FROM BOOK I. CONCERNING THE ONE MOST HIGH, THE PARACLETE, THE MESSENGER, THE TEACHER, AND THE JUDGE. FRAGMENT I. The Son is both God, and the Most High, and life as the Father: he also does the same things, and in like manner, with the Father. But I marvel that, since from those names and works you measure, according to your pleasure, the merits of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, how you do not also consider those names and works by which the one natural loftiness of the Father and of the Son is shown. For when it is said: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John 1:1); the name of the Son is known to be in no way less than the name of the Father; since, as the Father, so also the Son is not deprived of the name of God.
Likewise we know that the Father is called the Most High, but it is certain that the Son also is called by this name. For the angel Gabriel, speaking to Mary, is found to name the Father as the Most High, when he says: 'Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High' (Luke 1:31-32). But concerning the Son himself, blessed David, filled with divine inspiration, thus sang: 'Mother Sion shall say: A man is made in her, and the Most High himself hath founded her' (Ps. 86:5). And who would dare to deny the unity of works in the Father and the Son, when the Son himself shows the same works to be at once his own and the Father's? For he says: 'Whatsoever things the Father doeth, these same the Son doeth likewise' (John 5:19).
Where he shows that the offices of divine operation between the Father and the Son are neither in any way dissimilar, nor divided. For he who does the same things and in like manner, as he does not do other things, so he does not do them otherwise; and while whatsoever things the Father does, these same the Son does likewise; as there is nothing divided in the operation, so there is nothing diverse in the power. The one nature of the Father and the Son therefore agrees by the unity of work, and in the likeness of operation the one omnipotence of the Godhead shines forth. But if the Son were another God, he would not himself do the same things that the Father does; but if the Godhead of the Son were less, he would not have done in like manner the same things that the Father does:
but since the works of the Father and the Son are the same, done in like manner by the Father and the Son, undoubtedly the one nature of the Father and the Son is recognized. Hear yet further the natural unity of the Father and the Son, as much in names as in works. For the Son says: 'As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son also to have life in himself' (John 5:26). But this, that the Father gave life to the Son, is that he begot the Son to be life. For the Father gave the Son to have life in himself, but as the Father, by the right of generation, not by the gift of bounty. And see how he gave the Son to have life in himself, even as the Father surely has life in himself. Now the Father has life in himself, because he is naturally life:
and therefore he gave to the Son also to have life in himself, because he begot the Son naturally as life. Therefore blessed John does not cease to proclaim the Son to be life, saying of him: 'This is the true God, and life eternal' (1 John 5:20). In another place also, as he calls the Father life, so he calls the Son also life; for he says: 'That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life' (1 John 1:1). Now we know that the Word of the Father is the Son. When therefore the Son is called the Word of life, we see the Father proclaimed by the name of life. But the Word of life itself he names, in what follows, as life, saying:
'And the life was made manifest, and we have seen, and we bear witness, and we declare unto you the life eternal, which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us' (1 John 1:2). Behold, the Father is called life, the Son is called life: because the Son is proclaimed both the Word of life, and life: and by this the unity of the name in the Father and the Son does not naturally differ; whence consequently the unity of works also agrees by natural majesty; the Son himself saying: 'For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son also quickeneth whom he will' (John 5:21). And in saying this, he shows both the unity and the perfect power of the paternal and of his own will. Here therefore is no will of one that is weak, no work of one that is unwilling. For the Son quickeneth whom he will;
But beyond all doubt the Son gives life to those whom the Father gives life; for whatsoever things the Father does, these the Son also does. Thus too the Son gives life to whom he wills, just as the Father gives life to whom he wills; for whatsoever things the Father does, the Son not only does the same, but does them also in like manner. In this unity of operation there is one natural will. For if the Son were said to do unwillingly those things which the Father does willingly, he would indeed do the same things, but not do them in like manner; yet Truth declares that he does both the same things and in like manner. Let there therefore be acknowledged a natural unity and an equality of majesty, where there can be no diversity either in work or in will.
Why then do you assert a diversity of nature and some sort of inequality between the Father and the Son from those names and works which you have adduced, yet refuse to acknowledge the equality of the Father and the Son from these names and works which I have recalled? FRAGMENT II. God the Father is also the Paraclete. You indeed said that God the Father, who is less than none and subject to none, lacks all that lowliness of works and names. First, then, learn that God the Father does not lack the work of the Paraclete, so that from this you may learn not to contend about the name. For if we find in the Father the work of this name, there will be no need for us to dispute anything about demonstrating the name. Para-
The Paraclete in the Latin tongue is called not only Advocate but also Comforter. Hear therefore what the Apostle says about God the Father, and from the true work of consolation acknowledge the truth of God the Comforter. For the Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, says thus: «Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, who comforts us in all our tribulation» (2 Cor. 1:3). Which in the Greek stands thus: «Blessed be the God and Father who comforts us in all our affliction» (in the Bible: 'your'). Where, joining also the consolation of the Son to the consolation of the Father, a little later he says:
«For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Christ does our consolation abound» (ibid., 5). But lest you should think the consolation of the Father and of the Son to be diverse in us or divided, hear what the same blessed Apostle writes to the Thessalonians. For he says: «Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, who has loved us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and confirm you in every good work and word» (2 Thess. 2:16). But whereas here I have put «comfort», some Latin manuscripts have «exhort»;
but whether it be this or that, since both consolation and exhortation are called paraklesis among the Greeks, we have therefore put it thus in order to show one consolation or exhortation of both the Father and the Son. For among the Latins too both words differ indeed in sound, but agree in sense. Indeed every comforter does nothing else than exhort the soul of the one he comforts toward the hope of a better outcome. And so, although there may be an exhortation which seems not to need consolation, yet there is no consolation which does not need the language of exhortation. That passage, therefore, is contained in Greek in this speech: «But may our Lord himself...» (in the Bible: 'your'; 'good').
Attend diligently also to that passage in which the Apostle, writing to the Philippians, says: «If there be therefore any consolation in Christ» (Phil. 2:1); and you will find it thus placed: «If there be therefore any consolation (paraklesis) in Christ». The divine Scripture also has not been silent about the consolation of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the holy Church. For it is said in the book of the Acts of the Apostles: «Then indeed the Church throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, had peace; and was edified, walking in the fear of the Lord, and was filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit» (Acts 9:31). Which in Greek is contained thus: «... they were multiplied». How then is the Father denied to be a comforter, who comforts his own people?
For he it is, as was said above, «the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, who comforts us in all our tribulation» (2 Cor. 1:3). Acknowledge therefore God the Father as our comforter in his work, and learn not to contend vainly about the name. But if you do not cease obstinately to deny it, you will deny to yourself the benefit of his consolation. Yet beware lest the one whom you deny to be comforter, you experience as avenger. FRAGMENT III. The offices of messenger, of teacher, and of judge are common to the Father and the Holy Spirit. «Subministration» differs from «ministry».
But I marvel how you would wish to restrict to the Son and the Holy Spirit the name of messenger, as though anyone shows himself lesser thereby, if in any work he announces his will to those who are ignorant of it. Although the name of messenger, who in Greek is called angel, can be found in the Son alone. For he is called «the Angel of great counsel» (Isa. 9:6). But as for the Holy Spirit, although you may find in him the work of announcement, yet I think you cannot find the Holy Spirit called an angel. The Son therefore was called the Angel of great counsel: which counsel, nevertheless, was not of the Father alone, but was the counsel of the Trinity. For the Son himself, just as he was called the Angel of great counsel, so also is called «wonderful, counsellor».
The Holy Spirit too is himself «the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and might» (Isa. 11:2). The Angel of great counsel, therefore, is called the Son alone; but the work of announcement is alien neither from the Father nor from the Holy Spirit. For by God the Father the things which pertain to our salvation are shown to be announced. For what could be more salutary to the world than the coming of Christ the Saviour? Whom, nevertheless, the Father testifies that he himself announced among men: for he says through the prophet Amos: «For behold, I am he who establishes the thunder, and creates the Spirit, and announces his Christ among men» (Amos 4:13). This is understood of none other than the person of God the Father: whence Saint Luke the evangelist says that, when the Son of God had said:
«But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answering said, The Christ of God» (Luke 9:20). But lest anyone, hearing God saying: «For behold, I am he who establishes the thunder, and creates the Spirit», should on this account wish to assert that the Holy Spirit was created — the Spirit who is agreed to be the Creator of all things — let him attend to this, that if in this place anything were to be understood of the Holy Spirit, the thunder would surely not have been named first. But it is said: «Behold, I establish the thunder and create the Spirit»: but if anyone wished to take it according to the letter, there is nothing else that he should here understand to be placed under the name of «spirit» than the wind, which in the psalm too is called «the spirit of tempest» (Ps. 10:7 [11:6]):
especially because he set thunder first, which is wont to happen precisely when clouds are gathered by the blowing winds. Nevertheless, because a spiritual understanding is more fitting to this prophetic passage (chiefly because, when he had said: «Behold, I establish the thunder, and create the spirit», he immediately added, «and announcing his Christ among men»), let us here worthily understand the office of apostolic preaching to be prophesied. For he named that very preaching «thunder», concerning which blessed David too says: «The voice of your thunder in the wheel» (Ps. 76:19 [77:18]): that is, the voice of your preaching throughout the globe of the earth. For by the name of «wheel» he signified the globe: for a wheel too is a circle, whence little wheels are called «orbicles»;
and the track of a wheel is called an «orbit», that is, the path of the circle. God therefore established the thunder, in that he established the evangelical preaching; he created the spirit, in that he made spiritual preachers of the Gospel; and he announced his Christ among men, namely through the dispensation of the New Testament. Since, therefore, you see that the work of announcement befits the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, why is it that you seek to demonstrate a difference by names, when yet you find that the Son alone is called an angel? Moreover, in the person of the Holy Spirit no one can easily find this name.
If therefore you raise a question about the name, you have nothing to object against the Holy Spirit, so as to assert him lesser than the Son, since Holy Scripture is found rather to call the Son by the name of angel. But if you assert that the term «angel» is to be assigned to the Son not according to his divinity, but according to his flesh, then do not call the divinity of the Son diverse from the divinity of the Father, since you do not say that the term «angel» befits his divinity, but his flesh. But if — which is more fitting — you attend not to the name of the work, but to the work itself, the announcement is found common to the Trinity. Attend therefore to that discourse of the Lord and Saviour which he held to his disciples, when he promised them the coming of the Paraclete;
and understand this concerning him, for the purpose for which you know him to have come. For before his passion the Lord foretold to the disciples that the Paraclete Spirit would come to teach, in that place where he promised that this same Paraclete would be sent both by the Father and by the Son. For he says: «For the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things whatsoever I have said to you» (John 14:26). «He will teach you», he says, not «he will petition for you». Likewise in the same discourse: «But when the Paraclete has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me» (John 15:26); and again: «I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now».
«But when that Spirit of truth has come, he will teach you all truth» (John 16:12-13). Where, from the very likeness of the work, the communion of the deity has been shown. For the Father teaches us, the Lord saying: «It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard of the Father and has learned, comes to me» (Isa. 54:13; John 6:45). The Son also teaches, of whom it is written that «his disciples came to him, and opening his mouth he taught them» (Matt. 5:1-2). The Holy Spirit also teaches us, as we have shown above from the very words of the Son of God. Hence it is that blessed Paul too assigns the whole work of his preaching to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, saying:
«For who among men knows the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? So too the things of God no one has known, save the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are given us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the teaching of the Spirit» (1 Cor. 2:11-13). This teaching of the Holy Spirit blessed John too instils in us, signifying the Holy Spirit himself by the name of «anointing». For he says thus: «These things I write to you concerning those who seduce you. And let the anointing which you have received from him abide in you. And you have no need that anyone teach you;
but as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie» (1 John 2:26-27). Let these things be said by us, because you wished to object the name of Advocate to the Holy Spirit, on the ground that the Lord Jesus named him Paraclete; so that we might show for the sake of what work the Lord said the Paraclete would come. For since the teacher himself was departing bodily from the disciples, he was surely promising them a teacher: and see what kind of teacher, one who would bestow on them both knowledge and power. For concerning him he says to the disciples: «But sit in the city, until you be endued with power from on high» (Luke 24:49); and again he says: «You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you» (Acts 1:8).
Therefore the Spirit himself, coming, just as he bestowed knowledge, so also conferred firmness. For this reason it is written of the disciples: «And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness» (Acts 4:31). Call the teacher lesser, if any philosophy has conquered his teaching: call the teacher lesser, if the savagery of kings has overcome those made firm by him. But whether you can anywhere find the Holy Spirit called a minister (servant), I do not know. And lest you promise yourself any support for your assertion from that passage of the Apostle in which, writing to the Philippians, he says: «For I know that this shall turn to my salvation, through your prayer and the subministration of the Spirit of Jesus Christ» (Phil. 1:19)—
I think that you, a man who profess yourself skilled in Latinity, surely know that «to subminister» is not the same as «to minister». For in the one is shown the obedience of humility, but in the other the mark of abundance and of power. For by the one who ministers, obedient service is rendered; but by the one who subministers, aid is bestowed. For tell me, I pray, when the Apostle had said to men: «I know that this shall turn to my salvation, through your prayer» — in which prayer he was surely awaiting not their ministry, but their help, as he shows elsewhere, saying: «I beseech you therefore, brethren, through the love of the Spirit, that you help me in your prayers for me to God» (Rom. 15:30);
since therefore, as I said, blessed Paul was awaiting the prayer of the faithful as a help, what need was there for him to add, «and the subministration of the Spirit of Jesus Christ»? unless because he wished to show that the Holy Spirit bestows effect upon the prayer of the faithful, while he subministers aid to those for whom or on whose behalf prayer is made — doing this not by the obedient service of a servile condition, but by the command of divine power, which he has by nature one with the Father and the Son. That you may know this more manifestly, I will also bring forward for you in this place the truth of the Greek reading. For blessed Paul, writing to Timothy, among other things says: «Take Mark, and bring him with you: for he is useful to me for the ministry»: which in Greek stands thus:
«Take Mark and bring (in the Bible: 'lead') him with you, for he is useful to me for the ministry (diakonian)» (2 Tim. 4:11). You see indeed that here the ministry is called by the Apostle diakonia. But in that other passage he says: «Through your prayer and the subministration of the Spirit of Jesus Christ»; in Greek it is placed, «through your supplication and the supply (epichoregias) of the Spirit of Jesus Christ» (Phil. 1:19). Is it not manifest that diakonia is not the same as choregia? Hear also another, clearer proof from the Epistle of blessed Peter, whereby you may recognize that «administration», that is choregia, belongs not to the creature, but to the Creator;
and that from the name of «administration» you may understand, without any mist of doubt, that the Holy Spirit is nothing other than God. For blessed Peter says: «Be hospitable one to another without murmuring: as every man has received grace, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let it be as the words of God; if any man minister, let it be as of the power which God administers (supplies)». Which in Greek is thus: «... which God supplies (choregei)» (1 Pet. 4:9-11). From these passages, which are distinguished by Greek rather than by Latin speech, «ministry» is known to pertain to human operation, but «administration» or «subministration» to divine grace.
This, then, is to subminister to the Holy Spirit: it is to give sufficiency. For when God administers power, he gives sufficiency. That this sufficiency is not from ourselves but from God, the blessed Apostle teaches, saying: «Our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit» (2 Cor. 3:5-6). And showing his own ministry, he took care also to demonstrate the subministration of the Holy Spirit, saying: «For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life» (ibid.). But it has seemed to you a matter for calling God the Father a judge, as though this were not also the case with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Or do you not know that it was said by the Apostle:
«I charge you before God, and Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his coming and his kingdom» (2 Tim. 4:1). But concerning the Holy Spirit, the Son himself says, that «he will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment» (John 16:8). FROM BOOK II, ON THE OFFICES OF PETITIONING, GROANING, AND PRAYING IN CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT. FRAGMENT IV. In Christ, the leader of natures, there is a single person. We, confessing Christ to be the Son of the living God (which the apostle Peter confessed of him, and by the grace of this confession deserved to be called blessed by the Saviour himself (Matt. 16:16-17)), believe him to be one and the same Son of God and of man;
and, most certainly acknowledging in him the natural truth of the paternal and maternal substance: as we do not divide in him either nature, so also we in no way separate them. This indeed is what the Catholic Church blames and condemns in the Nestorians; who err most of all in this, that on account of the twin substance of Christ they wish to double the person in him, so as to say that one belongs to the Son of God, but another to the Son of man: whereas one and the same is the Son of God and of man, from God the Father the Word who is God, and from the Virgin mother the Word made flesh, that is, God truly born a man: who, taking the form of a servant, in which he might become from his mother a true man, lost nothing in that form of God, in which with the Father he is by nature one God;
and when he emptied himself, he remained full of his own riches; and when he humbled himself, he did not cease to be what he was, always the Most High. Whence thus too he «became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross» (Phil. 2:8), in such a way that in the work of obedience he did not lose the rights of his own power. Accordingly, even when he died, he nonetheless did not cease to be true God and life eternal; and when with a humble heart he bore the ignominy of the cross, he remained the Lord of glory and of majesty. FRAGMENT V. How the Holy Spirit may groan or petition. According to the right rule, therefore, of the Catholic faith, that the Holy Spirit groans must not be understood in such a way:
since indeed groaning befits neither the divine nature, which the Holy Spirit possesses, nor even the angelic beatitude, which the holy angels are known to have by the gift of the Trinity. Whence it is rightly understood in that manner in which it is wont to be signified by way of the efficient cause producing what is effected — that is, he makes us groan, desire, and petition, namely while he inspires into our hearts the affection of groaning and petitioning. So then the Holy Spirit is said to groan, desire, and petition, just as God too is said to «know», by reason of his making one who knows. For it was said to Abraham: «Now I know that you fear God, and have not spared your beloved son for my sake» (Gen. 22:12).
Whence, because in God there abides by nature the immutable and eternal knowledge of all things, and it is impious to believe that the everlasting Godhead came to know anything in time; the rule of truth surely requires this, that when the divinity says it has come to know, it be understood that it makes one who knows. The blessed Apostle held the same mode of speech, writing to the Galatians and saying: «But then indeed, not knowing God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now, since you have come to know God, or rather have been known by God» (Gal. 4:8-9). Where it was certainly not false that the Apostle said they had come to know God, and yet he wished as it were to remove this by the following sentence:
but lest they should wish to assign that very knowledge not to the divine gift, but to themselves; the Apostle, following, in that mode of speech which we have mentioned, whereby through the efficient cause is shown what is effected, said that they had been «known by God»: showing that it was brought about by God that they should know God. Next, you cannot deny that the Apostle said: «And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father» (ibid., 6). How then does that Spirit, who is not the Son, but nevertheless is the Spirit of truth, cry «Abba, Father», except surely in that manner in which he makes us cry? Which the blessed Apostle in another place evidently makes plain, saying: «For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For you have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: Abba, Father» (Rom. 8:14-15). You perceive indeed that for the Spirit to cry «Abba, Father» is this: to make us cry. The Holy Spirit therefore is said to groan and to petition for this reason, because he makes us groan and petition. For just as the Apostle expounded more clearly and manifestly that which he had said of the Spirit, «crying: Abba, Father», by saying, «in whom we cry: Abba, Father»; so also that which he said of the Spirit petitioning he similarly expounded in another place, saying: «Praying at all times in the Spirit, and watching in him in all perseverance and supplication» (Eph. 6:18).
Behold how the Spirit petitions for us, while we pray in the Spirit: behold how he intercedes for us, while we watch in all perseverance and supplication in that same Spirit. For the Holy Spirit, through whom the charity of God is poured out in our hearts, makes us groan and petition for our iniquities. And he makes us groan, while he makes us grieve over our iniquity, petition pardon, desire righteousness. That desire and groaning he had received by the gift of the Holy Spirit, who said: «I roared with the groaning of my heart»; and, «Before you is all my desire, and my groaning is not hidden from you» (Ps. 37:9-10 [38:8-9]). FRAGMENT VI.
Christ intercedes for us as man and as priest. As to that which the angels desire to look into concerning the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, therefore, does not groan, because in his nature — divine and immutably blessed — there can be no misery of groaning. But you object to us that Christ prays for us: which we in no way deny, knowing that the Apostle said: «Who shall accuse the elect of God? God, who justifies. Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus, who died, or rather who also rose again, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us» (Rom. 8:33-34). Christ therefore intercedes for us according to that nature which he took from us:
which nature, because the Holy Spirit did not take, he in no way intercedes or petitions for us. But that which the Son alone intercedes according to the form of a servant, this, according to the one common nature of divinity, the Holy Spirit bestows together with the Father and the Son. For even Christ Jesus himself would in no way pray for men, if he had not become man. But he prays for us in virtue of the office of priest. And the true person of a priest cannot be found where there is no true humanity. For the apostolic authority testifies that «every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in the things that pertain to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins» (Heb. 5:1).
But that High Priest, taken from among men, in order that he might truly offer a pure sacrifice for us, offered nothing else than himself. That oblation, therefore, of a holy and undefiled High Priest, is itself the Saviour's prayer for us which can be heard. Therefore, according to the attestation of the blessed apostle John: «We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is himself the propitiation for our sins» (1 John 2:1-2). Yet rising from the dead, because he dies no more, and death shall no longer have dominion over him, being without infirmity and mortality, he was at once free from sorrow and from grief. Accordingly he both performs the true office of praying for us, and yet does not groan. For he intercedes for us secure:
because he surely asks for those to whom he has purposed to give salvation. In no way, therefore, does Christ groan while he intercedes for us: because what he has from the humanity of the flesh so as to ask, he has from the majesty of divinity so as to grant. But if you desire to recognize the merit of the Holy Spirit from divine Scripture, see what Peter the apostle says of him; for he himself says: «The Holy Spirit sent from heaven, into whom the angels desire to look» (1 Pet. 1:12). Here surely, when you hear that the Holy Spirit was sent from heaven, there is none whom you may understand save the Paraclete Spirit. But remember what the Son of God says of the angels, that «they always behold the face of the Father» (Matt. 18:10); and yet they desire to look into the Holy Spirit.
But if you were to hear that the holy angels see the face of the Holy Spirit, and desire to look into the Father, would you not from this assert the Father to be far more excellent, because the Holy Spirit is seen, but the Father is desired rather than seen? But divine Scripture did not on that account say that the Father is seen and the Holy Spirit is desired, in order to show the Holy Spirit more excellent (which is impious to say): but by saying this it instils in us the equality of the Father and of the Holy Spirit. So that from this — that the angels are said to see the Father, but to desire to look into the Holy Spirit —
let this discourse profit us to this end, that the Holy Spirit — whom true faith cannot believe more excellent than the Father — profane unbelief may in no way dare to esteem inferior. For in the holy angels there is one unfailing vision and longing for the Trinity, which they surely both behold always and always desire to behold. But for this reason the summum bonum, that is, the one true and blessed God, is there lived in forever, because he is forever seen and forever loved. As therefore love makes that vision not fail, so vision makes love abide. And love is not laid aside for this reason, because that vision is not changed: and for this reason that vision is not changed, because that which is seen is an immutable good.
That longing to look upon, therefore, is not without the gladness of enjoying to the full. For nothing is sweeter than the holy Trinity, nothing more pleasant, because nothing is better. Thence the angels have eternity, that they may live unfailingly; thence truth, that they may see manifestly; thence charity, that they may long faithfully. FROM BOOK III. ON THE ONE IMMENSE LORD OUR GOD. FRAGMENT VII. What things are proper to each of the persons of the Trinity. For we can truly say something of each single one, which we cannot say of the whole Trinity. For we truly profess that the Father alone begot, that the Son alone was born of the Father; we also truly say that the Holy Spirit alone proceeds from the Father and the Son.
For the Trinity did not beget the Son, nor was the Trinity born of the Father, nor does the Trinity proceed from the Father and the Son. There are therefore single things which, although they do not belong to the Trinity, yet belong to the single persons within the Trinity. Just as that voice too, which sounded from heaven over the baptized Jesus (Matt. 3:16-17), so belongs to the Father alone that it can belong neither to the Son nor to the Holy Spirit; and to have seen the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him, so belongs to the Son alone that it in no way belongs either to the Father or to the Holy Spirit; and to have descended in bodily form like a dove upon Jesus, so belongs to the Holy Spirit alone that it can be assigned neither to the Father nor to the Son.
There are therefore some things which agree with the single persons, and do not befit the three; yet there is nothing which does not belong to one person and can also befit the three persons together. For in the Trinity itself, although it is one thing for the Son to be born of the Father, and another for the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Father (since the procession of the Holy Spirit is not the same as the nativity of the Son), yet it is common to the Son and the Holy Spirit to be from the Father by nature; although it is proper to the Holy Spirit alone to be, as from the Father, so also from the Son. But to the Father it is proper to be from none, that is, not to have an author of his natural essence. FRAGMENT VIII. The Holy Spirit so fills the globe of the earth that he is always also in heaven.
One is the immensity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24)? Of this the sequence of the divine oracle bears witness, that she is from the Lord God, and was ever with him, and is before all ages (Sir. 1:1). But because his invisible things are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, therefore, when Scripture had said, 'The sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of the world, who hath numbered? The height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the depth of the abyss, who hath measured?' (Sir. 1:2) — so that from created things we might come to know the magnificence of the Creator — it is immediately added: 'The wisdom of God going before all things, who hath searched it out?' And rightly; for of that same Wisdom it is said:
'For she reacheth everywhere by reason of her purity, and no defiled thing cometh into her' (Wis. 7:24, 26); and again: 'She reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly' (Wis. 8:1). But what is it to reach everywhere, if not to fill the whole? And she fills all things even as the Father fills them, and the Holy Spirit. Wherefore blessed David says: 'Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? and whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; if I descend into hell, thou art present' (Ps. 138:7-8). And in another place it is said that 'the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world' (Wis. 1:7). Do you suppose that the Holy Spirit so fills the world that, while he fills the earth, he is not in heaven?
