The Divine Names

Concerning the Undifferencing and the Differentiation in Divinity, and the Nature of Divine Unification and Differentiation.^[166]

I. ’Tis the whole Being of the Supernal Godhead (saith the Scripture) that the Absolute Goodness hath defined and revealed.^[167] For in what other sense may we take the words of Holy Writ when it tells us how the Godhead spake concerning Itself, and said: “Why asketh thou me concerning the good? None is good save one, that is, God.”^[168] Now this matter we have discussed elsewhere, and have shown that all the Names proper to God are always applied in Scripture not partially but to the whole, entire, full, complete Godhead, and that they all refer indivisibly, absolutely, unreservedly, and wholly to all the wholeness of the whole and entire Godhead. Indeed (as we made mention in the Outlines of Divinity), if any one deny that such utterance refers to the whole Godhead, he blasphemeth and profanely dares to divide the Absolute and Supreme Unity. We must, then, take them as referring unto the entire Godhead. For not only did the goodly Word Himself say: “I am Good,”^[169] but also one of the inspired prophets speaks of the Spirit as Good.^[170] So, too, of the words “I Am that I Am.”^[171] If, instead of applying these to the whole Godhead, they wrest them to include only one part Thereof, how will they explain such passages as: “Thus saith He that is and was and is to come, the Almighty,”^[172] or: “Thou art the same,”^[173] or “The Spirit of Truth that is, and that proceedeth from the Father”?^[174] And if they deny that the whole Godhead is Life, how can that Sacred Word be true Which declared “As the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will,”^[175] and also, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth”?^[176] And as to the Dominion over the whole world belonging to the whole Godhead, it is impossible, methinks, to say (as far as concerns the Paternal and the Filial Godhead) how often in the Scriptures the Name of “Lord” is repeated as belonging both to the Father and to the Son: moreover the Spirit, too, is Lord.^[177] And the Names “Fair” and “Wise” are given to the whole Godhead; and all the Names that belong to the whole Godhead (e.g. “Deifying Virtue” and “Cause”) Scripture introduces into all its praises of the Supreme Godhead comprehensively, as when it saith that “all things are from God,”^[178] and more in detail, as when it saith that “through Him are and to Him are all things created,”^[179] that “all things subsist in Him,”^[180] and that “Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created.”^[181] And, to sum it all in brief, the Divine Word Himself declared: “I and the Father are one,”^[182] and “All things that the Father hath are mine,”^[183] and “All mine are thine, and thine are mine.”^[184] And again, all that belongeth to the Father and to Himself He also ascribes in the Common Unity to the Divine Spirit, viz. the Divine operations, the worship, the originating and inexhaustible creativeness and the ministration of the bountiful gifts. And, methinks, that none of those nurtured in the Divine Scriptures will, except through perversity, gainsay it, that the Divine Attributes in their true and Divine signification all belong to the entire Deity. And, therefore, having here briefly and partially (and more at large elsewhere) given from the Scriptures the proof and definition of this matter, we intend that whatever title of God’s Entire Nature we endeavour to explain be understood as referring to the Godhead in Its entirety.

2. And if any one say that we herein are introducing a confusion of all distinctions in the Deity,^[185] we for our part opine that such his argument is not sufficient even to persuade himself. For if he is one utterly at enmity with the Scriptures, he will also be altogether far from our Philosophy; and if he recks not of the Holy Wisdom drawn from the Scriptures, how can he reckon aught of that method by which we would conduct him to an understanding of things Divine? But if he taketh Scriptural Truth as his Standard, this is the very Rule and Light by which we will (so far as in us lies) proceed straight to our defence, and will declare that the Sacred Science sometimes employs a method of Undifference and sometimes one of Differentiation; and that we must neither disjoin those things which are Undifferenced nor confuse those which are Differentiated; but following the Sacred Science to the best of our powers, we must lift up our eyes towards the Divine Rays; for, receiving thence the Divine Revelations as a noble Standard of Truth, we strive to preserve its treasure in ourselves without addition, diminution, or distortion, and in thus preserving the Scriptures, we also are preserved, and are moreover enabled by the same to the end that we may still preserve them and be by them preserved.

3. Now Undifferenced Names belong to the entire Godhead^[186] (as we showed more fully from the Scriptures in the Outlines of Divinity). To this class belong the following: “Super-Excellent,” “Super-Divine,” “Super-Essential,” “Super-Vital,” “Supra-Sapient,” and thereto all those titles wherein the negative expresses excess; moreover, all those titles which have a causal sense, such as “Good,” “Fair,” “Existent,” “Lifegiving,” “Wise,” and whatever titles are ascribed to the Cause of all good things from Its bountiful gifts.^[187] The differentiated Names, on the other hand, are the Super-Essential names and connotations of “Father,” “Son,” and “Spirit.” In these cases the titles cannot be interchanged, nor are they held in common. Again, besides this, the perfect and unchangeable subsistence of Jesus in our nature is differentiated, and so are all the mysteries of Love and Being therein displayed.^[188]

[166] περὶ ἡνωμένης καὶ διακεκριμένης θεολογίας καὶ τίς ἡ θεία ἕνωσις καὶ διάκρισις.

[167] The point of this section is that God’s Nature is not a sum total of separate Attributes. Therefore when we say that the Scriptural titles of God are only symbols and that the ultimate Godhead transcends them, we do not mean that they express only a part of His Nature (for His Nature has no parts), but that they dimly suggest His whole Nature. Hence, too, we cannot say that some of God’s titles belong only to one separate Person of the Trinity and others only to the other Persons severally—e. g. The Trinity, and not the Father alone, is the Creator of the world. “The one world was made by the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost” (St. Aug., Com. on St. John, Tr. XX. 9).

[168] The title “Good ” is applied to the whole Godhead. And if that title, then others too. Cf. Matt. xix. 17.]

[169] John x. 11.

[170] Ps. cxliii. 10. This is a further argument arising out of what has been said above. The point here is that we cannot limit the title “Good” to one Person of the Trinity. (The notion that the Father is stern and the Son mollifies His sternness is false.) The rest of the section takes other titles and shows how they are common to all Three Persons of the Trinity.

[171] Ex. iii. 14.

[172] Rev. i. 4.

[173] Ps. cii. 27.

[174] John xv. 26.

[175] John v. 21.

[176] John vi. 63.

[177] 2 Cor. iii. 17.

[178] 1 Chron. xxix. 14.

[179] Rom. xi. 36.

[180] Ibid.

[181] Ps. civ. 30.

[182] John x. 30.

[183] John xvi. 15.

[184] John xvii. 10.

[185] i.e. That we are seeking to destroy the distinction between the Persons of the Trinity.

[186] The method of Undifference applies to the ultimate Godhead, that of Differentiation to the emanating Godhead. The absolute and the relative planes of Being both belong to God. On the absolute plane all distinctions are transcended, and the Persons exist in a manner in which They would appear to us to be merged, but on the relative plane we see that They are eternally distinct. See Intr., p. 8.

[187] Because we see things which are good, fair, existent, etc., we apply to God, their ultimate Cause, the titles “Good,” “Fair,” “Existent,” etc. See p. 36, n. 6.

[188] i. e. Only the Second Person was Incarnate, was crucified, etc. ‘Mysteries of Love and Being” = φιλανθρωφίας οὐσιώδη μυστήρια.