(68) For Christ saith in the Gospel, "I work, and my Father worketh also." And he means this very touching and working, in that every Power goes forth from him, and generates the Holy Ghost, and in the Holy Ghost all the Powers are already clearly stirred, by the going forth of the Father. [John 5. 17.] And

(19) he says, 'Verily the Son can do Nothing of himself; but what he sees his Father do, the Son does also: Also if ye not convert, and become like Children, ye cannot come into the Kingdom of Heaven.' [Math. 18. 3.] [John 5. 19.]

(17) For as the Holy Ghost proceeds forth from the Father and the Son, and distinguishes and sharpens all, and effects or produces that which the Father speaks through the Word;

(55) For the Father's Power generates the Son continually from Eternity to Eternity: But if the Father should cease to generate, then the Son would be no more: Also if the Son should shine no more in the Father, then the Father would be a dark Valley: And then the Father's Power would not rise from Eternity to Eternity, and so the Divine Being would not subsist.

(82) For they are the Members of his Body; as all the Powers of the Father are Members of the Son, and he is their Heart; and as all heavenly Forms and Fruits are Members of the Holy Ghost, and he their Heart in whom they rise up.

(42) For as the Light goes forth from the Son of God in the whole Father into all the Powers, and affects all the Powers of the Father, and on the other Side all the Powers of the Father affect the Light of the Son of God;

(38) From the Son, who is the Father’s Heart in all his Powers, the Eternal Joy rises and springs in all the Powers of the Father, such a Joy, as no Eye has seen, nor Ear heard, neither has ever entered into the Heart of any Man, as St. Paul saith. [1 Cor. 2. 9.]

(2) "For the dead bury their dead." Whence Jeremiah says: "I will fill it with the earth-born dead whom mine anger has smitten." God, then, being not a subject for demonstration, cannot be the object of science. But the Son is wisdom, and knowledge, and truth, and all else that has affinity thereto. He is also susceptible of demonstration and of description. And all the powers of the Spirit, becoming collectively one thing, terminate in the same point - that is, in the Son. But He is incapable of being declared, in respect of the idea of each one of His powers. And the Son is neither simply one thing as one thing, nor many things as parts, but one thing as all things; whence also He is all things. For He is the circle of all powers rolled and united into one unity.

(56) Thus the Father is the self-subsisting Being of all Powers, and the Son is the Heart in the Father, which is generated continually out of all the Powers of the Father, who again enlightens the Powers of the Father.

(53) Christ hath also said: “No man cometh unto Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him.”58 Now mark: by the Father, I understand the Perfect, Simple Good, which is All and above All, and without which and besides which there is no true Substance, nor true Good, and without which no good work ever was or will be done. And in that it is All, it must be in All and above All. And it cannot be any one of those things which the creatures, as creatures, can comprehend or understand. For whatever the creature, as creature (that is, in her creature kind), can conceive of and understand, is something, this or that, and therefore is some sort of creature. And now if the Simple Perfect Good were somewhat, this or that, which the creature understandeth, it would not be the All, nor the Only One, and therefore not Perfect. Therefore also it cannot be named, seeing that it is none of all the things which the creature as creature can comprehend, know, conceive, or name. Now behold, when this Perfect Good, which is unnameable, floweth into a Person able to bring forth, and bringeth forth the Only-begotten Son in that Person, and itself in Him, we call it the Father. Now mark how the Father draweth men unto Christ. When somewhat of this Perfect Good is discovered and revealed within the soul of man, as it were in a glance or flash, the soul conceiveth a longing to approach unto the Perfect Goodness, and unite herself with the Father. And the stronger this yearning groweth, the more is revealed unto her; and the more is revealed unto her, the more is she drawn toward the Father, and her desire quickened. Thus is the soul drawn and quickened into a union with the Eternal Goodness. And this is the drawing of the Father, and thus the soul is taught of Him who draweth her unto Himself, that she cannot enter into a union with Him except she come unto Him by the life of Christ. Behold, now she putteth on that life of which I have spoken afore. Now see the meaning of these two sayings of Christ’s. The one, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me”; that is, through My life, as hath been set forth. The other saying, “No man cometh unto Me, except the Father draw him”; that is, he doth not take My life upon him and come after Me, except he be moved and drawn of My Father; that is, of the Simple and Perfect Good, of which St.

(1) Our Lord Jesus Christ hath in the Gospel spoken with His own blessed lips these words, which signify, "No man can come to Me unless My Father draw him." In another place He says, "I am in the Father and the Father in Me." Therefore whoever cometh to the Son cometh to the Father. Further, He saith, "I and the Father are One. Therefore whomsoever the Father draweth, the Son draweth likewise." St Augustine also saith, "The works of the Holy Trinity are inseparable from each other." Therefore the Father draweth to the Son, and the Son draweth to the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost draweth to the Father and the Son; and each Person of the Trinity, when He draweth to the Two Others, draweth to Himself, because the Three are One.

The Father draweth with the might of His power, the Son draweth with His unfathomable wisdom, the Holy Ghost draweth with His love. Thus we are drawn by the Sacred Trinity with the cords of Power, Wisdom and Love, when we are drawn from an evil thing to a good thing, and from a good thing to a better, and from a better thing to the best of all. Now the Father draws us from the evil of sin to the goodness of His grace with the might of His measureless power, and He needs all the resources of His strength in order to convert sinners, more than when He was about to make heaven and earth, which He made with His own power without help from any creature. But when He is about to convert a sinner, He always needs the sinner's help. "He converts thee not without thy help," as St Augustine says.

(61) The Son sees, tastes, hears, feels, smells, and comprehends All, as the Father does; in His Power all liveth and is, whatsoever is Good, as in the Father; but that which is Bad or Evil is not in Him. Of GOD the HOLY GHOST.

(58) As the Holy Ghost goes forth from the Father and the Son, and is the Sharpness or Proof of all Powers, and in his moving or rising up, brings all that which is good again into all the Powers of the Father, whereby the Powers of the Father are impregnated again, and so continually generate the Taste.

(70) so the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, and causes the living Motion in all the Powers of the Father.

(4) Now, people say when they commit sin, that they do not intend to do so always; they intend to turn away from sin. That is just as though a man were to kill himself and suppose that he could make himself alive again by his own strength. That is, however, impossible; but to turn from sin by one's own power and come to God is still much more impossible. Therefore, whosoever is to turn from sin and come to God in His heavenly kingdom, must be drawn by the heavenly Father with the might of His divine power.

The Father also draws the Son who comes to help us with His grace, by stimulating our free will to turn away from, and hate sin, which has drawn us aside from God, and from the immutable goodness of the Godhead. Then, if she is willing, He pours the gift of His grace into the soul, which renounces all her misery and sin, and all her works become living. Now, this grace springs from the centre of Godhead and the Father's heart, and flows perpetually, nor ever ceases, if the soul obeys His everlasting love. Therefore He saith in the prophets: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Out of the overflow of His universal love He desires to draw all to Himself, and to His Only-begotten Son, and to the Holy Ghost in the joy of the heavenly kingdom.

Now, we should know that before our Lord Jesus Christ was born, the Heavenly Father drew men with all His might for five thousand, two hundred years; and yet, as far as we know, brought not one into the heavenly kingdom. So, when the Son saw that the Father had thus strongly drawn men and even wearied Himself, and yet not succeeded, He said to the Father: "I will draw them with the cords of a man." It was as though He said, "I see well, Father, that Thou with all Thy might, canst not succeed, therefore will I myself draw them with the cords of a man."