From St John of Damascus,
The Fount of Knowledge:
Chapter 12
In these things, then, have we been instructed by the
sacred sayings, as the divine Dionysius the Areopagite has
said, namely, that
God is the Cause and Principle of all
things, the Essence of things that are, the Life or the living,
the Reason of the rational, the Understanding of them that
have understanding, the Revival and the raising up of them
that fall away from Him, the Remaking and Reforming
of them that are by nature corruptible, the holy Support
of them that are tossed on an unholy sea, the sure Support
of them that stand, and the Way and the outstretched
guiding Hand to them that are drawn to Him. Moreover,
I shall add that He is the Father of them that have been
made by Him. For our God, who has brought us from nothing
into being, is more properly our Father than they who have
begotten us, but who have received from Him both their
being and their power to beget. He is the Shepherd of them
that follow after Him and are led by Him. He is the Illumina-
tion of the enlightened. He is the Initiation of the initiate. He
is the Godliness of the godly. He is the Reconciliation of them
that are at variance. He is the Simplicity of them that are
become simple. He is the Unity of them that seek unity.
As
Principle of Principles He is the transcendent Principle of
every principle. He is the good Communication of His hidden
things, that is, of His knowledge, in so far as is allowable and
meets with the capacity of each individual. Since the Divinity is incomprehensible, He must remain
absolutely nameless. Accordingly, since we do not know His
essence, let us not look for a name for His essence, for names
are indicative of what things are. However, although God
is good and has brought us from nothing into being to share
His goodness and has given us knowledge, yet, since He did
not communicate His essence to us, so neither did He com-
municate the knowledge of His essence.
It is impossible for
a nature to know a nature of a higher order perfectly; but,
if knowledge is of things that are, then how will that which
is superessential be known? So, in His ineffable goodness He
sees fit to be named from things which are on the level of
our nature, that we may not be entirely bereft of knowledge
of Him but may have at least some dim understanding.
Therefore, in so far as He is incomprehensible, He is also
unnameable. But, since
He is the cause of all things and
possesses beforehand in Himself the reasons and causes of all, so He can be named after all things even after things which
are opposites, such as light and darkness, water and fire so
that we may know that
He is not these things in essence, but
is superessential and unnameable. Thus, since He is the cause
of all beings, He is named after all things that are caused. Wherefore,
some of the divine names are said by negation
and show His superessentiality, as when He is called 'Insub-
stantial, 'Timeless,' 'Without beginning,' 'Invisible'
not
because He is inferior to anything or lacking in anything, for
all things are His and from Him and by Him were made
and in Him consist, but because He is pre-eminently set
apart from all beings. The names that are given by negation
are predicated of Him as being the cause of all things. For,
in so far as He is the cause of all beings and of every essence,
He is called 'Being' and 'Essence.' As the cause of all reason
and wisdom, and as that of the reasoning and the wise, He
is called 'Wisdom' and 'Wise.' In the same way, He is called
'Mind' and 'Understanding', 'Life' and 'Living,' 'Might'
and 'Mighty,' and so on with all the rest. But especially may
He be named after those more noble things which approach
Him more closely.
Immaterial things are more noble than
material, the pure more so than the sordid, the sacred more
so than the profane, and they approach Him more closely
because they participate in Him more. Consequently, He may
be called sun and light much more suitably than darkness,
day more suitably than night, life more suitably than death,
and fire, air, and water (since these are life-giving) more
suitably than earth. And, above all, He may be called good-
ness rather than evil, which is the same thing as to say being
rather than non-being, because good is existence and the
cause of existence. These are all negations and affirmations,
but the most satisfactory is the combination of both, as, for
example, the 'superessential Essence,' 'the superdivine God-
head,' the 'Principle beyond all principles, and so on. There
are also some things which are affirmed of God positively, but
which have the force of extreme negation, as, for example,
darkness not because God is darkness, but because He is
light and more than light.
