文集 第 7 章

BOOK ONE. On the United Trinity of the Godhead. Question: Thou, one God the Father, only-begotten God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, since Thou hast declared to us one Godhead, and hast revealed the undivided glory of the all-holy and sole divinity, and hast shown forth the perfect glory of Thy Trinity and the everlasting fullness, therefore I have judged it best that Thy truth, being laid open, should shine forth, and that the unveiled blindness of the heretics should become known. For which reason my spirit was suddenly kindled in zeal, and blazed like a glowing fire into the dense forests of trees.

Wherefore, since many have laid claim to the pen, to point out the way of justice as the way of light, and since it has pleased us to direct our journey through the windings of its narrow path, and first to flee the broad and spacious way — who would not desire, the ancient gloom being wiped away, to be renewed through the water of life, and after the barren and meager husks to eat the bread of life, and, the whirlpool of the venomous cup being forsaken, to receive the cup of salvation, and, the profane worship of idols being laid low, to acknowledge the true God the Creator, and, the hiss of the inveterate serpent being scorned, sweetly to chant a hymn unto God in one, and at last, the dugs of the scaly dragon being refused, to be fed with honey and milk from the evangelical precepts, and again through immortality resumed to judge the apostate angels, and that earthly man should be assigned to the heavenly kingdoms and to the heights in Jerusalem?

I ask, what and how great is this love of humanity in God, who promises such great rewards to those who believe? Who would not with all eagerness hasten to rise up from heavy sleep, and to behold the most brilliant light with infinite admiration? Which light I desire to show, not to the pupils of the eyes by mere gazing, but to lay up for religious brethren in the secret hidden recess of the heart. In which I have not made up a heap of an ostentatious volume, lest I should pile up words more than I conveyed meaning to those who search; but briefly, in part, according to my promise, I have comprehended infinite things, and in humble speech have pointed out sublime ones.

Wherefore everything there is full, where nothing is lacking; nay rather, he seems utterly to be ignorant of the whole, who should wish to detract anything from this fullness of the divine Trinity, since I have thought more concerning Thee than I have said anything properly of my own. Hast Thou perhaps permitted Thyself to be believed wholly according to the profession of the rule alone, and willed in no way at all to be delineated by mental speech? Hast Thou perhaps, because Thou hast permitted Thyself to be believed through faith, commanded that we should set forth among us the deity of Thy immense divinity? Hast Thou perhaps, because Thou art perceived by us properly, also defined by being spoken? Far be it, since Thou, God, art properly known only to Thyself alone.

For which reason as a suppliant I most earnestly entreat the glory of Thy most tranquil Trinity, that Thou wouldst lead me to the perfect state of faith, as I bring forth the words of my confession. If heaven, or the heaven of heavens, does not suffice to set forth the praise of Thy sublime greatness; if the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing the works of Thy magnificence — whence does my littleness suffice to render to Thee in confession twofold and greatest thanks? Therefore I beg pardon, lest perhaps, when I have taken up the words of presumption, I should seem to detract something from Thy majesty.

But prostrate I lie before the throne of the glory of Thy sublimity, that Thou mayest permit me to drink from the fullness of the treasury of Thy law as from a fountain, and to draw the water of life from the four overflowing rivers. From which let us confidently prescribe against the blasphemies of the heretics by the authority of the rule, and let us water the hearts of the thirsting catholics from the everlasting Spirit of life, as from a fountain of nectar. This, I say, is the formula of the matter in the conflict with the heretics, and this is the victory of the title in the absolution of the catholics, which the chief commandment of God signifies: 'Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. XXVIII, 19).

Hear in this the admirable and royal decree, in which every sacrament is contained unitedly in the deity of the Trinity. Because He said 'in the name,' He evidently declared one deity to subsist in the Trinity. And what He went on to say — 'of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' — He distinguished single persons to be in single names. Heretic: Truly, I request that you first expound to me summarily concerning the united name of deity, manifoldly spoken, in answer to what I have asked; and then in proceeding distinguish concerning the names of the persons. Question: Why is the deity united? Answer: Because there is no ambiguity in this fullness of the Trinity. Question: Why is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit one God? Answer.

Where thou saidst 'one,' thou thyself didst refer to the united name of deity those names which thou didst distinguish in the persons. Question: Why is He the sole God? Answer: Assuredly because the sole deity subsists in the Trinity, therefore He is the sole God. Question: Why is He omnipotent God? Answer: Manifestly, because the very deity of the Trinity is omnipotent. Question: Why is He one true God? Answer: Without doubt, since there is one true nature of the Trinity, therefore He is one true God. Question: Why is He one good God? Answer: Inasmuch as there is no diversity unequal in the one substance of the divine Trinity, and through this He is one good God. Question: Why is He the most high God? Answer: Because this very same is the highest substance of the Trinity.

Question: Why is He one Lord? Answer: Remember that the dominion is united in the nature of the everlasting Trinity, and therefore He is one Lord. Question: Why is there one image of the invisible Trinity? Answer: Because one and the same deity is in the image of truth. Question: Why is God one Spirit? Answer: Is not the nature of the deity of the Holy Spirit one, which subsists in the Father, and in the Son, and in itself? Therefore there is one Spirit of the one Trinity, because there is one everlasting fullness of divinity in this very Trinity. Question: Why is the one Trinity equal? Answer: Because the deity is also everlasting in the Trinity itself.

