The view which is consistent with all reverence is as follows. We are not to think of the Father as ever parted from the Son, nor to look for the Son as separate from the Holy Spirit. As it is impossible to mount to the Father, unless our thoughts are exalted thither through the Son, so it is impossible also to say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are to be known only in a perfect Trinity, in closest consequence and union with each other, before all creation, before all the ages, before anything whatever of which we can form an idea25    πρὸ πάσης καταληπτῆς ἐπινοίας.. The Father is always Father, and in Him the Son, and with the Son the Holy Spirit. If these Persons, then, are inseparate from each other, how great is the folly of these men who undertake to sunder this indivisibility by certain distinctions of time, and so far to divide the Inseparable as to assert confidently, “the Father alone, through the Son alone, made all things”; the Holy Spirit, that is, being not present at all on the occasion of this making, or else not working. Well, if He was not present, they must tell us where He was; and whether, while God embraces all things, they can imagine any separate standing-place for the Spirit, so that He could have remained in isolation during the time occupied by the process of creating. If, on the other hand, He was present, how was it that He was inactive? Because He could not, or because He would not, work? Did He abstain willingly, or because some strong necessity drove Him away? Now, if He deliberately embraced this inactivity, He must reject working in any other possible way either; and He Who affirmed that “He worketh all things in all, as He wills26    1 Cor. xiii. 6.,” is according to them a liar.

ἡ γὰρ εὐσεβὴς διάνοια τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον: οὔτε πατὴρ χωρὶς υἱοῦ ποτε ἐννοεῖται οὔτε υἱὸς δίχα τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος καταλαμβάνεται. ὡς γὰρ ἀμήχανόν ἐστιν ἀνελθεῖν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μὴ διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ ὑψωθέντα, οὕτως ἀδύνατόν ἐστι κύριον Ἰησοῦν εἰπεῖν μὴ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ: οὐκοῦν ἀκολούθως τε καὶ συνημμένως ὁ πατὴρ καὶ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀεὶ μετ' ἀλλήλων ἐν τελείᾳ τῇ τριάδι γνωρίζονται καὶ πρὸ πάσης κτίσεως καὶ πρὸ πάντων αἰώνων καὶ πρὸ πάσης καταληπτῆς ἐπινοίας ἀεὶ πατὴρ ὁ πατήρ ἐστι καὶ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ ὁ υἱὸς καὶ μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. εἰ οὖν ἀχωρίστως ταῦτα μετ' ἀλλήλων ἐστίν, τίς ἡ ματαιότης τῶν ἐν καιρῷ τινι διαχωρίζειν ἐπιχειρούντων τὸ ἄτμητον καὶ διαιρεῖν τὸ ἀχώριστον, ὥστε τολμᾶν λέγειν: Μόνος ἐποίησεν ὁ πατὴρ διὰ μόνου τοῦ υἱοῦ τὰ πάντα, τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς δημιουργίας ἢ μὴ παρόντος ἢ μὴ ἐνεργοῦντος, εἰ μὲν γὰρ οὐ παρῆν, εἰπάτωσαν ποῦ ἦν, πάντα τοῦ θεοῦ διειληφότος, εἴ τινα ἰδιάζουσαν τῷ πνεύματι στάσιν ἐπινοοῦσιν, ὥστε ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ κεχωρισμένως εἶναι κατὰ τὸν τῆς κτίσεως χρόνον: εἰ δὲ παρῆν, πῶς ἀνενέργητον ἦν; τῷ μὴ δύνασθαί τι ποιεῖν ἢ τῷ μὴ βούλεσθαι; ἑκουσίως ἀπολειπόμενον ἢ ὑπό τινος βιαιοτέρας ἀνάγκης ἐλαυνόμενον; εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἐκ προαιρέσεως τὴν ἀργίαν ἠσπάζετο, οὐδὲ ἐν ἄλλῳ τινὶ πάντως τὸ ἐνεργεῖν καταδέχεται, καὶ ψευδὴς κατ' αὐτοὺς ὁ λέγων, ὅτι πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν ἐνεργεῖ καθὼς βούλεται.