On the Trinity 2.26–3.1

For truly, since darkness has no communion with light, nor those deprived of divine knowledge with those illumined by it, it is fittingly written of those who hold false beliefs: “They did not know the Spirit, nor understand; they walk about in darkness.” And justly do they write about them: John, that “In the last time scoffers will come, walking according to their own ungodly desires. These are those who cause divisions, psychical, not having the Spirit”; and Paul, to Timothy: “But the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience”; and to the Hebrews: “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses; how much worse punishment, do you think, will he deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and counted common the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insulted the Spirit of grace?”; and to the Ephesians: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” And the Master in Matthew [threatens] the one caught in blasphemy of the Holy [Spirit with] punishment, not only in the present age but also in the one to come, so that we may guard ourselves exceedingly against committing such a sin even in ignorance, saying: “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven them; … it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come.” And what other word against the Holy Spirit is there, or what other blasphemy about him is understood, than not to confess him God, consubstantial with the Father and the Son and without beginning together with them? For “to blaspheme” is said specifically of God. And he determined that blasphemy against the Son of Man is forgiven, but that against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven; showing this: that [it is not forgiven] to one who does not believe, even at a late hour, that he proceeded from God the Father consubstantially; for to one who has come to know it, it is forgiven. For he says: in the case of the Son they at least have words as a pretext, even if not a reasonable one; but about the Holy Spirit they have no excuse. Therefore Wisdom too, proclaiming the divine Spirit as God and threatening from him those who blaspheme him, says: “For the Spirit of wisdom loves mankind, and will not hold the blasphemer guiltless for his lips; because God is witness of his inmost feelings, and a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue; because the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together has knowledge of [every] voice.” For those who disbelieve his Godhead, as the Apostle writes to Timothy in the first Epistle, are made like Hymenaeus and Alexander, “who made shipwreck concerning the faith, and were handed over to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.” Fittingly; for they did not want the Holy Spirit to blow favorably on them, and they rejected his illumination, firmer than any anchor, and they did not bear to have his and Christ’s perfect steering, depriving themselves of the glory fitting to God and of equal honor. For indeed, as was said by Eli in the first [book] of the Kingdoms: “If a man sins against a man, they will also pray for him to the Lord; but if he sins against the Lord, who will pray for him?” And “the Lord is the Spirit,” as Paul wrote.

One should listen too (for no harm comes from it, but even benefit) to verses among the Greeks, whose authors received a moderate perception of the ranking together of the Son, the Word, and of the Spirit with God the Father, and saw that these names are fitting and true; and that the almighty Holy Spirit is not separated from God the Father, not in nature, not in power, not in glory, any more than the Only-begotten is; but both proceeds from him in no lesser measure, and remains with him, filling all things with his own supreme and boundless grace and power, according to the good will common to him with the Father and the Son. The verses of an oracle are these:

“The Spirit, proceeding from the immortal God the Father, from there, whence it went forth, remaining steadfast, in no way … but remaining in the most holy bosom of God the Word, accomplishes all things, whenever the divine primal mind devises them; and to all created things it brings grace, beneath which all …”

And again: “So that the Trinity may hold all things together, in all things …”

Of Orpheus, the first theologian among the Greeks: “For all things, under the great help of the immortal God …”

Of Plato the comic poet, who floridly in the [lines] written below … the Trinity, from which the universe came to be and is preserved:

“For God is one, the Father, the most high, who by the Word, all-wisely, and by the Spirit set firm all things as they slipped, and drawing them from the depth of error into light, out of long disorder …”

