CHAPTER I.
That the Deity is incomprehensible,
and that we ought not to pry into and meddle with tire
things which have not been delivered to us by the holy
Prophets, and Apostles, and Evangelists.
No one hath seen God at any time; the
Only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He
hath declared Him(1). The Deity, therefore, is ineffable
and incomprehensible. For no one knoweth the Father, save
the Son, nor the Son, save the Father(2). And the Holy
Spirit, too, so knows the things of God as the spirit of
the man knows the things that are in him(3). Moreover,
after the first and blessed nature no one, not of men
only, but even of supramundane powers, and the Cherubim, I
say, and Seraphim themselves, has ever known God, save he
to whom He revealed Himself.
God, however, did not leave us in
absolute ignorance. For the knowledge of God's existence
has been implanted by Him in all by nature. This creation,
too, and its maintenance, and its government, proclaim the
majesty of the Divine nature(4). Moreover, by the Law and
the Prophets(5) in former times and afterwards by His
Only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus
Christ, He disclosed to us the knowledge of Himself as
that was possible for us. All things, therefore, that have
been delivered to us by Law and Prophets and Apostles and
Evangelists we receive, and know, and honour(6), seeking
for nothing beyond these. For God, being good, is the
cause of all good, subject neither to envy nor to any
passion(7). For envy is far removed from the Divine
nature, which is both passionless and only good. As
knowing all things, therefore, and providing for what is
profitable for each, He revealed that which it was to our
profit to know; but what we were unable(8) to bear He kept
secret. With these things let us be satisfied, and let us
abide by them, not removing everlasting boundaries, nor
overpassing the divine tradition(9).
CHAPTER II.
Concerning things utterable and
things unutterable, and things knowable and thinks
unknowable.
It is necessary, therefore, that one
who wishes to speak or to hear of God should understand
clearly that alike in the doctrine of Deity and in that of
the Incarnation(1), neither are all things unutterable nor
all utterable; neither all unknowable nor all knowable(2).
But the knowable belongs to one order, and the utterable
to another; just as it is one thing to speak and another
thing to know. Many of the things relating to God,
therefore, that are dimly understood cannot be put into
fitting terms, but on things above us we cannot do else
than express ourselves according to our limited capacity;
as, for instance, when we speak of God we use the terms
sleep, and wrath, and regardlessness, hands, too, and
feet, land such like expressions.
We, therefore, both know and confess
that God is without beginning, without end, eternal and
everlasting, uncreate, unchangeable, invariable, simple,
uncompound, incorporeal, invisible, impalpable,
uncircumscribed, infinite, incognisable, indefinable,
incomprehensible, good, just, maker of all things created,
almighty, all-ruling, all-surveying, of all overseer,
sovereign, judge; and that God is One, that is to say, one
essences; and that He is known(4), and has His being in
three subsistences, in Father, I say, and Son and Holy
Spirit; and that the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit are one in all respects, except in that of not
being begotten, that of being begotten, and that of
procession; and that the Only-begotten Son and Word of God
and God, in His bowels of mercy, for our salvation, by the
good pleasure of God and the co-operation of the Holy
Spirit, being conceived without seed, was born
uncorruptedly of the Holy Virgin and Mother of God, Mary,
by the Holy Spirit, and became of her perfect Man; and
that the Same is at once perfect God and perfect Man, of
two natures, Godhead and Manhood, and in two natures
possessing intelligence, will and energy, and freedom,
and, in a word, perfect according to the measure and
proportion proper to each, at once to the divinity, I say,
and to the humanity, yet to one composite persons(5); and
that He suffered hunger and thirst and weariness, and was
crucified, and for three days submitted to the experience
of death and burial, and ascended to heaven, from which
also He came to us, and shall come again. And the Holy
Scripture is witness to this and the whole choir of the
Saints.
But neither do we know, nor can we
tell, what the essence(6) of God is, or how it is in all,
or how the Only-begotten Son and God, having emptied
Himself, became Man of virgin blood, made by another law
contrary to nature, or how He walked with dry feet upon
the waters(7). It is not within our capacity, therefore,
to say anything about God or even to think of Him, beyond
the things which have been divinely revealed to us,
whether by word or by manifestation, by the divine oracles
at once of the Old Testament and of the New(8).
CHAPTER III.
Proof that there is a God.
That there is a God, then, is no matter
of doubt to those who receive the Holy Scriptures, the Old
Testament, I mean, and the New; nor indeed to most of the
Greeks. For, as we said(9), the knowledge of the existence
of God is implanted in us by nature. But since the
wickedness of the Evil One has prevailed so mightily
against man's nature as even to drive some into denying
the existence of God, that most foolish and woe-fulest pit
of destruction (whose folly David, revealer of the Divine
meaning, exposed when he said(9), The fool said in his
heart, There is no God), so the disciples of the Lord and
His Apostles, made wise by the Holy Spirit and working
wonders in His power and grace, took them captive in the
net of miracles and drew them up out of the depths of
ignorance(1) to the light of the knowledge of God. In like
manner also their successors in grace and worth, both
pastors and teachers, having received the enlightening
grace of the Spirit, were wont, alike by the power of
miracles and the word of grace, to enlighten those walking
in darkness and to bring back the wanderers into the way.
But as for us who(2) are not recipients either of the gift
of miracles or the gift of teaching (for indeed we have
rendered ourselves unworthy of these by our passion for
pleasure), come, let us in connection with this theme
discuss a few of those things which have been delivered to
us on this subject by the expounders of grace, calling on
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All things, that exist, are either
created or uncreated. If, then, things are created, it
follows that they are also wholly mutable. For things,
whose existence originated in change, must also be subject
to change, whether it be that they perish or that they
become other than they are by act of wills. But if things
are uncreated they must in all consistency be also wholly
immutable. For things which are opposed in the nature of
their existence must also be opposed in the mode of their
existence, that is to say, must have opposite properties:
who, then, will refuse to grant that all existing things,
not only such as come within the province of the senses,
but even the very angels, are subject to change and
transformation and movement of various kinds? For the
things appertaining to the rational world, I mean angels
and spirits and demons, are subject to changes of will,
whether it is a progression or a retrogression in
goodness, whether a struggle or a surrender; while the
others suffer changes of generation and destruction, of
increase and decrease, of quality and of movement in
space. Things then that are mutable are also wholly
created. But things that are created must be the work of
some maker, and the maker cannot have been created. For if
he had been created, he also must surely have been created
by some one, and so on till we arrive at something
uncreated. The Creator, then, being uncreated, is also
wholly immutable. And what could this be other than Deity?
And even the very continuity of the
creation, and its preservation and gover, teach us that
there does exist a Deity, who supports and maintains and
preserves and ever provides for this universe. For how(4)
could opposite natures, such as fire and water, air and
earth, have combined with each other so as to form one
complete world, and continue to abide in indissoluble
union, were there not some omnipotent power which bound
them together and always is preserving them from
dissolution?
