On the Trinity 2-1 part 4/9

as the seraphim cry 'Holy' three times, and 'Lord' once, so that they might send up the hymn alike to each hypostasis, and proclaim that there is for them one lordship;

From that time, then, the things of earth too began to bend the knee to him, and to glorify him, and to call him God;

and in sudden crises, overtaken by the swiftness of events, not to make use of lengthy prayer, nor to babble as is customary, but to call upon him, saying:

'Christ, help!'—since this name is unto salvation for all.

And by the statement, 'being found in the likeness and outward form of men,' it does not signify a phantasm as regards his becoming man, as some have supposed;

on the contrary, it means that God the Word truly bore the likeness and form of men.

From one's appearance, bearing, and conduct, each person is shown for what he is, and what he intends to do.

For even if he does not go about proclaiming it aloud, nevertheless his nature bears witness against the matter, even though he says nothing.

So the Savior too, having willed to save us through his unchangeable becoming man, and having taken on all that is ours apart from sin, was supposed by some to be, of necessity, committing the sin that attaches to human beings through choice and deeds.

For the long-suffering Job cries out on behalf of all of us:

'No one is without sin, not even if his life were but a single hour.'

'For what is man, that you have magnified him, or that you set your mind upon him, or visit him every morning, and judge him worthy of rest?' But he—that is, the Master—as has been said before, committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. And to be without sin is something beyond man.

For this reason it has been prophetically declared, 'in the likeness and form of men.'

And the saying in John, 'I live because of the Father,' provides no basis for their claim.

For it was said either on account of the aforementioned manner of the economy, or because he has been manifested as life from the Father's life, even as light from light, and God from God.

Therefore we have also heard this from him, in that very Gospel of John:

'I am the life and the light'; and again:

'The Son gives life to whom he will.' If, then, the Father too is life and true light,

life differs in nothing from life, nor light from light.

For life and light are each a simple, undivided reality;

and the statement 'there was when he was not' comes nowhere near plausibility, when applied to that very life which creates, and to the unfailing light.

He who lives through another could never himself be eternal life;

just as he who is holy by God's imparting is not holiness itself;

whereas he himself, by his own authority, sanctifies others also, both through himself and through others.

And the saying, 'I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, the Father,' signifies this:

'Not,' he says, 'that in my becoming man I do the will of humanity, but that of the divinity.'

For the will of the beloved Son is not separate from the will of God the Father.

For there is one and the same will for the Trinity.

By this paradoxical obedience of his, then, undertaken on our behalf, he undid our ancient disobedience;

and in the manner in which, in likeness to us, as he knew and willed, he descended and suffered;

so too, having made us conformed to himself, he transferred us into impassibility.

'By his own free choice,' he says, 'not by mere service.'

As also in another passage he likewise declares:

'I am the bread that came down from heaven'; that is, one not merely sent.

'Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions'; and what is set down in the Gospel of John, 'whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world,' has been said in a similar manner.

For the Holy One, who rests among the holy ones, the one Holy One, the one Lord Jesus Christ, was not anointed and sanctified at some other time, to the glory of God the Father.

Amen—except at that time when, without laying aside what he was, he became, without confusion, also what he was not;

'For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they too may be sanctified in truth.'

In keeping with this, what is said in the Psalm is also to be considered:

'You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your holy one to see corruption'; and what is written in many places, that God raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

For he himself did not receive the resurrection as a favor; rather, he himself has given us, as a favor, to rise again in the likeness of this resurrection of his.

Indeed, teaching also in this very chapter his equal honor and equal power with the Father, he said, according to Matthew and Luke:

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up'; and, 'I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again.'

And the answer given to the lawyer, who spoke to the Lord as though testing him, as to a mere man, 'Good Teacher,' and heard, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone'—that answer is of this kind:

The phrase 'no one is good' refers to the human race;

while the phrase 'except God alone' points to the consubstantiality of the divine hypostases.

'For if,' he says, 'you know me to be good, confess me to be God, equal and like the Father, existing, as in goodness, so also in essence, just as the Father does.'

For humanity possesses goodness by participation;

whereas divinity is the very summit of goodness, and is life, and light, and truth, and peace, and love.

'I have come as light into the world, that everyone who follows me may not remain in darkness.' And, persuading the lawyer that these things were so, he said:

'Sell all that you have, and come, follow me.' This he did not do, being overcome by his own disposition, which did not possess goodness innately.

