Liber de Filii et Patris Unitate

A Book on the Unity of Father and Son, and an Interpretation of Certain Passages of Sacred Scripture. Those who saw to the publication of this book in the Froben press had scarcely withdrawn it from the press when they discovered that it was not a new work of Hilary, but a rhapsody of some scholar, patched together partly from the second book On the Trinity, but mostly from the ninth, to which an appendix on various names of Christ was attached from elsewhere. Moreover, this appendix is copied from a chapter of the book On the Orthodox Faith, published under Ambrose and under Gregory Nazianzen, which many believe to be by Gregory of Baetica. From the same addition, the sermon in the appendix of Augustine, now number 113, is composed. God, who is everywhere (From Book II of Hilary's On the Trinity, no. 6), and everywhere whole, so exceeds the grasp of understanding that, outside of whom nothing exists, to whom existence is always present, He wills Himself to be understood in this way in the truth of the sacrament. This is the name of an impenetrable nature in the Father, that God is invisible, ineffable, infinite, to whom, for expressing Him, speech falls silent; for investigating Him, the senses grow dull; for comprehending Him, understanding is constrained. Therefore, confession fails (From no. 7) in naming Him, and whatever words are fitted to Him will not speak of God as He is and how great He is. Perfect knowledge is to know God in such a way that, although you know He is not unknowable, yet you know He is ineffable. He is to be believed, understood, and adored, and expressed through these offices.

Now the Son is the offspring of the Unbegotten (from section 3), one from one, true from true, living from living, perfect from perfect, power of power, wisdom of wisdom, glory of glory, the image of the invisible God, the form of the unbegotten Father. Therefore this birth certainly has its secret (from section 9). And if anyone should perhaps attribute to his own understanding the inability to grasp the mystery of this generation—since the Father is absolute intellect, and the Son is neither greater nor lesser than he—he will hear me say without pain: I do not know, I am ignorant, I do not inquire. Yet I will console myself: Archangels do not know, Angels have not heard, the Prophet did not perceive, the Apostle questioned, the Son himself did not disclose. Let the pain of complaints cease. I do not summon you, whoever you are who seek these things, to the heights, I do not stretch into the vastness, I do not lead down into the depths. We have touched upon these matters concerning the nature of the divinity (from sections and 12), not grasping the summit of understanding, but understanding that what we speak of is incomprehensible. Therefore, you say, there is no office of faith if nothing can be comprehended. On the contrary, let faith profess this office: that it knows that what is sought is incomprehensible to it. There remains something further concerning the ineffable generation of the Son—indeed, that something is still entirely hidden. I burn, I am torn apart, I grow dull, and I do not know where to begin. For I do not know when the Son was born: and it is forbidden for me to know when the Son was born. Whom shall I call upon? Whom shall I implore?

From which books shall I presume to take words for the narration of such great difficulties? Shall I unfold the whole school of Greece? But I have read: where is the wise man? where is the scribe? where is the inquirer of the age? In this world, then, there are many sophists and wise men: but they have rejected the wisdom of God. Shall I consult the scribe of the Law? But he is ignorant, and the cross of Christ is a scandal. Perhaps I shall urge you to connive and be silent: because for his veneration it is enough that in the Gospels it is proclaimed that he performed such astonishing miracles among men. From section 13. —For there stands in my defense, amid these meditated difficulties, a fisherman, needy, unknown, untaught, his hands occupied with linen, his garment wet, his feet smeared with mud, wholly from a boat. Seek and find, whether it was more marvelous to have raised the dead, or to have instilled the knowledge of this doctrine into an unlearned man? For he says, "In the beginning was the Word." Times are passed over, ages are transmitted, epochs are removed: my illiterate fisherman is free from time, he has conquered every beginning.

From the beginning of Book IX. — Treating a few days ago about the indifferent nature of God the Father and God the Son, etc., up to these points, number 44. And thus he taught perfect faith, since that which now exists is the work of the same time; and that what the Father works, the Son also works, outside of a singular union. From the chapter, Treatise on the Orthodox Faith. — Finally, according to our capacity, our strength, our faith, let us contemplate what God is: and let us see whether anything can be compared to him. Certainly, this is God, that which, even when it is spoken, cannot be spoken; when it is estimated, cannot be estimated; when it is compared, cannot be compared; when it is defined, it grows by its own definition: he who covers the sky with his hand, encloses the whole world in his fist, whom all things do not know in their entirety, and know by fearing, to whose name and power they are servants, this world testifies by the momentary succession of elements themselves succeeding one another.

There is a certain principle, which is called in Greek, that distinguishes the persons or names between the Father and the Son: because the Son himself is called the principle, which principle is nevertheless called by many names. For he is called Word, sometimes Power, sometimes Wisdom, sometimes Right Hand, sometimes Arm, sometimes Pearl, sometimes Treasure, sometimes Nets, sometimes Plow, sometimes Fountain, sometimes Rock, sometimes Cornerstone, sometimes Lamb, sometimes Man, sometimes Calf, sometimes Eagle, sometimes Lion, sometimes Way, sometimes Truth, sometimes Life, since he is God, all things and in all things. And through these names the mysteries of the divine dispensations are known. For he is called Word for this reason: because he properly proceeded from the divine mouth, and the Father neither commanded nor did anything without him. He is called Power: because he is truly from God, and always with God, and all the power of the Father consists in him. He is called Wisdom: because, coming from the heart of the Father, he unlocked the secrets in the heavens (in Ambrose: heavenly secrets for believers). He is called Right Hand: because through him all divine works were completed. He is called Arm: because all things are contained by him. He is called Pearl: because nothing more precious than him is found. He is called Treasure: so that in him all the riches of the heavenly kingdoms, which are stored away, may be recognized. (Ambrose: stored away, recognized.) He is called Nets: because through him and in him, from the sea of the world, the multitude of nations, like fish, are gathered into the Church, where the distinctions between good and evil are recognized.

It is called a plow: because by the sign of its cross the hearts of the Gentiles are subdued, so that they may be prepared for the necessary seed. It is called a fountain of water: because from it the hearts of the thirsty are irrigated by the grace of celestial water. It is called a rock: because it provides strength to believers, hardness to unbelievers. It is called a cornerstone: because it joins together both walls of the Old and New Testament, containing and uniting them in itself, the one mediator. It is called a lamb: so that the innocence and passion of Christ may be shown. It is called a man: because he deigned to be born in the flesh for us men. It is called a calf: because he endured suffering for our salvation. It is called an eagle: because after the venerable resurrection, as if on wings, he flew back to the Father (the king of birds flies back to the Father’s seat). The same is called a lion: because he is the king of kings, who shattered death and the devil by the power of his might. He is the way: because through him we have access (he is the ascent) to God the Father. He is the truth: because he knows no falsehood. He is the life: because he himself gives life to all things. You see, therefore, that through these names the meanings of divine arrangements and works are prefigured: yet God himself is not properly defined by these.

From the chapter of the aforementioned treatise. — Therefore the Father is God: immense, eternal, incomprehensible, inestimable. And His Son, our Lord, is as great as the Father; but not from elsewhere, but from the Father: because, He says, "I came forth from the Father," that is, light from light. But if the Son (in Ambrose, this is added: that the Son of God, as has already been said, is seen by the fathers, we approve, so that not everything that is of God was seen in him: but the arrangements of future things, which were to be fulfilled at their respective times, were discerned in him through an image. For who could have seen the Son before he assumed visible matter when he pleased, or deigned to put on man himself? Because even if he was seen by Abraham, he was seen in the form of a human body, by which it was to be shown that he would come in a man in the last times).