What is it that gave order to things of
heaven and things of earth, and all those things that move
in the air and in the water, or rather to what was in
existence before these, viz., to heaven and earth and air
and the elements of fire and water? What(5) was it that
mingled and distributed these? What was it that set these
in motion and keeps them in their unceasing and unhindered
course(6)? Was it not the Artificer of these things, and
He Who hath implanted in everything the law whereby the
universe is carried on and directed? Who then is the
Artificer of these things? Is it not He Who created them
and brought them into existence. For we shall not
attribute such a power to the spontaneous(7). For,
supposing their coming into existence was due to the
spontaneous; what of the power that put all in orders(8) ?
And let us grant this, if you please. What of that which
has preserved and kept them in harmony with the original
laws of their existence(9) ? Clearly it is something quite
distinct from the spontaneous(1).And what could this be
other than Deity(2) ?
CHAPTER IV.
Concerning the nature of Deity: that it
is incomprehensible.
It is plain, then, that there is a God.
But what He is in His essence anti nature is absolutely
incomprehensible and unknowable. For it is evident that He
is incorporeal(3). For how could that possess body which
is infinite, and boundless, and formless, and intangible
and invisible, in short, simple and not compound? How
could that be immutable(4) which is circumscribed and
subject to passion? And how could that be passionless
which is composed of elements and is resolved again into
them? For combination(5) is the beginning of conflict, and
conflict of separation, and separation of dissolution, and
dissolution is altogether foreign to God(6).
Again, how will it also be
maintained(7) that God permeates and fills the universe?
as the Scriptures say, Do not I fill heaven and earth,
saith the Lords(8)? For it is an impossibility(9) that one
body should permeate other bodies without dividing and
being divided, and without being enveloped and contrasted,
in the same way as all fluids mix and commingle.
But if some say that the body is
immaterial, in thee same way as the fifth body(1) of which
the Greek philosophers speak (which body is an
impossibility), it will be wholly subject to motion like
the heaven. For that is what they mean by the fifth body.
Who then is it that moves it? For everything that is moved
is moved by another thing. And who again is it that moves
that? and so on to infinity till we at length arrive at
something motionless. For the first mover is motionless,
and that is the Deity. And must not that which is moved be
circumscribed in space? The Deity, then, alone is
motionless, moving the universe by immobility(2). So then
it must be assumed that the Deity is incorporeal.
But even this gives no true idea of His
essence, to say that He is unbegotten, and without
beginning, changeless and imperishable, and possessed of
such other qualities as we are wont to ascribe to God and
His environments. For these do not indicate what He is,
but what He is not(4). But when we would explain what the
essence of anything is, we must not speak only negatively.
In the case of God, however, it is impossible to explain
what He is in His essence, and it befits us the rather to
hold discourse about His absolute separation from all
things(5). For He does not belong to the class of existing
things: not that He has no existence(6), but that He is
above all existing things, nay even above existence
itself. For if all forms of knowledge have to do with what
exists, assuredly that which is above knowledge must
certainly be also above essence(7): and, conversely, that
which is above essence(7) will also be above knowledge.
God then is infinite and
incomprehensible and all that is comprehensible about Him
is His infinity and incomprehensibility. But all that we
can affirm concerning God does not shew forth God's
nature, but only the qualities of His nature(8). For when
you speak of Him as good, and just, and wise, and so
forth, you do not tell God's nature but only the qualities
of His nature(9). Further there are some affirmations
which we make concerning God which have the force of
absolute negation: for example, when we use the term
darkness, in reference to God, we do not mean darkness
itself, but that He is not light but above light: and when
we speak of Him as light, we mean that He is not darkness.
CHAPTER V.
Proof that God is one and not many.
We have, then, adequately demonstrated
that there is a God, and that His essence is
incomprehensible. But that God is one(1) and not many is
no matter of doubt to those who believe in the Holy
Scriptures. For the Lord says in the beginning of the Law:
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt. Thou shall have no other Gods before Me(2).
And again He says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one
Lord(3). And in Isaiah the prophet we read For I am the
first God and I am the last and beside Me there is no God.
Before Me there was not any God, nor after Me will there
be any God, and beside Me there is no God(4). And the
Lord, too, in the holy gospels speaketh these words to His
Father, And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee
the only true God(5). But with those that do not believe
in the Holy Scriptures we will reason thus.
The Deity is perfect(6), and without
blemish in goodness, and wisdom, and power, without
beginning, without end, everlasting, uncircumscribed(7),
and in short, perfect in all things. Should we say, then,
that there are many Gods, we must recognise difference
among the many. For if there is no difference among them,
they are one rather than many. But if there is difference
among them, what becomes of the perfectness? For that
which comes short of perfection, whether it be in
goodness, or power, or wisdom, or time, or place, could
not be God. But it is this very identity in all respects
that shews that the Deity is one and not many(8).
Again, if there are many Gods, how can
one maintain that God is uncircumscribed? For where the
one would be, the other could not be(9).
Further, how could the world be
governed by many and saved from dissolution and
destruction, while strife is seen to rage between the
rulers? For difference introduces strife(1). And if any
one should say that each rules over a part, what of that
which established this order and gave to each his
particular realm? For this would the rather be God.
Therefore, God is one, perfect, uncircumscribed, maker of
the universe, and its preserver and governor, exceeding
and preceding all perfection.
Moreover, it is a natural necessity
that duality should originate in unity(2).
CHAPTER VI.
Concerning the Word and the Son of God:
a reasoned proof.
So then this one and only God is not
Wordless(3). And possessing the Word, He will have it not
as without a subsistence, nor as having had a beginning,
nor as destined to cease to be. For there never was a time
when God was not Word: but He ever possesses His own Word,
begotten of Himself, not, as our word is, without a
subsistence and dissolving into air, but having a
subsistence in Him and life and perfection, not proceeding
out of Himself but ever existing within Himself(4). For
where could it be, if it were to go outside Him? For
inasmuch as our nature is perishable and easily dissolved,
our word is also without subsistence. But since God is
everlasting and perfect, He will have His Word subsistent
in Him, and everlasting trod living, and possessed of all
the attributes of the Begetter. For just as our word,
proceeding as it floes out of the mind, is nwholly
identical with the mind nor utterly diverse from it (for
so far as it proceeds out of the mind it is different from
it, while so far as it reveals the mind, it is no longer
absolutely diverse from the mind, but being one in nature
with the mind, it is yet to the subject diverse from it),
so in the same manner also the Word of Gods in its
independent subsistence is differentiated(6) froth Him
from Whom it derives its subsistence(7): but inasmuch as
it displays in itself the same attributes as are seen in
God, it is of the same nature as God. For just as absolute
perfection is contemplated in the Father, so also is it
contemplated in the Word that is begotten of Him.
CHAPTER VII.
Concerning the Holy Spirit, a reasoned
proof.
Moreover the Word must also possess
Spirit(8). For in fact even our word is not destitute of
spirit; but in our case the spirit is something different
from our essence(9). For there is an attraction and
movement of the air which is drawn in and poured forth
that the body may be sustained. And it is this which in
the moment of utterance becomes the articulate word,
revealing in itself the force of the word(1).(2) But in
the case of the divine nature, which is simple and
uncompound, we must confess in all piety that there exists
a Spirit of God, for the Word is not more imperfect than
our own word. Now we cannot, in piety, consider the Spirit
to be something foreign that gains admission into God from
without, as is the case with compound natures like us.
