XVIII.
We acknowledge that the Son and the Spirit are
consubstantial with the Father, and that the substance of the Trinity
is one,—that is, that there is one divinity according to nature,
the Father remaining unbegotten, and the Son being begotten of the
Father in a true generation, and not in a formation by will,344
| 344
ποιήσει
ἐκ
βουλήσεως. |
and the Spirit being sent forth eternally
from the substance of the
Father through the Son, with
power to
sanctify the whole
creation. And we further acknowledge that the
Word was made
flesh, and was manifested in the
flesh-movement
345
| 345
κινήσει. [For the spiritual κινήσις, vol. iii.
note 6, p. 622.] |
received of a
virgin, and did not simply
energize in a man. And those who have
fellowship with men that
reject the
consubstantiality as a
doctrine foreign to the
Scriptures, and speak of any of the persons in the
Trinity as
created,
and separate that person from the one
natural divinity, we hold as
aliens, and have
fellowship with none such.
346
| 346
[Evidently after the Nicene Council; the
consubstantiality, as a phrase and test of orthodoxy, belonging
to the Nicene period.] |
There is one
God the
Father, and
there is only one
divinity. But the Son also is
God, as being the
true image of the one and only
divinity, according to generation and
the
nature which He has from the
Father. There is one
Lord the
Son; but in like manner there is the Spirit, who bears over
347
the Son’s lordship to the creature
that is sanctified. The Son
sojourned in the
world, having of the
Virgin received
flesh, which He filled with the
Holy Spirit for the
sanctification of us all; and having given up the
flesh to
death, He
destroyed death through the resurrection that had in view the
resurrection of us all; and He ascended to heaven, exalting and
glorifying men in Himself; and He comes the second time to bring us
again eternal life.
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