Conflictus De Deo Trino Et Uno

For he says in what follows: As far as human reason and senses are concerned, the Godhead and the human condition could by no means agree with one another; yet they agree in Christ, and one from both is Emmanuel. But he who separates both the man by himself and the Son of God, and reckons them as another, seems to me not to understand the truth, and not to be able to see it. We shall speak likewise concerning the fourteenth. To show that two substances were in the one Son of God, he says: Just as the substance of iron, when it is melted in the midst of the heat of a furnace, burns like fire, and is turned into its appearance by the heat, and imitates the brightness of the conquering flame; so the nature of the flesh, when it is joined to the eternal and incorruptible Son of God, ceased to be what it had been. — Serapion said: What is this, ceased to be what it had been? — Arnobius said: The following verse indicates why he said, It ceased to be what it had been. For he says in the following discourse: Nor did it remain further in— Serapion said: Open it to me that I may see what he means. — Arnobius said: Every nature of the human race has the frailty of affections and senses; but this one never fell into this plague, nor ever suffered anything without his own will; but as it is written, All things whatsoever the Lord willed he made in heaven and in earth, in the sea, in the abysses (Ps. 134:6).

The judges said: In what way have we seen Serapion, the hands of your victory—if it may be said with his leave—to have failed? Draw for us, at least in word, the line of your faith of peace, so that things worthy of remembrance may not be covered in silence.

XXI. Arnobius, a follower of Jesus Christ, said: While we confess two natures and two substances in the Only-begotten, it is objected that we call one the Son of God and the other the son of man. But we, on the authority of the Apostle, say: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor 5:19). For if he reconciled the world, so as to make those who believe in him sons of God—though men are by nature servants, not sons of God, and in act also guilty, and through the transgression of the first man enemies, subject to the hostility of the human race (Rom 5:10; Rom 6:16-17)—nevertheless by his grace he made them sons of God (John 1:12). He, therefore, who made others sons of God, how is he himself not the Son of God, united with the Word which is read to have been made flesh (John 1:14)? The Word which was before the world was (John 17:5); the Word which is not from a beginning, but was always in the very beginning; the Word which lacks a beginning, but is itself the beginning; the Word which is not subject to time, or a moment, or an atom, or a point, but is the creator of all things—this Word, not losing its timelessness, but assuming a temporal and perfect man, perfect God, a man born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, through omnipotence (Luke 1:35; Matt

For this reason, because almighty God is Father and Holy Spirit; through this omnipotence of his, therefore, he willed that this man whom he assumed should do this, by assuming from time what he himself always was without time; so that they can no longer be called two sons, one begotten before the ages and the other born in time, but one Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence it is that it was said by the Apostle: And even if we have known the Lord Jesus according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him (2 Cor 5:16). As if someone should say: And even if we knew wool before it became purple through the mixture of the murex dye, yet now we no longer know wool, but the purple, which among all men no one could use unless he were endowed with the dignity of Augustus. At this point an objection is pressed: Therefore was Jesus vile wool beforehand, and did the Godhead coming upon him make him purple? We do not say so; but before the Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and she conceived this which would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35, 36), before this the womb of Mary itself, although it was clean from sin and holy, was nevertheless in the lowliness of humility like the best wool, incomparable to all the virgins who were under heaven; and it was such and so great that it worthily received in itself the Godhead of the Son of God, as the wool of the murex received the blood, and that wool itself ceased to be wool, but through the blood became true purple, as was mentioned.

For this is not wool, but it is precious that is capable of this blood. But if this blood by its admixture so elevates wool with such great majesty that no one may use it except him who is endowed with royal dignity, how much more, when the Holy Spirit came into Mary and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, did this one who was born of her from the seed of David according to the flesh make himself with her the Son of God, so that Mary might be such as? Because before Mary there were other Christ-bearers, but not virgins, nor from the Holy Spirit, nor with the power of the Most High overshadowing. But this one both is alone, and alone a virgin, conceiving from the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High.

XXII. — Now it is objected concerning his temptations and sufferings: whether the very Godhead, at the same time by diabolical interpretation, was in the Jewish passion. To these things hear the prophet singing how the Lord loves judgment, and will not forsake his saints. I add another thing: if he did not forsake the three boys in the furnace of fire, but he himself who was always the Son of God appeared there as a fourth among the three, how much more did he not forsake his Holy One, when he began to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin, and to be born with the one being born, to be nursed with the one nursing, to grow with the one growing? He himself indeed was tempted with the one tempted, and crucified with the one crucified.

