Baruch 3

You might have known, by consulting with learned persons, that there are different meanings of the word spirit. The Scripture, in fact, also speaks of the "spirit of man [a person]," as David sings, "I spoke with my heart by night, and my spirit was afflicted." And Baruch prays, saying, "An anguished soul and a saddened spirit raises its cry to you." And in the canticle of the three young men, "Spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord." For his part, the apostle writes, "The Spirit attests to our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, we are also heirs." And, "No one knows what is in a person except the spirit of the person that is within him." Moreover, in the letter to the Thessalonians he prays "that your whole spirit, soul and body would be kept irreproachable at the coming of Jesus Christ our Lord." Winds are also called "spirit," as for example in Genesis, "And God made a spirit sweep over the earth, and the waters subsided." And in the book of Jonah, "the Lord brought a great spirit over the sea and made a great tempest in the sea, so that the ship was in danger of breaking up." Also in Psalm 106 it is written, "He spoke, and a hurricane spirit was stirred up over the waves." And in Psalm 148, "Praise the Lord from the earth, fish of the sea and the abyss, fire, hail, snow, ice and tempest spirit, that carry out his word." And in Ezekiel, in the lamentation over Tyre, "Your oarsmen brought you to the heart of the sea, into deep waters. The spirit of the east smashed you." If you were also to read the sacred Scriptures, you would find that the meaning itself of the divine words is also called "spirit," as when Paul writes, "He has made us fit to be ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit: the letter in fact kills, but the spirit gives life." "Letter" is that by which an expression is materially composed, but the spiritual meaning contained in it is called "spirit."

If someone says the Father deserves a higher place and the only-begotten Son deserves to sit in a lower place, he will find himself imagining that all the resulting conditions of the body attach to this creature of his imagination. These are the deliriums of drunken delusion that stretch the limits of insanity. The Lord taught that "he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father." Therefore, how can anyone consider himself a follower of true religion if he refuses to worship and glorify with the Father him who in nature, in glory and in dignity is joined with the Father? What can we say? What just defense will we have in the day of the awful universal judgment of all creation? The Lord has clearly announced that he will come "in the glory of his Father." Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Paul testified in the Spirit concerning Christ "that he is at the right hand of God." The Father says, "Sit at my right hand." The Holy Spirit attests that he has sat down at "the right hand of the majesty" of God. Shall we attempt to degrade him from his condition of equality to a lower state when he shares the honor and the throne with the Father? The fact that he sits as opposed to standing suggests, I believe, a nature that is fixed and absolutely stable, as Baruch also said when he wanted to exhibit God's immutability and immobility: "You sit forever while we are forever perishing." Moreover, the place at the right hand indicates, in my judgment, equality of honor.

"I saw the Lord seated." To be seated on a throne is always a symbol of judgment, as David says: "You are seated on a throne, you who administer justice." And Daniel, "Three thrones were set up, and the tribunal sat down." By contrast, the prophet says that simply being seated is a symbol of something else. Of what? Stability, durability, proceeding onward, immutability, eternity, infinite life. Thus it is said, "You who are seated forever, and we who perish forever." You, it is said, who endure: who are, who live and are always thus. The comparison makes it clear that he was not speaking of a seat but "you who are seated forever, and we who perish." To sit on a throne is to judge.

The Word was God before all time, coeternal with the Father. But he wanted to become man for human beings. It was not through a change in the divine nature but by the miracle and will of God that he accepted birth as the beginning of his humanity. Thus, as a man he was born, but as God the Word, he preserved Mary's virginity. Not even our own word corrupts the integrity of the mind in the moment it is conceived. It is the same with the Word of God. Being substantial and enhypostatic, when he chose to be born he nonetheless did not corrupt her virginity. What took place is beyond the logic of nature, and it consequently does not in any way descend to nature's way of reasoning: I am talking about a miracle. This does not proceed according to reason: I am speaking of God who was born, who chose to be born and yet did not thereby start being God at that moment. Although being God, he was born. It was not the birth that made him God. He remained what he was and became what he was not. Because he wanted to become what he was not for the plan of salvation, he chose birth as the beginning of that plan. He became man without changing his nature and thereby upsetting the terms of the divine being. Sacred Scripture says, "You are always the same, and your years have no end." And, "You who reign forever," thus showing the immutability of the divine being. And he says further, "I, God, am always the same, and do not change." He therefore became man without there being any change in the being of God or its being changed into another nature. What happened would not have been a miracle if he had manifested another nature through a change of nature. With us, many changes of this kind occur. But in this case God worked the miracle of becoming what he was not while remaining what he was. Referring to this event the great apostle said, "He, being in the form of God." He says "being," and not "he was at one time," to show the perdurance of the nature. "Being in the form of God, he did not consider it robbery to be equal to God." He says "to be equal to God," not as though he had been so only at one time. And he goes on to say, "But he humbled himself, assuming the form of a servant." See how he remained what he was and at the same time humbled himself in the form of a servant? Though being God, he became a servant.

Those who have received condemnation for sin are dead. These words clearly indicate the immortal nature of the soul.

This is the beginning of Baruch's prophecy. All of the preceding words are part of the letter of the deportees to Babylon and are in the form of a confession.

