but that you, because of your ignorance of the divine letters, in which you are less instructed, did not find what to answer them in defense of the true faith. This therefore I first praise in you in the name of the Lord, that although you had not so great a facility of answering, nevertheless there remained in your heart a firm belief of the truth. For not all who are partakers of Christ are able also by answering to defend what they believe; but even that is part of a right victory, that so long as one cannot defend the truth by speech, he yet by a faithful heart avoids error.
It is expedient, moreover, that we follow the most salutary words of the Apostle Peter, who enjoins that we be always prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks of us a reason for the faith and hope that is in us (1 Pet. 3:15). Wishing therefore to be found readier for answering, you ask that, instructed by our discourse, you may know how, armed with the divine oracles, you may be able to withstand the heretics who wish to assail our faith. 3. Accordingly, I admonish you to hold this chiefly: that the holy Trinity, that is, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is by nature one true God, supreme, true and good, of one nature, of one essence, of one omnipotence, of one goodness, of one eternity, of one immensity;
and thus, when you hear one God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, understand the one nature of that supreme Trinity; and when you hear the Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, acknowledge three persons of that one supreme divinity. For there are three persons, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; therefore it is called the Trinity: but there is one substance of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; therefore that same Trinity is truly proclaimed by the faithful to be one God. CHAPTER 3. Three persons, not three natures. Equality in the Trinity. Testimonies of Scripture that the Trinity is one God. Testimonies for the three persons are wrongly assigned by the heretics to the Father alone. The Son also is called Lord God.
Who ought to be called a Christian. The Son also is to be adored. — 4. That the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons, the oracles of Truth Himself show. Whence our Savior says: 'I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me' (John 8:16). Concerning the Holy Spirit also He says: 'I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth' (John 14:16-17). He also commanded the nations to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). By these and suchlike testimonies it is shown that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons, but are not three natures.
Whence that holy Trinity is worthily believed in respect of persons; but that three gods be spoken of—the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit—the natural unity does not permit. And because in the one nature of the Trinity there can be no diversity, therefore in the three persons an unconfused propriety remains, and in the unity of nature a substantial equality reigns unchangeably. Therefore of the Son it is said: 'Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God' (Phil. 2:6). And: 'Because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal to God' (John 5:18). To this equality of nature and of power there pertains also that which the Son Himself says:
'For whatsoever the Father does, these same things the Son likewise does. And as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will' (ibid. 19, 21). In that nature of the Trinity, therefore, the whole is so one that nothing there can be either separated or divided; the whole is so equal that nothing there can be found greater or less. This one God the truthful authority of the New and Old Testament demonstrates to us; for of this one God the blessed Moses says: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God'; and: 'You shall adore the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve' (Deut. 6:4). And the Lord Himself says of Himself: 'See that I am God, and there is no other besides me' (Deut.
