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| From the Same Second Book. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
From the Same
Second Book.
10. But if any quibbler, from the fact that
I said that God is the Maker and Creator of all things, thinks that I
said that He is also Creator of Christ, let him observe that I first
called Him Father, in which word the Son also is at the same time
expressed.730 For after I
called the Father the Creator, I added, Neither is He the Father of
those things whereof He is Creator, if He who begot is properly
understood to be a Father (for we will consider the latitude of this
word Father in what follows). Nor is a maker a father, if
it is only a framer who is called a maker. For among the Greeks,
they who are wise are said to be makers of their books. The
apostle also says, “a doer (scil. maker) of the
law.”731 Moreover,
of matters of the heart, of which kind are virtue and vice, men are
called doers (scil. makers); after which manner God said,
“I expected that it should make judgment, but it made
iniquity.”732
11. That neither must this saying be thus
blamed;733
733
Athanasius adds (ut supra, 4. 21), that Dionysius gave various
replies to those that blamed him for saying that God is the Maker of
Christ, whereby he cleared himself. | for he says
that he used the name of Maker on account of the flesh which the Word
had assumed, and which certainly was made. But if any one should
suspect that that had been said of the Word, even this also was to be
heard without contentiousness. For as I do not think that the
Word was a thing made, so I do not say that God was its Maker, but its
Father. Yet still, if at any time, discoursing of the Son, I may
have casually said that God was His Maker, even this mode of speaking
would not be without defence. For the wise men among the Greeks
call themselves the makers of their books, although the same are
fathers of their books. Moreover, divine Scripture calls us
makers of those motions which proceed from the heart, when it calls us
doers of the law of judgment and of justice.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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