The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church: Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I.Aelfric, Abbot of Eynsham
Religion
The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church: Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric, in the Original Anglo-Saxon, with an English Version. Volume I.
Aelfric, Abbot of Eynsham
Sermons, English (Old)
Ever was the Father, without beginning; and ever was the Son with the
Father, for he is the Wisdom of the Father; ever was the Holy Ghost, who is
the Will and Love of them both. The Father is of no other, for he was ever.
The Son is begotten of the Father, for he was ever in the bosom of {283}
the Father, for he is his Wisdom, and he is of the Father all that he is.
Ever was the Holy Ghost, for he is, as we before said, the Will and true
Love of the Father and of the Son; for will and love betoken one thing:
that which thou wilt thou lovest; and that which thou wilt not, thou lovest
not.
The sun which shines over us is a bodily creature, and has, nevertheless,
three properties in itself: one is the bodily substance, that is the sun's
orb; the second is the beam or brightness ever of the sun, which illumines
all the earth; the third is the heat, which with the beam comes to us. The
beam is ever of the sun, and ever with it; and the Son of Almighty God is
ever of the Father begotten, and ever with him existing, of whom the
apostle said, that he was the brightness of his Father's glory. The heat of
the sun proceeds from it and from its beam; and the Holy Ghost proceeds
ever from the Father and from the Son equally; of whom it is thus written,
"There is no one who may hide himself from his heat."
Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, may not be named together, but yet they
are nowhere separated. The Almighty God is not threefold, but is Trinity.
The Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God: not three
Gods, but they all three one Almighty God. The Father is also Wisdom of no
other wisdom. The Son is Wisdom of the wise Father. The Holy Ghost is
Wisdom. But yet they are all together one Wisdom. Again, the Father is true
Love, and the Son is true Love, and the Holy Ghost is true Love; and they
all together one God and one true Love. In like manner the Father is ghost
and holy, and the Son is ghost and holy undoubtedly; nevertheless the Holy
Ghost is specially called Holy Ghost, that which they all three are in
common.
There is so great likeness in this Holy Trinity, that the Father is no
greater than the Son in the Godhead; nor is the {285} Son greater than the
Holy Ghost; nor is one of them less than the whole Trinity. Wheresoever one
of them is, there they are all three, ever one God indivisible. No one of
them is greater than other, nor one less than other, nor one before other,
nor one after other; for whatsoever is less than God, that is not God; that
which is later has beginning, but God has no beginning. The Father alone is
not Trinity, nor is the Son Trinity, nor the Holy Ghost Trinity, but these
three persons are one God in one Godhead. When thou hearest the Father
named, then thou wilt understand that he has a Son. Again, when thou
sayest, Son, thou knowest, without doubt, that he has a Father. Again, we
believe that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit both of the Father and of the
Son.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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