But observe what the same book of Wisdom contains in another place; for there it is said to God: 'And the things that are in the heavens, who shall search out? And who shall know thy mind, unless thou give wisdom, and send thy Spirit from on high?' (Wis. 9:16-17). Acknowledge therefore that one is the immensity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; for the Trinity is one God, who created all things, and surpasses in the eternity and unchangeableness of his wisdom and power all the things which he has made. Seeing this indeed, the blessed Apostle used to say: 'The peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus' (Phil. 4:7). FRAGMENT IX. The three persons are our one Lord God.
If, then, it must be understood as you say — namely, that the Son is our God, but the Father is the God of our God, and yet the Father and the Son are not by nature our one Lord God — see how by your own words you are compelled to deny to God the Father the homage of divine service. For it is said to us: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one' (Deut. 6:4). And in another place: 'Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve' (Deut. 6:13). For in the Decalogue too it is certain that this is contained as the first commandment: 'I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage' (Exod. 20:2). David also says: 'Who is God but the Lord? or who is God but our God?' (Ps. 17:32).
But this our Lord God commanded an altar to be built to himself alone, and commanded victims to be immolated to himself alone, saying: 'You shall make me an altar of earth, and shall offer upon it your holocausts and your peace offerings' (Exod. 20:24). For in the same book it is also said: 'He that sacrificeth to gods shall be rooted out, save only to the Lord' (Exod. 22:20). Wherefore either acknowledge, laying aside your unbelief, that the Father and the Son according to the divine nature are our one Lord God; or say that there ought not to be rendered to God the Father what we are commanded to render to the Lord our God alone. For you have said that, because our God is the Son, he is not by nature one God: tell us, then, whom you think we ought to adore, and to whom victims ought to be offered.
To him whom you call our God, or to him whom you assert is the God of our God? But according to your view it is necessary either that you cast away the precept of the Law, if you think that sacrifice ought to be offered to the Father alone; or, if you obey the Law, that you say victims ought to be offered to the Son alone. For according to your opinion, the Law commands that sacrifice be made not to the God of our God, but to our God. FRAGMENT X. God the Father is the God of the Son from the womb of the mother, not from the loins of the begetter. Acknowledge, therefore, that according to divinity there is one God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and that to that same one God, who commands himself to be worshipped by the faithful, all the homage of dutiful service is inseparably to be rendered.
Acknowledge also that God the Father is the God of the Son, not from the eternity of the divine nativity, but from the time of the humanity that was assumed. For the Son has God the Father as his God; but from the womb of the mother, not from the loins of the begetter. And if you do not believe this, hear from the Son himself the truth of this mystery, who says in the psalm: 'From my mother's womb thou art my God' (Ps. 21:11). For because God the Father is by nature the Father of the only-begotten Son, but is our God: this, by unspeakable goodness, according to the counsel of his will, he brought to pass, that for our salvation he might become, through grace, the God of his only-begotten Son, to whom by nature he is Father;
and that to us, to whom he is God by nature, he might deign to be Father through grace. FRAGMENT XI. Christ is truly our God. Estimation in the Scriptures is twofold: of uncertain knowledge and of certain knowledge. Christ is not the God of the Manichaeans, of the Jews, or of the Arians. Let us assuredly accept and embrace the opinion of blessed Cyprian, who, writing to Quirinus, in the second book, chapter six, under the title THAT CHRIST IS GOD, among other testimonies brought forth also this: 'This is our God, and no other shall be accounted beside him: who hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. After this he was seen upon the earth, and conversed with men' (Bar. 3:36-38).
Acknowledge, by the testimony of so great a martyr, that this was said concerning Christ: 'This is our God, and no other shall be esteemed beside him'; and learn to understand the divine sayings rightly, and not to stand as a rebel against the Son of God. For the blessed prophet wished to show forth the mystery of the divine incarnation. Whence it was necessary for him both to call Christ our God, beside whom no other shall be esteemed, according to divinity, and to prophesy that the same one was seen on earth according to the true substance of the flesh. For by the faithful no other God is esteemed (that is, is believed, is received, is thought) beside the Son of God: because 'God' is not the name of a person, but of a nature.
If, then, we attend to the nature, since the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, that is, one nature; just as apart from the Father no other God is esteemed, so apart from the Son no other God is esteemed, so likewise apart from the Holy Spirit no other God is esteemed. Therefore, apart from the Son of God no other God can be esteemed by the faithful, because outside the nature of the Son of God, which is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, no other God can in any way be found. And so blessed Jeremiah, refuting the Arians by this testimony, at the same time with them refutes also the Manichaeans and the Jews: so that the Manichaeans, too, may believe that this same God-Christ, whom they believe to have been seen on earth and to have conversed with men, gave the Law to the people of the Jews;
and that the Jews both believe and proclaim that he, by whom the Law was given to the people of Israel, is the same Son of God, and may acknowledge that the same one was seen on earth and conversed with men in the sacrament of the incarnation. For not in vain did the blessed prophet say: 'After this he was seen upon the earth': except assuredly to show that after this — that is, after he gave the way of instruction to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved — after this indeed he was seen on earth. So as to show that he was not then seen when he gave the Law through angels, of which the Apostle says: 'Ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator' (Gal. 3:19); but was assuredly seen then when he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.
For to this end he took the form of a servant, that he might be able to be seen, and conversed with men — this our God, beside whom no other can be esteemed. But 'estimation' is wont to be used in two ways in the Scriptures. For one is said to esteem, whether it be he who thinks something to be which is not, or he who most certainly knows that to be which is. To the estimation of uncertain knowledge belongs what blessed Stephen says of holy Moses, in the Acts of the Apostles: 'And he thought that his brethren understood that God by his hand would give them salvation' (Acts 7:25). And to show that this estimation was uncertain, he added: 'But they understood it not.' Likewise in the same book, when the angel had led blessed Peter out of prison, it is said:
'And he knew not that it was true which was done by the angel; but he thought he saw a vision' (Acts 12:9). But by the name of 'estimation,' most certain knowledge is set down in the book of Wisdom, where it is said of Wisdom herself: 'And if a man desire much knowledge, she knoweth things past, and formeth an estimate of things to come' (Wis. 8:8). But what is it for Wisdom to esteem, if not most certainly to know? Whence Paul too, having the mind of Christ, that which he said he esteemed, he most certainly knew, when he says: 'For I esteem that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us' (Rom. 8:18). For in Paul the knowledge of these things is not to be called uncertain, but certain.
Such, therefore, is also what blessed Jeremiah said concerning Christ: 'This is our God, and no other shall be esteemed beside him' (Bar. 3:36). For what is 'shall not be esteemed,' if not 'shall not be known'? Hence it is that blessed Isaiah says: 'O Lord, beside thee we have known no other: thy name we have invoked' (Isa. 26:13). This, therefore, is our God — that is, the God of Christians — who beside him esteem no other God. He is not the God of the Manichaeans, who do not believe that he gave the Law. He is not the God of the Jews, who do not believe him to be the living God, but a dead man. He is not the God of the Arians, who do not believe him to be with the Father one God by nature.
For beside Christ they esteem another God, they who preach one nature of the Father, another of the Son: and because this is not the Christian, but the heretical sense, therefore in the case of those who so esteem, neither can the Father be God nor the Son. For his God is Christ known to be, by whom no other God is by nature in any way esteemed. FROM BOOK IV. ON THE WORSHIP OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. FRAGMENT XII. We are the temple of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. To them is service due from us. But we are so the temple of God the Father and of the Holy Spirit that we are the temple also of the Son. For it is certain that the temple of God is also called the house of God. Whence the prophet says:
'But as for me, in the multitude of thy mercy I will come into thy house; I will worship toward thy holy temple in thy fear' (Ps. 5:8). For the Savior himself too, when he cast out of the temple those who sold and bought, calling that same temple a house, said: 'It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves' (Matt. 21:13). But that we are the house of Christ, the apostolic authority attests, where it is said: 'But Christ as a Son in his own house, which house are we' (Heb. 3:6). It appears, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is by nature God; since we are so the temple of the Holy Spirit, as we are the temple of the Father and of the Son.
And since we can be the temple neither of two nor of three gods, nor is it lawful for us to worship a creature, or to serve a creature — that is, to render latreia — therefore we worthily worship one God, not the Father alone, nor the Son alone, nor the Holy Spirit alone; but the Trinity itself, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, distinguish the temples, that you may also distinguish the merits: and say in which the Father has a temple, in which the Son, in which the Holy Spirit. Which the Apostle assuredly did not distinguish, who in one and the same Epistle said that those whom he called the temple of God were themselves the temple of the Holy Spirit: whom also, calling them members of Christ, he showed to be the temple of Christ.
For he says again in the same Epistle: 'You are the body of Christ, and members' (1 Cor. 12:27). Wherefore elsewhere he says: 'For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones' (Eph. 5:30). But see how our Savior himself calls his own body a temple, saying: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up' (John 2:19). And the blessed evangelist, showing of what temple he had spoken, said: 'But he spoke of the temple of his body' (John 2:21). Therefore we are the temple of God, because we are members of the body of Christ. And we are the temple of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Not of three unequal ones — the Father, and the Son, and the creature the Holy Spirit;
but of the Trinity itself, the one God, whose temple we are, rendering to him the homage of service. Which it is not lawful for us in any way to deny to the one God, whose temple we are; nor to render it to a god whose temple we are not. Observing in every way that which was said: 'Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve' (Deut. 6:13). This service itself is in Greek called latreia, which is rendered by right and by law to the true God alone — not by the faithless, but by catholic believers. Whence the Apostle blames certain ones 'who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator' (Rom. 1:25).
This passage is thus rendered in the Greek speech: kai esebasthesan, kai elatreusan te ktisei para ton ktisanta. You see indeed that those are gravely censured by the Apostle who have rendered to any creature the latreia due to the Creator alone. Moreover, the blessed Apostle, showing that this worship of the creature which is called latreia consists chiefly in the immolation of sacrifices, when he wished to keep the Corinthians from the eating of sacrificial flesh, thus said: 'Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from the worship of idols. I speak as to wise men; judge you what I say. The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?'
'and the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?' (1 Cor. 10:14-16). And further on, showing what worship of idols he had spoken of, from which he bade them flee, he says: 'You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord and the chalice of devils; you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of devils' (1 Cor. 10:21). It appears, therefore, that this worship which is called latreia is found chiefly in sacrifices. For that too which we recalled a little before, that the blessed Apostle said, 'Flee from the worship of idols,' is in the Greek set down as idololatria. Which passage stands thus: pheugete apo tes... FRAGMENT XIII. In what latreia and douleusis differ. Latreia, then, the true divinity alone claims for itself;
but douleusis is both to be rendered to God as much as is fitting, and to be shown to men as much as is becoming. Therefore because of latreia it is said: 'Sacrifice to God the sacrifice of justice' (Ps. 4:6); and, 'He that sacrificeth to gods shall be rooted out, save only to the Lord' (Exod. 22:20). But because of douleusis the Apostle says: 'Serve the Lord Christ' (Col. 3:24); and again: 'Serve one another in charity' (Gal. 5:13). Again the same Apostle, when he was speaking of the foods which are immolated to idols, said because of latreia: 'But to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord our Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him' (1 Cor. 8:6). But because of douleusis he says: 'Paul, servant of Christ Jesus' (Rom.
1:1); and speaking to the faithful, he says: 'For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord, and ourselves your servants through Jesus' (2 Cor. 4:5). FRAGMENT XIV. When the Son of God is spoken of, not the deity of Christ alone, but also the humanity is signified. The same is Christ who is Jesus Christ. I, then, those things which it seemed good to you to insert under my name into false records, I neither held nor said. For may God avert and put far away that perverse and death-dealing sense from the heart of the faithful. For who — I say not foolish, but utterly insane — would dare to believe or to say that, when the Son of God is spoken of, only the deity of Christ is more evidently signified?
since indeed the same Son of God is proclaimed by the prophetic oracles not only according to divinity, but also according to the flesh, not only Son of God, but also God. For it is clear that the Son of God was anointed with the Holy Spirit, not according to divinity, but according to humanity: and yet him who was anointed, blessed David calls God, saying: 'God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows' (Ps. 44:8). Or who would say that where 'Jesus' is set down, the person of a man only is declared; but where 'Jesus Christ' is set down, there now the parts of humanity exceed those of the deity? Since indeed the blessed Apostle says: 'Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.'
'Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man' (Phil. 2:5-7). Do you see Jesus Christ in the form of God? Jesus Christ who emptied himself, and took the form of a servant? Jesus Christ made into the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man? But all these things — who did them, if not the only-begotten God? Likewise the Apostle says: 'One Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him' (1 Cor. 8:6). But who is Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, if not he of whom the evangelist says: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'
'The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was made nothing' (John 1:1-3)? Since, therefore, Jesus Christ is one God and man, therefore whether when he speaks of himself, or when the apostles speak of him, nowhere do they make that distinction which you have vainly wished to make in that falsity of your records. For our Savior himself, as he calls himself wholly the Son of God, so he calls himself wholly the Son of man. For when he had said to the man born blind whom he had enlightened: 'Dost thou believe in the Son of God?' and he had answered: 'Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?' the Son of God himself thus answered him: 'Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee' (John 9:35-37).
Was it then only his deity that spoke to him, or did he see and adore only the deity? By no means. For the Lord Jesus himself is in both natures one Son of God. Who says again of himself: 'No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven' (John 3:13). Yet he did not say either of these according to the flesh alone. For at that same time he had his flesh not in heaven, but on earth: and yet he was the Son of man, not only on earth, but also in heaven: according to the flesh alone, that is, on earth alone; but according to divinity, both in heaven and on earth: yet in both inseparably one Son of man. For the same Jesus Christ is one Son of God and of man.
In vain, then, have you multiplied for yourself superfluous words, wishing to show the apostles to be servants not only of Jesus Christ, but also of Christ. Since indeed the same is Christ who is Jesus Christ, having both natures in one person, in whom the divine and human substance remains undivided and unconfused. FRAGMENT XV. Neither 'Spirit' without an adjunct, nor 'Holy Spirit,' is in the Scriptures called Father or Son. The same is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who is the Paraclete. At least now acknowledge that the apostles and prophets preached the Spirit the Paraclete, that is, the Holy Spirit, to be the very Spirit of God. That, then, which the Apostle set down: 'Who serve the Spirit of God' (Phil.
13:75
III, 3), nonalioquamSpirituisancto, idestParacleto, docuitserviendum. Huncaulemlocumnonpossumus, sicuttuputas, deDeoPatre, sivedeDeoFilioaccipere. QuoniamlicetetPaterSpiritussit, nunquamtamenPaterautFiliusabsolute, idestsinealiquaadjectionenominisinveniturSpiritusnuncupatus. Nametineoquoddictumest: SpiritusestDeus (Joan. iv, 24); additumestillicDeus; etineoquodFiliusdiciturSpiritus, invenimusJeremiamdixisse : SpiritusantefaciemnostramChristusDominus (Thren. iv, 20). NonautemabsolutePateretFiliusinveniturnuncupariSpiritus, quodinvenimusinSpiritusancto. SicutillolocoubiaitApostolus :
3:3), he taught that service is to be rendered to none other than the Holy Spirit, that is, the Paraclete. But this passage we cannot, as you suppose, take of God the Father, or of God the Son. For although the Father too is Spirit, yet never is the Father or the Son found called 'Spirit' absolutely — that is, without some addition of a name. For even in that which was said: 'God is a Spirit' (John 4:24), there is added the word 'God'; and in that in which the Son is called Spirit, we find Jeremiah to have said: 'The Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord' (Lam. 4:20). But the Father and the Son are not found named 'Spirit' absolutely, as we find in the case of the Holy Spirit. As in that place where the Apostle says:
'I beseech you, therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the charity of the Spirit' (Rom. 15:30), he speaks manifestly of the Holy Spirit; and again: 'In whom you also are built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit' (Eph. 2:22). And the apostle Jude says: 'These are they who separate themselves, sensual men, not having the Spirit' (Jude 19). But so, when 'Spirit' is said absolutely, it is not to be understood except as the Holy Spirit; just as also when 'Father' only is said, we understand none but God the Father; and when 'Son' only is said, we can understand none but Christ alone. Which rule, promulgated by the divine Scriptures, we hold by their oracles;
which, when it names the Father, shows that none other than God the Father is to be understood; and, naming only the Son, showed that Christ is to be acknowledged; and, naming only the Spirit, taught that the Holy Spirit is to be received: at least in those places where either the human spirit is not to be understood, or, by the human spirit itself, some creature inferior to it. As is that which the Apostle says: 'The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit liveth because of justification' (Rom. 8:10). And that which the Lord said through the prophet: 'The Spirit shall go forth from me, and every breath I have made' (Isa. 57:16). For he showed what he called spirit, when he said also 'breath.'
But he called man's spirit 'breath' for this reason, because it is written that 'God breathed into the face of man the breath of life, and man was made into a living soul' (Gen. 2:7). Other similar things are found, in which not that uncreated one, but any spirit — whether rational or irrational, yet created — is intimated. But whenever the Spirit is named with honor (as is that which the Apostle says: 'By the charity of the Spirit' (Rom. 15:30), and whatever things are similar), it is not permitted in these to understand any but the Holy Spirit; that Spirit assuredly of whom our Savior said: 'Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men; but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven' (Matt. 12:31).
But in this place we ought to know that it is the genitive case, that is, 'of this Spirit'; not the nominative, as very many are deceived in thinking. Which is found distinguished in the Greek, where it is said not to Pneuma, but tou Pneumatos. Finally, the Greek codex of the Gospel has thus: he de tou Pneumatos blasphemia ouk aphethesetai. Where the Son of God, to show who is the Spirit whose irremissible blasphemy he pronounced, added these words (v. 32): 'And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but he that shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come.'
Therefore not only when 'Spirit' is set down absolutely, but also when 'Holy Spirit' is named by the apostles, nowhere is the Father or the Son found to be signified, but that Spirit is signified who is properly called in the Trinity the Holy Spirit: whom the Son of God himself undoubtedly shows, saying: 'Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. 28:19). We do not, therefore, deny — as pertains to nature — that the Father too is Spirit, and the Son Spirit, and the Father holy, and the Son holy: for one is the nature of the Trinity, and one is its natural holiness. But nevertheless, as pertains to the property of the person, nowhere is the Holy Spirit found so set down;
so that by the same name either the Father or the Son should be understood: except that Spirit properly the Paraclete, who is assuredly neither Father nor Son, but the one and the same Spirit of the Father and of the Son. FRAGMENT XVI. We are the temple, and the sacrifice, and the priests of the Holy Spirit as of the Father and of the Son. Nothing, however, prejudices the divinity of the Holy Spirit, whom blessed Paul most certainly shows to be God, when he said that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, 'whom you have from God' (1 Cor. 6:19). Where you can in no way point out the person of the Father; since the blessed Apostle said that we have the Holy Spirit 'from God.'
But neither can you in any way demonstrate the person of the Son in the name of the Holy Spirit, which the Apostle above distinguished, saying: 'Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ?' (1 Cor. 6:15). In this, therefore, the Apostle evidently shows the Holy Trinity, naming Christ, that is, the Son of God, naming also the Holy Spirit, naming nonetheless also God, that is, the Father, from whom we have that same Holy Spirit (which you have vainly inserted with your lies, but we have him from God): in whom assuredly we for this reason recognize true deity, because we make him a temple not of stones and wood, but we ourselves are his temple.
And assuredly he who dwells in a temple not made by hands is God most high, blessed Stephen saying that 'the Most High dwelleth not in things made by hands' (Acts 7:48). Whence, when he had said this, and the same most blessed martyr had subjoined that testimony which says: 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what house will you build me? saith the Lord' (Isa. 66:1); after a little he added: 'You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you also' (Acts 7:51). One, therefore, is the Most High God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who dwells not in things made by hands; but, through the grace which he bestows on us, has mercifully made us a temple for himself.
And not only a temple, but also a sacrifice. For our very bodies (which we have sufficiently shown above to be the temple not of the Father alone, nor of the Son alone, nor of the Holy Spirit alone, but of the Trinity itself, the one God, namely of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit), that we may offer them to God as a living victim, the blessed Apostle teaches, saying: 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God' (Rom. 12:1). But in so far as anyone offers a victim to God, in so much does he spiritually discharge the office of a priest. Whence blessed Peter too showed that we are at once the temple, and the priests, and the victims, saying:
'And you, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ' (1 Pet. 2:5). Because he himself was made a priest for us, and offered himself for us, as the Apostle says: 'An oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness' (Eph. 5:2). But what we offer through Christ according to the humanity of the Son alone, we offer to the same supreme Trinity at once. Worthily, therefore, do we owe latreia to the Holy Spirit, whose temple we know our bodies to be: and from this we spiritually present to him those same our bodies as a living victim.
But of him whose temple we are, and to whom we offer our bodies as a sacrifice, it is necessary that we owe him priestly service. Hence it is that the Catholic Church, which is the one temple of the Holy Trinity, that is, of the one God, does not cease to offer spiritual sacrifice to that same Holy Trinity, the one God: because it most certainly knows that it owes priestly service to that Trinity, the one true and good God. FRAGMENT XVII. The Holy Spirit is no less the one and true God than the Father and the Son. For he does not do military service to the true and living God, nor serve the living and true God, whoever strives to build a temple in the bodies of men not to the living and true God, but to an uncertain god.
But such a building is certainly not one that comes from God. And how, then, could he say above of those whom he called the temple of the Holy Spirit: 'You are God's building' (1 Cor. 3:9)? Now therefore you must hold to one of two things: either you acknowledge that the temple of the Holy Spirit was built in us by God, and from this recognize that the Holy Spirit is the true God; or, if you do not believe that this is God's building, you must profess Paul to be a liar. But if you refuse to heed this proclamation of Paul, you yourself will remain utterly estranged from the truth; yet Paul will not be a liar, who, full of the truth, cries out: 'I speak the truth in Christ Jesus; I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit' (Rom. 9:1).
Since therefore Paul taught the truth, and by saying that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit made known to the faithful His most certain Godhead, whoever denies the true and certain Godhead of the Holy Spirit should recognize that he in no way belongs to the Church of the living God, which Paul calls the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). This holy Church knows itself to be the temple of that one God whom it acknowledges to be God by nature, and for this reason knows His divinity to be true and certain—casting off, of course, the worship of false gods, which, precisely because they are not gods by nature, cannot possess a certain Godhead. Accordingly, since that Godhead is certain which is natural, those who are not gods by nature do not possess a certain Godhead;
and those who do not have a certain Godhead have none at all. But the true faith does not hesitate to render worship (λατρεία) to the one true God, which it knows is not owed to any other god; nor can it establish a temple in the bodies of the faithful, or offer a sacrifice to any god who is not God by nature. For it knows that this service is owed to that God who alone commands that He be worshipped, and who alone is to be honored spiritually by the faithful with temple, priesthood, and sacrifice. Worthily, therefore, the holy Church believes and confesses the Holy Spirit to be true God, and together with the Father and the Son one God; and recognizing itself to be the temple of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it understands the Godhead to be one Trinity, to which Trinity it humbly renders one service.
FROM BOOK V. ON THE IMAGE OF GOD. FRAGMENT XVIII. The Son does not imitate the Father, nor does He do things like Him, but the very same things. Man is said to be made in the image of God, because he is an image of the divine Trinity in memory, understanding, and will. For in a superior reality can be found the pattern of a good work. For insofar as there is a parity of nature together with power, to that extent we see imitation to be absent, but we find unity of work. But there a pattern is set forth where an inequality either of nature or of power is found. Hence it is that the Son of God, showing that He has one nature with the Father, and for this reason equal power in operation, said: 'Whatsoever the Father does, these same things the Son also does likewise' (John
5:19). Since therefore He does the same things, no pattern of anything superior is found; and since He does them likewise, no sign of a different operation is discovered. Nor can that saying be referred to a pattern where He says: 'The Son cannot do anything of Himself, but what He has seen the Father doing' (ibid.). For He said this as a sign of one nature and power, not as a pattern of imitation. For He added, saying: 'Whatsoever the Father does, these same things the Son also does likewise'; whereas He would surely have said that He does 'such things,' not 'the same things,' if He had wished to display in Himself the imitation of the Father's work. But the Father does nothing in which He may furnish a pattern to the Son, who made all things that He made through the Son.
Now the Father would show the Son something to imitate only if there were some work which He had not made through the Son. But there is nothing which the Father made or makes except through the Son. There is therefore one operation of the Father and the Son in all things. Accordingly, the Son in acting sees the Father acting, not by imitation, but by the natural unity of power and work. When He does the same things, it is not imitation but unity of work; and when He does them likewise, it is not disparity but natural equality. But imitation, which pertains to a pattern, the blessed Apostle plainly shows to be found only in those who are diverse and unequal, whether in natures or in wills.
13:93
Imparesquippeindicavitvoluntate, quamvisnaturanossetæqualeseosquibustuncTimolheuspræerat, ineoquodeidicit : Exemplumestofidelibus, inverbo, inconversatione, incaritate, infide, incastitate (ITim. iv, 12). InhisutiqueomnibusnisipotioremcaeterissciretacvelletesseTimotheum, nullatenuseumfidelibusessejuberetexemplum : et 600 illosexemploejusædificaricupiebat, quosvoluntateacvirtuteimparesnoverat. Titumquoqueadexemplumfidelibusexhibendumsimiliterexhortatur, dicens : Inomnibusteipsumpræbeexemplumbonorumoperum (Tit. II, 7). Talequiddametiaminseipsodemonstransait : Imitatoresmeiestote, sicutetegoChristi (ICor. II, 1).
