Chapter VII.
He continues the same line of argument drawn from the
Creed of Antioch.
But
there follows in the Creed:
“Very God of Very God; Being of one substance with the Father; by
whom both the worlds were framed, and all things were made.” And
when you said all this, remember that you said it all of the Lord Jesus
Christ. For you find stated in the Creed: that you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and the first-born of every
creature: and after this and other clauses: “Very God of Very
God, Being of one substance with the Father; by whom also the worlds
were framed.” How then can the same Person be God and not God;
God and a statue; God and an instrument? These do not harmonize, you
heretic, in any one Person, nor do they fit together, so that you can,
when you like, call Him God; and when you like, consider the same
Person a creation. You said in the Creed, “Very God.” Now
you say: “a mere man.” How can these things fit together
and harmonize so that one and the same Person may be the greatest
Power, and utter weakness: the Highest glory, and mere mortality? These
things do not meet together in one and the same Lord. So that severing
Him for worship and for degradation, on one side, you may do Him honour
as you like, and on the other, you may injure Him as you like. You said
in the Creed when you received the Sacrament of true Salvation:
“the Lord Jesus Christ, Very God of Very God, Being of one
substance with the Father, Creator of the worlds, Maker of all
things.” Where are you alas! Where is your former self? Where is
that faith of yours? Where that confession? How have you fallen back
and become a monstrosity and a prodigy? What folly, what madness was
your ruin? You turned the God of all power and might into inanimate
material and a lifeless creation: Your faith has certainly grown in
time, in age, and in the priesthood. You are worse as an old man than
formerly as a child: worse now as a veteran than as a tyro: worse as a
Bishop than you were as a novice: nor were you ever a learner after you
had begun to be a teacher.