On the Trinity 1.21–1.26

On the fact that, because their nature and substance do not vary, the Trinity speaks in the faithful. That the divine hypostases speak equally in the saints also proclaims that their nature and authority do not vary. For Zechariah, not the prophet but the father of John, said that the Lord God of Israel had spoken through the prophets. And Paul likewise wrote to the Hebrews: "In many parts and in many ways God spoke of old to the fathers by the prophets; in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." And to the Corinthians he wrote of the Son: "Since you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me." And the Savior teaches in Matthew: "For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you."

On the fact that, for the same reason, namely the consubstantiality of the Trinity, it is written that we live to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. That it is written that we live to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit also teaches us to see this most plainly; as when Paul discourses in his letter to the Romans: "Consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord"; and again: "so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Christ, who died for them and was raised"; and to the Galatians: "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit …"

On the fact that, for this reason, the law from above is written to be the law of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. For the reason we have stated, the law from above too is written to be the law of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; as the sacred psalmist says in the 36th psalm, "The law of his God is in his heart"; and in the 39th, "To do your will, O God, I desired, and your law in the midst of my belly." And as Paul writes to the Galatians, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ"; and to the Corinthians in the first letter, "To those outside the law I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those outside the law"; and to the Romans, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death." And again, hinting at the New and the Old Testament, he says: "But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were held, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter"; and again: "For we know that the law is spiritual."

On the fact that, for the same reason of the consubstantiality in the Trinity, we are called men of God, or Christians, or spiritual. For this reason, then, we are called men of God, or Christians, or spiritual, by those who say: the widow, "… you, man of God?"; and again, "Now I know that you are a holy man of God"; the Shunammite to her husband about Elisha the prophet, "Behold, a great man of God comes to us"; the histories of the Kingdoms, "And a man of God came out of Judah and prophesied against the altar in Bethel"; the sacred psalmist in the title of the 89th psalm, "A prayer of Moses, the man of God"; Paul, writing to Timothy in the second letter, "that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work"; the Acts, "For a whole year they met together in the church, and the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch"; Paul, discoursing to the Corinthians in a letter, "Now concerning spiritual things, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were Gentiles, to the mute idols … no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit"; and again, "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God (for they are folly to him), and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned; but the spiritual man judges all things, and is himself judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ"; and again, "Brothers, if a man among you is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

On the fact that, for the same reason of the consubstantiality of the Trinity, what Scripture now says belongs to the Father it says at another time belongs to the Son or to the Holy Spirit. Scripture, showing one Godhead and lordship, says at another time that what it now says belongs to the Father belongs to the Son or to the Holy Spirit; as when the Savior says to the Jews in Matthew, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And as when the celebrated Paul writes, to the Philippians, "For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ"; and to the Galatians, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions …" … "the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this … and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised"; and again, "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him"; and again, "Be zealous for spiritual things." Further, writing to the Corinthians in the first letter, he declared that the Church too, which is understood together with the glory offered up in it and the bloodless worship offered in it, is God's, thus: "Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God"; and again, "We have no such custom, nor do the churches of God." And again, writing to the Ephesians, "… church, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and blameless." For if he did not think so, let someone explain what the prophet Haggai means when he says, "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former"; that is, the glory of the Church of Christ, and of the praise of God in it, compared with the synagogue of the Jews, in which God the Father alone was proclaimed God and glorified. Accordingly, then, he says that the Gospel is now God the Father's, writing to the Romans, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God"; and again, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power … of God is revealed in it …; the righteous shall live by faith"; and to the Corinthians in the second letter, "because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge." And now he writes that it belongs to the only-begotten God, to the Corinthians, in the first letter, "But we have not made use of this right, but we endure everything rather than put any obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ"; and in the second, "When I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ"; and again, "glorifying God for the submission of your confession to the gospel of Christ"; and to the Romans, "For God is my witness, whom I serve in the gospel of his Son." And he said that the sacred ministry too is performed sometimes for God the Father and sometimes for God his only-begotten Son, writing to the Corinthians, in the first letter, "Let a man regard us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found faithful"; and in the second, "commending ourselves in everything as ministers of God"; and again, "Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a madman: I am more." And …

