Note N45 — St. PETER (continued 7)

Some of the Fathers would not allow even his Doctrine concerning the Trinity to be heterodox. For some Passages being quoted out of his Works by the Arians to confirm their Opinions, Basil and Nazianzen undertook to prove, from other Passages, that his Sentiments with respect to the Trinity were quite orthodox; and that the Arians had either out of Malice misinterpreted, or out of Ignorance misunderstood his Meaning, not being capable of fathoming the Depth of his Thoughts[1]. It must be owned, that Origen, in several Places, speaks of the Trinity agreeably to the Sentiments of the Church, acknowleging the Son to have been from the Beginning in the Father; to be the Image of the Father; to have been begotten by him from all Eternity; to be the Wisdom of God; to be God, though not the Source and Origin of the Divinity, as the Father, whom on that Account he styles Autotheos; to be above all Creatures; to have the same Power as the Father, and to deserve the same Honour and Worship. But elsewhere he uses Expressions that can no-way bear an orthodox Sense, viz. that the Word is an Hypostasis different from the Father; meaning by the Word Hypostasis, Nature and Substance; that the Father and Son are One by Concord and Union; that the Son is not properly God, but called God, because he is the Image of the Divinity; that the Word and the Holy Ghost were made by the Father; that the Father is greater than the Son; that the Son is inferior to the Father, though far above all Creatures, as the Ray of the Sun is inferior to the Sun; and lastly, that the Son is the Minister of the Father. In these Passages is contained a very different Doctrine from that which is laid down in those I have quoted above: and hence some of the Friends of Origen, and among the rest Ruffinus, concluded the latter Passages to have been foisted in by the Arians, denying the Divinity of the Word; while others, allowing them to be Origen’s, undertook to explain them in a Catholic Sense, in Opposition to the Arians confirming their Doctrine with the Authority of so eminent a Writer. But his Enemies, attending only to the Passages where he seemed to establish an Inequality in the Trinity, not only condemned him as an Heretic, but all who stood up in his Defence, or attempted to interpret his Words in a Catholic Sense.