(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all mistakes found.)
Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.
GREGORY THAUMATURGOS
A SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF FAITH.(1)
(Dubious or spurious)
[Translated by the Rev. S.D.F. Salmond, M.A.]
I.
MOST hostile and alien to the Apostolic Confession are those who speak
of the Son as assumed to Himself by the Father out of nothing, and from an
emanational origin;(2) and those who hold the same sentiments with respect
to the Holy Spirit; those who say that the Son is constituted divine by
gift and grace, and that the Holy Spirit is made holy; those who regard the
name of the Son as one common to servants, and assert that thus He is the
first-born of the creature, as becoming, like the creature, existent out of
non-existence, and as being first made, and who refuse to admit that He is
the only-begotten Son,--the only One that the Father has, and that He has
given Himself to be reckoned in the number of mortals, and is thus reckoned
first-born; those who circumscribe the generation of the Son by the Father
with a measured interval after the fashion of man, and refuse to
acknowledge that the aeon of the Begetter and that of the Begotten are
without beginning; those who introduce three separate and diverse systems
of divine worship,(3) whereas there is but one form of legitimate service
which we have received of old from the law and the prophets, and which has
been confirmed by the Lord and preached by the apostles. Nor less alienated
from the true confession are those who hold not the doctrine of the Trinity
according to truth, as a relation consisting of three persons, but
impiously conceive it as implying a triple being in a unity (Monad), formed
in the way of synthesis(4) and think that the Son is the wisdom in God, in
the same manner as the human wisdom subsists in man whereby the man is
wise, and represent the Word as being simply like the word which we utter
or conceive, without any hypostasis whatever.
II.
But the Church's Confession, and the Creed that brings salvation to the
world, is that which deals with the incarnation of the Word, and bears that
He gave Himself over to the flesh of man which He acquired of Mary, while
yet He conserved His own identity, and sustained no divine transposition or
mutation, but was brought into conjunction with the flesh after the
similitude of man; so that the flesh was made one with the divinity, the
divinity having assumed the capacity of receiving the flesh in the
fulfilling of the mystery. And after the dissolution of death there
remained to the holy flesh a perpetual impassibility and a changeless
immortality, man's original glory being taken up into it again by the power
of the divinity, and being ministered then to all men by the appropriation
of faith.(5)
III.
If, then, there are any here, too, who falsify the holy faith, either
by attributing to the divinity as its own what belongs to the humanity--
progressions,(6) and passions, and a glory coming with accession(7)--or by
separating from the divinity the progressive and passible body, as if
subsisted of itself apart,--these persons also are outside the confession
of the Church and of salvation. No one, therefore, can know God unless he
apprehends the Son; for the Son is the wisdom by whose instrumentality all
things have been created; and these created objects declare this wisdom,
and God is recognised in the wisdom. But the wisdom of God is not anything
similar to the wisdom which man possesses, but it is the perfect wisdom
which proceeds from the perfect God, and abides for ever, not like the
thought of man, which passes from him in the word that is spoken and
(straightway) ceases to be. Wherefore it is not wisdom only, but also God;
nor is it Word only, but also Son. And whether, then, one discerns God
through creation, or is taught to know Him by the Holy Scriptures, it is
impossible either to apprehend Him or to learn of Him apart from His
wisdom. And he who calls upon God rightly, calls on Him through the Son;
and he who approaches Him in a true fellowship, comes to Him through
Christ. Moreover, the Son Himself cannot be approached apart from the
Spirit. For the Spirit is both the life and the holy formation of all
things;(1) and God sending forth this Spirit through the Son makes the
creature(2) like Himself.
IV.
One therefore is God the Father, one the Word, one the Spirit, the
life, the sanctification of all. And neither is there another God as
Father,(3) nor is there another Son as Word of God, nor is there another
Spirit as quickening and sanctifying. Further, although the saints are
called both gods, and sons, and spirits, they are neither filled with the
Spirit, nor are made like the Son and God. And if, then, any one makes this
affirmation, that the Son is God, simply as being Himself filled with
divinity, and not as being generated of divinity, he has belied the Word,
he has belied the Wisdom, he has lost the knowledge of God; he has fallen
away into the worship of the creature, he has taken up the impiety of the
Greeks, to that he has gone back; and he has become a follower of the
unbelief of the Jews, who, supposing the Word of God to be but a human son,
have refused to accept Him as God, and have declined to acknowledge Him as
the Son of God. But it is impious to think of the Word of God as merely
human, and to think of the works which are done by Him as abiding, while He
abides not Himself. And if any one says that the Christ works all things
only as commanded by the Word, he will both make the Word of God idle,(4)
and will change the Lord's order into servitude. For the slave is one
altogether under command, and the created is not competent to create; for
to suppose that what is itself created may in like manner create other
things, would imply that it has ceased to be like the creature.(5)
V.
