§18Et de patre quidem ac filio multis libris disseruerunt docti et spiritales uiri, quibus, quantum homines hominibus poterant, et quemadmodum non unus esset pater et filius, sed unum essent, et quid proprie pater esset et quid filius, insinuare conati sunt: quod ille genitor, ille genitus; ille non de filio, ille de patre; ille huius principium, unde et caput Christi dicitur, quamuis et Christus principium, sed non patris; hic uero illius imago, quamuis nulla ex parte dissimilis et omnino indifferenter aequalis.
And concerning the Father and the Son, indeed, learned and spiritual men have discussed in many books, in which, as far as men could do for men, they have endeavored to insinuate both how the Father and the Son are not one but are one, and what the Father is properly and what the Son is: namely, that the former is the begetter, the latter the begotten; the former is not from the Son, the latter is from the Father; the former is the principle of the latter, whence He is also called the head of Christ, although Christ also is a principle, but not of the Father; while the latter is the image of the former, although in no part unlike and altogether indifferently equal.
tractantur haec latius ab eis, qui non tam breuiter quam nos totius Christianae fidei professionem uolunt explicare.
These things are treated more at large by those who wish to explain the profession of the whole Christian faith not so briefly as we do.
itaque, in quantum filius est, de patre accepit, ut sit, cum ille de filio id non acceperit: et in quantum hominem mutabilem, scilicet creaturam in melius commutandam, ineffabili misericordia temporali dispensatione suscepit, multa de illo in scripturis inueniuntur ita dicta, ut inpias haereticorum mentes prius uolentes docere quam nosse in errorem miserint, ut putarent eum non aequalem patri nec eiusdem esse substantiae, qualia sunt illa: quoniam pater maior me est, et: caput mulieris uir, caput uiri Christus, caput autem Christi deus, et: tunc et ipse subiectus erit ei, qui illi subiecit omnia, et: uado ad deum meum et deum uestrum, et nonnulla huius modi: quae omnia posita sunt, non ut naturae atque substantiae inaequalitatem significent, ne falsa sint illa: ego et pater unum sumus, et: qui me uidit, uidit et patrem meum, et: deus erat uerbum — non enim factus deus, cum omnia per ipsum facta sint — et: non rapinam arbitratus est esse aequalis deo et cetera talia, sed illa posita sunt partim propter administrationem suscepti hominis, qua dicitur: semet ipsum exinaniuit — non quia mutata est illa sapientia, cum sit omnino incommutabilis, sed quia tam humiliter hominibus innotescere uoluit — partim ergo propter hanc administrationem illa ita scripta sunt, de quibus haeretici calumniantur, partim propterea, quia filius patri debet, quod est, hoc etiam debens utique patri, quod eidem patri aequalis aut par est; pater autem nulli debet quidquid est.
And so, in so far as He is the Son, He has received from the Father that He exists, whereas the Father has not received this from the Son; and in so far as He, by ineffable mercy, in a temporal dispensation, assumed changeable man, that is, a creature to be changed for the better, many things are found in the scriptures said concerning Him in such a way that they have cast the impious minds of heretics, who wish to teach before they know, into error, making them think that He is not equal to the Father nor of the same substance, such as those: "Because the Father is greater than I," and: "The head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God," and: "Then shall He also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him," and: "I go to my God and your God," and some others of this kind; all of which are set down, not to signify inequality of nature and substance, lest those things should be false: "I and the Father are one," and: "He that has seen me has seen my Father also," and: "The Word was God" — for He was not made God, since all things were made through Him — and: "He thought it not robbery to be equal with God," and other such things; but those are set down partly on account of the administration of the assumed man, in respect of which it is said: "He emptied Himself" — not because that Wisdom was changed, since it is altogether unchangeable, but because He wished to make Himself known to men in so humble a manner — partly, therefore, on account of this administration those things are so written, about which heretics slander, and partly for this reason, because the Son owes to the Father what He is, owing also this indeed to the Father, that He is equal or peer to the same Father; whereas the Father owes to no one whatever He is.