Chapter IV.
So let us teach each individually by examples; for about the Father it is written: For there is one God, from whom are all things (I Cor. VIII, 6) ; about the Son however: One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things (Ibid.) ; and again: For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim. II, 5) ; about the Holy Spirit indeed: For what man knows the things of a man, that is, which are in him, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no man knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God (I Cor. II, 11) ; and again: But the Spirit searches even the deep things of God (Ibid., 10) . But that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are without beginning is demonstrated from this, because what the Father is, He did not begin to be; and if He did not begin, neither did the Son begin: but the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, also did not begin; because His procession is continuous, and He is from Him who did not begin: for the Father did not begin to be, and because He did not begin, neither did the Spirit begin to be; for He is in Him and of Him. The evangelist testifies again concerning the Son, that He did not begin; saying: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God' (John 1:1-2). Therefore, because He existed, He did not begin; and because He was with God, He did not begin; and because He was God, He did not begin; and because this was in the beginning with God, He did not begin: for God was born of God in such a way as to not know how to begin. Therefore, the Father was not defrauded, because He is unbegotten, or because He begot the Son; nor was the Son defrauded, because He is begotten, or because He is generated from the unbegotten; nor was the Holy Spirit defrauded, because He is of both, that is, of the Father and of the Son. However, it is of them in such a way that they are not restored in the Father or in the Son because he is God, having neither beginning nor any end, as one who is coeternal with the Father and the Son; for he breathes with his own will wherever he wants and whom he wants and as many as he wants and how much he wants (John 3:8). Therefore, he fills with his grace whom he wants and as many as he wants and how much he wants; he himself is not filled: he provides perfection, he does not receive it; he sanctifies, but he himself is not sanctified.