Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 73/82

For the faith of the truth foresees this, and confesses it beforehand, and teaches that God is without cause of any cause whatsoever, unmixed [with creation], and not accountable to any equality with it.

For this reason we ourselves do not worship anything that falls short of God's own essence, because it is fitting to render reverence only to the One who is not accountable [to a cause] — to the Father who is unbegotten, and to the Son who is from him, and to the Holy Spirit who is from him and through the Only-begotten — since nothing in the Trinity is created or falls under a cause.

For nothing in the Trinity is from things that are not, as are the other things which have fallen under a cause and have been allotted a cause.

Therefore, being without cause of such a cause, the Trinity has taught unerringly that it alone is to be worshiped, since it alone is without cause.

But all other things have fallen under a cause.

For some things have come into being and been created, but the Father is uncreated, having a Son begotten from him — yet not created — and a Holy Spirit proceeding from him, and not fashioned.

These things being so, neither has the worshipped Son, nor the Holy Spirit, been allotted the passibility of a cause, even though he has the Father as begetter; nor, on the other hand, are the rest of the creatures, apart from passibility, the cause of their own allotment, since they have been created by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Clearly, the Only-begotten is, without passibility, the cause of his allotment, and so is his Holy Spirit, as is also the Father, because the Son is an offspring and not a creature, and the Son will not be allotted the cause of passibility from having been begotten, nor will the Spirit, since it proceeds from the Father.

For neither is the Father found to fall under the passibility of a cause, because he begot and brought forth from himself, while he created all other things after the Son and the Spirit — even though all other things are indeed bound by passibility in being created or begotten.

Accordingly, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are free from that liability.

But the Trinity is the cause of all things, creating and forming all things together, knowing nothing created or fashioned within itself.

'If everything that has come to be has come to be by another, but the unbegotten hypostasis has come to be neither by itself nor by another, then the unbegotten must indicate essence.'

And this again is what Aetius comes bringing to us, propounding it as though it were something new and recent, so that he may appear to be the inventor of a piece of dialectical syllogism — needlessly, since he declares nothing but what is not even in dispute, nor is it contrary to the truth that has always been inherent and confessed within the catholic Church.

For if everything that has come to be comes to be by another, but the unbegotten hypostasis has come to be neither by itself nor by another — even granting that the unbegotten must indicate essence — then what could be more necessary than this? For the term 'essence,' which is always rejected among the Anomoeans and the Arians themselves, Aetius has taken up again in a fickle, shifting manner, clearly being compelled by the truth to confess it.

'...to the Only-begotten and the Holy Spirit, neither in respect of reverence...'

For some things have been created out of non-being and are not to be worshipped, but the Trinity always exists: the Father, perfect Father; and the Son, perfect Son, begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit, perfect Spirit, proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son.

And all things pertaining to the divine Scripture and to the holy faith are luminous to us, and nothing is crooked or contrary or tangled.

'If the unbegotten hypostasis is co-manifested with the essence of the offspring as its cause, possessing the unvarying character with respect to every cause, then it is an incomparable self-essence, not manifesting its inaccessibility from without, but itself existing incomparable and inaccessible, because it is also unbegotten.'

Aetius often runs over the same ground, as I myself have often said, bringing us only to weariness and nothing more.

Therefore in the present case as well we have been obliged to add to our labor and to say the same things a second time on the same points, since this is how he himself has seen fit to proceed.

For even if the unbegotten, having begotten, is co-manifested with the essence of the offspring, the begetter will differ in no way in dignity, with respect to begetting, from the begotten.

For from himself he begot, essentially, spirit from spirit, and not body from body.

Therefore the begetter is incomparably co-manifested, befitting the begotten, and the begotten befitting the one who begot him.

For the Godhead needs no addition, that it should at one time be called Father and at another not; nor will the Son be found, by the bond from above, ever not existing and then just now beginning to exist.

Therefore God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of one self-same essence, and not of a different essence.

For he is neither a co-equal brother nor a later addition, but ineffably the name 'Father' befits him in relation to the Son, who is consubstantial with him; and it likewise befits the Father and the Son that his Holy Spirit — receiving from him, and through him, and from what is his — belongs with them.

Therefore the inaccessibility is in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with respect to all things whatsoever that are inferior beings and were created by the Trinity itself.

But the Trinity, in relation to itself, is not inaccessible.

For it is uncreated, unbegotten, and incomparable.

Therefore nothing can be made equal to the Father; nothing among the things that have come to be out of non-being and have not been begotten is co-worshipped with him.