For he indicated that those over whom Timothy then presided were unequal in will, although he knew them to be equal in nature, in that he says to him: 'Be an example to the faithful, in word, in conduct, in charity, in faith, in chastity' (1 Tim. 4:12). For unless he knew and willed Timothy to be superior to the rest in all these things, he would in no way have commanded him to be an example to the faithful; and he desired those to be built up by his example whom he knew to be unequal in will and virtue. He likewise exhorts that Titus too be presented as an example to the faithful, saying: 'In all things show thyself an example of good works' (Tit. 2:7). Demonstrating something of the same kind even in himself, he says: 'Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ' (1 Cor. 11:1).
Now the Apostle said this because Christ left us an example, that we should follow His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). But the way to understand the Trinity, insofar as it can be understood, is to be sought there, where we have been made in the image of God, and where, as far as we can, so long as we walk by faith and not by sight, we now see, with the difficulty of great labor, through a glass in a riddle. For God, just as He has bestowed on men in Himself the example of good works, so has He placed in men the testimony of the knowledge of Himself; that when His image is regarded, knowledge may be grasped of Him whose image it is. For if there were no sign of divine knowledge present in created things, the blessed Apostle would not have said:
'For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made' (Rom. 1:20). Hence it is that that supreme Trinity, which has no equal, impressed its image, for a testimony of the knowledge of itself, not upon any beast, nor upon any living thing that cannot grasp reason, nor upon the human body itself, but wondrously upon our inner man—where there is neither male nor female, since in the spirit no distinction of sex can be found. If therefore, with reason as your guide, you wish in some measure to know the mystery of the supreme Trinity, gaze upon the human mind, not with the eye of the body, but with the inner regard. Return to yourself, that you may recognize Him who made you. Look right into yourself there, where you have something of reason;
and at once, in its own image as in a mirror, the knowledge of the Trinity will shine forth to you. Thus it will come to pass that, in the consideration not of a begotten image but of a created one—that is, of a nature far inferior and far unequal—you may find, insofar as it can be seen through a glass in a riddle, the true unity and Trinity of the supreme Creator. For there are certain three things in the human mind which profit toward the knowledge of God, if the hardening of the human heart does not hide from itself the light of truth. And these are the three that I have named: memory, understanding, and will; which are so distinguished by their proper names that there is in them no natural diversity. For memory is one thing, understanding another, will another;
and yet, although these are truly three, the nature of the mind is not diverse but one, since these things which are three (or triple) subsist in one human mind. Therefore, though these three are found in the nature of one human mind, yet the mind itself is not divided in them, so as to have memory in one part of itself, understanding in another part, will in another; but whatever it remembers, the whole is found to remember; and whatever it understands, the whole understands; and whatever likewise the mind itself loves, the whole mind of man is known to love by its will. These things, Fabian, if you can, attend to; think on these things; consider these things with a reasoning intention; and by the consideration of the image ascend to the understanding of the truth;
and having found here a distinction of the names of the Trinity, understand there a Trinity of persons; and recognizing that in the one mind of man there is one indivisible nature of memory and understanding and will, know that in that true Divinity there remains one essence of the holy Trinity. Then indeed, in the perception of this reasoning, the knowledge of the Trinity will be granted you; which if in this life you see through a glass in a riddle, then in that life you will see face to face. For this is what the Apostle says: 'For we see now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face' (1 Cor. 13:12). In this mirror, therefore, of the human creation, recognize the image of the Creator, if you wish afterward to know the very truth of the Creator.
Walk by this faith, that you may be able to attain to sight. In it consider also at the same time the mystery of the divine Incarnation: that you may recognize both that the substance of the whole Trinity is one, and that the assumption of flesh pertains to the person of the Son alone. For that very memory, which is in the soul of man, in order to say something, brings forth from itself a thought, and in a certain way a spiritual word is born from it. And thus that one and indivisible nature of the rational soul is found wholly to remember what it understands, and wholly to understand what it remembers, and whatever it beholds with the eye of memory, it embraces wholly in thought. And in order that this thought may be brought forth to the knowledge of others, it is carried by the bodily voice.
For that thought is nothing other than an inner speaking. Whence within itself the rational soul speaks, while it turns over in thought what is contained in the memory; and therefore it is already worthily called a word, even before it is brought forth by the body and the office of the voice. That spiritual word, then—that is, a thought formed from memory—takes on, in a certain manner, a bodily condition, when it takes on a bodily voice. And so wondrously that word both proceeds to others by the voice it has taken up, and does not depart from the memory from which it is born; nor is it subject to division; since when a single word is emitted from the mouth of the speaker, all who hear are so instructed that what all hear said once, each perceives whole, without division.
And so that word, as much as it is found in all, so much is it found in each. The whole, therefore, remains in the memory from which it is born, the whole is brought forth by the bodily voice, the whole is said once to many hearers, and the whole is found in each of the hearers no less than in all. So too the Son of God, who is the Word of God, went forth from the Father—as He Himself testifies (John 16:28)—and came into this world; yet He was also always with the Father, for 'in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (John 1:1); and before He came into the world, He was in the world, and the world was made through Him (ibid., 10). For the Word, being God, was always in the world;
because through the unity of nature, just as the Father fills every creature, so also does the Son fill it. And so He neither departed from the Father when He went forth from the Father, nor did He then begin to be in the world when He came into the world. But going forth from the Father, He so remained with the Father as He always was; and coming into the world, He willed then to be present there by grace, where He could never be absent by nature. Behold, insofar as I have been able, though briefly, I have rendered the reason why we call the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit one God; and in the very image of God I have shown a certain sign of divine knowledge. In which image, indeed, memory, understanding, and will do not have single and proper persons.
For this image is one that is not born but made, not begotten but created. To this end, indeed, that just as in this one image there is found a certain distinction of terms, so in that one Godhead may be recognized a distinction of persons; and that the natural unity may show the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be one God, while the property of the persons may demonstrate that the Father is one, the Son another, the Holy Spirit another. Yet the Father is another, not in that He is God, but in that He is Father; and the Son is another, not in that He is God, but in that He is Son; the Holy Spirit likewise is another, not in that He is God, but in that He is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son. The Father, therefore, is another, who (as with Theodulf,
here and below) has begotten; the Son is another, who has been born of the Father; and the Holy Spirit is another, who proceeds from the Father and the Son: yet not another God the Father, and another God the Son, and another God the Holy Spirit; but one God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the unity does not confound the Trinity, nor does the Trinity separate the unity; because that which is distinguished in the property of the persons is shown to be one by the natural communion of the one essence. FROM BOOK VI. ON THE ONE ETERNAL. FRAGMENT XIX. The Son is coeternal with the Father. The faith of the Catholic Church is not irrational, in that it both believes and proclaims the Son to be coeternal with the Father, knowing that every god is recent in whom any beginning of existing whatsoever is found.
Now God promised this to His people, that if it would hear Him, no recent god would arise in it, and for this reason it would in no way worship a strange god. For thus it is said through the prophet: 'Israel, if thou wilt hear me, there shall be no recent god in thee, neither shalt thou worship a strange god' (Ps. 80:10). Therefore the Son is not a recent god, because He is naturally coeternal with the eternal Father; and for this reason He is worshipped by us as one God together with the Father, because He is in no way found later than the Father. When therefore the cause of the eternal nativity is sought in the Son, only the eternal substance of the Father is found; for a nature that knows no beginning of existing could not have a beginning of begetting.
But what could be more manifest for recognizing the Son as both born of the nature of the Father and naturally coeternal with the Father, than that passage of Scripture where it is said of Wisdom: 'For she is the brightness of eternal light' (Wis. 7:26)? For brightness is neither found to be foreign to the nature of the light, and just as it is not less than the light itself, so it cannot be later than it. For the eternity of the light most certainly commends the coeternity of the brightness. For, apart from the fact that each man begets a son just as he himself was begotten—and therefore is found to be prior to his own son, because he was later than his own father:
nevertheless let us have recourse to the very first man, to whom alone in the whole human race it was given that he himself was not a son, yet brought forth a son from himself, and, being unborn, had one born from himself, and, being unbegotten, was able to beget. For that natural generation preserved the unity of nature in father and son. But the nativity of the son being born had a beginning, because the substance of the begetter was not without a beginning; and so that nature truly had a beginning of being born in the son, because it was not without a beginning of existing in the begetter; whence it is manifest that in the son that nativity would be subject to no beginning, if the nature of the father did not have a beginning of existing.
Wherefore, where the natural eternity of the father is found without a beginning, there the nativity of the offspring cannot have a beginning. When therefore God the Father is called unbegotten, and God the Son begotten, just as the natural generation of the unbegotten Father causes the unity of nature to be recognized in the Father and the Son, so the natural eternity of the Father forbids any beginning of the divine generation to be understood. Both the Father and the Son, therefore, are without a beginning, and for this reason the Father and the Son are one and true principle: whence God the Father Himself says to His own Son in the psalm: 'With Thee is the principle in the day of Thy power, in the splendors of the saints; from the womb before the day-star I begot Thee' (Ps. 109:3).
What is 'the principle with Thee,' except what is said elsewhere of Wisdom, that she is from the Lord God, and was with Him always, and is before the age (Ecclus. 1:1)? Worthily therefore does the Son profess Himself to be the principle, because He knows Himself to be so coeternal with the Father the principle that, together with the same Father, He knows Himself naturally to be one principle: and in that the Son asserts Himself to be the beginning and the end (Rev. 1:6[8]), He surely confirms Himself to be without beginning and end: because just as before alpha there is no letter, so before the Son there could be no nature; therefore the Son calls Himself alpha, that He might show Himself to be the principle of things, which can be preceded by no principle.
Hence it is that the holy evangelist too, when he wished to express the beginningless eternity of the Word, filled with the Holy Spirit found nothing more fitting, nothing more suitable, than to say: 'In the beginning was the Word' (John 1:1). For the Word did not begin to be in the beginning, since he knew that Word not to be naturally subject to a beginning of nativity; but 'in the beginning,' he says, 'was the Word': so that, hearing this, the rashness of human curiosity might restrain itself from the impiety of an initiated generation, since whatever it should wish to conjecture with immoderate thought before that generation, it would be able to find in the Word nothing other than what always was. For that truly was in the beginning, which was without a beginning of existing;
because it would not truly be in the beginning, if it had begun to be: for that is truly said to be in the beginning, in which existence itself is found naturally without a beginning. And so the holy evangelist, in saying, 'In the beginning was the Word,' said something such as if he had said, 'In eternity was the Word.' For true eternity, which did not begin to be, alone is found to be the true principle. But the evangelist did not say, 'In the beginning was God,' but 'In the beginning was the Word'; because no one doubts concerning God the Father that He is eternal without a beginning: yet this had to be intimated to us concerning the Son, which the blessed John most fully shows, saying, 'In the beginning was the Word': that hence we might know the Son to be without a beginning;
since whatever beginning we may wish to conceive, we shall always find that in the beginning was the Word: lest we should ever say that to have begun to be, which we always hear was in the beginning. Therefore the Son was with the Father, as God with God, as the immense with the immense, as naturally coeternal with the eternal. FRAGMENT XX. The eternal Father was able to beget without a beginning. The very terms surely testify against you, that the Father was without doubt able to beget the Son, and that, because He was able, He begot. Accordingly, because God the Father is omnipotent, just as He was able to beget, so He was able to beget without a beginning; nay rather, just as He begot, so He begot without a beginning.
Because His nature, which is without a beginning, just as it has no beginning of existing, so could not have a beginning of begetting. For that nature always is; and therefore that which is naturally born of it, equally always is. For the natural unity could not be changed by generation, since the natural nativity acknowledged in itself the nature, and likewise the natural otherness of the God who begets. Accordingly, yield at last to the property of the terms, and believe; and in Him whom the Apostle proclaims to be the proper Son of the Father, acknowledge the eternity of the paternal generation without a beginning. FRAGMENT XXI. Man was made in the image, not of one divine person only, but of the whole Trinity.
From the holy Scriptures both a Trinity in persons and a unity in nature of God are shown. Return to the beginning of the holy Scriptures, in which (whether you will or no) you will hear that man was made in the image of the Trinity. For there it is written: 'And God said: Let us make man to our image and likeness' (Gen. 1:26). Where, in that it is not put 'They said,' but 'God said,' the one essence of the Godhead is recognized. Likewise, in that He did not say 'To images,' but 'to the image,' the one image which is made shows the one nature of its maker. And when it is thus said in the singular 'to the image,' so that it is not said 'To my image,' nor 'To thy image,' but 'to our image';
the plural number is joined to the singular, so that in the unity of the divine nature a Trinity of persons may be recognized. If therefore the Trinity is not naturally one God, why did He say, not in the plural 'To images,' but in the singular 'to the image'? And if man was not to be made in the one image of the whole Trinity, why did He not say 'My,' but 'our'? Whereas a little later, for the intimation of the one divine essence, the Scripture says: 'And God made man; to the image of God He made him' (ibid., 27). Which the blessed Apostle too, confirming by his preaching, says: 'Stripping off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge
in knowledge), according to the image of Him who created him' (Col. 3:9-10). And lest it should seem to you that man is asserted to have been created in the image of God the Father alone, hear what the Apostle without interruption subjoins: 'Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all' (ibid., 11). Behold, the blessed Apostle in this place, when he wished to show Him by whom and in whose image man was created, says that Christ is all and in all. But if you should wish to assign to man the image of Christ alone, see what you will answer concerning that passage, where it is said: 'Let us make man to our image and likeness' (Gen. 1:26).
For this saying, whether you contend that it should be assigned to the person of the Father or of the Son, unless you say that man was made in the image of the Father and the Son, it is necessary that you profess either the Father or the Son to have lied. Recognize, therefore, in man not the image of the Father alone, nor of the Son alone, nor of the Holy Spirit alone, but the one image of the holy Trinity; that you may be able truly to confess three persons, the Trinity itself, one God. Moses too, for the teaching of the mystery of the Trinity of the one God, is known to have blessed the people of Israel thus, at God's own command: 'The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and have mercy on thee. The Lord lift up His face upon thee, and give thee peace' (Num.
13:118
vi, 24, 25, 26). EccetertioDominusdicitur, utsanctæTrinitatisetinpersonisdistinctio, etinnaturaunitasagnoscatur. Ianoscredereetconfiteridebere, perIsaiamquoqueprophetamipsaTrinitas, quiestunus, verusetbonusDeus, edocuit; Seraphinadinvicemtertioclamantibus : Sanctus , Sanctus % Sanctus : etsemelsubinferentibus : DominusDeussabaoth, : plenaestomnisterragloriaejus (Isai. vi, 3). Exhacigiturpotestatumpraedicationecoelestium, agnoscesanctumPatrem, sanctumFilium, sanctumParacletumSpiritum; etcredeunumDeumessePatremetFiliumetSpiritumSanctum : auditertioSanctus , Sanctus, Sanctus , uttresessepersonasagnoscas;
6:24-26). Behold, the Lord is named three times, so that both the distinction in persons and the unity in nature of the holy Trinity may be recognized. That we ought thus to believe and confess, the Trinity itself, who is one, true, and good God, also taught through the prophet Isaiah, with the Seraphim crying out to one another three times: 'Holy, Holy, Holy'; and adding once beneath: 'The Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory' (Isa. 6:3). From this proclamation therefore of the heavenly powers, recognize the holy Father, the holy Son, the holy Paraclete Spirit; and believe the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be one God: hear the threefold 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' that you may recognize three to be persons;
hear the single 'The Lord God of hosts,' that you may understand the unity of the Godhead. This too the blessed Apostle confirms, who, for the distinction of persons, says: 'One God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him' (1 Cor. 8:6). And he said that the faithful are built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit (Eph. 2:22). But showing the Trinity to be one God, he says: 'O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!' (Rom. 11:33). And a little after: 'For of Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things; to Him be glory unto the ages' (ibid., 36). And the blessed Apostle John plainly says: 'And these three are one' (1 John 5:7);
which is said of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as we have shown above when you demanded a reason. FRAGMENT XXII. Fire is not prior to its own brightness or heat: so neither is the Father prior to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit. But what did it seem good to you to say? 'Can it then come to pass that He who begets should arise together with Him whom He begets?' Thus you wished to say this vainly, as if we said that the Father too was born, because we say that the Son is coeternal with the Father. We know the Father to be begotten of none; we know the Son to be begotten of the Father: for that eternity begot for itself a coeternal offspring, which is not found to have its origin from anything. The Father, therefore, is the eternal origin, the Son the coeternal offspring of the eternal origin.
The Father, therefore, could not arise together with the Son whom He begot, but the Son could be born without a beginning of the unbegotten Father. That likeness of fire, therefore, which you put forward under my name, your fabrications are wont much to destroy; when something is found in a creature which brings forth something from itself, and yet does not precede that which it has brought forth: whence it may be recognized by those who consider rightly that, of the eternal Father, the nativity of the Son is no less eternal. But that some likeness of the divine generation may be taken from fire, the authority of the apostolic preaching supports this, which says: 'For our God is a consuming fire' (Heb. 12:29). Which he said following the preaching of holy Moses saying in Deuteronomy:
'For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire' (Deut. 4:24). To this pertains also that which is said in the book of Wisdom concerning Wisdom herself: 'For she is the brightness of eternal light' (Wis. 7:26). Which is likewise brought forth by apostolic preaching, when it is said to the Hebrews concerning the Son Himself: 'Who, being the brightness of glory and the figure of His substance' (Heb. 1:3). But when these things are said, corporeal realities are by no means being compared to God, who is not corporeal; but because the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, the divine goodness, taking counsel for our weakness, has placed in various things certain signs of the knowledge of itself:
so that in those things by whose grasping we are too weak, we might be made instructed by the evidences of familiar things. Although therefore it is also said of Wisdom that she is the vapor of the power of God (Wis. 7:25); yet the Holy Spirit too is not incongruously likened, in the nature of fire, to vapor (insofar as the knowledge of the divine reality requires it): on account of that which the Apostle says, 'fervent in Spirit' (Rom. 12:11). But this is not to be so received that anyone should from this ascribe to the Holy Spirit a nativity from God the Father; but only to this end, that he may recognize the one nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and understand the one natural eternity of the divine Trinity.
Consider, then, that in fire there is indeed the origin of brightness and of heat, and yet fire is not prior to its own brightness or heat: and from this, confess the Son and the Holy Spirit to be eternal, just as you confess the Father also to be eternal; not comparing the creature to the Creator, but knowing the invisible things of God through the things that are made, being understood. FRAGMENT XXIII. Wisdom is the brightness of eternal light. There is no brightness of eternal light except an eternal one. Now I think it is from the holy Scriptures, that which we have recalled being said of Wisdom, that she is the brightness of eternal light (Wis. 7:26): and you will never dare to proclaim in any way the brightness to be later than the light.
And because that light, of which Wisdom is the brightness, is so naturally eternal as to be without a beginning, it is necessary that that brightness of the light too be so eternal as to be naturally coeternal, without a beginning, with the very light of which it is the brightness. This testimony of holy Scripture is not only full of the force of authority, but also of the light of reason. For it is right reason that, if this testimony of holy Scripture is received, one eternity of the light and the brightness be believed. For not in vain did God will this, that in that passage where Wisdom is shown to be the brightness of light, the same light should be called eternal by the testimony of Scripture;
except that, from the fact that we know that light to be naturally eternal, we might also without doubt believe its brightness to be naturally coeternal with it. FRAGMENT XXIV. Neither was the Father before the generation, nor the Son before the nativity. I say that the Son is always born, and I confess that the Father begot Him without a beginning. How therefore could the Son have existed before He was born, whose nativity could not have a beginning? For He could not have been born prior to His own nativity, by which nativity He is so eternal that He is naturally not later than the Father. The Son, therefore, did not precede His own nativity, whom the natural nativity itself shows to be coeternal with His begetter.
I affirm also that the Father begat; yet I do not proclaim that He could have existed before He begat. For He was not prior to the nativity of the Son, because, just as the divinity of God the Father is eternal, so also is His paternity eternal; and where the eternity of paternity is recognized in the Begetter, there too is found in the Son an eternal nativity. He did not, therefore, begin to exist from the moment He begat, because neither the essence of the Father nor the generation ever in any degree began. For there is one eternity in the Father of both the essence and the generation at once; in which eternity that essence and generation so abide that it is impious either to think the generation later than the divinity of the Father, or to believe the Godhead prior to the generation.
Without beginning, therefore, did God the Father beget, He who did not begin to be; and without beginning is the nativity of the Son, for this belongs to the otherness of the paternal generation. You have heard that the Son ever is, and was born without beginning, and that nothing can be said to have existed before His nativity, whose divinity and nativity are naturally acknowledged not to have begun. For search in the Holy Scriptures, and you will find that there is so utterly no beginning to the Son's divine nativity, that wherever His divine nativity is set down, a 'before' is always spoken of it. As it is written in the Psalm: 'Before the day-star I begot Thee' (Psalm 109:3).
There too the Father calls Himself and His Son one Principle, since this is the true Principle which is naturally found to be eternal without beginning. In the book of Proverbs likewise Wisdom itself says of the Father: 'Before He made the earth, before the fountains of waters issued forth, and before all the hills, He begat me' (Proverbs 8:23, 24, 25). You say that the divine nativity of the Only-begotten God cannot be known because it cannot be recounted; whereas assuredly, if it could be recounted, it would not be divine. Wherefore, because it is divine, it is true; because it is divine, it is eternal; because it is divine, it is unutterable.
That, therefore, which you have vainly answered to yourself—that the Son could not exist before He was born, and that the Father without doubt existed before He begat—these are the thoughts of flesh and blood, which cannot possess the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50); for you judge of the divinity what you perceive among men. But it is not so. For the eternal God the Father, without beginning, has an eternal generation by which He begat His Only-begotten; not as flesh is generated from flesh, but as God was born from God, one from one, true from true, coeternal from the eternal; other in person, not another in nature; God born from God the Father, and with God the Father naturally one, eternal, immortal, and unchangeable God.
Let us therefore confess that the Son is the Beginning and the Principle, because it is written: 'The Beginning, who also speak unto you' (John 8:25); and again: 'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end' (Revelation 1:8): yet that Principle which together with the Father is one Principle; and therefore the true Principle, which is before every principle. For as He is therefore true God, because He was born as God from the nature of the Father, so He is therefore the true Principle, because He was born without beginning from that Father who is the true Principle. Thus, then, the Son has no beginning of being born, just as the Father has no beginning of existing. In the beginning, therefore, was the Son together with the Father, because the Father and the Son are one Principle:
and that one and true Principle, of which there is no beginning of existing. The Ancient of Days is at once the Father and the Son, because that is the true antiquity by nature which is a natural eternity without beginning. For just as that length of which God says: 'With length of days will I fill him' (Psalm 90:16), and the prophet: 'That I may dwell in the house of the Lord in length of days' (Psalm 22:6), is therefore a true length, because it is bounded by no term; so that antiquity is true which is known to have been begun by no beginning: and thus that antiquity knows no beginning, just as this length admits no end. Accordingly He who called Himself Alpha and Omega neither began to be nor ceases to be:
for as He does not have in Himself the possibility of at any time not being, so He does not naturally have in Himself the possibility of ever not having been. FROM BOOK VII. ON THE EQUALITY AND UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON. FRAGMENT XXV. The Holy Spirit is neither less than the Father or the Son, nor subject to them. Against the things you have proposed concerning the names and offices, we have given you above, as far as the matter demanded and with the Lord's help, an answer: showing that the Holy Spirit is not, by reason of those names or offices, found to be in any respect subject and lowly, as you suppose. But in that passage of the Gospel where you think Him shown to be lesser and subject, there the Holy Spirit is recognized as not being by nature alien from the unity of the Father and the Son.
For see what Christ says: 'I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now; but when that Spirit of truth shall come, He will teach you all truth' (John 16:12, 13). Here first our Saviour deigned to commend the power of the Holy Spirit, since those things which the disciples could not bear while He Himself was present and teaching according to the flesh, they would without doubt bear once strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here assuredly He does not show the power of the Holy Spirit to be greater than His own; but He demonstrated that the power of the Holy Spirit is one, and His own also: so that He who was to confer upon them the fullness of power was not one lesser in power.
This, moreover, was necessary on account of the distinction of persons, not on account of any diversity of works; but it belonged to order, that by His inward illumination and confirmation the gift of spiritual understanding and of altogether insuperable power should be perfected in the apostles—power without whose name the sacrament of baptism cannot subsist. This therefore Christ did, not because He was able to give less than what the Holy Spirit gave (since in every gift the gift of the Holy Trinity is one, just as in every work the office of the Holy Trinity is one); but God the Son did this to show the one nature and one power of the Holy Trinity;
so that He by whom, as the Saviour Himself proclaimed, it was established that the apostles were to be taught into all truth, no one might in any degree esteem to be less than the Father and the Son. There is here, therefore, no indication of subjection, where the natural unity is made manifest; but Christ, who is the true Wisdom, is found to have reserved the full teaching of truth for the coming of Him whose one substance with Himself and with the Father He wished to demonstrate. Which He shows by the following words, saying: 'For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will announce to you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall announce it to you' (John 16:13, 14).