Again, when one speaks of the Holy Spirit as an object made holy,(6) he
will no longer be able to apprehend all things as being sanctified in (the)
Spirit. For he who has sanctified one, sanctifies all things. That man,
consequently, belies the fountain of sanctification, the Holy Spirit, who
denudes Him of the power of sanctifying, and he will thus be precluded from
numbering Him with the Father and the Son; he makes nought, too, of the
holy (ordinance of) baptism, and will no more be able to acknowledge the
holy and august Trinity.(7) For either we must apprehend the perfect
Trinity(7) in its natural and genuine glory, or we shall be under the
necessity of speaking no more of a Trinity, but only of a Unity;(8) or
else, not numbering(9) created objects with the Creator, nor the creatures
with the Lord of all, we mast also not number what is sanctified with what
sanctifies; even as no object that is made can be numbered with the
Trinity, but in the name of the Holy Trinity baptism and invocation and
worship are administered. For if there are three several glories, there
must also be three several forms of cultus with those who impiously worship
the creature; for if there is a distinction in the nature of the objects
worshipped, there ought to be also with these men a distinction in the
nature of the worship offered. What is recent(10) surely is not to be
worshipped along with what is eternal; for the recent comprehends all that
has had a beginning, while mighty and measureless is lie who is before the
ages. He, therefore, who supposes some beginning of times in the life of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, therewith also cuts off any possibility of
numbering the Son and the Spirit with the Father. For as we acknowledge the
glory to be one, so ought we also to acknowledge the substance in the
Godhead to be one, and one also the eternity of the Trinity.
VI.
Moreover, the capital clement of our salvation is the incarnation of
the Word. We believe, therefore, that it was without any change in the
Divinity that the incarnation of the Word took place with a view to the
renewal of humanity. For there took place neither mutation nor
transposition, nor any circumscription in will,(1) as regards the holy
energy(2) of God; but while that remained in itself the same, it also
effected the work of the incarnation with a view to the salvation of the
world: and the Word of God, living(3) on earth after man's fashion,
maintained likewise in all the divine presence, fulfilling all things, and
being united(4) properly and individually with flesh; and while the
sensibilities proper to the flesh were there, the divine energy maintained
the impassibility proper to itself. Impious, therefore, is the man who
introduces the passibility(5) into the energy. For the Lord of glory
appeared in fashion as a man when He undertook the economy(6) upon the
earth; and He fulfilled the law for men by His deeds, and by His sufferings
He did away with man's sufferings, and by His death He abolished death, and
by his resurrection He brought life to light; and now we look for His
appearing from heaven in glory for the life and judgment of all, when the
resurrection of the dead shall take place, to the end that recompense may
be made to all according to their desert.
VII.
But some treat the Holy Trinity(7) in an awful manner, when they
confidently assert that there are not three persons, and introduce (the
idea of) a person devoid of subsistence.(8) Wherefore we clear ourselves of
Sabellius, who says that the Father and the Son are the same. For he holds
that the Father is He who speaks, and that the Son is the Word that abides
in the Father, and becomes manifest at the time of the creation,(9) and
thereafter reverts to God on the fulfilling of all things. The same
affirmation he makes also of the Spirit. We forswear this, because we
believe that three persons--namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--are
declared to possess the one Godhead: for the one divinity showing itself
forth according to nature in the Trinity(10) establishes the oneness of the
nature; and thus there is a (divinity that is the) property of the Father,
according to the word, "There is one God the Father;"(11) and there is a
divinity hereditary(12) in the Son, as it is written, "The Word was
God;"(13) and there is a divinity present according to nature in the Spirit
into wit, what subsists as the Spirit of God--according to Paul's
statement, "Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you."(14)
VIII.
