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| That the Unity of the Essence of the Father and the Son is to Be Gathered from the Words, ‘We are One.’ The Son is Equal to the Father Both in Wisdom and in All Other Things.
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Chapter 3.—That the Unity of
the Essence of the Father and the Son is to Be Gathered from the
Words, “We are One.” The Son is Equal to the Father Both in
Wisdom and in All Other Things.
4. And I know not whether the
words, “They are one,” are ever found in Scripture as spoken of
things of which the nature is different. But if there are more
things than one of the same nature, and they differ in sentiment,
they are not one, and that so far as they differ in sentiment. For
if the disciples were already one by the fact of being men, He
would not say, “That they may be one, as we are one,”606
when
commending them to the Father. But because Paul and Apollos were
both alike men, and also of like sentiments, “He that
planteth,” he says, “and he that watereth are one.”607
When,
therefore, anything is so called one, that it is not added in what
it is one, and yet more things than one are called one, then the
same essence and nature is signified, not differing nor
disagreeing. But when it is added in what it is one, it may be
meant that something is made one out of things more than one,
though they are different in nature. As soul and body are assuredly
not one; for, what are so different? unless there be added, or
understood in what they are one, that is, one man, or one animal
[person]. Thence the apostle says, “He who is joined to a harlot,
is one body;” he does not say, they are one or he is one; but he
has added “body,” as though it were one body composed by being
joined together of two different bodies, masculine and feminine.608
And, “He
that is joined unto the Lord,” he says,” is one spirit:” he
did not say, he that is joined unto the Lord is one, or they are
one; but he added, “spirit.” For the spirit of man and the
Spirit of God are different in nature; but by being joined they
become one spirit of two different spirits, so that the Spirit of
God is blessed and perfect without the human spirit, but the spirit
of man cannot be blessed without God. Nor is it without cause, I
think, that when the Lord said so much in the Gospel according to
John, and so often, of unity itself, whether of His own with the
Father, or of ours interchangeably with ourselves; He has nowhere
said, that we are also one with Himself, but, “that they maybe
one as we also are one.”609
Therefore the Father and the Son
are one, undoubtedly according to unity of substance; and there is
one God, and one great, and one wise, as we have argued.
5. Whence then is the Father
greater? For if greater, He is greater by greatness; but whereas
the Son is His greatness, neither assuredly is the Son greater than
He who begat Him, nor is the Father greater than that greatness,
whereby He is great; therefore they are equal. For whence is He
equal, if not in that which He is, to whom it is not one thing to
be, and another to be great? Or if the Father is greater in
eternity, the Son is not equal in anything whatsoever. For whence
equal? If you say in greatness, that greatness is not equal which
is less eternal, and so of all things else. Or is He perhaps equal
in power, but not equal in wisdom? But how is that power which is
less wise, equal? Or is He equal in wisdom, but not equal in power?
But how is that wisdom equal which is less powerful? It remains,
therefore, that if He is not equal in anything, He is not equal in
all. But Scripture proclaims, that “He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God.”610
Therefore any adversary of the
truth whatever, provided he feels bound by apostolical authority,
must needs confess that the Son is equal with God in each one thing
whatsoever. Let him choose that which he will; from it he will be
shown, that He is equal in all things which are said of His
substance.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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