Adversus Quinque Haereses

Against the Five Heresies, or Against the Five Kinds of Enemies, a Treatise. Chapter One. — 1. Five kinds of enemies. I am a debtor, I confess, not compelled by necessity, but, which is more powerful, by charity. The exactor can be no more troublesome in compelling than the debtor is devoted in repaying. But that I may fulfill what I promised, assist me with your holy prayers, so that the omnipotent God may grant grace to my words, and I may satisfy your pious minds and ears. If you deign to remember, those of you who were present at the time, we said there are five kinds of enemies: against which to be overthrown we requested a truce, so that we might prepare the necessary arms. The promised day has dawned, and we too have proceeded eagerly to the contest, with the Lord's help. Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 123:8). He will grant victory to the one contending, who gave the boldness to contend. Let not the crowd of enemies, let not the form of the warriors, let not their glass-like, gleaming arms terrify us. Goliath, great, robust, with terrible arms and a huge crowd surrounding him, David alone, a small and unarmed boy, felled with one blow of a stone, and threw all the camp of the Philistines into confusion and put it to flight (1 Samuel 17:49). But what else does the stone sent by David's hand against Goliath signify, except Christ, who was to come from the seed of David, against the devil?

Let us now proceed and set forth the five kinds of errors we have mentioned. The pagans say: “Why is it that you shrink from us and reject us as though we were worshippers of many gods? Behold, you too say that the God whom you preach is to be worshipped has a son, and you pretend that he was born without the mingling of another sex.” The Jews say: “How do you worship one God, when you also compel men to venerate and worship along with you, as the Son of God, a man whom our fathers crucified, calling him Lord?” The Manichaeans say that what is called the Lord Christ is a phantasm, that he could not have been born from a womb. For it is not fitting, they say, that such great majesty should be believed to have passed through the filth and squalor of a woman. The Sabellians, also called Patripassians, say: “God the Father and the Son are one; for whoever is the Father is also the Son. For if we say otherwise, we shall be called polytheists.” The Arians say: “The Father is one, the Son is another, but the Son is lesser. For how can it be that the begotten is equal to the begetter?

CHAPTER II. — 5. Confidence against heretics. Behold, the questions of error are set forth, like the battle lines of an enemy drawn up. Against these pestilential lines, most holy brothers, take up the arms of God, so that you may be able to stand firm on the evil day, and remain perfect in all things. Gird your loins in truth: let no one tremble, let no one be afraid. There is the breastplate of justice, there is the shield of faith, in which the fiery arrows of the wicked are caught and extinguished. There is the helmet of salvation, there is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:14-17). Whoever of the faithful soldiers of Christ is fortified with these arms will fear no one’s person, nor will he be called back from the contest by the terror of the times. Come, brothers, the contest is at hand, the work is fervent, the adversary presses, he prepares his darts, he tries to hurl them, let no one be afraid. Brothers, there are more with us than with them. With us is that great Moses, the friend of God, who, to conquer the enemy in battle, stretched his hands to the sky, even then showing the figure of the cross of Christ: he, by divine command, with one stroke of his staff, made the swelling sea, rolling its waves in winding curves, into dry fields for the crossing people. With us is Joshua, the leader of the Israelite people after Moses, the most valiant fighter, whose name also indicates the Savior: he, by his own power and divine confidence, commanded the day not to complete its course, and ordered the night not to approach.

He subdued, captured, humiliated, and slew the kings of the nations, not one by one, but in a body. With us is David, strong of hand; what shall I say? the servant of God, the chosen of God, the friend of God, the kinsman of God: he knew well, and knew him well, not only to spare the conquered and to war down the proud, but also to display virtues and to preserve patience. When he pursued his enemies, he was not destructive, and when he conquered, he did not become impious. With us are other and yet other holy men, who foresaw and foretold all future things. Therefore there is nothing that should terrify you: only wait, listen, and pray. Let your prayer around me be more intent and more abundant. Let us delay no longer; let us now proceed with what we have proposed. CHAPTER III. — 4. From Hermes and the Sibyl against the Pagans. What say you, pagan? God, you say, if he took delight in a son, he needed a marriage; if he shrank from marriage, he is alone without a son. For what could be found similar to God, that could be joined to God, and bear a son to God? Then if, as you say, God has a son, you no longer worship God. What are we to do? We have received a missile sent from the Alien; what shall we send back? Whatever missile we send, even if it reaches him, it does no good. Why? Because he is hard. How hard is he? He is made of stone: he worships idols; and it is written, Let all who make them, and all who trust in them, become like them. He does not accept the Holy Scriptures.

Let us therefore seek the stone with which he may be struck, so that struck he may be shattered, shattered he may be broken, broken he may be turned into dust, turned into dust he may be rained upon, rained upon he may be sown, sown he may produce fruit, not fruit that is consumed by fire, but fruit that is stored in the granary. Hermes, who in Latin is called Mercurius, wrote a book which is called *Logos Teleios*, that is, the Perfect Word: a great name for this book, because great is the one about whom it is written. For what is more perfect than the Word, who alone among the dead is free (Ps. 87:6)? Let us hear what Mercurius says about the Perfect Word: "The Lord," he says, "and maker of all gods, made a second Lord." And after a little, to show what he had said, he repeated and said: "Since therefore he made this one first, and only, and one: but he seemed good to him and most full of all good things." How most full, let the evangelist John say: "From his fullness we have all received, grace for grace" (John 1:16). "But he seemed good to him, and most full of all good things." And it follows: "He rejoiced." With whom, or with what did he rejoice? Let the Wisdom of God herself, the Son of God, say: "I was the one with whom he rejoiced" (Prov. 8:30). Therefore, "he rejoiced, and greatly loved him as an only-begotten son." He whom he first said was made, he later called only-begotten. Likewise, in another place he spoke thus: "The son of the blessed God and of good will, whose name cannot be uttered by a human mouth." Were you seeking, pagan, a spouse for God?

Hear Mercury: prepare your forehead, and receive stone upon stone: fall, and you will be raised; break, so that you may be strengthened; be destroyed, so that you may be built up: the blow of the stone shall not divide the skin of the forehead, shall not burst a vein of blood, shall not open the pit of a wound; but shall make the sign of the cross. You seek the spouse of God? Impure depravity is cast out from your heart, I pray. The spouse of God is good will. But how God is Father, and God is Son, yet not two gods, but one God, I ought not to dispute with you; because unless you have believed, you will be able to understand in no way. And yet Mercury confesses the Son of God to be God. Struck by this stone, let him cease to be a stony sacrilegist. Let us hear also what the Sibyl, their prophetess, says about the same: Another, she says, God gave to the sons of men to be worshipped. As far as appears, in these sentences of Mercury and the Sibyl, Sabellius also is judged. Mercury says both Father is God and Son: and the Sibyl says another God. Sabellius says not another, because he asserts the same Father to be as the Son. It is very excellent, if only we may strike not one only, but as many adversaries as the message can reach, with one blow. Likewise the Sibyl says: Know your own Lord to be the Son of God. This verse rebukes both the Pagan and the Jew. In another place she calls the Son of God , that is, counsel, or counsellor. And the prophet says, His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God strong and mighty (Isaiah ix, 6).

