God then is called Mind and Reason and Spirit and
Wisdom and Power, as the cause of these, and as immaterial, and maker
of all, and omnipotent Dionys., De div.
nom., c. 5.. And these
names are common to the whole Godhead, whether affirmative or
negative. And they are also used of each of the subsistences of
the Holy Trinity in the very same and identical way and with their full
significance Text, ἀπαραλείπτως:
variant, ἀπαραλλάκτως, unchangeably, an adverb used by the Greeks in connection with
the equality of the divine persons.. For when I
think of one of the subsistences, I recognise it to be perfect God and
perfect essence: but when I combine and reckon the three
together, I know one perfect God. For the Godhead is not compound
but in three perfect subsistences, one perfect indivisible and
uncompound God. And when I think of the relation of the three
subsistences to each other, I perceive that the Father is
super-essential Sun, source of goodness, fathomless sea of essence,
reason, wisdom, power, light, divinity: the generating and
productive source of
good hidden in it. He Himself then is mind, the depth of reason,
begetter of the Word, and through the Word the Producer προβολεύς, Lat. productor, Emitter. of the revealing Spirit. And to put
it shortly, the Father has no reason Or,
Word; λόγος., wisdom,
power, will θέλησις,
cf. Cyril, Th., assert. 7; Athan., Contr. Arian. 4;
Greg. Nyss., Contr. Eunom., p. 345., save the Son
Who is the only power of the Father, the immediate ἡ μονὴ
δύναμις του
Πατρὸς, ἠ
προκαταρτικὴ
τῆς τῶν
πάντων
ποιήσεως. The
ἡ προκαταρτική
is understood by some to mean the primordial or
immediate Cause, by others to be better rendered as the
primordial Power or Energy. Basil in his De Spiritu
Sancto speaks of the Father as the primordial Cause
(προκαταρτικὴ
αἰτία) in the creation of the
world. cause of the creation of the
universe: as perfect subsistence begotten of perfect subsistence
in a manner known to Himself, Who is and is named the Son. And
the Holy Spirit is the power of the Father revealing the hidden
mysteries of His Divinity, proceeding from the Father through the Son
in a manner known to Himself, but different from that of
generation. Wherefore the Holy Spirit is the perfecter of the
creation of the universe. All the terms, then, that are
appropriate to the Father, as cause, source, begetter, are to be
ascribed to the Father alone: while those that are appropriate to
the caused, begotten Son, Word, immediate power, will, wisdom, are to
be ascribed to the Son: and those that are appropriate to the
caused, processional, manifesting, perfecting power, are to be ascribed
to the Holy Spirit. The Father is the source and cause of the Son
and the Holy Spirit: Father of the Son alone and producer of the
Holy Spirit. The Son is Son, Word, Wisdom, Power, Image,
Effulgence, Impress of the Father and derived from the Father.
But the Holy Spirit is not the Son of the Father but the Spirit of the
Father as proceeding from the Father. For there is no impulse
without Spirit. And we speak also of the Spirit of the Son, not
as through proceeding from Him, but as proceeding through Him from the
Father. For the Father alone is cause.