Pontius Pilate and was dead, not the Father. Have we forgotten, that some, misunderstanding
this, are called “Patripassians,” who say that the Father Himself was born of a woman, that
the Father Himself suffered, that the Father is the same as the Son, that they are two names,
not two things? And these hath the Church Catholic separated from the communion of
saints, that they might not deceive any, but dispute in separation from her.
7. Let us then recall the difficulty of the question to your minds. One may say to me,
“You have said that the Father doeth nothing without the Son, nor the Son without the
Father, and testimonies you have adduced out of the Scriptures, that the Father doeth
nothing without the Son, for that ‘all things were made by Him;’ and again, that that which
was made is not governed without the Son, for that He is the Wisdom of the Father,
‘reaching from one end to another mightily, and sweetly ordering all things.’ And now you
tell me, as if contradicting yourself, that the Son was born of a Virgin, and not the Father;
the Son suffered, not the Father; the Son rose again, not the Father. See then, here I see the
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Son doing something which the Father doeth not. Do you therefore either confess that the
Son doeth something without the Father, or else that the Father also was born and suffered,
and died and rose again. Say one or the other of these, choose one of the two.” No: I will
choose neither, I will say neither the one nor the other. I will neither say the Son doeth
anything without the Father, for I should lie were I to say so; nor that the Father was born,
suffered, and died, and rose again, for I should equally lie were I to say this. “How then,
saith he, will you disentangle yourself from these straits?”
8. The proposing of the question pleases you. May God grant His aid, that its solution
may please you too. See, what I am asking Him, that He would free both me and you. For
in one faith do we stand in the Name of Christ; and in one house do we live under one Lord,
and in one body are we members under One Head, and by One Spirit are we quickened.1843
That the Lord then may set both me who speak, and you who hear, free from the straits of
this most perplexing question, I say as follows: The Son indeed and not the Father was born
of the Virgin Mary; but this very birth of the Son, not of the Father, was the work both of
the Father and the Son. The Father indeed suffered not, but the Son, yet the suffering of the
Son was the work of the Father and the Son. The Father did not rise again, but the Son, yet
the resurrection of the Son was the work of the Father and the Son. We seem then to be
already quit of this question, but peradventure it is only by words of my own; let us see
whether it is not as well by words divine. It is my place then to prove by testimonies of the
sacred books, that the birth, and passion, and resurrection of the Son were in such sort the
works of the Father and the Son, that whereas it is the birth, and passion, and resurrection
of the Son only, yet these three things which belong to the Son only, were wrought neither
by the Father alone, nor by the Son alone, but by the Father and the Son. Let us prove each
1843 Vegetamur.
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Of the words of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chap. iii. 13, 'Then Jesus cometh…