Chapter X.
But human wisdom does not understand this, which the blessed Apostle condemns, saying: Let your faith not be in the wisdom of men, whose Lord knows their thoughts, because they are vain; but in the power of God (1 Corinthians II, 5); and again: Not taught in the words of human wisdom, but taught in the Holy Spirit (ibidem 13). Therefore, faith is not in human wisdom, and there is no heresy. In the Father, therefore, the Son and the Holy Spirit are always one; which the Son himself confirms, saying: I and the Father are one (John X, 30): one by nature of divinity, we are by the properties of persons; and again: Behold, the hour is coming. That you may leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me (John 16:32); and again: The works that I do, the Father abiding in me, he does those works (John 14:10). Therefore, the Son is always in the Father, who said to Moses: I am, he sent me to you (Exodus 3:14). He is the one whom the Father rejoiced in when the world was perfected; for he had founded such a great mass of earth upon the seas, and had placed it above the rivers, so that the heaviest element would be suspended by its command over the thin waters. Therefore, in the stability of the orb of the earth, when the Father was establishing its foundations, there was no one with Him except those who were in Him, that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let the impious heretics be ashamed, therefore, who say that the Son of God or the Holy Spirit is a creature, or that there was a time when they did not exist; for the creator of times has no beginning. Whatever the Son speaks, are the words of the Father, and are the words of the Holy Spirit; whatever the Father speaks, are the words of the Son, and are the words of the Holy Spirit; whatever the Holy Spirit speaks, are the words of the Father, and are the words of the Son of God. Therefore, by these words, the knowledge of the Holy Trinity is preached under the mystery; for the Son says, 'The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father' (John 15:26); yet, due to the unity and communion of nature, the Spirit is sent by the Son. The Son, who was seen by the prophet Isaiah in the form of a ruler, spoke as the Holy Spirit through the prophet due to the partnership of majesty and unity of substance. In the description of the vision of the Cherubim and Seraphim, where the Lord is partly revealed and partly concealed, it is shown that he is covered by two wings and covers his feet with two wings while flying with the other two wings (Isaiah 6:2). Therefore, let us desire those things which were before the world and those things which will be after the world, which neither eye has seen nor ear has heard (1 Corinthians 2:9). But those things which happened in the days of old have come to our knowledge through sacred reading. Therefore, we confess in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit not only one operation, but also equality; for where there is equality, there is the same nature and the same substance. Therefore, the Evangelist says (John 5:19) that the Jews were persecuting him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also by calling himself the Son of God, he was making himself equal to God. Which the Lord himself approves, saying: I and the Father are one, and I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; and again: The Father who gave me is greater than all; and no one can snatch out of my hand; and immediately he adds: And no one can snatch out of the Father's hand (John 10:30; 14:10; 10:29). So if no one can snatch from the hand of the Son what the Father has given, and these same things are in the hand of the Father, which are not snatched away by him, it is clearly proven that all things of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who is both of the Father and of the Son, are common: and that the things of the Son are held in the hand of the Father, and the things of the Father are held in the hand of the Son. Therefore the Lord, Christ, the Son of God and man, who always was with the Father and in the Father, spoke in two ways, that is, now according to the glory of his divinity, now according to the manhood he assumed of our nature. Therefore, the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, and in both is the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the correct confession of the mystery of the holy and inseparable Trinity is our ignorance; for when the holy Apostle testifies that the judgments of God are inscrutable (Rom. XI, 33), he himself understands how inscrutable and hidden He is, whose judgments are inscrutable and hidden. However, the holy Apostle did not say that the judgments of God are difficult to find or never found, lest it seem that he was cutting off all hope from those seeking diligently; but he said, 'The judgments of God are unsearchable.' Therefore, although someone may advance in knowledge and be devoted to wisdom, they can never comprehend the substance of the uncreated nature with created understanding. For when they find something, other questions arise; when they discover that, they will also find countless others. Therefore, to someone who is investigating so much, such a great amount of material is always suggested, that the ignorance of the remaining things envelops the knowledge of the earlier ones. Hence, even the wisest Solomon, knowing the nature of things and their difficulties, and applying the measure of his wisdom, says: I said, I will become wise, and Wisdom herself has withdrawn further from me than it was, and the profound depth, who will find it? And again: For the Lord's works are many and hidden; and again: Just as you do not know the way of the spirit, or how the bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman; so you do not know the works of God, who is the maker of all; and again: Do not seek things higher than you, and do not investigate things stronger than you; and again: Just as someone who eats a lot of honey, it is not good for him; so the one who investigates majesty is overwhelmed by glory (Wisdom 7:17; Ecclesiasticus 7:24-25; 11:5; 3:12). And truly nothing is so true, nothing so manifest; for it is written: Who understands sins (Psalm XVIII, 3)? Therefore, if men do not understand their own sins, how much less will they be able to discover the nature of God and His plans! Confirming this, the prophet says: Who can describe His generation? (Isaiah LIII, 8)