Thus, therefore, we confess that the nature of the
Godhead is wholly and perfectly in each of its subsistences, wholly in
the Father, wholly in the Son, and wholly in the Holy Spirit.
Wherefore also the Father is perfect God, the Son is perfect God, and
the Holy Spirit is perfect God. In like manner, too, in the
Incarnation of the Trinity of the One God the Word of the Holy Trinity,
we hold that in one of its subsistences the nature of the Godhead is
wholly and perfectly united with the whole nature of humanity, and not
part united to part Against Arius,
Apollinaris, and the Severians.. The divine
Apostle in truth says that in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily Col. ii. 9., that is to say in
His flesh. And His divinely-inspired disciple, Dionysius, who had
so deep a knowledge of things divine, said that the Godhead as a whole
had fellowship with us in one of its own subsistences Dion., De div.
nom., ch. 2.. But we shall not be driven to hold
that all the subsistences of the Holy Godhead, to wit the three, are
made one in subsistence with all the subsistences of humanity.
For in no other respect did the Father and the Holy Spirit take part in
the incarnation of God the Word than according to good will and
pleasure. But we hold that to the whole of human nature the whole
essence of the Godhead was united. For God the Word omitted none
of the things which He implanted in our nature when He formed us in the
beginning, but took them all upon Himself, body and soul both
intelligent and rational, and all their properties. For the
creature that is devoid of one of these is not man. But He in His
fulness took upon Himself me in my fulness, and was united whole to
whole that He might in His grace bestow salvation on the whole
man. For what has not been taken cannot be healed Athan., De salut.
adv. Christ: Greg. Naz., Epist. 1 ad Cled. et
Orat. 1: Cyril, in John viii..