Here the Arian is refuted, who, when he says that the Son of God is lesser, says that at some time God did not have a Son. And if He was without a Son, He was without counsel. Behold to how many dangers we are provoked. But because God was never without counsel, even with the Arian contradicting, the Father could never be without the Son. What are you doing, pagan? Open your ears; do not be like the deaf asp, which blocks its ear so that it does not hear the voice of the charmer (Psalm 57:5). I do not bring forward my own authors for you; your Mercury is the one to whom such great honor and worship has been paid by you among the gods that you called a day by his name. Listen to him yourself; let him convict you himself, let him vanquish you himself; so that when he has conquered you, you may yield to him and believe me. Mercury said: "God loved His Only-begotten." He himself said: "The Son of the blessed God and of good will." And lest he endure the tedium of questioning about his name, he added, following: "Whose name cannot be told by the human mouth." What, Mercury, do you say that the name of the Son of God cannot be told by men? Let it be told by you, who are not a man, but are esteemed a god by men. He speaks, however, to his Son, saying: "But there is." Who? "The ineffable Son's word of wisdom, holy, holy." Is this not, "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1)? Tell me, Hermes, does this word of wisdom have a mother? It follows: "It is only of the one God the Lord, of the one Lord God ruling over all mortals." And because it cannot be investigated by men, he adds and says: "It is above men.

Therefore, because it is above men, I cannot speak the name of the Son of God, since I am not God: let men speak as men of what I am not, I acknowledge what I am. The discourse of wisdom is about God alone. Do not, pagan, suspect or imagine there was a human marriage there: it is about God alone, and it is above men. The Sibyl rebukes you, saying, "Know your own Lord, the Son of God, to be God: Himself, not another, not Mars, not Jupiter, not Mercury: but the one whom Mercury confesses." Why are you amazed, Christian, that they say such things about the Father and the Son? Even demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). Surely in the Gospel, as the Lord passes by, they say, "We know who you are, Son of God, you have come before time to torment us" (Mark 1:24). Would that, as demons acknowledge the judge, so men would acknowledge the savior! CHAPTER IV. —5. From the Old Testament against the Jews. What does the Jew say? "We have one God, we know no other besides Him. But that one whom you call Christ, our fathers killed, not as a god, but as a man." Surely this is what I said: Would that, as demons acknowledge the judge, so men would acknowledge the savior! Behold, demons saw and trembled: men saw and killed. Demons confessed: men persecuted. What unhappiness and how great a misery, to be found unequal even to demons? Likewise, men believe, demons perish: men are saved, demons are punished. But this change is the grace of the right hand of the Most High (Psalm).

LXXVI, 11), not the presumption of a man confident in his own strength. Against this Jew, however, I do not labor: his own books fight against him. The Law and the Prophets fight: and either he will be conquered and humiliated and saved, or he will be proud and stubborn and punished. The Lord said to Moses: "Behold, I am sending an angel who will precede you, and guard you on the way, and lead you into the place I have prepared. Observe him, and listen to his voice, and do not think him contemptible." You have heard "angel," acknowledge the Lord: and do not think him contemptible. Hear further what you should fear: "And," he says, "do not think him contemptible." Why? "Because he will not let you go when you have sinned, and my name is in him" (Exod. 23:20, 21). Who is that one so great, to whom God gave both his power and his name? The Lord of hosts himself is the king of glory (Ps. 24:10). And how do we prove that when it says "angel," God should be understood? You have it in the book called Genesis: "Two angels came to Sodom in the evening, while Lot was sitting at the gate of the city; when he saw them, he rose and went to meet them" (Gen. 19:1). What more? He received them and attended to them as if they were strangers. By the custom of hospitality he was freed from the danger of the city, and escaped the temporal fire, and obtained an eternal reward. Learn, Christians, to show hospitality without discrimination, lest perhaps the one to whom you have closed your house, to whom you have denied kindness, be Christ himself. I will not wander further from the matter at hand.

Angels came to Lot and said, "Look, and turn aside, because angels are said to speak." What did the angels say? "Save your soul, do not look behind you" (Ibid., 17). Because no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke IX, 62). Stand firm in every region; do not cling to earthly pleasures; but save yourself on the mountain (Gen. XIX, 17); let your hope be God, lest you perish together with the Sodomites. And Lot said to them: "See a man who sees, not blind, like the Jews and Sabellians; not bleary-eyed, like the Arians; but having sound eyes, like catholic Christians. He saw angels and understood the Lord." What did he say to the angels? And Lot said to them: "My Lord, because your servant has found grace before you, and you have magnified your mercy, which you have shown to me, to save my soul" (Ibid., 19). A great thing. When I wish to strike the Jew thus, Moses, a very strong man, brandished the spear of his word and hurled it, so that through the Jew it might pass to the Sabellian and strike the Arian. What are you doing, holy Lot? You see angels, and not one but two, and you say, "My Lord." You address one, you entreat one; and do you not fear that you might seem to do injury to the other? "Far be it," he says. "Depart, Jews; depart, Sabellians, because you do not see; depart, Arians, because you see too little. I see; and what I see, because I see, I neither despise nor err. I see two, I see them equal.

I ask one thing: I do injury to no one, because I do not separate the Father from the Son. For that you may understand I am not deceived, when I entreat two as one, see whether two or one answers my prayers. I asked that in a small and nearby city he might have refuge and live. It is answered: "See how many there are who answer." The words of the book follow: "And he said to him" (Gen. 19:18-19): as if the response is singular. Still follow, let us see: "Behold, even in this I have received your prayers, that I not overturn the city for which you spoke. Hurry, and save yourself there: because I will not be able to do anything until you enter there" (Ibid., 21, 22). Do you see, Jew, that he is called an angel, and is God? Hear, Arian, two, Father and Son, speaking; and yet not the same Father as the Son, because of the Sabellians; but Father and Son? Do you hear what was said, "I have received your prayers"? Do you hear what he says, "I will not overturn the city"? Do you hear, "I will not be able to do anything"? Let the Jew read "angel," understand God; let the Sabellian read that two came; let the Arian read that one answered: and let them not despise, but flee error, lest they come to ignominy. But that we may more plainly show that what is called "angel" ought to be understood as God, let us recite the following of this reading: "Therefore," it says, "the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (Gen. 19:24). What is this, "Lord from a Lord," if not the Son from the Father?

