.—Concerning divine union and separation.
Therefore all these names must be understood as
common to deity as a whole, and as containing the notions of sameness
and simplicity and indivisibility and union: while the names
Father, Son and Spirit, and causeless and caused, and unbegotten and
begotten, and procession contain the idea of separation: for
these terms do not explain His essence, but the mutual
relationship and manner of
existence.
When, then, we have perceived these things and are
conducted from these to the divine essence, we do not apprehend the
essence itself but only the attributes of the essence: just as we
have not apprehended the essence of the soul even when we have learnt
that it is incorporeal and without magnitude and form: nor again, the essence of the body when we know that it is white or black, but only the attributes of the essence. Further, the true doctrine teacheth that the Deity is simple and has one simple energy, good and energising in all things, just as the sun’s ray, which warms all things and energises in each in harmony with its natural aptitude and receptive power, having obtained this form of energy from God, its Maker.
But quite distinct is all that pertains to the divine
and benignant incarnation of the divine Word. For in that neither
the Father nor the Spirit have any part at all, unless so far as
regards approval and the working of inexplicable miracles which the
God-Word, having become
man like us, worked, as unchangeable God and
son of God.