His goodness, then, was attested in the first discourse.

But what greater proof could there be than that of one who shows his own natural goodness by deeds rather than by words, according to him who says:

'Jesus began both to do and to teach'? —to do, in that he emptied himself and took the form of a servant on behalf of his servants; healed every disease and every infirmity; drove out demons; made the sea passable for men; filled hungry crowds in the wilderness; washed the feet of servants; and, for the sake of the creature formed by his own hands, suffered at the hands of that creature; and bestowed a hundredfold good things on those who do good, and added eternal life besides;

and to teach: 'Sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come, follow me'; and, 'What you hate, do not do to another'; and, 'Do not repay evil for evil'; and, 'Whoever does it to one of these least ones has done it to me'; and, 'Give to everyone who asks of you'; and, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind';

'and your neighbor as yourself'; and, 'By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.' How, then, O heretic, is he not good, equal to his own Father, seeing that he shows forbearance even toward you who say such things?

Having resolved to combat heresy on every point, let us also consider the word of Paul to Timothy, which says:

But to the King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever.

Amen; and the text, 'who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light'; and the one found in the Gospel:

'that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent'; and the prophecy that declares:

'I alone stretched out the heaven.' They do not receive this as they ought;

asserting that the word 'alone' and the phrase 'true God' do not admit of a second or third hypostasis, but have their reference only to the Father,

and it is said that it subsists in a monad of divinity, and possesses monarchy.

Therefore, does this recurring term 'alone' refer to that one [the Father] alone, or to both together, or does it speak of the three undefiled hypostases at once, or independently of them?

Moreover, it was said in this way for the refutation of the so-called falsely-named gods, just as it always casts out the demonic multiplicity of rulers, when they hear:

'You are gods'; so that we may no longer be enslaved to wretched, multiform, mutable, and discordant elements, scattering our thoughts upon this fornication, according to him who says:

'The first fornication was the devising of idols.' Besides this, it should be noted that the word 'alone' or 'one' does not properly and once-for-all fit a creature, since being one is something common to all, or to many at once, because everything has many things consubstantial and of the same kind with it, as was said in the fourteenth chapter of the first discourse.

But the phrase 'who alone has immortality,' and 'to the invisible, only wise God,' was written because no creature has of itself and altogether immortality, invisibility, and wisdom, but rather has received these—the existence of immortality and invisibility—from the Son who created it, he alone existing thus together with the Father and the Spirit;

as Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians:

'What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?' And for this reason these terms do not properly belong to a created thing.

For that which does not possess immortality of its own accord is mortal in potency, and could even, should the one who made it so will, be extinguished, as he said in the Gospel:

'But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.' Since this is so, nothing will hinder us from working out each saying separately, for the sake of fuller understanding.

Now he wrote 'to the King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only wise God,' after first recounting in the Epistle many things pertaining to the world, and adding this at the conclusion of the whole account, as will be clear to anyone who attends to the sense of the Epistle.

But 'who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light' he wrote with reference to creation, as has been said.

For eternal life and incorruption are immortality;

and the words 'truth' and 'wisdom' are equivalent in force to the terms 'true' and 'wise';

and these belong absolutely to God alone;

yet it is testified that the Son and the Holy Spirit are these things as well.

And if, just as the Father creates, sanctifies, justifies, and deifies those toward whom he acts, the Only-Begotten and the Spirit of God likewise do the same in equal manner;

then properly the terms 'alone,' 'true,' 'wise,' and 'invisible God,' and 'who alone has immortality,' will apply to the Son and to the Spirit of God just as they apply to the Father;

just as the Scripture that speaks concerning the Only-Begotten will also fittingly apply to him:

'no other shall be reckoned equal to him.' For in every respect, if I may put it so, in which the Father differs from creation, the Son and the Spirit of God likewise differ from it.

For how, then, does the Father alone possess the things aforementioned, if what is written concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit is true, including the saying, 'Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself,' as the chapter following this one will also show? And the saying, 'that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,' includes the Son as well, and shows him equal to the Father, together with whom his Spirit also is understood.

The 'sending,' however, indicates the economy of salvation.

The saying, 'I alone stretched out the heaven,' is not spoken of the Father alone.

For otherwise, how could it be true that all things came into being through the Son? Let them also learn that a similar statement was made prophetically concerning the Son in the book of Job:

'Who alone stretched out the heaven, and walks upon the sea as upon dry ground.' For he, as is evident to all, always worked wonders, but not least of all in his becoming man, when he walked upon the water as though upon a plain.