I ask, dost thou not observe that almost all the heresies blaspheme in this title the united deity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, while they refer those things which above were spoken unitedly of the Trinity to the one person of the Father alone? On which account we must strenuously labor — nay, against so many assemblies of sects must fiercely contend with infinite solicitude — that, the gloom of the heretics being thoroughly dispelled, the light of the evangelical knowledge, laid open, may shine forth, and the unveiled blindness of the blasphemers may become known. Wherefore the foregoing things must be reviewed by us a little while for examination, so that for those who read or search out the truth, every scruple of unbelief may be utterly removed from the secret of the breast.

Moreover, only concerning the all-holy united name of the Trinity. Therefore, where I mentioned one God, I did not in speaking restrict this to the one person of the Father alone, since I did not deny that the Son is of the one fullness of the Father's deity, and the Holy Spirit likewise. And where I mentioned the sole God, I did not, to speak more truly, indicate this of the sole person of the Father, because I did not deny that the Son and the Holy Spirit are of this very sole substance of the Father's divinity. Likewise the omnipotent God, or the true God, or the good God, or the most high God, or the one Holy Spirit, of which I narrated summarily a little before — did I not declare all these terms to belong to the united divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?

Wherefore, although in this place the significations spoken are copious, yet they are more evidently approved as referring to the united divinity of the Trinity. For the unity is not, as the heretics, oppressed by their blasphemies, have often been wont to say, in the will and not in the deity — which be far from us, since the unity is not in the will only, but rather in the deity. And through this, that thou mayest be certain, this unity is not in concord only, but really, nay substantially, it stands firm in the nature of the divinity. Therefore I beg of thee, who readest this profession of my catholic faith in this writing, that thou seek not here for superfluous or profuse words;

but compactly, capaciously, nay spiritually, with the highest zeal, refer the things said to the style of sacred Scripture, and weigh them according to the consistency of the rule, with justice moderating. Wherefore now receive things not eloquent but strong; not earthly figments but true heavenly documents; not the heretical and depraved fabrications of the philosophers, but the perfect apostolic hidden mysteries; not grammar, which is a superfluous wisdom of doctrine, but, sweeter and better than honey and the honeycomb, the divine precepts from the evangelical Scriptures. Learn therefore that in this the sophists of this world have been made foolish, or rather dumb, because they did not know the true wisdom, and therefore have been made reprobate.

And so receive the person of the one questioning and resolving, who demands that satisfaction be made to him. Question: Why are we called Father-Spirit, and is the Son named Spirit, and is the Holy Spirit called Spirit? Answer: It is perfectly answered to these things for him who questions in this place. Dost thou not know that the Father is one God, and the Son is one God, and the Holy Spirit is one God? Is He not one God, since the name is united in the nature of the essence (usia)? So too there is one Spirit, because the deity of the same is united. For if thou hast through the single names of the persons designated the united name of Spirit three times, must one therefore say three Spirits? Far be it.

But if this could be said, it would be such that this too ought to be introduced into the confession, that three gods be named in the plural number: so that there would no longer be in these persons one nature of divinity, but each one would subsist in his own or diverse nature; which be far from us. Meanwhile I again repeat the same things, and compare them to thy spoken words, and refer to thee the meaning of my understanding. The Father is one God, and the Son is the only-begotten God, and the Holy Spirit, united in the Father and the Son, is God. Is it not so that, because I have three times designated the name of unity, that is, of deity, through the single persons, I shall therefore be able to confess three gods? Far be it. Wherefore, although the saying is threefold, it nevertheless holds one indication of the name in the deity of the Trinity.

Meanwhile, even in this title observe Him who says: 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' (Exod. 3:6). Did He in this saying designate three gods, in that He named one name three times? God forbid. Therefore we who hold the evangelical and apostolic faith of the Fathers neither hold nor receive in our heart three gods, nor three lords, nor three spirits, nor other such utterances of plurality; especially since we know that the unity of the Godhead subsists in the Trinity unitedly, not in plurality. Wherefore we ought not to profess three natures in these Persons against the rule of the evangelical judgment, since the Father is one God, and the only-begotten Son is God, and the unbegotten Holy Spirit is God.

Therefore God is one, because the Godhead is one, even as it is written through each of the Persons; and because there is no God but one. As this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God' (Deut. 6:4); or this: 'I the Lord God have stretched out the heaven alone, and made firm the earth' (Isa. 44:24). And also this: 'For there is one God' (1 Tim. 2:5); or this: 'Now a mediator is not of one, but God is one' (Gal. 3:20). And likewise: 'Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve' (Matt. 4:10). For also this: 'That which is born of the Spirit is spirit'; and in another place: 'All these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as He will'; or this:

'To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit.' And also this: 'We have all drunk of one Spirit.' Remember that the united name of the Godhead is in each of the Persons. Question. I ask that you yet further confirm to me these sayings by the warrant of authority. Answer. Do you not know that it is written, 'I speak to them that know the law' (Rom. 7:1)? Therefore let those who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit, through the historian Moses, testifies to the Churches in almost the whole book of Genesis: let them understand that God spoke, and God made, and God was present, and blessed these things. The same also said there: 'Let us make man to our image and likeness' (Gen. 1:26), and thus He continued:

'God made man; to the image of God He made him; male and female He made them, and He blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth' (ibid. 27,28). Question. What then is the reason that One said 'Let us make,' and One made, and One was present with Him who spoke and made, and saw the good things made and blessed them — since the 'Let us make' is not the person of one solitary being alone, but of one making together with Him, and the 'to the image of God' is not His person alone, but also of one seeing and blessing together with Him? Answer. Does it not seem to you that, through the unspoken names of the Persons — even if but briefly — the united name of the working Godhead is intimated?

