Chapter 13.—How the Word Beginning (Principium) is Spoken Relatively in the Trinity.

14. The Father is called so, therefore, relatively, and He is also relatively said to be the Beginning, and whatever else there may be of the kind; but He is called the Father in relation to the Son, the Beginning in relation to all things, which are from Him. So the Son is relatively so called; He is called also relatively the Word and the Image. And in all these appellations He is referred to the Father, but the Father is called by none of them. And the Son is also called the Beginning; for when it was said to Him, “Who art Thou?” He replied, “Even the Beginning, who also speak to you.”583    John viii. 25 But is He, pray, the Beginning of the Father? For He intended to show Himself to be the Creator when He said that He was the Beginning, as the Father also is the beginning of the creature in that all things are from Him. For creator, too, is spoken relatively to creature, as master to servant. And so when we say, both that the Father is the Beginning, and that the Son is the Beginning, we do not speak of two beginnings of the creature; since both the Father and the Son together is one beginning in respect to the creature, as one Creator, as one God. But if whatever remains within itself and produces or works anything is a beginning to that thing which it produces or works; then we cannot deny that the Holy Spirit also is rightly called the Beginning, since we do not separate Him from the appellation of Creator: and it is written of Him that He works; and assuredly, in working, He remains within Himself; for He Himself is not changed and turned into any of the things which He works. And see what it is that He works: “But the manifestation of the Spirit,” he says, “is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another the discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will;” certainly as God—for who can work such great things but God?—but “it is the same God which worketh all in all.”584    1 Cor. xii. 6–11 For if we are asked point by point concerning the Holy Spirit, we answer most truly that He is God; and with the Father and the Son together He is one God. Therefore, God is spoken of as one Beginning in respect to the creature, not as two or three beginnings.

CAPUT XIII.

14. Principium quomodo in Trinitate relative dicatur. Dicitur ergo relative Pater, idemque relative dicitur principium, et si quid forte aliud: sed Pater ad Filium dicitur, principium vero ad omnia quae ab ipso sunt. Item dicitur relative Filius, relative dicitur et Verbum et Imago; et in omnibus his vocabulis ad Patrem refertur: nihil autem horum Pater dicitur. Et principium dicitur Filius: cum enim diceretur ei, Tu quis es? respondit, Principium, qui et loquor vobis (Joan. VIII, 25). Sed numquid Patris principium? Creatorem se quippe ostendere voluit, cum se dixit esse principium; sicut et Pater principium est creaturae, eo quod ab ipso sunt omnia. Nam et creator relative dicitur ad creaturam, sicut dominus ad servum. Et ideo cum dicimus, et Patrem principium, et Filium principium, non duo principia creaturae dicimus; quia et Pater et Filius simul ad creaturam unum principium est, sicut unus creator, sicut unus Deus. Si autem quidquid in se manet et gignit aliquid vel operatur, principium est ei rei quam gignit, vel ei quam operatur; non possumus negare etiam Spiritum sanctum recte dici principium; quia non eum separamus ab appellatione creatoris: et scriptum est de illo quod operetur, et in se utique manens operatur; non enim in aliquid eorum quae operatur, ipse mutatur et vertitur. Et quae operatur, vide: Unicuique autem, inquit, datur manifestatio Spiritus ad utilitatem. Alii quidem datur per Spiritum sermo sapientiae; alii sermo scientiae secundum eumdem Spiritum; alteri autem fides in eodem Spiritu; alii donatio curationum in uno Spiritu; alii operatio virtutum; alii prophetia; alii dijudicatio spirituum; alii genera linguarum. Omnia autem haec operatur unus atque idem Spiritus, dividens propria unicuique prout vult, utique sicut Deus. Quis enim tanta illa potest operari nisi Deus? Idem autem Deus qui operatur omnia in omnibus (I Cor. XII, 6-11). Nam et sigillatim si interrogemur de Spiritu sancto, verissime respondemus quod Deus sit; et cum Patre et Filio simul unus Deus est. Unum ergo principium ad creaturam dicitur Deus, non duo vel tria principia.