Behold, He first shows that the things of the Holy Spirit are none other than those of the Son. Then, to show that all that is the Father's is His own, He added (verse 15): 'All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He shall receive of mine, and shall announce it to you.' Let us therefore first attend to what He says: 'For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.' But who comprehends what manner of speaking, or what manner of hearing, belongs to that simple nature? Where, just as to be wise, or to know, is nothing other than to be, so to hear is nothing other than to be. The Holy Spirit therefore hears whatsoever the Father and the Son say (Theodulf: 'they say'), and these same things He likewise says;
just as the Son sees what the Father does, and likewise does these same things. For in that nature, where there is the highest and true simplicity, therein the Son sees what the Father does, and the Holy Spirit hears what the Son says together with the Father, because by the communion of the natural essence both the Son came forth born of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This, therefore, is for the Holy Spirit to hear, namely to proceed from the nature of the Father and the Son: and this is to speak, namely by grace ineffably to make intimate to our hearts. And yet that same Holy Spirit, who spoke both in the apostles and in the prophets—for not only did our Saviour say to the apostles:
'For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you' (Matthew 10:20); but blessed Peter also said that prophecy was never brought by human will, but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21); that same Holy Spirit, as I said, blessed David calls Lord God, saying: 'I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me' (Psalm 84:9). This, then, is for the Holy Spirit to hear, namely to be, to whom to be is nothing other than to know. FRAGMENT XXVI. How the angels both ever see the face of the Father, and desire to look into the Holy Spirit.
Next, remember that the apostle Peter said of this Holy Spirit that the angels desire to look into Him: for thus he says: 'The things which are now announced to you by those who have preached the gospel to you, the Holy Spirit being sent from heaven, into whom the angels desire to look' (1 Peter 1:12). But what is it for the angels to look, except to understand? For the rational creature understands what it spiritually beholds, because its eye is its understanding. If therefore the Holy Spirit knew anything less—which assuredly He did not know less—He would understand less.
The holy angels, therefore, ought not to have desired to look into Him who, according to the fullness of knowledge, are attested by the testimony of Truth itself to see the face of the Father. For speaking of the little ones He says: 'Their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven' (Matthew 18:10). Who then would be so perverse as to dare to esteem this concerning the holy angels—that they should always behold the face of the Father (whom you say is greater than the Holy Spirit), and yet desire to look into the Holy Spirit (whom you assert to be lesser)? FRAGMENT XXVII. What it is for the Holy Spirit to speak not of Himself, but the things He hears from the Father and the Son: and what it is for Him to be sent by these.
Wherefore, if you rightly consider this which the Holy Spirit is said to hear, from this you will recognize that the nature of the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son. For the Holy Spirit hears the Father and the Son speaking, just as the Son sees the Father working: He hears by the communion of one nature; for from that source He has an eternal hearing whence He has the natural origin of eternal divinity: and therefore the things which He hears and speaks—because in the fact that His teaching is recognized to be divine, His one substance with the Father and the Son is likewise recognized. For there the speech of the Holy Spirit is perceived, where nothing is thought concerning His divinity otherwise than is fitting.
But as for this which the Holy Spirit teaches into all truth, they by no means perceive it who by the hardness of a blind heart contradict His majesty: to those who did so, namely the Jews, the Son of God thus replied: 'You seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you' (John 8:37). They were indeed unable to be capable of His word, whose divine majesty they by no means recognized. Therefore He says to them: 'I speak that which I have seen with the Father' (verse 38): for in that which He had seen with the Father He was speaking, in that He confessed Himself naturally equal to the Father. For the evangelist had also said above:
'Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was His own Father, making Himself equal to God' (John 5:18): and after He had given eyes to him who had been born blind, He thus replied to the indignant Jews: 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish for ever' (John 10:27, 28). And to show what His voice is which His sheep hear (because truly those sheep hear the voice of this good shepherd, which recognize the one power, and from this the one essence, of the Father and the Son): straightway with a truly divine voice, showing His own and at once the Father's one power and essence, He said of His sheep:
'And no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one' (ibidem, 28, 29, 30). This, then, is the voice which His sheep hear; which, namely, in the fact that no one snatches out of the Son's hand, nor out of the Father's hand, understand the one power of the Son and the Father; and hearing from Him that He Himself and the Father are one, recognize the true unity of natural essence in the Father and the Son. This is the voice of the Son, this is the speech of the Holy Spirit, this both the Son and the Holy Spirit heard from the Father; because the Son was born of the nature of the Father, and thence the Holy Spirit proceeds:
this also the Holy Spirit hears from the Father and the Son, because He proceeds from the Father and the Son by the equality of the common divinity. The Holy Spirit therefore does not speak of Himself, because He is not of Himself, but from the Father and the Son He has His natural speech, whence, naturally proceeding, He has the truth of His origin. To this indeed pertains what He says: 'He shall glorify me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall announce it to you' (John 16:14). For surely not, as (perhaps thus) it has been said, 'shall receive,' as though the Holy Spirit had not yet received those things which He was to teach the apostles? Which I have shown above to be as absurd as it is impious. It was therefore said, 'He shall receive of mine,' as though it were said:
'When He shall begin to teach you as God, all that He shall teach you, He will show that He has of mine.' For what is proper to God to teach, except both to bestow understanding on the ignorant, and to inspire fortitude and confidence in the timid? which indeed that Spirit truly does, who is naturally the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude. Whence also in the book of the Acts of the Apostles it is said of the believers, that 'they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with confidence' (Acts 4:31). But because the Father is the natural origin of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, therefore the Son, assigning all to the Father, says: 'All that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that He shall receive of mine' (John 16:15).
How well did Truth itself preserve the truth of its own teaching! For if He had not said this, He would have shown the Spirit to be only His own; but by saying, 'All that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that He shall receive of mine,' He showed that same Holy Spirit to be one, both the Father's and His own. The tenor of which understanding He preserved also in an earlier place, saying: 'But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things whatsoever I have said unto you' (John 14:26). The Father sends, but sends in the name of the Son; the Spirit, sent by the Father, teaches, but the Son speaks. This is also shown in that place where the Lord says:
'But when the Paraclete shall come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father' (John 15:26). Behold, here the Paraclete whom the Father sends in the name of the Son, the Son Himself sends from the Father: but He sends from the Father the Spirit of truth: He sends therefore from the Father His own Spirit, because He Himself is the Truth. For the Father sends in the name of the Son, because there is one Spirit of the Father and of the Son: the Son sends Him from the Father, because He proceeds from the Son just as He proceeds from the Father: the same Spirit also of the Father, who is the Spirit of Truth. From the Son, therefore, He received, and all that the Father hath are the Son's, which the Holy Spirit received;
because He proceeds not from the Father alone, nor from the Son alone, but at once from both. But this term of procession is found granted to no creature; so that this property of procession may be shown to be of the natural essence alone. For we read that the Son was begotten of the Father, and although in the fact that He is called Only-begotten the natural generation is demonstrated to be in Him alone, yet on account of the grace of adoption God the Father also begat us willingly by the word of truth (James 1:18). The Only-begotten, therefore, is the one and only Son born of the essence of the Father: but we also, through adoption, are both called sons of God and born of God, the blessed evangelist saying: 'But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made sons of God,
to those who believe in His name; who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God' (John 1:12, 13). Since therefore it is shown by the divine oracles that we are both sons of God, and begotten of God, and born of God, yet the term of procession from God no one can teach to have been conceded to any creature. Why so, except because the natural nativity could show the Only-begotten Son to be true God; and demonstrate Him without doubt to be not adoptive, nor of a diverse nature, but consubstantial with the Father? But no creature is said to proceed from God, so that He who proceeds from the Father and the Son may be believed to be God in the same way as the Father and the Son are.
For this property of procession from the Father and the Son belongs to the Holy Spirit alone, whose nature is common with the Father and the Son. For He proceeds from the Father and the Son, but does not depart: nor is He in any respect lesser, or subject, who from the immense Father and from the immense Son inseparably proceeds both one and whole. Thus therefore what He speaks cannot be commanded of Him, just as what He wondrously works cannot be commanded of Him. For one and the same Spirit works all things, dividing to each severally as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11). The Holy Spirit therefore does not do anything at the command of another's power, but works all things by the choice of His own will.
But there is one will of the Holy Trinity, and one power, whose divinity is by nature one. FROM BOOK VIII. ON THE MISSION OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. FRAGMENT XXVIII. The Trinity has one speech and one will. The Holy Spirit is not sent as the angels are: He is one, and immense. Baptism is given also in His name. He does not depart from those who ask that He be sent to them. What the Church asks when it asks for the Holy Spirit. Nor is the Spirit therefore a betrayer of the divine secret, because what He says, He says by His own will. For the one Holy Trinity ever has one speech, just as it has through all things one will:
and in the fact that the Holy Spirit hears from the Father and the Son what He speaks, it is an indication of origin alone, not of any inequality whatsoever. By this indeed is shown not to whom He, being subject, obeys, but whence He, being exalted, proceeds. But you would in no way esteem the mission of the Holy Spirit to be like the missions of the angels, if with a humble heart you were inquiring these things, and did not, proud, leap forth into insult against the Holy Spirit. For desiring to inquire this, you ought to have investigated what the divine Scripture said of the Holy Spirit: and first, whether it asserted many, or one: then, whether it called Him local, or immense:
lastly, considering His works, you ought to have recognized whether they belong to divinity alone, or can also be suited to any creature: so that from all these things a right understanding concerning the mission of the Holy Spirit might be able to support you. And so I do not believe that you doubt in any degree that, just as there is one Father and one Son, so also one Holy Spirit is everywhere proclaimed by the divine oracles; the blessed Apostle saying: 'Now there are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit: and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord: and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all things in all' (1 Corinthians 12:4, 5, 6). And a little after (verse 11):
'But all these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to each severally as He wills.' But lest here you should be unwilling to accept the Holy Spirit as the one dividing each thing, and should suspect for yourself another Spirit, hear what is said in the Epistle to the Hebrews: 'God bearing witness by signs and wonders, and by various powers, and by distributions of the Holy Spirit according to His own will' (Hebrews 2:4). In another place also the same blessed Apostle says: 'One body, and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling' (Ephesians 4:4). Where to the one Spirit he immediately joined one Father, and coupled also one Son, adding:
'One Lord'—signifying, namely, Christ—'one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all' (Ephesians 4:5, 6). In another place also he says: 'For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit' (1 Corinthians 12:13). For our Saviour also showed the Holy Spirit to be one, saying: 'Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' (Matthew 28:19). But the prophet, recognizing the immensity of this Spirit, and understanding Him to be through all things ever wholly present, says to God the Father:
'Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy face? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; and if I descend into hell, Thou art present' (Psalm 138:7, 8). Where indeed he signified that God with His Spirit is everywhere always, from whom he said he could in no wise flee. Here perhaps you contend that the Spirit of God is one, and the Holy Spirit another: where you must at once be overcome by the divine oracles. For that the Holy Spirit Himself is He who is the Spirit-God, the blessed prophet attests, saying: 'Cast me not away from Thy face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me' (Psalm 51:11). And since one Holy Spirit was given to the apostles and the prophets—as the blessed Apostle attests, saying:
'But having the same Spirit of faith, as it is written: I believed, for which cause I have spoken; we also believe, for which cause we also speak' (2 Corinthians 4:13); showing without doubt that the same Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, he says: 'He therefore that despiseth these things, despiseth not man, but God, who also hath given His Holy Spirit in us' (1 Thessalonians 4:8). On the day of Pentecost also, when the Holy Spirit had come upon the apostles—that same Paraclete, namely, whom the Lord promised and sent to them—the blessed Peter showed by the prophetic word that He is the Spirit of God, saying that this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh' (Acts
13:160
II 16, i7). Etpaulopost (v. 18) : Etquidemsuperservosmees, etsuperancillasmeas, indiebusilliseffundamdeSpiritumeo, etprophetabunt. HujusitaqueuniusSpiritusimmensilatem, quamsolapotestveranaturaliterhabere, imoquamsolanaturaliterhabetveradivinitas, nonsolumbeatusDavidostendit, verumetiamJoelprophetaindubitanterasseruit, ineoquodaitexpersonaDeidicentis : EffundamdeSpiritumeosuperomnemcarnem (Joel, II, 28). HincestquodetiaminlibroSapientiæ 615 dicitur : QuoniamSpiritusDominireplevitorbemterrarum, ethocquodcontinetomniascientiamhabetvocis (Sap. i, 7).
2:16, 17). And a little after (verse 18): 'And on my servants indeed and on my handmaids in those days will I pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.' The immensity, therefore, of this one Spirit—which the true divinity alone by nature can have, nay, which the true divinity alone by nature has—not only blessed David showed, but the prophet Joel also asserted without doubt, in that he said in the person of God speaking: 'I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh' (Joel 2:28). Hence it is that also in the book of Wisdom it is said: 'For the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole earth, and that which containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice' (Wisdom 1:7).
Nowhere, therefore, is He absent, but everywhere He is wholly immense, who is declared both to fill the whole earth and to contain all things. For therefore is it asserted that He contains all things, lest, while He is said to fill the whole earth, He should be esteemed absent from the heavenly beings. Whom, however, a little above the divine Scripture names the Holy Spirit, saying: 'For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee the deceitful, and will withdraw Himself from thoughts that are without understanding' (ibid., 5). For it is in this that the natural immensity of the Holy Spirit is recognized, in that throughout the whole earth, just as in the name of the Father and of the Son, so men are baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit.
And lest anyone perhaps should suppose that the name of the Holy Spirit is indeed everywhere named in baptism, but that His presence is not nevertheless everywhere always at hand, the Apostle says to the faithful: 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption' (Ephesians 4:30); and in another place: 'Now He that confirmeth us with you in Christ, and that hath anointed us, is God, who also hath sealed us, and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts' (2 Corinthians 1:21, 22). And again: 'Now He that maketh us for this very thing is God, who hath given us the pledge of the Spirit' (2 Corinthians 5:5). In another place also he says: 'In whom also believing you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance' (Ephesians 1:13, 14).
By which words he shows the Holy Spirit to be not only naturally immense, but also true God, whom he asserted to be the pledge of our inheritance. Since indeed there is no part of our inheritance except the Lord God, of whom the whole Church says: 'The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup' (Psalm 16:5), it therefore appears that the Holy Spirit is naturally immense; and that He not only does not locally subsist in a place, but cannot even pass from place to place. For all the rational spirits indeed which God created, although they are not locally in places, yet they pass from places to places: which assuredly they would not do, unless, by leaving the place in which they had been, they came to a place in which they had not been.
For who does not know that the angel Gabriel then came into the temple when he appeared to Zechariah, and departed from the temple after he had fulfilled the office of his annunciation, and while he was in the temple was not elsewhere? Because there is no creature which can fill the whole creation at once by its presence, which belongs to the Trinity alone: whose natural immensity is as much without term, as its eternal divinity is without beginning. Whence those same holy angels also, of whom blessed Peter says that they desire to look into the Holy Spirit, would by no means desire to look into Him, if they did not have that same Holy Spirit within themselves.
For they desire to look into Him by charity, because no one desires that which he does not love: but the charity by which they love the Holy Spirit they received only through the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us (Romans 5:5). And by that same Spirit is charity poured forth in the hearts of men, by whom it is poured forth in the minds of angels. Immense, therefore, is the Holy Spirit, who one and the same fills the whole earth, and fills also the spirits of the heavenly angels.
For He is, as the Scripture says, the Spirit of understanding, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, eloquent, without defilement, clear, wholesome, loving that which is good, keen, whom nothing hinders, and doing good, humane, steadfast, sure, secure, having all power, foreseeing all things, and penetrating through all intelligible, pure, subtle spirits (Wisdom 7:22, 23). The works also of the Holy Spirit—who does not see that they befit only the supreme Deity? For by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the Spirit of His mouth (Psalm 33:6). In which the Lord Jesus manifests that He casts out demons:
And the power of signs and wonders, which Paul says are wrought by Christ through him, he affirms to be wrought in the power of the Holy Spirit, saying: 'For I dare not speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, unto the obedience of the nations, by word and deeds, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit' (Rom. 15:18, 19). Hence too, when to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, and the rest that the text of the apostolic eloquence contains, all these things, as we have recalled above, one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each as He wills (1 Cor. 12:11).
In His name believers are baptized, and in Him they are sealed. He descended upon the baptized Jesus and remained. That He was upon Him, and that with Him He was anointed, and by Him He was sent, the Lord Christ shows through Isaiah, saying: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me; He has sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor' (Isa. 61:1). Whence, when in the synagogue He read over this passage of the prophetic volume, He said to the Jews: 'This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears' (Luke 4:21). And after the Spirit had descended upon Him at His baptism, the Evangelist said: 'And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan' (Luke 4:1).
And then, after the devil, having finished the temptation, had departed from Him for a season, the holy Evangelist says: 'And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee' (Luke 4:14). Consider therefore all the things that have been recalled by us, and you will recognize the Holy Spirit: that He is one even as the Father and the Son, immense, filling every creature, and doing works which the Godhead alone does; for which reason this same one cannot be sent from place to place, who is naturally taught to be immense; nor is anything commanded Him as though He were a subject, for He of His own will did and does those works which none but God can do. Wherefore the mission of the Holy Spirit is to be wisely considered:
who is by no means sent as an angel is, whose office it is to discharge the duty of servitude; but as God, whose it is to bestow of His own free goodness the gifts of sanctification and of holy operation. For the Holy Spirit (as we taught above) fills the whole world; which is never said of any angel, but of God alone, to whom blessed Azarias, set in the furnace, says: 'Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of our fathers, and praiseworthy and glorious is Thy name for ever' (Dan. 3:26); and a little after he says: 'And let them know that Thou alone art the Lord God in all the world' (Dan. 3:45). Wherein indeed he taught that He is truly the Lord God who is in all the world.
But whoever does not fill the world cannot be in the world, and thus is not the Lord God. It is necessary therefore that we confess the Holy Spirit to be the Lord God, of whom Scripture says that 'the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world' (Wisd. 1:7). I could say many things concerning the Holy Spirit, which with the intention of bringing this work to a close I pass over. Yet this I would have you say: what necessity is there that the sacrament of baptism be given not in the name of the Father alone, nor only in the name of the Father and the Son, but in the name of the whole Trinity, that is, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit is not of the same nature and power as the Father and the Son?
What does the single commemoration of the name mean in the sacrament of baptism, if there is not there one operation of the Trinity? What need is there that a man in baptism cannot be saved without the name of the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit did not create man? Or attend rather to that which is greater: why did He come upon the Son of God, if He is created, not creator? Or how did He fill Him, if He is not to be believed equal, but lesser? Since surely His operation would not be necessary for the renewal of man, if He did not make man; nor would the Spirit come upon Christ, whom you say the Father made through the Son; nor would He fill Him, to whom He could not be equal.
But you, who raise anew the question of the mission of the Holy Spirit, and say that the Holy Spirit is taught to be sent and directed like an angel and a minister, recall what has been said by us above, and you will find that the Holy Spirit is not sent as an angel is. For the latter is sent from place to place, and thus is sent thither where he was not. But the Holy Spirit, who fills all things and is nowhere absent, deigns to be sent by the Father through His grace to that place where He is always present through His immense divinity, and comes thither by the bestowal of a gift, whence He is never absent by the greatness of His deity. Not therefore, as you have answered yourself according to your own will in my name, is the mission of the Holy Spirit to be called His appearing:
for He was then sent by a visible manifestation, when, in order to signify His grace, His mission had to be intimated to the faithful in such a way that from what they beheld visibly with their eyes they might come to know the gifts of invisible grace. But it has seemed to you, from the prayer whereby at the time of the sacrifice the coming of the Holy Spirit is besought, that you would show His mission to be local. But you will then be able to think worthily of the Holy Spirit, if you do not follow the prudence of the flesh, which is an enemy to God (Rom. 8:7). For this is first to be attended to, which blessed Paul says to the faithful: 'Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?' (1 Cor. 3:16). And that he might say this, he had regard to the promise of our Savior, who said:
'I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him, for He abides with you, and shall be in you' (John 14:16, 17). Behold, the Lord Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His faithful ones, that He might be with them for ever, and abide in them. And if the promise of the Savior is true—which no Christian doubts—then it is necessary that the Holy Spirit not depart from the faithful: He who is taken away only from those whom God has cast from before His face. Wherefore blessed David says: 'Cast me not away from Thy face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me' (Ps. 51:11).
Since therefore in those who rightly worship God the Holy Spirit rests by an altogether eternal dwelling, how do they ask that He be sent to them? Because indeed they would not stand worthily to offer sacrifice, if they did not have the Holy Spirit within them. In whom also the holy Apostle admonishes us to pray, saying: 'Praying at all times in the Spirit, and watching in Him with all perseverance and supplication' (Eph. 6:18). How then do they ask that He be sent to them, whom they are not ignorant to have been given them from God and to abide in them continually? Or perhaps before holy men pour out their prayer, the Holy Spirit rests in them, and when He perceives them about to pray, forthwith departs? But if it were so, it would have been better that holy men should never pray,
and continually have the Holy Spirit within them, than that He should ever forsake them when about to pray: whence consequently that would be found to be not profitable but harmful which the Evangelist says, that 'we ought always to pray' (Luke 18:1). He commands it at all times. But who of sound mind would say that he does not have the Spirit in himself who prays in the Spirit? Or perhaps at the time when sacrifice is offered, do you suppose that the Holy Spirit is indeed in those who pour out prayer, but is not in the very place where the sacrifice is set? But who thinks thus, save one who is out of his senses?
Or who would suppose the coming of the Holy Spirit to be local, save one who, possessed by carnal thought and therefore shut out from spiritual thought, wills so to think of divine things as he thinks of human things; and thinks of the Spirit of God, who fills the world, just as he can think of a human or angelic spirit? Whereas that Holy Spirit so fills the whole creation that He Himself, being one, is always everywhere whole and entire. Recognize therefore what is done in the offering of sacrifices, that you may thence understand why the coming of the Holy Spirit is there besought. For surely that is fulfilled in the offering of sacrifices which the blessed Apostle testifies our Savior Himself commanded, saying:
'For the Lord Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks broke it, and said: This is my body which shall be delivered for you; do this in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after He had supped, saying: This cup is the new testament in my blood; do this, as often as you shall drink, in remembrance of me. For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the cup, you shall show forth the death of the Lord until He come' (1 Cor. 11:23ff.). Therefore the sacrifice is offered, that the death of the Lord may be shown forth, and that there may be a remembrance of Him who laid down His soul for us. And He Himself said: 'Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends' (John
15:13). Since therefore Christ died for us out of charity, when at the time of sacrifice we make the remembrance of His death, we ask that charity be granted us through the coming of the Holy Spirit: humbly imploring this, that through that very charity by which Christ deigned to be crucified for us, we too, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit, may hold the world crucified and be crucified to the world; and imitating the death of our Lord, that even as Christ, in that He died to sin, died once—but in that He lives, He lives to God (Rom. 6:10)—so we too may walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4); and having received the gift of charity, may die to sin and live to God (Rom. 6:11).
For the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us (Rom. 5:5). For that very participation in the body and blood of the Lord, when we eat His bread and drink the cup, instills this into us: that we should die to the world, and have our life hidden with Christ in God, and crucify our flesh with its vices and concupiscences. Thus it comes to pass that all the faithful, who love God and their neighbor, even if they do not drink the cup of bodily passion, yet drink the cup of the Lord's charity: inebriated by which, they mortify their members which are upon the earth, and having put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh in its desires;
nor should they contemplate the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen. For thus is the cup of the Lord drunk, so long as holy charity is kept; without which, though a man deliver his body to be burned, it profits him nothing. And by the gift of charity this is conferred upon us, that we may be in truth what we mystically celebrate in the sacrifice. Wherefore that which the Apostle says, 'Since we, being many, are one bread, one body,' he added for this reason: 'all we who partake of one bread' (1 Cor. 10:17). And that we should ask for this at the time of sacrifice, we have the most salutary example of our Savior, who willed that we should seek in the commemoration of His death that which He Himself, the true High Priest, near to death, besought for us, saying among other things:
'Holy Father, keep in Thy name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we also are' (John 17:11); and a little after: 'And I pray not for these only, but for those also who through their word shall believe in me; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, and the world may believe that Thou hast sent me. And the glory which Thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one' (John 17:20ff.). This therefore we ask for ourselves, when we offer the body and blood of Christ, which He asked for us when Christ deigned to offer Himself for us.
For review the Gospel, and you will find that our very Redeemer, this prayer being completed, entered into the garden, and was immediately seized by the hands of the Jews. Yet after the supper in which He gave His disciples the sacrament of His body and blood, the Savior poured out this prayer for His faithful: showing that we especially ought to pray this at the time of sacrifice, which He Himself, establishing the rule of sacrificing, deigned as the supreme High Priest to ask. But this which we petition—that is, that in the Father and the Son we may be one—we receive through the unity of spiritual grace, which the blessed Apostle bids us carefully to preserve, saying: 'Supporting one another in charity, careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.'
We ask therefore that the Holy Spirit may come, not according to the substance of His immense divinity, but according to the gift of His undivided charity. For if you suppose the Holy Spirit to come from place to place, it follows that you should also confess the coming of the Father and the Son from place to place. For the Son of God says: 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him' (John 14:23). The Father and the Son therefore come to him who loves them, who yet are not loved save by him in whom they deign to dwell. For God is charity (1 John 4:8); and God is loved with charity: then therefore is God loved, when He is possessed.
For just as the eye, unless it has received light, will not see the light itself at all; so God then begins to be loved by man, when man has begun to be visited by the Lord. How then do the Father and the Son come to him who loves them, by whom they could not be loved if they were not in him; save that they are worthily said to come when they accumulate, by the increase of a better progress, the grace which they bestow? They come therefore to him who loves them, not by drawing near to the man in whom they already were, but by increasing in the man the gifts of theirs which they had given. So also the Spirit is said to come, while He is asked for by the faithful, when He deigns either to confer or to increase the gift of charity and of unanimity.
In which gift especially, and, so to speak, properly, the Holy Spirit is recognized. For He can bestow any other thing whatever through omnipotence, and yet not be present Himself through grace; but He shows His very self to be present through grace, when He grants charity. Whence, though a man speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not charity, he shall be as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal; and though he have prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though he have all faith, so that he could remove mountains, but have not charity, he is nothing; and though he distribute all his goods to feed the poor, and deliver his body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits him nothing (1 Cor.
