Ad Simplicium de fide

Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, to Simplicius on Faith. To Simplicius the Tribune, Gregory concerning Father and Son and Holy Spirit. God commands through the prophet that no one should think there is a recent god nor worship a foreign god. Therefore it is clear that "recent" is said of that which is not from eternity. And from the opposite, again, "eternal" is said of that which is not recent. Whoever, then, does not believe that the only-begotten God is from the Father from eternity does not deny that he is recent; for that which is not eternal is certainly recent. But everything recent is not God, as the Scripture said, "There shall not be in you a recent god." Therefore he who says that the Son once was not denies his divinity. Again, he who says, "You shall not worship a foreign god," forbids worshipping a foreign god. And the foreign is considered by contrast with our own God. Who, then, is our own God? Clearly the true God. And who is the foreign? Certainly he who is alien to the nature of the true God. If, then, our own God is the true God, if the only-begotten God is not of the nature of the true, as the heretics say, he is foreign and not ours. And the Gospel says that sheep will not obey a foreigner. He who says that he is created makes him to be alien to the nature of the true God. What, then, will those do who say that he is created? Do they worship their created god or not? For if they do not worship, they Judaize, denying the worship of Christ; but if they worship, they idolize; for they worship the foreigner to the true God.

But it is equally impious not to worship the Son and to worship a foreign god. Therefore, one must call the Son true Son of the true Father, so that we may worship him and not be condemned as worshiping a foreign god. To those who cite the saying from Proverbs, "The Lord created me," and on this account think they have a strong argument that the Creator and Maker of all things is created, it is appropriate to say this: that the only-begotten God became many things for our sake. For indeed, being Word, he became flesh; being God, he became man; being incorporeal, he became body; and in addition to these, he also became sin and curse and stone and axe and bread and sheep and road and door and rock and many such things, being none of these by nature, but becoming them for our sake by economy. Just as, then, being Word, he became flesh for our sake, and being God, he became man, so also, being Creator, he became creation for our sake; for the flesh is created. As he said through the prophet, "Thus says the Lord who formed me from the womb, his servant," so he also said through Solomon, "The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works"; for all creation is in servitude, as the apostle says. Therefore, the one formed in the womb of the virgin, according to the word of the prophet, is the servant, not the Lord—that is, the man according to the flesh, in whom God was manifested—and here the one created as the beginning of his ways is not God, but the man in whom God was manifested to us, in order to renew the ruined way of human salvation.

Thus, since we recognize two things concerning Christ—the divine and the human (the divine in nature, the human in the economy)—we accordingly attribute eternity to the divinity, while we reckon the created to the human nature. For just as according to the prophet a servant was formed in the womb, so also according to Solomon, through this servile creation he was manifested in flesh. But when they say, "If he was, he was not born, and if he was born, he was not," let them be taught that one must not apply the properties of fleshly generation to the divine nature. For bodies that are not come to be, but God makes what is not to be, not himself coming from what is not. Hence Paul also calls him the radiance of glory, so that we may learn that, just as the light from a lamp is both from the nature of that which radiates and is with it (for the lamp and the light from it shine forth together), so the apostle bids us understand here that the Son is from the Father and the Father is never without the Son; for it is impossible for glory to be without light, just as it is impossible for a lamp to be without radiance. And it is clear that, just as the existence of radiance is a testimony that glory also exists (for if glory did not exist, there would be no radiance from it), so to say that radiance never existed is a proof that glory also did not exist when radiance was not; for it is impossible for glory to be without radiance.

Just as, then, it is not possible to say of the radiance that if it existed it did not come to be, and if it came to be it did not exist, so it is vain to say these things about the Son, because the Son is the radiance. And those who speak of the lesser and the greater in regard to the Son and the Father should be taught by Paul not to measure the immeasurable; for the apostle calls the Son the character of the Father's hypostasis. It is clear, therefore, that as great as the hypostasis of the Father is, so great also is the character of the hypostasis; for it is not possible for the character to be smaller than the hypostasis contemplated in it. But also the great John teaches the same things, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God." For from saying that it was in the beginning and not after the beginning, he showed that the beginning was never without the Word. And from demonstrating that the Word was with God, he signified the completeness of the Son in relation to the Father; for the Word is contemplated as a whole together with the whole God. For if the Word were deficient in its own magnitude, so as not to be able to be with the whole God, it would be absolutely necessary to consider that part of God which exceeds the Word as without the Word. But in fact the whole magnitude of the Word is contemplated together with the whole majesty of God. Therefore, there is no place for speaking of the greater and the lesser in divine doctrines.

Let those who say that the begotten is unlike the unbegotten in nature be taught not to be foolish from the example of Abel and Adam. For Adam, according to the natural generation of humans, was not begotten, while Abel was begotten from Adam. Yet the one not begotten is called unbegotten, and the one begotten is called begotten; but nothing prevented Adam, from not having been begotten, from being a human. Nor did generation make Abel anything other than human nature; but this one is a human and that one is a human, even if the one was begotten and the other without generation. Therefore also in divine doctrines, not having been begotten and having been begotten do not produce a difference of nature, but just as in the case of Adam and Abel there is one humanity, so in the case of the Father and the Son there is one divinity. And concerning the Holy Spirit, those who blaspheme say the same thing as about the Lord, that this too is created; and the Church believes equally, as about the Son, so also about the Holy Spirit, that it is uncreated, because all creation becomes good from participation in the transcendent good, but the Holy Spirit is not in need of that which makes good (for it is good by nature, as Scripture witnesses); and because creation is led by the Spirit, but the Spirit bestows guidance; creation is governed, but the Spirit governs; creation is called, but the Spirit calls; creation serves, but the Spirit frees; creation is made wise, but the Spirit gives the grace of wisdom.

creation partakes of the gifts, while the Spirit bestows them by its own authority. For all these things are the work of one and the same Spirit, distributing to each individually as it wills. And there are countless other proofs from the scriptures to be found, that all the high and God-befitting names which are applied by scripture to the Father and the Son are also contemplated in regard to the Holy Spirit: incorruptibility, blessedness, goodness, wisdom, power, justice, holiness. Every honorable name is said of the Holy Spirit just as it is said of the Father and of the Son, except for those by which the hypostases are clearly and unconfusedly distinguished from one another—I mean that the Holy Spirit is called neither Father nor Son. But all other names by which the Father and the Son are named are also applied by scripture to the Holy Spirit. Therefore we understand that the Holy Spirit is above creation. Hence, where the Father and where the Son are conceived, there the Holy Spirit is also conceived; for the Father and the Son are above creation, which the logical sequence has also testified concerning the Holy Spirit. Therefore, one who places the Holy Spirit above creation has accordingly accepted the correct and sound teaching; for he will confess the one uncreated nature, which is contemplated in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Since they bring forward for proof, as they suppose, that the Holy Spirit is created, the prophet's utterance which says, "He who strengthens thunder and creates wind and announces to men his Christ," it is proper to understand this, that the prophet speaks of another wind being created in the firmness of thunder, and not the Holy Spirit; for mystical discourse calls thunder the Gospel. In those, then, in whom faith in the Gospel becomes firm and unchangeable, these pass through faith from being flesh to becoming spirit, as the Lord says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit." God, therefore, is he who, by making the evangelical thunder firm, creates spirit in the faithful, making the believer spirit; and he who is born of the spirit and becomes spirit through such thunder announces Christ, as the apostle says, "No one can say 'Lord Jesus Christ' except in the Holy Spirit.