It is objected: How then do you assert that God is impassible, you who say that he was conceived at the same time, born at the same time, and at the same time was both tempted and suffered, and yet never abandoned his Holy One? I will answer: You must remember the example of the wool and the blood of the murex. When therefore this wool has become purple through the admixture of blood, when it is spun, or woven, or twisted, the wool certainly receives majesty. Surely that which is twisted is not deprived of the purple color? I add another example: Let us say, for instance: when you have struck a tree with the blow of an axe, and if you strike the splendor of the sun at the same time, you indeed inflict a wound on the tree, but you strike the sun and its splendor at the same time, and you leave its heat impassible. But if the sun does not abandon the tree at the blow of the striker, how much more did the Son of God, who is the Word, by no means abandon his Holy One in his passion? And just as the bush truly had flame, so the Son of Man truly suffered; and just as it was truly not burned, so the Son of God truly did not suffer.

XXIII. — It is objected again: You make two, the son of man and the Son of God. It is answered: I do not make two in a way that divides, but in one Godhead I distinguish two substances, one which had a temporal birth, the other which could not be subject to time at all. One, by which he was placed as an infant in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes (Luke II, 7), and grew in age and wisdom (Luke II, 52); the other, by which he himself creates those who are being born, and gives them to live and to grow in age and wisdom. One, by which he is baptized by a servant, as if receiving sanctification (Matthew III, 15); the other, by which he himself sanctifies both the water and the Baptist. One, by which he sleeps in the boat and is awakened by the disciples; the other, by which he himself awakens them so that they awaken the Lord. One, which is subject to the winds, the blasts, and the storm; the other, which commands the winds and orders the storms (Mark IV, 39; Matthew VIII, 24). One, by which he weeps for a dead man; the other, by which he commands death to release the dead and buried man (John XI, 35, 44). One, by which he is sold by a disciple (Matthew XXVI; John XIX); the other, by which he redeems the whole world. One, by which he is fed with gall and given vinegar to drink (Matthew XXVII); the other, by which he feeds with the bread of eternal life and offers the cup of everlasting joy (Matthew XXVI). One, by which he is sorrowful even unto death; the other, by which he frees from sorrow and gives the joy of life. One, by which he dies and is buried; the other, by which he opens the graves, etc.

One, by which he was raised into the heavens while the apostles watched, and sits at the right hand of the Father; the other, by which he did not depart from the bosom of the Father, but was always in the Father and with the Father, and does not cease to be. It is objected, then: And when in the Virgin's womb the Word was made flesh, and when as an infant he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger, and grew in age and wisdom, and performed the other things which we know he did throughout his whole life, did he never depart from the bosom of the Father? It is answered: When a certain questioner said to a certain learned man, Tell me, in what place is God now? he is reported to have given this answer: Tell me where he is not, and then ask where he is. But indeed, since the prophet cries out: If I ascend into heaven, etc., and he himself says: I fill heaven and earth, how could it happen that he who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit was absent from the Father and the Holy Spirit, when he was in the Virgin's womb, when he was born, when he was nursed, etc., and yet never departed from the bosom of the Father? And when he had said these things, the judges and all the hearers said: What you assert is subtle enough, and cannot be seen by us unless it has been made clear by some comparisons.

XXIV. — Tell me, said Arnobius. From where is a spring born? And they answered, saying: From a vein of the earth. — Arnobius said: This vein from which the spring is born should fittingly depict in your mind the place of the Father, so that the Father is the vein, the Son the spring, who is born from the vein; but from the vein and the spring the river is not born, but proceeds. It is one thing to be born, another to proceed. Whatever pertains to giving life, and to healing, and to washing, is of one and the same substance: but of a threefold person, so that the vein is the Father begetting the Son, whom we called the spring; but from the vein and the spring the Holy Spirit is not born, but proceeds as a river. And let it go forward connected with itself, so that the three are one, and so truly three, that they are truly one. The Son, therefore, the same spring of life together with the river, the same Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, encircles all the spaces of the circle of the earth, giving drink to the thirsty, pouring into the dry places, watering the lands, washing away filth, fashioning, strengthening, and by giving life sustaining the kinds of all men, birds, cattle, creeping things, and fish: nor is there life at all for anyone, except for those for whom the spring and the river proceeding from the very bosom of the vein of the spring, by going around, washes away filth, pours into the dry places, gives drink to the thirsty, cools the burning, refreshes the distressed, and sustains all the generations of men, birds, cattle, creeping things, and fish by its draught.

But the vein never suffers the absence of the spring that is born from it before, of the river that proceeds from it and from the spring. But if the element of water, subject to our servitude, is proven to have this power, that going with a most rapid course through mountains, through hills, through the channels of aqueducts and pipes, it nevertheless does not depart from the bosom of the vein but flows around it, and by remaining in the same place it runs about; how much more do the Son and the Holy Spirit, never wholly departing from that bosom of majesty, endure in unity of substance with an inseparable and entire Trinity, in Trinity of person.

