Theological and Ethical Discourses 1 part 2/27

But if, apart from these things mentioned — which always occur mystically in those who have grown up into a perfect man, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ — and before the practice of the things commanded by God, you should boldly attempt to speak, we shall turn away from you as one raving mad, out of his senses, and possessed by a demon, since neither was Elijah taken up bodily to heaven without that fiery chariot, nor was our Master and God taken up without the cloud of the Spirit that received him.

And yet God had power to translate Elijah himself from earth to heaven without the chariot that appeared, just as he did Enoch; and the Master himself was likewise able to ascend to the heavens without the cloud and the angels accompanying him, but he does not do this.

So that he might teach us that our mind, too, needs by all means someone to carry it up to heaven, to show it the sights that are there, and to unveil to it the mysteries of God.

For just as a bird cannot fly up to the heights without wings, so too the mind of man cannot ascend to those things from which it fell, unless it has one who leads and carries it up.

And for another reason also — that by these very deeds the Master might confirm both his servant's assumption and his own ascension into the heavens, and might teach us not to be deceived by words alone, nor to believe every man who says he is spiritual, but rather to be assured first by his life and his deeds — and especially if his words and his deeds are in harmony with the teachings of the Lord, the apostles, and the holy fathers — and only then to accept and hear his words as the words of Christ.

But if not, then even if he raises the dead, or displays countless other wonders, we ought to turn away from him and hate him as a demon — especially when we see that, though admonished, he refuses to change his own opinion, but still persists in his deluded knowledge and imagines that his citizenship and way of life are in the heavens.

For thus, having been initiated from of old by the apostles of Christ and our divinely inspired fathers into the God-breathed teaching, we turn away from the vain and empty talk of those who have leisure for nothing else than to pry curiously and meddle busily into things unattainable even to angels.

But we hold fast our confession of faith, unharmed and unshaken, which we received of old from them: the confession of the one Godhead in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, an unconfused and undivided Trinity, in which we have been baptized, through which we live and know and understand, under which we exist and shall exist unto ages of ages, since it is from her that we have received our being and our well-being — she who by wisdom brought forth the universe out of things that were not — with whom may we also pass from this present life to the calm harbors of undefiled life, where is the dwelling and place of all who rejoice, of those who keep festival in the Spirit, to whom belongs all glory, honor, and worship, now and always and unto the ages of ages.

He who has received from above the grace to carry the praise of God continually in his mouth, opening his mouth and drawing in the breath of life, strives to do this hour by hour more expansively, for a more abundant reception of the word of life, which is the bread that comes down from heaven, concerning which it has been said:

...having the concept of God imprinted once for all, and as it were sealed upon the governing faculty of the soul, present continually and inherent in the soul; and he is able, in accordance with the apostolic precept, always to rejoice, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in everything, to do all things to the glory of God, whether he eats or drinks, being continually nourished and strengthened by the bread of life.

When such a man sleeps, his heart keeps watch; and when he is awake, he is never separated from God in any way whatsoever.

And declaring this, the Apostle says:

'He who is joined to a woman is one body, and he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.'

'For God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.'

Therefore he too who has thus been joined spiritually to God, so as to become one spirit with him, cannot sin.

'For this the Son of God was manifested, that he might take away our sins; and in him is no sin.'

'Whoever abides in him does not sin; whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him.'

'Whoever has been born of God does not commit sin, for his seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.'

If, then, everyone who sins has neither seen God nor known him, while he who has been born of God, being reckoned his child, does not commit sin, I am moved to wonder at the many men who, before being born of God and being reckoned his children, do not shudder to theologize and speak concerning God.

For this reason, whenever I hear some of these men philosophizing about divine and unattainable matters, theologizing impurely, and expounding the things concerning God and pertaining to him without the Spirit that grants understanding, my spirit shudders and I become, as it were, beside myself, reflecting and considering the incomprehensibility of the Godhead to all, and how, being ignorant even of the things at our feet and of ourselves, we are eager to philosophize about things unattainable to us, with neither fear of God nor restraint, and this while being empty of the Spirit who illumines and unfolds these things — sinning in this very act of speaking anything about God.

For if the mere knowledge of oneself alone is difficult, and pursued philosophically by very few — indeed by scarcely any in this present time and generation, when even the love of philosophy has been quenched by the violent onrush and contrary current of the negligence that has taken hold of us, and by the affairs of life, exchanging things eternal for things worthless and no longer existing, or not existing at all, things ever changing shape and having no fixed limit of stability — how much more difficult is it to know God, and moreover altogether irrational and unintelligible to search out the nature and essence of God!

