De unitate sanctae Trinitatis
1207Cum me pervigil fidei cura fecisset exsomnem, his me interrogationibus percontavi, et tali studio scholae nostrae lumen accendi. Judicet vero lector, an utile sibi hoc sit; mihi tamen, si neglexerit, nihil subtrahit. INTERROGATIO. Pater, inquiunt, Deus est? RESPONSIO. Nec profanus ignorat. INT. Filius Deus est? RESP. Apostolus testis est. INT. Quid enim ait? RESP. Quorum patres, et ex quibus Christus secundum carnem qui est super omnes Deus benedictus in saecula (Rom. IX, 5). INT. Quid de Spiritu sancto autumaris? RESP. Magna mihi brevitas docendi quod Deus sit, suffragatur. INT. Quae illa sit, aveo scire. RESP. Quod ex Patre procedat: probem solum, quod et peccata dimittat. INT. Ubi istud legis? RESP. In Joanne, cum insufflavit Dominus in faciem discipulorum, et ait: Accipite Spiritum sanctum: quorum remiseritis peccata, remissa erunt; et quorum detinueritis, detenta sunt (Joan. XX, 22, 23). INT. Nihil fortius. RESP. Alia multa nescis? INT. Quae? RESP. Quod Christum creat in viscere, quod super Christum venit in flumine, quod vivificat omnia, quod Baptismum consecrat, quod Christum dirigit, quod replet orbem, quod Trinitati contaxatur, quod novit, capit et regit omnia, nec solum terrestria, sed et coelestia, quod Apostolos eligit ac destinat, quod dona sua et prophetias quibus velit impertiat: et plura quae in Scripturis sanctis 1208posita, ad momentum non occurrunt. Et si istis non tangeris, mihi tamen solum quod de Patre est, ad documentum deitatis ipsius suffecisset. Sunt et sententiae singulares, hujus scilicet veritatis astipulatrices, ut illae Pauli: Divisiones ministeriorum sunt, idem ipse Dominus; et divisiones operationum sunt, ipse autem Deus, qui operatur omnia in omnibus (I Cor. XII, 5). Et inter caetera Petri: In veritate, inquit, scio, quia non est Deus personarum acceptor. Cum cogitanti et haesitanti de visu, Spiritus sanctus dixerit, Surge, et vade cum illis nihil dubitans; ego misi illos ad te (Act. X, 20, 34). Nam David saepenumero eum nuncupat Spiritum rectum in quinquagesimo psalmo. Dominum Deum appellat in nonagesimo primo: Quoniam rectus est, inquit, Dominus Deus noster, et non est iniquitas in eo; et, Dominus super aquas multas, in psalmo vigesimo octavo prodit, quibus in exordio suo Genesis Spiritum Dei superferri depromit (Gen. I, 2). Licet illud manifeste noverim, nunquam annumerari Spiritum sanctum Patri, vel etiam Filio potuisse, cum dictum sit, Ite, baptizate gentes in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti (Matth. XXVIII, 19): nisi socia deitate regnaret. INT. Quid ergo? tres Dei sunt? RESP. Absit: Sacrificans diis eradicabitur, nisi Domino soli. INT. An duo sunt? RESP. Nequaquam, quia nemo potest duobus dominis servire (Id. VI, 24). INT. Unusne 1209probari licet? RESP. Nullus Deus nisi unus. INT. Istud lego: sed qualiter id de tota Trinitate verum sit, nosse volo. RESP. Scies, si mentem dictis infigas: Pater enim est nomen appellativum, Filius est nomen appellativum, ita quoque Spiritus sanctus appellativum et naturale nomen est. Licet Pater ad Filium et Filius ad Patrem dicatur, relativa haec nomina nuncupentur. Deus autem nomen est proprium Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto: sicut scribitur in Psalmo, Secundum nomen tuum, Deus, ita et laus tua in fines terrae (Psal. XLVII, 11). Ergo appellativa nomina Pater et Filius, et Spiritus sanctus; proprium vero, Deus, Deus, Deus. INT. Ergo tres dii sunt? RESP. Rogo, recole denuo aliud: Audi, Israel; Dominus Deus tuus, Dominus unus est (Deut. VI, 4). Videsne, quaeso, in hoc dicto regalem quamdam altitudinem sensus? INT. Expone breviter, audiam. RESP. Dominus, inquit, Deus tuus, Dominus unus est. Ni fallor, hic trinam taxationem Dei univit: Dominus, inquit, et Deus tuus, et Dominus. Habes quid pater, quid Filius, quid Spiritus sanctus sit. Et mox intulit, Unus est. O lumen unitatis clarum! INT. Ubi est ergo Trinitas? RESP. In gignente, genito, et procedente; id est, in Patre, et Filio, et Spiritu sancto, in appellativis videlicet vel relativis nominibus. INT. Quid, in propriis nominibus, id est Deus, et Deus, et Deus, triplicatio non admittitur? RESP. Non. INT. Quare? RESP. Quia unus est, propria vocabula non triplicantur. INT. Ergo in relativis nominibus Trinitas accipitur. RESP. Ita est. INT. In quibus? RESP. In personarum videlicet et nominum