Indeed, because it did not specify 'the Father said, and the Son made, and the Holy Spirit blessed,' but briefly continued: 'And God said, and God made, and God saw all the things that were made, and He blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth' (Gen. 1:28). You see that no one says to himself, 'Let it be made,' but to one who makes; and no one who makes speaks to his own person, 'and He made.' And who declares of himself, 'and He saw, and He blessed'? For, to speak strictly, if it were one person of the speaker, and of the maker, and of the blesser, He would so have intimated that He made His own work, saying 'I said, and I made, and I blessed.' Whereas it is written: 'By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of His mouth all their power' (Ps. 32:6).

Indeed by 'the Word' He indicated the Son; by 'the Lord' He designated His Father, and by 'the spirit of His mouth' He named the Holy Spirit. Do you see that in these Persons the name of the Trinity is united in nature? The Psalmist also confirming it: 'Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee' (Ps. 44:8). Behold, God and God: yet you will not find it said in these Persons in the plural, 'gods.' Likewise, Lord from Lord, Father from Son — hear it attested through the prophet Hosea: 'I will save them in the Lord their God' (Hos. 1:7). And also this is written concerning the united name of the Godhead: 'And the Lord rained from the Lord' (Gen. 19:24). Or take this example of Him speaking to Jacob in the book of Genesis:

'Arise and go up to the place Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar to God, to Him who appeared to thee when thou didst flee from the face of thy brother' (Gen. 35:1). And in the book of Psalms we find recorded: 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool' (Ps. 109:1). And holy Isaiah also declares: 'Thus saith the Lord to my Christ, whose right hand I have held, that all the nations may obey Him' (Isa. 45:1), and so forth. Yet God is one, because the dominion is one in the eternal nature: as also concerning the person of the Holy Spirit the Vessel of Election briefly concluded, saying: 'The same Spirit is also the same Lord, the same also God, who worketh all things in all' (1 Cor. 12:11).

And in another place the same one repeats: 'For the Lord is a Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty' (2 Cor. 3:17). Or take that it was said, in the person of the Father, in the Gospel to the Samaritan woman, that 'God is a Spirit' (John 4:24). For also concerning the person of the Son, Jeremiah, most accepted of the prophets, testifies: 'The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord' (Lam. 4:20). Or this: 'Because God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father' (Gal. 4:6). And concerning the principal Spirit the Son declares: 'The Spirit breatheth where He will, and thou hearest His voice, but knowest not whence He cometh or whither He goeth. So is every one that is born of water and the Holy Spirit' (John 3:8).

Therefore, that you may gather in brief the sense of Scripture speaking unitedly of the nature of the divine Trinity: 'The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted' (Ps. 17:47). You see that through each expression the united name of the Godhead is indicated three times: that is, God, God, and God — yet not gods. Or take what is said by the same Psalmist: 'Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most High. And call upon me in the day of thy tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me' (Ps. 49:14). Indeed, if there were only one fixed person in this example, he ought to have let these words flow without any distinction in proceeding, saying: 'The Lord liveth, who is blessed.' But when he says:

'The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted' (Ps. 17:47) — is not the name of the divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit thus declared unitedly in these Persons in all things? that is, God, and God, and God: as in another place it is recorded concerning the united name of dominion: 'Bring to the Lord, O ye families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honour, bring glory to His name' (Ps. 95:7). For if there were only one person, he ought to have expressed the glory thus: 'Bring to the Lord, O ye families of the nations, bring to Him glory and honour, bring glory to His name.' What more? Are arguments still necessary to us for making the truth plain?

Are the nations, for whom the gate stands open to those who believe unto eternal life, baptized into the one person of the Father only? and not into three, whose names are thus distinct in the Persons — of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit — to whom there is one nature of the Godhead, as it is written: 'Going, baptize all nations in the name,' and thus He continued, 'of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. 28:19). Hence in these Persons the name is in all things united in the deity of the Godhead, and by the very names of the Trinity only the Persons are distinguished. But the Apostle also testifies to this: 'To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body, and one Spirit;'

'even as you are called in one hope of your calling' (Eph. 4:3-4). Do you see that the united Spirit is to be kept, into the one body of the Church, in the bond of peace, which consists in the confession of salvation? Or can the name of the Spirit's unity of nature be spoken of in only one person of that same Spirit, when the name of unity of nature bestows life in baptism upon believers in these three Persons? In which hope we are all called. And this hope of our faith is this: that in baptism you first confess the united name of the Godhead, that you may merit to obtain remission of sins in these Persons.

Therefore, although in the foregoing examples of the Scriptures the names of the Persons are unspoken, nevertheless the united name of the Godhead is demonstrated to you in all of them; as also in this example of truth, in which the names of the Persons are clearly shown, and the united name of the Godhead is closely declared, John the Evangelist saying in his Epistle: 'There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, and the Word, and the Spirit, and in Christ Jesus they are one' (1 John 5:7); yet it does not say 'He is one,' because there is not in these one person. For when it says 'one' concerning all of them, what else is understood than that God the Father, by the nature of the Godhead, is Himself also called Lord, and is Himself also Spirit;

and the Son is God, and the same is also Lord in the divinity, and the same is also Spirit in the deity; and likewise the Spirit, the Paraclete, is God, and the same is also Lord in the nature of the deity, and the same is also Spirit? Do you see how in the deity and in the substance of fullness they are in all things one, and in the names of the Persons they are three? For as to their being three, what else is understood to have been meant than that the Father — true, one, or alone — who begot, is not the same as He who is the only-begotten from Him; and the Son, the one who did not beget but Himself was begotten of the Father, is not the Father; and this Holy Spirit, who is neither Father nor Son?

