without doubt a body. Since, then, the soul is taught both to enter a body, and to dwell in a body, and to depart from a body, how is it not recognized to be corporeal? But yet, if you wish a longer disputation to be made on this matter, it shall be permitted to set it before you at another time as well. Now, however, since you say to me that fire is incorporeal, just as the soul and the spirit, I say to you that fire is incorporeal. Resist me as I assert this, if you prevail by any reasoning. — Serapion said: I hear a new thing. Daily I see that we have fire in our hands, but with a novel twist of words he wishes to prove to me that fire is invisible. — The judges said: We have heard Arnobius not saying that fire is invisible in such a way as to seem to deny that it is visible through another species, whatever it has been mixed with, whether wood, or iron, or bronze, or silver, or gold; but why he says this, inquire.

VI. — Arnobius said: I give thanks to the most prudent judges, who, showing the sense of my words in the order in which it was spoken by me, have shone forth like a light in the darkness. Tell me, then, Serapion, what is true: this substance of fire, can you see it without wood or any kind of metal, or are you able to touch it? — Serapion said: When we are speaking of the Son of God, you drag me and metals into an image. — Arnobius said: Have you not heard the Apostle speaking of God, how his invisible things are seen, being understood through the things that are made, and also his eternal power and Divinity (Rom. 1:20)? Therefore, if you track this down, or, as you said of me, you try to escape as a twisting serpent while I press you, you will not escape at all in the midst of the most just judges. Tell me, then, when you see fire in wood or in any kind of metal, do you attend to one substance in it, or two? — Serapion said: One. — Arnobius said: There is therefore there neither wood, nor iron, nor any kind of matter at all, through which its power and invisibility may be recognized. — Serapion said: There is indeed that through which its power and invisibility may be recognized, yet fire is manifest as the only substance. — Arnobius said: That fire is recognized as the only substance in the air within the color of the baths, but unless, mixed with wood, it has stirred up flames within the furnace, it provides neither warmth to the baths nor heat. — Serapion said: You do well to teach men what no one is ignorant of.

Arnobius said: If I could speak with you in the Hebrew tongue, would not one who is superfluous, or rather one who is considerate, prove it? Serapion said: So it is. Arnobius said: So if I speak with you of what all are ignorant, and do not speak with you of what no one is ignorant of, by what reasoning shall I be able to prevail over you? Tell me, then, do you perceive fire as two substances, or one? Serapion said: I see one, namely, of fire. Arnobius said: I beseech you, judges, now give sentence, and let each of us show what deceives. The judges said: He has rejected your question without cause; and why Serapion fears to say that there are two substances in fire while it is perceived, we do not know. Wherefore, since he has evaded, we agree that you have us not only as judges but also as witnesses; proceed whither your discourse tends.

VII. Arnobius said: This invisible fire, having entered some other matter, is made visible through it, having in itself one thing that burns and another that illuminates; so the Son, having gone forth from the bosom of the Father, the virgin integrity so received him, as a mass of gold can receive fire; and from that mass itself he produced a man made from the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. 1:3), in whom, as in all golden metal, that incomprehensible fire might become comprehensible, the impassible become passible, the impalpable become palpable, as I said before: one thing that burns the unbelieving, another that illuminates all who believe.

Therefore through these two substances—gold, which is a body, and fire, which is not a body—one person, which we perceive, whether of iron, or bronze, or silver, or gold, one appearance subsists, having two substances, true gold and true fire. — The judges said: Why Serapion declines to give an answer to your most evident reasoning, we do not know; therefore, as we said, proceed whither your discourse tends.

VIII. — Arnobius said: While he strives to confirm the calumny he has brought against me, the wise man has done a considered thing by keeping silent, lest by confuting himself with his own mouth he should be convicted. For he said that I, by believing, asserted that God has two sons through visible and invisible substance, whereas I believe in one Son of God in two substances; just as I may reasonably assert one metal of gold, when it has been set on fire, to be in two substances. For the invisible Son of God, mixed with the visible son of man, has made one Son of God, so that in him there should be the visible, just as fire, which was invisible, made visible in the mass of gold or of any metal whatsoever, has not lost—in the way that fire alone, without the matter of another thing that makes it visible and perceptible, can neither be seen by the eyes nor at all be perceived by bodies. — Serapion said: I understand that you come to this, that you say the Son of God deserted the son of man, and was not crucified together on the wood.

Arnobius said: I have never conceived this in my heart nor brought it forth with my mouth; indeed, with the prophet I say that not only did he not abandon him when he was placed on the cross, but he did not forsake him even when he went down into hell, and did not give his holy one to see corruption (Ps. 15:10). Serapion said: From what time did the Godhead come into the man whom it assumed? Arnobius said: From the hour when the angel Gabriel brought forth the word, and she conceived by believing. Serapion said: Therefore he was conceived at the same time. Arnobius said: When the man was conceived by the word in the womb, he who had fashioned him and was still fashioning him, so that he might remain in him, and there was he who never had a beginning in him who was assuming the beginning of his essence in the womb of the Virgin. Serapion said: Therefore God has both a father and a mother. Arnobius said: The Son of God has a Father, who begot him before all times without a mother; and he has a Virgin as mother, who conceived and bore him without a human father. Serapion said: Therefore she is the mother of God. Arnobius said: The mother of Christ and of God. Serapion said: What is this, of Christ and of God? Arnobius said: Of God, who, though he had no beginning, nevertheless by being born assumed a beginning with Christ. For Christ without God is like the other christs who were before him. But Christ our God has no one at all like himself by nature; for besides him there is no Christ and God.