As also in another place: "The Lord said to my Lord," that is, the Father to His Son, "Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet" (Psalm 109:1). Likewise in Exodus: "An angel of the Lord appeared," it says, "to Moses in a flame of fire from a bush, and he saw that the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said: I will cross over and see this great vision, why the bush is not consumed. But when the Lord saw that he was approaching to see, the Lord called him from the bush. Behold, the angel himself is the Lord." And it continues, saying, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" The Lord said to him, "Do not come near here unless you have removed the sandals from your feet; for the place on which you stand is holy ground." Hear further what He said to him: "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob" (Exodus 3:2-6). And therefore let the Jew hear the angel in such a way that he understands the Lord and fears God; let the Sabellian confess the Father in such a way that he does not deny the Son; let the Arian confess the Father and the Son in such a way that he does not diminish the Son. Joshua also, the son of Nun, as the book written in his name says, when he was fighting against enemies, being in the very battle array, saw a man standing opposite him, holding an unsheathed sword; and he reached out to him and said: "Are you ours, or of the adversaries?" He replied: "Not at all, but I am the prince of the army of the Lord, and I have now come" (Joshua 5:13, 14). Then Joshua fell prone to the ground and worshipped.

And now follow, Jew, your leader. He sees, he questions, and he adores. Vision involves communion: for what is seen is both what is recognized and what is not recognized. Therefore, vision involves communion, questioning involves ignorance, adoration involves faith. Whom does he see? A man. Who is this man? He is the one whose coming was foretold, desired, and awaited against the hostile nations. [And the man says, "It is I," and because he will know him?] Who is the prince of the Lord's army? Is it not he who, when asked in the Gospel who he was, replied, "The Beginning, who also speaks to you" (John 8:25)? Why are you troubled, Jesus? Why have the nations roared, and the peoples raged in vain against the Lord and against his Christ (Psalm 2:1)? You see an armed man; do not fear: I do not come against you, but for you; because I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24). What is it, Jesus, that you see, question, and adore? Listen: I see a man; I question whom I see; I hear whom I do not see; I adore not what I see, but what I believe: because faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God (Romans 10:17). What then do you seek? Pay attention, and follow: I see a man, but what I understand is beyond the sons of men. Something gleams for me, as if from hiding places a bright something shines. I go to him, because he has come to you: I will scrutinize what I see, this so great a vision. Whom I see is both a man and is not a man.

Indeed, he is a man because of the Manichaean; and he is more than a man because of the Jew. Go on, my Jesus, my leader, go on. Why, except that when you seek me, you acquire me? Behold, I come, I find a man: within, I understand something unknown; it is obscure, I do not yet see: 'the face of Moses is straight, a veil hinders the gaze' (Exod. 34:33), the truth lies hidden. I do not recognize what it is; there is need for questioning. Tell me, you man, are you ours or of the adversaries? If of the adversaries, he is both a man and an enemy: if he is ours, he is both a man and a Savior. He came after me, but was made before me (John 1:30). If he is Jesus, he is also the Savior. Let Jesus question Jesus, let the prior question the posterior, but yet the lesser question the greater; let the one who fails question the one who grows: let the figure question the truth; rather, let the figure understand the truth: so that the day may shine, and the temporal darknesses be removed. Behold, I come, I know that spirit has neither flesh nor bones (Luke 24:39); I feel the flesh: I seek, I encounter an armed man. Still the mystery lies hidden. I question the man, I hear the word; I remove the veil, I adore God. In that Jesus saw but did not recognize, he signified the furious race of the Jews, which, if it had seen and recognized, would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8): in that, however, by hearing he believed and adored, he signified that people of whom it is written, 'A people whom I did not know served me; in the hearing of the ear they obeyed me' (Ps. 17:45).

Listen further, you who deny that God begot the Son; listen to what the Father says through the prophet Isaiah: "Shall I, who cause others to bring forth, not myself bring forth?" says the Lord (Isaiah 66:9). "I who grant the power of generation to others, shall I remain barren?" says the Lord your God, to whom it was said, "You are my Son, I have begotten you today" (Psalm 2:7). Why do you provoke me, Arian, and mock when you hear "today"? With God there is never a tomorrow, never a yesterday, but always today: the year does not revolve in cycles of months, the month is not spent in succeeding and departing days, hours do not change, times or moments do not vary, where the day is neither concluded by a term nor begun by a beginning. Let the Jew hear further what the Lord says through the prophet, let the Arian hear: let all who say that the Son of God either does not exist or exists as lesser hear. "I," he says, "am God, and there is no other." And what about the Son, Lord, if you alone are God? Listen further, why do you hurry? "I have sworn in myself." Where there is an oath, there is no doubt. "I have sworn in myself: A word of justice will go forth from my mouth." Behold, you have the Son: "A word of justice will go forth from my mouth, and it will not return." What does "it will not return" mean? Lest the Sabellian say that the Son is the same as the Father, the word that has gone forth will not return: because the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son.

Let the loquacity of the heretics, which has no shame, be silent for a little while. Let the Lord fulfill the sentence, and either no one will oppose the Son of God, or whoever stands forth as an adversary will be confounded. "The word of righteousness will go forth from my mouth," he says, "and will not return; because every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will confess." And what of the Son? Hear, then, it said in the Lord: "The summits of righteousness and the empire are mine." So then, and what afterward? "They will come to him, and all who resist him will be confounded" (Isaiah 45:22-25). Go now, all you Pagans, Heretics, Jews; oppose and resist the Son of God: you will come to him, and all of you who resist him will be confounded. CHAPTER V.— 6. Against the Manichaeans. We have spoken not a little concerning the Son of God according to his divinity, and we have not spared those who resist, as far as we were able. Now I wish to approach his incarnation, and the impure Manichaeus stands in the way. Why? Because he does not wish the Son of God to be called also the son of man. And where is that which is written, "Rain down, O heavens from above, and let the clouds rain the just one; let the earth be opened and germinate the Savior; and let righteousness arise at the same time, I have created him a man" (Ibid., 8)? Likewise, "Behold, a little child has been born to us, and a son has been given to us; and the principality has been placed upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Father of the future age, Prince of Peace" (Id. 9:6)?

nded, let him be confounded. Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb and bear a son; and his name will be called Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23)? Someone says, "You had prepared to contend with the Manichaean, not with the Jew." Against the Manichaean, new weapons are necessary, not old ones. Why? Because he accepts the New Testament, not the Old. But for me, who have undertaken the contest against both, weapons are necessary from all sides; especially because these new things are forged from the old ones: therefore neither are those to be rejected, nor are these to be set aside. For different adversaries are struck down by different weapons. Thus this order must be preserved, so that when speaking of the Gospel, I do not remain silent about the Prophets. "But I," says the Manichaean, "accept neither Moses nor the Prophets." What do you say about the Apostle Paul, who wrote at the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which he had before promised through his Prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning his Son, who was made for him from the seed of David according to the flesh" (Romans 1:1-3)? Do you hear that the Gospel through the Apostles would not be presented unless it were first promised through the Prophets? Do you hear that the Son of God according to his divinity was made the son of man from the seed of David according to the flesh? For what is there in which the Prophets are contrary to the Gospel? The Prophet said: "Drop down, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the just one; let the angel come, let him proclaim the word. Let the earth be opened; let Mary hear: and let her bring forth the Savior; let her bear Jesus.

