"I and the Father are one," much more is God the Father one and God the Son one, and yet both together are not two gods but one God. For what one faith and one hope and one love wrought in the many saints called into the adoption of sons, coheirs of Christ — so that there was in them one soul and one heart toward God — this above all compels us to understand that there is one and the same nature of the Father and the Son (if it is to be so called, the nature of the Godhead), so that the Father and the Son, who are one and are inseparably one and are eternally one, are not two gods but one God.
For those men were one through the fellowship and communion of one and the same nature, by which they were all men; and yet at times, according to the diversities of their wills and judgements and opinions and the dissimilarities of their characters, they were not one. But they shall be fully and perfectly one, when it has come to that end, that God may be all in all. But God the Father, and His Son, His Word, God with God, are ever and ineffably one, whence they are not two gods but one God.
But men who understand too little why a thing is said for what reason, rashly wish to hold opinions; and without diligently searching the Scriptures they seize upon a defence of each opinion, and either never or hardly ever are turned aside from it, so long as they crave to be thought learned and wise rather than to be so. For those things which are said with respect to the form of a servant, they wish to transfer to the form of God; and again, those things which are said in order that the Persons may be referred to one another, they wish to be names of nature and of substance.
But our faith is to believe and confess that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God; and yet neither to call Him who is the Son the Father, nor Him who is the Father the Son, nor to name Him who is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son either Father or Son. For by these appellations that is signified which is referred mutually one to another, not the very substance by which they are one. For when the Father is spoken of, He is spoken of only as the Father of some son; and the Son is understood only as of some father; and the Spirit, according to that which is referred to something, is the Spirit of some one breathing, and He who breathes assuredly breathes by breathing forth Spirit.
But these things are not perceived in a bodily way, nor understood in the customary manner in God, who is able to do, as the Apostle says, above that which we ask and understand; and if He can do, how much more can He be! For this name which is called 'Spirit' is not according to that which is referred to something, but according to that which signifies some nature. Every incorporeal nature is called spirit in the Scriptures; whence this word is fitting not only for the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but for every rational creature and soul. Whence the Lord says: God is a Spirit, and therefore they who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. It is also written: Who makes His angels spirits. And it is said of certain men also:
'Because they are flesh, and a spirit that goes and does not return'; and the Apostle says: No one knows what is done in a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him. Likewise it is written: Who knows whether the spirit of the sons of man ascends upward, and whether the spirit of the beast descends downward into the earth? Spirit is also spoken of in the Scriptures according to a certain distinction within the one soul of one man; whence the Apostle says: And may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And again in another place: If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What then is it? I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind.
But in a certain proper manner the Holy Spirit is so called, according to that which is referred to the Father and the Son, in that He is their Spirit. For according to substance, since it has once been said, God is a Spirit, both the Father is Spirit and the Son, and the Holy Spirit Himself; and yet not three spirits but one Spirit, just as not three gods but one God. Why do you marvel? So great is the power of peace—not of any and every sort, as it is commonly understood, nor such as is praised in this life through the concord and charity of the faithful, but that peace of God which, as the Apostle says, surpasses all understanding; whose, if not ours, that is, of every rational creature? Wherefore, considering our weakness and hearing the Apostle confessing and saying:
'Brethren, I do not consider that I have laid hold'; and: He who thinks that he knows anything, does not yet know as he ought to know—when we converse with the divine Scriptures as far as we are able, without contention and at peace, not striving out of empty and childish animosity to overcome one another, so that rather the peace of Christ may prevail in our hearts, as far as He has granted us to be able to perceive it even in this life: so that, considering what that same peace has wrought among brethren, out of whose so many souls and many hearts it has made one soul and one heart unto God, we may with due piety believe that far more greatly in that peace of God which surpasses all understanding, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three gods but one God, so much the more excellently
than that soul and heart of those men was one. By as much as that peace which surpasses all understanding is more excellent than this peace by which the one heart and one soul of all those men held fast unto God. But we say that the Son of Man is the same as the Son of God—not, however, on account of the form of God, in which He is equal to God the Father, but on account of the assumed form of a servant, by which the Father is greater. And because we call the same one the Son of Man, on this account we confess also that the Son of God was crucified—not out of the power of His divinity but out of the weakness of His humanity, not out of the permanence of His own nature but out of the assumption of ours.
