Against Five Heresies 7–8

Here the Sabellian exults. For he believes himself fortified by such testimonies to show that the Father and the Son are one and the same. The Arians, on the other hand, to prove that the Father is one and the Son another, bring forward other testimonies and say: “So far is the Father one and the Son another, one greater and the other less, that the Father says to the Son, I have given you as a light to the nations; and the Son says, The Father sent me.” As far as I understand, this light of the nations is so clear and evident that the heretics, unable to grasp and look at it, are blinded by it, and cannot walk in it but rather stray. The Arian says one thing, the Sabellian another. What kind of war is this? What does the Catholic say to it? “The arms they carry,” he says, “are mine; they fight for me. Both fight against each other, but for me. Would that both might fail, and that neither pass over to the other, but to me!” Let me too bring forward something by which both may be struck. You, Arian, say that he who sends is greater, he who is sent less. I too ask you: who is greater, the one who goes before, or the one before whom another goes? Again, who is greater, the one for whose coming something is prepared, or the one who prepares it; the one to whom service is rendered, or the one who renders it? Surely, if you ask mankind, it will answer that the greater is the one before whom another goes, for whom things are prepared, to whom service is rendered. You want to prove from this that the Son is less because he was sent; I show that he who sent goes before the one he sent; and I call neither of them greater, because I do not dare to call either of them less. The prophet Isaiah says: “Thus says the Lord to my Christ, the Lord, whose right hand I have taken, to subject nations before his face.” See, the Father is already the companion of the Son who was sent. Follow further: “And I will turn the backs of kings, and open doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut.” See, he who had sent became the forerunner. For what greater or superior person opens doors before a lesser one? Or how could he do it unless he went a little ahead? Hear further: “And the gates,” he says, “shall not be shut.” How? “I will go before you.” You see that he who sent both accompanies and goes before: he sends and does not depart. It is not enough that he does not depart: he even goes before. Now distinguish who is greater, who is better: I see no distinction; rather I behold equality. The Son says of the Father, “He sent me.” The Father says to the Son, “I will go before you.” Let quarrelsome disaster withdraw from our midst: this shows equality, not inequality. Follow further, that it may appear more clearly who says what to whom: “I will go before you, and humble the glorious of the earth.” Stand here, you too, pagan. Hear what the prophet says. I did not write what I wanted for myself: the book in which these things are read is kept in the Jew’s book-chest. My enemy is my witness; ask him; open, read, and believe. “I will turn the backs of kings,” he says, “and humble the glorious of the earth.” Do you not see that the kings of the earth, who formerly persecuted Christians, are now Christians? Do you not see that those who humbled the Church now enter the Church humbly? Do you not see that the Church now has as defenders those she formerly had as persecutors? “I will go before you,” he says, “and humble the glorious of the earth. I will shatter doors of bronze and break bars of iron. And I will give you hidden treasures and the mysteries of secret things, that you may know that I am God, who call your name, the God of Israel.” Let the Sabellian hear: God speaks, and to God he speaks. So there are two, the one who speaks and the one to whom he speaks. Let the Arian hear too: “I am God, and there is no other besides me.” I have long labored in fighting against these two heresies, and I am nearly worn out. Come, my Lord Jesus, most valiant warrior, prince of the army of the Lord, who conquered the devil and the world: “Take up arms and shield, and rise to help me.” When he was about to go out to battle and to conquer the world in the world, he prayed, not as though lacking strength, since he was almighty, but to give us, for the purpose for which he had come, a lesson in humility. And what did he say? “Father, glorify your Son.” Now the cursed Arian says: “Do you see that he is less, and would not have glory unless he had asked the Father?” Wait, man, why do you hurry? You see the man, in which form he is less not only than the Father but also than the angels: the man appears, God is hidden. You show me a lowly man: open your eyes and see God exalted, not less than the angels but equal to the Father. “Father,” he says, “glorify your Son”: see one who is less. Follow further: “that your Son may glorify you”: see one who is equal. We find the Son acknowledging the Father, praying, and joined to him, not ungrateful as was thought. Let us see what the Father too says of the Son. “Jesus took Peter and James and John his brother” (these are the Gospel’s words) “and led them up a high mountain apart, and he was transfigured before them. And his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as snow. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him.” Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets: they talked with him because they had spoken of him; they pointed out the one they had foretold, they made manifest the one they had prophesied. They talked: what, do you think, were they talking about? That the Jews might be convicted, the pagans converted, the Manichaeans confounded, the heretics crushed, the Catholics confirmed. Light and grace were talking together, harshness and gentleness, terror and mildness, command and help, the knife and the physician, shadow and light, herald and judge, sentence and mercy. And what after this? “And Peter answered and said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, let us make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” What are you saying, holy Peter? The world is in labor, and you look for seclusion? You see so many nations come together into one, and you seek rest? You see the darkness of the world, and you hide the light? “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that it gives light to all who are in the house.” This house is the whole world; the lighting of the lamp is the incarnation of the Word; the lampstand is the wood of the cross; the lamp shining on the lampstand is Christ hanging on the cross. “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but on a lampstand, so that it gives light to all who are in the house.” You have seen; let us see too. It is dark: let us not stumble among the pagans, let us not stray among the heretics; let the lamp shine for us, let the Word in the flesh teach us. Let us see what the Evangelist says, let us see whether Peter’s counsel was accepted. “While he was still speaking,” he says, “behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice from the cloud, saying.” Let us all listen; let no one shut his ears. Let the mocking pagans hear, let the persecuting Jews hear, let the Manichaeans, dreamers of phantasms, hear, let the heretics, erring quarrelers, hear; let the Catholics too hear, and