12:1ff.). But who would deny all those things to be gifts of the Holy Spirit, since the Apostle testifies that they are given through the Spirit? But none of these profits where charity is not. For the Holy Spirit gives all those things even to those in whom He Himself does not dwell; but from those to whom He grants charity He does not depart. Holy Church therefore, while in the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ she prays that the Holy Spirit be sent to her, petitions surely the gift of charity, by which she may be able to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3): and because it is written, 'Love is strong as death' (Cant.
8:6), she petitions, for the mortifying of her members which are upon the earth, that charity by which she remembers her Redeemer who died freely for her. The Holy Spirit therefore sanctifies the sacrifice of the Catholic Church: and thus the Christian people abides in faith and charity, while each of the faithful, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, worthily eats and drinks the body and blood of the Lord for this reason, that he both holds the right faith concerning his God, and by living well does not forsake the unity of the ecclesiastical body. FRAGMENT XXIX. Why in the blessing of the font the Holy Spirit is besought. What the double spirit of Elias is; what the manifold spirit; what in the Apocalypse the seven spirits before the throne of God.
The Holy Spirit is of His own free will. What it is for the Son to be sent by the Father; what it is for the Holy Spirit to be sent by the Father and the Son. The Son, as man, was sent by the Father and by the Holy Spirit. And so in the blessing of the font we do not ask that the Holy Spirit be sent as though we sought His local coming; but knowing that in God the Father is naturally the origin of the Holy Spirit, we ask of God the Father Himself the bounty of the spiritual gift, calling His gifts by His name; which we do not without the authority of Holy Scripture. For there are many examples of these terms in the canonical books, in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are recognized to be called by His name.
For we read that, when holy Elias was to be taken up into heaven, he said to Eliseus that he should ask whatever he wished, before he was taken from him. And Eliseus said: 'I beseech thee that thy double spirit may be in me' (2 Kings 2:9). Wherein indeed we see a spiritual gift called by the name of spirit. For that simple nature of the Holy Spirit, remaining in itself (as it is, always full and unchangeable), is neither diminished nor increased. It is indeed said in the book of Wisdom: 'The Holy Spirit, one only, manifold' (Wisd. 7:22). But this, that He is called manifold, is found not in Himself, but in His gifts.
For the Spirit of God is called manifold in the old books, just as in the apostolic Epistles the wisdom of God is called manifold (Eph. 3:10): which nevertheless is manifold not in itself, but in its bounties. Which blessed Peter most manifestly showing, says: 'Every one, according as he has received grace, ministering the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God' (1 Pet. 4:10). One therefore and simple is the nature of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; according to which nature, both the Wisdom of God and the Spirit of God are simple. But having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us (Rom.
12:6), the Wisdom of God and the Spirit of God, whom we have known to be simple in His nature, we find to be manifold in His bounties. And blessed John too, in the Apocalypse, calling the spiritual gifts by the name of spirit, says: 'John to the seven churches which are in Asia: grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before His throne' (Rev. 1:4). Here indeed, saying seven spirits, he meant to be understood one Spirit, the giver of sevenfold grace; whom Isaias, enlightened by His grace, recognized as the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, and the Spirit of the fear of God (Isa. 11:2).
Wherever therefore in the Apocalypse of blessed John seven spirits are named, let seven gifts of the one Holy Spirit be recognized. But if perhaps here in the seven spirits you do not believe it to be that very sevenfold grace of spiritual gifts, but suppose rather seven distinct spirits differing in their own persons: tell us whether you deem them equal to the Holy Spirit—that is, to the Paraclete of whom we now treat—or lesser, or greater. Or perhaps can you make one of those seven to be this Holy Spirit? For if you should call those whom you think seven spirits equal to the Holy Spirit, then without doubt you will name not seven, but eight holy spirits of one dignity.
What cause then was there that blessed John should wish grace for the churches from those seven spirits, and should have removed from them the grace of the Paraclete Spirit, when in the book of the Acts of the Apostles it is written that, when blessed Peter was speaking the word of faith to Cornelius and the rest who were with him, 'the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word, and the faithful of the circumcision who had come with Peter were astonished, because on the nations also was poured out the grace of the Holy Spirit' (Acts 10:44, 45)? Did blessed John perhaps know the grace of this Holy Spirit to be lesser, and therefore for the churches which were in Asia besought grace from the other seven spirits?
Whereas surely if there were eight spirits, he ought to have besought at once from all those spirits the gift of spiritual grace for the churches, so that of those whom you assert to be equal there might be no separation of bounty. But if you say those seven spirits are lesser than the Paraclete, again it is asked why blessed John willed the grace of lesser spirits to be given to the faithful, and did not seek the grace of the greater? Since surely he can be the giver of the better grace who is also of the higher nature. But if you pronounce those seven spirits to be greater than the Holy Spirit, what cause is there that, they being passed over, the Holy Spirit alone with the Father and the Son is named in baptism, who also is called by the Apostle the Spirit of the adoption of sons (Rom.
8:15)? Since without doubt those whom you say are seven spirits, being according to your opinion both better in nature and more in number, ought to have been named with the Father and the Son in the sacrament of baptism; who both by plurality of number and by dignity of nature could bestow a more excellent and more abundant grace upon those being reborn. It ought therefore, if it were as you say, that holy baptism be given not in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the seven spirits. A like rule ought to have been observed also in baptism, if one of those seven spirits were the Holy Spirit. But if you feel or say that this is to be done, attend to Christ whose rule you contradict.
Or perhaps, in order to show the Holy Spirit lesser than the Father and the Son, do you exclude Him from the sacrament of baptism, and introduce there another Spirit of God? For some of you are wont, when they begin to be convinced concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit, since it is certain that men are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (according to the rule of the Lord and Savior), to turn to this perversity, so as to say that it is not this Paraclete Spirit, but another Spirit of God, in whose name believers receive the sacrament of baptism; whom without doubt they prefer to the Paraclete Spirit. But if this is so, tell us whether you believe this Spirit to be of the Father alone, or of the Son alone, or of both?
But if you say this Spirit is of the Father alone, without doubt you proclaim Him greater than the Son. We ask therefore whether you say this Spirit to be at least of one nature with God the Father? But if you say the nature of God the Father and of this Spirit is one, it is necessary then that you prefer Him to the Son of God. But if this is so, then according to your view the order of names was ill placed by Christ in the sacrament of baptism. For if He is not of one nature with God the Father and His Spirit, the name of the Son ought not to be inserted between the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit; since the natural unity teaches that the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit ought to be joined together.
But nevertheless here it behooves you to remember that upon the baptized Jesus the Paraclete Spirit (of whom we now treat) descended. Consider therefore, lest you should have to call Him greater who descended upon Christ in the Jordan, than that other whom you now suppose to be given to the faithful in holy baptism. But in all things the supreme divinity convicts and refutes you. For God the Father testifies that He gave His Spirit upon the Son; which, said through Isaias, the holy Evangelist sets forth in the person of Christ with these words: 'That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the prophet, saying: Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon Him' (Matt. 12:17;
13:201
Isa. XLII, i). Quodetiaminejusbaptismateinsinuarecuravit, dicens : Baptizatusautem , confestimascenditdeaqua : etecceapertisunteicæli, etviditSpiritumDeidescendentemsicutcolumbametvenientemsuperse (Marc. I, 10). Videsne, ipsumesseSpiritumDei, quemvossinereverentiablasphematis, etminorarecontenditis? AnfortedicisetiamistumquidemSpiritum. Deiesse, sedtamenessealterumSpiritumDei, quiinsacramentobaptismatiscumPatreetFilionomina-tur? Sed (sicutsuperiusdixi) exeoquodistesuperChristumdescendit, nonavobisdebetminorilloSpiritu, sedpotioræstimari.
Isa. 42:1). Which He also took care to intimate at His baptism, saying: 'And Jesus, being baptized, forthwith came up out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon Him' (Mark 1:10; cf. Matt. 3:16). Do you see that it is the very Spirit of God, whom you irreverently blaspheme and strive to diminish? Or do you perhaps say that this too is indeed the Spirit of God, but that nevertheless it is another Spirit of God who is named with the Father and the Son in the sacrament of baptism? But (as I said above) from the fact that this Spirit descended upon Christ, He ought not by you to be esteemed lesser than that Spirit, but greater.
Next I ask whether that Spirit whom you say to be the Spirit of God is one, common to the Father and the Son, or is said to be of the Father alone? For if this Spirit of the Father and the Son is one, and the same Spirit is of one nature with the Father, surely He is of one nature also with the Son. Of one nature therefore, and of one divinity, are the Father and the Son; because the one Spirit of both has one nature with the Father and the Son. But if you say this one Spirit to be of the Father alone, and not also of the Son, attend to what the Apostle says: 'But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His' (Rom. 8:9); and either deny that you are Christ's, if His Spirit is not in you;
or say that not the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but the Father and the Son, and two spirits, dwell in you. But since no man can serve two masters (Matt. 6:24), how will you be able justly to assert yourselves servants of four masters? Or do you say that the Father with His Spirit is one master, and the Son with His Spirit another master? But even so you wish to be servants of two masters, so long as you will not confess the Father and the Son to be one Lord. But neither will you be able to be servants of the Father and the Son, until you believe in the one lordship of the Father and the Son: and thereby, so long as you call the Father and the Son two masters, and yet cannot serve two masters, you will be deprived not of servitude, but of salvation.
Wherefore, Fabianus, acknowledge the majesty of the Holy Spirit, and cease now to blaspheme Him: who indeed for this reason is besought to come to bless the font, that He may grant the gift of the adoption of sons, having bestowed the remission of sins. For He comes in the bounty of His gifts, while He Himself does not cease to fill the world. But the Father sends Him, because He proceeds from the Father: yet He sends Him by the origin of majesty, not by the command of an order. And thus the Holy Spirit, who is everywhere whole, comes, just as the Son was wont to come with God the Father. The mission therefore of the Holy Spirit is the bestowal of an invisible gift, not a personal appearing: because neither is the mission itself understood as local, where He who is sent is found by nature immense.
That you may evidently recognize His mission in His gifts, attend to that which blessed John said in the Apocalypse, that seven spirits of God were sent through the whole world (Rev. 5:6): whereas he himself said in the Gospel that our Savior promised to send, not seven spirits from Himself and from the Father, but one Paraclete, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father (John 15:26). Could blessed John then have forgotten his own Gospel, so as to say there that one Spirit was promised, and here that seven spirits were sent? Or ought the Lord Himself not to have given all seven spirits to the apostles, whom He was appointing princes of His Church? Or do you assert that these seven spirits also were sent to the apostles?
which the holy authority in no way permits you to say. For on the day of Pentecost the apostles received that very Holy Spirit whom the Lord had promised them; and they testified that one and the same Holy Spirit was given to all the faithful and obedient to God, saying: 'And we are witnesses of these words, and the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to all who obey Him' (Acts 5:32). One and the same Spirit is given to all the faithful, of whom the Apostle says, 'And we have all been made to drink of one Spirit' (1 Cor. 12:13).
When therefore the blessed John says that seven Spirits of God were sent throughout the whole earth, he wished to show how the one Spirit of God is sent, not in himself (who is everywhere always boundless), but in the bounty of his gifts. He said therefore that seven Spirits of God were sent throughout the whole earth, in order to show that upon the Church spread everywhere throughout the earth the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit has been conferred by his bounty. And so the Holy Spirit, who both bestows and preserves charity in the Church, also sanctifies both the sacrifice and baptism by the working of divine power. Therefore our baptism is not (as you say) of no moment and of no substance.
For baptism, which is given in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, when it is given within the Catholic Church, contains in itself both the form of godliness and its power. The form of godliness is conferred by the visible washing; but the power of godliness is poured in by the gift of true faith and charity. But heretics and schismatics, departing from the Church, have lost the power of godliness, because they did not hold the true faith nor keep ecclesiastical charity; yet the form of godliness, which is the visible sacrament of the washing, they did not lose when they went out from the Church. But it remained in them as a testimony to their condemnation, not as a help to salvation.
This therefore they gave outside the Church, which once received they in no way lost, that is, the visible sacrament of baptism. And this baptism is not to be said to lack the form of godliness among heretics on the ground that it does not there possess the power of godliness; rather, to the form of godliness must be restored that power which the Catholic unity alone possesses, in which there is both the truth of right faith and the unbroken fellowship of charity. This one body of the Church one Spirit gives life to. On account of which the blessed Paul says: One body, and one Spirit (Ephes. iv, 4). In this one body, so long as each several member remains, both the form is found present and the life.
But from this Body every member that has been cut off, whether by unbelief or by animosity, retains the form but lacks life. For a member which is separated from the body loses indeed the invisible life, yet does not lose the visible form. You say that from this it is shown that the Holy Spirit is subject and lesser, because he himself is not asked to descend or to come, if he is in his own power and of free will. And how does Fabianus deny freedom of will to the Holy Spirit, which the apostle Paul especially assigns to him, saying: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (II Cor. iii, 17)?
Is freedom of will then denied by you, Fabianus, to the Holy Spirit, who is given to us for this very end, that through him the freedom of our will may be restored by a gratuitous gift? For who ever, without the grace of the Holy Spirit, was able to be free from the deadly bondage of sin? Who, I ask, without the gift of the Holy Spirit, could in any degree aspire to the beginnings of an inner liberty regained? O wickedness! how far human rashness casts itself down by its pride! and while it strives to leap forth into insult against its Creator and Deliverer, it does not heed the benefits of the divine goodness. For the Son of God says: If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John viii, 36).
But in that we are set free, we are made sons of God, because being freed from sin, and made servants to God (Rom. vi, 22), in which we receive the gift of divine adoption, in that very thing indeed we receive the grace of liberty. And the blessed Apostle says: For you have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. viii, 15). How then does man dare to take away liberty from the very Spirit of adoption, when without that Spirit he can neither recover the liberty he has lost nor is able to obtain that which is conferred? And what is worse, you dare, Fabianus, to say that free will is indeed not lacking to man, and yet that the Holy Spirit is not of free will. The Apostle says to us:
For you have been called unto liberty, brethren; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by the charity of the Spirit serve one another (Gal. v, 13). Behold, the charity of the Spirit has caused us to be called unto liberty: how then is that same Spirit denied to be of free will? But since that Spirit convicts the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment (John xvi, 8); when for this sin you shall come to judgment, then you shall experience the free will of the Holy Spirit. You say meanwhile that the Holy Spirit is lesser and subject, because he is not asked to descend, to come, to send and direct himself: yet you do not deny that the Son was sent by the Father, on account of which you attempt to assert that he is lesser.
If therefore you shall have learned by the attestation of the divine volumes that the Son was asked by the prophets to descend and to come, at least from this you will confess that he is not subject; and you will say that he is of free will and of his own power. For to whom, except to the Son whom he knew was about to descend, did the blessed prophet say: Lord, bow down thy heavens, and descend (Ps. cxliii, 5)? or whose coming did he demand, except that of the Only-begotten of God, saying: Thou that rulest Israel, give ear; thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep. Thou that sittest upon the Cherubim, appear before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasses. Stir up thy power, and come to save us (Ps. lxxix, 1, 2, 3)? Recognize therefore, in that the Father was besought, when the prophet says:
Send forth thy light and thy truth (Ps. xlii, 3); and: Command, O God, thy strength; confirm, O God, what thou hast wrought in us (Ps. lxvii, 29)—here the Son is sent by the Father; but in that the Son himself was asked by the prophets that he might come, the Son came of his own will. For the Son would never be besought by the prophets, if his coming were not in his own power. The Father therefore was besought to send the Son himself, because he begot the Son; nor yet would the Son be asked to descend and to come, if he did not naturally have one and the same power with the Father. The holy prophets therefore knew that they were asking the Son when they asked the Father; and likewise that they were beseeching the Father when they besought the Son:
and so, whether they directed their prayer to the person of the Father or to the person of the Son, they were beseeching the whole Trinity in the invocation of one person, because they knew the one substance of the Trinity. The Son therefore is sent by the Father, not the Father by the Son: because the Son is born of the Father, not the Father of the Son. Likewise the Holy Spirit also is read to be sent by the Father and the Son, because he proceeds from the Father and the Son. But because mission is not spoken of in one manner only in the Holy Scriptures, therefore in the sacrament of the Incarnation the Son was sent not only by the Father but also by the Holy Spirit: because the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, was fashioned by the working of the whole Trinity.
But in another manner the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son, who (as Aeneas says in Book I against the Greeks) naturally proceeds from the Father and the Son. For the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son, when by the Trinity itself, the one God, the effect of spiritual grace is bestowed. But in another way was the Son sent by the Father and the Holy Spirit, when, emptying himself, he took the form of a servant. For it is not the same thing to take flesh into one's own person, and for the Word to become man, as it is to confer by invisible power the bounty of some gift. For the Holy Spirit did not truly become a dove or truly become fire, when it was fitting that he be signified by the sight of such things.
But the Word became flesh, when the Only-begotten God took flesh. Yet this he did not by an alien power, but by his own; nor by his alone, because that sacrament of godliness was accomplished by the one will and power of the whole Trinity. But I marvel how you do not believe an angel to be sent by the Holy Spirit, by whom you read that the very Lord of the angels was sent. But we invoke the Father, on account of the origin and the natural and undivided unity of the Godhead. And this indeed the holy Church guards by the gift of divine inspiration. For she could not beseech the Trinity in the plural number, lest by unbelievers the Christian religion be thought to serve not God, but gods.
The holy Church therefore beseeches in her prayers the Father, whom by right belief she has known to be the origin of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And for this reason she concludes her prayers and petitions in the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that she may show the holy Trinity to be of one nature and majesty. But concerning the power of the Holy Spirit, which you do not fear to deny to him over creation, whereas you cannot yourself escape his power and justice, I have already answered you above. For it is manifest that he possesses the full power over all things, because he works all things, dividing to every one as he wills (I Cor. xii, 11). Do not therefore, in your pride, deny the power of the Holy Spirit, lest being condemned you feel his justice.
For the Holy Spirit is naturally Lord, because he is naturally the Spirit of the Lord; not of the Lord the Father alone, nor of the Lord the Son alone, but of the one Lord, namely of the Father and of the Son: and because he is naturally the one Spirit of the Father and of the Son, he is naturally one Lord with the Father and the Son. Who therefore does not come except when he is sent by the Father and the Son, because from that source is his voluntary power of coming, from which is his natural unity. FRAGMENT XXX. Of the ministering Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not pray for us in the manner in which the Son does. Behold again I say what I said above: Not every mission is an appearing, and especially the mission of the Holy Spirit. Whose mission it was fitting to show visibly only a second time;
not through his own nature, but through a subject creature, which creature both signified something and, the signification once accomplished, passed away. Thus indeed in that dove, and in the tongues of fire, it was fitting for the Holy Spirit to be signified (whom nevertheless we do not believe to have been locally sent), just as it was fitting that God the Father be signified by that voice which was made over Jesus when baptized: in which voice, nevertheless, we so take the person of the Father to be signified, that we by no means dare to ascribe a temporal utterance to his divinity. But the spirits which are sent from heaven then appear when it is commanded them by God, and then do not appear when it is not divinely enjoined upon them; yet they are sent thither, where they were not before they were sent.
Which concerning the Holy Spirit cannot rightly be either believed or said, since it is established that he is everywhere always wholly present, because the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole earth (Wisd. i, 7). But false is what you said: When the devil was sent to Job, why did he not appear? For Holy Scripture did not say that the devil was sent to Job, although it said that he was permitted. In vain therefore do you turn useless words about the mission and appearing of angels, multiplying them and by turning them multiplying them; as though we for this reason denied that angels are sent, because they for the most part manifested themselves. Whereas indeed, in that they are sent, whether they appear to human eyes, or hide themselves from the sight of men;
they are nevertheless so sent as the apostolic authority attests: Ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation (Heb. i, 14). But never can there be such a mission of the Holy Spirit. For he can have no likeness of mission with the angels, because wherever the holy angels are, they are all filled by that one Spirit, who is wholly in each and one in all. But the Holy Spirit is nowhere named an angel and a minister: since in the work there is indeed one announcement of the Trinity, and in the ministration of the Spirit there is not a ministry of servitude, but the help of divine majesty. Which the blessed Peter undoubtedly shows, saying:
Whether any man speak, let him speak as the words of God: whether any man minister, let him do it as of the power which God administers (I Pet. iv, 11). Here it is shown that to administer the help of power belongs to no creature, but to God alone. To that objection also, by which you said that the Holy Spirit prays, groans, and intercedes, I have, as far as the Lord God helped, given an answer; showing how that saying of the Apostle ought to be understood according to the rule of truth. For truly Christ, who is at the right hand of God, does indeed intercede for us (Rom. viii, 34), but according to that in which he deigned to be a Priest, and offered himself for us, an oblation and a victim to God for an odor of sweetness (Ephes. v, 2).
Thence therefore comes the prayer, whence comes the oblation; thence comes the priestly supplication, whence comes his nature common with us. Accordingly he himself is the one who both prays for us and is prayed to by us. For he prays for us according to that whereby he is our Priest, and the head of the body of the Church, the one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus: but he is prayed to by us according to that whereby he is naturally one God with the Father. But the Holy Spirit performs no office of petition for us, neither with the Father nor with the Son; but together with the Father and the Son he grants one benign hearing to our petitions, bestows one mercy, confers one help, forgives one remission of sins.
For at once, when we beseech the Father, the whole Trinity is besought by us; because whatever is salutary for us, the whole Trinity bestows with inseparable power and goodness. BOOK IX. ON THE INVOCATION OF THE TRINITY. FRAGMENT XXXI. Not the Father only is invoked, but also the Son. In one person the whole Trinity is invoked. What is asked of one person, the whole Trinity does. You say that whether it be the Lord's Prayer, or all the common prayers and petitions, they are rightly poured out only to the person of God the Father alone. But we say that the Lord's Prayer indeed ought always to be poured out to the person of the Father alone; since in it we begin to pray in such a way that we first name the Father himself.
Whence, from that rule which the Saviour instituted, the Church, which is his body, has been accustomed to pour out her prayers to the person of God the Father. Yet, that we may recognize that in the invocation of one person the whole Trinity is equally honored by the homage of a faithful invocation, we find that by the patriarchs and holy martyrs the Son also was invoked; upon whom certainly you will not dare to fasten either ignorance of the truth, or any charge of irreligious error. In him therefore whom God set as the father of many nations (Rom. iv, 17), receive first the proof of this matter: concerning whom, while he was still Abram, and not yet by divine gift called Abraham, it is thus written in Genesis: And the Lord God appeared to Abram, and said to him:
To thy seed will I give this land. And Abram built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. And he removed from thence to the mountain eastward of Bethel, toward the sea to the west, eastward: and he built there an altar to the Lord God, and called upon the name of the Lord God who had appeared (Gen. xii, 7, 8). Choose now one of two things, that either you say that God the Father appeared to holy Abraham, or you assert that the Son was invoked. For see what Scripture commends: And he called upon the name of the Lord God who had appeared: where it is recognized that the God who appeared is the very one invoked.
Or, because it is not said, He called upon the Lord God who had appeared, but, Upon the name of the Lord God who had appeared, do you from this perhaps suppose that one was the one who appeared and another the one invoked? Say then whom the holy patriarch invoked, or in whose name you suppose him to have invoked. Beyond doubt you assert that either the Father was invoked in the name of the Son, or the Son in the name of the Father. But whichever you shall have chosen, you must be overcome by the force of truth. For if you assert that the Son was invoked in the name of the Father, on account of that which he says, I am come in the name of my Father (John v, 43); behold, meanwhile you must confess that the Son was invoked by the holy patriarchs. But what is it to invoke, if not to pray? Him therefore Abraham prayed to, whom he invoked.
Does it please you, or displease you, that the Son was invoked by holy Abraham? If it pleases you, either say that the Father was not there invoked, or acknowledge a common honor in the invocation of one person. But surely, if you say that the Son was invoked in the name of the Father, you will not be able from this invocation to separate the Father. Why therefore, when the Son is invoked, do you believe that the Father also is invoked, and when the Father is invoked, do you not believe the Son also to be invoked? Since indeed just as there the invocation runs back from the offspring to the origin, so also here let it run back from the origin to the offspring. God therefore, who is invoked in the name of the Lord God, is invoked assuredly in his own name: nor is it anything else to invoke the Lord than to invoke the name of the Lord. Otherwise, who is he to whom Isaiah says:
O Lord, besides thee we have known no other, we have called upon thy name (Isa. xxvi, 13)? Or to whom does Jeremiah say: But thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is invoked upon us (Jer. xiv, 9)? David also, praying, says: Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me in thy strength (Ps. liii, 3). Finally, if you think that the rule of faith does not allow the Son to be invoked, you must necessarily censure the blessed Stephen, of whom it is written that the Jews stoned him as he invoked and said: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts vii, 59). Undoubtedly also you cast away the doctrine of the apostle Peter, who says: Grace be with all who invoke Jesus Christ unto perpetuity.
Peace be to you all who are in Christ (I Pet. v, 14). Why therefore does the blessed Stephen pour out his prayer to the Son, if the Son is never to be entreated? or whom else does David invoke but the Son, saying that which we noted above: Thou that rulest Israel, give ear; thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep (Ps. lxxix, 1)? Whose coming also he demands, saying (v. 5): Stir up thy power, and come to save us. Recognize therefore that, when the Father is invoked, the Son also is equally invoked, and when the Son is invoked, no less is the Father invoked, and that from this same invocation the Holy Spirit is by no means separated. For we owe to the holy Trinity one homage of prayer, in whose name being baptized, we have received the grace of redemption.