Now the person in each declares the independent being and
subsistence.(15) But divinity is the property of the Father; and whenever
the divinity of these three is spoken of as one, testimony is borne that
the property(16) of the Father belongs also to the Son and the Spirit:
wherefore, if the divinity may be spoken of as one in three persons, the
trinity is established, and the unity is not dissevered; and the oneness
Which is naturally the Father's is also acknowledged to be the Son's and
the Spirit's. If one, however, speaks of one person as he may speak of one
divinity, it cannot be that the two in the one are as one.(17) For Paul
addresses the Father as one in respect of divinity, and speaks of the Son
as one in respect of lordship: "There is one God the Father, of whom are
all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things, and we by Him."(18) Wherefore if there is one God, and one Lord,
and at the same time one person as one divinity in one lordship,(19) how
can credit be given to (this distinction in) the words "of whom" and "by
whom," as has been said before? We speak, accordingly, not as if we
separated the lordship from the divinity, nor as estranging the one from
the other, but as unifying them in the way warranted by actual fact and
truth; and we call the Son God with the property of the Father,(20) as
being His image and offspring; and we call the Father Lord, addressing Him
by the name of the One Lord, as being His Origin and Begettor.
IX.
The same position we hold respecting the Spirit, who has that unity
with the Son which the Son has with the Father. Wherefore let the
hypostasis of the Father be discriminated by the appellation of God; but
let not the Son be cut off from this appellation, for He is of God. Again,
let the person of the Son also be discriminated by the appellation of Lord;
only let not God be dissociated from that, for He is Lord as being the
Father of the Lord. And as it is proper to the Son to exercise lordship,
for He it is that made (all things) by Himself, and now rules the things
that were made, while at the same time the Father has a prior possession of
that property, inasmuch as He is the Father of Him who is Lord; so we speak
of the Trinity as One God, and yet not as if we made the one by a synthesis
of three: for the subsistence that is constituted by synthesis is something
altogether partitive and imperfect.(1) But just as the designation Father
is the expression of originality and generation, so the designation Son is
the expression of the image and offspring of the Father. Hence, if one were
to ask how there is but One God, if there is also a God of God, we would
reply that that is a term proper to the idea of original causation,(2) so
far as the Father is the one First Cause.(3) And if one were also to put
the question, how there is but One Lord, if the Father also is Lord, we
might answer that again by saying that He is so in so far as He is the
Father of the Lord; and this difficulty shall meet us no longer.
X.
And again, if the impious say, How will there not be three Gods and
three Persons, on the supposition that they have one and the same
divinity?--we shall reply: Just because God is the Cause and Father of the
Son; and this Son is the image and offspring of the Father, and not His
brother; and the Spirit in like manner is the Spirit of God, as it is
written, "God is a Spirit."(4) And in earlier times we have this
declaration from the prophet David: "By the word of the Lord were the
heavens stablished, and all the power of them by the breath (spirit) of His
mouth."(5) And in the beginning of the book of the creation(6) it is
written thus: "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."(7)
And Paul in his Epistle to the Romans says "But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."(8) And
again he says: "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead
dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."(9) And again: "As
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."(10) And again: "I say
the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in
the Holy Ghost."(11) And again: "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy
and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, by the power of the
Holy Ghost."(12)
XI.
And again, writing to those same Romans, he says: "But I have written
the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of
the grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the minister of
Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the
offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the
Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in
those things which pertain to God. For I dare not to speak of any of those
things which Christ hath not wrought by me,(13) to make the Gentiles
obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power
of the Holy Spirit."(14) And again: "Now I beseech you, brethren, for our
Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and by the love of the Spirit."(15) And these
things, indeed, are written in the Epistle to the Romans.(16)
XII.
Again, in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says: "For my speech and my
preaching was not in the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."(17) And again he says: "As
it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love
Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God."(18) And again he says: "But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God."(19)
XIII.
Seest thou that all through Scripture the Spirit is preached, and yet
nowhere named a creature? And what can the impious have to say if the Lord
sends forth His disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit?(1) Without contradiction, that implies a
communion and unity between them, according to which there are neither
three divinities nor (three) lordships; but, while there remain truly and
certainly the three persons, the real unity of the three must be
acknowledged. And in this way proper credit will be given to the sending
and the being sent(2) (in the Godhead), according to which the Father hath
sent forth the Son, and the Son in like manner sends forth the Spirit. For
one of the persons surely could not (be said to) send Himself; and one
could not speak of the Father as incarnate. For the articles of our faith
will not concur with the vicious tenets of the heresies; and it is right
that our conceptions should follow the inspired and apostolic doctrines,
and not that our impotent fancies should coerce the articles of our divine
faith.
XIV.