And so, God is called 'Mind, and 'Reason, and Spirit,'
and 'Wisdom, because He is the cause of these, and because
He is immaterial, and because He is all-working and all-
powerful. And these names, both those given by negation
and those given by affirmation, are applied jointly to the
whole Godhead. They also apply in the same way, identically,
and without exception, to each one of the Persons of the
Holy Trinity. Thus, when I think of one of the Persons,
I know that He is perfect God, a perfect substance, but
when I put them together and combine them, I know one
perfect God. For the Godhead is not compounded, but is
one perfect, indivisible, and uncompounded being in three
perfect beings. However, whenever I think of the negation
of the Persons to one another, I know that the Father is
a supersubstantial sun, a well-spring of goodness, an abyss of
essence, reason, wisdom, power, light, and divinity, a beget-
ting and emitting well-spring of the good hidden in Himself.
Thus, He is 'Mind', 'Abyss of reason, 'Begetter of the Word',
and, through the Word, 'Emitter' of the revealing Spirit.
And, not to speak at too great length, the Father has no
reason, wisdom, power, or will other than the Son, who is
the only power of the Father and the primordial force of the
creation of all things. As a perfect hypostasis begotten of
a perfect hypostasis, in a manner which He alone knows,
is He who is the Son and is so called. Then there is the Holy
Ghost, a power of the Father revealing the hidden things
of the Godhead and proceeding from the Father through
the Son, not by begetting, but in a manner which He alone
knows. Wherefore the Holy Ghost is also perfecter of the
creation of all things. Consequently, whatsoever pertains to
the Father as cause, well-spring, and begetter must be attrib-
uted to the Father alone. Whatsoever pertains to the Son
as caused, begotten son, word, primordial force, will, and
wisdom must be attributed to the Son alone. And whatsoever
pertains to the caused, proceeding, revealing, and perfecting
power must be attributed to the Holy Ghost. The Father is
well-spring and cause of Son and Holy Ghost He is Father
of the only Son and Emitter of the Holy Ghost. The Son
is son, word, wisdom, power, image, radiance, and type of
the Father, and He is from the Father. And the Holy Ghost
is not a son of the Father, but He is the Spirit of the Father
as proceeding from the Father. For, without the Spirit, there
is no impulsion. And He is the Spirit of the Son, not as being
from Him, but as proceeding through Him from the Father
for the Father alone is Cause.
Chapter 13
Place is physical, being the limits of the thing containing
within which the thing contained is contained. The air, for
example, contains and the body is contained, but not all
of the containing air is the place of the contained body, but
only those limits of the containing air which are adjacent
to the contained body. And this is necessarily so, because the
thing containing is not in the thing contained.
However, there is also an intellectual place where the
intellectual and incorporeal nature is thought of as being
and where it actually is. There it is present and acts; and
it is not physically contained, but spiritually, because it has
no form to permit it to be physically contained. Now, God,
being immaterial and uncircumscribed, is not in a place.
For He, who fills all things and is over all things and Him-
self encompasses all things, is His own place. However, God
is also said to be in a place; and this place where God is said
to be is there where His operation is plainly visible. Now,
He does pervade all things without becoming mixed with
them, and to all things He communicates His operation in
accordance with the fitness and receptivity of each in accord-
ance with their purity of nature and will, I mean to say. For
the immaterial things are purer than the material and the
virtuous more pure than such as are partisan to evil. Thus,
the place where God is said to be is that which experiences
His operation and grace to a greater extent. For this reason,
heaven is His Throne, because it is in heaven that the angels
are who do His will and glorify Him unceasingly. For heaven
is His resting place and the earth his footstool, because on
the earth He conversed in the flesh with men. And the
sacred flesh of God has been called His foot. The Church,
too, is called the place of God, because we have set it apart
for His glorification as a sort of hallowed spot in which we
also make our intercessions to Him. In the same way, those
places in which His operation is plainly visible to us, whether
it is realized in the flesh or out of the flesh, are called places
of God.
