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| Why the Son Chiefly is Intimated in the Scriptures by the Name of Wisdom, While Both the Father and the Holy Spirit are Wisdom. That the Holy Spirit, Together with the Father and the Son, is One Wisdom.
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Chapter 3.—Why the
Son Chiefly is Intimated in the Scriptures by the Name of Wisdom,
While Both the Father and the Holy Spirit are Wisdom. That the Holy
Spirit, Together with the Father and the Son, is One
Wisdom.
4. Why, then, is scarcely anything
ever said in the Scriptures of wisdom, unless to show that it is
begotten or created of God?—begotten in the case of that Wisdom
by which all things are made; but created or made, as in men, when
they are converted to that Wisdom which is not created and made but
begotten, and are so enlightened; for in these men themselves there
comes to be something which may be called their wisdom: even as the
Scriptures foretell or narrate, that “the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us;”630
for in this way Christ was made
wisdom, because He was made man. Is it on this account that wisdom
does not speak in these books, nor is anything spoken of it, except
to declare that it is born of God, or made by Him (although the
Father is Himself wisdom), namely, because wisdom ought to be
commended and imitated by us, by the imitation of which we are
fashioned [rightly]? For the Father speaks it, that it may be His
Word: yet not as a word producing a sound proceeds from the mouth,
or is thought before it is pronounced. For this word is completed
in certain spaces of time, but that is eternal, and speaks to us by
enlightening us, what ought to be spoken to men, both of itself and
of the Father. And therefore He says, “No man knoweth the Son,
but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him:”631
since the Father reveals by the
Son, that is, by His Word. For if that word which we utter, and
which is temporal and transitory, declares both itself, and that of
which we speak, how much more the Word of God, by which all things
are made? For this Word so declares the Father as He is the Father;
because both itself so is, and is that which is the Father, in so
far as it is wisdom and essence. For in so far as it is the Word,
it is not what the Father is; because the Word is not the Father,
and Word is spoken relatively, as is also Son, which assuredly is
not the Father. And therefore Christ is the power and wisdom of
God, because He Himself, being also power and wisdom, is from the
Father, who is power and wisdom; as He is light of the Father, who
is light, and the fountain of life with God the Father, who is
Himself assuredly the fountain of life. For “with Thee,”
He says, “is the fountain of life, and in Thy light shall we see
light.”632
Because,
“as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son
to have life in Himself:”633
and, “He was the true Light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world:” and this
light, “the Word,” was “with God;” but “the Word also was
God;”634
and “God
is light, and in Him is no darkness at all:”635
but a light that is not corporeal,
but spiritual; yet not in such way spiritual, that it was wrought
by illumination, as it was said to the apostles, “Ye are the
light of the world,”636
but “the light which lighteth
every man,” that very supreme wisdom itself who is God, of whom
we now treat. The Son therefore is Wisdom of wisdom, namely the
Father, as He is Light of light, and God of God; so that both the
Father singly is light, and the Son singly is light; and the Father
singly is God, and the Son singly is God: therefore the Father also
singly is wisdom, and the Son singly is wisdom. And as both
together are one light and one God, so both are one wisdom. But the
Son is “by God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification;”637
because we turn ourselves to Him in
time, that is, from some particular time, that we may remain with
Him for ever. And He Himself from a certain time was “the Word
made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
5. On this account, then, when
anything concerning wisdom is declared or narrated in the
Scriptures, whether as itself speaking, or where anything is spoken
of it, the Son chiefly is intimated to us. And by the example of
Him who is the image, let us also not depart from God, since we
also are the Image of God: not indeed that which is equal to Him,
since we are made so by the Father through the Son, and not born of
the Father, as that is. And we are so, because we are enlightened
with light; but that is so, because it is the light that
enlightens; and which, therefore, being without pattern, is to us a
pattern. For He does not imitate any one going before Him, in
respect to the Father, from whom He is never separable at all,
since He is the very same substance with Him from whom He is. But
we by striving imitate Him who abides, and follow Him who stands
still, and walking in Him, reach out towards Him; because He is
made for us a way in time by His humiliation, which is to us an
eternal abiding-place by His divinity. For since to pure
intellectual spirits, who have not fallen through pride, He gives
an example in the form of God and as equal with God and as God; so,
in order that He might also give Himself as an example of returning
to fallen man who on account of the uncleanness of sins and the
punishment of mortality cannot see God, “He emptied Himself;”
not by changing His own divinity, but by assuming our
changeableness: and “taking upon Him the form of a servant”638
He came to
us into this world,”639
who “was in this world,”
because “the world was made by Him;”640
that He might be an example upwards
to those who see God, an example downwards to those who admire man,
an example to the sound to persevere, an example to the sick to be
made whole, an example to those who are to die that they may not
fear, an example to the dead that they may rise again, “that in
all things He might have the pre-eminence.”641
So that, because man ought not to
follow any except God to blessedness, and yet cannot perceive God;
by following God made man, he might follow at once Him whom he
could perceive, and whom he ought to follow. Let us then love Him
and cleave to Him, by charity spread abroad in our hearts, through
the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.642
It is not therefore to be wondered
at, if, on account of the example which the Image, which is equal
to the Father, gives to us, in order that we may be refashioned
after the image of God, Scripture, when it speaks of wisdom, speaks
of the Son, whom we follow by living wisely; although the Father
also is wisdom, as He is both light and God.
6. The Holy Spirit also, whether we
are to call Him that absolute love which joins together Father and
Son, and joins us also from beneath, that so that is not unfitly
said which is written, “God is love;”643
how is He not also Himself wisdom,
since He is light, because “God is light”? or whether after any
other way the essence of the Holy Spirit is to be singly and
properly named; then, too, since He is God, He is certainly light;
and since He is light, He is certainly wisdom. But that the Holy
Spirit is God, Scripture proclaims by the apostle, who says,
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” and immediately
subjoins, “And the Spirit of God dwelleth in you;”644
for God
dwelleth in His own temple. For the Spirit of God does not dwell in
the temple of God as a servant, since he says more plainly in
another place, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost which is in you, and which ye have of God, and ye are
not your own? For ye are bought with a great
price: therefore glorify God in your body.”645
But what is wisdom, except
spiritual and unchangeable light? For yonder sun also is light, but
it is corporeal; and the spiritual creature also is light, but it
is not unchangeable. Therefore the Father is light, the Son is
light, and the Holy Spirit is light; but together not three lights,
but one light. And so the Father is wisdom, the Son is wisdom, and
the Holy Spirit is wisdom, and together not three wisdoms, but one
wisdom: and because in the Trinity to be is the same as to be wise,
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are one essence. Neither in the
Trinity is it one thing to be and another to be God; therefore the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are one God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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