On the Trinity 2-1 part 1/9

I. The soul, in itself, existing in the intelligible realm without passion, has as the cause of its sometimes becoming subject to passion its being joined with the body, and also its own free choice, that is, its desire for knowledge.

For the body, holding it shut up within itself as in a dark fortress, through material passions tears it away from communion with God, and drags it down, I suppose, to earth and earthly cares.

and thus it attempts to gain mastery over that which is by nature superior, and superior by as much as the immortal is superior to the mortal.

And again, the desire of its own free choice, or of knowledge, draws it to wish to know something, and it proceeds toward this; but not having a right guide for its journey, or having consorted with evil companionships of men, it wanders and is at a loss, and in the end, whatever opinion it chances to put in at, it ignorantly adopts.

and thus indeed it becomes most pitiable and wretched, having hunted down, under the semblance of good knowledge and opinion, an evil way of thinking.

For that all men by nature desire to know is shown, as Aristotle says, also by the desire of the senses, which carries us on toward itself beyond mere necessity.

For instance, we sometimes desire to see, or to do, something, even though it is not at all necessary, but even harmful, whether the thing seen or the thing done.

And that these things have been plainly stated thus, those who have seen fit to speak of the divine Scriptures make clear, in such words as these:

James, of glorious memory:

'This wisdom is not one descending from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.' And he adds:

'For the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy.' And further he calls those of the common herd 'double-minded,' meaning those men who do not have pure knowledge and a firm resolve of soul, saying such things as these:

'Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you;'

'Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.' But he also addresses those who have a soul zealous in hatred of evil and are victorious in virtue, from whom no honorable thing escapes notice, so that they might restrain the licentiousness of men who are not such, and might also impart to others the good things which they themselves possess, in these words:

'Brethren, if any among you err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.' No less also did Peter teach whence the soul, though naturally without passion, at times becomes filled with passions; and, turning to remind us of our departure from this life, he wrote:

'Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.' And Solomon, the son of David, says:

'As the faces of men are not alike, so also the hearts of men are not alike to one another.' And there also come to my mind the words of the great champion Paul, which he has spoken in this manner:

'But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God;'

'for they are foolishness to him.' And again:

'But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one.' But as I was saying, this free choice, and the body, are naturally prone often to drag the soul down into the passions;

yet at other times they also contribute — to the soul itself, I mean — no small goods;

the body, on the one hand, contributes knowledge of sensible things and its other service;

and its free choice, on the other, contributes the blessedness that comes from good counsel and right belief;

just as, again, the soul, when it lives rightly together with the body, and masters it, and turns toward God, and is filled with thoughts of him, bestows gifts more numerous and more solemn

than the experience of painful things could give, rousing the body up to a godly life;

while it keeps its own free choice and faith unstumbling, and makes man to be above man, advancing him by faith and reason into what is dignified, and inclining him toward supplication of the Trinity, and making the benefit derived from these things its own nourishment.

For if we shall consider it, the soul is by nature adorned and nourished by nothing else than by words and faith.

For man has both kinds of nourishment: that which comes from agriculture, and that which comes from words and faith;

but the one gives the body its being and its endurance, while the other gives to souls their preeminence above others; and it is through faith and reason that all the rest of life as well is rightly ordered.

It is possible to perceive that these things are not otherwise, by proceeding with the mind to see how at once, upon such a one, there shines and cooperates the Son, the Word of God, who is set over all things — he who despises no one, not even those who despise him — he who, into the soul into which, through his breathing, he settled his Holy Spirit, has sown the Word, the most precious thing of all.

Wherefore also it has been remarkably said by those outside the Church, at the close of a certain verse:

'Everywhere is reason, where man also is.'

But these things stand thus, in some such way.

But the heretics, breathing nothing pure, paying no heed to the lofty testimonies, gifts, and mighty works set forth concerning God the Word, the Redeemer, the Author of the being of all things, attach to his very Godhead those expressions which, concerning his most ineffable and most unchangeable, loving incarnation, seem to them to be lowly words.