discretione, patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti. Denique ipse Christus non ait, Ite, baptizate gentes in nomine deorum; sed, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti, ut Trinitatem doceret in relativis personarum nominibus, Dei autem nomen, quod non triplicatur, in singularitate monstraret. INT. Non ergo discurrunt propria cum appellativis? RESP. Discurrunt. INT. Ergo et connumerantur? RESP. Absit: quia si triplicaverimus, deorum inducimus pluralitatem. INT. Ergo non est Pater Deus? RESP. Deus est plane. INT. Ergo Filius non est Deus? RESP. Deus est omnino. INT. Ergo Spiritus sanctus non est Deus? RESP. Deus est absque ambiguo. INT. Vides ergo tres, audes dicere Deos? Sed, ut video, in relativis creditur vocabulis Trinitas. RESP. Et in naturalibus plane et personis, et nominibus relativis. INT. Quare Deus, et Deus, et Deus? RESP. Naturalia nomina sunt. Naturale est singulis Deus, sed proprium nomen. Non enim possumus dicere tres deos, sed dicimus Trinitatem in relativis naturaei vocabulis, et personis, id est, in Patre et Filio et Spiritu sancto. Dicimus autem unitatem in Deo, et Deo, et Deo. INT. Non ergo dicitis tres personas? RESP. Dicimus. INT. Et in singulis personis Deum, et Deum, et Deum esse creditis? RESP. Hoc sine palpatione credere manifestum est. INT. Ergo sicut dicitis tres personas, dicitis et tres Deos? RESP. Absit. INT. Quare? RESP. Quia in personis est distinctio, in deitate autem non est. INT. Quae est ista distinctio? RESP. Quia Pater Pater est, Filius Filius est, Spiritus sanctus Spiritus sanctus est. INT. Per diversitatem te asseris colere Trinitatem? RESP. Personarum et nominum, non naturae, quia una est. INT. Certe jamdudum et haec nomina naturalia esse dixisti, et appellativa, et quae sunt propria repete? RESP. Deus, et Deus, et Deus, haec ergo triplicata distantiam non faciunt. INT. Cum appellativis ergo naturalibus, propria non triplicantur. RESP. Nullo modo. INT. Non ergo sibi conjunguntur, Pater et Deus, aut Filius et Deus, aut Spiritus sanctus et Deus. RESP. Conjunguntur plane; et idem Pater Deus est, et idem Filius Deus est, et idem Spiritus sanctus deitati suae absque dubio copulatur. INT. Triplicabitur deitas. RESP. Sacrilegii noxa 1210est: quia sub Deo est numerus, non inter Deum. INT. Ergo nec Pater appellatur Deus, nec Filius, nec Spiritus sanctus. RESP. Et sic docemur, et ita credimus, ut nec Patrem, nec Filium, nec Spiritum sanctum sua deitate privemus. INT. Quasi vero non id facis, cum dicis, Pater Deus, et Filius Deus, et Spiritus sanctus Deus, quos simul alter Deos esse concludit. RESP. Itane hoc humanae aures audiant, ac non sputis omnes inlinient? Verumtamen in vocabulis appellativis, id est in personis Trinitatem accipio, deitatem autem nullo modo triplicari posse confido; quia varietatem et discretionem in natura non invenio. INT. Quot ergo nomina credis? RESP. Relativa in personis tria. INT. Propria quot? RESP. Jam te saepius sustinui, pluraliter de proprio nomine conquirentem, sed proprium deitatis unum est nomen. INT. Abstulisti grandem macheriam, sed aveo dicas, hoc nomen naturale est? RESP. Utique. INT. Et relativa quae appellativa taxas, naturalia sunt? RESP. Etiam, sed per efficientiam generationis et processionis, non per proprietatem indivisae deitatis. INT. Ergo Filius nisi Filius Dei esset Deus, esse non posset? RESP. Quid dubitas? INT. Quia ergo Dei Filius, ideo Deus. RESP. Assentio. INT. Et nisi esset efficientia generationis quae conferret nomen appellativum in Filium, nec haberet nomen proprium deitatis, et non esset Deus. RESP. Utique ex generatione Filius et vere Filii Dei proprium nomen Deus: quod non postea ubi non erat antea, sed cum generaretur ab intemporali intemporaliter sumpsit. INT. Quid Spiritus sanctus? RESP. Ipse quoque nisi de Patre procederet et substantiam ejus haberet, Deus non esset. INT. Ergo processio ei contulit deitatem? RESP. In Spiritu sancto et nomen est et natura, sed quia de Patre processit, ideo nomen proprium deitatis obtinuit. Neque enim aliud de Patre procedere potuit, quam quod ipse est, nec tamen aut effetatus est, aut divisus. Vocabulum ergo appellativum naturale et personale Spiritus sanctus; proprium vero, Deus. INT. Nomen istud quod dicis proprium, quam continet rationem, ut in tribus personis currat unum idemque, nec tamen triplicetur? Sicut verbo tenus plures taxare possumus, Statius, aut Salustius, aut