XXV. — But to those wishing to inquire into the majesty and origin of this holy Trinity, the vein of the spring comes to meet them: dig as much as you can, you will never be able to reach its beginning. A more abundant vein meets you; whatever you have sought by knocking, the more you are prevented from inquiring, the more you wish to arrive by inquiring rather than by believing. And if you cannot prevail to find the beginning of this vein subject to your feet, how will you be able to find the beginning of the Father? But if you have found the beginning of the Father, you will find also that of the Son. For if you have found when the vein began to flow, you will find also when the spring was born from that vein; you will find also when the river from the vein of the spring began to proceed. But just as you cannot prevail to reach the beginning of the vein, how in the beginning the vein already was, in which was the spring, and the spring was with the vein, and the vein was his Father, who was in the beginning with God (John 1:4).

The Word of the Father, indeed, is the spring, which is the Son of the vein, the spring of life, as the Psalmist sings, saying to the vein: "For with you is the spring of life" (Psalm 35:10). But the river proceeding from the spring began then to proceed from the vein, when the vein brought forth the spring. For thus it is read that the Father said: "My heart has brought forth a good Word" (Psalm 44:2). But just as you will not find the beginning of the vein, so neither of the spring; and just as you will not find the beginning of the vein nor of the spring, so neither will you find it of the river. Therefore, just as the vein flows forth and the spring and the river together, so too the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together; and as far as the dignity of the Creator differs from the creature, so far does the comparison of the creature differ from the Creator. But to whatever extent you are able to perceive and speak something better, all the more will there remain that wherein the Divinity may be believed better and more truly. Well, as has been said, does what is not said exclude what is better said, but it adorns it; but what is said badly is eliminated and driven out by what is said well. Therefore Wisdom commands that ears be always open to those who speak better things, and to minds, saying: "Open your ear to the word of truth, and strengthen your heart in righteous words" (Proverbs 13:17).

XXVI. — One must certainly beware lest, falling into the sense of the wicked Sabellius, you believe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be one God in such a way that you do not think the Father to be the true begetter of the Son, and do not believe the only-begotten to be the true Son of the Father, and the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Father and the Son, just as one God is to be believed according to sacred Scripture, which says: "The Lord your God is one God" (Deut. 6:4). Thus the one true God, the Father; the one and true Son; the one and true Holy Spirit is to be believed to be God. For "God" is the name of an undivided substance, giving the whole to the one who receives, and diminishing nothing for the one who gives: not so that the Son should be called what the Father is, nor that the Father should be believed to be what the Son is, nor that the Holy Spirit, who is, should be reckoned to be the Father. For the Father is he who says to the Son: "Before the morning star I begot you" (Ps. 109:3); the Son is he who says: "Before all the hills he begot me, and before anything was silent, I was with him" (Prov. 8:25). But the Holy Spirit himself, who proceeds from the Father and the Son (John 15:26), as a river proceeding from a spring and from the vein of the spring, the apostle Paul clearly shows to be God, against the doctrine of Macedonius—the very one whom the prophet Isaiah says: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a high throne, who said to me: Go, say to this people: Seeing you shall see, and you shall not see" (Isa. 6:1, 9).

Paul made known this Holy Spirit in the following order, saying to the Jews: "The Holy Spirit spoke well concerning you through Isaiah: Go, say to this people, 'Seeing you shall see'" (Acts 28:25), etc. But this, as I have said, overthrows the sect of Macedonius, which says: "Nowhere is it read in the Holy Scriptures, 'God the Holy Spirit'"; we have said that the apostle Paul declared this to be the Holy Spirit whom Isaiah calls: "I saw the Lord God Almighty Sabaoth sitting upon the throne, and saying to me," etc. Now I will also show that the blessed Peter said the Lord was the Holy Spirit, and that is sufficient; for just as there are, so to speak, two eyes in the head of the body, so are Peter and Paul in the head of the Church. The apostle Peter therefore says to Ananias as he lies: "Why is it that you and your wife have agreed to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have not lied to men, but to God" (Acts 5:3, 9). We would set forth many other things, if the testimonies of these two, confirmed by apostolic authority, were not sufficient. Indeed, as we have already said and proved, that he who descended from the heavens for the assumption of a man never left the heavens, because it is written, "I fill heaven and earth" (Jer. 23:24); and he who ascended from these to the heavens never abandoned us: for so he himself promised, saying: "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age" (Matt.

XXVIII, 20); therefore, since it is established that his descent was to the flesh, let us hold it in such a way that in the very Son of God we confess two nativities, just as two substances: before all times invisibly from the Father, in time visibly from the mother; before all times true God from true God, in time true God and true man from Mary ever virgin, with the Holy Spirit overshadowing; born true God invisible with true man visible, true God incomprehensible with true man mortal. Born, I say, not aerial but corporeal; not in phantasy, but bearing flesh, bones, blood, sense, and soul: one and the same true man and true God, fulfilling the Law and the Prophets, suffering the cross according to the Scriptures, he truly died, was truly buried, and truly rose from the dead on the third day. Yet in him that died which could die. For mortal man was taken up by immortal God; but he rose again, not God into man, but man into God. Afterwards for forty days he was seen on earth, and thus taken up into heaven, he sits at the right hand of the Father, to come to judge the living and the dead (Acts 1).

