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Translated by Cardinal Newman.
St Athanasius the Great Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 130 Pages
Page 17
71. The Word then is neither creature nor work; for creature, thing made, work, are all one; and were He creature and thing made, He would also be work. Accordingly He has not said, 'He created Me a work,' nor 'He made Me with the works,' lest He should appear to be in nature and essence [2693] a creature; nor, 'He created Me to make works,' lest, on the other hand, according to the perverseness of the irreligious, He should seem as an instrument [2694] made for our sake. Nor again has He declared, 'He created Me before the works,' lest, as He really is before all, as an Offspring, so, if created also before the works, He should give 'Offspring' and 'He created' the same meaning. But He has said with exact discrimination [2695] , 'for the works;' as much as to say, 'The Father has made Me, into flesh, that I might be man,' which again shews that He is not a work but an offspring. For as he who comes into a house, is not part of the house, but is other than the house, so He who is created for the works, must be by nature other than the works. But if otherwise, as you hold, O Arians, the Word of God be a work, by what [2696] Hand and Wisdom did He Himself come into being? for all things that came to be, came by the Hand and Wisdom of God, who Himself says, 'My hand hath made all these things [2697] ;' and David says in the Psalm, 'And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands [2698] ;' and again, in the hundred and forty-second Psalm, 'I do remember the time past, I muse upon all Thy works, yea I exercise myself in the works of Thy hands [2699] .' Therefore if by the Hand of God the works are wrought, and it is written that 'all things were made through the Word,' and 'without Him was not made one thing [2700] ,' and again, 'One Lord Jesus, through whom are all things [2701] ,' and 'in Him all things consist [2702] ,' it is very plain that the Son cannot be a work, but He is the Hand [2703] of God and the Wisdom. This knowing, the martyrs in Babylon, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, arraign the Arian irreligion. For when they say, 'O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord,' they recount things in heaven, things on earth, and the whole creation, as works; but the Son they name not. For they say not, 'Bless, O Word, and praise, O Wisdom;' to shew that all other things are both praising and are works; but the Word is not a work nor of those that praise, but is praised with the Father and worshipped and confessed as God [2704] , being His Word and Wisdom, and of the works the Framer. This too the Spirit has declared in the Psalms with a most apposite distinction, 'the Word of the Lord is true, and all His works are faithful [2705] ;' as in another Psalm too He says, 'O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in Wisdom hast Thou made them all [2706] .'
[2693] S:45, note 2.
[2694] organon, note on iii. 31.
[2695] S:12, note.
[2696] S:22, n. 2.
[2697] Is. lxvi. 2.
[2698] Ps. cii. 25.
[2699] Ib. cxliii. 5.
[2700] John i. 3.
[2701] 1 Cor. viii. 9.
[2702] Col. i. 17.
[2703] S:31, n. 4.
[2704] theologoumenos. vid. de Decr. 31, n. 5. also Incarn. c. Ar. 3. 19, Serap. i. 28. 29. 31. contr. Sab. Greg. and passim ap. Euseb. contr. Marcell. e.g. p. 42, d. 86, a. 99, d. 122, c. 124, b. &c. kuriologein, In Illud. Omn. 6, contr. Sab. Greg. S:4, f.
[2705] Ps. xxxiii. 4.
[2706] Ib. civ. 24.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/discourses-against-arians-2.asp?pg=17