The prophet said, "Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb and bear a son; and his name will be called Emmanuel." This the evangelist also, when he said it, followed and explained, saying, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23). In vain, Manichaean, do you strive against the prophets. Behold, the Apostle says concerning his Son, who was made for him from the seed of David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3). What the prophets foresaw and foretold, this the apostles saw and preached. He who was, was made. What was he? What was he made? He was the Word, he was made flesh. He was God, he was made man. He was the Son of God, he was made the Son of man. He took up humanity, he did not lose divinity: he was made lowly, he remained sublime: he was born on earth, he did not cease to be God: he was born a little child, he was hidden, great. He who gladly embraces God born, let him not shrink from the virgin's birth. God, the creator of man, the son of man, says to you: What is it that disturbs you in my nativity? I am not conceived by the lust of desire. I made the mother from whom I would be born; I prepared and cleansed the way for my journey. This woman whom you despise, Manichaean, is my mother; but she was fashioned by my hand. If I could be polluted when I made her, I could be polluted when I was born from her. Just as by my passage her virginity was not corrupted, so my majesty there was not stained.

If the ray of the sun knows how to dry up the filth of sewers, yet does not know how to be polluted by them, how much more can the splendor of eternal light, in which no taint occurs, wherever it shines, cleanse, yet itself cannot be defiled? Fool, whence filth in the virgin mother, where there was no intercourse with a human father? Whence filth in her, who neither experienced lust in conceiving nor pain in giving birth? Whence filth in the house, to which no inhabitant had access? The builder and master alone came to her, put on a garment he did not have, and left her closed just as he found her. Just as he alone among the dead was born free (Psalm 87:6), so the modesty of the mother from whom he was born is alone intact. Eve, disobedient, merited punishment; Mary, by obeying, received grace. The former, by tasting the forbidden, was cursed; the latter, by believing the angel, was blessed. The former brought us death; the latter gave birth to life for us. What are you doing, Manichaean? You oppress a Christian, you do not defend Christ. Let unclean vanity be silent, because pure truth has been born.

CHAPTER VI. — 8. Against the Arians. I would still like to pursue the Manichaean, but I am troubled by the Arian, who trusts in his own strength and boasts in his own power (Psalm 48:7). Already, when we were responding to others, we were not silent ourselves; but now, preserving his own order, let us see what darts he hurls. Let no one’s person terrify you: All flesh is grass (Isaiah 40:6). You see the grass grow daily, you see it flourish; why do you tremble? Such fruits the deserted earth produces. I do not accuse the farmers, but I ask: Where are you now, O good farmers? What are you doing? Why are you idle? You see with how many evils this earth is filled: here thorns, here thistles, here grass springs up. Burn the thorns, uproot the thistles, cut the grass, scatter good seeds; let winter not terrify you: and if iniquity abounds, yet let your charity burn. Sow in winter what you reap in summer. But to whom do I speak? Where are the fountains of tears? To which farmers do I speak? Some are dead, others put to flight; the earth has been handed over to the hand of the impious (John 9:24). Tribulation and necessity have found us. Lord, give us help from tribulation, so that the salvation of man may not be vain, but true (Psalm 59:13). What do you say, Arian? To the one questioning, I ask that you answer, please. Do not despise the little one; your great stature does not help you, your large arms do not protect you; the blow of a single stone penetrates the helmeted forehead (1 Samuel 17:49). Tell me, therefore, what I ask you: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?

I believe, he says. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord? I believe, he says. Do you believe that Jesus Christ, God and man, was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary? I believe, he says. You do well. I still ask: Just as the Father is God, so also the Son is God? Yes. Is the Father one person, the Son another? Most certainly. Is the Son equal to the Father? Equal, he says. What remains? Behold, to all that I have asked, he has answered. In that he says he believes in God the Father and God the Son, he is with me against the Pagan. In that he believes Christ, God and man, was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, he is with me against the Jew and the Manichaean. In that he believes the Father is one person, the Son another, he is with me against the Sabellian. Come, if you are with me in all things, why do we quarrel? If we have one inheritance, let us possess it together; we are brothers: Behold how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity (Psalm 132:1)! Why is there a new structure before the wall? Let us together keep watch for the protection of our inheritance. Our inheritance is splendid for us (Psalm 15:6). We have envious ones, we have enemies: and they themselves wish to possess, not with us, but against us. Let no one usurp anything for himself: this inheritance has been bequeathed to us in such a way that it is to be possessed undivided, not dissipated into parts. Let us gather the fruit together, lest by dividing we lose. Poverty makes me anxious; I ask you, do not gather outside without me, lest you begin to scatter.

For he who does not gather with me, scatters (Luke 11:23). I seem to have forgotten with whom I was dealing; but I have not forgotten; I question Ariallus, whom I desire to be Catholic. Someone says: To everything you wished, he responded; in his responses nothing contrary is found; what more do you seek? Wait, brother, do not judge hastily; I still have something to ask; do not entrust yourself to him quickly; the response is clear, the poison lies hidden. What did you say, brother? Is the Son equal to the Father? Equal, you say. Good, I am vigilant; now what was hidden will be revealed. How do you say the Son is equal to the Father? In operation, or in origin? In power, or in eternity? Or perhaps in both? Far be it, you say. He is equal in operation and power, not in eternity: for how can it be that the begotten is equal to the unbegotten? Behold, he who was walking with me as a co-heir is present; the deceit that lay hidden has appeared. He was thought to possess with me; he wishes to divide; but I do not permit it; I resist utterly. The laws have it that the will of the testator must be obeyed in all things; if anyone wishes to act against the will of the testator, he shall forfeit the inheritance. But do laws fall silent amidst arms (Cicero, Pro Milone, 40)? Not entirely; for this we labor, for this we fight, that the laws may be served. I produce the testament; I recite the words of the testator: if there is anything to be divided, I find it there; if there is nothing to be divided, I answer you from the testament itself. Hear what the testament says: I give you my peace, I leave you my peace (John

(xiv, 27). This is the inheritance. And who is the testator himself? Read the Testament, and you will find. When the prophet spoke of the Lord, he said: He shall be magnified unto the ends of the earth, and he himself shall be peace (Micah 5:4-5). Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men (Luke 2:14); not to the dividers of holy unity, but to men of good will. He himself is the inheritance, he himself is the testator, him you seek to divide. Why do you divide the one? If you divide the one, you will have nothing whole. Arian heresy, cruel and impious harlot, blush at the judgment of Solomon. The harlot, lest she lose her one living child, conceived from anywhere, already about to give birth, did not permit her son to be divided; and you divide your God, the man? She, though a harlot, yet pious, because a mother; you are both harlot and impious, because not a mother, you strangle what you bear, you gather what you do not bear. How do you nurse another's child, when you kill your own? Your bowels have hardened, hers trembled. What did she say? Give them the boy, and do not divide him (1 Kings 3:27): He is my son; but I would rather rejoice in him whole and alive with her, than mourn him divided and dead. He is my son, she said; but what good will I be to the child as a mother, if I take away the life I do not give? I wish to drive away the cruel one's breasts from the little one, but I am more compelled to fear the judge's sword. Give them my son: he is my born child; but let him go to her whole, let the affection remain with me.

