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| Of the Divine Trinity, and the Indications of Its Presence Scattered Everywhere Among Its Works.
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Chapter 24.—Of the Divine
Trinity, and the Indications of Its Presence Scattered Everywhere
Among Its Works.
We believe, we maintain, we
faithfully preach, that the Father begat the Word, that is, Wisdom,
by which all things were made, the only-begotten Son, one as the
Father is one, eternal as the Father is eternal, and, equally with
the Father, supremely good; and that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit
alike of Father and of Son, and is Himself consubstantial and
co-eternal with both; and that this whole is a Trinity by reason of
the individuality497
| 497 Proprietas. [The Greeks call it
ἰδιώτης or ἴδιον, i.e. the
propriety or characteristic individuality of each divine person,
namely the fatherhood, paternitas, ἀγεννησια, of the first
person; the sonship, filiatio, generatio, γεννησία, of the second person;
the procession, processio,
ἐκπόρευσις, of the third
person.—P.S.] | of the
persons, and one God by reason of the indivisible divine substance,
as also one Almighty by reason of the indivisible omnipotence; yet
so that, when we inquire regarding each singly, it is said that
each is God and Almighty; and, when we speak of all together, it is
said that there are not three Gods, nor three Almighties, but one
God Almighty; so great is the indivisible unity of these Three,
which requires that it be so stated. But, whether the Holy Spirit
of the Father, and of the Son, who are both good, can be with
propriety called the goodness of both, because He is common to
both, I do not presume to determine hastily. Nevertheless, I
would have less hesitation in saying
that He is the holiness
of both, not as if He were a divine attribute merely, but Himself
also the divine substance, and the third person in the Trinity. I
am the rather emboldened to make this statement, because, though
the Father is a spirit, and the Son a spirit, and the Father holy,
and the Son holy, yet the third person is distinctively called the
Holy Spirit, as if He were the substantial holiness consubstantial
with the other two. But if the divine goodness is nothing else
than the divine holiness, then certainly it is a reasonable
studiousness, and not presumptuous intrusion, to inquire whether
the same Trinity be not hinted at in an enigmatical mode of speech,
by which our inquiry is stimulated, when it is written who made
each creature, and by what means, and why. For it is the Father
of the Word who said, Let there be. And that which was made when
He spoke was certainly made by means of the Word. And by the
words, “God saw that it was good,” it is sufficiently intimated
that God made what was made not from any necessity, nor for the
sake of supplying any want, but solely from His own goodness,
i.e., because it was good. And this is stated after the
creation had taken place, that there might be no doubt that the
thing made satisfied the goodness on account of which it was
made. And if we are right in understanding; that this goodness is
the Holy Spirit, then the whole Trinity is revealed to us in the
creation. In this, too, is the origin, the enlightenment, the
blessedness of the holy city which is above among the holy
angels. For if we inquire whence it is, God created it; or whence
its wisdom, God illumined it; or whence its blessedness, God is its
bliss. It has its form by subsisting in Him; its enlightenment by
contemplating Him; its joy by abiding in Him. It is; it sees; it
loves. In God’s eternity is its life; in God’s truth its
light; in God’s goodness its joy.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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