54. His birth is before times eternal. If anything exist which precedes eternity, it will be something which, when eternity is comprehended, still eludes comprehension. And this something is Thine, and is Thy Only-begotten; no portion, nor extension, nor any empty name devised to suit some theory of Thy mode of action. He is the Son, a Son born of Thee, God the Father, Himself true God, begotten by Thee in the unity of Thy nature, and meet to be acknowledged after Thee, and yet with Thee, since Thou art the eternal Author of His eternal origin. For since He is from Thee, He is second to Thee; yet since He is Thine, Thou art not to be separated from Him. For we must never assert that Thou didst once exist without Thy Son, lest we should be reproaching Thee either with imperfection, as then unable to generate, or with superfluousness after the generation. And so the exact meaning for us of the eternal generation is that we know Thee to be the eternal Father of Thy Only-begotten Son, Who was born of Thee before times eternal.
55. But, for my part, I cannot be content by the service of my faith and voice, to deny that my Lord and my God, Thy Only-begotten, Jesus Christ, is a creature; I must also deny that this name of creature' belongs to Thy Holy Spirit, seeing that He proceeds from Thee and is sent through Him, so great is my reverence for everything that is Thine. Nor, because I know that Thou alone art unborn and that the Only-begotten is born of Thee, will I refuse to say that the Holy Spirit was begotten, or assert that He was ever created. I fear the blasphemies which would be insinuated against Thee by such use of this title creature,' which I share with the other beings brought into being by Thee. Thy Holy Spirit, as the Apostle says, searches and knows Thy deep things, and as Intercessor for me speaks to Thee words I could not utter; and shall I express or rather dishonour, by the title creature,' the power of His nature, which subsists eternally, derived from Thee through Thine Only-begotten? Nothing, except what belongs to Thee, penetrates into Thee; nor can the agency of a power foreign and strange to Thee measure the depth of Thy boundless majesty. To Thee belongs whatever enters into Thee; nor is anything strange to Thee, which dwells in Thee through its searching power.
56. But I cannot describe Him, Whose pleas for me I cannot describe. As in the revelation that Thy Only-begotten was born of Thee before times eternal, when we cease to struggle with ambiguities of language and difficulties of thought, the one certainty of His birth remains; so I hold fast in my consciousness the truth that Thy Holy Spirit is from Thee and through Him, although I cannot by my intellect comprehend it. For in Thy spiritual things I am dull, as Thy Only-begotten says, Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born anew. The Spirit breathes where it will, and thou hearest the voice of it; but dost not know whence it comes or whither it goes. So is every one who is born of water and of the Holy Spirit [1354] . Though I hold a belief in my regeneration, I hold it in ignorance; I possess the reality, though I comprehend it not. For my own consciousness had no part in causing this new birth, which is manifest in its effects. Moreover the Spirit has no limits; He speaks when He will, and what He will, and where He will. Since, then, the cause of His coming and going is unknown, though the watcher is conscious of the fact, shall I count the nature of the Spirit among created things, and limit Him by fixing the time of His origin? Thy servant John says, indeed, that all things were made through the Son [1355] , Who as God the Word was in the beginning, O God, with Thee. Again, Paul recounts all things as created in Him, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible [1356] . And, while he declared that everything was created in Christ and through Christ, he thought, with respect to the Holy Spirit, that the description was sufficient, when he called Him Thy Spirit. With these men, peculiarly Thine elect, I will think in these matters; just as, after their example, I will say nothing beyond my comprehension about Thy Only-begotten, but simply declare that He was born, so also after their example I will not trespass beyond that which human intellect can know about Thy Holy Spirit, but simply declare that He is Thy Spirit. May my lot be no useless strife of words, but the unwavering confession of an unhesitating faith!
57. Keep, I pray Thee, this my pious faith undefiled, and even till my spirit departs, grant that this may be the utterance of my convictions: so that I may ever hold fast that which I professed in the creed of my regeneration, when I was baptized in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let me, in short, adore Thee our Father, and Thy Son together with Thee; let me win the favour of Thy Holy Spirit, Who is from Thee, through Thy Only-begotten. For I have a convincing Witness to my faith, Who says, Father, all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine [1357] , even my Lord Jesus Christ, abiding in Thee, and from Thee, and with Thee, for ever God: Who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.
[1305] Prov. viii. 22.
[1306] Rom. i. 23.
[1307] Gen. xiv. 19.
[1308] Hos. xiii. 4 (LXX.).
[1309] 1 Pet. iv. 19.
[1310] Rom. viii. 19-21.
[1311] St. John v. 23.
[1312] Ps. cix. 3 (LXX.).
[1313] Hos. xiii. 4, according to LXX.
[1314] Ps. xxxiv. 15.
[1315] Acts xiii. 22; cf. Ps. lxxxix. 20.
[1316] 1 St. John v. 1.
[1317] St. John i. 3.
[1318] Ps. cii. 25.
[1319] Ib. cxxxviii. 8.
[1320] Is. i. 2 (LXX.).
[1321] Ex. iv. 22.
[1322] St. Matt. xvii. 5.
[1323] Ps. xxi. 32 (LXX.).
[1324] Col. ii. 8, 9.
[1325] 2 Cor. x. 4, 5.
[1326] i.e. not yet born.
[1327] Ex. iii. 14 (in LXX.).
[1328] St. John i. 1, 9, 18.
[1329] Rom. ix. 5.
[1330] 2 Tim. i. 9, Tit. i. 2.
[1331] Reading humanæ.
[1332] Reading non solum.
[1333] Reading generationis.
[1334] Tit. i. 2.
[1335] Gen. i. 14.
[1336] Ps. lxxi. 17 (in LXX.).
[1337] Ib. 5 (LXX.).
[1338] Prov. viii. 22 (LXX.).
[1339] Ib. 24, 25 (LXX.).
[1340] Prov. viii. 26-30 (LXX.).
[1341] Ps. xxxii. 6 (LXX.).
[1342] Is. xlv. 11 (LXX. but altered from the 3rd person to the 2nd).
[1343] Reading per id ipsum ea neque propter opera.
[1344] Prov. viii. 21 (LXX.).
[1345] Ib. 4, 5.
[1346] Ib. 15, 16.
[1347] Ib. 20, 21.
[1348] St. John xiv. 6.
[1349] St. John xii. 41.
[1350] Gal. iv. 4, 5.
[1351] Eph. iv. 21-24.
[1352] Ib. 24.
[1353] Deputantis, conj. edd. Benedict.
[1354] St. John iii. 7, 8.
[1355] Ib. i. 1, 3.
[1356] Col. i. 16.
[1357] St. John xvii. 10.