Nay, just as, when we heard(3) of the Word of God, we
considered it to be not without subsistence, nor the
product of learning, nor the mere utterance of voice, nor
as passing into the air and perishing, but as being
essentially subsisting, endowed with free volition, and
energy, and omnipotence: so also, when we have learnt
about the Spirit of God, we contemplate it as the
companion of the Word and the revealer of His energy, and
not as mere breath without subsistence. For to conceive of
the Spirit that dwells in God as after the likeness of our
own spirit, would be to drag down the greatness of the
divine nature to the lowest depths of degradation. But we
must contemplate it as an essential power, existing in its
own proper and peculiar subsistence, proceeding from the
Father anti resting in the Word(4), and shewing forth the
Word, neither capable of disjunction from God in Whom it
exists, and the Word Whose companion it is, nor poured
forth to vanish into nothingness(5), but being in
subsistence in the likeness of the Word, endowed with
life, free volition, independent movement, energy, ever
willing that which is good, and having power to keep pace
with the will in all its decrees(6), having no beginning
and no end. For never was the Father at any time lacking
in the Word, nor the Word in the Spirit.
Thus because of the unity in nature,
the error of the Greeks in holding that God is many, is
utterly destroyed: and again by our acceptance of the Word
and the Spirit, the dogma of the Jews is overthrown: and
there remains of each party(7) only what is profitable(8).
On the one hand of the Jewish idea we have the unity of
God's nature, anti on the other, of the Greek, we have the
distinction in subsistences and that only(9).
But should the Jew refuse to accept the
Word and the Spirit, let the divine Scripture confute him
and curb his tongue. For concerning the Word, the divine
David says, For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in
heaven(1). And again , He sent His Word and healed
them(2). But the word that is uttered is not sent, nor is
it for ever settled(3). And concerning the Spirit, the
same David says, Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are
created(4). And again, By the word of the Lord were the
heavens made: and all the host of them by the breath of
His mouth(5). Job, too, says, The Spirit of God hath made
me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life(6).
Now the Spirit which is sent and makes and stablishes and
conserves, is not mere breath that dissolves, any more
than the mouth of God is a bodily member. For the
conception of both must be such as harmonizes with the
Divine nature(7).
CHAPTER VIII.
Concerning the Holy Trinity.
We believe, then, in One God, one
beginning(8), having no beginning, uncreate, unbegotten,
imperishable and immortal, everlasting, infinite,
uncircumscribed, boundless, of infinite power, simple,
uncompound, incorporeal, without flux, passionless,
unchangeable, unalterable, unseen, the fountain of
goodness and justice, the light of the mind, inaccessible;
a power known by no measure, measurable only by His own
will alone (for all things that He wills He can(9)),
creator of all created things, seen or unseen, of all the
maintainer and preserver, for all the provider, master and
lord and king over all, with an endless and immortal
kingdom: having no contrary, filling all, by nothing
encompassed, but rather Himself the encompasser and
maintainer and original possessor of the universe,
occupying(1) all essences intact(2) and extending beyond
all things, and being separate from all essence as being
super-essential(3) and above all things and absolute God,
absolute goodness, and absolute fulness(4): determining
all sovereignties and ranks, being placed above all
sovereignty and rank, above essence and life and word and
thought: being Himself very light and goodness and life
and essence, inasmuch as He does not derive His being from
another, that is to say, of those things that exist: but
being Himself the fountain of being to all that is, of
life to the living, of reason to those that have reason;
to all the cause of all good: perceiving all things even
before they have become: one essence, one divinity, one
power, one will, one energy, one beginning, one authority,
one dominion, one sovereignty, made known in three perfect
subsistences anti adored with one adoration, believed in
and ministered to by all rational creation(5), united
without confusion and divided without separation (which
indeed transcends thought). (We believe) in Father and Son
and Holy Spirit whereinto also we have been baptized(6).
For so our Lord commanded the Apostles to baptize, saying,
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit(7).
(We believe) in one Father, the
beginning(8), and cause of all: begotten of no one:
without cause or generation, alone subsisting: creator of
all: but Father of one only by nature, His Only-begotten
Son and our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and
Producer(9) of the most Holy Spirit. And in one Son of
God, the Only-begotten, our Lord, Jesus Christ: begotten
of the Father, before all the ages: Light of Light, true
God of true God: begotten, not made, consubstantial with
the Father, through Whom all things are made: and when we
say He was before all the ages we shew that His birth is
without time or beginning: for the Son of God was not
brought into being out of nothing(1), He that is the
effulgence of the glory, the impress of the Father's
subsistence(2), the living wisdom and power(3), the Word
possessing interior subsistence(4), the essential and
perfect and living image s of the unseen God. But always
He was with the Father and in Him(6), everlastingly and
without beginning begotten of Him. For there never was a
time when the Father was and the Son was not, but always
the Father and always the Son, Who was begotten of Him,
existed together. For He could not have received the name
Father apart from the Son: for if He were without the
Son(7), He could not be the Father: and if He thereafter
had the Son, thereafter He became the Father, not having
been the Father prior to this, and He was changed from
that which was not the Father and became the Father. This
is the worst form of blasphemy(8). For we may not speak of
God as destitute of natural generative power: and
generative power means, the power of producing from one's
self, that is to say, from one's own proper essence, that
which is like in nature to one's self(9).
In treating, then, of the generation of
the Son, it is an act of impiety(1) to say that time comes
into play and that the existence of the Son is later
origin than the Father. For we hold that it is from Him,
that is, from the Father's nature, that the Son is
generated. And unless we grant that the Son co-existed
from the beginning with the Father, by Whom He was
begotten, we introduce change into the Father's
subsistence, because, not being the Father, He
subsequently became the Father(2). For the creation, even
though it originated later, is nevertheless not derived
from the essence of God, but is brought into existence out
of nothing by His will and power, and change does not
touch God's nature. For generation means that the begetter
produces out of his essence offspring similar in essence.
But creation and making mean that the creator and maker
produces from that which is external, and not out of his
own essence, a creation of an absolutely dissimilar
nature(3).
Wherefore in God, Who alone is
passionless and unalterable, and immutable, and ever so
continueth, both begetting and creating are
passionless(4). For being by nature passionless and not
liable to flux, since He is simple and uncompound, He is
not subject to passion or flux either in begetting or in
creating, nor has He need of any co-operation. But
generation in Him is without beginning and everlasting,
being the work of nature and producing out of His own
essence, that the Begetter may not undergo change, and
that He may not be God first and God last, nor receive any
accession: while creation in the case of God(5), being the
work of will, is not co-eternal with God. For it is not
natural that that which is brought into existence out of
nothing should be co-eternal with what is without
beginning and everlasting. There is this difference in
fact between man's making and God's. Man can bring nothing
into existence out of nothing(6), but all that he makes
requires pre-existing matter for its basis(7), and he does
not create it by will only, but thinks out first what it
is to be and pictures it in his mind, and only then
fashions it with his hands, undergoing labour and
troubles(8), and often missing the mark and failing to
produce to his satisfaction that after which he strives.
