文集 第 7 章 第 1/12 段

BOOK ONE. On the United Trinity of the Godhead. Question: Thou, one God the Father, only-begotten God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, since Thou hast declared to us one Godhead, and hast revealed the undivided glory of the all-holy and sole divinity, and hast shown forth the perfect glory of Thy Trinity and the everlasting fullness, therefore I have judged it best that Thy truth, being laid open, should shine forth, and that the unveiled blindness of the heretics should become known. For which reason my spirit was suddenly kindled in zeal, and blazed like a glowing fire into the dense forests of trees.

Wherefore, since many have laid claim to the pen, to point out the way of justice as the way of light, and since it has pleased us to direct our journey through the windings of its narrow path, and first to flee the broad and spacious way — who would not desire, the ancient gloom being wiped away, to be renewed through the water of life, and after the barren and meager husks to eat the bread of life, and, the whirlpool of the venomous cup being forsaken, to receive the cup of salvation, and, the profane worship of idols being laid low, to acknowledge the true God the Creator, and, the hiss of the inveterate serpent being scorned, sweetly to chant a hymn unto God in one, and at last, the dugs of the scaly dragon being refused, to be fed with honey and milk from the evangelical precepts, and again through immortality resumed to judge the apostate angels, and that earthly man should be assigned to the heavenly kingdoms and to the heights in Jerusalem?

I ask, what and how great is this love of humanity in God, who promises such great rewards to those who believe? Who would not with all eagerness hasten to rise up from heavy sleep, and to behold the most brilliant light with infinite admiration? Which light I desire to show, not to the pupils of the eyes by mere gazing, but to lay up for religious brethren in the secret hidden recess of the heart. In which I have not made up a heap of an ostentatious volume, lest I should pile up words more than I conveyed meaning to those who search; but briefly, in part, according to my promise, I have comprehended infinite things, and in humble speech have pointed out sublime ones.

Wherefore everything there is full, where nothing is lacking; nay rather, he seems utterly to be ignorant of the whole, who should wish to detract anything from this fullness of the divine Trinity, since I have thought more concerning Thee than I have said anything properly of my own. Hast Thou perhaps permitted Thyself to be believed wholly according to the profession of the rule alone, and willed in no way at all to be delineated by mental speech? Hast Thou perhaps, because Thou hast permitted Thyself to be believed through faith, commanded that we should set forth among us the deity of Thy immense divinity? Hast Thou perhaps, because Thou art perceived by us properly, also defined by being spoken? Far be it, since Thou, God, art properly known only to Thyself alone.

For which reason as a suppliant I most earnestly entreat the glory of Thy most tranquil Trinity, that Thou wouldst lead me to the perfect state of faith, as I bring forth the words of my confession. If heaven, or the heaven of heavens, does not suffice to set forth the praise of Thy sublime greatness; if the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing the works of Thy magnificence — whence does my littleness suffice to render to Thee in confession twofold and greatest thanks? Therefore I beg pardon, lest perhaps, when I have taken up the words of presumption, I should seem to detract something from Thy majesty.

But prostrate I lie before the throne of the glory of Thy sublimity, that Thou mayest permit me to drink from the fullness of the treasury of Thy law as from a fountain, and to draw the water of life from the four overflowing rivers. From which let us confidently prescribe against the blasphemies of the heretics by the authority of the rule, and let us water the hearts of the thirsting catholics from the everlasting Spirit of life, as from a fountain of nectar. This, I say, is the formula of the matter in the conflict with the heretics, and this is the victory of the title in the absolution of the catholics, which the chief commandment of God signifies: 'Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. XXVIII, 19).

Hear in this the admirable and royal decree, in which every sacrament is contained unitedly in the deity of the Trinity. Because He said 'in the name,' He evidently declared one deity to subsist in the Trinity. And what He went on to say — 'of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' — He distinguished single persons to be in single names. Heretic: Truly, I request that you first expound to me summarily concerning the united name of deity, manifoldly spoken, in answer to what I have asked; and then in proceeding distinguish concerning the names of the persons. Question: Why is the deity united? Answer: Because there is no ambiguity in this fullness of the Trinity. Question: Why is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit one God? Answer.

