Monologium, on the Being of God43 Chapter XLIII. Consideration of the common attributes of both and the individual properties of each.
Chapter XLIII. Consideration of the common attributes of both and the individual properties of each.
Now that so many and so important properties of each have been discovered, whereby a strange plurality, as ineffable as it is inevitable, is proved to exist in the supreme unity, I think it most interesting to reflect, again and again, upon so unfathomable a mystery.
For observe: although it is so impossible that he who begets, and he who is begotten, are the same, and that parent and offspring are the same — so impossible that necessarily one must be the progenitor and the other the begotten, and one the Father, the other the Son; yet, here it is so necessary that he who begets and he who is begotten shall be the same, and also that parent and offspring shall be the same, that the progenitor cannot be any other than what the begotten is, nor the Father any other than the Son.
And although the one is one, and the other another, so that it is altogether evident that they are two; yet that which the one and the other are is in such a way one and the same, that it is a most obscure mystery why they are two. For, in such a way is one the Father and the other the Son, that when I speak of both I perceive that I have spoken of two; and yet so identical is that which both Father and Son are, that I do not understand why they are two of whom I have spoken.
For, although the Father separately is the perfectly supreme Spirit, and the Son separately is the perfectly supreme Spirit, yet, so are the Spirit-Father and the Spirit-Son one and the same being, that the Father and the Son are not two spirits, but one Spirit. For, just as to separate properties of separate beings, plurality is not attributed, since they are not properties of two things, so, what is common to both preserves an indivisible unity, although it belongs, as a whole, to them taken separately.
For, as there are not two fathers or two sons, but one Father and one Son, since separate properties belong to separate beings, so there are not two spirits, but one Spirit; although it belongs both to the Father, taken separately, and to the Son, taken separately, to be the perfect Spirit. For so opposite are their relations, that the one never assumes the property of the other; so harmonious are they in nature, that the one ever contains the essence of the other. For they are so diverse by virtue of the fact that the one is the Father and the other the Son, that the Father is never called the Son, nor the Son the Father; and they are so identical, by virtue of their substance, that the essence of the Son is ever in the Father, and the essence of the Father in the Son.
Inventis tot et tantis singulorum proprietatibus, quibus mira quaedam tam ineffabilis quam inevitabilis in summa unitate probatur esse pluralitas, valde mihi videtur delectabile retractare saepius tam impenetrabile secretum. Ecce enim cum sic impossibile sit eumdem esse qui gignit, et eum qui gignitur; atque eumdem esse parentem et prolem: ut necesse sit alium esse genitorem, alium genitum; et alium esse Patrem, alium Filium: sic tamen necesse est idem esse illum qui gignit, et illum qui gignitur, nec non parentem et prolem, ut impossibile sit aliud esse genitorem, quam quod est genitus; aliud esse Patrem, quam quod est Filius. Et cum ita sit alius ille, et alius ille, ut omnino pateat quod duo sint; sic tamen unum et idem ipsum est, id quod est ille et ille, ut penitus lateat qui duo sint. Nam sic est alius Pater, alius Filius, ut, cum ambos dixerim, videam me duos dixisse; et sic est idipsum quod est, et Pater et Filius, ut non intelligam quid duos dixerim. Quamvis namque singulus Pater sit perfecte summus Spiritus, et singulus Filius sit perfecte summus Spiritus; sic tamen unum idemque est Spiritus Pater et Spiritus Filius, ut Pater et Filius non sint duo Spiritus, sed unus Spiritus: ut sicut singula propria singulorum non recipiunt pluralitatem, quia non sunt duorum; ita id quod commune est amborum, individuam teneat unitatem, quamvis totum sit singulorum. Nam sicut non sunt duo patres, aut duo filii; sed unus Pater, et unus Filius, quoniam singula sunt singulorum propria; ita non sunt duo, sed unus Spiritus; quamvis et singuli Patris, et singuli Filii, sit perfectum esse Spiritum. Sic sunt oppositi relationibus, ut alter nunquam suscipiat proprium alterius; sic sunt concordes natura ut alter semper teneat essentiam alterius. Sic enim diversi sunt, per hoc quod alter est Pater, et alter Filius, ut nunquam dicatur aut Pater Filius, aut Filius Pater; et sic idem sunt per substantiam, ut semper sit in Patre essentia Filii, et in Filio essentia Patris. Est enim non diversa, sed eadem; non plures, sed una utriusque essentia.