… of three discourses. When someone asked the Good Daemon about the thrice-holy Spirit, he gave this oracle: “If there were not some providence of the Lord of all, so as to reveal this word to me, such a love would not have possessed you either, that you should inquire about this. But now hear the rest of the discourse. Of this Spirit, of which I have often spoken before, all things have need. For bearing all things, it gives life to all things according to their worth and nourishes them; and it hangs from the holy spring, a helper to spirits, and always [the cause] of life to all, being one and fruitful.” And again, subjecting the many, who are not exact in knowledge, to the nobler judgment, concerning the self-complete Trinity, which is always undefiled, immeasurable, ineffable, and the same, about which there is no man who can contemplate anything worthy of its great transcendence, he pronounces this: “For it is not possible to impart such mysteries to the uninitiated; but hear with the mind. There was only one intellectual light before intellectual light, and there is always a luminous mind of mind; and there was nothing else but the unity of this. Being always in itself, always …” And among other things he adds: “Outside this there is no god, no angel, no daemon, no other substance. For he is Lord and Father of all, and God, and spring, and life, and power, and light, and mind, and Spirit, and all things are in him and under him.” By “mind from mind,” and “intellectual light from intellectual light,” and further “Spirit,” by which he encompasses all things, he indicates God the Father, the Only-begotten, and his one Holy Spirit; as Wisdom says: “The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world.” And [by excluding] angels and daemons, and those spoken of by the Greeks [as gods] who do not exist, [he showed] the undivided authority, the one creative principle of all things.

And Porphyry too, though not at all sober-minded about what is truly divine, but full of bitterness against it, so to speak, nevertheless, setting out Plato’s opinion, and somehow constrained by the truth, or perhaps out of respect for Plato, saw fit to say this: “… the substance of the divine proceeded; that there is the highest God, the Good, and after him, second, the Creator, and third the soul of the world; for the divinity proceeded as far as soul.” … unable … the theology, since, making the present explanation neither according to the appetitive … nor according to its pervading impulse, he dimly [called] the one and saving Holy Spirit of God soul; yet not the soul of man, but the one that pervades the whole world. You have, then, the wise men of those outside too bearing witness that the three blessed hypostases [are] in one Godhead, and were not manifested at different times; but when the first [was], then together with it and from it the second and the third [were], co-eternally, as the radiance with fire. And let something also be set down from our own side, according to natural reason, bearing witness to the beginningless procession of the one divine Spirit and to his consubstantiality with the only-begotten God the Word. It is this: a word is not begotten or brought forth unless breath moves with it and goes forth together with it. And there are many such sayings from Greek books, and they are not to be rejected; but [those] still … recorded … will be brought forward by us [another time], if it seems good to God.

For I and my own, as those know who … my remembrance of the beginningless and blessed Trinity, which is always the same and in the same state, which always gives good things, and neither takes away nor reproaches, in these daily gatherings … sharing … (let all things be said and done and planned in silence …), giving everything to myself and to my own (for it, being the cause of all, has need of nothing except our benefit), worshiping and glorifying it, and praising it according to the power I have; or I said that those who do not take pains either to learn or to teach something wise about it wrong themselves greatly. And now, believing as usual that those things alone are stable and sure which it leads, raising the eyes of my mind together with my body, I beseech on behalf of myself and of those from me, and of those who are and will be from them, and indeed on behalf of all, obeying the Savior who commanded [us], praying in Psalm 70: “In you, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a protecting God and a strong place, to save me; for you are my firmness and my refuge. My God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner, from the hand of the transgressor and the unjust; for you are my endurance, O Lord; Lord, my hope from my youth. On you I have leaned from the womb; from my mother’s belly you are my protector. In you is my praise continually. I became as a wonder to many, and you, O Lord, my strong helper …” … good, and to whom is all the hope of all always, and apart from whom there is nothing at all: may we be delivered from the sins committed by us in soul and body, in knowledge and in ignorance, in word and deed, here and “when you prevail in judging” the hidden things of men; and from those who are burdensome in the world, and from the demon who always envies the good and stands opposed, and from every evil and unclean spirit, and from the Antichrist, who hates the good, whose time, full of dreadful struggle, as events prove, has already drawn near; so that no one, either of those now or of those who will be found then, may perish. So may every evil be put out of the way, and may public and private affairs be governed well and quietly according to your ungrudging will, which loves souls; and from now on may a pious and private dwelling in each city, or rather in the country, be choiceworthy and desirable to all; and may it be granted to everyone, as to the holy fathers and those before them, to sail, to travel, to stay at home, to farm, to attend festivals diligently, to speak gracious and fitting words, as he loves and wishes, freely; and, greater than these, that I may remember you without distraction and soberly, and make you the beginning and end of every matter, and share as I can with those in need, beginning with my kin and my household, and receive from you the loan back in the future, and eternal life besides. “For fasting,” it says, “and prayer deliver from death; but almsgiving is above both.” For as those outside also say: … So may there be in us besides freedom from the disease of pride and conceit, and from being a boaster; through which inescapable passions the most hostile Satan [fell] from the light above and slid down into the darkest recesses of Tartarus; and he who was brought up under the law, and fasted, and tithed his possessions, had his hope from this for a while in the world, as far as [it is recorded] in the sacred writings. And may it further be granted me to keep away from strife, to live among books, and to be inseparable, with a pure conscience, from the church’s assemblies, in which you are set before all in a more particular way; … thus it will be no longer reproached and spat upon, but, as of old and long ago, praised: due proportion, which was at the beginning the teacher of virtue and of all knowledge. And may the coming way of life appear more temperate than the ancient, as much as … [Chris]t’s legislation. And may a sweet and bright light rise; and good government and peace will be deep through all land and sea, in every way and manner; and the stream of the Nile full, and great plenty; and great and manifold scarcity of those eager for office; and may one no longer lament over another; and may I be able to keep the law I set for myself, in due season, with grace and dignity of life and words; and may our affairs turn out on every side, for all our children, all our household, all our kin, and wholly, better than our prayer and better than before. And all these things, yes, yes, yes, will have been and will be accomplished; so that what is [said] in Isaiah may work for ever: “I am he who speaks: I am present as spring upon the mountains, as one who brings good news of good things; for I will make heard …”