For to none of the things that have come to be did he ever say, 'Sit at my right hand'; nor indeed has the Only-begotten said of anyone else, 'He who has seen me has seen the Father,' and 'I am in the Father and the Father in me,' and 'no one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father, and to whomever he wills to reveal him.'

And he reveals him through the Holy Spirit, who knows and teaches and declares in the world the things of the Son, and who searches even the depths of God.

For this reason he says, 'He who does not honor the Son as he honors the Father — the wrath of God remains upon him.'

And he did not say, 'he who does not honor angels as he honors the Father,' nor again did he say simply 'he who does not honor the Son,' but 'the Son as he honors the Father.' Likewise, it shall not be forgiven the one who blasphemes against the Spirit, neither in this age nor in the age to come — so that he might signify the inaccessibility and incomparability of the Trinity in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

'If the Almighty surpasses every nature, he surpasses it on account of being unbegotten, which is the cause of permanence for begotten things.'

'But if the unbegotten is not indicative of essence, whence will the nature of begotten things have their preservation?' Refutation.

It is fitting to say and confess, and so to hold, that the Almighty surpasses every nature, from whom, for us, the Only-begotten God the Word ineffably came forth, and his Holy Spirit.

And for this reason we securely do not theologize him as a creature, lest we be made foolish.

But we glorify the Trinity that surpasses every nature — the Son together with the Father, and his Holy Spirit — because he is unbegotten and uncreated.

For since the Only-begotten and the Holy Spirit are not of a different nature, but God from God, and Light from Light, the Only-begotten himself will also be called Almighty together with the Almighty Father, just as the divine Scripture clearly has it.

Alongside the Father's dignity stands the Only-begotten, befitting the Father's dignity, as the holy Apostle expressly testifies to me in the Holy Spirit, speaking concerning the sons of Israel: 'theirs is the worship and the covenants, and theirs are the fathers, from whom, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever, amen.'

For this reason, the Only-begotten is both worshipped and God, and the Holy Spirit is divine Spirit, and besides the Holy Trinity there is no other God.

But the Father Almighty, and his Only-begotten child Jesus Christ, befitting the Father's dignity — and called 'Father of the age to come' — befitting also his Holy Spirit: the Trinity ever manifested and known without having been created; and from this Trinity comes the cause inherent in all things that have come to be, which is indicative of a pure and incomparable essence — the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, the Trinity ever having within itself the eternity of its permanence; and from this Trinity comes the preservation belonging to all things that have come to be.

'If none of the invisible beings pre-exists itself seminally, but remains in an allotted nature, how can the unbegotten God, being free of allotment, now see his own essence as second in the offspring, and now as first in the unbegotten, according to the order of first and second?' Refutation.

Aetius ought to have signaled this to us beforehand and to have set forth his inquiries clearly, especially this expression, which is objectionable and has no kinship at all with the things it likens, since neither of the two things he has named is able to be made equal to the other.

For he comes bringing us the names of many invisible things.

For there are also invisible spiritual living beings — I mean the Seraphim and Cherubim — but also angels, being spirits, and certain others, in whom it is truly fulfilled that nothing pre-exists in themselves seminally.

For no one would call the invisible things bodies.

For indeed they neither beget nor are begotten.

But they were created, clearly, according to the will of the Godhead that eternally exists; and each of the created things has obtained by lot whatever measure of virtue the One who Is apportioned to it, in the abundance of his ungrudging benevolence; and each has been allotted what it has been allotted, and abides in this.

And God is free from every causation, having the whole in himself — not hesitantly, nor as though having changed his mind, having the Son or his Holy Spirit only after a span of time, but, in a manner fitting to his always having a Son, having a Son who has been begotten, and this Son being Only-begotten, always having the Father within himself.

He also has the Holy Spirit, being from the Father and receiving from the Son, having it always.

For indeed the abundance of the Godhead, which always exists, is neither subject to a lack of glory nor to an addition of glory.

But since none of the created things has always existed, when did the Trinity see itself in a lesser abundance — seeing itself thus at one time, and at another, as though in need, in an addition of essence, after having acquired the things it has acquired, now seeing itself in a greater addition of glory or abundance? And from every side nothing will assail it among those who wish to bring forward syllogistic human suppositions against the truth and put them forward in public, since the worth of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — surpasses every mind of angels and beyond, how much more the nature of men.

For since the reasonings of men are timid, and their thoughts are corruptible, impaling themselves upon syllogisms and disputations.