But God, through the exercise of will alone, has brought
all things into existence out of nothing. Now there is the
same difference between God and man in begetting and
generating. For in God, Who is without time and beginning,
passionless, not liable to flux, incorporeal, alone and
without end(1), generation is without time and beginning,
passionless and not liable to flux, nor dependent on the
union of two(2): nor has His own incomprehensible
generation beginning or end. And it is without beginning
because He is immutable: without flux because He is
passionless and incorporeal: independent of the union of
two again because He is incorporeal but also because He is
the one and only God, and stands in need of no
co-operation: and without end or cessation because He is
without beginning, or time, or end, and ever continues the
same. For that which has no beginning has no end: but that
which through grace is endless is assuredly not without
beginning, as, witness, the angels(3).
Accordingly the everlasting God
generates His own Word which is perfect, without beginning
and without end, that God, Whose nature and existence are
above time, may not engender in time. But with man clearly
it is otherwise, for generation is with him a matter of
sex, and destruction and flux and increase and body clothe
him round about(4), and he possesses a nature which is
male or female. For the male requires the assistance of
the female. But may He Who surpasses all, and transcends
all thought and comprehension, be gracious to us.
The holy catholic and apostolic Church,
then, teaches the existence at once of a Father: and of
His Only-begotten Son, born of Him without time and flux
and passion, in a manner incomprehensible and perceived by
the God of the universe alone: just as we recognise the
existence at once of fire and the light which proceeds
from it: for there is not first fire and thereafter light,
but they exist together. And just as light is ever the
product of fire, and ever is in it and at no time is
separate from it, so in like manner also the Son is
begotten of the Father and is never in any ways separate
from Him, but ever is in Him(6). But whereas the light
which is produced from fire without separation, and
abideth ever in it, has no proper subsistence of its own
distinct from that of fire (for it is a natural quality of
fire), the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the
Father without separation and difference and ever abiding
in Him, has a proper subsistence of its own distinct froth
that of the Father.
The terms, 'Word' and 'effulgence,'
then, are used because He is begotten of the Father
without the union of two, or passion, or time, or flux, or
separation(7): and the terms 'Son' and 'impress of the
Father's subsistence,' because He is perfect and has
subsistence s and is in all respects similar to the
Father, save that the Father is not begotten(9): and the
term 'Only-begotten'(1) because He alone was begotten
alone of the Father alone. For no other generation is like
to the generation of the Son of God, since no other is Son
of God. For though the Holy Spirit proceedeth from the
Father, yet this is not generative in character but
processional. This is a different mode of existence, alike
incomprehensible and unknown, just as is the generation of
the Son. Wherefore all the qualities the Father has are
the Son's, save that the Father is unbegotten(2), and this
exception involves no difference in essence nor
dignity(3), but only a different mode of coming into
existence(4). We have an analogy in Adam, who was not
begotten (for God Himself moulded him), and Seth, who was
begotten (for he is Adam's son), and Eve, who proceeded
out of Adam's rib (for she was not begotten). These do not
differ from each other in nature, for they are human
beings: but they differ in the mode of coming into
existence(5).
For one must recognise that the word
<greek>agenhGon</greek> with only one '<greek>n</greek>'
signifies "uncreate" or "not having been
made," while <greek>agennhGon</greek>
written with double '<greek>n</greek>'
means "unbegotten." According to the first
significance essence differs from essence: for one essence
is uncreate, or <greek>agenhGon</greek> with
one '<greek>n</greek>,' and another is create
or <greek>genhGh</greek>. But in the second
significance there is no difference between essence and
essence. For the first subsistence of all kinds of living
creatures is <greek>agennhGos</greek> but not
<greek>agenhGos</greek>. For they were created
by the Creator, being brought into being by His Word, but
they were not begotten, for there was no pre-existing form
like themselves from which they might have been born.
So then in the first sense of the word
the three absolutely divine subsistences of the Holy
Godhead agree(6): for they exist as one in essence and
uncreate(7). But with the second signification it is quite
otherwise. For the Father alone is ingenerate(8), no other
subsistence having given Him being. And the Son alone is
generate, for He was begotten of the Father's essence
without beginning and without time. And only the Holy
Spirit proceedeth from the Father's essence, not having
been generated but simply proceeding(9). For this is the
doctrine of Holy Scripture. But the nature of the
generation and the procession is quite beyond
comprehension.
And this also it behoves(1) us to know,
that the names Fatherhood, Sonship and Procession, were
not applied to the Holy Godhead by us: on the contrary,
they were communicated to us by the Godhead, as the divine
apostle says, Wherefore I bow the knee to the Father, from
Whom is every family in heaven and on earth(2). But if we
say(3) that the Father is the origin of the Son and
greater than the Son, we do not suggest any precedence in
time or superiority in nature of the Father over the
Son(4) (for through His agency He made the ages(5)), or
superiority in any other respect save causation. And we
mean by this, that the Son is begotten of the Father and
not Father of the Son, and that the Father naturally is
the cause of the Son: just as we say in the same way not
that fire proceedeth from light, but rather light from
fire. So then, whenever we hear it said that the Father is
the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, let us
understand it to mean in respect of causation. And just as
we do not say that fire is of one essence and light of
another, so we cannot say that the Father is of one
essence and the Son of another: but both are of one and
the same essence(6). And just as we say that fire has
brightness(7) through the light proceeding from it, and do
not consider the light of the fire as an instrument
ministering to the fire, but rather as its natural force:
so we say that the Father creates all that He creates
through His Only-begotten Son, not as though the Son were
a mere instrument serving(8) the Father's ends, but as His
natural and subsistential force(9). And just as we say
both that the fire shines and again that the light of the
fire shines, So all things whatsoever the Father doeth,
these also doeth the Son likewise(9a). But whereas light
possesses no proper subsistence of its own, distinct from
that of the fire, the Son is a perfect subsistence(1),
inseparable from the Father's subsistence, as we have
shewn above. For it is quite impossible to find in
creation an image that will illustrate in itself exactly
in all details the nature of the Holy Trinity. For how
could that which is create and compound, subject to flux
and change, circumscribed, formed and corruptible, clearly
shew forth the super-essential divine essence, unaffected
as it is in any of these ways? Now it is evident that all
creation is liable to most of these affections, and all
from its very nature is subject to corruption.
Likewise we believe also in one Holy
Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life: Who proceedeth from
the Father and resteth in the Son: the object of equal
adoration and glorification with the Father and Son, since
He is co-essential and co-eternal(2): the Spirit of God,
direct, authoritative(3), the fountain of wisdom, and
life, and holiness: God existing and addressed along with
Father and Son: uncreate, full, creative, all-ruling,
all-effecting, all-powerful, of infinite power, Lord of
all creation and not under any lord(4): deifying, not
deified(5): filling, not filled: shared in, not sharing
in: sanctifying, not sanctified: the intercessor,
receiving the supplications of all: in all things like to
the Father and Son: proceeding from the Father and
communicated through the Son, and participated in by all
creation, through Himself creating, and investing with
essence and sanctifying, and maintaining the universe:
having subsistence, existing in its own proper and
peculiar subsistence, inseparable and indivisible from
Father and Son, and possessing all the qualities that the
Father and Son possess, save that of not being begotten or
born. For the Father is without canst and unborn: for He
is derived from nothing, but derives from Himself His
being, nor does He derive a single quality from
another(6). Rather He is Himself the beginning and cause
of the existence of all things in a definite and natural
manner. But the Son is derived from the Father after the
manner of generation, and the Holy Spirit likewise is
derived from the Father, yet not after the manner of
generation, but after that of procession. And we have
learned that there is a difference(7) between generation
and procession, but the nature of that difference we in no
wise understand. Further, the generation of the Son from
the Father and the procession of the Holy Spirit are
simultaneous.