And from the very things by which they ought to discern clearly the glory of God, and the more to hymn his love for mankind, by these same things they are found being carried outside the truth, and are led on to insult their Benefactor and Savior;

and their concern is not how they might propitiate him as judge;

but how they might show him to be subject to judgment, as a creature, even after his ascent into the heavens and his session of equal honor at the right hand of his own Father.

And often, things that were not said concerning him, nor spoken by him, or things that were uttered in riddles under a veil of concealment, they treat, without any scrutiny, as though decisively pronounced against him or by him; and they have honored every unsound and feeble notion.

presenting themselves as in no way better than irrational animals before this most beloved Master, who leads, without any compulsion, those who are persuaded into the one undivided kingdom of the Father, and of himself, and of the Holy Spirit, and who exhorts us with a forbearing love toward us;

'Be ye not as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.' For the irrational animals, he says, whose soul is the blood that comes from matter — according to him who said in Genesis, 'his blood is his soul' — have bowed down toward the earth, ever enslaved to the belly alone, and have not risen up in body and mind, as has man, who both perceives things on earth, and looks upon the things on high, and hastens toward the calmest and most passionless state above, and considers that he has taken lodging in the world as in some inn, and prepares himself so that he may be of good cheer, each day, with a view to his departure from it;

and for this reason the wise man is simple in faith and in judgment.

For it is clear to everyone that truth is always superior to every art that operates through words and in words, and truth is naturally joined together with simplicity.

But artful arguments seem both to trouble and to be troubled — arguments which abound among the heretics with regard to theological contemplation, foreign to the truth just as are those of the Greeks.

For they call him God, and Lord, and Son, indeed; but no longer, as God and Lord, uncreated, without beginning, self-determining, and equal to God the Father;

nor, as the only-begotten Son, consubstantial with him who begot him, do they call him;

even though these very things manifest and declare beforehand the equal honor and equal power of the Holy Trinity, in his divine teaching concerning baptism, and in many other places also, as has been said;

but, agreeing in a certain manner with the Greeks, according to their own private notions, they posit and conceive differences and degrees of diminution of essence and glory among the divine and consubstantial three hypostases, both concerning the Son and concerning the Holy Spirit of God.

even demons, who have become manifest, through the wickedness of their own will, as useless and good-hating creatures, shudder to hear — let alone to say — such things.

The arguments, then, that contain the theological doctrines have been sufficiently worked out, there being, indeed, countless other proofs as well, which have not been mentioned, so that those who read might not grow weary on account of their number, nor might the writer appear long-winded and full of many words.

'For if the tale of truth is by nature simple,' say the esteemed men among the Greeks, 'then for this reason the Divine might reasonably be called Truth alone;'

it is clear that the doctrine concerning God the Word is likewise simple, and free from every distorted variety.

But in order that the sayings concerning God may be easily surveyed, on account of the objections of the heretics that are now about to be discussed, come, let us string together their argument in a partial and brief recapitulation — even though we shall be repeating the same things — yet nonetheless, for the sake of usefulness, and so that the matters concerning them may be made, as far as possible, assailable by all from every side.

For indeed even those who propose to construct a building, having first surveyed and gathered the suitable materials, lay them aside, then set them close beside each spot that is about to be worked upon, so that each of those employed in the manual labor might have them before their eyes and ready at hand; and thus they begin the work.

But trusting the whole matter again to God, who stills the waves, grants a calm voyage, and brings all things to a good outcome — by whose grace, which he is wont to grant even to sinners and to those of limited speech (I speak specifically of myself), I have come forward to this present desire — I proceed to what follows, believing that, before I speak, I shall receive this grace together with the children whom he has given me, and the children of my children, for whose sake we labor even while we live, and moreover together with all others to whom he knows it fitting to grant it.

