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.