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| Section 5
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5. Now whereas we
said that the Eastern Churches, in their delivery of the Creed, say,
“In one God3263
| 3263 Deum,not, as before,
Deo. | the Father
Almighty,” and “in one Lord,” the “one”
is not to be understood numerically but absolutely. For example, if one
should say, “one man” or “one horse,” here
“one” is used numerically. For there may be a second man
and a third, or a second horse and a third. But where a second or a
third cannot be added, if we say “one” we mean one not
numerically but absolutely. For example, if we say, “one
Sun,” here the meaning is that a second or a third cannot be
added, for there is but one Sun. Much more then is God,
when He is said to be “one,” called “one,” not
numerically but absolutely, that is, He is therefore said to be one
because there is no other. In like manner, also, it is to be understood
of the Lord, that He is one Lord, Jesus Christ, by or through Whom God
the Father possesses dominion over all, whence also, in the next
clause, God is called “Almighty.”
God is called Almighty because He possesses rule and dominion over all
things.3264
| 3264 Compare Cyril’s words, Quod omnium teneat
potentatum—Lordship over all; ὁ παντοκράτωρ,
ὁ πάντων
κρατων, ὁ
πάντων
ἐξουσιάζων. (Catech., 8, §3). Rufinus evidently had St.
Cyril’s exposition in view here as repeatedly
elsewhere. | But the Father possesses all
things by His Son, as the Apostle says, “By Him were created all
things, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions,
or principalities, or powers.”3265
And again,
writing to the Hebrews, he says, “By Him also He made the
worlds,” and “He appointed Him heir of all things.”3266
By “appointed” we are to
understand “generated.” Now if the Father made the worlds
by Him, and all things were created by Him, and He is heir of all
things, then by Him He possesses rule also over all things. Because, as
light is born of light, and truth of truth, so Almighty is born of
Almighty. As it is written of the Seraphim in the Revelation of John,
“And they have no rest day and night, crying Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth, which was and which is and which is to come, the
Almighty.”3267
He then who
“is to come” is called “Almighty.” And what other is there who “is to
come” but Christ, the Son of God?
To the foregoing is added
“Invisible and Impassible.” I
should mention that these two words are not in the Creed of the Roman
Church. They were added in our Church, as is well known, on account of
the Sabellian heresy, called by us “the Patripassian,”
that, namely, which says that the Father Himself was born of the Virgin
and became visible, or affirms that He suffered in the flesh. To
exclude such impiety, therefore, concerning the Father, our forefathers
seem to have added these words, calling the Father “invisible and
impassible.” For it is evident that the Son, not the Father,
became incarnate and was born in the flesh, and that from that nativity
in the flesh the Son became “visible and passible.” Yet so
far as regards that immortal substance of the Godhead, which He
possesses, and which is one and the same with that of the Father, we
must believe that neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Ghost
is “visible or passible.” But the Son, in that He
condescended to assume flesh, was both seen and also suffered in the
flesh. Which also the Prophet foretold when he said, “This is our
God: no other shall be accounted of in comparison of Him. He hath found
out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant
and to Israel His beloved. Afterward He shewed Himself upon the earth,
and conversed with men.”3268
| 3268 Baruch iii.
35–37. Baruch is not specified by name in Rufinus’s list of
the Canonical books, but it is in Cyril’s, as though a part of
Jeremiah, “Jeremiah, with Baruch, and the Lamentations and the
Epistle.” (Catech. 4, §36.) | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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