32:39). Of this the blessed David also says: 'For who is God but the Lord, or who is God but our God?' (Ps. 17:32). The holy Apostle James also, proclaiming this one God, says: 'You believe that there is one God; you do well; the demons also believe, and tremble' (James 2:19). 5. Nevertheless, we are not ignorant that these testimonies, and any similar ones that may be found in the divine oracles, by which one and only God is asserted, are assigned by the heretics not to the holy Trinity itself, but to one person only, that is, to God the Father alone. Therefore, of those testimonies which we have set forth—that is, of that in which it is said: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God;'
and the other, in which it is read: 'You shall adore the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve'—let us, insofar as the Lord God Himself grants, seek their understanding. We recall that we set down first that testimony in which it is said: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God.' This, therefore, we confess to be so most firm for both, that from this testimony let no one think that we must in any way depart. 6. Accordingly, since the rule of this precept in no way permits two gods to be worshiped by the faithful: either let them believe the Father and the Son to be by nature one God, if they wish, without transgression of this commandment, so to worship one God as neither to worship the Father without the Son, nor the Son without the Father;
or—since a greater God and a lesser God cannot be one God—it is necessary either that they call the Father alone their Lord God, and in every way deny the Son to be their Lord God; or that they assert the Son alone to be Lord God, and withdraw from the worship of God the Father. But they cannot deny God the Father to be their Lord God, whom they so far affirm to be the Lord God of all things, that they even strive by right, as it were, to subject the divinity of the Son, as of a lesser, to Him under the yoke: yet the Son, if they should be willing to deny Him to be their Lord God, are at once refuted by the testimony of the paternal voice itself; for through the mouth of the prophet, in the person of God the Father, it is said: 'And I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them
in the Lord their God' (Hos. 1:7). That this same One is our Lord God, the authority of Evangelical truth also commends, where the confession of the blessed Apostle Thomas utterly contradicts heretical depravity, crying out and saying: 'My Lord and my God!' (John 20:28). 7. Therefore, when they without doubt both confess the Father to be Lord, and are compelled by prophetic and evangelical truth to confess the Son to be Lord God, either let them, the propriety of the persons preserved, call the Father and the Son by nature one Lord God; or, confessing the Father alone to be their Lord God, let them consequently say that the Son is neither their Lord nor God. And when they have said this, they will never dare to assert themselves Christians:
since indeed a Christian has received his name from Christ; and no one can in any way be a Christian who has not confessed Christ Himself to be his Lord God. 8. Let them therefore confess the Father and the Son to be not two lord gods, but their one Lord God, if they wish to hold the truth of the faith, and are unwilling to be found rebels against the commandments both legal and evangelical. For thus they will be able to preserve alike the understanding and the duty of that testimony in which it was said: 'You shall adore the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.' For it is lawful for no one so to adore God the Father as not to adore God the Son, since indeed of the Son Himself it is written in Deuteronomy:
'Rejoice, O heavens, together with Him, and let all the angels of God adore Him.' Of Him the blessed David also says in the Psalms: 'All the kings of the earth shall adore Him; all nations shall serve Him' (Ps. 71:11). CHAPTER 4. A creature is by no means to be adored. Idolaters change the truth of God into a lie. — 9. But if the Son according to His divinity were not one God with the Father, He would certainly not have been of one nature with Him; and if He were of another nature, He would without doubt be a creature. But if He were a creature, the authority of the holy Scriptures would not command that He be served, but would rather forbid it.
For in the first commandment of the Decalogue, just as the worship and service of the one Lord God is most manifestly enjoined, so the adoration and service of every creature is most vehemently forbidden to be rendered by the faithful. For there it is said: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: you shall have no gods besides me' (Exod. 20:1, 5). If this is taken to have been said at once by the Father and the Son, let the Father and the Son be believed one Lord God: but if this is believed to have been said either by the Father without the Son, or by the Son without the Father, it is necessary that either the Father be denied to be Lord God, or the Son. For of Him who said: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage:
you shall have no gods besides me,' of Him holy Moses says: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God' (Deut. 6:4). And because that same God, commanding that He alone be served, and enjoining that He be adored by the faithful, utterly forbade that anyone should dare to adore a creature and to serve a creature; therefore, at the end of that first precept, concerning all the things which He created He thus speaks: 'You shall not adore them, nor serve them: for I am the Lord your God' (Exod. 20:5). 10.
Knowing this indeed, the blessed Apostle pronounces the wrath of God to be revealed against all impiety and injustice of those who have changed the truth of God into a lie, and have worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Rom. 1:18, 25). To hold the truth of God is to worship the one God; to convert the truth of God into a lie is to serve the creature. For true religion consists in the service of the one true God. For that same Truth is the one God; and just as, apart from the one Truth, there is no other truth, so, apart from the one true God, there is no other true God: for that same one Truth is by nature the one true divinity.