Where thou saidst 'one,' thou thyself didst refer to the united name of deity those names which thou didst distinguish in the persons. Question: Why is He the sole God? Answer: Assuredly because the sole deity subsists in the Trinity, therefore He is the sole God. Question: Why is He omnipotent God? Answer: Manifestly, because the very deity of the Trinity is omnipotent. Question: Why is He one true God? Answer: Without doubt, since there is one true nature of the Trinity, therefore He is one true God. Question: Why is He one good God? Answer: Inasmuch as there is no diversity unequal in the one substance of the divine Trinity, and through this He is one good God. Question: Why is He the most high God? Answer: Because this very same is the highest substance of the Trinity.

Question: Why is He one Lord? Answer: Remember that the dominion is united in the nature of the everlasting Trinity, and therefore He is one Lord. Question: Why is there one image of the invisible Trinity? Answer: Because one and the same deity is in the image of truth. Question: Why is God one Spirit? Answer: Is not the nature of the deity of the Holy Spirit one, which subsists in the Father, and in the Son, and in itself? Therefore there is one Spirit of the one Trinity, because there is one everlasting fullness of divinity in this very Trinity. Question: Why is the one Trinity equal? Answer: Because the deity is also everlasting in the Trinity itself.

I ask, dost thou not observe that almost all the heresies blaspheme in this title the united deity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, while they refer those things which above were spoken unitedly of the Trinity to the one person of the Father alone? On which account we must strenuously labor — nay, against so many assemblies of sects must fiercely contend with infinite solicitude — that, the gloom of the heretics being thoroughly dispelled, the light of the evangelical knowledge, laid open, may shine forth, and the unveiled blindness of the blasphemers may become known. Wherefore the foregoing things must be reviewed by us a little while for examination, so that for those who read or search out the truth, every scruple of unbelief may be utterly removed from the secret of the breast.

Moreover, only concerning the all-holy united name of the Trinity. Therefore, where I mentioned one God, I did not in speaking restrict this to the one person of the Father alone, since I did not deny that the Son is of the one fullness of the Father's deity, and the Holy Spirit likewise. And where I mentioned the sole God, I did not, to speak more truly, indicate this of the sole person of the Father, because I did not deny that the Son and the Holy Spirit are of this very sole substance of the Father's divinity. Likewise the omnipotent God, or the true God, or the good God, or the most high God, or the one Holy Spirit, of which I narrated summarily a little before — did I not declare all these terms to belong to the united divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?

Wherefore, although in this place the significations spoken are copious, yet they are more evidently approved as referring to the united divinity of the Trinity. For the unity is not, as the heretics, oppressed by their blasphemies, have often been wont to say, in the will and not in the deity — which be far from us, since the unity is not in the will only, but rather in the deity. And through this, that thou mayest be certain, this unity is not in concord only, but really, nay substantially, it stands firm in the nature of the divinity. Therefore I beg of thee, who readest this profession of my catholic faith in this writing, that thou seek not here for superfluous or profuse words;

but compactly, capaciously, nay spiritually, with the highest zeal, refer the things said to the style of sacred Scripture, and weigh them according to the consistency of the rule, with justice moderating. Wherefore now receive things not eloquent but strong; not earthly figments but true heavenly documents; not the heretical and depraved fabrications of the philosophers, but the perfect apostolic hidden mysteries; not grammar, which is a superfluous wisdom of doctrine, but, sweeter and better than honey and the honeycomb, the divine precepts from the evangelical Scriptures. Learn therefore that in this the sophists of this world have been made foolish, or rather dumb, because they did not know the true wisdom, and therefore have been made reprobate.

And so receive the person of the one questioning and resolving, who demands that satisfaction be made to him. Question: Why are we called Father-Spirit, and is the Son named Spirit, and is the Holy Spirit called Spirit? Answer: It is perfectly answered to these things for him who questions in this place. Dost thou not know that the Father is one God, and the Son is one God, and the Holy Spirit is one God? Is He not one God, since the name is united in the nature of the essence (usia)? So too there is one Spirit, because the deity of the same is united. For if thou hast through the single names of the persons designated the united name of Spirit three times, must one therefore say three Spirits? Far be it.