Give the whole boy to him, do not take away the life of his limbs: do not divide his integrity, piety is not snatched from me. What did he say? "Give him the boy and do not divide him." Behold, I too say: possess the whole, and do not divide God. "No," he says, "but if you wish to have peace, with a preliminary judgment, divide the inheritance." And how am I to divide? Is the Father greater, the Son lesser? Parts! O justice! O equality! One part is greater, another lesser. I do not consent, I do not make a part; because I do not divide peace. For if peace is broken, it will no longer be peace. But how can peace be unimpaired with you, with whom faith is not whole? Hence, because you do not wish to possess with me, and you wish to divide peace, you cannot obtain the inheritance. Finally, if in your mouth you are zealous not for peace but for treachery, go, appeal to the judge, let us see what he will say to you. You have an ordinary judge; I do not want you to bring me from various parts other and other authorities. I need not an arm-bearer, but a lawgiver. "And where," you ask, "do I find him?" But where will you not find him? Hear the prophet saying: "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver." And do not think him a judge to be despised; hear what follows: "The Lord is our king, the Lord himself will save us" (Isaiah 33:22). Behold, you have a judge. If it is too little, our king is also before you. He is in heaven in such a way that he does not forsake the earth. "I fill," he says, "heaven and earth" (Jeremiah 23:24).

I am with you all days until the end of the world (Matt. 28:20). And He is with us, and He is with the Father: because He neither left the Father when He descended to us, nor did He abandon us when He ascended to the Father. Appeal to Him, say to Him: Lord, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Hear the divine response, hear the just judge; hear peace, fleeing from strife: what does He say? Friend, who appointed me judge or divider between you (Luke 12:13-14)? Do you wish to divide peace, and do you seek to have peace as your judge? I do not wish to be your judge; let me be peace, I do not know how to litigate; I sit with those who agree, I flee from those who quarrel. If, when you were an enemy of my Father, I reconciled you through myself, how then will you separate me from my Father? When you were far away, I came to lead you back: when you wandered among mountains and forests, I sought you: among stones and wood I found you: you stumbled upon stones, you clung to them, because you worshipped wood and stones. And so that you would not be torn apart by the greedy jaws of wolves and wild beasts, I gathered you, I carried you on my shoulders, I gave you back to my Father, I labored, I sweated, I placed my head under thorns, I exposed my hands to nails, a lance opened my side: I was torn apart by so many—I will not say injuries, but hardships: I poured out my blood, I laid down my life, to join you to myself, and you divide me? Hear what is answered to the disciple, who knew the Son and was seeking the Father. Philip said to the Lord: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

Did he not also separate the Son from the Father? "Now we know you," he says, "but we do not know your Father. And what do you want? Show us the Father, and that is enough for us." And the Lord says to him: "If you wish, Arian, to hear, you have erred with the Apostle; return with the Apostle: let his rebuke be your cure." What does the Lord say? "For so long," he says, "I have been with you, and you have not known me? Philip, I came to attach you to my Father; do not separate me: why do you seek another besides me? He who has seen me has also seen the Father. Such is the unity between us; such the likeness, such the love, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me." I sense, Sabellian, what you mutter, either to trap me in the Arian position or to hasten to call me away from the Arian. But in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—not of three gods, but of one God—when I answer him, I do not pass you by. What did the Lord say? "He who has seen me has seen the Father." Did he say, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," or "I am both Son and Father"? But he said, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; and He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:8-10). The interposition of a single syllable, which is called "et," distinguishes both the Father and the Son, and shows that you have neither Father nor Son. Tell me, Arian: do you call the Father God? "Yes, indeed." What of the Son? "I also confess him to be God." How do you know this?

Because when He was to be announced as coming in the flesh, the prophet said of Him: "Say to the faint-hearted, take courage: do not fear, behold our God will bring the vengeance of retribution; God Himself will come and will satisfy us" (Isaiah 35:4). Recognize, in that you claim to recognize, if you do not oppose the Prophets. What then do you say about the Father? He is God. What is the Son? He is God. Is the Son coeternal with the Father? No. Therefore there was a time when the Son was not, according to you. If there was a time when the Son was not, then there was a time which the Son did not make. If there was a time which the Son did not make, then not all things were made through Him: for there already was a time when the Son was not. If there was a time when the Son was not, the evangelist John ought not to have said, "In the beginning was the Word," but rather, "In the beginning was time." John says, "All things were made through Him" (John 1:1, 3): but the Arian contradicts. Say, Arian: how do you know that there was a time when the Son was not? Or perhaps you will say: And how does John know that in the beginning was the Word? Because he reclined on the Lord's breast, and from there he drew what he drank at Christ's banquet, that in the beginning was the Word. Yet tell me, when in the beginning was the Word (ibid., 1), or when John reclined on the Lord's breast (John 13:23) and learned from the Lord's Word that the Word was in the beginning, and the Word was God: where was Arius? I do not know, if you dare to say he was there.

It is known and read at what time he was born, and he was justly condemned. It is also known how he lived, how he died: and therefore you dare not say of Arius, as of the Word, "He was and is": because neither was Arius then, nor is he now. But to exclude the Arian in all things, hear what is said through Solomon: "The Lord made regions and uninhabitable places under heaven. When he was preparing heaven, I was with him." And after a little: "I was with him arranging all things; I was there when he made the strong foundations of the earth; I was the one in whom he rejoiced" (Prov. 8:26, 27, 30). But you say, "The question is about time; whether the Son existed before time existed." Hear him speaking through the prophet: "From time," he says. What is "From time"? Surely not "from when time began"? Not so, impious Arian; not so: but, "From time, before it was made, I was there" (Isa. 48:16). Behold, before time was made, he was there. Ask now when he was not, who was before times. "In the beginning was the Word." The Greeks say it better, since "word" signifies both speech and reason. You see, therefore, that he always was, about whom you dare to say, "He was not." Or if you say that God was at some time without the Word, or without reason, you will be an adversary not only of the Son but also of the Father. "I," he says, "came forth from the Most High" (Sir. 24:5). Who says this? The Word. And what this Word is, let John say: "God was the Word." And therefore the Word, and that of which it was the Word, are not two, but one.

