35. Thus with abundant clearness we disprove
the objection commonly raised by Arians, in order to loosen the Divine
Unity, on the ground that it is written: “But he who
planteth and he who watereth are one.” This passage the
Arians, if they were wise, would not quote against us; for how can they
deny that the Father and the Son are One, if Paul and Apollos are one,
both in nature and in faith? At the same time, we do grant that
these cannot be one throughout, in all relations, because things human
cannot bear comparison with things divine. The citation is
from 1 Cor. iii. 8. Paul and Apollos are ὁμοούσιοι,
“of one substance, nature, essence,” in so far as the
definition of man can be applied to each. But the presence of
Paul does not carry with it the presence of Apollos, and the existence
of Paul is not bound up, save accidentally, with that of Apollos.
Paul could not say, “He that hath seen me hath seen
Apollos.” No human being can say that of another, even
though the other be a twin and closely resembling him in
appearance. The root of the difference is in the difference
between the Creator and the creature, the Eternal, knowing neither
beginning of life nor end of days, existing from everlasting to
everlasting, and that which lives under conditions and limits of time
and space.