It seems to me that he sets forth with what purpose the "ordinances of righteousness and judgments" and the testimonies of the law were given: "that he might test them", it says, "whether they would hear the voice of the Lord and keep the things which were commanded". For as regards the former people, what good or perfect thing could be commanded to those who murmured and contradicted? Indeed, a little later they even turn to idols, and forgetful of the benefits and wonders of God they set up the head of a calf. For this reason, therefore, precepts are given to them, in which they may be tested. Hence it is that also through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says to them: "I gave you precepts and ordinances that were not good, in which you shall not live by them"; for being tested in the precepts of the Lord they are not found faithful. Therefore "the commandment which was unto life was found to be unto death for them", because one and the same commandment, if it is kept, produces life, if it is not kept, produces death. According to this, therefore, that for those who do not keep it it produces death, they are called "commandments not good, in which they shall not live by them". But because he mingled with them the tree of the cross of Christ and they were turned into sweetness, and being understood spiritually they are kept, these same commandments are called "commandments of life", just as he says also elsewhere: "hear, O Israel, the commandments of life".

When the children of Israel had been taken captive by Necho, king of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Assyria, came up and brought them back from the borders of Egypt to the land of Palestine, not meaning to restore them to their former liberty and their native land but meaning to carry them off to his own land and to transport them to a still more distant country than the land of Egypt in which they had been prisoners. And this illustration exactly applies to the case before us. For though there is less harm in yielding to the sin of pride than to fornication, still it is more difficult to escape from the yoke of pride. In the same way, in fact, the slave who is carried off to a greater distance will have more difficulty in returning to his native land and the freedom of his ancestors. The prophet's rebuke will be deservedly aimed at him, "Because you are grown old in a strange country," since one is rightly said to have grown old in a strange country if he has not gotten rid of the yoke of his passions.

The Father is called source and light: "They have abandoned me, the source of living water." And in Baruch, "How is it, Israel, that you are in the land of your enemies? You have abandoned the source of wisdom." And according to John, "Our God is light." The Son, in relation to the source, is called a river: "The river of God is full of waters." In relation to light, he is called splendor, as Paul says, "He is the splendor of the glory and the imprint of his being." The Father is thus light and the Son his splendor (we need not fear repeating the same things often, especially in these matters). Now, it is possible to see in the Son also the Spirit, in whom we are enlightened, "that he would give you," it is said, "the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation, in the knowledge of him, by enlightening the eyes of the heart." Enlightened then by the Spirit, it is Christ who enlightens in him. It is said, in fact, that "he was the true light that enlightens every person who comes into the world." Analogously, then, if the Father is the source and the Son is called river, we drink of the Spirit, as it is written, "We have all been given to drink of the one Spirit." But, at the same time, drinking of the Spirit we drink of Christ: "They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ."

If God is and is called the fountain of wisdom and life … as in the book of Baruch it is written, "You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom," this implies that life and wisdom are not foreign to the essence of the fountain but are proper to it. Nor were they at any time without existence but always existed. Now the Son is all this, who says, "I am the life," and, "I Wisdom dwell with prudence." Is it then irreligious to say, "Once the Son was not," for it is the same thing as saying, "Once the fountain was dry, destitute of life and wisdom." But then it would cease to be a fountain.

"As the deer longs for springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God." It is characteristic of deer that they do not fear the poison of serpents, so much so that, blowing into their lairs through their noses, they force them out so as to kill and eat them. And when the poison they have thus swallowed begins to burn their insides, though it is not fatal, it nevertheless ignites a fire in them that creates a tremendous thirst. They then go in search of springs, and in the pure waters they extinguish the fire of the poison. In the same way, then, that deer desire springs of water, so also our deer—those who, fleeing the Egypt of this world, have killed Pharaoh and have drawn out all of his army with the waters of baptism—after having killed the devil desire nothing but the springs of the church: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That the Father is a spring is written Jeremiah, "They have abandoned me, the spring of living water, to dig for themselves leaky cisterns, unable to hold water." About the Son, it is written somewhere, "They have abandoned the source of wisdom." Finally, of the Holy Spirit it is written, "From the one who drinks the water that I will give him, a fountain will spring up, welling up to eternal life," and the Evangelist immediately provides an explanation, saying that the Savior's words here referred to the Holy Spirit. This is the clearest proof that the three springs of the church are the mystery of the Trinity. And it is these springs that the soul of the believer longs for. The soul of the believer is interiorly drawn to them, so much so as to say, "My soul thirsts for God, the living spring." Indeed, it is not merely foolish ambition to want to see God but an intense desire, a thirst that burns all. Before receiving baptism these souls spoke to themselves asking, "When can I come into the presence of God?" Now their desire is fulfilled: they have arrived, they are in God's presence, they have been presented before the altar, face to face with the sacrament of the Savior.

And still another form of instruction is benediction. "And blessed is he," he says by David, "who has not sinned; and he shall be as the tree planted near the channels of the waters, which will yield its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not wither"—which is an allusion to the resurrection—"and whatever he will do will prosper with him." This is what he wants us to be so that we may be blessed. Again, showing the opposite scale of the balance of justice, he says, "But not so the ungodly—not so; but as the dust that the wind sweeps away from the face of the earth." By showing the punishment of sinners and how easily they are dissipated and carried off by the wind, the Teacher dissuades us from crime by means of punishment. And, by holding up the penalty we deserve, he shows the goodness of his beneficence in the most skillful way in order that we may possess and enjoy its blessings. He invites us to knowledge also when he says by the mouth of Jeremiah, "If you had walked in the way of God, you would have lived forever in peace." Thus, when he exhibits the reward of knowledge here, he invites those who are wise to its love. And, granting pardon to him who has erred, he says, "Turn, turn, as a grape gatherer to his basket." Do you see the goodness of justice, in that it counsels to repentance?

