BOOK SIX Chapter 1 ~ OME THINK THAT THEY ARE HINDERED from accepting the equality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because it was written: 'Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God,'! so that it would, therefore, seem as if there is not an equality, because the Father Himself is not the power and the wisdom, but the begetter of power and wisdom. And, in truth, the question is usually asked, with no little anxiety, in what sense can God be called the Father of power and wisdom, for the Apostle calls Christ: 'the power of God and the wisdom of God'? And hence, some of our own writers have argued in this way against the Arians, at least against those who first rose up against the Catholic faith. For Arius himself is quoted as saying, 'If He is the Son, He was born; if He was born, then there was a time when He was not the Son.' He did not grasp the fact that even to be born is, to God, from all eternity, so that the Son is co-eternal with the Father, just as the brightness is simultaneous with the fire that produces and diffuses it, and would be co-eternal if the fire were co-eternal. Some of the later Arians, accordingly, rejected this opinion, and admitted that the Son of God did not have a beginning in time. But during the disputes, which our adherents held with those who said: 'There was a time when the Son was not,' some also introduced this line of reasoning: 'If the Son of 1 1 Cor. 1.24. 199 200 SAINT AUGUSTINE God is the power and the wisdom of God, and God is never without His power and wisdom, then the Son is co-eternal with God the Father'; but the Apostle speaks of Christ as 'the power of God and the wisdom of God,' and only an insane person would declare that God was ever without His power and wisdom; therefore, there was not a time when there was not a Son. (2) Such logic compels us to assert that God the Father is wise, not by being in Himself wisdom itself, but by having the wisdom which He begot. Furthermore, if this be so, and God the Father is not wisdom itself but only the begetter of wisdom, we must see whether the Son can be called wisdom of wisdom, as He is called God of God and light of light, if the Father is not wisdom itself but only the begetter of wisdom. Now if we hold this, why is He not also the begetter of His own greatness, goodness, eternity, and omnipotence, so that He Himself is not His own greatness, His own goodness, His own eternity, and His own omnipotence, but is great by that greatness which He begot, good by that goodness, eternal by that eternity, and omnipotent by that omnipotence which was born of Him, just as He Himself is not His own wisdom, but is wise by that wisdom which was born of him? Nor need we be afraid of being compelled to say that there are many sons of God, besides the adoption of the creature, co-eternal with the Father, if He is the begetter of His own greatness, goodness, eternity, and omnipotence. But it is easy to answer this sophistry. For it does not follow, because many things are named, that He is, therefore, the Father of many co-eternal sons, just as it does not follow that He is the Father of two sons, when Christ is called the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the power is identical with the wisdom, and the wisdcll is identical with the power. And the same applies, therefore, to the remaining names, so that greatness is identical with power, and with any of the other attributes that we have either mentioned above or that may be mentioned later on. [44.223.5.218] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:18 GMT) BOOK SIX 201 Chapter 2 (3) But if one does not speak of the Father as He is in Himself, but only in relation to the Son, that is, as His Father or begetter or principle; if, furthermore, the begetter is the principle of that which is born of Himself, then whatever else is spoken of Him is spoken of Him as with the Son, or rather in...