Moreover, one must know that the Divinity is without
parts and that He is wholly everywhere in His entirety, not
being physically distributed part for part, but wholly in all
things and wholly over the universe. Although the angel is not contained physically in a place
so as to assume form and shape, he is said to be in a place
because of his being spiritually present there and acting
according to his nature, and because of his being nowhere
else but remaining spiritually circumscribed there where
he acts. For he cannot act in different places at the same time,
because only God can act everywhere at the same time. For
the angel acts in different places by virtue of a natural swift-
ness and his ability to pass without delay, that is, swiftly, from
place to place; but the Divinity being everywhere and beyond
all at the same time acts in different places by one simple
operation. The soul is united with the body, the entire soul with
the entire body and not part for part. And it is not contained
by the body, but rather contains it, just as heat does iron,
and, although it is in the body, carries on its own proper
activities.
Now, to be circumscribed means to be determined by
place, time, or comprehension, while to be contained by none
of these is to be uncircumscribed. So the Divinity alone is
uncircumscribed, who is without beginning and without end,
who embraces all things and is grasped by no comprehension
at all. For He alone is incomprehensible, indefinable, and
known by no one; and He alone has a clear vision of Him-
self. The angel, however, is circumscribed by time, because
he had a beginning of being; and by place, even though it
be spiritually, as we have said before; and by comprehension,
because their natures are to some extent known to each
other and because they are completely defined by the Creator.
Bodies also are circumscribed by beginning, end, physical
place, and comprehension. The Divinity, therefore, is absolutely unchangeable and
inalterable. For, all things which are not in our power He
predetermined by His foreknowledge, each one in its own
proper time and place. It is in this sense that it is said:
'Neither does the Father judge any man: but hath given
all judgment to the Son.' For, of course, the Father has
judged, and so has the Son of God, and so has the Holy Ghost.
But, as man, the Son Himself will come down in His body
and sit upon the throne of glory for both the coming down
and the sitting will be of His circumscribed body and
He will judge the whole world in equity.'
All things are far from God: not in place, but in nature.
With us, prudence and wisdom and counsel come and go
like habits, but that is certainly not the case with God. With
Him, nothing comes into being or ceases to be, and one
must not speak of accidents, because He is inalterable and
unchangeable. The good is concomitant to His essence. He
sees God who always longs for Him, for all things that are
are dependent upon Him who is, so that it is impossible for
anything to be, unless it have its being in Him who is. Indeed,
in so far as He sustains their nature, God is mixed in with all
things. God the Word, however, was united to His sacred
body hypostatically and was combined with our nature with-
out being mingled with it.
No one sees the Father, except the Son and the Spirit.
The Son is the counsel, the wisdom, and the power of the
Father. For we must not speak of quality in God, lest we
say that He is composed of substance and quality.
The Son is from the Father, and whatsoever He has He
has from Him. For that reason, He can do nothing of Him-
self. Thus, He has no operation that it is distinct from the
Father.
That God, although invisibile by nature, becomes visible
through His operations we know from the arrangement of
the world and from its governing.The Son is image of the Father, and image of the Son is
the Spirit, through whom the Christ dwelling in man gives
it to him to be to the image of God.
The Holy Ghost is God. He is the median of the Unbegot-
ten and the Begotten and He is joined with the Father
through the Son. He is called Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ,
Mind of Christ, Spirit of the Lord, True Lord, Spirit of
adoption, freedom, and wisdom for He is the cause of all
these. He fills all things with His essence and sustains all
things. In His essence He fills the world, but in His power
the world does not contain Him.
God is substance eternal, unchangeable, creative of the
things that are, and to be adored with devout consideration. The Father is also God. It is He who is ever-unbegotten,
because He was never begotten of anyone, but He has begot-
ten a co-eternal Son. The Son is also God. It is He who is
ever with the Father, having been begotten of Him time-
lessly, eternally, without change, without passion, and with-
out cease. The Holy Ghost is also God. He is a sanctifying
force that is subsistent, that proceeds unceasingly from the
Father and abides in the Son, and that is of the same sub-
stance as the Father and the Son.