But if this could be said, it would be such that this too ought to be introduced into the confession, that three gods be named in the plural number: so that there would no longer be in these persons one nature of divinity, but each one would subsist in his own or diverse nature; which be far from us. Meanwhile I again repeat the same things, and compare them to thy spoken words, and refer to thee the meaning of my understanding. The Father is one God, and the Son is the only-begotten God, and the Holy Spirit, united in the Father and the Son, is God. Is it not so that, because I have three times designated the name of unity, that is, of deity, through the single persons, I shall therefore be able to confess three gods? Far be it. Wherefore, although the saying is threefold, it nevertheless holds one indication of the name in the deity of the Trinity.

Meanwhile, even in this title observe Him who says: 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' (Exod. 3:6). Did He in this saying designate three gods, in that He named one name three times? God forbid. Therefore we who hold the evangelical and apostolic faith of the Fathers neither hold nor receive in our heart three gods, nor three lords, nor three spirits, nor other such utterances of plurality; especially since we know that the unity of the Godhead subsists in the Trinity unitedly, not in plurality. Wherefore we ought not to profess three natures in these Persons against the rule of the evangelical judgment, since the Father is one God, and the only-begotten Son is God, and the unbegotten Holy Spirit is God.

Therefore God is one, because the Godhead is one, even as it is written through each of the Persons; and because there is no God but one. As this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God' (Deut. 6:4); or this: 'I the Lord God have stretched out the heaven alone, and made firm the earth' (Isa. 44:24). And also this: 'For there is one God' (1 Tim. 2:5); or this: 'Now a mediator is not of one, but God is one' (Gal. 3:20). And likewise: 'Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve' (Matt. 4:10). For also this: 'That which is born of the Spirit is spirit'; and in another place: 'All these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as He will'; or this:

'To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: one body and one Spirit.' And also this: 'We have all drunk of one Spirit.' Remember that the united name of the Godhead is in each of the Persons. Question. I ask that you yet further confirm to me these sayings by the warrant of authority. Answer. Do you not know that it is written, 'I speak to them that know the law' (Rom. 7:1)? Therefore let those who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit, through the historian Moses, testifies to the Churches in almost the whole book of Genesis: let them understand that God spoke, and God made, and God was present, and blessed these things. The same also said there: 'Let us make man to our image and likeness' (Gen. 1:26), and thus He continued:

'God made man; to the image of God He made him; male and female He made them, and He blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth' (ibid. 27,28). Question. What then is the reason that One said 'Let us make,' and One made, and One was present with Him who spoke and made, and saw the good things made and blessed them — since the 'Let us make' is not the person of one solitary being alone, but of one making together with Him, and the 'to the image of God' is not His person alone, but also of one seeing and blessing together with Him? Answer. Does it not seem to you that, through the unspoken names of the Persons — even if but briefly — the united name of the working Godhead is intimated?

Indeed, because it did not specify 'the Father said, and the Son made, and the Holy Spirit blessed,' but briefly continued: 'And God said, and God made, and God saw all the things that were made, and He blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth' (Gen. 1:28). You see that no one says to himself, 'Let it be made,' but to one who makes; and no one who makes speaks to his own person, 'and He made.' And who declares of himself, 'and He saw, and He blessed'? For, to speak strictly, if it were one person of the speaker, and of the maker, and of the blesser, He would so have intimated that He made His own work, saying 'I said, and I made, and I blessed.' Whereas it is written: 'By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of His mouth all their power' (Ps. 32:6).

Indeed by 'the Word' He indicated the Son; by 'the Lord' He designated His Father, and by 'the spirit of His mouth' He named the Holy Spirit. Do you see that in these Persons the name of the Trinity is united in nature? The Psalmist also confirming it: 'Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee' (Ps. 44:8). Behold, God and God: yet you will not find it said in these Persons in the plural, 'gods.' Likewise, Lord from Lord, Father from Son — hear it attested through the prophet Hosea: 'I will save them in the Lord their God' (Hos. 1:7). And also this is written concerning the united name of the Godhead: 'And the Lord rained from the Lord' (Gen. 19:24). Or take this example of Him speaking to Jacob in the book of Genesis:

'Arise and go up to the place Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar to God, to Him who appeared to thee when thou didst flee from the face of thy brother' (Gen. 35:1). And in the book of Psalms we find recorded: 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool' (Ps. 109:1). And holy Isaiah also declares: 'Thus saith the Lord to my Christ, whose right hand I have held, that all the nations may obey Him' (Isa. 45:1), and so forth. Yet God is one, because the dominion is one in the eternal nature: as also concerning the person of the Holy Spirit the Vessel of Election briefly concluded, saying: 'The same Spirit is also the same Lord, the same also God, who worketh all things in all' (1 Cor. 12:11).

