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11. A certain writer, when he would briefly intimate the special
attributes of each of the persons in the Trinity, tells us that
"Eternity is in the Father, form in the Image, use in the
Gift." And since he was a man of no mean authority in handling the
Scriptures, and in the assertion of the faith, for it is Hilary who
put this in his book (On the Trinity, ii.); I have searched into
the hidden meaning of these words as far as I can, that is, of the
Father, and the Image, and the Gift, of eternity, and of form,
and of use. And I do not think that he intended more by the word eter
nity, than that the Father has not a father from whom He is; but the
Son is from the Father, so as to be, and so as to be co-eternal
with Him. For if an image perfectly fills the measure of that of
which it is the image, then the image is made equal to that of which it
is the image, not the latter to its own image. And in respect to this
image he has named form, I believe on account of the quality of
beauty, where there is at once such great fitness, and prime
equality, and prime likeness, differing in nothing, and unequal in no
respect, and in no part unlike, but answering exactly to Him whose
image it is: where there is prime and absolute life, to whom it is not
one thing to live, and another to be, but the same thing to be and to
live; and prime and absolute intellect, to whom it is not one thing to
live, another to understand, but to understand is to live, and is to
be, and all things are one: as though a perfect Word (John i.
I), to which nothing is wanting, and a certain skill of the
omnipotent and wise God, full of all living, unchangeable sciences,
and all one in it, as itself is one from one, with whom it is one.
Therein God knew all things which He made by it; and therefore,
while times pass away and succeed, nothing passes away or succeeds to
the knowledge of God. For things which are created are not therefore
known by God, because they have been made; and not rather have been
therefore made, even although changeable, because they are known
unchangeably by Him. Therefore that unspeakable conjunction of the
Father and His image is not without fruition, without love, without
joy. Therefore that love, delight, felicity, or blessedness, if
indeed it can be worthily expressed by any human word, is called by
him, in short, Use; and is the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, not
begotten, but the sweetness of the begetter and of the begotten,
filling all creatures according to their capacity with abundant
bountifulness and copiousness, that they may keep their proper order
and rest satisfied in their proper place.
12. Therefore all these things which are made by divine skill, show
in themselves a certain unity, and form, and order; for each of them
is both some one thing, as are the several natures of bodies and
dispositions of souls; and is fashioned in some form, as are the
figures or qualities of bodies, and the various learning or skill of
souls; and seeks or preserves a certain order, as are the several
weights or combinations of bodies and the loves or delights of souls.
When therefore we regard the Creator, who is understood by the things
that are made we must needs understand the Trinity of whom there appear
traces in the creature, as is fitting. For in that Trinity is the
supreme source of all things, and the most perfect beauty, and the
most blessed delight. Those three, therefore, both seem to be
mutually determined to each other, and are in themselves infinite.
But here in corporeal things, one thing alone is not as much as three
together, and two are something more than one; but in that highest
Trinity one is as much as the three together, nor are two anything
more than one. And They are infinite in themselves. So both each
are in each, and all in each, and each in all, and all in all, and
all are one. Let him who sees this, whether in part, or "through a
glass and in an enigma," rejoice in knowing God; and let him honor
Him as God, and give thanks; but let him who does not see it,
strive to see it through piety, not to cavil at it through blindness.
Since God is one, but yet is a Trinity. Neither are we to take the
words, "of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things," as
used indiscriminately [i.e., to denote a unity without
distinctions]; nor yet to denote many gods, for "to Him, be glory
for ever and ever. Amen."
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