And thus two true gods cannot truly be spoken of, just as that same one Truth cannot by nature be divided. CHAPTER 5. Scripture proclaims both the Father and the Son to be true God. Holy men are sons of God, but not in the way that Christ is. Who changes the truth of God into a lie. What is to be concluded from the foregoing arguments. — 11. But holy Scripture, which truly and salutarily commends to us one Lord God, just as it insinuates the Father to be true God to all the faithful, so also insinuates the Son to be true God. For concerning the Father the blessed Apostle Paul says, writing to the Thessalonians: 'You are turned to the Lord from idols, to serve the living and true God;
and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who has delivered us from the wrath to come' (1 Thess. 1:9-10). This Jesus Christ is not the Son of God the Father in the way that we are: for He is proper, we are redeemed; He is by nature, we are made; He is true, we are adoptive. But He who is the true Son, He also is true God, not generated by adoption, but naturally born of the Father. And in Him, being true God and true Son, there is therefore true divinity, because natural to Him is His nativity from the Father. Wherefore the blessed John professes Him in his Epistle to be the true Son of the Father, true God, and life eternal, saying:
'We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, that we may know the true One, and may be in His true Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and life eternal' (1 John 5:20). To worship the true God, therefore, and to serve the true God, is certainly not to change the truth of God into a lie. But that man changes the truth of God into a lie who thinks that service is to be rendered to a God who is not true; and that man worships a God who is not true, and serves a God who is not true, who has served a creature and worshiped a creature: because where God who is not true is worshiped, and a God who is not true is served, there the truth of God is changed into a lie. 12. Since, therefore, we recognize by the attestation of the heavenly oracles both God the Father to be true God, and God the Son to be true God;
either let them, with the catholics, assert the Father and the Son to be by nature one true God; or let them say, against the truth of the holy faith, that two true gods are worshiped by them; or let them not fear to profess themselves worshipers of a creature, so that by the very manifestation of the matter they may recognize that they have changed the truth of God into a lie. For the one truth of the one true God—nay rather, the one truth, the one true God—does not permit the service and worship of the true God to be joined to a creature. True religion also, apart from the one true God, allows the homage of worship and service to be rendered by the faithful to no god. CHAPTER 6. No creature is truth, but is true. In what the Son is equal to the Father. In what He is less. The twofold nativity of Christ, eternal and temporal.
— But every nature which is less than the nature of God the Father is without doubt a created nature. And what is a created nature but a creature? Furthermore, every creature, since it is the work of Truth, is indeed a true creature, yet is not truth. For that alone is by nature truth which is by nature true divinity. Those, therefore, do not change the truth of God into a lie, but hold the salutary mystery of the true faith, who believe in their heart unto righteousness, and confess with their mouth unto salvation (Rom. 10:10), not the Father alone, nor the Son alone, but the Father and the Son together, one Lord their God.
For not only is the Father God, but also the Son is by nature true God, God who is truth, remaining with the Father by nature one true One, one true God, and one truth: because that one truth, which alone is the true divinity, altogether forbids two gods to be believed or spoken of. 13. Accordingly, God the Son according to the divine nature is not less than the Father, but is equal to the Father, because the Son is so called true God that the Father is not called a truer God; for in the true God the very recognition of truth allows nothing to be reckoned as less. There remains therefore in the Father and the Son by nature one true equality of divinity, and one unchangeable and everlasting majesty.
But we so truly call the Son equal to the Father that we also truly do not deny Him to be less. For we know God the Son to be born of the nature of God the Father, and also given of the nature of the Virgin Mother, and thereby true God of the truth of the paternal nature, true man of the truth of the maternal substance: whom the eternity of divinity shows to be born without beginning, and the temporal assumption of flesh teaches without doubt to be made less. The Son is equal to the Father, and the Son is less than the Father: equal by true divinity, less by true humanity. Equal, because 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John 1:1); but less, because 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us' (ibid. 14).
