論三位一體 第 1 章 第 1/6 段

I. 1. The rule of truth requires that, first of all, we believe in God the Father and Lord almighty—that is, the most perfect Maker of all things—who suspended the heaven in lofty height, made firm the earth with its mass set below, spread out the seas with their fluid loosed, and arranged all these things, both adorned and filled, with their own fitting instruments. 2. For both in the firmament of heaven He stirred up the light-bearing risings of the sun, and filled the gleaming orb of the moon, with its monthly increases, as a solace for the night; the rays of the stars, too, He kindled with the varied splendors of glittering light, and He willed that all these should go around the whole circuit of the world by their lawful courses, to make for the human race days, months, years, signs, seasons, and useful things. 3.

Upon the lands also He raised the loftiest mountains to their peaks, cast down the valleys into the depths, spread out the plains evenly, and usefully established herds of animals for the various services of men. 4. The strong timbers of the forests, too, He made firm to be of profit for human uses, drew forth crops for food, unsealed the mouths of springs, and poured them into rivers that would flow down. 5. After which, lest He should not have provided also for the very delights of the eyes, He clothed all things with the varied colors of flowers for the pleasure of those who behold them. 6. In the very sea also, though it was wonderful both in magnitude and usefulness, He fashioned manifold animals, now of moderate, now of vast body, bearing witness to the genius of the Artificer by the variety of His creation. 7.

Not content with these, lest perhaps the roaring and course of the waters should, to the loss of the human possessor, occupy an alien element, He enclosed it within the boundaries of the shores, so that when the roaring billow and the wave foaming from its deep bosom had come, it should return again into itself and not exceed the boundaries granted, keeping the laws prescribed—so that man might guard the divine laws all the more, in proportion as even the elements had kept them. 8. After which He set man also over the world, made indeed in the image of God, into whom He put mind and reason and prudence, so that he might be able to imitate God—whose bodily beginnings, though earthly, yet his substance was inspired by a heavenly and divine breath. 9. And when He had given all these things into servitude to him, He willed that he alone should be free.

And lest the freedom, once loosed, should fall again into peril, He set a commandment, by which it was not declared that there was evil in the fruit of the tree, but rather that there would be evil, if perchance, by the will of man, through contempt of the law given, he should be forewarned. 10. For he had to be free, lest the image of God should incongruously be a slave, and a law had to be added, lest unbridled liberty should break forth even unto contempt of the Giver, so that he might consequently receive both fitting rewards and the deserts of punishments, now having that as his own which by a movement of the mind he had willed to set in motion toward one part or the other. 11. From which the envy of mortality returns indeed upon himself, who, when he could have escaped it by obedience, ran into the same, while by perverse counsel he hastens to be God. 12.

Yet He nonetheless indulgently tempered his punishment, since not so much he himself as his labors are cursed upon the earth. For even that which is required does not come from ignorance, but shows the hope of man's future, both of his finding and of his salvation, in Christ; and that he is kept back from touching the wood of the tree of life does not descend from the malignant spite of envy, but lest, living forever—unless Christ had first granted pardon of sins—he should carry about with him forever, to his own punishment, an immortal transgression. 13.

Although also in the higher regions—that is, in the parts above the very firmament itself, which are not today contemplable by our eyes—He first established the angels, arranged the spiritual powers, set thrones and powers in command, and founded many other immense spaces of the heavens and infinite works of mysteries, so that this world, though immense, might appear to be rather almost the very last work of God among corporeal things than the only one. 14. For neither are those things which lie beneath the earth empty of arranged and ordered powers—

for there is a place to which the souls of the pious and of the impious are led, perceiving the foretastes of the future judgment—so that we might see the overflowing greatnesses of His works in all their parts, not enclosed within this world's recesses, however most capacious, as we have said, but might also be able to consider both the depths and the heights beneath this world itself; and thus, having contemplated the greatness of the works of so great a mass, we might worthily admire the Artificer. II. 1.

Above all these, He Himself, containing all things, leaving nothing empty outside Himself, has left no place for a superior god—as some suppose—since He Himself has enclosed the universe in the bosom of His perfect greatness and power, ever intent upon His own work, and passing through all things, and moving all, and giving life to the universe, and beholding the whole, and so connecting together the discordant materials into the concord of all the elements, that out of unequal elements there might be one world, made solid by this fitted-together harmony, so that it cannot be dissolved by any force, except when He alone who made it shall command it to be dissolved, for the bestowing of other greater things upon us. 2.