All then that the Son and the Spirit
have is from the Father, even their very being(8): and
unless the Father is, neither the Son nor the Spirit is.
And unless the Father possesses a certain attribute,
neither the Son nor the Spirit possesses it: and through
the Father(9), that is, because of the Father's
existence(1), the Son and the Spirit exist(2), and through
the Father, that is, because of the Father having the
qualities, the Son and the Spirit have all their
qualities, those of being unbegotten, and of birth and of
procession being excepted(3). For in these hypostatic or
personal properties alone do the three holy
subsistences(3) differ from each other, being indivisibly
divided not by essence but by the distinguishing mark of
their proper and peculiar subsistence.
Further we say that each of(4) the
three has a perfect subsistence, that we may understand
not one compound perfect nature made up of three imperfect
elements, but one simple essence, surpassing and preceding
perfection, existing in three perfect subsistences(5). For
all that is composed of imperfect elements must
necessarily be compound. But from perfect subsistences no
compound can arise. Wherefore we do not speak of the form
as from subsistences, but as in subsistences(6). But we
speak of those things as imperfect which do not preserve
the form of that which is completed out of them. For stone
and wood and iron are each perfect in its own nature, but
with reference to the building that is completed out of
them each is imperfect: for none of them is in itself a
house.
The subsistences then we say are
perfect, that we may not conceive of the divine nature as
compound. For compoundness is the beginning of separation.
And again we speak of the three subsistences as being in
each other(7), that we may not introduce a crowd and
multitude of Gods(8). Owing to the three subsistences,
there is no compoundness or confusion: while, owing to
their having the same essence and dwelling in one another,
and being the same in will, and energy, and power, and
authority, and movement, so to speak, we recognise the
indivisibility and the unity of God. For verily there is
one God, and His word and Spirit.
Marg. MS.
Concerning the distinction of the three subsistences:
and concerning the thing itself and our reason and thought
in relation to it.
One ought, moreover, to recognise that
it is one thing to look at a matter as it is, and another
thing to look at it in the light of reason and thought. In
the case of all created things, the distinction of the
subsistences is observed in actual fact. For in actual
fact Peter is seen to be separate from Paul. But the
community and connection and unity are apprehended by
reason and thought. For it is by the mind that we perceive
that Peter and Paul are of the same nature and have one
common nature(9). For both are living creatures, rational
and mortal: and both are flesh, endowed with the spirit of
reason and understanding(1). It is, then, by reason that
this community of nature is observed. For here indeed the
subsistences do not exist one within the other. But each
privately and individually, that is to say, in itself,
stands quite separate, having very many points that divide
it from the other. For they are both separated in space
and differ in time, and are divided in thought, and power,
and shape, or form, and habit, and temperament and
dignity, and pursuits, and all differentiating properties,
but above all, in the fact that they do not dwell in one
another but are separated. Hence it comes that we can
speak of two, three, or many men.
And this may be perceived throughout
the whole of creation, but in the case of the holy and
superessential and incomprehensible Trinity, far removed
from everything, it is quite the reverse. For there the
community and unity are observed in fact, through the
co-eternity of the subsistences, and through their having
the same essence and energy and will and concord of
mind(2), and then being identical in authority and power
and goodness--I do not say similar but identical--and then
movement by one impulse(3). For there is one essence, one
goodness, one power, one will, one energy, one authority,
one and the same, I repeat, not three resembling each
other. But the three subsistences have one and the same
movement. For each one of them is related as closely to
the other as to itself: that is to say that the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in all respects, save
those of nobeing begotten, of birth and of procession. But
it is by thought that the difference is perceived(4). For
we recognise one God: but only in the attributes of
Fatherhood, Sonship, and Procession, both in respect of
cause and effect and perfection of subsistence, that is,
manner of existence, do we perceive difference(5). For
with reference to the uncircumscribed Deity we cannot
speak of separation in space, as we can in our own case.
For the subsistences dwell in one another, in no wise
confused but cleaving together, according to the word of
the Lord, I am in the father, and the father in Me(6): nor
can one admit difference in will or judgment or energy or
power or anything else whatsoever which may produce actual
and absolute separation in our case. Wherefore we do not
speak of three Gods, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, but rather of one God, the holy Trinity, the Son
and Spirit being referred to one cause(7), and not
compounded or coalesced according to the synaeresis of
Sabellius. For, as we said, they are made one not so as to
commingle, but so as to cleave to each other, and they
have their being in each other(8) without any coalescence
or commingling. Nor do the Son and the Spirit stand apart,
nor are they sundered in essence according to the
diaeresis of Arias(9). For the Deity is undivided amongst
things divided, to put it concisely: and it is just like
three suns cleaving to each other without separation and
giving out light mingled and conjoined into one. When,
then, we turn our eyes to the Divinity, and the first
cause and the sovereignty and the oneness anti sameness,
so to speak, of the movement and will of the Divinity, and
the identity in essence and power and energy and lordship,
what is seen by us is unity(1). But when we look to those
things in which the Divinity is, or, to put it more
accurately, which are the Divinity, and those things which
are in it through the first cause without time or
distinction in glory or separation, that is to say, the
subsistences of the Son and the Spirit, it seems to us a
Trinity that we adore(2). The Father is one Father, and
without beginning, that is, without cause: for He is not
derived from anything. The Son is one Son, but not without
beginning, that is, not without cause: for He is derived
from the Father. But if you eliminate the idea of a
beginning from time, He is also without beginning: for the
creator of times cannot be subject to time. The Holy
Spirit is one Spirit, going forth from the Father, not in
the manner of Sonship but of procession; so that neither
has the Father lost His property of being unbegotten
because He hath begotten, nor has the Son lost His
property of being begotten because He was begotten of that
which was unbegotten (for how could that be so?), nor does
the Spirit change either into the Father or into the Son
because He hath proceeded and is God. For a property is
quite constant. For how could a property persist if it
were variable, moveable, and could change into something
else? For if the Father is the Son, He is not strictly the
Father: for there is strictly one Father. And if the Son
is the Father, He is not strictly the Son: for there is
strictly one Son and one Holy Spirit.
Further, it should be understood that
we do not speak of the Father as derived from any one, but
we speak of Him as the Father of the Son. And we do not
speak of the Son as Cause(3) or Father, but we speak of
Him both as from the Father, and as the Son of the Father.
