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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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13 Pages
Page 5
3. Now when Arius and his fellows made these assertions, and shamelessly avowed them, we being assembled with the Bishops of Egypt and Libya, nearly a hundred in number, anathematized both them and their followers. But Eusebius and his fellows admitted them to communion, being desirous to mingle falsehood with the truth, and impiety with piety. But they will not be able to do so, for the truth must prevail; neither is there any "communion of light with darkness," nor any "concord of Christ with Belial [365] ." For who ever heard such assertions before [366] ? or who that hears them now is not astonished and does not stop his ears lest they should be defiled with such language? Who that has heard the words of John, "In the beginning was the Word [367] ," will not denounce the saying of these men, that "there was a time when He was not?" Or who that has heard in the Gospel, "the Only-begotten Son," and "by Him were all things made [368] ," will not detest their declaration that He is "one of the things that were made." For how can He be one of those things which were made by Himself? or how can He be the Only-begotten, when, according to them, He is counted as one among the rest, since He is Himself a creature and a work? And how can He be "made of things that were not," when the Father saith, "My heart hath uttered a good Word," and "Out of the womb I have begotten Thee before the morning star [369] ?" Or again, how is He "unlike in substance to the Father," seeing He is the perfect "image" and "brightness [370] " of the Father, and that He saith, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father [371] ?" And if the Son is the "Word" and "Wisdom" of God, how was there "a time when He was not?" It is the same as if they should say that God was once without Word and without Wisdom [372] . And how is He "subject to change and variation," Who says, by Himself, "I am in the Father, and the Father in Me [373] ," and "I and the Father are One [374] ;" and by the Prophet, "Behold Me, for I am, and I change not [375] ?" For although one may refer this expression to the Father, yet it may now be more aptly spoken of the Word, viz., that though He has been made man, He has not changed; but as the Apostle has said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." And who can have persuaded them to say, that He was made for us, whereas Paul writes, "for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things [376] ?"
[365] (2 Cor. vi. 14.) koinonia photi. This is quoted Alex. ap. Theod. H. E. i. 3. p. 738; by S. Athan. in Letter 47. It seems to have been a received text in the controversy, as the Sardican Council uses it, Apol Ar. 49, and S. Athan. seems to put it into the mouth of St. Anthony, Vit. Ant. 69.
[366] tis gar ekouse. Ep. Aeg. S:7 init. Letter 59. S:2 init. Orat. i. 8. Apol. contr. Ar. 85 init. Hist. Ar. S:46 init. S:73 init. S:74 init. ad Serap. iv. 2 init.
[367] John i. 1.
[368] John i. 3, 14.
[369] Ps. xlv. 1. and cx. 3.
[370] Heb. i. 3.
[371] (Joh. xiv. 9, 10; x. 29.) On the concurrence of these three texts in Athan. (though other writers use them too, and Alex. ap. Theod. has two of them), vid. note on Orat. i. 34.
[372] alogon kai asophon ton theon. de Decr. S:15. Orat. i. S:19. Ap. Fug. 27. note, notes on Or. i. 19, de. Decr. 15, note 6.
[373] (Joh. xiv. 9, 10; x. 29.) On the concurrence of these three texts in Athan. (though other writers use them too, and Alex. ap. Theod. has two of them), vid. note on Orat. i. 34.
[374] (Joh. xiv. 9, 10; x. 29.) On the concurrence of these three texts in Athan. (though other writers use them too, and Alex. ap. Theod. has two of them), vid. note on Orat. i. 34.
[375] (Mal. iii. 6.) This text is thus applied by Athan. Orat. i. 30. ii. 10. In the first of these passages he uses the same apology, nearly in the same words, which is contained in the text.
[376] Heb. xiii. 8; ii. 10.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/athanasius/deposition-arius.asp?pg=5
