On Filiation
VI. On Filiation
1. O God the Son! You are the Son Who lacks quantity
because You are the Son in respect of the infinity and eternity
of infinite and eternal Paternity.
2. You are the Son so that the Father may exist
and that, by breathing forth, You and He may bestow God,
Who is the Holy Spirit.
3. Since it befits there to exist the greatest will,
the greatest power and the greatest equality between the Father and the Son,
the Father and the Son necessarily exist in God.
4. Were the Father and the Son not capable of existing within God,
the greatest concordance would not be able to obtain in Him
by reason of understanding and love.
5. In terms of unity of nature, the Father and the Son
consist in essence and deity,
yet they are distinct by reason of <the> generator and <the> generated.
6. The Son exists in the Father by reason of love,
as does the Father in the Son, which is why love’s ardour
proceeds from both, breathing forth God by reason of love.
7. God Who is the Son of deity,
is the Father of deified man,
so that by His deifying He may resemble the Father.
8. Were the Son of God not to have become incarnate in man,
man could never have received goodness from God,
for God would not have wished to bestow divine goodness upon him.
9. Since the eternal Son and the created Son
enjoy the greatest proportionality,
neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit became incarnate.
10. To You, O Son and God-man, named Jesus,
I surrender my intellect and my will:
Cleanse them of suffering and sin.