And we speak likewise of the Holy Spirit as from the
Father, and call Him the Spirit of the Father. And we do
not speak of the Spirit as from the Son(4): s but yet we
call Him the Spirit of the Son. For if any one hath not
the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His(6), saith the
divine apostle. And we confess that He is manifested and
imparted to us through the Son. For He breathed upon His
Disciples, says he, and said, Receive ye the Holy
Spirit(7). It is just the same as in the case of the sun
from which come both the ray and the radiance (for the sun
itself is the source of both the ray and the radiance),
and it is through the ray that the radiance is imparted to
us, and it is the radiance itself by which we are
lightened and in which we participate. Further we do not
speak of the Son of the Spirit, or of the Son as derived
from the Spirit(8).
CHAPTER IX.
Concerning what is affirmed about God.
The Deity is simple and uncompound. But
that which is composed of many and different elements is
compound. If, then, we should speak of the qualities of
being uncreate and without beginning and incorporeal and
immortal and everlasting and good and creative and so
forth as essential differences in the case of God, that
which is composed of so many qualities will not be simple
but must be compound. But this is impious in the extreme.
Each then of the affirmations about God should be thought
of as signifying not what He is in essence, but either
something that it is impossible to make plain, or some
relation to some of those things which are contrasts or
some of those things that follow the nature, or an
energy(9).
It appears then(9a) that the most
proper of all the names given to God is "He that
is," as He Himself said in answer to Moses on the
mountain, Say to the sons of Israel, He that is hath sent
Me(1). For He keeps all being in His own embrace(2), like
a sea of essence infinite and unseen. Or as the holy
Dionysius says, "He that is good(3)." For one
cannot say of God that He has being in the first place and
goodness in the second.
The second name of God is <greek>o</greek>
<greek>qeos</greek>, derived from <greek>qeein</greek>(4),
to run, because He courses through all things, or from
<greek>aiqein</greek>, to burn: For God is a
fire consuming all evils(5): or from <greek>qeasqai</greek>,
because He is all-seeing(6): for nothing can escape Him,
and over all He keepeth watch. For He saw all things
before they were, holding them timelessly in His thoughts;
and each one conformably to His voluntary anti timeless
thought(7), which constitutes predetermination and image
and pattern, comes into existence at the predetermined
time(8).
The first name then conveys the notion
of His existence and of the nature of His existence: while
the second contains the idea of energy. Further, the terms
'without beginning,' ' incorruptible,' 'unbegotten,' as
also 'uncreate,' 'incorporeal,' 'unseen,' and so forth,
explain what He is not: that is to say, they tell us that
His being had no beginning, that He is not corruptible,
nor created, nor corporeaI, nor visible(9). Again,
goodness and justice and piety and such like names belong
to the nature(1), but do not explain His actual essence.
Finally, Lord and King and names of that class indicate a
relationship with their contrasts: for the name Lord has
reference to those over whom the lord rules, and the name
King to those under kingly authority, and the name Creator
to the creatures, and the name Shepherd to the sheep he
tends.
CHAPTER X.
Concerning divine union and separation.
Therefore all these names must be
understood as common to deity as a whole, and as
containing the notions of sameness and simplicity and
indivisibility and union: while the names Father, Son and
Spirit, and cause, less and caused, and unbegotten and
begotten, and procession contain the idea of separation:
for these terms do not explain His essence, but the mutual
relationship(2) and manner of existence(3).
When, then, we have perceived these
things and are conducted from these to the divine essence,
we do not apprehend the essence itself but only the
attributes of the essence: just as we have not apprehended
the essence of the soul even when we have learnt that it
is incorporeal and without magnitude and form: nor again,
the essence of the body when we know that it is white or
black, but only the attributes of the essence. Further,
the true doctrine(4) teacheth that the Deity is simple and
has one simple energy, good and energising in all things,
just as the sun's ray, which warms all things and
energises in each in harmony with its natural aptitude and
receptpower, having obtained this form of energy from God,
its Maker.
But quite distinct is all that pertains
to the divine and benignant incarnation of the divine
Word. For in that neither the Father nor the Spirit have
any part at all, unless so far as regards approval and the
working of inexplicable miracles which the God-Word,
having become man(5) like us, worked, as unchangeable God
and son of God(6).
CHAPTER XI.
Concerning what is affirmed about
God as though He had body.
Since we find many terms used
symbolically in the Scriptures concerning God which are
more applicable to that which has body, we should
recognise that it is quite impossible for us men clothed
about with this dense covering of flesh to understand or
speak of the divine and lofty and immaterial energies of
the Godhead, except by the use of images and types and
symbols derived from our own life(7). So then all the
statements concerning God, that imply body, are symbols,
but have a higher meaning: for the Deity is simple and
formless. Hence by God's eyes and eyelids and sight we are
to understand His power of overseeing all things and His
knowledge, that nothing can escape: for in the case of us
this sense makes our knowledge more complete and more full
of certainty. By God's ears and hearing is meant His
readiness to be propitiated and to receive our petitions:
for it is this sense that renders us also kind to
suppliants, inclining our ear to them more graciously.
God's mouth and speech are His means of indicating His
will; for it is by the mouth and speech that we make clear
the thoughts that are in the heart: God's food and drink
are our concurrence to His will, for we, too, satisfy the
necessities of our natural appetite through the sense of
taste. And God's sense of smell is His appreciation of our
thoughts of and good will towards Him, for it is through
this sense that we appreciate sweet fragrance. And God's
countenance is the demonstration and manifestation of
Himself through His works, for our manifestation is
through the countenance. And God's hands mean the
effectual nature of His energy, for it is with our own
hands that we accomplish our most useful and valuable
work. And His right hand is His aid in prosperity, for it
is the right hand that we also use when making anything of
beautiful shape or of great value, or where much strength
is required. His handling is His power of accurate
discrimination and exaction, even in the minutest and most
secret details, for those whom we have handled cannot
conceal from us aught within themselves. His feet and walk
are His advent and presence, either for the purpose of
bringing succour to the needy, or vengeance against
enemies, or to perform any other action, for it is by
using our feet that we come to arrive at any place. His
oath is the unchangeableness of His counsel, for it is by
oath that we confirm our compacts with one another. His
anger and fury are His hatred of and aversion to all
wickedness, for we, too, hate that which is contrary to
our mind and become enraged thereat(8). His forgetfulness
and sleep and slumbering are His delay in taking vengeance
on His enemies and the postponement of the accustomed help
to His own. And to put it shortly, all the statements made
about God that imply body have some hidden meaning and
teach us what is above us by means of something familiar
to ourselves, with the exception of any statement
concerning the bodily sojourn of the God-Word. For He for
our safety took upon Himself the whole nature of man(9),
the thinking spirit, the body, and all the properties of
human nature, even the natural and blameless passions.
CHAPTER XII.
Concerning the Same.