No, you say, because the word is later than that of which it is the word, whence it appears that the Son is lesser than the Father. You deny, therefore, that the Son of God is God. I do not deny, you say: and I call the Father God, and the Son God; but the Father greater, the Son lesser. How long is the Father greater, the Son lesser? Tell me, for I see that you wish to shoe eternity: by how many years does God the Father precede his Son? Where have you read the day of the birth of the Son of God? I speak of the Son of God, not of the Son of God and of man. Where, then, have you read the day of his birth? With what astrologer have you sought and treated the constellation of the Creator of the stars? What times, what hours, what moments, what numbers, what fractions of moments of that birth have you collected—of him who established all things? Let it rest, I beg, let your heretical, not religion, but superstition rest: concerning the beginning of Christ, calculation fails. Because when eternity is born without beginning, no age of it is sought. If the Father is God, and the Son is God, the Father greater, the Son lesser: then there are not one God, but two. If there are two gods, what then is it that the Lord says through the prophet, "Before me no God was formed, and after me there will be none" (Isaiah 43:10)? What do you say, Arian? To whom do you assign these words? If they are the Father's, by saying, "Before me no God was formed, and after me there will be none," either the Father himself will not be, or the Son will not be God.

If he were only saying this much, "Before me no God was formed," and were not adding, "and after me there will be none," it would be open to you to apply these words to the Father alone. But since he continues and says, "after me there will be none," according to you, as I have said, he denies both the Father and the Son to be God. Likewise, if these are the Son's words, he denies his own Father and God and denies him as Father. For if he were not saying, "Before me no God was formed," but were only saying, "after me there will be none," it might perhaps be said that the Son spoke that. But as it is, when he says, "Before me no God was formed, and after me there will be none," he says that his own Father is neither God nor Father. Likewise, if these are the Father's words, who is it that says, to whom does he say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you" (Psalm 2:7)? Or is God, which God forbid, to be accused of lying? But if these are the Son's words, who is it that says, of whom does he say, "My Father is still working" (John 5:17)? Or is he to be judged as injurious to his Father, and ungrateful? But would it be said to an ungrateful one, "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and your possession to the ends of the earth" (Psalm 2:8)? Or did the Prophet perhaps either not know what he was saying, or intend to deceive; or, to say something milder about the Prophet, is he to be believed to have invented for himself two interlocutors, that is, the Father and the Son; and with the Father saying, "Before me no God was formed," the Son added by saying, "and after me there will be none"? Are these things we are dealing with—are they theatrical and frivolous, or divine? Wretch! alas!

Spare, spare, heretical impiety. Since you do not grasp God, you also provoke us to blasphemy. Holy Church does not teach this. The Father is Father; the Son is Son: and He was never not Father, and He was never not Son: both are eternal, they neither began to be nor cease to be. What the Father speaks, the Son speaks, because He is the Word of the Father: and what the Son speaks, the Father speaks, because He is the Father of the Word. The Word Himself says, "The words which I speak, I do not speak from myself" (John 14:10). Grant, I beg you, to the Creator what He Himself granted to the creature, and, if you can, contain the Creator in the created. Behold, fire and radiance are two, one is from the other, and neither is without the other: fire is father, radiance is son. It itself, if it could, would say, "That I shine, I do not shine from myself; but He who sent me gave me that I might shine." For fire sends forth radiance. And just as the Son says of God the Father, "The Father is with me" (John 16:32), so too radiance could say, "Fire is with me." Extinguish the fire, radiance will appear nowhere. If, therefore, fire and radiance, father and son, are one without a spouse as father, the other without a mother as son; and neither can be separated from the other; and although one is from the other, the beginning of the other cannot exist without the other; and this ability is granted by the Creator to the creature: what can the Creator Himself do? Let the Pagan approach, let the Sabellian approach.

Let Arinus approach: let them contemplate the lamp, and in it see what they cannot see in God. I do no injury if, desiring to show in some measure the power of so great a Creator, I bring forward this small likeness of fire or lamp. For it is written, "Your word is a lamp to my feet, O Lord, and a light to my paths" (Ps. 118:105). And of God it is said, "a consuming fire" (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29). Come then, and consider the lamp diligently, and remove your foolish darknesses. Let the pagan gaze, and there learn that the Father and the Son exist without marriage, and how the Son was born: and if you are not blind, see there; seek a middle between fire and radiance. If there is no middle, there is no marriage. Do not wish to scrutinize the middle, lest you suffer a great conflagration. Let the Sabellian approach, let them see two in one, fire and radiance. Can the radiance not rightly say, "I am in the fire, and the fire is in me," just as the Son says, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me" (John 14:10)? Let the Arian also approach, and let him see for himself one from the other, yet that one cannot be born without the other: neither of them is prior, neither posterior; father and son, radiance and fire are coeternal: neither can fire be without radiance, nor radiance without fire. Or certainly, if you please, put in your hand, separate one from the other: show me fire without radiance, or radiance without fire.

Far be it, far be it: you will be able to burn only, but you will not be able to separate one from the other. For just as fire and radiance are each from the other, yet neither can exist without the other, so Father God and Son God are each from the other, yet neither can exist without the other. Not for them a birth which is not, but eternity and one substance are theirs. Fire and radiance are temporal; but Father and Son God are eternal. They are, I say, because they are Father and Son; God, I say, because they are one. Duality in the offspring, unity in the divinity. When I say "Son," he is other; when I say "God," he is one. He is other because he is Son; he is not something else, because he is from God. Blush, Arians. The executioners of Pilate did not dare to tear the tunic of a man already condemned and hanging on the cross (John 19:24); and do you attempt to divide the love of God sitting in heaven—indeed, love itself, God? But you attempt; as much as you can, attempt; you have already fallen into hell; for you will never tear that tunic. Likewise, through the prophet the Lord says, "There is no God apart from me; a just and saving God is not other than me" (Isaiah 45:21).

CHAPTER VII — 9. Against Sabellius. Here the Sabellian exults. For in order to show that the Father and the Son are one and the same, he believes himself to be fortified by such testimonies. Against the Arians, in order to prove that the Father is one and the Son another, they bring forth other testimonies, and they say, To such an extent is the Father one and the Son another, and one greater and the other lesser, that the Father says to the Son, "I have set you as a light to the nations" (Isaiah 49:6); and the Son says, "The Father sent me" (John 8:42). As I understand it, this light of the nations is so clear and perspicuous that the heretics, being unable to grasp and perceive it, are blinded, and cannot walk in it, but rather wander astray. The Arian says one thing, the Sabellian another. What a war! What does the Catholic say to this? "The arms," he says, "which they carry are mine: they fight for me; both fight against each other, but for me: would that both might fail, and that neither should pass over to the other, but to me!" I too will bring forth something by which both may be struck down. You, Arian, say that the one who sends is greater, the one who is sent lesser: I ask you, Who is greater, the one who precedes, or the one who is preceded? Likewise, who is greater, the one for whom something is prepared as he comes, or the one who prepares; the one to whom an office is shown, or the one who shows it? Certainly, if you ask the race of men, they will answer that the one who is preceded, for whom something is prepared, or to whom an office is shown, is the greater.

