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44. In delivering the formula of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, our Lord did not connect the gift with number. He did
not say "into First, Second, and Third," nor yet "into one,
two, and three, but He gave us the boon of the knowledge of the faith
which leads to salvation, by means of holy names. So that what saves
us is our faith. Number has been devised as a symbol indicative of the
quantity of objects. But these men, who bring ruin on themselves from
every possible source, have turned even the capacity for counting
against the faith. Nothing else undergoes any change in consequence of
the addition of number, and yet these men in the case of the divine
nature pay reverence to number, lest they should exceed the limits of
the honour due to the Paraclete. But, O wisest sirs, let the
unapproachable be altogether above and beyond number, as the ancient
reverence of the Hebrews wrote the unutterable name of God in peculiar
characters, thus endeavouring to set forth its infinite excellence.
Count, if you must; but you must not by counting do damage to the
faith. Either let the ineffable be honoured by silence; or let holy
things be counted consistently with true religion. There is one God
and Father, one Only-begotten, and one Holy Ghost. We proclaim
each of the hypostases singly; and, when count we must, we do not let
an ignorant arithmetic carry us away to the idea of a plurality of
Gods.
45. For we do not count by way of addition, gradually making
increase from unity to multitude, and saying one, two, and
three,--nor yet first, second, and third. For "I," God,
"am the first, and I am the last." And hitherto we have never,
even at the present time, heard of a second God. Worshipping as we
do God of God, we both confess the distinction of the Persons, and
at the same time abide by the Monarchy. We do not fritter away the
theology in a divided plurality, because one Form, so to say, united
in the invariableness of the Godhead, is beheld in God the Father,
and in God the Only begotten. For the Son is in the Father and the
Father in the Son; since such as is the latter, such is the former,
and such as is the former, such is the latter; and herein is the
Unity. So that according to the distinction of Persons, both are
one and one, and according to the community of Nature, one. How,
then, if one and one, are there not two Gods? Because we speak of a
king, and of the king's image, and not of two kings. The majesty is
not cloven in two, nor the glory divided. The sovereignty and
authority over us is one, and so the doxology ascribed by us is not
plural but one; because the honour paid to the image passes on to the
prototype. Now what in the one case the image is by reason of
imitation, that in the other case the Son is by nature; and as in
works of art the likeness is dependent on the form, so in the case or
the divine and uncompounded nature the union consists in the communion
of the Godhead. One, moreover, is the Holy Spirit, and we speak
of Him singly, conjoined as He is to the one Father through the one
Son, and through Himself completing the adorable and blessed
Trinity. Of Him the intimate relationship to the Father and the
Son is sufficiently declared by the fact of His not being ranked in
the plurality of the creation, but being spoken of singly; for he is
not one of many, but One. For as there is one Father and one Son,
so is there one Holy Ghost. He is consequently as far removed from
created Nature as reason requires the singular to be removed from
compound and plural bodies; and He is in such wise united to the
Father and to the Son as unit has affinity with unit.
46. And it is not from this source alone that our proofs of the
natural communion are derived, but from the fact that He is moreover
said to be "of God;" not indeed in the sense in which "all things
are of God," but in the sense of proceeding out of God, not by
generation, like the Son, but as Breath of His mouth. But in no
way is the "mouth" a member, nor the Spirit breath that is
dissolved; but the word "mouth" is used so far as it can be
appropriate to God, and the Spirit is a Substance having life,
gifted with supreme power of sanctification. Thus the dose relation is
made plain, while the mode of the ineffable existence is safeguarded.
He is moreover styled 'Spirit of Christ,' as being by nature
closely related to Him. Wherefore "If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His." Hence He alone worthily glorifies
the Lord, for, it is said, "He shall glorify me," not as the
creature, but as "Spirit of truth," dearly shewing forth the truth
in Himself, and, as Spirit of wisdom, in His own greatness
revealing "Christ the Power of God and the wisdom of God." And
as Paraclete He expresses in Himself the goodness of the Paraclete
who sent Him, and in His own dignity manifests the majesty of Him
from whom He proceeded. There is then on the one hand a natural
glory, as light is the glory of the sun; and on the other a glory
bestowed judicially and of free will 'ab extra' on them that are
worthy. The latter is twofold. "A son," it is said, "honoureth
his father, and a servant his master." Of these two the one, the
servile, is given by the creature; the other, which may be called the
intimate, is fulfilled by the Spirit. For, as our Lord said of
Himself, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the
work which thou gavest me to do;" so of the Paraclete He says "He
shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it
unto you." And as the Son is glorified of the Father when He says
"I have both glorified it and will glorify it again," so is the
Spirit glorified through His communion with both Father and Son,
and through the testimony of the Only-begotten when He says "All
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men."
47. And when, by means of the power that enlightens us, we fix our
eyes on the beauty of the image of the invisible God, and through the
image are led up to the supreme beauty of the spectacle of the
archetype, then, I ween, is with us inseparably the Spirit of
knowledge, in Himself bestowing on them time love the vision of the
truth the power of beholding the Image, not making the exhibition from
without, but in Himself leading on to the full knowledge. "No man
knoweth the Father save the Son." And so "no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord but by th Holy Ghost." For it is not said
through the Spirit, but by the Spirit, and "God is a spirit, and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," as
it is written "in thy light shall we see light," namely by the
illumination of the Spirit, "the true light which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world." It results that in Himself He shows
the glory of the Only begotten, and on true worshippers He in
Himself bestows the knowledge of God. Thus the way of the knowledge
of God lies from One Spirit through the One Son to the One
Father, and conversely the natural Goodness and the inherent
Holiness and the royal Dignity extend from the Father through the
Only-begotten to the Spirit. Thus there is both acknowledgment of
the hypostases and the true dogma of the Monarchy is not lost. They
on the other hand who support their sub-numeration by talking of first
and second and third ought to be informed that into the undefiled
theology of Christians they are importing the polytheism of heathen
error. No other result can be achieved by the fell device of
sub-numeration than the confession of a first, a second, and a third
God. For us is sufficient the order prescribed by the Lord. He who
confuses this order will be no less guilty of transgressing the law than
are the impious heathen.
Enough has been now said to prove, in contravention of their error,
that the communion of Nature is in no wise dissolved by the manner of
sub-numeration. Let us, however, make a concession to our
contentious and feeble minded adversary, and grant that what is second
to anything is spoken of in sub-numeration to it. Now let us see what
follows. "The first man "it is said "is of the earth earthy, the
second man is the Lord from heaven." Again "that was not first
which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterward that which is
spiritual." If then the second is subnumerated to the first, and the
subnumerated is inferior in dignity to that to which it was
subnumerated, according to you the spiritual is inferior in honour to
the natural, and the heavenly man to the earthy.
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