Moreover, there is He who neither begot nor was begotten, since one in person is He who begot, and another in person is He who is the only-begotten from Him, and another likewise in person — as I have said according to divine Scripture — who is neither Father nor Son: this is the Holy Spirit; but plainly He is of the united nature. Therefore in the united deity there is the united name of the Godhead. So in the clarity of the evangelical Scripture the Son testifies concerning the Spirit, the Paraclete, saying: 'He proceedeth from the Father' (John 15:26). And thus He continued: 'And He shall receive of mine' (John 16:14).

And therefore, where the Persons are sought, the proper names are distinguished by these; but where the Deity is required, the united name is indicated, since what pertains to the names of the Persons is shown to be spoken in the plural. And through this, in the united deity of the Godhead they are one, and in the names of the Persons they are three: hence the three are one, or the one are three. Indeed, that we may cut away every scruple from readers, I will yet briefly clarify, proving in manifold ways that this name of unity is most truly of the Trinity, which nevertheless is referred to the manifold wisdom of God, which subsists unitedly in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit;

Concerning which, if you signify the wisdom of the deity and the deity of the wisdom, is not this very thing the unity of wisdom, which is also the divinity of the Trinity? Therefore, that we may assign these things in brief, whether it be named the glory of wisdom, or the deity of glory, or sublimity, or dominion, or dignity, or charity, or majesty, or empire, or power, or eternity — are not these, though spoken in manifold ways, yet declared unitedly of the one incomparable deity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? Or do you think that however many expressions are spoken concerning the glory of the deity, there are just as many kinds of diversity? God forbid, since all these are referred as spoken of the one substance.

For if this one and the same is the manifold foreknowing wisdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, which is one power, or one form of greatness, or one majesty, or one brightness — all of which are found gathered, according to the rule of Scripture, in this place into this one deity of fullness — can it then, in the same deity of the Trinity, be alleged against the Scriptures that we should speak in the plural, after the manner of the Arian madmen, of three wisdoms, or three powers, or three images, or three substances, or several brightnesses, or three fullnesses of the Godhead, or other such things? God forbid.

Such as you, Hosius, already far advanced in age — you who, no novice, became a sponsor of unsound doctrine at the synod of Sirmium, where you made void your faith, which you had set down in writing at Nicaea, while you served the royal power. Moreover, when you were very near to death, you fell so into the snare of the chasm of the abyss that you departed as one dead in heart, so as to say: 'Who does not know that the Father is greater in honour, dignity, brightness, and majesty?' — as though there were two, or indeed three, brightnesses or majesties in each of these Persons of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Which God forbid.

For if this blasphemy of theirs were so, as they say, why do they not now name three gods in plural number, and with public voice make promise concerning their own or diverse substances? Which God forbid. Whereas the perfectly united name of the Godhead, though spoken in manifold ways, subsists unitedly in the Trinity. Question. But I ask that you show me these very sayings concerning authority briefly, unitedly and in common, through each of the Persons. Answer. Hear what is said unitedly of the Trinity: 'God is wise, and strong, and great, who commands the sun, and it rises not; who has shut up the stars, and has stretched out the heaven like a skin;'

'who walks upon the sea as upon dry land, who does great things, and things that cannot be searched out' (Job 9:4,7,8,10). And what He says in Solomon: 'God by His wisdom founded the earth, and prepared the heavens by His prudence' (Prov. 3:19). Or recognize the Apostle saying this: 'Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God' (1 Cor. 1:24). And he himself again says: 'That the power of Christ may dwell in me' (2 Cor. 12:9). And in the psalmist it is written: 'They shall go from power to power' (Ps. 83:8). Yet he did not signify that there are wisdoms or powers in the plural in these Persons, as the same one repeats: 'The Lord God of powers is with us' (Ps. 45:8). And also this:

'Praise Him in the firmament of His power' (Ps. 150:1). And in another place: 'In Thy light we shall see light' (Ps. 35:10). For also concerning the person of the Holy Spirit, Solomon in Proverbs says the same: 'The light of the Lord is the spirit of men, which searches the inner parts of the heart' (Prov. 20:27). Or this: 'That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation' (Eph. 1:17). And in another place we find it thus recorded: 'But you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you' (Acts 1:8). Or here, through holy Micah, understand the Lord the Father Himself declaring: 'Unless I fill up the power in my Holy Spirit, and in judgment, and in might' (Micah 3:8).

Remember from this that the Holy Spirit is of wisdom and power together with the Father and the Son. Or perceive Him spoken of as, unitedly, the holiness of the Trinity, working all wondrous things in signs and prodigies, as I foretold above: 'Holiness and sanctity are in His sanctification' (Ps. 95:6). You see therefore that in all of them there is one wisdom, or power, or light, or holiness, or operation; and also other such things spoken in manifold ways, which are not brought forward as examples here, since it would be quite long to recount all the things said unitedly of the Trinity itself. Let it suffice — though few — by way of proof, that these few testimonies have been set forth in place of many, unto the knowledge of the light. Question.