You there try to prove the Son is lesser because he was sent: I show that the one who sent precedes the one whom he sent; and I do not say that either of them is greater, because I dare not say that either is lesser. The prophet Isaiah says, "Thus says the Lord to my Christ the Lord, whose right hand I have taken, to subdue nations before his face." Behold, the Father has already come to the Son who was sent. Follow further: "And I will turn the backs of kings, and open doors before him, and the gates will not be closed" (Isaiah 45:4). Behold, the one who had sent has become a forerunner. For who greater or higher opens doors before a lesser? Or how does he do this unless he has also gone a little ahead? Listen further: "And the gates," he says, "will not be closed." How? "I will go before you" (Ibid., 2). You see that the one who sent both accompanies and precedes: he sends, and does not depart. It is not enough that he does not depart; moreover, he precedes. Now discern who is greater, who is mightier: for I see no distinction, but rather I behold equality. The Son says of the Father, "He sent me" (John 8:46). The Father says to the Son, "I will go before you." Let the discordant calamity withdraw: equality displays this, not disparity. Follow further, so that it may appear more clearly who says to whom: "I will go before you, and I will humble the glorious ones of the earth." Stay here, you pagan. Hear what the prophet says. I did not write what I wished: the codex in which these things are written is kept in the Jew's chest.

My enemy is my witness; ask him; open, read, and believe. "I shall turn the backs of kings," he says, "and I shall humble the glorious ones of the earth." Do you not see the kings of the earth, who formerly persecuted Christians, now being Christians? Do you not see those who humiliated the Church entering humbly into the Church? Do you not now see them having as defenders those whom they formerly had as persecutors? "I," he says, "shall go before you, and I shall humble the glorious ones of the earth. I shall shatter bronze gates and break iron bars. And I shall give you hidden treasures and the secrets of the sanctuary, so that you may know that I am God, who calls your name, God of Israel" (Isaiah 45:1). Let the Sabellian hear: God speaks, He speaks to God. Therefore there are two: the one who speaks and the one to whom He speaks. Let the Arian also hear: "I am God, and there is no other outside me" (Ibid.). It has been a long time since I have been laboring in struggle against these two heresies, and I am almost exhausted. Come, my Lord Jesus, most valiant fighter, prince of the army of the Lord, who conquered the devil and the world. Take up arms and shield, and rise up to help me (Psalm 34). About to go forth to battle and to conquer the world while living in the world, He prayed; not as one lacking power, since He was omnipotent, but to show us, for the sake of which He had come, the teaching of humility. And what did He say? "Father, glorify your Son" (John 17:1). Now the accursed Arian says, "You see that He is lesser, and He would not have glory unless He had asked the Father?" Wait, man, why are you in a hurry?

You see a man, in which form he is less not only than the Father but also than the angels (Psalm 8:?): man is apparent, God is hidden. You show me a humble man: open your eyes, and see the sublime God, not less than the angels, but equal to the Father. "Father," he says, "glorify your Son": behold, the lesser. Follow further: "So that your Son may also glorify you" (John 17:1): behold, the equal. We find the Son acknowledging the Father, and praying, and joined to him, not, as was thought, ungrateful. Let us see what the Father also says about the Son. Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother (these are the words of the Gospel), and led them apart onto a high mountain, and was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as snow. And behold, Moses and Elias appeared to them, speaking with him (Matthew 17:3). Moses and Elias, the Law and the Prophets; they were speaking with him, because they had spoken of him; they were showing whom they had foretold, they were manifesting whom they had prophesied. They were speaking: what do you think they were speaking? So that the Jews might be convicted, the pagans converted, the Manichaeans confounded, the heretics suppressed, the Catholics confirmed. Light and grace, harshness and gentleness, terror and meekness, precept and assistance, iron tool and physician, shadow and light, herald and judge, sentence and mercy were speaking. And what after this?

Then Peter answered and said to Jesus: "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make three tabernacles here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" (Matthew 27:4). What are you saying, holy Peter? The world is in labor, and you seek seclusion? Do you see so many nations gathered together, and you seek rest? Do you see the darkness of the world, and do you hide the light? No one lights a lamp and places it under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, so that it may shine for all who are in the house (Matthew 5:15). This house is the whole world: the lighting of the lamp is the Incarnation of the Word; the lampstand, however, is the wood of the cross; the lamp shining on the lampstand is Christ hanging on the cross. No one lights a lamp and places it under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, so that it may shine for all who are in the house. You have seen; let us also see. There is darkness; let us not stumble among the pagans, let us not err among the heretics: let the lamp shine for us, let the Word in the flesh teach us. Let us see what the Evangelist says, let us see whether Peter's advice was accepted: "While he was still speaking," it says, "behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice from the cloud saying" (Matthew 17:5). Let all hear; let no one close their ears. Let the scoffing pagans hear, let the persecuting Jews hear, let the Manichaeans, dreamers of phantasms, hear, let the erring heretical disputants hear; let them hear, and especially let the Catholics, the faithful worshipers of God, also hear. Let these hear so that they may be instructed, those so that they may be corrected: or let these hear lest they be led astray, those so that they may be punished.

What does the voice from the cloud say? "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (cf. Matt. 3:17; 17:5). Where are you who oppose the Son of God? The Father says, "This is my Son," and you say, "God has no Son." You pagan, why do you stand outside and murmur? Come in here to the school of God, open the ears of your heart, hear the voice of the Lord, and learn the Son of God. What will you do, Jews, who killed the Son of God? Where will you flee, where will you hide? What mountains, what rocks will fall upon you? And if you hide in the caverns of the rocks, I will drag you out from there, says the Lord (Jer. 49:5). But you also, come, enter, hear my counsel, do not despair: for there are remnants for the peaceful man (Ps. 36:23). You raged, you killed, you shed the blood of Christ, you are in peril, you were unbelieving toward the Son of God. What then must you now do, except, believing, be baptized and drink the blood which you shed? There is no reason for you to shudder: the blood of the physician was shed, and it became the medicine of the frenzied. Why do you hesitate? Taste and see, for the Lord is sweet (Ps. 24:9). What, you Manichaean, how long will you dream of phantasms? Awake and see; the clouds thunder. What do they thunder? "This is my beloved Son" (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). See on earth a true man, hear from heaven a true God: see on earth a son of man, hear from heaven that he is the Son of God.