But why, O men, do you abandon setting your own affairs in good order, and instead search out the things concerning God and divine matters?

We must first pass from death to life, and then thus receive within ourselves the seed from above of the living God, and be born of him, so as to be reckoned his children, and draw the Spirit into our inmost parts, and thus, being illumined, speak concerning God to the extent that we are indeed illumined by God.

For the present situation, believe me — you who thus long to theologize — believe in one God: him who did not come into being from any other (for there was nothing older than he, nor did he come into being), nor did he make himself, as some of the exceedingly foolish have supposed (for it is impossible for that which is not to come into being spontaneously) — him who always is, and pre-exists, and shall eternally be, one God in three hypostases.

For no one, rightly upholding the truth, would call that which subsists in hypostasis and is tri-hypostatic 'without hypostasis'; rather, being taught, from what pertains to himself, the things that are above himself, he worships the one Godhead in three consubstantial persons.

And this soul is threefold, having mind and word as its concomitant elements.

And thus, from what pertains to himself, he perceives with a most wise and most radiant mind the things concerning God.

For he is moved to understand by the Spirit who moves him from above: that God the Father, who brought the universe into being out of nothing by his own Word, and who by the power of his Spirit sustains and holds it together, begets the Son, consubstantial, timelessly and eternally, in no way separated from him — with whom also the divine Spirit proceeds together, being consubstantial with the Son, from the consubstantial Father.

Thus, thinking rightly about God and at the same time confessing it, he demonstrates that he is according to the image of his Creator, bearing about a soul that is rational, intellective, and immortal, created together with mind and word, which are consubstantial and having their own hypostasis.

But if not, he thereby accuses himself of being altogether mindless and irrational.

For from what other source, and by what characteristics, could he possibly be according to the image of his Creator, if he falls short of the divine properties?

But if someone attributes these things to himself, and rightly claims them, yet, as far as it depends on him, irrationally deprives his own Maker and God of the things just mentioned, such a person differs, to my mind, in no way from the pagans.

For I hesitate to say that he differs in no way from beasts, or reptiles, and wild animals.

I, for my part, believe that, just as the soul does not pre-exist the mind, nor the mind the word begotten from it, but they receive their being from God simultaneously, and the mind begets the word and through it brings forth the will of the soul — so too neither did God the Father pre-exist the Son or the Spirit; but just as the mind exists within the soul and holds the word within itself, in like manner God the Father exists wholly within the Holy Spirit, and holds the begotten God the Word wholly within himself.

And just as it is impossible for there to be word or mind apart from soul, so it is impossible for the Son to be spoken of together with the Father without the Holy Spirit.

For how could the living God ever exist apart from life?

Therefore confess with me the Father, not pre-existing, as begetting; the Son, not begotten or brought into being afterward; the Holy Spirit, indeed proceeding, but co-eternal and consubstantial with him, together with the Son, and with the Father.

Worship the whole Holy Spirit wholly and solely in the co-unoriginate Father, and the whole Father wholly and solely in the co-eternal Son, and the whole Son wholly and solely in the Father and the Spirit — the one tri-hypostatic, co-eternal, and consubstantial, undivided and unconfused essence and nature, as the one origin of all things and the one God, creator of the universe — since also, in the whole mind that exists within you (that, being initiated from what pertains to you into what is above you, you may not forget the image of which you have been deemed worthy by him), the whole word is present, and the spirit is in these two, as the soul, undividedly and unconfusedly.

For this is the image, and this is what we have been enriched with from above: to be made like unto God the Father, and to bear the image of him who begot and created us.

For it is on this account that, when we honor a man, we render to him a single honor, as to one possessing mind, being ensouled, and rational, not dividing or preferring one of these three over the others, but as to one who possesses the three undividedly and unconfusedly within himself.

And not as though he were three, but as one man, we bow before him and honor him because of the common image of the Creator in him.

Thus, then, from the divine properties which you bear, understanding also the things concerning God who bestowed these upon you, worship as one God, piously, the holy, consubstantial, and co-unoriginate Trinity, and behold with what good gifts God has honored you, having created you according to his image and having glorified you together with his own properties.

We confess the Father, together with the Son and the Spirit, the Holy Trinity, to be of equal honor, consubstantial, and of equal power, as one origin, authority, and lordship.

