And this also it behoves Cf. Basil, Contra Eunom., v.; Athan., Contra Arian., ii.; Cyril, Thes., assert. 32; Epiphan., Hæres. 73, &c. us to know, that the names Fatherhood, Sonship and Procession, were not applied to the Holy Godhead by us: on the contrary, they were communicated to us by the Godhead, as the divine apostle says, Wherefore I bow the knee to the Father, from Whom is every family in heaven and on earth Ephes. iii. 14 and 15: Cyril, Thes., assert. 32: Dionys., De divin. nom., c. 1.. But if we say In the first Book of his Contra Arianos Athanasius refers to Christ’s word in St. John xiv. 28. He remarks that He does not say “the Father is better (κρείσσων) than I,” lest it should be inferred that the Son is not equal to the Father in Divine nature, but of another nature; but “the Father is greater (μείζων) than I,” that is to say, not in dignity or age, but as being begotten of the Father. And further, that by the word “greater” He indicates the peculiar property of the substance (τῆς οὐσίας τὴν ἰδιότητα). This declaration of our Lord’s was understood in the same way by Basil, Gregory Nazianzenus, Cyril and others of the Greek Fathers, and by Hilary among the Latin Fathers. In the ixth and xth Books of his De Trinitate Hilary refers to this, and says that the Father is called ‘greater’ propter auctoritatem, meaning by auctoritas not power, but what the Greeks understand by αἰτιότης, causation, principle or authorship of being. So also Soebadius says that the Father is rightly called ‘greater,’ because He alone is without an author of His being. But Latin theologians usually spoke of the Father as ‘greater,’ not because He is Father, but because the Son was made Man. To this effect also Athanasius expresses himself in his De hum. carne suscepta, while Gregory Nazianzenus speaks otherwise in his Orat. 36. that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, we do not suggest any precedence in time or superiority in nature of the Father over the Son St. John xiv. 28. (for through His agency He made the ages τοὺς αἰ& 242·νας; Heb. i. 3.), or superiority in any other respect save causation. And we mean by this, that the Son is begotten of the Father and not the Father of the Son, and that the Father naturally is the cause of the Son: just as we say in the same way not that fire proceedeth from light, but rather light from fire. So then, whenever we hear it said that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, let us understand it to mean in respect of causation. And just as we do not say that fire is of one essence and light of another, so we cannot say that the Father is of one essence and the Son of another: but both are of one and the same essence Greg. Naz., Orat. 37; Athan., Contr. Arian., bk. i.. And just as we say that fire has brightness φαίνειν, shines. through the light proceeding from it, and do not consider the light of the fire as an instrument ministering to the fire, but rather as its natural force: so we say that the Father creates all that He creates through His Only-begotten Son, not as though the Son were a mere instrument serving See Cyril, Ad Herm., dial. 2; Irenæus. iv. 14, v. 6, and John of Damascus, himself in his Dial. Contr. Manich. the Father’s ends, but as His natural and subsistential force Greg. Naz., Orat. 13, 31 and 37.. And just as we say both that the fire shines and again that the light of the fire shines, So all things whatsoever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise St. John v. 19.. But whereas light possesses no proper subsistence of its own, distinct from that of the fire, the Son is a perfect subsistence τέλεια ὑπόστασις; a perfect hypostasis., inseparable from the Father’s subsistence, as we have shewn above. For it is quite impossible to find in creation an image that will illustrate in itself exactly in all details the nature of the Holy Trinity. For how could that which is create and compound, subject to flux and change, circumscribed, formed and corruptible, clearly shew forth the super-essential divine essence, unaffected as it is in any of these ways? Now it is evident that all creation is liable to most of these affections, and all from its very nature is subject to corruption.