nor could we pass over from that whence we have arisen to eternal things, unless we were carried over to His eternity by the Eternal One associated with us through our arising. Now therefore our faith has in a certain manner followed thither, whither He whom we have believed has ascended: He who arose, died, was raised again, and was taken up. Of these four, the two former we knew in ourselves; for we know that men both arise and die. But the two remaining, that is, to be raised again and to be taken up, we rightly hope will come to be in ourselves, because we have believed them to have been done in Him. Therefore in Him, because even that which had arisen passed over to eternity, ours too shall pass over when faith shall have come through to truth.
For to those already believing, that they might abide in the word of faith and thence be led through to truth, and by this to eternity, and so be freed from death, He speaks thus: 'If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples.' And as though they were asking, 'With what fruit?,' He went on and said: 'And you shall know the truth.' Again, as though they were saying, 'What does truth profit mortals?,' 'And the truth,' He says, 'shall make you free.' Free from what, save from death, from corruption, from changeableness? For truth remains immortal, incorrupt, unchangeable. But true immortality, true incorruptibility, true unchangeableness is eternity itself. Behold that to which the Son of God was sent; nay rather, behold what it is for the Son of God to have been sent.
Whatever was done in time in order to produce that faith by which we might be cleansed for contemplating the truth—in things that have arisen, brought forth from eternity and referred back to eternity—was either the testimonies of this mission or the very mission of the Son of God. But some testimonies foreannounced that He would come; some bore witness that He had come. For it was fitting that He through whom every creature was made, being made a creature, should have every creature for a witness. For unless the One had been proclaimed by many that were sent, the One would not be held fast by many that were released. And unless the testimonies had been such as would seem great to the little, it would not have been believed that He, sent as little to the little, would make them great, being great.
For incomparably greater works of the Son of God are heaven and earth and all that is in them—because all things were made through Him—than the signs and portents which broke forth in His testimony. Yet nevertheless, that men might believe these great works to have been done through Him, they trembled at those small things as though they were great. When therefore the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law—made so little that He was 'made,' and therefore sent inasmuch as He was made. If therefore the greater sends the lesser, we too confess Him made lesser, and lesser insofar as made, and made insofar as sent.
For He sent His Son, made of a woman; yet because through Him all things were made—not only before He was sent as made, but before all things existed—we confess the same One, whom we call sent as lesser, to be equal to Him who sends. How then, before this fullness of time in which it behooved Him to be sent, could He, before He was sent, be seen by the fathers when certain angelic visions were shown to them—seeing that not even now, when sent, is He seen as He is equal to the Father? For whence does He say to Philip—by whom, as by the rest, and by those very men by whom He was crucified, He was seen in the flesh: 'Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me? Philip, he who has seen Me has seen the Father also'—save because He was seen and was not seen?
He was seen inasmuch as He had been made and sent; He was not seen inasmuch as through Him all things had been made. Or whence too does He say this: 'He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him'—when He was manifest before the eyes of men—save because the flesh, which the Word had become in the fullness of time, He was holding forth for the receiving of our faith, but the Word itself, through which all things had been made, He was reserving to be contemplated in eternity by the mind purified through faith?
But if the Son is said to be sent by the Father according to this, that the one is Father and the other is Son, this in no way hinders us from believing the Son to be equal to the Father and consubstantial and coeternal, and yet the Son sent by the Father. Not because the one is greater and the other less, but because the one is Father, the other Son; the one begetter, the other begotten; the one He from whom is the one who is sent, the other He who is from Him who sends. For the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son.
According to this it can now be understood that the Son is said to be sent, not only because the Word was made flesh, but rather sent in order that the Word might be made flesh and through His bodily presence might work those things that are written—that is, so that not only the man that the Word was made may be understood to be sent, but also the Word sent that He might become man; because He was sent not according to any unequal power or substance or anything in Him that is not equal to the Father, but according to this, that the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son. For the Son is the Word of the Father, which is also called His Wisdom. What wonder, then, if He is sent, not because He is unequal to the Father, but because He is 'a certain pure emanation of the brightness of the Almighty God'?
But there that which emanates and that from which it emanates are of one and the same substance. For it does not emanate as water from an opening in the earth or in rock, but as light from light. For what is said, 'For it is the brightness of the eternal light,' what else is said than that it is light of the eternal light? For the brightness of light—what is it but light? And therefore it is coeternal with the light of which it is the light. But Scripture chose to say 'brightness of light' rather than 'light of light,' lest that which emanates should be thought darker than that from which it emanates. For when one hears that this is the brightness of that, it is easier to believe that through this that shines, than that this shines less.
But because there was no need to guard against that light which begot this being thought less (for this no heretic ever dared to say, nor is it to be believed that anyone would dare), Scripture met that thought whereby this light which emanates might seem darker than that from which it emanates; and it removed this suspicion when it said 'it is the brightness of that'—that is, of the eternal light—and so showed it to be equal. For if this is less, it is the darkness of that, not the brightness of that. But if it is greater, it does not emanate from that; for it would not surpass that from which it was begotten. Because therefore it emanates from that, it is not greater than that; but because it is not the darkness of that but the brightness of that, it is not less. It is therefore equal.