Horatius. RESP. Enubilem ratione quam valeo, si intentus adsis. INT. Adsum. RESP. Paulum legimus de Christo dicentem, quod ipse sit pax nostra, qui fecit utraque unum (Ephes. II, 14). Sed hoc invictissimae causae nostrae suffragium ad id valeat, quo facilius credatur, ideo Christum sub nomine pacis esse taxatum, quia nec discindi, nec distrahi potest, nec ullo modo duplicari. Jam vero qui fecit utraque unum, multo magis ipse cum Patre et Spiritu sancto unum est; non est autem unum, si sit divisus. Ergo et unum cum Patre et Spiritu sancto est, et unus; quia alios conjungit, divisionem penitus non admittit. INT. Accipio istud firmissimum contra rebelles telum; sed quo ista propositio excurrat, nosse desidero. RESP. Pax sit Deus, ut volumus, et nos prospero cursu ducat. INT. Ita est, nunc perge. RESP. Haec igitur ipsa Pax quia litteris scribitur tribus, recipitne pluralem numerum? INT. Non. RESP. Aestima ergo P Patrem dici, A Filium nuncupari, et hoc sine ratione subtilissima ne dictum putes. A enim principium litterarum est, nec ante se ullum habere cognoscitur elementum, ut probatum habeas ante Filium nihil esse. Neque vere id absque divini testimonii documento relinquam: ipse enim se principium esse Judaeis interrogantibus indicavit (Joan. VIII, 25). Hanc ergo litteram nulla alia praecedit: et quia omnis littera habet tempus; ergo et tempus defuit. Verumtamen ipsa haec syllaba et longa est, et prima est: sed quod longa est, aeternitatem Filii Dei, non temporalitatem, insinuat. Quod syllaba, quia Pater in Filio et Filius in Patre est, et hoc unum est. Quod vero 1211prima est, quia Filius secundus non est. Namque et in Apocalypsi Joannes proprie ipsam litteram ponens ait, Ego sum α et ω , primus et novissimus, initium et finis (Apoc. I, 8). Sed ideo novissimum accipe, quia dignatus est in fine temporum humiliter nasci et mori, et judicium novissimum ipse suscipere. X autem tertia est in fine littera, ubi intelligas Spiritum sanctum non ad finem tendere, sed in superna semper majestate procedere. Ideoque et Paulus apostolus, Quae sursum sunt sapite, ait (Coloss. III, 2): ut sursum corda habeamus ad Deum; et utique Dominus Spiritus est. Ubi autem Spiritus Domini, ibi libertas (II Cor. III, 17). Non itaque dubito, quod in hujus excellentissimam gloriam Apostolus invitans ita loqueretur: Unum autem quae retro sunt oblitus, in ea quae ante sunt extentus, sequor secundum intentionem ad palmam supernae vocationis Dei (Philipp. III, 13, 14). Ut fiat igitur Pax ad P conjungitur A, vocalis scilicet littera, ne P muta remaneat: quia Deus Pater voci et Verbo suo semper annectitur. Sed ut Pax sit, additur X quae duplex ponitur pro consonantibus littera, ut et hic consonantiam atque participium Spiritus sancti cum Patre et Filio videas, collegiumque ejus in superna et perfecta Trinitate cognoscas. Discrepant a se hae litterae appellationibus et personis, quia illud P, hoc A, istud X nuncupatur et scribitur: sed tamen ut sit Pax, sibi eae litterae invicem connectuntur. P autem littera est substantialiter, et A littera est substantialiter, et X littera est substantialiter; sicut et Pater Deus est naturaliter, et Filius Deus est naturaliter, et Spiritus sanctus Deus est naturaliter. Illa autem discrepatio characterum, discrepationem facit appellationum et personarum non naturae, quia totum littera est. Sicut in his tribus litteris diversis appellationibus vocitatis Pax scribitur, quae plurali numero non tenetur: ita quoque appellatio Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti documentum est Trinitatis; sed quemadmodum Pax, ita Deus singularem obtinet numerum deitatis. In hac igitur copulatione litterarum 1212trium divisio non admittitur, ut Pax impleatur. Si enim vel unam subtraxeris, nec Trinitas, nec Pax erit. INT. Repete, quaeso, ista lucidius. RESP. Adverte animum. Et P, inquam, littera est, et A littera est, et X littera est; sicut et Pater Deus, et Filius Deus, et Spiritus sanctus Deus: sed diversae sunt appellationes et personae, licet incorporalis Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti. Verumtamen quid est, P et A et X? Pax scilicet, quae pluralem in se numerum non admittit. O stultitia incredulorum, quae ante oculos suos posita non attendit! Nam ideo, ut existimo, haec impius minime intelligit, quia in simplicitate cordis Deum non quaerit. INT. Verum est, verum est omnino quod dicis. Nam quid isto exemplo