Serapion said: What then do you believe was born in Mary's childbirth? Arnobius said: A man, who never existed before, together with God, who always existed. Serapion responded: Therefore Mary is the mother of a man, and not of God. Arnobius said: Through the man conceived and born of the Holy Spirit, she merited also to become the mother of him who so always existed that there was also no time when he did not exist. Serapion said: Therefore you follow the sect of Nestorius. Arnobius said: Nestorius denied [it], which I also believe. Serapion responded: If he created from himself the one who did not exist before, then without doubt he did not create the one who always existed. Arnobius said: If you go to human reasonings, and do not bring faith with you, you go and return empty, and you will remain empty forever. Serapion said: If you know that I too cannot speak insultingly with you, speak insultingly. Arnobius said: It would be an insult, if the case did not, as you see, require that I say this to you. Serapion said: Let us know what case requires this. Arnobius said: Just as everything that was done concerning Mary has this as its first principle, that you believe; but if you have reason and do not have faith, your reason will be empty. Serapion said: Either reason will be reason, or faith will be faith. Arnobius said: Faith cannot subsist without reason in this matter, nor reason without faith. Serapion said: And what reason will be able to teach me that a virgin conceived, a virgin gave birth, a virgin remained after childbirth?

Arnobius said: This is the reason: God Almighty. Serapion said: I am dealing with you about the girl. Arnobius said: I am dealing with you about the Almighty. Tell me: He who made heaven and earth and all things that are in them, is He Himself Almighty, or not Almighty? Serapion said: You always bring forward one thing so that you may be allowed to deal with another, and do not answer what is asked. Arnobius said: Desiring to answer your question, I ask you: Tell me, is God Almighty, or not? Serapion said: Whoever denies this is more foolish than he. It is written: The fool said in his heart, There is no God (Ps. 52:1). Arnobius said: Therefore the Son of God, through His omnipotence, willed this: that He be made the son of a man. Serapion said: Of which man? Arnobius said: Of Mary. Serapion said: Therefore He willed this, as it were, putatively, and not truly. Arnobius said: In God there exists nothing putative, nothing fantastic, nothing of falsehood. Serapion said: One of the two cannot stand, because Mary will either be the same mother; or the same mother of Christ. Arnobius said: She is both. Serapion said: Therefore she is the mother of two sons. Arnobius said: She is the mother of one son. Serapion said: By what reasoning will you be able to teach this, since the Son of God is the Son of God, who from God the Father before the ages was begotten as God; and this one now in time has been begotten as the son of a man?

Arnobius said: The Son of God Almighty, through his own omnipotence, willed this concerning the Almighty Father: that this son of man should become one Son of God with him. Serapion said: Therefore the Divinity and the humanity have been mixed. Arnobius said: What is this you wish to say, "have been mixed"? Serapion said: God and man—what mixed thing of flesh and of the Word has made one body? Arnobius said: It is blasphemous so to believe, as though by some melting process of two natures we believe them to have been reduced into one substance. For the corruption of each part is evident: for he who is capable, not capable-of-being-contained; penetrating, not penetrable; filling, not fillable; who is everywhere diffused and everywhere whole, at the same time through his omnipotence so poured himself into human nature that the flesh was perfected in the Word, not the Word perfected in the flesh. For the evangelist does not say, "The Word was born with the flesh," but "the Word was made flesh" (John 1:14), and he did not judge it unworthy to be born as a man. Serapion said: If the Word was made flesh, the Word ceased to be. Arnobius said: Was not a perfect man conceived and born in the virginal womb? Serapion said: Therefore a man was born with God. Arnobius said: If you said this piously, the dispute would be ended; but now, how impiously you say it, you are exposed from this very point. For you say, "A man was born with God," so that the very Divinity of the Son of God now appears to have taken a beginning.

But I also say this: man was born with God in such a way that God, who always is and is without beginning, by his own will—whereby he can do all things he wills in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in the depths—was pleased that, with his Divinity safe and intact, he should become a son of man. Tell me, Serapion: could he do this and did not will it, or did he will it and could not? That this invisible God should become one with this man whom he assumed, so that he might be one with him, with his divine substance safe and the man's human substance safe? If he willed it and could not, let him cease to be omnipotent, since he could not fulfill his own will. — Serapion said: We ought to give this reverence to God, that we render the things that are God's separately to God alone, and reckon the things that are man's separately to man alone. — Arnobius said: That belief is impious which admits a fourth person into the divine Trinity. For there will be two sons of Christ; or certainly there will be one Christ, yet not the Son of God. And where is that which in the Creed of the universal Church we confess that we believe, Christ Jesus his only Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary? He who, just as before the ages he was born of the Father, we always confess was born for us of the Virgin Mary, by taking wholly what is God's as man, and by taking up wholly what is man's as God, he could not be anything other than what God is.

For one part, full of omnipotence, receiving into itself that part which did not have omnipotence, poured itself into it with such sweetness that, with the substance of each part preserved, one Son of God was born to us from the Virgin. — Serapion said: Therefore a transmigration of human substance into God has taken place. — Arnobius said: Do you not mean to say, a corruption of human substance? For if I grant you that transmigration of substance, you will prove corruption; and God will be seen, by his own infusion, to have shut out the substance from its state as though it were enclosed. — Serapion said: Was it not enclosed by you, since by his most lowly substance he shut it out from its state, so that man might return into God, not that God might be turned into man? — Arnobius said: Human substance was not only not shut out from its state, but was more strongly confirmed in its state. For just as the state of Mary's virginity, when man was conceived and born, was not cast down from its integrity, but was made more whole; so the state of human substance in the divine infusion—so, I say—was made stronger, so that whatever it had incurred through the fragility of Adam's transgression, through the assumption of God it would utterly not have, and would possess more firmly in the integrity of its substance than Adam himself possessed before his transgression.

