De Sententia Dionysii

² The Arian position inconsistent with Holy Scripture.

If then they have confidence in their opinions and statements, let them broach their heresy nakedly, and show from it if they think they have any religious argument whether from Scripture, or from human reason, in their defence. But if they have nothing of the kind, let them hold their peace. For they will find nothing from any quarter except the greater condemnation of themselves. Firstly from the Scriptures, in that John says, 'In the beginning was the Word.' whereas they say, 'he was not before he was begotten:' while David sings, in the character of the Father, 'my heart uttered a good Word', whom they allege to be in thought only, and originated from nothing. Further, whereas John once more says in the Gospel, 'all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made,' while Paul writes, 'there is one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things', and elsewhere, 'all things were created in Him', how will they have the boldness (or rather how will they escape disgrace) to oppose the sayings of the saints, by saying that the artificer of all things is a creature, and that He is a created thing in whom all things created have come into being and subsist? Nor, secondly, is any religious argument from human reason left them in their defence. For what man, Greek or barbarian, presumes to call one, whom he confesses to be God, a created thing, or to say that he was not before he was made? Or what man, when he has heard Him whom he believes to be God alone say, 'This is My beloved Son?', and 'my heart uttered a good Word,' will venture even to say that the Word out of the heart of God has come to being out of nothing? Or that the Son is a created thing and not the very offspring of Him that speaks? Or again, who that hears Him whom he believes to be Lord and Saviour say, 'I am in the Father and the Father in Me,' and 'I and the Father are one', will presume to put asunder what He has made one and maintained indivisible?