propinquius? Quid ista ratione clarius invenitur? RESP. Sed repeto ista tibi, et vero libentius demonstrabo. Igitur ut tribus personis, et vocabulis diversis harum litterarum fit Pax; sed hoc ad concordiam et societatem personarum accipe: ostendit quoque ut et illa littera, et haec littera, et ista littera sit, sed Pax singularis sit. Hic ergo in Deo et Deo et Deo unum Deum demonstratum aspice. Quamvis enim aliud nomen, et aliam personam habeat P, aliud nomen et aliam personam habeat A, aliud nomen et aliam personam habeat X; sicut aliud nomen et aliam personam habet Pater, et aliud nomen et aliam personam habet Filius, et aliud nomen et aliam personam habet Spiritus sanctus: tamen et ista littera, et haec littera, et illa littera dicitur; sicut et iste Deus, et hic Deus, et ille Deus absque ambiguo creditur, sed unus Deus agnoscitur, quia Pax plurali numero non tenetur. Nisi si quid habes ad haec. INT. Ego ne quidem alios hinc haesitare vellem, ita mihi hujus manifestationis lumen effulsit. Sed magis est, ut intelligo, ista deliciosius credere, neque hinc ullo modo palpitare; ut quod homines carnalibus caecati curis videre non possunt, saltem fidei compendio nanciscantur.
On the Unity of the Holy Trinity
1207When a wakeful care for the faith had made me sleepless, I questioned myself with these interrogations, and with such zeal kindled the lamp of our school. But let the reader judge whether this be of use to him; yet if he neglects it, he takes nothing away from me. QUESTION. Is the Father, they say, God? ANSWER. Not even the profane man is ignorant of it. Q. Is the Son God? A. The Apostle is witness. Q. For what does he say? A. Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever (Rom. IX, 5). Q. What do you affirm concerning the Holy Spirit? A. A great brevity supports me in teaching that he is God. Q. I long to know what that is. A. That he proceeds from the Father; let me prove this alone, that he also forgives sins. Q. Where do you read that? A. In John, when the Lord breathed upon the face of the disciples and said: Receive ye the Holy Spirit: whose sins ye shall forgive, they shall be forgiven; and whose ye shall retain, they are retained (Joan. XX, 22, 23). Q. Nothing is stronger. A. Do you not know many other things? Q. What things? A. That he creates Christ in the womb; that he came upon Christ at the river; that he gives life to all things; that he consecrates Baptism; that he directs Christ; that he fills the world; that he is reckoned into the Trinity; that he knows, grasps, and governs all things, and not only earthly things but heavenly as well; that he chooses the Apostles and appoints them; that he imparts his gifts and his prophecies to whom he will — and more things which, set down in the Holy Scriptures, 1208do not come to mind at the moment. And if you are not moved by these, yet for me this alone, that he is of the Father, would have sufficed as proof of his own deity. There are also particular sayings which stand as witnesses to this truth, such as those of Paul: There are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all (I Cor. XII, 5). And, among other things, that of Peter: In truth, he says, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. For when he was pondering and hesitating about the vision, the Holy Spirit had said to him, Arise, and go with them, doubting nothing; I have sent them to thee (Act. X, 20, 34). For David repeatedly calls him a right Spirit in the fiftieth psalm. In the ninety-first he calls him Lord God: For upright is the Lord our God, he says, and there is no iniquity in him; and in the twenty-eighth psalm he brings forth The Lord upon many waters — over which, in its opening, Genesis declares the Spirit of God to be borne (Gen. I, 2). And this too I plainly know: that the Holy Spirit could never have been numbered together with the Father, or even with the Son, when it was said, Go ye, baptize the nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matth. XXVIII, 19), unless he reigned in a shared deity. Q. What then? Are there three Gods? A. Far from it: He that sacrificeth to gods shall be rooted out, save to the Lord alone. Q. Are there then two? A. By no means, for no man can serve two masters (Id. VI, 24). Q. May he be proved 1209to be one? A. There is no God but one. Q. This I read; but I wish to know in what way it is true of the whole