Therefore, if the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in the deity of the Godhead, I beg you yet satisfy me by the testimony of the law. Answer. You have already heard above the Evangelist John testifying so plainly in his Epistle: 'There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and in Christ Jesus they are one' (1 John 5:7). Indeed, without doubt, in the Trinity of the Godhead they are in all things one, and in the names of the Persons they are three. And so, that you may know concerning the things I set forth above, I am mindful that I have made no division or distance in the one deity of the substance of fullness of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Concerning the proper Persons, and concerning the united name of the Trinity. The Heretic.

Now I ask that you expound to me the name of the deity through each of the names of the Persons. Athanasius. Hear. If the Son came in the name of the Father, is He then the Father, He who says: 'I have come in the name of my Father' (John 5:43) — since the Father, who is God, is He in whose name the Son manifestly came? And through this, one name is proven in the united nature of the Godhead, as the Father Himself testified to Moses the lawgiver, saying: 'Attend to him, and be not disobedient to him, for my name is in him' (Exod. 23:21). To this the patriarch David says thus: 'Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord' (Ps. 117:26). For also, if the Spirit, the Paraclete, comes in the name of the Son, as He Himself says: 'Whom the Father will send in my name' (John

14:26) — is He then also called the Son, since without doubt the name of the Son is God in the one and equally same nature of the Godhead? In this name, then, the Paraclete evidently came. Therefore through each of the Persons, according to substance, the united name of the nature of the Trinity is declared to you. Holy Isaiah, confirming this, says: 'The Spirit descended from God, and led them forth; thus didst Thou lead forth Thy people, to make for Thyself a name of glory' (Isa. 63:14). And the same one also declares: 'And they provoked the Holy Spirit, and He was turned to be their enemy. The Lord Himself fought against them, and remembered the days of old, who led forth from the land the shepherd of the sheep'; and he added: 'Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in their midst?' (ibid. 11).

Do you see, therefore, by the united name of the nature of the deity, that this Lord the Holy Spirit is the glory of the Father and of the Son — He who led forth the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, as the prophet says: 'Thus didst Thou lead forth Thy people, to make for Thyself a name of glory,' He who was turned into enmity toward the children of Israel (Isa. 63:14,10)? Question. I ask, if there is a united name in the deity of the glory of the Trinity, why has not each one come in His own name? Furthermore, it is as though, because the united substantive name is referred unitedly to the deity, it is now not shown to be proper to each. Answer. Indeed in this it is proper, but also united: for, that you may be certain, the names in the Persons are proper, but not united. But you say to me:

Why does the Son come in His own proper name, which is of His nativity, and yet not in that of the Father, with respect to the undivided deity, to which it is referred — in which is found the name of the unity of God? But truly, in that respect wherein, as I set forth above, the person solely of the Begetter is distinguished, this same Son did not come. Hear: for if He had come only in this name which is called 'Son,' and not in the united substance of the deity which is named 'God,' you would have said to me: 'There is not a united name in the nature of the divinity of the Son with the Father, but a proper one'; so that you would not only distinguish the proper names in the Persons, but would equally divide the united name in the deity of the Trinity through the Persons themselves:

so that you would either divide the one substance into three parts, or certainly judge that the individual Persons subsist for us in individual substances. But plainly, if the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are perfectly distinguished according to the individual names of the Persons, is the united name therefore, according to the one deity of fullness, likewise divided in these Persons through individual substances of nature?

God forbid; for even though you (O Arian), where you ought only to distinguish the names in the Persons, there together with the very names also distinguish natures by individual degrees, or by diverse ranks, so that you say there are three natures — a greater, a lower, and a very least — according to the names of the Persons, so as to assign that the substances also differ by the very names: why do you blush, and not, like the heathen, profess in plural number with public voice three lords — a greater, a lower, and a very least — against the one true nature, and that they subsist in their diverse or unequal substances? — as you are wont to profess one as true, eternal, without beginning, unmade; and another as having a beginning, proceeding from creatures;

and a third as derived from the ministers, as it were subordinate; so that you ascribe to the Father one who is incomparable and ineffable, but show the Son above the others as a substance proceeding from an ignoble making, and indicate that the Spirit likewise, the Holy Spirit, has His substance from the ministering angels? Whence let us return to that of which we were treating above, through each of the Persons. But even if the Spirit, the Paraclete, had come only in His own name, which is called 'the Spirit, the Paraclete,' and not in the united sub-

-stance of the Father and the Son which is named 'God,' then His name would seem to be proper only in His person, and not according to the united nature of the deity in all of them; so that each would only display the individual names in their own persons, but would not indicate the united name of the deity. Furthermore, in this united name of the deity of the Father came the true Son, in whom He is called God, in whom the name of glory is together with the Father. In the name of whose nature the Spirit, the Paraclete, also came, because in this very most holy Trinity this name subsists substantially, or unitedly, as I foretold above, the Father indicating concerning His Son: 'My name is in Him' (Exod. 23:21). And the Son confirming these sayings:

'I have come in the name of my Father, and you have not received me; but when another shall come in his own name, him you will receive' (John 5:43). And also concerning the Holy Spirit, the same one repeating again: 'Whom my Father will send in my name' (John 14:26). And next, hear Him exhorting His disciples concerning His own name: 'Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you' (John 16:23). And the Apostle Paul testifying the same: 'But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor. 6:11). Hear also Isaiah declaring concerning the united name of the glory of the Holy Spirit: 'The Spirit descended from God, and led them forth:'

'thus didst Thou lead forth Thy people, to make for Thyself a name of glory' (Isa. 63:14). Learn now that there is a united name in the nature of the divine Trinity. Question. Declare therefore to me whether the Son is true or not. Answer. Did not the Father, that we might understand, bring forward this expression, to convey the deity of the proper nativity of His Son from Himself, saying: 'From the womb, before the morning star, I begot Thee' (Ps. 109:3)? How so? Not because God the Father, who is incomprehensible, has a womb as a man does: but for this reason, introducing these examples from our own experience, He made a comparison by signification, by which He might convey to us the true nativity of His Son, proper to Him, from Himself. Consider therefore in this place, you also, O Arian, in what manner it is said.