hear above all, God’s faithful worshipers. Let these hear so as to be instructed, those so as to be corrected; or these hear so as not to be seduced, those so as to be punished. What does the voice from the cloud say? “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Where are you who oppose the Son of God? The Father says, “This is my Son,” and you say, “God has no Son.” You, pagan, why do you stand outside and murmur? Come in here to God’s school, open the ears of your heart, hear the voice of the Lord, and learn of the Son of God. What will you do, Jews, who killed the Son of God? Where will you flee, where will you hide? What mountains, what rocks will fall upon you? “And if you hide in the caves of the rocks, from there I will drag you out, says the Lord.” But you too, come, come in, hear my counsel, do not despair: for “there is a remnant for the peaceable man.” You raged, you killed, you shed the blood of Christ; you are in danger; you were unbelieving toward the Son of God. What then must you do now, if not believe and be baptized, and drink the blood you shed? There is nothing to shudder at: the physician’s blood was shed and became a medicine for the madman. Why do you hesitate? “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.” And you, Manichaean, how long will you dream phantasms? Wake up and see: the clouds thunder. What do they thunder? “This is my beloved Son.” See on earth a true man; hear from heaven the true God: see on earth the son of man; hear from heaven that he is the Son of God. Know that both are true, that is, God and man: that the Son of God and the son of man are one and the same, God and man. Acknowledge the man, and you will appease God. Beware lest you stumble on the rock and suffer the ruin of death: for what you dream is vanity; what God thunders is truth. Hear, you Sabellian: hear the Father from heaven, see the Son on earth, and do not say, “The Father is the same as the Son.” Hear, you too, Arian, and do not err about the Father and the Son, but follow the unity and see the divinity. Lord, let us hear what you say of your Son: “This,” he says, “is my Son.” See on earth the son of man; hear from heaven that he is the Son of God. “My beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” And what then? “Listen to him.” Thanks be to God. God’s command thundered, and Peter’s counsel was set aside. Thanks to you, God, the Power; thanks to you, God the Father, who have both shown your Son and given me a teacher. Let the Sabellian withdraw, let the Arian withdraw, let the other plagues withdraw, let all unjust teaching withdraw. Let God teach, not Arius; let the Son of God teach, not the Son’s adversary. Speak, my Lord Jesus, teach, that I may learn what to teach. The Sabellian says: “The Father is the same as the Son.” The Arian says: “The Father is one, the Son another; the Father greater, the Son less.” He opposes, shouts, quarrels, fights, gathers crowds, contends against Christ. Christ shed his blood to redeem; this man scatters money to destroy. He builds a cave; there he smothers the Catholic, calls the Christian a pagan, forces baptism on the baptized, against what is written: “He who has once been washed does not need to be washed again.” The man cries out: “I am a Christian: why do you say I am what I am not?” He cries out, “I am one of the faithful”; and the other says, “Take money from me.” He cries out, “I am redeemed”; and the other says, “Take gold from me.” What do you give, or what do you take away? You give money to take away grace; you give money to take away life; you give a price to take away that by which I was bought. What do you buy from one who has been bought? My price is not gold but the blood of Christ: you do not seduce me, you do not deceive me; however much you give me, you do not take my price from me. Your money perish with you; for my price is beyond price. The man cries out, “I am one of the faithful,” and you blow on him to exorcize him. He cries out, “I was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and you blow on him. What, then, do you leave to the Christian, in whom you blow out the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? Or have you perhaps brought a new faith, a new baptism, a new god from overseas? Speak, my teacher, holy Paul; teach, expert in divine law, friend of the bridegroom: this man has just come, overturns the world, tears the unity of faith, divides the Trinity, strives to rebaptize whoever does not agree with him: what am I to do? “In Christ Jesus through the gospel you begot me”; in Christ I was baptized. Is there perhaps another baptism, or another faith? “Far from it,” you say: “One faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” If, then, there is one faith, or rather because there is one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all: I have already believed, I have already been baptized, I already have God as Father: why do I suffer the murderous Arian? Help, my Lord Jesus, and “gird your sword upon your thigh, O most mighty.” Most mighty of all, go forth; kill them in themselves, that they may live in you and cease to persecute me. The Sabellians take you away, the Arians diminish you: what do you say of yourself? The Father said that we should listen to you: when we listen to you, we listen to him. Strike both adversaries with one blow. “Let them perish,” he says, “the empty talkers and seducers of minds, the Arian and the Sabellian: for I and the Father are one.” He did not say, “I and the Father am one,” but, “I and the Father are one.” When I say “one,” let the Arian hear; when I say “are,” let the Sabellian hear. Let the Arian not divide the “one”; let the Sabellian not blot out the “are”; but let both come, and let them too be one in us, as I and the Father are one. So if the Father and the Son are one, or rather because they are without doubt one, not two gods but one God, then the prophet wrote nothing theatrical but spoke the truth, when the Lord said, “Before me no god was formed, and after me there shall be none.” Truth has taught truth, and with a two-edged sword has slain all error. If the heretics still resist, let the Catholics hear the definitive sentence, and follow it.

You have heard what the Father said of the Son; you have heard what the Son said of the Father and of himself. “If anyone preaches to you a gospel other than what you have received, let him be anathema.” We have said of the Father and the Son what we could and as much as we could, if indeed we could say anything worthily. Of the Holy Spirit we have been silent, but we have not separated him; for whatever we have said of the Father and the Son, we have said also of the Holy Spirit. For he is in them and with them, equal and one, not a lesser or a third god. What else shall I, weary, say to you who are weary? Whoever separates the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son in eternity and substance or communion, and whoever denies that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, is full of an unclean spirit and empty of the Holy Spirit. For God is called love because he does not divide the unity into parts but ineffably binds the Trinity together. For this Trinity is one God, a tower of strength against the face of the enemy, who keeps those who believe in him for ever and ever. Amen.