XXVII. And when he had said these things, all said: Tell us, how will the living and the dead be judged? Arnobius said: The living, the believers, those who hold the catholic faith; the dead, the gentiles, the Jews, and the heretics, who do not have life according to the word of the Lord: He who does not believe in me does not have life in himself (John 3:36). And he speaks truly: He who believes in me, even if he dies, shall live (John 6:25). Therefore, as I said, let us follow. He is to come that he may judge the living and the dead, the just and the unjust, the faithful and the unbelieving. For his death makes precious all the deaths of believers and saints (Ps. 116:15), to such an extent that in the same flesh in which he was born, suffered, and died, he rose again, and according to the quality of their works, all may attain either to the eternal crown of glory or to eternal punishments, with God judging. For it must be believed that our soul was made by God; and although it is perpetual, destined to be in one or the other condition, either of good or of evil, nevertheless the soul is not without a beginning: because this is peculiar to God alone, and thereby the soul is a creature or making of God. For it is written: He who formed the breath of all men, he knows all things. And again: The Lord lives, who made for us a soul. And again: The Spirit shall proceed from me, and I have made every soul (Isa. 57:16). Our flesh also was made by God from the mud (Gen.

and therefore that the wondrous substance of man has one author, God; and that for this reason all things that were made are subject to us, because they were formed by the command of God. Therefore not by work. But concerning man we read that God said: Let us make man after our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26); and therefore the Apostle proves that man, the most noble workmanship of God, consists not only of soul and body, but also of spirit, and is threefold, saying: That your spirit and soul and body may be preserved whole at the coming of God (1 Thess. 5:23). But I mean that spirit which is accidental, not natural, and is not the same in all. For thus the Apostle says: But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is from God (1 Cor. 2:12). But this spirit which we believers receive belongs to divine grace; the other spirit is of diabolical intent. For the devil was not created without a beginning, as Marcion raves, but was made a good angel by God, and every evil took its beginning from him.

But that which the good and blessed God forbids to be done is evil, and even if it be good, it will be judged evil through the prohibition of God the Lawgiver. Now what is so good as to offer sacrifice to God? But because King Saul was unwilling to wait for holy Samuel, and while Samuel delayed he himself burned the sacrifice, the Holy Spirit could no longer be in him (1 Kings 13:10). For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful (Wisdom 1:5); and would that, when the Holy Spirit departed, he were not mocked by another spirit, or even tormented. If, then, we look to the quality of the deed, he does a good thing; but one must not look to the quality of the deed, but to the pride of the despiser. For even the communion of the sacrament is holy, but a pernicious work is accomplished by him if he has not yet been washed with the most sacred water. There are many things similar to these, which, though they are good works, bring destruction when they are performed not in the order in which they were established. Therefore that angel, who is the devil, incurred guilt from presumption and sinned first of all the angels in his heart. For thus it is said by the Lord in the prophet: You said in your heart: I will ascend above the stars of heaven (Isaiah 14:13), etc. First, therefore, he sinned in his heart; from which the kinds of all presumptions then began to sprout, when, following the example of no one, he gave himself the beginning of sinning.

But by nature he is good, just as the man who snatches another's property is a plunderer to the one who has it, and the man who gives his own goods to the needy is generous. Both are men, but the one is good to others, not evil in others by nature, on account of an injury to the Creator, but by the zeal of a depraved will; the other is good both by nature and by the zeal of a good will. Hence also the choirs of angels resounded with these words, that glory be sung to God in the highest, and that they sow the peace of God upon earth among men of good will (Luke 2:14-15). By the judgment, therefore, of an evil will, the angel, though he was good, turned aside to evil; man followed him (Gen. 3), who despised the ordinances of the divine law. But the Creator, foreknowing that both angels and men would be despisers, made them subject to his justice, so that he permitted them to be absolutely of their own will, because otherwise the recompense of grace could not be just.

But the beginning of man and of his transgression the book of Genesis clearly declares in its opening; but the prophet testifies to the beginning of the angel, saying: You were the seal of likeness, and the crown of beauty, you were in the delights of the paradise of God. Having in you every precious stone, the sardius, and the topaz, and the emerald, and the carbuncle, and the sapphire, and the jasper, and the ligurius, and the agate, and the amethyst, and the chrysolite, and the beryl, and the onyx; and you filled your treasuries and your storehouses with gold in you.

