To Simplicius, on Faith (complete)

To Simplicius, on the Faith

God commands through the prophet that no one should think a new god to be God, nor worship a foreign god. It is plain, then, that what is not from eternity is called new; and, on the contrary, what is not new is called eternal. So whoever does not believe that the only-begotten God is from the Father from eternity does not deny that he is new; for what is not eternal is wholly new, and everything new is not God, as Scripture said: "There shall be no new god among you." So whoever says, "There was once when he was not," denies his Godhead.

Again, the one who says, "You shall never worship a foreign god," forbids us to worship a foreign god. And the foreign is seen by contrast with our own God. Who, then, is our own God? Plainly the true God. And who is the foreign? Surely the one who is foreign to the nature of the true God. If, then, our own God is the true God, and the only-begotten God is not of the nature of the true God, as the heretics say, he is a foreign god and not ours. [But the gospel] says [that the sheep will not follow a stranger]. Whoever says that he is created will make him out to be foreign to the nature of the true God. What, then, do those do who say that he is created? Do they worship him who is created, or not? For if they do not worship him, they are Judaizing, denying the worship of Christ; and if they worship him, they are idolaters, for they worship one foreign to the true God. But it is equally impious both not to worship the Son and to worship a foreign god. So we must say that the Son of the true Father is true, so that we may worship him and not be condemned as worshipping a foreign god.

To those who quote the saying from Proverbs, "The Lord created me," and therefore think they say something strong for the creator and maker of all being created, we must say this: that the only-begotten God became many things for our sake. For being the Word, he became flesh; being God, he became man; being bodiless, he became body; and besides these he became sin, and curse, and stone, and axe, and bread, and lamb, and way, and door, and rock, and many such things, being none of these by nature, but having become them for our sake by way of economy. As, then, being the Word, he became flesh for our sake, and being God, he became man, so too, being creator, he became a creature for our sake; for the flesh is created. As, then, he said through the prophet, "Thus says the Lord, who formed me from the womb as his servant," so he said also through Solomon, "The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways, for his works." So the one formed in the womb of the Virgin, according to the prophet's word, is the servant, not the Lord, that is, the man according to the flesh in whom God was manifested; and here too the one created as the beginning of his ways is not God, but the man in whom God was manifested to us, to renew again the ruined way of human salvation. So that, since

we recognize two things concerning Christ, the one divine, the other human, the divine in nature and the human in the economy, we accordingly reckon what is eternal [to the Godhead, and what is created to the] human nature. For as, according to the prophet, he was formed in the womb as a servant, so too, according to Solomon, he was manifested in the flesh through this servile creation.

When they say, "If he was, he was not begotten," and "If he was begotten, he was not," let them be taught that one must not fit the properties of fleshly birth to the divine nature. For bodies come to be begotten when they do not exist; but God makes the things that do not exist to be, and does not himself come to be from what does not exist. For this reason Paul names him "the radiance of glory," so that we may be taught that, as the light from the lamp is both from the nature of what gives the radiance and is together with it (for at once the lamp appeared and the light from it shone out with it), so here too the apostle bids us understand that the Son is from the Father, and that the Father is never without the Son. For it is not possible for the glory to be without its brightness, as it is not possible for the lamp to be without its radiance. It is plain that, as his being radiance is a testimony to his being together with the glory (for if the glory did not exist, what radiates from it would not exist), so to say that the radiance once did not exist is a proof that the glory too did not exist when the radiance was not; for it is impossible for the glory to be without radiance. As, then, it is not possible to say of the radiance, "If it was, it did not come to be," and "If it came to be, it was not," so it is vain to say these things of the Son, because the Son is the radiance.

And let those who speak of the "less" and the "greater" in the case of the Son and the Father be taught by Paul not to measure the immeasurable. For the apostle calls the Son the express image of the Father's hypostasis. It is plain, then, that however great the Father's hypostasis is, so great also is the express image of the hypostasis; for it is not possible for the express image to be less than the hypostasis seen in it. And the great John too teaches these things, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." For by saying that he was "in the beginning," and not after the beginning, he showed that the beginning was never without the Word. And by showing that the Word was also "with God," he signified the completeness of the Son in relation to the Father; for the Word is seen together with God as a whole, wholly. For if the Word were deficient in his own greatness, so as not to be able to be "with" the whole of God, we would have to think that the part of God that exceeds the Word is without the Word.

But in fact the greatness of the Word is seen together with the whole greatness of God. So there is no room in the divine doctrines for speaking of "greater" and "less."

Let those who say that the begotten is unlike the unbegotten in nature be taught [not to talk nonsense] from the example of Abel and Adam. For Adam was not begotten by the natural birth of human beings; but Abel was begotten from Adam. Now the one who was not begotten is called unbegotten; yet not having been begotten did not hinder Adam from being a man, nor did birth make Abel anything other than human nature; but this one is a man, and that one too, even if the one was begotten and the other without birth. So in the divine doctrines too, not having been begotten and having been begotten produce no difference of nature; but as in the case of Adam and Abel humanity is one, so in the case of the Father and the Son Godhead is one.

Concerning the Holy Spirit, the blasphemers say the same as they say about the Lord, that he too is created. But the church believes equally, concerning the Holy Spirit as concerning the Son, that he is uncreated; and that the whole creation becomes good by participation in the good that lies above it, while the Holy Spirit has no need of anyone to make him good, for he is good by nature, as Scripture testifies; and that the creation is guided by the Spirit, while the Spirit bestows the guidance; the creation is governed, while the Spirit governs; the creation is comforted, while the Spirit comforts; the creation is a slave, while the Spirit sets free; the creation is made wise, while the Spirit gives the grace of wisdom; the creation shares in the gifts, while the Spirit bestows them with authority. "For all these the one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each individually as he wills." And one may find countless other proofs from the Scriptures that all the lofty names fitting for God that are applied by Scripture to the Father and to the Son are seen also in the Holy Spirit: incorruption, blessedness, goodness, wisdom, power, justice, holiness. Every honourable name is said of the Holy Spirit as it is said of the Father and of the Son, except those by which the hypostases are clearly and without confusion distinguished from one another. I mean that the Holy Spirit is called neither Father nor Son; but all the other names by which the Father and the Son are named are applied by Scripture to the Holy Spirit too.

By this, then, we grasp that the Holy Spirit is above creation. So where the Father and where the Son is understood, there the Holy Spirit too is understood. For the Father and Son are above creation, which the sequence of the argument has also testified of the Holy Spirit. So whoever places the Holy Spirit above creation has consistently received the right and sound doctrine; for he will confess one uncreated nature, seen in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

But since, as a proof, as they think, that the Holy Spirit is created, they bring forward to us the prophet's word that says, "He who establishes the thunder and creates the spirit, and declares to men his Christ," we must understand this: that the prophet speaks of another spirit created in the establishing of the thunder, and not the Holy Spirit. For the mystical word names the gospel "thunder." In those, then, in whom faith in the gospel becomes firm and unchangeable, these pass through faith from being flesh to becoming spirit, as the Lord says: "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit." It is God, then, who by establishing the voice of the gospel for those who believe, makes the believer spirit; and the one born of the Spirit, having become spirit through such thunder, declares Christ, as the apostle says that no one can say "Lord Jesus Christ" except in the Holy Spirit.