For his is the golden decree: 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, ye shall receive'; and, 'Open your mouth, and I will fill it'; and, 'It is not ye who speak, but the Spirit of my Father which speaks in you.' Concerning which, and from whom, even those outside the Church, having been deemed worthy of some perception, also say:

'God, who fashions all things, plants grace also in the singer.'

For man's understanding is truly not sufficient of itself to say anything concerning God, unless it has received divine help and power;

as also Diagoras of Melos somewhere said:

'God, before every mortal work, wields the supreme mind;'

'and one who is self-taught treads but a short path in virtue.' And I shall begin from the point at which it is fitting to begin.

If, then, Scripture — which is indeed altogether without falsehood — says that God the Word is true God and the true Son of God, as it has it in many places, and as the Father says:

'This is my beloved Son'; and as John writes:

And we are in the true Son of God, Jesus Christ;

this is the true God and eternal life; and as Jeremiah prophesies:

'Gods that have not made heaven and earth shall perish from the earth;'

'The Lord, who made the heavens by understanding, he is the living and true God.' It is surely clear, then, that he is by nature and properly God, uncreated and without beginning, and in every respect unvarying from God the Father.

For no cause is found for the true God by nature, nor is the true God said to be made, nor is a true Son understood to be of a different substance.

And to have both sayings — 'This is my Son,' and 'This is the true God' — excludes seeking any other genuine Son, or any other God properly so called;

If he is true God and Son, then according to the generation from above he has a Father, but does not have a God;

but according to the [birth] from below, he has a God, but not a father.

Untrodden, then, and for all things —

— utterly inaccessible to creatures in every way — one who is wholly human ought not set out upon that path; and those outside [the church] have likewise declared as follows:

'Believe in God and worship him, but do not [presume to] seek [beyond].'

'But God is immortal, ever ageless, unshaken, ineffable beneath hidden counsels, self-begotten, himself bringing forth himself, ever young, not made.'

'He himself is the begetter of truth, himself wise, himself true.'

Speaking of God, he said as follows:

'And indeed the race that is God's is ever faithful.'

For he, being himself the begetter of truth, could not be apprehended by human understanding, unless that understanding, filled with his truth, should kindle for itself from it a light for its inquiries.

If God is one, as Moses says:

'The Lord your God, the Lord, is one' — and the Son too is hymned as the only-begotten God, and as the one Lord Jesus Christ;

in every respect consubstantial and of equal honor with God the Father — distinct, the one from the other, in hypostasis, yet one in Godhead and in harmony.

For in this lies the meaning of 'one God.' Indeed, we find that the Greeks too, again by some unseen necessity, and against their will, have been turned around to the truth, and in this matter have adopted a disposition in harmony and agreement with us, declaring in writing and explicitly the following:

'He himself, the supreme lord over all things, was the very first begetter, and root, and origin.'

If the name is eternal — 'Father' for God, and 'Son,' even 'Only-begotten,' for the Son — then he is a natural and true Son, and without beginning, and not a son as we are sons.

For the Only-begotten does not, by nature, have any brother sharing the same father in relation to the Father; nor is one who has not yet begotten called 'father.'

If the Son is rightly called the Word of God, he co-exists with the one who begot him, possessing a natural kinship with him, and having been begotten without passion and without beginning.

For neither can the Father be conceived apart from his subsistent Word;

nor indeed is the Word created, but is begotten without passion.

Likewise, if the Son is rightly inscribed as the Word and Wisdom of God, and all things came to be through him, then he was not created out of the Word of God, but was begotten from his womb.

For the Word of God is one; and by what other word could he have been created? Indeed, even the select sages of the Greeks declare these things:

'For the begettings of God bring forth things ineffable.'

'And he is superior to all passion and to nature.'

If the Son is, as has been demonstrated, eternal life itself and the true light, then he did not begin to be, nor to live.

And likewise, if the Father is also these same things, then the Son differs from him in no respect, not even in mere conception.