For from the day you were created, I placed you with the cherubim on the holy mountain of God, and you were made in the midst of fiery stones, and you walked without blemish in your days, from the day you were created, until iniquities were found in you, because of the multitude of your thoughts. For you filled your storehouses with iniquity, and you sinned, and you were wounded by the mountain of God; and I brought you out from the cherubim, from the midst of the fiery stones. For your heart was lifted up in your disgrace; therefore I cast you down to the earth in the sight of kings, and I gave you over to be led away because of the multitude of your sins, and the iniquity of your trading, because you defiled your holy things. And I will bring forth fire from the midst of you, and that fire itself will devour you, and I will make you into ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who see you, and all who know you among the nations will grieve over you. For you have become a portent, and you will be no more forever (Ezekiel 28:12-19).

We must also believe that the world itself was made by God out of nothing, as it is read in Maccabees: Look, sons, upon heaven and earth; and when you have seen all things that are in them, understand how God made them out of nothing (2 Maccabees 7:28). Therefore, just as the world was made out of nothing, so it will be reduced to nothing at the end, because it is written: You, Lord, founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain forever (Psalm 101:26; Hebrews 1:10). But the utterances of God faithfully promise a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; Revelation 21:4; 2 Peter 3:13), in which he may dwell forever with his saints; what sort these will be, he alone knows who will make them, because neither has eye seen, nor ear heard, nor have they ascended into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love him (Isaiah 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9).

I have obeyed your petition, or rather your command, and I have set out how I believe; it remains that through your prayers the love of the Lord be granted to me, so that I may have even the beginning of wisdom, and that there be in me a good understanding, made manifest by right works (Psalm 110:10), whereby, abstaining from what is forbidden, I may persist in what is commanded.

XXVIII. — Serapion said: You ought to obtain this thing by prayers, whether your own or those of any saints whom you do not have through the freedom of will granted to you. — Arnobius said: And what thing do I have through the freedom of will granted to me? — Serapion answered: That you abstain from what is forbidden and persist in what is commanded. — Arnobius said: He who abstains from what is forbidden is also made without sin; but he who also persists in what is commanded is not only free from the reproach of sin, but is even worthy of praise. — Serapion said: So it is. — Arnobius said: If so, then through free will he can be made without sin and attain divine praise. — Serapion answered: So it is. — Arnobius said: I say the contrary. — Serapion said: Then there is no free will. — Arnobius said: I both grant and hold free will, but enclosed within its own bounds and distinguished by its own limits and boundaries. — Serapion said: God willed that man be of free will for this reason, that the wicked may be justly blamed because they could have been good; and that the good may also be justly praised because they could have been wicked. For take away the possibility of either, and punishment will not find whom to strike, nor will reward find whom to crown.

Arnobius said: Tell me, therefore, whether the freedom of your will can bring you to this, that you can so abstain from things forbidden as to be without sin; or so fulfill the commandments as to attain the crown. Serapion answered: Even if a man cannot be without sin, that sin itself will not be imputed to him by God.

XXIX. Arnobius said: That which could have made him free from sin perished in the transgression of the first man; whence his Creator was able to come before his creature unto this recovery, so that, since he could no longer be freed from sin by his own powers, he might be freed by the grace of God. Whence also our infirmities have imposed the name of the Savior Lord, our captivity that of the Redeemer, our miseries that of the merciful one, our servitude that of the liberator. Now I wish to question you, Serapion. Do you desire that God have mercy on you, or not? Serapion said: And who is there who does not wish that God have mercy on him? Arnobius said: What I ask, as I ask you, I wish you to answer me. Tell me, therefore, do you entreat that God have mercy on you? Serapion said: Plainly, because this I pray and beseech God daily. Arnobius said: Therefore confess yourself miserable, that you may obtain mercy; to which matter hear the Apostle crying out: Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7).

Gather your reasoning, then, and laugh, because if you can be without sin, you cannot confess that you are wretched; and since you do not confess that you are wretched, you cut yourself off from God's mercy. Either you can so separate yourself from sin that by your own powers you can abstain from what is forbidden and not be wretched. But if you know that you are wretched and cannot simply confess it, then rightly you will be able to obtain mercy from God. For even if you think you can perhaps have something and teach it, the Apostle cries out to you: What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it? Then how can you believe your Savior and Lord, unless you acknowledge that you are weak? Or how can you ask for God's help and support, unless you believe that without his help you cannot fulfill the good you desire and avoid the evil you flee? Hence it is one of two things: allow yourself to give an answer, either that you are wretched or strong, either weak or healthy, so that you may hear the voice of the Lord saying: Those who are healthy do not need a physician. Hence the prophet also cries out: For I will not hope in my bow, and my sword will not save me; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance. It is one of two things: either you can abstain from every sin, or you cannot. If you can, you do not need help, for you are able. If you cannot, you rightly seek aid.