Know that the mind within you, together with the word and the soul, is of equal honor and equal dignity and consubstantial, being of one essence and nature.

For this is the honor and the being that comes from God: that we, who have been begotten and made by him, should know and revere God as our Father and Creator.

If a man lacks one of these three, he cannot be a man.

For if you contract the mind, you contract with it the word as well, and it will be mindless and irrational;

and if [you contract] the soul, you destroy along with it the mind and the word;

and if only the inward word, you have rendered the whole living being inoperative.

For a mind that does not put forth a word will not receive the word of another either;

for how could it, once it has been made deaf, once and for all, and displaced from its own nature?

For just as we naturally have breathing and the breath within ourselves, and if not, we fail together at once, so too the mind naturally has the rational faculty within itself, and indeed also the begetting of the word;

If, then, it is deprived of naturally begetting, being as it were cut off and cloven in two from the word that coexists with it, it dies and becomes useful for nothing.

And that I may make what I say clearer from things that happen bodily, I shall take as an image of the argument the woman in labor giving birth.

Just as, then, a woman who has conceived a child, if she does not give birth naturally at the fitting time, perishes together with the very infant, so too our mind, having received from God the power always to beget the word naturally, which it holds within itself undivided and united in being — if you destroy this word, you destroy together with it also its begetter.

Pass over, then, if you please, in your thought to the archetypes, and learn precisely that he who denies the Son of God denies also his begetter.

And he who denies the Father and the Son — how does he not, even without wishing it, show himself to be a denier of the Holy Spirit as well?

He, then, who calls one of these — one of the other persons — either greater or lesser, has not yet raised the head of his mind up from the depth of the passions, so as to be able to see with the eyes of the intellect and to know himself well, and from there to learn that, just as the mind is not greater than the soul, nor the soul than the mind, nor the word greater or lesser than both, so neither is the Father greater or lesser than the Son, nor the Son than the Father, nor the Holy Spirit greater or lesser than these, who are co-eternal and equal in honor;

for altogether it is not right to conceive of such things in the holy and equally-honored Trinity.

Consider, O man, the things above you from the things pertaining to you, and from that whereby you were shown to be an image of God;

having been honored above all other creatures with the dignity of the word, through which you both rule and reign over them, know that just as the human mind is known through the word — for it is good always and continually to be occupied with the word in these same matters, so that your senses may be sharpened and you may know well the mysteries of the kingdom hidden within you — and the soul is made known through these two, so too God the Father, through his only-begotten Son and Word, and the Holy Spirit, through the Father and the Son who are co-eternal with him, has been made known to us the faithful, and is still made known.

And just as, when the mind begets the word, the will of the soul, being common to both, becomes known to hearers either through living voice or through letters — these not being confused, that is, nor divided into three, but each of the three being at once understood or seen in one essence and in one will — so likewise conceive, and piously confess, concerning the holy, consubstantial, and undivided Trinity: that the Father ineffably begets God the Word, whom he had in himself from the beginning and has begotten inseparably and beyond speech; that the Son is begotten, ever existing inseparably and co-eternally with the begetting Father and in no way separated from him; and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, being connatural and united with the consubstantial Father and Son, as being co-worshiped and co-glorified with them by every breath.

Know that these have one and the same will, since it is thus made known and revealed to all who are illumined from above, and to us the lowly, in the Holy Spirit, by the good pleasure of the Father, through the Son.

...that I may become conformed to these same, being sanctified by remembrance and word — believe him to be three in hypostasis, and believing, confess with me clearly and without flinching, that the three hypostases are neither confused into one, nor are those things naturally united divided into three;

for in each one of these both the others are perceived together, seen in one essence and nature and glory and one will.

For he who believes that God is the maker of all things, and that he brought all things into being out of nonbeing — those in heaven, those on earth, and those beneath the earth — being himself created by God, remains within his own bounds, knowing the one who made him;

and being led up to the very Author of generation from the beauty of the creatures, he hymns and glorifies him as creator of all things, and in no way pries curiously into his incomprehensible nature.

For he knows himself to be a creature of him, and likewise all other things, as has been said, but him, the maker of the universe, he knows to be uncreated, without beginning, incomprehensible, inexplicable, untraceable, ever-existing and pre-existing.