If the Son is said to be the power and wisdom of God, then he is co-eternal, without beginning, with the one who begot him;

for there never was a time when the Father existed apart from these, nor is it fitting to say that, having lacked them, he later acquired anything.

And those who have learned something from wisdom outside [the faith], having perceived — if it is permitted to say so — no second kind, no second moment in the existence of the Godhead, spoke as follows, according to their capacity:

'He himself, the immortal God, sustains all things;'

'he is himself his own begetter, and is root, and end, and son.'

If, equally with the Father, he saves — as being Savior — and moreover also imparts wisdom, speaks truth, justifies, sanctifies;

and if whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does the same things, then he does not appear unlike him.

If the Only-begotten is — as Paul writes to the Hebrews — the radiance of the glory, and the exact representation of the hypostasis, and the image of the God who is formless, invisible, and without beginning; and if he himself speaks truly, saying:

'He who has seen me has seen the Father,' and, 'I and the Father are one' — then he is consubstantial, co-eternal, equal, and unvarying with God the Father.

For indeed, light from light is begotten neither as of a different substance nor at a later time;

and 'the exact representation of the hypostasis' signifies the sameness and unvarying identity of nature, of glory, and of almighty rule;

and a living, rational image signifies equality and likeness;

and one who sees a creature does not thereby see the Uncreated.

For he declared that the hypostases are one in Godhead, and yet within the unity of essence he has distinctly differentiated the persons.

If God the Father is unchangeable, then he did not beget the Son later in time, nor with passion, but — as light begets its radiance — without passion and without interval;

And the wise men outside [the church], according to their own limited capacity, believed as follows:

'For the immortal God did not behold the light [of day] from birth-pangs, nor from the bosom of a womb in travail;'

'but, revolving in the ineffable whirling of mind, he comes to be self-delivered, being from himself both begetter and son.'

If every creature is mutable, but the Only-begotten is immutable;

with no one revealing it to him;

he is not created, but begotten.

If the Scriptures know him to be equal to the Father;

'He did not regard it as robbery to be equal with God'; and:

'In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead'; and the evangelist says that 'the Son was making himself equal to God'; and Jeremiah calls him God, to whom no other shall be compared;

and Isaiah calls him God, Mighty God, Ruler;

how then, according to the heretics, is he inferior, and not equal in every respect to the Father? [13]

If Paul considers the saving proclamation concerning Christ and the Holy Spirit to be superior to the older law, because it possesses what is perfect, as was demonstrated in Discourse 30;

then it is fitting, in every way and altogether, that the Son and the Spirit be inferior to God the Father in no respect whatsoever.

If Paul instructs that those who believe in the Son thereby escape the charge of worshiping a creature, and moreover calls 'atheists' those who, before this, apart from the Son, had known only God the Father —

If the Jews, by disbelieving Christ — who made himself equal to God — and by crucifying him for this reason, were condemned, while Christians, by believing, have become superior to them;

then the Son is in no respect lesser than his own Father.

If it is the exclusive privilege of God alone to be hymned as 'the great God,' yet Paul proclaims, 'of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,' and David says, 'Who is like you among the gods, O Lord?' — then he is not more exalted than the Son, nor beyond comparison with him.

If this same Paul does not count him among the created gods, but ranks him together with the Father, writing to the Corinthians: 'For even if there are so-called gods many, and lords many, whether in heaven or on earth, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things;'

'and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things' — then he will not be classed among the things made, but will be glorified together with the Father.

If the Son is the maker of all things, even of the ages themselves, as it has been written, then he exists before every act of working;

but that which exists before every act of working was not created.

For nothing that exists before the ages, or before all activity, is understood to be a created thing — only the unbegotten Trinity in unity is such.

If he is the author of the coming-to-be of all existing things, then he is not created as they are.

For in no respect can the Creator be similar to created things, nor ought he to be.

Nor indeed does a creature, even when it creates something, impart substantial being, or produce a rational nature.

