And that it ought to be judged entirely so is excellently confirmed by those things which Didymus writes in order to show the deity of the divine Word and the perfect governance of his own creatures. For, repeating the formulas and judgments received among the more ancient Fathers, he teaches1
that he is the giver of every good, and the light endowed with goodness and effecting good things, and the mystical sun, who by the unfailing light emanating from himself illuminates the eyes of the wandering stars2, and of souls capable of that same light, and grants the faculty of seeing to those which had previously been so constituted on account of sins that they could not see of themselves; and that he is moreover both healing and the inexhaustible treasury of wisdom and knowledge, and one who assists all3.
And he certainly assists all, since he is and is called4 ὁ πάντων γενεσιουργὸς καὶ εὐεργέτης, the beneficent Creator of all things, who lavishly bestows upon all5 the kingdom of heaven and divine peace, since these are his own, ἀβασκάνως, without envy.
Whence it is proper to the Trinity6
that it disposes for all a time for conferring benefits upon them, that it is indeed slow to anger but εἰς εὐποιΐαν, prompt to do good; and that it is indeed angry on account of our transgressions, but δι᾽ οἰκείαν φιλανθρωπίαν, on account of its innate benignity, remits the punishment.
Indeed, the third hypostasis of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, claims this for himself7:
that, diffused everywhere, he comprehends all things and dwells in all without commingling; insinuates himself into both our thoughts and those of beings invisible to us; accurately searches all things even though he knows all things; sounds within without a voice and hears souls crying silently within; καὶ πάσας ἐπὶ πᾶσιν οἰκτείρων8 ἀμελλητί, and without delay pursues all of them in all things with mercy and strengthens them; infuses inexplicable joy into all natures everywhere; has all things beneath himself; καὶ θεσπεσίῳ φωτίζων φωτὶ καὶ εὐεργετῶν τῇ ἀπλέτῳ αὐτοῦ ἐνεργείᾳ καὶ ἀγαθότητι, and illuminates them with divine light and benefits them by his immense efficacy and goodness;
leads those who have a better intention and disposition to a more perfect end; but does not deprive those whose mind and life are worse and even depraved of his own royal, concordant, and undivided governance.
For it pertains to him9
to have care of all and to provide for all, not even the guilty excepted.
Indeed10, ἀληθῶς ἐστιν ἔργον φιλάνθρωπον τῆς πανσόφου καὶ ἀγαθωτάτης τριάδος ἡ εἰς εὐσεβῆ βίου τρίβον ἀποστολὴ καὶ ὁδηγία καὶ ἡ περὶ πάντας χρηστότης, “It is truly a benign work of the all-wise and most good Trinity to send and guide men into the pious path of life and to pursue all with clemency.” Nor does it cease from this work11,
but δι᾽ οἰκείαν εὐσπλαγχνίαν, on account of its innate mercy, it heals the diseases into which we fall on account of our foolishness, and πάντοτε πᾶσιν, always brings aid to all; and it neither abandons nor turns away from those who live rightly and as though stand, nor those who have fallen in life.
Footnotes
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On the Trinity, book I, chap. XXVIII, p. 86. ↩
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He pursues the allegory taken from the sun and from wandering and fixed stars. ↩
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According to Clement in the Protrepticus, Phidias carved upon the finger of the Olympian Jupiter, Παντάρκης καλός; here the Word is called θησαυρὸς παντάρκης. ↩
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On the Trinity, book I, chap. XXVII, p. 83. ↩
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Ibid., chap. XXXIV, p. 101. ↩
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Ibid., book II, chap. I, p. 112. ↩
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Ibid., chap. IV, p. 135. ↩
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“In Thucydides,” says Mingharelli, “in the first book, and in Pollux, μελλητής is one who delays; therefore ἀμελλητί will be ‘without delay,’ δίχα μελλήσεως, as Didymus speaks elsewhere. The word ἀμελλητί is absent from common Lexicons, and in its place, but without any example, occurs the word ἀμελητί. Therefore let ἀμελλητί be restored, and let its usage be proved by the testimonies both of Didymus and of Constantine in the oration to the Nicene Fathers, Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, book II, chap. XXII, and Damascene in the Parallels, vol. I, p. 341.” Thus far he, who, while he complains of common Lexicons in which ἀμελλητί is wanting, I do not know what Lexicons he names, since ἀμελλητί is a very well-known adverb, inflected from the adjective ἀμέλλητος, which is from the verb μέλλω, “I delay, I hesitate.” But what he adds concerning the adverb ἀμελητί in place of ἀμελλητί is inept; for ἀμελητί is proximately from the adjective ἀμελής, “careless,” and mediately from the verb ἀμελέω, “I am without care and solicitude.” ↩
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Ibid., chap. VI, p. 158. ↩
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Ibid., chap. VIII, p. 224. ↩
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Ibid., book III, chap. XXV, p. 418. ↩