For we read that He contains all things, and therefore that nothing could have been outside Him, seeing that He has no origin at all, and consequently feels no end—unless perhaps, which be far from it, He had at some time begun to be, and were not above all things, but, having begun to be after something, were beneath that which had been before Him, found lesser in power, while He is denoted as later even in time itself. 3. For this cause, therefore, He is ever immeasurable, because nothing is greater than He; ever eternal, because nothing is more ancient than He. For that which is without origin can be preceded by nothing, since it has no time. Therefore He is immortal, not failing in the end of a consummation.

And since whatever is without origin is without law, He excludes the measure of time, since He feels Himself a debtor to no one. 4. Concerning Him, therefore, and concerning those things which are His and are in Him, neither can the mind of man worthily conceive what they are, how great they are, and of what kind they are, nor can the eloquence of human speech bring forth a power of speech equal to His majesty. 5. For to conceive and to utter His majesty, all eloquence is deservedly mute, and every mind is too small. For He is greater than the mind itself, nor could it be conceived how great He is; lest, if He could be conceived, He should be lesser than the human mind by which He might be grasped.

He is greater also than all speech, and cannot be uttered; indeed, were He able to be uttered, He would be inferior to human speech, by which, when He is uttered, He could be both encompassed and comprehended. 6. For whatever has been thought concerning Him will be less than Himself; and whatever has been expressed will, when compared with Him, fall short of Him. For we can in some measure perceive Him in silence; but to set forth in speech what He is in Himself we cannot. 7. For whether you call Him light, you have named His creature rather than Himself, and have not expressed Himself; or whether you call Him power, you have named and brought forth His might rather than Himself; or whether you say majesty, you have described His honour rather than Himself. 8. And why do I make a long discourse, running through each thing one by one?

Let me set forth the whole at once. Whatever you say of Him at all, you will be setting forth some thing belonging to Him and some power of His rather than Himself. 9. For what worthy thing can you either say or think of Him who is greater than all words and all senses, save only this very thing, in the one way by which we can, by which we grasp it, by which it is permitted to understand what God is—that we shall apprehend Him with the mind if we have considered Him to be that whose quality and quantity cannot be understood, nor can come even into thought itself? 10.

For if at the sight of the sun the keenness of our eyes grows dim, so that our gaze, overcome by the brightness of the rays meeting it, cannot look upon the very orb, this same thing the keenness of the mind suffers in every thought concerning God; and the more it strains itself to consider God, the more it is blinded by the very light of its own thinking. 11.

For what, to say it again, can you worthily say of Him who is loftier than all loftiness, higher than all height, deeper than every depth, brighter than every light, clearer than all clearness, more splendid than all splendour, stronger than all strength, mightier than all might, more beautiful than all beauty, truer than all truth, more steadfast than all fortitude, greater than all majesty, more powerful than all power, richer than all riches, more prudent than all prudence, kinder than all kindness, better than all goodness, more just than all justice, more merciful than all mercy? 12.

For all kinds of excellences must of necessity be less than He who is both the God and the parent of all excellences, so that it can truly be said that this is God which is of such a kind that nothing can be compared to it. For He is above all that can be said: He is a certain Mind, begetting and filling all things, which, without any beginning or end of time, governs by supreme and perfect reason the causes of things naturally bound together for the benefit of all. III. 1. This One, therefore, we acknowledge and know to be God, the founder of all things, Lord by reason of His power, parent by reason of His establishing; this One, I say, who spoke, and all things were made, who commanded, and all things came forth, of whom it is written: "Thou hast made all things in wisdom"; of whom Moses says:

"God in heaven above and in earth beneath"; who, according to Isaiah, has measured the heaven with His span, the earth with His fist, who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble, who holds the circle of the earth and those who dwell in it as locusts, who weighs the mountains in a balance and the woods in a scale—that is, by the sure assize of the divine ordering; and lest the magnitude lying unevenly should easily fall into ruin, had it not been poised with equal weights, He balanced this burden of the earthen mass with measured control. 2. Who says through the prophet:

"I am God, and there is none beside me"; who through the same prophet declares that "my majesty I will not give to another," so as to exclude all the heathen with their figments and the heretics, proving that He is not God who has been made by the hand of a craftsman, nor He who has been fashioned by the ingenuity of a heretic. For He is not God who needs a craftsman in order that He may exist. 3. And He further added through the prophet: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet: what house will you build for me, or what is the place of my rest?"—to show that much more does no temple contain Him whom the world does not contain. And these things He declares not for the boasting of Himself, but for our knowledge.