Trinity. A. You will know, if you fix your mind upon what is said. For Father is an appellative name, Son is an appellative name, and so likewise Holy Spirit is an appellative and a natural name. And since Father is said in relation to Son, and Son in relation to Father, these are called relative names. But God is a name proper to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it is written in the Psalm, According to thy name, O God, so also is thy praise unto the ends of the earth (Psal. XLVII, 11). Therefore the appellative names are Father and Son and Holy Spirit; but the proper name is God, God, God. Q. Then there are three gods? A. I beg you, call to mind yet another passage: Hear, O Israel; the Lord thy God, the Lord is one (Deut. VI, 4). Do you see, I pray, in this saying a certain royal loftiness of sense? Q. Set it out briefly, and I will hear. A. The Lord, he says, thy God, the Lord is one. Unless I am mistaken, here he has made one a threefold designation of God: the Lord, he says, and thy God, and the Lord. You have what the Father is, what the Son is, what the Holy Spirit is. And at once he added, is one. O bright light of unity! Q. Where then is the Trinity? A. In the begetter, the begotten, and the proceeding one; that is, in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit — namely, in the appellative or relative names. Q. What of the proper names, that is, God and God and God: is no tripling admitted? A. It is not. Q. Why? A. Because he is one; proper terms are not tripled. Q. Then the Trinity is received in the relative names. A. It is so. Q. In which? A. Namely, in the distinction of persons and of names — of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In short, Christ himself did not say, Go ye, baptize the nations in the name of gods, but in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, that he might teach the Trinity in the relative names of the persons, and might show the name of God, which is not tripled, in singularity. Q. Do the proper names then not run together with the appellative? A. They do run together. Q. Then are they also numbered together? A. Far from it: because if we triple them, we bring in a plurality of gods. Q. Then the Father is not God? A. He is plainly God. Q. Then the Son is not God? A. He is altogether God. Q. Then the Holy Spirit is not God? A. He is God beyond ambiguity. Q. You see three, then; do you dare to call them Gods? But, as I see, the Trinity is believed in relative terms. A. And plainly in natural terms too, and in persons, and in relative names. Q. Why God, and God, and God? A. They are natural names. God is natural to each singly, but it is a proper name. For we cannot say three gods; rather we speak of a Trinity in the relative naturaei terms, and in persons — that is, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But we speak of unity in God, and God, and God. Q. Do you then not say three persons? A. We do say it. Q. And do you believe that in each single person there is God, and God, and God? A. This is plain to believe without groping. Q. Then, just as you say three persons, do you say also three Gods? A. Far from it. Q. Why? A. Because in the persons there is distinction, but in the deity there is none. Q. What is that distinction? A. That the Father is Father, the Son is Son, the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit. Q. Do you assert that you worship the Trinity by way of diversity? A. Of persons and of names, not of nature, for nature is one. Q. Surely a while ago you said both that these names are natural and that they are appellative; repeat, then, which are the proper ones? A. God, and God, and God — these, then, tripled, make no distance. Q. Along with the appellative and natural names, then, the proper names are not tripled. A. In no way. Q. Then they are not joined to one another — Father and God, or Son and God, or Holy Spirit and God. A. They are plainly joined; and the same Father is God, and the same Son is God, and the same Holy Spirit is beyond doubt coupled to his own deity. Q. The deity will be tripled. A. That is the guilt of sacrilege, 1210because number is under God, not within God. Q. Then neither is the Father called God, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit. A. We are so taught, and so we believe, that we may deprive neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit of his own deity. Q. As though indeed you did not do that very thing, when you say, Father God, and Son God, and Holy Spirit God — whom another concludes to be Gods all together. A. Shall human ears hear this, and not all of them smear it over with spittle? Nevertheless in appellative terms, that is, in the persons, I receive the Trinity; but I am confident that the deity can in no way be tripled, since I find no variety or division in the nature. Q. How many names, then, do you believe? A. Relative names in the persons, three. Q. How many proper? A. I have already borne with you often enough, inquiring in the plural about the proper name; but the proper name of the deity is one. Q. You have taken away a great wall; but I long to have you say — is this name a natural one? A. Certainly. Q. And the relative names which you rate as appellative, are they natural? A. Yes, but by the efficacy of generation and of procession, not by the property of the undivided deity. Q. Then the Son, unless he were the Son of God, could not be God? A. Why do you doubt it? Q. Because he is the Son of God, therefore he is God. A. I assent. Q. And unless there were the efficacy of generation, which confers the appellative name upon the Son, he would not have the proper name of the deity either, and would not be God. A. Certainly, from generation he is Son; and truly the proper name of the Son of God is God — which he took not afterwards, where it was not before, but timelessly, when he was begotten from the Timeless One. Q. What of the Holy Spirit? A. He too, unless he proceeded from the Father and had his substance, would not be God. Q. Then procession conferred deity upon him? A. In the Holy Spirit there is both a name and a nature; but because he proceeded from the Father, therefore he obtained the proper name of the deity. For nothing else could proceed from the Father than what the Father himself is; and yet the Father was neither drained nor divided. The appellative, natural, and personal term, then, is Holy Spirit; but the proper name is God. Q. That name which you call proper — what reason does it contain, that one and the same should run through three persons and yet not be tripled? Just as, merely so far as words go, we can name several: Statius, or Sallust, or Horace. A. Let me clear it up with such reasoning as I have, if you will attend. Q. I attend. A. We read Paul saying of Christ that he himself is our peace, who made both one (Ephes. II, 14). But let this support of our most invincible cause avail for this: that it may be the more easily believed that Christ was designated under the name of peace because he can neither be cut apart nor drawn asunder, nor in any way doubled. And now, he who made both one is much more himself one with the Father and the Holy Spirit; and he is not one, if he be divided. Therefore he is both one thing with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and one person; for he who joins others together admits no division at all. Q. I accept this most firm weapon against the rebellious; but I desire to know where this proposition runs out. A. May God be our Pax — our peace — as we wish, and lead us on a prosperous course. Q. So be it; now proceed. A. This Pax itself, then — because it is written with three letters, does it admit the plural number? Q. It does not. A. Reckon, then, that P is called the Father, and A is named the Son — and do not think this said without a most subtle reason. For A is the beginning of the letters, and is known to have no element before it, so that you may hold it proved that before the Son there is nothing. Nor indeed shall I leave this without the evidence of divine testimony: for he himself declared to the Jews, when they questioned him, that he is the beginning (Joan. VIII, 25). No other letter, then, precedes this one; and since every letter has a quantity of time, therefore time too was lacking. Yet this very syllable is both long and first: and that it is long intimates the eternity of the Son of God, not his temporality. That it is a syllable, because the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, and this is one. And that 1211it is first, because the Son is not second. For in the Apocalypse also John, setting down that very letter in its proper form, says, I am α and ω , the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Apoc. I, 8). But