Nor ought this to trouble anyone, that it is called 'a certain emanation of the brightness of the Almighty God, pure'—as though it were not itself almighty, but the emanation of the Almighty. For soon it is said of it: 'And, being but one, she can do all things.' But who is almighty save He who can do all things? By Him therefore is it sent from whom it emanates. For so also it is besought from Him who loved and desired it: 'Send her out,' he says, 'of Thy holy heavens, and send her from the throne of Thy greatness, that she may be with me and may labor with me'—that is, 'Let her teach me to labor, that I may not toil in vain.' For her labors are virtues. But it is sent in one way that it may be with a man; in another way it was sent that it might itself be man.
For it transfers itself into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets, just as it also fills the holy angels and works through them all things suited to such ministries. But when the fullness of time came, it was sent, not to fill angels, nor to be an angel—save insofar as it announced the counsel of the Father, which was also its own—nor to be with men or in men, for this had also been the case before, in the fathers and the prophets;
but that the Word itself might become flesh, that is, might become man—in which future revealed mystery there should be salvation also for those wise and holy men who were born of women before He Himself was born of the Virgin, and in which, once accomplished and preached, there should be salvation for all who believe, hope, and love. For this is that great mystery of godliness which 'was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels, was preached among the nations, was believed in the world, was taken up in glory.' By Him therefore is the Word of God sent, whose Word it is; by Him is it sent from whom it was born. He sends who begot; that is sent which was begotten.
And it is then sent to each one when it is known and perceived by anyone, as much as it can be known and perceived according to the capacity of the rational soul, whether advancing toward God or made perfect in God. Therefore the Son is not said to be sent by the very fact that He is born of the Father, but either by this, that the Word made flesh appeared to this world—whence He says: 'I came forth from the Father and have come into this world'—or by this, that in time He is perceived by the mind of someone, as it is said: 'Send her, that she may be with me and may labor with me.' That therefore which is born from eternity is in eternity: 'For it is the brightness of the eternal light.' But that which is sent is in time known by someone.
But when the Son of God was manifested in the flesh, He was sent into this world in the fullness of time, made of a woman. For because in the wisdom of God the world could not through wisdom know God—since the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not—'it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe,' so that the Word might be made flesh and dwell among us. But when in time He is perceived by the advancing mind of anyone, He is indeed said to be sent, but not into this world; for He does not appear sensibly, that is, is not present to the bodily senses.
For we too, according as with the mind we grasp something eternal as far as we can, are not in this world; and the spirits of all the just, even of those still living in this flesh, insofar as they savor divine things, are not in this world. But the Father, when in time He is known by anyone, is not said to be sent; for He has none of whom He is, or from whom He proceeds. For Wisdom says: 'I came forth from the mouth of the Most High,' and of the Holy Spirit: 'He proceeds from the Father'; but the Father is from no one. As therefore the Father begot and the Son was begotten, so the Father sent and the Son was sent. But just as He who begot and He who was begotten, so He who sent and He who was sent are one, because the Father and the Son are one;
so also the Holy Spirit is one with them, because these three are one. For as to be born is, for the Son, to be from the Father, so to be sent is, for the Son, to be known that He is from Him. And as to be the gift of God is, for the Holy Spirit, to proceed from the Father, so to be sent is to be known that He proceeds from Him. Nor can we say that the Holy Spirit does not also proceed from the Son; for not without reason is the same Spirit called the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son. Nor do I see what else He meant to signify when, breathing on them, He said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'
For that bodily breath, proceeding from the body with the sensation of being bodily touched, was not the substance of the Holy Spirit, but a demonstration by a fitting significance that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father but also from the Son. For who so utterly mad would say that the Spirit whom He gave by breathing was one, and the one He sent after His ascension another? For the Spirit of God is one, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the Holy Spirit, who works all things in all. But that He was given twice was surely a dispensation of significance, of which we shall treat in its proper place, as far as the Lord shall grant. What therefore the Lord said, 'Whom I will send to you from the Father,' shows the Spirit to be both of the Father and of the Son. For even when He had said:
'Whom the Father will send,' He added, 'in My name'—yet He did not say, 'Whom the Father will send from Me,' as He said, 'Whom I will send to you from the Father'—evidently showing that the principle of the whole divinity, or, if it is better said, of the whole deity, is the Father. He therefore who proceeds from the Father and the Son is referred back to Him from whom the Son was born. And when the Evangelist says: 'For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified,' how is this to be understood, save that that certain giving or sending of the Holy Spirit was to be after the glorification of Christ, such as had never been before? For it was not that there was none before, but that there had not been such as this.
