On the Trinity, Book 8

The blessed Apostle Paul, in laying down the pattern for appointing a bishop and creating by his instructions an entirely new type of member of the Church, has taught us in the following words the sum of all the virtues perfected in him: Holding fast the word according to the doctrine of faith, so that he may be able to exhort to sound doctrine and to refute opponents. For there are many unruly men, empty talkers and deceivers. In this way he points out that the essentials of good order and morals are useful for good service in the priesthood only if the qualities needed for knowing how to teach and preserve the faith are not lacking at the same time; for a man is not immediately made a good and useful priest by a merely innocent life or by a mere knowledge of preaching. An innocent minister benefits only himself unless he is also instructed, while one who is instructed has nothing to support his teaching unless he is innocent. The Apostle's words do not merely fit a man for his life in this world with precepts of honesty and uprightness, nor, on the other hand, do they train a mere Scribe of the Synagogue in skillful teaching for expounding the Law. Rather, the Apostle is training a leader of the Church, made perfect by fully achieving the greatest virtues, so that his life may be adorned by his teaching, and his teaching by his life. So he has given Titus, the person his words were addressed to, an instruction on the perfect practice of religion to this effect: In all things show yourself an example of good works, teaching sound words with seriousness, words that cannot be condemned, so that the opponent may be ashamed, having nothing disgraceful or evil to say about us. This teacher of the Gentiles and chosen doctor of the Church, aware of Christ who spoke and lived within him, knew well that the infection of tainted speech would spread, and that the corruption of deadly doctrine would rage furiously against the sound pattern of faithful words, and that, infusing the poison of its own evil teachings into the inmost soul, it would creep on, doing deep-seated harm. It is of these people that he says, Their word spreads like a cancer, tainting the health of the mind, which it invades with a secret and stealthy contagion. For this reason he wanted the bishop to have the teaching of sound words, a good conscience in the faith and skill in exhortation, to withstand wicked and false and wild contradictions. For there are many who lay claim to the faith but are not subject to it, and who set up a faith for themselves rather than receive the one that is given, puffed up with the thoughts of human vanity, knowing what they wish to know and unwilling to know what is true; for it is a mark of true wisdom sometimes to know what we do not like. But this self-willed wisdom is followed by foolish preaching, for what is foolishly learned must be foolishly preached. Yet how great an evil foolish preaching is to those who hear it, when conceit of wisdom misleads them into foolish opinions! And that is why the Apostle described them this way: There are many unruly, empty talkers and deceivers. So we must raise our voice against arrogant wickedness and boastful arrogance and seductive boastfulness — yes, we must speak against such things through the soundness of our doctrine, the truth of our faith and the sincerity of our preaching, so that we may have the purity of truth and the truth of sound doctrine.

I have just mentioned this saying of the Apostle for this reason: men of crooked minds and false professions, without hope and venomous in speech, force me to speak out against them, because under the guise of religion they instill deadly doctrines, infectious thoughts and corrupt desires into the simple minds of their hearers. And they do this with utter disregard for the true sense of the apostolic teaching, so that the Father is not a Father, the Son is not a Son, and the Faith is not the Faith. In resisting their wild falsehoods, we have carried our reply this far: after proving from the Law that God and God were distinct and that true God was in true God, we then showed from the teaching of evangelists and apostles the perfect and true birth of the Only-begotten God; and lastly, we pointed out in the proper course of our argument that the Son of God is true God, and of a nature identical with the Father's, so that the faith of the Church would neither confess that God is single nor that there are two Gods. For the birth of God would not allow God to be solitary, nor would a perfect birth allow different natures to be ascribed to two Gods. In refuting their empty talk we have a twofold aim. First, we want to teach what is holy and perfect and sound, so that our discourse, by straying down by-paths and crooked ways and struggling out of devious and winding tunnels, does not seem to search for the truth rather than declare it. Our second aim is to show everyone, convincingly, the folly and absurdity of those crafty arguments of their empty and deceitful opinions, which are designed to give a plausible show of seductive truth. It is not enough for us to have pointed out what things are good unless our refutation of their opposites makes them understood to be absolutely good.

But just as it is the nature and effort of the good and wise to prepare themselves wholly to secure either the reality or the opportunity of some precious hope, so that their preparation does not fall short in any respect of what they look for — so in the same way those who are filled with the madness of heretical frenzy make it their chief concern to labor with all the ingenuity of their impiety against the truth of pious faith, so that they may establish their own irreligion against those who are religious, surpass the hope of our life with the hopelessness of their own, and spend more thought on false teaching than we spend on true. Against the pious assertions of our faith they have carefully devised objections of their impious false belief: first, to ask whether we believe in one God; next, whether Christ also is God; and lastly, whether the Father is greater than the Son, so that when they hear us confess that God is one they may use our reply to show that Christ cannot be God. For they do not inquire about the Son whether He is God; all they want, in asking questions about Christ, is to prove that He is not a Son, so that by entrapping people of simple faith they may, through belief in one God, divert them from belief in Christ as God, on the ground that God is no longer one if Christ also must be acknowledged as God. And again, with what subtlety of worldly wisdom they argue when they say, If God is one, whoever that other is shown to be, he will not be God. For if there is another God, He can no longer be one, since nature does not allow there to be only one where there is another, or another where there is only one. Afterward, when they have misled those who are ready to believe and listen by the crafty cunning of this insidious argument, they then apply this proposition (as if they could now establish it by an easier method): that Christ is God in name rather than in nature, because this generic name in Him cannot destroy in anyone that one true belief in one God. And they argue that by this the Father is greater than the Son, because, since the natures are different and there is only one God, the Father is greater by the essential character of His nature; that the Other is only called Son, while He is really a creature subsisting by the will of the Father, because He is less than the Father; and also that He is not God, because God, being one, does not admit another God, since one who is less must necessarily be of a nature alien from that of the one who is greater. And again, how foolish they are in trying to lay down a law for God when they maintain that no birth can come from one single being, because throughout the universe birth arises from the union of two; and further, that the unchangeable God cannot grant birth from Himself to one who is born, because what is changeless is incapable of addition, and the nature of a solitary and single being cannot contain within itself the property of generation.

We, on the contrary, having arrived by spiritual teaching at the faith of the evangelists and apostles, pursuing the hope of eternal blessedness through our confession of the Father and the Son, and having proved from the Law the mystery of God and God, without overstepping the limits of our faith in one God or failing to proclaim that Christ is God, have adopted this method of reply from the Gospels: we declare the true nativity of the Only-begotten God from God the Father, because through it He was both true God and not alien from the nature of the One true God. And so neither could His Godhead be denied nor could He Himself be described as another God, because while the birth made Him God, the nature within Him of one God from God did not separate Him off as another God. And although our human reason led us to this conclusion — that the names of distinct natures could not meet together in the same nature without being one, where the essence of each did not differ in kind — it nevertheless seemed good to prove this from the express sayings of our Lord. After frequently making known that the God of our faith and hope was One, He, in order to affirm the mystery of the One God while declaring and proving His own Godhead, said, I and the Father are one; and, If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and, Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father also; and, Believe Me that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father, or else believe because of the works themselves. He has signified His own birth in the name Father, and He declares that when He is known, the Father is known. He affirms the unity of nature when those who see Him see the Father. He testifies that He is indivisible from the Father when He dwells in the Father, Who dwells in Him. He has the confidence of self-knowledge when He asks that His words be believed on the evidence of the works of His power. And so in this most blessed faith in the perfect birth every error, that of two Gods as well as that of a single God, is abolished, since They Who are one in essence are not one person, and He Who is not one person with Him Who is, is nevertheless so free of any difference from Him that the Two of Them are One God.