IX. — Serapion said: Every substance, when it subsists, is either great and not small, or royal and not private, or immortal and not mortal, or rich and not poor, or divine and not human. But you, confounding all things, while you deny that one of the two stands, are unable to teach us either a true God or a true man. — Arnobius said: Hear what you have said: Every substance is either great and not small. I set it out for you one by one, in case you do not know: in the only-begotten Son of God I profess and assign two substances. Through his humanity he has it that he is truly less than the Father (John XIV, 28); he has that from which he truly took a beginning in time; he has that from which he is truly impassible, and he has that from which he existed as passible; he has that from which he is truly immortal; he has that from which he truly died and was buried; he has that from which he never ceased to live and to dispense life by his own will to all who live; he had also that from which he permitted the soul of his dead body to go to the underworld among the souls of the dead, and to return (Ps. XV). He had that from which he held the dominion of death subjected; he had that from which he was subject to the dominion of death (Heb. II, 14). He had that from which he wept for the dead man, and it was in him from which he commanded that the very man he was weeping for be raised dead (John XI, and 43). And this is the account of his Divinity, that since he has these two most whole substances, you may believe him to be only one Son of God in these two.

Serapion said: Therefore he had some change in himself, from which began to be what he was not. Arnobius said: It is not so; but by the will of the Father, never departing from the Father, he deigned to become man by his own secret mystery, which he himself knows, who, since he took up wholly what is of man, is man; wholly receiving what is of God, he cannot be other than God. Serapion said: And if he was incarnated, as you assert, and mingled, how is there not made a diminution of the divine substance? Arnobius said: Is there anything that God either cannot do or does not know? Serapion said: There is nothing that God cannot do, nothing that he does not know. Arnobius said: Therefore if he knows and can be mingled without corruption of himself, just as he could take up man, so that no increase accrued to him from the taking up, he knew and could pour himself wholly in, and receive no detriment.

X. — Serapion said: What reason compels you, that whenever you speak of the Son of God, who is God born of Mary, you not only say that there is Mary, but you always name this, that he is the Son of man, so that there is Mary? — Arnobius said: Just as I never speak without it, so you too by confessing it confirm your faith, and the end of this our dispute is reached. — Serapion said: From where did this authority of this definition come to you? — Arnobius said: Do you not wish to receive this testimony that the Apostle Paul spoke: The first man was made into a living soul, the last man into a life-giving spirit (I Cor. 15:45)? — Serapion said: Tell me in what order you receive this meaning? — Arnobius said: The Apostle himself explained by his words what I said, saying: For since by man came death, and by man came the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, so in Christ all are made alive (I Cor. 15:21, 22). — Serapion said: I see what you are striving to establish, that because in this place the Apostle names only man, and not also God, he may seem to have taught that the glory of our resurrection is celebrated. — Arnobius said: When you hear Christ, and do not hear the Son of the holy Virgin Mary, know that you hear one of the things of the Jews; and therefore we establish by just reasoning that this one is man only.

But that the Son of the Virgin is God and Christ, we confess with catholic faithfulness in this order: that the glory which the human race had lost through the first man, through this Son of the Virgin, who is God and man, it might recover a hundredfold better. For the region of paradise is read to have been taken away through the first man, but through the second man it is restored, along with the kingdom of paradise, and indulgence of all things is conferred. — Serapion said: Therefore did a man bestow on us these so great benefits, and not the Son of God, God? — Arnobius said: You wish a calumny to arise from that source from which he was born who freed us from all things and from every sin; and from that source you wish to hold me bound, from which we are loosed from bonds; and from that source you wish to take away my freedom, from which freedom is born for the enslaved world, and free birth for the captive. — Serapion said: From what source are such good and so excellent things born? — Arnobius said: From this confession, that I may say the Son of God came in the flesh, as the apostle says: Whoever denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, this is Antichrist (1 John 2:22). There is therefore flesh, that is, he is perfect man; and he who came in the flesh, this is the Son of the invisible God, this is perfect God, the Son of God, the creator of man, with whom he deigned to become the son of man. — Serapion answered: Therefore God is his own creator. — Arnobius said: Where there is no mingling of a man, who was the creator of the one born?

XI. — Serapion said: You make me greatly suspect you, since you keep repeating creature, and flesh, and man, and son, and yet you do not confess that the Son of God was the Son of Mary. — Arnobius said: If the Son of man had not been made the Son of God, Mary could not be the mother of God. Through her Son, therefore, she was made the mother of the Son of God; through the form of a servant which the Lord assumed, she was made the mother of the Lord; nor could she be this, unless she had deserved to become it. Hear what she had to conceive in her womb, or what she had to bring forth, or what she had to wrap in swaddling clothes and lay in a manger (Luke 1), or what she had to nurse, or what she had to take up and flee into Egypt (Matt. 2:13), or what she had to grow in age and wisdom, or what had to be circumcised on the eighth day, or what had to be baptized by John (Luke 2), unless he were a perfect man, in whom was perfect God, who fashioned him as a man in the womb. — Serapion said: This is the doctrine of Nestorius. — Arnobius said: I have at hand the things that Nestorius asserts; if the judges order it, I will read them out. — The judges said: Let what is offered by Arnobius be read, so that Serapion's objection, if it is true, may be demonstrated. And when the homily had been received, it was read to the passage as follows: The most holy Mary did not give birth to the Godhead, for what is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6). The creature did not give birth to the creator; but she gave birth to the man, the minister of the Godhead.