… the soul, which by itself is impassible in the intelligible realm; yes, and its own choice, that is, its longing for knowledge. For the body, holding the soul shut up within itself as in a blind prison, leads it away through material passions from the [thoughts] of God …; and so it tries to master what is better by nature, and better by as much as the immortal is better than the mortal. But the desire of its own choice, that is, again, of knowledge, draws the soul to want to know something, and it sets out toward this; yet having no right guide for the journey, or having kept company with … men, it wanders and is at a loss, and in the end, putting in at whatever opinion it happens upon, it takes this up without understanding; and so it has become most pitiable and wretched, having hunted down ill-mindedness under the impression and opinion of good knowledge. For that all of us human beings by nature reach out for knowing is shown, as Aristotle says, by our desire for the senses too, which leads us on to itself beyond what we need. At any rate we sometimes desire to see or to do something even when what is seen or done is not at all necessary, but even harmful. That these things are so … [the apostles], having thought it fitting to speak in this way. James, of glorious memory: “This wisdom is not coming down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” And he adds: “For the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and of good fruits of works, impartial, sincere.” And further he calls the common herd “double-minded,” those of mankind who have no pure knowledge and no steady choice of soul, saying this: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands …” … who are victorious in virtue, from whom not one of the precious things escapes, he speaks, so as to restrain the licentiousness of men who are not such, and to share with others too the good things which they themselves have, in these very words: “Brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” No less Peter too, teaching how the soul, though it is impassible, at times becomes full of passions, and turning us to remember our departure from this life, wrote: “Abstain from the desires of the flesh, which wage war against the soul.” And Solomon the son of David says: “As the faces of men are not alike, so neither are the hearts of men like one another.” There come to my mind also the words of the great champion Paul, which he spoke in this way: “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him”; and again: “The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one.”

But, as I was saying, this choice, and the body as well, are often apt to drag the soul down to the passions; yet at times they also contribute to it (I mean to the soul itself) not a few good things: the body, the knowledge of sensible things and its other service; its choice, the blessedness that comes from good counsel and right belief. So too, in turn, the soul, when it lives well with the body, and masters it, and turns toward God, and is filled with his thoughts, gives more and nobler things. For the earthly part it strives to render as if impassible, adorning it with sweat and endurance and all the labours of virtue, steering it, and through the experience of painful things rousing it to the God-fearing life; and its own choice, and its faith, it keeps from stumbling, and it makes the man more than man, advancing him by faith and words to what is venerable, inclining toward supplication of the Trinity, and making the benefit of these its food. For if we consider the soul, it is its nature to be adorned and nourished by nothing other than words and faith. For a human being has two kinds of food, the one from farming and the one from words and faith; but the one gives the body to exist and to endure, the other gives souls to excel others, and through faith and words all the rest of life is set right as well. One can detect that this is not otherwise by going over it with the mind, since upon such a person at once shines and works together the Son who rides upon all things, … despising those who think …; he who sowed reason, the most precious of all things, in the soul in which he made his Holy Spirit dwell through the breathing. Hence it is admirably said by those outside, in a certain verse: “Everywhere is reason, wherever there is man.” But so much for that.

