Book IV. This book
is in a sense the beginning of the treatise, and is sometimes cited
later on as the first. Its three predecessors, he says in §
1, had been written some time before. They had contained a
statement of the truth concerning the Divinity of Christ, and a summary
refutation of the various heresies. He now commences his main
attack upon Arianism. First (§ 2) he repeats what his
difficulty is; that human language and thought cannot cope with the
Infinite. Then (§ 3) he tells how the Arians explain away
the eternal Sonship of Christ. As a defence against this
tampering with the truth, the Church has adopted the term
Homoousion (§§ 4–7); Hilary explains and defends
its use. In § 8 he shews, by a collection of the passages of
Scripture which they wrest to their own purposes, that such a
definition is necessary, and in §§ 9, 10 that their use of
these passages is dishonest. In § 11 he tells us exactly
what the Arian teaching is, and sets it forth in one of their own
formularies, the Epistola Arii ad Alexandrum (§§ 12,
13). In § 14 this doctrine is denounced; it does not
explain, but explains away. The proclamation made through Moses,
Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One, upon which the Arians
take their stand, reveals only one aspect of the truth (§
15). It does not exhaust the truth; for God is represented as not
one solitary Person in the history of creation (§§
16–22), in the life of Abraham (§§ 23–31), and in
that of Moses (§§ 32–34). And this again is the
teaching of the Prophets, as is shewn by passages selected from Isaiah,
Hosea, and Jeremiah (§§ 35–42).
All the evidence thus
collected shews that in the Godhead there is both Father and Son,
and that the Son is God.