Chap. xvii. — In how many ways tilings future are forehiown. Neither philo- sophers, nor those who loere distinguished among the ancients, are to be con- sulted concerni7ig the i^esurrection of the dead.
22, — although the name of prophets, too, is not altogether foreign to their Avritings. But it makes the greatest possible difference, whether things future are conjectured by experience of things past (as physicians also have committed many things to writing in the way of foresight, which they themselves have noted by experience; or as again husbandmen, or sailors, 132 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK IV.
too, foretell many things; for if such predictions are made a long while before, they are thought to be divinations), or whether such things have already started on their road to come to us, and being seen coming far off, are announced in proportion to the acuteness of the sense of those who see them, by doing which the aerial powers are thought to divine (just as if a person from the top of a mountain were to see far off some one coming, and were to announce it beforehand to those who dwelt close by in the plain); or whether they are either fore-announced to certain men, or are heard by them and again transmitted to other men, by means of holy angels, to whom God shows those things by His Word and His Wisdom, wherein both things future and things past con- sist; or whether the minds of certain men themselves are so far borne upwards by the Holy Spirit, as to behold, not through the angels, but of themselves, the immoveable causes of things future, in that very highest pinnacle of the universe itself [And I say, behold,] for the aerial powers, too, hear these things, either by message through angels, or through men; and hear only so much as He judges to be fitting, to whom all things are subject. Many things, too, are foretold by a kind of instinct and inward impulse of such as know them not: as Caiaphas did not know what he said, but being the high priest, he prophesied.^ 23. Therefore, neither concerning the successions of ages, nor concerning the resurrection of the dead, ought we to consult those philosophers, who have understood as much as they could the eternity of the Creator, in whom " we live, and move, and have our being." ^ Since, knowing God through those things which are made, they have not glorified Him as God, neither were thankful; but professing themselves wise, they became fools.^ And whereas they were not fit to fix the eye of the mind so firmly upon the eternity of the spiritual and un- changeable nature, as to be able to see, in the wisdom itself of the Creator and Governor of the universe, those revolutions of the ages, which in that wisdom were already and were always, but here were about to be so that as yet they were not; or, again, to see therein those changes for the better, not CHAP. XVIII.] DIFFERENT KINDS OF PROPHECY. 133 of the souls only, but also of the bodies of men, even to the perfection of their proper measure; whereas then, I say, they were in no way fit to see these things therein, they were not even judged worthy of receiving any announcement of them by the holy angels; whether externally through the senses of the body, or by interior revelations exhibited in the spirit; as these things actually were manifested to our fathers, who were gifted with true piety, and who by foretelling them, obtaining credence either by present signs, or by events close at hand, which turned out as they had foretold, earned authority to be believed respecting things remotely future, even to the end of the world. But the proud and deceitful powers of the air, even if they are found to have said through their soothsayers some things of the fellowship and citizenship of the saints, and of the true Mediator, which they heard from the holy prophets or the angels, did so with the purpose of seducing even the faithful ones of God, if they could, by these alien truths, to revolt to their own proper falsehoods. But God did this by those who knew not what they said, in order that the truth might sound abroad from all sides, to aid the faithful, to be a witness against the ungodly.
Chap, xviii. — The Son of God became incarnate in order that we being cleansed by faith may be raised to the unchangeable truth.
24. Since, then, we were not fit to take hold of things eternal, and since the foulness of sins weighed us down, which we had contracted by the love of temporal things, and which were implanted in us as it were naturally, from the root of mortality, it was needful that we should be cleansed. But cleansed we could not be, so as to be tempered together with things eternal, except it were through things temporal, where- with we were already tempered together and held fast. For health is at the opposite extreme from disease; but the inter- mediate process of healing does not lead us to perfect health, unless it has some congruity with the disease. Things tem- poral that are useless merely deceive the sick; things temporal that are useful take up those that need healing, and pass them on healed, to things eternal. And the rational mind, as when cleansed it owes contemplation to things eternal; so, when needing cleansing, owes faith to things temporal. One 134 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK IV.