The Holy Spirit did not build the Word God. For, he says, what was born of her is of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). And so for God the Word the Virgin built him a temple. And a little later: He who was born of himself is God in the womb of God. And a little later: let us honor the form in God. Likewise in another preaching, whose beginning is this: Often turning over with myself the fruits of life, and pondering the manifold mutability of earthly things, and the snares scattered through life, hesitating I exclaimed: Who will be able to be delivered? And a little later he says: The divine nature separates the Spirit, who created his humanity. Whatever was born of Mary is of the Holy Spirit, who also according to justice filled what was created. This which was manifested in the flesh was justified in the Spirit (1 Timothy 3:16). Likewise he says: He who made him to be feared by demons, of whom the Lord himself says, I cast out demons by the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28), he himself made his flesh a temple. Whence the Baptist says: I saw the Holy Spirit descending from heaven and remaining in him (John 1:32). Likewise a little later: He who gave him elevation into heaven, he says, gave commands to the apostles whom he chose through the Holy Spirit, and afterward he was lifted up into heaven (Acts 1). Therefore those who think that this one, who granted such a dispensation to Christ, was born carnal, separate him from the divine nature. Likewise in another preaching, whose beginning is this: No sickness is worse for human souls than ignorance.

And a little later: But they make this [claim] about God according to [the teaching] after blessed Mary, when they assign a temporal mother to the Deity that is the creator of times; indeed, they do not even permit her to be the mother of Christ, which she also is. For, as they say, it was not human nature but God the Word that was born of her, and she who gave birth is not the mother of the one born. For how can she be a mother of something alien to her own nature? But if she is a mother, as they themselves call her, then what was born is humanity, and not Deity. For it is proper to a mother to give birth to one similar to her own essence; for either she will not be a mother, if she has not given birth to one similar to her own essence; or if she is a mother, she has given birth to one similar to her own essence. Likewise after other things: For God is the creator of months, and is not the offspring of months; the fashioner of holy Mary was not afterward fashioned by the Spirit in her. But without my teaching, hear the angel saying to Joseph himself: Take the child and his mother (Matthew 2:13). He said "of the child," therefore, not "of the Deity." Likewise after these things: Do you wish another testimony to be added for you? And so the days were completed that she should give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son (Luke 2:6-7). Behold, you have [the one] whose mother she was, that is, the mother of the child whom Mary bore, not of the Deity, which encompasses all things. Hear also another testimony: But the magi, seeing the star, rejoiced with exceedingly great joy, and entering the house they found the child with Mary his mother (Matthew 2:10-11). Everywhere the Virgin is proclaimed the mother of the child, not of the Deity.

A. Why then do you ordain the flesh as mother of the Deity? And a little later: It fell to the Virgin to give birth to humanity, to the Word of God the ministry of Deity. — And when he was reading these things, the judges said: Let the words of Nestorius suffice thus far; let Serapion make plain what he thinks about these matters.

XII. — Serapion answered: If he does not think so, nor does Arnobius believe it, why does he frequent and — Arnobius said: If I say it and deny it, you rightly accuse me of being a Nestorian, or perhaps by a light trace of your accusation you are yourself accused. But now the whole course of my defense attacks the one who denies Mary; and you condemn Nestorius along with me, when Nestorius execrates me along with you. — Serapion said: For what reason does Nestorius execrate me along with you? — Arnobius said: For the reason that I do not deny holy Mary along with you. — Serapion said: By arguing in speech, you who confess her, by asserting her you attack her. — Arnobius said: Do you deny that Christ is the Son of God? — Serapion said: I do not deny that Christ is the Son of God; but I rebuke you, who assert Christ to be a man, and not the Son of God. — Arnobius said: Before he was born of Mary, was he the Son of God beforehand? — Serapion said: Who would say this except Photinus? — Arnobius said: Therefore he always was. — Serapion said: He always was. — Arnobius said: Who is this who was born? — Serapion said: The very one who always was. — Arnobius said: He who always was is pure in nature, either with a man, or outside a man, or through a man? — Serapion said: I did not say these things, because you wish to show a man.

Arnobius said: If I were saying he is a man, and not at the same time God, I would be denying the Son without diminution of his Deity, and you would rightly raise these objections. Serapion answered: You are ashamed to say that God was born, God was tempted, God was crucified, dead, and buried, although even Paul says: I am not ashamed of the Gospel; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). You, therefore, are ashamed to believe this Lord, whom, wishing to show as an impassible God, you assign as our deliverer to be only a man. Hence I must ask you: Who is it who suffered for us, God or man? Arnobius said: Both man and God was he born; and man suffered. Serapion said: And how do you make the impassible God, the Son of God, a stranger to the passion of his humanity? Arnobius said: Just as he was born in time, though he was begotten before all times, and yet is the son of man, so also, though he is truly impassible, he truly suffered, and though he is truly immortal, he truly died with his passible nature. For he died from our weakness, but lives by the power of God (2 Cor. 13:4). For human passibility was so taken up by him who remains impassible, that it was with him when he was conceived, when he was born, when he was baptized, when he was tempted, when he was sold, when he was handed over, when he was mocked, when he was struck, when he was crowned with thorns, when he was fed with gall and given vinegar to drink, when he was crucified, and died, and was buried.