Now, since heretics cannot deny these things, because they are so clearly stated and understood, they still pervert them with the most foolish and wicked lies so that they can deny them afterward. They try to refer the words of Christ, I and the Father are one, to a mere concord of unanimity, so that there is in them a unity of will and not of nature; that is, they are one not by essence of being but by identity of will. And in support of their case they use the passage in the Acts of the Apostles, Now the heart and soul of the multitude of those who believed were one, to prove that diverse souls and hearts may be united into one heart and soul through mere conformity of will. Or else they cite these words to the Corinthians, Now he who plants and he who waters are one, to show that since They are one in Their work for our salvation and in the revelation of one mystery, Their unity is a unity of wills. Or again, they quote our Lord's prayer for the salvation of the nations who would believe in Him: I do not pray for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their Word, that they all may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, to show that since men cannot, so to speak, be fused back into God or themselves merge into one undistinguished mass, this oneness must arise from unity of will, as all perform actions pleasing to God and unite with one another in the harmonious accord of their thoughts; and so it is not nature that makes them one, but will.

Clearly, whoever does not know God does not know wisdom. And since Christ is Wisdom, whoever does not know Christ or hates Him must be outside the bounds of wisdom. That is what they do, for instance, who insist that the Lord of Glory, and King of the Universe, and Only-begotten God is a creature of God and not His Son, and who, on top of such foolish lies, show a still more foolish cleverness in defending their falsehood. For even setting aside for a moment the essential character of unity that exists in God the Father and God the Son, they can be refuted from the very passages they cite.

As for those whose soul and heart were one, I ask: were they one through faith in God? Yes, certainly, through faith, for through this the soul and heart of all were one. Again I ask: is the faith one, or is there a second faith? One, undoubtedly, and that on the authority of the Apostle himself, who proclaims one faith just as one Lord, and one baptism, and one hope, and one God. If, then, it is through faith — that is, through the nature of one faith — that all are one, how is it that you do not understand a natural unity in those who are one through the nature of one faith? For all were born again to innocence, to immortality, to the knowledge of God, to the faith of hope. And if these things cannot differ among themselves because there is both one hope and one God, as there is also one Lord and one baptism of regeneration — if these things are one by agreement rather than by nature, then ascribe a unity of will to those also who have been born again into them. If, however, they have been begotten again into the nature of one life and eternity, then, since their soul and heart are one, a unity of will does not account for the case of those who are one by regeneration into the same nature.

These are not conjectures of our own that we offer, nor do we falsely piece together any of these things to deceive the ears of our hearers by perverting the meaning of words; rather, holding fast the pattern of sound teaching, we know and preach what is true. For the Apostle shows that this unity of the faithful arises from the nature of the sacraments when he writes to the Galatians, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. That these are one amid such great diversities of race, condition and sex — is it from an agreement of will or from the unity of the sacrament, since they have one baptism and have all put on one Christ? What good, then, will a concord of minds do here, when they are one in that they have put on one Christ through the nature of one baptism?

Or again, since he who plants and he who waters are one, are they not one because, having themselves been born again in one baptism, they form a ministry of one regenerating baptism? Do they not do the same thing? Are they not one in One? So those who are one through the same thing are one also by nature, not only by will, since they themselves have been made the same thing and are ministers of the same thing and the same power.

The contradiction of fools always serves to prove their folly, because, with regard to the faults they contrive against the truth by the devices of an unwise or crooked understanding, while the truth remains unshaken and immovable, whatever opposes it must be regarded as false and foolish. For heretics, in trying to deceive others with the words, I and the Father are one, so that the unity and like essence of deity would not be acknowledged in them, but only a oneness arising from mutual love and an agreement of wills — these heretics, I say, have brought forward an example of that unity, as we have shown above, even from the words of our Lord, That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us. Anyone who is outside faith in the promises of the Gospel is outside those promises, and by the guilt of an evil understanding has lost all simple hope. Not to know what you believe calls not so much for excuse as for reward, for the greatest service of faith is to hope for what you do not know. But it is the madness of the most consummate wickedness either not to believe things that are understood or to have corrupted the sense in which one believes.

But although human wickedness can pervert the powers of the intellect, the words still keep their meaning. Our Lord prays to His Father that those who will believe in Him may be one, and that as He is in the Father and the Father in Him, so all may be one in Them. Why do you bring in an identity of mind here, why a unity of soul and heart through agreement of will? If it were will that made them one, our Lord would have had no lack of suitable words to pray in this way — Father, as We are one in will, so may they also be one in will, so that we may all be one through agreement. Or could it be that He Who is the Word did not know the meaning of words? And that He Who is Truth did not know how to speak the truth? And that He Who is Wisdom went astray in foolish talk? And that He Who is Power was beset by such weakness that He could not say what He wanted to be understood? He has clearly spoken the true and sincere mysteries of the faith of the Gospel. And He has not only spoken so that we may understand; He has also taught so that we may believe, saying, That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us. First of all, the prayer is for those of whom it is said, That they all may be one. Then the advancement of unity is set forth by a pattern of unity when He says, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, so through the pattern of this unity all might be one in the Father and the Son.

But it is proper to the Father and the Son alone that They should be one by nature, because God is from God, and the Only-begotten from the Unbegotten can subsist in no other nature than that of His origin, so that He Who was begotten exists in the substance of His birth, and the birth possesses no other, different truth of deity than that from which it came; and so our Lord has left us in no doubt about our belief, asserting throughout the whole discourse that follows the nature of this complete unity. For the next words are these, That the world may believe that You sent Me. So the world is to believe that the Son has been sent by the Father because all who will believe in Him will be one in the Father and the Son. And how they will be so we are told right away — And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them. Now I ask whether glory is the same as will, since will is an emotion of the mind, while glory is an ornament or embellishment of nature. So it is the glory received from the Father that the Son has given to all who will believe in Him, and certainly not will. Had will been given, faith would bring no reward, for a necessity of will laid on us would also force faith upon us. But He has shown what the bestowal of the glory He received accomplishes: That they may be one, even as We are one. It is for this purpose, then, that the glory received was bestowed, so that all might be one. So now all are one in glory, because the glory given is none other than the glory that was received; nor has it been given for any reason other than that all should be one. And since all are one through the glory given to the Son and bestowed by the Son on believers, I ask how the Son can be of a different glory from the Father's, since the glory of the Son brings all who believe into the unity of the Father's glory. Now it may be that the expression of human hope in this case is somewhat immoderate, yet it will not be contrary to faith; for though hoping for this would be presumptuous, not to have believed it is sinful, for we have one and the same Author of both our hope and our faith. We will deal with this matter more clearly and at greater length in its proper place, as is fitting. Meanwhile, though, it is easy to see from our present argument that this hope of ours is neither vain nor presumptuous. So through the glory received and given all are one. I hold the faith and recognize the cause of the unity, but I do not yet understand how the glory given makes all one.

