Library

NPNF2-04. Athanasius: Select Works and Letters

How he confuted the Arians.

CCEL ThML source edition Philip Schaff
Open passage
69. And once also the Arians having lyingly asserted that Antony’s opinions were the same as theirs, he was displeased and wroth against them. Then being summoned by the bishops and all the brethren, he descended from the mountain, and having entered Alexandria1116, he denounced the Arians, saying that their heresy was the last of all and a forerunner of Antichrist. And he taught the people that the Son of God was not a created being, neither had He come into being from non-existence, but that He was the Eternal Word and Wisdom of the Essence of the Father. And therefore it was impious to say, ‘there was a time when He was not,’ for the Word was always co-existent with the Father. Wherefore have no fellowship with the most impious Arians. For there is no communion between light and darkness1117. For you are good Christians, but they, when they say that the Son of the Father, the Word of God, is a created being, differ in nought from the heathen, since they worship that which is created, rather than God the creator1118. But believe ye that the Creation itself is angry with them because they number the Creator, the Lord of all, by whom all things came into being, with those things which were originated.

Source notes

Open passage
Orat. ii. 23, &c. This was an argument much used against Arianism. Antony’s arguments may be compared with those of Ath. in Ep. Æg. 13.

Source attribution

NPNF2-04. Athanasius: Select Works and Letters; retained source edition and original contributor credits. Public-domain status supported by edition notices or retained historical publication facts; source-host site design and index descriptions are excluded.

How he rejected the schism of Meletius and the heresies of Manes and Arius. How he visited Alexandria, and healed and converted many, and how Athanasius escorted him from the city.