The Lord says, "I am the way." The one who walks in imitation of him follows his way.

"Learn where prudence is, where virtue is, where understanding is, so that you may know at the same time where length of life and sustenance is, where the light of the eyes and peace is." Prudential understanding instructs what is to be awaited, namely the highest good. "Length of days is in her right hand," and "With you is the fountain of life." If you have the light of the eyes, you will act prudently.

As soon as souls have left this world, it is said that the angels meet them with much rejoicing and conduct them to those very pastures to which they were longing to come, imagining them from far away when, still dwelling in their bodies, they dreamed of the divine world. When, therefore, they have come there, they see wonderful and glorious and blessed things of beauty, and such as cannot be spoken to humanity. They see there righteousness, prudence, love, truth, temperance and other flowers and plants of wisdom, equally splendid. We see here only the shadows and apparitions of them, as in dreams, and think that they consist of human actions because there is no clear image of them here but only dim copies that themselves we often see when making dark copies of them. No one, in fact has been able to contemplate with his own eyes the greatness, the magnificence and the beauty of the justice, the intelligence or the peace. But there, in him whose name is I AM, they are seen perfect and clear as they are. For there is a tree of temperance and of love and of understanding, just as there are plants of the fruits that grow here—as of grapes, pomegranates and apples. And so, too, the fruits of those trees are gathered and eaten and do not perish and wither. Instead, those who gather them grow toward immortality and a likeness to God. Just as he from whom all are descended, before the fall and the blinding of his eyes, being in paradise, enjoyed its fruits, God appointing man to dress and to keep the plants of wisdom. For it was entrusted to the first Adam to cultivate those fruits. Now Jeremiah saw that these things exist in a certain particular place, removed a great distance from our world, where, deploring the state of those who have fallen from that good state, he says, "Learn where wisdom is found, where strength is, where understanding is so that you may also know where length of days, life, the light of the eyes and peace are. Who has found her place or who has come on her treasures?

Obviously, in the Lord, "the one who believes in me, will never die." In fact, the Lord says, "I am the light of the world." And the apostle, "He indeed is our peace."

The leaders of the nations are the wise of this age who ruled over human beings who behaved like beasts.

They are those who look for omens in the birds. Or, they are called this because their wisdom is earthly, beastly, diabolical.

Those who followed the letter of the law were judged like the pagans who had not received the law. In fact, "seeing, they see not, and hearing, they hear not."

He calls them merchants because they have no experience with cultivation. Asked to make wine, they gathered wild grapes instead of domestic grapes. Merran and Teman are barbarous peoples. They represent the uncouth manners of those who remain entangled in the vanity of this life.

They are those who esteemed ablutions of cups and bowls instead of the commandment and judgments of God. And having violated justice, mercy and faith, they paid tithes of rue and mint.

The elements have been given to all in common, the ornaments of the world are open equally to the rich and the poor. Are not the faces of the heavens, adorned with shining stars, more beautiful than the most precious gold-leaf ceilings of luxurious houses? Are the riches of the rich wider than the expanses of the earth? Whence it was said to those who join house to house and villa to villa: Will you alone dwell upon the earth? You have a larger house: the poor, in which you cry out and are heard. O Israel, says the prophet, how great is the house of God and its vast place of possession! It is great and boundless. The house of God is common to the rich and the poor, yet it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Not the Trinity but Christ, who is God above all things, who ascended to heaven in the flesh under the gaze of the disciples and who will come from heaven in the flesh. He who did not leave heaven when he took on flesh on earth and did not leave his own on earth when he ascended into heaven in the flesh, because of his divinity. Indeed, he promised this, saying, "See, I am with you all days, until the end of the world." He is that God, therefore, who according to the prophecy of blessed Jeremiah "is great and without limits, sublime and immense" in the divine nature and of whom a little later the same prophet says, "He is our God, and no other can be compared with him. He has searched every way of knowledge and has given it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved." It is this God who made himself for a little while lower than the angels, taking on the nature of a servant, as the same prophet says, "After these things he appeared on the earth and lived among human beings." The faithless thought he was a mortal and changeable human being, but he is precisely the same one that those who truly believe in him will see—now that their hearts have been cleansed from sin—as the immortal and unchangeable God according to his own nature.

This treats of the church and of the nature of the mystery, since now "our knowledge is imperfect," and the perfection of knowledge has not yet arrived. He refers to compassion as territory, which increases as one grows toward the good.

This refers to demons, who in the beginning were part of the ranks of angels and were cast down from the highest heaven for their lack of respect. They are famous because their condition was foretold. They were tall in stature, though proud. "Experts in war," since demons, or rather heretics, being unworthy of the peace of Christ, are committed to fighting him.