As others, examined out of their own syllogisms according to a certain sophistic suspicion, reasoned — some concerning evil, whence it began; others, whence the devil came, or why he came to be; others again concerning the man who was going to sin, asking why God created him thus, and why, having made him such, he afterward holds him accountable — so that, when they have tested all their own reasonings and learned that they themselves are corruptible, they may render to him who is in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit — that is, to the one Trinity — reverence and knowledge.

seeking and obtaining the knowledge of the true faith, so that they may not attempt to overstep their own measure, but may learn to be still from a blinded understanding, and not to play the sophist through an inflamed tongue and senseless reasonings, but rather to be brought to soundness of mind through the wise saying of the holy and divine Scripture, which says: 'Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think so as to be sober-minded.'

'If God abides in an unbegotten nature, let it be taken away that he knows himself in both generation and unbegottenness.'

But if it is granted that his own essence extends into both the unbegotten and the begotten, then he is ignorant of his own essence, being led about by generation and unbegottenness.

And if the begotten has also partaken of a share of the unbegotten, yet abides endlessly in the nature of the begotten, then in whatever nature it continues, it knows itself, evidently being ignorant of the unbegotten participation.

For it is not possible for him to have knowledge concerning himself of both unbegotten essence and begotten essence at once.

But if the begotten is contemptible on account of its susceptibility to change, then the dignity of nature is an unchangeable essence, since the unbegotten essence is confessed to be superior to every cause.

God undoubtedly abides in an unbegotten nature — he who created and fashioned all things out of non-being, the Father who begot from himself a Son consubstantial with himself and befitting his eternity, and the Holy Spirit, who went forth from him, fittingly existing in his consubstantiality.

And, seeing that the Trinity created out of non-being the things that exist, both visible and invisible, the eternity of him who is — which corresponds to God's dignity — is not on that account abolished on account of the recent name of the creatures.

But the essence that transcends from above is withheld from the created things, not being consubstantial with them, but having called them into being out of non-being.

Therefore the begotten Son is not out of non-being, but out of him who is, and is beheld together, fittingly, with the Father, the essence being neither extended nor contracted; but the Father, being Spirit, truly begot the Son as Spirit, and brought forth from himself the Holy Spirit; and he does not fail to know himself, nor does he know his own essence as being contracted or expanded, or as undergoing division.

For it would be most irrational for God to know all these things about himself, just as it would be for him to be ignorant of the Godhead itself, which is the Holy Spirit.

And neither does the unbegotten fail to share consubstantiality with the offspring, nor does the begotten fail to encompass eternity together with the Father.

For the Father knows the Son, and the Son knows the Father, the Trinity always remaining uncreated without end, and the Only-begotten existing without end, having been begotten from the One who always is, truly existing, and in his own perfect nature.

Therefore he knows himself, and neither is the Son ignorant of the unbegotten essence of the Father, nor is the Unbegotten ignorant of the essence of the Son from him — since the Only-begotten God the Word, who is trustworthy, has said: 'No one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father.'

For it is not possible for him to have knowledge concerning himself of both unbegotten essence and begotten essence at once.

For the Only-begotten anticipated, by way of forestalling objection, this decisive statement of his, saying that he himself knows the Father and no one else, while at the same time also including the indwelling presence of his Holy Spirit, as he also says elsewhere that the Spirit of the Father will teach you.

But if the Spirit belongs to the Father, then it too is not ignorant of the Father.

But in having said, 'no one knows the Father except the Son,' his aim was that he might signify himself, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit, as transcending the rest of the things that did not exist eternally, but came into being.

But if he had already anticipated by declaring that he always knows the Father, then Aetius vainly worms his way in among us with empty talk, being clearly evident to all that he reasons as a man, being examined as carnal and existing as merely soulish, in contrast to him who knows himself and the Father and his Holy Spirit.

...Son and Holy Spirit, the Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being confessed to be superior to every cause.

If the unbegotten is exempt from every cause, and there were many unbegotten beings, they would have an unvarying nature.

For it would not be the case that, without partaking by some allotment of a nature at once common and particular, one should be the maker and the other the thing made.

The unbegotten is confessedly exempt from every cause, because the unbegotten and the object of worship are one, the object of worship being distinguished from those who worship it.

The Trinity is the object of worship, being a Unity, and yet a Trinity numbered in one name — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — possessing nothing alien to itself within itself, but the Father fittingly having begotten the Son and not created him.

For the one is always from the Begetter himself, since the Son is a begotten offspring from him who is, as is also the Holy Spirit who has gone forth from him, the Trinity existing in one uncreated unity, while all things are created out of nothing by that same Trinity.

Hence the one Trinity is one God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — possessing nothing alien to itself within itself: uncreated, unbegotten, unfashioned; a Trinity not made but making, having in itself no name of a creature but creating, being one and not many.