And in another place the same one repeats: 'For the Lord is a Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty' (2 Cor. 3:17). Or take that it was said, in the person of the Father, in the Gospel to the Samaritan woman, that 'God is a Spirit' (John 4:24). For also concerning the person of the Son, Jeremiah, most accepted of the prophets, testifies: 'The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord' (Lam. 4:20). Or this: 'Because God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father' (Gal. 4:6). And concerning the principal Spirit the Son declares: 'The Spirit breatheth where He will, and thou hearest His voice, but knowest not whence He cometh or whither He goeth. So is every one that is born of water and the Holy Spirit' (John 3:8).

Therefore, that you may gather in brief the sense of Scripture speaking unitedly of the nature of the divine Trinity: 'The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted' (Ps. 17:47). You see that through each expression the united name of the Godhead is indicated three times: that is, God, God, and God — yet not gods. Or take what is said by the same Psalmist: 'Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most High. And call upon me in the day of thy tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me' (Ps. 49:14). Indeed, if there were only one fixed person in this example, he ought to have let these words flow without any distinction in proceeding, saying: 'The Lord liveth, who is blessed.' But when he says:

'The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted' (Ps. 17:47) — is not the name of the divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit thus declared unitedly in these Persons in all things? that is, God, and God, and God: as in another place it is recorded concerning the united name of dominion: 'Bring to the Lord, O ye families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honour, bring glory to His name' (Ps. 95:7). For if there were only one person, he ought to have expressed the glory thus: 'Bring to the Lord, O ye families of the nations, bring to Him glory and honour, bring glory to His name.' What more? Are arguments still necessary to us for making the truth plain?

Are the nations, for whom the gate stands open to those who believe unto eternal life, baptized into the one person of the Father only? and not into three, whose names are thus distinct in the Persons — of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit — to whom there is one nature of the Godhead, as it is written: 'Going, baptize all nations in the name,' and thus He continued, 'of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. 28:19). Hence in these Persons the name is in all things united in the deity of the Godhead, and by the very names of the Trinity only the Persons are distinguished. But the Apostle also testifies to this: 'To keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body, and one Spirit;'

'even as you are called in one hope of your calling' (Eph. 4:3-4). Do you see that the united Spirit is to be kept, into the one body of the Church, in the bond of peace, which consists in the confession of salvation? Or can the name of the Spirit's unity of nature be spoken of in only one person of that same Spirit, when the name of unity of nature bestows life in baptism upon believers in these three Persons? In which hope we are all called. And this hope of our faith is this: that in baptism you first confess the united name of the Godhead, that you may merit to obtain remission of sins in these Persons.

Therefore, although in the foregoing examples of the Scriptures the names of the Persons are unspoken, nevertheless the united name of the Godhead is demonstrated to you in all of them; as also in this example of truth, in which the names of the Persons are clearly shown, and the united name of the Godhead is closely declared, John the Evangelist saying in his Epistle: 'There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, and the Word, and the Spirit, and in Christ Jesus they are one' (1 John 5:7); yet it does not say 'He is one,' because there is not in these one person. For when it says 'one' concerning all of them, what else is understood than that God the Father, by the nature of the Godhead, is Himself also called Lord, and is Himself also Spirit;

and the Son is God, and the same is also Lord in the divinity, and the same is also Spirit in the deity; and likewise the Spirit, the Paraclete, is God, and the same is also Lord in the nature of the deity, and the same is also Spirit? Do you see how in the deity and in the substance of fullness they are in all things one, and in the names of the Persons they are three? For as to their being three, what else is understood to have been meant than that the Father — true, one, or alone — who begot, is not the same as He who is the only-begotten from Him; and the Son, the one who did not beget but Himself was begotten of the Father, is not the Father; and this Holy Spirit, who is neither Father nor Son?