To the Father therefore we say in prayer, Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, asking that through him he may do what we pray, through whom he deigned to make us that we might exist. For the Father made and makes all things through the Son, because there is one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things (I Cor. viii, 6); of whom likewise it is written, that all things were made by him, and without him was made nothing (John i, 3); and that all things were created by him and in him, and he is before all, and all things consist in him (Col. i, 16, 17). But because that which is said, Through our Lord Jesus Christ, you think to be an adjuration, in this also acknowledge the Son equal to the Father. For the apostolic authority says:
For God, in promising to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom he might swear, swore by himself (Heb. vi, 13). God therefore, who does not swear except by himself, is not adjured except by him who is known to be with him of one nature. Although that conclusion of the prayer rather shows through whom the Father works, and does not contain the language of an adjuration. Yet in whatever manner it be said, it suffices, since it is said for this end, that every prayer, and all petitions, may be concluded in the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, since we have shown that the blessed martyr Stephen also, in the very moment of his passion, directed his prayer not to the person of the Father, but to that of the Son;
and since again the whole Church always directs its prayer or petition to the person of the Father; you ought to recognize that all the reason of our faith, although it seems to be directed to one person of the Trinity, yet contains in it the honoring of the whole Trinity. For he who says: He who hates me, hates my Father also (John xv, 23), and of whom the blessed John says: He who loves him that begot, loves him also who is born of him (I John v, 1); just as he is commonly with the Father either held in hatred or loved, so when the Father is entreated, together with him the Son is known by the faithful to be entreated.
And since there is one Spirit of the Father and of the Son, it is necessary that while the Father or the Son is invoked, in the Father and the Son he also who is the one Spirit of both should be invoked. But there is one Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, in whose name we conclude every prayer which we direct to the Father: nor yet without the name of the Holy Spirit, that we may show that we humbly beseech the whole Trinity. For we do not say to the whole Trinity: Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, but to the Father alone, whose the only-begotten Son is, the Lord Jesus Christ.
To this end, moreover, as we have already said above, we join the name of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit when we pray to the Father, that whatever we ask, we may show ourselves to be petitioning from the whole Trinity. Otherwise, show us how that can be fulfilled which our Saviour himself, in that very last discourse which (according to the Gospel of John) he had with the disciples, is known to have enjoined. For in a certain place of the aforesaid discourse he says: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you (John xv, 7). Here he said that it must be asked, but whether it is to be asked of himself or of the Father he did not show. Yet a little after he took care to disclose the person of the Father as him to be petitioned, saying:
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have appointed you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, he may give you (Ibid., 16): which he again inculcates, saying: Amen, amen, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you (John xvi, 23). Nevertheless, hear how he also took care to intimate to the disciples that he himself is to be petitioned, saying: Amen, amen, I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do; because I go to the Father, and whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask me anything in my name, that will I do (John xiv, 12, 13, 14).
Behold, the Son of God suggests that he himself also is to be petitioned. But if the Father shall have been petitioned anything in the name of the Son, without doubt he will give it, because the Son who is faithful in his words has promised this: if the Son also be petitioned anything in his own name, this he promises without hesitation that he will do. Accordingly, either say that the work of the Father and of the Son is one, and that the persons are joined in prayer; or if you separate the persons, so that you do not believe that what the Father is asked, the Son is asked, it is necessary that if you think the homage of prayer is to be claimed for one alone, to him alone you should ascribe also the effect of the operation. And by this, according to your opinion, in the very holy apostles and martyrs a great diversity is found in their prayers:
while one prays to the Father, another invokes the Son. For we read that by the blessed Paul the Father was invoked for the faithful, as he himself says: For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit unto the inner man, that Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts (Ephes. iii, 14). Which certainly the Father without doubt did. But the blessed Stephen invoked the Lord Jesus, that he might receive his spirit (Acts vii, 59). Which likewise the Lord Christ, being invoked, fulfilled. What then do you now say?
Did the Son with the Father do what Paul asked of the Father, and the Father with the Son do what Stephen invoked the Son? Or did the Father alone do what Paul asked of the Father alone, and Christ alone fulfill what Stephen invoked of the Son alone? For if you shall say that what, according to your opinion, Paul asked of the Father alone was done by the Father alone, no less will you confess that what Stephen begged of the Son alone was accomplished by the Son alone without any cooperation of the Father. And by this you assert separate works of the Father and of the Son: wherein you contradict the very Son of God, who says: For whatsoever things the Father does, these the Son also does in like manner (John v, 19).
But if you shall say that in fulfilling the petitions of Stephen the martyr and of the apostle Paul there is one work of the Father and of the Son, acknowledge that the one work of both could by no means have been possible except through the unity of nature; so that both the Father saw himself invoked by Stephen in the Son, and the Son recognized himself entreated by Paul in the Father. But that you may recognize that the apostolic doctrine holds this, that both the Father and the Son are invoked by us, see how the blessed Apostle commends Christ as to be invoked, who writes thus to the Corinthians:
Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes a brother, to the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in every place of theirs and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. i, 1, 2, 3). You perceive, surely, that for those who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, grace and peace are divinely besought by the Apostle. What then remains, except that everyone who does not invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ can have from him neither grace nor peace? But whoever shall not have received grace from God will without doubt receive everlasting punishment;
and he who has not received peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will by no means attain to salvation. For the invocation of that very name the blessed Paul commends by the prophetic word, saying: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. x, 13; Joel ii, 32). It is therefore certain, according to the rule of true faith, in which the one substance of the holy Trinity is believed, that no separation of the Father and the Son takes place, whether the Father or the Son be invoked by the faithful. But by those neither the Father is invoked, nor the Son, who in the invocation which is offered to the Father, do not believe that the Son is naturally invoked together with the Father.
For this the natural unity of the Trinity holds, that inseparably to those three persons the homages of holy religion should be rendered, in whom there is one inseparable and unchangeable nature. In the prayers indeed which the one true Church pours out to God, both the unity of nature is preserved, and the distinction of persons is guarded: so that when the prayer is directed to the Father, who is the origin of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the one nature of the Trinity may appear; but by the mention of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the very end of the prayer may show forth the true Trinity.
Thus the perfidy of Sabellius and of Arius is overcome, when in the very prayers and petitions the truth both of one nature and of three persons is proclaimed by the Catholic priests. FRAGMENT XXXII. Jesus Christ is not the Son of the Trinity, although according to the flesh he is the work of the whole Trinity: but according to the Deity he is the Son of the Father alone, according to the humanity the Son of the Virgin Mary alone. For who could ever be found of such madness as to dare to proclaim Jesus Christ the Son of the whole Trinity? For the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (I Tim. iii, 15).
He who knows the Father to be the one Father of the one Son, and knows the Holy Spirit to be the one Spirit of the Father and of the Son, can never call Jesus Christ the Son of the Trinity, since he can in no way preach two Fathers, nor two Sons, nor two Holy Spirits. Jesus Christ, therefore, not only according to his divinity (in which he is by nature equal to God the Father), but also according to his soul and flesh (in which the same God is consubstantial with his mother), is not only the Son of God the Father, but is indeed his only-begotten Son. Accordingly, we not only in no way call Jesus Christ the Son of the Trinity, but we also confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God the Father alone in such a way that we by no means separate him.
For it is a great impiety to think that Christ is one and Jesus Christ another, since Jesus Christ is assuredly the one Son of God and of man: the Son, namely, of God the Father alone, and not of the whole Trinity. For the same Jesus Christ, according to the flesh, is acknowledged to be the work of the whole Trinity, and yet he is not for that reason found to be the Son of the whole Trinity. For the human nature of the Son of God, that is, the form of a servant, was made by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together, that is, by the holy Trinity itself; but Jesus Christ alone received it, as the blessed Apostle says: Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus:
who, though he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Phil. 2:5-7). This same Jesus Christ, therefore, not only in the form of a servant but also in the form of God, is the one Son of God the Father alone; for in taking the form of a servant he did not receive the person of a man, but a nature. For in the womb of the Virgin, that the Word might become flesh, there was made at once one conception of the Word and of the flesh; and in the one person of the Word there were conceived together the divine and human nature: not that the two natures might become one, but that from both natures there might subsist that person of the one Jesus Christ which always was.
The truth of this matter, just as it does not permit a fourth person to be added to the fullness of the divine Trinity, so it altogether forbids Jesus Christ to be called the Son of the Trinity. This indeed the very tenor of the holy Creed also shows, where it is said: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary; the very one whom we call the Son of God, him also we confess to have been born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary. Therefore, when we say Jesus Christ his Son, that is, Jesus Christ the Son of God the Father, we point to the nativity of his divinity, by which he is eternal without beginning from the Father:
but when we say he was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, we confess the nativity by which the same only-begotten God, according to the flesh, took a temporal beginning from the Virgin. Accordingly Jesus Christ, as was said above, according to the flesh is indeed the work of the whole Trinity, but according to both nativities is the Son of God the Father alone: for the same one only-begotten God, temporally begotten a true man from the Virgin, is he who was born true God from the Father alone without beginning. FRAGMENT XXXIII. "Jesus Christ" is not the name of man alone, but also of God: and in the Scriptures it is sometimes taken according to the divine nature alone, sometimes according to the human alone, and occasionally according to both.
By one and the same Holy Spirit, both the Son of God deigned to become the Son of man, and it was granted to us to be adopted as sons of God. The Arians are not worshippers of the one God, but of many. And first, as to what you falsely put into my mouth, that "Jesus Christ is the name of a man," Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth, refutes it as contrary to truth and contrary to faith, he who shows Jesus Christ to be both God and man. So that by the one and the same name of Jesus Christ, in one and the very same person, he wishes to be understood sometimes the divine substance alone, more often the human alone, or sometimes both together. For the same Apostle says: Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man (Phil. 2:5ff). Writing also to Timothy, he says: Remember that Christ Jesus rose from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Gospel (2 Tim. 2:8). Behold, in both places one Christ Jesus is named, but not according to one nature in Christ Jesus is each passage to be understood. For there is one Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and who rose from the dead of the seed of David.
But Christ Jesus, emptying himself in the form of God and taking the form of a servant, is understood according to the divine nature alone: according to which he is also understood where he says: And one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him (1 Cor. 8:6). But the same Christ Jesus, rising from the dead of the seed of David, can rightly be known according to the human substance alone. Again the Apostle says: I beseech you therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit (Rom. 15:30). And in another place: I testify before God and Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead (2 Tim. 4:1).
In these places, assuredly, we understand the whole Christ Jesus to be named by the Apostle not according to the divine alone, nor according to the human alone, but according to both natures. Do you not see that Jesus Christ is not to be taken in all the places of Scripture solely according to that which is God, nor solely according to that which is man, but in each place of the Scriptures he ought to be taken according to that which the Truth teaches? For there is one Christ Jesus, Son of God and of man in both natures, one who is true in both. Hence neither can that stand which you say, "When we say the Son of God, we signify God the Son himself, that is, Christ himself the spiritual one."
For our Redeemer himself was not spirit without a body, when he said to the man born blind, to whom he mercifully and marvellously gave eyes: Do you believe in the Son of God? And when the man said to him: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him: You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you (John 9:35-37). Now it is manifest that in him it was not the divinity but the humanity that was seen with bodily eyes. Consider also the confession of blessed Peter, saying: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16); and recognize that the Son of God himself is not God only, but God and man: especially since Christ himself, whom Peter confessed to be the Son of the living God, called himself the Son of man.
Hence, since there is one Christ, Son of God and of man, just as we do not always see him called the Son of God according to divinity alone, so neither do we always find him named the Son of man according to the flesh alone. For the very one who said to his disciples: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be delivered to the chief priests and scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and shall put him to death, and on the third day he shall rise again (Matt. 20:18-19); the same one said: No one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven (John 3:13).
But who of sound understanding would think that in both places the Son of man spoke according to one substance, since certainly he could not have suffered all those things according to divinity, nor could he have been in heaven according to the flesh at the time when he was speaking such things on earth? Therefore one and the same is the Son of man, who, according to the flesh alone, was truly delivered up and truly slain, and on the third day rose again; and, according to divinity alone, was wholly on earth and wholly in heaven, when, placed only on earth according to the flesh, he truthfully said these things about himself. It is therefore true that in Christ there is one person of the deity and of the flesh, yet with the property of each nature preserved.
For Christ is sometimes spoken of according to divinity alone, sometimes according to the flesh alone, sometimes according to both substances. According to divinity alone the Apostle showed that Christ is to be understood, saying: Do not lie to one another, putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is renewed in knowledge, according to the image of him who created him. Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:9ff). But what he says here, "Christ is all and in all," is of the same kind as this: That God may be all in all.
We also recognize Christ named by the Apostle according to the flesh alone, where he says: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4). That passage of the same Apostle is also found to fit this understanding, where he says: As many of us as were baptized in Christ were baptized into his death. For we were buried together with him through baptism into death (Rom. 6:3); and a little after: Christ, rising from the dead, dies no more; death shall no longer have dominion over him (ibid. 9).
Yet that same Christ he is known to preach according to both natures, saying: Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever (Rom. 9:5). It is manifest, therefore, that those rules which you wished to establish in the aforesaid names are supported by no strength, because they in no way agree with Christian truth. For not only when he is called the Son of God, or when he is called the Son of man, or when he is called Christ, or when he is called Jesus Christ; but even when he who is the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14),
in the holy Scripture is called God, we must consider what substance in that one person of the Son of God ought rightly to be understood without any error. For in that passage of the Acts of the Apostles, where the same Apostle Paul says to the elders and to the presbyters: Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops, to rule the Church of God which he acquired with his own blood (Acts 20:28); here indeed we understand God to be none other than the Son of God himself: who, however, is understood to have acquired the Church with his own blood not according to his eternal and unchangeable divinity, which he has unchangeably from the Father, but according to the humanity by which he was made a true man from the Virgin.
We do not, therefore, say that "Jesus Christ" is the name of humanity and of man alone, but we say the one Jesus Christ is God and man, in whom the true nature of man from the nature of the mother is present just as the true and eternal substance of the deity remains from the nature of God the Father. For he who is the Truth is the true Son both of the Father and of the mother, of whom blessed John says: We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, that we may know the true God, and may be in his true Son Jesus Christ (1 John 5:20). And since the true Son of God is by nature true God, who would not be true God unless he were the true Son of the Father's nature, therefore blessed John immediately added: This is the true God, and eternal life (ibidem).
But in that which is said, that Christ the Son of God was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit is none other than the Paraclete, who is the one Spirit of the Father and of the Son. For the same is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father (John 15:26), who is wont in the holy Scriptures most evidently to be called the Holy Spirit. For the Father indeed is by nature spirit, and the Son spirit, and the Father holy, and the Son holy; but nevertheless no place is found in the divine oracles in which the Father or the Son is called "Holy Spirit" absolutely and without some addition. For it is written: God is Spirit (John 4:24); but there "God" is added, where without doubt the Father is acknowledged as God.
Therefore, when holy Scripture signifies the Father or the Son, it is accustomed to say either "Spirit" only, or "holy," and either to add a name by which the Father or the Son may be understood, or, if it does not add a name, then from what precedes or follows it may be recognized whether it ought to be fitted, according to the rule of true faith, to one person, or to the holy Trinity itself at once. He, then, is the one Holy Spirit, of whom according to the flesh Christ was born, from whom every Christian is spiritually reborn. For by that grace of the Holy Spirit, by which the only-begotten God deigned to become the Son of man, it has been granted to us to be adopted as sons of God. But Jesus Christ is the Son not of the Trinity, but of God the Father alone:
who is worthily called coeternal with God the Father, even having received his own flesh, because there is in him one person of the divinity and of the flesh: and the very Son of God, who took flesh into the person of the deity, has by nature a deity coeternal with God the Father, without beginning. Nor is there any other Holy Spirit whom we name in our prayers together with the Father and the Son, besides the one Paraclete Spirit: whom we know to be the one Spirit of the Father and of the Son in such a way that we most certainly know him to be consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son. And in this we show that we worship one God, because we believe and confess one substance of the Trinity.
But you are in no way worshippers of the one God, you who say the nature of the Father is one, that of the Son another, that of the Holy Spirit another: and while you do not worship one God, yet you do not worship three gods either; but what is worse, because you say that you indeed worship two gods, that is, the Father as the greater god, and the Son as the lesser god; and along with them, as it were, you worship the Holy Spirit, from whom you altogether take away the name of God, and whom you call a creature without any reverence. Hence, since you show yourselves to be worshippers of a creature, assuredly (if you wish) you will be able to worship not three only, but even five gods. FRAGMENT XXXIV. The Church does not sacrifice to the Father alone, nor give glory to the Father alone, but to the whole Trinity.
Christ makes his own body both a temple and a sacrifice for us. We give thanks to the Father and the Son as to God, but to the Father through the Son as through a man. The Holy Spirit does not have a place among the works of God. But it is fitting that your falsehood be consequently refuted, in that which you say, that I always affirmed every sacrifice to be offered to the Father alone: which I neither ever said nor say. For the holy catholic Church sacrifices not to the Father alone, but at once to the holy Trinity; and just as, directing its prayer to the person of the Father alone, it at the same time invokes the whole Trinity, so what it offers to God the Father, it at the same time sacrifices to the Trinity.
For whether in prayer or in sacrifice, true faith makes no distinction of the gift, because there is no diversity of power in the Trinity: whence whatever is offered to one person must equally be offered to the Trinity. This is shown by the examples of the holy patriarchs and prophets: where it is principally to be observed by us that an altar was always built for this to God, that God might be honoured with the due service of sacrifice. For the altar is first named in the sacred books there where holy Noah, coming out of the ark, is reported to have offered victims to God. For thus it is written:
And Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of all the clean cattle, and of all the clean fowls, and offered a victim upon the altar to God (Gen. 8:20). For the Lord also, showing that an altar is constructed for the sake of this thing, speaks thus to Moses his servant: You shall make me an altar of earth, and shall offer upon it your holocausts and your peace-offerings (Exod. 20:24). Let us therefore inquire to whom our fathers built an altar, that we may recognize that they also offered sacrifice to that same one. After that altar, then, which Noah built to the Lord, we read of an altar constructed by holy Abraham. For thus it is written: And the Lord God appeared to Abraham, and said to him: To your seed I will give this land.
And Abraham built there an altar to the Lord, who appeared to him. And he departed from there to a mountain to the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent there, Bethel to the west, Ai to the east: and he built there an altar to the Lord God, and called upon the name of the Lord God who appeared to him (Gen. 12:7-8). When we treated above of the invocation of God, we remember that we already set forth this passage; let us now repeat the same sense. For, wishing to show the Son to be less than the Father, you are wont to say that it was the Son who appeared to the holy fathers. What then do you now say? Since our Abraham built an altar to the God who appeared to him: but there was no necessity of building an altar, except for the offering of sacrifices.
To the God, therefore, who appeared to him, holy Abraham offered sacrifice, for whom he built an altar for no other reason than that he might sacrifice. He also called upon him, since he is read to have called upon the name of the Lord God who appeared to him. Accordingly, either confess that by the service of one prayer the Father and the Son are invoked together, and that one sacrifice is offered to the Father and the Son together; or, if you will not do this, you must either say that the Father appeared, or confess that sacrifice was offered by the holy patriarchs to the Son alone, and you will be compelled to take away from the Father what you try to remove from the Son. Similarly of Isaac too we read, of whom Scripture says: And he went up from there to the well of the oath, and the Lord appeared to him in that night, and said to him:
I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not fear, for I am with you, and I will bless you, and multiply your seed, for the sake of Abraham your father. And Isaac built there an altar, and called upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 26:23ff). Attend diligently: he who appeared to Abraham and to Isaac is himself the God of Abraham, and to him an altar was built by Abraham and Isaac, and thereby to him sacrifice was offered by both. Let us come also to Jacob, that we may show that he too, endowed with a like faith, built an altar to the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and himself likewise called upon him. For thus it is written of him: And Jacob came to Salem, a city of the Shechemites, in the land of Canaan, when he had come from Mesopotamia of Syria;
and he encamped before the city; and he bought a parcel of the field, in which he pitched his tent, from Hamor the father of Shechem, for a hundred lambs. And he set up there an altar, and called upon the God of Israel (Gen. 33:18ff). Again a little after holy Scripture says thus: And God said to Jacob: Arise, go up to the place Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother (Gen. 35:1). And a little after: And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is Bethel, he and all the people who were with him; and he built there an altar; and he called the name of that place, the House of God. For there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother Esau (ibid. 6-7).
Now it is certain that by the holy patriarchs sacrifice was offered to that God for whom an altar was built by them, and whom they clearly invoked humbly. But I think you will not dare to say that the patriarchs invoked one God, and the holy apostles and martyrs another. For they invoked one God, because in whom the patriarchs believed, in him also the apostles and martyrs believed. But because the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac himself, at the fitting time, gave the Old Testament, in which the promises of the New Testament were held veiled under fitting figures (whence, even if there were other sacraments of that time, yet the faith of the Christian religion was never at any time different);
the one and true divinity of the Trinity so ordained that even by prophetic oracles it should be declared that a true sacrifice was to be offered by the faithful to Christ the Lord in the time of the New Testament. This Zephaniah the prophet, filled with the Holy Spirit, intimates in these words: Wait for me, says the Lord, in the day of my resurrection, for a testimony. For my judgment shall be upon the gathering of the nations, that I may receive kings, and pour out upon them the wrath of my fury: for in the fire of my jealousy the whole earth shall be consumed. Because then I will turn upon the peoples a language for its generations, that they all may call upon the name of the Lord, and serve him under one yoke. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia I will receive those who observe me.
Those who are scattered shall offer victims to me in that day (Zeph. 3:8-10). Who is he who says that victims are to be offered to himself, except him who commanded that he should be waited for in the day of his resurrection? And who foretold that he would rise again, except him who was delivered up for our offences, and rose again for our justification (Rom. 4:25)? But who will doubt that both the holy patriarchs and the prophets in the time of the Old Testament offered one sacrifice to the Father and the Son? Since at the very beginning of the nativity which Christ had of the Virgin, he consecrated to himself the sacrifice of the nations who were to believe, when the Magi offered:
making them, namely, the first-fruits of the nations, and in their gift showing the first-fruits of the immolation owed to himself. For the Magi, adoring Christ the Lord, humbly offered also gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But it is certain that in sacrifices offered to God, gold is paid to royal power by yearly devotion, and myrrh is applied to dead bodies for burial. In this threefold kind of oblation, therefore, is contained the perfect mystery of the Christian faith; by which there might be recognized in Christ both the weakness of the flesh he assumed, and the everlasting and royal omnipotence of the deity. For in one and the same Christ they believed mortal flesh, royal power, and the deity exalted above all things;
13:279
acperhocdocueruntcredendamesseveramRedemptorisutor. tem, etipsiveroRegireddendam, quaminnobissuamcreavitetrenovavitimaginem ; eteidemDeosummoetveroexhibendam, quamGræciλατρειανvocant, sacrificiiservitutem. Sicineorumcordibusinventumest, nonatramento, sedSpirituDeiviviconscriptum : DominumDeumtuumadorabis, etillisoliservies (Deut. VI, 13); et : Sacrificansdiis, eru. dicabitur, nisiDominosoli (Exod. xxn, 20). Nam, utdetuisquoquelitteristibialiquidingeramus, utthusinsacriiiciosoleresemperofferrifacillimerecorderis, canentemrecenseVirgilium, CentumqueSabaeoThurecalentarae. (Æneid. l. I, v.
and thereby they taught that the true belly (i.e. bodily humanity) of the Redeemer is to be believed, and to be rendered to him as to the true King, in that he created and renewed in us his own image; and that to the same most high and true God is to be exhibited what the Greeks call latreia, the servitude of sacrifice. Thus was found written in their hearts, not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God: You shall adore the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve (Deut. 6:13); and: He who sacrifices to gods shall be rooted out, save to the Lord alone (Exod. 22:20). For, to bring in for you something even from your own letters, that you may most easily recall that incense is wont always to be offered in sacrifice, review Virgil as he sings: And a hundred altars glow with Sabaean incense (Aeneid, Book I, verse
425). And to Christ, to whom you know incense was offered, do not doubt that sacrifice also, in the unity of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, is offered by the one and true Church. For the blessed martyr Stephen too offered himself as a sacrifice to Christ the Lord, whom he invoked that he might receive his spirit, saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts 7:59). Now it is written that a contrite spirit is a sacrifice to God (Ps. 51:19); to which holy Azarias says: In a contrite soul and a spirit of humility may we be received, as in the holocausts of rams and bullocks, and in the multitude of fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be in your sight (Dan. 3:39-40).
But he offered his own spirit to that Lord whom holy Stephen invoked that he might receive his spirit. Now none of the holy men is said to have invoked any but God. And especially the holy patriarchs are then commemorated to have invoked the name of the Lord as often as they built altars, on which they offered sacrifices to that God whom they invoked: so that scarcely ever is any of them said to have invoked the name of the Lord without the construction of an altar. Hence, aptly and most fittingly in this place, the blessed martyr Stephen is said not to have petitioned, but to have invoked the Lord Jesus, when he is known to have offered himself as a sacrifice to God.
Whence it appears that without doubt, when he was being stoned, he was invoking him to whom he was offering himself as a sacrifice and altogether a living victim. And not to the Father and the Son only, but also to the Holy Spirit, that is, to the holy Trinity itself, the one true and good God, does true faith offer one sacrifice and exhibit one homage of adoration: whose whole Church is thus one temple in all the saints, just as in the one name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit it knows itself to have been freed from the kingdom of death and of sin. Hence it is that the blessed Apostle, showing the one majesty of the holy Trinity by nature, says: Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Cor. 3:16)?