But all things from it, though many, are not numbered together with it.

Therefore it has not been allotted, in common with any other nature, a share of that incomparable essence.

For this reason the nature within God's essence is not something created, but is the maker of all things, which are unable to share in the consubstantiality of the incomparable and single essence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — as is clear to the one who has received the knowledge of the truth, this essence revealing to him that it alone is worshiped and not all things, just as it alone baptizes into its own name, and not the whole of things together with it.

If every essence is unbegotten, then neither will differ from the other in respect of being without a master.

How then could one say that the one is changed while the other changes it, if they do not allow God to bring things into being out of an essence that did not previously exist? A Refutation.

Every one of those who have set themselves against the truth, having astonishingly heaped up for himself little arguments, has seemed to some to attack it subversively, to divert people from the path of life and to do them harm — as this Aetius now, saying essentially nothing in this saying, seems to astonish the simple, uttering his words superfluously, making use, as is his habit, of the term 'unbegotten' to no purpose, even at the present moment.

For not every essence is confessed by the intelligent themselves to be unbegotten, since otherwise every essence would be reckoned as divine.

Since not all essences are reckoned divine, but only one above all others, which is the one Godhead in Trinity, how then could the astonishing force of his argument still be supposed to reach the sons of truth? And each will differ from the other in this: that the Trinity creates, while all things have been created by it; that the Trinity is without a master, while the things that came to be by it are under mastery; and that the one changes, while the other has an unchangeable nature, ever changing the things changed by it, and is able to bring essences and hypostases into existence out of nothing.

For it befits God to refashion, according to the ordering of the universe, as he wills, those things that have come to be and subsisted by him out of what did not previously exist and out of nothing.

If every essence is unbegotten, every essence is unvarying.

But since essence possesses this unvarying quality, both the acting and the being acted upon would have to be attributed to spontaneity.

But if there are many unbegotten and unvarying beings, they will differ from one another in countless ways.

For things that are distinct, whether wholly or in some respect, could not be numbered as one, since every distinction implies some allotment of individuality, even when it is still an unbegotten nature that stands apart from another.

Let him, then, ask this of the children of the Greeks, and let them agree with him that this question derives from syllogisms, attributing to God some matter coeval with him.

And if he should agree with them, let him be caught together with them, since the truth holds that the Maker is one, the Trinity subsisting in one essence and being complete, and not numbered by way of confusion.

But all other things are generated and created, and not unbegotten.

The Godhead being uncreated — the Father begetting, the Son begotten, and the Holy Spirit sent forth from the Father himself and receiving of what belongs to the Son — while all other things are created; and the unvarying quality remaining fittingly, in respect of power, within the Trinity; all Godhead being referred back to the Father because of the rationality and unfailing steadfastness of the Monad and because it excludes polytheism: the unvarying quality remains in respect of power, while the rational proportion is fittingly maintained between Son and Father, and likewise of the Holy Spirit.

These things, then, being so, the design of the question's plot will collapse from its very foundation.

For the unvarying things are not many, but the one Trinity in Unity, and the one Godhead in Trinity.

But all other things stand apart, having neither their acting nor their being acted upon by spontaneity; nor is the Holy Trinity capable of being acted upon in doing anything, since it as a whole is impassible and is the object of worship.

I mean, indeed, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

For God made all things through the Son, but he did not make the Son; for the Son is not numbered together with all things.

For the Son cooperates with the Father and is worshiped together with him; the Holy Spirit likewise is not reckoned among all things — for he is not numbered among them, but establishes the power of all things, and is worshiped together with them.

But since all things are subject to the providence of the One, each is both borne along and acts, and also undergoes whatever else befalls it.

Therefore the one Trinity is unvarying with respect to itself, while the other things that come from it are subject to variation.

For they are neither coeval with it nor co-eternal.

Only the Trinity is eternal, uncreated, and unbegotten — the Son having been begotten timelessly and without beginning, yet always existing and never ceasing to be.

Hence the divine word has securely taught that the Father is the head, and not the origin, of the Son, on account of their consubstantiality; and likewise that the Holy Spirit, being eternal and sent forth from the Father, always exists together with the Father and did not begin from any point in time.

If 'unbegotten' and 'God' signify the very same thing in parallel, then the Unbegotten begot an unbegotten.

But if 'unbegotten' signifies one thing and 'God' another, it is not absurd that God should have begotten God, each of them having received his existence from an unbegotten essence.

But if there is nothing prior to God, as indeed there is not, then 'God' and 'unbegotten' signify the same thing, and 'unbegotten' does not admit of 'offspring.'