For if the Holy Spirit was not given before, by whom the prophets, being filled, spoke—when Scripture openly says and in many places shows that they spoke by the Holy Spirit; when it is said of John the Baptist: 'He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb,' and Zechariah his father is found filled with the Holy Spirit so as to say such things of him, and Mary filled with the Holy Spirit to foretell such things of the Lord whom she bore in her womb, and Simeon and Anna filled with the Holy Spirit to recognize the greatness of the infant Christ—
how then was the Spirit not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified, save because that giving or bestowal or sending of the Holy Spirit was to have a certain property of its own in His very coming, such as had never been before? For nowhere do we read of men speaking in tongues which they had not known when the Holy Spirit came upon them, as happened then, when it behooved His coming to be shown by sensible signs, that it might be shown that the whole world and all nations, set in various tongues, were to believe in Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit; that there might be fulfilled what is sung in the Psalm: 'There are no speeches nor languages whose voices are not heard;'
'their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.' Thus, joined to the Word of God unto the unity of person, and in a certain manner commingled, man was—when, with the coming fullness of time, the Son of God, made of a woman, was sent into this world, that He might be also the Son of Man for the sake of the sons of men. This person the angelic nature was able beforehand to prefigure, so as to foreannounce it, but not to appropriate it, so as itself to be it.
But concerning the sensible demonstration of the Holy Spirit, whether through the form of a dove or through the fiery tongues—when the creature, subject and serving, showed by temporal movements and forms His substance, coeternal and equally unchangeable with the Father and the Son, yet was not joined to the unity of His person as was the flesh which the Word became—I do not dare to say that nothing such was done before. But I would plainly say with confidence that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Creator of one and the same substance, the almighty Trinity, work inseparably.
But that it cannot be inseparably demonstrated through a creature so far unequal and above all so bodily—just as through our own voices, which certainly sound bodily, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit cannot be named except with their own proper intervals of time, distinguished by a fixed separation, which the syllables of each one's name occupy. For in their own substance, whereby they are, the three are one—the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—by no temporal motion, above every creature, the selfsame without any intervals of time or place, and at once one and the same, from eternity unto eternity, as it were eternity itself, which is not without truth and love;
but in my words the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are separated and could not be uttered at once, and in visible letters they held their several spaces of place separately. And just as when I name my memory and understanding and will, the several names are indeed referred to the several things, yet the several names are each produced by all three; for there is none of these three names that is not produced by my memory and understanding and will together—so the Trinity together produced both the voice of the Father and the flesh of the Son and the dove of the Holy Spirit, although these several things are referred to the several persons.
By which likeness it is in some way recognized that the Trinity, inseparable in itself, is demonstrated separably through the form of a visible creature, and that the inseparable operation of the Trinity is also in the individual things which are said properly to pertain to the demonstrating of either the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit. If therefore it is asked of me how either the voices or the sensible forms and appearances were made before the incarnation of the Word of God, which prefigured that this was to come, I answer that God wrought these things through angels—which I have also, as I judge, sufficiently shown by the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures.
But if it is asked how the incarnation itself came about, I say that the Word of God itself was made flesh, that is, was made man, yet without being converted or changed into that which it was made; made in such a way, indeed, that there is present there not only the Word of God and the flesh of a man, but also the rational soul of a man, and that this whole is called both God on account of God and man on account of man. But if this is hard to understand, let the mind be purified by faith, more and more abstaining from sins and doing good and praying with the groaning of holy desires, so that, making progress through divine help, it may both understand and love.
But if it is asked how, after the incarnation of the Word, either the voice of the Father or the bodily form by which the Holy Spirit was manifested came about, I do not doubt that these things were brought about through a creature.
But whether it was only a bodily and sensible creature, or whether a rational or intellectual spirit was also employed (for some have preferred so to render what the Greeks call 'noeron')—not indeed toward the unity of a person (for who would say that whatever creature it was through which the Father's voice sounded is thereby God the Father, or that whatever creature it was in which, by the form of a dove or by the tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit was manifested, is thereby the Holy Spirit in the way that the Son of God is that man who was made of the Virgin?), but only for the ministry of carrying out the signification, as God judged fitting—or whether something else is to be understood, is difficult to discover, and it is not expedient to affirm rashly.
Yet how these things could have come to pass without a rational or intellectual creature I do not see. Nor is this the place to explain why I so judge, so far as the Lord shall grant my powers. For first the arguments of the heretics must be examined and refuted, which they bring forward not from the divine books but from their own reasonings, by which they think they can vehemently compel the testimonies of the Scriptures concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be understood as they themselves wish. But for now it has, as I think, been sufficiently shown that the Son is not the less because He was sent by the Father, nor the Holy Spirit the less because both the Father and the Son sent Him.
For whether on account of the visible creature, or rather for the commending of a principle of origin, these things are understood to be set down in the Scriptures not on account of any inequality or disparity or unlikeness of substance; since even if God the Father had willed to appear visibly through a subject creature, it would nonetheless be most absurd to say that He was sent either by the Son whom He begot or by the Holy Spirit who proceeds from Him. Let this, then, be the limit of this book; hereafter, in the remaining books, with the Lord's help, we shall see what those most cunning arguments of the heretics are, and how they are to be refuted.