The following, then, are the mysteries
which we have learned from the holy oracles, as the divine
Dionysius the Areopagite said(1): that God is the cause
and beginning of all: the essence of all that have
essence: the life of the living: the reason of all
rational beings: the intellect of all intelligent beings:
the recalling and restoring of those who fall away from
Him: the renovation and transformation of those that
corrupt that which is natural: the holy foundation of
those who are tossed in unholiness: the steadfastness of
those who have stood firm: the way of those whose course
is directed to Him and the hand stretched forth to guide
them upwards. And I shall add He is also the Father of all
His creatures (for God, Who brought us into being out of
nothing, is in a stricter sense our Father than are our
parents who have derived both being and begetting from
Him(2)): the shepherd of those who follow and are tended
by Him: the radiance of those who are enlightened: the
initiation of the initiated: the deification of the
deified: the peace of those at discord: the simplicity of
those who love simplicity: the unity of those who worship
unity: of all beginning the beginning, super-essential
because above all beginnings: and the good revelation of
what is hidden, that is, of the knowledge of Him so far as
that is lawful for and attainable by each.
Further and more accurately concerning
divine names(4).
The Deity being incomprehensible is
also assuredly nameless. Therefore since we know not His
essence, let us not seek for a name for His essence. For
names are explanations of actual things(5). But God, Who
is good and brought us out of nothing into being that we
might share in His goodness, and Who gave us the faculty
of knowledge, not only did not impart to us His essence,
but did not even grant us the knowledge of His essence.
For it is impossible for nature to understand fully the
supernatural(6). Moreover, if knowledge is of things that
are(7), how can there be knowledge of the super-essential?
Through His unspeakable goodness, then, it pleased Him to
be called by names that we could understand, that we might
not be altogether cut off from the knowlege of Him but
should have some notion of Him, however vague. Inasmuch,
then, as He is incomprehensible, He is also unnameable.
But inasmuch as He is the cause of all and contains in
Himself the reasons and causes of all that is, He receives
names drawn from all that is, even from opposites: for
example, He is called light and darkness, water and fire:
in order that we may know that these are not of His
essence but that He is super-essential and unnameable: but
inasmuch as He is the cause of all, He receives names from
all His effects.
Wherefore, of the divine names, some
have a negative signification, and indicate that He is
super-essential(8): such are "non-essential(9),"
"timeless," "without beginning,"
"invisible": not that God is inferior to
anything or lacking in anything (for all things are His
and have become from Him and through Him and endure in
Him(9)), but that He is pre-eminently separated from all
that is. For He is not one of the things that are, but
over all things. Some again have an affirmative
signification, as indicating that He is the cause of all
things. For as the cause of all that is and of all
essence, He is called both Ens and Essence. And as the
cause of all reason and wisdom, of the rational and the
wise, He is called both reason and rational, and wisdom
and wise. Similarly He is spoken of as Intellect and
Intellectual, Life and Living, Power and Powerful, and so
on with all the rest. Or rather those names are most
appropriate to Him which are derived from what is most
precious and most akin to Himself. That which is
immaterial is more precious and more akin to Himself than
that which is material, and the pure than the impure, and
the holy than the unholy: for they have greater part in
Him. So then, sun and light will be more apt names for Him
than darkness, and day than night, and life than death,
and fire and spirit and water, as having life, than earth,
and above all, goodness than wickedness: which is just to
say, being more than not being. For goodness is existence
and the cause of existence, but wickedness is the negation
of goodness, this, of existence. These, then, are the
affirmations and the negations, but the sweetest names are
a combination of both: for example, the super-essential
essence, the Godhead that is more than God, the beginning
that is above beginning and such like. Further there are
some affirmations about God which have in a pre-eminent
degree the force of denial: for example, darkness: for
this does not imply that God is darkness but that He is
not light, but above light.
God then is called Mind and Reason and
Spirit and Wisdom and Power, as the cause of these, and as
immaterial, and maker of all, and omnipotent(9b). And
these names are common to the whole Godhead, whether
affirmative or negative. And they are also used of each of
the subsistences of the Holy Trinity in the very same and
identical way and with their full significance(1). For
when I think of one of the subsistences, I recognise it to
be perfect God and perfect essence: but when I combine and
reckon the three together, I know one perfect God. For the
Godhead is not compound but in three perfect subsistences,
one perfect indivisible and uncompound God. And when I
think of the relation of the three subsistences to each
other, I perceive that the Father is super-essential Sun,
source of goodness, fathomless sea of essence, reason,
wisdom, power, light, divinity: the generating and
productive source of good hidden in it. He Himself then is
mind, the depth of reason, begetter of the Word, and
through the Word the Producer(2) of the revealing Spirit.
And to put it shortly, the Father has no reason(3),
wisdom, power, will(4), save the Son Who is the only power
of the Father the immediate(5) cause of the creation of
the universe: as perfect subsistence begotten of perfect
subsistence in a manner known to Himself, Who is and is
named the Son. And the Holy Spirit is the power of the
Father revealing the hidden mysteries of His Divinity,
proceeding from the Father through the Son in a manner
known to Himself, but different from that of generation.
Wherefore the Holy Spirit is the perfecter of the creation
of the universe. All the terms, then, that are appropriate
to the Father, as cause, source, begetter, are to be
ascribed to the Father alone: while those that are
appropriate to the caused, begotten Son, Word, immediate
power, will, wisdom, are to be ascribed to the Son: and
those that are appropriate to the caused, processional,
manifesting, perfecting power, are to be ascribed to the
Holy Spirit. The Father is the source and cause of the Son
and the Holy Spirit: Father of the Son alone and producer
of the Holy Spirit. The Son is Son, Word, Wisdom, Power,
Image, Effulgence, Impress of the Father and derived from
the Father. But the Holy Spirit is not the Son of the
Father but the Spirit of the Father as proceeding from the
Father. For there is no impulse without Spirit. And we
speak also of the Spirit of the Son, not as through
proceeding from Him, but as proceeding through Him from
the Father. For the Father alone is cause.
CHAPTER XIII.
Concerning the place of God: and that
the Deity alone is uncircumscribed.
Bodily place is the limit of that which
contains, by which that which is contained is
contained(6): for example, the air contains but the body
is contained(7). But it is not the whole of the containing
air which is the place of the contained body, but the
limit of the containing air, where it comes into contact
with the contained body: and the reason is clearly because
that which contains is not within that which it contains.
But there is also mental place where
mind is active, and mental and incorporeal nature exists:
where mind dwells and energises and is contained not in a
bodily but in a mental fashion. For it is without form,
and so cannot be contained as a body is. God, then, being
immaterial(8) and uncircumscribed, has not place. For He
is His own place, filling all things and being above all
things, and Himself maintaining all things(9). Yet we
speak of God having place and the place of God where His
energy becomes manifest. For He penetrates everything
without mixing with it, and imparts to all His energy in
proportion to the fitness and receptive power of each: and
by this I mean, a purity both natural and voluntary. For
the immaterial is purer than the material, and that which
is virtuous than that which is linked with vice. Wherefore
by the place of God is meant that which has a greater
share in His energy and grace. For this reason the Heaven
is His throne. For in it are the angels who do His will
and are always glorifying Him(1). For this is His rest and
the earth is His footstool(2). For in it He dwelt in the
flesh among men(3). And His sacred flesh has been named
the foot of God. The Church, too, is spoken of as the
place of God: for we have set this apart for the
glorifying of God as a sort of consecrated place wherein
we also hold converse with Him. Likewise also the places
in which His energy becomes manifest to us, whether
through the flesh or apart from flesh, are spoken of as
the places of God.