For there was never a time when God was not; for he himself made the ages, and before every beginning he himself was — so that neither is a beginning to be conceived concerning him, nor is an end to be found — but he was without beginning, and is the beginning of all things, and will be, everlastingly, unto infinite and unending ages: the inaccessible, the invisible, the indescribable, the ineffable, the incomprehensible to all who came into being by him — who was also unknown to us when we formerly wandered after many gods and served the creation and worshiped idols, things earthly and lowly still — who, having had mercy on our ignorance, condescended so far to our weakness as was needed, that we might know that God is a perfect Trinity, who must piously be worshiped in Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

But what he is in essence, or of what kind in form, or where, or how great in magnitude, or how in coexistence or union, it has never been possible for men to conceive; nor has the incomprehensibility of the supra-essential nature ever become comprehensible even to the powers above.

And do not attempt to recite to me the theological statements from divine Scripture;

for those statements were spoken by the theologians against the blasphemous objections of the heretics.

But consider this: that the divine nature, being inaccessible, is manifestly also incomprehensible, and that which is incomprehensible is in every way also ineffable;

for often we are wholly unable to express even that which we understand well enough to say.

Who, then, of men or angels, will be able to interpret him who is invisible and incomprehensible — as the whole of the God-inspired Scripture also testifies?

for that which belongs to no class of existing things can never be conceived by human understanding, nor be signified by a name.

All divine Scripture establishes, through all the concepts and words spoken concerning God, that he is, but not what kind of being he is, testifying of him only that he is ever-existing and 'He who is' — God who ever is, three in hypostasis, almighty, all-ruling, all-seeing, creator and maker of all things, in need of nothing, supra-natural, known by us only to the extent that someone standing at night on the shore of the sea, holding a shining lamp, beholds the boundless expanse of the waters of the sea.

For of the whole of those boundless seas, how much do you think such a person sees?

Nevertheless, he sees precisely and unerringly what the water is like, even though he cannot manage to say what sort it is in its fullness.

And he knows indeed that what is seen is the sea, and that it is a vast, immeasurable expanse, and that for it to be seen wholly by him is among the things impossible;

yet the whole, even though he does not see it, he nevertheless seems in some way to perceive from the part, and to infer the infinity of the waters.

If it please, let us also make use of a dim example for the purpose of this discourse.

If, then, some man blind in his eyes were found who had never seen a spring of water, or did not know what this very water is like, being wholly without experience or taste of it —

and he asked to learn its nature, its form, its quality, its very quantity, and how it moves, and from where it has its source, and how it continually pours forth and does not fail —

what would you have answered to him who was inquiring these things of you?

I, for my part, think that even if you were extremely keen and most contemplative in mind, you would in no way have been able to set forth in words its origin, essence, and motion, nor would you have been able even in the slightest to teach one who has utterly no experience of participation in or observation of such a thing what it is like in quantity and quality.

But if, concerning a substance that flows and is seen and can be held, we are so unable to say or explain anything in words to those who ask us what its nature is, and from where or from what kinds of elements it has its composition, how then will any of the angels or of all the saints ever at all be able to teach those who are ignorant of the things concerning God what he who gave being to the universe is like, and what the things of his essence and glory are?

But he who has been deemed worthy to see God even in some measure, in the inaccessible glory of his infinite and divine light, in the manner we have already described, will have no need of another's teaching;

for he has him wholly abiding within himself, moving, speaking, and initiating him into his own hidden mysteries, according to the most holy saying spoken by him:

'My mystery,' he says, 'is for me and for mine.'

But it is impossible to behold him in any other way except through the exact keeping of his commandments — that keeping not at all being corrupted by neglect and contempt of their observance in anything whatsoever, but being preserved and carried out diligently and zealously.

Therefore, all who walk in accordance with this rule will not be found far from the kingdom of heaven, but, in proportion to their zeal and to their eager and joyful labor, sooner or later, more or less, they will receive the reward of the vision of God, and will become partakers of the divine nature, and will be styled gods by adoption and sons of God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the dominion, together with the Father and the all-holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

THIRD THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE — And that whatever the Father is, this also is the Son, and whatever the Son is, this also is the Holy Spirit, and that these are one spirit, equal in honor, consubstantial, and co-enthroned.

