On the Creed: A Sermon to Catechumens

⁵ The Father does what He will, and what He will does the Son. Do not imagine an Almighty Father and a not Almighty Son: it is error, blot it out within you, let it not cleave in your memory, let it not be drunk into your faith, and if haply any of you shall have drunk it in, let him vomit it up. Almighty is the Father, Almighty the Son. If Almighty begot not Almighty, He begot not very Son. For what say we, brethren, if the Father being greater begot a Son less than He?

What said I, begot? Man engenders, being greater, a son being less: it is true: but that is because the one grows old, the other grows up, and by very growing attains to the form of his father. The Son of God, if He grows not because neither can God wax old, was begotten perfect. And being begotten perfect, if He grows not, and remained not less, He is equal. For that you may know Almighty begotten of Almighty, hear Him Who is Truth. That which of Itself Truth says, is true. What says Truth?

What says the Son, Who is Truth? “Whatsoever things the Father does, these also the Son likewise does.” The Son is Almighty, in doing all things that He wills to do. For if the Father does some things which the Son does not, the Son said falsely, “Whatsoever things the Father does, these also the Son does likewise.” But because the Son spoke truly, believe it: “Whatsoever things the Father does, these also the Son does likewise,” and you have believed in the Son that He is Almighty.

Which word although ye said not in the Creed, yet this is it that you expressed when you believed in the Only Son, Himself God. Hath the Father anything that the Son has not? This Arian heretic blasphemers say, not I. But what say I? If the Father has anything that the Son has not, the Son lies in saying, “All things that the Father has, are Mine.” Many and innumerable are the testimonies by which it is proved that the Son is Very Son of God the Father, and the Father God has His Very-begotten Son God, and Father and Son is One God.