De sancta trinitate

Concerning the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. 1. Those who sharpen their tongues against the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, and rave, and attempt to overthrow the dignity of the only-begotten Son and of the Holy Spirit, are refuted by the Holy Spirit itself, which spoke through the holy prophets, and by the Word, which proclaimed its own incarnate presence, which took place for our sake from a holy Virgin, ineffable and immutable, through its worthy ones; and they will be refuted most completely on the day of its righteous judgment, when it comes again from heaven to be glorified among its saints, and to be marveled at among those who have preserved its faith unaltered. But they dared, beloved, children of the Arians, and possessed by the madness of the Macedonians, to speak of a great and a small God, and a created God, introducing paganism among us. For it is characteristic of those to worship a creature, and to magnify one of their gods and diminish another. For if either the Son or the Spirit falls short in any respect, it is not God. For Paul, rebuking them in the Epistle to the Romans, says: They worshipped and served the creation rather than the creator, who is the blessed God over all. But if they worship a creature, calling the Son and the Spirit a creature, they are accursed according to Moses, who says: Accursed is everyone who worships a creature and a product. But we do not worship a creature, but an uncreated Trinity, unalterable and immutable and consubstantial, having nothing extraneous, or servile, or that has come into being through development, as something that previously did not exist and later came into existence.

Look, then, at the testimonies of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, and revere it rightly, lest you perish. And God said, it says: Let us make man according to our image and likeness. Tell me, then, with whom does God take counsel? With the angels, someone says. But the angels do not have the image of God; rather, he speaks to the co-creator Son and the Holy Spirit. And to be persuaded that this is true, listen to the psalmist saying: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of his mouth all their power. You are not unaware that the Word is the Son. For the theologian John says: And the Word was God; and concerning the Spirit, God is Spirit. Therefore, God the Father says to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit: Let us make man according to our image. And he did not say, My and yours, nor My and thine. But Scripture, indicating that the image of the Holy Trinity is one, says: And God made man; he made him according to the image of God.

Just as Paul cries out concerning the Son: who is the radiance of the glory and the character of the hypostasis. And again elsewhere the Scripture: Come, and let us go down and confuse their tongues. By saying, Come, it calls those of equal rank. For if he had commanded angels, he could not have said, Come, but imperatively, Go. Observe, then, the Father’s voice calling the Son and the Spirit. For if this had been said to only one, he would have said, Come here, and let us go down and confuse their tongues; but to say, Come, is the voice of one to two persons of equal rank. Listen also to the blessed Job clearly revealing the inseparable Trinity; for he says: As the Lord lives, who thus judged me, and the Almighty, who embittered my soul, and the divine Spirit that remains in my nostrils. By saying Lord and Almighty and divine Spirit, he proclaimed the consubstantial Trinity. Learn also the hymn of the Seraphim, crying out three times: Holy, holy, holy. For they do not say only once, Holy, nor twice, Holy, holy, nor four times, nor do they say, Holy ones, holy ones, holy ones, lest the many names lead us into polytheism, but only one, three times: Holy, holy, holy. For by this they reveal one and equal doxology of Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Listen also to the prophet saying again: The Spirit of the Lord spoke in me, and his word in my mouth. It has been shown that the Word was God; for by saying Spirit of the Lord and Word and Lord, he proclaims the undivided Trinity.

Observe also the three youths in the furnace calling upon all creatures and works for the glorification of God: sun, moon, stars, heavens, angels, powers, men, spirits, every visible and invisible and intelligible creation; and nowhere did they number the Son or the Holy Spirit among the works. But you will surely say: They did not know the Spirit or the Son, for they were Jews; but you are refuted immediately from the Scripture itself: For the fourth, it says, was as the likeness of the Son of God. Concerning the Holy Spirit it says: God raised up by the Holy Spirit a younger child, whose name was Daniel. And in many other places the Holy Spirit is proclaimed in the Old Testament. But they knew that Father and Son and Holy Spirit are of one divinity and power; and they knew to call the servants to the glorification of the divinity. And that you may know that nothing created or adventitious is added to the Trinity, Paul, having placed the Father first, in another place places the Holy Spirit first; for he speaks thus: One God the Father, from whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord Jesus, through whom are all things, and we through him; and one Holy Spirit. And conversely: There are divisions of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of operations, but the same God, who works all things in all. And all these things one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each individually as it wills, and not as it is commanded. And when the Son is baptized, the Father bears witness from heaven, and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove upon the one of equal honor.

