論聖靈(第31講) 第 1 章 第 2/2 段

and because he will not cease to be, "immortal" and "imperishable."

Such, then, are the first pairs, and so they stand.

And what things neither are nor are spoken of? That the deity is evil, that the sphere is square, that the past is present, that man is non-composite.

For whom did you ever know to have come to such a pitch of folly as to dare either to conceive or to declare any such thing? It remains to show what things both are and are spoken of:

God, man, angel, judgment;

Such syllogisms are vanity, and a subversion of the faith, and an emptying of the mystery.

Since, then, there is so great a difference in names and in realities, why do you thus exceedingly serve the letter, and side with Jewish wisdom, and follow syllables, abandoning the realities? But if, when you said twice five, or twice seven, I gathered ten, or fourteen, from what was said;

or from "rational, mortal animal" I gathered "man"—would I then have seemed to you to talk nonsense? And how, when I say your own things? For the words belong not so much to the one speaking as to the one who compels the speaking.

Just as here, then, I would consider not so much the things said as the things meant;

so too, if I found anything else not stated, or not clearly, yet understood from Scripture, I would not flee the utterance, fearing you, the slanderer of names.

Thus, then, we shall take our stand against those who are reasonable by halves;

for to you it is not even possible to say this.

For one who denies the appellations of the Son, which are so clear and so many, plainly would not have respected these either, even if you had known much clearer and more numerous ones.

But I will now also declare the reason for the whole concealment, although you are wise, by carrying the argument back a little.

The one was from the idols to the Law, the other from the Law to the Gospel.

And we proclaim as good news a third shaking too—the removal from here to the things beyond, the things no longer to be moved nor shaken.

And the two covenants have undergone the same thing.

What is this? They were not removed all at once, nor at the very first motion of the undertaking.

For what reason? For it is necessary to know.

That we might not be compelled, but persuaded.

For what is involuntary is not even lasting;

just like things held back by force, whether of streams or of plants;

but what is voluntary is more lasting and more secure.

And the one belongs to him who used force, the other is our own;

and the one is of the gentleness of God, the other of tyrannical authority.

Therefore he did not think it right to do good to the unwilling, but to benefit the willing.

For this reason, both as a tutor and as a physician, he removes the one of the ancestral customs, and permits the other, yielding a little of what is for pleasure;

just as physicians do with the sick, that the medicine may be accepted, being seasoned by art with the more agreeable things.

For the changing of what has been honored by custom and by long time is not at all easy.

What do I mean? The first covenant, having cut off the idols, permitted the sacrifices;

the second, having abolished the sacrifices, did not forbid circumcision;

then, once they had accepted the removal, they also conceded what had been conceded;

the one group their sacrifices, the other their circumcision;

and they became, instead of Gentiles, Jews;

and instead of these, Christians, being led on stealthily to the Gospel by the changes made part by part.

Let Paul persuade you of this, who advanced from circumcising and purifying to saying:

"But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted?" The former belonged to the dispensation, the latter to perfection.

To this I can liken the matter of theology, except in so far as it is by the opposite.

For there the change came about by removals;

but here the perfecting comes about through additions.

The old covenant proclaimed the Father openly, the Son more dimly.

The new manifested the Son, and intimated the deity of the Spirit.

Now the Spirit dwells among us as a citizen, granting us a clearer manifestation of himself.

For it was not safe, while the deity of the Father was not yet confessed, for the Son to be plainly proclaimed;

nor, while the deity of the Son was not yet received, for the Holy Spirit to be—to put it somewhat boldly—loaded on as an extra burden;

lest, as it were burdened with food beyond their strength, and casting their still feebler sight upon the light of the sun, they should be endangered even as to the strength they had;

for this reason, I think, the Spirit also takes up residence with the disciples part by part, measured out according to the capacity of those who receive—in the beginning of the Gospel, after the Passion, after the Ascension—completing the powers, being breathed upon them, appearing in tongues of fire.

