Mediation

 GOD, the Origin and Cause of all things, acts by the mediation, ministration, or operation of His Son, as signified by the Son's names of Word and Wisdom. Vid. art. Eternal Son .

 "It belongs to the Son," says Athanasius, "to have the things of the Father; and to be such that the Father is seen in Him, and that through Him all things were made, and that the salvation of all comes to pass and consists in Him." Orat. ii. § 24. "Men were made through the Word, when the Father Himself willed." Orat. i. § 63. "Even if God compounded the world out of materials, ... still allow the Word to work those materials, say at the bidding and in the service of God, [ prostattomenos kai hypourgon ]; but if by His own Word He calls into existence things which existed not, then the Word is not in the number of things not existing," etc. Orat. ii. § 22. "With whom did God speak," (saying Let us make, etc.) "so as even to speak with a command," [ prostatton ]? "He bids, [ prostattei ], and says, Let us make men ... Who was it but His Word?" c. Gent. § 46. "A Word then must exist, to whom God gives command, [ entelletai ho theos ]," de Decr. § 9.

 The language of Catholics and heretics is very much the same on this point of the Son's ministration, with this essential difference of sense, that Catholic writers mean a ministration internal to the divine substance and an instrument connatural with the Father, and Arius meant an external and created medium of operation. vid. arts. The Divine Hand and [ organon ]. Thus S. Clement calls our Lord "the All-harmonious Instrument ([ organon ]) of God." Protrept. p. 6. Eusebius, "an animated and living instrument, ([ organon empsuchon ],) nay, rather divine and ... vivific of every substance and nature." Demonstr. iv. 4. S. Basil, on the other hand, insists that the Arians reduced our Lord to "an inanimate instrument," [ organon apsuchon ], though they called Him [ hypourgon teleiotaton ], most perfect minister or underworker." adv. Eunom. ii. 21. Elsewhere he says, "the nature of a cause is one, and the nature of an instrument, [ organon ], another; ... foreign then in nature is the Son from the Father, as an instrument is from the artist who uses it." de Sp. S. n. 6 fin. vid. also n. 4. fin. and n. 20. Afterwards he speaks of our Lord as "not intrusted with the ministry of each work by particular injunctions in detail, for this were ministration," [ leitourgikon ], but as being "full of the Father's excellences," and "fulfilling not an instrumental, [ organiken ], and servile ministration, but accomplishing the Father's will like a Maker, [ demiourgikos ]." ibid. n. 19. And so S. Gregory, "The Father signifies, the Word accomplishes, not servilely nor ignorantly, but with knowledge and sovereignty, and, to speak more suitably, in the Father's way, [ patrikos ]." Orat. 30. 11. And S. Cyril, "There is nothing abject in the Son, as in a minister, [ hypourgoi ], as they say; for the God and Father enjoins not [[ epitattei ]] on His Word, 'Make man,' but as one with Him, by nature, and inseparably existing in Him as a co-operator," etc., in Joann. p. 48. Explanations such as these secure for the Catholic writers some freedom in their modes of speaking; e.g. we have seen supr. that Athan. seems to speak of the Son as being directed, and ministering," [ prostattomenos, kai hypourgon ], Orat. ii. § 22. Thus S. Irenæus speaks of the Father being well-pleased and commanding, [ keleuontos ], and the Son doing and framing. Hær. iv. 38, 3. S. Basil too, in the same treatise in which are some of the foregoing protests, speaks of "the Lord ordering, [[ prostassonta ],] and the Word framing." de Sp. S. n. 38. S. Cyril of Jerusalem, of "Him who bids, [[ entelletai ],] bidding to one who is present with Him," Cat. xi. 16. vid. also [ hypereton tei boulei ], Justin. Tryph. 126, and [ hypourgon ], Theoph. ad Autol. ii. 10 (Galland. t. 2, p. 95), [ exupereton thelemati ], Clem. Strom. vii. p. 832.