But it must be understood that the
Deity is indivisible, being everywhere wholly in His
entirety and not divided up part by part like that which
has body, but wholly in everything and wholly above
everything. Marg. MS. Concerning the place of angel and
spirit, and concerning the uncircumscribed.
The angel, although not contained in
place with figured form as is body, yet is spoken of as
being in place because he has a mental presence and
energises in accordance with his nature, and is not
elsewhere but has his mental limitations there where he
energises. For it is impossible to energise at the same
time in different places. For to God alone belongs the
power of energising everywhere at the same time. The angel
energises in different places by the quickness of his
nature and the promptness and speed by which he can change
his place: but the Deity, Who is everywhere and above all,
energises at the same time in diverse ways with one simple
energy.
Further the soul is bound up with the
body. whole with whole and not part with part: and it is
not contained by the body but contains it as fire does
iron, and being in it energises with its own proper
energies.
That which is comprehended in place or
time or apprehension is circumscribed: while that which is
contained by none of these is uncircumscribed. Wherefore
the Deity alone is uncircumscribed, being without
beginning and without end, and containing all things, and
in no wise apprehended(4). For He alone is
incomprehensible and unbounded, within no one's knowledge
and contemplated by Himself alone. But the angel is
circumscribed alike in time (for His being had
commencement) and in place (but mental space, as we said
above) and in apprehension. For they know somehow the
nature of each other and have their bounds perfectly
defined by the Creator. Bodies in short are circumscribed
both in beginning and end, and bodily place and
apprehension.
Marg. MS.
From various sources concerning God
and the father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And
concerning the Word and the Spirit.
The Deity, then, is quite unchangeable
and invariable. For all things which are not in our hands
He hath predetermined by His foreknowledge, each in its
own proper and peculiar time and place. And accordingly
the Father judgeth no one, but hath given all judgment to
the Son(5). For clearly the Father and the Son and also
the Holy Spirit judged as God. But the Son Himself will
descend in the body as man, and will sit on the throne of
Glory (for descending and sitting require circumscribed
body), and will judge all the world in justice.
All things are far apart from God, not
in place but in nature. In our case, thoughtfulness, and
wisdom, and counsel come to pass and go away as states of
being. Not so in the case of God: for with Him there is no
happening or ceasing to be: for He is invariable and
unchangeable: and it would not be right to speak of
contingency in connection with Him. For goodness is
concomitant with essence. He who longs alway after God,
hseeth Him: for God is in all things. Existing things are
dependent on that which is, and nothing can be unless it
is in that which is. God then is mingled with everything,
maintaining their nature: and in His holy flesh the
God-Word is made one in subsistence and is mixed with our
nature, yet without confusion.
No one seeth the Father, save the Son
and the Spirit(6).
The Son is the counsel and wisdom and
power of the Father. For one may not speak of quality in
connection with God, from fear of implying that He was a
compound of essence and quality.
The Son is from the Father, and derives
from Him all His properties: hence He cannot do ought of
Himself(7). For He has not energy peculiar to Himself and
distinct from the Father(8).
That God Who is invisible by nature is
made visible by His energies, we perceive from the
organisation and government of the world(9).
The Son is the Father's image, and the
Spirit the Son's, through which Christ dwelling in man
makes him after his own image(1).
The Holy Spirit is God, being between
the unbegotten and the begotten, and united to the Father
through the Son(2). We speak of the Spirit of God, the
Spirit of Christ, the mind of Christ, the Spirit of the
Lord, the very Lord(3), the Spirit of adoption, of truth,
of liberty, of wisdom (for He is the creator of all
these): filling all things with essence, maintaining all
things, filling the universe with essence, while yet the
universe is not the measure of His power.
God is everlasting and unchangeable
essence, creator of all that is, adored with pious
consideration.
God is also Father, being ever
unbegotten, for He was born of no one, but hath begotten
His co-eternal Son: God is likewise Son, being always with
the Father, born of the Father timelessly, everlastingly,
without flux or passion, or separation from Him. God is
also Holy Spirit, being sanctifying power, subsistential,
proceeding from the Father without separation, and resting
in the Son, identical in essence with Father and Son.
Word is that which is ever essentially
present with the Father. Again, word is also the natural
movement of the mind, according to which it is moved and
thinks and considers, being as it were its own light and
radiance. Again, word is the thought that is spoken only
within the heart. And again, word is the utterance(4) that
is the messenger of thought. God therefore is Word(5)
essential and enhypostatic: and the other three kinds of
word are faculties of the soul, and are not contemplated
as having a proper subsistence of their own. The first of
these is the natural offspring of the mind, ever
welling(6) up naturally out of it: the second is the
thought: and the third is the utterance.
The Spirit has various meanings. There
is the Holy Spirit: but the powers of the Holy Spirit are
also spoken of as spirits: the good messenger is also
spirit: the demon also is spirit: the soul too is spirit:
and sometimes mind also is spoken of as spirit. Finally
the wind is spirit and the air is spirit.
CHAPTER XIV.
The properties of the divine nature.
Uncreated, without beginning, immortal,
infinite, eternal, immaterial(7), good, creative, just,
enlightening, immutable, passionless, uncircumscribed,
immeasurable, unlimited, undefined, unseen, unthinkable,
wanting in nothing, being His own rule and authority,
all-ruling, life-giving, omnipotent, of infinite power,
con-raining and maintaining the universe and making
provision for all: all these and such like attributes the
Deity possesses by nature, not having received them from
elsewhere, but Himself imparting all good to His own
creations according to the capacity of each.
The subsistences dwell and are
established firmly in one another. For they are
inseparable and cannot part from one another, but keep to
their separate courses within one another, without
coalescing or mingling, but cleaving to each other. For
the Son is in the Father and the Spirit: and the Spirit in
the Father and the Son: and the Father in the Son and the
Spirit, but there is no coalescence or commingling or
confusion(8)· And there is one and the same motion: for
there is one impulse and one motion of the three
subsistences, which is not to be observed in any created
nature.
Further the divine effulgence and
energy, being one anti simple and indivisible, assuming
many varied forms in its goodness among what is divisible
and allotting to each the component parts of its own
nature, still remains simple and is multiplied without
division among the divided, and gathers and converts the
divided into its own simplicity(9). For all things long
after it and have their existence in it. It gives also to
all things being according to their several natures(1),
and it is itself the being of existing things, the life of
living things, the reason of rational beings, the thought
of thinking beings. But it is itself above mind and reason
and life and essence.
Further the divine nature has the
property of penetrating all things without mixing with
them and of being itself impenetrable by anything else.
Moreover, there is the property of knowing all things with
a simple knowledge and of seeing all things, simply with
His divine, all-surveying, immaterial eye, both the things
of the present, and the things of the past, and the things
of the future, before they come into being(2). It is also
sinless, and can cast sin out, and bring salvation: and
all that it wills, it can accomplish, but does not will
all it could accomplish. For it could destroy the universe
but it does not will so to do(3).