even of those who were formerly esteemed wise men among the Greeks has said, The truth stands to faith in the same re- lation in which eternity stands to that which has a beginning. And he is no doubt right in saying so. For what we call temporal, he describes as having had a beginning. And we also ourselves come under this kind, not only in respect to the body, but also in respect to the changeableness of the soul. Eor that is not properly called eternal which undergoes any degree of change. Therefore, in so far as we are changeable, in so far we stand apart from eternity. But life eternal is promised to us through the truth, from the clear knowledge of which, again, our faith stands as far apart as mortality does from eternity. We then now put faith in things done in time on our account, and by that faith itself we are cleansed; in order that when we have come to sight, as truth follows faith, so eternity may follow upon mortality. And therefore, since our faith will become truth, when we have attained to that which is promised to us who believe: and that which is pro- mised us is eternal life; and the Truth (not that which shall come to be according as our faith shall be, but that truth which is always, because in it is eternity, — the Truth then) has said, " And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent: " ^ when our faith by seeing shall come to be truth, then eternity shall possess our now changed mortality. And until this shall take place, and in order that it may take place, — because we adapt the faith of belief to things which have a beginning, as in things eternal we hope for the truth of contemplation, lest the faith of mortal life should be at discord with the truth of eternal life, — the Truth itself, co-eternal with the Father, took a beginning from earth,^ when the Son of God so came as to become the Son of man, and to take to Himself our faith, that He might thereby lead us on to His own truth, who so undertook our mortality, as not to lose His own eternity. For truth stands to faith in the relation in which eternity stands to that which has a beginning. Therefore, we must needs so be cleansed, that we may come to have such a beginning as remains eternal, that we may not have one be- CPIAP. XIX.] OF THE SENDING OF THE SON OF GOD. 135 cinnins: in faith, and another in truth. I^either could we pass to things eternal from the condition of having a begin- ning, unless we were transferred, by union of the eternal to ourselves through our own beginning, to His own eternity. Therefore our 'faith has, in some measure, now followed thither, whither He in whom we have believed has ascended; born,^ dead, risen again, taken up. Of these four things, we knew the first two in ourselves. For we know that men both have a beginning and die. But the remaining two, that is, to be raised, and to be taken up, we rightly hope will be in us, be- cause we have believed them done in Him. Since, therefore, in Him that, too, which had a beginning has passed over to eternity, in ourselves also it will so pass over, when faith shall have arrived at truth. For to those who thus believe, in order that they might remain in the word of faith, and being thence led on to the truth, and through that to eternity, might be freed from death. He speaks thus: " If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." And as though they would ask. With what fruit? He proceeds to say, " And ye shall know the truth." And again, as though they would say. Of what good is truth to mortal men? " And the truth," He says, " shall make you free." ^ From what, except from death, from corruption, from changeableness? Since truth remains immortal, incorrupt, unchangeable. But true immortality, true incorruptibility, true unchangeableness, is eternity itself.
Chap. xix. — In what manner the Son was sent and proclaimed beforehand. How in the sending of His birth in the flesh He ivas made less without detri- ment to His equality with the Father.
25. Behold, then, why the Son of God was sent; nay, rather behold what it is for the Son of God to be sent. Whatever things they were which were wrought in time, with a view to produce faith, whereby we might be cleansed so as to contemplate truth, in things that have a beginning, which have been put forth from eternity, and are referred back to eternity; these were either testimonies of. this mission, or they were the mission itself of the Son of God. But some of these testimonies announced Him beforehand as to come, some testified that He had come already. For that He was made I 136 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK IV.
a creature, by whom the whole creation was made, must needs find its witness in the whole creation. Tor except one were preached by the sending of many, one would not be held fast to the sending away of many. And unless there were such testimonies as should seem to be great to those who are mean, it would not be believed, that He being great should make men great, who as mean was sent to the mean. For the heaven and the earth and all things in them are incompar- ably greater works of the Son of God, since all things were made by Him, than the signs and the portents which broke forth in testimony of Him. But yet men, in order that, being mean, they might believe these great things to have been wrought by Him, trembled at those mean things, as if they had been great.
