was.” Look not for time in Him, by whom times were made. “The Word was.” But you say,
“There was a time that the Word was not.” You say falsely; nowhere do you read this. But
I do read for you, “In the beginning was the Word.” What look you for before the beginning?
But if you should be able to find anything before the beginning, this will be the beginning.
He is mad who looks for anything before the beginning. What then doth he say was before
the beginning? “In the beginning was the Word.”
2. But you will say, “The Father both ‘was,’ and was before the Word.” What are you
looking for? “In the beginning was the Word.” What you find, understand; seek not for
what you are not able to find. Nothing is before the beginning. “In the beginning was the
Word.” The Son is the Brightness of the Father. Of the Wisdom of the Father, which is the
Son, it is said, “For He is the brightness of the Everlasting Light.”3604 Are you seeking for a
Son without a Father? Give me a light without brightness. If there was a time when the Son
was not, the Father was a light obscure. For how was He not an obscure Light, if It had no
brightness? So then the Father always, the Son always. If the Father always, the Son always.
Do you ask of me, whether the Son were born? I answer, “born.” For He would not be a Son
if not born. So when I say, the Son always was, I say in fact was always born. And who un-
derstands, “Was always born”? Give me an eternal fire, and I will give thee an eternal
brightness. We bless God who hath given to us the holy Scriptures. Be ye not blind in the
brightness of the light. Brightness is engendered of the Light, and yet the Brightness is Co-
eternal with the Light that engenders It. The Light always, its Brightness always. It begat Its
Own Brightness; but was it ever without Its Brightness? Let God be allowed to beget an
eternal Son. I pray you hear of whom we are speaking; hear, mark, believe, understand. Of
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God are we speaking. We confess and believe the Son coeternal with the Father. But you
will say, “When a man begets a Son, he that begets is the elder, and he that is begotten the
younger.” It is true; in the case of men, he that begets is the elder, and he that is begotten,
the younger, and he arrives in time to his father’s strength. But why, save that whilst the one
grows, the other grows old? Let the father stand still a while, and in his growing the son will
follow on him, and you will see him equal. But see, I give you whereby to understand this.
Fire engenders a coeval brightness. Among men you only find sons younger, fathers older;
you do not find them coeval: but as I have said, I show you brightness coeval with its parent
fire. For fire begets brightness, yet is it never without brightness. Since then you see that the
brightness is coeval with its fire, suffer God to beget a Coeternal Son. Whoso understandeth,
let him rejoice: but whoso understandeth not, let him believe. For the word of the Prophet
cannot be disannulled; “Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand.”3605
3604 Wisd. vii. 26.
3605 Isa. vii. 9, Sept.
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On the same words of the Gospel, John i., ‘In the beginning was the word,’…