As you have listened already to Moses and Isaiah, so listen now to Jeremiah inculcating the same truth as they:—This is our God, and there shall be none other likened unto Him, Who hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved. Afterward did He shew Himself upon earth and dwelt among men. For previously he had said, And He is Man, and Who shall know Him? Thus you have God seen on earth and dwelling among men. Now I ask you what sense you would assign to No one hath seen God at any time, save the Only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, when Jeremiah proclaims God seen on earth and dwelling among men? The Father confessedly cannot be seen except by the Son; Who then is This who was seen and dwelt among men? He must be our God, for He is God visible in human form, Whom men can handle. And take to heart the prophet's words, There shall be none other likened to Him. If you ask how this can be, listen to the remainder of the sentence, lest you be tempted to deny to the Father His share of the confession. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One. The whole passage is, There shall be none likened unto Him, Who hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved. Afterward did He shew Himself upon earth and dwelt among men. For there is one Mediator between God and Men, Who is both God and Man; Mediator both in giving of the Law and in taking of our body. Therefore none other can be likened unto Him, for He is One, born from God into God.

Wherefore not men only, but angels also and archangels; both the nations of heaven, and all we on the earth, are commanded to give praise. For, "Bless the Lord," it is said, "all His works." Yea, for His are no small achievements, rather they surpass all speech, and thought, and understanding of man. And these things the prophets proclaim every day, each of them in a different way publishing this glorious triumph. For one saith, "Thou hast gone up on high, Thou hast led captivity captive, and hast received gifts amongst men." And, "The Lord strong and mighty in battle." And another saith, "He shall divide the spoils of the strong." For indeed to this purpose He came, that He might "preach deliverance to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind." And raising aloud the cry of victory over death, he said, "Where, O Death, is thy victory? Where, O Grave, is thy sting?" And another again, declaring glad tidings of the most profound peace, said, "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." And while one calls on Jerusalem, saying, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, for lo! thy King cometh to thee meek, riding upon an ass, and a young colt;" another proclaims His second coming also, saying on this wise, "The Lord, whom ye seek, will come, and who will abide the day of His coming? Leap ye as calves set free from bonds." And another again, amazed at such things, said, "This is our God; there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him."

They speak who obeyed the apostolic calling without delay and "have the desire to be set free from the body so as to be with Christ," preferring nothing to the fulfillment of the commandments.