… presenting all things, the one divine peace that has no limit, of which Isaiah cried out, "Lord our God, give us peace; for you have given us all things; Lord, we know no other besides you": he gives it with authority as his own, because the nature and the lordship are shared. For he said: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you." Therefore not least Paul too said that both the uncreated hypostases supply this God-given gift without difference, writing to the Romans somewhere thus: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." And the saying "All that the Father has is mine" has given us to discern that this is so. For it is understood thus, if one may speak of rank where God is concerned. "Is the Father God?" he says. "So am I; for I am his only-begotten, true and beloved Son. Is the Father Lord? I too am Lord of all, and heir of a living Father, master of the inheritance. I inherit what is my own, both as its maker and as his true Son; and I was appointed heir as one who became man. Is the Father Creator and King? I am. For I told you that there was a king who went to make a marriage feast for his son, the king. Is the Father unchangeable? So am I. For it was prophesied of me: You are the same, and your years will not fail. Is the Father impassible? I am, so that those who share in me partake of impassibility. Is the Father without beginning? I am. For there was no time when he did not have the name of Father, and the subsisting radiance of his glory, and the imprint of his hypostasis, and the image of the Godhead, that is, me. Is the Father life and light and goodness and power and wisdom and truth, and all that is worthy of God? I am, as you have already heard. And indeed I am Savior, making the sun rise on the righteous and on sinners, and not returning evil for evil. Is the Father loving toward mankind? I am; seeing that for your sake I emptied myself, taking the form of a servant, and bore with you when you struck me, spat on me, mocked me and crucified me." He said, then, that all the Father's things are his, so as to give nothing more to God the Father than only being Father of a Son who is without beginning together with him and subsists together with him. The words "All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them" also persuade us to believe so. For if this was not said because of the natural relation, and the Son was not glorified substantially with all the Father's things; if there is not one kingdom and lordship; then, according to heretical reasoning, there is … is not under the Father's authority but under the Son's. And again: "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who glorifies me." "When I speak of my own divine glory," he means, "saying that I and the Father are one, you disbelieve; but there is the Father who bears witness to me that I am glorified by nature, being his beloved and true Son, and your God and Master." Then he says: "Father, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you." Here too equal honor and glory are kept for the divine hypostases. For in whatever way we suppose that the Father glorifies his Son, in that way he himself is glorified by him. And again he adds: "And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." It is dreadful to hear that he who has glory without beginning with his own Father (for this is what "the glory that I had before the world existed" means) is not glorified by the heretics. And what was this glory? That, I think, of which Mark also spoke: "When the Son comes in the glory of his Father"; that is, he has the Father's glory, and in it he will come the second time. And those whose glory is one do not have one Godhead and another, nor one kingdom and another, nor one worship and another. Hence he instructs them beforehand: "Believe in God, believe also in me; in my Father's house are many dwelling places." For since the Godhead, he means, has no difference, you must have one knowledge of faith concerning the Trinity, so that you may dwell in those thrice-blessed courts, which are fitting and sufficient for all. Not only the things of a teacher, at any rate, but also those of God he grants, when he says: "Your sins are forgiven you"; here too you notice his self-determination, that he does not intercede as with a greater, but forgives as sovereign. And Matthew, contributing his part to the theology of the only-begotten Son, said: "No one knows the Father except the Son; nor does anyone know the Son except the Father." How, then, do these people contend, as if they knew, that the Father is incomparable, his Son unlike him, and his substance unbegottenness … that nothing of another nature has a knowledge equal to that of a being of different substance? And Paul writes likewise to Timothy in the first epistle: "I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time, he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see; to him be eternal honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen." The heretics have decided to assign to the Father alone "the only Sovereign, and King of kings", and the rest. But just as he spoke of both the ever-remembered hypostases, "I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus", so he sang the rest too of both of them, as of one in Godhead. For