Let us leave aside these contentious attempts to shift the balance of the argument to one side or the other. We must not take the Sabellian side for the sake of the One against the Three, destroying distinction by a false merging. Nor must we take the Arian side for the sake of the Three against the One, overthrowing unity by a false division. The goal is not to exchange one evil for another, but to avoid missing what is good. These are games of the Evil One, who keeps trying to tip our position in the wrong direction.
Instead, let us walk the middle and royal road, where virtue itself is said to stand. We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one in essence and equal in glory. Baptism is complete in Them, both in the names and in the realities—you who have been initiated know this. It is a rejection of godlessness and a confession of Godhead, and this is how we are made complete. We recognize unity in the one essence and in undivided worship, and the Three in hypostases—or persons, as some prefer to say.
Those who quarrel over these terms should not behave disgracefully, as though our faith lay in words rather than realities. You who speak of three hypostases, what do you mean? Surely you are not saying that there are three essences. I know you would loudly reject anyone who thought that, because you teach that the Three have one and the same essence. And you who speak of three persons, what do you mean? Surely you are not imagining one compound being with three faces, or anything shaped like a human being. Away with the thought! You too would cry out that anyone who thinks this way should never see the face of God—whatever that face may be.
So what do our “hypostases” mean, or your “persons”? Let me ask the question. They mean that the Three are distinct, not in nature but in their distinctive properties. Excellent! How could people agree more closely and say the same thing, even if the syllables they use are different? You see what a reconciler I am: I lead you from the letter to the meaning, just as we do with the Old and New Testaments.