Now our Lord has not left the minds of His faithful followers in doubt, but has explained the way His nature operates, saying, That they may be one, as We are one: I in them and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one. Now I ask those who propose a unity of will between Father and Son whether Christ is in us today through truth of nature or through agreement of will. For if the Word has truly been made flesh and we truly receive the Word made flesh as food from the Lord, are we not bound to believe that He dwells in us by nature — He Who, born as a man, has taken on the nature of our flesh, now inseparable from Himself, and has joined the nature of His own flesh to the nature of the eternal Godhead in the sacrament by which His flesh is imparted to us? For in this way we are all one, because the Father is in Christ and Christ is in us. Whoever, then, denies that the Father is in Christ by nature must first deny either that he himself is in Christ by nature or that Christ is in him, because the Father in Christ and Christ in us make us one in Them. So if Christ has indeed taken to Himself the flesh of our body, and that Man Who was born from Mary was indeed Christ, and we indeed receive the flesh of His body in a mystery — (and for this reason we shall be one, because the Father is in Him and He is in us) — how can a unity of will be maintained, since the special property of nature received through the sacrament is the sacrament of a perfect unity?

The words we use to speak of the things of God must not be taken in a merely human and worldly sense, nor must anyone use violent and headstrong preaching to wrench the perverse meaning of a foreign and impious interpretation out of the soundness of heavenly words. Let us read what is written, let us understand what we read, and then fulfill the demands of a perfect faith. For what we say about the reality of Christ's nature within us is foolish and impious unless we have been taught it by Him. For He Himself says, My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood dwells in Me, and I in him. There is no room left for doubt about the reality of the flesh and blood. For now, on the declaration of the Lord Himself and by our own faith, it is truly flesh and truly blood. And when these are eaten and drunk, they bring it about that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Is this not true? Yet those who claim that Christ Jesus is not truly God are welcome to find it false. So He Himself is in us through the flesh, and we are in Him, while together with Him we ourselves are in God.

Now He Himself testifies to how we are in Him through the sacrament of the flesh and blood given to us, saying, And the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also; because I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. If He wanted to indicate a mere unity of will, why did He set out a kind of gradation and sequence in completing the unity, unless it was that, since He was in the Father through the nature of Deity, and we, by contrast, are in Him through His birth in the body, He wanted us to believe that He is in us through the mystery of the sacraments? And so a perfect unity could be taught through a Mediator: while we dwell in Him, He remains in the Father, and while remaining in the Father He remains in us as well; and so we could arrive at unity with the Father, since we also dwell naturally in Him Who dwells naturally in the Father by birth, while He Himself also remains naturally in us.

Again, He Himself has testified to how natural this unity in us is, in these words — Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood dwells in Me, and I in him. For no one will dwell in Him except the one in whom He Himself dwells, for the only flesh He has taken to Himself is the flesh of those who have taken His. He had already taught the sacrament of this perfect unity earlier, saying, As the living Father sent Me, and I live through the Father, so whoever eats My flesh will also live through Me. So He lives through the Father, and just as He lives through the Father, we live through His flesh. For every comparison is chosen to shape our understanding, so that we can grasp the subject we are dealing with by the help of the analogy set before us. This is the cause of our life: we have Christ dwelling within our fleshly selves through the flesh, and we will live through Him in the same way that He lives through the Father. If, then, we live naturally through Him according to the flesh, that is, if we have shared in the nature of His flesh, must He not naturally have the Father within Himself according to the Spirit, since He Himself lives through the Father? And He lives through the Father because His birth has not implanted in Him a foreign and different nature: His very being is from the Father, yet no barrier of unlike nature divides Him from the Father, for through His birth He has the Father within Himself in the power of the nature.

I have dwelt on these facts because the heretics falsely maintain that the union between Father and Son is one of will only, and they use the example of our own union with God, as though we were united to the Son, and through the Son to the Father, by mere obedience and a devout will, and the sacrament of the Body and Blood granted us none of the natural reality of communion; and yet the glory of the Son, given to us through the Son dwelling in us according to the flesh while we are united in Him bodily and inseparably, calls us to preach the mystery of the true and natural unity.

So we have replied to the folly of our violent opponents only to prove that their falsehoods are empty, and so to keep them from misleading the unwary with the error of their vain and foolish statements. But the faith of the Gospel did not strictly need our answer. The Lord prayed on our behalf for our union with God, but God keeps His own unity and dwells in it. They are one not through some mysterious arrangement of God but through a birth of nature, for God loses nothing in begetting Him from Himself. They are one, for the things that are not snatched out of His hand are not snatched out of the hand of the Father, for when He is known, the Father is known; for when He is seen, the Father is seen; for what He speaks, the Father speaks as dwelling in Him; for in His works the Father works; for He is in the Father and the Father in Him. This comes not from creation but from birth; it is brought about not by will but by power; what speaks is not an agreement of mind but nature; because to be created and to be born are not one and the same, any more than to will and to be able are; nor is it the same thing to agree and to remain together.

So we do not deny a unanimity between the Father and the Son — for heretics habitually tell this lie, that because we do not accept agreement alone as the bond of unity, we declare Them to be at odds. But let them hear how it is that we do not deny such a unanimity. The Father and the Son are one in nature, honor, and power, and the same nature cannot will contrary things. Further, let them hear the Son's testimony about the unity of nature between Himself and the Father, for He says, When the Advocate has come, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me. The Advocate will come, and the Son will send Him from the Father, and He is the Spirit of truth Who proceeds from the Father. Let the whole crowd of heretics rouse the sharpest powers of their intelligence; let them now look for whatever lies they can tell the unlearned, and declare what it is that the Son sends from the Father. He Who sends shows His power in what He sends. But how are we to regard what He sends from the Father: as received, or sent out, or begotten? For His words that He will send from the Father must imply one of these modes of sending. And He will send from the Father the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father; so He cannot be the Recipient, since He is revealed as the Sender. It only remains to settle our conviction on this point: whether we are to believe in the going out of a co-existent Being or in the procession of a begotten Being.

For now I refrain from exposing the liberties they take in speculation, with some of them holding that the Paraclete Spirit comes from the Father or from the Son. For our Lord has not left this uncertain, since right after these same words He spoke this way — I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth: for He will not speak on His own: but whatever He hears, that He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me: for He will receive from what is Mine and will declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine: that is why I said, He will receive from what is Mine and will declare it to you. So He receives from the Son, and He is both sent by the Son and proceeds from the Father. Now I ask whether receiving from the Son is the same thing as proceeding from the Father. But if one believes that receiving from the Son differs from proceeding from the Father, surely receiving from the Son and receiving from the Father will be regarded as one and the same thing. For our Lord Himself says, Because He will receive from what is Mine and will declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine: that is why I said, He will receive from what is Mine and will declare it to you. What He will receive — whether power, or excellence, or teaching — the Son has said must be received from Him, and again He indicates that this same thing must be received from the Father. For when He says that all things that the Father has are His, and that for this reason He declared that it must be received from what is His own, He also teaches that what is received from the Father is still received from Himself, because all things that the Father has are His. Such a unity admits no difference, and it makes no difference from whom something is received when what the Father gives is described as given by the Son. Is a mere unity of will being put forward here too? All things that the Father has are the Son's, and all things that the Son has are the Father's. For He Himself says, And all that is Mine is Yours, and what is Yours is Mine. This is not yet the place to show why He said, For He will receive from what is Mine: for this points to some later time, when it is revealed that He will receive. For now, at any rate, He says that He will receive from Him, because all things that the Father had were His. Sever the unity of the nature if you can, and introduce some necessary unlikeness through which the Son might not exist in unity of nature. For the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father and is sent from the Father by the Son. All things that the Father has are the Son's; and for this reason whatever He Who is to be sent will receive, He will receive from the Son, because all things that the Father has are the Son's. The nature keeps its law in every respect, and because Both are One, the same Godhead is shown to exist in Both through generation and birth, since the Son declares that what the Spirit of truth will receive from the Father is to be given by Himself. So the perversity of heretics must not be given unchecked license for impious beliefs when they refuse to acknowledge that this saying of the Lord — that because all things that the Father has are His, therefore the Spirit of truth will receive from Him — refers to unity of nature.

