XXVIII. This, then, is my position with regard to
these things, and I hope it may be always my position, and that of
whosoever is dear to me; to
worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, Three
Persons, One Godhead, undivided in honour and glory and substance and
kingdom, as one of our own inspired philosophers Perhaps S.
Gregory Thaumaturgus is meant. He was born about a.d. 210. The date of his death is uncertain, but
was probably not before 270. He was Bishop of Neocæsarea in
Pontus. Amongst his works was an Exposition of the Faith, which
he is said to have received by direct revelation, and in it the words
in the text were contained. S. Gregory in another Oration refers
to the closing sentences as the substance of the Formula itself:
“There is nothing created or servile in the Trinity, nor anything
superinduced, as though previously non-existing and introduced
afterwards. Never therefore, was the Son wanting to the Father,
nor the Spirit to the Son; but there is ever the same Trinity,
unchangeable and unalterable”(Reynolds, in Dict.
Biog.). not long departed shewed. Let him not
see the rising of the Morning Star, as Scripture saith, Job iii. 9. nor the glory of its brightness, who is
otherwise minded, or who follows the temper of the times, at one time
being of one mind and of another at another time, and thinking
unsoundly in the highest matters. For if He is not to be
worshipped, how can He deify me by Baptism? but if He is to be
worshipped, surely He is an Object of adoration, and if an Object of
adoration He must be God; the one is linked to the other, a truly
golden and saving chain. And indeed from the Spirit comes our New
Birth, and from the New Birth our new creation, and from the new
creation our deeper knowledge of the dignity of Him from Whom it is
derived.