The psalmist says that a testimony of God's help is of this kind: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High" (Ps. 91:1), etc. Let us now see what happens to the one who believes in this way and speaks in this way. "He will overshadow you with his shoulders," etc. — Serapion said: What then will free will have? — Arnobius said: That if you do not wish to believe in this way, you may not believe in this way, and you may suspend yourself from divine help. But if you wish to believe, then, with God's help acting, you will be freed from the things that threaten you, and by mercy.

XXX. — Serapion said: I have not heard Augustine teaching in this way. — Arnobius said: In what part did you not hear him teaching in this way? — Serapion said: The written records of all the volumes of his treatises and books testify that he did not fulfill the command of the law. — Arnobius said: It touches me to bring forth his wonderful words just as they are into the middle, and to prove how much is granted to the command of the law and how much to free will. — Serapion said: I call God to witness that you eliminate all ambiguity from my concern if you bring forth for me his refined statements on these matters, and if you adduce his evident proofs concerning all the things that have been discussed. For I confess that I hold his assertions to be so proven that he reveals himself as a heretic by his own mouth, whoever has thought that Augustine is to be reproached in any utterance. — Arnobius said: In my judgment you are a little box; for the things that I now bring forth from him, I believe, hold, and defend as if they were the most sacred writings of the apostles.

For he says: Searching the divine Scriptures to learn what grace is—whether free will is grace, or grace is the forgiveness of sins, or grace is the precepts of the law—I have come to know none of those things which, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, pertain to overcoming desires and temptations, which he who ascended into heaven will pour out upon us most richly, and leading captivity captive he gave gifts to men (Ps. 76:19). Hence we also pray that we may be able to overcome the temptations of sins, and that the Spirit of God, of whom we have received the pledge, may help our weakness. But he who prays and says: Suffer us not to be led into temptation (Matt. 6:13), surely does not pray for this, that he may be a man, which is nature; nor does he pray for this, that he may have free will, which he already received when nature itself was created; nor does he pray for the forgiveness of sins, because this is said above: Forgive us our debts; nor does he pray that he may receive the commandment: but he plainly prays that he may do the commandment. He prays that he may not sin, that is, that he may do nothing evil: which the Apostle prays for the Corinthians, saying: But we pray to God that you do nothing evil. Whence it is quite clear that, although the free will of the will is undoubtedly present for not sinning, that is, for doing no evil, nevertheless its power is not sufficient unless its weakness is helped. Therefore that prayer itself is a most clear testimony of grace. Let him who denies it confess this, and we rejoice that he is either upright or corrected.

Therefore law and grace must be distinguished. The law would help if there were will, nor would grace help if there were no infirmity. We are commanded to have understanding, where it is said, "Do not become like horse and mule," etc.; and yet we pray that we may have understanding, where it is said: "Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments." We are commanded to have wisdom, where it is said: "Fools, at some time be wise"; and yet we pray that we may have wisdom, where it is said: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all abundantly and does not reproach, and it will be given to him." We are commanded to have continence, where it is said: "Contain yourself"; and yet it is prayed that we may have continence, where it is said: "Since I knew that no one can be continent unless God grants it, and that this very thing was [the mark] of a wise man, to know whose gift this was, I went to the Lord and entreated him." Finally—lest it be too long to run through everything—we are commanded not to do evil, where it is said: "Turn away from evil, and do good"; and yet it is prayed that we may not do evil, where the Apostle says: "But we pray to the Lord, that you do no evil." We are commanded not to do evil and to do good, where it is said, "Turn away from evil, and do good"; and yet it is prayed that we may do good, where it is said: "We do not cease praying for you, that you may walk worthily of God, pleasing him in all things, and in every good work.

If, then, we recognize the will to which these commands are given, we ought so to recognize grace that without God's grace the things we desire to fulfill obtain no effect. — Serapion said: How is this great assertion of the holy man so supported by equity that a man cannot come against it with his mind? I wish to know whether even concerning those things which we dealt with in earlier time, such a sense or discourse was defined by him. — Arnobius said: There are many things which our disputation has brought to an end through altercation; concerning what title now do you wish the force of the holy Augustine to be strengthened by discourse? — Serapion said: Concerning the nativity of Jesus Christ, in which God and man were declared to us through two substances, in which I have learned, with you asserting and proving, that holy Mary also existed.

XXXI. — Arnobius said: If I wish to set forth his words cut into clauses, I shall seem to have produced suspicion rather than satisfaction. Hence I judge it fitting that I assign to you his entire treatise, by which you may evidently recognize that he preached two nativities and two substances in the only Son of God.