BY WHAT REASONING CAN THE WICKEDNESS OF ARIUS BE SIMPLY REFUTED FROM THE LAW? — If we grant authority to reason, the very meaning of the names “Father” and “Son” shows their unity. You ask, how? For the true Son of God would not be so called unless He had come forth from the substance of God the Father. Truth and justice in God would not permit Him to call someone “Son” truly if that Son were not from Himself. He is not truly the Son of God if He is not from Him. But Scripture says He is true; therefore He is from Him. Whoever denies that Christ was born of God does an injustice to Scripture, which calls Him the true Son of God precisely in order to signify that He was born of God. For if He is not from God, and yet is called the true Son of God, then Scripture is deceitful. But if Scripture does not deceive, then whoever does not confess that Christ came forth from God both nullifies Scripture and denies Christ to be the true Son of God. It is not will that makes a true Son, but birth. “But,” they say, “this falls under the power of God, that He can make what is false into true.” On the contrary, this is the power of God, for which He is worthy of all praise: that what is true with Him is true, and what is false is false. That is the mark of a liar, to call the false true; this does not apply to God. For God can indeed do all things, but He does nothing except what accords with His truth and justice. It is, then, clear that Christ is called the true Son of God so that He may be understood as His own Son, that is, born of His substance. Therefore the Apostle says: “He who did not spare His own Son” (Rom. 8:32); and in another Epistle: “Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God” (Phil. 2:6). If then He did not consider it robbery to declare Himself equal with God, He thereby showed Himself to be the true Son of God. For He could not be equal with God unless He were from Him. Those are equal who are either both true or both false. Beginning and eternal being, or unity, do not admit equality. By saying that He is one with the Father, Christ makes Himself equal to God. “For not only,” it says, “was He breaking the sabbath, but He also called God His Father, making Himself equal with God” (Jn. 5:18), that is, His peer. Is it not clear that this equality comes down from the property of His birth? In calling Himself God’s own Son, that is, His true Son, He made Himself equal with God. Therefore He says: “He who sees Me, sees also My Father” (Jn. 14:9). Because they are of one substance, he who sees one sees both. “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted to the Son to have life in Himself” (Jn. 5:26); that is, the Father begot the Son equal to Himself; and “all that is the Father’s is the Son’s, and what is the Son’s is the Father’s” (Jn. 17:10); and “no one can snatch anything out of the Father’s hand, nor out of the Son’s hand” (cf. John 10:29). And He adds: “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30); and, “The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father who dwells in Me, He Himself speaks; and the works that I do, He does. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; or else believe for the very works’ sake” (Jn. 14:10–12). Since generation is not from oneself but from the One who begets, therefore whatever He does, He calls it the Father’s work, so that by all these things it may be confirmed that Christ is called the true Son of God so that He may be believed to be born of Him, lest His substance be thought to lie outside the nature of the one God. His great humility is therefore His greatest praise. For when He appears to place Himself in subjection, saying, “The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; but the Father who dwells in Me, He Himself speaks; and the works that I do, He does,” (Jn.14:10) He proves that He has His origin from God and shows that He is His Power, since He says that what He is, is not from Himself but from Him. By this Christ is praised, not lowered. For one who speaks from himself is not a true Son. You see, then, that the Arians misunderstand Christ precisely where He ought to be rightly understood; and they reject Him and call Him false precisely where He is proved to be the true Son of God: for He asks to be glorified by the Father, and promises to glorify the Father whom He asks; and where He seems to humble Himself, He exalts Himself. For when the Father gives testimony to His Son, He bears witness to His own praise; and when the Son proclaims the Father, He reveals His own glory. The majesty and nobility of the Father are the nobility of the true Son. Therefore whatever is said to belong to the Father undoubtedly belongs also to the Son; and whatever is said to belong to the Son belongs also to the Father. For the Spirit is called the Spirit of God, and the same Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. The Church is called the Church of God, and is called the Church of Christ. God is adored, and Christ is adored. Service is rendered to God, and service is rendered to Christ. The saints are called priests of God, and they are called priests of Christ. The temple of the holy city is said to be God’s, and likewise Christ’s. The holy city is said to be enlightened by the light of God, and in the same way by the light of Christ. It is the throne of God, and also of Christ. God is Judge, and Christ is Judge: for the prophet Isaiah saw the Lord of hosts seated on the throne of majesty, that is, Christ (Isa. 6:1), which the Arians do not deny. Of God the Father it is read that He is King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15), and the same is read of Christ, the true Son of God (Rev. 17:14; 19:16). Therefore everywhere Father and Son are equated in divinity, so that the number of persons does not go beyond the measure of one God. Between Father and Son there is no difference except this alone: that the Father is unbegotten, but the Son begotten; that is, the Father is from no one, but the Son is from the Father, this, indeed, is sublime in the Son. For from this we learn the eternity of His nobility, and that He is the true Son of the true Father. From where comes that which is read in Genesis, where God says, “Let us make man in Our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26)? Therefore, if their image and likeness are one, how are they not also one in nature? In spiritual realities, where there are, of course, no outward forms, nothing will be similar except by substance; so where the image of two is one, how will their substance not be one as well? Therefore, we read that their image and likeness are one and the same, so that we might believe that the one is in no way different from the other; that is, that Christ is truly the Son of God, because His birth is not unlike that of the One who begets Him. Finally, the Jews, understanding that He called God His own Father, said to Pilate, “We have a Law, and according to the Law He must die, because He made Himself the Son of God” (Jn. 19:7). The Jews understood, and Christians claim they do not understand? Those who did not believe, understood; and those who claim to believe, act so that they may not understand? At least let them admit this: the prophet Isaiah, in order to show that Christ is God, not from Himself indeed, but God from God, says among other things: “After you they shall come, bound in chains, and they shall worship you, and shall pray in you, for in you is God, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know it; the God of Israel, the Savior” (Isa. 45:14–15). As far as an upright mind is concerned, these things are clear. By them the Father is shown to be in the Son, and the Son is shown to be God of the same substance as the Father. In Him in whom God is, and besides Him God is not, and He Himself is God, what else can He be said to be, but what God the Father is, and in no respect different? This is what it is for the two to be one. For God is in Him, because although He is God, He is not God from Himself. He is from the Father, because He is the Son. And besides Him there is no God, because He is the only-begotten Son of the Father. But He Himself is God, because the substance of God and of Christ is one and the same. Therefore no uncertainty is left, so that the substance of the Father and of the Son may be believed to be one. For He is the true Son of a true Father. So also is that saying of the prophet Jeremiah; for he says among other things: “This is our God, and another shall not be reckoned with Him. He found out every way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. Afterward He was seen upon the earth and lived among men” (Baruch 3:36–38). Can this be said of one who is of inferior stock, with whom no other can be reckoned? Or can anything be said to be God other than the Father, such that it would advance to God as an insult to the Father? For if no other god can be reckoned with Him, and He is apart from God the Father, see whether what follows ought to be said, for it is dangerous. He would be said to be greater than the Father. Thinking that they are showing reverence to God the Father if they separate the Son from Him, they reduce from Him; so that Him whom they wish to make lesser, with wicked and blinded mind, they set above the One to whose authority they think He ought to bow. But Scripture, in order to teach that the Son differs in nothing from the Father (He would differ if He were not true), says that no other is to be reckoned with Him; because no other substance can be found similar to the substance of God, which is also that of Christ. For it could not teach in any