But if they say, How can there be three Persons, and how but one
Divinity?--we shall make this reply: That there are indeed three persons,
inasmuch as there is one person of God the Father, and one of the Lord the
Son, and one of the Holy Spirit; and yet that there is but one divinity,
inasmuch as the Son is the Image of God the Father, who is One,--that is,
He is God of God; and in like manner the Spirit is called the Spirit of
God, and that, too, of nature according to the very substance,(3) and not
according to simple participation of God. And there is one substance(4) in
the Trinity, which does not subsist also in the case of objects that are
made; for there is not one substance in God and in the things that are
made, because none of these is in substance God. Nor, indeed, is the Lord
one of these according to substance, but there is one Lord the Son, and one
Holy Spirit; and we speak also of one Divinity, and one Lordship, and one
Sanctity in the Trinity; because the Father is the Cause(5) of the Lord,
having begotten Him eternally, and the Lord is the Prototype(6) of the
Spirit. For thus the Father is Lord, and the Son also is God; and of God it
is said that "God is a Spirit."(7)
XV.
We therefore acknowledge one true God, the one First Cause, and one
Son, very God of very God, possessing of nature the Father's divinity,--
that is to say, being the same in substance with the Father;(8) and one
Holy Spirit, who by nature and in truth sanctifies all, and makes divine,
as being of the substance of God.(9) Those who speak either of the Son or
of the Holy Spirit as a creature we anathematize. All other things we hold
to be objects made, and in subjection,(10) created by God through the Son,
(and) sanctified in the Holy Spirit. Further, we acknowledge that the Son
of God was made a Son of man, having taken to Himself the flesh from the
Virgin Mary, not in name, but in reality; and that He is both the perfect
Son of God, and the (perfect) Son of man,--that the Person is but one, and
that there is one worship(11) for the Word and the flesh that He assumed.
And we anathematize those who constitute different worships, one for the
divine and another for the human, and who worship the man born of Mary as
though He were another than the God of God. For we know that "in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God."(12) And we worship Him who was made man on account of our salvation,
not indeed as made perfectly like in the like body,(13) but as the Lord who
has taken to Himself the form of the servant. We acknowledge the passion of
the Lord in the flesh, the resurrection in the power of His divinity, the
ascension to heaven, and His glorious appearing when He comes for the
judgment of the living and the dead, and for the eternal life of the
saints.
XVI.
And since some have given us trouble by attempting to subvert our faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ, and by affirming of Him that He was not God
incarnated, but a man linked with God; for this reason we present our
confession on the subject of the aforementioned matters of faith, and
reject the faithless dogmas opposed thereto. For God, having been
incarnated in the flesh of man, retains also His proper energy pure,
possessing a mind unsubjectcd by the natural(14) and fleshly affections,
and holding the flesh and the fleshly motions divinely and sinlessly, and
not only unmastered by the power of death, but even destroying death. And
it is the true God unincarnate that has appeared incarnate, the perfect One
with the genuine and divine perfection; and in Him there are not two
persons. Nor do we affirm that there are four to worship, viz., God and the
Son of God, and man and the Holy Spirit. Wherefore we also anathematize
those who show their impiety in this, and who thus give the man a place in
the divine doxology. For we hold that the Word of God was made man on
account of our salvation, in order that we might receive the likeness of
the heavenly, and be made divine(1) after the likeness of Him who is the
true Son of God by nature, and the Son of man according to the flesh, our
Lord Jesus Christ.
XVII.
We believe therefore in one God, that is, in one First Cause, the God
of the law and of the Gospel, the just and good; and in one Lord Jesus
Christ, true God, that is, Image of the true God, Maker of all things seen
and unseen, Son of God and only-begotten Offspring, and Eternal Word,
living and self-subsistent and active.(2) always being with the Father; and
in one Holy Spirit; and in the glorious advent of the Son of God, who of
the Virgin Mary took flesh, and endured sufferings and death in our stead,
and came to resurrection on the third day, and was taken up to heaven; and
in His glorious appearing yet to come; and in one holy Church, the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and life eternal.
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,(3) 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(4) 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.(5) 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(6) 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.
XIX.
One is the Son, both before the incarnation and after the incarnation.
The same (Son) is both man and God, both these together as though one; and
the God the Word is not one person, and the man Jesus another person, but
the same who subsisted as Son before was made one with flesh by Mary, so
constituting Himself a perfect, and holy, and sinless man, and using that
economical position for the renewal of mankind and the salvation of all the
world. God the Father, being Himself the perfect Person, has thus the
perfect Word begotten of Him truly. not as a word that is spoken, nor yet
again as a son by adoption, in the sense in which angels and men are called
sons of God, but as a Son who is in nature God. And there is also the
perfect Holy Spirit supplied(7) of God through the Son to the sons of
adoption, living and life-giving, holy and imparting holiness to those who
partake of Him,--not like an unsubstantial breath(8) breathed into them by
man, but as the living Breath proceeding from God. Wherefore the Trinity is
to be adored, to be glorified, to be honoured, and to be reverenced; the
Father being apprehended in the Son even as the Son is of Him, and the Son
being glorified in the Father, inasmuch as He is of the Father, and being
manifested in the Holy Spirit to the sanctified.