Was He made, who was ineffably born from the womb of the Father's substance? Was He made, who, as the only-begotten, was announced to us by the evangelist, saying: 'He that believeth not in Him is already judged, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God' (John 3:18)? And also in his Epistle he indicates these same things: 'And we are,' he says, 'in the true Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is,' he says, 'the true God, and life eternal, and our resurrection' (1 John 5:20). Behold, you have 'from the womb'; behold, 'in the only-begotten of God'; behold, 'in the true Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is the true God, and life eternal, and our resurrection' — even as the Lord Himself testified concerning Himself: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' (John 14:6).

And likewise Isaiah prophesied: 'But to those who serve me a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed over all the earth. And they shall bless the true God; and those who are upon the earth shall swear by the living God: they shall forget the former tribulation, nor shall it ascend into their heart' (Isa. 65:15). You see that there is a new name of the Christians, which is blessed upon the earth by the Lord. For they themselves bless the true God, the Father and the Son, yea and the Holy Spirit; and they shall swear by the living God. And they shall swear, he says, by the true God, which is the divinely united name. I ask, what is this so great madness of the heretics, to compare the true Son, the Creator, to His own creature?

Or what blindness is so great, as to blaspheme so great a proof of truth with false arguments? — when the centurion, a man as yet a gentile, declared, to your confusion: 'Truly this was the Son of God' (Matt. 27; Mark 15). Question. And how is the name united in the nature of the Godhead, when one seems to have come in the name of another? Answer. Truly these dull hearts of the questioner and of the defender are infected with poison, more subtly and with guile. Without doubt, in this respect indeed, one in person is the Father who truly begot; and in this respect another in person is the Son from the Father, who was truly begotten of Him. And also in this respect another in person is the Spirit, this principal Paraclete, who at Pentecost was poured out upon the apostles.

And therefore remember these things spoken one by one, that the individual names are distinct in the Persons. You see that one differs from another, or this one from that, in person only, and not in the fullness of the divinity of the essence, as the Lord Himself says: 'There is another who beareth witness of me, the Father who sent me' (John 8:18). And also in another place the same one indicates the person of the Holy Spirit: 'I will ask my Father, and He will send you another Paraclete' (John 14:16). Know that one differs from another, or this one from that, in person only, and not in the united fullness of the divinity of the essence.

For if, according to the individual names of the Persons, one can without doubt be called distinct from another, can it then in the united deity be pronounced that the Father is another God, as though He were diverse in nature from the Son; and that the Son can be called another God from the Father, as though He were another in deity; and that the Holy Spirit can be professed another God, as though He were in a substance differing from the Father and the Son? God forbid: since the name is united in one true nature, and through this God is one and true. Question. And how do you signify, in the names of the Persons, that one is from one, or the other from the other — that is, that the Son is from the Father? Answer. Do you not know that the one Father begot the Son from Himself? For no one is a father to his own self.

And who is a son to his own self? Since the Father is not begotten, and the Son is not unbegotten; but plainly the Father is the Father of the Son whom He begot, and the Son is the Son of the Father, who was truly begotten of Him. Wherefore we do not, as certain blasphemers are wont to do, introduce into our confession two unbegotten principles, so that in the whole they profess neither a true Father nor a Son; since the Father can in no way be spoken of without the Son, because one is from one, that is, the Son is from the Father; and one is in one — the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father. Concerning which matter, one in person is He who truly and ineffably begot, and another likewise in person is He who was born of Him.

Truly, since their Godhead is united, this one God cannot be called another God distinct from that other God even in mere name, because the name is one in the fullness of the Godhead, and therefore there is one God. Therefore, if the Son comes in the name of the Father, and the Spirit, the Paraclete, comes in the name of the Son, just as the Son bears witness concerning him: 'Whom the Father will send in my name' (John 14:26); does it not seem to you that here too a twofold understanding is contained, namely, that in the name of the persons alone there is distinction, while in the Godhead there is no division whatever? Question: And why is no one found to have come in the name of the Holy Spirit? Answer: Blind guides, have you never heard this proverb in the holy and divine Scriptures: 'Let not the hunchback boast as one upright'?

In whose united name of the divine nature were the apostles sent? 'Go, baptize all nations in the name,' and then he continued through the several persons, 'of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. 28:19). Did he not first silently set forth the united name of the Godhead as one, and then most plainly declare it in the names of the persons, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? Furthermore, can the Holy Spirit be excluded from this united name of the Godhead? Or can it ever be, against the rule and judgment of the evangelical tradition, that baptism be celebrated as perfected in the Church from this united name of the Trinity with the person of the Holy Spirit removed or passed over in silence? God forbid.