Let us listen to that chosen vessel and teacher of the Gentiles, who had already commended the faith of the people of Rome for their understanding of the truth. For, wanting to teach the unity of nature in the case of the Father and the Son, he says this: But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God is in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him Who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit Who dwells in you. We are all spiritual if the Spirit of God dwells in us. But this Spirit of God is also the Spirit of Christ, and though the Spirit of Christ is in us, the Spirit of Him Who raised Christ from the dead is also in us, and He Who raised Christ from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies too because of His Spirit that dwells in us. So we are given life because of the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us, through Him Who raised Christ from the dead. And since the Spirit of Him Who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us, and yet the Spirit of Christ is in us, the Spirit that is in us still cannot be anything but the Spirit of God. Separate, then, heretic, the Spirit of Christ from the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ raised from the dead from the Spirit of God that raises Christ from the dead; when the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us is the Spirit of God, and when the Spirit of Christ Who was raised from the dead is still the Spirit of God Who raises Christ from the dead.

And now I ask whether you think that the Spirit of God signifies a nature or a property belonging to a nature. For a nature is not identical with a thing belonging to it, just as a man is not identical with what belongs to a man, nor fire with what belongs to fire itself; and in the same way God is not the same as what belongs to God.

For I am aware that the Son of God is revealed under the title Spirit of God so that we may understand the presence of the Father in Him, and that the term Spirit of God can be used to indicate Either, and that this is shown on the authority not only of prophets but of evangelists too, when it is said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; therefore He has anointed Me. And again, Behold My Servant Whom I have chosen, My beloved in Whom My soul is well pleased; I will put My Spirit upon Him. And when the Lord Himself bears witness about Himself: But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. For these passages seem beyond any doubt to denote either Father or Son, while still showing the excellence of the nature.

For I think that the expression 'Spirit of God' was used of Each so that we would not believe that the Son was present in the Father, or the Father in the Son, in a merely bodily way, that is, so that God would not be thought to stay in one position and exist nowhere else apart from Himself. For a man, or anything else like him, cannot be in another place when he is in one, because what is in one place is confined to the place where it is: his nature cannot allow him to be everywhere when he exists in some one position. But God is a living Force, of infinite power, present everywhere and absent nowhere, and He shows His whole self through what belongs to Him, and signifies that what belongs to Him is nothing other than Himself, so that where it is, He Himself may be understood to be. Yet we must not think, in a bodily way, that when He is in one place He stops being everywhere, for through what belongs to Him He is still present in all places, while the things that are His are nothing other than His own self. These things have been said to help us understand what is meant by 'nature.'

Now I think it should be clearly understood that the Spirit of God denotes God the Father, because our Lord Jesus Christ declared that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him since He anoints Him and sends Him to preach the Gospel. For in Him the excellence of the Father's nature is made manifest, showing through the mystery of this spiritual anointing that the Son shares His nature even when born in the flesh, since after the birth ratified in His baptism this sign of His inherent Sonship was heard as a voice bore witness from Heaven: You are My Son; today I have begotten You. For not even He Himself can be understood as resting on Himself, or coming to Himself from Heaven, or giving Himself the title of Son: all this demonstration was for our faith, so that under the mystery of a complete and true birth we would recognize that the unity of the nature dwells in the Son, Who had also begun to be man. So we have found that the Father is designated by the Spirit of God; but we understand that the Son is indicated in the same way when He says: But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. That is, He shows clearly that by the power of His nature He casts out devils, which cannot be cast out except by the Spirit of God. The phrase 'Spirit of God' also denotes the Paraclete Spirit, and that on the testimony not only of prophets but also of apostles, when it is said: This is what was spoken through the Prophet, It will come to pass on the last day, says the Lord, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh, and their sons and their daughters will prophesy. And we learn that all this prophecy was fulfilled in the Apostles when, after the Holy Spirit was sent, they all spoke in the tongues of the Gentiles.

We have necessarily set these things out with this purpose: so that wherever the deception of heretics turns, it may still be held in check by the boundaries and limits of the gospel truth. For Christ dwells in us, and where Christ dwells God dwells. And when the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, this indwelling does not mean that any Spirit other than the Spirit of God dwells in us. But if it is understood that Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, we must still recognize this Spirit of God as also the Spirit of Christ. And since the nature dwells in us as the nature of one substantive Being, we must regard the nature of the Son as identical with the nature of the Father, since the Holy Spirit, Who is both the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God, is proved to be a Being of one nature. So I ask now: how can They fail to be one by nature? The Spirit of Truth proceeds from the Father; He is sent by the Son and receives from the Son. But all things that the Father has are the Son's, and for this reason He Who receives from Him is the Spirit of God but at the same time the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit is a Being of the nature of the Son, but the same Being is of the nature of the Father. He is the Spirit of Him Who raised Christ from the dead; but this is none other than the Spirit of Christ Who was raised in this way. If it can be shown that the Spirit that is of God is not also the Spirit of Christ, then the nature of Christ and the nature of God must differ in some respect, so as not to be the same.

But as for you, heretic, as you rave wildly and are driven about by the Spirit of your deadly doctrine, the Apostle seizes and restrains you, establishing Christ for us as the foundation of our faith, well aware also of that saying of our Lord, If anyone loves Me, he will also keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. For by this He testified that while the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, the Spirit of God dwells in us, and that the Spirit of Him Who was raised from the dead does not differ from the Spirit of Him Who raised Him from the dead. For they come and dwell in us: and I ask, will they come as beings foreign to each other, joined in association, and make Their home, or will they come in unity of nature? No, the teacher of the Gentiles argues that it is not two Spirits — the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ — that are present in those who believe, but the Spirit of Christ, which is also the Spirit of God. This is not a joint indwelling but one indwelling; yet it is an indwelling under the mysterious appearance of a joint indwelling, for it is not that two Spirits dwell in us, nor is one that dwells in us different from the other. For the Spirit of God is in us and the Spirit of Christ is also in us, and when the Spirit of Christ is in us, the Spirit of God is also in us. And so, since what is of God is also of Christ, and what is of Christ is also of God, Christ cannot be anything different from what God is. So Christ is God, one Spirit with God.

Now the Apostle asserts that the words in the Gospel, I and the Father are one, imply unity of nature and not a solitary single Being, as he writes to the Corinthians, Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God calls Jesus anathema. Do you see now, heretic, in what spirit you call Christ a creature? For since those who have served the creature more than the Creator are under a curse, learn what you are when you assert that Christ is a creature, since you know full well that the worship of the creature is accursed. And notice what follows: And no one can call Jesus Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Do you see what you lack when you deny Christ what is His own? If you hold that Christ is Lord through His Divine nature, you have the Holy Spirit. But if He is Lord only by a name of adoption, you lack the Holy Spirit and are driven by a spirit of error, because no one can call Jesus Lord except in the Holy Spirit. But when you say that He is a creature rather than God, though you call Him Lord, you still do not say that He is the Lord. For to you He is Lord as one of a common class and by a familiar title, rather than by nature. Yet learn His nature from Paul.

