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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 94
What then, most excellent sir (will such an one hear in return), is the Son supplied with might and understanding from the Father, that He may be able to do and to speak without blame? how then is He any longer God by Nature, who borrows from another power and wisdom, just as the nature of the creature too has it? for to those who from not being obtain being, every thing that accrues to them is also surely God-given. But not so is it in the Son; for Him the Divine Scripture knows and proclaims as Very God and I think that to Him Who is by Nature God do all good things in perfect degree belong, and that which possesses not perfection in every single thing that ought to be admired, how will it be by Nature God? For as incorruption and immortality must surely belong to it naturally and not from without or imported, so too the all-perfection and lacking nought in all good things. But if according, sir, to thy unhallowed and unlearned argument the Son be imperfect in regard of being able to do things God-befitting and to speak what is right, and yet He is the Power and Wisdom of the Father according to the Divine Scripture, to the Father rather and not to Him will so great an accusal belong. For thus defining these things you will say that in potential no longer is God the Father Perfect, nor yet is He wholly Wise. You see then whither the daring of thine unlearning sinks down. And I marvel how this too has escaped thy acumen.: how (tell me) will God the Father supply might to His own Might, or how will He render His own Wisdom wiser? For either one must needs say that it ever advances to something greater and goes forward by little and little to being capable of somewhat more than its existing strength (which is both foolish and utterly impossible), or must impiously suppose that He is strengthened by another. How then will the Son be any more called Lord of Hosts or how will He be any longer conceived of as Wisdom and Might, strengthened (according to you) and made wise by another? Away with the blasphemy and absurdity of reasoning. For either grant outright that the Son is a creature that ye may have the whole of Divinely-inspired Scripture crying out against you, or if ye believe that He is by Nature God, grant, grant that the Properties of Godhead pertain to Him in Perfect degree. For it is the property of the Natural Being [of God [22]] neither to be impotent about anything, nor to come short of supreme Wisdom, yea rather to be Wisdom and Power's very self; but in wisdom nought is through teaching, nor yet in the Chief and truly conceived-of Power do we see imported power.
But that by examining also the very nature of things, we may more accurately test what are said by Christ, we will add this too to what has been said. What so great deed hath the Only-Begotten made Man wrought, that will surpass His inherent Power? For it was like I suppose that some would say that it then resulted that He should fitly say, as having borrowed the Power from God the Father, Of Myself I do nothing, because He drove out the evil spirit, let go the palsied from his infirmity, freed the leper from his suffering, gave the blind to see, sated a no easily reckoned multitude of men with five loaves, appeased the raging sea with a word, raised Lazarus from the dead: shall we say that the manifestation herein is superior to His innate Power? Then how (tell me) did He stablish the so great Heaven and spread it out as a tent to dwell in, how founded He the earth, how became He Artificer of sun and moon and what pertains to the firmament? how created He angels and Archangels Thrones and Lordships and yet besides, the Seraphim? He Who was in so vast and supernatural position, lacking neither Might nor Wisdom from another, how could He be powerless in matters so small, or how should He Who by the holy Prophets is glorified as Wisdom need one who must teach Him what to say to the Jews? For I hear a certain one say, The Lord who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His Wisdom, and stretched out the heavens in His discretion, and besides, the Divine Daniel too says. Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and understanding and might are His. But if His, according to the Prophet's voice, are both might and wisdom, who will any more endure the wordiness[ ]of the heterodox, saying that the Wisdom and Power of the Father is supplied with both power and wisdom from another?
22. [a] unless ἰδιότητος be an error for θεότητος, of Godhead.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/john-commentary-3.asp?pg=94
