VII.
But some treat the Holy Trinity295
in an awful manner, when they confidently
assert that there are not three persons, and introduce (the idea of) a
person devoid of subsistence.
296
Wherefore we clear ourselves of
Sabellius, who says that the
Father and the Son are the same. For
he holds that the
Father is He who speaks, and that the Son is the Word
that
abides in the
Father, and becomes manifest at the time of the
creation,
297
and thereafter
reverts to
God on the fulfilling of all things. The same
affirmation he makes also of the Spirit. We
forswear this,
because we believe that three persons—namely,
Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit—are declared to possess the one
Godhead: for
the one
divinity showing itself forth according to
nature in the
Trinity298
| 298
φυσικῶς
ἐν Τριάδι
μαρτυρουμένη. |
establishes the
oneness of the
nature; and thus there is a (
divinity that is the)
property of the
Father, according to the word, “There is one
God
the
Father;”
299
and there is a
divinity hereditary
300
in the Son, as it
is written, “The Word was
God;”
301
and there is a
divinity present according to
nature in the Spirit—to wit, what subsists as the Spirit of
God—according to Paul’s statement, “Ye are the temple
of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.”
302
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