Therefore it does not tolerate being pronounced together with 'God,' along with 'his Father.'

From what source does Aetius wish us to procure within ourselves the meaning of the questions he proposes, drawn from his own reasonings? And if he claims to derive them from reasonings and syllogisms, then our own inference of his intent will collapse together with him.

For no one could ever reason God out by syllogism, nor will the thing formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why have you made me thus?' — according to what is written.

Rather, from pious reasoning and righteous certainty, one must turn back to the teaching of the Holy Spirit given through the holy Scriptures.

Since the unalterable text teaches us concerning those who worshiped the creation, that they became fools, how could it not be found foolish to take a creature for God, and to worship and honor it, when faith by nature sets apart the object of worship from the creature, and the creature from the object of worship? For indeed, if this makes no difference at all from those who assign reverence to the creation, then Christianity will have nothing to distinguish it.

And such a faith will be idolatry rather than piety toward God.

For those men too worship the sun and moon and the powers, heaven and earth, and the other created things.

It is a mere sharing of name, even though the one has been far outweighed by the other.

For it is one and the same who made both and allotted to each — not a variation of name, but of essence.

For in all created things the name of 'creature' carries the status of a slave, not of a free being.

And if in one instance a slave is worshiped, the worship will make no difference with respect to the other instance, even though the latter is lower in rank.

For it is equal to the highest, being akin to the creature that has received its being, out of what did not exist, from him who is.

Hence 'unbegotten' fittingly belongs to God, and 'God' to the Unbegotten.

Therefore we say that the Offspring is neither a work nor a product, but an offspring essentially and immaculately begotten from the Father, consubstantial with the Father and co-worshiped with him; and the Holy Spirit likewise, being from him, is not alien to him, and is therefore also co-worshiped.

But to no other created thing is the name 'God' jointly applied, because it has been removed from unbegottenness, since it has received its being out of things that were not.

But the Trinity possesses eternal being, and for it 'God' is not one thing and 'unbegotten' another.

But you, Aetius, confess that the Son has been begotten from the Father only in irony, and not in truth.

For everything begotten is not created, and everything created is not begotten.

But if what is begotten is created, it is created in a different manner — as one might say: men beget men, but do not create them; yet they themselves have been created from above by God.

Therefore, with them, the things begotten are begotten, but by God all things have been created.

But since God is uncreated, and has begotten for himself a Son and not created him, he does not beget anything other than his own essence.

How then could the offspring from him be created, since the Father is uncreated? But if, in his view, the offspring is created, it can no longer be called an offspring.

And there is much to be said in refutation against such an absurd suspicion.

It is also unbecoming to God that he should ever have existed without a Son, and only afterward, once he had a Son, be called Father.

And it is unbecoming to the Son that there should be a time before him.

For then time would be greater than his majesty.

But it fittingly belongs to the Father to possess forever, in the sameness of his dignities, that which is unfailing and eternal.

And that nothing existed before God is evident.

'God,' then, as Aetius said, and 'unbegotten' signify the same thing; and in a way, by entangling himself, he rather accuses himself than establishes his case.

For if 'God' truly applies together with God the Son, as indeed it does, then 'unbegotten' also admits of the begotten Son.

For it possesses 'God' as included together within it.

And the Word, being God, is pronounced together with the Father as 'God' — both uncreated and honored together with the Father — even though this does not appear so to Aetius; for all creatures worship the Son, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is unto the glory of God the Father, to whom be the glory — to the Father in the Son, with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages.

Aëtius's closing salutation, 'Farewell.'

May the self-begotten God who is - who alone for this reason has been called the true God by the Jesus Christ who was sent, who truly subsisted before the ages and is truly of a begotten hypostasis - keep you, men and women, in good health, safe from impiety, in Christ Jesus our Savior, through whom be all glory to God the Father, both now and always and to the ages of ages.

And even at the end, Aëtius, writing to his own band - whom he called male and female 'contestants' - did not desist from such depravity of words, but even in his farewell he displayed the alien character of his teaching.

For he says, 'May the self-begotten God who is keep you in good health,' not realizing that in this one phrase he undid the whole of the seed he had secretly sown for his own inquiry.

For having stated in his opening chapters that God is unbegotten, he did not foresee that, on that showing, God did not even make himself - even while here he introduces to us a 'self-begotten' God.

But every evil mind falls into forgetfulness of itself, so that it may be exposed.

Then he says, 'who alone for this reason has been called the true God.'

wishing to be called by the name 'Christian,' he says either that he holds the Son to be God, but not true God - so that for him there will be one true God and one who is not true -