other way that Christ is from God, than by saying that no other can be reckoned with Him. Knowing that the Son of God could in no way be called subject to God the Father, so as to show Him to be equal, it says, “No other shall be reckoned with Him”; because He is equal to God the Father, since He is God: for He is His true Son. Therefore the prophet says, “This is our God”; that is, the God of Israel. If this is He, He Himself is the one God. Of Him Scripture says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God” (Deut. 6:4); and surely this is not the Father, but His Son. You see then that the person of the Son does not prejudice the one God, if He also is called one God: since Scripture bears witness to this. Where does this come from, unless because the Father and the Son are one, since unity is signified not by persons but by nature? Or they are not two in substance, but one; nor two in divinity, but one God: so that whether the Father speaks or the Son speaks, it is said that one God has spoken. For if the Lord Himself, among other things, concerning male and female, says, “They are no longer two, but one flesh” (Mark 10:8); how much more are the Father and the Son not two gods, but one substance? Now that Father and Son are said to be two, the cause is birth; but that they are not again two gods, the cause is the unity of divinity. With what dullness then do they preach that Christ is created, that is, made, when it is read that God made nothing without Christ (Jn. 1:3)? If therefore nothing was made without Him, He Himself will not be a thing made. For if He is a thing made, something was made without Him. But far be it; for nothing was without Him. Being born of God, He did not begin to exist, but has always existed. For birth is nothing else than proceeding forth; and proceeding forth is revealing. Therefore He was not made, but brought forth. And in order that Christ might be shown to have gone forth or proceeded from the essence of God, His birth was called a proceeding forth; so that, because His birth is not unlike the Begetter, Christ’s consubstantiality with God might be beyond doubt, and that mind which says, “There was a time when He was not,” might be condemned. For He who is read to have proceeded from God, in order that He might be shown to have always been with God, cannot at some time not have been. No one proceeds from God in a place where he was not. The Arians are accustomed to interpret therefore about the Son of God, saying, “Therefore Christ is called the true Son of God, because God made Him in such a way that He is true.” As though there were something false that God makes. And all those things which we said above about the unity of the Father and the Son, what will they be, when they have been so strengthened and confirmed, if it is thought that one must feel differently here? Will many things solidified by divine visions be able to be torn apart by the single testimony of one degenerate? Nevertheless this must be cut off, lest iniquity flatter itself even about this very point. “So,” they say, “He made Him in such a way that He is true, so that will was put in place of birth, and making in place of begetting. For so much must be granted,” they say, “to the power of God, that He can make things which are not, as though they were. Since they rely on this cunning trickery against the Son of God, we must answer them from those very points on which they believe, because they are already convicted in other matters, so that they may appear convicted in the whole sum. For this proposition, as far as its meaning is concerned, has no weight; but as far as the words are concerned, it creates obscurity so that the issue does not quickly appear. For it is as if an Egyptian were placed in the dark, because a bad cause cannot be defended with a good meaning. Therefore, to defend their wickedness, they use sacrilegious words. If, then, this is the power of God, that He could make it true that Christ is His Son, though He was not born from His own being; then He made Him such as He Himself is, so that what generation was going to bestow, the making has accomplished. If, therefore, you say there is no difference between God and Christ, it might perhaps be doubted whether this is not asserted by you unkindly, so that what is said in word might also be in meaning: that because He is called true Son, He may be understood as true, through the fact that He is of one substance with the Father, though not by generation but by making; since, as you say, God can do everything, so that what is made may be as though it were not made. But if, following the rule of reason, you say that what has a beginning cannot be equal and consubstantial with that which is eternal, you lay bare the deceit of your hatred: for, in order to evade the meaning of the word, you falsely say that Christ is truly the Son of God, while denying Him equality with God the Father. For He is not true if He is unequal. Can He be called a true Son, if the Father is not also called true? For if the Son is true, the Father will also be true; and equality proves this truth. But if they are unequal, neither of them is true. Yet since the witness of the Scriptures, by which Christ is approved as the true Son of God, cannot be made void, He must be believed to be born of God the Father: because, in order that this truth might be established, He is read as both equal to and on a par with God. But you, who proclaim the immeasurable power of God, say that God cannot beget, because His nature is simple; and by this you also do an insult to God the Father Himself. For you call Him a liar, since you deny the Son whom He declares to be His own and true; and you betray your hypocrisy, because you falsely proclaim God to be powerful. For if you proclaim the power of God in that which you assert to have been made true out of what was false, so as to mock what is true, how much more ought you to accept this, if you were of sound mind, whereby what is called true is proved true, and the testimony that God the Father gave about His Son is confirmed as true? For the Lord said, “With God,” He says, “all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26), so that whatever seems impossible to men may be possible to God. For if the reasoning of the flesh is followed, neither did a Virgin give birth, nor did Jonah live in the belly of the whale (Jonah 2:1), nor will the dead rise, nor did God beget a Son, because a simple nature cannot beget, since in this world nothing is generated without mixture. All these things must either be believed together or refuted together. For if the reasoning of the world must be maintained, it should have authority in all these matters. But if there is some reasoning proper to spiritual things, he must be called carnal who, infected with the reasoning of the world, denies that anything can be done otherwise than he knows. They are also accustomed to propose something else with their usual evasion. They say, “Did the Father beget the Son by will, or not?” so that when they hear, of course, that it was by will, they may at once, as enemies of the Son of God, reply, “Therefore the will is before the Son,” so that from this He may appear not eternal, since He did not receive a beginning by birth, but came into existence. And yet if they think this, not only will the will be before the Son, but also before the Father; because the cause of generation is the Father and the Son. Unbelief follows carnal notions in everything. For it introduces the cause of God as if He were a man, as though He had first considered and devised that He should beget, as if subject to weakness; whereas in God neither was there generation without will, nor will without generation. For the will itself is generation. Indeed, it is a common expression, “God made,” “man made”; but God makes in one way, man makes in another; and so also in other causes. Therefore must we speak of God as is worthy of Him. They also raise another question about God the Father Himself, saying, “Did it come to Him that He should beget, or is it of His nature always to beget?” They bring this forward so that they may also assert that God is a liar, who testifies that He has begotten Christ, and that they may make Christ not true, but adopted. For, they say, if He has begotten, He must always beget; so that, because He does not always beget, He may not be believed to have begotten Christ: as though it were denied that He made the world, because He does not make others. What disrespect, what lack of discipline it is, to lay down a law for God, so that if He has begotten, He must either have begotten many, or could not have begotten one; not even believing the Lord Himself, who declared Himself the only-begotten Son of God. After these things which have been shown above to be equal in the Father and the Son, let us see whether what is written about the Holy Spirit agrees with them, so that the Trinity which we hold in our saving profession may not admit a difference of nature, just as it has no diversity of faith. For although there is no salvation without any one of these, yet their power appears to be one, which gives salvation to those who believe in it. Since we have brought forward the words of the Father as testimony to the Son, now, as testimony to the Holy Spirit, let us use the words of the Son, by which he declares that the Holy Spirit does not differ from himself: so that, as the Father is witness with the Son, and the Son is witness to the Holy Spirit, the Trinity may be understood to be of one nature. The Lord therefore says among other things: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may