The Word is He who is ever present with the Father sub-
stantially. In another sense, a word is the natural movement
of the mind, by which the rnind moves and thinks and
reasons, as if it were the light and radiance of the mind. And
again, a word is that internal thought which is spoken in
the heart. Still again, there is the spoken word which is
a messenger of the mind. Now, God the Word is both sub-
stantial and subsistent, while the other three kinds of word
are faculties of the soul and are not found to exist in their
own hypostases. The first of these is a product of the mind,
ever springing naturally from the mind. The second is called
internal, and the third called spoken.
The term 'spirit' is understood in several ways. There is
the Holy Spirit. And the powers of this Holy Spirit are also
called spirits. The good angel is likewise a spirit, and so is
the demon and the soul. There are times when even the
mind is called spirit. The wind is also a spirit, and so is the air.
Chapter 14
The uncreate, the unoriginate, the immortal, the bound-
less, the eternal, the immaterial, the good, the creative, the
just, the enlightening, the unchangeable, the passionless, the
uncircumscribed, the uncontained, the unlimited, the indefi-
nable, the invisible, the inconceivable, the wanting nothing,
the having absolute power and authority, the life-giving, the
almighty, the infinitely powerful, the sanctifying and com-
municating, the containing and sustaining all things, and
the providing for all all these and the like He possesses by
His nature. They are not received from any other source;
on the contrary, it is His nature that communicates all good
to His own creatures in accordance with the capacity of each. The abiding and resting of the Persons in one another
is not in such a manner that they coalesce or become confused,
but, rather, so that they adhere to one another, for they are
without interval between them and inseparable and their
mutual indwelling is without confusion. For the Son is in
the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and
the Son, and the Father is in the Son and the Spirit, and
there is no merging or blending or confusion. And there is
one surge and one movement of the three Persons. It is
impossible for this to be found in any created nature.
Then there is the fact that the divine irradiation and
operation is one, simple, and undivided; and that, while it is
apparently diversely manifested in divisible things, dispensing
to all of them the components of their proper nature, it
remains simple. Indivisibly, it is multiplied in divisible things,
and, gathering them together, it reverts them to its own
simplicity. For, toward Him all things tend, and in Him
they have their existence, and to all things He communicates
their being in accordance with the nature of each.
He is the
being of things that are, the life of the living, the reason
of the rational, and the intelligence of intelligent beings. He
surpasses intelligence, reason, life, and essence. And then again, there is His pervading of all things with-
out Himself being contaminated, whereas nothing pervades
Him. And yet again, there is His knowing of all things by
a simple act of knowing. And there is His distinctly seeing
with His divine, all-seeing, and immaterial eye all things
at once, both present and past and future, before they come
to pass. And there is His sinlessness, His forgiving of sins
and saving. And, finally, there is the fact that all that He
wills He can do, even though He does not will all the things
that He can do for He can destroy the world, but He does
not will to do so. ...
We believe in Father and Son and Holy Spirit; one Godhead in three hypostases;one will, one operation, alike in three persons; wisdom incorporeal, uncreated, immortal, incomprehensible, without beginning, unmoved, unaffected, without quantity, without quality, ineffable, immutable, unchangeable, uncontained, equal in glory, equal in power, equal in majesty, equal in might, equal in nature, exceedingly substantial, exceedingly good, thrice radiant, thrice bright, thrice brilliant. Light is the Father, Light the Son, Light the Holy Spirit; Wisdom the Father, Wisdom the Son, Wisdom the Holy Spirit; one God and not three Gods; one Lord, the Holy Trinity, discovered in three hypostases. Father is the Father, and unbegotten; Son is the Son, begotten and not unbegotten, for He is from the Father; Holy Spirit, not begotten but proceeding, for He is from the Father.
There is nothing created, nothing of the first and second order, nothing of lord and servant; but there is unity and trinity -
there was, there is, and there shall be forever - which is perceived and adored by faith - by faith, not by inquiry, nor by searching out, nor by visible manifestation: for the more He is sought out, the more He is unknown, and the more He is investigated, the more He is hidden.TheJackel, I think you should take a gander at this and get back to us later:
http://www.archive.org/details/fathersofthechur009511mbp
Poll
