VIII. Confess, my friends, the Trinity to be
of One Godhead; or if you will, of One Nature; and we will pray the
Spirit to give you this word God. He will give it to you, I well
know, inasmuch as He has already granted you the first portion and the
second; i.e., inasmuch as He
has granted you a right faith in the Consubstantiality and Unity of the
Trinity, I am sure He will in time grant you the grace also to call Him
by the Name of God. and
especially if that
about which we are contending is some spiritual cowardice, and not the
devil’s objection. Yet more clearly and concisely, let me
say, do not you call us to account for our loftier word (for envy has
nothing to do with this ascent), and we will not find fault with what
you have been able to attain, until by another road you are brought up
to the same resting place. For we are not seeking victory, but to
gain brethren, by whose separation from us we are torn. This we
concede to you in whom we do find something of vital truth, who are
sound as to the Son. We admire your life, but we do not
altogether approve your doctrine. Ye who have the things of the
Spirit, receive Himself in addition, that ye may not only strive, but
strive lawfully, 2 Tim. ii. 5. which is the
condition of your crown. May this reward of your conversation be
granted you, that you may confess the Spirit perfectly and proclaim
with us, aye and before us, all that is His due. Yes, and I will
venture even more on your behalf; I will even utter the Apostle’s
wish. So much do I cling to you, and so much do I revere your
array, and the colour of your continence, and those sacred assemblies,
and the august Virginity, and purification, and the Psalmody that lasts
all night The Constantinopolitan
followers of Macedonius at the period were noted for their strict
asceticism. The attempt to revive the Night Office among the
secular Clergy of the Diocese brought great odium on S. John Chrysostom
a few years later. and your love of
the poor, and of the brethren, and of strangers, that I could consent
to be Anathema from Christ, and even to suffer something as one
condemned, if only you might stand beside us, and we might glorify the
Trinity together. For of the others why should I speak, seeing
they are clearly dead (and it is the part of Christ alone to raise
them, Who quickeneth the dead by His own Power), and are unhappily
separated in place as they are bound together by their doctrine; and
who quarrel among themselves as much as a pair of squinting eyes in
looking at the same object, and differ with one another, not in sight
but in position—if indeed we may charge them only with squinting,
and not with utter blindness. And now that I have to some extent
laid down your position, come, let us return again to the subject of
the Spirit, and I think you will follow me now.