Otherwise, how is it that this name of the Godhead — of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit — has been given as one to those who believe in the faith of baptism? Is not this name found to be honoured as one among the nations? As the foretelling Holy Spirit testifies through the prophet Malachi: 'For my name is great among the nations, says the Lord God Almighty' (Mal. 1:11). Which John the Baptist explained: 'I indeed baptize you in the water of repentance, but after me will come one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire' (Matt. 3:11). Question: Make clear to me whether the name of the Father is in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Answer:

It has already frequently been shown to you from the authority of the Scriptures that God the Father bore witness through Moses the lawgiver: 'But I am the Lord God; this is my name, a memorial unto everlasting throughout generations and successions' (Exod. 3:15). And concerning the person of the Son he speaks thus: 'My name is in him' (Exod. 23:21). And in another place the same Father repeats: 'I am the Lord God, who call your name, O God of Israel' (Isa. 45:3); which the Son himself confirmed, saying: 'I have come in the name of my Father, and you have not received me' (John 5:43). And David adds to this: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord' (Ps. 117:26). For concerning the person of the Holy Spirit too the Son bore witness, saying: 'Whom the Father will send in my name' (John

14:26). You see that the Son came in this name, which is shown to be united in the Godhead of the Father; and the Holy Spirit is indicated to have come in this name, and in the name of the Son; and the apostles were sent to baptize all nations in the united or common name of the Godhead, which is of the invisible nature, that is, of the Holy Spirit, as it is written: 'Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of your redemption' (Eph. 4:30); or this: 'And we have all been made to drink of one Spirit' (1 Cor. 12:13). Or receive this name of unity, with baptism at work, of him who says: 'And you shall be to me for sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty' (2 Cor. 6:18). Or take this: 'They were born of God' (John 1:14). And also this:

'And let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ' (Acts 2:38). And in another place: 'But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God' (1 Cor. 6:11). But that one is born of God, John testifies: 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become 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 1:11). Learn, therefore, that this united name is everlasting in the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:

just as there is also one baptism of faith, which grants eternal life to those who believe. For as there is one name in the nature of the Trinity, so too there is one gift through the baptism of the Godhead. The Apostle says: 'One faith, one baptism' (Eph. 4:5); and therefore, just as the name of the Father is in the Godhead, so this name is also of the Son in the nature of the Godhead, and likewise this same name is of the Holy Spirit in the substance of glory. For do you wish to know? When in the Godhead you name the name of the Father — that is, of God or of the Lord — or of the Spirit, you indicate in this the united name both of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, according to the very fullness of the divine nature, when you refer to it as united, you show that the name is in all these.

Indeed, here, with respect to the persons, the united name of the Godhead is for a little while passed over in silence. But when you run through the several persons in turn, you point out that their proper names are present. Hence it is necessary for us again to return to the things said above, to see whether anything can be added to or taken from the united name of the divine nature, that is, of the Trinity. Answer me. At this point all the opinions of the heretics are thrown into confusion. Moreover, where neither number, nor any difference whatever is found in the united fullness of the Godhead — of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit — there, in the Godhead, one is contained distinctly in the name of the other, and yet as one. Question: Explain to me, then, how three are one, or how one is three. Answer:

Remember that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three, who subsist in the one nature of the Trinity. Therefore three are one, or one is three. Question: Surely this Trinity is divided, or is it undivided? Tell me. Answer: Plainly it is divided only in the names of the persons, but in the Godhead it is undivided. Question: Tell me how unity is to be interpreted. Answer: Do you not know that there is one Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? Question: What is understood in this place by 'nature'? Answer: That which is perceived as truth, and deity, or substance, which the Greeks call ousia, which is manifestly the united fullness of the Godhead. Question: What is the one Trinity? Answer:

Surely, because there is one fullness of the Godhead in that very Trinity; thus the name of the one nature is declared to subsist as one in the Trinity, and this same Trinity is equally and perfectly demonstrated through the several names of the persons. Altogether, here it has now been briefly said what above was gathered with great care according to the manner of Scripture and the rule of the Catholic faith, namely, that just as you confess the Father to be in the Godhead, so you should profess the Son and the Holy Spirit to be. On the assumption of the man, against Marcellinus the heretic. Heretic: In what way do you confess that in one and the same Godhead there is one equality of the Son with the Father, since he himself bears witness concerning himself: 'He who sent me is greater than I' (John 14:28)? Athanasius:

Alas! If you understand it to have been said in this way, then in your view he is found to be contending against himself, since in another place he says: 'I and the Father are one' (John 10:30). What then? If he were lesser, ought he not to have refrained from comparing himself to the Father even in that everlasting nature? Or how, if he were unequal and in the very Godhead of divinity was not equal to the Father, does he say: 'He who sees me sees also my Father' (John 14:9)? For surely, if there were not in them one invisible image of the nature of truth, he would never at all have dared presumptuously to declare, 'He who sees me sees also my Father.' But hear the Apostle also speaking concerning Christ:

'Who, being in the form of God, did not count 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 as a man; he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross' (Phil. 2:6). Now he who is in the form of God cannot be lesser. I ask, how is the Father set above as greater than the Son, and the Son subordinated as lesser than the Father, when the form of God is one and perfect, and cannot be said to be in part equal and in part unequal in divinity? — for surely either he who is wholly equal, the whole in the whole, as is manifest among us; or he is not wholly the whole in the whole, but at the same time unequal in the whole, as among you.