For He Himself does not desire from us the glory of His greatness, but as a Father wills to confer upon us a devout wisdom. 4. And moreover, willing to draw our wild spirits—swollen and rough with savage fierceness—to gentleness, He says: "And upon whom shall my Spirit rest, save upon him who is humble and quiet and trembles at my words?"—that one may to some extent recognise how great God is, while he learns to fear Him through the Spirit bestowed. 5. Who likewise, willing still more to come into our knowledge, rousing our spirits to His worship, said:

"I am the Lord who made the light and created the darkness," so that we should not suppose some Nature, I know not what, to be the maker of those alternations by which night and day are governed, but should rather acknowledge God as their founder—which was truer. 6. Whom, since we cannot see with the gaze of the eyes, we learn to know from the greatness and power and majesty of His works. "For His invisible things," says the apostle Paul, "from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, His everlasting power also and Godhead"—so that the human mind, learning hidden things from manifest ones, might from the greatness of the works which it saw conceive with the eyes of the mind the greatness of the Craftsman. 7. Concerning whom the same apostle says:

"Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory." For He has escaped the contemplation of the eyes who has overcome the greatness of thought. "Because," he says, "of Him and through Him and in Him are all things." For all things are by His command, that they may be of Him, and ordered by His Word, that they may be through Him; and all things fall back into His judgment, so that while they await liberty in Him, corruption being laid aside, they may be seen to be recalled into Him. IV. 1. Whom alone the Lord deservedly pronounces good, of whose goodness the whole world is witness, which He would not have established had He not been good.

For if all things are very good, consequently and deservedly both the things that have been established, being good, have proved their Establisher good, and the things that are from a good Establisher cannot be other than good; whence all evil departs from God. 2. For it cannot come to pass that He should be the initiator or craftsman of any evil work who claims for Himself the name of the Perfect, and of Parent, and of Judge—especially since He is the avenger and judge of every evil work; for evil does not befall man from any other source than that he had withdrawn from the good God. 3. And this very thing is marked out in man, not because it was necessary, but because he himself so willed it. Whence it manifestly appeared both what evil was, and—lest there should seem to be envy in God from whom evil had arisen—it shone forth that it did not. 4.

This One, therefore, is ever like Himself, and never turns or changes Himself into any forms, lest through change He should even seem to be mortal. For change is grasped as a portion of a kind of death. Therefore neither does any addition of any part or of any honour ever accrue to Him, lest anything should ever seem to have been wanting to the Perfect; nor is any diminution wrought in Him, lest a degree of mortality should seem to have been received; but what He is, that He always is; and who He is, He Himself always is; and of what kind He is, of such kind He always is. 5. For both increases show an origin, and diminutions prove death and destruction. And therefore He says, "I am God, and am not changed," holding His own state always, since that which is not born cannot be turned. 6.

For in Him, whatever that can be which is God, must of necessity always be, so that He may always be God, preserving Himself by His own excellences. And therefore He says: "I am that I am." For that which IS therefore has this name, because it always retains the same quality of itself. For change takes away that name 'which is'; for whatever is at any time changed is shown to be mortal by this very fact, that it is changed. For it ceases to be what it was, and consequently begins to be what it was not. 7. Therefore, and deservedly, His own state always abides in God, since without the harm of change He is always both like and equal to Himself. For that which is not born cannot be changed either;

for those things alone come into change which either are made or are begotten, since the things which at some time had not been learn to be by being born, and therefore by being born are changed. But those things which have neither nativity nor a craftsman have excluded from themselves any alteration, since they have no origin in which there is a cause of change. 8. Therefore He has also been pronounced one, since He has no equal. For God, whatever that can be which is God, must of necessity be the highest. But whatever is highest must in this way at last be highest—when it is beyond a peer. And therefore it must of necessity be alone and one, to whom nothing can be compared, since He has no equal. 9. Since neither can there be two infinites, as the very nature of things dictates.