For he did not abandon him in hell, nor did he give his Holy One to see corruption (Ps 15:10). With him he also rose from the dead on the third day, with him he ascended into heaven, with him he sits at the right hand of the Father, and with him he will come as judge. Indeed, the angels said to the apostles at the hour of the ascension: This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way, etc. (Acts 1:11).

XIII. — Serapion said: In this I judge you to be all the more a Nestorian, and by the most just reasoning, because, while carrying about the books of Nestorius, you have made no mention of Saint Cyril the bishop, who wrote very many things against Nestorius in catholic discourse. — Arnobius said: I give you thanks, almighty God, because from the mouth of Serapion you have brought forth victory. — The judges said: In what statement do you claim that victory has been brought forth for you? — Arnobius said: In that one in which he says: Of Saint Cyril the bishop, who wrote many things against Nestorius in catholic discourse. It is established, therefore, in the judgment of Serapion, that the doctrine of Saint Cyril is sound and apostolic. — The judges said: If Serapion denies this, let him depart condemned not only by us, but also by the holy Church of Alexandria and by the universal catholic Church which is throughout the whole world. — Arnobius said: The man of apostolic memory, S.

Cyril, bishop of the church of Alexandria, when he had learned that the Nestorian dogma, contrary to the faith, was spreading, wrote throughout all Egypt, and sent to Saint Celestine, bishop of apostolic memory, saying that it pertained to his praise if something had been corrected by him who held the citadel of the pontificate. But Saint Celestine so acted that he pronounced the sentence of Nestorius's condemnation; and he praised the merit of Cyril both in the sight of God and of all, asserting that his understanding was strengthened by the preaching of the distinguished bishops of our province; and he clearly set forth that this had been the understanding of Damasus, Ambrose, and Hilary. For he says in that same council: I remember that Ambrose of blessed memory, on the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, caused all the people with one voice to sing to God: Come, Redeemer of the nations, show forth the offspring of the Virgin, let every age marvel, such a birth becomes God. Does such a birth become a man? And he added: Therefore the understanding of our brother Cyril, in that he says Mary, agrees greatly, such a birth becomes God. The Virgin brought forth God by her birth, he being able who is full of omnipotence. Hilary also, a man of keen intellect, writing to the emperor Constantius, speaks thus concerning the incarnation of the Lord: The Son of God became man, God. And repeating it in reverse order: God the Son of man became God, not God became man, and the Son of the Lord became the Son of God.

For the greatness of the Lord surpassed the smallness of the servile form, so that that very servile form which he assumed ceased to be servile through the Lord who assumed it. For if those who are not by nature sons of God are made sons of God through him, how much more has he who is by nature the Son of God so exalted in God that one whom he conceived and bore in the virgin womb by his own will, that at his name every knee should bow of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth? Likewise my predecessor Damasus, writing to Paulinus, bishop of the church of Antioch, says among other things: We anathematize those who assert that there are two sons of God, one who is begotten of the Father, and another who is born of the Virgin from the assumption of flesh. Likewise the same man, Damasus, of apostolic memory, in another letter to Paulinus: We anathematize those who confess that there are two sons in the Savior: one before the incarnation, and another after the flesh was assumed from the virgin, and who do not confess that the same is the Son of God, and that both before and afterward the same is the true Son of God, Christ, who was born of the Virgin.

XIV.—And when Arnobius was pursuing these points, Serapion said: It was not without reason that I asked these things; but I wished to see the zeal for the catholic defense against the Nestorian dogma so equipped, as you are learned in the assertion of Nestorius. Arnobius said: I have learned that the error of Nestorius is to be avoided, and I have recognized that the doctrine of Cyril is to be defended. — Serapion said: Bring forth, then, some things through which you may teach that Cyril asserted two substances in the one Son of God, namely the human and the divine. — Arnobius immediately brought forth a codex of the letters of Cyril, which had at its head this letter: Cyril to all the bishops and presbyters, and deacons, fathers of the monks and those who with you lead a solitary life, and who have been confirmed in the Me of God, to the beloved and most dear, and to the region of Alexandria, salvation in God. Recently certain of you came to Alexandria in the customary manner. But when I was inquiring and exceedingly eager to learn whether you also, modestly following the footsteps of your Fathers, are striving that the right and immaculate faith may grow, adorned moreover with excellent conduct, judging true the will of the religious life by holy labors, to endure newly for a new labor.

And after a few words he said: Our father Athanasius, of everlasting memory, who presided over the episcopate of the Church of Alexandria for forty-six years, who possessed the invincible and apostolic wisdom against the profane subtleties of heretics, and who, as if with a most fragrant ointment, gladdens the whole world by his writings, whose right faith and true knowledge of doctrines the testimonies of all approve—when he composed his work concerning the sacrosanct Trinity and the one substance, which in Greek is called homoousios, in the third book he repeatedly calls her the holy Virgin. But I shall necessarily use his words and expressions, which are as follows: "This," he says, "is the meaning and character of holy Scripture, as we have often said, that there is in it a twofold signification concerning the Savior." When these things were being read out, Serapion responded: I do not know whether Athanasius said there is a twofold signification concerning the Savior. — The judges said: No one can by any reasoning falsify the things that are kept in the archives of the Church of Alexandria. Therefore permit them to be read out with all silence. For we are certain concerning the writings of Cyril, bishop of holy memory, that neither Arnobius nor anyone else can by any reasoning falsify anything. And the writings of St. Cyril the bishop concerning Athanasius were read out. — Arnobius said: The holy Scriptures have a twofold signification concerning the Savior: that God always was, and is, the Son, and the Word, and the light, and the wisdom of the Father, and that he who afterward for our sake took flesh from Mary the Virgin and became man.

