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48. But because it is most difficult to distinguish generation from
procession in that co-eternal, and equal, and incorporeal, and
ineffably unchangeable and indivisible Trinity, let it suffice
meanwhile to put before those who are not able to be drawn on further,
what we said upon this subject in a sermon to be delivered in the ears
of Christian people, and after saying wrote it down. For when,
among other things, I had taught them by testimonies of the Holy
Scriptures that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both, I continue:
"If, then, the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and from
the Son, why did the Son say, 'He proceedeth from the Father?'
" Why, think you, except as He is wont to refer to Him, that also
which is His own, from whom also He Himself is? Whence also is
that which He saith, "My doctrine is not mine own, but His that
sent me?" If, therefore, it is His doctrine that is here
understood, which yet He said was not His own, but His that sent
Him, how much more is it there to be understood that the Holy Spirit
proceeds also from Himself, where He so says, He proceedeth from
the Father, as not to say, He proceedeth not from me? From Him,
certainly, from whom the Son had his Divine nature, for He is God
of God, He has also, that from Him too proceeds the Holy Spirit;
and hence the Holy Spirit has from the Father Himself, that He
should proceed from the Son also, as He proceeds from the Father.
Here, too, in some way may this also be understood, so far as it can
be understood by such as we are, why the Holy Spirit is not said to
be born, but rather to proceed; since if He, too, was called a
Son, He would certainly be called the Son of both, which is most
absurd, since no one is son of two, save of father and mother. But
far be it from us to surmise any such thing as this between God the
Father and God the Son. Because not even the son of men proceeds at
the same time from both father and mother; but when he proceeds from
the father into the mother, he does not at that time proceed from the
mother; and when he proceeds from the mother into this present light,
he does not at that time proceed from the father. But the Holy
Spirit does not proceed from the Father into the Son, and from the
Son proceed to sanctify the creature, but proceeds at once from both;
although the Father has given this to the Son, that He should
proceed, as from Himself, so also from Him. For we cannot say that
the Holy Spirit is not life, while the Father is life, and the Son
is life: and hence as the Father, while He has life in Himself,
has given also to the Son to have life in Himself; so has He given
also to Him that life should proceed from Him, as it also proceeds
from Himself." I have transferred this from that sermon into this
book, but I was speaking to believers, not to unbelievers.
49. But if they are not competent to gaze upon this image, and to
see how true these things are which are in their mind, and yet which
are not so three as to be three persons, but all three belong to a man
who is one person; why do they not believe what they find in the sacred
books respecting that highest Trinity which is God, rather than
insist on the clearest reason being rendered them, which cannot be
comprehended by the human mind, dull and infirm as it is? And to be
sure, when they have steadfastly believed the Holy Scriptures as most
true witnesses, let them strive, by praying and seeking and living
well, that they may understand, i.e. that so far as it can be seen,
that may be seen by the mind which is held fast by faith. Who would
forbid this? Nay, who would not rather exhort them to it? But if
they think they ought to deny that these things are, because they,
with their blind minds, cannot discern them, they, too, who are
blind from their birth, ought to deny that there is a sun. The light
then shineth in darkness; but if the darkness comprehend it not, let
them first be illuminated by the gift of God, that they may be
believers, and let them begin to be light in comparison with the
unbelievers; and when this foundation is first laid, let them be built
up to see what they believe, that at some time they may be able to
see. For some things are so believed, that they cannot be seen at
all. For Christ is not to be seen a second time on the cross; but
unless this be believed which has been so done and seen, that it is not
now to be hoped for as about to be and to be seen, there is no coming
to Christ, such as without end He is to be seen. But as far as
relates to the discerning in some way by the understanding that
highest, ineffable, incorporeal, and unchangeable nature the sight of
the human mind can nowhere better exercise itself, so only that the
rule of faith govern it, than in that which man himself has in his own
nature better than the other animals, better also than the other parts
of his own soul, which is the mind itself, to which has been assigned
a certain sight of things invisible, and to which, as though honorably
presiding in a higher and inner place, the bodily senses also bring
word of all things, that they may be judged, and than which there is
no higher, to which it is to be subject, and by which it is to be
governed, except God.
50. But among these many things which I have now said, and of
which there is nothing that I dare to profess myself to have said
worthy of the ineffableness of that highest Trinity, but rather to
confess that the wonderful knowledge of Him is too great for me, and
that I cannot attain to it: O thou, my soul, where dost thou feel
thyself to be? where dost thou lie? where dost thou stand? until all
thy infirmities be healed by Him who has forgiven all thy iniquities.
Thou perceivest thyself assuredly to be in that inn whither that
Samaritan brought him Whom he found with many wounds inflicted by
thieves, half-dead. And yet thou hast seen many things that are
true, not by those eyes by which colored objects are seen, but by
those for which he prayed who said, "Let mine eyes behold the things
that are equal."
Certainly, then, thou hast seen many things that are true, and hast
distinguished them from that light by the light of which thou hast seen
them.
Lift up thine eyes to the light itself, and fix them upon it if thou
canst.
For so thou wilt see how the birth of the Word of God differs from
the procession of the Gift of God, on account of which the
only-begotten Son did not say that the Holy Spirit is begotten of
the Father, otherwise He would be His brother, but that lie
proceeds from Him. Whence, since the Spirit of both is a kind of
consubstantial communion of Father and Son, He is not called, far
be it from us to say so, the Son of both. But thou canst not fix thy
sight there, so as to discern this lucidly and clearly; I know thou
canst not. I say the truth, I say to myself, I know what I cannot
do; yet that light itself shows to thee these three things in thyself,
wherein thou mayest recognize an image of the highest Trinity itself,
which thou canst not yet contemplate with steady eye. Itself shows to
thee that there is in thee a true word, when it is born of thy
knowledge, i.e. when we say what we know: although we neither utter
nor think of any articulate word that is significant in any tongue of
any nation, but our thought is formed by that which we know; and there
is in the mind's eye of the thinker an image resembling that thought
which the memory contained, will or love as a third combining these two
as parent and offspring. And he who can, sees and discerns that this
will proceeds indeed from thought (for no one wills that of which he is
absolutely ignorant what or of what sort it is), yet is not an image
of the thought: and so that there is insinuated in this intelligible
thing a sort of difference between birth and procession, since to
behold by thought is not the same as to desire, or even to enjoy will.
Thou, too, hast been able [to discern this], although thou hast
not been, neither art, able to unfold with adequate speech what,
amidst the clouds of bodily likenesses, which cease not to flit up and
down before human thoughts, thou hast scarcely seen. But that light
which is not thyself shows thee this too, that these incorporeal
likenesses of bodies are different from the truth, which, by rejecting
them, we contemplate with the understanding.
These, and other things similarly certain, that light hath shown to
thine inner eyes. What reason, then, is there why thou canst not see
that light itself with steady eye, except certainly infirmity? And
what has produced this in thee, except iniquity? Who, then, is it
that healeth all thine infirmities, unless it be He that forgiveth all
thine iniquities? And therefore I will now at length finish this book
by a prayer better than by an argument.
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