Moreover, there is He who neither begot nor was begotten, since one in person is He who begot, and another in person is He who is the only-begotten from Him, and another likewise in person — as I have said according to divine Scripture — who is neither Father nor Son: this is the Holy Spirit; but plainly He is of the united nature. Therefore in the united deity there is the united name of the Godhead. So in the clarity of the evangelical Scripture the Son testifies concerning the Spirit, the Paraclete, saying: 'He proceedeth from the Father' (John 15:26). And thus He continued: 'And He shall receive of mine' (John 16:14).

And therefore, where the Persons are sought, the proper names are distinguished by these; but where the Deity is required, the united name is indicated, since what pertains to the names of the Persons is shown to be spoken in the plural. And through this, in the united deity of the Godhead they are one, and in the names of the Persons they are three: hence the three are one, or the one are three. Indeed, that we may cut away every scruple from readers, I will yet briefly clarify, proving in manifold ways that this name of unity is most truly of the Trinity, which nevertheless is referred to the manifold wisdom of God, which subsists unitedly in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit;

Concerning which, if you signify the wisdom of the deity and the deity of the wisdom, is not this very thing the unity of wisdom, which is also the divinity of the Trinity? Therefore, that we may assign these things in brief, whether it be named the glory of wisdom, or the deity of glory, or sublimity, or dominion, or dignity, or charity, or majesty, or empire, or power, or eternity — are not these, though spoken in manifold ways, yet declared unitedly of the one incomparable deity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? Or do you think that however many expressions are spoken concerning the glory of the deity, there are just as many kinds of diversity? God forbid, since all these are referred as spoken of the one substance.

For if this one and the same is the manifold foreknowing wisdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, which is one power, or one form of greatness, or one majesty, or one brightness — all of which are found gathered, according to the rule of Scripture, in this place into this one deity of fullness — can it then, in the same deity of the Trinity, be alleged against the Scriptures that we should speak in the plural, after the manner of the Arian madmen, of three wisdoms, or three powers, or three images, or three substances, or several brightnesses, or three fullnesses of the Godhead, or other such things? God forbid.

Such as you, Hosius, already far advanced in age — you who, no novice, became a sponsor of unsound doctrine at the synod of Sirmium, where you made void your faith, which you had set down in writing at Nicaea, while you served the royal power. Moreover, when you were very near to death, you fell so into the snare of the chasm of the abyss that you departed as one dead in heart, so as to say: 'Who does not know that the Father is greater in honour, dignity, brightness, and majesty?' — as though there were two, or indeed three, brightnesses or majesties in each of these Persons of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Which God forbid.

For if this blasphemy of theirs were so, as they say, why do they not now name three gods in plural number, and with public voice make promise concerning their own or diverse substances? Which God forbid. Whereas the perfectly united name of the Godhead, though spoken in manifold ways, subsists unitedly in the Trinity. Question. But I ask that you show me these very sayings concerning authority briefly, unitedly and in common, through each of the Persons. Answer. Hear what is said unitedly of the Trinity: 'God is wise, and strong, and great, who commands the sun, and it rises not; who has shut up the stars, and has stretched out the heaven like a skin;'

'who walks upon the sea as upon dry land, who does great things, and things that cannot be searched out' (Job 9:4,7,8,10). And what He says in Solomon: 'God by His wisdom founded the earth, and prepared the heavens by His prudence' (Prov. 3:19). Or recognize the Apostle saying this: 'Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God' (1 Cor. 1:24). And he himself again says: 'That the power of Christ may dwell in me' (2 Cor. 12:9). And in the psalmist it is written: 'They shall go from power to power' (Ps. 83:8). Yet he did not signify that there are wisdoms or powers in the plural in these Persons, as the same one repeats: 'The Lord God of powers is with us' (Ps. 45:8). And also this:

'Praise Him in the firmament of His power' (Ps. 150:1). And in another place: 'In Thy light we shall see light' (Ps. 35:10). For also concerning the person of the Holy Spirit, Solomon in Proverbs says the same: 'The light of the Lord is the spirit of men, which searches the inner parts of the heart' (Prov. 20:27). Or this: 'That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation' (Eph. 1:17). And in another place we find it thus recorded: 'But you shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you' (Acts 1:8). Or here, through holy Micah, understand the Lord the Father Himself declaring: 'Unless I fill up the power in my Holy Spirit, and in judgment, and in might' (Micah 3:8).