Recognize that both are true, that is, God and man, the Son of God and the son of man, one and the same being both God and man. Acknowledge the man, and you will appease God. Beware lest you stumble on the rock and suffer the ruin of death: because what you dream is vanity; what God thunders is truth. Hear, you Sabellian, hear the Father from heaven, see the Son on earth, and do not say, "The Father is the same as the Son." Hear, you Arian as well, and do not err in both the Father and the Son, but follow unity, and behold the divinity. Lord, let us hear what you say about your Son: "This is my Son," he says. See on earth the son of man, hear from heaven that he is the Son of God. "My beloved, in whom I am well pleased." And what? Hear him yourselves. Thanks be to God. The command of God has thundered, and the counsel of Peter has been removed. Thanks to you, God of Power; thanks to you, God the Father, who have both shown your Son and given me a teacher. Let the Sabellian withdraw, let the Arian withdraw, let the other plagues withdraw, let every wicked doctrine withdraw. Let God teach, not Arius: let the Son of God teach, not the adversary of the Son. Speak, my Lord Jesus, teach, let me learn what I may teach. The Sabellian says, "The Father is the same as the Son." The Arian says, "The Father is one, the Son another; the Father is greater, the Son lesser." He opposes, shouts, quarrels, fights, gathers crowds, fights against Christ. The one shed blood to redeem; the other scatters money to destroy.

He builds a cave; there he calls a Catholic a pagan, a Christian a pagan; he imposes Baptism on the baptized, contrary to what is written: "He who has once been washed has no need to be washed again" (John 13:40). The man cries out, "I am a Christian; why do you call me what I am not?" He cries out, "I am a believer"; and the other says, "Take money from me." He cries out, "I am redeemed"; and the other says, "Take gold from me." What do you give, or what do you take away? You give money to take away grace; you give money to take away life; you give a price to take away what I was bought for. What do you buy from one who is already bought? My price is not gold, but the blood of Christ; you do not deceive me, you do not trick me; however much you offer me, you do not take away my price. Let your money be with you for your destruction (Acts 8:20); for my price has no price. The man cries out, "I am a believer," and you hiss at him. He cries out, "I was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," and you hiss. What then do you reserve for a Christian, in whom you hiss at the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Or have you perhaps brought a new faith, a new baptism, a new god from across the seas? Speak, my teacher, holy Paul; teach, expert in divine law, friend of the Bridegroom: this man has just arrived, he overturns the world, and he tears apart the unity of the faith. He divides the Trinity; he strives to rebaptize those who do not agree with him; what shall I do? In Jesus himself, through your Gospel, you gave me birth (1 Corinthians 4:15); I was baptized in Christ.

Or is there another baptism or another faith? "Far from it," you say: "One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all" (Ephesians 4:5-6). If therefore there is one faith—indeed, because there is one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all—I have already believed, I have already been baptized, I already have God as Father: why do I suffer a murderer, an Arian? Help me, O Lord Jesus, and gird your sword about your thigh, O most powerful one (Psalm 45:4). O most powerful of all, come forth, slay them in themselves, that they may live in you, that they may cease to persecute me. The Sabellians diminish you, the Arians reduce you: what do you say about yourself? The Father said that we should hear you: when we hear you, we hear him: strike both adversaries with a single blow. "Let them perish," he says, "the vain talkers and seducers of the mind, the Arian and the Sabellian: for I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). He did not say, "I and the Father am one," but "I and the Father are one." What I say, "one," let the Arian hear; what I say, "are," let the Sabellian hear. Let not the Arian divide the "one"; let not the Sabellian erase the "are"; but let both come, and let them also themselves be one in us, just as I and the Father are one (John 17:11). Therefore if the Father and the Son are one—indeed, because they are undoubtedly one—they are not two gods, but one God: the prophet did not write something hostile, but spoke truly, with the Lord saying, "Before me no God was formed, and after me there will be none" (Isaiah 43:10). Truth taught truth, and with a double-edged sword it destroyed every error.

If the heretics still resist, let the Catholics hear the definitive sentence, which they should follow. CHAPTER VIII — 10. Conclusion. You have heard what the Father said about the Son; you have heard what the Son said about the Father or about himself. If anyone evangelizes you beyond what you have received, let him be anathema (Galatians 1:8). We have spoken about the Father and the Son as we were able, and as much as we were able—if indeed we were able to say anything worthily. About the Holy Spirit we have kept silent, but we have not separated him; for whatever we said about the Father and the Son, we also said about the Holy Spirit. For he is in them and with them, equal and one, not a lesser or a third god. What more shall I say, weary to the weary? Whoever separates the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son in eternity or substance or communion, and whoever denies that the Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, is full of an unclean spirit, empty of the Holy Spirit. For God is called Love (1 John 4:8) because he does not divide unity into parts, but ineffably binds together the Trinity. For that Trinity is one God, a tower of strength against the face of the enemy (Psalm 60:4), who guards those who believe in him throughout the ages of ages. Amen.

ADMONITION ON THE FOLLOWING SERMON. This sermon too was delivered under the dominion of the Arians, at a time when, with those heretics debating and striving to lead Catholics away from the faith—some by promise and reward, others by force and power—no one dared to resist. "You seem great to yourself," says the preacher, chapter 1, "because you dispute with no one arguing against you, with no judge presiding." And while the time favors your error, you think you are something, when you are nothing; and, deceived, you desire to deceive many, some by money, some by power. Compare this with the earlier sermon, chapter 7, where also in that place, namely above, column 1115, line 11, the Arian church is called a cave, as you will observe here in chapter 2. On fulfilling the profession of renunciation, the baptized are admonished in chapters 3 and 4, not otherwise than in the spurious sermons on the Creed to the Catechumens in volume 6. Other passages similar to those and to the earlier sermon we pass over. Moreover, many things are borrowed from Augustine: that in chapter 48, "If by magic arts he made a dead man be worshipped, was he a magician before he was born?" is from the book On the Harmony of the Gospels, chapter 11. Likewise that in chapter 13, "What is 'In the midst of two animals you are known' but either in the midst of the two Testaments, or in the midst of the two thieves, or in the midst of Moses and Elijah conversing with him on the mountain?" is taken from chapter 32 of the book On the City of God. From there also, chapter 23, the Sibylline verses are transferred here. With Gregory in the Gospels.

Homily 53, the preacher usurps this in the opening of the sermon, when it would be more fitting to weep than to say anything. Likewise, it contains certain other chapters that agree with the same homily on the Gospel. In one chapter, it says that the poet Virgil, by that verse, "Now a new progeny is sent down from high heaven," bore witness to Christ: which Augustine, in his letter to Nectarius, n. 1, far more truly calls a flattering poem, spoken to a nobleman, namely Pollio. Bernard Vindingus, in his *Criticus Augustinianus*, points out the barbarism of the diction, and censures some things as inept, but these were faults of the editions, corrected here from a Remigian codex eight hundred years old, in which is inscribed "Sermon of Saint Augustine on the Creed"; from three Vatican manuscripts; from one Beauvais manuscript of the Abbey of Saint-Quentin; from a Corbie manuscript; etc.