The Son and the Holy Spirit are also attested with regard to the other things mentioned, in the following way:

Concerning the only true God: as when, concerning the Son, John, using this very word, proclaims that he is the true God, and declares him the only-begotten God;

Jude calls him 'the only Master';

'You are the God who works wonders; you alone are the great God.' And elsewhere:

'One is holy, one is Lord, Jesus Christ.' And concerning the Holy Spirit: as when Paul, full of understanding, testifies that the Spirit is to God and the Father as our own spirit is to us.

'All these things are the work of one and the same Spirit, apportioning to each one individually as he wills.' Concerning wisdom: as when, concerning the Son, the aforementioned most venerable Paul writes:

'Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God'; and, 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' And David sings:

'How great are your works, O Lord!'

'You have made them all in wisdom.' And as Isaiah prophesies:

'Yet he too is wise, and he brought evils upon them.' And concerning the Holy Spirit: as when Isaiah prophesies:

'The Spirit of God, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and piety.' Concerning incorruption and immortality it has already been said above, yet it is not out of place to adduce further examples;

as when, concerning the life-giving Only-Begotten, whose eye, hearing, justice, and loving-kindness are present everywhere, David sings:

'You are the same, and your years will not fail'; and, 'Forever, O Lord, your word abides in heaven.' And concerning the Holy Spirit, who nourishes all things, and illumines with divine rays, and is longsuffering even toward those who forsake the divine law, so that either we may turn back, or they may there undergo a punishment not to be found fault with:

'And your incorruptible Spirit is in all things.' To those who say, 'Are not souls and angels, then, immortal and invisible?' we must answer as follows:

First, with regard to immortality: in one respect, their immortality in no way shares in the primal and infinite immortality, being subordinate to and distinct from it, to the extent that a creature is distinct from its Creator.

And for this reason God is said to alone possess immortality, as is easy to understand, if we bear in mind that none of these is able either to create or to bestow immortality, as the only invisible and eternal Only-Begotten, and the Holy Spirit, create and render beings immortal.

In another respect, souls and angels are both immortal, in that their substance is indestructible and incorruptible, and mortal, in that they can at times be corrupted in their moral disposition.

For through a turning away they sometimes fall into sin, from which death follows;

and 'the widow who lives in self-indulgence is dead,' even though she has not yet departed this present life, as has already been explained in the treatise concerning the Holy Spirit.

For the mortal is divided over against the immortal, and correspondingly the immortal over against the mortal; and in the case of souls and angels, the immortal is understood to apply when, besides not admitting death—that is, not being dissolved, inasmuch as they are non-composite and indestructible in their existence—they also do not fall subject to corruption of moral disposition, that is, if they remain unchangeable;

while the mortal is understood in the manner opposite to this.

In general, such persons seem not to understand things that are spoken of by way of reciprocal opposition, nor that not everything said equivocally of certain things is naturally reciprocal.

For God is in every way immortal, but not everything immortal is thereby already God.

As for the invisible: souls and angels too are indeed invisible to the eye of our body, in that they are outside the visible properties—I mean color, shape, and size—but they are visible to the mind, which is the eye of the soul;

since they are not unattainable, being created in their existence, but we do have understanding concerning them.

So that, even if they are invisible to the impact of the sense-perception of the bodily eye, nevertheless they are visible according to the apprehension of scientific contemplation.

But God, being beyond the invisible and utterly imperceptible, and existing above all mind, is by nature such as not only not to fall under sight, or sense-perception generally, but also not to be beheld even by the mind of the angels themselves, on account of his incomprehensibility and unapproachability.

For that God exists is known to all;

rightly, then, was he addressed in the manner stated as the only immortal, wise, and invisible God.

And indeed also the blameless and irreproachable words of the Lord of all, found in John, which say:

'Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself;'

'and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.' And again:

'Those whom you gave me were yours, and you gave them to me.' And again:

'All things have been delivered to me by my Father.' And again:

'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.' And the saying of David:

'Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.' All such sayings as these indicate the ineffable economy of salvation.

And this makes the point all the more unassailable, and compels all who are not utterly soulless to agree with us as to what is immediately added, namely:

'because he is the Son of Man.' For being kindly disposed toward our race, and having willingly become poor in the flesh, as Paul writes, so that we, who are subject to all manner of harm and change on account of both the ancient sin and our recent sins, might become rich through his poverty;

and, presenting himself suitably to all, he used a manner of speech familiar and native to us, so that we might understand the economy of salvation, and not be overwhelmed by the majesty of divine expression.