For the Apostle goes on to say, Now there are varieties of gifts, but there is the same Spirit; and there are varieties of ministries, but one and the same Lord; and there are varieties of workings, but the same God, Who works all things in all. But to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for what is profitable. In this passage we see a fourfold statement: in the variety of gifts it is the same Spirit, in the variety of ministries it is the very same Lord, in the variety of workings it is the same God, and in the bestowal of what is profitable there is a manifestation of the Spirit. And so that the bestowal of what is profitable might be recognized in the manifestation of the Spirit, he continues: To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit; to another the gift of healing in the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another the discerning of spirits; to another kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.

Indeed, what we called the fourth statement, that is, the manifestation of the Spirit in the bestowal of what is profitable, has a clear meaning. For the Apostle has listed the profitable gifts through which this manifestation of the Spirit took place. In these various activities that Gift is displayed in no uncertain light, the Gift our Lord had spoken of to the apostles when He told them not to leave Jerusalem: but wait, He said, for the promise of the Father which you heard from My lips: for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, which you shall also receive not many days from now. And again: But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the farthest part of the earth. He tells them to wait for the promise of the Father, which they had heard from His lips. We may be sure that here we have a reference to the same promise of the Father. So it is by these miraculous workings that the manifestation of the Spirit takes place. For the gift of the Spirit is made manifest where wisdom speaks and the words of life are heard, and where there is the knowledge that comes from God-given insight, so that we should not, like beasts, fail through ignorance of God to know the Author of our life; or by faith in God, so that we should not, by refusing to believe the Gospel of God, stand outside His Gospel; or by the gift of healings, so that by the cure of diseases we should bear witness to the grace of Him Who bestows these things; or by the working of miracles, so that what we do may be understood to be the power of God; or by prophecy, so that through our understanding of doctrine we might be known to be taught by God; or by the discerning of spirits, so that we should not be unable to tell whether someone speaks with a holy or a perverted spirit; or by kinds of tongues, so that speaking in tongues may be given as a sign of the gift of the Holy Spirit; or by the interpretation of tongues, so that the faith of those who hear may not be endangered through ignorance, since the interpreter of a tongue explains the tongue to those who do not know it. So in all these things distributed to each one for profit there is the manifestation of the Spirit, and the gift of the Spirit is evident through these marvelous benefits bestowed on each.

Now the blessed Apostle Paul, in revealing the secret of these heavenly mysteries, which are so hard for human understanding to grasp, has kept his statement clear and his caution carefully worded, to show that these various gifts are given through the Spirit and in the Spirit (for to be given through the Spirit and to be given in the Spirit are not the same thing), because a gift that is exercised in the Spirit is still granted through the Spirit. But he sums up these varieties of gifts this way: Now one and the same Spirit works all these things, dividing to each one as He wills. So I now ask what Spirit works these things, dividing to each one as He wills: is it He through Whom or He in Whom this distribution of gifts takes place? But if anyone dares to say that the same Person is meant, the Apostle will refute so faulty an opinion, for he says above, And there are varieties of workings, but the same God Who works all things in all. So there is one Who distributes and another in Whom the distribution is granted. Yet know that it is always God Who works all these things, but in such a way that Christ works, and the Son in His working performs the Father's work. And if you confess in the Holy Spirit that Jesus is Lord, understand the force of that threefold indication in the Apostle's letter: in the varieties of gifts it is the same Spirit, and in the varieties of ministries it is the same Lord, and in the varieties of workings it is the same God; and again, it is one Spirit that works all things, distributing to each as He wills. And grasp, if you can, the idea that the Lord in the distribution of ministries and God in the distribution of workings are this one and the same Spirit Who both works and distributes as He wills; because in the distribution of gifts there is one Spirit, and the same Spirit works and distributes.

But if this one Spirit of one Divinity, one in both God and Lord through the mystery of the birth, does not satisfy you, then show me what Spirit both works and distributes these various gifts to us, and in what Spirit He does this. But you must show me nothing except what agrees with our faith, because the Apostle shows us Who is to be understood, saying, For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ. He affirms that the varieties of gifts come from one Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the body of all. For after making the Lord known in ministry, and making God known in workings, he still shows that one Spirit both works and distributes all these things, distributing these varieties of His gracious gifts for the perfecting of one body.

Unless perhaps we think the Apostle did not hold to the principle of unity when he said, And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord, and there are varieties of workings, but the same God. On this view, because he referred ministries to the Lord and workings to God, he would appear not to have understood one and the same Being in ministries and operations. Learn how these members that minister are also members that work, when he says, You are the body of Christ, and members of Him. For God has appointed some in the Church: first apostles, in whom is the word of wisdom; second prophets, in whom is the gift of knowledge; third teachers, in whom is the doctrine of faith; then mighty works, among which are the healing of diseases, the power to help, governments by the prophets, and gifts of either speaking or interpreting various kinds of tongues. Clearly these are the Church's agents of ministry and work, of whom the body of Christ consists; and God has ordained them. But perhaps you maintain that they have not been ordained by Christ, because it was God Who ordained them. But you will hear what the Apostle himself says: Now to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And again, He who descended is the same one who also ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things. And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry. Are not the gifts of ministry, then, Christ's, while they are also the gifts of God?

But if impiety has taken it upon itself to argue that, because he says, The same Lord and the same God, they are not in unity of nature, I will support this interpretation with what you consider even stronger arguments. For the same Apostle says, But for us there is one God, the Father, from Whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, and we through Him. And again, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is both through all and in us all. By these words, one God and one Lord, it would seem that the property of being God is attributed only to God, as to the one God, since the property of oneness does not admit partnership with another. Truly, how rare and hard to attain such spiritual gifts are! How truly the manifestation of the Spirit is seen in the bestowal of such useful gifts! And with good reason this order has been appointed in the distribution of graces, that the first should be the word of wisdom; for this is true: No one can call Jesus Lord except in the Holy Spirit, because without this word of wisdom Christ could not be understood to be Lord; that the word of understanding should follow next, so that we might speak with understanding what we know, and might know the word of wisdom; and that the third gift should consist of faith, since those leading and higher graces would be unprofitable gifts if we did not believe that He is God. So in the true sense of this greatest and noblest utterance of the Apostle, no heretics possess either the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge or the faith of religion, since willful wickedness, being incapable of understanding, is empty of knowledge of the word and of genuine faith. For no one utters what he does not know, nor can he believe what he cannot utter; and so when the Apostle, a proselyte from the Law who had been called to the gospel of Christ, preached one God, he attained the confession of a perfect faith. And so that the simplicity of a seemingly unguarded statement might not give heretics any opportunity to deny the birth of the Son through the preaching of one God, the Apostle has set forth one God while indicating His distinctive attribute in these words, One God the Father, from Whom are all things, and we in Him, so that He Who is God might also be acknowledged as Father. Then, since this bare belief in one God the Father would not be enough for salvation, he added, And one, our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, and we through Him, showing that the purity of saving faith consists in the preaching of one God and one Lord, so that we might believe in one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ. For he knew very well that our Lord had said, For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life. But in fixing the order of the Church's faith, and basing our faith on the Father and the Son, he has expressed the mystery of that indivisible and indissoluble unity and faith in the words one God and one Lord.