A sermon of Saint Augustine, bishop, on the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

a "Our Savior, born of the Father without a day, through whom every day was made, willed to have on earth this day of his birth, which we celebrate today. Whoever marvels at this day, marvel rather at the eternal one who endures before every day, who creates every day, who is born in a day, who frees from the malice of the day. Marvel further: she who gave birth is both mother and virgin; he whom she bore is both infant and Word (John 1:14). Worthily the heavens spoke, the angels rejoiced, the shepherds were glad, the magi were invited, kings were thrown into turmoil, little children were crowned. Nurse, mother, our food; nurse the bread that comes down from heaven, and is placed in the manger as fodder for the faithful beasts of burden (Luke 1:26; Matthew 2:1; John 5; Luke 2). For there the ox knew its owner, and the ass the manger of its lord (Isaiah 1:3)—that is, circumcision and uncircumcision, clinging to the cornerstone, whose firstfruits were the shepherds and the magi. Nurse him who made you such that he himself might be made in you, who brought you both the gift of fertility by his conception and did not take away the glory of virginity by his birth; who chose for himself, before he was born, both the day on which he would be born. And he himself created what he chose, so that he might come forth from here like a bridegroom from his chamber (Psalm 18:6), so that he could be seen by mortal eyes, and by the increase of the yearly light might testify that he, the light of the world, had come (John 1:9).

The prophets sang that the creator of heaven and earth would be on earth with men (Baruch); the angel announced that the creator of flesh and spirit would come in the flesh. John, from the womb, greeted the Savior in the womb; Simeon the elder recognized the infant as God; Anna the widow recognized the Virgin as mother (Luke). These are the testimonies of your nativity, Lord Jesus, before the waves were laid flat for you as you walked, before they yielded to you as you commanded; before the wind fell silent at your command, before the dead man lived at your call (John 11), before the sun grew pale at your dying, before the earth trembled at your rising, before heaven opened at your ascending; before you had done these and other wonders already in the age of your youthful body. You were still being carried in your mother's hands, and already you were being acknowledged as Lord of the world; the little child himself from the seed of Israel (Isaiah 9), and himself God with us, Emmanuel (Isaiah 7).

What and of what kind is that generation of the Savior, by which the Son is coeternal with the Father who begets him? When the world trembled at this generation from the Virgin, which pious faith received and held, while unbelief mocked it and pride feared it, overcome? What is that generation, by which in the beginning was the Word with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1)? What is this Word, which, about to speak, was not previously silent, and by whose speaking he who was being spoken did not fall silent? This is the Word without time, through which times were made; the Word which no one's lips opened as begun, or closed as finished.

The Word that has no beginning from the mouth of those who speak, and opens the mouths of the mute; the Word that is not made eloquent by the tongues of the nations, and makes eloquent the tongues of infants. What is that generation, which the Father does not believe by dying, because he does not precede it by living, separated from all intervals of places and spans of times, which we have been accustomed to perceive either in days or in bodies? Let us lift up our soul to him, as much as we can with his help, if in some way we may be able to grasp both that the one born does not precede the one who begets, and that the one who begets does not follow the one who is born—the Father and the Son; neither the Father equally, nor the Son equally, and yet equally eternal. Not both begetting, not both being born, but the one not living without the other; and let us consider, if we are able, that the Father has eternally begotten and the Son has eternally been born; if we are not able, let us believe. What we wish to say is not here; but nevertheless it is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and are (Acts 17:28). Let us transcend our flesh, in which parents live before their children, because they grew so that they could beget children, and as their children grow they themselves already grow old. Parents lived before their children were born, because even when the parents are dead, the children will live.

Let us transcend our souls as well; for they too give birth to something by thinking, which they possess by knowing; but they can lose it by forgetting, because they did not have it before by being born. Let us transcend all bodies, both temporal and mutable, so that we may see above all things him through whom all things were made. Our ascent is in the heart, because that by which we ascend is also near; but we are far from him insofar as we are unlike him. Therefore his likeness, which he made and remade in us, ascends to him, because the weak sight of the mind, once illuminated, trembles, and cannot gaze upon the ineffable brightness of eternal light. Whose splendor, then, the keenness of the mind does not yet grasp: Who shall declare his generation (Isa. 53)? But the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1).

This generation, then, whose day we celebrate today—this generation in which he deigned to come to Israel and to become Emmanuel, God with us: with us in the weakness of the flesh, not with us in the iniquity of the heart; drawing near to us through what he took from what is ours, and freeing us through what remained in what is his (for the Lord visited his servants through mortal weakness, that he might make them free through unchanging truth)—this generation, then, of which human frailty is capable in both respects: not that generation which remains without time, without a Mother, above all things, but this one which was made in time, without a Father, among all things; this Son of a Virgin and spouse of virgins, born of an uncorrupted mother and bringing forth from incorruptible truth—let us praise, love, and adore, so that, trusting in his mercy, we may triumph over the conquered cunning of the devil. The devil crept in to deceive us through a corrupted woman's mind; Christ came forth to free us even through the uncorrupted flesh of a woman, who is blessed with the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

XXXII. — Serapion said: I confess that my desire has been satisfied. For he has clearly asserted both two natures and two substances. Now, so that every doubt may be torn out of me by the roots, I wish it to be proved to my satisfaction whether my lord, the apostolic man, the venerable Pope Leo, followed his predecessors in this matter, so that we may address the Easterners in the writings of their letters. — Arnobius said: Receive what the venerable Pope Damasus, a man of apostolic memory, wrote to the holy man Paulinus, of holy memory, bishop of the city of Antioch, so that you may know that by ancient custom the holy and most learned man Pope Leo sent letters to the Easterners to recall the Churches from error.

