Sermo Arianorum

Sermon of the Arians, Where numbers are accordingly affixed to individual passages, so that when the response begins to be read, whoever wishes may observe whether each passage has been answered appropriately and diligently; for the response itself also bears the same numbers, through which it is shown to which passage a response is given. Our Lord Jesus Christ, God the only-begotten, firstborn of the whole creation. a By the will of God and His Father, established before all ages. By His will and command, he made the heavens and the earth, the visible and the invisible, bodies and spirits, from no pre-existing things, so that they might be, by his own power. And before he made all things, he was established as God and Lord, king and creator of all future things, and he had in his nature foreknowledge of all future things, and in doing all things he awaited the Father’s command; he himself, by the will and command of the Father, descended from heaven and came into this world, as he himself says: “For I did not come of myself, but he sent me” (John 8:42).

And because among all the spiritual and rational orders, on account of the quality and frailty of the body, man seemed a little less, inferior to the angels (Psalm 8:6): lest he despise himself as base and despair of his salvation, the Lord Jesus, honoring his own creation, deigned to take up human flesh; and he showed that man is not base, but precious, as it is written: "Great man and precious man" (Proverbs 20:6, according to the LXX). And therefore he deigned to make man alone the heir of his Father, and co-heir with himself; so that what he had received less in nature, he might have more in honor. "When," he says, "the fullness of time came, God sent his Son born of a woman" (Galatians 4:4). He who by the will of the Father took on flesh, he also by the will and command of the same lived in the body, as he himself says: "I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38). He also, by the will of the Father, was baptized at thirty years of age, manifested by the voice and testimony of the Father (Luke 3:21-23); by the will and command of the Father he preached the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven, as he himself says: "In other cities I must preach the Gospel; for this I was sent" (Luke 4:45); and, "He himself gave me the command what I should say, or what I should speak" (John 12:49).

And thus by the will and command of the Father he hastened to passion and death, as he himself says: "Father, let this cup pass from me; not, however, what I will, but what you will" (Matthew 26:39). And with the Apostle affirming and saying: "Obedient," he says, "made to the Father unto death, even death on the cross" (Philippians 2:8). And while hanging on the cross, by the will and command of the Father he abandoned the human flesh, which he had taken from the holy Virgin Mary, into the hands of men, and commended his divinity into the hands of the Father, saying: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:40). For Mary bore a body that would die, but God the immortal begot an immortal Son. Therefore the death of Christ is not a diminution of his divinity, but a laying aside of the body. For just as his generation from the virgin was not a corruption of his divinity, but an assumption of a body, so also in his death there was no passion and defect of his divinity, but a separation of his flesh. For just as one who tears a garment does injury to the wearer, so also those who crucified his flesh offered insult to his divinity.

He who by the will and command of the Father fulfilled the entire dispensation, by the will and command of the Father raised his own body from the dead; and he himself in body, as a shepherd with the sheep, and a priest with the offering, and a king with the purple, and God with the temple, was taken up by the Father into glory. He who by the will of the Father descended and ascended, by the will and command of the Father sits at his right hand, hearing the Father say to him: Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet (Psalm 109:1). He who by the will and command of the Father sits at his right hand, he by the will and command of the Father will come at the consummation of the age, with the Apostle crying out and saying: And he himself, he says, the Lord, at the command, at the voice of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:15). He who by the will and command of the Father will come, he by the will and command of the Father will judge the whole world in equity, and will render to each according to their faith and deeds; as he himself says, The Father judges no one, but gave all judgment to his Son: likewise, As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is true; because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me (John 5:22, 50). Whence also in judging he places the Father’s presence first, and puts his own divine dignity and power second, saying: Come, blessed of my Father (Matthew 25:34).

Therefore the Son is the just judge; but the honor and authority of judging belong to the imperial laws of the Father, just as the dutiful advocacy and consolation of the Holy Spirit belong to the dignity of the only-begotten Son, the just judge. Therefore the Son was begotten by the Father; the Holy Spirit was made through the Son. ii. The Son proclaims the Father; the Holy Spirit announces the Son. The first and principal work of the Son is to reveal the glory of the begetter; the first and principal work of the Holy Spirit is to manifest the dignity of Christ in the souls of men. The Son is the witness of the Father; the Spirit is the witness of the Son. The Son is sent by the Father; the Spirit is sent by the Son. The Son is the minister of the Father; the Holy Spirit is the minister of the Son. The Son is commanded by the Father; the Holy Spirit is commanded by the Son. The Son is subject to the Father; the Holy Spirit is subject to the Son. The Son does what the Father commands; the Holy Spirit speaks what the Son orders.

The Son adores and honors the Father; the Holy Spirit adores and honors the Son: as the Son himself says, "Father, I have honored you on earth, the work which you commanded me I have completed" (John 17:4); and concerning the Holy Spirit he says, "He will honor me, because he will receive from me, and will announce to you" (John 16:11). The Son can do nothing by himself (John 5:19), but in all things awaits the Father's nod. The Spirit does not speak by himself, but in all things awaits Christ's command: "He will not," he says, "speak by himself; but whatever he hears he will speak, and will announce future things to you" (John 16:13). The Son intercedes for us with the Father; the Spirit petitions the Son for us. The Son is the living and true, proper and worthy image of the Father's entire goodness, wisdom, and power; the Spirit is the manifestation of the Son's entire wisdom and power. The Son is not a part nor a portion of the Father, but the proper and most beloved, perfect and full only-begotten Son. The Spirit is not a part nor a portion of the Son, but the first and principal work of the only-begotten God, before all others.