First of all, then, heretic, you who have no part in the Spirit Who spoke through the Apostle, learn your folly. If you misuse the confession of one God to deny the Godhead of Christ, on the ground that where there is one God He must be regarded as solitary, and that being One is characteristic of and exclusive to Him Who is One — what sense will you give to the statement that Jesus Christ is one Lord? For if, as you claim, the fact that the Father alone is God has left Christ no possibility of Godhead, then by your reasoning the fact that Christ is one Lord must also leave God no possibility of being Lord, since you insist that being One must be the essential property of Him Who is One. So if you deny that the one Lord Christ is also God, you must deny that the one God the Father is also Lord. And what will the greatness of God amount to if He is not Lord, and the power of the Lord if He is not God, since it (namely, the greatness or power) makes what is Lord to be God, and makes what is God to be Lord?

Now the Apostle, holding to the true sense of the Lord's saying, I and the Father are one, asserts that Both are One, and signifies that Both are One not in the way a single being is alone, but in the unity of the Spirit; for one God the Father and one Christ the Lord, since Each is both Lord and God, still do not admit either two Gods or two Lords into our creed. So Each is one, and though one, neither is alone. We will not be able to express the mystery of the faith except in the words of the Apostle. For there is one God and one Lord, and the fact that there is one God and one Lord proves that there is at once Lordship in God and Godhead in the Lord. You cannot maintain a union of person and so make God single; nor can you divide the Spirit and so keep the Two from being One. Nor will you be able to separate the power in the one God and one Lord, so that He Who is Lord would not also be God, and He Who is God would not also be Lord. For the Apostle, in stating the Names, has taken care not to preach either two Gods or two Lords. And for this reason he has used a method of teaching that sets forth one God in the one Lord Christ as well, and one Lord in the one God the Father as well. And so as not to mislead us into the blasphemy that God is solitary, which would destroy the birth of the Only-begotten God, he has confessed both Father and Christ.

Unless perhaps the frenzy of utter desperation will dare to go so far as to claim that, since the Apostle has called Christ Lord, no one ought to acknowledge Him as anything but Lord, and that because He has the property of Lord He does not have the true Godhead. But Paul knows very well that Christ is God, for he says, To whom belong the fathers, and from whom comes Christ, Who is God over all. It is no creature here who is counted as God; no, it is the God of created things Who is God over all.

Now learn also, from that very saying of the Apostle we are now discussing, that He Who is God over all is also Spirit inseparable from the Father. For when he confessed one God the Father, from Whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, what difference, I ask, did he intend by saying that all things are from God and that all things are through Christ? Can He from Whom and through Whom are all things possibly be regarded as being of a nature and spirit separable from Himself? For all things have come into being out of nothing through the Son, and the Apostle has referred them to God the Father, from Whom are all things, but also to the Son, through Whom are all things. And I find no difference here, since the same power is exercised by Each. For if, regarding the subsistence of the universe, it was an exact and sufficient statement that created things are from God, what need was there to state that the things that are from God are through Christ, unless being through Christ and being from God are one and the same thing? But just as it has been ascribed to Each of Them that They are Lord and God in such a way that each title belongs to Both, so too from Whom and through Whom are here referred to Both; and this is to show the unity of Both, not to make known that God is single. The Apostle's language gives no opening to wicked error, nor is his faith too exalted for careful statement. For by those especially fitting words he has guarded against being understood to mean two Gods or a solitary God: while he rejects oneness of person, he still does not divide the unity of Godhead. For this phrase, from Whom are all things and through Whom are all things, although it did not posit a solitary Deity in sole possession of majesty, must still set forth One not different in power to act, since from Whom are all things and through Whom are all things must signify an Author of the same nature engaged in the same work. He affirms, moreover, that Each is properly of the same nature. For after proclaiming the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, and after asserting the mystery of His inscrutable judgments and admitting our ignorance of His ways past finding out, he has still made use of the exercise of human faith, and paid this homage to the depth of the unsearchable and inscrutable mysteries of heaven, For from Him and through Him and in Him are all things: to Him be glory forever. Amen. To indicate the one nature, he uses what can only be the work of one nature.

For since he has specially ascribed to God that all things are from Him, and he has assigned to Christ as His own property that all things are through Him, and it is now the glory of God that from Him and through Him and in Him are all things; and since the Spirit of God is the same as the Spirit of Christ, or since in the ministry of the Lord and in the working of God one Spirit both works and divides, They must be one Whose properties are those of one; for in the same Lord the Son and in the same God the Father, one and the same Spirit, distributing in the same Holy Spirit, accomplishes all things. How worthy this saint is of the knowledge of exalted and heavenly mysteries, adopted and chosen to share in the secret things of God, keeping a fitting silence over things that may not be uttered, a true apostle of Christ! How, by proclaiming his clear teaching, he has restrained the imaginings of human willfulness, confessing as he does one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ, so that no one can preach either two Gods or one solitary God; for He Who is not one person cannot multiply into two Gods, nor, on the other hand, can They Who are not two Gods be understood to be one single person; and meanwhile the revelation of God as Father demonstrates the true birth of Christ.

Stick out your quivering, hissing tongues now, you vipers of heresy, whether you are Sabellius or Photinus, or you who now preach that the Only-begotten God is a creature. Whoever denies the Son will hear of one God the Father, because, since a father becomes a father only by having a son, this name Father necessarily implies the existence of the Son. And again, let him who takes from the Son the unity of an identical nature acknowledge one Lord Jesus Christ. For unless He is one Lord through unity of the Spirit, no room will be left for God the Father to be Lord. Again, let him who holds that the Son became Son in time and by His Incarnation learn that all things are through Him, and we through Him, and that His timeless Infinity was creating all things before time began. And meanwhile let him read again that there is one hope of our calling, and one baptism, and one faith; if, after that, he sets himself against the preaching of the Apostle, then, accursed for framing strange doctrines of his own invention, he is neither called nor baptized nor a believer; because the one faith of one hope and baptism lies in one God the Father and in one Lord Jesus Christ. And no alien doctrine can boast that it has a place among the truths that belong to one God and Lord and hope and baptism and faith.

So the one faith is to confess the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father through the unity of an indivisible nature, not confused but inseparable, not intermingled but identical, not conjoined but coexisting, not incomplete but perfect. For there is birth, not separation; there is a Son, not an adoption; and He is God, not a creature. Nor is He a God of a different kind, but the Father and Son are one: for the nature was not altered by birth so as to become alien to the property of its source. So the Apostle holds the faith that the Son dwells in the Father and the Father in the Son when he proclaims that for him there is one God the Father and one Lord Christ, since in Christ the Lord there was also God, and in God the Father there was also Lord, and the Two of Them are that unity which is God, and the Two of Them are also that unity which is the Lord; for reason shows that there must be something imperfect in God unless He is Lord, and in the Lord unless He is God. And so, since Both are one, and Both are implied under either name, and neither exists apart from the unity, the Apostle has not gone beyond the preaching of the Gospel in his teaching, nor does Christ, when He speaks in Paul, differ from the words He spoke while He remained in the world in bodily form.