God is ever hymned and glorified by us: the Father without beginning, the Son co-unoriginate with the Father, the all-holy Spirit co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father and the Son — these being one nature and glory and connaturality, the consubstantial Trinity, the one Godhead, the equally-honored essence, three in hypostasis, the origin of all things and the hypostatic and creative power, the co-enthroned, the co-glorious, the one authority and almighty lordship and kingdom — is, and is called, one God, who, being at times contemplated and believed by us as a Monad and worshiped as such, and at times confessed as a Triad, is hymned triadically in distinct hypostases, even as we have been initiated into these mysteries by the very one of the three-hypostatic Godhead, our Lord Jesus Christ, who bade us baptize into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and again spoke thus:

'My Father is greater than I,' thereby showing himself to be other than the Father, and 'I do nothing of myself' — and again:

'[the Spirit] of truth, who proceeds from the Father,' again naming the Spirit 'another Comforter.'

From this, then, grace grants us to understand the oneness in all respects of the three-hypostatic and consubstantial Godhead and kingdom, and the sameness and likewise-being of its hypostases in eternal glory and inseparable unity, so as to know that the Father is wholly there together with the Spirit wherever the whole Son and God is named, and that the Son is wholly there through the Spirit wherever the whole God and Father is hymned, and that the Holy Spirit is wholly there wherever the whole Father is confessed together with, and glorified together with, the Son.

Having thus been initiated by the Spirit that the persons are consubstantial and equally-honored in this way — that is, that their hypostases are unconfused, and at the same time undivided, within the one and divine hypostatic nature and cause of all things — whenever we are led up to the Father and God, with the Spirit co-uplifting us through the Word, and we stretch out our hands and our eyes to him, we say, 'Our Father, who art in the heavens.'

But whenever we approach the only-begotten Son of the Father, in the Spirit who grants understanding, to offer our prayers, we say: 'O only-begotten Son, co-eternal Word of God and the Father, the only one from the only one, God from God, without beginning from him who is without beginning, eternal from the eternal, everlasting from the everlasting, light from light, life from life, inaccessible from the inaccessible, incomprehensible from the incomprehensible, ineffable from the ineffable, unchangeable from the unchangeable, incomprehensible from the incomprehensible — be merciful to our sins.'

And likewise, invoking the Holy Spirit as well, we say:

O Holy Spirit, who proceeds ineffably from the Father and comes upon us the faithful through the Son; Spirit of life and understanding, Spirit of holiness and perfection; Spirit good, wise, loving to mankind, sweet, glorious; who nourishes and gives drink at once, who has mercy, who enlightens, who empowers; divine Spirit of patience, Spirit imparting joy, gladness, self-control, wisdom, knowledge, meekness, freedom from remembering wrongs, freedom from care for things below, contemplation of things above; driver-away of listlessness, expeller of negligence, banisher of curiosity and wickedness; Spirit revealing mysteries, pledge of the kingdom of heaven, fountain of prophecy, cup of teaching, destroyer of sin, door of repentance, showing the entrance to those who contend, as it were a doorkeeper; Spirit of love, peace, faith, self-restraint; Spirit of longing, and producer of longing — come, and take up abode, and remain in us inseparably and indivisibly, sanctifying and transforming and enlightening our hearts, as consubstantial and equal in honor with the Son and the Father, and making those who receive you into gods, and effacing all sin while bringing in every virtue at your entrance — not bringing these in from outside, but being yourself, in your very self, whatever thing is good.

for in those in whom you dwell, they have essentially within themselves every good thing.

Therefore, we do not, as though dividing the indivisible wholeness of the unity, offer our hymn to three gods and not to one, but as worshiping, in the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and in the Son, the Spirit and the Father, and in the Spirit, the Father and the Son;

being, in supra-essential unity, threefold;

one must call the same God three in persons and one in the unity of essence, or, as one may say, nature.

For thus also the only-begotten Son of the Father himself made clear to all of us his own being, in every respect equal in honor, consubstantial, and co-enthroned together with the consubstantial Father and Spirit, saying thus:

And again elsewhere, concerning the Spirit, declaring that he is unvaryingly of that same essence, he says thus:

'The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.'

For just as a river, that is, water, issues forth from a spring, that is, a source of water, so from God the Father, God the Spirit proceeds; wherefore he also says:

'God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.'

If, then, the Father is spirit, then clearly the Son, begotten of him, is spirit as well;

and declaring this, Paul used to say:

'Now the Lord is the Spirit.'

The Holy Spirit is spirit, because he proceeds from the Father and is given, through the Son, to us the unworthy — not as being sent or distributed against his own will, but as, through one of the Trinity, namely the Son himself, fulfilling as his own will what is pleasing to the Father.