And it is revealed little by little by Jesus, as you yourself will perceive if you read more carefully:

"I will ask the Father," he says, "and he will send you another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth";

so that he might not seem to be a rival God, or to make his words as from some other authority.

Then, "He will send," but "in my name";

leaving aside the "I will ask," he has kept the "He will send."

Then, "I will send"—his own dignity;

then, "He will come"—the authority of the Spirit.

You see illuminations shining upon us part by part, and an order of theology, which it is better for us too to observe, neither declaring all at once, nor concealing to the end.

For the one is artless, the other godless;

and the one is able to strike outsiders, the other to alienate our own.

And what perhaps has already come to the mind of some of the others, but which I take to be the fruit of my own reflection, I will add to what has been said.

The Savior had certain things which, even if the disciples were filled with many teachings, were said not to be able to be borne by them at that time, for the reasons I have perhaps mentioned, and on this account were veiled;

and again, that we would be taught all things by the Spirit when he had taken up residence.

Of these things I count the deity of the Spirit itself to be one, made clear later, when, the knowledge being then ripe and capacious, after the restoration of the Savior, it was no longer disbelieved on account of the marvel.

For what could be greater than this, that either he promised, or the Spirit taught? If indeed one ought to think anything great and worthy of the magnificence of God—either the thing promised, or the thing taught.

Thus, then, do I hold concerning these things, and may I hold it, and whoever is dear to me—to worship God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three distinct properties, one deity, undivided in glory, and honor, and essence, and kingdom, as one of the God-bearing men a little before us philosophized;

or may he not see the morning star rising, as the Scripture says, nor the glory of the brightness from yonder—whoever does not so hold, or accommodates himself to the times, becoming now one thing, now another, and taking counsel unsoundly concerning the greatest matters.

For if the Spirit is not even to be worshiped, how does it deify me through baptism? But if it is to be worshiped, how is it not to be venerated? And if to be venerated, how is it not God? One thing is suspended from the other, a truly golden and saving chain.

And from the Spirit comes our regeneration;

and from the regeneration the new-fashioning;

and from the new-fashioning the recognition of the dignity of the one who has fashioned us anew.

These things, then, one might say who has laid down "the unwritten" as his premise.

But now there will also come to you the swarm of testimonies, from which the deity of the Spirit will be demonstrated—and very plainly written at that—to those who are not exceedingly dull-witted nor estranged from the Spirit.

Christ is begotten—the Spirit goes before Him; Christ is baptized—the Spirit bears witness;

Christ works mighty deeds—the Spirit accompanies Him;

For what among the great things, and the things that belong to God, can the Spirit not do? And by what title that belongs to God is the Spirit not addressed—save only "unbegottenness" and "begottenness"? For the distinctive properties had to remain proper to the Father and the Son, lest there be confusion within the Godhead—the Godhead that brings even all other things into order and seemly arrangement.

Consider then the titles—and by how many names those who set themselves against the Spirit shamelessly defy Him.

He is called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the mind of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, and Lord Himself;

the Spirit of adoption, of truth, of liberty;

the Spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of counsel, of might, of knowledge, of godliness, of the fear of God;

for indeed He is the producer of all these things;

filling all things by His essence, holding all things together;

filling the world according to His essence, yet uncontainable by the world according to His power;

good, upright, sovereign, by nature and not by appointment;

sanctifying, not being sanctified; measuring, not being measured;

partaken of, not partaking; filling, not being filled; holding together, not being held together;

given as an inheritance, glorified, numbered together with the Father and the Son, held forth as a threat;

the finger of God, fire as God, with reference, I think, to His being of one essence;

the Spirit who created, who recreates through baptism and through resurrection;

the Spirit who knows all things, who teaches, who breathes where He wills and as much as He wills, who guides, speaks, sends forth, sets apart, who is grieved, who is tempted;

the Spirit who reveals, who enlightens, who gives life—or rather, who is very Light itself and Life;

the Spirit who makes us temples, who deifies, who perfects, so that He both goes before baptism and is sought after baptism;

working all that God works, distributed in tongues of fire, dividing spiritual gifts, making apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers;

intelligent, manifold, clear, distinct, unhindered, undefiled;

which is the same as to say: most wise and varied in His operations, making all things clear and plain, self-determining, and unchangeable;

almighty, all-overseeing, penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, pure, most subtle—angelic powers, I think, as also prophetic and apostolic powers—at one and the same time, and not in the same places,

they being distributed in various places—by which is shown that He is uncircumscribed.

