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| He further shows the operations of God to be expressed by human illustrations; for what hands and feet and the other parts of the body with which men work are, that, in the case of God, the will alone is, in place of these. And so also arises the divergence of generation; wherefore He is called Only-begotten, because He has no community with other generation such as is observed in creation, but in that He is called the “brightness of glory,” and the “savour of ointment,” He shows the close conjunction and co-eternity of His Nature with the Father.
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§4. He further shows
the operations of God to be expressed by human illustrations; for what
hands and feet and the other parts of the body with which men work are,
that, in the case of God, the will alone is, in place of these. And so
also arises the divergence of generation; wherefore He is called
Only-begotten, because He has no community with other generation such
as is observed in creation871
| 871 This
passage is clearly corrupt: the general sense as probably intended is
given here. | , but in that He is
called the “brightness of glory,” and the “savour of
ointment,” He shows the close conjunction and co-eternity of His
Nature with the Father872
| 872 See
note 7 in the last section. |
Now these modes of generation
being well known to men, the loving dispensation of the Holy Spirit, in
delivering to us the Divine mysteries, conveys its instruction on those
matters which transcend language by means of what is within our
capacity, as it does also constantly elsewhere, when it portrays the
Divinity in bodily terms, making mention, in speaking concerning God,
of His eye, His eyelids, His ear, His fingers, His hand, His right
hand, His arm, His feet, His shoes873
, and the
like,—none of which things is apprehended to belong in its
primary sense to the Divine Nature,—but turning its teaching to
what we can easily perceive, it describes by terms well worn in human
use, facts that are beyond every name, while by each of the terms
employed concerning God we are led analogically to some more exalted
conception. In this way, then, it employs the numerous forms of
generation to present to us, from the inspired teaching, the
unspeakable existence of the Only-begotten, taking just so much from
each as may be reverently admitted into our conceptions concerning God.
For as its mention of “fingers,” “hand,” and
“arm,” in speaking of God, does not by the phrase portray
the structure of the limb out of bones and sinews and flesh and
ligaments, but signifies by such an expression His effective and
operative power, and as it indicates by each of the other words of this
kind those conceptions concerning God which correspond to them, not
admitting the corporeal senses of the words, so also it speaks indeed
of the forms of these modes of coming into being as applied to the
Divine Nature, yet does not speak in that sense which our customary
knowledge enables us to understand. For when it speaks of the formative
power, it calls that particular energy by the name of
“generation,” because the word expressive of Divine power
must needs descend to our lowliness, yet it does not indicate all that
is associated with formative generation among ourselves,—neither
place nor time nor preparation of material, nor the co-operation of
instruments, nor the purpose in the things produced, but it leaves
these out of sight, and greatly and loftily claims for God the
generation of the things that are, where it says, “He spake and
they were begotten, He commanded and they were created874
.” Again, when it expounds that
unspeakable and transcendent existence which the Only-begotten has from
the Father, because human poverty is incapable of the truths that are
too high for speech or thought, it uses our language here also, and
calls Him by the name of “Son,”—a name which our
ordinary use applies to those who are produced by matter and nature.
But just as the word, which tells us in reference to God of the
“generation” of the creation, did not add the statement
that it was generated by the aid of any material, declaring that its
material substance, its place, its time, and all the like, had their
existence in the power of His will, so here too, in speaking of the
“Son,” it leaves out of sight both all other things which
human nature sees in earthly generation (passions, I mean, and
dispositions, and the co-operation of time and the need of place, and
especially matter), without all which earthly generation as a result of
nature does not occur. Now every such conception of matter and interval
being excluded from the sense of the word “Son,” nature
alone remains, and hereby in the word “Son” is declared
concerning the Only-begotten the close and true character of His
manifestation from the Father. And since this particular species of
generation did not suffice to produce in us an adequate idea of the
unspeakable existence of the Only-begotten, it employs also another
species of generation, that which is the result of efflux, to express
the Divine Nature of the Son, and calls Him “the brightness of
glory875
,” the “savour of ointment876
,” the “breath of God877
,” which our accustomed use, in the
scientific discussion we have already made, calls material efflux. But
just as in the previous cases neither the making of creation nor the
significance of the word “Son” admitted time, or matter, or
place, or passion, so here also the phrase, purifying the sense of
“brightness” and the other terms from every material
conception, and employing only that element in this particular species
of generation which is suitable to the Divinity, points by the force of
this mode of expression to the truth that He is conceived as being both
from Him and with Him. For neither does the word “breath”
present to us dispersion into the air from the underlying matter, nor
“savour” the transference that takes place from the quality
of the ointment to the air, nor “brightness” the efflux by
means of rays from the body of the sun; but this only, as we have said,
is manifested by this particular mode of generation, that He is
conceived to be of Him and also with Him, no intermediate interval
existing between the Father and that Son Who is of Him. And since, in
its abundant loving-kindness, the grace of the Holy Spirit has ordered
that our conceptions concerning the Only-begotten Son should arise in
us from many sources, it has added also the remaining species of things
contemplated in generation,—that, I mean, which is the result of
mind and word. But the lofty John uses especial foresight that the
hearer may not by any means by inattention or feebleness of thought
fall into the common understanding of “Word,” so that the
Son should be supposed to be the voice of the Father. For this reason
he prepares us at his first proclamation to regard the Word as in
essence, and not in any essence foreign to or dissevered from that
essence whence It has Its being, but in that first and blessed Nature.
For this is what he teaches us when he says the Word “was in the
beginning878
,” and “was with God879
,” being Himself also both God and all
else that the “Beginning” is. For thus it is that he makes
his discourse on the Godhead, touching the eternity of the
Only-begotten. Seeing then that these modes of generation (those, I
mean, which are the result of cause) are ordinarily known among us, and
are employed by Holy Scripture for our instruction on the subjects
before us, in such a way as it might be expected that each of them
would be applied to the presentation of Divine conceptions, let the
reader of our argument “judge righteous judgement880
,” whether any of the assertions that
heresy makes have any force against the truth.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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