Equal, because 'being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God' (Phil. 2:6); but less, because 'He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant' (ibid. 7). The Son is equal to the Father, because from the Lord was born the Lord; but the Son is less than the Father, because from a handmaid He was made a servant. Hence it is that He says: 'From my mother's womb You are my God' (Ps. 21:11). And again: 'O Lord, I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaid' (Ps. 115:6). The Son is equal to the Father, because 'All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing' (John 1:3); but the Son is less than the Father, because 'He was made of a woman, made under the law' (Gal. 4:4).
And therefore, just as the Son of God is truly acknowledged coeternal with God the Father, so He is truly found later than His mother. 14. For the eternity of the Father in no way preceded the first nativity of the Son, whose second nativity, however, the temporal nativity of the mother did precede. For in that nature of God the Father, which did not begin to be, the Son is ineffably born coeternal of the eternal Father; in the nature of the Virgin, which began to be in time, the same Son is mercifully generated in time of a temporal mother. In that nature, therefore, the Son of God is equal to the Father, in which before all things He is coeternal with the Father; and in that nature the Son is less than the Father, in which He is also later than His mother.
In that nature the Son is equal to the Father, in which He is the Creator of angels; in that nature the same Son is less than the Father, in which He is the Redeemer of men. In that nature the Son is equal to the Father, in which He is adored and praised by the angels from the beginning of creation. In that nature the Son is less than the Father, in which He was made a little lower than the angels. CHAPTER 7. The lessening in Christ pertains to the human nature. — 15. For the apostolic authority did not cease to demonstrate the mystery of this lessening, saying: 'But Him who was made a little lower than the angels, we see, Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death' (Heb. 2:9).
But of what nature this lessening is to be assigned was above evidently shown, when that testimony of the prophet was brought forward, in which it is said: 'Lord, what is man, that You are mindful of him; or the son of man, that You visit him? You have made him a little lower than the angels' (Ps. 8:5). Therefore the Son of God, before the assumption of flesh, when He was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God (Phil. 2:6), because in that form of God the Son is equal to the Father; but if He were less, He would not be in that same form of God: yet that the Son is in the form of God the apostolic authority attests. Therefore, to be equal to God was for Him not robbery, but nature;
because in the form of the true God He could not but be true God, and the unity of the divine form is itself the natural equality of the one deity. Where, therefore, there was unity of form in nature, equality was not robbery. But the natural equality of divinity, which was in the form of God, could not be taken away from the true God. 16. Hence it is that, retaining the truth of divinity and receiving the truth of flesh, the one and same Son of God and of man both was made less than the Father, and remained equal to the Father. Therefore Truth Himself truly said both: 'The Father is greater than I' (John 14:28); and: 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30). Truly, therefore, Christ is less than God the Father, because He is by nature of the fathers according to the flesh;
and the same Christ is truly equal to God the Father, because He is by nature over all things God blessed forever. For of that one Christ, the Son of God, the blessed Apostle says: 'Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all things God blessed forever.' Accordingly, the true faith, which in the one and same Christ believes and confesses the truth of both substances, proclaims the one and same Christ, the Son of God, both to be made less according to the truth of the flesh, and believes and confesses Him to be equal to God the Father according to the truth of divinity.