 As to those words [ prostattomenos kai hypourgon ], it is not quite clear that Athan. accepts them in his own person, as has been assumed supr. Vid. de Decr. § 7, and Orat. ii. § 24 and 31, which, as far as they go, are against such use. Also S. Basil objects to [ hypourgos ], contr. Eunom. ii. 21, and S. Cyril in Joan. p. 48, though S. Basil speaks of [ ton prostattonta kurion ], as noticed above, and S. Cyril of the Son's [ hypotage ], Thesaur. p. 255. Vid. "ministering, [ hyperetounta ], to the Father of all." Just. Tryph. n. 60. "The Word become minister, [ hyperetes ], of the Creator," Origen in Joan. t. 2, p. 67, also Constit. Ap. viii. 12, but Pseudo-Athan. objects to [ hypereton ], de Comm. Essent. 30, and Athan. apparently, Orat. ii. § 28. Again, "Whom did He order, præcepit?" Iren. Hær. iii. 8, n. 3. "The Father bids [[ entelletai ]] (allusion to Ps. 33, 9), the Word accomplishes ... He who commands, [ keleuon ], is the Father, He who obeys, [ hypakouon ], the Son ... the Father willed, [ ethelesen ], the Son did it." Hippol. c. Noet. 14, on which vid. Fabricius's note. S. Hilary speaks of the Son as "subditus per obedientiæ obsequelam," Syn. 51. Origen contr. Cels. ii. 9. Tertul. adv. Prax. 12, fin. Patres Antioch. ap. Routh t. 2, p. 468. Prosper in Psalm 148. Hilar. Trin. iv. 16. "That the Father speaks and the Son hears, or contrariwise, that the Son speaks and the Father hears, are expressions for the sameness of nature and the agreement of Father and Son." Didym. de Sp. S. 36. "The Father's bidding is not other than His Word; so that 'I have not spoken of Myself,' He perhaps meant to be equivalent to 'I was not born from Myself.' For if the Word of the Father speaks, He pronounces Himself, for He is the Father's Word," etc. August. de Trin. i. 26. On this mystery vid. Petav. Trin. vi. 4.

 Athan. says that it is contrary to all our notions of religion that Almighty God cannot create, enlighten, address, and unite Himself to His creatures immediately. This seems to be implied when it was said by the Arians that the Son was created for creation, illumination, etc.; whereas in the Catholic view the Son is simply that Divine Person, who in the economy of grace is Creator, Enlightener, etc. God is represented as All-perfect, but acting according to a certain divine order. Here the remark is in point about the right and wrong sense of the words "commanding," "obeying," etc.

 Hence our Lord is the [ boulesis ] and the [ boule ], and [ zosa boule ], of the Father. Orat. iii. 63 fin. and so Cyril Thes. p. 54, who uses [ boule ] expressly, (as it is always used by implication,) in contrast to the [ kata boulesin ] of the Arians, though Athan. uses [ kata to boulema ], e.g. Orat. iii. 31. And so [ autos tou patros thelema ], Nyss. contr. Eunom. xii. p. 345.

 The bearing of the above teaching of the early Fathers on the relation of the Second to the First Person in the Holy Trinity, is instructively brought out by Thomassinus in his work, de Incarnatione, from which I have made a long extract in one of my Theological Tracts: part of it I will make use of here.

 "It belongs to the Father to be without birth, but to the Son to be born. Now innascibility is a principle of concealment, but birth of exhibition. The former withdraws from sight, the latter comes forth into open day; the one retires into itself, lives to itself, and has no outward start; the other flows forth and extends itself and is diffused far and wide. It corresponds then to the idea of the Father, as being ingenerate, to be self-collected, remote, unapproachable, invisible, and in consequence to be utterly alien to an incarnation. But to the Son, considered as once for all born, and ever coming to the birth, and starting into view, it especially belongs to display Himself, to be prodigal of Himself, to bestow Himself as an object for sight and enjoyment, because in the fact of being born He has burst forth into His corresponding act of self-diffusion ...

 "Equally ... incomprehensible is in His nature the Son as the Father. Accordingly we are here considering a personal property, not a natural. It is especially congenial to the Divine Nature to be good, beneficent, and indulgent; and for these qualities there is no opening at all without a certain manifestation of their hiding-place, and outpouring of His condescending Majesty. Wherefore, since the majesty and goodness of God, in the very bosom of His nature, look different ways, and by the one He retires into Himself, and by the other He pours Himself out, it is by the different properties of the Divine Persons that this contrariety is solved," etc., etc. vid. Thomassin. Incarn. ii. 1, p. 89, etc.