The heretics, however, breathing nothing pure, and paying no attention to the lofty testimonies, gifts, and mighty works recorded concerning the redeeming God the Word, the author of the coming-into-being of all things, attach to his Godhead the words concerning his most ineffable and most unchangeable incarnation, made out of love for humankind, words which they consider mean; and from the very things by which they ought both to discern the glory of God and to praise his love for humankind all the more, by these they are caught being carried outside the truth and are led on to insult their Benefactor and Savior. Their concern is not how they may propitiate him as Judge, but how they may show him to be under judgment, as a creature, even after his session in heaven …. And often things either not said about him or by him, or spoken in riddles under concealment, [they have taken] as said against him or by him …, prizing a rotten and feeble mind; presenting themselves as no better than irrational animals to this most longed-for Master, who leads those who obey him, without force, into the one undivided kingdom of the Father, of himself, and of the Holy Spirit, and who in his tender care for us exhorts: “Do not be like horse and mule, which have no understanding.” For irrational animals, he says, whose soul is the blood that comes from matter (according to the one who said in Genesis, “Its blood is its soul”), bend down toward the earth, always … for the belly alone … and looking at the things on high, and toward the [city] above, and regarding himself as in an inn in the world, each day [ready] for his departure from it; and for this reason the wise man is simple in faith and in judgment. For it is plain to everyone that truth, which is by nature akin to simplicity, is always stronger than all art through words and in words. But the technical arguments seem to stir up trouble and to be troubled, those that abound in … of theological contemplation, as the Greeks too in alien …. For they call him God and Lord and Son, but no longer [call him], as God and Lord, uncreated, without beginning, sovereign, and equal to God the Father, nor, as only-begotten Son, consubstantial with the one who begot him; though these things declare and reveal the equal honor and equal power of the holy Trinity in his divine teaching about baptism, and in many other places, as has been said. But like the Greeks they set up [gradations] of substances and of glory, according to their own notions, among the three divine and consubstantial hypostases, and so they think about the Son and the Holy Spirit of God. Such things even the accursed and abominable demons, who through the wickedness of their own will were shown to be useless and good-hating creatures, shudder to hear, let alone to say.

The discourses containing the teaching about God have been sufficiently completed, though there are countless other proofs which have not been mentioned, so that readers might not shrink back because of their number, nor the writer seem long-winded and verbose. For if “the word of truth is simple by nature,” as the esteemed among the Greeks say, and for this reason the Divine alone might fittingly be called Truth, it is plain that the account concerning God the Word too is simple and free from all perverse elaboration. But so that the divine statements may be easily surveyed, because of the problems of the heretics that are now to be discussed, come, let us string together their argument in a partial and concise recapitulation, even though we are going to repeat ourselves; still, because it is useful, and so that what concerns them may be refutable by all from every side, as far as possible. For those who have set out [to build] lay up suitable materials, and then set these beside each place that is about to be worked, so that each of those engaged in the handiwork may have them before their eyes and at hand; and so they begin the work. And once again entrusting the whole to God, who stills the waves and gives fair sailing and sets all things right, by whose grace (which he is accustomed to supply even to sinners and to those narrow in speech, I mean particularly myself) I have come forward to this … I will speak, with the children whom he has given me, and the children of the children, for whose sake we labour while we live; and moreover I shall receive the grace for all whom he knows. For his is a golden oracle: “Whatever you ask in my name, you will receive”; and, “[Open wide] your mouth, and I will fill it”; and, “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of my Father who speaks in you.” Concerning him, and having been granted perception by him, those outside also say: “For human understanding is truly not sufficient to say anything about God unless it receives divine help and power”; as Diagoras of Melos too somewhere said: “God, before every mortal work, directs the mind to move.” I shall begin where it is fitting to begin.