{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/210/2100186.htm","path":"chr/ecf/210/2100186.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/210/2100186.htm","text":"By evidence gathered from Scripture the unity of Father and Son is proved, and firstly, a passage, taken from the Book of Isaiah, is compared with others and expounded in such sort as to show that in the Son there is no diversity from the Father\u2019s nature, save only as regards the flesh; whence it follows that the Godhead of both Persons is One. This conclusion is confirmed by the authority of Baruch.\n20. Now the oracles 1705 of the prophets bear witness what close unity holy Scripture declares to subsist between the Father and the Son as regards their Godhead. For thus saith the Lord of Sabaoth: 1706 \u201cEgypt hath laboured, and the commerce of the Ethiopians and Sabeans: mighty men shall come over to thee, and shall be thy servants, and in thy train shall they follow, bound in fetters, and they shall fall down before thee, and to thee shall they make supplication: for God is in thee, and there is no God beside thee. For thou art God, and we knew it not, O God of Israel.\u201d 1707\n21. Hear the voice of the prophet: \u201cIn Thee,\u201d he saith, \u201cis God, and there is no God beside Thee.\u201d How agreeth this with the Arians\u2019 teaching? They must deny either the Father\u2019s or the Son\u2019s Divinity, unless they believe, once for all, unity of the same Divinity.\n22. \u201cIn Thee,\u201d saith he, \u201cis God\u201d\u2014forasmuch as the Father is in the Son. For it is written, \u201cThe Father, Who abideth in Me, Himself speaketh,\u201d and \u201cThe works that I do, He Himself also doeth.\u201d 1708 And yet again we read that the Son is in the Father, saying, \u201cI am in the Father, and the Father in Me.\u201d 1709 Let the Arians, if they can, make away with this kinship 1710 in nature and unity in work.\n23. There is, therefore, God in God, but not two Gods; for it is written that there is one God, 1711 and there is Lord in Lord, 1712 but not two Lords, forasmuch as it is likewise written: \u201cServe not two lords.\u201d 1713 And the Law saith: \u201cHear, O Israel! The Lord thy God is one God;\u201d 1714 moreover, in the same Testament it is written: \u201cThe Lord rained from the Lord.\u201d 1715 The Lord, it is said, sent rain \u201cfrom the Lord.\u201d So also you may read in Genesis: \u201cAnd God said,\u2014and God made,\u201d 1716 and, lower down, \u201cAnd God made man in the image of God;\u201d 1717 yet it was not two gods, but one God, that made [man]. In the one place, then, as in the other, the unity of operation and of name is maintained. For surely, when we read \u201cGod of God,\u201d 1718 we do not speak of two Gods.\n24. Again, you may read in the forty-fourth psalm 1719 how the prophet not only calls the Father \u201cGod\u201d but also proclaims the Son as God, saying: \u201cThy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.\u201d 1720 And further on: \u201cGod, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.\u201d 1721 This God Who anoints, and God p. 205 Who in the flesh is anointed, is the Son of God. For what fellows in His anointing hath Christ, except such as are in the flesh? You see, then, that God is by God anointed, but being anointed in taking upon Him the nature of mankind, He is proclaimed the Son of God; yet is the principle of the Law not broken.\n25. So again, when you read, \u201cThe Lord rained from the Lord,\u201d acknowledge the unity of Godhead, for unity in operation doth not allow of more than one individual God, even as the Lord Himself has shown, saying: \u201cBelieve Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or believe Me for the very works\u2019 sake.\u201d 1722 Here, too, we see that unity of Godhead is signified by unity in operation.\n26. The Apostle, careful to prove that there is one Godhead of both Father and Son, and one Lordship, lest we should run into any error, whether of heathen or of Jewish ungodliness, showed us the rule we ought to follow, saying: \u201cOne God, the Father, from Whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him.\u201d 1723 For just as, in calling Jesus Christ \u201cLord,\u201d he did not deny that the Father was Lord, even so, in saying, \u201cOne God, the Father,\u201d he did not deny true Godhead to the Son, and thus he taught, not that there was more than one God, but that the source of power was one, forasmuch as Godhead consists in Lordship, and Lordship in Godhead, as it is written: \u201cBe ye sure that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.