Likewise, after other things: But many have been holy and clean from sin: Jeremiah was sanctified from the womb, and John, while he was in the womb, leaped for joy at the voice of Mary, who bore God. These things Athanasius said, a man of the highest authority, and one who ought to be believed, and he never said things that do not accord with the sacred writings; nor could it happen that so distinguished and most renowned a man should be ignorant of the truth, whom even in the holy synod that was then convened at Nicaea, others admired before themselves. Indeed he had not yet ascended to the seat of the episcopate, but was still counted among the clergy. Moreover, on account of his sagacity and modesty, and because of his subtle and incomparable knowledge, having been summoned by our father of most blessed memory, Bishop Alexander, he was always present, and like a son guiding his father in matters to be done, he supplied his counsel and a useful way. But since it can happen that some may think that we ought to labor at a treatise of this kind even from the venerable and divine Scripture, let them also add the holy and great synod, that it neither said the mother of the Lord, nor established anything at all on this matter: come now, as much as is understood of the truth and of the dispensation concerning Christ, let us show that the divine Scripture has now been proclaimed by us.

But that the Fathers themselves also spoke while holding fast the holy and inviolable faith, the Holy Spirit inspiring the truth in them—for they themselves were not speaking, according to the voice of the Savior, but the Spirit of God the Father was speaking in them (Matt. 10). And a little later he says: The holy and greatest synod says from the substance of God and the Father that the Only-Begotten himself was begotten (John 1), through whom all things, for us men and for our salvation, descended from the heavens, was incarnate and became man, suffered and rose again, and will come in time as judge. And after a few things, he says: Therefore he took hold of the seed of Abraham, and the Word of God shared in flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14, 16), making a body from a woman, so that he might be understood as not only God but also man according to us, on account of the union. Therefore from two things together, evidently from deity and humanity, Emmanuel is, yet one Lord Jesus Christ, one truly Son, both God and not a deified man, that is, a God-bearer, as others are by grace; but rather the true God appeared in human form. Likewise a little later: Since it is therefore manifest that Christ is not spoken of apart from the flesh, and the Word of God is not separate, but it is fitting that he be named thus rather, after he became man, we prove this, giving credence to the sacred writings, that he is by nature God, and that in his union with the flesh he came together.

Likewise, a little later he says: For just as we die in Adam, so in Christ all are made alive. For if he did not suffer in a human manner for us, then neither did he in a divine manner have regard for our salvation. He is said first to have died as a man; but to have risen afterwards, because he was by nature God. Therefore, if he did not suffer carnally, neither did he die according to the Scriptures, nor was he made alive in the spirit, nor did the same one altogether come back to life. And if this is true, our faith is vain and we are still in our sins. Likewise, a little after he says: I hear our same Lord Jesus Christ clearly saying of his soul: No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and again I have power to take it up. For he descended into death through his flesh, he who knew not death, so that we might rise again with him unto life. For he came back to life when he had despoiled the underworld, not as a man alongside us, but as God in the flesh with us and above us. For nature in him first brought about immortality, and death was crushed, which had invaded the body of life in the manner of an enemy: just as Adam conquered, so in Christ it was conquered. Therefore, as he ascended both because of us and on behalf of us to the heavenly Father and Lord, so that he might make heaven passable and ascendable for earthly men, the divine singer brought back triumphant songs: God has ascended in jubilation.

Whence also Paul says: He who descended is himself also he who ascended above the heavens, that he might fill all things (Eph. 4:9). Likewise, near the end of this Epistle he says: We do not ignore the glory of him who was made man like us, yet remained the same who had been God.

XV. — The judges said: Arnobius has satisfied abundantly, both by human reasoning and by the authority of divine law and by the assertions of the earlier great and holy bishops Ambrose, Hilary, Gregory, and also Athanasius and Cyril himself, and he has clearly shown that their doctrine was this: that two substances exist in the one Son of God, namely of divinity and of humanity; through which two substances he so far does not believe that there are two sons, that he has even read that those willing to believe so were condemned by the execration of Damasus, Hilary, and Ambrose. Superfluously, therefore, do we delay to give the palm to the victor, since the most holy bishop Cyril also brought forth testimonies by which it is read even by Saint Athanasius that God and man were united in the one Son of God, not so that the Word, which was always in the beginning and remains in its divinity, ceased through the assumption of a man to be God, which it always was; but so that man might begin to be God, which he had not been before. Emmanuel was conceived in the womb, and therefore Mary, because the man who was conceived and born began from the time of conception to be God in the womb, and is God in the birth.

This is the sense of Cyril, this the sense of Athanasius, Damasus, Ambrose, Gregory, Hilary; this the sense of Arnobius has been approved. Either let Serapion join his right hand in concord, or let him depart confuted.

XVI. — Serapion replied: If not everything that the mind has conceived by consideration has been refined, there will not be a clear showing of the truth. Wherefore, that I may be able more evidently to give assent to the assertions of Arnobius, let him hand over the whole little work of Cyril to be read in your hearing, lest perhaps, with the sentences castrated, he may have cut off the suitable passages according to his own judgment, so as to prove that his defense agrees with the doctrine of Cyril. — Arnobius said: Although the volumes that teach that Cyril so felt and believed concerning the Lord Jesus are infinite, namely that in the one Son of God both true God and true man is to be believed and worshiped, and that Mary is so as; nevertheless, behold, the book is offered entire, if you command, to be read. — The judges said: Once the mind, stunned by contention, even when the whole has been read, will not fail to have something to bring forward, and may occupy the spans of delay with superfluous effort: nevertheless, because the book of St. Cyril is at hand, let it be read. And when the codex had been opened, the title was read thus, etc.