For the miracles alone would have sufficed to manifest his beginningless and self-sufficient divinity.

as one exercising moderation, saying this too:

'The foxes of the field have dens, and the birds of heaven have nests;

but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.' For it was not fitting that the Master should possess anything as his own private property on earth,

and in another way too, it was necessary for God—for whom there is never any display or rivalry toward men—to utter words befitting man and modest in tone, words that in no way harmed his most serene and all-encompassing nature, yet benefited us,

for he always looks not to his own height, but to the lowliness of men.

And I will call as my witness the very one who says to Peter:

'But,' he says, 'lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea, cast a hook, and take the first fish that comes up;

and when you have opened its mouth, you will find a stater;

take that and give it to them for me and for you.' But it is not lawful for a man to utter words befitting God,

since it is most fitting even for a king to speak with moderation;

for from this he reaps greater glory, and is raised up to the very summit of honor;

but for a subject to utter royal speech is unbecoming.

So then, since he was the Most High, and the Word of God greater than every word, his lowly sayings had room to be spoken;

but if he had happened to be a creature, then again there would have been no room for the lofty things he spoke.

For how could life have received life, or how could the God who, according to Isaiah, is mighty and sovereign—he who by his own authority grants to those able to die the power to live and to be, he who entrusted to Peter the keys of heavenly life—have received authority? For the Apostle also cries out that 'he did not consider being equal to God a thing to be seized'; that is to say,

'He did not seize, he did not obtain, the being equal to God the Father.'

But if this saying was indeed spoken also with regard to the divinity of the Son, they ought to have understood it thus: that just as 'God's having life' does not signify that he acquired something other than himself, as though he had not possessed it from eternity, but rather signifies that he himself is that very thing which he is said to have,

in the same way, 'the Son having received life to have' does not signify that he did not possess it by nature.

For the expression 'just as he has' and 'thus he gave' sets forth precisely this point:

that the Son has life in the very manner that the Father has it without having received it;

and one must understand in a manner befitting God both 'to have life' and 'in himself' as said of the Father, and 'he has given to him' and 'to have in himself' as said of the Son;

and rather, from the very necessity of the matter, to discern the divine authority of the Son, and the one will belonging to both.

And it is a superessential essence, and not one thing existing within another—

'I am the life'—so that from this too it is made evident

that the essence of the Son is not other than the essence of the Father.

For if he himself is the life, and the Father possesses the very same life, what else is found but that he is consubstantial? And if he himself is the life, how could he have received what he already is? 'But if he already had it,' one says, 'how did he receive it?' Yet these are mere trifles—

for indeed a like one may receive from a like one, not to mention that at times even a greater one receives from a lesser, and the right hand from the left;

and we know that some who obtained an equal share in judging have at times yielded it to the one among them who was even greater;

they gave the matter to him alone to judge, even though he himself possessed—and by all likelihood possessed even more fully—the authority.

Therefore he did not say that he received what he did not have; rather, the same evangelist also says:

'He came to his own, and his own did not receive him;

but as many as received him, to them he gave authority to become children of God.' Through such sayings he showed not only that creation belongs properly to the Son, but also that the Son gives to the Father those who receive him—that is, those who believe—everywhere benefiting them both as they receive him and as they are presented by him to the Father himself;

for though they belong to the world, by his own dispensation he makes them citizens of heaven.

But how do we in turn offer back to God the things that are God's? Or how do we send up glory to him? Do we then give him something he does not have, or something he is not? It suffices to answer them that he 'received' in the very way that he willingly 'became poor' and 'became a curse';

for what would they say if asked by way of counter-objection:

'The God and Lord of all, the eternal life, the true light, and the immortality—how did he become poor? Or how did the blessing become a curse for our sake?' CHAPTER

In this way one might also understand what was said to the apostles in John:

'If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father;

for the Father who sent me is greater than I.' For how does he 'go,' or how was he 'sent,' with respect to his divinity—he who said:

'I am in the Father, and the Father is in me'; and, 'The Father who abides in me does his works'; and, 'He who sent me is with me'? He who is testified of, that he 'emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,' and that 'he was in the world, and the world came into being through him'? For one who sends, sends to a place where neither the sender nor the one sent is already present.

