In the thirteenth
section of his Treatise on the Incarnation of the Word of God, he
argues, that neither could men restore us to the image of God, nor could
angels, but the word of God, Jesus Christ, &c. [Vol. i. part i. p. 58.]
In his Epistle to Dracontius, he says, "We ought to conduct ourselves
agreeably to the principles of the saints and fathers, and to imitate
them,--assured that if we {187} swerve from them, we become alienated
also from their communion." [Vol. i. part i, p. 265.]
The passage, however, to which I would invite the reader's patient and
impartial thoughts, occurs in the third oration against the Arians, when
he is proving the unity of the Father and the Son, from the expression
of St. Paul in the eleventh verse of the third chapter of his first
Epistle to the Thessalonians.
"Thus then again ([Greek: outo g' oun palin]), when he is praying for
the Thessalonians, and saying, 'Now our God and Father himself and the
Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you,' he preserves the unity of the
Father and the Son. For he says not 'may THEY direct ([Greek:
kateuthunoien]),' as though a twofold grace were given from Him AND Him,
but 'may HE direct ([Greek: katenthunai]),' to show that the Father
giveth this through the Son. For if there was not an unity, and the Word
was not the proper offspring of the Father's substance, as the
eradiation of the light, but the Son was distinct in nature from the
Father,--it had sufficed for the Father alone to have made the gift, no
generated being partaking with the Maker in the gifts.
Pages:
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228