If in the beginning he was God with God, then he himself has no other beginning, being more primordial than every beginning.

Since otherwise it would be wholly necessary to assign a beginning even to the Father.

For it says, 'In the beginning he was God with God.' But there is no beginning of the one Godhead that exists in the beginning.

If this surpasses every mind's grasp, how did the Virgin give birth without any flux, and yet remain a virgin still?

Much more incomprehensible is how the self-begotten God and Father, without beginning and without passion, has begotten the Son wholly from the whole of himself, in equal measure.

If, having formed us, he made us self-determining, having appointed judgment for good and evil deeds;

how does he himself not possess this which he gave to us — he who, according to the prophecy, is God, mighty, sovereign?

If Peter is to be trusted, crying out in the Acts of the Apostles:

'To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.' The true name he holds is 'God,' and 'the only-begotten Son of God'; for nothing that bears a false name brings profit.

If the God who cannot lie speaks the truth — he who also destroys those who lie, as the sacred psalmist says — as it is said in the Gospel of the Theologian:

'All that the Father has is mine'; and, 'All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine.' He is God, the Lord without beginning, whose kingdom is unending, and all that the Father is, the Son is also, having received nothing from him according to the divine nature, but only later, according to the form of a servant.

Let us also give heed to what the Greeks have said concerning the truth that ever prevails above, and concerning the untruth that reigns below.

'The mind of the great God is free from falsehood;'

'but on mortals who lie he has bestowed grievous, ill-fated suffering.'

If he has been established heir of all things, he is not a slave, but a true Son.

For a son is begotten, not created;

and concerning things that are created and subject to time it is written:

'All things are your servants.' [25]

If, as something great — for it truly is great, and belongs to God alone — Paul said concerning the Father:

'He who is over all, and through all, and in all'; yet he himself wrote the same things concerning the Son:

'of whom, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.'

'Amen.' And the evangelist says:

'He who comes from above is above all.' He is not separated from him in anything, nor does he fall short of the Father.

It is worth considering how reverently the theologians of the Greeks — who have heard much, read not a little, and have also seen very many things — hold regarding these matters.

'All things are full of God; he is the end and the beginning of all things, bearing all things, dissolving them, and again causing growth out of them.'

If it is written that creation belongs properly to the Son — for it says:

'He came unto his own'; and again:

'My sheep hear my voice'; and to Peter:

'I will give you the keys of the heavens.' But it does not belong to a creature to have the whole of divine creation as its own, or to grant authority to open the heavens — that is, to say this without peril.

he shares dominion together with his almighty Father.

If the immortal soul is not superior to God the Word, and if neither God nor lifeless flesh has any need at all of food or sleep;

then the ineffable incarnation was not through a soul, nor must one ascribe to the Godhead agony, craving for food, sleep, and such things.

If, as it is written, he sits enthroned at the right hand together with the Father, as true and equally honored God, and his only-begotten Son;

he shares the throne, possessing an undivided and unending kingdom, and is worshiped and glorified together with the Father on equal terms — he himself, and the Spirit of God.

For how could it be possible, when the Trinity is present on one throne, for one alone to be worshiped facing the one eternal throne, with worship being offered toward the east and glory sent up? For that where the Father is, there also is his Spirit, found enthroned together with him and worshiped together with him, as belonging to the nature that reigns as queen over all — this has been proclaimed by many, and from the Scripture which says:

'For by this we know that God is in us, from his Spirit, which the Son has given us.' For our own spirit is not what is meant here;

for that we already had; rather, we received the Holy Spirit of God.

If it is the Father's will that all should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father;

then he exists in equal glory, and possesses one and the same property with the Father;

and those act impiously who either alter the glory due to him, or suspect that he differs from the Father in some respect.

If he is worshiped by angels, how is he not worthy of worship also by human beings?

But if he is worshiped, he is not a creature.