26. "When, therefore, the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law; " -^ to such a degree mean, that He was " made; " in this way therefore sent, in that He was made. If, therefore, the greater sends the less, we, too, acknowledge Him to have been made less; and in so far less, in so far as made; and in so far made, in so far as sent. For " He sent forth His Son made of a woman." And yet, because all things were made by Him, not only before He was made and sent, but before all things were at all, we confess the same to be equal to the sender, whom we call less, as having been sent. In what way, then, could He be seen by the fathers, when certain angelical visions were shown to them, before that fulness of time at which it was fitting He should be sent, and so before He was sent, at a time when not yet sent He was seen as He is equal with the Father? For how does He say to Philip, by whom He was certainly seen as by all the rest, and even by those by whom He was crucified in the flesh, " Have I been so loni? time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also; " unless because He was both seen and yet not seen? He was seen, as He had been made in being sent; He was not seen, as by Him all things were made. Or how does He say this too, " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth CHAP. XX.] THE SON SAID TO BE SENT, AS BEING THE SON. 137 me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him," -^ at a time when He was manifest before the eyes of men; unless because He was offering that flesh, which the Word was made in the fulness of time, to be accepted by our faith; but was keeping back the Word itself, by whom all things were made, to be contemplated in eternity by the mind when cleansed by faith?
Chap. xx. — The sender and the sent equal. Why the Son is said to he sent by the Father. Of the mission of the Holy Spirit. How and by whom He was sent. The Father the beginning of the whole Godhead.
27. But if the Son is said to be sent by the Father on this account, that the one is the Father, and the other the Son, this does not in any manner hinder us from believing the Son to be equal, and consubstantial, and co-eternal with the Father, and yet to have been sent as Son by the Father. Not because the one is greater, the other less; but because the one is Father, the other Son; the one begetter, the other begotten; the one, He from whom He is who is sent; the other, He who is from Him who sends. For the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son. And according to this manner we can now understand that the Son is not only said to have been sent because " the Word was made flesh,"^ but therefore sent that the Word might be made flesh, and that He might perform through His bodily presence those things which were written; that is, that not only is He understood to have been sent as man, which the Word was made, but the Word, too, was sent that it might be made man; because He was not sent in respect to any inequality of power, or substance, or anything that in Him was not equal to the Father; but in respect to this, that the Son is from the Father, not the Father from the Son; for the Son is the Word of the Father, which is also called His Wisdom. What wonder, therefore, if He is sent, not because He is unequal with the Father, but because He is "a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty God?" For there, that which flows, and that from which it flows, is of one and the same substance. For it does not flow as water flows from an aperture of earth or of stone, but as light flows from light. For the words, " For she is the 138 ON thp: trinity. [book iv.
brightness of the everlasting light/' what else are they than, she is light of everlasting light? For what is the brightness of light, except light itself? and so Qo-eternal with the light, from which the light is. But he preferred to say, " the brightness of light," rather than the light of light; lest that which flows should be thought to be more dark than that from which it flows. For when one hears of the brightness of it being itself, it is more easy to believe that the one shines through the other, than that this shines less. But because there was no need of warning men not to think that light to be less, which begat the other (for no heretic ever dared say this, neither is it to be believed that any one will dare to do so). Scripture meets that other thought, whereby that light which flows might seem darker than that from which it flows; and it has removed this surmise by saying, " It is the brightness of that light," namely, of eternal light, and so shows it to be equal. For if it were less, then it would be its darkness, not its brightness; but if it were greater, then it could not flow from it, for it could not surpass that from which it is produced. Therefore, because it flows from it, it is not greater than it is; and because it is not its darkness, but its brightness, it is not less than it is: therefore it is equal, l^or ought this to trouble us, that it is called a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty God, as if itself were not omnipotent, but an influence flowing from the Omnipotent; for soon after it is said of it, " And being but one, she can do all things." ^ But who is omnipotent, unless He who can do all things? It is sent, therefore, by Him from whom it flows; for so she is sought after by him who loved and desired her. '' Send her," he says, " out of Thy holy heavens, and from the throne of Thy glory, that, being present, she may labour with me;"^ that is, may teach me to labour, in order that I may not labour. For her labours are virtues. But she is sent in one way that she may be with man; she has been sent in another way that she herself may be man. For, " entering into holy souls, she maketh them friends of God and prophets; "^ so she also fills the holy angels, and works all things fitting for such ministries by tliem. But when the fulness of 1 Wisd. vii. 25-27. ^ ^yisd. ix. 10. « y^r^^d. vii. 27.
