By Water & Blood

Chapter 2: How he is also convicted of Judaizing in his opinion

You see a Jew plainly denying the only-begotten Son of God, “by whom all things” came into being. For if before the coming-into-being of the world there was nothing else apart from God, then the Son did not exist; and how then were “all things made by him, and without him was not any thing made”? The Jew, then, who denies the Christ of God, knows of nothing before the coming-into-being of the world except God alone, and Marcellus bears witness along with him. But the Church of Christ glories with all boldness, saying, “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.”

And when she says “by whom are all things,” she knows him to be before all things; so that whoever says that before the coming-into-being of the world there was nothing else except God alone speaks falsely against the truth. For together with the only God, his only-begotten Son also existed before the constitution of the world, and was with the Father. This the Church was taught also by the one who said, “He hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the ages.”

And in Proverbs, through Solomon, the Son himself teaches concerning himself, saying, “When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him.” Moreover he himself “was the Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” since “he was in the world, and the world was made by him.” And if “the world was made by him,” it is plain that he existed before the world.

God, then, was not alone before the constitution of the world; rather, his only-begotten Son was with him. Looking upon him the Father rejoiced, as the Son himself, being Wisdom, teaches, saying in Proverbs, “I was the one in whom he rejoiced daily.” And the Son himself, gazing intently upon the thoughts of the Father, was filled with gladness; wherefore he says, “And I rejoiced before him at every season.” These are the pious and divine mysteries which the Church of Christ has received and guards. But the one who says (Nr. 93) that when the world had not yet come into being there was nothing else except God alone

shows himself to be one of two things: either a Jew or a Sabellian. For either, denying the Son outright and bringing in God alone, he will be a Jew who denies the Christ; or, accepting the title of Son only so far as a word, while saying that he is the one God, Son and Father at once, he will renew Sabellius. For if before the world there was nothing else except God, either God himself will be Father and Son, or he will not even have a Son.