be with you forever, the Spirit of truth (Jn. 14:16–17). When he says that another Paraclete is to be sent, he clearly shows that he himself is a Paraclete. For this is read also in the Epistle of John; he says: We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who intercedes for our sins (1 Jn. 2:1). And again the Lord says, I am the truth (Jn. 14:6). Behold the clear unity of the Holy Spirit and the Son of God. For what the Son says about himself, he says likewise about the Holy Spirit. Now we must set forth what Scripture arranges in this sense. It is read in Isaiah that he saw the Lord of hosts seated on a throne of majesty (Isa. 6:1), whom John the Evangelist understood to be Christ, saying among other things, These things said Isaiah when he saw his majesty, and spoke about him (Jn. 12:41). The Apostle says that this one is the Holy Spirit. For he says in the last part of the Acts of the Apostles, Well did the Holy Spirit speak to your fathers, saying, With hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, etc. (Acts 28:25–26). These words were spoken by the Lord of hosts. This is the one God, who, whether he be understood as the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, is not contrary to himself, because one is their divinity and one their power. For if, in an decree from the praetorium of one captain, the other captains also are said to command, because of the authority of a single power, how much more, under the rule of one God, if one of the three has spoken, will it not be unsuitable to say that the three have spoken? For their nature and will are one. They are also accustomed to prejudice the Holy Spirit by claiming that he must therefore be considered inferior, because he is placed third in order; though there is such simplicity in the divine Scriptures that you sometimes find the third placed first. As the occasion requires, so they are set down. For it is no injury to any of them, because one is their divinity. Indeed we read in Isaiah, with the Lord saying, I am the first, and I am forever: and my hand founded the earth, and my right hand established heaven. And in what follows: I have spoken, I have called, I have brought him, and I have made his way prosperous. Come near to me, and hear these things: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time that they came to be, I was there, and now the Lord has sent me and his Spirit (Isa. 48:12–13, 15–16). Whom do you suppose to be the one who founded the earth? For it is he who says that he has been sent. Is it the Father? Far from it. It is therefore the Son who says that he has been sent by God and by the Holy Spirit. Behold the equality between the Son and the Holy Spirit. For just as the Holy Spirit is read to have been sent by the Father and the Son, so Christ is sent by God and by the Holy Spirit. For this is proper to the Father alone, that he should not be said to be sent. Consider the words of the Apostle, who in another order embraces the Trinity: for he says among other things in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ (2 Thess. 3:5). Whom do you think he calls “the Lord,” if not the Holy Spirit? And what is strange in this, since he whom Isaiah saw seated on the throne of majesty, this same one he calls the Holy Spirit, the Lord of hosts, as we showed above. And the Apostle John signifies that God is understood in the Holy Spirit, saying among other things, In this we have known that God remains in us, by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us (1 Jn. 4:13). If therefore it is through his Spirit that he himself remains in us, it is not in doubt that the Holy Spirit is of God. And there is no question that whatever is of God is God. From this the Apostle says, No one knows the things that are in God except the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11). How can he know the things that are in God unless he is of the same divinity? For a lower nature cannot know what is in a higher; how much less could a creature know what was in its Creator? And to the Corinthians, in the first Epistle, departing from the usual order which is in the tradition of the faith, he begins with the Holy Spirit when he recalls the workings of graces and mysteries; and he adds the Lord Jesus; and in the third place he sets God, whom he says to be working in the Holy Spirit and in the Lord (ibid. 12:4–6): just as the Lord also says, The Father, remaining in me, he himself does the works (Jn. 14:10). For through that by which the Holy Spirit and Christ are “of God the Father,” their working is the work of God. In fact he calls the Holy Spirit also “Lord,” and he calls the Lord also “God,” because of the unity of nature. Therefore, since in this place he says that the same one who is God and Lord works all things in all, he concludes below, saying, But all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each as he wills (1 Cor. 12:11). What is more evident, that the three have one operation? For when one works, the three are said to work; why, except because they are of one divinity? For there is no doubt that the gift of graces is properly worked by the Holy Spirit. But in order to teach that God and Lord and the Holy Spirit are one because of the sameness of nature, he shows that the work of the Holy Spirit is the work of the three. And to make clear that, as far as person is concerned, this work is the Holy Spirit’s alone, he says, But all these things are worked by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each as he wills. Therefore he acts as he wills, because his will is the will of God. For he does not say “as God wills,” but “as the Spirit wills.” A creature compels itself to do the will of God; but the Holy Spirit wills this by nature. And in order that it may clearly shine forth that the Holy Spirit works all things, the Lord says among other things: “If I by the finger of God cast out devils,” etc. (Luke 11:20). He calls the Holy Spirit the finger of God, to prove that He is from God. Finally, He testifies that the Jews, who said that He cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils, blasphemed against the Holy Spirit. Moses also, because he worked signs through the Holy Spirit, is acknowledged by the magicians, who say, “This is the finger of God” (Exod. 8:19). For in the Acts of the Apostles we read: “As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said: Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2). Behold, service is rendered to the Lord, and the Holy Spirit claims this for Himself. From this it plainly appears that He is Lord, just as God the Father is. And Christ called Saul from heaven and sent him to preach (Acts 9:4); and in like manner the Holy Spirit claims this for Himself, saying, “for the work to which I have called them.” For no one is ignorant that the Savior appointed bishops for the Churches. Indeed, before He ascended into heaven, laying His hand upon the Apostles, He ordained them as bishops. The Apostle attributes this to the Holy Spirit when he says: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops, to rule the Church of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:28). And among other things Peter says to Ananias: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart, that you should lie to the Holy Spirit?” And further on, he says: “You have not lied to men, but to God” (Acts 5:3–4). It is clear that the Holy Spirit is called God, since Ananias, who lied to the Holy Spirit, is said to have lied to God. If he had in no way wished the Holy Spirit to be understood as God, he would have said, “You have not lied to men, but to the Holy Spirit,” so that he would indicate Him as neither God nor man. And what is surprising in this? For the Apostle at one time calls a man the temple of God (2 Cor. 6:16), and at another time the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19), because by nature they are one. For if the Holy Spirit were in no way understood to be God, with what boldness would he later say, “The temple of God is holy, and that temple are you” (2 Cor. 3:17)? For one God is proclaimed in all the Scriptures; but His mystery is adored in the Trinity. Therefore Scripture so speaks, that under the profession of one God, the things which are of Him, that is, His Son and His Holy Spirit, are understood to be in the same honor in which God Himself is. For the mystery of God has been revealed in order that His glory might be signified in the Trinity. Wherefore, what is from God is not called God with full authority, lest it be believed that another is made apart from Him who is the One. But understanding is given, so that we may believe that in this manner the salvation of the creature consists in the Trinity, because one is their divinity. For neither could the Creator and the creatures, the Lord and the servants, eternity and those things that are under a beginning, be joined together and placed in the same order, since without one of them salvation is for none. For everything that is God, whether the Son or the Holy Spirit, is called so to its injury, if it is reckoned outside the honor and glory of the one God. Therefore the Scriptures show Christ to be God, they show the Holy Spirit to be God, so that, seeing, they may know what He is who is shown. It is as if someone were to show a gem without crying out that it is a gem: just because he does not cry out, will that which is seen not be a gem? In the same way, through the things discussed above, the Scriptures show what we ought to believe, enclosing our understanding within the faith of the one God, in the mystery of the Trinity.