But if God is present everywhere, and holds all things together, having grasped creation firmly, neither departing nor returning again, nor ever exchanging one place for another,

for the sacred psalmist says:

'The Lord is near to those who fear him'; and again:

'If I ascend into heaven, you are there;

if I descend into Hades, you are present;

if I should take up my wings at dawn, and dwell at the farthest parts of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me, and your right hand will hold me.' And Jeremiah says:

'I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord.' And Acts says:

'and indeed he is not far from each one of us;

for in him we live, and move, and have our being;

as even some of our own poets have said, "For we too are his offspring";

and if the Master himself explains that he never stripped the heavens of his presence, just as now, after the ascension, he does not abandon the earth,

'For behold,' he says, 'I am with you all the days, until the consummation of the age'—confirming what the sacred herald sang in the tenth psalm, by which he proclaimed that he is both on earth and, in heaven, seated upon the divine throne:

'The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord—his throne is in heaven.' If this is so, then without contradiction he said 'I go' and 'the one who sent me' inasmuch as he had taken the form of a servant, and because of the Jews' unbelief toward the dispensation, and because he had appeared in concord with God the Father;

and along with them, also Mani, who does not accept the Old Testament,

but calls the Father inhumane, as one who cast Adam out of paradise, and calls only the Son benevolent to man, as one who came in person and saved him.

For how could we owe our gratitude to Christ alone, when the Father also sent him? Now Scripture is accustomed to use the expressions 'he who sent' and 'he was sent' with reference to the ineffable condescension,

and just as it was impossible for mortal speech to encompass the uncontainable God, so too Scripture makes its narration by means of an economy of words, lest anyone should entertain the suspicion of a rival divinity;

since indeed 'all things are full of God,' as has been said.

And the ever-living voice bears witness to this, saying:

'Father, I thank you, that you have heard me;

and I knew that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me'—that is to say:

'I knew that you always hear me,' since there is but one will;

'but because of the crowd standing around, that they might believe,' I said, 'Father, I thank you, that you sent me';

he uttered the words in reversed order, doing so cautiously, on account of hearers fond of fault-finding and prone to hostility—just as, in proclaiming the dispensation concerning the Forerunner also, he said:

'There was a man sent from God'—and yet he was not one sent from the heavens.

It is written that God is even sent by a man, and is even called a man, without in any way suffering harm to his true divine glory, just as Moses says in Genesis:

'And he crossed the torrent-stream, and brought across all that was his';

'And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until morning';

'And he saw that he could not prevail against Jacob in the wrestling, and he said to him:'

"I will not let you go, unless you bless me."

"What is your name?" And he said:

"Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, because you have striven with God, and shall prevail with men."

And Jacob asked, and said:

"Tell me your name."

"Why do you ask my name?" And he blessed him there.

And Jacob called the name of that place "The Face of God":

"For I saw God face to face, and my soul was preserved." Now that it was God who wrestled with him, though not telling his own name, the prophecy also confirms, saying:

"I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your fathers, being their God, yet I did not make known to them my name." But how, then, is he greater in respect of the Godhead than the one who made himself equal to the Father, who says:

"I and the Father are one" — and he is attested as true God, and Son, and Only-Begotten, "in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead," and as "the great God, beside whom no other shall be reckoned," and as one who sits together at the right hand? Yet it is admittedly agreed that "greater" also refers to the incarnation, on account of which he who by nature is wholly without share of change is written by the Apostle to have been made lower even than the angels — if it is lawful to say so — as follows:

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, because of the suffering of death." Indeed, not existing in the form of God in heaven but in the form of a servant on earth, when he came forth from the Virgin without alteration, he said:

"The Father who sent me is greater than I"; as if he were also saying this:

"The Godhead, invisible to you and to every mind, is greater than my visible condescension."

For he who condescended in deed, and ministered rather than being ministered to, and bore the form of a servant — he who exists in the form of God — how should he not also be about to condescend in words, he who is above all speech? And thus, in John, he even rebukes those who receive the words of the [divine] dispensation in a petty spirit, saying:

"I honor my Father, and you dishonor me." And the Father also honors the Son, saying:

"Sit at my right hand"; and indeed, in drawing to himself those who are worthy,

he shows them God as Father, thereby demonstrating that "greater" applies to the incarnation.

And by way of an example it is also easier to establish that "greater" is not said with reference to the Godhead. For the Lord says: