3. This term also corrects the error of
Sabellius, for it removes the idea of the identity of the hypostases,
and introduces in perfection the idea of the Persons. For nothing
can be of one substance with itself, but one thing is of one substance
with another. The word has therefore an excellent and orthodox
use, defining as it does both the proper character of the hypostases,
and setting forth the invariability of the nature. And when we
are taught that the Son is of the substance of the Father, begotten and
not made, let us not fall into the material sense of the
relations. For the substance was not separated from the Father
and bestowed on the Son; neither did the substance engender by fluxion,
nor yet by shooting forth cf.
Luke xxi. 30. as plants their
fruits. The mode of the divine begetting is ineffable and
inconceivable by human thought. It is indeed characteristic of
poor and carnal intelligence to compare the things that are eternal
with the perishing things of time, and to imagine, that as corporeal
things beget, so does God in like manner; it is rather our duty to rise
to the truth by arguments of the contrary, and to say, that since thus
is the mortal, not thus is He who is immortal. We must neither
then deny the divine generation, nor contaminate our intelligence with
corporeal senses.