Through all these things we are taught to conceive of one kingdom of the undivided Trinity. God the Word Himself, who truly became incarnate for our sake, about to ascend whence He was never separated, says to His holy apostles: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." We are sealed, but it is one seal of the holy Trinity, one baptism. How then do you dare to alienate the Son or the Holy Spirit from the Father's substance? For if they were alien, they would not be enumerated with the Father in baptism. By what reasoning, according to your reasoning, O enemy of God, if the Son or the Spirit is created, are they included together with the Father? For if the name of the Father alone could save the one being baptized, why are the creatures included with Him, as if the Father alone were unable to save? Far be it! If, then, you proclaim the Father's weakness by shunning the consubstantial, you will be compelled by the truth to confess with us the Trinity as uncreated, consubstantial, and all-powerful. But you will say to me concerning the Father, that it is written: "You are the only true God." But the Word was also God; and how then is He equal to the Father? For saying concerning the Father, "You are the only true God," shows the Son to be not natural, but adoptive God. What then, O one who wars against your own salvation? Since it is written, as John says concerning the Father, that "God is light," and concerning the Son, that "He was the true light," do you dare on this account to say the Father is lesser, because "the true light" is not added, but only concerning the Son it is said, "He was the true light"?

Just as you dare not diminish the Father because the word "true" is not attached, so when you hear concerning the Father, "You are the only true God," and concerning the Son, only "God," do not dare to diminish the Son, since the names are set in opposition to each other: to the Father, "true God"; to the Son, "God." Conversely, "He was the true light" is said of the Son, while of the Father, only "light." Therefore, just as one must not say concerning the Father that He is not true light, nor concerning the Son that He is not true God—for He Himself said, "I am the truth"—so also concerning the Holy Spirit, that He is the Spirit of truth. Through these testimonies, learn to piously believe in the undivided Trinity. "Everything that the Father has is mine," said the only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father. Moses says, "The One who is has sent me." The One who is is the Father; the One who is is the Son; the One who is, born without beginning and without time, is with the One who is. The Father has everything: truly life, immortality, light, the Almighty, God, and Lord—which the Son also has. For "I am," He says, "the truth and the life"; and "He was the true light"; and "The Word was God"; and the apostle Thomas says, "My Lord and my God," just as the psalmist says, "With my hands I sought God, and I was not deceived." Thomas touched the Word in disbelief, and was not deceived, confessing Him as Lord and God in faith. Yes, someone says, I call the Son of God God, but not unoriginate, but created; therefore also a slave. And how is it that He, existing in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave?

If, then, he is a slave—for every creature is a slave—how, being a slave, did he take on the form of a slave? And how did he empty himself, if he was not perfect God? For he took what he did not have, while remaining what he was; he did not become what he was, but, existing in the form of God, out of love for humanity he unchangeably took on the form of a slave. But if you are unwilling to confess him as without beginning, was there then a time when the Son was not? Yes, you say. See, then, I speak according to your reasoning: there was a time when the Father was not; for he who has no son is not called father. And the Father had a beginning of being father; for from the son the father is known. Therefore, there was also a time when the Father himself was the son of another father. Shame on such blasphemy! For while seeming to honor the Father completely, you are impious toward him. If, then, the Son himself made the times and seasons—for everything came into being through him—how dare you say that there was a time when the Son was not? Therefore, according to your reasoning, time is greater than the God Logos; for what is first is necessarily also greater. 2. Do you wish to know that the Son is coeternal with the Father? Isaiah says: "I am God first, and I am into the things after these; before me no other God came to be, and after me there will be none." If, then, you say the Son is later than the Father, how does the Father say, "After me there will be no other God"? But if you apply this to the Son, how does he say, "Before me no other God came to be"? See, then, through these things that the Son is coeternal with the Father. Listen to the testimonies concerning the Son, and flee from speaking ill of him: "The Lord rained fire from the Lord, and fire upon Sodom." He calls the Father Lord, the Son Lord, the Holy Spirit Lord.

As he says, "The Lord is the Spirit," and he did not say, "The Lord, the lesser from the great Lord." And Moses says, "Let all the angels of God worship him," but an angel does not worship a creature. And so that you may learn that this is said about the Son, listen to Paul saying, "When he introduces the firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all the angels of God worship him.'" And David also cried out, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I set your enemies as a footstool under your feet.'" And he did not say, "Lord of my Lord," but he said, "Lord to my Lord." Behold, says Isaiah, "The virgin will conceive in her womb and will bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel," which is interpreted, "God with us." Yes, I call him Son, but subordinate and lesser than the Father. Isaiah refutes you again, saying, "A child has been born to us, a son has been given to us, and his name is called Angel of the Great Council, wonderful counselor, mighty God, ruler, prince of peace, father of the coming age." The prophet proclaims him ruler, mighty God, and you call him subordinate? He calls him Angel of the Great Council, and you call him small? And see Jeremiah crying out about him, "This is our God; no other will be reckoned with him." Does he speak about the Father or about the Son? About the Father, he says. Did the Father become incarnate, or the Son? The Son. Therefore, according to your argument, the Father became incarnate. But now I see, according to the prophet's word, that it is the Son who also dwelt among men.

Yes, the Lord was incarnate, but the Father remained without flesh. Be refuted, then, O foolish one, that he speaks concerning the Son, through the following: "This is our God; no other shall be reckoned with him; he discovered every path of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved; after this he appeared on earth and dwelt among men." Do you see him also as a lawgiver? For if he himself discovered every path of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved, he is the one who also appeared to Moses and gave the law. And how is this clear? Hear the prophet saying: "I will make a new covenant with you, not according to the covenant which I made with your fathers, when I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; giving my laws in their hearts, and I will inscribe them upon their minds; and they will be a people for me, and I will be a God for them." Do you see that he is the lawgiver of the Old and New? For that he himself legislates the New, you will not dispute. And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are not too small to be among the thousands of Judah; for from you a leader will come forth for me; and his goings forth are from the beginning of days; and he will shepherd my people Israel. Do you see one people of Father and Son? The Son says: "I will be a God for them, and they will be a people for me." The Father says concerning Christ: "And he will shepherd my people Israel.

Learn that the kingdom of the Father and the Son is one. As for all the humble things you hear him say after he was incarnated by his own will and humbled himself for the salvation of men, understand these in a manner befitting God; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. For if he said to the apostles, who had seen his miracles and healed every disease in his name, "I had many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now," what then to a Jew, who is much denser? For if, when he said, "Before Abraham was, I am," they took up stones to stone him, how, if he had said anything lofty to them, would they have endured hearing it at all? Thus also in the Old Testament one would find many things said about the Father in accordance with the density of the hearers; for example, "The seven eyes of the Lord look upon the world," and "Under the shelter of your wings you will shelter me," and "Awake; why do you sleep, O Lord?" and "If you do not turn back, he will brandish his sword; he has strung his bow and made it ready; he has prepared his arrows for the burning." And how so? For the Divine is neither winged, nor overcome by sleep, nor is there a sword about God, or a bow, or arrows; for the Divine is incorporeal. But the prophet says these things, wishing to strike the density of his hearers; thus also the Word of God, incarnate for our sake, imitating his own Father, speaks humbly, looking to our salvation. For since they considered him an opponent of God, saying, "This man is not from God," and "We do not stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.

And for this reason they sought to stone him, not only because he broke the Sabbath, but because he called God his own Father, making himself equal to God. But because they could not grasp the lofty things worthy of his divinity, he begins to speak humbly, showing through all that he is not an opponent of God. "If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father who sent me, because my Father is greater than I." For when he made himself equal to the Father, they attempted to stone him. But if these things are not so, you will be forced to praise the Jews, that they justly crucified him as an opponent of God; for one who makes himself equal to God and Father, not being so, is an opponent of God. Then Paul lies when he says, "He did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God." What then is the Savior, according to that which he was not incarnate? Thus, "I am going to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God" — differently of him according to nature, and differently of us according to grace and adoption; differently as through his own good will and through the created assumption, and differently of us as creatures. But if you doubt in these things, he could have said, "Our Father and yours." Why did he distinguish himself, if not to teach us this godly concept? "Do you see," he says, "how he needs the Father's help, saying, 'Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.'" You read badly; he said, "Now my soul is troubled," and having made a distinction there, he added, "What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour" — but I have come into this hour for this reason.

For by saying, "For this reason I came to this hour," he showed that he did not shrink from the saving death. For he says, "I earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you." If possible, let this cup pass from me; but let not my will, but yours, be done. Does he then fear death, or does he come to the passion unwillingly? He who said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be killed, and buried, and on the third day rise again"; he who said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it"; he who said, "I have authority to lay down my life, and I have authority to take it again"; and, "No one takes it from me; I lay it down of myself, and I take it again"; he who rebuked Peter, who had shortly before been called blessed for the saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," but then considered the passion unworthy of him, hearing, "Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me, because you do not think the things of God, but the things of men"; he who set his face to go up to Jerusalem, in order to provide salvation for all through his passion; he who through the prophets also proclaimed beforehand the form of his passion, through Jeremiah: "They devised an evil plan against me, saying, 'Come, let us put wood into his bread, and let us grind him from the earth,'" signifying the cross; through David: "They put gall into my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink"; and, "They dug my hands and my feet; they divided my garments among themselves, and cast lots for my clothing"; and through Isaiah:

I have given my back to lashes, and my cheeks to slaps, and I have not turned my face away from the shame of spittings. You know, then, that all these things were accomplished on the cross. For he was scourged by Pilate, slapped by a slave, spat upon by lawless men, nailed by soldiers to the cross, while his garments were divided and lots cast for them. He who signified the passion through many things, how does he now shrink back? Why then does he say, "Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me"? The devil did not know who he was; for seeing him thirsty, hungry, weary, and his other economies, he thought him to be a mere man, but seeing his divine miracles, he suspected him to be God; he was therefore in doubt about him, not knowing him. For if he had known precisely that he was God, he would not have dared to approach him; as Paul also says: "For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." The Master therefore puts forward cowardice, drawing him on, so that he, coming against him as against a man, might be turned back by him, and all the captives who were held by him might be set free. Just as if

If a king, about to engage in battle with some weak tyrant, knows that the tyrant will flee from him, and devises a pretense of cowardice, saying to his forces, "Let us flee, as it were, from his presence, so that he may not escape us, but pursue us, and thus, turning, we may capture him"—so also the Master put forward a pretense of cowardice, so that the devil might attack him as a man, and find him destroying him, and delivering all those held by Hades. For thus it is said: "An angel appeared, strengthening him." He who is worshipped by angels, and before whom every knee of the heavenly, earthly, and infernal beings bends—how did he receive strength from an angel? Not strength, but the angel speaking doxology: "Yours is the kingdom and the power, Master." No one knows that day or that hour, neither the angels nor the Son, except the Father. And how, it is said, is he equal to the Father, if he does not know that day? He who made it—does he not know it? And why then does he say, "Nor the Son"? But observe the theory: One would find two kinds of knowledge and awareness in Scripture: one according to action, and the other according to cognition. For it is said, "Adam knew Eve his wife," not as though he was previously ignorant—for how could he, who said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh"? And Abraham knew Sarah his wife, and Jacob knew Leah and Rachel. Was he, then, ignorant of them, he who served fourteen years for them? He knew them according to cognition, but in the end also according to action. Therefore the Father, not judging anyone, but having given all judgment to the Son, saw the day both in knowledge and in action.

The Son, having come to save the world, and not to judge, saw her according to knowledge; but since he had not yet judged, he is ignorant of the day, signifying knowledge according to action. 3. But Paul says: Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, being faithful to the one who made him; and elsewhere: God made him Lord and Christ; and Solomon: The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works. Do you see how Scripture signifies him as a creature and a product? But the sequence will refute you, O God-fighter: For every priest, it says, taken from among men, is appointed over men, to offer gifts and sacrifices. For he took from us the creative flesh without sin, which he offered as a sacrifice to the Father on our behalf. Therefore, understand "to the one who made him" according to the flesh, and not according to the divinity. Thus also: God made him Lord and Christ. For before the economy, he is everywhere proclaimed God, as has been shown, and no one calls him a product; but because of the union with the created flesh, it says: God made him Lord and Christ, for the thickness of the hearers: The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways, it says. Do you see that it says "creature"? But let us go to the sequence of what follows: Before the age he founded me, and before all hills he begets me. First, O vain one, learn that the book is called Proverbs; and everything that is proverbial is not identical to the power of the word. For the Lord compared the kingdom of heaven to a net, to leaven, to a mustard seed, and to many other such things; and we do not at all say that the kingdom is any of these things.

But I will not speak in a wandering manner: "The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways, he established me before the age, and before all hills he begets me." How then is that which is begotten created or established? Or how is that which is created begotten? For if it is created, it is not begotten; we do not create what we beget, nor do we beget what we create. And how is it possible that the uncreated Father has begotten a created Son? For we, being created, beget created things; but the Father, being uncreated, begot an uncreated Son. Aquila, interpreting, said, "He acquired me." Therefore, "He created me" foretells what is to come as already having happened; for this is a custom of Scripture—just as, "They dug my hands and my feet." "I," he says, "whom you see having united created flesh to myself by my own will, I am from the beginning, I do not have my beginning from Mary. For in the beginning was the Word, and, 'Before Abraham was, I am.'" He therefore confessed the Son to be uncreated and co-beginningless with the Father, so that you do not also give the Father a beginning of becoming a father. If you say the Son is co-beginningless with the Father, how did the Father beget the Son? Willingly or unwillingly? If we say, "Willingly," they object: "Behold, the will existed before the Word; for before he willed, they say, the Son did not exist." If we say, "Unwillingly," they say: "The Divine is tyrannized; but everything that is tyrannized is not God." But we say that just as the sun has its rays and its light co-eternal, so the Father has the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that we do not also place the Father under a beginning. For if he is said to be under a beginning, before the Son began, the Father was not a father, according to your reasoning, and you will impiously be compelled to place the Father under a beginning.

But if not, I counter-argue to you: Did the Father become father willingly or unwillingly? If you say willingly, then see: before willing, he was not Father; there was therefore a time when the Father was not father; and so he himself began to be father. If you say unwillingly, then he was tyrannized, but God is not tyrannized; for that which is tyrannized is not God. Do you see into how great an impiety you fall, unless you confess the Son to be co-unoriginate, co-eternal, and co-creator with the Father? And how shall I say co-creator? For it is written that all things came to be through him. Do you not hear the prophet speaking concerning the Son: "From the mouth of infants and sucklings you were furnished with praise," and the rest: "I will see the heavens, works of your fingers, the moon and stars, which you founded"? Do you not see the authority of Christ saying: "My Father works until now, and I work"; and, "Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wishes"; and, "Young man, I say to you, arise"; and to the unclean spirit, "I command you, be silenced, and come out of him"; and, "Take courage, child, your sins are forgiven"? For since they said, "No one can forgive sins except God alone," refuting them from their own mouth, he says: "You said that it belongs to God alone to forgive sins; behold, then, I forgive sins, and confess my divinity. But if you disbelieve, see from the strength of the body and learn also the health of the soul." Then he says to him: "Having arisen, take up your bed, and go to your house"; and again to another: "Stretch out your hand"; and to the sea:

Be silent, be struck dumb: "Child, arise"; "Lazarus, come out"; "I will, be cleansed"; and all the rest, through which he makes clear his equal honor with the Father. Learning all these things, believe that he is consubstantial with the Father, and that the Spirit is also consubstantial. For if it proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son, the Spirit is not alien to the substance of God. Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Spirit of truth, Spirit Paraclete, juxtaposed. Spirit is God; and the Lord is the Spirit; just as Peter says to Ananias: "Why did you agree to tempt the Holy Spirit?" And showing that it is God, he says: "You did not lie to a man, but to God." Do you see that the Spirit to which he lied is God? And Paul says: "You are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you." Clearly the Spirit that dwells in us is God; for in it we live and move and have our being; and, "The second man into life-giving Spirit"; and elsewhere he says, "The flesh avails nothing, it is the spirit that gives life.

4. Do not dare, then, to utter anything against the consubstantial and all-powerful Trinity. And again: No one knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him; so also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God—not "that is in him," lest anyone think the Spirit is composite. For the Spirit investigates all things, even the depths of God. Yes, it investigates, but it does not comprehend; for it is not written that it comprehends. How then does it investigate? As something meddlesome? As something alien? As something ignorant? For if it is written, "Do not seek things deeper than yourself, and do not examine things stronger than yourself; consider what has been commanded to you; for there is no need of hidden things." If it is alien according to your reasoning, how does it dare to investigate the depths of God? Concerning the Father it is written: "I am God, testing kidneys and investigating the chambers of the belly." Will you then say, because the phrase "I comprehend" is not added, that the Father is ignorant? If he investigates and tests in ignorance, will you dare to say this also concerning the venerable Spirit? How did he say, "Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them"? You see the authority; understand the divinity. And Agabus: "Thus says the Holy Spirit: The man to whom this belt belongs will be bound in this way in Jerusalem." And the apostles: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit to keep nothing more"; and again: "Having passed through Phrygia and the Galatian region, they were prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word in Asia. And having come to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, and the Holy Spirit did not allow them.

And again: "My Holy Spirit testifies to me throughout the city," saying, and so forth. And the prophet: "My Spirit," he says, "has stood in your midst." But the Lord: "Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst." And: "The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit." "Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops and deacons." See the power of the Holy Spirit, and its authority and dominion. Therefore the Spirit is not alien to God. "I saw," says Isaiah, "God upon a high and lofty throne, and the Seraphim around him," and so forth. And I said: "Woe is me, for I am pierced, because I have unclean lips, dwelling among a people with unclean lips, and I saw the King, the Lord Sabaoth, with my own eyes." And he said: "Who will go to this people?" And I said: "Here I am, send me." And he said to me—clearly the one seated on the throne—"Go to this people and say: 'You will hear with your ears and not understand, and you will see with your eyes and not perceive.'" Who is the one seated on the throne? "The Father," he says. But if you learn from Paul that it is the Spirit, do you acknowledge it as God? "Show me," he says, "and I believe.

Listen then to him saying: "The Holy Spirit spoke well through the prophet Isaiah: 'Go to this people and say: You shall hear with your ears,' and so forth." Paul says, "The Holy Spirit said." Isaiah says, "The Lord of Hosts said," because it makes no difference to Scripture whether it speaks of the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. Therefore, no longer speak of a great and a small God, falling into Hellenism. For if the Son is a small God, Paul lies when he says: "Awaiting the blessed hope of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Whom Paul calls a great God, do not you call small; for in God all things are perfect. And again: "From which Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed unto the ages." Never name God as created; for it is impious to worship a creation. What then? Do you not say the body of the Lord is created? See then, you also worship a creation, foolish one. No one says to a king, "Take off your purple robe," or, "Rise from your throne," so that I may worship you alone, but one worships a king sitting on a throne and wearing a purple robe. For God the Word deigned to unite the created flesh from us to himself without stain; therefore it is worshiped together with God the Word, just as he also deified it. And signifying this, the divine David cries out: "Exalt the Lord our God, and worship the footstool of his feet, for it is holy." In another passage he says: "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet." Do you command us to worship the earth, O blessed David?

And how does Moses legislate not to worship the heaven, nor the earth, nor the things in them? You see a mystery. Since he was about to unite our flesh to himself without sin into one worship, and our flesh is from Adam, from the earth; according to this he says, "And worship the footstool of his feet." We do not worship the earth, but the God Word who united to himself without sin the flesh of Adam fashioned from the earth. Therefore, no longer say that the Son is a created God; for tell me, where did the Father say, "I have created a son for myself," or the Son, "The Father created me"? Nor take the human utterances of Christ to his diminishment. For if, when these things were said, and the human things were shown in him, some dared to say that he was incarnate in semblance and illusion, if these things had not happened, where would they not have run aground into impiety? Therefore, everyone who believes in the holy Scriptures, let him worship an uncreated, immutable, unchangeable, all-powerful, co-beginningless, co-eternal, and consubstantial Trinity: Father, and Son, who was formerly without flesh but at the end by his own will became fully incarnate, without sin, immutably and unchangeably; for having become man, he remained being God; for he was not changed from his glory and dignity; and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that spoke through the prophets. And as for those who say that the Son or the Spirit is mutable, or changeable, or of another substance, or come from non-existence, or that there was a time when he was not, let the Catholic Church anathematize them. And these things suffice for one who wishes, even if they are few; for it is impossible to go through everything; for time will fail me as I narrate.

For I do not think that even the world itself could contain the books that are being written. But we, the unworthy, who have been deemed worthy to be benefited by the divine Scriptures, worship Father and Son and Holy Spirit, to whom is the glory and the power, unto the ages of ages. Amen.