Now infinite is whatever has neither origin at all nor end. For whatever has seized the whole excludes the beginning of another. Since, if it does not contain all that there is whatever it is, while it is found within that by which it is contained—being found less than that by which it is contained—it will have ceased to be God, being reduced into the power of another, by whose greatness, being less, it would have been enclosed; and therefore that which contained Him would rather have already begun to be God. 10. From which it has come about that not even the proper name of God can be uttered, since it cannot even be conceived. For that is contained by a name which is also comprehended by the condition of its own nature. For a name is the signification of that thing which could be comprehended from the name.

But when that of which we treat is of such a kind that it cannot worthily be grasped even by the understandings themselves, how shall it be worthily uttered by the word of an appellation, since, while it is beyond understanding, it must of necessity be also above the signification of any appellation? 11. So that deservedly, when God adds and sets forth His own name from certain reasons and occasions, we should know that not so much a lawful propriety of appellation has been put forth, as a certain established signification, to which while men have recourse, they may seem able through it to obtain the mercy of God. 12. He is therefore both immortal and incorruptible, perceiving neither diminution at all nor end.

For because He is incorruptible, therefore He is also immortal; and because He is immortal, He is assuredly also incorruptible—both being mutually interlaced with each other and within themselves in a mutual connection, and brought forth into the state of eternity by an alternating concatenation, immortality descending from incorruption and incorruption coming from immortality. V. 1. And even if we hold described certain lawful angers and indignations of His, and learn of recorded hatreds, yet we do not understand these as referred to the patterns of human vices. 2. For although all these can corrupt man, they cannot at all vitiate the divine power. For these passions will deservedly be said to be in men, but in God they will not deservedly be judged to be.

For man can be corrupted by these things, because he can be corrupted; God cannot be corrupted by these things, because He cannot even be corrupted. 3. These things, therefore, have their own force which they exert, but where passible matter precedes, not where impassible substance precedes. 4. For even the fact that God is angry does not come from any fault of His, but He does it for our remedy. For He is indulgent even then when He threatens, since by these means men are recalled to right ways. For to those who lack reason for an honourable life, fear is necessary, so that those who have forsaken reason may at least be moved by terror.

And therefore all these, whether the angers of God or hatreds or whatever things are of this sort, while they are brought forth for our healing, as the matter teaches, came from counsel, not from fault. 5. Nor do they descend from any frailty, on which account they cannot have force even to corrupt God. For the diversity of the materials in us, of which we are made, is wont to rouse up the corrupting discord of anger that corrupts us; which in God cannot exist either from nature or from fault, since He is by no means understood to have been constructed out of bodily compositions. 6. For He is simple and without any corporeal concretion—whatever that wholly is which He alone knows Himself to be—seeing that He has been called Spirit.

And therefore these things which in men are vicious and corrupting, since they arise from the corruptibility of the body itself and of matter, cannot exert the force of corruptibility in God, seeing that, as we have said, they came not from fault but from reason. VI. 1. And although the heavenly Scripture often turns the divine countenance into human form—when it says, "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous," or when "the Lord God smelled the odour of a good fragrance," or when the tablets written with the finger of God are handed to Moses, or when the people of the children of Israel is delivered from the land of Egypt by a mighty hand and an exalted arm, or when it says, "For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things," or when the earth is declared to be the footstool of the feet of God, or when it says:

"Incline your ear and hear"—yet we, who say that the law is spiritual, do not enclose the measure or figure of the divine majesty within these outlines of our body, but spread it out, so to speak, in its own fields of unbounded greatness without any end. 2. For it is written: "If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I descend into hell, Thou art present; and if I take my wings and go beyond the sea, there shall Thy hand lay hold of me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." For we recognise the reason of divine Scripture concerning the tempering of its arrangement. For the prophet then spoke of God in parables, according to the time of faith—not as God was, but as the people could grasp.