And to show that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, in his temple, not as a minister but as true and most high God, he again says: Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God (1 Cor. 6:19)? And to show the Holy Spirit to be true God, he added: Glorify and bear God in your body. Therefore the Holy Spirit cannot be, in the sacrifice of the holy Church, foreign to the Father and the Son, he who has the whole holy Church as one temple together with the Father and the Son. Nor can we fail to offer sacrifice to him whose temple we are, since Paul the apostle commands that our very bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit, be presented as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God (Rom.
12:1). But how is sacrifice not offered to the Holy Spirit by the Church in bread and wine, when the same Spirit is known to have the Church itself both as temple and as sacrifice? For our very Saviour himself, who suffered for us, leaving us an example, and who is the head of the body, the Church, showing in himself what we should recognize in ourselves, made one and the same body of his own not only a temple but also a sacrifice. For he himself says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). Which the evangelist John, explaining, says: But he spoke this of the temple of his body.
And Paul the apostle thus records that Christ offered himself for us: Be therefore imitators of God, as most dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and offered himself for us an oblation and a victim to God for an odour of sweetness (Eph. 5:1-2). Christ therefore made his own body both a temple for us, and offered it as a victim. That his body is the whole Church the blessed Apostle testifies, saying of the Lord himself: Who is the head of the body, the Church (Col. 1:18). Who again says (v. 24): And I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the Church.
But Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps. So Christ taught us by his own example, and showed that we are the sacrifice of him whose temple we also are. But we are the temple not only of the Father and of the Son, but also of the Holy Spirit: accordingly we humbly immolate one sacrifice to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. And since in the temple, by two offices especially, that is, of prayer and of supplication, the human condition is found to serve that one most high and true and good God, on account of which our Saviour also, entering the temple, said: My house shall be called a house of prayer (Matt. 21:13);
He also says that two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican (Luke 18:10). Therefore, just as we offer one sacrifice to the Trinity itself, that is, to the one God, so to the Trinity itself we humbly render one service of prayer and supplication. Wherefore whoever, in offering to the Father the sacrifice that is offered, denies it to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, let him acknowledge himself to be estranged from the members of Christ. For the holy Church, which is the true body of Christ, just as she has known there to be one temple and one sacrifice of the holy Trinity, so she has been accustomed to offer, in the truth of faith, hope, and charity, one sacrifice to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
And so to the holy Trinity, to whom we owe one and undivided service in all things, just as we offer one sacrifice, so also with faithful devotion we sing one glory. For since it is established that the nature of the holy Trinity is one, it is fitting that one glory be spoken by the faithful, in hymns and psalms, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, on account of the taking up of the form of a servant, and the office of our High Priest, we rightly and faithfully give thanks to the Father through the Son: because, according to the true faith, we recognize in the Only-begotten the truth of both natures.
Whence, truly confessing Him not only equal to the Father according to the truth of eternal divinity, but also less than the Father according to the grace of the assumed humanity—since, as the holy evangelist teaches, we most certainly have known the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14)—we rightly give thanks to the Father and to the Son, because with the Father the Son is by nature one God; and we rightly give thanks to the Father through the Son, because He who from the nature of the Father is the only Son of God, the same from the nature of His mother was made the Son of man. And so we give thanks to the Father through the Son, inasmuch as He gave Himself to us humbled; we give thanks to the Father and to the Son, inasmuch as He bestows Himself upon us as the Most High.
We give thanks to the Father through the Son, because the eternal and immortal Only-begotten God became for our sake a mortal man in time; and we give thanks to the Father and to the Son, because the same Only-begotten God remains by nature co-eternal with God the Father. We give thanks to the Father through the Son, because He fulfilled the work of our redemption; we give thanks to the Father and to the Son, because He has promised us the gift of future blessedness. For He redeemed us by the lowliness of the flesh, and He will make us blessed by the sublimity of the Godhead. We do both, therefore, because we find both to be done in the holy Scriptures. For that we ought to give thanks to the Father through the Son, we learn by the apostolic word;
and that we ought to give thanks to the Father and to the Son, we find not only in the apostolic sayings, but also in the angelic praises. Yet these the apostolic word has handed down to us, because God Himself showed this to His apostles for the benefit of our instruction. For we know that blessed Paul said, when he wrote to the Romans: First indeed I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all (Rom. 1:8). He also says to the Colossians: Whatsoever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him (Col. 3:17); and any such things as can be found in the apostolic writings. But we also read that the same apostle said:
I give thanks to Him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He counted me faithful, appointing me to the ministry (1 Tim. 1:12). The Apostle therefore gives thanks through Christ, and he gives thanks to Christ. He gives thanks through Christ, according to that whereby Christ is of the fathers according to the flesh; and he gives thanks to Christ, according to that whereby Christ Himself is over all things, God blessed forever (Rom. 9:5). And that thanks are to be given to the Father and to the Son, the same blessed Apostle shows more clearly, when he both prays for us and recalls that the grace of God is given not only from God the Father, but also from Christ Jesus our Lord. For teaching that grace is given to us by God through Christ, he says:
According to the Spirit of sanctification, from the resurrection of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord: through whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith in all nations for His name (Rom. 1:4-5). And again he says: Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 7:24-25). But the same apostle, in all the openings of his letters, does not cease to ask grace for us from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. For if you wish to review the beginnings of the apostolic Epistles, you will find this in nearly all of them in which the name of the Apostle himself is contained: Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom.
1:7). Accordingly, it is necessary for us to give thanks in the same manner as it is certain that we have received grace. For since we have received grace from God through Jesus Christ our Lord, by this rule of truth we give thanks to the Father through the Son; but since we have received grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord, by this rule of truth again we give thanks to the Father together with the Son. For just as we have received grace not only from the Father through the Son, but also from the Father and the Son, so we must render the act of thanksgiving of due service, with the humility owed, not only to the Father through the Son, but also to the Father and the Son. For that we give thanks to the Father through the Son pertains to the mystery of the incarnation;
but in that we give thanks to the Father and to the Son, the acknowledgment of one divinity shines forth. For just as the Son so took up our flesh that He did not lose the natural truth of unity with the Father, so He granted us both, that we should both give thanks to the Father through the Son, and give thanks to the Son together with the Father. For the grace which the Father gave us through the Son, the Son also gave, the Father giving it together with Him. It is therefore necessary that, just as through Him we have received the gift, so through Him we should render our homage;
and just as grace is given to us by God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord, so let the act of thanksgiving be rendered by us to the Father and the Son. For just as it is right and fitting to the faith to give thanks to the Father through Him through whom it is certain that we have received from the Father, so it is impious and contrary to true religion, if anyone should read in the apostolic writings that grace is given to the faithful by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet be unwilling that the act of thanksgiving be paid together to the Father and the Son. For he who is unwilling to give thanks to the Father through the Son does not understand true flesh in the divinity of Christ; but if anyone does not give thanks to the Father and the Son, he refuses to acknowledge true Godhead in the flesh of Christ.
Since therefore both are impious and greatly contrary to the soul, the rule of true faith must be held: that both, on account of the form of a servant, in which the Son is less than the Father, we may rightly say that thanks are to be given to the Father through the Son, and no less, on account of the form of God, in which the Son is equal to the Father, we may know that thanks are to be given to the Father and to the Son. But since one grace has been bestowed on us by the holy Trinity, one act of thanksgiving is to be paid by us in common to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For just as it is said by the Apostle to the faithful, Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:7): so in the Acts of the Apostles (chap. 10:45) it is written: That upon the Gentiles also the grace of the Holy Spirit was poured out.
We have therefore received one grace of the holy Trinity; it is uniquely fitting that we pay one act of thanksgiving to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the truth of faith and simplicity of heart. And one glory is to be chanted to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as holy Scripture does not cease to admonish, so also every Christian ought both to know and to render it. For in the apostolic writings we find glory ascribed no less not only to the Father, but also to the Lord Jesus Christ. We know indeed that the blessed apostle Jude said in his Epistle:
Now to Him who is able to preserve you without sin, and to set you immaculate before the presence of His glory in gladness, to the only Savior our God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be honor, power, glory, and dominion before all ages, and now, and unto all ages of ages. Amen (Jude 24-25). But this is rightly understood according to the mystery of the incarnation, whereby the Son of God is found to have been made for us both High Priest and sacrifice. For the truth of both natures, namely both divine and human, is to be acknowledged in the Son of God; so that, apart from the error of any unbelief, the Son may be rightly recognized both as less than the Father and as equal to the Father.
Whence blessed Peter says that glory is to be ascribed to Christ, not only in this present time, but also in that eternity, who ended his second Epistle with these words: Grow, he says, in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now, and unto the day of eternity (2 Pet. 3:18). And since one Spirit of faith was given to the apostles and the prophets—which blessed Paul affirms, saying: Having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, I believed, for which cause I have spoken; and we also believe, for which cause we also speak (2 Cor. 4:13)—blessed David, uttering a harmonious sentiment in faith and truth, says:
Let all Your works confess to You, O Lord, and let Your saints bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, and shall tell of Your power. That they may make known to the sons of men Your power, and the glory of the magnificence of Your kingdom (Ps. 144:10-12). And lest this be thought in no way to pertain to the person of the Son, in another place he says that glory is to be given to that God who ascended above the heaven of heavens. For thus he says: Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing praises to the Lord. Sing praises to God who ascended above the heavens of heavens to the east. Behold, He will give to His voice the voice of power: give glory to God (Ps. 67:33-35). In which place, if the darkness of unbelief does not close your eyes, it is necessary that the truth of the right faith become known to you.
For since we, when we sing and chant, give glory to the Son just as to the Father; but you, when you sing, ascribe glory not to the Father and the Son, but glory to the Father through the Son: this most holy prophet, full of the Spirit of God, did this—that he might show that we, singing and chanting, rightly give glory to the Father and the Son; and that he might reveal you, who while singing and chanting do not give glory to God who ascended above the heaven of heavens, to be ungrateful and stubborn. For blessed David foresaw that glory would be sung to God the Father not only by catholic Christians, but also by heretics. Therefore he took care that those be admonished and corrected whom he knew would deny glory to the Son in canticles and psalms; therefore he says:
Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing praises to the Lord. Sing praises to God who ascended above the heaven of heavens to the east. Behold, He will give to His voice the voice of power: give glory to God. As if he were saying: I know that you all sing and chant to God the Father, and singing and chanting you give Him glory; but as you chant to God the Father, chant at the same time to God the Son; and giving glory to the Father, give glory to God who ascended above the heaven of heavens. This is what we, doing it, obey the prophetic oracles; but when you do not do it, you stubbornly resist the faith of the prophets. It is certain, therefore, that glory is to be ascribed not to the Father alone, but also to the Son.
But lest, being utterly convicted by these testimonies, you should say indeed that glory is to be given to the Son, but not when it is given to the Father, in this too the divine authority resists you, which shows that one glory is spoken to the Father and the Son by the holy angels in heaven. Of this matter the blessed apostle John is a witness, who in the Apocalypse, when he was speaking of the four living creatures, said: And those four living creatures had each of them six wings round about; and within they were full of eyes, and they had no rest day and night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.
And when those living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever, immediately the twenty-four elders fell down before the throne, and adored Him that lives forever and ever, casting their crowns before the throne, and adoring Him that lives forever and ever, saying: You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You have created all things, and by Your will they were and were created (Apoc. 4:8ff). Here perhaps you will answer that all these things ought to be taken of the person of the Father only.
Here you ought first to consider that which we read as spoken by the four living creatures, Who was, and who is, and who is to come, fits the Son rather than the Father. For that the Son is to come, the series of both the Old and the New Testament attests. But there it is said, And when those living creatures gave glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever. That the Son sits upon the throne you in no way deny, to whom blessed David says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever (Ps. 44:7). And if you should wish to deny that the Son is here called Him who lives forever and ever, you are refuted by the word of the Son Himself, who said to the same blessed John: Fear not. I am the first and the last, and He that lives and was dead:
and behold, I am living forever and ever (Apoc. 1:17-18). But if you still think this is to be contended against, and are unwilling that this be said of the Son, hear what the same blessed apostle John says in what follows: And I beheld, he says, and I heard as it were the voice of many angels round about the throne, and round about the living creatures, and about the elders. And the number of them was thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and that is in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard all saying:
To Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and power forever and ever. And the four living creatures said: Amen (Apoc. 5:11ff). At least now, Fabianus, acknowledge how great an impiety it is to struggle against not only apostolic, but also angelic voices. Hear the thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and whatsoever is in the sea, and all that are in them. And lest you think that thanks ought to be given, or glory ascribed, separately to the Father and separately to the Son,
hear what blessed John immediately added: All, he says, I heard saying: To Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and power forever and ever. And the four living creatures said: Amen. Behold, by the testimony of angelic devotion it is known that glory ought to be ascribed to the Father and the Son, that thanks ought to be given to the Father and the Son, that one power also ought to be spoken of the Father and the Son. For blessed John heard all at once saying: To Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and power forever and ever.
Moreover, by this word, in which is added, Forever and ever, it is clearly shown that those angels of God will attain the eternal fellowship and blessedness who acknowledge one honor of the Father and the Son, who pay one act of thanksgiving to the Father and the Son, who sing one glory to the Father and the Son, who proclaim one power of the Father and the Son. For whoever in this world shall have been unwilling to give all these things together to the Father and the Son, will not cleave to the fellowship of all the angels who speak forever and ever those things which are mentioned above. For those, of whom blessed David says to God, will speak nothing else in that eternity: Your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
Blessed are all who dwell in Your house, they shall praise You forever and ever (Ps. 83:4-5). For since they will be equal to the angels of God (Luke 20:36), it is certain that they will speak forever and ever that which the holy angels always say in praise of God. And lest anyone think that the praise of the Father is one thing, the praise of the Son another, the same blessed John, concerning those who dwell in that heavenly Jerusalem on high, which is the house of God, and who will praise God forever and ever, thus says in the aforementioned book: After these things I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and of all tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in the sight of the Lamb: and they were clothed;
white robes, and palms were in their hands; and with a great voice they cried, saying: Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb (Apoc. 7:9-10). Where he immediately followed that God the Father and the Lamb are one God, saying: And all the angels who stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and about the four living creatures, presently fell down before the throne upon their faces, and adored, all saying: Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and strength to our God forever and ever (Ibid. 7:11-12). Is not what they had said above, To Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and power forever and ever;
and the four living creatures said, Amen—is not this now the same thing which all the angels are recognized to have confirmed, under the profession of one God, adoring God Himself? For attend to what they said; nay, consider intently what they say: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen. But all these things the same angels said above ought to be given to the Lamb, whose is that loud voice: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and glory, and blessing:
all which things they immediately gave to God, saying, To Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and power forever and ever. Know that the same again gave them under the name of one God, since they adored God, saying, Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and strength to our God forever and ever. Amen. Attend to these three places, and you will find the truth of our faith confirmed by angelic devotion. For first, honor, and glory, and blessing, and power is said to be given by all the angels to the Lamb, that is, to the Son; then by all, blessing, and honor, and power is given as one to Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb:
which is nothing else than to the Father and to the Son. After these, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and strength are given to one God, which above were given to Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, that is, to the Father and to the Son. Acknowledge therefore both that glory is to be given to the Son, and that one glory is to be given together to the Father and to the Son, and that our one God is the Father and the Son. For this she ever chants, that Jerusalem which is above, free, which is our mother (Gal. 4:26): whose part which labors in the pilgrimage of this world, for that reason strives by a straight course toward that delightful countenance of hers, and sweet fellowship;
because she imitates that mother not only in good works, but also in these praises. This part, singing this, walks in faith, which that part, singing it, rests in vision. This part of that Church, singing, is refreshed with the bread of the journey, with whose fullness that Jerusalem is satisfied, continual and unwearied. But how does that Church dare to believe or to call herself the daughter of the holy heavenly Jerusalem, when she thinks that ought not to be said by her on earth, which that holy mother does not cease to say in heaven? Or how will she be able to have common blessedness with her, with whom she does not share the praise of God Himself?
since assuredly no one can attain the fellowship of that holy Jerusalem, whoever now does not imitate her homage; since the very host of heaven, when the Son was born according to the flesh, sang nothing else on earth than, Glory to God in the highest (Luke 2:14). But if anyone asks, to which God, that angelic multitude immediately answers, To Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb. This is said by the angels in the highest, this is sung on earth by men of good will; so that it might be shown that one and the same is that Christ, to whom both by the angels is said, Glory to God in the highest, and who was made on earth peace to men of good will. For He Himself is our peace, who made both one (Eph. 2:14).
From Him whom we have as peace, we have received good will, through which, by the gift of gratuitous justification, we ascribe glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the one God, that we may be able to attain the fellowship of the angels: where, having received the gift of glorification, we may be able to say glory to Him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, our God, forever and ever. But let no one be troubled that in all these things nothing has been said of the Holy Spirit. For the evangelical doctrine, whatever service it commands to be rendered to the Father and to the Son, shows to be rendered at the same time also to the Holy Spirit. This our Savior demonstrated by one precept, saying: Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt.
28:19). By saying this, He surely implied that to the same Trinity all the service of religion is at the same time owed by us, in whose name the beginning of salvation is bestowed on those who believe and are baptized. Yet especially in that passage of the prophet Isaiah is the one glory of the Trinity recognized, in which the Seraphim cry, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts (Isa. 6:3); where they show the Trinity to be one Lord God, and immediately add, The whole earth is full of His glory. Blessed David, implying to us something of this kind, sings: The voice of the Lord preparing the stags, and He will reveal the thick woods, and in His temple all shall say glory (Ps. 28:9).
But that we are the temple not only of the Father and of the Son, but also of the Holy Spirit, as we have already recalled in this work, the apostolic authority confirms. For blessed Paul says: Know you not that your members are the temple in you of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God? (1 Cor. 6:19). How then can it come to pass that the glory which is spoken in the temple of the Holy Spirit be not spoken to the Holy Spirit Himself? Since assuredly whatever shall have been spoken for the praising of God in the temple of God cannot be alien from that very God, whose temple it is. This therefore blessed David said, that the Trinity itself, to whom glory is spoken in His temple, may be recognized to be by nature one Lord.
That you may know this more fully, look at the divine praises in the Psalms, and in the book of the prophet Daniel diligently attend to the benedictions of the three young men (Dan. 3:57ff); and when, among all the things that were named, you in no way find the Holy Spirit named, acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is the Creator, not created; the maker of all things, not made: and from this understand that with the Father and the Son He is by nature one Lord God. For in the Psalms, where all things that were made are called together to praise the Lord, the beginning is made from the angels, that is, from that very Wisdom of which it is written: Before all things Wisdom was created, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting (Ecclus. 1:4);
and of which a little after it is said, He Himself created her by the Holy Spirit (Ps. 148:1, cf.). But the blessed prophet says: Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the high places; and beginning from that first and chief creature, above which alone by nature is the substance of the Creator, he places the angels at the beginning of this praising, saying (v. 2): Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him, all His powers; then he says (vv. 3-4): Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, all stars and light. Praise Him, heavens of heavens, and let the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord: and showing the cause of this praising he says (v. 5): For He spoke, and they were made: He commanded, and they were created.
All these things therefore are said to owe praise to the Lord, because by Him they were made. But if the Holy Spirit had also been made, He would have been placed by the prophetic word in that order of praising, before the angels and powers. Or does this please you, that the Holy Spirit, who according to your opinion is said to be made through the Son, should be left without the service of divine praise? and that He who is asserted by you to have been made through the Son more excellent than the other creatures, while all things praise the Creator, should remain ungrateful without praise? and that the Lord be not praised by that very one in whom, according to your belief, His creator is found more praiseworthy? Attend also prudently, as I said above, to the benedictions of the three young men:
in which first the maker of all things Himself is thus blessed, so that it is said to Him: Blessed are You, O Lord God of our fathers, and praiseworthy, and glorious forever (Dan. 3:52). Behold, those three, as with one mouth, do not cease to bless and praise and glorify the Lord God. Where the authority of the divine Scriptures does not permit that the Father alone be understood; for first it is set by those three young men: Blessed is the name of Your glory, which is holy, and praiseworthy and glorious forever (Ibid.); but that holy name is not of the Father alone, but is the one natural name of the Trinity: which was above demonstrated by us by the testimony of holy Isaiah, who recalls the Seraphim thus crying to one another:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory (Isa. 6:3). But if you should assert that this name, which is holy, is not one of the holy Trinity, it remains that you are compelled (whether you will or not) to assign this holy name to the Holy Spirit alone: for He in the Trinity is properly called the Holy Spirit; although both the Father and the Son, according to the right faith, are by nature not denied to be also Spirit and holy. Whence the blessed Apostle, knowing that the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is one holy name, testified that the faithful are sanctified in it, saying: But you are washed, but you are justified, but you are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11).
Recall therefore in what name holy baptism is given, and you will find that in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit everyone is justified and sanctified—whoever, rightly believing in that same name, is washed into the one substance of the Trinity. Whence whoever understands that the gift of true sanctification is conferred in that same name, acknowledges that there is by nature one holy name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Then in the benedictions he says: Blessed are You in the holy temple of Your glory, and praiseworthy and glorious forever (Dan. 3:55).
That we are the temple, not of the Father alone, but of the holy Trinity itself, we have already sufficiently shown in this work by the testimony of the holy Scriptures. The Trinity, therefore, is one Lord God, blessed and worthy of praise, and glorious unto the ages; and in the holy temple of His glory those truly bless Him who acknowledge themselves to be one temple of the holy Trinity. Then it is said by those three young men: 'Blessed art Thou that beholdest the depths, sitting upon the Cherubim; and worthy of praise, and glorious unto the ages' (ibid., 55). And the Father, moreover, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit so behold the whole equally, even as the Trinity itself fills the whole. Neither, therefore, from the Son, nor from the Holy Spirit is the sight of the depths denied;
for the holy Trinity itself embraces at once all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, by the knowledge proper to its natural omnipotence; and it discerns all things in most manifest vision, because by the fullness of its knowledge it knows things past and present, and likewise all things to come. And when it is further said among the benedictions, 'Blessed art Thou upon the throne of Thy kingdom, and worthy of praise, and glorious unto the ages' (ibid., 54), who would be so senseless as to strive to separate the Son or the Holy Spirit from this benediction? seeing that blessed Isaiah intimates that the throne of the holy Trinity is one, saying: 'I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up' (Isa. VI, 1).
And that Lord, as the Seraphim cried one to another, he records to be thus proclaimed: 'Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.' The prophet therefore knew that same one Lord to be sitting upon one throne; and by the revelation of spiritual grace he heard Him called holy three times in the mystery of the Trinity, and once named Lord God. Hence it is that apostolic authority never ceases to proclaim one kingdom and one throne of the Father and the Son. For blessed Paul, showing forth one kingdom of the Son and of the Father, says: 'For know this, understanding, that no'—
a fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous man, which is the service of idols, shall not have inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. V, 5). Saint John also, in the Apocalypse, plainly shows that the throne is one, saying, concerning the angel by whom he testifies the holy city was shown to him: 'And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of its street, and on either side of the river, the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it' (Apoc. XXII, 1, 2, 3).
The Trinity, therefore, is to be understood as one God in that benediction of the three young men, where it is said: 'Blessed art Thou upon the throne of Thy kingdom'; because just as the throne is one, so the kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one. Then what is added, 'Blessed art Thou in the firmament of heaven, and worthy of praise and glorious unto the ages' (Dan. III, 56), who does not see that it is spoken in praise of the Trinity? seeing that the very firmament of heaven is one work of the Trinity; 'for by the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the Spirit of His mouth' (Ps. XXXII, 6).
But in order that those three men might show that the Lord God of our fathers—not the Father alone, nor the Son alone, nor the Holy Spirit alone, but the holy Trinity together, one Lord God—is to be blessed, praised, and glorified by all His works, see whence they took the beginning of the divine works: for by saying, 'Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord' (Dan. III, 57), they had shown that whatsoever cannot be found among these works which are here comprehended is not to be reckoned among the works of the Lord. Then, absolutely all things that are the works of the Lord God are known to be invited by this opening to render the tribute of due benediction to God the Creator: 'Bless the Lord, ye heavens' (v. 59);
'Bless the Lord, ye angels' (v. 58); 'Bless the Lord, all ye waters that are above the heavens' (v. 60); 'Bless the Lord, all ye powers of the Lord' (v. 61); and the rest, whether the things that are in the heavens, or those that are on the earth, visible and invisible: yet in all these works of the Lord the Holy Spirit is not found; who, assuredly, if He ought to be counted among the divine works, then neither the angelic nature nor any other creature whatsoever ought to have been named before Him. What is it, then, that the Holy Spirit neither praises the Lord among all the things that were made by the Lord, nor blesses God among all His works?
13:334
Anforteprophetissubrepsitoblivio, utSpiritussanctinonmeminissent, cumadlaudandumDominumomniaquæaDominofactasunt, etadbenedicendumDominumomniaoperaDominiconvocassent ? sedhocquemquambeatusPetruscrederenonpermittit, dicens : Nonenimvoluntatehumanaallataeatunquamprophetia, sedSpiritutanctoactilocutisuntsanctihomine, Dei (IIPetr. I, 21). Alioquoquelocodeiisdemprophetishæcmemorat : Scrutante, inquibusvelqualetempussignificaretquiineiseratSpiritu. Chritti (IPetr. i, 11).
Or did forgetfulness perhaps steal upon the prophets, so that they made no mention of the Holy Spirit, when they had summoned all things made by the Lord to praise the Lord, and all the works of the Lord to bless the Lord? But blessed Peter does not permit anyone to believe this, saying: 'For prophecy came not at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke, moved by the Holy Spirit' (II Pet. I, 21). In another place also he records these things concerning the same prophets: 'Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ that was in them did signify' (I Pet. I, 11).