The Father is greater than His Son; the Son is incomparably greater and better than the Spirit. The Father is God and Lord to His Son; the Son is God and Lord to the Spirit. The Father, immovably and impassibly willing, begot the Son; the Son, without labor and weariness, by His own power alone made the Spirit. The Son, as a priest, adores His God, and is adored by all as God and creator of all; the Father alone adores no one, because he has neither a greater nor an equal whom he might adore; he gives thanks to no one, because he has obtained no one's benefit; he gave to all that they might exist out of his own goodness; he himself received what he is from no one. Therefore, this is the distinction of the three substances, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the difference of the three things, the unbegotten God, the only-begotten God, and the Spirit Advocate: and the Father is God and Lord to His Son, and of all things which were made through the power of the Son by his own will; the Son is the minister and high priest of His Father; but he is Lord and God of all his own works, with the Father willing.

is. And just as no one can pass to the Father without the Son, so too no one can truly adore the Son without the Holy Spirit: therefore the Son is adored in the Holy Spirit. The Father is glorified through the Son. The work and diligence of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify and to guard the saints; and not only rational beings, as some think, but also to sanctify pure irrational beings: and to restore those who have fallen on account of their own negligence to their former state; to teach the ignorant, to admonish the forgetful, to reprove the sinful, to exhort the slothful, to think and act solicitously concerning their own salvation, to lead the erring to the path of truth, to heal the weak, and to contain the fragility of the body through the alacrity of the soul, and to confirm them in the love of piety and chastity, and to illuminate all; above all to provide faith and charity to each one, also to distribute grace according to zeal and diligence, according to sincerity and simplicity of mind, according to the measure of faith and the quality of one's conduct, for utility, and to ordain each one in the work and purpose for which he is suited.

He is other than the Son by nature and order, rank and affection, dignity and power, virtue and operation: just as the Son by nature and order, rank and affection, divine dignity and power, the only-begotten God is other than the unbegotten God. Therefore it is impossible that the Father and the Son be one and the same—the begetter and the begotten, he to whom testimony is borne and he who bears testimony, the greater and he who confesses the greater, he who sits at the right hand and stands and he who gave the honor of the seat, he who was sent and he who sent; nor the disciple and the teacher, as he himself taught saying, “As the Father taught me, so I speak” (John 8:28); the similar and the imitator, and he whose similar and imitator he is; he who prays and he who hears; he who gives thanks and he who blesses; he who received the command and he who gave the command, and the minister to the commander, the suppliant to the eminent, the subject to the superior, the firstborn to the eternal, the only-begotten to the unbegotten, the priest to God—that one and the same be these.

But God without beginning foreknew that he would be the father of his only-begotten God Son: but he never foreknew that he himself would be God, because he is unbegotten, and never began either to foreknow or to know. What, moreover, is foreknowledge, if not knowledge of future things? But the Father, by begetting the Son, was named by the Son himself; and by his revelation, he was known by all Christians as God and Father of the only-begotten God, and was manifested as greater than great and better than good. II. And because the Homoousians say that our Savior spoke all these things about the Father’s foreknowledge and about his own subjection for the sake of humility, but we Christians believe that with the Father commanding and the Son obeying, he spoke all these things; we say and prove that the heretics are convicted and reproached by their own words. For if he humbled himself, that humility itself shows obedience: but that obedience itself declares one above, eminent, and another subsisting and subject, as the Apostle says, He humbled himself, obedient, made subject to the Father even unto death (Philippians 2:8). And that humility of his is truth, not falsehood. For who, or when, is a wise man content to humble himself, unless he has a greater and better one to whom he hastens to please through humility? And I, he says, always do what is pleasing to him (John 8:29). For once born before all ages by the will of God, he does everything according to his will.

But if he humbled himself, and lied—which God forbid—and if truth lies, which is impossible, where would one seek truth? But truth neither lies nor changes, for he came in order to teach truth; he is not a teacher of ignorance, but a master of truth, as he himself said: "Do not call yourselves masters on earth, for your only master is Christ" (Matt. 23:10). But if they say that because of his incarnation he humbled himself on earth, and spoke these things for the sake of men, let us show them that the testimonies concerning the Son's subjection placed in the Scriptures are greater and firmer than those which occur in the Gospel. For if he humbled himself for the sake of men on earth, and not as an obedient and subject son, with incomparable love and gratitude, deferring to his own Father—because as sublime as he is in power, so humble is he in obedience—why, before he took on flesh, did he obey when commanded, and why, now seated at the right hand of God, does he intercede for us (Rom. 8:34), and why, while constituted in a body on earth, did he promise that he would pray to the Father in heaven, saying, "And I will ask my Father, and he will give you another advocate" (John 14:16)?

And if even in all these things, because of the hardness and blindness of their heart, they are unwilling to believe, but dare to say that all these things are done for the sake of humility, after the consummation of the world, unless he knew himself by nature and will to be subject and obedient, why would he humble himself, where humility is not necessary on account of men? Moreover, even after the consummation of the world, when all things will have been subjected to him (1 Cor. 15:28), because now indeed all things are subject by nature, the creature to the Creator; but by will, on account of free will, we see that not all things are subject to him: then, on the day of judgment, when in the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal beings, and every tongue will confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11), all things without end, both by will and by nature, will be subject to him: and he himself, after the subjection of all things to him, remaining in that subjection and love in which he always is, and he himself as Son will be subject to him who subjected all things to him: no Christian who hears is ignorant, because faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17): so that God may be all in all, always having monarchy and power over all, to whom glory and honor, praise and thanksgiving, through his only-begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, in the Holy Spirit, now and through all ages of ages. Amen.