So that, although these things are thus said of God, it should be imputed not to God but rather to the people. 3. So also the people is permitted to set up a tabernacle, yet God is not shut up and contained within the tabernacle. So also a temple is built, yet God is not at all fenced in within the narrowness of the temple. God, therefore, is not mediocre, but the sense of the people is mediocre; nor is God narrow, but the habit of understanding of the people's reason is narrow. 4. Finally, in the Gospel the Lord said: "The hour shall come when you shall worship the Father neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem." And He gave the reasons, saying: "God is Spirit; and therefore those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." 5.

Therefore the efficacies of the divine are there shown through the members; the form of God and corporeal outlines are not set down. For when eyes are described, it is expressed that He sees all things. And when an ear, it is proposed that He hears all things. And when a finger, a certain signification of His will is opened. And when nostrils, the perception, as it were, of prayers like odours is shown. And when a hand, it is proved that He is the author of every creature. And when an arm, it is uttered that no nature can resist against His strength. And when feet, it is set forth that He fills all things and that there is nothing where God is not. 6. For neither are members nor the offices of members necessary to Him, to whose mere even silent decision all things both serve and are present.

For why should He require eyes, who is light? Or why should He seek feet, who is everywhere? Or why should He wish to walk, since there is no place outside Himself to which He could advance? Or why should He desire hands, whose silent will is the craftsman for establishing all things? Nor does He need ears, who knows even silent wills. Or for what cause should He seek a tongue, for whom to think is to have commanded? 7. For these members were necessary to men, not to God, because man's purpose would have been ineffectual unless his thought had filled out the body; but to God they are not necessary, whose will not only do works follow without any effort, but the very works themselves at once proceed together with the will. 8.

For the rest, He Himself is wholly eye, because He wholly sees; and wholly ear, because He wholly hears; and wholly hand, because He wholly works; and wholly foot, because He is wholly everywhere. For He Himself, whatever that is, is wholly equal and is wholly everywhere. 9. For whatever is simple has not in itself any diversity of itself. For those things at last fall back into a diversity of members which come from nativity into dissolution. But these things which are not compounded cannot suffer. For that which is immortal, whatever it is, that same thing is one and simple and ever is. And therefore, because it is one, it cannot be dissolved, since whatever it is, that same thing, being placed beyond the jurisdiction of dissolution, is loosed from the laws of death. VII. 1.

But that which the Lord says, that God is Spirit, I think Christ spoke thus of the Father, so that He would have still something more understood than that God is Spirit. For although in His Gospel He discourses to men, making increases of their understanding, yet He Himself too still speaks of God to men in such a way as they can yet hear or grasp—although, as we have said, He strives to make now devout increases in the knowledge of God. 2.

For we find it written that God is called Love; yet from this the substance of God is not expressed as Love; and that He is called Light, yet not in this is the substance of God; but all this has been said of God as far as it can be said, so that deservedly, even when He is called Spirit, He has not been called all that He is, but rather so that, while the mind of men by understanding advances even up to the Spirit Himself, being now itself turned into spirit, it may through the Spirit conjecture God to be something yet more. 3. For that which is, according to that which it is, can neither be uttered by human speech nor perceived by human ears nor gathered by human senses.

For if the things which God has prepared for those who love Him neither eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man nor the mind itself has perceived—of what kind and how great is that very One who promises these things, to understand which both the mind of man and nature have failed? 4. Finally, if you take the Spirit to be the substance of God, you will have made God a creature. For every spirit is a creature. He will therefore now be a made God. Likewise, if according to Moses you take fire to be God, by saying so you will have expressed that which was established a creature, you will not have taught the Establisher. 5. But these things are rather figured than are so in reality.

For in the Old Testament God is called fire for this reason, that fear might be struck into a sinful people, while He is shown to be Judge; and in the New Testament He is set forth to be Spirit, so that as Restorer and Creator of those who were dead in their offences He might be approved, through this goodness of the indulgence conferred upon believers. VIII. 1.

This God, therefore—the fables and figments of the heretics being set aside—the Church knows and venerates; to whom witness is borne by all nature, both invisible and visible, always and wholly; whom angels adore, the stars marvel at, the seas bless, the lands revere, all things infernal look up to; whom every human mind perceives, even if it does not express Him; by whose command all things are moved, the springs gush forth, the rivers glide, the waves rise up, all things bring forth their offspring, the winds are compelled to blow, the rains come, the seas are stirred, all things everywhere pour forth their fruitfulness. 2.