51. The foregoing and the following statements
utterly remove any ground for suspecting that this definition asserts a
diversity of different deities in the Lord and the Lord. No
comparison is made because it was seen to be impious to say that there
are two Gods: not that they refrain from making the Son equal and
peer of the Father in order to deny that He is God. For, since he
is anathema who denies that Christ is God, it is not on that score that
it is profane to speak of two equal Gods. God is One on account
of the true character of His natural essence and because from the
Unborn God the Father, who is the one God, the Only-begotten God the
Son is born, and draws His divine Being only from God; and since the
essence of Him who is begotten is exactly similar to the essence of Him
who begot Him, there must be one name for the exactly similar
nature. That the Son is not on a level with the Father and is not
equal to Him is chiefly shewn in the fact that He was subjected to Him
to render obedience, in that the Lord rained from the Lord and that the
Father did not, as Photinus and Sabellius say, rain from Himself, as
the Lord from the Lord; in that He then sat down at the right hand of
God when it was told Him to seat Himself; in that He is sent, in that
He receives, in that He submits in all things to the will of Him who
sent Him. But the subordination of filial love is not a
diminution of essence, nor does pious duty cause a degeneration of
nature, since in spite of the fact that both the Unborn Father is God
and the Only-begotten Son of God is God, God is nevertheless One, and
the subjection and dignity of the Son are both taught in that by being
called Son He is made subject to that name which because it implies
that God is His Father is yet a name which denotes His nature.
Having a name which belongs to Him
whose Son He is, He is subject to the Father both in service and name;
yet in such a way that the subordination of His name bears witness to
the true character of His natural and exactly similar essence.