Now consider for a little while what utterances of the Scriptures compel us to confess one Lord God, whether we are questioned about the Father alone, or about the Son alone, or about the Holy Spirit alone, or about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together. Certainly it is written: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord. Of whom do you think this is said? If only of the Father, then our Lord Jesus Christ is not the Lord God; and where is that voice of Thomas touching Him and crying out: My Lord and my God, which Christ Himself did not rebuke but approved, saying: Because you have seen, you have believed? Moreover, if the Son also is Lord God and the Father is Lord God, and both are now two lords and two gods, how shall it be true: The Lord your God is one Lord?
Or is the Father perhaps the one Lord, but the Son not the one Lord but only a lord, just as there are many gods and many lords, not as that One of whom it is written: The Lord your God is one Lord? What then shall we answer to the Apostle who says: For though there are those who are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet to us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him; and one Lord, our Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through Him? Moreover, if what is said of the one God the Father compels the Son to be separated from thence, let those who dare say that the Father can no longer be understood as Lord, because, he says, our Lord Jesus Christ is one. For if He is one, He is surely alone;
if He is alone, then how is the Father too, unless because both He and the Father are one God and the sole God, the Holy Spirit not being separated? Therefore the Father is one God, and with Him the Son is one God, although not one Father with Him; and likewise the Lord Jesus Christ is one, and with Him the Father is one Lord, although not one Jesus Christ with Him—as though the Father too were Jesus Christ; for this name was assumed out of the dispensation of mercy and of the humanity that was taken on. Or do you perhaps not wish that what the Apostle says—One Lord our Jesus Christ, through whom are all things—should be joined thus: that what is said 'one' refers to that which is 'Lord'? Rather it refers to that which he says 'through whom are all things,' so that it is not 'one Lord' but 'one, through whom are all things':
so that it may be understood in such a way that the Father is not He through whom are all things, but the Father alone is He from whom are all things, and the Son alone is He through whom are all things. If it is so, then confess at last that our one Lord and God is the Father and the Son. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor? Or who has first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to Him? For from Him and through Him and in Him are all things; to Him be glory. For he did not say 'from the Father are all things and through the Son are all things,' but 'from Him and through Him and in Him.' Whom? Whom but the Lord, of whom he says: For who has known the mind of the Lord? Therefore from the Lord and through the Lord and in the Lord are all things—not one being 'him' and another 'this one,' but by one Lord; for he did not say 'to them be glory' but 'to Him be glory.'
But if anyone says that what the Apostle says—'One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things'—is not to be understood as 'one Lord' nor 'one, through whom are all things,' but as 'one Jesus Christ,' who as one Jesus Christ is also called Lord, yet not so as to be one Lord but one Jesus Christ: what will he be about to say when he hears the same Apostle crying out: One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all? For since he mentions here God the Father, where he says, One God and Father of all, without doubt above, where he said, One Lord, whom did he wish to be understood but the Lord Jesus Christ? If therefore it pleases them, let the Father cease to be Lord, because there is one Lord Jesus Christ.
