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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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39 Pages
Page 13
9. But though we were to allow some prerogative to the Protoplast as having been deemed worthy of the hand of God, still it must be one of honour not of nature. For he came of the earth, as other men; and the hand which then fashioned Adam, is also both now and ever fashioning and giving entire consistence to those who come after him. And God Himself declares this to Jeremiah, as I said before; 'Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee [796] ;' and so He says of all, 'All those things hath My hand made [797] ;' and again by Isaiah, 'Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself [798] .' And David, knowing this, says in the Psalm, 'Thy hands have made me and fashioned me [799] ;' and he who says in Isaiah, 'Thus saith the Lord who formed me from the womb to be His servant [800] ,' signifies the same. Therefore, in respect of nature, he differs nothing from us though he precede us in time, so long as we all consist and are created by the same hand. If then these be your thoughts, O Arians, about the Son of God too, that thus He subsists and came to be, then in your judgment He will differ nothing on the score of nature from others, so long as He too was not, and came to be, and the name was by grace united to Him in His creation for His virtue's sake. For He Himself is one of those, from what you say, of whom the Spirit says in the Psalms, 'He spake the word, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created [801] .' If so, who was it by whom God gave command [802] for the Son's creation? for a Word there must be by whom God gave command, and in whom the works are created; but you have no other to shew than the Word you deny, unless indeed you should devise again some new notion.
"Yes," they will say, "we have another;" (which indeed I formerly heard Eusebius and his fellows use), "on this score do we consider that the Son of God has a prerogative over others, and is called Only-begotten, because He alone partakes the Father, and all other things partake the Son." Thus they weary themselves in changing and in varying their phrases like colours [803] ; however, this shall not save them from an exposure, as men that are of the earth, speaking vainly, and wallowing in their own conceits as in mire.
[796] Jer. i. 5.
[797] Is. lxvi. 2.
[798] Ib. xliv. 24.
[799] Ps. cxix. 73.
[800] Is. xlix. 5.
[801] Ps. cxlviii. 5 (LXX).
[802] In like manner, 'Men were made through the Word, when the Father Himself willed.' Orat. i. 63. 'The Word forms matter as injoined by, and ministering to, God.' prostattomenos kai hupourgon. ibid. ii. S:22. contr. Gent. 46. vid. note on Orat. ii. 22.
[803] ad Serap. i. 3.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/defence-nicene-definition.asp?pg=13