For it has been divinely decreed not to worship gods, since they are creatures.

If God the Father is in him, and he himself is equally in the Father, and the Spirit of God abides with him, as has been shown;

then the Trinity exists as equal and alike;

and no one can have, or worship, or glorify the Father without equally having the Son and his Spirit, and equally worshiping and glorifying them.

If the Son legislates, and frees from sins and from death, so does the Holy Spirit — for Paul cries out: 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.'

these persons belong to the one, first, almighty, and life-giving nature.

For a creature cannot do these things of itself.

If it is rightly written that the Son is Savior, and the Holy Spirit supplies salvation;

then he is unchangeable and uncreated, just as the Son is unchangeable, and so too is the Spirit.

For that which is mutable cannot save those who have fallen away, since, being created, it is not sinless.

If we, who are created, are adopted as sons by the Son, as those who initiate us into the mysteries tell us — Paul on the one hand says:

'And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying:'

'Abba, Father.' And John, on the other hand:

'But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God.'

For how could the Son be adopted as a son in himself, or through himself, or in his own Spirit? [35]

If Paul says that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, just as our own spirit belongs to us, and if God likewise calls it his Spirit;

then whoever does not call it God, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father, is impious.

For there never was a time when he was without his Spirit, nor is it fitting to think that it came to him later, or from outside, or that the Spirit of the uncreated One is itself a created spirit;

but rather it has ascended together with him upon the cherubic throne, and is worshiped and glorified together with him, as has been said before, since it is a Spirit inseparable from him.

If created being is merely receptive of holiness, wisdom, goodness, and every perfect virtue — for it is mutable — while the Holy Spirit is not receptive of these but rather bestows them — for it is unchangeable;

then it is a Creator, and not, in its very existence, a creature, according to what has already been said.

If created being has knowledge that can be acquired and also lost, whereas the Spirit neither received knowledge from outside, nor is it its nature to cast off knowledge, but rather to reveal the things of God's wisdom and knowledge, existing according to essence together with the Father;

Let us also listen to the Greek sophistic sayings concerning this matter, which run as follows:

If the servant does not know what his master is doing, while the Spirit knows the things of God, according to the Apostle;

then it is not distinguished from him in nature and in accord, but is confessedly God and Master, possessing knowledge equal to God's — which is impossible and impracticable for any created being.

If the Scriptures know this to be one and only, just as they know the Son to be only-begotten;

It is not created, like the multitude of spirits, but belongs to the single divine essence.

Wherefore it alone, properly and principally, both is and is called the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of God, and the Spirit that is from God, and the Spirit which proceeds from the Father.

And from its being in all things, as God is, we know that God is in us.

If the Trinity has been testified to be, in equal measure, truth, and goodness, and holy;

then it exists in one Godhead, having nothing divided or manifold.

For the unchangeable divine truth, and goodness, and holiness are one.

For creation possesses these things by participation, and changes with respect to them according to its own choice, now speaking truth, at another time lying, and now being made good, at another time being made evil.

Concerning this too, the choice men of the pagans are found to have said the following:

'For such is the mind of men who dwell upon the earth, as is...' (a saying quoted from Homer, left incomplete here)

If, as it is written, the Holy Spirit renews us in baptism, and frees us from sin and death, and we are likewise a temple of him as of God the Father;

then he re-creates as Creator and fellow-worker with the Creator, and frees as Master, and indwells as God.

But he who is these things cannot be a work like other works;

nor is it right either to say this, or, remaining silent, to endure hearing it said.

If, together with God the Father and his Son, the Holy Spirit through baptism refashions us into the original image, and through participation is for us the cause of adoption as sons and of becoming gods, and none of created things has, in this manner, the power to make sons or to deify;

how is he not true God?

If none of the creatures is mentioned together with God the Father with reference to creation, or to doxology, or to baptism, while the Spirit is so mentioned;

then he is, as equal in honor and equal in power to the Father and the Only-begotten, God.