Chapter 18

§ 1.

Which order of things, such and so great, He effected through means created not by another but by Himself: and not by such as were made out of ignorance and decay,¹ but by such as had their being from the Wisdom and Virtue of His Father. For neither is He unjust, to covet what is another’s; nor needy, so as not by His own means to work out life for His own people, employing for man’s salvation what He Himself had created. For indeed the creature would not have sustained Him, had He merely put forth what came of ignorance and decay. For, that the very Word of God Incarnate was hung upon the wood, we have shewn at large²: yea, and the very heretics own Him crucified. How then could a being put forth of Ignorance and decay sustain Him Who hath in Him the knowledge of all things, and is true and perfect? Or how did that creation, which is hidden from the Father, and far and wide separated from Him, become the vehicle³ of His Word? And if moreover it was created by Angels, either ignorant of the God Who is above all, or knowing Him;⁴ since our Lord said, That I am in the Father and the Father in Me;—how could the handy-work of Angels endure to be the vehicle both of the Father and the Son? And how did that Creation which is without the Pleroma receive Him Who containeth the whole Pleroma?

Wherefore, since these things are all impossible, and admit of no proof; that alone is true which the Church proclaims, That it was His own creation, subsisting by the power and skill and wisdom of God, which became the vehicle of Him: which creation while it is invisibly sustained by the Father, doth on the other hand visibly sustain His Word: and this is The Word.

§ 2.

For the Father underlying⁵ both the creation and the Word, and the Word upholden⁶ of the Father, impart the Spirit unto all, at the Father’s good pleasure: to some in the Way of creation, (which sort of thing is made): to others in the way of Adoption, which kind is of God; and this is Birth.⁷ And thus is shewn forth the One God and Father, Who is above all and through all and in all. Above all, first, is the Father; and He is the Head of Christ: then, through all is the Word, and He is the Head of the Church: in us all, again, is the Spirit, and He is the Living Water, which the Lord imparts to all that rightly believe in Him, and love Him, and know that there is One Father Who is above all,⁸ and through all, and in you all. Witness is borne to this by John also the Lord’s disciple,⁹ saying in his Gospel as follows: In the beginning was the Word,¹⁰ and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made. Afterwards of the same Word he saith,¹¹ He was in this world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God, to them which believe in His Name. And again, meaning His Economy as Man,¹² he said, And the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us. And again he inserted,¹³ (And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father,) full of Grace and Truth. Evidently declaring to each as will hear, i.e., who have ears, That there is one God the Father over all, and one Word of God which is through all, by Whom all things were made; and that this world is His very own, and made by Him at His Father’s Will, and not by Angels, neither in the way of revolt and decay and ignorance: nor by I know not what virtue of “Prunicus,” whom some also call Mother; nor by some other world-maker not knowing the Father.

§ 3.

For the Maker of the world in deed is the Word of God;¹⁴ and this is our Lord, Who in the last times was made man, existing in this world: Who invisibly contaius all things that were made, and is established¹⁵ in the whole creation, as being God’s Word, governing and disposing all things: and therefore into His own He came invisibly¹⁶, and was made flesh and hung upon the Tree, that He might sum up all into Himself. And His own, even Men, received Him not; as Moses declared the same among the people:¹⁷ And thy Life shall be hanging before thine eyes, and thou wilt not believe thine own Life. Whoso then received not Him, received not life. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God. For it is He who hath power over all from the Father, as being the Word of God, and true Man, with invisible beings holding reasonable communion, and appointing them a law after an intellectual fashion¹⁸, all and each to abide in their own order: while over things visible and human He reigns openly, and bringeth upon all meetly His just judgment: as David also plainly intimating saith,¹⁹ Our God will come openly and will not keep silence. Then also he declared the judgment which He is bringing upon us,²⁰ saying, A fire shall burn in His eight, and around Him a mighty tempest. He shall summon the Heaven from above, and the earth to discern His people.