Monologion: Chapter 64
BASIC WRITINGS
be any Word in the supreme essence other than the one concerning whom it has been established61 that he is born from him whose Word he is in such a way that he can be called his true image and is truly his Son.
I see in this something wonderful and inexplicable. For behold! Although it is evident that each of them—that is, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of the Father and the Son—equally utters himself and the other two, and that there is only one Word there, nevertheless, it appears that the Word can in no way be called the Word of all three, but of only one of them. For it has been established that he is the image and Son of him whose Word he is, and obviously he cannot sensibly be called the image or Son of himself or of the Spirit who proceeds from him. For he is not born from himself or from the one who proceeds from him; nor does he by existing imitate himself or the one who proceeds from him. He certainly does not imitate himself, or bear to himself a likeness of existing, since imitation or likeness does not exist in just one thing; it requires more than one. And he does not imitate the Spirit or exist after his likeness, since he does not have his existence from the Spirit; rather, the Spirit has his existence from him. So the only remaining possibility is that he is the Word only of him from whom he is born and thereby has his existence, and after whose perfect likeness he exists.
Therefore, one Father, not several fathers; one Son, not several sons; and one proceeding Spirit, not several proceeding spirits, exist in the supreme essence.
So although they are three in such a way that the Father is never the Son or the proceeding Spirit,the Son is never the Father or the proceeding Spirit,and the Spirit of the Father and the Son is never the Father or the Son; and although each individually is so complete that he needs no one, nonetheless, that which they are is so much one that, just as it cannot be said in the plural of each of them individually, so also it cannot be said in the plural of the three of them together. And although each equally utters himself, and all of them equally utter one another, nonetheless there are not several words there but only one; and that Word is not the Word of each individually or of all of them together but of only one.
Chapter 64 That although this cannot be explained, it must nevertheless be believed
The mystery of so sublime a thing seems to me to transcend every power of human understanding, and for that reason I think one should refrain from attempting to explain how this is true. After all, I think someone investigating an incomprehensible thing ought to be satisfied if his reasoning arrives at the 61 In Chapters 33 and 42.