But if it is absurd and impious to hold such an opinion, let us learn to understand the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that what shall have been said of the one sole God we may not straightway be forbidden to understand of the Son or of the Holy Spirit—because the Father indeed is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father, and the Spirit of both is not the Father or the Son; but nevertheless the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, who alone is the true Lord God. For if the Holy Spirit either were not God or were not true God, our bodies would not be His temple. Do you not know, he says, that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? And lest anyone should deny that the Spirit Himself is God, he straightway went on to say:
And you are not your own; for you were bought with a price. Glorify God therefore in your body—that is, Him whose temple he had foretold our bodies to be. Now this is a marvel, if it is true which I hear you say, that the Holy Spirit is thus less than the Son, just as the Son is less than the Father. For since our bodies are members of Christ, as the Apostle says, and likewise our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, as the same Apostle says, I greatly marvel how the members of the greater are the temple of the lesser. Or does it now perhaps please you to say that the Holy Spirit is greater than the Lord Jesus Christ? For that saying too seems to favour this opinion, namely: that whoever shall have spoken a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him;
but whoever shall have spoken against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the age to come. For it is a more perilous sin to sin against the greater than against the lesser. Yet it is not lawful to separate the Son of Man from the Son of God, because the Son of God Himself was made the Son of Man—not by changing what He was, but by assuming what He was not. But far be even such impiety, that the Holy Spirit should be believed to be greater than the Son. Therefore let not those things which are so said easily move us into perversity, as if they showed the one to be greater than the other. For some things too are so said—to men who understand too little—that even the Son Himself seems greater than the Father. For who, when he has been asked which is greater, the truthful one or truth itself,
would he not rather answer that truth is greater? For from it are true whatever things are true. But it is not so in God. For we do not say that the Son is greater than the Father to both of them; and yet the Son is called Truth: I am, He says, the way and the truth and the life. But of the Father alone you wish that to be understood which He says: That they may know You, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent—where we too understand Jesus Christ also to be the true God, so that this is the meaning: 'that they may know You and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ, to be the one true God'—lest that absurdity should follow, that if Jesus Christ is on this account not the true God because it was said to the Father, You the one true God, then on this account the Father is not Lord, because it was said of Christ:
One Lord. But according to a distorted understanding, or rather error, God the Truth is greater than God the truthful one, because the truthful one is from truth; therefore the Son is greater than the Father, because the one is Truth, the other truthful. He casts out this perversity from his mind who has learned that God the Father is truthful by begetting Truth, not by participating in it; for the substance of the truthful begetter and the substance of the begotten Truth are not two different substances, but one. But since the eye of the human heart is weak for contemplating these things, it happens that out of contentiousness it is even troubled. And when will it behold these things?
The Scripture says that the Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is the Word of God and Truth and Wisdom; and men say that before the incarnation which He took from the Virgin Mary—without any assumption at all of bodily creature—through His very nature and substance, by which He is the Word of God and the Wisdom of God, He was visible and corruptible, while they refuse to be consistent with themselves in what they hold. They say that it was said of the Father alone: To the invisible, incorruptible, only God! I ask you: the word of a man is not visible, much less the Word of God. Now indeed that Wisdom, of which it was said: It reaches everywhere on account of its purity, and: Nothing defiled falls into it, and:
Remaining in itself it renews all things—and if there be any like sayings, which cannot be numbered—if it is corruptible, I know not what to say, except that I grieve at human presumption and marvel at the divine patience. But since it was said of it: For it is the brightness of eternal light, not even your people, as I think, now say that the light of the Father—which is nothing but His substance—was at some time without the brightness begotten from itself, just as these things can be believed and somehow understood in divine and spiritual and incorporeal and immutable realities; for I hear that they have now amended this. Or is it perhaps false that they ever said this, that the Father was at some time without the Son, as though the eternal light were at some time without the brightness which it begot? What then do we say?
If the Son of God was born of the Father, then the Father has ceased to beget; and if He has ceased, He began; but if He began to beget, He was at some time without the Son. But He never was without the Son, because His Son is His Wisdom, which is the brightness of eternal light: therefore the Father ever begets and the Son is ever born. Here again it is to be feared lest the generation be thought imperfect, if we say not that He was born but that He is being born. Suffer with me, I beseech you, in these straits of human thought and speech, and let us alike flee for refuge to the Spirit of God speaking through the prophet: His generation who shall declare? Meanwhile I ask this one thing: that you diligently search out whether anywhere the divine Scripture has said of diverse substances that they are one.
