Book VII. The
Arians are adepts at concealing their meaning; at the use of Scripture
terms in unscriptural senses (§ 1). They have already been
refuted by the proof that Christ is the true and coeternal Son; and
Hilary now advances to the proof of the true Divinity of Christ, which
is logically inseparable from His true Sonship (§ 2). But
the danger is great lest, in attacking one heresy, he should use
language which would sanction others (§ 3). Yet the truth is
one, while heresies are manifold. Each of them can be trusted to
demolish the others, while none can establish its own case. He
illustrates this by the mutually destructive arguments of Sabellius,
Arius and Photinus (§§ 5–7). Christ is proved to
be God by the name God which is given Him in Scripture:
The Word was God (§§ 8, 9). The name is His in
the strict sense, and not any derivative meaning (§§ 10,
11). Yet Father and Son are not two, but one God (§
13). Being the Son of God, He has the nature of God, and
therefore is God (§§ 14–17), and yet not one Person
with the Father (§ 18). Again, His power, manifested in His
works, proves His Godhead (§ 19), as does the fact that all
judgment has been given Him by the Father (§ 20).
Christ’s own words display the truth (§ 21). The
Arians are blind to the plain sense of Scripture, and are more
blasphemous than the Jews; Christ’s reply to the latter meets the
objections of the former (§§ 22–24). He asserts
His unity with the Father (§ 25), and makes His works the proof
(§ 26). The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the
Father (§ 27): this is illustrated by the transmission of
physical properties from parent to child and from flame to flame
(§§ 28–30). In fact, the Catholic is the only
rational explanation of the words of Scripture (§§ 31,
32). Again (§§ 33–38), the way to the Father is
through the Son, and knowledge of the Son is knowledge of the
Father. This would be impossible, were not the Son God in the
same sense in which the Father is God. Thus the contrary
doctrines of Sabellius and of Arius are confuted; there is neither one
Person, nor yet two Gods (§§ 39, 40). Christ calls upon
us to believe the truth, and belief is not only possible but reasonable
(§ 41).