Those who say and teach these things, and moreover name Him as "another Paraclete," as it were another God; who know that blasphemy against Him alone is unforgivable; who so fearfully held up Ananias and Sapphira to public shame, because they lied to the Holy Spirit—as having lied to God, not to man—

what do these men seem to you to be doing—proclaiming the Spirit as God, or as something else? Truly you must be quite gross and far removed from the Spirit, if you are at a loss over this and need someone to teach you.

Such, then, are the titles, and so full of life.

For what need is there to set before you the testimonies drawn from the actual words? But as for whatever is said here in a lowlier sense—being given, being sent, being apportioned, the gift, the bounty, the inbreathing, the promise, the intercession on our behalf, or anything else of the kind, that I need not enumerate each one—all this must be referred up to the first Cause, that the source "from whom" may be shown, and that three divided principles may not be admitted after the manner of polytheism.

For it is an equal impiety either to unite them after the manner of Sabellius, or to divide them after the manner of Arius—the one confounding them in person, the other sundering them in their natures.

For my own part, having pondered much within myself in the diligence of my mind, and having directed my reasoning from every quarter, and having sought some image of so great a reality, I could find nothing among things below to which I might liken the divine nature.

For even if some small likeness be found, the greater part escapes me, leaving me down below together with the illustration.

I have thought of an eye, a spring, and a river—as others too have done—to see whether the Father might correspond analogously to the one, the Son to another, and the Holy Spirit to the third;

for these are neither separated by time, nor torn apart from one another in their continuity;

even though they seem in some way to be divided by three distinctive properties.

But I was afraid—first, lest I should admit some flowing of the Godhead that knows no rest;

and secondly, lest by this comparison numerical oneness should be introduced.

For eye, spring, and river are one in number, only differently configured.

Again, I considered the sun, a ray, and light.

But here too there was the fear—secondly—lest we should grant substantial being to the Father alone, while not giving subsistence to the others, but making them powers of God that inhere in Him rather than subsist in their own right;

for neither the ray nor the light is another sun, but they are certain solar emanations and essential qualities.

And at the same time we should be attributing to God in these things both being and non-being, so far as the illustration goes—which is even more absurd than what was said before.

I have also heard someone sketching out an argument of this sort:

a certain sun-glitter flashing upon a wall and quivering, produced by the movement of water, which the ray takes up through the intervening air, and then, being checked by the resisting surface, becomes a pulsation, even a paradoxical one.

For it darts about with many rapid movements, being no more one than many, nor more many than one—by the swiftness of its coming together and parting asunder, slipping away before it can be grasped by the eye.

But neither could I adopt this image, for one reason because in this case that which sets it in motion is quite evident;

but nothing is prior to God, that there should be anything which has set Him in motion.

For He Himself is the cause of all things, and has no cause prior to Himself.

And secondly, because here too there is the same suspicion—of composition, of diffusion, of an unstable and unfixed nature—none of which may be conceived concerning the Godhead.

And in short, there is nothing that arrests my mind when I contemplate the apparition in these illustrations—unless someone, taking one feature of the image, should in fairness cast away all the rest.

In the end, then, it seemed best to me to bid farewell to the images and the shadows, as deceptive and falling far short of the truth, and rather, holding fast to the more reverent conception, resting upon a few words, and using the Spirit as my guide—that I should preserve to the end the illumination I have received from Him, and as a true companion and fellow-traveler journey through this present age, cleaving my way through it, and persuade others as far as I am able to worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one Godhead and power;

for to Him be all glory, honor, and might, unto the ages of ages. Amen.