For if it is not found said except of those things which are agreed to be of one and the same substance, what need is there that we should rebel against the true and catholic faith? But if you shall have found this written anywhere also of diverse substances, then I shall be compelled to inquire something else, whereby I may show that Father and Son are rightly called homoousion (of one substance). For if those who either do not know our Scriptures or do not laboriously search them, and yet believe that the Son is of the same substance and equal to the Father, should say to those who are unwilling to believe this—although they nonetheless believe that God the Father has an only-begotten Son: 'Did God not wish to have an equal Son, or was He not able? If He did not wish, He is envious; if He was not able, He is weak;
but to hold either of these opinions about God is sacrilegious.' I know not whether they can find what to say, if they are unwilling to say things most absurd and most foolish. Behold, as far as I have been able, I have set forth to you my faith. And indeed more things could be said and disputed more diligently; but I fear lest these very things which I have said may be a burden to your occupations. Nevertheless, I have wished not only that they be written down as dictated, but I have also taken care that they be subscribed by my own hand—which indeed I had wished before too, if what had been agreed between us had been kept. But now certainly I think it can no longer be said by you that I was afraid to tell you my faith, since I not only told it but subscribed it in writing, lest anyone should say that I either said what I did not say, or did not say what I said.
Do you also do this, if you seek judges—not those who would in your presence revere your person, but those who in your writings would exercise their liberty. For if you fear calumny, which I would in no way have dared to say unless you yourself had said it, you are permitted not to subscribe; for I too, for this reason, did not wish your name to be written in these my letters, lest perhaps you had not wished it. It is easy for anyone to overcome Augustine, seeing whether by truth or by clamour; it is not for me to say, except that it is easy for anyone to overcome Augustine—how much more that he should seem to have overcome, or, even if he should not seem to have overcome, that it should be said! This is easy: I do not want you to think it great, I do not want you to seek it as something great.
For when men shall have observed in this matter so great a flame of your heart, many will rejoice that they have found occasion to make so powerful a man their friend for a little 'bravo, bravo'; not to mention that, if they do not favour it, or if they bring forth a contrary opinion, they will even be able to dread an enemy—foolishly indeed and stupidly, but nevertheless very many men are so. Do not therefore attend to how Augustine, whatever sort of single man he is, is overcome, but attend rather to whether the homoousion can be overcome—not the Greek word itself, which it is easy for those who do not understand it to deride, but that which is written: I and the Father are one; and: Holy Father, keep them in Your name whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We also are. Likewise a little after:
I do not pray for these alone, He says, but also for those who shall believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You gave Me, that they may be one, as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one. See how many times He said 'let them be one, as We also are one.' Yet nowhere did He say 'let them and We be one,' but 'as I and You are one, so let them also be one in Us'; because, just as those were of one and the same substance whom He also wished to make of one participation of eternal life, so of the Father and the Son it was said for this reason:
We are one—because they are of one and the same substance, and are not partakers of eternal life but are themselves principally eternal life. And He could have said, according to the form of a servant, 'I and they are one' or 'let us be one'; yet He did not say this, because He wished to show one substance of the Father and His own, and one substance of them. But if He had said 'let both You and they be one, as both I and You are one,' or 'let both You and I and they be one, as both I and You are one,' none of us would refuse that even diverse substances can be said to be 'one.' But now you see how it is not so, because He did not say so, and by saying it often He vehemently commended what He said. You find therefore in the Scriptures something 'one' of diverse natures,
as we showed above; but there is added or understood 'one' what—just as from soul and body we say one animal, and one person, and one man either is or are. But if you shall have found in the Scriptures 'they are one' said without any addition, except of those who are of one substance, you will most justly demand that we bring forth other proofs whereby we may demonstrate the homoousion. For there are indeed many others; but for the present ponder this one thing, laying aside the zeal of contention, that you may have God propitious. For it is not the good of a man to overcome a man, but it is good for a man that the truth should overcome him willing, because it is evil for a man that the truth should overcome him unwilling. For truth must needs overcome, whether him who denies or him who confesses.
