I will now remember the works of the Lord, and declare the things that I have seen: In the words of the Lord are his works.
Read Chapter 42
Vigilius of Thapsus
AD 500
The apostle Paul, writing to the Hebrews about the Son, says, "Because he is the image of the invisible God and bears the seal of his being." And also Jeremiah, the wisest of the prophets, speaks of the person of God the Father and says, "If they had remained in my being and listened to my word, I would have turned them from their wicked desires." To make it understood that he had said this in reference to the Son, he adds, "Who has been in my being and has seen my word?" In fact, that the Word was the Son is affirmed by the prophet David, who said regarding the person of the Father, "My heart has spoken the good word." And John the Evangelist, knowing that the Word was with the Father, that is, that from the beginning the Son was with the Father and that the Word has never been separated from the Father, put this at the beginning of his Gospel, his pronouncement, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word." In another passage the Scripture passed all of this down to us, saying, "The Word as the beginning of the work," not because in the creation of the Word (that is, beginning from the creation of the Son) God began to make the other creatures, but because through the Word of God (that is, through the Son) all created things are known. It is for this reason that the prophet David sings, saying, "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made," and, to show that the Holy Spirit participated in this, he continued, "And from the Spirit of his mouth derived their every virtue." - "Against the Arians 2.19"