understand "the last" in this sense, that he deigned at the end of the ages to be born humbly and to die, and himself to undergo the last judgment. But X is the third letter, at the end — where you should understand that the Holy Spirit does not tend toward an end, but ever proceeds in the majesty on high. And therefore Paul the Apostle says, Mind the things that are above (Coloss. III, 2), that we may have our hearts lifted up unto God; and assuredly the Lord is a Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (II Cor. III, 17). And so I do not doubt that the Apostle, inviting us to this most excellent glory, spoke thus: But one thing: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth unto those that are before, I follow, according to my intent, toward the palm of the heavenly calling of God (Philipp. III, 13, 14). Therefore, that Pax may come to be, to P is joined A, a vowel letter, lest P remain mute: because God the Father is always bound to his own voice and Word. But that it may be Pax, there is added X, a letter which is set down as double in place of consonants — that here too you may see the consonance and the sharing of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, and may recognize his fellowship in the Trinity on high and perfect. These letters differ from one another in appellations and persons, since the one is called and written P, the next A, the third X; but nevertheless, that there may be Pax, these letters are bound to one another in turn. Now P is substantially a letter, and A is substantially a letter, and X is substantially a letter; just as the Father is naturally God, and the Son is naturally God, and the Holy Spirit is naturally God. But that difference of characters makes a difference of appellations and of persons, not of nature, since the whole of it is letter. Just as in these three letters, called by different appellations, Pax is written, which is not held in the plural number, so also the appellation of Father and Son and Holy Spirit is the evidence of the Trinity; but just as Pax does, so God holds the singular number of deity. In this coupling of the three letters, 1212therefore, no division is admitted, so that Pax may be complete. For if you take away even one, there will be neither Trinity nor Pax. Q. Repeat these things, I pray, more clearly. A. Turn your mind to it. Both P, I say, is a letter, and A is a letter, and X is a letter; just as the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God: but the appellations and the persons are different, albeit of an incorporeal Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Yet what is P and A and X? Plainly Pax, which admits no plural number in itself. O the folly of unbelievers, which attends not to what is set before its own eyes! For the ungodly man, as I judge, understands these things not at all for this reason: that he does not seek God in simplicity of heart. Q. It is true — wholly true — what you say. For what is nearer than that example? What is found clearer than that reasoning? A. But I repeat these things for you, and will demonstrate them the more gladly. Therefore, just as by three persons and by the different terms of these letters Pax comes to be — but take this as concerning the concord and fellowship of the persons — it shows also that this is a letter, and that is a letter, and the other is a letter, but that Pax is singular. Here, then, behold one God shown forth in God and God and God. For although P has one name and one person, and A another name and another person, and X another name and another person — just as the Father has one name and one person, and the Son another name and another person, and the Holy Spirit another name and another person — nevertheless this is called a letter, and that is called a letter, and the other is called a letter; just as this is believed to be God, and that God, and the other God, beyond ambiguity, yet one God is acknowledged, because Pax is not held in the plural number. Unless you have something to say to this. Q. For my part I would not wish even others to hesitate here, so brightly has the light of this manifestation shone upon me. But it is better, as I understand it, to believe these things with more delight, and in no way to waver over them; so that what men blinded by carnal cares cannot see, they may at least obtain by the short path of faith.