For the Lord had said in the gospels, Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you: for the Father, God Himself, has sealed Him. So they said to Him, What must we do to work the works of God? And He said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent. In setting forth the mystery of His Incarnation and His Godhead, our Lord has also expressed the teaching of our faith and hope: that we should work for food, not the food that perishes but the food that endures forever; that we should remember that this food of eternity is given to us by the Son of Man; that we should know the Son of Man as sealed by God the Father; that we should know that this is the work of God, namely, faith in Him Whom He has sent. And Who is it Whom the Father has sent? The very One Whom the Father has sealed. And Who is He Whom the Father has sealed? Truly, the Son of Man, the very one who gives the food of eternal life. And further, who are they to whom He gives it? Those who will work for the food that does not perish. So the work for this food is at the same time the work of God, namely, to believe in Him Whom He has sent. But these words are spoken by the Son of Man. And how will the Son of Man give the food of eternal life? Why, anyone who does not know that the Son of Man, who bestows food to eternal life, has been sealed by God the Father does not know the mystery of his own salvation. At this point I now ask: in what sense are we to understand that the Son of Man has been sealed by God the Father?

First of all, we ought to recognize that God has spoken not for His own sake but for ours, and that He has adapted the language of His speech so far as to enable the weakness of our nature to grasp and understand it. For after the Jews rebuked Him for making Himself equal to God by claiming to be the Son of God, He had answered that He Himself did everything the Father did, and that He had received all judgment from the Father; and further, that He must be honored just as the Father is. And having already declared Himself the Son in all these things, He had made Himself equal to the Father in honor, power and nature. Afterward He had said that as the Father had life in Himself, so He had given the Son to have life in Himself, and by this He indicated that, by virtue of the mystery of the birth, He possessed the unity of the same nature. For when He says that He has what the Father has, He means that He has the Father's very self. For God is not a composite being in the human way, so that in Him there is a difference of kind between Possessor and Possessed; rather, all that He is is life, that is, a nature that is complete, absolute and infinite, not composed of dissimilar elements but with one life permeating the whole. And since this life was given in the same way as it was possessed, although the fact that it was given clearly reveals the birth of the Recipient, it still does not involve a difference of kind, since the life given was the same as the life possessed.

So after this many-sided and precise revelation of the presence of the Father's nature in Himself, He goes on to say, For the Father, God Himself, has sealed Him. It is the nature of a seal to show the whole form of the figure engraved on it, so that an impression taken from it reproduces it in every respect; and since the impression receives the whole of what is stamped on it, it also displays wholly in itself whoever has been stamped on it. Yet this comparison is not adequate to illustrate the Divine birth, because seals involve matter, a difference of nature, and an act of impression, by which the likeness of stronger natures is stamped onto things of a more yielding nature. But the Only-begotten God, Who through the Mystery of our salvation was also the Son of Man, wishing to show us the likeness of His Father's own nature in Himself, said that He was sealed by God. He said this because the Son of Man was about to give the food of eternal life, so that by this we might perceive in Him the power of giving food for eternity, since He possessed within Himself all the fullness of His Father's form, that is, of the God Who sealed Him: so that what God had sealed would display in itself nothing other than the form of the God Who sealed it. The Lord spoke these things to the Jews, who could not accept His saying because of their unbelief.

But in our case the preacher of the Gospel, through the Spirit of Christ Who spoke through him, instills the knowledge of this, His own nature, when he says, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a thing to grasp at, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. For He Whom God had sealed could be nothing other than the form of God, and what has been sealed in the form of God must at the same time present, imaged within itself, all that God possesses. And for this reason the Apostle taught that He Whom God sealed is God remaining in the form of God. For when he is about to speak of the Mystery of the body assumed and born in Him, he says, He did not consider being equal with God a thing to grasp at, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. As for His being in the form of God, by virtue of God's seal on Him He still remained God. But since He was to take the form of a servant and become obedient to death, not grasping at His equality with God, He emptied Himself through obedience to take the form of a slave. And He emptied Himself of the form of God, that is, of that in which He was equal with God — not that He regarded His equality with God as any encroachment — although He was in the form of God and equal with God and sealed by God as God.

At this point I ask whether He Who remains God in the form of God is a God of another kind, as we see with seals in the relation between the likenesses that stamp and those that are stamped, since a steel die pressed into lead or a gem pressed into wax shapes the figure cut into it or imprints whatever stands in relief on it. But if anyone is so foolish and senseless as to think that what God fashions out of what is His own to be God is anything but God, and that He Who is in the form of God is in any respect anything other than God after the mystery of His Incarnation and of His humility, made perfect through obedience even to the death of the cross, he will hear, from the confession of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and of every tongue, that Jesus is in the glory of God the Father. If, then, He remains in such glory when His form has become that of a slave, how, I ask, did He remain when He was in the form of God? Must not Christ the Spirit have been in the nature of God — for this is what 'in the glory of God' means — when Christ as Jesus, that is, born as man, exists in the glory of God the Father?

In everything the blessed Apostle preserves the unchangeable teaching of the Gospel faith. The Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed as God in such a way that the Apostle's faith neither falls away into confessing two Gods by calling Him a God of a different order, nor leaves an opening for the unholy doctrine of a single and solitary God by making God the Son inseparable from the Father. For when he says in the form of God and in the glory of the Father, the Apostle neither teaches that They differ from one another nor allows us to think of Him as not existing. For He Who is in the form of God neither ends up becoming another God nor loses His own Godhead: He cannot be severed from the form of God, since He exists in it, nor is He Who is in the form of God not God. Just as He Who is in the glory of God cannot be anything other than God, so, since He is God in the glory of God, He cannot be proclaimed as another god, different from the true God, because by the very fact that He is in the glory of God He possesses by nature, from Him in Whose glory He is, the property of divinity.

But there is no danger that the one faith will stop being one through diversity in the way it is preached. The Evangelist had taught that our Lord said, Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father also. But has Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, forgotten or held back the meaning of the Lord's words when he says, Who is the image of the invisible God? I ask whether He is the visible likeness of the invisible God, and whether the infinite God can also be presented to view in the likeness of a finite form? For a likeness must repeat the form of the thing it is a likeness of. Let those, however, who insist on a nature of a different kind in the Son decide what kind of likeness of the invisible God they want the Son to be. Is it a bodily likeness exposed to view, moving from place to place with a human gait and motion? No, but let them remember that according to the Gospels and the Prophets, Christ is a Spirit and God is a Spirit. If they confine this Christ the Spirit within the limits of shape and body, such a bodily Christ will not be the likeness of the invisible God, nor will a finite limitation represent what is infinite.

But as it is, the Lord did not leave us in doubt: Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father also; nor was the Apostle silent about His nature: Who is the image of the invisible God. For the Lord had said, If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me, teaching them to see the Father in Himself because He did the works of the Father, so that by perceiving the power of His nature they might understand the nature of the power they perceived. So the Apostle, proclaiming that this is the image of God, says, Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in Him all things were made in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him and in Him, and He is before all, and for Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the Church; He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that in all things He might be preeminent. For it pleased the Father that all the fullness should dwell in Him, and that through Him all things should be reconciled to Him. So through the power of these works He is the image of God. For surely the Creator of invisible things is not compelled by any necessity inherent in His nature to be the visible image of the invisible God. And so that He would not be regarded as the likeness of the form rather than of the nature, He is called the likeness of the invisible God, so that we may understand, from His exercise of the powers (not the invisible attributes) of the Divine nature, that this nature is in Him.