Grant pardon, if I have said anything too freely, not to your reproach but for my own defence. For I have presumed upon your gravity and prudence, because you can consider how great a necessity of answering you have imposed on me; or, if in this too I have not acted rightly, herein also grant pardon. To this writing dictated by me and re-read I, Augustine, have subscribed. CCXXXIX. If you say that you told me your faith and that I was unwilling to tell you mine—which I also hear that you do not keep silent about—recall, I beseech you, how false each is. For neither did you wish to tell me your faith, nor was I unwilling to tell you mine; but I wished to tell it in such a way that no one could say either that I had said something which I did not say, or that I had not said what I did say.
But you would be telling me your faith, if you were to say that wherein you disagree with us, if you were to say: 'I believe in God the Father, who made the Son the first creature before all other creatures; and in that Son, who is neither equal to the Father nor like Him nor true God; and in the Holy Spirit, made through the Son and after the Son.' For these things I hear you say; or, if perhaps it is false that you say these things, this I would rather not know from you. But if it is true that you say these things, I wish to know how you defend them from the holy Scriptures. But now you have said that you believe in God the Father almighty, invisible,
immortal, not begotten by anyone and from whom are all things; and in His Son Jesus Christ, God born before the ages, through whom all things were made; and in the Holy Spirit. This faith is not yours but belongs to both of us—just as if you were to add that the same Son of God Jesus Christ was also borne by the Virgin Mary, which we equally believe, and if there be any other things we confess in common. If therefore you had wished to tell your own faith, you would not tell this one, which is common to us, but rather that one wherein we disagree with you. These things I would say even in person, if, as had been agreed, our words were taken down.
But because you were unwilling to do this, saying that you feared calumny from us, and you withdrew from the agreement to which you had consented in the morning, after your midday meal—so that whatever I might say, you might report that I had said it in whatever manner you wished, and I would have no means of showing what or in what manner I had said it. Do not therefore boast any further that you told your faith and I did not tell mine, because there are men who would consider that I rather had confidence in my faith, since I wished it to be written, but that you had none, while you dreaded calumny as it were. You were therefore prepared to deny, if it were objected to you, that you had said anything against my faith. See therefore what you have caused to be thought of yourself. But if you were not going to deny what was objected, why were you unwilling that what was said be written?
especially since you had greatly wished that even honoured men should be present at our discourse? Why then, wishing to avoid calumny, did you fear the pen of the notaries and not fear the testimony of most illustrious men? But if you so wish that I too tell my faith in the manner in which you say you told yours, I can say it even more briefly: that I believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But if you wish to hear something particular
wherein you disagree with me: I believe in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, calling neither the Son the Father, nor the Father the Son, nor either the Spirit—whether the Father or the Son; and yet the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, alone eternal and immortal by His own proper substance, just as God alone is eternal and immortal by that divinity which is before the ages. If this displeases you and it pleases you to hear from me how it is asserted from the holy Scriptures, read also that which I sent, written at greater length, to your kindness. But if you have no leisure to read, neither have I leisure to fling out words in vain.
Yet I can, as far as God shall have granted the faculty of dictating or writing to you, I too, by dictating or writing, answer to whatever you may wish. To this writing of mine, dictated by me and re-read, I, Augustine, have subscribed. CCXL. I had wished, most beloved brother, that you would lay aside the counsel of your former error; now I marvel that you still remain in it, as the letter which you sent to me cries out. For your worthiness is like a man thirsting, kindled by excessive heat, who, if he finds muddy water and gluts himself with it, afterwards, even if finding clear and cold water he drinks it, cannot profit sufficiently, since indeed his heart and soul are once for all overwhelmed with mud.
Finally—which, by your leave, I will say—the counsel of your excellency is like a crooked and knotty tree, which has nothing straight in itself and perverts the keenness of the eyes. Your holiness writes back to me: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, but one God. Which one of the three is the one God? Or is there perhaps one three-formed person, which is called by this name? If you were willing, and had confidence in your profession, you would sit with me together with your fellow bishops with a pure and peaceful mind and spirit, and confer about those things which are of God and which pertain to glory and to spiritual grace. Whence, what need is there to write and write back what does not edify us? CCXLI.