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14. The Father is called so, therefore, relatively, and He is
also relatively said to be the Beginning, and whatever else there may
be of the kind; but He is called the Father in relation to the Son,
the Beginning in relation to all things, which are from Him. So the
Son is relatively so called; He is called also relatively the Word
and the Image. And in all these appellations He is referred to the
Father, but the Father is called by none of them. And the Son is
also called the Beginning; for when it was said to Him, "Who art
Thou?" He replied, "Even the Beginning, who also speak to
you." But is He, pray, the Beginning of the Father? For He
intended to show Himself to be the Creator when He said that He was
the Beginning, as the Father also is the beginning of the creature in
that all things are from Him. For creator, too, is spoken
relatively to creature, as master to servant. And so when we say,
both that the Father is the Beginning, and that the Son is the
Beginning, we do not speak of two beginnings of the creature; since
both the Father and the Son together is one beginning in respect to
the creature, as one Creator, as one God. But if whatever remains
within itself and produces or Works anything is a beginning to that
thing which it produces or works; then we cannot deny that the Holy
Spirit also is rightly called the Beginning, since we do not separate
Him from the appellation of Creator: and it is written of Him that
He works; and assuredly, in working, He remains within Himself;
for He Himself is not changed and turned into any of the things which
He works. And see what it is that He works: "But the
manifestation of the Spirit," he says, "is given to every man to
profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom;
to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith
by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same
Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to
another the discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues;
to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that
one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He
will;" certainly as God for who can work such great things but God?
but "it is the same God which worketh all in all." For if we are
asked point by point concerning the Holy Spirit, we answer most truly
that He is God; and with the Father and the Son together He is one
God. Therefore, God is spoken of as one Beginning in respect to
the creature, not as two or three beginnings.
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