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 Spirit19    Reading with Oehler, ἤ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος for ἢ διὰ τ. ἁγ. Πν. separately, but while, as the Apostle says, the one and the selfsame Spirit divides His good gifts to every man severally20    1 Cor. xii. 11., 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.

Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἷς ὁ τῆς ἐποπτικῆς τε καὶ θεατικῆς δυνάμεως λόγος ἐν πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ καὶ πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, καθὼς ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν εἴρηται, ἐκ μὲν τοῦ πατρὸς οἷον ἐκ πηγῆς τινος ἀφορμώμενος, ὑπὸ δὲ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐνεργούμενος, ἐν δὲ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ πνεύματος τελειῶν τὴν χάριν, καὶ οὐ διακρίνεται πρὸς τὰς ὑποστάσεις οὐδεμία ἐνέργεια, ἰδιαζόντως παρ' ἑκάστης καὶ ἀποτεταγμένως δίχα τῆς συνθεωρουμένης ἐπιτελουμένη: ἀλλὰ πᾶσα πρόνοια καὶ κηδεμονία καὶ τοῦ παντὸς ἐπιστασία, τῶν τε κατὰ τὴν αἰσθητὴν κτίσιν καὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν ὑπερκόσμιον φύσιν ἥτε συντηρητικὴ τῶν ὄντων καὶ διορθωτικὴ τῶν πλημμελουμένων καὶ διδακτικὴ τῶν κατορθουμένων, μία ἐστὶ καὶ οὐχὶ τρεῖς, παρὰ μὲν τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος κατορθουμένη, οὐ μὴν κατὰ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἐν τῇ πίστει θεωρουμένων προσώπων τριχῆ τεμνομένη, ὡς ἕκαστον τῶν ἐνεργημάτων ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ θεωρούμενον ἢ τοῦ πατρὸς εἶναι μόνου ἢ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἰδιαζόντως ἢ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος κεχωρισμένως: ἀλλὰ διαιρεῖ μὲν ἰδίᾳ ἑκάστῳ τὰ ἀγαθά, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, τὸ ἓν καὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πνεῦμα: οὐκ ἄναρχος δὲ ἡ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ κίνησις ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος: ἀλλ' εὑρίσκομεν ὅτι ἡ προεπινοουμένη ταύτης δύναμις, ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁ μονογενὴς θεός, πάντα ποιεῖ, οὗ χωρὶς οὐδὲν τῶν ὄντων εἰς γένεσιν ἔρχεται: ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴ πάλιν τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἡ πηγὴ ἐκ τοῦ πατρικοῦ βουλήματος ἀφορμᾶται.