CHAP. XX.] WHAT THE SENDING OF THE SON MEANS. 139 time was come, she was sent/ not to fill angels, nor to be an angel, except in so far as she announced the counsel of the Father, which was her own also; nor, again, to be with men or in men, for this too took place before, both in the fathers and in the prophets; but that the Word itself should be made flesh, that is, should be made man. In which future mystery, when revealed, was to be the salvation of those wise and holy men also, who, before He was born of the Virgin, were born of women; and in which, when done and made known, is the salvation of all who believe, and hope, and love. For this is " the great mystery of godliness, which ^ was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." ^ 28. Therefore the Word of God is sent by Him, of whom He is the Word; He is sent by Him, from whom He was born; He sends who begot. That is sent which is begotten. And He is then sent to each one, when He is apprehended and perceived by each, in so far as He can be apprehended and perceived, in proportion to the comprehension of the rational soul, either advancing towards God, or already perfect in God. The Son, therefore, is not properly said to have been sent in that He is born of the Father; but either in that the Word made flesh appeared to the world, whence He says, " I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world;" * or in that from time to time He is perceived by the mind of each, according to the saying, " Send her, that, being present with me, she may labour with me."^ What then is born from eternity is eternal, " for it is the brightness of the ever- lasting light;" but what is sent from time to time, is that which is apprehended by each. But when the Son of God was made manifest in the flesh. He was sent into this world in the fulness of time, made of a woman. " For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God " (since " the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not"), it "pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe," ^ that the Word should be made flesh, and dwell among us.'^ But when from time to time He comes ^ Gal. iv. 4. 2 Qnod, scil. sacramentiim. ^ 1 Tim. iii. 16.
140 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK IV.
forth and is xjerceived by the mind of each, He is said indeed to be sent, but not into this world; for He does not appear sensibly, that is. He does not present Himself to the cor- poreal senses. For we ourselves, too, are not in this world, in respect to our grasping with the mind as far as we can that which is eternal; and the spirits of all the righteous are not in this world, even of those who are still living in the flesh, in so far as they have discernment in things divine. But the Father is not said to be sent, when from time to time He is apprehended by any one, for He has no one of whom to be, or from whom to proceed; since Wisdom says, " I came out of the mouth of the Most High," ^ and it is said of the Holy Spirit, "He proceedeth from the Father,"^ but the Father is from no one.
29. As, therefore, the Father begat, the Son is begotten; so the Father sent, the Son was sent. But in like manner as He who begat and He who was begotten, so both He who sent and He who was sent, are one, since the Father and the Son are one.^ So also the Holy Spirit is one with them, since these three are one. For as to be born, in respect to the Son, means to be from the Father; so to be sent, in respect to the Son, means to be known to be from the Father. And as to be the gift of God in respect to the Holy Spirit, means to proceed from the Father; so to be sent, is to be known to proceed from the Father. Neither can we say that the Holy Spirit does not also proceed from the Son, for the same Spirit is not without reason said to be the Spirit both of the Father and of the Son. Nor do I see what else He intended to signify, when He breathed on the face of the disciples, and said, " Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost." * For that bodily breathing, proceeding from the body with the feeling of bodily touching, was not the substance of the Holy Spirit, but a declaration by a fitting sign, that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son. For the veriest of madmen would not say, that it was one Spirit which He gave when He breathed on them, and another which He sent after His ascension.^ For the Spirit of God is one, the Spirit of the Father and of CHAP. XX.] OF THE SENDING OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 141 the Son, the Holy Spirit, who worketh all in all.-"- But that He was given twice was certainly a significant economy, which we will discuss in its place, as far as the Lord may grant. That then which the Lord says, — " Whom I will send unto you from the Father,"^ — shows the Spirit to be both of the Father and of the Son; because, also, when He had said, " Whom the Father will send," He added also, " in my name." ^ Yet He did not say. Whom the Father will send from me, as He said, "Whom I will send unto you from the Father," showing, namely, that the Father is the beginning of the whole divi- nity, or if it is better so expressed. Deity. He, therefore, who proceeds from the Father and from the Son, is referred back to Him from whom the Son was born. And that which the evangelist says, "For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified;"* how is this to be understood, unless because the special giving or sending of the Holy Spirit after the glorification of Christ was to be such as it had never been before? For it was not previously none at all, but it had not been such as this. For if the Holy Spirit was not given before, wherewith were the prophets who spoke filled? Whereas the Scripture plainly says, and shows in