\u201d 1724\n27. \u201cIn thee,\u201d therefore, \u201cis God,\u201d by unity of nature, and \u201cthere is no God beside Thee,\u201d by reason of personal possession of the Substance, without any reserve or difference. 1725\n28. Again, Scripture speaks, in the Book of Jeremiah, of One God, and yet acknowledges both Father and Son. Thus we read: \u201cHe is our God, and in comparison with Him none other shall be accounted of. He hath discovered all the way of teaching, and given it to Jacob, His servant, and to Israel, His beloved. After these things He appeared upon earth, and conversed with men.\u201d\n29. The prophet speaks of the Son, for it was the Son Himself Who conversed with men, and this is what he says: \u201cHe is our God, and in comparison with Him none other shall be accounted of.\u201d Why do we call Him in question, of Whom so great a prophet saith that no other can be compared with Him? What comparison of another can be made, when the Godhead is One? This was the confession of a people set in the midst of dangers; reverencing religion, and therefore unskilled in strife of argument.\n30. Come, Holy Spirit, and help Thy prophets, in whom Thou art wont to dwell, in whom we believe. Shall we believe the wise of this world, if we believe not the prophets? But where is the wise man, where is the scribe? When our peasant planted figs, he found that whereof the philosopher knew nothing, for God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the strong. 1726 Are we to believe the Jews? for God was once known in Jewry. Nay, but they deny that very thing, which is the foundation of our belief, seeing that they know not the Father, who have denied the Son. 1727\nRom. 3:2, Acts 7:38. The Hebrew word translated \u201cburden\u201d in the A.V.\u2014e.g. Isa. xiii. 1\u2014may be rendered \u201coracle.\u201d The \u201coracles\u201d of the Hebrew prophets were of a different order from those of Delphi or Lebadeia, which are rather comparable to the \u201coracles\u201d of such persons as the witch of Endor.\n204:1706\nOr \u201cthe Lord of Hosts.\u201d Cf. Isa. vi. 3, and the Te Deum, verse 5 (the Trisagion).\n204:1707\nIsa. xlv. 14. St. Ambrose\u2019s version differs somewhat from the A.V.\n204:1708\nS. John xiv. 10.\n204:1709\nLatin proprietas, Greek \u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03b5\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2.\n204:1711 204:1712 204:1713\nS. Matt. vi. 24.\n204:1714 204:1715 204:1716 204:1717 204:1718 204:1719\nPs. xlv. in Bible and Prayer-book.\n204:1720 204:1721 205:1722\nS. John 10:38, John 14:11.\n205:1723\n1 Cor. viii. 6. The Greek runs: \u201c\u03b5\u1f37\u03b5 \u03b8\u03b5 \u1f41 \u03c2\u1f41\u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u03ae\u03c1, \u1f10\u03be \u03bf\u1f57 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03c0\u1f70\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f21\u03bc\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2 \u03c2\u1f30\u03c2 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd.\u201d Vulg.\u2014Nobis tamen unus Deus Pater, ex quo omnia et nos in illum.\n205:1724 205:1725\nThe original is \u201cnon est Deus pr\u00e6ter te\u2014per proprietatem substanti\u00e6.\u201d It must be remembered St. Ambrose was a civil magistrate before he was made bishop. His mind would be disposed therefore to regard things under a legal aspect.\n205:1726\n1 Cor. i. 27. The \u201cpeasant\u201d is Jeremiah. See Jer. xxiv., but the prophet is not there spoken of as planting figs. The quotation in \u00a7 28 is Baruch iii. 36-38.\n205:1727\n\u201cIn Jewry is God known.\u201d\u2014Ps. lxxvi. 1. Yet they deny the Son, and therefore know not the Father.\u2014Matt. 11:27, John 1:18.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. X: Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons.: Chapter III. By evidence gathered from Scripture the unity of Father and Son is proved, and firstly, a passage, taken from the Book of Isaiah, is compared with others and expounded in such sort as to show that in the Son there is no diversity from the Father's nature, save only as regards the flesh; whence it follows that the Godhead of both Persons is One. This conclusion is confirmed by the authority of Baruch.","type":"page"}