18. Moreover, to shew that she possesses a nature
that was born and not created, Wisdom has added that she was begotten,
that by declaring that she was created and also begotten, she might
completely explain her birth. By speaking of creation she implies
that the nature of the Father is changeless, and she also shews that
the substance of her nature begotten of God the Father is genuine and
real. And so her words about creation and generation have
explained the perfection of her birth: the former that the Father
is changeless, the latter the reality of her own nature. The two
things combined become one, and that one is both in perfection:
for the Son being born of God without any change in God, is so born of
the Father as to be created; and the Father, who is changeless in
Himself and the Son’s Father by nature, so forms the Son as to
beget Him. Therefore the heresy which has dared to aver that the
Son of God is a creature is condemned because while the first statement
shews the impossible perfection of the divinity, the second, which
asserts His natural generation, crushes the impious opinion that He was created out of
nothing.