45. For we do not count by way of addition,
gradually making increase from unity to multitude, and saying one, two,
and three,—nor yet first, second, and third. For
“I,” God, “am the first, and I am the
last.”
Is. xliv. 6. And hitherto
we have never, even at the present time, heard of a second God.
Worshipping as we do God of God, we both confess the distinction of the
Persons, and at the same time abide by the Monarchy. We do not
fritter away the theology According to
patristic usage θεολογία
proper is concerned with all that relates to the Divine and
Eternal nature of our Lord. cf. Bp. Lightfoot.
Ap Fathers, Part II. vol. ii. p. 75. in a divided
plurality, because one Form, so to say, united ἑνιζομένην.
Var. lectiones are ἐνιζομένην,
“seated in,” and ἐνεικονιζομένην,
“imaged in.” in the invariableness of the Godhead, is
beheld in God the Father, and in God the Only begotten. For
the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son; since such as is
the latter, such is the former, and such as is the former, such is
the latter; and herein is the Unity. So that according to the
distinction of Persons, both are one and one, and according to the
community of Nature, one. How, then, if one and one, are there
not two Gods? Because we speak of a king, and of the
king’s image, and not of two kings. The majesty is not
cloven in two, nor the glory divided. The sovereignty and
authority over us is one, and so the doxology ascribed by us is not
plural but one;
cf. the embolismus, or intercalated prayer in the
Liturgy of St. James, as cited by Mr. C.F.H. Johnston.
“For of thee is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of
Father, of Son, and of Holy Ghost, now and
ever.” because the
honour paid to the image passes on to the prototype. Now what
in the one case the image is by reason of imitation, that in the
other case the Son is by nature; and as in works of art the likeness
is dependent on the form, so in the case of the divine and
uncompounded nature the union consists in the communion of the
Godhead. On the right
use of the illustration of εἰκών, cf.
Basil Ep. xxxviii., and Bp. Lightfoot’s note on Col. i.
15. cf. also John i. 18 and xiv. 9,
10. One,
moreover, is the Holy Spirit, and we speak of Him singly, conjoined
as He is to the one Father through the one Son, and through Himself
completing the adorable and blessed Trinity. Of Him the
intimate relationship to the Father and the Son is sufficiently
declared by the fact of His not being ranked in the plurality of the
creation, but being spoken of singly; for he is not one of many, but
One. For as there is one Father and one Son, so is there one
Holy Ghost. He is consequently as far removed from created
Nature as reason requires the singular to be removed from compound
and plural bodies; and He is in such wise united to the Father and
to the Son as unit has affinity with unit.