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Translated by W. Moore and H. A. Wilson
St Gregory of Nyssa Resources Online and in Print
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10 Pages
Page 7
For as when we learn concerning the God of the universe, from the words of Scripture, that He judges all the earth [1313] , we say that He is the Judge of all things through the Son: and again, when we hear that the Father judgeth no man [1314] , we do not think that the Scripture is at variance with itself,--(for He Who judges all the earth does this by His Son to Whom He has committed all judgment; and everything which is done by the Only-begotten has its reference to the Father, so that He Himself is at once the Judge of all things and judges no man, by reason of His having, as we said, committed all judgment to the Son, while all the judgment of the Son is conformable to the will of the Father; and one could not properly say either that They are two judges, or that one of Them is excluded from the authority and power implied in judgment);--so also in the case of the word "Godhead," Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and that very power of superintendence and beholding which we call Godhead, the Father exercises through the Only-begotten, while the Son perfects every power by the Holy Spirit, judging, as Isaiah says, by the Spirit of judgment and the Spirit of burning [1315] , and acting by Him also, according to the saying in the Gospel which was spoken to the Jews. For He says, "If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils [1316] "; where He includes every form of doing good in a partial description, by reason of the unity of action: for the name derived from operation cannot be divided among many where the result of their mutual operation is one.
Since, then, the character of the superintending and beholding power is one, in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as has been said in our previous argument, issuing from the Father as from a spring, brought into operation by the Son, and perfecting its grace by the power of the Spirit; and since no operation is separated in respect of the Persons, being fulfilled by each individually apart from that which is joined with Him in our contemplation, but all providence, care, and superintendence of all, alike of things in the sensible creation and of those of supramundane nature, and that power which preserves the things which are, and corrects those which are amiss, and instructs those which are ordered aright, is one, and not three, being, indeed, directed by the Holy Trinity, yet not severed by a threefold division according to the number of the Persons contemplated in the Faith, so that each of the acts, contemplated by itself, should be the work of the Father alone, or of the Son peculiarly, or of the Holy Spirit [1317] separately, but while, as the Apostle says, the one and the selfsame Spirit divides His good gifts to every man severally [1318] , the motion of good proceeding from the Spirit is not without beginning;--we find that the power which we conceive as preceding this motion, which is the Only-begotten God, is the maker of all things; without Him no existent thing attains to the beginning of its being: and, again, this same source of good issues from the will of the Father.
[1313] Rom. iii. 6.
[1314] S. John v. 22
[1315] Is. iv. 4.
[1316] S. Matt. xii. 28.
[1317] Reading with Oehler, e tou hagiou Pneumatos for e dia t. hag. Pn.
[1318] 1 Cor. xii. 11.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/nyssa/not-three-gods.asp?pg=7