Now this is His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in the last times was made a man among men, that He might join the end to the beginning, that is, man to God. Wherefore the prophets, receiving the prophetic gift from the same Word, announced His advent according to the flesh, by which the blending and communion of God and man took place according to the good pleasure of the Father, the Word of God foretelling from the beginning that God should be seen by men, and hold converse with them upon earth, should confer with them, and should be present with His own creation, saving it, and becoming capable of being perceived by it, and freeing us from the hands of all that hate us, that is, from every spirit of wickedness; and causing us to serve Him in holiness and righteousness all our days, in order that man, having embraced the Spirit of God, might pass into the glory of the Father.…Inasmuch, then, as the Spirit of God pointed out by the prophets things to come, forming and adapting us beforehand for the purpose of our being made subject to God, but it was still a future thing that man, through the good pleasure of the Holy Spirit, should see [God], it necessarily behoved those through whose instrumentality future things were announced, to see God, whom they intimated as to be seen by men; in order that God, and the Son of God, and the Son, and the Father, should not only be prophetically announced, but that He should also be seen by all His members who are sanctified and instructed in the things of God, that man might be disciplined beforehand and previously exercised for a reception into that glory which shall afterwards be revealed in those who love God.

The prophet David says, "He sent his word and healed them." And Jeremiah, "He is our God, and there is no other but him, who has searched all the ways of wisdom and given it to Jacob, his beloved. After that he appeared on earth and dwelled among human beings." And the prophet Habakkuk says, "The word will depart and go out into the fields." And the prophet Isaiah, "Their heart is completely weighed down. He is a man, and who will know him?" John the Evangelist confirms this, saying, "The Word became flesh and dwelled among us." Paul also attests this: "He, being by nature equal to God, did not consider it a good to be equal to God but made himself nothing, taking the nature of a servant, becoming like human beings and being as a man." And the Sibyl confesses, "Certainly to judge the flesh and the world with his presence."