And thus the true faith truly adores the Son as one God with the Father—a faith which so knows that the one God is to be served by all creatures, that it knows the homage of divine service is not owed to any creature. CHAPTER 8. The Holy Spirit is not a creature, but Creator. The Holy Spirit is true God. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, just as of the Father and of the Son. The Holy Spirit is equal to God the Father and the Son. — 17. Hence it is that the true faith asserts the Holy Spirit also to be Creator, not creature. For how could He be denied to be Creator, by whom the strength of the heavens is shown to be established, as David says: 'By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the strength of them by the Spirit of His mouth' (Ps. 32:6). And in another place:
'Thou shalt send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created' (Ps. 103:30). For he who is the maker of men is indeed the Creator of all things. Of him blessed Job says: 'The divine Spirit that made me' (Job 33:4). The Holy Spirit, therefore, just as he created all things, so being boundless he fills all things. And because, being boundless, he fills all, he is by nature true God. For it is written: 'The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world' (Wis. 1:7). And blessed David also bears witness that the Spirit of God is everywhere, saying of him: 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy face?' (Ps. 138:7). But how do the Arians deny that the Holy Spirit is God, when we are the temple of the Holy Spirit just as we are the temple of the Father and of the Son? For the Apostle says:
'Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are' (1 Cor. 3:16-17). Now the Apostle asserts that we are the temple of God in such a way that in the same epistle he also calls us the temple of the Holy Spirit. For he says: 'Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?' (1 Cor. 6:19). And to show that this same Holy Spirit is God, he added at once: 'Glorify and bear God in your body' (ibid. 20). 18. The Holy Spirit, therefore, is equal to the Father and the Son, because he is the Creator of all things, just as the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son, because being boundless he fills all things, just as the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son, because he holds the members of all the faithful as one temple, just as the Father and the Son. Who then would dare to deny that the divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one, since the bodies of the faithful, which are the members of Christ, are themselves the temple of the Holy Spirit? CHAP. IX. Conclusion concerning the Trinity. In the three persons there is no diversity of the divine nature. Baptism has no force unless conferred in the name of the Trinity. — 19. The Trinity, therefore, is one sole God the Creator of all things; the Trinity is one sole God boundless by nature.
Man is known to have been made to this image of the Trinity, and being baptized in whose name he is renewed anew. Now our Saviour taught that the nations should be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19), so that, just as we received the beginning of our creation by the work of the Trinity, so in the name of the Trinity we might receive the grace of divine adoption. There is, therefore, one true God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who by most almighty goodness creates men, and by freely-given mercy justifies sinners. Besides this one God of all things there is no God, for when he says: 'See that I am God, and there is no other besides me' (Deut.
32:39), he teaches and admonishes us that it is a grave sin if anyone believes in another beside the one God. Without doubt he believes in another who supposes there is a diversity of divinity in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; whereas that God, who alone possesses true divinity, grants no power at all of worshipping another god; nor is anyone in any way to be named in the sacrament of human redemption who is found to be a stranger to the nature of the one true God. But the mystery of human redemption is by no means accomplished if in baptism the name of the Son or of the Holy Spirit be withdrawn. CHAP. X. An apology for brevity. — 19 bis.
Therefore, since the manner of a letter does not permit the discourse of our disputation to be extended, the first beginnings of your love are not to be wearied by lengthy reading, but rather to be roused by brevity, so that while you read a short work with delight, you may be more ardently inflamed toward more extensive reading. Read attentively the few things I am about to say, understand them prudently, and hold them without doubt: from which you may be able, in the assent of faith, to discern the true from the false, and to retain the Christian faith by the help of our very Enlightener. CHAP. XI. In the Trinity there is one God, one nature. The error of the Sabellians. — 20. The Holy Trinity is one God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
For one is the nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, but not one person. Accordingly, that by holding fast the truth you may be able to refute, or at least to reject, falsehood: if you should see anyone confessing the one nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit in such a way that he wishes to assert one person, do not think him a Catholic Christian, but recognize him as a Sabellian heretic. CHAP. XII. The error of the Arians. In what the Sabellians and Arians are to be received, and in what rejected. — 21. But if you should hear anyone speaking of three persons, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in such a way that he wishes to assert three natures of these three persons, understand him without hesitation to be an Arian heretic.
For it is true that the Sabellians believe one nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; but it is false that they do not believe there are three persons. It is also true that the Arians speak of three persons of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; but it is false that they strive to persuade of three natures of these three persons. Thus perversely the Arians divide the nature of the Trinity, and the Sabellians confound the persons; whereas the nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one in such a way that it is not one person; for the person of the Father is one, of the Son another, of the Holy Spirit another. CHAP. XIII. The error of the Macedonians. — 22.