XX.
And that the holy Trinity is to be worshipped without either separation
or alienation, is taught us by Paul, who says in his Second Epistle to the
Corinthians: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with yon all."(9) And again, in that
epistle he makes this explanation: "Now He which stablisheth us with you in
Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given
the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."(10) And still more clearly he
writes thus in the same epistle: "When Moses is read, the veil is upon
their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be
taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord."(1)
XXI.
And again Paul says: "That mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now
He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given
unto us the earnest of the Spirit."(2) And again he says: "Approving
ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in
necessities."(3) and so forth. Then he adds these words: "By kindness, by
the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of
God."(4) Behold here again the saint has defined the holy Trinity, naming
God, and the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And again he says: "Know ye not that
ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If
any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy."(5) And again:
"But ye are washed, but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and
by the Spirit of our God."(6) And again: "What! know ye not that your
bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of
God?"(7) "And I think also that I have the Spirit of God."(8)
XXII.
And again, speaking also of the children of Israel as baptized in the
cloud and in the sea, he says: "And they all drank of the same spiritual
drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that
Rock was Christ."(9) And again he says: "Wherefore I give you to
understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus
accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there
are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are
diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word
of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the sane Spirit; to
another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of
miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another
divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all
these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as He will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and
all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is
Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body."(10) And again
he says: "For if he who comes preaches another Christ whom we have not
preached, or ye receive another spirit that ye have received not, or
another gospel which ye have not obtained, ye will rightly be kept
back."(11)
XXIII.
Seest thou that the Spirit is inseparable from the divinity? And no one
with pious apprehensions could fancy that He is a creature. Moreover, in
the Epistle to the Hebrews he writes again thus: "How shall we escape, if
we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing
them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and
gifts of the Holy Ghost?"(12) And again he says in the same epistle:
"Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, Today, if ye will hear His voice,
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in
the wilderness; when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works
forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They
do always err in their heart; for(13) they have not known my ways: as I
sware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest."(14) And there,
too, they ought to give ear to Paul, for he by no means separates the Holy
Spirit from the divinity of the Father and the Son, but clearly sets forth
the discourse of the Holy Ghost as one from the person of the Father, and
thus as given expression to(15) by God, just as it has been represented in
the before-mentioned sayings. Wherefore the holy Trinity is believed to be
one God, in accordance with these testimonies of Holy Scripture; albeit all
through the inspired Scriptures numberless announcements are supplied us,
all confirmatory of the apostolic and ecclesiastical faith.
A FRAGMENT OF THE SAME DECLARATION OF FAITH, ACCOMPANIED BY GLOSSES.(1)
FROM GREGORY THAUMATURGUS, AS THEY SAY, IN HIS SECTIONAL CONFESSION OF
FAITH.
To maintain two natures(2) in the one Christ, makes a Tetrad of the
Trinity, says he; for he expressed himself thus: "And it is the true God,
the unincarnate, that was manifested in the flesh, perfect with the true
and divine perfection, not with two natures; nor do we speak of worshipping
four (persons), viz., God, and the Son of God, and man, and the Holy
Spirit." First, however, this passage is misapprehended, and is of very
doubtful import. Nevertheless it bears that we should not speak of two
persons in Christ, lest, by thus acknowledging Him as God, and as in the
perfect divinity, and yet speaking of two persons, we should make a Tetrad
of the divine persons, counting that of God the Father as one, and that of
the Son of God as one, and that of the man as one, and that of the Holy
Spirit as one. But, again, it bears also against recognising two divine
natures,(3) and rather for acknowledging Him to be perfect God in one
natural divine perfection, and not in two; for his object is to show that
He became incarnate without change, and that He retains the divinity
without duplication.(4) Accordingly he says shortly: "And while the
affections of the flesh spring, the energy(5) retains the impassibility
proper to it. He, therefore, who introduces the (idea of) passion into the
energy is impious; for it was the Lord of glory that appeared in human
form, having taken to Himself the human economy."
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 6, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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