By Water & Blood

Book 2, Chapter 15: Citations of Marcellus’s own words by which he clearly denied the Son of God, calling him uttered and internal Word

But the new writer neither understands these things nor knows them, nor does he even know that he is ignorant of the very things he boasts of knowing—how they were constituted. Come, then, let us take up the matter again and hear how he likens him to the word among men, both the word in thought and the word in utterance, writing in this manner (Nr. 55):

“And this, I think, is easy for those of sound mind to learn even from a small and lowly example drawn from ourselves. For neither is it possible for anyone to separate the word of a man from him in power and hypostasis; for the word is one and the same with the man, and is separated by nothing else than by the activity of the deed alone.”

In these words, then, he has used the image of the uttered word; and of the internal word, in those where he says this (Nr. 53):

“For God did not need any other preparation for the construction, such as matter or any other human kind, but only this preparation in his own thought. Since, then, it was impossible for God to think about the construction of heaven without a word and the wisdom that belongs to the word, he fittingly said, ‘When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him.’”

Then, proceeding next, he presented the Word of God as internal as well, writing thus (Nr. 52): “For who, whether of the holy angels or of righteous men, was so trustworthy as to loose the punishment appointed for him from the face of God, except the Word himself, who was present with him and fashioned with him, to whom the Father said, ‘Let us make man’?”

After this he makes clear what sort of Word he is bringing in, saying (Nr. 52):

“But suppose one should examine the divine action, as through an image, by using a small and human example drawn from ourselves. It is as if a skilled sculptor, wishing to mould a statue, first considers within himself its outlines and features; then conceives how great a breadth and length would be seemly, and examines the proportion of the whole in each individual part; and having prepared the suitable material of bronze, and having pre-figured the future statue in his own thought, and supposing that he sees it mentally, and conscious that his word is working together with him—the word by which he reasons and by which he is accustomed to do all things (for nothing is beautiful that does not come to be by reason)—when he begins this sensible work, he exhorts himself as though another, saying, ‘Come, let us make; come, let us mould a statue.’ So the God and Master of the universe, making the living statue out of earth, exhorts no other but his own Word, saying, ‘Let us make man.’”

Through these words he plainly attached to God both an internal word, by which one reasons with oneself, and an uttered word, by which one converses, supposing that the Word in God is some such thing as the word in us.