And when Arnobius had said this, he brought forth a codex, from which this was read out:

"To his most beloved brother Paulinus, Damasus. Through my own son Vitalis I had sent a reply to you, leaving everything to your will and judgment, and through the presbyter Petronius I had briefly indicated that, at the very point of his departure, I was in some small measure refreshed. Therefore, lest any scruple remain in you, and lest your caution delay those who perhaps wish to be joined to the Church and ought to be approved, I have sent our faith—not so much to you, who are joined in the communion of the same faith, as to those who, subscribing to it, have wished through you to be joined to you, that is, to us, most beloved brother.

Because after the Council of Nicaea, and the council of the city of Rome gathered by the catholic bishops, that error has grown strong, so that certain men dared to say with sacrilegious mouth that the Holy Spirit was made through the Son, we anathematize those who do not proclaim with full freedom that the Holy Spirit is of one power and one substance with the Father and the Son. We also anathematize those who follow the error of Sabellius, saying that the Father is the same as the Son. We anathematize Arius and Eunomius, who with equal impiety (though with dissimilar speech) assert that the Son and the Holy Spirit are creatures. We anathematize the Macedonians, who coming from the stock of Arius did not change their perfidy, but their name. We anathematize Photinus, who, pressing the heresy of Hebion, confesses the Lord Jesus Christ as only from the Virgin Mary. We anathematize those who assert two sons, one before the ages, and the other after the assumption of flesh from the Virgin. We anathematize those who say that in place of the rational and intelligible soul of a man the Word of God dwelt in human flesh, when the Son Himself is the Word of God, and was not in His body in place of a rational and intelligible soul: but He took up and saved our soul, that is, the rational and intelligible soul, without sin. We anathematize those who contend that the Word of God, the Son, is separated from the Father by extension or collection, is unsubstantial, and will have an end.

But those who have migrated from churches to churches, we hold as alien from our communion for as long as they have not returned to those cities in which they were first established. But if anyone else, when another has migrated elsewhere, has been ordained in place of the living man, let him who serves his own city be deprived of the dignity of the priesthood for as long as his successor rests in the Lord. If anyone does not say that the Father was and is always, the Son always, the Holy Spirit always, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that the Son was born of the Father, that is, of his divine substance, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that the Word of the Lord, the Son of God, is true God just as his Father, and that he can do all things and knows all things, let him be anathema. If anyone says that when the Son of God was constituted in the flesh and was on earth, he was not with the Father in heaven, let him be anathema. If anyone says that in the passion of the cross the Son of God endured pain, and not the flesh with the soul which he had put on in the form of a servant, which he had taken to himself, as the Scripture says, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that in the flesh which he assumed he sits at the right hand of the Father, in which he is to come to judge the living and the dead, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit is from the Father truly and properly, just as also the Son, from the divine substance and true God, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit can do all things, knows all things, and is everywhere, just as the Father and the Son, let him be anathema.

If anyone says that the Holy Spirit is a creature, or made through the Son, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that the Father made all things through the Son who was afterward incarnate, and the Holy Spirit, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that there is one divinity, power, majesty, might, one glory, dominion, one kingdom, and one will and truth of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that the three persons are true—the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—equal, always living, containing all things visible and invisible, powerful over all things, judging all things, giving life to all things, making all things, saving all things that are to be saved, let him be anathema. If anyone does not say that the Holy Spirit is to be adored by every creature, as the Son and the Father, let him be anathema. If anyone has held right views concerning the Father and the Son, but has not held right views concerning the Holy Spirit, he is a heretic, because all heretics who think wrongly of the Son of God and the Holy Spirit are found in the faithlessness of the Jews and the Gentiles. But if anyone divides God, saying that God the Father, and God his Son, and God the Holy Spirit are called three gods, and not God because of the one Divinity and power of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, which we believe and know to be the true God—while subtracting the Son and the Holy Spirit—so thinks or believes that God the Father alone is called one God, let him be anathema.

For the name of gods was imposed and given by God even to angels and to all the saints. But concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, on account of their one and equal Divinity, it is not the name of gods but of God that is shown and indicated to us, so that we may believe that we are baptized only in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, not in the names of archangels or of angels, as heretics, or Jews, or even foolish gentiles do. This, then, is the salvation of Christians: that, believing in the Trinity, that is, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and baptized into it, we believe without doubt in its true and only one divinity, power, majesty, and substance.