Part
I.—Acknowledged Writings.
————————————
A Declaration of Faith.
18
————————————
There
is one God, the
Father of the living Word,
who is His
subsistent Wisdom and
Power and Eternal Image:
19
perfect Begetter of the perfect
Begotten
, Father of the
only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only,
20
God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity,
Efficient Word,
21
Wisdom
comprehensive
22
of the constitution
of all things, and Power formative
23
of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible,
and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal and
Eternal of Eternal.
24
And there is
One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence
25
from God, and being made manifest
26
by the Son, to wit to men:
27
Image
28
of the Son, Perfect
Image
of the
Perfect;
29
Life, the Cause of
the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier,
or
Leader
,
30
of Sanctification; in
whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God
the Son, who is through all. There is a perfect Trinity, in glory
and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged.
31
Wherefore there is nothing either
created or in servitude
32
in
the Trinity;
33
nor anything
superinduced,
34
as if at some former
period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was
introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the
Father, nor the Spirit to the Son;
35
but without variation and without change, the same Trinity
abideth
ever.
36
18
The title
as it stands has this addition: “which he had by revelation
from the blessed John the evangelist, by the mediation of the Virgin
Mary, Parent of God.” Gallandi,
Veterum Patrum
Biblioth.
, Venice, 1766, p. 385. [Elucidation, p. 8,
infra
.]
19
χαρακτῆρος
ἀϊδίου
.
20
μόνος ἐκ
μόνου
.
21
λόγος
ἐνεργός
.
22
περιεκτική
.
23
ποιητική
.
24
ἀΐδιος
ἀϊδίου
.
25
ὕπαρξιν
.
26
πεφηνός
.
27
The words
δηλαδὴ
τοῖς
ἀνθρώποις
are
suspected by some to be a gloss that has found its way into the
text.
28
εἰκών
.
29
So John of
Damascus uses the phrase,
εἰκὼν τοῦ
Πατρὸς ὁ
Υἱὸς, καὶ τοῦ
Υἱοῦ, τὸ
Πνεῦμα
, the Son is the Image of
the Father, and the Spirit is that of the Son, lib. 1,
De fide
orthod.
, ch. 13, vol. i. p. 151. See also Athanasius,
Epist.
1
ad Serap.
; Basil, lib. v.
contra Eunom.
;
Cyril,
Dial.
, 7, etc.
30
χορηγός
.
31
ἀπαλλοτριουμένη
. See also Gregory Nazianz.,
Orat.
, 37, p. 609.
32
δοῦλον
.
33
Gregory Nazianz.,
Orat.
, 40, p. 668, with reference
apparently to our author, says:
Οὐδὲν τῆς
Τριάδος
δοῦλον, οὐδὲ
κτιστον, οὐδὲ
ἐπείσακτον,
ἤκουσα τῶν
σοφῶν τινος
λέγοντος
—
In the Trinity there is nothing either in servitude or created, or
superinduced, as I heard one of the learned say.
34
ἐπείσακτον
.
35
In one codex
we find the following addition here:
οὔτε
αὔξεται
μονὰς εἰς
δυάδα, οὐδὲ
δυὰς εἰς
τριάδα
—
Neither
again does the unity grow into duality, nor the duality into
trinity
; or =
Neither does the condition of the one grow into
the condition of the two, nor that of the two into the condition of the
three.
36
[See
valuable note and Greek text in Dr. Schaff’s
History
, vol.
ii. p. 799.]