Accordingly the Holy Spirit, by whom the holy men of God spoke as they were moved, if He knew Himself not to be Maker but a thing made, and if He recognized Himself to be not the operating God but a work of God, would without doubt have placed Himself first before all those things that were made and that are called the works of the Lord, so that from Himself—in whom the excellence of the divine work above the angels would have to be acknowledged—preeminent praise might be rendered to God the Operator. But this does not happen, because there is one God, Creator of all things, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; who is therefore worthily praised by all the things He made, and is nonetheless blessed by all His works, because He Himself, the Lord God, is found to be the Creator and Operator of all things.
Therefore one benediction, one praise, one glorification is owed by all His works to the one God who is Trinity; because the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are found to be the sole God, Maker of all, not made, and the sole Creator, not created. FRAGMENT XXXV. The Father is not the author of the whole Trinity, but only of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But who would not detest that ineptitude of your lie, by which you charge that I, in those false and deceitful acts, called God the Father the author of the whole Trinity? Which indeed is as far from the faith of the truth as it is contrary to holy religion.
For God the Father is not the author of the Trinity, but is the author of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in that the Son is born of Him, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him. For whoever rightly understands the term 'author' will find it a name of relation, not of nature. For no one is said to be author to himself, but to another: whence he is truly called author, not in reference to himself, but to another. But no one can, by any relative name, be referred to his own person as to another's: for whatever is said of each with respect to his own person is in no way found to be said according to relation. We confess, therefore, that God the Father is the author, not of the whole Trinity, but of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
from whom the only-begotten Son has the origin of His eternal nativity, and the Holy Spirit the origin of His eternal procession. But the natural unity intimates that the Son the Creator came into being from the Father the Creator by natural nativity, and that the Holy Spirit the Creator proceeds from the Father and the Son. FROM BOOK X, WHICH CONTAINS THE DEFENSE OF THE APOSTLES' CREED AGAINST THE ARIANS. FRAGMENT XXXVI. What the Creed is. For its lawful use there is needful the mind of one who believes rightly. That in it the Father is called both Almighty and Creator is to be understood of the whole Trinity. The Trinity is immortal and invisible in another manner than an angel or the soul of man.
All the articles of the Christian faith are set forth. The Creed (which in Greek speech is wont to be called both a compact and a collation) has been ordained by the apostles holily indeed, and rightly, and altogether wisely according to the rule of truth. For the Lord, who 'consummating and shortening the word made it upon the earth,' just as He consummated all the precepts of the Law in brevity (Rom. IX, 28), saying that upon those two precepts of the love of God and of neighbor hang the whole Law and the prophets (Matt. XXII, 40); just as He also perfected in the brevity of the prayer whatever pertained to the help of the present life and to the attainment of the life to come;
so also in the brevity of the Creed He willed that a perfect tenor of the holy faith should be ordained through His apostles, which would avail unto salvation for those who believe rightly. For the Creed is a certain true compact and true collation, in whose brevity consists the whole sum of the entire Christian belief. Yet herein the mind of the believer must be right, lest what he hears unto the effect of salvation he should will to twist back for himself unto the punishment of death. For 'the law is good, if a man use it lawfully' (I Tim. I, 8).
Wherefore it has seemed to you in vain, through ill understanding, to wish to twist back the correctness of the Creed to your own sense, and thence to prescribe against the holy catholic faith, because in the Creed not all things are said of the Son that are said of the Father: whereas indeed the fullness of divinity ought for that reason to have been commended in the origin as much as was fitting, precisely because it ought not to be otherwise recognized in the offspring. For when anyone says that he believes 'in God the Father Almighty,' by this very thing which he says 'in God the Father,' just as he shows in Him the truth of natural divinity, so he shows the truth of natural fatherhood also, and from this the truth even of natural generation.
For God the Father is not naturally God and yet not naturally Father, since assuredly both divine fatherhood and paternal divinity are natural in Him. That divine generation therefore has in itself the whole of whatever the eternal substance of God the Father has in itself. Accordingly it sufficed that of the Father alone should be said whatever was to be equally understood in the Son. For the Father begot the Son as almighty, even as the Father Himself is almighty; He begot Him Creator of all things, as He Himself is Creator of all; King of the ages, as He Himself is King of the ages; immortal and invisible, as He Himself is immortal and invisible.
All things, therefore, which are given to God the Father in the Creed are, by that one name of the Son, naturally attributed to the Son also. For the Father is Creator of all things, but 'all things were made by the Word, and without Him was nothing made' (John I, 3); and: 'In Him were all things created in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible: whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities, or Powers; all things were created by Him and in Him, and He is before all, and all things consist in Him' (Col. I, 16, 17). And so there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him (I Cor. VIII, 6).
The Father is King of the ages, but the Son also is found to be no less King, to whom the Prophet says: 'Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages' (Ps. CXLIV, 13). But immortal and invisible together is the Trinity itself, which is the one, true, and good God: not indeed immortal and invisible in the same way as the human soul or an angel is. For God is said to be invisible above all in this, that He is not seen save through grace. For no created spirit sees the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit by its own faculty, if God Himself does not grant this. It is necessary, moreover, that God the Trinity be seen not by the body but by the spirit, if He bestows this by the gift of His goodness:
otherwise how will it be true that 'the holy angels always behold the face of the Father,' and: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matt. V, 8)? An angel, therefore, and a rational soul, since they are spirits created by God, cannot be seen with bodily eyes; but the Trinity, which is God the Creator of all and truly invisible, without doubt, if grace be not granted by Him, is not seen even by the eye of the heart. For God is the true light which 'enlightens every man coming into this world' (John I, 9): freely, therefore, by enlightening He confers cleansing, that He may grant the faculty of seeing. Moreover, God is not called immortal in the same way as either a soul or an angel is found to be:
for even in an angel, although there is no natural extinction, yet a natural mutation can be found: but that nature admits a certain death from mutability, which admits qualification. But we call God good without quality, for whom to be God is not one thing and to be good another: whence, when we say goodness, we show His very divinity; and when we say divinity, we without doubt demonstrate goodness. Our God, therefore, is truly acknowledged to be immortal in this, that He is not naturally changed: which no creature could or can have by nature, although a certain creature is known to have received this by grace. For everything that God made draws its origin from nothing:
whence it is consequently acknowledged to have begun to be from a certain beginning, and before it began to be, not to have been. Whence everything whose nature is not one with God the Father has this, that of itself it lies subject to mutability; but incommutability it obtains by the gift of that nature in which natural incommutability is found. But the nature of the Trinity alone is that which cannot naturally be changed, because its nature did not begin to be: whereas in every substance which is not of one and the same nature with God the Father, just as its origin is known to be drawn from nothing, so natural mutability is found. This mutability the divine nature of the Trinity alone does not have, which did not begin to be, and which made all the things it made out of nothing:
and which therefore willed itself alone to be believed in, because it alone so suffices for the renewal of human nature as it alone suffices for itself, by its natural power and goodness, unto the creation of all things. Into that nature of the holy Trinity, therefore, we justly and salutarily believe—which we acknowledge as almighty, and Creatrix of all things, and King, and singularly possessing the kingdom of all ages, and invisible by nature to bodies and to spirits, yet visible to righteous spirits by free grace, immortal also by the eternity of natural incommutability.
Wherefore, since all these things were commemorated in the Father, in whom the divine nature was principally to be commended, it suffices that His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ be next named, seeing that in the very name of the only Son the full natural communion of the Father and the Son is found signified. But of another omnipotence, dominion, immortality, and invisibility would Jesus Christ worthily be believed, if He were not called the only Son of God the Father: and He is called 'only' because He alone is the true Son: and He alone is the true Son, because of the nature of the Father He alone is born.
The truth of His nativity, therefore, demonstrates in the Son the natural fullness from the Father, in whom, by natural generation, the fullness of the paternal nature remains. But it was fitting to our faith and salvation to confess the mystery not only of creation, but also of redemption. For in all the things that were said above of the Father, His majesty by which He made us was proclaimed, but the goodness by which He redeemed was not shown: and since this was bestowed on us, it was fitting that, the sole name of the Son sufficing for the demonstration of the divine majesty by which we were created, there should next follow 'the word of the cross, which is indeed foolishness to those who perish, but to those who are saved it is the power of God' (I Cor. I, 18).
By this it seemed the more difficult to believe. For it was indeed not difficult to believe that the Son is of one nature with the Father, and that from this He possesses, as begotten in natural unity with His begetter, all the things that have been mentioned: and on this account, for the utter destruction of the wisdom of the world—because 'Christ crucified is indeed a stumbling-block to the Jews, and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those very ones who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God' (I Cor. I, 23)—for this reason it had to be more earnestly and thoroughly inculcated that the true God, the proper and only-begotten Son of God the Father Almighty, immortal, and invisible, was also born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, which is nothing else than of the grace of God and from a virginal womb.
And what is more wonderful and more wholesome than to know that God the only-begotten, born of the nature of the Father without beginning, and naturally coeternal with God the Father, did what He did not for His own advantage but for the sake of our salvation; and was made wonderfully and mercifully, that He might redeem what He created? But because the same proper and only Son of God the Father took upon Himself at once our nature and our penalty—He who so showed in Himself the truth of the human soul and of the flesh, that He took upon Himself the truth of sorrow and of death; whence He says: 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death' (Matt. XXVI, 38)—therefore in the Creed we say that the same only Son of God, whom we confess to have been born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, was also crucified and buried:
so that in Him may be acknowledged at once the truth of both natures: whom, as the majesty of the eternal divinity shows to be true God, so the humility of the divine kindness teaches to be true man. For that God who is of the Father the Creator of all things was made of the Virgin the Mediator of God and men. But He would not be the Mediator, if He did not have in Himself alone the truth of the paternal and maternal substance. For just as we are reconciled in Him through the death of His Son—because that Mediator had in Himself true flesh, according to which He might undergo true death—so in Him He conferred on us the benefit of true reconciliation, in whom there is to Him one natural divinity with the Father.
For Christ, who is the Truth, just as He is true man of the nature of His Mother, so is He also true God of the substance of the Father: in whom there is no diversity of the divine nature with the Father, just as there is no natural diversity of the soul and the flesh with the Virgin. Accordingly, because He accepted death by the truth of the flesh, which He absorbed by the truth of the divinity, therefore we confess that, having been buried, He rose again on the third day. For the divine kindness wrought this for the confirmation of our hope, that in the very thing in which the punishment of our death was being overcome, in that same thing the example of our resurrection might shine forth: and because 'Christ rising from the dead now dies no more, and death shall no longer have dominion over Him' (Rom. VI, 9);
just as the true flesh of Christ shall never die, so let us believe that our bodies also, by the eternity of the resurrection, shall live without end. Then, moreover, we confess that Christ ascended into heaven, and thence will come to judge the living and the dead: for 'the Father judges no man, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father' (John V, 22). Accordingly one honor is to be rendered to the Father and to the Son, because the Father, who judges no man but has given all judgment to the Son, has demonstrated that His own and the Son's judgment is one: which He gave to the Son for this reason, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Indeed, for the removal of any difference of honor, the unity of judicial power has been shown:
namely, that to the Son, to whom we know all judgment has been given by the Father, we may render honor equal together with the Father; nor may we separate the homage of honor where we do not see judgment separated. And when the confession of the true divinity and true humanity of the only Son of God has been completed, we confess that we believe in the Holy Spirit, who is the one Spirit of the Father and of the Son, proceeding from the Father and the Son, naturally (or: faithfully) remaining in the Father and the Son: having the origin of His divinity from the Father and the Son, having naturally with the Father and the Son the truth of one deity.
But concerning the Holy Spirit, what more could or ought to be proclaimed unto the perfection of the divine majesty, than that, when the Son of God is said to have been born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, the Spirit Himself is found to be the maker of that holy body? In what, then, can He worthily be called less than the Father or the Son, who is, according to the flesh, the almighty creator of the very only Son of God? This is the Trinity, one God, whose mystery is contained in the holy Creed, on account of which holy baptism is given in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
But the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and life eternal, are for this reason added in the Creed after the commemoration of the holy Trinity, so that the profit of that confession may be shown by the appending of this reward. For to this end is the faith of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit useful—that is, of the one eternal, true, and good God—namely, that we may receive the remission of sins, and, rising in this flesh in which we now live, may live blessedly forever. This is that piety 'which is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the present life and of that which is to come' (I Tim. IV, 8); of the present indeed as good, and of the future as eternal and blessed.
And the holy Church is subjoined, that it may be acknowledged to be the house of God the Founder, the eternal city of the Redeemer: without whose fellowship and unity the remission of sins is not acquired, and through the resurrection of the flesh one comes not to the joys of eternal life, but to the punishments of eternal death. Accordingly the holy Creed profits him who believes the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be naturally one God: for he himself has received the remission of sins, and through the resurrection of this flesh in which he now lives well, he will without doubt possess life eternal; but we do not believe in the remission of sins, in the resurrection of the flesh, and in life eternal in the same way as we believe in the Holy Spirit.
For, the distinction between the Giver and the gift being preserved, we believe in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit; but the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and life eternal we believe and hope are to be given to us by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For our very Savior evidently showed in whom we are to believe, saying to His disciples: 'Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. XXVIII, 19). But in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the property of the persons was to be intimated, lest in the Trinity, God, in whom one nature is most healthfully believed, one person should also be most perniciously believed.
But I marvel that you confess that of God nothing else could be born except God, and yet do not consider that in the very nature and name of God are contained all those things which have been said of God the Father. For if of God nothing else could be born except God, then assuredly of the almighty God nothing else could be born except an almighty God; of God the Creator of all, nothing could be born except a God the Creator of all; of God the King of the ages, nothing else could be born except a King of the ages; of the immortal God, nothing else could be born except an immortal God; of the invisible God, nothing could be born except an invisible God.
Since therefore of God was born God, of the Father the Son, of the Almighty an almighty one, of the Creator of all the Creator of all, of the King of the ages a King of the ages, of the immortal an immortal one, of the invisible an invisible one—what remains but that the Son be believed in all things equal to the Father? FRAGMENT XXXVII. The Father is truly Lord, and Christ is truly God, and the whole Trinity is truly Lord God. How we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and yet are saved in the name of Christ alone. Whether baptism is good in the name of Jesus Christ. For neither does the tenor of the Creed attribute deity to the Father alone, but in God the Father it shows the natural origin of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
in whom, assuredly, the true divinity had to be demonstrated by the name of omnipotence, because He would not be God if He were not almighty; the true generation also had to be demonstrated by the name of fatherhood, that the common nature of the Father and the Son might be truly signified. And because it belongs naturally to God to be Lord of all things; in that the tenor of the Creed called Christ Lord, it truly intimated Him also to be God. For it is proper and natural to the true God to be nothing else than Lord; and to the true Lord, to be nothing else than God. Hence it is that the blessed apostle Paul also thus says: 'Yet to us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him' (I Cor. VIII, 6).
So that just as he did not take from God the Father the rights of true dominion, so neither should the Lord Son be acknowledged to be withdrawing the unity of deity. For it is permitted to us to confess one God and one Lord. For there is one dominion of the one divinity, and one divinity of the one dominion, and thus, besides the one Lord there is not another Lord, just as besides the one God there is not another God. The one dominion, therefore, of the one God is recognized in His one divinity; and the one divinity of the one Lord is naturally found in His one dominion. Besides the one God the Father there is not another God, and besides the one Lord Jesus Christ there is not another Lord.
But neither is God the Father one God without God the Son, nor is the Lord Christ one Lord without the Lord the Father. For God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are naturally one Lord God: having naturally the fullness of deity in the fullness of dominion, and having the fullness of dominion in the fullness of deity. Hence it is that blessed David says: 'Who is God besides the Lord? or who is God besides our God?' (Ps. XVII, 32). The tenor of the Creed, therefore, shows in the Father and the Son the unity of deity and of dominion, when it intimated to those who believe rightly both that the Father, whom it called God, is nothing else than Lord, and that Christ, whom it called Lord, is nothing else than God.
For of the one God the Father was born the one God Jesus Christ, who could be born nothing else than God: who nevertheless would not naturally be one Lord, if He had not been born of the Lord. And so God the Father, who begot the Lord, is known as true Lord; and Christ the Lord, begotten of God, is known as true God; and the Holy Spirit, the one and the same Spirit of the Father and the Son, because He is of one nature with the Father and the Son, is true Lord God. For to Him there is naturally, with the Lord God the Father and the Lord God the Son, both the deity of true dominion and the dominion of true deity.
Hence it is that every catholic Christian, when he is asked whether God the Father is Lord, and whether the Lord Jesus Christ is God, without doubt confesses both; and yet he is found to be a truthful preacher not of two gods, nor of two lords, but of one Lord God. For what remains for the man who is not permitted to preach two gods or two lords, except that, when questioned, he should fearlessly confess God the Father and the Lord Christ to be one Lord? And surely he answers no otherwise concerning the Holy Spirit, since He is one Lord God together with the Father and the Son, who is the one Spirit of the Father and of the Son.
And whoever denies or doubts this to be true, must of necessity either say that God the Father alone is to be worshipped, or profess himself a worshipper of both Creator and creature. But the Christian faith proclaims the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be one Lord God for this reason: because it is not lawful to believe in two or three lords or gods, nor is it permitted to anyone to worship the creature together with the Creator, nor can the Christian faith stand without the worship of the Son or of the Holy Spirit. There is therefore one God, and one Lord of all things, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For 'God' is not the name of the Father alone, but is one name common by nature to the Trinity. Therefore our Saviour commanded His disciples, saying:
'Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. 28:19). See what you will answer to blessed Peter, who so placed the accomplishment of human salvation in the name of Christ alone, that he declared we could be saved in no other. For in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, after that man was healed who had been lame from his mother's womb, when Peter and John were being questioned by the chief priests by what power or in what name they had done this, it is thus written: 'Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: Rulers of the people and elders, if we this day are examined concerning the good deed done to an infirm man, by what means he has been made whole;'
'be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which is become the head of the corner; and there is salvation in no other. For neither is there any other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved' (Acts 4:8ff). Behold, Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, says that we are so saved in the name of Christ, that there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.
Now compare that commandment of Christ, by which He commanded the nations to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, with this discourse of blessed Peter, in which he so commends human salvation to the name of Christ alone that he utterly denies there is any other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved. Compare, then, the words of Christ with the words of Peter; compare the teaching of the master with the teaching of the disciple; compare what Peter heard from Christ, and what he said filled with the Holy Spirit. Christ commanded that men be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; but Peter said that the name of Christ alone was given to men whereby we must be saved.
Say, then, whether what Peter heard from Christ and what he preached filled with the Holy Spirit agree with each other. For if both agree, then of necessity there is one name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and this alone is the name given to men whereby we must be saved. But if you should say that this teaching of Peter differs from that commandment of Christ, this remains to you: that you say that not so much Peter as the Holy Spirit lied. For filled with the Holy Spirit he said this, and it was from Him that he surely heard what he was to preach. And when you have called the Holy Spirit a liar in Peter's lie, you will straightway be proclaiming Christ also a liar.
For He Himself promised that the Spirit of truth would be sent by Him to His disciples, as the Spirit who would lead them into all truth. But if the Holy Spirit led them into any falsehood, you not only assert that He Himself lied, who taught something contrary to truth, but you must also say that Christ is a liar, if He did not send such a Spirit as He promised. For if you deny that that preaching of blessed Peter is truthful, you must confess that Christ Himself (that is, the Truth) is the author of a lie: for He Himself said, speaking of the Holy Spirit: 'For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and the things that are to come He shall show you.'
'He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it to you' (John 16:13-14). If the Holy Spirit received from Christ what He should say, and yet spoke a lie, then Christ gave the Holy Spirit a lie. But if He did not receive this from Christ, but the Holy Spirit spoke of Himself what He did not receive from Christ, then, according to your opinion, Christ lied either knowingly or unknowingly, who said, 'For He shall not
'speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.' But since neither could Christ lie, nor the Holy Spirit—because the holy Trinity itself is by nature one truth—inasmuch as, just as we confess God the Father to be truth, so also we know the Son and the Holy Spirit by nature to be truth: for the Son says of Himself, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' (John 14:6); and blessed John testifies that the Spirit of truth is truth, saying, 'And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth' (1 John 5:6); therefore, since the Father is truth, and the Son is truth, and the Holy Spirit is truth, they are not three truths, but the holy Trinity itself is by nature one truth;
and whatever the holy apostles taught, they spoke full of truth: it is necessary that both what Christ taught Peter, and what Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, taught, be true. For, just as no one is saved unless he has been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, so, apart from the name of Christ, there is no other name given to men whereby we must be saved. For the natural name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one, which is 'God'; and this is the only name given to men, in which those who rightly believe come, through the sacrament of baptism, to salvation.
Wherefore, if believers do not receive holy baptism in one and the same name, which is by nature common to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, but (as you suppose) are baptized in three different names, when—according to the rule established by the command of Christ the Saviour—those who have believed are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: answer us, whether, if the name either of the Father or of the Son or of the Holy Spirit be withdrawn, baptism given in two names could stand with Christian firmness. This surely you will by no means dare to say, because the very sentence of the Truth Himself will forbid you to say it.
What then remains except that you answer that that baptismal sacrament is whole which, according to the Lord's command, we give in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? Now let the book of the Acts of the Apostles come to mind, in which blessed Peter is found to have said to the Jews: 'Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit' (Acts 2:38). Then consider that it is contained in the same book, where it is written: 'Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John.'
'And when they were come, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He was come upon none of them, but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus' (Acts 8:14ff). Likewise in the same book, when Peter the apostle, sent by the Holy Spirit, was preaching to the centurion Cornelius the great sacrament of godliness, and while he was yet speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word, then the recorded Scripture testifies that the holy apostle Peter thus answered: 'Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?' And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:47-48).
Consider also that place in the same book, where it is said: 'And it came to pass, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper parts, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples, and said to them: Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? But they said to him: Nay, we have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Spirit. And he said: In what then were you baptized? And they said: In John's baptism. Then Paul said: John indeed baptized the people with the baptism of penance, saying that they should believe in Him who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus. Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus:'
'and when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied' (Acts 19:1ff). Behold, with so many places bearing witness, we find that certain persons were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by apostolic authority. Tell me then whether those who are said to have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ were also baptized in the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, or whether you altogether deny this. And if you say that in that name of Jesus Christ the name both of the Father and of the Holy Spirit is also to be understood, then without doubt you will confess one name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and from one name, of necessity you will straightway confess the holy Trinity to be one God.
But if you say that those baptized in the name of Jesus Christ were not baptized in the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, what remains except that you should not think that baptism to be true, but should pronounce the holy apostles themselves guilty of transgression? And when you have said this, see how you will dare to call yourself a Christian, when you have begun to oppose Christ in His apostles—Christ whom you are not ignorant to have said to those very apostles: 'He that receiveth you receiveth Me'; and, 'He that despiseth you despiseth Me' (Matt. 10:40; Luke 10:16). Hear therefore the apostolic word, and reverently render obedience to the teaching and work of the apostles.
He therefore suffers no difficulty in these words of the apostle Peter, who, hearing Christ commanding the nations to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and hearing also blessed Peter saying that, apart from the name of Christ, there is no name whereby we must be saved, most certainly believes and undoubtingly confesses that there is one natural name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Wherefore it is necessary that you either confess holy baptism to be given in the one name of the Trinity, or you do not believe the name of the Father and the name of the Holy Spirit to be necessary for human salvation, and thereby you attempt to nullify the most salutary teaching of Christ.
But attend to what Christ said, whose teaching Peter truly held. For He commanded that the nations should be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This commandment Peter most tenaciously kept; with this teaching he fed the sheep of Christ even unto the shedding of his blood. For, guarding the truth of the Christian faith and knowing there to be one name of the Trinity, he both said that truly, apart from the name of Christ, there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved; and in that he taught men to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, he baptized in the one name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For there is no diversity of natural name in the Trinity, where there is that very natural unity.
FRAGMENT XXXVIII. The Son is almighty just as the Father, and thus has all things just as the Father. You add, and say: 'Therefore the Son is almighty, but not as the Father, because the Father gave and conferred that very omnipotence upon the Son; but upon the Father no one conferred or gave omnipotence.' Yet from this the Son is rather recognized as equal to the Father, because what He is, He has not from elsewhere, but from the Father: nor is He from nothing, but subsists from the eternal begetter. Therefore the nature of the Father preserved in the Son what is its own, because that natural generation could bring forth nothing of a different divinity. But the Father gave all things to the Son, and denied Him nothing, in whom He ineffably begot His whole nature.
That the Father gave omnipotence to the Son, then, is in the origin alone, not in any diversity of that omnipotence or of nature. He who inquires where He gave it will find it to be nothing other than to have begotten. But that generation, which is by nature divine and eternal, in that it shows the Father to have given to the Son the fullness of all things which He has, thereby naturally demonstrates the Son to be equal to the Father. So then the Son has all things just as the Father: because where natural generation is recognized, there no natural diversity of begetter and begotten is found. FRAGMENT XXXIX. The Holy Spirit is by nature one Lord God together with the Father and the Son. Remember, therefore, that to all your objections we have, by the Lord's help, given an answer:
and do not believe that the Holy Spirit is found in the divine oracles to be subject or lesser; neither think of His mission in a carnal way, nor suppose it to be local, nor assign to Him the deference of a servile condition. For the Holy Spirit is by nature one Lord God together with the Father and the Son. This is evidently recognized both in the creation of all things and in the redemption of the faithful. For if He were not God, He would not have works common with the Father and the Son; if He were not God, He would not have Himself established the power of the heavens; if He were not God, the angels would not desire to gaze upon Him; if He were not God, He would by no means have come upon Jesus when baptized; if He were not God, He would not have one name with the Father and the Son;
if He were not God, He would not have given the possession of divine adoption; if He were not God, He would not have our bodies as His temple; if He were not God, Christ would not have cast out demons in Him; if He were not God, He would by no means have filled heaven and earth. If therefore you rightly consider these things and others like them, you will soon have a right faith concerning the Holy Spirit.