Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius

⁴ But that the Son of God was not made “from things which are not,” and that there was no “time when He was not,” the evangelist John sufficiently shows, when he thus writes concerning Him: “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father.” For since that divine teacher intended to show that the Father and the Son are two things inseparable the one from the other, he spoke of Him as being in the bosom of the Father. Now that also the Word of God is not comprehended in the number of things that were created “from things which are not,” the same John says, “All things were made by Him.” For he set forth His proper personality, saying, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him; and with out Him was not anything made that was made.” For if all things were made by Him, how comes it that He who gave to the things which are made their existence, at one time Himself was not. For the Word which makes is not to be defined as being of the same nature with the things which are made; since He indeed was in the beginning, and all things were made by Him, and fashioned “from things which are not.”Moreover, that which is seems to be contrary to and far removed from those things which are made “from things which are not.” For that indeed shows that there is no interval between the Father and the Son, since not even in thought can the mind imagine any distance between them.But that the world was created “from things which are not,” indicates a more recent a and later origin of substance, since the universe receives an essence of this sort from the Father by the Son. When, therefore, the most pious John contemplated the essence of the divine Word at a very great distance, and as placed beyond all conception of those things that are begotten, he thought it not meet to speak of His generation and creation; not daring to designate the Creator in the same terms as the things that are made. Not that the Word is unbegotten, for the Father alone is unbegotten, but because the inexplicable subsistence of the only-begotten Son transcends the acute comprehension of the evangelists, and perhaps also of angels.

5. Wherefore I do not think that he is to be reckoned among the pious who presumes to inquire into anything beyond these things, not listening to this saying: “Seek not out the things that are too hard for you, neither search the things that are above your strength.” For if the knowledge of many other things that are incomparably inferior to this, are hidden from human comprehension, such as in the apostle Paul, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” As also God said to Abraham, that “he could not number the stars;” and that passage, “Who can number the sand of the sea, and the drops of rainy” How shall any one be able to investigate too curiously the subsistence of the divine Word, unless he be smitten with frenzy? Concerning which the Spirit of prophecy says, “Who shall declare his generation?” And our Saviour Himself, who blesses the pillars of all things in the world, sought to unburden them of the knowledge of these things, saying that to comprehend this was quite beyond their nature, and that to the Father alone belonged the knowledge of this most divine mystery. “For no man,” says He, “knows the Son, but the Father: neither knows any man the Father, save the Son.” Of this thing also I think that the Father spoke, in the words, “My secret is to Me and Mine.”

6. Now that it is an insane thing to think that the Son was made from things which are not, and was in being in time, the expression, “from things which are not,” itself shows, although these stupid men understand not the insanity of their own words. For the expression, “was not,” ought either to be reckoned in time, or in some place of an age. But if it be true that “all things were made by Him,” it is established that both every age and time and all space, and that “when” in which the “was not” is found, was made by Him. And is it not absurd that He who fashioned the times and the ages and the seasons, in which that “was not” is mixed up, to say of Him, that He at some time was not? For it is devoid of sense, and a mark of great ignorance, to affirm that He who is the cause of everything is posterior to the origin of that thing. For according to them, the space of time in which they say that the Son had not yet been made by the Father, preceded the wisdom of God that fashioned all things, and the Scripture speaks falsely according to them, which calls Him “the First-born of every creature.” Conformable to which, that which the majestically-speaking Paul says of Him: “Whom He has appointed heir of all things. By whom also He made the worlds. But by Him also were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things.”