Therefore choose for yourself one of the two: either there is in them one equality of the glory of the Godhead, or one inequality, since in his own form no one is greater or lesser. It is another matter if, against the authority of the most blessed Apostle, the teacher of the nations, you deny that Christ is the form of God the Father. But if he is his form, then his form cannot be incomparably greater; lest the Father be greater not than Christ, but than himself, because by you his form is said to be greater. Which can in no way come to pass, since no one is greater than himself. But lest perchance you also presume to say this, O Arian: 'The Father in the nature of the Godhead has no comparison equal to the form of the Son: no one is worthily to be compared to him.'

And why do you reject the gleaming eloquence of the Apostle Paul as he proclaims, saying: 'Christ, who, being in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God' (Phil. 2:6)? Or understand this, that no one is compared as equal in form to his very self, since equality of form cannot be spoken of in one person (the error of Sabellius), seeing that the united equality consists in both; and this united equality is not merely a concord in will, but rather in the Godhead, since this equal form is in no part divided. For where there is one equality, there is no diversity; or, where there is one equality, the one is not set before the other, nor preferred, nor subjected;

since the united equality is undivided, which is the fullness of the Godhead. Is it the case that, because we say the Father and the Son are equal in the Godhead, according to the evangelical and apostolic authority, we have therefore (O heretic) posited some measure of comparison to exist among them, since this united equality of the Godhead is incomparable? For concerning you, O God, I have perceived what I have said clearly enough, since concerning you, O God, one must believe and not define. For to me it is commanded to believe, not permitted to dispute. Therefore Christ is the form of God, or the true image of God the invisible Father, because there is in them one form and equality of glory; is it not written: 'In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily' (Col. 2:9)? If anything were lesser,

where all the fullness is? Or if anything is lacking, where the whole is full? Can it be that in him in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily — that is, so to speak, deitically — anything lesser can be found? Can you, O heretic, find that fullnesses, or godheads, or forms, or images, or equalities are spoken of in the plural number in these persons by the most holy Scripture, since the Godhead of these same is united? Can it be that as many designations as are spoken to the glory of the Godhead, there are also just so many kinds of diversity? God forbid. While all these things are declared to be said of the Godhead united in the substance of the divine being (ousia), this comes to bear on the question:

Is it the case that where there is the united fullness of the Godhead, there is in it a diverse or severed part, unequal in a part? Since fullness admits no part of diminution to be properly compared with itself, seeing that the form of God contains in itself all the fullness of the Godhead, that very sacrosanct undividedness of equality suffers no difference of majesty, as he himself testifies: 'I am in the Father, and the Father is in me' (John 14:10); and Isaiah too, confirming these things, says: 'For God is in you, and there is no God besides you; for you are God, and we knew it not, the God of Israel, a Saviour from God' (Isa. 45:14-15). Or to this hear the Apostle bearing witness: 'For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself' (2 Cor. 5:19).

Do you see that all the fullness of the Godhead of the Father is in the Son, and that the whole Son is in the Father? Therefore in these persons there is unity, an everlasting equality, because the Godhead is immeasurable, as the evangelist said: 'For this reason the Jews sought the more to kill him: because he not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God' (John 5:18). Or receive such a saying as this: 'You, being a man, make yourself equal with God' (John 10:33). And also this: 'That all may honour the Son, just as they honour the Father; for he who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him' (John 5:23). Know that in these persons there is one equal honour of the Godhead. Lastly, hear him himself crying out to the Father:

'All mine are yours, and yours are mine' (John 17:10). And in another place the same one repeats: 'All that the Father has is mine' (John 16:15). If you refer it to the Godhead, they are one; if you point to it as regards the working of creation, divine Scripture testifies that all these things were made as one. Or understand by this the evangelist John saying: 'Of his fullness we have all received, even grace for grace' (John 1:16). Which the Lord himself explained: 'For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills' (John 5:21). Or this: 'My Father works until now, and I work' (John 5:17). And in another place the same one indicates:

'For whatever the Father does, these the Son likewise also does' (John 5:19). Learn that this is one working in the nature of the Godhead, which grants eternal life to those who believe. And, 'No one comes to me unless the Father draw him' (John 6:44). And, 'No one goes to the Father except through me' (John 14:6). Learn that through the Son one goes to the Father, and from the Father one comes to the Son. Is it the case, as I have already said before, that he designated fullnesses in the plural number in this place, O heretic, since the fullness of the Godhead is united, which works the eternal way for those who believe?

Surely all we who believe have received of this very united fullness of the Father and of the Son, and indeed of the Holy Spirit, and it is always full, because nothing is lacking from the undivided Trinity of the Godhead. And through this there is one equality, which is the ineffable, everlasting brightness. Indeed, let us dwell longer on these matters, and let us make so prolix a discourse with carefully chosen excuse, so that, in setting forth the question of Arius, we may not seem to have fled as though quibbling. Lastly, let them hear Isaiah pronouncing this sentence against the dogmas of their iniquity:

'For the fool speaks foolish things, and his heart understands vain things, and he accomplishes iniquities, and speaks error against the Lord, to make empty the hungry souls, and he will make the thirsty souls empty. For he has wickedly devised an evil counsel to destroy the lowly with iniquitous words, and to scatter the words of the humble in judgement' (Isa. 32:6). But the godly have devised wisdom, and this counsel shall stand; whence it behooves us, refining and distinguishing all things according to the evangelical rule, to approach the matter of the contradicting opponent's thought in the saying above: 'He who sent me is greater than I' (John 14:28). Take note that this was said with regard to the assumed manhood, as it is written: