VIII.
Now the person in each declares the independent
being and subsistence.
303
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
304
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.
305
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.”
306
Wherefore if there is one God, and
one Lord, and at the same time one person as one divinity in one
lordship,
307
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,
308
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.
303
τὸ
εἶναι αὐτὸ
καὶ
ὑφεστάναι
δηλοῖ
.
304
By the
ἰδιότητα τοῦ
Πατρός
is meant here the
divinity belonging to the Father.—
Migne
.
305
οὐκ
ἐστιν ὡς ἓν
τὰ δύο ἐν τῷ
ἑνί
.
306
1 Cor. viii. 6
.
307
καθ᾽ ὃ
θεότης μιᾶς
κυριότητος
.
308
τῷ
ἰδιώματι τοῦ
Πατρός
.