He is therefore the first-born of every creature because all things were created in Him. And so that no one would dare to attribute to anyone other than Him the creation of all things in Himself, he says, All things have been created through Him and in Him, and He is before all, and for Him all things hold together. So all things hold together for Him Who is before all things, and in Whom all things are. This describes the origin of created things. But concerning the dispensation by which He assumed our body, he adds, And He is the head of the body, the Church: He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that in all things He might be preeminent. For it pleased the Father that all the fullness should dwell in Him, and that through Him all things should be reconciled to Him. The Apostle has assigned to the spiritual mysteries their material effects. For He Who is the image of the invisible God is Himself the head of His body, the Church, and He Who is the first-born of every creature is at the same time the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that in all things He might be preeminent: He is the Body for us, while He is also the image of God, since He Who is the first-born of created things is at the same time the first-born for eternity. So just as spiritual things, created in the First-born, owe it to Him that they endure, so all human things also owe it to Him that in the First-born from the dead they are born again into eternity. For He Himself is the beginning, Who as Son is therefore the image, and because He is the image, is of God. Further, He is the first-born of every created thing, possessing in Himself the origin of the universe; and again He is the head of His body, the Church, and the first-born from the dead, so that in all things He is preeminent. And because all things hold together for Him, the fullness of the Godhead is pleased to dwell in Him, for in Him all things are reconciled through Him to Him, through Whom all things were created in Himself.

Do you now see what it is to be the image of God? It means that all things are created in Him through Him. Since all things are created in Him, understand that He Whose image He is also creates all things in Him. And since all things that are created in Him are also created through Him, recognize that in Him Who is the image there is present the nature of the One Whose image He is. For through Himself He creates the things that are created in Him, just as through Himself all things are reconciled in Him. Since they are reconciled in Him, recognize in Him the nature of the Father's unity, reconciling all things to Himself in Him. Since all things are reconciled through Him, see Him reconciling to the Father in Himself all the things He reconciled through Himself. For the same Apostle says, But all things are from God, Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Compare this with the whole mystery of the faith of the Gospel. For He Who is seen when Jesus is seen, Who works in His works and speaks in His words, also reconciles in His reconciliation. And for this reason there is reconciliation in Him and through Him, because the Father, dwelling in Him through a like nature, restored the world to Himself by reconciliation through Him and in Him.

So God, out of regard for human weakness, has not set out the faith in bare and uncertain statements. For although the authority of our Lord's words alone was enough to compel their acceptance, He has nevertheless instructed our reason with a revelation that explains their meaning, so that we might come to know His words, I and the Father are one, through the very thing that was the cause of the unity in question. For when He says that the Father speaks in His words, and works through His working, and judges through His judgment, and is seen in His manifestation, and reconciles through His reconciliation, and dwells in Him, while He in turn dwells in the Father — what more fitting words, I ask, could He have used in His teaching to suit the capacities of our reason, so that we might believe in Their unity, than those by which, through the truth of the birth and the unity of the nature, it is declared that whatever the Son did and said, the Father said and did in the Son? This speaks of no nature foreign to Himself, or added to God by creation, or born into Godhead by a division of God; rather, it indicates the divinity of One Who by a perfect birth is begotten perfect God, Who is so confident of His nature that He says, I in the Father and the Father in Me, and again, Everything the Father has is Mine. For nothing of the Godhead is lacking in Him in Whose working and speaking and manifestation God works and speaks and is seen. They are not two Gods Who put on an appearance of unity in their working and words and manifestation. Neither is He a solitary God. Who, in the works and words and sight of God, Himself worked and spoke and was seen as God. The Church understands this. The Synagogue does not believe, and philosophy does not know, that being One of One, Whole of Whole, God and Son, He has neither deprived the Father of His completeness by His birth nor failed to possess the same completeness in Himself by right of His birth. And whoever is caught in this folly of unbelief is a disciple of either the Jews or the pagans.

Now, so that you may understand the Lord's saying when He said, Everything the Father has is Mine, learn the teaching and faith of the Apostle, who said, Take care that no one leads you astray through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ; for in Him the fullness of Godhead dwells bodily. The man who does not know Christ to be the true God, who does not recognize in Him the fullness of Godhead, is of the world, smacks of the teaching of men and is the victim of philosophy. The human mind knows only what it understands, and the world's capacity for belief is limited, since it judges by the laws of the material elements that only what it can see or do is possible. For the elements of the world have come into being out of nothing, but Christ's continuous existence did not begin in the non-existent, nor did He ever begin to exist; rather, He took from the beginning a beginning that is eternal. The elements of the world are either without life or have passed from this state into life, but Christ is life, born to be living God from the living God. The elements of the world have been established by God, but they are not God: Christ, as God from God, is Himself wholly all that God is. The elements of the world, since they are within it, cannot possibly rise out of their condition and cease to be within it, but Christ, while having God within Himself through the Mystery, is Himself in God. The elements of the universe, generating from themselves creatures with a life like their own, do indeed give them the beginnings of life from their own bodies through the exercise of their bodily functions, but they are not themselves present as living beings in their offspring, whereas in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead is present in bodily shape.

Now I ask, whose Godhead is it whose fullness dwells in Him? If it is not the Father's, what other God do you, misleading preacher of one God, push on me as the One Whose Godhead dwells fully in Christ? But if it is the Father's, tell me how this fullness dwells in Him in bodily fashion. If you hold that the Father dwells in the Son in bodily fashion, then the Father, while dwelling in the Son, will not exist in Himself. If, on the other hand, and this is truer, the Godhead dwelling in Him in bodily shape displays within Him the truth of the nature of God from God, since God is in Him, remaining there neither by condescension nor by will but by birth, truly and wholly in bodily fullness just as He is; and since, in the whole extent of His being, He was born by His divine birth to be God, and within the Godhead there is no difference or dissimilarity, except that in Christ He dwells in bodily form, and yet whatever dwells in Him bodily is according to the fullness of Godhead; then why follow the doctrines of men? Why cling to the teaching of empty falsehoods? Why talk of 'agreement' or 'harmony of will' or 'a creature'? The fullness of Godhead dwells in Christ bodily.

In this the Apostle has held fast to the rule of his faith by teaching that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ bodily; and he did this so that the teaching of the faith would not degenerate into an unholy profession of a oneness of Persons, nor sinful frenzy break out into the belief in two different natures. For the fullness of Godhead that dwells in Christ in bodily fashion is neither solitary nor separable; for the fullness in bodily form admits no division from the other bodily fullness, and the indwelling Godhead cannot also be regarded as the dwelling place of the Godhead. And Christ is so constituted that the fullness of Godhead dwells in Him in bodily fashion, and that this fullness must be held to be one in nature with Christ. Seize every opportunity that offers itself for your quibbles; sharpen the points of your blasphemous cleverness. At least name the imaginary being whose fullness of Godhead dwells in Christ in bodily fashion. For He is Christ, and the fullness of Godhead dwells in Him in bodily fashion.

And if you want to know what it is to 'dwell in bodily fashion,' understand what it is to speak in one who speaks, to be seen in one who is seen, to work in one who works, to be God in God, whole of whole, one of one; and so learn what the fullness of God in bodily shape means. Remember, too, that the Apostle is not silent on the question of whose Godhead it is that dwells fully in Christ in bodily fashion, for he says, For since the creation of the world His invisible things are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, that is, His everlasting power and divinity. So it is His Godhead that dwells in Christ in bodily fashion, not partially but wholly, not piecemeal but in fullness; and it dwells in such a way that the Two are one, and are one in such a way that the One Who is God does not differ from the Other Who is God: Both are equally divine, as a perfect birth engendered perfect God. And the birth exists in this perfection because the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in God born of God.