XVII. After this letter had been read publicly, the aforesaid judges said: Behold, the book of the blessed Cyril has been read through from beginning to end, which Arnobius is known to have produced in agreement with his own faith; if anything remains to Serapion that he may bring forward, let him disclose it. Serapion said: I am led by love of the faith, and I shall be able to glory more in being conquered than in being confounded. For the servant ought not to act concerning his own victory, who contends with a fellow servant concerning the honor of the Lord or His dishonor, and, as he wishes, to show that he dishonors his Lord in his speeches. The most blessed kind of correction is that in which no dispute is conducted concerning money, nor concerning those things of which we have no need after the laying down of the body, but concerning those things which pertain to eternal joy or bring on eternal fire. I bring these things forward for this reason, that if I should still bring forward anything against Arnobius, I may not be thought to have brought it forward out of love of contention, so as to try to generate victory for myself from my contention, but that Arnobius may bring forward that very victory of truth, polished through all its members and splendid, so that he may testify that nothing of what I have now done remains for me to do at this time. The appointed judges said: Say, therefore, if you recognize that anything remains to you.

XVIII. Serapion said: This book which has been read, of St. Cyril, does not teach two substances in the Son of God, but attempts to show one. — Arnobius said: Show that very one which it attempts to show. — Serapion said: Of the divinity only, not of the humanity; so that Mary is called the mother of God, but not also of the man. For he wishes her to be called this, not that; or if he agrees with the other, show it. — Arnobius said: St. Cyril, against those who deny that holy Mary, following his predecessors the bishops Theophilus and Athanasius, showed that she existed, lest perhaps she be thought to have an equal, when it is said. For there were also other Christ-bearers, yet none so and, and a virgin was made fruitful as Mary. Recalling therefore this which is greater, he was silent about that which is less. Now he who spoke before, did Mary have a father and a mother, and was she a man, is he to be thought to have denied that she was a man? He impressed therefore this point, about which there was contention. For Nestorius by no means suffered it to be believed, and therefore by frequent assertion he brought it about, that he might teach this which he denied. — Serapion said: Teach therefore that the sense of Cyril was such, that he who was born of Mary he recalled to be both God and man. — Arnobius said: And we affirm, and the book which has been read; receive from it the things which have been read thus: Not for this reason was the only-begotten Word of God made man, that he should cease to be God, but that in the assumption also of the flesh we might behold the glory of his own majesty.

If it is not enough that he said these things first, listen to what he said in the second place: Being placed in the flesh, he heard the Father saying, Sit at my right hand (Ps. 109). Hear also what he said in the third place: Joining the divine Scripture of the age, the Word of God, with a condition, and bringing together the human and mortal and the divine nature into one something, yet in such a way that he is understood not simply as a God-bearing man, but as God incarnate, who through the dispensation of the union (note what he is saying) ascribes to himself a body from the holy Virgin. For in this way, and not otherwise, is Christ understood. Hear also what he asserts in the fourth place: In Christ we affirm that, by a certain secret and ineffable reason, the Godhead and the human condition were united into one, so that in the same one there is understood at once both a man according to us and God above us. In the fifth place also hear what he said of the Son of God: Just as that pure and venerable flesh, which was brought forth from the holy Virgin, was proper to the Word himself, who is with God the Father, so all things that belong to the flesh, without sin alone, he had to undergo, and all things so that he might be born of a mother. Have you heard what he said? — Serapion answered: I have heard. — Arnobius said: Explain to me what he said. — Serapion answered: The pure and honorable flesh, which was brought forth from holy Mary, altogether so that he might be born of a mother. — Arnobius said: Whatever you understand in this passage, make me know it. — Serapion said: I think he said this, that the mother of the holy flesh is this Virgin who gave birth.

Arnobius said: Do you wish to see that you have understood correctly? Consider what he added to this discourse. If, he says, the Godhead is understood apart from the flesh, it will itself by itself be without a mother—and rightly so. Serapion said: I ask you to make plain to me what he is trying to establish. Arnobius said: It is clearer than light that he sets forth that Mary is the mother of God according to the flesh, which flesh alone he created. For the Godhead, he says, alone has no mother, so that it may be understood that God and man are one Son of God, this one who was born. Hence, adding in the sixth place, he says: If we wish to tread rightly, it was not the bare Godhead, but the Word of God the Father mingled between the flesh and the one born, that created the holy Virgin, who was chosen for the venerable childbearing, so that she might bear in the flesh him who deigned to put on flesh. Serapion said: I have heard this whole book with the closed ears of my mind, and therefore I have not seen those two persons expressed in one Son of God by Cyril's assertion. For how would two persons not be taught as brought forth by the virgin birth, when he says that God was born in the flesh, who deigned to assume it? etc. Arnobius said: Certainly the flesh together with the one who assumed the flesh. For the assumer of the flesh is God, but the flesh is the whole man; the whole man is he who has flesh and soul. For Apollinaris was condemned for this reason, that he put God incarnate in place of the soul. And therefore we ought not even to remember the things condemned in the council of Nicaea. Hear therefore St. Cyril speaking in his little book which has been read.

If, he says, we wish to be wise rightly and to tread the path without error, we must not say that the Word of God the Father, mixed with the Godhead, created the holy Virgin, who was chosen for the venerable childbearing, so that she might bear in the flesh him who deigned to assume flesh. — The judges said: It is clear that Arnobius's defense agrees with the assertions of Cyril; therefore that reasoning is unjust which delays to defer victory to him who, after the outcome of the dispute, deserves the palm.