he was not ignorant, as these people are, of "All that the Father has is mine"; and "that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father"; and "This is the true God and eternal life"; and "This is our God; no other shall be reckoned beside him"; and "This is my beloved Son"; but … "at the proper time he will display, he who is the blessed and only Sovereign". It is clear that the Son will display his own appearing when he comes the second time. Observe, then, that because of the equal honor of Father and Son he assigns the first glory to him. And to the Romans: "For his invisible attributes, since the creation of the world, are clearly perceived, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity." And this does not tend toward his being a thing made. For it is not by understanding the Creator as created that his eternity and Godhead, that is, the Godhead that is always and ever the same, is made known. And to the Philippians: "Who, being in the form of God, did not count being equal to God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." What is found unequal in this equality? For he did not seize, he means, did not take, being equal by nature to God the Father. And indeed he who was not emptied by another but emptied himself showed himself to be sovereign master and at the same time eternal. For if he came to be in the form of a servant, it is beyond dispute that before this happened he did not continue among things made, but was in the free nature of the Father. Since it was not possible to be seen … form; and he thrust away the burdens of the servant and gave the beginning of a brighter life; whence it was also recognized who he was who was without beginning. And the other things written to the same Philippians, showing to the unintelligent that the Son is already in some way preeminent and surpassing together with his own Father, I have already spoken of before, in chapter 7. But nothing prevents establishing this from the ancient Scripture too; for one must not treat theology as a side matter. God says, then, in Isaiah: "Your new moons and sabbaths and feasts my soul hates. You have become a surfeit to me; I will no longer forgive your sins; even if you make many prayers, I will not listen to you; for your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, become clean; remove your sins from your souls …" … he hates their feasts, that is, their worship, as falling short of the most perfect knowledge of God; and he commands them to be baptized, so as to receive the faith according to the Master's rule concerning baptism. And elsewhere Paul assured us, crying out in so many words, that the Son has no one greater than himself. For when God had said to Abraham in Genesis, "Offer me your son as a sacrifice", and he had readily done so and was about to bring the knife down, an angel of the Lord called him, saying: "Abraham, do not lay your hand on the boy, nor do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, and you have not spared your beloved son for my sake." Then, when a ram had been found for the sacrifice in place of Isaac, and the sacrifice had been completed by Abraham, in intention through the boy and in slaughter through the ram, "the angel of the Lord," it says, "called him a second time from heaven, saying: By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not spared your beloved son for my sake, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and … all the nations in you, because you obeyed my voice." And this was neither the Father nor a ministering angel. For a minister does not swear by himself, or bless, or say, "You have not spared your beloved son for my sake"; nor does he dare to stop the sacrifice being offered to God, nor has he authority to accept it. But it was the only-begotten God the Word who had asked for the sacrifice, granting Abraham his only son, as Paul explains, writing to the Hebrews thus: "For when God made a promise to Abraham" (what he promised he also did), "since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying: Surely I will bless you." And to the Romans he explains once more that the Son swears by himself: "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, as it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." And his sitting at the right hand of the Father, and further the evangelist's declaring with a God-inspired tongue that the seat fitting for the Son is the Father's bosom: if these do not signify sameness of substance and equal honor, and that the only-begotten God and Son must be worshiped together with the Father and his Spirit, but what is written about God must be taken in a human way, which must not be done, then according to them the one at the right hand, who has the divine, ineffable bosom as his many-eyed cherubic throne, is the greater and more glorious, which God forbid! For David sings of the Father in the 109th psalm, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand"; and Paul explains to the Hebrews, "Who, being the radiance of the glory of the Father and the imprint of his hypostasis, and upholding all things by the word of his power, after making purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high"; and the evangelist, "The only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known."