XIX. — Serapion said: I beseech you by your justice, that just as Arnobius recounted in order what Cyril said in the first place, and the second, and the third, concerning the matter under discussion, so that he has come even to the sixth; now, lest perhaps he has taken other chapters of the same book that are more evident, which you will show to be of value for this very point, grant my petition. — The judges said: Say to which part you wish him to direct his argument. — Serapion said: I indeed retain as most approved already within me, and I believe with all my heart that it is as Arnobius defends. But the fellow citizens and fellow countrymen placed in this error, in which I was, can by no reasoning be called away from this error, unless by this alone, that it be said to them and proved that St. Cyril held thus. — Arnobius said: I too implore your fairness, that, as I show the passages of the book of St. Cyril in order, you deign to wait patiently until I reach its end.

The judges said: Although there is no cause for expectation, nevertheless, believing that your petition ought to be granted, we allow the passages of the little book to be shown by Arnobius in abundance, so that both our hearers and the readers of this our proceeding may either not err, or, if they have erred, may be recalled from the path of error. The mercy of our God will be ready for these elect, that they may return to Christ, to peace, to the concord of the catholic faith—those who, thinking that the one Son of God is divided into two parts, hold to the Roman Church, have miserably slain themselves, since our Lord Jesus Christ himself says: Everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to the council (Matt. 5:22). Behold, there is no cause, and yet slaughter has been made of peoples; blind fury goes through the whole Christian people, through bishops, through presbyters, through deacons, through archimandrites, through almost every multitude of monks and innumerable crowds. So all Egypt, so all Palestine has been thrown into turmoil, that the shedding of human blood has made the earth itself drunk; and the sole cause of the uproar is no error at all. For since the preaching of Saint Cyril pleases all Egypt and the Syrians, what great madness is it that rages against its own brothers and foams with anger, when the whole brotherhood of peoples is of the same faith? Serapion said: I confess that my error took its beginning from no other source than this, that those who assert two substances in the one Son of God claim that there are two sons of God, and that these are perfect.

For if he is truly believed to be the Son of God, begotten of the Father before the ages, who by his omnipotence willed to enter the narrow lodging of a virgin's womb—so that he who had once been born of the Father alone before time might be born again, not alone, with a man—it is established that there are two substances in the one Lord Jesus, just as the preaching of Saint Cyril set forth in the mass of iron which fire sets ablaze, so that the iron is in its own substance and the fire in its own nature, but both are joined into one union, and thus they subsist in one coalescence, so that it is not the iron but only the fire that can be made manifest to human senses—to the senses, I say, of seeing and touching, by which our reason is gathered and one comes to that which is true. Let Arnobius therefore continue what he has begun, so that those who unjustly persecute their brothers may at last be ashamed.

XX. — Arnobius said: Up to now the matter of the sixth chapter has been treated; but what was done in the seventh I shall recite. She bore him carnally, he who for our sake was made man and an infant. For he was not among us, that is, he was not constituted in our likeness alone, but he was in the human condition on account of the flesh; but divine and heavenly he is above us. — Scrapion said: Of whom did he say, He was made man? — Arnobius said: Of the Son of God, before the ages and begotten of the Father, of whom he said above: He did not cease to be God when he assumed flesh.

Serapion said: Did this God who assumed a man by his omnipotence make that very man God? It is established, from the one assuming and the one assumed, that Cyril taught one Son of God. Arnobius said: Behold, in the eighth place he continued: The bare account of the Godhead, if it be considered as existing without flesh, will not of itself need the aid of our discourse. Serapion said: I ask you, explain this sentence briefly. Arnobius said: If the account of the Godhead be considered bare, that is, without flesh—that is, if it be considered without man—it will not need the account of a more human explanation. For what can speech avail to say of the invisible God? And therefore, opening this understanding in one chapter, he says: But how was the only-begotten Word of God made flesh, and dwelt among us? Therefore these things are referred to him. Let us now follow on, and let us recite what he said in the ninth chapter. He calls the holy Virgin a prophetess. For she who was pregnant with Christ fulfilled the office of a prophet. Likewise in the tenth chapter: For the divine infant, he says, who was born and was more excellent than the whole world, was indeed in the cradle and in the lap of his Mother, according to the custom of the human condition, but he was also God. Serapion said: When he says that this infant who was born was also God, he has evidently expressed two persons. Arnobius said: You have begun to open the ears of your soul. Certainly, when he said "was," he also wished to show that the infant was indeed born, who was not only an infant but also God.

In the twelfth place also, when he presses more closely upon those who deny that two substances met in the only Son of God. For he says: But someone says: How can it be that the nature of man should receive the majesty of the Godhead, especially since God himself said most plainly to blessed Moses: How no one shall see my face and live? And so, if the Godhead is intolerable and has an inaccessible contact, how will it seem credible that God and man met in one? But against a question of this kind I would indeed say that the reason of this dispensation is beyond every measure and kind of miracle, and beyond the thought of our mind and the sense. But yet it was done wisely, with God making his own nature tolerable to our weakness. — Serapion said: No one so evidently distinguished the divine and human nature in the one Christ as to say: They are rebuked who deny that God and man met in one. And he added, saying: I would say against a question of this kind, etc. — Arnobius said: You have well considered that he alone taught in an apostolic manner that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself; but you have also taken up the case against those who say that man could by no means come into the substance of God. Let us pass over the twelfth, and come to the fourteenth.